In awe

Author: Antin

  • Day364 normal

    The day has been normal. Couple things: The guy who needed pacing for the Shenandoah run declined my help.

    I was excited for a night run and it will be challenging as I have checked the weather and nigh time temperature…It is not something I would do for ‘fun’. The night can drop to near freezing 35 F and day time can rise to 70 F (sweating temp for running). I did a test run last weekend and I know. Plus there will be some rain at night. Not good.

    Distance wise too, I was kind of stuck with all my friends being away for the long holiday, so if I do it, there is no one to pick me up after the run and I have to run back to the car. I am looking at 50-60 miles run in less than ideal situation.

    It would be on the mountain, which mean I get less support in term of food and water etc. There are creeks and couple way sides (places to buy food), however, most of the route is remote! It is a stress on the logistics if without a friend to refuel you at key places. I was not worry on the way out, since the dude has his support team and I could ‘borrow’ them, but on the return trip, I would be by myself and I would be screwed if I messed up (like out of food/water/twisted my ankle etc).

    Lastly and most important is I am the pacer, which mean I manage the clock. As I know when I am racing, clock management is a lot of work. I would have to know precisely where I am at and fast and far to go. It is like solving dozen equations in your head all the time. That the reason people have pacer toward the end of the race when fatigue sets in. I think I am up to the task, but that is a heavy of responsibility! It means I need to totally familiar with the trail (a lot of map studying). I actually started doing it yesterday and already was solving equations ahead, even while sleeping. I could write more about this…It is because our time system of using base 60 is a pain in the butt. You constantly have to convert the time between hour to minute to do the calculation!

    I was both disappointed in being declined for the help but at the same time relieved.

    Good luck to the man and his team.

    He did get me started to plan for my own one day running through the entire Shenandoah on the Applachian Trail. It is 107-110 miles. So I already have a bit of work done.

    I forgot what is the second thing I want to write about…probably not as important. I will leave that to another post.

    Basically my weekend is free. When is our long weekend? Is it next week?

  • Day363 poles etc

    There were a few things I wanted to write for a long time but usually some other things got the spot.

    I met couple ultra guys in Pa during the summer and one of them uses poles on his runs. I have been thinking of doing the same.

    I follow a Youtuber, he said he started using poles when he realized all the top finishers of ultra races use them.

    So yesterday I packed a pair of trekking poles. They were ultra light weight that I happened to found being left on the trail on a trip I did couple years back. I was pretty sure someone forgotten them…and not just leave them to be picked up at a later time, you know runners often do if they do loops on a trail. The poles were left at least more than one day, and might have been a week or more. This was before Covid, nowaday, I don’t touch other people’s stuffs with all the germs.

    My Pa friend said I have to practice with the poles because they get heavy during the run. Yesterday I did 22 miles and by halfway I had to put them away. Today, I woke up, my upper arms and shoulders were slightly sore. My goodness. These things do affect your body.

    I have been thinking if I will use them in my 100 mile race. The course is not technical. There are some hills but nothing of a 1000 ft climb. I think poles are not needed. But if I decide to use them, I need to start training with them to build those muscles.

    Relating to poles, I also wanted to write about socks and underwear. I wear whatever I can find in my drawers and have been making noobie mistakes. The biggest one was during my summer 100 miles attempt. I got pretty bad blisters on both feet. It was the shoes too but socks were part to blame. I have not done an indeep research on what kind of socks I should be wearing.

    I like the thick wooly kind. Walmart socks were really bad. I brought some that said to have thick cushion, for all day factory workers, EMT and such. They were junk. After several washes they were no longer thick and cushy.

    Similarly I got bad chaefing from bad underwear. It is better not to wear any. Usually first 10-ish mile it does not matter. Longer distances, I start to feel the cut and burn for the repetitive rubbing. I have to look into having the right clothing. I use to put lube and stuff the first year before my runs, but now I am a bit lazy. I only put balm on afterward to soothe the burn.

  • Day361 busy

    As you might have guessed, I have been busy the last few days with the boring stuff of life called work.

    Now things are picking up, I better write before being steam-rolled by all other things.

    First, I am debating whether to run the JFK50 this year. I did it last year and at the time it was the hardest race I did. I trained a year for it. Now looking back, ehh, it was not that hard. The race was mostly flat! and boring miles after miles on the C&O Towpath.

