Is it a monkey that paints? Or a painter who paints monkeys? Or a monkey that paints monkeys? You decide…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

I had a lot of fun shooting this video for director Matthew Shutt and I really like Kellys song. I hope you do too….

Life is like an EKG. Waves rise and fall. Up and down. I was riding high. Running every day. Feeling stronger. Lighter. Younger even. Last Sunday was to be my first 5 mile run. But I worked all weekend. Shooting late on Saturday and then up early for a 12 hour shoot Sunday. Happy Valentines day to me.  So I put of the run until Monday. I was tired Monday and my left knee was a little sore so I went to the gym instead of running outside. 5 easy miles on the treadmill. Less impact. But after about 15 minutes my knee was hurting bad enough to slow my pace so I quit. Pushed some weights for about 45 minutes and sat in the sauna for another 20. Now it’s Wednesday and I haven’t worked out since. The knee still hurts. I don’t really know what to do. I was starting to really enjoy the training. The schedule. I didn’t have to think about it. Just get up and do what the schedule said I needed to do for the day. I liked that. A lot. Now there’s a weird limbo. The outcome is less certain. I don’t want to hurt my knees. I do want to run the race. I think starting tomorrow I will begin training in the gym. Low impact cardio. Machines. I really hate that. I get bored so easy. I was really enjoying being outside. Feeling the air. Discovering new trails. Last week I passed a large white bird on the side of the trail. It was about 4 feet tall, standing on one long leg. It looked like a sea bird although we’re about 30 miles from the ocean, as the crow flies. It was huge. Elegant. Beautiful. It looked so out of place as I passed it, very close. And it never moved. I watched it as I ran by, craning my neck until I almost ran off the trail. And when I turned back a few seconds later it was gone.

Lately I’ve been wanting to live outside. For a year maybe. I want to kill my dinner and cook it on a fire. I don’t want to see a computer or a cell phone. I don’t want to watch television or pump gas or go to restaurants. I don’t want to hear traffic or neighbors. I don’t want to hear anything but the wind. I want to bath in cold mountain springs and sleep in different places every night. I want to walk a hundred miles and then turn around and walk 200 miles back. I want to climb a mountain again. I want to climb a mountain and not have to climb back down for a while. I want to get lost and not try and find the way back. I want to get lost.

- Staley Out

I’ve been rolling around a post about some of the very cool websites I read. Maybe soon. But for now, I just stumbled upon THIS and it’s awesome.

Staley Out

This is the third week of “Official” training. I ran 4 miles on Sunday and 3.5 this morning. The last mile and a half this morning were actually easy and fun. I felt like I had another 3 in me. Maybe I’ll be able to do this thing. From here out I add a mile every 2 weeks up until the week before the race, topping out at 10 miles the last week. I haven’t been drinking at all. Watching what I eat. We went to a party on Saturday and several people said I look thinner. I didn’t believe them. I don’t see my friends that often. I don’t feel thinner yet but I hope I get there. Someone said I looked younger. I can’t remember who. That’s a nice compliment. Especially when I go to bed and wake up feeling old. If I don’t cripple myself first perhaps I can run myself into a younger, leaner body. I guess having this race in front of me helps. if only I were vain enough to not need that external motivation. And I am vain. just not enough to suffer for it. My right side and left knee hurt all the time. I am hoping they hold up. I believe they will. I wish I could loose about 20 pounds right now. Take the weight off my knees. Dani warns me not to overdo it. I was sure excited about how strong I felt at the end of today’s run.

- Staley Out

One of my favorites…

Ben Staley: Cinematographer

The task of the narrator is not an easy one, he said. He appears to be required to choose his tale from among the many that are possible. But of course that is not the case. The case is rather to make many of the one. Always the teller must be at pains to devise against his listener’s claim – perhaps spoken, perhaps not – that he has heard the tale before. He sets forth the categories into which the listener will wish to fit the narrative as he hears it. but he understands that the narrative is itself in fact no category but is rather the category of all categories for there is nothing which falls outside its purview. All is telling. Do not doubt it.

From “The Crossing” by Cormac McCarthy

I don’t think anyone really humbles or inspires me as much as Cormac McCarthy.

It’s a rest day. I need it. Staring at this mountain. 13.1 miles tall. But laying on it’s side. I’m intimidated. But just a little. Danielle told me not to hurt myself. I didn’t listen. Scoffed it off. If I’ve learned anything I should have learned by now to listen to her and not my lizard brain. I’m a slow learner. Her brother invited me for an early morning Saturday run two weeks ago. Around his neighborhood there’s an easy three mile loop. I felt like I was done halfway through. I lagged behind but kept pushing. Near the end, Brian veers off the road and onto a dirt path. Gonna do five stairs, he says slyly. We come to a steep concrete staircase connecting an upper and lower housing development. There are some women at the top and at the bottom. Brian starts up at a jog and I follow. Halfway up I’m ready to quit. I am not jogging anymore. I’m counting steps. Looks like five flights of stairs. Cool. Five stairs. Then Brian passes me on his way down. Maybe only three, he says. Shit. Up and down means one. Fuck. I do two, he does three and we jog the last half mile back to our trucks. My calves are vibrating, he says, when we get there. Mine just feel numb. But when I get home they are vibrating and for the next six days I can barely walk. The stairs in our house are a serious challenge. Told you not to overdo it Danielle says. Yeah. I deserved that.

So a week ago I started a 12 week regime. six days a week of training. One rest day, then start over. Today is my first rest day. And I’m glad. My body is tired. But I can already feel it getting tighter, stronger, leaner. It’s hard but not as hard as I thought it would be. You just get up a little earlier and do whats on the list. Submit. I’m gonna climb that mountain.

Soon I will be adding this to eleventhreehundred.com. But for now, the premier is here.

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.