22 days to a tough, high country, 32-mile Wyoming ultramarathon in the Bighorn Mountains. I am going for my best ultra finish ever in this race. Can I challenge for the top spot? Only time will tell. Cameron www.bighorntrailrun.com/history.html
A Day in the Life….follow along on my training and my life. One thing is certain, regardless of whether I am getting ready for a race or not, I do something every single day that will help to make me a better mountain bowhunter. Usually, that means I run (everyday of the week unless it is a scheduled day off), but without a doubt, it means I shoot my bow. No exceptions. Friday, May 25th -- 22 days to race dayÂ
2:00 p.m. – go to Fed Ex and pick up elk rack from CO 2006 with custom artwork on the bleached out skull by Mike Lancaster. Awesome!
4:00 p.m. – leave work, head home, end of the week. Get home to see wife has bought the kids a trampoline. Great. Check a few forums, ufcjunkie.com, archerytalk.com, bowsite.com, jesseshunting.com. Answer a few emails, then deal with trampoline to two hours. Got e’r done, kids are pumped. Eat dinner, more pasta, bread and salad with water. Let dinner settle while watch a couple of good boxing matches on ESPN. Petersen brothers.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
7:45 – shoot bow for 15 minutes. 40 arrows.
8:00 p.m. – take off for a one way, 8 mile run. The wife comes and picks me up on the other side of town. I hate loop runs. Saturday, May 26th -- 21 days to race dayÂ
7:30 a.m. – slept in today. Lots to do. Eat, three eggs, whole wheat bagel and strawberries with water and cup of coffee while reading paper. Shower.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
9:00 a.m. – jump on trampoline with kids, trying to stick a forward flip. Got it. Answer emails, work on my Bowhunting on the Edge column, shoot bow, 40 arrows.
11:00 a.m. – take off on a hour and a half run, 13 miles. Wife picks me up at Hayward Field.
1:00 p.m. – eat, watermelon, water, peanut butter on bagel.
2:00 p.m. – working. Emails, columns, Q&A.
4:00 p.m. -- shoot bow, 40 arrows.
6:00 p.m. – dinner, taco, with lean ground beef, no cheese, water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
7:00 p.m. – UFC starts, Rampage vs. Liddell. Snacks during the fight, coffee with whole wheat animal crackers and “good for you†microwave popcorn. No Orville Redenbacher’s Movie Theater popcorn for me. Rampage KO’d Liddell two minutes into the fight. He is the new light heavyweight champion. Sunday, May 27th -- 20 days to race dayÂ
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
Off day of training – racing tomorrow, Memorial Day.
Work most of day, watch Eastmans’ Bowhunting TV on the Outdoors Channel (my caribou hunt) and shoot my bow (120 arrows throughout the day).
Dinner – carb-load with wheat pasta and whole wheat bread, drink plenty of water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Monday, May 28th -- 19 days to race dayÂ
6:00 a.m. – shower, eat, oatmeal, whole wheat bagel, water, and get ready for race. 12 mile Ridgeline Ramble Trail Run
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
8:00 a.m. – race gets underway. My boys, Tanner, 13, and Truett, 10, have signed up as a two person relay. Tanner running the first half, Truett the second.
12:00 p.m. – post race relaxation. Showered, ate, now back on the computer. Race went very well. Ran hard, finishing 13th overall. Tough course, along the Ridgeline Trail in Eugene. The course didn’t go to the top of Spencer’s Butte, but it did include many pretty good inclines. I finished in 1:25:08, the winner came in at 1:12:05. The boys did awesome. Tanner hammered out the first half, the tougher half, in a great time, then Truett brought it home hard. They were the only kids running that I saw and they beat many other runners. Best of all, they had a great time. Â
4:00 p.m. – Tracey didn’t get to run as she was ferrying kids to and from cut off points of the race and taking care of Taryn, so now she wants to exercise. We head out for a 5-mile run together from the house.
Dinner – Lean hamburger with whole wheat bun, watermelon, water, cup of coffee with 100% whole wheat graham crackers.
6:00 p.m. – fired 80 arrows through the bow.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Today was a great day in all regards! Tuesday, May 29th -- 18 days to race dayÂ
5:00 a.m. – up, shower, eat, read paper, do emails. Breakfast is Grape Nuts cereal in water (no dairy).
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. – head to work. Do 100 pull-ups throughout the day on the pull-up bar in my office doorway.
10:00 a.m. – food, whole wheat bagel.
12:00 p.m. -- food – whole wheat pasta with chicken, watermelon, graham crackers, water.
4:30 p.m. – home from work. Emails.
