My Active Adventures

Rest is good, of that there is no doubt.  I was on a set training schedule from my birthday (8/9) until the Louisiana Marathon (1/15); that's 5 full months.  This time period also included two 5ks, one 8.5 mile trail race, one 27 mile race (duration event), two marathons and one 50k.  Yep, after Louisiana I was ready for a much needed break.  My body was tired and my mind was tired.  Being on regimented training for that long is tough, mentally & physically draining.  In the 9 days since the Louisiana Marathon I have only run 4 times for a total of 18.96 miles; for me that is practically no running!  My next marathon (the newly renamed Garmin Marathon) is not until 4/21 so I have plenty of time to relax a little.  My plan is to take the 3 weeks following the marathon to just run without a plan.  If I feel like running I will, if I don't I won't.  After that 3 weeks I'll get back to getting ready for the next round of events. The fir...

Let me just start by making the following declaration: This is an absolute MUST-DO event!!  If you don't have plans for January 20, 2013 then you need to plan to be in Baton Rouge for the Louisiana Marathon ! If you do have plans; cancel them and meet me in Baton Rouge anyway!!  This event is WELL worth it!!!  Okay, now on to my normal, excessively long race report.... As always, let's start at the beginning, long before the actual race.  If first heard of the Inaugural Louisiana Marathon via a small ad on the sidebar of Facebook way back in August.  Remember, I might not live in Louisiana, but I was born in Lafayette and I've spent plenty of time visiting family down here so I know all about Louisiana weather!  My first thought was, "who in the world would be dumb enough to run a marathon in Baton Rouge with that heat and humidity?!?!?!?!"  I clicked on the ad because, let's face it, I've been know from time to time to actually BE the guy that is th...

At this point in my running journey the 6.37 miles I ran today are really nothing worth writing about.  But today it was a special one.  To tell you why I have to go back to 2009 when I was still out of shape and lazy.  I talked about getting in shape but never did anything about it.  At the time I was still finishing up my Bachelor's Degree program at Baker University and one of the guys on my team, Ben Hunter, was getting sick of hearing me talk about it but not do anything.  He was a runner and told me that if I really wanted to get healthy I needed to eat better and start running.  My thoughts were "you're kidding, right???"  I couldn't run 10 feet, how am I supposed to just "start running?"  Well, he had an answer for that too.  He told me about the Couch To 5k walk/run plan.  I tried it, hated it and quit.  He kept encouraging me so I tried again, hated it again and quit again.  Rinse and repeat about 3 or 4 times. Final...

Several of my races I had planned changed their dates, so I had to make some adjustments since I last posted my plan.  Here is the updated plan (the ones with * before them are not official dates yet): 1/15 - Louisiana Marathon; Baton Rouge, LA 3/3 - Mrs. Robinson's Romp Trail 10k; Kansas City, KS 3/17 - Aggieville St. Pat's 2 Mile Fun Run; Manhattan, KS 3/17 - Aggieville St. Pat's 10k; Manhattan, KS 4/21 - Oz Marathon; Olathe, KS 5/6 - Lincoln Marathon; Lincoln, NE 6/2 - Hospital Hill Run Half Marathon; Kansas City, MO 6/16 - Summer Intro 2.8 Mile Trail Run; Kansas City, KS *7/4 - Freedom Run 10k; Lenexa, KS 8/3 - Psych Night Trail 10k; Kansas City, KS 8/11 - Deanna Rose Farmstead Stampede 5k; Overland Park, KS *8/25 - North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon; Kansas City, MO 9/1 - North Shore 8.5 Mile Trail Race; Lawrence, KS 9/11 - Patriots' Run 9hr 11min Run; Olathe, KS 9/23 - Omaha Marathon; Omaha, NE 10/13 - Pumpkin Run 5k; Olathe, KS 10/14 - On T...