You take my breath away.

Body by Perrier

Exercise is mental. I mean, it's physical, but it's also mental. And requires planning. But not as much time as I think it does. Last night I thought oh, I didn't do abdominals. Do I need to do abdominals? That's how it starts. But I got up and did them. It didn't take very long. And then they were done.

Keep it going.

Distance: 1 mile
Duration: 9:03

1986 Playlist

Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) - Glass Tiger ft. Ryan Adams  

Seven Day Weekend - Elvis Costello & the Attractions ft. Jimmy Cliff

Don't Leave Me Behind - Everything But the Girl

It's funny my graduation cohort has two songs pleading for you not to forget about us. Three if you want to count that EBG track.

Route: Neighborhood Loop
Temperature: 51°
Climate: sunny & cool
Mood: good!
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Motivating a one mile is tough. Like, is it worth it? And then I'm like, don't be a dick, some folks can't even run one mile, what's your excuse? 

The day begins with energy.

Upper body: 60 rep

Core Strength: 

   Sit-Ups: 40

   Bicycles: 40

   Planks: 60 sec.

Jesus. I just remembered that it was on this date in 1986 that I first got laid. Why does my brain work like this?

Baseline: 185 lbs.
Weight: 179 lbs. (-1.0)

Goal: 175 lbs.

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

Lunch: roast beef sandwich, chips, ginger ale

Happy Hour: Bumble Berry

Rehearsal Treat: Twizzlers

Dinner: ramen w/scallion & veggie sausage

Cocktail Hour: Midwest IPA

See? Record your meals.

I will be your daddy.

Thank God for George Michael, and especially for the single "I Want Your Sex" which was first released on the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II in May 1987.

It's not the best rack on his first, upcoming solo record, Faith. But is was a quirky, frenetic, deconstructed bop which enraged a lot of silly people. I got the "extended CD single" that summer and wore that fucker out.

Distance: 5 miles

Duration: 51:49
Pace: 10:21

Route: Forest Hill Loop +

Temperature: 73°
Climate: overcast & muggy

Mood: all right

Over my high school years I had developed a terrible case of acne on my chest, back and shoulders. At the end of 1986 I was single again and miserable, I thought I'd never date again. The year 1987 started with my first one-night stand, which was completely humiliating.

However, I was soon prescribed Accutane. My skin cleared up, and with it a degree of physical self-confidence that no man deserves, and for a short time, I became a player. George Michael wrote my songs. Well, George and Robert Smith.

Maybe I will try running to some Cure albums next. 

Faith - George Michael (1987)

Faith

Father Figure

I Want Your Sex Pts. 1 & 2

Hard Day (Shep Pettibone Remix)

Hand To Mouth

Look at Your Hands

Monkey (Jam & Lewis Remix)

Kissing a Fool

A Last Request (I Want Your Sex Pt. 3)

 

Difficult week, physically. Big run Tuesday, but that seemed to exacerbate the injury. Refraining from running was an emotional drain. The weather didn't help, the rain and damp. Still, been reading. Working. Watching movies. Summer time.

 
Stretches: yes

Water: yes

Not horrible, slow pace, felt the pull the entire time. Also, occasional new twitches in my left knee. What's that all about? Will pound ibuprofen, hope for the best.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh strawberry, blueberry, cherry, dried cranberry & raisin, yogurt, granola, honey & sunflower seeds

Zoom Time: iced coffee

Lunch: ramen w/roasted chicken

Dinner: popcorn

Alcohol? Boss Dog

Baseline: 195 lbs.

Current: 170 lbs. (-0-)

Goal: 165 lbs.

Reading: 30 min.

Man, but that last track is problematic.

While running on empty.

We eat a lot. We drink a lot. We also exercise, do stretches. Sit in the sun, and in the shade, and read and write. Games are played, more drinks are made. Groceries are shopped for, and forgotten beach items. Iced coffee is greedily consumed, with or without alcohol added. Storms roll in, and out again. We stay up late, make love, and if we're lucky, we run on the beach.

An entire vacation is had, all on a Sunday. What else will the week bring?

