Certified Rollers

Well, the world has pretty much been turned upside down over the last few weeks. Everything is cancelled and we are all trying to find a way to adjust to an ever changing new normal. A few weeks ago, I was still running with friends on the weekends and optimistic about the Vermont City Marathon still being held on Memorial Day weekend.

Unfortunately, like pretty much everyone else I know, my goal race was postponed. Which at the time seemed like a big deal but as this crisis has continued to unfold that seems to be far less worrisome with each passing day. Still, I consider myself fortunate and grateful that I’m able to get out the door for a run each day. Like many runners, my goals and focus have been forcibly shifted, but it could be a lot worse.

For now, my plan is to keep working through the marathon build up. I don’t know how many of the workouts I’m going to end up doing as I don’t think it’s a smart idea to be doing unnecessary travel to places have tend to draw a crowd like parks and tracks. I figure I’ll keep building the mileage and work in some of the tempo runs but I don’t plan to go deep enough to let myself get run down.

The plan being to get through the mileage part of the buildup and have that experience under my belt for next time. Plus, I figure it’ll be a good way to get in good shape for the summer, assuming we have some semblance of one. Then maybe I’ll take a shot at some Strava segments or an FKT. Looking at you Cades Cove and KeMo.

My sort of rose-colored glasses outlook on this whole thing aside, I touched on it a bit in my last post but it’s clear people didn’t take things serious enough at the start of this and now we’re bracing for lockdowns and shelter in place orders. I certainly have been among the guilty parties at times. After a week of working from home I met up with friends for Saturday and Sunday runs. It was three and four guys and we were mindful of keeping our distance but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being selfish.

In my mind, once I started trying to rationalize it to myself that’s when I knew I was wrong. I felt guilty for meeting up with people, but I really hit me when planning my long run for this weekend. I had planned on going up to the Lake Russell WMA to run on the Forest Service roads. I told myself ‘I’m just one person. I’m going solo and I’m not going to be stopping for gas or food or anything like that.’

How many people had that same conversation with themselves? And how many of those people got to their destination and said ‘I wasn’t the only one with this idea’. I kept thinking about how crowded Kennesaw and couldn’t shake the feeling that even though I’m one person and can be low impact, if everyone else that thought that same thing stayed home and did a run from their front door how many unnecessary exposures could be avoided.

I’m a fan of the Dirtbag Diaries podcast and they run an ad from Patagonia before a bunch of their shows that features the company’s founder sharing his philosophy on environmental issues.

“Every one of us has to step up and do what you can according to what your resources are”

Yvon Chouinard

This seems to be a perfect summation of the situation we find ourselves in right now. I’m fortunate. I remain gainfully employed and able to work from home. My resources to help our current crisis are to #stayhome so that’s what I’m going to do. It reminds of my former teammate Mark Miller’s ‘rock in the ocean’ analogy. Sure my single rock might not do much when I throw it in the ocean but ff we all stay home and put our small rocks together, we can make a big splash.

To be honest, it’s good that some of the decisions about leaving the house have been taken out of our hands because we clearly can’t be trusted with them. The county that I live in put in a stay at home order on Friday night. That doesn’t change much for me as I’ve been working from home and only leaving for runs or going to the grocery store for essentials.

While I certainly miss running in some of the local parks and trails, I’ve decided that every run will start and finish at my front door until we get a handle on this. If I can run to a park, that’s fine but no where that requires getting in the car. How noble right? But in all seriousness, that’s how I can limit my exposure and if we all start doing that no, we may get to the other side of this thing sooner rather than later.

Enough doom and gloom though. I’m trying to find the silver lining in all of this. Of course, I recognize that I am very fortunate to be in a situation where I have the luxury of doing that. I know a lot of people have been impacted greatly. I’m lucky to be in a situation where the majority of disruptions to my day-to-day are what have to this point amounted to minor changes or slight annoyances.

Nothing coming out of this is positive, however under the silver lining umbrella has been an ability to compartmentalize more clearly for me. I get a chance to spend more time in the morning and at night with Amanda. My ability to work from home has allowed us to work on things we would otherwise eschew for another day because we want to be off on some adventure. I’ve also been able to devote time and energy to running without worrying about fitting in a much. My commute up the stairs has been nice.

Arizona Trip

Was going to make this it’s own post but the post for our trip to Asheville from the fall is still sitting in the drafts folder so let’s just jot a few things down before the same thing happens with this trip. We actually snuck this trip in right before things went haywire. Our flight back to Atlanta had 36 people on it and two days after we got back our office closed and well, the rest is current events.

Amanda and I had been talking about doing something different for a trip this winter. Typically, we head home to New England for a week or go somewhere that’s driving distance from Atlanta for a long weekend. Both of us felt like we needed a break and wanted to do something different so we settled on Sedona, Arizona.

We rented an A-Frame cabin in Munds Park in between Sedona and Flagstaff and spent an awesome week sampling the local coffee and beer, exploring the red rocks, and relaxing. I’m not sure that I buy the whole energy vortex thing that people claim is going on in Sedona but it was absolutely beautiful.

The rock formations and colors are literally otherworldly and really succeeded in giving us the feeling of taking a real break. We picked a good time to go as it was still pretty chilly in the morning but warmed up in the afternoon. Things got a little crowded over the weekend but overall it wasn’t too bad. I would imagine that from spring break until the temps really get unbearable the crowds are probably insane.

We skipped Devil’s Bridge which was a little bit of a bummer but I don’t think either of us was in the mood to get up super early to get the insta photo. And I know neither of us wanted to wait in line for that insta photo. We did go to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Bell Rock/Courthouse Butte, Airport Mesa, and my personal favorite Cathedral Rock.