6:00 p.m. – take off on 7 mile, easy, recovery run from yesterday’s race.
7:00 p.m. – dinner, two chicken breast, bagel, water while watching NBA with Tanner.
8:00 p.m. – shoot 60 arrows at 30 yards.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Wednesday, May 30th -- 17 days to race dayÂ
5:00 a.m. – up, shower, eat, read paper, do emails. Breakfast is banana and whole wheat bagel and water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. – head to work with coffee from home. Do 100 pull-ups throughout the day on the pull-up bar in my office doorway.
10:00 a.m. – Coffee Starbucks and 8 grain roll.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
4:00 p.m. – leave work head to Bow Rack where Wayne and I work on testing mechanical broadheads for upcoming feature in EBJ.
7:00 p.m. – home from Bow Rack, head out on 5 mile run. Running out of time today.
8:00 p.m. – food, cereal and whole wheat blueberry bagel.
8:30 – shoot bow for 30 minutes. 60 arrows at 30 yards.
9:00 p.m. – email and work on articles for EBJ.
10:00 p.m. – Received copy of my caribou hunt that ran on Eastmans’ Bowhunting Journal TV this weekend with our new EBJ show intro plug in. Watched it with some microwave popcorn and water. Awesome.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Thursday, May 31st -- 16 days to race dayÂ
4:30 a.m. - up, shower, eat, read paper, do emails. Breakfast is cereal, Healthy Valley Organic Oat Bran flakes.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:00 a.m. - head to work with coffee from home, check emails on way. Do 100 pull-ups throughout the day on the pull-up bar in my office doorway.
4:00 p.m. - leave work head for home. Visit with everyone, try to get pumped up to head out on a run. Warm today, I love running in the heat. Eat a bagel for a little fuel, with water as I am going to sweat.
5:30 p.m. - Head out for an 18 mile run - felt great.
7:15 p.m. - Trace picks me up on the other side of town head home to eat and drink. Dying of thirst.
7:45 p.m. - food. 5 homemade tacos, watermelon and water.
8:15 p.m. - shoot bow - 60 arrows at 40 yards.
9:00 p.m. - get kids lined out to bed then time to hit emails.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Friday, June 1st -- 15 days to race dayÂ
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
4:00 p.m. – head home, pick up Tanner and Truett. We all head out for a 4 mile hill work out with a guy from my work. Warm today, 85 or so. Good, intensive hill run as I pushed fairly hard the second half of the long climb. Tanner and the guy from work were neck and neck toward to top – Tanner by a few strides. The heat got to Truett a little as the hill we run is in the baking sun all afternoon. He was a couple minutes back. I ran back down the hill to met him and run with him to the top. Love running with my boys. They are tough.
5:30 p.m. – dinner, chicken breast, corn on the cob (no butter), watermelon and water.
8:00 p.m. – shoot bow, 40 arrows. 7 pin Hogg Wrap will be to me tomorrow. I am hoping for my Winner’s Choice strings to show up for my Vectrix and Vectrix XL. Getting fired up to set them up. Been shooting the Vulcan for months now. Good bow, but I want to put the Vectrix through its paces. Hammered out a few emails to wrap up the day.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Saturday, June 2nd -- 14 days to race dayÂ
8:20 a.m. – up. Man, it felt good to sleep in. Been a l-l-l-long week. Breakfast – buckwheat pancakes and eggs, water, coffee. Watched a movie with the kids, while I work on EBJ. Dialed, captions, etc.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
11:30 a.m. – take off on a run with Trace. She runs five, I run five mile with her and two on my own at about 5:15 pace. Getting warm.
12:30 p.m. – been working most the day, eat, chicken breast and corn on the cob, water.
5:00 p.m. – me and Tanner take off on the same run Trace and I did earlier. Again, he runs five I run seven miles. Hammered out two miles real fast again. 14 miles total today. Felt awesome. Real hot for this run. That give me about 65 miles for the week. Starting to get in good shape – I need to be. Under Armour is heading out here to Oregon on the 11th for a big, two-day photo shoot. Trail running and hunting gear highlighted.
6:30 p.m. – food, black bean and steak burrito with guacamole, water. Eat while watching the NBA Finals with Tanner. Cavaliers are going to the Finals!
8:40 p.m. – shoot bow, 60 arrows at 40 yards.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
9:30 p.m. – back to work on EBJ. Gonna be a great issue. Sunday, June 3rd -- 13 days to race dayÂ
7:00 a.m. – up, eat scrambled eggs, whole wheat bagel, coffee and water. Start working on EBJ.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
9:00 a.m. – shoot bow, 40 arrows, 25 yards.
