You better beware ... you better take care ...

Last time I saw two skunks. Today, it was a deer. Just a deer, standing there, eating a neighbor's hedge out on Monticello. As I spotted it, it spotted me, and started to run in that goofy way towards the street where an oncoming car would hit it ... but then it dodged back owards the sidewalk as I came to a stop. We looked at each other. I averted my gaze, looking straight ahead, and walked past it. Just as I passed, it ran away, and so did I.

A co-worker is going for her first Half-Marathon. She says she's been having difficulty getting past six miles. I ask if she's been eating and hydtartiing and she sayid yes - but not on the run. I suggested a water break, she's running through town, there must be a public fountain somewhere in a six mile radius. Said she hadn't thought of it. I also told her about supplements (GU, ecch) and other things she might consume as she's going.

She was, like, wow, how do you know these things? And I said, well, I asked another runner how to get past six miles.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 164.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Balance Gold
Time: 5.30 am
Temperature: 69º
Weather: balmy with a full moon

Playlist:
Blockbuster - Sweet
Eat for Two - 10,000 Maniacs
I'm Too Sexy (7" Version) - Right Said Fred
Do You Want To - Franz Ferdinand
88 Lines About 44 Women - The Nails
Turn to Stone - ELO
Shoe Box - Barenaked Ladies
Bus to Beezebub - Soul Coughing
Cooldown: Magic Carpet Ride - Mighty Dub Catz

I can't sleep at night

 Random Notes ...

• Didn't feel like eating anything before heading out, force-fed myself a banana. This was a very good idea and another testament to man's ability to actually learn from his experiences.

• The stuff is called Formalaz. Its effects are not yet painful, though drying is definitely taking place.

• My shoes are entirely blown and I need to make time to get a new pair. I was on my feet for close to ten hours in them on Friday, a lot of it just standing. Yesterday my feet hurt in a way they hadn't since I was engaged in major training last fall.

Distance: 5.15 miles
Weight: 168 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: banana
Time: 4:00 pm
Temperature: 72º
Weather: sunny & hot

Playlist:
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem
Acceptable in the 80s (Tom Neville Remix) - Calvin Harris
Everybody Everybody - Black Box
Music Plus 1 - Cornershop
Spinning Top - XTC
I Didn't Mean To Turn You On - Robert Palmer
Obsession - Animotion
Next To You* - The Police
SOS - Rihanna
Bazamba - Sister Soleil
Cooldown: Idioteque - Radiohead

Daddy's White Russian
2 shots Smirnoff
1 shot Kahlúa
stir in rock glass with two ice cubes
Two tbsp heavy cream, 1 tsp sugar, beat until pleasantly creamy
Pour whipped cream slowly over ice, serve

Mom and Daddy enjoy this number with a big bag of Corn Twistees while curled up watching Life On Mars.

I found a fox, caught by ducks ...

Visited my new podiatrist on Tuesday. I like him. Maybe because he's young and cute and says nice things about my feet.

They are in good shape, apparently, my feet. They bend well, they have a good pulse (who knew?) there's just problem A and problem B.

Problem A, yes, the warts. He has a new treatment, something I never heard of before, A prescription that is 10% formaldehyde. That's right, you f*ckers are already dead you just don't know it yet. We'll see how well the stuff works (or how hideously painful it is) in the next six to eight weeks.

Then there's the bunion. He praised my use of the toe-spacer, which actually seems to work, somewhat. He also recommended orthopedics, but my health care plan, which kind of blows, does not cover them (they have also refused to pay as much as they used to for my migraine meds, God I love this country.)

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 163.5 lbs. (?)
Stretches: yes
Drink: PowerBar Endurance Sun Tea
Lunch: sunbutter & preserves sandwich, baba & celery sticks
Time: 1:00 pm
Temperature: 77º
Weather: hot & sunny

Playlist:
Shine - Take That
Regret - New Order
Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
Miami Vice Theme (1985) - Jan Hammer
Gimme Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment - The Ramones
Around the World - Daft Punk
I Must Confess - Everything but the Girl
Happiness In Slavery - Nine Inch Nails
Warmdown: I Created Disco - Calvin Harris

Take That
"Shine"


Pingu - get it?

Umgawah!

It's about time I chimed in on whether or not it is kosher to wear headphones while running. I mean, it is obvious from my blog that I use my iPod every time I run. And there is a reason for that.

I have been running, on and off, mostly off, for over twenty-five years. Since I got my first iPod in 2003, I have run more often, more consistently, faster and with greater joy, than I ever did before.

I'm all for the sound of the outdoors, your feet on the pavement and your own healthy breathing. But first off, I am easily bored. And music is an outstanding motivator for me. Running is one of my few opportunities in the day to listen to the electronic pop music I like (though, I have to admit, my son is becoming one crazy dancer) and planning playlists and looking forward to listening to them has gotten me out of bed many, many times.

The first time I ran a 5K wearing my iPod I broke twenty minutes. I do not believe I could have finished my first marathon without it.

