Confessions of an Amateur Athlete

 The RAGNAR TRAIL adventure is nearly here! One week from today... we will be hitting the trails at Snowmass resort in Aspen, CO!  8 friends, 3 trails, 1 tent!   My team, "Fast and Fabulous" is made up of Ragnar veterans, and Ragnar rookies. However, we are ALL newbies to the Ragnar TRAIL! And we're all excited for the new challenge.  from my latest 24-hr "dry run" training!   We are a mix of good friends, and new friends. But we have all grown so much closer through some really tough training in the past few months.    From hitting the desert trails in the hot summer sun......       To taking on the Grand Canyon itself...     Our team has bonded tremendously!  There are now inside jokes, and witty tales from our runs together. However, our real story has yet to be written.     The adventure ahead.... the fun... the challenges.....

It's getting hot!  And here in the desert, that means Triple Digits daily!  As we all know, the heat can put a major damper on running.  And for those of us training for late summer/fall races... we have to brave the extremes to log our miles! So what can we do to stay cool and beat the heat?  I went to my fellow blogging community and social media buddies for THEIR advice on on what to do when things heat up! "I freeze washcloths and keep them in a cooler in my driveway.  It's the start of my 5 mile loop.  Good for about 2.5 miles or so.  Use to cool off." -- Christopher    "Aside from the obvious try to avoid running in the middle of the day during the peak sun hours, I also back off of my pace and overall intensity. When the heat is bad I might decide not to do intervals or a tough hill workout and just do a regular, comfortable pace run and save the hard stuff for a different day." -- Amy   "Find a r...

We runners are stubborn. When things start to hurt we might scale back the mileage, but when the REAL injuries begin to surface, so does our iron-clad stubbornness that borders on denial! anotherfnrunner.com The reason? We're afraid that when we go see a doctor, they're advice will be to STOP RUNNING! And that's news we just can't bear to take. img.pandawhale.com So we resort to self-diagnosis.  Surely Dr. Google can help! There's a seemingly unlimited amount of resources on the Internet to find out what MIGHT be wrong with that achy knee, or that problematic IT Band.  But we usually just end up treating the symptoms and not the underlining problem.  And I'll admit, I'm guilty of seeing Dr. Google quite frequently. Most of us know that running well requires our bodies to work like well-oiled machines.  When one thing goes wrong, it all seems to fall apart, making us miserable.  So why not pinpoint the weak areas and make them stronger!  Wh...

I live in the desert.  In case you didnt' already know.  So when it comes to running in the RAIN... I'm like a fish out of water (pun intended)!  That's why AMY has agreed to share her story on dealing with the wet stuff! Guest Blog: Helloooooo from Seattle! Hi friends! My name is Amy, and I blog over at http://runlikeabird.blogspot.com/ . While contemplating things I might have a little more insight to add compared to Mr. Arizona over here, the first thing that popped into my head was the rainy run . As a lifelong Seattleite, I do know that there are some conflicting stories about the weather here. While the trend seems to be that we’re considered one of the rainiest large cities in the country, some people pipe in and say that we spread this myth in order to keep the beauty and bounty of the Pacific Northwest all to ourselves. There’s truth in both stories, I suppose, but let me put it this way: if I refused to run in the rain, I’d miss about 50% of my t...

My amazing Grand Canyon run was a trip of a lifetime. (Click HERE for Part 1: Going Down) But now it was time for UP ! It had been all fun and games... beautiful scenery, easy pace, and cool breezes... until it was time for the climb! http://maricelagonzalez.tumblr.com I was still in high-spirits from adrenaline and the amazing scenery.  So I ran ahead to take pics.  The trail wasn't too rough just yet, but it was quickly getting HOT! Nonetheless I was feeling good and snapping some awesome action shots! And to make sure I got a few of myself, we'd pass off the camera like a relay baton. I'm glad we captured so many great memories from this trip! Still smiling!  We hadn't started the REAL climb YET... For a while it wasn't bad, just warm and not TOO steep.  We sang songs and had a good ole time.  But eventually, the "fun" stopped and the UPness began. And NOW we climb!! Steve saying there's still ...