March 04, 2009

The Perfect Run

I just got in from a night run. It was all of 10km, and it ended up being the perfect run. I ran the exact route last night, although I would hardly call last nights effort 'running'. Tonight I felt 100% better and I ran the ten km route, ten minutes faster! This is not to suggest that I was really flying tonight, more so that I had bricks tied to my ass last night.

I love how you can go from feeling like a sloth, to feeling like an Olympian in under 24 hours. One thing I've certainly learned in the last few years is that you can mentally sway from on top of the world, to hiding your head like an Ostrich, and back again, in a period of just days. It's all about just keeping the feet moving and trying to stay positive.

Last night sucked, but I knew I'd feel good after toughing it out, and I slept better afterwards as well. Tonight was great, and it left me wanting more. Ten km is more like a warm up for me these days, but with a few big weeks behind me, and a 50k race on Sat, I am trying to keep my daily runs to a max of ten km until then.

The Dirty Duo is shaping up to be a fun one, with most of the Montrail Canada team toeing the line. It also looks like everyone is healthy right now, and all that means is that it's truly gonna be a dog fight out there all day long. Something I am intending to do differently this weekend is to actively start trying to 'run' more hills in my ultra races. I have somewhat perfected the power hiking over the last few years, however, after my wake up call at Orcas last month, thanks to Adam Lint, I have been working on this in training. The great thing about early season races is that you can attack them differently to test your fitness level. I feel very fit right now, and if I blow up in this one it will simply be a lesson learned...besides, I think I'd need to run the hills this weekend to have a shot at hanging with my teammates anyways!

Something I forgot to mention in my previous posting about my trip to Germany, is that I have friends over there who I am able to visit. As it stands right now I believe I have free accommodation for the duration of my stay...which was obviously just one more factor in the whole decision making process. That lengthy, intense, and difficult decision making process, which consisted of clicking my finger and figuring it all out after the fact.

Stay tuned folks, the free Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing entry that was promised back in November will be popping up real soon. Squamish is happening on May 23rd and my personal goal is to try and get at least one brand new adventure racer into the mix. I'll even sweeten the pot by offering a place to crash in North Van if you are needing to travel to the race. This will all unfold shortly (maybe even while I'm drunk in Germany), so keep your eyes open...and I'll try to do the same!

Oh yeah, and last but not least, check out the online version of this month's 'Get Out There Magazine' (Western Edition)...there may be an article in there by a certain 'cool guy'...I certainly did not give myself that moniker and expect to take a 'comment and e-mail' beating for that one...enjoy the rest of the articles at least!

Happy Trails. Gotta Run.
GR

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck this weekend! And have fun in Germany- good job on the spontaneity! Keep livin life to the fullest!

garobbins said...

Thanks Heather!