“You’re gonna die.” When you hear those words, you know a run is going to be epic. Sure it’s an exaggeration, but really it means that a person (or people in this case) think that you are absolutely crazy, and/or stupid, for going out and running. Now, I’ve had epics before – a 20 miler in a downpour comes to mind – but I’ve never run when it was 4 degrees and snowing. Sure I was cold, sure I was wet, but I wouldn’t have changed things one bit.
It’s these epic runs that really make you stop thinking about running and start thinking about, well, anything and everything else. The conditions are so extreme that it distracts you from paying attention to every foot strike, every breath, or even your time. Today my mind wandered. First, I saw another set of footprints in the snow. “Are these somehow mine?” I thought to myself. Then of course, “Maybe I can catch up to whoever it is.” However, eventually they veered off the road to the snow-less shoulder and then disappeared.
Desperately glancing around for the lost tracks, I looked up and saw a fox watching me from up the road. Now, rarely do you ever see a fox, and am unable to remember the last time I’ve seen one, or for that matter if I have ever even at all. This does seem odd to me that although growing up on a farm and usually seeing multitudes of wildlife, my memory file seems to be blank in the fox category. In any case, my fox friend disappeared as well, running into the woods hopefully to be seen another day.
Wanderings often turn into perseverance to finish out a run strong. Still, I didn’t think of every little technical aspect of the run, I just gave it all I had. It becomes a battle against the weather. Each gust of wind, each eyeful of snowflakes just made me hunker down more and just go. Sure the weather threw a few good blows with snow covered ice patches, but I ultimately came out the victor. I ran my best 3 mile time since picking up running again and had a blast doing it.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
- "The Charge of the Light Brigade," Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Those sorry sorry souls. Every night I drive past them. Dozens of runners at the YMCA running on treadmills, going nowhere. They just remain there in one place the whole time. Sure they have the treadmills all lined up by the window so it seems like they’re running outside, but really come on. They’re just a bunch of lab rats on their little spinning wheels. Really, they should just be flushed. You’ve spent how much money on a gym membership just to run by a window, pretending you’re outside? (Especially for a window view of the beltline highways!)You could have spent the same amount of money or less on some cold weather running gear, maybe a light or two, and hell maybe even still had the cash for Wii Fit if you needed some extra entertainment. What’s so wrong with exercising outdoors anymore?!
Is it snowing? I think I’ll go for a run. Rain? Hmm, a run might be nice. Sub-zero temperatures? Fancy that, a warming scamper around the block will warm things right up. Just stop complaining, stop making excuses, stop thinking and GO!
I’ve already run through just about everything this winter and it’s more than a week till Christmas. Last week we had seven inches of snow, today it was negative degree wind-chills. Rough weather sure, but nothing that layering, donning a face mask, and wearing some wool socks doesn’t fix. Plus, the difficult miles I put in now will only make the miles easier come marathon in May.
Oh, did I mention any of that yet? So yes, I’m planning on doing the Madison Marathon at the end of May. First off, I’m about thirty pounds overweight and second off I haven’t done a marathon since fall of ’06. Basically a marathon was way beyond due. I’m just going to run it to get back into a exercise schedule again and, as I’ve said to a few people, to make friends with running again. I’d like to finish under four hours but if I don’t I’m not going to hate myself.
I’m also playing with the idea of doing the Twin Cities Marathon in October as well. Any cycling passion has been seriously dulled by a daily beating of it at work. Just like I used a bike-less semester in DC a few years back to accomplish the goal of simply finishing a marathon, I’ll use this to qualify – or to see how close I can get to qualifying – for the Boston Marathon. Now, the qualifying time for my age group is 3:10. Right now that’s incredibly fast. Of course, I don’t think it’ll be this next year, possibly not even the next. However, I want to see for myself if 3:10 is impossibly fast. I don’t know, and I won’t know, until I try and push myself to go for it.
“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers
I’ve often been known to have a random personality. Well no, I’m not an emotional flip-flopper; I just have what maybe is sometimes a short attention span or a vividly streaming thought process. Of course I’m used to this – and my friends reluctantly are as well – but I’m still amused when this randomness spills over into the events of my social life. For what could have been a “blah” weekend, off-the-cuff suggestions came into fruition and well, fun times were had by all.
After hellish weeks, Friday night left my wife and I hopelessly and lackadaisically pondering where to head for dinner. (My apartment was devoid of food – especially when you leave out the sour milk, spoiled salami, and moldy cheeses in the fridge, but then again I suppose you can’t really count those as food anyway.) We had gone to Panera too often, sandwich places like Potbelly and Quiznos were uninspiring, Qdoba and Chipotle - gourmet fast-food Mexican places – were for once too exotic, and Noodles was too bland (plus I had already gone there for lunch). However faces were brightened with the quick suggestion, “Well I suppose we could go to the Grumpy Troll?”
