Archive for January, 2011

that I’m not missing running?  Week One of my 2-week hiatus is over and my only thoughts are snow/ice driven “Sure am glad I don’t have to run on this!” and when faced with a dense empty-caloried dessert, “Eh, screw it” while I ingest with gusto.  No angst, no withdrawal symptoms, no wistfulness, just a tiny amount of guilt for not feeling any of those things.

Since I like to think I’m a lucky person, I consider last Tuesday’s snowstorm and tomorrow’s snow/ice storm proof that the break couldn’t have been timed better, that it was “all meant to be”.  I know that in actuality this is bullshit since February will surely bring more weather-induced suffering, but at least I missed 2 major meteorological messes.  That’s lucky.

Not much else to share right now.  Today I’m narrating a learning module on Anticoagulants (Hirudin is an anticoagulant originally isolated from the salivary glands of leeches…leeches!  Who doesn’t love a good leech fact?) and later I’ll be sending in some mp3 auditions for a Claritin spot.  Additionally, I’ll be smiling in excess for an indeterminate time due to the funny way the world works and how life keeps handing out interesting surprises.  Can’t beat that with a stick.

Before anything, I want to thank my friends and hosts for the weekend, Jackie and Louis.  I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such incredibly giving people in my life. They took care of me from the moment my plane touched down with such unabashed generosity, sweetness and humor, the weekend was one huge-ass party.  There are not enough Thank You’s in the world to let them know how grateful I am.  I love you two kooky kids!

Jackie, me and Louis at Point Loma

Pre-race dinner: Charlie, Matt, Jackie, Louis, Me, Pete, Barb and Skye the Wonder Husky

The race
When we drove the course the day before, I realized this was going to be harder than I thought but I was cool with it, just unsure of what pace to target.   I decided to go with the 1:35 pace group,  a possibly optimistic but seemingly sensible goal.  Other than that, I had no plan, no splits referenced, just que sera sera would be the theme of the morning.

Pacer Madness

We get into our corrals and I ask the pacers what their plan is and they tell me they’re planning on straight 7:15s which sounded ok but tough, since there’s a steep uphill straight off the bat and I’d prefer to take it slower to start, but figured they knew what they were doing.   Unfortunately, the pacers, while very nice guys, went much faster than 7:15s.  By mile 2, we were running near my 10k pace! This was not sensible, especially for me, who considered the rollers to be a real challenge.  First 4 miles were:

7:10
6:51
6:57
6:50

At mile 4, one of the pacers tells us proudly “we’re 35 seconds ahead of schedule” though looking at these splits after the fact, it was over a minute.  Even 35 seconds would have been too much considering the course.  Meanwhile, this guy behind me (who is not with the group) sees their 1:35 sign and says to no one in particular “You guys are going at 1:30 pace!”  I have him to thank for whooping some sense into me because it was then that I realized it would not end well if I continued, my breath was already labored, so I let the group go and  focused on getting back into a calmer mode.

Honestly, I’m annoyed with myself more than the pacers – I was wearing a Garmin and saw my average lap paces so I should have backed off much earlier.  Anyway, live and learn, it was a good lesson to trust my instincts more.

Cheering Squads!
Mile 4 and 9, I see my friend from the 3:20 thread, Matt, cheering me on.  What a great boost that was.

Mile 7, a woman takes my picture and yells out “Flo! I’m a blog stalker!” which was hilarious and so unexpected, I loved it.  Hope she pipes up here since I have no idea who she is.

Shoe Lace
In the 4 years I’ve been running, my shoelace has never come untied, I always double-knot and it hasn’t failed me, until mile 7 of this race.  Here I was with 6 miles to go and my laces are flopping around.  I decided to ignore it as long as I could and keep running but then, out of nowhere behind me comes one of the pacers, who had dropped back for some reason. He says “Tie your shoe!”  I reply, “Nah, I’m ok, I’ll just ride it out”  He says again, more authoritatively “No, tie your shoe! I’ll get you back”.

I’m glad he did, because it would have been an idiotic move to continue with it untied. I stop, tie my shoe and then it’s the pacer and me for a bit.  He’s indicating that I should get behind him to draft since it’s breezy but I’m such a dork and can’t figure out where I should place myself to draft.  It was fine though, the breeze felt good.  He gets me up another of those stupid hills (rollers-schmollers, these were low but long hills) and I’m breathing too hard, so I tell him to “Go ahead, I don’t care if I get a 1:37, seriously, just go” because I really didn’t care – but in a good way, not a self-defeating way.  He tried to change my mind, but I wasn’t having any so he went on.

