"Ying Yang Tramp Stamp" Week Ending 5/29

The weather has finally turned and everyone has lost their damn minds. Women are drunk and bikini'd all over the place and the world seems like a place where "hope" isn't just a stupid name for a girl...it's the stupid name for a drunk and bikini'd girl. Which is great.

The entire holiday weekend was spent wearing as little as possible (I found most of my clothes this morning on the beach) and drinking heavily...AND respecting the hell out of veterans.

Father and I finally borrowed some kayaks and took the river down from the bar and out into the lake. The only silver lining to the insane amount of precipitation we've had this winter/spring is that the river is at an all-time high and it's now not only possible to get drunk at Trapperz ("z" intentional) but then kayak home at surprising velocity.

A tornado knocked out our power for the past 36 hours, which made the kayak even better somehow. Everything was very still and silent. Serene. Bucolic. I was actually a little bummed when the power came back. My cellphone had died, internet was out, no TV, etc. It was righteous. Fuck power.

57 miles on the week. It's been hard to find time to run, as I've worked 70+ hours/week for the past 5 weeks and it's really really really really starting to wear me down. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as this week I will wrap up my first year teaching...and then will just have the bike shop for work during the summer. Gravy.

I'm looking forward to the end of this week, getting more focused on running again and (hopefully) riding my bike a bit more.

I've eaten nothing but cheeseburgers, fried stuff and beer all day. I feel so good that I can barely believe it.

If you are reading this, I hope that you, too, are feeling so good that you can barely believe it.

The tip of the iceberg

http://www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/candy/e6b9/

"Toasty" Week ending 5/22/11

Having survived/been skipped over during the Rapture, I guess I'm just either going back to whatever I was doing or I'm zipping straight ahead into the hungry flames of damnation.

Either way: beer tastes so good and I'm feeling so right. Music, Maestro...

Sunday finally lived up to it's moniker and I've got the crisp shoulders to prove it. Thank the Lord...

...yeah, too late, but you can't blame a guy for trying.

Nice threshold run at low 6's this week (last mile at 5:50) and some welcome progress to the weird numbness/ache in the ball of my left foot.

"Abiding..." Week Ending 5/15/11

http://uncrate.com/stuff/the-dudes-sweater/

I can't recall from my philosophy courses what the current stance is on the separation of mind and body (I think we're pretty solid on "none," but whatevuh..." The point is: I'm not sure if there's much literature on the mind/mind/body division(s). Anyway...

After several weeks of not listening to my body, my body finally sat me down for a little chat at the dinner table.

"Hey, asshole. I'm tired and I've been trying to tell you but you aren't listening."

At first I thought he was addressing my Asshole, but I quickly realized by his/my angry face that he was talking to me/it. Before I had a chance to respond, my Brain came down from taking a bath, wrapped in a silk kimono (is there any other kind?) and jumped RIGHT ON MY DAMN CASE, TOO!

"Yeah, I wasn't going to bring this up but since Body already broached the topic...I'm also tired. I've been trying to tell you about Body's issues, not to mention my own problems, but you just won't listen!"

Well, I was pretty fucking perplexed. I mean, who am I if I'm sitting at the table talking with BOTH my body and my mind?? WHOA!

I was not surprised, however, that both of them are whiny and soft (especially Brain).

Long story short and short runs shorter, this past week was a bit of a bust running-wise. No big deal, 'cause as those fuckin' Eagles so succinctly put it:

Ooh, I want to tell you, it's a long run

You know I don't understand why you don't

treat yourself better

do the crazy things that you do

'Cause all the debutantes in Houston, baby,

couldn't hold a candle to you

...or something.

Listen, man, I had a rough night and I fucking HATE the Houston debutantes, man!

Abide, dudes...and abide hard,

-Patrick

"Propped up..." Week Ending 5/8/11

good running, but still very sore from race last weekend. some good strength training. busy with the jobs. a running buddy played RD for a local 5K on saturday that i ran and won...but as i explained en el taller de bicicletas today...it was a hollow victory. i went off course three times (an amazing, Keystone-Cop-esque feat to manage) and ran something like 5.6K. i was on pace to PR, but alas...i think Rob was a little dismayed to discover that his race produced some of the overall slowest 5K times either of us have ever seen (that's saying something out in these parts where some of the runners leave behind knuckle-drag marks). However, it was very fun to see 100 or so people from around town out running and enjoy the rare sunny/warm morning. the inaugural CASA Light of Hope 5K was a success. i love everyone.

as i sit here on a monday night after a very long day of work with the waves picking up from the northeast and the odd-metered rhythm of their collective churn carrying eagerly through my long-unopened-though-now-mercifully-open window and the prepositional phrases, conjunctions and awkward syntax begin to clack together like boxcars on a suddenly stopping train stamped with the words "Wrap Up This Stupid Post" ...I am struck by how reasonable life can be despite all the howling to the contrary.

Will or be willed,

Pat.

"Extra Dark, Extra Salty" Week Ending 5/1/11

The theme for this week was definitely "Extra dark. Extra salty." And fat people.

Gabbo and I are broken up. It was all my fault, but life will do what it does. Namely, grind forward inexorably until I die. So...I've got THAT going for me...

Running this week was challenging. I was on spring break from the school, which meant I just picked up as many hours as possible at the bike shop. That much standing, wrench turning and pretzel eating really did a number on my already shitty-feeling hips and always shitty-feeling shoulders. I got to watch a lady fall off of and scuff up a $1200.00 road bike though. Her fat-ass husband was really pushing her towards a $2200.00 bike right off the bat...thankfully she thought better of test riding it. That kicked off a huge conversation amongst everyone at work about fat people. There's so many of them in this part of the country it's sick. My take: if you're looking for a form of body modification, go for facial tattoos or something. Don't stuff food in your mouth until your body is a swollen blob. While a facial tattoo might say "I have sort of checked out of a large portion of society," being fat just says "I have sort of checked out all those starving masses and I decided that I don't give a fuck. Fuck'em. And fuck my once-healthy body, too. I don't give a shit."

They don't deserve those healthy bodies.

Rant over.

I ran in the Pinckney Marathon this morning and placed 5th overall, 3:38:?? The winner came in at 3:11:00, so no...not a lot of fast guys. More important than not being chicked (which doesn't really matter to me at all) is that I did beat the two Ultra-Clones (bearded, long hair, shaved legs, MT 101's, etc). Actually, it was a fairly eventful run as these things tend to go, but I don't feel like giving a play by play at all.

I finished and was covered in salt crust. I don't know what this means regarding my health, but I'm assuming it has something to do with the photo at the top of this post.

The course was two abbreviated loops of the Potowatomi Trail. This guy knows it well. He spanked it last fall as part of the course for the Run Woodstock 50. The Poto is a great, very runnable trail. Good times. Trainee Jill finished her first half-marathon at the same event. Kill-tastic.

With this race over, I don't have anything big on the radar for a while. 5K next weekend for a buddy's charity organization. The University of Toledo 10K. Stuff like that. I'm fairly geeked for the Great Lakes Relay in July. I'm captaining our team of 10, which includes several old friends that I have not seen in many years. It should be such a good damn time.

Congrats go out to Lucho and Dave who are killing so hard that I may dig out a bunker under the house in which to hide my dreams...

I hope everyone else is having such a good damn time, too. We're young(ish), very healthy and we live in the easiest, safest country in the whole world. Let's smile a little bit about all of that.