Global Running Day was on June 1st.  I really wanted to get in at least a mile that day but after a 12 hour work day and the temperature still being over 85 at 8 pm, I elected to not run.  I went out the next day and managed 5 in the heat.  This hot weather business is already annoying me and we’re not even in real summer yet.

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I watched the documentary movie of the Barkley Marathon on Netflix yesterday.  While I have no intentions of becoming an ultrarunner let alone an adventure racer (as the participants of this race I would consider more adventure racers than ultrarunners), I can appreciate the perseverance, dedication, and pure grit that these athletes require to attempt a course such as this.  I don’t know if anyone else actually enjoys watching ultra-sports, but I have a strange fascination with watching athletes push their bodies to the limit, so I enjoy watching (living vicariously?) events such as Kona Ironman, Spartan races, and the ilk.

I had briefly heard of this race though didn’t know much about it except it was renowned as one of the toughest races on the planet.  So this documentary was very intriguing to me.   The founder (Lazarus) is such a great character and seems like a fun person to be friends with.  He has a great philosophy when it comes to the race, it is a way for people to be able to challenge themselves both mentally and physically and see what their limit is.  I mean, a race where the first finisher didn’t occur until 10 years into the race is something special indeed.  I could never attempt something so crazy due to my weird GI issues. I  wouldn’t last for many hours out in the middle of no where.  I am so amazed by what the human body can be put through.  So much of the race seemed so mental.  I do enjoy watching and learning about what people can do though.  It was an entertaining movie and I recommend it to anyone that is an endurance athlete.  It did make me wonder about doing some shorter trail races such as half marathons and such.

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One thing I’ve found difficult to balance with my newfound hobby of baking is the timing of baking and running.  Most of the times, the plan is to baking in the morning (usually after creating a poolish overnight).  However, this then interferes with running, which is also normally a morning activity especially here in hot Sacramento.   I’ve had to get a little creative in terms of when I do my runs as well as the distance that I plan on doing.  The nice thing with baking is that there is a fair amount of down time while you wait for the dough to ferment or proof.  This can last anywhere from 1-2 hours and that usually is enough to get most runs in (I could probably do up to 10 miles and still be able to fit it in there).  I think part of what I need to do is get some more concrete time tables down for the bread making process (I play it by ear a lot and that doesn’t always work well with baking).  But I don’t think I’ll stop either so I’ll just have to work it out.  I will have to see what happens when I need to start doing longer runs (that last up to 3-4 hours), guess I could plan to bake on the days of shorter runs.

I attempted a sourdough starter last week and it seemed alive the first 48-72 hours, but somewhere after that it just smelled funky and no longer was doubling in size, so it must have died.  I am starting anew and will see if I can get something going that will live.

-StewsCat