Event Review: Tuckfest 2018

If you've read some of my other blogs, you've probably figured out I like to do shit. 

It's not necessarily because I get bored easy, it's because I like being outside when ever I can. 

Who doesn't?  Well, nobody I wanna know anyway...

So here's a review on an Outdoor Festival. And I'm calling it this not just because it's held outside, but also because so much of it is about Sports!

Not stupid "Ball" or "Team" sports, but outdoor sports like running, cycling, paddling, climbing, etc. 

And I guess there's some music thrown in here and there too. (There's actually a lot of live music, I'm just not a live music fan.)

Here is my review on Tuckfest!

And of course, what's a review without a little bit of history?

Last year three of us went up. My wife, my bud Daniel and myself. 

It's about a three or four drive from Myrtle to the Charlotte NC area where we had ourselves a campsite at McDowell Nature Preserve. Our camp was about a thirty minute drive to the venue. 

Tuckfest is held yearly at the U.S. National Whitewater Center (which I shall now call USNWC).

And this place will blow you away. Goddamn. I hope I can get some pictures...

After parking your car, I think it was a six dollar fee, you walk up a set of stairs past a couple of buildings and see this:

INSERT PICTURE HERE

SHIT, I HAVE NO PICTURE!!!

(Just go to the website https://usnwc.org/)

  

How to compare the sensation of looking over this...I've been to Heavenly, Stratton, Vail and Beaver Creek. I've seen what they do with their landscapes and pedestrian areas. It's amazing. But when you crest the stairs and below you can see the whitewater rafts and the playboats hauling down man-made Class 4s, when you can look up and see people zip-lining above you, when you can look out past the park and see the terrain of miles of trails...Long story short, USNWC is tucking amazing. Disney can kiss my ass, this is the Happiest Place on Earth.

Back to Tuckfest itself.

For 35 American you get yourself entry into ANY of the races you want. You want to run a Trail Half Marathon? Okay. You want to do a MTB Short Track too? Okay. You want to do a Sprint Adventure Race? How about a Kayak Race? Okay.

You get where I'm going. For $35 dollars you can do it all. 

Of course, you will need your own equipment for most of it. Duh. (Contact them in regard to rentals, I have no idea what, if any gear they may actually rent.)

Last year we got there on Friday night. I think it started Friday last year? This year it starts on Thursday. Regardless...the first event we did was the Twilight Adventure Race.
This wasn't your standard kind of AR, but we were still issued a map and told we had to find as many Checkpoints (CPs) as possible and be back by..whatever the hell time it was.
Our map took us on foot through many of the trails at the USNWC, gorgeous, hilly, un-carpeted singletrack. And all of our CPs were at different Obstacles stashed throughout the park. Hopefully I can get some pictures?
This race was really fun and different for the three of us. Our bud Daniel is lightning fast, but we still had to utilize the map to get from point to point. I'm still amazed they let me Navigate...

The next morning's' event was a Trail Half Marathon. I'm not going to get into too much detail except I heard they ran outta water (I had my own) and the race was 15 instead of 13. But who cares? The trails were awesome and I sure as shit wasn't going to win anyway.

After getting owned on the trails we spent the rest of the day drinking amazing beer and watching Daniel, who at the time was a pretty burly dude, try to hang with the skinny little guys at the bouldering area.

That's a pretty quick review of last years event. 2018 will be even better.  Unless noted, all pics are Lori's, mine or my wifes at Relentless Forward Commotion. I'm also feeling kind of Metal Head today, so expect sporadic links to tunes I like.

Hey whaddya know? Its still a three or four hour drive. Only this time its my wife, Daniel, Felicia, our buddy Lori coming all the way in from Boston and me making our way to McDowell, where I just barely secured us a campsite for this year. (Note: book sites early)

Tuckfest Day #1, Thursday.
The five of us had conversed over what exactly to do this first night. There was a Night Trail Race which was part of the Marathon Challenge, or there was the Twilight Obstacle Race. After a quick deliberation, we figured we can do a regular Trail Run any time and that Obstacle Race was really damn fun last year, so...Twilight Obstacle Race it was! 

