All Tonks' Children Got Shoes

After a brief hiatus to buy new running shoes, HOLY CRAP SHOES MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.

After two attempts at week 1, having to give up both times, I tried it again tonight with these new babies:



And, yes. Holy cow. I thought I was in the worse shape of my life the other two times I'd run. But tonight, not only did I blow through the Week 1 workout, I ran for an additional 3 straight minutes at the end.

Boo ya.

I re-used this playlist for the third time. It was still good, and this time I actually got to run to the Chip n' Dale theme song, which was exciting and kind of MacGyver-esque.

TJ came with me on the run, which was fun. He runs way faster than I do, his stride being about 50% longer than mine, but he doubles back for the walking part. The weather was gorgeous -- about 67 degrees by the time we went at 8pm. It was the solstice today, so we had just enough daylight for our 40-minute escapade.

We'll be graduating to Week 2 for our next workout. AND I now have enough confidence to enter the mile run for field day at school on Wednesday. I'll probably finish last. Oh, well.

Week 1, Second Run

I went running again today. I talked TJ into going with me this time. It was fun going with him, even though the plight of the short-legged runner meant tht he was going much faster than me even when I was taking 3 strides for every 2 of his.

My calves held up much better than last time, but this time it was my shins that were my demise. I think I need to get new shoes -- these are pretty old, and I don't remember having nearly thus much muscle soreness last time. Yay for an excuse to shop!

I used exactly the same playlist as last time, so no need to repeat it here. Enjoy the weekend, readers!

Back in Action!

Hello, blogosphere! After (....*checks blog*....) nearly 2 years (oh, man), I've decided to return to this plan to try again. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you about several changes which have happened in my life.

1) I got engaged, then married! Hence the new account and last name. Don't worry, though, this is still the same Erin. (I know you were worried.)

2) I graduated from grad school! Now I am gainfully employed as a music teacher and drama director. Hooray! I just finished up directing my first musical, and suddenly have all manner of time on my hands that I don't quite know what to do with, and significantly less stress in my life than at any point since about 1998 (not kidding).

3) I moved across the country! Whereas I used to live in Cleveland, right by a gorgeous running trail, I now live in the small town of Adams, MA..... right by a gorgeous running trail!! This wasn't my first stop between running trails, though; there were two intermittent (and horrible, and thankfully shortlived) stops at apartments in different towns in Western Mass, which were NOT right by gorgeous running trails. This one, however, is.

4) I miss feeling like I'm in shape. I chaperoned the high school prom last weekend, did the dance to "Cotton-Eyed Joe" for about 3 minutes, and was winded. Pathetic.

5) Unfinished business! I gave up last time, and that's lame. I do that sometimes. I don't like that about myself. So I'm trying to make amends.

So, anyway, I'm back on Week 1. I went on my first run yesterday, and, being out of the habit of running, FORGOT TO STRETCH FIRST. D'oh. I was doing pretty well cardiovascular-wise for the whole thing, but my calves started to burn like nobody's business halfway through, and I had to walk for two of the running bits. I promptly e-mailed friend, marathon runner, and fellow teacher Benn for some suggestions, and was not disappointed - he had some great stretches that I haven't tried before.

Other than that, I felt really good about running. It was my first time running on the new trail, although I had gone walking on it several times, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of it is in the shade.... since it was 80 degrees and humid yesterday, I was extremely grateful for this! It's a very pretty trail, and I'll write more about it in a later post.

Of course, I will be keeping up with my playlists! There will probably be a lot of repeating from the last go-'round, but I do have some new songs in there.

