Tag: Confessions from the Trail
Confessions from the Trail: Failure and the Doldrums
Confession from the Trail: Failure and the Doldrums
Hello and welcome to the doldrums. With only five weeks to go until the Mississippi 50, I’ve hit that horrible intersection of “I’ve come so far” and “I still have so far to go.”
Race Report: Bear Bait 25k (2021)
Race Report: Bear Bait 25k
Here is my the race report for the Bear Bait 25k course.
Race Report: BUTS Heavy Half
Race Report: BUTS Heavy Half
Here my the race report for the Birmingham Ultra and Trail Society (BUTS) Bearly Ultra, the 13.5 mile Heavy Half course.
Confessions from the Trail: Taper Tantrums
Confession from the Trail: Taper Tantrums
My first taper week of the season starts today and like all taper weeks, I’m going to apologize to my spouse upfront. Because, dear friends, taper week is a bastard and I will be a right bastard too.
Taper week is well known to any endurance athlete. Whether you’re a runner, cyclist, triathlete, or crazy ultramarathoner, it’s wise to use the week before a race to let your body catch up, rest up, and fuel up so you’re at your peak strength and endurance on race day.
Confessions from the Trail: Race Day
Confession from the Trail: ‘Race Day
Aside from the bizarrely different mental attitudes, there are a few other things that make an ultramarathon different from a typical road race.
Confessions from the Trail: Ultra Lingo
Confession from the Trail: Ultra Lingo
Ultra has its own language. So, in a completely arbitrary order, the words you need to know about ultramarathon speak.
Confessions from the Trail: ‘Tis the Season (For Illness)
Confession from the Trail: ‘Tis the Season (For Illness)
Season’s greetings from my couch. Like many this time of year, I’m sick. Unfortunately for me, I’m also supposed to race in two weeks and seriously, body? THIS IS NOT THE TIME! But it was also somewhat inevitable… This post is all about getting sick during a training cycle. I’ll be giving you some insight into why it seems to happen so often so close to race day, help you decide if you should keep training or not, and help settle your fears (and mine) about whether you can race.
Confessions from the Trail: Race Weight
Confession from the Trail: Nutrition
Over the last ten years I’ve run through thick and thin but I’m finally finding the best balance of the two. The answers to questions about my nutrition for ultramarathons
Confessions from the Trail: Being Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
Confession from the Trail: Being Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable. Breaking your characters with realism: The intersection of ultramarathons and writing fiction.
A good character is one who is not only told “no,” but “hell no,” then kicked in the teeth for good measure. They’re the character we root for when we watched them come to the brink and faced with the choice to accept the inevitable yet rise against all odds. And that breaking is where ultramarathons and fiction writing intersect. I love the adage, “write what you know.” Dear readers, let me tell you, I know what it’s like to be broken. To rise again. To stare into the void, see the eyes that stare back, and tell them to fuck off. And hot damn, when I put it into my writing, it’s some powerful stuff.
Confessions from the Trail: Gear Monsters
Confession from the Trail: Gear Monsters – “You carry HOW MUCH?”
Another question I fielded as I started talking ultramarathons on this blog was, “What [piece of gear] do you use?,” “How much does your pack weigh?,” or the ever incredulous “You carry HOW MUCH?”