Chasing Kris

Johnny Cash Bridge, Folsom CA This is the first week of my Training Plan Mashup.  There are 19 days until my first event in this series, Granite Head Trails and Ales.  That race is 11 trail miles up and down the western shore of Folsom Lake along Granite Bay's entrance with a steep but short climb up and over Mooney Ridge at the end. I'm going with the idea that a solid base will carry me through the trail race and continue to keep me on track for surviving Ragnar.  The biggest unknown for me is the effect of running consecutive, yet separate, runs over the course of a short time period.  My longest distance ever run at a time has been a half marathon.  For Ragnar, I'll be totaling 20 miles in 36 hours. The Tamoxifen I continue to take (it has been prescribed for me for the next 10 years to keep any lingering breast cancer cells at bay) is still causing me some grief.  I'm more sensitive to caffeine and alcohol.  I sleep a lot less because of the hot flash

2018 is going to be a banner year for me.  So far, I've kicked ass on Breast Cancer with my final chemotherapy and surgeries ending in April.  With that task completed, I've thrown myself into recovery and rehabilitation mode.  I signed up for a bunch of races while I was sitting through my chemotherapy infusion in March.   Dirty Secret Trail Race was my first run, at 5.8 miles I thought the short distance race would be an excellent motivator (and it was!).  A sweet deal came across my Facebook page for Gold Country Half Marathon in early June, so I grabbed it.  An Independence Day local tradition in my running group is the Firecracker Trail Run on the 4th of July.  It's an 8 mile out and back race with elevation that kicks my butt every year, but I did it anyway.  At the end of July I survived the short distance Blood Sweat and Beers Race , which also kicked my butt, but I did it anyway.  In August, my husband and I celebrated 27 years of marriage with an outstand