Know Where the Toilets Are on Your Runs

I wonder if married marathon runners maintain their relationships by never seeing each other to discuss their marital problems

Today’s post comes after a lot of stress over the colors of our house that only stalkers on Google Maps will ever see.

Musings

• The Yale Budget Lab estimates the new tariffs introduced yesterday will cost the average US Consumer $1,800 - $3,800 a year based on 2024 spending.

• Nintendo announced the Switch 2 will retail for $449.99. The games themselves, however, will retail at $90 for physical copies - surprising not just gaming enthusiasts but parents as well. A double whammy for gaming enthusiast parents! For perspective, a new copy of Mario Kart on the current Switch costs $55 today. All of this occurred before the announced 24% tariffs on Japan yesterday so who knows whether MSRP will adjust as we get closer to the 2025 holiday season.

• Oakland’s mayoral race will finally come to an end on April 15th. We’ll decide which one of two uninspiring candidates will become our next mayor after a season of aggressive attack ads trying to showcase who was more friendly with our indicted former mayor. As if people cared who Epstein or Diddy were seen with.

Feet, Foam, and Pavement

I decided to pickup running when Oliver was born and I was on paternity leave with a dysfunctional sleep schedule. It was one of the few things I could do at 2AM while Oliver slept and allowed me to see more of a city I hadn’t spent that much time in. This was also around the same time Peloton introduced outdoor running to their app so the stars sort of aligned. Running around Oakland at the dead of night is a surreal experience. I’ve watched car chases, break-ins, raccoon battles, and drunken brawls take place all while listening to Becs Gentry tell me to take a breather after that tough interval with Madonna in the background.

Last year, I signed up for my first half marathon, overtrained, got sick, and missed my goal by 3 minutes before deciding that running wasn’t for me. Afterwards, I signed up for a box gym to do barbell strength and HITT classes because it’s nice offloading the workout plan to someone else. But that got stale and expensive pretty quickly. I missed the alone time of running so I got a new pair of running shoes, signed up for a race with a goal, and popped Becs back into my ears.

Here’s what I’ve learned and what I’ve yet to learn about about myself when it comes to running:

• I want to be able to run when I’m 70+. I don’t need to be like Jeanie Rice who completed Boston with a time of 3:33 at age 75 but being able to maintain my endurance into my silver fox years would be nice.

• I am not a serious runner and that’s okay. In his memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami considers people who put in 36+ miles a week to be serious runners. I average around 18-23 miles a week.

• Training for a 10k is the perfect amount of time away from my responsibilities as a husband and father without feeling guilt. Training for a half marathon at my current pace is borderline. Training for a full marathon would probably be grounds for a divorce.

• It is very easy to see progress (more mileage, faster pace, shrinking waist line) but that progress is also very easy to lose for me. Every time I take a break from running, that new pace, new long run mile, or pair of pants regress.

• I have no idea how to incorporate strength training into my running. I default to the Stronglifts 5x5 program every time I want to work on strength training but I realized the program with my running schedule is causing me to not recover between workouts as quickly for me to have productive workouts. Help.

• I do not drink enough water, wear enough sunscreen, or eat enough for my runs.

I have a lot more to learn about what’s working and what’s not when building my own sustainable workout routine. I think the advice that the only way to get better at running is by running more, unfortunately, holds pretty true. This past February, I hit my goal of running a sub 1 hour 10k. I’ve already put in ~200 miles this year so hopefully with a few hundred more, I’ll be able to hit that sub 2-hour half marathon goal.

Things I Want to Know from You

• What has changed about your own thoughts on working out and exercise over the years?

• For parents, how are you finding any time at all to find time to get some exercise in?

See you next time,
Jason