Motivation Monday

I have to admit it – my motivation was waning a bit this past weekend.  I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a chest cold for weeks, Leo wasn’t feeling well, and pollen counts are off the charts around here… the right combination to make me want to hole up inside and skip a long run.

But, just as I was ready to bag my planned six-miler, I saw this from Run Chat:

Game on. Time for the #RunChat Scavenger Hunt

March 14, 2013 By David 31 Comments

Get your camera (or phone) ready, put on your running gear and start searching. It’s time for the first ever #RunChat Scavenger Hunt.

In early March we took your submissions on what to find, then took your votes to narrow down the list. We’ve taken the top 10 items for you to find to snap photos of and post them to Twitter to show off all in the name of fun … and some great prizes.

The #RunChat Scavenger Hunt will run through 9 p.m. ET March 31 to give you plenty of time to find these items in case you need more than one run to do complete the search.

Here’s how it will work: you run, you take photos of the items below, you post them to Twitter with the hashtag #RunChatHunt and you’ll be entered to win our prizes.

Here are the items to search for (in order of your No. 1 choice to No. 10 in last week’s voting):

A running sticker (13.1, 26.2, etc.)

Bridge (bonus for covered)
A giant hill you’re going to run
Christmas decorations still up
Historical marker/sign
Letters from signs to create #runchat
“Welcome to” state/city/county sign
Water (lake/river/pond)
Trail marker or mile marker
A scene from your favorite place to run

I love photography. I especially love photo scavenger hunts.  And I needed more motivation to go run.  It was the Perfect Storm of incentives.  Minus the George Clooney.  And.  Marky Mark.  Though I did choose INKS Kick and Shriekback Oil & Gold as my albums for my previously mentioned album run experiment.  So I totally had the 80s music covered.  Yo.

Ahem.  I digress…

It was a gorgeous spring day here in west-central Florida, so I headed out to the beach and started running and shooting.

Not just "a" running sticker - three of 'em! Four if runDisney counts.

We don't have big hills in coastal Florida. But we do have bridges - this covers both!

Mile marker. D'uh.

Welcome sign - and to my very favorite beach, no less.

Water: a turtle pond at McGough Nature Park.

Does 1990 count as "historical"? It was  the previous century...

Last, but certainly not least, my favorite place to run! Bliss.

So, how'd it go?  Beautifully!  Literally and figuratively.  Taking time to stop for photos forced me  out of my run-data-filled head and into the world around me.  Paying close attention to the sights so as not to miss a potential photo made me more aware of my truly awesome surroundings; I'm darned lucky to run in such an amazing place.  And having a running goal that really had nothing to do with the act of running was just plain fun.  And... I finished my six miles feeling great.

Many thanks to Run Chat for posting the challenge; I may not win a prize in the contest, but I kinda feel like I already won big!  :)

Oh! The Places I'll Go! Oh! The Things I'll Hear!

Cute, isn’t he?  I stopped to snap his portrait during my long run last week.

That’s right – I stopped.  In the middle of a long run.  To take a picture of a lizard.  Know what’s even crazier?  I stopped a few more times.  Too.  Was I tired?  Out of shape?  Not feeling the run?  Nope, nope and nope. 

What I was was r e l a x e d.  I wasn’t worried about what my average pace would look like on Facebook.  I had no particular time or distance goal in mind.  I was just out to enjoy a good run in a great place – my favorite nature park.

I just love how the paths curve around through here, inspiring a sense of never quite knowing what might be around the next bend.  The signs advising one not to molest the alligators help with that.

I’m between big races now and not in active training for anything in particular.  Which is a big departure from where I’ve been for the past year.  I’ve chosen to embrace it and make my long runs, especially, about quality time.  Location is part of that; I want to vary my routes, change up the scenery, try some new places over the coming months. 

I’ve also decided to dump my Shuffle. 

Once upon a time, I’d pull a matte disc of black vinyl from its paper sheath, taking a moment to enjoy a particularly lovely album cover or especially intriguing liner notes.  Carefully placing the needle at the record’s shiny outside edge, I’d sit back and take in the sounds of an entire album, listening to each song in the order intended by its artist. 

Those days are long gone now.  I forfeited my turntable and massive collection of vinyl many years ago, when replacement needles became impossible to find and entertainment furniture no longer offered adequate space to open a record player’s lid.  I have plenty of CD’s, but rarely have time to listen to them; what busy single parent does?  My iPhone’s Music app is chock-full of new and old music; mostly singles, but a few tried-and-true full albums can be found, wedged between LMFAO, Britney and Psy (don’t judge – it’s got a great beat and I can dance to it. RIP Dick Clark.) 

