I've been busy. K?Let me 'splain.
The training, obviously, has been picking up, since I have a big dance in oh, about 7 weeks but who's counting. I'm a little sketchy on it all -- will I be able to put it all together on the big day? I don't know. I remember feeling this way before Buffalo Springs, and that turned out OK, so I am still training hard. Still alive.
Just.
My company was just purchased. On top of my building training schedule, I now have new people to sniff tails with, new stresses at work, new deadlines, new meetings, all that crap. The good news is, the new company seem like nice people. The bad news is, I'll have to absorb a whole lot of new information. That's not really bad news, but it's news, and it takes time.
My training volume went up. Did I mention my training volume went up? I'm supposed to ride my bike for 5.5 hrs tomorrow. I have been running all week...and swimming and biking...and new work things...
Last weekend I did the Albuquerque Century with a bunch of my Outlaw Peeps. We opted for the metric century, and I was very grateful for that by the time we got to mile 60. Our 64 mile metric was actually 70 miles, but who's counting. Rolling time was 4:20-something, I think. We did pretty good!
The day after I did that, I ran 14 miles.
Today I ran an aid station for the Valles Caldera Marathon, which is one of the tougher trail marathon courses there has to be out there. My beloved was running, so me and the peeps helped run Aid Station 7 -- at mile 19. The race only included about 50 odd competitors, it's a small race in a really gorgeous part of New Mexico.
A word about the Valles Caldera -- a not-so-ancient volcano caldera which is now a protected valley of about a thousand acres ringed with trees in the Jemez mountains. The preserve now contains large herds of elk, and in the summer the valley is used for stock grazing. The preserve is mostly closed to the public with some exceptions. Also, there's about a thousand miles of logging roads perfect for running or mountain biking. It's really pretty, it's a special place.
The guy who was running the station with me and the peeps didn't know much about running, marathons, ultras, any of that, so it was fun educating him on what to expect and what to offer in our smorgasbord of goodies. The first few runners will look really strong, I explained. They won't want much. They will just go straight through. But as the day goes on, people will want more food, more liquids.
Huh, he asked. Why is that?
Well, when you've run as many miles as those guys at the front have, a trail marathon crossing 10,000 ft of elevation is no big deal.
Today I also ran a little, tomorrow I ride. Maybe I'll have something fun to say tomorrow - after I get some sleep.
did I mention I'm a bit sleep deprived?
Yeah. Welcome to the crack house.
5 comments:
hang in there sweetie-the next few weeks will go FAST! As for the crack house-next we will all be drinking "special koolaid" together..
:)
only seven weeks to Vineman! Geez, I'm getting lost in time.
I'm sorta curious how someone who knows nothing about running ends up manning an aid station for such a small hard core trail race! I mean, your local road race I can understand... (not that it isn't awesome that he volunteered)
Good luck getting all that training in with the work changes!
You know that crazy idea I told you about? I think I might skip it because I have exactly 0 100 mile rides and 0 14 mile runs and no plans to change that.
oh man. changes at work. glad they're okay. would hate to read about pirates at work laying waste to the new people.
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