Today was one of the days when I really wonder why I run. Sundays are the day I do my long run, and today was going to be the longest one I have ever attempted: 15 miles. I woke up and it was grey and cold. No hint of the spring I'd seen over the past few days. Plus it was drizzling. Then it began to sleet. Then it began to snow and I really, really didn't want to run in the snow.  Not one mile, let along 15. Finally the weather cleared and wrapped two date-lemon peel-walnut-cardamon balls in clingfilm, popped them in my running pouch, taped up my right knee to alleviate any possible aggravation of my kneecap, and headed out.

It was tough. It was still drizzling when I started. The first 5 miles involved a loop through the next village, unfortunately I had to run a mile along a country road to get there. A country road which was covered in puddles but due to luck and considerate driving from passing cars I avoided being splashed.

The next five miles took me in the other direction toward town. It was still tough even though the route was mostly down hill and I chugged slower and slower. The next five miles were running through town before heading back up the long slow hill to home. It was incredibly tough and by this time my legs and back were aching. I felt like I was trying to run through mud and had to walk up the steepest sections of the hills.

Ugh.  I ran 13.1 miles last week and flew round. I think I found this run so hard because I did a hills session yesterday and I was more tired than I realised. Either way, I found the date balls more palatable than the gels I'd used on previous runs. The burst of sweet-salty body-temperature goo always makes me want to gag and some gels taste positively vile. Plus they're never easy to open or drink and I spend the rest of the run thinking, "I have sticky fingers. Really sticky fingers. I wish I could wash them. I hate having sticky fingers. Sticky sticky fingers."

I was incredibly thirsty by mile 10. I'm going to be drinking water from stations during the marathon so I need to get my body used to that. At the moment I don't carry water. I can't stand holding anything in my hands so a bottle of any shape or form is out of the question. My running pouch can just about take my ID and keys and a gel pack if I liked them so I can't stash one in there. I could carry cash and buy something, but I abhor the idea of going into a shop all sweaty and out of breath. I need to find a good belt with water bottles, I think.

Miles this week: 36
Runs: 5
Feeling: Achey
Knee-strengthening stretches: Lots.

February Round-Up

Crikey-bob I'm glad it's March. The cold weather  of winter is mostly behind me, as are the dark nights and mornings. I'd gotten to the point where I was always surprised I could see my watch during long runs at the weekend because it was the only time I ran in the daylight.

I've mostly stuck to my marathon training plan. I've done the distance if not the speed in the hope that getting the miles in my legs will increase my endurance and fitness and not sweated the petty things. It's mostly worked and I've noticed a marked improvement in my running. I've overcome the lethargy of January and am feeling comfortable and happy.

Last Sunday I ran 13.1 miles, the first time I ran in double figures and the longest I'd ever run before. It took me 1:10:40 and I averaged out a 9:59 minute mile, which I was very, very pleased with. Unfortunately my knees have been less pleased by the increased mileage I've put them through and began to protest with stiffens and aching, especially after long runs and walking down stairs. A quick trip to the physio and I was diagnosed with Runner's Knee in the right kneecap.

It's not acute enough to need immediate rest but ideally I know I should stop, rest and slowly build the mileage up again. Unfortunately with the marathon on 6th May I don't have the time to do this. The physio taped my kneecap to pull it back in the correct position and advised me to keep it on for three days to cease aggravating the joint and give it some time to heal. I've been told to ice it immediately after I finish exercise, and also do strengthening stretches 3 times a day to strengthen the muscles around my knee and prevent it from worsening. I'm doing them twice a day because I'm too chicken to do them at work...

Missing

This week has been awful. My eating has been all over the place, and I've missed half my runs. I've been very self-indulgent in more ways than one.
Tomorrow, as ever, is another day.

DJ, Ease My Mind

I'm still here. I'm still running. 82.33 miles in January, and 30.39 miles so far this month.

For most of January I felt miserable and demoralised as I was struggling to manage 10 min/miles and my marathon target is 9 min/miles. I was always last at running club, tagging minutes behind everyone else unable to summon the energy to keep up. I stuck to the mileage I'd planned for myself and tried not to worry about not being as quick as planned, and a weekend away forced me to re-arrange my runs so I had 3 days without running from last Saturday to Monday.

This week I'm knocking out 8:30 miles easily and am beginning to feel like I can regain the fitness I lost over the holiday season.

