My Bada$$ Training Story.

So admittedly I am borrowing this topic from Reddit running (thanks Reddit) but I thought it would be a great day to tell (and maybe share!) some badass training stories! There are a lot of days I’m sure where we don’t all feel like we are really all that awesome but you know what?! We deserve to give ourselves a little pat (or high five, fist bump whatevs) on the back every once in a while. And then maybe toot our own horn. So, toot freakin’ toot.

My training story is actually from when I was truly in amazing ultra (and marathon) run shape. I mean really, both of my ultra and marathon training mojos collided and I was like a freaking machine. I was, consistently, clocking in 80-100 mile weeks *without getting injured* and this lasted for months and months. Yep, I was kind of the envy of all of my local Strava leaderboards.

And to be absolutely brutally honest, I never (and still don’t really) look at who I’m beating on there. I could see how that is motivating to some folks, sure. But I was really…and I mean really. In my own lane. And absolutely loving it. I mean I was eating miles and dreaming about them like this was some kind of hot love affair. I would get up and just be hungry to get miles in. I would crave that soreness feeling, that runner’s high feeling. I would be running double digits (and double run days) on the daily. Rest days were glorious…but I didn’t want them. I definitely did them though. But then I would get back freaking to it. I ended up wrapping up 2017 with a grand total of 4,194 miles. YEP. MILE HIGH CLUB for sure.

Probably the most badass story of that particular year (aside from running my very first 100 miler) was actually doing my local ‘run across town’ rouge run, mostly SOLO. The solo part actually ended up being a bit of a surprise since we started the 33.5 (!) mile trek with a pretty solid group.

Then I found out that most of the runners that I was running with ALL wanted to run less than 20 miles. HA! We ended up halfway there…when I found out…so I could have quit with all of them because, hey why not?! There was no real reason to go the full gusto since I was not racing. Sure I was training for a few upcoming races. But…yep, then my stubborn ultra runner self took completely over. It started raining…and HARD. Plus it was COLD. I grabbed a map that took me all the way back to Dallas and did more than half of the rest of that run, alone.

Across town on beat up roads and industrial streets. Cars pissed off I’m in the middle of the damn road. Hey dude in the 18 wheeler…be nice! I’m just trying to make it home and do what I said I was going to do.

No one to cheer me on or kiss my ass or tell me how awesome I am. I don’t like words of affirmation anyways. (My love language is physical touch, I think. Or maybe it’s quality time…)

Running on the service road, almost getting hit by cars, with just me and my trusty map. It was a CRAZY run but I did it. And I did it alone. Freaking mental training at its absolute finest. But those kinds of days are days you will remember forever and days that will surely make you stronger.

“Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes
no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances
on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the
approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted
from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense.
The ultra runners know this instinctively. And they know something else that
is lost on the sedentary. They understand, perhaps better than anyone, that
the doors to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In running
such long and taxing distances they answer a call from the deepest realms of
their being — a call that asks who they are …”
– David Blaikie

Share your badass training story with me!