The Final Countdown

Well, it is finally here - Cactus Rose race week.  I must say that I am not really pleased with anything associated with my prep for this race other than being healthy.  My training has slacked off, my weight has crept up, my confidence has been eroded but I can't let that get me off in the ditch at this late hour.  However, my foot finally feels like it is 100%.

I was really pleased with my training as of my last post but then a string of events really seemed to sidetrack me.  One weekend the kids were sick, then a run gets canned due to thunderstorms and flooding, then I get sick, then something comes up with work,  then I oversleep on an overly busy weekend, etc.  It just seemed like something always came up (excuses, excuses, excuses...) and what was looking to be a nice 70 - 80 mile week would get bogged down at 45 or 50 miles.  I never managed to work in back-to-back long runs and I never got in a 30+ mile long run.

I had managed to get back down to around 200 lbs and had a race day target of 190 lbs and everything was looking good.  Then as my training started to tail off so did my focus on my diet.  My thinking slowly drifted towards, "not going to be able to get in a long run in the morning because of X, so might as well have a few extra beers" and as those nights started to pile up so did the pounds.  I tipped the scales at 205 yesterday which isn't a disaster but weight loss is one thing that I could have controlled, even as other things spun out of control.  That is a mental lapse on my part and something that I hope to get in line before Rocky Raccoon or, dare I say, Bandera 100K?

Oh, and my gym has been closed do to an issue with the showers... so I had to ditch my morning ritual of climbing stairs for 45 min or so.  However, I have been hitting the stairs at lunch the last week or so and just going back to work smelling foul and dripping in sweat.

On the bright side, my right foot that has been giving me issues for a good long while now is finally 100%.  At one point, I was starting to wonder if I had stress fracture but the pain never got bad enough for me to stop running.

I obviously would like to have run more mileage, be slimmer, and be over flowing with confidence but that is not the case. However, I am going out to a wild and beautiful place to seek an inner peace that is fleeting and ever harder to grasp in a world that is becoming more and more polluted with noise and distractions.

And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.” - Mark 6:31