Ugh.

 Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 164.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: handful of Haribo gummi bears
Time: 6am
Weather: cool & windy

The shin is shooting with pain again - I wore the brace again today. My headphones fragged after a 100 yards, I will need to buy new ones. And I just felt like a man who has gotten roughly six hours asleep, if that, following fourteen hours of rehearsal. Tomorrow I sleep in - until 6:30!

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 34 minutes
Weight: 164.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: banana
Time: 6am
Weather: cool

I put my big boy pants on ... again!

Distanace: 3 miles
Duration: let's say 28 minutes
Weight: 167.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: Gatorade
Snack: handful of Haribo gummi cola bottles
Time: 6am
Weather: warm & wet

I Put My Big-Boy Pants On (145 BPM) (cont.) - dj steveboy

Congrats to steveboy for finally tasting his product.

Oh boy. There is a big mental difference between staying up until midnight because you want to, and staying up because there is a bunch of stuff you need to do and you are rushing to finish it because you know you need to get up at 5.30 and run three miles. I now have forty minutes to wash up and get in my car. Later.

Try and escape the daylight

Distance: 3 miles
Duration: roughly 28 minutes
Weight: 168 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: before, no - after, yogurt
Time: "6 ... A ... M" (actually, around 6.15)
Weather: balmy with light rain

I Put My Big-Boy Pants On (145 BPM) - dj steveboy
"Wanna make sumfin of it?"

The Good Things
Using U.S. Track & Field's America's Running Routes program, I discovered that what I normally thought was a three-mile run around my block was, in fact, closer to four. So I programmed a real three-mile run, which will help me out on subsequent Sundays.

For a day-after- a-long-one morning, today was very good, except for a few items which I will detail in a moment. But the body was good. The legs, were good, so good, in fact, that I ran without any bandages for the first time in months.

This is how supported I have been: right knee brace, left ankle brace and left shin brace. I wore none of them today, and had not a single complaint. I am sure I will need to go back to some or all of them in the coming days and weeks, but the idea of healing is very encouraging to me.

The Bad Things
Just because you go to two birthday parties doesn't entitled you to two pieces of cake. Unless they are both celebrating your birthday.

Alcohol dehydrates you. And makes you drunk. Sometimes you have a headache the next day, the way I have now.

Also, eating lots of food the day before (it was a long, long day yesterday - and I was in bed by ten) might make you think, the next morning, that you don't need a pre-run snack. I felt like I was an empty shell the last miles, seriously running on fumes. That's bad, anorexics do that.

So. That's a lot of babble for a three mile run. It's a big week this week, lots of early runs and late nights. Actually, that's the schedule for the next five weeks. Pray for me.

I've got a sexy back

Week-end Total: 22 miles

Distance: 10 miles
Duration 90 freaking minutes, yo.
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: Balance Bar Gold
Time: 6:15am
Weather: cool

"summer2006" Playlist:
No Hay Igual (Club Mix) - Nelly Furtado
Badass - Crystal Method
Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
Sympathy for the Devil (The Neptunes Remix) - The Rolling Stones
Putting Boxes In Boxes - Plasticman
Mi Tumbao* - Tres Coronas
Don't Cha (Ralphi's Hot Freak radio Mix) - The Pussycat Dolls
We Share Our Mothers' Health - The Knife
Buttons - The Pussycat Dolls
Listen Up! - The Gossip
SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
SOS - Rihanna
Pump It - Black Eyed Peas
Guess What - Keyshia Cole featuring Jadakiss
Every Day Is Exactly the Same - Nine Inch Nails
Girl and the Sea - The Presets
Stupid Girls - Pink
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Munich - Editors
Sixteen Military Wives - The Decemberists
Wound Up - Office
Rapture Riders - Blondie vs. The Doors
Cooldown: The End of it All - John Tejada

Wow! That was awesome! I think waking up at 4:30 just doesn't work. I am still at a loss as how to squeeze in a run twice this length without eating up an entire morning I should be spending with my kids. They are both still asleep right now, but they won't be long. I'll worry about that later. Something in my constitution let me through today, I ran fast and pain-free.

