Right now, I'm having an amazingly kickass training cycle. Everything feels good and every run just makes me feel stronger.... call me Super(wo)man! I wish it could always feel like this.. no aches and pains, just easy, fast, amazing runs on strong legs. Even my weightlifting routine is going great! I know it won't last for long, because well, that's the nature of these cycles but damn I'm enjoying it while it does. My biggest worry right now, is figuring out how to feel like this come August 22!
My mom is so great, she found this vintage postcard from the 1940's showing Twin Lakes in Leadville. I framed it and it sits above my computer reminding me when I feel lazy that Leadville will chew me up and spit me out if I don't work hard. I can't gut this one through on minimal training. For my friends who aren't familiar with the Leadville 100 race course, Twin Lakes is the location of an aid station that you hit at 39.5 miles and 79 miles... it's also more importantly, 2 gorgeous lakes (hence the name Twin Lakes.. duh!) at the base of Mt Elbert. I've been to Twin Lakes many times before, but always as crew for my dad.. it's going to be scary/exciting to have the roles reversed!
I'll have the worlds best crew in the form of my mom, who is an uber-experienced ultra crew chief. She knows how to hustle and how to remain calm in the face of blisters, puke, blood and whining ultra runners. She is also a great judge of telling you to either "get your ass out of that chair and get going" or "get your ass in the car before you die" She's been doing this for about 30 years now and I'm blessed that she has agreed to take on another generation.
My Dad will be helping also and I just hope Mom will be able to keep him from dropping everything and taking off running! I do look forward to having his advice at all the aid stations, not only has he been doing this for longer then most people, he's done Leadville many times and also paced friends in years he wasn't doing it himself. I look forward to giving him a big hug at the finish line!
My wonderful, patient husband will be breaking his ultra crewing cherry! He'll be in the best of hands and my Mom will help him remain calm... if she can keep him from worrying about me he'll have a great time! He has been so very supportive and encouraging about this summer, I really can't thank him enough. He's been ensuring that I can get in as many training miles as I can and covering my work shifts so I can go train in Leadville for 9 days in June. I am a lucky, lucky girl. I can't help but have a great race with 3 of my favorite people in the world taking care of me and giving me encouragement!
Lastly but certainly not leastly is my pacer extraordinaire Christy. She gets to hang up her crew chief hat and just run with me! She's actually been training like she's running the whole thing herself and since she already did pacing duties at Rocky Raccoon she knows what works and doesn't work for me. There will also be many other Kansas City area runners out there, so seeing them and sharing positive energy with them and their crews will help greatly.
As I get more and more things set and dialed in, I can't wait and at the same time can wait! I would love for it to be next weekend and at the same time I know I'm not ready yet!
13 comments:
I'm happy to hear that you're gonna get a chance to head out to the territory before the race. I've been reading several posts from people training in altitude and they seem to be suffering! So you getting your "wings" will be great for you. But I'm also envious at the same time (because you CAN run and that you're headed to CO). :-)
Sounds like, no doubt, you will be in the care of the best hands. Having mom AND dad AND hubby...WOW!
You really are one of my running heroes. The things you have done in such a short amount of time, you truly amaze me.
Go get em girlie!
Men are form Mars, Women are from Venus, Coleen is from Krypton!
Thanks for all the hype, now I have to live up to it, yikes!
Your crew is going to have a blast together, hope we don't forget that we are supposed to be watching out for you.
I smiled when I opened your blog and saw the Twin Lakes Picture. :)
Mom
Very cool that your folks are crewing. Keep riding the wave as long as you can.
You could not ask for a better situation with that crew -and, that postcard your mom got totally rocks!
Congratulations on the dream training you've got going, I love hearing it!!
That is so neat that your parents will be helping you - so much experience and wisdom available - you really come from a running pedigree! That whole area around Twin Lakes is awesome. Actually, most of Colorado is awesome! Keep up the great work!
K
May I please have some of that amazingly kickass training mojo? I promise to give it back around August 21st...
I wish I could share this good running mojo with everyone..It sure would be nice to have fun with it for a week or two and then pass it on to someone else!
You're going to do GREAT. I love a good running mojo. Keep running strong - it will come faster than you think :)
Just catching up with everyone. Back from Estes Park and RMNP. I got some more pictures for inspiration. I'll have some up on my blog soon with a short video or two plus something to say about it all. If you want to know how your going to feel on the 22 of August look into a little something called biorythms. Some people don't believe in them but there have been some successful olympians that have. It's a theory that everyone has three seperate positive and negative cycles. Intellectual, emotional and physical. When your in a positive peak in each of these phases you are at your best for whatever phase your in. I could go on and on but its best you look it up yourself. I dabbled in it the last couple of years but really started paying attention to it this year. I've had success myself with it so I'm sticking with it. Really though it just helps me better understand what I can expect for performance out of myself on a given day.
I agree that your mom is fantastic, but I just can't picture the word "ass" coming out of her mouth!! :-)
David- Thanks for the headsup on the biorhythms stuff.. I've been doing some reading and it's very interesting stuff. Definitely worth some research.
and Mary.. OK, maybe I was doing some paraphrasing! ;)
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