We had a scheduled start time for 6:30 at the Ridge Pavillion. This is where most of our events would start and end. Hope I can find a picture...
We get to the race a little early, as you do, and were told that at 6:30 we could open our maps. MAPS!!! 
See, this isn't an OCR in the normal sense, this is half Adventure Race/half Obstacle Course Race. So you need to find your way to each Obstacle/Checkpoint and complete the obstacle before moving on to the next Checkpoint. And, there is no designated route. It's a Pick Your Own Adventure kind of thing. (As long as you were on foot, no bikes.) The winner of the race would be the team that collected the most CP's, thats Checkpoints, in the least amount of time.
As team captain, I really should have made my team call me "Cappy", I headed up to the start line to get my map and punch card, which is how race officials confirm you made it to the Checkpoints.

This post may be as long as my TransRockies Run review. Get a cup of coffee and settle in.

The 6:30 gun sounds and....we all gather around the map. Ya, you need to strategize how you're going to run your race. If you just randomly run from CP to CP, you end up with a bunch of wasted miles.

Where the hell is the wife? She must be over there.

As three of us had done the race before, we decided to go after some of the CPs we had missed the previous year.

All the Stars are CPs

Our first CP was at the Flat Water Dock. There was no obstacle here, just a quick punch, which Daniel took care of, then off to Jacobs Bridge.

I'm not the best Navigator and I need glasses to read. But the team decided I should be Nav and off we go running, water on our left side all the way to Jacobs Bridge. I wish I had a picture of that. Oh, I do. Thanks Heather.

Running more than one at a time made for a very bouncy time.

From there we wanted to hit the Obstacle Challenge. And your's truly found a great trail to bushwack right up to the CP, completely by accident.

This CP was really damn fun and quite challenging. It's technically a little kid Obstacle Course, but stuff designed for 4 foot kids weighing 80lbs is hard when your 190# Six Footer.
Here's a picture or two:

That's Felicia in the forefront, Lori to the right and me in the background.

Short Shorts often equal a rope burned crotch.

This could take all day. So let me just post a few more pictures of some the obstacles we did, and mention that I got us lost, then Heather got us lost and we probably added 2 extra miles to our legs. But who cares, we were having fun and we're training for a 50k, we need those miles. Here's those pics in no particular order:

Traverse Wall. We spent an hour in the dark last year trying to find this.

I call this the Ankle Smasher.

Night Time Obstacles are the bomb.

We had to be back to the Start/Finish by 9pm. We hit our last CP, a realllllyyyy sketchy Cargo Net at maybe 8:20  and decided we didn't have enough time for another CP. 

When we got back to the Start/Finish at 8:40we were pleasantly surprised to be told we were currently in Second Place! Hey!! Neat! We certainly didn't expect that. The hometeam guys have a huge advantage on this race!

We spent the next 20 minutes trying not to shiver too much, the temp really dipped when the sun went down, and trying not to get our hopes up.

But 9pm eventually came and hey! Here we are on the podium in a solid Second Place. 

We're on the left. The emcee said we smelled good. She lied.

We went back to camp shortly after getting our medals, it was pretty damn chilly at night. In fact, it hit a low of 39 that night.


Tuckfest Day #2, Friday.
I'm not going to remember everything. Tuckfest is awesome and there is soooo much going on. But I'll try to keep this in some semblance of order.

Four of us are doing the Half Marathon Trail Race. It doesn't start until noon so we spend the morning bumbling around the venue. Here's a picture of the Deep Water Solo Trials. I'm having hard time with words today, dehydrated probably. 

Always a crowd favorite. Bet that water was right cold at 10am.

Did I mention we had a 12 noon start? Kind of a weird time to start a race. We didn't wanna eat too much beforehand, but man, that's lunchtime.
Before the race actually started, La Sportiva put on a quick contest where the winners could get a new pair of shoes. This was a Last Man Standing kind of thing:

We didn't win.

This was a pretty cut and dry trail race. It was incredibly well marked as you'd expect a big operation to be. Although I did run with my Nathan VaporKrar there were two aid stations on trail with water and Powerade, no food.

This event was two loops of beautiful singletrack with great switchbacks, short climbs and plenty of roots.

You can't really see a lot of roots in this picture. Use your imagination though. They're there.

