finding my religion

transformation comes easy when the anticipation hits. it's not like a "training" run in town which does very little for my spirit and feels very corporate and necessary. a trip to the woods, however, is a different animal in itself. gearing up, packing a lunch/recovery drink. towel for after the soak and run. checking the maps. planning the route on google earth if it's a new run. the drive brings strength as i leave this valley and careen towards the mountains. snow capped peaks in my windshield even in june. singletrack hidden by another season revealing itself to me on the pit and the pat. the vibrations. the evolution that takes place within. there is nothing to me in this world like flowing along some singletrack on foot. it speaks to a former life, long lost culture. simpler times. i had it in brevard, sure, but it's different out here. i was there running with a mission in mind. it was as token as a my road runs from the house here. sure, i explored and enjoyed, but it was always with an intention upon some grand victory or accomplishment without recognizing the gifts in the accomplishment of the day. i read on mike's excellent site about the adventures being planned by sarah and adam. i think of the solstice gathering known as ALTAR and the spirit behind that. memories of mountain bridge. tapping into the beauty and the energy of the woods and the positive vibes surrounding those gatherings. i feel that when i hit the woods now. there is so much energy in this space. vibrations. flow. rhythms. movement on these trails is like a leaf falling from a tree into a creek and gently making its way on top of the water, flowing. moving with, not against. no fighting, no resistance, just moving. no aggressive words in the description.

i believe in this spirit. this feeling. this flow. i believe in the sanctity of the woods. the path. the domain. the whole ceremony that starts with deciding to go and ends when you turn the truck back towards your home and the woods are in your rear view mirror. belief in that feeling. there are no questions. no why. no cruel truths. no rights or wrongs. purity exists if the mind and mouth do not cloud the issue. sanctuary. church. temple.

hooligans holiday

the dirt is dry. 27% humidity is something not enjoyed since the high school days of southern arizona. the woods feature a 15 degree swing under the canopy of hundred year old trees. singletrack holds the season at bay. winters work is migrating via waterfalls and riverbeds to the ocean where it will mingle with the salt and evolve into something greater. the woods are a temple right now. day long trail traverse with the falcon without a word being said. thank you, my friend. he knew when he saw me that words were useless. borrowing from bukowski; "fuck it dude, lets go ride". therapy found in the buzz of hubs and gurgle of a bladder tube. finished with the aid of lithium ion illumination after a day in the sun. 81 miles, close to 14,000 feet of climb and descent. falcon finally finds the words and tells me "it's a hard thing to hafta know..."

word.

slept, finally. exhaustion will do that. creeped through a day of interaction, spoken words and repairs until the clockout and once again the woods called. new shooz. well, new version of an old favorite that once carried me to some healthy pleasures back in 2004. supernova trails, black once again and they finally renarrowed the heels and restored the proper fit. mckenzie, you old stand bye. i missed you. felt like a lifetime since my last visit. solo, on foot. vibrations take hold and provide guidance on this trip. no watch. only long shorts and shoes. minutes? hours? i don't know. enough to sweat and cover most of the trail. raw veggies, cold water and a burrito fill me while i stand waist deep in the water cooling and icing the legs. knotted. twisted. clenched. proof once again that the mind and the emotions affect the physical in many ways.

driving. reflecting. 48 hours spent on the body in the temple of mother nature grandest gift. my own little hooligans holiday.

solace

solo

"the world breaks everyone and afterwards many are stronger at the broken places"

--Ernest Hemingway

surfeur de crasse

aint no sunshine

***

got a nice kick in the gut today.

it's planes, automobiles and a different time zone for the next few days.

crush groove

59 degrees. sunny, but shielded by spruce. started at clear lake on the mckenzie on two feet. new kicks are responsive and make you want to swerve back and forth to keep the tires warm under caution. waterfalls are vomiting with enough pressure to make the log bridges slimy like a limey. mistiness on the eyelashes like a carolina mountain dew. shake the cobwebs out and tune into the vibrations. ears seem clogged as i hear my breathing and heartbeat "within". wind joins me and we travel the path in sync rather than separate. the lava does nothing to slow me. the twists and drops just have putting the js-3's to the test. they respond like a wild mustang and i find myself to be the one holding them back from reaching their full potential. suggestions of a coach running through my head. do i or don't i? it doesn't matter. what's real is today and this moment. this movement. like gabrielle says, "the dogma of this dance". blue pool is a treat and a place to take stock. a few more midweek hookie players are floating the river and calling out as i pass them. sorry, i cannot accelerate your progress, talk to the water. dog on the 3rd raft looks like he wants to come along. i see him silently cussing his owners laziness. i think of pacer. wonder what his day could have been like were he here. gliding now as the trail smooths out. twists are reduced and another gentle squeeze of the trigger and the wind comes along. two stepped a creek crossing, up a rise and padded down. i strip myself down mentally and take away the outside noise and imagine a native on this path 200 years ago. his feet, the mindset of his movement. his speed. his connection with the natures path. ghost racing his spirit now. the trance is broken by pavement and a trail head sign. no watch, but it was faster than i have had the pleasure of running before. silent homage to the wind, the water and the ghost racer for the vibrations and the day. water, burrito, natty light. nap in the sun.
why can't i stay here?

