Category: move ro Music ekkarnnet

A Good 5K Made Better By Killin’It Live by Tommy Castro

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Yesterday was Day 3 of the Drive for 5 challenge and  it was a good day. The day started with a short morning dance-cardio with Kettle Bell and Resistance bands added. That was followed by a 3.16 mile run.

Wednesdays are usually a non-running day but I couldn’t decide whether I would run in the early morning or early afternoon and finally didn’t run either time. Yesterday I decided I had to go early and the important part was I did!

The Run

I  added a few exercises to my morning routine on Tuesday which left my legs hurting. You know the good hurting.not the bad! Anyway when I started my run I did’t feel very good . So I told myself time didn’t matter the important thing was just that you were running.

After a 10:08 first mile I started to feel better. The next two miles went by in 10:03 min/mile and 10:02 min/mile pace respectively. And I had a good kick over the last 0.16 mile. My final average pace was 10:00 min/mile. A pace that please this old man!

Here are the details

Total Distance 3.16 miles Total Time:31:40 Avg Pace: 10:00

Avg HR 134 bpm Peak HR 154

Calories Burned: 385

The Soundtrack – Kickin’ It Live  – Tommy Castro

The soundtrack for the run was blues artist Tommy Castro’s latest release Kickin’It Live. Both Tommy and his guitar sounded great in the album. It will move into my blues music rotation over the next several weeks. Tommy deserves his own page on this siteSo I better get to making those pages!!

I really enjoyed Killin’It Live. Throughout the run I was able to come back to the music and Tommy’s guitar and great rhythm section kept me going. Here’s what Living Blues’ Henry Carrigan, Jr. wrote about the album

Killin’ It Live captures Tommy Castro And The Painkillers at their very best. Turn up the volume and play this album loud! This album delivers sizzling, gritty blues and rock. You can feel the band’s energy blowing through the speakers…and every song kills it. There’s a party going on. Make It Back To Memphis is a backbone slipper, propelling us out of our seats. Shimmering, downright funky vibes. Every song lives up to the high-flying promise of the opener. Funk-fueled blues rockers drenched with Castro’s soul-shaking, stinging, pure and crisp lead runs, which pierce the heart, driving home it’s power and staccato beauty. Shimmering and swampy…bright and funky…slow-burning and low-down…fluid, jet-fueled solos. Read More

Links For The Further Exploration of the Music of Tommy Castro and the Painkillers

Artist Website
Facebook
Spotify
Twitter

The day ended with my nightly yoga routine. Last week there very several nights where that was not the case. Boo me!

So there were a few more tracks left on Killin’It Live when I finished my run. I listened to them on my coffee run (in the  car) to Wawa. The final track was Buddy Miles’ song “Them Changes” which has been a personal favorite for a long time! So here are two favorites Tommy Castro and Mike Zito performing the song.

Walter Trout’s Survivor Blues Powers Tuesday’s Run

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The Run 3.14 Miles

So today was supposed to be colder with a chance of some snow, so yesterday was the better day to run. Since my knee still felt slightly funky I decided that once again , I would run my standard 3.1 mile course. By the time I reached the first mile mark my leg felt pretty good. I was running at a 10:01 min/mile pace and running easily,. As I continued my run, I tried to keep my pace a little slower than my last couple of runs. To do that I kept a close eye on my heart rate and when it rose to around 145 or so I slowed down a little.

As a result, I finished the run at an overall pace of 10:08 min/mile. That’s only 8 seconds per mile slower than Sunday’s run.
However my average heart rate was 4 beats per minute lower yesterday than Sunday (136 bpm to 140 pm). Additionally, on Sunday my heart rate was in my peak range for 29 minutes of the run with 1 minute in the cardio zone. Yesterday the time in the peak zone was down to 23 minutes with 7 minutes in the cardio zone!! Here are the splits…..

