Master runner

We had a nice crew meet up at the Draper Mt. bike trails and did 7 miles of trails and Jimbo, Danny and I took out for a few more road miles. Nice and cool out. I scared my friend Alex pretty good a couple of times on the trail. 

Ran with Connor, Jason, Jimbo, and Scott out at Hefner. Didn't have a run plan in store but ended up doing a somewhat progression run with the last mile or so 5:30's-5:24. 

We drove down to the donut palace afterwards and killed some donuts. 

We had a huge running crew this morning for a long run. Weather was down right perfect. All the company and visiting made this run go by really fast. We split up pretty good with about 6 to go. Jason H put us out some water and from there I picked up the pace from 6:11- 5:28. Felt really good the whole run. 

We all met up for some starbucks afterwards. 

Run Crew attendance - Andrew, Connor, Roger, Jason, Jimbo, Danny, Bruce, Blake, Ean, Eric, and Myself. Hopefully I didn't leave out anyone. 

Met up with Connor and Scott at lake Hefner for an easy loop around the lake..Super duper cold out, wind was a blown cold.

Did a couple of loops on the river walk downtown to the devon boathouse. Picked up ean on lap 2  and shuffled around till jason and eric got down there then we all ran down to eagle lake and back. Was pretty well empty when i got back. No water and i was starving for something to eat.

cold and windy but had good company.

AM - 6 easy on the dread PF @ 7:30pace

PM - Met Roger, Ian, Blake and Jason for a perfect tempo weather run..put down some easy miles first and old man stretches then headed up about a mile and a half up on the dam chewing some army gum. Roger and Blake took off first then Ean, Jason was getting in a last minute wiz and I took off last. After about the .5 mile I knew it was going to be a really good run based on how I was feeling and with a slight wind to our back. I got by every body by 2 miles and took the playground point to add a little extra seeing how I was doing 6 and everyone else was going a little less. 

Blake bailed on us and just went back to his truck..( he did a really hard effort yesterday) and I started catching up to Jason and Ian on the S& S point.. at this point I wasn't sure where Roger had gone. 

Jason looked as strong as I'd ever seen him run. Really proud of the jumps he's making..

Ian and Roger looked extreemly strong too. The first mile I felt like I didn't make any ground on them. 

I was very pleased with my pace and think I can run even harder in a race. Hoping to take this pace with me to Houston in a couple of weeks. 

Am - pf 8 on dread mill

PM- met Ean out at Draper at 2:15 and knocked out 12 more on the draper dirt roads.

We spotted an armadillo about mile 3 and I showed Ean my armadillo catching skills. He never saw anyone catch one until today...Yee Yee 1356

Army Gum Son

Went out for a solo Draper dirt road run today after work...man I saw a lot of really neat things today on my run...

On the way out I saw a rafter of turkey under a tree at the horse stables.

On the way back I had the bing mobil go by me on the dirt roads and couldn't resist waving to the camera. He was heading down to a dead end and when he came back he pulled up next to me and gave  me a post card with the site of what he was doing..can't wait to see if I actually make it on there. 

Then I was adding on a couple of extra and got down close to the lake and looked up as I was running under a tree and was about 50 ft from a bald eagle... also saw a coyote, armadillo, squirrel, beaver out swimming in the lake and a bunch of cardinals flying around everywhere. I made it back to the car and drove down where the eagle was and snapped a few shots of him.. As I approached him he took off.

Easy miles after work with Roger, Jimbo & Jason out at Lake Hefner. Roger and I did a fast finish. I ended up doin 4 at a faster pace. Sun went down and it got cold out in a hurry. 

I waited around for Jason as he had gone out for a few more when Roger and I did our FF.

Was nice to have some buddies to run with later in the day. We all worked today except Roger. 

Ready to get down in Houston.

3 slow ones with Alex V. at EWP

Pf 8 with some 200/200 pickups on treadmill

Pf - 8 on the mill with tunes

Made my way out to Draper and did 6 out easy and on the way back did 11x 1min on/off

finished up with 2 easy.

nice out 

will probably just stick to singles this week with race coming up Sunday..

Absolute perfect weather for a pf out and back. Feel really good and rested. No major aches or pains. 

Had a bobcat jumpout in front of me on the trail. Probably could have out run him but figure i better save it all for Sunday @ houston 1/2.

Mas and i are packin tonight and heading down Houston way bright and early.

I think my sister is more excited than I am. Gonna be a great weekend!!!yee yee

Did a little jog around dayton after my drive..super nice out

Jog around my sisters hood. Put in 8  10 sec strides. Breakfast then off to expo

Woke up with my internal clock at about 3:30 and decided to get up at 4 and get my boy Mason up. He and the rest of the crew were rounded up and out the door before 5. We stopped in a local donut shop and i op-ed with a blueberry muffin as my pre race breakfast. 

We drove for about 40 miles to get to Roger and Courts Hotel. (right at the finish line and expo) Roger and Court were waiting on us in the lobby. Shanna had made us signs the night before.  Took my 5 hr here. 1 hr before gun. We left the cheering sqad and made our way to the bag check and on to the start line....shuffled where we could.  

Got in the first port i could find closest to the start, man it was a good 30 min wait.... I came out and was stuck way back in a crowd of people... I made my way up to the start maybe 3 rows back and with seconds to spare the gun goes off. 

I pitched my hat to some folks cheering and decided to keep the armwarmers and gloves on. I went out at 5:30 and wanted to pick it up on the back end...

I didn't ever feel bad during the race but I never felt my best either.. i found myself stuck in a pace and was really surprised I pr'ed the way i felt. The course and the weather were right at perfect. 

I did have the lead marathon women truck cut me off several times and wasn't able to hit my tangents. 

About mile 6-7 the women pack pulled up with me and I ran with them until they cut off at mile 8. ( ended up getting a little camera time) 

At mile 11 or so we had a small hill and I caught a few guys and started catching some of the slower championship women. I had a dude go by me pretty hard and fast and I didn't hang on to him. Later finding out that if I had beat him I would have had $1000 buck to bring home. 

Saw my race crew just before the finish and gave them a YEE YEE as I ran by.

Overall I had a great race and am not complaining expecially with a PB to start my first race of the yr off . 

Roger Court and I met up after and ate some breakfast and got a bunch of freebies... on the way back to the hotel we met up with the top American Women finisher. Kellyn Taylor and I took a pic with her.

Did some serious relaxing in the park by the finish line..absolute beautiful day

met Connor, Ian & Jason for a quick loop at hefner. took Sophie for the last .78

felt good to move the legs after driving all day

Pf o&b felt pretry good prob aver 6:30z

ran with Alex ...easy at ewp - pm

did a little jog around the river and downtown with Alex. easy

didn't get a chance to get out early

got out to hefner a little after 4 and warmed up a mile or so with some old man stretches, Roger, Jason and Jimbo in company...We jogged back to the car and picked up Byron. 

W/O today was to do a MP 10 mile tempo. 

Got out just under 6 min and kept it right around there through 5 miles just to see how I would feel after Sunday.. All was well and I pick it up on the back end. AP was 5:50

I wanted to keep it under a hr. ( 58:17) comfortably.

did a few extra loops on the way around and snuck up on Jason and Roger with a little shorts tug and gave the a few extra heart beats. 

Pf o&b..easy!!weather money out

Met Ean at EWP for some easy miles while swoop was at tennis practice.

had a really big bunch of folks meet on the river for a run...Man it was like a race...so many people...

We had Jimbo, Eric, Jason x 2, Roger, Ean, Bruce, Andrew and Connor in our core group. 

It was really cold starting but we got a mile into our run and it felt  really good. 

