Don’t think of RUNNING HARD as an “all the time” activity – just don’t let sometimes become never. I’ve been taking it REAL easy with running. Staying WAY too comfortable. So once a week usually I plan out a hard run. Force myself into the paces I know I’m capable of, just to feel it again.
And that junk food thing – oooph. I’d have a bag of cookies in the house, to help make working on the computer all day better. But it never helps, of course. Sure, for a few seconds it’s nice, but in the long run I eat a bag of cookies in two days and feel like shit.
The start of the run was a slog, it was cold, windy, and raining just a bit, too. But then I found a trail I never checked out before, and the next mile was between giant trees on fluffy pine needles, and then a bit of raised walkway over a bog.
Many runs lately have felt hard, so I walk a bit, get the heart rate down, and get back to it. A slow run just means more time outdoors.
Afterwards I stopped at Target, and I thought my car looked tiny compared to the truck parked in the nearby space. I don’t want to know how much it cost to fill up the gas tank on that thing.
If I know anything, it’s the intro to ‘Outshined’ by Soundgarden.
I was out running errands recently, and was in the mood for some 90s grunge, and of course went back to ‘Badmotorfinger.’ I asked Siri to play ‘Outshined’ via my Apple Music subscription, and for some reason it played the studio outtake version from the Super Deluxe Edition that came out whenever.
Fuck that.
That got me to dig into an external hard drive and look up the album of my ripped music, and there it was – an MP3 rip of the album I owned in the 90s, and that was the version I needed to hear.
That got me thinking – maybe I should get back to getting my old, ripped MP3s out and listening to music that way. I downloaded Swinsian and kicked the tires a bit.
That was fun for about 20 minutes, but then tracks were missing. Albums were split up because of different words being capitalized. Art work was gone.
Then I remembered what I love doing around 4 or 5pm – not being on my computer.
I’m on my computer most of the day everyday for work, and I don’t want to spend more time in the evening fixing fucking album spellings or artwork mismatches.
That got me looking at CD players again, and I found this amazing beauty; the Yamaha MCR-040, though I’ve seen it named the CRX-040, too.
It’s from 2010 or so, and I love it, and I need to get one, I think.
I’ve been feeling like I need to own more physical media, and I don’t really want to do vinyl, so I think re-building my CD collection is what I need to do.
I love anything plain text, so I totally love Plain Text Sports. God, I wish more sites looked like this. Not just for the nostalgia, but for the speed, the ease to read, no tracking or video ads. (via Daring Fireball)
To think that Lauren Jensen played for Iowa the previous year, transferred to Creighton, then hit the eventual game winning three pointer to beat her former team IN IOWA.
NO WAY!! Lauren Jensen hits the GO AHEAD 3 with 12.6 seconds left for 10 Creighton to take the lead over 2 Iowa 63-62 LATE. Super close to their first Sweet 16 in Program history pic.twitter.com/36mTsMp1sf
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Pain (@NCAABuzzerBters) March 20, 2022
It’s their first ever trip to the Sweet 16, too. Wow.
I was hungry, didn’t bring any water, and it was one of the warmest days of the year so far. Did my best to be present, appreciate the sounds and scenery, and head out 2.25 miles on the D&L Trail in South Bethlehem.
I ran into two young kids who were taking photos with their polaroid. When I came back I asked how the photo turned out, and it was blown out – you could only see my shorts! So they took another shot, and said I looked like I could be on the cover of Vouge. I did the whole Madonna “strike a pose” thing, which may have been lost on them given their age, but it was still a good time.
My friend is out west, and posted some amazing pics from the desert. The Grand Canyon. She desribed this adventyre as a holy errand, and that’s the first time I ever heard those two words together.
Holy errand.
I was out on my run tonight, on an old route. It’s always easy to to gauge the “success” of the run by the pace, the speed, the heart rate. Can I run to that tree without stopping? To the top of the hill?
Tonight was a holy errand. I heard crickets for the first time this year. Saw this amazing sky.
Pace? Distance? Eh. I was able to get to the top of some hills. Maybe not as fast as I would like, but I made it. And tomorrow I’ll do it again.
Sometimes something comes unblocked, and you just have to be intentionally grateful. This has happened to me over the years from being broke as fuck, to finally today earning a decent living.
Like, “not having a bank account,” broke. Grateful for a friend to PayPal me $20 so I can get food sort of broke. Tough times!
But then I financed a car in 2018 all on my own, without a co-signer. A 2015 Chevy Sonic. It’s paid off now, too. The first song I played in the car was ‘Outro’ by Vulfpek (above).
The weather is amazing now, and I went for a long drive to nowhere in particualr. Just needed to get out, working from home and all. Windows down, sun setting, listening to Kowloon Walled City.
Looking forward to some more adventures this year.
