I run for...badassery.

So as some of you may know I miscalculated my training weeks for the ultra. I'm actually ahead of schedule. Yippee! So last week was my "first" week of training and then this week I just repeated last week's workouts. The long run scheduled for today was a 10 miler, which I just ran on Sunday. I woke up this morning feeling sick. I had a nasty cough and a sinus headache. I had lots of energy though and kept telling myself, "This is ultra running." Meaning...I just have to suck it up and go. That's what ultra runners do. I find that this has been my new mantra lately. Today I also planned on a 4:30am wake-up due to the high temps and humidity forecast for today. Instead I woke up at 5:45am. Initially I started thinking that maybe I should do this run tomorrow, give myself another chance to wake up early and get a day's rest in. Nope! I wouldn't allow it. I told myself, "This is ultra running." and by 6:30am I was out the door. By the first mile I was already drenched in sweat and regretting my decision to go. But...you guessed it, I told myself, "This is ultra running." and I kept going.

This new mantra reminds me that I'm basically training to be a badass. Here are some of the badass ultra runners that I follow and look up to...

Jenn Shelton and Anton Krupika on mile 97 of the Western 100.

Scott Jurek - Vegan ultra runner who ran 2,189 miles on the Appalachian Trail in 46 days, 8 hours, 7 minutes. That's almost 50 miles a day!

Dean Karnazes - ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days

Like I said...badass.Today when I reached mile 4, I intended to turn around and run back another 4, leaving me 2 miles short of 10. Then that mantra hit me again. This is ultra running. I didn't care if I was sick. I didn't care if I was hot. These little moments are what it will take for me to push through 50K. When I'm pounding out another 5-8 miles on the treadmill and dreading every minute of it, I will think, "This is ultra running." When it's Friday night and I want to have fun, relax, have a drink, I will go to bed at 9pm thinking to myself, "This is ultra running."

I don't know if I'm a badass yet. The last 4 years of marathon training have made me feel "comfortable". I know I can run 26.2 and I'm confident in that whether I undertrain or overtrain (or train just right). Ultra marathon training is unfamiliar territory for me. My mindset has completely changed and I think that's a good thing. I could skip a workout during marathon training knowing that in the long run it didn't make much of a difference. I could make allowances for the heat, humidity, rain, the dreaded treadmill run and opt to do it another day. But my "This is ultra running." mindset eliminates all excuses. I run no matter what.

Week 2 of 50K training starts tomorrow. I headed for a 12 mile run next weekend. Not too worried about my workouts leading up to July but July brings vacation and my first 20 miler. I just keep telling myself, "This is ultra running." and I know I will crush any challenges that are headed my way. Badassery at its finest. :)

Happy running,
Amanda