Sunday, November 28, 2010

Running and Christmas - Good or Bad Combo???

Well, Christmas season is here! Which is SUPER EXCITING! I love Christmas! Even more than I love fall and for anyone reading my blog, you will remember my initial fall excitement. I love Christmas because it's only a one month holiday/season so there's less of it than fall, so it's more exciting. I love decorating for it, listening to Christmas music, making seasonal food (can anyone say cider?), picking out presents for family and friends, and in my border town, I love the cooler weather. 

Now that my Christmas excitement is out, let's see where we left off. At this point, we still have no actual departure date from our Border Town.  The base network is currently down, which means anything on paper doesn't happen. We did get approved for permissive TDY, so this week we get to go look at houses and explore Corpus Christi. I am very excited. We will be trying a Chipotlesque restaurant called Freebird (sadly there is no Chipotle in Corpus Christi), having some Five Guys Burger and Fries, and trying out some seaside seafood. This all equals a big yum. What this yum means for me is that I have to get back on my Couch to 5k running plan. 

I totally slacked off and I am going to get back on the horse. So, I'm back tracking back to Week 6, which is the last week that has the run/walk runs. I'm going to do the 2nd run of Week 6 twice and then the 3rd run. That 3rd run will get me back into 2.25 mile straight runs. Then, hopefully I'll be back up and going. Today, I am signing up for my first 5k after starting the running plan. It is December 11th. I have two goals for this 5k. My first goal is to run the whole thing without any walking and my second goal is to finish in 45 minutes or less. I think I can do the first, the seond is anyone's guess. haha.

Since it is Christmas season, I thought my running needed some Christmas cheer, so I have created a Christmas Cheer Running Playlist. A listing of my songs was asked for, so I'm going to include it before I sign off!

Christmas Cheer Running Playlist

Carol of the Bells/Jingle Bells by Barry Manilow
All is Well by Point of Grace featuring Michael W. Smith
Another Christmas Song by Stephen Colbert (all the cynicism of the Colbert Report + Xmas Cheer)
Baby It's Cold Outside by Lady Antebellum
Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)  by Point of Grace
Dream a Dream by Charlotte Church
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Rascal Flatts
It Snowed by Meaghan Smith
Jingle Bells by Point of Grace
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow (2006 digital remaster) by Bing Crosby
Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Point of Grace
My Only Wish by Jessica Simpson
We Wish You a Merry Christmas by Weezer
Winter Wonderland by Point of Grace

A few notes on my playlist. 
#1 I have tons of Christmas music, most of which is very Bing Crosby style. This list is just the really up beat, good running beat stuff
#2 I listed this alphabetically because I put my iPod on shuffle and it is random. I do like to start with the Barry Manilow song because it has a nice build up for starting.
#3 I do not own a Jessica Simpson album, it was a free download on iTunes (just to clarify).
#4 The Weezer song is awesome for running!

Mack's Christmas stocking we bought. The bone flips over to say naughty. haha. Today he gets a nice because he ran with me.