Nothing nefarious is afoot, I promise.

This past weekend, I attended training to be a coach with Girls on the Run.  http://www.gotrsewa.org/ I’ll be coaching the older girls, so I’m a Heart & Sole coach, but the program is essential the same. I’ll admit to feeling a little overwhelmed and questioning what I’ve gotten myself into. It doesn’t help that I’ve spent the last week putting my training schedule for the Badger Mountain Challenge 50K into my Training Peaks calendar. Ay yi yi! How is all this stuff gonna fit? Continue reading →

Wow – not sure how, but this blog post has been languishing in the “Drafts” files for several months now. It’s incomplete, but I’m going to leave it as is; there’s no way I can finish that thought that trails off at the end.

And I have the finisher’s medal to prove it.

Yesterday was the Dirty Rat Trail Run. It wasn’t really a trail: the run started in Prosser, and the first section & last sections – it’s an out & back – are on pavement. That’s about a mile, and then the road turns skyward. The road is a dusty gravel road leading up into Horse Heaven Hills. The views were worth the climb! Continue reading →

Last summer, I volunteered  at Ironman Coeur d’Alene. One of the results of that experience was my deciding I will never do a 140.6. I wrote a blog about this on another site. Reading my coach’s IM race report reified that decision. I figured I’d transfer that 13-month old blog post to here, just in case the conversation comes up. Continue reading →

I frequently say I’d rather things go poorly during workouts, because it gives me the opportunity to react & adapt; I’d rather that not happen for the first time during the race. That doesn’t mean I enjoy it when a workout sucks, but it is a small comfort.

Today was one of those days. Continue reading →

Yesterday was the CFF Cycle for Life. There’s more on that topic further along in this post, if you’re interested. Short version: opted out of the last 19 miles, so I rode about 48 miles plus the 6 miles to ride to the staging area. I wanted to save my legs for today. I decided to not set an alarm this morning. If I needed the sleep, I’d sleep, even if that meant pushing my run into the heat of the day.

I woke up a little before six. I guess that means I chose wisely! Continue reading →

The CFF Cycle for Life is tomorrow. While my longest ride this year was 30 miles, I’m still hopeful I can ride the 65-mile route. I’m fairly certain I’ll ride the TT bike instead of my road bike. My longest ride on the TT bike was Race the River, and that was less than an hour. This will be a challenge, but I’m feeling pretty good and I feel prepared.

Continue reading →

I’m leaning strongly toward running the Badger Mountain Challenge 50K next year. Sign-ups open in November, and by then I’ll know if I’m prepared and willing to do the work to train for that kind of event.

The past two days, I felt a twinge in my right hip. Monday, I stretched it at lunch. That made it feel better for the rest of the day, but I felt it again in the evening. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to ride to work this morning. I did – with no trouble, even – but this was a warning.

Continue reading →

A week & a half ago, I finally realized how wiped I was from training and racing. I told myself I’d take a two weeks off from training. Since my next event was the CFF Cycle for Life on August 13th, I’d do nothing but ride my bike.

So, ten days in, how am I doing? Continue reading →

Leading up to Race the River, I felt weary. My training got messed up because of transportation issues and other things out of my control. Although my 10-week half-marathon training program was scheduled to start the day after Race the River, I told myself I’d take the week off.

I took two days off. Continue reading →