Capital 10K and Bunny Chasing

Greetings one and all! Life has been fairly busy for me lately so I apologize for having not blogged anything in quite some time.

The Capital 10,000 was the last Sunday in March and a race that I had never ran before. It was pretty much as crazy and goofy as I had heard. Most of you will be surprised to learn that I passed up the offer of free Krispy Kreme doughnuts along the route. I had set a goal to beat 45 minutes in this race and am happy to report that I did! I finished at 43:54 which I was pretty impressed with. The entire week prior I had been in San Antonio and had only managed getting on an elliptical twice so I was a little worried I'd be stiff. But the weather was great and the crowds were awesome. Who doesn't love hearing the Rocky theme?

After the Cap 10 I have decided to really focus on the Texas Round Up at the end of April. So last night while I was running past the local ACC campus, I passed two folks chasing their pet rabbit around the parking lot. I am not entirely sure how this bunny came to escape from the truck or any of the back story but decided that asking questions would probably not bring me any answers I wanted to hear. I just new that I did not want to run back by the parking lot and see that the bunny had been hit by a car. So after about 10 minutes of unforeseen sprints, the charcoal grey bunny was captured and back with his owners. Roadkill avoided.

OK, I am writing this from one of the hallways in the Austin Convention Center as I am attending the National Hurricane Conference this week and I think I should probably start getting ready to go to my next session. Have fun and see you next time! -Tanner

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.

What are we going to do tonight, Brain?

As I look out the window of my office today I can see that the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky and that the wind is blowing a bit. Of course, all it does is remind me that I am stuck in my office for the next two hours or so. My leg seems to have healed enough that I can do a little running on it. Wednesday I ran with my group and was able to do the drills, though not at full speed, but was able to do them. It is really amazing how much of a relief it is to be able to run again.

As I am sure that you have noticed, true ideas of discussion have been limited here. It was my original goal to just have a blog to get people to start enjoying running more and spread the joy. (Yes, I know that was way too cheesy.) But, I think that the majority of us like it when someone throughout the course of the day takes the time to acknowledge us. Why not try to be that person for someone else?

And whereas I did not really want this to become another technical running blog, nor a political blog of any sorts, perhaps I could start sharing some routes and drills that I have found or been shown. It might venture slightly into the technical world, but hey, I am in need of material here! Also, please share any of your routes, drills or tips in the comments. Thanks!

Out of the Game...Temporarily

Once I decided to make a much more concerted effort to stay on top of the blog game a bit more, it would only make sense that I get an injury and am taken off of the running path for a bit. Not entirely sure what is going on, my my IT band/hip are rather sore and my knee has decided that it wants admission to the pity party as well. If things do not start feeling better over the weekend I will probably start looking for professional opinions on the happenings.

The biggest problem that I find when I am unable to is my diet. I love to eat. And when I am running a lot I can get away with eating more and also tend to crave primarily healthy food. However, when reduced to a more sedentary life, my old culinary cravings surface. Namely anything served on a value menu or off of a rotisserie at the local 7-11. Am I alone in this or are there other active people out there that have similar issues? Perhaps it is that when I am moving about a lot I crave the foods that allow me to keep that energy level, but when I am down for the count, I crave those incredibly rich foods that leave you in a coma for several hours after eating them. Oh well. Love to hear your thoughts.

I'm a hypocrite!

This post is primarily a confessional. Between work and life (read laziness) it has been quite sometime since my last entry. I will try to be a little better about this in the future as this is a blog that I am truly interested in cultivated and seeing grow; you know, t-shirts and groups. :)

One confession down, one to go. I must admit that I became one of the non-friendly, unwaving folks on the hike and bike trail a couple of weeks ago. I was down there to do a three mile time trial for a running class that I am in. During the three miles, I was so intent on posting the best time that I could that I merely responded to the other folks on the trail as objects to be navigated. Here is the part where I would normally give justifications for my failing to wave and be friendly, but no. I started this blog to try to get people to be different than that, and I completely failed to follow my own advice. So all I can do is promise to try to do better in the future.

OK, time to head outta here for now. Check back frequently as I promise to better on this. Cheers! -Tanner

PS I'll try to add some photos and other formatting stuff soon.