No place to run

Rehearsals have moved from reimagining I HATE THIS to reblocking AND THEN YOU DIE. We spent part of the afternoon in Fefu's Kitchen working the first third of this act. DARWINII closes its sold-out run tonight, they strike, and we begin rehearsals in the storefront on Monday. Then the real work begins, because it is difficult to imagine where to go when I am supposed to be running all over the room and Fefu's is so tiny.

I am concerned about my breathing. The family has gone to the girl's violin practice. I am grateful that my wife too the boy with her ... so I may run. Now.

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 39º? Really?
Weather: cool. nice. runny nose.
Weight: 166.5 lbs.

Tomorrow is Calvin's 10th birthday. Ten years ago today, my wife and I stepped into MacDonald Women's Hospital to check on the progress of our 30 week old pregnancy, and learned the baby was dead, and on March 20th we gave birth. He died, then he was born. The day will be spent in celebration with our two living children, we will meet my parents at the zoo, feast, play, have cake, and remember.

I hope you also have a beautiful day.

1977 Playlist
Short People - Randy Newman
Night Fever - Bee Gees
Barracuda - Heart
Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
Love Gun - Kiss
EMI - Sex Pistols
Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones
We Will Rock You (162 bpm) - Queen
Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
Got To Give It Up (Part 1) - Marvin Gaye
Swingtown - Steve Miller Band

I'm gonna find my 4-leaf clover

A night without rehearsal. A late afternoon for running.

Yes, rehearsals for IHT/ATYD began in earnest this week. This explains why, in spite of by best intentions, I am not getting on the road every day. And if I hadn't gotten to run through this beautiful weather, I would have exploded.

We have spent several nights re-staging I HATE THIS. That was no big thing, I know that play very well. AND THEN YOU DIE, not so much. And there have been edits, plenty of them. And rewrites. And then there's, you know, all the running.

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 64º!!!
Weather: breezy & beautiful!
Weight: 166 lbs.

God damn the Irish! All I want right now is to drop below 165, it's a psychic boundary, like the sound barrier, only I am working at a private school this week, which has an excellent kitchen ... and by that I mean, the salad bar is great and they offer a lot of fabulous alternatives to burgers and fries which I have been enjoying.

Only today it was corned beef, cabbage, sauerkraut and potatoes -- which were delicious, by the way, no doubt because, and not to put too fine a point on it, no one working in the kitchen at this exclusive private school is Irish.

1987 Playlist (More Songs About Child Abuse and F*cking)
Play In The Sunshine - Prince
Meditate - INXS
The Right Thing - Simply Red
Bad - Michael Jackson
Fight Like A Brave - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Alex Chilton - The Replacements
A Japanese Dream (remix) - The Cure
Strange - R.E.M.
Hard Day (Shep Pettibone Remix) - George Michael
None Of The Above - The Bears
What's The Matter Here? - 10,000 Maniacs

Mmmmmm ... Guinness ...

... then you die.

Route: Garfield's Loop

This was not how I planned it. No. Not my intention to run a scant five times during February. Or to consume as much garbage food as I have this month. But it has been a grueling month, physically, emotionally, mentally ...

We did get the cat back. His five day absence -- and another entire night two week later where we could not find him -- cast a pall on what was already an endurance test of a month. The tour took a lot out of me in many ways. The weather has been wretched, yes, I know it's February, but the sheer amount of snow dumped all at once ... I mean, we all complain about it, for me it was just another thing I needed, literally, to shoulder.

This run was a release. But also an ordeal. Where the great drifts of snow that fell yesterday had been plowed, it was dry, where it had not -- I'M LOOKING AT YOU, MOTORCARS!!! -- it was impassable. I was in the street a lot. I do not like that. I have a family to think of.

My shoes are full of slush. It is amazing how little you need to run with wet socks to develop a callous or a blister. Jesus.

1997 Playlist
Space Junk [Wang Chung '97] - Wang Chung
Around the World - Daft Punk
My Hero (154 bpm) - Foo Fighters
Busy Child - The Crystal Method
Rumble In The Jungle - The Fugees
Collision and Improvisation (174 bpm) - Pizzicato Five
Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
Spudnik - Plaid
Bittersweet Symphony - Verve
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 48º
Weather: nice, but ...
Groundcover: Dry! Wet! Crunchy! Snowy! SLUSHY!
Weight: 166 lbs.

