Where am I now and what lies ahead of me...

As I sit down to write this post, I'm struggling for a title. So I'm going to write it first and title it when I'm done. 

Upon the first of the year it began to to hit me how big of a year 2014 is going to be for me. Those who know me know my that I quite often live a larger then your average adventurous lifestyle. Go big or go home. OK before I offend anyone, I know I live within a very small percentage of the population and it's not for most, but it's for me, it's what makes me tick, it what makes me happy and, as cheesy as it sounds, completes me. I'm in one way or another an adventure junkie. 

Looking back at 2013 I can't say that nothing big happened, as lot really did, as my previous post had depicted, but I didn't really feel like I had accomplished anything big and it wasn't one of those years I would say was an amazing year for me. Yes, I did however have amazing things happen in small doses. It was a year of trial and error, live, learn and move forward, it's because of everything that had happened in 2013 that has led me to make 2014 a big year in terms of big adventures, mainly due to timing, but also due to sheer will and determination to make my dreams happen.

So the best thing about not having a full-time standard job is flexibility. I choose to take a 6 month contract assignment, so I would be free to do what I wanted to do when I was done and I didn't have to make any permanent choices that I didn't feel I was ready to make. So I was counting weeks and doing math and figuring out how to squeeze my adventures in between my work contracts. Or maybe I should say fit work in between my adventures.

Alright, enough blabber I'll just get to it already. Those who follow me on facebook, may have already gotten an idea of what lies ahead of me, or where I am in my first adventure of the year. After my contract ended in January I had always been planning on a trip to Costa Rica and then later in the year thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. In planning and researching my Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hike my Costa Rica trip morphed from a yoga retreat vacation to a backpacking trip, through Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua. So thru-hiking if the big event of the year, more in what that entails later but just in quick detail: The Pacific Crest Trail is a trail that spans from the Calfornia-Mexico border thru Califormia, Oregon, and Washington to the Washington-Canada border. It is 2600 and some odd miles of backpacking through wilderness and some desert in the Southern California. This is all done in one shot, for most it takes about 5 months with an average of 20 miles a day. There will be many posts to follow regarding my PCT planning, what the hike looks like for me, gear reviews and the actual hiking of the PCT.

So where am I now? I am 5 days into my backpacking trip through Central America. I flew into Costa Rica, made my way down the Caribbean coast into Panama and am now in Boquete, Panama. I will travel until mid February, then return to the Bay Area for a 13 week work assignment and then off to the PCT.

Here are a few shots from my trip so far:

Saying goodbye to Izzy, with all my all that I will travel with packed into my backpack of 30 pounds.

Punta Uva, Costa Rica

The hillsides of Boquete, Panama

Test 123

OK...here we go again, this is attempt #2 of this blog post. I'm using the IPhone Blogger app and bluetooth keyboard to blog. Somehow my original draft of this post disappeared. Bummer, it's never the same to rewrite a blog post once you've done it already, cause I'm already over it. But I'll do my best.

It's been over a year since I've been blogging and my last series of blogs were about my training and my attempt of the Leadville 100. So, what have I been doing since then, where I have been? I'll do my best to give you all a very condensed version of the last 15months of my life. Lots of changes here, I guess I could summarize my last 15 months by saying it is all about stepping outside that square little box of the comfort zone most of us live the entirety of our lives in.

Rewind back to October 2012, I had made the decision to quit the job I loved and leave the city, I never thought I would leave, to start to follow a dream of something I have always wanted to do. Over the summer I had spent a lot of time in the small mountain town of Leadville, CO. It was during my trip there in July that I had stumbled upon a foreclosed bed and breakfast. It was then the wheels in my head started turning.

The end of October I gave up my lease, of the 1 bedroom cottage I had lived in for 5 years, put most of my belongings into a storage unit and moved in with a friend, to save money and start cultivating a plan.

By mid November I had given notice at my job, deciding I would work until mid-December and move at the end of the year. Come December 31st I packed up my car and stuffed my storage unit with more belongings that I didn't foresee needing until I had settled down more permanently, at this point I was moving to Leadville with no place to live and a per diem nursing job at the local hospital.

Fast forward a few months. Though I had throughly enjoyed my first winter in Colorado spending most of it outside: downhill skiing, running on the groomed snowmobile trails, and even trying snowshoe racing for the first time. I was starting to feel this small town living wasn't for me and opening the bed and breakfast I had dreamed about, perhaps wasn't the right time and place for me. I was dearly homesick for California.

