Category Archives: Running

Pizza on a Chilly Night

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Pizza for dinner. That is a standard one in our house. We sat at the table and ate together. I want to make sure we do that as often as possible. It matters. It was a quick dinner to make. The dough was made already, half what we usually use. but it did the trick. My wife had made it for a pizza breakfast this weekend. That isn’t so typical, but why the heck not? We were out of standard breakfast fare, so dinner for breakfast. I rolled out the remaining dough tonight after letting it rise a little. It was way thin. It was awesome. I’m going to use less dough more often. The super thin crust makes it crispy and just plain old dee-lish.

It is chilly. Fall is full on, winter on the way. The woodstove warms the house. I just came inside. The kids and I went out to see where my son found a cool rock. We looked at the stars, at Jupiter trying to outshine the moon, at the crescent of the moon in its humble glory. Clouds drifted. Smoke rose from the chimney. Hard to get more beautiful than that. Excepting my wife, of course.

Soon the children will get wrapped into their evening routine–showers and pajamas and books and a story. I like the routine. Cleanliness and literacy, two good things. They also need to scrub the sauteed leeks and onions from their teeth, some of the last produce from our garden. That made for a good pizza topping. I have been trying to cook more lately. I made bread over the weekend and that should be a more frequent event. I need to make some pumpkin soup, and some pumpkin pie. I want to make some pasta as well. It has been too long.

The nights are shorter. Our home feels cozy. The children already are showing signs of resistance to heading up to bed, but once they get into it, they will glide along. Here is to a quick drifting off to sleep for them. Maybe the adults in the house will have some quiet time before they as well need to go to sleep. I plan to rise early in the morning. There will be frost. The stars will be out. I want to get plenty of sleep.

I had hoped to run this morning but was feeling off, and way tired, even though I woke in time to get in some miles. It is hard to start the week without running. It needs to happen tomorrow. Venus and Saturn will be waiting to greet me. That should help me pick up the pace, my headlamp beam bouncing on the road as I go. Just imagining that, it makes me look forward to waking tomorrow. I only need to slumber well before then. And some pleasant dreams will help–give me something to stir my thoughts as I move through the cold of morning. As I run though fall.

Dark Now

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Just back from an early run. It seems to be getting darker and darker in the morning. Oh, wait, it really is getting darker and darker. I left at 5:30, ran a shortie since I have to be off to work in a short while. Back just after 6:00. It was dark when I left. It was dark when I returned. It is still dark. Good old headlamp.

Made an apple pie last night. I’ll have that for breakfast. Stayed up too late. Ordered holiday cards–the early bird deadline to get a big discount is today. Family is asleep. Current tasks: make coffee, get out of these ridiculous running duds, take a shower, shave so I look halfway presentable, get a haircut, get novel manuscript in the mail, cloth myself, eat pie.

I’m off to it. Bring on the day, whenever it may come.

More Drizzle

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October Rainy Day

October Rainy Day

More rain today. We haven’t had a fully sunny day in quite a while. Forecast for tonight: rain. I need to decide whether or not to get up early and run. I was thinking I would run about 7:00 AM–early, but not nearly as early as I have been running. Then my wife says she wants to leave at 7:00 to go for a hike.  So do I wait until much later in the morning, when I am likely to be less motivated?  Or do I get up way early, even though it will be Saturday? Plus, it will be raining.

I will get in 20 plus miles this week. It still feels like not enough, but slow and steady, eh? I’m thinking maybe a half marathon next month. If I can build up the miles slowly enough I can do that. Or, as has been the case too often the past couple of years, I somehow injure myself. So far so good, but it is tempting to push it. Tomorrow I go seven and a half miles. A good solid run. I almost hope it will be raining, whenever I decide to go. That would be good for settling the mind.

I feel good and I am glad I have been rising early. It isn’t easy. I often don’t get quite enough sleep. But I need to do it. Early morning is the only time I’ve got to run consistently, and once I’ve done it, the day has started well. I am stronger now and, most nights, I sleep better. I have even managed to miss the big downpours in the morning–I’ve lucked out with the timing. Maybe tomorrow I’ll run in the rain. I’m picturing a light rain, a drizzle if you will. Just enough to keep me moving, to keep me cool, to keep my mind in the moment. It would be nice to think about nothing but my breathing, and the water on my cheeks, and where the puddles might be. For an hour or so, I can leave the rest behind.

