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I'm smiling because it's under 90 degrees! "Geez, Rick! What happened to you? When did you gain all that weight?” Whoops. This is June 1997. I was visiting friends, a brief detour from my drive to Wisconsin where I’d start my new job in a couple days. Clearly one of those friends had a knack for speaking their mind. And clearly the phrase, "whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" did not apply to calories. Anyway, let’s go back a couple years. To March 1995, when I’d just a

Let’s make something clear. My January 3 post from earlier this year does not count. It’s been retro conned away. It was a bad dream. It’s been written out of the script of my life. Thanks to a successful surgery on my left knee, I’m back to running. Specifically, my Nike Pegasus’s are being put through their paces five times a week. That includes speedwork with Coach Ives again. My paces are approaching where I’d been before I tore my meniscus last July. That qualif

That's one way to model our new singlets! For the first time since the pandemic, I did not participate in the Market-to-Market Relay. That makes sense, I hear you saying. You’re still recovering from knee surgery. To be honest, my decision not to participate in the 75-mile relay race has little to do with my healing meniscus. I’d pretty much made the decision to step down from our Body Project team after last year’s race. Then it must have been a race that you didn’t really

May 2, 2026. Leaving earlier than any sane person on a Saturday morning and armed with a playlist of musical gems from 1976, I braved a morning chill to run not one, not two, but … five miles! Huh? Just five miles? I know. That’s nothing to most other runners. A year ago, it was nothing to me. But now, it's the longest distance I've ran since September 27, 2025. On that note, I’m also up to running five days a week and scheduled to return to workouts with my coach - both

I have never claimed to be a great runner. At best, I’m someone who has pushed my meager talents about as far as I could over the years. But there have been times when I’ve benefitted by being in the right place at the right time. Or simply put, when I've been very lucky! There was that time when an obscure 10-mile race got my name into Runners World. (And no, I wasn’t smart enough to keep that issue!). Also recall receiving a big trophy in a race because the winner went

I know what you’re thinking. This is just going to be another post from some outdoor running diehard who’d prefer frostbite to the safety and warmth of running indoors on a treadmill. There’s nothing this clown has to say that I haven’t heard a dozen times already. Would I do that? Not hardly. Today’s post will touch on some familiar ground as to my struggles with treadmills. But thanks to recent events, I’m that much more cognizant as to why I prefer shivering to sweating

As I navigate a hazy running future with my knee, there is the possibility that that half marathons will no longer be part of my racing calendar. Truth be told, I’m actually better at races that go between 6-10 miles. Those races don’t take near a toll on me as much as thirteen plus miles. Nor do they require the same degree of mental focus as the longer half marathon. That’s likely the reason I prefer the half marathon. For me, they represent the ultimate challenge in com

When I published my first post on February 18, 2022, I only had a few ideas for future posts. Ironically, none of those ideas have ever been used. Instead, "Running With Rick" literally took off on it’s own, telling me what I would write and when I would release it.