Music Freak!!

If you haven't noticed, I am a music freak. I love music. All kinds. I could listen to music all day! ...punk, rock, country, rap, R&B, swing, 60's, 70's, sometimes 80's, 90's, jazz, blues, reggae, funk, etc. And it most definitely depends on my mood. Last week I burned a CD of O.A.R. music and love it. I have been playin' it in my car all week on my commute to and from work. Tonight, I was able to download music by James Morrison (in picture - right). He is a new artist from the UK that has a real talent. "The Times" say that "it's as though he's stolen the soul of an 80 year old black American blues singer...". And that is exactly how I would explain his music/voice. And the fact that he reminds me a lot of Johnny Lang, another favorite of mine from right here in ND! (pictured below) Boy Wonder is what they called him... as he had at the experienced/powerful voice of a musician at the age of 16!

On a workout note, I took yesterday off. I was so sore from lifting before and after my run Friday, just as I was hoping! Ahhh. Today, Sis and I hit up spin. We usually don't do that on Sunday's but she wanted to go since she was going to be gone this week. Okay with me! We were not impressed with the instructor, he was kind of a snobby cyclist who was not fun! He just shouted out orders: Okay, uh, get your cadence up to 110+, tension at 7, and we'll go for 4 minutes. Not cool. And the music was okay; Sis called it 80's Butt-rock... she's so funny! Plus, I was disgusted with my bike in the back row. It said I only did 6.2 miles when I know that I did more than that since we did a whole lot of sprinting. I usually average 8-10 miles each session when we don't do a lot of sprinting. I am sure I did more than 10. Oh well. It wasn't working well, as I watched my cadence go from 0 to 254 to 14 to 110 to 0 to 56, and so on.

Now tomorrow, I have been blessed with having one of my classes canceled... the 4-7 class. So, I am planning on doing a long run between school and my 7pm class. Since I didn't get my long run in last week, and who knows what I will accomplish Easter weekend, I figured I would attempt one tomorrow. How long? I don't know. My plan is 6-7 miles. We'll see how it goes.

And since I have the vision of doing a long run on the thrillmill, I knew that I needed to change my music on my nano. I had 300+ songs on there, but were just sick of listening to them! So I have downloaded a bunch from the 60's and 70's .... and then some random songs .... and made a nice play list for tomorrow... Here's what it looks like, if anyone is looking for different (but old-is-gold) music!

• Aerosmith - Come Together
• Alice Cooper - Schools Out for Summer
• Brownsville Station - Smokin' In the Boys' Room
• Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
• CCR - Bad Moon Rising
• CCR - Down on the Corner
• Dion & The Belmonts - The Wanderer
• Eric Clapton - After Midnight
• Foghat - Slow Ride
• Four Seasons - Stay
• Four Seasons - Walk Like A Man
• Frankie Vallie & The Four Seasons - Oh What a Night
• Journey - Wheel In The Sky
• The Monkees - Dream Believer
• The Monkees - Hey Hey We're the Monkees
• Ram Jam - Black Betty
• Simon & Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson
• Steve Miller Band - The Joker
• Stevie Wonder - Superstition
• Wyclef Jean & Refugees - We Tryin' to Stay Alive (Remix)
• Time of the Season - Blake Lewis (American Idol version)
• Pride & Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughn
• Everybody Needs Somebody To Love - Blues Brothers Band
  
• Jackson - Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon

With that, I am signing off... and wishing y'all a happy monday!

Happy running!

Call me Crazy ... with a capital "C"

It's been one hell-a-vuh-week! I am definitely running out of time here people! I have only two "free" weekends between now and the end of May that I can get a lot done... that is, free to pack/move, apply for jobs, and complete four projects for school. Ahhhh!

But, on a side note, it's been a few days since I have posted. So here is a brief update. "Brief" being the opperative word.

