My Active Adventures

First of all, let me dispel your first thought.  I am not at all discouraged or upset about DNF'ing in this one.  I'm sure that's your assumption since normally that's the reaction, but not for this one!  This was the first organized bike tour that I've taken part in.  When I ran my first triathlon earlier this month I realized how poor my swim & bike training had been, so since race day I have been working much harder on both of these areas.  Dare I say it, I've even started to enjoy cycling!  Running & swimming I still find more enjoyable, but I've definitely taken some steps towards loving the bike time much more.  I've been riding more regularly, but my miles have been sticking at around the 10-25 miles I've been at.  I've been feeling more comfortable on the bike so I've been thinking about the fact that it's time to bump up my long ride miles.  Then, as if on queue, my friend Larry Long posted that he had signed up for the...

I've learned a lot of lessons this year.  Some good, some not so good.  But the important thing is to take the lessons and adjust accordingly. I'm not in good enough shape for the kind of training I'm attempting. I don't eat properly to fuel my workouts. I do better when I incorporate different activities along with running. (swimming, cycling, kayaking, weight training, etc) I'm still capable of matching or beating my marathon PR (4:36:20) if I trained for it. I don't really like back-to-back long runs. Too much road running with no trails is monotonous. Too much trail running with no roads is monotonous. I really need to improve my comfort & performance in the marathon & 50k distances. I said when I started distance running that I would do it as long as it was fun and didn't start to feel like work.  For the most part it has been fun, but the last several weeks have had me reexamining things a little.  It's begun to start feel lik...

I know after my race report I wrote yesterday for the Psycho Psummer Trail Run many of you are thinking I'm a little discouraged by how the race went.  I've always said on here that if I'm not honest this blog needs to be shut down, so I laid it out there.  I was pretty unhappy with that race and I included those feelings in the report.  But I want to express how I've been feeling about things in general lately and make sure you all see that the race did not deter my attitude.  The last few months have been challenging, but amazing!  Some things have been great, some horrible; new worlds have opened and new goals created.  To think my attitude has turned negative after this race or to think that I am discouraged by one race couldn't be further from the truth! My much more colorful calendar (click for larger view) First of all, I've opened up my world to many new things and new activities.  I've considered myself a runner for over 2 1/2 years an...

I'll admit, I've been avoiding writing this one.  Normally I get my race reports done within a day or two, but this race has been a tough pill to swallow for me.  I haven't really been very excited about going back and writing about it and reliving it.  Basically, WyCo made me it's bitch.  I want to start by saying this was an AMAZINGLY well run event by Bad Ben (the race director) and a fantastic job by all of the volunteers!  I can't say enough about them.  I'm told that it topped out around 105* during the race and the humidity was very high.  There was a risk running in this heat, but Ben & the volunteers reduced that risk drastically.  The course is an 11.25 mile loop with FIVE manned aid stations and FOUR unmanned water stations!  Nine opportunities for water and/or aid in just 11.25 miles.  THAT is how you set up a race in this weather!  As you will hear in this report, the volunteers were awesome!  They were more ...

Bryan West; Runner, Marathoner, Duathlete, Ultrarunner and now.... Triathlete!  Ever since I started working out & running in November of 2009 I've threatened to attempt a triathlon, but I never had the guts to get in the pool and start swimming.  In April I finally decided this would be the year and I was done making excuses.  I'd never swam before (unless you count goofing off in the pool with friends as a kid) so I didn't even know where to start.  I did the only thing I could think of; I reached out to my Facebook & DailyMile friends.  I knew I had several local triathlete friends so I was banking on one of them knowing where I could get cheap lessons & access to a pool, but what I got was even better!  My friend Heather (fellow Trail Nerd from the B.A.R. run) turns out to have been a collegiate water polo player for San Diego State University and had been a swim instructor for a number of years!  She told me where she swims & pla...

 Freezing on the trails in January Wow, what a crazy 6 months it's been so far this year!!  A lot has changed for me with my running so far this year and it has been amazing.  I started off focusing on marathons and thanks to the accomplishments and inspiration of several friends that focus changed.  I am now in the midst of training for my first 50 mile race (Hawk 50 on 9/8) and my first 100 mile race (Rocky Raccoon 100 on 2/2/13).  My confidence has been increasing as I've been able to add more miles to my training, get better on trails and improve on hills.  I've made new friends, joined new groups and learned quite a lot.   As many of you know, I am a business analyst.  That means I love numbers and tracking numbers.  It's no surprise I have a big spreadsheet that I use to track my numbers!  Here is a month-by-month section of the sheet which highlights some of what I've done so far this year (you can click on the imag...