Motivation

I am decidedly not a morning person. Sure, I am not one to sleep in, even after a late night, but I am not pleasant first thing in the morning. Training for a marathon forces you to become a morning person, or, at the least, it forces you to be up early in the morning.

I recently read a small column by legendary running coach Burt Yasso in the most recent issue of Runners' World. It was about excuses and motivation. It is certainly easier to make excuses to skip a run: tired, my bed is so cozy, my high thread count sheets are so soft, feel a little sluggish, etc. It's harder to find sources of motivation.

This morning's run (4.5+ miles of "Kenyan Outbacks"*) was motivated by: shame,** a comment from someone dear to me about the positive effects of running on my...bottom line, slowly (but steadily) firming thighs, bragging rights, the other morning runners waving as they passed by in the opposite direction, the blueberry-oatmeal pancakes I would have after my run (and ice bath),*** and Billy Idol.****

*In truth it was more of a Kenyan "Outback," as I didn't do any repeats. According to Runners' World, a Kenyan Outback is a run that is quicker in the second half than the first half. This can be done by a difficult series of intervals, but it can also be achieved by running for point A to point B in the first half of your run at a steady pace and running from point B back to point A at a steady, but faster, pace. I ran from point A to point B in 24 minutes and from point B to Point A in 21:50. The purpose of the Kenyan Outback is to allow you to finish strong. I'll write more on these later.

**See my post of July 5, 2009 regarding the motivating power of shame.

***Ice baths are unpleasant, to say the least. I have not yet gone all out to put actual ice cubes in my cold tub, but I do fill the tub as high as possible with only cold water and sit in it for at least 10 minutes. Ice baths are supposed to be a great way to help your muscles recover post-hard workout. Again, as with Kenyan Outbacks, I'll write more on ice baths later.

****Several Billy Idol tracks, including "Rebel Yell" and "Dancing With Myself," are great running tracks. I consider the Billy Idol songs a little mini-shout out to my dad, who loves Billy Idol. Please note, my father is a man in his mid-60's who grew up in the Midwest and is very conservative. If you know my dad, try to picture him rocking out (or, as he would say, "shucking and jiving") to "White Wedding" during a family car trip.

6 to 7 Miles of Music

Saturday's training run was "six to seven miles" at a long, slow run pace (1-2 minutes slower than your desired race pace). I almost always run with my iPod, and I take great pleasure in making running mixes. I am always asking friends for running music suggestions; it's interesting to see what motivates different runners. Saturday morning's playlist was a massive playlist called "IRunThis" (original, I know). It's an ever-growing, ever-changing list to which I always add, generally while I'm listening to a shuffle of my master iTunes library at work. Once I listen to a song from the IRunThis playlist, it gets transferred into the Used-Run playlist and deleted from the IRunThis playlist (I am really not that anal retentive, I swear). If I really love a song these days, it gets added to my slowly growing Portland Marathon Official playlist. Portland, unlike many other big marathons, actually allows and even encourages runners to use headphones, MP3 players, etc.

Saturday's run included the following:

(1) "Tick Tick Boom" by The Hives. This was formerly my previous Nike+ "PowerSong," my go to song when a run got hard, and I wanted to quit. The Hives are a Swedish band that tend to dress all the same (in black and white suits), and their front man, Howlin' Pelle Almquist, is full of showmanship, bravado, and a huge dose of (feigned?) ego. They put on an amazing live show, and "Tick Tick Boom" is a high-energy song with a chorus that includes the lines: "I've done it before/And I can do it some more." That's a long run mantra if I have ever heard one.

(2) "The Rockafeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim. I have no idea why this song has this title. I don't think any of those 3 words appear anywhere in the song. Most people would recognize this song as the "Funk Soul Brother" song or the "Right About Now" song. Again, high energy, this song is "electronic" or "techno" or "dance"--it was not my favorite running song, but probably the fact that the Ross character from "Friends" talked about this song (and maybe sang it?) in an episode has killed it for me.

(3) "You and Dat" by E-40. As this is a family, friendly blog, I'll leave comments about this song to myself. I will, however, mention that the "Dat" modifies a body part that benefits greatly from lots of running--definitely motivating.

(4) "Swagga Like Us" by T.I. feat. Jay-Z, Kanye, and Lil Wayne. This song is a bit too slow for running, but the song that T.I. and company raps over/samples--"Paper Planes" by M.I.A.--is a great running song.

(5) "Whoo! Alright, Yeah...Uh Huh" by The Rapture. I think the title speaks for itself. This is a running song.

(6) "U.R.A.Q.T." by M.I.A. This song is crazy, but a fun song for running. Actually, a fun song, period. The title is pronounced by reading each letter individually. I downloaded this song after reading about it on the brilliant blog "Things I Bought That I Love" created by Mindy Kaling from "The Office." Incidentally, if you like things and buying things and well, laughing, read this blog (http://thingsiboughtthatilove.com/).

