My Favorite Photographer

I joke that she is my "personal photographer," but really the world at large needs to know about her work.  Linsdey Rowland aka @lindseydoesthis (on twitter) took these shots of me riding at Tobey Park (on a Bulldog Skates Quad 12) and The Wolf River Greenway (on my Distance Board) in Memphis.  She should be doing this for a living.

Click on the pictures to see larger images.

Skate Clinic and Shout Outs

Week one of the Tobey Skate Kids "How to Skate Clinic" was this past Saturday.  What a blast.  We had a good group of kids ready to learn to shred.  I got to teach them how to drop in and when everybody dropped in for the first time I was completely stoked for them.  Giving back to the community feels so good.  I wish I would have started a long time ago.  Live and learn, I suppose.

Now, I won't post pictures of children in a public forum so you won't get to see any pics from the clinic.  I wouldn't feel comfortable finding pics I didn't know about of my son on some dude's blog so I'm extending that courtesy here.  But, here are the teachers:

The exception to my rule...Hannah Shipley (that's her kid so I have permission)

Greg Simmons. DSL founder and O.G. Mempho skater

Aaron "Shaf Run" Shafer. Surfer and all around cool guy

Kris Gurley...I don't have a current pic of him...help me out Kris!  Here is his new Fickle Deck

Chris Ulander.  He is cooler than you.  Accept it.

Me riding a pool cue.

Shout outs:

Two people I know are now riding Fickle Skate Decks. They love 'em.

Shout out to my photographer, Lindsey, who set a new personal best distance skating today.  Keep it up! I'm stoked for you.

Congrats to DSL member Joseph Finney who got second place at the Nashvegas Slide Jam this weekend.

Shout out to Cheapskates.  Ron's Shop will turn 27 next month.  That is a lot of Memphis Skate History!

greenskate.org & my 26.2 mile ride

I started thinking about the date I'd chosen to do a 26.2 mile push ride, and how it coincided with Earth Day (which is actually the 22nd).  Then, I saw a tweet from Greenskate.org about different events that have been set up to promote longboarding as a source of alternative transportation.

Well, why not set up the 26.2 mile ride as an event?  Indeed.

So, I did.  Here is a link to the event page at greenskate.org

This isn't much of a formal event, I'll admit.  But, I will be doing 26.2 miles that day and anyone (adult or kids with guardians riding...I'm not responsible here) who wants to join in at some point can. You can ride with me for a mile or two, whatever you'd like.  It would be fun to have the company.  Otherwise, it'll just be me.

I decided to stick with the Greenline here in Memphis for the ride.  The Greenline is a 6.7 mile trail through the heart of Memphis, TN.  I'll then ride up to Patriot Lake at Shelby Farms (which will make it over 7 miles).  I'll skate around the lake (another mile) and head back along the greenline.  I'll complete the greenline (over 16 miles) and head out again.

I'll be taking some time off from the greenline to skate other areas along the MS River and the Wolf River Greenway as well as exploring other areas of Shelby Farms.  I'll keep you updated.

Also look for some posts on our "Learn to Skate Clinics" through Skatelife Memphis.

Going the Distance

Here is a link to a video I made, "Going the Distance," about training for and racing my first 1/2 marathon.

Click here to go to youtube

Hope you like it!

What next?

26.2, of course.

I skated 16 this morning in a little under an hour and a half.  I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that with two bad ankles I'll never be able to push like a demon and set any world's records.  However, for a guy who could barely walk in November and December (two very bad ankle sprains), I feel great about my time at the 1/2 marathon (just 3 months later) and I'm stoked that I did 16 miles this morning just two days removed from the race.  I skated the greenline to Shelby Farms, around Patriot Lake and back down the greenline.  Felt tired around mile 8 and 9 as always, but pushed through and hit my second wind for the last 6 miles. 

My plan is to do 26.2 on April 20th at a TBD Location.

My training?

One long ride per week when I will push myself a little further each time until I am ready to hit my 26.2 mile goal.  I'll do other skating besides that (of course), but after the 1/2 marathon training I'm ready to just enjoy myself and not be so defined by a schedule.  I haven't figured out a time goal yet, but I'm sure it will be somewhere in the 2 hour range.

Next on my list is to figure out what kind of deck I want to start riding.  I made my little cutoff pintail deck because I was interested in pumping.  However, I find that I pump less and less so I guess I need an effecient pushing board.  So...I'm going to try and figure this out. So many opinions out there.  What kind of deck should I be riding?

1/2 Marathon Complete!

Fun push race this morning, and great mini ramp session with my kiddo this afternoon.

Aaron Shafer beat me in the old man division (damn his long legs), but it was great.  I rode my race, and could've done another 13 miles.  In fact, starting Monday training for a 26.2 mile ride will begin.  I'll let you know the day, time and place that I'm going to ride the full marathon "officially."  I'm thinking of doing it on the new trails in Little Rock.  It won't be a race situation.  As I've said before, I race myself not other people.  Skateboarding isn't a contest.  Skateboarding is personal expression and fitness for me.  I'm there to enjoy myself above and beyond anything.

