The Mix Tape

I've always been the type of person to associate things with music--guess it's just the lingering band geek in me that will never go away. To that end, this weekend I put together an Ironman 2006 playlist for my iPod...I love making those mix-tape-reminiscent playlists. At first, I struggled with what to put on it (never mind the fact that it's ridiculously easy to change one's playlists around)...but then I started building it with songs that reminded me of IM WI 2005 and it went from there. As I was driving to and from Madison and along the bike course, I was listening to the Indigo Girls' latest album, "Rarities"--fantastic compilation of covers, lesser-known songs, and demo versions of their songs. So, a couple of songs from there made it onto the playlist, including their cover of my favorite Dead song, "Uncle John's Band", which is what I resorted to singing in my head to get me through the monotony of the swim we did around the IM course. "Beautiful Day" by U2 was playing near the swim start before the race, as was "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac--I actually designated that particular song as my theme song solely for the line "yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone". One of the songs, "Spring Street" by Dar Williams, has an amazing lyric that describes a plant growing but could easily describe a new experience (like IM)--"But I'll push myself up through the dirt and shake my petals free/I'm resolved to being born and so resigned to bravery". I love that line...

Here's the playlist...I'm quite pleased with it and it's already helped me visualize different parts along the IM course.

1. Iron Man -- Ozzy Osbourne (seemed more fitting than "Crazy Train")
2. It's the End of the World -- R.E.M.
3. Beautiful Day -- U2
4. Shopping -- Barenaked Ladies (because shopping for tri stuff is fun)
5. Awful Beautiful Life -- Darryl Worley (yep, I'm a little bit country)
6. Don't Stop -- Fleetwood Mac
7. Life Less Ordinary -- Carbon Leaf
8. Uncle John's Band -- Indigo Girls
9. Big Time -- Big and Rich
10. I Am Woman -- Helen Reddy ("If I have to, I can do anything/I am strong, I am invincible...")
11. The World Is New -- Save Ferris
12. Stand Back Up -- Sugarland
13. I Take My Chances -- Mary Chapin Carpenter
14. Spring Street -- Dar Williams
15. Superman -- R.E.M.
16. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters -- Indigo Girls
17. Hey Julie -- Fountains of Wayne
18. Hurts So Good -- John Mellencamp (or, as my friend and IM buddy Jeremy calls him, "Cougar")
19. Better Things -- Dar Williams
20. Closer to Fine -- Indigo Girls
21. On Wisconsin (the Badgers' fight song--the run goes through Camp Randall Stadium, after all)

Training-wise, today was a good day for a Monday. It was a cross-training day on the marathon training program, so I swam for about 45 minutes and, assuming I didn't miss too many laps in my counting, 1600m--not fast, but it felt good. Back to running tomorrow...