A Call for Body Glide

This is not a post for the faint of heart. Well, the ending at least.

For my long run this Saturday I decided to head over to One Texas Center at Barton Springs and South 1st and do a modified version of one of my favorite runs. I took off on South 1st, crossed Lady Bird Lake (it pains me to not say Town Lake) and up Colorado before weaseling my way over to Guadalupe. The goal for this run was to do 90 minutes, and as I had not done a true long run in quite some time, I was not exactly sure what to expect.

All in all I was feeling great. Made it down the drag and was headed north of campus. I even made it to Lamar with plenty of time to spare before turning back. At the 40 minute mark I hit 51st. I wasn’t quite sure of the ease in which I could find cross streets and such that would take me back to good southern bound routes after that so I decided I would just turn right onto 51st and make up the extra time on the hike and bike trail.

After hoping from Duval to Speedway, through campus and across the Capital grounds, I started to notice an annoying little sensation as I was running south down Congress. One of my nipples had begun to chafe a small amount, but not an insane amount; just enough to announce its presence. This was kind of odd as I had used Body Glide before my run. (For those wondering, Body Glide is a lubricant to reduce chaffing during running and comes in what looks like a deodorant stick.) So I go ahead and hang a right and jump onto the hike and bike trail at Congress and proceed onwards to the Pfluger Foot Bridge. As I am making my along the trail I start getting this weird sense that people are looking at me with an abnormal amount of curiosity. I know I am sweaty and certainly a little flushed in the face, but I am not wheezing for making any strange grunting noises so I am a tad perplexed. (Somewhere in the back of my mind I was certain it was just because they had never before seen running demonstrated in such a magnificent and graceful way. I like to live in a fantasy world. And yes, the unicorns do run beside me.)

Finally I made my way back to the parking lot of One Texas Center and after 90 minutes I had covered 11 miles. As I began to walk around a little to get my cool down in that I realized why everyone had been giving me perplexed looks; there, on the front of my shirt was a sweat diluted blood stain leading down from my right nipple. Lovely!



The moral of this story is to always use more Body Glide than you think is necessary. Or it just serves as yet another great thing to laugh at me about. I’ll let you all decide.

In the meantime, have fun, stay safe, run friendly, and wave; even to the guy with the bloody nipple. –Tanner

PS I have a strong sense that I was jumping from one verb tense to another throughout this. I am too lazy to go back and make the changes.

Couples Tri

I survived! Which is much more of an accomplishment than I had thought that it would be. I finished in 1:25:46 which beat my goal of 1:30 and I definitely learned more on what to expect in the future. It was a blast and I am definitely going to keep going!

The swim, as expected, was the most foreign event to me. I have swam in open water before and am not creeped out by murky water, but I had never done these things with several hundred of my best friends; that is where things became a little interesting. People had prepared me for the onslaught on bumps and kicks that were going to happen, so that was frustrating, but not frightening. What really started to make me bug out was that when I came up to get my bearings, I had to really strain to see over the other swimmers and it just took much longer to get a fix on where I needed to go. Finally by the last third of the swim I had settled down and got a good stride going. Hopefully the next race will be a little more smooth. [800m in 16:28]

The first transition was by far my longest. It was a pretty long jog up from the lake to the transition area. Once there I had to put on my shirt, dry my feet and pull on socks and shoes. I probably could have gone a tad more smoothly through it, but all in all, it wasn't too bad. [T1 in 3:27]

So off to the races Strawberry Shortcake and I were. Make no mistake, I was planning on getting creamed here. (And I did.) We got rolling and as expected all of those fancy, new, younger bikes just passed us up like nothing, but still I was going forward and feeling good. All in all, that was all I was hoping for. I had been warned about this one turn at the bottom of a hill that went directly into a pretty steep climb. As I got to the bottom of the hill I got into what I thought was a pretty light gear, made the turn and started my climb. I quickly realized that I had misjudged my gearing and had to drop it again. Yeah, disaster loomed. My chain slipped off as soon as I did this. I quickly hopped off and jumped into the weeds, flipped the bike over, and started examining the problem. Let it be known that I am not mechanical in nature and that I have no experience repairing bicycles. Low and behold, after a couple of minutes I had the chain back on. Miracles do happen! Now came the crashing realization that I was still in too big of a gear, especially being that I was starting this hill climb from a dead stop. Back over the side of the road to change the gear again. Finally made it up the hill and had reasonably smooth sailing from there. Even started to pass a lot of people; not sure if it was anger or just the "rest" that I had. All in all I would say that I lost anywhere from 3-5 minutes with that ordeal. [11.2 miles in 41:59]

