A month ago I had so much to say. So much I wanted to get off my chest. At this very moment though I find myself staring blankly into the carpet of my office. My son is in the room next to me jumping in his bed, refusing to go to sleep. Its to the point now where we just ignore him. Eventually the sandman breaks him down and he passes out. My wife is down the hall watching So You Think You Can Dance on the television. Here I sit pretending to be in my own reality series, So You Think You Can Write. Sometime the creative juices just flow and other times like now I struggle to find anything worthy of writing. Its hard to make a completely normal life sound cool and exciting. If it were not for running ultras my life would be no different than that of my overly domesticated out of shape beer drinking, lawn mowing, backyard grilling neighbors. Not that theres anything wrong with that. I plan on doing a lot of that in the years to come. Right now though I want to live and right now I've realized I live to compete.
All praise be to the trail gods. My desire to jump in the ring is back. The boots are laced up. The knuckles are taped. No more beating around the bush. THIS DOG WILL HUNT! Training has been Awesome and I can't honestly remember a time when I've put two weeks of training together like the two I just had. Hot and nasty days in the rain forests down by the river bluffs and long hilly quad thrashing road rides on the bike have been served up on a daily basis. I'm loving every minute of it. I'm training happy for the first time in a very long while. Long gone are the days of the "what ifs and what might have beens". All that lies ahead now are the promises of what might be. What am I really capable of now that I'm centered? Who knows? All I know is that I can't wait to get back out there and find out.
Now that thats out. Heres the skinny on the rest of my season. It turns out that my job has just screwed me out of my busy fall season I had planned by realighning the shifts. Which resulted in me moving up a line of senority and jumping to another shift. The Flatrock 50km. A race that is very close to my heart is officially off my schedule. With that my consecutive streak of six straight finishes on my way to 10 and becoming an inductee into the Hall of Pain is over aswell. I am upset a little about that but I guess it was never meant to be. I'm fortunate enough to have been able to accomplish the top three goals I had set for myself at that race. With Calebs performance there last year I'm happy with the fact that I left the reigns in the hands of a very worthy and deserving champion. Long live the new King of the Rock. Also I had penciled in the Patriots Run in Olathe as one of my focus races for the fall. With a goal of hoping to crack 100km in under 9 hrs. That race too is now dust in the wind. The other race not making the list is the Rock Creek 50km a particularly nasty course of my own design. To all of those who run that one this fall, "rejoice in your misery".
On to the races that stayed and the new additions. although this race is not actually in the fall it is a key race in my preperation for the race I'll be doing in place of Flatrock. That is the Psycho Psummer 50km. I can't think of a more brutal mentally tough course around here than that one. Initially I had only intended to run it as a gauge race but now with the change in my schedule it has become important for me to perform well there. The main reason for all the hilly heat training I've been piling on as of late. After Psycho its down to Tulsa for the Turkey and Taturs 50km. Theres a 75 dollar bounty to anyone who can break the course record there. Baring any unforseen injury and with a little luck from the trail gods it should be like taking candy from a baby. Money in the bank. If that happens then the other Trail Nerds that are going to be there and myself are going out for beers afterwards and YES the beers are on me...After T&T 50km the Heatland 50 mile record became even more of a sweet prospect having gained an extra two weeks of rest between races. So I decided to keep that one on the list. Which brings us to the Grand Daddy race of the central United States region. SUNMART!!! Who knows what kind of shape I'll be in by then but you can bet your sweet ass I'm going to give myself the best possible chance I can.
Man what a ride its going to be. I guess thats enough running my mouth for now. So I'll shut my pie hole. Like Wynnman says "Speak softly, act loudly". True that. I just wanted to scream it from the top of some place very high that I'M BACK!!! A quick wrap up of my last week and a half of trainning. Running miles = 84 mostly all in the form of hilly tempo 25kms in the woods. Cycling miles = 190 which was on four days of cycling. 100, 40, 25, 25. The century was done this past Saturday in 4:49 slightly faster then 20 m.p.h. pace. Not a bad tempo ride. My weight is down to what is for me an ethiopeanlike 164lbs. and I'm running about 7% body fat. Feeling strong and ready to roll. I hope everyones trianing is going well and that your enjoying it as much as I am. We'll see ya' all real soon. Peace...