It hit me during a post-Princess run… I was listening to one of my running playlists, customarily shuffling its little heart out to keep me on my toes.  The Police’s “Synchronicity I” came on, an old favorite, and as it wound down, I found my brain expecting to hear the next song form the album.  It came as something of a shock when, not “Walking in Your Footsteps,” but “Gold Digger” (again – don’t judge) began.  I didn’t quite stop in my tracks, but I did stumble a bit (could’ve been a root, not the Kanye, I s’pose…).  It felt so… wrong!  I resolved then and there to spend some quality time listening to full albums again, in order and with the Shuffle switched firmly to the “off” position.

And what time do I have to indulge in an hour or two of album listening these days?  Long runs.  An hour or more of pure, uninterrupted me-time.  And, with no particular training pace to maintain, I’m free to listen to any format, any speed, any genre of my choosing.  Yippee!

I began my Running Album Adventure this past weekend – the same weekend that I stopped to take some photos.  Album of choice?  Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy.   An oldie-but-goodie – kinda like me! ;)

So how was it?  Pretty freaking awesome.  Really.  Generally, I find disco-ball-twirling-lights pop and dance music to be my best bet for running, simply because it’s simple music; easy to find and keep the beat with what is nearly always an outrageously exaggerated bass rhythm.  (And I use the term “bass” lightly here, as I challenge anyone to find an actual stringed instrument in use in any of those songs.  Not that I’m a music snob.  Okay, I am a music snob.  Deal with it.)  So, running to Zeppelin was, in a way, far more challenging – what to tune into, Jimmy’s guitar licks?  Robert’s throaty vocals?  John Paul’s  complex bass line?  Bonzo’s incomparable percussion work?  Don’t even talk to me about the full orchestral segments.

Yes.  All of the above.  I found myself mentally picking apart the pieces and putting them back together, dissecting the sounds that comprise the whole of each song, but hearing them work together, blending, blasting, piercing and weaving through the musical fabric like a needle through a tapestry.  And the really neat thing is that I found my body begin to do the same – each breath, step, arm pump working in isolation and as part of the full mechanical process of forward movement.  Taking it a step further, I wasn’t moving in isolation, either; I was as tuned in to the environment around me as I was to my own inner workings and to the music.   Hence, the photo stops.

I was, in fact, so tuned in that I tuned out – it took several full minutes before I realized that the album had ended, there was nothing but my own footfalls and breathing to be heard, and I was half a mile away from my car.  I tried queuing up another album, but it didn’t feel right; Houses of the Holy had been the right music for the right day and I chose silence for the rest of my run.

So was it that particular album or artist that made the run so great?  Could it be that simply hearing an album in entirety, rather than a random shuffle of differing tunes, made for a smoothness of mind and body?  Or am I reading far too much metaphysical malarkey into it all? 

I don’t know.  But I do know that it was an incredibly happy experience, one from which I gained much inner peace and energy.  So I’m totally doing it again.  And again.  I’ve got a few albums lined up for the coming weeks – Live in Swing City (Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orhcestra), Space Wrangler (Widespread Panic), The Yes Album (Yes), Four Seasons (Vivaldi),  Tron: Legacy (Daft Punk) and, for sure, Synchronicity (The Police). 

Yes, I have very eclectic taste.  Which means I’m open to suggestions – tell me, what are some of your favorite albums?  What should I try next?!

Oh the places you’ll go! 

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

-                - Dr. Seuss

Eagle Lake Park on a spectacular spring day!

10 Days Until Terror Strikes!

Know what today marks?  10 days.  10 days until the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.

TEN days.

Eeeeeek!!!

Suffice it to say I’m not feeling ready for it at all.  Still battling IT Band Syndrome, I did manage to complete 8 miles last weekend, my final long “run” of pre-race training… but I walked a huge chunk of it, only managed a 14:22/mile average pace, and by the end, my knee contained David Banner-like fury (though it did not turn green, thankfully.)  It wasn’t the kind of training run that elicits a sense of comfort and “Yeah, I’ve got this!” y’know? 

So I’ve been spending time focusing on the race planning elements that have nothing to do with running in order to distract my mind from thoughts of gloom and doom.  For starters, my race outfit.

I’m not doing a full-on costume – I’m all about comfort and I’m not very good at costuming in the first place.  I’ve known for a while that I want to wear my Badass Mother Runner tank and decided to add a skirt from Team Sparkle to wear over my go-to running skort.  Add on a matchy BondiBand to wick away forehead sweat and – voila!  My outfit is complete.

I may not be fast, and I may not even be able to run much, but by golly – I’ll look festive!

