It took about two weeks for my hip problem to fade enough to actually run with some amount of consistency, so the two weeks previous to this one were not great. On the order of 30 milesish not great. But here I am, now atop the monstrous mileage heights of 50 a week, and feeling good (or at least better).
I had a sneaking suspicion that given the kind of trouble I was having running workouts that I might have needed to throw the towel in entirely. I am supremely glad that this is not the case. I'm looking forward to a long winter of freezing warmups and 3k pace intervals with Mr. McCann hammering away with me.
Here's what went down this week.
Sun: off
Mon: 61 mins / 8.5 mi
Cleveland Res.
Tue: 56 mins / 7.75 mi
Cleveland Res.
Wed: 7 miles warmup & cooldown
10 x 400 70R mostly 69's and 70's, one 68
9.5 mi total
Reggie was kinda busy, but at least there weren't masters runners jogging 5 lanes wide.
Thu: 59 mins / 7.75 mi
Cleveland Res.
extremely cold, wish I had a beard still.
Fri: 6 miles warmup & cooldown
8 x 600 1:45R 1:45-1:46 the whole way with Steveo. Reggie was empty after the meet, which was MUY awesome.
Saturday: 8.5 mi / 61 mins
Went up to Cold Spring with Will, almost punted a small dog. We also discussed that our preferred family car is one of these.
total: 51 miles, 363 minutes
Hurk - Blah
Saturday, November 13, 2010
It hasn't been a great last two weeks in general. I think I have somehow managed to tweak my hip, hip flexor, and calf muscle in succession - so all three are irritating me in various ways throughout the day. Workouts that involve hills have been a little bit of a problem, and maybe recovering from the 10k is taking a while too. If I can get away with not working out at Heartbreak for the rest of the month until indoors, I think I should be fine. I am planning on hooking up with a chiro / sports massage guy just in case there's anything that they can tweak that will make my daily efforts a little easier. I'm also going to start driving (again) to the Res instead of running on the road to get there. My relationship with asphalt just really isn't working out.
Anyhoo, last two weeks.
Week starting Oct 31
Sun: 13 mi / 90 minutes with JeffPa at Battle Road. My oh my he is incompetent at catching leaves.
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
15 x 1 minute hill. Handed off the crown to Foote. Probably wasn't my most brilliant idea to run this workout since hills are what is killing my hip flexor.
11 total
Wed: 8.5 mi / 65 min sloooow to give my old man's joints a break.
Thur: 8.5 mi / 64 min still sloooow.
Fri: off - went out the door and ran for about 30 seconds and thought better of it. Didn't feel dandy.
Sat: 5.5 mi / 38 minutes not too bad overall.
45 miles / 336 minutes
Week starting Nov 7th
Sun: 5.75 mi warmup / cooldown
10k race at Franklin - New Englands - 33:48. Not too bad - went out a lot slower. While I was stuck beside a Jeff Bridges lookalike for a great deal of the opening of the race, the pace was a great deal steadier. If I'd been more patient at Mayor's Cup two weeks prior I probably would have had a better day there too. Also tooled on J. "Huge Biceps" Paterno. Suck it!
12 total
Mon: 8.5 mi / 65 min not as terrible as I'd expected, but still terrible.
Tue: 6.75 mi / 51 min also not good.
Wed: 4 mi warmup / cooldown (cut short cooldown because hip HURT)
Tempo - hill - tempo ...just didn't go well. My hip flexor started hurting during the hill portion (surprise!) and continued hurting on the way back.
9 total
Thu: Off
Fri: 6.5 mi / 48 minutes up and down Comm Ave.
Sat: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 by 3 minutes (2R), 3 by 2 minutes (2R), 4 by 1 minute (1R) at Lincoln
Opted for trainers rather than flats so I could hopefully let my calves recover. Not very good.
Anyhoo, last two weeks.
Week starting Oct 31
Sun: 13 mi / 90 minutes with JeffPa at Battle Road. My oh my he is incompetent at catching leaves.
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
15 x 1 minute hill. Handed off the crown to Foote. Probably wasn't my most brilliant idea to run this workout since hills are what is killing my hip flexor.
11 total
Wed: 8.5 mi / 65 min sloooow to give my old man's joints a break.
Thur: 8.5 mi / 64 min still sloooow.
Fri: off - went out the door and ran for about 30 seconds and thought better of it. Didn't feel dandy.
Sat: 5.5 mi / 38 minutes not too bad overall.
45 miles / 336 minutes
Week starting Nov 7th
Sun: 5.75 mi warmup / cooldown
10k race at Franklin - New Englands - 33:48. Not too bad - went out a lot slower. While I was stuck beside a Jeff Bridges lookalike for a great deal of the opening of the race, the pace was a great deal steadier. If I'd been more patient at Mayor's Cup two weeks prior I probably would have had a better day there too. Also tooled on J. "Huge Biceps" Paterno. Suck it!
12 total
Mon: 8.5 mi / 65 min not as terrible as I'd expected, but still terrible.
Tue: 6.75 mi / 51 min also not good.
Wed: 4 mi warmup / cooldown (cut short cooldown because hip HURT)
Tempo - hill - tempo ...just didn't go well. My hip flexor started hurting during the hill portion (surprise!) and continued hurting on the way back.
9 total
Thu: Off
Fri: 6.5 mi / 48 minutes up and down Comm Ave.
Sat: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 by 3 minutes (2R), 3 by 2 minutes (2R), 4 by 1 minute (1R) at Lincoln
Opted for trainers rather than flats so I could hopefully let my calves recover. Not very good.
More Books
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
I've been plowing through a veritable stack of literature lately. The summer and the fall seem to be prime reading time for me - when it gets to winter, with three practices a week and just barely dragging myself out of the house to run, I basically shut down for about 2 months like some sort of hairless and pale bear.
Here's what I've been devouring in the meantime.
Blackout, by Connie Willis
Connie Willis may be one of my favorite writers ever. I was introduced to her by a friend in high school, Matt - who I am sure right now (or maybe five hours ago was) is exuberantly clambering over some rocks in Arizona.
Blackout is another book set in a universe of hers where time travel is used ubiquitously by historians seeking accurate depictions of events. Blackout has several of them trapped in London during the Blitz, unable to return to their original time. It's a good book, but sadly only one part of two, the second of which is not out yet.
Chasm City, by Alistair Reynolds
Alistair Reynolds is an amazingly consistent hard sci-fi author, and I was actually re-reading this book. It's one of the best convoluted narratives I've ever read - there are three simultaneous storylines occurring at the same time which manage to converge in a way that I never expected when I initially read the book. I think it may have one of the best endings I've ever read. It would be hard to describe the exact plot, but it is more or less about a hired gun tracking down the man who killed his last employer and the woman he loved.
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
I suppose I read a lot of science fiction. I've read (and probably repeated quite a few times) that good science fiction stories exist independently of their fantastical setting, and that is usually what I look for in the books I read. The Forever War traces a foot soldier who survives (through special relativity) the opening battle of a war against an alien force through the entire centuries-long conflict. It's essentially a very well-written anti-war polemic - I do believe the author was a soldier during Vietnam.
I Curse the River of Time, by Per Petterson
I was pretty enthralled by the first book I read by Petterson - "Out Stealing Horses." He's a Norwegian author and he definitely writes in what I think of as a Scandinavian style - very full of descriptive imagery and slow portentous dialogue. This novel deals with the existential crisis of a middle-aged Norwegian whose mother has just been diagnosed with cancer - in 1989, during the fall of Communism. Petterson really has a way with interpersonal relationships, especially ones where there is just something inexplicably missing.
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein, while certainly one of the best science fiction authors to grace the genre, has a veritable stable of bizarre ideas. They include polygamy and the fact that incest is only wrong insofar as much as it can produce genetic freaks. This novel is part of his "Future History" series of stories, where the world as we know exists only through our own solipsism - and thus all our heroes and novels live out their lives somewhere in our universe. This story itself deals with a gentleman journalist and dandy who has the misfortune to have an unexpected guest die at his dinner table, and must flee both home and homeworld being hounded by forces he doesn't understand.
The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
I've been meaning to read this book for quite some time. There's an old magazine I have at home (InQuest, which is sadly now no longer being printed) that lists - above a picture of an angry Charlton Heston from The Ten Commandments - "100 Books Thou Shalt Read Before You Die!" It's actually a very good list. Cross one more off it.
The book itself is a weird mixture of humor and young-adult-ish style writing with more powerful concepts. I've always been attracted to the whole Arthurian mythos - and this book is more or less another take on the Arthur myth. It's just about as irreverent as the musical Camelot or "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court," but just like the others - the inevitable fall of Arthur's Round Table is just as heartbreaking as the original Le Mort D'Arthur.
Makers, by Cory Doctorow
After hearing Doctorow's name thrown around a little bit after reading this book, it's easy to kind of see past the writing and the story and get at what he is trying to achieve at writing this book. It doesn't make it any easier to resist what he wants to make you feel, but at least now I know that I was intentionally being manipulated by the author.
The book itself is about a pair of nerdy engineer-fellows who are hired by the slowly toppling Eastman Kodak Company to just make random products and see if they can be produced and sold for any sort of meaningful profit. Their wild inventions do turn a profit, but thousands of imitation invention-shops spring up around the country and the glut of random gadgets causes a giant market boom followed by an equally large crash. The whole book revolves around concepts of copyright, ownership, and how corporations are evil, soul-sucking entities. I don't entirely disagree, but I don't think I'm as rabidly anti-corporation as Doctorow.
Here's what I've been devouring in the meantime.
Blackout, by Connie Willis
Connie Willis may be one of my favorite writers ever. I was introduced to her by a friend in high school, Matt - who I am sure right now (or maybe five hours ago was) is exuberantly clambering over some rocks in Arizona.
Blackout is another book set in a universe of hers where time travel is used ubiquitously by historians seeking accurate depictions of events. Blackout has several of them trapped in London during the Blitz, unable to return to their original time. It's a good book, but sadly only one part of two, the second of which is not out yet.
Chasm City, by Alistair Reynolds
Alistair Reynolds is an amazingly consistent hard sci-fi author, and I was actually re-reading this book. It's one of the best convoluted narratives I've ever read - there are three simultaneous storylines occurring at the same time which manage to converge in a way that I never expected when I initially read the book. I think it may have one of the best endings I've ever read. It would be hard to describe the exact plot, but it is more or less about a hired gun tracking down the man who killed his last employer and the woman he loved.
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
I suppose I read a lot of science fiction. I've read (and probably repeated quite a few times) that good science fiction stories exist independently of their fantastical setting, and that is usually what I look for in the books I read. The Forever War traces a foot soldier who survives (through special relativity) the opening battle of a war against an alien force through the entire centuries-long conflict. It's essentially a very well-written anti-war polemic - I do believe the author was a soldier during Vietnam.
I Curse the River of Time, by Per Petterson
I was pretty enthralled by the first book I read by Petterson - "Out Stealing Horses." He's a Norwegian author and he definitely writes in what I think of as a Scandinavian style - very full of descriptive imagery and slow portentous dialogue. This novel deals with the existential crisis of a middle-aged Norwegian whose mother has just been diagnosed with cancer - in 1989, during the fall of Communism. Petterson really has a way with interpersonal relationships, especially ones where there is just something inexplicably missing.
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, by Robert Heinlein
Heinlein, while certainly one of the best science fiction authors to grace the genre, has a veritable stable of bizarre ideas. They include polygamy and the fact that incest is only wrong insofar as much as it can produce genetic freaks. This novel is part of his "Future History" series of stories, where the world as we know exists only through our own solipsism - and thus all our heroes and novels live out their lives somewhere in our universe. This story itself deals with a gentleman journalist and dandy who has the misfortune to have an unexpected guest die at his dinner table, and must flee both home and homeworld being hounded by forces he doesn't understand.
The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
I've been meaning to read this book for quite some time. There's an old magazine I have at home (InQuest, which is sadly now no longer being printed) that lists - above a picture of an angry Charlton Heston from The Ten Commandments - "100 Books Thou Shalt Read Before You Die!" It's actually a very good list. Cross one more off it.
The book itself is a weird mixture of humor and young-adult-ish style writing with more powerful concepts. I've always been attracted to the whole Arthurian mythos - and this book is more or less another take on the Arthur myth. It's just about as irreverent as the musical Camelot or "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court," but just like the others - the inevitable fall of Arthur's Round Table is just as heartbreaking as the original Le Mort D'Arthur.
Makers, by Cory Doctorow
After hearing Doctorow's name thrown around a little bit after reading this book, it's easy to kind of see past the writing and the story and get at what he is trying to achieve at writing this book. It doesn't make it any easier to resist what he wants to make you feel, but at least now I know that I was intentionally being manipulated by the author.
The book itself is about a pair of nerdy engineer-fellows who are hired by the slowly toppling Eastman Kodak Company to just make random products and see if they can be produced and sold for any sort of meaningful profit. Their wild inventions do turn a profit, but thousands of imitation invention-shops spring up around the country and the glut of random gadgets causes a giant market boom followed by an equally large crash. The whole book revolves around concepts of copyright, ownership, and how corporations are evil, soul-sucking entities. I don't entirely disagree, but I don't think I'm as rabidly anti-corporation as Doctorow.
October Numbers
Sunday, October 31, 2010
My October o' running was overall on the C+ to B- side. I had two unplanned low mileage weeks (one where I started to get the flu and another where I actually got it), a decent race, and a hip problem that I was almost sure was not going to end well.
So here it goes:
Week ending Oct 2: 61 miles, 413 minutes
Week ending Oct 9: 35 miles, 239 minutes
Week ending Oct 16: 32 miles, 223 minutes
Week ending Oct 23: 51 miles, 358 minutes
This week:
Sun: Mayor's Cup 8k - ran 26:50.
Felt pretty god awful from the start of it but I picked it up a lot the last minute, which means I should have been picking it up from about 3 miles in. I'd like another crack at my 8k PR from college (26:38 @ VCP) so I might find a 5 miler somewhere around Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving.
about 10.75 miles on the day
Mon: DNR
Tue: Insanely warm.
AM: 7 miles with one Mr. Crabtree at Cold Spring.
PM: 6.5 miles up and down Comm Ave.
13.5 total
Wed: Grotesquely long intervals, ones that would offend the very heart of a decent man.
4 x 7 minutes on, 3 minutes off - sucked it up in the back with Mr. Alliette.
about 12.25 miles total.
Thu: Woke up and it felt like someone took a hammer to my hip joint. DNR. It kind of came un-stuck eventually during the day but I was leery of running on it.
Fri: 10 miles down to Cleveland Res, 2 loops, and back.
Sat: Woke up with my hip frozen in place again, but it came together enough by the time I'd finished warming up to run the workout.
The workout was 6 x 4 minutes on, 1 minute off - other guys did 8 but I kept it on the lower side and the slower side because of the hip problem. Total 8.75 - cut the cool down shorter to stretch.
Week: 55 miles.
The hip thing is aggravating but at least I woke up today without it going nuts. I may have just pulled something in a minor way during some run this week (probably the workout on Wednesday if anything). My hip flexor has been bothering me for a long time (since...February?) but that's not quite the same thing as what happened this week.
Pretending both problems don't (didnt?) exist probably won't help, though - I asked Archard / Ballard for a good masseuse-y-chiro-thera-wonderworker and I'll see if I can't set that up soon.
So here it goes:
Week ending Oct 2: 61 miles, 413 minutes
Week ending Oct 9: 35 miles, 239 minutes
Week ending Oct 16: 32 miles, 223 minutes
Week ending Oct 23: 51 miles, 358 minutes
This week:
Sun: Mayor's Cup 8k - ran 26:50.
Felt pretty god awful from the start of it but I picked it up a lot the last minute, which means I should have been picking it up from about 3 miles in. I'd like another crack at my 8k PR from college (26:38 @ VCP) so I might find a 5 miler somewhere around Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving.
about 10.75 miles on the day
Mon: DNR
Tue: Insanely warm.