Monday: I squeezed in a 4.05 mile run when I got out of class at 9pm-ish. Averaged 10:48/mile. Right leg was a little sore, possibly due to the fact that I ran 3 days in a row... with an accumulation of 11.4 miles.
Tuesday: Wasn't able to squeeze in any lifting or light running, since I was going and going from 7am until 5pm. Just had enough time for spin class from 5:30 - 6:15 before my 7pm class. Total, 9.26 miles spin.
Wednesday: Rested. Ahhh.... Actually, I did laundry and some dishes, watched American Idol and was to bed by 9:30pm. :)
Thursday: Was hoping to do a 4 mile run this morning before school, but overslept a half hour past my usual wake-up time. Oops. So, I had to run before spin tonight. Since I knew I wasn't going to get in my hopeful 4 miles, I opted for doing a few intervals. (Doing a total of 2.25 miles)

• 800 M warm-up jog = 5:31 (5.7 mph)
• 200 M walk = 1:51
• 400 M run = 2:29 (6.5)
• 200 M walk = 1:50
• 400 M run = 2:23 (6.7)
• 200 M walk = 1:38
• 400 M run = 2:17 (6.9)
• 200 M walk = 1:36
• 400 M run = 2:10 (7.4)
• 400 M cool down jog = 3:00 (5.5)

After running, I grabbed my sports beans and hit the bike. All went well, was a little tired though. Intervals are probably not the best thing to do before spinning. I ended up spinning a total of 9.6 miles. Afterwards, I hit the weight room and worked on the arms. This teacher can't have those things jiggling when writing on the board... how embarassing!

Friday: I plan to run, and then lift legs. I would like to do it before school, but I don't know if that will happen! We'll see. I might have more time to do 4 miles and lifting after school without feeling rushed. That way I can do a thorough job!

One of my RT friends invited a bunch of us over to barbeque tonight at 7pm. I had told him earlier this week I was going to come, but that was before I realized that thursdays are usually my long work out day (2+ hours). I didn't get home until 7 and then showered and had to fill my body with some carbs. I knew that I wasn't going to drink or eat at the barbeque. I told him I didn't think I would make it as I needed to ice and eat some good pasta... He just told me he was disappointed! Will they ever get it? I am trying so hard to make a lifestyle change here, and I go and say NO one time and they don't get it. Peer pressure sucks, people!! As much as I would have loved to be hangin' out with all those guys tonight, I knew that I needed to take care of my body first. I wanted to ice and eat well so I could get in a nice run tomorrow. In the back of my mind I knew that I had a lot of paperwork that I wanted to get done tonight for my mentor to look over tomorrow. I am sick of trying to explain myself. They call me crazy! Crazy for running before spinning; crazy for being able to find time to workout 5 or 6 days a week with all of my classes and teaching; crazy for running... period. So, call me crazy. Call me crazy with a capital "C"! I don't care. You know why? Because I feel a whole lot better when I do it... and if that makes me crazy... so be it!

Happy Running, y'all! Tomorrow's friday... jeans day is here again!

P.S. Check out another one of my favorite songs below. Lucky Man by The Verve.

Quick..before the storm get's really bad..

I woke up this morning to the sound of my phone ringing. My first though was I slept through my alarm clock. Before answering I checked the time, 5:35?! What the heck. Here it was my mentor calling to tell me school was starting 2 hours late. Great. Let's go back to bed. Then, she called again at 7ish saying that she is playing the role of mother here and telling me to not go if I feel the roads are too bad... since I was driving alone. Okay. Back to bed. Again. 7:30 - phone rang again, school is canceled, weather is too ugly. Back to bed. Yeah, no school. And, we don't have school tomorrow since it was a scheduled day off for High School Girls Class B State Basketball Tournament! Nice long weekend, yeah!

I eventually got up and decided I should do something constructive. I checked the schedule for classes at the gym and the earliest time for spin on thursdays is 4:30. I didn't want to wait that long if the snow kept falling. So, I got ready and headed out the door a little after 11. Oh my. so much snow and so much in front of my garage door. I had to use this stupid little metal shovel to remove some of the snow into the parking lot so I could get out without getting stuck. It was almost up to my knees.

