A World On A String

[unclefishstick]

thats it in a nutshell,getting those calories down during the ride and then replacing them afterwards,im burning like 1000 calories an hour and going out on 3-4 hour efforts on one banana and a pb&j sandwich and however many gobs of calories in a bottle of gatoraide and while im not bonking out or wrecking my legs im having trouble replenishing my bodily stores enough to not start feeling a bit drawn after a few days in a row...
yup,i bought too much vagina with me the other day,bailed on the last climb since i still had to lug myself back across the pass and even then had another solid hour of pedaling to get home...let that little doubt creep in...i can rationalize and say i was thinking long term but really i just wussed out and wasnt ready for the extra dose of suffering...
i still have 19000 feet left to redeem myself....

 

[unclefishstick]

and i gotta say that although i thought the strava thing was sort of lame at first it is a great training tool,this everest challenge has been a great spur to get me working on my climbing technique,and im able to keep an average output of 200w over these 3-4 hour rides and being a nerd i love all the little charts and graphs...and seeing how i stack up against the other local riders doesnt hurt either,im pretty consistently in the top 25% on the trails and even some of the road climbs im not doing too bad...

 

[budman678]

huge congrats are in order brother!

here's to a speedy recovery. I've been wearing a fitbit and I find that only WALK about 6 miles a day, pathetic....you are an inspiration

 

[Jericho Mile]

huge congrats are in order brother!

here's to a speedy recovery. I've been wearing a fitbit and I find that only WALK about 6 miles a day, pathetic....you are an inspiration

Thanks, brother. I've pretty much recovered....not a 100% but enough that I wouldn't say I'm in pain. Running with the wife tomorrow.

what's next?

Back to the trails and training. I'll spend the next few months off the "ultra scene" radar...implementing a new training regimen...which is:

massive amounts of hill repeats. that's it...in a nut shell. I have the endurance...have the knowledge of distance up to 100 miles...and now I know what it takes.

hill repeats make you strong. the stronger you are...the longer you can last. it's usually the hip flexors that wear out 1st...so getting them stronger is the key to not wearing down. hip flexor development is made on steep hills. it's true. Hills are your best friends or worst enemies. they make or break you.

* I'll race again in September and October for sure...the Noble canyon 50K and the Cuyamaca 100K....to complete the San Diego Ultra Slam series of races..and get my sweatshirt.

** 100 mile races are where it's at for me. I like that distance. I will be looking to race more of those.

GARLIC GARLIC GARLIC....it's harvest time....and I'm so very deep in Garlic bulbs

harvest garlic....get tomatoes and peppers out of containers and into the ground. that's getting done in the next week.

************

My Jaundice, Flaund, and Easy Mox Trilogy grows are looking superior. I'm rolling out some really nice examples. My summer grow should be awesomeness. very pleased with myself and the plants. blessed be the way of the gardener and the runner...hand in hand..the progressions...perpetual on the pathway. always in motion

 

[unclefishstick]

sounds like we have about the same plan..
june for the climbing challenge to build the base,focusing on maintaining proper cadence and pedaling technique,body positioning on the bike and being able to quickly find my rhythm on climbs both long and short...
july for technical climbing on the trails and mastering the 4 climbs or so on the local trail network ive not done yet..
august for endurance on the single track,we have about 22 miles in one spot,i want to be able to do 2 complete laps..
september i will just relentlessly ride laps on the race course until i know every twist and turn and passing spot...50 minutes will win my division,i want to be able to do it in 45 or less...

 

[Jericho Mile]

Dear Sir,

I have seen the almighty light. I must have steep hills at every meal. I must be a hill running master. I must. I must be.


Sincerely,

jericho mile

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

I know many old mountain ramblers who'd be still going strong were it not for their knees. On downhills I have a cane in each hand. Don't throw away your knees in practice. When they're done your done.

 

[unclefishstick]

thats one reason i ride a bike,my knees and feet simply cant take the punishment anymore from walking much less thinking about running....between the gazillion miles of hiking in a pair of tevas and 20 years of rock climbing and another gazillion falls to the ground bouldering i had done a pretty good job of wrecking my body...im so glad i got back into mountain biking,especially in the aspect of simply traveling across the terrain and being out in the desert and mountains.and of course ripping around the trails fulfills my need for adrenaline and that feeling of pushing mental and physical boundaries... and being faster than the youngsters!


oh yeah,halfway up everest by this afternoon,only day 11,still have 19 days left to finish,by tomorrow i will be over 20000 climbed...

 

[Madjag]

Dear Sir,

I have seen the almighty light. I must have steep hills at every meal. I must be a hill running master. I must. I must be.


Sincerely,

jericho mile

Roll on Kirk.....

