Training to race, racing to train...

Over the past couple of days the discussion at our household has been around picking a pre-race to get in some good mileage prior to the Pinhoti. I've got a couple days off from work so was looking around trying to find a trail 50 a month or so out from Pinhoti. My 1st choice was the Iron Mountain in Damascus Va, but I've already signed my wife up for a triathlon in Lexington that weekend. I had also considered The Stumpjumper 50k in Chattanooga which is the day before her race but this plan also seemed suspect to her.

Next was the Tussey Mountainback in PA but this was both an 8 hour drive and my wife was not interested in heading north in October.

So it looks like we are settling on the inaugural Nashville Ultra Marathon and I'm going to take a shot at another 50 miler. The positives are that the race is relatively flat, has sections of grass, gravel and asphalt and should be easily crewed.

Last March I dropped down from signing up for a 50 miler at Land Between the Lakes to settling for a marathon. The conditions were cold, snowy, and later muddy but in the end I just don't think my head was into it. I was starting to have some knee pain around mile 20, which in retrospect was probably minor, my wife was there with both kids who were bored to tears being that there was two feet of snow, and not much to do in it with a one year old and two year old. I was also getting ready to go to Europe in a bout two weeks and fearful I would damage something prior to the trip.

Another factor was that I was pretty cavalier about the distance. I had completed a 50k (my first 50k) less than a month earlier so thought, "what's another 20 miles, this will be cake". I had also heard tons of stories about what nice weather the race usually has. So when Friday brought one of the worst blizzards to hit Central Kentucky and we were fortunate to make it to Grand Rivers I was already feeling a bit down. After running Otter Creek in the rain, and Lovin the Hills in the Snow and mud, I just wanted a decent dry race to run. Well obviously that wasn't the case and the result was I bailed well before I needed too.

So it's with those thoughts still fresh in my mind that I would like to complete a 50 miler prior to my 100 attempt. Aside from obviously boosting my confidence I feel it will be a great opportunity to fine tune gear, nutrition, crew strategies and the like, in the day time no less. If I successfully complete this race injury free I will feel really confident about going into a taper phase for the 3 weeks that will remain till Pinhoti.

My goal for this race will be that I will either finish within the allotted time (a generous 12 hours) or be pulled from the course, whichever comes first.

Also monetarily it's a pretty good deal and I should be able to line up a hotel that's close to the start finish so my wife can shuttle kids back to the hotel for pool time, naps, etc.

Too bad we don't have the dough to stay at Opryland!