Confessions and Resolutions.

I was going to have the title read, Confessions, Absolutions, and Resolutions, just so I could have another "ions" word in there, but I realized that I do not think I know what exactly an "absolution" is. I mean the word is used in a church setting quite frequently I believe, and unless I am forming a new religious cult, other than the one I am already involved in (MILEAGE), I will be leaving that word out. But just out of curiosity and because google is only a couple clicks away, I will search it.... Yeah, it's not the word I'm looking for.

Twenty-thirteen is coming to a quick close and for the most part it was a fairly successful year, I mean, for a couple months I was quite fat, and for a couple months I was getting skinny again, and for a couple months I was fast again.

Confession 1: I was quite fat, until I of course got skinny again.

And basically, after getting that one off my chest the whole confession list is over.

As for Resolutions, I'd like to be profound and say I will do something profound, but I don't really think that's my style. I keep things simple.

Resolution 1: drink more than one water bottle a day.
Resolution 2: don't slack when a part of training doesn't go as planned.

Resolution 3: do more push-ups.
Resolution 4: stay not fat (new years eve edit, 11:27pm)
Resolution 5: live a little more like Miley.

Kay, the fifth one is kinda a joke, my booty can't twerk. Not that hers can either...

2014 here we come.

rj.

Remember When Miley Came Out With "Party in the USA", What A Slut.

Made the ol' journey home the other day, aiport lost my luggage, losing some mileage this week. fack! In my time off, waiting for luggage, I have been pondering the evolution of Miley. From Hanna Montana to what ever she is now. My conclusion, she is practicing some safe yoloing, and creating some mad musical fusion. Therefore after a long debate with my younger sister who believes yolo is "old" I have decided that, I will start hashtagging LLM. #LLM. It's simple, LIVE LIKE MILEY.

But in all seriousness why do we have to run indoor track... why can't we just have 2 xc seasons. A fall one, and a winter/spring one. That would be pretty sweet.

High On Purp.

rj

Rolling Around Again.

Typical Day on the Exam Break.

9:00am Alarm: f*** that.
9:10 Snooze: Kay fine, lets do some work... Letsrun...Flotrack...Trackie...
10:30: lets go run. practice isn't till 11, but what if I forgot how to tie my shoes.
11:00: Run, preferably anywhere but on the roads, but hey.
12:30: Run over, sitting in the switchroom thinking of ways to take up more time, okay yeah sure, lets hit the gym, oh wait, I don't go to the gym.
1:00: Home for lunch, making the same sandwiches I have been making all year.
1:30: study.
2:00: actually start studying.
4:30: should I go for another run? totally!
5:00: supper with the boys, and countless arguing over anything to not go back to work.
8:00: study.
8:30: actually start studying.
9:30: maybe I should go for another run...

But in all seriousness I got fat, triples might help. Maybe. Some jokers on the team said they were gunna roll me down a hill. Race ya!

I heard somewhere that some short guy wanted to be in the NBA so he had to learn how to dunk. He started doing calf raises in the shower. I don't want to be in the NBA, but I am doing calf raises in the shower. Sorry for that image! How gross is that? Picturing a 145 pound fat runner in the shower!

f*** I got some self image problems.

rj

Tired Legs and Worn Souls.

F***. Another year for the books. Man, you should see my log book, like seriously its getting pretty thick, with over... gimme a sec here, gotta do some math here...

...

..

.

12'000km logged. 

But I'm not here to tell you how much I run, or how fast I am, the season is over. So none of that matters anymore, but it kinda does because (does, because, thats a nice rhyme) I have been beating myself up about CIS for the last week. I cramped up, and it sucked. But not for me, for my team. But its fine right, cause there is always next year. Just what about the day when there is no next year. 

F*** think about that for a sec. No more CIS XC. The kinda thought that is racing through my head right now, I only got 2 left. Gotta make due.

Guess I ought to start thinking about NEWFOUNDLAND 2014. Definitely not gunna eat the banquet food. 

y'all should come though, it's gunna be sweet.

ECA

rj

Is This Forever.

What it takes.

I still don't know, I've been playing this game for years and I still don't know what it truly takes. I mean, everyday I get out there, bust my a$$ off and I dunno why I even do it. I just have absolutely no idea when the game ends. Or does it end, I've been thinking, I don't think I'm in a sport where it just ends, yeah sure after Nationals it seems like the end, but its not we keep going. We keep running because we don't know what else to do. Somedays I try to imagine a world where I had say 20 more hours of free time. I am not saying I run for 20 hours a week, just think about how much mental preparation, how much more sleep, and all the little things you do. In the end all added up it is probably close to 30 hours a week, maybe more.

Back to the initial question, what it takes, or is that even a question. Lets change it. What does is take?

The next thought is "take" to what? Win? Run a 32min 10km? Who knows... But maybe the question is more personal, what does it take to make me satisfied? 

Hell, I dunno... every time I step on the start line, or start another interval in practise, I just hope it goes better than the last one.

Little goals... little goals that are achieved in time take you from a point A and drop you off at point B.

And who knows when you will ever get to point B, I'm still chasing it.

rj.

but seriously,
If I had 30 extra hours a week... I'd get drunk a lot, maybe get fat.

The 90's Aren't 10 Years Ago Anymore.

In honour of Robbie Watson and his massive balls for attempting 2 marathons within 3 months, I'm back at #legrind. It's been a long process and a lot of miles, getting ready for my 3rd season on Bern's Farm and to get here I have made many decisions to ensure that this season is the best one yet.

