It’s amazing how fast time can seem to speed by once you are looking back, even though it can be moving infinitesimally slow when you are in the moment. You know the feeling I’m talking about, whether you are running around a track like a greyhound, or on a treadmill like a gerbil, it always seems like the clock isn’t moving until you’re done, at which point you convince yourself that it “wasn’t so bad”. The mind is a wonderful tool for positive spin when the alternative is much less desirable. The first six months of 2014 seem to have disappeared while I was busy registering for a race, and yet I can’t let myself forget the horrendous winter that wouldn’t end, which has now been replaced by monsoon season in Iowa. I wasn’t aware that there was a rainy season in the “heartland”, but I share it now for all of you. Consider yourselves warned.
June was indeed a busy month, complete with an amazing Relay Iowa experience, plenty of heat, wind, and rain, and another consistent training regime that kept me trained for any and all upcoming races or spur-of-the-moment crazy ideas that might come my way. I managed just over 200 miles in June, despite ample rest periods, and those miles put me over 1400 miles for the first half of the year. I’ve transitioned into more early morning running to avoid the heat and humidity, and ushered in some additional track work to try and give myself a speed boost for that final kick, whether it’s 10 meters or 10 miles long.
We put our artist talents to good use and painted our own gnomes…who knows where you might find them!
I found myself in a bit of a training gap following Relay Iowa, however. I had only registered for one race, the Route 66 Marathon, for the remainder of the year, and I needed a bit more structure on my schedule! I was shooting for a late August or early September race to set my sights on, and I did my usual extensive research before making a choice. I was very tempted by the Lean Horse 100, as I had heard really good things about the course and it is within driving distance. Unfortunately, the August 23rd date is only two days before the beginning of the fall semester at Iowa State, and I wasn’t all that excited about slowly hobbling into my first lecture after a weekend of sleep deprivation! Ultimately, I decided on the Mark Twain 100, which takes place on September 13-14 in Berryman, MO. The course consists of four 25-mile loops on mostly single track with about 10,000 feet of total elevation gain. The weather should be (fingers crossed) perfect at that time, and the epicurean and I will be able to camp near the starting line for free, along with Looper. It looks like a beautiful course, and I’m excited to push myself over the summer to prepare for it. I’ll probably run another leg of RAGBRAI this year as well, as the timing will be perfect for my schedule.
I’ve also been spending a bit more time on speed work at the ISU track to supplement my training, and I’m learning to enjoy my 200 and 400m repeats around the soft oval! It’s a nice way to mix up my schedule, and works nicely as the first of my Tuesday two-a-days. It’s also a consistent course, which means even less concentration as I go around in circles. The rain has been falling by the bucket for the last few days and there is a lot of flooding around town, so the track has the added bonus of being dry!
Luckily the berry patch isn’t flooded. It’s strawberry season!
Other than these developments, it’s been pretty slow around here for the past few weeks. The calm of summer has definitely settled in, leaving plenty of opportunities to set my own training schedule and work around teaching and writing tasks. Have you thought about your fall race schedule now that we are entering the heat of summer? What are you training for in the coming months? Do you have an A race or are you just playing it by ear? I’d love to hear about your upcoming adventures, so commence your commenting and happy running!
