Worf's First Run

Took Worf out for a run this morning around the local streets. Both of us unshod. The roads are rough asphalt with plenty of loose rocks. I forgot to look at the time again, so that's a guess.

Worf, Resting

When we took Worf for his last shots we noticed how leash-shy he acted, so this was a good chance for him to practice being on leash. He did really well. Mostly stuck right by my side, rarely pulled. Never barked or really tried taking off after bunnies. When other dogs barked he ignored them. Cars scared him, but there's little traffic on the street. He crowded my legs as we ran past one car parked on the street, but otherwise handled it fine. I think with a bit more practice he'll turn out to be a good running companion. I'll need to get him down to the trail so we can work on passing other people, dogs, and bicyclists.

As far as I can tell at this point my feet handled the rough surface fine. Nice short run, a bit misty at times but not really rainy. Solid cloud cover and 59° F degrees.

When a Tree Falls

Tree Down Across Trail

Thursday I took a rest day and didn't ride after all, but I headed back out to work on the trike yesterday. I still felt a little tired but actually made good time. About a mile before trail's end I came across a tree down across the trail. A dog walker on the other side and I looked at moving it off the trail but there was no way. I was able to get around the end riding through the brush alongside the trail. Later, after work, the county parks folks had already cleared it away! It made me think how quickly these trails would disappear without someone to maintain them.

This week has already set new mileage records for me. I'm tired this morning, I pushed harder yesterday, but at the moment I still think I'm going to ride. Probably slowly. Or I might change my mind. I guess I'll know after I see how the morning goes.

Second Day

Heading to Work

It's been almost two years since we moved into our small rural 1970s ranch house. When we bought the house one of the things I particularly liked was that the house sits about a half mile from the Yelm-Tenino Trail. Not only that but the trail runs all the way down to within about 800 feet of work, giving me a perfect gentle ride to work. A little over ten miles, about 10.44 as Google Maps it. When we first moved in I thought I'd end up riding nearly every day unless a meeting or something meant I needed to drive.

Only that hasn't happened. Sure, I've ridden to work, but at my best I've ridden two days out of a week. Rarely two days in a row. Now that I'm thinking about mountain bikes and riding much longer endurance events I have added incentive to ride more regularly, but I don't think I'd be doing it if I hadn't lost so much weight by following the Primal Blueprint (mostly). Since February I've lost over thirty pounds. That's almost as much as the trike weighs! I think the last time I checked I had lost 32 lbs, but I think I might have lost a couple more since then. On top of eating better I've also been running lately and I think that's made a difference in riding the trike as well.

So now I've ridden two days in a row. I'd like to keep it going. I guess I'll see tomorrow.

Heading Home

I still have a long ways to go before considering anything like the Arizona Trail Race or the Tour Divide, but I'm starting.

Yelm Prairie Line Trail

Yelm Bound

This morning I rode down the Yelm-Tenino Trail all the way to Yelm and then went across the street and headed down the Yelm Prairie Line Trail, just as far as the trail head and parking at 1st. Turned around there and rode back. It was a nice cool morning, mostly sunny with scattered clouds. I felt strong and the ride went well. Before I left I realigned my boom which took care of the chain-dropping problem I had yesterday. I still need to tweak the brakes a bit to get them right, but they work so that's good. Lots of bunnies out today!


As rides go this isn't a particularly challenging or lengthy ride, but that's okay. I'm working on getting out each day to ride or run. It's easy on a beautiful day like today. What's more of a challenge is running or riding in the rain, cold, etc. I need to get used to adverse conditions. As part of that my assumption these days is that I'm going out. The weather doesn't matter. Usually once I'm out in the rain I don't mind it at all, it's just overcoming that mental barrier first.

Yelm Prairie Line Trail Head

In any case, a good way to start the day!

Brakes Fixed

I'm gradually learning how to deal with more mechanical issues on the trike. Today I replaced the brake cables that had gotten so filled with junk that you couldn't even pull the cables out of the housing. New housing and cables and then the brakes work. I think they could still be adjusted better, but they work so much better now! Went for a short ride around through town to try them out. I need to get the chain a little tighter, it bounced off twice, but otherwise everything works great.

Now that I can ride again I plan to increase my mileage on the trike by commuting more regularly. If I'm not riding the trike I'll go for a run. One way or the other I plan to get out each day.

Barefoot Blisters

I went out this morning barefoot, carrying my huaraches in my hands, the Spot GPS strapped to my arm. At 59 °F the cloudy morning felt about perfect for running. Cool without being cold, a light breeze stirring the mostly Douglas fir trees along the road. This road hasn't been repaved in many years and my feet felt all the small stones, the cracks and loose pebbles. I pressed the button on the Spot to track my progress and started out with small, light steps.

The surface felt rough, hard, but not actually painful to run on. I ran as light as I could, each foot fall a nearly silent padding along the road. I wore shorts and a t-shirt but felt comfortably cool. My breaths flowed in and out. My calves felt stiff and tight but I didn't push, letting the run loosen them up as I headed down the road.

A half-mile on I headed down the steep hill to the trail as a car passed me going the same way. The Yelm-Tenino trail felt much smoother after the rough road and I settled into the run, cruising along, enjoying the fact that my feet felt good. At the train crossing I paused and checked my feet. No hot spots. Everything looked good. I kept going.

