Why don't you run from me?

Merrily We Roll Along was pitch-perfect and you have to ask yourself how it failed in the first place. Blame must be offered to Hal Prince and his abstract concept because Sondheim’s music and lyrics are outstanding. 

The book isn’t bad, either, though it is true (the wife and I talked about this on the subway home) that Mary is a seriously underdeveloped character. Last night, though, understudy Jamila Sabares-Klemm stepped into the role and she was excellent. A tremendous ensemble. So delighted to have this chance to see it.

Distance: 4.9 miles

Duration: 44:20
Pace: 9:03

O laws, Duran Duran just dropped a Halloween album full of covers, of their own songs and those of others. Perfect choice for a dreary morning — and an incredible run.

Danse Macabre - Duran Duran (2023)

Night Boat

Black Moonlight

Love Voudou

Bury a Friend

Supernature 

Danse Macabre

Secret Oktober 31st

Ghost Town

Paint It Black

Súper Lonely Freak

Spellbound

Psycho Killer ft. Victoria De Angelis 

Route: Reservoir Loop

Temperature: 55
Climate: overcast & damp

Mood: very good

 
Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: 40

Water: yes

I wouldn't trade one stupid decision for another five years of life.

Manhattan weekend, Upper West Side. The weather has been warm this week, but I had no time to get out. So glad to get to do this run today.

We traveled in style, relaxed. Got to our apt after ten so we didn’t go out, I’d had enough to drink in Airportland regardless. Anxious dreams, I think the owner of this place got into them, or her daughter? There are photos tucked into corners.

Distance: 4 miles?

Pace: 8:47

Glorious run. Last time I ran in Central Park was two years ago, last weekend. With the boy. It was about 50° then, a little too cool for my blood that I had and brought a jacket. While they were plenty of other runners, it was hardly crowded.

Today, a sunshiny day. The path around the reservoir was full of walkers and runners. Couples holding hands, kissing, people taking selfies.

The timer has started, but I stopped to take a picture, and somehow it defaulted. So I’m not sure exactly how far I ran. Don’t know, don’t care.

If it doesn’t rain tomorrow, and it’s not too cool, I may go out again.

Route: West 105 to the Jaqueline Onassis Kennedy Reservoir and back

Temperature: 67
Climate: sunny & warm

Mood: very good

  

Reading the book on Sound of Silver from the 33 1/3 series, by Ryan Leas. It’s fun, though for the first few chapters he does say the same thing over and over, to wit; LCD Soundsystem is derivative and dorky and yet makes the most relevant music of the 21st century.

He spends like, three chapters on “Losing My Edge” alone, and that’s not even on the album.

But laws, it makes me want to listen. I chose an EP of remixes to run to I had never heard before. My god, it was beautiful.

A Bunch of Stuff EP - LCD Soundsystem (2007)

All My Friends - Franz Ferdinand Version

Get Innocuous! - Soulwax Remix

Sound of Silver - C2 Rmx Rev.3

Us V Them - Any Color U Like Remix by Windsurf

Time To Get Away - Gucci Soundsystem Mix

Stretches: yes

Water: yes

"For the boys on MTV."

Home, again. Keeping my run on. This morning I am unmotivated specifically because I do not know what to listen to. I'm sure I'll come up with something.

Memories of Fall 2021, when the boy and I visited NYC. Photos pop up in the social media feed, and there are those photo books on the table, of the shed they used for outdoor pandemic dining. It was a time of great transition. It remains so.

Distance: 3.25 miles

Duration: 31:20
Pace: 9:38

So, my streaming service is like, "Wouldn't you like to listen to something we've called 80s pop retro tuesday early playlist?" And I'm like, sigh, yes, nailed it, I'm so obvious, woo-hoo.

Route: Boulevard Loop

Temperature: 50°
Climate: cool

Mood: all right

 

Ugh, Running before daylight. Anticipating a bad foot fall with every step is not good for my back. We just need to run in the early evening, it's not worth the injury. 

 
Stretches: yes

Water: yes

Ouch, yeah, fuck. Hurt my back.

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 175 lbs. (+2.0)

Revised Goal: 170 lbs.

I’ve placed faith in geography.

Hot mane.

Awake at 2:30 AM in an Airbnb in Over the Rhine, fretting existential questions, deciding to sit up for an hour to write out my thoughts.

Getting our money’s worth out of this bougie hipster flop.

