Dig Deep Endurance, LLC

01/22/2023

Reality check. As my coach would say, “You don’t know what a good race feels like unless you’ve had a bad one.” And, “What would you say to a runner [you’re coaching]?”
Bleh. It’s sucked. I cried. But if I were honest, training the last couple weeks predicted it. When I registered I was in a great place but then…TMI moment…menopause struck with a vengeance. Overnight weight gain, disrupted sleep cycles, starting HRT because those suckers were way off as proven by blood work. I loathe excuses, so I told myself to suck it up, but really I should be as gracious with myself as I would be with someone I’m training. Sometimes $h!+ happens. I could’ve, and almost, pulled off the course when I knew my time was off, but I finished. I let it go in the books 1:20 off my PR. But I also forced my myself to check placement and I was still in roughly the same percentage for my age category and gender so maybe there’s something to accepting where I’m at right now.

09/04/2022

Recently I was listening to a podcast and heard the statement, “Grief is just love with no place to go.” Man that resonated with me. Looking it up after I got home I found the full quote, "It's all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest....

Recently I was listening to a podcast and heard the statement, “Grief is just love with no place to go.” Man that resonated with me. Looking it up after I got home I found the full quote, “It…

06/14/2022

So far June has been a weird month. This morning I’m thinking it all has to do with finding “place.” The 2nd would’ve/should’ve/could’ve been my mom’s 70th birthday. Four plus years after her death I still have some conflicting feelings about how she passed and the years leading up to it. I’m not sure I’ll ever truly have those resolved. What I do know is that with her and my dad both gone and no siblings, I feel displaced, untethered, orphaned....

So far June has been a weird month. This morning I’m thinking it all has to do with finding “place.” The 2nd would’ve/should’ve/could’ve been my mom’s 70th birthday. Four plus years after her death…

05/24/2022

Letting Nature Take Its Course: Last week I had the new experience of watching a dog give birth to ELEVEN puppies. We had somewhat inadvertently bred our male yellow lab with our best friends’ female black lab. When we got the parents as puppies the long range plan had been to mate them after they were two years old. While they technically are now two years old, in an ideal world we were waiting for one more heat cycle, but nature, or instinct, had other plans....

Dad: Barley & Mom: Piper Last week I had the new experience of watching a dog give birth to ELEVEN puppies. We had somewhat inadvertently bred our male yellow lab with our best friends’ female …

04/12/2022

This particular post began as a bunny hop down a few side trails. Here’s to hoping the message still comes through… I recently finished another personal race season, something I usually do opposite of my cross country coaching season. This allows me to be able to focus on my own training without having to work it in around a busier time of year, and also so I’m free to train with the team when needed....

This particular post began as a bunny hop down a few side trails. Here’s to hoping the message still comes through… I recently finished another personal race season, something I usually do opposite…

03/23/2022

A tale of two bike rides... Friday morning my husband was working from home, becoming increasingly frustrated with the database he had to access going down. In the midst of the first lag he texted me a map of a gravel trail around a local large lake. My response: Let’s go! At first he hesitated since he wanted to knock some work out first, but as his frustrations increased he agreed that a break would be good....

A tale of two bike rides… Friday morning my husband was working from home, becoming increasingly frustrated with the database he had to access going down. In the midst of the first lag he tex…

03/07/2022

Change. Not my favorite topic. Last week I was pondering wide open spaces; looking out at horizons that seemed endless with little navigational guides along the way. As I was discussing that thought process with someone, they said, "You're in the 'trembles.'" The" trembles" are what happens when you are trying to move forward in pursuit of new horizons, but you're having to trust others' roles in that process....

Change. Not my favorite topic. Last week I was pondering wide open spaces; looking out at horizons that seemed endless with little navigational guides along the way. As I was discussing that though…

02/28/2022

Grief is a weird and fickle beast, and like the proverbial elephant in the room, it can only be ignored for so long. In a span of less than four years I lost my mom, I moved across town after twenty-one years in the same house, I lost my dad, I had two major surgeries with organ removals, I quit my day job of fifteen plus years, my son graduated college and moved out on his own, and I ended an eight year stint of coaching....

Grief is a weird and fickle beast, and like the proverbial elephant in the room, it can only be ignored for so long. In a span of less than four years I lost my mom, I moved across town after twent…

02/11/2022

Mountain biking the "blue trail" at the Black Hammock Wilderness Area in Oviedo, FL. Video at 2x Speed. This is a location that I have run previously but decided to tackle on the mountain bike today solely for the purpose of capturing the main trail on video to look at as a possible cross country practice course. Not my favorite place to bike, but somewhat easier way to grab the footage for further examination.

Mountain biking the “blue trail” at the Black Hammock Wilderness Area in Oviedo, FL. Video at 2x Speed. This is a location that I have run previously but decided to tackle on the mounta…

02/10/2022

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to run at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, a.k.a. the state course for Florida high school cross country the last several years. The last time I was at this course was fall of 2020 when the high school girls' team I was coaching made it to state. We had also gone up the year prior when our first individual girl made it....

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to run at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, a.k.a. the state course for Florida high school cross country the last several years. The last time I was at…

02/03/2022

The two images above have a couple things in common: one, they were both discovered while out exploring local trails; two, they are both train tracks. Yes, I know, one of them doesn’t really look like train tracks, but when we stumbled upon it after a very early, somewhat long jaunt through the forest, my trail companion said, “Oh look, train tracks.” It’s become a bit of a joke that gets revisited frequently as we explore, but as I was going through photos today, it got me thinking....

The two images above have a couple things in common: one, they were both discovered while out exploring local trails; two, they are both train tracks. Yes, I know, one of them doesn’t really look l…

01/20/2022

I was creating a route through a map program one day and noticed a location I had never seen before, Banana Lake Cemetery. Odd that I've lived and run in this area of Florida for years and years and never saw a cemetery on the corner of a regularly traveled intersection. As I was planning my morning run for today, I thought, "Hmmm, my workout could take me down there, I should see if I can find it."...

I was creating a route through a map program one day and noticed a location I had never seen before, Banana Lake Cemetery. Odd that I’ve lived and run in this area of Florida for years and ye…