Are there certain songs that immediately transport you back in time? Suddenly you are no longer in present day, but thrown back to your first date, a year of school, your wedding... Music has amazing power to remind you of previous times, to lift your mood, to push you harder. So today on Tuesdays on the Run we want to know: do you harness that power? Do you choose a motivational song for a goal race? I love music. My mind becomes a slideshow of pictures when I hear different songs. But I very seldom use music to enhance my running. I know that it has helped on occasion (and hurt my runs a few times - Air Supply's Lost in Love is NOT the song you want to hear at mile 16 of a 20 mile run LOL). Yes, my playlist is decidedly old … [Read more...]
MCM Mama’s Running Playlist
I don't run with music. I live in an urban area, surrounded by cars and weirdos, so I want to hear what's around me when I'm out there. But there was enough interest last week in what my playlist would look like that I actually found my ipod (which I haven't used in 4 years!) and looked up the playlist that I put together for Marine Corps Marathon in 2008. It's eclectic and old school and I realized I still love every song on the list. Most of these songs (or at least the bands) were part of my long drives between DC and University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill when Beer Geek and I were engaged/newly married and we lived in different locations while I went to grad school. Music helped keep me sane on the 4+ hour drive each way every … [Read more...]
Cue the music…
I don't run with music. I think I've run three times in my entire running career with my ipod. I trained for both marathons and lots of halves with only my own thoughts and very occasionally a companion to entertain me. I think that may have to change. Two of the five halves are run on approximately 1 mile loops. Yes, I have to run the same loop nearly 13 times for two different halves. I'm going to need to work on some mental strength in addition to my endurance. Yesterday I mapped a one mile loop from my house and ran it three times. I plan to run one time a week where all of the miles are on that loop. Yes, I do believe my neighbors will think I'm crazy when I run the loop 10-13 times. I figure the homeless guy I pass will … [Read more...]
Newfangled running
I ran with the new ipod today. I'm still loading music and haven't had time to set up a running playlist yet, so I just set it on shuffle. It started off good with a peppy Ace of Base song, but the next song up was Air Supply. While I like Air Supply, it's not a good choice for running LOL. I skipped that one and oddly, all the rest of the songs were Wilco, Son Volt, and Uncle Tupelo (who are all sort of the same band). The run was fine, but I'm not sure I liked it. Even with the volume fairly low, I felt a little disconnected from my surroundings. I may bring it along on long runs, but I doubt I'll start running every run with it any time soon. I'm almost packed for the trip to Delaware. It's been almost a year since I've run a … [Read more...]
A little extra time on my hands
Usually I've run at least 10 miles by this point in a week. This week I've run 3. I also skipped my workout class because Shoo had a dentist appointment. This is doing weird things to my brain and horrible things to my eating habits. I've been on a mini binge - too much chocolate and caffeine (yes, female things are playing into that too) and I've been cranky for no reason. I've been trying to keep busy to minimize the damage to my waistline and my children. Shoo and I went for a nice walk today with a friend and her sons. We ended up at the Kettler Ice Rink. It's where the Washington Capitals practice. Only one player (the team captain, Chris Clark who's recovering from wrist surgery) was on the ice today, but the boys were … [Read more...]
