With a new year comes the fun of race planning. This year has been a struggle to decide what races to focus on. I have a terrible habit of wanting to do everything right away. To compound the problem I love triathlon but mostly doing Ironmans AND I love trail running specifically long races.

Honestly I would love to compete in a ironman in 2015 as well as run a 100 mile trail race. Is that possible? I have no idea. Is it smart? definitely not. So will there be a 100 mile race on the calendar in 2015 for me? I am not sure yet so I am planning out the first part of the year and see how it goes. I am certainly excited for the first part of the season:

February 14th – MOAB Red Hot 55k and 33k this is a beautiful trail race that I have been looking at for a couple years. So excited to get to race it this year, just hoping for good weather. 

March 15th – Run Through Time Trail Marathon I had planned on running the half here a couple years ago but food poisoning kept us home. Fingers crossed for better circumstances this year!

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May 2nd – Collegiate Peaks 50 Mile trail race – this is a big stretch, if necessary I could drop to the 25 mile but for now I gunning for the big show.

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 June 13th – Ironman Boulder 70.3 – I raced this in 2013 and really liked it.

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From my last post you can see that 2014 was full of change but it was also full of good times. Here’s a look back at 2014 in pictures:

Packing and moving, over and over

Snowy miles ran in Denver

Daisy breaking in new goggles

March in Mexico

Mother’s Day run with mom in the sleet

Daisy cheered Cory on to two marathon PRs this year and a Boston Qualification

Anniversary trip to Leadville with lots of time on the Colorado Trail

Hundreds of summer miles logged on awesome Colorado trails

Puppy cuddling (Winston was happy, not sure about Bailey)

Lots of triathlon spectating – Go Dad!

Miles with fast friends

Sunny laps in our new pool

August miles logged in New Mexico

Witnessing Rob Krar’s domination at Leadville

One of many summer trail races in the mountains (this one went from sunny at the start to snowing at the peak you can see in the distance…brutal)

Fall brought football games with the family

September “work” trip to Orlando

Portland vacation trails in the Colombia River Gorge

Oregon Coast Trip

Dressing up for Halloween

The return of snowy trails

And lots of holiday cheer!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holidays! I had a great holiday with my family and am enjoying the week off with Cory.

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I have posted, life has been a little topsy-turvy. All things considered things haven’t changed THAT much but I guess I didn’t plan in advance how this year would turn out so it’s a bit of a surprise. I started out 2014 thinking I would have a focus on a couple Ironmans then jump into ultramarathons while mostly everything else would stay the same.

We were planning on selling our house and moving, the market was moving fast so I thought we would be out of our old house and into a new one in a couple months.

A big thing I have learned this year is to not set too many expectations for the future, especially on things you don’t really have control over. The house selling and buying process took a lot longer than planned and involved 4 moves. It was a lot more stressful and time consuming than I thought it would be.  In the end we moved into an amazing house that (that we love!) on July 1st.

It was worth it in the long run but during the process it was hard to not know how and when things would work out. My husband’s company also shut down only two months after hiring him (after a long unemployment in 2013) luckily he found an amazing job that he likes so much better soon after. Mix in a couple illnesses that knocked me on my butt. So the first part of 2014 wasn’t my favorite and things didn’t go to my plan but overall things were fine, my health retuned and everyone was good.

The second part of the year went better, with lots of fun trail runs with Cory and my mom, things were fairly quiet and run of the mill, lots of fun running in the mountains and having friends and family to our new house.

But quietly I started questioning my direction professionally. I had what I thought was my dream job so I should have felt fulfilled and settled. If you had asked me I would have said that it was my dream job because I thought it was or at least it should be. I think it’s really hard to give up on a dream when it’s not really your dream anymore. But I wasn’t happy, I didn’t feel challenged in the way I wanted to be and with a change in administration things were moving away from how I wanted them to be. While things were really uncertain Cory was my rock and very supportive. I can’t thank him enough for having my back no matter what.

It was hard to let go and take a leap, but I did some soul searching and figured out what it is that I really want. I decided that I wanted something that would challenge me intellectually and allow me to work in an environment that makes me happy. I want to pursue a career as a professor at a college or university, higher education has been a passion of mine for a long time and I now know that I want to be a past of it full time. To pursue this dream I will need a doctorate so it’s back to school for me! Since I can’t apply for a program until next year as well as take the GRE ( that I didn’t need for my masters program) etc. So until I get into a full time program (fingers crossed) I have returned to teaching formally, and I am really excited about it. I am really looking forward to using my brain in a new way.  I was always that kid that loved going back to school, things haven’t changed as an adult.