Several of us did 20. Ean was going for another 26.2. I ended up getting in 22 total. 

met Connor out at Draper for a dirt road 13 miler... man was it windy..at one point it almost stopped us in our tracks...

wasn't planning on running as hard as what i did. got carried away trying to get in 6 miles while waiting on swoop to get out of tennis practice. 

got home and took sophie for a stroll around the hood

Pickup ean at EWP and I drove us up to hefner where we met j-hat for some mile repeats at the bluff. 

daisy dukes and shirtless. might near 80 deg out super nice for Jan. 

felt really good and in control. I thought I really messed up by going out so hard on the first one. 5:01  but brought it back to 5:16 on the next one (felt really easy) the others were at 5:11, 5:14, 5:13.. 

Pf o&b nice and warm out!

jimbo found some desire... Saw him on my way back

pm run - ewp stayed on the grass and mostly easy! Hot/windy... Dehydrated 

Ean picked me up and we rode up to hefner where we met Roger and Byron for a 10 mile tempo.

Plan was to start out a little slower and pick it up on the later part. 

I felt kinda dead legged through 4 miles then started coming alive. About mile 5 or so i got in a good groove and picked it up some. I was pretty surprised to see Ian so close to me at the loop just north of the police station. He was really picking them up and putting them down on the front end of the run. 

That boy is getting fit. He will probably more than likely PR on his next marathon!!

Met connor on the river for an easy 8

Met up with Danny P after work for a wet 20 miler. We decided to do a 5 mile loop of  hilly gravel roads. Danny dropped some water out and oddly enough i ran the whole run with out water. As a matter of fact I stopped a record 5 times to relieve myself thanks to all the butler black i drank at work. ( the last time was thankful for someone dropping a mc donalds bag out...I redecorated it all the time thinking I'm love'n it.)

Did a somewhat pick up for the last 3-4 miles and slowed down a bit the last mile to cover the max time on feet to match the min time I wanted to be on them in a marathon. 

All in all it was a pleasant run with light rain. I spotted 2...yes 2 geo-caches within a 1/2 of mile from each other. 

Connor and I got in a windy loop around Hefner. ran several miles on the golf course since the wind was so high we didn't have to worry about the golfers. 

Picked up Alex after work and met up with Ean at OK Runner Norman store and jogged down to the grass track from there. nice easy pace 

Ean, Alex and I all rode up to Hefner and met Jason and Jogged down to the Bluff. Byron showed up some time later...

Workout today for Jason and I was 2 x 3 mile repeats at 1/2 mara pace. 

Ean oped to do mile repeats again. He went with me on my 1st and 3rd lap of my first set. 

I felt really comfortable with the pace and in good control. I was 16:28 on the first repeat.

and 16:29 on the second. 

did a mile recovery jog in between sets. 

nice day with great company. 

Jason looked really strong and Ean tanked pretty good on the way back.

Alex put in a really good string of miles in as he is trying to get back to the grind.

Pf o&b with 5 x 15 sec pickups

Pf on dread

did a progression tempo starting at 6:45-5:25 -10 sec a mile

had a nice crew out again. Alex, Byron, Danny, Ean, Jason and I. 

absolute weather money out.

Pf treadmill with a mile worth of pickups

Sophie miles while waiting on Riley @ EWP

ran out of nhp with the landrunners but got there early and shuffled about 4 miles with roger courtney and jason then took off with the landrunner group. 

Eric had a tempo planned that i fit into my workout. he was doin a 3 mile tempo rust bust and i was doing 10 about the same pace, so we took off together and he tured back after 4 miles out. 

I felt pretty relax the whole run and hit a strong headwind just at the tail end of my pickup. 

Decided to go back and get a few more when I got back to the car and warmed up. I just shuffled back out to roger and jason and finished up with them on there lr. 

good run nice morning out.

Solo run on Draper dirt roads...spotted another geo-cache...that makes 3..

easy recovery run..shirtless in Feb. who would ever guess.

Pf- o&b

took riley to ewp for practice and jogged a lap with sophie, ean and alex...little too hot for sophie. 

walked her back to the car for a drink..

Easy pf with john am - 6

Had a nice crew meet at Louie's with a few new runners...Quang T that we met on the  river a few weeks back (whom i might add looks like he has a lot of potential to really get fast in a hurry) made it out and we had Olympic trials qualifier in the 800m and 1500m for American womens trials met up with us Ashley Miller who recently moved to town to finish up some school. 

We jogged down to the Bluff with Alex, Ean and J - Hat and did a few warmup stretches and started our repeats. I hit most of mine around 5:25 but fell off on a couple to 5:28, 5:33 ish but was pretty happy with the work out. I ended up doing 3 sets where everyone else did 2. 

Byron met us late and got in a few miles with us. He and I took off the same time on my last repeat. 

taking a day off.. busy at work and something in the air bothering my nose...rest up for my tempo tomorrow. Yee Yee

Easy on dread - 6 pf miles

Had a nice little crew meet up at Louie's for a quick tempo around the lake...Ian rode up with me and we met Eric, Alex, Ashley, and Jason did a short warmup down to the ports and back and took off. 

My main goal was to keep it around marathon pace the whole way..maybe small progression. 

Got out in high 5:50's and then took it down a bit. Ian fell off a bit  and Eric went 4 out with me and surged his last .5  i glanced back and noticed Ashley getting by Ian and she was pulling me back in.. i think she is going to kill a lot of women OK records... she came through 6 miles just under 36 min and made it look easy.. 

Look for her to win the womens easily at frigid 5 and probably the overall race.

J Hat killed another run as he and i had the same goals just to hit mp pace. 

Eric looked strong through 4miles of tempo all under 6....

Pf 5 on the treadmill

2 more miles with Sophie..EWP

met up with the Norman crew and ran out of Gus's house on a series of loops. The plan was to do a depletion run only taking in water and going without breakfast and what not.

I did good up to the point where Kels pulled out a box of Valentine cupcakes at mile 16 and offered them up as a sacrifice to Scotty and I.. dazed and confused i gladly took one and proceeded to eat it. Then Scotty remembered for me that it was a depletion run. Oh well. 

The run was really hilly and the last 4 miles were really really hilly. Or maybe i was just getting a bit tired. Anyhow it was a great run with a good group of folks out getting it done.

Ran with Scotty the whole way. Ian and Andrew Call ran the first loop with us.. Danny and Bruce were out too. Bruce coming back from fight with the flu...

met up with Danny and Eric after a nice after church Sunday meal my mom made. Was kinda worried about how that would go being so close to my run, but with my iron clad stomach i  had no ill effects...

supposed to be cold and nasty later on tonight... looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

Woke up to ice everywhere and decided to try and get up to hefner for my annual icey day run with dave manguno. work out perfect as he had an extra set of yak trax i used. nice easy pace the whole way. good company and not a single person out running or biking.

we did watch a dude get stuck show boating around in one of the parking lots. 

Pf dreadmill run  with mile of pickups

Pf o&b...7min pace

had a nice tempo thursday crew meet up at louie's..did a mile warm up with some stretches and took off going south due to the south wind...ran with eric for the first 5( who looked like he was getting in much better shape) and then solo the last 5... about mile 6 i thought i saw Ashley and it was.. she was haulin the mail... she ended up doing 7  miler (just over 40 min) but skipped the point. she was about a 1/4 mile ahead of me when she finished...

i passed her at 7.8 miles on my watch. 

Roger, Jason, and Danny all had really good runs too. Byron had some hammy problems and came in with a limp.

Great evening for a tempo minus the wind. 

Think all the training everyone has been putting in is really gonna pay off in Phoenix next week..Yee yee

easy pf run out and back

Headed over to Connors crib after work and met with him, Andrew and Ashley for a stroll on the mm 1/2 course. 

