About my blog

Welcome to my trail running site. I enjoy being on the trail where I can take in nature and clear my mind. I prefer running in the mountains, but anywhere rural will do. In years past, I have completed four 100 mile trail races and many other ultramarathons. I spend countless hours running in the Franklin Mountains and the surrounding desert in far West Texas, which I call my church. My little Mexican hairless dog, Taz tags along sometimes. I am slowing down in my old age and am mostly running 50K trail races these days.

Sunday, April 11, 2021

A New Personal Trainer

I hired a new personal trainer a few months ago because my old one was getting kind of old and grumpy. He has been coaching me for around 13 years and seemed like he was becoming lazy in his old age. (He’s 74 years old.) The last thing you want in a personal trainer is laziness. I need someone who’s going to show up on time and bring a lot of vibrancy to my runs. 

Moonset over Mt Riley and Cox in New Mexico

Ever since I moved to El Paso about 12 years ago, I have been running about five days a week on our local trails at the base of the Franklin Mountains. My coach and I usually cover between 5-7 miles on weekdays. On weekends, I run the Franklin Mountains State Park or travel to the Organ Mountains up the road in Las Cruces, NM to do my long runs. My personal trainer has been helping me achieve my goals for all these years so I felt guilty about giving him the boot. We’ve had a lot of grand adventures together as you can see by reading other posts from my site.

A full moon illuminating an early morning run.

Sadly, he started to oversleep more often and wasn’t waking me up at the designated time in the morning for my run. Therefore, I went with a younger, more energetic lady with fewer miles on her. Junie B is up and raring to go at 5am licking me in my ear to wake me. Tail wagging, she follows me everywhere in the morning whether I like it or not. She even accompanies me into the bathroom while I take care of my pre-run business (for better or worse). She doesn’t let up for even a second until we are out the door and onto the trail. No wonder I rarely miss a day of training.