Training:
Did you drink a glass of water when you woke up this morning? Yes.
Did you have a snack when you woke up this morning? Yes, one piece of cold pizza. (Hey. It was there.)
Breakfast: Two eggs, two pieces of bacon, on a small waffle. Lots of coffee.
Anything else: Not yet. Good boy. I plan on a simple lunch, and then beer for dinner.

And the weather's good

Have You Seen Me?
Male - Answers to the name "TIGER"
Last seen on Castleton Road Thursday night 2/17/11
2007 Playlist
Vegas - Calvin Harris
The News - Carbon Silicon
Umbrella - Rihanna
Apologize - Timbaland (Featuring OneRepublic)
Mister Sister - The Tender Box
Synchronize - Tomboy
Everybody Knows You CFried Last night - The Fratellis
Shake It - Metro Station
Girls and Boys In Love - The Rumble Strips
Stronger - Kanye West
Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy

Distance: 5.15 miles
Temperature: 48º
Weather: gorgeous (but windy)
Groundcover: clear!
Weight: 167 lbs.

Put the wheels in motion

Outreach Tour Season is dizzying on the best of years. Last year I think I was worrying about it more, because I wrote it. And the set was more complicated, and heavier. But the show itself takes a lot out of me this year.

And good GOD there is a lot of candy around. Yes, okay. I admit it. Just because Walgreen's is offering jumbo bags, 3 for $4, does not mean you need to buy all three. You can get one, and scarf that down. Not all three.

But why the hell did everyone I know go all candy crazy this St. Valentine's Day? Office, full of candy. Marshmallow treats at rehearsal. What does the director get the cast for opening night? Big, heart-shaped box of candy (there's one in the show as a prop - it's a show joke.)

Spring encroaches. Maybe. Groundhog said so. Got a couple days in the fifties before it dips again over the weekend. I desire to get some five milers in, they feel so good. Just getting out today, after a week without (really? a week?) was a major hoo-hah, delightful.

I have running dreams, going round and round in my brain what I will wear today, what temperature is it, long-johns or not? Hat or hanky? When do I have those? It is time to get out.

I hope that big rodent was right. Spring at last, Spring at last. Thank God almighty, it's spring at last.

1968 Playlist
White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground
Grazing in the Grass - Hugh Masekela
Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
Sympathy for the Devil - The Rolling Stones
Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Lady Madonna - The Beatles
Let the Sunshine In - "Hair" Original Broadway Recording

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 40º
Weather: nice
Groundcover: dry!
Weight: 166 lbs.

I've got to keep on keeping on

Finally got a copy of the single (non-album) version of This Is Pop. These things are important.

1978 Playlist
This Is Pop - XTC
Don't Care - Klark Kent
D.I.Y. - Peter Gabriel
Le Freak - Chic
Bustin' Loose Pt. 1 - Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers
Jet Airliner - Steve Miller Band
Double Vision - Foreigner
Birdland (166 bpm) - Maynard Ferguson

The first couple hundred yards rips my face off. It is as cold as I imagine it will be, only worse because now I can feel it. Then, as though all of a sudden, the blood flushes in my chest and the heat rises in my jacket and moves up into my neck and into my face. And I am warm. And it is all right.

I have not been using the headwrap that acts as a shield around my ears and neck and the back of my head. Because I haven't felt I needed it, in spite of the spiteful temps. Anyway, it draws attention to how cold my mouth and nose are ... and then I pull it up over my mouth and nose and it gets wet and my glasses fog up, and then I pull it down and I am even colder, and you get the picture. I am doing fine without it.

It rises above freezing on Sunday. Looking forward to Sunday. Only then my roof with start leaking again. Sigh.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 13º
Weather: OMG it makes me tear
Groundcover: slippery
Weight: 168 lbs.

Half a jumbo-sized bag of Twizzlers? But ... but ... they are a low-fat snack!

And pretzels. Also low-fat. What is up with that?

Faith ... faith ... breathe ...

The Bowery Boys: The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

Explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was devoured by cannibals. Discuss.

1988 Playlist
All She Wants Is (U.S. Master Mix) - Duran Duran
Spark - The Church
Last Night - Traveling Wilburys
Alphabet Street - Prince
Doctorin' The Tardis - The Time Lords (The KLF)
In The Lowlands - Crowded House

Running in the subzero temps wearing a Breathe Right Strip © makes the snot just flow to your shoes.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Temperature: 14º
Weather: freezing
Groundcover: crusty slush
Weight: 166 lbs.

New jockstrap. New man. (TMI?)