Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sweat turns to cold.


I run, and I am able to think, to process. The first half-mile is almost chaos, my body reacting to the sudden change in energy. Hard to concentrate on anything except the action at hand. Then the breathing normalizes, my balance stabilizes, and my brain begins to loosen, to wander. Problems that I do not feel I have time to spend thinking about come to the fore and I can ... ponder.

Click ... click ... click-click, click-click, clickclickclickclickclick --

I run. I get ideas.

Temperature: 61°
Climate: bright and beautiful
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 174 lbs.

Here's a tip ... logging my run as soon as I walk in the door is helpful for a number of reasons, the most important of which is I get to cool down before getting into the shower. Doesn't matter how cold the water is, right after a run I am burning up and only time will bring it down.

Punkrocker Playlist
Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy
The Killing Moon - Echo & The Bunnymen
Can't Hardly Wait - The Replacements
Still In Love Song - The Stills
Geraldine - Glasvegas
Out of Control - She Wants Revenge
Standing Outside a Borken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand - Primitive Radio Gods

My. How dark for such a bright day.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Go for it!!!


Brief breath of spring, back into it on Monday. Very nice run today, the city seems like its still digging out from the early snow two weeks ago. Not the snow -- the leaves and branches.

Been using the wii every other morning ... should be every morning, but this week was challenging, there were a number of before-hours emergencies which kept me from writing or exercising. But still, there is something like a regimen happening, which is reassuring. These things must be carefully maintained.

At the very least, fifteen minutes of writing in longhand. Fifteen minutes of reading. Fifteen minutes of exercise. Every weekday morning. Doesn't sound like a lot, and yet. The writing gets done. The reading gets done. The exercise gets done. This idea that if I do not have an hour or two to concentrate ... I mean, I can't concentrate when I have bags of time. These brief moments, every day, encourage me to focus.

Temperature: 61°
Climate: cool.
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 174.5 lbs.


This is my friend Danny, his brother and I went to school together. Danny is a high-spirited engine of positive energy. He is also a public school teacher, so he is double-plus awesome. When I was in my mid-20s and he was teaching at Aviation High, he asked me to adjudicate his school's Shakespeare monologue recitation competition, which was the first time I was asked to do that.

He is currently working in Waldorf, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. Please enjoy this inspiring motivational video!

Punkrocker Playlist
Punkrocker - Teddybears ft. Iggy Pop
Take Me To The Riots - Stars
Tear You Apart - She Wants Revenge
Yeah Yeah Yeah - New Politics
I Don't Want To Fall In Love * - She Wants Revenge
Kiss Them For Me - Siouxsie & The Banshees
In The Morning - Junior Boys

Sunday, November 10, 2013

The ground beneath my feet.


Okay, running once a week now. Sigh.

Things I find more exciting than running at present:
  1. My job.
  2. Moving/throwing out furniture in my house.
  3. Yardwork.
  4. Writing.
  5. Getting books that have been sitting in piles for years onto actual bookshelves.
  6. Hanging out with the kids.
  7. Attending rehearsals for a play I wrote.
The past few days have been delightfully mild, not so much today. But I am relaxed and ready.

Temperature: 46°
Climate: cool and even bright
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 175.5 lbs.

Well. My back. My back has been hurting these past two runs. My back was hurting in my sleep this morning. These are, to me, clear signs that I need to get back up to speed here.

Now to an interesting bit of trivia ... my beard. The wind. The wind actually whistles in my beard. So there's that.

Mute Playlist
Breathe In - Frou Frou
Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
Mansard Roof - Vampire Weekend
Jeepster - T. Rex
Halo - Depeche Mode
Totally Fucked - Spring Awakening Soundtrack
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
(Keep Feeling) Fascination - Human League

Sunday, November 03, 2013

Madman on the run.


Today is the New York City Marathon. It had occurred to me to apply, last year the race was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, so I imagined this year would be a very special celebration.

However, when Double Heart was accepted into the New York Fringe Festival, that kind of settled that. Do you know how much it costs to enter the New York Marathon? It's a lot, not including transportation and housing, etc. One trip to New York a year is about all I can swing these days.

47 degrees in New York City right now, with a projected high of 50° Not bad, a little cool. Sorry I can't be with you, but welcome home.

Temperature: 45°
Climate: excellent, cool and bright
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 175.5 lbs.

Last year at this time I was suffering from several successive days of sinus pain and headaches. Remarkable, I have been enduring the same symptoms the past several days, today only feeling minor discomfort. Not remarkable, I guess, just a passing of the season, but it is the exact same weekend.

Bit winded today. Maybe it was the pulse-pumping playlist, maybe I should have worn sunglasses.


Mute Playlist
Mute (Jokers of the Scene Remix) - The Brash
Against All Odds - The Postal Service
Everlasting Light - The Black Keys
Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters
Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oh Yeah - Yello