Red Dirt Harriers

At this point, I will say that the weather has really been sublime the last few days in Norman, none of the crap that most of the rest of the country, other than central and SoCal has had to endure and very little wind. However, I have incurred an additional injury, no doubt due to compensation for the prior one. My knee has been doing weird things, not tracking properly and giving me shooting pains when it shifts out of alignment, even while biking or, say, walking down a ramp of the beer truck. At this point I've set an appointment with a ART guy up in the city for my foot, which will hopefully make some progress on the root cause. I am going to continue running but just for a few paltry miles at a time and pretty much all on even grass. It is weird because I had been really good about rolling my foot, but I reckon at some point I crossed a line where the rolling was inflaming the injury so now I'm going to do more strait icing, which has shown at least some benefit. I'm ...

I wonder if this is still the case, but how can it not be. I mean we obviously need to off some managerial higher-ups and regulatory who's-its. I'm watching the best John Cusack/ Minnie Driver/ Jimmie Piven film in existence, Grosse Pointe Blank. This thing is iconoclastic in both character image, homage, and soundtrack. If you have a dialogue like this, can you really go wrong in a non-commital, roguish type of film: Debi: You know what you need? Marty: What? Debi: Shakabuku. Marty: You wanna tell me what that means? Debi: It's a swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever. Marty: Oh, that'd be good. I think. So since tonight was a major holiday of the Anglo variety, I indeed happened to swing by the Library to see what was on simmer. It was pretty busy but not overwhelmingly with regulars of my vintage. I figured with the various Pagan/ Papal overtones interwoven with this day, I'd opt for the Trappists best, at least in the Norman sense whi...

Ah it's the holidays, which means the James Bond-athon is in full effect. With any luck I might be able to see 3 different epics as I sit and watch the freezing drizzle outside the shop. I have been remarkably diligent this morning, waking up before 7:30 and heading out to meet Jacqua for some coffee and a cobblestone and then actually logging a couple morning miles. I learned that Panera has designs on expanding to Canada and that it operates the largest free WiFi network in the US. I debated on taking Dori the dog for a jog this morning, but I'm not sure of her aerobic condition and since I have been giving her a lot of TBonz brand dog snacks, I feel like her heart health may be compromised. The most anticipated appointment of the day is an epic Stout taste-off over at Stevenson . I think they have the upper hand mainly because my variant is a bit young while theirs has been aging for a couple months which is about ideal for this sort of thing. I am confident in the quality o...

So I'm not going to lie, my motivation has been a little low. When I do lace up the sneaks, I am glad I did, but every time I head out I am reminded that my foot is still a limiting factor and it fucking hurts. I appreciate the sentiment of my local running buddies, who being primed and motivated about there upcoming exploits, continue to try and pry me loose from the bonds of the couch but it also feels like I have to daily remind them that yes I have to run on soft surfaces and yes I have to warm up and yes I have to stretch and ice afterwards which usually necesitates some extra time thereby rendering me unable to run with said personalities. I'm going to repeat the above mantra whenever I feel overwhelmed and frustrated and tell the chemicals in my brain that endorphins are begotten through a bit of physical toil. The more I think about it, I think I'm just in a bad mood this morning because I had to stoop so low as to drink expired Folgers coffee, which was indeed as d...

Today was a fairly long day. I biked up to the shop, arriving none too early and had a military guy berate me for not opening before 10 so he could buy a bottle of Patron. It was a really nice day, but sadly I had to watch most of it from behind glass. I didn't get out for a run in daylight as I had to get Dori the schnauzer out for a bathroom break and eat some holiday Oreos. It's a very convoluted situation, but since I have resumed riding my bike for transport and aspire to shower only by sink, I didn't have ideal footwear and had to run in the Cascadias, which was a mistake. Another error in judgement included trying to run the river trails home in the dark but decided one broken ankle was enough for the night and tried to exit, only to be blinded by the Marc Heitz dealership lights- I'm pretty sure the temperature was several degrees higher in the vicinity of that place. Anyway I made it home and grilled a couple Bison T-bones, that's right dose.

I'm optimistic again, about things wide-ranging. Last night I made the trip up to Bolero, a new Spanish restaurant in Bricktown, which was decent if not novel for OKC. Spanish food(and wine) have been all the rage as of late, and the place is nicely hip but I think they may have to do more with their cuisine and service to make it last here. That being said, I love the idea of appetizers as a meal and they offered maybe 12-15 options. I wasn't that interested in their entrees, other than paella so I didn't get one instead going with: Fried Goat-Cheese w/ Honey Torino wrapped dates Fried 'chokes w/ dill-cream sauce Ceviche of shrimp and small scallops Red Sangria Our waiter wasn't overly insightful, but he had the hipster thing going and I ribbed him a couple times. I think he could have been a better embassadour of the cuisine but it may not really be warrented by the majority of the customers. After all I'm difficult in that I expect regional food to be just th...

Well, as we approach another weekend, I am going to hope that the events of last weekend don't repeat themselves. I can say that the highlight of last Saturday night was sushi with the boys at Gaijin, Guinness, OU romp and a surprise showing by a couple friends. The lowlights were much much lower. Moving on, my foot was also at an all time low the last week or so but I have made a little progress and now I get to go and rep the OKrunner ELite squad in the Dallas WhiteRock Relay. Yes, it's a relay and if I had to run a mile more than my assigned leg, I'd probably croak, but I think my other teammates are feeling competent, maybe even salty and so I think I will ride high on the good vibes and mimosa-swilling fans along the course.

My heal had been pretty effed for most of last week and naturally after the Turkey Trot as I had no time at all to ice or stretch and drinking Optimators and fraternizing till the wee hours, sadly, is not the cure for this infirmity. Anyway, I ended up taking Friday off completely as I picked up a bit of a cold and being pretty careful for the rest of the weekend, sticking to grass and getting in alot of barefoot time in which really gets the fascia stretched out, plus you get some sweet callused and dirty feet . If only I had the power to cultivate some sweet hair on them as well. I think it was a wise idea as today I'm feeling better and ready to get a little work in this afternoon after a morning run on the roads with Holly. It's really effing windy which stirs up my allergies and places like the river trails and Sutton are more protected anyway so I'll override my aversion to driving to a run and head to one of those choice spots, maybe put in a little fartlek out there...