Volte Endurance

"You Will Decide On A Matter... It Shall Be Established For You... And Light Will Shine On Your Ways." JOB 22:28


It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a post on my blog. Facebook is quick, easy and fun and has effectively killed my blog for quite a while.

At this morning’s group long run Rich Cooper and I decided that it was time to fire our blogs up as we (and many other very, very good friends) start a new chapter in our lives.

Over the last few years my small Wednesday Night Track group has grown and this past October I formalized it into Volte Endurance Training. We are mostly runners but do have a growing Triathlon group with three finishers in the recent Ironman Texas. We have had many other successes from 5K to 50K and going forward I will document our journey on this blog.

Our name “Volte” is derived from the running equation, "VO2 (max) plus LT (lactate threshold) plus E (economy).

Our mission is to display Christian values, maintain high standards of excellence, promote integrity, respect the fundamental rights, dignity and worth of all participants, apply and make public our knowledge of sport in order to contribute to the community and encourage all individuals, training groups and clubs.

The goal in short is to have a smart program, have fun, and be a very good citizen in the community. Our priorities: Faith, Family, our Professional lives, and then sport (running/triathlon/etc) is fourth at best.

Over the first eight months we have been a program that has only coached on an individual basis but coming this July we’ll be adding group programs targeting 10 for Texas, Houston Marathon and Half Marathon and The Woodlands Marathon and Half Marathon. This will compliment what we are already doing on an individual basis.

Our “Individual” coaches Juliee Sparks, Adrienne Langelier & Traci Jackson are all first class.........

Traci Jackson, Juliee Sparks, Bill Dwyer, Adrienne Langelier





Rich Cooper





............as is Rich Cooper who will be leading the group training effort.  





Tammy Ninke



Allison Urvan









and........we’ll be adding a couple more coaches soon so stay tuned (a couple hints pictured....)

Our core group of athletes (runners from our original Wednesday night group) are amazing and are helping in many ways to make this program a reality. Since October we have added many new people who all have been equally awesome. In the coming weeks I’ll write about each member of our group.

Sorry…Coach Bill’s “Spotlight” is coming for everyone :)  

THANK-YOU EVERYONE for making all this possible.

Dusting Off

Time to dust off the blog.

Marathon History

Hopefully I can get this blog going again. Let’s start with a quick post on my current and on going history project.

I’ve been working on gathering information on the history of The Woodlands Marathon 1979-1992 for the new version of the events website and race program.

Special thanks to Jon Walk for writing the piece, from incomplete information, that many will see in the coming weeks. He’s done a masterful job tying the original event to the new event.

I’ll continue the research until complete, but it’ll be after this years race before I’m done as it’ll involve some time at the Montgomery County Library for old newspaper records.

Wednesday Night Track

I love it when everyone has a good workout on the same night. The weather seemed a bit cooler (might be my imagination), coach Juliee made her debut, the workout was 400 repeats…up to 12 at LT pace, everyone worked them together, it was beautiful to watch.

Good company at Stadia after….even tried the healthy menu Adrienne style.

Recap of the highlights - 6/25 – 7/2

I was unplugged for a while with my computers “power supply” burning out.

Saturday early morning – Organized the TWRC group long run. We started from Barbara Bush Elementary a couple hours before the scheduled 5K. I tagged along (on my bike) with Melissa Poole for an hour.

Sunday morning - Berk Clare 5K – I am reminded that we have an awesome running community and that mankind must be at least 99.9% good…no mater what you see reported. The event raised $10,000.00 for Berk and his family.



Saturday afternoon – Attended Jeff Galloway’s seminar and training program kick-off at the Creekside YMCA. While I’m not involved with the new area training program I do enjoy hearing Jeff Galloway speak and respect his passion for running.



Sunday morning – Drove to Sugar Land to watch Adrienne Langelier complete her first triathlon. Hung out with the Henthorns, cheered for everyone I knew, and Adrienne rocked her debut triathlon winning her age group.



Sunday afternoon – Attended the TWRC membership kick-off at Terramont Park. We have a new club member, one of my good friends from 20-years ago, Bruce Rose. We used to call our training group (late 80’s early 90’s) the “Killer B’s”. (Bill H. (2:34 marathon), Bill D. (3:08 marathon), Bruce (2:50 marathon), Bucky (2:55 marathon). We had a lot of fun and ran some fast races.

Tuesday Track (Spring) – One of my runners took advantage of my Tuesday option in Spring and nailed his workout. Fun to watch. After a long workday Monday and Tuesday I just walked and jogged, might have covered 2-miles. The rest of the work week will be super busy so running will be on the back burner most of this week.

Wednesday Track Group – I LOVE Wednesday…everyone is really starting to get into the training pattern I’ve set up. Lot’s of good work going on. It’ll be a fun fall.

Saturday – TWRC long run – Starbucks/Sterling Ridge. I had a 4-mile, 6-mile, and 10-mile set up. Most did the 6 or 10 mile routes. I cruised around on my bike in an attempt to see everyone during the run. Missed a few, but did see most. The best part of Saturday is the conversations after.

While I enjoyed a lot of positives this past week, I was reminded of how fragile our lives are. I’ve been keeping a good friend and her family in my prayers after the loss of her husband a few weeks ago. I learned of another sudden loss for another good friend and a sudden hospitalization of another this week. Now keeping them all in my prayers.

"Race" Report

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post…Facebook has been killing my blog. I love Facebook and use it daily. It’s become a great tool for doing the running clubs newsletter as it makes it easy to keep up with who is running where, and can even gather pictures from some of these events.

What I’ve done in the process is not allow myself any time to keep my blog going. My new plan is to set aside at least 1-day a week to keep the blog going. My last real post was December 2009. Wow does time fly.

Not a lot has changed since then. I’m still very active in The Woodlands Running Club, still volunteer quite a bit, coach runners, and have false start after false start with my own training.

Something happened a couple months ago. I can’t tell you why it happened…it just did. I was at my local track in Spring and after a typical poor workout (poor in the sense that I used to jog laps at a 7:00 pace, and run mile repeats under 6:00) I was at peace with my walk/slow jog effort. I didn’t beat myself up, (typically followed by 2-3 weeks of no activity). I was glad to be alive, to be at the track, and working out…at whatever pace.

The last few months have been pretty busy but I’ve managed to find the time 2-3 times per week to make my way to the track and get in a few miles, still mostly walking with an occasional 100-200 yard jog. It’s coming along slow….but it’s coming along and that’s more than it’s been.

All this has led up to my first “race” finish in a little over three years. Saturday, June 18th Adrienne Langelier, Jon Walk and I travelled to Brewton, Alabama to support a fundraiser for the W.S.Neal High School Track Team. You can read about the great work Rebecca Massie and Adrienne combined for here and here.

Rebecca could have used a sundial to time me. I didn’t wear a watch, didn’t look at the finish clock. I walked probably 90% of the 5K (9-hours in a back seat of a midsize car is hell on the legs) and didn’t care. I had fun, I have a finish, and I have something other than a DNS to build on.


Life is good!

Finished a Race

Actually finished a 5K this past weekend! It's been a little over 3-years since the last "official" event. I'll post more later.

It's time.......

It’s time to resurrect the blog.

Tuesday Night Track

Chris Arthey, a former sub 3 hour marathoner who lost a leg in a terrible accident 1-1/2 years ago, came to our track workout last night to begin working out with his new prosthetic running leg. He logged about 1000 meters total…it was the most inspiring 1000 meters I have ever seen.