Austin in the Spring

Obviously I am getting a little excited about the warmer weather and the longer days. My running group met yesterday afternoon near downtown. As I was driving there, with the windows rolled down; I heard the sounds of bands playing for SXSW, watched the people running about downtown for work and the music and just basked in the sun. Sadly, I do not believe that I will be doing anything for SXSW, but it is fun to see the activity it brings to Austin each year. After the run, I was able to slip on my birkenstocks for the first time this year! There really is no point to this entry other than to say the weather is great right now! So go out and enjoy it. Feel free to share your stories. Peace, Tanner

Oh blessed day light saving time!

We have had a week of longer days now. And from keeping my ear to the grapevine and the barrage of Facebook status updates I am guessing that not everyone is as stoked about this as I am. For me, I love that I can now go practice golf for an hour or so after work and still make it home with time to go for a good run. I know that some people are a little irked with having to drive to work in the dark; but I say it is a small price to pay. Besides, it will be light in the morning soon enough! Go out and soak up the sun!

Make love, not war.

There are a lot of reasons why people do not live the healthiest of lifestyles. But once someone makes an attempt to change some of those habits there are just as many reasons why they may chose to abandon ship and go back to their old routine. The overall goal of this blog is to help eradicate one of those reasons:

RUNNERS AND HEALTH NUTS ARE JERKS! At least a good percentage of them are.

I think we all lose perspective once we go down one path or another. I love to run. And I run farther and faster than is necessary to stay in shape. I am training to race. Sometimes I will look at other people in a running group and ask myself, “Why aren’t they pushing themselves harder?” Then I have to remember that they probably do not have the same goals as me.

As I stated in an earlier post, I still crave the horrible fast food and other junk like that from time to time, but more often than not can talk myself out of it. Yet, I still find myself being judgmental of the people that don’t eat as healthy as me. “Do they know what they are doing to their bodies?” That is the same question people asked me when I was a smoker. And it annoyed me to no end then. Yes, I was well aware of what I was doing to my body.

Most of the readers of this blog are probably on the healthier side of things in terms of lifestyles, so I don’t feel as if I really need to offer an olive branch to motivate someone to be healthier. But I do feel I should make a challenge to you all to try and make the world of physical activity and berry munching to be a more accepting one. Say “hi!” to someone on the trail, offer help and be friendly in the weight room. And if you see someone be a jerk or an elitist, call them out on it. It is an intimidating world to enter, especially if you have never been to it before.

I realize that this probably comes of as a little too much of a hippie love fest thing, but I’m from Austin so I say it’s fine.