Familiar Landscapes

That most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes.

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

MONDAY GEAR GOBBLE! Patagonia Duckbill Cap

Let’s talk about some running gear, shall we? Today, it’s the Patagonia Duckbill Cap. It is NOT the Patagonia Duckbill Trucker Hat. Those are different.

Here is a piece of equipment that I’m particularly stoked about, and ever since I got my hands on it two years ago, winters excepted, I’ve rarely run without it. This winter we were lucky to hit single-digit highs in the afternoons, and this is not a piece of gear you want with you on days like that. I love this hat so much I sat down in the middle of my ultra and shed tears over its greatness.

Just kidding I was actually dying here that’s why I was crying so much.

The first thing you notice when the hat is cradled in your hands or is positioned on your braincase is the weight. It’s not just a lightweight hat, I would even go so as far as to say it is an ULTRA-lightweight hat! (I’m very sorry. That was a worse pun that the one I made in my Garmin vivoactive review. To paraphrase John Madden from the football game Madden NFL 2005, I saw an opportunity and I took it)

Its front and brim are both made from Patagonia’s trademarked Baggies™ material, and the headband consists of COOLMAX ® fabric, a common blend of polyester fibers excellent at wicking away moisture. 

The strap on the back of the hat is adjustable, and even comes with a small bit of elastic to really help you get a close-fitting, comfortable fit. I’ve heard from other sources this hat can be folded and stuffed in a backpack or pocket, yet when removed, the brim retains its original shape. Personally, I’ve never tried this, so if your hat is ruined in the attempt, I am absolved of all responsibility. Instead, I’ll put you in touch with the people who have made this erroneous claim and you can hash it out with them if you’d like.

The hat comes in several colors, some better than others. Mine is a faded light blue bill with an off-orange. Not a big deal or anything. Ahem. But Jim Walmsley himself wears the same color. Check out this picture for evidence. 

The Man, the Myth, the Legend. 

Something I didn’t appreciate until a day I forgot my sunglasses is the dark underbill. Or is it the dark underbrim? Whatever the name is for the under-part of the hat that shields your eyes, the dark color helps to keep the glaring sun from destroying your retinas on a mountainous climb in midsummer heat.  And all these features packed into about 2oz of fabric. Very, very impressive!

Wear it forward to protect your face and look like a true dirtbag trail runner, or throw it on backwards for a more aerodynamic approach to a workout or race. Either way, this hat will keep sweat from your eyes as if by magic. And of course, all fabrics in this hat are approved by bluesign. bluesign technologies, a company out of Switzerland, is involved in supply chain management to make sure that chemicals used in production, industrial plants where the fabrics are made, and the end products themselves are safe for employees, environments, and elated customers. In fact, on Patagonia’s own website, they offer background information about their suppliers and what kind of factories they run. Pretty cool stuff!!

Look at those tan lines on my arms! OH YEAH! Also take note of the cheap plastic sunglasses on my face. They make my nose look like the spray paint arrows used to mark the race I just finished.

I haven’t dared to wash mine for two simple reasons: 1. It’s embroidered with a race logo and I don’t know how durable the stitching is. 2. Even if it smells bad, I don’t care. After a few hours in the mountains, a stinky mesh hat is the last thing on anyone’s mind.

There is only one dislike that I have with this hat, the brim. Perhaps this is a consequence of my abnormally large head, but I wish it was just a little bigger. A bit more circumference would do a better job at shielding my eyes and face, and this hat’s brim is smaller than average. I have a flat-brim Burton hat that does a wonderful job with this, but it’s never one I’d go running in. So, even with this flaw, it is easily justified. Obviously, a larger brim means more skin is protected, but at what cost? Can you imagine Anna Frost or Kilian Jornet in a sunhat, running the WSER? What does it look like as they come through No Hands Bridge or make the finish on the track? It sure paints a picture, but the act is terribly impractical. There must be some balance, and Patagonia did a pretty good job here.

At the end of the day, I would recommend this hat to anyone, runner or otherwise, who is outside in the heat. It may not be the most stylish hat to ever make it down an assembly line, but Patagonia has a certain look for a certain kind of person, and this hat fills a niche quite nicely.

Here’s a shot of this hat in action. Even though the final miles of this ultra were little more than a granny shuffle, I had to stay aerodynamically sound. Also forward-facing hats have never been my thing. I’m too..uh..hip, for that.

Do you run in this hat? Maybe a different hat? Or are hats not your style and you’d rather make the case for a visor (because you secretly love golf) or a Buff (because you’re Anton Krupicka)? Tell me what you think! Let’s talk about headgear like we’re all in middle school again! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And then, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise.  Teach me about your running gear and training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

6-3-17 RACE REPORT--> Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.

Yes, you read that right! I don’t know what my deal was earlier this week, but my race today went very well. Here’s a play-by-play of the Logan Urban Trails 10-Miler, as well as I can recollect:

At 4:37am, I’m awake. The windows are open, and instantly my sweat-drenched skin is cooled by the box fan. I tell myself that no sane person actually runs a race if he’s waist deep in peanut butter and dreams are not real, which calms me. I use the bathroom and I’m paranoid about my hydration levels, but it’s dark and I gather no information on the subject. Shortly thereafter, I drift back to sleep. Before my eyes have time to shut completely, it is bright outside, the birds are calling, and I am upset. I look at my watch, 6:13am. I’ve slept roughly 90 minutes since the cold sweat, but ‘restful’ is not the adjective I have in mind. I do a triple check to make sure I’ve got everything I need for race day, and then I make breakfast. Over a bowl of oatmeal, yogurt, and fruit, I listen to Brand New’s album Deja Entendu and Angels & Airwaves’ LOVE, start to finish. It’s a ritual I began in high school and to this day I still do it the morning of races when I’m chasing a particular result. After breakfast, I make my way to the park, nearly 2 hours before start time. The first several minutes are spent reading, another ritual of mine. It’s a singular chapter in arguably the most influential running book of all time. Parker Jr.’s ‘Once A Runner’. The chapter is titled The Interval Workout. Reading this before races makes me both motivated and nervous. One chapter, and I only read it on race day. Following a short reading, I start with a walk, then a jog. As I begin my jog, I cross paths with a snail of considerable size.

