“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – Lao Tzu
And so, training for Javelina Jundred officially begins, and for arguments sake is only a hundred miles, not a thousand. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if people didn’t feel a difference between the two.
And I feel like Saturday’s trail run was that single step I took towards focusing fully on Javelina. Even though I do have some other races before then, and I’ll be sharing more, MUCH more on them, getting on the dirt was my way of seeing how committed I am because I could’ve easily blown off the run.
Waking up Saturday morning I found myself feeling really sleepy and for a moment I thought I could go a little later, as in sometime around July later, but I dragged my sleepy head out of bed (the rest of my body eventually followed) and joined up with the UltraLadies, a training group focusing on the Bulldog 25K/50K in August. Yes, I’ll be running it since I have a little score to settle with the 50K course and it happens to be on my training roster for Javelina.
By the time I reached the trail, my sleepiness was gone, and helping matters was the fact I wasn’t about to put pressure on myself to complete the whole four and half hours we were slated to be out there. It’s not a strict training group in the sense you HAVE to run the entire mileage or hours, but it’s designed with training for Bulldog or any other upcoming ultra people may have, so it’s definitely a benefit. However, after Miwok, I told myself I would cut back on high mileage and focus on strength and cross-training for a bit since once I’m completely immersed in high mileage training, I’ll have very little time for anything else besides running. With that mind, I was only going out for a few miles.
As we gathered I saw a few friendly familiar faces and that’s always nice to have, but I never count on running with anyone during these runs. Everyone has their own goals and myself included, so people will want to run faster and some want to hang back. I was perfectly fine running alone this day, but I was happy to find myself running with a few friends – Jenny, Mitch, and John a.k.a “Magoo.” That’s his awesome trail name. Actually I covered only a short distance with Jenny and Mitch but the entire 12 mile run with John.
And he’s a delight to run with. In fact, I almost forgot he and I swept the Ahmanson Trail 12K together! He’s a very knowledgable experienced trail, and ultra runner who recently completed Badwater Salton Sea and I got a nice rundown of how the race went. All I can say is, WOW! John is definitely a blend of silliness, and intelligence which is always nice to have on the trails.
It was during our trek down the single track of (s)Musch(i) trail, I got my first lesson in identifying poison oak!
After seeing the p.o. up close, I decided to brush up against it every chance I got to see if it was in fact poison oak. I should know within a week.
After the botany lesson, Magoo and I carried on our run with a break at Trippet Ranch where we used the restroom, stretched, and rested our legs before heading back. As I sat down for a moment, it dawned on me how good I felt. Maybe I should consider sticking to shorter distances after the big kahuna in October. Actually that’s exactly what I’m planning on doing in 2017, but we’ll focus on the here and now, for now.
We continued on and made our way back and since John here is still recovering from Badwater and I still recovering from Miwok, we took it easy where we needed to, but kept a pretty good pace throughout — considering John’s slow pace is my fast pace, luckily I was able to keep up with him.
Throughout the run we talked about numerous things, but one notable topic was Javelina. And feeling how I was physically feeling this day I could’ve done the whole race right then! Okay maybe not. I did honestly feel good, but I know I can feel better, and that’s my goal in the next weeks and months of training.
Right now I’m working on improving the consistency of strength training, stretching, and foam rolling which I really need to get better at because while I did feel good during the run, I’ve been having this slight achy discomfort in the back of my left knee when I’m not running. It’s a sensation I’m not familiar with, but my sources are telling me to work on the foam rolling and so I will.
Javelina Jundred is surely on my mind and I have a LOT of work ahead of me to get physically, and mentally stronger and prepared to cover 100 miles. One thing is for sure, I’m committed. Committed when I could’ve blown off this run. Committed to making some sacrifices along the way. Committed to making smarter nutritional choices. I surely don’t want a journey to a hundred miles feeling like a thousand miles, but the journey to Javelina Jundred is definitely on.
Thanks for reading and Happy Training!