Training Notes: February in Review

This is the beginning of a new monthly series in which I’ll chronicle training, and hopeful progress, toward attempting my first hundred-mile race, the Mines of Spain 100 in Dubuque, Iowa this October. I’m stepping out of my shell a little bit to share this journey, understanding full well that it might bring some scoffs and judgment, and with that would like to offer a brief explanation of why I’m making this public.

There are a couple of reasons really. The first is personal accountability. I returned to running in 2024 with this race in mind, but even after months of training realized by the end of summer that I wasn’t prepared to give it my best effort. (You can find the backstory in the final paragraphs HERE.) I took a deferment, and registered again for 2025. But while coming off last year I had a really solid base to build on, life got all lifey, and I fell out of my routine.

I’ve been trying to get myself going again since January, but this year has been really rough so far- plagued with personal challenges, illness, chronic pain, insomnia and other health related setbacks. I did finally start to gain a little traction last month, but the hits still keep coming. I’d originally written most of this draft and meant to publish it the first week of March, but then fell sick with the flu. I was pretty much bedridden from the evening of the seventh through much of the following week, with a fever at times pushing past 105. It really took a lot out of me, and I’m still struggling to gain my strength back. My mental health hasn’t been great with all of this either, and at times I just feel like I’m falling apart.

With all of this has come frequent disruption to my workout plan, and I now find myself WAY BEHIND schedule. I’m out of shape, I haven’t run in almost five months, I’ve gained eighteen pounds back since last summer, and at the time I’m posting this, that race is just 214 days away. I need to get moving. It can be hard after a ten plus hour workday to drop my lunchbox and immediately lace up my running shoes or head to the gym, but I know I have to. There's no more time to lose. I hope that putting myself out there like this will hold my feet a little closer to the fire.

The more important reason, though, is I really want to show people what is possible and to maybe even encourage some to pursue fitness goals of their own. I just turned 48, I’m not a gifted athlete, I get winded walking up the stairs and I’m heavier than I’d like to be. I don’t feel very healthy, or good about myself right now at all. But I’ve been in this position before, and I know that it’s possible to make tremendous strides by taking it just one little step at a time. You don’t have to commit to any trends or a hardcore unforgiving mindset either. I’ve personally done that before, and it’s almost always led to burnout or injury. You do have to be dedicated and willing to put in the work, but I’ve learned that in accepting this, consistency, humility and self-grace can also carry you a long way.

Now when I say fitness goals of your own, I truly mean it. You don’t have to be training for an ultramarathon. You don’t have to want to run at all. Maybe you just want to get in good enough shape to ride your local bike trail across town. Maybe there’s a vista that you’ve always wanted to see, but it requires a challenging hike to get there. Maybe you just want to keep up with your grandkids, or feel better about yourself in general. Whatever your goal or reason or distance, it is just that- YOUR OWN- and all that matters is that it’s meaningful to you. I’m not trying to set the bar for workouts or mileage, or be a point of comparison at all. This is my journey, and I probably have different goals than you do. That doesn’t make it superior in any way, it just makes it different. Again what I really hope to show is how far it’s possible to take yourself, even when starting from a position that’s less than ideal. I’m willing to be open and vulnerable about where I’m at right now, and will share my struggles in these monthly updates alongside of achievements, because I know that can help foster connection. But I only want the focus to be on parallels of shared humanity and accomplishment, nothing more.

If you’re someone reading this who knows they want to improve their health- and right now that simply means walking or doing other exercises for 15 minutes a day, three times a week- that’s awesome! I hope you’ll take this as an invitation to start, and with each passing month be surprised at your improvements. The same goes for those of any ambition, and at all fitness levels. Each month I’ll post my personal recap with a blog entry in the format below, and through videos on social media (I promise those should become more interesting as I incorporate other activities and get back outside.) I’ll also try to share more impromptu scenes from hikes, bike rides and trail runs for added inspiration. I’m on Strava too, if anybody uses it or has considered signing up- and could always use more friends for shared daily support. (Right now I’ve got like three extended family members I interact with who are pulling a lot of weight… but to the Mente clan, I do appreciate it!) You can find my Strava profile HERE.

