Runmas Eve

It's that time of year again!

No, I don't mean low sun angles...though they are spectacular.

The annual Slowtwitch 100 runs in 100 days challenge begins tomorrow, and I have once more thrown my hat into the ring as a contender. I've never actually made 100 runs in the 7-odd years that I've been a participant - I did make it to 90 in the 2016/2017 edition, but I think that was my best to date.

I was on a wicked pace last year - had 64 runs in 59 days and was hanging in the top 10 in the competition - when I blew my ankle apart. It was horrible watching the time tick down to the end of the 100 days without being able to run enough to qualify. I only managed a paltry 3 more runs of 30+ minutes before the end.

From 9th place to 92nd.
Le sigh.

Truth be told, the damn ankle still hurts. I'm trying to work on that - had a visit with a sports physician last Monday, x-rays on Saturday, and will be getting together with a physiotherapist with a specialty in endurance sports in the new year. But, it remains an issue. Possibly a forever kind of issue.

Though I choose to believe it'll get better with time.

Nevertheless, I'm going to give it a whack. I've got back to more consistent training again, and my mileage been climbing over the last month since The Beav.

Though I did take a couple of Thursdays off

Respectable total for the last 7 days.

I'm hoping if I start very conservatively with shorter runs at high frequency - say, adding 1 or 2 double run days per week to maintain 100/100 pace even with my Fridays off (which are non-negotiable) - I might not just be able to hang on, but to get stronger throughout the challenge.

So I can chase more trails like this.

I know there will be some complications: I'm registered for the 6-hour at Stride Inside on January 5th, and I don't think a "long run" of 10km (the longest I've done since The Beav) will be enough to keep me fit for an ultra. There's also the small matter of what kind of shape I'll be in afterward - it may require a few days off to recover, if I even make it through the full 6 hours...and possibly even if I don't. Due to some extenuating circumstances, I'm going to lose the morning and evening naps that are pretty much the only way I sustain myself on the 6 hours of sleep (or less) I usually get, for a month commencing January 8th. This will make it infinitely more difficult to kick my arse out for a run after work after having done one on my lunch break.

Which will, unfortunately, not include scenery this pleasant.

Still, even knowing that I may not really have much of a future as a runner, I feel the urge to try once again. We'll see how far I can get on optimism, bloody-minded stubbornness, and a pretty solid tolerance for pain.

Not to mention a ceaseless desire to chase trails.

By the end of the challenge on March 24th I should have a much better idea of what I'll be capable of in 2019. I've so far resisted signing up for many races in the new year as I simply don't know how this winter will go, and these next few months will be the foundation for any ultrarunning I can do next summer and fall. The challenge is a great motivator, but could also easily lead to me overdoing things and putting myself out of commission again - particularly as the sidewalks and trails become treacherously lumpy with ice and snow.

The only way to find out is just to go for it. Really, how bad could it be?

If you'd like to join me in the challenge - and it really is a great way to build your base through the winter - just sign up for the Slowtwitch training log and either record your runs there or sync with a Strava account. You can also just write down each run on a piece of paper, or hell - go ahead and carve tally marks into a stone tablet if you really want. Put a loonie into a jar every time you run more than 30mins, and then go buy yourself something for a hundred bucks (or however much you accumulate during the challenge) at the end. You do you!

And I'll do this as much as I possibly can.