Now what? I had no plan but knew I didn't want to stay in Leadville.  So in June I called a nursing traveling agency and started looking at my options. Which brought me to a 6 month contract in Santa Clara, CA. This had all happened quite quickly, By July 15th I was starting and new job and living in a new place I had never been. I was terrified, I had no idea if I was going to like it, what if I missed the mountains and small town living, then what? And having to work full time again, I certainly was giving up the luxury of working 2 part-time nursing jobs and having lots of time to explore and play. I was scared of how I would adjust to a more structured lifestyle. Let me tell you I DO MISS the small town living and the mountains and I adjusted 'just ok' to an 8-5 40hr work week. But boy was I happy to be back in California and I absolutely love living in the Bay Area. Maybe only once or twice, in my six months in Santa Clara, did I only vaguely miss San Diego. So I know one thing for sure, I truly am a California girl at heart, I missed the California culture, more then I miss the mountains and the small town living.

I just ended my 6 month contract on Sat, January 18th and once again had to move all of my belongings out of the company provided housing back into my car, onto the next adventure. So what is my next move you ask, well I have some pretty big announcements of some exciting happenings in 2014 for me. Of which will get it's own blog post.

Beaver Creek Snowshoe series

Skiing the back bowls of Vail. My favorite ski spot.

Summit at Leadville Heavy Half, 13,000 and some odd feet

Back in California 

Back at it...

After having candy and coffee for breakfast, pizza for lunch and movie popcorn for dinner on Friday, I hit my threshold of 20 days of no workouts. After Leadville, I didn't have any formal plans of getting back into a workout routine, I knew it would happen all on its own. I purposely did not commit myself to any events after Leadville, I didn't want to feel 'forced' by my own guilt to run. In the last month of training leading up to Leadville my runs were dragging and it felt like a 'need to do' and 'grit and bear it' vs a 'want to do' and a welcome 'escape from reality.'

I still haven't formally committed to any future events but I would like to finish the year up with a few more longer trail events. For now it's just a wait and see how things fall into place before making any commitments.

As far as my training goes, after Leadville I came to the realization that I need to approach my next training cycle much differently than I did leading up to Leadville. After finishing 51 miles I felt I still had more in me to keep going. So I have the endurance part down, just not the speed, as getting my wristband cut at 51 miles demonstrates. But for now I'm just running to run, no heartrate monitor, no concern for pace, just back to the basics for a few weeks.

And yes I know, I still owe 1/2 of a race report, it's coming...maybe this week.

Leadville Trail 100 Update

I just wanted to write a quick note to any of my followers who may be wondering how it went. A more detailed race report to follow.

First of all I want to say it was an amazing experience and I had a blast. I was all smiles and enjoyed (most) every minute of it.

I was ready and eager to see how the day was going to progress. Unfortunately, I made it to 51miles just shy of the cutoff of 14hr15min. Coming down Hope's Pass I tried to push it, but I did hold back a little, there we some technical rocky sections and didn't want to injure myself. Turning onto the new trail off of Hope's Pass, I knew I had somewhere around 3 miles to Winfield and 30 minutes to make it. I tried and knew it would be close, as I progressed towards Winfield and the trail started climbing, I knew my chances were getting smaller, but I pushed until the clock hit 14hr and 15min, with about a mile to go.

I had it in me but just couldn't beat the cutoff, had the cutoff times been more generous, I would have kept going...but the cutoff was what it was and I accept that. My support crew and pacers were extremely supportive and helped me tremendously.

If one thing life has taught me things happen for a reason, I may not know why but it is what it is. I'm not upset, I'm not sad, and maybe not even disappointed. I'm happy with how I did and how I felt which only gives me more confidence to continue my journey to 100miles. 2 days out I'm only a little sore, I plan to rest for the rest of my vacation, get back into yoga next week, and running the following week.

I can definitely say 2 things with confidence: 1. the year is not over and I'm not done running and 2. I will come back again. I love Leadville, the runners, the course, and the scenery and everything else about it.

Leadville Silver Rush 50 Trail Run Report

I've been putting off writing this and I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was just another day on the trails and I really don't have much to report. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately I don't have any funny stories or anything too exciting to share. Don't get me wrong finishing a 50mile trail run is a huge accomplishment and I did it successfully. I guess when you have your mind on a 100, 50 miles seems to be just another step in getting to finish the 100.

I've shared with others that the during the 50 was there no time I didn't think I was going to finish or that I thought this is too hard! I guess that is where the training pays off. I did finish much slower than I had hoped but I had nothing to gauge how my body would do with 50 miles since this is the furthest I have run ever. Yes I did get tired and the elevation/climbs really took it out of me...good thing I'm off to CO in a few days, lots of hikes at high elevation and climbing planned.

