Hello, everyone! I hope you are staying healthy and safe during the COVID pandemic. Thankfully, my little family has avoided the virus thus far. We’ve done our part “social distancing” and have had a lot of quality time together. It’s been a tough, unusual year without my races and travel, my kids’ little league and other activities, and gatherings with family and friends. The world has changed so much in such a short time, and nobody is unaffected. I’ve been thinking a lot about Staying Healthy and Fit in the Covid-19 Era. It’s not all about physical health and physical fitness. It’s been a r ..read more

Today, I’m thankful. Yes, it’s that time of year – tomorrow is Thanksgiving after all. We know it because our inboxes are flooded with emails that say things like “Black Friday Starts NOW!”, and “Cyber Week is HERE!”. Tomorrow we’ll take our day to be with family or friends or ourselves, and be thankful. We’ll pass the stuffing and take turns going around the table stating what we are thankful for. We pick one thing, we name it. But it’s more than that. It’s the “giving” in ThanksGIVING that gets neglected. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so incredibly thankful. I could say all the typical ..read more

Apparently we’re finally going to get some fall weather in the DC area. It’s been an endless summer, but I’m looking forward to fall – and most especially: fall running. There’s something about the humidity being turned down a notch, and the temperatures getting down below 80 degrees, that makes me itching to go for a run. And so far, we haven’t really had that weather to give me that feeling. We’ve had hot, humid, a tease of fall, and then hot and humid. No fall running weather at all! I’ve suffered through a long summer of running, but fall is finally here. I started running when I ..read more

Happy new year! It’s time to kick off 2019 here in this space – it’s been too long! It’s no secret that 2018 was a year of change for me. I posted this at the start of 2018: And wow, it certainly was. I never could have predicted all that 2018 would throw at me. As I’ve mentioned, life is a series of phases and changes and I’ve been through a lot of them. Not just in 2018, but in the past few years. Just off the top of my head… I’ve made a career transition and am now self-employed. I’ve gotten divorced. I’ve navigated the world of dating in my 40s, which is very different from when I was in ..read more

Everything is a phase. Yesterday I was asked to give a new mom some advice, and this is what I say at those moments. Everything is a phase. It helps me realize that no hard time lasts forever, and also to savor the good phases. But it’s not just about parenting or motherhood, it really holds true for life in general. Life is constantly changing and evolving, and so are we as humans. Hopefully evolving towards becoming better humans – better friends, partners, citizens of the world, along with finding our happiness and pursuing our passions along the way. So far in 2018, I have had new phases ..read more

You might have encountered runners with injuries. And you may have witnessed firsthand how cranky they can get. It’s a thing. I haven’t really talked about it much, but this past fall I had an injury and couldn’t run for a while. It happened in Kona when I was there for the IRONMAN World Championship, the night before the race. I had this freak thing happen to my toe and although I can’t say it was a broken toe, it was really badly bruised and possibly fractured toe. I couldn’t bend my toe, it hurt to touch my toe, and it hurt to walk in certain shoes. And… I couldn’t run. Let’s just say… I wa ..read more

Running in the cold: with the right layering system and a few precautions, it’s totally doable. And wow, it’s been cold lately! In the past, we’ve had polar vortexes, we’ve had Snowmageddons, and now we’ve had a bomb cyclone. A bomb cyclone?! This latest new weather term is meant to scare us inside, but life must go on — we have running to do and races to train for! While our temperatures in the DC area haven’t been as extreme as some more northern states, it’s been pretty frigid. I’m pretty bold when it comes to running in the cold, but I’ll admit that I didn’t run outside in 2 degree weathe ..read more

The new year always offers the feeling of a fresh start, a fresh perspective. A blank canvas upon which to write a new chapter of your story. I’ve been reflecting on what I want my 2018 “story” to include. Last year, my fitness goals were so clear – I had IRONMAN Lake Placid 2017 etched into the schedule since July 2016. It gave me direction and focus, and everything I did revolved around that goal. I don’t have a date circled on the calendar in 2018 that my life and training is revolving around. I always knew I wanted to do another Ironman, I’m definitely not one-and-done. I had picked one o ..read more

If you’ve read my blog before, you’ll have noticed that I love trying new running shoes. I vary my shoes depending on what I’m training for, or the workout of the day – track vs. distance. But I started to notice over the past couple of year that the shoe I keep going back to for the races that matter are Mizuno Wave Riders. About this time last year, I reviewed the Mizuno Wave Rider 20 and told you that they were awesome. I considered them my Goldilocks of running shoes, and that feeling didn’t wane as I took on more running and triathlon training. Despite running in a few other shoes, I ende ..read more