Archive for July, 2008

…to the cute runner girl this morning who, as we passed, said, “I read your blog!” You’ve no idea what a boost of joy that gave me! Only one other “stranger” has ever told me that, so big hugs to you for letting me know and for reading this stuff in the first place.

I swear, when I started the blog I figured it’d only be of interest to middle-aged women who, like me, started running later in life. I am grateful to every single one of you people; young, old, male, female, who take the time to hang out here. You make it insanely rewarding to put my thoughts down, so big silly kisses to all y’all!

Anyway, ’twas a fine 14. Did the museum loop and back, so took one handheld (refilled twice), clip-on gel flask with 2 Hammer gels and an S-cap before leaving, then another about an hour in. It was 80 degrees when I started at 6:38 and 85 by the end, so I was a wet clump about halfway through, but pace was right on target – Pete Pfitzinger would be proud.

And with that, have a great weekend everyone, see you in a couple days. I leave you with one of my new smilies, though I can’t quite figure out what a tongue hanging out signifies, it’s cute.

This’ll just be a shorty because I’m trying to do a lot of stuff in a little time.

The recovery week continues…. Yesterday was an easy 8-mile run. Kept up a pretty strong pace the whole run even though technically I should have been a bit slower, I was so happy to have such a relatively short run with nothing fancy asked of me, I just ran from the heart.

Today is a day off, then tomorrow I’ll be doing a 14-miler in the morning (keeping correct Pfitzinger pace, no ifs and or buts). Afterwards, we’re leaving until Monday for upstate NY where my wonderful old friend Simon and Hector, his mate, have a fab house in the woods. He’s also invited my buddy Julie, who I went to high school with in Arkansas and moved up to NYC shortly after I did, and her hubby. It promises to be one of those weekends of indulgent spoiling with fabulous food, drink and laughter.

I’m supposed to do a recovery run on Sunday but I’m going to skip it entirely. It’ll be lovely having an extra day off which should put me in prime condition for a strong run on Tuesday…10 w/5 tempo miles.

Next week will be 52 miles, so that’s cool. More than cool, I’m grateful and thrilled that building back up from the heel bursitis episode has been so uneventful. Everything’s working just as it did before, knock on wood, so thank you, Running Gods, thank you. The beat goes on.

And with that, I hope everyone has a great weekend. Unless something wild happens during my run tomorrow, I probably won’t be blogging until Tuesday, so have some weekend adventures on me and may you all be fleet of foot for the next few days and beyond.

This week is a recovery week, so today was supposed to be 8 miles w/8 strides. I got confused though, thinking I was supposed to 10, then I mistakenly thought I’d programmed in only 8, so I did two extra, ending up with 12 strides total. Doh! Apparently, I’m hopeless at keeping track of things, even when it’s programmed for me. Kept good pace, though, so very pleased.

Broke in a virgin pair of Inspires…twas a cushy and blindingly white ride.

So a few months ago, I mentioned that one of my race goody bags included a sample bottle of NatureMade calcium softgels. I’d put off using it because, like most calcium supplements, it’s Calcium carbonate which stops me up, poopwise. Which is too bad because Tums are a cheap source of calcium and those Viactiv chews were pretty tasty but both of them were problematic.

As a replacement, I’d found some other chews by Citracal, whose products use sodium caltrate, much better for poop issues. They’ve stopped making them though, so I’ve been taking their calcium pills, the “Petites” which are laughably huge horse pills despite that moniker, but that’s the problem with calcium citrate, it takes up a lot of space. One serving was 2 pills for 400mg and I need 1000/day, so I was never taking enough.

So I was looking at this bottle of NatureMade Calcium softgels and each pill is 600mg, which is impressive, even more than a Viactiv chew, which would mean only needing one pill twice a day (can’t take too much calcium at once, you have to split it up). I decided to go ahead and try the things, poop problems be damned, and wonder of wonders I had no poop trouble at all! Must be the gel or something. Whatever, I’m a convert.

