travel

Well, that wasn't fun!

Having failed with Plan A, which involved getting up at 5am to make the start of the Evergreen Town Race, I decided to wait until the evening cool and hit the track for a follow-up to last-week's "therapy" session.

I can’t think of a better way to prepare for a marathon in five days time than to sit in an aluminum tube pressurized to 10,000 feet for 15 hours. Then again, what about this entire experience has been anything but traditional?

My flight left Oakland today (Monday) shortly after noon. I got to "sleep in" (somewhat) and take both of my kids to school before my wife dropped me off at the airport about two hours before my flight.

Helpful hint
If you’re ever going to bring very heavy things with you on an airplane, put them in a bike box instead of a regular box. Shipping 80 pounds of “stuff” costs $125, but shipping an 80 pound “bike” only costs $95 (on Continental).. Not sure why, but I remember the same thing being the case on Hawaiian Airlines last year. A woman was checking in at the same time as me and had a drafting table to ship. It was “oversized” and was going to cost her $75. Meanwhile, I had my 80’s throwback bike case with my bike and 40 pounds of gear that would be shipped for an even $50. Go figure.

A minor panic attack ensued when I got home from my four day trip to Death Valley this afternoon to find that the comfortable 17 day cushion I had before my departure for the North Pole had shrunk to a frighteningly not so distant 13 days... It looks like I had better sit down and make out a few lists.

As I mentioned in one of my Death Valley posts from the weekend (which were embarrassingly short and void of substance because my connection in Lone Pine was early '90s dial-up at best), Fenton's Creamery has generously loaned me the use of their deep freeze to round out my marathon training. -20 degrees BABY!!! I can't wait! (and maybe they'll throw in some ice cream while I'm in there..)

With all of this Powerbar contest hype, I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about food; more specifically - what on earth is going to keep me going for the five days between the time I leave my house on April 2nd and the time the gun goes off (assuming there is a gun) at the start of the North Pole Marathon on April 7th?

Both my wife and I are vegetarians (well, no meat except for fish) and are generally fairly picky about what we eat (me more so than my wife who has nicknamed me "eating disorder Bobby" for my fondness of everything that is not fattening). When I inquired about meal options at the North Pole, I got a rather discouraging e-mail from the race director letting me know (and I quote):

I've been on the road a lot the last month and have been having a lot of trouble staying on my schedule while I'm on the road. I do my long runs on Sunday so Monday is a recovery day (and is often a travel day.) As a result, I'm still tired and a little disoriented on Tuesday morning. The last few weeks this has bled over to Wednesday. Wednesday is usually my long mid-week run (90 to 150 mins). So - at 5am in NY City, after a full previous day, when it's dark out, and I'm still feeling completely exhausted, it's just really easy to roll over and sleep through the run.

So - I decided I'm going to try something new. When I'm on the road and in one place (e.g. not traveling that morning), I'll simply do 60 minutes. If I'm feeling good, I'll run hard. If I need a rest, I'll run slow. 60 minutes is simple and easy - and - at this point - never intimidating for me.