Additionally, I'm always happy to hear from and interact with people through social media comments or emails, and while I’m not in any way a professional trainer I’ll try to give advice when I can. Or if you’re more the type to find your personal takeaways while watching from the shadows, I certainly understand that too. That’s usually how I operate, in all honesty. But I do want to use this opportunity to try and impact others, and hope whatever form that takes we can help carry each other along the way.

So please join along, however it works best for you. Take this as your sign to get started, and watch for monthly updates as reminders to keep at it. I promise, with nothing more important than the commitment to keep moving forward, by this October we will have come a long way together. I look forward to sharing this journey with you!

FEBRUARY STATS

Days in Gym: 8

Time in Gym: 10 hours 58 minutes

Monthly Mileage

Run-0 Bike-0 Hike-0

2025 Mileage to Date

Run-0 Bike-0 Hike- 4.5 miles

FEBRUARY FOCUS

Prior to last year, I had a lot of "false starts" in trying to get into running again. It seemed each time I'd jump into a routine I'd immediately push myself beyond reasonable limits of pace and distance, trying to match past standards. As mentioned above, this often led to injury; or frustration and quick burnout at the very least. This happened most recently in early fall of 2023. I'd been biking for a few months, transitioned to running, and fell back into the same old mindset of immediately increasing mileage and forcing myself to run faster and faster every time out. I'd had a longstanding life goal to run the Whitefish Marathon in Montana, and the Mines of Spain 100 had been on my bucket list for a few years at that point as well. But every calendar brought its own rendition of the same story. I'd start the build up in summer or fall with the goal of setting a strong base from which I could jump into an official marathon training program around the new year. (The timing was based on the Whitefish race date in mid-May.) Then I'd get hurt and discouraged, months would pass and I'd realize it was no longer possible to squeeze the training into what time I had, and I'd postpone my plans. Honestly, it's a cycle that played out at least two or three years in a row- and was happening again in 2023. In that initial running push I managed to severely pull a calf muscle, and it took several weeks to get right. But in hindsight, that injury was the wakeup call I desperately needed.

When I finally got back in the gym that November, my confidence was shaken. I really didn't know if my body could even hold up to running anymore; and after years of battling through cycles of depression I didn't know if I had the mental fortitude to stick with anymore either. I knew it was going to take a different approach, unique from any I'd tried before. So I gave myself permission to start small. For at least a couple weeks, my only goal was to get to the gym. It didn't matter what I did or for how long, all that mattered was that I went. I started with easy walks on the treadmill, some light elliptical work and a little bit of exercise bike. From there I eventually built up to slow treadmill jogs- at first only a mile at a time. And it was hard for me- and definitely frustrating. I used to be a pretty strong and very passionate runner, so to stumble along on a treadmill at a 12 minute pace didn't feel like much of an achievement. But it was. Because eventually I built up to two miles, and three, and so on. I quit focusing so much on pace and put more emphasis on time spent on my feet. Running for 30 minutes at a time... 45... an hour. I learned to listen to my body. When I was on the verge of risking injury, I'd back off. It's something I hadn't been good about in the past, but I finally had to understand that taking a day or two to rest when needed is far better than getting hurt and having to say "maybe next year..." We only have so many of those to give.

I never would have believed it, gasping for air on the treadmill in late November, but this new approach was the one that finally worked. I slowly but consistently built up my run time/mileage (unwittingly getting faster in the process) and completed my first marathon in Whitefish last May. I went on to finish a trail series and my first ultra last summer as well, continuing to work from that same mindset.

