In awe

Day 90 – March Update

19.3 is not a race. It is just a recap and a reflection of the past 30+ days. My last report was on day 60. [1]

I have been skipping days so it is not exactly 30 days since. It is almost two months since my last report. I almost was going to put it off until day 100.  Maybe in the future I will do a report every 100 / 50 days or so.

Trying to get back into training mode since the last major race was hard. I have been running but not consistently and they were not structured. Finally the last few weeks, I am a bit more consistent that they looked more a real training. I put up like 30-40 miles weekly but I am still struggling.

There are many reasons why I haven’t been training as I should. I got to know a friend better and was having a lot of happy hours with her. It was my church time too, but my schedule got rearranged during the weekend. I spent more time at ‘church’ than before. Luckily time with the lady doesn’t spread to my work days yet. I think a lot of her though and kind of distracted me from my running. I didn’t specifically write about them. Readers can read between the lines. 

Though that wasn’t the buck of it. It deserves a whole posting in itself. It is hard to see things at ‘ground zero’. There were just too many things going on in my personal life. Who doesn’t? Motivation to run was quite low. My initial motivation to run was from my former girlfriend, because she runs, I run. Now I think of her less and less, so I  kind of searching for a replacement of what can  get me out of the door. They say I run, because I like it… It is hard to find what to like about it when I’m at the door and don’t want to step outside. I don’t run for fuzzy feeling.

 Plus the weather and everything seemed to be ‘against me’ when I was ready to hit the pavement. Don’t things in life kind of do that to everyone? When you really want to do something and the whole world is against you? Sky’s falling. That’s life. It is swimming upstream all the way.

I did several small/mini races and they are not too much to brag about. But they were fun to do. I was so close to beating my records on couple of them and was pleased.

 I am not on track with my new year resolutions and no idea how to fit it. It went well for couple weeks and that was all. I wasn’t regret making them as some would. It just mean I have to get back on the saddle. But things are looking to turn around.

My running schedule for 2019 (racing) is set [2] and mostly paid for. I recently registered for the MCM. I wasn’t sure though if a couple hotels reservations (for races) made were paid  in advance or I will have to pay when I arrive. They are spread out over the year, so they won’t hit my pocket too hard. 

Budgeting! I haven’t really set a budget. This year though I added up all the cost of running related for the whole year, so I kind of know how much. I won’t share it because it was shocking to my running buddies and it would be shocking to you guys. All my races are budget buster.

I hiked a few times and wrote about those. It has been exciting! My dearest friend (one and only who does this kind of things with me) and I haven’t done much last year, and the first quarter kind of put us back into the regular pattern. We try to hike/backpack twice a month. Weather and other issues prevented some of trips but overall we headed out the trail more frequently than before. 

Of course our goal is to get ready for a trip to Chile at end of the year. She has planned the whole thing already. This trip though kind of derails my biggest goal of running a 50 miler in November. I wrote about going to Chile vs running the 50 miler. I made my goals and she does her and we or I at least ended up in a rock and a hard place. 

I am thinking of switching one of my ultra races (Iron Mountain) to a 50 miler, but it means getting my body ready by end of August instead of November. Still trying to figure if I will be ready. I can have until June to decide.

Until next time then. My next report will probably be around June around Day 150 or 175.

[1] https://antin.blog/2019/01/12/review-19-02/#more-407

[2] https://antin.blog/races-to-run/