Meet Kait
New Mexico native and Colorado transplant Kait is no stranger to the high altitude lifestyle which lets her actively pursue her favorite sports: running, swimming and mountain biking. When she’s not writing or studying her International MBA, she spends her time doing all the things the outdoors has to offer. The mountains are her training zone.
Jitters? Psh, what are those?
The time is finally here. A couple months have turned into a couple of weeks and now only a few days until the coolest thing I will do this summer: the Dirty Girl Mud Run. All the running and training the past few months my sister and I have been doing will finally pay off… Or will it?
Can I be honest? I’ve let life get the best of me the last week or so, and we haven’t been running or training like we had originally intended. So needless to say, I’m a little nervous about how I’ll do, and with my active imagination, I’ve envisioned every possible situation in which I fall flat on my face during some important obstacle and let my team down. My sister on the other hand, appears completely fearless, and when there was a slight possibility she wouldn’t be able to run because of a figure skating competition, she begged my mom to let her run with me.
Because she is a competition pro, I thought I could probably stand to learn a few things from her when it comes to turning jitters into excitement. So, I asked her what she was thinking about the race and being nervous and she looked at me like I was crazy. She’s not nervous, duh. However, I was able to get a few words of wisdom from her and here’s what she said:
“It’s only a race, so if you don’t finish first it’s not the end of the world.”
“You won’t die by running a 5K, so just do it.”
And,
“If you’re confident you can do it, you can, so don’t worry about it.”
Pretty smart for a 14 year old huh? Oh and she “maybe, kinda” wants to beat her big sister. 
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Since I’m running with my baby sister, I also asked her what she wants to do when she’s finished the race. Of course, she wants to try a virgin Cosmo – I hope they have them! – and see what other cool stuff is there. As for me, I’m going to give her the biggest, muddiest, bear hug ever, whether she likes it or not! (Shh! Don’t tell her I said that!)
What are you going to do when you finish?
September 21st, 2011
How on earth do you do it?!
I am not a morning person. Despite all my best intentions and set alarms, I have completely and utterly failed to run in the morning more than 4 times in my whole life. I can sleep a million hours the night before and I still can’t get up at the crack of dawn. This presents quite a challenge when trying to balance work, school, workouts and LIFE.
Between being a full-time MBA student, a partner in a start-up business, and a social hour addict and trying to stay in shape, most people ask me how I do it. Well the truth is, sometimes I manage it and sometimes something falls by the wayside. Half the time I’m thinking “I don’t know how I do it all!” and the other half it’s “I don’t know how to do it all…” During finals, hanging out with my friends and running are the first things to go. And as soon as those go out the window my sanity follows. I wish I could have everything together as fabulously as Gwyneth Paltrow! (See her tips on work/life balance here)
So what do I do? In the past couple of years I’ve learned how to adapt to my frequently changing and demanding lifestyle with a less rigid routine. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
+ Prioritize your day, week and month on a regular basis. This will help you organize your activities throughout the day to achieve the goals you need to. For instance, if you have a big presentation at work or a 5k Dirty Girl Mud Run, mark it in bold on your calendar and set aside an appropriate amount of time every day/week to work on it.
+ Keep a small to do list in front of you, on your desk or desktop screen, that stays as a constant reminder for those bigger goals.
+ Keep a separate to do list for your daily tasks, phone calls, emails, etc. that can be crossed off and won’t interfere with the bigger picture.
+ Set time limits for yourself for things like your phone, computer and tv, and stick to them. If you’re up until midnight answering texts or worried about responding to emails while you’re at the gym, you’re not as productive and focused on the tasks at hand. It also takes a lot longer to get something done if you’re constantly checking Facebook (although the Dirty Girl Mud Run fan page for motivation is ok!).
+ Figure out whether you’re a morning person or a night person, both for work and working out, and schedule accordingly. I’ve figured out that I work really well late at night but I have to work out in the evening, so I plan on working out before I finish any extra work I have for the day/night.
