Day 27: Stop Black Friday

It's 18 degrees outside and lightly snowing. We got 4 or 5 inches accumulated since yesterday. We had a quiet Thanksgiving and enjoyed our time with Bella. Simple meal, just a few things, but delicious.

Usually we spend the holiday with our friends here in town but this year they were visiting family on the Western Slope. We knew Bella would appreciate not being left at home alone, and we know it's her last Thanksgiving. We took the Bella to Starbucks for a pup cup yesterday, wrapped her up tight in an extra blanket. She loved it.

I have decided to mount my bike on the trainer in the living room this weekend, so I will have additional options for getting some movement in. The other day I was walking down the stairs and felt a twinge in my left IT band. It felt like a rubber band snapped. Just a tiny twinge, but I can feel that something in there is not quite right. It's not the whole thing, just the edge of it.

It's just a reminder that I need to get back to moving and stretching. Minimal hacking this morning so maybe I've finally got the worst of this bronchitis thing over with. No more excuses.

I try really hard every year not to buy anything on Black Friday. I really resent what it has become, it's like the worst of all the Walmart and Costco shoppers come out of the woodwork, parasites, crawling into lines at dark hours. If you are a Black Friday shopper, whatever your reasons, I don't mean to offend you personally, if you have a good reason for braving the flu-infested crowds, snotty kids, and people wild-eyed with greed, willing to draw blood and brawl on the filthy linoleum floors in the cash register lines for $20 off the TV they want so they can sit around and eat more crap in front of it.

I was so happy when REI announced its #OptOutside campaign. I know it's just another way to market themselves but it really would be nice if most companies would stop forcing their employees to endure the shopping frenzy on one more day when they could be taking care of their own families and well-being. Going outside and breathing some fresh air...what a concept.

I tend to abhor shopping for anything, even groceries, from November through December. Walking into a grocery store and being smacked in the face with the pungent, nose-frying smell of fake cinnamon-scented pine cones and whatever else they have parked near the doors and endcaps is enough to make me turn around gagging and walk out the door. Why we must all be subjected to such scents when some of us find them offensive even in their real form...I do not like cinnamon. And fake cinnamon is even worse.

I don't care about the blank red Starbucks cups. I really don't care about the holiday symbols, they don't bother me. Not a Christian here. I just don't like the greed and overconsumption that goes along with the holidays. Just 38 days until the first Monday after New Years, when it will be safe to go into a store and breathe again!

Bah Humbug and enjoying the fresh air!

Beating The Black Friday Blues

If anyone asks me what I did on Black Friday, I will tell them I did all the things I'd prefer to do over shopping with crowds.

I ran in the foothills dragging a tire behind me, and I picked up dog poop in the yard, including some warm fresh ones that Isabelle contributed while I was in the process of picking up the other piles, trying to stay ahead of it before the next snowstorm hits.

I'd rather do those things any day than camp out in front of an electronic gadget store all night with a bunch of other crazed people carrying baseball bats, ready to draw blood in competition for the last iPhone 6, or whatever.

It was a cool morning in the foothills, I ran on the trails around Dixon Reservoir, and saw a lot of other runners and hikers out, an unusual amount of people for a Friday, but it is the holiday weekend, and maybe last night's gluttony convinced them that they should do something physical.

We went over to our friends Melissa and Austin's house again, all of Melissa's family was in, mostly from the East Coast, and it was a low-key and relaxing evening with great food. They had some technical issues with their oven and stove not working so Melissa and I devised creative ways to finish cooking the green bean casserole and potatoes. They live on the north end of town, so we got to see this sunset looking east toward the Budweiser plant, that's the picture at the beginning of this post.

Yesterday I went out for about an hour run and it was torture every step of the way. I went out the Power Trail and I thought I would pop my eyeballs out from the mental strain of feeling like it would never end. I just cannot get myself to run the bike paths and streets right now.

Then this morning I went to the foothills trails and I was fine, almost. I did have a slight problem with the time out there, it did seem like forever in the middle of the run, but at the end it was okay and I didn't mind getting the tire out and doing an extra mile and a quarter with it on the hill.

And I kept stopping to take pictures of the leaves in the water and under the ice at the reservoir. I'm hoping I can motivate myself to run both days this weekend. Early this week I managed to run on Monday but couldn't get motivated on Tuesday or Wednesday at all.

I wish I knew what the magic formula is right now to keep me going. I don't like to drive anywhere to run if I can avoid it. But I have exhausted all my usual running places here on the east side of town, it's all sidewalks, streets, and bike paths in every direction, with a few short exceptions. Looks like I'll have to start doing some driving to get myself excited to run anywhere for a while.

