Summertime, And The Livin' Is...Hot

Summertime!

Well, it's definitely summertime around here - temps are in the mid-90's, occasional afternoon thunderstorms, etc.  My run this morning was at 5am, when the temperature dipped to a balmy 80 degrees with a slight breeze...
I've started training in earnest for the Route 66 Half Marathon in November. Using a running plan from my buddy Darron Tytler (@datman65 on Twitter), I completed the first week easily, and am now scheduled to log a solid 12 running miles this week. Add in dog walking and various other activities, and I should be in pretty good shape going forward.

Darron's Running Plan

I've contemplated signing up for the Tulsa Run 15K race. The only thing stopping me, actually, is I'm still a bit cautious (read: superstitious). Three of the last four runs I've signed up for (including last year's Route 66 5K) I have not been able to run due to injury, so I'm a little nervous about committing actual money to it at this point. However, my plan is to run it, as I already have an eight mile run scheduled for the day of that race.

Now that all three kids have graduated to middle school, it will be a little tougher finding the motivation to run in other races. In elementary school, doing the fun runs was an integral part of being part of the running club - in middle school, none of them have yet shown any interest in joining any sort of run club, so other than the big races - Tulsa Run, Zoo Run, etc. - and races associated with friends' businesses - Elote's 5K, for instance - it'll be a struggle to get them to commit to anything, so I may be running some of these myself, if at all. I suppose it'll all depend on what works with my training schedule.

Walkin' In The Rain...

This past Sunday was an off day, but still managed to get Zeus out for a walk in the rain. It started out as a walk in the drizzle, but as we got further from the house, the rain started coming down harder. Just glad I thought to put my phone in a plastic baggy! The picture to the right was taken about halfway through, just before the clouds opened up. The last quarter mile was a torrential downpour. In my defense, we would have gotten back much sooner if SOMEONE didn't have to stop every fifty feet to shake the water out of his entire body. For a dog who loves water, he sure hated the rain. He's like a little kid who will play all day in the pool but scream and yell when it's time to take a bath - it's all fun-and-games when digging in the mud in the backyard, but having to walk in it...no thanks, he said!



1D + 1!

One last thing - always mindful of appealing to the broadest swath of readers, here's a picture of me with One Direction, whom at least one of my kids seems to like.

If I ever run into a life-sized picture of Dave Grohl, I'll be sure to post that. And if I happen across a full-sized cutout of Cameron Diaz, you WON'T see that, as the pictures would most likely be unprintable...

Have a great week everyone!

-Steve