Sunday Halfer

Took advantage of the rest I got by not running during the week and turned in my longest run since running the Little Rock Marathon back in March. Not my fastest half marathon time but, it was a training run and not an actual race. Felt good to get it in even if it was on the treadmill. Not trying to kill myself in this Arknsas heat and humidity. Looking at the weather forecast, it is supposed to get back up over 100 degrees this week. And that is before the heat index is factored in. Wow!!! Looks like dragging my crusty butt out of bed early in the morning is the best option. Took my son, Josh, to the gym with me. He got in a good little workout as well. Hit some weights and some cardio. Then he started getting bored waiting on me. LOL! At least the olympics were on TV at the time. Kept us both interested. On a good note, the pain and tightness I was experiencing in my right leg was very minimal today. Just gotta keep on working on building up my mileage again. The half marathon is 2-months out. Been a while since I actually ran in a half marathon race. Really looking forward to it. I'll keep you posted on how my training is going. Stay safe everyone.

DAMMIT!!

Alright, I have signed up for three more races this year, Not to mention a couple others I am looking at taking part in. However, my energy levels and motivation are kind of down. I need to get my lazy ass out of bed in the morning, get out the door and start getting some quality road time in. Deb and Amy are in California for two weeks. I think I am going to try and take advantage of that by getting out there and getting it done. No worries about waking anyone but myself up. With that being said, I can't wait for them to get back home as well. Love my girls and hate being apart from them. Ran our Mucka Group Run this morning. Only four of showed. Ran with Jody Hodges, who is training for his first full marathon in November. We started off with 75 degrees and 90% humidity. Man, I cannot wait for cooler temps to come back around. Now, I mentioned having three races coming up. First one, for sure, is the Heart & Sole half marathon on Sept 29. This will take place in the heat and humidity of Jonesboro, Arkansas. Fortunately, I can train on the route once or twice before the race. Already have a buddy, from Dailymile.com, coming in from Mississippi to run with us. Jody is supposed to sign up as well. Got a couple more Muckas interested in running it. Gotta reperesent. LOL! After all, I am the oldest Mucka signed up. Folling that race, we have the MidSouth marathon on the calendar for November. Funny thing is, after Mucka Mania, the MidSouth folks want us to take over their race. Now, putting on a 5K/10K race is one thing. Taking on a full and half marathon is a whole other ball of wax. We will help them this year and see what all it will take to put on this great race. Fortunately, it is already established and sponsors are intact. Volunteers are our biggest need. This is a Boston Qualifier now. Can't mess it up. After that, I am running the St Jude marathon for the third year in a row. Not to mention, I have Brandon Boger running this as his first full marathon. The bug is spreading and it is addictive. I wonder if they realize that? :) All in all, I am ready to get back in action. I have a trip to Denver in August but, I'm not going to let that slow me down. The elevation may get the best of me but, it better be ready for a fight. :) See you all next time. Stay safe and healthy.

Losing My Mind

Once again, I finally made it back to here. The constant issues at work have kept me busier than a Redneck in a barnyard full of sheep. However!!!!! I have officially started my marathon training for my 13th full marathon. This will take place in Wynne, Arkansas, at the MidSouth marathon. This will be my fourth running of MidSouth. One half and three fulls. This is a fast course. I BQ'd here last yere, by 19 seconds. Leading up to this race, I have a couple smaller races to contend with. Running the Heart & Sole half marathon on Sept 29. Also, looking at a 5K Mud Run in Jonesboro, Arkansas on Sept 8. The Muckas have teamed up with a local group to set up a 5K at Village Creek State Park on Oct 13. Gotta keep my race calendar full or I get out of whack on my training. With that being said, this heat and humidity are playing Hell with my training. Many of my runs are taking place on the treadmill. That really gets boring after so long. Not to mention, it gets easier to cheat on the treadmill. At least when you run outside, you run out so far. Then, you have to turn around and run back so you can get home. So, that makes better sense. :) Just ran with the Muckas last Saturday and was really enjoying our run when my work phone went off. Yes, I carry my work phone with me when I run. I'm the Captain, I have to. Back to the phone call. I let it go initially. I told Jody that the caller could leave a message. He laughed and said, "I guess if they call right back, you know something is up." I think he cursed me because that is exactly what happened. It rang again and I had to answer. Not to mention making a follow up call to the boss after taking the call from work. We set off again only to be stopped by the longest train in the world. We waited for a good 5-minutes before we could get across the tracks. Another half mile in and we saw an elderly woman broke down in her vehicle, in the middle of the road. Sooooo, we stopped and helped push her vehicle out of traffic. That was the longest 6-miles I think I ever ran. No matter what stands in your way of getting the run done, never give up. The run is a very rewarding experience and only helps you run the stress away. Keep smiling everyone.

Oh The Humidity!

One would think the humidity wouldn't be so thick at 5:30 am. But, that one would be wrong. We set out for an early Saturday morning run and felt like the air was just holding us back. Thick and heavy on our lungs, making it hard to get your breathing pattern in sync. That's something very important when you run. Enough complaining though. It was still a great run. Deb and I talked the whole way. We talked about the race, the kitten she just rescued the other night, the ballgame we're going to tonight, and several other things. Gotta love it when you run with someone and you can carry on a conversation the whole way. That means a couple things. One, you're comfortable with the one you're running with. Two, you're running at a comfortable pace to allow you to carry on a conversation. I was told, several years back, you can tell how hard you're running by the ability to carry on a conversation. If you can't talk while you're running, you're pushing too hard (or racing). If you can carry on a conversation while you run, you're at a comfortable pace. If you can sing, you need to pick it up because you're just being lazy at that point. :) Off to work now. I'm the Duty Officer for the week so, I'm stuck working the weekend. Might try to sneak in another run during my lunch break since I missed out on the Mucka run this morning. Looking forward to spending the evening with my girls at the Memphis Redbirds ballgame tonight. First time we have gone to a baseball game together. Amy actually wants to hang out with her parents and watch the game. Family night! :)

