Look up at your browser’s address bar.  Notice anything different?  No?  How about some missing hyphens in the URL.  Yessiree Bob, I finally got the domain name without dashes, woohoo!  That might be why, if you read this thing from a Reader, it looked like I had a million new posts over the weekend, the switchover meant changing everything from the old domain to the new.

The story of the name of this blog and the dashed domain is that I started posting on the Runners World Beginner Forum the same time I started learning to run in Feb 2007, picking Girl In Motion as my username.  So in November, when I started the blog, it made sense to use that name.  Wouldn’t you know, girlinmotion.com was already taken by a porno site, as I’m sure many of you discovered when trying to find this one.

Cut to about 2 months ago, I get a couple emails saying “girlinmotion.com is for sale for $1200″ to which my reply was “fuck you”.  I didn’t actually write it but it was mentally written the way my replies to spammers always are.

Then on Friday as I was coming home from my run (they’ve been hotbeds of ideas lately) and feeling wistful that I didn’t have that non-dashed name since I was starting all this action on the site and the dashes do leave a level of difficulty when saying the name “girl dash in dash motion dot com” and also, for searchers to find it naturally, those dashes are a hindrance.

Since a couple months had gone by since the coercion emails, I gave it a shot and put it into Godaddy to see if it was available.  YES!!!  Plus, I had a coupon, so I got two years of my brand new domain for $15 vs one year at $1200.  Happiness.

Bikini Ski

One of my readers is doing something pretty cool for charity.  Her sister-in-law suffers from Crohns Disease so to raise some dough, she’s going to ski in her bikini.  If she raises $1000, she’ll do two bikini ski runs.  Very clever and an entertaining way to help someone close to her.  So if you have a few bucks to spare, visit her blog Pedestrianrunner and throw a couple bucks her way.  Help her freeze her tush off for a great cause.

Friday’s MP Run

I finally did that 10w/8MP rearranged from last week.  It was a successful run, hit my paces without too much ado (MP miles 7:34, total avg 7:49) but I had a strange Boston thought on the cooldown mile home, that maybe I should pace someone instead of taking a chance on blowing up again.  Here’s what I posted to my friends in the sub 3:20 thread:

If the 3:20 doesn’t work (and there’s every chance that it won’t) I probably won’t be that far off my miserably gotten 3:33 so I won’t be too proud of the result anyway.  And if I make my goal easier by going for a 3:25 to begin with, again, not far enough off that crap 3:33 to matter and if that planned 3:25 goes awry, that’ll be really depressing.

So that’s what I’m thinking right now, not deciding either way but wanted to let you know what’s going on in this silly mind of mine.

A Snowy Sunday Long Run

Saturday was crazy, Philly got the 2nd biggest snowfall in its history (bumping December’s storm out) with 28.5″.  Here’s the photo I posted on Facebook, taken in the morning so there were still a few more inches to come.Yesterday was a 17 miler and while it was a bit treacherous getting to the park, they did a good enough job of clearing the paths so I was able to run without too much hopping around.  It was cold though, 22 with windchill so I wasn’t exactly feeling spry on the way home.  I think the cold keeps your muscles and tendons from being as pliable as they would be at normal temps, at least I know it’s true for tendons since that was a warning when I researched my ITBS, that it’s worse in the cold because it remains tighter so it must be so for all tendons.

And that’s it for Monday’s blahblah.   Have a great running week everybody and here’s a few smoochies for the road.

Question For You

You may have noticed recently that with the social media lake I’ve jumped into, plus the newsletter (oooh, people signed up…scary), the site redesign, the videos and some writing projects I’m working on, that I’m on a mission to steer this blog into something more “real” and increase readership.

It’s all a fun experiment at this point and I’m happy to talk about it as it goes and grows, but in the meantime, I was thinking about you guys.  Is there anything you especially like about this blog or would like me to talk about more?  It seems I don’t talk much about the grand subject of running lately, just what my workouts are and I wonder if you’d like more running talk or if you find the personal stuff more interesting.