Down Mayfield & Little Italy, all through University Circle (with two laps and a water stop on Wade Oval) past Severance and UH, up the hill to Euclid Hts. Blvd. (another water stop at Turtle Park) on up to Compton, around the high school and back home. It's the usual route, after last week I wanted to try it one more time. Not sure if I will be heading down MLK next week when I need to stretch it to 16.

epiphanic

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: banana
Time: 6.45am
Weather: humid & overcast

Cloudrunner (150 BPM) - dj steveboy
"An escalating hour of sublime transportation. This is what's meant by run into the light."

Ten miles on Saturday. Ha! A run in the park. Today, in spite of the late start time, I was able to stay in the streets most of the time. I had revised my normal 4 miles route two weeks ago to hit more side streets, but some major thoroughfares are unavoidable. Whenever I see a bus I just hop up onto the sidewalk for a while, but the pavement is so uneven there in this area, and weaving from one block onto another is just one of those things that irritates my muscles.

So is war. That's another thing really irritates my muscles. And rude people.

UPDATE: Better off dead.

Step out of summer

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: about 37 minutes
Weight: 167 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: NutriGrain Bar
Time: 6.00am
Weather: cool & humid

Playlist:
Step Into Summer (130 BPM) - dj steveboy
"This Just Plain Nice mix starts mellow and builds but keeps a nice vibe. You'll see why it's called "Step Into Summer" about halfway through."

I have four days before it all comes crashing in. The new school year is beginning, and I will be in rehearsals all day beginning Monday. On top of that, I am involved in a show that begins work on Sunday night. How I can manage that, see my wife and kids, and put in 4 to 5 miles a morning is beyond me. I'll give it a week and see where I am.

UPDATE: This, from Sadie ...

"I did the NYC marathon! If you need pointers on it...just ask. It is fun, and by far the hardest I have done!"

Thanks, Sadie, thank you so much ...

PODRUNNER saved my life

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: no
Time: 7.30am
Weather: sunny

Playlist:
Build (135 bpm) - dj steveboy
PODRUNNER: Exercise music for runners, spinners, or any fast-paced workout.

Two days off the road, and today was the first time in what feels like ever that I haven't felt beat up. Maybe it was the extra day. Maybe it was because we missed the alarm and I got an extra two hours of sleep. And maybe it was PODRUNNER a non-stop mix of dance music that I really, really ... really enjoy. Big ups to Karl for tipping me off. Word.

I do have to remember that at 7.30, heading east the sun is in my eyes. And heading west, the sun is in the oncoming driver's eyes.

UPDATE: Hey hey - Sadie G. is running the SF Marathon to raise cash for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm not raising money for anything! Check out her blog and send her a donation!

Interlude

Today is the only Sunday in the 18-week ING Marathon First Time Marathoner Training Schedule that is set down as a day-off. I do not know whether this is fortutitous or ominous. It's not even half-way through the schedule, and 15 miles seems an arbitrary number after which to schedule an additional day off. But it's the first time I have seriously needed one.

My fear is that it will not be the last time. Yesterday was hard, and I cannot tell yet if it was simply because of intestinal distress or simply my body saying I can't do this. I have gotten good at stopping for a moment (readjust a strap, stop for traffic) and just heading off again. But there was so much stopping and starting yesterday, by the time I was doing ym last mile, I just felt like I couldn't go on - let along run another eleven miles.

My schedule is just so tight right now. I feel seriously up against it. I don't know if I can do this.

UPDATE: Then again, I finished up running ...