Ought I to worry? I want to shrug it off, but as I’ve just documented, races make me particularly superstitious. Before long, the race is about to begin and I prepare myself as best I can. To everyone’s dismay, they tried to get us going early! Official race time was listed as 9:10am, and a little after 9:00 they said “Get ready, we’re going to start the race with a 30 second countdown!” After a lamenting groan from the crowd, the race director says “We listed start time as 9:10, does everyone want to wait for that?” After a unanimous decision in the affirmative from the runners, they gave us a little more time. For the next 8 minutes or so, I tried to skillfully control my breathing and get my heart rate back down to manageable levels. The race hasn’t even begun and already things are feeling a little out of control! Now, call me a sell-out (or perhaps an even more colorful and creative name than that), but I just entered this race to win. I gave no thought to time or pace or effort, I simply wanted to take first. When the gun went off, I let the pack naturally sort itself out for the first few minutes, and found myself right behind two guys, the three of us leading the crowd. We quickly were separated from everyone else within the first mile, and gained more distance with every step. The pace was a little slower than I anticipated, but instead of taking on a Prefontaine-style attitude so early, I let these guys lead and just followed right behind. At 2 miles, we dropped one guy. It was pretty obvious he hadn’t had much hill training, and I felt bad for him. He was bent at the waist, almost doubled over on the uphill, and I just wanted to straighten him out and carry him up the hill with us. Perhaps I sympathized with him because I’d been there before, and I was acutely aware of the detriment it would cause for the remainder of his race. I know it had done so for me many times. But I had my own race to run; I had to look out for me, you know? Now here we are, a little over 2 miles into this race and it’s just me and this other guy. He’s taller by several inches, with much broader shoulders than myself, so I drafted off him for a while. I don’t know if we were even moving fast enough or the headwind was strong enough for my drafting to make a difference, but mentally it was a huge confidence boost. Somewhere between miles 2 and 3, I decided I’d stay with this guy until we hit mile 5, and then with any luck I could break away and get some distance between us. I’ve learned the hard way that when it comes down to a neck-&-neck sprint between me and just about anyone else, I will take the loss 90% of the time. He was looking pretty strong. After winding through some neighborhood streets, we start coming up on an aid station around 3.7 miles. We both ask for water, and then he takes me by surprise- two little kids run out to our assistance, and when the wax Powerade cups hit our palms with just a little too much force, he stops!! I had half a mind to keep my prior goal and stay behind him until the halfway mark, but something wouldn’t let me. Still moving, I take a few sips and spill some water down my chin like a child dribbling soup and I am off. Not too fast, but enough that I never saw the guy again. I gave him until I arrived at the next aid station, right before mile 5, before I really opened up and put some distance between us. As I run past the volunteers and drink table, I decline water and they quickly ask to see my name & race number then radio something in to the people at the finish line; what they said I didn’t hear nor did it concern me. My legs felt great and I wanted to see what I could do today. Running with the other guys, we were never faster than ~7:10 pace for the first five, and our average hovered around 7:33. I cross the point in the gravel that marks 5 mi and tried to put on some speed, with my next five miles averaging 6:01 pace. As luck would have it, my breakaway was perfectly synced with my headphones, which begin playing one of my favorite songs for racing, “Throw Down” by Follow Your Hero. So that’s exactly what I did. For the remainder of the race, I focused on flying through the downhills and strong, powerful knee lifts on the inclines. I specifically remember finishing a particularly long downhill section right before 7 miles, and my feet were on fire! I thought I had tied my shoes tight enough to keep them from sliding, but the friction of the downhill pounding didn’t just create hotspots in my shoes, the entire interior was a furnace. From here, with roughly a 5k to go, I was really feeling good. This is where I kicked out my two fastest miles, 5:50’s back-to-back (5:50.42 and 5:50.25, if we’re splitting hairs). It helped that I was listening to Imagine Dragon’s “On Top Of The World” and Set Your Goals’ “Mutiny!” by this time. For 7 minutes I felt unstoppable, and that’s just what I needed. The song “Mutiny!” is so, so perfect for any competition, in my opinion. Road races aside, I try to avoid listening to music during any kind of running or hard workouts, but sometimes that cannot be avoided. There is one part of the song in particular that helps power me through the worst workouts and low points in races, and I save this song only for times I know I will be in considerable distress, which is why it appeared in my playlist during the final miles of my race. Near the end of the song, the line goes: “We have come to pillage. We have come to burn. We have come to incite the riot. We have come to take it over.” Now, say what you will about music and its place in running, nay, in life. Have your opinions on what is ‘good’ music and what is not. Hold true to your beliefs and morals on the subject. I will both respect and honor them. But every single time I hear this line in this song, I feel like I could take on the world and outrace anybody. Delusions of grandeur aside, at the very least this song pulls me out of the darkest abyss and keeps me moving fast for a few minutes more. I run past a local restaurant, Herm’s Inn. I can smell the roast coffee, the maple syrup, and the famous cinnamon-swirl pancakes with their cream cheese frosting. The haunting aroma causes my mind to wander. I think of the friends and family sharing meals there. I think of a comfortable booth, someone waiting on my every need, food that satisfies without fail. I even consider the ease with which each of those lucky individuals arrived at their destination, and I’m briefly filled with jealousy. They rightly and smartly chose to treat themselves instead of pay real money to be subjected to a 10-mile run in the heat. What am I, an idiot? The gradual fade of savory smells returns me to a sense of reality and duty. Notwithstanding a final aid station just before the final climb I didn’t see a single person, bystander or otherwise, again until I approached the finish line.  For a split second, I regret not breaking away earlier and seeing what I could really do with a full 10 miles at my disposal, but then I remember that not only is this a small stepping stone for later-season events, it wouldn’t be smart to risk everything on such an early-season race. I am the first to cross the finish line in a time of 1:06:34 unofficial, 6:39 average pace. A cool, metal bench under a tent offers some solace from the heat, and I take it. I can feel the cold on my thighs and palms. It would be startling if it wasn’t so refreshing. The race director snaps an unflattering picture of me removing my hat and running my hands through my sweaty hair, and I remove my shoes, afraid to know if I burned a hole through my socks. My socks are fine, thank goodness, and I feel well, all things considered. A few minutes to catch my breath & regain composure, and I’m shotgunning glasses of complimentary chocolate milk to quench my thirst. Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. I get in a few easy miles as a cool down, make some phone calls to friends & family to give a short race report, and then cheer the rest of the runners in while I wait for the post-race awards and raffle. As the winner, I am guaranteed free entry into next year’s race to “defend my title”, and I was awarded a very high-quality hiking stick as well as a Bath Bomb (???). I didn’t know what a bath bomb was until I called my mother and told her that’s what I’d won. Her immediate reaction was laughter. Probably just going to re-gift that one to my sister because blue fizzy bath water isn’t really my scene. Additionally, the raffle granted me a nice pair of SmartWool PhD socks, so I’m pretty stoked about that!