The Nerdy Details

Total Miles 3.12 Total Time 31:37 Pace 10:08
Splits: Mile 1 10:08 min/mile   Mile 2 10:18 min/mile  Mile 3 10:13 min/mile   Mile 0.14 9:01 min/ mile
Avg HR 136 Max HR 146 Calories Burned 391

The Soundtrack – Survivor Blues – Walter Trout

The soundtrack for the run was Survivor Blues the latest release from blues artist Walter Trout. In 2014-2015 Trout was suffering from liver disease. A liver transplant saved Trout’s life. As such he is a survivor and I for one are very happy about that. And after listening to Survivor Blues there’s no question Walter is back!!

About Survivor Blues

Survivor Blues isn’t an album of new songs composed by Walter. It is an album of covers, but not songs that ae typically covered They are rather more obscure tracks. In recording the album Trout made

…. it his mission to harness the power and spirit of the originals, while stamping his inimitable musical personality onto each new take. He offers, “My idea was to do these songs like me, to arrange them for my band and style – not to just copy the originals note-for-note.”

…..Opener “Me, My Guitar And The Blues” tips a hat to cult hero Jimmy Dawkins, whose records Trout devoured while cutting his teeth as a ’60s axeslinger in New Jersey. “Nature’s Disappearing” nods to his celebrated ’80s tenure in John Mayall’s near-mythical Bluesbreakers. In-between, you’ll find cherished favourites from a lifetime’s listening, with songs that caught Trout’s ear at key junctures in his journey, from backing up John Lee Hooker in the ’70s, to bringing the groove to Canned Heat in the ’80s or breaking through as a solo artist in the ’90s.

“Nature’s Disappearing” has always been a favorite  of mine. And it was neat to hear Trout’s guitar play the bridge instead of hearing Sugarcane Harris’ violin!

I mentioned Trout being a survivor and that played a big part in picking the title for the album. Trout says…

We started thinking about these enduring songs and the guys playing on the album,” he reflects. “Mike is in recovery. Johnny almost didn’t make it. Skip has had a triple bypass. And I almost didn’t make it after my liver disease in 2014. So Marie said to me, ‘You’re a group of survivors. You’ve all been through hell and you’ve come back. These songs are survivors. This album needs to be called Survivor Blues’.

The Band

Trout’s band on Survivor Blues includes

Johnny Griparic on bass
Teddy Andreadis piano/harmonic
Michael Leasure on drums

The Bottom Line

Survivor Blues is vintage Walter Trout. He has succeeded in making these songs his own!  The album will be in my music rotation for a long time. Additionally, I am still wondering if his Trout ancestors and mine are related! Maybe we even  share some DNA wouldn’t that be awesome!

Here’s “Me, My Guitar and the Blues” the opening track from Survivor Blues  

 

 

A Weird Day When a Steve Miller Band Song Follows You Home

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Sailor - Steve Miller following me all Day!

 Origianlly Posted January 2019 Revised and Updated 2026

A Strange Coincidence Leads to Thoughts of the Steve Miller Band

Ok so this isn’t woo woo weird it does to me seems the odds for this happening seem fairly low! This morning I was listening to a Throw Way Back Playlist that I made sometime last year.. The Steve Miller Band’s song “Quicksilver Girl”  from the band’s second album Sailor is in the playlist.

When a Song Follows You Home

Now here where it gets kinda weird. When I came out of the library I turned back on Deep Tracks on Sirius XM Radio. Ai particularly like to listen to Deep Tracks when DJ Earl Bailey is on, his voice of  takes me back to those days of yore on Philadelphia radio station WMMR.Those were the days!

Back When DJs Chose the Music

When the DJ could choose what he or she was going to play!! Of course that got some DJs in trouble when they played songs they weren’t supposed to play. The DJ most famous for that was Steve Leon aka”My Father’s Son” son of Max Leon the owner of WDAS FM. Leon passed away in 2012 and you can read about his exploits here in his obituary.

Ok so now let’s get to the – what are the odds of that happening moment. As I was leaving the library, guess what song came on Deep Tracks. Yeah you guessed it “ Quicksilver Girl”! While it may not be that weird to some I found it amazing that I heard the same 51-year-old song twice within three hours!

