I feel anxious when I'm high.

Temperatures rise. Good news yesterday, very good news. It's about the summer. Can't share, not yet. But soon.

It's happening, Reg! Something's actually happening, Reg!

Distance: 3.1 miles

Duration: 27:32
Pace: 8:53

Yesterday was Shakespeare's birthday (by tradition) and I was surprised to learn that I have only performed in eight full productions of his works, which is not too bad. But you'd think it were more.

Actually, that seems like a lot. I don't know. I've also directed seven. Two overlap.  

Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 58°
Climate: sunny & gorgeous
Mood: okay
Stretches: yes
Water: not really

Weight: 160 lbs.

So, we've been watching sport. The Cavs are in the playoffs, and we are watching. Then there's all the baseball. It was the best of times, it was the blurst of time.

2020 Playlist

Jerk - Olive Tree

Pink Pony Club - Chappell Roan

Compression - Monica LaPlante

Yucky Blucky Fruitcake - Doechii

Caution - The Killers

Dynamite - BTS

Intrasport - King Gizzard & Th Lizard Wizard

Your Love (Déjà Vu) - Glass Animals

Two foots racing.

Ghosts of 1997

How is life without a wife? The girl and I were discussing that yesterday, the days are longer. Much, much longer. I am shocked it is only Wednesday. The kids are more vocal about how much they miss her, but they understand why she had to take this journey. She's getting a lot work done, good work, and I am so proud of her.

Temperature: 41°
Distance: 3.25 miles

Now, dammit. Twenty degrees warmer should feel warmer. But I bless the rains that fall in Cleveland Heights. I am lighter and I can feel it. Breathing is easier, striding is easier. If only this string in my right thigh would not sing all day long. Doesn't bother me when I run, only when I walk.

Baseline: 178.5 lbs.
Today: 171 lbs. (-1.0)
Goal: 170 lbs.

I did not eat three meals yesterday. I had four. Breakfast, lunch, a modest dinner before we headed out for the tour performance, and another after we returned. I am of the belief that what I am not eating is what is making the difference. What I am eating includes whole grains, not too much, more good protein and far more fruits and vegetables.

Look, the day I went in for my physical, a little over two weeks ago, on the drive there I knocked off almost an entire can of Pringles. This is what I am talking about.

1997 Playlist
How Bizarre - OMC
Water From a Vine Leaf - William Orbit
Absurd (Landslide Mix) - Fluke
Miss Modular - Stereolab
Busy Child - The Crystal Method
Good Shit - Cornershop

I have a dearth of good running music released in the years 1999 and 2000. Why is that? Sure, the year 1999 gave us Moby's Play album, and Everything But the Girl's Temperamental, the following year Radiohead's Kid A ... but then what? Suggestions welcome.

So just get off of your ass.

Really wish it were warmer today.

The wife will be out of town all week for a writing retreat. Back in the day when she would go out of town, I would be kind of stuck here, with children in the house, not able to take a run. Now that they are older that is not a problem, they can safely look after themselves for a half-hour or so. However, it does mean waking one of them up to tell them I will be out for a little bit.

Temperature: 23°
Distance: 3.25 miles

Frigid air and light snowflakes can be bracing, but today it made me weary. Nonetheless, the music was very inspiring. I feel strong, I feel good. Yesterday, I passed on the opportunity to eat pizza twice. Dinner was a polite portion of whole wheat spaghetti with a few homemade meatballs.

Thinking about the Third Marathon. I have ideas. None of them include Cleveland.

Baseline: 178.5 lbs.
Today: 173.5 lbs. (-0.5)
Goal: 170 lbs.

Yesterday afternoon, the boy and I had a frank conversation about weight gain. This has been a hard winter for him, tearing a muscle, and spending weeks in a wheelchair and then on crutches. He's gained at least five pounds.

His habit has been to either lie around and read, use a screen, or eat something. Getting him to choose any other activity takes major effort. Then I remember we have a Wii Fit, if he were to move for a half hour - especially on a morning like this - and make that a habit, that would be a good place to start.

He is rejoining his soccer team this spring, and baseball clinics begin this week!

1995 Playlist
Here Comes the Hotstepper - Ini Kamoze
All Mixed Up - 311
Wonderwall (173 bpm) - Oasis
Statue of Liberty - Joe Jackson
We Prick You (160 bpm) - David Bowie
Mama Told Me Not To Come - The Wolfgang Press
I Saw The Light - The The

I empty a bottle and I feel a bit free.

This past weekend was an incredible, jam-packed indication of exactly how wild and exciting, and long and arduous this summer is going to be. And I didn't even get one run in.

Summer! We had a yard sale! Kids sold lemonade, we unloaded some old crap and I picked up a $20 someone had dropped who knows when and I had no idea who it belonged to. That was my biggest sale.

Baseball! The boy had baseball games Thursday and Saturday. It was at the evening game Saturday that I realized I had unwittingly scored a sunburn during the yard sale. Sunburn!

Fifth grade graduation - the girl is moving on to middle school! The boy will be moving to the elementary school she is leaving! Our actor-teachers are packing their things, some are moving away, and we just scored three amazing new hires!

And finally -- finally -- the kids have gotten into Doctor Who! I see marathon viewing all summer long!

Temperature: 78°
Route: Shaker Lakes :3 laps
Distance: 4.1 miles

Running Shaker Lakes can be treacherous. There's pavement, wood chips, worn dirt, tree roots, drops, inclines, other runners and fat, dog-walkers three abreast (plus the dog.)

Last night I notied cramps in both my feet. Would that be ... longing? The run itself felt much longer than four miles, but it felt good to be out in it again. Late 70s post-punk helps, too.

Sitting by the ball field, watching the boy practice. He's got a nice batting stance, he is learning to connect. Looks like it may be a baseball summer.

Radio Clash Playlist
This Is Radio Clash - The Clash
Save It For Later - The Beat
Shattered - The Rolling Stones
Lost In The Supermarket - The Clash
Rock the Casbah - The Clash
Beat On The Brat - The Ramones
Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols
Substitute - The Who
Another Nail In My Heart - Squeeze
Come Dancing - The Kinks
Destroyer - The Kinks

Back where you started.

Today is National Running Day!

Events did not conspire to run with a partner to celebrate Nat'l Running Day, but I did take the boy to get a new (used) baseball mitt, and we threw a ball back and forth for a half-hour before his practice and I say that counts.

Tomorrow brings to an end her fourth grade year, his second. Such important milestones. They're both about a foot taller, each. Her final soccer game for the season was this evening, those girls worked all year, since the fall, to work as a team and I have been so impressed with their progress.

It is a shame the team they played tonight are those awful girls who trip everybody.

It's not like they aren't moving immediately from days packed with school from days packed with activity camps -- theater camp, sports camp, music camp, art camp, invention camp, weeks away with the out-laws camp -- but at least there's no homework, and that general summer sense that whatever happens, it's, well ... whatever.

Temperature: 70°

Climate: cool
Distance: 3.25 miles

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Tears of a Clown Playlist

Peaches - The Stranglers

Sole Salvation - The Beat

Rockaway Beach - The Ramones

Is That Love (161 bpm)  - Squeeze

Do It Again - The Kinks

Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees

Expresso Love (Live) - Dire Straits

Turning Japanese (179 bpm) - The Vapors