What's next?

What do you do after you've done something you never thought you could do? That is the question I have been asking myself for the past 8 months. For me, that thing was running across the country. It was such an epic journey for me that most things pale in comparison now. It has been hard to get excited about training for any races. Of course, after running such long slow distances, training to get faster at any distance is a formidable enough challenge. I could train specifically for any distance and focus on time. That would be good, but so far I just haven't been able to commit to a race. I did do a 56 miler around a park near me in March and trained to do 100 miles around the same park in April. The park is 4 miles around and it served as a good place to do it for logistical reasons. I had my own little aid station in my truck and 4 miles is a perfect interval. The problem was, BOREDOM! My 100 mile attempt ended in disappointment when I stopped at 14 loops, doing 56 miles once again. Physically, I could have gone on, but the motivation wasn't there. I guess you can't underestimate the threat of an official DNF or just the existence of a good old fashioned finish line. Perhaps even the lack of support from spectators or actual aid stations played a part. I would definitely like to do a 100 miler in the near future, but it will definitely be an organized race! Speaking of long distance races or "Extreme Marathons" if you'd like to call them, I took part in episode of Runner's Roundtable in April. That was fun and there were some interesting stories told of some really cool adventures.

As far as training goes, I have been averaging about 25 miles a week, which is on the low side for me, along with about 2-3 hours of cycling a week. I have started weight training which feels great! Running all of those miles before, left little time for lifting and now the body feels much stronger than I did with my emaciated upper body from my run. Oh, I miss triathlon training! Perhaps another Ironman.....

On the run, we toured several craft breweries and since then, my love for great American made beer has turned into a love for brewing. I brewed my first extract beer in January and just recently started brewing from "all grain". As with any hobby, there are many things to learn and many more things to buy! There is a real science to brewing beer and it is fascinating, all the many aspects of it. And of course very gratifying when you end up with a great finished product. In this case, a closet full of my favorite types of beer! It's a good thing I run so much :)

I've been working on writing my book about the run. I have about 18,000 words, which is 8 chapters in my case. Talk about tough! My original reasons for the run slowly transformed to a spiritual journey in which I confronted many things about myself and my life. There was a lot of time to think during those 120 days of running and what I learned about myself has motivated me to share in my book, what I believe were the reasons that I needed to do the run in the first place and what I learned about myself in the process. Like the memories that came flooding back while running through the desert in winter or through the Great Allegeheny Passage in fall, writing things down about your past can be an emotional experience. It is very cathartic, however and I hope that it is inspiring. AND, I hope that it doesn't suck!

So, the goal now, is to come up with a goal! One that will excite, inspire passion and preferably scare the crap out of me. I don't think there is such a thing as being "fearless". It's doing things in spite of your fear. And that is where I am most comfortable and feel most alive. I'm looking forward to it!!