Not Drugs – Art, Graffiti, Music and Culture for the Almost Grown-Up

Week 9 (August 2nd – August 8th)
M run 8.5, T workout (5x1K on the track) 7.5, W run 10, Th run 7, F run 7, Sa run 4/RACE 4 with 2 mile warm up and down, Su run 13
Run 65 Miles

Full Moon Four Miler:

8th place 22:05 (5:31 pace)

Sloppy hand writing led to a murdering of my personal info.

Which one is the Shea?

Kinda TSOed (took shit out) I guess; that was pretty stupid when I think back on it.  Hadn’t raced seriously in well over year and I’m leading through the mile, probably should have sat back on shit.  I remember being out in 5:15, then maybe 16:14, which would mean I closed in 5:50ish, probably pretty accurate. That’s tough.  Ah welp, lessoned learned for a month from now.  There were hot air balloons doing their thing around the course which was definitely an original touch, but other than that the course wasn’t too exciting.  One stretch felt eerily similar to roads I’ve run on in New Jersey:  cookie cutter white house, wide neighborhood road without any hills or even trees on the horizons; just like the shore, sans the seagulls and indelible stench of salt and garbage.  I didn’t stick around for any awards (got 2^nd, well really third but they don’t count the winner, in my age group).  Got my free beer (very pleased they had more than just miller light), watermelon and chex mix, and bounced because the mosquitoes where swarming.

Even Obama hates flies.

I have been deluged by more bugs this summer than any before in my life.  Mind you, I spent numerous summers running around outside all days at various camps, so I’ve experienced my fair share of incestuous abuse.  After every run I look like Gary Busey painted me with a black brush.  Anytime I stop, pint sized blood suckers flock.  Shit, they have bitten my ass through my shorts.  There have been runs when giant flies bash into the back of my head for a quarter mile straight.  I have no idea why these flies do this, its not a way of protecting their territory, I’m ‘running away’ the whole time!  When they finally cease this futile activity they are at least a quarter mile from where they started.  I don’t know much about bugs, but I’d imagine a quarter miles worth of flying, let alone the persistent attacks on my skull, is enough for a life time.  So that’s probably why they stop bothering me, they died.  Now, I cant go freaking out and try to swat at all these bugs, I usually run on the side of the road.  Doing this on the shoulder could garner some unwanted attention and some driver might think it best to remove some lanky shirtless kid spazzing on the side of the road from this earth.  I know if I was trucking along at 50mph and saw me flailing about on some county road, I’d think about ending my misery.  So I just run, and wipe and itch away when I’m finished, and bitch to you about it all.  Thanks for listening, it means a lot.

Hopefully TShea beats her.

This is the last entry coming to you from Wisconsin.  I’ll keep updating on the running and my travels leading up to Labor Day Weekend.  Hmm… I’ll have to consider a title change, because a Dairyland Memoir cannot be written on the East Coast.

TShea

Week 8 (July 26th – August 1st)
M run 7, T run 11.5, W workout (tempo on roads) 8, Th run 9.5, F drunk 0, Sa run 10, Su run 4/workout 8
Run 58

As some of you might have already assumed, the tour of Southeastern Wisconsin fell through.  Funds are running low and a drive across 7 states to Boston is looming.  As a result of this personal financial crisis, life has been uneventful.  Last weekends highlight was marked by sneaking a twelve pack into the hospital and downing 10 local brews while listening to my vinyls.  Unfortunately, my needle was starting to wear about 6 months ago and the vocals all sounded a bit off, hissy if I may, but after beer five or 6 that didn’t really concern me.

This one's for the GF.

Now needing a new needle is surely a bummer, but also an accomplishment.  This lets me know I have been putting this 3 year old Christmas present of a turntable to good use.  It’s a similar feeling to needing running shoes without the leg pain.  It sucks that you gotta dump 60 to 120 bucks into footwear but after logging about 500 miles in one set of kicks, you certainly feel you earned it.  I scored a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10s a few weeks back for a great price thanks to Letham’s high stature at Jack Rabbit Sports, and shit they have been doing me well.  Not Benny ‘The Jet’ Rodriguez well, but hopefully they will come close on Saturday night.  The Full Moon Four Miler will be my first road race since two Thanksgivings ago.  It’ll also be my first night race, as the start is slated for 8:30pm.  I mean, I have raced at night before at the Penn Relays, but that was a debacle that saw me never officially race, as I ran in the wrong heat…still, I count it (running on that ten lane track was a life goal since fourth grade).

And now for something completely different…

This one's for all the ladies.

