WYOMING VIDEO IS DONE!

Man that took a long time to do.  After a long run of 500 miles, the first thing I don't want to do is sit down and watch it all over again in tediously long video clips.  It's just like lemon juice on the wound.

So I let some time go by. I soak in the comfort of being around my kids and wife again. I get back into my job. And then, suddenly, it's summer - I'm on a 6,500 mile road trip with my kids and I find myself tinkering around with a few clips here and there late at night after they've gone to bed.

This is my running shirt's original design,
created by artist Ricky Sprague.
It's a covered wagon shoe.

This Wyoming video is my second attempt at a short documentary, following last year's Nevada Ultra Run video.  The first one seems to get good reviews and I enjoyed the process. I'm getting much more confident at using iMovie and nearing the finished product of this Wyoming video, I found myself wishing I could do certain things that iMovie wouldn't allow.  I used to laugh at people who smirked that Mac programs were limiting for the user. Now I find myself making some of the same claims. I still think that iMovie is the best "out of the box" movie making software available for new users, but I'm learning more about another program that I'm eager to delve into: Final Cut Pro.

Final Cut Pro is the industry standard for video editing. That just sounds like an awesome thing when you say it with one finger pointed down at the table and tapping out some of the key syllables.  Don't forget to rock you head back while you say it too, for emphasis.

One of the themes of the film is the
preponderance of No Trespassing
signs in Wyoming, which this office door is
making fun of. 

What started on this documentary as a string of mostly unusable video clips that were even putting me to sleep, slowly took shape into storytelling form.  I love the transformation of using varying amounts of camera time, slow motion, still frames, quiet soundtrack, and gentle transitions to create a feeling and enable a story to surface.  It's magic.

There were a few scenes I had to cut out that I regret were left on the editing digital trash can floor: there was a short clip of myself riding a snow fence next to the highway in a moment of delirium.  It was out of focus and shaky.  There was a brief encounter with a male sex toy on the side of the road. It was gross.  Battery pack included. Ew.  Great clip. Not helping tell the story. At least, not this story. Someone else's story, certainly, but not mine.

For the second time I've used music from Creative Commons. I'm starting to find favorite music artists and love the feel of their tone in my running shots. One of them is State Shirt. The other is Et_.  Both are featured in both of my recent documentaries and I think they work very well.

Probably the only thing I'm not particularly happy with is the resolution of the final video on Youtube. In some browsers it looks much grainier than I would like.  I tried to upload it with the highest resolution but I'll have to check it again and make sure something didn't get changed.

I have a feeling my videos would be viewed by a wider audience if they were shorter. I don't want to short the hard-core ultra trail runners who really want to see the whole story, but perhaps one thing to consider is a shorter version, say 8 minutes, and the full length director's cut for each state.

Until then, you gotta sit through the entire 16 minutes.

Enjoy!

Click here for the video of the 500 Mile Wyoming Ultra Run Along the Oregon Trail!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INQ6a4LUCI

All signed up for Zane Grey Highline 50 Mile Trail Race!

This will be the 5th time I've run Zane Grey on the Highline Trail near Payson, Arizona.  The race isn't until April 2013 and is typically billed as the (or one of the) toughest 50 milers in the country.

The year I ran my best I had just run Old Pueblo 50 in a time of 10 1/2 hours.  The same distance at Zane took me 15 just a month later.

I feel good right now in my training and if I can get some good hill work in this winter, I hope to see a vast improvement next spring.

Just about everyone I know who runs this with me speaks of a similar pattern of high hopes and miserable outcomes.  Why do we keep coming back?

Maybe this year will be different?

Picture from 2011 Zane Grey 50, still learning the hard way... (again, and again and again).

How much does homelessness bother you when you run?

