This website is a place for me to share insights, thoughts, and ideas about the major domains of my life experience.
It's also a place for me to learn and practice some web development, although the plan is to stay super simple. This is mainly a writing excercise, not a fancy website exercise.
I am a middle aged dude from metro Minnesota. Born and the raised in the burbs. Educated at the University of Minnesota/Minnesota State University - Mankato. I have a BA in philosophy, and am a licensed social studies secondary teacher. I am a husband, a father of two, and have a dog. The main areas this website might explore are:
My plan is to post my five most recent musings here before filing them on the appropriate page
Coaching - Fastpitch Season - 06/09/2025
I am currently co-coaching my daughter's 14u fastpitch team. It's been an unexpected source of ongoing joy in my life, I love getting to work with young athletes, help them make individual progress, and see them come together as a team. I am in my third season of coaching; every year I gain a ton of knowledge, and I figure just when I have a solid foundation in fastptich my daughter will be done. My journey this past year has been trying to understand and instruct girls on how to hit a softball. It's harder than you think, and I'm just starting to get it together. We have a great defensive team this year but struggle to hit well. I'm watching the stats and working on techniques, hopefully I can raise our averages by our final tournament in August.
Running - My Upcoming Plans - 06/03/2025
My running plans for the summer are revolving around two main experiences. In late July, I'm intending to achieve a dream of living the dirtbag running life for about a week. I'm planning to head to western WY/Bozeman MT area for seven days to live out of my car and run in the mountains. I'm hoping to spend some of this time at the scene of the Crazy Mountain 100 to cheer, and probably do some pacing work for a friend. I'll post more thoughts around this trip as the time approaches, but I'm really excited to break away for some slow time living the simple life of running, eating, sleeping, and enjoying some scenery.
In September I will be saddling up again for another Superior 100. I kind of feel like I'm probably at a life peak of 100 mile fitness. After breaking 24 hours for the first time at Zumbro this spring, I'm going to launch into the void and go for it at Superior as well. Even if I miss the sub-24 mark (it's a challenging race!) I would still expect a substantial PR for that race. At 46 years old, I don't expect my times to continue improving for long. The next three months will be engaged in focus training for the race. -NR
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