KBO should be my motto.

The Abbasi Brothers - Mr Boe

A slow 7 miles and I got to that zen place where you're first concentrating on breathing in over four steps then out over four more then your mind begins to wander and before you know it you've forgotten you're running.

I also managed to run the whole way up a half-mile long hill without stopping to walk for the first time today.

Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun

Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun

The day was icy, the sky was blue, the sun pale.

I started my first day of my first week of marathon training today with a slow 3 mile.

It felt much like the above song.

----

Mr Scientist admonished me for not running far enough because the marathon will be 26 miles.

Heh.

Today was a very slow 8 miles in 1:21:07.

It went better. It was also the farthest I've run in a long while.

Enta Eih

At first I didn't want to run today, then I felt so miserable I wanted to run for miles until my body gave out. Then I went to my running club and was so crap I was asked if I was feeling unwell and did I want to go home.

No, sorry, I'm just rubbish.


---
Enta Eih is a sad song, but it reminded me of my time in Syria. I loved the song, however my housemate had an irritating speed-up electronic version on her phone and it used to drive me mental.

Limit to your love

Running: Monday 6 miles
                Thursday 2 miles
Feelings: Chilled.

Wake Up

Quite often by the end of the day I'm tired and hungry. I feel lethargic and exhausted and by the time I've taken a train and a bus home and I'm through the door my motivation to go out running is at zero. Sometimes I even tell myself I don't want to run as soon as I wake up.

Ugh.

It's worse now it's dark and cold.

So i had to force myself to go to running club tonight. I had two slices of toast with honey and a mug of coffee and dragged myself out of the door.

A warm up run then 4 x 600 metres efforts later I feel a lot better for it

----

I've a question for cookers of unusual food out there: What do I do with soya flour? I bought some to make pancakes but aside from making pancakes every day for the next month I'm not sure how to use the rest of it. Anyone got any ideas?

Yorkshire Coast 10k Recap

On Sunday 30th October I got up, had a pre-race breakfast of two slices of brown bread covered in peanut butter and topped with sliced banana.

After that I sat around for a few hours chilling out before heading to Scarborough Spa Complex on the South Beach. The Complex was busy but well signposted and it was easy to pick up my timing chip.

After that we lined up on the road outside the complex. Looking north along the Marine Drive which snakes around the coast and forms the majority of the race route, I could see Scarborough seafront with its arcades, cafes and fish and chip shops, the harbour, and the ruins of Scarborough Castle perched high on the cliffs. It was sunny but a touch hazy and a naval ship was anchored in the South Bay. It felt good to be out there at 10am on a sunny Sunday morning waiting to start a 10k race.

The race was very flat but I allowed myself to be pulled along at the start by the people around me, something I paid for later on in the race. Running along the seafront was easy but we encountered a slight headwind once we rounded the headland. However it was a gentle breeze. After running along the Marine Drive we headed into a park then back out on to the shore promenade for a few hundred metres before turning around at the Sealife Centre and heading back toward the Spa Complex.

Chip Time: 51:03
Gun Time: 51:37
Garmin Time: 51:04
Split 1: 7:53.8
Split 2: 7:53.5
Split 3: 8:06.0 (This is when I began to pay for starting too fast)
Split 4: 8:13.2
Split 5: 8:08.7
Split 6: 8:25.7
Split 7: (300 m) 2:23.0

So I've got a new PB - frustrating just out of the 50s but I've proved to myself that a sub-50 10k is there for the taking provided I keep training and shift the 5lb that have glued themselves to my hips over the last few weeks.

----

So what next? I don't have another 10k planned but I've decided to continue following training plans as if I were.  I'm continuing to go to the running club and have signed up for a winter cross country league. This and parkrun should keep me ticking over throughout the winter.

I've decided to declare a temporary truce on weightloss. I don't discuss this much on my blog but I'm at the high end of a healthy BMI and body fat percentage for my height and would like to lose about a stone by cutting my fat percentage further. I'm not going to try to do this over the holiday period, though, because I've got a couple of birthdays, work parties and weekend away visiting my best friend between here and January which I know will stymie any weightloss. So I'm declaring a temporary truce and I'm going to lose 3lb to get to 10.5 stones then seek to maintain until January. In addition to this I'm tired of constantly dieting and getting nowhere, so I'm going to take control and decide to go nowhere.

