Saturday morning group run with the crazies.  This particular morning it is just three of us.  We ascended Tenderfoot trail at a hasty clip.  Bright blue sky peeking through as we navigated elongated switchbacks up to Mountain Home Inn.  Then the frolicking roll of Troop 80 trail as the path weaves along the upper edge […]

Couldn’t start this day on a stairmaster, or in spin class, or anywhere in a gym.  It’s my birthday (58), so hopped on my bike for pre-dawn ride into the City.  Song stuck in my head is the Proclaimer’s classic, “500 miles”.  You don’t choose to have a song stuck in your head, the song […]

Vista Point Run.   I live 15 miles from work, a short drive or hour long bike ride over my beloved Golden Gate  bridge.  Too long to run on a weekday, at least all the way.  But we’ve figured out a way to make the most of it.  Running halfway home, where a co-worker’s spouse picks […]

It goes without saying that training for a race like the Bridger is a huge time and emotional commitment.  Roughly 200 hours at the gym, running and biking in preparation for what I hope will be a 5  and a half hour race.  Crazy?  Irrational?  Waste of good time, of a good life? Fortunately, I’ve […]

Jogged seven miles in semi-darkness along the bike path that skirts the tidal lagoon at the edge of Richardson Bay.  Headlamp and bright yellow rain jacket to protect me from early morning bike commuters, listening to music on my Beats to soften the experience.    Passed several walkers from the Redwoods, a nearby residence for […]

Had dinner last night with friends, including two of my Saturday morning running buddies.  From the sounds of what I’m doing and planning to do this year (Dipsea, Double Dipsea, North Face Half Marathon, and, of course, the Bridger), I may seem like a bad-ass for a 57 year old, but in comparison to my […]

Sacagawea.  Even the name sounds intimidating.  Rising from the plateau twenty miles west of Bozeman, the peak of Sacajawea is the first major hurdle on the Bridger.   After getting up around 5am and hitching rides to the starting line, runners shiver in clumps in the pre-dawn chill at Fairy Lake (6,000 feet) waiting to start […]

The wonders of modern life–I’m emailing my trainer from 37,000 feet as I head off on a two day business trip.  Need to let her know that I went to gym today and, like a good student, had a boring, but presumably good, eighty minute workout in Zone 2, the moderate heart rate and fat […]

We sat down at the coffee table in the brightly colored lounge.  My trainer opened her iMac and launched some charts and graphs, her hair back in a neat bun, peering at me over her rectangular glasses with a wry smile. She could have been my accountant, I thought to myself, about to present an […]