Catching Up: The Bear Hill Climb Almost a month ago, I ran The Bear race, a 5 mile run up part of Grandfather Mountain. If you've even poked your head in on this blog occasionally, you've more than likely seen me mention it since it's a pretty big deal for me. For years, this race was the reason I ran and the reason I would keep myself in shape at all and this was my sixth year running it. I'm very proud to say that I crushed my previous best time of about 1:03 and posted a

I got up nice and early this morning to get a little 3 miler in. It's typically tough enough to get out of bed knowing I'm going to get outside and run in below 30 degree temperatures, but then I looked outside and saw how foggy it was and was even more discouraged. Fortunately, the fog burned off relatively quickly and I didn't have to feel quite so much like I was running through a half evaporated lake. It feels incredibly good to be back running 4-5 times a week. I had n

I've talked before about how I don't usually like New Years and I think part of that is the bad rap that New Year's resolutions get. Having goals and things you want to change is essential, but New Year's resolutions come off almost as a recurring joke. For the past couple days, I've been thinking a lot about this subject since it's right around the corner and trying to put my finger on why it is that I don't like resolutions for the New Year. Granted, I am positive that t

No, not the fun kind of George Clinton style funk. Today was another of those days that I was just completely not feeling it. Between it being a Sunday, it being the end of the holidays, all my family leaving to head back to their respective homes, and the inordinate amount of holiday food that I've been eating for almost a week; I was in a pretty serious funk this morning. I hit a 3 mile run with some of my family yesterday which was a great way to get primed up for more h

This post has taken me a bit longer to produce than I expected due in part to some holiday traveling, but primarily due to a shift in my focus. Originally, I had been thinking about making this list about stuff that you might forget for a race, but I realized that everyone's routines and gear lists are going to be different so I decided instead to look more at some things to think about when you're going to do a race, particularly in the often dreary weather of winter. Peop

Today was one of those days that it was a serious mental battle as to whether or not I would get up and run. Between not getting as much sleep as I normally do and catching sight of the temperature approaching freezing, I was not too keen on going out for what I had planned to be a 5 or 6 mile day. The impending precipitation in the forecast was another mitigating factor affecting my decision making process. I finally did get out of bed and was still grumbling around decid

I got up nice and early today to get a lift and a run in for the morning. I've been making myself get up earlier and earlier lately, but my 5:45am alarm was not met with much excitement. Still, I was up and lifting before the sun came up, but then a few minutes into my lift, my dad directed my attention to the sunrise. My picture doesn't do it justice, but it was a really nice sunrise and a great view to start the day. The clouds were laid almost perfectly parallel to the

I've been looking forward to today for pretty much two weeks now. Today is the day I got back to running after giving my hamstring some time to heal up and it went about as well as I could have hoped. I got a nice 3 miler in this morning as the sun was coming up and was almost entirely pain free, which is more than I can say for any other run that I've done in over a month, so it certainly feels good to start getting back into some run training. To try and avoid further iss

There's a point in a good workout that is undeniably awesome; maybe half to three-quarters of the way through at one of the more intense parts. I call it the sweet spot. I used to get it mainly in leg press lifts and deadlifts where you just got some heavy weight and the only thing that can possibly exist in your mind is that lift - getting the weight from point a to point b. I've gotten to where I find it in running too if I'm doing a longer run, around 4-5 miles in, I ju

The beginning of the year used to be a somber time to me. For whatever reason, it would be a more reflective and sometimes regretful period. As this year begins to come to a close though, I am getting really amped up for 2015. This New Year, I have some very concrete and ambitious fitness goals, but I also feel that they are realistic and will be fulfilling. I was doing a little research earlier today and I found that Atlanta has a half marathon and 5k on Thanksgiving. I