o i rock so hard

i look just like this when i run.

just did a 5.2 mile run! i know, that's not very far for serious runners, but this is the furthest (farthest? i can never keep those straight) i've gone since my doctor-mandated 8-week layoff from running ended a few weeks ago. my lungs felt great and so did my legs. virtually zero knee pain, which makes me very very very happy. :)

sorry, the endorphin rush i get from running is so far and above anything i've ever achieved with biking or swimming that i am afraid i am a card-carrying, Kool-aid drinking official cult member. and when my health is fucked (like my knee was) to the point where i can't run i get very fucking cranky. so happy it seems to be improving.

check out mapmyrun.com if you want to know how far you actually go on your runs and bike rides. it's pretty cool.

actually this is probably more accurate.

running is the shiz-nit

Following a tech week fraught with more than the usual amount of excess drama, an incandescent after-party following the opening of ‘Shining City’ on Saturday night, then a brutal, largely immobile Sunday, the sounds of the NBA playoffs on the TV broken only by low moans and my feeble, whimpering pleas for some merciful god or other to grant me the sweet release of death, I vowed to excise the twin toxins of Aggravation and Alcohol from my body today with a run.

Now, given the self-abuse (and not the fun, spanky, Biblical kind either) that I’ve endured over the past week, I wasn’t counting on much, especially given that I am just coming off a 6-8 week layoff from running prescribed by an orthopedic surgeon.

(Sidebar: I went in and told him my knee was fucked up, and that I was running a lot. His diagnosis in paraphrase: ‘Dude, your knee is fucked up. You’re running too much. Take some time off.’ So long $400.)

But at any rate, he did tell me it was a cartilage problem likely due to the impact of running, and that time would take care of it, so at least it wasn’t anything more serious. So, last week I did a trial run/walk (not trail, trial) of about 2 miles that went pretty well, despite my legs and lungs not being all that excited about the entire proposition.

And today, given the excesses of the last week, I was really only hoping for a mile or two, punctuated with much walking (and likely some more moaning and whimpering, to be truthful.)

But people, let me tell you, I knocked out 3.5 miles or so of the finest running I’ve done in months. And the capper: NO KNEE PAIN WHATSOEVER!!!

Sorry; I know this is the pinnacle of lame, narcissistic blogging--perhaps aside from the people who FB about recent meals...I mean, WTF? Are you going to tell us about the result of said meals in 24-36 hours too? Consistency? Color? Firmness? I don’t really care about either end of your digestive tract.

But anyway.

It makes me so goddamn happy when I can run--the buzz afterwards anyway. It’s downright vital to my mental well-being. The rest of the afternoon I was grinning from ear-to-ear, flirting with women in Safeway, chatting up neighbors, etc. I’m a goddamn ball of frickin’ sunshine, I tells ya. Misanthropic Kurt loses some of his power when I can run.

Thanks for tolerating this self-indulgent crapola, but I’m really just so stoked that I don’t care how stupid this might sound to some.

Peace. :)

this is weird...

...but also kinda cool.

This woman developed seizures late in life, and doctors discovered that a particular piece of her brain was responsible. So she had a lobectomy.

Yes, that means the removal of a lobe of her brain. In her case it was only -- ONLY -- a 'kiwi-sized part of her right temporal lobe.'

But the kicker is that she is an ultra-marathoner, and one of the side-effects of the lobectomy is that she loses her sense of temporal reality, of how long she has been running:

'Gerber, who works at Craig Hospital, a rehabilitation hospital in Englewood, Colo., for people with brain or spinal-cord injuries, said that Van Deren “can go hours and hours and have no idea how long it’s been.” Her mind carries little dread for how far she is from the finish. She does not track her pace, even in training. Her gauge is the sound of her feet on the trail.

“It’s a kinesthetic melody that she hits,” Gerber said. “And when she hits it, she knows she’s running well.”'

Ah. Now i have the secret of running. Get your knives out.

Read the article though; it's fascinating to think about what happens to a person when part of their 'operating system' if you will is carved out.