Excercising Patience

New year, new me...right? I don't know. I really liked the version of me in 2021 - my running year was action packed. Here's a few highlights: 12 ultras, 1 first place overall finish, Ouray 100, and completed B.R.U.T.E.S. If anything I'd love to repeat that. So with what I did last year I've cultivated a yearning to always be looking for the next big adventure - almost to a fault. It's become really hard for me to run shorter distances and not spend a weekend every month on the trails for an overnight run. I'm not any less of a person or runner because I don't run long, I've just conditioned my mindset to thinking that what I do is run overnight runs consistently. So what I should do or rather what I need to do is excercise patience.

As a parent and a teacher I advocate for excercising patience all the time. I do it all the time in my long runs too. Oh you're feeling like crap 20 miles in to a 60 mile run by yourself? Excercise patience - don't wish for it to be over. It'll be over before you think its over and then you'll be at work or stuck in traffic thinking about that trail and how great it was. I need more than anything to still myself and excercise patience in my running. I put a beat down on my body last year without ever getting injured and I need to take care of myself.



Ok, so how's that going...you know the whole patience thing? Well not that great. I ended up with a 3-day weekend and right away was like 'This is a gift, it's go time.' I wanted to start knocking things off my yearly goals list right away. I ended up not taking in all the information about weather and stopped early - which was the right decision. I guess that was my only weak point but since then I've done well. I even up volunteering at Fierce Dragon where I have the CR for the 100 miler. It was cool because the guy I ended up pacing through the night ended up winning the damn thing!



The one thing that being patient about not running as long on the weekends has been good for is that I'm able to get into a rythm with training. I get made fun of by my routine and dedication to training but for me that's the only thing that keeps me in it. I feel like if I took a week off then it'd take weeks to get back into that rhythm. Are you curious what my training looks like...well ![I got an article}(https://www.runningthedirtysouth.com/new-training) for you on that. I've been able to hit my weekly goals for once and it looks like January 2022 is going to be bigger and better than 2021.



Another thing that has helped me work on waiting for my moments is our most recent Winter Storm. At my house we got over 9 inches of snow and up on Mitchell, they recorded over 22 inches! The thing you should read in between the lines on that is that all of the local trails have been covered up in snow and ice for days on days. I've had to rethink my routes and find routes that are doable in these conditions and not necessarily what I would want to do. It's been great to see the trails looking differently. The mountains really show off in every season no matter if its Winter or Summer.


So what now? After being patient what do you do? Well, for me I'm spending these weeks training to get stronger and faster. I have big things planned for 2022 and I'm waiting for my weather windows to get better. Once I start seeing great weather open up...it's on.



Happy Trails Ryan

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