Running with the not so big dog, Part 1

As you should be able to garner from the name of my blog, my dog plays a large part in my journey back. Skye is my first animal shelter dog and definitely won't be my last. When my sons and I went to the pound to look for a new dog the pens were filled with yapping, howling maniacs that must have known what waited for them if they didn't get a pardon. We walked down a long row of pens without spotting a dog that had that special something that you just know when you see it. I've found that I make snap judgments about people and animals that usually are correct. Job interviews with me are a real hoot. “Hello, my name is Bob”, they'll say, obviously lacking that special it. “Thanks for coming”, I say. 

The catdog on guard.

Down the far side of the pens we walked discussing the various dogs we passed. As we came to the end of the row, there she was. Sitting quietly and watching us. When we paused she put her paws up on the pen door and stretched, wagging her tail. “This is the one”, I told the boys and they agreed. As it turned out she was a recent arrival and we had to wait a day to make sure her MIA owner didn't come looking for her. When we came to pick her up she quietly sat as I put the leash on her and took her to the car.

Once we got her home we discovered a few things about her that weren't outwardly obvious. One was that she was quite proficient at barking...at almost anything that came down our road, and other dogs, and sirens, and well you get the idea. Another odd thing about her is that she is a cat dog. She may look like a dog but in many ways acts like a cat. For instance, she likes to look out windows and will lay anywhere that allows her to accomplish that goal. The back of the couch, the bedside table, etc. I've never had a smallish dog before so this may just be a factor due to her size. Our Golden Retriever and Lab wouldn't have fit on either of those two options so I guess they just never thought of it. 

Trying to guilt me into a run

Ultimately, the best thing about her is she loves to get out and run! I've never really run with a dog on a regular basis. The Golden Retrievers we've had were interested in running as long as there was something to retrieve at the end of the sprint. The Lab was kind of the same way but she tended to lose interest mid run and just look at you. “What was I doing out here in the yard?”, her expression would seem to say. Skye is another matter completely. She isn't much of a retriever although she will play the game for a brief time. She absolutely goes crazy when I put on a pair of running shorts. She begins to jump vertically, bouncing her way around me. Normally I put her on a leash when we go outside so she doesn't run next door and visit with the cows and George the guard donkey (she and George have a thing going on, but that's another story). When we're going running she goes straight to the car and waits for me to open a door so she can take her position in the passenger seat.

Do you run with a dog?

Who is the leader on the run, you or the dog?

Leashed or unleashed?

I think I can, I think I can

While driving home I was starving since I'd missed a couple of meals during the course of my day at work. Since rejoining the world of vegetarians I get to eat like a hobbit. You know, first breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, first lunch, second lunch, etc. Anyway, I was on my way to the grocery store to pick up food for dinner that night and was trying to decide if I should pick up a quick snack or just wait until I got home.

As I was working all this out in my head I passed no less than 9 fast food restaurants in about a 1.5 mile stretch of the fourlane I was driving on. Around here we only have one highway so we call it the fourlane. It sounds cool and confuses the hell out of the tourists. Each one of those fast food establishments tried to worm its way into my consciousness and get me to turn my steering wheel and pull in for a quick pass through the drive-thru. It stuck me that this is one of the big problems with our culture. Since we've become an instant gratification, gotta have it now, hell no I can't wait kind of society no one debates whether or not to have a snack right this instant even if it's a non-nutritious, unhealthy, grease bomb of a heart attack waiting to happen. Being a vegetarian is a big enough challenge by itself without having to survive a gauntlet of “eat me” every time I drive down the fourlane.

This little episode of mind games with myself has prompted me to really focus on how I plan my daily plethora of meals. I'm still fairly new to returning to this whole vegetarian thing so I'm relearning a large amount of lost lore from the last time I did this in the 80's. Having leftovers never seems to be a problem since my family is still a carnivorous band of cavemen and women (my kids look at my meticulously crafted vegetarian meals with an expression akin to seeing a train wreck on their faces). My daily work musette contains assorted veggies, fruits, energy bars, and great quickie meals like hummus on tortillas with kalamata olives. That kind of selection lets me grab a quick snack or meal on the run. At my job I rarely get to sit down and eat, I usually eat while on the run. I still freak out my co-workers when I eat tomatoes and peppers like apples while on the job.

