Let your imagination run wild.

January 30, 2023

It has been a very long time since I have had this many runs in January. Back then I might run twenty times, but I no longer have the stamina for that. I was even running outside in the snow back then. No, thank you.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 24:38

Another thing ... I have been sneezing, all the time, for about three weeks. It's crazy. It's like there's something in our living room, like mold or something. It's killing me. I have to jack up on Sudafed just to stop the drainage, it's awful.

Route: rec center 
Temperature: -2°
Climate: still
Mood: driven

1983 Playlist

Adventures In Success - Will Powers

A New England (168 bpm) - Billy Bragg

Automatic Man - Michael Sembello

Communication (12 “ Version) (152 bpm) - Spandau Ballet

I Love It When (You Call Me Names) - Joan Armatrading

School Is In (159 bpm) - Josie Cotton

You Stand By - Roman Holiday

This Is the Day - The The

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-)

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

We walked around in circles singing.

Such a squalid little ending.

From the jump, the recent revival of Chess falls into a trap, as the Arbiter educates the audience of young people about the Cold War, which he describes as a battle between COMMUNISM and ...

DEMOCRACY.

Yep. Not Capitalism. Democracy. That may have been how we described it at the time, but the Arbiter exists out of time, a modern narrator making contemporary references and wisecracks. My own kids would be like, uh. No. 

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 25:41 

Christians had long recognized the problem. The most radically inclined, those who thought of themselves as most fully awakened to the truth, wanted to cancel the whole of pagan culture. 

In order to be cleansed and to feel safe, they had to discard the inherited works of art, literature, and philosophy. Those works were indelibly stained, and they corrupted those who came under their spell. To teach them to the young and impressionable was unconscionable. 

It was time, in the name of the redemption paid for by the blood of the Savior, to smash the idols once and for all. "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" one of the most radical asked.

- "Dark Renaissance" by Stephen Greenblatt (p. 39)

Route: rec center
Temperature: 14°
Climate: sunny & freezing
Mood: all right

1984 Playlist

The Deal (No Deal) - Murray Head, Tommy Körberg & Elaine Paige from "Chess"

Where Do the Boys Go? (157 BPM) - Men Without Hats

Birdmad Girl - The Cure

Too Late for Goodbyes - Julian Lennon

Train Running Low on Soul Coal - XTC

Robert De Niro’s Waiting - Bananarama

Dancing With Tears in My Eyes - Ultravox

In My House - Mary Jane Girls

Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Weight: 160 lbs. (-0-)

I have been sneezing for three days straight. The wife thinks it's cancer.

She hates it when I say things like that.

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Got to keep my foot right down.

Eight consistent every-other-day runs. More runs than in 2022, when eye surgery took me off the road. Today, as many runs as I got in last month.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 30:30
Pace: 9:22

Leaves turn. The weather cools. I must make myself mentally prepared to return to the recreation center, if the weather is disagreeable. Strange, if you had asked me when I last renewed my membership I would have thought last October or something, but it was December.

Going to the gym is easy. It is important I remember that.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: partly cloudy & cool
Mood: a bit sickly

Reggatta De Blanc - The Police (1979)

Message In a Bottle (151 bpm)

Regatta De Blanc (159 bpm - varies)

It's Alright For You

Bring On the Night

Deathwish

On Any Other Day (157 bpm)

The Bed's Too Big Without You

Contact

No Time This Time

This was always my favorite Police album, "Bring On the Night" was my favorite song during my Senior year in high school (which is a problem) and I will still say it is my favorite if only for the almost complete lack of bullshit. Every song is a banger ... except "Does Everyone Stare" which is goofy.

Goofy, but on point. "I'm gonna write you a sonnet but I don't know where to start." That was me. My wife says I just don't like Andy Summers and I said, maybe it's just that I don't like Andy Summers, and also that that song was written by Copeland. 

I also left "Walking On the Moon" off this play list because it's not good to run to. But, still. A classic.

My copy was a special release, two 10" vinyl records. Pretty cool. Wikipedia tells me Reggatta de Blanc (French for "Yacht Rock") is also Copeland's favorite of The Police records, so I feel validated. I don't really care which one Sting likes the best.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes 
Weight: 161 lbs. (+1.0) 

Now, allergies. Woke an hour earlier than my alarm, a tickle in my throat and in my eyes. Going to the doctor this afternoon, we'll she what she has to say about all this (gestures vaguely at his own form).

Planks: yes
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: yes

Man. Now, see, those guys knew how to close an album.

Soon it's a race, it's a rush and a high.