Yes, if I were hit by lightning I could send raw electricity right into my ears and destroy them. So I will refrain from using them in a thunderstorm. And there is always the chance of getting hit by a car, so I stick to the sidewalks, always look both ways when I cross the street, and otherwise pay attention.

To each their own. This is mine.

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 167 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: PowerBar Endurance Sun Tea
Snack: Slim Fast Optima
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 65º
Weather: misty

Playlist:
Girls and Boys in Love - The Rumble Strips
Tubthumping - Chumbawumba
Space Age Love Song - A Flock of Seagulls
Malegria - Manu Chao
Leilani - Hoodoo Gurus
Merrymaking At My Place - Calvin Harris
Pump It - Black Eyed Peas
It's My Life (Vocal Mix) - Liquid People vs. Tak Talk

Trailer
"Run, Fat Boy, Run"

Play Fatboy Frogger.

Count the rings around my eyes

For fun, and because I am supposedly in training for a half-marathon, I took the downhill route through Little Italy. Dawn on Murray Hill, running past the vacant stalls and ducking under raffle signs. Another Feast of the Assumption literally washed down the drain.

Stupid ... man needs more than five hours of sleep before running that far. And good sleep, too, that boy still loves to stick his feet in my crotch. Woke at 4.30 feeling as though I'd been socked in the eyes with a wet, heavy, sock-like thing. Took some Tylenol. Usually the run takes care of that but I still have that wretched feeling. Took my migraine meds, I hope that does the trick.

How young are you? How old am I?

Distance: 7.35 miles
Weight: 167.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 58º
Weather: cool & overcast w/light rain

Playlist:
Tracking Treasure Down (Gabiel & Dresden Club Mix) - Gabriel & Dresden
Future Sightings - I am the World Trade Center
I Send a Message - INXS
Touch the Sky (ft. Lupe Fiasco) - Kanye West
Push It Salt 'N Pepa
Are You Trying to Be Funny? - Everything But the Girl
Wannabe - Spice Girls
I Will Dare - The Replacements
Song for a Future Generation - The B-52s
Save a Prayer - Duran Duran
Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above (Calvin Harris Remix) - CSS
Call On Me (Filterheadz Remix) - Eric Prydz
Life During Wartime - Talking Heads
Lullaby of Clubland - Everything But the Girl
Red - Sister Soleil
Cooldown: Toxic - Britney Spears

Gabriel & Dresden
"Tracking Treasure Down"

Hot as a Baker

Let us pause for a moment to luxuriate in the absence of pain. No shin splints. No pulled hamstrings. My feet feel ... all right. No back strain. No migraines. She's in love with me and I feel fine.

The toe spacer seems to be doing some good work, I think. Maybe. I see a podiatrist in a week, there will be more details then, though I may be loathe to share them here.

What to run on Sunday morning ... six miles? Nine? I haven't dipped down into University Circle since last fall.

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Zone Perfect Bar
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 68º
Weather: humid and overcast

Playlist:
Le Disko - Shiny Toy Guns
Sure Shot - The Beastie Boys
Hip Hop Hooray - Naughty By Nature
Acceptable in the 80s - Calvin Harris
Doctor Who Theme - Candyman
Town Called Malice - The Jam
The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
Cooldown: Synchronicity II - The Police

The sun and the moon

Thunderstorms and iPods — Not a Good iDea
New England Journal of Medicine, July 2007

"A 37-year-old man was brought to the emergency department at our hospital. He had been jogging in a thunderstorm, listening to his iPod, when an adjacent tree was struck by lightning. Witnesses reported that he was thrown approximately 8 ft (2.4 m) from the tree.

The patient had second-degree burns on his chest and left leg. In addition, two linear burns extended along his anterior chest and neck to the sides of his face, terminating in substantial burns in the external auditory meatus bilaterally, corresponding to the positions of his earphones at the time of the lightning strike.

Both of his tympanic membranes were ruptured, and he had a severe conductive hearing deficit. He also had a mandibular fracture. Computed tomography of the mandible and of the temporal bones showed bilateral dislocation of the incudomalleolar joints ...(more)

In other words, "both his eardrums were ruptured, small bones in his ears broken, and his jaw disclocated on both sides and broken in four places." - Snopes.com

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Slim Fast Optima
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 70º
Weather: humid with light rain (but no thunder)

Playlist:
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)* - R.E.M.
Solsbury Hill (12" Version) - Erasure
Say No Go - De La Soul
Broken English - Queue Up
Mama Told Me Not to Come - The Wolfgang Press
Cooldown: I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters

How do you train for a half-marathon? Haven't even looked anything up. Something like this, I imagine. Keep up the regularity, run further on the weekend. Maybe 6 miles back to back was pushing it, I have been feeling worn down the last two days. Skipped yesterday, today was a bit of a chore, but then it was unpleasantly humid.

Humid and dark. We're headed to the other side of the sun, days getting shorter. Almost forgot what it was like to run before dawn.

