The days ahead...

...and a few of the days behind me.
We're right in the midst of our Spring crew leader training which = craziness of logistics land. But, it also means I managed to get out into the field (in spite of a sinus infection) and spend some time out on the trail. I proved to myself that, though I may have been born and bred a desert rat, I am still hardcore, because I camped out in 8 degree weather. I didn't die, I didn't cry, and I didn't complain about it. To be honest, it was kind of refreshing. Maybe it's my decade+ of cold and wet experiences of the Pacific Northwest that prepared me for this day, but cold and dry = completely manageable.
So, as mentioned in previous posts, the cold, which I feel safe in saying turned out to be a sinus infection, kind of screwed up my training schedule. Oh well, I suppose that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes. Regardless, I'll be running the Pemberton 50K this Saturday night, and I expect it to be a blast. The course is supposed to be pretty fast and flat, well maintained trails. We'll see how 'fast' I manage to make it.
I've had a few realizations/epiphanies over the past couple months. One is: 2010 took it's toll on me in many ways, one of those ways being some extra weight I don't feel like carrying around. Another: While running far and running long is definitely a fantastic form of meditation for me, I would also like to get back to a level of fitness where I am running both far and fast (at least fast, relatively speaking- I won't be pulling a performance like Ian Sharman at the RR100 last weekend where he averaged a 7:38mile for 100miles. That's simply not in my genetic make-up). My initial gauge of this secondary goal will come from the 'how much do I have left' meter. I find myself held back by the nervous notion that if I go out too fast or too hard that I won't finish the race in front of me. What usually happens is I finish the race, having run so conservatively that I could go out and run it again. I want to get back to a place where I can push myself enough to not feel completely wasted at the end, but to know that it wasn't just another training run.
Balance. It's all about balance...
So, my running this week is pretty much limited to my commuting to and from work, which is fine. The pressure of my sinuses is slowly decreasing, and I'm feeling slightly more human. I'll be giving the Samurai an oil change in an attempt to coddle it into transporting me safely to the race on Saturday. It's quite a trooper, but I think it's tired of me driving it on the backroads between Phoenix and Tucson; the Sami's ready to retire. Completely unrelated to running but equally amusing, I've been working on my guitar skills, which are slowly progressing, and I've managed to learn/create my own country-fried cover version of Madonna's 'Borderline.' It's pretty ridiculous, but that's just how I roll.
Okay, I think that's all I've got for now, I will do my best to post up a Pemberton Race report in a timely manner.