Gordo Running

It's just visiting, really.  While I'm in San Angelo searching for running partners, I'm not about to forget about the San Antonians that I've run with over the past couple of years.  That said, every time I get a chance to run with them, I'm going to take it.  This weekend we have a birthday party on Saturday night.  For sure, I'm going to crawl out of bed at 0600 the next morning to run through my favorite spot in San Antonio.  Especially since, you know, Anne invited so many people to come with us and Ryan would probably mope around for a few weeks if I didn't.  I'm starting this post Saturday morning while still in San Angelo.  Mila's doing her ab workout, I'm doing push ups every 15 minutes, drinking San Angelo coffee ( Longhorncoffee.net , really good stuff you guys) from a mug made by a local artist, and watching the Poland vs Switzerland match go into OT.  All that, and I'm excited about getting up stupid early on a Sunday and sweatin...

This post will probably be shorter than it should be.  After all, I've only actually met up with Team Red, White, and Blue (RWB) four times, twice in San Antonio and now twice in San Angelo.  The first time I had ever heard of Team RWB was during the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon in 2012 or 2013.  I don't exactly remember which year, but I do remember seeing a group of people wearing "The Eagle" and passing an American flag between themselves while running.  Later, I heard of a Team RWB trail running camp while listening to an episode of the Trail Runner Nation Podcast.  I didn't think much of it beyond how fun/grueling that week would likely be.  Additionally, I saw volunteers at various San Antonio road and trail races sporting Team RWB shirts. Team RWB, from my understanding and what I can glean from their website ( teamrwb.org ), is all about connecting veterans with their local community through exercise.  A way to make sure that veterans aren...

I went and did it again today.  This time I was solo.  James forgot to set his alarm and Mila "pulled a Mila."  I volunteered at the San Angelo Roller Girls 5K Walk n Rollathon.  Not only did the proceeds go to the Roller Girls ( San Angelo Roller Girls Facebook ) but to  The Concho Valley Home for Girls and Children's Emergency Shelter  ( http://www.conchokids.org/ )  as well.  About a month ago, when I was itching to find some runners in San Angelo, I looked up upcoming races and threw my name out as a potential volunteer.  Kendra, who seems to be one of the SARG leaders, enthusiastically accepted and let me know that she had little experience in race directing.  In the two races I've volunteered at, it seems like I'm inching closer to eventually directing my own race.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet up with the ladies prior to the race, so I showed up to Unidad Park around 0700 this morning.  Unidad Park h...

We draw inspiration from many sources and in many different arenas of our lives.  On my bookshelves I have dozens of memoirs written by military members throughout the 20th and 21st century.  These memoirs help me put my life and career into perspective and motivate me.  I have a Muhammad Ali poster with a training quote hanging up in my man cave (which Mila insists on referring to as the "guest bedroom").  Specifically, since this is a running blog, I wanted to delve into a few people that inspire my running. The easy thing would be to talk about Pre (I do have a shirt with one of his quotes), Meb, or even Kayla Montgomery ( E:60 Catching Kayla ).  I want to focus on the less obvious choices.  The people that are personally inspiring to me. I have touched a little bit on why I started running in other posts.  The long and short of it was that I had to.  I nearly failed a PT test and simply needed to improve.  Running ultra marathons defin...

     Nope, no gym selfies here.  Not even two Marshawn Lynch references.  Beast mode in this case refers to the primal diet that Mila and I have (mostly) been following since mid April.  I  wanted to dig a little deeper into it today, especially since I haven't had anything significant happening in running since my last post.  OK well I did get tricked by a pitbull last night.  Ran up to me wagging his tail all friendly looking, once he was behind me he started snarling and barking and had to be called back by his owner. I just kept thinking "THAT'S NOT SNOWFLAKE!!!"      I have long known that eating was a key component missing from my training.  I've gotten quicker over the last couple of years through hard training and great coaching, but there is a ceiling to that improvement.      In listening to Trail Runner Nation ( trailrunnernation.com ), many athletes talk about becoming "fat burning beasts." ...

As I've detailed in earlier posts, I'm about a month into my heart rate training.  That means, from May through August, it's nothing but aerobic training for this guy.  My fastest mile has been 10:20, so racing is pretty much out of the question.  As shown by our performances last year, Ryan and I don't quite know how to hold back during a race.  Additionally, I haven't met any runners out here and I figured that this would be a great way to do so.  I started trolling around the internets last week and found a couple races in need of volunteers. Mila, James, and I volunteered at the San Angelo Road Lizards 44th Annual Run in the Sun 8K this morning.  We showed up nice and early, 6 a.m. (Yes, I actually got Mila out of bed that early.) but didn't see anyone except a bunch of police.  We weren't sure if we were being set up for something.   Eventually we came across Daniela, the race director, and a few other SARL folks. T...