Cowboy Hazel

I've been thinking about my running a lot lately. My goals, my training, my races. Albany shook things up a bit. I've taken a step back and reevaluated how I want the rest of the year to play out.

Looking at my training log, I've come to realize that I can't accomplish my bigger distance goals if I keep pausing to run (relatively) fast marathons the whole year. I ran just over 280 miles in January but, because of the marathon, only 203 in February. There were 3 weeks of taper followed by a week of recovery. And there were far fewer quality miles within those 203 than were in January's 280. Even now, a week-and-a-half after the race, I'm still not getting 100% quality out on my runs.

My plan for 2010 was to build up some big mileage (at least 3,000 total for the year) and get some ultra running under my belt. I thought a fun way to hit that goal would be to load up the calendar with a bunch of marathons. But, I'm realizing now that marathons aren't all that fun if you're not running your hardest. (Not to mention that traveling out to them all is really expensive.) And it's just not possible to run them all hard.

So, I went through my calendar (now a permanent page with a link up top) and aggressively cut out the marathons that weren't essential. New Jersey and Boston were safe because I was already registered. Leadville and San Francisco both made the cut too because they coincided with trips to visit family that would need to be made anyway (and plus I'm really excited about both those courses). I've long had Leanhorse in my head as the spot for my first ultra and so I'll still plan on heading out to South Dakota for that one.

And, of course, New York is still on the list. But I don't want to jog through NYC. I want to run my heart out. There's no way that I could handle being around that many other people running fast through my city without getting carried away myself. If I couldn't hold it in check in Chicago, how could I possibly expect to here? And, realizing that this could potentially be my last year in the city makes me want to make the race all the more memorable. The only way I can do that is if NYCM is the last big race of the year.

So, the JFK 50 is out. So are Vermont City, Lake Placid, and probably Yonkers. Of course, this means that I'll miss one of my goals for the year (the 10+ marathons/ultras one), but I'm okay with that. I think it's necessary in order to achieve the other, more important goals. I need to focus on what is going to get me to Badwater. Or, more accurately, what is going to get me to the finish line on Mount Whitney. Running a bunch of marathons isn't going to get me there. Building up my miles and running challenging races is.

With that in mind (along with a whole bunch of other things) I've decided to change my plans for Leanhorse from the 50 miler to the 100 miler. It's a gutsy move, certainly not the smartest one, and it might backfire on me. But it's what my instinct is telling me to do. And so I'm doing it.