2014 – Runs, PR’s, Celebs, Concerts, Tacos & Sexiness (Mostly in Photos)

Welp, we’ve dun it. Anuther trip around the sun. Looking back, 2014 was a pretty decent year. Let’s take a peek at a few hightlights, shall we?

It kicked off with a BANG! In January I ran the Disney World Dopey & Goofy Challenge. That’s 4 straight days, 4 straight races.

The 6 Dopey Challenge Medals.

Day 1 – Thursday – 5k (3.1 miles)

Medal 1/6 gotten!

Day 2 – Friday – 10k (6.2 miles)

Medal 2/6 got.

Day 3 – Saturday – Half Marathon (13.1 miles)

Medals 3/6 got.

Day 4 – Sunday – Full Marathon (26.2 miles)

Medals 6/6 (includes Dopey & Goofy bonus medals)

All in all, it was a magical 48.6 miles.

Running at Epcot, waving to my fans.

Included in the weekend was the Kids’ Race, where the soon to be 5 year old rocked it!

Medals for everyone!

Oh, and did I mention my sis and ma also did the Dopey?

At Magic Kingdom with our medals.

Shortly afterwards though, I was going for a run, tripped, felled, and Nancy Kerriganed my own knee.

Put me out of commission for a little while.

I was able to eventually get active again by doing a lot of yoga in a retail store.

Cat, cow, what difference does it make?

I really think yoga is important for everyone – including runners. So I do a lot of it. And besides…

#NotCreepyatAll

Another part of my cross training is lifting weights. And besides…

Dumbells make you smart…and sexy.

I also like to mix up my runs with track work. And besides…

Track work makes you sexy. Here’s the proof!

Trail runs are also great. And besides…

#truth #obviously

Eventually my knee felt better and I got back on the roads with some of my fave people. Like Thursday Night Social Runners.

TNSR, Representin

And also my crazy early morning elfen crew.

They like to run at like 5am. They cray cray.

I also made a few Luke’s Locker social trail runs.

Run trails, eat pancakes. Repeat.

And the White Rock Running Co-op, who really helped me to become a better runner this year.

WRRC. Good runners.

To help fuel my workouts, I ate lots of tacos. Lots.

Legit, son!

In between training, I also got to see some of my fave bands…like at this FREE concert – The Killers!

About 30 rows deep, my mouth a gasp with excitement.

And the Old 97’s.

Seen this band countless times.

And I was super thrilled to see the traveling Broadway show, based on the movie – Once!

And I got to make my annual Jimmy Buffett concert experience…TWICE!

JB concert #1. Just call me Front Row Joe.

JB concert #2. Things get wild at the tailgate parties…trust me!

I also got to hangout on stage during a Graceland Ninjaz concert.

On stage open mouth selfie.

As well as Pentatonix.

I liked to imagine they were all cheering for me (they may have been).

They were amongst the Celebs that got to hang out with me this year.

They asked me to join the group based on some of my youtube karaoke videos.

And my model friend Brooke Becker.

She’s kewl.

And long time friend, fashion blogger, and TV host, Hilary Kennedy.

We had to wear our shades because of the flashes from the paparazzi.

And all around media star, and long long time friend, Ashley Kamrath.

At the Emmy’s. We didn’t win this year, but we’ll get again next year!

And I made another video with friend & TV host, Emily Reppert.

On the set with my actor friends.

And I made a new BFF when I interviewed Olympic gold medalist, Jennie Finch.

See, told ya we were new BFF’s.

And my Dallas Half Marathon Champion friend, Logan Sherman.

Logan, Me, Patrick. Mustachioed.

And model/actor buddy, Shane Land.

We have played brothers in two movies. Can you see the resemblance?

And a Dallas Cowboy – Charles Haley.

A couple of legends.

Anyways, back to running. I ran a bunch of races. Starting with Abby’s Run 5k, where I won my age group!

Yay! I got a photo with Abby (who the race is named for) and her mom. Ann photobombed us.

Then came the Rock the Block 10k. New PR – 46:00!

