Archive for February, 2011

It’s official: After a lovely dinner on Saturday with the new man Fran, then later puking my guts out due to an overdose of gin & tonics and white wine, followed by him gently rubbing my tummy (no wait, I think the tummy rubbing was Sunday morning since Saturday night I was moaning “ooohhhh, everything’s spinning.  I still have to vomit.  Don’t touch me!!“) I am hereby declaring us An Item.

Fran & Flo

Because he’s so different than any guy I’ve been with before (and vice-versa, we both find each other extremely weird), I’ve been reticent to talk about it till I was sure we had a groovy thing going.  I still won’t say a lot about him since he reads my blog, Facebook and I suspect my forum posts, too (I’d do the same if he posted somewhere but that Luddite leaves me nothing to stalk) so I feel self-conscious discussing him, but it’s time.

Facts are: he’s divorced, has a great 15 year-old daughter, a huge heart, is funny, sweet, intelligent, masculine but unabashedly romantic and our chemistry is smokin’ hot.  The only wrench is that his job has such odd hours (he wakes at 2:30-3am most workdays) and he’s got kid duty in the late afternoon, so our dating has been limited to a couple nights a week and some apres-run rendezvous at the park for extra chat time.  We’re figuring out ways to see each other more though, we have too much fun together not to.

The running connection is entertaining, btw, but in an unexpected way (for those just tuning in, we’d been slapping each others palms in the park whenever our running paths crossed for over a year before he asked me out).  We both have this funny observation that nowadays when we pass each other in the park, it’s really difficult to associate our running selves with our “real” selves, it’s as if we transform into other people when in running gear.  Out there, I’m still “that runner chick” and he’s still “that bald dude from the park”.  Kind of cool in its oddity.

One last thing I’m going to mention that I really like about him, and this might sound strange, is that he’s not a hardcore runner.  He does put in solid mileage, 40-50mi/week, but it’s for fitness, not racing.  He doesn’t know or care about technical running stuff so he’s a great counterpoint to my loonyness while thoroughly respecting my involvement in the sport.  This works for me in a very good way.

OK, that’s enough Fran talk for now, he’s going to be a handful after this one. 

Last Week’s Running
51 miles that went like this: 6,8,8,10,7,12,off.  Paces went from 7:53 for a progression run to 9:01 on a cold and windy day that had me feeling creaky.  This week will be around the same mileage, then I’ll kick it up a bit the following week.  No worries, no “should do’s”, just having a good time for a while.

First off, thank you many times over for all the great blog/facebook/forum comments and emails.  From stories of similar situations with successful endings to those currently adrift in the same boat as me, I’m blessed to have such support.  Twas a busy post, too: 323 unique visitors on Tuesday, a usual day is around 220.  Something about life sucking gets a lot of eyeballs.

I suppose what I really sought from that post was permission to lay off a bit.  I know that sounds ludicrous, I’m a big girl with a working brain, but somehow the idea of  “you can chill some, it’s ok” was not meshing with my inner prejudiced “man-up” “don’t be such a wuss” voices.

In a strange coincidence, the same day I posted that last entry, an article was published on Running Competitor addressing my worries in a freakily specific way (he must have known someone was going through runnerpause that day).  Check it out: Feeling Fried? Enjoy Your Training & Avoid Burnout by Matt Fitzgerald.

“…whereas runners typically focus on training for improvement and simply trust that they will enjoy their training if they train properly, new research on the role of the brain in exercise suggests that we may be better off doing the opposite: prioritizing enjoyment and trusting that the more fun we have in training, the fitter we will become.”

So with the help of your comments and this article as the cherry on the sundae, here’s my training plan for the time being:  Week 1 – Week Whenever: Enjoy

I did manage to get those progression miles in yesterday on an 8-miler just because it was bugging me how much I didn’t want to do it since, of all things, progressions are the simplest and most laid back.  It wasn’t fabulous or surprising (got down to Half pace) but it didn’t suck.  I’m cool with that.

GIM Headbands At The Endrance Sports Expo!
My pal Lara and her man Jeff own GoCycling.com with the coolest bike jerseys and accessories around, really neat designs with city skylines or craft breweries on them. (pssst…”Like” their Facebook page to win a free t-shirt!)

One of my favorites from their collection

Anyway, they’re super cool people and they’ve done a few Expos or events recently where they sell my headbands as a sideline to their own stuff, which is great because I don’t have to be there or make a trillion zillion headbands as I would if I was doing an Expo on my own.  This weekend it’s a huge one, the Endurance Sports Expo at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA.

So I’m stopping by on Sunday with my new man, Fran (yes, he has a name and it is Fran) for a first “these are my friends” and “this is my new man” introduction (oooh scary).  While we’re there, we’ll go to one of the free seminars offered.

Interestingly enough, Matt Fitzgerald is going to be one of the speakers that day, but I’m going to pass since he’s talking about his Racing Weight book and there’s nothing new I care about on that score.  Instead, I’ll be dragging Fran with me into Torbjørn Sindballe’s seminar Developing Champion Mentality which sounds right up my alley.

Back to headbands, I’ll have a HUGE array of new styles next week, about 15 new patterns and they are so cute! I’ll keep you posted when they’re up on GIMheadbands.

I’m In The Spotlight Today
I was asked by a very sweet blogger, Jodi from runjodirun, if I would be this week’s featured runner on her blog.  She sent a list of questions and asked for a few photos so check it out when you get a moment.

Kinvara Jackpot
I got my shoes yesterday and they fit me to a T!  All this time I’ve been modifying the Women’s version and hating on the colors when I should have followed my friend Heather’s lead months ago with the Men’s version.  I thought there’d be more difference between them but all I can tell is it’s a tad wider and the tongue is a bit longer [insert dirty joke here].   3 pairs at $36 each…Win!

