Limbo

How Low can you (or I) go?  As I mentioned, i'm now on a two hour per week training schedule.  I'm getting lots done on the non-profit and spending good quality family time with Tammy and the boys as well.  The workouts are actually going great - the last four have all been pretty top quality in terms of intensity and perceived effort.  At this point i only have a few potential concerns - 1) what i call 'sudden use injury', and 2) how i'm going to craft my training when i add paddling to biking and running.

Sudden use injury, a term i've just coined (does this count as a protologism? is protologism a word?  If not, then doesn't that count?) - refers to the possibility of injury from beginning intense exercise without a proper warm up.  I'm not too worried - it's not as if i'm trying to bench 200 pounds without warming up - exerting extreme stress on cold muscles.  But i do notice a bit of creakiness when i start my runs at a warm-up tempo that's not what most people consider a warm up, or spin for only two minutes on the bike at 160 watts before launching into a 90 second interval at 300+.  If it stays as creakiness, then all will be well.

Adding paddling will be another matter entirely, and i'm not sure how to do it.  I am impressed at the quality of the minutes i'm exercising - not one is ever really wasted.  Since i'll mainly be focused on paddling technique this summer (establishing it - apparently i don't have any) i think initially two 15 minute sessions will suffice.  This will leave time for a 30 minute tempo or longer interval workout in running and an hour tempo workout in biking (or vice versa).  I'm committed to being fit enough by the time i add paddling that my 'long' workouts will serve as my tempo workouts.  Why two paddle sessions instead of one?  i think that initially i'll be working on developing muscle engrams (memory) and these are easier to develop when fatigue of any sort isn't an issue.

I'll hold off on the paddling until after i return from a summer road trip down to my brother's wedding.  It'll be tight - i'll have only about 8 weeks to figure out how to do it right and get good at it, while maintaining the biking and running.  In the meantime i'll work on getting fit enough to keep up with Grant on our run of the Sioux Hustler trail on May 23rd.

Best laid plans....

Not New Zealand, but still fun...
Keegan climbing in So. Cal.

It's May 21st and instead of sitting in a hut after an epic day on the dusky track in wild New Zealand, i'm here in Grand Forks sitting through an overly hyped spring winter storm.  A long and complicated chain of events - some of which were beyond our control (a major earthquake in christchurch), some of which within it (we were offered a full refund on the plane tickets and couldn't really say no) - we ended up swapping 7 weeks down under for 11 days in southern california.

At the time it was a great relief - the amount of stress we were facing to make the trip happen right on the heels of iceman and the day after Tammy's class was ending was brutal.  But now, after hearing that jason has just arrived in Te Anau and setting off on the dusky mission tomorrow, it's a bit bittersweet.

With the stress gone, i realize that all the energy that had been building towards that trip is still there and needs an outlet.  I've already got a busy summer lined up (no adventuring unless you count race directing) so time is short, but i've managed to hook up with a partner (Grant) from Fargo to take on a mission similar to the mantario trail run from last november.

The plan is to so a one day run the Sioux Hustler trail in the bounday waters canoe area wilderness (BWCAW).  it's a 32-35 mile (depending on who you ask) into some of the most remote wilderness in the BWCAW on unmaintained trails, recommended for serious hikers only, and estimated to take most parties 4 days to complete.  it'll be a good test of both navigation skills and fitness - not a substitute for the dusky epic, but hopefully at least a little taste of the suffering that would have been had over there.

I've also decided to drop down to only two hours a week of cardio training using the same principals as i've outlined in previous posts - i may have to up it again when i add padding to the biking and running in preparation for the idaho expedition race later this summer, but we'll see how this run goes.  We'll be tackling the trail on May 22nd and 23rd, so i've got about 9 weeks of training time.  should be no problem..... (: