12/4/11

12/4  -  A couple days after my last post, I decided to put my training and racing plans for 2012 on hold and only run for enjoyment.  For the last 8 weeks or so, I have been taking it easy and running primarily on the weekends, usually nothing more than an hour with alot of hiking thrown in to focus on strength building and, hopefully, giving my body a chance to recover from a few physical issues I have been dealing with. Winter has begun and I've been switching it up with alot of hiking in the snow, a couple of short spiltboard missions and couple of days of snowboarding at the Steamboat Ski Area. Without a season pass, I'll be hiking and splitboarding alot more this year and I had a great session here in Stagecoach today, hiking the mountain with Benihana.  Even though the coverage isn't deep yet, I got a few good powder turns.  If nothing else, it just got me more motivated to get out there even more once I realilzed how convenient it is to just walk up the mountain from the house. 

Now, 2012 is starting to look very interesting from a trail running perspective and it's time to start ramping up again.  Yesterday, I found out that the Steamboat Springs Running Series is going to add some longer distance trail races to its schedule next summer including a trail marathon and half-marathon and possibly a 50K.    I read on Nick Clark's blog about a month ago that there was rumor of a 100-miler being planned for the Steamboat area and it looks like Run Rabbit Run is going to go for it.  Presumably the same day as the 50-miler and I'm guessing the course will be running the out and back to Rabbit Ears twice.  Well, it looks like I'll be staying in the valley next summer for my racing and I am going to try to win the masters division in the running series as well as attempting my first 100 mile foot race.   In the meantime, I've got to keep the nutrition dialed, get stronger and climb (and descend) as many mountains as I can this winter because, come next summer, I'll need to be in the best shape of my life.