Patience; the new endurance sport.

9:43 av.

March is in like lamb. I didn't even need the headlamp.  The moon sat heavy and huge in the western sky.  It lit the whole road and the surrounding fields until the sun began to hit the back side of timp and paint it pink.  There was fog rising off the water and hanging low above the ground. Felt balmy, like spring.   Everyone in Chile I know is accounted.  I have a good friend who has a small country grocery store close to the beach whose whole business was swollowed up by the subsequent tsumani--but her family at least is safe.  Three days later, my in laws are still struggeling for fresh water....still not sure if heading down there right now would help or hinder. 

8:46/8:40/8:49/8:55/9:01/8:33/9:29/9:21/10:21

I gave mile 6 my best effort, but I was dreaming of the inhaler left sitting on my bedside. I could not get a deep breath, I started out pretty clear. But just under an hour of  breathing cold air took it's toll.  It was a good effort.  Although I could feel the roll of fat created last night from Michelle's birthday cake bulging over the top of my running tights....a week of flabby miles combined with being sick actually caused me to gain 4 pounds--compounded by 10,000 calories of the best birthday cake ever known to womankind (blame Marion). 

I was beat today.  Whatever I did yesterday made today doubly hard. So I ran slow since it's my regular run.  Also my Garmin was out of juice, so mercifully, I don't even know how slow.  I'm doing way too much thinking-thinking-thinking since yesterday.  Whenever that happens I wear myself out.  I need to stop thinking.  It's dumb.

Thursday is supposed to be my tempo run.  But by mile 2 (after having to turn back because of the construction on the trail and finding a different route) I could tell it was going to be all I could do to just get the miles done: 9:28/8:50/9:22/9:02/9:06/9:12/10:00/9:31/9:09.   Must be a little anemic.  I haven't been good about replacing my iron source and eating more greens etc. since I stopped eating meat about last year. (I've eaten some, I just don't have the heart for it hardly anymore).  A few days ago, when we were running in the dark, in the pre-light dawn, I saw my big fat owl sitting on a tree above my head. That owl only shows up ever few years.  First time was in 2000, then on the day my Dad died--which was March 4, 2006. Then I saw it again in April 2008.  But he was there around the same spot 3 days ago.  I've been thinking of my Dad ever since.  Particularly since it was 4 years ago today we spent a week in the hospital watching him perform what can only be described as "death sleeping."  Before the stroke, he had the face of Paul Newman and the body of Arnold Schwarzenegger--right up until his 70th birthday.  He was a beautiful, strong man.  I remember Rad telling about her had who died a few years back too.  Grief gets boring and everyone gets tired of it when it extends beyond a year or two.  But the depth and breadth of your loss, last so much longer than that.  It's impossible to not remember the space left unoccupied in your life almost daily for who knows how long.  And then you have to remind yourself how that person made you who you are, and you must be grateful for what was, and what is now 'till we meet again. Anyway, whenever I see those hawks, and the eagle; and like today the owl, sitting in a tree looking down at me, it makes me think of my Daddy (he loved birds of prey, particularly owls) and how he's somewhere looking out for me still in his own way.

I LOVE the snow, but couldn't make myself get outside to run in it in the predawn.  So I ran 5 on the treadmil.  It felt great.  I ran one 7:45 between 3&4, the rest were 9:13's.  I wish I could have run more, it's the best I've felt in many days. It's snowing like crazy still, I'm gonna see if I can take a few runs at lunchtime.  I don't know if I'll enjoy skiing tomorrow after I run 18 miles.  

8:30/8:46/9:12/9:50/9:44/9:32/9:53/9:14/9:48/9:49/9:49/9:21/9:27/9:32/10:04/9:45/9:52/9:50

