Born Too Spun

Today, as I set out from Rotary Park for a five-mile run up Mill Creek Rim & back, a dear friend of mine sent me a text saying he's ". . . been thinking about maybe getting into running this year.  Any advice would be helpful.  Diet maybe - or philosophy?"  This communique immediately filled me with joy, for it boosted my motivation to run as well as got the gears turning on a blog that's been kicking around my brain the last few days.  Ladies and Gentlemen, this is for the born-too-spun:

By Android Jones (https://androidjones.com/)

And just what am I talking about, anyhow?  Well, let's revisit our Kosmic Blue Titan from the last blog, who's persistently running around the extra-galactic track in order to pump his heart so that we might be born & live & die within the Big-Bang of his heart.  Now you see him again in the image here . . but he's spinning discs.  Yes, our overlord titan is DJing tracks of fierce rhythm to make The Eternal Jog not only exercise but a Cosmic Rave!  (image credit: Android Jones).  Which is to say, my first advice to my friend who has inquired and is an avid raver himself, is that the joy in running is similar to the bliss we find on the dance-floor at festivals and parties.

Possessed by rhythm at the inaugural Bass Center.

In my first blog I mentioned that the "runner's high" is what gripped me - what kept my coming back for more.  It was not just the high isolated, but rather in combination with the music in my earbuds which was, at the time, Soul Coughing's album El Oso.  While Soul Coughing is a full band with instruments & vocals rather than an EDM producer, that album is heavily influenced by the dance music style of "drum & bass" (or "dnb" for short).  Fast-forward to a few years later when I am first beginning a steady cardio routine in my second season (2010) working at Yellowstone National Park, and I have bought Bassnectar's album Cozza Frenzy through the fairly novel (at the time) medium of electronic download.  I use the stair-stepper at the gym in Mammoth Hot Springs or jog up & down Old Gardiner road, entranced with this fresh sound I am hearing in Bassnectar's tracks. This heavy "dnb" style along with the tribal textures & far-out lyrical content from various underground rappers is uber-motivating. . . motivation-to-motion.  This is what EDM is all about.  I doubt I would have got into dnb and then also dubstep (which is generally a slowed-down version of drum & bass), glitch-hop, house, etc. if I hadn't been MOVING.   My brother joined me at the first Bass Center festival in Broomfield and, while he's never been much of a bass-head himself, could tell that "something was going on there." (he took the photo above.  He also encouraged me to start this blog.  Thanks, Paul!).   

English DJ Hatcha performing in NOLA.

The mixture of endorphins released on the run combined with bass-tracks is why I do what I do.  So my first advice to my friend (who is a dedicated "bass-head" and will travel far & wide to see Bassnectar all over the states) is to utilize the music we love to dance-for-days-to out on the trail.  Get a small mp3 player or a phone that can attach to you in some way & hit the dirt.  I suggest finding a trail with rolling hills to get a roller-coaster effect on training runs.  I've found the "rolling-coaster" is the best ergonomically & makes the expedition very fun (in Salida, CO Backbone or Little Rainbow trails are both excellent.  In Moab I suggest Pipe Dream.  Horsetooth Reservoir area is great in Fort Collins, just watch out for big cats.  In Denver I suggest Green Mountain trails or Lookout Mountain in Golden.  Yellowstone is a little tricky because of all the dangerous animals, but Old Gardiner Road between Mammoth Hot Springs & Gardiner, MT has enough visibility to be mostly safe.  New Orleans is very flat & that's one of the main reasons I left).   Purchase some bass-savvy earbuds (there are many on the market these days, I've been satisfied with Yurbuds), charge up the ipod, and hit the trail day-after-day.  Find some quality shoes that are comfortable & can grip out in the bush (I use Altras because I like the wider toe-box).  You'll overcome the initial discomfort in capillaries opening up in your chest the first week.  As you initiate your mind to discover the runner's high, you'll want more & more.  Push yourself to the point where you're elated:  ecstatic-in-motion.  Remember The Blue Titan. . . imagine the Big Banging heart. . . imagine him at the decks, throwing on your favorite remix.  Cozza mutha fckn' frenzy, cuz baby we were born too spun!

I highly suggest anyone who wants encouragement for trail-running read Christopher McDougal's Born To Run.  He posits that we're "born to run" - showing evolutionary evidence for how endurance-running made Homo Sapiens who they are, and how our ability to out-last our prey on the hunt gave us the upper-hand (er, foot).  In the same way, I emphasize that our desire for rhythm (think early tribal drum circles) pushes us to move & sculpts us to grow into splendidly fit meat-machines.  The sensation I would feel when I lived in New Orleans & stayed up for three days going to rave-after-rave and dancing my heart out / banging my head off, is the sensation I feel at mile 22 of a marathon, Infected Mushroom or Excision blasting in my ears.  Gaining a habit of trail-running will, for the rave-inclined, give a healthy outlet for enjoying the tracks you love but out in nature with sunshine & mountains rather that in a dingy club fueled by Red Bull, tequila, and MDMA (not that that isn't fun, but we need healthy alternatives for a balanced lifestyle).

