“I don’t want no mediocre…” – The great T.I. 😆
Week 7 prepping for the annual Cruel Jewel migration is complete…
A pursuit of excellence in all areas of life is something that was drilled into me at a very young age, from various angles. I went to a private school, I had amazing parents who set high standards, and I myself struggled with perfectionism since early childhood. I remember spending hours and hours in front of my piano trying to perfectly hammer a song and refusing to get up until I completed it perfectly multiple times. I remember crying when I got my first 98 in English instead of a 100. Ha! Of course that all went to crap by the time I reached high school, by then I was determined to become the very best “Worst Kid At School”, but deep down at my core, I absolutely hate not giving things 100%, and that tends to creep up in my life almost daily.
Tracking run training has always been an issue to me bc I can easily get fixated on numbers and ignore everything else. This is why I’ve usually opted to simply stay blind and train by feel. The last couple weeks being forced to view numbers in conjunction with handling ongoing highly stressful situations has been an act of mental discipline. I’ve had to be okay with lower numbers than I’d like to see. Though it’s not been fun for me, I feel it’s been good for me. After all…
“Facts don’t care about your feelings.” – Ben Shapiro
This past week was spent prepping for Georgia Death Race (I handle ALL the logistical fun, marketing, & communications) & a big track meet! Additionally, I was handling some lowkey work stuff for my HR job, working to complete a site order & completing some final touches for the charity race I’m putting on next month. Also was handling / celebrating Dan’s birthday, showing up for coaching practices & my sons tennis match, and lastly being present for the pool construction going on in the back yard! Now that I’m writing it I see why I’m so tired, and feel like a complete Schmuck for saying YES to too much.
My key workouts last week were:
Monday- I did 8 miles with 10x60x90. (That’s one minute hard, 90 sec easy repeated 10. times.) I thoroughly enjoyed this workout and can’t wait to do it again. The next day I repeated it with the distance team (cutting the workload in half) I never want to give them anything I have not personally felt, so I know exactly how to coach them through it.
Friday- I was crazy busy, but I knew it was my only chance to get in long miles because I would be at GDR all weekend. I spent the day working from my treadmill & ended up with 27 miles and 7k gain. 20 of it downhill and moving steady state. Not terrible. I was happy with the effort.
Saturday and Sunday were spent at our 11th annual Georgia Death Race. I had a blast, as always, and loved seeing all of my friends- volunteering, running, crewing etc.
I drove the DNF shuttle this year, and that was interesting. I jokingly tweeted this beforehand:
But then THIS happened 😆
LOL! I was literally just parked barely off the road on some dirt. The rest is history.
After that fun, I spent the day roving the course and picking up runners & putting out random little fires. I hung around the finish when I was done to watch my buddy Matt finish his 3rd go at the race (congrats dude!) I was finally ready to drive the 2 hours home at 1am when I got a call from the sweepers that there was a dnf situation unfolding at one of the most inaccessible parts of the course. I was with Sean at the time and so together we made the trek to pickup the runner. We’ve been doing this stuff for sooo long, we can only laugh about the ridiculous situations we find ourselves in now.
We didn’t get back to the Finish until about 3am. I decided to just call it a night and sleep in the van and drive back in the morning.
Once Sunday rolled around, I was left trying to find something to do with a completely muddied, trashed, 100% destroyed van rental. I finally got home in the afternoon and crashed for a few hours. I wanted to run later but never summoned energy for it. Probably for the better.
When I finally went to sleep last night i was reflecting on prep for CJ & I decided I felt okay with the 40+ miles and 10k+ gain. I felt like it was mediocre from me at best, but I was okay with that. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing that I accepted not giving something my very best, but I decided there’s really no other option. I’m maxed out. SOMETHING has to give because I cannot function doing so much. I guess that for now, running a whole lot is that “something”.
ASHRUNS100s 