Adventure Ready

What 43 Miles Around Mount Hood Reminded me about the inner voice

"Adventure ready."

It's a term my partner, Chris Hauth, uses in his endurance coaching. The idea is simple but powerful: maintaining a level of fitness that keeps you only a short period of training away from saying yes to something that excites you.

We aren't always carrying the exact fitness a specific adventure requires. But we stay close enough that with a focused block of preparation, we can show up, enjoy it, and grow through it — experiencing incredible places and challenging moments alongside friends who feel the same pull.

I had the opportunity to live this just a few weeks ago.

I've been dealing with an angry knee since last September. Rather than push through, I took the appropriate rest and maintained my fitness through cycling, swimming, strength training, and hiking — setting aside my true love of running while my body healed.

Then Chris asked me to help guide a 43-mile circumnavigation of Mount Hood on the Timberline Trail in Oregon.

I said yes.

Circumnavigating Mount Hood was a truly special experience.

We kept saying we felt like kids moving through an obstacle course on a movie set. We had it all — dense fog and sunshine, lava fields and mountain crests with 35 to 40 mile per hour winds (see hair!), meadows and rivers of colorful flowers that made you feel like you were in Switzerland. More than twelve river crossings ranging from rock hopping to waist deep, leaving us all with a little PTSD every time we heard a roaring river downstream. Crawling over and under fallen trees until bending down one more time felt like it might leave you stuck on the ground with achy legs. And finally — the wind in your face, climbing uphill in sand for the last two-plus miles.

It was an experience none of us will forget.

And that's what it's all about.

What I Learned

I was reconnected to nature in a way I hadn't been in several years. There is something that happens when you spend a full day moving through wild terrain that no supplement or practice can replicate.

I was reminded that I can control the narrative — and the voice that speaks during long, challenging days. The internal conversation on hour nine is a choice. And that choice shapes everything about how the rest of the day goes.

The difficulty of the terrain required a level of focus and presence that was genuinely welcomed. A full day to leave behind the day-to-day concerns and stresses. No inbox. No obligations. Just the next step, the next river, the next ridge.

I can do hard things even when I don't feel 100% physically prepared. Mindset matters. The body is far more capable than the story we tell it.

Trust the body. Listen to its needs. And it will perform. This is the lesson I come back to over and over — in my own life and with every woman I work with.

Camaraderie is an incredible thing. The right people, on the right day, in the right place — that combination is something you cannot manufacture. You can only say yes to it when it appears.

Adventure is a combination of preparation and trust. Do not let fear lead. Prepare well. Then let go and go.

The Bigger Picture

Adventure ready isn't just about fitness. It's a way of living.

It's staying close enough to your body that you can say yes when something calls. It's trusting that the work you've done, even imperfectly, even through injury and detours, is enough. It's surrounding yourself with people who pull you forward. And it's refusing to let fear make your decisions for you.

That's what I want for you. Not just in sport - in life.