LOTTERY WINNER

As some of you may already know, the lottery results for the 'Way to Cool 50 k' in March came out this week and........I'M IN !!! Very exciting plus a little bit scary.  I believe the American expression for this is 'I'am totally stoked', whilst the English version is 'I'am terribly thrilled'. Its just under 3 months away so I shall now kick into gear with some serious training......as if I wasn't doing enough already. Yesterday I did a 30 k training run with a 1600 metre elevation gain and it felt pretty good; I believe my new regime is helping although I need to stay with it to get the full benefits. My legs definitely felt stronger but the true test will be in the race itself. As I have mentioned before, the effects in ultra running are cumulative so although 50 k doesn't seem that much further than 30 k, in reality there is a big difference.
          My goals will be 1) to complete it, 2) to complete it whilst enjoying the process and 3) to do it in under 7 hours! I know races in the States are quite different to France.....plus it will be the first time ever that I will understand what everyone is talking about. I shall be wearing my full lycra outfit, which I am told  most Americans wouldn't be seen dead in.......so that should raise a few laughs.....and possibly a few eyebrows. I can just imagine the organisers on race day - 'Excuse me sir, are you gonna run the whole race in that outfit?'........'Well, yeh.'...........'Are you from Europe, England?'.........'Yeh, something like that'.
           In France this sort of discussion would be met with a shrug whereas in the States I'll probably be arrested for violating the state law on decency and running etiquette. Hopefully as the race has 'Cool' in the title .....and the fact that its in laid back California.....I might just get away with it. Not sure if Sue will be joining me as she's starting to find these race build ups quite stressful, and all that American enthusiasm will probably drive her nuts. Anyway its 3 months away, so for me its just maintaining focus and sticking to a plan. I will probably do a few shorter races as training runs because the terrain  in Cool, California is more undulating and not as mountainous as here so I need to be doing more 'specificity' speed runs to acclimatise myself to the different conditions.
        I've already booked my flight , hotel and car hire as  I liked to be organised. The plan is to fly in to San Francisco on thursday, drive to Auburn, then register on Friday and check out the course a little, ready for the race on Saturday. The reason for this tight schedule is although I might suffer a bit of  jet lag I'm more worried about  catching a cold on the plane and this way the race will be done before a cold can 'come out'. Of course nothing may happen but I just don't want to risk it. For two weeks before I'll probably be going around with a face mask and gloves on and speaking to no one.......and I'm actually serious!
       As you know I don't get injured too often but just after I got the news I did a very fast and overly excited 2 hour tempo run in the freezing cold hills just after dark. In the last mile I pulled a muscle in my calf......two days later I tried a few sprints and guess what......its now ten times worse......I know..... idiot! Anyway I guess I will be forced to rest up over Christmas and let it heal.....c'est la vie, better it happens now rather than later. The problem is if I go more than two days without exercise I start to feel unfit, fat and irritable, so I'm certain to be lots of  fun to have around over Christmas!    Sue is already calling me 'Grumpy', then again she's got a cold and is very 'Sneezy' and needs to see the 'Doc'; my son Alexander, home for the holidays, seems to spend all day in bed and is permanently 'Sleepy'........, I guess you can see where this is headed :) Merry Christmas to all.