 

[unclefishstick]

correction,im at 14,636 this morning,20,000 feet is still a ways off...taking some rest days...

 

[Jericho Mile]

the great brush gate opened wide..

the great brush gate opened wide..

in I went. Back in again...welcomed by the uncovered sun...the screaming insects...the rocks the plants

hill repeats/push ups...shots of speed into sections intertwined in the distances between here and over there...so that

i felt free..and still..put in the work. a couple hrs of that...training as an athlete...more so..than...just blasting out for effect.

* I'm doing something right. It's hard to deny the rapid pace my body has recovered off last weekend's effort.

probably have said before...but once again...I mention..that the rate and quality of body recovery is an important point in determining overall conditioning. My game is endurance. Long game. A patient and disciplined game. A game of attrition.

It's not about one run...one race...one anything.

** resolve. there comes a time when it is imperative to put my head down...dissolve myself...and just work. disappear into the effort. there is nothing beyond the immediate. dig in and fight

Everything now appears to me..as having..gone up a notch. the intensity is dialing up. I'm being allowed to pass on

 

[Jericho Mile]

Summer Running

Summer Running

Nothing better. Hot...long days.

I'm tired. Only ran 8.55 miles...but it is not the distance that I'm concentrating on.

In those 8.55 miles I got in 8 demanding hill repeats. 6 on one hill and the other 2 on another hill...a few miles away.

Telling you...those things waste me bad. Legs get heavy....breathing gets labored..hard hard work.

After a few....I felt some of the same kind of effects that going deep into distance exposes. Particularly the hamstrings and hip flexors.

* Taking the wife to the airport tomorrow morning. She's flying to Switzerland for 3 wks. The last time she went (2yrs ago) I ran every day she was gone. Probably do the same sort of thing again.

 

[Run4theCure]

Jericho you should fly with her to EU ..and join my Marathon Race

 

[Jericho Mile]

Jericho you should fly with her to EU ..and join my Marathon Race

I know it. Would love to. Our problem is that with dogs (old now) and gardens...somebody has to be around.

....believe me. I'd have loved to have gotten on that jet plane. Instead..I dropped her off...then went over to Ocean Beach (where I lived for a long time)...saw some friends..had some breakfast..checked out the surf...chilled for a bit...then came home

found my 15.5 yr old male pit bull near death (yet again)....and had to steam clean a massive amount of liquid/solid feces off my carpet. Then...went out in the heat of the day...and started digging his final resting place....resolved to putting a .22 cal slug into his shrunken head....and ending his deterioration. He's down from 71 pounds to maybe 30 pounds...hips are gone...he falls down all the time...deaf as well....bone and gristle...thinning fur...dripping eyes

But he's fucking game. I held off on putting him down (yet again)...and gave him the night to recover or not recover himself. This morning he's moving around and eating. There is so much about his gameness that I respect and idolize. He's an endurance dog...transcends distance. Doesn't appear to be in pain.

I love the motherfucker....pick of the litter..#1 draft pick 1999. Bought him off some bikers...in a commercial zoned lot...in El Cajon ..for $200. No papers. No receipt...saw the mother and saw pictures of the father. There were 5 males in the litter..all outstanding looking...and I'm supposing that the breeders snuffed all the female pups..as there were none. I don't know that for sure though. All I know is..there were no female pups.

After about a hour of messing with the pups and seeing who was who what was what..I selected my dog and handed over my cash. When I asked about a receipt...this big dude just says "the dog is your receipt." When I gave him back a sarcastic look he added "that dog will do you proud." I looked at him...saw that he meant it.. nodded my head...put the pup in my truck.

fuckin' A....the dude was right though. That pup turned into an outstanding dog....even if he battled me with a mind of his own...his entire fucking life.

* way into the 90's for the last few days...and the next bunch of days coming up. Gardens need a lot of time and effort...but the running is primo

 

[Madjag]

photo courtesy of Stoner4Life

 

[unclefishstick]

it finally got hot here,the yard is suffering a bit in the heat but its been a pretty wet year here so far,seems like we are back on track to hit at least the historical average for yearly rainfall,i am looking forward to the monsoon hitting since last year it pretty well freed me from having to water the landscaping,and i am supposed to be going out and camping more so it will be nice to be able to get away from that sort of stuff...flowering room seems to be agreeing with the idea of only needing watering every 3 days so that gives me a bit more breathing room to go places since i wont need to do back to back long days...
the everest challenge has been a great thing to do,broke me out of my routines and re-opened my eyes to the larger world around me...and im waaaay better at climbing hills now....as you well know,90% of it is mental,sure the conditioning is important but it seems to me that most of that is just convincing yourself that you can do it,and being able to suck it up and endure the pain...after that its sort of easy,once the mind says yes the legs follow suit...

