If this is life.... we're already dead

Reflecting back on a year ago ... must be the weather, the light and the lack thereof. Winter slammed the door on the sun, must be the changing of day light savings time. I think it happened later this year. Don't really pay attention to that anymore, the time just changed on its own. Time has a way of doing that ... whether you pay attention or not, it changes.

The last few months flew by. Was buried deep in projects, and probably spent too much time underneath their shadows. Was thinking today about New Years. Not so much about Jan 1, but the silly resolutions that everyone saves until that day... And once they slip up on those resolutions, they have nearly a full year before they have to subject themselves to change again.

I remember writing on here that I needed to take more photos. I remember writing that I needed to blog more. I remember writing that I need to podcast more. I remember writing.... I miss writing.

Remembering back a year, and it doesn't seem like a year ago. A lot has changed, and so many of those changes have been amazing. Always learning, always pushing the limits....

But there aren't 30 hours in a day. Need to step back from pushing so hard sometimes. Need to capture the moments as they pass, because they'll pass whether you're watching or not.

So here's take 2 on those resolutions. Here's to a happy new year...

Rock.me Amadeus!!

Its been awhile since i posted any fresh sounds... and this post is more of a call to the future. Mark your calendars for September 18th (yes, that is tomorrow)... and get ready to rock.

Rockme.dium is a five-day online music festival bringing together five kick-ass rock bands and their fans to meet and interact in a unique online social setting. RockMe. will be the first-ever Online Mosh Pit! They've got some bad-ass bands lined up, including:

The Fiery Furnaces
Jeffery Lewis Band
Gosling
the willowz

My friend Corey is helping throw this thing together, and everything she does is totally badass. So make sure to check it out.

RockME.dium

RAWK

Not quite wings, but good enough for me

Quick post - only because in light of the recent struggles on the road, i want to document this. this is partially a sweatblog after all.

Saturday night was hot. not oven hot, more like sauna hot. dripping hot. hazy hot. can't quite get a full breath of air hot. And i knocked down 10 miles. First four were on pace, not quite race pace, but i think i mentioned, it was beyond-race-pace hot. Found my dad out on his 12 miler as we circled the moonlit point at RMC, so I logged 4 slower miles with him to pace him home, and then shot out to try to hit two on race pace to finish the night. came close, 7:49 and 8:05.... good enough for me.

Sunday night was a better temp. Went out earlier than usual, because I had ideas of running to the trails. From the height of the setting sun, I realized I had no chance of knocking down the 5 miles to get TO the trails, with enough remaining light to get me through one loop of the forest, let alone to guide me on the 5 miles of busy road to get home. So I went as far west as I could, before doubling back east, along the water front the whole way... looped the point, up a gnarly rock cut, and then slogged home. I have this weird habit now, of not finishing my run at home. The last miles home always seem to be the worst, so I subconsciously try to trick my brain into feeling like the run is finishing sooner than it should, by adding enough miles to finish up somewhere else. End result, a 20 miler, completed in about 2:54.

Legs today feel really good.

I hadn't really told anyone, that this weekend was really a test to see if I would be ready to run the marathon in Oct. We'll see how I feel tonight on a 3 mile recovery - but for now, I passed the test. Still on target for Oct 14; my return to PEC.

Update from summer

So it has been awhile since I posted here. Been working a lot, and I've really found that Twitter is an easier vehicle for blogging when I don't feel like sitting down and hammering out a post.

So what has happened since last post... way back in June.

Barry Bonds hit 755, 756, 757, 758, 759, 760, and now 761. I was surprised and disappointed by my lack of reaction to it. I could've blogged about it, gone on a long-winded rant full of twisted analogies and pastoral allusions - but I didn't really feel like it. I didn't feel like anything. I didn't care. I wanted to care, hoped I would be enraged and disgusted, hoped that fans would boo at the top of their lungs - but instead - Barry Bonds passed number formerly known as the greatest record in all of sports passed eachother like two ships in the night. If a home run record falls, and all credibility is long-gone, does it make a sound? the answer was no.

The Tour de France was full of dopers. Still engaging and super-human levels of effort, endurance and motivation bordering on psychosis... but, again, in the context of Bonds, McGwire, Vick, and Donneghy - the flavour is gone. Someone asked me how I would feel if they were all doping and I didn't know it. Would I rather have a sport that was clean and less "exciting", or one that was exciting, but secretly dirty. My first (and most people's) first reaction is the former. We want our athletes to be clean and pedestrian. We want to sense that maybe, in some odd twist, we could be competing as well. We want to feel sameness. But looking back, I have already watched the tour when everyone was doping, and I didn't know it. And it was exciting as hell. But now that Adam has eaten the Apple, and Vino has injected, that era of dirty innocence is lost. I'm not saying that I don't want to know, but part of me just doesn't want to know.

Training has been less than optimal. Heat and humidity, combined with allergies led to a brief bout of overtraining I think. I stopped halfway through one particularly torturous workout, took my 4 years worth of PHE to heart, and walked home. I locked my shoes in a closet for 5 days, to let my body figure itself out. And it did. Still dealing with some lingering hamstring tightness, but I have been getting my quality workouts done this week. The junk mileage isn't as high as it should be, but the long runs are there. Big test will be this weekend- 10 today and 19-20 tomorrow. Yikes.

On the music front, I have been rocking:

Better Than Ezra - How Does Your Garden Grow?
Matthew Good - Hospital Music
David Usher - Strange Birds

and some gnarly mash-ups, including Girl Talk and a slick new mix of Kanye and Biggie - Stronger vs Goin Back To Cali.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE

The only transformers theme that matters

Ghosts

Spent the night chasing ghosts. Silly ghosts that live in PHP... and would play nice with Firefox, but haunted the inhabitants of Internet Explorer'ville endlessly. Probably a good thing, because those inhabitants deserve to be haunted - forever, for all of the grief they have caused me.

But these ghosts needed to be eliminated. Initially, it seemed like a playful ghost, something that could be fixed with a few little changes - Slimer. A couple hours later, it felt like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow man.

Then, like Egon Spengler (i'm not gonna google it. i'm trusting my memory), Nan showed up with some good ideas. We crossed the streams, and hopped into Ecto-One.... and then it was fixed.

Take that ghost.

Its cold tonight. Like 10C cold. Just checked Dashboard. its 7C cold. Last weekend felt like August, now it feels like October. Seems like summer just disappeared. That fleeting feeling will come too soon - no need for it now. Reminded me again, to stop chasing ghosts, and spend more time lying in the grass. Ghosts are afraid of the grass, and the sun, and park benches under trees.

The weather and all of this talk of metaphysical ghosts makes me feel like reading Pirsig again. Maybe I will.

Bring on the weekend

This weekend is gonna be good. Not sure why yet. Beautiful weather and nothing planned.

Started this morning with the Beastie Boys vs Ratatat..... So smooth

Maybe I'll buy some furniture. Or write some PHP. Or do laundry.