Like I promised, I made my decision as to whether or not I’d go to XC Nationals based on my feelings in the drive home from Marathon Nationals. I’m 100% not feeling it. I want to focus my efforts on tuning back up for Breck Epic, which starts August 11th. After a little post-Natz break, I got back into some intervals today, and, even though they weren’t my best, they were promising, and it felt good to be getting back into a training groove after all the tapering/traveling associated with going to Idaho.

In random “badasses of Memphis” news, Billy Simpson, a local ultramarathon runner, finished the Hardrock 100 over the weekend – 18th place with a time of 33 hours, 14 minutes, and 47 seconds. As an occasionally vocal trail advocate, Billy has had his disagreements with the local 2-wheeled community in the past (some of which I’m more on his side than on others’), but, in the end, we’re all just looking for the next adventure. So, to Billy…

I can barely contain my Breck Epic excitement. To add to it, I’m leaving a week early and staying with another (formerly) local badass, Lauren Hall. I’m going to hide out in her basement and ride trails in her little corner of Colorado while I get through my initial throes of altitude adjustment. I always have a bad day about 2-3 days after getting up high before leveling off to just “more out of breath than usual,” so 5 or 6 days at 7,000ft should get me through that in preparation for Breck.

Motivation for things like Breck Epic is essentially what’s getting me through some of my rides right now. I’m still scared of being hit by a car on a regular basis… a fear reinforced by what seems like a rise in frequency of drivers being incredibly careless, reckless, and/or flat-out mean. I’ve been able to get it down to about 1 during-ride anxiety attack per week. Though I occasionally find myself feeling like I want to collapse in on myself like a black hole, it’s a combination of both my desire to be excellent and of sheer stubbornness that I won’t quit training on the road.