At this point, the roads were decent and it wasn't really snowing. I went to the gym and planned on being on the thrillmill for an hour. I had done this almost a month ago and got in 5.3 miles then. I wanted to see if I could do more. So, 60 minutes later, I looked at my mileage and was pleasantly please.... 5.57 miles! That's an average pace of 10:46 per mile! At the time I was feeling quite tired and so ready to be done. I stretched before leaving the gym, went to the grocery store for some odds and ends, fruit, milk, and frozen pizza. I am treating myself tonight! When I was leaving the grocery store, the snow was coming down in huge chunks of flakes! We still have our Storm Warning in effect until 10pm tonight and then it switches over to a Blizzard Warning from then until 6pm friday night. Wonderful. We haven't had a blizzard warning in a long time. The blizzard warning is mostly due to falling snow and extremely windy conditions along with nasty roads. I don't think I will be making it to the gym tomorrow. That's why I chose to do a long run today. If weather is permitting, I will be going on Saturday morning for a spin session.

Well, I am going to go and watch a movie to relax a bit and then get ready for my cousin's basketball game on tv! It's her senior year of high school and it just so happens that her team is playing the team from the school I work at! Go Lady Holstein's! Yep, their mascot is a cow, the New Salem Sue! What? You haven't heard of the world's largest cow? It's located right here in ND!

Check out the video I posted from youtube.com! I heart the Dixie Chicks and always have, despite some comments made about the war, we won't get into that. I am not saying I disagree with their thoughts or agree. I just love the song though. The lyrics are wonderful.

What Goes Around...

For it being Sunday, I was quite busy. I did homework from the moment I got up at 8am, until 3ish in the afternoon. Then I went to the gym to do a really good lift session before Spin. Spin went really well, I cranked the tension up hard during some drills and boy could I feel the burn.

All and all it was really good and I was able to complete 9 miles. I felt a slight pain that appears a few minutes before finishing. Today, the pain was coming from the outer-back of the knee down to the outer ankle area. Weird. So, I went home and iced, and iced, and iced. Is this nonsense ever going to stop??

Now, I am going to have a pitty party for myself and enjoy the Grammy's while doing some IEP paperwork. Did I mention that I "secretly" heart JT....Justin Timberlake?! Yep. Hey, if anyone can write their own music, sing, dance, AND play the piano...they've got my heart!


Tomorrow will be another rest day and then I will spin Tuesday night.

Keep on, keeeping on!

P.S. Congrats to Maryland for defeating Duke! Hip Hip Hooray! Now Duke is faced with their longest losing streak in 11 years!

Body-numbing, snot-freezing, head-aching....

Random thought:
Cupid's Chokehold...such a weird title for a song. But, I guess I have heard worse! Cupid's Chokehold by GYM CLASS HEROES is my favorite song at the moment! If you are looking for a new song to jog to, try this one! Just saw the video and thought it was weird, but I like the beat!

Tomorrow I will not be going to school. Nope. I quit! No...not really. I will be attending a CEC (Council for Exceptional Children) Conference here in town. I am quite pumped! You can never learn to much, right? With that note, I am so pumped that I don't have to drive all the way to school (35 miles) and park my car out there. I don't have a block heater and the high tomorrow is supposed to be -10 with the windchill reaching a near body-numbing, snot-freezing, head-aching 40 below windchill! Who would want to leave their warm home in that kind of weather? Not this chica! Thanks to my Sis, she will be getting up early to drive me to the conference and pick me up at 4! That way I won't have to worry about my car not starting...becuase it probably wouldn't!

Today was the 100th day of school! In most schools, that is a big day in grades K-2/3! So, most of the kids were walking around with necklaces made of 10 sets of 10 fruitloops. The Kindergarteners got 10 sets of 10 different dot stickers to do what ever they wanted to do with them...on paper that is. The kids were pretty excited! Not as excited as the teachers realizing that we are more than halfway over the hump! I am excited because I only have 99 days until I graduate! Wahoo!

Exercise related..... I did not do anything today. I got into town after school, changed, and headed to the coffee shop on campus. I was there until a little after 9pm working on an assessment report that we are going over in a meeting next tuesday. Eeks. This is the first time I have done one of these, and boy are they a lot of work!

Tomorrow, I hope to go to the gym after my coference for a nice 3.1 mile run! We'll see.