This morning, like every morning without the World Cup or the Tour of France (that’s American for Le Tour), I turned on Sportscenter as soon as I turned off my alarm.  I saw this. I was amped and this exchange between Winn, an upcoming member of the media/marketing world, and I, a young health care provider, ensued via text messages during the first few hours of our respective work days

Me: Kenny Powers KSwiss commercial.  On the come back.

Him: Yes. Did you make that endless summer mix?

Me: Ya, thoughts?

Him: I found it about 30 minutes ago. I showed up 15 minutes late to work. Boston is playing a free show tonight on the Hudson. Hammered. I’ll have a full report later.

I know its not the type of exchange that sitcoms are made of…but think, we are the future of this bold land and this is where our heads are at.  To that I say: “Hammered. I’ll have a full report later”.

I’ll finish off with giving you some free music….LEGALLY!!!!

J Dilla – Donut Shop EP

Curt@!n$ – The Dissertation: The Wu-Thesis

Wale – More About Nothing

TShea

Week 6 (July 10 – July 17) and 7 (July 18 – July 25)
#6: M run 10, T workout 9, W run 8, Th 10 run, F workout 8, Sa bike 64, Su run 5
Run 50 Miles Bike 64 Miles
#7: M run 9, T workout (repeats on track) 8, W run 9, Th 0, F run 10, Sa bike 20/run 7, Su workout (tempo on road) 10
Run 53mi Bike 20mi

Unfortunately, my absence last week did not mean I was off doing something awesome. Instead,  I went into town to a local bike factory to join in on a metric century ride last Saturday morning and it wiped me out for the whole weekend.  In my defense, it was my longest bike ride by about 20 miles and was around 90 degrees without a cloud in the sky. But now I’m back, but without too much to offer compared to my trip to Milwaukee (I failed to really explore the Dairyland anymore, sorry).  Funds are low and a trip to Madison next weekend is likely, so I’m prepping to hit it hard out there.  It could be my last Hoo–Rah before I leave the flat lands of Southeastern Wisconsin in three weeks for the cities of Rochester, Boston and the Illadelph (I may make a few other stops before school kicks back up too).  To make up for my missed deadline,  I give you this TShea AKA 6ft Unda’s Endless Mix 4 an Endless Summer (just right click and save as…don’t know what you mac-ies have to do) The wonders of Dropbox.

Dilla. Dilla. Mix. Mix. Mix.

As for right now, things are docile and good.  I just copped over a gig of Jay Dee and am trying to listen to as many of his (I wont even attempt to sum up this much Dilla with one word, I’ll just use this parenthesized fragment to communicate its awesomeness) beats before this bottle slips me into yet another sweaty slumber.  I’m also exercising my brain by watching Jackass Vol. 2 on mute…..but that’s about as much exercise as I was doing before my Dairyland Training. Let’s see what else basic hospital cable offers on a Saturday night.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – If I wasn’t reading the book this would have been a lock.

Adult Swim is a letdown; some anime show with disembodied talking dogheads.

This dude needs some PT.

E!, MTV, VH1, Spike offer their typical garbage.
Bravo – House.

Well, Bravo. We have a winner.

I don’t know why I have found myself watching so many medical dramas this summer, it might have to do with living in a hospital.  Shows like House, Royal Pains and Scrubs (this one’s more of a comedy, whatever) have been making me put down the remote more often than the other shit on TV.  On my drive out here I was hoping to frequently experience the irony of watching That 70’s Show while actually in Wisconsin, but it’s not on nearly as much as I would have hoped.  You’d think the local stations would dedicate their late night time slots to shows repping the Dairyland like the aforementioned That 70’s Show and Happy Days (Oh you didn’t know Happy Days was based in Milwaukee, neither did I till I got here, and boy, are the locals quick to tell you about the Bronze Fonz).  I wonder if Kelso will ever be immortalized on the western shores of Lake Michigan.  Unlikely, considering hitting the jukebox and riding a motorcycle is much more accepted by the these cow loving conservative than ripping a bong and driving a VW bus.

This is a bit rough when room temperature is like 80…

Today was my first ever brick.  Yea I don’t have any idea why a bike ride and a run in the same day is called a brick, Letham says it’s a triathlon thing, I believe him, but I don’t want to.  I tried to come up with my own term by combining the words but ruke, rike, bun and bin don’t really work and aren’t terms commonly used in drug dealing.

TShea as a drug dealer.

