My training cycle has been different than anticipated at the beginning of the year. By February 50-60 mile weeks should be the low average and I would be cruising up hills as fast as the flats. Unfortunately, law school commitments and focus on recovery have limited the amount of time I spend out there. Regardless of the little mileage I am feeling more confident and stronger this year than last. American River 50 was humbling my first attempt and rewarding during the second.
I am hesitant to discuss time goals because I do not want to "jinx" it. Yet, we all know that during a trail run anything can happen to anyone. To have an ideal day I would like to run a WS100 qualifier to keep me in the hunt for 2014 & PR at the 50 mile distance. There I said it. The second half is a lot of single track and the holy rollers on that side of AR eat quads for brunch.
I do have a lot of faith that I can accomplish at least one of those goals, but better than all that I am running happy. I am not using fitness as the stress reliever I used too. Admittedly I will go knock out a few runs when something is troubling me but is far less frequent than it used to be. Pretty soon I will be going through my regular charts and gear checks for AR because I am a worrier and when it comes to ultras I prep; just don't like the unexpected on a trail when exhausted.
