I'm terribly behind on blogging and although I've had aspirations to recap some of the memorable experiences I had this summer (Olympic Trials & racing in Europe), I'm a few months late on those. Maybe sometime I'll get to them, but in short, the Trials were an AMAZING experience (and thank you to everyone who helped make them so special!) and running my way across Europe was a blast!

Leading the 5k prelims at the Trials for a few laps

Since returning home, I took some downtime from running (cue minimal running, late nights, eating lots of ice cream and donuts, and enjoying being physically active in ways I don't always get the chance to during the season). My brother Brendan came to visit for a week and we watched tons of Olympics and took in all that the Rhode Island summer has to offer. August was filled with more family visits, two trips to Cape Cod, and a short trip to Boulder with team Calorie Cloud. Before I knew it, summer had passed, and it was time to dive directly into my next adventure: grad school!

In late August I began a graduate program at Brown University, pursuing a Masters in Public Health. It's a 2-year program and I'm a full-time student, which means I'm busier than I've been in a long time. It's a challenging program, to be sure, but so far it's been wonderfully intellectually stimulating and I'm confident this is the right program for me. After being out of school for a while, I'm still finding my groove as a student again, juggling reading and problem sets with coaching athletes at Training Joyfully and freelance marketing work. And of course also running!

Running is going well. After the Trials and Europe I was very much ready for some downtime; you can only maintain a peak level of focus & fitness for a finite period of time, and by the end of July I had reached and then passed mine. But after some days off and plenty of donut-eating, it was time to get back to work - I was rested and eager to train again. Training looks a little different this fall than in years past - I recently made a coaching change and have officially joined Ray Treacy's pro group here in Providence. It's been an absolutely wonderful past 3 years with Dena as my coach, and I give her immense credit and love for guiding me so expertly from a 33:01 10k runner to a 32:09 10k runner and to 3 Olympic Trials this year! I was sad to make this change, but also excited for the opportunity to train with Molly Huddle, Kim Smith, Emily Sisson, Katie Dicamillo, and Aisling Cuffe under Ray.

I'm now running with Run Providence, though still representing my long-time team Strava Track Club (can you believe it's been 6 years this fall as a member of the New Balance Silicon Valley --> now known as Strava Track Club? crazy/awesome!). I've been sweating out long runs and workouts alongside Kim and it feels amazing to officially have training partners again. I kick off my fall season at the Tufts 10k for Women/USATF 10k Road Championships early next month.

So that's my update as of late. I hope to be better about blogging in between school, work, and running, but if you want more frequent updates, my Instagram (@runnerKG) is the place to go :)

Til next time!
Joyfully,
Kaitlin