Red Dirt Harriers

Stumbled upon THIS and it's just silly, it makes my running seem so un-inspired but that's just because we have lame venues in these parts. My goal is to make my running more impressive to watch, at least cough up blood or look good just gliding up a hill. We all know I have no footspeed but maybe I can look impressive from a k out in some 5k until the kickers feel their oats and look really good coming after me. I've been running a little bit, after taking Monday off, I ran 45' Tuesday, 35 and 35 on Wednesday, 50 and 30 yesterday, and 50' this morning with 15 uptempo(felt king of rough) but it was warm and 95% humidity. My legs feel alright, but my lungs have been a problem, of course it's super humid too. I'm now doped with Singulair AND Symbicort so maybe these will help keep my asthma at bay. It's really hard to simulate the late marathon issues I've experienced so I'm just going to gauge their effectiveness by how many minutes faster I run ...

Well, the 9th annual OKC marathon has come and gone and I'm left with frustration in it's wake. I knew the day was going to present some obstacles with the humidity and winds and so I did what I could to prevent against those problems but it didn't seem to matter. The first half pace felt really doable, but I sort of felt myself getting a little warm, despite dumping water over my head at every water stop. I could sense a certain amount of futility in the morning's endeavor. Jordan looked good, particularly heading back into the wind along Lake Hefner, which was the last good look I got of him. I want to check out this asthma issue that seems to plague my marathon races, but as with any bad race I mainly let my mood sour my racing vigor. I wonder what would have happened if I would have actually stopped, stretched, and thrown up the excess fluids that seemed to be going nowhere in my stomach. I was kind of afraid that I might stiffen but I don't think my legs ever r...

I can't help but look towards the weather conditions on Sunday and it seems dicey. But as the title suggests, I think it will bother everyone and hopefully I can work with Jordan and whoever else shows up (pacers are welcome). Next in the list of scenarios that this title alludes to would be the taste of low-ball alcohol. Now I've shared my sentiment that there can exist some differences in taste for the cost i.e. the Pigs Eye superiority to Keystone or Natty Light options. Yet when one of my patrons come in here and bitches that we aren't carrying her Tvarscki (we do sometimes, but regularly have McCormick's) and that she's "going to have to start going somewhere else" prior to a string of expletives to convey her frustration, I really am not compelled to care. I mean nobody is drinking that stuff by itself for love of flavor, they're masking it with juice. We all know this, don't act like you're a connoisseur if all you're after is the ef...

Alright now, with yesterday marking Patriot's Day, the Boston Marathon of course went down and as usual it was an inspiring feat of humanity. I was amazed to see Ryan Hall streak off the line like he was setting off for a 5k and immediately put the elite contingent on edge. I thought it was unnecessary but I don't really think it significantly affected his race and he may have even weeded out some competitors by starting them off with some discomfort. Ryan Hall ran very tough, but Merga is a beast and there is no shame being around a minute behind him. THe women's race was uninspired but Kara Goucher still was impressive and it bodes well for her future that she has continued to perform consistently well in long races, it just comes down to the day. I just don't believe that she could outsprint the other two flat out so what are her options, especially into a headwind. She may have lucked out but the odds were stacked against her whether she lead for 5 miles or .5 and I...

Somehow a Boricua tradition was begun when some presumably inebriated farmer tied his cow up to a tree next to the ocean. As cows are wanton to do, it met its demise when it fell into a water spout. He proceeded to scream at the ocean, "dame la vaca!," demanding the sea return him his prized Bessy. Now I don't know why this tale has been immortalized but I can say that today is indeed $3 burger night at McNellie's and at Kats (?) recommendation we are staging at that most pleasant of locales for a pint and some vaca. The proud and spiritual Boricuan people must know something so I'm going to assume that this is a good move for all involved. If only I had some more of that choice lychee infused Puerto Rican rum that my friend Rose sent me to go alongside this noble burger... On a related note, I here that the US embargo on Cuba may soon be lifted and that it may be feasible to make a visit to this place. While I'm aware that wasn't impossible to do before a...

In lieu of more enthralling news, I'll opt for the training recap. I've still been fighting off the allergy blues or whatever, so I've been a little under impressed with my training. I went long yesterday and threw in several marathon intensity miles but I wasn't really running the splits I had hoped for, anyway I practiced taking fluids and only had one really bad bear trap like side ache. I think I was needing more fluids anyway as a result of the amount of sinus drainage and the like so I'll of course hope for more inspiring conditions down the road. I did get another beer in the fermenter, a Dortmunder style Lager. This would be in the pilsner classification, but the yeast that I used was a standard top-fermenting ale yeast so my plan is to lager half the beer in a mini-fridge at 50 degrees and then rest the other half at room temp 70-75 degrees. I will look in to this technique more, but right now I'm calling it an alter-Maibock. It is seasonally appropriat...

Jordan and I headed to the mondo oval at Norman High for yesterday's pm workout. It was a nice day, if a bit warm, and so while I wasn't sure what my body was going to be able to manage, it was hard not to get in the running spirit with lots of kids out running around. I was looking for a couple tempo paced segments, maybe like 2 times a 4 mile or something, but upon chatting with Jordan, I opted for something a little shorter, but that was easier to wrap my mind around: 3x 3200 with a steady 800 between. I went 10:29, 10:21, and 10:20 with the rest being covered around 3:15-3:30. I think I may have run an extra lap on the 2nd repeat because I just extrapolated my total time for 7 miles and it indicates as much. The effort was moderately tough, but Jordan mentioned that it was kind of nice to have to keep an eye out for various roves of kids wandering through lane 1 and there were a few close calls, but it kept us from getting too serious and we had to keep our wits about us to...