Sunday Sips: Running Through Life
Finding a Balance Between Physical Activity and Alcohol
A little exhausted, sweaty from running around, but still feeling like I can conquer the world. This could describe me both after getting home from a night out on the town or after returning from a long run. As I write this, it’s the a combination of all of these things.
From Friday night through all day on Saturday, I spent my time going from event to event all over town. And then today, I went for my long run as prescribed by the half-marathon training program that I am following. Lately I’ve been asking myself how I can do it all. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like this pace is sustainable and something is going to have to give. But when you enjoy doing both these things so much, how do you strike a healthy balance.
I’m planning to run the Indianapolis Mini Marathon at the beginning of May. That will be my 3rd half marathon, and I’m currently in the middle of my training program to prepare for that race. This means I’ll be running 3-4 times a week for the next couple of months until race day. But then there’s also 3-4 events in my social calendar that I want to attend each week as well.
Combine all of that with the sometimes more stressful weeks at work, and it can make one heck of a cocktail of fatigue. But in order to keep doing the things I love, sometimes it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. The getting up to go running each day has consistently been the hardest thing to do. Especially with the bitter cold that comprises the bulk of February’s weather. With March on the horizon, that should get a little easier in the weeks to come.
But March also brings plenty of other beer events, starting with a variety of Mardi Gras parties all next weekend (which I’ll have some details of in this week’s What’s Tappening post). And after that is St. Paddy’s Day festivities, Giant Jone’s annual Barleywine Fest, plus what I’m sure will be plenty of other fun events.
In order to survive it all, I’m going to have to institute some limits for myself. What those limits are are yet to be determined. It might include only going to a couple of events a week and being much more selective about the ones I choose to attend. With my long runs on the weekends, my Friday/Saturday plans will have to be toned down a bit more than usual.
No matter what I choose though, I won’t let these limits stop me from supporting the local businesses I love enjoying myself any less. It’ll just be more mindful and purposeful in what I can take on.
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To give you an idea of what a hectic weekend looks like, let me recap this weekend’s adventures filled with beer releases, anniversary parties, festivals, and bar openings.
Luckily for me, Friday was a relative light work day which made recovering from Thursdays run a little easier and let me prepare for the barrel-aged beers I planned to drink that night.
The first stop of the night was to meet some friends at Garth’s Brew Bar for the Side Project Brewing launch party. This is where I may have made my first mistake of the night by ordering an 8oz pour of the 10.4% abv Horchata stout. Add to that samples or O.W.K and 10-year barleywine, two more boozy beers, and I was starting to feel it even though I had had a full dinner before heading out. After Garth’s, it was over to BarleyPop for more big beers to kick off their 8th anniversary weekend with a Revolution Brewing tap takeover. Luckily, they had a complimentary Chicago-style hot dog bar that I partook of to help soak up some of the booze. The 5oz pour of Double Barrel V.S.O.R. was the top drink of the night, but at 16.4% abv, I knew I would feel it a little the next day.
When Saturday rolled around, I originally wanted to do my long run then, but I knew with a full day ahead it wouldn’t be likely. And with everything planned, I was worried about how I would be able to get it in on Sunday. But that was a problem for future Darin to tackle.
Saturday started with heading to the Kohl Center to watch Wisconsin men’s basketball take on Oregon. I originally wasn’t going to buy a beer at the game, but when the Badgers are playing it’s only right to enjoy it with a can of Potosi’s Varsity Golden Ale. It didn’t help Wisconsin win, as Oregon came from behind by like 15 to win it in overtime.
We didn’t let the loss get our spirits down as we headed to Delta Beer Lab to celebrate their 6th Anniversary. I ordered a flight of beer with two of the choices being their newest releases, Paloma Grand Gose and Climate Crush Session Hazy. The gose was way too salty for my liking and I couldn’t even finish the taster glass. The session hazy was fine, but not my favorite either. The chai porter on the other hand was absolutely fantastic, and it’s one of my favorite beers they make.
Flights consumed, it was time to have a bit of outdoor fun at Working Draft’s Sloshed and Slushy Beer Fest. They had 12 new beers on tap for the weekend festivities. And if you bought the specialty mug, you’d get $1 off all pours and be able to get your beer poked with a hot poker. I ended up getting poked around 3 times while hanging around the outdoor fire pit. I tried my hand at keg curling, which was harder than I expected but a lot of fun too. The best beer I had here was probably the Pocket Brat, Rauch Helles Doppelbock. I love a good smoked beer, and when you make it a bock, it’s just calling my name.
Finally, the last stop of the evening was to check out the newly opened Ático Lounge on the top floor of the Moxy hotel on East Wash. And since it was National Margarita Day, I had to get the house margarita. The drink was just fine, but hit the spot for my margarita craving. The space is interesting and stretches the length of the entire building. I do think it will be a cool spot to hang out in the summertime. And as an added bonus, their rooftop patio has a great view of Breese Stevens field.
After all of that, I was exhausted. And it took me until around noon today to feel fully recovered from those hectic past two days. So naturally, I ate some lunch, then headed out for my long run. It felt good to be out there pounding the pavement again and part of my run took me by the lake and around Tenney Park where I could see people out on the ice enjoying this beautiful day.
Did I do a lot this weekend? Yes. But it was absolutely worth it. I had so much fun. But it’s getting harder to keep up, and if I’m going to be losing half of my Sunday, some more balance is going to need to be found. It’s something I’ll be working on, and hopefully it results in me being to continue having this much fun but with the drawbacks.
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Drink of the Week: On Friday afternoon, I popped into Forward Craft & Coffee to do a little bit of writing. Since I was going out later that night, I opted to go for an NA beer from the cooler. Visitor Extra IPA is a decent option to go for. I’ve had better and I’ve had worse, but it’s nothing to complain about. What I do like most about this beer is its reliance on a simplified branding strategy. It’s contract brewed by Potosi, so it’s technically a Wisconsin NA Beer, which is an added plus.
What I’m Reading: This week I finished Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and Muddled Cherries by Sally Collins. The first book wasn’t anything special and I don’t really recommend it. But I did really enjoy reading Muddled Cherries. It’s a story that takes place mostly in Door County and is about a 20 year old who leaves home after an incident in her dad’s bar to find here own way and place in the world, all while dealing with complex familial relationships and past trauma. Next up is book 2 in the Mistborn series, The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.