I love drug dealing.  For a while now I have fantasized about dealing drugs in a big way.  It’ll never happen though, the girlfriend would never approve, ‘nuff said.  Seriously though, The Wire, Weeds (before the whole Mexican theme started), American Gangster, Half Baked, The Wu-Tang Clan and all their solo productions will always be favorites of mine.  If I ever was a drug dealer, I wouldn’t be dealing with the hard shit you know, I don’t aspire to be a Toni Montana or a Marlo Stanfield, but that guy James Franco plays in Pineapple Express seems like a decent guy to be.  He’s not killing any one with his product, if you asked his ‘customers’ I bet you they’d say he does them a service or even a favor by conveniently providing such a wide selection of HIGH quality products.  I wouldn’t use as much as he does, but he still keeps it together to take care of grandma, so he’s still a good guy.  I would dabble in psychedelics a bit as well, Tom Wolfe make them sound so fun.  Which brings us to Ken Kesey and back to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book this time though, which is more enticing then another muted House. That means I’m down here as well. Until next week.

Dilla will stay though, Dilla will always stay, Dilla Lives Forever.

TShea

Week 5 (July 4th – July 11th)
M run 9, T run 8, W bike 19.3, Th run 9, F run 9, Sa run 5.5, Su bike 43.1
Run 40.5mi Bike 62.4mi

After a soggy ass bike ride yesterday evening I was pretty wiped, too wiped to throw together the 5^th installment of my Memoirs.  Now I am throwing this piece down while watching the best show on television, No Reservations.

Delicious.

There was a Marathon of this show 4^th of july weekend leading up the season premier, and it carried me threw my hangover.  Now Anthony Bordain is not a guy I think I would want to hang out with, because I think he seems like a pretentious hipster who would, despite giving up half a foot to me, look down at me for the entire interaction.

But damn, he can sell a city.

He could go to a moldy basement of a pet store at the Jersey Shore and if some banging hoagies are served there, he’ll have me seeing if I can get there the next time I’m home to the Philly ‘Burbs.  What’s giving him this undeniable pitchman characteristic is how he seems to just travel somewhere on his own and enjoy it.  Yeah, he has his chef friends walking him through cities and a production team researching and setting up his stops, but it makes me feel like everywhere on the earth has something worth seeing, Southeastern Wisconsin included.

I’ve been out here 6 weeks and other than a solo bender in Madsion, I only saw Wisconsin through bike rides past farms and chasing a balloon.  I was selling America’s Dairyland, and myself, short.  I figured I had 6 more weeks to try and enjoy my stay rather than blindly complaining about it.

After a week of very sweaty runs that left my shoes soaked and disgusting every night, topped by a Friday workout that kicked my ass so hard, I have to write this standing. I needed to reward the body.

“This episode is taking me to Milwaukee.”

Damn….ah welp, that was a bit of a disappointment, Tony. Anyway, I made two stops on Saturday (I had four planned but a late start and an impending thunderstorm hindered my ambition).  The art museum on Lake Michigan and a Brewers game, were scratched, but The Miller Brewery wasn’t. It probably should’ve been.

TShea's Brewery Tour Guide.

I have been on a few brewery tours, all of them smaller breweries that made up for their size with great beer and a plentiful of free samples.  The Miller Brewery did the exact opposite.  It Pushed me through a factory, a warehouse, showed me two movies and gave me three 8oz samples.  One of the samples, though, was pretty good. They called it Batch 19.  No idea if Miller brews it, but its only available at a few location in Milwaukee.  Its a  ‘pre-prohibition’ recipe (on second thought, this sounds way too American grassroots for a company once owned by some South Africans).  Anyways, just like the answer I got to my question: “why use rice, corn and oats instead of all barley, which gives the beer a ‘crisper’ taste”… this experience left a lot to be desired.  My next stop certainly made up for it.

______________________________________

Maxies (take a tour of the site before you read further).

Milwaukee and Ithaca?  Are you serious?  Some dude thought that those two cities were the two places he wanted to open his Cajun restaurants?  Since I’ve frequented the latter, better visit the former.  I had a hell of a time: a dozen oysters, a heaping pulled pork sandwich, cole saw, baked pork and beans, and yellow grits with a gravy that should be on everything served in the joint.  Oh, and two 22oz of some local brews (it was happy hour), another Spotted Cow and a Lakefront IPA.  Like I said, a hell of a time.  Since I was sitting at the bar (my father tells me the only way to go out to dinner on your own is at the bar or with a book) I did my best to chum it up with the bar tender.  I, of course complimented him on the food, realized he’s not the cook, and complimented him on the beer.  I’m not a creative chum-er I guess.  I was especially impressed with the Lakefront IPA, so he tells me their brewery tour is the only one he’s been on where they give you beer before and after the tour.  Damn, did I pick the wrong brewery or what?