So there.

And now I'm going to bed!

Harder Better Faster Stronger

Last week was an awful week concerning running. I was resting on Monday due to achey kneecaps from the weekend before. Then I eased back into exercise with a gentle 30 minute cross training session on Tuesday... Then I got a stomach bug and couldn't run until Sunday.

On Sunday I decided to do a tentative 6 mile run instead of the 7.5 miles on my 10k training plan. I didn't want to strain my knees again, and I wasn't sure if I were totally over the stomach bug. It was a beautiful late autumn day with a gentle wind, bright sunlight and blue skies overhead. I found a long, straight run along a disused railway line near my parent's home with a gentle ascent for the whole length of it. I planned a basic 3 miles out-and-back.

I passed dog walkers, walking walkers going down the track as it stretched out through the village where I grew up and beyond. I passed where my friend used to live and the farm where another friend used to keep her horses. I passed the lane you take down to a rocky inlet which has the best rockpools in the north of England, although not the best fossil-hunting - that honour belongs to another rocky cove further north of where my parents live. I passed a cafe where my mother and I once waited an hour for sandwiches and never went back again. I passed new houses creeping into the fields as the village has slowly expanded. I caught my first glimpse of the North Sea, blue-grey in the autumn sun. I passed one of my favourite pubs, which is conveniently located 100m from the track. I passed wooded valleys and rolling green fields.

At 3 miles - the point where I should have turned back - I felt great and decided to go the extra 0.75 of a mile that would expand the run into 7.5 miles. I stopped at 3.75 miles next to a house that was directly adjacent to the track. It was a former railway station. This was the end point of the bi-annual sponsored walk my secondary school used to do. Every other year the whole school would walk along the railway track from the town the school was in to this station. I stopped in the sunshine to catch my breath then turned back for my parents house.

I felt wonderful.

September Recap

September's been a difficult month and I haven't achieved any of the goals I set, really. Stress about work has led to regular insomnia and lots of overeating. I've put weight on and I still haven't finished reading Intuitive Eating. I've barely stuck to my 10k running plan as well. I didn't like the Hal Higdon one I was following because it was heart rate driven and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself and if I'm honest I didn't enjoy running so slow. Don't get me wrong I don't go hell for leather every session, but I like a bit of speed to keep me entertained.

I'm in two minds about October goals because I have consistently failed to meet goals I have set over the last few months. I want to lose the weight I've put on. I want to finish Intuitive Eating. I want a PR on the Yorkshire Coast 10k. I want to reduce the amount of dairy I'm eating because I feel uneasy being vegetarian for moral reasons while supporting the meat and dairy industries through buying milk and cheese. I want to use more functions on my Garmin FR 610 (notably interval sessions and HRM managed tempo runs) so I can write a thorough review.

I'm just not willing to say these are concrete goals.

Either way last week was very good.
Monday: 3.5 miles
Tuesday: 10 x 1 minute intervals with 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down (3.07 miles covered)
Wednesday: 4 mile run in 38:37 with a 5 minute warm up and cool down
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 40 min tempo run (10 minutes warmup, 20 minutes faster, 10 minutes cool down covering 4.01 miles)
Saturday: 40 minutes cycling instead of an easy run because a ligament in my ankle was pulling. (9.5 miles)
Sunday: 6 miles in 56: 47

Total: 30:08

My knees hurt a bit so I'm icing them.

Not Over Yet

Yesterday I popped down to my local running club for the first time. I wanted to join because I tend not to push myself in training, I wanted to meet more runners, and I wanted to be able to improve my technique and speed/distance without risking injury. I was nervous that everyone would be very serious and very fit and would laugh at me for being slow. However they were lovely, very friendly and immediately made me feel welcome. They were all keen in an enthusiastic way.

My 10k training schedule specified a gentle 4.5 mile run and I found a group that was doing a long slow run due to most of them recovering from a 10K on Sunday. One of the runners was an 86 year-old man who ran it in 56 minutes. I hope I can run it that quick when I'm 86!

I ended up doing 5.08 miles in 49:46, and was troubled with a bit of an aching stomach for most of it. I've been trying to do press-ups again, so I wonder if it's the same problem coming back. Either way, I'll definitely be going back for the next session of intervals on Thursday.

