Monday, September 28, 2009

Oh running, why do I ever give you up?

After a long day on Saturday officiating the Manawa Mountain bike Mayhem race, I got up early to visit the parents house and have a big family breakfast since my little brother was in town. Apparently though, no one was up and ready yet. My dad was, I guess. He went to the store to pick up food stuffs, and my mom was just waking up with coffee and the paper. Apparently, my little bro stayed up way late and drank joyously with his high school reunion attendees. But, the plan was to get up and go running around Standing Bear lake at 10am. So Clark, my little brother, got up by 9am and we both loaded up on some delicious breakfast, compliments of our great dad.

After not completely finishing our blueberry pancakes and sausage, we jetted out to Standing Bear. Clark, himself a frequent runner, had 3 other friends coming, only 1 of which ran with any consistency compared to the rest of us. So he and his running friend took off while the other 2 and I ran/walked and talked. Which was awesome! I'd forgotten about the "runner's high" that comes with pounding the pavement with your feet. I felt pretty good throughout the whole 3-4 miles (not sure about the new trail distance), but the occasional walking helped that issue I'm sure. Now I'm reinvigorated with the option of running!

I think, at first, I'll designate Mondays and Fridays as running after work days. That way I can start and end the week with some great exercise. It's fall now, and the weather's just going to get colder from here on out. Some people like to run since it's way easier to spend a half hour to an hour outside keeping warm while running compared to a few hours freezing your toes/fingers off while riding a bike. So the Shabbos (+1) rides might turn into runs eventually. Some of you might know my abhorrence of indoor training, so that will be reserved for when I get convinced (conned?) into joining a few people to do that while watching race dvds.

Going back to the Manawa Race, I really want to thank Rusty (forgot his last name) from the Velo Veloce team. He made the race run smooth for results and such. While I was busy taking down numbers and times, he would fill in the many sheets of the different races with the times I wrote down. So by the end of the race, he'd get the last few timings, plop them in the right slots, and we could post the results right away. My last mtb race, I didn't have someone doing that, so after each race was over, I'd have to fill in the blanks myself, while still keeping tabs on the Marathoners and answering questions, and starting the next races, and so on and so forth. I felt so bad holding things up at that race, but didn't even think of this method that Rusty had created. He was a real trooper even though he was going cross eyed toward the end with all the numbers he had to sort through. I also want to thank all the other people with Psycowpath and Velo Veloce for hosting a great event. I'm glad we could work together well to put on a timely, accurate event for the riders in attendance. It was a great day!

8 comments:

Cornbread said...

Thanks for the great work at Manawa. That went very smooth. That's the quickest I've ever seen results posted!

munsoned said...

I think we need to call it, "The Rusty Method," and use it at every mtb/cross event.

brady said...

Why not try running home from work once or twice a week? You'd get your 3-4 miles in & get (runner's) high while knocking out a leg of a commute.

Post run munchies are guilt/paranoid free

munsoned said...

Brady, would I then run back to work in the morning? That sounds like a lot of running to me. Besides, I just got done running through Elmwood and it was quite nice whereas the run to work would not be so fun. Plus I'd have to leave way early, take a shower, etc, etc. On a bike, I sweat just a little bit, so I can get away without needing a shower. I basically wake up an hour before my shift starts which leaves me just enough time to eat breakfast, ride there, change, and sit down at the desk. I admire your ability to run to work, but I may save that till it's real snowy out, just to make if fun to run.

brady said...

I rarely run to work. And contrary to popular opinion, I have not swum to work for that matter either. Not yet at least.

Here's what you do: take the bus to work. Work. Change. Run home. Shower. Eat. Sleep. Wake next day. Ride to work!

munsoned said...

Ah, I see. That makes sense. But then I'd have to have money on me. I always mean to have some dollars on me, by I never do. This is a bad habit as I would see the money physically leaving me if I actually used cash most the time. That practice might curb my frivolous spending.

brady said...

Using a bus pass precludes you from having to scrounge for change when you're hurrying out the door to catch the bus.

My employer offers discounted 10 ride and 40 day unlimited passes through a pre-tax payroll deduction. Passes are received through the mail.

If your employer doesn't offer them, here's MAT's list of retailers selling bus passes.

Two 10 ride passes per month works well for me.

Chris G. said...

So, when you run to work, do you wear a backpack with your work clothes in it?