Windy and Warm Evening

Another crack at the Gay-Magnolia-Donahue-Lem Morrison-Samford-Gay route. I went out after the girls' bedtime, and after a good sized (i.e. not small) dinner featuring some tasty, delicious sausage. I was worried it would sit like a stone in my gut. I did feel a little sluggish in parts, and felt like I'd slowed down quite a bit on the way home, but I didn't need to stop. It was windy and warm out, my favorite kind of weather really, almost 70 F out there.

Playlist
New Amsterdam	Elvis Costello
Honky Tonk Women	Rolling Stones
Who Loves the Sun	Velvet Underground
Genius of Love	Tom Tom Club
Cities	Talking Heads
Solidify	Sheryl Crow
Smile	Lily Allen
Driving South	Jimi Hendrix Experience
Rock and Roll	Led Zeppelin
Gardening At Night	REM
Bring It On	Gomez
Search and Destroy	Iggy and the Stooges
Electric Avenue	Eddy Grant
Opera Singer	CAKE
Paranoid	Black Sabbath
Beercan	Beck
Sweet Emotion	Aerosmith

Distance 7.0 miles

Cumulative 31.7 miles. The rest should be doable.

Time 1:03:58

Pace 9:08 min/mile

Finishing January

Last run of the month, and it felt pretty good. Up to Samford and back, just as dusk was settling into evening. It was warm enough to go without spandex, and comfortable in a long sleeve t-shirt. Cool, but not cold; almost perfect weather for a run.

On Saturday I went for a paddle on Hatchett Creek up in Coosa County with some friends. It was a pleasant enough day, but the river was rather rough, and I'm sorry I took my daughters with me. It was more of an adventure than any of us had bargained for, and it left me quite beat up. Fortunately I had my Five Fingers on, which kept my feet from getting cut to ribbons, though my knee felt pretty banged up. I'm OK now, though, and the run this evening felt good.

Playlist
Watermelon Man	Herbie Hancock
Change Clothes	Jay-Z
Show Some Emotion	Joan Armatradding
What Is And What Should Never Be	Led Zeppelin
Walk On The Wild Side	Lou Reed
Up On The Sun	Meat Puppets
Radio Free Europe	REM
Round And Round	Ratt

Times
L1	12:14
L2	6:03
L3	5:48
L4	10:26
L5	0:42
Total	35:13

Distance 4.0 miles

Cumulative distance 40.5 miles

Balmy run to Toomer's

I decided I'm not going to run the Callaway Gardens Half Marathon, even though I think I could do back to back Halfs. Pride precedes a fall, so they say. I did have a big fat blister on my right foot, which I opted to reduce right away, rather than wait for it, which I what I learned in the Boy Scouts. Tonight it was balmy after a big rain, about 63 F, and I opted to run up to Toomer's and back. Felt good most of the time. The Map My Route app was being wonky, so I didn't use it tonight.

Playlist
The Goose	Parliament
Big Time	Peter Gabriel
Orange	Meat Puppets
(I Love It When You) Call Me Names	Joan Armatradding
Slavedriver	Jenny & Johnny
Jump In The Line	Harry Belafonte
Bring It On	Gomez
Atomic Dog	George Clinton
Black Hole Sun	Soundgarden
Cantique	Kanda Bongo Man
Dadje Von O Von Non	Gnonnas Pedro & Ses Dadjes

Times
L1	12:06
L2	6:04
L3	5:51
L4	11:11
L5	3:15
L6	10:48
L7	0:49
Total	50:05

Distance 5.6 miles

Cumulative distance 36.5 miles

Let It Bleed

I've once again let the month get a little older than I wanted before hitting the pavement again. I did get out this evening, after a very rainy windy Labor Day, complete with tornado warnings, wind advisories, etc. But it was nice and cool and breezy and only a little damp out as I headed up Gay St. to Thach, over to Armstrong, and back down Wright's Mill. I haven't been on this route in a while, and I was a little disappointed that it didn't quite make 5 miles. So I'm off to my start for the month, and a little behind. But as they say in Mexico, "Hay tiempo".

