The start of the plan … well sort of

Okay, so I am in for Leadville and I am expecting to register with an age group win (half off the reg price) for the Pikes Peak Marathon.  These two races are a week apart, and jamming 7800 feet of descent into your legs a week before a hundred miler probably ain’t the best thing to assure the best success.  But this choice clearly falls into the category of “I don't want to regret what I didn't do; I want to regret what I did do.” So, what is the plan to get there?  Honest answer: I don’t completely know.  I have principles in training that I will look to embrace, but I don’t have the plan like I used to construct – a week by week detail of what I was looking to do to get a desired result.  There is a flaw in taking this principled approach – for me it can allow me to slip and get loose with my training.  Nowhere is this more clear to me than my recent approach to the Boulder XC race.  I had an idea-principle that I would get in 2 hard workouts a week.  That didn’t happen.  Work – both travel and local, other obligations, and less than ideal weather gave me a variety of excuses to opt out of that.  I look at the upcoming 8k XC race and realize that the open ended approach meant exactly that – a lack of focus and that means less than the razor’s edge come race day. In an 8K XC race that might mean the difference of a couple of minutes.  In a 125 plus miles of races over a week, it could be the difference between finishing or not.  In light of that, I have had a few folks ask me:  “so what is the plan man?”  And I realize that I don’t have one that is highly prescriptive.  But this is what I know now in terms of big picture principles and problems to work through … and realize I need to tweak in the coming days, weeks and months.  None of this is hard … after all, this is just running.  But it is an initial grocery list of sorts.  In no particular order …

1.)  Consistency.  Yeah, I need to be consistent.  That does mean getting out nearly every day.  Running on tired legs and all that.  Getting up in the mornings and getting the additive running in.  But consistency can be a enemy of good.  10 miles a day for a week on the flats is not gonna kill me, but if that is all I do between not and August, that could kill me.  I need to vary it up with longer runs, mountain runs, back to backs.
2.)  I need to figure out the pacer crew thing.
3.)  I need to figure out the gear thing.  I am not a huge gear junkie and I need to get all the bags, slack pack, headlamp stuff  … and heck what shorts to wear all figured out.
4.)  Know the Course:  I want to get on the course at least 10 times.  I guess I have done one to some extent already.  I want to have hit every part of the course at least once before race day.  I am not sure how practical this is, but I gotta put it out there.  Yes, this is specific to Leadville.  I know the Pikes course pretty well.
5.)  Take it where you can get it.   My passport is getting a workout this year.  Even without international travel, I am moving around quite a bit.
Feb:  2 visits to NC, a visit to Vancouver.
Mar:  a visit to ATL
Apr:  a visit to Vancouver
May:  a visit to Tel Aviv and a visit to Cork
Jun:  a week on a boat with the boy in the Bahamas, possibly a trip to TN
Jul: two weeks on a cruise ship in the Baltics
All that accounts for about 2 months of being on the road in the next two sixty something days.  There are some days I am just not going to get training in.  There are some days I am going to have to be disciplined and creative (and as much as I am done with treadmills, it looks like I am doing that in Jul).  When I have a period where I can get after it, get to altitude – I need to do that and almost use these other periods as recoveries and breaks. 
6.)  Back to backs, long runs, mountains, altitude.  Nuff said. 
7.)  Everything else:  diet, sleep, stretching, hydration, focus, listening to the body, recovery, shifting workouts, weight work, keeping it in balance, having fun.

So that is the start as to where I am at.  Pretty simple.