Besides Race St, work, and some casual social outings (like Monday night pick-up soccer) I don’t have much else going on. Desperate to stay in some sort of shape, I’ve been getting on my bike at least twice a week. Due to the nature of the above schedule I’m pretty much confined to night time rides (the fact that it’s a million degrees out doesn’t hurt either).

I already ride around with a backpack, and I’m thinking a little tripod might be in my future, because finding ledges and things to use as a stabilizer can be difficult, especially when I need a specific angle to try and shoot, say, a new skyscraper.

By that last sentence you’d think I was an actual photographer with something other than my little Point and Shoot. I’m not….

After running home to change I started my journey by heading back up to OTR before sprinting down Race St to the river.

Over-The-Rhine fascinates me even more than it did 3 years ago when I moved here. Majestic Music Hall sitting right across from boarded up treasures labeled with the plight of the neighborhood.

Moving on….

It’s always a nice cruise down race (or walnut) from OTR to Downtown. Once you cross central parkway the lights time up, almost egging you on to pedal faster and hit the river without stopping. Although sometimes I loop around 5chw4r7z’s so I can get a view of QCS.

Being close to the river feels good. Sure, it’s not the cleanest body of water out there, but I did swim in it and live….so I like cruising down to Friendship Park and the Serpentine Wall. I guess the sun knew it was the reason I was out and about…it certainly caught my eye on the south shore….

When I’m that close I always ride over to NKY and back. Something about crossing state lines make any workout seem that much more badass.

Returning to the other side of the river I always face a dilemma: do I ride back through downtown, or torture myself on some hills in Mt. Adams?

Yeah, the hills normally win.

When it really started to get dark I kept my camera in my pocket and just rode. I put my headphones on to drown out the world and got lost in endless pedal strokes. It felt good to just zone out for a while and wear myself down.

The last rays of sun had set and the sky was growing darker by the minute as I cranked down Reading Rd. Living so close to Neon’s can be a great thing, and that night it seemed appropriate to just show up on my bike as opposed to going home and showering first. I ran into a couple of friends (oh neighborhood bar, how I love thee) and enjoyed a pint (or two) before we all remembered it was a school night.

A little break and a few beers can do great things though, and I wasn’t ready to pack it in yet. I know it’s closed, but frankly I just felt like going to hang on the Serpentine Wall…so I did.

One reason not to hang out there at night (besides the fact you will be asked to leave pretty quickly) are the crazy looking bugs that swarm the light poles.

With creepy bug pictures under my belt (was that really necessary, prolly not) and security in my ear, it was time to pack it in for the night. With a gentle ride up Eggleston I was home, completely content with my summer solstice ride.

Once again we met in front of Park+Vine at 12:30 on a bright Saturday afternoon. This year Reser had some shirts (rolled as bike tires) sitting on the check in table, and I had a little fun waiting for everyone to check in and pump up.

The OTR/Gateway Summer Celebration was taking place right up the block, and had I not been working on Race St I would have run the 5k and partied a bit before our food trek. Instead I caught a glimpse of the action as ~50 of us pulled away from P+V.

We cruised up Vine St through the heart of OTR (and past the park that will be my new backyard) on our way to Take The Cake in Northside. I’ve heard so many great things about TtC that I was a bit embarrassed I had never been there before.

My garage is on the other side of the park

The cruise to Northside was a good 5 miler, enough to work up a sweat, only to have it cooled by TtC’s awesome Gazpacho. Which then heated you back up with its spicy kick!

I may have purchased a brownie as well...

Not an official stop, but right next door was Cluxton Alley Coffee roasters. I’m not a coffee guy, but I poked my head in with a few other people to check it out.

Back on our rides we pedaled the longest single length of our journey, a 10 mile and at times not-so-flat (hey it’s Cincy) route over to Pleasant Ridge to Loving Cafe. The only repeat so far in the B+D series, they changed up from the veggie rolls and peanuts sauce we got last time (which was awesome) and went with fresh fruit and a salad, accompanied by two phenomenal homemade dressings.

