Practice what you Preach.

"No matter how good you get you can always get better, and that's the exciting part."    Tiger Woods

The age of 45 is fast approaching. The gray hair is easily corrected, much easier than the wrinkles and dimpling skin.
I have calmed down over the years, not much but noticeable to those who knew me 20 years ago.

Athletically, I have slowed down. I think it is more painful to see my body slowing down more than wrinkles and gray hair appearing.

2018 I really let my training plateau.

QUANITY vs QUALITY.
Ultra training uses this thought foundationally.
This is where I went wrong:
I ran a lot of miles in 2018 BUT I never ran my trail miles intentionally.
I JUST RAN and Ran and ran....

I rarely did speed work.  I could have done speedwork on the trails or the backroads to best train for my trail ultras but I seldom did this.

Its ironic, I coach my XC kids better than I coach myself. I have multiple different training runs I would use for them but I rarely exercised this in my personal training.
"Practice what you preach..." FAILED.

Part of the QUANITY is not putting too much emphasis on speedwork.
Speedwork needs to be done "consistently and appropriately.." Hal Koerner
Tempo Runs are some of your best forms of speedwork but even those are not recommended but every 7-10 days.

Looking forward now. I will add in gently more QUALITY but intentional and carefully. I have a tendency to break easy.
I have put myself back in the gym.

Rolling & stretching ...practice what you preach Anita

CORE strength is instrumental in Ultra training. As of right now, My abs are so sore I can hardly breath without them hurting. I keep touching and looking at my tummy, my sore tight abs feel like they look like LL Cool J's 8pack but after peaking I am sadly disappointed!

The Training for 2019 has begun. I am pumped to see what next year will bring. (I have a few ideas..)We will save that for another day.

RUNDOWN:
Where: Holly Rec.
Distance: 6 miles
Time: 1h 4min.
The trail was in pretty good shape. A few spots the mud had frozen over leaving deep ridges in the trails but we maintained a very steady pace.
We ran consistent, climbing most of the hills, just slowing down and tackling them.
I felt really good as we finished up, I wanted to do another loop but then I said to myself "EH, December is my down time, I am not training for anything..."

So I headed home...KINDA

I turned unto Hess Rd towards Holdridge. Sure enough, there was Andys truck.
I pulled in and headed backwards on the trail.
I of course got lost, retraced my route and tried again. About a half a mile in, I spot a bright yellow jacket coming down the path.
I do what I do so well, I JUMPED in front of Andy and YELLED "ARRRGH!"
I scared the S**!#  out of him!
It was so fun!
I got my pay backs, that half a mile back, Andy was so pumped on endorphins I could hardly keep up, he took out of the trail like a bat out of the bad place!

My new "Gnome" Beanie by Headsweats. REVERSIBLE. 

Collision:

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do." Goethe

I am not sure what you are training for. 
Maybe you don't work out or run BUT you can still TRAIN. 

• Do some self inventory. Where did you fall short this year? Were you like me, just settled into a safe place? 
• Where do you want to be next year? What do you want to work on? How do you plan to train? 

Setting goals gives us optimism. Something to look forward to. Set Goals that make you SMILE. That excites you. Share them with someone special in your life, you may even encourage them to come along side you. 

Tea Time: Tonights tea, Tazo Wild Sweet Orange 

Anita~