This Tower's leaning over

Week-end total: 32.5 miles

Distance: 15 miles
Duration: 02:22
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Cooldown walk: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 5.15am
Weather: balmy & humid with occasional light rain

"GTC Megamix"
Too Much Information - Duran Duran
Slow Down - Backbeat Band
Unbelieveable - EMF
Push Th' Little Daisies - Ween
Evenflow - Pearl Jam
The Pink Room - Angelo Badalamente
Good Stuff - The B-52s
Just Keep Me Moving - k.d. lang
I Don't Want to Grow Up - The Ramones
Long View - Green Day
I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar - Jonathan Richman
Rock In the Pocket (Song of David) - Suzanne Vega
All That She Wants - Ace of Base
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
Missing (Terry Todd Remix) - Everything But the Girl
F*ck and Run - Liz Phair
Steam - Peter Gabriel
The Globe - Big Audio Dynamite
The Things That I Used to Do - G. Love & Special Sauce
Theme from "Northern Exposure" - David Schwartz
Sexy M.F. - Prince
Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
Regret - New Order
Too Funky - George Michael
Informer - Snow
Night In My Veins - The Pretenders
Mr. Bitterness - Soul Coughing
Lifetime Piling Up - Talking Heads
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) - Us3
Buried at Sea - MC 900 Ft Jesus
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) - U2
Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) - Crystal Waters
The More You Ignore Me - Morissey
Hello City - Barenaked Ladies

"These teeth are white, trainers ultra-bright." - DD

We reached the beach today. Okay, not quite, where I live you aren't allowed near the beach, they put airports and highways there, because this city is dumb. But I ran, I saw the lake, and then I came home. Yay oh me.

Warning: Scatalogical Info

Is it just me, or is long-distance running all about where to take a dump? I'm am trying to push the enevelope here, 13 was attainable, what's another two miles, but I was hampered early on by an uncomfortable need to poo. The wife's suggestion that I drink a little coffee before warm-ups has been quite successful, until this morning.

Part of the problem, of course, if that I have been rising at 4:30 for these extra long runs, because I can't afford to take weekend time away from the kids. Okay, also because it's been so freaking hot the past two months. So there's absolutely nowhere open, no restaurants or stores that I can duck into and take care of business.

No, I had no disaster, just a lot of discomfort and short stretches where I had to walk it off. I may need to wait at least an hour after rising before heading out, so that I know I am prepared.

See the stars, they're shining bright

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Snack: banana
Sports drink: yes
Time: 6.00am
Weather: cool

Dammit, I have to take better care of my left shin. It's going to be Nov.5 and I am going to have to run 26 miles on this thing, it's killing me. I wish I didn't loathe stretching so much, it's a kind of discomfort that makes me want to vomit. Saturday: 15 miles. Another record.

I haven't got a stitch to wear

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 166 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: banana
Time: 6.00am
Weather: cool

I hear your footsteps in the street

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: banana
Time: 6.00am
Weather: balmy

New route - now that I have a new computer up and running, I can access US Track & Field's America's Running Routes program. In an era of raising gas prices, this program is so freaking helpful.

By the way - how do you spend a weekend stuffing your face with beef, shrimp and sausage and still lose a couple pounds?

Sock It To Me Biscuits

Distance: 5.5 miles
Stretches: yes
Sports Drink: yes
Snack: Balance Bar
Time: 6.00am
Weather: cool

Playlist:
Putting Boxes In Boxes - Plasticman
Legal Tender - The B-52s
I'll Keep Coming Back - Chanelle
3 A.M. Eternal (Live at the S.S.L.) - The KLF
Weapon of Choice - Fatboy Slim
Dance Hall Days - Wang Chung
La Colegiala - Gary Low
Rocket Ride - Felix da Housecat
Toxic - Britney Spears
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Tarzan Boy - Baltimora
Brand New Colony - The Postal Service
Slip the Drummer One - Cornershop
Cooldown: Natural Blues - Moby

A little disappointed. Should have mapped it before I ran, it was only 5.5 miles. I knew it couldn't be very far. But I ran it again today, instead of the 4 I was supposed to do, which makes up for it a little. And it was more clear and bright this morning. I was keeping pace with a shipping vessel as it slowly made its way down the Mississippi, and I can't do that every day. I am troubled by the next few months, especially October. I am supposed to do 20 in London and 18 in Chicago or something like that, but I don't see how that's possible. I'll need to adjust my schedule.

