SETH’S FIRST BACKYARD ULTRA

I just signed up for this Last Person Standing event, and I’m looking to raise money to support Team Foster’s mission of raising funds to provide accredited, life-saving service dogs to injured and disabled Veterans. Donate here.

“Last Person Standing is a backyard ultra where runners tackle a 4.1-mile loop every hour, on the hour. Finish the loop before the next hour begins and you’re back on the starting line for another. Miss the start of the next loop, even by one second, and you’re out. The cycle continues until only one runner remains.”

I ran the Labor Pain 12 hour endurance trail run back in September, and ran 25 miles, the most I’ve ever run. I’m doing another loop run in November, a six-hour trail loop run (5 mile loops with 450′ of climbing). This Last Person Standing is flat as a pancake, but the added challenge is the time limit – one hour to cover 4.1 miles.

This is a fundraiser, so if you’d like to help support Team Foster’s mission of raising funds to provide accredited, life-saving service dogs to injured and disabled Veterans, please donate here.

EVENING LISTENING

Some people know me as a guy who started a music blog back in 2001. Or from the other music blog I started in 2008. Or the heavy metal trivia thing I started on social media in 2011.

So when people ask me what I’ve been listening to lately, well, ummm… it’s an awkward conversation, since I’m listening to so much electronic music. Dark ambient, drone, jungle, minimalist techno, and stuff like this (above).

A 10K TRAIL RACE WITH 1,300′ OF CLIMBING

Ran a 10k trail race this weekend with 1,300′ of climbing. It was cold and windy, and we were at a high enough elevation for their to be frost on the ground, and it was very rocky. I came in 29th place, out of 33 people.

Volunteers had some very good dogs with them, which made the journey lighter. I was suffering to keep up with the three 60+ aged men in front of me. I’ve been running, and I’d say I’m in shape, but I’m not in race shape.

The winner finished in 50 minutes, 45 seconds, and I came in at 1:21:43. I had fun, though, and helped support the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

150 DAYS OF 10+ MILES PER DAY

On May 26th of this year I decided I was going to walk 10 miles. Here we are, 150 days later, and I’ve done that every single day, for a total of 1715.1 miles (11.43 miles per day).

Most of those miles were walking, but I’m starting to run about 20 miles per week again. The other day I had a packed day of travel, so I actually ran three times for nine miles. One of those runs was on a shady sidewalk because the treadmills were broken at the hotel I was staying at.

I’m down about 25 pounds, which doesn’t sound like a lot for that much movement, but I’m working towards durability and strength, not just losing weight. And I don’t walk 10 miles all at once, either. I want to get better at that, more miles in one shot. The goal is to do bigger, longer runs. I’m not concerned with speed, I just wanna cover distances, like a full day from one town to another, clocking like 30 or 40 miles in one day.

BRAVE SPLIT VIEW IS MY PRODUCTIVITY HACK

Brave slit view

I’m good at putting things into Todoist, but I’m awful at actually looking at Todoist. Sure, it’s right there in my Dock, and sure, there’s notifications via my phone and in my email, but then I discovered split tabs in the Brave browser.

Again, sure, I could just load Todoist in its own tab, but again, then I’d have to actually click on it to view it.

But my email inbox? Oh, I am in there often. Which now means that as often as I’m in my email throughout the day, well, I am in Todoist.

It’s not like I was avoiding my todo list, or anxious about everything I need to do each day. It’s just… I don’t know, if I see it, then I have to do it. And now I don’t have much of an excuse to not do the things.

139 STRAIGHT DAYS OF 10+ MILES PER DAY

This is the second time I intentioanlly came to Jim Thorpe, PA. when it was raining. I love the rain, I love that it puts us “all in the same boat.” Some people hate it, but as you can see, I dig it.

Running is easy, but running in heavy rain, through flooded trails, on a cold and windy day, well.. that’s hard.

But I made it downtown, got a glazed donut and coffee, and ran back to my car. Seven miles total.

Was I wet? Totally. Was it uncomfortable? Sure, it’d feel nicer to stay home and watch football, I guess.

But you know what feels like magic after an effort like this? A warm shower. Homemade coffee. All the little things feel bigger when you do the uncomfortable stuff.

And I got myself a DJI Osmo Action 6, exactly for days like this – rainy, miserable day. My running set up right now keeps my iPhone tucked away, and I really hate using my phone more than I have to. Sure, it takes nice photos and videos, but I hate seeing all that other stuff, which is why I knew I wanted a dedicated camera for these sorts of adventures.

READING BOOKS TO AMBIENT MUSIC

Love this so much: “Tokyo Underground Club Turns Its Dancefloor Into a “Reading Rave“

“SPREAD, an underground club located in Tokyo’s Shimokitazawa neighborhood, hosted ‘JUCY BOOK RAVE,’ a daytime event that temporarily transformed its dancefloor into a dimly lit reading lounge on September 26th.

Running from 10am to 2pm, the event covered the club floor in carpeting so attendees could sit, recline against the walls or stretch out with a book while ambient music played around them. After 1pm, organizers gradually raised the volume, giving guests the choice to continue reading or hit the dancefloor in the more traditional sense.”

Via Kottke

IT AIN’T HARD, BUT IT’S HARD TO DO

A four mile trail run got me to 10 miles, but I wanted 12. I was literally in bed, but I got up, put on some shorts, and set off into the night.

It’s not hard, but it’s hard to do.

I wanted to be able to write down that I did 12 miles, two days in a row.

Walking isn’t hard. But getting started is hard. Getting out the door. Remembering the gloves. All the tiny details, the decisions that need to be made – they all add up.

It ain’t hard, but it’s hard to do.

Today is day 135 of walking 10+ miles per day.

MY NINE ALBUMS

Poison, Open Up and Say Ahhh! I’m an 80s kid, so of course I was into hair metal. It was all over MTV, and everybody’s older brother and sister loved Metallica and stuff, so it made sense that we all became little bratty hair metal freaks.

Bjork, Debut. I remember seeing Human Behaviour on MTV that’s all it took. Amazing visuals, and the production of this song (and the whole album) stuck, even for a nerdy metal boy like me in the early 90s.

Helmet, Meantime. This leaned more into my metal roots, and I still absolutely love this album front to back.

GNR, Appetite for Destruction. From hair metal to hair metal adjacent, really. This had some more bluesy swagger to it, though. Growing up in a very musical family helped this along, too.

Primus, Frizzle Fry. My bandmate gave me a dubbed copy of Sailing the Seas of Cheese, but for me Frizzle Fry was the album that really took hold.

Soundgarden, Badmotorfinger. Again, I was a teen in the 90s, so of course I got into this. Looking at my nine albums now, this could have been Alice in Chains Dirt.

Converge, You Fail Me. Sweaty and loud, deep and dark. Love this one.

Beastie Boys, Check Your Head. Such an influential album for a young kid with a bass and playing in scrappy bands.

Faith No More, Angel Dust. I remember listening to this album for the first time when it came out and never knowing what the next song was going to sound like.

Via My9albums.