All in all, today was good. I’m sore, but nothing worrisome like I was feeling earlier this week. Tomorrow will be a much anticipated day off, and then some more looking ahead as training days and race days approach.

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

6-2-17 Tonight, we rest. Tomorrow, we start again.

Good news! Today was much, much better than yesterday. I have a 10-mile race in the morning, and the course map online isn’t the best. So I set out on my bike this morning and got a feel for the course, more or less. A few parts of the course go through private property or are otherwise inaccessible without special permissions. 

So I tried my best, and it was a mostly leisurely ride with some stops to make sure I was on the right path. 

I never felt anything in my calf like I was feeling yesterday, which was welcoming! Last night I spend a good amount of time massaging and rolling it, and I think that helped. By the time any of you read this, I’ll likely be doing that same thing again. I can’t with certainty say I’m out of the woods yet, but I’m moving in the right direction. 

Later this afternoon I did an easy barefoot run at the track (Don’t worry, I’m no stranger to barefoot running, my feet are okay). For good measure I did a few strides up and down, then one 400m sprint with a slow start and increasing speed every 50m.

As things go, I’m feeling pretty good today! Tomorrow will be a little different, expect a race report and maybe another entry very similar to this one. If you’re at all interested in tomorrow’s race, check out race info here and click on URBAN TRAIL RUN 10-Miler. They called it an “Urban trail run” because that sounds better than “Mostly concrete with some gravel and 300m of dirt along a ditch bank”. I’m definitely still running this race, I just wish I had known exactly how much concrete was in this race before I signed up. So it goes.

Are you racing this weekend? Next weekend? Next month? Tell me about your upcoming races and let’s talk! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And please, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise. Teach me about your running gear and your training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

6/1/17

Today was, in so many words, not great. I only made it 3.5 miles, and right now I’m pretty hurt. My calf strain from earlier this week was doing me no favors today. it’s not terribly painful, but sore enough that I notice it on every uphill (which, by design, is a lot. I love the mountains, but this week they’ve not been kind to me). Downhill and flats are still okay on my legs, so until those become a problem for my calf I won’t worry too much. Tomorrow I plan on mixing a little bit of time on the mountain bike in with my running. That way I still get a workout and my calf stays somewhat protected. I don’t have much to say, because not much happened. Remember last week when I said sometimes things are good and sometimes they’re bad? Today was one of those bad days. But I’ll do what I can to get past this, and with any luck I’ll be back in the game before long!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/31/17

You guys I don’t deserve a smartwatch.

Today, mid-run, I stopped on the trail and reset my run AGAIN. Super annoying. I was the only one out there though, so this one’s totally on me. I’m the idiot here who can’t even use his watch properly. But on the bright side, I did get in not one but TWO killer runs today. Check it out:

Okay. So here’s the first part of the first half of my first run. ~1500 ft of gain in 2.3 miles. Lots of walking. In fact, this trail was so steep it was more like a hike up and then a careful scramble down. But let me tell you something. I considered bringing a camera to record a bit of video, and ultimately decided against it. By so doing, I have done all of you a great disservice! I will hopefully be back soon, though, and get a chance to take some killer footage and make an awesome supercut of this incredible trail!

Part two of the first run. ~900 ft of gain in 1.8 miles. In total, 1569+936=2505 feet of elevation gain over 4.16 miles. Not too bad. I began at 5100 feet, which would have put my finish somewhere near 7600. I can’t trust the exact numbers though, because sometimes my vivoactive, with all its endearing qualities, tells me that in a jaunt around a standard track, I’ve gained 100+ feet. So anyway. This was another out and back trail, which put my total at 8.35 miles. Subtracting the 2.42 deficit from yesterday (I should have hit 20 total and I only made it 17.58), that gave me 5.93 miles towards my goal of hitting 60 miles this week. Which means, to stay on track and not buy Chris Mocko or anyone else a Costo gift card, I’d need AT LEAST 4.07 more miles before the day is over.

PS if you’re following me on Tumblr but not Twitter, head on over and RT this for a chance to get a personal, handwritten apology from me and a gift card to Costco! So. Back to running. My afternoon run was with a group of people from town. We did a warm up to a neat little hill, some repeats, another small-ish climb, and a cooldown back to our cars. 

In the highlighted area, you can see the repeats we did. It was a 30,60,90,120. That is, 30 sec sprint at 5k effort, 60 sec sprint at 5k effort, etc. Cooldown was just the time it took to jog back down to the start, then you were right back up the hill. After the four sprints, it was a simple cooldown along a different road to get in a bit more distance.

Here is the important thing, though: I’M BACK ON TRACK! My total mileage now is 31.11, slightly over what I ought to be at this point. And I gotta give a shoutout to Chris for his awesome #WWMD challenge. I certainly wouldn’t be this consistent with my training or my blogging without him. If you haven’t already, go learn more about this great man. His Twitter can be found  @chrismocko or he has a YouTube channel The Mocko Show, which is so, so fun to watch.

