Less is More

am: 4 miles: 29 minutes

pm: 6 miles: 45 minutes

Less is more has been a big part of my belief system for about 15 years. I've never really owned much/ any 'stuff' and went through a period in my middle teenage years of throwing pretty much everything I had accumulated up to that point, away. This drove Mum crazy I guess it didn't really make any sense. Well 15 years later and everything I own still fits into one cupboard at my parents house and a pretty small cloth wardrobe in our room at Battersea. On top of pretty much minimal amount of clothing and some CDs the only thing Ive accumulated in recent years is a bunch of medals/ race numbers and some running shoes (about 25 pairs) plus thankfully a few buckles which are now on the wall. I realise that my philosophy hasn't really changed. More stuff means more to think about, more hassle, more to lose etc etc.

Each day I get up put on some shorts and a t shirt and run to work where most of my clothes live. Then at the end of the day I get changed back into the running gear and head home whichever way I feel like going. When I left work this evening in a the late summer sun I thought about the fact that I don't need any more 'stuff' to survive and be happy. Pretty much all my efforts go into trying to travel as much as possible and finish the races I so desperately want to run. That has gone from a list of 100s of marathons to about 8 ultras.

I also thought how great it was that I can train for a 100 mile race with total belief that I can finish and feel comfortable knocking out good quality mileage rather than cramming in as much as possible. Badwater was all about more is king. Caesars Camp has been about less, higher quality mileage.

There are people out there running 200 miles a week+. There are people out there running 80 miles a week and beating them over the highest level. Sometimes mileage is king. Sometimes less is more.....