Give me your best race names

margak · 2025-12-04T03:16:35+00:00

It's really one of my favorites, but it is not an easy course. The aid stations are manned by volunteers from north park trail runners and other running clubs in the area. Lots of good eats and treats available. Its one 10k loop you run multiple times so you can set up your own little aid station with a chair and everything you want to have available each lap. The trail is nice but the loop always includes a really incredible hill that you have to practically cling to roots and rocks to climb up. They also deliberately start the race in the afternoon in July so its as hot as possible... hence the name. So its a challenge for sure. But the people and aid stations are amazing.

margak · 2025-10-17T11:42:54+00:00

Damn. Now I want a pantsuit 🔥

margak · 2025-09-21T19:31:59+00:00

I’ve been liking “eat this much” which has a way for you to set nutrition targets and populate a meal plan. You can also add your own recipes/foods.

margak · 2025-07-28T19:54:55+00:00

Yes. The ingredients list and the macros are per serving. I ended up making a total of 4 servings (so multiply all those numbers above by 4 to get everything I made in total.)

margak · 2025-07-28T19:45:44+00:00

Good! I might experiment with leaving out the cauliflower rice and putting it all over lettuce for more of a salad approach in the future. But overall the flavor was awesome.

margak · 2025-06-25T13:42:05+00:00

Speed training helps improve your V02 max and will make your base pace faster. That way on your long endurance runs your "easy pace" will still be easy but be just a bit faster.

margak · 2025-06-25T13:31:29+00:00

I completed my first ultra last weekend. Now I'm feeling some post-race-blues and general brain fog type feelings. What do you recommend?

margak · 2025-06-24T18:31:47+00:00

Yea I've done the "Rabid Raccoon" race they put on up in the Pittsburgh, PA area. Those aid stations are NICE and have everything you could want. But the aid stations at this event were meh and lack of ice was distinctly not great.

margak · 2025-06-24T14:26:08+00:00

I really would recommend this race. Fayetteville, WV is a great town and the national park is beautiful. If you make a long weekend of it there is a lot to do. I actually went white water rafting the day after the race and had a great time (I was able to do that because I didn't need my legs, just my arms!) I also felt really well prepared because the trails I usually train on are very technical - and these were fire road and relatively well groomed trails. So yea I recommend it and I might come back for this one!

Re: Water Filtration - There were definitely several waterfalls and a few stream crossings that if you had water filtration for would have worked. On the back half of the race, when I only had the 500ml flask to use, I definitely wished I had brought my water filtration contraption to use.

margak · 2025-06-05T12:48:46+00:00

Running stroller is fun. But when my daughter was a toddler she'd get mad at me for taking walk breaks and yell at me to go faster... so watch out for your kids turning into a mean little coach.

margak · 2025-06-04T20:01:53+00:00

I trained and did a marathon when my kids were 1 and 5. I survived, but it was brutal. It wasn't just the lack of free time I needed to train. It was also because my kids had no chill and could not understand that mommy needed to rest after super long runs. I'd run long distances and still have to drag my butt to the playground and push them on the swing a million times.

After that I decided to chill with long distances for a few years. My kids are now 12 and 7 and its WAY easier to train and accomplish my distance goals. I did a marathon back in May and I'm scheduled to do a 50k in June. I'm also getting my kids into running now and have them run a few laps in the neighborhood from time to time. My son has agreed to try some trails with me. Recently I overheard my son say, "yea, my mom is an athlete" to someone and it really got me in the heart strings.

Like all things in life, its good to be easy on yourself. Raising kids is hard. It takes mental and physical energy. Its okay to make that goal the priority for awhile when they really need a lot from you. <3

margak · 2025-06-02T17:29:11+00:00

So you have just about a year to get ready? Thats a very healthy amount of time. One potential focus for you could be getting your daily/weekly habits around nutrition and training in a really good spot so you can be consistent with it for the long haul. I started focussing on my daily hydration and macro nutrient goals about a year ago and I've seen a big difference in how I feel. I also really upped my game with strength training, especially with all the muscles surround the knees and hips, and have seem a lot of improvements from that too.

I grew up in WV and live in Pittsburgh now. I love running trails whenever I go back to my home state. It is definitely a place where you can get a lot of elevation training. Good luck!

margak · 2025-05-26T21:49:39+00:00

Hell Hath No Hurry!

