Friday, September 08, 2006

Trailrunning, MTBing, XTerra, and Road Weenies

I ended up doing 9 miles last night on the hilly WyCo Park trails, with 6.5 miles at a decent pace. My hammy and back were talkin' to me, but I ran through the pain. I believe in an "active recovery," when I can actually move; (last week, I was barely moving). I'm trying to break-up any scar tissue that may be there from the injury, so when I run, I try to run as I normally would. I hit the gym this morning, and did back and biceps. I backed-off on the weight for some of the back stuff, though.

Caleb helped me mark the course for the XTerra folk's race, last night. It's funny, because he will probably win the 10K tomorrow. (He's already won the last two 10K's in this series). You normally won't find roadrunners that will volunteer or help with a race that they are running in...especially not the winners. Trailrunners don't mind pitching-in to help. This is another thing that separates roadrunning from trailrunning. It's very similar in the biking world, too. I may be generalizing here, but many road cyclists have prissy/snobby tendencies. They seem more focused on how they look and their equipment, rather than adding or giving back anything to the sport. Maybe that's why we call them "Roadweenies." Most MTB folks that I've met are just the opposite. In fact, many MTB'ers don't mind putting in eight hours of trail maintenance every few months; thank goodness!

Back to the Xterra race. Xterra pisses me off. They put on these local trail race series' with expensive entry fees all over the country, but they don't know anything about most of the local trails, and they don't participate in any local trail maintenance or cleanup. As you know, I'm all about promoting trailrunning and trail racing, but these folks are a bunch of poseurs that really only care about the almighty dollar. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it! I hope that with time, this will change, though.

5 comments:

Olga said...

I am all for active recovery too...you give me hope:)
And what's up with my glut now? is it because I alter the step for hamstring?

running42k said...

I think you are right on both your observations about trail runners/road runners and mountain bikers/road riders. Although evern road runners tend to be less uptight then the average human.

running42k said...

also. Maybe I should post this on the other blog but have you tried coffee porter? I tried one and it was amazing.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

I've made an espresso stout before, but not a coffee porter. I think they taste good, but I've only brewed them in small (5-gallon) amounts.

Ben, aka BadBen said...

I brewed my first espresso stout about 10 years ago. I made my own espresso, and added it to the secondary fermenter. This discussion should continue on my brew blog.