As I finished up, the barkeep re-stressed how the Lakefront tour is a must and gave me a few other of his must sees in the city.  In return for his enjoyable meal and bits of local knowledge, I gave him my copy of ‘How I Got Over’ (no, not instead of the tip, although it is that damn good).

This probably means nothing. Ah Welp.

On the drive back I decided to check a local bar out, and maybe collect some more info on what it is that a real Wisconsin-er is.  I mostly talked to them about Harleys and cheese, but did get a few beers for free (glad I adlibbed).  I also found out the Brewers Stadium does this, and that a T-Strom wouldn’t have affected the game at all.

This was my first try at giving Southeastern Wisconsin my best ‘No Reservation’ analysis, and I could have done better, but it was good to get out see if I was missing anything.  And yes, yes I was, and I hope to find out more in these next few weeks.  I’ll probably make it back to Milwaukee again, but look for Green Bay and Madison to play host to future weeks’ highlights.

I’ll close with a bit more on the re-fitnessing (cause I know that’s why you all are tuning in each week).  40 miles on 5 runs is pretty damn solid, I think, especially considering I was at 0 miles in 7 days a few weeks ago.  With how good I felt on today’s ten miler, my private coach laying out some ball busting workouts, and my previously mentioned mastery of the alumni race course…I’m really starting to believe I’ll have my readers rejoicing Labor Day weekend, celebrating a comeback of Philadelphia proportions from mile 1 to the finish line, just behind a kick wall at the end of the Terrace parking lot.

Moooooooooo.

Week 4 (June 28 – July 4th)
M bike 28.5, T run 5.3, W run (workout) 8.3, Th run 7, F run 6.5, Sa run 9, Su 0
Run 36.1 miles Bike 28.5 miles

Being drunk in a hospital is certainly not Not Drugs, but writing about it for your enjoyment… Not Drugs to a ‘t‘.

Rabid or drunk?

So yea, I’m drunk in a hospital.  Some have argued that a hospital is the best place to be drunk.  Nurses push you around on a bed and you get hooked to IVs and you never suffer a hangover.  Still waiting on the nurses and the rolling bed…the hangover looks inevitable, especially after the run I had earlier this evening.  Speaking of which, I should probably stop running around sunset; I saw a skunk on Friday and a family of raccoons on Saturday during my runs.  Either they are rabid or I’m running too late, I think it’s the latter, but the threats of rabies and inescapable stenches add excitement to Wisconsin living.

This week, Wisconsin Week 6, my half way point, was the best so far.  On Tuesday, I assisted a coworker in her education on how to lift a giant wicker basket 700ft in the air with just hot air (sans a politician… HOOOOOO!!!).  Seriously though, crewing (that’s what balloon pilots call helping) a hot air balloon flight was much more mind blowing than I expected.  Keep in mind, as I’m sure you are, I’m in Wisconsin.  I helped put the balloon together, fill it with hot air and pack the whole show up when it had landed on the side of a state highway.  My coworker/pilot was able to land her craft between a high traffic road and a budding cornfield.  Feeling the pressures of paying back the farmer for lost crops and certain death via a Harley gang rumbling on through, she performed and squeezed her craft into a space the size of a 10ft x10ft postage stamp.  Great and successful time had by all.

Hot Air via TShea.

Wednesday was the first workout in over a year.  The urge to vomit came over me more times than I can recall, but I pulled through.  It consisted of a 2mile warm up, then 4 miles or 25 minutes of 2 minutes ‘off’ and 3 minutes ‘on’, and a 2 mile cool down.  Some of you, well most of you, probably, don’t really understand what all that means, I’ll do my best to put it all into NotDrugs terms.  This workout’s purpose was to improve my capacity for running at a faster, more race similar, pace.  To improve my tolerance.  What else do people my age associate with tolerance….

Every run can be likened to a Saturday night.  So all those runs before, just straight miles at a comfortable pace, were like casually drinking beers.  I can keep doing that and my tolerance will improve, but to speed up the process, I really have to push myself closer to my limits.  I have to bring some harder stuff into the mix.  Yep, workouts are the equivalent to a night of ripping shots or a string of single malts on the rocks.  Those types of nights are impressively effective at boosting your tolerance but are awfully taxing and just dangerous on a continual basis, so workouts every day will just burn me out.  Now the workout I did on Wednesday wasn’t a buy-yourself-a-liter-for-your-friend’s-house-party type of run.  It was a steady flow of American lagers with 5 stiff shots mixed in type of run, a gentle reintroduction to the lifestyle that I loved for 8 years.

R.I.P.

