Meeting a personal milestone: all three arrows of the same end in red or better, three ends in the same shoot, three shoots in a row.

I have of late discovered a highly addictive sport. As many of those close to me are aware, I can suddenly find an interest in a random subject so compelling, that I must begin a willful obsession with it and begin to learn as much as I can about its innermost workings and structure. Eventually, I will not be able to contain myself from trying it out. Nearly 100% of the time, the act of experiencing whatever subject of interest it was is enough to sate my curiosity on the subject, and I move on. I am definitely a “shiny object” type of person.

On rare occasion, however, I continue running with these random intellectual experimentations and develop a lasting passion. Two such subjects that have yet to subside in their in appeal, despite years since my initial foray into their pull, are theatre and photography. Indeed, for passions such as these, the depth of appreciation and curiosity has only grown. This year I have added another to the list of interests that I fear will occupy me to no end: archery.

Like my other hobbies/passions/obsessions, I have no clue how the idea initially occurred to me to begin my study of this craft. More than likely, I decided to just “try it out” at the local archery range (H&W Archery in Lancaster, $10/hr for range time, includes the equipment rental). I started shooting rather haphazardly on a very basic, 20-pound-draw-weight Buckeye recurve model by Precision Sports Equipment (PSE). Though my initial form, posture, and release were awful, the resident coach, John Hollister, stuck with me. Combined with a disproportionate amount of practice relative to homework time, I was able to improve rapidly.

While I’ve certainly not become any sort of expert or master in the paltry one month or so  in which I have been shooting, I have progressed enough such that I no longer feel that buying my own equipment would be a waste of time and money, and have recently done so. I have some lessons learned and experiences to share in getting to this point.

FIND A BIG-PICTURE REASON TO ENJOY THE SPORT.

If you’re just headed to your local range to try out the sport, this is not really that important. But after you’ve had a chance to explore the feeling of it and start to become hooked, it’s a good idea, for any pastime, to know why it is exactly you are doing it. Are you a hunter? Interested in competitive target archery? Want to get out in the woods and try some field archery, or any number of the other competitive and scored variants of the sport?

For me, I love the feeling of strength, mental concentration, and meditative focus combining in an instant… hitting the bullseye is a nice side-effect of the true metric — inner stillness and strength. It’s pretty difficult for me, and I think it always will be; a perpetual challenge, is there anything better?

START LIGHT, AND FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS.

I’m a manly man, you might think to yourself, or perhaps, a wonder woman. I want to shoot the “real” bows used for hunting or competition, those with anywhere from 40 to 80 lbf of draw weight (force required to hold the bow at the design draw length).  Stronger bows are not only more impressive to handle physically, but they impart more force to the arrow upon release, resulting in higher velocities, reduced arc and disturbance, and greater penetrating power… all good things. So why not? The answer: form.

Form is not just for pansies. Do not over-bow yourself; careful attention to proper muscle distribution, posture, draw length, and anchor points will result in clean, consistent accuracy. What good is a powerful hit if you can’t summon it on command, or can only only deliver it by occasional chance? Over-bowing can also be dangerous, for you and for those around you; remember, even though you will start on a lighter draw-weight bow, these are deadly weapons that were most at-home on battlefields and hunting grounds for over ten thousand years. Take the time to develop good form on the light bows, where you don’t also have to worry about shaking arms, sore backs and shoulders, and an inability to relax your grip… It’s enough of a challenge without those distractions.

It is a lot easier to learn good form the right way first, instead of having to possibly unlearn some bad habits later on down the road. Don’t believe me? There’s a great thread on the ArcheryTalk Forums on this very subject.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

You can read all the books, forums, websites, and blog posts that you want on the subject, but eventually, anything that actually has value eventually has to be applied to mean something. Go to the range, and shoot. Do it regularly, do it often, and each time remember what you observed in the last shoot about yourself. Come with a plan for what you will work on, and stick to it. Shoot for at least an hour at a time, but don’t go so long that you can no longer maintain consistent form and focus. Lastly, nothing beats a knowledgeable, experienced, and patient coach.