11:00 a.m. – work on EBJ while watching Eastmans’ Hunting TV.
12:00 p.m. – Honey Bunches of Oats cereal in water. Yeah, not that great for you probably health food-wise, but it only has 6g of sugar per.
1:30 p.m. – head down to Bow Rack to work on broadhead test. And, head over to running store to get new road running shoes.
4:00 p.m. – 10 mile run ending at a get together for my brother’s birthday. Met the family there, Trace had me a black bean and steak burrito with guacamole ready to eat. I love those things.
6:30 p.m. – finish up broadhead test and email it back to Wyoming. Good stuff. Wayne did a great job.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
8:30 p.m. – shoot bow, 60 arrows. Gotta get it done before Sopranos at 9. Great weekend. Monday, June 4th -- 12 days to race dayÂ
5:30 a.m. – up, shower, read the paper, coffee, food – Honey Bunches of Oats cereal in water. Fired off a few emails.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. – head to work. 120 pull ups throughout the day.
10:00 a.m. – Starbucks, 8 grain roll.
12:00 p.m. – lunch, watermelon, black bean and chicken burrito, chicken breast and water.
4:00 p.m. – home, food – bagel with peanut butter and a swipe of low sugar jelly.
4:30 p.m. – run Tanner to summer league basketball tryouts over at Marist. While watching him fight for a position on the team, I answer emails and work on Dialed In.
6:45 p.m. – home from Tanner’s tryout, take off on 12 mile run. It is humid today, awesome run listening to a little of everything on my iPod from Jason Aldean to Akon Conway Twitty to Eminem. Seriously.
8:00 p.m. – shoot bow, 60 arrows at 40 yards. My string came today. Tomorrow I will get my new Vectrixs set up. Sweet. Talked to Dwight, we are getting fired up for our ultra here in 11 days. Also, spoke with some of the crew from UA. Dang, it seems like they are bringing quite a contingency. Maybe I should head out on another run?
8:30 p.m. – dinner – chicken and pasta with water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
9:30 p.m. – emails to my bowhunting brothers. Tuesday, June 5th -- 11 days to race dayÂ
5:00 a.m. – up, shower, read paper, Grape Nuts in water, coffee on the way to work. Banana when I get there.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. – kick off the day with a quick set of pull ups.
10:00 a.m. – Starbucks, coffee, lowfat turkey bacon on a wheat bagel (no cheese)
12:00 p.m. – Whole wheat noodles, chicken, and extra chicken breast, watermelon, water. 140 pull ups total throughout the day today.
3:45 p.m. – leave work 15 minutes ago and hit the mountain. Mt. Pisgah that is. I have one hour to run the hill before I have to get home by 5:00 (15 minutes travel time) in order to take Tanner to his second basketball tryout at Marist. In that hour I get to the top of the hill once (1,000 feet gain) down (1,000 feet loss) back up (another 1,000) and back down, yup, you guessed it (1,000 feet decent). Overall doing this trail run route twice means you’ve run about 6 miles, all on trails and all either up or down. Can be a tough workout in the heat. Today it was raining so, not too bad. Still the legs notice -- love the burn.
5:10 p.m. – I get home in just enough time to take the two chicken and blackbean burrito handoff from Trace, change out of wet running clothes and leave to get Tanner to tryouts on time. We get there at 5:30 p.m. and while he runs and guns, I work on emails and the mechanical broadhead test layout upcoming in EBJ.
7:15 p.m. – we get home from tryouts and I get on the computer to knock some stuff out that just can’t wait. Send off broadhead test results, data and photos, emails. Fire off an email to Matt Hughes and my buddy Michael Waddell.
8:30 p.m. – gotta go. I made the decision earlier in the day that I needed to do a daily double and now is crunch time. Still raining, I have no motivation, but, all that matters little. I lace up my shoes, put on a UA beanie, get the iPod rolling and I am out the door. I am reasoning with myself every step of the way, “This is bonus.†Any thing I do is extra, as I had already run the tough 6 mile hill workout just a few hour prior. At first my weak mind had me ready to settle for a "bonus" two-mile run, then I argued and got a 3 mile run through the mental approval process. All part of the deal. Who really likes to run? I don’t. I like being in shape. I like the feeling it gives me, but the act of doing it sucks. This is obviously why more don’t do it. In the end, I ran a little over 7 miles in around 45 minutes and got home right at dark. That makes 13 miles total for the day! Today was a good day.
