Pre Cowtown 2009

Whoo HOOO!! Its almost that time. The Cowtown half marathon is easily one of my favorite races ever. Every year I look forward to this weekend, not only for the great race, but good times with friends.

This year will be the first time that I actually race Cowtown. The overly ambitious goal is sub 1:20, but on a good day that would be difficult due to the fact that this course is NOT easy. The conditions are actually not looking too good at all. It's supposed to be windy and cool. I'd rather it be cold, so for me the colder, the better! Now the wind is a different story. Lets just hope if it is windy that we have a tailwind on the way back into town. I feel that if I can break 1:20 I should be in the top 5. Top 5 would be fantastic... freaking fantastic. I can't deny that I wouldnt be too dissapointed with top 10. Regardless I'd love to win the age group or at least come home w/ some hardware.

Today overall has been rough. I'm at work right now (1:56 am) and I have class tomorrow. On the upside my 9am class was canceled and all I have is a P.E. observation at an elementary school in Arlington. I'm excited to observe but not excited that i'm gonna be super lethargic. I'll just have to find a Starbucks and do my thing. Maybe a redbull or two as well :) Too bad I don't have my ProBars with me!

I've gotta get back to some serious work/homework so I'll say goodbye.. Hopefully I'll see some of you guys this weekend! Good luck to everyone racing if I don't see you before the start! I'll be the guy with the free beer in hand post race...

I'm including a picture I took last week on the way home... Man I LOVE Texas.

_Jacob_

So Jealous...

So i've been reading all these "status updates" and peoples notes/blogs about racing this weekend and I'm totally jealous. I know I got to race last weekend and I'm racing this weekend, but I'm ready to REALLY race.

I've been contimplating doing Collegiate Nationals for awhile now and I think I'm going to go ahead and do it. It fits into the schedule great and would be an awesome workout to test my fitness level.

Did anyone else ride in North Texas today? The winds were absolutely ridiculous. I just put my head down and rode about 10mph for 30mins plus on the hwy 67 access road :( It was sad. Hopefully tomorrow is better. I'm SO ready to "taper" this week and let my body recover and get ready for a good ass whoopin on Saturday. Cowtown is one of my favorite races.... Should be fun to race it. I've never actually raced it so this should be interesting :)

_Jacob_

Schoolin and Runnin

Man has it been pretty crazy lately! School is in full swing and I'm taking a nice 18 hours. I'm trying to keep my training consistent, and i've also been finalizing the 2009 schedule.

Next week I have the Cowtown Half Marathon and I'm really looking forward to throwing down a fast time. Its not TOO competitive of a race so its possible I can be top 10 if not top 5. I'd be ecstatic with top 5! Unrealistic goal is sub 1:20. Actual goal is new half mary PR. Sub 1:21:24... Which was set on a stupid fast course in Austin. If you know anything about the Cowtown course it's that it is not flat!

Speaking of half marathons I went down and did the Austin half marathon last weekend. The plan was to use it as a training race and get some good distance in. Scott and I are both going to run the Little Rock Mary so after the half we both ran another 3.5 miles totalling for ME 16.6 miles. I finished the half mary in 1:24 which I was happy with. Felt great. Even with that "mediocre" time I was 4th age group outta 271 and 27 overall outta 5900+. Hmmm.

So now that I've mentioned the Austin Marathon I want to address a few things. I look foward to that race every year. This year when I registered I noticed the fee was close to it not more than $90 for a half marathon. Knowing that its always a good, well run race I payed the dough. To say the least I was UNBELIEVABLY dissapointed with the quality of the race this year. I'll just start from the very beginning. I show up to the race expo only to find there is a LINE for packet pick up that lasts about 20mins. That is UNheard of in the marathon world. After winding my way through this line I finally get my packet w/ my bib. Well that was about it. In the plastic bag was a bib, pins, some random magazine, and some race info. Seriously? $90 and thats ALL we get in our packets? ok.. I think. Maybe the race shirt will be good. Ummm.. yea no. I get in the LINE for that part of the process ONLY to find out they're OUT of Medium, small, and Large shirts. WOW. I put down specifically on my form when i payed MY $90! How in the world do you run out of shirts? Unacceptable. I took an XS shirt and gave it to Courtney. We then walked the expo and left. Dissapointed.

The next day I raced and actually enjoyed the race aspect quite a bit! A great course w/ excellent course support. The finish line was great and the medals were high quality. I grab my finisher shirt and get out of the finish area. I was impressed w/ the finish line food, etc. Later I do find out that the finishers for the full mary got tech shirts. While thats understandable I dont see why we got "organic" cotton shirts after dishing out $90. Something i'd like to see in the future is either a cheaper race, or more quality.

I WILL NOT, be paying for that race for awhile. Someday I will be back to try it again and see if its going in the other direction... Up.

Whoo. Done with that :) In other news I did NOT make it into the Double Iron :( So I have replaced the race w/ a 100K trail run up in Oregon. In order to register for that one I have to have at least run a 50K. So I'm going to do the Hogs Hunt 50K in Huntsville, Tx. (see 2009 calendar on the right) I'm excited to really push the limits this season.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll check back in soon, hopefully before Cowtown next weekend!

Included are some pictures from the Austin half marathon.

_Jacob_

NEW Half Mary PR!!

3M went well! I set a new PR of 1:21:24 which turns out to a 6:13 avg. pace. Not too shabby but not exactly what I wanted. I think for where my fitness level is right now and the training i've been doing that was the best I could ask for! Ended up 74th Overall and 10th Age group. That race is SO competitive its great :)

This weeks workouts have been awesome! We had an ice storm here in the DFW metroplex and it was pretty bad for us! They canceled classes Tuesday AND Wednesday! I did have to ride the trainer inside but it was enjoyable. I found a few good movies and ended up watching American Gangster which was phenominal. Believe or not I also swam 3X totalling 8700 yards. Its the first week where I've really noticed my fitness coming back and its great. Today I rode for an hour and half and followed it by a four mile run at a relaxed pace. The relaxed pace was 7:06, so thats great to see.

Its now two weeks till the Austin Half marathon. I'm just going to keep building up and will set a goal for that race the closer it gets. As of right now I'd like to go 1:25 or better. Nothing too fast but definitly get some good speed in. Two weeks following that race is the Cowtown half, which I'd really like to dominate.

With that said I've gotta get some homework done and make some coffee :) Hope everyone is doing well and training hard!

_Jacob_