Road Warriors and MickyD's Coffee

The last two days i have been up WAY before 6am. Once to run and today to hit the road to Madison. I was leary of this trip because i wasnt confident i would be able to get myself out the door to run once home after being in the car for 7hrs and there was no way in hell i was running at 4am.

I went to one of my favorite accounts and came away with a sweet old school t-shirt similar to this logo:


Not being a fan of tech shirts(which is probably a damnable offense) i have found myself collecting store shirts from what some may call "old school accounts". I also dont want to pay Urban Outfitters $65 for their knock off race t-shirts.

I digress...i moved on from Madison to Milwaukee for another appt that went very well(albeit no shirt) and then hammered home. Its spitting snow, dark and my blkbrry says i should anwser a few emails before i consider taking a jaunt. Then there is the matter of walking the dog. I quick trip around the block and hes happy, sending out some RA's and some accounts are happy. Now do i really want to run? I feel hungry despite eating 3hrs earlier and slamming some Mcdonalds coffee---which i kind of like, especially at 1$.

I made the 1st move to get dressed, a big step. I found my new whips:


And put on an old playlist while deleting Mercury Rev. I came across some songs that at first glance made me groan....that shit is so played. Here are some of the highlights:
1: Cracktown- Prairie Cartel. Campy and fun but it speaks the truth about hispter chicago.

2: Ice Cream- New Young Pony Club. This song makes me feel like Nuke in Bull Durham when hes deciding if wearing the garters makes him gay. Does liking this song make me gay?

3: Daft Punk is Playing....-LCD Soundsystem. Yeah I know, its not "all my friends" and its been played to death. Its still the shit.

4: Guilty- Assassins. its like an awesome Duran Duran B-side. That said they are kind of douches.

5: Jique- Brazillian Girls(PC remix). She makes me want to stab drug needles into my arms...i dont even know what that means.


6: Stars and Sons- Broken Social Scene. It makes me want to show Half Nelson to every girl that coos over ryan gosling in the Notebook.

Best Week Ever...since last July

Bring out the champaign as I had my biggest week since July. Unfortunately it totaled a paltry 49miles. Good news is that i made it all 7 days, managed a long run of 77min and nothing is broken...more so than it was before.

Today i was up at 530am to wobble out the door at 545am to knock out 6miles. I had an appt with my biggest retailer at 9am and was hoping to squeeze in a few more plus get the car ship shape to knock out 3-5000 miles in the next few months. New tires, wipers and an oil change took half a paycheck out of my pocket but it beats sitting on the side of the road during a blizzard in Minnesota at 2am. Trust me kids thats no fun.

After my long run saturday(77min)with Britton i was pretty spent and laid around the house and when not doing that i was hobbling to and from the fridge gulping down liquids. My hips and glutes were trashed, my foot throbbed and i was doubting being able to run the next day. I took the blue pill....two of them and much to my surprise i felt pretty good sunday and went for an easy jaunt around wrigley, a very comfy 6miler. During that time I finally gave a listen to Mercury Revs new record and have to say that its growing on me. Imagine Sigur Ros at the club singing in american/british accents with lotsa keyboards and there you have it.


I think its worth a listen. Madtown and Milwaukee tomorrow followed by more road warrior traveling in the next week should have some more music teviews and hopefully just as many running dailies.

Cheers

Still Truckin

Since ive gotten back from sales meetings ive done one race that was used as a hard workout/effort. Thats been followed up by a 6, 7, 6 and 8mile days. My hips and glutes/piriformis are flaring up and im pretty sure its due to not doing any core for the last month. I had been doing 100 situps a day after the run and felt solid and straightened out but for some reason i took one day off...then that became about 30.

I have also been diligently listening to the shuffle on my runs. Running in the grey sky, rain and wind has not been fun and inspiring. The playlists have been heavy on the mellow side featuring the National, Wilco and the new Ryan Adams which is pretty shitty. There have been some bangers thrown in including the Rapture, Crystal Castles and one of my faves Kasabian.

On the work front many of my accounts are in Dallas following Sir Keith around so sell in time has been slow but thats ok since catalogs/apparel has yet again arrived predictably late. I wouldnt be too worried except thanksgiving is coming up and it gives retailers an excuse to be awol from their stores.

Onward and upward.

left coast fun

Its been to long...ive been lazy...ive been busy...ive been drunk. What can i say?

Well i left off with one of the best weeks of running ive had in some time. i was on pace for mid 50's then missed a day due to an lazy postman then had a 4mile day because I made poor decisions the night before and could only muster a drunken shuffle before a flight. I wish that was the least of the poor decision making.

This week i have been in Portland for sales meetings. Monday was a check in day so i ambled 5miles around Portland. As is true with most cities running on MLK drive is never a smart thing. That night was pretty low key as myself and some friends congregated in the hotel bar to discuss the merits of such amazing movies as "Red Dawn" and Micheal Dudikof's acting chops until about 1am.


The next morning we met in the lobby at 6am for for what we hoped would be an easy hour. We started a bit late and ran out on the river path an easy 28:00 and came home in 24:00 which felt uptempo but i was glad i got a good one in. I was bummed that as soon as we returned we had to hustle to shower and make the bus to the village for meetings. Once there we saw some cool videos that talk of our brand and what we have done in the past 3months. Despite my struggles within the past month we've won a world series, had a slew of top draft picks and NCAA Champoinships, tennis, nascar and on and on and on....hopefully it will be my groups time again to be on top.

We were supposed to have a suprise group bonding day and there was no timeline for return that night. The company gave all free reign as it was election night but I had a friend in town who was playing a show i wanted to see. Anyways word circulated that it was paintball in methtown ~40miles away from Portland. http://www.splataction.com/index.html

It was raining and we were mostlty in running tights and fleeces. Taking a direct hit to the groin was a big concern. We started late and it was getting dark quick and coupling that with a mask that fogged up within seconds you had a recipe for disaster. First game we won and i was unscathed. Second game i took a hit to the finger and cried like a schoolgirl. Third game i ran downhill, tripped on a root, faceplanted then got shot in the face. By the end of the game(pitch black and pouring on us) we were all complaining about how sore we were. Pretty sad.

I met up with Danny Mackey and his brother to go see Local H(with Electric 6) downtown. Scott was nice enough to toss us on the list and even though nights out with him are pretty wild i was expecting to call it quits relatively early since we had a 515am wakeup. Kenny got us some PBR tallboys so we waited till go time. Scott was in a good mood due to Obama sealing the deal. Pretty lively show and when it was done we hung around to grab some drinks and bullshit with Scott. Danny wisely bailed at 12 and kenny around 1am yet i was coaxed into strippers and kareoke. Ive never done kareoke and my selection of Billy Ocean's "get out of my dreams and into my car" my go down in history....as being the most terrible thing ever done. That was followed by a trip to Union Jacks finest and finished off with a bacon/glazed donut from voodoo donuts





The next few days were spent looking at product, riding mechanichal bulls and going to an adidas sponsored house party. I will say i got the itch to think maybe i want to work in modern originals but this next running season has to be the strongest line shown in the past 5yrs.

The last night was a blur and with a 4am wakeup to hit the airport i didnt go to bed, instead deciding to take in all of portland that i could. It wasnt until i got home via cab and tried to find my car to go get food that i realized how much rest i needed. Last sunday i drove myself to the airport. Smart ryan...very smart.

Running wise the week was a bust. Its pitch black out and barely 5pm. Hoping to get out for an easy 30min and then do 5-8m tomorrow and get back into running mode on monday. Should be fun with sell in.

More pics to come and more regular posts.