Amazing Running Website!!

I just found this on Pinterest and can't wait to play around with it more.

http://jog.fm/

You put in your pace, and it tells you songs that match it.

I'm not sure how accurate it is; I looked up "North Side Gal" (which is on my running playlist) and it said 8:00, and I'm obviously nowhere near that. And for the pace I put in, it recommended "Tongue Tied," which is one of my favorite hiking songs, but too slow for running.

But whatever- it looks awesome. It has tons of music ideas from all genres. My running playlist was getting a little stale, so this is just what I needed!

Soldier Field 10 Mile

Last week, my friend told me that she is doing the Soldier Field 10 Mile. I had completely forgotten about this race until she mentioned it. Last year, one of my coworkers was training for this race, and I just remember being awed by our conversations about his training. Honestly, I never even had thoughts like, "I wish I could do that," because running was never even a possibility to me. I just thought that what he was doing was so cool.

Well, here we are, a year later, and everything has changed. And my friend mentioned this race, and it actually IS a possibility. Yesterday I ran 6 miles pretty easily, and I still have four weeks till the race. I can totally do this. So I signed up this morning.

Now that I'm back up to decent mileage, I was feeling kind of directionless. This gives me structure and a goal.

I also think it will be a nice way to end my time in Chicago- on the 50-yard line of Soldier Field.

I can't wait!

A Good Week

I just realized the last time I blogged was about 6 pack abs... Of course, I do not have a 6 pack. However, I only stuck it out for three weeks... Who knows, maybe if I'd finished up the last week, I'd have a perfect 6 pack? I somehow doubt it. I was actually thinking of taking a picture of my stomach next to the cute little 6 pack calendar to submit to the Pinterest Fail blog...

I finally had a good running week. I ran 2 miles on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I did a 5 mile hike at the dunes yesterday, so I felt good about that, too. For the first few days, 2 miles was a struggle. I was frustrated and embarrassed about this, but I knew my body would tell me when I was ready for more. On Friday's run, I had enough energy left to run as fast as I could for the last .25 mile. And today, when I hit 2 miles, I felt like I was just getting into my groove and added an extra half mile. So this week I'll up it to 3 miles each day. It's hard because I'm really struggling with motivation. Still. I'm just kind of bored.

It definitely helps that the weather is perfect for running. I love seeing people out on their bikes and the playground filled with kids. Only problem is that I can't yell out, "But a bitch ain't one!" with all these people around.

Final thought: is it bad that I felt good about myself for passing up a man in a motorized wheelchair today? To be fair, he was going pretty fast...