Back on (the) Track

Yesterday I got in another track workout.  Does anyone else get a little nervous before doing these?  Kind of like before a race?  I think it’s because I know it’s going to hurt.

Anyway, I did some 400’s with a 200 jog in between each one.  I’ve been running each between 80-90 seconds.  Granted, I’m not going 100% on these repeats, but still that’s a far cry from high school when I ran them averaging around 55 seconds per.  Ahh well, that’s the sweet bird of youth for you.

Anyone want to go to the Prom with me?

Maybe if I stay consistent with my track workouts, I’ll start creepin my times back down towards my high school self.  Anywhoodle, it was super windy again.  Sustained 20mph winds with gusts a lot stronger.  So half the track I was running straight into a wind wall.

The flag is holding on for dear life.

After I finished my 400’s, I decided to reward myself.  Here’s how:  I ran two more laps, jogging the 200 into the wind, and then sprinting the 200 with the wind at my back.  Some might call this cheating, but it was my reward, and it felt good to go short and fast!!!

Hello 400, we meet again.

How bout you?  Anyone else ever reward themselves after a tough workout with a little ‘cheating’ run?  Do you ever compare your olden days times with current ones?  Anyone else a lil nervous before track work?

-Scott

Dopey Meet-Ups!

I love how that now-a-days pretty much all my friends are so active.  It always amazes me that I can go to a race, or just go on a training run, and I’m almost guaranteed to “run into” someone I know.  I like that.  It was no different when I traveled half way across the country for a race.  At the Disney Dopey Challenge, I got to meet-up with a few peeps.

If you missed my recaps of the races, you can see them here:  5k, 10k, 13.1, 26.2

First off, these aren’t really reunions, but traveling with me was our boy and my moms.  The boy was doing the Kid’s Race for the 3rd time.

Collage credit goes to my mom. She got all artsy recently.

My moms was doing the Dopey Challenge too.  She only started running a few years ago, and hadn’t run a full marathon yet, but she wanted to make this happen!

Traditional pre-race family photo.

And of course, my sis.  She lives in Orlando, FL so of course we saw her.  Also, her and her roomie let us crash at their crib (I’m so hip), so that was groovy (see).  And if you’ve followed along, then you know that she ran the Dopey too!  We even ran the whole half marathon portion together.

Sibling photo op.  The castle photo bombed us.

Many of you asked how my mom and sis did, and I’m here to tell you that they both finished!  My sis came across the full marathon line a little after me and we reunited when she passed by me stretching next to the medical tent.

With Sis before the marathon. We looked much better here than afterwards.

After we cleaned up, we went into Epcot to look for our ma.  We bought a rose with a Mickey Mouse in it to give to her.  Our plan was for the boy to hand it to her as she passed so she could cross the finish line with it.  All we had to do was wait.

While waiting, we cheered on all the other runners.  And we saw my sister’s friend and cheered for him!  He had met us each morning (he was Dopey too) before the races and served as our official pre race family photographer.

Pre one of the races with my sis’ friend.

Then we finally saw our ma!  We yelled at her to come over so we could hand her the rose, but get this…she blew us off!!!  Haha!  She literally waved us off and kept going.  Everyone around us thought that was pretty funny too.  They said it was comical that we had been waiting there for her, and she was not interested in stopping.

The boy said he was looking “stylish”.

Now I know how it is in a marathon, and I’m sure at that point in the race she just wanted to finish, but it was still funny to us.  Anyway, we gave her the rose a little later.

You can see the rose on the ground next to her. Don’t marathons look fun???

Another mom collage.

Another meet-up I had was with a friend from high school…who I hadn’t seen since high school.  We ran track together at our Ohio high school, but now he lives in Hawaii.  Not a bad gig if you can get it.  Anyway, he was doing the Dopey too.  I actually bumped into him in my coral before the 5k and we ran the whole way together.

That’s him next to me (he’s in the kilt).

We would see each other before and after each race.  It was cool to catch up.

Representing the mean streets of our hometown – Westerville, Ohio.

I had another long time reunion.  Now I must preface this with a short fun fact – also in high school, I used to travel the East coast competing in (mostly) hip hop dance competitions.  My sis went to a dance school, and I just kind of fell into it.

National championships in Myrtle Beach. I know you’re jealous of my mighty dancing shoulder pads.

So, one of the gals I used to dance with now lives in Florida and her and her husband were running the marathon.  After they finished (PR’d!!!) we met up for some post race re-hydrating.

We had to refill our carb levels somehow.

I hadn’t seen her in a long long time, so that was awesome!

Another meet-up I had was with a fellow blogger.  Danielle over at Live, Run, Grow.  There were many that I wanted to run into, but I was only able to find this one.  And here’s how: before the Dopey she had blogged her race costume – Newsies.  After the 10k, I saw a group of Newsies, and knew it must be her.  So we had a brief meet-up.

Virtual friends meet! We take life very seriously.

That’s a great tip from her – post  your race costumes before hand so people looking for you can find you!  For you other blogger friends who were there, know that I was looking for you, and I’m sorry we weren’t able to meet up.

So there are the running reunions I had at the Dopey Challenge.  So cool!

How bout you?  Ever run into old/new friends at races?  Any surprise get togethers?

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?