This is all leading up to this: I finished the last softgel so on Saturday I go to Target to get a real bottle – no luck, no softgels. I was going to order some online and then yesterday in the mail I received my free sample of Calcium from NatureMade which I’d forgotten I’d signed up for. They send you two bottles of 14 each, so it’s a great freebie.

Btw, they’re doing this offer for all their Softgels, so if you’re a boy and don’t need calcium, go choose something else. Free stuff is fun!

One last unrelated thing that was making me laugh the other day was sometimes I lurk at the messageboards at LetsRun.com. There was this one old post about why is it that you can be a fit runner but sometimes getting to the top of your stairs will leave you wiped out? I thought I was alone on this, but if those hard core guys are experiencing it too, I’m in great company. Which made me think of another bit of goofyness…

When I started running, I remember being at the grocery store, standing in line and realizing I’d forgotten something. I remember distinctly feeling like an elegant gazelle as I ran back to the dairy section, like “wow, running has really transformed me! I’m sleek and agile, look how good I look!” It was such a great feeling.

Cut to the future (now) and why is it when I’m not in running attire and have to cross the street fast or run back through the grocery store, I now feel like a clodding oaf? It’s like I can’t remember how to start running or I run weirdly and don’t know what to do with my limbs. It cracks me up! My running is so improved but my “civilian” running has completely regressed. Wonder if any of you notice a difference either way? If so, please share…

OK, so it’s by .13 of a mile, but who’s counting?

Today was 19 miles. It wasn’t the easiest run because I chose to go into the trail system, which is much more rolling than my usual museum circle and all gravel. But I embraced the extra effort because it’s much shadier/cooler there and so beautiful, plus I just thought it’d be good to have some hills to work on.

Didn’t sleep much last night, as seems to be the way these days. I guess it’s inevitable with the long runs because I have to set the alarm so early to get out before the day heats up. I can’t wait for the weather to break so I don’t have to get up at 5am, like today. I wonder if my runs would be a little more energized if I was getting a full 8 beforehand. But enough sleep whining, let’s move on to hydration…

Last time I did the trail a couple weeks ago, you remember I had to take two handhelds because there was a very long stretch without water, but this time, because I went farther, I knew there was a water fountain at my turnaround (hallelujah!) so I only needed one. Still, by the end of the run I was high and dry. I take that back, not high or it would have been more fun…just dry.

I stopped twice to refill my bottle and how stupid am I? I refill the bottle, take off again and immediately take a swig from the damn bottle instead of the fountain at which I was just standing. I did this twice.

It was 74 degrees when I began and 84 when I was finished, so by the end I was dragging. I think I should have worn a new pair of shoes I have waiting for indoctrination. My beloved Inspires now have 301 miles and I had some aches and pains today, possibly due to the shoes. On the other hand, could just be that it was a pretty long trail run on a hot morning.

One of those pains, btw, was a shock of ITB weirdness. I never had this before so it was strange, like a shooting tingle exactly where the IT band is. It gave notice maybe 3 times in a 1/2 mile stretch, a hilly part of the trail, but then went away for the rest of the run.

Speaking of “went away”, isn’t it weird when you’re running and you’ll feel something hurt, like my foot was twingey at the start, and then you get all scared that this is going to mess up the whole run, and then it disappears and you forget you even had it a half mile down the road? Funny how that works. Good thing it does!

Pacewise, I didn’t succeed at going as slow at the start as I was supposed to. Or rather, taking full responsibility because it’s always within our control, I chose not to. I was feeling giddy happy because I was going on an adventure, kind of. Plus this mysterious white cat that lives a few blocks away but sometimes hangs out on the street crossed my path very casually (so cute), and then my favorite song was the first one to play even though my mp3 player was on Shuffle. Everything was an omen for a great run.

