Mornin Running & Man-Panties Cont’d

As I wrote earlier, Kindergarten started this week. No, not for me, (I already failed that grade), but for the Grifster. It’s been a whole new adventure waiting to happen. Gone are the days of casually strolling into daycare a couple hours late. Nope, now there’s a new four letter word – “Tardy” – And it’s a no-no.

Sooo, what does that mean for my running. Welp, I have to get up an hour earlier on the weekdays than I was. I’m going to miss that hour. We had some dreamy times together. But I have to be home before the sun comes up.

Run Dun B4 Da Sun. Looks like I’m the only star on the track this morning.

It’s not so bad (once you get past the not being able to see the ground thing). The roads are pretty empty. The stars are there to guide me. And I come across the occasional cross country team in training.

Anyway you sickos, I noticed another fool found my blog with ANOTHER man-panty google search. I always get a chuckle out of that. People are weird.

2014, the year of the man panty. It’s about time they got equal rights.

Anyway, I’m still adjusting to the new sleep schedule (so are the kiddos), but it will be a good thing, I think. It is def nice to have them actually go to bed at a somewhat decent hour, I’ll tell you that much! An advantage of waking up early…you fall asleep early too! Boom!

How bout you? Has school started where you are? Has it changed your schedule (even if you don’t have kids – I know school zones always mess with my commute!)? How will you support the Year of the Man-Panty?

-Scott

The 3rd Annual TNSR Beer Mile – Race Preview

Tonight I get to run a race! It’s the 3^rd Annual Thursday Night Social Run Beer Mile.  This is an unofficial race. It’s not a sanctioned event, but then again, how many Beer Miles are?

I ran this race last year (it was my first ever Beer Mile) and I was fortunate enough to finish in 2^nd place!  You can read my recap of that race HERE.

A trophy, yay!

Oh wait, I forgot to explain what a Beer Mile is. Here’s the breakdown:

1. The clock starts.
2. Everyone drinks a 12 oz beer as fast as they can (it is a race afterall).
3. Run ¼ mile lap as fast as you can.
4. Repeat until you finish four laps/beers.

Last year I finished the Beer Mile in 9:49.  Being that this is a race, I hope to do well and try for a PR.  I’m hoping the experience from last year’s race will help me.  I know not to go out too fast, as pretty much everyone last year who did crashed by the 2^nd lap.  Kind of like a normal race, huh?

~~~Run with your head the first half, run with your heart the second half~~~

Hopefully the track work I’ve been doing will translate to the Beer Mile!

That said, I’m still planning on just having fun with it.  I remember it wasn’t the most pleasant race I’ve ever run, what with all that brew sloshing around in my tummy.  But it should be a blast anyway!  Stay tuned for the recap!

Questions:  Have you ever run a Beer Mile?  Any strategy tips?  Any other advice?

-Scott

PS – Congrats to the USA advancing today in the World Cup!!!!  We got out of the “Group of Death” and we’re on to the knockout stage! I hope we knock someone out! #ibelievethatwewillwin

Track Work Makes You Sexy (Except for the Gnats)

I got back on the track this morning for some lappage.  I did 400’s and 200’s.  It was fun to go short and fast.  Only problems were the clouds of gnats I had to plow through.

It was gross, but luckily I’ve been through this before and I was careful to keep my mouth closed and my eyes shielded with shades…Unlike my buddy Salt who had one burrow into her brain the other day.

Afterwards I was stretching and realized how hawt I must look.  So I snapped a pic…

My wife called this picture creepy and I’m pretty sure I weirded out the maintenance dudes who were mowing the grass near by.  Whatever haters!  Hahaha!

Go back and look at the photo closely – See the black dots on my face and neck – GNATS!  They were stuck to my sweaty glistening skin from head to ankle.

I really don’t get why they hover over sidewalks and tracks.  What’s the benefit…For them or me????  I’m sure it will go down in gnat lore as the ‘Great Massacre of 2014’.

Either way, I enjoyed the workout.  I’m trying to transition my track sessions to the mornings now due to the heat of day, and since school is out I had it all to myself!  Yuppers!  Hopefully gnat season will end soon!

How bout you?  Do your workouts make you foxy?  Ever been part of a gnat massacre?  Be honest, that photo is hawt, isn’t it?  😉

-Scott

 

Lunch with a Celebrifriend, Track Workout, & Fun Cornbread

Today was a decent day.  I got to have lunch with a longtime friend (and something of a celeb).  I’ve worked with Hilary Kennedy off and on over the years in TV.  She’s an amazing host, model, actress.  And she’s also a pretty successful Fashion Blogger.  Check her site out if you got a minute.  And ladies, she told me that soon she will be working with Adidas on her blog – so check it out for all your workout gear tips!  http://hilarykennedy.com/

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

It was good to catch up, talk shop, and brainstorm future projects.  We went to a famous place in town that I had never been to before – Love and War in Texas.  I got the buffalo chili and Shiner beer beans.  It came with some Texas shaped cornbread.

The Texas shape gives it big flavor.

Looking back though, I probably should’ve ordered something else.  You see, I had a track workout planned for the afternoon.  And spicy chili, as it turns out, is not the best pre speed-work dish.  Regardless, I did some 400’s.  I ran into a friend at the track who was doing his speed-work for the day – 100 sprints.  Man, did I envy his planned distance each lap I churned out.

Two feet, One lane. The Sequel to Two Girls, One Cup.

I have a 5k on Saturday, and I hope the last few weeks of beginning speed work will help me out.  I have no idea what kind of race shape I’m in since I haven’t raced since the Dopey Challenge in January, and since I had to take a month off after falling on a run and jacking up my knee.

But when I wanted to quit when the 400’s hurt, I didn’t.  When the wind was strong, I fought through it.  When my legs burned, I added more fire.  I think that will pay off for me.

How bout you?    Seen any old friends lately?  Doing any track work?  Would you want to run behind me after I ate chili?

-Scott

 

Windy Track Work & N. Korea Marathon

I ran my 2nd track workout of the season yesterday.  This time I did 400’s with a 200 in between each.  It was tough, but good.  What made it extra tough was the wind.  The back straight away and a half turn, I was running directly in to the wind tunnel.

It’s that thing, when the forecast is ‘wind’.

It felt at times like I was running in place.  There’s not much I can do about it though.  This time of year, it’s pretty much windy like that every day.  And I do have a race next week that could have the same wind, so I might as well practice in it, right?

In other news, did y’all see the North Korean Marathon is open to tourists for the first time in history? You can read about it HERE.

Last one home gets sentenced to hard labor.

I’m all for destination races, but this would be crazy!  I’ve always been fascinated by places I’m not usually allowed to visit – aka, Cuba and N. Korea.  Call it a forbidden fruit sort of complex.

If you don’t know, most Americans are not allowed to visit Cuba – our two governments don’t play nice together.  And it’s usually not a good idea to visit N. Korea, because they can get kind of detainy-to-prison-campy with Americans tourists.

Still, I’d like to see these places someday, and I know how running is a great way to see new places.  Maybe they should put on something like the Disney Coast to Coast Challenge between the two countries???

I’m assuming this will be on the race shirts.

Run a race in Cuba, get a medal.  Run a race in N. Korea, get a medal.  Then get a bonus medal for completing the “Cross World Communist Dictator Race Challenge”!

How bout you?  Are you lucky enough to always have the wind at your back?  Would you run in the DPRK?  Up for the Commy Race Challenge?

PS – Don’t forget your daily vote for my video “C”!!!  Only a few days left to vote for “C”: http://www.heb.com/page/offers-contests/earth-day-video-contest

-Scott

 

 

 

 

Back on Track (literally)

If you want to get faster,  you need to do speed work.  Pretty simple, right?  Funny how life works like that.

I don’t currently have any up-coming races booked, but I am scanning the local running radar.  Once I do pick a race, I want to be ready – so I had my first track workout of the season yesterday.

I didn’t plan it, but the tech tee I packed matched the weather.  Spring took it’s own spring break, and so it was cold and blustery.

I’m not the kind of person who can run a race for “fun”.  When I show up for a race, I have to go for it.  Yes, I know it’s going to hurt.  And yes, I have run races where I wasn’t in top shape, and let me tell you that it hurts even more.  And more yes, speed workouts hurt, but they pay off.  So I’m starting to put in the hurt work now, so that it will hurt less later.

To prepare for the track, the past few weeks I’ve been running hilly courses and doing some hill repeats.  Hills are a good prelude for the track.

Anyways, it was a fairly easy session – I only did some 200’s, but it felt good.  It’s fun to run fast after spending so much time doing long slow training runs.  And I must be in better shape than I thought, because they didn’t hurt too bad (and yes, I was pushing my pace), so that’s good.  Can’t wait for the next session!

How bout you?  Any good speed workouts?  Do you do the track? 

-Scott

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!