February 19, 2010

"I Get to Run Today!" or "How I Discovered I am in a Cardio Music Rut!"


I was sick last week and in an effort to heal I over-extended my rest period. I skipped Aerial Yoga on Sunday morning and was content to lay in bed and read all day. However I am reading "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall and it's really hard to stay sluggish when you're reading about amazing Ultra Marathon runners who consider a 20 mile run on the weekend the equivalent of a rest-day. Then on page 112 I realized what I have been missing about running. It's a gift. I actually get to run. I have a body that has strength and ability. Just a few days prior I was in bed with covers over my head and a temperature of 101.4. Then miraculously a few days later I was fine. The only thing stopping me from running was my own head.

So I got dressed, grabbed a light lunch and then went to the gym. I wasn't sure I was ready to run outside so stuck with the treadmill. The previous week I made it to running 5 minutes with a break. February is my month to work on endurance so I figured six minutes was a good goal. However, when I got going it felt great. At six minutes I decided to go to seven and then ultimately I went for thirteen. I still have a lot of work to do and a great ways to go before the Mini Duathlon in May. However I have learned the key and that is to smile while I run, embrace every moment because I am lucky enough to have the ability.

Of course, I also discovered my rocking mix on the iPod helped too. I will have to ween myself off of music for the race but in the mean time it makes a huge difference to my cardio performance. Running for "one more song" is a lot more fun than running for "one more minute". That next song hits you and you just keep going.

Then I got on the treadmill the next day but the same mix didn't have the same effect. I was bored with it already. I went to my iTunes and it just overwhelmed me. I began going to the staples and that's not what I need right now. I need different! Then I realized after reading a bunch of tweets I am not alone; Others are in this rut. So I invite you to shake it up and exchange music with me and others (if you choose).

Here's the guidelines:

  • Email me at thecupcake@mycupcakemafia.com by February 26 and let me know if you want to do a one-on-one exchange with me or a group exchange.

  • If it's just you and me, I make a mix, you make a mix, we mail them to each other easy peasy.

  • If you're interested in a group exchange you make a mix and burn "x" number of copies and send them to me. I will let you know the number of copies the week of March 1. Then when I receive all the copies I will package them all up and send them back out to each person who submitted a mix. You could end up with a lot of new mixes to keep you motivated.


That's it! Pretty simple and a fun way to shake up your spring training :) Keep moving, keep smiling! Be amazing!

5 comments:

Elisa Hebert said...

So I'm totally in on the mix thing, but this might be useful too - last summer, my BFF from high school decided to do a Couch to 5k. So I did it with her. I never had a 5k in mind, but I've always wanted to like running so I gave it a shot.

I made her these podcasts - each week is progressively harder - that have some pretty fab music and the cues to run/walk. (see the chart for the cycle of each week)

They might be helpful/useful (scroll to the bottom to find them) http://aquestionofperspective.com/c25k

Hope you like them!

Tali said...

Very cool! Can't wait to check them out! Thank you :)

Nielle said...

I've started using my iPhone on walks/runs and listening to various Pandora stations... the Lady Gaga one always keeps me moving but sometimes clubbing music helps or sometimes even just putting a dance genre gives you ideas. Just a thought :)

Tali said...

Yes! I use the Pandora when I am biking home. I loathe Lady Gaga so I think I will be skipping that one but there are some other great stations :)

ShellBell said...

Check out Nike Free 5.0 running shoes! After reading Born to Run - which is absolutely amazing, I went looking for the old Nike shoes C. McDougall got and found that they had indeed re-issued them, but have also made a shoe that is closer to barefoot for those of us not ready to take the actual barefoot plunge yet. The Nike Free 5.0 feels incredible! The shoes really allow my arches to do the work they were made to do. Love 'em!