Most Improved Distance Runner... Bink!
In 4 years she was never mentioned. Essentially "cut out" of the team, marginalized by the fastest (and therefore most popular).
Excluded, ignored, left out.
Sticking with her best friend, and a few others not a part of the "in" runner's crowd, she just kept on running.
After months of hearting about heavy legs, fatigue, and lethargy, her coach asked us to test her iron.
It was low.
Way low. Ferratin level was a 4. I hear that's pretty low.
So, we put her on iron supplements, and after several weeks, she began to PR. In each race.
No longer were her legs heavy. No longer was she "plateaued".
However, she was still ignored.
Award team meals, bus rides, races.
I don't know that I'll ever fully grasp why, in a team environment in high school, cliques happen.
And in the end, The Bink persevered with her small group of friends on the team, and got the Most Improved Runner award after posting a 5:58 mile in her last run of the year.
A goal was reached. More importantly, a lesson was learned. You just keep going, through it all, and usually, good things happen. Life rewards persistence.
So proud of Bink.
Binky's Journalism Senior Soirée - the end of her journalism journey...
I still remember her first article as a Sophomore at FTHS. It was an article about the Barbie movie.
And her full body of work...
https://foothilldragonpress.org/staff_name/kalea-eggertsen/
"Dad, I just submitted my article to the backend!", she exclaimed as she climbed our stairs. Big smile on her face.
It was new and fresh. And she was writing for an audience of many now, instead of just 1, 2, or none.
1 article, and 1 "Best of SNO" award.
Binky on fire!
Over time, she realized journalism wasn't for her. She became an editor, overseeing her writers.
She travelled to Seattle and the next year, Minneapolis, to attend the awards ceremonies.
This year, 2026, the Foothill Dragon Press won a national award once again after missing it last year.
I admit I haven't read even half of her articles.
However, I'm making a point to go through them one at a time, each week, until I've see it all.
Funny how we don't always take the time to read the things that really matter.
Sometimes, I look at a page of text, and I push it away in favor of other miniscule tasks that "matter", but not that much. And they certainly aren't urgent.
We've all got things to improve, and this is mine.
Lean into reading.
Step into the important things.
The mundane can wait.
The mundane can be left undone, and you won't miss it.
Something about a yearbook
Sifting through the pages of Bink's senior yearbook created a nostalgic feeling for those final years of childhood.
While my high school experience was filled with a tentative anxiety for all things: dances, cliques, girls, and people I didn't know - which was almost everybody.
So, while it's just 4 years of your life, and mine was more uneventful than most, the scribblings on the pages of the yearbook still create a nostalgic remembrance for this small snapshot of a long life.
When opening the weathered pages of my old Buena High School class of '91 yearbook, or any of the others from 6th grade on, I'm greeted with a cornucopia of emotions.
Sometimes, I can't read the scribbles. Sometimes, it's a sarcastic message from an old, trusted friend...
Sometimes it's a short message of goodwill from a face in a few distant memories.
And sometimes it's a message that spawns bigger, blurry memories of times gone by.
Those last and precious few years of youth.
Most people enter your life for a short while, and leave, never to be seen or heard from again. When I think about it, it's sad. In these cases, you never know the beautiful or sad lives old acquaintances are living.
Ever.
It's as if the are off the face of the earth.
Life is so rich with both pleasure and pain, and I'll never know how it turns out for the people writing the scribbles in my old year books, along with their faded pictures from long ago.
Most relationships end. Most people are never to be seen again.
What would it have been like? What could have been?
Week 8, Day 2
DAY 2 — UPPER STRENGTH + HYPERTROPHY
Warm-up:
Easy bike — 2:00
2 rounds:
Band pull-aparts — 10
Scap push-ups — 8
Push-ups — 8
Empty-bar rows — 8
Rest 30 sec between rounds
Empty-bar bench — 2 x 5, rest 30 sec
Workout:
A. Bench Press
225 x 4
230 x 4
235 x 4
240 x 3
240 x 3
Rest:
2:00 after 225 and 230
2:30 after 235
3:00 before and after 240 sets
Goal: make 240 more repeatable by doing a little more work below it
RESULTS: Barely got the last 2 reps of 240 in set 5, but got it.