Distance: 2.5 miles

Duration: 22:39
Pace: 9:03

We are in Cincy to see the boy over  UC’s “family weekend.” So far we’ve had some good together time, got to existence a new neighborhood, even saw a play on campus. Shame about the football game though we couldn’t even get tickets, anyway.

Route: Over the Rhine

Temperature: 48°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool

Mood: anxious

  

This is in an Urban Outfitters

Ah, Sunday morning in Gentrification Land, where last night’s cold IPA is this morning’s warm piss.

“Watch out for uneven pavement,” she said, and it was a warning well-heeded. For the most part, though, and easy course, and safe, and one I would be happy to elaborate upon.

Stretches: yes

Water: yes

What’s That Lyric?

Gold Rush - Death Cab for Cutie

All my senses rise.

Crazy. The wife has been out of town since Tuesday, barely two days. And yet, it's so strange. It's strange being alone. I do not care for it. It's okay. It gives me no joy, not for a moment. It never has.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 26:36
Pace: 8:35

Man. I wrote a sad little scene this morning. But is it trite? Is it maudlin? Can't know until I read it in context ... whenever I figure out what that is.

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 49°
Climate: overcast & cool

Mood: good

Got to stop thinking, "It takes five minutes to get my kit on and step out the door." It takes fifteen minutes, sometimes twenty. Okay? Fifteen to twenty. Budget that time.

 
Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: tbd
Planks: tbd 

Upper body: tbd
Water: yes

Diet: No greasy food today. You've eaten a lot of that shit this week, and you'll probably have more this weekend. It affects your mouth, only vigilant oral hygiene has kept you from sores.  Fruits and vegetables, that's it.

160-169 BPM Playlist

Moving On - BTS

Gangsta's Paradise - Coolio ft. L.V.

Everywhere I Go - The Call

Foundations - Kate Nash

The Adults Are Talking - The Strokes

You Better You Bet - The Who

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/granola  yogurt

Lunch: chili cheese burritos, Pepsi

Dinner: pasta & roasted vegetables

Alcohol? yes, I think.

Haw haw haw.

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 173 lbs. (-1.0)

Goal: 165 lbs.

Writing: yes

What's gone wrong in your system?

After all ... why not?

Here's the thing. I begin the day determined to follow my agenda, and by lunch there's a little voice in my head saying "Why not?" and thinking of greasy slices of pizza nd fast food fries and burgers.

I got a cheeseburger fries and a shake from MacDonald's for lunch yesterday. I ate them while driving, chewing without tasting, swallowing without chewing. Last night I thought, "Why not?" and had a glass of wine with dinner, just as my wife did. I'd already had a strong ale, it was drink two, and it was wine. I don't drink wine, normally, it gives me a headache.

By the time we went to bed, I had a headache. I minor one. I'm fine now, but, stupid, you know?

The weather turns. Shorts with a jacket. Time to put up storm windows, mornings now before the fire. Can I maintain? Will I, once more, gain back all the weight I lost? Why not? 

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:41
Pace: 9:15

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 49°
Climate: overcast & cool

Mood: good

 
Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: 20 

Upper body: 10
Water: yes

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/yogurt & granola

Lunch: fish & chips & slaw

Coffee Break: decaf pumpkin roll latte

Dinner: chicken salad, fizzy water

Alcohol? GLBC Oktoberfest

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 174 lbs. (-0-)

Goal: 165 lbs.

Writing: yes

What's That Lyric?

Gratitude - Beastie Boys

¿Y como vas progresando?

Yesterday was mostly successful, as writing goes. There were an awful lot of breaks for straightening up and doing basic exercises, but that's what kept me going.

Today I need to be online most of the day to attend a workshop, so any business must be attended to before ten AM. And that's why we get up at seven on a Sunday (also to avoid the headaches).

Tess: 0110

Distance: 3.15 miles

Duration: 29:14
Pace: 9:16

Brisk, upbeat tunes from the late 1970s and early 80s. Didn't get particularly invested in the episode. I need a reason to be interested in Runner 8 but I'm not there yet. Missed Steve.

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 51°
Climate: overcast, damp & breezy

Mood: good

Gear: jacket, shorts

Hour break in our theater intimacy workshop, so I took the run then. Sometimes I push too hard when I need to get back for something, but that's not why I was going so fast. Just felt good!  

