Toddler Time, Forced Yoga, & USA World Cup

(subtitle: Part III of why I’ve been MIA)

After another week of running, lifting, yoga-ing…plus an added 2.5 Jimmy Buffett concerts, I was spent.  Exhausted.  And when I awoke – I heard rain.  Hard rain.  It would’ve been perfect to stay in bed or on the couch all day, but that’s something that just doesn’t happen to people with toddlers…Or to folks who must exercise.

The lil monsters in a rare calm mood.

I woke up later than normal (thank you, kids for sleeping in).  I looked at the clock and realized yoga practice was less than an hour away.  I had a decision to make.  On one side there was the tiredness and rain, on the other side…this – I took a step and felt the slightest twinge in the outside of my left knee.  It reminded me of the years long struggles I had against IT Band Syndrome.  I knew I never want to go through that again, and I know yoga is one reason I was able to fight it off.              I went to practice.

Please instructor, can we do child’s pose the entire time.

The class was tough – not what I was hoping for the day after a Buffett concert.  But looking back, I’m glad it was.  That’s why we go – to challenge ourselves.

Afterwards it was a mad dash to get a bunch of errands and chores done before the USA vs POR World Cup Match.  I met a bunch of (mostly running) friends at a local pub.

A part of our World Cup viewing group. The infamous Pepsi even made an appearance (yes, that’s her real name).

If you watched the match, you know what an emotional roller coaster it was.  Disbelief, tears of joy, then gasps of disbelief.  That said, it was fun.  That’s why we watch sports.  And in the end, the good ole’ US of A is in a great spot to advance to the next round.  But it is sports, so we have to wait until their match against Germany!  #Ibelievethatwewillwin

So there’s that.  Plus the previous days of epic craziness (If you missed them, you can read Part I HERE, and Part II HERE), plus life, plus work, plus everything = Scott’s been out of pocket.

Anyways, hoping to get back in a routine and catch up with everything, but we’ll see what life brings!

How bout you?  Ever go to yoga (or any workout) when you (and the universe) said not to?  Where and with whom did you watch the US/Por match?  Do you believe?

-Scott

Heat Blows and Happy World Cup Day!

First off, I am pumped!  Today is the first day of the World Cup!  Even though I am passionate about running, soccer will always be my first love.  Can’t wait to watch the beautiful game!  Happy World Cup Day everyone!  Go USA!

Bend it like Evans. I can beat you with one arm tied behind my back.

OK, now on to the heat.  I used to like the weather heat, but then I got into running and now I prefer it to be less heaty.  It’s turning into summer here in Texas and that means super heat. Serious heat.  It doesn’t go away over night, but at least the sun isn’t beating on us, so that’s when I have to run – before the sun comes up.  It’s fine, I’ve made my peace with it.

The Texas sun is not forgiving.

There’s another kind of Heat that I’m not a big fan of – The Miami Heat.  They are an NBA basketball team and they are in the finals right now.  And my blogging buddy Helly doesn’t like them either so we decided to write about it – read hers here. 

First, I must offer my apologies to the Running Schlub.  I know he’s a fan of the Heat, so I’m sorry about this, but lemme splain.

#1 – The current Heat roster took form when free agents Lebron and Bosh decided to join Wade to for a super group.  To me, that was the coward way out.  Instead of working hard like every other NBA player to make it to the promise land, they just got a bunch of all-stars to team up.  To give you some perspective, they asked former great players like Michael Jordan if he would’ve ever joined a team of superstars so they could beat up on the rest of the league – he said, Hells no!  He wanted to beat the best in the league.  He wanted to beat Bird, Magic, etc.  He didn’t want to team up with them for an easy way out.

#2 – They show a lack of respect.  From their first circus like press conference announcing the new superstars.  To Lebron changed his number from 23 to 6 because he said he had too much respect for Jordan.  So does that mean he doesn’t respect Dr J?  And when they barely won the championship last year, they said it was the hardest finals they ever played in.  Um what?  What about the one you LOST to my Dallas Mavericks???  Speaking of which, Wade and Lebron made fun of Dirk Nowitzki when he was sick, but still played in the finals.  Really?  Then when Lebron gets sick he tells everyone how hard he’s fighting through the illness to be able to play.  Really?

#3 – Their fans.  I’m not talking about the hardcore legit fans.  I’m talking about most of them who are bandwagon and obnoxious.

#4 – Who gets a tattoo that says ‘Chosen One”?  Really?

#5 – I was born and raised in Ohio – if you know anything about Lebron, then you know how despised he is now in his/my home state.

