There is no doubt that the past months and 4 days has been a little more difficult than first expected. Prior May 17th training was going as scheduled. I had a few not so great races but no major set backs. As of recently I have really fallen off the wagon. Its mostly lack of motivation on my part, I am still able to get out and train (not on the bike yet, that's soon to come). However I have placed myself in a rut that I wasn't to sure I was going to get out of, until just a few hours ago. Sure I've put together a few good days in a row but I was yet to have a work out that motivated me to the level I was at before the crash.
Before I go any further I have to give credit to my friend Jace who is an extremely strong runner for snapping me out of my funk. Through this low I have learned a bit about myself and most importantly, I am not a fun person to be around if the endorphin's aren't flowing and I really enjoy sleep if I'm not training. I've become extremely unmotivated until today. On the schedule I had a run where I wanted to go out for an hour and a half. The second half of the run was suppose to be faster than the first and at no point in the run was I suppose to hit race pace. Well after work I was actually looking forward to the run and on my way home I got a text from Jace who I hadn't talked to in a few weeks asking if I wanted to run with him. I took it as a sign and gave myself no time to think about the fact that I was going to run with him and texted him right back "see you at 6:00". A little bit about "him" he recently finished 3rd in an ultra run out in Sisters Oregon where for 48 miles he averaged 6:45 minute miles with a decent amount of elevation gain. Hence the quick thoughtless response. I had a route in mind and told him I partially wanted to treat it as a training run and he had no problem with that.
At 6 o'clock we were off. I am going to spare you all the details of the run and just insert the information but I will tell you this, I have never doubted myself, my training or my future racing plans more than I did today on this run. That was until we crested and I knew it was pretty much level to all downhill the rest of the way. At this point I was ready to go and got a second wind. When we finished the run I had a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of being back on track. So despite the delay which took all of one month and 4 days I would like to think that I am ready to get on with the training and self punishment. This low is over . . .
Next race Jacksonville Oregon Stagecoach Cross Country, 23.5 miles 5,200 feet of climbing. After that August 7th for Xterra Black Diamond Washington, August 13th for Xterra Portland Oregon, September 4th for Xterra Whistler, then possibly September 24th for Xterra Nationals in Ogden Utah and hopefully October 23rd Maui Hawaii for Xterra World Championship.