1. No more pussy mileage, if it ain't triple digits I might as well where a skirt.

2. All the little things.

3. 10 runs a week, including friday, (how you like them apples durr)

4. The big one, STRIDE PUSH-UPS!

Our theme this year at X is push-ups, why... cause the more you too the faster you go. now a STRIDE PUSH-UP is when you stride, then do 5 push-ups and repeat. STFX XC team has copyrights. Try it if you want, but bet you aren't doing them while smelling the salt of the ocean.

Nice to be back though, gunna be nice to lace up the ol spikes this weekend too. Time trail wasnt much of a rust buster. Legs are still like, wanna tempo today? I'm like "f*** you, lets go fast!!"

I'm unsure if this applies anymore, but LONDON 2013 B****ES.

rj

Something is about to happen, that has not happened in an age....

Greetings runners everywhere,

The rumored wild bearded man, the Lakehead Luggage Moose, Benabus Jonesus from the wild white north has entered the pack for this fall's XC season. The above title is a quote taken from the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. As a matter of fact it is Treebeard himself who says it when the Ents decide to go to war. Now reflecting on the relevance of the quote it has been 3 whole years since I've trained and raced in an XC race. I finally made the decision when I was just finishing a ski workout (yes, I did nordic skiing in my time away from running) last March when I foolishly said to a group of varsity runners that I was going to run XC in the fall. In the words of Durr I "threw my hat over the fence." As opposed to Treebeard and the Ents I did not think things through but rather impetuously put myself in a position where I couldn't back out of.

Any regrets you may ask? None.

It's been a tough summer of super high mileage (for me) and I've lost almost all of my skiing muscle, 20 pounds! So I'm light and fast but can't lift jack anymore. That's ok though, being able to run a 17min 5k like I was sleeping is more than worth it.

This weekend is the Lakehead TT then start of training camp. The North is ready to be unleashed.

Benabus

Not When, But Where...

I've been pondering the thought of what I would be like without jogging.

Thats about as far as I ever get, but seriously, on my phone I keep a memo of stuff I wanna say on here to the wonderful people who often scroll the useless pages of blabbering on and on about nothing. I don't even know if that sentence makes sense. Moving on, here is what I had in the memo when I looked today.

Prison: in and out, same thing.
Garbage till I'm running.
Girl: hoots and hollas

Now, about the first thing if there is some ex con out there reading this, help me out, cause I have no idea what that means.

Been putting in some monster weeks, and some killer days, and slaving at a farm, and when I get a chance to sit and relax, I take, my entire body hates me. It screams "you suck", "don't ever move again", "you are dead". But of course after I fight off the rigamortis, I feel beyond relaxed!

So of course while on the run we have gotten our fair share of hecklers and hoots and even a few hollers, but that could be an entire other post. So me and my buddy AP were out in the kerr ferr a terr and we see this 9 out for a yog, so we decided to let her know we appreciate what she is doing.

OWWWW OWWWW!!!

rj

Maybe Someday.

Dated a girl who was older than me once. It was in grade 6, she was in grade 7, so I am unsure if it actually counts. It didn't last long, her friends thought it was weird so it was over. She broke up with me in a note.

When writing a blog, I look 3 places for inspiration, humorous stories, Rob Watson, and my log book. Now when I thought about writing this, this here is about as far as I got, so from here on out Imma wing it. College.

So I guess I'll start with the obvious, I'm kinda a runner, part time farmer, lil bit of everything in between at times. This is where I hit the wall, writers block, oh f*** what am I to do.

Anyways, as for jogging, things are coming along.

go get

rj

t-bag woody for the win.
nuff said.

see ya'll real soon.

Where's Durr?

sO one derr, i was in the curr with Durr, and Durr ser to mer, Let's get some burr and some gurr! Got my bess gurr, took herr to the murr, said we werr going ta tha lurrk to drink da burr. but when me and durr get back in the curr, the dur of the gur rur to the curr and yer at der and i to give back his durr! needless to say, we ran outa burr beferr we left with tha curr.

AP and rj

Everybody's Got A Dream

As for what really matters, it's my dreams. Not the wet ones. (pause for laughter) The ones about my future, the ones that wake me up in the morning, and keep me up at night thinking about them. The issue is, the older generation only cares about what you wanna do for a living, and I can't say work 20 hours at a shoe store and run 100 miles every week. Most people just dont understand, they dont see how that can be rewarding, or how a futon couch can actually be quite comfy. But when its come down to it, I have no idea what I wanna do. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and watch the mile markers fly by.

lil bit of that "GO GET" as my roommate would say it. He would also say stuff like "I pooped myself." So I'm not sure whether I should look for advice from him.

Big race this weekend, havta show SWPCM that I am still the chief, 21km is sure a long dance.

Go get,

rj

Got A Map?

I was pondering a life event to type about, cause I have been rather absent, I have came up quite empty, but at the same time very full. Full of knowledge, full of mileage, but not recently I have been "drunk and fat" (Rob Waston). Full of life time mileage, my log book finally hit 10'000km, a pretty big milestone in my books. Still working towards when I will start tallying my running in miles though. Back to lifetime mileage. I am sure no Halie Geb running 10km to school every day, but I wish, that would have been quite beneficial looking back on it. I'm talking the little things, like in the winter time go sliding and dragging my sled back up the hill over and over and over again. I'm curious if that has anything to do with me being a good hill runner, and a good bad conditions runner...

It's kind of a weird thought, maybe there is no truth to it, but maybe, just maybe, it helped.

So, enough of the serious stuff, ran a race, called it a season opener and closer. took a week, got drunk, got a map. And found our final destination on foot 3 hours later.