AM: 7 miles with one Mr. Crabtree at Cold Spring.
PM: 6.5 miles up and down Comm Ave.
13.5 total
Wed: Grotesquely long intervals, ones that would offend the very heart of a decent man.
4 x 7 minutes on, 3 minutes off - sucked it up in the back with Mr. Alliette.
about 12.25 miles total.
Thu: Woke up and it felt like someone took a hammer to my hip joint. DNR. It kind of came un-stuck eventually during the day but I was leery of running on it.
Fri: 10 miles down to Cleveland Res, 2 loops, and back.
Sat: Woke up with my hip frozen in place again, but it came together enough by the time I'd finished warming up to run the workout.
The workout was 6 x 4 minutes on, 1 minute off - other guys did 8 but I kept it on the lower side and the slower side because of the hip problem. Total 8.75 - cut the cool down shorter to stretch.
Week: 55 miles.
The hip thing is aggravating but at least I woke up today without it going nuts. I may have just pulled something in a minor way during some run this week (probably the workout on Wednesday if anything). My hip flexor has been bothering me for a long time (since...February?) but that's not quite the same thing as what happened this week.
Pretending both problems don't (didnt?) exist probably won't help, though - I asked Archard / Ballard for a good masseuse-y-chiro-thera-wonderworker and I'll see if I can't set that up soon.
Launch Control
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
I got a chance to actually drive my car a week ago. I promptly received the flu, forestalling me writing about it or doing much of anything else. I've wanted to take Apollo out where I can drive with a bit of wild abandon without endangering myself or another, and autocross is a pretty easy way to start out without the risk of damaging my car or forestalling my burgeoning & profitable professional track career.
In an autocross race you navigate a course of traffic cones (somewhere around 40-75 seconds in length, depending on how fast you're traveling and the course design) for time, with cars going through the course staggered so that cones can be replaced if they're knocked over. Two seconds get added to your time if you knock a cone out of the 'box' or tip it over, so you can't just barrel through the course. I gotta wonder what hurdling would be like if it worked this way rather than on the 'good faith' principle...David Oliver would have a rough time of it.
It sounds pretty simple, I guess. I have to admit that I'm a person of habit and doing something new is not necessarily easy for me, even something I've wanted to do for as long as this. Plus, while it doesn't look particularly that fast, MAN. It is a whole different world inside the car. I get decently nervous before track races, and while this is a different sort of track - same rules applied. I was shaking before and after the first two or three runs...(though some of that could have been the cold).
In case you've never heard of or been to an autocross, here's two videos that will, combined, explain it a bit better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BzqQ8mE77U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6ZRA6oFys
One for each part of what it feels like to drive a car really fast: on one hand, it is fucking scary. On the other hand, it is fucking awesome.
One of the guys at the event posted a huge crapton of pictures over on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nowin/sets/72157625145359178/ Good thing! There were a lot of really awesome and not-too-often seen cars at the meet. Can you call an autocross a meet? I don't know, but I'm doing it. We'll see how the authorities respond in kind.
Somewhere in all those pictures is a Lotus Europa, two Elises, a heap of Corvettes, a Triumph Spitfire, a small army of Miatas, and some very scary homebrewed non-street-legal cars. There was also a Volvo C30 that I'm fairly certain wasn't driven by Kevin, as it did have an orange front bumper and racing stripes. But whoever the owner was proceeded to beat me soundly, as one might do with a hefty rod of salami to an interloper in their domicile.
In other news, I have had a cover of James Taylor's "New Hymn" stuck in my head for the past twenty four hours and it made a somewhat maddening companion to today's workout. The cover I speak of is none other than one by the Whiffenpoofs, that most hallowed a capella group with the silliest of names. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPBM3Lx20c
The fellow doing the solo on the version of the song I possess (not the one above) is a friend of Sarah's and has an insane voice.
I wish I could suss out exactly what James Taylor is talking about here, but I still like what he's saying - so I'll leave it for wiser head's consideration:
Even our own feeble hands
Ache to seize the crown you wear
And work our private havoc through
The known and unknown lands of space
Absolute in flame beyond us
Seed and source of Dark and Day
Maker whom we beg to be
Our mother father comrade mate
In an autocross race you navigate a course of traffic cones (somewhere around 40-75 seconds in length, depending on how fast you're traveling and the course design) for time, with cars going through the course staggered so that cones can be replaced if they're knocked over. Two seconds get added to your time if you knock a cone out of the 'box' or tip it over, so you can't just barrel through the course. I gotta wonder what hurdling would be like if it worked this way rather than on the 'good faith' principle...David Oliver would have a rough time of it.
It sounds pretty simple, I guess. I have to admit that I'm a person of habit and doing something new is not necessarily easy for me, even something I've wanted to do for as long as this. Plus, while it doesn't look particularly that fast, MAN. It is a whole different world inside the car. I get decently nervous before track races, and while this is a different sort of track - same rules applied. I was shaking before and after the first two or three runs...(though some of that could have been the cold).
In case you've never heard of or been to an autocross, here's two videos that will, combined, explain it a bit better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BzqQ8mE77U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF6ZRA6oFys
One for each part of what it feels like to drive a car really fast: on one hand, it is fucking scary. On the other hand, it is fucking awesome.
One of the guys at the event posted a huge crapton of pictures over on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nowin/sets/72157625145359178/ Good thing! There were a lot of really awesome and not-too-often seen cars at the meet. Can you call an autocross a meet? I don't know, but I'm doing it. We'll see how the authorities respond in kind.
Somewhere in all those pictures is a Lotus Europa, two Elises, a heap of Corvettes, a Triumph Spitfire, a small army of Miatas, and some very scary homebrewed non-street-legal cars. There was also a Volvo C30 that I'm fairly certain wasn't driven by Kevin, as it did have an orange front bumper and racing stripes. But whoever the owner was proceeded to beat me soundly, as one might do with a hefty rod of salami to an interloper in their domicile.
In other news, I have had a cover of James Taylor's "New Hymn" stuck in my head for the past twenty four hours and it made a somewhat maddening companion to today's workout. The cover I speak of is none other than one by the Whiffenpoofs, that most hallowed a capella group with the silliest of names. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPBM3Lx20c
The fellow doing the solo on the version of the song I possess (not the one above) is a friend of Sarah's and has an insane voice.
I wish I could suss out exactly what James Taylor is talking about here, but I still like what he's saying - so I'll leave it for wiser head's consideration:
Even our own feeble hands
Ache to seize the crown you wear
And work our private havoc through
The known and unknown lands of space
Absolute in flame beyond us
Seed and source of Dark and Day
Maker whom we beg to be
Our mother father comrade mate
I Always Win At Stratego
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The title is in reference to the fact that Sarah is currently writing a song for one of her classes about the end of summer and she is falsely propagating the lie that she beat me at Stratego! That is an impossibility. I always win the first game of Stratego I play against someone, and then they never want to play me again. I think my skill at Stratego comes from years of playing a mental game with myself as a teenager: if an axe murderer was to walk in my room and swing his axe vertically at my bed in the dark, which side should I be sleeping on to fake him out? What if he comes two nights in a row? Three? Do you stay on the same side of the bed, or do you switch?
No, you're not allowed to call the police. That's not how the game works.
Kind of a crappy week of running - I had a huge, oh-shit-if-I-fuck-this-up-there-are-million-dollar-customers-who-will-be-super-pissed kind of project to finish. And I inherited it from someone who quit a few weeks prior to it being due (and a few weeks away from being anything close to acceptable). It's finally done but man that was unpleasant. It's the only time I've actually really felt stressed at this job - usually the planning goes a lot better than this but it's pretty hard to plan for the 'what if the main programmer for this thing suddenly quits' contingency. I think I picked up some sort of illness + huge headache out of it and just felt good enough again today to resume running, so c'est la vie. Quite a low mileage week. Being sick for a bit evidently didn't hurt too much because today's tempo went really well.
Sun: 10 miles, 72 minutes
Mon: planned day off
Tue: 5.75 miles warmup and cooldown
4.6 miles of 90 / 60 / 30 hills at Heartbreak. Went really well, did it with Steve.
Wed: sick
Thu: sick
Fri: sick
Sat: 5.75 miles warmup and cooldown
5 mile tempo at Fresh Pond w/ Paul. Also went surprisingly well - 26:50 for 5 miles. Definitely the fastest tempo I've ever done and the second fastest 5 mile.
So that's a solid 31 miles and 212 minutes of running. Oh well - stuff happens. Still won't be a bad month overall for me.
No, you're not allowed to call the police. That's not how the game works.
Kind of a crappy week of running - I had a huge, oh-shit-if-I-fuck-this-up-there-are-million-dollar-customers-who-will-be-super-pissed kind of project to finish. And I inherited it from someone who quit a few weeks prior to it being due (and a few weeks away from being anything close to acceptable). It's finally done but man that was unpleasant. It's the only time I've actually really felt stressed at this job - usually the planning goes a lot better than this but it's pretty hard to plan for the 'what if the main programmer for this thing suddenly quits' contingency. I think I picked up some sort of illness + huge headache out of it and just felt good enough again today to resume running, so c'est la vie. Quite a low mileage week. Being sick for a bit evidently didn't hurt too much because today's tempo went really well.
Sun: 10 miles, 72 minutes
Mon: planned day off
Tue: 5.75 miles warmup and cooldown
4.6 miles of 90 / 60 / 30 hills at Heartbreak. Went really well, did it with Steve.
Wed: sick
Thu: sick
Fri: sick
Sat: 5.75 miles warmup and cooldown
5 mile tempo at Fresh Pond w/ Paul. Also went surprisingly well - 26:50 for 5 miles. Definitely the fastest tempo I've ever done and the second fastest 5 mile.
So that's a solid 31 miles and 212 minutes of running. Oh well - stuff happens. Still won't be a bad month overall for me.
Week Deux - OR, I Just Ate An Incredibly Large Meal
Sunday, September 19, 2010
We're not even yet out of summer, but the weather around here is finally calming down and sticking around the mid 60's. It's pretty much perfect for running, which makes me think I'd like living in NorCal, except for the people.
The second week of practices has been a lot easier - that's heartening, compared to last year. I think it took about a month before Jenn D. stopped crushing me in XC workouts in 2009. The group we're working out with is still fairly small - Saturday we only had Dan, Pete, Steve, and myself present. Colin's got to work Saturdays and haven't seen much of anyone else besides Paul and Andrea. We've got a few new guys who have shown up to practices but have not done any workouts yet.
Sun: 3 miles, 21 minutes - got back way late from NYC, just did something short.
Mon: off, IT band bugging me from driving so much
Tue: 7.25 miles warmup and cooldown
20 minute tempo at the res - 8:15 for first loop, 8:45 for second (whoops)
w/ Steve, Paul, Colin, Pete, Dan - stuck with Colin.
11 miles total
Wed: 8.5 miles, 62 minutes
Thu: 7.5 miles, 55 minutes
Fri: 10 miles, 72 minutes
Sat: 6 miles warmup and cooldown
5 x 4 minutes on, 1 minute off - about 4 miles.
With Steve, Pete, Dan - did most of it with Pete.
total: 50 miles, 352 minutes
Summah Wrapup
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
So my attempts to update this weekly over the summer were in vain. I got busy and lazy, so I'm just going to summarize my summer miles and launch right into cross country season and pretend the temporary hiatus of this blog o' the webs never happened.
O'er the summer I ran 410 miles in 9 weeks, giving me a solid average of 45.5. Not bad! I said many times, and I'll say it again: running in the summer in a humid environment is like slowly having your teeth sandpapered. I don't deal with it well. This is still probably my best summer of running ever - I don't know that I've managed to crack 60 in a summer before besides counting cross-training as mileage. It did feel a lot easier than summers past, probably just because I got started earlier in the summer and wasn't a fat blob at the hottest point. I think I also ran most of my easy runs quicker than I usually do - my typical pace used to be more in the 7:30 range but I'm down around 6:45 - 7:15 nowadays.
I flubbed one week or two - I wanted to try and run basically over 50 the entire time. There was one back in July where I think I ran 10 miles...somehow got sick in the middle of summer.
I managed to keep things going pretty well when I went to Chicago to visit one half of the family, but not so much visiting the Southerners for the Southern Baptist-Jewish wedding. Yeah, I am surprised it happened too.
With our first week of cross country underway, and Steve and I deep in mourning for our fellow JV squad member T. "Wedding Spikes" Kaijala, workouts are finally beginning and so I can at least have some more impetus to get out the door. Chris McC is also out with a now-healed stress fracture, but not yet working out. Haven't seen Kevin A., Rupprecht has been schooling us quite handily, and no Brendan or (most importantly) JeffPa. Though there was a sighting of some gnarled old root of a man at Franklin Park on Saturday...high-stepping away from Steve and I like Deion Sanders circa the early 90's.
Sun: 10 mi, 65 mins
Mon: 7 mi, 49 min
Tues: 6 mi w/u & c/d
3 x 3 min on, 1 min off, 2 min on, 1 min off @ The Res
(3.5 miles o work)
Kinda got thrashed. Did this one with Steve, Pete, and Merner at the end.
Wed: 8 mi, 60 mins
Thu: 6.5 mi, 47 mins
Fri: 8.25 mi, 59 mins
Sat: 7.5 mi w/u & c/d
6 x 2 min on, 2 min off @ Franklin Park
(about 3.75 miles o' work)
tot: 60 miles, 419 minutes
Saturday felt better than Tuesday. Promptly went home and bought a cake and drove to Manhattan. The end!
O'er the summer I ran 410 miles in 9 weeks, giving me a solid average of 45.5. Not bad! I said many times, and I'll say it again: running in the summer in a humid environment is like slowly having your teeth sandpapered. I don't deal with it well. This is still probably my best summer of running ever - I don't know that I've managed to crack 60 in a summer before besides counting cross-training as mileage. It did feel a lot easier than summers past, probably just because I got started earlier in the summer and wasn't a fat blob at the hottest point. I think I also ran most of my easy runs quicker than I usually do - my typical pace used to be more in the 7:30 range but I'm down around 6:45 - 7:15 nowadays.
I flubbed one week or two - I wanted to try and run basically over 50 the entire time. There was one back in July where I think I ran 10 miles...somehow got sick in the middle of summer.
I managed to keep things going pretty well when I went to Chicago to visit one half of the family, but not so much visiting the Southerners for the Southern Baptist-Jewish wedding. Yeah, I am surprised it happened too.
With our first week of cross country underway, and Steve and I deep in mourning for our fellow JV squad member T. "Wedding Spikes" Kaijala, workouts are finally beginning and so I can at least have some more impetus to get out the door. Chris McC is also out with a now-healed stress fracture, but not yet working out. Haven't seen Kevin A., Rupprecht has been schooling us quite handily, and no Brendan or (most importantly) JeffPa. Though there was a sighting of some gnarled old root of a man at Franklin Park on Saturday...high-stepping away from Steve and I like Deion Sanders circa the early 90's.
Sun: 10 mi, 65 mins
Mon: 7 mi, 49 min
Tues: 6 mi w/u & c/d
3 x 3 min on, 1 min off, 2 min on, 1 min off @ The Res
(3.5 miles o work)
Kinda got thrashed. Did this one with Steve, Pete, and Merner at the end.
Wed: 8 mi, 60 mins
Thu: 6.5 mi, 47 mins
Fri: 8.25 mi, 59 mins
Sat: 7.5 mi w/u & c/d
6 x 2 min on, 2 min off @ Franklin Park
(about 3.75 miles o' work)
tot: 60 miles, 419 minutes
Saturday felt better than Tuesday. Promptly went home and bought a cake and drove to Manhattan. The end!
