Runner's High? Not me.

I’ve been accused of being an “endurance athlete” in recent years.  It has a lot to do with the length of some of my bike rides.  Appearances can be deceiving.  I am anything but an endurance athlete.

Back when I used to jog for exercise, it was obvious that I wasn’t a runner.  A bit thicker then, one look at my body and my running and you just knew that running was not my sport.

That “runner’s high” that runners talk about?  Never found that creature.  It didn’t exist as far as I was concerned.  Running was misery from the first step to the last.

But I did it anyway.  It was cheap and easy.  A decent pair of running shoes and out the door you go.  It didn’t matter what clothes you wore although I did have a pair of those embarrassingly short running shorts that runners used to wear.  Thank goodness that no photos survived that era.

No, any semblance of an endurance athlete that you might assume about me is just a façade.  I do pretty good because I am fully dedicated to the biking and because I work hard at it, but start up a hill and I get dropped (what bikers do when they can’t keep up) in a hurry.

My body, my lung capacity, my muscles, my heart…they just weren’t built for it.  But since I enjoy the sport so much, persist I will.

As far as runners are concerned, I think there are two kinds.  Those that are naturals at it, that take great joy in going out for a run and those that aren’t naturals but overcome lack of natural talent with hard work.

From a sports medicine standpoint, I see two different categories as well, lining up with the type of runner they are.  The naturals, those that have a real talent for running, seem to get little problems or stress fractures.  A lot of the time it is just from overtraining.

Too much mileage.  Too many hills.  If I can run 10 miles, then let’s run 20 miles.  That sort of thing.  The breakdowns that they experience are most often simple with clear solutions.

I’ve had some really great runners that put in a ton of miles running that have simple breakdowns.  Most of the time I put them on a treadmill, running barefoot, and videotaping their running gait.  Slow motion often reveals really subtle abnormalities that often have a simple, subtle fix. 

Those non-naturals, those that run but it always seems hard for them, often have bigger breakdowns which can be anywhere.   And they’re sometimes hard to fix.  I think part of that is that they are used to running in pain so they run through a lot of injuries that might otherwise be normal but by persisting, they make them into big problems.

Big problems at the knee.  Big problems at the hip.  Big problems at the low back.  And then there are the feet.  They often have huge problems at the foot.  Maybe flat footed.  Maybe a huge arch.  Maybe they are a pronator.

And just maybe that’s why running doesn’t come easy for them. 

I make a lot of orthotics for runners.  Those elite runners can often benefit from orthotics but I am careful not to make huge changes in the way that their foot hits the ground.  That is often why they are an elite runner in the first place.

Those non-natural runners can very often benefit from orthotics as well but I’m not afraid of big changes through the orthotics on them.   Many times, I have had one of those average runners—a runner who might not take great joy in running but who is running for their health—and given them back their running.

They may have stopped running altogether because their body just couldn’t take it anymore.  Sometimes treating the origins of their problem gets them back to running.

So, which runner are you?

Tennessee Trash

Be warned-this column will have little to do with sports.  Yeah, I know…you’re in the Sports Section.  But if you come here often, you might have learned that I go off on tangents from time to time that have nothing to do with sports or athletic health care.

I was on my bike yesterday (no, we’re not going there), riding by myself, which is quite unusual for me.  I usually ride only in groups.  It’s safer and a lot more fun that way.

When you’re on a bicycle, riding alone, you notice things.  You smell the cedar tree that was recently cut.  You hear the birds calling out and maybe you know what they are by their call.  You are definitely more in tune with your surroundings.

And what I noticed yesterday was trash.  Everywhere.  I couldn’t go 100 yards without seeing trash on the side of the road.  It’s the worst it has ever been.

I live just off of Big Springs Road.  You may not know it but that is the road to our landfill.   I guess you can expect a certain amount of trash along that road.  My kids and I used to go out on Sunday afternoon and pick up stretches of it.  I still do, sometimes.

But where I was riding yesterday was in some of our most scenic areas.  Sinking Creek Road near Greenback.  Old Friendsville Road.  Marble Hill Road.  Union Grove

At least half a dozen times, I came up on bags of trash that had apparently fallen out of someone’s vehicle, broke open when they hit the road, and then spread out to make an awful mess.

Again, I sort of expect that along Big Spring Road but not in some of the more remote areas.  I saw enough beer cans to keep half the county drunk.  For a week.  Fast food containers seem to be everywhere, particularly the huge soda containers that you can get “for just 29₵ more.”

Let me talk about those beer cans a bit.  Ask yourself “why would someone throw an empty six-pack of beer out on the side of the road.”  Let me let you in on a little secret:  Those came from your kids.

Yes, your underage drinkers.  I mean, some teenager has been driving around (scared yet?), drinking with their friends (now you’re scared), and they’re about to go home.  But they can’t leave their empties in the trash can at home—they will get caught.  And they can’t drop by the local market—somebody might see them.

So they toss their empties on the side of the road before they get home.  How does a 16 year old get beer?  Come on…don’t be naïve.  People aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States.  In one study, 30% of teenagers admitted to having drank alcohol in the past 30 days.  I believe that’s conservative.  But back to the trash problem.

It’s everywhere.  Off the bike, I’ve started noticing more and more.  And it seems like there are more of the broken open bags of trash out there than ever.

I just don’t understand it.  What is the mindset, what is in the brain of someone that thinks it is OK to just take their trash and throw it out the window of their car?   I don’t think it is simply that they don’t care.  I think they never learned the lessons of personal responsibility for the world we live in.

If you are taking a load of trash to the landfill, you’re supposed to secure it in your vehicle (usually a truck or trailer).  You should at least make sure that it is secure enough that it won’t easily blow off. 

And if it does blow off, for goodness sake go back and pick it up!  It’s your trash regardless of where it is.