Saturday, Sunday, Today, and Tomorrow

Besides gaining a little confidence in my climbing fitness at Saturday's Mt Aggie run with four fast (for me) paced runs to the summit, I also secured Melanie for a pacer at Vermont 100. She did an excellent job last year so I am very happy to have her agree to do the same in 2010!

I was hesitant to ask anyone to pace for me this year, although if there was ever a time when I needed a pacer it is this year. It is always difficult for me to request that someone travel all the way out to a race, give up a weekend of his or her life , spend much of that weekend hanging around on the side of dusty dirt roads or trails, trudge along at an unbearably slow pace through the dark of night, listen to me whine and complain in the wee hours of the morning, and if all goes well, tolerate a big smelly sweaty incoherent hug at the finish line. This year I was even more reluctant to ask because I am nowhere near as fit as I would like to be and am uncertain about how things will go at the race. Melanie reassured me that she planned to be there anyway and that she wanted to do it. What a relief!

Sunday, Kevin and I mountain biked for about 5 hours on awesome single track near the Mineral Site in North Conway. We got ridiculously turned around at one point, heading in completely the opposite direction than we thought we were. It was a matter of taking a trail that wasn't on the map and mistaking in for one that was, back tracking when it didn't come out where we thought it would, and then finally figuring out that we hadn't back tracked at all but instead were going the direction we had originally thought we were going.

We were both still scratching our heads on the side of the trail trying to figure out what the hell we had just done, when the girlfriend of the president of the White Mt NEMBA chapter rode up with some friends and enthusiastically filled us in on the lay out of the trails. She was very friendly and seemed genuinely happy that we were enjoying their trails so much.

Today will be an easy 5 on the local trails and tomorrow will be my long run of 6 hours. Why didn't I run my 6 hours Saturday at Mt Aggie where I would have company? Because I would rather spend time with Kevin on the days he isn't working! He'd be supportive if I spent half my weekend training, but we have things we both enjoy doing together and I'd rather spend our weekends doing those things. I have days off during the week where I can be selfish with my time. I know most people aren't as fortunate and have to steal a lot of time away from their families on the weekends if they are going to train for a marathon, triathlon, or ultra. I've got a good thing going!