Ha, I know Helly and I could go on about this, but I’ll stop it there.  That all said though, I do respect some of their players and I do understand Lebron is a beast.  He’s a dominant player no matter what you think of him. But it doesn’t mean I can’t root against him. 😉  They are playing the Spurs, who are Maverick rivals, but I’m pulling for them anyways.  Go Spurs Go!

I’m just glad my Mavericks were able to beat them in the finals a couple years ago.  Yes, we slayed the giants!

My old school Mavericks jersey. Taken right after they won the title!

Funny story, after the Mavericks won, the governor of Ohio made a proclamation naming the Dallas Mavericks Honorary Ohioans.  Hahahaha!

Anyways, there ya go.  Sorry about the rant.  Helly and I were joking about it on Twitter and decided pull the trigger on these posts.

How bout you?  Excited about the World Cup?  Got any opinions about the Heat?  What time do you get up to run?  What’s your favorite pro sports team?

-Scott

PS – In case you’re wondering, I became a Dallas Mavericks fan while I still lived in Ohio.  They drafted a player from Ohio and that’s when I started following them.  It’s a coincidence that I ended up moving here.

 

Dopey Challenge Training Done & A Look Back!

I can’t believe the training is finally finished!  I basically started back in the late spring.  Then in the dead of summer the real training began.  I followed the Hal Higdon plan as closely as I could.  Except for a couple weeks when my knee was achy and so I had to swim instead of run.  And a few days when we were under a coat of ice and I had to run on the treadmill instead of outdoors.  I hope that means I’m ready!

Hundreds and hundreds of miles done!  I added up the entire past year and I ran somewhere between 1050 – 1100.  Pretty good!

But as I prepare to get Dopey, I realized I never did a race recap of last year’s Disney Marathon.  Oops, my bad.  To be honest, I didn’t have too much drive to write it because I didn’t have a great performance.

Me and my sis running this past year’s Disney Marathon. 4 miles and and doing OK.

While the race experience was wonderful, the weather was not.  It was so fargin hot and humid, that it was a real struggle to keep moving.  In fact, I didn’t even look at the race photos until last night…

Somewhere near mile 18, not doing OK.  Check the Sweat! I was drenched!

I’ve bought my share of Disney race photos before, but I didn’t have any good ones this time around.  Although this one gave me a chuckle…

I don’t know who that guy is, but it looks like we planned to wear green university shirts. His was a little generic.  haha!

I eventually did finish, but my time was waaay off my goal.  I was pretty bummed, and was mad at the weather, and even tweeted about it.  But then a cool thing happened.  Sean Astin – famous actor dude, lover of running, and sometimes Hobbit responded to my tweet.

Puts it in perspective.

Yes, it was hot, but we still had a great time.  Can’t do anything about it, so just enjoy the experience.

Medals dang near big as yo head!

Anyway, I hope to get better actual race photos this  year, in fact I already scouted out the photographers’ locations Here, Here & Here.  Hahaha!

Next up is travel and Expo!  So close!  If you’re running at Disney this week, best of luck!  If you see me, please say, “Hi.”  You can recognize me because I look like the guy in the photos above.^^^^^^^^^^

To everyone else, what do you do to get a good race photo?  How would you handle running in that heat?  Tell me something good!

38 Mile Weekend, Toe Update, & Tacos

I made it through my last weekend of long runs before the Disney Dopey Challenge!  It technically started Thursday with 3 miles and a weight session.  Friday was 5 miles and I felt good.  Saturday was 10 miles, but lightning and rain forced me to do it on the dreaded treadmill.  Ugh, but my legs felt good.  And I think the boredom I have to fight on that thing will help me mentally come race day!

Sunday was the 20 miler.  Luckily the rain stopped, but it was replaced by 15-20 mph winds from the cold North.  Temps were around freezing and with the wind chill it said it felt like 25 degrees (American).  And I did the run at Dallas’ White Rock Lake.  The wind was really whipping off the lake and I was really fighting it.

I did not have a great run.  I felt sluggish (like a wet sponge) and wanted it to be over 3 miles in.  But I powered through it and got er done!  38 miles over 4 days!!!

I even ran into my mom who was also running, as well as a couple friends who wanted to meet me down there.

One of my friends. Pic taken by another one.

After finishing that tough tough run and our body temps cooled off, we got really cold!  How to warm up?  TACOS!

Mmmmm tacos. That’s how you feel better, right there!

I was pretty worn down afterwards.  I wasn’t able to get off the couch all that much.  I think part of the issue is that I did that whole 20 miles on a little water, 1 Gu and 1 Honey Stinger.  200 calories ingested during a 20 mile run don’t really make up for the 3,000 or so I burned!  I’ll be better about this come race day.  Hopefully running on empty will make me stronger.  I hope.

