Back home. Feet on the table, laptop on my thighs, and a cup of tea next to me. I feel happy and I feel proud. I went out to do my run. It felt good. Which is a surprise, because I totally didn’t feel like running.
Running, writing, reading, yoga are the things I love to do. Being outside, spotting deer and hares, running under the trees, the high grass caressing my calves, that’s my happy place. At least, it normally is. But these days, I don’t really feel like running.
I’m not inspired. Which is weird. Only 8 weeks are separating me from the UTMB CCC; the biggest race in my life. Hundred kilometres of running, 6.150 metres of climbing, crossing Italy, Switzerland and France, all within 26,5 hours. If I make it, it’s a dream coming true.
Struggling
So, why am I struggling to get out of the door? Is it the weather? It’s July 3, but it looks like autumn.It’s raining every day. Or is it the post-race blues? I tend to have that. I like the whole build up to a race,I like race day. For every race I change my training plan; always with the idea to be better than I was the race before. Race day is where it all has to come together. It’s the day I find out if my plan has worked or not.
Or am I just a bit tired (mentally) of the hectic weeks we’ve had? We’ve been twice to Italy for work; Rimini Wellness and International Yoga Day. I’ve been twice to France; once to train in the Vosges, once to run the Grand Trail du Saint-Jacques. It meant a lot of bad beds, a lot of hours on the road and some late nights.
Missing my routine
The stupid thing is; the last few days in Italy, I really missed my routine. Getting up in the morning, grabbing a quick breakfast and going out for a run. Shower, second breakfast, work, lunch, siesta, more work, doing some strength training or a little hike on the treadmill, followed by a bit more work. There hasn’t been a lot of freetime to do other things than train, work and sleep, but I liked it. At the same time, I do start to miss going out with friends, working in the garden or just having a lazy evening on the sofa.
Preparing for the CCC is taking up a lot of time. I don’t know how you do it, but at this moment I don’t have a lot of room left for things, that aren’t running or aren’t related to running. My social life is on hold, as most of my friends aren’t runners.
A year of non-stop running
I’ve been preparing for this race for a year now. I haven’t had a break from ultra running. I thought about taking a few easy weeks, after the Houffa trail in January, but it felt like a waste to go back in volume at the moment I was running 65k ultras easily.
Whatever it is, as soon as I was outside this morning, I was happy again. I saw six hares, that’s always fun. I went to Plateaux-Hageven, a nature reserve I don’t go to that often, that’s always fun. And I listened to a podcast about the Tour de France, that was fun. Just little things that make it easier to do all the running I have to do. Little things that make me happy. So, hopefully tomorrow when I have to leave the house, I feel like running again.
