At the beginning of the year I made three primary running goals. 1) Finish my first 100 miler in march, did that. 2) kick ass at a shorter race in Kelowna in late june; fail. Race was cancelled and I decided to race hard too soon after my 100 miler and didn't achieve anything resembling that goal. 3) Finish a 100 miler in september.
I'm 25 days away from goal number three. My summer has been less than stellar in terms of training. At sun mountain on May 19 I hurt my knee racing too hard, or for some other reason. I took it easy a couple weeks and then a week after I started getting back in I managed to hurt a pectoral muscle or something, or bad enough that I stayed home from work for three days. I built back up again, even got a 100 mile week in that included a sandbagged 50 mile race. Then a week later I had some family stuff come up, and I didn't run much for a few weeks, and even when I did start running it was with the weight of stress weighing me down. As the stress slowly started to fizzle away I decided to sign up for some races to get a bare minimum of mileage in leading to the 100 miler.
Ran a local road marathon: completely disapointing effort. I ran splits of 1:32 and 2:00, not at all what I should be capable of doing. I mentally collapsed when I hit the wall. To run at your best in any race there will come a moment when you have to decide to dig deep and access something (zen, heart, willpower?) to give the effort required. On this day, I had no heart, I had no zen, all I had was stress weighing me down and I gave up.
The next week I ran a nice 45 km long run near Salmon arm inthe reinecker creek trail system. It was nice, but I could still feel the stress dragging me down, like a ball and chain attached to my legs, with extra weights tugging all the way down from my heart through my insides all the way down to my feet.
This weekend I ran the squamish 50 mile trail race. I went in tired, pulling a reverse taper. I'd already run 56 km monday to thursday. I made mistakes, I didn't even check what the elctrolyte would be at the aid stations, it was heed, I ended up with terrible stomach pains. During the really hard climb in the middle of the course I was feeling just beat up, but all the while knowing that y intentions for the day were to run with a mentality I might take into a 100 mile race, and I was going slow. It took me a few km's after the end of the massive climb to get out of the mental funk. But I started running again and got mentally jazzed up. With 8 km to go a friend from home who was running the 50 km race was running with me, and was really motivating and we starting pushing harder, and we even kicked to the finish. A very tough race, definitely not my fastest or my best, but I made it that way for a purpose, for mental practise. And I think I got what I needed out of it. There was more elevation gain in the 50 mile race than I am expecting in the 100 mile race. So I think I can reasonably plan to run the same pace, as it will be less climbing, and considerably less technical.
Next week I will be running the 50 km race at Fat Dog, which is the end of the 120 course. Part of it is to go in for a tough challenge, last tough run before the 100 mile that will be 3 weeks after. And also as a scouting mission to see the end of the course, as I'm very much leaning towards doing the 120 miler there next year, get that monkey off my back.
Then I will probably run 25-35 km for long run the next week at home. Followed by an easy weekend, while helping my sister move the next weekend. And then showtime.
edit:
I was reading my year end post from 2012 that was looking forward to 2013 in regards to goal making.
Here's the last bit with the 10 bullet points
Goals in list form:
1. Finish a 100 mile trail race;
1b. Finish in a time under 24 hours.
2. Kick ass at the 50 mile scorched sole race.
2b. Knowing the approximate route, kick ass is hoping for under 8.5 hours.
3. Volunteer at other ultras.
4. Crew for a friend at an ultra at least once.
5. Volunteer at other local races.
6. Stay at my job, be a diligent Monday to Friday automoton worker. Play the game of being a 'productive member of society"
7. Don't do drugs ever.
8. Drinking: if I drink, I shall never drink while angry. And if I
drink, I shall never do anything illegal or say anything reprehensible.
And I shall never get drunk more than 10 times in the year (very
realistic), and I shall never put myself in an environment where I am
not fully comfortable with the alcohol level.
9. Figure out something or somewhere to fit some sort of volunteering that doesn't revolve around running into my time.
10. Pray, be thankful, and always remember that if I am to hope for
others to treat me well, I must always treat others well, and that if I
have any hope that people will do right by me I must always
unquestioningly do well of others no matter the situation. Being
positive is the only way to try and live, and I shall try do so, for no
other reason that I don't know why I've managed to make it to this point
without self destructing, so I might as well try and be better. There
must be a reason I'm still here.
Lets look at the goals so far.
1. Yes! Yes! Yes! Second one coming in four weeks.
2. Race was cancelled, messed up race schedule and bombed out hard at a race I wasn't rested for. Whoops.
3. Yes, several.
4. No
5. Yes
6. Yes, and I'm even enjoying it.
7. Yes.
8. Yes
9. Sigh, not yet.
10. Mostly, well kind of. In some ways, but I'm still too sarcastic and still am far too often easily letting myself get down a mental road I shouldn't be going down.
Also, I read my thoughts on how I wanted to train in regards to my 100 miler based plans. And I feel like mostly I'm on point.
I kind of feel like a winner right now.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Monday, July 15, 2013
Urban Art
The park that I run in for the majority of my weekday runs has a highway overpass (bridge I guess actually) running over the ravine / creek that is the focal point of the park. Like most bridge type structures it has a cement base holding up the pillars that the road is on above it. Usually there is a few urban art designs on the pillars. I like them, they aren't classic art, but they aren't distasteful at all either. When I say 'urban art' I don't mean weak ass monotone coloured tagging style graffiti; but rather pictures, scenes, concepts painted on public mediums usually using paint. The good ones have nice shading and depth of character. And I kind of enjoy the style of whoever has been arting up the pillars in my park.
Except today I ran by and noticed that some poor soul (probably a city employee) who has a narrow range of what counts as art decided to paint over everything with a boring drab grey paint.
Luckily there was already two young guys with a few bags of spray paint cans getting some new art done. I made sure to give them a high five and thanked them before continuing on with my run.
Except today I ran by and noticed that some poor soul (probably a city employee) who has a narrow range of what counts as art decided to paint over everything with a boring drab grey paint.
Luckily there was already two young guys with a few bags of spray paint cans getting some new art done. I made sure to give them a high five and thanked them before continuing on with my run.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Pin Cushion Trail
There is a trail in Peachland called the Pin Cushion Trail. It is about 3 km distance with about 1,000 feet elevation change. I took a video of me running down it. The videos not very good. I can't get past the habit of facing the camera to the right. But watch it anyway.
