Saturday, February 12, 2011

Potential + Vitamins + Dreams

POTENTIAL

Yes, that is one word summing up today. POTENTIAL

I received... okay was copied on an email last week about a run with "The Boys" out at Labanon Hills Park in Eagan, MN. I get these cursory copies because people know I will have a boiler plate/lame excuse of "I can't because (fill in lame excuse here)"

My response to "Wilson" was, "Maybe if you gave me more than 24 hours notice, I could make it". His response, "Okay, next week, same time, same place"

Zach was even surprised to see that I agreed to be running.

So it was 20 miles today on snow packed rolling hills.

Awesome! Considering it was my longest run Since IA50 LAST MAY, I was happy to go 10. But here is the better part: I have been working on new form. I call it the "not so quite POSE Running Method". I am probably 80% there. I was worried my feet would not make it 20. I knew my quads and calves could, but the feet are completely different in this form.

They made it. I am barely even sore, and I was only crapping out at the end. Which means...... I am not as out of shape as I thought.

It is February 12th, and I feel I am well on the road to being back in shape..... I just wish I knew of any races I could do.

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VITAMINS

I have been mildly, if not downright, depressed for a few months now. Nothing major, just "This weather sucks" moods. I have had zero desire to run. I even woke up a few weeks ago and thought "I think my running days are over". I had no desire to go run. I was enjoying being a sloth. Not really.

My wife had a checkup with the doc this week and the dock said "Your vitamin D is WAY low". You need to be taking supplements. I figured I would pop a few of dem' pills.

Magic. 4 hours after taking one, I actually felt happy. I actually had desire. I took them with Fish Oil pills.

A feel like a new man.

*********************
DREAMS

If any of you are on the MN Deadrunners email group, you already saw this, but here is the email I sent out to the group.

Since this group has been very quiet lately, I will give you something to think about and help me with.

Here is a synopsis of my dream last night.

* I signed up for Zumbro 100.
* I showed up completely unprepared. No gear, no water bottles, no headlamp, etc. (yeah, I know... that is reality)
* I had to go finish up a sales call the University where Zumbro was taking place. ????
* I looked at my watch at the end of the call, and saw I had 5 minutes to get to the start.
* I receive a text message from Larry Pederson that I have 5 minutes to get to the start or I am out of the race
* I have to run to the start on the other side of that Schools' campus, which..... coincidentally is in the middle of Civil War re-enactment... with live ammunition
* I did not make it in time.
* I woke up soon there after

The strangest thing I found from this dream was the fact that I got a text message from Larry. I would have expected morse code, or some cryptic Ham (Lake) Radio message.

I turn 40 on April 8 this year, which coincidentally is the race day for Zumbro. Does this mean I have some deep rooted issues? I thought all of my issues were pretty up front and center.

Hope everybody is doing well and surviving this crappy winter.

Matt Patten
Ham Radio Lake, MN


I will share some of the responses later, but the synopsis was "I have to run Zumbro 100"

So I decided to see where I was physically by throwing buildup miles to the wind, and bust out a 20.

No problem.

Now I just have to do another one of those, a 30, and maybe a 40. And I still probably won't be prepared.

But that is running.

Cheers

4 comments:

wildknits said...

Welcome back.

Per the medical folks I know no one can get enough sun (= Vit. D) at this latitude in the winter. Now, I am not positive about that (my experiment of one says it is possible), but I do know that the majority of folks tested at our clinic are deficient to some degree or other.

Will be looking for those Zumbro results!

Budducci said...

I think you have the same monkey on your back as I do...the big Zumbro DNF. I will say, though, I want watever you've been having to induce those dreams...what did you put in that Getting Chicked Ale?

Hope to see you out on the trails, and at Zumbro, one way or another.

SteveQ said...

I finally broke 20 miles for the first time since... last May! I might be ready to hit the trails in a few weeks (and maybe I'll see you at Zumbro).

I loved Storkamp's take on your dream. You'd never show up to a race unprepared (I chuckle about a few things you had for Ice Age in 2009, but it certainly didn't hurt!); that's more my style.

Runnin-From-The-Law said...

I recently got my vit D levels tested and was slightly under where I should be (even though I was taking 2000 IUs daily). Now I'm up to 4000 IUs daily and feel great.

Glad to see you back to blogging world!