Archive for November, 2008

I never write two blog posts in one day but I just had the most traumatic experience.

Before the trauma, lunch was so fun with 3 fabulous babes from the Women’s BQ thread.  It’s way cool to meet people you’ve been talking with online for months, especially when they’re as fab as you thought they’d be.

Funny smart women, unite!  Me, Nina, Judy and Kat

We ate in a little Greek spot at Reading Terminal and then went to the Expo with your usual run-of-the mill millions of runners (I could watch all day).  There was a shoe drop-off so I got rid of a couple pairs, the gals did marathon stuff and we walked around a little.  We met a couple people from the Master’s forum that Judy knew and we also got to meet a fellow forumite from Marathon Race Training, Esined, who was manning the NJ Marathon booth, so all in all, a very social and entertaining afternoon.  We split up among promises to meet at Rocky tomorrow.

Then I got in my car to go home.

Note: My car was on the top floor of a high-rise parking lot across from the Expo. When I got in it, it was 3:30 and daylight out.

Two hours later. TWO HOURS LATER I left the fucking parking lot. I’m not sure what the hell was going on in that evil place, but for two whole hours I was bumper-to-bumper in a long, spidery traffic jam with nowhere to go.  I’m telling you, it was Poseidon Adventure Towering Inferno, minus the ocean or fire. I wanted to call 911 a few times but then I remembered how stupid I thought Senator McCain’s brother was for calling 911 from a bridge to complain about the traffic, so I didn’t.  But OMG, I’m still freaked out.  Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Must…get…glass of wine now.

I’m sure the Philly marathoners are happy as hell the race wasn’t today.  It’s 30 degrees but the windchill is 19 and man, it’s a little breezy out there.  But I just had a great run in it!  9 miles w/10 strides.  If we go by windchill, it was my coldest run ever (by 1 degree, lol) but I got the gear, so I was comfy!

Technical running clothes are the bomb is all I have to say.  If I was out in normal clothing, I’d have been wearing a down coat, sweater, turtleneck, thick scarf, hat and gloves and probably still have been chilly.  Today I ran in my thicker tights, UA mock turtleneck and my Asics Storm Shelter Jacket, hat and gloves.  That was it!  Two thin layers between me and the elements and it was just right!

While I was out there, I had a “runners are crazy” sighting, not from the few runners in shorts (they’re just mildly crazy) but from the one guy with no shirt on!  He must have been about 50, carrying his shirt in his hand, sweating profusely…I thought he was going to have a heart attack.   That’s crazy.

I’m about to jump in the shower then head on down to Reading Terminal for a lunch date with 3 of my BQ forum babes who are in town for the marathon.  I can’t wait!  We’ve all really gotten to know each other over the months, so to get to meet up with them will be a trip.  So cool how running and forums can get you tons of new friends from all over the place.

Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting a few more before the race and then planting myself at strategic spots to cheer everyone on.  If you’re racing and I don’t see you at Rocky beforehand, I’ll be in the above mentioned normal clothing (black down coat, white/black knit hat, jeans) at mile 12, probably a little after the marker, from about 8:20 – 9:00, then I’ll make my way over to mile 15/24.75ish to hopefully meet up with ShoreTurtle for some more cheering.  I figure I’ll be there from 9:30 – 11ish, so I’ll probably only see my peeps at that spot as they’re on the way to the finish.

With at least 10 runners I know of to cheer for, I put everyone’s projected time that I knew into Excel and made a spreadsheet to keep track of who will likely be where, when.  Spectating is serious stuff!   I can’t wait!  Though I gave myself the day off running tomorrow.  I figure for all the time I’ll be freezing my ass off, I probably won’t want to be outside again once I get back home.

So if you’re running tomorrow and you see this post, tell me your goal time in a comment so I know when to look for you, or tell me at Rocky in the morning.  I think I got everyone that comments here through forum posts or your blogs, but for those that don’t have either (Lisa?), let me know.

Other than that…GOOD LUCK PHILLY RUNNERS!!!!!  I can tell already I’m going to be teary and totally vaclempt for you guys and gals.  Run like the wind!

Backtracking first…

Monday’s 7 w/3 mile tempo ended up being a fabu run; molasses start on the first tempo mile (7:57) but the next two miles (7:38, 7:36) made up for the initial sludge.  A new song on the mp3 player, “Let It Rock” got me pumped so much, I rewound it for the whole 3 miles worth.

Yesterday had its ups and downs.  On the downs, remember my wonderful dentist appt the other day?  The cleaning was great, I had stellar hygiene, but a couple cleanings ago, my regular hygienist Patty (who had become a friend and partner in crime) was fired or quit.  “Partner in crime” because for a couple years, before the doc would come in to check me out, she’d whisper “he’s going to tell you replace this filling but don’t worry about it yet, you can wait on it”.

