Running on the Cheap

[caption id="attachment_2197" align="aligncenter" width="490"] $10.00 at target for the pullover![/caption]

I was recently reading through my blog-roll here on wordpress, and read a blog-posting someone had written about how expensive running was.  Unfortunately, I can't find the posting to link to it from here (if you know of such a blog-posting, please let me know!!)  The reason that I bring it up is that I hate to spend money unnecessarily.  (Well, unnecessarily on clothing and such.  It interferes with spending money on doing cool things with my family.) But I disagree with that, and wanted to share my views on running on the cheap.

Friday's Ramblings... Or why its always nice to give clean pants to a neighbor's child after a dog throws up on them.

So its friday.. I draaaaaaaaaagged myself out of bed this morning (notice all the "a"s?  It was that hard to do..) and headed out to run.  The first thing I have to say, is I have completely forgotten how to dress to run in 40 degree weather.  I was nice and comfy when I got outside and started my run... At the end I went in the house and couldn't get the layers off fast enough!  But I get ahead of myself...

I decided I was going to hold myself back today and take it easy. I have been doing my runs at about the "maximum" speed that I could - for the distance I was running.. I haven't been planning on doing this, it's just that my speed that I ran an easy 4 to 5 mile run last year, is now my "maximum I can handle for 2.5 miles.."  It occured to me that running consistently at that level is probably not the smoothest of moves I could make, my goal today was for a 10 minute mile.  So with that goal in mind, I headed out of the door.

I started my Runtastic.

Don't let me get me, I'm my own worst enemy.

It's amazing how dead on P!nk was with that line.  How many quotes have you seen that echo that?  "Whether you say you can or you can't, you're right!"  or what ever inspirational quote Runner's World posts today on Facebook.

Doctor, doctor won't you please prescribe somethin' A day in the life of someone else?

Maybe this is one of the reasons I like running.  It's a  chance to "Be someone else" than I have been all day.  Instead of the stress of work and deadlines, or working on merit badges, or getting the kids to where they need to be - I get a break from that.  I'm not "Dad."  I'm not an "IT Director."  I'm a runner.  And all that matters for the moment is the run.

It's bad when you annoy yourself so irritating
Some days we don't run.. even though we know we should.
Heck, last night I didn't run - even though I knew I shouldn't! It was driving me batty to not be out there in the warm weather.  But with how tired my limbs have been this week - a break was needed.

 

Bet ya never thought of this P!nk song as an analogy to a runner..

Looking forward to running this weekend though!

A new era in training... Using rather old technology..

So, with my penchance for injuring my calves - leading to down times of running of several weeks - I have decided I need a bicycle.  So doing the wise thing I posted on Facebook and Craigslist that I was looking for a bike!  Surprisingly I got some great offers of people being willing to lend me a bike.. As long as I traveled to Australia or halfway across the country to pick them up.  It seems my friends are comedians...

I found one I was interested in on Craigslist - but the person hasn't responded after I have pestered them for several days via phone and email.  As It kind of reminded me of trying to find a date in highschool - I knew to move on.  On a good note, one of my friends let me know he had found a bicycle in his garage when he moved, and if I wanted it he would happily let me have it.

[caption id="attachment_751" align="alignright" width="640" caption="My New (to me) Ralegh Capri bicycle from the 80's!"][/caption]

Talk about old-school!  I am very excited - it's the sort of bike I wanted as a kid (yes, that was in pre-mountain bike days.. 10/12 speeds were "all that" back in the day..)

Now the bad news.. Tires? Dry rotted.  Cables? Not all are hooked up to where they are supposed to be.  Brakes? Need to "Shoes"  Chain? TBD.