Red Dirt Harriers

I ran the Little Rock Marathon last weekend, finishing in 2:28:30ish. The race director took good care of all the elite runners, giving both the 1/2 and fullers the option of staying in the race hotel 2 nights prior to the race. I will note that their standards seem fairly relaxed and yet they gave us some nice little perks, with staging areas before and after and dinner before and whatnot. I again have to tip my hat because this is clearly not the norm in today's race circuit and if it is offered, there is often a very limited number of allowed elite spots. I had contacted the Woodlands marathon for instance and was not going to be offered any more than a comped entry, even though the marathon field was very limited. I have a number of issues surrounding this phenomenon but will just make note of the races that make an effort to help someone like myself. The course at Little Rock is quite winding and undulating for about 18 miles but then smoothes out and allows for a steady fin...

The week's flying by and I'm eager to be doing a long run on the Big River, come Saturday. I'm making an appearance at the Mississippi River Marathon and hope to be able to get a little bit of a tour around the delta on foot. Upon research, I understand I will be running over the world's largest oxbow, via a nifty bridge, and hopefully enjoying some southern delicacies upon finishing. I have put in my highest mileage ever in the last month and will hope to make use of it over the coming weeks and months, I will say the wheels are only starting to get rolling but I'm having fun and planning some nice travel kicked off by this weekend. Abiding by the rules I elected to set forth for this blog, I'll supply the details of a recent workout of the week. I opted for this one over a nice full stomach, Sunday evening long run where right at dusk a great horned owl flew across the road right in front of me, the thing was huge and I think it was considering sniping a ...

Another big week in the books. It's been pretty random Oklahoma winter weather which is nothing if not normal but today did mark the return of some humidity and windy weather, the kind of stuff that makes me do lots of self medicating with coffee in the morning and beer in the evening, otherwise I get all sorts of pressure headaches and loopy sensations. I had the pleasure last weekend of hanging in Dallas and doing some consumption of fine things. That means meat and bloody marys, maybe the odd mid grocery store pint. Anyone who has taken on a churascurria knows that as soon as you set foot in the door and make eye contact with one of those gauchos, its as if a challenge has been uttered and you must eat what for me is like a six months alotment of red meat. I made good on my promise and out ate everyone in the restaurant, with only minor issues the rest of the night. The next morning, Jenny and I dispatched of some fine Texas vodka and a chicken fry and migas. All in a days work,...

On returning form blogging hiatus, I came up with a few new spins for my posts. I'm going to try to do a weekly "best of training week" shout out and maybe provide a garmin recount. Next, I'll do more photos to convey just what I'm dealing with on foot. Honestly, I probably won't be running with a camera much but maybe every so often I'll lug the phone out into the red dirt Highlands of Oklahoma, where dogs run free as the wind and things haven't caught up to the modern era with paved roads and such, so I see fewer cyclists but just as many huge pickups to kick up clouds of dirt in my face. here goes: The one time last week I really wished I had a camera took place out in the boonies on a solo run, I saw two different owls. These things are pretty badass looking and it was a little surreal to see multiple birds on different parts of the run. Imagine seeing this guy at mile 11 of your run staring you down:

My next race on the horizon is going to be Tulsa Run. Unfortunately my race last weekend at the Prairie Fire 1/2 didnt pan out, but the bright side is that I ran a couple nice workouts prior to it and reminded myself of the importance of rest. I also had a fun time at the event, in addition to sleeping in my car, as there were some other buddies running the event and I randomly bumped into some family as the finish line and am hoping to reconnect with them. I also am going to go ahead and mention that I'm set to run the Santa Barbara International Marathon on November 10th. In selecting the event, I was after one that would be a race scenario, rather than a time trial and since I don't know the area very well, it will serve as a nice little exploratory visit. I felt like it is time to get back on the marathon horse but I haven't necessarily slated my training how I might have in previous leadups and so I hope to bring a different perspective to the table and also allow mys...

Summer's here, we've got nice, hot weather, lots of daylight and the only thing that sounds appealing sometimes is sitting on the couch in your underwear with your beverage of choice. There's alot of talk floating around of The Summer of Malmo, but I felt obliged to remind everybody about the origins of this proclamation: I think we all know who that was, more importantly we should consider the points laid out in his exclamation. Three months of floating, reading a book or two, tasting the fruits of the season: all these things can be well integrated into a great summer and successful rebuild to new heights in the fall. I too have always been a fan of The Summer of Malmo ideals. In fact, I pretty much use these methods when training for anything other than a marathon.