Please don't stop the music

Photo source

I went for a run this morning. Mostly because I wrote it down on my google calendar last night and got a little obnoxious beeping reminder about it on my iphone this morning. While I was running I was thinking about the things that I do to make running tolerable, like counting dirty Santas, leaping over dog poo, imagining I'm being chased by tigers. . . . Anyway, I decided that the biggest factor in keeping me from quitting and deciding to take a nap in the park is music.

So here's my list of songs that I like to run to. Please understand that this list may include songs that make any self-respecting music-lover cringe. Many of my running songs would never be on any other playlist that I listen to.

Starters: These songs must be happy and bouncy in order to lull me into the delusion that I actually enjoy running. These are crucial decisions. Pick the wrong song and you're likely to give up before you reach the end of the block

Im Yours - Jason Mraz

Helen - Nizlopi

Then I tend to need something with a good beat to remind my feet to keep moving after the bouncy fun delusion fades.

Pon De Replay "Rihanna" - Rihanna

Maneater - Nelly Furtado

Basically this is my Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake, and occasionally Britney Spears portion of the run. Yes I know. I make no apologies. Speaking of, I also enjoy

Apologize (Remix) - OneRepublic

Although I'm aware it's a bit slow.

Okay so this brings me to the point in the run where I really need some inspiring tunes. I can't count on my brain for motivation, so I need the music. I NEED it. These are songs that start off with gentle, yet unrelenting beat that gradually build to a crescendo that would be appropriate for a "run to the top of the stairs and pump your fists Rocky style" kind of moment. You can't stop running when these songs are on. My top picks are

With Or Without You - U2

and

You Found Me - The Fray

And finally if you need a little humour when you're running--as I do.

Baby Got Back - Sir Mix A Lot

Because let's face it. Spandex is humbling.

What do I finish with? Well, to be honest, the sound of my own gasping. When I'm done I'm done. The music has done it's job.

Hope you enjoyed!

History is so cool!

I wanted to write about something that has nothing to do with running (but I have still been running and going to the gym). The other day Brian and I went for one of our spontaneous road trips. Now here's the thing about me and road trips. If I see an interesting looking graveyard or if I see a blue sign that denotes an historic site. I HAVE to stop. Because I am a nerd. Luckily Brian is well aware of this fact and humours me (but secretly I think he may be a nerd too.


So my parents are moving to London, and just across the street (sort of) from their house is Reservoir Park. I've seen the sign for this park before but never stopped. We decided to check it out and guess what! A plaque! A War of 1812 plaque to be precise. I love that I've lived in this city for 11 years now and I still find bits of local history that surprise me. I mean I worked at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. You would think I'd know this stuff. In this park, which at the time was just a road through a ravine, a British captain ambushed a bunch of American soldiers returning from a raid on Ingersoll. (I didn't even know Ingersoll had been involved in the War of 1812. I guess they do more than make cheese there afterall.) If you can make out the inscription on the plaque at the top of this post, it provides the details. So almost 200 years ago, there was a battle fought (small yes, but it was a battle)here. British officers captured by American rangers were set free. And this happened on the same piece of land we were standing on. These were real people. Real people with guns and uniforms and horses who could never imagine that this road would someday be a busy main artery through a fairly substantial city. I'm not trying to romanticize this, but every once in a while a fact like this will sink in and it just gives me chills. It suddenly feels so real.

And that was only our first stop on the impromptu War of 1812 themed road trip.
Here are pictures of the Tecumseh monument that stands near the location of the The Battle of the Thames. It absolutely blew my mind that again, almost 200 years ago there would have been a major battle being fought. A battle where Tecumseh (for whom we have towns and roads and schools named after) was killed. And across the road...
...there's now a big blueberry farm where families pick berries and stuff their face with muffins.

How can that be possible? Is it just me or is that not amazing?

And that's why you do long runs

Just did 5.5km little run. Felt pretty good even though I had a ridiculous lunch consisting of a bowl of edamame beans. It as what I wanted ok? And I'm 30 years old now so if I want to eat a bowl of edamame beans for lunch I'll do it. The whole time I was running I thought, "I'm fueled by soy!" I also thought "Hey, this isn't so bad!" Even when Husky Boy zipped by me on the trail (which turned out to be fine because I passed him two minutes later while he gasped for dear life whilst clutching at the bridge railing for dear life. Or maybe he was clutching at his chest. Maybe I should have called for help.). I figure it was because of the long yucky run I did on Tuesday.

When I came back I rushed into the kitchen excited to refuel with a glass of the organic chocolate milk we picked up at the market this morning. Mmmm.... I think I may have gone running just to justify the chocolate milk.

Shorts or Tights?

This a question of physical pain or psychological pain really.