A lot of you guys and gals have mentioned the word “inspirational” to me in comments or emails when talking about this blog, a word that I find undeserved and unconnected to, since it seems I spend the bulk of my writing whining about life’s annoyances and with that last race, any inspiring I might have done should have been rescinded.  Nevertheless, that word keeps hitting me, because I want to provide inspiration, I can’t think of a greater honor than that.

With that word in mind, I was thinking it’d be cool to start doing some Skype video interviews of other runners who are inspiring for one reason or another, but since super duper great runners don’t inspire me as much as make me think they’re martians from another planet, I was thinking about runners that are closer to where we are, like a sub-3 marathoner who’s been running for only a few years, or someone who’s made a difference with charity running or one who’s come back from a bad injury.  The main thing would be, people in whose footsteps we can aspire to follow and not from miles behind.  Would you like to see that?

What else would you like?  I feel a little silly asking straight out like this, but I can’t think of a better way to know what readers want than to ask.  After all, if not for you, I might as well be mumbling to myself in the kitchen – it’d be just as effective and require less typing.  So please, don’t be shy…speak.

My Runs This Week

So far, things have been going fine, if not gangbusters.  It’s cutback week so the mileage is a tad lower.  Monday I had a slow 6@8:54 and Tuesday was 9 w/4 tempo.  The tempo miles were 7:20s, avg pace for the run 8:01.  What was nice about it was that my heart rate is finally moving southward, not in leaps and bounds, but there is a definite downward trend.  The tempo pace, while on the slow side, syncs with Daniels for a 4-mile tempo and I’m sure I’ll be faster when it’s not 32 degrees.

Yesterday was 7 recovery, filled with cramps from impending Lady Time, so it was a most unpleasant run.  Then today was 11 and my plan was to do 3MP but my right quad has been a bit achy recently and when I started the first marathon paced mile it wasn’t feeling good, so I went back to easys.  No biggie, my schedule rearranging from last weekend mixed with an impending blizzard on Saturday means I have 10 w/8MP tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be ready to roll.

And that’s it from QuestionMark Central.  Please don’t be shy about giving your opinions or thoughts on what you’d like to see here. I really, really want to know.

Later, sweet things.

And I Am One

The schedule called for a 10 on Saturday with 8MP, then 17 on Sunday.  I was fine with it until Saturday came and it was 8 degrees windchill (and that’s from an inland weather station, the river’s gotta be worse).  Somehow the idea of pushing MP in that kind of temperature was not thrilling me in the least.

I wanted to want to do it, I really did.  So I looked at my schedule to see what my options were.  I noticed that today would start my first cut-back week which meant next weekend’s runs were to be a 7 and 13 with no quality involved.  Checked the weather and saw that next weekend would be in the 30s (tropical!), so after much hemming and hawing and still feeling loserish, I decided to switch weekends.

The two thoughts that kept me from feeling full-on Loser is that

A. I’m not going to be running Boston in 8 degree weather and since the MP miles were guaranteed to be harder than normal, it’d make me feel unnecessarily negative, and

B. My body doesn’t know the calendar, so if my cutback starts two days earlier it’s all the same to the legs. Nothing lost.

Once I got outside, I was extremely happy with my decision.  Despite 2 pairs of gloves, my fingers went numb pretty fast so I had to keep messing with my hands to keep some life in them.  I ended up making it a peppy GA run because I wanted to get home, so 7@8:09.

Yesterday was much warmer at 24 degrees but I stuck to the cut-back schedule and did 13@8:35.  Again, it was a good decision because I felt creaky and old – a rare occurrence with me, but there it was.  In fact, somewhere in the middle of the run I was wishing Boston had a Half I could drop down to.   If only.

So yeah, I wussed out but it won’t affect anything, I won’t be skipping or losing any quality work.  Funny how a little rearranging can make you feel like you’re doing something wrong nonetheless.

