Holiday Catch Up

Wow.. whirlwind few weeks!! Hawaii was awesome.. nice relaxing time with my folks and a pretty cool helicopter ride over Kilauea and some lava flows!!

Runs were easy since it was the week before CIM but I managed to log a few on the IronMan course and watched some of the Ultraman International Championships.. THIS is an unbelievable event. Three days of the most intense stuff. Day 1 starts with a 10K open ocean swim followed by a 90 mile bike.. Day 2 is a 170 mile bike and THEN they wrap all that up on Day 3 with a 55 mile run.. HOLY COW!!

Got off the plane from Kona to hook up with the gang in Sacramento for Calif. International Marathon and Relay Challenge. We ( Liz, Tracy and Patty and I ) were "Three Foxes and No Hair".. love it.. Patty had to bow out late Saturday night due to a family emergency but we all had planned on running numerous legs anyway. Liz did the WHOLE daing thing, I did three legs and Tracy two.. Tracy was the hero of the day (Aside from Liz) as she scored a full marathon finishers medal for Liz... The weather was cold, and foggy and at times I never did get quite warm. Mile 16 to 17 and some was tough.. just started to bonk a bit but got some food in me and finished pretty well. Sometimes you have to do some kind of dumb things to learn how dumb they are so you dont do it again.. Like flying home from Hawaii the night before a 21 mile run BUT, I had kind of wanted to see the impact on my body of that kind of travel so I am ready and know what to do for Paris.

Speaking of.. Monday the 15th was the first "official" training day for my run up to the Paris Marathon.. the week has gone well and I have my plan all worked out thanks to Brad Hudson' and Tim Noakes books which gave me a great framework and then the final massaging by my good friends, ertswhile coachs and running Jedis, Alan Rice and Susan Zepernick from Fleet Feet.

This weekend we are doing the Flying Monkey Hash House Harries charity run to benefit the Torres Shelter so look for more next week.

Post Turkey Euphoria

Well we didnt have turkey.. we had a Capon. Its a big chicken, actually a nutered rooster, (who the heck has THAT job?)
Nice quiet Thanksgiving. Stared out with the Run For Food along with almost three thousand other folks!! I hear they raised almost 65 thousand dollars.. WOW.
Kosmo and I did the Rocky and Apollo Creed type run with both of us neck and neck then pounding it out at the end to cross the timing mat at the same time.. He is such a hoot, love that guy.

Today was last long run before C.I.M and it was BEAUTIFUL in Bidwell Park this morning. Fog and the last Fall leaves made it spectacular for a start at One Mile. Did just over 11 miles as close to my easy pace as possible but took it up and around Middle Trail and up the dirt road to get a touch of hill work in. Back and in through the golf course and out on Centenial.
PF is getting better. That Strassburg Sock sure looks funny but it works.
Tomorrow Teri and I are off to Kona for a week with my dad and Pat and low key running, high intensity relaxing!

Pre

Come on.. you knew there had to be SOMETHING in here regarding the "man crush" ;-)

Good YouTube on him too

What are Flying Monkeys?

The Flying Monkeys are a social running club that grew out of the 2008 Flying Monkeys Reno- Tahoe Odyssey endurance relay team a bunch of us put together. Out of that grew a desire to have a group unencumbered by dues, fees, elections and all the "political" drama that can overtake the fun and the desire to just run for fun!

This intrepid band of fellow "monkeys" enter races together, do hash runs and generaly socialize with like minded folk. This holiday season we are doing a run to garner donations for the local homeless shelter and there are plans for "free" races from a 10K to half marathon in the future. The local Fleet Feet store owners Alan and Susan help me get the word out by newsletter and blurbs on their website and are fantastic cheerleaders for the group.

Welcome

Welcome to the random musings of an amature, middle of the pack runner. Postings will be hopefully entertaining, somewhat insightful and if nothing else a break from the day to day grind.

About me;
I discovered running or rediscovered it in early 2007. Previously my running had been due to military or work related efforts and almost always with little goal except to get to the end of it. In the spring of 2007 I decided I wanted to finish a half marathon on or about my 47th birthday and joined the local running club and a training program with the local Fleet Feet store here in Chico CA.
Over the course of the next several months I ran in the Reno Tahoe Odyssey (RTO) which became my favorite event of all time, the Whiskeytown Relays and logged lots of miles till I ran my first half marathon, the Lake Natomas Four Bridges in the fall.
Since then I have completed 6 other half marathons, my first full marathon in Eugene and put together my own RTO team and also ran The Relay this last spring.
I helped coach a first time half marathoners group and am registered to run the Paris Marathon in April of 09. I helped put together a social running group. The Chico Flying Monkeys, Hash House Harriers
Along the way I have met the most amazing people, logged more miles than I can tally and become that dreaded of all people... "a convert" to something.
Friends and fellow runners will laughingly tell you not to "get him started" on topics such as RTO and relays and I have to remind myself that not everyone gets as passionate about this endevor as I do! :-)
So jump in, post your comments and feed back as I try and chronical all my running adventures on the way to Paris next spring-EH