Saturday, 8:45 PM - You are embarrassed, though not at all surprised, to find yourself yawning in your beer in front of company. It's going to be an early night for you. At least your friend is understanding when leaving your apartment, since said friend is in exactly the same boat you are, and is in fact, a bag of yawns, too ( Read more... )

So, how did adherence to the last 4-week cycle go?

Mixed results.

2 of the 4 long runs didn't happen - 1 due to the kayak weekend and 1 due to traveling in NJ, where my options were run on the highway or run on a treadmill - where I lasted 4.5 miles in a stuffy room with no ventilation and I hopped off to get some water and the water came out ( Read more... )

Let the marathon training begin.

The Chicago Marathon and I have a troubled history. I first registered for this race in 2009 - and then found out I would be heading overseas for 3 months, leaving right before the race was scheduled, which was kind of a bummer, given that I was in GREAT shape in 2009 after setting my marathon PR at the 2009 ( Read more... )

When I volunteered at the Pine Mountain 40-mile Trail Race last December, one of the women who came through the aid station was a woman by the name of Susan Donnelly, an ultramarathon trail runner and motivational speaker. In her back blog entries, she has a great entry detailing how one of her coworkers (who happened to be very ill) asked her how ( Read more... )

So, for my last long run before my half-marathon PR attempt next weekend in New Orleans, I ran the Red Top Rumble at Red Top Mountain State Park this morning. Put on by the fine folks at GUTS, this was an 11 mile jaunt through some beautiful trails on a beautiful morning ( Read more... )

Or should that be "Hell Climb"?

My Saturday morning running group has this very odd and bizarre tradition of doing this absolutely insane race every year. The race is the Hogpen Hill Climb, which is a 17K race (roughly 10.5 miles miles or so) from downtown Helen, GA, to the top of Hogpen Gap. Traditionally held on MLK Jr. weekend in January, ( Read more... )

1. Find a regular volunteer commitment ( Read more... )

Winter Solstice is upon us. If I were still in Alaska, this would be the point of the year where the morning forecasts on KSKA would include how many minutes of sunlight is gained each day, as the darkest point of winter has just passed. I miss this little inclusion in the weather report. Somehow, the traffic update on WABE, while more ( Read more... )

*Highly subject to change ( Read more... )

1. Intimidating name. Granite Grinder. It's the kind of name that makes you let go of any expectations you might have about performance, since, well, you just want to survive and not be ground to bits ( Read more... )