Thoughts About the Steve Miller Band

Anyway that got me to thinking about the Steve Miller Band.  I was a big fan through the band’s first seven albums . All seven of them are in vinyl collection. I had the Joker on 8 track tape! Anyway after The Joker became a hit Steve Miller became a radio band for me.

The next Miller album that entered my music library was his 2010 release Bingo! Yes if you do the math that’s 42 years after the release of the band’s first album! Steve followed that really good album with Let Your Hair Down In 2011. That was also a damn fine album.

From My Shelves to This Playlist

Here’s a playlist containing some of my favorite tracks from the Steve Miller albums in my vinyl collection!!

Today’s Run 4 Miles with a Hill! Music Murder Creek by Wicked Grin

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The Run – Four Miles with a Hill!

 

So after two very cold days the temperatures today rose into the high 40s. As such, it became the first running day of the week. Since I do t like to run on back to back days and Friday is a Target work day, it’s looked like today would be the only run until the weekend. I therefore decided I would make it a tougher run than my normal 5K run. I decided the run would be four miles and would include a run up the highest hill in the area.

The run ended up being another amazing run. I ran the first mile in 9:28. And while the hill, on the second mile, was a struggle my overall pace coming down the other side of the bill was still under 10 min/ mile. I held a steady pace over the last two miles and finished the run with a fairly strong kick. My overall pace for the run was 9:56! Go me!! Here are the results.

The Nerdy Details

Total Distance: 4.01 miles. Total Time: 39:51 min Pace: 9:56

Avg HR: 142 bpm Max HR: 155 Cals Burned : 521

The Soundtrack – Murder Creek – Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin

I had never heard of Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin until I saw their latest release Murder Creek sitting at number 38 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart this week. But a brief   the album told me it was going to be an album I would like!

Murder Creek is the fourth release from this Electric blues roots rock band. Where have they been? Oh, they’re from Ottawa Canada! Anyway it appears that they have made an impact on the Canadian blues scene. From the band’s website:

Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin are an Ottawa based original roots blues/rock band. Gritty vocals and guitar and an “in your face” groove that doesn’t quit!
The band received the 2014 Maple Blues Award for Best New Group. Bassist Leigh-Anne Stanton received the 2015 Maple Blues Award for Bassist of the Year. Their last two discs have both been named “Blues Rock Disc of the Year” by the Blues Underground Network in Western Canada.
They have been touring steadily from 2014 – numerous Canadian and U.S. tours and a recent, very successful tour through England and Germany.

The band performs as a quartet, trio or duo depending on the availability of musicians. The quartet, currently performing in Memphis at The International Blues Challenge,  is composed of. Murray Kinsley on guitar and vocals, Leigh-Anne Stanton on bass, Rod Williams on drums and  rice Stanton harp. And they are damn good! So Check out Murder Creek. As for me I have three other releases to check out!

Links for the Further Exploration of Wicked Grin….

Artist’s Website

Facebook

Twitter

Amazon

Here’s the title track from Murder Creek  by Murray Kinsley & Wicked Grin

 

 

 

The First Run with a Hill! Music by Aton Five

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So I will be writing about She Rides Shotgun the second book I’ve finished in 2019 shortly, but tonight I think I’ll just write about today’s run.

The Run – 4.25 Miles

Today I decided that I would do a short Cardio-Dance workout, The do some chores and run in the later morning early afternoon. Initially, I was thinking about running 5 to 6 miles. But late morning turned to later in the afternoon than I planned, I decided I would only run a 4.25 course. The course I chose was in I call Harper Loop and it is the only course that goes up the steepest hill in the area. So even though I wasn’t going as far as I planned, The course was more challenging. It became even more challenging I’ve rhte second half of the course when I was running into the wind!! That’s the main reason the last two miles were a struggle. Of course the fact that I ran the first mile too fast didn’t help those last miles either!!! Anyway here are the results….