Long story short on this race: Like 95% of my races, I have a damn good time. I don't place, I'm not fast and I'm not competitive. And I don't care.
Here's another trail pic. Can you tell I really like these trails? They're not sandy and they're not carpeted. They're godamn awesome is what they are.

TRAIL!!!

After finishing this event we had a pow-wow on what to do next. 
Well, we decided to have beer and lunch. And this my friends, this is where the USNWC gets their money from you.
They have a shit-ton of good beer, draft and cans, and you're looking at six to nine bucks for a beer. Then if you want a veggie burger, add on another niner, then tax that shit and now a lunch for two is costing you forty bucks. 
All the racing may only cost you 35 bones, but if you wanna eat there for 2 or 3 days, you'd better start saving now.

Wife and Beer.

At this point the weather is perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, high sixties, no wind. Thank you Tuckfest for bribing Mother Nature for this weekend.

What's next for today?  I ran a 5k with Lori! This was to be her first "Trail Race" not first Trail, or first Race mind you, but first Trail Race. I was stoked to run with her, and I could almost immediately tell she runs in New England not Myrtle Beach as she'd put distance on me climbing all the damn hills!!

Why do my feet hurt after all this. Big deal, I've got about 23miles for the weekend so far, but my arches....hope I'm not injured. Gotta Swamp Stomp soon.

I think we went back to camp after this? But on the way we got a killer Salad Bar (Salad Bah is the right way to say it) at the local Harris Teeter. And yes, Harris Teeter is a grocery store, not a Hi-Fi Audio store, that'd be Harris Tweeter.

Tuckfest Day #3, Saturday.
Guess what I did? I sat around and drank beer. I leaned against a rock for hours on end with Lori just drinking beer and watching stuff. 
But my other friends all did shit!
Heather and Fe ran a Quarter Marathon Trail Race, and Daniel went to Bouldering lessons.
SO MUCH TO DO!
After my overachieving wife and Fe were done, the four of us hung out to watch Daniel try some White Water Paddle Boarding. Kudos to him, it's a beautiful day out, but I certainly don't want to get soaked and freeze my balls off.
He said it was pretty hard but quite fun. I believed him! That shit looked hard.

I want him to fall because he's good at everything.

We also watched this madman do crazy trials stuff on his seatless bicycle.

Another big crowd attraction, very impressive stuff!!

Eventually we all settled in one place where a couple of the rivers converge. This was a great place to watch the Bakers Dozen Kayak Race (Paddle Boards too!)
I don't know the full set of rules behind this race, but I think kayakers had to do 13 loops around the center while dodging other kayakers, SUPpers, and the White Water Rafts who must have had very clear instructions to fuck with the racers whenever they had the opportunity. It was really, really, really damn funny to watch rafts purposely bump into kayaks ( Disclaimer: I don't really know for sure the the Rafts were told to do this, but they did!!)

Some really great formatting with those pictures huh?
Do I have a video too?  
 Some of these pics/vids are from Lori who was kind enough to share a file drive with Heather and me. My camera sucks so I need any help I can get.

We spend the rest of the day watching various White Water Races and some of the Short Track Mountain Bike Race. I also made sure to get thoroughly sunburned.

We left the venue earlier this day, maybe five or six o'clock to get back to camp. And I gotta tell ya, there were thousands of people trying to get in to the USNWC to see the bands playing that night! Traffic was backed up for miles. I have no idea who was playing. I've determined that I really don't care for Bluegrass or Folk music or anything like that, but it seems to go hand in foot with this kind of scene. Which is actually a drag as I think Faith No More would really appreciate some stage time.

We went to a different Harris Tweeter for Salad Bah! I should have Fod Blooged that salad.

Tuckfest Day #4, Sunday.
8:30 AM Trail 5k!
I didn't do it.
My feet are now taped, and still hurting. Hell, I'm even limping a wee bit, so no 5k for me, but all my friends did it!

PRing a Pr!

After the 5k, Heather and I demo'd some bikes. We demo'd some multi-thousand dollar carbon fiber full boing Specialized bikes in fact. For FREE! We originally were going to go hit some of the easy trails...but ended up on some of the gnarlier shit where Heather still rode over everything in her way.

I'll get her racing one day.

Daniel did a Bouldering Competition. No pics for you.

