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Warning: rambling post filled with (clearly labeled!) tangents ahead. Feel free to skip to the bottom for the playlist.

It was about 90 degrees outside but the sun was dropping when I headed out for a run. I’m not yet acclimatized to summer heat workouts, although I have no choice but to get there eventually.

I was just about to drop onto a 2 mile circuit when a man ran past me, looking like he was on a ten-minute per mile pace, which is where I was feeling I would be running. He was there first, so I watched him cruise past. I’m a bit anal about pace suckers running right behind or in front of me, so I cranked up my Shuffle and stretched until I was pretty sure I’d given him at least a quarter-mile lead.

Tangent #1: The pan-galactic rule is, if they are there before you are and they are running on your pace, give them room. Don’t be a leech. I don’t care what planet you’re from, there’s no excuse. (And I think I’m not the only one who feels this way.)

Fortunately, I wasn’t in a hurry.

I just needed a little baby 20 minute run and 20 teeny minutes on the jump rope, since it was my “off” day.

Tangent #2, or why I call this an “off” day. Boxing-specific training is sometimes so hard on my body that I can’t always do it two or three days in a row. I’m at a new gym and working my way up to a Mon-Tue-Thur (plus Sundays training with Jay) boxing-specific schedule, which is ambitious simply because of that three-day marathon at the beginning of the week. So far I’ve had to skip the Tuesdays. On off days I run and jump rope and do other stuff. I do actually take at least one or two off-off days each week. Was that clear at all? Let’s just keep digging, shall we?

Tangent #3: Sometimes I use the language of “non-boxing-specific” to designate “off” days. But that sounds a bit awkward, don’t you think? Maybe I’m just linguistically lazy. I do flip flop on it, because I also think it sounds painfully pretentious to be working out on an “off” day.

Feh. Whatever.

I was telling you about my off day, during which I run, rope, and sometimes do hurdles (I don’t do those 2 days in a row, either).

(Here I’m powerfully resisting an entire fresh tangent on my hurdles. You’re welcome.)

Once my path was cleared of people on my same pace, I dropped on and the first mile felt pretty fast, especially considering the heat. In fact, I was chagrined to catch up to the man on my pace, but fortunately he finished his run just as I passed him on the trail. I may have been doing 9.5 minute miles; I know they felt easy.

It was the rope that was hard.

I was already stripped down to a sports bra and shorts, and I was sweating so much the foam padding on the jump rope handles was soaked and kept slipping out of my hands. There was a perfect circle of sweat droplets around me on the picnic shelter’s cement floor. I was in the shade, thankfully, but I could feel myself riding the edge of overheating.

I took 4 or 5 fifteen-second breaks to sip and spit water (if you swallow it, you end up jumping rope and sloshing, which is uncomfortable — woo, narrowly avoided a Tangent there.), but I was careful and never got that eerie, suddenly chilled feeling that indicates onset of real problems.

And as I was reflecting on the reasons I ran so fast and worked so hard to make it through my simple, short “off” day workout, I decided it wasn’t the heat that was the determining factor.

IT WAS ALL THE FAULT OF HAIR METAL.

It’s crazy how much music controls my pace! I think this playlist was part of why I had such a fast run, and also why my rope session was way too fast and difficult — hair metal rocks! So I am putting a few more low-bpm power ballads in the mix next time. Every Rose Has It’s Thorn or something.

Tangent #4: I just downloaded an app called beaTunes that will catalog my music collection and tell me the acutal beats per minute on all my songs. (Strangely, iTunes doesn’t do this automagically. But don’t even get me started on an iTunes Tangent, because I have a whole series of those and they’re better termed Rants.) The app hasn’t had time to work yet, so you don’t get the playlist ordered by bpm, so if you go for a run and rope in the heat on your off day, you’re on your own.

Oh, and I gotta give credit — or possibly blame — to Jay, with whom I regularly exchange hair metal playlists. He’s the one responsible for a chunk of these songs.

Actually I only want to say very nice things about Jay, on account of his vicious hooks.

Anyway, hair metal is accustomed to taking the blame for all sorts of ills. One more won’t matter. I hereby dub this playlist:

Overheated

1. Welcome to the Jungle / GNR
2. Ready to Strike / King Kobra
3. Big Guns / Skid Row
4. Hellion / W.A.S.P.
5. Blind Faith / Scorpions
6. Slide it In / Whitesnake
7. Bang Go the Bells / Babylon A.D.
8. Heartbreak Station / Cinderella
9. Rocket Queen / GNR
10. Hunger / King Kobra
11. Wait / White Lion
12. Cold Blood / Kix
13. Electric Gypsy / L.A. Guns
14. Heaven / Warrant
15. Back for More / Ratt
16. Unchained / Van Halen
17. Knock ‘Em Dead, Kid / Motley Crue
18. Hang Tough / Tesla
19. Wild Child / W.A.S.P.

Okay, final tangent, #5, not that you’re keeping track: I realize there are absolutely no Megadeth songs on here, and yet I’ve posted a picture of Dave Mustaine. It’s that incredible hair!!

Long live hair metal, and the hair that goes with it. Tell me your fave Megadeth songs and I’ll cue ‘em up for the next playlist!

Image by ghoulmann on Flickr.

Related posts:

1. Runner Lisa vs. Bad Lisa
2. Post Whopper Jr. Mid Boys’ Bedtime Timecrunch Run
3. Trail Running and Effing Ankle Rolls

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