Runnin, Soccer, Tough Yoga & a Bobcat Encounter!

Another weekend is in the books! Well, not so much a book, but more of a calendar.

Anyway, this weekend was extra epic because the boy had his first soccer match!

You’ll grow into the jersey.

But before that I was able to get in a short run on Friday as well as 9 miler Saturday morning. I was glad to negative split that fool despite the humidity!

After a shower, we were ready for some football.

Landsharks on three!

Unfortunately the Landsharks started the season with a loss. And as head coach, I take full responsibility. In my defense though, it’s hard to get a bunch of five year olds to focus on one thing at a time.

Put me in coach…ooh look, there’s a dragonfly over there!!!

But at least they got a lot of fan support from sister!

Go team…oooh look, there’s a dragonfly over there!

In the end, they all still had a lot of fun!

Much like soccer, some of the team are also still learning how to take a photo.

On Sunday I met up with a friend for a trail run.  After a few miles we came across a train bridge/tunnel. Good spot for pictures.

Feeling a little blurry.

This one feels sharper.

At this spot we heard a waterfall. We climbed over a barbed wire fence and could see it was on the other side of the tunnel. We’d have to climb up and over the tracks to see it. That’s what we tried to do.

Now I’ve been weary of train tracks since my last encounter with them a few months back. But this time I managed not to hurt myself.

Sometimes I incorporate trail running into my ‘training’. Get it? I know, I’m hilarious.

We never saw the waterfall cause when we got to the tracks I spotted a bobcat on the other side. Usually they run away from humans, but this one stood still. My friend snapped a not very clear pic…

She’s dressed in her cammo.

We didn’t want it to lose it’s fear of humans, so we started yelling and waving our arms to scare it off. It didn’t budge. In fact, it just sat down and stared at us like we were loco.

That’s when we heard the meow-screeches of the bobkittens. They were under the rock she was sitting on. This mama was protecting her litter. That’s why she wasn’t abandoning her den. And we could sense she was losing patience with us being so close. We decided it would be prudent to get out of there real quick like. Like my friend said, “I don’t want to get my eye clawed out by a bobcat today.”

We got back safely and ended up going about 7 miles on the run.

Afterwards it was yoga time.

The calm before the pain storm. Oooh look, the shoe lady is back!

The instructor this day put us through a tough tough session. What made it tougher is that she had to leave early, so she squeezed in an hour’s worth of yoga into 45 minutes. This was a no-joke practice. Felt good though (after it was over).

They say weekends are supposed to be relaxing, but mine always leave me sore and tired. Go figure.

How bout you? Crazy weekend? Encounter any wildlife? Any tips to ensure we don’t lose another soccer match?

-Scott

Call Me ‘Coach’, Runnin & More Tacos!

Howdy Folks!  So something happened.  I’m now in charge of a bunch of utes.  What had happened was that we signed our 5 year old up for a soccer league.  Well, on the entry form it asked if I’d be willing to volunteer coach if needed.  I said, “Sure.”  Not thinking they would really need me.  Well, they did and they do.

All I had to do was pass the background check.  Luckily I did…whew!

Would you trust this…man?

Luckily I’ve played my entire life, so I should be aight.

And I have coached before.  For several years I volunteered with a couple different organizations to help coach people training for half and full marathons.

As for futbol, I have coached kids soccer before, tho it’s been several years.  But the orientation I went to last night did get me a bit excited for it.

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

As for running, a few weeks back I upped my game.  I’ve gone from running 5 days a week to 6.  I’m digging it – it’s easier to get more mileage this way!

And the more I run, the more tacos I get to eat.  I’ve already had several of these bad boys this week.

Vegetarian tacos!!! Get in my taco hole!

Tacos, running, soccer.  All of that is right up my alley, right there.

How bout you?  Ever coached anything?  Got any advice/drills for coaching soccer kids?  When are you coming to visit so we can get tacos?

-Scott

Pneumonia, World Cup, & Don’t Eat Curry B4 a Run

I mentioned in my last post how jazzed I am for the World Cup to have started.  I am a soccer/football fanatic and this is the best time of the every four years.  But as this tournament started, I reminisced about the last one four years ago.  It was a Heaven & Hell sort of situation.  Heaven because I got to watch pretty much every single match.  Hell because I had gotten pneumonia (hence the reason I got to watch every match – I was near death on the couch).

Now while I’m happy about getting so see so much football, I gotta say, do NOT get pneumonia if you can help it.  It is an AWFUL experience.  But enough about that.

Not the World Cup trophy, but my rec league 2nd place finish last year is pretty good too, right?  Right???

Other than that, it’s been a pretty good week.  Well, except for my run yesterday.  Here’s the dillyo.  I was going to run in the evening with my usual group, but the weather dudes predicted rain, hail, and end of days (BTW it never even sprinkled a little).  So I decided to sneak one in mid afternoon…in 90% humidity…after I ate my homemade curry…didn’t end well.  Haha, please learn a lesson from my mistake.  Don’t do what I did.

It’s all good though, I gotter done.  And that night I was able to finish the week off with a doggy walk slash kiddy bike ride.

He’s constantly turning around to tell me some ‘amazing’ revelation. Keep your eyes on the road kid!

Hope y’all had a good week and will have a great weekend!  I know mine will be full of soccer!!!!

You watchin the World Cup?  You play any other sports?  You ever eat curry before a workout (I hope not)? 

-Scott

Anyway, I

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.

