Chickens

Well I haven't been running since last Wednesday. I left to go home to my Dad and Mom's house on Thursday and they came back with us on Monday. I can't go during the day because I would fell guilty about not spending time with them but I can't get up early and go because my Dad gets up at 0500 - and me - to go out and get coffee. In Galax we go to Aunt Bee's where his friends are waiting. Here in Pittsburgh we go to the nearest McDonalds where he has also made friends. As much as I love running I wouldn't trade it for the hours that I spend with my Dad over a hot cup of coffee. Anyway I guess you are wondering about the Chickens Title. Well here's my story:

My wife and I was visiting my Aunt Mary and Uncle Benny on Friday the 23rd when she mentioned that she would have to go up to my Great Uncle Reece's to move his chickens. First a little background on my Uncle Reece. He is a 88 year old bachelor farmer who has lived alone for almost 40 years since my Great Grandmother died. Below is a photo of Uncle Reece and my mother.

During those years he raised tobacco, hogs, cattle, and bees. His house is way, way back in the woods. You come off of a small two lane highway onto a dirt road which you follow for about five miles before you turn off onto another dirt road for another 5 miles. You then turn up his driveway and if you don't have a four wheel drive with enough clearance then you walk a half mile to this house. Below is a photo of his house and farm near Sparta NC.

His house is an old farm house which hasn't been painted in years. He now has a refrigerator but up to about five years ago he used a spring house. He has running water which is gravity feed into the kitchen. He is now down with emphysema and doesn't get around as good as he used to. My Mom and her sisters goes up on a regular basis to visit and help him - hence the chickens.

While at my Aunts she said that something had scared Uncle's chickens out of their house and they had roosted onto his porch. He is unable to take them back so she said that Aunt Nancy and her would go up later and do it. I said that I would help if she would do it that night. It was agreed so I went home and got my Dad who went with us. We got up there with my Uncle's four wheel drive and got ready to grab the chickens. For those of you who don't know, chickens roost at night and are easy to catch then. You just reach up and grab them around both legs and stick them into a sack. We got nine off the porch and there was two more in the barn that we had to get. My Dad had to climb up a little to grab those two. It is unbelievable how load chickens can be when you grab them. Dad says you would be load too if someone grabbed you out of bed by your feet while you were sleeping and dumped you into a sack. I guess he has a point.

When I get a chance I'll post the video.

New Shoes

Last night I went to bed excited that tomorrow was supposed to be in the fifties and cloudy which is perfect running weather for running the trails at Racoon Creek State Park. The best part was that it is winter so there is no overgrowth of weeds or briers to run through and no annoying insects such as deer flies and sweat bees.

Another reason to be excited was that I had a new pair of trail shoes to try. The best trail shoes that I've ever had are New Balance 706. They are light with not much cushion so you feel like you are wearing moccasins. You can actually feel the trail and there is nothing like flying downhill on a single track trail, dodging rocks, roots, and low hanging tree branches. When I'm running like that I can plot out my feet placement four and five steps ahead.

Anyway, back to the shoes. My wife recently started running again after an hiatus of over one year. She is now up to three miles and wants to run the IKEA Half Marathon. Sometimes it is hard to convince inexperience runners the importance of a good quality, properly fitted running shoe and my wife is no exception. I finally kidnapped her and took her to our local running store (Elite Runners & Walkers) for a new pair shoes for Christmas. As the sales clerk was fitting her I wondered over to the trail shoes to see what was new. The New Balance 921's stood out and I started to question the sales clerk about them. It seems that they are made for winter running in snow and ice. The most noticeable thing about these shoes is that they have removable spikes for ice and snow (details about the shoe can be found here: NB 921. After trying them on and feeling how good they felt on my feet I had to get them, plus what better time to get new shoes since my wife was getting hers. I did upgrade the spikes from the plastic ones that came with it to steel ones.


I arrived at the parking lot by the lake at 0715 and after a quick stretch I started out. For some reason I felt kinda of tired and sluggish. My legs felt heavy and I was contemplating on just doing a half loop of ten miles. I figured that I would wait until I came to HWY 18 before I made my decision. That would be the point that I would either turn and make a half or keep going and do the whole 20. When I arrived there I decided to keep going, hoping that I would start to feel better. I'm glad that I did because right about the eight mile mark I started feeling better.

I ended up finishing with a PR of 3:47. I've never ran it faster then 4:15 before. I have no idea why I ran it faster today. I didn't feel as if I was running faster then I had before. The shoes may of help a little but definitely not enough to take off 30 minutes. Anyway the shoes performed outstanding. I didn't use the spikes because there was no need, plus they would have taken a beating on the rocks. Even without them the shoes had outstanding gripping ability. I ran them through mud, up and down steep hills, and over loose leaves, and not once did they slip. A couple of times I came up on mud covered by leaves and had to make a quick move to the side of the trail. They never failed to grip. I also tested them on wet logs, wet and moss covered rocks, and did not slip.

In review, these shoes are great for technical single track trails. As I said above the gripping ability of these shoes are outstanding. They also are water resistant but the one time that I got got them really wet, they had no trouble drying out quickly. In other words they did not hold water. They were also firm with very little role to them so my ankles felt find afterwards.

I would not; however, recommend them for road use and they would be a bit of over kill for a rails to trails type of trail unless it was covered with snow or frozen ice. It that case they would be perfect. All in all I am really happy with these shoes.

Decisions

I'm finally back from my injury. On Sunday I ran 14 miles at a pretty quick pace and felt no discomfort so I'm looking forward to a good year. Last night right after work I did a quick three with a friend of mine. It was a good run and we spent the time complaining about work. It's the best form of therapy. The weather was a warm 44 degrees and because I didn't have shorts I ran in my boxers. They turned out to be better then any running shorts that I own. I wish a company would come out with running boxers shorts. The freedom was awesome and it was probably the closest thing to running naked that you can get with out actually doing it.