The Results

Total Miles 4.26. Total Time: 43.21 Pace 10:10 min/mile

Mile Splits. Mile 1 9.32 Mile 2 10:23 Mile 3 10:10 Mile 4 10:38 Mile 0.26 10:04

Avg HR  147. Max HR 156  Calories Burned 573

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the run was Solarstalgia from the band Aton Five. The band is a Psychedelic/Space Rock band from Russia. From ProgArchives

ATON FIVE are an instrumental psychedelic quartet, true to the spirit of the 1970’s. In 2015 the band released the first EP called ‘Long Forgotten Tales’, followed by the live in the studio EP ‘Live At Mars’ in 2017. After three years of writing and one more of production their full-fledged debut album ‘Solarstalgia’ saw the light of day in November 2018. The seven songs are similar to the likes of Moonwagon and Hidria Spacefolk More

I had listened to the album last night and I enjoyed it. Even though the album has only seven tracks it lasted for the whole run , partially because two of the tracks are more than 15 minutes long!!

Solarstalgia is the fourth highest rated album on ProgArchives list of 2018’s Best Prog Albums. So I guess others enjoyed it, too! So Check It Out!

Links  for the Further Exploration of the Music of Aton Five

Bandcamap Site

Facebook

YouTube

Instagram

Here’s “AChain of Events” fromAton Five’s Solarstalgia

Another Great 2019 Run! Music by The D Project

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Yesterday’s morning temperature  was 41 degrees at 9:00. That’s just about 10-15 degrees higher than normal morning temperatures in January. So with a temperature like that there was no way I wasn’t running.

I decided to run a four-mile course and followed through on that decision! The only bad part of the run was it was slightly windy when I was running in a southwesterly direction which was for about half of the run. Oh and when I had to stop and tie my shoes!!

The Results

Miles- 4.02     Total Time: 40:36    Pace: 10:05 min/mile

The Splits: Mile 1 10:11  Mile 2 9:59 Mile 3 10:09 Mile 4 10:01  .02 -9:17

Avg HR 141     Max HR 156    Calories Burned: 513

The Soundtrack  Find Your Sun – The D Project.

The soundtrack for the run was Find Your Sun from The D Project. The D Project  is a  Neo Prog band from Canada founded by singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Stéphane Desbiens and author Francis Foy. From their website:

The first album « Shimmering Lights evoked a mix of different music styles; progressive rock, classical, metal including jazz.In 2008, was the release of the album Sagarmatha Dilemma , for which the music was inspired by Mount Everest images and its conquest by the climber Maxime Jean.

In 2011, D Project offered a more rock and direct sound with the album « Big Face. Then came the album  Making Sense which arrived just in time for the band to offer a memorable performance at the 2014 Quebec Summer Festival with Marillion.

Moreover, part of the sound of the last three albums was produced by Andy Jackson, Pink Floyd sound engineer. D Project always surrounded themselves with prestigious musician and artists.D Project is a mix of Pink Floyd, Genesis and King Crimson, but with a personal touch and characteristic sound. ‘’Pink Floyd meets Classic rock’’

About Find Your Sun

Find Your Sun is The D Project’s fifth studio album. Throughout the life of the band  special guests have played an important part in the band’s sound. Artists like: Tomas Bodin from Flower Kings, Martin Orford from IQ and Fred Schendel from Glass Hammer have all contributed to the band’s work.

The core band on Find Your Sun is Stéphane Desbiens / guitars, keyboards, vocals, composer, Isabelle Cormier / violin, backing vocals, Philippe Desbiens / bass and Jean Gosselin / drums

Special guests include:

  • Peter Falconer / vocals
  • Fred Schendel / keyboards
  •  Romain Thorel / keyboards
  • Marie Noelle Harvey / violin
  • Laura Laberge / cello
  • Sylvain Laberge / flutes
  • Nathalie Gobeil / bassoon
  • Daniel Simon / sax
  • Chorale de Saguenay / chorus vocals

Overall, I really enjoyed the album and look forward to.becoming more.familiar with it over the next few weeks. during the first listen both the guitar of Stéphane Desbiens and the violin of Isabelle Cormier caught my attention.

