Heartbeat? It's a lovebeat!

Pros and cons of running in the clown shoes:

You can't run heel-to-toe in zero drop shoes. You just can't, you would break your heels. As a result, in a continual and ongoing effort to hit the ground comfortable with the springy part of your sole, you are always lifting your toes.

This exercise is much like those that I had to do when plagued with shin splits, training for my first marathon. The front of my shins are strong and healthy.

What continues to hurt is my right heel. I wake every morning very stiff and sore, a pain which goes away, but it returns every morning. It does feel like what the girl described as her issue, playing soccer. But she has been taking PT and last Sunday played her first game in months, none the worse for wear.

I really need to ask her to teach me her stretching exercises, and then perform them with dedication the way she does.

Another issue, and I do not know whether this is good or bad, is that running in zero drop shoes is harder. It takes more effort. Keeping your toes up, that takes effort. You are not constantly hitting a raked platform to spring you forward, as with modern, traditional running shoes.

More calories expended is not necessarily something to complain about.

Temperature: 49°
Climate: cool & sunny. ideal.
Distance: 3.25 miles

1973 Playlist
Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang
The Ballroom Blitz - The Sweet
The Jean Genie - David Bowie
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf
Bring On the Lucie (Freeda Peeple) * - John Lennon
Heartbeat (It's a Lovebeat) - The De Franco Family

I can ease your pain. Get you on your feet again.

Interesting. Not as motivated by the 00s playlists as I have been by the previous years' ... they provide energetic, syncopated beats, but the lyrics and production values are so sterile. I must truly be getting old.

At the close of the 20th century, I was listening to a lot of electronic music, to be sure. But it was on the darker side, moody. Not surprising, this in keeping with my general sense of melancholy that came with the approaching Millennium.

In 2001 we experienced the death of our first child, but rather than digging deeper into despair, my interest in music became almost childish. The wife can't stand Daft Punk, I think it's not only hilarious, but moving. She found it sterile, I heard in it warm echoes of my own pre-adolscence.

Finding work as an actor-teacher, with comrades in their twenties (ten years my junior) I felt entirely justified in listening to their dance music. But its ten years on now, and a lot of what I found charming, I am also finding lifeless. Even the yearning, earnest, heart-on-the-sleeve songsmithery of Ben Gibbard or Imogen Heap feel synthetic in their carefully crafted sincerity.

Still ... good beats. And I can run to it.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Mmmmm ... new sidewalks on Euclid Hts. Blvd ...

Temperature: 43º
Climate: cool & dry. lovely.
Weight: 170 lbs.
Breakfast: grape nuts, milk & honey
Hydration? yes
Stretches? kinda? sort of?

Strapped on the old shin splint brace, made it possible to move. Stopping at lights, it felt as though my leg were broken. Here's the thing: I have been here before. I have hurt like this, in this way, before. And the pain has gone away, I have defeated it through constancy and proper exercises. If I were to "take a break" they would only resume when I resume. I have to keep strengthening my legs.

2003 Playlist
The District Sleeps Tonight - The Postal Service
In Between Days - Ben Folds
Zombie Nation (Dave Clarke Remix) - Kernkraft 400
Comfortably Numb - Scissor Sisters
You Promised Me - In-Grid
Black California - Kaada
Sunrise (Jason Nevins Remix) - Duran Duran
Hey Ya - Outkast
Jerk It Out - Caesars

Cooldown:
Nothing Better - The Postal Service

Feet, fail me not.

Do you like to read this blog? Then hit the survey for Cleveland Scene Best of 2012 and vote Daddy Runs Fast for best Cleveland blog.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: Neighborhood loop

Good Lord. I have run 35 times since New Year's. In 2011 I ran 74 times ALL YEAR.

Used ear buds today, waiting for my new 'phones. Why do I dislike earbuds? Simple, they will not stay in my ears while running.