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

• Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head) / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (3:38)
• Dr. Yang / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (2:30)
• The Frown Song / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (3:38)
• The Avenue Q Theme / Avenue Q Original Cast Soundtrack (1:05)
• Fugue for Tin Horns / Guys & Dolls Original Cast Soundtrack (1:28)
• Wild Honey Pie / The White Ablum - The Beatles (1:01)
• Eliza / A Picture of Nectar - Phish (1:32)
• Inakteli nóták (IV. da capo, Allegro) / A Cappella Choral Works of Ligeti - London Sinfonietta Voices (0:52)
• Berliner Messe - Zweiter Alleluiavers / I Am the True Vine (Arvo Pärt) - ProArte Singers (1:22)
• Up, Down, and Touch The Ground / Winnie the Pooh (1:02)
  
• Indian War Whoop / O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack - Jim Cummings (1:30)
• Before Cologne / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (0:54)
  
• Cigarette / Whatever and Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five (1:38)
• I Think I Have a Chance with this Guy / Strongbad Sings and Other Type Hits - What's Her Face (0:56)
• Bookends / Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (1:21)
• Royal March from "l'Histoire du Soldat" / Make a Jazz Noise Here - Frank Zappa (0:59)
• Sweet Sweet / Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1:39)
  
• Theme from Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers / Cartoon Shuffle - Anamation Soundtrack Ensemble (1:01)
• If Ye Love Me / Pastyme with Good Companye - Flying V (1:32)
• You Don't Know Me / Way to Normal - Ben Folds feat. Regina Spektor (2:30)
• Cologne / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (2:30)
• Errant Dog / Way to Normal - Ben Folds (2:30)

Week 1, Rest Day

I'm definitely excited to begin Week 2 of this program. I have Sara on board now, helping out and keeping me motivated as well as contributing to this blog. And she's shown me new things already, like that this is possible:


View Larger Map

This is where I'll be running tomorrow. It's a slight variation on the paths that I've been running before. It's nice to get to know the neighborhood a little better as I do this running thang. I've got my playlist all set and ready to go, too, but I will make you wait for that until after I've run it.

This coming week I will be running on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday if all goes well, so look for posts from me on those days (and maybe more!)

Hello!

Hi, I'm Sara, Erin's friend from college, and I'll be running along with her. For me, it's definitely couch (read: lazing around in bed) to 5K! My comprehensive exam this past semester (I'm in a PhD program) really killed my will to live/exercise ;) and now that the semester is over and I don't have to walk 20 minutes to campus every day, I've really gotten bad about getting exercise. Erin has definitely inspired me to be more active this summer. :) The running to music has worked really well for me too (this was my third day), and is much more fun than other running I've done in the past. I've just been running around my neighborhood in Berkeley, CA, which is pretty flat and not too many folks on the sidewalk.

I'm also excited to try running. Everyone else in my family is a really impressive runner (especially my sister, who was in high school and college cross country and track)...in the past, I've gone to the Akron Children's Hospital 5K with them...and while everyone else was running the 5K and winning trophies, I would run/walk in the 1 mile "fun run". So here's to being able to run the 5K with them someday! At least all their running might mean I have the genes to be a runner even if I haven't succeeded in the past??

My goal for the summer is basically just to feel healthier...I feel good about my weight overall, but not about my ratio of muscles to fat...basically, I am about zero muscles right now. :) I've also noticed this past semester that I've been getting out of breath faster than I want to, so obviously running should be good for that. I've also been doing a little bit of strength training on our new Wii Fit and I want to keep that up and add some exercises that don't work on the Wii Fit (i.e. situps)...for that, I need to clean my room so I have a place to do them! I don't have too much going on this summer (I'm working part time and trying to study for comprehensive exam number 2 in the fall), so I'm going to pencil myself in for running every day, which may or may not actually happen. I figure that if I try for every day, I will at least run the 3 days required by the program! So far it has been working as I've run the past three days. I can actually feel it getting easier, so that's encouraging!

I don't seem to have very much "short" music, so what I did was make a 10 minute playlist and I play it twice through for my run. Not as exciting as Jazzerpat but it gets the job done. :) It's a funny mix of the Amelie soundtrack and the Into the Wild soundtrack, with the best song definitely being the West Wing theme song. The "presidential" sounding music is very inspirational and I can imagine I am Josh going for a run! I will have to figure out a way to incorporate it next week when I've graduated from the "run 1 minute" level.