Lights Out In London
Monday, August 16, 2010
It's been a busy couple of weeks. I took a trip to Chicago to see my father's half of my family - they pretty rarely get together so I really didn't want to miss this one. Additionally, they might be the only people who genuinely laugh at my laboriously compiled list of awful jokes. I also got the chance to go see (with one Mr. Crabtree!) one of my favorite musicians ever, Michael Schenker.
Schenker is a guitarist - his first album was with The Scorpions when he was 16 - "Lonesome Crow." His older brother, Rudolph, was one of the founding members. From there he left to join UFO and then to form his own band, The Michael Schenker Group. He definitely counts as one of the mid 70's guitar gods - a very technically proficient player, but thankfully from before the era where technical skill became more important than musicianship.
I don't know where you get it - but it seems like somehow the ability to express the pain and pleasure of a lifetime pours forth from this man's fingertips. Everything it means to be human, in a flurry of notes and wordless power.
Thus it was with a great deal of joy that I got to see him play live while he was still doing so. He's had his share of problems with alcohol (unsurprising for the era and the genre in which he started playing) so there were some really disastrous tours in the 2000's and his issues with alcohol are the reason he parted ways with some of his former bands. This year he was touring with Gary Barden, who was one of the original singers of the Michael Schenker Group. He was also joined by Carmine Appice on drums for the concert I went to, who is pretty much a percussionist legend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Appice
It's sometimes disappointing getting to see people who you regard as 'legendary' in person, especially musicians. It can be a let down if they don't perform particularly well or sound as good as they do when being recorded. I am happy to say that Schenker sounded...amazing. Barden's voice wasn't exactly as searing as it used to be, and the mix wasn't great, but damn if Schenker wasn't pretty much flawless. The first time I ever heard "Into The Arena" my mind couldn't even process what...what he'd done. It's just a really fucking minty song. To hear it played live and impeccably is as close as to heaven as I think it comes. It was also good to see him enjoying himself. There's nothing worse than to see a musician who hates what they are playing - and nothing better to see one who is still in love with the musical legacy they've wrought.
It was also entertaining to be one of the two guys in the crowd who didn't have a tattoo, a mustache, or a denim jacket on (just as a note to myself - show date was July 27th at the Showcase). I'm pretty sure Will and I were two of the few people under 40 there. In case I failed to mention, Schenker is 55 - his heyday would have been in the early 80's, probably when most of the people in the crowd were in their early 20's.
I'm glad I got to see it - not sure how many of his kind are left, or for how long.
(if you're going to listen to something of his - try out the UFO album "Lights Out" or the self titled Michael Schenker Group cd - both pretty mind-blowing displays of how powerful a good guitarist can be)
Schenker is a guitarist - his first album was with The Scorpions when he was 16 - "Lonesome Crow." His older brother, Rudolph, was one of the founding members. From there he left to join UFO and then to form his own band, The Michael Schenker Group. He definitely counts as one of the mid 70's guitar gods - a very technically proficient player, but thankfully from before the era where technical skill became more important than musicianship.
I don't know where you get it - but it seems like somehow the ability to express the pain and pleasure of a lifetime pours forth from this man's fingertips. Everything it means to be human, in a flurry of notes and wordless power.
Thus it was with a great deal of joy that I got to see him play live while he was still doing so. He's had his share of problems with alcohol (unsurprising for the era and the genre in which he started playing) so there were some really disastrous tours in the 2000's and his issues with alcohol are the reason he parted ways with some of his former bands. This year he was touring with Gary Barden, who was one of the original singers of the Michael Schenker Group. He was also joined by Carmine Appice on drums for the concert I went to, who is pretty much a percussionist legend: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Appice
It's sometimes disappointing getting to see people who you regard as 'legendary' in person, especially musicians. It can be a let down if they don't perform particularly well or sound as good as they do when being recorded. I am happy to say that Schenker sounded...amazing. Barden's voice wasn't exactly as searing as it used to be, and the mix wasn't great, but damn if Schenker wasn't pretty much flawless. The first time I ever heard "Into The Arena" my mind couldn't even process what...what he'd done. It's just a really fucking minty song. To hear it played live and impeccably is as close as to heaven as I think it comes. It was also good to see him enjoying himself. There's nothing worse than to see a musician who hates what they are playing - and nothing better to see one who is still in love with the musical legacy they've wrought.
It was also entertaining to be one of the two guys in the crowd who didn't have a tattoo, a mustache, or a denim jacket on (just as a note to myself - show date was July 27th at the Showcase). I'm pretty sure Will and I were two of the few people under 40 there. In case I failed to mention, Schenker is 55 - his heyday would have been in the early 80's, probably when most of the people in the crowd were in their early 20's.
I'm glad I got to see it - not sure how many of his kind are left, or for how long.
(if you're going to listen to something of his - try out the UFO album "Lights Out" or the self titled Michael Schenker Group cd - both pretty mind-blowing displays of how powerful a good guitarist can be)
Rag and Bone
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Better week than last, certainly. With a real long run and one or two runs at lunch during work, it'll be pretty trivial to run 65-70. Based on some of Kevin's advice, I may wait to bump it up to 70 until I feel comfortable enough to be able to push it without forcing it a few days a week.
Sun: 4 mi, 30 mins - first day running after getting sick.
Mon: 7 mi, 51 mins - don't even remember where I went for this run.
Tue: 8 mi, 58 mins - took the Greenway to Prospect St. in Waltham - hadn't ever gone that far on that path before. It's actually pretty nice, even though it's paved for the most part.
Wed: 6.5 mi, 49 mins - Up to Cold Spring and 1.5 times around, with a little extra before.
Thu: 8.5 mi, 57 mins - Cold Spring and 3 loops around - picked it up quite a bit. In general I really have not done that in the summer, because it's hard enough to just get the mileage in - but the 3:30.90 1500m I saw right before running might have had something to do with it!
Fri: 6 mi, 44 mins - to Comm Ave, took the right and went to the intersection w/ Washington St and back. With about half a pound of pasta in my stomach.
Sat: 10 mi, 72 mins - To Cold Spring, 3 loops - then out left on Beacon to pick up some extra time and back home. Based on this run, I am fairly sure the grossest sound in the world is the sound of a completely waterlogged pair of split shorts slapping against my pasty white thighs.
tot: 50 miles, 358 minutes
Sun: 4 mi, 30 mins - first day running after getting sick.
Mon: 7 mi, 51 mins - don't even remember where I went for this run.
Tue: 8 mi, 58 mins - took the Greenway to Prospect St. in Waltham - hadn't ever gone that far on that path before. It's actually pretty nice, even though it's paved for the most part.
Wed: 6.5 mi, 49 mins - Up to Cold Spring and 1.5 times around, with a little extra before.
Thu: 8.5 mi, 57 mins - Cold Spring and 3 loops around - picked it up quite a bit. In general I really have not done that in the summer, because it's hard enough to just get the mileage in - but the 3:30.90 1500m I saw right before running might have had something to do with it!
Fri: 6 mi, 44 mins - to Comm Ave, took the right and went to the intersection w/ Washington St and back. With about half a pound of pasta in my stomach.
Sat: 10 mi, 72 mins - To Cold Spring, 3 loops - then out left on Beacon to pick up some extra time and back home. Based on this run, I am fairly sure the grossest sound in the world is the sound of a completely waterlogged pair of split shorts slapping against my pasty white thighs.
tot: 50 miles, 358 minutes
I'd Rather Not
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Quick update - last week, a virus stole its way into my body like Ali Baba into the cave of the Forty Thieves. Evidently, my immune system will lay down for anyone wielding a simplistic passphrase. As a result, I got a solid 60 minutes of running in 7 days.
The weather makes having a fever especially miserable and especially difficult to tell whether it's gone or not. I am getting a flu shot fo' sho' this fall when the time comes around - I hate needles, but I have officially decided that I hate being sick more.
On the bright side, I got my car (officially dubbed 'Apollo') back from the shop just on Monday. I took it in on Thursday to have the rear bumper and some scratches on the driver's side quarter panel fixed - unfortunate that they got damaged in the first place, but the fixes look great. Joe at LA Auto Body did a really nice job - and he ended up doing about 4 extra hours worth of work on the back panel, too (without charging me).
I'm taking it back for him to polish it up next week (he said there were some finishing touches he wanted to do) but I may also ask to have the transmission / diff fluid changed at some point. I'm comfortable with changing my oil on this car now, but transmission fluid I'd rather have a pro do at this point. Plus, I hear diff fluid smells horrendous.
The reason I want to get it done (besides wanting to get Redline in there, rather than whatever the factory defaults are) is...because I'm planning on going autocrossing for the first time soon! The New England Region of SCCA has an event at Devens-Moore Airfield in a few weeks. Considering the part where I'm least experienced is probably still shifting - I haven't even tried heel-and-toeing yet and the downshifts are far from smooth - I'd like all the help I can get. Though, of the few videos I've watched of guys racing RX-8's, it looks like they just jam it in second gear and leave it there. You can get up to 55 or so without hitting the redline in 2nd, and I doubt you're really exceeding that ever on an autocross course.
All this talk of vehicles makes me want to go drive. It's unfortunate that it takes so long to get to Williamstown from here - going on the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) in the Berkshires is just heavenly in this car. I would almost have to peg it up there with being as exhilarating as running a perfect 800/1500. Not quite, but it's pretty amazing.
The weather makes having a fever especially miserable and especially difficult to tell whether it's gone or not. I am getting a flu shot fo' sho' this fall when the time comes around - I hate needles, but I have officially decided that I hate being sick more.
On the bright side, I got my car (officially dubbed 'Apollo') back from the shop just on Monday. I took it in on Thursday to have the rear bumper and some scratches on the driver's side quarter panel fixed - unfortunate that they got damaged in the first place, but the fixes look great. Joe at LA Auto Body did a really nice job - and he ended up doing about 4 extra hours worth of work on the back panel, too (without charging me).
I'm taking it back for him to polish it up next week (he said there were some finishing touches he wanted to do) but I may also ask to have the transmission / diff fluid changed at some point. I'm comfortable with changing my oil on this car now, but transmission fluid I'd rather have a pro do at this point. Plus, I hear diff fluid smells horrendous.
The reason I want to get it done (besides wanting to get Redline in there, rather than whatever the factory defaults are) is...because I'm planning on going autocrossing for the first time soon! The New England Region of SCCA has an event at Devens-Moore Airfield in a few weeks. Considering the part where I'm least experienced is probably still shifting - I haven't even tried heel-and-toeing yet and the downshifts are far from smooth - I'd like all the help I can get. Though, of the few videos I've watched of guys racing RX-8's, it looks like they just jam it in second gear and leave it there. You can get up to 55 or so without hitting the redline in 2nd, and I doubt you're really exceeding that ever on an autocross course.
All this talk of vehicles makes me want to go drive. It's unfortunate that it takes so long to get to Williamstown from here - going on the Mohawk Trail (Route 2) in the Berkshires is just heavenly in this car. I would almost have to peg it up there with being as exhilarating as running a perfect 800/1500. Not quite, but it's pretty amazing.
MPW
Monday, July 12, 2010
I thought that the weather couldn't get any more disgusting, but I was wrong. Surprisingly, I survived the week - not quite intact (I think I've conjured up a cold during the weekend, and am taking today off) but c'est la vie.
I'll probably revise my goals for the week based on how I feel tomorrow, but hopefully this'll be a 24-hour sort of illness. They usually never are, but I can hope for probability to swing for once in my favor.
Sun: (double counting this one from last week) 10 mi at Battle Road, 71 minutes
Mon: 5 mi, 35 minutes - just around Newton, slogging.
Tue: 7 mi, 54 minutes - Bentley road loop + woods. Slow as can be, met a new fellow (Mark) who Steve and I might be running with some over the summer.
Wed: 8.5 mi, 61 minutes - up to Cold Spring Park and around 3 times, then back home.
Thu: 8.5 mi, 62 minutes - the same, this one wholly solo. I had to go pick up the score for a musical at a playhouse for Sarah...which, told properly, would sound somewhat like the woeful mourning of the sailor in Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Fri: 7.2 mi, 54 minutes early in the morning with Will, so I didn't have to run later in W-town.
Sat: 8 mi, 59 minutes slowly over the gargantuan hills of Williamstown, where my quadricepinal fortitude was no match for the mighty bulwark of its misty mountains.
tot: 54.2 mi, 391 minutes
I'll probably revise my goals for the week based on how I feel tomorrow, but hopefully this'll be a 24-hour sort of illness. They usually never are, but I can hope for probability to swing for once in my favor.
Sun: (double counting this one from last week) 10 mi at Battle Road, 71 minutes
Mon: 5 mi, 35 minutes - just around Newton, slogging.
Tue: 7 mi, 54 minutes - Bentley road loop + woods. Slow as can be, met a new fellow (Mark) who Steve and I might be running with some over the summer.
Wed: 8.5 mi, 61 minutes - up to Cold Spring Park and around 3 times, then back home.
Thu: 8.5 mi, 62 minutes - the same, this one wholly solo. I had to go pick up the score for a musical at a playhouse for Sarah...which, told properly, would sound somewhat like the woeful mourning of the sailor in Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Fri: 7.2 mi, 54 minutes early in the morning with Will, so I didn't have to run later in W-town.
Sat: 8 mi, 59 minutes slowly over the gargantuan hills of Williamstown, where my quadricepinal fortitude was no match for the mighty bulwark of its misty mountains.
tot: 54.2 mi, 391 minutes
It's So God Damned Hot
Monday, July 5, 2010
First week back at running. I never really feel like I lose a ton from taking time off - it's more just that summer descends, spreading like a contagion across my days. A contagion of heat! I don't handle running in hot weather very well at all. So far, though, it's not been bad - I think not taking a long time off and sleeping in a room where the ceiling fan has been laid to rest has helped.
I started this week on Monday w/ Steve, but I'm gonna go back to counting from Sunday - it helps me not go crazy on Sundays to get extra mileage in to hit some round number.
Mon: 35 min, 5 mi - Just tooling around Newton.
Tue: 52 min, 7 mi - at Bentley, warmup loop + woods. Talked to Kevin about USATFs afterwards, and also managed to get scolded by a 15 year old for wearing skimpy shorts.
Wed: 54 min, 7.25 mi - in the morning with Will C. Didn't feel too bad even though I had something like 5 hours of sleep. That did catch up to me later in the day, though.
Thu: 38 min, 5.35 mi - Steve picked up a Garmin and as such some of these mileage numbers are gonna be pretty precise. They've gotten a lot more compact since I had one in 2004 or so - that thing was like wearing a laptop on your wrist.
Fri: 48 mins, 7.02 mi - A couple of loops around the Res, which is officially 1.55 miles around.
Sat: 60 mins, 8.25 mi - Up to Cold Spring, 2.5 loops, and back.
Sun: 70 mins, 10 mi - A really hellishly hot run at Battle Road.
total: 50 miles, 354 minutes
I started this week on Monday w/ Steve, but I'm gonna go back to counting from Sunday - it helps me not go crazy on Sundays to get extra mileage in to hit some round number.
Mon: 35 min, 5 mi - Just tooling around Newton.
Tue: 52 min, 7 mi - at Bentley, warmup loop + woods. Talked to Kevin about USATFs afterwards, and also managed to get scolded by a 15 year old for wearing skimpy shorts.
Wed: 54 min, 7.25 mi - in the morning with Will C. Didn't feel too bad even though I had something like 5 hours of sleep. That did catch up to me later in the day, though.
Thu: 38 min, 5.35 mi - Steve picked up a Garmin and as such some of these mileage numbers are gonna be pretty precise. They've gotten a lot more compact since I had one in 2004 or so - that thing was like wearing a laptop on your wrist.
Fri: 48 mins, 7.02 mi - A couple of loops around the Res, which is officially 1.55 miles around.
Sat: 60 mins, 8.25 mi - Up to Cold Spring, 2.5 loops, and back.