ENHANCE YOUR FITNESS LEVEL.

If you would like to enhance your fitness experience with archery, even if just to build up to some stronger bows, then develop a workout schedule that fits with the type of archery you want to do (coming back around to my first point about knowing why you are doing what you are doing).

My goal is to enhance strength (at least to the point of comfortably drawing a 45# bow), build muscular stamina, train for extended outdoor exploration, and in general improve my overall fitness level.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Weights that emphasize rhomboids, trapezus, and deltoids, with other upper body, shoulder, and back muscles as desired. For muscular stamina, higher repetition is more beneficial than higher weight (try 3 sets of 15 reps at a weight level enough to provide an active resistance). Rowing or crew exercises also target the same muscle groups as archery.

Tuesday, Thursday: Give the sore muscles a chance to rebuild, and focus on cardiovascular endurance. Running, cycling, etc.

Weekends: Rest, without excluding the opportunity for light jogs, extended walks, etc as they come up.

Having just been though this experience, I highly recommend these steps for a fulfilling beginning to an addictive sport with a rich history. More posts to come as I progress and explore, I have no doubt.

Rule 1: If Arizona State is playing, then I root for Arizona State.

Rule 2: If any PAC-10 team except the Oregon Ducks is playing a  team not in the PAC-10, then I root for the PAC-10 team.  Conversely, I will root for any team playing against the Oregon Ducks.

Rule 3: If a PAC-10 team is playing another PAC-10 team, they are rooted for in the following order (valid for this season only):

1. Arizona State – It’s the alma mater. Not much more to say but… GO DEVILS!
2. Washington - Where I was born, and both my dad and my little bro are Huskies. Lots of family friends with history here. And Seattle is absolutely amazing. Let’s hear it for the wet dogs.
3. USC - I’m getting my masters here, but I’m not particularly attached to the team or campus. Previously, it was really just to piss off my roommate (UCLA) and my brother (UW) to root for the Trojans, but now that they have been whipped to submission by the NCAA and aren’t being the Yankees of the PAC-10, I actually kind of enjoy rooting for them.
4. Stanford - While many good teams opt for fast, agile, spread out offense, Stanford takes the direct approach and simply punches people in the face. Well, not really, but I do admire their hard-driving, “incoming freight train” approach to the running game this year. Also, word up to the Bay; northern California is one of my favorite places in the world. Hail to the Cardinal.
5. UCLA -numbers 5 and 6 on the list are sort of interchangeable. My “meh” schools. I don’t particularly love them, but there’s nothing really that annoys me about them either. The Bruins are placed ahead of the Beavers simply based on proximity and the fact that I like Westwood.
6. Oregon State -Meh. See above.  Beautiful area though, and some good family friends there.
7. Cal - Yes, Cal, similar to Stanford, is in fact also in Northern California. But, you know, in the dirty part that we don’t talk about in polite company. Hippies who somehow created a pretty badass science and engineering program.
8. Arizona - You may be surprised that the in-state rival of my alma mater is not dead last on the list of teams I will root for in the PAC-10. They really are a good team, and more or less consistently so; the only reason they are this low really is that they were the rivals. A pox on you, House of Wildcat. I love to hate you for no discernible reason except culturally-enforced feud-mongering.
9. Washington State – With all due apologies to my best friend, who for some reason hangs on to the hope that his precious Cougars will ever amount to something, I have to put WSU only slightly above despised Oregon. Though they seem to be recovering slightly from two seasons of serious contention at being the worst team in PAC-10 history, I predict that the Cougs will continue to suck as long as Pullman continues to suck as a place on earth. So, basically, forever.
10. Oregon – Ok folks, listen up! We need to come up with a mascot that strikes terror in the heart of our enemies, will not accentuate our fans’ douchebaggery, and will not rhyme with a popular swear word. I know! The DUCKS! … I hate the Ducks.  Going into why would take up it’s own post.  Even so, I have to grudgingly admire their blitzkrieg-like passing offense.  I mean it’s just so damn good. I really hate the Ducks though.

