Thursday, August 7, 2008

My first ever 100 degree run

Weak coffee sucks. Drinking coffee in summer almost seems dumb and so when it's weak that just bites. Or not. I dunno. Weak coffee's better than no coffee, I s'pose.

Sitting down to type when I'm tired after having a late night, just not my idea of... fun is what I was gonna say but sitting down in this state doesn't allow me to really go anywhere with anything worthwhile to anyone. Not that that's what I'm always shooting for... not that that's what I'm even sometimes even shooting for. What am I saying? Might be a touch o' daim bramage o' somethin' that's affectin' me... the heat of South Carolina has melted my mind a wee bit. Yes, that must be it.

I think it was about 55° in central Alaska yesterday or the day before. 55 during the first week of August... 55 for the HIGH temperature! With the Heat Index, it was DOUBLE that here which equaled about the temperature of HELL. Is here Hell? Hmmm.....


No, here's probably not Hell but it's close to it. Why anyone would choose to live here full time is beyond me. Cain't git no proper exercise unless'n you pay for one of dem there gyms. And since I ain't a-gonna pay for no gym, I run. But how do you run when the temperature outside is 100 degrees? Carefully, slowly, well-hydrated, and for not very long.

I do not recommend just anyone doing this. It's somewhat insane and the result could truly be death i.e. you'd kick the bucket i.e. you'd be dead as a doornail i.e. deceased i.e. DEAD... and not Gratefully!

The North Face trail running shoe -- good for use in the Appalachian Mountains ... but seriously, they are rather small compared to the Rocky Mountains ... Sierra Nevada are sweet, too.  Would definitely use 'em in the Alps, that's for sure.  One thing's for sure -- Jerry Garcia or Bob Weir or Phil Lesh or Blaise Compaoré probably never went running in Liberia, Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, Pyongyang, 평양 직할시 조선민주주의인민공화국 平壤直轄市 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國, Türkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Кыргызстан, Киргизия, Uzbekistan, O'zbekiston, Ўзбекистон Республикаси, Tajikistan, Тоҷикистон.  Probably the same with Brent Mydland.  At least that's my gut feeling.  I could be wrong.  I mean, there were a lot of drugs at Grateful Dead shows and the good Lord above, He knows I did my share!Temperature: 100°F
Heat Index about: 109
°
Wednesday Afternoon Run: 9 minutes 35 seconds- 2:26

Total Trail Time, Running + Hiking: 2 hours & 10 minutes

2 day total in 97 and 100 degrees respectively: 3 hours & 55 min.

Not bad.

Also -- 4 runs in 6 August days so far... even with the heat.
XXXXXXXXXXXX ·Aug? :: -2 sec· XXXXXXXXXX

7 runs in July:approx: 2 hrs 11 min
June:1 hour 47 min
May:4 hours 46 min

Holy hot as Hell, Batman.

Running Part 1 -- 9:35. Went along the trail some, turned around at some point, and made my way back to my frozen Gatorade as the 2nd song wound down. Sat and sat and sat and sat and sipped and prayed for a breeze. No breeze. Time crawled.

About 6 songs, I think, I would have before I had one more cued up and ready to run to.

Running Part 2 -- about 3:45. Yeah... whatever.

My Total Running Time was supposed to actually come out just a little ahead of the previous day... but it was so hot. No, I mean so friggin' hot... hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut, I tell ya what. (I don't know what that means, ask Robin Williams.) When the time for Part 2 came around there was just no way I was gonna run again.

I did walk, though. Had quite a long hike, about 2 hours worth! That was a damn lot of exercise. Might not have been too strenuous with there being no hills or nothin' 'round these parts to exert extra energy on, but was still a good amount of exercise.

PHONOGRAPH
Running
tunes...
David Lee Roth - Skycraper (1988)
David Lee Roth

Skyscraper

recorded: 1987
released: early '88


Knucklebones
Just Like Paradise
The Bottom Line
Skyscraper
Damn Good
Hot Dog and a Shake
Stand Up
Hina
Perfect Timing
Two Fools A Minute
I remember back a long, long time ago, in another galaxy, probably far, far away, to be fairly certain, this album I had on compact disc... or maybe I borrowed a friend's, I dunno. Van Halen was a band I dug back then and so I had to check out David Lee Roth
's solo offerings... absolutely, without a doubt. There was an EP worth (I believe) of some goofy stuff he did right out of VH then a full album and this second full album.

Now I'm wondering what I thought of this back then if I did indeed hear it. I'm wondering because much of this just isn't that great.

Just Like Paradise was the first and most successful single and so that got drilled into me as a decent tune. But nothing else stands out so much. Damn Good doesn't rock but has some nice acoustic guitar and isn't bad. Stand Up is too orchestrated and doesn't feel loose at all when it probably could be a lot more. Hot Dog and a Shake feels almost like a Halen leftover, perhaps along the lines of Hot For Teacher from their 1984 album. Oi. Knucklebones and Perfect Timing both blow, the latter sounding like something out of Top Gun or some cheesy mid to late 80's Sylvester Stallone movie. Two Fools a Minute, to close out the album, has Diamond Dave and the band having some fun but it just isn't good.

If there's one thing that almost helps redeem this music, that would be guitar great Steve Vai playing lead on this album. Much of what he contributes really helps out but his greatest contributions really seem to be quite sporadic. There are Vai bursts here and there and it's so often mesmerizing but doesn't continually blow my mind the way his guitar can. Oh well.

320 kbps mp3 download

"Just Like Paradise"

1 comment:

Sam said...

Dude, be careful out there. Don't go giving yourself heat stroke or anything.

one says one number and the other another
but they were set at the same time. Hmmm...

i love you amy uzarski.  always!
 
Calvin and Hobbes in the snow -- animated