Then at the beginning of this month we lost our beloved Boxer, Bailey. We knew it was coming sometime soon but that doesn’t make it easier. We were lucky to have her for 12 fun, mischievous, affectionate years and we will always miss her.

So 2014 is going out looking a lot different than it started and while the journey was bumpy I am happy with how things have turned out and I am looking forward to making 2015 amazing and sharing the adventure with Cory.

Whew…another week down, this one including some unexpected excitement on my long run. Last week was a little strange with a slow start and a long 40 mile weekend. The miles are adding up and after two 50+ mile weeks I am ready for a little step back week this week. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and recap week 5:

Monday: Easy 1 mile walk/jog with my puppies

Tuesday:  Short 3.1 trail miles at Bear Creek Lake Park

Wednesday: 6.27 miles around the neighborhood

Thursday: 2 mile easy run

Friday: 10 mile trail run at Lair o the Bear (very Cool trail, this will be a repeat, could have put in more miles here)

Saturday: 10 miles with Cory and my mom (stud) at Tellar Farms

Then hours at Cory’s company picnic where he tried a human sized hamster wheel (harder than it looks)

Sunday: 20 exciting (hot) miles at Devil’s Backbone between loveland and Fort Collins

Saturdays run was exciting due to my run in with a fairly large, pissed off rattle snake. I am always excited to see wildlife on my runs, I often see snakes and have ran into rattlers before but I have never been surprised by one before. As I was running I heard some rustling next to me on the side of the trail. Like a big dummy a came to a stop to see what adorable create must be lurking there. That’s when I saw the snake’s head rear back into strike position and the tail start to rattle. I believe a curse word came out of my mouth and I jumped down the trail. I was literally about six inches from this thing and came really close to being bit. Luckily I was not but I did have to go back by this angry MF since it was an out and back run. Apparently he really didn’t want to move since he was still there on our return trip. Luckily we knew he was there so we sprinted by and went on with our run.

Total miles ran or hiked: ~52.5 miles

Total hours training: 14:52

Overall great week, I feel solid, but ready for a step back, inclusion of swim/bike and a little trail race on the weekend. What are you racing this fall?

Wow, how is it the 6th of August already? I wanted to get down on “paper” all the fun that was had in July. July was a big month for me starting with moving into our new house!

We love it so much. It fits us wonderfully and has great access to back roads to ride on, trails to run on and an awesome outdoor pool. Too bad it is only open in the summer.

A few days after moving in we had our first  house guest when my cousin came to visit, it was awesome to have the space to host family.  We have had multiple BBQ with family and friends already.

There was also a lot of time  spent on the trails, racking up the most miles I have ever ran in in a month. It’s been fun exploring trails all over the state.

There was even a quick trail half marathon at Copper Mountain:     

And a fun swim in a relay with my stud of a dad. 

August looks like it will a great month too, with travel, race spectating/volunteering and more swim-biking to go along with my running.

Monthly Totals:
Miles Running: 158.7 miles
Miles swimming: 0.5 miles
Miles Biking: 0 (sad)

How was your July?

Cory and I ran the Copper Mountain Trail Half Marathon on Sunday as part of the Colorado Running Festival. Overall I had a great time



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This course is fairly technical and hilly, I wouldn’t recommend it to newer trail runners.

Of note:

• Length – 13(ish) miles in true trail race fashion the mile markers were more suggestive than accurate and with the tree cover my garmin was unsure as well
• Elevation – this race starts at 9,200 ft and climbs to over 10,000 ft this is not kind to low lander
• Course – this is a double loop (bow-tie) course. The first is a true loop nothing crazy here but the second loop is an out and back on true (2 ft wide) single track. So on my way out I was jumping out of the way of all the speedy runners, including Cory) on their way down.  
• Hills – The race site said 2400’ of vertical gain, my garmin said about 3200’ either way there is basically no flat sections.
• Hydration – There were 3 aid stations along the course, but the portion along the Colorado Trail just couldn’t support one. This section was a little over three miles so not too long but something to think about on hot days.

All that adds up to this not being a PR course, it is the most beautiful race I have ever run and all the racers are so kind and friendly.

I don’t have any photos of the race since I didn’t think to bring my camera with me, in the future it will be worth it to finish a couple minutes slower in order to capture the scenery. Overall it was a good race, fairly small and held in a cute little mountain village. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to run trails, breathe little to no oxygen, and participate in a no frills race. 

It felt really good to get back out and race after a little hiatus, I am starting to feel like a ‘real’ runner.

So normally I would never post an advertisement but as I was cruising YouTube this commercial popped up from Always. I was drawn in and had to watch the whole thing. I found it moving and a great message, so I had to share:

Hope you like it too!