Great first week! And what is it I am trying to accomplish here?

This week was a strong beginning to what looks like a great year for this passion of mine. I think I also have decided more than anything why I am ramping up my training this way and what it is I am trying to accomplish by running this way. First though my stats from the week.

Total hours ran = approx. 7

Total Days ran = 6

Total miles ran = approx. 30

Total Summits = 14

Total Elevation = approx. 7,000 feet up and same down

I feel this has been a consistent and reasonable week with a good mixture of mileage, hours, and elevation for the first week of a training phase.

I think it is important to understand why you run and what it is you are trying to accomplish by running. Up to this point I haven't felt I have quite found myself as a runner but the last few months everything has clicked and a light turned on. So what is the goal or point of my running?

I have played around with being one of these guys who runs every organized event offered. This means I could sign up and spend hundreds of dollars, that I don't have, to start jumping into various events around the island including marathons and road races, but this honestly isn't that appealing to me. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy racing and competition, but I don't enjoy crowds, I don't enjoy flats, and I really hate roads (especially flat ones). I think that if I race anything this year it would be the Gutbuster Series, the Full Monty, and several other smaller trail events around the island like the The Great Walk or the The Great Lake Walk. These events have smaller entry fee's, less runner's, and more of what I like which is gnarly terrain and die hard passionate trail runners. Ultimately my interest in running has zero to do with competing (at this time anyway, but perhaps when I become a better runner with some extra cash I will race and be influenced by racing more, it is hard to tell).

So what I am training for and obsessed with is running to the tops of Mountains or more importantly areas with major-relief. Not just little hills like Mount Doug where I train (at a whopping 698 feet above sea level with my summit attacks being about 500 feet each) but I am talking epic mountains that rugged mountaineers and hikers alike flock to, mountains with Ultra Prominence (greater than 5000 feet of elevation gain).

What another great breakthrough into what is driving me! It feels like all my thoughts, training, reading, and diet have all culminated into this realization that my reasons for pursuing this crazy obsession is to quickly propel myself skyward until I run out of slope. This is super appealing to me for many reasons. I love exercising my will power over my body to encourage it to do more than I ever thought possible, and peaks are a perfect catalyst for this scenario. I love taking in breathtaking views and scenery, but when I'm hiking I feel I am being held back or limited by my clumpy boots and hefty pack and I am limited by slow progress as to what I can see in a given day. Hiking feels like you are clumping along out of place or a visitor in the mountains, but quietly running and pouring yourself over the terrain is so much more intimate like you are part of your surroundings. Running peaks and mountains allows me to see and experience so much more of the wilderness in the same amount of time (I guess I have always liked to optimize my time expenditures because of a lack of time). I enjoy the pain of running hills both up and down. Just like the saying "if you make pain your friend, you will never be lonely", I welcome the pain of each strenuous climb and quad trashing descent. I like that peaks represent goals or objectives; places you know you have been and experienced, and so each run takes on it's own personality linked with the mountain and conditions surrounding the journey. I could keep going on and on, but suffice it to say this is where my passion for running and my goals and objectives lie.

It is a little sad that it has taken me this long to discover these truths about myself. I am just happy I am now sure what I want out of these experiences and now I have a steadfast direction I am heading. In the past I have kind of thought maybe I like running so much because I wan't to be a marathoner, or maybe because I want to get faster etc. It is so obvious now, but I have enjoyed running, and always knew I was going to get into endurance trail running because I love the wild so much and there is no better way to experience it than developing and tuning myself into an endurance trail runner who could actually move with the land quickly, quietly and efficiently. Running to these majestic precipices would then lead to me optimizing my experiences and making each outing meaningful and epic. This is what makes me lie awake at night thinking about all the things I would like to run and do this is exciting and that is why I run. I am so stoked to be where I am today pursuing my goals by eating right and running free on the trails.