Trail Talk with Abby I had the honor to pace Abby (her trail name) in the Outlaw 100 this year. Her real name is Kathryn Ivey. Trail names are earned. And we talk a bit about how she earned hers. The Outlaw is one of the toughest 100 mile courses in the Midwest. It’s a […]
Mindset
Staying Positive in Chaos – Trail Talk
With everything happening in the world we need encouragement to stay positive. My friend, Dallas Amsden, ran only one trail race. His main focus is Crossfit. He joins me for talk about trail running, and he also tells his story of walking through some dark days and nights. The strategy he shares for dealing with […]
Do You Really Want It?
“The Natural” is rare. My granddaughter is a natural athlete. At nine-years-old, and in her first year of competitive soccer, she scores the most goals in her team. Her coach says she’s likely in the top 1% of girls her age in Kansas City. I say that she’s a natural because she doesn’t practice other […]
Powerball Lottery and New Year Resolutions
Are you playing a game you don’t expect to win? Hope is powerful! You need hope to keep going when the going gets tough. Hope is that flicker of belief that things can get better . . . that things might get better. Even cranky pessimists have at least a little spark of hope, no […]
Rock Your Resolutions This Year
Planning to fail! Have you noticed that most of us make New Year’s Resolutions knowing in our heart that we’re going to fail? In fact it’s kind of a running joke about how long Resolutions last. I heard someone say this morning that they set a low bar for any Resolutions they make. That’s their […]
Ultramarathon Mindset and Running For Life
Running calms me. It reminds me I’m enough. It allows me to connect with my deepest thoughts and feel all the feels- all the stuff I ignore or am too busy to process in daily life. Running is so much more than just moving my legs, it allows me to move through life. What is […]
How to reset your mindset.
My mental game fell apart 32 miles into my 100. The Pumpkin Holler 100, in Tahlequah, OK, is billed as “relatively flat.” This is true if you compare it to other 100 mile ultramarathons in, say, the Rocky Mountains. I was hot. I was on pavement. (I’m a trail runner. I prefer dirt.) The hills […]
Ultramrathon Mindset Training: Beware The Chair!
The Chair is your friend and enemy. “The Chair” is unique to ultramarathon running. You won’t see marathon runners taking a break in “The Chair” at aid stations. A marathon is a long way to run, but it’s short enough for most people to run without stopping to sit for a while. There’s no sitting […]