If you’ve been keeping up with me lately, then you already know! Let’s talk! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And please, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise. Teach me about your running gear and your training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/30/17

Today’s workout was rough! Very similar to last Tuesday, I just added two more repeats and it was about a MILLION times hotter!

Workout: warm up (10 min jog, static stretches, dynamic stretches, static stretches, strides)

1k at 3:08 50m walk/150m jog **WAY TOO FAST. I just got so excited and I was feeling good, but I paid dearly for it at the end. Guess who has two thumbs and still can’t pace his workouts properly??

1k at 3:19 50m walk/150m jog  **Much better. I was shooting for 3:20s (Around 5:20/mi pace) and I was very satisfied with this one. If only my naiveté on the first repeat hadn’t sealed my fate, maybe I could have kept this up.

1k at 3:18 50m walk/150m jog **Solid time, just like the last one. I specifically remember this one being awful and my mouth was dry, it seemed, all the way down my throat and into my lungs and stomach. This is the point at which I realize I am not nearly hydrated enough.

1k at 3:22 50m walk/150m jog **A little slow, but not bad, all things considered. It seemed as though this one would never end!

After a set of four repeats, I took an extra 100m recovery jog as well as a little bit of time to drink some more water, wipe sweat from my face, and generally just feel bad for myself for a minute.

1k at 3:18 50m walk/150m jog **Almost felt as good as the first one. I was back on pace, but even before this one was finished, I knew I couldn’t hold pace the rest of the way.

1k at 3:30 50m walk/150m jog **Here is where everything fell apart on me. I had hit my limit. I was both fatigued and dehydrated by the heat, and it showed. Every 200m I checked my time, and with every glance at my wrist I was more and more off pace.

1k at 3:36 50m walk/150m jog **The worst of them all. I wanted to die! This was nothing but miserable and I hated every second of it.

1k at 3:34 50m walk/150m jog **I tried to get this one back into a good pace, but mentally I had given up, so there was no option but to admit defeat. The 1k repeats on the track had bested me.

cool down (15 min run/walk barefoot on the grass inside track)   I was terrified of this workout before it began, and today it certainly had its way with me. But I suppose it is better to bonk in a workout every time than to bonk in a race. I cannot recall the source, but I heard once that “Running doesn’t make you special, or make you better than anyone else, but it sure as hell wakes you up.” And today, that’s exactly what it did. I realize now the things I must change (sleep habits, post-run work to stay injury free, etc) if I want to get any better. I comprehend more fully the work required of me and the sacrifice I must make to achieve the goals I have set and the dreams I am working for. Above everything else, I understand that my running at this pace doesn’t have nearly the endurance required. I have some work to do. This workout hit me so hard I was forced to nap, and I hope it helped to speed my recovery.

As for my weekly mileage, I’m at 17.58, so less than 2.5 miles behind schedule. Not to worry, though, tomorrow is my day off (!!!) which means I can easily run twice. Currently the plan is for 7-10 in the morning on some mountain singletrack, followed by a group run in the evening with some friends from the local running store. I love training alone because it allows me to do my own thing, but sometimes I just need people!

And remember, let’s be friends! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And please, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise. Teach me about your running gear and your training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/29/17

As per my deal with Mr. Chris Mocko himself, here’s an update into my training! I promised him I’d update my blog daily and run 60 miles this week, or everyone who retweets me (click here to see the Tweet in question.) gets a personal apology letter and a gift card to Costco. I started out only hoping to get 5-7 miles this morning but that quickly turned into 10. The reason this happens is I do a lot of out-and-back training runs, I almost never take loops. So if I plan for 5, its 2.5 out, 2.5 back. Seems easy enough. The trouble is I can’t seem to comprehend that whatever I’ve just done out, I have to double back and do it all again. A 5 mile run is no big deal, right? So I run five miles up a canyon singletrack. But then I find myself 5 miles from my car and I have no choice but to do it all over again. 

Would you look at that. Didn’t even get the ten miles I needed. It’s only 0.03 but now I’m off pace. Lots of slack to pick up and it’s not even Tuesday

I had a little trouble going up, it was a pretty steady climb from 5100 feet at the Green Canyon trailhead parking lot up to about 6500 at the 5-mi turnaround. In addition to the climb, I had one bad step on the rocky trail and came down funny on my heel, which twisted my ankle a little bit. As a result, my right ankle and the same calf were strained all the way up. But things worked themselves out on the downhill and I felt much better by the time I got back to the car! Also, two screenshots are included because on one part of the trail, I came around a blind corner and this guy’s horse got spooked. So I scurried off the trail and tried to get out of his way. In the mess of things I accidentally ended my run and saved the data, which meant I had to start over again. So it goes.

My GPS clocked my mileage at 9.97. Not exactly 10 miles but I’m not bitter. It’s fine. Everything is fine. It’s just fine. I’m fine. All it means is I have Tue-Sat to get 50 miles in. Holy crap that’s a lot of running. I wanted to get in some baby miles this afternoon, but man I was tired! Around 4:00 I took a short nap and really struggled to wake up. But hey, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, if you’ve got some time to kill while you’re reading your morning coffee, I just published a review of the Garmin Vivoactive smartwatch. If you’re interested, click here to read all about it.

And please, for your own sake, go find Chris Mocko on social media. I promise you won’t regret it. His Twitter can be found  @chrismocko or he has a YouTube channel The Mocko Show and I must say his videos are gold. I know people need hobbies and things, but I really hope his running doesn’t get in the way of his YouTubing. Click here or here to find his channel.

In the meantime, let’s talk! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And please, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise. Teach me about your running gear and your training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

MONDAY GEAR GOBBLE! Garmin vivoactive smartwatch

Let’s talk about some running gear, shall we? Today, its the Garmin vivoactive smartwatch. 

Allow me to begin in this fashion- I LOVE THIS WATCH. Truthfully my favorite thing about this watch is the size. It looks like a regular watch, but can do so much more. Maybe I am so enamored because I’m coming from the Garmin Forerunner 305, which is a lead brick in comparison, both in size and functionality. 

