Vote for my school!

I have a couple of running posts to catch up on, but for a brief aside, you should all vote for the school where I teach to win $500,000! I'm the music teacher, and right now we don't have any performance space -- for concerts, drama, assemblies, anything. Right now when kids all need to assemble, they have to squeeze onto the floor of the "cafe-gym-atorium" -- it's very uncomfortable, and they don't all fit. If we have to try to fit in parents as well, forget it! $500,000 would be invaluable.



Thanks!

Week 4: Day 1

Since the first two workouts of Week 3 had gone so well and I am a little behind in my training schedule (gah! vacation! heat wave!), I decided to skip the third workout and move on to Week 4. It was definitely a jump, but not overly hard. I would describe it best as a good challenge. My mom, with whom I worked out, was impressed. Of course, that's kind of her job, as my mother, but I still liked it. I went a total distance of 2.5 miles.

Also, week 4 is as far as I got last time, I believe.

The walking songs are in navy, the running ones are in aqua.

• Like a Virgin / The Immaculate Collection - Madonna (3:11)
• Vogue / The Immaculate Collection - Madonna (5:19)
• Don't Ask Me Why / Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 - Billy Joel (2:57)
• Steep / Billy Breathes - Phish (1:38)
• Billy Jean / Number Ones - Michael Jackson (4:54)
• Kiss The Girl / Classic Disney Vol. 1 - The Little Mermaid (2:43)
• Killer Queen /Greatest Hits - Queen (3:01)
• Sweet Sweet / Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1:39)
• Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting / Greatest Hits - Elton John (4:55)
• Like a Prayer / The Immaculate Collection - Madonna (5:52)
• Cherish / The Immaculate Collection - Madonna (3:53)
  

Week 3: Workouts 1 and 2

So after my first aborted attempt at Week 3 that left me wheezing before the first 90 seconds of running was through, I decided to wait out this heat wave before attempting to run outdoors again. I think humidity was at around 98%, and it was in the 80s or even 90s for the entire past 2 weeks.

So I went running at the gym, where there is beautiful, beautiful air conditioning. I went with my mom both times, who walked quickly on the treadmill next to me. Even though she walked the whole time, I only ended up going about .2 miles further than she did in distance, so we are fighting (not really). TJ came along for the second work-out, although he did the elliptical instead of running.

I did find one dangerous thing about running on a treadmill while using the playlist below: being on a treadmill during the OK Go song makes it REALLY hard to resist the urge to try doing this:



The walking songs are in navy, the running ones are in aqua.

• Earth Song/ Number Ones - Michael Jackson (5:01)
• Coming Clean / Dookie - Green Day (1:35)
• A Prayer of St. Patrick / Gloria - The Sacred Music of John Rutter -- City of London Sinfonia, Cambridge Singers (1:33)
• You Can't Hurry Love / Serious Hits... Live! - Phil Collins (2:54)
• Your Smiling Face / Greatest Hist (Live) - James Taylor (2:55)
• Nut Rocker / Tessie EP - Dropkick Murphys (1:22)
  
• Mass for Five Voices (William Byrd) / Best of the Renaissance - Tallis Scholars (1:27)
  
• Here It Goes Again / Master the Treadmill with OK Go - OK Go (3:00)
• Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 2 / Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips (2:58)
• You Are Not Alone / 1996 Grammy Nominees - Michael Jackson (5:48)

How to Feel Much Older, in Three Easy Steps

1. Start a running program. Although you have never run before, be surprised at how easy it is to follow this program.

2. Make it about 6 weeks into the program before having to stop to focus on your comprehensive exams for your masters degree.

3. Two years later, at approximately the same level of physical fitness as when you started last time, start the same running program over again.

Week 2: Runs 3 & 4

So I've run a few more times, but haven't blogged it because I've been ON VACATION! Woo! TJ and I went to Boston, MA -- I'd been several times, but he'd never gone, so we did all kinds of fun tourist-y things like the Duck Boat Tour (not the one that was run over by a barge, thank God), and we even camped out on the Cambridge side of the Charles River for 6 hours on the Fourth of July to watch the most amazing fireworks display I've ever seen.

Anyway, Run 2:3 was the day before we left (Tuesday). TJ is taking a college course that doesn't get out until 8pm, so I dropped him off at 5, visited with my Dad, who lives close-ish to the college, and then picked TJ up to go running. It was too late at night to drive 40 minutes back to our normal running trail, so we went to Taconic High School to run on the track. It was kind of nice running on the track - there were a lot of people there of all kinds of fitness levels. And since we were going around in circles, TJ didn't feel the need to try to stay with me, so he could go at his own pace without having to turn around. It definitely felt better on my legs, but there's something I like about running in a more natural setting.

We had fully intended to run while we were in Boston. It's a great city for doing things like that, and we both brought enough running gear to take up silly amounts of room in our suitcases. We weren't counting on a heatwave - it was over 95 every day, with enough humidity that there was a rainbow without any rain. Which was gorgeous. But we didn't really feel that running in extreme weather when we weren't sure of our surroundings was the best idea.

So instead of moving right on to Week 3 upon resuming today, I did week 2 once more. Today we decided to go to the gym that I am a member of, and, let me tell you, I kind of enjoyed the experience. Air conditioning! And I think the fact that the treadmill is moving is helping me lengthen my stride, which is something I need to work on. I ran with no leg pain at all. Watching the TV while running was also fun. I switched back and forth between SportsCenter (which featured The Winking Lizard, where I used to work, on a story about how LeBron James' cold-hearted departure is going to effectively bankrupt Cleveland!) and the Food Network. And did I mention air conditioning?!?!

I've been using the same playlist the whole time :) Next run: week 3!