My (current) favorite books about running
If you love running and you love reading there's a good chance that eventually you'll end up reading books about running. There is so much to say about running - from the poetic to the scientific to the sometimes dry litany of training tips - and it's no surprise that running literature, while not a huge niche, at least has a deep bench. I started reading books about running by way of audiobooks. There's not much that will hype you up more about running on mile 8 of a long run than listening to all the benefits of running or all the love elite runners have for the sport. Check out my favorite running books I've read and the books I want to read!
Even though NC might not be a mecca for winter sports, here are some spots to try out those cool Winter Olympics moves
Growing up in a place where snow days are called whenever patches of ice form on the road it took me a long time to appreciate winter sports. What is this snow? What is this sled or skate or ski or board? If you've never been exposed to something - anything really, much less frigid temps and an insane urge to go outside and play in the ice - then it can be hard to relate to something. And yet winter sports seem so appealing. Is it the elegance of figure skaters, the frightening speed of luge, or seeing someone seem to fl in the ski jump? And yet the lack of winter weather can make winter sports seem so inaccessible.But not anymore! Check out these hot spots for cold sports in North Carolina!
Clingmans Dome to Jockey's Ridge: 680 miles of trail and over 500 miles of connecting roads
It's always a surprise when I stumble across the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. This summer I will have lived in North Carolina for twenty years and through this whole time the Mountains-to-Sea Trail has been like an old friend who keeps popping up again - someone I knew and liked throughout my life but never got to know intimately even though we share interests and keep rubbing elbows over the years.
A list of trails and greenways to tackle in spring 2018
My friend Kelly (an excellent mentor captain for Fleet Feet running group, Fresh Air Fitness coach and organizer, the awesome gift organizer for Duke Children's Hospital, and the founder of First Pages) is doing something epic this summer: she's running the Bryce Canyon ultra-marathon. She's tackling the 50K course, a rough trail race covering 31 miles in the national park. I am super excited for her and a little envious - I have such a love for running and for hiking, so combining the two and doing trail running just makes sense, so I eagerly volunteered to accompany her on some trail runs. To help her train we've come up with a bucket list of local trails to run.
The Risks and Responsibilities of Writing about the Outdoors
My post on Wednesday was originally intended to provide information about long distance trails - specifically the Appalachian Trail and Mountains-to-Sea Trail - as an introduction for those unfamiliar to long-distance hiking, but a post just vomiting facts and metrics is no fun. Hence, the post on Wednesday turned into a passionate romanticization of long-distance trails. But as much as I wax poetic about the outdoors, I also feel a bit of guilt: I wonder if romanticizing the outdoors does it a disservice - that I am dismissing the dangers of the wilderness, downplaying the difficulty of the trail, or even encouraging others to find these beautiful spaces and disrespect or even defile them - intentionally or not - with cairns, graffiti, trash, or even just a proliferation of tourists with selfie sticks. An influx of people chasing selfies in exotic places for the sake of social media likes frequently brings up the debate regarding sharing the location of scenic spots - do you share the secret and risk it being overrun, or do you risk being a snob and keep your favorite places hidden?
My little angel and a recap of January 2018 goals
I don't know if you've noticed, but I apparently like to torture my dog in that I like to dress him up in silly costumes. He's just the perfect model for a nice over-the-top styled shoot, am I right? I thought it might be fun to celebrate all my monthly goals this year with a Wegman-esque photo shoot based on seasonal themes, so let's hear it for this month's little cupid!
How long distance trails can become embedded in our psyche
I don't know when I first heard about the Appalachian Trail. It seems like I've always known about it, like it was some seed of knowledge that was embedded deep in my psyche before I was even born, but I must have learned about it at some point. Most likely I was just exposed to bits and pieces of information about the trail and so I learned about it piecemeal. Even the first time I set foot on the trail - on a day hike in Virginia with one of my best friends from college - I hadn't quite grasped the true meaning of the trail. I understood it existed and I understood you could hike it. I even understood that you could thru-hike it if you were crazy enough to love mountains and pain and you disliked showers and soft beds, but I certainly didn't grasp that there was an entire culture of people who lived and breathed the trail.
How to determine what variable is your weakest link in training
The gear-changing workout is all about listening to your body - knowing when to push it and what you need to do to recover. It's knowing your limiting factor. Your limiting factor may be a variety of variables, but if you can identify that limiting factor you can train mindfully and effectively.