After Brian hopped on his bike and took off for a work-out I decided that I better get going too. It's not like I'm training for anything but my friend Andrea said she does not want to go b2s (that's code for something I can't bring myself to type) still looking pregnant and well, neither do I! Although, I never was pregnant and Andrea was so ...

I decided (foolishly) that today was the day for a long run even though it was hot and humid. The next question became what to wear. I wish I were one of those girls who could throw on a pair of Lululemon short shorts and a little sports bra and then frolic like a gazelle on the trails, but I am not that girl. After strapping on the requisite sports bra and running shirt with built in bra, I put on my running shorts (which are Lululemon, but are not short shorts). Then I thought, "hmm, it's kind of humid. There may be chafing, but it's hot so..."

So I changed out of those and into my super cute running tights (also from Lulu. What can I say?). They are super cute and their little write-up says they have strategically placed lycra to keep you feeling less bouncy. Well the LIE!!! I guess I didn't bounce around in the dressing room while craning my neck to see if there was jiggle, but my friends... I did do it in the privacy of my own home and there is jiggle. Maybe a more confident person would be comfortable with the amount of jiggle, but running is all about head games right? You have to wage a kind of psychological warfare with yourself in order to keep going--or at least I do. So the nagging self-awareness of the jiggliness that is apparent in these tights was too much to take when contemplating 10km. That would be enough to make me turn around at 2.5km and say, 5 km is good enough for today.

So I put on my other Lulu tights that are made of a heavier fabric and do wonderful things for your self-esteem, not to mention your bum. However, after lacing up my shoes and walking around the house for a few minutes I realized that I might die of heat exhaustion somewhere in Harris Park if I wore these. My friends, I came this close to letting vanity win, but instead I went back upstairs and pulled off the tights, over my shoes because I'm just that lazy, and went with my first choice: the shorts.

And I'm off (although to be truthful there were at least half a dozen other delays: "I don't like my running mix. Maybe I should switch it up before I go. Maybe I should take some energy gel today. Okay get the belt. Oh but I need water. I hate running with water. Okay well I'll--" you get the idea). I started off strong but by the time I reached my half way point at Gibbons Park I thought, "Hmm, maybe I should have brought a cell phone to call Brian to come get me when I pass out." And then there was the chafing. Oh, the chafing. See, the shorts save you from psychological pain, but then there's the physical pain. It's okay when it's not hot and you're not going very far but at 8km I thought my thighs were in danger of spontaneously combusting.

It was so hot and gross. When my Nike + lady finally cooed "1 km to go" I almost cried. I thought, "I love you Nike+ lady." So I did it but it was a s...l...o...w run. 10km in 1:03. What's up with that? Did I run backwards at some point? Seriously.

At least I went. And just in case you were wondering, the people poo under the bridge is STILL there.

Also I saw three dirty Santas and a bunny.

Wedding Dresses and Wizard of Oz

Today I realized that I hadn't tried on my wedding dress this year. Which is normal for most normal people, but I'm kind of a freak. Every anniversary (not necessarily on the very day) I dress up in my wedding dress and flounce around the house for a few minutes. Here's the evidence.

I love this dress. I know that if I got married today instead of nine years ago when I was a silly 21 year old, I would pick a different dress, but that's kind of why I love this one.


I also stopped by Staples (and resisted the urge to buy more pens and binders even though I love them) to pick up the DVD conversions of my ancient VHS copy of Wizard of Oz. Not the Judy Garland version. The Kincardine Theatre Guild circa 1996 version. And then I watched the entire thing, giggling at the bad singing and sloppy choreography. We were all so young and silly. I think the star was the dog though. I sat there watching and thought, "My god! That dog is reacting to everything in the scene." I'm flouncing around (apparently flouncing is not a trait you grow out of) and moving completely unnecessarily and the dog is quietly emoting his Toto-ness, probably thinking "I'll thank you to not upstage me, human." (The sound won't really work because I did a screen cast of it running on my computer.)



I also had lunch with my good friend and former associate teacher, Wendy, who has my life all planned out for me which is very helpful!

All in all it was a great day full of fun, kitsch, and nostalgia.

Tomorrow I'm going to check out the street painting and all local BBQ at Covent Garden Market. I love summer!

Banned Words and Phrases

I was watching/listening to/tolerating the fact that it was on in the background while I was working City Line the other day. They were doing one of those designer themed shows and talking about . . . wait for it . . . kitchen benches! Couldn't you just die? Anyway, the designer was talking about this one bench that was from Ikea, and so it was "a good price point." I got a little irritated, as I am wont to do, and thought "price point"? Why not just say "price"? Do you think it makes you sound fancy to say two words when one will suffice? No! It's stupid!