Pin Cushion Descent
I can't seem to get it to show the video here; so click the link.
Pin Cushion Descent
I can't seem to get it to show the video here; so click the link.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Sandbagging
Sandbagging: defined as being the process in which one intentionally runs a poor race by doing this to make the race harder than it would be had they came into the race properly prepared. If one is to be properly prepared one would do things like; proper taper, easy runs during race week, proper nutrition, proper rest and sleep, no hard activity the days before a race, analyse the race course to plan strategy, attempt some sort of proper nutrition plan. When you sandbag a race you intentionally dont do most or all of these things. Sandbagging at its best is done as part of an enjoyably hard training week.
On a completely related note I ran a 50 mile race this last weekend. I didnt feel too excited about it going in. I had messed up my summer training plan by bombing out of a 50 mile race May 19 via poor strategy and pushing too hard leading to a bit of an injury. Two weeks ago I stayed home from work for three days after hurting my left pectoral muscle (well the part of it that connects to my collarbone) after hyperextending it grabbing onto a tree stopping myself from falling down the side of a ravine. May and June were rather uninspired months and I had fallen off my training plan and was losing a bit of motivation.
Race week I ran monday to wednesday paced runs that were too fast to get leave myself fealing rested. the night before the race I decided to do a fairly hard hike up a peak leaving my quads feeling depleted. I got maybe four hours sleep before race day, ate like shit. And felt like a bag of shit about as soon as the race started; lower mainland humidity plus my asthma equals me feeling like Im carrying a heavy weight in my longs. Any delusions of making this race an actual race were quickly set aside after the group of runners I was with were continually missing turns, I quickly mentally checked further out of the race and decided to run with a group for safetys sake. Also, for nutrition for race day I took in nothing but liquids for the first 52 km, that was rough. There was several sections of the race that had us running on the shoulder of the sea to sky highway, that sucked. My heart for the race was drained pretty low and took awhile to get back into it.
I ran the 50 mile race in 10:12 which is my slowest time of that distance in the last two years. I came in feeling uninspired, still not fully recovered from my little injuries, untapered, tired, poor nutrition pre race and during race. Why do this; to try and start the race feeling like I might feel at the tough point of a longer race, and at the end of the day I can look back at this as a success in that regards. I definitely was mentally low and physically drained. So thats good. I ran the next morning 17 km (with dips in Buntzen lake) and then the next night another 18 km in the heat of home.
And the best success of the day is feeling reinvigorated to train. Which is good as Im only ten weeks out from the next 100 miler.
On a completely related note I ran a 50 mile race this last weekend. I didnt feel too excited about it going in. I had messed up my summer training plan by bombing out of a 50 mile race May 19 via poor strategy and pushing too hard leading to a bit of an injury. Two weeks ago I stayed home from work for three days after hurting my left pectoral muscle (well the part of it that connects to my collarbone) after hyperextending it grabbing onto a tree stopping myself from falling down the side of a ravine. May and June were rather uninspired months and I had fallen off my training plan and was losing a bit of motivation.
Race week I ran monday to wednesday paced runs that were too fast to get leave myself fealing rested. the night before the race I decided to do a fairly hard hike up a peak leaving my quads feeling depleted. I got maybe four hours sleep before race day, ate like shit. And felt like a bag of shit about as soon as the race started; lower mainland humidity plus my asthma equals me feeling like Im carrying a heavy weight in my longs. Any delusions of making this race an actual race were quickly set aside after the group of runners I was with were continually missing turns, I quickly mentally checked further out of the race and decided to run with a group for safetys sake. Also, for nutrition for race day I took in nothing but liquids for the first 52 km, that was rough. There was several sections of the race that had us running on the shoulder of the sea to sky highway, that sucked. My heart for the race was drained pretty low and took awhile to get back into it.
I ran the 50 mile race in 10:12 which is my slowest time of that distance in the last two years. I came in feeling uninspired, still not fully recovered from my little injuries, untapered, tired, poor nutrition pre race and during race. Why do this; to try and start the race feeling like I might feel at the tough point of a longer race, and at the end of the day I can look back at this as a success in that regards. I definitely was mentally low and physically drained. So thats good. I ran the next morning 17 km (with dips in Buntzen lake) and then the next night another 18 km in the heat of home.
And the best success of the day is feeling reinvigorated to train. Which is good as Im only ten weeks out from the next 100 miler.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
I feel like I should record some thoughts
The last few weeks at work I've been working an hour overtime, starting early an hour every day. Now that I"m not doing that anymore I think I might try and do some pre-work runs. It's gonna be tough, but I feel like it's something I want to try, I mean lots of other runners are doing two a days so it must be a good thing right? Getting up early is hard, and you gotta be organized to run before work, and I"m kind of lazy. I feel like this will be a failed attempt.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
uncreative blog post title
After a whopping 6 days of not exercising I've decided that I feel like whatever injury I incurred last weekend is fortunately not so serious to prevent me from getting back into a running schedule soon. So, I registered for a race on the same day as my summer goal race that got cancelled. The race is only a few hours drive away, so still kinda local and easy to get to. Of note, it's a race that has had flagging issues (of course I register for a race that has a bad rep for people getting lost), right now I believe there are only 3 other runners registered for the 50 mile race, which is great because then I won't feel any pressure to run fast, it will just be a casual long run.
Loose training plan through to september.
- May 19; epic fail at 50 mile race
- up to May 26: no exercise
- up to jun 1: do some biking, no running
- jun 8: start running: 3 runs, long run of 20 km
- jun 15: running 4 days, long run 30 km
- jun 22: run 5 days, long run 40 km
- jun 29: 50 mile race (but not really 'racing')
- july 6: long run 50 km easy
- july 13: long run 35 km
- july 20: easy week
- july 27: long run 40 km (might pull a dumbass move and run a road marathon)
- aug 3: holiday weekend; 3 long runs back-back-back
- aug 10: long run 50 km
- aug 17: last hard run before sept race; intense 50 km run (or the previous week depending on which race I get into)
- gradual 3 week taper to race week
- Sept 6th or 14th, race 100 mile; Lost Soul or Plain.
