This is the first December since I’ve started running consistently that I’ve truly been in off season mode.
When we lived in Texas, lots of my favorite races were run in the winter. The Goodwater, which I attended three years in a row, was always slated for January, as was Bandera 100k. Rocky Raccoon was in February, and one year I even participated in Spectrum’s relay event, The Circus, in December. In Texas, the colder months were when trail running was at its finest.
But here in Boise, all of my big trail adventure goals were scheduled before the winter hit. (Not that you can’t find some winter weather runs as well, like this one—Wilson Creek Frozen 50k. I’m not sure I’m ready for this caliber of Idahoian trail experience quite yet.)
Now last year, when the days got shorter and the temps got colder, I was in the midst of training for the Barbados marathon, so I didn’t yet associate that time of year with off-season at all. I trained on trails when it made sense, and hit the city’s riverside green belt to train as well. So it wasn’t until we returned from Barbados in January that I truly settled into winter off-season routines.
This year, though, having trained for both the Boise Trail Challenge—which hit mid June—and IMTUF—mid September, I knew that I’d take some time to train without big goals on the calendar come fall. I honestly looked forward to a lighter running load, and a season to focus on strength training.
After my IMTUF DNF at just 50 miles in, though, I didn’t feel ready for an off season. I took five days of complete recovery, and then felt good to jump back into training. I’m not sure if it was that I was primed for 100 miles and only got 50 that made me not ready for off season physically speaking, or if it was more psychological/emotional: perhaps not meeting my 100 mile goal put me in an “unfinished business” mindset. Either way, I wasn’t really embracing the dwindling daylight hours and changing weather as a cue to settle in.
So, I scheduled one last hurrah for 2024.
On Saturday November 2nd, after a little over a week of devoted planning, mapping, and scheming, I set out with my friend Emily on a little adventure I called our “Homemade Hundred.” The goal was to go ahead and finish 100 miles, here on our home turf on the Ridge to Rivers trail system, without any time cut offs. Neither Emily or I had finished a hundred miler yet, so I was all about checking that distance off our lists before the next race season arrived.
Scheduling for the first weekend in November gave us six weeks post IMTUF to be physically ready to cover an ultra distance again, but it also meant that we were not guaranteed temperate fall weather. As the date approached and the weather reports became less favorable, I re-routed the 100 miles I’d already mapped to avoid the top of Bogus Basin, where there would be snow.
And it turned out that my re-route was not nearly aggressive enough.
We had an amazing first half of the day. But the higher we climbed, despite changing the course to cover slightly lower elevations, the more winter-like our conditions became. In theory, I hadn’t thought this wouldn’t be a big deal. In practice, though, it was a huge deal.
I can’t even.
Emily did a nice job summing up our attempt with her Instagram reel.
We called it quits just before sunset, at 37.5 miles in. If we had chosen to continue, it would have been after getting a ride down the mountain below the snow-line. But we’d had enough.
In terms of what Emily and I are both capable of, as well as what we’ve each covered before, less than 40 miles isn’t all that impressive.
But, you know what—it was the adventure I needed to be able to fully hunker down and embrace off-season mode.
Maybe it was the winter weather, or maybe it was about getting one last ultra distance in for the season. Either way, I felt good about taking a bunch of time off running when we were done. I stayed off the trails for a full ten days, and since coming back have been enjoying a smattering of nice mid-day trail runs, but nothing super long, and nothing very strenuous.
It’s been refreshing to prioritize strength training, rest days, and to replace some run days with easy elliptical sessions in my garage.
But let’s be honest, if we had space for the elliptical inside, I’d be all about working out fireside. Even the garage is on the chilly side these days!
Cozy season is upon us.