A Quick Training Update

I feel like I finally turned a corner this past week. To be honest, for months I've been struggling with running. Between small nagging injuries, being sick (twice), and plenty of excuses, my training has not been where I would've liked throughout the winter. The good news is that I have several years of solid base behind me. I proved last year that I can come back pretty quickly after months of inconsistency. The bad news is that I've lost a good amount of speed... Something I can hopefully gain back in the next five weeks.

There have been a few things that really helped motivate me through my so-called "downtime".

The first was signing up for a race. For months I'd been planning on running the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 100 in late March. Once mid-January hit and I still wasn't running consistenly, I bagged the idea completely. Instead, I chose the Buffalo Run 50 miler; a race I've run twice before. I got into the race about 8 weeks out... Plenty of time for me to get ready. The bad news is I wasted the first couple weeks struggling with motivation, and once again lots of excuses. I still ran a bit, just not like I'd hoped. Then I finally hit my stride this past week running, that included a long run on Saturday which was the farthest I've run since October. Yikes!

The other thing that really helped was the Refuse2Quit.com crew. I haven't said anything to any of them about this, but seeing their pictures & videos and reading about their adventures the last few weeks has really boosted me! I was really bummed that I couldn't join them this past weekend in the San Rafael Swell (I actually couldn't have gone even if I was ready to run 30 miles), but watching this video got me excited about joining them for more adventures this year.

 

All five of us are running a version of the race out on the island March 23rd. I'm not expecting to beat my 7:39 from two years ago, but I would like to publicly state that I'm aiming for 8 hours. There! That should give me even more motivation to train hard over the next five weeks. It'll be tough, but what's the point in setting a low expectation? Shoot for the stars! I'm looking forward to the mayhem!