It sucked.

To start, I felt “off” most of the week. I chalked it up to a variety of reasons, the first being tiredness. I arrived home much later than anticipated last Sunday evening, which cut a few hours off my time in bed that night. Tuesday’s run was difficult, even though it was an easy run. I taught a class Tuesday night, which again cut into my sleep. Wednesday, I felt downright maudlin. Continue reading →

It blows my mind that I’m less than ten weeks away from the Badger Mountain Challenge. I’m not sure how much physical progress I’m making, but my brain has sure stepped it up. Continue reading →

We’re having an interesting winter here. This area is a shrub steppe; weather-wise, it’s similar to a high desert. Our summers are hot, our winters are cold, it’s dry — we average about 8″ of precipitation each year — and it tends to be windy. Going into this winter, the weather prediction model suggested higher-than-average amounts of precipitation. Thus far, we’ve had a very snowy winter. Continue reading →

Today starts Week 14 of training for the Badger Mountain Challenge 50K. I’m still intimidated as all get-out, but I am also confident I’ll be ready come race day. The interesting thing is I’ve started thinking about what will come next. Continue reading →

Happy New Year. I’m happy to see 2016 behind me. Usually I can pick out the good and focus on it, but 2016 made that difficult. When asked, the best memory of 2016 I could point out was my exhilaration at seeing Hillary Rodham Clinton earn the Democratic Party’s nomination for President. (I didn’t think I’d live long enough to see a black man elected president; a woman president seemed completely out of reach.) It was a lovely feeling, while it lasted. I watched Mr. Trump do everything he could to derail his own campaign, and I was certain HRC would win. While 2016 had a lot of awfulness in it, the last two months cemented its place in my history. Here’s hoping it’s the last awful year for a very long time. Continue reading →