Tag: music

Categories
fitness

C25K: Week two, day one

Distance: 2.4 miles
Calories burned: 250

I’m estimating above because I fell behind a bit and couldn’t keep two sets of numbers in my head. But that’s more or less right, and I know that because it’s more or less the same as I clocked at the end of week one. I was a little bummed about that, because this week has us running a bit more, a bit longer. We’re also resting a bit longer, so maybe it evens out. I have a theory, though, that most of the distance and calories are covered by the “briskness” of your walking pace, rather than by your jogging pace. My walking pace was slightly less brisk, this week, so that may be impacting my numbers somewhat.

And you know, in the end I don’t really care – I’m only really tracking the numbers because I like metrics and it’s interesting, not because I feel slavishly invested in their improvement or what they say about my performance.

Still sticking it out with Suz’s hip-hop mixes. I notice that in later weeks she deviates from the hip-hop. I’m not sure how well that’s going to work out for me (I like those big, bassy beats), but I’ll try and keep an open mind for now. My electroswing mix is still in-production (meaning I haven’t gotten started on it yet), so I’ll have to make-do one way or another.

Categories
fitness

C25K: Week one, day three

Distance: 2.22 miles
Calories burned: 233

I’m totally cheating and posting this with a backdate, mainly to keep an accurate log.

This was another treadmill run, mid-day, and man was it hot. I gotta get my butt in gear in the mornings, if only so I can run in cooler temperatures.

Podcast-wise, I stuck with Suz’s week one hip-hop mix; her voice still irks me but it’s good running music and keeps my feet moving, and that’s what really matters.

Categories
fitness

C25K: Week one, day two

Running or ...Distance: 2.03 miles
Calories burned: 210

The difficult part is definitely getting out there and getting started. Getting up in the morning isn’t so bad, though sometimes it’s right away and sometimes it’s ten minutes after my alarm has gone off. Today it was the latter.

The treadmill seems rinky-dinky, and too narrow, and makes me feel a bit unbalanced. When I think about running outside, though, I miss the fact that the treadmill tracks time, distance, and calories burned (or it’s approximation of calories burned, at least). Maybe I should get some sort of running device that would do the same thing. A watch, perhaps, or an app.

I mixed it up today as far as podcasts go, and tried the Running Into Shape program with Carli. On the one hand, Carli’s voice is less irritating first thing in the morning; on the other hand, while some of her song choices were spot on, others were really horrid. I’d still like to make my own electroswing C25K podcasts, but it seems like all my free time lately has gone into setting-up / fixing various bits of technology around the home, so I haven’t had time. Maybe I can get in gear for next week.

In the meantime, both podcasts had this song, which I enjoyed running to: evidently it’s a C25K week one running staple. Enjoy!

Categories
fitness

C25K: Week one, day one

La Pyramide du LouvreDistance: 1.93 miles
Calories Burned: 203

Notes: I actually ran this once last week, but didn’t get my three runs in like I wanted to, so I thought I’d give it another shot this week from the beginning. Getting out of bed is definitely the hard part, since I have to be up and going at 4:30am if I want to get my run in, shower, and get dressed in time for Abby to do the same.

Week one of the C25K program is pretty straightforward. You start with a 5-minute walk, then alternate 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for about 20 minutes, then end with another 5-minute walk. I’m doing this on the treadmill in our garage, which is a bit strange, but feels like a nice way to start and has the added benefit of tracking mileage and calories burned.

C25K started with these guys at Cool Running. There are a number of good podcasts out there for the program that include music and cues for when to run / walk. This week I’m trying out Suz’s Couch to 5k Running Podcasts.

Categories
humor libraries music

Hey Mr. Library Man

This has been hiding out on Ning for long enough, thought I’d share.


Find more videos like this on Library 2.0

Categories
cinema music

Movies with great songs

a girl plays guitar on a dock on the puget sound

If you haven’t seen them yet, you really, really, really need to go out and watch these two movies.

Once is a story of music in Dublin, of love, and of chasing your dreams. And it’s completely, madly, absolutely brilliant.

Juno is, of course, the story of a young girl who gets pregnant, decides to keep her baby, and has some insightful, clever, endearing moments along the way.

They’re the two best movies I’ve seen in months, and they both have fantastic music in them. To further entice you:

Glen Hansard – Once Soundtrack – 01 – Falling Slowly
[audio:https://www.ahniwa.com/blog/uploads/01 Falling Slowly.mp3]

I need to learn how to play that.

Categories
music personal

And I’m so lonesome now …

I was a high school drama geek and it changed my life. Before drama I was quiet, shy — painfully shy — and had no luck with the ladies. Somehow, being involved in acting changed all that, and as I became more confident and sure of myself, life in general got a whole lot better. It’s funny how that works.

The only really sad part about this story is that I never learned how to act. Despite the many things I gained from being in drama, I really don’t think acting ability was one of them, and I feel like a lot of this has to do with our drama teacher, who we (dis)affectionately referred to as “The Beast.” I’m not sure why, except the fact that she was rather beastly. In her theater, acting ability was always secondary to being able to project and to knowing your lines. Which is fine, sure. Those are good skills. But for those of us who had a talent for remembering lines, and had learned how to project, her lessons were wasteful and superfluous. And we never learned any, you know, acting skills.

All of this just to get to the point that the only good thing I ever learned from the beast, really, is that no matter how you feel your performance will turn out; indeed, even if you know that your performance is going to suck, a lot, you should never start apologizing before you’ve even begun. Never tell people you’re going to suck. Let them figure it out, and who knows, maybe they’ll like you anyway. Somehow. Maybe you don’t suck as much as you thought you sucked. Who knows.

So I won’t say that the song I’ve linked below here sucks. Because it doesn’t. I will say that I’m not the greatest singer, but I hit a great Jack White note in there somewhere, and I can learn to be satisfied with that.

Ahniwa Ferrari — I’m so lonesome now
[audio:https://www.ahniwa.com/blog/uploads/im-so-lonesome-now.mp3]