January: Highlights and Numbers

Hey there! Remember me? While I was stuck under a metaphorical and literal rain cloud, January has come and gone. It rained and rained. My allergies flared up my asthma. It was a terrible time to begin another training cycle, let alone one further into uncharted ultramarathon country.

It looked a bit like this, both outside and inside my head.

As my motivation and energy to train hard dwindled to the point of surrender, those same clouds parted and the sunshine came. Figures.

Oh sunshine!! Be my lover!!!

This is just how it has gone every other time I've made the decision that we need to relocate: I start to feel better. This time, I'm going to try and remember the other eleven months of suffering and ignore this brief period of sunshine. As for my training, I still managed to get in a solid amount of activity and enjoyable moments.

The Numbers
Running: 209.75 miles, 25 days.
including time on the trail: 92.75 miles, 8 days.
Yoga: 9h25m, 12 days.
Race: 1, Patrick's Point 5K.
Kitties: 130.
Strength: 5 days.

When I added it all up, I was surprised my mileage was that high. I'd like to keep in the 50mpw range so that number should increase slightly. Quality time with my mat was good, I'm in a wonderful place right now with that. I hope to share more about that soon. 

Special Moments
Sterling Mine Ditch Trail, Jacksonville: In the middle of all of those rainy days, I had one perfect mountain day that almost made me forget all of my troubles. The Subaru did most of the climbing to the trailhead and I enjoyed one very flat 10 miler, leaving a trail of mountain-lust drool in my wake.

Ruby Sue the Subaru’s first snowy adventure: We took her up a very sketchy unplowed mountain road and she got to try on her new chains. Instead of our original plan, a mountain summit, we decided to snowshoe at a lower elevation and it was far less exciting.

Zoey, the Wandering Kitty: I'm not sure she enjoys these trips together as much as I do, but I love having my little family unit together.

Travel buddy snuggles

Pit stop to meet some tall trees. Zoey probably spotted one of those mountain lions I hear about but never see myself.

We've got a routine down and she adjusts pretty well once we get settled. This time, we made the mistake of not getting an extra queen bed for her and she spent the whole weekend fighting me for the coveted spot next to Matt.

Couple's Spa Day: Matt's Achilles' tendon was bothering him. My immune system was angry and made my whole body angry. When we booked our trip to Medford, we decided to sandwich a spa retreat night into our running itinerary. We got rubs (Matt's first and he couldn't stop raving about it) and then an evening with champagne, chocolates, and private use of the sauna and steam rooms. I was surprised by how fun it was to get pampered like this. Alternating moist and dry saunas helped clean out my sinuses, too.

Do you think my health insurance would cover the bill?

Trail runs with friends: If there's one thing I did right this month, it was spending a lot of time with my trail friends. Between Wednesday Forest Beatdown (yes, I've officially named them) runs with the boys that make my legs shake by the end of them and even hillier and longer days with the girls, I love every minute I'm sharing running with others.

Mile 1: 500 ft. of death. And the boys don't let me walk.

You know your run is hilly enough when the topo map looks like a crumpled up piece of paper.

Headwaters with Lanore and Matt

A sunny Grasshopper day with Dave, Jeff, and Matt

And more Grasshopper with Rachel, which was pretty much the opposite in terms of views.

The first question Matt asked after I decided to skip AR was "What do you want to do instead?" It has been a week since then and I still don't have an answer. For now, I'm enjoying running when I want and how much I want and am not ready to give that up just yet.

For as noncommittal as that sounds, I still have a plan to keep my fitness up, running enough miles and just enough speed to not completely break and humiliate myself should I decide to race somewhere amid all the question marks floating in my head.

Onward to February!