Decisions Decisions

Back in FL, in the heat, on the flats. I ran with the high school XC team this morning. I never ran XC in high school. I was mainly a football player with 2 yrs of track, and a year of both baseball and basketball. I like the coach though and its nice to finally run with someone else. Anyway, it was a good run. I went 5 miles at or below an 8:00 pace, and did a mile more on the track at about 9:00. It was tough, no doubt. I have run low 8's on 3mi runs but never any farther, so it is a big boost for me. I have been worried about my speed lately.

See, my running goals have been to run the Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville on Nov. 23rd and then run the Mountain Mist 50k in Huntsville on Jan. 24th. In route to the marathon I was planning on running the 11mi option for the Stump Jump in Chattanooga on Oct. 4th. I was comfortable with that plan. It has come to my attention lately, however, that there will be a registration requirement for Mist: a 4:45 marathon or previous ultra finish. I'm confident I can run 4:45 but the Monkey is very hilly! Out of the 200 registrants, most of which are experienced runners, a 5hr finish is pretty average. Now I am worried that I may not be able to register for Mist either because I don't make the 4:45 or it is too late even if I do.

I've considered some options:
1) skip the Mist and run the Mt. Cheaha 50k in Feb: good plan but disappointing considering all the good running I got on Monte Sano in July.
2) skip the Stump Jump 11mi and run the Greenway Marathon in Nashville Oct. 4: flat course, very doable, but takes the fun out of making the Monkey my first.
3) run a flat marathon course between Monkey and Mist, possibly Huntsville's Rocket City: again, may be too late and too much.
4) run the full Stump Jump 50k: sounds awesome but adds a lot more stress on me this fall. I can prepare for the SJ 50k, as long as I stay healthy. It will give me a solid 18wk block of training (I mean running w/ a race goal). However, it will give me 7wks to recover and prepare for Monkey.

I'm still contemplating what to do. I will probably decide after this weekend's 15miler on trails. I definitely have to consider my fall schedule. I'll have 15 tough credit hours - all science/engineering. Doh! My engineer type personality wants everything to be planned out and run perfectly. I just don't want to screw up my body or race goals. Basically, I go into this head first with high goals and want it all. We'll see . . .

In the meantime, I am considering doing a bit of speed work and/or treating these last 3 weeks of summer as a training camp. I just don't want to burn out. I'm pretty good at listening to the body though.