Rule 4: If Boise State is playing, in deference to my home town where we had no professional sports teams, I will root for the blue turf.

Rule 5: If none of the above rules define a team to root for, I will root for the underdog, regardless of whether I have rooted against that team in the past.  Long live the Revolution.  Upsets are one of the things that make sports exciting.

There. See?  Straightforward.  Now let’s watch some football.

I have to withdraw from running the marathon.

Why?  Because I made a stupid, boneheaded mistake, even when my intuition was telling me not to, I did it anyway.  Let me explain…

In the last three weeks, I started a new job and moved at the same time.  Starting a new job was a great feeling, as I’ve been basically unemployed since graduating in December.  The moving process took all of my evenings and weekends for a solid two weeks, and including the effort of starting a new job, I basically didn’t run for about a week and a half.  I didn’t have the time or the energy to get out onto the road.  This is the first half of the mistake.  The second half of the mistake is deciding that I still wanted to make up for the 20 miler that I missed.  I still had another 20 miler to do, and I probably could’ve gotten by just fine with just one 20 miler, but I was stubborn, and stupid.  My first run in a week and a half was 20 miles.  My intuition was telling me that this was a bad idea, but my stubbornness overrode my instincts, and now here I am with a stress fracture in my right foot, a re-aggravation of an injury from two years ago.

Needless to say, I feel like a total idiot.  I’ve dealt with so many injuries in the past years, and you would think that I would learn from those mistakes, but apparently not.  I’ve had Achilles tendonitis,  shin splints, muscles tears, neuromas (pinched nerve in the foot, it hurts), sprained ankles, sprained knees, hip injuries, you name it.  I’ve been in-and-out of doctors’ offices, gotten custom insoles for my running shoes for my flat feet, and gone through physical therapy.  I’ve been extremely cautious about re-injuring myself.  All it takes is one mistake (one BIG mistake in my case), to knock me off the road for two months.

Although I’m kicking myself, I definitely won’t call the training I’ve done in the last few months a waste.  The marathon race, in my opinion, is merely a celebration of the journey to get there.  The months of training, the hours upon hours on the road to get yourself into a condition to run 26.2 miles continuously is the real marathon.  I’ve run more miles more consistently in the last few months than I ever have in my life, and crested 40 miles in a single week for the first time!  I also lost over 10 pounds! Although I will miss the race, I’ve already hit some big milestones for myself, and after recovering from this injury, will be ready to try again!  I’m already looking at marathons for this spring, with the Spokane marathon or Coeur D’Alene marathons looking like top contenders.  Both are in May, and both are 90 minutes from Pullman, an easy day trip.  I will also attempt another fall marathon, perhaps trying Two Bear again, or maybe trying somewhere else.  This injury is a setback, but it sure as hell isn’t going to stop me!

Last night I ran a 17 miler in the dark.  It’s been brutally hot here in the Palouse, and heat affects me a lot, especially on long runs.  In order to avoid it, I either have to start early in the morning or run late at night.  The sun currently rises at 5:17 AM, and it’s hot by seven.  I would have to start at 4 AM in order to finish 17 miles.  Obviously that’s not happening.  I instead started at 8pm last night, as the sun was just starting to dip behind the wheat covered hills.  I parked at the head of the bike trail linking Pullman and Moscow, grabbed some water, gels and a flashlight and got started.

The run ended up being a lot of fun!  It was me, the stars, and the flashlight leading my way.  Beyond one kind of creepy moment hearing a couple of coyotes howling in front of me and wondering if coyotes ambushed people from the bushes, the run was comfortable.  Ok, it wasn’t comfortable.  It hurt like hell at the end and my legs felt like mush.  I also ate a big burger from Jack in the Box, a bunch of ice cream and a lot of beer afterwards (healthy).  But I finished, right?