It is such a joy to discover that a theatre somewhere in the United States is producing one of my plays. Of course, we are producing one much closer to home, and there is much to celebrate in that.

The weather is not unbearable, though we do have air conditioning. What will happen when we do not?

The sleeps have been good, I have been trying not to use assistance in falling asleep these past several nights, and it is mostly successful. On occasion we knock ourselves out, it seemed kind of bleary for a while.

The real issue this weekend is allergies. I use drops, but my eyes were all red yesterday, all day. I have resumed taking OTC allergy meds today, I hope that shows results. 

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 29:21
Pace: 9:28

Roaring Twenties Playlist

Levitating - Dua Lipa

Caution - The Killers

Some Dreams (Extended Version) - Flock of Seagulls

Too Late Now (156 BPM) - Wet Leg

Exhausting Lover - Ben Folds

Sexy Villain - Remi Wolf

Lost Track (162 BPM) - Haim

Just the Once - Metric

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 79°
Climate: sunny & bright
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes!

Weight: 160 lbs.

We burst through the Overton window.

Hurt my back. Remember the rules, never run like you are trying to get the running over with. Relax, do not lean forward, run at the pace which best suits you at the moment.

Distance: 1 miles
Duration: 10:19

Without posting it here on the blog, I am attempting to pull it back on the consumption. God, there's a lot of little snack things around.  

Your Top Songs 2023

Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

Steal My Sunshine - LEN

Pontius Pilate's Home Movies - The New Pornographers

Route: Neighborhood Loop
Temperature: 47°
Climate: overcast & damp
Mood: all right

I have a bit of a cold. And I am recovering from the allergies I suffer at Con's house. But I wanted to move, and so I did. I'm on vacation!

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Sit-Ups: 20

They all stopped breathing.

Allergies. Or Covid. Who knows? It is the change of the season. I had a headache overnight, sleeping too warm. Also, allergies. Maybe Covid. I have been very tired. Because I have been running, and doing housework. 

Exercise as the seasons change, the evenings conclude and I am exhausted, I was nodding off during class last night. Thank goodness! The last class of the semester. My final project has been completed and turned in, school is out for summer. 

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 31:36
Pace: 10:14
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 61°
Climate: sunny & bright
Mood: good, right?

Stretches: not really

I hereby proclaim it is summer. Running slowly, feeling weak lately. Don't like that.   

Intake

Breakfast: orange juice, coffee (2x), ham & pancakes

Lunch: ham & pancakes (yes, again)

Snack: Life cereal

Dinner: grilled cheese, broccoli cheese soup, bread

Snack: potato chips, slice of cake

Cocktail hour: Old fashioned

Also: Fizzy water (3x)

So, I'm not really being careful about what I eat. Not really. But! I discovered I am thirsty as fuck, which may contribute to  why I have been so exhausted.

1974 Playlist

Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) - B.T. Express

Living For the City  - Stevie Wonder

No-No Song - Ringo Starr

Lady Marmalade - LaBelle

Ballroom Blitz - Sweet

Lilywhite Lilith - Genesis

Takin' Care of Business - Bachman-Turner Overdrive

#9 Dream - John Lennon

TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) - MFSB ft. The Three Degrees

I feel like I've been run right through the mill.

Those boots.

We did it, we sent a child through public school. I am exhausted.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:02
Pace: 9:21
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 75°
Climate: sunny, hot and AWESOME
Mood: excellent
Weight: 182 lbs. (-2.0)

Intake
Breakfast: coffee (2x) 
Lunch: shrimp tempura roll

Treat: Chocolate covered Oreo (1)

Snack: apple
Dinner: air fried brussels sprouts, pasta with mushroom & veggie meat tomator sauce, beer (1x)

Also, fizzy water (3x)

Boy chose the decade. I was surprised, he hates contemporary music. But seeing as 2012 was almost a decade ago, it is ancient to him. It was a banger. We went hot and fast. He gets his second dose today, no idea what he will feel like tomorrow.

Now we're running.

2012 Playlist

Youth Without Youth - Metric

Drive By - Train

Starships - Nicki Minaj

We Found Love - Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna

Bubblegum Bitch - MARINA

I'm Shakin' - Jack White

Boozophilia - Low Cut Connie

Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO

Oblivion - Grimes

He says he attracts bugs. He is a bit allergic to mosquito bites, they affect him terribly, big swollen welts. Then there's the spider bite he got in NC once, when he was a child. Traumatic, scary and also made him ill for a shot period. And it just hurt. No, he did not get super powers.

