Thursday, August 28

What would a journey be without a few bumps in the road? Early last week when I was knocking out some miles the IT band flared it's ugly head, again. If I were to try and describe the situation "disappointment" would be sugar coating it. Helpless, mad, and pouty would be much more appropriate. And if you asked the right person, you will find I replaced Owen as the baby of the family.

After figuring I was forced to take some time off I went up and became a month member of the Bwick rec. I finished the rest of last week taking a rest and started in this week on the bike. In this situation I know riding serves a purpose, but quite honestly I hate it. My plan was to take 2-3 weeks riding the bike and hitting the pool in hopes the time off would heal the band. Plans have changed however.

From a referral of another runner I visited a sports doc and according to him I can run through this. In a nut shell, the solution to the problem is working hard to break up the scar tissue that has formed to allow it to heal correctly. Doc did some major work on the IT band and turned me loose over the weekend to see how it does. From his past experiences (I trust him, the man has done 3 IronMan) he thought 1-2 more visits and I should be good to go and back to normal. Let's hope so. I'm right on the heels of Elk and C-bus. First test tomorrow 4am.

Hunt wise I feel I'm right on track. The pack is complete. It's been packed and re-packed and finished weight settles in right at 40lbs. Arrows are fletched, spun, and are ready for launch. To this point I feel I have done pretty much everything I can to prepare. The next 21 days will be spent rolling on miles and thinking over every last detail. Bugling Elk and fresh mountain air are just over the horizon...........

Monday, August 18

32 days and counting.........

Last week I was able to get back to my routine. It felt great to walk out under the cover of darkness into the chill of the morning. Reminds me of fall. To me, there's nothing like getting up early and hitting the pavement before the sun rises. For some reason it's in my blood. I look forward to every part of getting up at 4am to start the day. Call me crazy, I absolutely love it.

With knee healed up it was back to the grind, Monday off (OP), Tuesday - 6.5, Wednesday - 7.2, Thursday off (OP), Friday - 7.2, Saturday - 8, Sunday - 11. This gets me 39 for the week, not bad for a first week back. A decent base to start building on for the Columbus Marathon, October 19. C-bus is for all the marbles, it's where I hope to pump out a 3:10. The magic number for me to make the Boston qualifier.

Sunday I ventured back to the hills and mud of the Buckeye trail. Ever since the 50K I have been waiting to head back. The Buckeye was going to be the true test for the knee. 11 miles of ups and downs and it held up great. What a relief. Today is rest, so tomorrow starts a new week of training.

Prep for the hunt continues. Yesterday I put everything together in the pack and it came out at 42 lbs. Needless to say, a little heavy. The next step is cut some items and really scale it back. For this run I packed my "everything" list. Next, in hopes to lighten the load I'm packing my "necessity" list.

Over 11lbs of that 42 is food. In effort to save every ounce, I did a lot of research to find the best combination of energy/weight, or calories/ounce. Each item on the list (sample attached) made the cut because it contained the highest calorie per ounce ratio. It had to pack the good stuff and at the right weight to ride in the pack. I'm sure somewhere out there is a better list. If you know of one or have a thought I'd like to hear it.

So with Monday brings a new week and a set of new goals. There are miles to conquer and arrows to shoot. Elk camp is right around the corner. 32 days and counting to be exact........

Saturday, August 9

Yesterday was a great day. Last night I managed to get in 5 miles with no pain in the knee. I think the time off (total of 3 weeks) has done it. Ok, sort of 3 weeks. Last week I was out of town and had access to a great workout facility. Everything I read about ITS mentioned that cross training was fine, so I took advantage of the stationary bike and rode hard. I was the Lance Armstrong of stationary biking for a little over 3 days. I coupled the bike with a mile or two on the treadmill, stretching, ice, and yesterday told me it might have worked.

Everything is nearing final stages in preparation for the hunt. Fletching is almost done, next step is to sharpen and spin the Montecs. Once done, I'll shoot each one, check flight, and pick which one gets the honor of being first out of the gate. Food and equipment is almost entirely put together. I need to start washing, packing, and separating equipment into the 4500. With a little over 41 days left everything is getting close.

