Tuscobia Times

Spent some time last night coming up with some times for the Tuscobia tomorrow.  Again, little worried about the weather.  We are now expecting highs around 35* F on Saturday, which means it will be like pulling a sled in mashed potatoes.  However, after dark the temps are expected to plummet below 0* F, which should freeze the snow like pavement (which is a good thing in these races).  Below are three scenarios.  The checkpoints in grey are aid stations.  The others are just reference points for keeping track of pace.  You can follow my progress on my spot: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0pejOC4BNRKAFG832XX5XVXFke1TSNHnM

Virkelighed: Reality

Well I know I have already not been very attentive to this new experiment for me (aka my blog).  That is what I get for trying to start a blog right before the holidays and when I know I will be really busy at work.  Needless to say, the last 2 weeks have been filled with moderate running, poor cross training, and some really bad dietary habits.  As a result, I am going to pay for it real soon.  Tomorrow, Sarah and I head to Northern Wisconsin for the first race of my race calendar: the Tuscobia 75 miler. 

This will be my second attempt at the Tuscobia 75.  The Tuscobia 75 is a self-supported (ie, you carry your own food gear and water) for 75 miles in under 32 hours.  There are only 2 checkpoints along the way where you can fill your water, and get some hot sustenance.  Also, with the minimum gear requirements, you are looking to carry or pull on a sled about 30-35 lbs in gear/food/water. (here is the race webpage http://tuscobia.wordpress.com/)

3 years ago my friend The Angry Moose and I attempted this as our first ever ultra, and there were some pretty devastating consequences.  Our naivety on race training, nutrition and gear lead us to be way past time, over packed (although I somehow forgot my running shoes) and finally an emergency evac when the Moose turned blue and dropped to the snow at midnight.  Was not a good situation, and was incredibly scary. 

Here is a bit of information about where I am at and how I feel going into this race.  I am currently about 10 lbs above my ideal race weight of 165 lbs.  Luckily, I have stabilized my weight gain at 175, with only minor fluctuations above and below.  I know I have not trained adequately to pulling a sled over a long distance, and really haven’t done a run over 15 miles in the last couple of months.  Lately, my IT band and back issues have been resurfacing and have me really concerned about muscle tension.  Finally, this will be my first Ultra without the Moose.  He and I have been doing these together for the last 3 years, and we have always supported each other during the rough spots, so this adds a whole new emotional and mental aspect to the race.  Sarah is coming out to support me at the aid stations (all 2 of them) so that should really help.  But still, it is the long walk from 1am – 6am, in the dark at the coldest that really works on you.  In all, I think I have a 50/50 shot at this one.  Not as good as I hoped to be going into it.

So what is my plan?

1^st thing first, I am going to cut gear weight.  I normally carry with me some emergency heavy layers (aka the “awesome pants”) which I will leave behind.  I will rely on Sarah at the checkpoints for most of my extra clothes, so that should shed 5 lbs off my sled.

2^nd: Its all about the food.  Depending on the snow conditions, I will be burning anywhere from 500-1000 calories per hour.  It is not possible to fully replenish the calories, but you can slow the burn.  My diet of choice: summer sausage, cheddar cheese, nuts, and m&m’s.  I will also carry some Cliff gu packs for instant satisfaction (100 calories per pack) and a couple whole grain rice black bean burritos for complex carbs.  Sarah will meet me at the aid stations with instant mashed potatoes (lots of electrolytes in potassium and sodium and calories from the butter) and maybe some hot soup.  Finally, 1-2 electrolyte pills per hour. 

Finally, my headspace.  This will be the hardest part of the whole race and what I am most worried about.  Once you start thinking “I might not make it” it is really hard to get out of that mind set.  I will have an ipod to help, but really I just need to stay positive for the whole thing.

I will carry a GPS tracker.  You can watch my progress here: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0pejOC4BNRKAFG832XX5XVXFke1TSNHnM

Looking forward to writing my race report afterward, learning some lessons on why I really need to stay in shape, and getting ready for the next race while feeling great while I do it.  I am also really excited to just get back on the horse and continue my journey.  More posts soon.