Sun: 70 mins, 10 mi - A really hellishly hot run at Battle Road.
total: 50 miles, 354 minutes
Hoopty
Saturday, June 26, 2010
While I was waiting today for the oil to finish draining out of the rotary-powered object of my affections, I made an effort at finishing off Jeffery Ford's "The Drowned Life" - which might be the strangest collection of short stories I have ever read, rivaling only Jesse Ball's "The Way Through Doors" in terms of twisted visions.
I don't think I've ever mentioned "The Way Through Doors" before and it is certainly worthwhile taking a moment to do so. It basically takes the idea of storytelling put forth in The Arabian Nights and goes one step further. In The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is the beautiful young woman married to a cruel king, who is known for murdering his wives and their families. Every night, to forestall her execution, she begins a new story which always ends with a character in the epilogue mentioning another strange happening...drawing us further into a web of stories so that her tale never ends, and that each night ends with a cliffhanger.
"The Way Through Doors" similarly drops into another lower level of story again and again, with recurring themes and characters, often throwing out proper names and just using pronouns for a little more confusion. Eventually, however, the main characters (an enigmatic young man and his comatose love interest) pop out the other side of the story back into the first narrative frame. It's hard to envision how bewildering this style can be until you read it.
Anyway, the original book I was mentioning, "The Drowned Life," makes me want to try writing fiction again. Some of the plots sound like things that were dreamt and then spun out on paper - and strange dreams I am in no short supply of. There's a tinge of malevolence and grim weirdness spreading throughout all the stories (a town whose annual ritual is to drink a special liquor that gives you dreams of your dead relatives - the ritual ends poorly with a husband bringing his wife back through the dream with him, half-mutated and horrifyingly alive...for example). It's all pretty impressive.
I've managed to plow through a number of other books recently:
The Savage Garden, by Mark Mills - a young college student looks for a thesis topic in an Italian villa and uncovers details about a memorial garden that points to a message far different than one would assume from a loving husband's living remembrance of his young wife. Woven in it all are details about Italian art, culture, and writing - and even with a little bit of The Divine Comedy making a cameo, which is pretty much irresistible to me.
The Gathering Storm, by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson - I wasn't expecting much from this, given that the latter books by Robert Jordan in this series were pretty lackluster and meandering. Jordan's death and the choice of Sanderson to continue the series to its conclusion have brought some much-needed fire and excitement to the affair, though. I really, really enjoyed this book, considering what an enormous and imaginative story Jordan started to weave some 12,000 pages back. I still have no idea how it will all end, but I really do enjoy the way Sanderson introduces themes and focuses on just a few timelines of characters and manhandles them all into willing submission. He also manages to make emotional conclusions not feel...treacly. I hate the forced feeling of maudlin strings, weeping women, and white-washed imagery that you get in TV - and its literary equivalent.
Black Hills, by Dan Simmons - Having read a number of his other heavyweight titles, I knew that I wasn't likely getting into a happy-ending sort of book. This is the man who wrote about the wreck of the HMS Erebrus and HMS Terror in the Northwest Passage and the death of all hands (in The Terror) and Wilkie Collins slowly descending into jealousy-induced madness of his literary cohort Dickens in Drood. Black Hills is about a Lakota Indian, Paha Sapa, who is the last man to touch Custer before he dies and is inhabited by a small portion of Custer's consciousness. It presents a pretty grim picture of Industrial Revolution-era America from the point of view of a Native American, as well as a number of forays into Lakota mythology and religious traditions that add the mystical element that Simmons almost always includes in his historical fiction. Surprisingly, the book ends poignantly, rather than with violent madness.
I also got through "Bowerman" and found that pretty satisfying. I, of course, welcome any and all literary suggestions, with the exclusion of Sarah shouting at me to finally read "The Magic Mountain." I'll get to it someday!
I don't think I've ever mentioned "The Way Through Doors" before and it is certainly worthwhile taking a moment to do so. It basically takes the idea of storytelling put forth in The Arabian Nights and goes one step further. In The Arabian Nights, Scheherazade is the beautiful young woman married to a cruel king, who is known for murdering his wives and their families. Every night, to forestall her execution, she begins a new story which always ends with a character in the epilogue mentioning another strange happening...drawing us further into a web of stories so that her tale never ends, and that each night ends with a cliffhanger.
"The Way Through Doors" similarly drops into another lower level of story again and again, with recurring themes and characters, often throwing out proper names and just using pronouns for a little more confusion. Eventually, however, the main characters (an enigmatic young man and his comatose love interest) pop out the other side of the story back into the first narrative frame. It's hard to envision how bewildering this style can be until you read it.
Anyway, the original book I was mentioning, "The Drowned Life," makes me want to try writing fiction again. Some of the plots sound like things that were dreamt and then spun out on paper - and strange dreams I am in no short supply of. There's a tinge of malevolence and grim weirdness spreading throughout all the stories (a town whose annual ritual is to drink a special liquor that gives you dreams of your dead relatives - the ritual ends poorly with a husband bringing his wife back through the dream with him, half-mutated and horrifyingly alive...for example). It's all pretty impressive.
I've managed to plow through a number of other books recently:
The Savage Garden, by Mark Mills - a young college student looks for a thesis topic in an Italian villa and uncovers details about a memorial garden that points to a message far different than one would assume from a loving husband's living remembrance of his young wife. Woven in it all are details about Italian art, culture, and writing - and even with a little bit of The Divine Comedy making a cameo, which is pretty much irresistible to me.
The Gathering Storm, by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson - I wasn't expecting much from this, given that the latter books by Robert Jordan in this series were pretty lackluster and meandering. Jordan's death and the choice of Sanderson to continue the series to its conclusion have brought some much-needed fire and excitement to the affair, though. I really, really enjoyed this book, considering what an enormous and imaginative story Jordan started to weave some 12,000 pages back. I still have no idea how it will all end, but I really do enjoy the way Sanderson introduces themes and focuses on just a few timelines of characters and manhandles them all into willing submission. He also manages to make emotional conclusions not feel...treacly. I hate the forced feeling of maudlin strings, weeping women, and white-washed imagery that you get in TV - and its literary equivalent.
Black Hills, by Dan Simmons - Having read a number of his other heavyweight titles, I knew that I wasn't likely getting into a happy-ending sort of book. This is the man who wrote about the wreck of the HMS Erebrus and HMS Terror in the Northwest Passage and the death of all hands (in The Terror) and Wilkie Collins slowly descending into jealousy-induced madness of his literary cohort Dickens in Drood. Black Hills is about a Lakota Indian, Paha Sapa, who is the last man to touch Custer before he dies and is inhabited by a small portion of Custer's consciousness. It presents a pretty grim picture of Industrial Revolution-era America from the point of view of a Native American, as well as a number of forays into Lakota mythology and religious traditions that add the mystical element that Simmons almost always includes in his historical fiction. Surprisingly, the book ends poignantly, rather than with violent madness.
I also got through "Bowerman" and found that pretty satisfying. I, of course, welcome any and all literary suggestions, with the exclusion of Sarah shouting at me to finally read "The Magic Mountain." I'll get to it someday!
In The Books
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Another year of running has passed from ardent toil into luxurious lethargy. It's been a good one - in fact, I don't believe I've ever not been happy with a season when it comes to a close. There's always more to be accomplished but that is not any reason to turn down the opportunity to rejoice in what was done. My coach in college said something along the same lines, with a good deal more succinctness: "Be happy, but not content."
I didn't have any wildly astonishing breakthrough races this year, just a series of Bubka-esque infinitesimal improvements. I did have a few serious clunkers - the 4:35 mile during indoors was pretty breathtakingly bad. I'm still not sure what was up with that, but it didn't prove to be a pattern, so no worries. I also managed to run a pretty lackluster 3k coming off the flu, and a handful of mediocre 800s.
I also dropped my mile PR by 5 seconds, and my 1500m PR by .05 seconds. Heyo!
It's a little strange how the activities of our lives can provide the structure to our years that are not seen or felt by our peers not involved in those same activities. Certainly for students, up until graduation, there is a natural ebb and flow to the year; that summer marks the end and fall the beginning. Running tends to follow that same schedule, merely because it is convenient to piggyback upon the collegiate races and line up with the summer championships.
But it's also invisible to the people I work with, my family (somewhat), and just the everyday person on the street. My year has just ended. My labor is done - I reaped what I sowed. What cycle are they in the midst of, what unseen endeavor has just ended? It could be something as mundane as the NBA finals just finishing, or far more. I don't doubt the possibility of the latter. It's often that we are so taken with who we are and our place in the scheme of the world that we disregard the chance of another's importance. It's probably necessary to our survival (once upon a time, physical...and now just emotional and mental) to put ourselves foremost.
At the same time that it is necessary to have some time off to rejuvenate both my will to kick other pasty guys' asses in a combined physiological and mental prowess wankfest, I also have almost no idea what to do with myself when I just yank the one run a day out of my schedule. Usually that marks the height (in my mind) of my productivity during the day. You're actually out there just...improving yourself. I'm not sure that can be said for too many other things I do during my day, but maybe I'm being a bit too hard on said other things.
Right now all I've seriously considered doing for the next two weeks or so is:
* changing the oil in the RX-8 (I should do that after I finish this...)
* getting the unholy dent in it estimated / fixed
* taking said vehicle to lime rock or another track to try my hand at autocross (why not?)
* reading all the books in my towering stack
* picking up some new jams
* resumption of any & all wildly unrealistic creative endeavors
* complaining about how my ceiling fan does not work while I sip on lemonade and ponder future aerobic conquests
And so I am off to engage in that final bullet item.
I didn't have any wildly astonishing breakthrough races this year, just a series of Bubka-esque infinitesimal improvements. I did have a few serious clunkers - the 4:35 mile during indoors was pretty breathtakingly bad. I'm still not sure what was up with that, but it didn't prove to be a pattern, so no worries. I also managed to run a pretty lackluster 3k coming off the flu, and a handful of mediocre 800s.
I also dropped my mile PR by 5 seconds, and my 1500m PR by .05 seconds. Heyo!
It's a little strange how the activities of our lives can provide the structure to our years that are not seen or felt by our peers not involved in those same activities. Certainly for students, up until graduation, there is a natural ebb and flow to the year; that summer marks the end and fall the beginning. Running tends to follow that same schedule, merely because it is convenient to piggyback upon the collegiate races and line up with the summer championships.
But it's also invisible to the people I work with, my family (somewhat), and just the everyday person on the street. My year has just ended. My labor is done - I reaped what I sowed. What cycle are they in the midst of, what unseen endeavor has just ended? It could be something as mundane as the NBA finals just finishing, or far more. I don't doubt the possibility of the latter. It's often that we are so taken with who we are and our place in the scheme of the world that we disregard the chance of another's importance. It's probably necessary to our survival (once upon a time, physical...and now just emotional and mental) to put ourselves foremost.
At the same time that it is necessary to have some time off to rejuvenate both my will to kick other pasty guys' asses in a combined physiological and mental prowess wankfest, I also have almost no idea what to do with myself when I just yank the one run a day out of my schedule. Usually that marks the height (in my mind) of my productivity during the day. You're actually out there just...improving yourself. I'm not sure that can be said for too many other things I do during my day, but maybe I'm being a bit too hard on said other things.
Right now all I've seriously considered doing for the next two weeks or so is:
* changing the oil in the RX-8 (I should do that after I finish this...)
* getting the unholy dent in it estimated / fixed
* taking said vehicle to lime rock or another track to try my hand at autocross (why not?)
* reading all the books in my towering stack
* picking up some new jams
* resumption of any & all wildly unrealistic creative endeavors
* complaining about how my ceiling fan does not work while I sip on lemonade and ponder future aerobic conquests
And so I am off to engage in that final bullet item.
Recent Rad Musical Discoveries
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Persefone - Fall To Rise
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4EbeNjKdA
I put this song on my ipod a while ago while perusing a list of albums coming out in 2010 - some fellow on the internet recommended it. I'd listened to some of their stuff ("Core", maybe? or is that another band?) a while ago and didn't find it super appealing, but hey, new music. I'm willing to give it a shot all day.
And man, this is exactly what I was looking for! It's spastic, heavy, and melodic...and made by a band from Andorra - I bet that it's the first and last time you'll ever hear death metal from there. It's kind of strange that they decided to pick a Japanese theme for their album, but it's such a strong song that the small weird touches just blend into the whole.
The album is called Shin-Ken, by the way - I'm probably going to have to add it on my stack of 'to purchase soon.'
Dream Theater - The Count of Tuscany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuCNSm3Tb0 (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Og1j7EKElE (part 2)
Probably one of the favorite songs I have listened to in...the past couple years. I'm a sucker for really long songs, but sometimes I just don't get around to listening to them for quite a while. Thus, the Dream Theater album this song is from is from 2009 - just randomly heard it while driving back home from a race on Sunday.
It's long and maybe a little meandering in the middle, but stick around for the ending. I didn't know what was coming, and found myself doing about 90 mph by the end of the song unintentionally. It's good. Trust me.
Gorillaz - Stylo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs
I haven't ever really listened to Gorillaz - I think my cousin Ben played me something of theirs off their debut album a few years ago, but it didn't really make an impression, which probably meant I didn't think it was that good. By all accounts, their latest effort ("Plastic Beach," wherein Stylo is contained) is a good deal more poppy and accessible than anything they've done before.
Crack recap: Gorillaz is a virtual hip hop group, nominally composed of four members who don't really exist, but really mostly cobbled together by some guy from England who drags in a lot of guest artists. Yeah, I'm not sure I get the idea behind it either, but the beat and Mos Def work really well together on this one. I tend to get it stuck in my head during interval workouts, which I'm pretty sure is a good thing.
Solution .45 - Lethean Tears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6W7wNlUxyM
Solution .45 is Christian Alvestam's new project (after leaving Scar Symmetry after "Holographic Universe"). I'm not sure if the music measures up to what Scar Symmetry was writing, but the vocal lines in this song are pretty boss. Sadly, it's not really representative of the rest of the album.
As an aside, I'm a little disappointed in the lyrics - Mikael Stanne wrote them and they are BAD! And I quote...
"A can of worms / incisive burns / of the dark."
What?
Crime In Stereo - I Am Everything I Am Not
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pe62mqrMGI
I hadn't ever heard of Crime In Stereo before; the album cover of "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone" caught my eye, I read some reviews, and voila - here I am. They're a slightly experimental hardcore band - they have some moments here and there where they don't sound anything like their more traditional counterparts. This song does a pretty good job of showcasing what I think they're about - some really good melodies mixed with some really good, new ideas of what you can shove into a hardcore song and still have it be cohesive.
Turin Brakes - Sea Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fawhVcprjDA
Another band I'm not really familiar with at all - evidently they've been around since 1999. I'm not huge on folk rock, but this song is really solid. The rest of the songs on the album don't tickle me the way this one does - the driving beat and the string instruments coming in about halfway through adds a lot.
DM Stith - A Braid of Voices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGNYc5xkHP0
DM Stith is sort of like Sufjan Stevens, except I don't like Sufjan Stevens, and I like DM Stith. Something about the cornucopia of musical instruments in Stevens' music...it just feels abrasive and over the top. If I am listening to a singer-songwriter, I don't want over the top. So if you feel like Sufjan is an excessive loon...you should probably listen to this song.
Stith doesn't have a very intense voice, but the echoing repetition of his musical phrases is really eerie, haunting, and powerful. Definitely a case where less becomes more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm4EbeNjKdA
I put this song on my ipod a while ago while perusing a list of albums coming out in 2010 - some fellow on the internet recommended it. I'd listened to some of their stuff ("Core", maybe? or is that another band?) a while ago and didn't find it super appealing, but hey, new music. I'm willing to give it a shot all day.