It's dumb to record all those splits since I wasn't going for speed. I had to run a few before Catherine showed up, and met Sasha & Jeff on the trail who came from behind asking 'how my legs were.' My legs felt fine (in that moment)  it was my lungs I was still warming up.  They invited me to run 6:40 for a quarter mile.  I wasn't expecting that and wanted to be game, but all I could think about was the other 18 miles I needed to run with my bronchitis lungs.  I made it almost the quarter, but I was really trying to get in some air toward the end and wouldn't (not couldn't) maintain it for the last 100 feet.  They continued running and I just behind them for about another mile, then I had to turn around to meet Cathetrine at 7:30.  The reason I put the splits in there was because I need to remind myself how much a (single!) fast quarter mile improves your over all time .  If I can run fast only 1/4 of the time I could sustain a 8:30/8:40 pretty easily.  This is what I practiced in my speedwork last Fall and it worked.  But I've not had the lung capacity or energy to do my speed play for two weeks and I'm paying for it now. I've run strong, but it's not the same as pushing aerobic capacity.   But for today I did get 18 under my belt with Catherine and pushed hard.  The average pace was 9:37 (thanks to those 2 faster miles to begin with).   But I have to say--I'm beat.  I went from 50 miles/week to 30 back to 50.  I just hope when I get over all this crud I'll be able to push my legs/lungs to do what I know has to be done.  If not, I'd just comfortably go slower and slower.  I don't mind running the Utah Valley marathon in 4:25, but I want to finish Boston in under 4 hours.  We'll see.  I really dug deep today just to get that mileage, but I felt way stronger than Thursday.  That felt like progress.

I've put away the headlamp for the winter I think.  It was getting light by 6:20 so only 20 minutes in the dark.  I was pleased I wasn't sore, just a little stiff from the long run on Saturday. Although my run was cut short 2 miles, I had to be out the door by 7:30 today.  I was going to tuck 2 extra miles into the afternoon, but life prevailed and defeated this plan.  I really should just learn to run 2 miles in a suit at lunchtime and try not to sweat very much.  Because if it doesn't get done before 7, chances are high it's never going to happen.

8:54 ave (8:47/9:00/8:38/9:02/8:40/9:13/9:07/7:50).  I ran every other .10 fast, faster, fastest;  Then a slower mile after.  I struggled for air toward the 'faster'.  Mile 8 I just wanted to run strong, and 9:07's ok, but I wonder if I'll ever get back to my 10K ap 8:15.  Training on the sand last year for 10 days made running on pavement easy afterwards, it was good training. But the March cold, or my lingering bronchitis, or lack of mental agility for training this time of year is keeping me in the 8:40's. All negative thinking.  Thursday, I'll try to do a few faster quarters, and at least two solid faster miles.  Either that or I'll run the hills repeats near my work. Saturday, I'm going to go 20 up the canyon and end at South Fork (a 7 mile uphill end).  Last Saturday when I finished 18, all I could think about was "Ok, at Boston 17 is where the hills start and that's when you have to turn on the game."  But after 18 last Saturday I was ready to go lay down.  I really need some good uphill/speed work outs in the next 3 weeks.  Interesting thing while I was running today, different thoughts drifted through my mind, and I could feel whether the thoughts gave or sucked my energy. These were thoughts of people, work, situations and ideas that often cross my mind in a day.  But I could feel my physiological response to those thought as I was trying my hardest to run fast--pushing myself.  I considered this idea at during '09 St. George Marathon.  The thoughts I kept running through my head were single phrases, or faces of people who inspire, or things that were said to me that were encouraging.  Unless you’re running at your top speed and can feel the instantaneous draining of your energy--how many things in a day do we give our energy to that do not merit our energy?  How do we decide which things deserve our energy and which do not.  One thing is clear to me-- while I run, I need to stop thinking, clear my mind, and enjoy the absence of thought or keep only positive phrases/faces/inspiration handy as my only available.

For the sake of mixing things up, and because of construction on the trail, I chose to run around the neighborhoods and down a road I never go on for 2.5 miles.  I can't get on my trail for .4 miles because of the stupidly expensive and pointless bridge the city has decided to build, to connect a road no one uses, to have better access to the municiple airport that no one goes to.  I'm so glad they have raised my property taxes 4 years in a row.  Worth every penny!..... I swear I would not run ever if all I had were city streets & sidewalks every day.  This morning, I found myself resentfully sharing the road with ...gasp... Cars!   I  rely on running to be my quiet or alone time near the river & trees and emply trail.  But I'm especially cranky the past few days.  This morning was more bitterly cold than it's been in a few weeks (and windy). Also, I have to remind myself how cranky all this running makes me. When I'm tired I get really negative during the hardest 3 weeks of training. That plus my job is driving me to tears almost daily, my son's teacher is enough to make me consider yanking him out of school, and whenever it snows I can't get up the mountain (3 days in a row last week).  It adds to my overall sense of being locked inside-my-life-prison dutifully going through the motions of a responsible adult.  So if you see me running down your sidewalk, just move little to the side.  You don't want any of this.

