Spring is Just Around the Corner

I'm still keeping my running super low key for another week or so before gearing back up for a new season. 2011 is looking to be a really fun and really challenging year of running. It has however been really nice taking a bit of time off. Ironically some of the most enjoyable runs I've done in quite some time have been in the past couple weeks. One with Dave and one with Joe. Both runs were satisfying because we had virtually no agenda and in both cases ended up off trail climbing up Green Mountain summit along ridge spines coming in from the South. I really miss this kind of "running." That is to say, the kind of running I do so much of in Juneau. Steep, rugged, off trail, and with no agenda.

Next week when I get back to "normal" training it'll be with my eye on 3 killer spring races to get me ready for another huge summer.

First I'll be heading up to Washington to run Chuckanut on March 19th. I've never run this race and this year's field looks to be as competitive as ever. Should be a great early season test of leg speed. Much like Way Too Cool last year, although this year I have no intention of getting lost on course.

On April 2nd I'll be racing Lake Sonoma 50, another one that has a really good solid field of runners planning to toe the line.

And then on April 29th I'm going to head down to Santa Barbara to run the DRTE 100. This is a new race that has been trying to get off the ground for a few years now. Normally I shy away from races until they have a few years to get the kinks worked out, but this one is just too tempting to pass on. 35,000 ft. of ascent. That's enough to get me interested. I'll definitely be running this one as more of a long hard training race (usually the best way to approach a 100 miler anyway) to get ready for UTMB and WS (and/or Hardrock - lottery pending). It'd be nice to run Hardrock and have it be less vertical than my previous 100. Provided things went well at DRTE that could be a killer confidence boost for either Hardrock or UTMB.

I'm getting more and more excited for the huge races coming up this summer, but right now I'm not even thinking about that a whole lot because I'm really excited for these 3 early season races that are kind of just around the corner now.