Well I did better than I expected actually, in both comparing my training to heavy partying and in the workout itself.  The success of the workout made the comeback seem a little more tangible.  I’m either on pace for the greatest comeback the blogosphere has ever seen or setting myself up for an epic fail only rivaled by this.  At the end of the run I saw some figure parachuting down to the Wisconsin soil continuing the aerial exploits theme.  The Roots in concert on Thursday made it three days straight days of above the clouds experiences.

My first hangover in over a month will certainly damper my Independence Day but I figure I can pull it together in time for the fireworks.  I don’t think fireworks will ever get old for me, and that makes me feel very American.

Oh and the World Cup, I almost forgot.

Uruguay over The Netherlands.  No team seems to have luck going for them more than Uruguay

Germany over Spain.  If Uruguay has the luck, Germany just has IT going for them.  I’m not sure what IT is, but IT will not only carry Germany to the finals but also to the first European victory of European soil in the World Cup.

Moo.

Dairyland Memoirs; Week 3 (June 21st – June 27th)
M 0, T run 6mi maybe, W run 7.7mi, Th run 5.5mi, F bike 30.5mi, Sa run 6.3, Su run 8
Run 33.5 miles Bike 30.5 miles

So many kicks, so few feet.

I am in the midst of a ‘Summer of ‘09’ throw back sans the gin and friends.  Basically, I’m listening to Wale’s Back to the Feature mixtape, alone and sober on a Saturday night.  This tape was my jam last summer, whether I was painting houses, driving the functioning Red Chariot or Chillin’, the speakers were filled with Wale.  Not just his music, but also his name, Wale!! He says his name an awful lot on all his stuff.  It might be a strategy of his so people know how to pronounce his name correctly. I mean, understandably, it’s not as obvious as Jay-Z or Dr. Dre.  There are no large sea mammals or Pixar movie names spelled similarly to their names.

But anyway, the comeback is officially on. I cracked 30 miles this week, and I’m feeling pretty good.  Unfortunately, as my legs get better at transporting me, my truck gets worse. I had to take it in to get the brakes fixed, but none the less, Wisconsin Week 5 was a good one.

Not the BK, but it could be?

It started with a tornado warning (I said fun?), which required me to cram into a hallway with a bunch of kids that also live in the hospital, for about an hour, while the storm blew through.  No one was harmed.  A couple of houses in the area were hit hard, but as far as I know, no one is lost in Oz.  There have been a few wild storms the past few weeks; all this heavy rain might explain why the grass is so green here.  While my parents were visiting, my dad was legitimately impressed with how nice the lawns out here are.  On Tuesday, I figured I should try running on this wonderful grass (hmmm… all this talk about grass, I should probably towel the door).

The University of Wisconsin Park Side cross country course is the site of the biggest high school race in the Midwest and also plays host to numerous collegiate races.  The day I ran on it, I was the only one out there.  Granted the sun was setting towards the end of the run (awesome) so most people had probably called it a day, but this was the first time I had been on a xc course completely alone.  I had looked at the course map beforehand so I would know how to run the 10k (6.2mile) course, and there were also markers along the way directing me where and when to turn. Despite these I still effed it up, hence me not knowing how long I actually ran.  Not having a watch doesn’t help either.

100% Not the Course.

Running around on the course brought back a lot of memories.  It was my first time running on a course since last year’s Alumni Race on Labor Day weekend, but that barely counts.  XC used to be my #1 life priority for half the year.  Every day during the summer and fall revolved around when I was running, now cross country is nothing but the topic of nostalgic thinking.  That’s almost growing up for you. Ah welp, I’ll be heading back to the course a few more times this summer, mostly for workouts provided by my private coach. I thought the first few runs of this re-fitnessing were hell,  the first few workouts will probably feel 1100X worse, kinda like how New Jersey feels all the time, I guess.

FDA Approved.

The rest of the week’s exercising was much less mentally stimulating and issue free for the most part. Which was great because it allowed me to focus on something that was missig from my life, that I didn’t even know was missing until Thursday night rolled around. It was Slop Night.  If you don’t know about Slop Night, then you have been robbed of a collegiate experience as integral as the Wednesday bar specials.  For you unfortunate souls, Slop Night is when its nachos for dinner; you then throw the chips at the bottom of a bowl and then smoother them with the colorful flavors of beef, beans, cheese, lettuce, salsa and a dollop of sour cream. It’s Best enjoyed inebriated, on a Tuesday, around 11:05pm and self served.  Like I said, Thursday was Slop Night, and the hospital cafeteria had all the appropriate amenities (bonus jalapeños…I paid for those later).  The weekend, then, was pleasantly uneventful, other than the truck breaking again and the World Cup.

