Sports Talk Or NPR, Which Will It Be Today?

Day 38, Sept. 14, 2012

Today, I'm 192.0 pounds of rolling thunder.

And it was a great day to be out on the road.

Today was long run day for me, which usually means about a 6.5-mile run/walk/run through the neighborhood. I'd like to tell you it was run/run/run all the way, but I have to admit to some walking moments, but only on the hills.

After a day of rain and cold, the sun finally broke out just before noon. It was good enough for long sleeves, but the remains of summer made it warm enough to wear shorts. It was one of those days when summer and autumn are fighting for custody of the climate and we mere mortals are just along for the ride.

My weekday runs always start with an uphill job. My strategy is to start at the top of the hill and let gravity and momentum help get my legs moving and the blood pumping. But in the past few months, I've replaced the warm-up walk up the hill, with a slow job that normally gives way to a walk somewhere up the steep slope.

You get a lot solved out on the road. My mind wanders from sports talk radio to NPR with a flick of a switch on the old portable radio. I might be the last person in the world to have a portable radio that isn't linked to a cellphone, MP3 player or all in one.

I have a cellphone. I have and MP3 player. I'm not a total Luddite. I just prefer to listen to talk radio while I'm running rather than music. I guess in that respect, I do fall more toward the Luddite category.

I almost always get hooked on the stump the chumps on sports talk. And it alarms me somewhat that I know more of the answers involving baseball and football players from the '60s and '70s than I do contemporary players.

It does, however, annoy me that the sports talk folks choose to pick at the same four or five scabs all week long. Yes, KU football sucks. No, Bill Snyder will never let you watch K-State football practice. Yes, Missouri made the biggest mistake in its history leaving the Big 12. And no, the Royals and Chiefs won't make the playoffs this year.

There. Happy?

Click, it's time for Science Friday. Thank goodness for NPR when the talk radio folks have played themselves out. NPR is the go-to friend you call on who you know will agree with your opinion regardless of how far from rational you have traveled.

"Click and Clack" are easy to bike to. They make the miles roll by quickly. I'm not sure what the best is for running. I guess that falls under the works-in-progress category.

So today I rolled most of the way up my nemesis long hill before giving in to the walk. I took a couple more stabs at running before the turn but it was admittedly a run/walk/run effort. From there, though, I ran inspired. My only stops were at stoplights, and I climbed the long hill in the sixth mile of my run without a walk.

All in all, it was a good day to be pounding the pavement.

I still might be the world's slowest human, but you can give me a wave anyway.