Ultra Diary. Hereupon.

“You’re a ghost driving a meat coated skeleton made from stardust. What do you have to be afraid of?” -@Porkbeard, Twitter

I don’t have a running log, because I neither run nor I train. I don’t have a pulse measuring device and I don’t use the gps mode of my watch. The only thing I need is a timer to remember fueling and to know when to stop. The ultimate tool to track pace and distance, weather and route is my mind.

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.”

At every given moment, when tying laces of my shoes, stretching my muscles or gently touching the ground with each step, I focus myself to practice mindfulness. I picture blood floating over my body, lungs doing their job. I try to pay as much attention to everything without focusing on paying attention. There’s just one sheet in my excel file.

“Biased mind only limits itself.”

Nowadays we are surrounded with a vast range of devices and services designed to support us in our day to day deeds. I tend to image a guitar player, who tries to play a sophisticated piece in a guitar hero manner. He looks at the screen, which displays the frets blinking at a specific moment of time. That’s me and that’s us trying to run and analyse our runs from outside. The music has to come from within. If one wants to play, he has to sing the music while plucking the strings. It takes time to learn, but the output is tremendous. The human nature though looks for an “easy” way.

“Life’s hard. Run harder.” -Saucony Type A6

I record only my mountain runs. Here’s an example of what I have for December 2014:

Without these limiting factors I can run faster and further. Once Tim Olson mentioned that in fact he doesn’t remember if he took 3-rd of 4-th place in his first ultra. He also said that his Western States 100 record came out as a surprise, when he approached finish. He mentioned though, that remembers how great he felt at that moment. So I don’t run anymore, I go out to party and play on the trails.

“"The blue mountain is the father of the white cloud. The white cloud is the son of the blue mountain. All day long they depend on each other, without being dependent on each other. The white cloud is always the white cloud. The blue mountain is always the blue mountain.” -Tozan