The voices ring in my head.

We were on our feet all day yesterday, and it was joyous. This year was the first year we prepared a Thankgiving dinner in our home. Ever! Normally we would be in Athens or Lakewood (Lakewood now relegated to memory) or maybe even Minnesota Last year we ordered a pandemic meal from chef Doug Katz.

Pies were baked, sides prepared, and a very well executed turkey, thanks to our son who created and amazing butter mixture to place under the skin. It took all day, we dined at nine. No regrets.

Distance: 1 miles
Duration: 9 minutes
Temperature: 32°

The boy and I set out for a five mile run to and through the cemetery. A little after the one mile mark we encountered a familiar (to me) puddle at the bade of a rise in the turf. I ran up the little hill, as I have in the past, but it was to slippery and a lost my balance. I tried to control my descent but caught the ground with (as I have assessed) my left knee, my right fist, and my face.

My glasses broke, my hands hurt, and my cheek and temple are tender. When I hit I heard a "crunch" which I was afraid might be my skull, but it was just the glasses. They may be repairable, I'm supposed to get new specs at the end of the month.

I rolled onto my back and laughed, I threw my hand up for my son to take. He told me he was afraid at first I put my arm out because I had broken it. I was just saying, "Okay! I'm out!" It hurt. I was wet. It could have been much worse.

Thankful to be whole. Wish I didn't have to go to the show tonight, I'm afraid I'm going to have a bruise. Ah, vanity.

What's That Lyric?

Let Go - Gabriel & Dresden

You run from me.

Warning: Gross.

Okay, look. I'm just not doing the work for this marathon anymore and it is really getting to me. Just Monday night (long day, no time to run) I was tending to my wounded feet. In spite of my best efforts, nails had cut into nails and I was trying to trim them and clear up some of the callouses.

The nail on my middle toe on my right foot was bruised, and I was attempting to trim that back, when it went SQUISH. The nail started emitting fluid and then blood. It had separated from the nail bed. I have lost a toe nail two weeks before the big race.

Distance: 5.75 miles
Duration: 48:52
Pace: 8:29
Route: Forest Hill-Cain Park Loop
Temperature: 70°
Climate: gorgeous

Mood: not bad
Stretches: no
Water: no

And yet, we run. I messaged Marc Blandin, Team Challenge Coach, immediately after it happened with a very simple question, what do I do about this? You can see his response at right, basically don't freak out, it will be fine. And don't we all need advice like that?

Thanks, Marc!

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 165.5 lbs. (-0.5)
Goal: 160 lbs.

What's That Lyric?
Oh Baby * - LCD Soundsystem

Carrie A. lays upon the road that I must travel.

This is Nina.

Rain yesterday, a lot of rain. So, you know. Fuck that, I'm not doing it. I'm not heading out in the dark to get sopping wet, running eight miles and tearing up my feet. Once upon a time I might have done that, felt compelled to do that, because training. But I'm getting older and I just can't be bothered. I don't run in cold temperatures as much as I used to, and I hate getting cold and wet.

Speaking of putting up with shit, Nina has written another dynamite article which is (ahem) getting a lot of traction. A Lifelong Runner, Sidelined By Disability was posted on Folks yesterday, and you should read it. Nina has a rock and roll attitude, and she has chosen to express recent (and in some cases, life-long) pain and hardship and translate them into essays devoid of self-pity that resonate with honesty, anger and gratitude.

"I’ve been running since middle school. I was never the fastest, never ran the longest distance, but I placed occasionally and enjoyed it immensely. I had to quit the track team in high school because we couldn’t afford the costs of participation, including expensive new running shoes." [READ THE REST]

Distance: 8 miles
Duration: 1:08:22
Pace: 8:32
Route: Forest Hill to Cain Park to Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 69°
Climate: sunny!
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

What's that mondegreen?
Kýrie, eléison, down the road that I must travel.
- "Kyrie" by Mister Mister

So, I did it. I listened to a playlist made of the top 100 Billboard hits from the year 1986. While I understood why it has been deemed the most bland and tedious year in popular music history, I never really understood. The music I like is actually diverse and interesting, if heavy with synth horns and that irritating stuttering effect they used on all the remixes.