Each year I attend the annual board meeting of the American Discovery Trail Society. I volunteer as their national coordinator of the country's only coast-to-coast trail.  We alternate our meetings each year to different locations along the trail. This year it was in Sacramento, California and I just returned from it. Attending the meetings is always a great way to stay connected with my fellow board members and re-energize for another year of progress forward with our trail and programs, but it also offers me the opportunity to run sections of the ADT that I don't get to very often.  Over the weekend, I was able to run 15 miles on the American River (home to the American River 50 mile trail race) which is also the ADT from Auburn to Old Sacramento.  I also went for a hike on the Western States Trail near Forresthill (also on the ADT).

Running along the American River, the bike path is atop a levee and there are ample locations to sleep in the nearby bushes, hotel fencing, and ravines.  Friday morning there was a very large number of people still waking up from their trailside camp spot and a few just setting out on the path for their morning stroll to wherever.  I passed a few huddles of people with bikes laden down with sleeping bags, puppies on rope leashes, and piles of beer cans.  Some of them were talking to themselves and others just stared at me.

Though there were a few other runners and bikers in the area, I was pretty well removed from roads or commercial activity and started to feel a little nervous during the run.  I realized that on my coast to coast run I never felt threatened or intimidated and wondered why the feeling was just now starting to set in.  Have I lost my immunity to thinking the best of all people or do people on the street give off a different vibe now than they did 14 years ago?

I'd like to think that people haven't changed - either me or them, just my interpretation of the situation.  I tried waving a little as I passed each one, a few fingers raised from one hand, just to acknowledge each person as a person.  Most didn't respond.

Maybe it was the Hokas.  

Wyoming Data is Posted: Number Crunchers Rejoice!

If you've just been itching to get your eyes on maps, pace, mileage, distance, calories burned, and elevation, here's everything you've always wanted.  I finally plugged in my Garmin 310XT and paired it with my computer and got an amazing amount of data about the Wyoming run.  I don't think you have to register or anything to view the info, I made it public. But let me know if you have any issues viewing the data.

My total mileage for the trip was 500.74 miles.  Total time on feet: 114 hrs, 3 min, 27 sec.  Elevation gain: 22,475 feet (more than I was expecting). Average speed: 4.3 mph (yes, I'm part turtle). Calories burned: 57,142. Calories gained by eating Pringles: 57, 141 (just kidding).

The Garmin data should be visible by clicking these links:

Wyoming: Day 1
Wyoming: Day 2
Wyoming: Day 3
Wyoming: Day 4
Wyoming: Day 5
Wyoming: Day 6 (Part 1)
Wyoming: Day 6 (Part 2)
Wyoming: Day 7
Wyoming: Day 8
Wyoming: Day 9
Wyoming: Day 10
Wyoming: Day 11
Wyoming: Day 12

If there's a different format you'd like to see, just let me know.

Time to Train again? Not quite.

Just last Wednesday I was running 46 miles over high plains and strong wind towards Utah.  My past history of recovery after these cross-state treks is months of rest. Not because my body needs it but that other parts of my life take over, and I don't prioritize running since I know that it's going to be another year before I have to perform like that again.

Not this year, or so I thought.  My friends in the Tucson Trail Runner group were headed out on a friendly 14 mile run into Sabino Canyon this morning.  They'd be running the Phoneline Trail which is a decent climb but nothing too taxing.  I figured it would be a good way to test my body and perhaps hold onto the conditioning I earned in Wyoming if I were to join them.  So, up at 5am this morning I got, drove across town and was surprised to join 50+ other people in the early light.

We were a long steady train of runners climbing the trail for the first few miles before we began to spread out.  After about 4 miles, I began to get a pain in my left thigh.  It was the same area that I had some new pain on the last day of my Wyoming run.  I almost never have muscle pain and this was a bit concerning to me.  I pushed through it today and finished the 14 miler in 3hrs 1min but my takeaway was grander than my time:  48 hours is NOT enough recovery time following a 500 mile run.

Now the trick is to recover, recharge and keep my fitness while not losing everything to months of inactivity.