Emily, Vivi and I spent Thursday and Friday of this week picking up a bulk tank from Michigan. It is a 3000 gallon Mueller Hi-Preform with 2 x 5 horse power cooling compressors. In the dairy world these are milestones, every dairy farmer can tell you what tank they began milking into and some today would even tell you they milk by hand into a bucket. Long ago I began milking into a Mueller 600 gallon tank with a smaller Sunset 300 gallon split top tank used for overflows, and the occasional post run ice baths.
Currently we are milking into a Mueller 1500 gallon tank with 2 x 5 horse power cooling compressors.
The upgrade in bulk tank sizes over the years signals steady growth in capacity going from 900 gallons to 1500 gallons to 3000 gallons. It also is a status to an economy for potential inputs and outputs.
To bridge the comparison to Cross Country our tank is our total number of runners on our team, the more runners the larger our capacity for potential miles run by our team. The more miles we input the more we fill up our tank and the high potential for our final output.
Hype to Hyper
The last 6 weeks has been a bit of a rough go for me personally. I was diagnosed with a Hyper thyroid on June 9th after 2 weeks of symptoms. There is a term known as “tired but wired” that really does describe the feeling and symptoms of a hyper thyroid. For a month I really could not sleep, my body feels like it is cooking hot at night. As a result it seems like I have a lot of racing thoughts but no motivation to execute on any ideas. Physically my running has been completely in the dumps, my heart rate really runs up fast when I try to run. To the point that a good hiking pace is the equivalent of Zone 2 training. For me this is frustrating but the good news is that for my case of Hyper thyroid it appears to be very treatable with a 12 week recovery time, fingers crossed.
I’m always so hyped for summer training. I was watching Western States yesterday just in awe of the wonders of the trail. I’m still planning on running a 100k in August, The Twisted Branch in New York, to keep my Western States goals alive. I believe that a strong hike to run approach averaging around 12 minute mile pace should get me through well under the 18 hour time cut off that I have to hit. Even though I feel like I’ve lost a month of training and the prospects for quality training over the next 6 weeks look rough, I’m trying to build this idea of capacity. Over the years I’ve run enough miles and races that even though my inputs are low, my experience can make up the difference. That said, the fear is still very present that ultimately low inputs equals low outputs.
Day to day…..
I am feeling a little bit better everyday. Hitting the publish button on The Book of Panthers articles has been another cognitive struggle. A little rest to my approach is going to be required, but I feel a flurry of small posts coming. Expect smaller, more direct informal articles.
Tanking….
Back to capacity. Keep tanking miles everyone. August 1st and the beginning of official Cross Country practice will be here. That’s when our tank will be on full display, how much volume can we handle, how much capacity do we have, what kind of output will be shown at our first big work outs and races.