But, le grind begins today.

rj

try this on for size

A short accident

So I was out running today, you know doing the typical Sunday long run in my newly acquired SOARK shorts, tiger striped, top of the line, ridiculousness over 9000. When I noticed that almost every car that drove by me took their eyes off the road and just stared at me. At first I found it pretty funny, but after a while i started getting concerned i mean what if one of them hits a banana peel when they're not looking and swerves off the road and get's in an accident, I mean if they're not looking at the road that is a definite   possibility! So to solve this problem I decided I wasn't going to look at the drivers as I saw them going by, by not looking at them they're both looking at me and not looking and me at the same time, which is better than all of them looking at me for sure. Even tho that application of schrodinger's cat is totally missused it helps me sleep at night so whatever.

 Anyway the last 2 weeks have been pretty postless on NPS so i'm hoping one of the other boys will live an experience worth posting sometime soon, however even tho they've been pretty postless I've been running some fast times in that time, I ran a 9:09 in the 3000 dropping a whole 20 seconds off my pb in one race(with a head cold at that) and a 4:17 in the 1500 dropping like 4 seconds off that time so the season is looking pretty good. There's east regionals next week and i'm hoping to qual for ofsaa and sub 9 in the 3k but we'll see how it goes

Anyways speaking of experiences worth posting, today i was running through some bush and saw a porcupine in a tree so i decided i'd make a practical use of my shirt and lay it on the ground like a blanket and sit on it for nearly and hour staring at said porcupine in the tree, the porcupine finished by attempting to climb higher but fell out of the tree, so i thought that was pretty funny.

Anyways until next time!

-AP

It's Go Time

Well, the peak of training for this track season has come and gone and it's finally go time. All the training I've done all season is finally coming down to these next four weeks, the weeks that make it or break it, I name them the weeks of trail (You see it would be trial but trail is far to close and far to good of a word to refuse.) Anyway, this season has been going amazing so far, haven't raced one race yet that wasn't a P.B so that must mean something is going right, right? It must have been all those hot miles in the summer with a mixture of the bitter sweet speed through out the winter but even so, as I sit here thinking about the next few weeks I get kind of nervous, I mean there's so much that could go wrong in 4 weeks! For example I could be out for a yog and get rabies from a raykon, or I could pull something, or I could break something, or I can burn out, or I can not get any faster, or, or ,or..... Thinking about does not put me in a good mood so I've resolved just now to not have a negative thought for the rest of the season, maybe I need a chat with D.C, he always knows what to say to keep the bad thoughts at bay. Man that was a good rhyme! Besides the lingering thought of my upcoming races, I'm also pumped for this summer, I mean, this may just be the last summer that the jets are together, so I'm thinking we'll need to make the most of it, and what's a better excuse than to up the mileage.

if 

mileage = t (time)

and

t*number of jets present = fun

than it makes sens that i need to up the mileage this summer, and it also makes sens that Bennabus should come home asap. I mean why waste something so valuable as fun!  I'm thinking of hitting 100km weeks this summer, and with the help of the jets this large feat becomes simple and fun. Anyway that post was kind of boring, it was more of just an update than anything but see ya next time.

-A.P

Keeping the Sabbath Holy.

Our Pre, which art in Oregon,

Hallowed by thy hair and moustache.

Thy Kingdom run, mileage will be done,

Everywhere as it was done in 1972.

Give us this day our goals and aspirations,

And forgive our trespasses, 

As we forgive those who trespass against us. 

And lead us not into overtraining,

But keep us safe from injury.

For the trails is our kingdom,

The mileage and the glory.

For every km ever ran.

Amen.

rj

Why I Run?

A question that I get asked quite often. A question that I never take seriously. I mean running sucks. Its awful, it hurts, it makes your body feel like mush, it takes forever to do, takes even longer to get good at it, its cold for half the year. So if I haven't turned all of you off running yet, it does get better. But I mean, the thing that makes running suck the most is sun burn on my nose! One year I was burned from February to November!

I guess, what I'm trying to say, sun screen is a good thing.

No. No. No. I'm trying to say, well answer... "Why I run?"

I run because well initially cause I was good at it. Because I was the the fatest kid on the playground. Then slowly it became a tool of exploring, one can see a lot more if he travels faster. The trails is where my talent was born. Now, thats a weird thing to say, talent, to me talent doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Hard work makes sense. The trails is where I put in the work. I learned to love travelling through the forest. Then, XC a race that went through the forest, I was amazed! Turns out though, you had to run fast... And turns out, running fast is fun.

So, I run because I love to explore nature, feel the wind through my hair, let mud build up on my calves, climbing hills, taking in scenic views. But on the flip side, I love pushing my body to it's limits, I love hurting so much I can't walk after, I love the pain of lactic acid flowing through my veins. I love the feeling of raising my arms in the air crossing the line in 1st. But what I love more is the path that I take to get there.

Ask me if i have run a marathon?

I'll tell you to f*** off.

rj

Solitude

A chapter from Loneliness.

I can say the last few weeks have been quite an experience. The loneliness is a term I use to describe us distance runners, we are a rare group of people who enjoy pushing their bodies farther than any other group of humans, we do it alone too. Not in the sense as we always run alone cause we don't. I mean we do it for ourselves we don't have to please anyone. Now I know my next statement is one that has been used over and over again, but it is very true. There are no time outs or half times in our sport, no team mates, just two feet and a heart beat. Speaking about myself personally, I've always had a squad of guys to push me in workouts and to enjoy a long run with. But recently due to outside unfortunate events, I have experienced some true loneliness. I'm not depressed, haha far from it. Solo everything, I leave the switch room with my shoes, shorts, watch and the drive to make it. Make it to the starting line fit as hell, and ready to give all I got. Rolling the die has never been so frightening. The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner is not a bad thing, I have learned so much about myself that I never knew before, I have created an imaginary friend to talk to on runs, he is pretty chill. We don't talk politics though.