May The Blerch be with you.

While Matthew Inman (a steady ultra-runner) would disagree with me about utilizing music on the run (he thinks it "distracts from THE REAL PAIN"), I suggest anyone starting out in endurance running read his hysterical comic series on why he runs:  https://theoatmeal.com/comics/running.  As my curious friend knows, finding the absurdity in any endeavor is of top-shelf importance (the character to the right is the motivational "cupid-demon" from The Oatmeal, The Blerch). 


In other blogs I'll touch on nutrition, shoes, mileage, etc., but hopefully Born Too Spun shines light on the core of what can drive us to move, and how our festival / club spirit applies to day-to-day exercise which will eventually get you to sign up for a 10K or half-marathon.  And then in no time you'll be cruising 50Ks, wondering how you got in such damn good shape, and feeding on high-calorie feasts to fuel the frenzy.




In addition to Soul Coughing's "El Oso" and Bassnectar's "Cozza Frenzy," here are some of my other favorite abrasive-bass albums to jam on the trail:  Infected Mushroom's "Army of Mushrooms" and "Friends on Mushrooms."  Bassnectar's "Reflective Part 3."  Anything by The Crystal Method.  Dirtwire's "Showdown."  Feed Me's "Existential Crisis."  Daft Punk's "Alive 2007."  Most GRiZ albums.  Liquid Stranger's "Weird & Wonderful."  "DeadLanguage" by Mr. Bill & Esseks.  Nine Inch Nails' "Things Falling Apart."  Anything by Rezz.  Anything by SoDown.  Tipper's "Tip Hop."  Here is a mixtape I put together with heavy bass tracks made specifically for running / exercise:  

https://soundcloud.com/peer-broozer/jock-jams-for-bass-gypsies

Inspiration, Mythology, Aspiration

In the early days of my time living in Salida, CO (2014) my roommate showed me a story that Aubrey Marcus told on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast describing his revelations while in the grips of an Iboga trip (Iboga is a plant which contains ibogaine, which is in a class of chemicals known as psychedelics or entheogens.  These chemicals cause increased awareness, consciousness, and in higher doses can lead to full-on out-of-body visions).  Here is Aubrey's story (from https://www.aubreymarcus.com/blogs/aubrey-marcus/truth-in-ibogas-eden):

 I first saw the big bang… Near infinite planets and worlds exploding out from a single point and hurling into space. As they moved many of them would spark life, and that life would spark more life. But eventually the momentum would wane. The planets would reach their outer extremity and then slowly they would start to retract. Then the retraction would gain momentum, exactly converse in momentum to the explosion of the big bang, and like candles on the back of a fast moving car, life itself would extinguish. Faster and faster the planets would suck inward until they once again reached a single point. Then BOOM, another big bang. This was a heartbeat, and the heart itself was in the barrel-chest of a translucent blue Titan… And this titan was methodically running. The Titan was God, and the heart keeps pumping as long as he is running. That is the force behind life. God’s love is the commitment to never stop running. But just as this image was starting to sink in, I realized there were thousands of blue Titans, each with their own universe hearts, running around a track in a race that never ends. And then of course, there were thousands of tracks. That is the nature of infinity.

This reading immediately fascinated me.  In college I minored in religious studies, and have ever had a passion for reading & understanding the mythologies of different people & cultures which use archetypal symbols & characters to explain what we're doing here in this existence.  In Marcus' tale of The Blue Titan, there is a new idea of a god, and it includes the Big Bang as his heart and him being The Runner that pumps such heart!  Now I have literal visionary inspiration to run.  When I hit the trails in my red gym shorts along The Arkansas River & smile with endorphins as the hound Molly (my Salida running companion, who recently passed) takes turns galloping in front of or behind me, I imagine The Blue Titan - our Cosmos the heart - the more he runs & faster the more he keeps up against the other Titans!  In studying mythology, we accept that no one story tells a complete truth, but rather that a given myth is revealed to drive the people that need it in that time & place.  

Now here is a myth for us in these modern times.  A reminder to exercise - to move your heart & blood, that you to might be as The Blue Titan who keeps our very planets & stars in motion.  I think often of this myth each time I run.  It was the catalyst that got me really moving on the trails of The Arkansas River Valley, and pushed me to aspire to being more than the downtown drunk, more than the lost wanderer, more than the disenchanted suburban kid. 

Now I cannot be too lazy for too long. . . if I am, I will betray what I know to be God: the inter-cosmic running titan.  I am grateful to Aubrey Marcus for sharing this vision, and grateful to Joe Rogan for creating his podcast which is a platform for inspiring us to be the best we can be in the health of body & mind.  The population of this planet desperately need to receive new wisdom in a time that we can no longer depend on the old systems which no longer serve us.  

"I pump my legs to thee, O Kosmic Titan!"

On the wild steppes, history vanishes in the dust.  Only the mythmakers remain to say what was, and is, and will be.  from Magic: the Gathering card "Nomad Mythmaker."