While MLS Timbers COO MIKE GOLUB has yet to get Owner MERRITT PAULSON on board, Golub and his wife SAM are all about yoga. This weekend the couple will hit up a party, do some yoga and cycling, swing by one of his favorite food trucks and catch a movie. All squeezed around the Timbers' home game against the Impact on Saturday.
DATE NIGHT: Friday, my wife and I are going to try and catch a movie. Maybe "Amour" or "Zero Dark Thirty." Those are the two on our list. We haven’t seen a movie in a while. I also have a friend’s going-away party from adidas. Then I’ll take my wife out to a vegetarian restaurant. She’s actually a vegan, which is even harder for me (laughs). One of our favorites in town is a vegan place called Natural Selection. It so happens -- and we didn’t know this until we became fans of the restaurant -- that the chef and owner is a member of the Timbers Army.
DOWNWARD DOG: On Saturday, my wife and I usually do either a yoga class or a cycling class first thing in the morning and one of us tries to walk the dogs down to the studio. I find it’s really relaxing. I have an ongoing argument with my boss, our owner Merritt, and he claims yoga isn’t truly exercise. He obviously is wrong and I keep on trying to say, “Just come to the class, and I’ll prove you wrong.”
FARM FRESH: Then we have a healthy brunch somewhere, either home or at one of our spots. Portland also has a great farmer’s market. It’s not quite open yet, but typically on Saturdays we go there and we’re part of a cooperative where you pick up fresh produce at the farmer’s market.
JUST FOR KICKS: Saturday is our second home game against Montreal. It’s a 7:30pm game, so I’ll probably get here 2:00pm or 2:30pm. I tend to walk the stadium with our Senior VP/Operations KEN PUCKETT. I try to check in with the various departments. … Merritt and GAVIN WILKINSON -- our GM -- and I typically before games open have a meal; it’s sort of a pregame ritual. There’s a buffet, so I undo all the gains I made in yoga. We started a program last year called the Food Cart Alliance. Every game there’s a different food cart that comes and takes over one of our stands and offers their food. So this Saturday is one of my favorite food carts in town. And I had nothing to do with this, this was voted in! It’s called Nong’s Khao Man Gai. It’s Thai street food.
THE GIFT OF TIME: After our first year, Merritt gave a few of us a really nice watch. I started wearing it in the second season to games and the watch has a great record. So I wear it as good luck.
TAKE A HIKE: Sunday, we’re up early and either exercising or hiking with the dogs. Portland is awesome because there’s amazing hiking right in the city. Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the country. We have trails five to ten minutes from our house. So there are many options right here in the city and also the Columbia River Gorge.
TAKE YOUR PICK: The Sunday N.Y. Times has always been a ritual of mine, so I can’t do without spending a couple hours with it. There’s a really cool app called Instapaper. Once you install the app, both on your mobile device and desktop, any webpage that you come across, you hit read later and it saves it to your Instapaper. It’s actually great for traveling because you don’t need to be connected to the web to read it. But I also like to read up on stories that I wanted to read during the week but I didn’t have time. There’s a couple of weekly newsletters, like JOE FAVORITO’s weekly online newsletter, in which I may flag some interesting stories in the sports and media world that I like a lot. Then I also try on the weekends to listen to some of the podcasts that I didn’t get around to, like MLS' “ExtraTime Radio." There’s also a podcast “Soccer Made In Portland” that I enjoy and “The Best Soccer Show.”