With only six miles left to cover two stops, we took a short cruise over to Lucky John Slow Food where we filed through a buffet of pasta and vegan pizza awesomeness.

Seeking shade

After a nice boost of energy from all those carbs most people cruised (and some of us hauled ass) through Eden Park into Mt. Adams to The Rookwood. They served up some awesome chocolate on chocolate dessert and some “Yellow Bicycles” which were something, something, St. Germain and Proseco.

Each Bike+Dine has been a different experience for me, so I can’t say any one was better than the other. They have all been a blast though, and I can’t wait for the fall 2010 ride.

Turning+Sneezing....now that's talent

A little help from the popo in walnut hills

Cheers!

I was out riding without music, which leaves my head a little clearer to think about stuff (namely, how the hell am I going to rebuild the interior of a house!!!). It was a good time for reflection…which I then started taking literally.

I cruised up into OTR from downtown, figuring the sun was right to get some shots of the detail on my new place.

Right up the street is Rookwood Pottery, who was hosting the first tapping of Christian Moerlein IPA.

At the end of Race St lies a pretty cool church, with an iconic hand pointed towards the sky.

I then rode back down to the riverfront to meet up with the Thursday Night Slow Ride, a member of which informed me they would be at The Banks in 5 minutes. I beat them there, and snapped some photos of Roebling Bridge during the painting.

This was right below the stairway from the bridge down to the street.

The Banks.

I found the group, and we actually rode through the painting tarps on the suspension bridge. It’s not the first time I’ve ridden across the bridge during construction.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky-jtmdzBxI

We then cruised from Covington to Newport, and then back to Fountain Square. Oh yeah, and we found the Girls Gone Wild bus down by the Levee.

I know it’s a shitty picture, but it’s true. Life. Happens. Here. At least my life.

Bockfest was roaring the whole time, aided by the phenomenal weather we had. Which means one of two things as far as your Monday is concerned, either A) You, like me, had such a good time all weekend, that it’s hard to be anything other than happy today or B) you had a great time, but that simply adds to the depression you’re feeling now that you’re back on the grind.

I enjoyed Bockfest a lot, and I’ll post about it more tomorrow, but the highlight of the weekend for me was the 11 mile bike ride I went on Sunday, hitting Downtown, OTR, Newport, Mt. Adams, and Eden Park, all the while snapping pictures.

My first stop was The Banks/QCS to get a few photos of the ongoing construction.

Next I rode over to Newport to stop in Reser bikes for a little air (and because I love saying I went riding in a couple states).

Then it was back to the Ohio side to tackle Mt. Adams and Eden Park

Music Hall and the heart of OTR as seen from the Ida St. Bridge

Then it was back downtown for a few more QCS shots.

The remnants of a great season of ice skating

I hope you were able to go out an enjoy the great weather like I did!

Yeah, it was a nice try.

See, the thought in my head was to use all this stair climbing as a way to gain strength and recover from a rather annoying knee injury. Instead, a minimum 400-600 stairs a day was never allowing any rest for my knees, and it was aggravating the issue (I know there are people in NY [not that people in NY read this site] that are laughing at me because they live in an 8th story walk up…whatever, blow me). So I made it a month, and for the last 15 days I have used the elevator as I normally would.

And I’ll be damned if my knee doesn’t already feel better.

Will I give it another shot? Probably not, but I may get back to taking the steps up to my office. I will certainly be taking advantage of the open stadium policy UC has at Nippert, and I plan on hiking Carew Tower and QCS at least once. But in between those episodes of stair madness, I will just be another dude on the elevator.

Still, that much of a failure (<—-notice the “ure” at the end, that is how this word is normally used, I know many of you have forgotten this basic principle) is giving me a case of the monday’s this morning.

This week, when I had the chance to climb high on two skyscapers and had to pass, I felt pretty bad about the whole thing.