If you're vegetarian, how do you plan your meals?

Do you eat like a hobbit?

What veggies do you eat like an apple?

I needed that

Skye is on point and ready to rumble.

There are days when running or cycling can be just what you need to clear your mind of the craziness of work or just life in general. Today was one of those days for me. Even though I had just done the Country Road Ride this past weekend and had gotten only one rest day I needed to go out and run long to clear my head of work related bull pucky. As always, Skye was up for it and went crazy as I started gathering my gear for the run. It amazes me that she can tell the difference between running gear and cycling gear. 

I love the view down the trail

I needed a recovery day after this weekend so I donned the heart rate monitor and headed out the door to the trail head at the gate on the Cunard Road. It's about the only flat place I can run in the area so it's my usual choice for a recovery run. The added plus to that is running along the New River. The New River Gorge is beautiful any time of the year and the sounds of the rapids as I run along seem to help speed me down the trail. But mostly it's flat, flat, flat. Gotta love that when you live in West Virginia. Did I mention how flat it is?

When I run I always try for easy, light, smooth, and fast in the words of Caballo Blanco. Normally, I take a while to warm up and get into a comfortable stride. Today I dropped into easy, light, and smooth right from the start. Fast wasn't going to get to join the party since it was a recovery day. I could tell early on it was going to be one of those great days of running that you are blessed with out of the blue. An old friend used to call that feeling blending. It was related to the sport of extreme kayaking originally but the concept flows into any other sport perfectly. Blending is becoming one with whatever you are doing at the time and flowing along like water over rocks in a mountain stream. It's a very Zen thing, a one mind kind of thing. When you realize you're blending you aren't anymore. Skye and I were in perfect unison and flowing down the trail like a light breeze across the ground. I had a vague thought of really going for a long run but did have to eventually go to work today so I could only run six miles.

That kind of run was exactly what I needed and wanted out of the day. After about 2/3's of the run my head had cleared itself of all the work related crap and I realized that there are many other great things in life than the crap I was currently dealing with. The smile that was on my face from the sheer joy of running was replaced with an even bigger smile as I came the conclusion that things were pretty awesome overall. To quote Craig Morgan, “This ole boy's got it goin' on.”

I also wore my new Salomon Mission XRs for the first time. I'll get a review up in a few days. Just as a teaser, they felt awesome.

The new kicks, Salomon Mission XR

How often do you use your run to clear your head of the daily grind?

Have you ever had a blending experience?

Country Roads Ride 2012

After all the time and miles logged in the saddle the time has finally come for the Country Roads Ride 2012! After posting on Friday about what I was looking forward to I got there and discovered they had changed the route for 2012. It used to be called the Country Road 150 and this year it was all that and more. OK, only four miles more but still...

Day 1 went really well. The weather was in a good mood with the ride starting in the 60's and the high for the day only getting to 80. After all the really hot weather we've had this summer that was a real relief. The new route added a loop through the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. This what the big dish there usually looks like on the ride.

This is what it looks like on the new route. That's one big ass satellite dish. I don't know how many channels they get with that thing but they definitely must get all the HBO and Showtime channels.

It gets all the channels!

If you're curious how the battle with my personal demon I mentioned before went, I smacked that thing around like nobodies business. It turns out the thing is an 11% grade. Right before you get to it the ride organizers put a sign that read, Breathe. Yeah, right. Thanks for that advice.

I had been working on my on road nutrition and hydration on my training rides and it worked out perfectly for me which is kind of unusual. Normally I would have everything go smoothly in training and puke my guts out on the day. I ate a Clif Bar every hour and downed a GU gel on the half hour. That combined with 3 water bottles filled with water plus a Nuun tablet kept me on the road and out of the rest stations. I only had to stop at 49 miles to refill my bottles, grab a banana, and get back on the road. I like riding that way for this event for some reason. Maybe just to get it over with.