No, it's the ballads. Then as now, when either That's What Friends Are For or The Greatest Love of All begin, you don't know which song you are about to hear. Secret Lovers sounds like Friends and Lovers sounds like The Glory of Love. It was a real education, and let us never speak of it again.

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 161 lbs. (-3.5)
Goal: 160 lbs.

Uhm. Okay?

Lots of places to run to.

Ah, fuck. First beautiful spring day, I headed out for run with Chris through the park, and I pulled my left calf. I mean, I had to walk for a while, but I was running, and running well, with mild pain, by the end. So we'll see. For now, pain reliever and a brace.

Distance: 4.6 miles
Duration: 43:50
Pace: 9:31
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 64°
Climate: light fluffy clouds
Mood: good, except for the pain

1976 Playlist
American Girl - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
More, More, More - Andre True
Teenage Depression - Eddie & The Hot Rods
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry
Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
Tvc 15 - David Bowie
Gonna Fly Now (Theme From "Rocky") - Bill Conti
Beat on the Brat - The Ramones

I mean. You have to run to the "Rocky" theme.

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 181 lbs. (-1.5)
Goal: 175 lbs.

Visit my Team Challenge Crohn's & Colitis page and support my bid for the Chicago Marathon!

Well, it looks like the road to heaven ...

Nina broke her leg last weekend, and she is having surgery today. All the positive, healing thoughts, please.

Distance: 3 miles
Route: Rec Center
Mood: all right
Exercises: yes

Stepping out of the Rec Center this morning the sun and cool air hit me and I thought, hmn. I could have run outside today.

1992 Playlist
Freedom (Back to Reality Mix) - George Michael
Springtheme - Ween
The Pink Room - Angelo Badalamenti
Come Talk To Me - Peter Gabriel
Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover - Sophie B. Hawkins
The World's Green Laughter - The B-52's
Blood Makes Noise - Suzanne Vega
High - The Cure
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar

That was a barn burner. Thank you, Mr. Mould.

Driving across town after lunch with my wife last week, from her place of employment, it occurred to me to stop at MacDonald's to have a Shamrock Shake.

Then I remembered that if I did that, I would have to write it down. So I decided not to have one, and in doing so I felt this strange feeling of liberation and began grinning like an idiot.

There is a freedom in choosing not to.

Ensemble Theatre presents the World Premiere of "The Way I Danced With You," opening March 21, 2019.

Visit my Team Challenge Crohn's & Colitis page and support my bid for the Chicago Marathon!

Interlude

"Run I" by Sol Lewitt (1962)

Did you know ..? I actually started this blog in 2005. I had been applied to the New York Marathon (I would not make the lottery regardless) and started training in earnest, even running a spring 5 mile in Akron before getting sidelined by a bizarre work-related injury (don't ask) and suffering a hairline fracture in my right heel.

I tried to ignore the pain, and pretend it was like a bruise or something, and ended up developing a lot of additional injuries as a result of trying to run anyway, and pulling a hamstring and just generally not being able to walk very well.

I assisted my son's childbirth on a broken heel. I performed I Hate This a few times like that. It took several months before finally seeing a doctor and getting recommended physical therapy.

Anyway, I had started this blog, but stopped, as I stopped running, because what I had to write was depressing me and a pathetic way to start. I tried recording my runs again in January, 2006, and have never stopped since.

Sunday I reported, "I got a kink in my ankle." Well, by that evening it had gotten worse, feeling less like a slight twist, and something more like a stress fracture. It just hurt to put direct pressure onto my heel. I have made it through the week with pain reliever and ice, and the pain has subsided from it's height on Monday.

However, last night it felt as though I was on the mend, as they say. The pain had localized, it was in one spot and I had nearly convinced myself that this was just some kind of sprain, and that perhaps I could resume running soon. I did some light foot stretches and believed that that was helping. Friday I would run! This morning it still feels as though my entire ankle is messed up and I have to walk carefully upon it.