I bought a few exercise DVDs recently. This included Yogalates 6 for Weight Loss which, despite the horrible name, is a relaxing hours mix of yoga and pilates for core strengthening and toning. I'm a beginner when it comes yoga and pilates but I found it easy to follow aside from a few harder poses and stretches which require more balance than I currently have! I don't think the DVD contains much for someone who has done yoga or pilates before, as they might feel they're not being stretched (ahem) by the routine, however.

The instructor made some dubious-sounding claims which annoy me. She made out that doing the routine several times a week would result in weight loss. Only if you include it with eating more healthily, and a shedload of cardio exercise in my experience. She also made the random claim that twisting your torso from one side to the other can aid digestion and hanging foward from the waist means all the blood will rush to your face and act like a mini-facelift. Um, really? Are you sure?

Quibbles aside it was cheap, it's easy and convenient and I'm going to be keeping it up. I did the hour-long routine as a warmup stretching session before doing a 4 mile run this evening. A slow 4 miles in just over 40 minutes run. I definitely need to be in a running club to stop me slacking off!

I was going to do WIAW today, but forgot to photograph dinner. Maybe next week.

I guess the theme of this post is persistence. I will never be an elite runner; I will never be the best runner I could have been since I started too late and wasn't active in my teens and early twenties. But I will still enjoy it. I will dedicate myself to improving - to running faster and further - and when I reach an age where I cannot physically improve and I begin to slow down, I will persist at running for the mental and physical benefits it brings, and because I enjoy it.

Good Run

Today I ran a 3 mile race pace session before tapering ahead of the 10k race on Sunday. I put it off and put it off even though I knew it was only 3 miles and it would be over in around 26 minutes. I was worried my stomach ache would reoccur. To be honest though I'm quite chuffed 3 miles is a short distance and a run which covers it in around 26 minutes is one which doesn't leave me feeling like my heart is going to explode or that I'm going to throw up. The sense of achievement and accomplishment was brilliant.

The first mile was tough and I was huffing and puffing and often falling behind Mr Sticky the running partner representation on my Garmin. Then when I got out of town and on to the disused railway I run on I got into the swing of it for the remaining 2.1 miles. I even considered speeding up to make an attempt on doing a sub-25 5k attempt but decided to stick to the plan and not risk wearing myself out. It was a typical evening run - still warm, still sunny, lots of midges and flies that I had to avoid swallowing. The most trouble I had was a touch of a stitch in my right side and a slight tugging in one of the muscles in my inside right thigh. NO STOMACH ACHE! YAY! HURRAH!

I did 3.1 miles in 25:58 with an average pace of 8:37/mile, and I'd do the 10k in 53:32 if I keep that up for the race on Sunday. Hahah oh I wish. I kind of felt like I could have continued at that pace for at least another 2 miles but I'm not expecting to be able to maintain that pace for the whole thing. Mainly because I've never run longer than 7 miles, haven't run 10k at my race pace, haven't run at all in the Gateshead area so the course will be very unfamiliar, and because I think the course is hillier than where I've been training.

Still no sign of my pack. I emailed the race organisers and they said my pack had been sent out but that duplicate packs are available on the race day.

I have tomorrow afternoon off so I might pop to Gateshead to scope out the course of the 10k if I get time.

Glorious

On Saturday I ran the longest I've ever run. A long slow 6 miles along the high street, through the retail park dodging afternoon shoppers pulling out of the carpark, down the hill on a lane that runs between fields of oats and cow, over the river and the sportsfield and along a trail through the wood. Then I turned around and came back, I'm not very good at working out circular running routes. I ran later than I usually do, starting at 5pm because it was so warm up here in the usually frozen north. The air smelt of cut grass and the trees were a deep green tinged with blue in the late afternoon haze. I was glad to be outside.

My run wasn't so good. I've been suffering from mildly uncomfortable tummy aches over the last few runs. They're worse when I push myself, but even my long slow run was tough. I had to stop about 6 times in order to alleviate it. I'm not sure what's causing it and the internet is no help. It could be drinking too much water before running, not drinking enough, eating too much or not eating enough to fuel my body, not having enough core strength or straining my core with the pushups and situps I'm doing, etc etc etc. It could also be due to some pills I'm taking which can cause nausea and stomach aches as a side affect. Last week I also did more exercise than I usually do, so it could also be due to that.