I read once that when your resolve begins to crumble during an endurance event it's called the beast. Letting the beast visit helps to learn how the chain that critter. On Day 1 for no apparent reason at about mile 45 the beast whispered in my ear that I should quit. "Just wait for the sag wagon," it said. My brain and body responded with, "Shut the hell up and put on some big boy pants you wuss." The beast slinked away and I never heard from it again. Guess my countermeasures are getting more effective.

The drive to the top of the mountain, by car mind you, just reenforced that I will never ride to the top of Snowshoe from Cass. It's 10 additional miles with a hill from hell that only gets worse as you go. Plus, my beautiful wife who is my also my road crew gladly drives me to the top. Prior to the drive up I picked up the usual post ride chocolate milk and a couple bags of ice for the dreaded ice bath (which really seemed to help despite the shrinkage).

Taken by my wife while I laid in bed trying not to seize up. I'm not this artistic.

The forecast for the weekend was sunny and warm so, of course, it was raining and cool on Day 2. I decided to bring my rain jacket just in case I got chilly so I basically rode all day carrying a soggy, heavy coat I never put on. Carrying 3 water bottles, all the GU and Clif Bars, a tube of Nuun tabs, plus a spare tube is my jersey just wasn't enough weight.

The miles always seem to roll along easily on Day 2 probably because I'm too tired to notice much. I cruised up the first few climbs without a whole lot of trouble. I did discover that the other side of that 11% climb is also 11%. Consistency is important in steep climbs. 

View from the top of the big climb

 

Day 2 takes a slightly different route back where they give you this awesome 12 mile climb from Huntersville up into the area around Watoga State Park. The lunch stop at the Rimel campground is roughly in the middle section of this climb which is awesome if you stop, which I don't. As much as I might complain about the climbs on this ride it's what makes it such a great time. You have plenty of time to hammer downhill and have enough climbs to see how much you can push yourself.

As always it was a great time on the Country Roads Ride. The ride is a fantastic experience every year. Great support, great rest stops, great post Day 1 meal, and more cow bell (you just have to be there to understand that part). Even with the longer course and the less than optimal weather on Day 2 it was an incredible ride again. So when someone asks what I did this weekend I can say: 154.02 miles, 10 hours and 47 minutes in the saddle, gained 5,420 ft of elevation, and burned in the neighborhood of 8,864 calories. I guess you could say a good time was had by all.

Since it was raining at the start I didn't take my Iphone with me so there's no pics from the ride today. You'll just have to make due with me holding my finishers medal to prove I made it back to the Greenbrier.

Over the mountains and through the...mountains

As you may know, I'm not what you call a goal oriented person. I'm more of an imagineer. I think of really big things with no idea how to go about getting them done. Well, I might have an idea about getting it done but then I'm probably going about solving the issue completely the wrong way. Amazingly, it turns out that I am goal oriented person when it comes to exercise related things. I like having a reason for the sweat I'm pouring out all over the place. I like having a reason during this drought to water plants along the trails I run on.

Every summer my training (a phrase I use very loosely) ramps up for the Country Roads ride that benefits the National MS Society. The ride is really well run with frequent aid stations that are well stocked with eats, treats, and fluids galore. They have fantastic road support and a sag wagon (that I'll hopefully never have to use). The ride begins at the famous Greenbrier Resort and winds through the valleys up to Cass at the base of Snowshoe Mountain. You can, of course, ride up to the top from Cass but that seems downright crazy to me. My wife is always waiting at the bottom with a perfectly good car that has a passenger seat with my name on it. I suppose that some day I'll give it a try...yeah right.

 The charity ride helps to give me focus for the rides during the long, hot summer. On those days when I really, really don't want to do anything that will make me sweat anymore than I already have I think of those last few climbs on Day 1. The ride is 67.75 miles long with a total of four category 5 climbs. Two of these come after mile 54. One is only 1.2 miles long at a 2.3% grade. The other is a mere 1.68 miles long at a grade of 3.5%. That may not sound like much but at that point in my day you might as well ask me to climb Mt Everest in the dark, naked, carrying my bike. The worst part is the one hill that is too short to be categorized. It has a sharp turn to the right at the top which makes it look much longer than it really is. Last year I couldn't push the pedals down any more and walked to the top. This year I will conquer that climb like my own personal demon!