The Newsletter

I’m sure you’ve noticed the new addition to the right menu and the page to which it links.  I’ve decided it would be fun to add a newsletter to the mix and while I’m not sure of the final format, there are some things I’d like to talk about via the newsletter – jabber about goals, motivational ideas, links to interesting articles and whatever sounds worthy of sharing.  I’m also very open to suggestions from you guys, so if you have anything you’d like to see, please let me know via email.

And because I think a bribe should always be involved when someone is kind enough to supply an email address, I’ve put together a big-ass pdf of running links accompanied by comments on why I like them or how to use them, etc.   Thus, Flo’s 103 Fabulous Running Links is my entry into the bribe market.  Of course I hope you guys sign up, but don’t feel obligated in any way, I know what it’s like to get too much email so I’ll love you no matter what.

That’s it for today’s adventure in one-sided conversation.  Have some good runs, my darlings, be safe and stay warm.  Only 1 million days left to Spring!  Feels like it, anyway.

A gal who makes an entire video wearing a shithead wig and discussing the wiley ways of The Bear has no business running out of dessert on a Wednesday evening and eating a mammoth bowl of frosted shredded wheat as a poor substitute.  Especially if that gal goes on a tempo run the next morning without doing her, er…business, beforehand.

Backtracking, Tuesday was quite a good run – hill reps day -  so 10mi w/5 x.25mi repeats.  When I did these 3 weeks ago, I was pretty satisfied with the workout though if you remember, once home and looking at my logs, realized I’d lost quite a chunk of fitness since last Fall’s buildup.  So this Tuesday was great because it was 10sec faster per rep, had an additional rep than the last time and a lower heart rate, to boot. Plus, they were all into the wind.  A needed confidence booster.

Wednesday was an 8mi recovery, then yesterday, a not-so-hot tempo.  It was 13mi. w/4tempo and I struggled to keep the tempo miles at anything approaching a good pace, they veered from 7:20s to 7:25, which really super sucks but honestly, I was ok with it!

Having Tuesday’s good workout was like, “Ok, this was just an off day, there’s still good things going on beyond this one run.”   I rarely do morning runs in the winter anyway, so maybe I wasn’t all there, but also…the bear! My last tempo mile was crazy fighting that gnarly wooly creature off.  Thankfully, the tempo portion ended just in front of the restrooms.   I guess you need to be careful of what you talk about, or else it might come round to bite you in the ass.  Literally.

Today is a day off, but well spent.  I made a narration demo!  I love Mike and Deb, the studio owners.  They’re a blast to hang with and she makes a mean chicken casserole.  Here are the fruits of our labor.  (warning: it’s not at all thrilling but since I’m such a media whore these days, may as well post it).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Other than that, I’ve become enamored with Facebook this week. Last night I made a Fan Page for Gifted Runner and it’s already got 50 fans.  Half are my friends while the other half are people I don’t even know and they’re actually going to the website, so this is a very cool development. Didn’t realize just how useful it could be, so if you have a site, I highly recommend making a Page for it. And once you get 25 Fans, you can go to www.facebook.com/username to get a pretty URL for it, so I’ve got www.facebook.com/giftedrunner. Niiice.

There’s very little on the page right now but one thing I posted is a promise of new designs by February 9th. How’s that for a publicly self-imposed kick in the ass? Anyway, if you’d like to become a Fan of Gifted Runner, please do. And while I’m in beggar mode, if you want to add me to your friend pile, I’m game: www.facebook.com/flo.karp (you can get a nice URL for your personal page, too).

And with that, I’m going to enjoy the rest of this frigid day off by doing absolutely nothing and not eating shredded wheat because I have 10 w/8MP tomorrow. Just wish it wasn’t going to be 14 degrees. Winter bites.

Time for a video with some actual value.  This one is a demonstration and comparison of hydration belts and handhelds. I thought it might be worthwhile for those folks that haven’t yet dealt with the different methods for carrying water/sports drinks, especially the newbies, but even for the experienced souls who might not have considered all the options.