Lori did some White Water Rafting and some of the Zip Lines, which cost a little extra but I was told is worth it.

That's quality photo right there.

Soooooo close to flipping!

Fukkin long innit?

Heather and I also went to an Outdoor Survival 101 Class, which was pretty damn cool. Did you know chapstick is flammable? Now you do, and we owe that knowledge to Eric at USNWC. We hope to get back there and take a Two Day Wilderness Safety Course.

Ugh, my traps hurt from typing and I think I have a blister on my right butt cheek from sitting. I should probably wrap this up and actually get some paying work done.

But allow me to conclude thusly: Tuckfest is tucking awesome.
For 35 bones you can race Trail Running, MTB and Kayaking, as much as you want. You can demo some kickass gear, you can take educational classes, you can buy gear at the pretty impressive Vendor Ave, you can watch those nuts get worked in the White Water or do some Yoga.
If you wanted to drop a little extra you can White Water Raft, Zipline, Flatwater Kayak etc. (Contact USNWC for more in depth deets.)
Plan on sinking some scratch in food and beverage and it's $6 per car, per day. UNLESS YOU HAVE A SUBARU! Yep, Subarus are free to park for Tuckfest.


I'm writing this on Monday, the day after getting back from Tuckfest. I've already hassled USNWC to see when next years event is. Its the weekend of 4-22. 
Hope to see you there doing some kind of awesomeness.

Tired, smelly, sunburnt and happy.

Thanks for reading!

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Product Review: Nathan VaporKrar 12L Men's Race Vest

I've been running with this pack for almost a year now. I'm not sure why the hell it took me so long to review it, but at least I've gotten some pretty good mileage into it now.

The pack is named after one of Nathan's sponsored elites, Rob Krar. I don't know anything about him, except he must be fast and probably has a beard.
But I can tell you about my experiences with his pack. And while you read this, why not listen to some Ozric Tentacles?

A post shared by Heather (Gannoe) Hart (@relentlessforwardcommotion) on Jun 19, 2017 at 2:00pm PDT

Not an Elite, no beard either.

As of this writing (3/18/18) the VaporKrar actually comes 2 sizes. A 4L and my 12L.
I can't tell you much about the 4L other than it has less storage and doesn't come with any kind of bladder. This review is for the 12L only.

Prior to this I'd been running mostly with the Camelbak Marathoner.



And I was pretty happy with that pack. I beat the piss out of it doing OCR's, snowshoe races, etc. That was a solid,sturdy pack.

But with that durability comes a cost. The fabric on the Camelbak was rather rough. I run with no shirt on, and that fabric would tear me up something nasty.

So when the opportunity came to pro-deal the Vapor, I did. 

This thing retails for around $175. I'm going to tell you this up front, no running pack is worth that kind of money. Holy shit! THAT IS SO EXPENSIVE. If you're fortunate enough to have lots of money to throw around on gear, then maybe. But still!

The nitty-gritty now:

I have a size XL. I'm about 6ft and between 175/190lbs depending on what the hell I'm doing. Look at the video up there, that's what I looked like 5yrs ago. But the XL fits me pretty damn well. (Always try on a FULL hydration pack before purchasing.)

There are 4 points of adjustment, one at each hip, the sternum and belly. The sternum and belly pull in opposite directions to keep overall tension square.
These two adjustments are attached to the vest on these slidey rod things.

I had to sew mine in place with dental floss to prevent them from sliding up and down.

Which is great for setting up the positioning, but not so great because the damn clips kept sliding up and down on those rods. A little needle and dental floss later, I solved that problem. (Always remove the bladder before modifying any hydration pack.)

With all the adjustments set, this pack sits pretty nicely, especially if you're using the provided bladder. And that is rather important, a standard bladder will have a tendency to slosh a bit more, where as the supplied bladder is specifically built. 

See that Hour Glass Shape? That will prevent sloshing.

< Hour Glass Figure

  Hour Glass Shape>

And there are also little baffles in the bladder to help prevent slosh. This bladder also comes with a hose quick release, making it easier to funnel the tube through the pack. The hose attaches to the sternum strap with a magnet (see Sternum strap in pic above).
There's a nice easy open top to this bladder too, making it easy to clean and add ice.
This bladder holds just less than 2L.