I’ve also spent lots of time putting together a special playlist for the race.  When I realized how much I’ll be walking, I knew I’d need more music loaded in, so what I wound up with is a mix of creepy, dark, themed sounds with a few pieces that are outside of the theme, but are proven pick-me-ups when the going gets tough.  Since I can’t count on maintaining a certain pace, I gave up on sequencing the playlist and I’ll just let it shuffle.  Here it is, all shuffled up:

Agent Orange: “A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad”

London Philharmonic: “Carmina Burana, O Fortuna”

Social Distortion: “The Creeps”

Ray Parker, Jr.: “Ghostbusters”

Queen Latifah & L’il Kim, Feat. Macy Gray: Cell Block Tango”

Madonna: “Die Another Day”

Metallica: “Enter Sandman”

Daft Punk: “Derezzed”

Nin Inch Nails: “Sin”

Tones on Tail: “Go!”

Pitbull: “Back in Time” (from Men in Black III)

Green Day: “Brain Stew”

Marilyn Manson: “The Beautiful People”

Kanye West: “Gold Digger” (don't judge - it's got the perfect rhythm!)

Cee Lo Green: “Love Gun”

Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Daft Punk: “End of Line”

“Halloween” main theme

Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Higher Ground”

The Cult: “Fire Woman”

Blondie: “Rapture”

MC Hammer: “U Can’T Touch This”

Nine Inch Nails: “Head Like a Hole”

Eurythmics: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”

Danny Elfman: “Mission Impossible” main theme

Florence & the Machine: “Dog Days are Over”

Michael Sembello: “Maniac” (because Flashdance was totally badass)

Marilyn Manson: “This is Halloween”

Girl Talk: “Oh No”

Girl Talk: “Here’s the Thing”

Salt-n-Pepa: “Push It”

Pink Floyd: “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”

Metallica: “Master of Puppets”

John Williams: “The Imperial March” (Star Wars) (I'm not into character pics, but if I see Vader? Watch out)

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic: “Danse Macabre, Op. 40”

Danzig: “Mother”

Will Smith: “Men in Black”

Survivor: “Eye of the Tiger” (please - you know it's the BEST motivating song ever!)

Daft Punk: “Arena”

Michael Jackson: “Thriller” (the full version, Vincent Price included, natch)

“X-Files” main theme

Social Distortion: “Mommy’s Little Monster”

I’ve tried it out on a couple runs and it works well.  I just hope “Halloween” doesn’t come up in a particularly dark, empty stretch, as it did the other night… while I was running after dark… all alone… next to a stand of creepy cypress trees… ~shudder~

With my outfit and soundtrack ready to roll, the next planning steps should be easy: scheduling and packing.  10 days – eek… again!

Run Me Daddy, Eight-to-the-Bar

(Somewhere in LA, a couple Andrews Sisters are rolling over in their graves right now.)

I discovered something interesting the other day… Studying the data produced by Runkeeper for my last few runs, I noticed a pattern: my pace during run intervals is all over the place – 12:48, 10:17, 11:22, 9:55… it changes by the minute!  Why would that be?  It always feels like I’m running a nice, even pace…

I thought and thought, and then it hit me – music!  It seems my cadence matches the EXACT. RHYTHM. of whatever the shuffle turns up on my iPhone.  Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” playing?  I’m running a precise (and INSANE!) 220 steps per minute.  Florence and her Machine step in with “Dog Days Are Over”?  Yep, I’m magically transported to 150 steps per minute.

I don’t know why this surprises me.  After all, I more or less go through life in eight-count rhythm.  For real.  Apparently my many years as a dancer have resulted in some sort of mental metronome.  I regularly find myself mentally tapping out a beat while preparing breakfast, taking a shower, typing, even reading.  “One, two, three and four, five, six, sevennnn, eight,” as I crack an egg, stir it with a spatula and pop two slices of bread into the toaster.

And oh yes, when I’m running you better believe I’m doing so “eight-to-the-bar.”  Which, by the way, makes it really hard for this math-challenged lady to calculate cadence; my brain counts in eights, but I lack the skills to figure out on the fly just how many steps per minute I’m running if I’m doing seven sets of eight steps in twenty seconds.  (I’d place this type of equation right up there with the classic, “If two trains leave their stations, one in Philadelphia and one in San Francisco… makes my brain hurt.)  So I instead try counting by tens and routinely get lost somewhere around 40, when my inner rhythm section valiantly pulls me back to whatever music is being pumped through my headphones. 

I’ve pondered this for a week and, aside from making for an interesting (to me, anyway), blog post, I see the potential to make this idiosyncrasy work for me: what if I were to stack my running deck by creating a race-day playlist with musical selections that result in the perfect cadence for every portion of the run?  Some slower songs for miles one and two, somewhere in the 150-160 beats-per-minute (BPM) range to force an easy, relaxed warm-up pace… then bring in a nice medley with a consistent 170-180 BPM for endurance through miles three through eight… and finish strong with the power of a solid 182-190 BPM over the final two miles…  Could I possibly create my dream race through music selection alone?

Seems plausible, so I’m going to test it out!  Hopefully with some help from a few DJ and musician friends, I’ll try to piece together the Perfect Playlist for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.  I’ll be testing it out over the next two months and will report back on my findings.