Okay, now we have entered serious shin split territory, and I am breaking out the bandages. My left leg is hobbled with the pain, which actually subsides when I run fast. HOWEVER, then I begin to feel sick to my stomach. Ah-ha! Have I unintentionally discovered to source of my discomfort during the marathon? Aches, like headaches, often manifest themselves in a kind of queasiness which borders on nausea, though it also is a sensation in common with hunger pain. However, having recently (but not too recently) eaten breakfast, I doubt it was actual hunger. I mean, I'm not hungry now ...

Saturday's run has really made me hate wind, and loathe to go outside. Spring cannot come soon enough. Of course, we haven't actually had any winter yet.

Oh, look. It's snowing.

Temperature: 37º
Climate: cool, a little windy
Weight: 171.5 lbs.
Breakfast: Cheerios & milk, grapes.
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

Daddy ran out of Omega-3 vitamins.

2002 Playlist
Starry Eyed Surprise - Paul Oakenfold
Six Feet Under (Radio Mix) - Photek vs. Thomas Newman
The London Radar - Cornershop
Work It - Missy Elliott
Banquet - Bloc Party
Let Go - Frou Frou
Lose Yourself - Eminem
Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley

Cooldown:
Daft Punk Is Playing at My House - LCD Soundsystem

"This is what you've been running away from your whole life, buddy boy ..."
- Nathaniel Fisher

Can you still walk back to happiness when you've nowhere left to run?

"The 'Batman' soundtrack?"
"Throw it."
Leadfoot today. Spoke too soon about shin splints, my left has been acting up all week, in spite of the exercises. Will wear a brace for Saturday's long run. 10 miles on Saturday, if the weather holds and there is no snow or ice, I plan to make the journey to see the India Cultural Garden, which is exactly five miles from my house.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: To Parkside Blvd. and back.

Traveling this new route -- out to a fixed point and then right back again, for weeks -- has been very interesting. Almost zen. That doesn't mean it doesn't have its share of pitfalls, and I do think the sudden gain and loos of elevation at all of the street crossings (and they are steeper than normal) is not good for my ankles. Or shins. But just heading in one direction, and then turning around and heading back, it just seems shorter than the loop I usually take. And it's a mile longer than that.

Temperature: 37º
Climate: dry pavement, cool air.
Weight: 176.5 lbs.
Snack: banana
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

Okay. So? We got a Wii. The girl turned nine, it was a good excuse, the wife really wanted it because time and space was making it utterly impossible to commit to regular exercise. And the kids wanted a video game console because all their friends have a video game console and blah blah blah. On Monday, we got a Wii Fit.

For three days now, the kids have been waking up without complaint, doing their chores without a sound, and then taking turns for about a half-hour, chatting and playing on their feet games. Breakfast has become a wide-awake affair, with conversation and good manners.

The wife has gotten up every morning for exercise and yoga.

Meanwhile, I have been hitting the road for almost three weeks. I have had long days, from 5 AM to 11 PM and I am not tired. I am productive. Time spent running is time recreated through higher productivity. And since January 1, I have lost four pounds.

This exercise is a good thing.

1989 Playlist
About A Girl - Nirvana
No Myth (Damascus Mix) - Michael Penn
Funky Cold Medina - Tone-Loc
King For A Day - XTC
The Cactus - 3rd Bass
Trust - Prince
Pet Sematary - The Ramones
Waiting For Mary (What Are We Doing Here?) - Pere Ubu
Get Up! (Before The Night Is Over) - Technotronic ft. Felly
The Beat(en) Generation (170 bpm) - The The

Cooldown:
Pictures of You - The Cure

Thank you, 1980s. For everything.

Cue fanfare.

Did it. I am registered to run the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon on Sunday, May 20, 2012.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: To Parkside Blvd. and back.

Up a good part of the night, fretting. We began rehearsals last night, I need to set rules for myself and follow them. Come right home, drink tea, go to sleep. Falling asleep has been troubling the last two nights, and I woke several times thinking Time To Run. It was a relief when I finally looked at the clock and saw it was only 3 am.