WARNING:  While on the couch, I couldn’t help taking a pic of the progressing bruising/blistering ole toe.

#blacktoe

It doesn’t really bother me at all, just looks gross.  But I kind of like it because it reminds me of my all time fave movie: “Lost in Translation”.  It has a scene where ScarJo stubs her toe and later on shows it to Bill “effin” Murray while they eat sushi, and he calls it “Brack toe” and says it’s probably a delicacy in Japan.  I can’t help but keep calling it my bracktoe.  You can see the short movie clip HERE.

So there we go, now it’s TAPER-TIME!

What’s your go-to post long run meal?  How bad do your feet get blistered and bruised by the end of training season?  What’s your fave movie?

Run Disney Tip: Wakey Wakey Early Early!

Today is a rest day in my Disney Dopey Challenge Training.  It’s really weird having a rest day in the middle of the week.  It was tempting to go to the gym, but I’m going to stick to the schedule as I know what’s coming the next 4 days.

Anyway, I thought I’d give some tips today about running a race at Disney World.  Whether you’re running this year, or at some point in the future, I hope this helps.

Me and my sis running this past year’s Disney Marathon. Yup, it starts way before sunup.

I’ve run the marathon 3 times, so I kind of know what to expect.  First off, you must get there early.  And by early, I mean like 2:00 am alarm clock early.  They usually have to close some of the roads to stage the races, so if you don’t get there early, you could be stuck in traffic and risk missing the start.  This is from their website…

“…there will be SIGNIFICANT DELAYS starting at 3:30 a.m. due to road closures…Roads begin to close as early as 11:00 p.m. on the evenings before the Half Marathon and Marathon. GPS devices or other sources will be inaccurate due to road closures.”

So yeah, when we drive to the start line, we get there by 3:00 am-ish.  The races don’t start until 5:30 am, so you’ve got some time to chill.  Luckily they have live music, characters, etc. to keep you entertained.  Though it’s kind of surreal that early in the morning to see all that.

The boy and me and my sis before the 2013 Disney Marathon. It was early.

If you take a bus from a resort (like we did this past year), you have a little more wiggle time, but not much.  And keep in mind that where they drop you off, you still have a considerable distance to walk to the staging area.  More time on your feet = not what you really need.

Now, once you’re at the staging area, I recommend you stay there as long as you can.  They will try to encourage you over and over to make your way to the corrals, but I prefer to lay there and chill.

Once time to go to the corral, know that you will be walking about a mile, shoulder to shoulder with people.  From their website…

“You must be in your corral at the start line by 5:00 a.m. or you will not be allowed to start. Please note, it takes 20 minutes to walk from the Family Reunion area (Epcot® Wonder Lot) to the start line.”

If you’re not expecting that, it can be kind of disheartening.  You’re already worried about saving your legs, and here they have you adding a mile to your race!  But now that you know, I like to use this as my warm up.  Take it easy on the walk, and try to get loose while doing so.

After the death march I like to do my dynamic warm up before getting into the corral.  The port-a-potties are few at the corrals, so expect to go in the adjacent wooded areas!  All they while they have entertainment going on. They do a sort of live morning show there where they have celebrities and such giving you encouragement – all broadcast on some big screens.

All that’s left is to start the race…

I jumped really high to take this photo. Or I stole it, can’t remember.

I can’t stress enough to get there early.  Last year I got the chance to watch my mom run the Half Marathon.  You wouldn’t believe how many runners were running everywhere to try and get to the start.  We even set up at mile 4, and there were people trying to get on the monorail to get to the start while still getting dressed.  It was crazy!  So get there early folks!

Are you running any Disney races this year, or in the future?  How early do you get to the start line for a race?

Dopey Challenge Race Courses Revealed!

As many of you know, I’ve spent the past several months training for the Disney Dopey Challenge.  It’s 4 straight days of racing.  Thurs: 5k, Fri: 10k, Sat: 13.1, Sun: 26.2.  I’ve been waiting patiently for them to release the course maps…they finally have!

**CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO SEE AN ENLARGED VERSION**

Here’s the 5k and 10k routes…

The warm-up runs.

The first few miles of the 10k ain’t all that exciting, but I’m glad that at least both races follow somewhat different routes (in the same area).  I love variety in my running!  I’m also happy that the start and finish are near each other.  That way any spectators we have can at least see us twice!

Next up is the half marathon…

Half of the most magical place on Earth.

Basically a jaunt up to the Magic Kingdom and back from EPCOT.  Only thing that concerns me is the round-a-bout at mile 10.  I’ve been there before and it is a man made hill.  It’s a swirly overpass of road, and it. is. very. angled.  You can’t take two even steps because of the slant.  I’ve had several friends get injured at that overpass.  At least I know what to expect and can try to be safe there.

