Eye of the Tiger, Man.

This song reminds me of grocery shopping in my old neighborhood in Seattle. It would always play in the QFC by my house, and it was so hilariously overexuberant for a simple grocery trip. I wanted some boxing gloves and fancy footwork, punching out the rows of Hamburger Helper and dancing around the tumbling displays of apples. But more importantly, I think it is the absolute best motivational song for working out.

It was my birthday on Saturday, and through the generosity and support of my family I was able to afford two very important components that contribute to my new goal (which I will get into in a minute)... new running shoes and an MP3 player. I have been complaining about my shoes since Day 1. You all know this. NO MORE! I got some sweet Saucony shoes that feel like clouds and help me push off with each new step. I'm breaking in both of these beauties today... although I have not yet downloaded Eye of the Tiger to aid me.

The aforementioned goal relates to how I'm graduating in less than two months and have no goals. "Pursue internships and jobs" is pretty much what I'm telling people. Which means, "I am scared shitless of the real world; these seem like good ideas." So since I don't want to face the job market and the student loan payments in my future I decided to settle on personal goals. You know, those friendly, unintimidating things that make you feel good about yourself. And it was about time I set a running goal, since I've been aimlessly wandering and not progressing. I have been running in my absence from this blog, but I haven't progressed. That is, until Tuesday.

My wonderful new roommate Danny is like my much more pleasant and infinitely more attractive Mickey, the gruff New York attitude trainer from the Rocky films. With his company and motivation we accomplished a nearly five mile run on Tuesday (about three times longer than I've been running lately and almost twice my longest run... how embarrassing). We stopped a third of the way through to check out Fairhaven Runners, where I got my shoes yesterday. (We also checked out the hot sales guy.) My legs and hips have been paying for that run ever since, especially because I was in my old shoes, but I was so amazed that I actually went that far. Danny is training for an 8 mile downhill run on Memorial Day weekend, so at least once a week we'll be running together. That way, if I wuss out running on my own, I'll have to make up for it when we work out together...

So, I'm back, aaand hopefully here I will remain, because of my goal: work my way up to a marathon. I don't have a goal date set for this, because I don't know anything realistically about pacing myself. But if I am capable of doing a five mile run now--which is only 1.2 miles away from a freaking 10K--I don't think this goal is impossible. I'm on my way.

"You can't outrun your way of thinking."

Well, I was listening to Fugazi's 13 Songs album while running today. The song "And the Same" has a line that goes "This is a bullet you can't outrun.../Your way of thinking..." Or that's how the lyrics seem to be written. But I always do this thing in my head with lyrics where I try to match up which clauses are really supposed to go together. Because you know how sometimes in a song, two lines will run together, and you just wonder which ones are supposed to go together and which ones are separate? Anyway, the intention seems to be "this is a bullet you can't outrun," but then what is "your way of thinking" just doing out there by itself? So I like to think it means both "This is a bullet you can't outrun" and "You can't outrun your way of thinking."

...Wow are you still here? I don't think I would have put up with nonsense writing like that myself. MY POINT is just that I like hearing lines about running while I'm running. Actually Fugazi has a song called "Long Distance Runner" too... haha!

Okay seriously though. I was just in the right kind of mood today I guess, because when I turned on 13 Songs I just started running and I tuned out of it listening to the music. I don't know how many laps I did. I think I came close to a mile without getting exhausted. I knowwww I was doing so much better before. Running indoors just seems more taxing. But hey, running is running. And progress will come. There's so much going on with work and school and friends that working out is becoming something I do just to stay active, and is getting less goal oriented. If I felt capable of taking on and sticking to a challenge, I probably would.

I feel sort of like this is a big blog about how I set goals and then revise them to fit my comfort level so that they're not too inconvenient. But hey, life is life. I'm still at it, at least. I know for sure that my improved circulation from running is keeping me MUCH warmer in the winter, even later that day or the next day. I used to always be cold. So see, there IS some improvement! I'm not dropping out.