"The Past and the Present"

This past weekend was about that and much more. I really wanted to do a very long run this weekend. Something along the lines of 5 hours.

Urgghhh, 5 hours alone running would truly suck, but necessary.

But with several people gearing up for the Boston Marathon and some other spring events, several Triathletes were running 20 miles on Saturday. Bonus!! Maybe my planned long run would not be to bad after all. So with the e-mails flying around. MJ was able to muster up a group of people to run from 9 to 20 miles on the trail.

It is actually a rare occurrence for me these days to run with even 1 person and to have a whole group of people was pretty awesome.

One person mentioned I looked I was "ready for battle". I think I really was. With 3 weeks of Ultra training left I needed to put my game face on, go through a gear checklist, and truly train my race nutrition for the day. I think when you are planning to race for a very long time it is important to test everything out, from my shoes/socks, and even the hat I plan to wear that day. Maybe my O.C.D. is starting to kick in as well.

So eventhough I started earlier, time caught up with me and I had to head home by just doing 20 miles that morning... But the run went really well for me, felt strong the whole time.

But a strange thing happened. People asked about my Ultra training and what I think my finishing time will be. It was at that moment for the first time I actually was getting nervous about the race.

"What the hell am I planning to do, Oh this really might hurt".. I said to myself.

Hmmm, okay I'm signed up so I'm definitely going. So that's it.. End of negative thoughts..

So fast forward to the evening, eventhough I was tired, my O.C.D. impulses where still in full effect. I wanted to do at a least a marathon run today. Anything else would have not been acceptable. So thank goodness for 24 hours gym memberships. I headed to the gym and did another 6.50 miles of rolling hills on the treadmill.

So a Marathon day it was, albeit a split session, I will call it a marathon day nonetheless. Hopefully that still counts.

Sunday was a short running day, only had a hour to run before I go head out and revisit my past. So another 7 miles in the books.

Then I headed out and drove to something I had not done for a while now. A martial arts seminar. My instructor came in town for the weekend, I usually take care of all the logistics concerning this. Flight booking, seminar local bookings, flyer's, and make sure everybody signs the injury release form, so I'm not liable if they get injured (Always important), but luckily somebody else was able to step up and do it for me.

Like my title says "martial artist to IronMan," I was a dedicated student for the past 15+ years, instructor for almost 10 of those. But somehow the passion for this has been replaced with an addiction of something else. Yup, "Endurance Sports".

So my past collided with my present for at least a couple of hours. But the more I depart from my Martial arts ways and realize the things I did. In some ways they are both the same. Both have plyometrics, core, and cardio training. I also realized the most important thing, is to always, I mean always, try to be the best I can in whatever I do, and I'm the only one that can make that happen.

But I don't miss being throw around by my instructor during a seminar like a crash test dummy.
I let the newbie instructors have that pleasure.

(One of my buddies getting thrown, pretty hard I might add, oohh that must have hurted)