Blood and Gore and Guts

Behold!  Behold the terrible NC-17 rated carnage!

Suck it up!  You've got nine more!

I thought I felt a hot spot around mile two...halfway through my 5k I ran over some concrete wet from sprinklers that I think finally did the toe in, though.  The wet makes the skin more rendible.


Speaking of that 5k, I did a 5 minute warmup straight into it and I ran a 19:29.  I was very pleased considering I'm not fresh, there was no break after a warmup, and I was barefoot.


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After that I did a thirteen-minute cool-down, hobbled up the stairs, and investigated my toe.  It's recovering nicely.


So, a quick word about running and nutrition.  When Chris McDougall asked his trainers what he should eat, he was told, "Worry about the running and the eating will take care of itself."  Basically, your body tells you how/when/what to eat if you listen to it.  This is true whether you're training or not, but the feedback is amplified when you're running.  Case in point: let's talk apples.

Sonya Apple. Weird shape. Good flavor, but a little too sweet for me... honey/brown sugar kind of taste.

I love apples.  I could eat them every day...and often times I do.  The problem is I can't eat apples within twelve hours before a run.  Why?  Who knows what runner's trot is?  It's not pleasant.  And nothing gives me runner's trot more than eating an apple 4-5 hours before a hard run in hot, humid weather.


Today I had an apple-containing fruit salad for lunch, and I paid the price for it.  I don't know why my body tells me not to eat apples before running but it does, so I generally obey.  The good news is I think apples are a great post-run food...they give you some sugar to replace glycogen, some vitamins and minerals, and they're juicy so they help you get re-hydrated.  An apple tastes sooooo nom after a long run in hot weather.


Point is, listen up!  Your body gives you more information than you can process, but if you listen in once in a while it will tell you what it needs.  And note, my body doesn't tell me not to eat apples, just when not to.

Are you calling me pedestrian?

I made up for 'slacking' yesterday and only doing 6.5.  Today I did 14.5:

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You can see that I got a little stuck at the junction of I-75 and route 20.  I was trying to come out about a mile east of the mosque from yesterday.  I think I overshot by about a mile:

Thank you, landmark missile silos.

I thought about running on the interstate, but I decided to obey the law.  Honestly, it wouldn't have got me where I wanted anyway.

It turns out that I had to go to the same intersection I was at yesterday to do what I wanted...I didn't realize Louisiana Avenue ran at an angle away from the road that runs past the mosque.  I guess I'm still used to the unfailing grids of New Mexico when it comes to farmland and the angle threw me off.

Neighborhood Missile Silo

Friday I worked out in the small apartment gym.  Most of the people that go in there hop on a treadmill...it was nice outside?  I don't get it.  I showed my distaste for them by running outside:

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I found some tires outside the high school.  I flipped one for funsies:

Today I went out for about an hour.  I think I meant to go for longer, but after I woke up and ate breakfast I passed out on the couch for two and a half hours...oops.  I had a stupid work thing to go to so this is all I had time for:

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That took me by the neighborhood missile silo:

Who thought this was a good idea?

My father-in-law comes to our area for business a lot and when we were describing our apartment's location to him over the phone he goes, "Oh!  You're by the missile silo!"  It's a rather unfortunate configuration for their minarets.  

MPG

Easy ten today.  I had two days off...Friday I was in the car all day and Saturday was designed for rest, so I wanted to get out for a while:

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When I returned, Fraidy Cat was more than happy to lick my salty toes for me:

Fraidy Cat, seen here trying to figure out how to order from the sushi bar

From schizorunnia

Sister-in-law's Princess Prius was out by the pond, which made me wonder...how many MPG do I get?

Only 50?  Bah!

From schizorunnia

For a while I thought I was going to get to do some dimensional analysis, but after a quick search someone had done the research for me.  Assuming The Discovery Channel did their math right, a gallon of gas has about 31,000 calories, so I would get about 200 miles to the gallon if I could stomach gasoline.


If you want to think about it the other way, stuffing a large banana into Princess' gas tank would let 'er drive about a football field's length.  If you don't want to think about it that way, I apologize for the image I just implanted in your brain.

Last of Alabama

So long, Maxwell.  I really hope we never meet again, but something tells me I'll be back...


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Not only am I glad to be leaving the area, but I'm glad it will give me some time off.  My left knee is feeling a little beat up from the intentional overtraining, so I get a break from training not a day too soon.

I took this one on Tuesday while one of the guys I was running with was in the loo:

From schizorunnia

And this was on Wednesday during my eleven-miler.  It doesn't look like anything, but it's an orange, nearly-full moon:

From schizorunnia

Got to see the moonset and the sunrise on that run.

It's kind of crazy...I'll drive more tomorrow than I ran in six months last summer.  That makes me feel kind of unaccomplished.  But it should make the human race feel pretty good about itself.  Minus the emissions.  Of course, it is a Civic, so that's also limited.

Somebody Stop Me! I'm Breakin' the Law!

This was yesterday:

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I did this barefoot so security forces decided to stop me.  A cop car rolled by, turned around, and the passenger cop motioned me over.  The driver leaned over and said, "I think it's great that you're out here running and all, but you gotta get some shoes on.  It's a safety issue--where are you running to?"

I looked around.  "Uh, around.  I'm working out."

"Well, you've got to put some shoes on.  You'll get your foot cut or something."

"Look, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but unless you can't point me to an AFI that says I can't run around here barefoot--"

"Oh no, it's not that," he says, "we just don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm training to run the Air Force Marathon barefoot."

They looked at each other, unconvinced.  "Um...alright...just don't get hurt."

"I know what I'm doing."

I mean, I really don't know what I'm doing, but they don't know that.  Just leave me alone.

Hey, you know how I know I have good arches?