And we’re off! -Photo from Dallasnews.com

During the months of Texas heat, it was really hot, so I only ran a few unofficial races. Like the Boston Marathon virtual run.

And the America, F**k Yeah 4th of July 10k.

Censored Bling

And the TNSR Beer Mile.

This was a bad idea.

Then came the Fall. Autumn is always a time of change. For us, a big change was the boy starting kindergarten. Where does the time go???

He’s grown about 5 times his size. Based on that growth rate, I figure he’ll be about 80 feet tall by his 20’s.

I even volunteered to coach his soccer team. That was a lot of fun!

Landsharks on three!

And the little girl just keeps growing too!

Stop looking at me swan.

Fall also saw a lot of PR changes. Starting with the Oktoberfest 5k – 21:33. When you PR, you have to celebrate…

They love me.

Next up was the Dallas Mavericks 5k. Another PR!

The Mavs Dancers asked to have their photo taken with me. I obliged.

Speaking of which, my brother ran his first half marathon this fall! And my dad is running his first half in January 2015!

Dad, Bro, Me at an FC Dallas game this fall.

The next PR to fall was at the Dallas 13.1 – 1:42:59!

Bottle opener medal.

Next was the annual Halloween fun run.

Our costumed group.

One sad change was that we lost our oldest doggy this fall. She was such a great pup.

sweet Bailey girl

But in happier times, I set another PR at the North Texas Turkey Trot 5k 20:04. Bummer was the course being .1 miles short.

Stop looking at me turkey.

Next up was the Rudolph Run 5k. And yet another PR – officially 21:29, but my watch had the course being long. According to it I came across at 20:50-something. Either way, I got 2nd in my age group!

Last year’s race was cancelled due to ice. So I got two medals!

The final race of 2014 was the Dallas Half marathon. No PR this day, but still got my 2nd fastest half – 1:45:01.

Big state, little medal.

And as part of the Dallas Marathon festivities, I got to meet MEB!!!!!!

Me n Meb

The end of the year was spent with friends and family for the holidays.

Looking back, it was a pretty good year. Lots of tacos, shows, good times, and running. In fact, I went over 1,200 miles on my feet. I even surpassed 5,000 miles total with my Nike+ watch – starting when I got it a few years ago.

5 g’s over the past few years.

Here’s hoping 2015 will be even better! Happy New Year, y’all!

Today’s only question: What’s your top 2014 highlight?

Runner vs Dog…AGAIN!

A while back I posted about a dog encounter on my run, along with my tips for those situations. This morning I got to use my own advice again.

It was early this morning.  Still dark.  I was 3 miles into my 5 miler.  All of the sudden about 20 yards in front of me these two loose dogs that I hadn’t seen in the darkness just went nuts barking at me.

I immediately paused my gps watch running.  But I did not run away.  Whosever house I was in front of had left their trash and recycling bins by the sidewalk for collection.  I began pounding on the bins to make loud noises.  I yelled at the dogs in a loud deep voice.

One was obviously the leader, and the other stayed behind him.  I did not pay the other any attention, I focused on the leader.

Photo break – here’s another neighbor’s house. He likes this time of year, I guess.

Now they didn’t immediately retreat, but they did stop in their tracks.  We had a good ole fashioned stand off for a few minutes (or at least it seemed like).  Neither of us budged…they kept barking and I kept yelling at them and banging on the bin.  I’m sure I must’ve woke up some of the neighbors.  I did not care.  I was secretly hoping to wake up the owners of the dogs (if they lived in one of the houses there).

I then took my jacket up in my arms stretched over my head to make myself look bigger.  I started to take steps toward them, and the leader held strong.  The other dog backed up some into the street, and luckily a car came from behind it that spooked it.  When I took more steps, the other dog ran off.  Then the leader finally submitted when I took a few aggressive steps toward them.  I picked up a newspaper to throw at them, but after a defiant final bark, he retreated with the other.

I waited a few seconds to make sure they didn’t return, dropped the paper, and ran in another direction.