And man, this is exactly what I was looking for! It's spastic, heavy, and melodic...and made by a band from Andorra - I bet that it's the first and last time you'll ever hear death metal from there. It's kind of strange that they decided to pick a Japanese theme for their album, but it's such a strong song that the small weird touches just blend into the whole.
The album is called Shin-Ken, by the way - I'm probably going to have to add it on my stack of 'to purchase soon.'
Dream Theater - The Count of Tuscany
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbuCNSm3Tb0 (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Og1j7EKElE (part 2)
Probably one of the favorite songs I have listened to in...the past couple years. I'm a sucker for really long songs, but sometimes I just don't get around to listening to them for quite a while. Thus, the Dream Theater album this song is from is from 2009 - just randomly heard it while driving back home from a race on Sunday.
It's long and maybe a little meandering in the middle, but stick around for the ending. I didn't know what was coming, and found myself doing about 90 mph by the end of the song unintentionally. It's good. Trust me.
Gorillaz - Stylo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs
I haven't ever really listened to Gorillaz - I think my cousin Ben played me something of theirs off their debut album a few years ago, but it didn't really make an impression, which probably meant I didn't think it was that good. By all accounts, their latest effort ("Plastic Beach," wherein Stylo is contained) is a good deal more poppy and accessible than anything they've done before.
Crack recap: Gorillaz is a virtual hip hop group, nominally composed of four members who don't really exist, but really mostly cobbled together by some guy from England who drags in a lot of guest artists. Yeah, I'm not sure I get the idea behind it either, but the beat and Mos Def work really well together on this one. I tend to get it stuck in my head during interval workouts, which I'm pretty sure is a good thing.
Solution .45 - Lethean Tears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6W7wNlUxyM
Solution .45 is Christian Alvestam's new project (after leaving Scar Symmetry after "Holographic Universe"). I'm not sure if the music measures up to what Scar Symmetry was writing, but the vocal lines in this song are pretty boss. Sadly, it's not really representative of the rest of the album.
As an aside, I'm a little disappointed in the lyrics - Mikael Stanne wrote them and they are BAD! And I quote...
"A can of worms / incisive burns / of the dark."
What?
Crime In Stereo - I Am Everything I Am Not
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pe62mqrMGI
I hadn't ever heard of Crime In Stereo before; the album cover of "I Was Trying To Describe You To Someone" caught my eye, I read some reviews, and voila - here I am. They're a slightly experimental hardcore band - they have some moments here and there where they don't sound anything like their more traditional counterparts. This song does a pretty good job of showcasing what I think they're about - some really good melodies mixed with some really good, new ideas of what you can shove into a hardcore song and still have it be cohesive.
Turin Brakes - Sea Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fawhVcprjDA
Another band I'm not really familiar with at all - evidently they've been around since 1999. I'm not huge on folk rock, but this song is really solid. The rest of the songs on the album don't tickle me the way this one does - the driving beat and the string instruments coming in about halfway through adds a lot.
DM Stith - A Braid of Voices
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGNYc5xkHP0
DM Stith is sort of like Sufjan Stevens, except I don't like Sufjan Stevens, and I like DM Stith. Something about the cornucopia of musical instruments in Stevens' music...it just feels abrasive and over the top. If I am listening to a singer-songwriter, I don't want over the top. So if you feel like Sufjan is an excessive loon...you should probably listen to this song.
Stith doesn't have a very intense voice, but the echoing repetition of his musical phrases is really eerie, haunting, and powerful. Definitely a case where less becomes more.
Windy MPW
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
A really nice week with some solid workouts gradually devolved into windy and rainy at the end. Boooo. I went to Icahn Stadium on Saturday to run the NYC Qualifying Challenge - didn't miss my race this time (probably solely due to Chris bringing it up every other workout this year - I owe him thanks) but it wasn't exactly a time to write home about. It's not a huge deal in the big scheme of things; I just would have liked to have a better idea of where I am currently at race-wise, as well as a confidence boost going into our 'home meets.'
After the meet I drove down to Millstone, NJ and watched Arnold Schwarzenegger cover himself in mud. What a quality film.
Sun: 57 mins, 8 mi
Mon: 32 mins, 5 mi
Tue: 48 mins, 6 mi warmup / cooldown
2k 1200 1200 400, 5R
6:31 3:30 3:28 57
surprisingly good workout. i usually loathe the 1200's but managed to actually hit the paces for once.
Wed: off
Thu: 48 mins, 6 mi warmup / cooldown
300 3R 4x150 250j 300
43, didn't time the 150's, 41
we actually had a huge crew for thursday. colin, brendan, paul, chris, tim, steve, and myself. 7 middle distance runners! what is the world coming to.
Fri: 49 mins, 7 mi
Sat: 35 min, 5 mi warmup / cooldown
4:07.00 at Icahn, 64 / 66 / 67 / 50.
tot: 43 miles, 302 minutes
After the meet I drove down to Millstone, NJ and watched Arnold Schwarzenegger cover himself in mud. What a quality film.
Sun: 57 mins, 8 mi
Mon: 32 mins, 5 mi
Tue: 48 mins, 6 mi warmup / cooldown
2k 1200 1200 400, 5R
6:31 3:30 3:28 57
surprisingly good workout. i usually loathe the 1200's but managed to actually hit the paces for once.
Wed: off
Thu: 48 mins, 6 mi warmup / cooldown
300 3R 4x150 250j 300
43, didn't time the 150's, 41
we actually had a huge crew for thursday. colin, brendan, paul, chris, tim, steve, and myself. 7 middle distance runners! what is the world coming to.
Fri: 49 mins, 7 mi
Sat: 35 min, 5 mi warmup / cooldown
4:07.00 at Icahn, 64 / 66 / 67 / 50.
tot: 43 miles, 302 minutes
Weak MPW
Sunday, May 2, 2010
A pretty lame week, mileage wise - the practices and race went pretty well, but that was all the running I did. I can't figure out if it was allergies or something else, but I felt like a piece of pizza that has been frozen and microwaved 3 times looks. Congested, muscle pain, sore throat - usually an indication I am about to get run over by the Mack truck that is influenza. So I basically didn't run on non-practice days, hoping to recover enough to be able to get on the track and do workouts - they're kind of more important this time of year anyhow. I'm not sure that this is normally what you should do when you get sick, but thankfully this illness wasn't severe enough that my lack of common sense did any real harm.
Sun: Brown Springtime Invite
7 mi warmup / cooldown w Alliette and Foote
1500m - 4:02.xx. 65 / 2:10 / 3:15-6 w 47-46 close
Good race! Cold and rainy, but this is a pretty spanking solid time for this early in the season, especially off a slower pace through 800m.
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
5x1200 60R - another cold and crappy day that improved as the workout went on. Managed to actually stick to the pace despite weather - all 3:50's.
Wed: off (still feeling awful)
Thurs: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 2x300 3x200
with Steve and Colin...can't think if anyone else was there.
Fri: still off (wtf, body)
Saturday: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 2x300 500 2x300 3x200 600
90R throughout except 10 minutes before the 600.
31, 31, 31, 46, 46, 1:18, 47, 47, 31, 31, 30, 1:26
REALLY GOOD
REALLY HOT
PICTURES WERE TAKEN
tot: 33 miles, 241 mins
I'm planning on getting back on the ball this week. One week down won't kill me this late in the game, considering my collegiate endeavors at the end of the season were mostly off of practices and biking for recovery days.
Sun: Brown Springtime Invite
7 mi warmup / cooldown w Alliette and Foote
1500m - 4:02.xx. 65 / 2:10 / 3:15-6 w 47-46 close
Good race! Cold and rainy, but this is a pretty spanking solid time for this early in the season, especially off a slower pace through 800m.
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
5x1200 60R - another cold and crappy day that improved as the workout went on. Managed to actually stick to the pace despite weather - all 3:50's.
Wed: off (still feeling awful)
Thurs: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 2x300 3x200
with Steve and Colin...can't think if anyone else was there.
Fri: still off (wtf, body)
Saturday: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 2x300 500 2x300 3x200 600
90R throughout except 10 minutes before the 600.
31, 31, 31, 46, 46, 1:18, 47, 47, 31, 31, 30, 1:26
REALLY GOOD
REALLY HOT
PICTURES WERE TAKEN
tot: 33 miles, 241 mins
I'm planning on getting back on the ball this week. One week down won't kill me this late in the game, considering my collegiate endeavors at the end of the season were mostly off of practices and biking for recovery days.
Double MPW
Sunday, April 25, 2010
week starting 4/11 -
Sun: off
Mon: 8.25 mi / 60 minutes
Tue: 8 mi warmup / cooldown / recov
6x800 2:30R - 2:20, 2:25, 2:22, 2:21, 2:21, 2:17
with kevin and colin. fuckin RAD!
Wed: 9 mi / 63 minutes
Thu: 6 warmup
6x200 60R - 29, 29, 29, 28, 28, 26
Fri: 5.25 mi / 37 minutes
Sat: 7 miles warmup / cooldown
1500 @ Northeastern 4:05.xx - 63 / 2:08 / 3:16 / 4:05
cold, wet. decent opener though - first half of the race was good, would have liked to race better in the second half.
49 miles / 339 minutes
week starting 4/18 -
Sun: 13 mi / 90 minutes
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
8x400 60R
66, 64, 67, 65, 64, 65, 64, 64
w/ Colin, Kevin, and Tim. another good one.
Wed: 10 mi / 71 minutes with Will in the morning
Thu: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 4x150 60R throughout
32, 31, 30, 19, 19, 19, 18
Fri: 9 mi / 61 minutes
Sat: 3.25 mi / 24 minutes - yes, i realize it's lame to only do as much as you need to get to 50 miles, but i was feeling a little trashy.
50 miles / 366 minutes
In general, the past three or four weeks have felt really, really good. I haven't had really any practices where I felt like mud, the weather has been mostly decent (compared to March) and I'm doing workouts where I feel comfortable at paces I haven't ever really run before.
In short, I am en fuego!
Sun: off
Mon: 8.25 mi / 60 minutes
Tue: 8 mi warmup / cooldown / recov
6x800 2:30R - 2:20, 2:25, 2:22, 2:21, 2:21, 2:17
with kevin and colin. fuckin RAD!
Wed: 9 mi / 63 minutes
Thu: 6 warmup
6x200 60R - 29, 29, 29, 28, 28, 26
Fri: 5.25 mi / 37 minutes
Sat: 7 miles warmup / cooldown
1500 @ Northeastern 4:05.xx - 63 / 2:08 / 3:16 / 4:05
cold, wet. decent opener though - first half of the race was good, would have liked to race better in the second half.
49 miles / 339 minutes
week starting 4/18 -
Sun: 13 mi / 90 minutes
Mon: off
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
8x400 60R
66, 64, 67, 65, 64, 65, 64, 64
w/ Colin, Kevin, and Tim. another good one.
Wed: 10 mi / 71 minutes with Will in the morning
Thu: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 4x150 60R throughout
32, 31, 30, 19, 19, 19, 18
Fri: 9 mi / 61 minutes
Sat: 3.25 mi / 24 minutes - yes, i realize it's lame to only do as much as you need to get to 50 miles, but i was feeling a little trashy.
50 miles / 366 minutes
In general, the past three or four weeks have felt really, really good. I haven't had really any practices where I felt like mud, the weather has been mostly decent (compared to March) and I'm doing workouts where I feel comfortable at paces I haven't ever really run before.
In short, I am en fuego!
Eddy Lee
Friday, April 16, 2010
So Eddy Lee broke 4 minutes in the 1500m today.
Letsrun.com can probably explain better than I can:
http://www.letsrun.com/2010/eddylee0416.php
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2270504
But the long and short of it, to me - a college kid posts on a message board that he wants to break 4 minutes for the 1500m - not the fastest time in the world by a long shot, but not necessarily easy. He says he won't stop until he does. One year passes and he gets a little closer but still quite a ways off - not necessarily doing the smartest training in the world, but he's on a college team. It's difficult to succeed under the best of circumstances when, well, you're not the most talented runner in the world - I empathize with him on that count. And his coaching is not necessarily the best, nor is college always the most ideal environment to be running fast.
I hopped onto the thread during my senior year's indoor season, because I was looking to do the same thing. I eventually ended up breaking 4 - not that year, but the next one. After, of course, moving to Boston, joining NBB, changing homes and jobs and cars and lives. And when I did, two of the people from that thread were at the meet, cheering. It kind of brought it full-circle for me - something I'd failed to accomplish in college was finally finished, and some of the people who knew what went into it were there to see it.
It's kind of the ultimate feel-good story - "Local boy does good." Except, as in almost all cases in real life, the 'doing good' is a lengthy process of years. Eddy Lee - whom I have never met in person - managed to take the really difficult task of actually doing what you say you will and made it happen. I'm always impressed by that. It's more about the dedication to the goal through tough places and long weeks than it being an Olympic quality time.
Eddy Lee - the running everyman! Through the rough California weather, the coaching, the illness, the altitude, the nay-sayers, the injuries, and everything else - you have persevered. You said you wouldn't give up, so you didn't.
AMEN!
Letsrun.com can probably explain better than I can:
http://www.letsrun.com/2010/eddylee0416.php
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2270504
But the long and short of it, to me - a college kid posts on a message board that he wants to break 4 minutes for the 1500m - not the fastest time in the world by a long shot, but not necessarily easy. He says he won't stop until he does. One year passes and he gets a little closer but still quite a ways off - not necessarily doing the smartest training in the world, but he's on a college team. It's difficult to succeed under the best of circumstances when, well, you're not the most talented runner in the world - I empathize with him on that count. And his coaching is not necessarily the best, nor is college always the most ideal environment to be running fast.
I hopped onto the thread during my senior year's indoor season, because I was looking to do the same thing. I eventually ended up breaking 4 - not that year, but the next one. After, of course, moving to Boston, joining NBB, changing homes and jobs and cars and lives. And when I did, two of the people from that thread were at the meet, cheering. It kind of brought it full-circle for me - something I'd failed to accomplish in college was finally finished, and some of the people who knew what went into it were there to see it.
It's kind of the ultimate feel-good story - "Local boy does good." Except, as in almost all cases in real life, the 'doing good' is a lengthy process of years. Eddy Lee - whom I have never met in person - managed to take the really difficult task of actually doing what you say you will and made it happen. I'm always impressed by that. It's more about the dedication to the goal through tough places and long weeks than it being an Olympic quality time.
Eddy Lee - the running everyman! Through the rough California weather, the coaching, the illness, the altitude, the nay-sayers, the injuries, and everything else - you have persevered. You said you wouldn't give up, so you didn't.
AMEN!
MPW
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Pretty solid week. I'm not looking to do really anything besides keep it steady at 50 a week - no reason to go down, and no real reason to go up, either. My history with injury is well-defined enough that I'm willing to lounge at this mileage and just ride my fitness (or lack thereof) till the season's end.
Sun: 71 mins, 10 mi with Will at Battle Road
Mon: 60 mins, 8.25 mi
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 x (3 x 300 90R) 5R
48, 48, 48, 46, 46, 47, 42, 44, 43
Good, once we got movin' - Kevin, Steve, Colin, and I.
Wed: 53 mins, 8.25 mi
Tried Steve's "SLAY EVERY RUN WITH FIRE" routine. Felt okay, but not likely to repeat. Probably going too slow for his mucho cajones, anyhow.
Thurs: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 40R (4R) 2x300 60R (4R) 3x200 40R
29, 29, 29, 43, 44, 28, 29, 28
w/ Steve and Colin - solid, but windy.
Fri: off
Sat: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 x (600 30R 200) 4R between sets
1:36, 29
1:37, 29
1:37, 29
w/ Steve, Tim. Cold and windy! Felt pretty okay considering those 600's were mile pace, and that's about my least favorite pace to run a 600 at.
tot: 49 miles (ugh), 372 mins
Sun: 71 mins, 10 mi with Will at Battle Road
Mon: 60 mins, 8.25 mi
Tue: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 x (3 x 300 90R) 5R
48, 48, 48, 46, 46, 47, 42, 44, 43
Good, once we got movin' - Kevin, Steve, Colin, and I.
