It’s a slow process, but it’s progress in the right direction.  My running continues to come along.  I had a great workout yesterday. 

In June, a buddy asked me to come to Tahoe to pace him in his first 100 mile run, the Tahoe Rim Trail.  I despirately wanted to go, but because of my fitness, I was not comfortable telling him yes right away.  I asked him to let me get one of my benchmark workouts in over the weekend and let him know after that.  Well, that workout did not go well.  A course I’ve run in under 2 hours(in perfect, cool weather), and usually 2:15 to 2:20 in mid-summer conditions, took me just over 2:50 on that June workout.  Not only that, but I’d planned on doing that loop twice.  Just couldn’t do it.  Based on that, I had to turn him down, and miss being part of his first 100 mile run.  It killed me, but it motivated me.  I’ve run that same loop every other weekend since then, and yesterday clicked it off in 2:23, and still had plenty of energy to play some baseball with William afterwards.

That’s a great step forward.  Unfortunately, I’ve not done so well on the weight loss side of things, a week of vacation, with ‘pre-vacation’ and ‘post-vacation’ excuses, and I’ve not lost an ounce in 2 1/2 weeks.  I have had a lot of good beer though! 

Has my running turned a corner?  FINALLY?   I think so!      Only a short run, a little over 4 miles, but for the first time in months, I REALLY felt good.  I ran hard, pushed the hills, and was very surprised that while I certainly wasn’t what I’d call fast, a couple 3 minutes off my best for that course, it was a time that fits in with a lot of training runs I’ve done when in much better shape.    

Keep in mind, I normally run in the hottest part of the Florida day(1-3 oclock), or evening thunderstorm conditions so humid I need gills to breath, so even when in good shape, it’s really difficult to run well in mid-summer.  Most runs this year have turned into a test of survival, slow jogging (badwater shuffle type stuff), or taking walk breaks.

This run was hot, muggy, and with humidity better suited for a catfish than a human, but I was truckin!   Pushed the pace,  push hard on a uphill, then back off and recover without almost stopping.

I’m sure it helps that I’ve lost 8 lbs in the last 3 weeks.  With Tamara’s help, I’ve been very focused on a quality diet. 

Well, that’s not much news, but it’s good news to me!

 Congratulations to all the Badwater runners that just finished the 31st Badwater Ultramarathon.  First time in three years that I have not been out there putting it all on the line.  I missed it.  A buddy of mine was wearing a SPOT GPS tracking device, so I could go online, and see his updated track every 10 minutes.  It was very cool.  

 OH, and good luck to the VOLSTATE runners that start their 500k (320 miles!!!) trek in Tennessee tomorrow.  Some supported with a crew, and some that, believe it or not, will go the whole 500 kilometers with NO support crew.  They carry what they need, and stop and buy anything else.  10 day time limit.   

THAT sounds like fun next year, huh?!

Oh, check this price of gas for folks going through Death Valley…

At least I can’t, not anymore.  As much as I love running, over the last few years of ‘only ultra-running’ type workouts, ie. SLOW RUNS, my upper body has continued to get weaker, and my body fat has gone UP.  NOT a good thing.  So I’ve started a new program with some high intensity running, and high intensity weight lifting.  Not isolated, body builder type stuff, but explosive, full body workouts including uphill sprints and gymanstics ring workouts.   All it REALLY means is that right now, I am very tired, and very sore, but hey, I’ve lost 5 lbs. (only 25 more to go!) 

Update on the HISTORY CHANNEL Modern Marvels SUPERHOT episode, that features the Badwater Ultra, with a few seconds of ME running in the event.  It will be rebroadcast Saturday the 28th at 7:00pm Eastern. look for #32, Spiderman shorts and cowboy hat.  Shouldn’t be difficult to find, huh?

Ashley, the horse whisperer, has trained another of our Arabians to ride.  She did the same with my horse, we got them as youngsters, having never been ridden.  And two weeks ago, she got on Uno (TCA The One his registered name, we call him Uno) for the first time.  Since then, her and I have done several rides around the property and he’s just doing great.

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 Fathers Day has come and gone, and my big present?  A pedicure from Emily.  Full blown deal, she primped, painted and ground dead skin off my feet with this electric drill thing.  Don’t I look pretty in my flaming Superman pajamas and painted nails?  Thanks Emily!

