Nut Up or Shut Up 2.0

Do over.

I failed miserably blogging about my training for last year's OT100 and the resultant and fitting failure on race day. For anyone who missed my tale of woe, I started last year's OT100 with a raging head cold. I medicated myself with Sudafed, Tylenol and Motrin for about 13 hours before the wheels came off. I dropped at 51 miles at the DD aid station, spent about 4 hours curled up in a loaner sleeping bag by the fire and finally met up with my crew. The ensuing overnight sleep, half in the truck and half in Doug and Leslie's cabin got me back to functional, but it was days/weeks before I was well again. The only bright spot to the day was Doug's dramatic and enviable finish of his first 100 mile ultra. The effort was all his of course, but I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride having trained with him for most of the previous year. Our early morning Crossfit workouts in the garage and our late night drives to Clinton Lake in the deer-infested darkness paid off for him and in some ways gave me a sense of accomplishment also.

Since that epic fail I've slowly gotten back at it. I've refined my eating and now and (nearly) totally Paleo. I've run some great races including the Huff 50K in December, the KRR Fat Ass (35 mile bonus) and Clinton Lake 30 mile where I trimmed 44 minutes off my previous year's time and even got in (slightly) before Doug.

Last weekend I ran the Potawatomi 50 Mile (formerly McNaughton) in 11:30. Though not my best 50 mile time and by far not the longest distance ever, it was the hardest race I've ever run when you take into account the course terrain, course conditions and weather.

I'm emboldened by my recent running successes and motivated to tackle the OT100 again. I have the advantages of having run the first 1/2 of the course last year and seeing what it took Doug to get it done.

So now I need to "Nut Up or Shut Up" again and get my sh!t together to get it done this year. My nutrition and training are on track but I'm still struggling with my old nemesis Skoal and the logistics of fitting my training into a even busier life/work schedule.

I'm hoping that by more regularly updating this blog I will garner some self-motivation and some external motivation from my "followers" to push me to conquer those obstacles that are preventing me reaching my true potential as a runner and as a person.

I'm asking for your help to achieve this. If you have time to follow this blog and send me shout-outs of encouragement I'd appreciate it. If you know someone who would be willing to do the same please send them a link to my blog. For my part I will endeavor to be a better correspondent and attack each day with renewed motivation.

206	Days until OT100 2011
000	Days without a dip
135	Grams of Carbs Yesterday

Look for the Big Board tally in the upper right side of the page for the current state of affairs!