chicken or egg?

I've been struggling with a sort of chicken or egg dilemma with this project. Specifically, whether I should train a few more months and then choose a marathon (because I'm not sure how quickly I will progress), or if I should choose a marathon NOW so that I have a goal and time frame. Which would be better?! Well, I got a call from my uncle Jed this morning and he suggested that I choose a marathon so that I have a goal in mind (plus a lot of registrations fill up quickly apparently) and then we'll start our training (we had scheduling difficulties this week). Now that I've thought a little more about it, I think he's right - it makes a lot more sense to have a date in mind so that you can plan accordingly and stay motivated. I spent some time today researching marathons and made notes on some of the ones that I like. I hope to have made a decision by the end of the weekend. Our move to TN and starting a new job doesn't exactly help with things but oh well. Everything will work out.

I just finished my 3rd training session of the week. yay! My legs felt kinda heavy, and my right calf was bothering me a bit, which wasn't fun but oh well. And getting things going on the jogging intervals wasn't quite as easy as it was Wednesday. I feel really good now though, so I can't complain. My workout was similar to Wednesday's: I did a 5 min warm up, then 6 intervals of 4 minutes jogging/1 minute walking, then a long cool down. I found that my music made a HUGE difference in pacing. I started out listening to Kylie Minogue. I liked it but it didn't get me pumped up enough. So then I tried Madonna's "Confessions on a Dancefloor" (I think that's the name anyway - you know what I'm talking about, it's her most recent cd). The cd begins with "Hung up" and the first line is "Time goes by....so slowly" and I'm thinking "girl, you are not lyin'. This friggin jogging interval is never going to end". During these jogging intervals my pace was slower than on Wednesday; not by much, but still. So then I'd had enough of Madonna so I turned on Lenny Kravitz's Greatest Hits. I absolutely LOVE this cd. I know some of you are probably making fun of me right now but I'm ok with that because I'm secure in my love for Lenny. I think I'm doing to have to buy another copy because mine has a few scratches on it (I'm a cd's worst nightmare. They ALWAYS end up scratched) As soon as I heard the electric guitar and heavy drums in "Are you gonna go my way?", my pace picked up. All of a sudden I was pushing myself to sub 10 minute/mile paces and was loving it. Pondering my delight in the electric guitar rifts made me think of the Dave Chappelle episode where he and John Mayer prove that it's not that white people can't dance...we just have to have the right music. So they sneak into a board meeting a a company with all white employees and John starts playing the electric guitar and everyone goes nuts. Bras go flying, whities start swaying and getting their groove on. So this scene plays out a few other places with the same result until they try it at a barbershop. It turns out that at the barbershop, which is predominantly a black hangout, drums are the chosen instrument. It's very funny. How did I get on this tangent?! Good lord. Anyway, if you haven't seen that episode, check it out. I think it's in Season 2. It's good stuff. I think this post has gotten way out of hand so I'm going to ride out. Happy Leap Day!!