Goals – Page 5 – An Outdoor Life

November 5, 2022November 5, 2022

Leadville Training, There are No Ideal Conditions

I’m officially registered for the Leadville 50 and Leadville 100 for 2023. This is my final attempt to finish Leadville 100 and get the buckle.

In 2019 I spent all my free time training for Leadville. I did everything right, or so I thought. However, I just couldn’t make it past mile 38 on race day. In the fall of 2021 I hired a coach and started training for the race in 2022 and by March I lost all motivation. I couldn’t recover and deferred the race to 2023.

Now it’s Go Time. It’s time to do the work. I live in the perfect place to train – in the mountains. Granted, the true perfect place to train is Colorado, but I’m here in Gatlinburg and will make the best of the Tennessee mountains.

I have no excuses. I have a few things to do:

Do The Work – follow the plan
Lose 20 lbs.
Find training partners
Weight training

I’m a wee-bit still injured from twisting my ankle on the Gatlinburg Trail three weeks ago. My left ankle is still not 100%. I’ve been swimming at the Gatlinburg Community Pool for the last few weeks but it’s closing on Nov 9 for the entire month.

I’m also a wee-bit scared running alone in the park with so many trails closed right now due to aggressive bears. Officials are warning people to not hike alone on the trails.

Twin Creeks Trail has been closed for over a month.

This is life as an endurance athlete: there are no ideal conditions. I’ve learned that every day you have to figure it out – how to get the work done, eat right, recover and sleep well. Fifteen years ago all of this seemed a bit easier. At 51, everything is harder: the body doesn’t recover as quickly, I’m slower than ever and the mental game seems to be regressing.

Here are the books I’m reading to help me with the mental game:

I’ll be writing book reviews as I finish them so stay tuned to my blog.

At the end of the day, Everything is Good. Hard. Fun. Difficult. Complicated.

September 19, 2022September 20, 2022

Travel Bug and Seeing New Places

I bought this poster in 1988 when I traveled out west after high school.

Once I got back to NH, after I thought I’d live forever in Colorado, I framed this poster and it has traveled with me every move.

I’ve always loved the quote, and after spending time in the Tetons, and the Jackson Hole Hostel I get it. Keep Wyoming Wild. Keep all beautiful places wild.

I love the composition of the photo: dark clouds over the Tetons, a little bit of light.

There are no beautiful blue skies and pastoral landscapes on my walls. I’m no decorator but the wall hangings in the countless homes, apartments and condos I’ve lived in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Colorado, Arizona and now Tennessee, all mean something to me. I seem to love dark-ish, black and white photos and illustrations; yet somehow I’m still hopeful.

Tonight, for the first time, I research the writer and the quote and find out this:

“God bless Wyoming and keep it wild” was written in the last entry in the diary of 15-year-old Helen “Becky” Mettler, a Bar B-C guest from New Jersey in 1925. She fell 100 feet to her death in Taggart Canyon.

Ouch.

A girl from New Jersey – out west. Sounds a lot like Pam Houston. A writer who wrote about growing up in New Jersey and couldn’t wait to get out west.

My favorite story from Houston is the one about her dog Jackson in the book: A Little More About Me, the essay Home Is Where Your Dogs Are:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-More-About-Me/dp/0393343464

“My dog Jackson died today. He was my first dog, and I bought him at a pet store when he was only eight weeks old. We’ve been together more than fourteen years, which makes our relationship the longest successful relationship of my life.” I get that.

She also writes in this story about a place they lived in Fraser, Colorado. Fraser is a place I know pretty well and it is known as the “icebox of the nation” until a city in Minnesota won a court case. But I digress.

Houston fell in love with the west and wrote about it for years.

I get that, too.

But the poster makes me long to go see the Tetons again. I skied Jackson Hole during my Steamboat stint but haven’t hiked those mountains since 1988. It’s time.

While 2023 is still going to have many racecations, it’s time for some old time hiking and driving the west to see things.

I love the west, the stories, travel, the adventure.

This week, my NH hiking buddy, Ross is out west taking photos of Yellowstone and the Tetons and it got me thinking.

I need to go see these places again.

If I’m not living there I must travel there and be a part of it so I called Mark and made a plan to go there. I told him tonight, let’s go in the next two week or next May. He said without saying it: let’s go next year.

Or revisiting places I’ve been, but want to see as an adult or with a different perspective.

March 15, 2022March 15, 2022

Antelope Canyon and finding your Why

I want to be successful at every race. I want to execute my plan and cross the finish line. I want to train correctly for each race.

However, for Antelope Canyon I didn’t run on sand or in similar conditions. I executed my nutrition strategy but after 15 miles my legs were dead. Mentally I was done. I continued to the next aid station and walked back to the start. 20 miles completed. Not 50.

I felt so different in the race compared to the 55K in December. I never got to the point of dead legs. Perhaps because I ran on similar terrain leading up to the race and I knew the course a little bit better. Maybe I was a bit dehydrated from traveling and didn’t drink enough electrolytes.

I do know I need to do more strength training.

I do know I need to practice mental strength.

At dinner after the race Mary, Kassandra, Stoddard and I talked about our “why”. What makes you keep going when you don’t want to? Mary suggested anger at people can help you get to the finish. I said my why is “it’s what I do”. But I don’t think that is going to work anymore.

Here’s what I think my WHY needs to be right now:

I want to run and finish races in places I’ve never been as a way to see the world. I want to have a smile on my face during most of the race. I want to be fit. I want to have a goal that I’m working towards every day.

My goal for Antelope Canyon was to finish. And I didn’t. Sometimes it takes me two tries to finish a race on a new course. ~~I’d like to think that~~ this year is my year to cross the Leadville finish line (second attempt).

I have some work to do.

The race weekend was fun despite not finishing. I met three friends in the desert and we shared stories and laughed. We caught up on what is going on in our lives and ate good food in Page, Arizona. The weather was fantastic: sunny blue skies all day long. I drove through beautiful northern Arizona with canyons and juniper trees and prickly pears. It was a great weekend of seeing new places, running in the slot canyons, seeing friends and being amazed at the world. I can’t wait to do it again.

Antelope Canyons, the second slot canyon on the course.

February 22, 2022February 22, 2022

Two weeks to the Big Day

Today is an 18 mile run. I was supposed to do it yesterday but Monday was a big day at the mountain. And I got to ski for a bit since I hadn’t skied in weeks. Conditions were amazing and I got 8 runs in. It is always great to get out there and talk to people on the lifts. I always say I have the best job in the world and yesterday proves it, to me at least.

But today and a big run.

It is the first big run since getting sick and I have two weeks until the 50 miler. I looked back at my training for my first 50 in 2019 and I had two 30 mile training runs before that race. I think that will be telling for my results this year. So many things are different so it’s tough to do a true comparison but I just want to get to Arizona, hang out with friends, and run on the Navajo land to experience the magic.

Then once I get back it’s all about building more mileage, getting strong, skiing a bunch, winter hiking and being the mountain girl that I am.