B. Chest-Supported DB Row
4 x 8 @ 62s
Rest 75 sec
Goal: cleaner volume than 70s for 8 would allow
RESULT: Got it done as prescribed, tough but doable.
C. Incline DB Press
Set 1: 70 x 6
Sets 2-3: 62 x 10
Rest 90 sec
RESULTS: tough but got it done, barely on set 3.
D. Half-Kneeling 1-Arm DB Press
3 x 8/side @ 44 on set 1 only if stacked
Otherwise 35s across
Rest 20 sec between sides
Rest 60 sec between sets
RESULTS: Only got 6 of 44#, but then the 35s for sets 2 and 3 with little real problem.
E. Cable / Band Face Pull
3 x 15-20
Rest 30 sec
RESULTS: Did the cable pull at 90# to the face.
Daily goal:
Strong but controlled pressing
More upper-body volume without wrecking recovery
Week 8, Day 1
DAY 1 — LOWER STRENGTH + POWER
Warm-up:
Easy row — 2:00
Ankle rocks — 10/side
Cossack squats — 8 total
Empty-bar front squats — 2 x 5, rest 30 sec
Jump squats — 2 x 3, rest 30 sec
Workout:
A. Box Jump
4 x 2 @ 31"
Rest 45 sec
Goal: quiet, springy, athletic
RESULTS: No problem - should I make this higher?
B. Front Squat
195 x 4
200 x 4
205 x 4
205 x 4
210 x 2 if set 4 is clean and fast; otherwise 205 x 4
Rest:
2:00 after 195 and 200
2:30 after 205 sets
3:00 before the 210 set
Goal: build volume around your new strength
RESULTS: No real problem here, as prescribed.
C. DB Front-Rack Split Squat
3 x 8/leg @ 53s
Rest 20 sec between legs
Rest 75 sec between sets
Goal: more hypertrophy and control than last block
RESULTS: No problem, as prescribed.
D. Weighted Strict Pull-Up
4 x 4
Sets 1-3 @ 50 lb
Set 4 @ 55 lb if bar path and ROM stay clean
Rest 90 sec
RESULTS: A bit tougher this week but got it done.
E. Hanging Leg Raise
3 x 10
Rest 45 sec
Goal: every rep to the same height
RESULTS: A bit of a struggle to get my legs to the same height over last couple reps.
Daily goal:
Make 205 x 4 look owned
Leave with good leg pop, not a dead low back
Mark B Breakfast @ Cafe Nouveau
This was the second time we did this. The first was 2 years ago. I checked our old text thread and was shocked it had been that long.
Pretty standard these days to be blown away by the passage of time.
The trick is to slow it down.
I'm working on that. :)
Anyway, it's funny how you never really know someone when you're 19. On the other hand, there really isn't much to know about one another at that age... so maybe we knew each other better than I think we did.
To be acquaintances with someone at such a young age, then never see them...go through life, and then reconnect 30+ years later is a bit of a trip.
I know you. But I don't.
I rarely if ever thought about you while I was living my life. College. First job. Job changes. Adventures and misadventures of life. Marriage. Kids. Experience.
And now, we pop back into each other's lives.
From the same town. With a shared experience 3 decades ago.
It's just a trip sitting down and going back and forth and revisiting all that has happened in the last few decades.
Why are we so surprised and shocked by it all?
Or at least, I was.
What do I expect, the guy went into a sort of "stasis" and held steady until seeing me again?
Course not.
Human brains are weird, at least mine is. :)
Anyway, he was legitimately interested in the path my life took, especially the stories about the fishing light, and the bootstrap online entrepreneur I became.
You know, sometimes it's good for the sole and the psyche to relive the past to someone who is interested.
Take stock, once again, of where you've been, and where you have yet to go. Even though that last part is unknown.
There's a sort of comfort it laying it all out for someone.
Even talked about all the brewing changes about to hit. And the possibilities of what to do next.
Good guy. I'll see him again I'm sure.