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Sunday, May 20, 2012

Summer Running

Summer's almost here. In the Valley of the Sun, that means we hibernate.  Since school will be out and I won't have to be at work at 6:45am for awhile, I'm going to try to get in some early morning runs.  But for the next several months, it's going to be mostly Dreadmill. 

So it's time for a new playlist!  I noticed the other day that I haven't changed my running playlist since January.  Yikes!  I usually change it every month.  Good thing is I really liked my last playlist, so I didn't get bored with it.  Hopefully this one will work out just as good. 

Here we go, in no particular order (I always put my music on shuffle):

1.  Assassin - Muse
2. Scientist - The Dandy Warhols
3. Big Bad World - Authority Zero
4. Dangerous Animals - The Arctic Monkeys
5. Black Math - The White Stripes
6. Get It Daddy - Sleeper Agent
7. You're Not Pretty But You Got It Goin' On - Band of Skulls
8. Libereducation - Authority Zero
9. Love Blood - Sleeper Agent
10.  Hotel Yorba - The White Stripes
11. D Is For Dangerous - Arctic Monkeys
12. Force a Smile - Sleeper Agent
13. Dead Sound - The Raveonettes
14. Return The Favour - The Hives
15. Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
16. Get It Right - Authority Zero
17. Howlin' For You - The Black Keys
18. B is for Brutus - The Hives
19. Lonely Boy - The Black Keys
20. Get Off - The Dandy Warhols
21. Attention - The Raconteurs
22. You Want the Candy - The Raveonettes
23. Courage - Authority Zero
24. A Little More for Little You - The Hives
25. Salute Your Solution - The Raconteurs
26. Panic Switch - Silversun Pickups
27. Hypnotize - The White Stripes
28. Five on the Five - The Raconteurs
29. Ignite - The Raveonettes
30. Potion Approaching - Artctic Monkeys

Happy Running!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Keep Going....

I haven't posted in forever.  Why?  Well, I kind of lost my running mojo.  My last race was Ragnar del Sol in February (which was the most fun I've had in years!) and for some reason, I just couldn't get back into a routine after that. 

Life's been all over the place for me since the fall.  Normally running would be my outlet.  But I just couldn't get past all the junk in my life and get back on the pavement.  Teaching, taking classes,  kids, adjusting to life as a single parent, trying to manage my now-precarious financial situation....it was just too much.  I've been in "treading water" mode.  Lots of nights of crying myself to sleep from all the stress so I could put on my game face the next day. 

Thursday evening I was running on the dreadmill while my son was at swim practice.  And I kind of had an epiphany: I don't want to just tread water anymore.  I want to full-out swim. 

As I was plugging away, I was reflecting back on when I first really got into running about four years ago.  I couldn't go two miles with stopping at least once or twice.  But I kept going.  Then I was able to go two miles without stopping.  Then I was able to run a mile in 10 minutes.  And then one day I was under 10 minutes and I was so excited!  Now, four years, eight 1/2 marathons, one full marathon, and a Ragnar relay later....I'm consistently running sub-9 minute miles (not for as many miles as I would like....yet!).  I know, to many of you that's not that fast.  But for me...I never thought I'd get here.  And I'm still working on getting faster.

So what was the key?  I just kept going.  And I want to translate that into the rest of my life.  I'm just going to keep going. It's not always going to be pretty, it certainly won't be easy, but if I keep chipping away, I'll get there.