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.

 

I Need A Cold Shower…

…Because it’s hawt outside.  Very haute.  I’m not complaining, I know it comes with the territory of living in Texas, and I know it’s going to get hotter, but I have not acclimatized yet.

We’ve had a very mild spring, Texas-wise.  But this week has been more weather normal-like around these parts.  Hittin’ mid 90’s in the day, rockin 80-90% humidity at many times.

It really hit me this morning (literally).  I walked out the front door for my morning run and Boom-shaka-laka – here’s a hot wet towel slap to the face!

I only ran a 5k+, but I was absotivley SOAKED!!!  But hey, at least my pores were cleared and toxins flushed out, right?

Yes, that’s my butt sweat from sitting on the ground. And yes, I have a heart shaped butt.

Yup, we’re getting to the point of multiple shower days.  And yes, mine was cold.  Otherwise my body temp doesn’t cool down enough to stop sweating.

There’s nothing more troubling than the looks your co-workers give you when they look over and see you profusely sweating.  {whispers} “What is he looking at on his computer?  What’s he so nervous about?”

Anyways, nothing we can do about it, so gotta look at the positives – like it takes less time to get properly warmed up to run, or I can wear less clothes on my runs (you’re welcome world).  So bring it on Sun!

How bout you?  Do you notice a change in your running depending on temps?  Aren’t you glad that at least there’s no ice on the ground?  What shape is your butt sweat?

-Scott

 

Whether to Weather the Weather and Run

Talk about a tail tale of two runs.  This past weekend, I was going to go for a 10 mile run.  It was harsh.  This morning I was going for a 4 mile run.  It was radical.

I know there are a ton of factors that go into a good/bad run.  But I’m giving the edge in these ones to the weather.

The other day it was windy, humid and near 90 degrees.  This morning it was windy, humid and 54 degrees! Thank you cold chilly front!

The other day I got my ten miles in, but it was sweaty and laborious.  This morning I got my four miles in and it was less sweaty and glorious.  I only wish it wasn’t a school day so that I could have kept running!

I know there’s nothing you can do about the weather – you gotta run anyways.  And they don’t often cancel races for the conditions (unless it’s extreme).

In fact, at the 2012 Disney Marathon, they had a warm hot front come through and so they had to put up these signs everywhere…

Awww, but runDisney, I wanted to PR!

The heat and humidity of that race caused me to finish about 45 minutes slower than I wanted to.  I was bummed.  I felt like I had done all that training for not knot naught.

Despite my finger I didn’t actually finish in first place.  Yes, I was a bit sweaty.

I was so bummed that while drowning in a post race celebratory beer (oxymoron?), I tweeted to Actor, Runner, Hobbit – Sean Astin asking for advice.  To my surprise, he tweeted back.

Puts it in perspective.

I realized he was right.  I got to run a marathon.  I got to do it outside.  It’s a good thing.  So now I always try to remember that when ever the conditions don’t cooperate – it’s still a good thing what I’m doing.  Just hope that the next time it will be better.

And for now I’m going to hope this little freaky fall-in-spring weather we got today will stick around…at least long enough for my run tomorrow.

How bout you?  How do you handle changing weather conditions (weird fact, I tend to get random bloody noses when the seasons change – attractive, huh?)?  Any celeb twitter interactions recently? 

-Scott

ps. looking back, this post may have been partially inspired by Salt.  She’s freaking out about her upcoming race.  She’s got nothing to fear tho!

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!

Night Running in the Morning

I’m afraid this non-morning person has become a morning runner.  Too many years of Texas heat have forced me to lurk in the shadows of pre-dawn streets and trails.  During the summer, the sun would come up early enough that I at least had some light.  But as we creep into fall, the nights are longer and the sunrise is delayed.  It seems so odd to wake up for my run, only to be greeted by Orion and Cassiopeia.

A couple of my running buddies!

I thought it was morning, so why am I able to utilize my college knowledge from my Astronomy class?  Also, this week we’ve had a new moon that is slowly waxing, so there ain’t much moonlight to help light my way.  Some streetlights, but once I enter a wooded park and hit a paved trail – it’s very dark.  It kind of plays with me as I can’t exactly see the ground, so sometimes my depth perception is off and I may take a few wobbly steps.  Mainly though, I just hope I don’t land on a snake trying to warm himself on the cement!

It is nice though too.  The world is pretty silent.  Construction projects haven’t started.  The roads are pretty bare.  And if I time it right, I can just catch the sunrise over the pond in the nearby park.  Lately though, I’ve been finishing before the sun is even up.

It can also be lonely at these hours, but then I started thinking…dangerous, I know.  What had happened was I passed another night morning runner.  Then I got to a park and an entire high school cross country team was there practicing.  And I realized, I’m not alone.  All over the world people are doing exactly what I am doing:  Sacrificing night time shenanigans to put in early morning miles, all for a goal.  My goal is completing the Disney Dopey Challenge.  But who knows what the others are getting ready for.  Perhaps Olympians are training at the same time.  Perhaps other people wanting to be Dopey like me.  Perhaps it’s someone’s very first run on a mission to get healthy.  Probably all of them.

