Up to Speed in 2012

2012 is firmly upon us and it is truly hard to believe. When you are a kid and your parents tell you that time just flies by, it sounds absurd. Now I completely understand, days run into weeks, weeks run into months, and months run into years. Next thing you know another year has flown by.

Over the past couple of years, I have fully completely embraced my new found athletic position as recreational athlete. Long gone are the days of training for hours and hours. The days of multiple workouts are a thing of the past. I am happy to just be able to get a workout in during the day to get my fix. Now fully removed from the life of a professional athlete, I do what I enjoy doing without much thought put to why, where, when. I just head out the door for the pure enjoyment of being active. My favorite thing to do has always been and will probably always be heading out for a run in the trails. Now that my speed is no longer what it is, I have migrated to running longer and at a much more relaxed pace. This transition has been a nice change. With my second 50 mile running event looming on the horizon, people ask me when I am going to do a 100 mile running event - like the Western States 100. I will be very honest when I say that this does not have any appeal to me whatsoever. While I say that I have migrated to longer, slower running, I still like “running”. I am not a good walker, nor do I really like walking. When you get up to a 100 Mile event it is inevitable, at some point you will be walking. 50 mile events definitely push this limit for me - I feel like so long as things go OK, I can run the majority of the event, so it feels like a “run”. Don′t get me wrong, I am sure that I will have to walk during my 50 mile event, but less of it will be walking and more of it will be running. I have the utmost respect for athletes that do 100 mile running events, but it is just not something that I see in my future.

Heather