    What make me want to do it? It is a race with tons of miles. I think I like that a lot.

    While thinking about it, a local race organizer posted that they were approved for the Stone Mill 50 miler. This actually have been a race I wanted to do a long time before I even heard of the JFK… well I kind of lie there. But I know both JFK and Stone mill at about the same time.

    JFK and Stone Mill is not even in the same category. They are both 50 miler but JFK is like 10 to 100 times more famous, but the Stone Mill is much smaller scale, which means less expensive. JFK current price is 300 squids. Stone Mill I am hoping for a third of that.

    Where I got off? Ya, so I would like to do the Stone Mill Race.

    I haven’t signed up either of them. Still waiting.

    Now, weekend! I plan to do some trail run this weeking. I have a big plan.

    I am getting in touch with another runner who is planning to run through Shenandoah. I volunteed to be his pacer. I hope to catch him around 50-60 miles, and we will do the rest together. It is still a planning stage, but I am so excited about it.

    I still have a few things to say, but I am getting sleepy. They will be left for future posts.

  • Day360 music

    The pastor’s message last Sunday got me into some reflections this week. I guess that usually is a good thing when a message resonates. I missed those days, when I would just sit at the back of the church with me half dozing off and let the message comes and would go out later in the night to run and see how it help me with my running. Corona time really affected my running somehow because I can’t really doze off in my own house while virtually worshipping. It just won’t work. I would go into deep sleep instead. So many of my runs were ruined. And usually online worship is too short by the time I woke up from my dozing or deep sleep and it was all over. I am thinking it is really the second doze that helps.

    This time the message was not about running. Usually I don’t listen to music when I run. No ipod and I don’t want to waste battery on my phone since usually my run lasts a long long time, I need every once of battery on the phone for emergency and there is just no luxury for music.

    The sermon if you have guessed was on music, specially on church music (worship music). The church I attended just came out their own hymnal (song book). I haven’t gone to church for a long time, and I thought who would still use hymnals. I thought songs normal are shown on the screen.

    In this corona time, I am not touching any hymnal. Who know how many other hands have touched it. I didn’t realize though until the very end of the night the pastor said, if you want to take it home, you may for this week. They are new and they are yours for free and you don’t have to bring it back next week. They will have more. I didn’t take one since I don’t go to that church often. I only go there because I miss the morning worship and they have night worship. I can’t read music any way so it does not do me any good to take a song book home. If there is a digital copy though I would have downloaded one. But it is a freaking book. They made it slim though, which is good. I have seen song books over 500 pages. This is probably a third or a fifth of that.

    The whole evening message was a history (modern history) on church worship music. I am not sure the period but probably from 80’s to the present, where “CCM” came on scene and churches ditched hymns and switched to CCM (Contemporary Christian Music – and now there is a new term CWM, Contemporary Worship Music, an offshoot). It was a defense why this church now sticks to singing hymns.

    I grew up around CCM. I used to go a chinese church. We had a split congregation where the traditional side would sing hymns (traditional church music) and the younger folks like me would sing the more modern sounding songs (we younger folks have the youth worship/and it was all in English). I never was able to tell the difference or reason why we were doing so. I thought just we wanted to be cool. Music is music to me. I was part of the worship team for a time too and had my say in what songs to sing. I never picked hymns. We had all kind of trainings, music, theology, etc. However, never occured to me why we were singing the songs we sang and how they came to be. It was just songs the adults side did not sing. I guess they were ‘kid’ songs. We were the first generation to have our own worship and we hired the first youth pastor at our church. So very early on we already settled with singing the modern songs over hymns. Now looking back and thinking, “what have I done!”

    At this church service last Sunday, I got exposed to the whole history. I wonder what the churches used to sing before the CCM movement? I was born right into it so did not see the shift. Apparently there were Christian artists that wanted to make “Christian” music that sounds similar to secular music. There was a market for it. I grew up listening to a Christian radio station in my area. I like those music a lot. The business people wanted to expand the market to the church too to gain a bigger market. The church people also wanted the cooler songs they heard over the radio.

    At the same time, there were several churches that also produced their own music. Their music caught on around the world (e.g. Hillsong from Australia).