Distance: 2 miles
Pace: 8:40
Route: North Topsail Beach
Temperature: 78•
Climate: hot & sunny
Mood: good

With shoes this time, did not wish to tax my feet -- nor my back. With shoes I stood straighter. Felt good. Wind in my face heading south (9:04 pace) at my back heading home (8:15). Sun on my face heading back, too, but that was lovely.

Complete round of stretches after, including the plank. Eating so much crap this week, I'd love to hold some of it in, if only to make it into my shorts.

Exercises: yes!

Those don't sound like stretches, the wife observes. They sound like exercises. And indeed they do. She invited me on a walk on the beach, I hadn't even gotten out of my kit, but I wasn't wearing my shoes. Perfect! Walking down stairs, however, my thighs were trembly. That is what we are working on.

The walk was relaxing, investigating tide pools, conversing with seabirds. Time now to write, time to read. Time for nothing at all.

What's That Lyric?
Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright

All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me.

#resist

Just another day, just another run. Obsessively moving forward, keeping active in the spring-like weather, peeling through year playlists. Even this year I am on track to break my February run record, and I am not even training for anything.

In 2012, however, I was fighting against snow and cold temperatures, this year it is easy in my shorts and cap. But I do have seven more playlists to get through than I did that year, so there's that.

None of this means anything. Just trying to have something to say.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Avg. Pace: 7:52
Duration: 25:57
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Boy asked the watch Animalympics before heading off to school this morning, the entire thing is available online. Fans of the movie (mostly Gen X'ers who either saw it over and over on HBO in the early 80s, or on the Disney Channel in the early 90s) wonder why it is not available on DVD or for streaming.

Maybe it's all the Asian stereotypes and fat jokes. Since Disney purchased the rights, they have probably decided to shelve it in the United States like they have Song of the South. Not worth the controversy.

Still. That Kit Mambo.

Temperature: 59°
Climate: overcast and humid
Mood: driving

Baseline: 174 lbs.
Today: 165.5 lbs. (+1.0)
Goal: 165 lbs.
Ideal: 160 lbs.

Gained a pound, yes, but only a pound. Went out with the boy the Happy Dog last night we got the hang out and talk about things which was great. But I have consumed so much fat and grease these past several days and I can feel it in my mouth. Can't brush it out. I need some more control.

2002 Playlist
Freeek! - George Michael
Clap Your Hands - They Might Be Giants
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presly
Daybreaker - Beth Orton
Sweet Smoke - Mr. Scruff
Music Plus 1 - Cornershop
United States of Whatever *  - Liam Lynch

Babymaking music.

You're my number one guy.

Are you ready to go back to Titanic?

Boy Camp 2015 is in effect. Yesterday we went bowling, and I attended his baseball game. We had hot dogs for dinner and watched The Terminator. Oh my God, Bill Paxton is the blue-haired punk.

The wife and the girl attend a feminist retreat in Pennsylvania each July, and have done so since 2010. The boy was five at that time and a little distressed to learn mom was not only going out of town, but taking his sister to do some special thing.

I told him that if they were going to girl camp then we were having boy camp. This piqued his interest, and he asked what boy camp was. I said I wasn't sure yet, but that it probably involved bowling.

Distance: 5 miles
Avg Pace: 7.45
Route: Forest Hills Loop

This one hit the pavement and took an awesome five mile run through the park while the boy slept in after a night that also included a hard-fought ball game, in addition to a super-violent sci-fi adventure. Actually, I think he's seen worse action on SHIELD and that Terminator's R-rating is due entirely to judicious use of the f-word and Linda Hamilton's boobs.

Consensual sex, bad ... pulling the beating heat out of someone's chest, good. Let's have this discussion again.

Tomorrow I am due for a 10-mile run, having missed my long-run last weekend. We will have to make an adventure out of that. Perhaps visit Gandhi.

Temperature: 73°
Climate: bright, clear and cool-ish
Weight: 175.5 lbs.
Intake: bagel w/cream cheese
Hydration: yes
Stretches: a little

What's That Lyric?
Ready For the Floor - Hot Chip

Use your muscle.

 No.

What is my relationship to food? This morning, following a performance at a medical conference, I looked over what was available from the continental breakfast in the lobby to make up for my scant meal prior to my arrival (which had been one apple and one banana.)