The other day, this pretty girl came up to me and asked if I was interested in doing a survey, and I have very rarely said no to a pretty girl. So, there I am gunna do this survey, now..."what is it about?"

"politics" she answered.

I think to myself this is gunna be fun. I don't vote, nor do I really believe in politics...

"question 1, do you vote?"

"nope"

"question 2, which political group do you support, liberal, conservative, ndp, green?"

"none."

"this is gunna be a long one"

Either way, after that, I think she stopped marking down my answers and began to draw fish on her paper.

It's been a while, nice to be back.
go get.

rj

Challenge accepted

This is a post concerning the return of our founder and savior's challenge at the greasy pemby pizzeria, and it is to be read in the voice of Randy Macho Man Savage (click the link for an exact example)

You think you can beat me with your big pizza talk about your big pizza slices after your big run? Well you've got another thing coming, AP munching man savage here takes any eating challenge and crushed it between his jaws and this one is like no other, oh no. I'm ready for your so called mouth, throat esophagus and stomach havoc wreaking cheese on cheese grease on grease pizza, because frankly, I eat that for breakfast. I've already got the experience of a large greasy pizza, a double mcgangbang and a double irving bigstop hungry man meal under my belt, or should i say 3 inches above it so I dare yuse to show up at the greasy pemb pizza joint. I'll be there and ready to munch.

-AP. The munching man savage.

There's nothing like the stick

Well like the title says, there really is nothing like the stick, now if you were to ask what stick i would be talking about, i would turn my head to you, smile, do a little dance, get down tonight and say there is more than one meaning to the stick.

Stick 1: There's nothing like the stick. The hot sun beating down on you after you pounded down the kilometers on a hot summer day, that layer of sweat that was glistening in the setting sun is no longer a lubricant for your swinging arms, but a stick, a sweet salty comforting stick, (althoe not the best of smelling comforts but a comfort none the less) a stick that reminds you of every stick you've had before. This stick is what makes you not want to shower for 3 days because of how proud you get of it so never underestimate the power of the stick

Stick 2: Good friends who stick together there's nothing like. To keep you warm on those cold winter nights and cold on those hot summer nights... I wish i had a friend like that, i think the other word for that is slave, well whatever it is that's a good stick.

Stick 3: To stick out!  Sticking out is just something runners do, well at least from those who originate from the valley as far as i know, sticking out helps keep running fun so there really isn't like that kind of stick either!

Stick 4: To many sticks, the word stick is starting to lose it's meaning...

Stick 5: The stick, that just so happens to be pointing north. There really is nothing like the stick pointing north, or some may call it, the north pointing stick, this stick is a memory bank for stick 1's and a way to keep in touch with stick 2's and to assist us with stick 3. Without the stick I wouldn't be writing about the stick, that's how important the stick is!

Well i wasn't really sure where i was going with this, i just havn't showered in like 2 days so i'm sticky with dried up sweat and it seems that all i can think about, i'm probably at a 1 B.J at the moment and climbing at an alarming rate

smell ya later

-AP

Easy as Pie

   With the absence of our humble co-founder I have called upon another member of Benny and the Jets for some material and he didn't disappoint. Although, he will always be the baby in our eyes, at least now hopefully with the help of 100 mile weeks he won't feel like one anymore. So without further ado, I give you the man that can only last 4min, the dude who can eat food, the baby, the SWPCM.

          Ah yes, 1st year university is starting to wrap up, and my days of racing as an adorable little rookie are over. It’s a very bittersweet feeling, considering I’ll no longer be known as the baby of the squad, and at the same time it’s a wake up call to get my act together and start running well like I did back in the glory days in high school. How might I do this? Well its simple, three steps that must be accomplished during the summer. 1, get the mileage up, 2, don’t get injured, and 3, get my name heard to the public. The third step might sound quite questionable, however I must assure it’s just as important as the other two steps, it just has absolutely nothing to do with running. How might I get my name heard to the public you might ask, well its simple, become slice champion at a local pizzeria. All I have to do is eat the most slices in 40 minutes by the end of 2013. I may not be the fastest, but I can eat the most (with the exception of Durr). I’m going to walk in wearing short shorts and no shirt after a nice long run, and then I’ll ask for 7 slices, hopefully the no shirt, no shoes, no service policy is non-existent there.

Best regards,
SWPCM

If it's what it takes

So this afternoon i looked down at the calendar and realized, hey! There's only like 2 day's until spring! I was so pumped the only thoughts that were running through my mind is shirtless runs, shirtless durr and shritless burr, but then, in the midst of my day dreaming I looked outside and saw the -18 degree weather and the seemingly never ending snowfall.... I was pissed, and frankly I still am! When the calendar says spring time i damn well want my spring time, that picture perfect spring time that you see in those children books or teletubbies where the sun is shining the snow is almost gone the flowers blooming the trees budding all that good stuff but no all I get is snow! Anyway enough of my rant about the non existent spring because it's well, non existent. So phase 2 of the track season has finished, finally get to start doing some break downs, all seems to be going good, except for one thing, the good ol' shins are starting to feel the mileage great, so the only things I can do is hope for it to not get worse and well ice, i guess that's the only bonus of it being winter right now is free ice and if it's what it takes, i'll do it!