I’ve encountered countless dogs on my runs, but this was the first time I faced a pair.  They definitely took longer to back down, but they did.

I know I’ve asked this before, but what do you do when confronting a hound?  Ever come across a pack?  Ever banged on a neighbor’s trash can at 6 am?

We’ve been BLANCHED!

I know some of you fancy yourselves to be amateur cooks, so you should know what blanching is.  For those who don’t – for example, it’s when you’re boiling asparagus until it gets nice and bright green, then you immediately remove it and put in a bath of ice water to stop the cooking.  Well that’s what happened to us here in Dallas.  It was 80 degrees (American) one day….the very next day we were covered in ice.  Yup.

The little monsters exploring the ice-snow.

So yeah, we’ve been blanched pretty good.  I guess we were done cooking.

Anyway, pretty much the whole city shuts down whenever we get any bit of snow or ice.  They even cancelled the Dallas Marathon.  Bummer for everyone who spent the past few months training.  And bummer for me because I was going to use part of the race course for my 19 mile Dopey Challenge training run on Sunday.  Not sure what I’m going to do now.

Today called for 4 miles which I begrudgingly did on the dreadmill at the gym.  I much prefer the outdoors, but I don’t want to step on an icy patch and take a nasty spill.

I’m supposed to do 9 miles on Saturday before the 19 on Sunday.  Here’s hoping I can do it outdoors!!!  Come on sidewalks and streets, de-ice yo-selves!

Also, I found an old pic from a newspaper in my hometown in Ohio.  It shows some of us high school track and field kids winter-training down the coldy snowy streetys.  I’m the one on the right with the bandana on my face – I can’t remember if it was to fight the cold air, or if I was going to rob a stage-coach afterwards.

Hardcore, baby!

Those were the days before all the fancy tech-thermal-moisture-wicking-temperature-regulating gear that folks wear now-a-days.  Back then it was cotton and wool.  You probably like my sweats and wool cap!  The cool http://raceitliveitloveit.com/ blogger recently talked about those days on one of her posts.  It wasn’t that long ago!

What about you?  Did you get blanched?  Do you run in ice or snow or stick to treadmills?  Ever run in sweat pants and shirts? 

The End is Near

I ain’t talking about the end of the world, that happened last year as the Mayan’s predicted.  I’m talking about your training.  Every day is one day closer to the end.  I reminded myself this a couple times this week already.  Why?  Not because I wasn’t enjoying it (I was…kind of), but it was hard.  I had to remind myself that I will need the strength I’m growing now when my race(s) come later.

Lemme splain.  In high school soccer, our coach ran us into the ground in preseason training.  We had 3-a-day summer practices, starting at like 5am and finishing at dusk.  People be pukin everywhere.  But he kept reminding us that we were going to need the fitness we were gaining not then, but a few months later when playoffs started.  In the middle of July, he kept saying we were training for October.  He was right.  We were faster, stronger, fitter, then every team we played.  When October came around, we never got tired.

I was a notorious midriff show-er.

So when I woke up the other day and saw “hill repeats” on the schedule, it was not only tempting to get back in bed, but to skip the hills for just an easy run.  But then I remembered, I’m not training for October, I’m training for January.  Every hill repeat I did, I reminded myself that come race day, I’ll be glad I did these now.  Same in the gym…when my legs were screaming from all my walking lunges and I wanted to skip a set, I reminded myself that I’ll need this strength in a few months.

If it was easy, everyone would do it, right?  We have to do the hard stuff now, so that we’re injury-free, fitter, and stronger later.

So if you have a training this week, remember that you’ll be glad you did it come race day.  If you have a race this weekend, remember that you did the time, you did the work, and you’ll be ready to go!

What about you?  Did you ever do a workout you didn’t want to do and afterwards wish you hadn’t?  I doubt it, ha!  What upcoming workout are (not) looking forward to, but will destroy anyway?