And the majority of it was. I managed to pick the pace up on the way back, but I was plain tuckered out for the last three. My avg. pace ended up being where it’s supposed to be – 9:37 (avg 10:00 and 9:13 as per Pfitz 20% and 10% above marathon pace), and that’s without stopping the clock for water refills. But I didn’t finish as prettily as last week, averaging the same pace. Of course, last week I ran on a flat road, so that might have something to do with it, too.

Anyway, it was a fun run, but the end was tiring and hot. I came home and weighed myself, I was 3 lbs under, so I should have had at least one, maybe two more handheld’s worth of liquids (20-40oz), evidenced by my greedy attack on the kitchen faucet.

Had an ice bath, which oddly enough doesn’t even make me chilly anymore, but not before some slight bitching at Nick because I was beat and unimpressed when he proudly told me he’d washed some pots, my reply being “yeah, I wish you did more of that”. I apologized afterwards and harmony was restored.

Now I’m off to a girlie brunch with Mimosas (yum) and then we’re going to the XPN music festival which should be great fun. Though I may end up sleeping under a tree.

What a dumb morning! I messed up my clock when I was setting it, so it went off at 6 (or so it showed), but it was really only 5am. I got up anyway; another night with 4 hours and change. I have a voiceover job at 10am so I had to fit in a 10 miler, a shower and some time to veg before leaving the house.

Because of the lack of sleep, I expected today’s run to be bordering on miserable…it was anything but! It was just 73 degrees when I left the house, so that was a help.

I averaged 8:57 miles (my normal pace when it’s 60 degrees) so this is a happy thing. It was also, unintentionally, a progression run. I might have to owe it to my latest taste-testing treat, Powergel Strawberry/Banana (very sweet, but ok…I could do that one again), which I took 54 minutes in. I swear it made a difference and I’m not talking mental!

I was starting to lag before the half-way point, took the gel and voila…last few miles are 8:40s. Powergels have electrolytes so I wouldn’t have to deal with S-caps, which is cool. I’m happy to find my stomach is not as sensitive as I thought from my gel-cramping experience last year. As long as I drink enough water with it, I’m thinking I can probably deal with any of them.

As an addition to a comment from dear Pokey in the last post, I was thinking about the “need” to do at least one 22 mile run before the big day. It’s not a need, per se, but would be great for confidence, and besides, it’s only 2 more miles than a 20, so I’ve got one planned.

What cracks me up though, is that in Europe where they use Kilometers, most plans have the long run peak at 30K, which is only 18.5 miles! I always thought peaking anywhere less than 20 would be like rolling the dice, but them crazy foreigners do it all the time. Which tells you how much of this stuff is in our heads.

OK, gotta go and make some moolah. It’s a Comcast radio spot, I do those somewhat regularly lately. Have a fab day, folks and some great runs!!

80 degrees and humid but what else should I expect?

Today’s Pfitzinger madness entailed 9 miles with 4@tempo, so I did 4 at regular pace, then the 4 tempo miles (8:13, 8:03,8:04,7:55 for 8:03avg), then one last mile back at normal pace. Nothing amazing, but considering the temps, I’m happily satisfied.

What else is going on? Well, I do have something in the works that I’ll be ready to announce (hopefully) by the end of the week. It’s keeping me excited and busy and industriously occupied, but you’ll just have to live with that tease for now.

Oh, I had a depressing shorts-searching expedition the other day, where I tried on tons of shorts looking for a cute pair of black ones, but it was a scene from Goldilocks, everything was too big, too small or fit weird. So I ordered 4 pair online, thinking one of them has to work. Et Voila! These Reebok shorts were the hands-down winners. A little pricey but they have a back pocket and a great inseam length. I’ll be taking them out for my mid-long on Thursday, so we’ll see how they do. I’m mistrustful after the Nike Pacer fiasco.

But the funny thing about this is I sheepishly asked my UPS guy yesterday, who is just the sweetest soft-spoken fellow, “Do I get the most deliveries on my block? I do, don’t I?”. He told me that I’m tied with two others, which cracked me up. At least I’m not the official worst. Yet.