#29 Jungle Warfare

Digem's Trails

#29 Jungle Warfare

Hello Digletts! On here I always complain about being awake early. It's been my favorite complaint for years. Look at this guy! Does he look like someone who will ever grow out of hating mornings? The answer is no, I haven't. And yes, I've always been ruggedly handsome without even trying in the morning.

Monday 7/7

Morning Run through town (6 miles) 44:56  7:29 pace

 "Looks like training is gonna start early, ladies. I called you a lady to humiliate and demean you. It's a motivational tool we coaches use." -Legendary Coach SquarePants

I truly can't express the amount of fatigue felt in my legs on this morning's run. The picture of Gary the snail is a good illustration of what I looked like today. I slept luxuriously for five hours until 7:15 and was out the door with Adam soon after. Actually, last night at three in the morning there was a loud noise outside the window that jerked me and Hunter awake. We shared our looks of relief from my bed to my futon that the walls were still standing because it sounded like someone just dozed the house. Or as he put it-something about an alien ship. Even a few hours after the incident I forget how he said it. A peteeve, hybriding words now, of mine is when people get offended that I don't remember what they have told me. I remember everything! After being awake for an hour. Likewise, I can't remember anything anyone tells me within the first hour of my day. It's been this way forever, I'm not changing. The run was fine I suppose. A morning run can only be so nice. The best part of morning runs is the silence from the infidels. It's just too early for people to yell stupid things at you. If they are up with the sun, chances are they are not happy about it.  Here is what my room looks like most nights. Out for the count, I just happened to wake up first on this occasion.

 I went to Barnes & Noble today to get the 8th-10th book in James Patterson's Alex Cross series for pops. He has quickly read the first seven and now is further along the storyline than I am. He loves it, I loved the first few books. I eventually felt like it got watered down, but I think that's the kind of reader I am. To know that there are 22 books in this series means Alex Cross is living for a lot of pages. There's no way I could not kill off a character for 22 books. I like not knowing the fate of the main character. And I like death. For that reason too many people have recommended game of thrones to me. Evidently the writer takes the other extreme and is constantly killing off the characters. But my friends Matt Parker and Trey Stone made game of thrones out to be nothing more than a montage of male genitalia so I probably won't get into that show/books. I did notice this new Kurt Vonnegut book while I was there. I sat down and read one of the short stories. When Mortals Sleep is the name of it I think. If I'm not mistaken it is a collection of short stories that weren't published in his lifetime. If you haven't read anything by Vonnegut... better late than never.

Evening Run from Terra Cafe (10 miles) 1:12:50  7:20 pace

Adam was with me for the first three miles before he turned around and Josh rode with me the entire way. I was vocal about not wanting to run faster than 7teens pace, but that was mostly because I didn't think that I could run faster than that. Yesterday's 23 mile trail run was equivalent to sticking my legs in a trash compacter. All last week I was logging 105 miles and pretty peppy about the entire week. I think that was because I had been going through the motions for the last year or so. Not that long, but it felt like forever since I structured my training. Totally worth it though because I feel like I haven't actually trained in a lifetime so it's exciting. On the way back to the car was miserable. Just a constant barrage of little bugs smacking me in the chest and face. I got so pissed and started bitching about anything I could think of. There was a perfect storm of eating bugs, dead legs, and sticky air that made me just sour. But you will have those days. Training isn't always fun. For me there are times when I hate it like today. But while I was angry I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be doing. Running isn't always enjoyable, doesn't mean I don't enjoy the ride. Nothing is always enjoyable.

Speaking of things that I don't enjoy- I used to have this weakness to a gaming franchise called Call of Duty. Over recent years I have outgrown my rage quitting days, but then came along such a good Fifa game. This game makes me so happy at times. With that joy comes times where I want to put my head through a wall. And that should sound too absurd if you read the entry where I mentioned losing a game of fifa while playing on my belly and smacking my head on the ground, blacking out for a couple hours. Through all of my video gaming days, my friend Austin has been on the crazy roller coaster ride with me. Brought together by baseball a decade ago. Kept together by gaming such as what you are about to see. He was there in 2008 when Call of Duty World at War blanked my online rank rather than prestiging me an 8th time. When I broke the disc and xbox 360 on the spot. He was there when I got in trouble for taking a hotdog into center field. Ladies and gents, welcome to our world: the world of Pink Fury-

If you dig into FSHS archives you'll see this gem of the dynamic duo

 Tuesday 7/8

Evening Run from Aldi (10 miles)  1:06:35 6:39 pace

The original plan was to workout today. Only because historically I workout on Tuesday, not the biggest fan of change. The weather channel screwed me today and that's hilarious because I avidly try to avoid listening to those idiots. I wish I got paid to be wrong all of the time. I can make wrong predictions and be far more entertaining with it for the same salary they make. That's what I don't get, if you know you're full of shit and aren't going to be right why not make it fun? If I were a meteorologist I would make it so funny. Then at the end of every prediction I'd break into my disclaimer voice- your results may vary. Today lightning struck and the two pets downstairs both twitched too hard. The two pets being Cadence and myself. I proceeded to say hell with the workout since Mr. Weather Guy said it wasn't going to let up until 1am. I looked out at the downpour, both rain and light hail. 'Well I screwed today's running up' was the thought. Then around 6 the sun came out and I said that I would just do 10 miles before it downpoured again. Which it didn't do again until like 11:30. I only blame the weather because it's the easy way out. Chances are I wouldn't have worked out anyway. Travis killed me Sunday and I still feel every mile in my legs. Can't imagine doing that again in a sense Sunday.

