When I was in London for a few days with my son Orion after the 2016 Keswick Mountain Festival, we stopped in at the Charing Cross Road Foyle's Books and its overwhelming kilometers of shelves. As much as I wanted half the books in the store, we agreed to limit ourselves to one book each. My choice … Continue reading Goals
At midday on August 3rd, day 3 of my Arctic Trail Run, I emerged from what felt like an interminable 25 km stretch that alternated between cruising through acres of fjellbjørkeskog -- forests of gnarled mountain birch, stumbling through thickets of overgrown willow canes, and feeling the bounce underfoot of sunken bridges crossing bogs nearly without … Continue reading What does success look like?
Under a low gray sky and into a steady soaking rain at 9:30 on the morning of August 1st, I set off from the Den Norske Turistforening / DNT hut at Ny Sulitjelma, planning a run of 50k by day's end. After climbing the 400 meters to a high pass between Norway and Sweden, I soon … Continue reading The Resolution of Experience: The 2017 Arctic Trail Run
The countdown is on -- wheels up for Scandinavia on July 16th, and Climate Run 2017 gets underway on the morning of August 1st! We've been scouring online and paper maps of Norway, Sweden, and Finland to make sure every one of the 800 kilometers is accounted for. Much of the trail is visible in hi-res … Continue reading Ready? …Set? …Run!
On Monday at about 5:00 pm, I took off for my first run with a full pack along the Monroe Skyline section of Vermont's Long Trail. I followed the LT on a roughly 20-mile out-and-back section south from Appalachian Gap across some of the state's highest peaks: Mount Ellen, Lincoln Peak, and Mount Abraham. The … Continue reading Field Testing
On my morning run today, knowing I might need some external motivation, I listened to last year's interview with Sally McRae by Julia Hanlon on Julia's Running on Om podcast. My tired legs may have yielded somewhat slower miles on that run, but Sally's thoughtful reflections on her Western States 100 training led me onward … Continue reading What do we love?
Dragon and I finished up a long training block yesterday with a run back and forth across the Presidential Range in New Hampshire's White Mountains -- earning a 1000 mile badge from Run the Year 2017 and racking up a classic 8-week progression. Never before have I cherished an upward trending graph so much. 🙂 … Continue reading progression
On the morning of August 1st, I'm planning to head out from Sulitjelma, Norway on the Nordkalottruta, bound for the Swedish border and my first campsite midway between the two lakes, Vastenjaure and Akkajaure, approximately 40 miles beyond the start of the trail. With only 8 weeks to go, I'm settled into a training routine … Continue reading 8 Weeks until the Arctic Trail Run & Matching Fundraiser!
With the transition from the spring to summer semesters here at Sterling College, the trails have dried out, the sun rises earlier, and it's been easier to find a few more hours in the week to focus on training. The Sterling running team has started 5:00 am summer practices three times each week, which has helped … Continue reading Goals
There are just under 3,000 hours left before I set out on my 500-mile run on the Arctic Trail in northern Scandinavia in August. I like thinking about the time in hours: I can visualize and wrap my mind around an hour pretty easily, whereas 4 months can seem a lifetime away. If I think … Continue reading 3,000 hours
Climate Run 