Oonce week of june 22 comes I'll be back up to 5 days a week running, and then after that throw in a 6th day of something else. Mix of speedwork, and hill work and I feel I should be ready. Long and gradual enough that I feel I will comfortably peak and then long enough to be properly tapered/rested for race day. Which 100 mile race I end up doing will pretty much only affect the style of my weeknight hill workouts (shorter repeats or longer sustained climbs, I have two locations in mind) and the amount of speedwork done (more or pretty much none).
yep. sounds like a good plan, so I'll prob change it to something else halfway through.
Loose training plan through to september.
- May 19; epic fail at 50 mile race
- up to May 26: no exercise
- up to jun 1: do some biking, no running
- jun 8: start running: 3 runs, long run of 20 km
- jun 15: running 4 days, long run 30 km
- jun 22: run 5 days, long run 40 km
- jun 29: 50 mile race (but not really 'racing')
- july 6: long run 50 km easy
- july 13: long run 35 km
- july 20: easy week
- july 27: long run 40 km (might pull a dumbass move and run a road marathon)
- aug 3: holiday weekend; 3 long runs back-back-back
- aug 10: long run 50 km
- aug 17: last hard run before sept race; intense 50 km run (or the previous week depending on which race I get into)
- gradual 3 week taper to race week
- Sept 6th or 14th, race 100 mile; Lost Soul or Plain.
Oonce week of june 22 comes I'll be back up to 5 days a week running, and then after that throw in a 6th day of something else. Mix of speedwork, and hill work and I feel I should be ready. Long and gradual enough that I feel I will comfortably peak and then long enough to be properly tapered/rested for race day. Which 100 mile race I end up doing will pretty much only affect the style of my weeknight hill workouts (shorter repeats or longer sustained climbs, I have two locations in mind) and the amount of speedwork done (more or pretty much none).
yep. sounds like a good plan, so I'll prob change it to something else halfway through.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Sun Mountain DNF, aka how I reaffirmed the idea of following my plan.
This past weekend I went down to winthrop to run in the Sun Mountain 50 mile trail race. I ended up dropping out. I was running good, well I thought I was. Around 20 km or so I started to feel a little odd in my lower right quad, and then a sharp stabbing pain started radiating upwards from my knee. I tried to test it out, I thought maybe I would be able to shake it. But coming down the first downhill that would have been the first spot to really turn up speed and the pain was excruciating, like my skin was being ripped off my knee. Stopped, swore at the top of my lungs, tried running, hurt something awful some more, stopped and screamed and then started hobbling. There was about two minutes of running where I thought I could get back at it, that thought quickly faded, and then I started walking. As fortune would have it, I was right near the ass end of a loop to start the course, so after walking to the next aid station told them I as DNF'ing, and walked back to the start finish the way I came. I found it rather interesting how 3rd place through about 10th place would stop and ask me what was wrong, rightly assuming that if someone ahead of them was walking something wasn't right. And then as more people passed me, less offered assistence or condolences, By the time the 40th person passed me, nothing was said, as though I was just another person walking. As the first runner back to the start I got to tap the keg. Woot! And I got to have a nice two and a half hour walk filled with suntanning on the way back.
Why? Why did I not make it through the race?
Maybe it was a random thing, landing the wrong way and something went funny. But of course I'll ask of other thoughts anyway. Waiting around after the race chatting with another runner that was running at the front of the pack with me that DNF'd we were talking about 'respecting the distance'. I don't think I respected the distance of the race. In other words I underestimated the difficulty of the race. Perhaps because I felt so good about my achievement at Badger in a longer distance I assumed I could just go out and bang out a 50 mile race like it was nothing.
Last year leading up to Badger it was seven months since my last long race attempt, fat dog in august. after that effort I rested with no running for two weeks, attempted to run, and rested for another two weeks. Then I slowly built up my running volume, peaking a month before the race, then coming to race day well rested, only having done a few really intense long runs. Compare that two going from badger to sun mountain. After badger I was running the next week, and running high volume within two weeks, and then barely tapering for sun mountain. I did not rest enough after the long 100 mile race, and then expected to be able to go back into training for the next one. Also, I never intended sun mountain to be an 'A' effort race, knowing that it was too close to the 100 miler to be ready. But after my goal race for the summer was cancelled I hastily decided to put that effort into this race.
This may not be the only reason, or may not even by part of the reason I hurt myself during the race. But I think it would be wise of me to get back to proper planning. I am not yet strong enough to be putting out A level efforts at races this close together. I got excited and stopped following my plan. I may race before September, but if I do it will be a properly calculated effort to fit into my plan to get to the next 100 mile race.
I am reminded by my body that I am only capable of so much. But I also want to kick ass at certain points. The idea of kicking ass at 100 mile races appeals to me, and even though I would love to be able to race as much as other people I look up to, I think I am limited in what I can attempt, something about slow growth.
this years plan was : 100 mile in March, 100 km in June (cancelled now), and 100 mile in September. I'll readjust my schedule once I feel recovered to run and get back to that. I'm already thinking about next year. I think a schedule like: 50 km in Dec, 100 mile in March, 50 km or 50 mi in June, 100 mile in Sept feels like it should be a good plan.
I won't run again for the rest of May. Maybe starting monday I'll go to the gym and do some sort of exercise though.
Why? Why did I not make it through the race?
Maybe it was a random thing, landing the wrong way and something went funny. But of course I'll ask of other thoughts anyway. Waiting around after the race chatting with another runner that was running at the front of the pack with me that DNF'd we were talking about 'respecting the distance'. I don't think I respected the distance of the race. In other words I underestimated the difficulty of the race. Perhaps because I felt so good about my achievement at Badger in a longer distance I assumed I could just go out and bang out a 50 mile race like it was nothing.
Last year leading up to Badger it was seven months since my last long race attempt, fat dog in august. after that effort I rested with no running for two weeks, attempted to run, and rested for another two weeks. Then I slowly built up my running volume, peaking a month before the race, then coming to race day well rested, only having done a few really intense long runs. Compare that two going from badger to sun mountain. After badger I was running the next week, and running high volume within two weeks, and then barely tapering for sun mountain. I did not rest enough after the long 100 mile race, and then expected to be able to go back into training for the next one. Also, I never intended sun mountain to be an 'A' effort race, knowing that it was too close to the 100 miler to be ready. But after my goal race for the summer was cancelled I hastily decided to put that effort into this race.
