Wanted: Mile-Eating Songs

My run this morning was great. Over 4 miles in record time, including a new personal best for the mile. It was a run where everything just came together. Great weather, scenery, music, and energy.

Instead of running my usual loop around my neighborhood I went up to campus. Running past the George Bush Presidential Library, Kyle Field, and Sully (basically past all the nice campus spots they show on tv when the Ags play football) was beautiful. Watching the students walk to class and realizing I didn't have to be in the office at 8 made the run even better.

I think the biggest factor this morning though was the music. I finally took the three minutes necessary to make a custom play list for my iPod. I've been running by just listening to an entire album at a time, or to a running podcast. While I like AC/DC probably more than I should, they don't maintain the right energy level across an album. My running podcasts are great, but they use free music and therefore don't have any of the great songs I've gotten pumped up to throughout high school and college. I threw together a play list on Monday night and realized that, 1) I don't have a lot of good workout music, and 2) the stuff I do have is from a small handful of groups. I'll be tired of this play list by next week. Also, the list is dominated by "power songs" that get me pumped up and running faster. I need a kick in the butt several times during a run, but I also need a couple of steady upbeat songs that will let me cover some ground before the next kick comes along.

This is where I need your help. What are some of the great songs I'm missing? The complete set of what I'm missing is enormous, so just your top five would be great. My list from the run this morning is below. Songs with an asterisk are my butt kicking songs.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Comments on my lame musical tastes will be less well received.

AC/DC - Hells Bells*
Guns 'n' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle*
Zombie Nation - KernKraft 400
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Guns 'n' Roses - Sweet Child o' Mine
John Cougar Mellancamp - Hurt So Good
AC/DC - Back in Black*
John Cougar Mellancamp - Authority Song
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train*
Rush - Tom Sawyer
Beastie Boys - Sabotage

I'm not dead yet -- 4 more weeks of training to go

No, I haven't found myself under the wheels of a bus on campus. My iPod continues to get regular use, but I have this crazy habit of looking around that lets me avoid cars, cyclists, and oblivious walkers around campus.

I am in love with my nano. I've purchased the Nike+iPod Sport kit. After velcroing the sensor to my shoe -- because I'm not about to pay what Nike thinks I should for a pair of shoes with a conveniently shaped hole in them -- this gadget allows me to track my progress on runs. It tracks my distance, time, pace, and calories burned. Nothing revolutionary with that, but the ease of using it and the pretty pictures it generates make it great. It is in short a neat little piece of technology that make the nerd in me want to go out and run, and motivation to run is something I am always looking for.

I'm training for my second Tri-O de Mayo Triathlon. Last year I participated in a program in the A&M Rec Sports department. This year I'm back for more of that as well, and am getting my money's worth. The coaches this year are both experienced triathletes and have each put together workouts over the past month that have earned the the title of "Evil Coach of the Day". For example, last year the longest bike ride I did was to ride the race course two weeks before the race. This year the cycling/running coach, a.k.a. Most Evil Coach, has put together a 17 mile bike ride on Sunday afternoons since week 1. They haven't killed me yet, though there have been a couple of workouts that made me wish I was dead. With less than a month to go I'm in a good position to achieve my goal of completing the race in 1:25:00... a 20% improvement over last year's time if I pull it off.

Time to refill the water jug and enjoy the cool before today's ride starts.

Irony now available from iTunes

This weekend I was finally run down by the sleek and sexy machine that is Apple. I now own a nano. I've been looking at these for a while now, with a mostly jealous eye as my officemate taunted me with his. He enjoyed mocking the brick that I used as my main mp3 player. At about 8 times the size and 20 times the weight it was an easy and ugly target. Still, it did its job and will continue to be used at home, I just won't lug it around everywhere now.

This morning as I left the house I was careful to set the volume so that I could still hear the birds. I didn't want to be one of those annoyingly oblivious individuals that I consigned to early deaths as part of natural selection in my post less than two weeks ago. As I walked up to the Rec center I realized with a cringe that my effort had been to no avail. I almost walked right past my friends Nathan and Shawna. They had seen me coming and were waiting in front of the Rec. Nathan and even tried to greet me, shouting "Tim Smith!" as I approached. I however, had been sucked into my personal bubble and was bouncing along my way.

Someone run me over with a bus already.

Popping the personal bubble

The Washinton Post has an article about proposed legislation in New York that would ban pedestrians from using electronic devices while crossing the street. Chatting on the cell phone or dancing along with your iPod would earn you a $100 fine.

I'm all for folks getting off the phone and making eye contact on the sidewalk once again. Cell phones and music players have killed a large part of the friendly spirit on the A&M campus. Long gone are the days where "Howdy" was an oft heard phrase as you crossed campus. However, I'm more in favor of letting natural selection handle the problem instead of introducing legislation to get people to pay attention.