Wed: 53 mins, 8.25 mi
Tried Steve's "SLAY EVERY RUN WITH FIRE" routine. Felt okay, but not likely to repeat. Probably going too slow for his mucho cajones, anyhow.
Thurs: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3x200 40R (4R) 2x300 60R (4R) 3x200 40R
29, 29, 29, 43, 44, 28, 29, 28
w/ Steve and Colin - solid, but windy.
Fri: off
Sat: 6 mi warmup / cooldown
3 x (600 30R 200) 4R between sets
1:36, 29
1:37, 29
1:37, 29
w/ Steve, Tim. Cold and windy! Felt pretty okay considering those 600's were mile pace, and that's about my least favorite pace to run a 600 at.
tot: 49 miles (ugh), 372 mins
MPW
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Pretty good week. The sun is shining! The birds are singing! My beard is gone! Clearly the three are correlated. I think I'm also pretty far ahead of where I was last year in workouts - the 500, 300, 200 workout last year around this time was significantly slower (also, significantly tougher-feeling). Today's felt really good - maybe a sign that I should have worked on the 500 a little harder, but c'est la vie.
Sun: 68 mins, 10 mi with Will at Wellesley.
Mon: Off.
Tue: 6 mi warmup
6x600 eq rest - 1:44, 1:43, 1:43, 1:43, 1:44, 1:44. This was pretty tough. Everyone else looked good and I was barely hanging on.
Wed: 58 min, 8.25 mi
Thu: First outdoor practice! I may have too quickly changed to t-shirts - it gets pretty cold at night - but who cares.
6 mi warmup
6x200 90R - 29, 29, 29, 28, 28, 28. Felt easy (as it should).
Fri: 52 mins, 7.25 mi
Sat: 6 mi warmup
4x 500 (300j) 300 (200j) 200 (500j)
1:20, 47, 32
1:22, 48, 32
1:22, 48, 31
1:21, 47, 30
Solid! Amazing weather. My newly-bald head is slightly sunburnt. I want to try and run all 7 days next week - work will be a little less wild and that'll help, energy-wise.
51 miles, 377 minutes
Sun: 68 mins, 10 mi with Will at Wellesley.
Mon: Off.
Tue: 6 mi warmup
6x600 eq rest - 1:44, 1:43, 1:43, 1:43, 1:44, 1:44. This was pretty tough. Everyone else looked good and I was barely hanging on.
Wed: 58 min, 8.25 mi
Thu: First outdoor practice! I may have too quickly changed to t-shirts - it gets pretty cold at night - but who cares.
6 mi warmup
6x200 90R - 29, 29, 29, 28, 28, 28. Felt easy (as it should).
Fri: 52 mins, 7.25 mi
Sat: 6 mi warmup
4x 500 (300j) 300 (200j) 200 (500j)
1:20, 47, 32
1:22, 48, 32
1:22, 48, 31
1:21, 47, 30
Solid! Amazing weather. My newly-bald head is slightly sunburnt. I want to try and run all 7 days next week - work will be a little less wild and that'll help, energy-wise.
51 miles, 377 minutes
MPW
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sun: 1h46m, 14.5 miles with Will at Battle Road
Mon: 41m, 5.75 miles
Tue: 44 min, 6 mile warmup
8x800 w 2R. 2:24, 2:24, 2:24, 2:24, 2:27, 2:25, 2:29, 2:30
Things got a little...messy at the end. Not super-thrilled with the last two, but at least it was a fairly hard effort. Got dropped.
Wed: Off.
Thu: 44 min, 6 mile warmup
8x150, 250 jog. Felt like I was on some super-awesome JUICE for a few of them - when you really are moving fast, at least for me, you get kind of airborne.
Fri: 53 min, 7.5 miles
Sat: 30 min, 4.25 mile warmup
16 x 30 second at Heartbreak. Pretty terrible - windy and didn't feel great.
377 minutes, 55 miles
Mon: 41m, 5.75 miles
Tue: 44 min, 6 mile warmup
8x800 w 2R. 2:24, 2:24, 2:24, 2:24, 2:27, 2:25, 2:29, 2:30
Things got a little...messy at the end. Not super-thrilled with the last two, but at least it was a fairly hard effort. Got dropped.
Wed: Off.
Thu: 44 min, 6 mile warmup
8x150, 250 jog. Felt like I was on some super-awesome JUICE for a few of them - when you really are moving fast, at least for me, you get kind of airborne.
Fri: 53 min, 7.5 miles
Sat: 30 min, 4.25 mile warmup
16 x 30 second at Heartbreak. Pretty terrible - windy and didn't feel great.
377 minutes, 55 miles
Vroom
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Somewhere along the line, when I was a teenager, I started becoming enamored of cars. Surprising, I know. I'm a male, with a sizable portion of testosterone - and I loved explosions and big guns and jet planes and World War 2. Cars didn't really get their meathooks into me until I was in high school, though, and it happened vaguely independently of any outside input. I just started...noticing them, for some reason.
I can, in fact, point to one probable source of the beginnings of my interest, but to admit it publicly would be shameful to the extreme.
One thing I did was, just upon being driven around as a high schooler (I was young for my grade and did not get my full license until my senior year) was just to notice what was around me. Washington, Pennsylvania is not the most affluent city in the nation. It's not even close. It appears that it is the 2387th most affluent city in Pennsylvania, with a per capita income of $14,818. I nominally lived in East Washington (by about 100 feet) which is 114th, but East Washington is about the size of a thimble. Not even a real thimble, the Monopoly playing piece thimble.
So...what I noticed was a lot of awful, green-colored Chevy Cavaliers (the third generation model), a fair share of Ford Tercels, Geo Metros, and my retired neighbor's Lincoln Town Car (in baby blue). Amidst all the detritus of mid-90's automotive engineering, I eventually became the proud mutual caretaker of one 1989 Buick Le Sabre T Type - oh yes, I had the sporty version. In high school I thought it was an abomination, but I eventually had a fondness for it creep up on me, like a kudzu vine on a particularly immobile stone wall. It was a mid-size car with plenty of room in the back, which was actually a little astonishing to some of my friends who drove Toyota & Honda beaters from the same time period. It also had really low mileage for its age - my grandfather, who bought it, did not drive particularly much, and my father (whom I shared it with) walks to work. Lucky bastard.
It also got around 30mpg, had a V6 with a displacement with the volume of all 4 of a cow's stomachs, and only had one real problem with it in 6 years of driving - the headlights failed coming back at night from a date. We had seen "Phantom of the Opera" (the movie). Not a great movie. An awful date.
Eventually I ripped out the no-longer-functioning tape deck, put in a stereo that could hook up to an iPod, and drove around feeling somewhat like a king. If you use a thing enough, and it has some...element of humanity to it, some customization or design that lends itself to uniqueness instead of ubiquity, then it becomes linked with you and you with it. You use a toothbrush every day - or at least hopefully do - but you wouldn't become attached to it. It's commonplace! Thousands of people have that toothbrush, and yours is indistinguishable from their's. Cars, however, are different - the little things build up.
For the Buick: noone else in my town drove a white '89 Le Sabre. You saw it on the road, it was either myself or my father. From there the flow chart for figuring out who was relatively simple:
I can, in fact, point to one probable source of the beginnings of my interest, but to admit it publicly would be shameful to the extreme.
One thing I did was, just upon being driven around as a high schooler (I was young for my grade and did not get my full license until my senior year) was just to notice what was around me. Washington, Pennsylvania is not the most affluent city in the nation. It's not even close. It appears that it is the 2387th most affluent city in Pennsylvania, with a per capita income of $14,818. I nominally lived in East Washington (by about 100 feet) which is 114th, but East Washington is about the size of a thimble. Not even a real thimble, the Monopoly playing piece thimble.
So...what I noticed was a lot of awful, green-colored Chevy Cavaliers (the third generation model), a fair share of Ford Tercels, Geo Metros, and my retired neighbor's Lincoln Town Car (in baby blue). Amidst all the detritus of mid-90's automotive engineering, I eventually became the proud mutual caretaker of one 1989 Buick Le Sabre T Type - oh yes, I had the sporty version. In high school I thought it was an abomination, but I eventually had a fondness for it creep up on me, like a kudzu vine on a particularly immobile stone wall. It was a mid-size car with plenty of room in the back, which was actually a little astonishing to some of my friends who drove Toyota & Honda beaters from the same time period. It also had really low mileage for its age - my grandfather, who bought it, did not drive particularly much, and my father (whom I shared it with) walks to work. Lucky bastard.
It also got around 30mpg, had a V6 with a displacement with the volume of all 4 of a cow's stomachs, and only had one real problem with it in 6 years of driving - the headlights failed coming back at night from a date. We had seen "Phantom of the Opera" (the movie). Not a great movie. An awful date.
Eventually I ripped out the no-longer-functioning tape deck, put in a stereo that could hook up to an iPod, and drove around feeling somewhat like a king. If you use a thing enough, and it has some...element of humanity to it, some customization or design that lends itself to uniqueness instead of ubiquity, then it becomes linked with you and you with it. You use a toothbrush every day - or at least hopefully do - but you wouldn't become attached to it. It's commonplace! Thousands of people have that toothbrush, and yours is indistinguishable from their's. Cars, however, are different - the little things build up.
For the Buick: noone else in my town drove a white '89 Le Sabre. You saw it on the road, it was either myself or my father. From there the flow chart for figuring out who was relatively simple:
It also perpetually had glitter on the passenger seat in the front from my senior prom date. It was impossible to get rid of, even if I had tried very hard. Which I didn't - my will to clean is like my will to resist the clarion call of eating a lemon - nonexistent.
I mentioned that I ripped out the stereo and replaced it - it was also fairly rare that you would hear Swedish death metal coming from cars with open windows around my town. The knob on the end of the shifter on the steering column was missing - the hood ornament had fallen off - it had metal spoked hubcaps, for reasons unapparent - and both the front windows went up really slowly.
I drove this car around to almost every long run I did during the summer when I was in college, and it came up here to Massachusetts for the interview that eventually landed me my current job. I personally watched it tick past 150,000 miles (on the way back from a long run). I think it outlasted five girlfriends, five years of track, countless trips to Hendersonville to run when it was sunny, snowing, cold, raining, or bike when I was injured - a good many trips to WashPa's only respectable beer store, Capelli's - car pooling with Matt D. for quite a bit of high school - it was around for my first race ever (a 25 minute 5k, I'm gonna guess - I can't even remember) - and was still around for my last one in college. Its name was Kelly (not by choice! dealership decal on the back).
But all good things must end.
MPW
A good week to start, but ending badly with a fever and tons of rain.
Sun - 8.5 mi, 1h5m. At Williamstown - left the college campus after playing squash and just went any way that looked good. Unfortunately for me, 'any way' ended up being up a mile long uphill. I must have looked a sad sack of pale slow male.
Mon - 5 mi, 36m. Didn't feel like doing much.
Tue - 6 mi, 45m warmup / cooldown.
8x400 90R. Felt astoundingly good. 65, 64, 63, 63, 62, 62, 63, 61. Almost orgasmically so.
Wed - 9 mi, 67m.
Thu - 6 mi, 45m warmup / cooldown.
10x200 1R - mostly 30-31, a few 28-27 at the end. Not too bad.
Then Friday I felt like trash, slept a bunch to hopes that it was just an off-feeling day, and woke up Saturday with a fever. Not great today either but no fever - hope to be going again tomorrow.
So that is a rather shameful 37 miles for the week. I guess I can't be a winner all the time.
Sun - 8.5 mi, 1h5m. At Williamstown - left the college campus after playing squash and just went any way that looked good. Unfortunately for me, 'any way' ended up being up a mile long uphill. I must have looked a sad sack of pale slow male.
Mon - 5 mi, 36m. Didn't feel like doing much.
Tue - 6 mi, 45m warmup / cooldown.
8x400 90R. Felt astoundingly good. 65, 64, 63, 63, 62, 62, 63, 61. Almost orgasmically so.
Wed - 9 mi, 67m.
Thu - 6 mi, 45m warmup / cooldown.
10x200 1R - mostly 30-31, a few 28-27 at the end. Not too bad.
Then Friday I felt like trash, slept a bunch to hopes that it was just an off-feeling day, and woke up Saturday with a fever. Not great today either but no fever - hope to be going again tomorrow.
So that is a rather shameful 37 miles for the week. I guess I can't be a winner all the time.
MPW
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
A little delayed, but better late than never.
Sun: 1h56m w/ Will, 16ish miles.
Mon: Off - straight up passed out as soon as I got home.
Tue: 6 mi wu + cd, 6x800 2.5R. 2:23, 2:23, 2:24, 2:22, 2:22, 2:21. Felt good and not working too hard. Big crowd, too: Pete, Chris, Kevin, Fabian, New Guy, and myself.
Just as a personal reminder: this was the eve of Crispin's hilarious "Who is Chris? And who are you???" remarks (in case I need a chuckle some day).
Wed: 62 min, 8.5 mi - randomly passed by Avery while at the Res and finished up my last two laps with him. He was out just doing his two hour long run at 6:00 pace. No big deal.
Thu: 6.25 wu + cd, 8x150 250j + drills. No time on them, but they felt fast. Nice to have Reggie mostly to ourselves.
Fri: 85 min, 12 mi - early morning with Will. First one I've actually felt decent during in a while - need to get up at 6:30 to do it, though.
Sat: 45:30 wu+cd (6.25 mi) - 4 x Heartbreak. Felt good, except that my hip flexor was still kinda buggin. Feels better as of me writing this, though.
total: 61.46 mi / 449 mins
Sun: 1h56m w/ Will, 16ish miles.
Mon: Off - straight up passed out as soon as I got home.
Tue: 6 mi wu + cd, 6x800 2.5R. 2:23, 2:23, 2:24, 2:22, 2:22, 2:21. Felt good and not working too hard. Big crowd, too: Pete, Chris, Kevin, Fabian, New Guy, and myself.
Just as a personal reminder: this was the eve of Crispin's hilarious "Who is Chris? And who are you???" remarks (in case I need a chuckle some day).
Wed: 62 min, 8.5 mi - randomly passed by Avery while at the Res and finished up my last two laps with him. He was out just doing his two hour long run at 6:00 pace. No big deal.
Thu: 6.25 wu + cd, 8x150 250j + drills. No time on them, but they felt fast. Nice to have Reggie mostly to ourselves.
Fri: 85 min, 12 mi - early morning with Will. First one I've actually felt decent during in a while - need to get up at 6:30 to do it, though.
Sat: 45:30 wu+cd (6.25 mi) - 4 x Heartbreak. Felt good, except that my hip flexor was still kinda buggin. Feels better as of me writing this, though.
total: 61.46 mi / 449 mins
MPW
Monday, March 1, 2010
Not the grandest week ever, but this week should be a bit better - the past one involved buying a car, which was a tad tricky to architect with everything else going on.
Sun - 4.5 mi, 800m race - not thrilled with the 2:01 but there was quite the tangle with 250m to go.
Mon - 8 mi, 61 min
Tues - 6.5 mi wu + cd
5x1200 3R - 3:45, 3:46, 3:45, 3:48, 3:49
Felt pretty hard, but we haven't done five minute pace stuff in quite a while.
Wed - Off, picking up car / signing / etc etc.
Thurs - 6 mi wu + cd
Drills + 7 x 200 90 R (mostly 28's, some 29's and 27's)
Fri - 8.25 mi, 64 mins
Sat - 7 mi wu + cd
10x1 min uphill at Heartbreak. Died a slow painful death warming down, had to actually stop to walk - saw Joanie on my way back (she was headed there). Promptly ate 3 bananas, 1 apple, half a block of cheese, and drank a liter of grape juice - and then had lunch - after getting back home.
total 48.5 mi, 354 mins
Sun - 4.5 mi, 800m race - not thrilled with the 2:01 but there was quite the tangle with 250m to go.
