Hers is a tonic while mine is a gin.

Connections, 4/17/2026
I got this immediately. Is that bad?

Seriously, though. This school year has to end. And I need to stop eating fast food, I need to plan ahead. 

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 28:20
Pace: 9:07

Also? I need to stop doing the NY Times daily puzzles. I am committed to a year-long streak of Connections, and have a month to go. And I got into Wordle, though that one isn't as important to me (though I have a 100+ day streak in that, too).

This means the first thing I do every morning is look at my phone for five to ten minutes. And then I am without any kind of motivation. I used to write first thing, now I puzzle. And I haven't written anything new since I completed the Marbury play a couple months ago. 

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 70°
Climate: overcast & coolish
Mood: not great

Beat the rain by minutes.

2007 Playlist

Ice Cream - New Pony Club

Get Innocuous! (Soulwax Remix) - LCD Soundsystem

Flathead - The Fratellis

Apologize - Timbaland ft. OneRepublic

Don't You Evah - Spoon

Love Will Tear Us Apart (158 BPM) - José González

1973 - James Blunt

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-6.0)

Saw Barns Courtney last night at the Grog Shop. And between four in the afternoon and midnight I had far too much to drink. Spent the morning in bed. I have systems. I can be in control. But this week has been a mess. That's not an excuse, merely an explanation.

Great run. My head ached before I went out, it aches now, But while I was outside and running, I felt great. Maybe I should just run fr the rest of the day.

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: TBA

Sit-Ups: TBA

Where boys run free!

"Pride of Cleveland Suburb Soars for U.S. Hockey"
New York Times, 2/19/2026

The wife reminds me that I am often depressed (maudlin, low energy, etc.) this time of year. Yes, it is the anniversary of father's passing, but it's also just winter. The long, slow slog out of the cold, with no festival of lights, no time off or time with family to bring the cheer.

The Olympics have been fun to watch, Toni gave me that. I do not recall paying any attention to the Games prior to my life with her. The past two weeks I have just turned on the screen to watch whatever, skiing, curling, snowboarding, skating, and, of course, the hockey.

We had a hometown hero on our team this year, and they took the gold. Remarkable.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:34

I need to resume the good habits. Too many puzzles, first thing in the morning. Today I wrote, which, I have to remind myself, is a form of exercise. Add a glass of water to the cup of coffee, first thing, as you write for 30 minutes. Good habits.

Route: rec center
Temperature: 16°
Climate: cold
Mood: I think I might be better!

1981 Playlist

Music For Boys - The Suburbs

9 to 5 - Dolly Parton

I’m Your Money - Heaven 17

Of Lillies & Remains - Bauhaus

Johnny, Are You Queer? - Josie Cotton

Regiment - Brian Eno & David Byrne

The Freeze - Spandau Ballet 

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-1.0)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

She ran away.

The Best Time To Exercise To Lose Weight
By Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times 1/23/2015
"There is some evidence that working out on an empty stomach ... prompts the body to burn more fat and potentially stave off weight gain ..."

This just popped up on my nytimes.com (in spite of being over a year and a half old) but I was a bit shocked, and not for the reason you might expect.

When I was twenty-two and first started running with any kind of fervor, I was desperate to lose a lot of weight. And I noticed that when I ran on an empty stomach I felt a burning sensation which I thought, entirely without scientific basis what so ever, must be helping me to burn away fat.

It was also probably burning away muscle and the lining of my stomach. But to find that there is a certain truth to this childish theory comes a quite a surprise.

Of course, this is what they warn you when you are training for a marathon that you won't lose weight. Because if you are training properly, you are taking in fuel to burn as you run, and recovery fuel afterwards. So, no weight loss. Just good, healthy running.

You want to lose weight? Exercise and don't eat anything. That's what I used to do. I used to smoke, too. I used to do all kinds of stupid things.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Fall For Forest Hill 5K Run/Walk, Sunday, October 16 at 9:00 AM. Who's in?

Temperature: 66°
Climate: cool and humid
Mood: good. okay? I'm good right now.

Honey taking her run at soccer practice where the kids are. Things are good. Right? Yes. Yes, they are. Keep telling yourself that.

Sunshine Superman Playlist
Season of the Witch - DonovanRunaway - Del Shannon
Sloop John B - The Beach Boys
Ferry Cross the Mersey - Gerry & The Pacemakers
Tequila - Champs
Hang On Sloopy - The McCoys
Good Lovin' - The Rascals
Magic Bus - The Who
Windy - The Association

YOU GUYS. Ever run to Tequila? That is my shit right there.

My pulse is racing.

No seriously, I haven't run for a long time and I am not happy about that. It's golden hour, the fall, when the gear is still at a minimum but so is the sweat.

We have been in rehearsal for the residency program, which makes for early mornings, long days, and many of them (we rehearse on Saturdays, too) and my wife has begun her second year teaching high school English, so my evenings are largely housework related -- and spending time with my children, who have suddenly exploded into the larger world.

Then there's the change of season, allergy, feeling headachy and sick thing.

Gripe, gripe, gripe (the boys are marching.)

