It has been some time since I’ve posted an update to my blog, and since I am currently sitting at home on “break”, avoiding real work, disregarding my R and Python courses, and most importantly, ignoring the dogs crying for MORE attention (c’mon, we JUST ran 5 miles, leave me alone!), I figured I’d write a blog post.
PSA: No other sentences in this blog post will be as convoluted as that first sentence, I promise. It’s been a while. I’ve forgotten how to sentence.
Anyway, 2017 ended on December 31. In the period of time between my soul-crushing DNF and the end of the year, I finished the T-Dawg Redemption Race Series. This made-up series includes 2 races I signed up for drunk while still in Seattle lamenting whether or not I’d ever race again as well as the Chicago Marathon that I signed up for while suffering a serious case of FOMO anxiety.
Race 1 of the series is the TARC Fall Classic 50k, my 3rd time at the event. 2 years ago it was my first ultra and I loved it so much I’ve returned every year. This year was just for fun, I saw some friends, made some friends (namely Shira “She Ra” C), and finished even though I felt like hungover garbage for the first 10 miles. Of course, it was my fault I was hungover but when Mike and Chris want to drink boatloads of beer and watch the X files until after midnight, I’m going to do it. Remember I suffer from FOMO? Speaking of FOMO, my post-race celebration was to go directly to Somerville for a brewery crawl that ended with a late night dance off at the Briar. Success #1!
Race 2 was 1 week after race 1, the Chicago Marathon. This was by far the biggest race I’ve ever participated in. I’ve never run a race that never thinned out at any point. The race itself was hot, like 75 degrees hot. I hated most of it, with the exception of the Mexican mile around 19. The best part of this race was the city and the people I went with. I had so much fun and got to know some of my club members much better! Chicago is an amazing place, I loved adventuring in the neighborhoods and learning about the history and architecture. I even got to see my old friend, Abe, and we immediately started chatting like it hadn’t been 6 years since we’ve seen each other! Success #2!
Race 3 was almost a month after race 2. I cared a bit about race 3, this was my real redemption race, the Stone Cat 50 miler in Ipswich, MA. I was worried that my IT band wouldn’t let me finish. I was worried I’d hate running. I don’t know, I was just worried. My new friend, Jen, from CCC was coming and I saw her during my first lap and we would end up leap frogging each other for the rest of the day. It made me so happy to see her and run with her for a while! The course is 4 laps. My lap 2 was hard, my ITB had some stabbing pains that caused me to buckle but I stuck it out. Ryan F, 2nd place Infinitus 100 finisher and sub-24 hr VT100 finisher and all around amazing guy, came to pace me my final lap. I didn’t run as much as I hoped to, but with great conversation, the lap flew by. I remember us passing some girl who commented how weird it was that we ran by that far in the race having a serious discussion about the criminal justice system in America. That was probably weird! I finished not too far off my 50M PR and with success #3, I could stop training and just enjoy the rest of the year.
Plans- I’ve got some.
I have some goals for 2018, including a sprinkling of goal races, non-goal races, and other milestones to hit. My goals in no particularly order:
- IMTUF 100, get the buckle and stay healthy.
- Finger Lakes 50M
- An August or late July 100k (to be determined by where I am living this summer)
- Finish my “48 peaks” finally, by capping Owl’s Head and Cabot.
- Providence Road Marathon
- Philadelphia Road Marathon (for funsies)
- Traprock 50k (for funsies)
Plants- Eat more of them.
No, not going vegetarian, not going vegan. I am just making a dedicated effort to simplify my eating habits into base ingredients, namely as many plants as possible. I still want to eat meat (not factory farmed) and fish (can I even live without sardines? I don’t think so.) I don’t think I want to live a life without eggs and ice cream and cheese. However, I will be shifting my diet to be much simpler, really abandoning highly processed foods and relying on things that come from the earth (or animals that eat things that come from the earth). Of course, I might eat some Cheetos from time to time but I’m only human.
Planks- the abs kind, not the pirate kind.
Strength training is so important. I’ve never wholly neglected it but I haven’t had a true regiment for it before either. This year, with the help of my boxing gym, I will be actively cross training and working on strength as a base and supplement to endurance. I will work with kettlebells and body weight exercises for full body work, but I want to really tone in on core. Core strength improves balance and helps prevent injury. Planks are going to be my focus because I am god awful at them and hate them so much. My preferred abs workout involves a billion types of crunches, because I can’t plank to save my life. Time to improve! Who knows? There may be an occasion where I will need to plank to save my life!
Planking to save your life!
So I’ll see you jerks in 2018!
Trash dog & T-dawg
48 peaks 