Today I ran 8 miles listening to several Growth Equation podcasts. This is the first time that I’ve ever run to a podcast. I really felt like I needed music. Listening to Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness made me think about so many things that got my mind off running, yet I was listening about other people’s “Why”. Why do they push their bodies when they could just work out for an hour? Why do people continue to compete when they aren’t winning anything? Listening to their podcasts make me feel like I’m on the right path.
But also, the best news is my ankle is 90% better and I ran without pain.
I think November is going to be my favorite month in Tennessee. I love that the forest is wide open now. When I hiked on Saturday with Melani on the Laurel Falls Trail I saw the landscape that just a month ago was a green mountainside of trees. The actual falls lacked a bit of water due very little rain lately but it was a great trail.
I’m officially registered for the Leadville 50 and Leadville 100 for 2023. This is my final attempt to finish Leadville 100 and get the buckle.
In 2019 I spent all my free time training for Leadville. I did everything right, or so I thought. However, I just couldn’t make it past mile 38 on race day. In the fall of 2021 I hired a coach and started training for the race in 2022 and by March I lost all motivation. I couldn’t recover and deferred the race to 2023.
Now it’s Go Time. It’s time to do the work. I live in the perfect place to train – in the mountains. Granted, the true perfect place to train is Colorado, but I’m here in Gatlinburg and will make the best of the Tennessee mountains.
I have no excuses. I have a few things to do:
Do The Work – follow the plan
Lose 20 lbs.
Find training partners
Weight training
I’m a wee-bit still injured from twisting my ankle on the Gatlinburg Trail three weeks ago. My left ankle is still not 100%. I’ve been swimming at the Gatlinburg Community Pool for the last few weeks but it’s closing on Nov 9 for the entire month.
Such a bummer!
I’m also a wee-bit scared running alone in the park with so many trails closed right now due to aggressive bears. Officials are warning people to not hike alone on the trails.
Twin Creeks Trail has been closed for over a month.
This is life as an endurance athlete: there are no ideal conditions. I’ve learned that every day you have to figure it out – how to get the work done, eat right, recover and sleep well. Fifteen years ago all of this seemed a bit easier. At 51, everything is harder: the body doesn’t recover as quickly, I’m slower than ever and the mental game seems to be regressing.
Here are the books I’m reading to help me with the mental game:
I’ll be writing book reviews as I finish them so stay tuned to my blog.
At the end of the day, Everything is Good. Hard. Fun. Difficult. Complicated.
Yesterday I took the dogs on a drive through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My mission: to just drive and enjoy the landscape. This is the first time since moving here that I went into the park with the sole focus of just taking in the beauty instead of searching for a trailhead and hiking to a summit.
It was a perfect day because it was cloudy and raining – and a Monday! Traffic was light and the sun came out a few times. Once in the park I decided to follow the signs to Townsend.
With the rain, the multicolored leaves were on prime display.
Driving back to Gatlinburg
Dogs are not allowed on trails in the park but they can be in the car and get out along the roadside. We got out of the car a few times to sniff and take some pictures.
WinnieGoldie
We arrived in Townsend and discovered that it has more open land and less stores/attraction than Gatlinburg. It is definitely the quiet side of the park. We drove through town, turned around and came home. The only wildlife we saw was a few turkeys on the side of the road.
While I didn’t check off any trails on the GSMNP900 list, I became more familiar with the roads and place names like Metcalf Bottoms. I really did feel like I was in the middle of a wilderness. The trailheads along the way had very little cars. What a peaceful beautiful place to recreate.
As I was driving over Loop Road to avoid traffic on the Parkway, an idea came to my mind to rank all the place I’ve lived.
When I got home I made my list and ranked the best places I’ve lived. As you can see there is a bit of a pattern of living in places where training opportunities are good. I’ve also searched for photos to accompany these best places.
Click on image to enlarge.
I’ve decided not to rank Gatlinburg since I’ve only been here three months.
Concord NH: The city trail systems was one mile from my house. The perfect place to get some vert hiking, trail running and mountain biking. Average Rank: 9.
Hot Sulphur Springs, CO. While I only lived in the town for 6 months, the trails and mountains were very close.
In Tucson, the Friend Factor was high. Making a life-long friend in this hot place was special. Training, specifically winter training, 10.
Granby, Training Factor is high here with Rocky Mountain National Park close to home.
Friend Factor is High for HSS and Granby. My BFF George.
Steamboat Springs, CO. Training Mecca 10. This is where I became a triathlete, trail runner and mountain biker. This is me and my first dog, Abbey at Fish Creek Fall – our go-to everyday hike or snowshoe.
I bought this poster in 1988 when I traveled out west after high school.
Once I got back to NH, after I thought I’d live forever in Colorado, I framed this poster and it has traveled with me every move.
I’ve always loved the quote, and after spending time in the Tetons, and the Jackson Hole Hostel I get it. Keep Wyoming Wild. Keep all beautiful places wild.
I love the composition of the photo: dark clouds over the Tetons, a little bit of light.
There are no beautiful blue skies and pastoral landscapes on my walls. I’m no decorator but the wall hangings in the countless homes, apartments and condos I’ve lived in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Colorado, Arizona and now Tennessee, all mean something to me. I seem to love dark-ish, black and white photos and illustrations; yet somehow I’m still hopeful.
Tonight, for the first time, I research the writer and the quote and find out this:
“God bless Wyoming and keep it wild” was written in the last entry in the diary of 15-year-old Helen “Becky” Mettler, a Bar B-C guest from New Jersey in 1925. She fell 100 feet to her death in Taggart Canyon.
Ouch.
A girl from New Jersey – out west. Sounds a lot like Pam Houston. A writer who wrote about growing up in New Jersey and couldn’t wait to get out west.
My favorite story from Houston is the one about her dog Jackson in the book: A Little More About Me, the essay Home Is Where Your Dogs Are:
“My dog Jackson died today. He was my first dog, and I bought him at a pet store when he was only eight weeks old. We’ve been together more than fourteen years, which makes our relationship the longest successful relationship of my life.” I get that.
She also writes in this story about a place they lived in Fraser, Colorado. Fraser is a place I know pretty well and it is known as the “icebox of the nation” until a city in Minnesota won a court case. But I digress.
Houston fell in love with the west and wrote about it for years.
I get that, too.
But the poster makes me long to go see the Tetons again. I skied Jackson Hole during my Steamboat stint but haven’t hiked those mountains since 1988. It’s time.
While 2023 is still going to have many racecations, it’s time for some old time hiking and driving the west to see things.
I love the west, the stories, travel, the adventure.
This week, my NH hiking buddy, Ross is out west taking photos of Yellowstone and the Tetons and it got me thinking.
I need to go see these places again.
If I’m not living there I must travel there and be a part of it so I called Mark and made a plan to go there. I told him tonight, let’s go in the next two week or next May. He said without saying it: let’s go next year.
Or revisiting places I’ve been, but want to see as an adult or with a different perspective.
