Triskaideka (one)

h/t Nina M.

Haven't used Podrunner for four years. Since 2006, DJ Steve Boyett has issued hour-long mixes for running, spinning, what have you. I have found them particularly useful for long runs, and by that I mean ten miles and above.

It's a different groove, to be sure, but it's my kind of music. For the next few runs, I will take one mix and spread it out over several days.

No iPod, just the phone. Hands-free, too.

Distance: 3 miles
Duration: 24:00
Pace: 8:00
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 62°
Climate: overcast & cool
Mood: all right
Stretches: yes
Water: yes, not enough

Something is up with my shoulder, my right shoulder tingles sometimes. I look in the mirror, it is hard to make them even. This morning there is pain at the base of my skull, muscle pain that is directly above the place where I am holding tension, I believe they are related. Some massotherapy would be nice, what else should I do.

Podrunner: Triskaideka (164 bpm)

164 bpm is my shit! Made a neat eight-minute mile with that stuff. I had forgotten how pleasurable it can feel to listen to this podcast, an uninterrupted tapestry of club music set to my tempo.

Baseline: 179.5 lbs.
Today: 165.5 lbs. (-2.0)
Goal: 165 lbs.

Those roads. These skies.

Mitch's Long Back (2016)
Daniel Maidman

No complaints. Really, none. The past two winters were arduous, and I accepted them as well. This one has been mild, only the past week dipping into frozen temperatures. I could run, I have run while the mercury is in the teens. However, between my children's schedules and my own, plus the deep freeze, it has not been possible.

Soon the temps will rise again. The ice will melt. See? No complaints.

However, I have been feeling pains, strange pains. My left gluteus maximus (yes, that) has been sore, intermittently, for several weeks. I believe I have been sitting far too much. I have had an awful lot of desk work lately and have been in front of that screen a great deal.

Then there's my car, a two-door Honda Civic (2005.) Driving slowly on these slippery roads has become a literal pain. I am used to the discomfort which comes with making a road trip to Athens, say. What is different is getting into my car as I did yesterday to drive the girl to a futsal game, and almost immediately feeling sore and crabby.

Following that, I got to sit in a chilled warehouse-like athletic facility for three hours. I should have watched the games on my feet. I often do more things on my feet. I should find some kind of secure platform on which to put my laptop for writing scripts.

The wife suggests incorporating my stretching exercises into my routine, which I think is a very good idea.

Instead of an image of my own ass, I decided to present you with a much more attractive piece of work, a sketch created by the extremely talented, Brooklyn-based artist and my friend Daniel Maidman.

Distance: 3.58 miles
Avg Pace: 9:34
Duration: 34:16
Route: Forest Hill Loop

Woah. That was a workout. Brilliant day, sun reflecting brightly off the snow, wore shades. The clumpy snow is hard on my knees and ankles, also I took the Forest Hill Park route, most of which was no different from the sidewalks (when I could stay on the paths) but the sidewalk up Forest Hills Blvd. I took back became extremely deep before I ditched it and walked in the street.

I had to walk because I had been lifting my knees so high to play over and through the drifts my heart was racing very fast. My heart is strong, but please. Let's not test that.

Temperature: 18°
Climate: cold and bright
Pavement: deep drifts of snow
Weight: 164 lbs.
Mood: decent

1999 Playlist
Thursday's Child - David Bowie
Futurama Theme - Christopher Tyng
Big Pimpin - Jay-z ft. UGK
Thank You - Dido
The Future of the Future (Stay Gold) - Everything But the Girl
Stars All Seem To Weep - Beth Orton
Porcelain - Moby

Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Pugettia Gracilis

(This is not the muscle you are looking for.)

5 Reasons Your Run Might Have Sucked Today 

- Shut Up + Run 

These things are true. In the case of Sunday, that would include all five reasons.

There is a muscle on the outside of my thigh which flares up from time to time. Is that time Spring? I am not sure. I believe it is the posterior vastus lateralis muscle -- not the interior, gracilis muscle, that would be quite uncomfortable, especially if there were tiny sea crabs on it.

Temperature: 79°
Climate: warm
Distance: 3.25 miles

Nighttime run. Oh my, have I missed that.

1974 Playlist
Boogie On Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
Loose Booty - Sly & The Family Stone
Lady Marmalade - Labelle
Dancing Machine - The Jackson 5
Chameleon - Maynard Ferguson
Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
Junior's Farm - Paul McCartney & Wings
Back in N.Y.C. - Genesis

The iPod strap I bought seven years ago is falling apart. In a world of planned obsolescence, I sometimes do pretty all right with things. Except my ankles. And my shins. And thighs. Any my house. Personal relationships. God. But that iPod strap has been great.

As this is to me, then so to you is something else.

"I've been reading your blog for a while now, and I still can't figure out why you run. 

I get the sense it just makes you miserable." 

- Karen, whom I dated in high school

Maybe it has something to do with the picture of myself in anguish at the top of the page, but it is true, lately it seems like it is all ugly. Because I'm tired. Very, very tired. 

But the running doesn't make me tired, if anything the running gives me energy. I do not know where I would be -- or what size I would be -- without it. 

