Today’s run: 5 miles, 52:11 minutes. YT: 218.93 miles. I’m rounding down the mileage number these days to correct for NikePlus inaccuracy of my apparently wild, unmeasurable gait. My run today was good. It included 4 times around the track. The monotony of it, and the smoothness of the terrain, is relaxing. Plus it’s fun to be on a course with other runners.

Today’s run: 3.16 miles, 31:20 minutes. YT: 177.19. Sub-10 min miles again, happiness. Interesting: All of the NY Parks and Recreation people who tend Tompkins are women. I’m sure there’s a reason. Today one of them surprised me by moving her trashcan so that I could run between it and a puddle without diverting my course. It was a totally unnecessary and kind act that put a little peace in my heart for the rest of the run.

Straight Line Flow

“Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life – and for me, for writing as well.” – Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

One of the chief reasons I became a runner was to give my creativity a battery pack. I knew already that my brain functioned better after exercise. I knew that I had fits of creativity while on the road. But it was when I read that Huruki Murakami became a runner to keep his juices flowing that I got really excited and committed.

Murakami doesn’t consider himself a genius. I love that. He considers himself someone who has to work hard and do everything right to continue to pump out amazing novels. He believes running saved him from being a half-baked one-hit wonder.

And this is an important lesson: Your ability to be creative isn’t just a function of the fancy or not so-fancy materials that went into your gray matter. It’s equally or even more so a function of what you do with it – do you discipline yourself? Do you set yourself in a schedule of activities that keeps your juice flowing? Do you get out of bed and run or do you sit into a heap?

I just talked myself into not skipping my run today, despite monumental soreness from my first conditioning class in years yesterday.

Start your engines everyone!! Regularly scheduled motion is the best prevention for creative impotence.

This post is dedicated to Meghna and Michael!

Today’s run: 4.07 miles, 42.21 minutes. YT: 169. 68. The city thawed today. Glad to be back outside.

By the second half of my run I was pretty cold; nose running as usual. I took the advice of everyone here and wiped – well, more like blew – my nose into my sleeve. People, you led me astray! The results were… horrifying. I had to wipe my sleeve ON A TREE! I think NY trees take enough abuse without me coating them in goo. Amidst all this wintry beauty, I saw a pack of kids making a snowball that had a diameter of about 4 feet. When I got back home, the man vacuuming the hallways was in a very jolly mood, singing with gusto a Spanish ballad over the sound of his machine. I can hear him now, from inside my apartment.

Today’s run: 3.8 miles, 44 min. YT: 132.6. Training plan said “easy,” I took it easy. As I came down the hill Daniel came on and felt just right to the gray day, the mountains hidden completely in clouds and fog, the trees in a dozen shades of muted green. I hit repeat on the Ipod three times. I tried to count palm trees today, but that was too hard.

Today’s run: 3.4 miles, 41 minutes. YT: 96.8. That run was like a gymnast trying desperately to make an off-balance backhandspring stick. Except it was a cartwheel and I still fell over at the end. It happens.

Today’s run: 6.9 miles, 1:19 minutes. YT: 93.4. I don’t know if it was taking a rest day yesterday, or eating before the run, or sleeping 9 hours last night, or Lady Gaga remixes (I am a FREE bitch) – but I had much more energy in the first half of this run than I usually do. Big surf to look at, and  two sail boats washed up on shore. Actually, one and a half.

Today’s run: 6.4 miles, 1:10 minutes. YT: 69.2 miles. The beach path was almost totally covered in sand. I pushed myself and it felt good. My attempt to enter a meditative state, less successful. Also, my Ipod is now only playing in one ear. I guess that’s fair; it outlasted the former fiance who gave it to me by more than three years. :-)

Today’s run: 4.2 miles, 45 min.YT: 55.6. The pleasures of night running: Cool, damp air carries well the scent of rosemary and more than a few home-cooked meals.

Christmas Sunset in Cayucos, CA, 2009

Today’s run: 6.5 miles, 1:14 minutes. YT: 34.1. OK run, although I probably should have eaten something before because I lost energy on the second half. Running without breakfast works better at 7 a.m. than 11 a.m. There was a sanitation problem at the RV park near the power plant on the beach. For some reason, after catching wind of it the first time, I took another sniff. It made me feel like a dumb animal.