Michael: With a Whimper

The patter of rain

Started in my childhood and

Continues today.

 Friday, December 6, 2019

Due to the vagaries of my work schedule, I am not going to race again until the SOB 50k on January, 8^th. That’ll mean I’ll end the year without a race the last two months of this year. That’s a long time for me, but nothing I can do about that except reflect on last year and start to prep for the challenges awaiting 2020.

One of the biggest challenges won’t be a race at all but will be the next big chunk of the Colorado Trail sometime in September. Hopefully I’ll find a way to get out on a little gear run before that, but that won’t be until August or September so can put off planning for that for a while.

As for last year…Overall, it was pretty productive and I’ll be hard pressed to duplicate the success I had so better put some new challenges up on the board so as to not get bogged down in unwieldy  expectations.

And damned, that first challenge, the SOB, really isn’t that far off.

January races are always tough to prepare for. For one, like most people, I gain weight over the holidays. This year, I’m up to 147 so far, which isn’t bad considering I raced most of this year around 145. But weight gain, age and ultras don’t usually lead to improved results.

I’m going to try and not stress too much about it. With shopping, holiday parties and family gatherings ahead, trying to lose weight at this time of year is a tough ask. So I’m not going to. If I can clean up my diet a bit at home and work, I’ll be happy. And if I go into the SOB not tipping the scales over 150 I’ll use the race as a hyper start to a New Year’s resolution to get back to my race weight before heading into a couple of races in February.

This year I only ran two 5ks and was hoping to go under 20 minutes before the years end, but won’t be able to tackle that goal until early February. After that it’s the big and final attempt of trying to run the Scyamore 100k in under 12 hours. That’ll be the third and final time I sign up for that race. After that I look for other challenges early in the Calendar year to take it’s place. Or maybe I’ll just kick back and relax. 2021 is a long way off, but I would like to start swim training to see if I’d like tris and I sure do miss duathlons, which I haven’t raced in now for a couple of years.

This year has been good to me and it’s showed in my performances. I have a lot to be grateful for and will make a concerted effort to let everyone know how much their positive influences on my life has helped me improve as a person as well as an athlete.