Miwok Countdown: 81 hours

My favorite running picture ever - courtesy of sarahseads (instagram).  Check my rearview out in Ultrarunning Magazine online!

The training is done.  The taper is almost done.  Less than 4 days out from the Miwok 100 2015 and I'm almost ready.  I have a growing pile of stuff on the floor ready to pack. I've been taking my vitamins, getting extra sleep, drinking extra water.  I've barely run this last week, because I felt that I needed a little more recovery after my last "long" run.

The one thing that I still need to prepare is my mind.  There has been so much going on in our lives this spring that I really have felt unprepared mentally up to this point.  In the past month I finished the bulk of my training, we listed and sold our house, I flew to Winnipeg for job interviews, I hosted 2 kids birthday parties, and participated in the annual Snow to Surf Race last Sunday.  I finally accepted a job offer today that I am very excited about (that allows me to specialize in treating running injuries), which has relieved a HUGE amount of stress and weight from my shoulders.  I realize now that my sense of "not being recovered" was chiefly the stress hanging over my head about our move.  The power of the mind.

Handing off after running a 2k sprint on Sunday in the Snow to Surf Relay. From 2K to 100K in 6 days!

Team ELM and Team ELM Too - a great group of active ladies in the Comox Valley!

So now I can really focus on getting ready to race.  Time to print out the course map and profile, mark out the aid stations, plan the drop bags and race strategy.  After a short run tomorrow the rest of my prep will be all mental which I know is 99% of what I know will get me to the finish line.

Next post: my race report!

Adaptability

"A lot of people talk about expecting the best but preparing for the worst, but I think that's a seductively misleading concept. There's never just one "worst."  Almost always there's a whole spectrum of bad possibilities. The only thing that would really qualify as the worst would be not having a plan for how to cope." Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

This week I've been thinking a lot about adaptability.  It's mentioned a lot in places like URP podcasts, that ultrarunners have one essential characteristic in common: we are adaptable.  We have to be.  Nothing EVER goes exactly according to plan, especially when your plan can cover several hours and kilometers of time and space, not to mention months and months of training.

Our long run Friday was supposed to be another building week - over 6 hours, 45km with 30km the day before or after.  But things got in the way.  Sarah's body was telling her it was time to back off, so she texted the night before asking me if we could drop down to 3 hours.  I agreed.  Even though I was game for a 6 hour run, I was exhausted from getting the house ready to list and a sick child home from school.  Thurs I had gotten up at 4:45 to run 16K before work, then other 5K that night with the ELM 10K Clinic.  Then that night, my other child woke at 2:00am vomiting.  Needless to say, but the time 5:45 Friday morning rolled around, I was just getting back to sleep rather than leaving the house for a 6:00am long run start as originally planned.

At 7:30 we met at the trail head.  Our original plan had called for more drop down weeks, which left some flex for days like this.  Thank goodness.  We took our time, running some flat miles along the river, then climbing before descending to the bluffs on Goat's Head for this great picture.  It was a lazy, sunny, perfect run day. And we did not feel guilty in the least.

I've learned that when training for a 100K race, you MUST be able to adapt.  Adapt your schedule, adapt your fuel, adapt your mindset.  Injuries. Job stress. Illness. Birthday parties. Vacations.  Life gets in the way.  The only way to succeed at ultrarunning as a working wife and mom is to weave my training into the rest of my life, while having a plan for how to cope. Thanks for the perspective Chris.