For those who are not Madison locals, the Troll (as I often call it) is appropriately located in the Norwegian heritage heavy burg of MountHoreb, about 30 minutes west of Madison. I must admit while growing up I always thought the name was funny. On family car trips through the area, I always had the fascination of changing the road signs to read “MountHoreble.” Now, we never did actually drive through the town itself so I wasn’t being harshly judgmental about the town, just merely doing the easy adolescent word-play on the town’s name. The town indeed is actually quite nice, your typical quaint small Midwestern town. It has a cute bookstore on the corner, the bridal boutique down the street, and the small grocery / general store as well. Of course the “Nor-Vee-jun” flair as well – the Norwegian housewares and knick-knack shop as well as the Scandinavian styled roofline on the steeple of the local Lutheran church. Of course it goes without saying that there are also most likely a few businesses titled Carlson’s, Larson’s, or Olufson’s in the title.
Although while all this is specific to MountHoreb, it does still fit into that small town pattern, The Grumpy Troll however does not. The Troll is located in the building that once housed the local creamery, now instead of milk and cheese the building produces great food and more importantly fantastic beer. The brewpub produces nearly a dozen beers at a time, ranging from stouts to lambics, IPAs to wheats, and even a wildly exotic chile pepper flavored beer. I opted to go with their uber sharp Maggie IPA but really it’s impossible to go wrong (well maybe with that chili beer but I haven’t had it so who am I to judge). No wait, you can definitely do wrong at the Troll, as the table next to us proved. Instead of ordering one of the dozen handcrafted small-batch beers, they ordered a round of Miller Lites. Seriously? How does the thought process work on that one? “Hmm, this pale-ale sounds interesting. Oh, this stout has hints of coffee, chocolate, and a nutty after-taste. Wait, hold on. They have Miller Lite bottles?! Done. That’s my drink tonight. Who needs a good microbrew when you came have mass-produced piss in a bottle?” Alright, I digress and will just finish by saying that their beer has won countless awards and well, is amazingly good.
Not only is the beer great but the food is outstanding as well. This always surprises me because I think of the Grumpy Troll as a brewpub version of Kalmes’, the restaurant I grew up with at home where the food is good, but not outstanding. The Troll though does many simple things really well. Take for example their Grump Chips which we ordered for our appetizer. These are basically just a play on homemade potato chips, but done so the chips are perfectly crisp, not oily at all, and not heavily salted. They’re just piled high and sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. My other favorite dish is the Chicken Enchilada Soup. Now, the soup of the day was Clam Chowder, which I almost never pass up. On this night however, I ordered the Chicken Enchilada Soup without hesitation. It’s surprising that this would be so good from what could be considered a hole-in-the-wall Wisconsin restaurant, but I could eat the stuff everyday from here on out. It’s the perfect mix of cheese, beans, chicken, and tortilla strips. I also had the Reuben, which was good, but to be honest I’ve never had one Reuben that stood out from every other one I’ve ever had. However, it was good enough to make me realize that maybe I do actually like sauerkraut. It also reminded me off my father’s liking for the Happy Joe special – a Canadian bacon and sauerkraut pizza – when we out for pizza as a family to Happy Joe’s. Hmm, maybe I’ll have to make a suggestion the next time the whole family is at my parents.
Saturday evening was much of the same enjoyable randomness but with a starting plan. A handful of us wanted to go out for drinks and dessert. Being my favorite restaurant in Madison, I suggested Brocach Irish Pub and we were on our way. However after entering the packed pub and doing so behind a mustached drunk of a redneck, we decided that Brocach wasn’t the place for the night. We walked down the street and around the corner to Tutto Pasta Cucina Italiana, a nice Italian restaurant just off the capital square. It’s only mildly expensive, so you don’t feel bad going there – I guess I probably wouldn’t make it a weekly venture though either. However, the extra price is well worth it. Once arriving we did have to wait ten minutes for an open table. I didn’t mind as it allowed me to watch the action in Tutto’s open kitchen. A curiosity sparked by reading a third of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, I watched the cooks arranging nearly a dozen pans on a stove of only four or six burners. Every bit of food was being watched, in what was wonder of multi-tasking. Not a thing was burned, everything was done perfectly.
Eventually sitting down and ordering our first round of drinks (a simply ordered a Peroni, an Italian beer), we each find out that our stomachs all need a bit more than alcohol and sweets. We all ordered what Tutto Pasta does best, simple ingredients all put together in an equally simple presentation. Again, you pay for good ingredients and good end product, not an over-elaborate presentation that dulls the food. A few salads were ordered, a pizza, and for myself, gnocchi with pesto sauce. I’ve been tempted to order the gnocchi a few times before but never ended up doing so. Well, it was delicious and definitely did not disappoint – well except for the fact that I had passed over it before. One final round of drinks – me having a soothing Italian version of an Irish coffee – and we were ready to wade through the stark cold mid-November night and eventually slide comfortably into bed with satiated souls and stomachs.
"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are."
- Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
It snowed today. Sure not a huge stretch of the imagination considering I live in Wisconsin and it snowed 100+ inches of snow last year. Fine, whatever, but look at the date. October 27th – October twenty-FREAKING-seventh! And it snowed! Although none of the snow stuck it came as a very heeded warning. Last spring seemed to have been non-existent, summer flew by, and now fall is waning as well. Long story short, I have to stop waiting, get my ass in gear, and get out the door.
Lately the cold autumn days have been rainy or just plain gray leaving the trails mostly soft, not allowing the mountain bike see much action. However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything. I’ve started running again. Why? I’m not quite sure except that I miss it. Just down the street is a conservation park where I can get in some trail running and of course there are some quiet neighborhood streets as well. I have coworkers that run and now I also have a girlfriend that’s doing it as well. Sunday afternoon we went for a run in the park and really had a good time in what were 20-30 mph winds. Today with the snow flying, she said to me on the phone, “No matter what I’m going for a run.” And she did. I think she’s officially caught the bug.
No matter what, I need to start biking. Every time I jump in the car and drive to work I feel guilty. I could be saving money and shedding the weight and commuting in by bike. Today’s snow isn’t helping my decision, but the goal of trying to bike to work everyday “no matter what” is really starting to steep in my brain. I’ve really wanted to start a writing project about my own bike commuting / errand running exploits and hopefully include other people in it as well. My birthday is coming up this Thursday and it seems like a good starting point. If I can run a marathon on my 21st, I can begin a year of bike commuting on my 24th.
As always the year is winding down with me getting anxious to get back outside because of lost opportunities or just plain laziness this past year. The racing / event schedule is taking shape. Focus on running in the spring, then mountain biking in the summer and fall. It should make for a fun year of new experiences. We’ll just take it one day at a time for now. Remember, it’s October and the snow is already falling.
Things are finally starting up again on the biking side of things. Of course, this is as the temperatures get lower and more disappointingly as the daylight gets shorter. All this is against me as I pedal a few miles – either to work, on the trails, or for back road exploration – just to make the most of the outdoor season I have left.
With that, the orange beast of a mountain bike was built up just in time for Labor Day weekend and has been ridden a good amount since. I haven’t gotten out on an epic weekend adventure yet but hopefully that will come in the next few weeks.For now, I’ve just been doing laps on a small bit of single track just down the road from work – albeit a seven mile ride from home.Although it’s just a short loop of trail, it makes up for it in diversity of obstacles and one bitch of a hill. The trail is on the backside of a rock quarry so that gives you an idea. One lap consists of the following: nice simple single track – short but steep loose rock incline – small incline – BIG ASS HILL, otherwise known as a bluff – nice peaceful clearing – downhill – curving loose dirt and rocks downhill drop-off (CRAP!! How did I not fall?!?!?!) – downhill – downhill – sharp turn with berm that I avoid because I always fall over – nice single track – short steep rocky incline – some nice single track – and back to the start.Nothing that is really that bad anymore.I just need to work on the leg strength to push the single speed up the big hills and need to find the balance for the drop-offs and bumps along the trail.I’ll be going home to my parents and to the farm so hopefully I can get some nice flowing miles under the big wheels.
As far as the bike itself, it turned out exactly how I wanted - built like a tank and simplistic.I don’t have to worry about things breaking when it bashes into things like I would on the road bike.There’s also just something to be said for a bike with only one gear.I can concentrate on the trail and don’t have to worry about shifting and being in the right gear. Yes, it can totally suck but I like the extra challenge. My other favorite part of the bike is the hydraulic disc brakes.I don’t totally understand all the bits about them yet but it’s nice to have bike parts like that so you learn about them as you ride. If I get a chance I’ll get the camera out and take a picture one of these days.
Work has also been going pretty well – so my post from two months ago is pretty much null and void.Blame it on some “lost in the moment” dramatics.Anyway, the summer rush at work seems to have died and I feel caught up for the first time in months.Today of course however I learn that I have a boatload of orders coming from Interbike, so I’ll be busy with that for the next week or two.I’m staying optimistic for now; we’ll see how it all shakes down.
A box full of bike parts, wheels all ready to go, and a final shipment of goodies on their way…the beast will finally come to be.For more than three years I’ve wanted to get a mountain bike.Hopefully it will have finally happened by next weekend.I’ll have many pics to share soon.
The bike is coming at a good time too.I’m in the worst shape that I’ve ever been in. That’s said so often that it’s usually not taken at face value but I mean in full-heartily.I can fee that my blood pressure is higher than ever before and I get winded at activities that were the simplest of tasks before.The new bike should be that extra push of motivation to get out and really start riding, or doing anything, again.It’ll be a new fresh start – one that I’ve needed on the bike, and for myself, for quite sometime.
We’ll see how much life lets me get out on the new bike, but just in case I’ve been very tempted to start training for next year’s Madison Marathon.I do really miss running and really enjoy it when I go out for a run every now and then. I could do it as my spring focus and then mountain biking in the summer and fall. We’ll see. It’s only August now so I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself.Stay posted.