Rounding the block and heading for home, I just realized how good I felt, for the first time in days. Or since my last run, anyhow. It didn't last long, but I am glad to know it is still possible to feel that way.

Really feeling the burn in my left shin. Simple exercise: Stand with your back to a wall, place both feet one foot-length from the wall. Lift your toes to the sky 10 times without lowering them completely to the ground. Three reps. This is how I have taken care of shin splints before.

Temperature: 34º
Climate: light, wet snow
Weight: 177.5 lbs.
Snack: banana
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

No run tomorrow. 6 miles on Saturday.

1984 Playlist
Fuck Art, Let's Dance - The Adults
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Perfect Skin - Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Blue Light - David Gilmore
Romancing the Stone (12" version) - Eddy Grant
Birdmad Girl - The Cure
I Send a Message - INXS
Handsome Devil - The SMiths
Cue Fanfare - Prefab Sprout
The Glamorous Life (Club Edit) - Sheila E

Cooldown:
I Feel For You (Remix) - Chaka Khan

Nostalgia supplies.

I'm standing here on the ground.

Distance: 4 miles
Route: To Parkside Blvd. and back.

Exhausted all yesterday, got to bed reasonably early (shot for 9, hit 9.45 - damn you, sexy POTUS) with a non-alocoholic beverage as my nightcap. Still, woke at 5 AM thinking ... what? No. No, can't do this. Long day today, first night of rehearsals, reports due, must rest, have solid, clear concentration ... so, of course, my mind was spinning and there was no way I was going back to sleep.

So I got up. Tomorrow morning is the Friday of Running. If I can make tomorrow, then I get a day off. That's how we do this.

1983 Playlist
Let the Music Play (12" version) - Shannon
Holiday Road - Lindsey Buckingham
No More Lies - Neil SHon & Jan Hammer
(Let's All) Turn On - Hoodoo Gurus
Don't Change (164 bpm) - INXS
Gone Daddy Gone (160 bpm) - Violent Femmes
Walking In Your Footsteps - The Police
Leave It - Yes
I Love You - Yello
Major Tom (Coming Home) - Peter Schilling
What Difference Does it Make? - The Smiths

Cooldown:
The Invisible Man - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Managed to run another morning in the windbreaker, when it dips below freezing again I will require something warmer. Took it easy this morning, I have been pushing it. Shins stinging, my left knee burning. It feels good to run. Sometimes it feels bad to stop.

Temperature: 33º
Climate: cold air, dry pavement.
Weight: 177.5 lbs.
Snack: no. just forgot.
Hydration? yes
Stretches? yes

Diet Coke and a pizza, please

Is it me? Is it an odor?

Recent Running Blog Posts is ignoring me. I keep sending them emails, asking them to add me to the list, but I get no response. This has been going on for almost a month. I am glad to have a listing at Running Blog Family Directory but I'd like my regular posts to reach a wider audience.

Which is to say, any.

I have been lulled by those who would suggest it is not necessary to warm-up before running, but that it is only necessary to stretch after running. This may be true - if you begin your run as a warm-up. Mika has a tendency to turn the start of your run into a race.

I have heard from my shins today for the first time in a long time. Watch it, dummy.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 168.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes (but not before, schmuck)
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: PowerBar Triple Threat
Time: 5.30 am
Temperature: 67º
Weather: balmy & sweaty

Playlist:
Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) - MIKA
Just Like Heaven * - The Cure
Neat Neat Neat - The Damned
Antmusic * - Adam and the Ants
Gypsy Woman (Red Hot + Dance Remix) - Crystal Waters
Friends Forever - Puffy Amiyumi
Burning Love - Elvis Presley
Something Like A Mama - Underworld

It's my time

Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 165 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: NutriGrain Bar
Time: 6 am
Weather: 63º
Weather: cool, man

Playlist:
Drive: Nike+ Original Run - The Crystal Method

Started feeling strain in my shins partway through. Stopped, stretched, continued. Good man.