9:15 p.m. – it is dark. I can’t see pins, even with the ol’ Hogg Wrap, but a guy’s gotta shoot. I close into 20 yards of the target, take aim, feel the force and lay 6 sweet shafts in the money spot somehow. Didn’t want to push my luck so 6 is all I could squeeze in today.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
There have been some great comments as part of the Countdown to Bighorn deal. Thank you. Even ol’ Dwight Schuh made a much appreciated appearance. I mean for me, running with him, I guess might be akin to him running with Fred Bear. He is totally a man I look to as a pioneer in the great sport of bowhunting.
My buddy Jerod Fink even made mention of my obvious food deficiencies. Thanks for looking out for me Jerod. And, yes I have to agree, I am not getting enough fuel for what I am doing right now physically, but I have a plan. Probably not a good plan, but it is a plan. See my goal it to prepare my body to run at a deficit during extreme conditions like race preparations. I know, I know terrible approach. But hear me out, when I train, I don’t eat enough and don’t drink enough. Basically I try to make myself as miserable as possible. Why, because I don’t run to be the world’s best ultra marathoner, I run to exhaustion, push the limits of what I thought possible for one reason, to be the best bowhunter I can be. Period. Granted I want to do good at the races, but I don’t run miles a week to get good at races, I do it because I know during those tough hunts I will be doing this fall, the Wyoming wilderness elk hunt, the river float trip for moose, caribou and bear, will be an epic adventures and like many of my epics, epic is synonymous with misery. In my mind, to be able to handle misery on a tough hunt, you have to know what it feels like. So, I try to mimic that. That might mean running hungry every once in a while or running thirsty. I know I won’t die, but I might be better prepared with the going gets tough on a long backcountry hunt and that is what it is all about to me. I also shoot when that is the last thing I want to do, either because it is too dark, I am cold and wet, or just tired. There reason why? Well, in my experience on those hell bent for leather backcountry bowhunts, I get most my shots when it is getting dark, I am cold and wet, or just tired, or actually, all of the above. This is when I need to be my best and is why I train all year. I have said many times, shooting fresh in shorts or tee shirts on a sunny day there are many who are better shots. Or during perfect mild weather, day hunts, there are tons of guys who can hunt circles around me. However, I am absolutely at my best when the hunt is the most miserable. This is when I have killed most my animals and I think it is because I train for misery. It’s all I know. Bowhunting is my life and I feel most alive when success seems impossible. The harder it gets the more I am into it. As a rule, I think bowhunters love challenge and my approach falls right in line with that.
As a disclaimer -- I am not suggesting anyone else do what I do. What I do is probably "overboard", I got that term from my wife in terms of my training. This is my daily log and this is what I do, right or wrong.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule
10:30 p.m. – hit the rack for some much needed sleep.
Wednesday, June 6th -- 10 days to race day Â
4:00 a.m. – up, couldn’t sleep. Shower, emails, eat – cereal in water, read the paper, check a couple forums, coffee on the way to work. On the way out the door my wife had to remind me today is our 15th anniversary. Man, talk about having a pit in my stomach. Not saying I forgot, but it has been a very busy time.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule
6:00 a.m. – work, fire off 30 pull ups right out of the gate. Feeling not so fresh yet this morning. It was a short night of sleep.
10:00 a.m. – coffee and an 8 whole wheat roll.
12:00 p.m. – eat, two chicken and black bean burritos, watermelon, two pieces of wheat bread with no butter that Tracey delivered like every day – she is the best. Drink water.
4:00 p.m. – get home and chill out with the kids. Eat a little steak and whole wheat noodles. Light meal. Take off on a run with an EBJ (a reader was interested in our fixed blade broadhead test from couple issues back – Lisa is sending them one – now that is customer service) and my SDP Hogg Wrap sight that I will drop off at the Bow Rack during my run. Wayne set up my Vectrix and Vectrix XL with the ol’ red, white and blue Winner’s Choice. I did shoot a couple times before heading home – MONEY thru paper in two shots with the Vectrix. God, that is a sweet feeling. Run home (this is an easy 6 mile run all together), shoot the Vulcan 24 times before running out the door, taking a hand off from Trace of a bowl full of noodles and steak as I go. I shovel it down on the way to the first of Tanner’s two summer league basketball games.
6:30 – 9:30 p.m. – watch B-Ball (Tanner played well) and work on the computer. Emails. Lots of emails to get back to. This daily blog has really stirred interest. I love it. I can talk about bowhunting and conditioning as it relates to bowhunting all day and night. It sure seems like more guys are wanting to do all they can to prepare themselves for the rigors of the backcountry these days. This will result in bowhunting effectiveness and more success means the sport of bowhunting grows. That, is my number #1 objective.
