Week in Review

46 miles
1 BMX bike
5 runs with Jordan
1 chocolate pecan pie

Looking back on this week, I'm pretty pleased with upping the ante to 46 miles (Jordan and I counted 50 when we were adding it up in our heads, but what can I say, neither of us were math majors). I had a great time visiting my parents and spending the week with Jordan, and I'm pretty excited for the White Rock relay and surrounding festivities coming up in a few weeks. Having just received a winter training schedule from Jeff, I'm hoping to get into some consistent mileage in the coming weeks and perhaps even throw in a workout or two.

My foot continues to be manageable, hurting sometimes but never getting worse, and I'm back on the lima bean and ibuprofen regimen full force. Jordan noticed almost immediately that my stride is weird now; I land with my usual forefoot strike on the left foot but am rolling through an exaggerated heel-toe motion on my right (injured) foot. It's obviously a compensation mechanism but it's throwing me off and I don't like it. I'm ready to kick this nagging quasi-injury for good.

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Running the Rock

72-73 mins.
10 miles

Since Team OK Runner Elite has a title to capture in exactly two weeks at the Dallas White Rock Marathon, Jordan and I decided it would be prudent to take in a jog at White Rock Lake and strategize over part of the race course. To the best of my recollection (having run this relay three times previously), the exchanges between legs 2 and 3 and legs 3 and 4 both occur on the lake; as a result, legs 2, 3 and 4 run part or all of their relay section on the bike path and roads surrounding the lake. Obviously it would be to our advantage to strategize these portions (and the related transportation, which could prove to be quite the headache).


View of the downtown Dallas skyline from White Rock Lake

For today's run, we drove down from our hotel in Frisco/Plano and parked across from Flagpole Hill. One loop around the lake is almost exactly 15k, and adding on the extra bit to and from our parking lot made the run just over 10 miles. We kept a pretty decent clip throughout, despite being passed by a few weekend warriors at the beginning and facing a severe headwind toward the end. Jordan's self-esteem plummeted drastically after two dudes rolled us up, but I reminded him he's been doing his charity work by running with girls and shouldn't worry about it.


Pedestrian bridge over the lake near Mockingbird Ave.

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Adios, Mt. Pleasant

60 mins.
8 miles

For our last jaunt in Mt. Pleasant, Jordan and I stuck to the newly-paved and low-traffic country roads we'd grown accustomed to during the trip. First we took a spin over to the park adjacent to my parents' house so we could measure the distance of the walking path for my mom with Jordan's GPS. She has been known to take in a power walk after work on occasion and wanted to be sure she wasn't giving herself more credit than she deserved on the distance. Anyway, after looping the concrete path we headed back to the roads for the remainder of the run. As Jordan said, not much else to report other than a wild animal sighting of the coyote varietal. Jordan wanted to play with the little guy but I preferred to hightail it home, and luckily we emerged unscathed.

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Black Friday

30 mins.
4 miles

After a Thanksgiving day filled with food, napping, food, football, food and an early bedtime, Jordan and I awoke before 5am on Black Friday to help fulfill a Christmas wish. You see, my mom is participating in an angel tree at work, and the 8-year-old boy whose name she drew really wanted a bicycle. We found a sweet bike advertised in the Wal-Mart newspaper insert on Thursday, naturally with the catch being that the sale only lasted from 5-11am, and Jordan took the liberty of volunteering both of us to get up before the crack of dawn and procure it ("Come on, it will be fun!").

Now, let me make something very clear: I love to shop. There is no disputing that. However, as much as I love to shop, I hate crowds and bargain-shopping in equal measure. They could've been selling gold-plated crack cocaine for $5 at Wal-Mart on Friday and it wouldn't have enticed me. Therefore, I have never in my life done the whole "Black Friday" deal or ever had any remote desire to do so. At the same time, I knew nothing would really encapsulate the whole "East Texas" experience for Jordan like meeting half of my graduating class and their families at the one and only local shopping establishment at 5am. I was pretty confident this would be a first and last experience for both of us. Anyhow, long story short, we got the bike. But I kid you not, I have never seen anything as frantic and chaotic as that Wal-Mart. We had to park almost a half mile away to get a spot. Seriously. And yes, we did see plenty of people from my high school and yes, Mt. Pleasant's finest were out and about and certainly didn't disappoint my guest.