I remember that madness which possessed me, eleven years ago. It was spring, and then summer, good weather, and I was unable to run. I would try anyhow (this was long before I was even very good at it) and compensate by running lightly on my injured foot, and as a result totally messing up the rest of my body.

It was months before I sought physical therapy. Just a stubborn man. I tried calling the other morning but their service never picked up. I believe I need professional advice and therapy, and will do the mature thing by calling the doctor today.

Last weekend the wife and I took our (postponed) wedding anniversary by visiting the art museum and an extended walkabout the Uptown district for dinner, dessert and drinks.

The image above is from the Converging Lines: Eva Hesse & Sol Lewitt exhibit, now through July 31.

I been up, I been down.

Light snow, freezing temps. We have a crust which cannot be shoveled.

Today the boy would play with his band at the Beachland, but he woke with great pain in his left knee, the one on which he has been hobbling. Tomorrow we see an orthopedist at 9 AM. I am sorry it has taken a week to get him to see one.

It makes me sad, I am currently unable to lift, which means it is difficult to help him limp from one thing to another. He is such a big boy now.

We shall see about the gig. He is currently in the bath.

Temperature: 27°
Distance: 3.5 miles

Why a run, why today? Because it is Sunday. Because I can. These short runs are place holders until the weather breaks, and hopefully, my own physical difficulties abate. I will make another appointment with the PT, to see what the next step should be. The pain is not what it was, but it has localized, and not disappeared.

Also, there is time, at the moment, right now, to do this. No idea what will happen later.

1975 Playlist
Kashmir * - Led Zeppelin
Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
Island Girl - Elton John
You're My Best Friend - Queen
Tush - ZZ Top
Squeeze Box - The Who
S.O.S. - ABBA
Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS

Wow, Sir Elton! I've never listened to the words before, but that song is really fucking racist!

wuzzup.

Ringfinger.

Last night I learned what I feels like to get your finger caught in a car window. I won’t explain the details. It was excruciatingly painful, and relentless until the perpetrator could push the same button the automatically roll down the window that had just been pushed to roll it up.

It did not break the skin, nor bone, but something like all the blood vessels in the tip of my finger. The nail will no doubt eventually come away. Jesus Christ. That could kill a small child if one got its neck stuck in there. Horrible.

Temperature: 55°

Distance: 3.25 miles

Anxiety for what? No idea. The girl had an allergy attack at Dazzle the District last night, and fortunately we were there with friends, so the boy could stay with them until the final hurrah, but we had to go. I do not know exactly why this mixture of events came together in such a way to make me feel sick in my stomach (as it remains, right now) but the boy is currently at baseball practice and the girls are away at soccer. Yardwork be damned (and it is, damned, I say) this is a moment for a run if ever there was.

Turn Down For What Playlist

Rebirth of Slick – Digable Planets

Make Some Noise – Beastie Boys

Boom! Shake the Room – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince

Bezerk – Eminem

Sugar – Flo Rida fr. Wynter

Catch Me If You Can – Outasight

It Takes Two – Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock

I just want to fly.

Morning Boy Run
Temperature: 61°
Distance:  .85 miles

Very windy, and so was he. I don't mean he was windy, I mean he was winded. We ran about half without stopping, but it was a bit arduous with the wind, so we walked most of the rest of the block.

Temperature: 59°
Climate: just awesome.
Distance: 4 miles

First summery day of the spring, and I feel whiny, exhausted and depressed. But wait there's more, please allow me to elaborate. The exhaustion comes from finding it very difficult to sleep last night (which is the new normal) yet not awake enough to sit up and read, which would have been a much better way to spend my time.

Dreams, too, about alligators. Four of them. Never been pursued by any kind of large animal before, that's new, especially not four of them.

Anyway, the exhaustion sits in my eyes, which means it's real, and not just being lazy. The kind of weary that makes me sink to the floor. And yet ... beautiful day. Will running make me feel better or worse. Only one way to find out.