Perfect 'wet test' pattern.  Just sayin'.

I think this is part of the reason I've never had much of an issue with the Vibrams.

This morning I woke up thinking I might do a long day, then I realized my body's about maxed out.  Before the run yesterday I went kayaking down a river for a few hours and then went to the gym, so when I got up this morning it was all I could do to shuffle along for 25 minutes:

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So that was abysmal, but at least it was something.  I'm going to make sure my body gets plenty of carbs today because I'm still feeling sluggish and weak...Panera Bread, anyone?

Friday at Maxwell? Guess I'll Run Twice.

I ran about 10k this morning with Adam from my class here at Maxwell:

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I guess that wasn't enough, because after I got done at the gym this afternoon I went for another run...just a short one this time, 5k:

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I noticed that it's so freakin' hot here even the squirrels can't put any weight on:

Anorexic squirrel.

Kind of hard to tell, but trust me, they're skinny.


A little ways after the squirrel I wound up on a different part of the golf course when I saw this:

Now, at first I was all like WTF?  A) This little bench shade is among a bunch of trees so the chances of it being struck by lightning and slim and B) why would anyone put two lightning rods on a bench?  What purpose could that serve?  Why is that worth it?

...then I remembered golfers get hit by lightning all the time.  As I understand it, it's not entirely their fault; apparently there's something about the open space that helps build up a potential between the ground and the clouds, but I can't find it right now.

Alabama is still too hot.

Which is why I've taken to running in the mornings:

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That was from Tuesday.  On the eastern edge of the map you'll see I ran through some housing, some of which was occupied by captains and lieutenants:
Note that our house at Cannon would fit in one half of one floor of this home.  I'm sure they had a lot of kids, but so did some of the people at Cannon living in the same size housing as what Sara and I had:

Hello crappy duplex in Chavez West

Not much to report from this morning's run, but I did have a running partner which was something I haven't had for a while so that was fun.  We're doing six tomorrow morning, but we did about 4.5 this morning:

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I just wish there were more places to run on this base.  I might have to get inventive here soon.  I don't know what I did for six weeks last time I was at Maxwell, because I ran quite a bit.  Maybe I blocked it out.  Wait...I'm sure I did.  Suppressed ASBC memories.  If you don't know, don't ask.

Alabama is too hot.

Seriously.  Why do people choose to live in these places?  It was 150 yesterday in both degrees and percentage of humidity.  This is where the Air Force decided to set up its summer training.  Smaaaart.

On Sunday on the drive down, Tack turned 100,000 miles (and I forgot how to say the whole number before that):

He's a good little car.


The trip took about 12.5 hours from where I was, so after getting out of the car I wanted to stretch out my legs a little:

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I did that run barefoot.  I was going to go to the gym, but it closes stupid early on the weekend:

One of the many reasons I hated this base.

So I took off and started seeing the sites.  First up was the paper clip (running track) and the flickerball fields, where we used to play a stupid stupid game called Icarus:

I hated the fields much more than the track, but I'll bet those of you who went to field training here have a different sentiment.

Then there was the building I spent six weeks of my life hating the same:

I was the last room on the right on the second floor.

Thankfully, I'm in much nicer quarters this time around.

Today I went about the same distance because it's still way too hot and, if all goes according to plan, I'm going to get up early to go for a long run tomorrow morning:

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I tried to run in my kung fu shoes today:

Kung Fu!

But the ones I have are a little too big and slipped off so I switched to my Vibrams.  That sucks, because the pair I bought before were a little too small and this is the next size up.  I'll have to modify this pair with a cinch of some sort.  Luckily, they're only like ten bucks a pop so it's not a big deal.  If these work out I've definitely found a cheap alternative to Vibrams, and one that I'll be able to get away with in uniform...I think.


By the way, if you are just getting into the minimalist thing, terrain like this doesn't phase me at all any more when I'm wearing my FiveFingers:

I don't show that to brag, but my friend Steph asked me if it gets better, and the answer is, yes, it does.  I still don't go looking for rocks to slam on, but a combination of factors including just being used to the sensation and getting better at a barefoot gait makes it so that when I do it's not so bad.  When I can run on something like this completely barefoot, then I'll know I'm really getting somewhere.

That road was down by the river, the river I'll be playing in on a sit-on-top kayak this Saturday =D

Slip-On Mariachis

Even slip-on huaraches sounds dirty.

I replaced the thin leather straps with 550 cord and tied my huaraches in the slip-on fashion seen myah:

From schizorunnia

I really like this method; it seems like it's more secure than the traditional way of tying, and they're easier to get into and out of.  However, after a few minutes of running I had to take them off because I was having a problem: the knot on the underside of the sandal securing the lace between my toes is bigger now and was uncomfortable placed so close to where the toes meet the foot.  I need to punch another hole, I think about where the first knuckle of my big toe is, and thread my shoes again.  That'll help with the loud slapping noise, too; they were like reverse-flip flops which doesn't seem to affect their performance but it did let everyone know I was coming.

That was alright, because I was planning on running barefoot anyway.  I shoved my sandals partway into my compression shorts (which worked better than I could've dreamed) and was on my way:

Took this picture after my run; they stayed put for the whole thing.

From schizorunnia

Speaking of the run, here it is.  Just over five miles, about 42 minutes:

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The school mascot isn't the falcon for nothing.  They're all over the place around here.  I tried to get a good shot of this guy, but he was extremely camera-shy.

In flight, framed against the parking lot.

From schizorunnia

In the tree.

From schizorunnia

I decided to take a picture of something more stationary and gastronomically enticing on my way back:

Baby corns!

From schizorunnia

They  were just a few inches tall.  Knee-high by the Fourth of July, right?  I'll bet these guys smash that benchmark.  I'll be eating you by August, little ones...sleep well...