Frosty Foggy Morning

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We got our first frost this morning.  It was chilly and foggy, with ice settled on the grass and leaves and rocks.  Mist rose from the river.  I ran early again, determined to keep getting out there before the day gets too far underway. It always seems worth rising early, and today was no exception.  I ran into the fog across the river, I watched the sun tip over the hills, and I saw the color seep into the leaves with the morning light.  It was the last morning of summer.  It let me know that fall is here.  Apparently it arrived a day early.

Fog Over the River

Mist in the Valley

Running Into the Fog

Running Into the Fog

Frost on the Cut Field

Frost on the Cut Field

First Light on a Turning Maple

First Light on a Turning Maple

Cows Appreciate the Sun's Warmth

Cows Ready for the Sun's Warmth

Running Back

Running Back

Fog Lingering Over the River

Fog Lingering Over the River

Frost Lingering in the Field

Frost Lingering in the Field

Morning Dew

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Mornings these days are covered in dew.  The grass–wet.  The flowers–wet.  Everything is wet.  My son’s jacket was left out last night.  I found it after my morning run, soggy as the rest of it.  The field is dewy and filled with spider webs.  The whole stretch of it is filled with webs.  They drip with dew and as the sun angles low across the world, they shine.  Looking out in the early hours I can see them hanging between stalks of aster and milkweed and goldenrod.

Web Hanging in the Morning Dew

Web Hanging in the Morning Dew

This morning Venus dangled in the sky like a jewel.  The wind stirred the fog over the river.  The asters, closed for the night, bent in the breeze.  The world woke.  And I ran out into it and back.  And I felt alive.  And the sun rose over the beauty of it all.

Asters, September

Asters, September

And there we have a September morning.

Up and Running

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I have been getting up early to run these past few mornings.  I love to do that.  The problem is that it is hard to get up early.  At least, it’s hard to get up early enough to be back in time to get all of us ready for work and school and whatnot.  I’m rising in the dark, and it is only going to get darker.  And then I’ll get all used to the darkness slowly shifting they’ll throw daylight savings at me.  I pretty much hate daylight savings.  Why can’t we just pick where the clocks will be?

Anyway, I’m getting up early.  I have to be all careful so I don’t wake the woman in the bed next to me who has tried so hard to sleep all night.  I have to be quiet as I walk down the hall and down the creeky stairs so I don’t wake the children.  I always step on some toy or bang into some chair left in an odd place.  I rarely get out without some loud crash or bump or screech.  But get out I do.

And when I do, the sun is working on the back side of Camel’s Hump and the sky glows and the low clouds are tinged with pink and the world is just beautiful.  It is hard not to enjoy it when the day starts off with its show.  Cloudy, rainy, clear, snowing, whatever, it is always beautiful.  If you can’t see it you need glasses or something.  Or you live in a place where you can’t see the world around you.  Because the world is just plain old stunning as the sun rises and the wind shakes the dew from the turning leaves and the spider webs grace the goldenrod.  I may be tired but it is so worth it.

Tomorrow morning I will try to rise again, even earlier.  The farther I want to go the earlier I need to rise.  So once I really get to the high mileage I need to get up way early.  But I’m just doing the shorties now–one to five miles–just to get out there and feel the morning and to get moving.  Sure, I’ll train for something sooner or later, and sure, I’ll run later in the day at times, but I need to remember, when I am bleary eyed and tuckered, that the early morning will give me a shot better than any espresso.

My shoes get wet as I walk across the dew-covered grass.  A late bat swoops over the field.  The asters quake in the breeze.  And the smell of fallen leaves mingles with a far off skunk and damp earth.  It makes one appreciate being alive.

Birthday and Photos

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One Fine Afternoon to be Outside

One Fine Afternoon to be Outside

I recently turned 40.  Up until this birthday I didn’t think all that much about what each birthday milestone meant.  Sure I had more rights and responsibilities at 18 but I was more concerned with smooching than with the off chance I might get called to war.  This one, however, has got me thinking, reflecting, really, on what has been and what may be to come.

