I am a false prophet with a lot to say and no idea what I am talking about
not gonna complain, not gonna complain, not gonna complain....
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beautiful winter day, not gonna ruin it by complaining about a crappy run. not sure what the problem was but just never got in the groove. every single step was an exercise in labor. it happens. as it's been cold and dry as opposed to our usual not so cold and rain, i welcome the dry weather. reminds me of back home in tennessee. although that was many years before i became an outdoor endurance junkie. it was just plain junkie back then. my reasons for spending several hours outside in crappy weather were much darker in those days than they are now. now it's just getting out in nature and trying to be "epic." having a bad run doesn't bother me so bad as it does knowing what a great experience i was actually having but due to my "not feeling it," that experienced was minimized. think it's my diet. it's been pretty crappy lately. the last few days i've tried to pick it up with less meat and more greens but still taking in a lot of stuff i shouldn't be. peanut butter, bananas, cliff bars....like i said earlier. it could be worse. anyway, i got in a decent 11 miles with only one more workout day for my first week back in the saddle. i guess feeling a little out of step is about right
First, let me get this out of the way. Calling this a race is being very open minded....and optimistic. This event is a DARE. Running this course will definitely challenge your perception of things. First of all, your perception of running. There's very little running involved. Of course the talented freak of nature elites at the front manage to somehow finish in the 6-7 hour realm but most of us mid-packers and back-of-the-packers who usually finish a 50k somewhere in 5-7 hours end up somewhere between 9-12 hours on this course. Don't get me wrong, there's lots of runnable sections, VERY runnable sections but the rock crawling, boulder hopping sections in between can leave you so drained physically AND mentally that you're just happy for the momentary break. That's actually one of the really cool things about this race too. A lot of times when you end up walking during an ultra, even though everyone does it and it's totally accepted and expected, you would st...
From the first time I picked up a guitar, paint brush or pen & paper, I've sought only to represent the ideas in my own head. Mixed in with whatever outside influences, of course. The idea and goal has also been to make at least a partial living doing this. This requires the "approval" of others. Now, decades after the first time picking up a guitar, paint brush or pen & paper, I've not only realized that the idea of "approval" has it's own influence on my "art" but I've also realized (I've always felt this, actually) that there's very few people (IF ANY) who's opinion I could even pretend to respect enough to make this "approval" make sense. Don't want to be a part of this process anymore. For the last few years I've sought the purest route to the "source" as possible. Just the idea of putting it "out there" compromises the work. Wether it be music, painting or writing, it was a...
change, metamorphosis, death, re-birth, whatever it is, whatever you wanna call it. sometimes it's a long, long process of events and then at some point we look behind us and realize we're nowhere near where we started and have no idea how we got here. other times we're rolling along, living our lives and then one morning we wake up and everything has changed without a warning. of course, after a while we can look back and see it wasn't all of a sudden after all. about a year ago i went through a major life change and personal tectonic shift. i played it off like it was just part of life, which it is i guess, but apparently it impacted me so much more than i would've ever imagined. over the last 10-12 years, i had been immersing myself deeper and deeper into the cycling culture. starting with commuting, then venturing into some long rides around my city. then working as a bike messenger and becoming obsessed with mountain biking which trickled it's way...