The Twisting Branch Part 7
As I was chatting with Addie Bracy on our second mental performance coaching session, after we had our conversation about my complicated relationship with running these past few months, there was a little time left over for me to turn the tables and ask her some questions of my own. I thought it might be interesting or even useful for anyone reading about my journey,
The Twisting Branch Part 6
The first time I met with mental performance coach Addie Bracy, it had been a month since I finished Twisted Branch. I had planned some down time, or more correctly, I deliberately didn’t want to commit to anything for the remainder of the year. I toyed with the idea of doing a solo 135-mile endurance run this fall to raise money for a local charity
The Twisting Branch Part 5
The e-mail came through at 12:31 pm. This meant I had been racing Twisted Branch for 6.5 hours. Of course, I didn’t read it until 12 hours later, as my crew chief Keith was driving us back to his place where we would crash for the night. I don’t know how exhausted I was in that moment. I didn’t feel angry or hurt by what it
The Twisting Branch Part 4
Leave it to me to get four parts into this blog before even giving the race report! This is what I wrote on social media in the immediate aftermath, and though I spent some time trying to find what was authentic within me, I’m not fully bought into the narrative I spoke at the time. If I had to write a race report from scratch
If the Shoe Fits…
So many of us find bliss on the trails, and we spend many hours traveling on our own two feet. Our feet are the first point of contact between the ground and our state of euphoria, so naturally it becomes important to consider which shoes you select to carry you on your adventures. When we see other runners who we admire, we may be curious to
Changing Form
The new year, and winter more broadly, is a season for rest, reflection, and rejuvenation. Time slips by quietly, and so turning the calendar provides a tangible milestone for its passage. Such a milestone accentuates the changes that have taken place over the course of one, five, or ten years, and sometimes, more painfully, the ones that have not. Perhaps the lurking ghost of a
Shifting Seasons and Letting Go
I made the decision to wrap up my racing season after running 50 miles at Virgil Crest in early September. I felt complete having successfully mastered that course and having placed third in my GP. Even though I continued to get stronger, I had gradually started to feel a little worn from a season filled with “firsts,” so I made the decision to withdraw from
Battery Powered
In recent weeks, I have been on two runs which, I suspect, having stood the test of time, will prove their indelibility. During one, I trotted along the local rail trail - clear, flat, wide, but still cocooned in trees with animals scurrying here and there - before plunging into a wooded section of singletrack trail whose curves followed those of the creek nearby. It
The Aid Station: Nutrition for Injury Rehabilitation
Being an athlete, you know that injuries are inevitable. Sooner or later we all get one. So, what happens to the body when you are injured and how should you amp up your recovery? How Does your body react when it is injured? When an area of the body is injured an inflammatory response is set off. Although, inflammation is a crucial part of the body's natural
The Twisting Branch Part 3
“Ultrarunning is 10% physical and 90% mental.” How often have you heard that maxim? I recently heard a different interpretation: Rob Bell put it that sport is still 90% physical, but the 10% mental component is the key that unlocks the other 90%. Dr. Bell is Certified Mental Performance Consultant, a qualification registered with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Even for an engineer like
