Sun, Oct 19-Sat, Oct 25

Sun Oct 19: AM. Ran two loops around Lake Monona in 2 hours 50 mins. It rained lightly for the first bit, then stayed cloudy. Temp in the upper 40s.

Mon Oct 20: AM. A 45 min run on the Capital City Trail and around Monona Bay. The sun was rising over clear blue skies with a temp of 36°. PM. A 50 min run on the Capital City Trail and over trails in Olin Park. It was sunny at first, then became cloudy. Temp in the low 60s.

Tues Oct 21: AM. An 80 min run on the Capital City Trail and the SW Path. Darkness giving way to mostly clear skies, temp of 47°. PM. An 80 min run on the Capital City Trail. It was 45° with periods of light rain.

Wed Oct 22: AM. Ran 25 mins to the Edgewood track, did 3x1600m (5:37, 5:35, 5:25), ran 25 mins back. Darkness giving way to cloudy skies. Windy. Temp in the mid 40s. PM. A 45 min run on the Capital City Trail and over residential streets. It was cloudy and 46°.

Thurs Oct 23: AM. A 75 min run on the Capital City Trail and SW Path. Darkness giving way to partly cloudy skies, temp of 38°. PM. A 75 min run on the Capital City Trail, over trails in Olin Park, and on residential streets. The sun was setting over mostly clear skies, temp in the upper 40s.

Fri Oct 24: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. The sun was rising over clear skies with a temp of 29°. PM. A 30 min run on the Capital City Trail. It was sunny and 52°.

Sat Oct 25: AM. In Verona, ran 10,000m on the Badger Ridge track in 36:16 (5:59, 5:57, 5:28, 5:59, 5:58, 5:29, 0:82). It was cloudy and in the 30s. AM2 A 45 min run over trails in the Badger Prairie County Park. It was around 40° and raining.

Good week. Probably about 120 miles. Long run on Sunday, doubles Mon-Sat with some faster stuff on Wednesday and Saturday. I might cut back just a little these next couple weeks with the Houdini 10k coming up on November 1 and the Madison Marathon November 9.

October

A strange thought occurred to me while I was sitting here last night. There was a slight rain coming down. Somehow a slight rain coming down in the night in October brings out the thickest of juices from the darkest corners of my noggin. October is a strangely swinging month. The month of October has bugged artists and writers since the beginning of time. Thomas Wolfe wrote endless stuff about October. Ray Bradbury lived in that region of our world known as the October Country… 

that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…

This is the month, October. October is probably the most exciting month. April, on the other hand, is another exciting month in a very different way. But October is here. It really is here. And even with the World Series approaching, I can’t even get interested in it. With the Brew Crew out of it, it’s as though the season is over. Now get outta my way will ya Freddie Freeman! I’ve had enuff of this. I just want to clear the decks. Let’s get it over with and go home! Why don’t you guys just give it to the Dodgers already. They only paid $321.3 million for it. We’ll hear enough of them for the next year on.

For most of the ball season, I listened to the Brewer games on the radio, but I happened to watch their last game on TV. Now I don’t know what it is with the unimaginitive camera men who do TV broadcasts on baseball. I’m serious. Like the other night, when the Dodgers beat the Brewers in that final playoff game "The Shohei Ohtani Show", they didn’t even think to take one shot of the defeated Brewers going into their dugout. This would be unbelievably more dramatic than the Dodgers jumping around all over each other. Everybody knew what they’d be doing. They’d all be hitting one another and hollering and throwing their caps up in the air. But what about these guys who’ve been leading the major league for the past three months? Suddenly down the drain it all goes. Just like that. Not one shot. I kept thinking, let’s take a look at what the Brewers are doing! But not one shot. They didn’t bother to cut once to that dugout.

Another thing that gets me is this whole bit of sticking commercials about the ball players right in the middle of the game. Have you noticed this? Teams have taken to putting commercials in the middle of the game to let you know you’re seeing something great. You know, those things they flash up on the scoreboard. It says: “Mookie Betts is a great player and he has just stolen his seventh base. Hooray for Mookie”. It’s all so silly! Or they might say a thing like: “Sal Frelick playing for the Milwaukee Brewers has hit in three straight games. Sal Frelick is also a great fielder and has not made an error in over two weeks”. It’s as though there is a continuing running commercial even though your head is asleep because the game is so boring and nothing is happening. It’s a continuing running commercial to let you know you’re seeing something great.

I don’t know why I got into baseball. I’m not going to say anything more about baseball. I don’t even want to think about baseball right now.

So I’m sitting here last night and it’s raining and it’s October and all of a sudden it occurs to me what a great thing it is just to be alive at this very moment. All this wild stuff going on—even the stuff that is ridiculous in all its seriousness. There’s a certain amount of excitement about it. I feel sorry for people who continually get bowed down by the troubles of the world. People who feel sad when it rains in October. Or those who get down when their favorite ball team loses. There are some people who don’t seem to realize that trouble is the lot of man and he better even enjoy the trouble that’s happening. I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is and it’s not going to go away. It really ain’t going to go away.  

