5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 4
2 minutes jogging/2 minutes walking x 2
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 2

Total time: 25 minutes on the button
Total mileage: 1.33 miles (Who knows? Maybe I was running that much quicker on Monday.)
Music listened to (I may stick with this data, I may not): ohGr, Scott Weiland, Marianne Faithfull, Tom Jones, Nicole Atkins And The Sea. I’d forgotten how much I like the “Broken English” album, and Tom Jones is just the fucking man.

Really solid workout. Not too much, not too little. Found my rhythm, didn’t end up winded, had the usual minor aches and pains that I’d expect, but nothing alarming.

Onward to Monday and another workout level. I remember this one being a bitch last time. We’ll see.

5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 4
2 minutes jogging/2 minutes walking x 2
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 2

Total time: 25 minutes
Total mileage: 1.27 miles according to my pedometer, which is kinda whack, because I covered the exact same distance as I did on Monday, which was 1.41. Flaky things.

Actually had some shin/calf pain in my right leg today, but it went away about halfway in. Got what I describe as “the heavyfoot” during the last 2 minute jog. This one was, in general, a little tougher than it needed to be (breathing was a little labored, too), might’ve been something with my pacing, but I got through it OK.

Onward to Friday.

Reloaded the iPod with a bunch of new crap a few days ago, and was shuffling along tonight. Here’s what caught my ear:

The Pretenders-The Last Ride (from “Break Up The Concrete”): What I’ve noticed about what I’ve heard from this record so far is that Chrissie Hynde’s voice can still make what’s average music otherwise seem pretty memorable. She’s still got it, even if I’m not so sure about her band or her producer(s).

Tom Jones-I’m Alive (from “24 Hours”): Just. Fucking. Awesome. I hope the whole record’s this good, and I love this fuckin’ guy.

Jobriath-Gone Tomorrow and Inside (from “Jobriath” and “Creatures Of The Street”): I don’t know what this says about my finely tuned audiophile ears (or lack of therein), but these CD reissues, which finally came out Stateside a few months ago, sound gorgeous to me. It’s just a shame that the people who’d like Jobriath (and I’m one of them) are really just getting their first exposure to him now, 35 years-ish after the records first saw release and 25 years after he died more or less penniless, one of music’s first AIDS casualties. In his waning years, he took work as a cabaret singer and pianist, who, legend has it, would play just about any song you’d throw at him except for one of his own.

Grace Jones-Corporate Cannibal (from “Hurricane”): Man, I’m glad to have Grace back, being creepy. This one’s got kind of a Massive Attack/Recoil vibe to it, really big production to it. Me likey.

Foxboro Hot Tubs-She’s A Saint, Not A Celebrity (from “Stop Drop And Roll!!!”): I take a lot of shit for voicing this opinion whenever I do, but hot damn, those guys from Green Day (this is them under an assumed name, if you’re one of the three people on Earth who doesn’t know yet) write one hell of a pop song. Fun little number.

The Fireman-Sing The Changes (from “Electric Arguments”): It’s always weird when Paul McCartney puts out good music. This is one of those instances. The Fireman, as I’ve just come to find out, is a project he’s been doing for about 15 years on and off with Youth of Killing Joke and a lot of production/remixes fame, but this is the first of their 3 records to feature McCartney on any vocals. I’ve listened to a little of the record so far, and it ain’t bad, even if I’m still more of a Lennon guy.

As an aside, if I created an mp3 blog under an assumed name, threw AdSense on it and started posting things like this, I’d make my first million.

I was able to apply today. Thanks to those who let me use them as references, and may none of us end up on the no-fly list. No sign of the scary questionnaire mentioned in most of the media about the application process. I figure that’ll be in the part of the process reserved for “serious” candidates. Just the same, I did it. I’ll let you know if The Fuzz come a-knockin’, but this will probably be fairly uneventful. Knock wood.

5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 4
2 minutes jogging/2 minutes walking x 2
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 2 (jogged an extra minute by accident on the last rep)

Total time: 26 minutes
Total mileage: 1.41 miles

Warmer today. Minor leg pain toward the end, but nothing nuts. Breathing was fairly normal. Not much to report here, really. We likes it when these reports are boring, though.

Onward to Wednesday.

…crashing Dr. Pepper’s web site, or at least their registration servers.

So, call 1-800-696-5891 to get your free Dr. Pepper coupon today. They just ask for a mailing address, so you might be able to avoid a ton of spam this way, as well. Only about 3 minutes’ hold time as of 9 AM Eastern Time!

5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 7
5 minutes walking

Total time: 24 minutes (more like 24:30; again, I don’t clockwatch a lot when I’m in my ending walk)
Total mileage: 1.31 miles

I was probably off in my estimate on Wednesday. I trimmed mileage off my pedometer because i walked around in my house a bit before i started my workout and forgot to hit “reset”. The number when I got home was 1.33, so that was probably more like 1.32, since I turned around 50-100 feet-ish from where I did on Wednesday. Moving on…

It was 2 degrees warmer than Wed. today, but windier. I still hung in there just fine with the cold. I took it easier, since I had some very light soreness in my left shin as I was starting (it went away, replaced about midway through the workout with that burn you get when muscles are working), and that accounts for the difference in mileage. Writing this about 6 hours after my run, there’s definitely more soreness, so i’m probably going to ice it tonight. Other than that, I’m fine. Breathing was fine, knees were better, and I think my form was better, not as hurried.

