I keep on running, but my feet don’t get tired.” That lyric sums up an accomplished 2023 for poet J. Ivy. In February, the kid from Gresham, now 47, became the inaugural winner in a new Grammy Award category — spoken word poetry album — for The Poet Who Sat by the Door. He followed that with a national tour, including a performance at the United Nations, then returned home to lead the Bud Billiken Parade in August. The next month, Ivy — who as an Illinois State student in the ’90s was known on campus as “the Poet” and who in the ’00s gave John Legend his name — dropped his seventh album, The Light Inside. He lives with his wife in the south suburbs, where he hits the trails by bike as often as possible.

Do you follow any specific diet?

“At times, I’m vegetarian. Lately, I’ve switched up to light pescatarian. I might have a good steak. And when we don’t have time to eat healthy because we’re on the go-go, we pop 8Greens. It’s a tablet with spirulina, spinach, wheatgrass.”

How do you get your exercise?

“I want to make sure I bust a sweat, so like today I hopped on the elliptical and did a mile and a half real quick. My knees aren’t what they used to be, so I prefer that to the treadmill. Sometimes pushups, sit-ups, curls. But biking, that’s the all-time favorite. When I was 2½, my daddy took the training wheels off my little orange bike and made me ride. I’ve been in love with bikes ever since.”

What are some of your favorite rides?

“Out south, there’s the Old Plank Road Trail, which once upon a time was a railroad. Me and my mother have biked that to Hyde Park and back. And the Oak Savannah Bike Trail in Indiana? Ah, super nice.”

What’s your playlist for exercising?

“I listen to a lot of hip-hop, soul music, jazz. I love my music loud, but I’m not a big fan of loud music. I have my vibe list. Love Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Khruangbin. Have you heard ‘Whoa’ by Resavoir? They’re a group from Chicago, which I didn’t know at first. It’s just a record I heard, and I was like, ‘Yo, this is dope!’ ”