As you can imagine, after this exhausting endeavor neither of us were too eager to run. Add to that the intermittent cold rain showers that lasted the entire day, and you've got a recipe for lethargy. We were almost going to scrap the run altogether in favor of an extended nap, until around noon when my dad came upstairs and informed us he'd just logged a few miles. Not wanting to be shown up by the geezer (kidding, Dad!) we set out for a 30-minute jaunt. We arrived home just in time for Jordan to eat all of our Thanksgiving leftovers in sandwich form and then settled in to hibernate for the rest of the rainy afternoon.

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Turkey Day

~60 mins.

8 miles

Jordan and I slept in and enjoyed a leisurely morning of coffee drinking before venturing out around 11 for this run. The running in my parents' small town is less than ideal, as there are no trails or bike paths to speak of, but fortunately they live in a nice neighborhood with a variety of country roads within easy reach. Today we set out from their house and meandered out and back on one of these aforementioned roads for a bit. The road has been repaved since my last visit, and the surface was quite nice for a change.

At the end of the run we incorporated a detour to CVS as Jordan needed to purchase some razors for his bi-annual shave. We finished up through Dellwood Park, which runs adjacent to my parents' neighborhood, before heading back home. I needed to make myself moderately presentable for the Thanksgiving meal and Jordan needed to actually get in some miles under 7:30 pace, so he headed back out for a few minutes while I went inside to hit the showers. By 1pm the feast was ready and all thoughts of health and fitness went out the window.

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Cowtown Jaunt

~57 mins.

8 miles

This morning I awoke at 5am (that's 4am Central, for anyone who can't do the math) and immediately headed to the airport. I had no idea how busy things were going to be on the morning before Thanksgiving--the busiest travel day of the year at one of the biggest airports in the country--and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to spare before my 7:30am flight. To my pleasant surprise, everything went incredibly smoothly, and I even had time to read a magazine before boarding the plane and settling in for a catnap.

After a brief flight of just over two hours (which felt even shorter when contrasted with my day-long cross-country travels of the previous few weeks), we landed at DFW. I met Jordan just outside my baggage claim and we headed to the rental car center to procure our luxurious vehicle for the weekend. For a mere $7/day I upgraded us to a Jetta, and I think it's safe to say this is the nicest rental car I've ever had. Sure beats the hell out of that minivan. Anyway, we drove to Ft. Worth to get in a run before driving to my parents' house in Nowhere, East Texas (otherwise known as Mt. Pleasant). A good friend of mine lives along the Trinity River trail, so we stowed our belongings and changed at his house and then headed out the door. I had a loop in mind that I thought was somewhere between 7 and 9 miles and would give Jordan a nice sampling of Ft. Worth neighborhoods.

View of downtown Ft. Worth from the river trail

As it turns out, the loop ended up being almost exactly 8 miles. We headed east on the river trail for a few miles, then crossed a bridge and meandered through the posh neighborhoods around the Colonial Country Club. From there we ran toward Overton Park and then hopped on the bike path for a bit. We crossed Bellaire and continued along the trail until we reached the low water crossing opposite the side of the river we'd started on. I opted to cross on the stepping stones, while Jordan wussed out and took the concrete dam. We jogged the remaining mile back to Cabe's place and then did a few strides in the grass near his house to shake out the legs.

Low water crossing on the Trinity River at sunset

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Chilly Morning at the River

60 mins.
8 miles

When I woke up at 6:15 this morning to meet Jim and Meredith at the river, my first thought was: "Yeah, getting up this early definitely sucks." This was immediately followed by: "Well you better suck it up, because this time tomorrow you'll already be at the airport." So, without further grumbling, I got suited up and hopped in the car to meet them at the river.

The air was quite chilly on the heels of a cold front after yesterday's rain, and the coolness was even more accentuated by our proximity to the river. Nonetheless, we had a solid run, and my legs felt closer to being normal than they have any time in recent memory. All parties were eager to wrap this day up and head home for the holidays--myself to Texas, them to Florida to visit both sets of parents--so most of the run was spent discussing exactly what and how much we were going to eat over the course of the weekend. Good times.

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