Nick

Next Steps

I thought it would be good for my first set of posts to set the baseline from which I will be measuring my success through the next year (and hopefully beyond).  Over the next couple of days I will be posting on how I view my current state and initial plan of attack in each of the key subjects: fitness, nutrition, and spirituality.  From there I really hope to dive into the meat of what this is all about, starting my journey, learning along the way, and documenting what I’ve learned and the conclusions that I have come to.  I am working on the first of these current state posts now and hope to have it up in the next 24 hours.  Stay tuned….

What's up with the weird name?...

So...why is it called Gylfagining?

In a nutshell, the Gylfaginning is a book that documents the story of a king who challenged by the gods to show his wisdom through answering questions about Norse mythology and the creation and destruction of the world.  From this book that we know what we do about Norse mythology.  So this blog is my Gylfaginning.  It will document the creation of my world, what I believe and chronicle my journey.  And like the Gylfaginning it will be a collection of stories as I experience them.

Begyndelsen: The Beginning

In the beginning…..no not really. If you are reading this, welcome to my blog.

As customary to me, I would like to start with some stats:

• 66. That is how many days until I turn 30
• 15. That is how many lbs I have gained in the last 6 months
• 11. About number of years since I have really critically thought about theology
• 2. The number of life altering events in the last year.

Like many others who are seeing the sunset of their 20’s, I am going through a phase of adjustment and revisiting aspects of my current life and behavior. I wouldn’t call it a mid-life crisis, but rather rediscovery of my beliefs and self. Much of this is a reaction to physiological changes (hangovers last a really long time and my eating habits were formed when my metabolism was quite a bit faster) and the fact that it has been a really long time since I revisited certain philosophical and theological aspects of my life. Its also about lifestyle, and mapping my lifestyle to where I want to be on an individual level. This blog will be a document of my process to rediscover my thoughts and behaviors regarding my physical and spiritual self.

So what is the goal over the next year and what is the point? You could call it a “new year’s resolution” but I am starting really, and it is an attempt to really improve on my self and find replacement behaviors for aspects of my life that I find less desirable as I age (i.e. unwinding at the end of a day with a run rather than a beer). Really, I am just trying to address multiple aspects of my health: physical, spiritual and mental. As we get older it becomes more important to pay attention to these things, and I would rather improve myself now and create more desirable behaviors than wait until I am even older and negative behaviors are even more entrenched.

Over the next year, I will set multiple goals for myself in fitness, nutrition and spirituality. As I am a research nut, and like to have specific goals that are backed by research and tested models, I am going to just start with overall goals:

Fitness. My goal is to engrain physical activity and fitness in my routine and improve on my performance in the activities I really enjoy: running, cycling and climbing. Improvement will be measured by weight/bmi, performance times, frequency, and how I feel. I will try to link my mapmyrun.com account to the blog help measure my successes and struggles.

Nutrition. My goal is to develop healthy eating habits and healthier default foods during times of stress. Success will be measured by the quality and nutritional value of food consumed, stabilizing of my calorie content, the reduction of certain bad habits (i.e. too much beer), and how I feel after I eat. I will also try to record what I eat in mapmyrun.com (this can be challenging) so I can show progress over time.

Spirituality. This is a tricky one. My goal is to rediscover my views on faith and spirituality. Not sure how to measure the success of this goal other than I gave it serious thought and I feel good with where I am. I will document the exploration process such as books read, if I attended a religious service, and conversations.

What will I be posting? I will try to focus on 3 main topics: fitness, nutrition, and spirituality. There may also be some posts on adventures, races, and other activities that are tied to the key subjects. I will try to segment posts by those topics to allow for easier searching and documentation. It also makes the blog less painful for outside readers (if there are any) so they can just read topics that they are interested in. Content will include links to interesting articles that I am reading about the said topics, summaries of any books I am reading, reflections along the journey, and reactions to events and activities that I participate in. I will try to keep ranting and mindless rambling to a minimum, but hey, this is a blog and not a research paper or piece of great literature. My favorite quote about blogging is that “blogs are not journalism, they are graffiti with punctuation”, so that may be what this becomes. Expression with punctuation.

The minimum posting will be once a week. If I can I will try to post more than once a week, but if not I will document throughout the week and consolidate those notes into a posting.

Full disclosure, this blog is not about what other people really think. I fully intend to treat this blog as a document of my journey through the next year. By posting it publicly, my hope is to create a system of accountability to continue with my goals. I welcome commentary and dialogue, just please keep it civil, especially in regards to religion and politics.