A Few More Miles

Well I finally got a few more miles in this week. I made it to the running store on Thursday morning for the group run. Erin and I ran together and logged five miles that seemed to fly by. Saturday was quite windy so I started my run heading into it. The first couple of miles were difficult. Like many people I often find the first mile or so to be sort of miserable. After about two miles I got into the groove and started to enjoy myself. I made it around a six mile loop that I've run before. On Sunday morning I met Jon and Erin at their house and we went for a five miler. It has been a while since I've run with Jon and enjoyed catching up on things. Running with them is always enjoyable and again the miles went by quickly.

I want to start gradually increasing my weekly mileage in order to build a decent base before the marathon training group starts this winter. I had looked at starting a twenty-four week schedule for a 50K race in April. I have done some reconsidering and will keep working on building miles. Once our training group starts I will tweak the marathon training schedule to suit my needs to run an ultra marathon. It sounds like there might be several people training for the Trail Mix 50K which should really help motivate me.

On Saturday night Lynette and I met Jon and Erin at the Fargo Civic Center for a F-M Derby Girls roller derby bout. Jon and Erin's friend, Cassie, is assistant captain of the Monkey Wenches. We had a really good time and will probably go again. It seemed like the players were having a lot of fun even though they were knocking each other around. We were glad that Jon and Erin had been to a bout before so they could help explain the rules. It's always more fun to cheer at an event when someone you know is competing. Cassie's team played in the last bout and beat the heck out of their opponents, Battlescar Gallactica.

You may notice that I have a second page listing the songs that are on my Ipod. If you click on  the song, a link to a YouTube video will open up so you can give the song a listen. I should probably explain why some of these songs are on here. A few of them: "Gin & Juice", "The One Eye Love", and "Amos Moses" just make me laugh. I usually start my run listening to some slower songs: "Angel", "I'll Stand By You", "The House That Built Me", ... to help me keep my pace in check. If I want to really ramp it up I'll play some Megadeth or Iron Maiden.

The song I listen to most often is "Stranglehold" by Ted Nugent. It's been called a "road song" for cruising along the highway in a car. I find a lot of these "road songs" are great for running. Another song I play quite often is "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. I saw a video of Josh Cox on an incredible 31 mile training run that featured this song. Here's a link to that video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcUmGzciPfo&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLEEC2E53C201D906B . I think the rhythm of his feet on the gravel road mixed with the beat of the song is pretty neat. I guess I don't get the poetry at the end, but man can that guy run!