Yep, the crazy is still in there
| January 28, 2021 | Posted by Melinda under Uncategorized |
After almost a year of no significant running…I’m running again.
I guess I should say something trite here about how “good it feels” but….let’s be real. Long miles after a year mostly spend biking, swimming, and most runs less than 60 min?
“Good” is not how I felt after pushing myself through an 18.5 mile run loop Tuesday that would have been easy-peasy a year ago.
In fact, I may have been muttering things about how it was ridiculous for anyone to run another 80 miles after running that loop (that loop is the first loop of Rio Del Lago 100 mile run). And no, I was not running around the parking lot to make it an even 20 miles that day. Just. Not. Going. To. Do. It.
I want you to mark this occasion.
The point in time where I was not bat shit crazy, and thinking like a sane person.
It lasted 48 hours.
48 hours was apparently the time it takes to go from fantasizing about a runner’s life based around distances that get done in time for a nice respectable lunch, and….signing up for a 100k in March and a 100 mile in July.
You might (reasonably) believe that there was some magic sauce in my 2020 training that would lead me to believe I was capable of this.
You would be wrong.
For posterity’s sake, when I’m writing the nailed it failed it post for Burning River and I’m crying sad crocodile tears into a glass of wine trying to figure out how my life (or at least my race) came to ruin short of the 100 mile mark, let’s recap my last *training block, which has lasted approximately 11 months.
*training block sounds so much more purposeful and fancy than “completely lost motivation all last year and decided to not spend my weekends being lost in the wilderness and eating warm, mushed, toddler foods from a vest.
In November 2019 I finished a 100 mile run. It was not easy but I also did not die. Point for Mel. For those of you that like to be exact, this was 14 months ago.
In February 2020 I did not finish a 100 mile run in Texas. It was easier than November’s run, but I felt like I wanted to die and I learned a valuable lessons that I’ve promptly forgotten. After a purposeful and thought out recovery (sleeping on the couch, eating all things, and half-assing my way through yoga for 14-21 days).
In March 2020 all hell broke loose and I got to live through one of my Great Disasters books that I’ve been reading since I was 5 years old. It was kind cool, but mostly resulted in me feeling like I couldn’t focus on anything for more than 5 milliseconds at a time.
Through sheer genius coincidence I bought a road bike in March 2020, named her “FTS” (I call her FiTS for short) and rode the hell out of her in 2020. Did a century in July. Excellent cross training. Not the same as running. Mostly because you don’t feel like you are doing to die all the time.
Joined a virtual race in June 2020 – Great Race Across Tennessee. It required a lot of miles, preferably done in small chunks every day. My body doesn’t like daily miles. Even if they are walking. Immediately pissed on my achilles tendon sheath and had to take several weeks off. Deleted my optimistic blog post draft about how enlightening it was to commit to a long term race for 3 months and went back to sulking and…not running.
Open water swam all summer and tried to convince myself that it was basically just as good as running. (It isn’t. Even though you do feel like you are going to die at any moment). Ran just enough miles to be able to stumble through a 10k as needed.
Did a mini triathlon in September 2020. Did not die. Felt like I wanted to die on a 2 mile run.
Ran a social 13.1 mile half marathon in October. We won’t talk about the pace. Plus, once you turn 30 the PR’s start over again right? And since this was the first half marathon I’ve ran since I was 30, it was a…errrr…PR? Nevermind. Back to my former philosophy. Didn’t die, therefore a success. Patted myself on the back for a double digit run and immediately went back to…not running.
In November 2020 the lights went off the sun was eaten by the snake carrying the world on its back daylight savings ended, but it doesn’t really matter because the latitude I live at refuses to have 18 hours of daylight year round and also has the nerve to drop below 80 degrees. I started working ER overnight shifts and November/December was a whirl wind of cozy child snuggles, warm fires, and feeling like for the first five years I don’t actually suck as a vet outside of the narrow scope of soft tissue surgery.
Unfortunately personal growth, let’s-try-new-things, swimming, biking, and but-I-had-to-run-on-asphalt excuses don’t contribute to the sort of miles one needs to run 100’s.
But, if one used a logic to decide whether to run 100 miles, one would (probably) never run one. So I choose to look at it different.
I’ve had worse lead ups to 100 mile races.
**Huge, reality denying SMILE**
See? Argue with THAT.
First step is a mid-March 65 mile relay that I’m doing solo. In true form where I continually repeat the mistakes of my past, I signed up prior to looking at the time requirements, and somehow I’m going to do a 100k+3 miles 30 min faster than my fastest 100k. **Insert the HUGE REALITY I LOVE TO FEEL PAIN SMILE** again.
It will be fine. It’s loops. I’ll get as many loops done in the 16 hours allocated and it will be a helluva lot more than than 25-30 miles that I can self motivate myself for outside of supported runs.
45-50 miles should either kill me or injure set me up nicely to run a 100 miler 4 months later. Because of rest and taper periods, I’ll have about 3 months/12 weeks to play with my training and fill in any holes.
This really is a no fail scenario.
- This works and I get my qualifier in this year in July, run a race I’ve never run in a state I’ve never been to, and meet people I’ve only known online. Or,
- I get all that #1 stuff except I don’t finish the race, have a solid 100k in July and have to run Rio again in November (sigh).
- It’s a &^%$&* disaster and it makes for really good blogging.
In the words of the “king”
They will tear each other into pieces
Jesus Christ, this will be fun!
Da da da dat dat dai ya da…
You make me feel so sane (by comparison)….
?????? I’m going to take that as a compliment!
I’m loving all of your posts that I am reading right now. I am getting back into running and working my way into ultras very much along this training philosophy!!