So basically what I did was take snow from the outdoors, put it in a bucket and built a snow fort around my leg, that didn't really seem to work because the snow fort kept failing so i just filled the snow bucket with water for one of the coldest lower leg ice baths i've ever experienced, i'll probably just ice all night like this, i'm doing it right now because i have to bucket stationed right next to my laptop and everytime i have enough balls to put my leg in for a minute i do it. Lately I realized that for some reason, I have the inabillity to not run a workout or do a run, no matter how much i'm in pain, for some reason I just can't take a break or elliptical or something, because for some reason in my mine i think i'm going to get like 20 seconds slower even tho i know it's not the case and i also realize that no matter what anyone tells me i will never learn, i'll probably have to end up getting injured to learn my lesson oh well i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

Anyway stay classy Santiago

-AP

Missing You Big Fella

Dearest DC.

The sparkle of the waves in the sun on the ocean doesn't even comepete with the one in your eyes.

The moment your big brown eyes met with my deep blue skies, I knew there was more to you that there has been creatures in the sea.

Creatures that swallowed my interest the moment I met you, making my knees weak and my stomach churn.

The butterflies that churned my stomach turned into vomit and I puked on your shoe.
im sorry durr I'll clean that.

The vomit soaks through your shoes like your words into my mind.

forever and always
rj and ap <3

Every Weird Look You Get, I Will Have A Beer Friday.

Alright so yesterday I made a mistake. It was a small mistake, but like all small mistakes, they slowly become big mistakes, if you don't take care of them before that happens. I was in a rush to get to practice as always, so I grabbed a pair of comfy shorts, grabbed a blue shirt cause I wanted to wear blue, then as I left my room, I picked up my Cheerios Singlet. All is well, I'm getting dressed. Shorts, shirt, singlet, shoes, hat... I look down and boom....

I became.... Swedish?

On the bright side on it thou, I'm back at the whole running thing, gearing up for some 1500's and 3000's this spring, throw in a 5km road race, and boom there is an outdoor season. Some long drives, some shorts ones, some stops along the way, some good times thats for sure. Trying to get kinda fit in a short period of time is odd... Im trying to bounce back from a dreadful indoor season so, I'm unsure how to think of that phase... Do I build off of indoors? Do I start fresh? But, it's actually both of those. I am starting fresh, as in I did take a break, and I am slowly getting back into it. But then again, once you do something, you build off of it. Example: You drink six beers in 2 hours. you are buzzed. Yeah, runners are light weights. Every hour after that you have 1 beer... actually I don't know where this is going... St Patty's Day is fast approaching and all thats on my mind is green beer and green men and green ladies and little green men and pots of gold. I'm Irish not swedish... haha.

Getting back on track, a better example is building a house. once the frame is built, you dont need to build the frame again. Okay... this is not going well, I'm just going to stop.

Made a Harlem Shake video like a month after they were popular. Che-che-che-check it oooout!

well... this was kinda embarrassing.
as Durr would say, keep it real.
rj 

p.s. SWPCM I got 19 weird looks...

The Tale Of The Pacer And The Racer

There I was, standing on the line, I knew what I had to do. It was easy, I wasn't nervous. To my left a guy who I didn't know, and to my left I would find the guy who this rope was tied to. My job was to drag him as far as I could as he was looking for a 25 second pb. Here we go...

"On your mark..."

There I stood, an invisible rope tied to this man who was a friend but for this race he was more than just a friend, he was my oasis while I his thirsty elephant on a mission. I look to my left, my heart beating, adrenaline pumping, legs surging with a seemingly endless pool of energy, I'm ready for this. Before I knew it, this group of men, runners, everyone with their own mission, me included, is called to the line with the gun pointed in the air. The only thing I can remember from what seemed like the longest second of the day was the image of my opponents shaking with anticipation but for this race not opponents but travelers on my journey. Then suddenly, BOOM, the gun goes, an explosion of runners off the start line, fighting for a good position from the start, but not me, casually, I allow my trusted ally to go ahead of me leading for the first lap keeping an even pace, a pace that felt easy, but I knew that it wouldn't stay easy for long, before I knew it, a few seconds later I crossed the 400 meter line on perfect pace

He looks back at me and says "Give me a thumbs up...."

He tossed me a thumbs up back, I took this as a sign as he felt good, so onward we rolled. I kept pace, kept it smooth, kept it honest. To me this pace was a walk in the park, I knew thou it would get hard for my friend. I kept pulling at the rope, stay on pace lil man. We can do this.

"2:30, you guys are on the money!" Our coach yelled.

The second lap goes by without even batting an eye, but here, in the midst of the third lap, the fatigue starts rolling in, a littler earlier then it usually should have because of previous races I did in the day but I knew that i had to just push threw it. Following my trustworthy leader we approach another runner not quite cruising at our lightning fast speed, on his heels the chief looks back at me

"let's pass him?"

I could tell this runner was lavering, his shoulders were tight, we had him beat, just had to get by the lad. I made the move on the corner which was a bad idea as my partner couldn't get around him. A gap formed. The runner whom I just passed had more to give, I slowed a bit so I could re-tie the rope, he blew by us and slowed. I waited till we hit the next straight stretch and we took him. We didn't look back after that. Forward I looked as we were approaching another runner... could we get him?

"A tad off pace guys, 7 seconds back, work the second half" Schroeds announced.

It was top of the fourth 7 seconds behind, when alarms started going off in my head, I could feel the rope getting thinner and thinner, my body yelling at me to quit, lie down on the side of the track and just cry, but, I've been threw this before, I knew what to do, 7 seconds behind, that was nothing I told myself, so I pushed deeper, the back of my partner turning into a mere yellow blur, but if I looked pass that yellow blur I could see another fast skinny blur slowly getting nearer as we pushed through that lap passing the line with...