The fabric throughout the pack is soft. Nice and soft. However, it doesn't feel overly durable. I would recommend NOT rolling in the mud with this pack. The fabric felt cooler in summer heat than my previous pack and running with no shirt only makes for a few select raw spots, easily prevented with some applied Body Glide.

It gets real hot, real muggy here in Myrtle.

SO MUCH STORAGE!  Nathan says you can carry 12 Liters worth of shit in this pack, I believe it.
There are 2 pockets rib level on each side of the vest. You might be able to jam a standard water bottle into them, but you'd be much better off using the trendy new soft water bottles (Hydrapack). However a standard size celly or any race nutrition will easily fit in these pockets.
Each shoulder also has a zippered pocket, one with a whistle/key loop and smaller change pocket. I found these pockets ideal for carrying GU or sport beans, anything solid in these pockets didn't feel comfortable for me.
The back of the pack has a huge pocket for stashing whatever the hell you feel the need to take with you. There is no zipper on this pocket, but it's a great place to stash stuff you may want a team mate to grab for you while on the go.

Another quality picture. At least you can't smell the damn thing.

Beside that main pocket is another pocket. This one vertically zippered. Open this pocket up and there is a huge amount of storage and even another secure pocket which would also easily fit a celly.
Behind and above these two large pockets is another pocket accessible from the top of the pack. This one isn't huge but does offer a place to keep thing separated. I stash my Emergency Butt Paper in this pocket.
And of course there is the main bladder pocket. The bladder will be held in place with a Velcro loop and as mentioned earlier, you can route the house through the pack. Also worth noting is the fabric difference here. Between your back and the bladder is some different, still soft, perforated material. This is great for Carolina heat. Fill that bladder up with ice, and it'll keep you cool for bit. This fabric is also on the inside of the shoulder straps.
There is one more pocket, at the hip adjustment straps. This is an open horizontal pocket. I haven't used it yet, but it would be a great place to stash an readily accessible  jacket or extra pair of pants. 
There may even be some pockets I haven't found yet...

There are Trekking Pole attachments on the back of the pack.
But of course, I have ghetto poles that don't fit. So no picture for you.


There is some pretty decent reflectivity throughout the pack, but always have illumination when running in the dark.

Long story short. There is a shit-ton of storage in this comfortable pack. Thus the $175 price tag. 

I have run a ton of races in this. Some of them fully laden with supplies, H2O and nutrition. The pack does sway a bit on me. It's not ridiculously distracting, but I'd be a liar if I said it never swayed or bounced. 
But think about it! If you have 3.5lbs of water and another pound of food/gear with you, all strapped to your back, it's gonna sway a bit.
If you have your adjustments set, are using the fancy supplied bladder and pack your gear correctly...you can severely minimize any bouncing and bopping and shit.

Two things to note on this pack. The adjustment straps frayed a little. They seem to have stopped frayin, but this could be a huge issue. And they had that tendency to slip up and down on the adjustment bars. (See picture way up.)
The length of the tube from the bladder may confound some. I've known some people to cut the tube, I just re-routed mine through some sown in loops to prevent the tube from bouncing.

This is not an overall reflection on the pack or even really detrimental, but worth noting before purchase.

 And try as I might, I can't get the stink out of mine.

Here's a review on some similar shorts to what I'm wearing here.

Here then is my summary:
This is a great pack. It is awesome.
I still can't fathom the ticket price, but indeed there are a ton of features here.
If you need a pack to run far in, I'm talking 50k and better, because you need to carry food, water and gear, this might be a great option for you.
If you find you're mostly doing shorter or fully supported races, this might be more pack than you need.
I'll emphasize again to try this pack In Store. Bring your normal gear, fill the bladder up and try it IN STORE. Make sure you have the right size for you, and make sure this is the right pack for you.

Yep, there it is. A year later and there's my thoughts.
Thanks for reading.

Fod Blooging: Ghetto Wrap

I don't actually live in a ghetto. 
But as I'm sure you all know, my food budget does fall right into line with Section 8. So I make due with what food we can get.

Today I'm going to tell you about my Mac-n-Cheese Spinach Wrap.

Cheap and Easy. Just like me!

