I mostly have work to blame for my 10 month absence. I’ve been working a lot. To the point where I’m so out of shape that running two miles is a Herculean task. But it’s like Thom Yorke says :”you do it to yourself”. So now I begin the task of undoing it to myself… and that’s what really hurts.
The above pic is one on my home studio. I took most of yesterday to acquaint myself with the wonders of GarageBand…wow, great stuff. The fruit of my first attempt:
I only write from airport waiting areas now – it’s a shame that i don’t have a guitar with me. My flight leaves in an hour and it’s already delayed, but it’ll likely work out for the best. It’ll mean less time in Houston. Not that it’s necessarily a good thing (to have less time in Houston) – it’s kind of a hike between terminals/gates in Houston (or anywhere else) when you’re flying from Gulfport/Biloxi. There will be less waiting around though.
I leave Mississippi with a bag that weighs about 10 more pounds and a body that weighs at least half as many less – this is amazing for two reasons:
I’ve already shipped the majority of gifts/souvenirs via UPS
The food here is all deep fried – twice – and the guys at work know all the best places. (we only went to the same place once – or would that be twice – and that’s the place that bills itself as: “The Original Home of Pork Chop Wednesday”. And this is the battered, deep-fried variety of pork chop with sides like cabbage dressing, greens, field peas and rice and gravy – all of these, much tastier than their name might imply)
I’ve also probably run over 20 miles in the last two weeks, so maybe it all does make sense. I’ve run on roads and bay side boardwalks and hotel gyms and these two weeks that have seemed more like a paid vacation in spite of the mentally rigorous work.
In short, it’s all good and I’m very much on track to be very ready for my scheduled half-marathon in November. I feel strong and healthy and most rare of all, happy. If everything goes as planned, I should be in Texas by 10:30 and in my own apartment (and with my guitar) by 4PM. I can hardly wait, but I’ve seriously come to flat out love this part of Mississippi. It’s in the middle of a lot of cool stuff. 90 miles from New Orleans, less than that from Mobile and on average, less than a 6 hour drive from almost any interesting part of The South.
Well whatta you know, the flight is on time again. I wonder how that happens…but I’ll not complain. Also: This airport loves the hell out of A-Ha’s “Take on Me” – I’ve been here four times now and I’ve heard it every time. I would hate to work at a place that only had one CD. I’d either quit or perform harakiri in gate 3 – I can be a little dramatic some times.
Now they’re playing the Cure’s “Close to me” – that’s much better. It might be enough to keep me sane if I didn’t have an ipod with me.
I think I’ll leave you with the musical highlight of the latest run:
South Texans – especially those who live near the Rio Grande think they know humid (and they do) – the Mississippi coast just has a lot more water to work with. I ran five miles today (right neer da beach) and I don’t think that I’ve sweat that much in years. It was a good run. It was good to get out, my previous two runs this week happened inside the hotel’s exercise room (on a treadmill). Today though – the breeze off of the gulf, the remarkable sunset, and some very friendly fellow runners made it all very enjoyable.
My ipod was on random, but it played some very appropriate music by Collective Soul, Dr. Dog, Jimi Hendrix, the dexateens, nine inch nails, and lots of Wilco (that last one is rarer than you might expect) – given the current circumstances in the gulf, my advanced state of exhaustion/dehydration at the time and my new-found but deep appreciation for this area, I found the last song of my 5 mile run particularly poignant:
I’ve been busy, but I’ve not stopped running. Technically, I start a new job today – but I’ll mostly just be flying and landing through various parts of Texas and Mississippi. The hotel that I’m staying off for the next two weeks has a treadmill, so I’ll have little excuse for not running. There’s also a beach (a possibly oil-covered beach) and many roads that my nikes and I can get acquainted with.
I’m in San Antonio right now, at the airport, and I’m waiting for my flight to board. I’m enjoying the free wifi, but my audiobook will likely not download before 8:45 (darn).
Back to the running though – the runs have been good lately. I think that I’m pretty much acclimated to the summer. I’ve had a couple of 6 and 5 mile runs in sunny 90 degree (and higher) weather. Gulfport probably isn’t going to be much cooler than south Texas has been.
