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.

ANOTHER 80 MILE WEEK

About 82 miles this week, maybe 15 of that ran. About 25.5 hours of movement on sidewalks, in the woods, across parking lots, in the streets. A daily average over 11.5 miles. Just over 3.5 hours per day on my feet instead of on my computer, or scrolling through something on my phone.

Had some ankle pain earlier in the week, but thankfully that’s gone away. I think it came from some quicker downhill trail running, so I’m gonna ease off that a bit, as I want to make sure I can continue this streak, as I’m at 132 days right now, which brings me to 1,516 miles.

Every day, since May 26, 2026. Five days after my 50th birthday.

WAVE FARM RADIO

Someone sent me a link to Wave Farm, “a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves.”

You can listen to an assortment of radio “stations” that are placed around their farm, and powered by the sun, so they actually go offline when it gets dark. Right now I’m listening to “Test Site of Acoustic Commons,” which is “a listening point on the edge of woodland at Wave Farm, linked to an online network of open microphones.”

(link via Monica)

WITHERING AWAY

As I approach 130 days of walking at least 10 miles per day (yikes), I’ve noticed the decay all around. Mostly wooden decks. The type of decks built onto houses. I notice them, and they’re beat up, falling apart, faded.

And I think about when they were built, and how enthused the families must have been. The outdoor meals they’d have, the friends they’d host.

I think about this too with the basketball hoops in the drive ways. The ones that are rusting away, the nets falling apart from multiple years of storms and snow. These basketball hoops were once the best thing ever for the kids. Put together by the parents, who then watched from the kitchen window the local kids come by to shoot hoops.

Cars, too. Trucks. Broken down, sitting next to the garage with grass growing under the fenders, rust on the roof, windows glazed over. At one point that vehicle was someone’s pride and joy. Someone saved up, or got a car loan, and they were so stoked to have that car.

Lots of walking, lots of thinking. The stuff we loved and looked forward to withers away as the years go on.

HOW TO SPEND THREE HOURS A DAY

Doing anything for three hours everyday sounds insane, sure. I’ve been walking 3+ hours a day now for like 120+ days, and well… it sounds a bit much, but I love it.

Now, “about half of Americans say they spend too much time on their smartphone.”

It’s normal to spend 3+ hours a day on the phone, right? It’s just – haha – the way it is!

Somehow devoting 3+ hours a day to your own thing is too much, but selling our attention to our phones, our data plans, and the businesses that monetize our attention is just a fact of life now.

Apps that limit my screen time, or the physical things like Bricks, or dumb phones… that just don’t work for me. Thankfully I’ve found this fun nerdy thing of walking 10+ miles per day every day and seeing where it takes me.

MUSIC IS PHYISCAL

From DJ and Producer Ivan Berko over at thought enthusiast:

“I buy records every day. Lately, I buy a lot of CDs, too, because there are a lot of things that only came out on CD in the 2000s. They’re super cheap, too. You can get a stack of CDs for a dollar apiece, rip them to the computer, put them on a USB, and walk around listening to them.”

I just posted some of the ways I find new music with a little less big tech, so this piece is a fun read, especially as some of us get back to the analog ways of listening to music again.

So much of the music that shaped our early lives in pre-internet times was based on touch, and feel, and location. Think music rooms, or large stereos, where you could only listen via headphones because the cord didn’t reach very far!

Then there’s the physical act of changing CDs, flipping a record or cassette. The physical is so much a part of the music, and I think a lot of us are starting to feel that bubble up again.