Weather was super nice and sunny out. 

Took a nascar nap all day

Pf o&b on the dread

hit a solo after work track run at westmoore..did 10 x 400m @10kish pace with 200m recovery and some easy miles before and after 

ran on the treadmill easy at work..weekend started afterwards..came home to pack and get ready to head out bright and early.

Drove all day and got to az about 1 and Ian and i met up with scott at diablo burger and got the smoke with a coke.. Afterwards we walked over to a running store and checked it out, then we went for a run.

we drove out to a dirt road and met up with nick and matt did a 3 out and back in some light flurries.. This was the first time i ran at altitude. 

iC and team jb on start line out and back several strides and then drove the course.. Excited

Had a really great time with some really great friends. We had a really nice showing from the Oklahoma crew out in Phoenix.

Jake, Ian and I loaded up on the bus and met Roger, Court, Jason, Danny, Bruce up on the starting line.

The weather was pretty good in my opinion.. maybe a tad to windy and a tad too warm but hey....everyone had to run in it.

My plan was to get out harder with the down hill, and see what i felt like after it. I pretty much bombed the lone  hill we had to climb. I ran a lot of the race solo until we hit all the 1/2 marathon walkers. If I had one complaint about the race it would be not separating the two races...very very frustrating at he end of a marathon.

The course was absolutely wonderful. I was really surprised my legs didn't feel beat up afterwards. I had very minimal soreness going into day 2..

this was a huge PR for me and I am really excited to race Boston.

EWP with Alex easy miles.. felt good to move again.

ewp easy miles...wanted to go more but ended up talking to a dude i knew and had to get riley home...feeling really good the post marathon.. probably better than i ever have after a marathon.

Had a little frozen tundra run with Ian and his dog Izzy. It was cold and snowy/sleeting but we managed to get in 8. Did a loop on the dirt roads.. also found another geo-cache....That makes 4 within a mile. 

Feeling freaky good for coming off a marathon.

Pf 8 felt good !!!really good # freaky good

met up with alex, j-hat and jimbo out at hefner for some easy after work miles

Pf treadmill miles

met up with alex, j-hat, and scott smith for a quick loop around hefner. nice out..felt good to get into a little quicker pace on the end of the run...kinda like a long slower progression.

ran out on some draper dirt today after work...super nice...ran the last 5 guns out..Got hot and dehydroed. Jimbo met me for the last lap..

Got in a pf run outside finally. Did an o&b with about 5 x 30 sec strides and 1x 1 min stride.  Light drizzle was nice. Got splashed by a big white van but didnt let it ruin my run... I was already wet. Prob gonna double... I feel good.

Went to a race committee meeting right after work and afterwards met over at Connors place for a stroll with Doc...then Connor and I did a nice little out and back through N OKC

Had a decent crew show up for some mile repeats. Alex, Eric, J-Hat and I jogged down to Bluff Creek and met Scott S about midway. 

We got down there and did our stretches and what not. 

My plan was to do 8x1mile repeats at 1/2 marathon pace. Which only a week after my marathon sounded like a lot but i was down to give it a go. The first 4 i ran with Eric and felt really good. Eric is coming off a big 10k win over the weekend and is showing great improvements every week.

Effort was comfortable and i felt like doing 8 wouldn't be a problem...So i did 8.

Had to stop after repeat 4 and give birth to a double portion hot link lunch...sizzlin. 

J-Hat looked like he was killing some 800mz and he told me he ended up doing a mile repeat to end his w/o with a mile pr...(congrats j-hat)

Alex did some good ol running. 

Scott is running the LA marathon Sunday and look absoultely effortless on his 2 x 3mile at 5 min pace. very excited to see how well he does...

This was a really nice day for running. Sun was out and guns were out.

Out of work early today on the account of taking Swoop to the dentist, so I took full advantage of the beautiful day and headed out to EWP for an early afternoon run.

had a nice crew meet up on this somewhat warm weather day. Alex, Ashley, Eric, Ean, J-Hat and I did our w/u - J-Hat due to the water he dropped he but we picked him up right towards the end of the w/u...

Alex took off a little early. He wanted to get a full lap around the lake. ( that dude is doing really good, making all kinds of progress.)

Ashley, Eric, Ean, J-Hat and I all took off together and ran the 1st mile pretty much as a group. After mile 1(5:59)  I dropped the pace down a little and gapped the group a little. 

My goal was to do 12 at MP but after crossing the dam about 4 miles into it, my mind started telling me to cut it short with the heat.. I ran on and about mile 5 caught up to Alex. (he hollared to me he was cramping up)

I kept on going and turned up into some wind about mile 6... after i turned around i kinda got a 2nd wind. had to talk myself into keep on keep'n on.

J-Hat put some water out just past the 6mile mark and I heavily thought about making this a 2x 6 mile day but ran past the water and made it to about 8.5 and i started reeling in Eric and Ashley. i got about 1/4 mile from them and turned up on the point and they continued to go straight. at about 9.5 i noticed my pace starting to slow and talked myself into just finishing up at 10.

Was pleased with the warm weather how my body reacted. really can't believe i am able to do workouts and feel this good this close to my marathon.

after work 20 miler with a ss pickup on mid back end.

jogged around ewp after church services.

BG 10 with some 30 sec strides work in

did a solo out and back on the river right after work. nice and easy..a bit warm and windy.

Had a nice crew show up at Louie's...we jogged down to Bluff creek and after some warm up stretches did some mile repeats with a 800m recovery. 

Eric and I did 4 together and I added 2 more to the end. Jogged back with J-Hat and Roger. 

Alex, Eric, J-Hat, Jimbo, Roger and I were all there. Saw Byron out doing his own thing.

Pf 8 on the dread

did a solo dirt road run after work

Met Alex, Eric, Jazz and J-Hat at Hefner and did a small warm up and then 10 mile tempo at MP pace. 

Was tired today and legs felt heavy..especially when we got the rain going and I turned into the wind. Was happy with effort overall and accomplished what I wanted. Eric D kept the pace carrot dangling in front of me the whole way. He looks really good going into his first 1/2. He did an 8 miler and stayed with or ahead of me the whole way. 

J-Hat had a really good run today as well. Breakin in his new Boost he PR'd on his 10k. 

Alex did 9 nonstop and only 1 mile slower than 8min pace. 

Jazz is fighting an ongoing injury and only went out to 1.5 miles.(good to see him back out)

Got a news interview at the end of the run in the rain....some dude was exposing himself out there and the fox news lady asked me a few questions.

after work met j-hat for a hilly easy 8 on the draper dirt. found another geo-cache..that comes to a total of 5 within a mile...no gps needed.

met a nice crew for run around on the MM course. Legs were pretty tired today. Ean tried unsuccessfully to break me about mile 20 or so with a small pick up...Actually felt good to get out of the pace we were stuck in..Matt A and Ean and I did 21 or so together and I picked up a few add on miles at the tail end.

solo after worship run at ewp ....tired from the 24 miler day before

5-with alex at ewp waiting for riley

7.01- Sophie miles and run on grass trail

Pf o&b....marathon grinding

Had a big ol crew meet up at Louie's and we jogged down to bluff creek...my plan was to do 3x3 mile repeats at 1/2 mara pace. Wasn't happening today. Got the first one done ok but tanked pretty hard on the 2nd and called it. heat and wind had a big roll as did the early miles i put in.. ended up with 5 decent miles and might race over the weekend so calling it early may ended up helping me.

Draper dirt road run pre-nado solo...yolo

went to westmoore track for a little bit of speed w/o didn't wanna tax my legs with race plans this w/e so instead of a big tempo i put down some quicker repeats.

