Day 4,359—Recovery and Losing My Voice—

 

     I was so happy with my ability to recover after the Thunder Kiss 100. I was running normal distances and feeling refreshed by the weekend. However, this week I have been slowly feeling worse every day. It doesn’t have anything to do with running. It probably has more to do with my lack of sleep and the stress of work. Most of my days at work were fulfilling, but I always felt behind, and with my classes on Monday and Tuesday, it was hard to get enough sleep.

        On Tuesday night, I finally decided on the next 100-mile race I wanted to do. It is so frustrating that there are so few races the two weekends at the end of May. These are the weekends I always want to do a race because it is right when school ends, but I didn't have many options. I bounced back and forth between considering a few. I was all set to sign up for the Crown of Crest, but I hit a snag when the only place to stay they advertised was in bunks. I am not opposed to roughing it in a campsite or even sleeping on a tarp outside, but I do not like sleeping in the same room as a dozen strangers. I was still considering it, but I emailed the race organizers three times without getting a response, so I didn’t sign up while I looked at other options. The Mohican 50 was the first ultra I did, and it isn’t on ultrasignup anymore, so I hadn’t thought about it for a while. I still haven’t done a 100-mile in Ohio, and that is the best one in Ohio, but I wasn’t thinking about it for this year. On Tuesday, when I saw the date, the price, and the camping options, it all came together, and I signed up. I can camp there close to the start/finish. It isn’t that far away, and it lets me run in the Berryman because it is two weeks before that race. Two weeks isn’t a lot of time to recover, but I think it will work out as a great training run for the Mohican. I am going to take the next 6 weeks off from doing any ultra races. I only have the St. Louis Marathon on my calendar for April, so it should be a good recovery month for me while I finish up my master’s in school counseling. I was always against getting a second master’s degree before a doctorate, but now I almost just want to get a third one after this. I also lost my voice yesterday.