If you have come across this it is either because I shared it and you chose to humor me and open it up, or you are looking for someone who is as crazy as you are. Someone who is willing to do a 250 mile race to celebrate their 50th year on the planet.
Pic is from where I plan to do most of my training....
Yep. that is me. I want to do a 250 mile race to celebrate the half century of life on this planet.
It all started because my friend told me about this race. The Cocadona 250. I chose to not look it up because I knew I would want to do it, but, I wasn't ready for it.
A couple months later, our friends Lynn and Linda were talking to my husband Kevin and I about Lynn doing it. They discussed that they were not really sure what to excpect and may need some help crewing him.
We helped get the logisitcs organized and planned to spend the first week of May crewing Lynn on his race. Our son Matthew had some other ideas. His appendix burst and he spent 3 weeks in the hospital. He went into the hospital the week prior to me leaving to crew Lynn. Due to hospital rules, only his parents can be in the room with him. Matthew is my bonus son, hate the word Step. So all I was doing was working, cleaning and worrying. Kevin and I discussed it and decided I would still go. I can be useful and worry somewhere else.
So I went (wrote up a blog about it) you can click here to read it. Where's Lynn Crew Perspective
Crewing for him fired up my desire to do it myself.
I don't know that I can do it. I am scared if I am honest. It is a massive undertaking.
More importantly, it will take up a lot of time to train and I don't want it to consume my life to train for it. I need to make sure I have the balance of home, work, life, relationships.
Kevin has expressed his concerns for me doing this and how much time it will take to train and when I am not doing something, the fatigue that will follow. Not to mention he will worry. It is what he does, he worries about me because he loves me.
So, I have to make a plan to balance it all. Which, I think I have one.
Kevin is off of work Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. He goes to work at 0500, (wakes at 0400) Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So my plan is to run on the days he is working, Strength train, family hike, donkey run, cross train, day off etc. on the days he is off.
I am breaking the training up into Phases.
- Phase 1 begins 1 June through end of August
- Phase 2 begins 1 Sep through end of December
- Phase 3 begins 1 Jan through end of March
- Phase 4 begins 1 April through to the race in May
Phase 1 is all about that base. Buidling the base for mileage, creating consistency, buidling strength, Weight loss begins. Some positive changes in my life that I have allowed to get away from me. My mileage will look similiar to a 50K training plan. Average weekly mileage will be between 30-40 miles. Also, most importantly, a ton of climbing and hiking. The feedback from many runnres from Coco 21 was that they wished they did more climbing and hiking.
The purpose of the blog is to share the journey and hold myself accountable. If I am going to succeed, I need to put in the work, no half assed work either.
I am basing my training plan off of "Relentless Forward Progress-the guide to ultramarathons" and "Runnng Rewired"--which has strength and stability exercises for runners.
My diet change will be Keto based. I have done it before and then I got pandemic crazy lazy. That is going to change. I am also cutting back my wine intake! My goal is to drop at least 30 pounds prior to race day. (I am 5'10" and 210 pounds)
Why do I want to do Coco? I am sure I will ask that of myself many times. I know it will seem selfish and masochist to many to want to do this. I mean it is not easy and I will need help along the way in training and during the race. It is a lot to ask of others to support me. A lot.
Life is short. I don't want to be 90 and say I wish I did xyz. I want to be the best mom, grandma, role model to our kids and beyond. I want to be better. I want to feel healthier and show others how to not give up when things get hard. Too many people see when things get hard to just find a way to not do it or modify so it isn't as hard. I have gone through many stages in life that I don't feel quite right unless I am running or pushing towards a goal. I get stuck in ruts where I feel I am just spinnng my wheels and going nowhere. I am stuck right now.
I have the power to change and this is the catalyst to launch me forward.
At this point, I haven't even registered for the race. They waived the requirement to have a 100 completed to register for 2021. I have a self supported one, not an official one, so I am not sure if they will let me use that or if I need to get one done in order to register. Which will be tricky to get time off. Javelina Jundred is already wait-listed for October and no other local ones are put on right now due to COVID. Or if I need to do another self supported with proof that is more recent? So, some questions I need to email the race director about and see what they say.
Word on the street is that registration opens 1 June, so I will check and see.
For now, I am going forth with my plan the best I can. This first couple weeks will be different to my original plan because Matthew has surgery to remove the appendix on Wednesday the 3rd of June. Kevin is off this week; next week we go to Fool Hollow and onto South Fork, Colorado to see our friends Lynn and Linda. There is also a donkey race. So, yes, the balance will be tricky.
If you have read this far, thank you for following along my ramblings. I will post weekly updates.
Today's inspirational quote
"He who moves not forward goes backward. Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress. Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid!"
