Winter Motivation and Smith & Morehouse to Bald Mountain

I now have my next major goal event planned for mid-summer. I am very excited because I have gathered together an amazing group of guys to run this with me. My best friend Tim and I wanted to do an awesome run this Summer. One of our favorite places in the world is the Uinta Mountain range in Northeastern Utah. It is a very nostalgic spot for us because it is really where we grew up hiking, camping and fishing as well as both of our dads. I couldn't think of a better arena to host this event. I have wanted to do the Smith and Morehouse trail to Trial lake many times before but it has never happened.

Photo of Bald Mountain courtesy of Kevin Mikkelsen Photography Outdoors

I have also always wanted to summit Bald but just haven't gotten around to it. So I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to combine the two into one epic 21 mile trail run. The trail is really pretty straight forward with reasonable distance and elevation gain. However the majority of the trail is quite high with an average elevation of about 10,200 feet elevation. We began to solidify details and then I decided to send a handful of invitations to a small group of our close friends. They have all confirmed that they will begin training for the Smith and Morehouse to Bald Mountain. I couldn't be more excited and now that we have made the commitment we can all work towards our goals of preparing to run in this amazing corner of the Earth.

I have began training seriously this week and I am doing 5 days a week with a rest day prior to back-to-back long runs and a rest day following. Yesterdays long run was brutal because I had not properly fueled before hand and by the 90 minute mark I was starving to death. I was able to complete it and even snagged a summit of Mt. Doug in there as well but it was difficult. Today will be a slow long trail run on Doug and will be the second long one in a row. I should be sufficiently knackered by the end of it. I love having this event on the horizon. My motivation is through the roof at the moment and I am working hard to prepare. I look forward to improving drastically over the months to come. A funny side note is on my run yesterday I passed a tree that was blossoming! I have seen trees in Vic blossom in late January but never December! I have a feeling that may be a bit too early. Just thought I would throw that observation out there.

I have to say whenever I feel I need motivation I can almost always count on Krupicka to deliver. After seeing his end of year stats on his blog I am in awe. Below is a video of Krupicka running in the snow in Colorado Springs up Green Mountain and I find it really motivating and it makes my mild Victorian Winter seem like a warm holiday. (I had to post the link because the embedded video was automatically playing).

http://wpblogs.runningtimes.com/blogs/performancepodcasts/?p=248

http://blip.tv/file/4533849

Additionally I found this interview on Scott Jurek and thought it was motivating as well.

As far as music goes I was mainly listening to Christmas music the last month or so. I haven't really had a chance to think of what I might post but I have been feeling a little sci-fi-ish lately so I decided to post an odd one. Why not? This is "The Oh of Pleasure" by Ray Lynch and has been featured on movies (Gentlemen Broncos) and games. I know most people might not like this sort of stuff but I really like it and it is a nice soundscape for various activities. Enjoy!