On up the trail past a woman walking two big dogs, up into town, still barefoot. Surprising, but my feet felt good so I kept carrying the huaraches. Heading through town I ran across a few stretches, at driveways, littered with small gravel. No problem.

It wasn't until I headed on out of the main part of town, back onto the rough road that I thought maybe I'd pushed my bare feet a bit too far. I stopped and checked over the bottoms of my feet and found a blister on the ball of my right foot, and a few other suspicious parts. Rather than risk more problems I slipped on the huaraches and ran the rest of the way home.

A good run, a few blisters, but those will go away soon. Eventually I'll leave the huaraches at home! 3.54 miles on this loop, it's a good start for now. I hope to have my trike's brakes repaired soon and then I'll get back into riding the trike on my commutes more often. I still plan to keep running too.

Final Beach Run

Headed out shod in huaraches until I hit the beach then went barefoot the rest of the run, including the pavement on the way back.


Went out along the beach making good time before turning around after fifteen minutes and heading back. My right foot bothered me some so I ended up walking a bit, so I took longer than planned. The air tasted salty today, the ocean gray and more active beneath mostly cloudy skies. Big clouds hung above the water off the coast.


I like running on the beach. Roads and multi-use trails can't really compete with a beach. The biggest problem with the beach? Development and crowds. The same things that draw me draw everyone else. 


So if I needed to pick between a crowded beach and a quiet forest trail? The forest trail wins every time.


I definitely feel the running in my legs. A small blister on my big toe bugs me a little, but not too much. Mostly I feel strong running. After losing over thirty pounds, it feels great to run!

Hilltop Run

Went running before lunch at the Hilltop. Followed HWY 101 a bit, then took to the back roads (I'd mapped my route before leaving so I didn't get lost) and got to see lots of houses, many nice places, quieter than I'd have thought. VERY hilly terrain, and a section of Bard is nothing but big gravel / dirt road. Bard comes right out across from the Hilltop, but I went the quarter of a mile or so up to the light and crosswalk to cross HWY 101, and then came back down to the Hilltop. I was going to run back to the Anchor after lunch but changed my mind and bummed a ride with one of my fellow students. I felt strong during the run, all in my huaraches, guessing at the time, but that's pretty close given when I checked the time. Maybe I should get a watch.

Camping and Run

Stealth Camping

Last night it looked like a great, if windy night, to go string my Hennessy hammock up between some trees in the woods. It was the first time this year that I've camped out. Sleeping outdoors in the hammock is great fun, cool, listening to the breeze and the whine of mosquitoes (protected from them by the netting), all in the comfort of the hammock. Late in the night I found it a little chilly but that mostly just made me want to stay in the sleeping bag. When I get closer to doing bikepacking trips I'll probably look at a different bag, and maybe a ground pad and bivy. We'll see.

Right about when the sky started getting light I woke up, huddled in the sleeping bag for a few more minutes, then slipped on out of the bag and hammock. I strapped my spot onto my arm and headed out for a morning run up through town and back.

It was a great morning for a run. I stuck to the huaraches for the first leg down to the trail and then ran barefoot for a while until I started feeling a couple hot spots that I noticed the other day. Not really wanting blisters I slipped the huaraches back on and continued running. I made it back up to our street before the plantar fasciitis acted up in my right foot. I ended up walking a bit then to let it relax, but not nearly as much as my last run. Ended up with a better time. Took care of our animals and sat down to ice my foot, drink a banana/blueberry coconut milk smoothie, and write this. Good way to start the day.

Endurance Training

I never considered myself an endurance athlete. Or really any kind of athlete. Sure, I did track and field in school, I lifted weights, I went without a car and walked or rode a bike pretty much everywhere until a few years ago. But the bar set by my parents was always so high that I didn't really think of myself as an athlete. Both of my parents are my heroes, and they both run tons of miles. They'd totally run me into the ground. My dad has completed several ultras including the Leadville 100 mile run!

Gradually I started following other folks online like Kent Peterson and Jill Homer, doing fantastic things like the Tour Divide. And the bug bit. It sounded incredible, impossible, but I started following the race. I watched Ride the Divide several times and started dreaming. Could I possibly do something like that? At my age? At my weight? Hard to imagine!

Then on a bright sunny day I took a self-portrait so I'd have a recent picture to include with an article. Wow, I look fat!

At that point I wasn't really exercising and my eating habits needed changing. I'd heard about primal/paleo diets, eating with an eye toward eating the sort of foods we evolved to eat rather than what we started eating after agriculture came about, and thought it made a lot of sense. I talked it over with my wife and she agreed to take the plunge. We eliminated most processed, refined foods, grains and sugar. I read Mark Sisson's The Primal Blueprint and started looking at other books. And the pounds came off.

Back in May I posted my first 'before/during' picture of the changes, down 27 lbs at that point. I've gone down more since then, having lost 30 lbs now (with some weight gain during the short story workshop).

I'm feeling so much better these days! Running, cycling, all of it seems much more possible now. I went out this morning and ran 3.54 miles. The brakes on my trike are out of commission right now but as soon as I fix those I'm planning to ride much more than I've been riding lately. I figure I have another 10-20 lbs to drop before I get to pretty much an ideal weight and I have a long ways to go yet in building endurance and strength.

For the first time I'm starting to feel like it is possible. I think Kevin J. Anderson has the right idea in combining activity with writing. I don't know that I'll dictate my books, but I certainly want to keep active, keep moving and exploring.