Balance

If anyone were to ask me what the most difficult aspect of life and training is, I would say it is balance. We only have so many hours in a day, days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year. Finding a way to cram EVERYTHING we want and need in life into such a finite time frame can be difficult to say the least.

Most of us mere mortals with mortal jobs and lives and responsibilities have to find a way to balance work, fitness goals, sleep, commute times, social life (if any), laundry time, food prep, cleaning the house, giving the cat enough attention, dealing with health-family-relationship issues that pop up, figuring out your purpose in life and so on. That is tough. It has been the toughest part for me in all of my years of training for marathons and trying to keep myself fit and healthy.

This balancing act has been particularly tough for me the last few weeks with dealing with personal life changes, traveling, work and really trying to dial in my training and nutrition. I am trying not to be too hard on myself for not perfectly hitting my goals the last few weeks. A lot has gone on personally that I am trying to deal with in a healthy way.

Life does not slow down for anyone. The world keeps turning whether you are ready for it or not. Some days you feel lost and alone, other days it is not so bad. But even in a time when life seems uncertain again, I still have had some cool experiences.

Recently, I got my new Canyon Neuron 6.0 mountain bike (her name is Trixie). I am still working on a few tweaks and have only had a chance to ride her three times, but I am looking forward to many, many hours of riding this summer. I even signed up for a women’s mountain bike training program which starts in a couple weeks.

Last weekend I went to Bend, Oregon for the first time. Overall, the experience was a great one, but, of course, there were some mishaps. I ran the Bend Half Marathon while I was there and reconnected with someone from my Orlando running group. I would like to go to Bend again someday, but will likely wait until June or July to go. All of the really fun stuff I wanted to do was not quite ready yet because there was still so much snow at the higher elevations.

At Newberry National Volcanic Monument (that's a 7,000 year old lava field behind me)

The Monkey Face at Smith Rock State Park

Smith Rock State Park (really popular for climbers!)

The view from Misery Ridge Trail looking to the west at the Central Cascade Mountains.

Me and Gene post-race!

Looking ahead, I have a 25k on May 4th. This will be more of a supported long run for me, but it is always a bit exciting and nerve-racking to run a race. I think it will be a good gauge for me to see how my training is going. I feel my training is lacking, but maybe it’s not. We’ll see.

After that, I’ll be going to Florida to visit family and friends for a few days. Again, my training will get off-track for a bit, but this is a very necessary trip and one I can’t afford to not take.

Hopefully, this balancing act gets a little better in the next few weeks. I just need to take this one day at a time and do what I can. That seems like good advice for everyday life, not just training for ultra marathons and mountain bike races. Now, I just need to take my own advice.

T-Minus 20 Weeks

T-Minus 20 weeks until the Grand Traverse Run/Bike Race and I’ve completed my first real week of training. The last several weeks I have been doing a bit of base-building and trying to get back into a solid workout routine.

My goal for each week is to run 3-4 days, bike 3-4 days and hit the gym to lift some weights three days a week. That has proven to be quite a juggling act, especially given our bipolar spring weather in Colorado. Life can also throw a wrench or two in the training schedule.

Thankfully, the weather last week was perfect for training and I managed to get in four days of road biking and three days of running. My strength training goals were not perfect. However, I did manage to get two out of three days of strength training in.

Another wrench in the works has been the time change. I am traditionally a morning workout person. Normally, I am up at 4am to get to the gym and then run. Over the winter, I became completely fed up with running the dark. Once the mornings were getting lighter, I enjoyed my morning runs so much better. Then, the time change.

Lately, I have been getting my runs and bike rides in after work. The problem with that has been trouble sleeping at night which makes it much harder to get up in the mornings to get to the gym. It probably is a little bit of an excuse, but sleep during all of this training is a very important part of the schedule.

So, what have I have doing to make sure I get on a solid track and stay there? I have been reaching out to as many people as I can in order to find support and training buddies. My goal is to get back to morning runs, even on the trails. The problem has been I do not feel very comfortable running trails in the dark alone. Thankfully, I may have a least one person to do some morning weekday trail runs with me now.

The next step is to find some cycling buddies. I have been reaching out to some local groups and may have found a few people to road bike and mountain bike with. Slowly, I think my support group will grow. I feel a good support group is going to be one of the keys to keep me on track.

This week, I also had the opportunity to practice my bike inner tube changing skills. While I was airing up my back tire before my Sunday morning ride, I broke the stem which sent air rushing out of my bike tire. Thankfully, YouTube has plenty of videos to help refresh my memory on changing out the inner tube. After some frustration, a few sighs (maybe a couple swear words) and about 30 minutes, I had the inner tube changed, tire back on the bike, aired up and headed out for my ride.

