My Track Record

We all have our prejudices. My wife, it seems, reserves her most irrational biases for one specific piece of silverware in our collection.

It's just an ordinary dinner knife, shiny and silvery like all of the others. But its blade is broader than normal, and its handle is thicker and rounder.

Not only does my wife complain about this knife, she segregates it from the others. While the rest of the knives happily congregate in their section of the utensil organizer, she throws this one into the "unorganized" part of the drawer, where it languishes alongside the chopsticks and other neglected implements.

She may claim this location to be "separate but equal." When you reside in the low-rent district of the drawer, though, you're likely to be forgotten. At a minimum, you'll be used less often than the other knives. And, really, is there anything sadder than an unused utensil?

Posted by crowther at 8:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The March issue of Northwest Runner includes an article on tapering for marathons written by Roy Stevenson, an instructor at Highline Community College. Roy interviewed me for this article, along with fellow Seattle Running Club members Alysun Deckert and Uli Steidl, and collectively we offered some reasonable but unsurprising advice: reduce your mileage, include some light speedwork, eat lots of carbohydrates, blah blah blah.

Roy is now working on a follow-up article, this one about recovering from marathons. He sent me an early draft and asked what I thought of it.

These seem like good tips, I said, but I don't do any of this stuff!

When I finish an all-out marathon or ultra, my body is trashed. It will be many days before I'm physically ready to resume serious running, regardless of whether I take a post-race ice bath, whether I cross-train while getting my legs back, etc. Since this down time is unavoidable, why not just enjoy it rather than slavishly following some strict recovery regimen?

A case in point is my post-race dietary intake. Once my appetite returns, I usually crave fatty meat such as ribs or fried chicken, so that's what I eat. Such an approach is not supported by any research that I'm aware of, but I justify it on psychological grounds. If the race went well, I'm celebrating my success; if it didn't, the food is a consolation prize.

After all, there will be plenty of raw vegetables and whole grains to consume during the next training cycle.

Posted by crowther at 11:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Last month, Phil came home from day care with an art project of sorts. It was basically a couple of crayon marks on a piece of paper. When Mommy declared herself unmoved by this particular abstraction, Phil crumpled it up and put it in the wastebasket.

A few days ago he brought home another piece, this one with a Valentine's Day theme. Mommy, seeming eager to atone for her previous harshness, pronounced it a masterpiece and hung it on the fridge. Phil pointed at it and beamed with apparent pride. A couple of days passed, and he was still pointing and beaming.

What all this means is anyone's guess. I suppose that, in general, Phil can sense when we approve of something and when we don't. But he can't possibly understand that the refrigerator door is a spot of honor, can he?

Posted by crowther at 10:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Having whined repeatedly in this blog about how I was racing myself into the ground last year, I've been slow to commit to any particular ultramarathons this year. I did hop into the Bridle Trails 50K on January 12th, but didn't take it too seriously aside from wanting to win, which I was able to do by stalking Dan Salazar for the first two (of six) laps and then pulling ahead for good when he veered off to look for his drop bag. The sloppy mud on the trails and the darkness of the post-sunset laps were sort of enjoyable in that they made me feel like a hard-core trail runner. A couple of hours of that was enough for me, though, which may indicate just how soft my core really is.

Anyway, my first big race of 2008 will be the Mad City 100K on April 12th. Not only is it the USATF 100K road championship again this year, but the generous prize purse ($2000 for 1st, $1200 for 2nd, $750 for 3rd, etc.) offers me a reasonable chance of covering my travel expenses. If any readers of this blog are on the fence about coming to this exceptionally well-organized event, I hope you'll join me there. Now that the national 100K road championship has been resurrected -- none was held in 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006 -- it could use a few more participants!

A few people have asked whether I'll be defending my 50K road title at Caumsett Park (New York) on March 2nd. The answer is no, even though I had a good experience there in 2007. (If you've never been exhorted onward by small crowds of Long Islanders -- "Come on, CROW-thuh!" -- it's an experience I recommend.) Last year's race happened to coincide with a trip east for a job interview, so I belatedly added it to my schedule. This year the logistics just aren't as favorable.

Posted by crowther at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)