shmendrick

life is moving like a 9 speed cog. constantly in motion when pedaled, but the effort it takes to get from one task to the next requires different gears. moving along, trying to balance new responsibility on the job while hybernating my regular gig for the summer. running is sporadic and comes only when desired. sometimes the desire is there, but the clock is not kind to my affirmations. i have not run with a watch in 3 weeks and the liberation is tremendous. two wheels are a daily constant. i've only had 14 days this year where the bike was not involved in the day. i cannot say the same about the running shoes, but the role of the bicycle can meet many needs. read the immortal text of cool trav to gain perspective. he and pahlaniuk should have a beer and go sledding sometime. i think they would have a lot to talk about. travis rides daily, rode daily. it was recreation, it was work, it was therapy, it was bliss. it was wet, it was hot, it was polluted. it brought ecstacy, it brought pain. this is not a scratch and sniff, you have to experience to appreciate. i crack that text again with a different perspective in mind.

i offer my opinion on travis, i'll yang you with this guy. it's not, "take your pick", it's just that one pair of glasses does not wear the same on different faces.

tommorrow. day in the woods. trail shoes, cooler of sustinance, the monkey and a 68 degree sunny day.

ohmmmmmmmmm

guru

never understood the "training philosophy" thing. i understand that people seek the way, but rarely do they seek the qualities to become the sought. why has this come up? man, i listened to two dudes almost get into a fight over who's training philosophy was better. one dude was for cerutty, one was for lydiard. neither, i noted, knew a thing about the men they followed, but rather gleamed this knowledge from some website forum postings, books and internet web pages.

truthfully, not passing judgement, but i felt sorry for both of them. neither could tell the other that they personally had used the philosophy of their guru to get better. worse yet, neither had undertaken the character building experiment of one to see what they could handle and what they could not handle to come up with what worked for them in becoming a better runner. this is where living in eugene can become nauseating. too many experts, not enough seekers.

what works for you? what experiment of one have you undertaken to find out what will make you better? you, not someone else, you. I have been fortunate enough to have sit downs with some of the top athletes and coaches in the sport over the years. i always was curious as to how they arrived at their respective approach, not what the approach was.

dare to take the experiment of one. run yourself into the ground. undertrain yourself. peak too soon. dont peak at all. find out how your body responds. simplify it. how does your body respond with more or less sleep? how does your trainining change while working 40 hours a week or more? how has your mental approach changed over the years? what motivates you to run today? who are you running for?

i love reading about lydiard, cerruty, bowerman, salazar, canova, o'connell, zatopek, the japanese training system, how the greater boston track club of the 70's and 80's trained. i love reading about bruce fordyce and how he trained to make himself great.

does this mean that all of this reading will make me great? i ran for a hall of fame coach in college. someone who had coached over 200 all-americans and won numerous national championships. if anything, in retrospect, running under my college coach showed me what kind of training and runner i did not want to be. does this diminish his accomplishment?

more runners have never won or improved under legendary coaches than have won and pr'd. we dont measure coaches that way. it's our nature. what have YOU done to find out how great you can be? what you can and cannot do? what is the minimal you can get by with? what are you happy with?

take a moment. think about it. how have you built or shaped your character?

ebb and flow

gentle. running on pavement has always been something that i associated with physical body breakdown. i've decided to flip the mindset on that. pavement is an opportunity to learn to run with more efficiency and practice "running on eggshells". developing that "tap, tap, tap" that leads to better running economy, upright posture and balance. it's accepting where my weaknesses and are developing them so that they become your strengths. i used to run roads all the time, and was fortunate enough to become a decent marathoner from that. i say that not just from the perspective of how fast i ran a marathon, but how efficiently i ran a marathon and recovered from that effort. it was what led me to ultra running in a sense. i could do a solid marathon effort every two weeks and suffer no physical breakdown as long as it was preceded by a proper block of buildup and training. my seasons would be 16 weeks of base, training, then 3-4 marathons in the fall. full rest, 12-14 weeks of buildup, 2-3 marathons in the spring. full rest, repeat. trail running turned me into an explorer and the training changed. i became a slut for single track in any form. the stride shortened, the strength increased in some senses, but i was a fish out of water and very choppy on the roads when i visited them. the result was just avoiding the roads all together. i also got slower.

too much of something, not enough balance, etc, etc. i chalked it up to getting older, but that is the lamest excuse ever.

so now. it's summer. tap, tap, tap. running on eggshells. rediscovering the efficiency and balance that comes from a constant footfall. it's very zen, in some ways. repetition. not something i would be into on the bike, but it serves as a means to where i want to go on the run. allowing the sport to fit into your lifestyle, rather than forcing it by trying to arrange your schedule to get more single track and "disturbing the force".

enough of that. so some local bike shops got word of the bi weekly dawn patrol single track slap down that junior dick 3000, millennium falcon, myself, mahk and judge arveson do and have spread the word within and outside of the shop. in a short time, the results have been a roster of morning riders too long to list and the thing has gotten out of hand. it's like having too many surfers trying to catch waves on the same break. hammerheads, slow guys, tourist, loud talkers, close talkers, bike breakers. more disturbances in the flow. 17 riders this morning for the 90 minute ride. while i applaud that it does take a certain amount of discipline to get up and get in a mountain bike ride on the small single track circuit we have here in town, dawn patrol was never intended to be along these lines.

i guess we'll see how it plays out. everyone is enthusiastic at first. we'll lose a few. doing 7 mile loops twice a week every week will get boring to some after awhile and they will fade away.