Running through the woods makes him anxious, he just feels the itch all over. I can sympathize with that part. That was me, too, at his age. Skin was an enemy. My acne was much worse at his age than his currently is. Cold comofrt.

Hamlet explains running.

(Take it with a pinch of electral 🙂)

To run or not to run, that's the question
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous early mornings,
Or to take arms against a sea of marathons,,
And by opposing end them? To drink: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heel ache and the thousand ITB shocks
That feet is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To drink, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of FMs,what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this hydration belt,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long runs;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of garmin
The organizers wrong, the proud pacers contumely,
The pangs of despised PBs, the GPS delay,
The insolence of Sub 4 and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy dry fits
When he himself might his quietus make
With a cold beer? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary flyover
But that the dread of something after DNF
The undiscover'd ultras from whose events
No runner returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those medals we have
Than fly to other marathons that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make runners of us all;
And thus the native hue of barefoot
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of vibrams
And LSDs of great pace and tempo
With this regard the runners turn awry
And lose the name of action

- Karthik TMK

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 19:32
Pace: 9:45
Route: Two times around the block.
Temperature: 75°
Climate: overcast and muggy
Mood: not well
Weight: 183 lbs. (+1.0)

To run or not to run, indeed. It has been a difficult day, hard to concentrate on my work. I believe it is allergies, I feelt headachy and somewhat stuffed. So why not get out and run?

Put your feet into the groove.

Not my skin. But it looked like this.

Hi. I'm a mess. A three-mile run was in order for Monday morning, but I pushed so hard on Sunday, I was up most of the night with aches. Didn't get up to take pain reliever until five am and then crashed for almost another two hours, so that was nice.

However, I did not plan to eat something at lunch which gave me a severe allergic reaction. I mean, it wasn't severe, severe. I wasn't having trouble breathing and I wasn't itching. But my pulse suddenly went up, I developed blotchy red skin, I could feel my heart throbbing in my ears.

Co-workers took me to urgent care, which was very, very wonderful. Thank you, Stephanie, and Kelly, for taking such good care of me.

Did you know ..? The Clinic has an urgent care facility at East 4th Street? Enjoy nationally renown celebrity chefs and the check into the Cleveland Clinic! They were awesome, too, by the way. Took great care of me.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 30:18
Pace: 9:19
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 70°
Climate: bit muggy
Mood: not bad, considering
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

This morning I noticed the sun rising later. No hat, no sunglasses at six in the morning. Wasn't sure the night before if I would run today, either, but here we are.

Bit winded, weak, not too weak. Great run, very humid already, before sunrise. Did not stop. Saw a beautiful heron in the park, I love that guy.

What's That Lyric?
Street Dance - Break Machine

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 169.5 lbs. (+4)
Goal: 160 lbs.

I have eaten a lot the past couple of days. After the race I just wanted to eat. Yesterday I didn't feel hungry as I started to recover from the reaction, but once I started I found it hard to stop. After all, it wasn't food poisoning. I kept thinking that it was, and expecting to vomit or something, and I kept reminding myself that wasn't it.

Today, I pack my lunch. No grocery store sushi for me!

Running through emergency rooms.

Ugh. Allergies. Woke this morning feeling sluggish, I hate that. The weather turns, which is great for running but awful for my head. To think, I am looking forward to the fall.

Distance: 3 miles
Route: Boulevard Loop

Oh, CHRIST, that made it worse. Thought a run would clear my head, instead my headache has settled into my eyebrows, where it will stay for a unpredictable future. God, I hate my head.

Temperature: 61°
Climate: over and cool ... but humid
Mood: my head hurts

But fast, yes. I ran fast. And the ideas I had, all the thinks I was thinking. How can I make the running play happen again? Where, when, and for what purpose? Because in my mind it is changing, Martin Denton said he wanted "to understand why running is so fundamentally important" to me. I may finally be able to answer that question clearly.

What's That Lyric?
You Don't Get Me High Anymore - Phantogram

Wondering if I'll sleep.

She made this.

Thirteen runs in August, which is not remarkable ... but I ran eleven times in July and also in June. So that surprised me. Why? Because I have felt so exhausted and depressed this past month. And yet, we run.

That was the discussion on the drive down yesterday, why is daddy so tired all the time. After the fact mother noticed that my father had been tired all the time, and that she should have done something about it, that maybe that was a sign of his unnoticed heart problems, which eventually killed him.

There is nothing wrong with my heart, seriously. Not now, not a chance. And yet. I am always so tired.

