Red Dirt Harriers

Sunday was a big day as the weather was superb in central Oklahoma. Jordan and I had done some talking and planned to knock out a "special block" workout. I, of course would not be doing any of the uptempo running but opted to bike alongside to most optimally offer up taunts and sarcasm with his gatorade. Jordan mentioned having eaten shortly prior to our departure, which for me would have been an issue, but was but an afterthought for Kinley. I think he may have opted for the chupacabra chowder, which only helped fortify him. We hit lake Hefner to join Spenis and mobs of other fitness enthusiasts for the 9.5 mile lap after we legged out a 4 mile warmup. The lake can be exceptionally windy, but it was pretty much perfect yesterday, with a light lake breeze and a cloudless sky. Good work was done, for which I'll let Jordan supply the details. This workout is about running down the fuel reserves with a morning session, then coming back for more later in the day. I think it...

It got rough last night but luckily the only carry over, other than another Sooner BCS loss, was a train wreck in my cranium. I should have known not to hang around with the likes of Spenis and Jordan but clearly I haven't learned my lesson just yet. There were some lighter moments on the evening. The first one occurred when I decided to not sit in Oklahoma City traffic for an hour and grab a jog in southwest OKC. As I drove through the derilict neighborhoods next to Woodson Park, there was this dude just walking down the middle of the busy street flipping me and everybody else off, then during my actual run some drunk lady sitting at the park offered her services as I ran by. To say that this is a good place to jog would be a lie, but it was kind of entertaining. The bright spot of the morning was getting up and at it with just enough time to grab a fritter, a pastime which has been neglected for far too long. In fact, I think I'm going to reinstate this as my official Friday...

I've got another beer in the fermenter and am anticipating a very distinct result. You see I'm trying my hand at a rauchbier which means a smoke beer. I've basically used a recipe for a nice malty brown ale and then added smoked malt on top of that. I am a little concerned that I might get tired of this flavor but unfortunately that's something I can't remedy and so my friends and family may have to step it up if I can't bring myself to comsume all of this batch. Just looking outside today makes me want to go have a BBQ which would be the ultimate compliment to this beer. I'm envisioning bringing a grill over to Jordan's new pad and having like a street party. Somehow though I think we may have to contend with The Don of Main Street so maybe we'll opt for another locale. I'n stretching like a mad man right now and have found that my soleus and calves indeed had retightened since the last time I tried to make a big push against the PF, so hopefull...

I was actually more concerned about occipital lobe trauma as I biked around various points in Norman on New Year's Eve with champagne stowed in my backpack. Things were a little frantic right after work where we sold a bottle of Dom and almost all of our champagne before noon. I biked over to the rec fields for a quick barefoot jog, then headed straight to the Library for beers. There was a festive but small crowd on hand as we were there a bit early, but some dude did stumble in and offer free tickets to the Flaming Lips New Years Concert. The house Kona Stout on tap is greatly enhanced by the N2 charge and I actually think I preferred it to the current IPA. After some beers w/ Spenis, Trev & Shirley, and Skolnick, we headed to a Lebanese fundraiser dinner which was great and featured all the standards from that line of cuisine. Unfortunately, we were forced to skip out on dessert, which I'm still bitter about, as it was catered by La Baguette. Next I watched the Y2K simps...

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...