9.33 miles/10:03 average

9:35/10:31/9:27/10:31/10:44/10:09/11:16/9:13/9:14/9:35

I ran 4  (.7 miles each) hill repeats.  So 2.8 of these miles was run at about a 20-30% incline (I ran a two loops of Foothill Drive and Quail Valley in Provo, one up to Eastlawn cemetary and one more of foothill). I warmed up about a mile and stared up the first hill.  Felt good, downhill hurt and I couldn't let go of my snail pace.  It was the same for every repeat. Up those hills I just leaned forward and hardly moved my feet. After I was done with the big uphills, I ran the rest on rolling hills, and downhill to get back to my office, where I bathed in a handsink and went back to my desk to finish two grant requests.  I'm going to finish my 20 miler on Saturday with those 2 hills.  The idea of running even rolling hills at mile 17 is killing me.  My legs are sooooo sore right now.

10:03 ave.  I ran a bit with an old pal in the neighborhood. She ran Boston in 1989 and is now in her mid 60's.  She's still active but walk-jogs so I took advantage to run a slow slow recovery run.  My calves and knees are sore from what I did to them yesterday.  I think I might even need a massage.  I never come away from a run with sore muscles ever.  I may be tired, but unless I'm racing, I never have soreness.  But I am sore today.  My butt is sore, my calves are sore.  I could have crawled this run.  My legs felt like lead.  

This was a lonely run.  I was tired, Catherine was doing her daughter's birthday party.  It was cold, windy, and started to rain during the hardest, uphill portion of my run.  I may have overdone it with 16 today.  My legs are literally thrashed.  Next week my sis comes from DC and we're going to Moab.  We'll hike and eat and shop and talk.  I just don't know how the half marathon will go.  This will be my 7th year at this race.  I love the first 10 miles of the course--nothing in the world compares to that canyon and the river.  But I am tired, so tired.  I feel like I never want to run again.

The danger is that novice racers often try to achieve too much.  Unless they exercise caution, impetuous and overzealous racers will find themselves falling prey to the most common, and least understood of all running ailments--overtraining.  An important observation made by Heiss (1971), described an increased susceptibility to infection as an important component of the overtraining syndrome.  In some runners, the first signs of overtraining are generalized fatigue, recurrent headaches, weight loss, sleep problems.  All fail to understand why, despite such hard training, their racing performances continue to deteriorate.  Probably the earliest scientific reference to overtraining was made by McKenzie (1923) who noted fatigue of the whole muscular system requires a day or two of rest, chronic fatigue (slow poisoning of the nervous system) also called 'staleness' could require a week or even months.  The urgency to train even harder is only exacerbated by the time lost as a result of illness and fatigue.  But because these assumptions are wholly incorrect, the athlete's bout of intensive training only compounds an already grave situation. The truth is that once athletes are even mildly over trained, they are already past peak condition.  The only way to save the situation is to stop training until the body is rested and the desire to run and complete return.  Excerpt from the Fourth Edition of the Lore of Running, by Tim Noakes, MD.      In other words, I rode my spin bike 16 miles at 19 MPH instead of running today and counted it as 4 miles.

9:23 av  8:38/9:26/10:37/7:11/8:55/12:16/8:30/10:09

So I started the run on flat Timpview Drive, ran a good mile on flat surface, then there was the gradual up hill toward the Provo Temple.  I ran up the South Temple side and continued running up Rock Canyon and ran up a perfect mile (10:37).  I wanted to run the same split downhill just to see how different the time would be and so I turned it on (7:11).  I have never run a mile in under 7:37.  It was however about a 20% grade up and also down, but still 7:11!!  Running slow uphill, fast downhill, and then maintaining a steady pace on the flat surfaces seems to be a good technique for me--or at least the using the downhill to get some good splits.  So as I was running along, I started to think of good name for this technique, which of course I learned from Smooth. So I wanted to call it the "Smooth Move" but then rememberd there is an herbal laxative by the same name. So then I decided to call if the "full Suzanna".  So now anytime I hit a downhill and speed up the turnover, I'm going to call it the full Suzanna.  I then went up Quail Valley +.3 to make it a full mile up hill--whew.  I hope my legs don't get as ruined as they did last week.  Although this was 2 less miles, and half as many hill repeats.  Felt pretty good, weather was awesome.  I'm getting really good at bathing in the tiny handsink at work.

