I was reading my entries from last year, two weeks before Sulphur. I was so excited. I obviously didn't know what I was getting myself into.
This year, things are a bit different. I feel more prepared, but also a bit more apprehensive. I still feel that I haven't fully recovered from Susitna. It's as if I left a piece of me somewhere on those trails and it hasn't fully grown back yet. I feel fine physically, although I feel slower than I was last year.
Here's what I think my problem is: I've done the easy stuff. By "easy stuff" I mean that it's easy to sustain the excitement of running while you escalate the challenges. It becomes a drug: the first 50k, 50 miler, 100 miler. You ride the highs and the lows, you use the emotions to push yourself to the next challenge. Well, now I've gone pretty much as far as I'm willing to go, so I have to learn to run for the right reasons, whatever the "right" reasons are. Of course, there are more challenges out there, but I don't want to run just so that I can chase the next even crazier race.
Back to Sulphur Springs. Two weeks to go and that means taper. I know a lot of you crazy runners hate tapers, but I don't mind. As I mentioned before, I'm a lazy bastard and I`m confident that I've done the work. There isn't anything I can do now other than NOT do anything stupid. The only problem this time around is that I feel I didn't have enough time to recover since February. I'm trying to beat my time from last year (10:06) and I have a feeling this is going to be a close call. I think that one key will be discipline. I will not waste as much time as last year in aid stations. I've been able to do that this season at Seaton and PYP and I hope I can translate that into a longer race. If you count the start/finish, there are 5 aid stations per loop, 4 loops, that's 19 opportunities to waste time. If you stop 2 minutes each time, that's 38 minutes where you're not moving an inch. I'm pretty sure I wasted more time than that last year.
Let's enjoy the next two weeks of easy running! What's that I see tomorrow: hills?
Hynerview Challenge 50K Race Report
8 years ago
3 comments:
It's interesting to see your evolution through the 'first time' excitement and onward into a sustainable reason to keep doing it, finding other reasons to love it, etc.
I also enjoy tapers. We're both in the minority on that one. :)
Good plan about aid stations, keep going toward the finish.
Here's an idea. If you wear a 3-litre hydration vest, a two-bottle waist pack and carry two handhelds and maybe even stuff an extra bottle or two in your pack, you can probably bypass most of those aid stations for the entire day. Or, you could even pull out that sled you used at Susitna and fill it with water bottles and drag them along with you.
See you at the race.
Hey JD,
Your more then welcome to run a couple of loops with me. My aid stops in the first 50 will be few and quick.
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