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New Year, New Sam

New Year, New Sam: My Running Resolution

Happy 2017! I hope you all had a great NYE and brought in the new year with as much enthusiasm as my friends and I did! Looking back at 2016, it wasn’t my biggest running year nor was it my biggest personal year. I did, however, qualify for Marathon Maniacs and ran my first race as a member in November. I’ve even encouraged one of my best friends to join the Maniacs with me and have apparently…

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2 Marathons in 2 Weeks

How Marathon Maniacs has completed distorted my reality on the difficulty of marathoning..

Being part of Marathon Maniacs has severely sewed my reality of what should and should not be easily humanly possible. One of the lowest criteria to join the club is 2 marathons within 16 days, so how hard could this actually be? December 4th would be the day that I answered that question for myself. The Rock N Roll San Antonio trip was relatively last minute. I’m planning on doing Dallas in…

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Route 66 Recap: Hills Hurt

Route 66 Recap: Hills Hurt

Get your kicks on Route 66? More like get your but kicked by every hill in Tulsa! This marathon was a tough one, and my lack of training was more evident than ever! Since, per usual, I struggled to keep ya’ll updated, here’s a brief recap. Training started in July and was going great until a got hit by a bus called a “peritonsillar abscess” in September. After about 2 weeks of undiagnosed strep…

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The Day You Realize You're No Longer A Track Runner

Track was life back in the day. But I'm no longer a track runner, and it shows.

For 6 years of my life, track was everything. It’s the one sport that you loved to hate. You could be in the best shape of your life and still get your ass kicked by a tough workout. But those ass-kicking workouts only fueled the fire. Your mind would push your body until it could go no further, and it would always surprise you how far that actually was. Now, to clarify, I was no all-star runner.…

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Week 3: Easy on the Long Run, Hard on the Speed Work

A little late on the post but feeling really great about our first step-back week.

We’re at our first step-back week. It’s a wonderful time for recovery and a shift in focus. We’re going to be hitting our speed workouts a little hard this week and taking some time to enjoy our long runs. The Yasso repeats and the tempo run are going to be major focuses while the rest of the week is going to be all about recovery.   Week 3 Training: This is a good week to start pushing during…

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The Heat Dome: Where Runs Go to Die

The Heat Dome: Where Runs Go to Die

I’m by no means a summer runner. I dread running in anything above 75°F. You give me a day below freezing and I’m perfectly content throwing down a run in just spandex and a long sleeve shirt. You add some heat and humidity, and I’m probably going to have a bad run. So needless to say, this “heat dome” that all the weathermen are talking about is really cramping my training. Several times last…

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Week 2: Active Recovery

Week 2: Active Recovery

Happy Monday! With week 2 knocked out, it’s time for another weekly workout. I’ll post more about my thoughts on week 1 in the next day or so, but I thought it was important to throw out the plan for week 2. I myself had a pretty easy start to week 1, but hit some snags on the long run when trying to brave the heat. Leigh was quite the opposite with bearing the heat on the shorter workouts but…

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Week 1: Start Slow, Build Later

Week 1: Start Slow, Build Later

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I know I did! Leigh came to visit, so we spent all kinds of time together. From our Friday night shenanigans to lots of kayaking at Kickapoo with Dan and Matt on Saturday to a lazy Sunday with a large breakfast at Perkins, we lived it up. I just purchased 2 awesome kayaks that the 2 of us will be using quite often for weekend adventures in the…

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Leigh & Sam Take on Tulsa

We’re going to Tulsa! It’s been 3 years since I ran my first Williams Route 66 Marathon, and I’ve been dying to get back. It’s a huge race for Fanatics and Maniacs, and it only seemed right to make my way back after qualifying for both this past year. This time, though, I’m bringing my partner in crime. Meet Leigh! I like to call Leigh my “Ride or Die”. She’s always down for whatever. When I…

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R&R: It's a Love/Hate Thing

R&R. Rest & Relaxation. A necessary evil for every runner. But what could be so evil about a little R&R? You go for short runs and try to cross-train. You don’t push your limits nearly every day of the week like you do during training. It’s a time to give your body a break from the long runs and intense tempos and pace runs. How could a little break become such a negative time for a runner? It’s…

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New Races, New Places, New Faces

New Races, New Places, New Faces

Last April, I signed up for my 4th Illinois Marathon weekend on a whim. After almost a year hiatus from running due to a foot injury and a failed attempt at joining Marathon Maniacs, I thought I was over the whole marathon thing. Registration closed, and I would be missing my first Illinois Marathon since my freshmen year of college. Then, as if by fate, I received the email that they would be…

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Mag Mile Half - Why 13.1 Miles Deserves More than a Necklace

Mag Mile Half – Why 13.1 Miles Deserves More than a Necklace

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. I run for the medals. (And the pride and all that other junk, but for the sake of this post, just medals.) I want the big and chunky medals that start to hurt your neck if you wear them to long. The medals that look absolutely ridiculous in public. The medals that you can only wear within a small radius of your race location for a short amount of time…

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Mahomet Half Marathon: My First Race in the Half Fanatic Asylum

Mahomet Half Marathon: My First Race in the Half Fanatic Asylum

As soon as I made it into the Asylum, I was on to the next challenge. Uranus level. 6 races in 6 calendar months. That meant I needed an August race. In a hurry to find an event, I signed up for the Mahomet Half Marathon. About 15 minutes from home, this seemed like a relatively easy race weekend to plan out. And it also supported a local youth club, which just made it feel worth the money I…

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A Rockin' Weekend in the Making

A Rockin’ Weekend in the Making

Happy Friday! I always promise posts, but never seem to find the time to deliver, so I wanted to get a quick one in before this very exciting weekend I have coming up! July has been jam-packed with new adventures. I went live at Wolfram on July 1st, meaning I am now an adult with an adult job that comes with adult responsibilities. Woo! This also means that I have had to start making adult…

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2015 Illinois Half Marathon: The Half that Started a Whole New Journey

Would it really be a post from me if it was posted on time? After a long absence, I am back and ready to blog. I’ve graduated.  Started a full-time career. And I find myself looking for more and more things to keep me busy in my off-time. Blogging seems like a good way to do that. That being said, it’s been almost 2 months since I participated in my 4th Illinois Marathon Weekend, so I figured it…

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New shoes. New home. New motivation. #marathonmania

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I could get used to Washington running. #washington #marathonmania #nature (at Marymoor Park)