More Killer, Less Filler

A new year dawns and so has my motivation to train and race. After a terrible fall of training and racing, I pretty much shut it down for the month of November to try to recover physically and mentally. I had a good, consistent summer of training and some improving race performances, but that all went to shit when I got back from my running vacation in Colorado. I felt great running 93 miles in the 5 days I was there, but felt like death once I got back to sea level. This has happened the last 2 times I have been to altitude. I have no regrets running that much while I was there, but it is something I will have to think about in the future.

I told myself years ago that if I ever have kids I will probably cut back on the volume of my training (by necessity) and try to include more quality. With the arrival of Colin at the end of November, I realized that I would need to work on my time management skills to be a good father, husband, co-worker and still chase my running dreams. I've been getting a lot of feedback about running once you have kids. Some of it is encouraging and some of it is depressing. I truly believe that you are still the same person once you become a parent, the same person with dreams, goals and aspirations. It's how you juggle your responsibilities that determines your success. I have no delusions that parenting will be easy and that I can just take off for a run anytime I want. I want to spend time with my family and be a good father to my son, but I still want to chase my dreams while I'm physically able to.

Since Colin was born I have had a renewed motivation to run when I can and my time management has gotten better. I got a 3 month membership to the Cranmore Family Fitness Center, where I have been running on my lunch breaks. I am limited to about an hour of running in order to get there, change, run, shower, and get back to the office. I've been doing a ton of climbing each day, alternating between some tempo climbing workouts and easy climbing days. When I have time to get outside, I've been doing some snowshoe running, with a lot of trail breaking so far this winter. I have upped the tempo on my easy runs a bit without going too fast.

Treadmill running isn't terribly exciting, but right now I'm more interested in getting some quality training in than having an adventure and exploring on each run. It has been nice getting my run in at lunch and breaking up my work day, then being able to go right home after work and hang out with Jess and Colin.

I'm hoping to do some snowshoe racing as time and energy permits, with a focus towards Snowshoe Nationals in Vermont on March 1. After that I'm looking forward to some mountain races, especially Mt. Washington (as usual) and the Loon Mountain Race, which is this year's USATF National Mountain Running Championships and the sole qualifier for the US Mountain Running Team.

I may be old and washed up. Maybe my best times are behind me. I weigh 147 lbs right now and my best race weight is around 130. These are all good reasons to give up serious training and start backcountry skiing as my exercise. I think it's too early for that though. I want to push myself to my limits, run some fast times, hopefully win some races and take some scalps in the process.

Honey badger (#6) didn't give a shit.

You can follow my training here: http://www.strava.com/athletes/951987