Here's my playlist for this week, with running songs in red and walking songs in pink:

Photographs - Eddie Vedder (0:59)
L'Autre Valse D'Amelie - Yann Tiersen (1:33)
Tuolumne - Eddie Vedder (1:00)
Le Banquet - Yann Tiersen (1:31)
West Wing Theme Song (0:46)
Setting Forth - Eddie Vedder (1:40)
La Redecouverte - Yann Tiersen (1:13)
No Ceiling - Eddie Vedder (1:34)

Total Time: 10.2 minutes, to be played twice for 1 run/walk.

Here's where I've been running so far. According to Google Maps, it's about .8 miles each way for a total of 1.6 miles...not bad!



View Larger Map

Week 1, Day 3 + Rest Day

I actually went out on Thursday for this session, but I haven't had a chance to blog about it until now. Yesterday and today were exceptionally busy - Thursday I did some tutoring in the morning, went running, took a class in the afternoon, and worked at night, never with more than half an hour down-time in the middle. Friday I went to school to help conduct an interview for my advisor's replacement, taught my last class to my preschool kiddies, and went to work, again with very few breaks. I just got home about 5 minutes ago. Phew!

This trend should continue for much of the weekend, too: working a morning/afternoon shift and then going to a party to celebrate the upcoming marriage of two of my friends (the ceremony is in Utah, so they're holding a local party for those who can't make it). Sunday I am conducting the church choir in the morning and working at night. I thought this was called vacation?

On the other hand, I feel really good about being active this summer, both physically and, erm, temporally. I don't feel like I'm overdoing it to the point of stress, but I do feel like I am actively involved in each day. As long as I get some time to myself eventually, it'll all be good.

Anyway, the run. This was a good one. One of my fears came true and I was spotted by someone I know (Nick, who is a fellow server at my restaurant). He drove by me in his car while I was running. Turns out he didn't think me pathetic at all, but rather it initiated a conversation in which I found out that he likes to run on the same path, and does something similar to my plan where he runs and walks in intervals! Now, instead of fearing being "discovered," I'm kind of hoping we'll run into each other on the path one day.

My first "best of" playlist worked really well. Jazzerpat knows what she's doing :)

The walking songs are in navy, the running ones are in aqua. Only a few were new - those ones are marked with an asterisk. The new ones mostly worked well, although I still can't quite bring myself to enjoy Schubert lieder.

• Wild Honey Pie / The White Album - The Beatles (1:01)
• Eliza / A Picture of Nectar - Phish (1:32)
• For the Mouse is a Creature of Great Personal Valour / Rejoice in the Lamb (Benjamin Britten) - My Conducting Recital, Sarah Allen, soloist (1:01)
  
• Cigarette / Whatever and Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five (1:38)
• I Think I Have a Chance with this Guy / Strongbad Sings and Other Type Hits - What's Her Face (0:56)
• Bookends / Greatest Hits - Simon & Garfunkel (1:21)
• Mr. Club / The New Romance - Pretty Girls Make Graves (0:48)
• St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air) / Icky Thump - The White Stripes (1:50)
• Flight of the Bumblebee from Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov) / Live in Osaka - Eastman Wing Ensemble (1:12)
• Sweet Sweet / Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1:39)
• Introduction / Punch While Rap - Ill Mitch (1:06)
• *Bums Interluding / Punch While Rap - Ill Mitch (1:40)
  
• Over Hill, Over Dale (Vaughan Williams) (no clue who sings this, it was on a practice CD) (1:08)
• *Fugue for Tinhorns - Guys & Dolls Soundtrack
  
• They're Red Hot / Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers (1:12)
• *Lachen und Weinen / Schubert Lieder - Judith Raskin (1:38)
• Royal March from "l'Histoire du Soldat" / Make a Jazz Noise Here - Frank Zappa (0:59)
• *Chichester Psalms - Movements i & ii - Leonard Bernstein (9:11)
  

Week 1, Rest Day

So ideally in this program, you run 3 times a week making sure to give yourself a rest day between runs.

My life, however, makes this structure more difficult.

