This race is all but run.

The weather has finally, truly turned. Depressing headache yesterday, as the clouds came in and the temperature dropped. It's rained for about a day, we're bringing the plants inside, I'm starting to close the windows, the heat is on.

And it is time to hit the rec center.

Distance: 3 miles 

Duration: 25:42

A few years ago, when I was having trouble turning a small idea into a big idea, I started to go on longer and longer runs. The urge was to make a metaphorical idea come true; by tracing a bigger area with my feet, perhaps I could trace a bigger idea with my mind.

-  by Ben Ratliff, "Run the Song"

Route: rec center
Temperature: 45°
Climate: rain
Mood: irritated

Just a few days ago, it was my Noomaversary. Surprised they didn't let me know, but that might run counter to their programming, drawing attention to the passage of time. Or maybe a lot of people quit after one year.

My recreation center membership renews in December. That's how late I signed up, how long I ran in the cold and rain before taking that step. Now, I just need to prepare in the morning, and I go. It's not a big deal.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 170 lbs. (+10)

How do you jump ten pounds in two days? It was surprising to me, but not too surprising. The fact is, the past two days, yesterday especially, were not "mindful." They were, in fact, ordinary. The headache compounded my desire, I sat in a classroom in Aurora, miserable, taking notes, and thinking how much better life would be with sugar and caffeine. I made a beeline to the nearest Starb*cks and got not only a PSL, my first, and hopefully only of the season, and why not, a slice of banana bread.

That banana bread is 380 calories, all by itself. This was after having had my traditional breakfast.

Lunch was packed, which was good. But it is sugar season and there is candy all over the office, I had one, two, I mean, they're so small, three pieces of candy. Two of them were chocolate.

Last night I was on my own and I made dinner. Leftover mac and cheese, but I did not measure it, and so it was closer to two cups, not just one. In that way I could just empty the container. Why not? And I grazed on pretzel sticks as I air fried sweet potatoes.

Later, watching TV eating dinner and having a beer, I decided not to let the honey mustard I made go to waste and fetched two unmeasured handfuls of pretzel sticks, but also made additional honey mustard to go with it.

Unregulated, unmeasured, unrecorded, unmindful. This describes what used to be a normal day for me. Just, eating whatever.

There is a lot of produce in the fridge, but I could not be bothered to make something good for just me, which is unfortunate. But there you go, ten pounds in two days. A lot of that weight is probably just working its way through me, waiting to get out. But some will remain.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

What’s That Lyric?

It’s Not Over (‘Til It’s over and Done) - Bleu McAuley

I hear you're mad about Brubeck.

Will you be there?

The mornings start later, the mornings get cooler. It is supposed to be a beautiful, warm day tomorrow, and then the rains come.

Running out of doors, feeling the air, watching the leaves turn. Giving the geese a wide berth. It's a lovely park.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:28
Pace: 9:11

Most days I had to start thinking about my writing task from the moment I got up ... so I felt obliged to take with me into the park whatever music I was writing about. As I ran, finding an alertness parallel to whatever I was listening to, I would form an idea of a way to start an essay or description of a sound as I felt it through moving limbs and whizzing atmosphere, sometimes an idea so crazy I had to dare myself to type it out.
-  by Ben Ratliff, "Run the Song"

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 42°
Climate: clear & cool
Mood: better

Sophisti-pop 80s Workout Playlist

Tinseltown In the Rain - Blue Nile

New Frontier - Donald Fagen

These Early Days - Everything But the Girl

Appetite - Prefab Sprout

The Love Parade - Dream Academy

Mermaids - Andy Pawlak

If You Don't Love Me - Prefab Sprout

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

Wore shorts, but with a hoodie. That was ideal. A lovely fall day, cool but not windy. The air, the sky, the pavement, the trees. Deer in yards.

The Sophisti-pop thing ... we didn't call it that in the 1980s, the term came later. But we were in it, wearing ties and blazers, saddle shoes and concerned about our hair (I could never do anything with my hair, anyway, no loss) smoking cigarettes and sniffing glue.

Then, nearly ten years after, Toni and I were courting and we were lost and I was married to someone else, and she showed me Washington Heights and she showed me her room and we listened to vinyl records from our teen years and fantasized about an adolescence together we never had.

And then and then, some six or eight years ago, I discovered the Blue Nile. How could I have never heard of the Blue Nile? And it took me back to 1994 and to 1986, and I got all confused. And I was happy in my confusion. 

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

Tears run rings around my eyes

There are, like, ten people who regularly follow this blog. Or maybe, just ten people randomly access blog posts the moment they drop. I get ten or twelve hits, and then it just sits there.

Which is fine. People don't need to see this, unless they are also weird about running or need ideas for workout playlists.

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:17
Pace: 9:07

Though music has no tangible form, it has a physical form, and can enter a body. Moving with it -- running with it, as I run round my neighborhood -- can make it a memento or marker for a present and a past experience. Running with it can also reveal music as a disposition, as a philosophy, or as an open system, even if you don't own the music as a physical document.
-  by Ben Ratliff, "Run the Song"

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 51°
Climate: clear & cool
Mood: better

A bit chilly. Wore the jacket.

Reading about the way others run is akin to learning how others have sex. It's shocking. Really? You do it like that? In the case of Ben Ratliff (this is in regards to running) I was shocked to read that he stretches for fifteen minutes before running, and that he runs every day, and that he runs between four and twelve miles. Every day.

And he is Mr. Ratliff significantly younger than I am? Or in some bizarre way, older? Why no, he was born in 1968, and so was I. Jesus.

I wonder how he fucks.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs.

We don't "noom" as responsibly anymore, these things happen. I keep track of meals early in the day, which gives me a better idea of how to manage the rest of my day, so I don' need to record that. My weight, which was constant, has these little jumps which I clock and behave accordingly. I just want to maintain. This is not obsessive. No, really. It's not. It's not obsessive.

Sophisti-Pop 80s Workout Playlist

Shattered Dreams (12" Extended Mix) - Johnny Hates Jazz

Tears Run Rings - Marc Almond

True - Spandau Ballet

Mirror Man - Human League

Every Day I Wrote the Book - Elvis Costello & the Attractions

When It Started to Begin - Nick Heyward

I Confess - The Beat

This playlist is currently nine and a half hours long.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

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