1994 Playlist
Get Ready For This - 2 Unlimited
Live Forever - Oasis
Buried At Sea (175 bpm) - MC 900 Ft Jesus
13 Steps Lead Down - Elvis Costello
Missing - Everything But the Girl
Bus To Beelzebub - Soul Coughing
I Do Not Want This - Nine Inch Nails
Come Out and Play (157 bpm) - The Offspring
Troubled Mind - Everything But the Girl

So, yeah. Nineteen Ninety-Four. Perfect. I know I am glad I ran. I do not know if that was good for me. With a day like today, sunny and cool and all the time in the world, I would have preferred a six mile run, but at the last turning I started to feel a tingling in my right shin. That's new. It's still there.

It is four in the afternoon on a Sunday when I do not feel I have contributed very much to this world. If I take a nap, which I feel like doing, then I may as well get a bumper sticker which reads I give up.

More on my wife: she drinks. [[sigh]]

Wii Fit Plus

Suddenly encountering a former therapist in an unexpected locale can trigger flashbacks and trigger a reemergence of trauma.

Not that I would know of any of this, I think I just read it somewhere.

So winter came to the North Coast, and at the same time the commencement of tour rehearsals. I am disappointed not to get out more, but temperatures have remained below 20 degrees since Inauguration Day, sometimes in the single digits.

The past two years or more I have strapped my shoes on regardless and charged into the snow. But this is different. What started as muscle or tendon strain in my right ankle or shin has affected my calf muscle and into my thigh. While I believe I could successfully run in the ice and snow, I do not believe I could walk, anywhere, at any other time of day,

Not that non-running time has any value to me whatsoever. But I do need to go to work, feed children, and so on.

Yesterday morning I got up and my wife asked, "Why are you limping?" Seriously. She just noticed.

However, and this kills me, yes, I already mentioned this -- it was my ex-wife who reminded me that we have a Wii Fit in our house. We got it for the girl's birthday last January, but seriously, it was a family gift, one which did not interest me at all. Because, you know. I don't need that shit. I run.

Yeah, I have been using that thing every single day for over a week. It is awesome. My wife warned me not to use it just for the running program, but I don't even like to running program. Running in place is seriously tedious and uncomfortable. It's not natural, it's not how running works.

But the stretching exercises, hey, even the yoga exercises ... I think what I enjoy most about it is that I can stretch without anyone watching. Just what the wife calls the Wiiminatrix. I like to call her the Uncanny Valley Girl.

So, I have not been in the street, but I continue to exercise. It is not really worth logging here, the details, I mean. But I thought you might want to know.

Let's all just pray right now.

Have you seen the video?

We are falling apart, and by "we" I do not mean the royal we, I mean we runners. I have what I believe is a stress fracture, Karl thinks he may have the same thing (same place, other foot.) I read someone else's blog about how they are tapering early because of a thigh injury. I took last week off, totally ditched serious training, because of time and pain.

I need to see a doctor. I need new shoes. Did my previous new shoes hurt me, or was that going to happen anyway? No way to tell. I got some Dr. Scholl's Massaging Gel Sport replacement insoles for my last pair, the New Balance. We'll see how those fare.

Distance: 4 miles

Route: Neighborhood loop

Temperature: 48º

Climate:  cool & windy

Weight:  165 lbs.

Snack: none

Hydration? yes

Stretches? no


Two hours and two Advil later: I feel fine. My foot feels fine. It hurt while running.  It is a little sore. You know what bugs me? It hurts in my sleeps, that is when it hurts the most. That's when I first noticed it, over Easter weekend, in my sleep. And if I hold my foot the wrong way, lying down, it can be painful, like last night. My feet hurt at rest, but not, as they are right now, sitting up with my toes tucked under my chair.


Running my biggest concern is compensating for the pain I am feeling at that time by shifting weight to other parts of my leg, or the opposite foot. That is where I could really hurt myself badly, because that is exactly what has happened to me in the past.