And my head burst open

Lakeshore Trail
Distance: 6.25 miles
Stretches: yes
Drink: orange juice
Snack: toast with honey
Time: 6.30 am
Weather: sunny and warm

No Hay Igual (Club Mix) - Nelly Furtado
Hold Your Tongue* - Soundtrack to "Lysistrata"
One Hundred Years - The Cure
Vogue - Madonna
Ballroom Blitz - Sweet
Dry County - B-52s
Let's Go Crazy - Prince & the Revoution
Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
Estelar - Captain Melao
In the Morning - Junior Boys
Come Closer Together - The Beatles vs. Nine Inch Nails
I Saw the Light - The The
The Killing Vous - ABBA vs. Echo & the Bunnymen
Da Da Da (Ich Lieb Dich Nicht) - Trio
One More Time - Daft Punk
Cooldown: Wish - Nine Inch Nails

Yes. Yes I did.

The Junior Boys
"In the Morning"

Is Chicago!

The Second City

Lakeshore Trail
Distance: 6.25 miles
Stretches: yes
Drink: orange juice
Snack: bread with preserves
Time: 7.00 am
Weather: sunny and warm

Playlist:
Mass Repeat (Extended 12" Version) - Gabriel & Dresden
A Girl Like You - Edwyn Collins
I Want You To Want Me (Live) - Cheap Trick
Breathe - Télépopmusik
Big Time Sensuality - Björk
Water of Nazareth - Justice
Rocket Ride* - Felix da Housecat
Rock With You (White Label Mix) - Daft Punk vs. Michael Jackson
In Between Days* - Ben Folds
Tandem Jump* - Jonathon Richman
Just Keep Me Moving - k.d. lang
Hindi Sad Diamonds - Soundtrack from "Moulin Rouge"
Smack My B*tch Up - Prodigy
Cooldown: My Love - Justin Timberlake

Finally got my Chicago run in. Good one too, running along Lakeshore Drive reminds me of running along the lake front in Cleveland.

No, it doesn't. Not at all. That was a joke.

What an awesome lakeside running, biking, walking, whatever path. Seven am on a Saturday and the place is packed with movement enthusiasts. I had printed out a run through Lincoln Park before I arrived - just a few blocks from the B&B where I am staying at North and Hudson. But then I spotted this blonde who looked like she knew where she was going and I followed her all the way to Lake Michigan.

If I had planned ahead (I always forget to do this) I would have found out the Elvis Is Alive 5K is taking place this evening at 6pm, and scheduled my other events around that. Having said that, 6 pm - in the middle of August - is a weird time to have a race. Or even a "fun run."

Great place, where I'm staying, a single apartment in the middle of Old Town. I made myself two eggs and toast as a celebratory breakfast after. If my kit dries I might do it again tomorrow.

I'll find my soul as I go home

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 70º
Weather: humid with lightning flashes

Playlist:
Dangerous Power - Gabriel & Dresden
Policy of Truth - Depeche Mode
Girl and the Sea - The Presets
Temptation - New Order
Irish Blood, English Heart - Morrissey
Collapse - Soul Coughing
Cooldown: Making Plans for Nigel - The Rembrandts

XTC
"Making Plans for Nigel"

"This is called a déjà vu experience ..."

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Zone Perfect bar
Time: 6:30 am
Duration: about 34 minutes
Temperature: 77º
Weather: overcast but muggy

Playlist:
Vegas - Calvin Harris
Random - Lady Sovereign
Parsec - Stereolab
Situation - Yazoo
Jimmy James - The Beastie Boys
Another View Point - Cornelius
Cooldown: Housequake - Prince

I broke my leg on December 7, 1980 - a date which has gone down in infamy largely because it was the last full day John Lennon spent alive. Having no reason to, as I did not participate in any sport, I had no physical therapy. So the muscles in my right leg became stiff and I had a habit of twsting my foot out rather than bending correctly at the ankle.

I do not know if this has contributed to what I have decided must truly be a bunion developing on my right foot. I first noticed this bony protrusion on August 9 but it didn't make any sense. Besides, it seemed to just have appeared out of nowhere.

They say it has to do with toe alignment, and I assume the gross repetition of the past year and that bad habit have worked together to start changing the shape of my feet, and in a bad way. I have made an appointment with a podiatrist for later this month to look into this and a host of other shoebox horrors.

Yesterday I got a set of Pro Foot Vita-Gel Toe Spacers. Read online they may realign my big toe.

I used to have such beautiful feet. They were like dancer's feet. Now they're like old man feet.

I will hear your name called out from passing cars

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: none
Time: 1:45 pm
Duration: about 30 minutes
Temperature: 82º
Weather: hot but pleasant

Playlist:
Foundations* - Kate Nash
Unmarked Helicopters - Soul Coughing
Mr. Bitterness - Soul Coughing
My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council
Winners - 7 Seconds of Love
Serious - Duran Duran
Jenifa Taught Me (Derwin's Revenge) - De La Soul

Kate Nash
"Foundations"

My ex-wife would so totally love this song.