My only problem is that I'm torn between two races. I'd really like to give the Laural Highlands 70 mile Trail Race a try. It is a small local race, plus it is single track trail which is my favorite. I'm also being drawn toward trying a 100 mile race. I'm looking at the Mohican 100 for a couple of reasons. Once is that it is close to Pittsburgh - compared to the others - and two I had a friend do it last year. I can't do both because they are within 1 week of each other. For enjoyment I'd rather do the LHTR but I really feel the need to test myself by doing a 100. For me, 100 miles is the Mount Everest of ultrarunning and I really can't consider myself a true ultrarunner until I crest that summit. The question is, do I do it this year or put it off another year? I really don't know. After writing this I think I've made my decision...I'm doing the LHTR. I think I would enjoy it more. The best thing about ultrarunning is competing with yourself and doing what you enjoy most, otherwise, why do it at all?

Old Movies

Today I really didn't want to get up and go running. It would have been really nice to just lay on the couch and watch TV. Sunday mornings is the best time for old movies and I love the old ones. Those were the days when you had to rely on story and not special effects and color. Too many movies today try to smother the audience with loud and over the top special effects to over shadow a poor story line. I love everything about old movies espicially those from the 40's and 50's. I like the way they dressed, the cars they drove, even the way they spoke.

Some of my favorites have H. Bongart in them. Two of the best one's are "They Drive By Night" , "High Sierra", and of course "The Cain Mutiny". I also like Frank Sinatra in "Suddenly" and one of my favorite movies, "From Here to Eternity

As to running, I finally dragged my lazy behind out the door and started my run. As usual I was glad that I did before I even made the first mile. It's just taking that first step out the door that's difficult. Instead of driving to the parking lot by the trail I decided to run there. It is just a tad over one mile from my house to mile marker 6. The only bad thing about running there is that there is a big hill at the very end on the way back. I ended up running to the mile marker six on the Montour Trail and then down to mile zero and back again which gave me 14 miles. I had originally planned on running a quick ten, but felt so good that I changed it to 14.

The temperature was in the mid thirties so I wore shorts with two long sleeve running shirts. It was cold at first but I warmed up by the first mile. It turned out to be a beautiful morning with very little cloud cover and wind. The run went well and I had no trouble with my knee. I ran it at a faster pace (nine minute) then I normally do for a long run. The only thing of note was that I passed a group of runners going in the opposite direction, obviously a running group.
I didn't know that there was any local running groups. I wonder who they were. I should have stopped and asked them. Next time I will.

Quite Time

I was supposed to run a long run today but my knee is still bothering me from Friday's run to work. I pretty sure it is my iliotibial band so I'm in rest mode right now to give it a chance to recover. Because I couldn't run, I had to find some other way to occupy my quite time. Quite time for me are the morning hours up to 10 o'clock on weekend when the wife and kids are still sleeping. I ended up watching a movie but during commercials I would get up and watch the birds feeding at my bird feeders.

Feeding and watching "my" birds is something I enjoying doing. Almost every morning I'll peek outside to see what birds are feeding. I've decided to list the types of birds that visited my backyard this morning.

I saw the following:

• Red Bellied Woodpecker
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Goldfinches
• Mourning Doves
• House Finches
• Northern Cardinals
• Robins
• White Breasted Nuthachs
• Black-capped Chickadees
• Tufted Titmouse

Sometimes I'll have Blue Jays but didn't see any today. I like all of them except for the doves. Those things don't know when to stop eating. I know that all animals need to eat, but I can hardly afford to feed them. Some mornings I'll have four or five eating from my feeder. I can fill up my feeder on Sunday and by Tuesday it's empty. Anyway the other birds makes it worth the cost.

I added a feeding sack filled with nyjer (thistle) seed which is supposed to be just for finches. Sure enough I had five Goldfinches trying to feed off of it at the same time. They loved it. The other birds took turns at the regular feeder filled with sunflower seeds. Even the Red-bellied Woodpecker would come down and take his turn. I think that he is the most beautiful of the bunch. He eats like the Chickadees. He'll come down, grab a seed, and fly away to a tree to eat it. I think I'll put out a cake of suet for him and see how he likes it. I'll let you know.

What to Wear

This morning I ran to work for the first time since the race. I got up early this morning but spent a lot of time debating on what to wear. The weather forecast was pretty bad. Winds in the 40 - 60 range, lots of rain, and a drastic drop in temperature - from 65 this morning to 35 this evening.

If I just wore a short sleeve shirt and shorts what would I do if it started raining or worse what will I wear on my run home this evening when the temperature dropped. I finally decided to go with the short sleeves and shorts and worry about this evening when it got here.

It was pretty a decent run but was nothing like Sunday's. I wore a new orange vest since most of my run would be in the dark and it kept slidding off my shoulder and I had to keep pulling it back up. This was very distracting. I think I will sew some washers to the bottom of it to keep it from blowing around. The weather turned out to be very nice, just a little wind and a few sprinkles of rain to keep me cool. The only problem was that I was more tired then normal. My legs felt like they were lead and the hills were more tougher then usual. I'm not sure if it was because I hadn't run that much recently or if it was because I didn't get a good night of rest. I need to kick the cat out of bed but just can't bring myself to do it. Anyway I made the 9.5 miles here in 1.23 or approximately an 8:44 pace. Not too bad - at least not for me anyway.

As I write this my left knee is a little stiff and has a little pain on the left side of it. I'll probably not run this weekend like I planned but give my knee some rest. Hopefully it's not the start of something serious. I've been very lucky this year with no injuries. Hopefullly my streak will continue into the next year