Mon - 8 mi, 61 min
Tues - 6.5 mi wu + cd
5x1200 3R - 3:45, 3:46, 3:45, 3:48, 3:49
Felt pretty hard, but we haven't done five minute pace stuff in quite a while.
Wed - Off, picking up car / signing / etc etc.
Thurs - 6 mi wu + cd
Drills + 7 x 200 90 R (mostly 28's, some 29's and 27's)
Fri - 8.25 mi, 64 mins
Sat - 7 mi wu + cd
10x1 min uphill at Heartbreak. Died a slow painful death warming down, had to actually stop to walk - saw Joanie on my way back (she was headed there). Promptly ate 3 bananas, 1 apple, half a block of cheese, and drank a liter of grape juice - and then had lunch - after getting back home.
total 48.5 mi, 354 mins
Sylvia and Rats
Saturday, February 27, 2010
I went to see a show with Mr. Crabtree this past week - one of his favorite bands, The Editors, was playing at the House of Blues (with one anonymous act and The Antlers opening). I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I didn't know either before he suggested the manly outing, nor did I listen extensively before the show.
I usually would prefer to know the band pretty well before a show; there's definitely something impressive about the connection you can feel to a live performance when you know the path the music is going to take, and you can feel all the ways that it's different from listening to it from the recording.
Usually it's as simple as the fact that the house audio engineer, no matter how good he is, can't replicate the sound they had when recording - and to compensate he has cranked them up to 120% of the volume that is healthy for your eardrums. The Antlers, for sure, employed a bass drum kick that was more forceful than strictly necessary.
In some other cases, it's subtle or wild deviations from the existing song as it was written. When I went to see Sonata Arctica in New York City in...2006?, in the middle of their song "Last Drop Falls," they drop into a reggaeton breakdown (in the middle of a power metal ballad). Completely unexpected, but awesome. The show also featured a call-and-response version with the audience of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm."
Other changes, of course, could just be that the show is pulsating with energy - that there are very small improvisations in terms of instrumentation - or that a song ends up having an extra five minutes added to the end. Anyhoo -
The opening act before the Antlers sort of slipped my mind - they weren't exceptionally notable to me, kind of a folky version of indie rock that really wasn't quite in my ballpark. After that, I didn't really know what to expect but the Antlers picked the show back up for me. It's only a three person band, but widely employs effects and echoes and keyboards to fill out the sound.
Most of their songs are just plays on dynamics - slow, low and soft followed by high, loud, and pounding. It's formulaic but it doesn't mean that it's a bad formula, or one that's not commonly employed. And they execute it well - their lead singer has a deft touch with his falsetto and the music complements it perfectly. I'm not sure his voice would be as acceptable in any other band.
I'd highly recommend listening to their song "Sylvia" about ten or fifteen times on repeat - the album it is from, "Hospice", is on my "need to buy." The live video of them on Youtube in DC is well worth the watch for the live rendition of "Bear" halfway through it.
http://www.myspace.com/theantlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4v2AyU4HAo ("Bear" is at 6:45, though you should probably listen to the whole 20 minutes)
Then the Editors came on for their set - their singer with a questionable haircut and their bassist in a sport coat and jeans. I'm always a little interested in what people look like when they play their shows; in a way, what they choose to look like is exactly the image they want to present to hundreds and hundreds of people as they potentially reveal the things that are closest to their heart.
A lot of their songs, as well as the Antlers, were just a wash of huge noise to me - not because the concert's volume was too much for my ears, but because both bands just employ such a barrage of sounds. The Editors had a keyboard on stage for both the vocalist and the bassist, and an extensive guitar pedal rack for the guitarist.
I'm having difficulty remembering which songs actually stood out for me during the concert; I've colored the experience a little bit by listening to their albums ex post facto. (Am I using that phrase correctly in this context?)
The one that I definitely do remember standing out is "Escape the Nest" - the actual chorus guitar line may slightly annoy me, but the buildup to that moment is fantastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlFpCdfEz08 (from 1:25 onwards till the resolution). I love the effect that his very resonant voice has when paired with the soaring, frenetic guitar.
After the concert itself, I've been stuck on listening to:
"An End Has A Start" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMKEHQqREMo (don't ask me what's up with the legions of leotard-wearing-women..)
"Racing Rats" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcActzIwFkY (the slightly-out-of-tune guitar drives me a little batty but what an amazing chorus)
"Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Z9DIH_FAA (the moment after he sings "run as fast as you can" is pretty much the perfect piece of music to play then)
I usually would prefer to know the band pretty well before a show; there's definitely something impressive about the connection you can feel to a live performance when you know the path the music is going to take, and you can feel all the ways that it's different from listening to it from the recording.
Usually it's as simple as the fact that the house audio engineer, no matter how good he is, can't replicate the sound they had when recording - and to compensate he has cranked them up to 120% of the volume that is healthy for your eardrums. The Antlers, for sure, employed a bass drum kick that was more forceful than strictly necessary.
In some other cases, it's subtle or wild deviations from the existing song as it was written. When I went to see Sonata Arctica in New York City in...2006?, in the middle of their song "Last Drop Falls," they drop into a reggaeton breakdown (in the middle of a power metal ballad). Completely unexpected, but awesome. The show also featured a call-and-response version with the audience of "Old MacDonald Had A Farm."
Other changes, of course, could just be that the show is pulsating with energy - that there are very small improvisations in terms of instrumentation - or that a song ends up having an extra five minutes added to the end. Anyhoo -
The opening act before the Antlers sort of slipped my mind - they weren't exceptionally notable to me, kind of a folky version of indie rock that really wasn't quite in my ballpark. After that, I didn't really know what to expect but the Antlers picked the show back up for me. It's only a three person band, but widely employs effects and echoes and keyboards to fill out the sound.
Most of their songs are just plays on dynamics - slow, low and soft followed by high, loud, and pounding. It's formulaic but it doesn't mean that it's a bad formula, or one that's not commonly employed. And they execute it well - their lead singer has a deft touch with his falsetto and the music complements it perfectly. I'm not sure his voice would be as acceptable in any other band.
I'd highly recommend listening to their song "Sylvia" about ten or fifteen times on repeat - the album it is from, "Hospice", is on my "need to buy." The live video of them on Youtube in DC is well worth the watch for the live rendition of "Bear" halfway through it.
http://www.myspace.com/theantlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4v2AyU4HAo ("Bear" is at 6:45, though you should probably listen to the whole 20 minutes)
Then the Editors came on for their set - their singer with a questionable haircut and their bassist in a sport coat and jeans. I'm always a little interested in what people look like when they play their shows; in a way, what they choose to look like is exactly the image they want to present to hundreds and hundreds of people as they potentially reveal the things that are closest to their heart.
A lot of their songs, as well as the Antlers, were just a wash of huge noise to me - not because the concert's volume was too much for my ears, but because both bands just employ such a barrage of sounds. The Editors had a keyboard on stage for both the vocalist and the bassist, and an extensive guitar pedal rack for the guitarist.
I'm having difficulty remembering which songs actually stood out for me during the concert; I've colored the experience a little bit by listening to their albums ex post facto. (Am I using that phrase correctly in this context?)
The one that I definitely do remember standing out is "Escape the Nest" - the actual chorus guitar line may slightly annoy me, but the buildup to that moment is fantastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlFpCdfEz08 (from 1:25 onwards till the resolution). I love the effect that his very resonant voice has when paired with the soaring, frenetic guitar.
After the concert itself, I've been stuck on listening to:
"An End Has A Start" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMKEHQqREMo (don't ask me what's up with the legions of leotard-wearing-women..)
"Racing Rats" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcActzIwFkY (the slightly-out-of-tune guitar drives me a little batty but what an amazing chorus)
"Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Z9DIH_FAA (the moment after he sings "run as fast as you can" is pretty much the perfect piece of music to play then)
MPW
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sun: 14 mi / 1h43mins
Mon: 6 mi warmup
2k 12 12 4 (constant 4 minutes rest)
6:34, 3:36, 3:34, 59 w Chris
Tues: 6.75 mi / 51 mins
Wed: 6 mi warmup
11x200 1R
30, 29, 30, 29, 29
29, 29, 29
28, 28
26
(probably the best instance of 11x2 I've run yet - hoping it means something good that I can run 26es at this juncture of the season)
Thu: 9 mi / 1h7mins
Friday: 5 mi / 38 mins
Saturday: 6.5 mi / 49 mins warmup
mile at Tufts, 65 / 65 / 67 / 68 for a 4:25
Felt okay - a little bit of a struggle too early though. I also didn't ever really pick it up to close, which was stupid.
total: 59.1 miles / 435 minutes
Mon: 6 mi warmup
2k 12 12 4 (constant 4 minutes rest)
6:34, 3:36, 3:34, 59 w Chris
Tues: 6.75 mi / 51 mins
Wed: 6 mi warmup
11x200 1R
30, 29, 30, 29, 29
29, 29, 29
28, 28
26
(probably the best instance of 11x2 I've run yet - hoping it means something good that I can run 26es at this juncture of the season)
Thu: 9 mi / 1h7mins
Friday: 5 mi / 38 mins
Saturday: 6.5 mi / 49 mins warmup
mile at Tufts, 65 / 65 / 67 / 68 for a 4:25
Felt okay - a little bit of a struggle too early though. I also didn't ever really pick it up to close, which was stupid.
total: 59.1 miles / 435 minutes
Seven Songs For Seven Somethings
Monday, February 8, 2010
Maybe weeks would be more appropriate at this juncture? I am gonna keep it short so this is not quite the monumental endeavor that it normally is.
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Whatever you think of funk, guitar, George Clinton, or Eddie Hazel, you better like this song. The sound is just outright ferocious - there's an apocryphal story that Clinton told Hazel to play "like his mother had just died." I would say that's a pretty apt description; the man sounds like his soul is on fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3bleXWaCk
Manowar - Odin
Besides my fascination with all things Norse, this song has some of my favorite elements of music - ever. One thing I tend to get giddy over is when a song by a band pulls in small parts of another song; here, Manowar pulls in bits of "Army of the Dead" off the same album. The piece they repeat is actually another of my favorite things: giant vocal melodies layered to create insane harmonies. The solo leading into the gang chorus isn't too bad either. Manowar's vocalist's name escapes me at the moment, but the particular piece where he lets it rip really showcases how good this super cheesy band can be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epDVnBvCFIs
XV - Awesome
I would like to pat myself on the back for finding yet another not-too-well-known hip hop guy with catchy-as-fuck songs and upbeat lyrics. Good job, me. And good job to XV for producing an intelligent, classy mixtape full of some really good songs. I'll be curious to hear a more recent full length (hopefully coming up soon).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaJDfBUw-XM
Nevermore - Sell My Heart For Stones
I'm not actually a big fan of Nevermore. They're pretty well-accepted as ballin' in the world of extreme metal - they don't fuck around with making big, complex songs with strong lyrical and music content. It might be the singer's voice - Warrel Dane has a strange, highly affected style - high and tremulous at points. When he wants to open up, though, it's really impressive. That's exactly what the chorus in this song is - slamming drums and guitars and Warrel Dane letting it rip. Well worth a listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afYDNN8HoK0
Jurgen Vries - The Theme
I suppose this is the song that doesn't belong. I have a little bit of a soft spot for electronic music that is impossibly infectious, and this qualifies. Try listening once to the main line and not having it in your head for a few weeks.
Good luck.
PS: I've had a devil of a time actually finding where you can legally procure the vocal mix of this song - if anyone knows, I'd appreciate it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQ3blJcQ5A
Mercenary - Lost Reality
Mercenary is one of the many bands in the second wave of melodic death metal that I feel like, in general, encompasses acts like Skyfire, Kalmah, Noumena, Insomnium, etc. There were far more, of course, but those are the few that really have survived and not been winnowed out by the cruel cullers of unoriginality that are music listeners.
Lyrically this song is a little weak, sadly - I often mishear the higher sung words and hope or imagine they're something more awesome than what they are. But the music is what Mercenary does well - driving aggressive songs full of melody and good singing contrasted with distorted vocals and more difficult blasting sections of rhythm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ov5SSVobm0
The Alan Parsons Project - Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
I've been listening to the Alan Parsons Project for about as long as I've been listening to music in general. The band accompanies Survivor, Steely Dan, Huey Lewis, Toto, the Police, and Steve Winwood as the first real stuff I paid attention to when it was playing in our house. There was plenty more played than that, of course - my dad has a terrible habit of putting on Handel or other classical music when he is grading papers, but I wasn't particularly interested in hearing any of it. Especially since he seemed to think that since he was working, everyone else should be as well.
The Alan Parsons Project is interesting in that its a rotating cast of musicians and singers - and thus the tone of songs can drastically vary inside an album as the singers interchange. Adding to that, the albums themselves are usually pretty strongly stuck on one theme; one takes its name from Isaac Aasimov's most famous novel, another is based on gambling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8suW-JBzE
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Whatever you think of funk, guitar, George Clinton, or Eddie Hazel, you better like this song. The sound is just outright ferocious - there's an apocryphal story that Clinton told Hazel to play "like his mother had just died." I would say that's a pretty apt description; the man sounds like his soul is on fire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh3bleXWaCk
Manowar - Odin
Besides my fascination with all things Norse, this song has some of my favorite elements of music - ever. One thing I tend to get giddy over is when a song by a band pulls in small parts of another song; here, Manowar pulls in bits of "Army of the Dead" off the same album. The piece they repeat is actually another of my favorite things: giant vocal melodies layered to create insane harmonies. The solo leading into the gang chorus isn't too bad either. Manowar's vocalist's name escapes me at the moment, but the particular piece where he lets it rip really showcases how good this super cheesy band can be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epDVnBvCFIs
XV - Awesome
I would like to pat myself on the back for finding yet another not-too-well-known hip hop guy with catchy-as-fuck songs and upbeat lyrics. Good job, me. And good job to XV for producing an intelligent, classy mixtape full of some really good songs. I'll be curious to hear a more recent full length (hopefully coming up soon).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaJDfBUw-XM
Nevermore - Sell My Heart For Stones
I'm not actually a big fan of Nevermore. They're pretty well-accepted as ballin' in the world of extreme metal - they don't fuck around with making big, complex songs with strong lyrical and music content. It might be the singer's voice - Warrel Dane has a strange, highly affected style - high and tremulous at points. When he wants to open up, though, it's really impressive. That's exactly what the chorus in this song is - slamming drums and guitars and Warrel Dane letting it rip. Well worth a listen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afYDNN8HoK0
Jurgen Vries - The Theme
I suppose this is the song that doesn't belong. I have a little bit of a soft spot for electronic music that is impossibly infectious, and this qualifies. Try listening once to the main line and not having it in your head for a few weeks.
Good luck.
PS: I've had a devil of a time actually finding where you can legally procure the vocal mix of this song - if anyone knows, I'd appreciate it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrQ3blJcQ5A
Mercenary - Lost Reality
Mercenary is one of the many bands in the second wave of melodic death metal that I feel like, in general, encompasses acts like Skyfire, Kalmah, Noumena, Insomnium, etc. There were far more, of course, but those are the few that really have survived and not been winnowed out by the cruel cullers of unoriginality that are music listeners.
Lyrically this song is a little weak, sadly - I often mishear the higher sung words and hope or imagine they're something more awesome than what they are. But the music is what Mercenary does well - driving aggressive songs full of melody and good singing contrasted with distorted vocals and more difficult blasting sections of rhythm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ov5SSVobm0
The Alan Parsons Project - Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
I've been listening to the Alan Parsons Project for about as long as I've been listening to music in general. The band accompanies Survivor, Steely Dan, Huey Lewis, Toto, the Police, and Steve Winwood as the first real stuff I paid attention to when it was playing in our house. There was plenty more played than that, of course - my dad has a terrible habit of putting on Handel or other classical music when he is grading papers, but I wasn't particularly interested in hearing any of it. Especially since he seemed to think that since he was working, everyone else should be as well.
