Committed, and it feels so good..

*For anyone who hasn't signed up for the Zooma Cape Cod Half-Marathon/10K already, I have a promo code to save you some cash! Enter CCAMB12 at checkout, and save $10 off the Half, or $5 off the 10K. There's a price increase this week, so it's the perfect time to register! Excited to see lots of familiar races at the race! You should also start following the Zooma blog for great weekly give-a-ways! *


I'm committed, and it feels good. Registration for the Stone Cat 50-miler happened last Friday, and the buzz was that it would sell out day of. Which in the running community translates to "you better get in the second it opens, so you don't get left behind". Yeah, we're a type A bunch of athletes. Apparently, they had over 650 people trying to get into the race (between the marathon and 50 mile distances, it's a total of 250 slots), which crashed the website. I hit some major technical snags, but was able to secure myself a spot for the 50 miler. Yes, F-I-F-T-Y miles.

This was not a knee-jerk decision - if you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that I've had LOTS of races/distances/events rolling around in my head. At some point last week, I had the proverbial "light bulb" moment.

While the 70.3 this year would be "fun", my heart just simply wouldn't be in the training. And I'm not going to commit to something that I can't put 100% of myself into. Whether right or wrong, I love working out once a day (or the occasional double run Tuesday). I love that I can get lost in my workout for that day, and then when I get home, I can immerse myself in being a mom, or my work, etc. I don't have to think about when I'm going to get in that second workout, or how I'm going to manage it around gymnastics, date-night, a late conference call, or watching the Kardashians.

That's not to say that training for an ultra is easy by any stretch. I have put together a training schedule which has back to back Saturday/Sunday 20+ mile runs. My schedule peaks at 70-75 mile weeks, which will be a new high for me. However, my training schedule also has me training on 5 days a week, with 2 complete rest days. This alone minimizes the impact on the rest of my life, outside of being an athlete.

For me, that's what is important right now. Running and racing makes me deliriously happy, but Caitlyn will only be a 6/7 year old once. There's a finite period of time she is going to want to go skip rocks, ride bikes, or go to the swings with me. It won't be forever that her face lights up at gymnastics as she does her first backbend, and I'm there to see it.

I want to make it clear that I KNOW there are a lot of people out there who are able to train for long distance triathlons, and make it all happen. Not only that, but they absolutely love doing it. I admire that, and I look forward to the day that I can be commited to that type of schedule. In the short term, it's just not in the cards, and I am 100% at peace with that.

Life is so so so good right now. I've been quietly dabbling back into running the last couple of days, and in combination with other fabulous things in life, I feel like I'm whole again.

Happy Training!