We are looking at more and more winter weather.
So I guess I will be seeing more and more of this:
And even thought we are in the thick of winter my PT is making progress and I am hopeful that I will be signing up for races this summer or fall. I love planning races it really motivates me to get up on cold dark winter mornings.
While I love running my heart belongs out on the trails!
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/training/intro-to-trail-racing/
Do you prefer roads or trails?
I have posted about growth mindset before but I haven’t thought about it in a while and was reminded wile listening to a podcast about parenting how important it is for us but maybe even more important for our kids. I feel very motivated to try to instill a growth mindset for Cannon and Emerald. As a patent, educator and athlete I love these ideas:
One of the things that has been very impactful in my life has been learning about growth mindset.
I read the book Mindset by Carol Dweck and it was very enlightening. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t already. Thinking of things in terms of the growth mindset impacts my teaching, parenting and hopefully it will impact my training as well.
When I am teaching I fully believe that all of my students can master the content I am teaching. I know to the depths of my soul that with the right effort they can all do it. Even though some of them will tell me that they are not good at math and have never been able to do it (fixed mindset).
In parenting when thinking of my children it’s easy for me to keep a growth mindset (for them). When they were learning to walk I never once thought they would never learn how, I just knew they would keep trying and some day it would just click. And they clearly felt the same, they didn’t seem bothered when they fell down they just kept trying.
It also didn’t bother them that Sally down the street started walking at 10 month and they didn’t start until 14 months. It seems that a growth mindset is our natural way of being and somehow we learn to sometimes have a fixed mindset.
Where I struggle with overcoming a fixed mindset is for myself and lately with my training. I am trying to shift the voice in my head from things being hard, that I am not naturally good at certain things and getting discouraged to growth mindset of taking responsibility and focusing on hard work and improving.
So now I am working on shifting into a growth mindset for myself.
reading, researching and putting in the work. It happens to be one of the things I would really like to help my kids remember also for the rest of their lives!
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What is the last book you read that had a profound impact on your life?
It was a good day but I am beat! The day started off with a 4am alarm and straight to coffee! I have become a champion time waster in the mornings lately and I really need to break the habit. I don’t need to be scrolling on my phone at 4:30 am!
I drove out to Boulder to get some time on the trails and some climbing.
time one the trails always flies by, 18 miles total for the day.
Then there was time at the park (yes, we go to the park a lot) and chores around the house.
I have to really hope that active recovery is a good thing because there really isn’t time to sit and recover after long runs anymore.
In the evening we had my family over for a BBQ. I made my 4th of July Trifle. It’s always a hit but never looks as good as the Pinterest pictures. It’s really easy so I love making it.
After dinner we were all beat, I love when Cannon falls asleep with one of us. It doesn’t happen all the time but more frequently now that he doesn’t nap.
After dinner we watched the team time trials for the Tour de France while working.
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How was your weekend? Any great easy recipes you want to share?
Just 80 days until race day, I am getting really excited about Run Rabbit Run
But also a little scared from the website: “These are not beginner’s runs. The uphills and downhills are fairly steep. You’ll spend a lot of time at an altitude of nearly two miles. There may be snow, rain, sleet, wind, or then again, it may be hot. Please do not try to run this course if you’re not completely prepared.”
Can you ever be “completely prepared” for a 50 or 100 miler? Maybe, I just want to show up ready to give it my best.
Given that the race is so technical I have been thinking a lot about trail shoes. I ran a giant hole in my last pair of trail shoes so I have just been running on the trails in my road shoes (Hoka Clifton 5)
I have stepped on a rock a couple times and wished for more protection so I have began to wonder if I should get into a new pair of trail shoes.
Do you have a favorite? Anything good for long distances?
On Saturday I was super excited to run at Breck Crest again! The last two years I have run the half marathon and loved it. Knowing that this is a difficult course all above 9000 feet there was no way I would be ready to run the half marathon 4 weeks after starting to run again. The 10K was still a bit of a stretch but I love this race so much I wanted to give it a go. I won’t go too much in this post on how I did and focus more on just the race and how it was run.