About a week before the run, I was pleased to hear I would have a travel companion. It turned out that Liam was also planning on running the Silver Rush 50 so we coordinated our travel plans so we could head out there together. We flew out to Colorado early Saturday morning and made it to Leadville about midday, picked up our race bibs, stopped at the local grocery store and decided to camp despite the intermittent rain. Luckily, the rain was tolerable and we were able to stay dry.

At 6am Sunday morning the gun went off and we were on our way along with close to 500 other runners. If running 50 miles wasn't enough it started at the base of a steep hill that we had to run up or if you were me walk up. I settled into a conservative pace knowing that I had a long way to go. The race was an out and back with the 1st half of the race having more climbing then the 2nd. Also we were to climb up to over 12,000 ft on 6 occasions. I hit the turn around at 6hr 16min 39sec. On the second half I became extremely fatigued. I thought I would be able to make up time on the last 10 miles which were downhill, but I just couldn't get my legs to run. So I alternated between running and walking hoping that my running legs would come back but they never did. As I mentioned before I never had the thought that I wasn't going to finish the race, but during the second half I was slowly getting closer to the cut off times at the aid stations on the way back, 1st I was an hour ahead of cut off, then 45min, etc. At the last aid station at mile 42 I made the cutoff within minutes. I got emotional at this point because I knew for sure I was going to finish and was about to accomplish something I never had before. It was the last big challenge before the 100. So I did the calculations in my head and figured if I averaged 16 min miles I would come in right before the 14hr cutoff.With about a mile left I realized it was going to be close. With about 1/3 of mile left I saw Liam who was waiting for me to finish. He told me I better hurry because I was within minutes of the cutoff. I asked him if I was going straight down the hill or going around like the finish of the 50 mile bike. He said I had to go around I laughed and said "no way will I make it" so I didn't push it, I just didn't have it in me. So either my calculation was a little off or I was just a bit slower the 16min miles. I was the 1st finisher after the 14hr cutoff with a time of 14:02:56. Was I disappointed? No, I really wasn't, I finished, I got a medal and my time was listed on the results so I was happy I had accomplished something I never had. According to the results 89% of the runners that started finished, that means 1 in every 10 runners did not, and I was not that 1 in 10!

My only concern about my time was for the 100 miles, I do not want to be that close to the cutoff! So that was a little scary for me, but I've thought about it and knowing the 100 mile course, I know where I'm going to need to push it a little to stay ahead of the cutoffs.

Week in Review (7/23/12-7/29/12)

Started the week off with 2 really good runs. Felt like I could run again after last weeks attempts, just needed some rest I guess. Then something hit me Friday and I was out for the count, didn't even attempt to run Fri and Sat, all I wanted to do was sleep and sleep and sleep some more, and that was it. So what did I do sleep and a lot of it. I slept all day Saturday all night Sunday, attempted to get up early to meet up with the Pulse crew to run, but my body was screaming "No" so I went back to bed and slept another half a day. Then I got up around noon on Sunday and felt like normal me again. I hate canceling plans I have committed to and feel guilty for doing so, but at the same time my body was telling me to slow down. With just a short 3 weeks out from the big day, I need to listen to my body and not over do it.

Got out tonight for a run and it was ok, not horrible. Planning on getting my last back to back runs with some higher mileage done on Mon and Tues (that is if my energy level allows for it) and then I can say time to TAPER.

Runs: 3
Mileage: 30
Yoga: 0-put my membership on hold since I'm going to be gone, was planning to still squeeze in a few classes but hasn't been a priority

Week in Review 7/16/12-7/22/12

Recovery and rest...that's what this week was all about. Our flight home wasn't until late Tuesday night, so Liam and I had two days of not being on a schedule or needing to do anything, my kind of living. Monday we went to the hot springs and explored Buena Vista and Tuesday we spent most of our day wandering around Leadville. No runs but did do a descent amount of walking. Once I got home I was exhausted and with work I didn't have much desire to run so I didn't, I did make it to yoga (once). By Saturday, I knew I had to start running again. Wow, was I tired and my legs slow, I hadn't felt sore all week until I started running. Made it a whole 7miles, and it was ummm...let's just say, I was just going through the routine of it to be done with it. Sunday attempted an 8 mile run and my legs and stomach wanted nothing to do with it. I ran 2 and walked 4...blahh. Also, I was paying for some poor choices in my diet...ice cream the night before and decadent french toast for breakfast. Lesson learned.

Miles: 9 (+ a decent amount of walking)

Runs: 2

Yoga: 1