                                   Look at the SIZE of that thing!!

The F305 served its purpose well, and like all technology, was stellar in its peak. But the F305 is to GPS-enabled watches what digital cameras are to smartphones- It’s not impossible to find people still holding on to the romance of the old technology (Like my grandfather with his Nokia flip phone and velcro-style belt loop phone case. It doesn’t even have an address book in it), but the newer counterparts can do so much more, and do it so much better!

Here’s everything that I really enjoy about this thing:

1. Sleep tracker. It’s not perfect,  but unless you attach electric nodes to my head, how could it be? I am a big fan of data in any capacity, and this does an awesome job at collecting data on your sleep patters and putting it in nice charts and graphs for you. It tracks ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ sleep and even will tell you when you wake up and walk around during the night. In the app, you set approximate sleep and wake times and it will try to guess when you’ve gone to sleep based on those approximations. But as long as you stay moving, even if you’re well past your preset sleep time, it will recognize that you’re awake.

Above, an option to start Sleep Mode. This blocks all notifications from bothering you through the night, which is awesome. I don’t care that Costa Vida sent me an email at 2:47am, and I don’t want to know about it at least until I wake up. (But please don’t misunderstand, I love Costa Vida will all my whole soul and I’m very happy they emailed me. Go read this post for proof)

Above, just one bit of Sleep Data provided by the app. This is part of something that I’ll have to cover more in-depth in a forthcoming review

2. Bluetooth phone connection. It transfers your workout data to your phone each time you open the Garmin Connect app, giving you the ability to analyze it on more than just a tiny watch face. If I wanted to track my GPS data on the F305, I had to upload the info to my computer and overlay it onto a map. Not impossible, but Garmin is all about removing hurdles, and here they’ve done a great job. This provides a detailed history of everything ever logged on your device. Again, more big data! You can also see hourly and daily weather snapshots on your phone, though it doesn’t go into much more detail. Another great feature is the music controls. You can connect Connect (see what I did there? Don’t worry I hate myself too.) with a music app like Google Play Music, Spotify, Pandora, etc and control play/pause, volume, and track selection from your watch. I’ve found this to be particularly useful when I’m on a bike: If a song comes on I don’t want to listen to but I can’t get to my phone in my pocket or bag, a few swipes on my watch and voila! problem solved. Getting app notifications is pretty awesome too! I have Gmail, text messages, NYT articles, even an app called Randomly RemindMe set up to send notifications to my watch, and it has changed my life. Sometimes there are too many notifications coming in (like a group chat from hell) and I have to temporarily disable Bluetooth, but seeing who exactly sent me a text or an email will let me know if its urgent and whether I ought to go through the trouble of getting out my phone at work or in class or with friends, etc.

3. Find my phone. A saving grace that should have been invented with the first cell phones to hit mainstream use. As long as your watch is connected to your phone and within Bluetooth range, this function will cause your phone to rapidly flash the camera light, vibrate, and make noise; even if your phone is totally silenced, this will temporarily override these settings until you locate your lost phone. Great for middle-console car traps, falling between the bed and the wall, or heaven forbid, someone hides your phone from you.

4. Sunlight readable touchscreen. Very impressive, if nothing else. Screens are often so hard to see in sunlight, but the Garmin tech geniuses have overcome this on the vivoactive. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, the screen is always as readable as a regular watch face. Never have I had any issue with reading it.

5. Customizable bands. A great feature to make your watch all your own. Nearly any color or design is available, and they come at very reasonable prices. With tiny screw heads, you need to make sure you have the proper tools to remove the watch bands, but it’s pretty simple. Be warned that durability of the wrist bands may become an issue depending on the seller, so whether you do it online or in person, only buy from a reputable vendor you trust.

                   ***NOTE: I am not endorsing Amazon or this seller ***

6. CONNECT app. This is so expansive and incredible I’ll have to do a standalone review for the app in the very near future. Stay tuned!

7. Fast charging and awesome battery. It’s truly wonderful how quickly this battery charges. The charging station has a magnet that holds your watch in place, and is USB-compatible so it can charge nearly everywhere. Additionally, this watch has a great battery life. Without using the GPS and activities, the battery lasts around 2 weeks on a full charge, with variability depending on backlight use, etc. I can get about 6 days of workouts before it needs a charge, and though I’ve yet to run this far in one go, I can roughly estimate it has 8 or 10 hours of battery with constant GPS use (for example, using the run or bike function without stopping). Great for daily and weekly training, but may not hold up so well for those of you running 50- or 100-mile races!

8. All the old Garmin stuff you know and love. Pace notification and customizable data screens for all compatible activities, which include running, biking, swimming, golf, walking, and indoor biking, walking, running. This is so fun! During activities, you are required to have at least one data screen (duh), but can have up to three, with 2 or 3 data fields on each screen AND you can set them however you like. I have three data screens for running set up this way: 

   1. Distance, Timer, Pace 

   2.Lap distance, Average pace, Lap pace

   3. Elevation, Time of day. 

Again, these screens are not permanent. Not everyone is interested in the same things I am during a run, and that’s what makes it so great! You can do whatever you want!! The list of things you can add to these data screens and the combinations you can come up with is incredible! Take a look–

Timer Fields

Timer

Lap Time

Last Lap Time

Average Lap Time

Elapsed Time

Distance Fields

Distance

Lap Distance

Last Lap Distance

Pace Fields

Pace

Average Pace

Lap Pace

Speed Fields

Speed

Average Speed

Lap Speed

Last Lap Speed

Maximum Speed

30 sec Avg. Vertical Speed

Heart Rate Fields

Heart Rate

Average Heart Rate

Heart Rate Zone

Hear Rate %Max

%HRR

Avg HR %Max

Avg %HRR

Lap Heart Rate

Lap %HRR

Lap HR %Max

Cadence Fields

Cadence

Average Cadence

Lap Cadence

Last Lap Cadence

Temperature Fields

Temperature

24-hr Max

24-hr Min

Elevation Fields

Elevation

Other Fields

Calories

Heading

Laps

Sunrise

Sunset

Time of Day

Steps

Lap Steps

***You can purchase separately a HR monitor to sync with your watch. I don’t have one, and therefore anything in field #5 I know very little about. As you can see, the watch offers a plethora of options for you to see exactly what kind of data (there’s that buzzword again) you’re interested as you run/bike/swim/golf/walk. Way more options than the F-305, that’s for sure!

