New Year New Plans

While I am still slightly limited physically by my back, I have been mixing some short, slow running back into my routine.  I have been hiking/trudging/snowshoeing the past few weeks.  I also "borrowed" a trainer from my dad, so I have my road bike set up in my house.  I have been using it to do analogous tempo and fartlek workouts.  I have also been forcing myself to stretch everyday and do some core work every couple of days. So far, the back, while not 100%, is feeling quite a bit better.

My one and only resolution this year is to get my ass out and do something every day.  It doesn't have to be much.  It just has to be something.  I can surely find at least 30 minutes each day to run, hike, ride, etc.  I have been inspired by my good friend Chris Schabron who just polished off his second year in a row of running every day.  He has a 731 days-in-a-row and counting streak.  There is no reason I cannot do something similar.

This is all, of course, build-up to my plans this year.  I had a brief conversation with Alec awhile back that was started by me bringing up FKTs.  I thought FKTs were something I'd be interested in maybe pursuing, though I'd have to get a hell of lot better physically and mentally to even begin.  I asked Alec his thoughts/would he care to join, and he told me FKTs were not things in which he was interested.  He said he was more interested in WCTDIEATW (What Cool Things Did I Experience Along The Way).  While not an acronym concerned with brevity, it does hammer home something I've been feeling for a long time.  

I mentioned last June that I needed to step back from the competitiveness and learn to enjoy the art of running.  I have felt that fire burning less hot in the past months, and honestly, training and gearing up for racing is something that no longer interests me all that much.  I am more concerned with just being outside and enjoying the world that running can provide.  It opens so much more to me.

I have a problem waxing philosophic about running.  We've all read the Quotable Runner, we've all fantasized about being Quenton Cassidy chasing down John Walton, we've all suffered through George Sheehan's self-important pseudo-philosophical rantings because that's what we were supposed to do.  And for a long time, I thought, "Fuck those guys.  They were slow and never won a damn thing in their lives." I thought those guys missed the point.  Zen running was for sissy-la-las.  I wanted to win races.  Run as fast as I could.  Out-kick people and give them a shrug of my shoulders as I passed them.  And for a long time, that was satisfying.  But it just is not anymore.  And now I understand a little more what the hell those guys were talking about.

There is a life to be lived out there.  And I want mine to include running.  It is truly a lifestyle.  And one I love very deeply.  So, as I have alluded to in my previous and sparse posts, I have decided that winning races, and even racing in general, is not something I am going to be too concerned with going forward.  I'm more interested in having adventures and experiencing cool things.  Enjoy being in that moment.

That said, I do plan to participate in a couple races this year (if I'm physically able, of course).  First, the Twin Mountain Trudge.  This will be my fifth year in a row at this bitch of a race.  Five year veterans receive a "Mountain Masochist" jacket for subjecting themselves to the brutality year after year.  I want my damn jacket.

I signed up for Nick Clark's Quad Rock race in May because I feel the 25M will be a good lead-in race going towards Bighorn in June.  Pilot Hill is also on my agenda for the same reason.  Plus, it's one of our "Big 3" homegrown Laramie trail races, so I should be there.

The goal of the next five or six months is Bighorn.  I have unfinished business thanks to my hip injury last year.  I will do everything in my power to avoid a similar mistake this year.  Bighorn is the weekend before my 30th birthday, so I figure, what better way to celebrate the end of my twenties than by running 50 miles through the mountains?

After that, the sky is the limit.  I am going to start working on plans to get back to Rainier either end of July or mid-August.  The Wonderland Trail intrigues me.  93 miles long, it circumnavigates Mt. Rainier.  I figure it can be broken up into ~50K each day, allowing one to enjoy the views without thrashing the body too badly.  If I can get a crew together, we could have a couple people shuttling cars and setting up camp each day.  That would be an amazing experience.

Teton Crest is another adventure I've been considering for some time.  Somewhere between 35-40 miles on the west side of the range seems like a great way to spend a day.  I'm thinking Labor Day for this.  That allows for quick travel to Jackson while also being, in my opinion, the perfect time of the year to run up there.  All I need is someone to drop me off at the tram in Teton Village and pick me up at Jenny Lake 8-10 hours later.

Those are my 2013 plans.  I'm sure they will be amended, but I'm happy with them right now.  And to end, here is what I did on New Year's Eve:

Tetons on a brisk but sunny day.

Grand Teton.

Mt. Wister and Avalanche Canyon.

Teton Range, Wyoming.  1/1/13.