I’ve felt like I haven’t had much to say lately. I still don’t, but it feels like time to try. This might be a bit rambley. Both in the lead up to UTMB and in the following weeks I was flooded with photos, videos, blog posts, YouTube films, podcast interviews, etc. and they all just started blending together and sounding like noise. I didn’t want to add much to the already deafening noise. I once heard that I should write something worth reading, or I should do something worth writing about. Since I didn’t have anything to write worth reading, I’ve been training for Cape Town. It’s gone well so far. I’ll wrap up the year at the UTCT 100k in a couple weeks.
After giving myself a little three-month sabbatical from my software development job to train for UTMB, I couldn’t handle logging back on to give a status report in another standup meeting when the time came to return to work. So now, after 5 years of study to get a bachelors and masters degree in Information Systems Management, and 7 years of Salesforce consulting and development, I’ve ended up in a manual labor job where I have to work weekends and don’t get health insurance. In other words, I’m just running now.
Running full time is me living the dream I didn’t know I had. I never thought this is where life would lead. It’s awesome and I’m lucky. I really can’t complain. But I’m sort of a complainer, so let me complain a little. The thing no one tells you about this lifestyle is that very few other people are in similar situations, so you end up lonely. Why would I wake up at 6am to run with my 9-5 friends when I could get a good night sleep, enjoy breakfast and morning routines with Marshall, and then get out at 10am when it’s warmer? The number of people who a) can run when I want to run, b) want to run similar distances/routes/effort levels to me, and c) live nearby enough that we can reasonably meet up are very few. Other than special occasions and weekends, almost everything I do now is alone because it’s more convenient. That means my airpods have really been coming in clutch.
When I’m running alone, easy, and somewhere I routinely train (which is the majority of my weekly volume), I listen to audiobooks. I think I’ve mentioned this before. Lately, the Dungeon Crawler Carl series has been my go-to. I started a couple weeks ago and I finished Book 4, The Gate of the Feral Gods, today. Still going strong.
When I’m running a workout, I often listen to music because I lose track of the story if I’ve got a book going. I had a good workout last week where I PR’d Cherry Canyon, a climb I’ve done many workouts on, and it didn’t feel too hard. During that one, I was listening to Spotify’s auto-generated This is Linkin Park playlist and BURN IT DOWN came on during one of my reps. What a banger. The chorus felt applicable to my training and racing.
We're building it up to break it back down
We're building it up to burn it down
We can't wait to burn it to the ground
It always amazes me how quickly I lose a huge chunk of fitness immediately post-big-race. After UTMB, I took a week off. Then the next week I just jogged a few times. Three weeks after UTMB, I was ramping back to pretty normal training, but every steep downhill fried my quads and I’d be sore for days. Only recently is that starting to feel better. I spent months building up all these muscles and fitness, strategically breaking down the legs so they’d build back up stronger, only to burn it all to the ground in a day. And then the cycle repeats.
To escape the crushing loneliness of the long distance runner, I took at trip to Wyoming last weekend with a couple of friends. We meticulously researched where we’d be able to do the raddest routes with the least amount of snow and people within a 5ish hour radius of Salt Lake and landed on the Gros Ventre and Wind River ranges, hoping to sneak in a final pre-winter outing. Turns out that despite our research, winter has already mostly arrived in those mountains. We arrived to the Granite Creek trailhead late in the evening, but the bright full moon reflecting off the white peaks and the 23F reading on my dashboard thermometer was enough to indicate that we’d be facing some significant snow up high the next day. After a surprisingly decent night’s sleep, we ate some pancakes, loaded up as many layers as we could fit in our little vests, and headed toward our first destination, Antoinette Peak.
I’m realizing now that this is turning into more of a trip report than I want to write, so I’ll hurry it along. Antoinette was sweet. It was indeed snowy and I liked how rugged and remote the range felt. We ran/post-holed a big loop after hitting that summit. Then, after some hot springs soaking, we went to the Winds and did a cool run there too. I forgot to pack my fly rod and I’ll forever be mad at myself for that. Time away from the daily grind exploring new areas with friends keeps the stoke alive. I need to spend more time in Wyoming. That’s the moral of this story.
This is totally sick, can’t wait to see you at UTCT!! Next time you’re up in Wyoming at this time of year, I’d recommend the Wyoming Range or even the Big Holes (across the state line in Idaho). Those would have been less snowy and just as uncrowded, excellent trail running.
I think I missed the complaining part? lol sounds like you’re reveling in this new life sans salesforce. Appreciate the glimpse!