Tues 7/14:  3.91 miles in 38.02 at 9:43 / mi

Wed 7/15:  8.04 miles in 1:15:15 at 9:21 / mi

Thurs 7/16:  3.30 miles in 32:21 at 9:47 / mi

Sat 7/18:  8.14 miles in 1:19:02 at 9:42 / mi

Sun 7/19:  17.01 miles in 2:49:51 at 9:59 / mi

Total:  40.4 miles!

I hit 37 miles total for the first week.  The most that I’ve ever run in a week prior was 39, during the peak of my first marathon’s training schedule.  I picked a much tougher schedule this time around, and I’m definitely starting to feel the effects.  Sunday’s 15 miler was… less than comfortable.  The last two weeks of increased mileage have resulted in more fatigue than usual, and that fatigue hit me full force during the middle of the run, severely dropping my overall pace, and making the last few miles extra tiring.  I felt horrible after the run, and it took me a couple of days to recover.  The summary of mileage for the week:

Tues 6/30:  4.01 miles in 41:46 at 10:25 / mi.  Recovery after a long Sunday run.

Wed 7/1:  7.43 miles in 1:11:43 at 9:39 / mi.

Thurs 7/2:  4.03 miles in 41:05 at 10:11 / mi

Sat 7/4:  7.00 miles in 1:06:42 at 9:31 / mi

Sun 7/5:  15.08 miles in 2:40:29 at 10:38 / mi

Total for the week:  37.55 miles

The next week saw greatly reduced mileage.  I ended up taking it very easy, only running a few miles the whole week.  This was partially to recover from the week before, and to prepare for Saturday’s race!  I ran my first trail race since cross country in high school!  It was a hilly eight-mile jaunt through Brundage, a ski resort in McCall, ID on July 11th.

http://www.wildrockies.com/running/brundage_festival.php

It was small part of a much larger mountain biking competition, and there were only 22 runners.  The course was hilly and rugged.  I lept over tree roots, ran through creeks, and nearly twisted my ankle on some very inconveniently placed rocks.  I was pretty nervous about this race, because trail running is so much different than running on pavement.  I used this race as a gauge as a test for the trail marathon.  If this race ended up being really hard, I would have to make some big adjustments to my training schedule.

I lined up on the starting line with the 21 other runners, who all looked like they meant business.  Fit, outdoorsy, probably ran dozens of races like this.  I felt a sense of dread, and imagined myself crossing the finishing line in dead last, with the announcer saying, “And stumbling into LAST PLACE, the moron that actually thought he could run trails, and laughably decided to try to run a trail marathon is Ryan Johnson!  Let’s mock him everybody!”

The starting gun goes off, and we take off down the trail, through dense pine trees.  The trail was very narrow, so nobody could really pass each other for the first mile.  With the Tour de France on my mind, our tightly grouped line of runners felt like a peloton.  The course was beautiful.  Anybody who has grown up in Idaho around the mountains knows the feeling that I felt as I ran through forest and flowering meadows.  The air was thin from the mile-high altitude, and I could feel it through a slight burning in my chest, along with more labored breathing.  The first hill, also the largest and steepest, revealed itself as we turned a sharp corner.  At this point, living in Pullman paid off.  No run that I do in Pullman is ever flat.  In fact, I live near the top of a hill, so regardless of what direction I return from, I end my run by running up a hill.  I suddenly found myself dropping a large chunk of the group, and at the top of the long hill, found myself in 8th place out of 22.  Needless to say, I was surprised.  I was even more surprised when only one person passed me for the remainder of the race, putting me in 9th out of 22 people!

I felt pretty happy about the race, for the most part.  I finished, but felt pretty sore afterwards due to the rough trail.  I’m worried about the possibility of rolling an ankle, espeically as my leg muscles weaken towards the end of the race.  I suppose that’s part of the risk of doing this, but I can’t say that I’m entirely confident.  The only thing that I can do is finish the training and make the attempt!  Here’s the summary of the week:

Tues 7/7:  1.53 miles in 14:11 at 9:17 / mi

Thurs 7/9:  3.08 miles in 28:42 at 9:19 / mi

Sat 7/11:  Trail race!  8 miles in 1:20:10 at 10:00 / mi

Total: 12.61 miles