Drogging

(A quick note: to get the full effect of this blog post, you must check out the multimedia links posted…)

My running playlist is starting to get stale, but it definitely still meets my needs. The things I look for in a running playlist:

1. A driving beat
2. Catchy Hooks
3. Air drumability

Number three is crucial. For those of you who know me well, you know that I tend to default to air instruments whenever I am dancing. I really can’t dance, and when I do, there usually involves an air instrument of some sort. Air guitar is a given, but no one can top my air keyboard, air saxophone, and air drum max-out for typical 80s ballads. I remember my first Satori dance. I was in the 6^th grade, and my ideas of what “dancing” were consisted of how wildly I could run around the dance floor and play made-up music. I also pleaded with the DJ to play “Faithfully” by Journey at the dance. To my knowledge, they’ve played that song at every Satori dance since.

What does this have to do with running? Everything. I am an air-drummer when I run. It’s sad, and I probably look spastic doing it, but I can’t help it. Take the song “Badlands” by Springsteen. It has a fun, driving beat. I usually keep the beat with my right hand while running (and usually the first song on my playlist is this song). It’s fun! The main problem I have when drumming while jogging (from this point on we’ll call it ‘drogging’ because it sounds cool), are the inevitable drum fills. For those of you who are new to musical terminology, a drum fill is, according to Wikipedia, “is a short musical passage, riff, or rhythmic sound which helps to sustain the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.” (More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_fill). If you want an audio/visual example, here’s a clip from “The Hangover” illustrating the best drum fill of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuynfY6LTRw. This is a key component of drogging, but it isn’t without danger. I once tripped and fell, scraping my knee pretty badly while in the middle of a big drum solo. I’m sure I’ve creeped out people who pass me jogging while I’m rocking out with a fill. Passing commuters likely wonder if I have fleas, and marathon trainers running behind me pass widely.

Of course, drogging encompasses more than just air drumming. I can’t help but air-keyboard during my run…the keyboard solo for “Jenny was a Friend of Mine” by the Killers, for example, is one I can never resist. Again, audio visual evidence can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PblaZq2DoI. (Random aside: Who makes a video just to show-off their keyboarding finger skills? Is the video meant to be instructive? It reminds me of my proudest “teach myself a song” moment when, in the 4^th grade, I figured out how to play the “Another Night” by the Real McCoy. You can google that one yourself).

So, to anyone reading this: do you find yourself drogging in public? Jilian’s definitely guilty of it, and it’s pretty hilarious. Or do you find that you focus better by staring straight ahead, focused on that next mile? Is running something that you have to focus on every step, every breathe? If I were like that, I’d go bored and fall asleep. Part of me wants to go to Craigslist and start a drogging club. We could have a syncrohnized playlist and be assigned an instrument for each run…maybe I’m on to something…

Until next time.

-Nate

PS: 3 runs this week! All centered around Green Lake taking advantage of Jilian’s Park and Ride commute. I’m enjoying morning runs because there aren’t as many people on the “track” around the lake. Also, the weather has been fantastic.

Sunny Weather

Spring has finally come to Seattle. For a second I was almost ready to revert to my pre-Seattle state of mind, ready to criticize everything about the city I now live in and start writing depressing songs about things that are gray and wet. Luckily, blue skies have destroyed the oppressive clouds and I’m back in paradise. It’s rare where you can live somewhere where little trips, like going up 65^th street reward you with breathtaking views of the Olympic Mountains. Where getting stuck in traffic on South-bound I-5 (a normally traumatic experience to me) will reward you with vistas the U-District and the Cascades. As one rapper put it at the Lupe Fiasco show on Friday, “ya’ll have a lot of trees!.” I like the green, the trees, and the flowers all around. I’m pretty happy with my choice in relocation, although the fact that I don’t have Sexy Pizza in my life anymore is pretty tragic. Now, you’re probably going “Nate, wasn’t this blog supposed to be about jogging/trying to get healthy?” Yep, on to that.