One of the fascinating things about us nutty humans is we feel that life is like a giant slate, an enormous blackboard. And it’s got all kinds of bad stuff written all over it. We’re all given erasers. We work very hard and we finally get that whole board erased and it will be a clean blackboard. We just got to have a clean slate. Then we can start building a real life. And yet all the while we are constantly being bitten by the hounds of hell, they are nipping at our hocks and we can’t figure it out. We thought we had everything cleared away! The price of gas is going up again. I mean what is all the trouble?!

This world that we live in is one of the most amusing. Certainly, there is no excuse ever to be bored in this existence. That is the one thing you can’t be. If you’re bored you have somehow let the scales grow over your eyeballs and you have allowed the potatoes to grow in your ears. Because really, all you have to do is look around and listen for just any 30 second period of the day and you can’t help but blow a gasket. Sometimes you fall right out of your swinging chair and land on your head just laughing with the way it is.

Like yesterday afternoon, I was walking downtown and I saw a fully grown adult man wearing an inflatable T-Rex costume. And the guy was slowly and very seriously trying to check for an apartment vacancy sign in the window of a business building. The combination of the ridiculous costume, the speed required to maneuver in it, and the utterly mundane task of apartment-hunting made for a very entertaining slice of everyday absurdism. Madison is the capital of weirdos. You can take a stroll through this town any time of the year (not just Halloween season) dressed in a T-Rex costume and no one will blink an eye. Oftentimes I stop at Festival Foods after a run. And I won’t feel out of place in the least walking around the store donning my short running shorts and a sweat soaked t-shirt and ordering a six pack of Staghorn, a Mr. Goodbar, eleven bananas and a tube of tooth paste. Because you can bet that there’ll be at least three other freaks in the store who are ten times stranger than me.

It is easy to find the absurdity in the bazaar, but there are lots of everyday normal things that really amuse me. Some of the most ordinary things in nature can fill me with great joy. Things like watching a couple squirrels chase each other around a tree. Or kicking a rock. I can even let my mind get carried away with the leaves as they blow in the October wind. October is here. It really is here and it truly is a great feeling just to be alive in this crazy thing called life.

“We live in the best of all possible worlds, so hand me a Kent for my left, a Bud for my right, turn on Starsky and Hutch and listen to that soft, harmonious note that is the universe turning smoothly on its celestial gyros.”

~ Charles Everett Decker

Sun, Oct 12-Sat, Oct 18

Sun Oct 12: AM. A 90 min run over trails in the Big Eau Pleine Park, most of it with the old folks (dad running and mom biking). It was mostly sunny early, then became cloudier late in the run. Temp in the 50s.

Mon Oct 13: AM. In Marshfield, A 50 min early morning run over residential streets and on the bike path. It was dark and 53°. PM. In Deerfield, A 40 min run on the Glacial Drumlin Trail. It was mostly cloudy till the sun came out at the end. Temp of 68°.

Tues Oct 14: AM. A 30 min run on the Capital City Trail. It was partly sunny and 44°. PM. In Deerfield, A 30 min run on the Glacial Drumlin Trail. It was lightly raining and in the 60s.

Wed Oct 15: AM. In Deerfield, ran 20,000m on the DFHS track in 1:13:40 (5:42, 5:40, 5:42, 6:10, 6:13, 6:12, 5:44, 5:40, 5:41, 5:59, 5:57, 5:57, 2:58), ran 45 mins at slow pace on the Glacial Drumlin Trail, stopped for about 5 mins to shit, then ran 5,000m on the track in 18:08 (5:54, 5:54, 5:38, 0:40). It rained for the first few miles, then cloudy. Temp in the low 50s. PM. A 40 min run over residential streets and on the Capital City Trail. It was cloudy and 56°.

Thurs Oct 16: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Darkness giving way to cloudy skies with a temp of 53°. PM. A 35 min run on the Capital City Trail. Getting dark out, temp in the low 60s.

Fri Oct 17: AM. A 65 min run on the Capital City Trail and the Wingra Creek Path. It rained a little early, then became more clear. Temp 62°. PM. A 30 min run on the Capital City Trail. It was partly cloudy and 76°.

Sat Oct 18: AM. On the Badger Ridge track in Verona, did an 800, 800, 1600, 800, 800, 1600, 800, 800 with half the distance recoveries (2:44, 2:42, 5:24, 2:43, 2:44, 5:22, 2:42, 2:40). It was partly cloudy and in the low 60s. AM2 A 50 min run on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country course. It was sunny and in the upper 60s.

