13 days after Ironman 70.3 California Oceanside we had another extreme adventure ahead of us, We again signed up for the Ragnar SoCal Running event, except that this time we decided to do an ultra team. Normal Ragnar, crazy enough, involves 12 people split into two vans and running 200(ish) miles from point A (Huntington Beach, CAa) to point B (San Diego, Ca), but an ultra removes 6 people and 1 van from the equation. Each runner, ran between 30-40 miles in the course of 32 hours, running 6 separate times. No lie, it's run, change, try to sleep, stretch, run, repeat. The spirits were high the whole time we had a blast, with the exception of a couple stress fractures in Stephen's foot, that he still managed to put up 20+ miles on the run, impressive.
Discipline will be my key, it will be the reason I will endure the long road ahead of me.. wish me luck.
In May of this year, I ran the Orange County Half Marathon and received legacy status, running either the 1/2 or full marathon for 3 consecutive years. Nothing major to say about the race, I ran it in 1:42, about a 90 seconds off of my PR, but I went out there to pace my friend Troy who was determined to run his first half marathon in under 1:45. At about 11 miles Troy turned the boosters on and went ahead finishing in 1:41, a solid performance for his first half marathon.
The next adventure 6 weeks later was the Born to Run Ultra Marathon Running series, where Stephen was gearing up to run 30 miles on trails, I was fortunate to be able to run the first lap or roughly 10 miles with him, I have no interest in running more than 26.2 miles in 1 sitting, however, there may be a time in my day when I do an ultra marathon, just to say I've done it. I'll let him discuss this race further, if he does a post race report on it.
With a few more training races between now and November, the last 4 months of training is when it get's real, the daily training sessions will be the base and core of what will get me through the ironman. Sometimes there are times when motivation is fleeting or non existent, and I find it hard to get off the couch, or out of bed to go for a run. Oddly, one of the most motivation things I've read was something anonymously posted online, when someone asked how to stay motivated.
With a few more training races between now and November, the last 4 months of training is when it get's real, the daily training sessions will be the base and core of what will get me through the ironman. Sometimes there are times when motivation is fleeting or non existent, and I find it hard to get off the couch, or out of bed to go for a run. Oddly, one of the most motivation things I've read was something anonymously posted online, when someone asked how to stay motivated.
"It's a fickle and unreliable little state that isn't worth your time.
Better to cultivate discipline than to rely on motivation. Force yourself to do things, to get out of bed, to go the gym, to work harder and smarter; force yourself to do stuff when you don't feel like doing anything.
Motivation is fleeting, and it's easy to rely on because it requires no concentrated effort to get. Motivation comes to you, you don't even have to chase after it.
Discipline is reliable; motivation is momentary. The real question isn't how to keep yourself motivated, it's how to train yourself to work without it."
