Mom, music, and miles

My mom is the coolest 60-something woman I know. And I’m not just saying this because I’m her daughter and Mothers Day was last Sunday (although those are happy coincidences)! She does all the regular mom stuff pretty well – you know, being there when I need her, listening, giving great hugs, all that. But then there’s her cool side.

My mom loves to go to rock concerts. Most recently, she saw Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen with my sisters and my aunt. Over the years, she and I have gone to Bush, Creed, Pearl Jam, and Tom Petty shows. She has tickets to U2 in October! This is just a small representative sample of her concert resume.

What brings me to talk about this is that I’m thinking of taking her to yet another concert for her birthday in July. Aerosmith and ZZ Top are coming July 9th, and I heard today that lawn tickets are just $10 if you buy them this Saturday. It’s like the gift fairies heard me lamenting how difficult it is to pick something out for her (and also how tight money is right now…) and bestowed upon me some of their magic. I love it when they do that!

ZZ Top is the soundtrack to all the road trips we took when I was a little kid. It was one of a handful of cassette tapes we always had in our car. Just imagine three little girls sitting in the backseat, happily singing along to ‘Legs’ and ‘Sharp Dressed Man’. Ahhh the wholesome memories…

But don’t worry – we also had the John Denver & the Muppets ‘Rocky Mountain Holiday’ cassette. If you’ve never heard John Denver and Miss Piggy sing a duet of ‘Happy Trails’, you’re really missing out...

***

My running has been going pretty well lately, overall. Last week I completed three runs (13 miles):

3 miles on Wednesday (10:56 pace)
4 miles on Friday (10:32 pace)
6 miles on Saturday (10:59 pace)

Wednesday’s 3-miler was done on the treadmill, where my pace continues to lag behind that of my outdoor runs. (This seems to defy logic. Does anyone else find it hard to push the pace on the TM?) I strained my right hamstring slightly and have been trying to baby it over the past week with ice and some additional stretching. I’m liking the TM less and less…

My 6-miler on Saturday was not the greatest. I tried to monitor my pace and keep it around the 11-minute mark and did pretty well with that. But halfway through the run I started taking walk breaks and kind of fell apart from mile 4.5 to 5.5. I think it was mostly mental, but it was hotter than it has been (about 75 degrees and super humid). Plus I had eaten a lot of BBQ the night before – probably not the best pre-run fuel. I figure I was due for a bad run anyway, so I’m glad to have it out of my system!

This week I’m on track to run four times for about 15 miles. I ran 2.6 miles on the TM yesterday (11:22 pace), and today I did the 4-mile neighborhood loop I call the Big Block (10:26 pace). Both runs were uneventful, and I finished them feeling strong. Tomorrow I’m planning on about 3.5 miles around the neighborhood, and Saturday I’ll repeat the 6-miler on the greenway, hopefully with more success this time!

On my mind lately is speed work. I think it’s too early for it, as I’ve only been running consistently for about 2 months now, but I’m wondering if it might boost my fitness faster to start incorporating some brief accelerations in some of my shorter runs. Nothing too speedy, just enough to get me a little bit out of breath. Maybe hills are the better answer, for now…?