From the Unpublished Archive

One of my computers has a folder called "stuff" and inside is all these miscellaneous notes, files, pictures, screenshots and unpublished blog drafts. Periodically I go in there and clean it out a bit. It's like a digital attic or storage closet. I usually find interesting stuff in there that I've forgotten about. This time around I found a couple. One was a folder of images of Madison, Wisconsin, taken when I was in the state for the Kettle Moraine 100 last year. I've already posted that baby to my other blog. Yeah there is another one but it's more for family and relatives, the ones who told me "Rick I've no idea what you talk about half the time. What is RPE, Splits, T1, T2, HRM and so forth? Why is it always about running?! Wouldn't it be better if you work more instead". The other find was this little note here, must have missed it in the previous times I've gone in and deleted stuff - it's from 2006. I wrote it at the beginning of the season. I remember, I was confirmed for my first Western States and especially psyched for the coming year.

January 1/8/06
• Maybe this is the year I finally break the 24 hour mark in a 100 mile race or go 3:30 on the marathon.

• Maybe I follow through with my plans to do track workouts and experience a new breakthrough, I'm not too old for track right? I've never done it.

• Maybe this is the year I don't get lost in any of my races.

• Maybe this is the year I run more than one 100 mile race.

a little maybe goes a long way....

It sure does with work. Well thank God I followed up on those plans! That's why on my blog header it says "there is no finish if you don't start". That actually has nothing to do with races but about training and working hard. About implementing and following through plans. I've always been good at ideas but a little less stellar about implementation and following through. I always catch myself doing what I'm not supposed to be doing and not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I blurted that tagline when I was hee-hawing around the apartment one day, stalling on a long run workout.

Never did run that marathon. My last marathon was in 04 and it was part of an Ironman race a month after my first hundred - 3:59. I cut it close huh. The last 6-miles I was so hungry I stuffed my mouth with cookies pretzels at each aid station. In an Ironman there is an aid station every mile so you can imagine. I think on mile 24 I running while eating a small bag of pretzels. As for breaking 24 hours in a 100-mile race. It didn't happen until last year. Western States whopped my ass, soundly. I finished but I was a mess. In 07 Bighorn 100 picked up where Western left off and my longest 100 mile yet - 30:22. To be frank, even had there not been a snowstorm the week before the race that made the course sloppy with mud, snow and standing water, I wouldn't have been strong enough to break 24 hours at that time. Now and in a course in excellent condition? Maybe. Later that summer I would come back revived for my first Headlands Hundred but because of an IT Band issue I finished 24:37. It wasn't until last year's Kettle Moraine 100 did I finally break 24 hours. Been working hard to make it happen though since 06.

Started Track, Spin too. Dropped Spin this year since I'm taking a hiatus from triathlon but still in Track. I'm on my fourth year and wishing I had made the plunge sooner. I still get lost in races but a lot less these days. Didn't run another hundred after Western, licked my wounds for the rest of the summer. The following year however I did two 100-mile races in the summer and I've been doing that since.

It was good to see this note, 06 was a pivotal year. I would add to these goals and follow through on them. That's the reason why I've been breaking PR's the last 2 years. Breaking the top 10 on the smaller races was more than I hoped though. All this makes me think; what new plans can I implement now that will help me to go faster? Is it even possible? Has my speed already started to plateau? We shall see.

Ohlone 06, my one and only Ohlone 50k race, I've been a volunteer since. For those of you who ran it this year and the hot year last year I just want to say, it was cold my year. No kidding, it even rained! Myself, new friend at the time, Scott Dunlap, and good friend Jason Arth.

Top of Squaw Valley, first 5 miles of Western States 06. If I knew at that point how much I would suffer later that evening and into the next day I might have just promptly taken my camera back and walked down the trail. Okay that's not true...well maybe.