 
Stretches: yes 

Sit-Ups: 70
Planks: 30 sec. (4x)

Upper body: 10 rep. (4x)
Water: yes

Man. What if I did that every day.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/granola & yogurt

Workshop Snack: pudding, fizzy water (2x)

Lunch: pizza (2x)

Afternoon: cheesecake, Mini Swedish Fish, more pudding

Dinner: bean soup, ice cream

Alcohol? no

Reading: tbd

Writing: tbd

Blog: tbd

What's That Lyric?

El Rayo-X - David Lindley

The word that would best describe this feeling would be haunted.

Big day planned -- which can be perilous. It's raining now, just an ordinary fall day. Let's get out and start the weekend on the right ... foot?

Recovery: 0109

Distance: 5.1 km

Duration: 29:13
Pace: 5:43/km

The plan is to write, and not just to write, but to complete a first draft of my new play. Can this happen in six hours? I believe that it can.

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 50°
Climate: breezy & light rain

Mood: good

Perfect day for a zombie run, gloomy and damp with a "dark and goth" playlist.

Shit is getting real, this app was created over ten years ago, but I have been re-introduced to Runner 8, who is suspicious of Runner 5 (me). She also has a persistent cough. She's had it long enough that it doesn't make sense that she is "turning gray." 

But between the cough and her talk of a supposed, possibly entirely bogus vaccine which was distributed just prior to the collapse of civilization, it's quite timely.

Then she lets slip that she was bitten. So ... maybe the vaccine did work? Or maybe it prolongs the inevitable. We'll find out!

  

Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: 60
Planks: 120 sec.

Water: yes

Speaking of vaccinations, I have my flu shot I have my most recent, Covid booster. Doing my best to remain prepared and vigilant and well.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream

Early Lunch: bean soup, crackers, ginger ale

Coffee Break: iced coffee, Swedish Fish

Tea Time: Toddy, cheese board

Dinner: popcorn, last of the Baxter’s, pizza, salad

Alcohol? 2x

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 174 lbs. (+2.0) 

Goal: 165 lbs.

Sugar season. We have ice cream in the house, and that is bad news. I will try to maintain. Today, we write and work -- and exercise. taking breaks to do a little, light body work.

Reading: tbd

Writing: yes! scenes!

What's That Lyric?

Haunted When the Minutes Drag - Love & Rockets (162 BPM)

The kick in the eye.

O, it is me.

Yesterday was fucking horrid. I got a headache, as a result of nothing. Went to bed at an appropriate time, had zero alcohol, just, got a headache. And it got worse as the night progressed. 

I couldn't get up without feeling ill. Took pain reliever, Pepto Bismol, Sudafed, these helped a little but the pain did not truly subside until the evening.

I had to cancel three workshops I was supposed to teach today, which was fine, they can be reshceduled. But I was dressed and prepared to walk out the door and I just couldn't do it, on my feet for hours maintaining my cool. I need a clear head to teach well, I just saw endless misery. I am grateful I could just not go.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:27
Pace: 9:11

No head pain, and I feel like a goddamn giant. Or I am just manic in response to a day spent almost entirely in bed. The whole world is falling apart, what can I control but myself.

Route: Forest Hill Loop

Temperature: 51°
Climate: cool

Mood: all right

Goth Playlist

Dominion/Mother Russia - Sisters of Mercy

Kick In the Eye - Bauhaus

She's Lost Control - Joy Division

Wax and Wane - Cocteau Twins

Bela Lugoi's Dead - Bauhaus (153 BPM)

 
Stretches: yes

Water: yes

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/granola & yogurt

Lunch: buffalo chicken salad wrap, potato chips

Treat: fruit snacks

Dinner: sliders, fries, corn dip & chips

Alcohol? Yeah, two. we went out.

Lots of comfort food last evening. Ice cream, processed popcorn. Forgot to weigh in this morning. Oops.

Writing: yes

9:30 AM First noticed flashing in my left eye, while driving. A “C” which expanded, just below center. Check out line, which continue to expand its arc until it was no longer a C shape.

Occurring the day after a serious day long headache?

이사 가자.

“To restrict your listening to English-language pop is like deciding to eat the same meal for the rest of your life.” - David Byrne

One of the books I picked up at the Chicago, independent bookstore Exile in Bookville was a slim collection of essays by Lenika Cruz about the K-Pop sensation BTS, On BTS.

I know very little about BTS, but you know? I should. So here is a list of songs I have never heard before that are all between 164-170 bpm.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:23
Pace: 8:50

BTS RUN

Moving On

No More Dream

Lost

UGH!

