It Is Entirely Possible

It is entirely possible that our family will be on a cruise in Mexico next week. It is entirely possible that we will eat our body weight in soft serve ice cream. It is entirely possible that I will burn my skin to a Donald Trump-ish red glow. It is entirely possible that a week of 24-hour-per-day buffets is not the best idea one week before a 100 mile race.

This little blog here is my training journal so I'll give a quick recap of the week proceeding my Mexico cruise / high calorie / sunburning bonanza:

Monday, April 23rd 2012: 7 miles @ 10:43 minutes per mile. The hardest part of this run was dragging my carcass out of bed so early before work.

Wednesday, April 25th 2012: 24 miles @ 12:52 minutes per mile. Mel joined me for the first 8 miles and we ran to the Yellowman Petroglyphs. The sky was amazing. The clouds looked like a rolling canvas of watercolors:

Mel kept stressing about pace but I told her not to worry. She is a little slower than me but it works out really good to run the first part of the run with her because then I don't overdo it at first and I can finish faster. Plus she is funny and I enjoy our conversations. We averaged 13:45/mile. I had fun running with her.

After that I headed toward Little Creek Mesa. There is about 3.5 miles of steady hills that climb 1,500 feet. Everytime I've run here before, that hill has kicked my butt. But for some reason my legs had lots of kick this time. It felt like I drank a gallon of 5 Hour Energy.

When I got to the edge of the mesa I saw a guy driving a Jeep. This was the first person I'd seen in hours. He rolled down his window and said "Are you running from the law?" I laughed and told him I was.

Later I realized that this guy was serious. I wore a new hat that covers your neck. It is useful, but downright hideous. I realized that he asked if I was running from the law.....because it should be illegal to wear a hat this ugly.

I ran those last 16 miles at a steady pace and got the average down to 12:52/mile. It gave me more confidence to tackle that hill on race day.

Friday, April 27th 2012: 7 miles @ 11:18 minutes per mile. It was a beautiful evening on the Jem trail with some great lighting as the sun was going down:

Right now I'm feeling pretty good going into the Zion 100. Everything seems to have fallen into place over the last six weeks. I've been able to get in a 31 miler, 36 miler, and 50 miler and my body is feeling good. I think with squeezing ultramarathon training into the craziness of life, I'm as prepared as I could hope to be. It's going to be a crazy, wild, exciting ride.