Archive for April, 2010

This is a paceband for a person who doesn’t give a complete shit…just part of one.
I’ve been wearing pacebands for marathons and Halfs, 10-milers and even 10Ks since I’ve been racing.  But every time, after the first few miles, I either get depressed so it hurts to keep looking at it or my brain turns into race jelly so nothing computes anymore – thus by the halfway point, it’s either ignored or forgotten.  This time I’m doing things differently.

My avg. goal pace will be 7:45s but I’m going for even effort so if I end up slower, oh well. With this freeing philosophy in mind, instead of marking 26 splits on my paceband, I’ve noted only where the hills are, whether they’re up or down, and their distance.  This way I know whether to hold back or to give it some energy and how much longer till those famous Newton Hills are done.

Faster on the downs, predictably slower on the ups…it’s not rocket science but I think it’ll work.

My sweet Forerunner 305 has accompanied me through my entire running adventure thus far, bought in March 2007 before I was even finished with my “learn to run” plan because I just knew – knew running was going to be for me and that the Garmin was everything a gadget girl like me could love and adore.

In that time, we’ve been through two extremely hard falls and it’s lost a couple bits, but I haven’t let that interfere with the sacred love we have for each other.  Instead, I’ve McGyvered it to keep on ticking as long as it’ll have me.

The first fix came after the 1st hard fall.  The pin that holds one of the straps on popped off upon impact, never to be seen again.  Instead of calling Garmin for a new strap (because I’m lazy like that) I took some fishing lure I had on hand for jewelry beading and strung it through.  It’s been holding fine every since.

The second fix happened a few weeks ago when my Power button fell off and refused to reattach.  I fashioned a new button from a Viactiv calcium chew wrapper, which worked sans tape for a week or so, but finally needed the full packing tape accoutrement to remain attached.  It works a charm.
The third fix was necessitated this week when, while taking the Garmin off, the silver buckle tore straight through the strap’s attachment point.   I thought about calling Garmin or even going to Target for a replacement strap, but a few selective layers of packing tape put it right as rain in no time.

While it lacks in glamour, it’s still a beautiful accessory to me.

Tapering Week #1
I’m loving it!  Feeling stronger with each passing day, my resting HR is down to a rarely seen 46, my running HR is lower than usual, and my legs and ankles are pleased with this temporary new arrangement.  The big toe drama lasted too long, I was shoving a needle under both nails for 4 days but they finally dried up and now all is well.

Tomorrow’s my last double-digit run, a 13, which’ll bring this week to 44 miles.  Next week, a meager 32, then it’s time to Do This Thang!  I’m excited,  happy and looking forward to the whole 3-day adventure.  Woohoo!! 

It’s official: I’m pooped and so ready to dial back.  I was asked a couple posts back about my taper plans so I linked to a graphic of my penciled-in schedule, it has since changed considerably.  Mostly because after last Saturday’s MP run and then Sunday’s 20, the next few days had my calf complaining to me, so I had to baby it which meant lowering the mileage at the beginning of the week and going slower throughout.  I did get a pretty good tempo run done but that was it as far as quality.  The schedule went like this:

Mon: 7 recovery (8:56)
Tues: 9 pouring rain, windy and hurting calf (8:58)
Wed:  13 slow again because of the calf (9:01)
Thurs: Off (enough of the calf, heal already)
Fri: 8 w/4tempo (calf was good, tempo was a bit slower than HP though @ 7:21s)
Sat: 6 recovery (8:51)
Sun: 17 (9:05s, slowest LR this cycle)

Today’s 17 was quite a tough one, it’s warm now so I ended up taking my shirt off on the way back, but the bottom line was I felt tired in legs, body and mind.  I had planned to do 4MP but I knew that was not going to happen. I did 1, lol, but it was 70 degrees by that time and my big toes were really unhappy (they’re both bruised now and I had to stick a needle under the nails to drain them before the run…nice, huh?) so I wasn’t sad about cutting the MP miles, more like I’m happy to know I’ve reached the topping point and that I will most assuredly benefit from two weeks of tapering.

As for my big toes, it’s insanely irritating to have this nail bruising/blistering happening now, but I guess in one way it’s good, hopefully the blisters will harden the toes up within the next couple weeks.  I attribute it to all my LRs being done in the trails, more footwork and ups and downs than any other cycle, so again, it was for the good, I just wish it didn’t hurt.

Hey to Steph (or was it Linds? they’re identical twins), it was cool to see you out there today, you looked good!  Funny about the orange Philly Distance Run shirt, I must have seen 50 people wearing one this morning.

Interactions this week
Ignore this if you read my Facebook updates, but I had a couple entertaining bouts of human contact this week.  On Monday’s recovery, there were 4 college rowers in the river who burst into an acapella rendition of Sheena Easton’s “Morning Train” then waved at me and wished me a good run.

Not two minutes later, I heard a double boom from what I call “Dead Man’s Curve”, a curve in the road near the bike path, but hidden by a fence, and every time it rains, I seem to see the tail end of a wreck.  So this was a double wreck caused by a line of cars sitting behind a wreck that had already happened. Triple wreck!  Hoping everyone was ok.

Then the next day, it was pouring rain and windy and I was feeling pretty crappy but as I neared home, a man under an umbrella yelled out “Dedication!” to me.  What an unexpected present that was.  Suddenly, everything was made right.

I want to spread that word to you all, too, because every single one of you who read this blog sweat, work hard and go the extra mile in some form or another and it’s too easy to take ourselves for granted.  It makes no difference how fast you are, if you win awards or not, be proud of yourselves for having dedication to do something that most people never dare to do…get up off their asses.

And with that, I’m going to sit on mine for the next two weeks.  In my mind, anyway.