Now what?

As the post-race fog clears, I'm adjusting what's next.

Everything comes with a price, and my ammo is limited. Over the past few years I’ve found that I usually have 2-3 bullets in the chamber per year—shots at nailing a race, turning myself inside out and really coming away satisfied. Everyone is different and I know some runners are able to turn it around more quickly and have good, consistent results with a recovery time beyond my comprehension, but that’s not me. I perform best with months between races to physically and mentally recover.

My “physically and mentally recovering” pose. PC: Cortney White

I have the privilege of being able to get into most races that I want to do fairly easily. There are some exceptions, like Hardrock or the World Championship team, but in general I’ve got my pick of many of the coolest, most competitive races in the world. That means I need to be conservative and use my bullets wisely, without getting carried away by the excitement of wanting to do everything at once.

Let’s think through this together. I’ll list off a few great races and some pros and cons, and you decide which 2-3 you’d spend your ammo on.

• Already burned one at Transgrancanaria. No regrets, but now we’re down to 1-2 more shots.

• Gorge Waterfalls 100k. This is the opportunity to confidently secure a World Champs spot. However, it’s 7 weeks after TGC. We need 1-2 weeks post race to recover before hopping back into normal training, and 1-2 weeks pre-Gorge to taper and lower volume, so that leaves about 3-4 weeks of intense training between now and then. Gorge has a stacked field and there’s no guarantee that I’d actually walk away with one of the two top qualifying spots there. I also truly believe there’s a compelling case to be made that I could get one of the four resume/application spots on the team. Oh, and our baby is due two weeks later so Morgan wouldn’t be traveling out to crew me.

• Western States 100. It’s shaping up to be the (dare I say?) most exciting, competitive, scary hundred miler ever run on North American soil, especially considering the two Golden Ticket races still remaining. It’s four months post-TGC, which leaves plenty of time for a solid training block. I’d feel a lot of internal pressure on this one, which could be good or bad. I ran a solid time there last year and finished 5th, and improving on either the time or position will be challenging. But I’d be disappointed if I didn’t see improvement, which is why I say it sounds a little scary. It would be a really cool chance though to mix it up with the very best in our sport and see where I land.

• Long Trail World Championships. For right now, I don’t have much control over this. If I qualified/was selected this would require my full attention over the summer. The race is steep and technical, in September in the Pyrenees. I’m not doing any UTMB-week races, so I’d have several months post-Western States to dedicate to this and work on the hiking legs, which already have a strong base from TGC. Hot take maybe, but I think it’s a disservice to the US team to add any athlete off a resume/application who also plans to race UTMB/CCC four weeks before the World Championships (unless they’ve already proven they could perform at back-to-back big races only a few weeks apart, like WSER and Hardrock, for example). While there are a couple people who might be able to pull it off, it’s just too short of a time between to confidently be ready to give the World Championship race the effort it deserves. Racing schedule should be a factor in the national team selection process.

• Ultra Trail Cape Town 100k (UT100). The TGC win puts me in contention to win the overall World Trail Major (WTM) series if I can snag another top result in one more WTM race, and UT100 is the final chance of the year. It also happens to be an amazing place, a course I’m familiar with and have had success at before, and I’m already registered. It would mean extending my racing season from February to the end of November, which is a long time to try to maintain peak fitness. Maybe this will be my annual attempt at finding a secret fourth bullet… maybe this year it will exist.

Do you see the dilemma here? That’s 5 targets. Something has to go. To me, it seems like the first up on the chopping block has to be Gorge 100k, unfortunately. If you think I’m missing something, let me know. While I haven’t made any official decision yet, turning my attention fully towards Western States seems to be the move in my mind. Over the next four months, I can transition some of my current TGC fitness into faster, more runnable shape. I’ll be mentally ready to hurt again. I’ll be excited and nervous and maybe something special will happen. Even if it doesn’t, I think I’d regret not trying.

My normal stride when I get into more runnable, faster shape. PC: Mike McMonagle

One final note. I had this conversation with Jack and Scott Johnston, my coaches at Evoke Endurance, last week. Scott commented,

“Don’t expect to immediately be able to continue on this steep trajectory. Your body is in a new place in terms of fitness. You’ve never been here before and expecting that you can keep making gains of this magnitude will set you up for overtraining and/or disappointment. Your body needs time to adjust to this new level of fitness.”

Scott’s wise words stuck with me, not because I wanted to hear them, but because I needed to. After a great race, it’s easy to assume that the momentum will keep rolling and building. Setting your expectations higher is a natural thing to do. But that’s not always how it works. I learned that the hard way last year, ignoring the alarms in my head. The feeling of being flat, mentally drained, and ultimately coming up short at CCC last year, about 8 weeks after a breakthrough Western States, is still fresh enough that it stings.

Each year in this sport is an experiment, and I’d like to think that with each one I get a little bit smarter. That means choosing my races carefully. That means embracing patience. That means trusting that long-term consistency will take me further than short-term ambition ever could. So this year I’m not just going to recognize the warning signs of not being ready to race, I’ll actively prevent getting to that point in the first place. I’d rather take one perfect shot than waste my precious ammo on anything that feels forced.