As I sit here today thinking about 2014 and dreaming about 2015, I started to get frustrated. I realized I have not accomplished my 2013 nor my 2014 Cool Impossibles. At first I let negativity take over. I could choose to see myself as a loser, a pathetic excuse of a runner who's too weak to accomplish her goals. But then I flipped my thinking around. Sure, its still a bummer that I didn't achieve my CI's, but in the last 2 years, with the help of Eric's book and this wonderful community, I…

I've just recently started looking into duathlons. About a month ago I found one that was a sprint distance on mountain bike trails. I tentatively drove up this morning, not sure how I was going to do, especially nervous about how fast the times from last year were. I know I shouldn't care about my time but if I'm honest, there is a small part of that doesn't want to be dead last. But someone's gotta be right?

We had lots of rain yesterday and I thought they might cancel the race.…

No, not the Danica Patrick version! I'm talking about my father. He is a big part of the reason that I've been a runner for almost 23 years. He has been a runner since he was 13 years old- he's told me stories of taking a lawn mower to a field across the street from where he lived and mowing a personal track, hidden among the tall weeds. He says that he loved to go run and run after school, where no one could see him, the smell of the sweet hay filling his nose, and all his worries would…

Alright, I’m going to admit something that I would rather not, but in the interest of being smarter and improving my running, I feel it is necessary. I read TCI last year and jumped right into Phase 1. But, Karen, you don’t have a HR monitor. “That’s ok”, I said to myself, “I can run based on feel.” Bad idea #1. 6 weeks into Phase 1 my heel and arch started feeling tight and sore. “I’m sure that’ll go away.” Bad idea #2. Continued to train, since the pain was only bad first thing in the…