Off Day

With the day off, of course that means running errands the Aaron Tang way. What does that entail? Easy run to the mall to pick up some sunglasses and ran to Rhode Runner to make my annual contribution to the running gods and bought a foam roller after a year of complaining. After much delay, Miami flight's booked, registered for Miami's marathon and now the easy part; training for it (right? Should be cake?)

By the way, the foam roller has brought me as close to vomiting/crying as any inanimate object can. Hopefully, this ensures painless IT band training.

Running makes life better

I. Running makes life better

II. Life makes running better

I.

Let's face it, I hate going to the dentist. They measure my heart rate there and I am always at least at stage 1 hypertension aka high blood pressure. White coat syndrome be damned, I was determined to not think about it as I noticed the assistant had Reebok Zigs on which she said helps her knees (no Nike Frees though) and that spun in to training, mileage, "fueling" runs with beer, the "hills" of Dallas races, ankle injuries, and a half marathon in Vegas and Vegas in general.

I don't think I have ever given a dental hygienist a high five before until this appointment. All because of running.

Also, in this whole healthy approach, the hygienist does know if you floss so to stop them from complaining, floss every day.

II.

During our latest in a series of long runs called "Getting Ready for _____(half-) Marathon", Sean, Knapp, and myself went for an easy 12 miler in Cumberland. How do you determine if your run is easy? The first quarter was spent talking about the Vegas trip I just embarked upon. It also made the first quarter fly by.

VEGAS

Nike Town in Vegas, not pictured are the changing rooms that had white tile and old school lighting like a locker room

While in Vegas, the only thing running related (and street legal for me to write up publicly) I saw were some runners that irked me because that reminded me of my lack of foresight to bring shoes and shorts to kill 30 mintues in the AM in between turning my temple in to the Temple of Doom of a body.

As I was getting my Clark's Desert Boots shined on the last day by Francis, a Kenyan, you knew I'd steer the conversation in the direction of running after the usual current events banter that I assume all shoe shining exchanges go. Francis was a 10k'er back in the day in high school. I had to ask what his PR was to which he responded that they only timed the finisher. Talk about cut throat. Also, I gave him much respect for the marathoners out of Kenya. He dropped some knowledge to me about the 1996 men's marathon finishers in Atlanta; finishers 1,2, and 4 were Kenyan (3rd was Canadian, eh?).

Feeling the after effects of Vegas, I am glad that I am not doing the half marathon soon because I'll need to be in detox mode for a while.

1st world problems part two

Any entry with complaints could be filed under 1st world problems but here's some more:

Ran easy too hard, hard too easy.

The tap water in Plano doesn't taste as good as Providence.

Lunaracers are tight in the toebox if your feet aren't 3 toes wide. 1/2 size up indeed.

Batting a 1000 on runner's waves and parents walking their kids to school saying "good morning". Not really a gripe, just I know I am back in Plano because of it.

Brocation means mileage for the week will dwindle.

East Bay Bake Path and Training, the first world way

It seems as though it has been a while since I've written about a normal easy run on here. Breaking that mold ... now. With the stars aligning, 3 runners had the same day off and with weather dipping to the 60s, the trio (the Ashton Mills Duo and myself) spent 10.5 miles together on the East Bay Bike Path. In an hour and forty minutes, we found out:

-sans ice (and bikers due to it being a Tuesday), this path is great for long runs

-heckling runners isn't easy; I still haven't heard an awesome heckle, for shame general public

-no matter what, the bathroom at the 5 mile mark is always closed

-easy pace is great. Except when the point above is in play

-Bolt in Daegu is still Usain Bolt

Kevin's Corner of Thoughts:

-it smells like weed, hence the Kevin dubbed East Bay Bake Path

-there's a new species of duck or Lochness Monster thanks to Kevin

-if the mansion on the path had Ryan Gosling in it, he'd break in

-in the event sharks become super intelligent (and capable of land maneuverability), the human race as we know it will not exist. Especially if the world becomes flooded a la Waterworld

We are definitely blessed to be able to run but that also probably means we are part of the middle-class 1st world and thus, we should train like it:

Ankle weights: thanks to Lauren lending me these, I hope I can fix my knee pain.

Natural Peanut Butter/ Almond Butter/ Cashew Butter: that's right, these exist and are written in order of most main stream to hard core Whole Foods hippie.

Chia seeds: If you read Born to Run, you'd swear every athlete would endorse this instead of Gatorade. Well, while visiting Sean at work post-race, I saw Chia Pets were now selling this. Running's gone mainstream. Still haven't tried em. Yet.