Runner Mansion Pool Party

I got to meet up again with the White Rock Running Co-op for an early morning long run. We had a pretty big turnout for this one.

The owner of the house told us the hill under us is their pet cemetery. Errr, what?!?

Some of us got there an hour early to get in some extra miles. I settled in with a crew going at a decent pace for me. We went 5 humid and hilly miles. Then we met up with the main group to run some more. By then the sun was coming up and it was hot as crap!

Oh, did I mention this run was hosted at a mansion?!?!

Excuse me…do you have any money that I can like, have?

I added another 4 miles with the main group (That’s 9 total miles for all you arithmetic-challenged folks). I wanted to go further, but the heat and humidity really zapped my energy.  I had to stop a few times to pour cold water on my head.

Ala my blogging buddy Salt’s pic, you can see the humidity here too.

Luckily the mansion had a huuuge pool for us to cool off in.

I also got to catch up my pal Virginia (who’s also a runner). That’s another bonus of showing up to group runs ~you never know who you’ll run in to! (see what I did there?)

Yes Virginia, there is a Running Clause.

I also got to make some new friends.  Ya know, cause we all need more people to talk about running with!

I almost wore those same pants.

Anyway, like you could maybe see in my Vine above, the pool area also had a full outdoor kitchen with food, a keg, margarita machine, sand volleyball court, outdoor shower, etc. I felt like I was in an episode of Cribs!

I call this one “Boy flying a paper plane that is really made out of metal”.

And being that I’m so sophisticated, I was able to blend in…because I’m fancy as crap!

I’ve always been Klassy with a capital ‘K’.

All in all it was a good time!  Now I just need some more money so I can get a mansion and host runs.  Maybe I’ll start a Kistarter campaign.

How bout you? Hang out at mansions much? How do you handle running in the heat?  Who wants to pledge funds to my Kickstarter?

-Scott

PS – It’s been crazy busy around here and so I’ve been “offline” the past few days. Can’t wait to catch up with everyone!

Group Run, Brunch, & that Time the Popsicle Saved Me

This past Saturday two of my run groups met up for a merged run.  White Rock Running Co-op & Thursday Night Social Run.  Yes, the Thursday group was meeting on a Saturday.  Don’t let it get to your head.

The official run started at 7 am, but some of us met at 6 am for some extra miles (and to beat the heat).  I ended up with a few friends and we went at about an 8:15-8:30 pace in some very hawt and humid conditions for a pre-run 5 miles.

Some of the group. Brunch joint awaits us behind.

The course took us through some pretty swanky neighborhoods – even passing by the former houses of (supposedly) Tom Cruise, Fred Couples, Deion Sanders, & Troy Aikman.  Them some big houses.  I really don’t know what people do to get that much skrilla (besides the pro athletes), but I wish they’d share some with us!

Anyway, I was hurting after that first 5 miles.  The heat was getting to me.  But I headed out on the 2nd part of the run with the main group.  A half mile in and I wish I was done.  But I kept going.  Made it to the water stop they had put out.  And here’s what was key – they had popsicles too.  I hadn’t had one in I don’t know how long, but I was struggling so much that I gobbled one down.

Holy cow, that made a difference.  I don’t know if it was the coolness, or the sugars, or both, but I felt much better after that.  Ended up going 9 total miles.

I’ve seen our buddy Helly preach the good word about these frozen treats, and now I know why!

Afterwards was probably the best part – brunch!  They had the entire patio reserved for us.  I made a 6 second Vine video…

So there you go, another successful Saturday morning.  And I guess the popsicles in the freezer won’t just be for the rug rats anymore.

How bout you?  Any group runs lately?  Any post running brunches?  Did you know of the power of the Popsicle?

-Scott

Post-Run Birthday Boot Camp & Speed Humping

It’s been another crazy few days. Let me start covering it with today’s post on Saturday morning.

First off, I got up somewhat early to run. The humidity was redonk. Like 95%. Plus it was windy and hot. I had planned on going 8-10. I made it to 7…barely.