So Check It Out! Again,as for me, I will be checking out their back catalog!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of The D Project

Artist’s Website

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

Here is the  video for “Find Your Sun” from The D Project…..

My Fastest Training 5K-Music by Bryce Janey

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Tuesday night before bed I checked what kind of temperatures to expect yesterday morning. The temperatures were predicted to be in the mid-30s, which is perfectly acceptable, to this weather runner! My temperature law is that anything below 30 is just a little too cold! Anyway, I was thinking about adding some distance to my 5K run and running four miles.

I actually did a little work around the house before my run, so I decided to stay with my 5K run.

When I was contemplating my run I want to map the route before hitting the road. I previously would use WalkJogRun to create routes. However last time I tried to use the site I discovered it had stopped working. I had downloaded Map My Fitness, but I have never used it on a run. Anyway, I discovered you can map routes with it. So I checked the route I thought about running and the route would be 4 miles. But as you know I decided it’s to run the 3.1 miles instead.

I did decide however to run with both my Fitbit and Map My Fitness logging my run. Surprisingly, the distances measured were different. The miles logged by Map My Fitness were shorter than the Fitbit miles! They weren’t off by much but enough so that my average pace per mile was about 4 seconds faster on Map My Fitness.

The Run

Anyway here are the results from the Fitbit App……

Total Distance: 3.11 miles Total Time: 31.57 Average Pace 10:16 min/mile

Mile Splits. Mile 1 – 10:26 Mile 2 10:20 Mile 3 10:10. Mile 0.11. 9:08

Avg Hr. 140 bpm. Max HR 150 bpm

Cals Burned: 402

The great thing about the run was that I wasn’t really pushing it over the last two miles but my times say otherwise!! That last mile is the fastest I’ve run in a long while!! Can I go under 10 minutes??

The Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the run was Brand New Day the 2018 release from blues rocker Bryce Janey. I have seen Janey’s name for a while but I have never listened to his music – mistake!

I really enjoyed this album, at least the times I drifted back to it! I am probably going to try to listen to the album of more times and then write a separate post about the album. Until then here’s Bryce with “Falling Down” from Brand New Day

Another Strong Run with Blues from Sean Chambers

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The Run

Yesterday it was pretty cold in the morning, so I put off running until the afternoon. It was actually pretty nice in the early afternoon but when the sun started to go down it got chilly pretty fast. I ran the same 3.1 mile loop that I’ve been running since I resumed running back in October. It was a pretty easy, nondescript run. The GPS seemed just on target. Here are the results……

The Nerdy Details

Total Distance: 3.11 Total Time: 32:39

Average Pace: 10:29

Mile Splits Mile 1. 10:32. Mile 2. 10:39 Mile 3 10:24 Mile:0.10 9:22

Avg HR. 140 Max HR. 150 Cals. Burned. 399

The Soundtrack – Welcome to My Blues

The soundtrack for the run was Welcome to My Blues by blues artist Sean Chambers. This is actually the second time this album has been used as a soundtrack for a run.

About Welcome to My Blues

Welcome to my Blues is Chambers’ 7th album on American Showplace Music. His last album Trouble & Whiskey was one of my favorite of 2017! The album was produced by Ben Elliott The list of artists Elliot has recorded includes classic artists like: Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, and Steve Miller among others.

The musician line-up on the album includes:Chambers on lead vocals and lead guitar, John Ginty on Hammond B3 & keyboards, (I am a fan of Ginty’s Hammond B3 and his work on this album on strengthens it). The rhythm section is rounded out by Todd Cook on bass and Moe Watson on drums. Special guest Jimmy Bennett plays slide guitar and backing vocals on track #6.

Welcome To My Blues contains 11 tracks and Chambers’ guitar work is great on each track. Eight of the tracks are new original Sean Chambers compositions. The other three are covers. The covers include: Luther Allison’s “Cherry Red Wine” “All Night Long” by T-Bone Walker and “Boxcar Willie” by John Ginty.

