This one is part training update, part origin story, and part figuring things out in real time.

I’m down in Arizona right now, overheating on purpose, trying to finally solve the thing that’s crushed me at Cocodona 250 for years. Day one. Heat, hydration, sodium, all of it. I’ve known it’s a weakness, but this is the first year I’ve actually committed to fixing it.

So I built a training camp around it.

We get into how I’m thinking about specificity, dialing in calories and sodium per hour, and actually testing everything in the conditions that matter. Not guessing, not hoping, just collecting data and adjusting.

Then we rewind to the beginning. Signing up for the first Cocodona with no idea what I was doing, showing up with one drop bag, living off Skittles and electrolytes I’d never tried before, and somehow figuring it out along the way.

Six years later, this is the first time I’ve treated Cocodona like an A goal. And I think that changes everything.

We also wrap up Outdoor March Madness, talk about why the Appalachian Trail won (controversial), give out prizes, and get into a bigger theme. If something is a weakness, you can either avoid it or actually go fix it.

This time, I’m trying to fix it.