Even though I was still sore as hell from my run Tuesday night, I somehow managed to knock out another five mile run last night. I ran my standard “local loop”, which is east on Olympic to Beverwill, then south to Pico, and then west to Westwood back to Olympic. I almost thought that there might be a problem with my stopwatch when I finished; I ran the loop a full three minutes faster than I did two nights ago. (To be fair, though, I seriously attacked the devastating elevation change between Beverwill and Century Park E this time and I sort of lollygagged it on Tuesday.) I was quite literally dripping sweat when I finished, and there was a puddle on my front porch where I sat to catch my breath when I was done.

I somehow managed to knock out another five mile run last night.

I have to admit that I didn’t think I’d have it in me to get up to a decent speed so quickly after taking such a long break from running, so I’m rather proud of myself. I can barely handle a flight of stairs right now because my quads and calves are on fire, but I feel better than I have (physically) in months. Today is my 157th consecutive without Copenhagen, which is — by far — the longest I’ve gone since I switched from Marlboros to smokeless tobacco in ’95 or so. Yes, I’ve bought more boxes of nicotine gum than should be legal without a prescription, and my jaw is sore from constant mastication, but that’s better than the alternative, right?

One day I will actually take the time to finally compose some of the many essays that dance in my head while I’m pounding the pavement: What I’ve Learned from Running, Why Running in Los Angeles Is Unlike Running Anywhere Else in America, How the Lyrics of Eminem Compare to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, and Only Suckers Go Downhill Fast are some of the titles. And there are easily a dozen more that I never seem to remember until the lactic acid starts flowing.

It took me 46 minutes, 53 seconds to run the five miles, which I thought incredible.

And, as I’ve said in the past, “Everything’s better with music.” Here’s a list of the tracks I heard on my run: