Tuesday 27 May 2008

Running: It's only a matter of time.

Posted by speedygeoff on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 with
After an excellent weekend of running by the speedygeese, including starting serious track races over short distances off season, it was time to get stuck into some more focused training last night (I have already totalled 29k in the first two days of this week! Some silly runner will probably tell me that's "wrong" but I always ignore him). We had at Parliament House Alan, Amanda, Emma, Ewen, Geoff B, Helen, Katie, Ken, Margaret, Maria, Mick C, Miranda, Neil, Rae and Ruth doing 12 x 1 minute on, one minute off, while I took Christine G and Jill aside and ran them through some drills. What a great evening; lightning flashed for five hours into the night, and while I was at a meeting in Dunlop later that night we had 15mm of rain including hail at Holt. This morning I ran in mild to warm conditions listening to the "Narrow Stairs" album on my MP3 player with my new (birthday present) Bose in ear headphones and wearing my new (birthday present) Nike fit-dry long sleeve top and of course my Nike Frees. The album entered the Australian Aria charts this week at number six: good, I didn't know if Death Cab for Cutie had an Australian following, now I know they do. And having played the tracks through three times on this run, they are really growing on me! "No sunlight no sunlight! They disappeared at the same speed, the idealistic things I believed, the optimist inside of me...!" Great album all the way through. If pessimistic, or ultra-ironic, but I always know how to counter that (by at worst listening to Hillsong United albums the next day!!).

If my talking bird knew more words I'd say more. (In-joke for anyone having heard "Narrow Stairs")

I make no apologies for always talking about music on a running blog, because to me they go together. However there is someone who shakes his head and says to me "Why do want that music in your ear? Take it out and turn it off an enjoy the scenery". I take no notice of him either. Because I enjoy the run and the scenery and the music and the company and everything, all together.

For me it's often never either-or. It's usually both-and. So there.

And this morning I was drinking champagne from a paper cup. And everything was alright.

CJ


Some of the best, indeed the very best runners in the world, race with great music in their head