5K Playlist and Race Pump Up Playlist

Gooood morning!

I'm flying to Chicago today to spend four days with my Uncle John and his family, and to celebrate my birthday a couple days early with the bff, Katie. Her birthday is only three days after mine (13th for me, 16th for her). Clearly we were meant to be friends! I haven't seen my Chicago relatives in two years, so it'll be wonderful to catch up.

My 5K Playlist!

Confession: I still haven't taken my blue ribbon out of my purse. I stashed it there after the Northwest Raspberry Festival 5K, and I don't have a place to put it in my apartment, so it's still sitting in my purse. It's in the pocket where I keep my phone, and it makes me smile every time I see it. 

Part of the reason I had such a great race a few weeks ago was definitely my mental game. I felt more mentally strong than I have in a long time. There was no, "why am I here, this hurts, wahh." It was all "yes, you've got this, you are rocking this." It was honestly kind of embarrassing, but hey, whatever works!

Another reason I felt great? I warmed up before the race while listening to my new favorite pre-hard workout playlist. It's a Fort Minor song and two Eminem songs, and the playlist leaves me SO ready to race and kick ass. 

For the 5K, I put together a playlist full of fast-paced, fun music. And guess what? It's approximately 25 minutes and my goal was to finish in less than that. I made the playlist specifically with the idea that it shouldn't end before I finished the race. Mission accomplished! :)

The Usher vs Nirvana mash-up is awesome -- I found it here, although unfortunately I don't think it's available for download anymore.

Do you use music to pump yourself up before a race or tough workout? What are your favorite fast songs?

Marathon Training Motivation Playlist

Do you guys know what next week is? It's the start of marathon training for me! Yes, after announcing that I am running the Chicago Marathon way back in February when I had to register, I am finally starting marathon training.

I am so excited to push my limits and see what I can do! Once I hit long runs above 13.1 miles, for the first time since August and September 2012, I will be going the farthest I've ever gone on each long run. It's both scary and exhilarating.

I am also really eager to start fundraising for the Lurie Children's Hospital. I wrote about why I'm fundraising when I registered -- this place has treated my best friend, Katie, for her cancer continuously over the past 10 years and everything I've ever heard about them from her has been incredible. I cannot think of a more deserving Chicago institution to run for than the Lurie Children's Hospital. I hope you'll join me in supporting them!


Now, since I am both excited and freaked out at the distances I'll be running, I put together a motivational playlist over the weekend. A "move yo' ass" playlist, if you will. I used it while running on Sunday and loved it. Since it's the start of fall marathon training season, I thought I'd share it!

What's your favorite motivational running song?

NYC Half 2013 Playlist

Thank you all SO much for your amazing comments yesterday. I was really content with the outcome of Sunday's race, especially as I thought about the fact that I get to always have a 2:00:00 half marathon in my race history. Reading your sweet and thoughtful comments made me feel even happier about it!

I wanted to share my playlist that I used while I was running on the West Side Highway. I actually went music-less through Central Park and down Seventh Avenue through Times Square because I wanted to save music for the rough times.

Thank goodness because, like I said, the West Side Highway was really rough for me because my body started giving out at that point. My pinkeye has come back, just in the other eye, making me think that my body was still fighting this virus all weekend and I was just in a lull. That would explain why I was so fatigued!

This playlist was pretty awesome. It kept me going through some pretty shitty miles. It's a big mix, as you can see -- from Kelly Clarkson to The Lonely Island to The Heavy to M.I.A.

What's your go-to pump-up song right now? Has a playlist helped you through rough times in a race before?

Liebster Award - My Answers!

Captain's Log, day three of calf injury (Star Trek joke, anyone?). I'm feeling much less pain and tightness after two days of light movement to keep it limber, so I'm considering trying for some light cycling or elliptical today and some yoga. I'm going to reassess my training plan for the rest of the week after seeing how I feel.

Since I have no fun training updates, I thought I'd post my answers to the questions I sent to the bloggers I gave the Liebster Award two weeks ago.

I loved the responses of the other bloggers and I had a lot of fun picking out these questions, so I wanted to answer them as well because I can't let others have all the fun themselves.


1. Hugh Grant or Colin Firth?

(source)

This is a debate I've had with Sourabh. After watching Bridget Jones's Diary, he thinks Hugh Grant is a more fun choice. I think he's crazy and that Colin Firth is clearly the proper choice here. Who wants gross, messy Hugh Grant?? Plus, um, Pride and Prejudice anyone?

