Pastoral Symphony and Pastoral Run

This week has been full of rehearsals for Beethoven's Symphony #6 (the Pastoral).  I play Principal 2nd violin with San Juan Symphony.  www.sanjuansymphony.org
Open this link on another page to listen while you read the rest of this post:
Beethoven Pastoral Symphony, 1st movement

So, a week full of 55 miles of running...lots of pace work.  Plus, many hours of teaching violin lessons, in addition to many rehearsal and practice hours for the concert.  Saturday was my rest day.  I had 2.5 hours of rehearsal, then the 2 hour concert last night.  It was so fun.  The Pastoral symphony is so amazing to play in this spring season.  If you aren't a classical music listener, you should try this symphony.  In fact, just this one piece will take you through 40 or 45 minutes of a run. I don't run with music but since I play it and practice it all the time I can just sing it the whole way in my head.  The piece is full of birds, fields of flowers, shepherd songs, a stream, a thunderstorm (my favorite) and a peasant dance.

This morning's run was: 2 miles easy, 15 miles at marathon pace +10sec per mile, 3 miles easy.  I decided to do it at beautiful Berg Park...along the river here.  There is a 4 mile loop there that DH and I could run in opposite directions to see each other every few miles and touch base with each other (he is faster than me so we can't run pace together).  The run was like the Pastoral Symphony....deer, ducks, geese...men out fishing in the river, the birds singing and chirping...it was totally cool.  I didn't get my thunderstorm but there are some rapids in the river.  I held pace most of the way...the last 3 miles were about 9 seconds off per mile but ah well.  I was pretty tired.  A long day yesterday with a very sweaty concert late last night plus an hour drive home and got to bed late so 9 seconds off per mile is probably just fine.  The great news is I get to go play the concert again in a few hours.

Honestly, if you have never tried Beethoven....now is the time of year and start with Symphony No. 6....and yes it's 5 movements (5 parts) and 45 minutes long.  One movement doesn't count, you have to listen to the whole thing.

So the other great part is that there is a fellow loopster in the orchestra:
kathrynellen  She plays flute and piccolo.
Here we are at the concert last night:

Happy Spring!