New For 2012 Playlist

Revolution - Dr. John

El Convite (170 bpm) - Sistema Bomb

Black To White - Felix Caral ft. Miss Palmer

Kiss Me Again - We Are The In Crowd ft.Alex Gaskarth

Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera

Somebody That I Used To Know (Sweet Dreams) - Gotye ft. Kimbra vs. Beyonce

Watching You Watch Him (183 bpm) - Eric Hutchinson

Genesis (166 bpm)  - Grimes

UPDATE: See how the spacing looks all weird? That's the new Blogger WYSIWYG interface. I really, really hate it.

You're going down.

Runners should look like this. You shouldn't even try.
I hate to read about running. I think runners, writing about running, is tedious and boring. It's like how I felt about theater when I was a kid, I liked to do it, I hated to watch it. I used to think this was because I was arrogant, now I realize I was subjected to a lot of crappy theater when I was a teenager.

See my review of What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Hate that book.

Jim pointed out a great article on CRACKED.COM. It amuses me that Cracked, which was always a humorless MAD Magazine knock-off, has morphed into a fairly respectable and often hilarious online source for pop culture commentary. The article in question is 4 Stunning Revelations An Idiot Has About Running by Robert Brockaway. It is funny, and also very accurate. Read the entire thing for greater insight, but here's the list for those who hate to read about running as much as I do:

#4. It's Not an All or Nothing Scenario
#3. The Clothes Actually Do Something
#2. Runners Aren't All Lying Scumbags
#1. It's True: Bodies Actually Are Capable of Improvement

True, as they say, dat.

Distance: 5 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Lord, that was awful. At two miles my head began to swell and throb, it was painful and very uncomfortable. Almost bagged at three miles, but kept going. Came home and put away two large glasses of water very fast. I am thinking it was dinner, peachy meatloaf and my special brussels sprouts, very salty. The wife says I looked absolutely terrible, or did when I came in. Much more relaxed now.

Still ... good run!

Temperature: 47º
Climate: cool and nice
Weight: 168 lbs.
Hydration? laws, yes.
Stretches? yes

Been having a lot of terrible premonitions during this entire training period, most of which deal with getting hit, maimed, crushed or killed by moving cars. Tonight I imagined falling in the crosswalk in front of a car that fails to stop at a red light, and feeling my tibias and fibulas snap under the weight of the tires, all four of them. That, and my ankles would be entire bent over, horribly damaging my feet.

I imagine myself struggling to yell out my phone number before I blackout.

It was a sudden, graphic fantasy, it made me gasp as I ran and cover my mouth. I wish I didn't think things like that.

99 Luftballons Genius Playlist
Der Kommissar - Falco
Luka - Suzanne Vega
What You Need (Extended Mix) - INXS
Rapture (Special Disco Mix) - Blondie
Drowning Man (D:Ream Ambient Mix) - Duran Duran
99 Luftballons - Nena
Tom's Diner - DNA ft. Suzanne Vega
Here Comes the Rain Again - Eurythmics

Cooldown:
We Got the Beat - The Go-Go's

I miss Falco.

So don't you dare talk to me about running.

Nine miles out. Time to head back.

Week 9 Total: 27 miles+
Training to Date: 221 miles

The last week it has been my hip. My right hip, hurts to stand from sitting, hurts to lie down on at the end of the day. The wife suggests butterfly stretches, which is a nice idea and all except they make a man look stupid.

The show I am rehearsing opens with me crawling into the second story window of someone's apartment. This is done in clumsy slow-motion, and hopefully it's funny to watch. I have scored a large bruise on my right knee, not to mention several splinters in my hands. Hi-diddle-dee-dee.

Distance: 18 miles
Duration: 2 hours, 49 minutes
Route: MLK to Dead Man's Curve and back.
Band-aids: check*
Lip balm: check

Investigation. It is March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) but unseasonably warm. Are any facilities open? Will there be water available? I could have checked, I have been driving this route, to and from rehearsal, for two weeks. But I have made no time for it. Stepping into the unknown.