Second transition was fine. Was already in my shoes and outside of hanging my bike up the wrong way got out fairly smoothly. [T2 in 1:15]

Finally I was off to the races. I knew that I didn't have everything left in the tank, but I felt that I could still run at a decent pace. The trail was almost entirely on grass, except for a little bit on a road at the very end, which made the pounding a lot easier to take. After about a mile in I realized that I should have popped a goo in transition or at the tail end of the bike, but oh well. There wasn't too much left. Most of the race was downhill until you came into the last kilometer of it or so. Climbing that last hill really pointed out how much energy I truly had already spent. But as I neared the top, I saw the finish line, and saw that my parents (for whom this was their first time coming out to see me race since high school) had made it there to watch the final kick it pushed me on and I was able to sprint in the last 150 meters. I had crossed the line and finished my first triathlon. [5km in 22:35]

Sorry for the long-winded play by play. I'll try to keep the next report a little shorter.

Run friendly! -Tanner

Tri Training

June marked the beginning of my triathlon aspirations. That month quickly melted away, much the same as the stick of deodorant I forgot in the car, and I have now found myself in July. The training is still going strong and I have managed to transpose my sick running obsession onto the whole triathlon thing. Sunday will mark my first triathlon. My good running buddy Jimmy signed us up for the Couples Triathlon (horrible name for it not requiring you to actually be a couple). This is only a sprint tri (800m swim, 11.2 mile bike, 3.1 mile run) so it shouldn't be too terribly brutal. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Yes, I have apparently forgotten how to write. Hopefully I will become more productive on here and that might inspire the mental juices to flow once again. (And yes, I am aware that they never flowed with much force.)

Athletics in America

I love sports! I love playing them. I love watching them. And I love to attend sporting events. That just needs to be said before anything else.

My original intention with this blog was to inspire a few more people to be a little friendlier on the running trails. I had actually wanted to stay away from more serious subjects or really anything that might be polarizing. (For those that know me, not speaking my mind is very hard.) But some recent commentary during the NBA playoffs hit a nerve that fired a switch and now I cannot hold it in. So please, read what I have to say and comment.

During the second round of the NBA playoffs my favorite player, Dirk Nowitzki, in an interview commented on how the series of defenders he had faced were able to guard him well. He even went on to essentially complement them on their defense. In the media this was seen as a sign of weakness and Dirk was attacked for "giving fuel" to his opponents and bolstering their egos. Now, I can understand where some of the commentary is coming from; you don't want to give your opponent an instruction manual on how to play you. But it really irked me how so many of the commentators were saying that as a star athlete you should never admit or acknowledge anything that might suggest you are anything but the best player. This is where the floodgates were ripped open for me.

Every day we hear how athletics helps kids stay out of trouble and builds character. I am not saying that I completely disagree with that and I know that this is the case for a great number of folks. But I would have to say that the way we view and treat sports, from little league up to professional levels, really only makes sports a positive for a very select few. I hope that I never have the type of "character" that does not allow me to congratulate someone for doing something better than I can. ESPECIALLY if I participate in the same activity.

Competition is a good thing and can teach people a lot about themselves and life. Sports are a great arena to teach this, but far too early it becomes solely about winning and not about having fun. What the competition in sports can teach us is that is the game is played the right way you can take pride and knowledge away from even a loss. And at the end of the day, it is just that, a game, and should be done because you enjoy it and for that reason alone. When we put the emphasis on winning at such an early age we create an environment where kids are self conscious about their athletic ability by the time they reach kindergarten. So unless you are one of the fortunate few that show great athleticism at an early age I could not imagine that you would grow up thinking that sports builds character much less keep you out of trouble.