The Alan Parsons Project is interesting in that its a rotating cast of musicians and singers - and thus the tone of songs can drastically vary inside an album as the singers interchange. Adding to that, the albums themselves are usually pretty strongly stuck on one theme; one takes its name from Isaac Aasimov's most famous novel, another is based on gambling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8suW-JBzE
MPW
Saturday, January 30, 2010
A slightly better week than the last two.
Sun: 6 mi warmup / cooldown, 1 terrible mile in 4:35
Mon: 7 mi
Tue: 8.25 mi
Wed: 7.75 mi
8x300 3R w/ Chris and Steve - felt pretty good, overall. Wish I could drop a few 41's right now but ain't happenin. 44's at the beginning, then down to 43's.
Thu: 8 mi
Fri: 6.25 mi
Sat: 8.5 mi warmup / cooldown, 1 okay 800 in 1:58.8
tot 53 and change
A lot of good races by everyone else today, though - Avery and the JC Experience beginning their 5k travails quite well, Big T-Unit pops a 1:53 low in the 800m, Chris with a 2:32 1000m. I'm planning on running the mile at Valentine's - maybe this time I will keep my trap shut and just run the damn thing, haha.
Sun: 6 mi warmup / cooldown, 1 terrible mile in 4:35
Mon: 7 mi
Tue: 8.25 mi
Wed: 7.75 mi
8x300 3R w/ Chris and Steve - felt pretty good, overall. Wish I could drop a few 41's right now but ain't happenin. 44's at the beginning, then down to 43's.
Thu: 8 mi
Fri: 6.25 mi
Sat: 8.5 mi warmup / cooldown, 1 okay 800 in 1:58.8
tot 53 and change
A lot of good races by everyone else today, though - Avery and the JC Experience beginning their 5k travails quite well, Big T-Unit pops a 1:53 low in the 800m, Chris with a 2:32 1000m. I'm planning on running the mile at Valentine's - maybe this time I will keep my trap shut and just run the damn thing, haha.
On Being A Giant Robot
Thursday, January 28, 2010
For most of college, I was pretty sure as soon as I popped out and put on my graduation cap and drove off into the sunset, I would immediately start working at a video game design studio. It's what I wanted to do since before high school, it's what I took all my electives in and spent a lot of my free time on (that which was not spent on track meets or music). It didn't really turn out that way - the game industry is notoriously competitive to get into, and the economy was not exactly at its best when I started shoving job applications out the door. (I do admit I started a bit late - my senior year was a little chaotic)
Still, I really love the damn things. One of my favorites of all time - Mechwarrior 2 - involves you stomping around on various planets piloting a giant robot warrior, as part of some space-faring feudal caste society that led an exodus from Earth when space travel was first becoming commonplace. Sadly, it's a videogame made in the mid 90's, and the successive sequels to the franchise have just gone downhill. Some bunch of yayhoos, however, undertook the rather massive task of creating an entire new Mechwarrior (as a modification of an existing game engine) and releasing it for free, and hot buttered lugnuts, it is exactly what I have wanted for quite some time.
Sadly, the website is actually overloaded (they exceeded their bandwidth! how about that for a success story) but I shall link to it all the same: http://www.mechlivinglegends.net. The game runs as a full modification for Crysis, so if you don't have it, it's probably worth buying for this alone.
I also recently blew through a new book that had the first pages featured on the NYTimes about a week ago - its release sadly coinciding with one of the deaths of the men it followed. The book, "Last Train From Hiroshima," covers the events that dogged 9 particular men and women who were present at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (and survived them). The man who recently passed away was Tsutomi Yamaguchi: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/world/asia/07yamaguchi.html.
James Cameron also has evidently optioned the movie rights to it - I am not sure how that would work, considering a great deal of the book is grisly, physics-centric descriptions of how easily nuclear weapons snuff out human life. Here's the news release concerning the movie and the preview of the book that inspired me to buy it.
I've also been doing a little bit of that "running" thing - had a kind-of-not-the-best-last-week last week, with what I will fancifully call "faux-bronchitis" dogging me at every step, and a mile race that was the slowest I've run in 3 and a half years. Ew. Mostly I think that was a case of just mentally not being in it - which, for me, is not such a big obstacle to overcome as not-being-in-shape. The Terrier Invite is this weekend and I'm in the 800 - hoping to see a PR. I'm not positive about that but I think I'm in the right kind of shape. This week has also gone significantly better in terms of running - the cough has basically cleared up and I am not constantly popping pills to stave off muscle aches / slight fever. I would like to take whoever gifted me with this drastically inferior immune system and put them to the question.
Tonight was especially entertaining for running - sometime between when I returned home from work and when I left to run (about a 20 minute span!) two inches of snow just dropped like a lead weight from the sky. I did my usual thing around the Cleveland Res and was greeted by comically intense wind blasts on the eastern side of it. With the full moon, though, it makes a pretty stunning visual - especially combined with the orange light from the street lights and the snow whirling in bizarre eddies from the wind whipping behind you.
I think that's all the verbage I have in me tonight.
Still, I really love the damn things. One of my favorites of all time - Mechwarrior 2 - involves you stomping around on various planets piloting a giant robot warrior, as part of some space-faring feudal caste society that led an exodus from Earth when space travel was first becoming commonplace. Sadly, it's a videogame made in the mid 90's, and the successive sequels to the franchise have just gone downhill. Some bunch of yayhoos, however, undertook the rather massive task of creating an entire new Mechwarrior (as a modification of an existing game engine) and releasing it for free, and hot buttered lugnuts, it is exactly what I have wanted for quite some time.
Sadly, the website is actually overloaded (they exceeded their bandwidth! how about that for a success story) but I shall link to it all the same: http://www.mechlivinglegends.net. The game runs as a full modification for Crysis, so if you don't have it, it's probably worth buying for this alone.
I also recently blew through a new book that had the first pages featured on the NYTimes about a week ago - its release sadly coinciding with one of the deaths of the men it followed. The book, "Last Train From Hiroshima," covers the events that dogged 9 particular men and women who were present at both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (and survived them). The man who recently passed away was Tsutomi Yamaguchi: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/world/asia/07yamaguchi.html.
James Cameron also has evidently optioned the movie rights to it - I am not sure how that would work, considering a great deal of the book is grisly, physics-centric descriptions of how easily nuclear weapons snuff out human life. Here's the news release concerning the movie and the preview of the book that inspired me to buy it.
I've also been doing a little bit of that "running" thing - had a kind-of-not-the-best-last-week last week, with what I will fancifully call "faux-bronchitis" dogging me at every step, and a mile race that was the slowest I've run in 3 and a half years. Ew. Mostly I think that was a case of just mentally not being in it - which, for me, is not such a big obstacle to overcome as not-being-in-shape. The Terrier Invite is this weekend and I'm in the 800 - hoping to see a PR. I'm not positive about that but I think I'm in the right kind of shape. This week has also gone significantly better in terms of running - the cough has basically cleared up and I am not constantly popping pills to stave off muscle aches / slight fever. I would like to take whoever gifted me with this drastically inferior immune system and put them to the question.
Tonight was especially entertaining for running - sometime between when I returned home from work and when I left to run (about a 20 minute span!) two inches of snow just dropped like a lead weight from the sky. I did my usual thing around the Cleveland Res and was greeted by comically intense wind blasts on the eastern side of it. With the full moon, though, it makes a pretty stunning visual - especially combined with the orange light from the street lights and the snow whirling in bizarre eddies from the wind whipping behind you.
I think that's all the verbage I have in me tonight.
Something About Horses
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I am currently expelling all sorts of green matter from my throat after my first real race this track season. I am never too thrilled to make the reacquaintance of track hack, but this is an especially unwieldy case of it. It has effectively stripped me of all the enjoyment of running this week, and that definitely takes quite a bit of doing.
As of today it's settled down a bit, so I hope that tomorrow at work my cubicle-neighbor Teresa doesn't give me the horrified-mother look. Most of my coworkers are of the child-rearing age, so sometimes I feel more like the...young nephew, or something, more than a peer. In some ways that's more or less correct - they do have a lot more job experience (both particular to this job and any computer science job) and life experience. It's also nice to know that there are benevolent people looking out for you.
Still, being at Reggie with Chris, Steve, Tim, Jeff, and Kevin remains the truest feeling of 'home' that I get here in Massachusetts. It is only peered by running along Battle Road or Cutler Park in perfect weather, or laying comatose on the Bentley track after doing fast 400's.
Hopefully, next week will be a little more sane in terms of getting out there and not feeling like trash.
In other news, a band name was chosen this past Monday! If you see me out in public, from now on I'd like you to say "Oh, hey, there goes one half of the musical supergroup Wild Pale Stallions! Why, it's Philip. He's absolutely ravishing."
Also musically, Will introduced me to Pure Reason Revolution, which has been pretty much the only thing I've listened to all week. Hopefully I won't wear it out! This is the one that is currently stuck in my head (Goshen's Remains): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDHW8bsHB0w
I'm going to go sip on this hot lemonade and ruminate on important matters. Au revoir.
As of today it's settled down a bit, so I hope that tomorrow at work my cubicle-neighbor Teresa doesn't give me the horrified-mother look. Most of my coworkers are of the child-rearing age, so sometimes I feel more like the...young nephew, or something, more than a peer. In some ways that's more or less correct - they do have a lot more job experience (both particular to this job and any computer science job) and life experience. It's also nice to know that there are benevolent people looking out for you.
Still, being at Reggie with Chris, Steve, Tim, Jeff, and Kevin remains the truest feeling of 'home' that I get here in Massachusetts. It is only peered by running along Battle Road or Cutler Park in perfect weather, or laying comatose on the Bentley track after doing fast 400's.
Hopefully, next week will be a little more sane in terms of getting out there and not feeling like trash.
In other news, a band name was chosen this past Monday! If you see me out in public, from now on I'd like you to say "Oh, hey, there goes one half of the musical supergroup Wild Pale Stallions! Why, it's Philip. He's absolutely ravishing."
Also musically, Will introduced me to Pure Reason Revolution, which has been pretty much the only thing I've listened to all week. Hopefully I won't wear it out! This is the one that is currently stuck in my head (Goshen's Remains): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDHW8bsHB0w
I'm going to go sip on this hot lemonade and ruminate on important matters. Au revoir.
The Longest Way
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
So I opted to spend my New Year's weekend in Williamstown, soaking in the rarefied mountain air and steeping, like some sort of pale and anaerobically inclined teabag, in the musical atmosphere. Both Sarah and her mother are music people, so it's almost too much joy to handle - it's none too common, outside of my conversations with Sarah, that I get to talk about all the crazy ideas I have for music and all the little things that I love about it. It makes me really grateful that we are able to understand each other about it!
And we talked quite a bit about it - I ended up passing some of the things I talked about with her along to Gums during our band meeting thing. Musicals are a little different than the direction I'm aimed at, but having gone through the whole English degree rigmarole - and paying attention to narrative form in video games and books - I do have a thing or two to say about it. In a lot of ways, the how of the telling of the story is equally as important as the what - demonstrated easily by the many times that personally hilarious stories fall flat when I can't phrase them quite right.
One thing that we talked about was how to work into musicals things that haven't been really done before - experimental ways of telling stories through music, whether the experiment is the narrative form or the music itself. She's an outright amazing composer, so I feel like some weird styles of music in her hands - dub, metal, house or dance, motown, etc - would be awesome to hear, especially mashed into a big lump with her own influences. The idea, in general, is to be as wildly experimental as possible while telling something coherent and powerful - to come up with unique ways of conveying emotion and the musical styles that will carry them. Especially in musicals, it seems like there's a somewhat rigid structure of what's expected, what 'works' - and I don't think that has to be so.
For example, in the 48 hour videogame contest I've participated in a few times (www.ludumdare.com - 48 hours to design a game from scratch around a concept) people use some of the most insane ways of framing concepts and games that I've ever seen. During one of the contests (the theme being "Exploration"), you wander through what is essentially a 2D platformer a la Mario - except the platformer is set inside your character's own head, and you are exploring his past. You kind of fumble through various transformations and trippy text and obstacles without a clear objective or meaning..and yet it's really good because of that. Definitely not something that a major studio would produce, but merely because it is risky - not because it isn't good. I feel the same way about music - and by extension, musical theater - that to make the best stuff you really have to go out on a limb.
In a similar way, that's what Gums and I are trying to do - throw together a ton of different ideas and see what sticks. We both feel that metal in the 2000's has stagnated, kind of grown...dull, fat, and complacent. Sure, you can turn down the distortion or turn up the distortion, add female vocals, add male vocals, do screaming and singing, turn up the tempo or down the tempo...but it still seems like a lot of it is pushing around the same ideas. Maybe it's a little naive of us to assume that we have something new to bring to the table, but I don't know - something just feels really good about collaborating with him. We've gotten a ton done in a really short time, whereas other people I've played with...well, they just flaked out almost immediately.
I have, for once, one of my own songs stuck in my head - and I just finished a small chunk of lyrics for it, so I am off to bed - with my words dancing in my head.
Mine is the longest way
Though my eyes no longer see
Through the path that does not stray
On the road defined by me
And we talked quite a bit about it - I ended up passing some of the things I talked about with her along to Gums during our band meeting thing. Musicals are a little different than the direction I'm aimed at, but having gone through the whole English degree rigmarole - and paying attention to narrative form in video games and books - I do have a thing or two to say about it. In a lot of ways, the how of the telling of the story is equally as important as the what - demonstrated easily by the many times that personally hilarious stories fall flat when I can't phrase them quite right.
One thing that we talked about was how to work into musicals things that haven't been really done before - experimental ways of telling stories through music, whether the experiment is the narrative form or the music itself. She's an outright amazing composer, so I feel like some weird styles of music in her hands - dub, metal, house or dance, motown, etc - would be awesome to hear, especially mashed into a big lump with her own influences. The idea, in general, is to be as wildly experimental as possible while telling something coherent and powerful - to come up with unique ways of conveying emotion and the musical styles that will carry them. Especially in musicals, it seems like there's a somewhat rigid structure of what's expected, what 'works' - and I don't think that has to be so.
For example, in the 48 hour videogame contest I've participated in a few times (www.ludumdare.com - 48 hours to design a game from scratch around a concept) people use some of the most insane ways of framing concepts and games that I've ever seen. During one of the contests (the theme being "Exploration"), you wander through what is essentially a 2D platformer a la Mario - except the platformer is set inside your character's own head, and you are exploring his past. You kind of fumble through various transformations and trippy text and obstacles without a clear objective or meaning..and yet it's really good because of that. Definitely not something that a major studio would produce, but merely because it is risky - not because it isn't good. I feel the same way about music - and by extension, musical theater - that to make the best stuff you really have to go out on a limb.
In a similar way, that's what Gums and I are trying to do - throw together a ton of different ideas and see what sticks. We both feel that metal in the 2000's has stagnated, kind of grown...dull, fat, and complacent. Sure, you can turn down the distortion or turn up the distortion, add female vocals, add male vocals, do screaming and singing, turn up the tempo or down the tempo...but it still seems like a lot of it is pushing around the same ideas. Maybe it's a little naive of us to assume that we have something new to bring to the table, but I don't know - something just feels really good about collaborating with him. We've gotten a ton done in a really short time, whereas other people I've played with...well, they just flaked out almost immediately.
I have, for once, one of my own songs stuck in my head - and I just finished a small chunk of lyrics for it, so I am off to bed - with my words dancing in my head.
Mine is the longest way
Though my eyes no longer see
Through the path that does not stray
On the road defined by me
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)