Welcome to My Blues will be in my rotation for a while now and will be in my music library along with Trouble & Whiskey and The Rock House Sessions.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Blues of Sean Chambers

Artist’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Amazon

Here is the title track from Welcome to My Blues

 

A Good Run, Great Blues and some Explaining!

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What’s Been Happening….
Ok so no long recap of why I haven’t posted here for a long time. I’ll just say I had some health issues that appear to have been resolved favorably! The biggest being a high PSA level which is a test used for detection of prostate problems. But after a retest and a normal exam by a urologist, it appears I am good to go.
One of the positives that has happened between the initial PSA test and the retest is switching my aerobic exercise from my heavy dance-Kundalini- cardio workout to running. Another is that I have added a 25-30 minute before bed yoga routine.
Many of the asanas in the nightly routine are ones that are good for my prostate. Additionally, I have made some dietary changes, adding foods like avocado to my diet! On the downside, but good side, I also tried to eliminate sugary cakey snacks and potato chips!! Anyway, I think all of the above helped to reduce my PSA level. I still think that the main reason that my PSA level was high in the first place was excessive exercise over the weekend leading up to the test. But that’s neither here nor there, the bottom line is hopefully things are good. And the changes that I made to my exercise routines and diet are positive!
A Return to Running
So let’s get to some new stuff and then I’ll try to catch up on some older stuff as we move on! My plan when I started to run again was to return to my old running routine. That routine was running four miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then a 5-8 mile run on a weekend day. So far I have only been running a 3.1 mile course and I think I have made three days a week once.
However, my minute per mile pace has been much faster than anticipated. Typically, in recent years when I start back running after a layoff my pace hovers around 11:30 minutes per mile for a long while. This time my pace was only around 11:30 for the first two runs. By the third run it was around 11 minutes/mile and it has gone down from there!
I think the major reason for that was that was the pretty hard dance-cardio exercising I did from July up until the fateful PSA test. I believe that through that exercising I was in great aerobic shape and that made the transition to running easier than in the past. My average pace for today’s 3.1 mile run was 10:27 min/mile. Here are the stats for the run…..
Mile Splits— Mile 1 – 10:24 Mile 2 -10:39 Mile 3 – 10:30
Mile 0.15 – 9:13
Average HR – 141 bpm  Max 172? Calories Burned -419
So hopefully, I can keep running through the winter and not have to start over again next spring! But at least now I know if I do my dance cardio in those super cold or snowy days I will remain in pretty good shape!!
The Soundtrack
The soundtrack for today’s run was Hold On the latest release from blues guitarist Kirk Fletcher. Kirk Fletcher is one of the world’s best blues guitarist. He is a four-time Blues Music Award and a 2015 British Blues Award nominee and has played with a variety of popular artists, including Joe Bonamassa and a three-year role as lead guitarist of The Fabulous Thunderbird. Additionally,not that anybody cares, he has played on many of the albums that have been in my music rotation over the last several years.
About Hold On
Hold On is a great album. It had me from the first track “Two Steps Forward” and it wasn’t Fletcher’s guitar that caught my attention. It was the organ! Subsequently, I have discovered the keyboardist was Jonny Henderson. Henderson is a well-respected British keyboard artist who has been a member of the Matt Schofield Trio since 2004.Additionally, he has been voted Keyboard Player of the Year at both the 2010 and 2011 British Blues Awards. The other member of Fletcher’s band is drummer Mack Brown. Brown has played with Henderson many times. The trio first played together a year or two ago at the Bristol Jazz Festival and as they say the rest is history. It’s my hope that they will be playing together a lot more!!
Hold On will certainly be in my music rotation over the next several weeks and beyond! The songs on the album are varied and Fletcher’s guitar work is perfect on each track. Here;’s what Matt Koehler said about the album….
Hold On as an album is so solid, so listenable and so moving that the word
“monumental” comes to mind. It sets the bar for modern Rhythm & Blues albums to come, from Kirk or otherwise, and it reminds the world that the genre is still as strong and meaningful as ever. ~ by Mat Koehler
Currently, Hold On is number 24 on the Roots Music Report Blues Chart. So Check it Out!
Links for Further Exploration of the Music of Kirk Fletcher
 Here’s the official video for “Two Steps Forward” from Kirk Fletcher

An Oliver Walking Challenge Leads to a 5K with Grand Marquis.

