drama!

Whooo-eee, yesterday was a rollercoaster.  

I was more right than I knew Monday when I said I was still struggling to get back on track mentally.  After our crazy weekend we hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping, and G is sick, so we gave ourselves one more day to get on track.  Which meant we ordered dinner (caesar salads and baked potato wedges) and ate chocolate.  I knew that I HAD to get back to normal Tuesday, so I hit up Trader Joe's and then headed home determined to go for my run.

Then I napped for two hours.  I really do think that my body and mind were saying, "You know what?  We need this."  For some reason I hadn't been able to sleep at all Friday night, so I think I was still catching up.  The good news was that I woke up feeling pretty refreshed and decided to tackle that run.

Then the crazy hit.  I couldn't find my ipod.  I ransacked the entire house, screamed at G, wept, called the Holiday Inn, called my sister, panicked, turned the car inside out, screamed and wept some more.  Finally the ever-suffering G said, "You know what?  You have two options.  Go for a run without an ipod, or don't go for a run."

Damn.  So clear.  I never run without an ipod, and I needed to do four miles, so I set off with trepidation but aware that completing this run was the only thing that would make me feel better about losing the ipod.  (Part of the issue here was that this was a replacement ipod for the one I sent through the washing machine last summer.)

I went very slowly, but I did run the four miles.  I was still totally depressed about the ipod, and thinking about places to filch $150 from our budget, when my mom called and said it seemed like there was an ipod in her purse.  "It SEEMS like that??" I yelled.  "IS THERE OR NOT???"  

There was.  I had put it in there myself for safekeeping after we hit the hotel gym Saturday morning.

I'm so glad G encouraged me to go for a run, and I'm so glad I counted points yesterday.  I did eat another caramel creme egg (they come in 4 packs!) but I counted it and ate fish and green beans for dinner.  Holla!

six miles!

That's right, I ran six miles.  Six 14 minute miles, to be exact.  For some, that wouldn't even count as running, but for me, it felt like a huge accomplishment.  I knew that in order to finish, I'd have to go slow.  Thursday I ran 3 miles and the whole run was miserable.  When I finished I realized I'd been running 13 minutes miles, which explained the misery thing.  I can run a mile under 12 minutes, but I know that I have to pace myself for these longer runs.

One thing that helped, aside from the gorgeous day and the interesting route I'd plotted on walkjogrun.net, was the playlist I made before I left.  I've learned that the best playlists are the ones you make yourself, so I'll share mine here in case it sparks any interest, but I encourage you to look through your CDs and grab every song that makes you go "Hey, turn it up!" when you're listening in the car.  I've tried searching for good playlists on various blogs and websites, and sometimes I get ideas, but I really don't enjoy running to a song that doesn't have a pretty well-worn groove in my brain.  With that said, here's my six mile list.  It's more of a pleasant, keep you in the groove kind of list than a rockin', keep you moving hard-core kind of list, which works for a longer, more meandering run.

New Slang - The Shins

An all-time favorite song, good for starting out slow.  (Haha, I am ALWAYS slow, but you know what I mean.)

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

I prefer Paul Simon to Simon and Garfunkel, but for a long time Paul Simon was the ONLY thing on my Ipod and I needed a change.  

Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen

Probably the most cliched song ever to have on a running playlist, but there's a reason.

Laid - James

This bed is on fire with passionate love?  I dare you not to pick up the pace a little.

Vaseline - Stone Temple Pilots

Chosen because runners use vaseline to prevent chafing, but also because, when I run, I feel like a fly stuck in vaseline.

Flowers in the Window - Travis

A great upbeat but not way overplayed song.  With sentimental value, cause we played it at our wedding when the bridal party came out.

Nugget - Cake

The perfect antidote to the pleasant sentimentality of the previous song.  Get angry!  Shut the fuck up!  Learn to buck up, yeah, shut the fuck up.  Pretend they're singing to that voice that says "You're tired, it's time to quit."

My Name is Jonas - Weezer

By the time they got to the "The workers are going home" section, I was on my way home.

No One - Alicia Keys

Yes, it's way overplayed and kind of a dumb song, but dang if it doesn't pick me up after all those alternative tunes.

When I Come Around - Green Day

But then it's time to get back to the alternative.  

Worn Me Down - Rachel Yamagata

Because yes, at this point, I am way worn down.

Perfect Gentleman - Wyclef Jean

Dude, I love this song so much.  And for four solid minutes, I try to remember the lyrics word-for-word rather than thinking about how much farther I have to go.  Come on, has there ever been a better line than "Ten Grand let me see you shake it like you got no bones in your body and you was meant to be a celebrity."

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa - Vampire Weekend

It's only like the most upbeat song in all of history.  And it sounds like Paul Simon

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

And now I'm thinking about lying on the beach.  The perfect way to end.

(Just to be clear--I did not run six miles in the time it took to listen to this playlist--I listened to it about one and a half times.)

wicked behavior

Betcha think I'm going to confess to eating a deep fried twinkie or drinking half my weight in beer...but no!  Instead I am going to confess to being totally, deeply lame.

I like musicals.  Broadway musicals.

Wait!  Hear me out!  I also like indie music and foreign films and serious literature and I'm SO over impressionist art!  I have some standards!

But I do enjoy my Rent CDs.  

I've often thought recently, while running away on the treadmill like a hamster, with my ipod on shuffle, that it would be nice if I could watch TV AND listen to music at the same time.  The plotline of a TV show combined with the beat of the music would keep me running for hours, I'm sure.  But for all the gadgetry Apple puts into its little mp3 player, I don't believe there's a "watch Alias with subtitles while listening to Beyonce" function.

And then it occurred to me: musicals.  Musicals have a plotline AND a beat!  They might keep my mind interested as well as my feet pounding!  So today I tested it out, on my first "long run" of the 10 mile training program.  I needed to run 4 miles, so I synced my Wicked CD onto my ipod and it was AMAZING.  The first 1.6 miles absolutely flew by.  Then I accidentally hit the stop button on the treadmill and had to curse myself out and do the math to figure out how much further I had to go while desperately jabbing the "quick start" button so as not to lose my momentum.  It definitely decreased the momentum, but I kept going.

The only problem was my need to make jazz hands during any particularly soaring musical moments.  Oh Elphaba.  I'M going to fly, defying gravity, dammit!