Monday I'm going to start working on my push technique.  Watching Darrian Balongie (the overall winner) I saw what good push technique should look like.  Oh, my time for the 13 mile course was 57:57 just over two minutes faster than I wanted to do it in.  I skated exactly the pace I had in mind, and every time I made 1/2 lap I sang out loud to Edward Pidgeon who was watching us go through.  I knew as long as I could sing (which I do on my training rides) I was riding my perfect pace.  I didn't want to hit the 9 mile wall with no energy.  As it turned out, I had more than enough energy, and got to skate Lindsey's new mini ramp for a while as she and Jackson hung out and ate grapes and strawberries (he took a few playtime running non-skating runs)...he's four by the way.

Now?  We're heading outside to play some baseball.  I'll see y'all next week when 26 mile training begins!!!

Race Week is Here!

Finally, everything comes together this week!  All the miles skating.  All the debate on which wheels to ride.  It all finishes up this week.  The Half Marathon is this Saturday!!!

Here's a look at the weather (I may be riding my rain wheels):

The forecast

I found this on skatefurther.com and was stoked.  Check the ages (inspiration for older skaters).

From the Adrenalina, Plano.

I took a ride this morning.  Did 11 miles in 49 minutes which is my best time yet.  Tomorrow I will do another training skate then it is three full days off before the race.

I do want to stress that I don't care where I place.  As I've said before, I only race myself.  That is one thing that has made skateboarding so great, the lack of competition.  I don't want that to change no matter what kind of skating I'm doing.  I do, however, want to do the best I possibly can.

Anyway, this is it until Saturday night (when I'll let you know my time).  The course has all kinds of turns so it will be interesting to see how that effects times overall.  And, of course, after that I'll begin training for my 26.2 push ride in May.  Yep, I'm addicted to "Going the Distance."

1/2 Marathon Hell Week: Thurs.

Okay.  Today was going to be my "big ride" day.  I was going to skate 20 miles at a medium fast pace which would be my longest ride of the four (five including race week) weeks.  This was the last day to push myself before easing down to rest for a few days.

9 miles in at Shelby Farms

Well, I made it 10 miles.  I rode the Greenline then went up and around Shelby Farms for a while when all hell broke loose with the weather.  It stormed like a beast.  The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees.  I was skating through pockets of warm then cold air as the wind picked up so fast that it almost knocked me down.  Luckily, I made it back to the Visitors center where all of us temporarily stranded by wind and rain conditions waited out the storm and for rides back home.  And thankfully, Lindsey answered my texts and came by to scoop me up.  She got me back to my car so I could change clothes and get dry.

Ride ruining rain

Well, the one thing I did get to do on the ride was try out my Eastside Rain Wheels.  I can't recommend them enough after this first ride.  Riding these 70 mm center set wheels I could pump and push with confidence.  They didn't slip out at all.  Only my first time riding them, but I recommend them highly.  Eastside Longboards

1/2 Marathon Hell Week: Mon. & Tues.

***MONDAY***

Well, I went for it.  Using the free Runtastic app for android, I logged in 13.1 miles at Shelby Farms.  It took me a little over an hour (I'm not posting the exact time yet...I'm feeling superstitious about that for some reason). 

I love this app (Runtastic).  It tells me how fast I'm going, and uses my phone's gps to track where I have been, my overall pace and even when on the ride I've gone my fastest and slowest.  It is an amazing tool, and I think it will be indispensable as I continue distance skate training.  I did waste a little too much time fiddling with it on the ride, but it was my first time to ride with it for more than a mile so that is to be expected. It will be used for all of my distance rides from now on.

***TUESDAY***

Beautiful weather and my last day or two to skate transitions etc... before I have to take it more easy than I'd like to rest up for race week.  No need to get hurt the week or so before a race I've spent so much time training for.

I skated Tobey Park

I skated Al Town

I got my variable speed training in on the Greenline.

My legs are worn out, and my body is ready for a Wednesday off to heal.  The rest of this week will be challenge after challenge as I go into the four day rest going headed to race day.  Talk to y'all at the end of the week.

1/2 M Training at the End of Week Three

Thursday:

Thursday was not a good day.  The weather was beautiful...perfect, in fact. My body, however, wasn't down for the speed session.  I started having some odd discomfort in both my left foot and right groin.  I think it was from jumping into speed training without a proper warm up.  I did a few miles of fartlek training anyway, and decided I'd stop before I actually got hurt.

I've lost 10 pounds in the last three weeks.  I weighed 180 at the start of training.  I weigh 170 currently.

Friday:

Friday, I took it easy and scoped out some of Shelby Farms wondering exactly where the course might be for the 1/2.  Truthfully, I feel like I haven't done enough this week.  Next week I'm going to push myself much harder before I have to rest for a week.  I need to make sure I'm ready to skate 13 miles at a fast pace.