 

Runnin, Pro Soccer, & Cassanova

I’m always pretty worn out come Monday from my weekends.  I think we need to make Monday’s a national sleep in day.  Yes, I know we’re supposed to sleep in on the weekends, but runners (and parents) don’t seem to have that luxury.

Saturday I got up and ran 10 chilly/windy miles with one of the pups.  Why did I run ten?  I dunno, sounded good.

That evening I got called to work with the TV broadcast of the FC Dallas match vs. Portland Timbers.  If you don’t know, when I’m not exercising, I’m a TV producer guy.  This gig called for me to stand at midfield and watch soccer.

On field Selfie!

I’ve played soccer since toddler days and it’s still my favorite sport.  So this is a pretty sweet gig for me.

The next morning I was going to get up and run with group on some trails, but I didn’t get up in time for their start.  No biggie, I was able to get 4-5 miles on the trails by my lonesome.  I hadn’t been on the trails in a while, and I loved it.  It’s so awesome to run in nature.

My shoesies got a widdle durty.

I’m so glad to be re-introducing trail and track running back into my routine.  It’s so great to mix it up!  And so beneficial too.

Afterwards I went to the Lululemon yoga class, where get this, a lady had a newborn baby on her mat.  It was kind of cool to see the baby looking around as her parents did yoga over them.  That is until the baby got fussy and they had to step out.  Anyways, it was a good class and I did some poses I had never even heard of before.  Reverse tree/eagle anyone?

And of course the weekend also included some doggy/kiddy walks.  The boy even collected some flowers along the way.

He’s a little early for the prom.

How bout you?  Do you like trail running?  Are you a soccer (football) fan?  Would you accept flowers from a boy in a shark shirt?

-Scott

Dopey Training Week 4 (I think) Weecap

Not a typo in the title, I just invented the word for week recap.  Anyway, last week’s runs went fine.  The mileage is still low, which is frustrating, but good too.  The weekdays only had my run 10 miles total.  Then came the weekend’s back to back runs.  Saturday called for 3 miles, I went a tad further.  Sunday called for 12 miles, I didn’t go a tad further.  Sunday was hot again and humid again.  I met a friend at White Rock Lake (9 mile loop) before sunrise…it didn’t matter, the weather was still pretty miserable for running.  We did pretty good the first 7 miles, but by then the sun was up and blazing.  It was a bit of a struggle the next 3 miles, then a noticeable struggle the last 2.

Now I follow some big time runners on Twitter – Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, etc.  And I can’t remember who, but one of them likes to tweet that your “wall” hits at the mile of your previous long run’s last mile.  I’m finding this to be true.  So that partly explains my struggles the last couple miles.  But I also know the heat plays a role too.  And I found myself wishing for fall temps.  I have hope with the start of English football and American football, and the fact that the calendar says “September” that it hopefully it will start to cool soon.

But we got her done.  That’s what counts.  Injury free, that’s what really counts.  So on to the next week.  Keep on keepin on.  Bring it!

2012 Year in Review #blog

I do a lot of stuff.  When you do a lot of stuff, sometimes you forget some of the stuff.  So here’s my look back at the stuff of 2012 that really stands out:

We kicked off the year in Orlando for the Disney Marathon.

Waving to my fans coming out of Cinderella’s Castle with my sis.

One of the coolest experiences of the trip though, was getting to go to a “secret” meeting with the rodents of the house.

Not only that, but our toddler got to run in his first race!

I’m assuming those are moisture wicking jeans.

Then, unlike most years, I had a birthday.  I was lucky enough to spend it with friends on a patio.

Around the same time I ran two Rock n Roll 1/2 Marathons.  One in New Orleans, one in Dallas.

The Ferris Bueler Wheel was closed.

Hey Mister! I like your “throw”.

Then I went to a bunch of spring/summer concerts.  DMB, Edward Sharpe, Flaming Lips, etc. etc. etc.  But Buffett is an annual must!

I also changed my mailing address to Margaritaville.

What else happened?  Oh yeah, we had a baby girl.

Who says you never get to sleep after you have a baby?

I got to act in another movie (still in post-production at the time of this posting.)

Acting like I know what I’m doing.

Speaking of making film & television magic, I was lucky enough to win several more awards for my productions…Including my 4th Emmy!

Don’t be fooled by the fancy photo, I’m actually not wearing pants.

Then three generations of Evanseses got to dust off our Cleveland Browns gear and watch them play in person at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.  It was a rare treat for us Dallasite Browns fans!

All aboard the Browns Bus!

Speaking of rooting for teams, I’m a big fan of FC Dallas, and I was fortunate enough to briefly be a part of their dance team.

Guess which one of us forgot to shave their legs.

Speaking of hanging with famous folks…I get to meet them in my line of business, and one of this year’s highlights was getting to interview The Bangles.  Cool ladies.

I taught them how to walk like an East Texan.

Afterwards I was briefly employed as the official guard of the Alamo.

Yosemite Sam would be proud of my moves. He would then be sad that they no longer serve “Pie Alamode.”

As the year wound down, the elves got to meet the big guy, St. Santa himself.

Finally, Santa granted our Xmas wish, as we were able to go to Shreveport, LA to see the mighty Ohio Bobcat Football Team win the Independence Bowl!  This is a big deal.  After watching the team struggle for decades, they are finally good!  This was their 2nd ever bowl win and their 2nd bowl win in consecutive years.

So there’s some of the stuff from 2012.  In between was a lot of other stuff – races, friends, shows, good times, adventures, etc. but these are some highlights.  Looking back it was a pretty dag nab good year.  Here’s hoping that 2013 is even better!  And here’s hoping your year was also happy and next year even happier.

Peace and love!