4x400m with 100m rest; 4x300m with 100m rest; 4x 200m with 200m rest.

rest were easy miles..

Alex broke in his boost today. he is thinking about racing too.

went out to El Reno for a 5k race this morning to see where I was in a 5k. Well I was pretty surprised at how much slower I ran than what I expected to run..I guess my body is in all out Marathon mode. The race was tagged as a state championship race but as far as I could tell there wasn't anyone in the 5k that was competive at all. (lucky for me i reckon)

I did get to meet a new up and coming runner that has been cutting times off his race like crazy.. ( Colson Williams) who just so happen to win the 15k race. 

This race benefited the childrens miracle network and the trophies were decorated by children inside this network.

made my way out to the sasquatch dam festival a few minutes late. lucky for me they didn't take off. 

Had a couple of Sasquatch sightings and had some fast company as Scott Smith, Kevin Schwab, Lauren Schwab, Amanda G., Aaron Sherf and Andrew Call.  

Andrew led us out and got us lost..We ended up bailing the course and running back on the road.

Had a great run with some good company...Kevin and Molly Williams showed up afterwards and also chatted with Matt Aguero for a bit.

Pf ss o&b

picked up Alex and went to ewp for a quick 6.

Got home and took sophie for a mile run through the hood.

Alex and i rode up together and met Eric at Louie's..Alex took off a little earlier and ran his own thing...Eric and I jogged down and met Scott, Roger, Jason and Nate for some repeats...Scott jogged his own thing. 

Eric Nate and I did some 2 mile repeats and Eric changed his to 1 milers. 

progressively got slower with each set..I kept them all under marathon pace and accepted that with the heat. 

Pf o&b

had a small group today..Roger, Jason, Alex, Nate and myself..seemed like everyone had something different in store so we all kinda did our own thing..

Nate and I were going to attempt a 12 mile tempo at some what of a marathon pace. with the wind and heat I knew it would be some slower..about 2 miles in Nate told me to go on and run my pace..not to wait on him..

I  ended up stopping at 3 water stops just to cool off. my stomach was a little upset and i didnt feel like drinking much but did swish some water around my mouth.

Ended up with 6:10 pace and felt like the effort i put in was pretty good for the day i had.

Pf dreadmill

Met up with Nate at Draper for some Draper dirt road running on a super windy day.. we knocked it out pretty good. This was his first time out to Draper dirt roads and he absolutely  loved it.  AP 6:49 into some freaky fast wind in some areas.

solo dirt road 10 mile out and back super nice out..ran with some tunes and just kept time on feet today.

Easy pf o&b

5 out and back on the river with Alex...ran into Andrew and Kels and her sisters, one of her sisters did an interview with me..she is doing a project in school on distance runners.

Today is Andrews birthday..

PF O&B to the lemon lot 

Met up with Alex, Ashley, Danny and Roger...saw J-hat take off.

Alex brought his boost that didn't fit for me to try out...they worked and I will purchase them at 1/2 price of his sale price which = cheap.

Roger, Ashley, Danny and I did a small warm up and then we got to our tempo's. 

Danny took off a few min earlier than Ashley and I and I paced her through the first 5 miles as she was going 6. 

She told me she had been fighting an Upper Respiratory infection this week and didn't know how she was going to do. I noticed her breathing a little hard today and tried to put in a few pickups to see if she would speed up but she seemed happy at her pace.

I picked it up a few miles till i hit the wind coming in from the N. boy howdy it felt like i hit a brick wall.  

With the heat and wind i feel like my effort was there. 

Caught up with Danny about mile 3. Alex about mile 7 and mile 9 after running the point.

did somewhat of a cool down with Danny and Ashley.

after work met jason for some draper dirt road running. sure was pretty out. all out tapering.

Ran out of Connor's place after work with Andrew, Ashley, Austin, and Connor.

had a nice crew meet out at Hefner for a good effort run. ap 6:37 

Got kind of crazy when SS drop down the last few miles... I let him go looking down at 5:11 pace and he was still bringing it down.. Dropped back and ran the last mile with Austin. 

got in a late run today...after work i headed down to ok runner and bought me a new garmin 220 and a pair of compression socks..then met J-hat, Scott, Ashley and Dan...

We did a out and back on the river Scott turned back a little earlier. 

Broke in my watch with 3 trials qualifiers and a super good friend. All very good runners. 

Pf track workout- 2mile w/u

10 x .25 with .15 recovery

2mile cd

solo- nice and cool out

Met Scott Smith after work on the river for a quick run. Wasn't planning on running this pace but it felt comfortable and good so i just went with it.

Gonna go out on a limb and say he will be the next OKC 1/2 champ ...bar any injury from here to there. Gonna even go out on a limb a bit further and say he will be the next 1/2 marathon record holder for OK open 1/2 state records. (current record is 66 min)

Getting pretty excited and ready for Boston.

Pretty bummed my buddy Jake won't be there.

Had a great ole big bunch of runners show up today..most did tempo's but i oped to go with Ean and run an easy loop. Marylynn and Eli showed up today for their inaugural run at Hefner..I got to push the stroller for a few miles..

really nice out for easy running. (Ean pulled his typical tank at the end of the run)--probably lost 10 lbs of sweat today

Hay's in the barn.  

took shanna out to ewp for a little evening run. started clouding up and we got outta there when the lightning started. 

flying out to bean town in the morning.

Easy shakeout with jerri d faulkinator around the commons and down to the finish line.

Took some time out in the park to talk with some squirrels 

Met up with jerri d faulkinator and dropped off our bags in the commons. Got up to Hopkinton about a hour later.. It was cold and the wind picked up a bit while we waited about another hr till we made our way down to the start. I was thankful I purchased the rain suit for my trip... Wore it all the way up to the start and used it as a portajohn right before the gun.

I got out feeling sluggish and waited for a pace to set in. I had a somewhat nauseous stomach but knew my tanks were empty so I wasn't too concerned. 

Went through 1/2 a little slower than what I originally had planned. I was fine with where i was and felt I could hang on to this pace even with the headwind we had.

Felt really strong on the hills and passed a lot of runners on the backside of the marathon.

What makes the Boston marathon so great is the crowd of spectators on the course and all the volunteers supporting the race...

Boston 2nd to none!!!

met up with ean/eli and scott for an easy series of out and backs on the river

easy pf o&b ... Starting ideas of jumping into the okc full on a whim.

easy miles around the hood with sophie...

So how to begin?? After Boston on I think about Tuesday while doing my run at work I felt really good and with the weather looking good i thought what the heck...Yolo. and when I checked the single age record book to see what I had to run to get it...that was the icing on the cake...Previous record was 2:41:50..

Well with pretty much no recovery at all I made my attempt today and was sucessful. 

The morning started out about 3:30 had me some expresso and grabbed a blueberry muffing and banana for the ride down. Parked the red sweat rocket right next to the pancake church where we usually meet. Everyone used the rocket for a quick drop. 

We got down on the start line with about 15 min to spar. OK Runner had a loaded gun today... and poor ol Coyote ville was at the losing end. 

I took out with Scotty D and went for about a mile with him and picked his brain as to what he wanted...I knew that I wasn't ready for that. So i fell in behind and tried to figure out what pace felt comfortable. I ran mostly in the 5:50-6:10 range give or take. 

It was really nice to have a bunch of familiar faces out on the course cheering your name. 

Think I will be taking a race break for a while and start focusing on base miles though the heat and maybe some quicker speed workouts.

Scotty D was full winner and OK Runner Girls took home the relay W.

Scott Smith (CR) the 1/2 along with Ashley Miller on the women side winners.