It's my exercise, it's exercise I can get excited about. I have tried yoga. I have tried weight machines. For maybe three seconds I have considered teams sports. Can't excite me. Running, however, is thrilling. It is a dare. And it is a surprise.

Yesterday, for example, I complained that I got suddenly hungry in the middle of the run, which was just stupid and poor planning on my part. That is an example of a bad surprise. However, quite often I feel wretched when I start out, and gain energy and happiness as I go along, and end feeling so much better than I started.

The problem with this blog (I am taking your comment seriously, Karen) is that I am writing around all the other things, the before and after things. I try to remember the charge I get at certain points during the run, but have often forgotten them by the time I return, and then I need to get on with my life.

But then, I once wrote an entire play about running, about why I run. Martin Denton of nytheatre.com had this to say about it; "What I wanted was to understand why running is so fundamentally important to Hansen. But this show never really gets us to that place." It appears I have failed to properly communicate this fact more than once.

I am going to make a point of reflecting more on the running itself. That might change your mind about it ... or at least make reading these posts less onerous.

Temperature: 34°
Climate: mostly dry pavement, with as yet unmelted ice patches
Distance: 5.15 miles
Weight: 175 lbs.

Some reasons why I love running.

Breathing - While I can complain of being tired from time to time, I am not spent. I do not gasp, I do not pant. I breathe freely and deeply, and feeling myself breathe as I run is a joyful celebration of life. (I am trying to be tactful here, Cris, but she did ask.)

Also, for someone my age, my heart-rate is entirely awesome.

Thinking - Getting out and running is the only time I have when I absolutely no obligations to someone else, and so am free to think about anything at all. My mind wandering, I have directed entire plays, written entire scenes, developed perspective on issues which trouble me.

Outside - It is a fucking gorgeous day today. I may never have learned that until I stepped out for 5 o'clock rehearsal, and then it would be too late to enjoy it. This is a major reason why I have little to no urge to get a gum membership again, even when the weather is miserable. In fact, it has made me engage the horrible weather, instead of merely complain about and hide from it.

Neighborhood - Like a dog walker (except without all that horrible talking to other dog walkers) I know more about the state of my neighborhood and my city than most other people. I never learned the geography of my adopted town until I began training for my first marathon.

Muscles - I have extremely attractive calves.

Those were the positive thoughts I put together on today's run. Perhaps I have stated some before, but they are worth repeating. You know. For Karen.

1984 Playlist
Relax (New York Mix) - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
William, It Was Really Nothing - The Smiths
Shake Dog Shake (Live) - The Cure
Fuck Art, Let's Dance - The Adults
Strut - Sheen Easton
Cue Fanfare - Prefab Sprout
Me Ship Came In! (177 bpm)  - The Style Council
High Energy - Evelyn Thomas
Welcome to the Pleasuredome - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
You're The Wish You Are I Had - XTC
Skakin' To The Beat - Fishbone
99 Luftballons - Nena

Lightning Pains

Distance: 4.25 miles
Weather 69º sunny with big fluffy clouds - gorgeous!

Chunk Style Playlist
Birdhouse In Your Soul - They Might Be Giants
Dry County - The B-52s
The Power - Snap!
She Drives Me Crazy - Fine Young Cannibals
Elephants & Flowers - Prince
Party Machine - Hoodoo Gurus
This Corrosion - The Sisters of Mercy

The things about listening to your record collection from a certain era is ... the songs don't change. Funny. I guess that's the point. "There is no other music."

You know when I was younger, I thought he had a point - that today's music (i.e. in the early 80s) is garbage. I have since come to the conclusion that almost everything on The Big Chill soundtrack is pretty facile, too. That's the thing. The movie is a big, dark joke. A lot of people don't get that joke.

Last week I noticed (minor) deep pain on one side of my back, lower back. The wife said it sounded like a hamstring problem. Right side. I always ache on the right side. Right side lower-back, right side below the shoulder blade.

Yesterday night, it was the outside of my right foot. Up through my right calf and into my right thigh - on the outside. The right side is where my meralgia rests.

Why?

So hot right now

Since I first began 1) being skinny and 2) working on my feet all day (this was back in 2001) I started developing a recurrent muscle pain in my back, just inside my right shoulder blade. It is a constant area of tension.

In addition, and this part is weirder, I will occasionally have a sharp pain in the muscles of my abdomen, a small pain, a "spot" pain, just below the ribcage, off-center right. I believe I am a man entirely out of balance.

Bad news, of a sort. I let the May 1st deadline go by without signing up for the 09 NY Marathon. That is all right, it is actually a relief not having that also clamoring for attention inside my head. As it is I am up at 5 am for a Sunday morning run, and I am pleased this is by choice, and not by compulsion or schedule.

In other news, I may be headed to New York this summer, anyway. Stay tuned.

2001 Playlist
Samba Da Benção (4 Hero Remix) - Bebel Gilberto
This Charming Man - Stars
Start the Commotion - Wiseguys
August Day Song (Château Flight Mix) - Bebel Gilberto
Crescendolls - Daft Punk
Get the Party Started - P!nk
Lucky and Unhappy - AIR
Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box - Radiohead

Distance: 3.25 miles
Temperature: 48º
Weight: 151.5 lbs.