View from near the Summit of Bear Peak on 4/7/13. The end of a 40mile/11000ft “rest” week, enjoying the beautiful weather.

Ah spring; longer days, warmer weather (though not today in CO), melting snow and the start of race season. Like most people as spring moves into summer my desire, almost a need, to get outside and soak up some sunshine grows exponentially. As an ultrarunner trying to temper this enthusiasm is always a battle, because for most of us there is a limit to what our body can physically handle, so finding that happy balance between running/training and rest is always difficult. The line is different for everybody, but for me it’s somewhere around 70-80 miles of mountainous trails a week.

Some of you might say, “wow, that’s a lot”, others, “is that all?”, but that’s my number and I’m sticking to it. No matter how good I feel, how hard others around me are training or how much or how little free time I have, keeping myself in check is important. How did I come up with that number you might ask? There’s no fancy formula based on how long your race is, there’s no magic training plan, I simply tinkered with my training regimen over the course of many years and listened to my body. The last part of that is the key, listen to your body. If you take time periodically to check-in, both physically and mentally, you’ll start to gain an understanding for how your body reacts and tolerates different training loads and stresses. Working hard and pushing yourself are good, over training, over stressing your body and burning out, not so much.

Another key for me to maintaining this balance is finding an outlet, this is mostly for the endurance athletes in the group. The outlet is an activity other than your primary sport where one can burn off some of that pent up energy without subjecting oneself to the same level of stress; my outlets are blues dancing and volleyball. Both allow me to get out, enjoy some activity, burn off some energy, but don’t stress my body the way running does. I consider this true cross training, finding some sort of physical activity that works your body in a completely different manner such that your muscles get a break from your primary sport, but also become better balanced and more well-rounded. I’m no expert on the topic and of course these are just my thoughts. My real message here is, listen to your body and try to strike a balance in whatever you do. Balance between activity and rest, balance between one’s primary sport and cross training, balance between work and life. Run fast, run healthy, but mostly run happy.