Tunes

Today I wiped my 512 mb flash mp3 player clean and loaded 126 new songs. Apparently 150 miles is about when I max out on the same six or seven cds (on shuffle of course) accompanying my every run. Well, almost every run, not the group training sessions and not when I decide to run hilly windy roads that don't have sidwalks, so maybe I max out on 100 miles. Anyway, goodbye to the Killers, Belle & Sebastian's Boy with an Arab Strap, Modest Mouse, Tegan and Sara's Under Feet Like Ours, the Decemberist's, Death Cab for Cutie, and Jem. Hello to Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit, Tegan and Sara's This Business of Art, The Cardigans, The Squirrel Nut Zippers (which is going to have to go 'cause my mp3 player hates it), The Beatle's A Hard Day's Night, the Clash, and the Magnetic Fields. I went on my first run with my new tunes today and I have to say it just didn't feel right. When a song from the old mix would come on I would have all kinds of running associations with it, like "oh, I was dying on that hill the last time this came on... it is much better on a flat section." Or "oh good this is a great song to finish on." With this new set of songs I don't know what will work for what. I don't know what song to hope for. At the same time, I had reached the point where I needed to mix up the routine. I need new running routes, I need new music. I need to actually be taking a spring break right now instead of spending my break doing the same things (working at kaplan, running, and reading). The only thing that has changed is that I don't have to go to class and I feel the tremendous need to churn out some written product in order to avoid the perhaps inevitable nervous breakdown which is currently pencilled in my planner for April 17th.

The good news is that I had a decent 10k experience on Saturday. Su and Mark and I skipped the GTS and drove to Mableton, GA to race (and Isabelle came too!). My goal was to run the 6.2 miles in less than 55 minutes and I managed to slip in with a 54:34 (which is an extremely inaccurate time). According to the results six other women and I all finished in 54:34 (this race did not utilize the champion chip). Also there were over 1,000 participants and no attempt to divide people into pace groups, so it took awhile after the gun to even get up to the starting line. As a result my actual time could be anywhere from 30 seconds to 45 seconds faster. I didn't run the race as strategically as I should have. I definitely ran miles two and three faster than they should have been, and as a result was suffering by mile five. Mark blew past me around 5.5 and at that point I was pretty defeated... though I managed to keep him in my sights and finished within about 10 seconds or so (I swear it was closer than that... men and women finished on separate sides and I think that someone wasn't handling their timer correctly). God, I'm a competitive child. Anyway, goal accomplished which felt great. Except that I pushed that last half a mile perhaps a little too hard and proceeded to get sick again. Training for a marathon makes you extremely aware of your body and how easily it can tyrranize you. Although, I swear at mile 5 I gave myself a pep talk that amounted to something along the lines of "yes, you can stop now, but you don't need to stop. If you stop it is because you are mentally weak, not because your body is not capable of finishing and you will have to live with the knowledge that you gave up." Needless to say, I kept going. So I'm not sure, both mind over matter and matter over mind seem to have been in play.

Tomorrow I'm going to try my first eight mile run. I'm excited. This is the first time that the distance on the schedule is more than I've previously run. I mean, last saturday should have been eight miles, but I opted for the race instead. So after tomorrow I will be in unfamiliar territory, which is thrilling. Since I'm desperate for some new scenery I think I will drive somewhere and spend the afternoon running tomorrow (that almost resembles Spring Break).

In other news, I've realized that this whole fundraising thing is like a second job. There is always some task waiting to be done. Right now it is two thank you letters and another batch of fundraising letters (to people I missed the first time). I also need to start sending out the little thank you gifts to those who have donated $100 or more and try to get more people to join my NCAA pool... do you see what I mean?

Sigh. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

Anyway last week in review:

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 4 miles
Wednesday - 6 miles
Thursday - 4 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - 6.2
Sunday - rest (my back was hurting... I don't run when my back hurts)

Total: 20.2

So far this week:

Monday - 5 miles
Tuesday - 4 miles
Wednesday- 8????