Over the River and through the Woods…

“Over the River and through the Woods to Grandmother’s house we go”…except in my case I will plan on going “Over the the River and through the Woods” to my first 50k finish .

It’s been two days since I officially registered for the Dogwood Canyon 50k Trail Run in Lampe, Missouri. I’ve been targeting this race for my first 50k since the Lunar Trek plan fell through, but the fact that I’m actually attempting to go BEYOND the 26.2mi marathon distance is getting just a little scary! I would have never thought that I would be attempting a Marathon, let alone an Ultra distance and here I am trying to visualize my first 50k finish line!! CRAZY!

Now that I am done with the North Face Challenge Half its back to trail training for me. The weather looks to be cooling off a little just in time as well, Yay!! The key thing, of course other than keeping my head in the game, is training for the distance and the hills. As you can see it’s not a walk in the park and I knew that going in. Its going to be a lot of hill repeat, rinse, hill repeat, rinse . I looked at an elevation chart from 2010 and here is it. The website does state this year’s course is a little different, but really..what are the chances of less hills?!!

Dogwood Canyon 2010 course elevation chart….

…..compared to the North Face Challenge Road half marathon I ran last weekend.

See what I mean?! I see hill repeats…and plenty of them in the next 7 weeks!!! Holy Crap 7 weeks!!!! 7 weeks of piling on the miles, 7 weeks of wanting to eat like crazy, 7 weeks of trying not worry about every little pain…but failing miserably, 7 weeks of ice baths and dates with foam roller and stick!!

Yes, I’m nervous as hell! Yes, I’m worried about how my legs will hold up!! and Yes, its going to a crazy 7 weeks!!! BUT I just need to focus on that finish line and trust that I WILL get there!!! Legs don’t fail me now! One foot in front of the other and keep moving right?!!