Treadmills and Tunes

Last night my plans went awry once more. I went down into the cellar to walk on the treadmill, and watch "The Closer." Next time I see you, I promise to do my "Closer" impersonation. "Why, thank you! Thank you very much!" Anyway, I couldn't make the T.V. work, because the cable had to be reset. (I did not know this at the time, so I just turned the cable and t.v. on and off a few times, muttering obscenities and invoking various ancient deities. When that didn't work, I figured the whole thing was hopeless.) Left with just music to distract me, I had no choice but to actually run, not walk, so I did.

Let me tell you a little bit about my cellar. I have a good treadmill in the dry middle section of the cellar, right near the washer and dryer. (As soon as you hear "dry section" you realize that this ain't the Ritz.) We also have a pretty sweet gym set up in the third section. The only problem is that the first section of my cellar was built in about 1818 out of fieldstones. As a result, it is entirely porous. The puddles this engenders luckily stay in that section of the cellar. The snakes and mice do not.

Therefore, there is always one little part of you that wonders if you are going to see a mouse run by. This time of year you don't have to worry about the snakes, and I figure they eat the mice. Last night I did not see any critters, but for a while I wondered if my eyes were getting "floaters." On further investigation it was just hanging strands of spider webs.

My HUSBAND spends a lot of time in this ecosystem, and it is not unusual to hear him yelling down there. Sometimes he is lifting some heavy weights, sometimes he is trying to scare away mice.

I ran for two and half miles, as quickly as I could, which took a very long time (sadly, about a half an hour). I would start really cooking at about 6 mi/hour, and I'd think, "I am Jamie Summers, the Bionic Woman. Once I get my memory back, I am going to call my former fiancé, the Six Million Dollar Man, and he will say, 'My God, you are fast!'" When I lift weights I am Wonder Woman, a.k.a. Diana Prince, for obvious reasons (she can lift a CAR!), but for speed, I will always go with the Bionic Woman. She also liked to pump her elbows, like I do. After a very short time at this pace, I would feel like I was dying and have to downshift to 4 mi./hour. Then the song would change, and I would punch the "6" again.

Music plays a huge part of my running. My HUSBAND has made me some fantastic playlists. They are very balanced between the hard core rap/heavy metal that he loves and the effete dramatic stuff that he claims he puts on for me. (Just for the record, I admit that "Freedom" by George Michael is a great song to run to, but it certainly wasn't purchased for me.)

So what songs make you feel like the Bionic Woman/Six Million Dollar Man? Please comment and list two songs THAT YOU THINK NO ONE ELSE WILL SUBMIT. To MY MOTHER -- no Bruce Springsteen, I'm looking for stuff I don't have already. I'll assemble the list once enough people respond. If you are not "the music person" in your house, please have that cooler person email their suggestions to me.

I'm still at 130 lbs. today, so I tried to be good -- Chicken salad on lettuce for lunch, half a glass of milk for a snack, and two bowls of soup for supper. Tons of "Healthy Fasting" tea and water. My brother-in-law Mssr. C offered to make a chart for the blog to show the weight I have lost, and he thought it was pretty funny when I explained why that was unnecessary. He's not very nice.