My parents visited this past weekend.  They brought, quite literally, hundreds of photos.  I had asked my dad to bust them out for a project I had hoped to work on.  We have plans to get together as a somewhat extended family this fall.  Since I have a sister in the west coast and there are five of us siblings, we don’t all hang in the same place all that often.  So our plans to get together are significant.

My idea was to put together a slide show for the gang.  It would include photos from the past 45 years or so.  My parents were married in 1965 so I thought that might be a good place to start.  A lot of photographs can accumulate in 45 years, however.  So it took a few hours just to sort though the boxes of prints.  And we didn’t even get to the slides.  There are a lot more slides than prints.

So the big marker birthday, accompanied by all the photo browsing, has made this Gen X-er think about things a bit.  I know this is the time, traditionally, to enter the mid-life crisis phase, but I have been working to avoid that for a while.  Life is good.  I could ask for little more (although, let’s face it, I do).  Mostly I have just been thinking about my life.  Why not?  It seems a good enough time to do that.

On an afternoon run today I thought more than I would have liked.  I like to get out there and drain away all those pesky thoughts.  I guess I haven’t been getting out there enough.  I need to start getting up early and tying on the old shoes.  I’d like to get another ultramarathon in before I need a hip replacement.  Or new teeth.  Running with dentures might be a nuisance.

Jupiter rises and the children are asleep.  The dishes are washed and, while the laundry awaits folding, I am enjoying the quiet of my home while my wife is out with friends.  I just stashed a bucket of tomato soup, freshly made, in the freezer.  The rolls I made for dinner are wrapped for lunch tomorrow.  Like I said, life is good.  Here’s to forty more good ones.

Things I Would Like to Make Soon

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1. I have been thinking about coffee ice cream.  I am ready to make it.  I just need a little time to whip together some cream and sugar and milk and eggs and coffee, and Voila!  Frozen confection.

2. Tomato corn chowder.  We have lots of corn left over from last night and I need to use it ASAP.  And now we have tomatoes.  Save a little of that cream from making the ice cream, add some fresh herbs and some other tasty bits and Voila!  Soup for a royal family.

3. Some bookshelves.  We have tons of books and I love to read and the good tomes are all still packed into boxes.  A post and beam home has one drawback–much less wall space.  That means less room for art and for furniture and for shelves.  So our books sit unread.  With a little creativity we can fit in some bookshelves.

4. An orchard.  Well maybe not an orchard on the scale of, say, one that sells fruit to markets, but a small one, with lots of trees to give us peaches and pears and apples and maybe even something more exotic, like walnuts.  And some more blueberry bushes.  And maybe some grapes.  That might mean a lot of work, I understand, but apple pie and peach ice cream and grape juice…

5. Some poems.  My writing has been limited to blogging and work, at least for the most part.  I should be tossing out some more creativity.

6. My wife happy.  I know one can’t really make someone else happy, but let’s face it, someone trying sure can make a difference.  Not that she isn’t happy, but one of my favorite things in the world is to see her face glowing with joy or laughing with abandon.  Seriously.  Seeing her happy makes me happy.  I love that woman.

7.  I also want to make some kindling.  Winter will be here soon enough and having a big stash of kindling on hand makes things a lot easier.  If I can make it soon enough that it will dry before we need it, I will be ahead of the game.  For years we had an supply of dry leftover lumber bits but that ran out two winters ago.  Now I have to gather and split to get the fire going.

8. A will would be good.  We have put that task off for too long.  We did talk with a lawyer at one point but then that morbid responsibility fell off the list.  Time to put it back on.

9. I need to make myself stronger.  I have been running and biking and that just plain old feels good.  I need to keep that up, and then get to a point where I can really get out there and fly.  Who doesn’t want to fly?  A long run, or a run in the middle of a snowstorm, or a zoom down a tree-lined path, those are like flying.  I want to fly.

Making things is about being creative.  And isn’t creativity a form of flying?  That is really what I want.  I want to fly.

Inspired by a Golfer

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I am not a golfer.  I have played a few rounds, at the request of friends who understand that games, including golf, are for fun, and who are willing to laugh at themselves and, especially, at me.  I had a few decent shots and understand why others love the game.  Nailing it just right feels pretty good.  Nonetheless, I haven’t picked it up.  I think the idea of acquiring more equipment for yet another activity turned me off.