One thing I’d like to share in this space – do not think you need to go on 10, 20 or 80 mile runs to be a successful bowhunter. I do think the more you can do, the better off you’ll be. Especially in the mountains. That being said, many, many guys kill animals with their bow and don’t run a step before season. For that matter, there are guys who arrow animals every year that dusted off their bow a week before the opener. The problem, in keeping up this routine, these same guys might not kill anything for 5 or 10 more years. For the average guy, if you don’t prepare your body and you don’t practice, if you kill anything with a bow, it will be in large part because of LUCK.
Bowhunting is all about preparation and my goal is to hopefully inspire guys to ramp up what they are currently doing to prepare. If you run three miles once a week, maybe this blog will motivate you to run three times a week? If you shoot your bow twice a week, maybe after reading this you will shoot four times a week? I am not saying look what I do, you should too. I am saying whatever we have called the “norm†we can do more. That is me, you, everyone. Do this and the sport of bowhunting is more successful. Again, success and sharing positive experiences grows bowhunting. Pump the passion for the sport. Are you doing all you can?
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule
Equipment note – lots of questions on the yardage labels I run on my SDP. I just set up my new Hogg Wrap tonight. Simply use a laminated label maker, set the font to smallest setting, print, cut out, affix and dab with Super Glue. Simple and you are good to go for years.
Thursday, June 7th -- 9 days to race day Â
5:00 a.m. – up, shower, eat – whole wheat toaster waffles with no sugar syrup. Water with breakfast and coffee on the way to work. Answered a few emails before sneaking out the door.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. – work, pulls up. Only did about 80 today.
10:00 a.m. – coffee with 8 grain roll.
12:00 p.m. – tear out of the office, drive to Mt. Pisgah and run the 3 mile, 1,000 gain loop as fast as I can. Get back to work in 45 minutes. Eat lunch at my desk.
1:00 p.m – eat after run. Healthy Way 20 grain bread, whole wheat graham crackers, apples, noodles and steak with water.
4:00 p.m. – leave work, head to my deep tissue massage appointment with Trisha Kluge. One of the best massage therapists in the area. She hammered my legs for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
5:30 p.m. – get home, hydrate, eat three bowls of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal in water. Trace just was pulling in from the grocery store and I was starving. Answer emails while watching the NBA Finals with Tanner.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
8:00 p.m. – lace of my new Asics Gel DS-Trainer running shoes, load up the iPod and take off for a fairly fast 7 mile run. Awesome night for a run. Felt strong.
Training Tip – just like I did today, for those wanting to ramp up their mileage, splitting runs up is a great way to do this. It is hard for me sometimes to take off on an hour and a half run, so instead I will do two 45 minutes run. Much less of a grind mentally as well as physically. But the best part, to your body, you are getting basically the same benefits of doing one long run. In other words, splitting the workout up doesn’t lessen the gain. Many ultra marathoners do this, but on a much grandeur scale. Like they will run a 10 miler in the morning and a 20 at night. Just some food for thought for you.
8:45 p.m. – back from run, time to shoot. Shoot until dark it was too dark. Pretty sure I got off 80 shots.
Thoughts on my shooting regime – there were a few nights this week, where I only had time to shoot 12 times, or worse yet, one night I shot 6 lonely times. Some might wonder, “What is the point?†Good question. The point is…just like almost everything we do, if you “believe†you will “achieveâ€. Shooting every day of the week, gives me confidence. Confidence that I will make the shoot in crunch time pushes me to hunt harder. I know, all I need is one chance and I will capitalize.
Also, shooting the bow accurately is a process of muscle memory. I want shooting my bow to be as natural to me as walking down the street. To do this I need to train my body. The official definition of “Muscle Memory†-- an act only acquired through the constant repetition of the desired behavior.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Friday, June 8th -- 8 days to race day Â
5:00 a.m. - up, shower, eat, whole wheat waffles, water, read the paper, answer emails, coffee on the way to work.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
6:30 a.m. - work, hammer out 30 pull ups quickly. Gonna hit 140 reps today.
10:00 a.m. - coffee, egg on a whole wheat bagel.
12:00 p.m. - run Mt. Pisgah, one time, 3 miles, 1,000 of climb. Eat a banana on the way.
