Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Talk about sweaty dust.  This morning I got up at 4:30am to go to my sister-in-law Suzie's house in Chandler to wheelbarrow rock to her backyard.  My brother-in-law Curtis, not Suzie's husband, gave me, my boy, and his friend a ride over there.  I shoveled some.  I pushed a few wheelbarrows.  But I mostly spread the rock.  There ended up being seven of us on the job, so it didn't take long.  But it started to get dusty from all the rock dumping, and I was working up a sweat.  Before I knew it my brand new white Puma running shirt was a tannish brown hue.  At 7am we were done.  I declined the donuts and milk and with a Tropical Blend Gatorade in one hand and my water bottle in the other I started on my way.

I got lucky as the sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the run.  I kept the pace nice and slow.  My HR was 272.  Wait, I don't wear a heart monitor.  That was my IQ.  As I approached mile 6 I decided it was okay to finish off my fluids because I could stop at Freestone Park and refill.  At mile 8.5 Curtis came driving by.  I don't know if he was worried I wouldn't make it and came looking for me or what.  At mile 9.9 the sprinklers were on at the park near the canal.  Remember that park Tracy?  I ran through them.  It was like a dream come true.  I ran by the bench were I saw a vagrant sleeping the other day.  It's a brand new bench, and he's already staked his claim!  Wish I would have claimed it.  But you snooze, you lose.  Or in his case, you snooze, you win.

Time - 1:42:22 (avg. pace 9:58)

Splits - 9:13, 9:38, 9:44, 9:47, 9:57, 10:04, 10:11, 10:03, 10:19, 10:30, 2:58

Temp - 91

Nothing yet.  I have a little pain in my knee still.  I think I'll be good to go tomorrow.

I went running with my Vegas Ragnar team this morning.  I think everyone's okay with the team name being Burt Rules.  We had a wicked dust storm here last night.  A lot of people were posting pictures on Facebook, and they were unreal.  It's still kind of hazy out so we took it nice and easy.

Time - 45:33 (avg. pace 10:10)

Splits - 9:35, 9:58, 10:15, 10:37, 5:08

Here are the pictures from yesterday's "haboob."  Real word.

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I got a call from Ox yesterday morning.  We used to work together, but he left our company to go to work for another.  He had some work that he knows I'm a specialist in, so he wants to contract some work out to me.  He also wanted to know if I wanted to run South Mountain with him this morning.  I told him, "You know I do."

For all you cyber stalkers out there that are Facebook friends with me, you can find Ox under my friends as Daniel Auxier.  Warning: he is quite handsome and muscular.  He told me 5:30am.  Then he texted me last night and said it would be closer to 5:45am.  I think he got there shortly before 6am because that's when we started running.  But I was out the door at 5am and it was already 82°.

I felt like going the long route because I haven't got many miles in lately.  That's probably not the best reason to want to go the long route.  Ox brought his bishop with him.  We started out together but after a half mile Ox started to speed up, I stayed the same speed, and bishop slowed down.  We hit the trail head and Ox was still in sight but I never saw bishop again.  I stayed strong all the way up, but Ox kept putting the distance between us.  It's amazing that someone so big has such good cardio.  That's why "they" call him Ox.  But "they" don't realize that a real ox does not have the cardio to run that pace up 1000 feet.  "They" are stupid.

Well, it was starting to get hot.  I figured I'd get some of Ox's water after he turned around.  I finally saw him coming back when I was about a quarter mile from the turn around point.  So he's made up half a mile on me.  I asked him if he had water in his back pack.  He did not!  Uh oh.  It was getting hotter.  But I knew I was half way done and the rest was downhill.  Even still I thought it would be smart just to slow way way down.  So that's what I did.  It was 98° when I finished, and I was dehydrated. 

Oh, and I saw these Asians walking up the trail.  One of them was showing off to the girls by walking up the trail carrying a big rock over his head.  I pointed my fingers at him and said, "Tickle, tickle, tickle."  He must have thought I was so gay.  Am I the only one that thinks I'm funny?  Because that was funny!

Hot off the presses.  Get your haboob T-shirts here!

I will be out of town camping until Saturday afternoon.  I will try to get some runs in out in the woods.  In the meantime please refrain from meaningless comments on my blog.