This may not be the only reason, or may not even by part of the reason I hurt myself during the race. But I think it would be wise of me to get back to proper planning. I am not yet strong enough to be putting out A level efforts at races this close together. I got excited and stopped following my plan. I may race before September, but if I do it will be a properly calculated effort to fit into my plan to get to the next 100 mile race.
I am reminded by my body that I am only capable of so much. But I also want to kick ass at certain points. The idea of kicking ass at 100 mile races appeals to me, and even though I would love to be able to race as much as other people I look up to, I think I am limited in what I can attempt, something about slow growth.
this years plan was : 100 mile in March, 100 km in June (cancelled now), and 100 mile in September. I'll readjust my schedule once I feel recovered to run and get back to that. I'm already thinking about next year. I think a schedule like: 50 km in Dec, 100 mile in March, 50 km or 50 mi in June, 100 mile in Sept feels like it should be a good plan.
I won't run again for the rest of May. Maybe starting monday I'll go to the gym and do some sort of exercise though.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
race thoughts from the weekend / goals for next race.
last weekend i ran in a local 25 km trail race in vernon. the Dirty Feet Kal Park race. There was also a 50 km race that day, but I signed upfor the shorter distance because I wanted to support local, but didn't want to get sucked into running a race style 50 km run two weeks before a race that I'm viewing as a race that I want to push hard at; that race being the Sun Mountain 50 mile race in winthrop, wa.
The race was on Sunday morning, and Thursday I was playing softball with colleagues; some silly interdepartmental bet was on the line, and of course everyone knows I run so even if it's unsaid I feel pressure to run hard. I'm put in outfield because 'you can run for the balls' little do they know my ability to focus and catch the ball seems destroyed by the holes in my brain matter, but whatever. I can run to where the ball is coming, but the ball bounces out of my glove. I get distracted staring at a pretty lady running by the field, and have to sprint extra hard to try and make a catch just to drop the ball. I can still hit a ball, but not far. So I get on base, and I'm just giving her to run the bases as fast as I can, and I feel something go wrong in my hamstring and everything feels tight. Like not super bad, but not right. Later it felt like I couldn't take a full stride extension while running.
Saturday I drove down early in the morning to run in vernon. The plan was to head out onto the High Rim Trail. It was a beautiful day, last week we had snow, and this week we're proper into spring. Hitting 30 degrees, ran without shirt, got some solid tanning (burning) in. It feels like every weekend the last month I'm running up to the snow line. Not a lot here, but there was some heavy patches, and of course the snow spots were the same spots that had heavy downed trees. At one point I was staring at a football sized patch of waist high snow, with about tonnes of downed trees in it, and of course no trail markings to be seen. Took me several attempts of plodding the wrong way to find my way back to a trail. At the end of the climb, before the High Rim Trail start to traverse its way towards kelowna, there's a radio tower, from this radio tower you can see EVERYWHERE, and your voice echoes repeatedly when you scream, its rad.I got in a nice 8 hours of running/bushwacking in for about 50 clicks. I think this trail will be very doable for a nice point to point run at some point this summer, very much looking forward to it. I tried to test out the hamstring, and it felt like it wouldn't be hurting, but didn't feel like I could get full extension of my leg, like not a full kick. Which I guess wasn't so bad because this race was never going to be a race about going all out.
I camped the night before in Kekuli bay. I don't think I can ever get tired of perfectly hot weather in the okanagan.
Race morning rolls around, the 25 k started at 9 am, but I showed up for 6 am to be able to visit and cheer on the 50 k racers at their 7 am start. Start line time; there's faces I recognize, some fast folks, some others that look fast, runners that used to beat me regularly that I now run faster than. I wanted to be able to seed myself near someone that I felt was slower than me that would be trying to run fast, thought that would be able to match my desire to not push hard that day. In a field of 60 runners I started about 15-20 runners back at the start; I do this in an attempt to force myself to start slow. It worked, and thats good (I think). Someone took video of the 25 k race after the second hill, about a km in, there was at least 10 runners in front of me, but the race started with some nice climbing, so I'm just chugging along and passing people, really trying to take it easy. The top three runners at this point were probably already at least 3-4 minutes ahead of me. This was my intent, to start easy.
The race was beautiful. The trails are very reminding of the okanagan; dusty trails with some rocky bits thrown in. Open stretches of beautiful views where the sun beats down on you, and sections of glorious shady reprieve in the mountainside. Some nice climbing, slow steady chuggable stuff, and some fun tricky but not too tricky descents. I don't like to compare myself to other races, but when examining a race retrospectuvely and the same pattern emerges it makes me wonder. I consistently overtake and pass people on the uphills, and lose ground on the downhills.
The race went well(ish) I didn't feel like it went full effort, but was able to put in a nice push. I didn't like that I felt like I couldn't kick fully, maybe that's what hindered my flat speed and my downhill today. But still, I wonder; is downhill running my weakest aspect of running. If so, why? Is it technique? Because I've been told by some folks that I'm a good downhill runner. Or is it in my head? Do I perhaps hold back while running downhill at certain points of a race in the fear that it will burn out my legs for later parts of a race?
I ended up finishing the 25 km course, which had about 1100 metres elev gain in 2 hrs 16 minutes. I'm good with that.
In two weeks I'm running sun mountain 50 mile race. I've checked out previous race results, and seems like a faster course. I've seen pictures, and the environment is quite reminiscent of home. Asthma shouldn't be an issue. And the trails look like they are nice steady climbs, and runnable downhills. So, I feel like the ups work to me, and I will be focusing on downhill and flat running that day (I'm assuming my uphill running will remain decent without thought) looking to maintain a good cadence, keep good turnover on the flats. And for downhills will be focusing on getting the knee higher, more forward lean, more leg turnover (like the road runner) letting gravity do the work to make the downhills faster/easier.
I want to run 50 miles in under 7:30. I will start relatively conservatively, but nowhere near as conservative as in this 25 km race. According to ultrasignup's really horrible bad math ranking system I'm ranked 14th for the race; so I will seed myself around top ten to start the race. And then its giver time. There's 6 aid stations, with the last 4 having drop bags so all that I'll need on me for race time is socks, shoes, shorts, sunscreen and a water bottle!
