Author: Kaelan

The gloves are off. And so are the tights, and the hats, and the wool socks. So went the buffs, the puffy vests and the windbreakers.

Shorts are in. Spandex are in. Tanks are in. Tees are in. PRs are IN. The summer months are the months to PR. Why? Summer months are the time when everyone else in the city decides to start working out, decides to get beach ready, decides to wake up and work out. So why are these the months, the ones where we PR? Because we already made that decision. We made that decision the first time we decided to #justshowup. We’ve been doing this all winter. We’ve been running all spring. We’re ready to use the SUNSHINE, the fewer layers and the mass of friends and community next to us, in front of us, and behind us to push us to some brand spankin’ new PRs. read more

Some Wisconsin (read: brief, succinct, to the point, all business) Notes on Today:

– 5:30 Everyone was on time. The bounce went swimmingly. 5:30 is REALLY good at moving their elbows in opposite directions. What happens at 5:30 stays at 5:30. If you want to know, JUST SHOW UP.

– On to 6:30. read more

Quick anecdote: This morning right before the 5:30 workout Steve asked me, “How do you want to split into groups? Last time was by DC Neighborhoods. We could do favorite ice cream flavor?” I said, “STEVE we ALREADY did that one TOO! Last summer, I remember it!” And then Steve said to me, (the plot is totally about to thicken, wait for it…) “But, Kaelan, do you remember who was in your group? Do you remember their names?” I said, “WHOOAAAA STEVE.” read more

Dudes. Ladies. The fourth was with you this morning, and MAY it be with you all day. Your willingness to DIVE in head first and try something new is RAD. Your coolness with getting dirty in the first dewey-ish summer-ish (we’ll call it spring) grass is AWESOME. (Also prepping you well for a summer straight-up FULL of moisty-hoistees.) read more

November Project DC is pretty down with the Earth. A lot of us run – feet to the earth, or cross state lines – bike wheels to the earth, to get to workouts. We play outside early in the morning and more on the weekends. Mama Earth, I think it’s safe to say, we’re into you.

Mama Earth, though, is heatin’ up and the people are just showing up. We’ve had some super fresh faces over the last week – and the coolest part is that these fresh, fresh faces are already becoming familiar. They’re back for their second, third and fourth workouts. They’re hooked on hugs and sunrises; they’re racers. read more

This morning could have been a rainy, gloomy morning and that could have set your mood day and your tone for the week. Or you could have woken up, rolled out of bed and spiced up your workout with a few hills, a little mud, some casual rock-paper-scissor squats and a lot of spice. You could have bear crawled, burpeed, push-upped, dipped, and 4-person dipped all before 7am. And hugged. Always hugging. read more

April 15^th 150 years ago. Although this day marks the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s death, we know him and celebrate him for the way he lived. He is known for uniting people and we do our best every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, to carry that on through hips in hugs. Here’s to you Mary Todd.

April 15^th two years ago. So many of us have a shared experience of the tragedy that struck the running community two years ago. Perhaps, not shared in the sense that we were there together, at the finish line. But shared in the sense that so many of us were tuned in that day, whether we knew each other or not – running Boston Marathon, streaming the marathon online, training with hope for a future BQ, watching the elite run,  cheering on our friends and families from the sidelines or over the internet, letting the finishers scroll across our work computers for hours – knowing we were connected to something bigger than ourselves. There are probably a lot of us who remember exactly what we were doing, who we were with and how it felt when we realized something was wrong, and this Marathon Monday was unlike the others. read more

As a general warning before you launch into this blog-post, I have about 18 trillion things in my head this morning, and I’m going to try to share at least 17 million of those with you, so if I jump around a lot, please take my most sincere apologies now.

Everyone has emotionally draining days. They can be work related: hire, fire, meetings, projects, stress. They can be relationship driven: fights, make-ups, break-ups. Family, money, health. Emotionally draining days can come at you from ANYwhere. Sometimes you feel them building up and sometimes they sneak up. read more