Croman Red

I'll fight you for it:)

Bow hunting, nice. Do you bushwhack them or do you stalk?

Nice. You tend to execute a solid performance.

Get a soccer ball and practice standing on it. Very helpful for balance.

You're doing great. This challenge you've moved forward towards the fulfillment of your life's goals significantly. Smile.

Feel free to be very jealous. Scotland is, so far, to die for. Today, I met a man who lives on the canal. He lives with his Australian retriever in a 180 year old cottage on the canal. His job is to open the only iron bridge on the canal for boats cruising the canal. He does this with a hand crank on one side, and then takes a boat to the other side and does the same again. Some people's Karma is cruelly superior.

I doubt that I would have that kind of courage. Very impressive.

5 Sep 2013 Hit the trail today. The Great Glen Way. Today was 10.5 miles with a 15 kg ruck. Slow pace, this is for fun, not for time, and Mrs. Red isn't a masochist like I am. Been eating terribly (but wonderfully) and enjoying the Highland Single Malts and brews:) Did a tour of the Oban distillery yesterday. Not my favorite single malt, but it was still a pilgrimage to the holy land. I now know a bit more about a whiskey's color, legs, aroma, and taste than I did before. Fell in love with the town of Oban. Scotland is like the Pacific Northwest with short mountains and cool stone buildings.

Side note; did my first ultra in 5 fingers. It was a 6 hour, see how far you can go run. I found it was pretty painful. A little too much for the mileage I had put on my 5 fingers at that point, so you might want to build up slowly.

Sorry, but I don't. I've only made mead once, straight honey to see what the baseline taste was before branching out. I focused on beer; porters and IPA's. I did some reading up on mango mead recipes and saw a good deal of variety in methods.

31 Aug 2013 Ran for 30 minutes. Hard getting the workouts in this week. Running at elevation is good though.

Keep it in mind for when its time to go for something new. Let me know when you do.

A lot of the recipes call for frozen mangos so it will work. Apparently the freezing will rupture the cells and help with the fermentation. Some of your husband's yeast will work, but different strains will influence the taste. Also, it needs to be a high AC yeast. If I had as many mangos as you I'd do a bunch of 1 gallon batches with different yeasts and amendments (like vanilla beans).

What your describing sounds like overtraining...maybe time for rest. The kind of workouts that you're describing are going to catch up with you. Even professional athletes have the off season, right? Consider that it might be several years building up to this kind of routine as a maintenance program. The muscles and lungs adapt faster than the bones, kidneys, and liver. Just a thought. Margaretas are nice but kind of sweet. Gimme Jameson's or Jack Daniels:)

I'm just thinking that when people start talking about multiple Spartans and Mudders and such, that they aren't that far from "the next big thing", 'cause its kind of like a sign of the madness going viral. Agent Ska is making the same noises that you are, and I'm thinking with all of you its only a matter of time before you've achieved what you want to with this and get hungry for something that's going to push your envelope in a little different way. And since I'm going to be on the same continent for awhile...

I don't have a specific ultra in mind, right now I'm looking at ones in Louisiana and Texas, but I'm flexible. I'd like to get some races under my belt and then put in for the the Western States 100 lottery, but that one would be 2-3 years from now before I think I'd be ready to try for it. Moving back to the States in about 6 months, so everything is going to be in upheaval right when I should be getting serious about training. That said, I'd be interested in looking for an event somewhere in your neck of the woods if you wanted to Nerd-mob one, you folks are in Canada, right?

Good to see you're still hitting it:)

Reading about all of those mangos...I can't help but think of Mango Melomel (Mango Mead!). Meads are really easy, don't take much equipment, and are kind of a treat. They do take about a year to finish fermenting so you need a little storage space and patience.

Good to see you guys are back in the mix! What kind of obstacle races? Spartans? Tough Mudders? And any idea of when your first will be? I'm toying with the idea of making a 100 mile run next year's major goal, but I have a cross Atlantic move in January and I don't know what the work schedule will be like in the new organization, so that one is kind of up in the air. Don't suppose either of you are into trying to get together for an ultra in about a year? Don't worry, I run really slowly.

Sounds like a good morning workout, although I wouldn't be up for a 7 min pace even on the flat. Don't let that 55 fool you, he's had years of experience luring young people to their doom:)

Congrats on crossing the Rubicon and setting the test date! I'm pretty sure you'll find yourself far more prepared than you give yourself credit for. Good job plugging away at last week. Mid challenge is often the worst, right?

Airplane food is kind of like eating Elmer's glue.

27 Aug 2013 Ran for 1 hour. Notes: My routine is, and will be off through the 15th. Am traveling on holiday with Mrs. Red. Spent the 24th and 25th prepping for being away for awhile and skipped the work outs. Also, wanted to give that rib more than enough time to settle down. Spent the 26th traveling West, then East, then backwards in time across the pond. Diet was the usual hell when flying, but I wasn't focused on prepping for it in advance and will feel bloated for the next day or so as a result. Arrived home and friends and family wanted to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow (now today) I'm off again early. Woke up at 02:30 this morning ((11:30 am, my time) and did a quick stretch followed by a longish, relatively slow run involving some hills. Not sure how this will play out, but in a pinch I can always do burpees (aaaagh!). Side Question; how do you post pictures in these posts? I tried the flint, tinder, and steel trick, but it just made my computer smoulder.

I keep hearing about it being possible to drink too much...seriously? I suppose a few rock stars have OD'd on booze, but the rest of us can only aspire to greatness.

Sounds pretty epic, except for being denied the rack:( How do you do OHPs on the stability ball? Do you use a curl bar?