 The encouragements of Schroeds "Go catch him guys only 5 seconds off"

I pulled beside my guy, told him to look up, told him we are gunna catch that guy up ahead. Two laps to go. We could do it! Alright man, lets pick it up, I take back the lead and begin the move. Unlucky us are nearest competitor hears us and starts picking it up. It's almost over man, hang in there lets do this. I spoke words of wisdom. I was calm, hoping that my calmness would inspire him I kept picking it up.

"So close man, lets go, lets go!"

The only thing I heard was a distant muffle from inside of my body, at this point nothing mattered I was just a searing mess of pain just holding on for the race to end but as I look over at my partner I slightly pick up the pace, I remember him saying "get on my hip" and so i surged and caught right up next to him however it wasn't enough my legs were giving out and my chest felt like exploding, the last 800 is truly the hardest part of the race.

"Just hanging in there"


DING DING! One to go! I look back, I get the go ahead to go after the last lap, 8:23... 8:24... 8:25... I take off. This is it! On the back stretch I catch up to a runner, I see another in the distance, I keep pushing as he disappears around the corner. Down the home stretch 5m away... 4m... 3m...

"I got myself a race"

As I cross the line for the last lap, I hear the seemingly distant sound of the bell, unfortunately it provides no motivation, I want to go faster, I want to have a kick but there is nothing left, both legs and spirit exaughsted the rope to my partner long since severed, he takes off, there wasn't much he could do for me at the point anyway, as the lap drags on I manage to keep a pretty steady pace

"I think I can, I think I can"

As the finish approaches, I pull away. Crossing the line, I look up at the clock, 9:23...

"Holy s***, I just closed in a 60, wheres Adam?'

I cross the line in a stumble ripping off the pinny faster then I would if Phill Collins were on repeat I look over at my partner, he closed in a 60, holy crap, I look over at the clock, a new pb. Even thou the mission of a 20 second pb failed I settled for the one second I got because I had a great time, I just hope that one day, I can pace my pacer, but we'll see about that one.

Much love

rj and ap

Had a Girl and Her Name Was Eve

Alright well, yesterday was the unofficial birthday of NPS, and just as it started last year, a season is over, and it's time for some needed rest. Not that I did anything crazy this indoors, just wanna let the legs rebuild some bounce. Then I'll try something really new and hop right back into workouts and build up for a strong outdoor season. I figure, I already have my base miles from december, and I just built up all of Jan and Feb, so getting right back into her might not be such a bad idear. Still gotta run the idea past a couple coaches as I am not yet my own full time coach. On that topic thou, We (RJ and DC) do create a bunch of workouts that we do in summer training. It's very strange cause its like we are our own guinea pigs. Enough with this jogging stuff.

The real reason I brought you here today is to talk about some traditions that the XC team has at X. Now of course most of these traditions envole drinking so are not done in season.

The first one is extremely humorous because its similar to the marathon, and as most of our guys have never run a full marathon, most of our guys cannot finish... you know what, I believe I cannot say these things as if someone of importance found out, I could get in trouble. So our team only drinks on CIS night and the athletic banquet for all those important people reading this.

And to those of you who aren't the important people who could get us in trouble, the beer mile (not the best video) is just around the corner. Giddy Up.

Wow, I've been wanting to talk about music for sometime now but keep getting distracted with other things. Shoot. Next time.

Tear it down.
Just to build it back up.
rj

Just Have Fun

The day before a big race. People say always do the same thing to get ready, I'm not sure that this can actually happen. Many different things affect the preparation, as in the bus ride, hotel, sleep, whats on tv and what not. I am beginning to believe this is a little bit of bulls***. Although having some superstitions is completely fine, going over the top is a tad crazy. I know a guy who does shave on race day nor does he even drive! Craziness! Anyways what I'm trying to say is I do not do the same thing before every race, it changes from race to race. What I am getting at I guess is I would like to talk about my pre race prep tonight.

On the bus sat with SD who I often sit with and we watched a movie called Beasts of the Southern Wild , it turned out to be a pretty sweet flick. I recommend it to all who enjoy movies and even to those who don't. As the night went on, I find myself and the young guns (rooks) watching some of the scotties tourny of hearts. And I can't decide what we were more interested in, the attractiveness of Ontarios skip and 2nd or the game itself. Many sexual comments were made about the "yeaaaaahs" and "haaaarrrdds" that were yelled but I'll keep them to myself as I know a couple younger people who read this blog. Now with the night coming to an end (11pm) I will try to pull a George Costanza and leave on top with a funny of some sorts. So we begin to discuss how much money it would take for one of our party to streak down the hall. One of us said 100$, then I was asked. I responded with 15. Ten seconds later I was down the hall and back and I gladly accepted my reward.


I'll get naked for money.
pay up and enjoy.

rj

 

Man's best friend to runner's best friend

Over the past few weeks I've been hitting some pretty high mileage, highest of my life, except for this time I'm holding this mileage for like the whole season so it's getting pretty long, boring and tiring, and with the lack of running buddies the last few weeks (except SM a few times) I've been getting pretty lonely as well.  Anyway last week my dog, Lacy, was acting up from being cooped up in the house because nobody really wanted to take her outside in the cold, so one day while I was gearing up for a run and Lacey single handedly spilt my water bottle stole my running shoe and gave me a bloody lip, so I decided as punishment I'd take that fiend with me for my run , now some may say well Adam that must be a treat for that little critter, but no, with all this pent up rage on my dog I didn't take it easy on her. She started out running at a solid 4 flat pace and i kept up, didn't warn her of things to come, I don't think she realized we were going for a solid 40 minutes because by 10 minutes she was no longer front running, ohh noo, she was right at my side struggling to keep up because I didn't slow down I kept a heavy pace for the next 20 minutes while she slowly faded behind me. Despite her exaughstion she kept up the whole run thoe! Over that 40 minutes I think I bonded with my dog more then I've bonded with her since I've owned her and along with that realization i realized how much I value running when I judge someone! I have speed goggles but for personality as well so the fact that Lacy kept up boosted her in my mind 10 fold! I think I have a new life dream, to do like a marathon or something of the sorts with my dog because that would be sick, so from now on in I'm doing every run i possibly can with her she has officially went from man's best friend to runner's best friend