12:45 p.m. - back at work, now that I got my metabolism kick started, I will fuel up. Food - chicken in pasta, 20 grain whole wheat bread, carrots, apples and wheat graham crackers, water. To me, I love running before I eat. Like I mentioned, the run gets my metabolism fired up, and in my mind this means all the calories I consume afterward are used to feed the machine. It is kind of like an engine idling - not using much fuel. If you are idling (not working out) and consume the same amount of calories there is going to be excess. I don't like excess. This makes sense to me, but I don't know if it is necessarily true. Some might be surprised to find out, I am not a doctor or even a scientist. Seriously, I use this line of thinking, whether it is right or not to get me out the door and working out. No matter how you convince yourself to hit the pavement, it is all good.
4:00 p.m. - leave work and head home. Sit in the sun, kids running around, reading. Been another long week, but it is finally Friday.
5:00 p.m. - head down to the Bow Rack to pick up my Vectrix(s). Tell Trace, I will be home by about 5:30, she starts dinner.
7:00 p.m. - get home from the Bow Rack to cold hamburger sitting on the counter. That trip to the Rack was about like all the others. Trace isn't mad, she is used to it. The good new. The bows are slammin'!!!! The Vectrix was shooting a bullet hole through paper, right out of the gate and it is pushing my 431 grain FMJ shaft at 280 feet a second. That thing hits hard. The Vectrix XL took a little more work getting dialed in but it is there. The shop closes at 6:00 so me and Wayne b.s.'d about bowhunting and life while messing with the bows. My favorite pastime!
7:45 p.m. - me, Truett and his friend who is spending the night take off for Mt. Pisgah. No wonder kids don't like staying the night with my boys. They have to work out. They did good. I did the hill twice while they did it once. This again was my second workout of the day. All in all, I did all hills today, 9 miles, 3,000 feet of gain, 3,000 of loss and with the intensity of hill workouts, metabolism is still cooking long after the workout ends. Good stuff.
9:00 p.m. - we finally make it home, Tanner is spending the night at his friends, Taryn, is already asleep after a long day of playing so me and Trace fire of the movie Borat, which we make it about half way through. Funny stuff. Drink tea and have about 6 or 7 whole wheat animal crackers during the flick.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Saturday, June 9th -- 7 days to race day Â
8:20 a.m. – up. Sleep. Man, it is nice to sleep in sometimes. Emails, read paper, drink coffee, visit with Trace. Sneak outside and pound a couple of 10 arrow groups with the Vectrix. Nice. Truett and his friend get up, followed by Taryn. Eat, buckwheat pancakes. Go pick up Tanner from his friends and 10:00 a.m.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
11:00 a.m. – tell Trace I will go running with her after I answer some emails, shower and work on EBJ.
1:00 p.m. – eat, Grape Nuts in water.
1:30 p.m. – head out on a 7 mile run with Trace. Nice and easy. One week from today I will know how the Bighorn shakes out. In one week, I will know if I’ve done enough to prepare?
3:00 p.m. – shoot my bows. I am faced with a tough decision. Which bow am I going to go with this season? Thought it was going to be the Vulcan but now I don’t know. That little Vectrix is shooting money – the 7†brace is just right for me. I am not quite feeling the Vectrix XL yet. I like that length of bow though. Or, at least I am used to that length of bow. I like the angle of the string with a 36-37†in bow – it just feels right. I will keep pumping arrows through them and see what happens? Man, I love shooting the bow. I was pumped last night when I fell asleep thinking about my new rigs and right when I woke up this morning I couldn’t wait to shoot. What an awesome sport.
In order right now I have them, Vectrix, Vulcan then the Vectrix XL. The Vectrix now takes over the top spot – hanging on the wall of the kitchen/dinning room area.
5:00 p.m. eat – black bean and steak burritos with water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule.
7:00 p.m. – Load up the whole family to get Slurpee’s at 7-11 (not me) then we head over to bookstore. I still need to run again, but am having a heck of a time getting motivated. I take a couple pulls off of Trace’s sugar free Slurpee and that does it. I HAVE to run now. While everyone else in the truck is enjoying sipping on their icy cold treat, I am driving thinking, I just consumed calories that will do absolutely nothing to make me better in the mountains or on the trail. Part of it is, I am starting to get in my psycho stage in regard to getting leaned up for the Under Armour shoot starting Tuesday.
9:00 p.m. – put on a hat, an Under Armour quarter zip, lace up the running shoes, load up the iPod and head the door to Jason Aldean’s Johnny Cash. I run 7 miles tonight giving me 14 for the day. While I was pounding out this last run in the rain, running past warmly light houses, homeowners inside watching TV, probably eating ice cream, one thought kept running through my head -- The greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward.