Finally is the main event, the full marathon…

26.2 magical miles. Or so they claim… 🙂

I really like this course.  You get to see most of the main attractions of Disney World.  I only wish there was a way they could mix in Downtown Disney.

As you can see, they take us through all 4 major parks – EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, & Hollywood Studios.  In addition, we also get to do a lap on their race car track (1 mile around) and through their Boardwalk resort.

In between we pass by various other “attractions”.  Running past the golf course is cool, but in years past running past the waste water management plant didn’t smell too pleasant.  But I guess you gotta take the good with the not so good, right?

I also really like how that now have us going through the Sports Complex.  There we get to run through the training soccer and football and baseball fields.  We also get to do a lap on the track!  And the highlight is running thru the baseball field where the Atlanta Braves do their spring training.  Last year, that was coolio because there was a big crowd in the stands cheering for us (and they had cameras putting us on the big screen on the outfield wall).

It all ends up back at EPCOT.  Which, if you look at the map, is over a mile in itself.  That just goes to show you how big the parks actually are.  I can say this from experience:  there’s not much more deflating than entering the final park, thinking you’re almost done, then turning a corner and seeing the “mile 25 marker”.  Ugh, another 1.2 to go, all in the same theme park!!!

But it’s all good.  I’ve done the Disney Marathon 3 times now, and I know how the game is played.  In the coming weeks I’ll offer my tips from experience for anyone else who happens to be running at Disney Marathon Weekend.

What about you?  Do you obsess over course maps before a race, or do you care?  Have you run at Disney?  Any tips?  What do you think of the courses?

runDisney Dopey Challenge (5K, 10K, 1/2, Full)

So Disney World announced this new challenge last week – the appropriately named Dopey Challenge, cause that’s how you’ll feel doing it!  Here’s the breakdown: Thurs-5k (3.1 miles), Fri-10k (6.2 miles), Sat-1/2 marathon (13.1 miles), Sun- full marathon (26.2 miles).  Included in this is their original endurance challenge of running the half and fool marathons on consecutive days – which they call the Goofy Challenge.  Now when you complete the Goofy, in addition to the 1/2 Donald Duck and full Mickey Mouse medal, you also get a Goofy themed medal (coincidentally enough).  And if you know Disney, they go all out with their medal design and each year they change it up.  I also heard a rumor that the Goofy is having it’s 10 year anniversary, so that should be a special design too.

Medals dang near big as yo head!

For the 5k, you get a Tres Amigos finishers medallion (it’s like a regular medal, but made of rubber).  And for the new 10k you’ll get a Minnie Mouse medal, I hear.  And for completing all four races, you’ll get an innagural Dopey medal.  That’s in addition to the 5k, 10k, 1/2, full, and Goofy medals.  So you get 6 total medals!  You also get 6 shirts.  I believe the 5k is a cotton T, but the others are long sleeved tech tees.

I am tempted by this challenge.  Funny that I’ve never really had an inkling to do the Goofy, but I’m interested in the Dopey, which includes the Goofy.  I pretty sure the 5k is not timed, so could walk it if we wanted, but I think I’d want to complete the challenge by actually running all the races.  Tho there most likely won’t be any PR’s!  From what I hear, you’ve got to take it easy on the earlier races to save everything you can to finish the final race (the 26.2).

What I am not tempted by is the starting entry fee of 500 skrilla units!  And the price will go up as time passes!  Yowzy!  Add to that the cost of travel, and it would more than cover a year’s worth of races.  But I’ve been trying to rationalize it – you get 4 race entries, 6 shirts (5 of them tech), and 6 medals.  Still doesn’t quite add up, but I guess that’s the price you gotta pay to run with the mouse.

My standard Disney statue and castle photo op.

So anyway, I’m debating registering.  My only fear of hesitating is that their similar Disneyland Dumbo Challenge (10k and 1/2 marathon) sold out in less than one day.  Not sure if this one will too, but it adds pressure.  I’m sure it will be a magical four days of running, so this will be a tough call.

OH WAIT, I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!  Anyone out there want to sponsor me???  I’ll promote your gear/cause/business/company/family/product/etc. with all my powers…blog, “celebrity” friends, twitter, facebook, Instagram, and did I mention I’m a multi-Emmy award winning TV producer???  If anyone has any extra skrilla units hanging around, feel free to send em my way!  Haha, I’d love to be sponsored by something mundane, like “Running on behalf of John Doe’s 27th birthday”, or something of the like.  Think about it you and let me know and I’ll send you my Pay Pal account!

Have a great day everyone!