Motivation

I really have not been in a good state of motivation to get out and run. But, when I do, it seems things go much better than expected. I dropped down to the Bandera 50k a few weeks ago. I'm still in a bit of a quandry about how I will run the race, mainly, because I don't want to trash my body and lose valuable training weeks afterwards in recovery. Every run counts, every gym session counts, every ounce of food I put in my body counts. Ok, the food one is the most challegning, I must admit!

I went out for a late afternoon run today on trails I haven't been on in months. That's what happens when you can just walk out your front door and be on the trail within a minute, or two. Getting in the car and actually driving to a trailhead to get in a training run seems almost like a foreign concept to me. So, in the interest of trying to motivate myself and break up the monotony, I drove to go for a run.

All the motivational issues I've been having immediately disappeared as soon as my feet touched the trail. The first climbs came too easy. I unexpectedly ran into a few friends, Josue and, then, Meghan, who were also getting in a few miles of taper before next weekend. Meghan and I ran together and hitched onto another runner whom I have never met named Paul. He is also running next weekend. Together, the three of us easily made it up the long climb. Although, I know nothing about him, the little I did see of Paul's running indicates he will do extremely well at the 50k next weekend. Eventually, I went on my own at an intersection to complete a route to give me exactly the number of miles I wanted for the day. It's a route I haven't run in over two years.

Last week's running in the mountains, as always, put the local hills in perspective. It wasn't easy running up them today, but it wasn't difficult. At 10 miles in, I ran a very knarly .8 mile section, known as the "Powerline", in 5:15. Not blistering fast, but unexpected nonetheless. I finished up chatting with many hikers that I passed as I made my way up the final climb. It was a solid run that stoked the fire and has me eagerly looking forward to tomorrow's run.