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

This one's a deeper episode, and I'm not dancing around it. A few seconds of a basketball play turned into a suspension, death threats, and racial slurs aimed at Alyssa Thomas... and it says everything about how black women get treated in the spaces they built. I'm connecting what just happened in the WNBA to what I see at every trail race start line, because representation isn't a feel-good word. It's about who feels safe showing up at all. And white women, I'm talking to us... we have a job to do.

• What actually happened between Alyssa Thomas and Caitlin Clark (the real play, not the screenshots)
• Why the league punished the noise instead of the play, and what message that sends
• The "angry black woman" label, and who gets called an enforcer instead
• What a young black girl learns when nobody on the course looks like her
• Real actions to take... starting small, speaking up, and getting uncomfortable

The trail community brags about doing hard things. This is one of them.

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
• Video of AT/CC incident
• AT speaks about threats
• Running While Black by Alison Mariella Désir
• Say More About That And Other Ways to Speak Up, Push Back, and Advocate for Yourself and Others by Amber Cabral
• Black runners to follow:
  • Mirna Valerio
  • Latoya Snell
  • Kathrin Baeza 

Nobody signs up for coaching to get judged. But a lot of us show up bracing for it anyway.

In this episode, I'm breaking down what coaching actually is, what people get wrong about it, and what your job is as an athlete versus what mine is as your coach.

• Why so many women brace for judgment before a coaching relationship even starts
• The difference between sugarcoating a hard week and being honest about it
• What "showing up honest" actually looks like, even when the run was just shitty
• Why context matters more than perfection when life blows up your training
• My job as your coach, and the things it's not my job to tell you
• How I ask the questions you don't know you need to answer yet
• Why a plan built around who you wish you were never actually works
• The new "how we work together" agreement, and why I finally wrote it down

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

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About

Your watch doesn't know you. It doesn't know you had a rough night of sleep, that you're in your luteal phase, that you've been stressed all week, or that you're climbing in 90-degree heat. It just spits out a number. And yet somehow, that number has the power to make or break a run.

In this episode, I'm going deeper on one of my favorite coaching topics: why your body doesn't know your pace, but it absolutely knows your effort. We've talked about RPE before, but this time I'm getting under the hood on the actual physiology, what's happening in your body when conditions stack up and your pace drops, and why that's not a bad run. That's just your body doing its job.

• What heat, humidity, sleep, stress, terrain, altitude, hormones, and fueling actually do to your pace (and why none of it means you're falling apart)
• Why chasing pace in your training blocks is quietly undermining your fitness
• How VO2 max, lactate threshold, and endurance blocks each connect back to effort-based training
• What to do with all of this information when you're standing at the trailhead about to lace up

Effort is the stimulus. Pace is the result. You control one of those. Let's talk about which one.

Links & Resources for This Episode

• Episode 4: Your watch is lying to you: Ditch the data (RPE vs HR)
• Episode 19: Your Watch Is Being Dramatic: A Trail Runner’s Guide to Chill
• Episode 31: Effort Over Pace: Their Effort is Not Your Effort
• 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 didn't build a love for climbing. I just finally stopped being surprised that it was already there.

In this episode, I'm answering a question from one of my athletes and friends — how did I actually build my capacity for vert? Were there numbers that scared me? How did I get here?

• How I fell in love with climbing before I even knew what vert was
• Rim to rim in the Grand Canyon three weeks into trail running
• Showing up to races without looking at the elevation profile — and what that taught me
• When I actually started paying attention to vert and how it changed my training
• How I structure long runs and training blocks around elevation profiles
• Why poles took so long to enter my life and what changed when they did
• Getting faster near the top — not slower — and what that means
• What climbing actually feels like and why it's always been fun, even when it's hard

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

You asked, I answered. This episode is a full Cocodona 250 Q&A — your questions about training, gear, crew, the mental game, recovery, and everything in between. If you've been curious about what actually goes into running 253.4 miles, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• How long my training block actually was and what peak weeks looked like
• Heat prep, shoe swaps, and nutrition that held up (mostly)
• Crew and pacer logistics — and how half my pacers weren't even planned
• The mental side: mantras, doubts, and aid station to aid station thinking
• Recovery timeline and what finishing this changed for me

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

Made it! The final stretch. Mile 176 to the finish line at Heritage Square in Flagstaff.

This episode covers the solo section through the Foxboro habitat where I was navigating a tracker scare, chatting with a woman from the UK named Jen, and trying out AirPods for exactly 30 minutes before deciding music just isn't my thing out there. Then Amanda, my very first athlete and longest client, shows up at Munds Park to pace me through the coldest night of the entire race. We talk about who she was when she first came to me and who she was that night in the dark, and I will just say she crushed it.

