and on the 2nd, 5th and 7th days

Rest. For me, this concept - that of NOT running 3 days a week - was at first hard to grasp. At this point, though, I am completely converted. The weekly pattern of short runs and rest periods does actually seem to help build stamina for the long runs, which for me fall mostly on Saturdays. So, today being a Sunday, I am indulging in a little laziness and revisiting the ipod playlist. I will likely do a little Wii Fit Plus later, following the sage advice to avoid being completely sedentary on rest days. But, at the moment, lounging in my pajamas with coffee and laptop is feeling just about perfect.

As to the playlist, I think I've finally honed it to the point where I don't feel the urge to skip any songs as I run. Originally, I thought I could just use the generic workout playlist I had put together over the past couple of years of sporadic walking, jogging and weight training. But too many of the songs turned out the be the wrong pace or mood for distance running. So, the new list was born... and then tweaked, and then tweaked again. This week, over 16 miles, I did not skip a single song. Happiness.

...although, I'm sure I'll add more songs and probably get sick of some that pop up more often than others in the shuffle.

And for the days when music just isn't doing it for me, I'm still working on getting my laptop close enough to the treadmill to stream bad tv. But, that's a whole 'nother story.