I love my Boston Marathon Race Number 18801.  I love 8's and 1's. I'm booking my flight now and I'm trying to get psyched--hoping it doesn't rain, that I will make it in one piece (I hate to fly), that I'm prepared to run it well and have fun there with my daughter.  I was sore again today from the hill repeats, and ran w/Marsha in that  horrible depressing a.m. darkness.  I hate daylight savings, I don't know why we have to do it.  It has messed up my sleep, my running, my children are exhausted and I can not see one single benefit to it.  Also, I told Marsh I was going to bail for the next 3 weeks so I can do my weekday runs either later in the morning, or at lunchtime during work.  I literally can not hack getting up this early when I'm trying to run hard.  Sleeping is just as important as running right now.  My friends from CA emailed yesterday to remind me about the St. George Marathon registration April 1st and also my UVM registration.  So I got my act together and registered for the Utah Valley Marathon June 12th and put it on my agenda to 'ding' me first thing on April 1st.  We'll see if I can hack 3 marathons.  I may have to bail on Park City because I'll probably be back east again.  I'm so excited to see my sister and for Moab! I pick her up from the airport in about 6 hours.  I am so looking forward to red rock country, hiking in arches & walking down main street in the balmy spring air partying with all the Halfers. 

9:14/8:59/8:49/8:45/9:44  Quick run back and forth and back and forth on the 1.1 mile of open trail behind the house (trail is closed because of the bridge construction).  I had to get it done before getting in the car and heading to Moab.  I felt stiff in the butt/piriformis/hips. I hope it was from my great hill work out on Tuesday, and not because I'm breaking my hip.  Tommorrow we'll be hiking Arches all day.  These girls that come from DC with my sister always hike the day before the race, it will be their 9th year to do Moab.  I think I've been doing it since 2005 (trying to think of the shirt they gave me).

3 warm up/ 3 cool down

13.1/ 8:40 ap, 3281 total runners, 1941 women runners (I ranked 376th of women runners, 50th of the 221 in my Age Division). 

I went up fairly early and ran a 3 mile warm up behind the start.  The day was gorgeous, clear, and windless.  Friday had been miserable hiking through arches (it felt like 20 degrees, snow piled on top of red sand, and it blew sand and snow into our hair and faces up at delicate arch).  But as soon as I warmed up (30 degrees, but no wind) I felt great. The worry over my stiff hips and lower back disappeared. I waited about 6 minutes till the road was cleared to cross the starting matt.  Wanted to take advantage of running easy downhill 8:34/8:24.  Mile 2 I stopped to drink, take off my thermal shirt, fix my hair/ear band that was acting crazy. 9:04/8:29/8:23 fairly downhill, when there were spots of sun on the road peeking through the canyon walls people would erupt into cheering--it was still pretty cold. 8:10/8:43/8:21  these were gentle the uphill miles, and as you can see the splits were really consistent.  I felt strong going up those hills and kept thinking of my daughter who during a tough treadmill run a couple weeks ago sat on the spin bike next to the treadmill and 'rode alongside the treadmill' saying really encouraging things.  I repeated the things she said in my mind "Go Mama!  You're doing good getting ready for Boston!".  She's really excited to go with me.  I thought of being 'a diamond & titanium girl.  I thought about the huge plate of rigatoni I'd eaten the night before--the thoughts of the rigatoni were especially encouraging.  I allowed myself to slow down between miles 9-10 (9:23) where that last  big hill  about kills you coming out of the canyon--right before the drum ladies who beat those huge skin drums--that always gives me the chills.  Then coming out of the canyon onto the road, I kept saying Smooth's "smooth-strong-fast" and "smooth to the finish".  I hate running on that road and it was especially heinous today with all the construction.  8:45/8:41/8:43  I surprised myself on the finish--I could have maybe even gone faster but I just wanted to maintain a strong & steady finish.  At least 3 people had warned me not to overdo the race today.  I thought an 8:40 average (only about 10 seconds behind my best half race pace) was reasonable effort.  After I finished (1:53), I ran back 1.5 miles to find my sister and ran her into the finish.  The sunlight, the red rock, the Colorado River, the company, the air quality, the clear sky--it was a Spring Equinox extraordinaire. We talked with Walter (who came in 7th overall) and Misty for a bit, chatted about Boston, who was going, what everyone was going to do.  It was a really nice day.  I feel I can do my best training in the next two weeks, and feel much more confident about my steps toward a strong finish at Boston.  Got home around 5:30-- going to do my pushups and sit ups-- I have not done them since Wednesday.  19 miles total, 7 or more miles at Race Pace.  It was a good day.