After the run, it was time for a birthday party. That sounds fun….but it wasn’t.

It was the birthday day of one of the folks I run/workout with on occasion. So what did she want to do…Party? Brunch? Party brunch? Nah, she wanted to lead everyone in a boot camp session. Sheesh.

I know we’re supposed to be in plank, but I’m doing the more advanced version where you put your knees down for a bit.

About 10 minutes after my run, there we were dragging tires, throwing medicine balls, squatting, planking, burpeeing, pushing up…Oh, and  we did a sort of plank/push-up workout thing called ‘Sally’. I don’t know who Sally is, but I now hate her.

Can you spot me doing core work?  Afterwards they had Lululemon cookies.

I did get to thinking (during the exhausting workout) that I’m glad these are the kinds of people that I count as my friends now-a-days. People who want to kick off their birthday with a run, yoga, boot camp, etc. I like that. Sure, we may still celebrate with some margaritas later, but first we’re going to get our sweat on.

Anyway, after the sweatfest, I saw a sign…literally. I saw a road sign that NEEDED a video. So we made one. Below is that video:

How bout you?  Do your friends celebrate their birthdays with a workout?  Do you know Sally?  Have you ever seen such a literal road sign?

-Scott

Running Stare Down & USA Wins the World Cup*

*I know it was only their first match of the tournament that they won, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to write that for realz!?! A boy can dream, can’t he?

Anyway, to watch the match I met up with my dad and elusive bro at a local pub.  This was the scene when they scored the winning goal…

I love how soccer has become so popular in the States recently.  I wish when I was a kid that they had a pro league and showed Euro Leagues and World Cup matches on TV.  Oh well, I’m enjoying it now!

Still on the winning high, I got up this morning for my run.  Despite only getting a few hours sleep due to a certain 2 year old waking up at 4am, I still had a pretty good run.  That is until I was going through ‘my’ park and I saw two German Shepherds hauling arse across the field.  I stopped in my tracks not wanting them to chase me.  I didn’t see any owners.  Then I thought maybe I saw them wrong, maybe they are coyotes.  Time to assess the situation.  But then I saw the owners…

A male and female couple.  They came around the corner.  They were throwing balls for the dogs to chase.  Clearly violating the leash law.  I gave them a stare down to let them know it was not cool that they were interrupting my run.  I still wasn’t moving because I didn’t know if the dogs wouldn’t come after me.  I kept staring until they finally waved at me.  I did not wave back.  I know, rude much.  But they were rude for not having their dogs on a leash when there’s runners and kids around.  I waited till the dogs were going in the opposite direction and continued on my way.

I’m glad to report I made it home safely.  Crisis adverted.  You can breath easy now.

How bout you?  Did you see the US victory in their opening match?  Give anyone a stare down lately?  How many bar flies did I catch in my mouth?

-Scott

 

 

Cool Run, Coyote, & More Tacos

OK, let me get the obligatory taco shot over-with first.  Boom, here you go!

Time to veg out.

The tacos were so good, that I even got a little emotional.  I made a 6 second video to portray that…

OK, part II.

Deep in the heart of Texas, we’re deep in the armpit of a drought.  But yesterday we finally got some rain…Wet stormy rain!  And when the rain left, it took some of the humidity with it.  So I was able to get in a somewhat cooler Texas Summer run!  We won’t get many of these, so I was sure to take advantage.  I was actually excited for my early morning wake up call.  What have I become?!?!

Besides us runners, the cooler temps also brought out some wildlife.  Running down a fairly busy street I came upon a coyote.

Stolen from a friend. He took this from his house recently.

This happens kind of frequently here.  I’ve written before about what to do when you come across one.  Basically, you want to scare them off so they don’t get any ideas (or lose their fear of humans).

So I took a split second to be startled, then a second to admire it’s beauty, then I started waving my arms and yelling like a madman (crazy person, not 1960’s ad exec).  It ran off scared into a wheat field and I could see it’s tail sticking up like a shark fin as it darted off.