I just cracked open a VERY cold Odell Isolation Ale. And there's a VERY warm hot tub waiting for me.

Cheers. To Black Friday...

Double Holiday Miles and Good Advice

Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, together. What a perfect day, warm, sunny, the massive white peaks of Longs on the west horizon, great day for a run, listening to the geese arriving home for the winter in giant V formations across the sky. I did 7 miles, plus a few walks with the girls. Not many miles today, saving it up for the next few days, when I'll want to be out there in the quiet.

The cottonwoods are just as impressive bare as they are with their leaves.

Early Thanksgiving morning I will go over to Windsor and help with registration and packet pickup for the Pelican Lakes 5K, and after that I might run the race. Probably will, but not 100% sure.

I figure I will get plenty of short runs in between cooking spells all day Thursday. That's the plan- put something in the oven, go for a run, come back and check on it, go for another run.

I always love running around the holidays. There's less traffic and the streets are quiet. Except for Black Friday. Ugh. "Corporate Greed Friday". I try not to spend any money on Black Friday and try not to drive anywhere, either. I like to run, far away from the busy sections of town where shoppers might be driving.

Today I stopped by the liquor store, something I haven't done since before I stopped working at the hospital. I have not even wanted beer or anything since I quit work. Amazing. I thought I'd get some beer in case we wanted some on Thanksgiving while the liquor stores are closed.

I found this new organic lager by New Belgium, called California Route- they collaborated with Patagonia- speaking of corporations- and produced this citrusy hoppy beer that is pretty good for a lager, in a can. It reminds me of a tamed-down version of Dale's Pale Ale. Very tame. But I like it. And they are donating proceeds to flood relief in Colorado after our September flood.

So I partied with the girls this afternoon, and Iris went crazy over the new beer. She had to check it out, she protested not being able to taste it and then when I finally let her smell it, she didn't want it. She doesn't like hoppy beers, she's more of a dark, chocolatey stout, porter or dark ale drinker.

Isabelle doesn't like beer all that much. She prefers to hang out with her mom and watch Iris throw a temper tantrum.

It's Hanukkah, and I don't do Hanukkah. We don't do Black Friday. I don't do Christmas, and Dennis barely does. I'm not into religious holidays, and certainly not the spending and consumption that goes with them. I do Solstice, and New Years. They are running holidays for me. Might as well be my religion.

But speaking of religion...

while I'm on it, what the Pope said.

I like this Pope. I wish people would listen to him. He has some good messages that really ought to be listened to by more than just Catholics. Because there are a lot of people who really need to hear this message. I know it will go in one ear and out the other for those people with no social conscience.

Times like these make me extra thankful that I never had kids because I wouldn't want to try to raise them in this world the way things are, and I certainly wouldn't want to leave them in this world that my generation has screwed up so badly. At this point things are so screwed up that I don't think anything can fix us. Unless we drop a bomb on the whole planet and obliterate it and whatever life form is left starts over.

But I hope the kids like my niece and nephews, the so-called Millenials, will be different, and find a way to salvage their world after their greedy, shortsighted predecessors from my generation and the one after mine die off.

And speaking of religion, here's the best quote ever from the running legend himself, snagged this one from my Badwater buddy Chris Roman's Facebook page today.

"My advice is that you should use your brains more and train less."
- Yiannis Kouros

Might as well be the Pope speaking.

Happy Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, or whatever you want it to be. Just be happy.

Black Friday Weekend Runs

Two good runs this weekend wrapped up another 90 mile week. This picture is of the historic Strauss Cabin, along the Poudre River on the east side of town near I-25. It burned down a few years ago, and this is what's left of it. I stopped there halfway through my run on Friday.

I always like to run on the east side of town this time of year, for the view of the Front Range with snow on the peaks. My plan for this weekend was to do 30 miles Friday and 20 on Saturday, a good back-to-back long workout.

I decided to do a run on the roads for the 30 miler. I started the day off by running a couple of miles with Iris, Isabelle didn't want to go in the morning. I brought Iris back home afterward and started my run.

It was a perfect day, cool, sunny, with almost no wind. I got the first 25 miles in no problem, but ran out of food and water once, necessitating a stop at 7-11. I hate to spend money on Black Friday. But I only spent $3.05 on some water and a little package of mini-chocolate donuts. I guess all that talk about Twinkies stuck with me. That's what sounded good at the time.

I went home after 25 miles and made a grilled cheese sandwich, changed into dry clothes, and was preparing to go out again, but I was getting the staredown from Isabelle.

And Iris, too.

As I ate, I noticed they parked themselves strategically in the path to the front door, and in front of the closet where we keep the leashes.