The race starts and ends on the River Walk in Breckenridge. This is an ideal place as it is scenic and also has many clean, flushing(!!!) toilets and free parking. Because the race is small the start is low key and relaxed. The marathon, half and 10k all have separate starts with bike lead outs to wind racers out of town, to the ski hills and finally onto single track. The trails are smooth and wind through forested mountain hillside.
THe first half of the course is mainly up hill on single track in the forest. After about two and a half miles you end up running out onto the ski runs and follow some jeep roads. This part has amazing views of the surrounding peaks and the town of Breckenridge.
There is one aid station for the 10K well stocked with water, Gatorade and Honey Stinger products. Just when you reach the aid station you are back on single track to wind your way down the mountain. Most of the trails were smooth but there was a couple sections that were on very technical terrain covered in loose rocks. I believe in the past years we ran on the jeep roads instead of the trail but this year the Spartan Race was on the road.I was a little worried when I heard that a Spartan race was running on the same day on some of the same trails. The Spartan Race has over 10,000 participants! I am all for people getting out and doing whatever activity makes them happy and keeps them moving but I worried how it might impact my little race. I was happily surprise that there was very little impact. There was plenty of parking when we arrived and we got a spot close the the race start. Our race had to be rerouted a little to not be on the same trails as the Spartan competitors. The only tricky bit was where we had to cross the road the Spartan races were running up. There were SO MANY people it looked like a big city marathon! Luckily I didn’t have to wait too long before darting across and continuing on my way back into town.
The race ends back at the river walk in town, it’s a little short of 10K at about 5.8ish miles in true trail race fashion. The finish area is a great low-key party atmosphere at the finish. There is a large grassy area and access to a small creek so it is a nice area for families to wait for their racers. There is also a Starbucks about a hundred yards away for a convenient caffeine fix. The tech t-shirt is nice and I like the design but it is the same design every year so I have one in three colors. The half and full marathon finishers received medals that looked really nice.
Overall I think this is a great race and I was really impressed at how the dealt with the challenge of the conflicting time of the Spartan race.
It’s been a long time coming but I wanted to share my adventures in Leadville from last month. In June Cory and I decided we wanted to get out of town for the weekend and hit some trails.
We found a cabin in Twin Lakes (right outside of Leadville) where we could stay and easily hit up some fantastic trails. We left Denver on Friday and drove the two and a half hours to Twin Lakes. We were very excited by how beautiful and quiet the area was. After unpacking a little we jogged up the road until we hit the Colorado Trail for a few miles before heading back to our cabin for dinner, much needed ice cream and bed.
Even though the temperature was very comfortable in the low 70s it felt MUCH hotter, something to note when running in the high country.
On Saturday morning we drove into Leadville where we found a great coffee shop for breakfast before wandering into the Leadville Race headquarters where we got a map of the Leadville 100 Trail Race to find trails. We decided that it would be fun to climb up to Hope Pass (Rising above 12,400 ft).
After talking to some locals we were convinced it was best to climb up the south side with less snow (good advice). By the time we got out to the trail head it was later than we had hoped so the plan was to hike to the top then jog down. Sections were so steep it was hard moving in either direction and oxygen is really in short supply at this elevation. But the views were worth it.
The one not so fun part of the trip was the slippery trail. Towards the bottom of the trail there are leaves still decaying from the fall that are slick as ice. I was fine on the way up but on the way down I slipped and landed hard on both elbows. Luckily it wasn’t a leg so I was able to get myself off the mountain but had some pretty bad bruising on both arms.
I must learn to stay upright on trails! The plan had been to run again on Sunday but after staying up much of the night with a sick pup we scrapped the run in favor for sleeping in a little then driving out around turquoise lake and heading home. We both really loved Leadville, Twin Lakes and the surrounding trails, we can’t wait to get back up and explore some more of the area.
