I'm Back

Hey, it's only been two months. Give me a break. Nothing really exciting happened anyway. I managed to exceed my 2010 mileage goal of 3,300 with just over a week left in the year. 2011 has gotten off to a slower start, thanks largely to a voluntary (and minor) surgical procedure that I underwent on New Year's Eve and resulted in taking the first 8 days of 2011 off. Once I started running again, it was low mileage for the first week to make sure everything as A-OK and then I ramped it up from there, hitting 70 miles for each of the last two weeks.

I guess the biggest news is that I seem to have settled on a race schedule for 2011. In fact, just today I registered for the Collegiate Peaks Trail Run 50 mile in Buena Vista, CO. This race wasn't even really on my radar until this past weekend when Black Hills 100 co-director and occasional running partner Ryan mentioned that he was probably going to do it along with two guys who are using it as a training run for the BH100 and asked if I wanted to tag along. The seed was planted in my head and festered from awhile before I gave in and registered (I held out for all of three days....such willpower). It's six weeks out from the Bighorn 50, which is my main goal race for the summer, so hopefully if I don't go too crazy I'll have some time to recover and still exorcise my Bighorn demons. I've been intrigued by the Colorado ultras (and admittedly intimidated by the high elevation) for a couple of years now and CPTR seems like a good place to test the waters. Ultimately, I couldn't pass up a running road trip to the Colorado Rockies.

Other than CPTR and Bighorn, I'm planning on running the Missoula Marathon for the 5th time (i.e., every year it has existed). And that's about it. I'll try and hit as many of the local Black Hills Trail Running Series races as I can (and am directing one of them, the Crow Peak Ascent on 7/31). And, of course, there's the big debut of the Black Hills 100, which I'm co-directing with Ryan and Jerry Dunn, on 6/25. Two 50s and a marathon in a two monthish span seems sufficient right now. I would like to run another 100 sometime, but don't think it's in the cards for this year. Maybe Bighorn or Leadville (if I overcome my altitude fear at CPTR) next summer...