It started when my boss and I drove to Dayton to look at expanding our business to the north. We went to the 12 story administrative building on Third St, discussing our course of action as we passed through the above ground tunnel from the parking garage to the building lobby. I didn’t think twice as he called the elevator, and we continued our banter as we entered the cab. The doors closed and a look of panic washed over my face as I said “Oh shit!” My boss, realizing the situation, simply laughed as we rode up 3 stories.

I managed to walk between floors after that, still disappointed in myself for taking that first ride. When we hit the lobby again, my boss asked a question which could only be answered by someone on the 10th floor. I gazed at him with the why-are-we-just-thinking-about-this-now look, and he knew I was about to break for the stairs. He replied to my nonverbal communication with “You can’t be out of breath when we walk into that office, just make it up later.” Not worth the argument, or having to wait outside an office to catch my breath, I agreed, and we ascended ten floors with the push of a button.

At this point I owed myself 13 flights of stairs.

Then two days ago we were wrapping things up in the office and I had to take some things over to 3CDC, located on the 14th floor of the Kroger building. It was already past five o’clock, and I wasn’t sure anyone would be in their office. As I walked along court street I wrestled with the stairs vs. elevator argument. My delivery couldn’t wait until the next day, and I heard my boss’ voice in my head “Just make it up later.” I succumbed to the ‘vator.

Now I was up to 27 flights of stairs.

Last night I was thinking about the make-up stairs, and frankly 27 flights seemed like a lot. To make that up in my building was going to mean hiking top to bottom over four times. While there wasn’t going to be that much time involved in executing those stair climbs, the thought of simply walking up and down the steps wasn’t all that appealing. Instead I decided to mix it in with a workout routine. I went down to our “gym” (one room with a few machines and some free weights) and started on one of my weight training circuits I’ve put together. In between sets however, I ran up the steps to the top floor and jogged back down, all in an effort to knock out some of my make-up stairs.

It was actually a great feeling to be worn out from lifting weights only to will my body upwards in the building. It kept my heart rate up when I would normally be taking a sip of water and relaxing before my next set of weights. Instead my trip back down the stairs worked as my cool down, and I was still ready to go into my next circuit.

I’ve still missed all my opportunities to climb anything over six stories thus far. But I discovered another facet of training to work into my routine, and I think that’s well worth it. Not to mention I’ve still climbed almost 10,000 stairs so far this year.

And I still can’t wait to get back to my stadium workouts this summer.

The plan was to run a 15k in Mason last November, and then back down to the 10k for Thanksgiving. Instead I hurt myself during the 15k (after really, overuse thing) and have been healing since. Easing back into it right now is a delicate balance of cardio and strength training. I’m barely starting to run any worthwhile distance. Consequently, there is no way I’m gonna be ready for the Pig. I think the half marathon would still be a stretch, and these next few weeks are going to be critical in establishing a base of miles to train off of.

There is a part of me that thinks I should take this summer and focus on shorter races. I have a lot of fun at 5k races–they’re short enough where you can really push yourself the whole time and feel absolutely exhausted after only 20-25 minutes (20 being my goal for this coming race season) but still recover fast and not be shell shocked by a long race.

So The Pig is out. But I’m gonna leave it up there in support of the many people who are running. One day I will make it happen.

As for the Bolder Boulder….my sister used to live in Boulder, CO–she ran it last year, and I was going to come out and run it with her this year. Well, she moved, so I’m not sure if I’m still going to fly out for a road race. If I were going to fly anywhere for a race, this would be the place and the event, and that’s the only reason it’s still under consideration. I could end up waiting until the third week in May, and if I feel up for it and the last minute airline deal stars have aligned I’ll pull the trigger.

But Boulder is most likely out. It’s a badass race, I’m leaving it up there.

I don’t know when I’m going to sign up for my first 5k of 2010. I hope I’m racing by April, but it’s only Feb 1 and I’m still only jogging 2 miles. I’m always guilty of coming back to fast from injury, but if I get healthy now I’ll have an entire summer of outdoor activity ahead of me. My goals are 5 5ks, 1 10k, and 1 sprint triathlon. Still, I would love to have The Pig on that list, and accepting the fact that it’s not gonna happen this season is giving me a case of the Monday’s.

ridn dwntwn if ur in.