The race was on Sunday morning, and Thursday I was playing softball with colleagues; some silly interdepartmental bet was on the line, and of course everyone knows I run so even if it's unsaid I feel pressure to run hard. I'm put in outfield because 'you can run for the balls' little do they know my ability to focus and catch the ball seems destroyed by the holes in my brain matter, but whatever. I can run to where the ball is coming, but the ball bounces out of my glove. I get distracted staring at a pretty lady running by the field, and have to sprint extra hard to try and make a catch just to drop the ball. I can still hit a ball, but not far. So I get on base, and I'm just giving her to run the bases as fast as I can, and I feel something go wrong in my hamstring and everything feels tight. Like not super bad, but not right. Later it felt like I couldn't take a full stride extension while running.
Saturday I drove down early in the morning to run in vernon. The plan was to head out onto the High Rim Trail. It was a beautiful day, last week we had snow, and this week we're proper into spring. Hitting 30 degrees, ran without shirt, got some solid tanning (burning) in. It feels like every weekend the last month I'm running up to the snow line. Not a lot here, but there was some heavy patches, and of course the snow spots were the same spots that had heavy downed trees. At one point I was staring at a football sized patch of waist high snow, with about tonnes of downed trees in it, and of course no trail markings to be seen. Took me several attempts of plodding the wrong way to find my way back to a trail. At the end of the climb, before the High Rim Trail start to traverse its way towards kelowna, there's a radio tower, from this radio tower you can see EVERYWHERE, and your voice echoes repeatedly when you scream, its rad.I got in a nice 8 hours of running/bushwacking in for about 50 clicks. I think this trail will be very doable for a nice point to point run at some point this summer, very much looking forward to it. I tried to test out the hamstring, and it felt like it wouldn't be hurting, but didn't feel like I could get full extension of my leg, like not a full kick. Which I guess wasn't so bad because this race was never going to be a race about going all out.
I camped the night before in Kekuli bay. I don't think I can ever get tired of perfectly hot weather in the okanagan.
Race morning rolls around, the 25 k started at 9 am, but I showed up for 6 am to be able to visit and cheer on the 50 k racers at their 7 am start. Start line time; there's faces I recognize, some fast folks, some others that look fast, runners that used to beat me regularly that I now run faster than. I wanted to be able to seed myself near someone that I felt was slower than me that would be trying to run fast, thought that would be able to match my desire to not push hard that day. In a field of 60 runners I started about 15-20 runners back at the start; I do this in an attempt to force myself to start slow. It worked, and thats good (I think). Someone took video of the 25 k race after the second hill, about a km in, there was at least 10 runners in front of me, but the race started with some nice climbing, so I'm just chugging along and passing people, really trying to take it easy. The top three runners at this point were probably already at least 3-4 minutes ahead of me. This was my intent, to start easy.
The race was beautiful. The trails are very reminding of the okanagan; dusty trails with some rocky bits thrown in. Open stretches of beautiful views where the sun beats down on you, and sections of glorious shady reprieve in the mountainside. Some nice climbing, slow steady chuggable stuff, and some fun tricky but not too tricky descents. I don't like to compare myself to other races, but when examining a race retrospectuvely and the same pattern emerges it makes me wonder. I consistently overtake and pass people on the uphills, and lose ground on the downhills.
The race went well(ish) I didn't feel like it went full effort, but was able to put in a nice push. I didn't like that I felt like I couldn't kick fully, maybe that's what hindered my flat speed and my downhill today. But still, I wonder; is downhill running my weakest aspect of running. If so, why? Is it technique? Because I've been told by some folks that I'm a good downhill runner. Or is it in my head? Do I perhaps hold back while running downhill at certain points of a race in the fear that it will burn out my legs for later parts of a race?
I ended up finishing the 25 km course, which had about 1100 metres elev gain in 2 hrs 16 minutes. I'm good with that.
In two weeks I'm running sun mountain 50 mile race. I've checked out previous race results, and seems like a faster course. I've seen pictures, and the environment is quite reminiscent of home. Asthma shouldn't be an issue. And the trails look like they are nice steady climbs, and runnable downhills. So, I feel like the ups work to me, and I will be focusing on downhill and flat running that day (I'm assuming my uphill running will remain decent without thought) looking to maintain a good cadence, keep good turnover on the flats. And for downhills will be focusing on getting the knee higher, more forward lean, more leg turnover (like the road runner) letting gravity do the work to make the downhills faster/easier.
I want to run 50 miles in under 7:30. I will start relatively conservatively, but nowhere near as conservative as in this 25 km race. According to ultrasignup's really horrible bad math ranking system I'm ranked 14th for the race; so I will seed myself around top ten to start the race. And then its giver time. There's 6 aid stations, with the last 4 having drop bags so all that I'll need on me for race time is socks, shoes, shorts, sunscreen and a water bottle!
letting go of statistics?
My computer is slowly dieing. I think the fan is on the fritz and I probably have way too many programs running which causes it to randomly shut off and I don't really care enough to fix it. After one such shut off I couldn't restart it properly and I seem to have lost every file I had on my computer. So things like spreadsheets and pictures.... gone.
But do I really need to track my statistics of what I do? Does knowing whether I did four thousand or 300 metres elev gain in a week make a difference? Does knowing if I ran 95 or 125 km in a week make a difference?
Before every race I make out a loose training plan. This plan includes volume and distance approximations based on what I usually do for weekday runs. And the major time/distance variations come on the weekend. Also, I will not certain weeks to be more focused on hills, or speed, or resting etc. And within a week I will usually vary my effort levels and type of runs. I can just do this on a regular old calendar. I'm losing the urge to track stats; maybe I used to do it to be able to compare to the past, but I know I'm better than the past so whatever?
Also, I lost my entire itunes library which is a little inconvenient. Running related though; every race this year I've gone without music, and the last four months I have listened to music once every month or so while running. I feel like I used to need music to get through certain workouts / moments in races; now I feel like I'm just enjoying the running even more that it's not wanted.
But do I really need to track my statistics of what I do? Does knowing whether I did four thousand or 300 metres elev gain in a week make a difference? Does knowing if I ran 95 or 125 km in a week make a difference?
Before every race I make out a loose training plan. This plan includes volume and distance approximations based on what I usually do for weekday runs. And the major time/distance variations come on the weekend. Also, I will not certain weeks to be more focused on hills, or speed, or resting etc. And within a week I will usually vary my effort levels and type of runs. I can just do this on a regular old calendar. I'm losing the urge to track stats; maybe I used to do it to be able to compare to the past, but I know I'm better than the past so whatever?