 

Respect the Run & Don’t Fight Giraffes

Before I get into it, lemme fill in on last night’s social run.  It was good.  Cool temps and low humidity made it so I could actually breath on my run.  It felt awesome.  I ended up doing about a 7:20 pace for the 3 miles.  Much different than the humid & hot 9 per the 3 miles I ran just two days ago.  Anyway, afterwards we traded running stories and shared a few drinks and snacks like we do each Thursday.

Here’s some of last night’s group, along with our laser eyes.

Now onto today’s post…

The weekend approaches.  While most of our friends are thinking about how to relax this weekend, us runners have a different perspective.  The weekend for us either means a race or some training – usually a long run of the week.

For my Disney Dopey Challenge training, I have an “off” weekend.  Which means no back to back medium and long runs.  Instead I have 9 miles on Saturday and only cross training on Sunday.  The off week is designed to let me recharge a bit in anticipation of next weeks mileage – culminating with a 6 and 16 mile back to back runs.

Who put a cartoon character in charge of a major race?

But as I prepare for tomorrow’s 9 miler, something occurred to me.  I was reading a strong runner’s blog that I follow – BayRunner Jamie, and she had a line in one of her posts about respecting the run.  I started thinking about this, and it’s true.  Here’s what I mean about respecting the run:  That means you do not fear it, nor are you cocky about it, you simply respect it, and in return you should have a better performance.

My sis and I after a recent 1/2 marathon in OBX, NC.

Look at it like this:  My marathoner sis is a real keeper.  And by keeper, I mean Zoo Keeper (you see what I did there?).  She works with animals that could rip her skin off.  Gorillas, elephants, and don’t get me started on giraffes.  They look nice, and most are, but they can fight, and when they do, it looks WEIRD.  Giraffe fights creep me out.  Look it up on youtube sometime.

A pic my sis took recently of one of her giraffes. I don’t like the way it’s eyeballing me…like it wants to fight or something.

Sorry, I got off topic there.  I told you not to get me started on giraffe fighting.  Anyway, here’s what I’m getting at.  If you are around animals, you cannot project fear, or they may bite your knee off.  You also can’t be so cocky that you think you can just walk right up to them and take a selfie, cause they may teeth bite your face’s cheek.  You must respect the animal if you want it to respect you back, and hopefully not swing it’s giant spotted neck in your direction.

So when you wake up for your race or long run this weekend, don’t be afraid of it (the distance, pace, course, hills, etc.)…you got this.  And don’t be so confident that you assume you’ll own it…that’s a recipe for disaster (You could go out too fast, or if you think it’s going to be easy, you may freak out once you hit a difficult patch).  Respect the run and you should be able to handle it better than a fighting giraffe.

So what are you doing this weekend?  Racing?  Long run?  How far?  How do you feel about it going in?  Do you think there should be an organized giraffe fighting league?

Disney Dopey Training Week 5 & Motivation

Let’s get doped up.

My training for the Dopey Challenge (4 straight days of races- 5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2) has gone swimmingly runningly so far.  This week looked like this:

Sun – Yoga, Mon – Rest, Tues – 3 miles + weights, Wed – 6 miles, Thurs -3 miles + weights, Fri – Rest.

Here’s what’s up for this weekend:

Sat – 5 miles, Sun – 15 miles.

Yup, it’s starting to get real.  But so far I’ve stuck to the Hal Higdon plan (actually, added a few extra miles along the way):

I unofficially backtracked the plan, but it officially started 5 weeks ago.  Click the image to enlarge it.

We’ve had cooler temps this week which has been heavenly for my runs, but of course, it’s supposed to be warmer and humidity-er this weekend.  Chance of rain, so hopefully that will help cool things off a bit.  I know I have a lot of friends racing this weekend locally and in more exotic places like Chi-town.  So hopefully the weather gods are kind to them!  Best of luck people!

If you’re not racing, you’re probably doing a long run this weekend too.  You probably also will be hating your alarm clock when it goes off, like I do too.  But I’ve got some motivation for you.  A runner friend of mine sent a video to me, and I thought I’d share it below.  As someone who’s won an Emmy for writing, this makes my writing bone jealous.  I can guarantee it will get you pumped for your race or long run this weekend:

What’ve you got planned this weekend?  Did the video give you goosebumps too?  Ready to rise and shine and find your greatness?

