Almost every runner I know, whether they’re training for the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon or not, has already been on the incline or Barr trail this year.  Challenging trail runs, it seems, are a quintessential part of any runner’s routine.  Any runner, perhaps, other than me.

I haven’t seen the top of Pikes Peak for three years. I probably haven’t seen the top of the incline for just as long.

I could blame my inertia on the emotional toll of the fires in our…

1. On your flight to Anchorage from San Francisco, boarding at 5pm, the sun never sets.
2. You arrive in the Anchorage airport at 12:30pm and it’s so busy it looks like DIA in the holiday season.
3. Light is always entering your hotel room, even though the sun has technically set. (Have I mentioned it’s light forever here?!)
4. You can’t help but think…

You better be tough! At least that's what Nick says all the time. Well, racing yesterday wasn't smart - but the way I raced was certainty dumb! Note to self. Despite what the mind thinks, the legs really dictate how well recovery is going. Yep. And when a seasoned and multi time national champion in 24 hour racing laughs at you while asking if the legs have bounced back…

It's been two weeks since the Sailin' Shoes 10K race and with a raging wildfire, evacuation drama and my 41st birthday party in between, I just now got around to checking the official results. I was already aware that my 9-year-old son placed third in his age group due to his obsession and diligence in poring over the fresh, white sheets posted on the wall near the finish line. However, what I didn't expect was that my 11-year-old daughter, Ali, with whom I had run and encouraged along the…

     Race week is here and the final preparations are now drawing to a close. The excitement crescendos. The experience becomes more tangible. In just a few days, I'll be taking embarking on Western States journey, suffering with friends in the heat, and in spending all day (and some of the night) doing what I love!…

It's been the typical Colorado this year. Winter hung around until one day, it was time for heat. Since then, the sun has been blazing and it's been plenty warm.

Up into the 90's warm.

I think the last chilly day was the June 5th Ascent Cycling race at Bear Creek. Looking at the forecast for this week, it's gonna be a hot one for the second race of the series at…

The first weekend after the devastating Black Forest Fire, my husband and I decided to drive into the heart of the trees to visit a local favorite, the R&R Coffee Café.  We already knew they have great coffee and food, but some of the recent proceeds would go to benefit some of the residents who had lost their homes, so it was the first neighborhood visit on our list.

As we drove into the trees, we tried to brace ourselves for the destruction, but seeing the damage firsthand was a…

One of my favorite quotes is the one by Fred Rogers, who said “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.’”

This was widely circulated during the Boston bombings, but I’ve found also entirely appropriate for the Black Forest Fire. I’ve always known I have some pretty amazing friends and a great support system, but experiencing the massive tidal wave of affection and concern…

In elementary and middle school, my family would often drive along Roller Coaster Road in Black Forest on our way to Fox Run Park. I remember that drive as a happy one, a peaceful one. Towards Fox Run from home - one of excitement - and from the park, one of satisfaction, peace, exhaustion, and occasional sunburn from a great day playing and running. Looking back at that drive now, going over what has been burned thus far in the beautiful forest that raised me, I can’t imagine the…

Doing some homework on ways to donate and contribute to the Black Forest Fire victims, first responders and volunteers.

First a quick digression: Did you ever slide cash into somebody's birthday card and mail it to them? It never felt right to me, as if I didn't take the time to consider the person, or shop for the perfect gift. But I can tell you that I'm always happy…

It’s Thursday, so our small group headed up the Incline like we do most every Thursday throughout the year.  This time, however, was with heavy hearts.  We paused at the top of the Incline to look out over the city.  Normally this is such a beautiful site as the sun is coming up over the horizon.  Today, not so much.  Smoke covered the entire front range and you could see smoke billowing up in the Black Forest where the fire is still burning.  Conversation of the morning of course focused on…

I’m going to guess that we’ve set a new precedent in teamwork for this year’s Triple Crown Runners.  As I sit typing my Black Forest Fire (BFF) Refugee blog in my RV, parked in the backyard of my teammate, Jon “JT” Teisher, I can’t help but be grateful for all the crazy twists that brought me to this place.

It might be an oversimplification to say that running got me here, but not entirely untrue.  Without running, I likely would never have met my husband, Andy, our team sponsor, Tim…

My relationship with running is a tumultuous one. Similar to couples you see that don’t seem quite right together, who argue all the time, and when you’re sure their bond is going to implode at any moment, they seem to still hang on year after year.  The reason is simple.  It’s because what you don’t see are those quiet, private moments they share that somehow generates the power and desire to keep it all together.  It is deep, it is personal and it comes from places of the heart where only…

After every race, I tend to go over things in my mind and analyze what if anything I could’ve done differently or better to improve my time.  But at the end of the day, what does it really matter?  I’m not an elite runner and consider myself a weekend warrior when it comes to running, although I do think for the most part I put in some decent results.  So even if I had pushed a little harder up that hill and finished a couple minutes faster, I still wouldn’t have been in the money.  I…

A few posts ago, I talked about how things inexplicably fell apart every time I ran in the Garden of the Gods 10 Miler. When I was diagnosed with bronchitis a week before the race, several friends asked if I was still planning to run. My attitude was this: “I might run, I might walk, but I will finish. At least this year, the falling apart will have an explanation.”

I took almost the whole week off running, and when I showed up on race day, the most inexplicable thing of all happened:…

That's right.  I absolutely, hopelessly, and frustratingly love carbs and have a relentless sweet tooth.  Cheese bread from a certain local pizza joint in the Springs, ginger snap cookies, cheesecake, blueberry muffins, that wonderful lemon pound cake at Starbucks...they're my nemeses.  In my quest to get and stay fit, it's been difficult for me to moderate the intake of these things in my diet.  So in this blog post, I'd like to do a couple different things:  discuss my…

Despite the cold weather and looming clouds, the start of the 2013 Ascent Cycling Series proved to be yet another success. There were solid fields in every class, ranging from the youngest of juniors to a spunky 65 year old. Smiles abounded as riders turned racers maneuvered around rocks, up steep hills and down tricky switchbacks. Number plates adorned bikes of all kinds,…

Countdown to the Garden: 4 days! I have a feeling that with my lack of consistent speed work, I won’t be as fast as I was hoping. (On top of the fact that the high is 88 for Sunday!)

I recently returned from a family trip to Philadelphia. While there, we ran in a very cool woody single-track trail in Fairmount Park, the largest urban park in the nation. Along the path leading to trails were various historic buildings, statues of historic figures, and adorable baby geese.…

I’ve always loved words. Even before I discovered the addicting game of Words with Friends on my iPhone, I’ve appreciated the power, pattern and freedom of language.  Probably from the day I first learned to speak them and certainly to the day I learned to write, words have always been of particular interest to me.  It is no accident that I chose Public Relations as my college major. The art of constructing words to appropriately convey thoughts and evoke emotions is a love that I have known…

The Effects of Overtraining Part II

As I love discussing training methods, conditioning and recovery I often find myself saying “Mel wait remember what happened the last time you did this”. If you ever wondered if you are overtraining consider the following symptoms:

~Persistent muscle soreness, Persistent fatigue, Elevated resting heart rate

~Reduced heart rate variability, Increased susceptibility to infections

~Increased incidence of injuries,…