Boy In Luv

For You

Mic Drop

Route: Forest Hill Loop 

Temperature: 43°
Climate: cool, you know?

Mood: good

Gear: New L.L.Bean long sleeve, short sleeve (tucked in), shorts

We have returned home. The last two days were just one long day, the flight from Phoenix to Philadelphia was restless and without sleep. And yet, we have our memories and our love and a desire to push forward into the fall. There are so many more wonderful things to accomplish and to experience.  

"Let's move."

Stretches: yes

Sit-Ups: tbd
Planks: tbd 

Upper body: tbd
Water: yes

We ate with impunity. Burgers, tacos, a steak. French toast, desserts, many sweets. I would even finish her plate. I have no regrets about this. I maybe could have exercised more, but there was an awful lot of walking in dry heat. I did a very good job of drinking water, all the time, not too much at anyone time. The journey was good for my body.

Six AM is a good time to get up -- if I have to be somewhere by ten, at the earliest. But no afternoon coffee, that kept me up last night. I needed to push through the day, but the results were not worth it.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, oatmeal w/dried cranberry, butter, brown sugar, cream

Lunch: smoothie bowl w.fresh fruit, granola & nutella

Trea: Snickers!

Snack: Pretzel shortbread

Dinner: roasted buttered suash w/rice pilaf

Alcohol? no

No, I did not even taste the Snickers. Don't do that.

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 172 lbs. (+1.0)

Goal: 165 lbs.

I gained one pound. I think I'm all right.

Reading: tbd

Writing: yes

Blog: tbd

We pulled off the interstate.

Two nights at the idyllic Dreamcatcher Inn in Pearce, AZ. Yesterday my beautiful wife brought me to Chiricahua Monument Park. She’s shown me so many breathtaking sights on this journey. I am privileged, I am grateful.

Distance: 1.5 miles

Duration: 15:20 
Pace: 10:13

I asked our innkeeper, Ramon, about running on these desert roads and he assured me they would be safe. “One car every fifteen minutes.” I imagine it would be fewer on a Saturday morning. Is it Saturday? Is it Saturday already? 

Route: Sunrise Drive

Temperature: 61
Climate: cool & dry

Mood: good

Running at 4,400 feet. The road was uneven, and rocky, but entirely untraveled but for another visitor takings morning walk and one dog protecting his master’s home. That’s when I turned around.

The going was hard, the road, the elevation, and also the path itself was an incline. I felt my chest heaving, not normal. I was going to turn around at a half miles, but stopping to watch the sunrise a moment pushed me further (until I heard the dog.)

 

Stretches: yes

Water: yes

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, ham quiche, fresh fruit, probiotic yogurt

Wine tasting: charcuterie, wine

Treat: DQ soft serve

Dinner: old fashioned, chips w/salsa & guac, beef quesadilla, greens, sushido peppers

Alcohol? Yes

Reading: yes

Writing: yes

What’s That Lyric?

Bandits - Josh Ritter

You said you hate that I’m a writer.

On Sunday, October 1, they canceled the Twin Cities marathon. It was due to excessive heat, it would’ve been 70° when the race started.

Some folks were less than understanding. “We all trained in this weather!” one guy carped. Maybe you did, sir. A lot of people come in from out of town for that race.

In 2012, when I went in the Cleveland marathon, it was about 70° when I finished. I remember seeing a young woman, she looked extremely fit. She was leaning against a post and vomiting.

This is what we’re up against. The last time a major race was canceled, it was the New York City Marathon, (also in 2012) because of Hurricane Sandy.

Distance: 2.5 miles

Duration: 25:02
Pace: 10:00

Tucson Run. Did not end up where I planned, on a bike path by the highway instead of through a green space, but it sure is Arizona.

What can I report? We saw Josh Ritter at the Rialto last night, but instead of listening to him this morning I chose a random modern country playlist … and I liked it.

Route: AZ 210 Bike Path

Temperature: 60
Climate: arid & cool

Mood: good

 
Stretches: yes

Water: yes

Stopped at a light I developed a brief back spasm. Never had one of those before. Hope I never have one again.

Breakfast: coffee w/milk

Lunch: cheeseburger w/green chilies, fries, mandarin wheat beer

Dinner: chicken tacos, rice & beans, cheese crisp, Modelo Negro

Alcohol? yes

Reading: yes

Writing: yes

What’s That Lyric?

Fall In Love With Me - Morgan Wade