Half-Assed

In the past two weeks, I've learned you can actually get a lot of training done even if you are half-assed. My buddy Chris, the one from Clif Bar and who I lost as an ironman training partner when he and his wife decided to have two sons, has been trying to get me to do a trail run race with him all season. Now that I have time, just my luck that it's a 50-mile run with 7800' of climbing. But like I said, I'm half committed...I'm not signed up for the race and I'm just going to see how the "training" goes.

On Tuesday, I finished a 17-mile run, making it 39 miles in three days, and I immediately thought, "How the hell am I going to run 50 miles in one sitting!?!!?" I was thoroughly satiated by the end of the 17-miler, and to think that I would have to continue for another 33 miles, I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I still can't wrap my mind around it, so I try not to and just run as long and as often as I can, without making it feel like "training".

Logging in all of these run miles, without cycling, makes me think about the cycling/running balance. I know that cycling inhibits running and thus, it's important to always make sure you are cycling as much as you can without inhibiting your running. I started my 17-miler on the third of three consecutive days of running, and based on triathlon training, I was expecting dead legs and a very slow run. I purposefully did not allow myself to check my Garmin, and just ran on feel. Feel alone felt pretty good. Finally, I succumbed and checked at the 5-mile mark and I was averaging 7:09 pace, hellz no. The run was fairly hilly and when I was done 17 miles later, my watch read 7:15 average pace, I let out an even bigger hellz no. Not only am I reminded of how good you can feel running without cycling, but I'm also amazed at what you can accomplish half-assing something.