Posts tagged indoor track
I am a runner with a stolen voice.
Run Monster Run
clicking on the link above will take you to the page for my spoken word/hip hop project Run Monster Run.
For me, one of the most important things in life is creativity. Whether it is the simple and physical creativity of running through forests and leaving footsteps or the more intricate creativity of songwriting and poetry.
Enjoy and pass it along if you like it.
at the beginning you feel smooth. the man in front of you can’t be going fast enough. you nip at their heels. you don’t check your shoulder. you lean into the corners. time is kind and gives you your recovery.
but then it comes. slowly at first. ripples more than waves. discomfort you can control. but time becomes a little more coy. offering and withholding the recovery you were promised.
still, you start. out fast. three quick steps off the line. hold it. there is nothing but the logo in between the shoulders of the man in front of you. the logo and the burning in your stomach.
then a large wave. huge break. big crash. everything becomes fuzzy. you forget everything you knew about pace or control. everything you knew about form. you throw your body around the corners to the line.
20 Plays
Bry Webb
Asa
soon snow force us off the trails. we will run on sidewalks and smaller tracks. sometimes it will be pretty and we will feel happy to be running in the meringue’d world. sometimes our feet will be wet and we will wish we were doing anything but running in the half light of the street lamps and the harsh breath of the wind. our faces will burn and our hands will lose all fine motor control.
when winter comes i like to escape the streets of the suburbs and head out to Guelph’s old downtown neighborhoods where the houses have character. i imagine the lives of the people inside them, what they are eating for dinner, what they do for fun. whether they listen to cbc radio. what kind of beer they drink. and with my good old canadian indie tunes on (courtesy of cbcradio3) i imagine myself somewhere in the future in one of those houses. outside of the cold. with a Guinness and some stew. defrosting from the cold.
i’ve been meaning to write for a while about routine. i’ve written around it. i’ve written about the grind. the early mornings. the rest and recovery. but i haven’t really written about this concept of routine that distance runners seem to hold very tightly.
if you are reading this as a runner you will undoubtedly know what i’m talking about. but if you are just reading this, let me explain. as a group, we distance runner’s seem to be exceptionally proud of our mundanity. we love our staple foods (bananas, oatmeal, nuts, peanut butter, bagels, pasta), we love our bedtimes, we love our splits, our mileage cycles, our watches. at times it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to say that lots of us seem to be in an intense, if not secret, competition to try and be the most boring person we can be.
now, to be fair, not all of us are like that and even if we are it might be out of necessity. (shit man, early mornings come quick when you’ve been moshing at a concert the night before!). BUT a lot of us are. especially the immature ones.
a lot of us grasp to our routines with white knuckles. part fearing what would happen if we pushed our bedtimes back an hour. part loving the consistencies of our regimented life. at times, i’ve felt that to be great i had to make as many rules as possible and follow them closely. almost like splits. 7am wake up. 7.30 run. 8.30 class. 9.30 rest. 10.30 class ect. ect. ect. and it took me a while to realize that that just ain’t me. despite the popular notion of the disciplined routine oriented mileage whore to me there is more to being a good, dedicated and disciplined runner. flexibility. adaptability. spontaneity. key ingredients to throw into the routine once and a while
10 Plays
Miracle Fortress
Until
gatorade and oatmeal. this morning was mad real.
i am not a morning guy. in fact i would say that i am quite anti-morning. none the less i get out when i need to get out and i trudge. when i run from my place my usual route is a trail that i used to run a lot in high school. i like it out there. it’s a cedar forest with a boardwalk and some little streams and it stays green all year round.
this morning there was fog in the forest and i didn’t see anyone. only deer.
back after a few days away from the tumblr game. all due to a recruiting weekend at the U of G. great potential team mates and had a lot of fun but ready to crash pretty hard now.
last week was busy with school and staying up way past my bed time. Watch the Throne in Toronto. Recruits. Air port rides. but tomorrow is the start of a three week block in the salt mines. three weeks. head down. get (more) fit.
got on the track yesterday. no watch. just to feel it out. get back in the rhythm. it felt awesome. more excited than ever to race and burn. first few steps to Winnipeg have been taken but its a fucking long way.
