Reality Check

Thursday Morning
31 January 2008

I wanted to take this opportunity to recognize someone who has made an impact in my training this past year. Actually this person doesn’t realize it. Yesterday was the last day of spin class at the Embarcadero YMCA with the instructor Sarah! She has been the volunteer instructor for the past 10 months there. I started sporadically going to spin class and when she took over the Wednesday morning, 6:30AM class, I started to go more regularly. I really enjoy going to a spin class at least 1 or 2 times a week. In that 1 hour I get a really intense cardio workout. In Sarah, I found an instructor who is motivational and encouraging. She is an active triathlete and she brings an approach to bicycle training, which I’ve found useful for my personal conditioning. In short, I’m lazing when it comes to doing my own speedwork and I’ve been using the spin class for crosstraining and leg strength. So I wish her luck as she moves to Santa Rosa and in her 3 sport adventures! I’m always actively recruiting so I hope she comes to the darker side of ultras soon!

This coming Saturday I’ve got the Woodside 50k coming up. I’m going to confess and say that my training the past week has not been what I would have liked. It rained for most of the week and I was left feeling down. The truth is I took 5 days off with no running. Ouch. So my legs are feeling really rested. I’ll probably be a little slower this weekend. My prediction: I’d still like to break 6 hrs at Woodside. The year is just starting so I won’t get too excited. With only about 5 weeks until the Napa Valley Marathon I don’t have a lot of time to condition. The reality is that each of the “races” is really training for the next one. I don’t expect to be tapering for Napa as it leads right into the Uncool. So I think its too early to be concerned with my speed, I’m still building some miles.