My wife got back yesterday, time to run in the morning. One year ago around this time we all got back from Vermont, I had just started my training for the marathon at the beginning of July. I tried to psyche myself up by getting some music I could use on my runs, the first time I had shopped for music just for this purpose. July 8 was the first time I used this Crystal Method mix.

The shoes are the same shoes. I need to get new shoes, these are quite worn after a year, and I have begun wearing them for purposes other than running (walking, lounging, potlucking, chasing small children.) God, what great shoes. And I got them on sale!

Tomorrow I intend to do a Fourth five miler. I have no idea what music to listen to. I have never run the Bay 5 Mile with an iPod. Maybe I should do something retro ...

Maybe not.

Ja tvoi sluga. Ja tvoi Rabotnik.

Distance: 2.25 miles
Time: 3.40 pm
Stretches: no
Sit-ups: no
Bicycles: no
Drink: water
Weight: 165 lbs.
Weather: 36º and dreary

1978 Playlist
The Robots - Kraftwerk
Spinning Top - XTC
Next To You* - The Police
Birdland* - Maynard Ferguson

"Just like a needle that's sticking in the same old groove."

Okay, so there's this ad for a dual cellphone/mp3 player that takes place in this gym, and there's this muscle-bound date rapist-looking guy who shares - with us - his love of a new song by Fall Out Boy (?) and then takes the headphones back because he's got a call from his "lady" ...

I mean, is there a joke here I'm missing?

Oky, so I had twenty minutes to run before picking up the girl from school. I wouldn't get a chance later, I won't have the opportunity tomorrow. I could wait until Wednesday ... OR RUN REALLY REALLY FAST WITHOUT STRETCHING.

Lesson: Don't do this.

It was a great, fast run. And now I am in pain. Like, would I rather not take share of these shin splints? Is it, like not important to me at all?

O brave new world ...

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 9.45 pm
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: yes
Drink: Gatorade All Stars
Weight: 167 lbs.
Weather: 34º

1989 Playlist
Brave New World - Michael Penn
Express Yourself - Madonna
On the Greener Side - Michelle Shocked
Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy
On the Verge* - Nicholas Robinson
Sin - Nine Inch Nails
Veronica - Elvis Costello
Ana Ng - They Might Be Giants
Cooldown: Bust a Move - Young MC

"This may not be my best day ... but this ain't no golden age."

Everyone has been ill but me. Colds, flu and coughs swirl about me, but me? I am untouched. Credit palliative effects of ex-wife soup.

The shins did not scream very loudly tonight. Time for ice, wrap and painkillers.

Two years ago I attempted a race series. I registered, and attended the first event of the season, a 5 K in Akron. It went pretty weel, there was snow on the ground in Cleveland but it was merely wet there. I was out of shape, didn't make an impressive time, but the sheer number of people who came out on that blustery day was inspiring. This was a day or so before the last pope died, for those of you trying to place this weekend in history.

Less than a week later, I had a broken heel and was sidelined for the rest of the season. It is my hope, if not to sign up for the series, to attend that race this year. If my shins hold out, I may improve on that time.

Also, I need less clothes than I used to. Even tonight, it was just above freezing, and yet I felt I was wearing too much. My hat was too thick, I didn't need gloves for very long, my legs were too warm. It's a good feeling. Makes me feel much less thin-skinned than usual. God, I hate being cold.

The engine's thumpin' like a disco

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 9.30 pm
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: yes
Drink: Gatorade All Stars
Weight: 169.5 lbs.
Weather: 23º

1981 Playlist
Tainted Love - Soft Cell
Hungry For You (J'aurais Toujours Faim De Toi) - The Police
Primary* - The Cure
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett
Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)* - R.E.M.
Talk To Ya Later* - The Tubes
Sausalito Summernight - Diesel
Working for the Weekend - Loverboy

"Everybody needs a second chance."

Okay, screw counting calories, I'm back to eating whatever I want.

Last season, as part of the repertory company, I had to wear boots. Killer cowboy boots - not killer as in 'cool' or anything, they killed. I was still nursing a hairline fracture in my right heel, and these boots were murder. They slayed me. At the end of rehearsal, I was dead. Literally.