Coffee, yes. And juice -- which we do not normally have at home but makes for a nice, sweet, cold, shot of insulin when feeling down. Pastries, or danishes? No, thanks. I am hungry, but all that processed flour and sugar will just make me feel frayed and leave a bad taste in my mouth. Plain bagel with cream cheese please, that will be good. I will be running in an hour.

Good for you! Congratulations on making the right choice! Now, how do you explain your entirely pointless "need" last night to purchase a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie® and scarf that down with little regard or memory? I mean, you thought about it, it was a thought, as carefully made as the one you made this morning that you are so proud of, who was that person and who is this?

Temperature: 41°  
Climate: crisp, cold
Distance: 3.25 miles

Inspired by my Medina colleague, I decided to run backwards today! Not literally, of course, just taking my traditional route, and running it in the opposite direction. I have done that once or twice in the past. There's one obvious reason I don't do this very often ... my daily 3 mile route goes pleasantly straight downhill for almost one half-mile. Taking that up, while not arduous, is taxing, and not what I want to do every single run.

It is refreshing, and interesting, to see the route from the other direction. It was more interesting, it felt longer -- which I did not expect -- taking longer to make the distance from point to point in more time than I would have thought it might. A good exercise, and one which served to confirm how comfortable and happy I am with my traditional route. It is right, it works, it satisfies.

At this point I am tempted to make a joke about having had a one-night stand last night to confirm many of the same things, but as the wife really is out of town this weekend, she might not think that's funny.

2008 Playlist
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
Black & Gold - Sam Sparro
Just Dance - Lady Gaga ft. Colby O'Donis
Jai Ho - A.R. Rahman
Disturbia - Rihanna
Let Me See You - Girl Talk
Halo (159 bpm) - Beyoncé

"Running will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no running." - The Ruinous Ruminating Running Brothers.

You Were a Pretty Queen of New York City

This holiday season I have been thinking a lot about Nineteen Eighty-Seven. That's a quarter century ago. Maybe it's because that's when I bought the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, and listened to it until my mother was driven to distraction. Or when my father first turned me onto Brubeck's Time Out. Or the first Very Special Christmas Album.

Nineteen Eighty-Seven was my first full year as an adult. It was an emotional trajectory from low to high, all year long. My first serious dating relationship broke up during the holidays in 1986 ... okay, that's not fair to the girls I dated in high school. What I mean is this was the first time she broke up with me.

I took Accutane to stanch hideous, scarring acne. In that year I had sex with more different people than in any other. I do not think those two facts are unrelated.

The year began with a mullet. By the mid-summer my hair was dyed black. I learned how to actually dance. I started clubbing. My first mosh pit. There were drugs. I began work on my first daily comic strip. There was freedom. There was a complete lack of personal responsibility. It was also the fall when I first met my wife.

Yes, things were carefree and crazy in 1987. I had a near nervous breakdown less than a year later, but that goes without saying.

Temperature: 37°
Distance: 3.25 miles

1987 Holiday Playlist
Fairytale of New York - The Pouges ft. Kirsty MacColl
It's A Wonderful Life (Gonna Have A Good Time) - Fishbone
Winter Wonderland - Eurythmics
Vanishing Girl - The Dukes of Stratosphear
Gabriel's Message - Sting
The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson
Got My Mind Set On You - George Harrison
Pump Up The Volume - M/A/R/R/S

really pathetic.

The natural sedatives released through the act of running are a powerful addiction. I mean, exhausting yourself is its own form of sedation, but that's not what I am talking about, I can be exhausted and anxious. I am referring to endorphins, or whatever they are which make it possible for me to get through my day with an easy, focused mind.

Thursday night, and yesterday morning, I was miserable. There is simply too much going on for me to be conifdent and comfortable. How can I relax, here in the most relaxing of places, when I have less than a month to find all the necessary pieces for the Aug. 1 performance, there are postcards to be printed and shipped for the fringe, summer arts camp begins on Monday, and there is a constant parade of final reports and grant proposals due from now until, well ... there are always grant proposals and final reports due.

I went running, and it all slowed down. My mind was settled. I could be happy, thoughtful, chatty, pleasant, and buy a new pair of jeans at Goodwill.