When it’s 40 degrees and overcast on a January weekend in Ohio, it’s “nice weather”. I jumped at the chance to cruise downtown and northern Kentucky on my bike, half riding, half hopping around on various elevations of pavement. A few hours outside was just what I needed to follow a meal I gormandized (I like new words). What I didn’t consider however, was what I was going to do in regards to not taking the elevator while still getting my bike back into my apartment.

That thought struck me as I headed back home and rode the uphill along Eggleston Ave. I was really cranking, and just as I thought about how tired my legs were getting, I remembered I still had a hike ahead of me.

I’ve been known to run/walk briskly up steps with my bike. Last summer I would ride up Reading Rd from Central Pkwy and turn up towards Gilbert. I would run up the steps next to Channel 9 with my bike on my shoulders and hop back on at the top in Mt. Adams/Eden Park.

At the tail end of this ride however, I wasn’t feeling the need to drag my bike up 6 stories. Instead I put it in the elevator and ran up the steps. I actually made it upstairs right as the doors were closing–forget the fact that my chest was heaving as I searched for air. Frankly it was still better than lugging that thing up with me.

As I sat in my apartment catching my breath, I wondered whether or not that counted as cheating in my year without elevators quest. I came up with two reasons why it’s not.

1. I’m not out to rid my life of elevators (I’m still taking them down). I’m doing this whole thing for fitness (and to see if I can). The goal is to walk up every time I have to ascend to my apartment, so in that regard, mission accomplished.

2. As an extension of the previous thought, I’m not doing this to save energy/the environment. Yes, taking an elevator takes energy, and yes, I am saving the planet one trip at a time when I walk. However that is merely a side benefit, I’m doing this for ME. So I don’t feel one iota of guilt about using the elevator (and consequent energy) to get my bike up to the sixth floor. The guy who did the year without a car said that at times he would ride his bike to go purchase something large, and have a friend with a car actually transport the purchase. If that’s not cheating than I am definitely in the clear.

But I did get a nice taste of what the summer will be like when I ride 3-5 times a week.

]]> http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/elevatorless-challenge-the-bike/feed/ 0 http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/my-first-challenges-of-not-using-the-elevator/ http://www.theboilover.com/2010/01/my-first-challenges-of-not-using-the-elevator/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:56:58 +0000 theboilover http://www.theboilover.com/?p=662 Last Friday I embarked on a journey to rid my life of the use of elevators for ascension for the next year (I still take them down when I don’t feel like running down the steps). It seemed so easy at the time, it was just walking up the stairs right? Well, I forgot that I don’t always come upstairs empty handed.

Groceries

Luckily I only have to shop for one, otherwise I would probably have given in already. I came back from Findlay Market Saturday morning and instinctively went for the elevator call button on the first floor. I had bags in both hands as I stood patiently in the lobby. When the elevator arrived a young couple exited the cab, and the guy provided the obligatory hand-across-the-door move to let me inside without the door crushing me or my edibles. I literally walked in and said “Shit” and angrily stepped right back out. The well-meaning couple looked understandably perplexed, and I briefly explained my resolution as I turned to the stairwell. The guy laughed and wished me luck.

While I wasn’t too laden down with groceries this trip, I made a mental note that I should refrain from my usual once a month trip to Kroger, and perhaps break that up into two trips a month. You see, I do most of my shopping at Findlay, but I still need Kroger for my non-perishables. I normally end with 6-10 bags of not-so-light purchases. I’m not sure what would be worse, making two trips to Kroger a month, making two trips to my car back to back to carry all my groceries up, or trying to carry it all at once. I see the third option ending up in me spilling stuff down the stairwell and getting more pissed than had I just taken two trips. We’ll see how this plays out over the next few weeks….

Laundry

My apartment building is great, but most of the units don’t have washers and dryers in them. There are three sets on the floor below me, and three more two floors below that. I usually walk to the 5th floor laundry, but if I have to go to the 3rd floor you better believe I take the elevator down and back up. Most of the time it’s not an issue because the 5th floor machines are open.