The Course
There’s an ocean there.  I think I noticed it a couple times.

The Rest of My Splits
After I separated from the pace group, I spent the rest of the race working on effort level only.  I had my elapsed time on my Garmin screen but refused to look at it until I crossed the finish line, paying attention to Average Lap Pace every so often.

7:24
7:16
7:36
7:28
7:24
7:30
7:33
7:32
7:13
1:11 Garmin says for .18

Final time 1:35:57.  I was very surprised and super happy with the result.  It’s only a minute off my last Half which was a much easier course and one I was very familiar with so I consider this an improvement, even though it was slower.  Plus, I wonder what kind of race I’d had if I hadn’t burned off so much energy those first few miles – might not have made a whit of difference, but then again, it might have.

Photos and Form
Unlike stingy Philly, where they have 1 or 2 photographers and it’s always at the end when you look like shit, Cali races are chock full of photogs.  Unfortunately, due to my god-awful facial expressions and excess waving leg skin which only shows on race photos and disgusts me, there was only one photo I was cool with (the first one above).  However, on a very good note, I am not overstriding and the finish line video looks fine too (as far as form) so I’m pleased about this.

This just in, my friend Barb’s hubby Pete (both of whom were also staying at Chez Louis/Jackie) is a great photographer and took these.  I Love Them!  Of course, there goes my overstriding observation, but at least it’s intermittent.

Medical Drama
Not mine, for once!   I posted this in the California forum of RWOL, but it’s worth reposting here:

Immediately after the race as we were walking back to the car, Jackie and Louis spotted a writhing runner laying on the sidewalk, moaning in great pain.  Without missing a beat, Jackie ran up, took the patient’s leg and started stretching and applying pressure while talking soothingly and distracting her with questions about the race, etc.  Louis got her head elevated and went for the other leg.  Together, they worked on her for about an hour.

Me, being the callous East Coaster, got really bored and secretly irritated because all I wanted to do was get to the FE.  I eventually wandered over to the car to walk Skye so I could get compliments on my beautiful dog but not before surreptitiously taking photos with my crap phone for proof of the gory scene.  Happy ending was the patient survived and joined us at the FE.

The FE
For those not in the know, an FE is a “Forum Encounter” where you meet your internet forum friends in real life.  Jackie, again the angel, arranged brunch for all the Cali forumites.  It was a big one, some hadn’t even raced but came down just for the gathering.  I’d already met a handful of people previously at the Boston Marathon FE which was pretty cool.  I also got to meet fellow blogger Kristin, a blog reader of mine Deb and of course, the infamous Coach A muse/Adam and his better half.

The FE Crew minus a few that had left by the time this was taken. You can click this to make it bigger and to see my Popeye arm veins better (don't know what that's about)

The A Muses: Stacie and Coach Adam

Fellow blogger Kristin. Don't ask me why I changed from my race clothes into other clothes that look exactly like my race clothes. It's what I brought.

And that ends today’s epic from the West Coast.  I will be dreaming of the people I met and the fun I had long after tonight’s predicted 8-12″ of snow has melted.  Running: the adventure never ends.

I see there have been a huge amount of blog visitors these last couple days waiting for the dirt.  I apologize but it’s been a crazy weekend of party and race fun, while all of today and evening was spent in planes and airports, then tomorrow morning I have a job and an audition plus headbands to make and errands to do so I’m trying to get it done but bear with me.  At least there will be tons of photos to make up for the long wait.

I am pleased as punch with the race, my time was 1:35:57 which was a happy surprise.   It was a tough course and a few things happened during the race, so expect an eventful report.  That, coupled with 3 days of love, friendship and margaritas has me grinning ear to ear.   I’ll try to get it written tomorrow but it might even be Wednesday.  Again, sorry for the delay.

Just a shorty because I’m having too good a time to spend much attention to the internet.  My hosts Jackie and Louis have the coolest house ever, it’s like a resort with grownup people’s furniture (none of this Ikea living I’m so used to) and everything so beautiful, I feel like a little princess.

The weather is a shock to the system, today’s run around the lake was 70 degrees and I ran in sports bra and shorts.  It may as well be another planet entirely.  Leaving is going to be a sad affair.