Made it through the first week with minimal to no discomfort, save for today. I’ll rest the leg over the weekend and see how I feel come Monday. It’d really help if there was a more detailed metric to measure pain with, just so I’d have some basis for comparison. I’m not in any kind of excruciating pain by any stretch, but it’s still a mild nagging one that starts at my left inside ankle joint and goes up my leg about 4 inches from there, and I’d like to know if that’s just something I’ll have to deal with or if there’s an easy way to rehab it. I’d also like to hear from anyone who’s had shin splints of a similar nature to mine, just to see if, from their experience, I can get a better feel for the severity of what I have going on. The doctor said I’ve got no ligament tears and no fluid buildup that he can see, but as for the rest, it’s always good to have as much information as possible.

…the guy who posted a Sammy Hagar album in a lossless audio format on one of the torrent sites today. Apparently, he doesn’t realize that “lossless Hagar album” is an oxymoron. When you post Sammy Hagar albums on teh Internets, EVERYBODY LOSES.

Yep, my incomplete short list is something like Torquemada (“Let’s face it…you can’t Torquemada anything!”), Hitler, Stalin, J. Edgar Hoover, Mark David Chapman, Michael Alig and some guy who posts Sammy Hagar albums on the ‘net.

Oh, and Stacy London. Man, she’s awful.

I’d write my review of the album, but Chuck Klosterman already wrote it for me.

There’s a song called “Strange Way” by a ’70′s act called Firefall (You probably know them from “You Are The Woman” if you’re of a certain age and place…) that’s been stuck in my head lately. The first line of the chorus is “That’s a strange way to tell me you love me”, and perhaps because I haven’t paid very close attention to the rest of the lyrics until now (which are basically about a guy who’s tired of having someone bitch to him, to put it bluntly), this line has conjured all sorts of bizarre scenes in my head, most of them involving plungers, farm animals, leather masks and rubber gloves. (Or are they rubber masks and leather gloves? One can never be sure.) I’m not sure where I’m going with this, really. I think I just had to share my pain with you, the hairy-palmed readers.

I’ve finally taken a step I’ve been meaning to for most of this year. I just emailed three of the world’s top experts on Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome, just to see if they can give me some basic insight on where to proceed. I am hopeful that two of them can either read or have someone translate English, but I’m pretty sure they can, and I have ways around it if they can’t.

Productive day…it’s amazing what one can accomplish when they write “What am I avoiding on my to-do list?” on their underutilized whiteboard, isn’t it? I’d moved the to-do list, which previously occupied the whiteboard, onto a text file, so I’ve decided to replace it with what my therapist described as “Scott Crawford’s super-ego”, which is basically a list of questions that I feel I should ask myself when I’m slacking off.

For those curious, the questions, to date, are as follows:

• Can I list things on Amazon?
• What am I avoiding on my to-do list?
• Should I do anything before I get tired?
• Am I forgetting anything?
• Who haven’t I talked to in a while?

I’m reminded of “Things I Do”, by Radio Iodine…”I have this Hitler list that runs my life…”

So, today, I expressed my interest in applying for a job in the Obama-Biden Administration. I got this email after I did so:

“Thank you for your interest in joining the Obama-Biden Administration. Within a few days, you will receive an email with a link to the more complete on-line application. Please be patient, as we are trying to respond promptly to the large number of people who are interested in working in the Administration.”

I’m doing this largely just to see how a person like myself does if they answer the Obama-Biden application in an honest, frank manner, and to shed some light on the process for those of you who are not yet sick to death of the subject. If by some cosmic accident, they say “Yep, this is the one we want working for us”, I’m not sure what I’ll do (unlike our President-Elect, there’s simply no way they’re going to keep me from doing what I do on the internets), but it will be an interesting story if so.

(On a related note, I recently updated my LinkedIn profile to be as frank, honest and forthcoming as I possibly could be. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s worth a look.)

I will keep you all appraised of my findings. Wish me luck, as they have not yet closed Guantanamo Bay.

Thanks for the words of encouragement on Monday, all. With almost no effects being felt from that run, I’m gonna keep going until I can’t again.

5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 7
5 minutes walking

Total time: 25 minutes (I wasn’t clock-watching on the last walk)
Total mileage: 1.3 miles

First time I’ve run in 33 degree weather since grade school. I bundled up well, and aside from the bottom half of my face (gonna have to look into one of those Mortal Kombat-lookin’ half masks, I think), I stayed very warm and comfortable. Actually had to take off my $5 St. Mark’s Place earmuffs on the home stretch. Lungs aren’t used to the cold yet, and my left knee did what it’s been doing (very little barking from the usual spot on my left calf, though, just some warming up in the calves from the exertion), but other than that, this was fine. The “I’m working out here” level of exertion kicked in about midway, but I wasn’t close to my wall, and I shouldn’t have been anyway. I’ve done this a few times before. I will say that shorter running times are harder for me to pace myself on than longer ones. I must be built for distance.

Onward to Friday.

Started from the beginning:

5 minutes walking
1 minute jogging/1 minute walking x 6
5 minutes walking

Total time: 22 minutes
Total mileage: 1.13 miles

I’ve taken a bunch of time off, and I’m still in the process of getting my legs looked at, so I figured I’d start easy when I started again. Wasn’t a tough workout at all, although my lungs aren’t used to the cold yet, and I did have some minor twinges in my left knee and calf in the usual spots. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, and proceed on Wednesday, in all likelihood. Good to be out there, though. Missed my park.

I wonder how many people out there have legally named their children “Motherfucker”. Or, really, any dirty words. I bet there’s some middle names that people have snuck in there, but I’m talking first names here. I figure a parent should be allowed to name their kid whatever they want, and hell, an adult should be able to change their name to whatever they want, too, but it’d be really interesting to see what issues would arise from someone naming their young’un something like “Motherfucker Goldberg” or such. It’s no more parental abuse than naming your kid ESPN, in my opinion. In fact, it’s much cooler.

“What’s your name, little boy?”

“Motherfucker.”