EW joined our ride!

 RIDE 20 miles in about 90 mins, slower than usual but fun

COMMUTE 9.2 miles, unless I do the extra 0.8 needed for the round up, we'll see

EW made it today! It's another gorgeous morning, so calm and warm, the sunrise closer to 6:20 but we had enough light by start time. Good thing, because my front light was weak on charge. I'm not doing well with bike maintenance, as evidenced by the creaky drive train. Add that to my list of things to do, the things that accumulate that I need to do, and the list that just carries over into next week perpetually. 

There's really not enough room for 3 riders across in TGP. So I pulled ahead just a little thinking BE and EW would stay right behind me. But they lagged back a little, chatting about a musical they both enjoyed. I don't know the musical (imagine that) so I wouldn't contribute much anyway. So for most of the ride I was just ahead of them, I could hear much of the convo but not enough to follow a conversation. 

This gave me time to think. Just what I need! I'm still thinking about my secrecy regarding H100. I have the urge to tell people - yay I want to do this thing! But the fear of failing and being seen as a failure hold me back. I'll come back to this below. I'm thinking too that I should have a list of goals and benchmarks to hit as I start training. Like wearing my heart rate monitor, like stretching and strength training, like getting my diet out of a phase of eggs and hot dogs (really, that's what my proteins look like). Putting myself on a run race training schedule is like the best and worst thing I can do to myself. On one hand, I'll pay more attention to diet and cross training, sleep and strength, and I'll have motivations and goals. But on the other, I'll pay more attention to miles and minutes, I'm a slave to a training plan!

So I started a list in my head of 9 Things I'll To Do For Myself for if I plan to start training for the H100. Why 9? Why not. There where 9 in the Fellowship. Sounds good to me.

1. Get 10K steps in to increase activity, excludes running so stay active all day
2. Include 5 minute each WU and CD per run; 
3. Include 8 mins daily of stretch flex plyo or strength
4. Don't use sugars below 10 mile runs 
5. Wear the HRM
6. Read up on Maffetone 
7. Get hills and trails in for variety and specificity 
8. Shower first before a post meal, really, your gut begs you to do this
9. Stay on top of medical issues and don't ignore them

Later at work I tweaked the training plan I started last week, after having all weekend and all the driving to think on it. I broke the Pre Race Training Phase into 3 sections:

Phase 1: 9 weeks long, now until October 18. Build up to 20 miles a week, a solid 20 miles so it feels easy. Have 3 runs a week with one long run. Building the long run is really the goal for this phase. Start looks like 3+7+4. Peak looks like 3+7+12. 

Phase 2.  11 weeks long, October 19 until January 3rd. (wow, into 2021!). Build to a solid 30 miles a week. Slowly add 2 more days of running with short 2-4 milers. This will look like the training plan schedule at first, except the B-2-B-2-B will have a super short middle run. Start looks like 3+2+7 and 10+0. Peak looks like 3+8+7+and 12+0. 

Phase 3. 13 weeks long, January 4th until April 4th. Build to a solid, like really solid, 40 miles a week. I want 40 to feel like a nothing week. Be running 5 days a week but bring the B-2-B-2-B sequence up so it's longer in the middle run. This will peak with a 4+6+4 and a 20+10. By this time, I want all systems Go and Functional.

Race Phase: starts April 5th, I'll follow the same UltraLadies plan as before. It's described as a First Timers Plan, so what. I'm still new to this. 

I'd mentioned earlier that I was afraid to mention this to anyone yet. Not even LA. Why? Because look at all the investment so far I've put into this mere seed of an idea for running a 100. I could run the 50K or the 50M or the 100K. But no, I'm shooting for the Full Monty, all 100 miles. People will easily think I'm nuts, and I'm likely to fall off this wagon - just like I did in 2019 after Badger.  

There's so much to go wrong, from injury to schedule to just not being ready to run this far. But that's WHY I love doing this! The strategizing, the goals, the reasons to wake up -- all pull me forward.

I honestly think I'm nuts. I have brief moments of "ugh no, I can't do this again".

But it's countered and outnumbered by that pull, that call I get from a quiet morning during sunrise when it's so still and only the birds are with me, like from the Dark2Dawn run of 2019. The dark expanse of sky over head with a distant train, like from R2T in 2016. The creeks trickling in Farmdale 2016. The sun falling into red sky feeling of Badger 2019. The misty rain of Kettle in 2015, behind TV and hurting all over but feeling so damned alive. 

I get these feelings when I drive in the country. When I think of a trail run. When I think of night running. When I see a line of trees and think what it would be like to run under them. When I see a sunset fade into night or a sunrise bloom into a new day. 

Some people talk about the call of the mountains or the water. I feel the call of the trail and rock, of the pain and self discovery, the alone-ness and the feeling yet so connected. 

But first I have to connect the dots of short runs, of managing a tight schedule, of fixing some lingering (probably imaginary) health stuff. And I have to get out of this chair, sitting too long!