Thanks, St. Paul.

Trail Ends

Week-End Total: 20.5 miles

Distance: not sure UPDATE: 5.5 miles
Duration: roughly an hour
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Snack: no
Time: 6.00am
Weather: cool & breezy

Playlist:
U Got Me Up - Dajae w/Cajmere
True Faith - New Order
Chains of Love - Erasure
An Area Big Enough To Do It In - Prophet Omega
Rapture Riders - Blondie vs. The Doors
Let's Go to Bed - The Cure
This Woman's Work (remix) - Kate Bush
Love's Theme - Pizzicato Five
What She Wants - Felix da Housecat
Go - Tones On Tail
Hippychick - Soho
Velvet Pants - Propellerheads
We Share Our Mother's Health - The Knife
The Boy From Ipanema - Crystal Waters

Jogging along the banks of the Mississippi, visiting St. Paul, MN. It was nice, if disorienting - they have some lovely bike and pedestrian paths, but they don't have mile markers. Then, the direction I headed was blocked after about half a mile, so I headed back, and went until the trail became less of a nice path, and more of a sidewalk next to a highway, so I headed back again. I'll try to map the actual distance soon. I was supposed to go 8 miles today.

Throbbing

Distance: 4 miles
Stretches; yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: banana
Time: 6.30am
Weather: cool

Who brought Cheetos into the house?!

Left calf really singing today. Miss that one day off. Saturday: 8 miles along the Mississipi River. In honor of our destination, the next playlist will consist of nothing but Hüsker Dü singles.

God does not want me to run the 2006 New York City Marathon

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: yes
Time: 6.30am
Weather: quite cool

A hard lump has suddenly appeared on the inside of my right foot, something which could only be described as a bunion. It does not hurt, but its sudden appearance (I have been examining and taking care of my feet, believe me) in the past two days is alarming. It doesn't hurt, but it can't be good news. The websites suggest they are the result of constricting shoes, and lots of walking. We did a lot of walking on Monday at the zoo, but I was wearing good shoes, and my running shoes are not tight at all.

This just sucks.

Bowel-shaking earthquakes

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Snack: yes
Sports drink: yes
Time; 6.30am
Weather: cool

Playlist:
The Distance - Cake
Sixteen Military Wives - The Decemberists
The Way - Fastball
Comfortably Numb 9original ATOC Extended Re-Edit) - Scissor Sisters
Ladykillers - The Similou
We Share Our Mothers' Health - The Knife
Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Buffalo Stance - Neneh Cherry
Cooldown: Still In Love Song - The Stills

A brand new complaint in my right ankle made me turn around a wrap it. What will tomorrow bring? That's a good point, actually - beginning tomorrow the schedule dictates I run on Wednesdays. Three days in a row before taking a rest on Fridays. I don't know if this is going to increase my strength and endurance, or bring me down through sheer bodily attrition.

It was right for you to run

Distance: 3 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes (not enough)
Snack: not until after
Sports drink: yes
Time: 7:30am
Weather: cool

"The Brat Pack" Playlist:
Pretty in Pink - Psychadelic Furs
The Big Sky - Kate Bush
The Gap - The Thompson Twins
Da Da Da (Ich Lieb Dich Nicht) - Trio
Johnny Come Home - Fine Young Cannibals
My Ever Changing Moods (12" Version) - The Style Council
Into the Groove - Madonna
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Infected - The The

You know what I can't stand about high school reunions? The music. It's all the same stuff you hear on the light rock station. The event organizer, bless her lungs of steel, was trying to get my wife and I on the floor - fortunately - just as we were headed out, but you know, they hadn't played a single song that you could dance to. From the Hooters to Hootie, it was either the wrong song or the wrong era. You can't dance to Born In the the U.S.A., I'm sorry.

Advice to all aspiring 80's party djs - please consult the last two playlists. They will praise you for your taste, even as you drive out the squares.