Eric and J-Hat both had PR's Roger not far off from PR.. Jimbo was back in action  

Met up with Ean, Kelsy and J-hat for an easy loop around Hefnage..pretty nice day out..Kelsy tried to put a hurtin on these old fellas.

good company and really enjoyed sharing some Ean stories afterwards.

pf o&b easy

pf run with a strava steal back on 1/2 mile loop

met andrew, ean and j-hat for an easy 6 more on the river after work.. made a detour downtown for andrew to go to the restroom. did an urban run through brick down on the river.

ran to lemon lot and back easy some with John Little

Met J-hat, Scott and Danny for a quick loop around hefner..saw OCU out running at SS park. J-hat turned back early cause he is running a race tomorrow.

made a quick trip out to draper after work and did a loop..had to lead a horse across some water and take off my shoes several times to cross high water at the lake...water felt nice. sun's out and so were the gun's feeling really good post 2 marthon week.

heading down to norman for a post race party for ok runners. 

met Scott Smith out at Hefner for a quick loop..

Pf solo o&b wanted to do some track work but storms are expected to fire up in a bit may just wait..

Had a nice crew show up at the track today..Alexandra, Ashley, Ean, Scotty D and Jason x2.

Scotty Ean and i did a 3 mile w/u or so and knocked out about 6 x 1/4 miles out then pace Alexandra for 6 x 300m, then Ashley and J-hat showed up and we did some more 1/4 milers ...i did 5 they ended up doing 8 total...my legs were feeling a bit taxed and i had did a 10 miler earlier at work.. 

felt really good to get back out on the track.

pf o&b

Had a nice Friday crew at Hefner...forgot my watch so went stride for stride with scott s  we did a ff with Ashley and andrew a picked up a fewore slow ones for cd

Kirby and kelsy were out too

met up with eric at ewp for some easy miles after church.

did an after work run with j-hat and Scott Smith on the river..super nice out.

had a nice crew show up at the track today...we did some 1/4 mile repeats with about a 100m jog recovery did 3 sets of 4

did  a good ole run in the rain (heavy at times) started out doing a knock down run and then became so saturated with water it felt like i had one of my kids on my back the way with all the water weight in my shorts, shoes and shirt. 

Ran on the river from the boat house - solo

made it out to draper for some dirt road hills after work..Alex showed up and ran the first 3 with me and the heat zapped him.

easy pf o&b - 10 a.m.

picked up Jesse Hugo and met Connor on the river for another easy 8 - P.M.

met Connor, Austin, and Ryan for a planned 12 but took them out an extra 1/2 mile to round it out to 13..muggy out. 

met jimbo and eric out at the lake draper po po station and did a out and back run with eric...ended up doing a progression run not meaning to but just turned out that way. starting to get muggy out..felt good to get some sweat going.

Solo pf o&b with some 15 sec fartleks on the way back

Got some sophie miles in after work around the neighborhood.

Circles on the trail. Easy with some core work to top it off

met up with an old man crew + Alex V and did a nice little workout.

7x200 with 200 recovery and then did 4x800 with a 1/4 mile recovery.

solo track run..got my first pair of spikes today and ran a few miles in them on the track..Planning on doing a couple of track races in the near future.

made my way out to draper for an easy hill run...I totally ate way too much pizza today for lunch.

out and back with eric and j-hat on the river..nice and misty out

Had a nice crew meet up  at Louies and do a lap..Jhat Eric and Jesse added on a few more miles.. were shooting for 20 but j-hat ran 18 yesterday and was ready to be done...no arguing with him when we turned back...

had a real nice crew meet up at Draper midday for a good ole dirt road hilly run. 

Enjoy running in the rain..brings out the inner kid.

met up with a real nice crew for a out and back on the river..  10 of us out.

(Andrew, Ashley,  Austin, Jimbo, Jason x2, Justin, Jesse, Matt and Scott) 

pf easy solo o&b

Had a huge group of fast folks show up at tuesday night speed work.. 

Westmoore track..we did 1xmile; 2x800; and 4x400

Pff o&b solo muggy run

Did a quick loop at lake hefner with j-hat and scott

pf pancakes o&b...ran a few with frankie j & bruce..did a 3 mile pickup on the way back

Jeff warlick hollered out the window at me with about a mile to go

Did a solo out and back after work. stayed on the gravel roads..hilly hilly

Met up with alexandra and connor after work for a jog around hefner.

made it out to the track after church service and was going to attempt a mile tt but couldn't get my legs in gear so i cut it off at 800m and did a few 200m with some straight away sprints to finish it off.

Pf solo fartlek.. 1min on/off x5

nice crew out for tuesday night speed workout.. we ended up doing 2x 800; 5x300; and 8x200.

had some yellow meated watermelon after the workout. 

went to draper after work..ran down on the lake road and had to cross the lake that was covering the road several times..boy o boy was it muggy and hot..

bbq ribs were not a good choice for lunch today before a run..

Pf o&b ran a mile with jimbo..its so nice out i may just double

After work met Alex, Ean, Eric and J-Hat for another 5 mile out and back..embracing the heat with a double..yeeyee

Met up with the Jason crew..and made a loop around Hefner. broke in my new ultra boost..man were they nice.

picked it up a few miles to see how they felt at a quicker pace..all was good.

met Jason Baird and Ean on the river and ran the new portion that goes up to Overholser Lake. I did 8 o&b they turned back at 6.. Saw a bunch of wildlife out..

met up with Eric and did an out and back on the dirt roads. sunny and warm.

Pf o&b

solo pf  o&b

Had another good showing at the track today for a watermelon workout. 

Workout consisted of 2x600;4x400;3x300;and 6x200 had a watermelon for an after workout celebration.

Pancakes and a pf o&b

Did a late mile with swoop and sophie

8 solo pf-8 am

Team jason out and back from louie's -12 pm

6 mile progression- solo am pf got sprinkled on

Met the master Jason gang and headed out for a river run..met up with ean, maryln and eli to finish out the run..

Got another mile in with riley and sophie late.

Went down to Sulphur for a 4x400 relay with Jason, Jason & Wayne-all master team..we had no comp in the adult division so we asked if we could jump in the high school div. and we got whooped pretty good. We ended up running a 4:16 total relay...

After the race all the Jasons went over to the Sulphur trail and ran on the trails...boy howdy it was nice.. shaded pretty much the whole way and the ice cold water on the legs was a treat. We had a storm roll up on us but it never got too hairy... Great day of running with some great friends.

pf o&b

speed work on track at s moore

jason x 3 on the river easy

solo pf

this was a great event. it just happened to be my first road mile..made some rookie mistakes before the race...have a much better time in me. OK Runner had a good showing and some nice placings.

did a somewhat of a tempo run out on the draper hills. it was hot but felt good to get out and get the sweat glands workin on a harder effort run.

solo pf o&b windy and wArm

jason x 3 through the cow town stank and down through the spray ground..

pf easy sweat buster. - am

met up with a nice tuesday night crew at westmoore track and did some k repeats followed up with some 200's. nice and warm  workout with some good friends.

 Boosters

Solo pf with a emergency port stop

easy solo pf o&b hit 2k in mpy. 

Had a nice crew show for some 2k repeats at edgemere park in okc .. Fajitas and track meet watch party at Connors afterwards.

pf o&b solo felt really good so i went a couple more than I planned on doing 

met Ean out at the draper popo station after work and did an easy 14 or so and picked it up a bit on the tail end to cap off a 20 miler. Weather money today for late June. Plan on racing Saturday in the oldest race in OK and have some good comp coming up from TX.  Hopefully my training will pay off.

solo pf... Ate some biscuits &gravy and then did some what of a new trail. Partial loop and o&b.

pf o&b 

hood run.. ran with sophie first mile or so.

pf o&b with 2 miles of on / off 1 min fartleks on the way back

Woke up bright and early and waited on J-Hat to pick me up and we went down to hop in the car with Ean...We took out about 5a.m. from Ean's place and went to Ada to participate in the oldest running race in OK.."Fireball Classic" 5k/10k

This year they opened up some serious money for the overall winners if they broke the course record.. 1000 bucks for 10kers and 500 for the 5kers. 

