Thru Endurance We Conquer!

Less then two weeks out from Stories. I'm trying hard not to watch the extended weather, knowing that it will change every time I look. After the last winter series race, I know a lot more about the trail conditions - but again that will be completely different by the time 6:00 on Feb 9th rolls around. If the current long range weather holds, there will be some sections completely dry, some sections of mud and some packed snow and ice. Humm.... Sounds like trail running in Colorado in the winter! Hopefully there will be more dry sections then muddy sections. Either way, everyone will be running in the same conditions. I find myself second guessing my goals and my preparation for those goals. I started out just wanting to cover 100k over the 30 hours, keeping it simple. Just me, my car for an aid station and the goal of forward momentum. That's all changed over the last few months. I have a great crew team with ultra running and ultra crewing experience lined up. (Thanks so mu...

I had my final long run planned today - hoping for another 25 mile day at CMSP to check out course conditions following the snow on Friday and the blizzard Tuesday. I knew there was more weather moving in, but took my chances. After all, if the weather isn't ideal on the 9th we still have to race and I still have the miles to cover. So even though I really didn't feel like running and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep, I headed down to the park with my warm clothes and the goal to just run as far as I could. Today was one of the those days where I needed a smack on the head to listen. As usual, CMPS was happy to oblige. Snow blowing in from a fast moving storm I didn't get the miles I wanted - tripping over a snow covered rock and landing hard on another rock precludes a long run. My mistake for not really paying attention in the drifting snow. But while the time on feet didn't meet my goals, I definitely learned a lot prior to Stories. I was able to get a ...

I had one goal when I lined up for the start of the 19th Tennessee Pass Night Jam. It wasn't to win or even place top three. It was simply to survive the start corner upright and pedaling. High expectations going into a race, I know! But after 2017 when I was taken out on that first corner and separated my AC joint as well as cracking my shoulder blade, that's all I could focus on. I rode up and down that hill I don't know how many times before the race, rehearsing the corner, trying to stay out of my head. But still, every time I looked down the snow I could remember the feeling of crashing, the adrenaline of getting back on my bike and pedaling like crazy before realizing just how bad my shoulder was. It's hard to put something like that behind you. Five minutes to go and I was lined up right behind Nick to the left of the line. Just stay upright. I was in the gear I needed to be in for pedaling out of the corner - not the downhill sprint and my dropper post was dow...

“So once you hit your distance, you’re just gonna stop?” That was the question Nick posed when we were talking about Stories Ultra over the weekend. I’d told him yes - I had planned on the 15 hour at first since theoretically, on paper, with good conditions, I’d be able to run the 100k in less then 15 hours. But I wanted to hedge my bets - have time to chill out, bank some time for the unexpected and less then ideal conditions. So I was in the 30 hour race - but still planning on a firm stopping point. How ever long it took me, I would reach that 100k mark. So yes, that was the plan. Reach my mark and then call it a day. The next question was "And if you reach your distance and you are in the lead, will you do a lap every so often to keep it?" We are used to the scoring of 24 hour mountain bike races, where it's measured in the number of laps first. Everyone does the same lap over and over again and the team with the most number of laps wins. If two teams have the same ...

Or something like that anyway. It’s amazing how quickly time passes and all of a sudden February 9th is just around the corner. That fact is simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. Thrilling because it is the first step in the Transcendence journey I will be undertaking this year. Terrifying because I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into. It all seems so simple on paper. Three complete circuits of the Stories course - Red, Green, Blue and Purple then Red and Green for good measure. That’s all I need to do and I’ll have the distance I need. Theoretically, under perfect conditions I would have been able to do that in the 15 hour race. January 9th - a perfect day for running at CMPS But there is nothing perfect about ultra running. Every day is a work in progress, a series of lessons to build upon for the next event. I know that. I have to anticipate that something - perhaps many things - will go wrong. And so I’m hedging my bets and doing 30 hours. That gives me plenty...

I’ve wondered more then once if I can run in my puffy coat. Usually when I look at the temperature and it’s reading 5* or lower... But I’ve never actually done more then my warmup in the puffy. Usually even that gets me so toasty warm that the thought of racing in the puffy is the furthest from my mind. However... As New Year’s Day approached and the forecast temperature kept plummeting that puffy was looking more and more appealing. Monday New Year's Eve I watched the dramatic nose dive on the thermometer. Cold, cold and colder. Add in the gusting wind and snow and it was really looking like Rescue Run weather. Picking clothes was going to be a challenge. In the end, I dragged out my heavy fleece tights that I've worn maybe 20 times since I got them,  my heavy craft shirt and a wool jacket under my FH Beerworks Shirt. Add in hat, gloves and face mask and I looked more ready to rob a bank then run a hard 10k. We got a parking spot near the entrance of the park - which was p...