Of course, for my first attempt at laundry sans elevator all three 5th floor washers AND dryers were in use–meaning it was going to be a while before I was going to get anything done there. So I trudged down two more flights–and what do you know, those were all taken also! So I dragged everything back upstairs in the hopes that later in the evening my 5th floor laundry haven would open up. Sure enough it did….at 10 pm. This has taught me two things 1) never do laundry on a weekend in an apartment building and 2) I need to stick with being a night owl when it comes to chores.

Getting Drunk and Bringing Home Pizza

Saturday night, like most weekend nights for a 20-something, brought an evening of alcoholic libations, lightening my mood to the point where I thought buying a whole Lucy Blue pizza was a good idea (side note: never a good idea. Via Vite all the way). Now, the problem here doesn’t lie in my ability to carry a pizza box upstairs. No, the problem is that like most late night pizza sessions, they begin on the journey home, not upon arrival. This is where the elevator facilitates things. It’s easy to walk up, push a button, and ride in the cab, all while stuffing your face with cheese and pepperoni on a grease-laden crust. It’s much harder however, to complete pizza inhalation while carrying the box and still managing to place one foot in front of the other onto seemingly endless elevated platforms. At some point you become to concerned with the pizza to lift your feet completely, and you begin tripping up the steps rather than walking them.

Another facet of all this is that I’m not out drinking by myself. For example, when I got home saturday, my buddy (who was the pizza carrier at the time) went straight for the elevator. I laughed and told him I would meet him at the top (I had warned him of my mission earlier in the evening). Begrudgingly he said he would join me on the hike up. I smiled and grabbed the pizza box, it was the least I could do (and naturally I was ready for another piece). Over the coming year it will be interesting to see which of my friends follow me up the steps vs. taking the lazy route.

All in all, if these are the hardest struggles I go through all year, I think I’ve got this in the bag. But the first weekend was a definite crash course in the ways of the 6 story walk-up.

I’m not crazy about them, but I don’t take new years resolutions that lightly–I try and pick something reasonable, something that I can stick too. The resolution doesn’t have to be a permanent thing for me either. I take a while to think about the year before, and what it all means to me (that post is coming for 2009) and then I try and think about something I want to accomplish.

For example, last year I was just starting to get back into shape. Working out was going well, but my diet was questionable. Still, I was losing weight, so I figured it couldn’t have been that bad. My resolution was to count calories as best I could for the month of January. For the first two weeks I didn’t change my diet, I simply counted calories to see what I had been eating. I bought a food scale, and while I still grabbed handfuls of peanuts, I weighed them first to see how many servings I was inhaling. Turns out, one big handful was about 1 oz–a serving size. Overall I was consuming 2900-3500 calories a day! It really got me to think about portion size and controlling my snack urges. I stopped counting when January was over, but to this day I’m much more mindful of what I’m eating (i.e. giving up putting mayonnaise on everything).

This year it has been tough to think of something. Sure I want to stop leaving such cryptic song lyrics as facebook statuses, but that’s not resolution worthy (just something I need to do). I’m still working out and eating better, so those weren’t options. There had to be something I could work on in my life. Then it hit me on my walk into work this morning.

You see, for about the last year my boss has given up using the elevator to get up to our 4th floor office. He’ll take it down, but he always takes the 67 stairs up. I started walking up with him if we were headed back to the office together. About a month ago I decided to try and it out full time, and I haven’t taken the elevator up yet.

As I walked up the steps today I wondered if I could carry over this habit to my home life. I live on the top floor of a 6 story building with 26 steps per floor. That’s 130 every time I go up to my place. I walk up the steps from the second floor workout room (I can’t call it a gym), but I still take the elevator every other time I head up to my apartment.

