Plans for 2009

Okay, so the last month was a "recovery" month, albeit an unintentional one. I've been feeling a bit adrift and unmotivated without a goal for this year so I've decided to go ahead and pick one. So the official plan for 2009 is to run the Burning River 100 miler on August 1. It's held in Northeast Ohio and takes place before classes start so the logistics should be easier to manage than Haliburton last year. The heat factor is a bit of a concern as is the fact that I'm planning on being in China and Tibet for a couple weeks in June, but it would not be fun if it was easy. You can check out my training schedule below as well as a few area races I would like to complete along the way.Much to my shock, I am already ahead of schedule this week. I did 9 miles on Monday, 6 miles on Wednesday, and 10 miles today. I had a great run today since it was the first time that Elliott and I busted out the jogging stroller in months. I recently bought a small portable speaker for my mp3 player so Elliott and I both spent the run listening (at least while he was awake) to the Cars movie soundtrack. I often wonder what the fine residents of Freeland think of us. For those of you who follow my Facebook status updates, my concern that his lack of napping at home will lead to the demise of my ultrarunning career was unfounded. He won't nap at home, but the jogging stroller had him sleeping after 10 minutes. On top of that, when he woke up after mile 8 he insisted that we keep running. I only quit after 10 miles because I hadn't anticipated a very long run and had neither water nor energy gels (I also don't want to risk injury by ramping up too quickly after time off). The little guy was upset that the run was over! I mean he was crying tears disappointed! Now if that isn't motivation to up the mileage I don't know what is.