Sorry about the rant on my dog, t'il next time

-AP

My Cotton T-Shirt

So, due to the horrid weather in Antigonish Nova Scotia I have been forced inside for a couple days of running. The DREADMILL, the GERBAL MACHINE, the treadmill... has been what I have been making love too rather than the beautiful open roads and endless trails. So In classic NPS spirit, we learn from each other I and took advice from my favorite Mid/Long Distance Elliptical-er and didnt leave the gym till my shirt was very soaked. But while going hard on this death machine, I truly took noticed to what I was wearing, due to the 1000 mirrors we have in our gym. I was wearing my favorite cotton t-shirt, and germany short shots. The next big thing, is why cotton, old people wear cotton... And all that stuff about how cotton is bad fer you, and you should wear athletic fibres and what not. F*** them, I love working out in cotton. It feels amazing, it breaths! I feel like I'm going a tad over board with my love of cotton, and I'm okay with that. So much so, that I wrote a poem about my favorite cotton t-shirt.

THE COTTON T-SHIRT

The cotton t-shirt that hangs over my chair.
it’s seen enough, it would only be fair,
to hang it up for good, its seen it’s fair share.

This cotton t-shirt you don’t understand.
it’s seen enough, for its had a hand,
in making me who I am.

My sweat has seen every part of the shirt.
This one shirt has seen a lot of hurt.
My hurt is different though…

I am a runner and my favorite t-shirt has seen many miles.
And all the miles have brought many smiles.

This cotton t-shirt is yellow and very faded,
its one those things when wearing I feel naked.
I love it.

My cotton t-shirt is a tad to small.
I got it when I was short, now I am tall.
I’ve worn this shirt many days in a row.

I’ve worn this shirt so much its almost done.
I’ve had too much fun, on the run.

I'm no Shakespeare
And me and my t-shirt aren't going out like Romeo and Juliet.

rj

The Big Picture

As I sit here eating subway I think back to an idea I had just before going to sleep one night earlier this week, and with the advice of DC I wrote it down, I'd like to title this idea "The Big Picture" and not this kind of big picture but an even bigger picture then that, one not measurable in the third dimension or any dimension for that matter, for the picture is life.

So as I was laying there in a half conscious state pondering the whys of my existence (The more things I figure out why I do the better I feel) I had a sudden epiphany, I realized just then there that I was only focused on now, this day, this week, this phase, this season I was focused on the now. You may be saying so what, but I say that the now should be secondary to the big picture. Everyday I see people making sacrifices from the big picture to improve the now,  sacrifices such as not enough mileage for their speed, not doing the little things to keep away from injury, slacking off in school and such and sometimes not even doing a cool down! But I ask, what's the point? Life is like a painting and you're the artist, making sacrifices for the now is using all the best quality paint for painting in the sky on a painting where the sky isn't the main focus , the part of the painting that isn't supposed to draw focus but is just there to fill up the big picture, to compliment the main aspect of the painting. As you paint your painting, the more good quality paint you waste on the sky or the grass or everything else that matters less then the focal point of the painting the less you will have for the main aspect of it and the weaker the main aspect will be. Now I realize that every moment of your life, every stroke of your brush leading up to the main part of your big picture is more important then the last and without it the big picture or focal point wouldn't be possible, sometimes even making a mistake in one stroke of your brush can create better strokes later on, however making sacrifices from your focal point to make that part of the sky look better without learning from the mistakes you made isn't worth it in the big picture.

Anyway I guess what I'm trying to get at is that there is so much more to life then what is just happening right now and I figure that people need to start making decisions for the future, could be their future or the future of others, instead of making decisions to improve the now. I guess this applies to a lot more then just running but we need to realize that one day when we're older then we are now, we're going to step back and take a look at the big picture and hope that you can say that each stroke you made of your brush was something you won't regret and didn't take away from the focal point of your big picture

Well until next time

-A.P

Back To School.

Some news on the home front, I cannot decide if this news is bad or good news, so as stated before, there is news. This news deals with my current education in the field of Aquatic Resources, well it deals with everyones education at StFX. The profs decided it was a good idear to go on strike to try to get some more cash from "the man" so there are no classes being taught. So I thought I would try to do some of my own teaching, So today you will find a list of definitions that runners use to describe runs, runners, and things that occur while running/racing below.

Speedgoogles: So basically the faster you are the more attractive you look to other runners. One has speedgoogles when they are attracted to fast runners.

Gamer: One who is a really good racer.

dropping hammers: Every workout you pick up "hammers" and they can be saved for a time when you need to drop them, kinda like dropping weight, it allows for super speed.

speed racer: A guy who does not let anyone beat him in workouts/ easy runs.

workout hero: Someone who is really good at workouts but just can't put it together for a race.

easy workout star: Easy 20 minute tempo today. Guy takes it out in 3:10's when everyone else takes it out in 3:25s

pretty: A runner who runs like Hicham el Guerrouj not like Kim Smith.