As things are setup now, and reaffirmed through the commentary on a basketball star complimenting a competitor, athletics is breeding a society of egotistical bullies and alienating a much larger percentage of the population. "I'm just not that good at it," should never be a reason to not do a sport if you have fun doing it.

So there you have it. My take on athletics in America. I will still watch sports and I will still love playing them. I am sure that many of you have some thoughts on this and I would love to hear them. In the meantime, run friendly! -Tanner

The Much Delayed Update

OK, I am officially tired of working on the flu! I meant to write earlier, but my work schedule made it hard. Plus I am lazy, so...

The Round-Up 10k was a tough race. I had run the course once before, but it was with a group and a slow pace, so my memory of it not being too hilly or tough was quickly proven inaccurate. My coach, Roger, paced my running buddy, Dave, and I are for the first part of the race. Roger had just ran the Boston Marathon that Monday, so his help was more than the normal act of kindness. What a trooper! We might have taken off a little too fast, but I know I would have never ran the race as fast without doing so. We ran the first 2 miles in under 13 minutes! Slowed up after that, but I still got my PR at 42:36! Dave too got his PR of 42:22. Not the course I expected it to happen on, but it was a rush.

I have had the opportunity to jump on Strawberry Shortcake, my bike, once and hit up the Veloway. It might be true that once you learn how to ride a bike, you never forget. However that saying says nothing to your ability to have confidence or even ride in a straight line. It was a scary and funny outing for sure, but I did have a blast. So once I get a new chain on her (little bit of a kink in it now) I will be out there more just trying to get comfortable again.

With that, and the ever increasing temperature, I think that it is safe to say that I am now moving forward with training for a triathlon. I have no idea what I am thinking in doing this, but I have a feeling it is going to be fun. :) Alrighty then, with that I am off to bed. Have a good one and remember to keep runnin' friendly! -T

PS Real pictures and better layouts coming. I promise.

Final Week

That is my new bike. The photo isn't all that great, but she is red and white. I have decided to call her Strawberry Shortcake. Why even try to make her sound masculine?

So this is the final week before my big race. I honestly don't know if I am going to be able to improve any on Cap 10k time, but the training has been fun the past few weeks. Two Saturdays ago, my good running buddy, Dave, and I took off on an 8 mile run off of Lake Austin Blvd. There were a lot of people running along the streets over there and it was a great run, so I can see why. But one thing I did notice was that the vast majority of the runners out there waved! They actually acknowledged other runners. It was such a great thing! So, wherever you are, keep waving and say "Hi!".

That is really all I have for today. Tonight I am meeting Sara to get learned on the ways of riding a bicycle. I'll keep you all posted on how that whole saga unfolds. -T

What in the world am I thinking?!

Lately I have been really struggling with where I should place my focus this summer. I love running without a doubt and am never in a bad mood while doing it. But golf was my first love and is still a huge passion of mine. So with my last planned race coming up in a week and a half I had started debating what sport I should really focus on. There is no way that I would give up one completely, but simply place more emphasis on one and do the other purely for fun.

I have pretty much decided to focus on the golf this summer, but a third idea has crept into my mind: triathlon. Now, I have never been a huge fan of bicycles. Not sure why, but I have tended to prefer running to biking. Apparently, this could present a bit of a problem when it comes to doing a triathlon. So I purchased an old road bike for really cheap and will spend the summer riding it around a little just trying to get familiar with a bike again. It is true; you never forget how to, but it certainly is a lot scarier than it was before.

Over the summer I am going to try to dedicate myself to golfing, getting in better physical shape, swimming, running, and will just get comfortable on a bike so that hopefully I can start actual training in the fall. Perhaps I should try to squeeze my job in there as well. :)

What about you? Any plans on changing the routine this summer? Let me know. In the meantime, I will see you all on the trail! -T