Playlist (Let it Bleed, the Rolling Stones)

Gimme Shelter

Love In Vain

Country Honk

Live With Me

Let It Bleed

Midnight Rambler

You Got the Silver

Monkey Man

You Can't Always Get What You Want

Times

L1 12:49

L2 6:15

L3 7:44

L4 15:51

L5 0:52

Total 43:31

Distance 4.8 miles

Cumulative 4.8 miles

Another month's quota accomplished.Thank you, Major Tom

With one day to spare, I hit my target today, ending up at 39.2 miles. I waited til after the girls had drifted off to sleep, and the Sox game was over (alas, a loss to the dreaded Yankees), for my departure. I went up to the corner of Samford and Gay, passing my wife and her friends closing down Amsterdam Cafe.

I told my Dad about my cunning plan to run 3 half-marathons between my birthdays, and he told me my monthly mileages were too low. I still have almost two months until Athens (GA), so I think I still have time to work up to it. He said he's not in any condition to run it, but he'd be glad to come watch me. That's HIS birthday weekend, so I'm really touched that he'd do that for me.

Playlist, all David Bowie
Space Oddity -from "Space Oddity
Queen B*tch -from "Hunky Dory"
The Man Who Sold The World -from "The Man Who Sold The World"
Moonage Daydream -from "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"
Diamond Dogs -from "Diamond Dogs"
The Jean Genie -from "Changesonebowie"
Ashes to Ashes -from "Changesonebowie"
Oh! You Pretty Things -from "Hunky Dory"
Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed -from "Space Oddity"

Times
L1 12:25
L2 6:09
L3 5:51
L4 11:13
L5 0:46
Total 36:24
Not bad for me, almost back under 9:00/mile.

Distance 4.0 miles
Cumulative 39.2 miles. Whew!

Night moves

No, I'm not suddenly down with Bob Seger. I just went on another nighttime run; a variation on the GWCToomer's route, tacking on enough to make it just over 6 miles. I turned on Samford and went up Armstrong, which I haven't done in a long while, and at the end I went around the block a bit to add the last 0.37. It's just warm enough out there, hopefully Fall will be upon us soon.

Playlist -Grungey
Les Yper-Sound -Stereolab
Breed -Nirvana
Devil's Haircut -Beck
On A Plain -Nirvana
Nothing -Meat Puppets
Scum -Meat Puppets
Use Somebody -Kings of Leon
Blanket of Weeds -Meat Puppets
The Sky Is Fallin' -Queens of the Stone Age
Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts -Funkadelic
Superunknown -Soundgarden
Flaming Heart -Meat Puppets

Times
L1 13:00
L2 6:26
L3 7:20
L4 6:18
L5 6:45
L6 3:33
L7 12:15
L8 1:50
L9 0:59
Total 58:27

Distance 6.0 miles
Cumulative 31.1 miles. Getting close again.

Postscript: I think blogger is running some kind of cuckoo clock, it's actually 11pm, not 8:47

Cooler

More nighttime running. The temperature dropped a good bit today. I ran Gay/Samford/College/Woodfield/home with a little extra bit at the end. I ate a pretty large dinner, with beer and potato chips and cake, which is a thing I do on most Mondays. I then came home and took a short rest, which I often do. When I got I, I thought I'd hit the road, because I was feeling like it, but once I got out, all that crappy food caught up with me. I didn't feel awful, but I wasn't going fast and I didn't feel great until towards the end when I felt a bit better. At least I felt better enough to tack a bit on. I listened to one of my new CDs from Amoeba, a collection of African psychedelia put together by David Byrne (of Talking Heads fame) on his Luaka Bop label. Most of it doesn't sound too psychedelic to me, rather more there are a lot of other influences evident as well.

