There seem to be an inordinate amount of articles, Ted Talks, and research about the importance of sleep right now –to which I say:

There also seem to be an inordinate amount of pictures of people training in beautiful places.  So here is a picture of the gate I rolled under at 5:30 this morning to run hills with a friend.

And here is my response to all the articles and videos about essential core workouts for runners.

(My abdominal muscles are fatigued in this picture.)

This is not jealousy, envy, or grumpiness talking.  It’s more about social norming.

From the Wikepedia:

“The social norms approach is founded upon a set of assumptions that individuals incorrectly perceive that the attitudes or behaviors of others are different from their own, when in reality they are similar. This phenomenon is known as pluralistic ignorance.^[6] It is largely because individuals assume the most memorable and salient, often extreme, behavior is representative of the behavior of the majority.” 

I just want to say “Hey!” to all you hoards who are also not doing this:

(Beautiful picture of my friend, New Balance teammate, and all-around wonderful person, Katie DeSplinter.)

Or this:

Or this:

Also, to all you people posting about how good you felt on your runs today… I felt like crap.  I was excited when I briefly managed to break a 10-minute mile.

I’m so serious.  (And my hair kind of looks like that right now.)  (Also, my marathon PR is 2:54 and my 1oo-mile PR is 15:07.)

As my friend Mosi says, “Do Work.”

(I’m not sure how Mosi would feel about the fact that I’m hiding in the bathroom right now blogging while Eliot deals with a wailing Ruby…)

But really, that’s it, right?  The work is the thing.

Here is a great Ted Talk compilation about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (despite the bit on sleep) that I think captures the reason we run ultras.  If you can guess the bit I’m referring to, I have a really nice prize for you.