Skip to main content

Running for Recovery: Training for my first 100 mile ultra marathon.

I run for a lot of reasons. One of the chief reasons is that it augments my mental health. When I run my body feels good and my brain feels better. Plus it lets me eat a little more...pizza which is one of my favorite things. That and running a local 50 miler is a far easier task today than just getting through a day was 15 years ago. So I run.

Something else related to me and my various addictions: I'll have the temptation to grasp on to my 100 miler just like I grasp onto that entire pint of Ben and Jerry's. Whether it's the IMTUF 100 or Stagecoach 100 or Leadville I'll grasp onto a far off goal like a distraction I cave and lose sight of the clear and ever present moment.

What's fun about running is being on the trail and how I feel while I'm doing it and immediately after. So may I stop grasping and just start doing. May I be in the moment more with eyes on the horizon less. The last time I got fixated on a good horizon view in the WR50 my foot caught root and I fell headfirst ** broke my steel water bottle with my shoulder ** came up with pine needles in my teeth and dirt in my ears.

Now it would be far too easy to get stuck on getting me one of these (the belt and belt buckle...not the man): Adam Wilcox, race winner, with his IMTUF belt.


While I do want that belt buckle I just want to be here...really be here and have fun.

Great write up on the IMTUF here: IMTUF 100 Another one here: Adventures in New England

Want to join me in my 'fun'? Here is a schedule of running I'm trying for this summer: Google Sheet 100 Ultra. On the sheet are a few possible races and runs I'll aim to do this summer. Here is a short list of some of the highlights:

*Rainshadow Running: Yakima Skyline Rim 25k
*NW Trail Runs: Grand Ridge 50k and Soaring Eagle 50k
*Seattle Running Club and Scott: White River 50mi
*Northwest Trail Mountain Series: Volcanic 50k

100s I have my eye on for this year or next year:

*IMTUF 100
*Bighorn 100
*Zion 100
*Stagecoach 100

Off to train. But first I'm going to read this on how to be more zen in my running.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Luna Sandals - An Evolution in Running

In short my story of running has been essentially a story about me getting out of the way of myself. But before I could learn about getting out of my own way I had to get rid of the technology that was getting in the way of me discovering myself. And if that sounds like nonsense I won't be surprised, for in some ways sense had nothing to do with it. This story like all the best stories started with a girl. It started with a girl I once liked and the shoes she wore. Enter the five figured Vibram. Vibrams When I first donned Vibrams, my first pair of minimalist running shoes I had no idea they were even made for running. Nor did I have any inkling that this weird guy named 'Barefoot Ted' (who lived only a few miles to my south) had a hand in persuading Vibram into making a running 'shoe'. At the time I hadn't even heard of ultra-marathons or running Tarahumara Indians or crazy Eat and Run vegans named Scott Jurek. No, I just liked a girl who ran b...

singular focus

 I am terrified of setting this goal.  it feels not unlike updating my glasses or getting back on the horse with dental work. really anything that gets to my sense of value as a person becomes difficult. It feels like sometimes it can take a whole year to set one appointment. I spend my whole career trying to unsuccessfully motivating others to move forward on their life goals and dreams. I help them identify what their value system is and align that with their actions. Now I find myself twenty, thirty, fourth pounds overweight. I still run often for mood regulation and personal enjoyment but I find myself stuck in this rut with nothing to dream about, no race to strive for which is typically what I have on the books to motivate me in other things. It all makes sense after all - I'm a father of a two, almost 3-year-old and a 7-year-old and we've moved a couple times in the last few years. the last move was tough and I medicated it with bags of candy in the evening after the ki...