Playlist -Love's a Real Thing (World Psychedelic Classics 3-Africa)
Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome -Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey
Love's a Real Thing -Super Eagles
Keleya -Moussa Doumbia
Ceddo End Title -Manu Dibango
Porra -Sorry Bamba
Guajira Van -No. 1 de No. 1
Better Change Your Mind -William Onyeabor
Allah Wakbarr -Ofo & The Black Company
Awon-Ojise-Oluwa -Gaspar Lawal

Times
L1 13:23
L2 6:28
L3 7:47
L4 3:32
L5 11:14
L6 3:05
L7 0:55
Total 46:24

Distance 4.9 miles
Cumulative 19.4 miles. *Almost* half way there.

Back in Sweat Home Alabama

And I do mean sweat. It's been muggy and hot, though not as hot as a lot of other places in the southeast where it's been totally unbearable. I've been off partly because of sloth and fear of melting into a puddle of saline ooze, and partly because of work and no childcare and temporary single-parenting and baseball addiction.

However, tonight is the last night of summer vacation for my girls, and I felt I was overdue for a run, which I am now, so I doffed my shirt and hit the road after the last out of the Red Sox-Twins, which coupled with the Yankees loss means happy good news for me, though a late start for a long run.

I ran to Toomer's, which was pretty quiet this time of night on a Tuesday between semesters, so now I'm pretty well back on track for the time being, except I don't think I should do all of it in large chunks like that (large for me, 5+ miles).

Playlist
Dirty Water -the Standells
Honky Tonk Women -the Rolling Stones
I Lost It -Lucinda Williams
Big Time -Peter Gabriel
I Zimbra -Talking Heads
Bust a Move -Young MC
Caught Up In You -.38 Special
Black Country Rock -David Bowie
Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key -Billy Bragg and Wilco
Party in the USA -Miley Cyrus
Search and Destroy -Iggy Pop
Ruby -Kaiser Chiefs
Emperor Tomato Ketchup -Stereolab
Wow and Flutter -Stereolab

Times
L1 12:29
L2 6:18
L3 5:58
L4 4:57
L5 6:39
L6 3:32
L7 11:29
L8 0:54
Total 52:15

Distance 5.6 miles
Cumulative 11.0 miles

Classic Rock

A little bit further still this evening. Up to Samford, over to College, and back via Woodfield and Gay.

Playlist -all "classic rock"
Sweet Emotion -Aerosmith
L.A. Woman -the Doors
Pump it Up -Elvis Costello
I Love It Loud -KISS
Rock & Rock -Lou Reed and Velvet Underground
Crazy Train -Ozzy Osbourne
You're My Best Friend -Queen
Street Fighting Man -Rolling Stones
Oye Como Va -Santana
Bang a Gong (Get It On) -T. Rex

Times
L1 13:25
L2 6:19
L3 7:32
L4 3:34
L5 11:39
L6 0:53
Total 43:21

Distance 4.6 miles
Cumulative distance 14.0

Night time is the right time

First time out at night with the flashlight and no sunglasses. It was a bit muggy but nice out. I got a good pace going and kept it up. I was with the girls all day and stayed up to watch the Tim Wakefield and the Sox beat the Tribe, 3-2. Of course the top baseball story of the day was RHP Steve Strasburg, who lived up to the hype leading up to his first MLB start. 14 strikeouts!

I ran the GWCToomer's route, cutting over to Armstrong to add 0.2 miles. The new shoes are starting to feel good, and the night time does seem to be the right time, at least in the summer months.

Playlist
Dirty Water -the Standells
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) -AC/DC
Hang On St. Christopher -Tom Waits
Alabama Song -the Doors
What Is Life -George Harrison
Fire -Jimi Hendrix
Safe European Home -the Clash
Little Sister -Queens of the Stone Age
Pearl's Cafe -the Specials
The New Pollution -Beck
Standing on the Verge of Getting It On -Funkadelic
The Next Episode -Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg
Doin' It -Professor Longhair
When Doves Cry -Prince
Oye Como Va -Santana
Times
L1 13:07
L2 3:27
L3 11:57
L4 7:12
L5 6:04
L6 11:14
L7 0:48
Total 53:49

Distance 5.8 miles
Cumulative distance 26.2 (!)