It's pretty easy and has very few ingredients. It is reasonably portable too, making it a good "Grab and Go" kind of food for my ghetto kind of lifestyle.

The main ingredient: Mac N Cheese.
There's directions on the box, follow those. 

Any brand of Mac N Cheese will work.

Second ingredient: Spinach.
Baby or regular, doesn't matter. Hell, you could even get fancy and use Arugula.

Everybody loves Spinach.

Final ingredient: Tortilla wraps.
Use flour tortillas. You're not really a glutard, you just say you are, and un-cooked corn tortillas taste like 80 grit sandpaper.

Just like Abuelos!

One of the key things of this recipe is to make 100% sure that you have cooked your Mac N Cheese. Using raw Mac would be pretty revolting I'd think.

So you've got your Mac all cooked up?  
Lay out your tortillas and put a nice bed of spinach on each, maybe a cup or so. Make sure not to just clump the spinach, spread it across the centerline of each tortilla.

Then you're going to dump on some of that Mac N Cheese. Again, probably about a cup or so, according to personal taste and how much you actually made.

Shown pre garnish/seasoning.

From here it's up to you on how you want to garnish/season. I like to add Black Pepper and Hot Sauce. But I bet Ranch would be good too.
Roll em up, and eat em!

I've had requests for pairings to go along with some of my Fod Bloogs. And I have a great pairing to go with this dish.
Since you may already have the Hot Sauce out, why not mix a shot of it with a shot of whiskey to make a Prairie Fire? 
I don't think a shot of Ranch mixed with a shot of whiskey would be very good at all.

Yep, there's another great bit of cuisine for you all. 
But I also would like to take quick second to share a Bad Housekeeping idea.

Why not use the wifes hairbrush as a soapdish?

I've asked her a million times to put her stuff away.

Thanks for reading!

Burn Out Sucks.

Burn Out is real. And it sucks.

There's an ailment called "Over Reaching" which typically starts before actual Burn Out. Over Reaching is similar to getting Heat Exhaustion before the Heat Stroke. 

Heat Stroke being Burn Out. 

Suuuucckkkksss.

But, ya know what, it's a gadamn fact of being an athlete.

The odds of Burn Out happening to any athlete are real. If you're dedicated to your sport, it's bound to happen. I suppose if you're a pro making millions a year it may be a little easier to avoid Burn Out. 

But if you're a paycheck to paycheck athlete, spending any extra cash, any extra time, any extra life on your sport, it's gonna happen.

First, lemme tell you the symptoms of Over Reaching/Burn Out. Because Burn Out, if left unattended, will probably cause not just injuries, but a hatred of something you once thoroughly enjoyed. You don't want either of those.

1) Lack of quality sleep. You need to sleep. Drinking yourself into black-out doesn't count.

2) Mood Swings. You probably don't need Prozac you mental prick. You may just need to chill the fuck out.

3) Not quite injuries, but shit just doesn't feel right. Knees ache, fingers falling off, hemorrhoids. Maybe you're sore all the time?

Or maybe you did fuck yourself up because your system is over stretched and now your femur is sticking out of your patella.

4) You throw up your hand yelling "I'm done!" That's a pretty strong signal there stupid.

5) Are you sick all the time? I mean ALL THE TIME. Maybe you're a hypochondriac, but maybe you're immune system is shot to hell because you won't slow down.

6) Loss of Motivation. This may be the easiest one to self diagnose. It is possible you're just a lazy shithead, but if something that was so enjoyable last week is now dreaded this week, it's possible you're burning out.

7) Is your performance suddenly going to pot? Can't finish that easy race? Can't screw the way you used to? Burn Out might be why.

8) Elevated Heart Rate. Sure having a fancy Heart Rate monitor makes this easier. But who the hell doesn't have one these days? Keep an eye on your Resting Heart Rate! 

9) You start spending Entry Fee money on Crack. 

Winners don't do drugs.  Except for steroids, you can do those.

I'm stopping at 9 symptoms. There's more, but these nine will suffice. If you're suffering from more than one of the above, you may need to address it. Especially number nine.

How to deal with Burn Out? (Think I can get 9 bullet points?)