Although things haven't gone as planned since- I do believe that I can turn the tide back again using this same approach. With that, my primary focus in February was simply getting back to the gym. I wanted to get back into a routine and focus mostly on regaining some of the strength I've lost over the winter. I wasn't concerned with anything along the lines of pushing myself hard- that will come in time- it was more about light weights to re-familiarize myself with exercises and technique (some of which is still a work in progress) and moderate stints- usually ten minutes at a time- on the stationary bike and elliptical machine. Each workout included ten minutes of warming up and 10 minutes cooling down, walking at an easy pace on the treadmill.

MARCH GOALS

Given that I'm rewriting this from what I had originally planned to post a couple weeks ago, I'm sort of heading back to the drawing board this month. I had hoped to start running again in March, but you know... life, man. Getting sick last week really took its toll. So at this point I'm just going to stay the course. I'm going to take these next couple of weeks and try to hit the gym consistently (shooting for four times each week.) Like most parents, I not only have to plan this around my work schedule, but also around my sons ever changing activities and what days I have him on the weekends, so at times that requires some added creativeness and flexibility. But I'll go into each week knowing I want to try to make it to the gym four times, and check off those days as I can. My workouts will continue along the lines of what I've been doing. I need to concentrate on strength training, and will mainly do so with free weights and a circuit routine. I may try to up my cardio a little bit once I get my feet under me again, and that will probably take the form of added durations on elliptical/bike. More than anything, I just need to get back to consistency. And get my strength back. I know, provided my lofty goals, that at some point I'm going to have to turn the corner and really hit it hard- but I also know the ability to do so doesn't happen overnight.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS

In all honesty, I am really upset with myself right now. I came so far last year, and when I deferred from Mines of Spain I was determined not to lose all of that. I knew I was in a position to keep driving and set myself up for a much better shot at success this year- and I let it all go. I got really busy with work, was trying to improve my financial situation and took on all the overtime I could get. I set my health aside, and it completely backfired. Now here I am, once again behind the eight ball, with very little to show for it.

It probably sounds kind of delusional at this point to even be saying that while I'm not in good enough shape to run right now, in a little over six months I want to try my first hundred mile race. Again, I know some people will scoff at that, some will think I'm claiming this out of ego, or whatever else one might choose to believe. I was thinking about all of this pretty heavily a few weeks back, one night at the gym, and was admittedly questioning my chances myself. But what I came to realize by the time I stepped off the treadmill that evening is this...

I'm someone who has been ridiculed all of my life. I've been dismissed, overlooked, picked last... all the usual underdog stuff. And I haven't walked a traditional path. I've tried a lot of things that fall outside of the norm, and I've chronically come up short. Hikes, bike trips, various dreams. When I was in my early twenties I told everyone I knew that I was going to pull up stakes and move to Montana. I wanted to work at a ski resort, try the mountain life for awhile. People listened to me talk about this for three years, but after I didn't head west the first time, most just shrugged it off. I didn't get my bachelor's degree until I was 36 years old, despite going straight to college after high school. (Just to clarify, I wasn't enrolled that whole time...) I don't have a lot to show in life in terms of what most people think is valuable. Or much to offer in the eyes of most. And I get that. I dream big and am prone to biting off more than I can chew. I have a lot of "failures" on a life resume that doesn't make much sense to most people anyhow.

But what many people won't consider is that those hikes or bike trips that sometimes I didn't make it as far as I set out on were hundreds, if not thousands, of miles long. And in time, I went back and finished every single one. I did eventually make it to Montana, even while most of my peers were falling into daily routines and settling down. I saw a side of life I'd never have experienced by giving up on that dream (and worked my butt off to the point that most of the locals came to consider this flatlander one of their own.) And when I did go back to finish my degree- Journalism and Mass Communication at one of the top writing schools in the nation- I made Deans list every semester.

So yeah... I'm frustrated to have fallen out of shape and now be way behind on my training. But I've had setbacks before. There's no shortage of people who have turned their nose up, written me off, or given up on me in this life.

I can't let myself be one of them.

And if that's something that resonates with some of you reading, I hope you'll take this as your cue to go after whatever stirs within your heart as well.