The USA, like I said last week, were not good enough.  Played hard, showed well and were the subject of ESPN’s demonstration of awesome power.  There was more of a World Cup following this year by Americans because ESPN bumped SportSCenter to The Deuce, and showed soccer on The ESPN in the morning.  Hype leading up to the England match didn’t hurt.

Uruguay looks strong and should be thinking beyond a semifinals birth.  Ghana is the last hope for not just the host nation, but the entire host continent.  As far as how the other games from Sunday on go, read on…

Argentina v Mexico:  A Grizzly Maradona coaching on the sidelines is more entertaining than some teams play on the field.

England v Germany:  Does every game England play seem to be against a country they once warred with?  They lose this rematch.

Netherlands v Slovakia:  With how bright the Dutch jerseys are, they must be the geriatric favorite.  The old remain happy.

Brazil v Chile:  The Brazilians aren’t as flashy they used to be, their continued dominance is less enjoyable.

Paraguay v Japan:  No clue.

Spain v Portugal:  How do you say ‘Border Battle’ in Spanish?

Enjoy the NBA free agency shit-show starting Thursday.

Moo.

Week 2 (June 14th – 21st)
M bike 40mi, T run 6.5mi, W run 5.5mi, Th 0, F 0, Sa run 7.8mi, Su run 5.5
Bike – 40 miles Run – 25.3 miles

Well this concludes the 4^th week of my Wisconsin existence and the 2^nd of my NotDrugs existence. Monday was a great bike ride, during which I crushed the only hill I have been able to find out here.  On said ride, I also noticed that something was wrong with my back wheel.  Turns out, the spokes where loose and the wheeled was wobbling on its axis. Shit.

You're Fired!

Tuesday, I drove out to the bike shop, and my muffler just falls off on the drive.  Just like if the little gremlin under the truck that runs the exhaust system, the muffler gremlin (sounds like a nickname of an STD), went on strike.  Yes, on my drive to fix my bike, my truck broke.  What do I do?  That’s right, go across the street to the River House Bar and have a beer; A Spotted Cow.  Then I drove that garbage-truck-on-steroids-sounding piece of Pennsylvania metal back to the hospital.  I went for a solid run after all that though.  Day could’ve been worse.

Another decent run on Wednesday, my ‘rents came into town to visit me, and I took the truck into the shop to be re-mufflered.  I drove to the garage and ran back to the hospital (interesting progression of transportation during the week so far). Fitnessing was put on hold while the parents visited the Dairyland.  Thank God they came. I almost forgot the wonders of beers with good food.

Real Thirsty!

Saturday was a wild day, for Wisconsin that is. First, a joke of an 8 mile run, where I had to stop, again. That’s two Saturdays in a row I had to stop during a run due to out-of-shapness.  I wondered if traveling this hard road is worth it, but I was quickly reminded of the taste of glory from two years ago.  I Dragged myself home, to fight another day.  Then the Sheas ventured off into the wild cheese-filled yonder to find someway to spend the day.  We failed.  Beers over dinner made it all better.

On Sunday, I hit the pavement with the goal of redemption in mind.  Goal accomplished, time for a reward.  I broke a tradition and downloaded an album before its official relese date, but hot damn was it worth it. The Roots – How I Got Over; filthy to the point that I had to take a shower afterwards (actually, I had to take a shower because of my run, but that’s besides the point).  I’m not gonna break it down song by song, but it’s very different from what they have done before.  I was a little disappointed by Rising Down (their last album), but the fact that it was a stepping stone to this, made it a little better.

?uestlove Says "Buy my Shit!"

Overall it’s softer and lighter, there are no real bangers like “Here I Come”, “Boom” or “Becoming Unwritten”.  The interludes are fantastic, straight from the commercial breaks on LNWJF.  The Money Making Jam Boys flex some serious muscle, too, over some hypnotic ?uestlove driven beats.  Also, best album art since The Tipping Point.  All these factors just allow the album to flow as a whole, which is rare these days.  You should peep it legally on the MySpace, or cop it at your local record store on the 22^nd, don’t download it for free.  If you do steal it, go see them live to make up for it (you actually get the better of the deal anyway).

What iceberg!?!?!