From there it's Cat coming back for a second leg, egg and bacon burritos at Walnut Canyon that I absolutely inhaled, Meg pacing me seven miles we both remember fondly, and Wayne, if you've watched the Golden Hour you know, who we passed about a mile from Wildcat Hill. Then it's the gear check, the buckle moment I didn't see coming, and 19 miles solo over Mount Elden in the dark with nothing but a headlamp and some hallucinations for company.

In this episode:

• The solo Foxboro section, a tracker scare, and 30 minutes of AirPods before I gave up on music entirely
• Amanda, my first athlete, pacing me through the coldest night and every dirt nap in between
• Crying on a hill because I was just tired and Amanda not saying a word, just keeping me moving
• Renee at Fort Tuthill, five minutes before her own race start, and why that hug hit so hard
• Cat coming back a second time knowing she'd miss my finish for her son's piano recital
• Egg and bacon burritos at Walnut Canyon and the moment I just completely lost all table manners
• Meeting Meg for the first time at mile 227 and how easy it was
• Wayne and the ultra lean, if you know you know
• The gear check guy who told me to go get my buckle when I left the aid station
• Mount Elden in the dark, alone, hallucinating ships, legs shaking on the edge
• Left on Birch and everything that came after it
• What 253.4 miles actually taught me about time goals, gratitude, and showing up for people

Enjoying the show?

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend. Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you don’t miss future episodes. Ratings and reviews help more than you know.

• 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

Mile 75 to mile 176 — and this stretch had everything.

In this episode, I'm taking you from Whiskey Row through Watson Lake, across Fain Ranch, up and over Mingus Mountain in the dark, down into Jerome, across the Verde River, through red rock country, and up the Hangover Trail into Schnebly Hill. We cover 18 hours of puking, a sodium crisis caught mid-climb, dirt naps on cold ground, hallucinations that were equal parts terrifying and fascinating, and the moment my mind couldn't push my legs any faster and I had to accept that moving forward was enough.

In this episode:

• Leaving Whiskey Row still sick and the GPX file that sent a small crowd of us the wrong direction
• The low point at Fain Ranch and the one time I asked Greg out loud: can I do this?
• Courtney showing up early and hitting 100 miles for the first time
• Mingus Mountain in the dark, sodium awareness, and a descent that humbled me
• Jerome, the Verde River crossing, and 26 miles with Kat through red rock country
• Hot dogs with extra mustard, hallucinations, and the longest dirt nap of the race
• The Hangover Trail at mile 160+ on no sleep and Kristen talking me through every single step
• And the thing I keep coming back to: find your people. And when it's their turn, show up in the dark for them.

Enjoying the show?

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend. Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you don’t miss future episodes. Ratings and reviews help more than you know.

• 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

Day one of Cocodona 250 covered 75 miles — through the Sonoran desert, up into the Bradshaws, through the first night, and into Whiskey Row in Prescott. And honestly? It still feels like it happened in a completely different race. Maybe that's what 27 hours on your feet alone does to your brain.

In this episode, I'm taking you from packet pickup and a pre-race cry-and-puke in the van all the way to Greg's face on Whiskey Row. We cover the Cottonwood Creek gauntlet, the Senator Highway ridgeline at night, the first sunset of the race, running through black bear country in the dark, puking somewhere after Arrastra Creek, a volunteer who tucked me in with three blankets, a dirt nap that ended when my brain said "bear," and finally — legs throbbing too much to sleep in a real bed but still moving forward.

In this episode:

• Pre-race logistics, packet pickup, and the crew/pacer spreadsheet that was already doomed
• Greg as crew chief — what that actually looks like from mile zero
• The Cottonwood Creek mandatory water carry and why that first section is the hardest terrain on the course
• Early pacing discipline and why it matters more in a 250 than anywhere else
• Poles, gels, chews, bananas, and the electrolyte mistake I didn't know I was making yet
• The Senator Highway ridgeline...first sunset, first night, first solo dark miles
• Melissa...the training run stranger turned puking-and-rallying partner through the Bradshaws
• Camp Wamatochick, the volunteer with three blankets, and 30 minutes in an anti-gravity chair
• Hitting Prescott pavement, a stranger with Tums, and locals handing out candy bars and Hot Hands at sunrise
• Changing into the H1s and what shoe rotation actually looks like in a multi-day race
• And the moment I realized: I'm still here. I'm still moving. That's enough.

Enjoying the show?

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend. Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you don’t miss future episodes. Ratings and reviews help more than you know.

• 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