FINDING YOUR ROOTS

Our friends in Seattle are trying to recapture the glory days of 1971 when the behemoth of beans began life as a little coffee shop.



So they rolled out a new-old look. This is the vintage logo from years ago. Yep, just like the sports teams that sell "throwback" jerseys or caps and stuff, the Seattle people are going back to their roots. Coffee. Pure and simple. Its daring strategy. Will it work??? many are wondering.

I just think they are returning to what they do best. Brew those beans and rake in the cash. Whattya think of the mermaid??? Little risque???? LOL.


In our training, sometimes we need to just go right back to what we are good at. Period. You began your endurance career as a swimmer. Hey get back in the pool and refine your stroke. You are Norman Stadler on the bike??? Try to shave even more time off your rides. I wish I had a penny for every ground ball I saw Omar Vizquel take as shortstop of the Indians for many years. A magician with the glove and he still, was taking thousands and thousands of grounders. 5 years after he takes his last grounder, he could be on the grounds of the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Those were his roots. He fielded balls with gloves made out of cardboard as a kid in Venezuela. He always thought he could improve.


I was a cross country runner in 8th and 9th grade, and ran as a sophomore and junior before I was cleared to play football, the sport I really loved. I had a bad back. Through it all, I came to love running in virgin wilderness..on trails not taken often. Free running, mind drifting, taking in the elements...breathing easy, sweating, pounding...Listening to the woodpeckers jackhammers, the birds choruses in the trees..the sound of the water in the creeks trickling past. I did that this morning...getting in an hour at North Chagrin. Brought the Silver Bullet Sebring. Took the top down, even though it was only 49 degrees. BUT IT WAS AWESOME.


As I ran, I thought of Americas poet, Robert Frost, and of one of his most famous poems. The Road Not Taken. I thought of how its just ME and the elements. How I make decisions on the fly. While I see the beauty and the incredible benefits to using Garmin while running, I could not resist the urge to take a gentle jab at the technology while in the Robert Frost State of Mind... so...with apologies....my version of


THE ROAD NOT TAKEN


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
I checked my garmin of where I stood
and I looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

My garmin gave no clue, that wasn't fair,
I took the other road just the same,
because it was grassy, but I hadn't a care
Though my lame garmin filled me with despair
both roads were worn really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no GPS would likely track
Oh, I kept the first for another day!!
Yet knowing how way leads leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a mournful sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
Used my Garmin and took the one less traveled by,
And ..... fell into a trench.


Happy Training