It’s this shit that is keeping me going strong out here, this unreal list of summer albums, a list that hasn’t even really started yet.  Come Tuesday, new releases from The Black Keys, Reflection Eternal, Tame Impala and The Roots will have been dropped.  That’s only the tip of the iceberg.  The shit the Titantic hit will consist of Big Boi, Kid Cudi, Panda Bear and M.I.A. And then this winter…TRON, ‘nuff said.  It’s this outrageous new music that makes boredom bearable. That and the ability to talk to 10 people in 10 different cities, 6 states, and three time zones, from the end of the hall (as I think I mentioned before, I don’t have internet in my room, so most of my surfing is done at the end of the hall on a folding chair).

And in case you thought I forgot, I mentioned a World Cup recap for this week so here it is:  America isn’t good enough, England and Italy are not as good as they thought, Spain is not as good as everyone else thought, it’ll take a Mandela Miracle to get just one African team into the second round, France is fucked, and Brazil will win the whole thing.

Moo.

Week 1 (June 7th – June 13th)
M bike 27.3mi, T run 5.5mi, W run 5.5mi, Th bike 36.1mi, F bike 44.2mi, Sa run 7.5mi, Su sat around 0
Ran – 18.5miles. Biked – 107.6miles.

This is not Tim Shea. But in 1972 it could have been.

Discovered that I have 43 songs on my computer that are exactly 4:20 long.  Listening to them all.  Watching Criminal Minds on mute; I do this a lot, listen to music while watching muted TV.  I feel it is a good way to figure out if you really want to watch the show.  If just from the soundless action you are intrigued, then you’ll definitely enjoy watching it with sound.  Try it out and tell me I’m wrong. If you decide to keep the TV muted and continue with the tune-bumping, even better.  The overflow of stimulus to the brain as well as the imagination facilitations of music will keep your gray matter sharp.  You’ll learn to block out distractions and focus better on the aspect of your environment that you really want to pay attention to.  And it might prevent dementia (All of that stuff is speculation, especially the last one, the dementia one.  But I could be one to something don’t you think?  I mean I did I came up with this idea for wireless electricity about a year back).

Both of those hands are Tim Shea's.

Think about it, it’s the same thing as wireless internet and cordless phones.  You plug a box into the wall and devices all over a certain area can receive a signal just like you were plugged into your phone, cable, what-have-you jack.  Now you might say, shit what about a battery, that’s wireless electricity.  True, but with an ‘electricity router’ you’ll never go dead or need to re-charge, and operate with much more power. You can’t run a plasma with batteries, you need the power from the outlet.  The TV could receive the electricity from the router through a specific receiver.  You follow me?  Well if not maybe this guy can explain it better, but I promise you I had that whole theory I just gave you before I saw that video, or even heard of WiTricity. The professionals definitely dress it up much better than I can, but I’m just saying I can have some pretty wild ideas that could actually work.

This blog thing probably isn’t one of them.

This isn't where Tim Shea is.

Either way, here is your first weekly update.  The exercise went surprisingly well, until Saturday.  I looked on a map, a paper map (it’s odd that I need to clarify that, fucking technology), and plotted out this route and judged it to be 6 miles, turned out to be a bit off. So I was out running and feeling like shit – I can now see how those before me have had such trouble with their re-fitnessing.  We’re all feeling great for a few days, then BAM! all that activity catches up with you and crashes you back to reality,  the reality that you haven’t been doing that exercise shit for months and tried to pick up where you left off.  Your body gives you a few days to cut it out then it gets pissed and makes everything hurt.  So you stop, go three weeks without exercise because of fear, and then try it again out of stupidity, repeat.  NOT ME, not this time. Not because I have committed to this blog thing and have millions religiously following the Dairyland Memoirs.  I’m sticking with it this time because, did I mention, there is nothing else to do out here.  I did take Sunday off, though (I’m just agreeing with the body, 6 straight days is a tad much). But, back to the miss-mapping.

So I’m out running, didn’t bring a watch so I don’t really have an idea how long I’ve been out or how far I’ve gone, my location is an estimate based off of my memory of the map and as I said, I’m dying.  I have never felt that terrible before in my life.  It was so bad I had to stop for a minute or two (mind you, stopping has been more of a fopah than fishnets at a catholic grade school ever since I was in high school). I was suffering. When I finally get back to the hospital and mapped out the route using the interweb, it turns out I had already run well over 6 miles before I stopped, and the whole run was close to 8 miles (fucking paper).

Overall, I’d say my third week out here went well.  The road to glory has very bumpy and up-hill start, but I should have expected that. Stayed tuned if you want. Although, if you don’t, you’ll be left out of half of the conversations come Tuesday.  Also, keep your eyes out for the 2010 World Cup Round by Round previews/updates. This is Tim Shea Doin’ Work.

Out.