2. What chore do you hate doing the most? 
This is a toss-up. I HATE mopping/sweeping/vacuuming; anything to do with floors. I used to try to pay my sister to vacuum the stairs (my chore) but she often wouldn't go for it because she said it was my chore and I had to learn good character or something. I'm still bitter.

When I'm visiting my parents I don't mind doing laundry because it's in our house, but in NYC, I have to go down to the basement level to do laundry and it's such a pain, so I put it off forever and end up with giant loads that are even more of a pain. And since Sourabh typically does the floors and I do laundry, I guess I'll say I hate laundry the most.

3. What’s the #1 most played song on your iPod? 
Oh my God, this is going to be embarrassing, isn't it. Checking ... well the #1 isn't that embarrassing,  but I should be honest that the next three are. (1) "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence And The Machine, (2) "Firework" by Katy Perry -- I seriously love that song way too much, and the part of the video where her boobs become fireworks? I die. (3) "F**k You" by Cee Lo Green -- unedited, just to be clear, (4) "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen -- told you this was embarrassing, (5) "Chammak Challo" by Akon -- this is a song Akon did for a Bollywood movie and it's pretty awesome. As is the music video.

4. What is your least favorite way to travel?
THE BUS. I HATE THE BUS SO MUCH. IT IS ALWAYS HORRIBLE. I get motion sickness, people are always weird, and in undergrad I had to take the bus 3 hours to get to the airport so I had way too many long, queasy bus rides every year. The bus will never not be my answer to this question.

5. If you had to change your first name, what would you change it to and why?
I picked this one because I thought it was such a tough question, but kind of cool, too. I think I'd change my name to something a bit less generic. Not my parents' fault, but there are a lot of Jennifers in my generation (although I do like that it's derived from Guinevere). I think it'd have to be a classic name, just because I'm not a trendy person... so maybe something like Katherine or Jessica or Laura?

6. What would the theme song to your life be?
Probably Coldplay's "Viva La Vida." I love that song so much and never get sick of listening to it. But for the badass moments, it would definitely be this fantastic mix: Jay Z vs The Verve.

7. What is the best meal you’ve ever had?
I've had some pretty amazing meals in my life, so this one is crazy hard to choose. One of my favorites was an Ethiopian dinner Sourabh and I had at Kokob, a really well reviewed restaurant in Brussels, Belgium.

Brussels, right around the corner from Kokob

I'd never had Ethiopian food before and loved it. You eat family style, so there's a giant platter with tons of different curries and things on it. It was my favorite meal of our trip to Europe.

8. What is your favorite strength-training exercise, stretch, or yoga pose?
Can I say corpse pose?

Just kidding (kind of). I love crow pose. For years I couldn't do it, and basically just gave up immediately when it was called out in classes, but then after strength training for a while I got up the courage to try it again and, lo and behold, I could balance on my arms! I still get happy whenever I get up into crow pose in yoga classes.

9. What is the best gift you’ve ever given/received?
For Christmas two years ago, I put together a photo book for my mom of our family. I spent a lot of time picking out the pictures (with some help from my sister), coming up with captions, and getting it all together. Then I also put together a photo book for my dad of his best pictures from my parents' 40th anniversary trip to a town in Mexico.

10. What was the last book, movie, TV show, commercial (ain’t no shame!), or song that made you cry?

(source)

I teared up multiple times at Beasts of the Southern Wild. It's a really beautiful, melancholy film and I highly recommend it. The father and daughter dynamic is heartbreaking but so well-done.

11. Who is your favorite fictional character?
 I have a lot of loved fictional characters: Ender from Ender's Game, Sara Crewe from A Little Princess, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, Katniss from The Hunger Games.

(source)

But I think my favorite fictional character has to be Princess Leia from Star Wars. This is super weird, but growing up she was my role model; when I had to get my ears pierced or get a shot, my parents would say, "what would Princess Leia do?" since that made me want to be brave, like her. The character is so sarcastic and she ends up with the best hero ever, Han Solo. She saves him, he saves her... yup, got to be my favorite.

Join in! Answer any or all of these questions that you'd like to, I think it's so much fun to see people's answers.

Rock-Hard Tunes

I am loving my current strength training playlist! It's pretty heavy on the Jay-Z and Kanye West... my running playlist is way more Kelly Clarkson and pop/club-heavy. I think Jay and Kanye are great for pumping you up for repetitive strength exercises and keeping you going through the cardio intervals.

Any strength training playlist suggestions??