TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Showing posts with label Spartan Up!. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spartan Up!. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2015

My Date with Sparta / Spartan Race Give-away

Well, it is official, I have another date with Sparta.  This one I aim to keep.  My date is in September to “run” the Spartan Beast.  Problem is, I am such a chicken – I don’t know how I am going to be able to push myself in training to get there.  It means that I’m going to start doing a hell of a lot more than the measly Winking smile mountain runs I’ve been doing.  I just have to do it.  Time is ticking away.  In the meanwhile, I plan on maintaining my motivation up by listening to the Spartan Up! Podcast.  I’m hoping that I can learn “tough.”  I soooooo need it. 

http://www.spartanuppodcast.com/

spartan race

So, maybe you want to join the Spartan team too by finding a race in your area.  Turns out, I have a free race to give away – good for any open heat (non-confirmed start time) in any Spartan Race in the continental US.   This is what I will do with that entry: In two weeks, I will hold a drawing with the names of anyone who replies to this blog post.  If only one person replies – you win.  Smile And Just for trying, I can give you a code that will give 10% off of any race.

As always, though I don’t always write it, thanks for reading. Red rose

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Art of Suffering

Somewhere along my journey on the trails, I lost my way.  It didn’t happen all at once, but began when I was training for Twin Peaks 2012, in the last month before the race with my first signs of plantar fasciitis.  That was just the beginning.  Being pulled from Old Goat at mile 41 was the clincher.  I still tear up when I recount that moment when the jeep pulled up and the driver gave me the bad news.   All that work, all that suffering was for nothing.  But it wasn’t really.  I gained a lot that day, though all that new-found knowledge was not immediately known.  

Fast forward to May 2014, I’ve been making my way back since January of this year when I ran the Calico 30k.  I’ve been building up my mileage, albeit slowly.  I’ve been losing some pounds, albeut slowly (11 so far, but hey, at least the scale number is now going down and not up).  I’m also registered for 3 upcoming races, Nanny Goat 24 Hour (very soon!), Spartan Beast (September) and Twin Peaks 50 Miler (October).  And as soon as I get paid, I will register for Harding Hustle 50k (July).  

And then this:  Saturday, while riding the gym bike, I pulled out my complimentary copy of Spartan Up!  And within the first paragraph realized what the heck went wrong with my endurance running.  I realized that while trying to get through these huge challenges, I thought that I needed to “suffer better.”  By “suffer better,” I wanted to more quickly win the mental battles, stop throwing the little temper-tantrums when I couldn’t summit fast enough, and most of all, stop the sobbing.  But somehow that “suffer better” quest turned into “not suffer at all.”  Ya!  Like I’m going to run 30 to 50 miles in the mountains and not suffer!  What was I thinking?  I knew all along, but somehow forgot, that it’s not the “doing” that’s the prize -- it’s the conquering, it’s enduring the suffering to have it come to an end.  I once knew this!  I FORGOT.  Thanks goodness I remembered.  Thank you for the reminder Joe DeSena.  

Once I remembered that it’s not about the suffering, it’s about ENDURING the suffering, it changed a whole lot about my training these past few days.  The very next day in fact, I didn’t wake at the crack of dawn so that I could get my trail run done in cool weather.  Instead,  I went to church with my family (I haven’t done that in a long time!), did some errands and finally hit the trails at 1:30 in the afternoon, in the thick of the heat.  I made the run much more difficult on purpose.  Imagine that!!  The hills were difficult because of the heat, yes, but I gladly endured them.  Climbing Mentally Sensitive was a bear, but somehow it was not as difficult as it normally is.  It wasn’t as difficult because I realized that the prize wasn’t the actual climbing of this monster hill.  The prize was reaching the top, putting an end to my suffering, and looking out over the miles of trails I had already covered.  It doesn’t have to be pretty going up.  But it sure is pretty looking down. :)

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