Well, it is hard to believe that at this time over the past four years I would just be back from California and the run/love-fest that was Coyote 4-Play. The last couple of times I did the "scrub" runs on the Backbone Trail in addition to the C4P program itself, bringing the cumulative total to 6 days of running and 200+ miles. It was all an incredible experience, making many new friends, meeting up with old ones, and sharing laughs and trails with everyone. I was lucky to be introduced to the event, and pleased to be able to attend so many. It made me develop as a runner and helped prove to myself that I can run long distances for several days - expanding the horizons of what I thought was possible, and opening doors to many more events and options of things to do. It kind of makes me all a little misty looking through the photos of the good times, trails, and faces there....
...which is kind of why, though I felt pretty stoked and good after last weekend's jaunt over the hills, roots, rocks and snow of the Diez Vista trail and Buntzen Lake area, I also felt a bit deflated at the fact that I was pretty beat up and spent after a "measly" three hours when a year ago I was rattling off 30, 32, 7, 40, 50, then 20 miles day after day during this same week. I am so far back in my fitness right now compared to prior years, and I blame The Virus that laid me out for so many weeks. It is a bit frustrating not feeling as good as I know I can.
...which is kind of why I am getting this cold feeling in my stomach thinking about heading down to California for the Coyote 2 Moon 100 miler in just three and a half weeks. Three and a half weeks! Yikes! And - I have two 50km races lined up on each of the weekends leading up to then. Double yikes! While this kind of race planning is my kind of bag when I'm feeling pretty good, it seems a bit intimidating at the moment.
Still, I am experienced, and have a heck of a base. I won't be able to hammer at Dirty Duo or Chuckanut, but if I play my cards well, they will serve up some huge training benefits that will play out in C2M, where in the words of Phil Liggett, "the true champions must come out to take up the challenge or be content to sit back with the rest of the mere contenders." Or something like that.
And hey, going from weekly totals of 0 miles to 50-miles over past couple of weeks isn't bad, so I'm getting somewhere. Not fast enough, but that will come...there are greater mountains to conquer later on, and I have plans to deal with those.
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