Also, I lost my entire itunes library which is a little inconvenient. Running related though; every race this year I've gone without music, and the last four months I have listened to music once every month or so while running. I feel like I used to need music to get through certain workouts / moments in races; now I feel like I'm just enjoying the running even more that it's not wanted.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Stats: First third of the year.
| Year Totals | ||||||
| Run km | Run hrs | ElevGain(km) | Bike km | Bike hrs | Weights | X Train |
| 1523.17 | 171.50 | 50.08 | 94.97 | 3.67 | 0 | 9 |
| Total Runs | Total Bikes |
| 82 | 7 |
| Avg (km) | Avg (km) |
| 18.58 | 13.57 |
| Month | Run Km | Run hrs | elevgain (km) | bike km | bike hrs | weights | XTrn hrs | Avg pace | Avg Elv Gn | Total Hours |
| Jan | 403.57 | 45.25 | 12.38 | 10.00 | 0.33 | 0 | 3.00 | 6.73 | 610.68 | 48.58 |
| Feb | 365.90 | 39.47 | 11.78 | 8.72 | 0.17 | 0 | 1.50 | 6.47 | Avg Pace | 41.13 |
| Mar | 452.60 | 52.57 | 15.08 | 5.25 | 0.17 | 0 | 1.25 | 6.97 | 6.76 | 53.98 |
| Apr | 301.10 | 34.22 | 10.83 | 71.00 | 3.00 | 0 | 4.00 | 6.82 | 41.22 | |
| May | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Jun | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Jul | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Aug | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Sep | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Oct | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Nov | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 | |
| Dec | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.00 | #DIV/0! | 0.00 |
| Total | Runs | Bikes | |
| 82 | 7 | ||
| >50 km | 4 | 0 | |
| >42.2 km | 2 | 0 | |
| >40 | 0 | 0 | |
| >35 | 3 | ||
| >30 | 7 | 2 | |
| >25 | 2 | ||
| >20 | 5 | 0 | |
| >15 | 12 | ||
| >10 | 25 | 1 | |
| <10 td=""> | 22 | 4 | |
| Avg Dist | 18.58 | 13.57 | |
| > 3 hours | 15 | 0 | |
| >2 hours | 10 | 0 | |
| >1 hour | 37 | 2 | |
| <1 hour="" td=""> | 20 | 5 |
Last year I totalled 100 km of elevation gain; right now I"m at 50 km elev gain so far, and seeking out more hills.
The amount of non running or biking exercise I've done so far this year is already triple that of last year, which really only says something about how little other things I did last year.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Smelly Dirty Laundry
This weekend I was down in Vancouver, so after I was done what I went for I ended up camping in Golden Ears Provincial Park. Saturday I was there at night, so I didn't go too far up the trail I found that was rather bouldery, but it was a nice run. And Sunday I got a short run in with a friend in the same park. Originally I thought I wasn't able to get any running in this weekend, but ended up exploring, so that was better than nothing. The park was nice, but didn't really feel like somewhere I would go out of my way to run again.
Maybe awful to feel this way, but I'm not sure if I really think the scenery of the Lower Mainland terrain is as pretty as everyone seems to gush about. I guess I just like the scenery of where I grew up better.
I camped in m Van again; forgot to take out my dirty running clothes when I got home Sunday, so when I left for work monday my car stank so bad. So dirty.
Maybe awful to feel this way, but I'm not sure if I really think the scenery of the Lower Mainland terrain is as pretty as everyone seems to gush about. I guess I just like the scenery of where I grew up better.
I camped in m Van again; forgot to take out my dirty running clothes when I got home Sunday, so when I left for work monday my car stank so bad. So dirty.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Okanagan Mountain Park / A Rut? / Pushing
Saturday I went 'running' in Okanagan Mountain Park. I had it in my mind that I was going to do this run, I've been feeling a little cabin feverish and wanted to get somewhere big. I've never run to the summit of the mountain earlier than mid May before. So deep down I knew that it was going to be a rough trip. I planned my route knowing that if I ran Wildhorse Canyon around the park first then by the time I hit the snow line which I thought would be there I would feel too committed to turn around. Up Divide Lake trail is only about 12 km to the summit, but but around Wildhorse Canyon and up one of the other trails is about 30 km. So I went that way. The trails in Wildhorse Canyone are never easy to begin with. Up to Commando Bay is always decent, but I felt like being a pansy and trying to avoid the puddles, which of course there was a lot as it's run-off time. Why I bothered when I knew I would be heading into wet snow, I don't know.
After you head up from the Commando Bay trail intersection further into Wildhorse Canyon the trail turns real tough. The few people that go to Commando Bay, seem to rarely go past there so the trail isn't well travelled. There is a lot of growth on the trails, like prickly bushes, large bushes that are growing onto the trail, etc. I wasn't wearing leggings, so my legs were taking a beating. By the time I made it to the turn off to Frederick creek trail my lower legs looked like they had been in a fight with an angry cat, which at that point wasn't too bad.
I really like Frederick Creek trail, it's a lot more beautiful coming down than it is going up. But still, there is always time to turn back and appreciate the view of Penticton from the mountain in Kelowna. Something about being able to see the little town from afar while I'm running, it's so far (well 67 km by road, which is actually not that far relative to distances I can run) but it seems so closer. Perhaps this is why I like running in this mountain so much, I feel connected to so many different times of my life in there.
