Changing Plans

Over the past few months, I've been dealing with a dilemma:  my two main goals for 2015 conflicted with each other.  One was to run the Appalachian Trail and try for the unsupported women's record, while the other was to try to improve my speed at the marathon to 50 mile distance.  Unfortunately 75ish days of plodding along with a backpack on the AT is not conducive to getting faster, not to mention the potential for a long recovery time afterwards where I might not be able to run properly.  After going back and forth on the issue for what seemed like ages, I finally came up with a plan:  to do the AT but to do it just after my summer goal race, when I'd need to take some time off proper training anyway, and to do it as comfortably as possible to minimize recovery time.

That sounded like the perfect solution...until my boss said no to the idea of unpaid leave, on the basis that the office is currently too understaffed to lose someone for that long.  Since I'm a person who likes to find a way to solve problems, the obvious course of action would have been to think about changing jobs, leaving a gap between the jobs as the time for the AT.  I'm not ready to do that though, for two reasons--one, I love my job, and two, with the doubts I had about whether or not to even do the AT, it's not worth it, at least not yet.  If I still want to do the AT in a few years and still haven't been able to get unpaid time off, maybe it will be time to think about other job options.

For now though, I'm happy to switch focus to the "getting faster" goal and try to get in another solid year of uninterrupted training.  I've never had a full year of uninterrupted training, let alone two--there have always been months off for Arrowhead training, climbing, illness, or injury.  My 2015 race calendar is looking pretty exciting so far:  I've got a half marathon in March, the Lake Sonoma 50 mile in April, the Quest for the Crest 50k in late May, and the White River 50 mile in late July.  After that my schedule is wide open; I just need to figure out what the best use of all that time is...