    We came to a point now almost all the churches now are playing the contempory style of music in worship.

    The main argument of the night was that hymns are poems put into music and contempory music are not. Poetry has much stricter forms and so their message are more deeper. The music is transcendent. Chorus is a modern invention. CCM has iffy theology and listeners are being brainwashed (my take, the pastor didn’t say this, but that what I felt it was hinted at) – He commented that we don’t recite the apostles’ creed five times over in his sermon, we shouldn’t sing a chorus 5 times in a song. Singing a hymn is effective in conveying some very complex truths – the example of “double cure” for double inputation of righteousness was used.

    Well why this long post? I haven’t brought music for a long time at least 5-6 years. The sermon prompted me to buy some. What are people singing or listening nowaday? I usually buy compilation because I am just too lazy to make my own playlist. And I realized there was not a worship CD from the WOW Hits people since 2010. Ten years!

    So I was researching for a CD to buy last night. Guess what? Justin Bieber Holy is the number 1 hit in Christian music. I was doing a double take there. I have heard of Kayne West but now Bieber too! I’m not judging, but I didn’t know he makes Christian songs. I can see so many people at my church is going say, we are not singing that.

    I am going back to listening to classical music 🙂

  • Day359 random friday?

    I will just leave a bunch of stuffs here. Never mind I usually do that any way.

    I signed up for a marathon! Not going to say it for fear of jinxing it. But yes there is a real marathon! There will be social distancing and stuff. I signed a waiver saying I won’t sue if I got Covid19 from it. I am excited. Yet just like Rock N the Knob I have to stay quiet! There are spots left…People if you are reading this go sign up. It is a real race except I try not to be too hyped about it.

    Did I finish the report for Rock N the Knob?

    I had this plan you know – I need a lot of miles and now my workplace has moved closer to where I live, it only takes me 45 mins to get to work instead of 1:20 min, I am thinking of running to work.

    I haven’t planned it out yet. This is likely what I want to do. Take the bus in, and then run home at the end of the day. I am looking at a 18-20 mile run. It is doable. I get home before midnight.

    My training also is calling for a night run. Someone on a local cycling group posted a 70 mile route in my area. I kind of want to try it. I have done part of it over the summer when I went for a out-and-back 60 miles. This is a loop course, so I want to try it one Friday night. My workplace is nearest to the trail head, so I am thinking of driving to work and leave my car there then head for the trail at the end of the work day and run 70+ miles. I should be done by Sunday and either sleep in my car or attempt to drive home in the wee hours. One of the problems I could think of is will they let me leave my car at work over the weekend? It would be a bummer at the end of my 70 mile run and my car is no longer there and have to run another 20+ miles home.

    Laurel Highland race is this weekend (Tonight actually) for those who are doing it. They will get to the bus stop by 3 in the morning. I already defered my entry. Still I wanted to attempt a 70.5 mile run this weekend. I know it won’t be as hard as the Laurel run since there won’t be any elevation here in the city. But this weekend is pretty booked. I got work being spilled over (end of the fiscal year). I really want to do the run though even if it is a local run.

    Yes, I need to focus on my rocky raccoon training. Week 1 is over and I have done about 13 miles so far.

    remind me – I need to get a training plan in place.

  • Day358 Life

    This might have been the longest pause from journaling since I went on vacation last year. Life has been busy but things are pretty much the same under the coronavirus time.

    I am no longer working from home. We still have the option, but I chose to go in. I found it was better to go back into the office and I got my parking and office key. I started last week. The reason why I like to go into the office was it brought my life somewhat back to normal with a set schedule for work and a better work/home split. Still sometimes, work gets spilled into my home life. However, it is much better to have structure of a 9-5 for work day and then afterward, it is home life.

    I and couple others are at the office (3 of us). I sit at one end and the other at the other end. The third came in like once a week and he sits somewhere in the middle (we are like a triangle). There is a bit elevated risk of catching the coronavirus by going in. But I think the risk is not that high compare to what I am already doing; it is all around us.

    I went to church the first time the past weekend because my friend invited me. I asked what I have to do like do I have to preregister before going (some churches are doing that for contact tracing/better anticipation of the crowd), and I asked if a mask was required (I asked because I didn’t have one). I have been using disposable ones and they finally ran out. I ordered some (500) over Amazon in August for my Atlanta trip, however they never came. I got the money refunded back. I felt it was a scam so I have not brought any new masks since. Still happy to have my refund processed. Almost thought I won’t be seeing it again.

