Thursday, October 10, 2024

Can you hear them? The helicopters?

It's October! Time to elude the zombies.

Patient 29 0114
Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 30:42
Pace: 9:54

She encouraged me to go, so I went. About time, too. Going to pick up Tommy's and watch the game. Crunch time!

melancholy dreamy Thursday afternoon 
Sexy Boy - Air
Talk Show Host - Radiohead
House of Cards - Radiohead
Down By the Water - PJ Harvey
Venus as a Boy - Björk
Golden Brown - The Stranglers
This Mess Were In - PJ Harvey  Thom Yorke
Sunday Morning - Velvet Underground

Boss playlist for a zombie run.

Route: 3.1 miles
Temperature: 57°
Climate: sunny & bright
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Upper body: 
Core Strength: 

Saturday, October 05, 2024

One stop to the rhtyhm.

Yesterday, my sister-in-law sent me finish line photos from when I ran the Twin Cities Marathon in 2015. My brother and his family live two blocks from Summit Avenue, which is the final straightaway to the Capitol building and the finish line.

This weekend is marathon weekend in St. Paul. I wonder if the governor will be there? Probably not he's been very busy this week.
I was very happy to see these pictures again. She encouraged me to join them in Minnesota for the marathon again some day. It sure is tempting.

What's That Lyric?
Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:09
Pace: 9:23

Whoa. Run got messed up by an unleashed dog in someone’s yard. No people around, that fucker came at me.

Why don’t you like dogs, David? Because unless they are abused into docility, they are uncontrollable and dangerous.

This isn’t a metaphor, dogs aren’t people. They are mutated wolves.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 67°
Climate: sunny  beautiful
Mood: all right, until ...
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Upper body: 
Core Strength: 

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/yogurt & granola
Lunch: pesto pasta plus
Writing Time: White Russian (2x)
Dinner: homemade pizza, beers

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

You hit the deck, you get found out.

Oh, my GOD. This is where we fall apart. I attended two ball games this weekend in lieu of running (not exactly, but yeah) both of them involving rain the second of which did not even happen. But I did get to eat an awful lot of junk food, drink a lot of beer and absolutely no water.

Life is fun, yay. Take care of yourself, man. Remember to drink water and to choose the salad once in a while.

Distance: .1 miles 
Duration: 28:44
Pace: 9:16

Last night I had three cramps, one in each foot while reading in bed, and the third in my right calf in the middle of the night, waking me from my sleep. She says it is lack of potassium, and it may well be, but also lack of exercise. The winds change, I must keep vigilant.  

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 62°
Climate: clear & cool
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

What a beautiful night. What a lovely run! Why don't you do this every day??

Honestly, because it's been raining for a week. Cut yourself a break. But let's go!

Upper body: 
Core Strength: 

What's That Lyric?
Save It For Later - The Beat

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Keep on pushing.

Okay, here's a week. Residency rehearsals, last night the season kick-off party. So that was a long day. But the spouse is out of town, and I am on my own tonight. I have been good about going to bed at a decent hour, to get seven and a half hours of sleep if not eight -- I have resumed morning pages. And that is very good for me.

So, we keep on running. And writing. And drawing. And making ice cream. Can I do all these things and still get to sleep at nine?

We made pasta salad over the weekend. That stuff as fed me for days. God, I love pasta salad.    

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:20
Pace: 9:28

Stopped on my run, hailed by an East Cleveland neighbor. Fine looking, svelte , in a tracksuit, and holding an extinguished cigar. He wanted to know how far I run, I told him by couple times a week, right past his house. Told him he has a fine house, I drove by on my way to work every day. It is a fine house, done a lot of work, they have a great yard maintenance company.

He’s 75, he doesn’t inhale the cigar. Told me it’s his only vice. He asked me my age, I told him, he said I looked about 50. I guess the running has taken a couple of years off.

Man. I hope I look like him in 20 years.

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 71°
Climate: overcast & humid
Mood: good
Stretches: no
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Baseline: 185 lbs.
Weight: 175 lbs. (-0-)
Goal: 170 lbs.

Maintain.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, fresh fruit w/yogurt & granola
Coffee Break: PSL
Lunch: salad with chicken, candy, a pickle!
Dinner: pasta salad, fizzy water
Evening: old fashioned, Oreos (4)

What's That Lyric?
Push - Pharoahe Monch

Sunday, September 22, 2024

I made myself so strong again somehow.

But do we run when we have had a seriously messed up sleep schedule? Dropped the wife at the airport at 5:00 AM, drove home and got back into bed. So sleep has happened but I feel dizzy and weird.

Then again, I did have a flu shot and also a Covid booster yesterday! That may also have something to do with it. Okay, we're going with that. 