For my money, Cathedral Rock (above) was the winner in terms of Sedona sights. I sort of stumbled on it actually. I ran the Bell Rock Pathway, which was a great spot to run, and when I reached the end of the trail I wanted to add a mile and a half or so to get to 10 total for the day. I ended up taking a road, figuring I’d run to the end and head back but when I got to the end of the road I ended up at the trail head. One look at the rock formation rising above me settled it. I was going to scramble up to the top.

Fortunately, it was only about a .75 mile trail, so I made my way over the slick rock and scrambled my way up to the vista for some seriously epic views. If the energy vortex stuff is for real then I might have found one here because I was beaming on the way down and was psyched for the remainder of the run. Even though it was an out and back, the landscape and the run/hike/scramble to the vista made this one of the most memorable runs I have ever done.

I was so stoked on Cathedral Rock that I made Amanda hike it with me again a few days later and returned myself to run some of the surrounding trails as part of my long run that weekend. One thing about this trip that we did unintentionally but will be good in the long run is we left a couple things undone, so we’ve got a reason to go back. I really wanted to run the hangover loop but with everything we had going on I didn’t get there. Next time.

In addition to several hikes in Sedona, we also spent some time checking out Flagstaff. I’d heard good things about it being an adventure hot spot and while it had some cool spots it was a little different than what I was anticipating. It was kind of like if Keene, New Hampshire had an older brother that was a little bit rougher, like he got into some trouble, not bad kid but a little rough around the edges. Maybe he got arrested once or twice for knocking over mail boxes or spray painting the bridge in town.

That being said, I was a huge fan of Mother Road brewing. Excellent beers and a cool atmosphere. After a day of dealing with some crowds in Sedona it was exactly what we were looking for. My personal favorite part of Mother Road was they had a little gear thing at each bar spot and table and when you put it up they took your order from the pizza place next door, Pizzicletta, and brought you a to-go order. It was fantastic.

After the fact, I learned that Mother Road and Pizzicletta sponsor the Coconio Cowboys and they had a party for the Olympic Trails runners from Flagstaff. Unfortunately we missed that, but if you are ever in the area that’s definitely the spot to check out in town.

Watching/Listening to/Liking

EF Gone Racing | Cape Epic

EF Education First and Rapha have been making 20-30 minute videos following their alternative race calendar. The 2020 alternative calendar was supposed to begin with the Lachlan Morton and Alex Howes riding the Absa Cape Epic mountain bike race in South Africa. Even though the race was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they still made a video of the lead up and through the cancellation.

I’ve really enjoyed the videos as they explore the more adventure-focus side of endurance sports and show a different side of the athletes outside of the hyper-focused world tour road racing scene. They have sort of followed in the footsteps of what Ted King has done with gravel cycling and I hope to see more of this in the future. Morton has been particularly interesting to learn more about. I highly recommend checking it out.

The Best “Florida Man” Headline of All Time

Ultra runner David Kilgore ran 100 miles to raise money for healthcare workers in New York amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The GoFundMe page is a still active if you are interested in donating.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/6s2cf-covid19-community-support

“On Friday 3/27 I will be running 100 miles back in my hometown of Palm Bay, Florida. After facing the tough fact that most of my races were canceled due to COVID-19, I wanted a new way to push my limits. I am running to raise awareness and donations for the communities needing it most. Your donations will contribute to Gift Cards that I will be purchasing from struggling NYC run specialty stores. Stores that I typically work with on a daily basis. Those Gift Cards will then be donated to (NYC Health + Hospitals ) to provide front line medical workers supportive footwear while they are working long days keeping my city healthy.”

David Kilgore’s GoFundMe

Gratitude In Uncertain Times

Michael Moran has, arguably, the greatest Instagram handle of all time. Trailrunnah. I love it. I forget how or when I started following him but recently started a blog and wrote an excellent post about daily gratitude and how it can help in these uncertain times. It’s really well written and is a good reminder that in spite of what we’re facing, taking a moment to reflect on gratitude can help provide some calm in these crazy times.

Check out his blog – Daily Gratitudes in Uncertain Times

Brands That are Keeping Us Sane

There are countless businesses that have been massively impacted by the pandemic but I’ve been impressed by the way a few have adjusted to the interruption in our daily lives. From the companies that have switched to their manufacturing to make medical supplies to those simply trying to help us deal with what has become a bit of an indefinite new normal. You’ve no doubt gotten emails from all manner of companies that you’ve given your information to, and probably some you didn’t know you’d given your information to. These are a few that I’ve appreciated.

Tracksmith | Founder Matt Taylor penned a heartfelt letter to the community about the importance of being adaptable and how we all need to find ways to keep at it. Running might seem silly at a time like this but as always it’s a metaphor for life. Things aren’t always going to go your way and we’ve got to adjust.

“Now more than ever we need consistency. It might mean getting creative, finding new ways to do old things. But we must maintain our fitness. Why? Because things will return to normal.”

Tracksmith Founder & CEO Matt Taylor

You can read the full letter here – Tracksmith Journal

Huckberry | Whether you need some new work from home attire or just a good diversion from all the Microsoft Teams & Zoom call, Huckberry is a good one stop shop. They’ve got everything from three-ingredient quarantine cocktails to activities for a restless mind, and my personal favorite the defense of the waist pack. I don’t know if we’re going to have a summer in 2020, but if we do I’m still ready for the summer of the waist or fanny pack. They’re coming back. We might have to wait until 2021 but it’s happening.

Rhone | I’ve included Rhone’s The Pursuit in this blog before and it’s been a great resource for wellness and ways to get moving each day to 100+ movies to watch now that our weekends are spent in the house. They have also launched a program called Brands x Better to join with other companies to donate 10% of their proceeds to humanitarian aid. That’s more than a gesture. It’s impact.