It's worrying because it means I couldn't push myself as much as I'd like to, and if it continues it will badly affect my run on 17th July. I just hope that like the and hamstring calf twinges I had a few months back these aches will pass. I got the advise to try to keep my breaths in sync with my feetstrikes, so I'll try this today.

I'm still pleased I ran 6 miles. When I first started going to the gym I could barely run a mile, and when I first started losing weight I couldn't run for the bus.

Distance: 6 miles
Moving Time: 57:06
Elapsed Time: 01:01:44
Avg Pace: 09:39
 
---
On Saturday The Guardian had a few articles about fitness and specifically running.
I read the article about tips from Olympic coaches for advice on how to deal with stomach aches, but no love.

One of them had short pieces about why people run. One journalist said they run to look as fit as George Clooney, another said she runs to have some time to herself, and the last said he runs to help his mental health. I'm a mixture of the first two - vanity and space. Running and exercise help me lose weight, and when I reach my goal weight they'll help me maintain it.

I also run to get fitter and improve just like you'd practice an instrument.

Running helps me if I'm in a bad mood or upset. I was in a foul mood on Friday and, frankly, being a right mardy cow for very little reason. I started off angry and running fast before I physically told myself to slow down or I wouldn't finish the run at all. I slowed my pace, got my breathing under control, and I could feel myself calming down. I completed the run despite having to stop frequently to ease my stomach ache and was a much nicer person by the end of it...

The only problem I had with the article was the response of some of the commenters below the line. I know the internet is full of nutters and malcontents and that opinions are like bumholes but some non-runner commenters seemed to feel that they were somehow superior to runners for not doing something they don't enjoy. I may need to be called a wahmbulance but this smug attitude of denigrating someone else's hobby or choice because you don't understand the attraction of it is one I find intensely irritating. I think it comes from insecurity, but also from plain narrow-mindedness and it's something I find baffling. Surely as an adult it should come as no surprise that different people have different hobbies, and that it's pointless to feel smug about not doing other people do enjoy.

Anyway, whinge over. I also discovered parkrun and there are a few nearish to me, so I can use them to work on getting that sub-25 5k without having to pay to enter loads of races, although I'm probably going to enter a race on 20th July.

Another thing - there's a running club that meets within walking distance of where I live. I'd like to join to improve my running with people who know what they're doing as well as to meet new people. , However I've seen them out and they all look impossibly fit and slim.

Should I join now, or wait til I'm a slightly less blobby and slow runner?

I heard cathedral bells tripping down the alleyways

  

I went for a run on Monday night. I turned out of the block of flats, down the main road, through the retail estate, down the single-lane track the leads down the steep sides of the lush hill with a view across miles more of valleys and woods, into town, along the streets crowded with students and runners, across the bridge and up to where the cathedral resides. There I remembered For Emily Whenever I May Find Her, which is a lovesong of heartfelt gratitude, and the line about hearing cathedral bells tripping down the alleyways.

I headed back for the river bank and the languid waters with students floating in rubber tubes and rowers and deep green trees overhead. There I stopped and began to walk, tired and melancholy. I followed the river around and under bridges until I reached the road that leads up into the hill on which the suburb I live in sits.

I reached my block of flats, worn out, my mind calm.

This is why I run, I told myself.

----

Right now I should go for a run. I skipped on a gym session after realising I'd forgotten my sportsbra, a vital piece of equipment any woman would agree. I've eaten too much today having never felt full, I feel weepy and melancholy. It's dusk and I'm seized with that feeling I used to get dusk when I was a child when I just wanted to get out there and run and run following the path along the rugged coast near where I grew up until I reached Lindisfarne or Scotland or somewhere far away.

But right now it's getting dark and from my window I think can see another rain storm sweeping across the rooftops and treetops towards me.

I can run tomorrow, it's ok.

Thor's Cave and the Manifold Way

Manifold Valley from Thor's Cave

I have been major internet problems, so that's why I've been somewhat quiet recently. My 5k race and last walk in the Peak District after the jump.

Buddy Holly

I did intervals today. 10 x 1 minute jogging at 10 min/mile followed by 1 minute running like my life depended on it at 07:24 min/mile. By the 6 repetition it was kicking my arse, by the 10th it was handing it to me on a plate. I remembered why I hate interval training, but I've really struggled with my last few sessions so it was good to see that I could do this.

