I’m going to see Imagine Dragons in concert tonight! Greg got me tickets for Mother’s Day, and I’m beyond excited. They are one of my all time favorite bands, and I have fond memories of listening to many of their songs on specific runs. I listened to “Demons” running back to our hotel from Hell, Grand Cayman last year. “Time to Begin” is my favorite song to listen to before the starting line of any race. I first heard “I Bet My Life” in spin class when we lifted and sprinted for the chorus, and still associate positive energy and adrenaline with the start of the chorus each time I hear the song.
I love Imagine Dragons. When I hear their music, I feel. “Radioactive” makes me want to stand alone in a cave with my eyes closed and experience nothing but the sound. “Time to Begin” makes me want a stretch of open road in front of me, so I can push myself forward, over-emotional and teary eyed, thinking about how far I’ve come (from 0 to 13.1) but how I haven’t, in fact, changed – it was within me all along.
Greg joked after reading it that when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. He has a point, because I’m convinced that all Imagine Dragons songs are actually about running. (All of them.) Here are some of my favorite lyrics that I like to reframe and channel into my running.
Imagine Dragons, here I come!
The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell Right to the top Don’t look back
I’ve been around the world and never in my wildest dreams Would I come running home to you I’ve told a million lies but now I tell a single truth There’s you in everything I do
I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones Enough to make my system blow
So you gotta fire up, you gotta let go You’ll never be loved till you’ve made your own You gotta face up, you gotta get yours You never know the top till you get too low
I coulda gave up then but Then again I couldn’t have ’cause I’ve traveled all this way for something I take it in but don’t look down ‘Cause I’m on top of the world, ‘ay I’m on top of the world, ‘ay Waiting on this for a while now Paying my dues to the dirt
I put together a new playlist for high speed running. I tend to listen to whole albums or the occasional podcast or nothing when I’m on long runs, when I just need to keep moving. On shorter runs, a good playlist can mean the difference between straggling along and running your heart out.
Here’s my current run your heart out list.
What’s on yours? And no apologizing for liking what you like.
I went for an amazing night run Saturday night. I’ve never done much night running, but part of my new strategy from Jake is to make running fun and run when I feel like it. Last night, I felt like it. I hadn’t run the day before, and I really wanted to get out for a run but not at the expense of going to the Farmer’s Market as a family, or planting our Earthtainers in the afternoon. Greg was doing his own thing, so there was no reason for me to hang around once dinner was cleaned up and the kids were in bed. I grabbed an ipod loaded with my new running playlist and headed out for a few miles.
No sunglasses, sunscreen, or glare. Lighter traffic. A perfect 60 degrees. It’s beautiful and rebellious and fun to be out at night, high energy music propelling me forward through the cool night air.
Reflective Gear: If you’re going to do any early morning or late night running, I highly recommend getting a reflective vest. The one I use is actually Greg’s, but it adjusts to fit any size. It’s the amphipod relfective xinglet vest. For $30, we can now alter any running outfit to be extremely reflective. I have a headlamp also, and that’s great if I’m running anywhere without good street lighting. Last night, I was hitting some well-lit sidewalks so I skipped the lamp.
My cool new running look: “don’t hit me”.
Why no GPS: Part of my discussion with Jake at our first coaching session was whether I was using my Garmin as a useful training tool, or using it to make myself run differently than I really wanted to. I realized that I would run slower than I felt like running out of fear that I wouldn’t log a certain number of miles. I would run further than I wanted to one day out of obligation, then less (or not at all) on another day because I was conserving energy for a scheduled run the next day.
Jake suggested I stop doing all of this, at least while I’m just building up my running base prior to starting a 12 week training plan for my next half marathon in August. He suggested I run what and when I want to and enjoy myself. Sure, I should try to do hill sprints a couple days a week, run longer one day, and do some higher speed running, but I should think of those components as a guideline when I’ve got my shoes on and I’m deciding what to run. Follow my heart first, and a plan second.
How running with no GPS changes my running: I’ve found that without my GPS watch, I tend to run faster and require more brief walking breaks. I enjoy running Fartlek’s or just higher speeds, knowing I can slow down and even walk for a few minutes without feeling like I should stop my watch. I used to hate taking multiple walking breaks, not because I didn’t enjoy running fast and then recovering, but because I didn’t like seeing my “failures” recorded by my watch. No more. Now there’s no permanent record anywhere of how many speed bursts were followed by a quick break, or how long that stretch of steady running was in the middle. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except that I ran what I felt like running last night, and loved every second of it.
How far did I run? It was hard to let go of tracking my miles. I wondered, how far am I really running now when I’m gone for 35 minutes? 55? I’m not even sure how long I was gone last night, except that I got home later than I expected. It was an out and back run on a familiar route, and I know exactly where I turned around. I couldn’t help it – I decided to look up the distance this morning. I figured I’d run at least 3 miles, maybe 3.5.
I plugged in my turn around point and clicked “get directions”. 2.4 miles away.
I ran 4.8 miles last night and thought it was maybe 3 or 3.5. I can’t remember the last time I ran with my GPS watch and was surprised by how many miles I’d run. I’m always checking it, thinking about when I should turn around, can I run a little farther, well I don’t want to be tired tomorrow, blah blah blah. Last night, I just headed out and did what I felt like and it was longer than I thought by a decent percentage.
I’m not suggesting everyone should ditch their Garmin: To be clear, the non-GPS running strategy might not work for everyone, or all the time. A GPS watch is a great tool. It can help you hit your goal when you’re aiming for a set number of miles, pace you when you’re learning to run slower for a long run, and keep you focused if you’re a numbers person. It’s been an amazing tool on my running journey. I just got to a place where I was using the information to alter my running in a non-positive way, and I needed a break.
Find what motivates you, what makes you enjoy running the most, and you’ll run more.
Has anyone else taken a break from their GPS before? How long? Did you improve during that time?
There’s nothing like sitting down and reflecting on the difference between your training plan for your first and sixth half marathon to make you realize how far you’ve come. I was sitting in Jake’s office and Couch to 5k came up, and it brought me right back to the summer 3 years ago when I stepped outside determined to run for 60 seconds without stopping. A far cry from the hopeful runner who steps outside today thinking about shaving time off her half marathon pace by November.
I thought it’d be fun to look through my old race photos, to see snapshots of the transformation unfolding.
Here’s one photo from every race I’ve run from my first 5k in September of 2012 to my 5k PR on January 1st of 2015. (I didn’t get a photo at my most recent race.) Looking through, I see a beautiful combination of joy and effort, on a journey that hasn’t ended.
