Mile Marker

I always love a second wind. More often than not it comes at a time when I'm ready to shut down, kind of like when I tell myself I am going to go to bed by 10:30 every night but don't actually get there til midnight....it makes my 5am wake ups just dandy let me tell you! But Monday was a second wind that left me with a great sense of accomplishment and motivation.

The day itself was so relaxed, all I had on my plate was an online class from 8 to 10am and the whole rest of the day was mine because my other class was canceled and thanks to the wonderful holiday known as Presidents day, my elementary school was closed. I honestly can't remember the last time I had a day like that! After listening to my prof drown on about his life in relation to social policy and something about the biopsychosocial assessment and I can scratch off one less week of these miserable classes!

With all of the time on my plate I figured the best way to spend my day was by attacking the ever-growing "To-Do" List of mine. One such thing that I have been meaning to do is update my ipod. So get this: just a few months ago I bought a new ipod, one of those new "minis" that is a touch screen. I was so amped up about it until I found out that it isn't compatible with my mac, which is 4 years old now and still holding on. What a bummer! Luckily my old one still works pretty well, with a few bumps and bruises, the only issue is that I couldn't find a good USB cord to hook it up to so that I could alter the music on it.....until today haha. I must have spent a good hour and a half to two hours changing and updating my music and playlists.

I have to admit, running on the treadmill is becoming slightly monotonous, and I am extremely disappointed that I was not able to get outside for the three days that the weather was nice enough to run along the lake path. BUT I still make myself go. The crazy phenomenon that happened tonight though was that new music means I run faster...I'm still not sure how to calculate this equation or how it occurs, but I'm thinking that because I don't know what song is going to play next I am motivated to not pay attention to the pain in my knees, but rather get excited for what's gonna come on next. (So maybe something like m + :) = longer/faster runs; where m = music and :) = excitement).

And so, by the end of my hour run I had met the 6 mile marker! I haven't been able to actually run for 6 miles on the treadmill yet because holding a 10 minute mile on a stationary device was psychologically barring for me. It gave me this appreciation for the how hard I have been working up til now and reminded me that I will have many more moments like this to look forward to. While still on this endorphin-induced high, I pushed through some abs, stretches and got my butt into the pool for a 30 minute interval swim. It was most excellent, let me tell you! And as is typical, by the time I got home I through on some sweats and just crashed for the night, awaiting my 4:30am alarm to start it all over again :)