Thank you.

Creamy white guy.

I'm not going to lie to you.  My first run back in over a month of no running was difficult.  Wait, that was a lie.  Forgive me.  It was only over a week.  But it is true that it was difficult.  I got pretty sweaty, too.  Every morning I hang my running clothes over the shower curtain rod so they'll dry out and not contaminate the rest of the dirty clothes.  This morning while I was sitting on the toilet and leaning over to, well, you know, I was getting dripped on.

Time - 26:57 (avg. pace 8:58)

Splits - 8:59, 8:54, 8:59

A nice little run with my Vegas Ragnar Team this morning.  We just went around a city block, not quite 4 miles.  I wore my new shoes for the first time today.  I finally cashed in on that gift certificate.  I wanted to get the most bang for my buck so I went with the Asics Gel 3030.  I saw others that I liked better, but then I would see that they were on sale for $80 and thought, "No way!  I gotta get my $140 out of this thing!"  But they feel real good.  So, no buyer's remorse.

Time - 38:53 (avg. pace 9:56)

Splits - 9:41, 10:00, 10:04, 9:09

Temp - 95°

Can I call it buyer's remorse if I didn't really buy them?

I knew today was going to be the last day I ran in my Mizuno Wave Inspire 4 Silver/Old Gold/Phantom shoes.  That's why I ran so slow.  So that I could spend as much time as possible with them.  Either that or it was the 99° heat. 

I saw a very athletic looking young colored fellow being led to the park by his parents to run wind sprints up the retention basin hill.  How cool is that?  Parents investing in their kid's future.  Good for them.

I also realized 'they" have put in a drinking fountain next to the newly constructed bench.  Nice.

Time - 27:38 (avg. pace 9:10)

Splits - 9:10, 9:12, 9:06

Temp - 99°

Today was the Third Thursday Adventure Run.  I was assigned to work a checkpoint that was more than 2 miles away.  Today's high was 108°, and I honestly didn't think I'd get any runners.  But they all came like a swarm of bees.  The best part of the afternoon was getting to meet someone.  It wasn't Oprah, and it wasn't Sarah Palin.  It was Arizona Desert Monsoon!

We got a nice Arizona Desert Monsoon last night.  I slept through it, but I saw the aftermath this morning.  Trees blow over.  Branches in the road.  PUDDLES in the street!  My 3 miles felt fine this morning.  My breathing was nice and relaxed.  My legs felt good.  It was just incredibly humid.  I had my own monsoon going before long.

Time -  27:18 (avg. pace 9:01)

Splits - 9:15, 8:54, 8:56, 0:13

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The other day I saw this picture of myself and thought, "Dayyyng, I looked good!"  I haven't done a P90X workout since Oct. 3rd of last year.  So I finally broke down and brought it with a little Chest and Back/Ab Ripper X.  I can barely type now.

Last night (because I'm writing this Wednesday morning) ended up being a long night with the first planning meeting of the year for the Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona Walk.  I wanted to get a run in before my P90X workout, but it didn't work out.  I did Plyometrics X.  Now I know why most people give up.  Wow, I'm sore!

I also just got news that a friend of mine lost her job last week and is in the hospital.  I'm not sure if whatever's wrong with her caused her to lose her job or if she lost her job and did something crazy that ended her up in the hospital.  Time will tell.

Ok, so I posted a link to my fundraising page for the Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona chapter on Facebook.  I put as my goal to raise $500.  After less than a day I'm already 30% of the way there!  I might as well post it here to.  Don't tell Sasha.

http://www.sharingds.org/BWTeam/Details/208

If everyone can just throw in a dollar or two, I'll get there in no time.  The SDSA org. provides much needed support for the families with Down Syndrome children.  So many people just don't know what to expect, and SDSA helps support and educate them on how wonderful it is to have a special little child with DS.

I finally am mobile enough to kind of jog a few miles.  Holy moly!  I don't remember P90X being so hard.  Well, I was supposed to meet my Ragnar team this morning, but I was the only one that showed up.  DOGGED!  I ran all by me onesy.  There was a steady sprinkle the first mile.  The other three miles my sweat compensated for the lack of precipitation.

Time - 37:21 (avg. pace 9:35)

Splits - 9:38, 9:29, 9:34, 8:40