Weekly Summary: July 12-18

07-12-2010
Mon-AM: 7 miles (1:00) Creek Path+2mi barefoot at Kitt
Miserably sluggish and slow.  I went to bed at 5pm after bagging the evening run.

07-13-2010
Tue-AM: zippo
Woke at 1am last night and proceeded to experience endless hours of projectile unpleasantness of all sorts.  Really really sick.

07-14-2010
Wed-AM: nada
Still bed-ridden.

07-15-2010
Thu-AM: 4 miles (:37) Creek Path
Very very slow and hazy return to physical activity post-illness.

07-16-2010
Fri-AM: 15 miles (2:12) Green Mt. up back down Bear Cyn, 3000'
Finally made it up Green again.  Hamstring tightened significantly on the final descent down Skunk Canyon.  Really really hot, too, as it's been all week. Had a remarkably painful acupuncture session with Allison Suddard in the afternoon.

07-17-2010
Sat-AM: 15 miles (2:22) Devil's Thumb, 3000'
Very nice run up to the Continental Divide in the Indian Peaks Wilderness with Scott, Jocelyn, Jenny, and Bill, all between 9k' and 12k'.  Scott and I took it pretty easy all morning, especially on the downhill where my hamstring had me fairly gimpy. Great to finally make it back above treeline. Lots of exploring to be done up there in the next few weeks.

07-18-2010
Sun-AM: 15 miles (2:16) Green Mt. up back down ridges, 3000'
Getting my mojo back with good energy the whole way and a relatively cooperative hamstring. It's been so hot this week that ending my runs with a short swim in Boulder Creek has become mandatory, especially since there's a perfect swimming hole right outside our apartment.
PM: 5 miles (:44) Creek Path+1.5mi barefoot at Kitt
Ran super easy with Jocelyn.

Total
-Miles: 61
-Hours: 9h 11min
-Vertical: 9000'

2010 Summits (Day 199)
-Green: 182
-Bear: 11
-SoBo: 4

The first half of this week was destroyed by coming down with some sort of flu-like sickness, but the second half I finally started establishing a little more consistency to my running again.  My post-WS hamstring tweak continues to be a bit of a limiting factor on downhills, but through a combination of acupuncture and strengthening exercises it seems to be gradually improving enough that I can still run on my preferred terrain.

On Friday, Jocelyn and I made a stop in at Albums On The Hill, the only independent record store left here in Boulder.  The demise of this part of the music business is certainly a sad one, but not particularly puzzling.  A new CD there is generally $12.99 compared to the $9.99 that iTunes charges.  However, Jocelyn and I both agree that there is absolutely some sort of almost intangible satisfaction and glee that comes from purchasing the material disc instead of simply performing a download of a digital file.  We still have a CD player, but it syncs up with our iPod just as easily as popping a disc in its slot, so its tough to put a finger on what exactly makes buying a CD from the local shop more enjoyable than downloading.  Interacting with another knowledgeable, informed, enthusiastic human being is definitely part of it.

However, it makes little sense to me why specialty record stores are disappearing while other specialty businesses--say, running shops--can still make a go of it.  I suspect it's because A) they're a bit more diversified, and B) people still like getting fit for shoes and getting advice on other gear.  Music stores definitely used to be a way of learning about new music, though, too--music that wasn't necessarily force-fed to you on the top-40 radio stations.  So, I don't know.  It's all a bit baffling to me.  In the meantime, though, I guess I'll continue paying an extra $3 every now and then to get a new album in order to support the local shop.  I know it's almost certainly a futile effort at supporting the business in maintaining its relevance, but I'll keep doing it as long as the store is there.

Incidentally, on Friday Jocelyn and I picked up both of the albums by the White Rabbits, Fort Nightly and It's Frightening.  Both are inventive, high-energy, and highly listenable.  A token track from each, respectively:





In fact, this entire concert--available streaming for free at http://www.tenthrow.com/--was so good that it's what inspired the purchases.