It was a huge old filling, but it hadn’t given me any trouble and I loved that she was my renegade hygenist.  When she left, I was assigned a chipper company girl in her place.  She’s very nice and all, but now there’s no one to tell me to ignore the doc, so I finally gave in to the pressure and got Step One of a crown yesterday.  The shit costs $868.  I miss my Patty.

On yesterday’s ups, I had such a great run that what was supposed to be 7 ended up 9.  It was the first really cold day here, windchill 30, but it was sunny and vibrant outside and I just wanted to keep going.  Later, we went for a fun dinner with our friends Lara and Jeff where I got drunk as a skunk and ate duck.   Anyway, it was almost enough to make me forget the interval session I had planned today, but I went to bed with it weighing on my mind because it was one of those long things I hate.

Yeah, I’m on the Flo Plan which includes only VO2 sessions of my liking, but Pfitzinger has a cruel one for pre-race week (2 x 1.25 miles @5k race pace with recoveries 50%-90% of the interval time) and because it looked like something I knew I’d hate, I made myself do it.  I figure if I dread it, it must be good for me (in intervals, anyway).

It ended up being ok, I averaged 7:16 pace on the first one (9:05), recovered for 6 minutes (65%ish), than went 7:19/mi (9:09) on the second one, so 7:17/mi avg. for both.  Really not bad and now I have that amazing feeling after a hateful workout that says “I did it! I’m done! I can be a restful pig now.”

I was so cooked afterwards, that I ended up run/walking the 3 miles home, which I never do.  Even with the walking, it still ended up a regular easy pace, so no biggie, just a point of interest.

Now I’ve done my physical labor for the day, I’m going downtown in a minute to do a voiceover of some short, in-store spots.  Not sure what it’s for yet, but speaking of in-store stuff, did I ever mention how jealous I am of whoever gets those self-checkout voiceover gigs for grocery stores?  Can you imagine what a giant job that would be?  I mean, there are only about a zillion products in a store.  Plus, how fun to hear your robotic voice say “Move your.   Tree-ripe peaches.  To The Belt.”

And now.  I must.  Go.
Later.   Kids.

If anything can color a run, it’s the weather, and we had the variety pack this weekend.  Saturday was surprisingly hot and humid, which made my pace about 15-20 seconds slower than usual.  Then yesterday it was chilly and super windy, so I broke out the gloves and tights for the first time this season.  Tomorrow looks to be cold and crappy (snow/rain) so I switched my day off from today to run 7 w/3 tempo this afternoon.  I’m currently killing time as usual.

After today’s run, I’ll have completed a 53.75 mile week, though technically, if we’re talking Mon-Sun, last week was 46.75 and this week looks to be about the same.  Not bad, either way.

Looking ahead to the weekend, the Philly marathon is on Sunday and I’m excited to be a race spectator for the first time in my life.  Saturday, I’m going to lunch with a couple gals on the Women’s BQ thread who are doing the marathon, so that’ll be a treat.  There are also a handful of additional forum pals running the race, so my plan is to crawl out of bed to join everyone at 6am, wish them luck, then go back to bed for a bit, do some tracking, then jump back out for the last hour or so.  This is the luxury of being so close to the start/finish.

I’ve heard fellow runners lament “Watching the race made me really sad I wasn’t running it.”  I am so sure I won’t be feeling this – in fact, I’m truly looking forward to watching from my lazy-ass vantage point.  I remember distinctly, at least 4 times in all my longer races, seeing casual non-racing runners and general spectators, wishing to hell I could trade places with them.  Now’s my chance.

Yesterday was a feel-good 8-miler, 8:47 avg. pace in the late afternoon.  I’m so useless if I wait to run, I end up doing all sorts of things to put if off even later, not because I don’t want to run per se, but procrastinating is such bad girl behavior, it’s its own form of entertainment.  I finally got myself out the door under the threat that it’d be dark if I didn’t get a move on and I’m too chicken to run in the dark by myself.

Today was originally supposed to be intervals, but the weather was not looking good when I checked last night, supposed to rain all day with a touch of wind, so by the time I went to bed, I figured I’d get an easy wet 6 in today and do the intervals Friday, when it would be sunny and still.

Usually in the mornings I need at least an hour to get out the door. I sit there with my cup of hazelnut coffee, read email, check out Huffington Post and CNN.com and put reality off as long as possible.  Even in the heat of summer, when I had to get out there really early to beat the rising temps, I’d always have my quiet hour beforehand.

