Friday, March 18, 2022

100-Miler Training : Update #2

Who's stoked for another update on this HUGE goal I'm chasing down?! I hope you are, cause it's coming - ready or not ;)

As soon as I hit "publish" on my first update I remembered two fairly BIG updates I didn't even mention in that post... 

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First, I never told y'all WHAT race I'm running. In the original post where I spilled the beans about wanting to attempt my first 100-miler, I hadn't officially registered yet (registration didn't open till January 1st and I didn't want to jump the gun in case it sold out and I was forced to pick a different race). I have shared the deets with folks if they've asked, but I guess I haven't made it public knowledge yet, so here goes... I'll be running the Washington Yeti 100 Mile Endurance Run

The race is July 15th and will take place through the central Cascades of Washington. I have taken part in a couple Yeti Trail Runners' virtual events thus far [the Yeti 24-Hour Challenge and the Twelve Days of Yeti] and LOVE the race director (I'm sure Jason makes EVERYONE feel like he's their best friend, but I'm gonna act like he really does know who I am and might consider me a friend ;)), not to mention the group of people in the Yeti family are FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC! 

Who wore it better?!

And now onto the second piece of "business". As I'm sure you can imaging, training for a 100-mile run is NO JOKE. The training plan I am following is about 6 MONTHS LONG. (Obviously someone could just wake up one morning and go run a hundred miles, but if you want to do it with as little injury as possible [and without hating your life for weeks afterwards], you "should" put in the work.) With that said, training while working full time is TOUGH {especially when said job has you on your feet for 9+ hours a day}. I'm currently waking up some days at 3:30am just so I can get in my runs before work. 

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Hear me out, I am NOT complaining about having a job or having the privilege to be able to live somewhere I can safely run in the wee-hours of the morning without having to worry, but I'm explaining the commitment it takes and my current situation. For the past six months or so I have been working Monday through Friday, open to close. Well, I realized the last couple weeks that being out of the house for 55ish hours Monday through Friday (I walk to work, so leave around 8:30am and then don't get home until close to 7:30pm from the store) and then trying to get in my long run Saturday morning was ROUGH! Not only was I tired from being at work all week and didn't want to wake up at 3am to get in my 20+ mile run (FYI - I try to get in my runs before the hubby wakes up on the weekends so my running doesn't impact the time we get to spend together - especially on our day(s) off), but my body was fatigued from being on my feet all day during the week.

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That leads me to sharing that starting in March I actually adjusted my work schedule. I'm now working Sunday through Thursday. My thought was that then Friday could be a legit rest day (I could actually sleep in, not even have to walk to work or walk on my lunch break, eat dinner at a normal hour, go to bed early, etc) and hopefully have a better Saturday morning long run. Although I am now working on Sundays, we don't open at the running store until noon so I have more time in the morning to to run/ hang out with the hubby/ etc. I absolutely realize how lucky I am that I have the luxury to do this (and that my boss was willing to make the schedules work) and know not everyone would have this option. 

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I mention this for a few reasons. First, although I could have made my training 'work', I knew I wasn't going to give myself my best chance at succeeding. Next, I would never want someone to put unrealistic expectations on themselves because of me ('if Carlee can train for a 100-miler, than I should be able to too') - everyone's situations are different and I want to be as open and transparent about mine. Lastly, I want folks to know that it's okay to not do it all. I know there are runners doing so much more than I am doing (ie. raising kids, keeping up with a side hustle, going to school and working while training, etc), but I can't get stuck in the comparison game {AND DON'T WANT YOU TO EITHER!}! We have to do our best with what we've got. Your best might look different from my best, and, shoot, my best today could look different from my best tomorrow. All we can do is put in the work and give it our all (whatever that looks like on any given day). 

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And now that I've shared everything that technically should have been in the first update (OOPS), we can get back to our regularly scheduled program ;) If there's anything you're curious about with my training, ask away! I'm obviously learning as I go, so am NO expert, but am totally willing to share my thoughts/ experiences if you all have specific questions.

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What BIG goal are you currently looking to tackle?

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