+ Be willing to accept that not everything will go according to plan, so have a backup plan. Rain is a recurring obstacle for runs outside so I have an indoors full-body workout that I can do in my living room. (Check out the video from Fitness Magazine)
+ Learn to recognize signs of fatigue and burnout, and make sure to give yourself a break if you’re starting to feel it. If you really, really don’t want to work out or go out with friends, give yourself the night off to relax. You’ll feel a lot better the next day and it will keep you from burning out completely.
+ Last, but certainly not least, find a guilty pleasure to help take your mind off things and rejuvenate your soul. I love sitting down to a hot cup of tea and reading all my Elle, Glamour, Fitness, and Vogue magazines.
It’s still an uphill battle for me but I’m getting better at it. How do you balance work, school, work outs and life?
August 31st, 2011
The Wolf Pack
I’ve always been a bit of a loner… Even when I was a kid I liked playing alone, reading alone, studying alone, so it’s no surprise that running is no exception; I like running alone. The state of zen that can be reached when it’s just me and the mountain trail is just incredible. I think of it as the “lone wolf” mentality, where I am strong enough on my own to create my own destiny.
But sometimes my own personal motivation is not enough to get me up the next hill or through the next mile. No one is watching, so why not stop? That’s when I’m thankful to have a team, even just a team of my little sister, for the Dirty Girl Mud Run.
It was a cold October morning last year when I ran my first 5K with a team. My sorority sister had started a team in honor of her mother for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, so my sisters and I ran with her. We had girls of all fitness levels, some walked, some ran, but we had one common bond: we were in it to finish together. As each of us crossed the finish line, we were welcomed with hugs and smiles, making some of hardest miles, between the frigid air and the untied shoelaces, all worth it.
Sometimes others know you better than you know yourself and that is especially true when knowing of what you are capable. Sometimes, someone else can see a fire in you that you are too tired or preoccupied by your aching muscles and heavy breathing to see anymore. If someone is by your side, and you by theirs, one little word of encouragement goes such a long way.
It is always a fight to cross the finish line… When your body wants to give up and your head agrees wholeheartedly, your team can always fan the internal flame that helps push you one more mile, one more obstacle, one more step. Bring a group of fierce women together and you have one hell of a powerful wolf pack to conquer anything they set their mind to.
And you know what else? Nothing brings people, especially Dirty Girls, together like shared experiences.
What kind of teams and team names have you come up with?
Photo of part of our team for the 5K!
August 15th, 2011
It’s A Girl Thing
My sister and I aren’t that close. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not because we don’t like each other, in fact it’s quite the reverse. Despite the fact that we share nothing in common other than our birthday, we get along quite nicely… when we’re together. She is the exact opposite of me, tall, dark hair and eyes, gorgeous and a phenomenal figure skater. I’m small (petite as us short girls like to say , blond, blue eyed, and a swimmer by nature. See what I mean, North and South. Oh, and another thing, we’re 8 years apart.
I was in high school while she was hitting grade school, I was moving away to college when she was finally double digits, and now that I’m home for the summer after finishing college, she’s in that awkward early teen stage.
I never thought I’d be “that” sister. You know, the one that’s just kinda there, not really super close to her little sister but here I am, 14 years after I first held her in my arms in the hospital on my 8th birthday, and I’m “that” sister. Growing up I never really noticed the days flying by and then the years, I only noticed the moments when she’s a screaming toddler or using my makeup. Now it’s almost all I think about, how I wish I could turn back the clock and be more present for her. But that’s just part of life isn’t it? Time keeps moving, changing and I can’t take it back; all I can do is fix it going forward. And that’s just what I’m going to try to do.
When I stumbled on the Go Dirty Girl site, I thought that this was my chance, my chance to make up for all the times and all the years I missed with my baby sister. She’s finally old enough, and so am I . What better opportunity do I have to bond with the girl so perfectly opposite yet cut from the same cloth than getting muddy and running, all for a good cause?
We’re going on our first run together today, and I can’t wait.. 
Photo from way back in the day
August 4th, 2011