 

[Jericho Mile]

I'm hitting the trails in a couple/few hrs....put in some work...get roasted. I love running in heat.

been planting peppers and tomatoes (last weekend).....stupidly went uncaged with my peppers and lost 2 to a ferocious gopher. Had to go back and dig up the surviving plants and then cage them...and replace the 2 that the little shit ate. Lucky I still have back up plants being kept in containers. It's like planning a military campaign every season...front line plants..with reserves in the back field.

* harvested and now curing a total of 271 garlic bulbs from 4 different varieties. really good harvest...bountiful...awesome quality

** I'm growing 2 varieties of peppers from northern new mexico this season. The climate there is similar to here...so I'm trying them out. Whenever I've been in new mexico...I've eaten lots of peppers. Love the food out that way....mostly because of the way it's dressed up in peppers.

*** working with my own tomato cross. I'm using the seeds from those volunteer plants I had in my back bed last season. Going to keep rolling with the best ones.

I kept 3 plants per container...then planted some containers in one place and some in another. Some I'm growing as huge trees...some I'm going to grow as tight spaced bushes....but either way...there should be cross pollinations and variety in the population.

 

[unclefishstick]

i should start gathering the cactus seed pods from my yard since i suspect theres some interesting crosses going on out there since i have a large variety of non native species alongside the locals....and i need to figure out a good collection method for wildflower seeds....i suppose i could just gather them and identify them when they come up or take the time in the field to number the bag i put the seeds in and take a pic of the plant when i gather them,theres plenty that i know already...but it would really pop the front landscaping to add the annuals to the mix instead of just what i can get from the nursery,and there is a desert plant specialty place up in santa fe that has bulk native grass seed and wildflower seed mixes...lol,you're lucky,i would kill for some native desert mammals like ground squirrels or kangaroo mice to move into my yard!

 

[Jericho Mile]

i should start gathering the cactus seed pods from my yard since i suspect theres some interesting crosses going on out there since i have a large variety of non native species alongside the locals....and i need to figure out a good collection method for wildflower seeds....i suppose i could just gather them and identify them when they come up or take the time in the field to number the bag i put the seeds in and take a pic of the plant when i gather them,theres plenty that i know already...but it would really pop the front landscaping to add the annuals to the mix instead of just what i can get from the nursery,and there is a desert plant specialty place up in santa fe that has bulk native grass seed and wildflower seed mixes...lol,you're lucky,i would kill for some native desert mammals like ground squirrels or kangaroo mice to move into my yard!

couple weeks ago....I was training hills on a single lane..chip seal paved road. came across a little (4" X 4") cardboard box with a lid...just sitting on the side of the road...in a clump of grass.

lid was getting loosened and about to get blown off by the afternoon breeze..and I could see slips of white paper..so I stopped and had a look inside. Within was somebody's collection of little butterflies. They were all individually kept in some sort of white wax paper..and were all labeled with insect information....sex, date, where collected etc.....pretty detailed stuff

anyways...I put it back down and put a rock on top of the lid. I don't know how it got there...doesn't seem like it could have fallen off/out of a vehicle and landed upright with the lid on...well it could have..but not likely.

I was actually hoping it was peyote buttons....at least that's what was going through my head when I first opened the lid. I thought I might have been blessed with a traveler's kit

not sure why your post made me think of that or how it relates.

* Put more peppers into the ground and washed my revived dog with a bucket of soap and warm water...out in the sun.


about to gear up and get in a couple/few hours of oven running. thing about here is...even when it gets hot..you can usually count on a 5-15 mph wind out of the sw...to cool you down. when it gets really hot is when there is no wind. rare that there is an afternoon of no wind. anyways...

keeping my eye on this dog...but he seems good..so slip out of here and run

 

[Run4theCure]

I been in your shoes with the dog my friend..I bought my first Dog back in 2002. The biggest Rottweiler Male in the litter..He went old and skinny..my wife told me lots of time that i really have to take him to the vet and make him sleep..I could not do that..I kept telling my self that he soon would sleep over and be gone by him self..it took me months to see where this was going( i did know it but would not face it)..it was so god damn selfish and you now what ?? I ask my wife to take him to the vet ...i feel so a shamed ...i fucked up cuz of feelings..my own feelings not the dog feelings.. It was in december month and the ground was frozen,,it took me hours to dig hes hole..its a big dog ya know..I still have dogs..i breed dogs so i got a few of them 4 Bulls and one rottweiler named Alma..Shes my princess When ewer and if , your be welcome to join..so no dogs after this one champ My best to your dog, wish him a awesome journey from me when its time..plz dont let him wait to long ..u will regret , i do that every day...