Can't wait until the weekend comes!

On average, a dozen people read this blog. Unless I post something on social media, between ten and twenty people read each individual post. That's enough to assume they are all bots. No offense to those one or two of you who may be human.

You may have noticed I have had nothing to say for about a week. That is because my mother was in the hospital, I won't go into details, she's fine now, really. Fine and at home, which is good.

But I have never wanted to run a marathon less than I want to run Chicago on Sunday. I haven't had nor taken the opportunity to train properly. My long runs have been painful, and I'm not better prepared now than I was three weeks ago.

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: 34:32
Pace: 8:37
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 62°
Climate: cool. nice.
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

That, and I am depressed. Unfocused. Stressed out.

There is good news. I had an allergy test yesterday, and I am not allergic to seafood. I am allergic to the histamines that can develop in seafood that has been sitting around for a few days, so. Maybe no more raw seafood, no more sushi.

Tomorrow I meet with a new doctor, which I hope is a fruitful relationship. I need a physical. I am concerned about my sugar intake. Yesterday I wrote a play about it.

The weather in Chicago this week should be ideal. Dry, cool. Fifty degrees. I will be prepared for that.

That's it. That's all I got.

What's That Lyric?
Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!) - XTC

Sitting idle in our boat while everyone else is down the stream.

Los Angeles, 1991

Ugh. Just ugh. Every day getting up is very difficult. I have just been sick. I was hoping, last week, when I only felt it in my throat, that it was allergies. But this is a cold, plain and simple. And it makes me cough and my head is heavy and some mornings I take a pill which clears my head, a little, and makes me hyper and I don't know which is worse.

Monday I actually put on my kit, stepped out and started running up the street. After about fifty yards, I thought, this isn't good. By one hundred yards I had stopped. I hadn't felt like that yet. Maybe a little ill, but not weary, not like that. I thought, three miles? Surely I can run three miles. But no. Why? If I felt like I hadn't felt before, that should be enough to tell me not to do something. I turned around and got through the day. Yesterday I didn't even consider running.

However, Monday afternoon I went to the doctor, for previously scheduled appointment, basically the end to a year-long intervention. In March 2015 I had my "annual" physical exam, about five years too late. I was about twenty pounds overweight, and had dangerously high blood sugar.

I lost the weight, I changed the diet. I was told to have a colonoscopy, which I put off for almost a year. I made the appointment before dad died, but as the time came so soon after his death, my wife suggested I postpone. It was for the exact same reason I kept it.

And I am clean. My colon is healthy, blood work taken last month indicates that my prostate is clear, I am at low risk of cancer. As long as I keep my weight where it is, I do not have to be concerned about diabetes. If I gain weight, well then, I will have to be concerned. Odds are good in that case. So, my path is pretty obvious.

Distance: 3 miles
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 46°
Climate: cool and bright
Weight: 163 lbs. (+2.0)
Mood: searching

Twenty-five years ago I was enduring my brief residence in Los Angeles. So, why not an appropriate playlist? Something to inspire me, at long last.

But dude, if your time in Los Angeles was so regrettable, why will this playlist be "inspiring"? Good question. Because the station was awesome, and listening to KROQ in the car were the times I was my happiest, traveling from one place to another. The anticipation of doing something, accomplishing something, getting there, that was a positive feeling. Actually being anywhere in Los Angeles was inevitably a let-down.

KROQ91 Playlist
Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) - De La Soul
Round and Round - Tevin Campbell & Prince
Head Like a Hole - Nine Inch Nails
The Other Side of Summer - Elvis Costello
Valerie Loves Me - Material Issue
Unbelieveable - EMF

Warmdown
88 Lines About 44 Women - The Nails

I must move fast, you understand me.

This is happening.

My doctor says, "You are totally not diabetic."

She is concerned about my sudden weight loss, but oh well, I lost it. Time to gain some back the right way and to continue upper body exercises.

This morning the family departed for Ottawa to witness a brace of matches in the Women's World Cup (Thailand v. Norway & Germany v. Côte d'Ivoire) and have left me alone. I have a summer camp to prepare for which begins Monday, and they will not return until that night.

Quite an adventure! Wish I could be with them. We will take a journey through Canada together later in the summer, longer than three days, but in the meantime I am left here with almost nothing to do. The play has opened, I am prepared for camp, my responsibilities have suddenly marrowed to basic housekeeping.

I have been left alone in the past, never very happy about it. I do not like being alone, I live to serve. If this were some prior time my biggest accomplishment for the weekend would be purchasing and eating a Family-Size bag of Doritos. This is not my goal for this particular weekend.

