music Archives - Preppy Runner - Theodora Blanchfield

Occasionally, I’ll get a question or a comment asking what sort of music I listen to when I’m running.

The answer is usually: nothing–I like the sound of my own crazy thoughts. I sit at a computer or have my iPhone attached to me all day, so I spend too much of the day indoors, attached to technology. I like to run outside with no music, because it’s the closest to a bit of (free) serenity that I’ll get in New York City.

But when I’m marathon training and have covered every inch of the West Side Highway and a lot of the East River path multiple times, sometimes I need some music to tune out the “this is so hard” and “I don’t want to do this” thoughts.

Especially when my plan calls for 9 miles, 5 of them at tempo pace.

That calls for some music.

But I hate making playlists, because I get sick of them so quickly, so I rely on the Genius function in iTunes to make me a playlist.

Last year, I was really into Chicken Fried, so I asked iTunes to base a playlist off of that.

Yes, there are at least three Christmas songs on this playlist.

Yes, I lip-synced most of these songs while I was running. It was like running karaoke.

And yes, I NAILED that tempo.

9 miles, 1 hour, 23 minutes.

Tempo miles: 8:28, 8:12, 8:27, 8:42, 8:25.

And no, I will probably never share one of my terrible playlists with you ever again.

Related to my love of Apple, I can’t wait for my new iPhone to come. Maybe I won’t run with it, and maybe the home button will actually work. My phone has been operating really slowly for at least the past year, so I will probably tackle the UPS man tomorrow for my new baby.

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How it made it from Korea to Louisville faster than from Louisville to New York, I’ll never know.

I’ve usually gotten the new iPhones as soon as they’ve come out (except the 3GS/4S because those were obviously just holdover models between major releases) because I’ve always been able to sell the old one on Craigslist and either break even or only come out having paid somewhere around $30-40.

One of my coworkers told me recently about Gazelle.com. They buy back your iPhone and send you money for it!

Well, okay!

There’s no fancy referral link up there, and Gazelle’s not paying me to say nice things.

This is just freaking awesome, is all.

So: music or no music while running? And did you order the new iPhone?

Tonight, after work, I hit up a Barre Burn class at Equinox. (Read my experience the first time I went.) I’m pretty sure that after this weekend, I sweat out champagne and McDonald’s. Like a rockstar. The instructor is absolutely hilarious, and I got an intense ab workout just by giggling at him. He also had a kickass playlist, which included Pink’s F***-in Perfect. I don’t think I’d ever listened all that closely to the song, because I didn’t realize the real name until he said “I hope I have the right version and she’s not cursing like a truck driver.” So clearly, I had to come home and download the explicit version, because I’m from Jersey and I do curse like a truck driver every once in a while…

I came home to these two lovely boxes. Thank god.

I made a quick rice bowl with a turkey sausage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I sauteed the broccoli and Brussels in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar and then threw salsa over the whole thing while having a solo dance party at the stove to that Pink song. Nice, easy, healthy dinner.

I had a little of this ice cream. It sucked. False advertising. It was not decadent at all. They definitely did something to make up for the lack of dairy. Does anyone know of a dairy-free ice cream that doesn’t suck? (I’m trying to abstain from dairy for the good of my stomach…but it may not be worth it for crap ice cream like this!)