Yesterday I gave it a shot. Similar with my experience to quitting the office elevator, the hardest part is breaking the habit. When I got home from work, I grabbed my mail and called the elevator. I got right in and paged through envelopes as I ascended with no effort. The door opened on 6 and I realized that I had completely forgotten about the stairs. So I took it right back down and walked up. It feels pretty stupid doing that, and it gets you out of the habit fast. Sure enough, when I got home from racquetball–even as tired as I was–I walked up to the elevator, and as I was about to push the button I remembered the steps. By the end of next week I won’t even think twice about it, I’ll just head right over to the stairs.

I want to take this further than just my office and apartment building. I’m going to try and go for the remainder of 2010 without riding UP in an elevator. And I vow to go to the observation deck at Carew Tower at least once.

Hey at least it’s not A Year Without A Car.

I’m sure I’ll post throughout the year how it’s working out. It gives me an excuse to go through some tall buildings just to take the steps. And the more people that know about it, the more embarrassed I’ll be if I give in.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9_XEgGQBkQ

Come on, it folds up smaller than the wheels! The way that front wheel folds down does kind of remind me of some nasty leg injuries I’ve seen (think Joe Theismann), but it’s still sweet.

Here’s an example of one that looks a bit too odd and has small ass wheels. This might still work for my 5 block commute to work, but not much more than that.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0qx95hxyuQ

The thing is, a folding bike is still way down on my overall wish list--it’s just a novelty thing for me right now. I think that is true of most people, and it will be a while before we see this:

42 Bromptons

Image via

Back in late January a friend of mine from Columbus drove down to visit. He had just purchased the Wii Fit, and brought it with him for what would become quite the wiikend. I been working out for about a month, weighing myself at the gym when I was there playing racquetball. I didn’t have a weight loss goal in mind, but I knew I was really out of shape from four months of injury recovery. My goal was to be healthy and active, and I knew the weight would take care of itself if I focused on that goal. I still paid attention to it however, and at the time my friend came down I had already lost about 6 lbs. When his new ‘toy’ told me I was 190 lbs I was surprised at how accurate it was. The scale matched up with the class-leading Tanita scale I used at the gym (not a paid endorsement, just what I’ve come to trust over time) within .2 lbs.

That weekend I learned all about the balance games, strength training, yoga, and aerobic workouts that came as part of the Wii Fit package. I was hooked, and my friend wasn’t even back to Columbus yet by the time I ordered my own Fit.

When the package showed up in my lobby I was ecstatic. I vowed to use it every day, getting stronger and more flexible with my own body weight, on my own accord. For a long time that held true–damn near every day after work I came home, weighed myself, and began a regime of yoga and strength training. After that I would run or bike, and later in the evening I would have fun ski jumping or heading soccer balls (my favorite of the balance games).

As much fun as I had with all of the games and exercises, the best part of the whole package was watching my weight tumble. Not wanting to see the graph go up (and then have the Wii yell at me, which it does) was more motivation than I thought. The ability to set a goal for the next four weeks and watch myself get closer and closer to it was great. And if I missed the goal it was ok, this wasn’t high school wrestling (which, to be clear, I never took part in) but it was all the more incentive to try harder over the next four weeks.

Over time I began to do many of the stretching and strength training exercises without using the Fit itself, and I would hop on every once in a while to check my weight. Like I said above, hitting a certain weight was never really a goal of mine in the first place.

At this point I don’t really worry about it at all–my biggest goals were being healthy, active, and to generally feel like I was in good shape, something I have definitely accomplished (not that I’m stopping/slowing now).

And the weight took care of itself…

A nice steady trend down

Changing some of my eating habits helped as well, but that was more about being well rounded–I still eat just about anything I want, I just do it in moderation.

I’m not saying that if you buy a Wii Fit you will lose 25 lbs. You still have to put in the work to get the results, but this may be one of the best tools for the job–and we can all use as much help as possible in accomplishing our fitness goals.

So thanks to my old college roommate (who has also seen weight loss success) for coming down and introducing me to the Wii Fit, who knows where I’d be without it.

Running, on the other hand, has been an on and off part of my life ever since I started playing sports as a little kid. However it wasn’t until the end of high school that I realized I could run for for the sake of running–by myself–and enjoy it.