Okay, not literally. What I'm saying is they made my feet hurt. This season I have some lovely thigh-high numbers. And we are doing some ridiculous choreography which requires me to bend my ankles in all kinds of wacky, nutty, splinteringly painful positions. You should see it.

So today we staged a large part of the aforementioned dance, in those boots. I thought of blowing off a run tonight, it was getting late, but I didn't think I'd get the chance tomorrow - though I am happy to say I will not have rehearsal tomorrow, nor Monday, and so my shins will get a bit of rest.

Until I go running on Monday.

The only thing that works for me

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 9.15 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: yes
Drink: Gatorade All Stars
Weight: 169 lbs.
Weather: 37º and a little windy

1994 Playlist
Ripper Sole - Stomp
Come Out and Play* - The Offspring
Sure Shot - The Beastie Boys
Girls & Boys - Blur
Missing (Terry Todd Remix) - Everything But the Girl
All That She Wants- Ace of Base
Get Ready for This - 2 Unlimited
Closer to God - Nine Inch nails
Cooldown: Mr. Bitterness - Soul Coughing

"Can I confess I've been hanging around your old address?"

Look Ma, no braces! In a bit of physiological reverse psychology, I ran without the shin guards. Yes, it hurst, but the feeling that I was carrying around a set of ankle weights was missing ... mostly. I think I can ride through this, my stretches were much more thorough today, I have such a short window of opportunity I want to get out right away. But if I don't have time to stretch, then I don't have time to run.

Hey, I should put that on a T-shirt.

Sweet outfit; hat, fleece, long undershirt, gloves - and shorts!

Intake
Breakfast: oatmeal with raisins, butter, brown sugar & milk, orange juice, vitamin, coffee
Snack: PowerBar, coffee, apple
Pre-dinner: cream cheese with crackers, olives, Bacradi Classic
Dinner: spaghetti with turkey meatballs, parmasean, broccoli with butter
After: bag of Dan Dee Cheez Twists, Sidecar (but not without good reason)

Full Fathom Five

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 1.30 pm
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: yes
Drink: Gatorade All Stars
Weight: 168.5 lbs.
Weather: 21º

1999 Playlist
Five Fathoms - Everything But the Girl
All Star - Smashmouth
Accepting Applications At University - Lilys
Cups - Underworld

G-d dammit! I came in practically weeping in pain, I've got shin splints wrapping around both calves. The best thing I can say about it is I know I can beat them, I did it before. I had crippling shin splints last spring and still ran the marathon without braces - or pain. I may need to take some time off of running but keep up the stretches. That's hard, because the running reminds me to do stretches (and sit-ups, and eat well, etc.)

There's this dance we rehearsed on Friday night, I won't go into further detail (puppet dance really does say it all) but it's a bit taxing on the legs, especially the calves. I ran on Friday morning, and that was fine, but learning this routine in hard soled shoes was murder. Thank you, again, Tylenol 8 Hour!

Intake
Breakfast: beans and toast, fried egg, V-8, vitamin, coffee
Toby's tea party: ounce of tea, ginger creme snap
Lunch: salad (with olives, roasted red peppers, assorted veg, almonds and croutons), 2 slices of bread
Dinner: chili with chicken, pasta salad with feta, scalloped potatoes, 4 (?) martinis
Nightcap: tea

I seriously do not believe there was any alcohol in the martinis. None.

How much do you commit yourself?

Nation's Joggers Sick of Finding Dead Bodies
- The Onion, February 12, 2007
CHICAGO—Citing the sobering statistic that over 10,000 of the 12,800 slayings in the United States in 2006 were reported by joggers, a national coalition of fitness enthusiasts called upon government officials Tuesday ... (more)

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 10.30 am
Stretches: yes
Sit-ups: yes
Drink: Gatorade All Stars
Weight: 169.5 lbs.
Weather: 12º (but with the wind chill it's a balmy 65 and sunny!)