An exciting development is I ordered my first full suspension mountain bike which should be here later in the week. I am already dreaming of all the miles of fun tol be had with this new bike. I went with the Canyon WMN Neuron 6.0 AL. It may not be the fanciest of mountain bikes, but until my skills improve, I think this will do just fine.

Training for next week may not be ideal as our bipolar Colorado spring appears to be acting up again. Hopefully, we will only have one day of wet (maybe snowy) weather and biking or running indoors this week will not be required. I can tolerate a lot, but running on a treadmill or riding a stationary bike are a couple of things I have a hard time handling.

Each week will certainly bring new challenges, new lessons, new failures and, hopefully, more triumphs. I have trained for enough races in my life to know that not everything goes according to plan and I will need to accommodate for life’s ups and downs and the ups and downs of training and physiological adaptations. Being flexible is about the only way I think I will be able to get through this happy and healthy and truly enjoy my training and the races.

Last week’s training specifics are below:

Monday

Strength Training

Legs/Booty

Road Bike Ride

Distance - 16.1 miles

Time - 1:10:43

Elevation Gain - 909 feet

Tuesday

Yoga for Cyclists

Road Run

Distance - 6.25 miles

Time - 59:19

Elevation Gain - 466 feet

Wednesday

Yoga for the psoas

Road Bike Ride

Distance - 16.1 miles

Time - 1:14:00

Elevation Gain - 945 feet

Thursday

Strength Training

Arms/Delts/Abs

Trail Run

Distance - 4.75 miles

Time - 59:05

Elevation Gain - 1,027 feet

Friday

Road Bike Ride

Distance - 16.1 miles

Time - 1:09:49

Elevation Gain - 896 feet

Saturday

Trail Run

Distance - 10.1 miles

Time - 1:55:37

Elevation Gain - 1,476 feet

Sunday

Road Bike Ride

Distance - 23.87 miles

Time - 2:03:00

Elevation Gain - 1,457

Summer Goals - My First Ultra Marathon

As an experienced marathoner, the thought of running an ultramarathon has floated through my mind more than a few times. Usually, it ended with “hell no!” But after moving to Colorado, with better weather, more scenic trails and better options than Florida for ultramarathon races, “hell no” became “maybe one day” and now a “yes”.

The commitment to doing an ultramarathon has been years in the making, as my love of running has come and gone. Life happens, and sometimes running and extreme dedication to fitness takes a back burner.

Over the last couple of years, I have picked up skiing, hiking more, camping more, road cycling more and mountain biking. I love all of these things and giving up any one of them to just run seems awful. Thankfully, I found probably the best, and craziest, most outrageous option - The Grand Traverse Mountain Run and Mountain Bike Race.

The mountain run will take me 40 miles from Crested Butte, Colorado to Aspen, Colorado ascending approximately 6,197 feet and descending 7,072 feet over the course and taking me to a high point of 12,323 feet (there’s not a lot of oxygen up there).  See the run course here.

The mountain bike race will take me 40 miles back from Aspen to Crested Butte over essentially the same route, ascending approximately 7,605 feet (about 3,200 of which is within the first 5 miles of the race) and descending 6,290 feet with the same high point as the run (did I mention there’s not a lot of oxygen up there?).   See the bike course here.

Needless to say, this is going to take a lot of energy, a lot of dedication and a lot of training. It will also take A LOT of hill training and high elevation training. Fortunately, I have trained for, and completed 18 road marathons and about 32 half marathons (a few on the trail).

Another thing I have going for me is, once upon a time, I was a running coach, nutrition coach and personal trainer. I have a decent amount of knowledge to get me through training. Although, it is a little different being your own coach than someone else’s.

What I don’t have going for me is the lack of training support. In Florida, I had a massive support system. Here, in Colorado, it is a little different. I just have not lived here long enough to develop that support system. Essentially, I’ll be doing this solo. Hopefully, I will pick up some support along the way, but I have to be mentally prepared to only rely on myself during training and during the race.

The next hurdle is the weather. The race is only five months away and Colorado spring is bipolar. One day, it feels like summer, the next day we have five inches of snow. That makes running or biking on the trails almost impossible, especially at high altitude. It will be another couple of months before the high country thaws and dries out.

My current training options have been running on the road and just building up my base. I have been able to get a few trail runs in so far, but that is touch and go. For mountain biking, it is nearly impossible to get on the trails right now. Most trails have been too muddy to attempt it. Riding mountain bikes on muddy trails destroys the trails - not something any of us wants. In order to make sure I am at least working on my bike fitness, I have been limited to road biking.

I am certain I will run into more challenges - nutrition being a major one. This will be a huge trial and error experiment for me. I really do not know how my body will react to this. The only option is to just go on feel. If I feel I need more or less of something, I should not ignore that.

Lastly, I hope by documenting and sharing my training and journey, I can keep myself on track, maybe gain a little support and, hopefully, help others in the process.