Feel the music

As race day approaches, I find myself thinking more and more about the race. I check the weather often. I go to various online calculators to play with pacing and result scenarios. I think about music choices, clothes and how badly 30km is going to suck at 28km and how great it will feel at 30km. This will be farthest I've ever run - I'm nervous and excited and I still have six days to think about it. I think this is the mental preparation, getting myself ready to run.

The weather looks a little scary. Calling for a high of zero, which means at 9:30 a.m. it could be much chillier. They are calling for sun, however, and calm winds - which is so very important - so I'm OK if it stays as it is. This is Canada, of course, at it could change substantially by race day.

I was talking to Spec reporter Nicole MacIntyre today - author of the far more popular Hall Marks blog -
about running and music. Nicole is just getting into running and has been using a treadmill at home and giant TV as distraction. I mentioned that carrying a large HDTV while running outside might prove difficult and we talked about good tunes to listen to while running.

I have three basic playlists on my MP3 player. The first is called the Old School Mix because it features, well, some older tunes. It is as follows:

Will You Be My Girl?, Jet       
Cowboy, Kid Rock       
Night of the Living Baseheads. Public Enemy
The Mary Ellen Carter, Stan Rogers   
Watch This, Swollen Members   
Yeah, Usher Feat. Lil' Jon and Ludacris   
Seven Nation Army, The White Stripes   
Black Math, The White Stripes   
Beastie Boys, Intergalactic (Prisoners Of Technology Remix)   
Eminem, The Real Slim Shady   
Mari Mac, Great Big Sea             
Barret's Privateers, Stan Rogers       
Holla Back Girl, Gwen Stefani

It's a pretty eclectic mix of favourite tunes but because I've heard them all a million times, this list doesn't give me a huge boost.

My New School Mix, however, lights a fire.

The Way I Are, Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson   
Crank That (Soulja Boy), Soulja Boy Tell'em   
Stronger, Kanye West   
Walk It Out, Unk   
SexyBack, Justin Timberlake
LoveStoned, Justin Timberlake   
The Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani Ft. Akon   
Makes Me Wonder, Maroon5   
Give It To Me, Timbaland ft. Nelly Furtado & Justin   
Whine Up, Kat Deluna ft. Elephant Man   
Break It Off, Rihanna & Sean Paul
Gimme More, Britney Spears   
Hot As Ice, Britney Spears
Doomsday Clock, Smashing Pumpkins
7 Shades Of Black, Smashing Pumpkins

Those lost two Smashing Pumpkins tunes, from their most recent album that nobody seems to have listened to, are great for those times when you need an all out effort.

But so much of distance running is about finding a consistent pace and sticking with it, I find that I can get too worked up if I listen to regular tunes. But I found this great site called Podrunner that puts out a free workout mix every week. They are an hour long and set to specific bpm - beats per minute having a different meaning in this case - and they are great for just getting in that groove and zoning out. I've been using dj steveboy's mixes for more than a year and I have some personal faves that will be loaded up this Sunday.