2003 Playlist
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service
Slow (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Kylie Minogue
You're So Damn Hot - OK Go
The Way You Move - Outkast
Extraordinary - Liz Phair
There There (The Boney King of Nowhere) - Radiohead
It's My Life - No Doubt
Solsbury Hill (12" version) - Erasure

Intake
Breakfast: coffee, oatmeal with raisins, mile & brown sugar, mango, V-8, vitamin
Snacks: PowerBar Triple Threat, coffee, banana
Lunch: Leftovers! A little chicken curry, sweet potatoes, pasta salad & bread
Dinner: broccoli rizzo with pita, french fries, coffee
Nightcap: Manhattan

My moustache froze.

Dear, dear me. Here I am, turning onto Euclid Hts. Blvd., blissing out to the once-upon-a-time-was-edgy, rock-chick stylings of Liz Phair, when who should flag me down but my neighbor, Mz. J, driving by in her subcompact. After slowing to almost a walk and extricating my earphones from my odd-neck-thing, she asks if I need a ride.

Woke before dawn with a headache, took ibiprofen and a glass of water and went back to sleep. Still nagging pain in my head when I got up, making me feel queasy, though going for a run has entirely eliminated it. Love it when things work out that way.

UPDATE: Oh my God! Rehearsal tonight was a funky puppet dance rehearsal - my shins were screaming! I can't tell wether it was a good thing or a bad thing I went running today. I have been going much fast, I think, just to get the f*ck home. Thank you, Tylenol 8 Hour!

Did you know you had this power?

Distance: 3.25 miles
Time: 3.15pm
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Weight: 171 lbs.
Weather: 19º frigid & sunny

1983 Playlist
Blue Monday - New Order
One Thing Leads To Another - The Fixx
Catapult - R.E.M.
A Ray Of Sunshine - Wham!
Beating Of Hearts - XTC
Gone Daddy Gone - Violent Femmes
Is There Something I Should Know? - Duran Duran

Intake
Breakfast: coffee, PowerBar, water
Lunch: yogurt, small portion spaghetti, Coke

I'm not on a diet. I just can't eat. Can't eat, can't sleep.

UPDATE: Deep, midwinter malaise. When I get capital-D depressed, there's only two things to do - exercise and not eat. Since my last entry I did, in fcat, share a brownie with my boy with a glass of milk, and for dinner we had baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli. Everyone else in the house is ill, the wife and I looked up a great toddy recipe.

It's cold, bitter cold. I did my best the stretch before resuming my workout on Tuesday, and the first thing that happened was the shin splints returned. Crap. But this time I knew how to deal with them, the braces I have are extremely successful at bringing down the pain and making it possible to run through them. Wore them all day yesterday, through the run and after. I even slept with them on, though I am not wearing them now and feel much better than I did on Wednesday.

Prior to this week running would have been impossible, because though it is so cold, the roads are clear - no snow for several days, or at least nothing that sticks. I have to stay in the streets because no one in this city shovels their sidewalk and by now it's all turned to compact ice. Neat.

Fortunately, the lake has frozen, and so the skies are bright and clear instead of that dull gray you get here which makes you want to curl up and die.

"Everybody dies alone."

- Graffiti under the East Stimson St. bridge. Yes, I know what it's from.

Distance: 4.5 miles
Duration: roughly 38 minutes
Time: 2.30pm
Weather: 59 degrees and sunny

Futuritual (171 BPM) - dj steveboy
"A half-hour of primal tribal grooves, then we pull the stops out with trance, breakbeat, and drum & bass to sail you over the wall."

Don't do this. (But be sure to scroll all the way through it.)

O! The calories! No, I did not need seconds last night, who does. And running on a reuben and a milkshake was also a bad idea. But the weather is perfect and the Hocking was so inviting, I could not help myself.

I have been going over in my head how many things I learned in the past year. Earlier blog entries include my concern that I was always thirsty - I stepped up liquid intake and those complaints stopped. Obvious in hindsight, but it's not like I'd never run before. It's just that I'd never run so much before.