So I was surprised this afternoon to be inspired by a golfer.  I was listening to NPR’s Fresh Air.  The host was interviewing John Feinstein, author of the new book Are You Kidding Me?  The tale is about the 2008 US Open challenge to Tiger Woods by Rocco Mediate, a low-ranking golfer who almost beat the best golfer in the world.  He didn’t beat Tiger Woods in the end, but the story is pretty amazing.

Mediate was ranked 158th in the world and had to earn a spot in the US Open in a qualifier.  At the end of a 36-hole tournament he made it through an eleven-man tie to get into the Open, with only 156 others.  Then he stayed at or near the top until he and Tiger Woods were tied.  They had to play an 18-hole tie-breaker to determine the winner.  At the end of that it came down to the last hole.  Tiger Woods had to make a put to win.  Which he did.

The amazing part of all this is, of course, that someone so obscure in a professional sport could come so close to beating someone so well-known for being so good.  The really amazing part of this is that Rocco Mediate had battled injuries and health problems.  He was known as someone who was really good when he was healthy, that qualifer being pretty important.

Here is how I was inspired.  Last summer I trained for the Vermont 50.  I pulled a muscle and had to stop running.  This spring I started training again.  Then I busted my toe and had to stop running.  But Rocco Mediate lost to Tiger Woods by one stroke after being a good golfer sometimes for years and years.  He kept a good attitude, a sense of humor, and never gave up.  He kept playing.

So why should I give up?  I only decided to start training again for the 50 last spring.  I am just about ready to run again.  I will need to pick things up from the beginning again but so what?  Maybe I can’t run the 50 this fall but what about next year?  I just need to be persistent.  I just need to get back into it and keep at it.  I don’t need to win.  I don’t even need to come one stroke away from winning.  Heck, I would pleased to be ranked 158th.

So, thanks, Rocco.  I am hoping this weekend to get out for my first run in just over a month.  I appreciate your story.  I will think of it when I need to get out there on those cold and wet days.  And then I will get out there and run.

Proof of a Higher Power?

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So we have a couple kids and I basically stop running.  I go from at least a marathon every year to a 50-miler then pretty much doodly squat.  Partly because of this I had back problems.  If I had kept up the physical activity, I would probably have been fine, but it got bad enough I needed surgery.  That meant I was out of commission for a long time.

Needing surgery told me that I needed to start running again.  When I have been running, my back is good to go.  Slack off and things weaken and get sore.  I was really getting up there in the miles last summer when I pulled a muscle.  It took me a long time to get there, being slow and cautious, not overdoing it, taking it easy.  But I still got hurt.  That meant lots more time of rest and lots more time without running.

This winter and then into spring I started to really get out there again.  I again started to put on the miles and I felt that the 50-miler might be within reach this fall.  I was feeling good.  Then, on a trip to Disney World of all places, I smash my toe on a suitcase so badly that my whole foot turns purple and I start limping around.

I am sure I busted it.  I taped it for a while and it started to feel better.  It still hurts too much, however.  I should really ice it and take ibuprofen and put it up for a few days, then get back to walking around.  But I haven’t done that.  I have been joking with my spouse that maybe this is proof that there is a higher power who does not want me to run.

But maybe this is proof that there is a higher power who does not want me to go to Disney World.  Or who does not want me to work, since a desk job contributed to needing back surgery.  Or who wants me to where shoes more often, even in Florida.  Or who wants me to pack with a suitcase on a table or a bed instead of the floor.

I have had a few setbacks to getting in the training.  I guess I just need to keep the goal in mind and get back to it once more.  I can still run 50 miles, as long as I don’t turn into a frail old man before I get all the training in.  Even then, I might be able to do it.  Most people wouldn’t do that kind of thing, but that actually motivates me to do things.  No one else wants to do it?  Might just be worth doing.

Anyway, I don’t really think that all these obstacles to my running goals are proof of a higher power.  I have seen others use just this kind of thing to justify belief.  Many people do that, in fact.  Since many people do it, however, I am motivated to do what they do not do.  I am going to do my own thing, dangit, and when I stop hobbling around, I am going to get started on that right off.