Oklahoma City Half Marathon Training #3

Day 5

Today's run was all about sex.  The fact that I'm too tired 90% of the time to fulfill my spousal duties from getting up so early.  One solution my mate and I came up with was to ride one day a week during lunch at work.  This I did and I can only sum it up by titling it URBAN BLAH.  My route takes me on Douglas, Rock, and Central.  I can't even believe how noisy it is.  The fact that it is also on sidewalks predominantly makes me just cringe.  There was some residual snow and ice on the sidewalk that made for some interesting times.  Even at its most arduous, I still discovered that my 10 mile per minute pace was no fluke.  It was a pleasant 54 degrees and (as usual) I got caught out overdressed.

Day 6

Wasn't sure how today's run was going to go down, I had 4 miles to do and Little 3's drop off time got scrambled.  Coupled with a dead battery in the Jeep that needed testing I was sweating this run.  My wife decided she needed to workout too, we made the decision to go to the new Death Star Downtown YMCA.  A grander Y I have never seen.  So up we went to the third floor and arrived at the track.  The good news was they set the track up 6 laps to a mile.  That way I wouldn't be getting dizzy with multiple laps.  Usually the track is my worst surface because I get bored, having an event to train for helped this out.  I ran and just couldn't shake the feeling that it was like going around the world.  There were sections of bright, sections of dark, sections of dim.  Temperate pleasant areas, followed by hot zones, followed by the cold vacuum of space.  Just plain weird.  Finished up the run with 5 minutes before close.  Exhausted but 39 minutes of running will do that to ya!

Oklahoma City Half Marathon Training #2

Day 3

2 miler.  The fact that I had the stomach flu all of the previous day was something that worried me a ton when thinking whether or not I was going to go.  I did go and just told myself that all would be ok.  Just one foot in front of the other.  It took me until 3pm to convince myself to go.  I did go, I did make it.  I followed it up with a 2 hour nap.  Lord I still felt like shit.

Day 4

Feeling tons better today!  However, the ice/snow storm came in Wednesday night and I was very reluctant to wake up and go for 3 miles.  Turns out this was a smart decision because no ice melt efforts had been made on the side streets.  I was really sliding around taking the 4 year old to care and back to work.  However the day broke sunny and warm and all but the darkest shaded areas had shunned their ice by the evening.  I was going to get the little guy and the trailer and get that run in after work.  Well unfortunately he had one of his off days and I just had to ensure that he didn't have any fun for his lack of listening at school.  It wasn't until 9:30pm, after dinner settled, and Joe Dirt rolling credits that I was able to get my butt out there.  Did it.  Felt so much better than yesterday.  Still don't feel like I'm doing anything but running.  When I got home my watched revealed I had popped off a fast one.  Like a minute off my fastest pace so far.  As I was stretching I saw something odd in the glow of my headlamp, my knees were steaming!  Started my stretching outside and continued inside while showering.  I touched my toes while stretching for the first time in my adult life!

Oklahoma City Half Marathon Training #1

On Sunday night, as I was watching football and eating brats, an e-mail came in.  WC had sent my half marathon training plan and it started tomorrow!  Fuck me.  So I went to bed and got ready to run in the morning.

Day 1

2 miles piece of cake.  I fucked up and walked for 5 minutes and only wound up doing 1.75 miles.  D'OH!  Observed that there are a shit ton of dogs in my area.  One particularly dense area there were like 150000 cars crammed into a one block area with traffic coming from both sides.  I took the grass and fell on my fucking ass.  Got back up and finished her off.  Damn need to cut my toenails.

Day 2


Today's run was 3 miles.  I prepared for this with a little help from Brie who told me to walk out 2 and walk back 2 then start from where you want to.  Thanks honey!  Super helpful.  Less dog noise on this route which is definitely a plus.  I feel like I am just plodding along but it turns out I am staying pretty consistent.  Still need to cut my toenails.  Chafing from my huge cycling thighs rubbing together for the first time, what a horrible feeling.  Feeling the running in my glutes but not dying in any other areas.  4 more days to go this week.  Greeted by my 4 year old when I got home.  Snuggled for a bit while we talked about my run gear. 

Suck #1 of 2012 and its redemption

Today was to be a gorgeous day in the ICT, 70 and Sunny, in late February.  It also coincided with my favorite day of the week, Wednesday.  This is mine, all mine, except when goaded or provoked by the misses.  So I was schoolboy excited but I was also in some kind of physical hell.  I just can not seem to recover from the Chili Bike on Sunday.  My arms are shot, my bruising fucking hurts, and my leg feels like it could cramp at any moment.  Lethargy is my enemy this week and I'm fighting everyday.  So take that lethargy and the school girl excitement of warm weather, and you get the fucked up shit I did today.  I drove 17 miles to the old stomping ground when I lived in downtown.  I can't begin to count the number of rides that have jumped off from the Northwest YMCA.  I began to dress for the ride, so excited to be riding outdoors and on tubulars.  The first thing that went south was I failed to do a battery check on the MP3 player.  NO JUICE.  Well I've rode quieter plenty of times, no big deal.  Got everything ready and went to put my helmet on. FUCK!  Forgot to bring my helmet, it was safe and snug in my drawer at home.  Well I talked myself in to riding anyway, I mean I did drive the gas hog 17 miles to get here.  Wasn't breaking state law or anything like that so EH! I rode anyway.  The ride began, into a very expected hellish West wind.  5.86km (<4mi) in and things were A-OK.  Then I heard the pop and the hiss.  My tubular had hit something while riding where a tubular shouldn't be ridden.  I used my can of quick flate and a CO2 with no result.  Thank God you can ride on a flat tubular!  My total 11.72km in about an hour.

The day turned out to be quite ok.  The misses cut out of work early.  She and I picked up the wee one early, taking him to the park.  There is no greater joy as a father then playing with your child.  We ran his legs off and by 6 pm he was about to fall out.