And any running consistency goes to shit. December. Seems to happen every year. Isn’t this supposed to be a fun and happy time of the year? Why is it all stress? Too many extra things going on; extra school and club functions, every club has Christmas parties, you have to meet up with everyone, can’t forget all the cards expected for everyone (even neighbors you don’t know!), and then you bleed money on gifts, food, booze…..the list goes on and doesn’t stop. Wait, and whoever thought up “elf on a shelf” can burn in hell. The last thing I want to hear when I’m half asleep at 9pm is “it’s your turn to do the elves.”

Rare early run recently from our cold snap. Loved it! Temps in the low 20F

Maybe Christmas was fun as a kid, I certainly know my kids like getting anything and everything they want (then just sit on iPads!), but as an adult it’s shit. 

For the past two weeks I’ve ran maybe 15 miles each week. I scour the web for articles on loss of fitness from not training trying to mentally accept the fact that it’s ok. You know what I want for Christmas? Time. 

However, I know there IS time, I just need to take it. I’m concerned my daily martial arts practice at home has stolen my willpower to run 6 days per week. Has one solid habit replaced another? I’ve been really struggling with this, mostly because being a runner is a part of my job. And I really really enjoy my job. Fingers crossed it’s just that time of the year. 

I was bummed I couldn’t take advantage of the cold running as much as I’d liked to have. Absolutely love running when it’s all white. 

Rare selfie above a sandstone cliff overlooking the River Severn (gray beard, not frost!)

Still moving along with nothing in particular planned. Soon though I’ll begin a bit more focus. Just been knocking out one 15-20 miler a week and then filling in easy running to top out at 40 miles for each week when I can. Possibly going to start my muscular endurance strength routine next week. I don’t have anything officially planned until the end of December in preparation for UTS 100, Ultra Trail Snowdonia. 

This weekend was the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run lottery. I had a .5% chance of being chosen. Hardrock is an old school 100 around the Southern Rockies starting in Silverton just north of Durango Colorado. I figure I qualify so my name was going in the hat! And no luck. Couldn’t afford it anyway! 

Sunday morning I helped out at a Jeet Kune Do black belt grading. It was fun to not be under the pressure of a test situation. I pad fed and partnered with the two guys testing in various drills. I also was a sparring partner for boxing, Thai boxing, single stick, single stick vs double stick, and knife fighting. It was rad. I felt great in all of the sparring. Possibly because there was no stress or likely because I’ve been practicing my ass off. November I trained outside of class every day for a minimum of 30 minutes. I’ve never been consistent with my at home practice but at my level I should be. It obviously made a huge difference and I hope to continue my streak! After the grading I was really amped up on martial arts, excited to progress, learn more, and get better. It almost seemed to take my fire away from running. However the downside is that I think in order to take that place I’d need to have a consistent partner to train with daily, and that’s just not going to happen. 

Saturday there was a guy who was going for a fastest known time (FKT) on the Worcestershire Way. He was going out and back covering the trail twice for about 60 miles. He was guaranteed the FKT as no one has ever done it out and back and tracked it.  All his Facebook posts kind of annoyed me, possibly because I’m jealous he gets to do this and has a lot of backing from the local community. He’s not that fast, which doesn’t matter, but I have no reason to be jealous. I’m not part of the running community as I train alone always and I’m not active in social media groups. You’d think working at the only running store for miles I’d be part of the community but I’m not. 

For a brick and mortar store to survive the internet the store needs to be part of that community. My boss just isn’t that type of person. So on my way home from work I pulled up the guy’s tracker on my phone to see where he was and chased him down. I bought some Pringle’s, coke, and cookies, and had some water in the car. I proceeded to attempt to meet up at a road crossing to offer some help. It took a bit of driving around, missing him and the two people he was running with a few times, but I eventually caught up to them at about 700pm or so. I jogged down the trail in the dark and started chatting with them. They were surprised and happy that I had some food and water, we briefly chatted and they were on their way for the final 5 or 7 miles. One girl with them knew me from the store and I’m hoping my random good deed will promote the store in a positive light bringing in new customers. Besides that I’ve never had an opportunity to crew a runner and it was very fun even if f for ten minutes! 

Kind of a cool experience however looking back after the grading today the martial arts world seems to be my community. I’m not really part of the running community. I feel like I need to be for work though. I’m torn with this one as there’s so little extra time in the day.

I’m in the blue!