Sunday, April 12, 2009

Trip Planning: Solidifying Summer 2009

First, training.
Well, I my body seems to have recovered from last weekend's AR50. This morning I did my longest run since the race, ~8 miles at a slow Sunday morning pace (~9min). My legs are actually a little sore! I'm not sure if it's remnants from last weekend's 50 miles, or that my strength actually dropped off during this recovery week. Any other AR50 folks still hurting?
I am trying to figure out my summer ultrarunning plans in the midst of a lot of life changes. These include losing my job and trying to find a new one, moving across the country, getting married, going on my honeymoon, attending 2 other weddings, and being utterly distracted by the prospect of backpacking.
But if you get too hung up on life logistics, you never do anything cool. Just sign up. Just buy the ticket. Just commit, and make the plans afterwards. So while I wont be doing many long distance races until October, I think I have the next few months pretty well blocked out.
Races:
Bay to Breakers: May 17th: Psyched to do this one! I have missed the last 2 years, but I used to do it every year with my little brother. I am thinking of dressing up like a female cop to protest the new ING corporate crackdown. I figure I will arrest people and confiscate their alcohol.
Diablo 25k, June 6th: I would rather do the 50k, but it's the weekend before I get married and I can't commit to the kind of training I would need to while planning the wedding. So I chose the fun, mellow, "off-the-couch" distance. I used to work at a health food store when I was 15 and the produce guy told me that Diablo was a sacred peak. And I've never seen the top.
Finger Lakes 50k, July 4th: Yeah, I should run the 50 miler. Maybe I will. But I will be just off my honeymoon, where I doubt I will be doing many 30 mile training runs. Actually, "doubt" makes it sound a little too likely. I think the 50k will be challenging enough. My fiance grew up ~5 miles from the course, so it should be a fun weekend of visiting.
Spirit of the Prairie 50 m, Oct. 11th : In order to embrace my temporary home of Kansas City, I want to run their 50 miler (or maybe 100 if I can find the time to train). It sounds psychotically flat, but when in rome!

Okay, so it's a mellower summer, running-wise, than I would prefer. But your hobbies need to fit into your life, they can't make you stop your life, otherwise you will stop doing them. That's why I drink a glass of wine the night before a race. That's why I visit my grandparents instead of doing a long training run. If I can't be an ultrarunner and prioritize the other things that are important to me, I know what will prevail. And I am sure that the summer will let me body relax but still keep it strong, good and ready for October!

5 comments:

Zach said...

Well said in your post. If your life is only running, then what's the point of burning all those calories and tracking all those miles? What's the Finger Lakes race? Is that in Kansas?

How come you're doing treadmill? softer surface?

the Bay2Breakers is back (mostly) to its original form (almost) with floats, no zero tolerance etc. :) - it will be my first - I hear great things...so thats something to celebrate

Is your fiance as ultra as you are? Ha ha - that came out wrong - Im sure hes ultra, but does he run far as well? eg. Are you going to do a 5K to the alter locked in arms or anything RunnersWorldy?

Enjoy the great weather!

jb said...

Hey Zach!
The Finger Lakes race is in upstate New York, near where my fiance lives now. A woman who I met at a snowshoe race this winter, Laura Clark, recommended it. They have a big free camp ground Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and I hear they get a keg and have big bonfires every night. My kind of runners! :)
I did the treadmill because it was cold and windy in New York this morning. I am not proud of my decision, but I am going for a "real" run tomorrow morning in the woods. And I had to catch up on my reality television, you know, but now I can get back to nature.
The Bay to Breakers is always a blast. Usually I just run it instead of party it, but I am hoping to do both this year.
My fiance is super athletic, but his job is pretty demanding these days so he only does 1/2 marathons with me (and at ~7:20 miles without training, the punk!). But I will always appreciate that when I started doing marathon + distances he didn't call me crazy :) The semi-hokey thing we enjoy together is surfing, but we aren't getting married under an arch of longboards or having a reception paddle-out or anything like that.
You said your GF was going to hike Half Dome with you- does she have the crazy distance bug as well? She must charge pretty hard if she is up for that!

Zach said...

I love it.

snow-shoeing. surfing. hiking. doesn't matter what's under you - you're moving.

I love snow-shoeing, but never considered a race. I guess I never lived in a place that could have one....and that's okay. Okay - I excuse the treadmill now - NY is cold. Well, that sounds pretty awesome and yea - my gf is running her first marathon in a few weeks - so pretty excited - should be beautiful up at the avenue of the giants in nor nor nor cal.

Anyway - keep up the interesting posts!

joyRuN said...

Well hey there Ms. Awesome! Running ultras & Costa Rica? I'm madly jealous (of Costa Rica, not of running for 10+ hours. Okay nevermind - I'm impressed with that as well).

If that's what constitutes a "mellower" summer, I think I'm a little scared of you too ;)

Zach said...

Hey -

I'm using the Petzl tikka plus - I found it on google products for really cheap <30$ - I was perusing some ultra websites and seemed to be one of the highest rated and most commonly used. I like it better than my Petzl E-Lite which wasnt strong enough to light up trails in the dark.

Hope that helps

Zach