On The Upward Trend

I really look forward to this time of year.  Daylight extends ever so slightly each day, temperatures slowly start trending up, and training comes into full swing.  OK, so this is only the second time I've run through winter, but you catch my drift!  I'm rousing with life again and feel as though I'm just coming out of hibernation.  It's not to say I haven't been running through winter, because I have.  The momentum though, is finally on the up and my energy is in a focused, entirely positive direction.

Another exciting aspect of this time of year is finalizing a schedule for the upcoming year.  The major piece of my running puzzle was completed on Saturday when the lottery for Wasatch was held.  Unfortunately, it's not happening for me this year :(  I was a bit bummed at first, but now I have the opportunity to run the Bear 100.  Since it happens two weeks after Wasatch each year, I don't know that I ever would have done them both in the same year.  So I'm stoked to be able to run the Bear this year!  It's a new challenge on what will be a completely new course for me.  Plus I'll probably end up running most of the Wasatch course in training this summer, so I can't be too bummed about it!

Training is going about as expected.  Been hitting some weeks in the 50 mile range, and I'm hoping to hit 60 this week.  Could be interesting though, as I got my annual cold last week and skipped a few days running.  I'm glad it hit now instead of later!  It feels nice to just about have it out of my system, though.  I'm less than 7 weeks from the Buffalo Run so now's the time to step up and knock out some good runs.

I've also decided to do a run of marathon distance or greater each month this year.  I got my January run in the last Saturday of the month.  It was a perfect day and I was able to bang out my 26.2 pretty easily.  I was trashed afterwards since I didn't hydrate very well or take in enough nutrition, but that's beauty of training... Teaching your body to go without, which in turn makes you stronger.  Not everyone subscribes to the aforementioned philosophy, but it seems to work for me!