TSHEA

Our loyal fan, TShea, has finally made his way to the limelight of Not Drugs. Yes, I know you have been waiting for him to finally break into the Not Drugs literary scheme of things, and so I won’t delay it any further. Let’s open the curtains on this weekly diary from the TShea (he’ll explain the rest)…

Mooo.

PREFACE

This begins the Dairyland Diary. This will chronicle my life’s happenings during the remaining 10 weeks of my stay here in the bosom of America. I’m in Wisconsin, get it? The Dairyland, The Bosom…nothing yet…well I’m sure these misunderstandings will happen a lot. Damn, ‘misunderstandings’ is a really long yet commonly used word.  It’s not a Scribbs Spelling Bee word and certainly won’t make a small Indian kid do this, but it’s a double digit letter word that we were using back in grade school, go us. I mean I am a terrible speller and I banged out that 17 letter word twice without a red skwiggle (like the one that just showed up under skwiggle, fuck you Bill Gates, it’s a word). So, this, um…well, yeah it’s a diary, nah fuck that, these memoirs (not sure what those are, but screw it) will mostly revolve around my attempt to get back in shape so I can make a legitimate ‘run’ at reclaiming my title at Ithaca College’s XC Alumni Run this Labor Day weekend. There will also be numerous ramblings about whatever I want. Like this:

Extraordinary Human Being

Just got off the phone with my former assistant coach from my days back in Ithaca, and he has agreed to help me organize this hap-hazard attempt at a return to glory. A re-fitness plan if I may. (Re-fitness meaning, I was fit, quite fit actually, then I lost all but my ability to play basketball a little bit longer than most of my friends, and now I’m trying to get fit again, re-fit, re-fitness). I haven’t seriously trained for anything since my outdoor track career fizzled out in May of last year. Now through mostly road biking and running I’ll attempt to match my athletic ability, from two years ago when I won the alumni race as a college senior (and team captain).  Winning that race solidified me as one of the greatest Alumni race performers in the race’s history, at least in my mind. Allow me to force you into agreement. As a freshman, after only running with the team for about a week I was 4^th on the varsity and 5^th overall.  Sophomore year saw me climb to the top spot on the team and 4^th in the race behind two former All-Americans and a dentist.  My junior year I narrowly lost the race to the greatest runner in Ithaca’s history.  As I mentioned before, my senior saw me finally reach the top of the podium, spearheading a varsity bludgeoning of the washed up Alumni Squad. Clearly, in my four years as an ICXCer, I became a force, if not The Force, to be reckoned with at the Alumni 5k.

King of the Rebounds.

Quite the reputation, wouldn’t you say?  It wasn’t quite Armstrong’s dominance over there in France but more like Rodman’s reign over the rebounding title. It didn’t really matter, but was still kinda like a big deal… Last year’s run was piss poor in comparison to my previously mentioned accomplishments, but after enjoy every ounce of a summer in Ithaca, I was asking for it.

This is now the third week that I have been here in Wisconsin. The first two weeks my only exercise has been 3-5 bike rides a week, and today marks my first run in God knows how long.  Fuck me, I’m already sore and I finished an hour ago. What I am hoping will give me an edge this summer is the fact that I am living in a hospital. Yep. In the hospital that I am interning at. How’s that an edge? Well, it’s just wrong to get blasted alone in my room one floor up from the folks I treat in the morning and even worse to drive drunk back to a facility filled with people recovering from traumatic brain injuries; I’ll spare myself that irony. So for the most part, this ought to be a relatively substance free summer, the exact opposite from last summer when the fall from shape began with a gin-fueled bang. I also lack internet in my

Someone is Cheesefaced.

room, so staying up late to do…well needless to say, the internet’s bottomless cornucopia of entertainment will rarely rob me of the all important 7-8 hours of sleep a night. And I’m in the middle of fucking nowhere! You ever heard of Waterford, WI?  Of course not, there is nothing to do out here but go to tractor pulls and getting cheesefaced (that’s what they call getting drunk out here, or at least they should). I have way too many teeth for the first and have already explained why the second is not an option.  With a healthy liver, plenty of sleep and time, I think I can pull this off.

I think that’s enough background and I’ll spare you anymore ramblings this time around. The stage is set, I have 13 weeks to get in champion shape and unfortunately I don’t have the equipment or skill to just throw a montage together and have it all happen in two minutes, so actual hard work and weekly updates of my trials and tribulations will have to suffice. Now excuse me while I navigate my way through an hour long Yes marathon.

TSHEA

It’s 1 – 1 at the half. It doesn’t matter that USA’s goal wasn’t the greatest, it was a goal. Get your flags out. Drink your American made beers. And get a healthy American drunk going.

AMERICA!!