I thought I was back at it, rebuilding the fitness I lost over December. Then life hits and I seemingly have zero time to train. One side of me says time to move on, stop running, just do martial arts. The other side says no, you can’t stop it’s who you are, it’s the last shred of who you are as a person that is left. Besides it’s my job, how can I do what I do and not run?

I have between 9pm and 530am to train outside of Sunday and Monday. I don’t know how I did it last year. UTMB was a huge event I suppose so the drive was high. Snowdonia’s course is on the same scale but the event itself not the same, however I could actually do well overall because of that aspect. 

Why do I care? No one else really gives a shit whether I run or not. No one is concerned whether it’s going well or not or even if I enjoy it. My kids have never even seen me race and I don’t know if it would even be inspirational to them. Maybe I’m holding on to some dream of being good at something but I’m too old now. Maybe this is a midlife crisis. I don’t make money so I’m not buying crazy ass houses, cars, and crap that justifies my success. 

Hopefully this is just a blip and I should go to bed, get some rest, and regroup my thinking tomorrow. There’s got to be a way around it. 

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! 

Just been droning through miles lately. Trying to keep aerobic base by running 40 miles per week. It’s been tough without a main goal nearby. I don’t really need to start training for UTS 100, Ultra Trail Snowdonia, until the end of December. Finding time has been tough. Mornings not only are dark now but my daughter has had some possible medical issues that occur early morning so I’ve stopped running early for now just so that I’m home. Possibly seizures but it seems and we are having a doctor look into it. 

Didn’t realize how fancy my new (old wife’s) phone camera is, need to learn more! 

Been taking full advantage of the small window of time I have between work and picking up the kids from school. Running in Worcester where I work is boring, flat, and quite a few people out but it’s miles I guess. I don’t care much for have a small window before I have to be somewhere but it’s a window. Mondays I’m off and usually get in a long trail run of 15-20 miles which is alright. As always, I REALLY need to be doing a speed work day once a week. I know I’d get huge benefit from it, I just don’t do it. 

Love the color of the larches in Ribbesford

I’ve officially deferred my Arc of Attrition place until next year. Just wasn’t feeling it, especially with the stress of finding appropriate time to train, although my excitement to race is building again which is good. More and more looking into UTS it’s going to be a beast of a course. Nearly the same vert and distance as UTMB but significantly more technical and who knows what the weather will be like. A significantly smaller scale race and possibly shitty conditions could be very advantageous to me. I’ll hopefully be back in the top 20 where I normally am. 

It’s rainbow and mushroom season. See both nearly every day! Still wish I’d take the time to learn the fungi here. It’s everywhere and majority of it is edible. Another interesting thing I saw on a post work run below, a car on fire! I’ve seen one other car fire running and that was probably 10 years ago along the canal. A stolen van had been dumped and they lit it on fire. I had just missed the bad guys as it was very early morning and was fully engulfed in flames. 

Off to volunteer at Junior ParkRun. I’m the guy with the cowbell, I annoy your dog and make the kids smile! 

Focus will soon return.

I’m committed. Signed up for Ultra Tour of Snowdonia. 100 miles, 33,000 feet of vert around Snowdonia National Park North Wales. May 12, 2023. 

I’m kind of in limbo right now. No real focus on training with no big race lined up. Yes, I do have the Arc of Attrition lined up the end of January but I think I’m going to defer it for next year. Just not feelin’ it. 

Lottery season has begun though. I qualify for the Hardrock 100 in Silverton Colorado. Their lottery is odd and very limited. I believe I’ve got a .4% chance of getting in, but since there are few qualifying races I feel like I have to try. UTMB got me into it. The race itself is the same as UTMB in distance and vert but it’s all at altitude, I believe topping out over 14,000ft! I’ll have this year and next year in the lottery until I need another qualifying race. Obviously it would be expensive having to fly into likely Albuquerque, and I’ll go alone, no family since it’s in June during school. 

Other considerations are the West Highland Way in Scotland. Been around since 1985 and known internationally. A solid option I’ve gotten into in the past. Nothing too difficult or obscure, just a must do race and I have yet to race in Scotland! Downside is it requires a two person crew and a chase car. 

Ultra Tour Snowdonia in North Wales. It’s filling fast, will be beautiful, and also gets be qualifying for UTMB races. 

Nothing else really inspiring here in the UK, maybe I haven’t researched enough.

Running is going well otherwise. Just plinking away at miles. Had a fantastic day out in the Lake District yesterday. I was driving my mother-in-law and her husband home to Scotland so took advantage again of a run break in Pooley Bridge on my return trip. Was planning on running the Ullswater Way, 20 miles or so around Ullswater. The weather was warm, it was wet and windy though so opted for this run to stay out of the high fells. It was beautiful! I took a few detours and wrong turns but still had a great run around the lake. Here are a bunch of photos. The run covered most of the Ullswater Way and a few sections of the Lakeland 100 that I ran a while back.

Not the exact route I did but gives you an idea of the terrain.

Ullswater from the start at Pooley Bridge

Aira Force waterfall

UTMB Race Video!

Wasn’t expecting this but it’s pretty cool. Chris and Gail, my brother and sister who crewed me, are even at the finish! I’m wearing a yellow Alpenglow Sports shirt during the day, an orange jacket the first night, and a black long sleeve the second night. All with orange shoes. #1658. 

My buddy who owns Alpenglow in Lake Tahoe gave me crap for the “old shirt” that I got from him at 2017 Western States 100. I like the yellow, and this is why, it stands out! Ha ha ha! Wishing him well, he had a nasty mountain bike crash, broken clavicle, ankle, and tibia, he’s alright and fortunately didn’t need surgery. 

The video gives a good view of the course too showing a handful of the pros coming through during the daytime.