My poor wet bicycle...

Once again, rain is in the forecast for this weekend. Once again a bike race in the forecast for this weekend. It seems like this is starting a trend. I'm not saying that I don't love rain, and I am not saying that I don't love racing, but two good things can lead to a bad combo. Hoping the roads dry out before Sunday where Julie and I will racing at the same venue for only the second time this season. May God command the winds to cease, and may the pavement stay dry in Compton on Sunday.

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Tall Trees and Tough Trails. The 2024 Cascade Crest 100

Welcome to Easton! The welcome sign that we stopped to take a picture of just about summed up our experience here. On the hour or so drive up from Seattle, Julie and I couldn't stop taking about the amazing trees and dense forest that lined the highway. The trees were so tall that you couldn't even catch a view of the entire towns that laid just behind them. Definitely a contrast to Colorado where the main attraction are the 14ers that line our skylines. I'm so happy that Cascade Crest 100 found me. The idea to travel to Washington for a 100 mile race started when I looked into doing a race close to a good college friend of mine that moved to Washington several years ago. I hadn't seen him or his family in years, and it would be an excuse to both see them and have an epic adventure at the same time. I had heard about the Cascade Crest 100 from a couple of friends that had raced it previously. As a Hard Rock 100 Qualifier, the race had a reputation of both difficul...

An Excited Heart

It’s no big secret that I was not feeling super great heading into my last race. It was the perfect storm in many ways. I had a stressful week at work two weeks prior working on a massive deadline followed by a heavy training volume week where I nearly doubled my weekly mileage and then fell behind in sleep the week leading into Quad Rock. I was super stressed out heading into Quad Rock due to the distance and vertical gain. I felt comfortably trained up to the 35 mile distance, but I had failed to put in the back-to-back days in training that would have given me confidence to make the jump to 50. The night leading into my race I had some significant arrhythmia while I was lying in bed. The feeling was not new to me. 10-years ago I was diagnosed with benign PVC’s. The condition takes place when nodes in the ventricles fire off signals that interfere with the main SA pace-making node in the heart. The result is a feeling of a skipped heartbeat followed by a hard thud in your chest ...

Running

I am running. Sometimes I feel like I’m running towards something. Or is it an illusion? Am I running towards a goal or am I running away from responsibility? Am I running to stay healthy or is an excuse that I give myself to get out of work? Why do I feel trapped in the walls of my life? Do I prefer running outside because I feel like my life is a treadmill inside? Do I feel the need to validate myself with stats? 13.1, 26, 140.6? Vert, weekly miles, finishers medals, training time. Am I filling my time with meaningless accomplishment? Am I running to avoid being fat for fear of superficial judgment? Do I run to feel better? My mind often races faster than my feet. I go run to try and catch up enough to shut it all down. Just when I get there, fear of snakes, mountain lions, bears and even moose speed things up again. I holler out a yell. Scare off the creation that sits higher than me on the food chain. Why do I hurt so much? Why do I enjoy the pain in a sick way? Why can’t I ...

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