I must learn to swim all over again.

Ultramarathon runner Jenn Shelton is very pretty.

That is all.

There have been times in days past when I have done sit-ups or what have you - "crunches" okay, sure ...  not to improve the appearance of my abdomen, sister please, I would never go around with my shirt off, no. Just to pull in my belly, to wear those jeans or slacks once upon a time which make me look emaciated and hip. There is no six-pack to be gained here. That will not happen.

Tightening of the abdominal muscles occurs naturally, gradually, for me, through the act of running, and that's it. When I cease running, the muscles go slack. Sometimes worse, I return to inner-tube land.

Not me.

To this boy, the sexiest part of the male anatomy is the inguinal ligament. Maybe it goes without saying that a washboard stomach is attractive on a man or a woman, but it is this line (see above) which defines the hip to the groin which, to me, is most pleasing to observe. It appears only in women who are extremely muscular and lean, which is to say, it is not commonplace, nor is it necessarily attractive. In dudes, however, you better have that going on.

At home, the bathroom mirror, is perpendicular to the shower, so it is not something I notice after a shower.  Here is it is the first thing you see when drawing across the shower curtain. And I found yesterday that I had redevloped my inguinal ligament in three days of barefoot running.

Temperature: 76°

Distance: 4 miles. I'm back.

Going to be a hot one today. Took the boy fishing at 4 AM this morning, caught a few pinfish and snapped the line just before we had to turn it in at six. Then we had breakfast on the pier at sunrise. Not a bad way to start the day.

Couldn't settle for two miles, had to push onto four. No regrets, blisters still tender, but not affecting my stride. Normally, when I get winded, my body will assume the form on an apostrophe, head down, looking at the ground, to continue running heel-to-toe.

Running barefoot I cannot look down in that way, and just think about it makes me straighten up, taking in the view, creating shorter steps, breathing deeper, feeling refreshed.

Super Bon Bon Genius Playlist

Blame - Soul Coughing

Love Rollercoaster - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy

(Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads

Kiss Off (177 bpm) - Violent Femmes

I Know What Boys Like - The Waitresses

Come Undone (Come Undub) - Duran Duran

Pain Lies on the Riverside - Live

Down To This - Soul Coughing

The One Thing - INXS

In Between Days - The Cure

Finished the book. Complete report due tomorrow. I understand unfortunate events related to the book have occurred during the embarrassingly long time it took me to read it, which I have avoided investigating until I was through.

I did find it interesting that all the male athletes are described as bizarre, kindly, spiritual outcasts who found their true-calling through the noble pursuit of ultrarunning, while the two main female protagonists are described as a zaftig naturalist and a ready-to-go party girl.

Obamacare upheld.

I got a Bloody Mary.

Today, life is good.

It's a matter of instinct, it's a matter of conditioning. It's a matter of fact.

Beautiful, right? MIL took this.

I haven't been up at dawn since we got here.

"Recreation has its reasons."

Began the snake-eating-its-own-tail part of Born To Run where the author references the work of Dr. David Carrier and his theories about evolution and how humankind became the an animal that it is - we are - in order to run. Our physiology can only be explained as the demi-urge to become long-distance running animals. Not to outpace, but to outlast.

I read this somewhere before, years ago, in the book Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier, who is (wait for it) brother to Dr. David Carrier. So many pet theories about running with which I have bored my friends and family were either inspired by or stolen wholesale from that book. And now I find them nested within this one.

Five years ago, Edward McClelland famously wrote in Salon that Oprah Winfrey single-handedly ruined the marathon, which is to say, she ruined it for him. The sport had gone from a beautiful endurance test for elite athletes to something anyone might try, pathetically stumbling across the finish line after five or six hours and then proudly slapping a 26.2 oval sticker on the back of an SUV.

Born To Run, like Carrier's book before it, suggests that the teeming marathon is in fact a celebration of what makes us essentially human.

Temperature: 67°
Weather: Gorgeous, cloudless, breezy and beautiful
Distance: 2 miles. Could have gone longer. Don't want to be an idiot.

Yesterday I got out of bed, my feet like two swollen, painful sacks of pain. Today, not so much.

Super Bon Bon Genius Playlist
Brian Wilson - Barenaked Ladies
St. Louise Is Listening - Soul Coughing
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five
Kiss Them For Me - Siouxsie and the Banshees
We Care a Lot - Faith No More

It's a habit-forming need for more and more.

Patio Playground, Topsail Beach, NC
Relax, damn you.

Currently, I am about halfway through Born To Run (I have bad reading habits) a tale of insanity, ultramarathoners, drug cartels, barefoot running, and a lot of alcohol.