It’s comforting to think that way.  And I’m always glad after I finish my run before my day begins.  But it will probably always still be a little odd.  Especially when I’m running past a house where I can hear an alarm clock going off.  Or the other house that’s park adjacent and the owner doesn’t realize that there might actually be people utilizing the trails so early and decides to leave the bathroom blinds open during the morning shower.  Or the occasional random car parked in the park parking lot with someone just sitting inside it – that’s plain creepy.

What about you?  Are you a morning hawk or night owl?  What do you think the guy in his car is possibly doing?!?!

 

 

Morning Runner = Zombie

I am not a morning person at all.  Never have been.  I still don’t like it when people talk to me when I first wake up, and I usually don’t respond to them.  Jerky, I know.  But it takes me a while before my mind and body feel right. I feel like a zombie some mornings.  Which reminded me of a funny scene from one of my fave movies.  It’s the first shot in the trailer for Shaun of the Dead, where you think he’s a zombie, but he’s really just waking up:

That said, I’ve been getting up early to run for a few years now.  It’s pretty much a necessity in Texas.  It’s so fargin hot out during the day, and it’s still hot during the morning, but not quite as hot.  I’m still disgustingly sweaty after my run and have to let my clothes dry out for a day before they can go in the hamper.  BTW, one of the ways to know if you’re a runner is if you have two hampers – one for regular clothes, one for workout gear.

But running in the morning has other advantages that I do enjoy.  Most notably, you get the workout out of the way, and have the rest of the day to do whatever.  It is funny though that for me, the morning workouts always seem like they happened on another day.  Sometimes I’ll forget about them until I go up a flight of stars later on and wonder why it was more difficult than normal, “Oh yeah, my legs are tired from the run earlier.”

I do also enjoy the quiet in the mornings.  Less people up and about, so less traffic and noise.  Though now that school’s back in session, it’s less so.

Another advantage is getting to see the sunrise.  I don’t take my phone on runs, so you’ll probably never see a picture here, but I do see some pretty spectacular ones.  Especially in the park near my house that has a lake-pond.  It’s cool to see the sunrise reflecting in it.

And I do enjoy the times we get breakfast afterwards.

It’s also good to get the metabolism into gear first thing too!

Short story: One morning I was up early to run and must’ve checked in on social media cause a friend of mine who owns a bar/grill commented that she was just going to bed from working all night.  Which reminded me of a lyric from one of my fave singers, Mr. Jimmy Buffett:

“These days I get up about the time I used to go to bed.” – Coast of Carolina

It’s true.  I may not like it, but it’s happening.  And there are plenty of advantages to doing so.  But until I become a morning person, don’t talk to me right away.  I’ll just answer you with silence or grunts.

Disney Dopey Run Training Week 3

So week three Dopey Challenge training is in the books!  And people who run around here really lucked out cause the weather dropped for a couple days.  Instead of being 85% humidity combined with the extreme Texas heat, we had a stretch of 60 degree temps in the mornings!!!  It was still humid, but man did it feel great to be out there in cooler temps.  I felt like a whole new runner!

The weekday runs and workouts were still hot, but I got through them no problemo.  In fact, I ran one of my evening runs at near my 5k pace of 7:00 min miles – cooler temps + being around some fast runners were the reasons me thinks.  The weekend came though and I was glad for the cooler temps.  My schedule called for a short 3 miles on Saturday and 11 miles on Sunday.  3 sounded silly, so I did 4, then went to an hour of yoga.  Afterwards a group of old friends got together for a mini reunion of sorts, where I did enjoy their company and also a few Guinnesseseses.

I guess some of my friends were glad to see me.

I’m glad to report that the health benefits claims of Guinness must be true, because I woke up early for my 11 miler and handled it pretty well.  Like I said, the cooler temps helped too!

Anyway, that’s all I got right now.  More than enjoying this rest day and get back at it tomorrow!

Peace out internet!

Dopey Training Week 1 – Hot Running

So my unofficial Dopey training kicked off last week.  The highlight being the weekend’s back-to-back.  Saturday the sched called for only 3 miles.  I did it, no prob.  Then I got online and saw all the posts from my friends who had done their training’s long run that day and all the comments were how horrible, hot, humid, and horrible it was for them.  I thought it wasn’t so bad.  But then again, I only ran 3.  I found out what they meant Sunday morn.  I had to run ten miles and got up early to do it.  They were right, it was horrible.