1) Take a fucking break. It's really not a big deal. You have the rest of your life to do whatever sport you've been doing. Ya, FOMO sucks, but grow up and deal with it.

2) Find something else fun to do. Obvious? Seriously, just change sports. You may need to be careful of muscular burn out, but mentally this is great. 

Try a GORUCK if you want something different.

3) Smell the godamn roses!!!  Shit. Just enjoy being ALIVE for a change. Instead of constantly pushing and pushing and pushing...be thankful you have what you have.

We don't normally keep roses, this pic is a one-off from 2012.

4) But you can also look forward to the future! Yes, you need to be realistic, but look at some future goals or events you want to do and start making plans on how to tackle those goals.

5) Have more sex. This is probably the best cure to anything actually. Get off the bike, out of the kayak, off the mat, out of your running shoes or whatever,  just get out of your workout clothes in general. 

6) Instead of training or racing all the time,share what you know, share what you love. Help out other people that have similar goals and dreams. 

Try not to be a conceited dick about it though. 

My Mom and Sister are in both of these of pictures.

7) Remember that Burn Out is not forever. Learn to listen to your body and mind. Be prepared to start up again, but don't push the issue. You'll know when it's right time. 

I'm stopping at 7. My beer is empty and my pants are to tight to keep this up much longer. Remember #6. That's the best one.

But let me try to wrap this up, as you probably already guessed, I am burnt out on running. I've a few more races already in the schedule. I'm gonna do them, just not train for them. I can fake my way through a Half, and I'll just suffer for anything longer.

Burn Out may happen a few times in your life. And it's Ok! That means you pushed it as far as your body was (currently) capable of. Each individual has different capabilities and different cycles of those capabilities. If you take some time to deal with it, you may end up coming back stronger than before.

Hope this helps and thanks for reading.

Thoughts on Night Running

Running at night is one of the funnest things that I, personally, have ever done.

Sun's going down. Time for lamps.

Every trail feels new and unexplored. You don’t freak when you see hills. Easy trails become more challenging. The Sounds and Smells of the trail change, or there’s less traffic on the roads.

I fully encourage everyone to run at night.

Most of this applies to Ultra Trail Running, but much of it crosses over to any kind of night running. This does not encompass every aspect of night running. You are responsible for your own safety. 

Some things to consider, and of course, Safety First:

If you can, run with people. Preferably 2 or more. If something happens out there, somebody can stay with the injured party, and someone can go get help.

Bring a phone.

Safety Space Blanket!!! Especially you 24hr/100milers. Be prepared. There is a lot that can go wrong. Freezing to death should be avoided. Safety blankets weigh next to nothing. Stick one in the bottom of your pack and just leave it there. Heather and I used ours at our last Ultra. Trust me please. Pack a Safety Space Blanket.

Have an Illumination Plan: 

Make sure your lamps are charged a week out from the event, and again a day or two prior. This will give you time to get new ones/batteries if needed.

Ragnars:  You have at most 7-10 miles. For Road Ragnars you need a reflective vest, red rear blinky and a headlamp/handheld (double check the event page!) On race day you can run with your lamps on full power. Especially Road Ragnars, you want to be SEEN! Be as visible as possible. Trail Ragnars, you also should be able to go full tilt with lamps. Most lamps will go about 2hrs on full.

Ultra Runners: You need to either conserve or have back lamps/batteries at the ready. If there’s more than 2hrs between Aid Station/Drop Bags keep your beams on the lowest, yet safest setting. You may be in the dark for 10hrs. ALWAYS have some kind of back-up lamp. If you’re on a looped course or have drop bags you can strategize with switching lamps each loop/drop bag. Have your crew charge or replace the batteries in the lamp you just dropped. (If you’re extra ambitious, train with no lamps to get used to running in the dark.  Although you shouldn’t rely on it, the moon can create some excellent illumination.) Did I mention to always have a back-up lamp? Have one. And not your Cell Phone flashlight. You may need that for an emergency.

If you are planning on using Trekking Poles, you’re going to want Head Lamps! Trying to juggle trekking poles with handheld lamps is just not a good idea.

This is more than a few hours into the Knock on Wood Hundred Miler.