Hill Repeats Wednesdays

This morning’s Dopey Challenge training called for 5 miles at race pace.  Every other Wednesday it calls for race pace, with just a normal slower run on alternating hump days.  I’ve been taking these days to do Hill Repeats.  I ended up doing probably 1.5 miles of repeats.  If you’ve ever done them, you know they are hard.  But you also know how strong of a runner they make you.  Besides strength, they also make you a faster runner.  And pretty much every race is going to have some sort of incline at some point – even the “flat” courses…I found this out the hard way a few months back.

I was running the Outer Banks, NC Flying Pirate Half Marathon.  Since it was on an island at sea level, I assumed it’d be flat.  Also, the course description on the web site said it was flat, but with one hill right before the finish.  Like a fool, I believed them.

Battling the Unexpected Hills (Not sure if that’s their official name or not)

Yes, it was mostly flat.  But there was one noticeable hill around mile 5 when we were running by the shoreline and had to take a left to enter a neighborhood.  The shoreline was sea level, the neighborhood was not.  We had to run up a hill to get there.  But that was it until mile 10.  Only one hill in the first 10 miles? I will take it!

But after mile 10, things changed.  We left the paved path and entered an unpaved nature preserve.  The last 3.1 miles were full of ups and downs…literally! I hadn’t done a stitch of hill work preparing for this race, and I paid for it.  The PR I was on pace for tripped and went rolling down a hill.

I wrote all about it in my race recap HERE.

I won’t get into the details again in this post, as I just want mention it to make a point:  Always do at least some hill work when preparing for a race!  If you do, you’ll be prepared for any hills you face.  Also, if you do luck out and your race is perfectly flat, then you’ll be stronger and faster for having done some hill work.  Imagine how much easier a flat race is if you’d done some prep for it by running up and down inclines!

So yes, do go out there and make mountains out of molehills!

-Scott

Disney Dopey Training (Week 1 Done)

If you follow this blog, then you probably know that I’m training for the Dopey Challenge and I’m following the Hal Higdon plan for this event.  The first week came and went pretty well.  The weekday runs were pretty uneventful, then came the weekend back to back runs.  The Saturday mileage is still pretty low – Only had to run 3 miles.  Then on Sunday, the plan called for 13.

I backtracked the plan, but it officially started last week.

I met up with a couple friends at White Rock Lake in Dallas.  I like to do my long runs down there because it’s scenic, there’s facilities, and there’s lots of other active people out and about.  My friend Robert was one of the friends.  He’s been getting into running more and more lately.  I was happy for him because he said it was his first time looping the lake without stopping!  My other friend Meg was acting as our pace coach (just under 9 min miles).  She’s a great runner and probably could’ve left us in the dust, but she’s coming back from injury, and she’s nice.

Anyway, the lake is a 9 mile loop, but there’s a secret Batman detour that we took to add an extra mile.  So after those 10 miles, Rob and Meg had to go, but it only left me to run about 2.5 by myself.  I started off taking a new path for me.  There’s the main path, but off to the side at certain places there’s a mystery path that I’ve never run on…until now.  It pretty much ran parallel to the main path, but went through more wooded areas and had less people on it.  I’ll have to explore more of it in the future.

Back on the main path I had less than a mile to go when I paused my gps watch to grab some water and swag from a local radio station set up on the trail.  If they post the photos, I’ll snag em and share em on this blog.  It was cool because I got a whole swag bag for a training run, just like I would at a race.  Score!

Only problem is that I forgot to restart my watch when I started running again.  I went at least half a mile more that will never be documented.  Ha!  No matter, a little extra is good, right?  For my last stretch, I took a side road off the path.  I see bikers go up this road quite a bit, but I have only done it once…in a race.  This side excursion was very basically a big hill.  People go up it apparently to get some extra work in.  It definitely got my legs and lungs burning.  But I’m glad I did because at the top of the hill it had a great view of the Dallas skyline over the lake.

