i n • p u r s u i t

A couple of days last week I was on the major struggle bus. I told Mike that I was having a really hard time and he asked what I needed. "To be in the mountains!" I said. Well, actually, I probably whined and moaned. And my gracious husband told me to take one day this weekend to head up to the mountains. Its been ages since I've done a difficult hike or trail run...and I haven't exactly been running a lot either. So, naturally, I decided to do one of the most difficult hikes around (according to the reviews on AllTrails). The drive up to Caesar's Head State Park was the perfect way to start. I was already feeling better just listening to music, drinking my favorite tea, and driving up that winding road. After getting all my gear together and filling out the trail card, I hit the trail at 8:30. It was calling for thunderstorms around 1pm, so I knew I had four and a half hours to do the loop. After some quick math, I determined that I needed to keep my pace under 3...

The other day, I came across this old post: What's Your Story? As I was read it, I couldn't help but think, Man! I used to really be able to write. And now, here I am, struggling to string two words together. I don't have to, however, go back to the 2004 archives to remind myself of how bad those posts are. I remember them well enough! If I was able to write about an evening so eloquently, it is the product of practice. Like I tell my six year old all the time, no one is good at something the first time they try. (Which is false, of course, some people are good beginners. But they are outliers.) I really would like to be a better writer again. I have a hankering to pick blogging back up. Not for the sake of blogs today. I have no desire to be monetized. No, I just want to write like I used to. I feel like my blogging started to go to crap when I compared my blog to others. I wanted consistent features. I wanted to be a beauty or fashion blogger. I definitely wanted to be ...

Where: Paris Mountain State Park Distance: 10.3 miles Strava link Thursday brought me something I hadn't had in a while. Bright blue skies and both kids in school. So, of course, I took off to the mountains. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that planning a long run up a mountain was awfully ambitious considering I just had my race last weekend. I decided on my route by doing some math: How much time I had divided by what pace I expected to go. I parked at the first shelters, ran around the lake and up towards Sulphur Springs. Up the mountain, down to North Lake, around the lake, up the tough side of Brissy Ridge, and then back down the mountain again. It was when I was struggling up Brissy Ridge, wanting to really push myself, that I realized how much I missed my Tailwind. I don't think I realized until that point how much I depended on my liquid fuel. Candy is fun, but it doesn't have enough calories! Definitely need to make a new order for...

Race Information Name: Conquer The Rock Date: March 8, 2020 Distance: Bear Crawl 25K Location: Table Rock State Park Website link Strava link Time: 4:32:20 Our story starts the night before the race. I slept terribly! I had been a little nervous all week and, that night, I was very restless. This was my first very serious trail race. I had run 15.5 miles only once before, but not at that kind of elevation! (Granted, it ended up over a mile under that. That is one part of trail races that I still have to get used to.) As soon as my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I hopped out of bed fully dressed. Sometimes I sleep in my running clothes if I have an early start the next day and this was one such night. I guzzled some water, braided my hair, and made myself a peanut butter sandwich. Man, it was hard to eat that sandwich! I had to eat something, but it wasn't easy. I washed it down with a Gridlock (ALDI's monster energy knock-off). You know, breakfast of champions....

I used to hear about people doing triathlons, bootcamps, or even 5k races and I was so freaking impressed. Also pretty intimidated. I never thought I'd be one of those people. One of those fit people who did things like run and wake up early for bootcamp. Ugh. Bootcamp? What kind of crazy person does bootcamp. That sounds AWFUL. Its weird though, y'all, because I am one of those fit people. In the sense that I workout regularly and enjoy it. Not like an instagram fit model who has an amazing body. Because I don't think my belly can recover from these babies. And also, I don't want to control my eating that much. But I have run 13.1 miles. I have biked 20 miles. I have swam one mile.  I have woken up before the summer sun to make it to a bootcamp class and left saying, "That was fun!" And here is the thing!!! I am NOT that impressive. I am not a super fit person. I'm an average girl who decided to try something. Dece...

[ source ] So, today marks the beginning of week #4 that I have been waking up before the sunrise to meet up with three other women and go on a 3-ish mile walk/jog around a local university campus. My alarm clock goes off at 5:30AM (giving me 10 minutes of sleepy time, 5 minutes of getting ready time, and 15 minutes drive time to start out walk by 6AM) which is SO DANG EARLY. It's so early that, as we're getting back into our cars after our three miles, the sky has that sun-kind-of-is-kind-of-isn't-up look to it.  Actually, that was before daylight savings time.  Today, the sun rose after I finished my walk AND went grocery shopping. Oh, did I mention that if we don't show, we owe the group $5? Money is a great motivator for me! [ source ] My main goal in getting up and exercising is not, in fact, the obvious fitness benefits. It's the up and at 'em that I really need. And trust me, nothing wakes you up like a three mile walk in 35º ...

Yes. Erm, well, maybe my Nike+ mini has found her runner's high, but I'm still looking for mine. I'm just happy that she's no longer lounging around playing paddle ball and being bored. I ran again yesterday. As a whole, it was not terrible. Parts of it sure felt terrible, though. I ran 2.45 miles in 30 minutes. And when I say, "I ran," I mean, "I ran a little but mostly walked." Do you run? or do you think that running is a waste of time? Do you wish you could start running but just can't find any motivation? Are you a new runner or a veteran? I'm a new runner, this you know. I'm pretty motivated, but I don't know what movtivates me. I think that it's largely due to wanting to get in the habbit of being fit before I have babies. I don't particularly like running, but I like my running clothes & shoes. I need some new songs to run to, mine bore me. I can run for about 2 minutes tops before I have to slow back down ...

I don't know whether or not I've ever mentioned that I don't like running. I mean, I do NOT like running. At all. But, well, you read my New Year's Resolutions , right? Running, it's on there. So, I went out and bought a pair of Nikes from a legit running store. I bought a Nike+ for my shoe. And now that all of that money has been shelled out to get me started running, I might as well have a go. Because of a huge snow storm that I have yet to blog about, I haven't be able to use my new toys for a whole week. I suppose, technically, I could have gone to the gym. But, really, I get nervous going to the gym--especially doing something for the first time! I'm afraid I'll look stupid and out of place. But, really, no one else cares what I'm doing. They're focused on doing their own thing. Anyway, yeah, I went running. On a treadmill. To be honest, it was mostly walking. But, still, I don't hate life. So, that equals a major success for m...

I don't think I have ever accomplished my New Year's resolutions. Though, I don't think I ever made any significant resolutions. Aside from the yearly, "I shall touch my toes this year!" Which, by the way, I fully plan to do this year. You know that phrase, "new year, new you." Well, this year, that's kind of my resolution. And not just for fitness--for all facets of Tiffany. And taking que from a Glamour tip--I think it was Glamour, at least. BTW, thanks Anne Marie, for giving me your old Glamours. They entertained me while I was sans internets for a whole week. Anyway, the tip was to not go extreme on your resolutions. Example: I would like to do the Couch to 5k program...not run a marathon. In fact, I don't want to run a marathon EVER. So, here are my resolutions. Eat healthier . I have never ever made a resolution in reference to diet because, duh, I'm a skinnie-minnie. And while, in the past, I didn't think I needed it, th...