Monday, March 29, 2010

Unbelievable Things

Eleven months ago I thought it would be a great idea to register for the inaugural Ironman St. George. At the time I was kind of burnt out on Ironman but it was an inaugural event in a nice location that I have always wanted to visit and I figured that I would get back into the groove at some point during the intervening year. Well, Ironman St. George is still going to be an inaugural event in 2010 and it is still in a nice location that I still want to visit but the requisite motivation to train has not made an appearance.

Fortunately though my motivation to train for ultras has remained as high as ever and that has kept up my leg strength and endurance. This past weekend I finally got off my butt and joined some friends for what will probably be their biggest Ironman workout in the run up to St. George. I ended up with 92.5 pretty hard miles on the bike followed by a 5.3 mile run. I was able to finish the workout about as well as I normally would had I been training all along though I think I paid a bit bigger price the next day. I know that I definitely won't PR at the race but that was unlikely anyhow. What is more important to me is that I will be able to finish and be able to call it a nice hard training day.

Training for what? Leadville. That's right. I finally bit the bullet and registered for the Leadville 100 mile trail run. This is a race that I have wanted to do since the very beginning of my foray into ultrarunning. I have looked at it year after year and every year concluded that I wasn't ready yet. However, I recently had a conversation with Johnny Tri and we were talking about Leadville and during that conversation I realized that I would probably never feel READY for Leadville, the course will never get easier or shorter and the cutoff will not be extended beyond 30 hours. The only thing that would change for sure is that I would get older.

I have looked at many Leadville finishers in past race results and their performances at other races and have reached the conclusion that I can finish Leadville. The hitch is that I have to have a close to perfect race and need to drop as much weight as possible. I don't know how my race will unfold but I have dropped 22 pounds so far and am about 15 pounds down from my race weight at the Javelina 100.

So, it looks like everything I do between now and August 21st will be in support of my Leadville attempt.

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. Ooo..you're going to love St. George. I'm from Utah (Gramma lived in Hurricane just North of St. G) and my advice is BOYB for after if you're so inclined and make sure to have the pork salad at Cafe Rio and top it of with a Neilsen's Frozen Custard. Happily these establishments are right next to each other....bliss!

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  3. I can't believe you knocked out those bike miles Brian!! I guess running does translate to biking..:)

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  4. Outstanding job on the bike, I guess once you have trhe endurance down from all your running it helps in the bike too. Good luck with Leadville, that is awsome!

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  5. Anonymous10:40 AM

    VERY nice....

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  6. Leadville is going to be awesome! I didn't know about the 30 hour cutoff though. That is some serious limits.

    I know you can do it. Burn off those calories at SG but keep up the energy.

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  7. OMG Leadville how cool! Go SB go!

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  8. Leadville is very close, I will be there for sure to watch and if you need help, please count me in!

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  9. Dude I am stoked you signed up for Leadville!!!!
    you can totally rock that course.

    I am looking forward to training up at the same time for different events.

    keep the focus.

    rockon'

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  10. LEADVILLE!!! OMFG!!!

    You have always held major, beast, badass status in my mind, but this is HUGE!!

    I am so excited for you and ME in my official ultra-running stalker career!

    You will have a great time in St George. By letting go of the pressure of a PR you can really enjoy the course. I hear it is beautiful there.

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  11. if anyone can complete an Iron on limited cycling, u can. I sure am excited to read about your upcoming training for Leadville.

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  12. I'm looking forward to meeting up with you in Utah...

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