Temperature: 59º
Climate: warm
Weight: 164 lbs.
Snack: banana & GU
Hydration? yes ... barely
Stretches? yes

1. Stopped in to void at the depressing Coffee House at University Circle.

2. Water fountains shut off at Wade Oval, VA Hospital. Getting concerned.

3. Lots of folks heading into town at 8 AM.

4. Cereal fruit bar on North Marginal Road.

5. Port-o-john at East 72nd Street Park. Last cleaned Monday. Sorry, ladies.

6. Halfway mark at 1 hour, 25 minutes. Now we run into the sun.

7. *Somewhere my "waterproof" bandages washed away. Might need to shave.

8. 13 miles in just 2 hours. Now five miles ... uphill.

9. GU with Gandhi.

10. Legs very heavy. Otherwise feel great. I believe if I had brought some water, I might not be having this problem.

11. One mile to go, stopped in at CH-UH Rec Center for some cold, refreshing WATER!

12. Beer at 10 AM. I ran 18 miles, what's your excuse?

Podrunner:
Out With a Bang (165 BPM)
Boys Don't Cry (12" Extended Version 1986) - The Cure (171 BPM)
Corybantic (162 BPM)
Wonderwall - Oasis (173 BPM)
Apogee (166 BPM)

+ MONDAY UPDATE: My schedule on Sunday made a recuperative run impossible.

Gotta move on.

First long run of training. Would have been entirely painless, except for all the damn snow.

1. Peering over the bridge at East Green and Green, watching a family of ducks float downstream in the icy creek. This is part of the joy.

2. People exiting the drive-thru at KFC alone are inevitably fat and unhappy looking.

3. Whoever it is plowing all of the sidewalks on north-side Mayfield Rd. in Cleveland Heights, I LOVE YOU.

4. All homeowners on the south-side of Monticello between Lee and Taylor who plow their DRIVEWAYS but neglect to shovel their SIDEWALKS should have their houses burned down and fucking die. And that's pretty much every single one of you (except that one guy with the shovel I said 'thanks' to. You are safe.)

5. My foot dropped into a snow-covered hole while headed up Monticello and I stumbled onto my hands and knees. I'm all right, though. Bruised my thumb. YOUR HOUSES.

Distance: 8 miles
Route: Monticello-Trebisky-Anderson-Mayfield-Lee Circle

Temperature: 25º
Climate: Snow on the ground.
Weight: 179 lbs.
Lunch: CLIF bar
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

Family gave me bath stuff from LUSH for my birthday which has sat, forlorn, abandoned. Until today.

1980 Playlist
Generals and Majors - XTC
Turn It On Again - Genesis
Call Me - Blondie
The Other Way of Stopping (165 bpm) - The Police
Can You Feel It - The Jacksons
I'm Alright (163 bpm) - Kenny Loggins
Red Light - Linda Clifford
Same Old Scene - Roxy Music
Play For Today (164 bpm) - The Cure
Antmusic (162 bpm) - Adam and the Ants
You Make My Dreams Come True (166 bpm) - Hall & Oates
That's Entertainment - The Jam
Canary In A Coalmine - The Police
Do You Wanna Touch Me? - Joan Jett
Girl U Want (173 bpm) / Whip It (158 bpm) - Devo
Funkytown - Lipps Inc.
Driven To Tears (159 bpm) - The Police
Crosseyed and Painless/Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads

Cooldown:
All Over The World - Electric Light Orchestra
She's Lost Control - Joy Division

I haven't felt this way since Funky Town! - Homer Simpson

Back on the mic is the anti-depressor.

In spite of my having spent a good part of Tuesday in bed (ugh) today was the laziest day by far. Time in the surf, to be sure, and a nice, long walk with the wife down a sand bar and back. And then ... reading. Writing. Even a short nap. MIL looks fetching with a bandana around her head, she's a pirate. Little too much Disney Channel going on here, we all stayed up until 11 PM last night watching Lemonade Mouth.