Distance: 2 miles
Duration: 18:04
Pace: 9:02

JIM STEINMAN SUPERSTAR PLAYLIST
It's All Coming Back to Me Now - Celine Dion
This Corrosion - Sisters of Mercy
Paradise By the Dashboard Lights - Meatloaf  

Route: Burlington Loop
Temperature: 80°
Climate: sunny & hot
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Upper body: 30 rep
Core Strength: 

Yes, pumping iron when you had a vaccination the day before.

Baseline: 185 lbs.
Weight: 175 lbs. (-0-)
Goal: 170 lbs.

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, sausage, egg & cheese McMuffin, hash browns, monster-sized orange juice
Coffee Break: shitty Whole Foods root beer (DNF)
Lunch: pasta salad & Nosferatu
Snack: PB&J, strawberry milk
Writing time: old fashioned 
Dinner: ramen w/fried egg

Saturday, September 21, 2024

All those years ago.

Summer 1981. Turning thirteen. Picking up skills. Yearning, longing. Lying in a hammock next to the Birchview, listening to my first mixtape -- a collection of contemporary singles -- on a borrowed Walkman. Dreaming of a kiss. 

Were we ever so old? 

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 28:48
Pace: 9:17

The subject of Jim Steinman came up the other day. One of the actor-teachers speculated on what it must have been like to have been alive when Total Eclipse of the Heart was released and did they know it was the greatest song of all time?

I could attest, we did not. But it was huge. And did you know that was a Jim Steinman composition? And do you know who Jim Steinman was? This is what it is like to be drawn down a rabbit hole by David Hansen. 

So, anyway, I made a playlist for 1981 starting with Jim Steinman's own Rock and Roll Dream Come Through but also one just of songs written by Steinman. I will run to that eventually. But first!

Summer 1981 Playlist
Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
Boy From New York City - Manhattan Transfer
Time - The Alan Parsons Project
Elvira - The Oak Ridge Boys
You Make My Dreams (Come True) - Hall & Oates
All Those Years Ago - George Harrison
Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
Believe It Or Not (Theme From 'The Greatest American Hero') - Joey Scarbury

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 73°
Climate: sunny  beautiful
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Weight: 175 lbs. (-0-)

Gained no weight during rehearsal period. Huh.

Upper body: 
Core Strength: 

Breakfast: coffee w/cream
Lunch: leftover sub, pizza
Snack: PB&J, beer
Dinner: TBA

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

You gotta move it.

The album after the big comeback can be a challenge. Duran Duran (1993) also known as "The Wedding Album" was a return to prominence for the Fab Five, but what came next? A covers album. Not exactly aspiring for relevance, or popularity. Their version of "White Lines" was cringe-worthy at the time, though I would argue it is now a classic.

After some necessary time off following devastating life changes, The B-52's Cosmic Thing (1989) was the most successful album they'd ever had, and was an important component of the closing of my college experience. The follow-up, Good Stuff, was like a sequel. Not groundbreaking like their previous, Nile Rodgers produced epic, just kind of similar.

And yet, timing is everything, and this album landed at a very important time in my life and has stayed there. It was part of the soundtrack of a twenty-four year-old artist, embarking of his first major artistic endeavor, and we listened to this album while building sets, painting walls, fucking around and, oh yeah, writing. All that writing.

The instrumental track "The World's Green Laughter" was the curtain call music for the first several weeks of our late night extravaganza You Have the Right to Remain Silent. When the composed of our theme music finally attended a performance (Adam lived in L.A. at the time) he was so disappointed the show didn't end with his work he wrote us an original theme immediately.

I love his work. To me, "The World's Green Laughter" still means it's midnight and time to get to Edison's.

Distance: 5 miles
Duration: 46:45
Pace: 9:20

My tuchus was sore this morning. Weird.

Good Stuff - The B-52's (1992)
Tell It Like It T-I-Is
Hot Pants Explosion
Good Stuff
Revolution Earth
Dreamland
The World's Green Laughter
Vision of a Kiss
Breezin'
Bad Influence

Five miles on a Tuesday night might not be the best idea anymore. Weird, my supporter broke just as I was heading out so I came back and changed it. Glad that didn't happen out on the run.

Route: Forest Hill/Boulevard Loop
Temperature: 75°
Climate: nice but humid
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes
Pain Reliever: TBD

Breakfast: coffee w/cream, Pop Tarts (blueberry)
Snack: Pirate's Booty (1)
Lunch: PB&J, chicken orzo soup, GS cookies (3)
Snack: Pirate's Booty (1)
Dinner: pasta w/tapenade, garlicky kale, cassata cake (not in that order)

No, really. Don't eat while you're cooking.