Lest anyone be misled by the title: I am emphatically not one of those people who gets excited about Christmas the second the calendar says it’s fall. One month at a time, please. But since fall has officially made its appearance, we can get excited about that now. Fall means that ’tis the season…. For […]
Mountain adventures
The start-of-school whirlwind review, and Glacier
Even though I am done with the classwork for my PhD, it still takes a few weeks to adjust to a new school year. It’s partly just having a more structured schedule, but it’s also that the school year still manages to be busier than summer. I’m teaching 4 sections of a freshman lab this […]
My worst running mistake
Truthfully, more like my worst running mistakes. I set off on a long trail run, got semi-lost, and finally returned to the trailhead having run about 5 miles further than planned Before I go into detail, I want to clarify that at no point was I in actual danger (hi, Mom). Although I wasn’t prepared […]
I’m either running or disappointed: week in review
That is probably an over-dramatic title and not indicative of my entire week. I’m currently in a funk because we were supposed to be camping tonight. But…last night the air quality jumped from “moderate” to unhealthy and it hasn’t noticeably improved over the course of the day. I was prepared to tough it out because, […]
Trails, trails, trails: week in review
Good news: I was on or at a trail 5 days this week. Bad news: the smoke is back…and this time it’s from nearby fires, so I think we’re officially in smoke season. Monday Back to my usual steep hill training trail. For 2 days after a 5K, it felt surprisingly not bad. 2.9 miles. […]
5 stops along the Beartooth Highway
The Beartooth Highway traverses the Beartooth Plateau in the Absaraka-Beartooth mountain range, climbing to just under 11,000 feet as it winds through southern Montana and northern Wyoming. The east end lies near Red Lodge, MT, and the west end in Cooke City, MT (also the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park). It’s a National Scenic […]
On top of the world: week in review
Let me just go ahead and shatter any illusions you may have that the title refers to my mood last week. Actually, I was sick for the first half of the week. My husband was sick the entire previous week, so I’m kinda impressed I staved off whatever he had for that long. On the […]
5 things to know about sweeping a trail race
Last weekend I forewent racing in favor of sweeping a trail race. While for road races it’s possible to drive around and pick up course markings, for trail races you usually need somebody on foot. So that was my job last Saturday – picking up course flags (plus a bit of trash), not sweeping runners. […]
“All up” hill intervals for mountain running
If you’ve ever followed a structured running plan, you’ve almost certainly suffered through hill repeats and/or hill sprints. Run hard up a hill, recover as you go back down, repeat. “All up” hill intervals remove the comfy downhill portion and require you to keep moving uphill as you recover. Yeah, I went there. Why would […]
What did I volunteer myself for? Week in review
I won’t keep you in suspense: I volunteered to sweep at a trail race this weekend. (For the non-runners, the sweeper runs the course after the last runner; no brooms involved.) Having said that, I am going to keep you in suspense on the details for a few more paragraphs. First, a few other happenings: […]