I had some competion coming up from Tx in the master div. which I never have beat...until today..

We got to the race just in the nic of time as we walked in to register the older stressed out with a serious additude woman told us that the registration was closed and we were too late. I quickly gave her my saddest puss and boots face and told her we had drove all the way from OKC to run this race and she let us in...

We took off a few minutes after the 10k and the weather was less than ideal..Not getting a chance to run on the course before hand I wasn't sure what I had gotten into. 

My comp took off at what I would guess 4 min+ miles and I settled into low 5's in hopes of them coming back to me at the hills. 

The course was a double loop and I managed to catch him at the half way mark...I put in a surge somewhat going down a small hill and tried to maintain. By this point the next dude was a good 30 secs ahead of me and i dipped and dodged through the walkers on my second loop..

I kept trying to listen to the people cheering to see if anyone was close... with about 5-10 meters i was surprized by a nice kick from Johnathan K which took me right at the finish..

Did a cool down with Scott, J-Hat, Ean, and Ben Chesang afterwards and we had a huge portion of the Tuesday night speed group meet up for some breakfast in downtown Ada...

Had a really good time with some good running buds.

met up with a nice crew for a mid day sweat fest on an out and back hilly run at draper.

Danny, Eric, Neal and Jason x 2 

Pf solo rasy 1/2

PM run did a preview of the new brookhaven course with Aaron and boy it looks good..afterwards we ran with the OKRUNNER group run.

Tuesday night speed group..WMH track...super nice out..did 5x1k and 6x200m. 

pf - o&b steady state

did an easy run pf.. Met and ran a few with shane spencer

met Austin C down at edgemere park for somewhat of a tempo..wasn't sure what i could do with my earlier run in the heat..was able to mustard up 2 miles at close to what we wanted then i had to shut it down..Austin was a mile short of what he wanted but looked pretty strong.. I jogged around and gave him water and jumped in his last .6 of a mile to finish it up.

solo pf run with a 4 mile or so pickup 

Met j-hat  at louie's for a cut down run... J-hat took a spill we had to cut'r short

Met jimbo and ean out at draper.. Jimbo fell off about the first mile. Not sure if he is hurt or what..ran about 8 min pace with ean to the turn around and he started tanking..i took off about mile 9 and planned on tacking on a few more. The south end of the lake road was rough and had to slow down.. Decided to end at 18. Had a good week of miles. Officially a pr mpw.

did a run with the OK Runner Crew from campus corner. ran mostly with Scotty D, Patrick, Johnny and Aaron. Scotty and I put in a few more before and after the group run. Had fun chatting with Gus and crew afterwards.

did a am run out to the lemon lot and saw the  presidential parade getting ready for the big dog and pony show tomorrow.

tuesday night crew out at the wmh track. some rude soccer dad got a little sideways with me tonight as i ask them nicely to move out the inside lane so we could do our workout..as i was moving the waterjugs and bags outta the way i thought we might go to blows. i ended up asking the soccer coach if he would have the girls move their things out of our way.. I guess the dad thought i was gonna steal or break something...super jerk.

anyhow we had a nice workout..did 6x800; and 5x200

did a solo run on base. watch died about 2 miles in so I stayed on my normal course. ended up doing the 13 mile loop. Heat really zapped me took me a good nap when i got home.

did a solo out and back around air force 1 

woke up and got out to hefner about 7:30 or so and put a solid effort in around the lake after a mile warmup. going into the wind was challenging at points but the wind felt good. Stopped at mile 5 for a quick  splash and go. did a mile cool down.

heading down to OKRUNNER for a big ole tent sale.

Met Eric for a early morning long run around Hefner. We picked up Nate for about 6 miles or so. Good run with good company. Lots of bikes out today.

12 hot one's with Eric out at Draper.

solo pf'n

had a smaller group out at the track tonight but still a good crew rightly so. workout tonight was 3x800; 8x400; and 4x200 

I ended up taking off 2 sec on each 800 and felt remarkably well considering i am fighting off some sinus infection stuff. Feelin good about my 5k's coming up.. all this heat training is starting to pay off i feel like.

pf ed some new trails on base , had to make a mad dash for a porta john and just barely made it. Got back and took advantage of the cold shower... Money 

Did an up tempo run with some surges across base & back in the heat

did a out and back..coughing and a gagging the whole way.. Summer colds really suck

came out Hefner after a nap and wanted to just go by feel.. Got out to s&s park and j-hat joined me for a few. Picked it up a bit after he turned back.. Felt good..ready for this cold and congestion to be gone 

morning run with sophie..head full of snot

pM met Aaron a tad early for some extra miles before the ok runner run. 

a.m.- did a solo out and back run on base easy..planning on doing some mile repeats in the pm

p.m.- did some warmup miles at bluff and then had a nice group show up and i cut my wo short at 3 miles..the 3rd repeat really got me. Watermelon was good and cold afterwards.

pf solo o&b

pf o&b slogging - AM

did a 4 mile knockdown with Eric at Draper.. 10 total PM

pre bob pf o&b

Ran around downtown

met Eric and Nate for a Sunday midday stroll on the Draper hills

Solo run on base..slow progression. cloudy and nice for Oklahoma August weather - A.M.

Ran the Brookhaven course and some extra miles beforehand with Andrew Call and Aaron..

Did 6x30 sec strides with Patrick to end up the run..Pat really showed his speed off the last stride. had dinner with a nice speedy crew at pub w. johnny, scotty d, jenny, amanda, aaron, andrew and myself.

pf soggy 6 - AM

Westmoore track..did some mile repeats and some strides on the straights. nice crew out..

pf easy o&b

did a series of progressions before it got too hot..pf solo - am

did a long run out of NHP. Ran the first 6 miles with Eric and we checked out a new portion of grass trail that was pretty sweet on the E side of I-44 next to the dog park...

Eric turned back at 6 and I picked it up somewhat the rest of the run doing a big loop around Hefner and back to NHP solo. 

Felt surprisingly well. I suppose the cooler temps in the morning were a real help. 

solo sunday draper dirt road run..out and back...hot with a lot of horseflies trying to suck the blood out of me.

pf o&b

6easy muggy miles..pf

Pm miles om the track with crew..1/4's and some strides 

easy run on base

ran with j-hat on some new grass trail on the east side of Hefner 

did a sophie shuffle through the hood 

Picked up Eric and Alicia bright and early and we met up with Geoffry at the Mc D's on 122nd street and headed on up to run the riverside 5000. We got there with time to spare due to my lead foot. We arrived and had to wait around for the registration to open.

I ran in the open race this year due to master prize money being only granted in the open race. ( really kinda not a big fan of that nor of the Wava for money) The race had its positives with the negative...We ran a different course than the elite field. The open race only ran 2 loops and the elite ran 3 loops both with  tight turns and spotty loose gravel.

The open race started 30 min after the elite so I was able to watch all my buddies run and they were able to watch me..

A kid from Glenpool tore off at the start and gapped the whole field pretty good. I had about 15 or so High Schoolers in front of me through 1k and then they started falling off. We made our first turn and shortly after a mile or so i was reeling in the kid that gapped us.. I went by him and stayed out front the rest of the race. I felt pretty strong on the first lap and midway through the 2nd lap I slowed for some reason. I was able to pick it back up and get a nice PR. FTW and took home the Master $$. 