10:00 p.m. – pull off the wet clothes, put on the hot water for a little tea. Family time. Invincible is on High Def. Me, the boys and Trace saw this movie in the theater, but it is good enough to watch again. Another great day.
Sunday, June 10th -- 6 days to race day Â
7:00 a.m. – up, emails and wrap up Dialed In for the new EBJ.
8:30 a.m. – eat, read paper, whole wheat pancakes with sugar free syrup, coffee and water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix and Fish Oil capsule. Started taking Zinc today as Taryn has been sick -- coughing and sneezing in my face. Nice.
9:00 a.m. – back on the computer, will work until Eastmans’ comes on at 11:00 a.m. Take a couple short breaks to shoot the Vectrix. Eat – Grape Nuts in water.
12:00 p.m. – watched Eastmans’ – cool episode. Man, Guy, Nate and Alan are doing a killer job putting those things together these days. They’ve really taken the show to a new level. Time to run. Having a birthday party for Tanner today (14 already, wow). He and Truett are having hard time getting along, Trace is trying to make a cake, so he takes off with me for a 7 mile run. He rides his bike so I can cruise at a good pace. We have a good visit. When we get home I put the Vectrix all together – quiver, LimbSaver gear, wrist strap. EBJ flair (Office Space reference – check out the photo and if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know what I am talking about).
3:00 p.m. – birthday.
4:00 p.m. – eat, noodles and whole wheat bread. Water.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
5:00 p.m. – go on a nice relaxed run with Trace. 6 miles, giving me 13 for the day total. I am supposed to be tapering for the ultra. I hate tapering, which means taking off miles so you’re fresh for the race. I like pushing forward and doing more as I get in better shape. Good for getting fit, bad for racing.
6:00 p.m. – Sopranos. Final episode. I am bummed but it was a good one. Food – two Don Poncho High Fiber Low Carb tortilla wraps with peanut butter and jelly, with water to drink.
7:00 p.m. – emails and send off Dialed In. That should be the last thing I need to do for this next issue of EBJ.
8:00 p.m. – shoot the bow a few more times. 60 shots. My decision is made – Vectrix. The undisputed champion.
8:30 p.m. – while Trace chills out, I take all the kids to DQ. Road trip. While on the road we come to the conclusion, we like Pitt better than Cruise, but Damon is better than both. Me and the boys are pumped for the new Bourne movie. Under Armour gets into town tomorrow. Me and the creative/art director guy for the photo shoot, Brian, are going on a run tomorrow night. Really looking forward to the event – UA does it right. Go big or go home. I am lucky to be involved.
Very productive weekend – I am feeling confident for the race.
Monday, June 11th -- 5 days to race day Â
5:00 a.m. – up, shower, read paper, answer emails and eat – four whole wheat waffles, sugar free syrup and coffee on the way to work.
6:00 a.m. – Roll into the office, bust out a few sets up pull ups. Under Armour rolls into town today – I am stoked.
8:00 a.m. – head home to take the boys to school. Today is Tanner’s actual birthday – Dad taking them to school is a little higher on the fun factor. Something different.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
10:00 a.m. – coffee and 8 grain roll. More pull ups. Get about 90 today total.
4:00 p.m. – Brian, the art director for UA called. Delays and setbacks all day as he made his way west from UA headquarters in Baltimore. He was supposed to be in at 1:30 p.m., we were going to go on a run, but that plan got shot. Instead I head out on my own. Nice 7 miler in the sun.
6:30 p.m. – go and meet Brian, the photographer, Lee, and his assistant Mark to make a game plan for the next couple of days over dinner at the Roadhouse. Food – salad with bacon, a few peanuts and water. Great guys. We are pumped to get into the mountains of Oregon and capture some powerful images – hardcore hunting and trail running. We make a plan to meet at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.
9:00 p.m. – Tanner had two basketball games, which I missed most of because of the meeting. I make it to Marist for the second half of the last game. We head home and I start throwing together gear for the shoot. Should have done it before now. Finally at midnight, I got her done. Time to hit the rack.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule. Tuesday, June 12th -- 4 days to race day Â
4:00 a.m. – up, shower, eat, email and get ready for the shoot. Get Tanner up at 5:00 and head out at about 5:15. Tanner is skipping school to go on the shoot with us. Turns out he is BIG help.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
5:30 a.m. – meet the fellas and head to the airport to find a lost bag that didn’t make it from Minnesota where Lee lives. It is all his lights, so we need it. It is there, now we are ready to head out. Our destination is central Oregon.