This morning is simply gorgeous. Coffee and toast, on the porch, cool but sunny, kids on the swing, shooting pool in the garage, the girl took a sunshower with grandma. I have a small pain in my head. I try to think slowly, to relax. It won't happen, not easily. This is our second full day - we don't have to leave until tomorrow, but it feels like Sunday afternoon now, I am not here, I am then and I am wasting this glorious opportunity.

The wife and MP are off seeing great-grandma, who keeps falling down these days. When they return I have been promised a run.

Is it physical exercise, or the act of running itself? The act of running, in spite of the repetition (out to the rec center, water and pee, then back the same way) creates the feeling of progress. I am moving towards something. Or running away from it. That feels good, too.

Distance: 4.25 miles
Temperature: 73º
Weather: humid & overcast. Herons on the Hocking.

Before too much time had gone by, I was already making plans for a second tape of songs that made me miserable (to be entitled "more pathetic") but I set that aside. Life was very busy at the time, or at least it felt that way. Rehearsals until 11 two nights a week, performances until 12:30 am two nights a week (that doesn't count drinking) leaving three nights a week to be with my new wife, three nights to make up for all the absent nights. That takes work, too.

It wasn't until the following spring, when I was on the verge of an actual mental breakdown that I put together another mix, this one swinging from contemporary songs to those from my adolscence ... or about adolescence. Most of them have a either a seriously dark, sexual tone to them (violent in cases) or just a deep, childish melancholy.

I have to remind myself that I put together this collection BEFORE I started a long-distance relationship with the person I am married to now. But it became my personal soundtrack for that time. Crazy.

(Again, this is not the complete tape - these are just songs I picked out from it that are more or less good to run to.)

really pathetic (1994)
closer to god - nine inch nails
the upstairs room - the cure
so. central rain - r.e.m.
down in it (shred) - nine inch nails
angst in my pants * - sparks
the night before * - the beatles
spin the bottle * - the juliana hatfield three
save a prayer - duran duran
closer - nine inch nails

(OMG! It's KLOHZ-er, not KLOH-ser!)

Celebrate your independence, y'all!

All your money won't another minute buy

Making up for lost weeks, weeks spent acting and being very, very ill. That, and the weather hasn't been very happy. Today we are in Athens, a perfect day for running. Threatening to rain - but not. As I was finishing, the sun broke through.

A languorous jog from Union along the bike path. Past O'Bleness (where my wife was born, my brother had a major operation, and Calvin G. died) South Green (bad sex in Wray House ... well, bad sex all over South Green, actually) and out to all the new sh*t; the skate park, the Wall-Mart and everything, and back.

Distance: 9 miles
Time: 12.30 pm
Stretches: yes
Weather: 62º overcast, breezy and beautiful

Gabriel & Dresden (Continuous Mix)
1 hour, ten minutes.

I have been waiting some time to attempt a run listening to the entire Gabriel and Dresden album. That's my record of the year. I picked up a track on iTunes a few weeks back and really liked it, and then they started the "complete your album" promotion and so I got the whole thing - which include the entire album mixed as one, uninterrupted track. Except for this Pink Floyd-esque thing right in the middle, the entire record makes for a dynamite run.

UPDATE:

lan·guor (lāng'gər, lāng'ər) n.
1. Lack of physical or mental energy; listlessness. See Synonyms at lethargy.
2. A dreamy, lazy mood or quality: "It was hot, yet with a sweet languor about it" (Theodore Dreiser).
3. Oppressive quiet or stillness.

I meant the second one. Dream-like.

Spending two hours in a movie theater after taking a nine mile-run is kind of dumb. My left knee and hip are very, very unhappy.

Coffee & Cigarettes

Weight: 169 lbs.
Distance: 3 miles
Water: yes
Stretches: yes
Weather: Cold, bright with patchy snow

Playlist:
Europa and the Pirate Twins - Thomas Dolby
Can You Feel It? - The Jacksons
Superstar - Jamelia
Six Feet Under (Radio Edit) - Photek vs. Thomas Newman
Mr. Blue Sky - ELO
Crystal Wrists - Peter Murphy
Are You Trying to Be Funny? - Everything But the Girl

Comments: We watched Coffee and Cigarettes the other night. I miss smoking with impunity, staying out late, drinking. I guess by proxy I must therefore miss being 200 pounds and only having sex lying on my back.