It started hailing half way up Frederick creek trail, I don't know what it is exactly but the last two Saturdays I've run to snow height, and run while fresh snow was falling, and I've really enjoyed it. Running in the snow as opposed to running while it's snowing is a much different story. Almost immediately after hitting the snowline it went from nothing to there being deep snow, knee deep snow. At the start it was still solid enough that I wouldn't fall through the snow. But very soon after I was falling through every few steps. This part of the mountain is where a forest fire was a decade ago, and there is always lots of dead trees fallen over the trails. So when you fall through you risk hitting trees hidden below. But thankfully the snow was soft enough that you could read the flow of it and see where there was likely a tree underneath. Another tricky aspect of the route is that there is not much trail markers on the trail, there is orange triangular reflectors about a square inch in sized nailed to trees every hundred metres or so. The problem is that I think these are rather old, and half of the trees that had reflectors nailed to them have fallen over, so when the marker is under the snow .... I've never ascended the mountain from the trail before, always coming down this way usually. So thankfully I knew where I was going, and when I couldn't see markers I ended up just bushwacking towards the radio tower. Popping up and down as I broke through the snow my shins got very cold, and the welts that I had got from the previous attacks of bushes earlier in the day were now turned into a bleeding mess as the skin had gotten cold and easier to break. The last five kilometres to the summit were rough. Once I hit the summit I descended via Divide Lake Trail which is essentially a service road, so even though there was snow for a ways down, I could finally stretch out the legs as I knew there was nothing dangerous under the snow.
It took me seven hours to move forty three kilometres. And I felt so spent after, but it felt so rewarding. I'm not sure how much benefit a day like this has for me in terms of training. My ankles were swollen, cuts all over my shins, ankles felt awful, quadriceps were just screaming in pain from the up and downs through the deep snow.
Tangent.....
I really enjoy reading the blog/social media of the write James Altucher. This was on his social media page.
"HOW TO GET RICH, LESSON NUMBER TWO - THE PUSH
Rob told me JB was dead. JB was my best friend growing up. We sat next to each other on the bus. After school we'd play ping pong or pinball or monopoly or ride bikes.
Every single day we did this for eight years. Then we drifted apart.
Rob said, The last time I spoke to him he sounded like a ghost.
It was like there was nothing there, Rob said.
I hadn't seen JB in 20 years.
He dropped out of college, Rob said, and never really had a job. His parents gave him money to live. He didn't want to do anything.
He changed his phone number every few weeks, Rob said. So he was hard to keep in touch with.
I didn't understand. Why did he change his number every few weeks?
He'd meet a girl, and then a few weeks later he'd get tired of her but not want to deal with it. He'd change his number so the girl couldn't reach him, Rob said. And he moved a lot.
He had no Facebook page, no internet presence, it was hard to track him down, Rob said.
And it's true. I had never found him on the Internet.
JB hurt his leg a few years ago, Rob said, and had no insurance because he never had a job. So got addicted to painkillers.
He was into the drug scene, Rob said.
So no job, drifting phone numbers, a hazy identity, drug, nerve damage, pain killers.
One day he never woke up, Rob said.
He was 39.
I don't feel sad about this. People die. I haven't seen him since we were 18 and on graduation day.
But I wonder about one thing Rob said.
"He was like a ghost the last time I spoke with him."
We know when the body and mind are giving up. We know when spirit is exhausted. When the emotions don't care.
He never had anything he wanted to do, Rob said.
Is that all it is? Do we just need something to do? Something that we want to scratch just a tiny bit so we continue one more day?
We don't have to save the world. Or invent warm ice. Or time travel. Or even have a passion or a purpose.
When I was dead broke and crying I wanted to die just so my kids could have my life insurance policy. What got me to get up and go again?
And then later, when it happened again. And then again.
Why didn't JB do that?
I call it "the push".
You're riding the bicycle up the hill all the time in life. Everything in life wants you to decay. To be subjugated. To be violated. To be tired. To become a ghost.
To roll back down the hill just when you thought you were close to the top.
It's fucking tiring to live.
What can give us THE PUSH?
I don't know.
For me, today, it's just this post. Some days, it's to see my 11 year old smile. Sometimes, I just want to take a walk. Or help Claudia. Or do something fun and creative.
What's your PUSH today?
A little bit, every day, compounds.
A little push today turns into a big life tomorrow.
My one requirement: I have to give something. I have to enjoy it.
Else, it's too draining. It's a shit stain. I slip back on the hill.
A deep breath. You can do it, I tell myself. One more turn of the pedals. THE PUSH! Get over the hill!
I want to live."
He always writes about things that make me go hmmm, and I seem to stumble upon his writing at times where my mind is particularly malleable. Right now for me, running is my 'push'. I'm aware that I may be neglecting other possible areas of growth in my life, but right now running is what pushes me. However, I feel like I want to better direct my push than just rambling in the mountains, I want to maintain a directed push (I may just be extending the usage of that word too far).
Last week I barely made it out the door for a Sunday run, yes I did five hours of running the day before, but I missed an opportunity by not running Sunday. Today, Sunday, I didn't run again. Yes, I was out seven hours Saturday but again I missed an opportunity to run today. Even if I had just run an hour, it would have been better than nothing. But I didn't. Which leads me to cheesy tangent number two.
Success. How to get it? The guy in this video tells a story of a young man asking a successful man how to be as successful as him. The mentor tells the young man to meet him at the beach, they go there and the young man is told to walk into the water. They get to waist level and the young man doesn't understand, what's the point. Eventually they go so deep that the water is so high that the young man is having trouble breathing because the water is so deep. What does this have to do with success? You have to want to be successful so badly that it's more important than breathing (that's a real truncated version) unless you are willing to sacrifice things and treat getting what you want as more important than breathing, you're not going to be successful.
Sitting at home being a lazy bum on Sunday won't get me to success.
At the beginning of the year I laid out a plan that included a March race, a June race, and a yet to be determined September race. One of the reasons I was successful in my race in March was because I didn't sacrifice my training plan for that large goal race by altering the plan to meet the needs of other races that I had entered in between. I had already signed up for a race in May, and now I signed up for a second race in May. And this is already meaning I must alter the training plan to get to the June race. Next year I will stick to the plan of three to four race in a year, I will plan them all by December and will stick to that plan. I had been starting to get sucked into the idea of running a local marathon in July. No, I will not do that. Sure it would be fun, and I am curious about where I stand in terms of road marathon times. But that is not the goal, the goals are long distance ultra marathons and if I have only have eleven weeks between a 100 km race and a 100 mile race jamming a non goal race right in the middle is not going to be helpful.
I had slept in my van at the trail head of Okanagan Mountain Park, it was beautiful of course waking up to the sounds of birds chirping and a view of Okanagan Lake. I had planned on finding somewhere to shower after the run, and then camping somewhere near kelowna and picking another nice local run, I should have done that and even if I was sore taken just an easy run. But I took a lazy out and bailed.