Did some cool down miles with Eric and chatted with a lot of runners afterwards.  Really looking forward to Brookhaven. I'm told that the course there is 15 sec faster, and this year should even be faster with minus a few hills and turns.

Several of the Tuesday speed work crew had PR's and many with huge gains. It's great to see people you workout with reach goals and share moments of meaning together. 

met up with nate at draper for some dirt road steady state running. Weather was really nice and roads had lots of shade. Killed a lot of knats.

did a pf run around base. Watch went hay wire and had to re start.. Lost. A 1/4 mile somewhere out there

PM run with OKRUNNER through OU campus. did 6 x 30 sec strides with Johnny,Pat, and Seth.

easy solo progression

met up with a nice crew and did some k repeats and a couple of 400's on the grass track in norman

easy cold air run 

easy o&b to lemon lot

Had a nice crew meet up at lake hefner for a tempo workout..I  did 10 and started out with Nate and Ashley. Nate turned back at 3.25 and Ashley went 6. I picked up J-hat and Adrian for about a mile at 6-7 mile. did the whole 10 non-stop and really was ready to get a drink at the end. 

Easy recovery run on base

went out to draper dirt roads after work for a solo long run. Kept the pace nice and easy and wanted to stay on my feet for a little longer than my planned marathon time. Eating a big mexican food lunch helped me keep the pace easy.

met up with Eric and Nate for some late evening miles at Draper dirt roads after worship. 

good ole easy run on base

easy out and back - am

Was planning on running 8 mile repeats but ran out of energy and daylight. 

started out running first 2 @ marathon pace continuous; then did 2 at 1/2 with a 2min recovery between; then 2x 10k with 2min recovery then did 1 at best 5k i could mustard.

We had a big crew show up at Bluff Creek. I think about 18-19 folks in all.

Fun times. I brought a nice cool watermelon to top it off.

Solo pf run easy. About mile 10 preston pulls up beside me and gives me a Cleatis shoutout.

made my way out to Hefner after work and paced nate with my bike for 5 miles then when amanda got there she rode with me for a loop around Hefner it was muggy and tough..felt much easier last week with the drier air.

easy run 

met Ivan out at Draper and was going to pace him for a 1/2.. He wanted to go 6:05 pace.

As we took out I noticed him breathing kinda heavy and wasn't sure he was going to be able to keep that pace. Well we got to mile 4 and had a slight up-hill and he went out the back in a hurry. I slowed and tried to encourage him but he was done. We ended up just jogging back at the 1/2 way point. 

Should be a big cut back week due to Brookhaven 5k...Fastest biggest race in OKC area. This year should  put out a bunch of PR's with the new course.

went to ewp after church services and cut my run short after getting the urge to go to the restroom. Just gonna count it as a day off

solo pf o&b with some pickups coming back

met with the OK Runner crew for a run around campus and tanked up on a OConnels buger afterwards with Aaron, Amanda, Scotty, Josh and a few others.

had a nice crew meet up at WMH track and we did 8x 400 with a 200 recovery..then did a mile of straight away strides floating the corners. After Sat. it will be all out marathon training for a while... tuesday night speed work crew

pf 8 easy ones

pf o&b with some 10 sec strides on the way back

Woke up bright and early and headed down to Norman for the annual Brookhaven 5k (fastest 5k in OK). Met up with J-Hat and we jogged the course changed shoes and did some strides before lining up. Man all the familiar faces and folks I haven't seen in some time were out today.

We took off and I didn't charge out right away because it was just down right hot from the get go. I managed 5:07 for the first 2 miles but slowed down on the back side with a slight up hill. Oddly enough I passed more people on the uphill than i did anywhere.  I pretty much tucked in behind Eric and Nate for the entire race. Eric got a good gap on me to close. I know he wanted the sub 16 as much if not more than I did but today just wasn't the day. 

This was the first time I won the Master division out and was happy for that. I ended up getting a hundered bucks and an nice glass clock with the race and date scribed on the face.

 Won a hat and arm warmers too. There were some real blazers out today.

Our Tuesday speed group took a pic and a lot of forks had some really great race times for the day we had. Great race with great friends!!!

Guess I've gotta get on the ole marathon hat for the next few weeks. 

Eric and I did a run in some pretty intense heat today.. Last 3 miles was on a messed up dirt road that was grown up pretty bad. Hopefully we didn't go through chiggerville. 

The way I figure these hot days are gonna be gone pretty soon and we won't get the benifit of running out in the nasty heat so I embrace it while we have it. 

met up with Eric, Neal, Austin and Jesse for a easy run on the river. We did an out and back on the north end. Starbucks afterward. 

Took the day off from work cause mary and the boys are out today for teacher work day. I headed up to Hefner early to try and take advantage of any cool air  before the sun comes out and really heats things up. Plan for today was to do 3x3 at 1/2 or do a knock down progression. With the heat and wind I decide to go with the 3x3 and see what it felt like. The first set was not too bad but I turned into a nice headwind coming off the dam and just did the best effort I could. My recovery between sets was jog a mile. After my 2nd repeat i ran with a few ocu guys out running for my recovery. I had the wind mostly to my back for the last set.

Made some banana pancakes and some hash browns after run and ready for a nap.

P.M. met up with J-hat, Connor, Blake, Roger and Alex for a small workout. We ended up doing 3x800m and 3x400m  and tacked on some easy miles before and after. Had a cold front blow in on us and we got rained on for a bit.

easy out and back

 A.M.- Easy o&b with an e-stop at bk 

P.M.- Met up with Eric, J-Hat, Ean, Roger and Blake and did a short warm up jog and hit the port before the knockdown 10 miler. Eric, J-Hat, Ean and I all took off together and the plan for me was to start at 6:50 and knock off 10 sec each mile. Problem today was it was hovering in the mid 90's. 

Rog/Blake did their own thing.

J-hat only went a couple with us and turned back because he is planning on running a 5k. Ean fell off pace quickly afterwards. 

Eric and I continued on and hit the paces pretty good maybe a little fast on a few. We had to stop and hit a water fountain around mile 6-7 we got down to the s&s point and got the wind to our backs and it was really hot. With the next pick up Eric bailed out and i continued  with all I had for the last 2 miles. I was not able to bring the last mile to 5:20....actually only got it down around 5:30. 

 Good workout with good friends.

Easy solo out&back

solo run out at lake Hefner did first 5 real easy changed shoes and did a mid run pickup around the lake the swapped shoes and did 5 more easy

slipped in a late draper hills run after evening church services..slept all day 

easy solo out and back

had a small crew meet at Bluff creek. I did 4 slow easy miles before doing 

3x 2miles at 1/2 with a 800m recovery. I ended up doing the last rep with J-hat at 6:30 pace to give me a 4x 2 mile. Nate did all of the repeats with me and he dropped the hammer on the last rep. hitting like 5:02; 5:03 in the heat.

Easy recovery miles

plan was to do a tempo at mp around lake hefner for 12 miles..Well the wind 25+ and the heat 95+ altered my plans. I managed to go 9 miles at 6:09 average and threw in the towel. Down right brutal. 

Live another day..cool temps this weekend might be a good make-up.

easy out and back on the dirt roads of Draper lake..

made my way out to Draper lake for a moderate paced long run after work. The temps finally came down and I enjoyed some cloud cover for the whole run. Ran solo with some tunes. 

did some easy laps at ewp after church services 

solo o&b easy... Looking forward to nice 2 wk taper

took the ultra boost out for a voyage run..all good

Met up with Aaron, Amanda and Thomas for a little workout. Sherf and I did 4min on 3 off fartlek run for 5 miles. Amanda and Thomas did some k repeats. 

met up with Nate, J-Hat, Roger and Blake. I got out a bit earlier and did some easy miles and then swapped shoes.. J-Hat pretty much hopped out the car and went into his run due to picking up his kids. Roger and Blake did their own thing after i failed in persuading them in just doing a tempo lap with the rest of us. 