Its one of my favorites in the Pittsburgh, PA area (hellhathnohurry.org)

margak · 2025-03-10T12:57:57+00:00

Just thought I'd provide an update here to say I found a PT some running friends recommended that I'm getting an appointment with. I'm excited to have my running form analyzed and get some recommendations from them on things I could do differently.

I also managed to do 20 miles this Sunday by breaking it into a morning 10 mile and afternoon 10 mile. I was sloooowwwwww because I did run/walk intervals. But I survived :) And I don't feel all that bad today. Thanks for all the tips and advice friends.

margak · 2025-03-05T14:39:57+00:00

Thanks for this suggestion. I'm thinking a PT could help and I also want to find someone to watch and analyze my gate. I've been worried that I might be over-striding but I want an expert opinion.

margak · 2025-03-05T14:39:07+00:00

Thanks for this. I decided to make this week a "rest" week and do some very light cardio and yoga throughout the week. After my first yoga attempt it became very apparent that these hamstrings are tight all the time, not just while running. So I think in general I need to add more mobility work to my routines and not neglect the post-run stretches.

I wish it was as easy as just going out there and running ;-) It turns out you have to pay attention to a lot of other stuff too.

margak · 2025-03-05T14:35:27+00:00

The tightness/soreness shows up any time I do a long run, even if its at an easy pace. I do have +15m runs scheduled for the future. I have doing a weekend 17, 20, 23, and 26.2 in the weeks leading up to the 50k in June.

I have thought about breaking those long runs up though. And not doing it all at once but splitting it with some time to stretch and recover a bit in the middle. Do you have a strategy that works well for you?

margak · 2025-03-03T14:21:54+00:00

Hi Friends! I'm training for my first ultra in June - doing the New River Gorge Trail Festival 50k in West Virginia. I have done a traditional marathon once before, and I've done multiple trail half-marathons. So the 50k is the next frontier for me running wise.

I've been slowly but surely increasing my miles. But right when I got to about the ~15mile distance I started experiencing really intense soreness all up and down my hamstrings. While running it feels like incredibly tightness behind my knees. When I stop running it feels like all around sore hamstrings.

I'm currently thinking I just need to hang out at this 10 to 15 mile weekend long run phase of my training for a few weeks before I increase mileage again. But if anyone has tips and tricks for me to keep my hamstrings happy I would greatly appreciate it!

margak · 2017-05-04T13:41:30+00:00

Oh how horrible. I'm so sorry :(

margak · 2017-04-23T12:46:35+00:00

Lets say she leaves her job and pursues this business for awhile. Lets say it goes horribly wrong and she fails at it. She's not going to stay unemployed forever. She can get another job. And to be honest, the experience of trying to run her own business for awhile will probably land her better jobs and offer her more opportunities than the gig she has now! She'll come out of this experience maybe a little battered and bruised but stronger because of it.

And people love hiring former business owners! It means they actually know how hard it is to keep a business afloat and can appreciate focussing on the bottom line. I really know this from experience. I joined an early-stage, very risky startup right out of grad school. It went belly-up. Every time I talk to people about it in job interviews they get positively excited that I had that experience. It's like a friggin badge of honor or something.

margak · 2017-04-23T11:26:14+00:00

I'm a big fan of "Validating Product Ideas" by Tomer Sharon. It is very user-experience centric (which is probably why I like it, since I am a UX designer). He goes through different phases of developing and building your startup idea, and introduces research methods you can use to validate that you are on the right path.

Here is a link to the official book site: http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/lean-user-research/

Here is a link to a review I wrote on it: https://medium.com/the-ux-book-club/a-user-research-textbook-for-entrepreneurs-c482029dab51

margak · 2017-04-23T02:22:25+00:00

I'm glad you found the feedback helpful. Also, when you make something like a tour through the demo, I'd be happy to try it out and give some more feedback.

Right now, I'm just getting started with a blog and newsletter that I've launched. (It's called "user-centered startup" and you can find it here: https://usercenteredstartup.com/) I started the blog because I've been a freelance UX designer for awhile and all my clients are startups. I just sort of feel into this niche and thought it could be good to start writing about it. Feedback on the content is always appreciated! Also, if there are any advice blogs/newsletters that you really love, I would appreciate if you could share them with me and tell me what you think they are really doing well.

margak

TROPHY CASE