Since my last race I've started going to the gym once a week, and been trying to make sure to do another non-running exercise at least once a week. Also, I've decided that my 'rest' weeks will now be taken up to a minimum of nine hours of running, and at least ten and a half hours of total exercise. Arbitrary numbers, but they are larger arbitrary numbers than previous. I may be better than before, but I want to be better still.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Margaret Falls / Cows
on Saturday I ran in the Reinecker creek trail system near Herald Provincial park, which is on Shuswap Lake. One of the wonderful features of Reinecker creek is that it has an amazing falls in part of it. Margaret Falls.
Apparently the falls aren't always flowing this heavy. My dad told me that when he was there a few years ago it was barely a trickle, winter run off really can be beautiful.
The trail to the falls is only about 500 metres. There was a much longer trails system going around the whole river area.
I got in 35 kilometres of running. Running up the east side was really nice, wonderful single track. It was snowing that day, so it was quite pretty running with the snow falling lightly but not having snow on the ground. Well, once I went past the south crossing of the creek I hit real snow. And plenty of downed trees, but that was okay as I suppose I should still be running easy.
I didn't feel tired physically, but I guess I was mentally slow, my agility felt off. At one point I was jumping over a series of down trees that were covered in snow, planning on pushing off the first to jump over the following two. Well, the first was covered in snow, I slipped and fell forward smashing my right shin straight down onto the next tree and then slamming my right shoulder into a stump on the side of the trail. Damn that hurt. Had to walk for five minutes to shake that off, got a pretty sweet green and blue bump now.
The trail system eventually heads up to White Lake, but I couldn't go that far as there was still ankle deep snow on the forestry road, and I didn't feel like dealing that. But the trails could definitely get a 50 km run in, will probably go back there to camp and run in the summer.
I came down on the west side, it wasn't quite as nice as it's more of a atv trails than a single track, but that didn't last long as once I hit the south crossing again I could cut back to the east side. Then I started smashing my shoulder into trees. I was running down some single track, weaving through a tree lined trail, while dodging downed trees. Usually if there is a tree downed and it's at about shoulder or chest height I can just duck my head and maintain my speed. Well, I guess time I was ducking late and ran full speed into an oak tree with my right shoulder. Holy hot damn that hurts. And then just a few kilometres later I was coming to another downed tree, going faster of course, and didn't duck late, but not enough and a sharp part of the tree where a branch had broken off went into the back of my left shoulder blade. Holy crap that one hurt worse. Both have left some nice marks. Oi. Good thing it was beautiful trails to distract me with.
Tonight while running the same trails I've run all winter long, I ran into cows. I didn't really notice how many there were until I had already tried to walk past some, and walked into more and before I knew it there was a herd of cows surrounded me and then they were chasing me and it was not cool.
Apparently the falls aren't always flowing this heavy. My dad told me that when he was there a few years ago it was barely a trickle, winter run off really can be beautiful.
The trail to the falls is only about 500 metres. There was a much longer trails system going around the whole river area.
I got in 35 kilometres of running. Running up the east side was really nice, wonderful single track. It was snowing that day, so it was quite pretty running with the snow falling lightly but not having snow on the ground. Well, once I went past the south crossing of the creek I hit real snow. And plenty of downed trees, but that was okay as I suppose I should still be running easy.
I didn't feel tired physically, but I guess I was mentally slow, my agility felt off. At one point I was jumping over a series of down trees that were covered in snow, planning on pushing off the first to jump over the following two. Well, the first was covered in snow, I slipped and fell forward smashing my right shin straight down onto the next tree and then slamming my right shoulder into a stump on the side of the trail. Damn that hurt. Had to walk for five minutes to shake that off, got a pretty sweet green and blue bump now.
The trail system eventually heads up to White Lake, but I couldn't go that far as there was still ankle deep snow on the forestry road, and I didn't feel like dealing that. But the trails could definitely get a 50 km run in, will probably go back there to camp and run in the summer.
I came down on the west side, it wasn't quite as nice as it's more of a atv trails than a single track, but that didn't last long as once I hit the south crossing again I could cut back to the east side. Then I started smashing my shoulder into trees. I was running down some single track, weaving through a tree lined trail, while dodging downed trees. Usually if there is a tree downed and it's at about shoulder or chest height I can just duck my head and maintain my speed. Well, I guess time I was ducking late and ran full speed into an oak tree with my right shoulder. Holy hot damn that hurts. And then just a few kilometres later I was coming to another downed tree, going faster of course, and didn't duck late, but not enough and a sharp part of the tree where a branch had broken off went into the back of my left shoulder blade. Holy crap that one hurt worse. Both have left some nice marks. Oi. Good thing it was beautiful trails to distract me with.
Tonight while running the same trails I've run all winter long, I ran into cows. I didn't really notice how many there were until I had already tried to walk past some, and walked into more and before I knew it there was a herd of cows surrounded me and then they were chasing me and it was not cool.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Consistency
On the way back from Kennewick the idea of consistency in training came up with my mom. Up until October when I got a new job and moved I wasn't really able to be truly be consistent in my training. During school sessions class schedules would change every semester, and even within a semester from week to week depending on what was going on with school it affected how much free time you had. And working in restaurants, on the rare times when I managed a consistent schedule of days worked, the variety of business volume would often screw up my planned runs, often being too tired to go out and do what I had intended.
I work the same schedule every single week now, well other than the occasional overtime hour or two in a week when the boss wants. The work day is super easy on the body, and I can do the same thing every week on weekdays, and have the energy to challenge myself on the weekends. Consistently I can do this. It took until about two to three months of this to feel returns of this consistent training.It really makes it easier to plan out training.
Today's relaxing thought. Anticipation; that feeling when you are packing things up the night before a weekend excursion, getting tidied up so you can leave quickly after waking up, and your mind wanders to the beautiful places you shall go. It's good.
I work the same schedule every single week now, well other than the occasional overtime hour or two in a week when the boss wants. The work day is super easy on the body, and I can do the same thing every week on weekdays, and have the energy to challenge myself on the weekends. Consistently I can do this. It took until about two to three months of this to feel returns of this consistent training.It really makes it easier to plan out training.
Today's relaxing thought. Anticipation; that feeling when you are packing things up the night before a weekend excursion, getting tidied up so you can leave quickly after waking up, and your mind wanders to the beautiful places you shall go. It's good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)