five in forty-five

This morning I ran five miles (the equivalent of eight kilometers) in forty-five minutes, exactly. I may have had to sprint the last ten seconds to make this happen, but man was it a sweet personal victory. I've been hovering just about the forty-five minute mark for weeks now, with my (previous) best time running this distance being 45:35. I'm pleased to say it took me less than two weeks to shave off those last 00:35 seconds and reach this new personal best. This isn't particularly fast by any means, but it's fast for me. I've been obsessing over split times lately (this little cheat sheet has come in handy) and it's rewarding to see real progress being made.

Today's run also means I've officially surpassed my February goal for kilometers run. This is the first month I've religiously tracked my mileage, so with that in mind I didn't set an overly ambitious goal, hoping to run between 120 and 130 kms. As of today I've run 141 kms during the month of February, averaging around 35 kms a week. With three days left in the month, I'm hoping to squeeze in another 15-20 kms. I think this is definitely possible, especially with warmer temperatures on the horizon and a long run scheduled for Saturday morning.

I haven't shared a running playlist in a while, so here's some of the music that's been accompanying me through these February runs:

• Girl Talk, Night Ripper: My favourite Girl Talk album, the perfect mash-up/mix for early morning runs when you need to get the blood pumping.
• Brand New, Deja Entendu: A high school favourite that I never grew out of. This album is great for post-work runs, when you've got to run off some stress.
• Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late: Yeah, I jumped on the Drake bandwagon as soon as he dropped this mix tape two weeks ago. What can I say? It's a great soundtrack for running through the streets of Toronto.
• Matt Nathanson, Last Of The Great Pretenders: This album is for quiet Saturday morning runs when it's less about speed and more about endurance. Matt Nathanson at his best, and the live acoustic version of Come On Get Higher is one of my all time favourite songs.
• Flume, Flume (Delux Edition): A new discovery thanks to my younger brother who loaded this onto my ipod as part of my pre-bonnaroo music education (we swapped bonnaroo discographies: I had all the alt-rock/indie/folk bands and he had all the dance/electronic/techno). So far I'm surprising myself by loving this album: not my usual go to, but a great rhythm and beat to run to when you really need to crank out the kilometers.