Thunderbolt

Just tasted the most digusting candy ever... From the makers of my favorites, "Hot Tamales", comes Mike and Ike's Buttered Popcorn flavored chewy candies. Don't know what I was thinking. I may be ill...

Sorry I didn't write over the weekend. Our computer is now in the shop so I'm writing from work. Saturday was the 16-mile day. I was pretty jacked up to go and run this one. The intimidation I felt before the 14 mile run wasn't there at all. In fact, I was ready to go out the gate and felt like I was running a really strong run up until, like, mile 10. At that point, my legs started to feel fatigued, but I managed to finish. For this run, I teamed up with, essentially, four other people: Sebastian, Irene and Tony, who are all running for City of Hope. I had run with Tony about five weeks ago. He's a great guy who is training to climb Mt. Everest. Sebastian runs a 5/2 pace so I decided it was better to run with a group for 16 miles at their pace than to run 16 by myself (that would no have gone well). In the end, I believe we completed the 16 miles in a time that was close to my time for the 14-mile run. I have to check into that, though. I think that breakthr...

While running yesterday, I had a breakthrough. I feel like this wall I've been challenging started to build when I went down to the 3/1. Before then, I was up to a 5/1 and felt great about my running. Since then, I can feel myself looking at the watch, hoping that my time is almost up and I can walk again. I hope this is the breakthrough I've been looking for. I believe that this fact and reducing my runs to 2 a week are going to help a lot. There are still so many mental hurdles to overcome. But at the end of my run yesterday morning, I felt strong and confident, something I haven't felt in weeks. In fact, when I got up this morning to ride my bike, I wasn't thinking, "Oh God, I wish I could go back to bed." Instead, I was looking forward to it. I'm a little anxious about tomorrow and the 16-mile run. After what I went through on the 14-mile trek, I hope I am better prepared. Advil and almonds will be on hand, as well as an ample supply of water...

So I'm still in shock over last night's Cubs game. Having grown up watching Cleveland teams choke in the last minute, I feel for the people of Chicago. I have switched my running schedule. The morning runs have grown longer and I don't have enough time to run 6 miles and get into work on time. Plus, I really want to help Jules out with the kids on the mornings Sophie has school. They have to leave by 7:45 and if I don't get back from a run until 7:30, well, it places all of the responsibility on Julie and that's just not fair. I checked in with Robert and he said that 2 days, at 40-50 minutes each will be fine and, of course, the long runs on Saturdays. This is a great relief. I have hit another wall. I hit a similar wall back in late June. I get to a point in which I don't even want to be running and I feel like it's just a labor and no longer a labor of love. I hate having that feeling. The mental aspect is bogging me down, even though I can run 5...

I have really fallen behind. I spent the rest of last week recovering from that cold. I didn't run again until Saturday morning. We worked on the movie again last Thursday and it's almost done (again). Hopefully we can meet tonight and finish up. The run on Saturday was fine. I didn't go all out and could really feel that I hadn't run all week. I ran with a woman, Lucy, whom I never ran with before. When I got to the training site that morning I was hoping to run alone. I'm glad I didn't. Even with a running companion it took over 2 hours. The rest of the weekend was spent straightening up the house in preparation for Julie and the kids returning home. On Saturday night, I drove up to Lake Arrowhead and spent the night with the Gardners. Tony and I drove around the town and he showed me the devastation from the bark beetles and how all of the pines are quickly dying and being cut down. It gave me some great material for a new story idea. We watched ...

Good Lord, I am whipped. Monday night's sound mix went until 3:00 am and I didn't get to be until 3:30. I was dog tired yesterday and with my immune system weakened, a cold saw its opportunity and pounced. Ugh. I did manage to get up at 6:30 and run the Decoro hill this morning. It wasn't physically hard, but it was difficult fighting back all of the cold related crap in my head. But, I am glad I ran. I was this close to sleeping for another hour. Probably should have. Jules and the kids sound like they're having a great time back in Ohio. Sophie appears to have come out of her shell and is going up to Grandma and Grandpa and just playing with them. Her "shyness" seems to be fading. Maybe it's because she's so popular in her preschool class. I don't mean to say that like I'm Joe Bragging Guy (you can tell I'm sick when all I can come up with is that LAME name), but she's always getting requests from other moms to have play dat...

CD's from last week: Springsteen, 8/17/03 Dodger Stadium- Dude, I was right about this one, even though the bootleg is poor quality (sounds like they're under water sometimes---where does that guy come up with his rating system?) the show was awesome. The band was T-I-G-H-T and Max had a killer night. Can't wait to see Budd's face when I give him his copy. Kinks "Ultimate Collection" - Don't you just love "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" Shawn Colvin "A Few Small Repairs" - Forgot how moody and sad this album. Colvin wrote most of these tracks when she separated from her then husband. I once heard her say in an interview that she wanted to write songs like Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love" (another breakup masterpiece). I guess she got her chance. Eva Cassidy "Songbird" - The only version of "Over the Rainbow" and "Fragile" I will ever listen to again. Men at Work - "Essential Collectio...