So I got on Twitter and asked my Twitter friends what words/phrases they would like to see banned. I think it's interesting when looking at these words/phrases to see the reason why the words irritate my friends so much. I think some people hated words that were mispronounced or misused while others were sick of hearing over-used and jargony phrases. Here they are:

price-point (Although my husband has pointed out its "business" use, I don't think that's really how they were using it)
In these tough economic times (So sick of this. EVERYTHING can apparently be explained by these tough economic times or can have added weight because of these tough economic times)

My charming and intelligent husband @reed_man would like irregardless banned. I think what makes it all the more annoying is it's a word that is frequently used by people in positions of authority. If my principal uses the word irregardless I will be very uncomfortable. Here's an interesting wikipedia article on this unword.

@Jason_Cobb would like to ban the phrase one stop stop which I have never heard and so can happily promise never to utter. I think it may be a UK thing.

@zollinhoffer added: libary and fustrated because of their non-word status. I think I could also add ambleance instead of ambulance, expresso instead of espresso, and (although it may get me in hot water) axed instead of asked. He also added could care less (because of its misuse).

@cordym would like let's touch base banned. I was probably particularly guilty of using phrases like this over the past year at the board office just because everyone else did. Don't even get me started on the edujargon that spouted from my mouth.

and my friend and font guru @muckapedia would like these banned: metrics, leverage (the dubious verb), and crutches in terms of, as per & worst case scenario. I would like to heartily endorse the banning of in terms of. I worked with a lovely colleague who used that phrase so frequently, I started counting in one meeting and then stopped when I ran out of fingers (because math is not my strong suit).

So there they are folks. These words and phrases are hereby banned. Use them at your peril!!!!

(After reviewing this post I think I should ban the excessive use of parentheses and exclamation marks!!!!! !)

After 11km it's all poop under the bridge

I decided it was time to push a little further than my habitual 5km. There was a time when I usually did a 10km run at least once a week and it was no big deal, but, well, there was also a time when I listened to New Kids on the Block.

Anyway, so I was feeling pretty strong today and I decided to try for 10km. I actually ended up going a little farther than 10km, probably 10.7 km but I'm going to round up to 11 ok?

Here are some of the things I experienced on this run:
4 shady under-the-bridge-dwelling gentleman
3 piles of excrement (1 that was almost definitely human)
2 unleashed dogs
1 unleashed smoking pregnant teenager
5 chipper runners (two of whom waved cheerfully whilst passing me, two of whom were elderly men who were thankfully running in the opposite direction and saved me the humiliation of being passed)
1 hippy mom on a bike with a baby trailer who nearly took me out because she seemed to forget that the baby trailer was much wider than her bike.
1 wasp sting.

Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful run. I should mention that one of the older runners was Steve, a former colleague of my husbands. I believe I've written about his deceptive running style before. He's got that shuffling little gait that looks slow until he whizzes by you leaving you stunned and confused.

On the topic of unleashed dogs: I HATE unleashed dogs. Not so much the dogs as the owners I guess. Yes, I'm sure your dog is friendly and would never bite anyone, but that's the same thing the owner of the last dog who bit me said. Your dog's right to run free as the wind should not supersede my right to run through the park without fear, especially when you don't actually have the right to let your dog off-leash since there's a bylaw about that. Take your dog to the dog park. I was about to unleash (pun completely intended) some righteous indignation on one of these dog-owners until I realized I actually knew him--and so I wussed out.

On the topic of smoking pregnant teenagers: It's bad enough to be running and taking in huge gulps of air and have some of those gulps tainted by nicotine and arsenic (the pot smoke just gives me the munchies), but when you see that it's coming from a pregnant woman it's also infuriating. I know. I know. It's none of my business, you say. But to you I say "HA!" It is SO my business because I'm a teacher. I could end up teaching your cognitively delayed child. Also it's just so tacky.

I think that's about all I have to add. I really don't think I need to comment on the human poop under the bridge.

Hello blog! Missed me?

I've been blogging pretty regularly on my teaching blog, but I have to admit I kind of forgot about this one and then some lovely person commented on my love-hate relationship with running. Thank you, person!

I had a really challenging year and I'm hoping this year will be better (since I'm a teacher, my year runs September to September). I'm making a fresh start at a new school and I really feel like this is going to be a turning point in my life. I'm thirty now, and I want to be a hip, confident, healthy thirty-something--with good shoes (husband bought me a really cute pair today. I love that he doesn't begrudge me cute shoes or Lululemon hoodies).

So I did a body pump class today at Goodlife with my pioneer babe friend Andrea, and her sister Lisa. It was a pretty good class except for the evil planks we had to do. Maybe a little hot yoga tomorrow? We'll see. Until then feel free to ogle my cute shoes.