I work as a waitress in a very high volume sports bar. In a single shift, it's estimated that I burn 1600 calories. I wore a pedometer to my unusually short 4-hour shift on Sunday (we were slow) and I walked 10,000 steps. That's an active day's worth. So I'm usually quite tired enough as it is after a shift, and don't want to work out beforehand to fatigue my muscles any more than necessary.

I work 4 shifts a week in the summer, which would be perfect for this plan - I would run on the 3 days that I am not working. This is the general goal, and I'll do it most weeks.

But this week, my three days off have come right in a row: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I was going to just run those days anyway, but I could feel that my muscles were tired today and I didn't want to hurt anything. I'll find some time to get my third workout for the week in before the week is through. I will likely do it tomorrow morning after doing my theory tutoring, but before going to my summer class and working an evening shift. It will be a full day, but the only thing that might prevent my run is the projected thunderstorms. If it doesn't work out tomorrow, I will have a little time between teaching preschool and working at the restaurant on Friday.

Week 1, Day 2

I made today's playlist entirely of TJ's music. Well, not quite entirely. There used to be two Deerhoof songs and a Tommy Makem song, but they were m4a's and don't play on non-iPod mp3 players. So I replaced them with some of my stuff that didn't quite make the cut yesterday.

I thin I'm going to do my weekly playlists Jazzerpat -style: two different playlists on days 1 and 2, and then a "best of" on day 3.

The walking songs are in navy, the running ones are in aqua. Songs especially fitting for their purpose get an asterisk; songs that would have worked better for the opposite purpose get 2 asterisks.

• Proceed with Caution / The Dillinger Escape Plan (Reissue) - Dillinger Escape Plan (1:03)
  
• Sweet Sweet / Siamese Dream - Smashing Pumpkins (1:39)
  
• Inaktelki notak - Songs from Inaktelle / A Cappella Choral Works (Ligeti) - London Sinfonietta Voices (0:52)
  
• Main Title / Last of the Mohicans Soundtrack - Randy Edelman (1:45)
  
• Mr. Club / The New Romance - Pretty Girls Make Graves (0:48)
  
• *Eliza / A Picture of Nectar - Phish (1:32)
  
• Petite camusette / Josquin Desprez: Motets et Chansons - Hilliard Ensemble (1:02)
  
• **Kevin Puts - Canyon for Solo Marimba 1. Toccata / Ritual Protocol - Makoto Nakura (1:23)
  
• *Royal March from "l'Histoire du Soldat" / Make a Jazz Noise Here - Fran Zappa (0:59)
  
• Steep / Billy Breathless - Phish (1:38)
  
• *Wild Honey Pie / The White Album - The Beatles (1:01)
  
• **St. Andrew (This Battle Is in the Air) / Icky Thump - The White Stripes (1:50)
  
• Harry, You're a Beast / Make a Jazz Noice Here - Frank Zappa (0:48)
  
• Mass for Five Voices 1-Kyrie (William Byrd) / Best of the Renaissance - The Tallis Scholars (1:27)
  
• *They're Red Hot / Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1:12)
  
• Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog / At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash (1:30)
  
• You Can Be as Loud as the Hell You Want / Avenue Q Original Cast Recording (1:12)
  
• *Chan Chan / Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club (4:18)
  
• De Camino a La Verdea / Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club (5:04)

It started raining immediately upon my return home. This was good in one sense, but bad in the sense that we're off to an ourdoor James Taylor concert. :( Wish us a soggy but good time!

Week 1, Day 1

So now that it's summer and all, I've had the time to actually work out a little. And I decided this week that maybe I hadn't given running a good enough shot at courting my favor. I've tried a few times, even going as far as going to captain's practices for my high school cross country team, but I could never manage to get into it. But I've had recent inexplicable urges to try it again, so I thought, "Heck, why not, it's free?"

