Stacey 2.0

It has come to my attention that whilst my van was running away at Ragnar Del Sol, my best friend and her sister-in-law (both in the other van) decided to set the goal of completing Ironman in 2016. Apparently it is expected that I participate in these shenanigans with them. A couple of weeks have passed and I find myself just as indecisive about the whole thing as when I first heard about it.  Why am I waffling?  I think there are good arguments to do it and good arguments to hold off, or to just be a great spectator.  It's been a weird feeling for me though.  I'm pretty sure if I committed to it, and was able to train for it, I could finish.  So, for the first time, I'm not sitting around worried that I just can't accomplish something, and that's a pretty great feeling.  I was also kinda-sorta worried that I might somehow lose my identity as a "runner".  I've been making some small but incremental progress this year and I don't want to lose m...

Oops.  I haven't posted since October?  Like all of us, the holidays were pretty hectic, and then I took this stupid MySQL online class during some of the heaviest training weeks of the year.  I had to let something slip during that time, so it ended up being this.  Then I had a few weekends of races and now, things will be kinda sorta quiet...  until March. Since the sprint triathlon, my major races in 2014 included the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas half marathon , the Thanksgiving Tryptophun Rhun 6 hour race, the Desert Classic 30k , and Across the Years (24 hours). I didn't post the Vegas race in my "upcoming races" at the time because I have a weird thing about strangers knowing when I'm not at home...  It was my first Rock n' Roll event ever.  My best friend was in Vegas for some work conference and I met her there, along with her cousin-in-law.  It was fun, but packed, as I understand most Rock n' Roll events tend to be; and unexpectedly cold...

Last Saturday, October 11, I participated in the Mesa Sprint Triathlon and my first triathlon of all time.  My day would consist of a 400m swim, 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run.  For anyone who knows me, I was not looking forward to this.  The joke had been, "my first triathlon would be my last triathlon"; swimming in general had been something difficult for me to really enjoy doing.  I'm also a bit scared to ride in traffic on the bike during training so I tend to shy away from it for that reason.  I couldn't imagine how I was going to like this, but I needed to overcome whatever was holding me back.  Fear, pessimism, lack of confidence?  My best friend was doing it too - not her first triathlon, but something she started within the past year or so - and she has the power to basically get me to sign up for almost anything.  Photo Credit to L Ellis The swim was easily the most chaotic event of the day, but thankfully it doesn't last lo...

My top three obsessions in life at the moment are (in order of importance): Training to run a half marathon in under 2 hours. Sherlock . Training for my first sprint triathlon. Which is an interesting order, because what will happen is (in chronological order): I'll run out of Sherlock to watch. My first sprint triathlon is in October. My next half marathon is in November. Today was the first tempo/pace related run of the training plan, and the easiest way I thought I could accomplish this was to run it at home, after work, on the treadmill.  The plan called for 8 miles:  2 slow miles, 4 miles at an 8:50-9:10 pace, and 2 slow cool down miles.  Running on the treadmill can be pretty daunting, so what to do to pass the time?  Watch Sherlock, Season 3, Episode 2 during my run. What a great episode.  Dr. John Watson is getting married!  Sherlock is the best man!  I have 2 miles under my belt, then 3 miles, then 3.3 miles...  and I...

I've been slacking on my writing, among other things.  For the past couple of months, I have been in training mode for my first trail, first 6-hour endurance race.  At the time I registered, I had in my mind that I was going to do 50k in this race.  After all, 6 hours is only one hour longer than my marathon time, so what's 4-ish more miles in another hour?  So the training plan I was following was for a 50k, having me run 5 days a week, doing cross-training on my "off" days, and putting in some crazy miles on the weekends.  This is all taking place during the months of April, May, and June. Come race day, I had so much fun.  But my God, I hated training for it. The race was Solemates' CYA (standing for "Cool Your Ass") 6/12/24 and 100 Mile endurance race in Prescott, AZ.  The general idea was, it would be cooler to run in Prescott in July than running in Phoenix in July, and I wanted an opportunity to do a long run sometime during the summer. ...

On May 3rd (hey, I've been busy!) I had the opportunity to volunteer for the Cinco de Miler race in Glendale - a 5k, 5 mile, and 1 mile "Sombrero Shuffle" taking place at Westgate.  I decided to opt out of running for once (read: not in the budget) and I wanted more volunteer experience in pursuit of my future job as race director.  I chose to be the person on the bike that leads the lead runners on the course, to make sure they know where to go and clear the way so that person can run their best possible race.  The race director needed one more volunteer for this job so I talked my father-in-law into it too as he's a pretty experienced cyclist.  I would lead the Sombrero Shuffle and 5k, he would lead the 5 mile race. Before any of the races began, we did get a map briefing of the various courses, but neither one of us had actually gone out to ride the route(s).  Now, I have been a participant in many races, but I have never been the lead runner in ...

I think I have finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up.  In this case, "growing up" means finally figuring out what I should be doing in my career at age 32 (almost 33), post-college, post-MBA, and post-working-in-a-professional-capacity since about 2003. I want to be a race director.  A race director specifically for races you can do with your dog.   Yes, I am being serious. When I started training for my first 5k, I was training for a race I could do with Kano.  I would joke that if anything went wrong, at least he'd be there to drag me to the finish.  But honestly, it was one of the best things we've ever done together.  And there is a very strong possibility I might not have done it without him.  I just wasn't that into running at the time.  (Now I guess I kind of am.  I signed up for my first ultramarathon this summer - 6 hour race!  Not with Kano, though, unfortunately!)  Just like dogs that love the walk, Kan...