The wife knows that when I am depressed I have a tendency to check out physically, and there may be something there. There are things I desire, that I desire to accomplish ... I was on track with a few of them until the beginning of July. It has been a busy if somewhat bewildering summer.

Distance: 4.42 miles
Avg Pace: 7:51
Duration: 34:44
Route: Hocking River Bike Path

Went to bed last night around 10 PM. Finally got out of bed after 9 AM.  This is not normal, but then when do I ever have such an opportunity. Made the mistake of not bringing my sleep mask to Maine, as in I intentionally decided not to bring it.

"Rise at dawn," I thought, "it will be fun," I thought.

Instead I got used to taking a clean sock to bed and slapping that over my eyes just to rest until seven.

My in-laws dog died last month, so my sinuses are considerably less troubled and while I did not wake with a headache I was not exactly rested, regardless of eleven hours of sleep. I tossed about a great deal, my hips ached on the unfamiliar mattress. My dreams were wild and disturbing.

Wrote for a little this morning, read the Times. MP took the wife and all the kids to the hotel for swimming, but I opted to go for a run by the river. It has been a very long time

Temperature: 81°
Climate: hot, bright & beautiful
Mood: maintaining

Was a gorgeous run down by the Hocking, only too hot. Surprised to learn it is only eighty degrees, but the air is so still and the sky without clouds, it felt much hotter.

My first run on this trail was almost thirty years ago, in spring 1987. My first blogged run was ten years ago, a nine mile, training for New York City. At that time I was not so conscious of how much older I was than the students. Who is that old guy, running on the path? What am I, a professor or business owner? Not to be mistaken for a grad student.

Eat For Two Playlist
Eat For Two - 10,000 Maniacs
Like Cockatoos - The Cure
Peace Train * - 10,000 Maniacs
Mr. Jones - Talking Heads
Twisting - They Might Be Giants
See A Little Light - Bob Mould
Letter Never Sent - R.E.M.
Skyway * - The Replacements
Beyond Belief - Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Bushfire - The B-52's
Radio Song - R.E.M. ft. KRS-One

That is some kind of college music playlist. Suits me. Also has my brain picking to bits Scene Three. We are here, among other reasons, for a baby shower for my brother-in-law and his family. Baby blankets and baby shoes, baby slippers, baby spoons, walls of baby blue. Perhaps I missed my window but I hoped to write a little once my brain was settled. It is not the season for thinking.

Run away and hide from everyone.

Oh, ah. I have a cold or something. Thought it was just allergies yesterday, but this morning I just feel terrible. Yet the work must continue. Tonight I have to curate a playwriting contest, there are meetings to be met, rehearsals to be rehearsed. Love to take the day off. Can't.

Then there's running. How slow can you go?

Distance: 4 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Pseudoephedrine is a strong motivator. Hope I don't regret this later.

Temperature: 61°
Climate: overcast, cool. very light rain
Weight: 163 lbs. (-1.0)
Mood: sick

What's That Lyric?
Don't Answer Me - The Alan Parson Project

UPDATE: Jesus. Well, bet you can guess what I will be listening to for tomorrow's run.

When people run in circles it's a very, very ...

The middle of this week was quite bizarre. It feels like illness has been swirling around us, first me, then my wife, then my boss … and back to me. Not exactly ill, just a lingering malaise. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake very tired and headachy.

Every night, waking in the middle of the night with a dull pain, waking with same. Spending the day feeling weak, not quite shaky. Not how I want to begin the summer.

On Wednesday, I was so headachy and tired, and my eyes itched. I rinsed my face with cold water and my left eye swelled up terribly. Ah-ha. Not a lingering cold, but allergies.

Feeling so weak, going for a run seems anti-intuitive. But I feel stronger today, and I hope running in the hot air will clear my lungs a bit.

Today is shabbos, and I am distressed at how jittery that makes me. It is a mental chore, reminding myself that really, there’s nothing for me there online. Everything can wait. It’s not important. What is important is the work, the work of life.

The home, the health, the writing, the relationships. These things compose my life.

Temperature: 77°
Distance: 3.25 miles

What Difference Does It Make Playlist
Mad World - Tears for Fears
(Nice Dream) - Radiohead
Lullaby - The Cure
Sunday Morning - Velvet Underground
“The Stranger” * - The Cure
In Between Days - The Cure
Hand In Glove - The Smiths
Let’s Go To Bed - The Cure

I’d love to see Morrissey play Cleveland, just to hear him sigh, “Oh, God. I’m in Cleveland.”