I always pretend that I'm a real athlete after I finish my ride and go soak in a cold water bath that supposedly helps my muscles recover by constricting blood flow, flushing out lactic acid, and reducing swelling (shrinking them, along with other things). Then I take a long, tear-filled hot shower to stop all the shivering and shrinking. 

What I'd look like if I had muscles...and was a woman...

Day 2 only has one categorized climb which is a 4. It's 2.24 miles long at a 2.7% grade. That's a short version of a local climb I do frequently so it's not too bad. Except for that whole having ridden 68 miles the day before thing. And, on top of that we take a slightly different route back, which is longer. Yeah, longer. It's all for charity so it must be worth it. It's all in your perception. I remember last year when I hit the last aid station for a banana and a refill on Gatorade. One of the workers told me not to worry because there were only 3 hills level then I'd roll into the town of Cass. As I climbed the 7^th hill after the aid station I remember choosing some choice words to describe him and realized that one person's perception of a hill who had been driving around in a car all day can be so radically different from someone who has spent five hours in the saddle of a road bike on the same roads.

So, it's Friday night the packing is almost done and I leave at 5:30 am for the drive to White Sulphur Springs. I've picked my favorite jerseys, packed my favorite vegetarian foods for breakfast on Sunday, and tossed some Ibebrokens in my bag just in case. Wish me luck and think good thoughts Saturday and Sunday morning as I cycle my way through the mountains of West Virginia!

Have you ever run a charity ride or run?

What did you think of the experience?

Return of the Vegi

If you read my last post and are wondering about the book I mentioned, you'll just have to wait a while cause I'm gonna go all bibliophile on you in the very near future. Good things come to those who wait.

So it started with cycling, then progressed to running, and finally the last piece of the puzzle fell into place. About six weeks again I started eating vegetarian again. Ahhhh, I hear some of you out there yelling. I know, I know. I used to think salad was what my dinner ate. I thought PETA stood for People Eating Tasty Animals. I thought if God didn't want us to eat meat, she wouldn't have made it so tasty. Well, all you carnivores out there just look at it this way, there's now more meat for you.

I was a vegetarian back in the 80's for several years. I had no grand social agenda behind my thinking, I just thought that it was a better way to go. I was pretty well into it when I went on a kayak expedition in Mexico and we ate MRE's. No veggie options there so back to the paleoman diet I went.

I didn't make this. It looks like a prison food tray.

I had been gradually eating a more healthy diet as I started getting back into shape so the veggie change wasn't too traumatic. It hasn't been without some bumps on the road to slaying more defenseless plants to put on my plate. The first time I made tacos for dinner I swear the taco burger was talking to me by the end of the meal. Just a word to the wise here, lentil burger crushed up and covered in taco seasoning does not a fair substitute make.

Being a veghead is much easier nowadays with the vast selection of veggies at the local market, specialty grocers in most decent sized towns, and a wealth of vegetarian recipe websites. All that combined with a wealth of information on proper nutrition that is available just a click away helps to keep you on track.

The most important question though is how has it helped me? Given that I have a physical job on top of running and or cycling everyday proper nutrition is obviously of huge importance to me. There are several big pluses to my new diet. I now get to eat like a hobbit. You know breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, first lunch, second lunch, etc. I now seem to graze like some giant beast constantly on the prowl for a tasty morsel of vegetable matter. I've also found out that eating peppers and tomatoes like apples tends to freak out my coworkers so that's a bonus.

Again, there were a couple of important books in the whole transformation. I promise that I'll get all that bibliophile information together in a post for the near future. Really I will, I swear.

Has taco meat ever spoken to you?

Are you a grazer or a more organized eater?

Back in the day

If you all have been reading this blog since the beginning, all three posts worth, you'll know that I was talking about getting on my bike and taking off down the road to a different me. There were lots of fits and starts along the way. I won't claim I jumped on my Allez and rode every day since then, on and on. I've stayed on it more than I've been off it, which for me is quite an accomplishment.

Actual proof of my running past.

