Back From the Dead

Running is supposed to be fun. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. I love running all types of races. Track, cross country, trail, mountain, road, relay, snowshoe. I enjoy running different types of races at different times. Unfortunately, when I schedule some of these races I don't quite have the motivation for them that I need to do well. Case in point: this year's cross country season. I decided after Washington that I needed to switch gears a little and work on some speed and racing tactics, especially after running a couple of 10k PR's during my mountain training in the spring. I have always loved cross country, but it has always conflicted with a fall marathon or half marathon.

My summer slowly dragged along as I couldn't get motivated to get any consistent training in. I put in a few good workouts and a few good weeks of training here and there, but I just couldn't string them together. I ran the Topsfield XC race slower than last year (it was pretty windy), and dropped a stink bomb at Mayor's Cup, basically jogging in the last half mile. I knew NE's wouldn't be any better, so I decided to pull the plug.

After wallowing in self pity for a day, I started getting in some good mountain runs, because I wanted to run, not train. By the end of that week I had run 66 miles in 6 days, and climbed 12,000 ft. in 11.5 hours. The next week saw me cover 61 miles in 11.9 hours, climbing 12,250 ft. This last week I only ran 5 days but got in 50 mile s in 10.5 hours with 7900 ft. of climbing. I have really been enjoying my runs. I haven't done a workout since Mayor's Cup, but my 3 long runs have been 18.6 miles/3h 40m/3100 ft, 23.2 miles/5h 18m/5350 ft, and 19.5 miles/5h 04m /4400 ft of gain. And they have genuinely been fun.

As for the upcoming year, I have a few things planned. I don't know what exactly I'm going to put my focus into yet, but I know I want to try few new races. I may also race a little less too and focus on getting in some good quality running and not travelling so much. I made some gains in the last year and I hope to build on them. Whatever I do, it will be fun.


View of Crawford Notch from Mt. Willey