(7) "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" by The Gap Band. A great 80's song. Not a great 80's running song.

(8) "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive. A great 80's song. A great 80's running song. A song that has been sampled greatly by Flo Rida to create a completely different song.

(9) "4 Minutes" by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. I love Madonna. I love Timberlake. I love Timbaland. That's all that needs to be said.

(10) "Straight Outta Compton" by NWA. Why is this on my playlist? Why isn't it on your playlist?

(11) "With Love" by Hilary Duff. I may be ashamed of walking; I may be ashamed of failure and quitting; I am not ashamed to admit I love this song by Hilary Duff.

(12) "Can't Stop, Won't Stop (Remixed Vers.)" by Young Gunz feat. Chingy. Again, it's all in the title.

(13) "Whoomp! (There It Is)" by Tag Team. Embarrassing? Yes. Motivating? Hell yes. This song was a total pick me up on the last part of my long run.

(14) "Vans (Remix)" by The Pack. "Yeah, yeah I'm in my zone." Lyrics to motivate.

(15) "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)" by Estelle. Estelle's entire album, Shine, is great for running, save a couple of slow tracks.

(16) "Too Shy" by Kajagoogoo. See number (8), above (exclude references to Flo Rida).

(17) "This is How I Disappear" by My Chemical Romance. Loud, aggressive. Just what you need those last few hundred yards.

(18) "Whatever U Like" by Nicole Sherzinger feat. T.I. This song always gets me going, always.

The Motivating Power of Shame*

The 4th of July. The day America celebrates its independence from England. Incredibly hard to believe now that a tiny country that gave us Shakespeare, blood pudding, and David Beckham once controlled Colonial Americans.** Harder still to believe is that many Americans probably have no idea what year America celebrated its first Independence Day (hint: it did not involve aliens and Will Smith). Americans associate Independence Day with barbecues, federal holidays, apple pie, sunshine, and fireworks. Americans do not associate Independence Day with running.

So, it was incredibly challenging on the morning of the 4th (Saturday) to get out of bed as early as I would on a workday to run "six to seven miles" or 72 minutes.*** I slept a bit later than I would have liked (6:30 instead of 5:30), laced up my Asics, grabbed my water bottle and tucked it into my running belt, brushed my teeth, put on my sunscreen, and headed west towards downtown Spokane and the Centennial Trail.**** I felt strong on the run--pushing myself, waving at other runners, trying to maintain an easy, even pace needed for my long, slow run. I incorporate several very short walk breaks into my long runs, as long runs are supposed to be slower, their purpose being to get your body used to so much time on your feet. Allegedly, run breaks not only allow you to catch your breath and grab a little water/gel without choking and/or pouring your water/gel all over your face and clothes, but they also help pull (push?) the lactic acid out of your muscles to allow you to run longer. When I started really running just over a year ago, I felt guilty, ashamed even, of taking walking breaks. In truth, I still feel a little of that, and I will extend the time between walking breaks on long runs if it means I can run past other runners, walkers, senior citizens on bikes.*****

This walking shame is about vanity, of course. But, in reality, I am out running more miles before breakfast on a Saturday morning than most people ever run in a row, period. But, walking shame is not the point of this post...this post is about the shame of quitting, of failure.

I always tell people that I am afraid of two things--aging and failure. In reality, I just hate both of them. My type-A(+) personality cannot deal with failure very well. So, while I, like most Americans, do not associate Independence Day with running, I do associate a missed long run as a failure on a small scale that could mean failure on a large scale (not being able to run the Portland Marathon in October). Certainly a portion of that fear is related to feeling as if I have let myself down, but it's more about the shame associated with telling people that I missed too many runs and therefore cannot run the Portland Marathon this year because, as anyone training for any big race knows, everyone knows about it. Everyone. Friends, family, co-workers, ex-boyfriends, the person who sells you coffee on weekday mornings. I cannot handle the shame associated with telling people that I am not running Portland because I quit or was lazy or just could not commit to the training. I ran Nike last year with a broken foot, partly because everyone knew I was training for it.

I am not hard core. I run because I am ashamed. And, I am not ashamed to admit it.

*I know I have not really been updating this, but please check back, as I will be filling in some of the gaps here soon (between October and now).

**One of these is not a good thing.

***My current Beginner Marathon Training Plan has all of these runs of between x and y miles.

****While a running belt resembles a fanny pack, it is not one. It is not worn by tourist to hold camera and currency; it holds in place a water bottle (think about running and holding a water bottle for miles in the heat) and tends to have pockets for keys, gels, phones, tissues, etc. that you might need on a long run. Okay, so it's totally a fanny pack.

*****This last one will be the subject of a later post.

Soon To Be Updated

So, I have slacked on this. I am changing the title of the Blog, and I'll be updating more regularly soon. Stay tuned.