140 miles at a time

My running is still nothing but miles upon miles with 800s mixed in. I guess that’s ultra training! If I have time, I think I’ll get a section on here with Garmin stats. In the meantime, I figured I’d just talk about the Boulder thing after being here for awhile. I’d guess from my writing that any reader would know I’m not too big on the stuff outside of my own world. I mean, my favorite place to run so far is a small park in Indiana with hilly dirt trails, grass trails, a lake, some wetlands and next to an asphalt trail and indoor/outdoor tracks that I have access to at a college. There’s also incredibly nice, tree-lined rolling hills on asphalt roads behind the park. It’s like the stuff I used to run at home, especially around my parent’s house. A tie for that place is my childhood running loop in Massachusetts up the hills and around the urban lake I grew up on. I’ll be revisiting both spots again this year.   :) I know Boulder is all the rage in the running world. I don’t ...

What’s the point in running if you don’t feel happiness from it? There isn’t one. I started running in 6th grade because it gave me a sense of happiness no matter what crazy was happening around me. Over the years, the most strict I got was on the Boston Marathon training plans. It was like high school with more miles. So, really, it was high school running that made me happy. I was naive. I did what felt good. That’s all running was to me. I loved it and I love it once again. While unemployed, more miles felt good. So, I built miles. That was it. I was like, “I wonder if I can do this…” and pushed my miles up more. It started with 100 and went straight to 140 after a year of hundos. It felt really cool. It was for me. I don’t think I can ever explain what made me think I needed other people involved in my running. The closest I came to explaining it was a lack of confidence that held me back in a lot of areas; not just running. Lack of confidence was the root of the problem. ...