I'm back from Europe and I finally get to tell you all about the Tour du Mont Blanc... 10 days circling Mont Blanc (around it, not up it), about 105 miles and 33,000 feet of climbing through France, Italy, and Switzerland. This one has everything: the logistics of booking through a company, huts with beer and Coke in the middle of nowhere, the wonderful humans I met from all over the world, and the day 9 ladders that had me crying for 30 minutes before I climbed them anyway.

• Booking through a company vs. DIY, and why we chose Adventure Base
• What to actually pack (yes, you need poles... and how to fly with them)
• Hut life: refuge dinners, hiking beers, and half board explained
• The exposed ladders, my fear of heights, and the advice from a stranger I needed to hear
• A trail etiquette rant... please step aside, people
• How to train for 10 back-to-back mountain days (you don't have to be an ultrarunner)
• The real lesson: take your days, unplug, and find the thing that's for YOU

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Several pics of the ladders can be found in this blog or this YouTube.
• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here

The race is over, the crowd is gone, and everything is quiet again... and that quiet can feel really loud. It's been about eight weeks since Cocodona, and I finally named what I've been feeling: post-race blues. Except mine don't look like what everybody talks about. No restless "what's next" searching, no beating myself up over my time goal... just fog, fatigue that doesn't add up, and a flatness I didn't see coming. So I'm sharing all of it, because if coaches expect honesty from their athletes, we've got to show up the same way.

In this episode:

• Why my post-race blues looked nothing like the version I'd always heard about
• The sneaky symptoms... brain fog, weird fatigue, emotional flatness, and the good cry that finally named it
• The physiology behind it: stress hormones, the dopamine drop, and why recovery takes months, not weeks
• How I'm actually recovering... doing the minimum, protecting my promises, and letting the rest wait
• Why this isn't just about 200-milers... it can follow any big thing, running or not

You're not broken, you're not failing at recovery. You did something really hard, and now your body wants rest.

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here

I'm off hiking around Mont Blanc while you're listening to this, but I couldn't leave y'all hanging...so today we're talking about the two extremes I see all the time as a coach: doing too much and doing too little. Sometimes in the same athlete, in the same training block. We're human, life happens, and both extremes usually come from the same place...not trusting the plan, or not trusting yourself.

In this episode:

• Why training guidelines (yes, even the Koop book) are guidelines, not gospel
• The sneaky ways we overdo it...feeling good and adding more, chasing elite workouts, following a friend's plan
• What athletes won't always tell their coach, or themselves
• The skip-and-shame spiral, and why double stacking runs is never the answer
• Building a plan for your real life, not your aspirational one

The plan done mostly right, most of the time...that's what gets you to the start line ready.

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Follow me on Instagram
• Visit my website: www.sunrisetrailscoaching.com
• Want to work together? Learn about 1:1 Coaching
• Free guide: What’s In My Pack? Download here