I came across this picture of me and my best friend for life, Marshdawg, today. He was the coolest pooch ever. I spent a lot of the run reminiscing moments to myself and I'm going to share two funny things about Marshdawg. 1- gayest dog in the world. I have umpteen examples, but the thing I loved about him was when a guy friend of mine came over- he was all about it. Rubbing up on them, getting belly rubs. I don't think there was one female that ever petted him. Every time I would come inside with a girl he would just leave the room, disappointed. Another funny story was this one time I got back from a basketball game and I couldn't find him anywhere. Eventually I looked upstairs in my room and he had pried open my big tub of cheesy balls and ate them all. When he was done he couldn't get his head back out of the container. I like to think the struggle was brief before he accepted his fate. Luckily I saved the day. Okay, one more story since this is a blog about running. I decided to take him for a jog even though he was a basset and it was the worst mistake ever! He ran my old street in Fairmont like so many high school kids run cross country races. I mean once we hit the road it was on! He was skippin right along, ears grazing the road, and then we made it a good 300 meters before he stopped to what I assumed was use the restroom or sniff something. Nope. He plopped over on his side and just laid there with his tongue on the road. He got his shamelessness from me. A car came and I tried to move him, but he was having none of that. Eventually I had to scoop his big ass up and carry him back to the house. He proceeded to sleep for a solid day, the typical routine. I can't wait to get another basset.

Wednesday 7/9

Afternoon Run through town (8 miles) 55:00 6:52 pace

Do I know how to double or what. I got lazy today and what was going to be my midweek long run turned into an 8 and 8 double day. I basically threw my daily plans into a hat and then pulled them out randomly. 3 days after the fact and my legs are still just absolutely thrashed. My general energy level as a whole feels down actually. I feel best when I am out running though. The rest of the day I have fogged goggles on and move very gingerly.

Night Run on Rail Trail + through town (8 miles) 1:00:20  7:32 pace

It's crazy how much slower everything is in the dark. I'm not sure if I have ever run fast in the dark. This run felt much better than the morning run and was a quicker course, yet much slower. I understand why that is though. The second I see my first bat of the night I go into full protection mode. Two winters ago a bat latched on to my shoulder and last summer a bat stuck to Josh's chest, no thank you. Lights go out, so does my care for running. Once it gets dark I'm just trying to make it back to my house. Yet I still plan out several runs to be done later in the evening. I have to give myself something to complain about. Hunter was with me on this run and we both did what you have to do before a night run- ate. He had taco bell probably five minutes before the start of the run and I was eating too. When my stomach starts growling before a run I think that if I don't eat prior to running then I'm going to pass out on the run and get eaten by bats. Nothing like settling in and playing some xbox with my hired critic-

Thursday 7/10

Fartlek (10 miles)

Today I decided to finally workout. I chose not to on Tuesday as you know. I returned to St. Francis for the first time in a long time. Though that middle school relocated years and years ago, I am going to continue to call the outdoor rec fields St. Francis. Morgantown has made a lot of changes since I began running around here and not one of them have benefited me. I'm convinced this town is out to sabotage my life. Which is okay with me because I have no long term ambitions with this town. Just a stepping stone. A stepping stone that is really far from the next available stones so I have to remain on this stone and think about my next move because between the stones lays hot lava. Or lays water deeper than 8 feet, both are equally lethal to me. Today was a trainwreck of a workout. Just a fartlek, tower hills, and fartlek but I only completed 2/3 of the workout. There are some days where I just don't eat enough for some reason. I love eating too. It was just one of those days where I spent the entire day spaced out and only had one bagel for breakfast. Before I knew it, time to warm up and didn't think twice until I started to workout. Up the hills I noticed that my arms were going numb, then I had that light headed sensation all over and pulled the plug. I still got my legs going a little, but far from successful workout. You'll have that. In my years of failed runs, I have acquired a quick memory. Or whatever the proper term would be for forgetting workouts, good or bad. Holding on to either more than the cool down is counter productive. Taking it all in stride. Would be a good name for this entry but I'm certain that I will have much harder knocks than this moving forward. So I will save that title for a later date. While on the subject, I am terrible at coming up with names most of the time for these things.


Here is what the old St. Francis looked like, when it was nice.