This morning, after about 2 minutes with the coffee, I look out the window and notice it’s dark and all, but no rain yet.  I can see the trees aren’t moving either, so forget wind, there’s barely a breeze and it’s a perfect 47 degrees.  Wunderground.com says the pressure’s falling, but I figure I’ll take my chances, let’s get this thing over with.  So I throw on some capris, a longsleeve shirt, shoes, Garmin, grab keys and out I go for that interval session.

Ended up being an excellent workout!  7.25 miles total, with 6 x 1/2 mile, 2:00 recoveries.  It was cool relying on clock time and the markers because I could check once at the halfway point and see how I was doing (which was surprisingly consistent) instead of constantly chasing Garmin pace averages that are kind of right, but not exactly.  My average for the intervals was 7:17.  I’m pleased.  And it didn’t start raining until my last block home, so all in all, a perfect morning.

On the consumer front, I bought a couple things online yesterday.  Remember when I asked the UPS guy if I was the worst on the block as far as ordering stuff and he said I was second worst?  Since then, I haven’t ordered anything, not out of shame, but I finally had everything I needed, running gear-wise.

Well, we’ve had a lot of rain in the forecast and yeah, running in the rain can be lovely, but not when it’s a deluge or you’re warm and toasty inside…sometimes you’d rather reschedule the run instead and I want to minimize such thoughts as much as possible.  I already have a great jacket for bad weather, the Asics Storm Shelter, but it’s really too hot for 30s and above.

So I just ordered this goofy looking jacket, the Sugoi Hydrolite.  It reminds me of those transparent folding rain caps your Grandma used to wear, but it’s fancy techno-schmancy, has these holes that close up when water touches it, so it’s actually (drumroll, please) truly breathable and is good for temps in the 40s.  Plus, it’s still $100 everywhere else, so…bargain!  Free shipping, too.

Then I went over to Amazon and ordered Brain Training For Runners which comes highly recommended from some fellow forumites I respect, as well as Run Faster From The 5K To The Marathon, another recommend.  But that’s where life got complicated because I was suddenly in that precarious position…$3.97 away from free shipping, so of course I had to figure what else to buy which took me about an hour because I can never think of anything I want if it’s not on my mind.  Finally, I got a bundle of 14 bars of Dove.  Can’t go wrong with soap.

I had a great Sunday run, 13-miles among that crazy bright palette of Fall leaves – my farthest run since Steamtown.  The funny thing was realizing a few hours afterwards that I hadn’t even thought about bringing a gel, when for months I’d made sure to suck down that sweet snot for anything over 12.  How soon I abandon the old ways.

As for today, I did a radio spot in the morning, got home and stuffed a meatloaf sandwich down my gullet, waited forever for it to digest, then went out for my first tempo run in months.

One of the best things about 5K training is iddy biddy tempo runs.  Seriously, the optimum LT time for this distance is good ole 20-30 minutes.  What a novelty!  In fact, looking at my logs, the last time I did a 3-mile tempo run was Nov. 14, 2007.  It’s almost enough to make a gal feel guilty…almost.  Total workout was 7 miles with 3 tempo, the tempo splits were 7:56 (windy start), 7:52, 7:43 for an avg of 7:50.

I should also mention that I’m using the park markings instead of the Garmin for quality workouts from this point on.  It’s the only smart thing to do because today, for example, the Garmin autolaps consistently came up 4-6 seconds short every mile!  Sheesh.  It’s not always that bad – Sunday was spot on with the markers, but I clearly can’t depend on it. Thus, I won’t be doing my beloved 600s for a while, instead I’ll be doing speed workouts to 1/4 and 1/2 miles – but it’s worth it for accuracy’s sake.

In 5K news, my latest happy development was finding another 5K three weeks after the Turkey Trot, which means I now have 6 weeks to do some damage instead of 3.  “Huh?  What’s that you say?  December…cold?  I can’t hear you, fingers in ears la la la la la.”  I’m living in denial but that’s alright, I figure it’s about time I do some uncomfortable races.

As for training, after all my hemming and hawing about different 5K plans, just when you thought I was going to pfollow Pfitz (sorry, I can’t help myselpf), I made an executive decision to return to the same plan I used last Spring: The Flo Plan (a.k.a. The PFlo Plan).  The Flo Plan consists of 45+ mpw, one tempo, one speed plus the requisite long and easys.  Nothing mysterious (bread and butter as far as plans go) but highly effective and I get to do whatever fun speedwork I choose.  Lovely.

So once again, at least for a while, I’m the Boss of Me.  I hope I like it, though I warn me, I tend to disrepect authority – plus I can tell I’m going to be a bitchy boss already.  Gotta go now, I have to tell me that I’m about to be laid off.  Who hired this whack job, anyway?