This week was a great one for me because I ran on three days averaging around 3.5 miles a run. It was also great because I didn’t go through my normal ritual of “don’t feel like, it not going.” Jilian takes a van pool to work every morning, and we usually get to the stop around 7:20 AM. Instead of doing the usual…drop her off, drive home, get to work…I drop her off, get out of the car, and go for a jog around Green Lake. I think I can live with this tradition…I’ve discovered a few things:

1. I jog much better in the morning. It may be attributed to the hell that was “zero period” back in high school when we would start class at 7:00 AM to do fitness drills and lift weights. I don’t remember much from those mornings, except that I naively thought that because I was used to waking up that early in high school, I could repeat that in college for an 8:00 AM “stretch and strength” class. I was mistaken, and “stretch and strength” which I thought would be a suitable substitute for the already full weight-lifting classes, turned out to be an introduction to Yoga. I was the only male in that class. I’m not good at Yoga. It was awk. (note: all the cool kids are now using “awk” as a shortened form of “awkward.” This has been added to my lexicon of annoying shortened words…along with “totes” (totally)).
2. I think the real reason I jog better in the morning, aside from a deeply buried conditioned response (above), is that my mind wanders far better in the morning. My beloved IPod Mini (circa 2003! I got made fun of in the San Francisco TFA office for it’s antique qualities…’A screen that doesn’t show the artist? Wha?”) was non-functional due to it’s battery having a life of around one hour…enough for a jog but not enough to leave it without a charge. I jogged just fine without it, instead establishing a pace and letting my thoughts wander. “Where do they go?” you ask? Usually to life-plans, politics, plans for the day. Only two things can disrupt my sort of zen-like wanderings: puppies and babies.

Yes. This is a purposeful tangent. I love puppies. They’re cute, they run, and they’re just fun. I’m sure I’ve creeped out 9 out of 10 dog owners I encountered on Friday because their dogs are just too damned cute. I stare, sometimes saying “hey puppy” while their owner, at a clip about twice mine, will quickly lock eyes with me, sneer, and then triple their pace while I quickly shift my thoughts back to the meal plan or grocery list for the week. You have to wonder what the dog actually thinks? Maybe they value the attention while they’re running along-side their over-active bicycle commuter? Maybe they’re thinking about the hydrant they wanted to top at but were urged ahead? I think that this show of affection on my part is a compliment: if I had a dog I’d want to hear that it was cute. Ah, well.

3. Music is “instrumental” (pun intended!!) to my jogging routine. I have a playlist, and the playlist helps me quite a bit. If I extrapolate further on this it will mean a longer post, but rest assured I will give you more context on my playlist as well as my air drumming tendencies while jogging. Yeah, this will definitely necessitate a different post…stay tuned. Jilian is even more religious about her playlist…she won’t run if her beloved IPod Nano is not working or the playlist is not updated.

My goal for this week?: Repeat performance. 4 days, nice jog, every time I head to the Park and Ride to drop Jilian off. My goal is also to call out every puppy I see on my jog to break me from my zen-like dream state. Watch out Green Lake dog owners! If your puppy is cute, you will know it!

I’m sorry to end this blog on a sad note, but an old staple of my Satori life recently passed. For those of you not familiar, Satori is a “summer experience for gifted high school and middle school students” that was absolutely instrumental to my intellectual comfort: if it weren’t for Satori, I wouldn’t have known that being smart is ok and likely wouldn’t have ended up at Whitman. Robert Harder was a fellow small-town, Eastern Washington boy (though you wouldn’t know it from the way he presented himself). When I met him, he was living in Kahlotus, which may be one of the few towns with the unique feature of being smaller than Harrington. While I didn’t know Rob well, what struck me (and still strikes me, reading through the memorial facebook page that was set up), is how truly comfortable Rob was with who he was. He liked to play World of Warcraft. He loved his coffee. He loved people who stimulated him intellectually. At camp, he stayed involved, proving an inspiration and a role model for kids who were struggling with their own intellectual identities. Rob would show up in chain mail on the day of the medieval feast, speaking in a British accent, and blowing every one away with his friendliness. I recommend you check out the Bone Marrow Registry to help those who face similar challenges that Rob did.

I'm a Runner Because...I Run?

Triumphant return to the blogging world?

Perhaps.