I finished The Beauty Myth last night and it was brilliant. By the end I'd grabbed a biro and was underlining bits and writing notes in the margins and I never do that.

I'm not going to go into much depth about the book because it's been reviewed by people more talented at getting to a book's essence and well-versed in feminism than I.

In the book which was originally published in 1991,Wolf asks the question why do women feel under greater and greater pressure to conform to certain physical standards while actually when it comes to political and personal rights we enjoy more freedoms than ever. She theorises that the monolith of 'them', 'the patriarchy', 'the establishment' feels threatened by the gains women made during the first wave of feminism and as such needs to create what Wolf calls an Iron Maiden. A metal sarcophagus in which victims are placed to either suffocate to death or be stabbed by the spikes inside and bleed to death. 

According to Wolf the Iron Maidan which can be found imprisoning and suffocating women in all aspects of their lives: work, culture, religion, sex, hunger, and violence. It is not enough to merely be, women are told in all domains of their lives, they must also live up to a rigid and perfectionist set of standards which they are simultaneously being told they will never be capable of doing.

What Wolf doesn't really examine is how the myth affects non-white, non-middle class, non-heterosexual, non-professional and non-college educated women. Ethnic minority women and working-class women get a look in occasionally, but only as bit players that support the perspective of middle-class women. I suspect the book would be a multi-volume affair if she had. Subsequent books on similar topics, such as Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, have made greater efforts to be more inclusive. 

I read this feeling more and more guilty about the makeup bag in my bedside cabinet. Was my mascara a political statement saying I have bought into the self-loathing and misogyny? Wolf points out that there's no shame in wearing makeup or dying your hair or wearing skyscraper high heels, (or, ahem, losing weight) as long as the place from which you approach them is positive and not negative. I run to be strong, not to fit some else's ideal.

  

Also my frown deepened and deepened as I read it, because I don't know any men that buy into the beauty myth. The men in my life - my partner, brother, father, male colleagues and friends and acquaintances - treat women with dignity and respect, or rather, as human beings. But Wolf acknowledges that patriarchical institutions and not men as individuals enforce the myth. 

Wolf is astoundingly perceptive - she notes that the beauty myth hurts men as much as women, and goes on to say that men will begin to be targeted by the rigid perfectionism of the Iron Maiden. She predicts a rise in male anorexia and other eating disorders. 20 years later men are being targeted by the beauty industry in similar ways, and eating disorders in men, which were once almost non-existant, have increased. 

However I think that progress for men and women has been made since The Beauty Myth was published. I think equality has risen. How can it not have now fairer paternity leave is being openly mooted? And yet female badminton players are finding out that being female badminton players is not enough, they must use their femininity to market themselves and attract male attention (Hat-tip to Inspiring Sports Women and Muslim Women in Sports )

To steal someone else's phrase, I believe in very gradual change.

And I wonder what Wolf would make of the internet if she were writing today. 

Congratulations if you made it this far. But what does this have to do with Weezer? When I was in the gym Buddy Holly came up on my iPod and there I was running along to a song which felt as fresh and relevant today as when I first heard it in 1994, much like The Beauty Myth, which was published a good two decades ago, does today.

Both of them made me feel a bit old as well. Seriously? The Little Mermaid's closer to the moon landing than today?  I remember getting a free Flounder and Ariel with a Happy Meal. Jesus...

Sing Sing Sing

I've had two easy days as I've begun to taper ahead of the 5K race on Sunday. Yesterday was a 30 minute jog then 30 minutes on the elliptical machine, and today was a slow 5 mile run. Tomorrow I'm resting.

I the above version of Sing Sing Sing is one of my most favourite songs. Many moons ago I used to play the trumpet in a jazz band to a standard which never really got above middling to fair, but this song was one of the most fun pieces to play. It's the way it starts with the drums driving out a rhythm, the trombones chug out the start, in comes the rasping trumpets then the smooth saxes all in harmony and the drums keeping pulsing on. The variation in screaming stacatto brass, smooth legato wood wind, tinkling piano, loud and quiet, intricate and simple and all the sections playing different rhythms all together make it a joyous, bouncing piece of music. You can't help but move when you listen to it.

I listened to this in the gym and may have had a bit of a boogie moving in my hands up and down a bit while running in line with the parts I used to play...

Do you ever dance a long in the gym or out of it to music?