Wheeler Farm Loops

Your body is strong and your mind is willing. Now it is all up to faith. Once a man went walking through the woods and encounered a grizzly bear. He had in the past had great success wrestling numerous animals of the forest; even a black bear. He was strong and determined to be beat the grizzly bear but he was not a man of faith. The grizzly tore his head off.

Sounds like the man should have been carrying a sawed off 12 gauge.

Josh,

There's a deeper principle at work here. The man failed to prepare properly for the grizzly. He thought old training and experience would serve him well. Wrong. This is arrogance masquerading as faith. He lacked the humility to see that he needed outside help. Had he been humble and had true faith, he would've received revelation to carry the aforementioned sawed off 12 gauge. His error ultimately led to his decapitation.

So, basically I need to watch out for bears, try and run some good workouts, and bring some sort of sawed off weapon to track meets. Got it. Thanks guys!

Josh and I are fountains of wisdom.

You summarized our deep discussion incredibly well. :)

You must find your own meaning. Adam was perhaps too explicit. Parables are meant to get you up to 50% of the way there but no further. I have no idea how running good workouts could help you develop faith.

I think to wrestle a black bear you would have to first chase it down and insult its mother to get it to fight. At least in my part of the woods, they are pretty skittish. Unless they have cubs nearby.

Little known fact about black bears: they love M&Ms. So perhaps, Jake, if you refused to share your M&Ms with it.

I took a VERY up-close (too close) photo of a black bear in 2005. I just spent 25 minutes trying to find it, but no luck. Somehow I have folders from 2004 and 2006 but no 2005?!? Anyways, I really want to see that new DisneyNature Bears movie.

I think we should get Sasha in on this discussion; it's not complete without a chess analogy.

I'm going to come full circle back to Josh's original comment (before I deflected it).

Josh is 100% right - my "problem" at the moment is completely a matter of faith. I've come to realize that I draw a large portion of my strength, inspiration, and faith from one source. And she's not in the best place, physically or mentally, right now. Last night we went through the timeline of our running lives over the past 3-4 years. It's almost a perfect correlation - when Andrea is feeling good and/or running, I'm at my best. And when she struggles, I don't bring my "A" game. The way the timeline matches up is almost scary, but it doesn't surprise me, because when we are both "on" it's an unstoppable force, a highly synergistic effect... and it's very difficult to re-create that kind of energy/magic when one of us is down, no matter how hard we try.

I'd like to bust up the trend over the next couple weeks... and then ideally she'll get better and we'll both become annoyingly cocky again :-)

It's time for Mr. Jake Krong to step up to trail ultras.

So you're saying... you think I'm done?! :-)

Back to bears... Andrea's parents just sent me this photo 5 minutes ago from their cabin:

http://goo.gl/mxJE1m

I knew you'd interpret it that way.

Well, that's just great! You hear that, Ed? Bears! Now you're putting the whole station in jeopardy.

Seriously, I keep checking Andrea’s blog to see if there is any good news. I hope she can get things going again. As for you, Jake, maybe the whole secret - no secret thing is "faith." I learned everything I need to know about this from Kung Fu Panda...and now we're back to bears again! Good night.

Jake, I can completely relate to having a significant other being injured and how that can affect your motivation. With someone your level just a slight dip in motivation can make a big difference. When Allison was hurt "it" came and went much more often. You'll get it back just don't force it like you said. If only we didn't have to rely on our women so much...

Easily one of my favorite blog discussions (and I don't mean about the bears).

Hopefully my comments didn't come off as "blame Andrea!"... she's the reason I'm even such a good place to begin with. Before her, I thought my 1:12 half marathon was about as fast as I'd probably run :-)

As you said Derek, the difference between good and great is so small... it's that extra 20 minutes of stretching, getting to sleep a little earlier... attention to small details, etc. I was nailing all that stuff until Andrea's latest setback around Easter, then I (sort of) threw in the towel as well. I hate seeing her constantly battle and not get anywhere. But it also does her no good if I suck, because she does so much to help me, so I'm committed to finding a way to do something with my running that inspires HER.