As always, the production values suck (I need to buy a proper light) and I did it in one take because it was too long to want to do again, lol, so please excuse any Alzheimers moments.

For the moment, I’m linking it directly to YouTube because I need to start getting some YouTube love in their rankings, so if you guys and gals want to help out, please rate the video or even comment there – that’d be super cool.   Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this one!

Handhelds and Hydration Belts – A demonstration and Comparison

Before you read this, if you haven’t seen the survey in the previous post, please do me a huge favor and take it, it’s just 3 questions.  Thanks, kids!  Now on to today’s post…

Having finally entered the world of social media (albeit kicking and screaming) I gotta say, it’s pretty darn fun.  Twitter took me a while to understand why I was even on there and I can finally say that now “I get it.”  It’s for:

1. Giving a quickie of how you feel, just for the hell of it.
2. Announcing blog or website updates.  I’m following Coolrunning and Active.com among others and they’re basically touting posts or articles every 1/2 hour or so.  It’s cool though, click what sounds interesting, ignore the rest.  I won’t lie, This is actually the main reason I’m on there, to get people to this blog and The Gifted Runner.  No shame in that as long as you post other stuff, too, you don’t want to be a totally selfish tweeter (though tons of folks and companies are).
3. Sharing interesting web finds. People post quotes, articles or funny pictures.
4. Sharing your daily run report.  Some people, like my pal Progman, link to their running logs, which is pretty cool.

What’s appealing to me is that tweets can only be 140 characters at most.  Such a limiting framework makes it easy to jump in and you don’t have to think of what to write or how best to say it like you do when writing full paragraphs.  Also, you don’t have to be involved with real conversations.  Occasionally there’ll be a message directed towards you or you’ll reply specifically to someone’s tweet, but for the most part, it’s a one-way deal.  Very easy with no emotional investment…just my speed.

If you want to try it, here are a couple tips:

To get followers

I have 47 followers right now, which is very modest, but considering I’ve only been on it 10 days, not bad.  Followers are the people who follow your tweets.  It’s one thing to spout whatever’s on your mind, but the fun comes in knowing you’re being read.  You can follow people anytime but to have people follow you requires some action.

One way to do it is to go to a guru with your interest, like a famous runner or coach, click the followers link in their profile and start following the first couple pages of people that come up.  Some will follow you back immediately.  I only did it once on my first day so it’s pretty effective.

Another great way to find people with your interest is to do a search on “running” or “marathon”, then follow whoever looks interesting (I admit to following a few guys just because they’re cute).

Saved Searches

Speaking of searches, another way to get more followers is by including a search tag in your tweet which means way more people will see it than just your followers.  For example, yesterday I wrote  Just got back from my long #run. 18.34mi @ 8:47 pace, half road, half trails. Tomorrow’s recovery run will be heaven. #running #marathon

You can click those links to see that they take you to searches on those particular words. So all you have to do it is put the # before whatever word to make it a search link.  If you’re writing about some great thing you made for dinner and want other cooks to see it, write “yum, just made a fabulous stew from cows eyeballs #recipes”  Like that.

Make A Cool Profile Background

I just did this yesterday. If you’ve got a graphics program, you can make something and upload it, otherwise, there are lots of free online Twitter backgrounds you can get and some that even let you create your own online.  Here’s a google search if you’re interested.  Having your own background can help advertise your site or blog and/or make people more likely to want to follow you.

So that’s a little taste of my experience so far.  The cool thing is I don’t spend hardly any time on it but am getting about 5 new followers each day, seems that posting about my run using the #running tag gets people interested.

Back to the blog…

Tobey asked how to get those avatars by your name when you comment here or on other blogs.  I posted the link in my reply comment but it’s worth reposting here so everyone can get one.  It’s called a gravatar and you go to http://en.gravatar.com/ to get your very own.  It’s simple, free and fun because no matter whose blog you’re posting on, you can adorn your fabulous comments with the identifying picture of your choice.

And that’s it for my Monday blab.  Have some great runs, all!