Study up!

rj

Young speed, old miles

When I look outside I think I can physically see the cold in the air, it's been absolutely ridiculous lately, anything under 20 degrees Celsius is far to cold for me and it seems that's all that has been happening lately, a day or two of warmth then boom a whole week of freezing your ass off and on top of that it's that time of year where the base miles  really starting to crank up, it's almost like mother nature is challenging my dedication to running, I swear if you graphed the weather you could see an almost linear declination of temperature and if it were compared to a graph of my hate of the cold you can see that they would be negative reciprocals without a doubt. Anyway, I recently came to the realization that I won't always be able to work on speed as effeciently as my youth, I mean I read a few articles here and there that explained that it was significantly harder to work on speed as you pass your prime in age. My initial thoughts were whatever, however I came to the conclusion that my prime  isn't to much longer from now and I haven't been working on my speed nearly as much as I should be. So with this in mind I came to a conclusion, young speed, old miles. I figured i'l have plenty of time to put in the miles but won't always be able to put in the speed because of old people problems such as joints, bad backs and beer guts so might as well get as much of it has I can right now, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just drop the miles but I'm not going to put as much emphasis on it as I presently do.
Anyways let us all don our tucs, mits and neck warmers and face the cold that plagues us all with miles and smiles, take that mother nature!

-Ap

Pangea

By the looks of it both DC and AP have fallen off the earth, and this would be horrible news because then I would have to do this whole blog thing all by myself, but even worse than that, I would have zero friends. Any who...

I'm taking earth science classes in school, well, actually I'm going to be an earth science major among other things. People always say that one should do what they are passionate about in school, well to come clean here, I wouldn't say that I am a die hard earth science buff, I mean I do love beards and stuff, the perks of having an earth science degree, but it's not my true passion. My true passion is running(please pause, let it soak in, feel it), running fast, running slow, running free. There is just something about it, something so peaceful about it. And of course running fast is always the game plan, but the past lil while hasn't been going as planned per say. I put in the work, run the miles, but everything just isn't clicking.

So, I was sitting in one of my earth science classes the other day, and we were discussing continental drift, how it works, why it happens, will it stop and all that jazz. The thing is we were talking about it as if in our life time we would see south america crash into china. The only problem is, it takes millions of years for such events to occur. This sort of thing doesn't happen over night. So I guess if I must take one thing away from this is, I must be patient, eventually all the work I put in will result in my own Pangea.

everything will click.

rj

Bad Company

So I am unaware about the peoples knowledge of my roommate situation, so I'll give a brief description, they are under the influence of something 60% of the time. Which isn't a bad thing, I dont mind what so ever. They cook, we all dont clean, until the mountain of garbage finally tumbles due to a misplaced empty can of cola, only after a tragedy such as that a full house clean is done. On the bright side last weekend we all returned to a shinny clean apartment and began to drink beers and become well un-sober people. When for the second time this year we stumble upon a cat outside frozen from the cold. A cute furry little creature whose tail was frozen stiff and was skinnier than me, which was saying something cause that was day 2 of my being sick not eating thing...

So without further ado, I give you our new friend Rowland the kitty. Friend of all, rekindler of all broken relations, and my best buddy.


















From the bad to good company,

rj

Back in Action.

Alright so finally rolling again, one workout into a life with food again. never actually got a measurement of how much weight was actually lost, but no food was consumed from saturday evening at 6pm till wednesday night at 6pm. Now back to full-ish health and back to full-ish running. Which gives me confidence to talk about the first workout back cause it was pretty sick. We did 5x1km which is a solid workout, and it being my first back I was thinking I'll aim for tempo pace just to be safe. First one I was 15sec behind the pack, and the old people walking are yelling at me.

"Catch up! You can do it!"

Gosh people just don't understand! Back to it though, first one was 3:10. Second 3:08, third 3:06, fourth 3:00. So I'm feeling pretty fresh right now, so I killed it, 2:50. showed them old people up!!!!! This is no proof of fitness, I'm still gunna run slow. Dang kid think positive! Imme be fast! Trust me!

Gunna throw it down...

rj

All great things come to an end

As the earth rotates around the sun and the sun around whatever the sun rotates around, time passes. Sometimes for the good, other times for the bad, like the last lap of a 3000 you really just want the time to pass as fast as possible, while during the famous Christmas holidays you kinda want the time to just stop, but like they say, all great things come to an end. The holidays were great, spent some quality time with the jets,  we played light saber pong, we went running, we played some catan, we went running, we played the extra terrestrial version of catan, twilight imperium and we went running. That basically sums up every holiday we ever have together, lots of board games, ping pong, and running, lots of running. Even if this holiday has just come to an end, I'm already looking forward to the next, I'm also looking forward to the outdoor track season, even tho school sports are canceled over here in the O prov, we still get to hit up some pretty solid club meets and I'm still going to have a chance to improve my times which means I still get to put in hundreds of miles and many more ice baths, amen to that.

This is AP ans stay classy NPS.

Bed Bound

It's a new year and for most it's a fresh start, a replenishing of the systems one would call it, and my cleansing took the form of food poisoning. Everything out! And nothing in. Yes for the last 48 hours I have not consumed any food. I have been this lifeless bag of bones unable to walk more than 15 steps without needing to lie down for about an hour. My life has revolved around falling asleep during movies, drinking little bits of water and taking drugs, and calling my mom telling her I'm dying. But she doesn't care being a nurse and all, she has seen worse. Looking on the bright side though got down to race weight really quick, easily losing at least 5-10 pounds.

This was also my first two days back at school. My life is awesome.

loving life.
rj