I was so sweaty, it was plain disgusting.  I was soaked.  And the sweat running down my legs into my shoes didn’t help much.  Each step squished.  I left footprints from my we shoes.  Each one must’ve weighed about 5 lbs.  It was yuck.  Add to that that we ran in a particular hilly part of town, and also I decided to go to yoga after Saturday’s run (and the instructor kicked our buttbutts), so my legs felt heavy.  Not my best performance on the road.

But with determination and help from a friend, I got through it.  And I know I’m stronger for it.  I know running up all those hills helped make me stronger, and running in the inescapable heat should make me stronger as well.  But I must say, I cannot wait for the cooler temps.  It’ll be nice to run when it doesn’t feel like the air is vegetable soup.  But living where we do, not much we can do about it now, so gotta get through it.  But I must say, more power to those who live here and are training for a fall marathon.  If you’re running really high mileage in this weather, that’s gotta be even tougher.  Luckily my mileage doesn’t really start to increase until the fall, which can still be hawt, but hopefully not as hawt.

Anyway, that’s all I got right now.  On to week two!

Hot Runs: Track Work, Social Run, Weekend Fun

So it’s hot outside.  Like, devil fart hot.  That makes for tough times running.  I’m getting somewhat acclimatized, but there’s only so much you can adjust to.  I tried to get up early and run before work hoping the small clock hour would mean cooler temps.  Didn’t help much – sure the sun wasn’t baking, but for some reason the dawn hours around here are extremely humid.  I did my run, sweated, took a shower, kept sweating, drove to work, sweated at my desk – I’m quite sure my co-workers think I’m up to something.  “Why’s that guy sweating? What’s he looking at on his computer?”

But then on Wed, I met some peeps for a track workout…at 5.  PM!  Holy horse it was blazing.  Trying to sprint 400’s when it’s 102, no clouds, and heat radiating off the black track ain’t easy.  But I got through it (mostly).

Then comes the Thursday social run.  What’s this?  Rain clouds?  Sure it was just a quick downpour that sopped, but at least the clouds will provide relief from the sun that seems to normally be leaning against my face.  Not so much.  The sun that was shining through cooked the wet ground and turned it into rather thick humidity.  But I got through it again.  It helps when there’s 50 other people running with you.  One of which was a Boston Marathon qualifier for this coming year (She told me she qualified with a 3:30’s marathon!).  She kept my pace up by nipping at my heels the whole 2nd half of the run.  We ended up doing a rather decent 7:30 pace – pretty good for a hot casual social run!  And she had a great point – if you can get through these crazy hot runs, as soon as the temps drop, it’s going to feel like you were let out of a cage.  ‘Tis true.  I’ve gone through it before. Running Texas summers = easier fall/winter runs.

Anyhow, we were able to cool off on the fantastic patio at the Katy Trail Icehouse Outpost in Plano.

Only part of our group that was there. We like the mister fans!

I’m not making duck lips, they always look like that.

Anyway, we got no choice.  Gotta train through it.  This weekend will bring more.  I’m thinking long run again on Saturday, possibly followed by yoga.  Then another trail run Sunday, followed by a secret run group meeting.  Stay tuned for info on that last part.

Gotta keep at it!  179 days till the Disney World Marathon Weekend and the Dopey Challenge (3.1, 6.2, 13.1, &26.2)!!!

Peace out internet!

 

Track Work & Rain Runnin

So it’s been heck-a-humid ’round here recently.  That’s made for some really sweaty runs.  But the other morning the humidity finally broke out into some rain.  Instead of using that as an excuse not to run, I gladly laced em up and got out there.  I’ve always liked running in the rain, playing soccer in the rain, whatever in the rain.  Now don’t get me wrong…if it’s a downpour, that can be a problem, but if it’s just kind of drizzling, that’s cool…literally.  It helps keep me cool and it’s just something different.  Since we live in what is becoming an arid state, I’ll take any rain we get.  Give running in the rain a try sometime…just not if there is thunder and/or lightning…that’s just plain reckless…hit the treadmill instead in that case…unless you keep your treadmill outdoors…which is also different…and reckless…

Other than that, last night I kept up the weekly track workouts.  We did more 400’s.  It was hot and humid like normal, but at least we had some cloud cover.  I felt pretty good.  Turned in some decent splits.  We’ve also been making new running friends on the track.  It’s like becoming a regular at a bar, but our bar is an oval that we run around.  Anyway, we keep seeing the same faces at our oval bar.  Pretty cool.  Like I’ve said, track work hurts, but it’s nice to see other people toughening out the pain so they can be healthier and faster.  Everyone’s training for a different race, but they all know the same means to get them there.

That said, today I’ve got weights again followed by an evening run.  I usually run with Thursday Night Social Run, but I think tonight I might check out a new run – PlayTri is a new triathlon shop in town and I hear they have a Thurs eve social run.  It starts at 6pm and is on the way home for me, so I might check it out.  Always good to have running options.

201 days till the Dopey Challenge.  Gonna keep at it!