The Great Indoors, or, I Have a Vision - Televsion

I've been running in the gym a lot for the past couple of weeks so I could kill two birds with one stone, work out while keeping up on the news in Egypt and the rest of the Middle East, but sometimes my plans don't work out - some days, rather than having CNN on the televisions, well, let's just say that I end up watching more Oprah than any fully employed straight man should be admitting to (did you know that Susan Lucci has been playing her role as Erica Kane on All My Children for over 40 years?  well, I do now).

But besides affording me an opportunity to keep up with current events and cultural milestones, running indoors lets me work on my running form.  I can dial in the speed, time and incline on the treadmill and see how my form changes:  that's how I first started working on a midfoot-strike stride, falling forward for hill-climbs (unfortunately, the treadmills at the gym don't have a descent angle function), where I experimented with sock-wearing with my current pair of shoes - it's kinda like a running lab.

And besides, Oprah's on!

Hats Off To You, Susan Lucci
3.24 mi.  30 min.  9:15 pace.

Emergency Mediatheque

If you've known me for a while, you may recall that I have writerly notions - after all, I chose to major in English because of John Keats, who was a physician (and died of tuberculosis;  I'd like the lasting influence on literature, the coughing up of blood, not so much).  Well, actually, rather than solely publications, I guess my ambitions are a little more generally media-related, since I'd like to be the Sanjay Gupta of NPR, given that I have a face for radio and all.

I feel a bit sorry for other niched authorial classes;  for example, I pity Anthony Bourdain, who, as we know, is the Tae Kim of food writers.  Anyway, I continue to expand my little empire of orphaned, vaguely emergency medicine, or writing, or running, related blogs, and while running today (my, how the mind wanders!) I came up with some more ideas:

The Reluctant Hipster (okay, so this one has nothing to do with emergency medicine, running, or writing, but I liked the ring of it)

Writers Who Work Their Jobby-Jobs Because They Choose To (yeah, not really)

Emergelicious (...)

Hill Associated With Track
4.95 mi.  41 min.:36 sec.  8:24 pace.

The World Looks Different On Foot

So on my evening run I'm going through the cross-walk, and at the intersection, just starting to go in the opposite direction, I see a red Porsche 911 convertible with the top down;  at the wheel is a man wearing an Evel Knievel-style Stars-and-Stripes helmet, aviator shades, and in the back is his young daughter, maybe 8 or so, with a frilly frilled helmet on as well, both skinny little arms raised above her head, feeling the air, both of them with giant grins on their faces.

I shoulda yelled, "hooray, the economy is back!"

Counterclockwise Run
6.51 mi.  53 min.:4 sec.  8:09 pace.

2B2B

Well, friends and neighbors, it's been a while, but I'm afraid my job, meaning my jobby-job, meaning my day-job (meaning my night, weekend, holiday-job) has kept me 2B2B - Too Busy To Blog.

Well?  Whaddaya think?  "2B2B" - think it'll catch on?

Here's a photo from a nice run I took this past fall... when I had time for nice runs...

Oops!  Just kidding, that's just a really, really cute picture of rhinoceroses my wife stole from some website.  Cute!!

Here's the real pic I took:

This I Believe... Um, That I Believe...

So my e-mail signature line keeps growing, and it's kinda pointless;  my real hope is that someday I'll just be able to sign my name, Tae, and people will just know who I am, like Seal, or Moses.

Anyway, in a recent interview with GQ Ryan Gosling (he was in The Notebook, although he's been in better movies like Half Nelson, Lars and the Real Girl, and Blue Valentine) notes that he and his mother have always been believers, that is, that they've always had a sense of the transcendent.  He then proceeds to take the reporter to not just one, but two magic shows in Los Angeles, and also mentions that one of his favorite places in Southern California is Disneyland.  I guess I, too, have always been a believer, only minus the weird 12-year-old's fondness for magic and the Mouse that I grew out of when I discovered alcohol.

Being a believer means that what-ifs are some of the most appealing kinds of musings;  recently, it's been what if I can run so far... because if I can run 3 miles, I can run 5... if I can run 5, I can run 8... if I can run 8, I can run 12... if I can run 12, I can run 20... and that may be the same kind of slippery logical slope that results in teen pregnancy, but at least with running I'll be losing weight.

I wonder if I can run 50 miles... without chafing... I believe in Bodyglide...

Craig Park Wasn't at the Reunion, But It's Still a Friend
5.69 mi.  44 min.:34 sec.  7:49 pace.

The Last Time I Murdered?

Easy - yesterday, on the way to work.

It began when on the way to work I passed a slower car, which then promptly sped up, passed me and then pumped the brakes.  You can see where this story is going:  things devolved pretty quickly, with me yelling Oedipal epithets and flipping the double-bird (not to worry, I was steering with both elbows safely on the wheel).  The lowest point was when the other car shot past me on the shoulder of a freeway interchange ramp because I refused to speed up or slow down past a semi, and at that point I reached for the revolver I keep in the glovebox began shooting.

No - actually, I took the high-powered assault rifle I keep in the passage and riddled his car with bullets through my own closed passenger window, deafening myself in the process.

No - actually, I followed him off the road and into a Safeway parking lot where I angrily confronted him, struggled over a knife which I wrested from his grasp and then stabbed him repeatedly.

The point being that murder starts in the heart.  And the real story is that at the point that he decided to pass on the shoulder of a ramp while driving at highway speeds, I finally came to my senses, dropped back and followed him from a safe distance until he took an exit - letting go of hatred also starts in the heart.  The ability to let go of your anger, dissipate your anxieties, think clearly, all of that is a matter of grace, doing things with ease and positivity.  Not being dispassionate, but not allowing those passions master you.  And this being a blog about running means that I have to contrive some application, but I'm serious! running well is running gracefully.  One may protest that this way of being smacks of passivity, but that ignores the overarching fact that one is running after an objective - you can be in the process of hunting something down, but it's all about the style with which you reach that goal.

There is a piece of videotape out in the world that, if ever it was found, would scuttle any chance I had to run for the U.S. Senate;  it is footage of me running in high school.  Like Al Bundy, I played high school football (unlike Al Bundy, I consider selling ladies' shoes a passion rather than an occupation), and in one of the two seasons during which I played, the coaches took slow-motion films of us running so we could analyze our form.  It was quite a thing to see:  I'm wearing white cleats, maroon short-shorts, and a grey cotton mid-riff t-shirt (for such a purportedly masculine sport, they sure made us dress like nancy boys - ah, the 80s), all shot in dramatic slow-mo like Jaime Sommers-style, and I remember being quietly astonished at how graceful my usually oafish teenaged-self looked, how easy my running style was, how fluid one could look even if it was just a matter of falling forward and catching yourself first on one foot, then the other, lather, rinse, repeat, the very picture of surrendered ease.

I need to learn to drive like I run.

Suburban Housing Track (and Trail)
5.27 mi.  41 min.:38 sec.  7:54 pace.

It's Been a Funky Week, and Not in a Good Way

So, here're just the running stats for today:

A Quick Jog with Church Friends Around the Newport Back Bay.  And UCI.
16.44 mi.  2 hr:43 min:48 sec.  9:57 pace.
Just 10 more miles to go!