8:00 a.m. – on location. Shoot ALL day. Very long day but we captured some killer stuff. I am spent. To get the trail running stuff I basically have to sprint over and over again towards the camera. Jogging won’t get it done. Gotta show intensity and power hopefully. Over the course of the day I might have done 500 bursts passed the camera. Maybe a few less, maybe a few more. Whatever the case, it was far different than my normal workout. Tweaked my hamstring and ankle a bit in the process of sprinting and bounding over boulders. The good news – Brian, Lee and Mark are probably the best in the world at what they do. Brian had a vision and Lee made it come to life. It was awesome to be a part of. Tanner snapped a few pics of the set ups with my little camera. The quality is about 1/100 of what Lee captured, but it give a good idea of what we were doing.
11:15 p.m. – pull in the garage from the shoot. No dinner. Nothing but granola bars, banana and water since breakfast. Tanner and I eat a couple bowls of cereal take showers and hit the sack. He has school tomorrow and I have another day of photos. Gonna be a short night.
Supplements – Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
Wednesday, June 13th -- 3 days to race day Â
5:30 a.m. - up, starting a little later today thank God. Shower, eat, a couple emails and call Brian at 7. We make a plan to meet at 7:30 for breakfast, re-hash what we've captured and what holes we still have to fill. Last night when I rolled in, Truett was in bed but still awake. He waited up that whole time to ask if he could go with me today. Since Tanner got to go the day prior, I agree and tell Truett he can skip school and go with me today. It is a special occasion. UA is in town, plus the boys do a great job in school and they are good kids. Tanner is usually a 3.8 GPA, Truett isn't into the letter grades yet, but he does well. If they miss a day because they are sick, which is very rare, I cut them no slack. Gotta toughen up. But, spending they day on something like this I think is rare enough for the boys that I will give it my blessing.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
7:30 a.m. - we meet, they eat and we make a plan. The day before we kicked butt, so we are looking good. Still need another good trail running set up and a couple more hunting set ups and some video for the UA website. We break, fuel up and head up river again.
12:00 p.m. - productive morning, Truett is pretty bored. Throwing lots of rocks in the water, laying on the bank of Cougar Reservoir in the sun while I do more wind sprints. At one point Mark, the photog assistant, yells to Truett, "Hey Truett, there is a snake by your head." He doesn't mover, just answers, "O.k." He could very well be in a low blood sugar induced coma.
5:00 p.m. - We wrap up and head to Baja Fresh for a black bean and steak burrito. Good fuel after a long couple of days. Brian, Lee and Mark all fly out right around 8 p.m. We eat, visit and say our goodbyes. Can't wait to see the images. Lee does amazing work, KJOS Outdoors • Lee Thomas Kjos, www.kjosoutdoors.com He definitely makes me look better than I really do. Those last Under Armour hunting ads he shot were amazing. Check out the new Lone Wolf tree stand ads - those are his too. Awesome.
6:30 p.m. - get home, email, watch parts of the Parent Trap with Taryn, visit with Trace and get all my gear ready to head out to Wyoming in the morning.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
8:30 p.m. - shoot the bow, 40 times @ 30 yards.
9:00 p.m. - talk to Dwight about the race - getting down to the wire. I am really stoved up from the full day of wind sprints. Been on a steady diet of vitamin I today (that would be Ibuprofen). Â
Thursday, June 14th -- 2 days to race day Â
6:00 a.m. - up, shower, coffee and eat a bagel with peanut butter and jelly. More sore today than I was yesterday. I am taking today and tomorrow off completely from running. Gotta get healed up.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
7:00 a.m. - Trace and the boys get up (last day of school for them) - we visit while I am throwing gear together and emailing. Trying not to forget anything. Running shoes, water bottles for the race, etc. Flying out at 10 from Eugene to Billings, Montana. I will then drive to Powell, WY, for meetings with the Eastmans.
8:15 a.m. - head for the airport. Full day of travel as I don't get into Billings until 4:40, then will drive for a couple hours to meet everyone for dinner. At least I can work at the airports and on the plane. Drinking lots of water, trying to get hydrated up for the run. It is suppose to be warm.
5:00 p.m. - plane is a little late. Guy had the rental car secured for me, so I get squared up with Avis and get on the road.
7:00 p.m. - meet the fellas for dinner in Powell. Good conversation, good food. Steak, bake potato (no butter), bread, water and a coffee.
9:30 p.m. - to the hotel room, work on emails and hit the sack. Heading into the Eastmans' office first thing in the a.m.
Supplements - Wilderness Athlete Multi-Vitamin, Calcium, Magnesium, Vitamin D, Vitamineral Green drink mix, Zinc and Fish Oil capsule.
 