I had been a runner in my 20's. I ran a lot, I ran everywhere. I actually ran on the morning I married my wife with my best man while the usher rode his bike with us. I'll never forget that run or the rest of the day. I was fond of wearing purple lycra tights and chose to wear them that morning. As we were finishing the run my soon to be, make that very soon to be, in-laws drove up in their car. I walked over and chatted with them about the beautiful morning, the run I'd just completed, and the soon to be nuptials. As we finished our chat and they drove off I turned around to find my best man and usher chuckling. When I asked him what was so funny he simply pointed at my crotch. I had been sweating quite a bit during the run and that, combined with the lycra...well, I'll let you figure it out.

I have no idea when I was #87.

Being a runner is a challenge for me. Anyone who knows me knows I have bad knees. Actually, calling my knees bad is a true injustice to folks with bad knees. Mine are so much worse than bad, they need a new category. I've had three knee operations over the years beginning in the mid-seventies (the dark ages of knee surgery) and ending with a patellectomy a while back. My left knee is actually kinda square shaped after all the work. I'll spare you a picture of the Frankenstein knee for the faint of heart. Clearly, being a runner takes me somewhere out past insane to most folks given my knees.

When I ran all the time I developed my own style that allowed me to run miles each week given my “special” situation. I used a short choppy stride that took pressure off my knees and allowed me to move it on down the road. I was a forefoot lander way before it was cool or trendy to be one just because my body had learned to run that way all on it's own. While merrily running my own happy way I had a friend who was a coach who offered to “help me” with a little personal coaching. This person noticed that despite our large difference in leg length, we had the same stride length. My coach had me lengthen my stride and start to land on my heels. Well, that was the beginning of the end to my running for years. I could have realized that perhaps the “coaching” was the root of my constant injuries every time I started running again. Well, I ain't that smart. I just kinda accepted my knees and gave up on running. It would take a book, yes kids, the real paper kind to get me off my ass and back into running shoes.

 

Did you ever take advice from a coach you probably should have ignored?

If you have knees do you think they're worse than mine?

Have you ever worn lycra when you probably shouldn't? (No Walmart stories please!)

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

Making life altering changes is daunting at any time in your life. To proclaim it to your family, friends, and co-workers ups the ante. To start a blog and tell the world, that takes this whole thing to the level of craziness that is my personal forte. To quote True Grit, “That's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.” OK, I have both my eyes but the last part is right at least.

Ahhh, my Allez. I love this bike!

My first change was buying a sweet road bike. My Specialized Allez was just a little bit different than the bikes I had ridden as a kid. In my younger days I rode a 10-speed Schwinn like everyone else I knew. My Dad and I would take 7 to 10 day bike trips routinely riding a century a day for days at a time. We'd camp along the way so my Mom made us canvas saddlebags that fit in the wire baskets on the back that I used for my paper route. Yep, a regular Beaver Cleaver upbringing for me. Believe me, we were stylin'.

Having ridden so much as a kid and racing mountain bikes in my 20's I figured I was pretty good to go when it came to riding. Plus, I was working at the time in the Sand Hills of eastern North Carolina. “Hell,” I thought, “this place is flat so riding should be a piece of cake here.” I lived on the edge of town so I headed out into farm country for a 20 miler. That should be just about right. OK, so let's work this out. I weighed about 310 lbs, hadn't been on a bike in years, and had no idea of the terrain. Yep, 20 miles should be sufficient to kill me.

As I started riding all those memories of years gone by came flooding back. That first bike ride of the spring when you were 10. The world seemed so new and fresh after a long snowy Ohio winter. I flew down Lafayette Street to Vine to the Vine Street Market for candy. Then pumped back up the hill at top speed, racing past Dr Mays house as fast as I could. Yep, all those flashbacks were going through my head as I cruised down the road. Pedals turning effortlessly, wind in my face, it seemed as if it took almost no exertion to cruise down the road. After 10 miles I turned around and learned several things. One, they are called the Sand Hills for a reason. Two, I had been riding with the wind at my back the whole way out. And finally, I hadn't ridden for years and my butt was killing me. The ride back took twice as long as the ride out.

Over the next few months the roads of North Carolina gave me miles of joy, more butt pain, and taught me a lot I had forgotten about cycling. My Allez is still my favorite bike and gets many, many miles logged on it each year.