Tom - I'm starting to think the secret might be wolf tattoos. Something to consider doing over this holiday weekend.

Not at all. A close reading reveals something quite interesting in fact. Very high praise indeed.

I used to sell power tools and when the weather got warm a contractor would come in with his head shaved: big old eagle claw on his noggin. You could do the same with a wolf's mouth I think.

Yeah we actually agreed on that last night - if my motivation/performance WASN'T affected by how she was feeling, that would be a lot worse in the grand scheme of things and wouldn't really say much about me as a person.

You east coast guys better get to sleep!

http://goo.gl/aTI27T

Here’s what you need to do:

One day, without telling anybody, disappear. Head up into the mountains and have it out with a cave full of bears. Kill all the bears with your bare hands (in Acorn cage-fighting style) and take over the cave. Befriend a wolf and change your name to Lone Wolf Krong.

Meanwhile, back in SLC and the surrounding suburbs, downhill hobby-joggers will chat. Quickly, myth and fact will combine; the urban legend to end all legends will be born - the legend of Lone Wolf Krong. The legend of the man/beast of the night that reputedly ran 250 miles a week, held down a job, blogged, skied, shuffled and shunted, ran amazing times, and gave it all up to be at one with nature.

Before long, Fast Running Bloggers will demand that a statue be erected as a tribute to their hero, Lone Wolf Krong.

While visitors to SLC gaze at the marvelous statue of L.W.K. and children ask their parents, who is that strange man? L.W.K. will be up in the mountains - training.

His nutrition will be berries and bear and the freshest mountain spring water. His training diary will be painted in bear blood on the walls of the cave – in matchstick-man fashion. No longer will he run in Saucony orange. No. He will run bare. Birthday-suit Naked. He will not run barefoot; he will run in bearskin shoes.

Whispers will abound. Apparently he came into town one night – Doc Poulsen saw him when he was heading out on a pre-hunting run at 2 a.m. – and he absconded with Andrea and took her up into the mountains and now he keeps her as his running mate.

Some tourists reported that they saw her doing some strange cross training poses – a cross between a cross bear and a cross wolf; Bearwolf, the pose is called – and then when she saw them, she skedaddled off up the mountain at 5 min mile pace.

Healed by love and bear blood, Andrea is now the fastest female on the planet at all distances from one yard to 100 miles.

When the moon is full and the icy night sky weeps white tears, if you listen carefully, you might just hear Lone Wolf Krong and his running mate, Andrea of the Bearwolf pose, howling at the moon. The music of unfilled dreams. The music of pain. The music of love.

And what of L.W.K.? Well, nobody truly knows what’s what. Except, of course, for Doc Poulsen. The Doc’s been tracking him down for years. Not so that he can learn the secret powers of bear and berry medicine, or the secrets of mountain fitness, or the secret healing powers of high altitude cave dwelling. No. The Doc wants to shoot him, stuff him, and pop him up above his fireplace.

Run Jake, run.

Standing up and starting the slow clap now. Clap. Clap.

I go to sleep for a measly 11 hours and this is what I wake up to :-)

clap... Clap... CLap... CLAp... CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP!!!

Bam, you've got me figured out. The only problem is that L.W.K.'s head would take up too much space over my fireplace. Just kidding, Jake :) Just saying what you say about yourself :)

You'll find the faith soon enough, Jake. You're certainly still putting in the work, so I expect that you'll quickly turn the corner very soon.

This was the halloween costume I made in 2008:

http://goo.gl/uiKRbP

Obviously I was a bit under the influence when the photo was taken, as my paws are on backwards.

In any case, wouldn't that head look great over the Poulsen fireplace?!

I'll say! Now that's funny -- looks kind of like your current blog photo, but much more realistic.