5 @9:40 ap.  Just a maintenance/recovery run for me and the dogs. 

9:03/8:57/9:21/9:25/9:30/8:41/9:55 

I ran a warm up mile.  Then ran 60 second pickups about every quarter mile, then for two miles ran a pick up for a quarter mile every other quarter mile.  My legs were a little tired. The spits never indicate the effort, which always feels discouraging. So the last mile I just picked up and ran a steady pace.  I have to keep it up these next two weeks.  I have to remember that these tough work outs make maintaining a decent speed during a race feasible.  I remember last summer, after Hobble Creek half marathon, my next long run was extra tough.  Have to find the balance between continuing to build strength & endurance, without exhausting my body this week.  I think I've been doing a pretty good job recently.  In spite of the cold weather, my never-ending bronchitis I was pretty happy about my performance on Saturday.  I felt strong.  I just want to feel that way again a month from now.

I have been trying to get enough sleep.  I am dedicated to good nutrition and adquete rest in reciprocation for my body's cooperation. But in addition the race on Saturday-- in which I felt the effort was good, but rather moderate-- I feel like I have not 'caught up' since daylight savings.   Also, everyone in my house has had strep--my son a reoccuring case (round 2).  I am sick of bleaching counters, doornobs, lightswitches, water faucets and boiling toothbrushes, washing pillowcases, bedclothes.  It's a lot of work -- on top of the worry they are going to die.  Yes, you don't just get a cold at my house-- you get tuberculosis because in spite of being blessed with good health, I'm a hypochondriac and generally psychotic.  It's always the early spring that's soo good for bronchitis-strep-flu-cold.  I blame the abrupt change in weather.  Although the snow melts, it's still cold and everyone is underdresses this time of year--thus stressing the immune systems via exposure making the body less resistent to bacteria and virus (at least that's what I think).  No one wants to wear winter gear when it's sunny --even if it's only 37 degrees and windy. I'm just hoping I'm not next.  My hands still smell like bleach, so I hope that helps keep the germs at bay for a few minutes.

After the kids got off to school it took me 15 minutes to decide if I was going to run hill repeats by my work, or to stick close to home for some faertleking (still funny after all these years).  I'm very distraught over the situation with the bridge construction that denys me a straight shot at the lake.  I have to run down my neighborhood.  I don't mind my neigbhorhood as long as I don't have to run through it and remind myself that I don't, in fact, live in the South of France or Chile (as sometimes time on the trail will lead me to believe).  Also, I like to take the dogs along for the ride, and there's just no way to do it thorugh the neighborhood without bringing a *plastic bag* yeeuuck.  I tried very hard to day to run 100 Meter strides and sprints.  I am at war with what might be considered VO2 capacity.  When I get going that fast for 100 or so feet, I feel like I'm going to pass out.  My eyes feel like rolling into the back of my head, and I have a hard time keeping them open (weird, I know).  I don't think my body likes being pushed very much, and it tries to shut me down and I find it extremely hard not to stop, bend over, and catch my breath before running again.  I jog so slow at the end of a pick up, it's slower than walking I'm sure.  I wish I knew what in the hell I was doing.  All I know is that pushing my speed a couple of times during a run a couple of times a week has made racing a better experience.  How it works, I do not know.  I just hope my legs can handle the next two weeks. Crunch time. Two of my longest Saturday Runs, and all the rest of my hill repeats and speed work need to cement their effect now.  I CAN do this!!!I CAN CAN CAN! 

Today I ran 4 miles to save up a little energy for the 23 I'm going to pound out tomorrow. I didn't calculate my weekends right and didn't realize until yesterday my last long run is tomorrow.  I hope my knees can take it. I haven’t felt ‘recovered’ from Moab.  But I’ve gotta getter done.  Catherine will accompany me on the last 18 and I’m going to finish heading up the canyon, up past Vivian so we can get a good incline on those last miles in preparation for the ‘heartbreak hills’.

Help me finish this sentence….I feel like a 'real runner' when:

(example:  a 4 mile jog doesn't qualify in your mind as 'running').