So not a bad start to the week.  Let’s keep the ball rollin rollin rollin.

How bout you?  Get emotional over your food?  Ever look forward to a wake up alarm?  Do you think coyote pretty or coyote ugly?

-Scott

My Pukey Instructional Track Video & When did become a thing?

Are you dudes on Vine?  I love that app.  You basically have 6 seconds to make a video.  It’s a fun little way to be creative.  I was making videos on there pretty regularly…until my app stopped working…for months it was down.  But now it’s back!  And so on my run yesterday I made a quick one to let people know how a track workout should go:

Haha, yeah, you should be hurting.  But the good news is that if you do it regularly, you’ll see results.  I’ve noticed an increase in speed on my other training days.  That, and doing interval workouts is the best way to burn fat.  That’s good too, right?

After my run, the boy ‘graduated’ from pre-kindergten.

Luckily that bridge was in the classroom to cover the lazy river.

When did this become a thing?  From what I hear, kids now-a-days have several graduations – Pre-K, K, etc. etc.

Yes, they had diplomas, performances, presentations, and even celebratory cake.

{Grumpy old man voice} In my day, we only had one graduation – High School.  Then another if you finished college.  Kids these days!  {Back to normal voice}  That said, it was pretty cute seeing these kids in their caps and gowns and such.  It was actually a fun event.  And I suppose it’s good to give kids a fun reward for school every so often.

“Now that you’ve graduated, it’s time to get a job. Go apply at that law office.”

Most important to him though, the graduation came with presents from family members.  Hopefully he’ll remember these incentives as he gets older. Haha!

How bout you?  How do you feel on track/speed workouts?  Ever been to a kid’s graduation?  Anyone have an internship available for a 5 year old?

-Scott

 

10k, Putt-Putt, & Thundersleet

The weekend started out great – temps took a sudden upswing to the 70’s/80’s on Friday and Saturday.  We took full advantage.

I got up and ran 10K to start the Saturday.  The miles will go toward these two challenges that I’m taking part in:  Around the World Running Blog Relay and 100 Miles in March by Fitfluential.

I was going to run anyways, might as well join the challenge!

Afterwards, the 5 year old begged me to take him to play putt-putt.

We’re quite a pair – like bread and putter.

He’d never played before in his life, and I’m not sure how it got into his head, but it sounded like a fun idea to me.

Good thing they had more than one green, because he got a hole in one.

Afterwards, he begged me for a hot dog.  He typically doesn’t like to eat any kind of animal protein, so this was a new one too.  Maybe it was the nice weather and the smell of people BBQing in the air?  I’m not a huge fan of him eating them, but figured it was a special day.  We went to a really cool patio bar that’s friendly to pets and runners alike.  It was packed.  He got his dawg and I got a brewski.  Here’s a 6 sec video I took of the scene:

The next morning, the wheels fell off.  The temps dropped to the low 20’s and we got freezing rain.  Oh, and something called “Thundersleet”.  It’s apparently that thing when it’s sleeting and thundering at the same time.  It’s weird.  I wasn’t about to run in that noise, so it was off to yoga at Lululemon.

A man’s child pose.

For some reason, the boy begged me to let him tag along.  He really wanted to go.  I was excited to bring him, but looking back I’m not sure why he wanted to come.  He spent the entire class playing games on my phone.  Oh well, eventually I’ll get him to participate.  Baby steps on the way to child’s pose, I suppose.

As the day went on daying, the weather continued to worsen and colden.  Wind chill was around 0 degrees and the roads got all iced over.  It was a real bummer of a way to end the weekend.  But I did get to weather it in a cool way.  I moved from the ice outside to the ice inside where the Dallas Stars NHL pro hockey team plays.  When I’m not running, I’m a video producer and so I that’s what I was there doing.

On ice #selfie!

So there is the weekend that was.

How was your weekend?  Last time you putt putted?  Last time you yogad?  Last time you patio barred?  Doing any March challenges?  Ever been caught in thundersleet?