I started this blog last year with a goal, a goal to keep me honest and keep me on track with my training. I had trained in the past and fallen off the wagon on programs more times than I care to admit to. A week here or a week there. But I didn’t commit to something consistently enough to really do it after I finished competing in two D3 sports in college. Then this spring happened…

I have spent the last month and a half thinking about last year, thinking about all that came with it. In May you didn’t know my name, if we passed each other in the street I was just another face. I was another female at a Spartan Race. Qualifying for WTM, a meeting with Joe Desena, a blog post, and Carrie Adams pretty much single-handed changed all that for me. At times last season I got caught up in it all, I felt a lot of pressure to succeed again after the Spartan BEAST. I really wanted to prove I wasn’t a flash in the pan. The more people started reading the blog the more I felt it and the harder I trained. I trained to the point of burnout. I spent part of the Fall lost. I pulled it together at least on the surface for Spartan Race World Championships and WTM but was still not at my top form that weekend, mentally I was still pulling myself out of the trenches while simultaneously dragging my body through them.

I took a lot of time off. I took half of December through until about this week off. Physically I needed to come back after months of pushing and pushing. Still I am having problems with one heel from WTM but have had it checked out and cleared to train by one of the best sports science doctors in the country. Mentally, I needed to step away focus on other aspects of life. I needed to do a little searching within myself as to what is motivating all this. Most people do not go from being a non-runner barely able to do a 5K  in April to running and Ultramarathon in September and 24 hour endurance race in December.

I had never found success so quickly in sport in my life, I was always the one on the team known to all the coaches as the one who shows up early and works hard. But in truth results didn’t show this. I was around exceptional athletes, Olympians, NCAA National Champions, All-American’s with natural talents far exceeding anything genetically I was given. It was not until this year I found I have some genetic sequence in me that breeds success in these sports.

SO…

Well here we are again. May 11 my race season begins again. How did I decide to do it this  year, not with a simple race but with an Ultramarathon. The Peak 50 will be my first 50 mile race and will be my first race of the season. I have many races I am doing this upcoming season but only two I am actually racing and looking to peak at. The Peak 50 is not one of the two but an important stepping stone to the others. To me it is more about the finish that day then the time. It will be a PR no matter what since I have never done it before.

This brings me to the heart of this post, the meat and potatoes of it. I have been dragging my feet getting started again. It’s a long season, I started the kick too early last year and got burned. From years in other sports I know how critical the prep period is an well as each day passes it’s another day lost. So it’s time to stop procrastination season and time to start again. I again am using the UltraLadies Running Club plan to help guide me to the 50. I am about a week or two late to start to be ready in time but oh well.

So it starts, tomorrow. I have the support team this year, I have some experience under my belt. The races inch closer whether I train or not. So it’s time to become trained again! We are back on the kick. Let running in the dark commence!