Over the last couple of weeks since I have started Bowhunt Quest, I have been asked about "failure is not an option." So let me do my best to explain. About 4 years ago, I was making some banzai trips to Southern Ohio to hunt whitetails. I would wake up at 1am, make the 2 1/2 hour drive, be in the stand before before first light, hunt all day, and then make the 2 1/2 hour drive back home. That made for some long days, but I was determined. During those long days, I thought a lot about the efforts I was putting in, only to come home empty handed. I realized that with bowhunting, it doesn't matter how hard you work, 9 out 10 times you're probably not going to close the deal. I realized that in order to be successful, "quit" cannot be part of my vocabulary. Simply put, "failure is not an option" was my only option. It's what I had to live by, it had to define me.

After this thought I remember going to work and printing off different sized failure quotes to find the one that fit perfectly on my bow limb. I wanted it there so each time I thought about quiting that quote was right in front of me. Each year when the new Pearson arrives, I take it off the old bow limb and tape it on the new one. That quote has become as important to me as the sight on my bow.

Each year that I travel west only to come home empty handed has been, in my eyes, anything but a failure. Sure I would have much rather been riding home with a punched tag and a set of 6X6 antlers sticking out of the back of the truck, however each time I left, I left knowing I gave 110% of everything I had. Everything I had, I left on the mountains. With the ending of one season comes the start of another. And over the past year I have worked harder than I ever have before. In 365 days, I have covered a little over 1750 miles all in effort to tag my first Elk. Each day when I roll out of bed at 4am to pound out 10 miles before work, I keep telling myself, if I put in enough hard work, its going to happen. So if this year is not my year and I come home empty handed, do I consider it a failure? Absolutely not. If this quest has taught me anything at all, it has taught me that there is much more to this journey than just tagging an Elk. I will come home, tell myself"failure is not an option" and press on.

Waiting.

Waiting. I hate waiting. It seems like a total waste of time and I don't think that my personality goes together well with it. The last week and a half I have been waiting for my iliotibial band to heal before I can get back out there and start hitting it again. It's killing me. During the 50K, I had some major pain in my left knee which I have now found out is one of the top 5 most common runner injuries called "iliotibial band syndrome". Basically from what I have learned, the iliotibial band connects the hip to the lower leg and when it gets either tweaked or over trained it hurts. The cure? Rest, ice, and an a script from the doc for inflammation. The part that is killing me is rest. With only 49 days left to departure, all I can think about is training and at the moment it has to wait. There's that word again.......

In my quest to train for the hunt I managed to find the race details on the Ptauny 50K in Pennsylvania on September 6. If the little situation I'm dealing with allows I'm going to get that in. Due to the timing and distance, it would be a total "Banzai" run (if you don't know what "Banzai" means, then I would suggest you pick up Cameron Hanes book, "Backcountry Bowhuting"), more to come if the leg allows. Anyway, September 6 is two weeks before we leave and it would be one last chance to get the legs and mind ready, the timing is perfect. We'll see how it plays out.

With the forced time off I have been spending more time scouring gear and getting ready. I started to fletch up the Carbon Express. Last year I switched to the NAP 2" Quickspins and they worked awesome. Loved them, busting dots out to 70. Gear is almost completely put together with the exception of a few last food items. I spoke to Pup the other day and his pack is together, came out at around 42 lbs. Wow. I don't know what mine is yet, but I sure hope it's lighter than 42 lbs. All the more reason to go out and pound more pavement.

So for now, I'm stretching and doing my exercises to help the healing process, let's hope it works. I have no time to waste.