Recently I found myself comparing the two activities and their similarities. You’re asking yourself right now “How could running around outside and sitting in a chair getting a tattoo be similar?” For starters, they are things that people are–for the most part–either into or they’re not, with little to no gray area. There are other similarities as well.

Tri Swim Bike Run

1. Both involve a certain amount of pain that one must, on some level, find enjoyable.
With tattoos it’s obvious, that’s not a massaging needle they use to put ink in your skin. With running, I’m not talking about the pain from an injury (that’s just bad). It’s the pain you feel right before the runners high takes over and you stop thinking about moving your legs and just let them rhythmically churn. It’s gritting out the last half mile of a race, and kicking your pace up even though your muscles are about to issue a cease and desist order.

And when you’re done with a tattoo or a race, there is a great sense of accomplishment and relief. Which leads me to my next point.

2. Both are meaningful experiences that stay with you for life.
You’re never going to forget the experience of sitting/laying in the chair at the tattoo parlor getting a tattoo. And if you do somehow forget it, the tattoo will be there always to remind you.

Now I’m not saying I remember every run I’ve been on. But I remember all of the races. I remember the important runs where ‘something clicked’ or I was able to work through an important issue in my life. I look through the collection of routes I have and I think about the places I have seen and things I have discovered while running–it’s all a big part of who I am today. I once read an article about how to motivate yourself to run on vacation. I laughed–to me running on vacation is almost a necessity. Not only do I want the exercise, I want to see my surroundings and find new paths that I would otherwise leave unexplored.

I was recently in Maui with some friends, staying at a resort we had been to two years before. Last time I couldn’t run, so I was excited to explore more of the resort strip with my Nikes propelling me along the way. I ended up making my way farther north than I expected, and found myself looking back south over Black Rock and down the line of stately beachside residences. A glance up north showed a view of untouched beach that beckoned me to explore. And while I don’t remember every step of that run, I’ll never forget the feeling of rounding the corner to that lookout and marveling at where I was.

Editor’s Note: I realize this post drifts off at the end with no real conclusion. There is a follow up article in the works. But it kind of fits, because I drift off during good runs, and good tattoo sessions.

Nonetheless it was fun.

Ok that’s likely it for the video posts this week, I hope to get back to actual writing tomorrow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNXT1vXyBh4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IL-OFbSWY0

That said, I ain’t got shit on these chicks. Leave it to the Germans….

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b36Yi-Pb1wM

via

By running…as fast as you can…

Interval training involves running at near max speed and intensity, and then an interval of jogging. There are a number of track workouts (see Yasso 800′s) which are great, if you have access to a track. But living downtown, I don’t always feel like getting on my bike and riding up to UC to use their ring. So I’ve created a number of downtown interval workouts, one of which I’ll share right now.

I was trying to find a good place for interval training and I figured if I’m trying to workout out and get as strong and fast as I can, I should go where the pros go. So I went down to PBS and found a great spot at the SE corner of the stadium. You start at the bottom of the ramp on Mehring Way and sprint up the ramp to the stadium deck. Then continue next to (or better yet, jumping over) the concrete benches. When you hit the stairs that lead back down to the parking deck you’ve hit a 1/4 mile.

At that point you turn around and jog back to the bottom, where you do it all again. Repeat ten+ times, then go for a cool down jog, stretch, and take the next day off. Do this a few times a month and watch the results.

Being a nice, slow, 6 mile cruise that finishes with beer, the Tweed Ride is a perfect precursor to Sunday’s Mini-Marathon (it’s a 15k, not even a half marathon) which starts and finishes at the Mason High School. Like most races, it benefits a charity (in this case the Epilepsy Foundation), and the course looks pretty flat, so it should be a nice easy cruise (that is, if you can ever consider moving 9.3 miles with your feet easy). Unlike the last two races I’ve run, there won’t be any costumes (although it would be hilarious if someone showed up as a strobe light), and it will be nice to get back into the groove of regular racing without dragging my camera with me on the course.

More information can be found here.