(I’m listening to “Warning Sign” by Coldplay”

I don’t hate running, but I really don’t like it all that much.  It’s kind of boring.  Step after step.  Some of my friends who are runners say it gives them solitude or it’s refreshing or it gives them a challenge.  I can understand their point, but it won’t ever mean that to me.  To me, running is just a means to an end.  That doesn’t mean I don’t do it, I just haven’t done much of it lately.  Running is one of those things I don’t like to do, but once I do it, I feel good.

I wish I loved running.  I wish it was an adrenaline rush, or it felt like an accomplishment, but it doesn’t, at least not to me.  For those that it does, I tip my cap.  I’m envious.  I’ll never be the one with the 26.2 or 13.1 stickers on my car.  I’ve run a couple of 10k’s before, but that was just something fun to do.  Our route took us through all the major sports stadiums in Denver, a few of my friends were doing it, so I joined them.

With that said, I do need to run.  About 2 year ago, I ran quite a bit.  I was psyched up for a snowboarding trip to Silverton Mountain which was going to require a lot of hiking.  I didn’t want to be huffing and puffing at 13,000 feet, so I laced up the old running shoes and hit the trails by my house.  Sadly, that probably marked the last time I was in “good” shape.  In those two years, I’ve put on about 10 lbs.  I’m not a “foodie.”  I could live off of tortillas, spaghetti sauce, cheese, and water if I had to.  One time, the wife left town with the kids for a couple of days, and the fridge looked like this:

 I survived.  Anyway, back to those 10 lbs.  They just kind of appeared.  After that snowboarding trip, the wife was pregnant with our second child, Tiny.  Keeping on a decent diet with a pregnant woman is kind of like walking into a casino and saying, “I’m not going to gamble tonight.”  The wife loved what she called, “Her 4th meal.”  She’d eat right before she went to bed so she felt satiated and wouldn’t be sick.  I don’t blame her at all.  She was growing a human being inside of her, for goodness sake.  But, I’d get roped into the 4th meal.  So, the 10 lbs just appeared.

Once Tiny was born, running really wasn’t an option either.  Those first few months of a new baby, man, the wife and I just felt like zombies; half awake, half asleep.  Even with Tiny being a “unicorn baby,” meaning, she slept through the night at about the 8 week mark thanks to the wife’s sleep training education, running just wasn’t a priority.  Plus, I just figured chasing around a three-year-old on a few hours of sleep would keep the pounds off.  Wrong.

The next option was, well, I just figured I’d snowboard myself into shape.  With Tiny sleeping through the night and winter right around the corner, I figured that would do the trick.  I’m kind of weird.  I get more active in the winter and slow down during the summer.  I hate being too hot, and I love being cold.  So, during the winter, I usually shed the unwanted pounds naturally.  Yep, didn’t happen.  I went on another snowboard trip this winter and huffed and puffed up some of the hikes we did.  No bueno, but I made it and still had a great time.

Well, summer is rolling around again and I’m still carrying the ten.  I don’t obsess about my weight.  I’d say I have a range in which I feel good, and I like to be in that range.  Once I get to the top of that range, I start doing some mountain biking, skateboarding, and even running.  Combing that with watching what I eat a little bit more and I can usually get back down into that feel good range.

There’s one caveat though.  I’m actually getting older.  I’m approaching 40 and I’m realizing that, well, a chocolate shake will stay with me for a little longer than it used to.  There’s a little more jiggle these days.  Also, running doesn’t quite appeal to my body like it once did.  There’s a couple of extra creaks, but it’s not that bad.  I’m a firm believer  in “If you slow down, you get old,” so I don’t plan on slowing down any time soon.  Keep in mind, I am still in my 30’s, so it’s not like I’m getting fake hips and knees of something.  I’m still young.

The running shoes are starting to speak to me.  I can hear them in the closet.  They’re saying, “Hey, remember us!  We can help!”  Ugh.  They’re getting louder.  Here the are, the evil twins.

The funny part about me and running is that no matter how long of a layoff I have from it, I can just pick it up and run three miles at the drop of a hat.  It’s not easy, and I feel it for the next few days, but I can do it.  This frustrates the wife.  We actually had a conversation about this tonight and I said jokingly, “I can do it because I’m a man.  It’s just straight brawn.  It’s just science.”  We both got a chuckle out of that.

I’ll probably start running again.  The 10 lbs don’t really worry me though. The reason while I’ll start running again is simple: I want to keep up with my kids.  I consider myself a bit of an “older parent.”  We had our first when I was 35 and our second when I was 37, so I’d say that qualifies as a bit of a late start.  I just want to make sure I can keep up with them.  There’s lot of experiences I want to share with them and I just want to make sure I can do all the things I want to do with them.  I want to teach them how to snowboard, skateboard, ride a bike, play sports, etc.  I want to be as young as I can for as long as I can for them, and for me.  It’s part of my balance of being a dad and being human.

With that said, I’m off to bed.  A day on the mountain awaits.  Snowboard season is fading fast, and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be active, to be human, and be a better dad.

I hope those running shoes don’t keep me awake.