Watch where you’re stepping. I like to run real close behind Heather.☺ But at night your vision changes and shadows really come into play. Give the runner ahead of you some space (this also prevents them from being confused by your lamps) so you can fully see the trail ahead of you, and you won't land on them when you trip.

Pick those feet up! You’re going to miss something and trip over it. A root, rock or curb, something. Try to keep a nice light step.

If possible, use two kinds of lamps simultaneously. Some lamps cast more of an ambient light and others cast a focused beam. I currently sport ambient on my head and focus in a handheld. This allows me to see both what’s directly near me and use my handheld to see further up trail and point objects out to those behind me.

Photos are also different at night.

Sounds are different at night. There are different creatures stirring in the dark. Most of them are afraid of you. Avoid the ones that aren’t.

Keep a first aid kit in your pack or car. You’re going to eat it at some point. Try not to bleed out.

Don’t do speed work on a trail at night. Find a track. A nice illuminated track.

Unless directed otherwise by race officials, always run AGAINST traffic.

Back up lights, got them yet?

If you are on the road, there is no such thing as too much illumination. Reflectors or lamps on the feet and hands are especially effective.

Even trail runners should have some reflectivity as well as illumination.

If you can’t find people cool enough to Nite Run with you and you must go solo:

1. Tell somebody where/when you’re going and what time you’ll return.
2. Bring any and all safety items with you, especially a Whistle and Safety Blanket.
3. Have that back up light I keep talking about.
4. Have enough food and H2O, as well as some form of ID 

There’s a huge variety of lamps out there. I’ve run with a bunch of different ones.  $15 Walmart lamps to $60+ Nathans. They all have their pros and cons. If you have buddies that’ll lend you some stuff, try it out. If you like their gear, buy the same stuff. That way you can swap batteries, straps, etc as needed. If you need recommendations I can tell you what exactly what I've used. Reflective vests are cheap.

I hope you enjoy night running.!

A "Thank You!"

Most of our local, and many of our non-local, friends knew that the wife and I were going through some pretty severe financial shit over the past few months.
 We'd both just been fired from the same job, and we don't have any kind of savings account to draw from.
 Our unemployment was denied. 
 We've one car between us and need to feed anywhere from 8 to 10  different mouths every day (Two athletes, two cats, three bunnies, one fish and every other week we've Heather's bilge rats).
 I won't bore you with too much sob story, but shit was getting pretty rough.

 Over the last couple of weeks though, things started going upward again:

 Heather got a job at American Fitness as their Head Personal Trainer, a job she's most qualified for and she thoroughly enjoys.

Our Run Coaching business is going well and I'm taking on more of that. I will get re-cert'd as a Personal Trainer soon, and perhaps get my Level 3 USAC Cycling Coach Cert also.

 I've started taking both Welding and Pharm Tech classes which are both state sponsored. (Love my liberal friends!!)


 We've gotten our wimpy, scrawny runner bodies back in the gym.

South Carolina Ultra Marathoners, Skinny Confused Ultra Marathoners.

 The days are getting longer.

 We started a working relationship with Eagle Endurance. And we also became official SCUMbag Ambassadors (that's South Carolina Ultra Marathoners for you non-runners).

Except at Frozen Hell Hole, had there been a bell, I woulda rung it.

SCUMbag works for me on a couple of levels.

 We've realized again and again that we're perfect for each other. On soooo many levels. And we still boink like newlyweds.

       (Insert your own imaginative picture here)

 We rescued Mommy Bunny. :)

So cute,. But bunnies will destroy your life!!!

 Things aren't exactly what most people would call great, but Heather and I are about back up to our normal standard of living. We can afford soap. We might have pancakes with blueberries instead of just pancakes, or semolina pasta instead of rocks. 
You get the idea.

 So anyway, we had a lot of people stand by us during this shit, some visibly and verbally, and some quietly and behind the scenes. You know who you are!! :)
  I really want to thank you all so fucking much. We're not completely out of the woods yet (NO pun intended, I like the woods), but you all got us through the hardest times.
  Until we can afford to take you all out for beer and food, I look forward to camping, hashing, running, racing, laughing, and all that shit, with all of you!!!

 Thanks for reading, sorry about the sappy-ass post. It's raining out and I'm feeling introspective. 
 Now I think I'm going to play some Gears of War and drink a beer or two.