I took off work Wednesday and headed to Deerfield for a longish tempo run (~35k including 25k at a good pace). Saturday’s track session is one I borrowed from Charlie Spedding’s ‘84 Olympic Marathon build-up. The idea is to try to run the 1600s at around the same pace as the 800s. Charlie only ran his reps about a minute per mile faster than me.

Sun, Oct 5-Sat, Oct 11

Sun Oct 5: AM. Blew it! In Baraboo, ran 45 mins in Devil’s Lake State Park in search of a trail that was actually “runable”. All the trails were either too technical (steep-rocky-windy) or too crowded with people to break into a stride. Cut the run far shorter than I’d intended. Spent most of the day just hiking, swimming in the lake, and drinking beers. It was partly sunny and in the 70s.

Mon Oct 6: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Darkness giving way to mostly cloudy skies, temp of 65°. PM. A 60 min run on the Capital City Trail and over trails in Olin Park. It was cloudy with a few sprinkles. Temp of 57°.

Tues Oct 7: AM. On the Cannonball Path with VURG, did a tempo mile then 3x5 mins fast with 3 min recoveries. It was dark and in the low 50s. PM. Ran two loops around Lake Wingra in 90 mins. The sun was setting over mostly clear skies with a temp in the low 60s.

Wed Oct 8: AM. A 60 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path to Picnic Pt. Darkness giving way to clear blue skies, temp around 40°. PM. A 75 min run around Lake Wingra and over trails in the arboretum. Left hamstring/groin is a bit achy. It was sunny and around 60°.

Thurs Oct 9: AM. Ran 25 mins to the Edgewood track, did 4x400m (70, 69,70,69), ran 25 mins back. Wanted to do at least a couple more 400s, but hamstring was bothering me. Felt ok otherwise. Darkness was giving way to clear skies with a temp of 36°. PM. No second run- resting leg.

Fri Oct 10: AM. No AM run. Took ice bath. PM. A 45 min run around Lake Wingra. The leg is still a little sore, but better. Hoping to run five miles fast tomorrow. It was sunny and 71°.

Sat Oct 11: AM. In Amherst for the Central Waters River Run 5 mile. Ran it in 27:42 (~5:32/mi) for 1st. I was a little worried about my sore leg going in, though thankfully it didn’t hurt a bit. The race was similar to last year- I led from the start and never had anyone near me. I tried to run the same time but ended up going a few seconds too fast. Oh well. Victory beers tasted good afterwards. Gorgeous day- mostly sunny and in the 50s.

Didn’t hurt a bit.

Sun, Sept 28-Sat, Oct 4

Sun Sept 28: AM. O my God! It’s my birthday! I’m 27 years old! Arghh!!! Eeekk!! Neeyaahghhg!! Good grief!! What’ll I do? Run 27 miles that’s what —There! Ran from New Glarus to Madison, WI in 3 hours 20 mins for 27+ miles. First 4 miles were over rolling hills through the scenic countryside, then on the flat Badger State Trail and SW Path the rest of the way. It was sunny with a temp in the low 50s when starting off in NG and probably close to 70° by the time I made it to Madison.

Mon Sept 29: AM. An 80 min run over trails in the Mendota Lakeshore Nature Preserve and on streets and paths by the University. First 20 mins with the old man. It was sunny and around 60°. PM. An 80 min run around Lake Monona. It was sunny and in the mid 80s.

Tues Sept 30: AM. A 75 min run on the Capital City Trail and on the SW Path. Darkness giving way to mostly sunny skies, temp in the upper 50s. PM. In Deerfield, A 75 min run on the Glacial Drumlin Trail. It was partly sunny and 80°.

Wed Oct 1: AM. An 80 min run on the Capital City Trail, the SW Path, Monroe St, 5 laps (2000m) on the Edgewood track in 6:55, and on the Wingra Creek Path. Darkness giving way to partly cloudy skies, temp of 57°. PM. An 80 min run around Lake Wingra and over trails in the arboretum. It was mostly cloudy and 77°.

Thurs Oct 2: AM. A 2 hour run on the Capital City Trail and Lower Yahara Riverway Trail. Darkness giving way to mostly clear skies with a temp in the mid-upper 50s. PM. Terry Chambers Concert.

Fri Oct 3: AM. A 75 min run on the Mendota Lakeshore Path and over trails in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. It was sunny and in the 60s. PM. A 75 min run on the Capital City Trail and on the Wingra Creek Path. It was sunny and 84°.

Sat Oct 4: AM. A 75 min run with the old man on the SW Path, the Wingra Creek Path, and on the Capital City Trail. It was sunny and 67°. PM. A 75 min run over residential streets in Maple Bluff. It was sunny and in the mid 80s.

I’m channeling my inner Mark Nenow— 140+ miles on the week. Only running fast when I feel like it. Which is most of the time.