Temperature: 75°

Distance: 3.25 miles

 Let's Cool It In The Bedroom  
by Gretchen Reynolds
New York Times - July 17, 2014

Woke just before 3 am, certain I would slide into another sleepless night and wake in pain. I could feel my head expand and tighten. I crawled out of bed for water and pain reliever, and threw off the covers to sleep cool.

The NYTimes link provided above, and which I read during the summer, does not actually relate to my personal discoveries about sleep, though it is interesting. All I know is staying up late, sleeping warm, sleeping in (thereby missing out on morning caffeine) and even modest amounts of alcohol, combine to create a really awful morning. You may call it a hangover, but it happens whether I have had anything to drink or not, and always on the weekend.

I woke again at 7 am, feeling much better, and ready to just roll over, when it occurred to me to make coffee, which I did, by which time I was a little awake. I have not written in two days, not even nonsense. Lately I have been fretting - a lot - about my ability to write anything, ever, of any value, ever again.

Coffee, morning birds and a blank sheet of paper, combined with a half hour of thinking and rotating my wrist and I have the beginning of what may be a 10-minute play, which is great because I find those to be most difficult of all.

Then I went back to sleep for two hours, the best sleep I've had in over a month. It is 11 am, everyone is gone for the day, and I have housework to happily tend to. But first, we run.

Under Pressure Playlist
Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie
The Ocean - Led Zeppelin
Roundabout - Yes
These Are The Days of Our Lives - Queen
Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica
I'm Free - The Who
Living After Midnight - Judas Priest

Bright and warm, but cool and breezy. This is fall. I feel good, I need to resume cross-training, these slacks won't put themselves on.

So glad we live in a universe where Under Pressure happened. When you are putting together that memorial video for me after my death, please use this song, it's kind of everything.

And you can tell the world that you're tired.

Before.

Morning marked by malaise ... I have had an unhappy relationship with sleep since we departed. Hotel bedrooms co-sleeping with kicking children is one thing, I do not know why my comfortable bed here has been keeping me up nights.

By my wife's recommendation I took allergy medicine before bed but was still up several times, and worse, with sinus pain. I slept later than everyone else, which I hate. I prefer to read and write before the kids are awake so as not to deprive them of vacation-based attention.

However, so it went and my wife took the kids out this morning so I could sit by the fire, or the porch, and read and scribble and eventually, to write. By noon I was ready to move.

Whither July?

Temperature: 63°
Climate: bright and warm
Distance: 3.8 miles

After.

Running 5 Minutes a Day Has Long-Lasting Benefits
New York Times

Pompeii Playlist
Salt Skin - Ellie Goulding
Landfill - Daughter
Without a Word - Birdy
Not Fair - Lily Allen
Calgary - Bon Iver
I Predict a Riot *  - Kaiser Chiefs
California English * - Vampire Weekend
Still Life * - The Horrors

Go! Go! Go! Go!

How I Stopped Procrastinating

By Merrill Markoe, NYTimes 1/18/2014

I have to thank Mo for pointing out this piece in the Times which describes exactly the success I have been enjoying for the past several months. Humorist Merrill Markoe's experience involve being involuntarily bed-ridden, and I am grateful not to have made my discovery in that way. 

"I had a vague idea for a play that I had tried to begin many times at 3 in the afternoon ..."

She was bored to tears, lying in bed at 6 in the morning, day after day, unable to walk, and chose to write, and discovered to her surprise that she wrote -- a lot. So have I, since November. It took about a month of dedicated practice (many, many thanks to my loving wife who brings me coffee every morning, apparently Ms. Markoe doesn't have that) before I moved from writing jibberish to composing dialogue.

Okay, "composing" may be a little florid. But writing is happening. I am half-awake, and yet when I return to what I have created, I am satisfied with what I read.

"Words come pouring out easily while my head still feels as if it is full of ground fog, wrapped in flannel and gauze, and surrounded by a hive of humming, velvety sleep bees."

The piece I am currently working on is so personal, I couldn't get it out if I were wide awake and fed. And it may be terrible, and never see the light of day ... but I have been thinking of writing it since 2010. Not kidding. Four years, thinking of writing something, without putting down a word.

Then it all came tumbling out and I have asked two actors to read the complete first draft out loud on Thursday. I resume the children's play I began at the end of last year. And there are stories buffered waiting for release.

Temperature: 30°
Pavement: Snow snowy snow - and slush!
Distance: 3.7 miles
Weight: 176.5 lbs.

More snow, and it will remain cold this week for little hope the sidewalks will clear, but it was all worth it to lift up my chin and look at the neighborhood, which was complete stunning. Thank you for that.

Also, that was a very satisfying run, and lifting up my knees to make the least splash through the sludgy puddles was exhilarating, and not exhausting in the least. Thank you for that, too.

2012 Playlist
Youth Without Youth - Metric
Die Young - Ke$ha
Drive By - Train
Starships - Nicki Minaj
Wide Awake - Katy Perry
I Love It - Icona Pop ft. Charlie XCX
Somebody That I Used To Know (Sweet Dreams) - Gotye vs. Beyoncé
Paddling Out - Miike Snow
Scream & Shout - will.i.am ft. Britney Spears