Nate and I jumped right into our mp tempo. Nate was only planning on doing 8 but he probably figured since he was going around he might as well just go with me so he did. 

J-Hat is really looking sharp the further he goes in his distance. See big PR's coming his way soon. 

Started getting thirsty about mile 7 so we stopped and grabbed a quick drink and continued on. Felt really good about this workout especially in the warm temps we had today.

easy out and back at work

did somewhat of a moderate paced longrun after downing a Egganator at the garage. 

Easy out and back. 

met with Roger and Blake out at Bluff creek. did some warmup miles then did 10x400m with a 200 recover. 

Roger hooked me up with some run gum and let me borrow a armband that holds gu's..

was pretty warm out. they had a xc meet for some junior high schools going on. 

Weather for Twin Cities is shaking up to be really nice for running. I am really excited. this will be the best shape i have been in going into a marathon and the best weather for a marathon..

easu o&b

Easy o&b with a mile of 30 sec on/off strides

did a nice jog down the Mississippi on some trails just to stretch the legs out from traveling. Super nice out..was anle to chat with Jared Ward, Sam Chelanga and Mbarrack for a bit when I first got to the hotel. Later I met Tyler Pennel. Ran into Abdi and rode the elevator up with Molly Huddle.. I got to my room later and found out my roommate is Uli Steidl.

met Drew in person and did a shakeout jog on the river in front of out hotel. We invited a french dude that is doing his first marathon tomorrow..after the jog i ate breakfast with and met Ritz and Craig Lutz

Wow..just plain wow...I would have to say the overall experience of this marathon would have to top any and all races I've done. I didn't run the time I was aiming for but took some valuable things from the race. 

I had so many pinch me monments from the time I made it to the Hotel and chatted with Jared Ward, Sammy Chelanga, and Mbarak Hussein over some breakfast. Later riding up the elevator with Molly Huddle and snapping a quick pic with her. Talking and meeting the Zap fitness guys  (Tyler Pennel and Grif Graves)  Graves and I warmed up together and talked hunting and fishing on the ride over to the staging hotel. Realizing how small the running world is..I share many running buddies with a lot of these elite athletes who were extreemly kind, humble and seem to have good heads on their shoulders.

I also met up with FRB Blogger Drew who just happened to be in the same hotel. Drew is a super nice and a lot of fun to hang out with. We made a really funny story on our trip to the airport..More later on that-

Race Morning

I just happened to room with Uli Steidl and heard him hop out of bed just before 5 I  hopped up too. Got on my racing suit and headed down to the hospitality suite for some breakfast. I ended up eating a bagel with peanut butter and scarfed down a couple of bananas. I went back up to the room and grabbed my sweat drop bag and told Drew that I would meet him down in the lobby to catch the 6 bus over to the stagging hotel. I got down there and several folks were waiting around too. I met up with Mbarak and snapped a quick pic and chatted about his record in the marathon. He is a super nice runner and very fast at that.

I got on the bus and Drew had made it on already. I sat down with Grif Graves from Zap...this was his debut marathon. We hit it off really well and I think helped each other to stay calm...we got to the hotel and entered a big empty room that had refreshments food water/coffee/tea what ever you wanted.

I ran into Micheal Wardian their and chatted with him and Scotts coach Ben Rosario for a little, then about 7:30  did some warm up miles with Grif around the hotel and emptied the tanks out. We had an escort take us over to the start line. Jogged around a bit more and dropped our bags off at the UPS truck did a few strides and lined up. 

On the start line I lined up behind Grif and right next to Uli and Mbarak, Drew was just behind me. We took off and I stayed focused on the ground for close to the first mile or so till things thinned out.  We started in a lot of building and going under a big bridge so I didn't really pay attention to my watch. When we thinned out somewhat I spotted Wardian and saw that he was really hitting some good tangents so I followed him because i didn't know the course. The weather was right at perfect. I dropped my hat at 1 mile marker clock. My time on my watch was within seconds of the official time. At mile 2 we had a nice pop up hill that kept the pace honest but didn't take too much out of you. I had a shout out by a fellow runner about mile 3 Justin Gable from Amarillo Tx who I ran with at OKC earlier this year.. He looked sharp and stayed just ahead of me. About mile 10 I passed a Keynan that fell off the main pack who looked like he was hurting pretty bad.

I was really amazed at how close Twin Cities sectator participation was to Boston. It seemed to me that the whole race someone was cheering me on...I had Butler on my bib and a YEE YEE headband that was a popular item for folks to yee yee me along the way..

I was reeling in Wardian at 13 and thought I might even get around him...I knew this was the fastest I had ever came through the 1/2 point in a marathon. 1:14:51 I felt really good to this point.. 

Around 14-15 I started hearing people say the women pack was catching me...I caught a dude around 15 that looked like he may have peed on himself.. he kept taking water and throwning it on his junk for some reason...that is all I could think he was doing..ha. 

At 16  I felt like I hit the wall I mean 0 gas in the tank.. I forced myself to take a caffine gu and through in some stay alert gum. I was passed by 3 Kenyan women and later by another who I tried to stay close to.  From 16-23 these miles were really tough I would say it was an all out survival mode... I knew that if I could get through 23 that I would have a little down hill help.  I tried to not focus on my time but to just maintain what pace I had. 

About mile 24 I had people start coming back to me and i just gutted it out the best I could...I got 5 people or so in the last couple of miles and got in a duke out with a guy at the line and just got him.. 

When i made my way to the tent and got my stuff i saw all the txt from folks that said my time wasn't listed.. then I had a txt that had my time like 2 minutes slower so I found some official and told them i was close to Wardian and gave them a estimated time I came though...They got it all fixed and I ended up getting 9th overall master.. which should get me in the money. I met Drew there who had a PR..Also Grif who ran a 2:20 debut but was really displeased with his time.

Drew and I jumped in the massage line and hung out there for a bit...We were invited to a really cool after party and rubbed elbows with alot of elite guys several hrs later. 

I made some really good friends and stories that I will never forget. So thankful for the whole entire weekend. 

slow rollin with Drew on the Mighty Mississippi at the crack of daybreak. Felt pretty good a little slow and tight at the start but loosened up. Drew had a super breakfast connection at another hotel and we refueled nice.

After breakfast I had downloaded a Uber app to try and uber our way to the airport...I thought I had called a car and it showed a dot in the road just outside our hotel so we went out to get in the car waiting on us and put our bags in the trunk and Drew sat in the back and i sat shotgun... The young man stayed outside the car holding the door gave me a strange look and I asked If he was the uber guy and he said no....lol he was pulling the rental car up for someone else.

We ended up just taking a cab..

took Sophie for a mile run and dropped her back at the house and did a few more on the grass trail. Legs feel pretty good. Most soreness is in my calves but not too bad.

easy out and back

easy o&b with a series of fartleks on the way back

solo easy loops at ewp

met up with Eric and Andrew for a run on the new trail on the river. Out and back. felt good to pick up the pace a bit. Legs feel real good. was debating on racing a 8k up in Bartlesville but oped out with the race high price and long drive i was gonna have to make. Eyeing the single age record book for OK. 

Did a solo dirt road run at Draper after church services..Warmed up real nice and the wind was a good 20mph. I thought i spotted Jason Bairds brown hornet out in the parking lot as I left and while I was picking up my water bottles sure enough I saw him getting after it.