Yesterday I got a phone call from a friend in the neighborhood that is also a fellow runner, although he is a lot more dedicated than I have been. This past winter has been so harsh and never ending, that Jody and I have talked ourselves out of running outdoors and into Pilate's, cardio camp and yoga indoors. It's been a nice break, but now that the sun is out and the flowers are blooming I am ready to run outside again. It's been a pretty sad affair as I try to lumber my extra winter weight down the road and up the hills. The farthest I have run at any one time since the St. George Marathon back in October (2007) is five miles. Yikes! Anyway, my friend Stuart Schultz called to invite me to be on the Strong & Hanni Ragnar Relay Team. The Ragnar Relay (or the Wasatch Back as it is originally called) is a 178 mile course up and over the Wasatch Mountains. You run it as a relay with a team of 12 people, each taking three different chunks out of the whole distance. Last year Jody, her husband Toby, and I ran it with a team from her neighborhood, and it was the funnest yet craziest race ever. A lot of teams will deck out their support vehicles with wacked out decorations and the team mates will even dress up in outrageous outfits to run in. One outdoor equipment company had their team members run with different equipment--for example, one of the runners was pulling a KAYAK (yes, that's right, a kayak!) behind him while he ran. I ran next to a girl that had mountain climbing equipment looped around her shoulders (ropes and caribeaners) and carrying a pick ax in one of her hands while she ran. It looked heavy and cumbersome and very uncomfortable. It took our team last year about 29 hours to complete the course, so you pretty much run, eat, sleep (?), repeat--just as it says in the Ragnar brochure.
Now that I have said yes to being on the team, the pressure is on to get my lazy butt back into shape so that I am not the sorry weak link of the team. I pulled up the training schedule, and according to the date, I am supposed to run the following distances this week: Monday-5 miles, Tuesday-8 miles w/hills, Wednesday-5 miles, Thursday-9 miles, Friday-5 miles, Sat. 16 miles. Yikes! I had a huge panic moment when I pulled the schedule up, but I think that I will just do a modified schedule using the novice and intermediate schedule. It is a good motivator to get myself back out hitting the pavement, and hopefully I can get enough miles in to not only be ready for Ragnar in June, but Pioneer Trek two weeks later.
Now that I have said yes to being on the team, the pressure is on to get my lazy butt back into shape so that I am not the sorry weak link of the team. I pulled up the training schedule, and according to the date, I am supposed to run the following distances this week: Monday-5 miles, Tuesday-8 miles w/hills, Wednesday-5 miles, Thursday-9 miles, Friday-5 miles, Sat. 16 miles. Yikes! I had a huge panic moment when I pulled the schedule up, but I think that I will just do a modified schedule using the novice and intermediate schedule. It is a good motivator to get myself back out hitting the pavement, and hopefully I can get enough miles in to not only be ready for Ragnar in June, but Pioneer Trek two weeks later.