Absence

Well, looking back at my last post, I have been absent from here for well over a month. Guess I have some catching up to do. As stated in my last post, things at work have been crazy. But, prison work is unpredictable so, you have to roll with the punches. May was my first month, out of three, that I broke the 100 mile mark for the month. I have friends that do that in a week. I need to get back in the game if I'm going to be ready for my two marathons in Nov and Dec. The last three months have also included the development and putting on of Mucka Mania! This was our running club's first annual 5K/10K race! Months of planning, course development, sponsor gaining, t-shirt and medal designing, and just the long hours of bringing it all together. We finally reached the day when it would all pay off. June 9 was that day. Yes, the same day as my birthday. What better way to spend it than with my girls taking part in the race as well as many of our friends. When we first started registration, it was slow. Not many signed up at all. Up to a month out, our race was looking bleak. Then, out of nowhere, the numbers started creeping upward. When we hit the century mark, we were ecstatic. The it hit 110, the 120. Panic started setting in. We truly didn't think it would take off so much, considering it was our first race. We closed down online registration at 153. Race day registration pushed us over 160. Amazing! Race day arrived and the turn out was great. Our volunteers rocked! Everyone loved the courses! I've had a couple ask when we were going to put on another race. Many have already said they cannot wait to run it again next year. Some are verbally committing to step it up and run the 10K. There were so many smiles at the finish line! It made it all worth while. Oh, and some of the end results for the Wise Clan were as follows: Deb took 8th overall, 2nd female, 1st in here age group in the 10K. Amy took 2nd in her age group for the 5K. The birthday boy took 3rd overall, 3rd male, and 2nd in my age group. Not a bad way to spend my B-Day. :) We finished off the day with some friends and closed out a great day.

WOW!

The weather is sure having a hrad time making up its mind. Not that I'm complaining or anything. I am really enjoying these cooler temps. However, issues at work have really cramped my running lately. But, that's what I signed up for when I went into Law Enforcement. Fortunately, running is one of my stress relievers. After the longest days of dealing with some of the worst people in society, I can rely on a run to take my mind off of it. Not to mention, I have a great home life to help remove the stressors.

One thing that really helps is getting in some good quality runs with Deb. She joins me on early morning runs, before I go to work. She joins me on mid-day runs when we want to sleep in. When her running partner doesn't make it to our group runs, we team up and enjoy a great run together. How awesome is that to have a spouse who enjoys and shares your healthy habits. I'm pretty lucky in that aspect. :)

I think, with everything going on, my priorities are starting to change. I had a goal of running a certain amount of marathons within a certain time frame. I always seem to have goals of beating my fastest time, never really taking in the whole marathon experience. After running Little Rock, I saw some fellow Marathon Maniacs just runnning and enjoying their race. They weren't concerned about their time. They just enjoyed the race from start to finish. After completing 12 marathons, I think the competitive part of me is subsiding. The fun part is starting to take over. I want to enjoy these races. Take full advantage of what each one has to offer. Being one of the original Muckas Running Club founders, and putting on our own race, I think the fact of putting on an enjoyable race is huge!!

I guess what I am trying to say is, I think I'm slowing down and finally going to try and take it all in. There are so many people out there just running to have fun. I think it is time to be one of those people. Deb has shown me what it is like to get out there and enjoy it. Even though she says she's not competitive. Wink Wink!! She has shown me how to just enjoy the run. To get lost in the sounds and sights. Our morning runs are greeted with birds waking to the rising sun and singing all along our route. It has taught me to watch where I run because running in the dark sometimes prevents you from seeing the skunk crossing the road in front of you. Close encoutners of the almost stinkiest kind. :)

I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't worry what people think. Enjoy the run. It's good for you. :)

Mucka Mania Training Run

As we draw closer to our first ever Mucka Mania, our group met up for another training run on the 10K route. We had 8 Muckas show. I ran the course with Deb today. Her regular running partner, Sherry, is out on injured reserve for a bit. Always enjoy running with Deb. She helps keep me under control on these runs. :)

Temps were perfect today as we started off in the upper 40's. Would love for those kind of temps when we run Mucka Mania on June 9. Which, by the way, will be my 44th b-day. I sure hope the race directors will give me bib #44. :) Fortunately, I have some connections. LOL! The race participant numbers are starting to grow. Hopefully it will continue to grow.

Back to the training run. Fortunately, at least half our course is shaded. Running up 64B seems to be the busiest part of our run. Not to mention a long steady uphill. Making that left on Airpark would give you the false impression you're going to get off that hill but, WRONG! There's still another 1/10 of a mile uphill. Pass through Cogbill Cemetery and enjoy a nice downhill on the other side. Beautiful homes in this quiet neighborhood. Just as you start to enjoy the serenity of the pond to the right, you take on another hill. It's small and quick. ANother gradual downhill before you come around a curve and take on a larger hill. But, what goes up, must go downhill on the other side. Gotta be careful on this downhill as you cross Killough. 1/4 mile down, right turn twice then 1/4 mile up Bridges. This turns into Peterson Road, better known as Rabbit Road due to the up and down. Once you take on the last hill (Gut Check Hill), the hard part is over. Steep downhill and then turn right and it's a sprint to the finish.

Great training run with some great friends. Come join us on June 9th and meet all the local Muckas, and take on a great course.