My Stories

It’s okay, I have a plan…

My first 50M race – Quad Rock – is less than 8 weeks away. Or, in a scarier sense, it is 50-something days away. My training plan is still non-existent and my running has been all over the place. But it’s okay…I have a plan.

In the coming weeks I plan on running a few legit long runs on the weekends, preferably with friends and maybe as races. I plan on focusing on hill repeats when possible – even if it takes me 2 miles to get to the closest hill on my lunch runs. I plan on playing with nutrition and finding something that doesn’t make me want to scrap my taste buds off or yank my intestines out. I plan on getting some value out of each run, whether physical or mental. I plan on turning down stupid “hey, want to run [way too many] miles” opportunities in the two weeks prior to race day in favor of legit “tapering”.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Double Races = Double PRs {Snowman Stampede Race Recap}

Lately my running has been very…sporadic, to say the least. Two weeks ago I had an extremely solid week with two-a-days, races and long runs. I hit a mileage high and was feeling pretty darn good about the Quad Rock 50M. If I jumped right into next week I’d probably be able to keep this confidence. The two weeks in the middle?! Well, we’ll forget they ever happened! Instead we’ll focus on the awesome that went down at the Snowman Stampede on Saturday, February 22nd! I had signed up for the 5 mile and 10 mile races in hopes of forcing myself into a double digit run. Sure, it was on flat pavement not on the technical climbing trails I needed but sometimes miles are miles! Right?! Close enough…
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

The Financial Circle of Life

This week I started something new. It currently involves lots of driving, many new faces and many, many @’s and #’s…it’s a new job! This has been in the works for quite some time but I wanted it to be officially official before I told the internet. I’ve survived three days and haven’t cried yet so I think it’s safe to spill the beans!

As of Monday I am the Voice of Sierra behind the Sierra Trading Post Twitter. Yup, that is correct, my new job involves all things Twitter plus a few other projects just to keep things interesting. I just might be a little bit excited…and they wrote up a post about my arrival so I even feel kind of famous! And…I got legit headshots done by a photographer who knows his way around a camera and the Adobe Suite!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

The Mystery of the Backcountry

The backcountry is an interesting place. If you take a second to think about it you realize that a lot of the things about the backcountry are really quite miserable. What part of skinning uphill for miles with a 40lb pack sounds fun? None of it! It doesn’t matter how beautiful the scenery is…that kind of hiking hurts, a lot.

And somehow I am still always jumping at the opportunity to spend hours trudging through the snow. Why?!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Learning the Cold Way {Winter Camping}

Remember that one time when we went winter camping with Sierra Trading Post? Turns out it was more than just a weekend in the wilderness. For us it doubled as a bit of a learning experience. Of course we expected a learning curve of some sort but we weren’t prepared for one quite as cold…

As I mentioned earlier we were a little under prepared in the gear department. We knew that going in and we knew it wouldn’t be a perfectly comfortable night. Heck, Chris and I are yet to figure out how to have a “perfectly comfortable night” while camping. We tend to be rather minimalist in our packing and I think we pay for it while attempting to sleep. This time we packed everything we owned but when you don’t have quite the right gear it doesn’t matter.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Keeping the Chaos Fun

Plans are great. They give you a purpose in life and expectations for your future. We all makes plans and usually have high hopes for things to go as planned. Some times they do. Other times…not so much. Reality happens, life gets in the way, roads ice over…

When plans to awry things get interesting. More often than not you can react one of two ways – work yourself into a quivering mass of anger or readjust your expectations and enjoy. This past weekend I watched a lot of people lose their cool over things they had no control over, all while I did what I could to take a step back and find some fun in the chaos.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Running? What’s that?

Fun Fact…I have not completely forgotten how to run! Which is good, because just recently I threw a fair amount of money at some seriously terrifying race entries! Funny how all motivation and dedication disappears the minute you lose your mind and commit to crazy things!

The last 3 weeks have been busy, to say the least, and running was not even kind of a priority for me. First it was a week in Park City with Columbia, then a week of storytelling followed up by my first winter camping experience, then a week of…I have no idea what, but running rarely happened!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Camping. In the snow!

:: Fun Fact :: About 99.9% of the photos in this post are kidnapped from other people…because somehow I managed to factory reset my phone and lose every single photo because I’m too lazy to empty out my overflowing DropBox. Basically, I suck, so enjoy everyone else’s photography!

A few months ago I jumped at the chance to go hiking off the Bierstadt Trailhead with Andy and Chris, two fairly cool dudes behind the social media platforms of Sierra Trading Post. An impromptu 9 mile hike up two mountains the day before my first 50K sounded like a fantastic idea…or not. But I still went, had a blast, rocked the 50K and look back saying it was all worth it!
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By Heidi Kumm, ago

Pure Genius

In today’s world nearly every company has a motto, a tagline…and a hashtag. It’s great for communicating with customers, especially when done with consistency and sincerity. Some companies fail miserably, other are a shining success. I’m pretty sure Columbia falls into the shining success category…and I’m not just saying that because I’m lucky enough to part of a hashtagged group brought together by Columbia. I’m not saying that because I spent a week watching the company live up to its #TryingStuff motto.
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By Heidi Kumm, ago
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