9. Waterproof. This made me nervous at first; I swam a few laps with it and was worried that it would short out, get waterlogged, or some other issue would arise. But to my great surprise it held up just fine! The swim function allows you to set pool lap distance, and it will do its best (which is pretty dang accurate, I might add) to vibrate when it senses you’ve reached the end of the pool and its time to turn around before you sustain some head trauma. 

10. Vibrating alarm. This is a feature that I like, but again it’s not perfect. You can set up to three alarms to go off at any time, and your watch will vibrate for 1 min or until you snooze/ turn off the alarm. I do appreciate that it wakes me up without making noise, and in every situation I’ve found myself it is impossible to sleep through but it’s just so darn easy to deactivate! A quick tap with my finger and it’s back to Snooze City.

11. Connect IQ. This has some features that go with the CONNECT app, a review for this will be up soon! Customizable watch faces (not the bands I already talked about, but the touchscreen interface) is a considerable achievement. As I understand it, those with more design and programming savvy than the rest of us common folk can design any number of widgets and put them online through a place called Garmin Express, where you choose what you want your watch interface to look like. Garmin Express is available as a free download, click here to get a copy for yourself.

However, this watch isn’t flawless, and I don’t love EVERYTHING about it. Here’s what to take note of when it comes to negative things about the watch:

1. Buttons on side occasionally unresponsive. It comes with two physical buttons, one on each side. On the left, you’ll find the power button. Hold it down a few seconds, and it will ask for confirmation that you want to power off the watch. The button on the right will bring up your activity menus. These buttons work okay, but on rare occasion they won’t react right away, or I need to press harder, etc. No serious issues, but sometimes it’s a slight annoyance

2. Touch screen not uber-sensitive. Sometimes, probably due to the build up from my gross, oily hands, the watch screen doesn’t respond well to touch, and as an aside the easy-to-see smudges don’t add to the aesthetic value. This issue also arises when the watch is wet. I know I said its waterproof capabilities were great, but if there is a drop of water on-screen, this messes up functionality until it’s dried off. Not a big deal during a run, I just dry it on my shirt or shorts. This only becomes a problem when one is, say, swimming laps in a pool!

3. GPS mode sucks battery. As I mentioned before, using the watch during activity mode really sucks the battery. So I never use it to track a bike ride to/from campus or work or a friends house, and I don’t turn it on when I’m walking around. The GPS/activity tracking mode is only used for actual running or other designated workouts.

4. Disconnect/connect issues? I put a question mark after this one because I’m not sure if its a common thing or mine was just an isolated event. For the first three weeks I had the watch, there would be periods of a few hours when my watch would disconnect and connect again about every 30 seconds. Not anything life-changing or awful, but my watch vibrated with every change in connection, which I hated. Since then, I’ve had no problems, and the Garmin website was super helpful in resolving the issue

5. Inactivity timer. I had a really hard time adding this to the dislikes. I don’t love it, but think it belongs in some middle category because I certainly see the merits of it. As part of tracking your steps it will alert you if you’ve been inactive for too long (I suspect the timer to be 60 minutes, but that’s purely anecdotal). This is a great reminder to stay active and get up from your chair during the day, but it certainly has its downsides:

In my line of work, I am often up and moving, but it may be for only a few steps at a time and often not very far. If I walk too slowly to trigger the movement sensor or I’m back and forth in the same 8x8 area, it will remind me that I ought to be moving. At the very least, its a mild distraction. But it has gotten me into some awkward situations during exams. No professor wants to hear a vibrate during a test, and more than once I’ve had to explain away what happened.

After a long run, sometimes I feel justified in lying around for awhile. I mean really, if you’ve hit 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 miles today, you’re probably okay to take a little break. But your vivoactive doesn’t care, it’ll tell you to move regardless! And maybe you should. Maybe its beneficial to walk a bit after a long run so you don’t get too stiff or anything. Or maybe you’d be better off melting into the couch, and I wish the watch would let you do that if you so choose.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this watch to anyone. I think it is a great blend of function & form, though I do wish a few small things could be changed. Keep an eye out for my review on the CONNECT app and the IQ portion, which will be paired with info on the Garmin Express program as well. Do you have this watch? Do you have a different Garmin watch that you think is better/worse than the vivoactive? Is there a glaring misstep in my evaluation of the watch? Let’s talk about it, and tell all your friends!

In the meantime, let’s talk! I’m always interested in finding new people to share this passion and trade ideas & philosophies with. But more importantly, I want to hear YOUR stories. Find me on Twitter  @KoltonGWilliams and we can talk about running. Or check out my videos on YouTube here. Heck, email me at [email protected] if you feel so inclined. And then, share your stuff with me! Drop me a message, comment, whatever. Let’s connect! I would love to read your blog and watch your videos and follow all your activities, running or otherwise.  Teach me about your running gear and training, ask me a question, or tell me what you ate today. I want to hear it all! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run! 

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/27/17

Man today was great! My morning long run got off to a late start, I think I stepped foot on the trails at 9:15 am or so. But I followed the same 10 mile loop I did last Saturday, and it was just as magnificent as I remember. Then I spent all afternoon and all evening doing holiday activities with my family. Finally at 10:00 pm, I did 7 more with my sister and brother-in-law. For the first 5 miles, my sister rode a bike and my  brother-in-law ran with me. With two miles to go, they switched and I ran with my sister. I don’t know if it’s my diet or my sleeping (which lately seems to be less per night than average, certainly an anomaly and definitely strange. I feel like I ought to be sleeping more than I am, but my body seems to disagree. But I digress.) or some other thing, but I cannot pinpoint the cause of my windfall in recent weeks. I ran 7 tonight and even considering all the days events, felt like I could have done 7 more. 