    So for my friend’s sake I stopped by a CVS store and got a reusable cloth one and it was expensive! Anyway, I walked into the church, and voila, wearing mask was optional.

    I respect the people there. They are moral and upright and respectable people. But they mix politics in wearing masks, which I see as a health issue and I was disappointed. I think a third of the people did not wear a mask. The pastor and his worship team did not wear masks. I get it, a mask might make it hard to speak clearly since many of us look at visual/facial cues in speeches – yet of the four member music team only one person was actual singing – the other three wearing a mask would not hinder them, but they chose not to. They did maintain social distancing on stage. Anyway, that is my rant. In the back of my head, I kept recalling the incident of a choir practice where many got infected with the corona.

    I did not stay after worship but high tailed out the place. Many people gathered to socialize inside afterward. Nope, not for me. Yes, going to church is optional. If I don’t feel safe I don’t have to be there. I probably won’t step in a church until next year.

    My take is how can people be so ignorant or stubborn over wearing masks? I feel people made it into a political issue rather than a health issue. I can’t wrap my head around them. 100% of those refused are Republicans. Church somehow draws so many republicans. The issue is beyond right/wrong. It has become a farce.

    Back to what I am doing…I enjoy driving to work each day. I like the traffic. I am probably one of the few people who do. I felt that extra hour in the morning stuck behind traffic really help me solve some of the insolvable problems in my life…I am talking about times for day dreaming. You can’t daydream while sitting at home I found out.

    What else? I signed up for the Rocky Raccoon for those who read my comments in the previous entry already knew.

    I will be doing it – my first attempt at a 100 mile run. I ran twice unsuccessfully but this is a real race and not virtual, so there is more at stake.

    I am no longer scared thinking about it. I will train and trust my training. I felt I have gotten stronger. I am not there yet. I am not as tough as last year…or as strong. I felt my performance has decreased a lot, yet it was not crippling like when I had the Lyme disease.

    I felt I am sick or defective somehow and I have not able to put a finger on what is wrong with me. Yes it probable easier just go to the doctor and has them run a test. I am suffering a bout of lightheadedness /vertigo. I feel fine if I go running but when I am home or at work, my head is spinning. It is not severe but a hint of things floating. Yes I need a new pair of glasses too. Anyway, at one point I was suspecting Lyme disease again or it could be covid, but I have this thing for weeks now, might have been a month. I should see a doctor to have it checked out.

    Readers you probable don’t like this. Since signing up for my race in Texas (yes corona land I call it), I have been rooting for Prez Trump to win a second term. Why? I hope he would not interfere with my race in Texas. Biden if he wins, he probable would not either, but I get a sense he might enact tougher measures on traveling and events that attract many people.

    How can I be so selfish right? I do care about stopping the corona but I do want my race! Its my freedom even if I have to travel to Texas to do it. I know I just made the same argument that people at the church I attended made when they refused to wear a mask.

    4 months. We will see.

  • Day357

    I did not get into Umstead. Looking for another race to attempt.

    I am thinking of Rocky Raccoon or C&O Canal 100. Both races have about the same difficulty. Rocky Raccoon I can register now. Registering for C&O Canal has not opened yet.

    C&O is near my house and easy to get crew or pacer support. Rocky is in Texas and hours away from the nearest airport! I have not traveled that far for a big race. Yes for Marathons but this is more than a marathon.

    A quiet weekend this week. Woke up late typically. Want to train but many things needed my attention. Feeling guilty if I go out and run the whole weekend. Nice fall weather though. Maybe will go and run.

  • Day355

    After doing the RTK race, coming back to do my usual local run is too easy. Tonight I was flying through the run almost effortlessly.

    I’ve gotten stronger. This was the first sign after a month of training that things are going in the right direction.

    My Strava is telling me I ran my fastest half marathon so far, 2:38:11. I hope to bring it down some more. I hope to get down to my personal best of under 2 hrs.

    The run felt great. It has gotten much cooler in the evening. I felt a bit cold at the final two miles.Winter is coming.