Month: April 2020

Streaks

This month I’ve run every day, 11 days, four miles each day.

I’ve been following my pal Ed on Instagram, and he’s been running for 50 days straight, usually 10+ miles a day.

He’s doing it fast, sure, but it’s the heart that impresses me. He’ll repost some Instagram Stories from friends who’ve started to run, inspired by his journey.

He’s had to put his own oxygen mask on first (his wife passed away last June), before he could ever think of helping anyone else. The byproduct of “just” taking care of himself has put so much good out in the world, and dammit, at the end of that day that’s what so much of this is about.

The Wind Won’t Win

The wind knocked the power out, at least for a little bit. Long enough to wait for everything to reboot, and make some more coffee.

Chose to continue my Four Miles Every Day in April streak in downtown Hamburg (Strava link), figuring the buildings might give me some shelter but the wind didn’t care. It was fierce, around 20mph according my app. The sort of gusts that suck the air from your lungs and push you backwards.

Headwinds used to upset me. Literally, I’d get mad at the wind, the conditions. I’d let it turn me sour, and ruin the moment. That really goes back to my bike riding days, but in recent years, I just accept it.

Being mad at the wind won’t stop the wind. Being upset at the current situation doesn’t change anything. As Seth Godin recently wrote, “We can’t change how things are in any given moment, but we can change how we will approach today.”

My approach to running lately has been embracing the suck, because it can literally change from one mile to the next. The first mile, the second mile… pure suck. But usually, for me, that third mile, then the fifth, the eighth, that’s when thing feel good.

So right now, in the midst of a global pandemic, and a thousand things going wrong with every passing hour, death, sorrow, and pain, well, yelling at the wind ain’t gonna help, so better to just move forward as best we can.

Abelton Live is Now 30% Off

Abelton Live 10 is 30% off until May, and…

The Live 10 trial period has been temporarily increased to 90 days, giving you more time to play with all the features of Ableton Live Suite. Active trials will automatically be extended. And anyone who has used the trial before can now use it again.

I’ve been playing with Abelton Live since December 2017 or so. It’s a challenge getting away from the GarageBand way of recording, but it’s been rewarding. Started off with the trial version (version nine!), and upgraded to Lite, which was about $80. I’m not recording an album or anything, but it’s been fun to mess around and make some music again.

Check it out.

Looking For Normal

Trying my best to “archive” some of the stuff I share on Instagram here, on my blog, the thing that won’t go away, or get buried in a stream of other posts. When you’re here, you’re here, on a blog.

I met Mike way back in the mid 2000s or so, when I moved to NYC. Kind, gentle soul. I have no idea about the art stuff he does, but when I’ve visited his studio he would always encourage me to dive in and cut up magazines and make collages, too. I love that about him.

And the point, too, as mentioned above, is “normal” is gone now, and who the heck knows when it comes back. I don’t even think it’ll look the same. For now, anyways, I do my best to not think that far out.

Marc Rebillet is a new Fave

One of the best things about keeping a blog is coming back to shit you wrote five years ago, or five days ago. Reading posts from a few weeks ago, at the start of the Corona virus outbreak, has already been eye opening, so I want to keep this going, and that of course needs to include music and videos like this. Each is a capsule into my mindset and vibe from that moment.

A few months ago I saw a weird video of a guy in a hotel room yelling about fashion (below), and didn’t think much of it.

Then my friend Natalie posted a video or two on Instagram and then it was like, woah, okay, I get it now. This one (below) really hit home with me, and I’ve since started streaming his super long live-streams and getting stoked not just on his humor, but his good vibes and out of this world musical skills.

It’s spontaneous, and energetic, and you know what? Sometimes some of his stuff doesn’t work for me, but that’s 1000% okay because Marc Ribellet is a new favorite of mine in 2020.

Cut the Noise

I needed to read this, maybe you need it, too. From ‘Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure.’

Ignore everyone who is posting productivity porn on social media right now. It is OK that you keep waking up at 3 a.m. It is OK that you forgot to eat lunch and cannot do a Zoom yoga class. It is OK that you have not touched that revise-and-resubmit in three weeks.
Ignore the people who are posting that they are writing papers and the people who are complaining that they cannot write papers. They are on their own journey. Cut out the noise.

Aisha S. Ahmad

I’ve had my productive, break through days and moments of anxiety and fear. I’ve done a few “see 10, do 10” push up challenges, and a five days of 5K runs, too, but I haven’t learned how to play the piano.

The lull of the holidays is one thing, but we’re in the middle of a global crisis. Over 100,000 Americans might die. It’s totally fucking okay to not have all your shit together.

(via Kottke)

Setting the Tone

Since I started running in 2016, I learned that the first mile sucks. It just takes awhile for the muscles to loosen, the heart to get pumping, and mentally you have to power through it all.

This week started pretty bad, though looking back there wasn’t one external force that made it that way. A combination of many things add up and whammo, you’re having a bad day.

But it’s not a bad day, it’s a bad moment. I’m not saying we don’t get bad days, to just “toughen up” and carry on. But I mean some crappy moments don’t have to always write the full story of the rest of your day.

I wasn’t feeling in the mood for a run this morning, or in the afternoon, and figured, eh, I’ll get it tomorrow. But then… I felt like it. Or rather, things were in order mentally and emotionally and physically to just, what the hell? Let’s go for a run.

And that first mile sucked. Headwind, felt stiff, shoulda wore gloves. But by mile four, and a few hundred feet of climbing, I was feeling great.

In summary, bad mornings don’t have to become bad days, and a bad Monday doesn’t need to dictate an entire week.