OMG.

Since getting over whatever stomach virus I had, I have developed a really painful kink in my neck. This evening the wife stove her toe on the beach. The ex-wife has informed me she is somewhere on this island. This vacation has become the Voyage of the Damned. Still, nice night for a run.

Except for the gnats. Gnats at twilight, just a tip.

Route: Topsail Beach (3)
Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 81º degrees

Far East Movement. Because the time between Black Eyed Peas albums is just too long.

Dynamite Summer 2011
Breakthrough - Lemonade Mouth
Tightrope - Janelle Monáe ft. Big Boi
2012 (It Ain't the End) - Jay Sean feat. Nicki Minaj
Make Some Noise - Beastie Boys
Break Your Heart - Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris
Rocketeer - Far East Movement
House of Love - East 17

Bridget Mendler, Triple Threat. Can't act. Can't sing. Can't act like she's singing.

Nothing's that simple

Ladies and Gentlemen - The A-List.

Five years ago, I Hate This was one of maybe two shows on the I-List on the website. However, what's really important is the printed program that gets scattered all over Lower Manhattan. That's alphabetical from beginning to end - and Sarah Morton's show 4 Minutes To Happy was right up there near the top (numerals being listed before letters.)

I did not have order in mind when giving this piece a title ... but hey!

Distance: 2 miles
Temperature: 62º
Weather: dawn
Weight: 155 lbs.

1969 Playlist
Come Closer Together - The Beatles vs. Nine Inch Nails
I'm Free - The Who
Everybody's Talkin' - Harry Nilsson
Baseball Theme (166 bpm) - Vince Guaraldi
Chelsea Morning - Joni Mitchell
All Together Now - The Beatles
Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) - Peter Sarstedt

Wow, I never imagined a playlist from the 60s would be so enjoyable to run to. Seriously, that was a perfect dawntime set.

I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. My knee hurts for a few days, and then it lets up for a while. Twice in the past five years I have had my running regimen derailed at the beginning of summer when running in the early morning and late evening are the most convenient and enjoyable. Two years ago I broke my heel in an accident, and last year it was my knee.

I have resumed proper workouts, more or less. I have to return to a wise diet - it's okay to gain a few pounds, its where I get them that matters. Usually when I dip this low I get used to eating whatever I want, which lasts for about a month and then I can't stop eating and I start back up again.

Song of Pengo

"It's 1992 and still no one to vote for." - Mike D

Pulled my back Tuesday morning - doing nothing. Just normal morning things, stood up the wrong way, the whole of the between-my-shoulder blades flared up. It's settled down a bit, I have been looking forward to a run to work it out. Feels good now, no idea what the morning will be like.

God, I hate winter. Lord, I love spring.

1992 Playlist
Rock In This Pocket (Song of David) - Suzanne Vega
The Skills To Pay The Bills (Original Version) - The Beastie Boys
Push Th' Little Daisies - Ween
Steam (Oh, Oh, Let Off Steam Mix) - Peter Gabriel
Lifetime Piling Up - Talking Heads
Tandem Jump * - Jonathan Richman
Hey Jealousy * - Gin Blossoms
Omnibus - XTC
Wish - Nine Inch Nails
The World's Green Laughter - The B-52s
Happy - George Michael
Cooldown: Disappointed - Electronic
Sexy M.F. - Prince

(Last Year's 1992 Playlist)
Happiness In Slavery - Nine Inch Nails
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
Jimmy James - The Beastie Boys
High - The Cure
Jump - Kriss Kross
I'm Too Sexy - Right Said Fred
Hit - The Sugarcubes

Run stats:
Days to Cleveland: 30
Distance: 5.15 miles
Weight: 169 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Push-ups: 20
Sit-Ups: 20
Temperature: 60º
Weather: effing gorgeous

The sun and the moon

Thunderstorms and iPods — Not a Good iDea
New England Journal of Medicine, July 2007

"A 37-year-old man was brought to the emergency department at our hospital. He had been jogging in a thunderstorm, listening to his iPod, when an adjacent tree was struck by lightning. Witnesses reported that he was thrown approximately 8 ft (2.4 m) from the tree.

