Top Five Podrunner Tracks

Written by: Sara Grace
2 Jan 2010
Running Gear

Today’s run: 6.35 m, 1:10. YT: 12.65 m. 2 miles easy, 3x 10 min tempo runs, 1 mile easy. Lots of moms with big sunglasses and babies with closed eyes out today. I also saw a man standing in his yard talking into a stainless steel pot. I think he’s different than you and me.

Podrunner.com has a zillion free podcasts (make a donation!), mostly progressive and house music. I like to run with all kinds of music, but there’s nothing quite like electronic to pick me up and pull me through a long run.

Here are my top 5 faves of the moment, all about an hour long and between 135-155 bpm. The descriptions are Podrunner’s:

Strong – mind body heart beats
Easygoing – this one starts out a bit jazzy, moves on to a funky house vibe, and builds to a prog house finish to make your going a lot easier
Chants Meeting – a hypnotic, lulling workout mix that will zone you out and bring you back to earth hardly even aware of the calories you’ve burned
Paradox Alley – opposites at track
Breezy – An uplifting breath of fresh air that will move you along for nearly an hour

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Perspective

Written by: Sara Grace
1 Jan 2010
Inspiration

Today’s run: 6.3 miles, 1:10. YT: 6.3 miles. Ran on the beach as far as the power plant at El Segundo. Sluggish at first but finished strong. Saw Kooky Groovy Lady, a leathery late 60s broad who moves down the path, headphones on, like she’s grooving at Woodstock. But awkwardly. She must “groove” every day, year round, because I think I’ve seen her every time I run there.

The more I read at DailyMile and elsewhere, the more I realize that in the big, bad world of running, 1000 miles ain’t nothin’ special. I’m feeling a perspective shift as I start to inhabit a world where people run a sub 4:00 marathon a month.

In any endeavor – athletic, creative, or otherwise – there’s always going to be someone doing it arguably bigger and better than you. And if you’re like me as a judge, you reactively give yourself a handicap. That’s why it’s important to stay focused in exploring your experience, without judgment.  If nothing else, it’s unique to the world, and that’s something.

So: Keep doing. The doing is playful, animating, reaffirming. In passivity, we risk analyzing our best impulses to death.

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Suffering Is Optional

Written by: Sara Grace
31 Dec 2009
Inspiration

Today’s run: 5 miles, 1 hr. Blue jetstreamed skies and 70 degrees. But I felt like I was carrying last night’s buckets of wine and midnight Hinano burger around my ankles for most of it. Superfun night, not a superfun run. :-)

In yoga, they’re always talking about “lubricating the joints” with bends and stretches. After a great run, I feel like every cell of my body has been lubricated. I feel purposeful, and clear. I can handle every challenge. Everything else seems relative to my run: That is the ultimate challenge, the real life, the center of things. I feel grounded, and yet completely light. Is this “runner’s high?” Endorphins, fairy dust, whatever – it feels good and solid.

I started Murakami’s book on running, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – his purpose with it is so close to mine here that reading it makes me feel honored.

Anyway, I loved this: “This book does contain a certain amount of what might be dubbed life lessons. They might not amount ot much, but they are personal lessons I’ve learned through actually putting my own body in motion, and thereby discovering that suffering is optional.

Suffering. Is. Optional.

I’d like that to become the mantra of this blog.

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Psyching Myself Out Two Days Before '10

Written by: Sara Grace
30 Dec 2009
Training Tips

Today’s Run: 1:05; 5.95 miles (5 miles plus 6x100m strides). Was fighting “just get through it” feelings (gray sky symptom for me) but i enjoyed the drizzle of rain that came halfway through; felt very fresh.  also there was a guy with the biggest afro I’ve ever seen playing soccer.

It’s December 30th, and I will be honest: I’m nervous about this challenge: running 1000 miles in 2010.

We all have a dresser drawer full of identities – some lovingly worn, others that we’ve squeezed into like a bad pair of jeans. Well, until fall of ‘09, “runner” wasn’t even in my drawer. (Read the whole story in my “About me.”)

So, I came up with this challenge, which actually won’t require me to do anything different than what I’ve already been doing for the past few months. And yet, now that I’ve “locked” myself into it, it’s making me anxious. Commitment-phobia, anyone?

But I’m plunging forward by telling myself what I actually tell myself before every long run: Stop thinking, idiot. Go!! Think too much and we psyche ourselves out. They say that anything we can imagine, we can do, but when it comes to physical activity (unlike building planes or faster computers or hydrogen engines) you’re better off jumping straight to do. Do NOT try to imagine yourself running 9 miles; if you’re like me, it’s right up there with imagining cutting your arm off because it’s trapped under a boulder. Don’t GO there. If you’re going to imagine something, imagine yourself after your run.

That said, time to haul out – 6 miles ahead of me this a.m.!

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