Ups and downs

I guess its pretty obvious but this whole challenge is about the ups and downs. Lots of ups and downs.

Today I went up and down 9 times, for 9360 ft. My motivation went up and down a few times, at first I awoke and watched the rain hitting our windows and felt down. Then when I finally drove out the parking lot I felt up, and then once I was hiking I was down again wondering if I would tour enough to hit 1.27 today. For the first 3000 ft I was down and then I suddenly realized I would tour the requisite vertical and I felt up again. And I rode that feeling right till the end, and felt excited about my day.

Two weeks ago I was up and feeling psyched, thinking that August was going to be my biggest month yet, over 200 000 feet, ten thousand feet a day and killing it. Then I got sick, while lying in bed reading and headachey I was bummed, feeling like I was loosing all that I had gained.  5 days of loss, damn that was tough to accept. Now I am feeling decent and coming back but again, so much ahead its tough to be psyched.  Being behind par is a tough game, not that I am letting it get far away but I cannot wait to be on par again. When will that happen who knows?

I understood when I undertook this that it was going to be a huge game of ups and downs, psychologically, emotionally, energetically and of course physically. And it has been all of that demanding me to focus on the small while not letting the large goal out of sight. Each up counts towards the total, each day, each week. During the course of each day I focus on each part of it, and use the small steps to stay psyched. Looking back at what I have already done to stay excited vs looking ahead at the huge amount left. Like climbing a huge mountain always looking down at what has been accomplished vs the challenges ahead.

In the overall course of this goal, the 1.2-1.5 mill should be the hardest, once I have hit 1.5 and less than 500 000 to go it will be exciting. For now I am trying to focus on how good that’s going to feel and push through these days to get to that point. My sister, Christy, once said that while running up a hill one should focus on the feeling that you will get when you crest the hill, and use that feeling a little early to get you up the hill. Similar to me now, it will feel so good to be at 1.5, I am feeling that energy now to help me climb to that point.