Run to the Hills

Songs can inspire us in so many ways but I gotta admit, this is the first time I've had a song inspire a run workout.  Guess there's a first time for everything right?  I had originally planned on doing some mile repeats last night but I wasn't sure I felt up to the puke factor of said repeats.  I was updating my shuffle playlist and listening to a few new (old) songs when this song came on.  I had downloaded this the other day after seeing a commercial for some DVD that was coming out.  It took me back to my high school days and my rocker / guitarist boyfriend.  Thanks in part to that rocker boyfriend, I have pretty diverse taste in music but I'm not a huge heavy metal fan.  I can appreciate it and some stuff is quite good (Metallica especially) but most of it I find a bit over the top.  That being said, there is something about the beat and the bass line of this song that I love.  And you can't deny that Bruce Dickinson has a superb set of pipes on him.  He makes a lot of noise for a little man.

The light bulb went on.  Given that I have done zero hill training this year, I figured I was due.   I was going to run in High Park so instead of running mile repeats around the top loop, I would warm up and then tackle my hill repeats on good old Spring Road. 

I did a nice easy warm up around the back end of the park and made my way over to Spring Road.  I let my shuffle play what it wanted to.  At the end of my first repeat, on the way down the hill, Run to the Hills came on.  Adrenaline pumping, I turned around and tackled my second repeat.  Much harder than the first.  The wailing guitar and thumping bass pushed me up that hill.  Wow.   I had to force myself not to try and play air guitar while running.  There were lots of people around and I looked crazy enough as it was.  The song ended and I hit repeat.  Why not.  Up and down, repeat.  Up and down, repeat.  That song got me through repeats 2 through 5.  I wasn't sure about a sixth but decided I might as well.  So off I went just as the song finished.  I decided to let the shuffle do it's work again and let it play.  Next up The Arctic Monkeys "I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor."  I had to laugh.  Iron Maiden followed by The Arctic Monkeys.  Talk about opposites. Two very different bands but I love them for the same reason.  Their music gets me going.  And anything that can give me that extra kick in the pants is a good thing in my book.