Training and lifestyle

So I started out writing a post about my training, but this became tough because in my mind, training is completely dependent on lifestyle and on who you are. So before I talk about my training, let me tell you about myself.

My family runs. I grew up around an aunt and father and cousins who all ran for fitness and fun, and yearly as a group participated in a July 10k in downtown Atlanta, GA. I first joined this summer run when I was ten years old and to this day, the tale of this run is still my father’s favorite story to share about me as a child. 

I did train for the race, but being a small kiddo at the time, my training covered a few short miles through our West Virginia neighborhood. They were slow and often very distracted when I saw trees or dogs or other things that seem more fun to a ten year old than training for a 10k in the Georgia Summer heat. When race day came, my dad drug me along through a grueling and hot six miles, only to watch me sprint ahead and through the crowds to cross the finish line in an excited flurry, leaving him behind. Sorry dad.

Running brought me great joy and great mental relief as I struggled through the harshness that is adolescence. I later left the mountain state and came to Texas for college and still ran. The sport kept me in shape and feeling good about myself as well as continued being the drive that tempered my sanity as I worked full time, attended classes and rehearsals and built a new life in a new place. Through running I met friends and even found employment at the campus gym.

I joined the college Triathlon team and found a greater depth of passion. Before I had enjoyed the hobby and could place in some 5k’s, but now I was winning in my age group in cycling events, sprint distance triathlons and Olympic distance challenges. I was a slow swimmer but a great cyclist and confidant runner. I was working at the University Recreational center as a lifeguard and improving my swim times on breaks during work, while also teaching spin and aerobic classes which were great workouts and cross training. 

When I graduated I continued working with the coach that mentored our collegiate team and he coached me to the USAT National Championship. Here I realized something incredibly important. I had lost my love of the sport. 

I became so busy working, taking and teaching classes, doing homework and still trying to maintain friendships that I was exhausted and overwhelmed. I took no time when I graduated to actually think about my future and what I wanted with my degree. 

I was overwhelmed so often at school and into the post college life and now I had no outlet. Where once running was my de-stresser, it was now another piece of a complicated schedule I was juggling everyday. Mid-race, at the National Championships, all these thoughts cycled through my head. I decided to take back the sport that I loved. 

At this national level championship race, on a field with future olympians and elites from all over the country, I pulled my bike to the side of the road, sat down, and waited for the sag wagon to come pick me up. 

From that moment, seven years ago, I thought differently about running and endurance sports in general. It is what I do for fun, and though that seems like a simple concept, it has been a complex promise to keep to myself. I took some time away from the sport I love, but after a short break trained for a century bike ride and then half Iron Man a short time after. I found I was even more burnt out and even further from the joy I was seeking. 

When I entered the trail running world at the beginning of this year, I renewed my promise to myself that running would remain a joy. No matter what, I would not fall down the rabbit hole of training plans and schedules and I would not let sport again become a source of stress. I would embrace the feeling that my ten-year old self had, when on a hot July morning, after a gruelingly tough 10k on tiny legs with muggy air in tiny lungs. I sprinted across that finish line, feeling nothing but exuberant. 

Now that you know more about me and why I run, and if you have read my other posts, you know the adventures of my racing, indulge me while I share my training for the past few weeks. 

One week from today I leave Dallas for Las Vegas, NV with Dale Cougat, the Texas Yeti Runner. I will be his pacer and one of four ultra runners on his crew to get him through Badwater135, deemed the “World’s Toughest Footrace.” This race will take us 135 miles from the lowest elevation in the United States through Death Valley and them up to lake Whitney Portal, which is the highest elevation in the United States. 

Prepping for Badwater has been and incredible adventure full of immense excitement not only because it is an awesome and extreme event, but because it will be full of an incredible field of athletes to meet and learn from. Also, since I was invited to crew for Dale, every run has turned into a new adventure. Night running, overdressing, heat training, callus shaving, electrolyte this and carb load that; these runs have never ceased to be a push past comfort but they have also never ceased to be fun.

No. Really.

I love this shit.

There are days after twelve miles in the mid day Texas sun when I can't stop being thirsty. Or I know I need to eat, but my body won’t get hungry. Then there are days when my salt craving or sugar craving won’t quit and three bags of chips and the last brownie mysteriously disappear. 

There are also days where I don’t run. Those days often accompanying Jessy and her kids to the pool or park or a fun bike ride. Those days are equally exhausting sometimes, but they remind me what joy feels like. Sometimes those days are more important than long run days. 

Margaritas happened a lot. So did Fireball shots. I tried to cross train while at work. Talking the long way around my store or carrying boxes instead of pushing carts. 

I’ve read countless articles on pacing and crewing at Badwater and mentally walked every step. Mental prep has been very important training.

In a few days, I’ll hop on a plane and bring home an adventure I’ll never forget. My heart will be full and every step I run, will come from a place of exuberant joy, because the joy is why I train at all.