Sarah Borst Jarvis

The off-season hasn't been so bad. Not bad at all, actually.  I have been enjoying myself quite a bit over the last few weeks.  (As long as we pretend that my leg is healing up nicely  with all the treatment and care that I have been giving it.  Note:  Please do not ask me how my leg is doing.  Unless you want me to become extremely frustrated !  Thank you. ) It seems like it always takes me a couple of weeks to calm down  after racing season. Once I do, I can (almost) see why some people choose not to spend half their day training. It certainly helps that Karl went out of town for 10 days this month. Nothing like a bit of forced rest!  Here is what one of my days looked like:  swim massage nap bike to school to pick up Max (leave key to his bike lock at home) walk home with Max grocery shopping  walk to school to pick up Noah play at the tree park enjoy the beautiful fall weather bike home  eat dinner as a family play

Remember my last post with this title ? Well, I may have changed my mind and found an even better race that I've never run: The Soulstice Mountain Trail Run ! Don't worry, this is not the first time I've heard of it. This is, after all, the race every Flagstaff runner talks about every day of the year. It's that popular! But the first year we had no idea that we would've had to sign up 5 months before we even knew that we were moving to Flagstaff. The second year Karl laid down a great race and took 2nd but I decided I hate driving on dirt roads way too much to make it up there, especially in freezing cold temperatures. Little did I know how much I was missing out on!  This year I was ready to see what the rave is all about. Just to make sure I wouldn't bail out again last second, I committed myself to watching our friends' son, Owen. I promised to bring him up there along with my 2 boys and cheer everybody on! I certainly love racing but I

Like I've mentioned before: This was my first marathon ! I ran one as part of the Challenge Roth back in 2007 but that doesn't really count... This was the real deal and I was super excited to be toeing the line with Colleen, Jess, Coachie, and tons of other crazies! I am not sure why I was so thrilled about the prospect of running 26.2 miles with a gimpy leg and basically no preparation. Granted, I am in decent overall shape but I honestly haven't run more than 14 miles since that day in 2007. At least not that I can remember... It didn't help that my season ended after Vegas and I kinda quit running after that. I still got in trouble for the few miles I jogged at about a 9:00/mi pace but that's a different story...  The simplicity of running makes me very happy! My friends tried to talk me into all sorts of crazy outfits but I refused. I wanted to feel comfortable and just wear my favorite shorts and shirt. Why make things complicated? I

Karen and I - Team Pay'n'Take I am seriously bummed the weekend is already over!  I was having way too much fun !  I started celebrating my 32nd birthday on Thursday morning  with a 3,200 meter swim.  I know. Big deal.  I actually got out of the water way earlier than usual. Ha!  Good thing it's the off-season or I would've had to swim  32*200 or 3.2 miles or something crazy like that!  The bad news:  I didn't really invite any of my lane mates,  so I was having this party in the pool all by myself.  The good news:  I didn't care one bit. Still had a blast!  Yep. A lovely self-portrait.   After herding the boys out the door and a quick breakfast,  it was time to ride 32 miles with my training buddy Karen.  I coaxed Coach M into putting this ride on her plan  so Karen wouldn't have any excuse to bail on me.  M must've forgotten that it's my off-season  because the plan called for a bunch of 2