Wrestling the Motivation Octopus

Fruita ROCKS.  Last Saturday. 70 miles into the race after riding all night.

130 miles into the race.  $35 to purchase one photo?  No thanks.

Between this shit weather (been on Craigslist daily looking for a new place to live - one more snowflake here and Fruita or Grand Junction will have one more pair of La Sportiva shod feet plodding around the trails), and self imposed highs and lows of fairly serious racing chunks (100 mi run, short and very long MTB) over the last three weeks, and looming Leadman agenda (that riddles my otherwise unwavering nerves), I've been bogged down a bit in wanting to get out to train.  Yeah, I realize I needed a couple days to recover from the Fruita race on Saturday (took two days off) and shouldn't be too bent out of shape with a softer week this week but I have this nagging (irrational) feeling that these little gaps in my otherwise five months of solid training will hinder not only my performance at the Leadville Marathon but my overall fitness needed by late June.  Once Leadman starts, there's not much I can change in terms of preparation; it'll be a balance of recovery and maintenance through August 17th.

Currently, the thought of going out for a three hour run makes me want to crawl back in bed with the shades drawn.  I can't pinpoint why, exactly.  I know it's bad to rely on outside factors for motivation but I feel that a 70 degree sunny day would be more palatable and energizing than the "chance of snow" this evening (it's May 10th, fyi).  Monday is supposed to be more normal with the exact aforementioned weather conditions.  Hopefully, it'll stick this time.

Thankfully (or insanely), I have a big race weekend coming up in two weeks (127 technical trail miles with over 17,000 ft climb at avg 8,200 ft elevation over three days).  So, at the very least, I know that will be some good training in itself.  Aside from that, I need to get in roughly five long runs and at least five workouts specific to the Leadville Marathon.  Focus, Tim.

As for the big daddy race of the Leadman Series, the 100 mile run, resident Elevation Trail sociologist, Gary David, will be flying out from Massachusetts to pace with me from Twin Lakes to the finish (not sure he knows it'll be that long -40 miles- but I guess he does now).  He's super fit and super fast and will likely be loving the research factor of watching me be miserable for 8 hours on the trail.

I still don't have a crew for the 100 MTB or 100 run if anyone is interested in it.  I can guarantee entertainment, thin air, and beers.

So, with that and this self indulgent post, I guess I'll head out the door to see what sort of run I can muster today - iPod day for sure.

Maybe it's time I employ a coach myself.