I put their leashes on, and I now have four holes in my body where they stared right through me while I tried to finish my sandwich.

We went out for a couple of miles, enough to Isabelle's satisfaction, then I brought them home and finished the last few miles on my own. I ended up with 32.3 miles for the day. It was slow and relaxed, the non-Buffalo miles took me 5 hours and 15 minutes. I felt good at the end.

When I got home, the girls were waiting for me. Isabelle on the couch, and Iris with her hedgehog.

Surprisingly I felt good enough to cook dinner and go out to buy some beer. The beer tasted awesome. I got a mixed 6 pack of New Belgium Frambozen, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, and Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat. Don't know why but those flavors sounded good after my run. The Frambozen was the best of the three, in my opinion. Dennis helped me...

This morning I woke up feeling surprisingly good, and I decided to do my run in the cemetery. I wanted everything to be close by in case I ended up in a death march, and I didn't want to have to carry anything. The cemetery loop is 0.98 miles, and I ran 20 1/2 laps of it to get the full 20 in. Yes, obsessive.

I ran each successive 5 mile segment faster than the previous one. By the end I was doing 9 minute miles and they didn't feel hard. Not bad for the end of two long weeks.

I went home and soaked in the hot tub, ate and drank, and I'm looking forward to a nap, and one more day off work before life goes back to "normal".

Running plans: I'm taking tomorrow off!

Feed all the Kangaroos...and Run!

Who remembers the Steely Dan song "Black Friday"? There's some reference to "nothing to do but feed all the kangaroos"... and "catch the gray men as they dive from the fourteenth floor".

I saw something about it on Facebook, and it reminded me of this cool picture of my niece Jenny on a trip to Australia. Jenny is now 14 going on 35, and look out world, she is Towanda! She's going to take over the world, which, believe me, would be a good thing. She really ought to be running for President. She does have some political experience in student government already- probably makes her more qualified than quite a few of those candidates!

I worked on Black Friday. I like the feeling of doing the opposite- making money and keeping it in my own pocket instead of spending it on that day like everybody else.

Look out, here comes another rant.

For me, Black Friday is buy nothing day. Actually it's buy as little as possible season, as far as I'm concerned. It's my personal boycott of the whole Christmas shopping season. There's something nauseating about going into any retail store, even to buy groceries, and hearing Christmas music, first of all. And it lasts for over a month, sometimes the onslaught starts after Halloween! After I've heard my first Christmas tune, I'm over it. Change it back to something, anything, please! I wish we could limit the Christmas music to one week- just the week leading up the the actual holiday.

This weekend's papers were HUGE, thick, heavy things- our actual local paper is only a few pages long with four short sections, but the ads made it look like something out of Chicago or LA. How many trees died to make all those ugly full color ads for diabetogenic foods? Do we really need to see pictures of bags of Cheetos on sale? Or digital cameras and megasized TV screens?

I prefer to work on Christmas. I think of it as my gift to the Christian world. Each year I tell my co-workers, anyone who wants Christmas off can talk to me. I'm happy to hide out from the mobs by working.

I'm just so tired of the commercialization and money grabbing, the shameless and mindless consumption of all this plasticized crap. To me, it might as well be porn. It is sleazy.

I cannot understand what is worth pepper spraying or shooting other people over it, or even waking up to stand in line at 4 am to buy some thing that you or anyone else certainly can live without. Personally, I'd rather sleep in, and walk to anywhere I need to go instead of buying another tank of gas. If I can't carry it home in my two hands, it isn't worth buying.

We have an election year coming up, and I'm really tempted to make up my own bumper sticker this time: Kick 'em all out. No incumbents in 2012. Actually, I will vote for Obama, because I don't see alternative candidates who would improve things, but I'm thoroughly disgusted with the state of our government and the way things work against most of the citizens of this country. I can't stand to pay attention, but I can't afford not to. It's gotten so bad that no one can afford to ignore the state of things. We need a control-alt-delete button for our political, legal, and economic systems. Reset, reboot, and start over.

So my goal for this coming year? Eradicate apathy. People have got to quit being apathetic. They have to stop burying themselves in THINGS and THINGS and THINGS they see on TV, and their cell phones, and their text messages, and all the little distractions that make it so convenient to spend money and keep the corporate world ripping all the ordinary citizens off during their willful somnolence.

I wrapped up my buy nothing weekend this morning with a blazing fast-for me- ten mile run on the hills at Horsetooth Reservoir. The wind finally died down and it was a perfectly clear, late fall morning. There's no ice on the water yet. I felt strong the whole way, especially running the uphills and pushing through over the tops, like I never missed any training at all. Awesome.

Quit buying, and keep running.

photo credit: Nathan Nitzky