"Albert Camus wrote that the only serious question is whether to kill yourself or not."

Truck Livin’

Sorry for the lack of updates, people. I’ve been living in my truck for the last 5 days, out in the wilderness. Makes it tough to access the internet.

Things are going well. My taper is going “ok”. I don’t really think I’m enjoying it, but that could be a function of living in the truck full time. I’ve read about 1500 pages of books so far, and done a fair bit of sleeping. The dog has been chasing huge quantities of squirrels and gophers.

My knee is still bugging me, ever so slightly, but I only have one more short climb of Hope Pass to do, and then I can just stay off it and ice for the rest of the week. It’s a really minor kind of twingey pain, which has yet to hold me back on any runs but I know how things that feel insignificant can become very major after 80 miles!

I spent night one camped out at Twin Lakes. Campgrounds here at $17 per night! LOL. Not likely. I did find a free spot to camp, and it was ok. The next night I hiked up Hope Pass, so it was convenient to be out there.

Night 2 I camped out on Hagerman Road, but it rained the whole evening and night so it was a total bust.

Since then, I’ve been sleeping up at Mt. Sherman. The road drives up nearly to 12,600 ft, so I’m getting a little more altitude. Not sure it’ll help, but probably won’t hurt. Been driving down to Leadville to run when need be, and to the coffee shop to get online a bit, and eat my breakfast burrito. My diet has gone totally to shit, and so it’s not a wonder my knee is still hurting.

Lemme see if I’ve got some photos here to show ya…

This is where the sleep happens. Not bad.

Yes, that is Nutella on swirly cinnamon Pepperidge Farms bread. If it’s good enough for Kilian Jornet, it’s good enough for me. But be glad you don’t share a tent with me… the gas… my god, the smell…

I built myself a toilet, up at Mt. Sheridan campsite. Figured it was better than shitting all over nature like the dog.

How’s that for an enjoyable toilet-view? Glorious!

A few nights ago I was blessed with a glorious sunset. Here’s the truck, with newly acquired Thule box. Massive improvement to living conditions.

Tona in the sunset. Practically posing like a show dog.

Just in case you forgot what I look like. This is *really* what I look like this week, since I haven’t changed my clothes in 6 days.

Don’t you love that word “Dandy Lion”? Genus “Taraxacum”, FYI.

Trying so, so hard to stay awake. “Must…. observe…. chipmunks….”

Tona terrorized this one chipmunk so much, I decided to feed him some walnuts and almonds. As I was dropping them off, I noticed this: a piece of tail. “Tona!” I yelled, “Did you pull that chipmunk’s tail off!?” I saw him later, and there seemed to be quite a bit of it left. Do they shed them like lizards?

A huge parking lot available, and these idiot women park 4 feet from my truck to camp out for the night. I was gonna flatten all their tires. The worst part is someone else came up, and said “Are you camping here? Oh, we don’t want to crowd you!” and the idiot cow says “Oh, no worries!” … What a fucking moron.

Disappearing sun. Good times.

So that’s about it. I’ve been on a couple good training runs with various folks, including SkaRunner Dan and his buddy up from Denver, and some of their friends up from New Mexico. Also met a dude from Santa Cruz, and we ran Powerline with Aussie Matt yesterday. Headed up Hope again Saturday, and then basically that’s it. Not much else going on until race day, which is 8 days away only!

The family and g/f (can I just lump her into ‘the family’ designation?) show up on the 14th which is going to be excellent. From that point on it’s all race planning and packing and visualizing my success!

Time to head back to the mountains to read another 600 pages.

Mitch out.

“He who fails to plan, plans to fail.”

6 Comments

  1. Tina H.

    Wow just wow for those woman parking right next to you with all that frickin space. They must have thought you were some big tough Canadian dude that can protect them from chipmunks and gophers. Also wow to your view from the shitter. BTW that is one awesome shitter.
    That photo of Tona is incredible! You should sell that one or use it to get Tona into commericals etc so that she can fund your crazy ultra lifestyle.

    • Mitch

      Hmmm… my dog trainer, I think, does training for TV and movies. I’ll see what I can do.

  2. Wilco

    Lmao. Love the view from the shitter photo! You’re asking for a little friendly competition though…;-)
    I’ve had some glorious views from some of the nature squats I’ve enjoyed…. Good luck in the race! Are you moving to Calgary in the fall or what?

    • Mitch

      Still unsure about the move. Will only know in March or so, next spring. Keep your fingers crossed, so we can climb mountains and build rock toilets to our hearts’ content!

  3. Kowboy Jackson

    Miguel, in your shitter pic are you rocking Mizuno Wave Elixir shoes? What shoes are you going to race in?

    • Mitch

      Yessir! I just bought two new pairs of Elixir 7’s, for my race! (I’m on my 6th pair in total, I think, although I graduated to the new model from the 6’s.) One set has 320 km on them, the other about 180. Will start in the more broken-in pair. I had also broken in a pair of Hoka’s, but they suck.

Leave a Reply to Mitch Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2024 Mitch's Website

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