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Today I had a great run accompanied by Grand Marquis and their album Brighter Days Here’s how I got there .

A few weeks after I started my 21-day Yoga Challenge I realize that wanted to add some more to my exercise regime. I thought back and remembered how I started to gain weight, when I stopped babysitting Oliver two plus years ago. While I was babysitting I would take him for two or three 30 minute walks during the day.

Once those walks stopped on came the weight! Anyway I thought even though you won’t be pushing a stroller you can walk twice a day numb nuts! So I created the 30-day Oliver Walking Challenge. The aim of the challenge was to use walking to help me get back into shape with the idea that I would then be able to start and run again.

Well the Walking Challenge worked so well that within two weeks or so, I was running again.

The Run: 3.1 Miles….

Yesterday I ran for the third time this week. It’s the fourth week in a row that I have done such! The first week I ran 3.1 miles on Sunday and then did the same on Tuesday and Thursday. On the following three Sundays, including this past Sunday, I ran four miles and 3.1 miles on the following Tuesday and Thursday.

The end result is that I ran 11 days in May and have run 3 days so far in June. Yesterday’s  run was my fourteenth since May 1st and one of my fastest. I completed the 3.1 mile course in 33:53 about two minutes faster than the first 3.1 mile run I ran on May 6th.  One of the better things is that I am running faster with a lower average heart rate.

Yesterday’s  run was over the 5K (3.1 miles) course that I have run the majority of May and June. I completed the course in 33:53 as mentioned above. That calculates to an average pace of  approximately 10:53 minutes/mile. Here are the mile splits…

Mile 1 – 10:49 Mile 2 – 10;56  Mile 3 – 10:46  0.13 Miles – 10:00

I think this may be the first time that the pace for all three  Miles was under 11 minutes per mile. And it certainly was one of the few times that my last mile was faster than the first mile!

I don’t think that I have ran three days a week for four weeks in,well,  probably,  more than four years. But hopefully like my yoga routine I hope I can keep this up!

Better Days - Grand Marquis - a Run Soundtrack

The Soundtrack: Brighter Days – Grand Marquis

The soundtrack from yesterday’s run was provided by a band that I am unfamiliar with, Grand Marquis. I listened to their latest release Brighter Days. Grand Marquis is a blues and Americana roots band hailing from Kansas City. The band formed in 1998. Since then they have become a mainstay of the Kansas City music scene. They have also released eight albums and performed coast to coast.Their music is their own brand of Americana Roots, Blues and Prohibition-Era Jazz

grand marquis

Members of the Band include:

Ben Ruth: upright bass, sousaphone, backing vocals;
Chad Boydston: trumpet, backing vocals;
Ryan Wurtz: electric and acoustic guitars;
Trevor Turla: trombone, backing vocals;
Fritz Hutchison: drums, backing vocals;
Bryan Redmond: lead vocals; soprano, alto, tenor & baritone saxophones

Currently, Brighter Days is No. 8 on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Charts.

I never get a true listen to an album on a run, but I did like what I heard. So Brighter Days will go into my music rotation and I’ll let you know in a bit what I think!

A Video to lead to  “Brighter  Days”……..

 

Links

Artist’s Website
Spotify
AllMusic

grand marquis

About Grand Marquis

Grand Marquis epitomizes the fusion of tradition and innovation, infusing the essence of American roots from Kansas City blues to Memphis soul with the vibrant spirit of a New Orleans second line revelry. Their music resonates as a testament to the past while embracing the pulse of the 21st century. A symphony of resounding horns harmonizes with a rhythm section that grooves intensely, all set against the backdrop of soulful vocals, creating a captivating soundscape that showcases their masterfully crafted originals More