Author: Don Draper

  • The Budget Tacky Light Run

    With two rain delays behind us, the budget friendly Tacky Light Run was finally a go. It was NOT 72 and sunny.

    YHC, the expert route maker, got us lost just once – where we navigated to the darkest cul de sac in the neighborhood. Nonetheless, we trudged on and ended with just over 5 miles of glorious fun. 

    Unfortunately, along the way, many of the neighborhood light-gluttons failed us by turning off their artwork. It may be something about 5:30 am and thousands of lumens beaming into your neighbors windows that doesn’t enhance the holiday spirit. 

    Next year we’ll get back to an evening fun run where we can soak up the LEDs and curse at distracted passersby.  

    Happy Holidays, 

    Your sleep deprived has-been expert route maker , DD

  • Running & Mumblechatter

    5 elite runners took to the pavement with an out&back route on Coalfield. With a easy and route, all energy went to planning the next great CSAUP.

    Option 1: Teams of 3 gather for a run & bike relay from Williamsburg to Richmond on the Capital Trail (50 miles)

    Option 2: Teams of 5 gather for a run & bike relay up Skyline Drive (120 miles)

    Option 3: Something similar but more stupid, like 500 miles stupid.

    We agreed to do them all, in order. So… who else is up for the challenge?

  • Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’

    And we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

    Two Friday warriors gathered to keep Twin Team alive for one more week. Here’s what went down…

    We ran 4.5 miles.

    Fin.

  • Hills & Abs

    Splintervals we’re on the agenda but YHCs headlamp was on the fritz so we kept it easy with the roller coaster route + abs. 

    • Salisbury Drive to Oak Lane to my Pisgah Drive + 50 WW2s
    • Frogger across Rte 60
    • Grove Hill Road down Mt. Midlo all the way to Coalfield Road + 50 WW2s 
    • Reverso back down Grove Hill Road + 50 WW2s at the top of Mt Midlo 

    Circle back for the six and then head to Numberama, Nameroma & COT with the SOT folks. 

  • CSAUP Homegrown Half & 10K

    “I want to punch you in the face”

    “I’m glad it’s over”

    “Let’s not do that again”

    Sounds like success!

    Half Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3112796937793176008

    10K Route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3116918211220378194

  • The 1st & Last MOT Hot Potato

    Lots of mublechatter in slack but no one grabbed the Q so Rosie and YHC combined the worst of our grabbag of ideas and hit the pavement. It went something like this:

    1-mile warmup (Left on Midlo Turnpike, Left on Coalfield, Left on Woolridge, Left on Grove Hill) – Circle up at the bottom of Mt. Midlo.

    1 hard pace trip up Mt. Midlo, recover jog down to the Midlo Middle track.

    1 x Magic Mile – (A prediction formula based upon a one mile time trial… You can run a measured mile at a good, hard pace for you, and use the time to predict what you could run at longer distances.)

    Recover back to the bottom of Mt. Midlo.

    2.5 more trips up Mt. Midlo to finish out the workout.

    Circle up to close out with the SOT crew.

    —

    It was great to have a 10-man crowd out for some miles this morning and a heck of a workout. Thanks for pushing it this morning gents!

  • Downhill

    We found a flat, slightly downhill route.

    Coalfield.

    Unfortunately we had to come back uphill.

    That was less fun.

  • MOT Potato

    10 fine gentlemen showed up to do something no man has ever done before. Unfortunately, they couldn’t figure out what that was so 6 decided to hot potato a bootcamp and the other 4 decided this was a fine week to launch the new MOT (Miles of Truth) run club.

    The bootcampers came back looking sweaty so they were probably spritzing some water on their faces from the middle school water fountains.

    The runners did a 1.5 mile warm up, a few cadence drills on the track, then launched into the Magic Mile and a few 400 repeats.

    Fun times were had by all.

  • The Soft Launch

    With one week to go before the official launch of MOT, several of us got out to do a thing to celebrate YHCs bday. With a 5am launch and a commitment to 41 laps around the Midlo Middle track, what could go wrong? Somehow distances ranged from 1 mile to 11 and our pace dropped below 7:30 for a bit.  Nonetheless, it was a fantastic morning for a run. Special thanks to McRib and the SOT pax for all the birthday love as we circled the track. Man it feels good to be 41! 

  • MOT Takeover (2 weeks early)

    I tried to make this sound clever, but that just feels like a waste of time, so here’s what happened. Six runners showed up to SOT and there were zero bootcampers… so the entire crew ran. Way to go runners! We did the halfpipe down Mt Midlo to Coalfield and back and added the Little Caesar’s loop for the 4.25ers. The 5 milers lapped the school and track.

    Counterama, Namerama, COT

    It seems fitting that in two week we’ll be kicking off MOT (Miles Of Truth) – SOJ’s first running AO. Same day, time and location as SOT (Wed, 5:30 @ Midlo Middle). Can’t wait to see many of you out there!