We are now on vacation at Topsail Beach. At the last minute I decided to actually bring running gear. Since the CLE I have been in running-hibernation, and it is time to break out. My belly is getting soft and my muscles slack.

However, reading this book I am loathe to put on shoes. Instead I am going to try a week of barefoot beach running and see what kind of damage that might inflict. The book is chock full of wonder showered on runners who have discovered the pain-free joy of barefoot running.

Since the CLE, I still feel residual pain from the foot injury (as yet undiagnosed) which the wife thought a stress fracture and I thought some kind of pulled tendon.

Topsail Four Mile

Distance: About 4 miles. Really, who cares.
Temperature: 76º

I begin by hitting the ball of the foot. This is an involuntary reaction to the assumption that hitting the arch or rolling heel to toe will be jarring, or expose the foot to unknown pain from foreign objects. After only a few strides I adjust, hitting the beach midfoot, feeling the impact. And they are correct. My alignment corrects itself, and I feel relaxed.

Running next to the surf is uncomfortable. Though the sand is firm, spalshing in the waves is not helpful. Further up the sand is looser, and harder to run in. Further up, the sand is firm, and gives a little, which is nice, but my right knee begins to hurt -- I am running on a slanted surface, slanted towards the ocean. I decide I must run on the beach.

I keep my eyes on the beach, which is a shame, because I would like to take in the surroundings, but I learn how to do that, too. I learn that running over tiny shells does not actually hurt.

Super Bon Bon Genius Playlist
Games Without Frontiers - Peter Gabriel
I’m Afraid of Americans (160 bpm) - David Bowie
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Murder By Numbers - The Police
One World (Not Three) (168 bpm) - The Police
Connection - Elastica
White Girl - Soul Coughing
I Got You - Split Enz
It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.
So Far I Have Not Found The Science - Soul Coughing
Everyday I Write the Book - Elvis Costelo & The Attractions

It was a glorious run. For my efforts I have created two mammoth blisters, one on the pad of each large toe. Looking forward to how that plays out tomorrow.

First beer -- 10:30 AM.

Don't run away. It's only me.

"How come my foot hurts?" - Christopher McDougall, Born to Run

The past several days I chose not to run. Rest is good. However, so is seeing a doctor and getting the right shoes. But I digress. I chose not to run. In fact, if you had looked through the window of my front room* on Thursday evening, for example, just after dinner, you would have seen a nine year-old in a chair, an almost-seven year-old kneeling over the couch next to his mother, and I in another chair, reading. All of us, quietly reading. And that was better than running, by far.

However, Friday was also prohibitive, as was Saturday. Randy M. did an assessment of my foot. His girlfriend has been suffering from Plantar fasciitis, and though my pain has been on the top of my feet, there has developed associative pain beneath. This is not good. He recommended ice and elevation, which I have entirely failed to do, but who cares, Randy's not some fucking doctor, screw him.

A few weeks ago, the ex-wife asked if I had read Christopher McDougall's Born to Run. I had to admit that not only hadn't I read it, but that I have a copy that was given to me one or two Christmases ago, staring me from the bookshelf.

In the past several days I have 1. finished the first draft of a new play for Great Lakes and 2. completed editing Henry VIII for Cleve Shakes. Right now I am in the fourth of five weekends of performances at Beck Center, I am not in the process of memorizing anything at all. For the first time in a very long time, I have leisure time to read. And so I am reading Born To Run.

I am looking forward to where it goes, though it begins with a demoralizing premise -- runners don't become stronger, running a lot does not make you more resistant to damage. Running a lot is damaging. It's like assuming that since you are hitting yourself in the head with a bat, one day getting hit in the head with a bat will not harm you.

My left foot hurts. I believe I have damaged it. I have two choices, the only two choices a runner has in these situations: Stop running. Run anyway.

Week 14 Total: 19 miles
Training to Date: 372 miles

Distance: 6 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Temperature: 28º
Climate: light rain & chilly ... then sun
Weight: 167 lbs.
Snack: chewy granola bar
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

I am tired of cold. Still, felt good to get out. The Cain Park Neighborhood Association was out in force, picking up trash. Saw a few familiar faces (Hi, Kari!) The foot hurts. Not any more than usual. I have it elevated and iced (Thanks, Randy!)

155-159 BPM Playlist
Dead Man's Party - Oingo Boingo
Hey Ya - Outkast
Synchronicity II - The Police
Pretty Boys - Joe Jckson
Jaded - Green Day
Whammy Kiss - The B-52's
Mike Mills - AIR
Whip It - Devo
Steppin' Out - Joe Jackson
Puzzlin' Evidence - Talking Heads
The Long Hair of Death - Stereolab

Cooldown:
Driven To Tears - The Police

* Don't ever do this.