Red Dirt Harriers

It looks like I've let a week get away from me without blogification so here goes- Training was nice. I've been able to get in some doubles, mainly because I need an easy jog in the afternoons after I do these treadmill tests but as long as I stretch and stuff, I've been feeling good enough. I'm running pretty steady on my runs and as a result having a little trouble building the duration of my runs, but the fitness is coming along and I'm not that concerned with an official long run at this point. I got a nice run in with John on Monday, hit the Vo2 on Tuesday, where I went significantly farther on the test, but got a lower reading than last time, 74. The ex phys kids were threatening to increase my critical velocity to 4:00 pace but I told them that was ridiculous and they relented. I backed that up on Wednesday with 2 minutes at 14mph, big break, then 21 minutes at 5:10 pace, which took some concentration but I could have knocked out a few more minutes. I'm c...

This will be the blog post for the day dealing with things other than my trepidation regarding the ex phys. research project. Jordan and I went up to see the Oscar nominated short films at the OKC art museum. This was the 3rd year I've caught these films and there are usually some pretty memorable pieces this year was kind of a disappointment. We missed a couple of the animated shorts, which marked the first half of the grouping, before we headed to McNellie's for a interlude and a pint. We missed Oktapodi and Lavatory Lovestory . Have I ever told you guys the story of how my great-grandfather came up with the name for the USC mascot. His name was Owen Bird and he was a journalist for the LA times sports beat. He actually was also a trackster formerly, though of the sprint variety. Anyway, the story is alluded to here . I bring this up because although I dreaded nearly every minute that I watched of the Grammy's, the few minutes involving Radiohead and the USC marching ban...

I am really questioning my participation in the research study. My legs are quite sore and at this point I'm really just hoping not to injure myself. This could easily happen when you hop on a treadmill going 14mph and sprint without any real progression into the act. The woodway is a pretty nice piece though and it's interesting to get alot of feedback on my capabilities as a runner. The head professor got really jazzed that he was able to show me how to use the treadmill at high speeds and tell me that if I only do some intense workouts, I will all of a sudden become an unstoppable runner and start winning all those races I was losing in the finishing sprint. It's hard not to accommodate his thinking but he hasn't considered the fact that I have in fact tried to do such training when I was younger and I'm a much better runner now without the aid of such training mainly because I just don't respond really well to that type of training. If I were going to set u...

So things have been perking up for me lately. There's a certain springtime feel in the air and my foot is feeling better, maybe on the mend. I was really chipper this morning running through Norman's rift valley. Yeah, just jogging past the fields of bright green winter wheat and quarter horses. I even had a good group of canines join the mix for a while. I've signed on with my latest University coordinated performance study. Lets see last time I did one of these... I remember laying in a cold shower with my feet elevated, 15 pounds lighter due to excessive sweating and vomiting. Skolnick and I usually try to leave it on the court in these types of engagements. Anyway, I'm going to be putting in some good efforts on the new Woodway at OU and getting a blood profile. I think it will be a nice lead-in to a hopefully healthy spring and I can get used to sweating before the warm weather sets in. I'll go ahead and mention the fact that I've had a couple other prior ...

A good leisurely weekend has been had. The weather has cooled down from our balmy 70 degree temps of last week, but the wind also died down after Friday and so I hit the bike for a mini bar crawl last night going Library/NY pizza/ Blu. A good crew was on hand but the town was pretty quiet and so there is not much debauchery to report. I think that I probably wisely turned down a dance party invite, but I probably would have had more to blog up had I attended and maybe that's what matters more than my hangover quotient. I will note that my morning of dim sum was a great success. I had lots of shrimp dumplings, spring rolls, egg rolls, sweet dumplings, sticky rice and jasmine tea. Also of note, they were offering a Chinese New Year cake. Seeing as how we are leaving the year of the rat and moving forward into oxen times, I think this year will be full of toil and good yields. The cake was interesting. If you know anything about Asian sweets, they tend to not be really sugary sweet. T...

Today marks the 26th year of my existence. My title is typical of a cognac designation (very very special old pale) and yet it strangely applies to me as well. I read somewhere that the 21st of January, not the 23rd luckily, is supposed to be the most unhappy day of the year. I know that my birthday, almost without fail, tends to be cloudy and cold, and accordingly the weather is taking a plunge as I sit tending shop. Luckily, I was able to get some very crucial face time in with the boys at Plaid this morning, and the coffee is just going to tide me over until I get my second wind sometime this evening. I'm going to give the Grand House a whirl tomorrow. It's been a while since I've had dim sum. I'm a sucker for steamed dumplings and actually had a great experience outside of St. Louis and then San Fran, naturally. Tonight, I may end up going Asian as well, maybe sushi, but not before a couple leisurely pints. Speaking of pints, my obligatory malt beverage reference i...

The Dallas weekend extravaganza has come and gone and I've mixed emotions about it. I got to hit the King Tut exhibit which was more like just a general Egyptian royalty from 2 millenia ago. There were some amazing pieces that I could go on and on about but overall it seemed like they were showing us the B circuit. The place was also way overbooked, I felt like we were being extorted and then herded around. I will say that it gave me an even higher appreciation for the pomegranate, being in that it is carved in the gold coffin of Tut's grandmother. Let's see... we hit countless shops and I endured my sister's rigid scheduling of all things pertaining to indulgence. I got a massage at the Spa at the Cresent which was pretty excellent, if not awkward because my masseuse was oh so capable and how can it not be somehow overly personal when you're nude and being worked on by a fit, healthy chick. Maybe I was just a little off because of the birthday champagne they served...