I began this year by running a lot and running often – nearly 200 miles so far. Now, I’m switching gears and running less often (about 3 times per week), but I’m going to run longer distances. I’m on day two of an actual half marathon training program and everything’s working well so far. The training program should last three months, but the half marathon that I’m signed up to run doesn’t happen for another 6 months. I plan to repeat the training program (albeit a more rigorous version of the same program) for the second three month period.
So I’m only running three days out of the week – Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. I plan to rest on Sundays and use a crappy (but effective) elliptical the other three days. I’ve been using the elliptical for the last week and a half and it gives me a great workout with little to no strain on my joints. I think that it’s making my runs better, but I’m only on day two – so what the hell do I know?
“Pain is weakness leaving the body”, said a very fit 18 year old’s t-shirt as it flew by me. The Marines know this. Nike, Gatorade, the Phoenix (as in the fire bird not the city) and even Wilco (You have to learn how to die if you want to be alive) will tell you variations of the same. I’ve come to accept this warrior wisdom because every time that I run it hurts, but it mostly only hurts in the beginning. (yes, this is an elaborate set up for all the “that’s what she said” enthusiasts)
After you get past two miles, there are really only two limits to how far you can run:
Your will. How far do you want to run? Because it’s not completely pleasant to run even after it stops being painful.
How much fuel is in the tank?
I don’t know that I have a point in discussing any of this – in fact, I’d bet that I don’t. It’s just something that I’ve been fixating on lately during my runs.
So, not to completely change the subject and transition awkwardly, but I ran five miles today and it felt pretty great. I’m still a little tipsy on endorphins. Feeling pretty good indeed.
Musical highlight of the run:
Every time I hear them play this song live I go, “Oh, well…why would you play that???” – and then a minute and thirty seven seconds in I’m like, “What an awesome song! I’m glad they played it!!!”
Sound of silveris easily one of the most perfect running albums ever. I used it today to great success as I did 3 more miles at a pace of about 10:20 per mile. The legs felt tired and sore in all the usual places before the run but I stretched and walked a mile to warm up – everything was alright after about a quarter mile of running. I actually feel better now after the run (than I did before).
“All My Friends” is my favorite song off of Sound of Silver and it’s probably my favorite LCD Soundsystem song, but it would be boring and unoriginal for me to tell you that it’s my musical highlight of the run once or twice every week (even though it is). This time though, I’m not lying when I tell you that my musical highlight of the run was the following, it helped me get up a very steep quarter mile without quitting:
The ipod really outdid itself today – the Who (pinball wizard), U2 (even better than the real thing), Beck (loser ~ for the longest time I thought the lyric was ‘from my head to toe, I’m a loser baby so why don’t you kill me’ – it’s actually: ‘soy un perdedor…’), and several others including the musical highlight of the run:
I feel worse than yesterday physically, but a bit better mentally (I don’t want to explode). My knees hurt, my groin hurts again and I’m walking around like a baby horse.
I feel like refried poo and I’m taking tomorrow off.
I ran 3 miles again and it went well. It’s been raining quite a lot. Today was the first day in almost a week where I didn’t have to deal with drizzle, mist or actual rain during my run. Lots of mud, puddles and humidity though.
The groin was tight all day, but it didn’t feel so bad when I was stretching and it actually felt pain-free during the run and after. It doesn’t hurt or feel tight now. Aching knees are almost a welcomed feeling – a return to normalcy.
Mentally , the run was focused. I had a lot on my mind: work, my recent surrender to social networking (I fought a good 2 years), the book on Che that I’m reading and two separate conversations that I’d had today with two different people who are easily in the “top five best friends I’ve ever had” list (if there were such a thing, there isn’t – these are two people that “would help me bury the bodies” so to speak even though our alleged or hypothetical crimes,misdemeanors, felonies never got to that level. I’ll not beat the dead horse further, but these are more brothers than friends). All of that and four lads from Liverpool literally blew my mind during mile three into an introspective trance that I wouldn’t have thought possible without the aid of some chemical (honestly, not that I would know so much about that). It was almost uncomfortably intense. I feel as though I’ve some new perspective into my psyche and it’s kind of simultaneously freaking me out and inspiring a sense of peace. I’m going to stop talking about it now, because I can’t do it justice.
It had happened before (see: 03/03/2010), but it had never been useful to me before. It had been pleasant, exciting and strange, but never insightful.
Endorphins, son.
Endorphins.
Musical highlight of the run (possibly the musical highlight of my life now):