Thursday, July 24 - Buckeye Trail 50K

I did it. I completed my first ultra marathon, the Buckeye Trail 50K (31.64 miles/3800 ft. elevation gain). Going into the race, I had two goals for myself. One, finish under 5 hrs, and two, finish in the top 20. With a finish time of 5:18 I didn't make the 5hr mark, however I did manage to pull 16th place. 185 runners started the race and 156 finished it. I guess for my first ultra, 16 out of 185 isn't bad.......but of course, it's not good enough. Already I'm looking for another ultra before Colorado. I found one in PA, now I just have to find the time to fit it in.

Running 31 miles was killer prep for the Elk hunt this fall. During the race I found myself completely miserable, to the point where I wanted to give up. Which in my mind, makes this perfect preparation. Running for 5hours and covering 3800 ft. in elevation is something you have to really want to do. Just like DIY hunting. The Idaho trips alone told me there's nothing easy about chasing Elk in the mountains. I suppose that's what running and bowhunting DIY have in common. With both, everything starts and stops with me. If I fail, it's because of me. But if I succeed, it's also because of me. There is no one else to blame, no one else to point the finger at.

So now I find myself looking ahead and counting down the days (56 to be exact). I just hope I am putting myself through enough training and hardship to finally be successful. With 8 days of bowhunting and carrying everything I have on my back (food, water, shelter, and the trusty Pearson) I hope this is my year. It would be truly be a dream come true.

Thursday, July 17

Well here I am, 2 days from race day. 2 days from seeing what I am made of and if all the prep work has paid off. In a little over a year, 1 year and 17 days to be exact, I have went from running nothing at all to pounding out 40-60 miles a week, completing 2 Marathons, and now I'm getting ready to toe the line on an ultra, 31.6 miles. All to prepare to fulfill the quest of tagging my first Elk.

Saturday is race day and I just looked at the weather and it's going to be hot, they're calling for temps at the 90 degree mark which should make this a pretty good experience of pain and suffering. Perfect preparation for the trip. Haven't been doing much running at all this week. I'm ending the taper stage before the big run. I know tapering is good for the legs, but it really plays havoc with you mentally. Feels like you're unpreparing rather than preparing........ it's all a mind game.

I'm getting really excited about the hunt, with only 63 days left Colorado is right around the corner. I have now gotten all of pins set with the exception of my 60 and knowing where my bubble hits. Last year with the 07' Z-34 my bubble hit at 73 yards. "Need to get" items keeping coming off my list. Each time I go to the store I keep picking up more and more food items, pretty soon the list will be down to zero. Equipment wise I pretty much have everything I need with only a few items left to acquire, pretty much down to the nitty gritty at this point. The bugling is almost here!

Wednesday, July 3

One of the things Pup and I have been working on is settling on a solution for how/what we're going to use for a stove in the backcountry. We have been discussing different options and ultimately settled on what we think is an awesome solution....an esbit stove. Stove and fuel for 8 days weighs less than 10oz. I did a little research and found that these stoves can be bought at most Army surplus stores. So yesterday, I stopped and picked up a stove and 4 boxes of fuel tabs for a whopping $8.60. When I got home I put it to the test and boiled 2 cups of water in 6 minutes. Perfect. Each Mountain House meal (my dinner each night) calls for 2 cups of boiling water, of which I can make in less than 6 minutes. Check one more off the list.

Preparation for the ultra and hunt has been going good. With the race only 2 weeks away there's no time to rest. Each day I try to pack on more and more miles getting myself ready for the ultra. Today I hit the trail for 20 miles in the pouring, and I mean pouring rain. It rained the entire time I was running. It rained so much that a steam I normally cross by just walking on the tops of rocks was up to my knees. At that point, I couldn't help but wonder how many other people would be doing this right now? How many other bowhunters push themselves this hard just to hunt Elk?

Not many is the solution I came up with, most would take an easier route. I pushed on and harder. I said it once and I'll say it again......failure is not an option in my book. It's just not in my make up. Whatever I can do to improve my chances in the mountains I'm on it. If that means pounding out 20 miles on the hills of the buckeye trail in the pouring rain, than sign me up. If it's easy, I want no part of it, give me a double shot of pain and suffering. As Cam says, "Easy Seldom Makes Memories" and I'm all about the memories!