Who Can Run 6.43 Miles? This Guy!

My training schedule calls today a day of "rest" and so far I am resting like crazy. My feet are currently in slippers, my coffee cup is currently full, and my running shoes are currently sitting unused in the closet. I am amazing at rest days. But I did do my first long run of this training season on Sunday. The plan calls for six miles, but I had to add on a .43 to make it an easy loop. The 6.43 loop went great. I wanted to finish in under an hour and was able to meet that goal.

One of my favorite parts about long runs is the chance to listen to A LOT of music. I look forward to making a new playlist tailored to the length of my run. I used to drop thousands of songs into a single running mix, but I always ended up hearing some songs WAY more than others. So I've started making new mixes each week. But I could always use some help in picking songs. I wanted to turn that help around and hopefully help others come up with some new song ideas. At the bottom of the blog is my ongoing playlist. I won't delete songs out of it, but will add more to it as I make new lists. The one thing I love almost as much as making playlists is looking at what other people put on theirs.

Runner's World has a pretty good collection of various playlists here, but I like to think that (even with my amateur running skills) my professional running playlist creation skills are better than any elite distance runner.

p.s. let me know if the auto-start for the music player is driving you nuts.

p.p.s. that awesome accordion photo came from here

Day Eight - Rest

Total Mileage - 15.43 miles

The First Step to 26.2 Miles

My friends and I used to dominate the Wildflower Triathlon as a relay team. Nicholas was our swimmer, Lander was the cyclist, and I was the runner. We always did the half-ironman, meaning I ran a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in the insane May heat of central California. Every year I would vow to run another half or to try a full marathon before the next Wildflower. Some years I even signed up for them, but ultimately flaked for very good reasons despite what my wife thinks. This year is going to be different.

I just signed up for the San Francisco Marathon (and when I say just, I mean like two minutes ago) and am planning on seeing the commitment through this time. I have plenty of training time, plenty of research time, and really no excuses. My official 18-week training course (via the wonderful Hal Higdon) doesn't start until March, but now I have a couple months to get back into running shape. So I'm off right now to take the first running step to completing the marathon seven months away.

Day one - Three Miles

Total Mileage - Three miles

Creepy or Awesome?

My vote is awesome, but I understand that my vote doesn't really line up with everyone else's vote most of the time.

So why post this borderline creepy album cover on December 8, 2009? What's the significance? Is there a backstory? No. No, there is not. I'm just knee deep in MBA finals and needed something to distract myself with after competing my fourth round of practice tests. My Executive Leadership (seriously, it's a real class) course has a practice exam up with 140 multiple choice questions. One Four Zero. So while you gaze into the eyes of my mustached hero I'll be plowing away through answers A), B), C), D), and E).