It's not the long runs that wreck me, it's the day after runs. I cannot stretch enough, something gets hurt on those runs. Today was far more painful than yesterday. I harmed something in my left shin (what else is new) and now I fear I am getting shin splints in my right leg. And I didn't think I needed to eat something before a brief, 3 miler. I was shaking by the time I got back.

I kiss the city of New York

Week-end total: 24 miles

Distance: 13 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink:yes
Snack: balance bar (bfeore) NutriGrain bar (after)
Time: 2 hours, 4 minutes
Weather: 5:30am, cool

"The Brat Pack" Playlist
I'm Your Man - Wham!
Perfect Kiss - New Order
Everyday is Halloween - Ministry
Close (to the Edit) - The Art of Noise
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
Conga - Miami Sound Machine
Like Wow Wipeout - Hoodoo Gurus
Space Age Love Song - A Flock of Seagulls
Delirious - Prince
Weird Science - Oingo Boingo
Don't Go - Yazoo
Road to Nowhere - Talking Heads
Let's Go All the Way - Sly Fox
Strait Old Line - Split Enz
Nemesis - Shriekback
Whammy Kiss* - The B-52s
Can't Get There From Here - R.E.M.
Hyperactive - Thomas Dolby
The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & the News
Gone Daddy Gone* - Violent Femmes
Synchronicity II* - The Police
Shout - Tears for Fears
Pressure - Billy Joel
The Metro* - Berlin
Mirror in the Bathroom* - The Beat
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Hold Back the Rain - Duran Duran
The Fanatic - Felony
Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) - Haircut 100
Cooldown: I Go Swimming - Peter Gabriel

The wife suggested coffee the moment I wake up, before stretches, might assist in my exoneration. Caffeine is a diuretic, but it also dehydrates, so I had a little more fluid ... and felt like I needed to pee the entire run. But it did take care of the other problem, too.

I woke with a slight headache, as I have the past several days. I did not take my prescribed Imitrex. That stuff constricts your blood vessels in order to stave off migraines - and I didn't want to have a heart attack this morning.

Down Little Italy and through University Circle to MLK. Took a lovely walk through the Italian Cultural Garden before heading back. Water break at Wade Oval, one lap there, past Severance Hall and the hospital before heading back up the hill, past Coventry (water break in Turtle Park) and home.

I did feel some pulling in one glute, and then the other, about two-thirds of the way through, but stopped to do some gentle stretches and they went away.

A half-marathon, all by myself. And it only took a little over two hours, which is entirely acceptable.

The question is, could I do it again, right now?

Stink

Distance: 3 miles
Weight: 164.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: Nutrigrain Bar
Time: 6:45am
Weather: humid

I was shoveling handfulls of raw cookie dough into my face yesterday, how could I have lost half a pound?

Boy was up for two hours in the middle of the night, slept through alarm. It's trash day on the east side of town, and running by bags and bags of baking refuse is not my idea of a healthy atmosphere.

Saturday is 13 miles. A halfer. Does anyone call it that? I just made that word up. 13 miles, which will take me down MLK at 5:30 in the morning. That night is my high school's 20 year reunion. Divorced, overweight smoker in 1996, none of those things in 2006. So I got that going for me.

Just breathe

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Sports drink: yes
Snack: no
Time: 6am
Weather: muggy

"Back to Mine" Playlist:
Quiet Night - Xela
A Wonderful Life - Carl Craig
Nature Boy - David Bowie & Angelo Badalamente
Numb - Portishead
Breathe - Telepopmusik
You Are In The Stars - Xela
Samba Da Bencao - Bebel Gilberto (4Hero Remix)
Porcelain - Moby
Cooldown: It Could Be Sweet - Portishead

Treated myself to gear yesterday. A new iPod strap, and synthetic shirts and shorts. Cotton was becoming soggy the minute I stepped outside, and bloody nipples are becoming an issue. Sorry about that, but it's true.

Man. Only in the world of American athletics can a guy my size find that the only shorts that fit are size medium - and a shirt size small.