I hit 50+ miles this week, which is awesome. I’m hoping to be around high 60′s, maybe breaking into 70 by mid to late June. If all goes well, I’ll be running 100 miles at least once in August. So here’s to a great summer of training!

I truly believe that through the course of a year, every runner has highs and lows in mileage, injury, even sleep, diet, or other training habits, and often these highs and lows are more extreme than we’re willing to admit. Chris McDougall deftly states in his book Born to Run that it’s big news when a point guard breaks his foot or a left fielder has a season ending shoulder injury. But spit in the air at any marathon starting line, and it’ll land on someone previously sidelined by injury for much longer than they anticipated or wanted. Runners who don’t get injured are a rare breed. So when you have a period of plenty, when training seems to always be going your way and you feel unstoppable, DON’T take it for granted! Appreciate and make the most of every run, every workout, every recovery meal. Most especially, don’t be ashamed of your speed or strength or your fitness in any capacity. The first time I ever had a period of great training, I didn’t know how to react. It truly seemed like nothing was too much for my body, meanwhile, everyone on my team was plagued by exhaustion or injury or some other detrimental thing. Then my friend Stacey taught me a very powerful lesson over the phone: “Why aren’t you proud of this? You’ve worked really, really hard to get here and now it shows. Don’t try to hide it or play it down more than you ought to. Of course the worst thing you can do is be prideful and flaunt your recent successes, but this isn’t something you need to be apologetic about.”

My point here is this- When people tell you how great a runner you are (because that will happen, and you know it as well as I do), graciously accept their praise and move on. It’s not being prideful unless you use your achievements to put someone else down. “I can run a 4:00 pace for 93 miles” is totally different from “My recovery run pace is way faster than her recovery run pace!” So enjoy your training, no matter how good or bad it becomes. Consider the words of Sean Bonnette: “I will always appreciate bad days like this/ Because they grant me a point of reference in regards to my happiness.” In the same breath, appreciate the good days, too.

Please! Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/26/2017

Taking it easy to prep for tomorrow’s long run! I got ~30 min in the mountains during the hot sunny hours and man is this air dry! Honestly I don’t know how anything grows out here. Later tonight I did an easy mile around the track followed by 1x800 at around 70% effort. The 800 was just to get the legs moving a little, like a bunch of strides back-to-back for a half mile. That’s all to report for now!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

Hello. Here’s 22 seconds of me being an idiot with a camera.

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/25/17

This morning was a beautiful tempo run followed by a delicious breakfast. I want to take more pictures so that people can, in some small way, appreciate the trails and roads here just as much as I do. But I hate carrying things when I run, so until I get over that, you’ll just see shots from before and/or after. I started with a 10-min warmup jog around 8:30 pace and that led right into a 15-min tempo run that stayed mostly between 6:30 and 6:05, but I did get up to 5:15 near the end. I did 8 min out and 7 min back, then finished with a 10-min cool down and walked the rest of the way to my car.

For breakfast I had raw oatmeal with plain yogurt, chia seeds, banana slices, and honey. I usually add a little milk or water to get a consistency I like. Too thick and it becomes impossible to eat, too thin and it may as well be a smoothie. I need to get in a few more miles this afternoon, so hopefully I have something to report later. Also, stay tuned for great stuff coming next week!

Don’t ever forget, run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/24/17

I ran twice again today! In the afternoon I did an easy 5 miles with the owner of the running store and the local HS head coach of the track/XC team. The three of us set out together and I ended up talking with the coach the entire time. He told me he wants me to come run with his boys varsity, hopefully I can keep up! After hearing what kind of workouts they do and the kind of speed they have, I’m a little worried. The distance is no problem for me at all, I can stay with them on a 10 mile run as well as a 20 mile run. But they’re already at ‘low 5′ minute pace, which I haven’t been at in YEARS. So this will be fun.

My second run came about 90 minutes and one giant plate of spaghetti & meatballs later. Andrew called and asked me if I had time for a quick two miles. I’m trying to get him as addicted to running as I am, so of course I said yes. Six minutes in, and my stomach felt awful. I wanted to just barf out the brick in my belly and get over it. But anyway I survived another day.

Remember,  run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5-23-2017

Haven’t posted in a week, so let’s hit the highlights!!

5-18      Not the best run I’ve ever had. I wasn’t motivated, didn’t want to be out there, low energy, etc. You all know the feeling.  5.5 on the trails

5-19      No run today! My morning was spent at work and my afternoon/evening spent driving.

5-20      A truly glorious day. I needed today to be a long run, but had no specific time or miles in mind. The first three were miserable, I hated every minute. But between three and four I started to open up, and it became one of those days I wish would never end. I didn’t bring any gear or fuel with me except my watch, hat & glasses, and running shorts. Temps hovered around a sunny 65 and I did almost 14. I’ve almost never felt better after a long run!

5-21      Rest day. Played some frisbee golf with friends so I could get in a short walk and shake things out before this week.

5-22      Today is the start of my greatly increased training, and I am already feeling it ever so slightly. The morning was an easy 4 miles around 8:45 pace, and the afternoon was filled with another 4 miles slightly slower, about 9:15. Now, this is by no means unbearable or even difficult, but it made me so tired! I strongly believe that sleep is a necessary evil, and one should never sleep more than is needful. Why sleep when you can be doing and experiencing things? But I digress. I had to go to bed early tonight because I was so tired. I do suspect though that the weekend travels played a small role in my exhaustion.

5-23      After a warm up, some dynamic stretches, and a couple of strides, I knocked out a few 1000m repeats on the Utah State track.