What was your first bike ride like in adulthood after a long hiatus?

How did you go about making major life changes?

Lets begin at the beginning...

Lets begin at the beginning, a very good place to start as they said in the Sound of Music. I wasn't always the big and tall version of me. I used to just be the tall version, which to be honest, is my favorite version of me. Other than having trouble finding socks and pants that had a long enough inseam, the tall version of me was kind fun to be. I have the obligatory bad knees a lot of tall guys have but other than that it was pretty OK.

The big and tall version of me has a couple of definite drawbacks. Besides still having the whole socks and pants thing, the big version also brings a host of other issues with it. Now my waist is bigger than my inseam...a lot bigger. My shirts seem to have a lot more X's on the size tag. And it's not just fashion related since those of you who know me in person figured out a long time ago, I am a member of the fashion unconscious. Not fitting in airplane seats very well, being out of breath all the time (well, actually only when I was moving), and just plain not being able to enjoy life were now also part of the equation.

As you can see from the incontrovertible photographic photographic proof, complete with circles and arrows on the back, time ain't a good friend to all of us. Oh sure, there are incredible physical specimens for their age out there. Heck, I live in a town chock full of 'em. The truth is that a lot of us fall into a different category. So, just how much time, effort, and commitment does it take to not take the road most easily traveled? 

The me I still see in the mirror, circa 1983. The other me. Even the picture is wider!

 

Getting to the point I was at a couple of years ago isn't something that just kinda goes POOF and there you are. You don't just wake up one morning, look at yourself in the mirror and yell, “Holy crap! What the hell happened to me last night?” That generally involves tequila. It's a process that is just gradually occurs while you're busy living life. The usual suspects are aging, life getting in the way, and change in metabolism. Well, sure let's blame them along with all the other culprits. As I've stated in Tiny Facts, I can point the finger in a lot of random directions but should just turn it around and point it back at moi (yepper, that's French). After all, I let myself get to where I was.

Getting there was easier than you might think. I did an online college program that required a significant amount of time online in class and even more time preparing my projects for my various classes. Sitting in front of a computer a majority of your day is not conducive to good health. At the same time my diet became what most Americans consider normal, which is to say over-processed and not very nutritious. Slowly but surely I slid down the slope to the bottom of a very deep valley. Now I just have to climb out.

Any of you feel like you're in the same boat?

What do you do to avoid the POOF effect?

What's it all about, Skye?

So, what's this whole thing gonna be about anyway? That's the question all bloggers have to stare down when they begin the process. What drives you to the penultimate step of creating and committing to a blog?

For me it's about possibilities. As you may, make that should, have read on the Tiny Facts page already I have become not only a tall guy but a big guy. Yep, big and tall. Just like you see on TV commercials. We apparently have our own stores. Odd I didn't seem to get the memo on that. You don't have a choice about being tall but that other one is totally in my control and I seem have to completely lost control of the big part of that equation.

So, do I sit in my Lazy Boy (man, I gotta get a chair with a better name) and wallow in self pity? Should I just accept the fact that I live in a state with a combined overweight/obesity rate of 68.1 percent according to the Trust for America's Health and I apparently joined the trend and didn't realize it? Is it just over for me and I should just accept that and move on. Albeit, slowly and in a sloth-like manner? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Ok, before you freak out I know that isn't right. I'm just quoting Animal House.

Nope. That ain't gonna be how it plays out.

My trusty dog Skye and I are going to get me back in shape. A little at a time, there's no need for giant steps. She's always willing to head out the door on some kind of adventure. She's a dog so her expectations of adventure are pretty easy to meet.

Ready to run, girl?

Keeping up with the Dog will chronicle my road back to health. Cycling, running, and a vegetarian diet will be the main roads followed on the long path back to where I (and lots of others) should be. What other side hikes I'll take on the path will remain to be seen but you can bet that Skye and I will keep you up to date on how it's going. I'll keep you in the loop on my progress, share info with you that I gather along the way, tell ya stories, and even recommend the odd recipe, book or running shoe I stumble across in my journeys.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!