I've talked about this for awhile to my friends, but I've realized through various moments of my life that fitness is something I've talked about but have never prioritized. This blog, while admittedly self-promoting, will serve as both an accountability measure (because, Mom and Aunt Annie will be it's only readers), and a way for me to chronicle my attempts to lead a more active, healthy lifestyle. There will be stumbles, there will be hurdles, I will probably have issues keeping this updated, but that's ok.

Anyway, onto the meat of this thing. My main goal here is to decrease my weight by increasing the amount I run. I weigh too much, especially in one of the healthiest cities in America.

Full disclosure: I hate running. It takes me back to high school, when I was usually at the back of the pack during 8-man football practice while our coaches belted "if you're giving 100%, that's not good enough" and I silently cursed as I had one more lap to go around the football field. I've always ran, however. I used to run around Harrington, though I don't remember how regularly…again, cursing loudly. Most of this athletic exertion was to be in shape so I could start my senior year in high school on the football team. I was a member of the track team for two years and ran the "fat man's relay" with the other throwers. This was a humiliating exercise, as it 1) made me admit that I was fat and 2) extremely slow. All of this effort met with mixed results: I didn't start my senior year, but I did end up lettering in basketball for my journalistic and home game announcing talents (another story for another time).

From that point I attended a small, liberal arts school where there were lots of "Type A" joggers and runners…it was a great environment to change my ways, eat healthy, and jog regularly. Instead, I discovered beer and all you can eat food service dining. I gradually made my descent from not that healthy to pretty unhealthy in college. Then I moved to Southeast Arkansas. It's true what they say about "the South." Butter is a main ingredient and everything is delicious.

The turning point came about midway through my first year in teaching. My diet was terrible at this point, largely due to school lunch. I taught at a school where lunch was the one meal my students could count on every day and they were loaded with calories. I was a regular purveyor, and received extra because I was a teacher and gregarious to the lunch ladies. I came down with a cold and went to the doctor's office and weighed in….at 300 lbs. I had never crested that number before, and I knew that I was in for real trouble if I stayed there…so I started running in the humid, Arkansas weather. I think I inspired my housemate, who's girlfriend ran pretty regularly but he started taking it up. I wasn't regular, but I also cut out school lunches and subsisted on a turkey sandwich, apple, 100 calorie pack (Nabisco),c arrots, and hummus for the rest of my lunch career. The results were positive, but I still hated running.

Fast forward to today, two years later. I've been pretty irregular with running. My beautiful, talented, and athletic girlfriend runs pretty frequently (she's training for a half (that's "half-marathon" for those of you not in the know)) and got me to buy fancy running shoes about two years ago. I've had my peaks and valleys in terms of regularity, but I run at least once a week and do about 3 miles on average. This blog is an attempt at regularity. No, I will not post a journal of how far I've run on a daily basis, but rather give you little anecdotes of my attempt to transition from someone who is sedentary to a more active lifestyle.

A vignette to illustrate: I was running with Jilian around Greenlake (a lake just north of Seattle that has a running path around it). Jilian sprinted ahead, while I was rocking out behind (literally, I rock out when I run…my Ipod provides a ready list of rockable tunes…more on this in a later post) when I felt someone gently stroke my shoulder. Now, my cuter half and I have been known for public displays of affection while jogging…mainly a pat on the back or a quick shoulder rub, so my initial thought was "oh, Jilian decided to hold back and came up from behind." I was mistaken. I hear "good for you" to my right and an lady in her 50's came up alongside me, smiling. "I lost 100 pounds on this track, do you come here often?" I couldn't even get the words out. First off, I'm not running on a track, I'm running on a gravel road. Secondly, I know it's novel to see a larger person at Green Lake (truly, it is…I likely stick out like a sore thumb…my yellow "YMCA" t-shirt probably doesn't help), but, really, "good for you?" Despite these reflective thoughts, her encouragement proved the boost I needed and I kept my pace and finished the lap…all the while wondering what the lady looked like with 100 lbs on her…

Jilian recently bought a piece of clothing from a running store that had the saying "I'm a runner, because I run." I think that suits me too...while I don't do it regularly, I will become a runner...or a hiker...or a bicycler. It will be an identity, like those people who wear REI clothes to formal events and talk about all of the 14ers they've hiked. 

Until next time.