I went for my first run on Friday. There's this really nice running/walking/biking path right by my apartment, so I used Google Maps to determine distances between certain landmarks. I was going to walk half a mile to the path, jog a mile down the path, and then walk the 1.5 miles home. My legs, unfortunately, had a different idea. Silly Erin decided to do her leg strength exercises right before going on her run, so of course my muscles were not too happy with my idea of making them run for a mile. Interestingly, though, even though my muscles gave up, I never got a stitch in my side or too terribly short of breath - my lungs could easily have finished the mile, I think, and that had always been my problem before. Yay for being in relatively good cardiovascular shape! When I got home I figured out that I had run for half a mile - not too shabby for my first go-round.

Anyway, I though that doing some interval training might be a better way to work up to running than just trying to push myself to a mile immediately. I decided to do the Couch-to-5k training plan, since I've heard good things about it on SparkPeople. Here, I encountered a bit of a problem. Running intervals, of course, requires that you can time what you're doing. While I love my watch, it doesn't have any fancy features like a stopwatch, or even a digital display. I came up with the alternate idea of making playlists with songs of the appropriate lengths, so I could switch modes when the song changed.

Here, I think, may be the difference between running now and running in the past - I've never done it with music before. I went today for my first programmed run, and it was definitely 20 times more enjoyable.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my running playlist with you. Week 1 of the program has me running for 60 seconds then walking for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes.

The walking songs are in navy, the running ones are in aqua. I added a few walking songs at the end because I wanted to go for more than 20 minutes. Songs I felt worked particularly well for their purpose get an asterisk!

• *The Avenue Q Theme / Avenue Q Original Cast Soundtrack (1:05)
• Dulaman (Michael McGlynn) / ACDA 2005 - Bentonville High School Chamber Choir (1:45)
• *For the Mouse is a Creature of Great Personal Valour / Rejoice in the Lamb (Benjamin Britten) - My Conducting Recital, Sarah Allen, soloist (1:01)
• *Bookends / Greatest Hits - Simon & Garfunkel (1:21)
• The Arrival of the Wren Boys / The Bells of Dublin - The Chieftans (1:00)
• *Cigarette / Whatever and Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five (1:38)
• Berliner Messe - Erster Alleluiavers (Arvo Part) / I Am the True Vine - ProArte Singers (1:03)
• Hallelujah / Rejoice in the Lamb (Benjamin Britten) - King's College Choir (1:22)
• *I Think I Have a Chance with this Guy / Strongbad Sings and Other Type Hits - What's Her Face (0:56)
• Kom! (Monica Aslund) / Spring 2006 Concert - Case Concert Choir (1:34)
• *Flight of the Bumblebee from Tsar Saltan (Rimsky-Korsakov) / Live in Osaka - Eastman Wing Ensemble (1:12)
• If Ye Love Me / Pastyme with Good Companye - Flying V (1:32)
• *Introduction / Punch While Rap - Ill Mitch (1:06)
• Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise) / Grease Soundtrack - Olivia Newton-John
• *Over Hill, Over Dale (Vaughan Williams) (no clue who sings this, it was on a practice CD) (1:08)
• Ite Missa Est - Deo gratias / Machaut - Messe de Notre Dame - Ensemble Organum (1:20)
• *Under African Skies / Leaving Lights - Mark & Tara Franklin (3:21)
• *Roseville Fair / Leaving Lights - Mark & Tara Franklin (4:18)
• *Wildflower Song / Leaving Lights - Mark & Tara Franklin (3:20)
• Leaving Lights / Leaving Lights - Mark & Tara Franklin (5:40)
• Lights of Lousianne / Leaving Lights - Mark & Tara Franklin (3:51)

Now, having assembled playlists such as these to take me clear into July, I needed to get some way of playing them. So I broke down and bought a cheap 1gig mp3 player. My iPod Touch will have to wait. This is really cool, though, especially for $15. Definitely sufficient for my purposes here!

So I'm optimistic about the 10 weeks ahead for this running program. I'm hoping I stick to it. Hopefully committing myself to posting my weekly playlists will help give me some motivation. More motivation - running with my brother when I go to MA in July, at which point I should be up to 2.5 miles. But, at very least, I have an mp3 player now. Yay!