The patient had second-degree burns on his chest and left leg. In addition, two linear burns extended along his anterior chest and neck to the sides of his face, terminating in substantial burns in the external auditory meatus bilaterally, corresponding to the positions of his earphones at the time of the lightning strike.

Both of his tympanic membranes were ruptured, and he had a severe conductive hearing deficit. He also had a mandibular fracture. Computed tomography of the mandible and of the temporal bones showed bilateral dislocation of the incudomalleolar joints ...(more)

In other words, "both his eardrums were ruptured, small bones in his ears broken, and his jaw disclocated on both sides and broken in four places." - Snopes.com

Distance: 3.15 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: Slim Fast Optima
Time: 6:00 am
Temperature: 70º
Weather: humid with light rain (but no thunder)

Playlist:
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)* - R.E.M.
Solsbury Hill (12" Version) - Erasure
Say No Go - De La Soul
Broken English - Queue Up
Mama Told Me Not to Come - The Wolfgang Press
Cooldown: I Don't Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters

How do you train for a half-marathon? Haven't even looked anything up. Something like this, I imagine. Keep up the regularity, run further on the weekend. Maybe 6 miles back to back was pushing it, I have been feeling worn down the last two days. Skipped yesterday, today was a bit of a chore, but then it was unpleasantly humid.

Humid and dark. We're headed to the other side of the sun, days getting shorter. Almost forgot what it was like to run before dawn.

All I see anymore is history

Distance: 5.7 miles
Weight: 164 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 6.20 am
Temperature: 70º
Weather: cool and overcast

Sunday I was sketching L. and she mentioned she was trying to get fit and I said, "Ooh! Would you run with me?" Just blurted it out, like an excited kid. She's been doing treadmill but it wasn't hard to talk her into it. Well, not the running. I think the 6.30 in the morning thing was a little more difficult to swallow.

No headphones, just talking. I haven't run with a partner since since running once with K. - when the hell was that, dude? Two years ago? Anyway, she was concerned about my having to slow down to accomodate, which of course I did, but that was a good thing. I think most of my injuries (shin splints, hamstrings, pulled toe muscles) are a result of just going too fast.

I mapped a three mile route from her place, through Cain Park and around again. Cain Park is gaining the reputation Central Park had in the 70s, but I thought it would be safe at 7 in the morning.

She asked how I started running ... and I told her. About 1980, 1988, 1991, 1994 ... next time I will be sure to let her say something.

Playing with fire

Distance: 3.5 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Dinner: baked mac & cheese, freshly shelled peas, white ale w/lemon
Time: 10.30 pm
Temperature: 90º - 86º
Weather: What do you think?

2007 RunMix
Ohh La La - The Ditty Bops
Mass Repeat - Gabriel & Dresden
Dashboard - Modest Mouse
Flathead - The Fratellis
Dust In The Wind - Gabriel & Dresden
The Girls - Calvin Harris
Cooldown: Closer - Gabriel & Dresden

Just couldn't see starting my day with a run this week, so I'd end it with one. Big risk. Last Tuesday, the day before the race, I felt like I pulled my back. Nothing debilitating, just very sore all across the large of my back. Felt the same race day, fine the rest of the day. By the time the evening was over, man was I in pain. And Thursday? Woo. Just wasted. Would have preferred not to have had Wednesday off work.

So. I thought running Bay Village brought me low with complicated memories. The Heights have gotten that way, ackshodry. Can't live anywhere for sixteen years without accumulating a lot of thoughts. I changed my route some time back, the way I was going was filled with pain and anxiety. That's the firehouse, where the guys came from the take my boy to UH with a shattered skull (that's almost a year ago, you know) and over that way? The House of Filth and Lies.

Angst and bitterness, that's me.

Tonight I wore my new white jersey out for the first time. Still almost got hit by a car.