My Active Adventures

2014 was a little bit of an unusual year since the first half of it was spent getting my house in Kansas sold and moving to Florida, and the second half was spent getting settled into our new home state. Reviewing 2014, though, will be a subject of a different post once the year is over. I just say that to set the stage for the goals I have set for my first full year as a resident of Florida. I had a good year for my running in 2014, but no huge goals were accomplished. I want 2015 to be a fun, but very challenging year of running. So here is the breakdown of my goals for next year: 1) Get down to, and stay at about 170# 2) Complete my first back-2-back marathon weekend 3) Set a new 50k PR 4) Complete my first 50 Mile 5) Run with an ultra team in my first Ragnar Relay 6) Complete my first 100k In support of these goals, here is the race schedule I have for 2015 at this point: 2015 Race Schedule: 1/10 – Mississippi Blues Marathon (Jackson, MS) 1/11 – First Light Marat

My first Florida marathon is in the books! It was definitely an interesting journey, and not exactly what I planned when I set my original goals, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. When I signed up for the race, my plan was to set a new marathon PR. My first 26.2 is still my PR, so I felt like it was time to finally beat that. I set the goal of running a 4:30 to beat my PR by just over 6 minutes. I knew it would require really great training and I would have very little margin for error, but I figured I'd be settled in my new home of Pensacola, FL well enough by then to really focus on training. Terri (L) & Janee' (R) Johnson at Casino Beach after the race Another fun piece to this puzzle was that Janee' & Terri Johnson were going to come down and visit us! They are two of my best friends from Kansas City, so I was excited to have them come visit and run their first marathons with me. I've been working on getting Janee' to run a marat

Playing with my dogs in a KC snow storm (2/4) Okay, so it isn't technically mid-year yet. I know that. This year, it seems appropriate this year to do my mid-year breakdown slightly differently than I normally do. Usually, it is a summary of what has gone on from Jan-Jun. Makes sense, right? Well, this year on 6/10, I moved from the Kansas City, KS area to Pensacola, FL. That is so close to mid-year that it seemed logical to me that I do my summary as the part of this year that I lived in Kansas. That said, this is going to seem like a list of failures since I had some tough times with my running during this period for various reasons. But don't think that I see this part of my journey as a failure. I learned a lot, I worked hard, and I made sacrifices for what I want. That makes all of it a success. Katya & me at Run Toto Run The first part of the year was the conclusion of my training for the Run Toto Run 50k and the subsequent race. The training was amazing. I

Me running at the Rock On! Lake Perry 50k Well, I actually came to the blog today to write my race report from the Rock On! Lake Perry 50k that I DNF'ed, but I have my big move on the brain and can't really focus on anything else without posting about this first. Hopefully soon I'll get that report written, but right now, I just have to post about my big upcoming move. For any of those that are not already aware, on June 10th my wife & I will be leaving our home in Gardner, KS (suburbs of Kansas City) to move to Pensacola, FL. Moving half way across the country, about 900 miles. A whole new world. Pensacola Beach, FL Why are we moving? A few reasons, really. One reason is the fact that I've been trying to get out of Kansas City for many, many years. It's a good place to live, I just really hate fall & winter. I do not like cold. I've wanted to get away from the cold weather for years. That also plays into one of the other reasons for the move.

Well, it's been a week now since the epic adventure of the Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run snowy insanity. It certainly took its toll on my body, so this week has been interesting. When I woke up Sunday morning (the day after the race) I was quite sore. Ironically, my left ankle (the one I twisted countless times during the race) felt perfectly fine, but my right ankle was quite painful. My quads, calves, shins, hamstrings, hips, back, and shoulders all felt the strain of the beating they took in the race. Seriously, that 20.7 miles in the snow took a greater toll on my body than any 50k I've ever completed. Luckily, I'd had the foresight to set an appointment with my chiropractor and ART specialist, Jared Wisner at Wisner Chiropractic . Jared is an accomplished marathoner and a good friend. His knowledge of what distance running does to us has been beyond helpful to me. He did an excellent job straightening out my issues and really helped with my recovery. He even fixed the ri