Next?

From January 8th up until my last race at The North Face 100 I didn't miss a day of running and averaged about 20km a day. Following TNF100, my original plan had been to have a crack at lowering my marathon PB from 3:06 (my debut and also most recent marathon time from 2006), however following my less than successful trip to the Blue Mountains in May, I found myself lacking the desire to focus on another race so soon and subsequently decided to give myself a 3 week break from proper training to recharge body and mind.

3 weeks has now passed and while i'm not too sure whether the body feels much better (probably due to coming off my mountain bike into a tree), the psyche for running is at an all time high.  My initial plan had been to get in 5 weeks of training before the You Yangs 50 Mile and use that as a training race leading up to Glasshouse 100M in September. While it is hard to argue that the YY50 course isn't contrived (it consists of a number of loops that have you frequently passing through the start finish area), it does make it very easy logistically to run a hard and fast 50 Mile, especially when coupled with the excellent race organisation.

Fast running early at the You Yangs 50M - Just dump a bunch of gels at the start finish area and grab a handful and a fresh water bottle before you start each loop.

As much as I was looking forward to getting out to the You Yangs and chopping some time off last years effort (particularly by not getting lost and adding on additional kms), an opportunity has arisen over that weekend that will keep me from toeing the start line.

A couple weeks ago, Samantha Gash got in touch with me to see if I would be interested in joining her support crew for her epic and very worthy run across the Simpson Desert (you can read all about it here). The opportunity to take part in this experience with such a great group of people was too good to pass up and I can't wait for it to get underway in July.

Is this in store for me in July?.....In reality probably not, but for some reason this is what my mind pictures it being like.

 Besides the change of plan in July, i find myself questioning the other races that i had chosen for myself for the rest of the year am having a hard time locking in a racing plan. There are simply too many races i want to do.

I want to fly out from Alice Springs after the Simpson Crossing to Sydney, get a train to the Blue Mountains and run the Mount Solitary Ultra. I want to run 26 laps of The Tan in August and get a 100km World Champs qualifying time. I want to run a fast 100 Mile at Glasshouse. I want to run the inaugural Surf Coast Century against top competition (Maybe win a Suunto Ambit?). I want to run the Great Ocean Walk 100 (unfinished business and an amazing course). I want to run GNW, but not get lost. I want to run Kepler then spend the rest of the Summer running up mountains in NZ.

I want to do them all, but know i can't. I think i'll have to see what motivates me after another few weeks of running.