I felt pretty good during this run.  It helped having friends to chat with along the way.  But what really helped was the slightly cooler temps.  Don’t get me wrong, it was still warm.  Probably around 80’s at sunrise, but that’s much better than it’s been around here.  I felt strong at the end of the run, unlike two weeks prior when it was a battle to get my 12 done.  I’m hoping this weekend was a small taste of what’s to come!

Official Disney Dopey Challenge Training – Week 1

116 days until the Dopey Challenge commences, and I’m feeling good.  I’ve completed my “unofficial” training and now the “official” plan kicks in.  Hal Higdon designed the plan, and I had to train for it because week one’s long run is 13 miles.  So obviously I had to train just to be ready to train.  Here’s the week’s workouts so far:

Sunday – cross train (6 mile trail run)
Monday – rest
Tuesday – 3 mile run + weight training
Wednesday – 5 mile run with hill repeats
Thursday – 3 mile run + weight training
Friday –  rest

The weight training and hill repeats aren’t in the official plan, but I added them in.  The cross training choice is up to you, and I decided to join friends on a trail run.

I’m a tad sore and tired heading into the weekend of workouts, but not too bad. This weekend calls for a 3 mile run on Saturday (I may also go to yoga) and 13 miles on Sunday.  Luckily some friends are going to join me on Sunday at White Rock Lake in Dallas to run part of the way with me.  I’ll let you know how it goes next week.

I will say this – most friends, family members, etc. only get to see the finished product – the race.  They don’t get to see all the work that goes into getting there.  I say this because if I were to run a half marathon race this weekend, I’d get a medal, food, drinks, and all the other stuff that comes with a race.  But this weekend I’m running a half marathon training run.  There won’t be cheering spectators, bands, funny signs, or any of the other stuff that comes with a race.  But gotta do the work so hopefully I’ll be strong at the actual race.

If you’re in the Dallas area and want to join us on Sunday…holla!  Everyone else, how’s your training going?

Week 6 Disney Dopey Challenge Training

I finished the 6th week of my Disney Dopey Challenge Training (if you can’t tell from the title).  It was my last unofficial training week, because this week begins week 1 of the Hal Higdon training plan.  Why did I have to do pre-training training?  Because week 1’s long run is 13 miles.  So I have to be prepared for that.

Week 6 was supposed to include a kind of an easy weekend of running.  The weekend long run was supposed to be only 6 miles (but I accidentally did 7) with Project Run 214.

A few of us from the group…bright and early!

It’s still miserably hot for running around here, no matter how early you get up.  So humid too.  After the run I sat down on the ground for a minute and left a heart shaped stain of butt sweat.

Awww, my sweat is so sweet.

Afterward we did my fave thing to do after an early run, we went to breakfast and exchanged running war stories and ideas.  Yes to eggs, must satisfy that “Runger”!

Then Sunday Runday was supposed to be only a cross training day.  I made mine a 6 mile trail run with friends.  We ran through Erwin Park in McKinney, TX.  It’s a great park, but there are usually lots of mountain bikers on the trail that you have to watch out for.  It was also kind of freaky hearing all the gun shots going off from the surrounding fields – apparently dove season has opened and people were out shooting birds.  Only one of us was hit, but luckily he had on a bullet proof vest.  Just kidding.  But not kidding, it was cool to see the recreational hot air ballooners flying from and around the park.  My one friend snapped this pic as we were leaving.

How does one decide to buy a hot air balloon?

After the run we did my fave thing again – breakfast!  Where for some reason we took a group photo in the restroom.  Runners are weird I guess.

I was caught by surprise by the camera lady.

Anyways, pretty good weekend of running and eating.  No the training officially kicks in, and I’m ready.  I’m also ready for some cooler temps.  When football season starts, I know we’re close to cooling down some (I hope).

Hope you got a good sweat or two in this past weekend!

Peace!