OK, I admit, not my first pedicure either! The first was by Tamara the night before 2003 Ironman USA, in Lake Placid, NY.  Which was one of my most memorable events, not my best, but very cool, finishing in the same Olympic Skating Oval that Eric Heiden dominated the Olympics with 5 gold medals many years ago.  LINK TO REPORT OF THAT EVENT  Her and Ashley gave me French Pedicure.   Pretty weird, I know.

Last night , about a four second snippet of me running at the 2007 Badwater 135 Ultramarathon made it on the History Channel’s Modern Marvels:Superhot.  

 A buddy of mine recorded it on his phone, and posted it for me.  THANKS MANNY! 

HOW COOL IS THAT!   I’m #32 and about 40 seconds into the video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYgJVnVSFgg

I went for a run yesterday, and I felt that desire to crank it up again.    I am about to enter a 100 miler for November, and start serious training for that.  Kind of excited about it, after taking several months of rest. 

 When I got home from my run, Tamara and my daughter Emily were waiting for me to help her complete a homework assignment of measuring how far one of her parents could run in 10 seconds.  In her PE class, they had to see how far THEY could run in 10 seconds.  So, Emily marks a starting line and sends me off, Tamara monitors the clock,  Ashley is down the street to mark the finish spot.  I’m feeling like an idiot trying to sprint on legs that don’t do a lot of sprinting these days.  While they are screaming wildly for me to go faster like it’s a real race,  the neighbors are sitting out on their property with friends,  drinking beer and wondering what the heck the Harper’s are up to now.

The measurement was 282 feet and some inches.  Not even a day later, and I wish I could do it again, I could go much farther with a better start and quicker accelaration.  I slow getting to top speed.  Funny how I can break that 10 seconds into 3-4 different pieces just like you might a long distance run.  Forget it, I think I’m too old to start training for the 100 yard dash!

I came inside the house gasping for air.  WOW, that was hard!  I cannot believe how long it took me to recover from that effort of 10 seconds of 100% effort.  It’s very different to run like that, to give 100% effort from a complete rest,  than it is to do the long aerobic distances, or even to sprint to the finish of something like a triathlon run, or 5 or 10k.   It was fun, and Emily was impressed that I went far.   

Horses on Saturday, Motorcycles on Sunday.  What could be better?

On Saturday, Ashley and I, took Reggie and Rocky to Croom for some trail riding.  It’s a State Park about an hour from us, hundreds of acres of hiking, biking and horse trails.  I’ve run hundreds and hundreds of training miles out there,  now I’m starting to rack up miles on my horse.    We ended up riding about 4 1/2 hours and had a great time.  Covering a lot of ground that we’ve never seen,  I was on Rocky FAR longer than I ever had been.  We did quite a bit of trotting, and though I worried about overdoing it, he never acted like he was tired, and today, Sunday, he does not seem sore.   He truly seems to love the trails as much as I do, he’s curious, wants to see what’s around the next bend,  hates to stop, and always wants to be moving, and moving quickly if I’ll let him.  I’m lovin’ it.   Ashley and I were both exhausted when we got back to the trailer.  Here are some photos from our day, and a couple of videos.  Click the thumbnails to see a larger photo, and click the link to see the video segments.

Croom 2008 Video 1

Croom 2008 Video 2

Then Sunday, I was to meet a buddy for some motorcycle riding in the dirt.  He ended up not being able to make it, but I headed out to get dirty anyway.  I hooked up with a couple of other riders on the trails, and not a mile after that, I ran out of gas(having to turn my tank to reserve.)  That sent me heading out of the woods, back down the road to fill up.  After that, I went exploring on many trails in the Withlocochee(sp?) Forest that I’d never been on, and found and marked on my GPS a trailhead for some horse trails I’d also never seen before.  Maybe a future trip for me and Ashley.  Never crossed paths with any other motorcycle riders, but did see both wild turkeys and deer.  I rode about 75 miles total, and was so busy riding I never stopped and took any pictures.  

  Back home, safe and sound.  Awesome weekend.

On the way back from Alabama, William and I made a detour to begin a quest that I’m sure will last for many years.  We are going to climb to the highest point of all 50 states, that is our goal.  On January 27, 2008, we started the quest in Florida at the lowest of the 50 states high points, Britton Hill, a whopping 345 feet above sea level.