So many things went wrong on this run.  I'm wondering now how I can try to make up for it.  My plan was to run 5 before Cath came, but the minutes in the morning just slid one into another after I woke up and groggily tried to prepare for the grueling (what should have been 23) run ahead. I got only 3 under my belt before Cath showed up 9:34/9:45/9:09.  The plan was to run up to Big Springs from the house, which I estimated to be about 18 miles.  My legs are still feelin' it from last week, but we kept a good pace 9:40's, stopped at Will's Pit Stop, filled our bottles at the mouth of the canyon.  I was really thirsty, but only brouight my small hand-held.  I can tell right now I began to dehydrate somewhere around mile 11.  My Garmin had somehow lost a mile or more between my house and mile 12.  I don't know how, but it played with my mind since my legs/hamstrings were so tight and I was relying on checking the splits in 3 mile incriments.  Once we got past Nunn's Park and up onto the trail under Bridal Veil we were VERY surprized to learn the ENTIRE trail for the next 2-3 miles was 15 inches of solid ice or porous layers our feet would fall through and suck off our shoes.  It was slow going 14 m/m for those two or three miles.  I wonder if you can even count what we did as running.  I was not breathing hard, but man it was tough to keep your feet  moving without turning an ankle or falling.  By this time I did not trust the Garmin mileage wise because it was showing 12 total, when I know for a fact it's at least 15 to Vivian Park.  We stopped briefly at Vivian so I could stretch my ailing hamsrings and stated up the windy uphill grade to Big Springs. That was calculated torture.  I wanted to end my 21-23 on that uphill grade in anticipation for the hills in Boston.  I know a 7 mile slight uphill grade (particularly the last 3) is overkill, but it did feel good to get to the top, where I dry heaved for about 2 minutes.  We then ran down 1 more mile where we caught our ride at south Park.  I am THRASHED.  I'm not sure about the mileage, I'm dissapointed our 'run' was broken up so badly between  mile 13-15 by the snowy trail and ice and I'm not sure the incline at the end produced the kind of fatigue I was hoping to conquer.  I was sore, more than tired, but mentally beaten.  Catherine is counting the run as 18 miles, I'm counting mine as 22.  I'll run two cool down in the evening to keep myself from going rigormortis.  Fish oil, calcium, magnesium is on the menu.  I have no idea how that work out will translate at  Boston since our AP ended up being 10:45 and I stopped at least 5 times.  I wanted a tough, fluid 23 mile run to get my confidence up for those last 6 marathon miles that always wreak havoc :( Oh well, I did what I could.

Ran from my office, up the hill past Rock Canyon.  Ran up about another 1/2 mile past the entrance.  I passed this group of 3 young men hiking up, all sporting Camelbacks, Keens, and hip looking knit caps.  Obviously spending some quality man time with nature. As I was passing them up on the trail they looked over their shoulders to see a middle aged mommy-type overtaking them.  I think they were disappointed I wasn't someone cooler, like a cute mountain climber girl laden with climbing ropes needing a little assist.  Spring has sprung alright.  Everyone's out in their coolest gear. This would also explain the weird-o's out there in the bushes doing who-knows-what-all.  I really don't wanna know.  Legs felt pretty dead from Saturday.  But they behaved pretty well.  9:40's ave.

Ran with the dogs.  Didn't make any heroic efforts except to keep running.  I actually felt better (legs) yesterday than today. I have no idea if I should be attempting any speed training now that I'm at the peak of my personal physical and mental exhaustion.  This is going to be a tough week. I always get "here" 3 weeks before the marathon. I know this exhaustion and I always wonder when I'm here what in the heck I am doing this for.  I'm going to do this one for my kids, theywant to go to Boston to see friends & sites, and they know this is the race of all races.  They are old enough to see and understand what it is to stick with something and acheive it.  I will run the marathon of all marathons for their sake.  It makes them proud of me and so I want to do it so when I'm in a hospital bed one day they can remember when I was young and strong so it will give them their own strength.

It was so balmy yesterday, what happened?  Cold weather stymied my ambition, and so I stayed on the treadmill and ran while watching Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. I am a whole generation older than the characters in that movie.  I could have been the mother to either of them.  Besides making me feel old, I thought the track would be better than it was.  I mean, the movie was sort of about music being the thing that brings these two together.  I gave it a 5 out of 10.