I Got Lost On A Run...

Yeah, this happened. let me set the scene for you with a little background information.

It was Fall break 2014, and we were headed back to my hometown of Fort Smith AR, for a few days seeing family and then hanging out at the lake. We were planning on fishing, cooking out, having a fire, shooting guns and turtles and just having a blast (which we did). This was all going down on the weekend, Friday through Sat evening.


One of my favorite pictures of me and the "Bigs"

We got to town on Wednesday afternoon after stopping to see my folks at their work and then got to hang out with my sister and her family that night eating pizza. Thursday was a good day as my wife and I went to Ben Geren Park and ran together. We found this fitness trail that was a huge circular path with these little stations for you to do push ups and other exercises. So the wife and I ran 4 miles on it, almost 3 loops. Good run!

Earlier in the week, I had posted on FB if anyone in Ft Smith knew of good places to run, and one of the replies I got was from a guy I had graduated with, he had also just completed his 1st Ironman in July. So we made plans, along with another guy he knew, to meet up at Ft Chaffee, an old ARMY training base that is pretty much empty. My plan was to run 4 miles at a nice 9:30ish pace. Well that did not happen.

I am not sure what it is, but you get two competitive people together, especially two triathletes together, and things change. I knew for a fact that the 9:30 paces was going out the window and I quickly figured out that 4 mile run was going to be extended also due to the fact hat we just took off running, we had no plan. This is totally unlike me. I normally know how far I am going and where to turn and all that good stuff, but we're Ironman right? Let's just run. Wrong!!! Ft Chaffee is much unchartered waters as far as I am concerned. There is not a lot of traffic or signage along the route, so if you do not know where you are going, well that's tough Sunshine. Our little 4 mile easy pace run turned into a 6.5 mile 60 minute run. Not what I was looking for...

But, it was fun. We had to cut through some fields, make some guesses on where we needed to go and we had swapped some stories. My friend is faster than I am so it was good to be pushed on a run like this. I have always thought how cool it would be to just one day to just go out and run, and while I hated it at the time, I liked it now.

Fall Break was a lot of fun this year. Spending the night with just my wife and boys at he lake in a cabin with no TV or Wi-Fi is something you can do and live! The only way it could have been better is if the rain had stayed away and more family could have made it, but we fished in the rain, and got lost on a run. Good times, good time indeed.

2015

I see a lot of my racing buddies already mulling over the 2015 race schedule for themselves. Many are looking to run IM's and some are looking to Boston and some are spreading to other type of races. When I see this conversation get started, it only leads me to start thinking about what I am going to race in 2015. I already know I am doing Redman again, but what else am I going to do to help me do better at Redman?

One of the main reasons I want to do Redman a second time is due to the run. My run sucked. I did a 7+ hour marathon. I know I can do better than that, and without going into excuses of why I was a 7 hour plus marathoner like blisters or whatever, I want to beat it. I know that if I can somehow have a good run, I could be closer to the 14 hour mark instead of the almost 16 hour mark. So that has really played into my thought process of 2015.

Running

Running

Running

Guess what I am going to focus on? RUNNING!!!

So here is my proposed schedule, which has not been approved by my bride.

December- St Jude half
January- Winter Cross Country series 3K and 5K
February- Fort Smith Half and Winter Cross Country 10K
March- Germantown Half and Little Rock Half
May- Memphis in May Sprint Triathlon
July- Mighty Mite Triathlon
September- REDMAN

So I know what you may be thinking, that's a lot of halves in there and no marathon, I mean if you want a better marathon, shouldn't you run a marathon? And to your thinking I would say "meh".

I really do not like training for marathons. I also think that a strong start to the year of running will fit in nicely to the IM training I will start in May, right after Memphis in May. I will have to find the right plan or coach maybe, but I think it is totally doable and will have my running base further ahead than ever.

I know I can do better than 15:53 and I know it all depends on my run, so that is my focus!

And I wanna beat Brad

Random Thoughts on a Tuesday...

Time to blog and I really do not want to try and make it all formal like (and Yes, I do try to make them easy on the eyes), so here are the things I am thinking about:

• Half Marathon training has been going well. I managed to get in 60 miles in the month of August, but I am already behind this month due to work commitments. Overall, I am pleased with where I am, and I think if I ran it today, I could easily finish in 2:05, so there is time to get that under 2 hours.
• I just found out that my hometown of Fort Smith Arkansas is having their first ever marathon/half marathon in February!  I am actually really excited about this and I am looking forward to running it.
• And just so you know, my 2015 rival Bradleyd3 is also looking to run to some half with JFord early in the year, probably want to scout me out and figure out a way to beat me, but I know his game... (notice the labels at bottom)
• Already got some trash talk texts from him, going to be a long year and I have a post in mind for all his jibber jabber
• I started toying with a race schedule for 2015 and it is taking shape. looks like I can do some long runs, a sprint triathlon and a full in 2015.
• It looks like another run at Ragnar TN is in the works
• I turned 43 on Sunday, which isn't a big deal cause I stayed in the same age group...
• On one hand I really like Memphis, but on the other hand we have some problems. From kids beating up people at Kroger to people shooting their girlfriends in parking lots, it is just crazy. So much bad going on in this world, almost makes me want to cancel my TV stations, at least then I would not hear about it as much!
• My Razorbacks had a huge win this week! 73-7!!!  WPS
• I got a Keurig for my office and I love it, actually thinking a getting a cup of Joe right now!

Bday present form the family!!!