Michael: With time to reflect, will times improve?

The caracara
Was blown off its perch forcing
A pratfall take-off.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

This year I dropped out of my longest competition, a 50k trail race due to a bruised foot bone caused by a bicycle accident. If I had been living in the states I would’ve had very little time to reflect on that DNF. Until this year I was racing about twice a month, so my thoughts would’ve quickly focused on my next challenge, no doubt a much shorter race. 

That had its pros and cons. On the plus side, quickly looking forward left little time to mope about a DNF or poor performance. It did heighten the stress level of the next race, but fortunately for me, I can’t recall having any back to back disappointing races.

On the negative side, constantly racing has left little time to reflect on making changes to my training program and lifestyle that could improve both my health and my performances in races longer than 50k. As a result, longer races were becoming more of a rarity on my calendar, and that was discouraging to me.

But moving to Panama this year has changed all that. There are plenty of challenging rides and runs out here, but races are few and far between. In fact, I haven’t run a race here since May. That’s given me plenty of time to think about my health and what modifications I should make to both become healthier and more successful at races over 50k.

I haven’t been  happy with the thought of going into a race with the outcome in my mind being more of a roll of the dice than a strong performance based on a well thought out and executed training program.

Now it’s up to me. Am I wise enough to make the changes necessary to bring myself to a long race as primed as I can be for a break out performance? That I intend to find out at the end of February when I race in the Sycamore 100K.