Welcome to Christmas, pretty much the most difficult time of the year to train ! It’s dark, cold, and busy! Sometimes I wonder where the “busy” even comes from! 

The health issues one close to me had been dealing with are better. A very positive outcome, however before the good news the bad news finally piled high enough on my mind that it crashed down. Mentally I was a wreck. When I don’t want to run things are bad, especially if it’s a day off from work, no kids, and the weather is good. Two martial arts friends noticed and checked up on me as did my boss at work. These three understand or have been there mentally. In general my training has been really off and on. The only constant has been my long runs. 

Sent  a message out to a guy for a new used treadmill. He got back fairly quickly and we’ve got plans to exchange tonight. This could save my training. It’s easy to hop on for a hour at night and watch a movie rather than battle the cold, dark, and cars. Plus it’s a great way to get quality tempo runs in. Got it for the price of a new pair of shoes so very happy about that. I hope having this flexibility I can get back on track. I never realized how much I use that thing! 

Arc of Attrition is still up in the air. I really have no excuse not to do it other than the worry about my ankle. I’ve ran 100’s off less so would likely finish but I want under 24 hours. With the time left and the treadmill I should be able to ramp up tempo runs on the treadmill which I had great success with for North Downs Way. I still have yet to have a full on successfully executed training cycle for an ultra. Consistent long runs, hill repeats, strength workouts then transitioning from strength to specific tempo runs and a few back to back long runs. I guess that’s life though. I’d love to see how I’d feel. Something has always gotten bumped off due to time and life it seems. I guess that’s part of the fun and challenge in the journey.