We drove along the course and it’s worse than I had imagined, starts with a big hill and the rollers never cease, it’s just up/down x 12 or more.  It’ll be this hill wimp’s hardest race, so I’m sitting here thinking 1:36, 1:37?  Hell, I don’t know.  It’ll still be huge fun, just don’t be surprised by the result, ok?

I’ll have more photos later, but here’s one to start with Jackie and me at Point Loma.

OK, dinner party happening now, will be back tomorrow after the race, bye all!!

I’m almost on my way to SoCal and so excited, it should be illegal.  Let’s talk race:

I don’t give a crap what happens, not one stinking worry.   If I get 1:35, ok, if I get 1:33, ok.  I’m going from what I know to what I don’t, different conditions, new environment, a race course I’m completely unfamiliar with…it’s all good.

I also have a mental “get out of jail free” card since I’m so overdue for that training break that if I do crappily, I can blame it on that, if I do well, I’ll blame it on something else like the weather (which I can handily blame if I don’t do well too – what a bargain excuse, it’s 2-for-1!).  That said, I feel pretty strong this week, the taper is kicking in and my energy level is good.  Bottom line: I’m going to race this thing to the best of my ability, the result to be determined on Sunday.

The 2-Week Training Break
It’s almost here, starting on Monday.  I’m pretty circumspect about it, as in, I don’t expect miracles and am happily resigned to the fact that it probably won’t make a tangible difference, except for some fresh motivation.  Coach A Muse/Adam disagrees though, saying he thinks it will indeed change something and bring an improvement of some kind, though exactly what remains to be seen.  That’s an uplifting thought and one I would love to prove out, though ultimately, even if all it does is make my tendons and muscles happy and my brain ready for a fresh go, it’s still a big win.

A Man
If you follow this blog, you know I haven’t dated anyone since my last relationship ended a year and a half ago.  Realizing how much time has flown by makes me cringe, but on the other hand, I’m a very self-sufficient gal and can handle being solo to a fault.  It’s not optimal of course, but I couldn’t stomach internet dating (did that before Nick and met a lot of weirdos and unsuitables), I never go out and no cute guys have magically sauntered across my living room floor, so it’s been a long drought.

Meanwhile, in the park…

There’s this cute runner dude I’ve passed for over a year; not all the time – there’ll be months when my running schedule changes and we don’t see each other, but when we do, we have a little palm-slapping ritual that’s sweet and always leaves me smiling.   I could tell this guy had good humor about him plus a bitchin’ bod (thank you, shirtless summers) so a couple weeks ago, when he stopped to ask my name and if I’d like to get together, I said “Sure”.

Now, since he’s going to read this and I don’t want to color anything, I’ll just say that we’re having a nice time.  I like my new friend.  That’s all I’ll divulge but I figured you’d appreciate knowing something was going on in my life besides tempo runs and sore toe-knuckles.

And with that, I guess this is my last post till the weekend.  I’m bringing my laptop so I can hopefully post pics and an update before I get home.  Have a great rest of your week, folks.

Big love,
xxxflo

First off, many many thanks for all those great treadmill weigh-ins on the previous post.  You guys are fabulous for taking the time to share your thoughts about it and tips for dealing with it.  If you haven’t checked out the comments yet, take a gander, there’s lots of good stuff to read there.

Gifted Runner Coolness
A couple weeks ago, a nice lady from More Magazine contacted me to say she was putting together a slideshow of the funniest running shirts for the More Magazine website and wanted to include my “Tapering” shirt.   They’re also sending this slideshow out to all the participants of the More Half Marathon in NYC (huge event) in an email blast, so this is very cool – especially because I never do anything for marketing.  Hell, I haven’t even added a new design in over a  year, so that’s one of the things I’ll be doing on my 2-week running hiatus: adding new designs.

Anyway, check it out!  Mine’s #16 and looking fine.

Final Week
5 more days and then I’m outta here, California bound.  It’s only for a long weekend but man, it will be so nice to be in non-freezing temps for a change.  Can’t wait to see my friends Jackie and Louis (my fabulous hosts for the weekend and a way-cool couple), Barb, Matt plus a few souls I’ve never met but know from the forums and Facebook, plus fellow blogger, Kristin.  Finally and hugely, there’s Coach A muse/Adam who, if he knows what’s good for him, will invest in a set of earplugs since I’ll be screaming like a madwoman when I finally get to meet the dude.

And with that, I wish you all a happy Monday, Happy MLK day and may this be the start of a kick-ass week for everyone.  Later, kids.