I have a list of simple tasks, which if in some part accomplished will add up to something like a victory. For the time being it is 7 AM on a Saturday morning, overcast and cool, and I am antsy for a run.

Also, I am totally not diabetic.

Temperature: 61°
Distance: 5.06 miles
Avg Pace: 7.20
Climate: over cast and cool ... then, sun!

No one to return home to, nothing to do. Why run so fast?

Timon opened last night, and it did not rain. There was a very nice and appreciative crowd at Coventry last night, and while the performance went off without a hitch, I am also certain that at this evening's performance in Parma Heights, no one will be having their car towed from the stage during the first twenty minutes of the performance.

Weight: 154 lbs.
From goal: -6.0

Perhaps I should get that bag of Doritos.

What's On Daddy's iPhone?
Frankly, Mr. Shankly - The Smiths

A gaunt, white goateed man, looks fiftyish, running briskly in a tight Captain America shirt, that looks cool ... right?

Watch me work.

Never been so in the mood for the Talking Heads. Is that not strange?

We sprint toward the finish line - of the school year, and also an impending production. Little time for sleep or exercise. Hiring complete, planning farewell parties, baking dishes for in-school cultural events, rehearsing Timon of Athens in the out-of-doors. So busy for such a short week.

By morning, we run.

Temperature: 73°
Distance: 3.41 miles
Avg Pace: 7.54
Climate: steamy!

First time I trained for a marathon, it was through summer into fall, the second winter into spring. Second time was easier, but in hindsight it had to be. I wasn't starting from absolute zero. I am looking forward to the hot runs, and how I deal with them. Today I felt weak, no doubt because I have had one yogurt today and that's it.

Time for second breakfast. That is a good thing about my new eating habits. I eat one good thing, and am entitled, actually required to eat another good thing.

Having said that after I had my blood drawn Wednesday I stopped in at Eat At Joe's and had two eggs, hash browns, sausage and toast.

The toast was whole wheat.

Weight: 157 lbs.
From goal: -3.0

What's On Daddy's iPhone?
The Good Thing - Talking Heads
Incinerate - Sonic Youth

Asleep at the wheel.

This morning I had a scare. I had to drive a couple miles from dropping the boy off at baseball to picking the girl up at violin. It took me a while to realize my gas foot had fallen asleep.

My foot fell asleep? Driving? DIABETES!

Then I noticed a few other things. These are the 32" pants I haven't fit in for some time, but they are still snug. And I had a wallet in the back pocket of these already snug jeans. Also, I hadn't readjusted my seat since letting the boy out (it's a two-door) and was sitting a little cramped.

Took out the wallet, reclined the seat, sensation came back in my foot. Should I worry about this, or just put on looser pants?

Temperature: 46
Distance: 2.52 miles
Avg Pace: 10.16
Climate: brisk & beautiful
Weight: 160 lbs.
From Goal: -0-
Friday Alcohol Units: 1.0

The girl and I ran three laps around the block.  She has expressed interest in changing up our routes, unfortunately some of the more interesting ones involve long climbs, and she's not there yet. She laments the fact that she generally gets at least one bad cramp on each run. But three laps was a bit of a breakthrough today.

Also, there's the issue of helicopter parent-coaching. She ran twice around the block a few days ago, and that made me feel odd. I mean, hell, I did that many times at her age. But that was, you know, different.

Sigh.

You run for cover so discreet.

Yes, this is why we are supposed to have a physical every year, and not every five years. Yes, my last physical exam was in 2010.

I am overweight, I knew that. What I was surprised to learn is I am possibly borderline diabetic. My blood sugar level is just below where "borderline" starts, whatever that means.

I should find out what that means.

I have three months to cut the sugar and drop my weight by ten pounds, and check again.

So there you go. I have to get below 170 by June. Doctor's orders. Gotta happen.

Then I got another rejection message from a publishing house. It was a happy Monday.

Temperature:43°
Distance: 3.25 miles
Baseline Weight: 178.5 lbs.
Goal Weight: 170 lbs.

Deceptive pavement. When the sun is shining ice can melt even a few degrees below freezing. When it is overcast, like today, a thin layer of snow melt can send you into a snowbank. Or the street. Or just cause a nasty pull in your hamstring. None of these things happened to me today. So it's a good day already, right? 

1983 Playlist
Beatbox (Diversion One) - The Art of Noise
One Thing Leads to Another - The Fixx
Power and the Passion (154 bpm) - Midnight Oil
Add It Up (184 bpm) - Violent Femmes
Song For a Future Generation (152 bpm) - The B-52's
Bad Boys (12" Remix) - Wham! UK
Walking In Your Footsteps - The Police