Workout: warm up (10 min jog, static stretches, dynamic stretches, static stretches, strides)

1k at 3:13.13 (~5:11 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

1k at 3:15.46 (~5:14 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

1k at 3:20.04 (~5:21 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

**additional 100m jog around curve, change track directions

1k at 3:19.58 (~5:21 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

1k at 3:19.88 (~5:21 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

1k at 3:20.39 (~5:21 pace) 50m walk/150m jog

cool down (15 min run/walk barefoot on the grass inside track)

All things considered I’m really happy with this workout, though I wish I had backed off a little at the beginning and been more consistent throughout. I wanted my repeats anywhere between 5:20 and 5:50 pace, so I was surprised I could kick out times like that. But some days you just have it, you know? Doubtless there will be a similar workout in the future and I won’t get anything CLOSE to my target. So it goes. Late in the afternoon I knocked out an easy 2.5 miles on a wide gravel path to shake out my legs. Already sore, which will be good I suppose. I actually hate being sore, but more on that later. 

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5-17-2017

Today’s run was hell. I figured it was a good idea to get in some hill repeats, and that’s exactly what I did:

This only shows 6 minutes of my run today, so you can’t see the warm-up, cool down, or the rest between repeats. I started at about 5,000 feet, and did 6x1-min climbs. Between each I had to take what seemed like an eternity of rest to allow my weak and slow body time to recover. I averaged a little over 100 feet of gain with each repeat, and at the end of each 60 seconds I was so starved for oxygen that every breath was maddeningly satisfying and altogether agonizing. Hours later as I write this my chest is still weak, but that doesn’t matter. Or rather, someday  it won’t. When a workout or race goes well, all of the bad or uncomfortable or painful training days no longer hurt you. It’s a mystery I still don’t understand, but one good day can erase an entire season of bad ones. You’ll reflect on your training and be amazed that your 'race’ pace has become your workout pace, your ‘workout’ pace has become your tempo pace, and your ‘tempo’ pace has become your long run pace. Things will fluctuate greatly day-to-day and, unfortunately, week-to-week. But train hard for months & years and you’ll see your investments pay dividends unmatched by anything you ever thought possible

Run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

5/16/2017

Almost exactly three months since my last real post. A large part of this is due to the fact that I’ve not been running lately, but my schedule has opened up and I’m back on the trails and roads!! Apr 22 I (hardly) ran the SLC Half Marathon. I say it that way because it was a lot of walking, and I stopped at every aid station for at least a minute. My chip time is 1:59:47, far and away my slowest race ever. But something changed me during that two-hour run, which I will attempt to document here: 

After my two years of college racing in Oregon, I followed school to Utah and quickly picked up trail running. I didn’t run any races less than 13 miles, and every free minute, day or night, was filled with scrambling up mountain trails and speeding back down them. Slow, deliberate, concentrated hours on the most technical of singletrack became everything that I lived for. Marathons and ultras were my bread & butter, and a 90-minute or two-hour run (a weekend long run staple of my Oregon racing days) became my Thursday afternoon “easy recovery” run before the Friday/Saturday back-to-back 4 or 5 hour long runs I hammered out nearly each weekend. For three years this fulfilled every need, fixed every problem, and righted every wrong that I encountered. I longed for something different, and this was fulfilling that longing quite nicely. But then, all this time later, I ran the Salt Lake Half, and now things have changed. Again. In retrospect, this race could not have come at a better time in my life. I had just been taken off a project dev. team at work, my personal relationships with people were not what I’d hoped, and school was coming to a close, which meant five final exams crammed into three days. So I took this race and turned it into a time of prayer or meditation or deep thought, whatever label you want to put on it. Then things backfired, and backfired hard. I didn’t feel better about anything. In fact, the more I thought about the direction my life was taking and the event surrounding it, the more frustrated I became. Then the turning point: For the last 5k of this race, I ran considerably faster than the previous 16 that came before. My final 5k pace averaged around 6:26, while the first 10 miles were at a 10:14 pace. And I must say, for all the miles I’ve run in my career, none have had such a profound impact on my life as the last ones of this race. Somewhere in the middle of these fast miles, I had a profound idea: Being a slow, zen-like ultrarunner who finds more beauty and joy in experiencing nature and open trails or roads than in running from point A to B in the fastest and most efficient way possible only works for me when my life outside of running is also slow and zen-like. Not one single thing in the last four months has been easy, calm, or stress-free. Every aspect of anything I was involved in came accompanied by a deadline or expectation or standard I did not or could not meet. It didn’t matter how wonderful my long runs were and the temporary escape they provided was fleeting at best, because I always found my problems waiting for me at the other end of a 10-miler. And then, in the evening following this race, it all clicked for me. Looking back at my training since January, I found myself better able to deal with the events in my life on the very few days that I had a hard track workout, or I ended a run with fast strides in the grass. There it was, in front of me the whole time!! I love running, and I love everything about it. The gear, the shoes, the culture, the training philosophies and the diets and the fads and the mysteries and the stories and the races. Even the mental breakdowns have their place in the runners’ arsenal. Hard days ensure you truly appreciate the easy ones, and long runs expand the mind to a greater awareness of a human body’s true limits. Some runs your body just doesn’t have the strength you expected it to, yet others you feel so good you can flying through the forest trails or farm roads or downtown blocks forever. I need it all, the good and the bad, but running fast is what I live for. All parts of running have their place, but racing is what becomes essential for me. In the wise words of Serena Williams: “Winning for me is super addictive. I feel like, once you experience it, you always want to get that feeling again.” Now here I am, with an open schedule, open skies, and an open future. Regardless of the other pursuits I have attempted, running never seems to leave. I want to be involved in it every day and every night. No matter what else I try to fill my schedule with, I lose interest or come to a crossroads or have to give up one thing for another, and running always comes out on top. In addition, I hit the trails twice today: 6 miles before work in the mountains and 3 more tonight on the buffed-out singletrack in a rainstorm. The point of all my writing is this- Explore your options. Try your hand at painting, accounting, science, marketing, bartending, interior design, plumbing, sports, anything! But no matter what activities you partake in or what choices you make, indeed, no matter how you spend your time, make sure you’re happy.

And of course as always, run as fast or as slow as you need to have a good time, but get out there and run!

[peanutbutta-runna]

The only passengers I need.

[alwaysrunning-never-lookingback]

I love this picture so much.