Constantly Glistening

Friday 7/11

In honor of my favorite person to follow on twitter:

Bert Tweet of the Week 

 

Afternoon run from Prickett's Fort (14 miles) 1:31:30 6:32 pace

Today's run was a slight improvement over yesterday. I think I just wasn't feeling well yesterday; dems da breaks. I enjoy the stretch of rail trail from Fairmont to Morgantown and that is where I went today. Turning around at 7 was annoying because it only takes 16/18 miles to get into morgantown and it always seems to cooler to run from one town to the other as opposed to half way and turning back.
After the run I finally got to use the Sandlot line- Way to go smalls, now we can't play! and it was sadly relevant. While playing soccer with the boys one of them booted the ball deep into the brush. I instantly yelled the line out. After ten valiant minutes of searching, no ball. So the game was over. I did take my sister's role as goalkeep. I am far worse of a goalie than she, but that's okay. Not too shaken up about it.

My futon most nights.

Friday night didn't end until four hours into Saturday. Nothing too crazy just stayed up with Hunter shooting shit and messing around on the xbox, typical girls night. Around three in the morning he started into grammatical errors that irritate him and I realized that I didn't really have one. If people wanna talk dumb, good for em. I tried to rack my mind and brought up the only common mistake that I don't understand. I said everyone always uses it, too. Sure enough I logged onto Facebook and noticed the first post was another example of it. When people say I could care less seems weird to me. For instance- I could care less as to what Justin Bieber is up to. But what I really mean is there is nothing that care less about, thus I could not care less. I physically couldn't care any less as to what he does. In that example. Just something I never understood. Doesn't mean I'm right, but I am. Truth is relative. If you think it true, it's true to a degree.

Saturday 7/12

Morning Run (6 miles) 

As I said yesterday didn't end until a few hours into today, so when this run kicked off at nine we were not moving any faster than your typical hobby jogger. Then we made our way back to Terra headquarters for awhile; allowing me to catch up on this entry. I've been hash slinging slacking. Next week I plan on going back to that arboretum loop workout. I think that I will be needing all of the climbing that I can get. Check out this latest picture from the Run the Rut 50k! It's only 2 months away.

Evening Run (4 miles)

This run originally was going to be 8 miles, but plans change. So do people. But that couldn't be more irrelevant. I can't remember, but this may have been close to the longest run that I've had without a blank BAC. Poppa Simpson came to town on this, the second birthday of the corgi. We went over Varsity Club for the first time in way to long and couldn't have picked a better sports day to do so. I mean summer D- League basketball was on; prime time. Then we came back and Josh beat me around the ring in one of the Fight Nights that he just got for like 2$. It was funny though because he knocked me on my ass in each of the first three rounds yet I won those rounds according to the judge. Hell one judge had me winning the round I got knocked out in. And that is one of the many reasons why any sport that has referees or judging is nothing more than a game. Because at the end of the day, the athletes don't always decide the outcome. Thankfully running isn't a popularity contest. My reasoning for cutting the run and my mileage short is because my right shin has been on fire recently and I was running on a hardy meal. So I packed it in. I convinced myself it was cool because this week and last will still average out to 100 per week. And if it didn't, who cares. No one likes a mileage Nazi. Speaking of Nazi's, I totally predicted Germany would win the World Cup on espn. As for rest of my bracket- garbage. Can't believe Portugal let those muricans out of pool play. Once every four years I pretend that I give a damn about soccer. After today, you probably won't hear of the sport for awhile. So if you are reading this for soccer, see you in 2018!

Sunday 7/13

Morning Trail Long Run @ Racoon Creek State Park, PA (10 miles)

Today was worst case scenario in several aspects. The humidity couldn't have been any worse, but you can work through that. The trails couldn't have been more overgrown, but you can work through that. Those two combined for Jungle Warfare and one of two things were going to happen. We were all going to trailblaze like no other(literally set the trails on fire) or we were going to crash and burn. The second happened. So what was supposed to be a 100 mile week has been bounced down to a 84 or 86, you can do that math I don't feel like adding it up. The one bright spot on this run was the shoes. My Hoka Rapa Nui's are heavenly and I am going to start wearing them more than just Sunday's now for the following simple reason- they feel 10x better than my other shoes. I've run in Josh's pair of Conquests as well which will be my next shoe investment. If you are anywhere near morgantown, Morgantown Running has both shoes in stock, but they have been flying off of the shelves. Run down there and get a pair before they are gone! Now for the play by play of today's decisive defeat I will turn it over to Travis and myself on this week's episode of Digem's Trails. Enjoy!       

Let me know if you prefer commentary or music to these videos. Or both, but that's demanding.

Post run consisted of traveling to Weirton, the sliver of WV that separates Ohio and PA, and hanging out through a massive thunderstorm and watching the Deustch bring home their fourth World Cup! I am basically fluent in elementary German so... I'd be impressed. Then I returned home and edited the video so I could have it up tonight for the digletts!

Next On Tap:
 Call of the Wild Trail Marathon! August 19th Come run with the two of us.

Until Next Sunday, ONE LOVE!