Some will be easy, almost administrative, like this one, whereas others will be quite the adventure.  We intend to do each one with some type of hike or some adventure associated with it, so even if a high point is drivable, like Alabama, we will go to the bottom of the mountain and do the climb/hike to the top if it is at all practical.  On this one we did about a 1 mile hike around the park, just exploring the nearby woods. 

We don’t have a timeline, and plan to just have a fun time of knocking off as many states as we can.  We’ll probably get 7 or 8 mostly in the East this year.

 But number 1 of 50 is down.  We took a few photos and I’ve set up a separate photo album where we’ll have photos of us as each high point here…http://daveharperphotos.irun100s.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=63301

William and I made the trek up to North Alabama for Mountain Mist 50k.   I love that race, it was the first Ultra I ever ran, and it’s pretty much all gnarly, rocky, steep single track, which is right up my alley.    We lived in Huntsville for 10 years, and I spent many hours running up on Monte Sano mountain when we lived there.  Though at the time, I was running roads and not trails.   I’ve completed Mt. Mist 6 times now, on my way to 10, to earn a 10 time finishers jacket.  That will be the first event of any kind that I’ve done that many times. 

In any case, I ALMOST did not even go up to run.  On Monday, I called my friends in Huntsville and told them I wasn’t coming.  I was so out of shape, I really didn’t know if I would be able to finish, and saw no need to just go up there and suffer.  By Wednesday, I was rethinking it.  I called again, and let them know that I would be there Friday evening, ready to run (or try to) on Saturday.

Turns out, I had a great time.  While I am very overweight, and have not done much of any running since last July.  Since Badwater last year, I have done two 13 mile runs, and a few 10 milers.  Other than that, it’s been 1 or 2, 3 miles runs most weeks, and not every week at that.  My weight is as high as it’s ever been in my life.  So trying to cover 31 miles of rocky, mountainous single track trail, with fairly strict cutoffs was not going to be easy, and maybe impossible.  The race is advertised saying ‘ THIS IS NOT A HIKE’ and I know this course is not for walkers, it’s a trail RUNNING course.   Being aware of my lack of fitness going in, my Hunstville friends and crew smartly decided to use two vehicles and be setup in two teams, one team for William (their William, not my son William) and girlfriend, who likely would be very fast, and me, who would not be very fast.  I knew that my job was to be conservative, use the knowledge of my body, effort and caloric/fluid needs to maintain a fast enough pace, without putting myself into too difficult a situation by pushing the pace.  I would not have time to overextend myself, crash and burn, and recover.   Had I done that, I would not have finished.

My goal was just to enjoy the day, and put another finish in the bank.  I actually had a great time, never was in any distress or pain, and just cruised very easily.  I was somewhat nervous the first half, as I really didn’t know what to expect of my out of shape legs and cardio system, but everything held up ok.  By the half way mark, I was feeling pretty good about things, and able to really enjoy it.  Vince met me at every aid station, and I really enjoyed stopping and chatting with him for several minutes each time.    One guy on the course, that I kept passing, asked me how I kept passing him, when he never remembered passing me.  Turns out I was hanging out in the aid stations talking to Vince, and he’d go by, then I’d catch and pass him.  I ended up running the last 1.5 miles with this guy, who was also from Florida, and finishing HIS sixth MMist also. 

The day was classic Mountain Mist, heavy fog in the morning, with very limited visibility and cold.  William Ansick, my young 21 year old friend from Huntsville did awesome.   Tami and I are friends with his parents, and we’ve known William since he was a little bitty boy.  He was at my first Mountian Mist run with his family helping me at the aid stations, and has been to several of my triathlons as a spectator.  In addition, he’s been part of the crew on all three of my Badwater runs.  After High School, he took up the triathlon sport, and is now also ultrarunning.  This was his third, and fastest MMist, and the cool thing, his time 5:19, is also MY Personal Best on the Mountain Mist course.    I’m sure next year he’ll blow that away and it’s been pretty neat to see him go from little boy, to coming to watch me race, to crewing Badwater,  to now becoming a quite accomplished young ultrarunner.  Congratulations to him.

For me, I’m very motivated now to hit the trails again, do some running, start eating right again and get myself back into a fit, running state.  It is going to take a while, but I’ll get there.

William(my william) and I had a good trip up, and back.  He had fun climbing and playing on the playground while I was running, though I know he tried the patience of everyone.  On the way back, we made a detour to Florida’s highest point, details of that to follow.