Where the Heck Have I Been?!?
Posted by katymoe on February 20th, 2012I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve posted a blog. Man, does time fly when you’re having fun! I really want to just hit the ground running with some new fun posts, but as I’ve written about before, one of my hang-ups to my blogging success is that I HAAAVE to write things in order…..so when I sit down to write and it’s been A YEAR AND A HALF (!) I feel like I have to do a bit of catch-up work.
So I’m going to. Take that.
I’m going to give you a brief update on what I’ve been doing the past year-point-5. I plan for this to be one moderately long post, so I hope you are ready for this.
I remember posting about Ironman CDA 2010….and it was really a struggle to write about because it was such a tough day. When you have all your eggs in one basket, and you’ve been saving them up for a year, it is really devastating when that basket drops and you don’t get a do-over. I just wanted to take that fitness and try again! Unfortunately, Ironman races aren’t too easy to get into last minute and financially it wasn’t an option. Suck.
I remember being cheered up by a post written by Hillary Biscay (a favorite pro) on getting over bad races, and it really made me feel better to see that even though the pros get to race Ironman races all year long, they go through the same ups and downs that we do.
After IM CDA 2010 I wallowed in my sorrows a bit, tried to get over some nagging injuries, and enjoyed doing some NON-ironman activities ie: P90X, hot yoga, regular yoga, and sewing a lot! This was all fine and dandy until I read the book BORN TO RUN, and decided that all I wanted to do everyday from here on out was run barefoot through hills and mountains and desserts and valleys, all day, everyday, forever….
When that didn’t work out, I decided to sign up for an UltraMarathon. The next best thing right?…and why not do the Fresno Ultra right here in my own back yard?!? How exciting! So I googled some 50k training plans and thought they all looked like too much running and set out doing a marathon training plan with some extra long runs on Saturdays thrown in there.
I had a little bit of fun at the Fresno 50k, and was quickly talked into taking it up a notch and running American River 50 mile run with my good friends Kyle and Dave. I was pretty nervous about running 50 miles, so I promptly signed up for several trail 50k’s as training runs.
The first 50k trail run was Montana de Oro, and THAT was brutal. I really really really wanted to quit about 3/4 of the way through. I have some video footage of this race…… and some of my low points here:
It really wasn’t THAT bad, those are literally all of the negative things I said during that race. One thing I LOVE about endurance racing is knowing those negative moments WILL happen, and being ready to cruise through them. There is always a fun positive moment just waiting to happen.
The next training run for AR50 was Woodside 50k, you can see my friend Dave’s video from that run here. I’m featured in this 28 minute video….and it’s not all complaining. Definitely worth a watch if you consider doing this race! After rainy and wet Woodside I was really ready for AR50.
Many of you followed me on the day of the event via my facebook video posts, so I won’t get crazy with those videos. The vidoes should still be on my wall if you want to watch them, and hopefully I’ll get them up on youtube soon. AR50 was SUCH a fun race. It’s a really run-able course and a well organized event. I’d recommend it to anyone who is itching to run a 50 mile race. I had so much fun running with Dave, Eric, and Kyle. Those guys are always making me laugh.
After AR50 was done, I was ready for triathlon season! I started working with Felicia Gomez of Pinnacle Training Systems, and she whipped me back into triathlon shape just in time for Scott Tinley’s long course. I was very happy to place first in my age group despite some tummy issues on the run course. My friends and fellow Pinnacle Women’s Racing (PWR) teammates had such a great weekend of camping and racing. I would love to do that race again.
That pretty much summarizes 2011……up next 2012, which is off to a good start as I’m preparing for a massive PR at Napa Valley Marathon in two weeks!!
Yea! I’m glad you’re blogging again! Can’t wait to hear how you rock Napa!!