Dishing out Newports to the runners on Bedford.


I was resigned to running in pain, with shin splints which, by all available advice, would not subsided until I ceased training. Other advice taught me how to work through them, and I just don't have them anymore. The internet is truly an amazing and helpful thing. I thought it was only good for porn (though it is awfully good for that.)

... is not Chicago.

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 166.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade Endurance
Time: 9.40pm
Weather: 59º cool, man, cool.

"Married/Buried" Playlist
Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago - Soul Coughing
Serious - Duran Duran
Veronica - Elvis Costello
The Globe - Big Audio Dynamite II
Kinda I Want To - Nine Inch Nails
Brave New World - Michael Penn
Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C+C Music Factory
Disappointed - Electronic
Cooldown: Vogue - Madonna

This may not be my best day ... but this ain't no golden age.

Time, a hideous migraine, family illness, dehydration and sheer exhaustion made it utterly impossible for me to run in Chicago, indoors, outdoors or anywhere else. So much for a second twenty miles, I am taking the risk. Made my big push two weeks ago, and am already gearing up for the big run. Travel plans are in effect, I need to seriously question my diet (no tomatoes, no tomatoes, no tomatoes) and keep myself rested, limber and well-energized.

I need to buy goo, and try it out on my fifteen miler this Saturday. Also, I must go thrifting and get some disposable sweats, gloves and maybe a hat. The gel soles in my shoes are well worn and should be replaced now, rather than later.

The shoes are good. The gear is good. My shin splints are gone. My corns are gone. Today, my hip does not hurt. It is, as the kids used to say, all good.

England's Dreaming

Distance: 4 miles
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: yes
Time: 6am
Weather: 56° chilly

Hard-Driven (160 BPM) - dj steveboy
"Sure, you're hard-driven. But since this was mixed with a PC, so am I. (sorry) I'd describe this one as a well-organized stampede."

I believe that once the temperature dips below 55 degrees, I will need my thermal undershirt. A wee nipple out this morning. My left hip is still giving me grief ... but my shins simply aren't. So. Proper exercise and rest, huh, is that what I am hearing?

Twenty miles on Saturday doesn't seem like something this body can do. But I have said that before. Of course, I have a number of roadblocks (pun) ahead of me, including the fact that the following Saturday I will be on a plane for 8 hours and may or may not run in London on Sunday morning. Travel restrictions being what they are, am I really going to use up my precious carry-on space with a running kit - or am I going to (horrors!) check a bag just so I can run along the Thames.

Hmn. When I put it that way ...

Après

Distance: 4 miles
Duration: around 39 minutes
Weight: 165.5 lbs.
Stretches: yes
Drink: Gatorade
Snack: banana
Time: 5.30am
Weather: cool & wet - after a downpour

Rainy Day Run (145 BPM) - dj steveboy
"Mixed on a stormy day, this one it starts off moody and slowly builds, but doesn't get all frantic. No thunder fx, though, I promise."

A good brisk run, welcome back, uh-huh. A torrential cloudburst while I was warming up so I put my rainy gear on, but there wasn't a drop falling once I hit the road. Kept to the sidewalks, large puddles in the road can push you into the middle of the street, which is dangerous. Sidewalks, however, in the dark, are murderous on the shins, trying to guess exactly where my feet will meet the pavement.

Shins don't lie

Distance: 5 miles
Duration: a little under 47 minutes
Weight: 166 lbs.
Stretches: yes! really!
Drink: Gatorade "X-Factor"
Snack: handful of Haribo gummi bears
Time: 5.30am
Weather: perfect

I Put My Big-Boy Pants On (145 BPM) - dj steveboy

Okay, that hurt. I neglected (forgot?) my shin stretches before going out, and now thy both are singing. The front of each shin was bright and pained, it made for little, tiny - but swift - steps. Hmn. Gotta watch that.

Really dig that mix - check it out, sweet child of mine.