OK, I’m coming clean…that last post was a fight to write.  I had some mental crap I was avoiding and did a pretty good job of talking myself out of it.  Sometimes it’s like that when you write a blog post, you reread what you just wrote and think “this is too much of a downer, let me look at it from a different view.”  Sometimes this actually works and you can end up feeling upbeat about the situation, but sometimes, it’s just a distraction.

So here’s the deal:  My running break did what it was supposed to do, repair a tired body.  But I also had this hope that I’d want to start training again for real (as in, woohoo intervals and tempo workouts!!) but I don’t.  Silly when you think of it, 2 weeks is basically a blip, why would I expect anything but the same mental game I had when I left off?

What I think I’d like to do (because I’m really unsure of myself right now) is spend the next few weeks running about 50-60mpw and just play it be ear, add occasional strides or faster portions when I feel like it, but for the most part, easy running.  This would seem to be a simple decision (hell, just shut up and run then) but I don’t want to get slower!  If doing weekly intervals and tempos gave me a tad over maintenance, what will “just running” do to me?

There are potentially 2 options:
A. I slide backwards (the likely scenario).  The question is how much?  And do I really want to chance this?!?
B. I maintain because maybe my mental game is what fucks me up and without the pressure, I’d be ok.

There is also a 3rd option but it belongs in Dreamland:
C. I get faster because my mental crap was so debilitating that running like a pretty pony with nary a care in the world was all I really needed.

Actually, my incredibly fast friend Meredith did C (minus the debilitating mental crap), stopped formal training for a year and “just ran”  ending up with great speed gains, but she’s gifted, so that doesn’t really count.  Then my friend Amy, another fasty, reminded me of her lack of speedwork last year, that for whatever reason she didn’t feel like doing it even though she knew she was leaving some speed on the table, but now she’s hitting some really hard workouts which she attributes partly to that break.

As for the coming months, I still have a 5k I’d love to do in April plus the Broad St. 10-miler in May so it’s not like I’m eschewing everything and becoming 100% hobby jogger, I’ll have to do something in preparation for those races, but it’ll be small (and I’m not going to do the Adrenaline 5k in March, another favorite race).

So bottom line, I’m considering becoming a 75-80% hobby jogger until I feel the hunger again.  I want to want to run hard and to test myself but at this moment in time, I don’t.

Peaks And Valleys
I said this a few posts back, but I refuse to believe that at 4 years running (the last year being a plateau, so 3 years of progress) I could have reached my running peak yet.  So if you at home are thinking, “Get used to the end of PRs, it happens to everyone”, I don’t believe it happens to anyone this quickly.  But we all have different routes and timelines to reaching our best, many folks have stops and starts, which is another reason I think laying off for a tad might not be so bad, like a larger shell for what my 2-week break started. Micro to Macro.

BUT! There is something that might be messing with me and contributing to a cap in my gains, whether physiologically or mentally (well, definitely mentally but maybe physically as well) and that is my history of medical racing mishaps.  I’ve had 3 of them now which is 3 more than most people will ever have.

It’s put a sizeable dent in my mental racing game but what I hadn’t ever thought about was potential physical fallout from it.  My friend Ewen posted something interesting on his blog about seeing his friend “get the staggers” in a race.  What gave me pause were a couple comments that mentioned Noakes (an authority on science and running) saying that crossing that line too often can hinder your running life permanently…shorten it.

So it’s conceivable that I may be on a different schedule for having been zapped a few times, maybe I could be cooked earlier than most.  There’s not really any way to tell though so I’m going to carry on as if I didn’t read that.

The Blog
I was getting all weird yesterday out on my run, thinking about this stuff and the blog, too.  I was noticing how much less I posted while on break and even now, coming back, I realize that without something to strive for running-wise, I become a lame  writer (not in the disdainful sense of the word, but the handicapped one).  That without running goals and plans and workouts, I don’t have a whole lot to say.  I don’t talk a lot in real life anyway – not that I’m a mute, but I’m not much of a chit-chatter either.

So I had this weird thought that if I don’t “train” for a while, maybe I should temporarily pause the blog.  Not just for lack of material, but to stop being accountable for a while, because some days it really does get old to report the same tired “I’m not improving” shit.  Sometimes you just want to not be embarrassed by a sucky workout or that you posted for the thousandth time what the temperature was because, even though you think it’s relevant to the workout or race, it just sounds excuse-y. Then again, if I’m not training in the real sense, there’ll likely be nothing disappointing to report for a while.  That would be fresh and new, huh?

Anyway, today, I’m in a better headspace and will make a real effort to fight the “what if’s” as they arise and try to stay in the Here and Now because really, that’s all there is.

Which ends this not-that-cheerful post but I’m going to click the Publish button anyway and put this mess online.  I want to get it out because it’s the truth but at the same time, I’m rolling my eyes at myself for being such an emotional goof.  I just wish I was getting my period so I’d have an excuse for it.

Slight change in plan last week.  I didn’t do any real progressions, just a couple faster miles here and there, but I did include two double-digit runs.  I know, that sounds lame but it’s been an entire month since I’ve done any, the last one being the Carlsbad Half, so it’s notable.

Friday was a gorgeous day out, 64 degrees, so the planned 8 turned into 10 and then yesterday, because I’d taken Saturday off (50mph gusts can suck it) I added a couple miles making it 13.  Was a comfortable run despite having drunk an entire bottle of wine the previous night: first 3 mi at 8:34, the rest averaging 8:14.  These two runs (and lack of accompanying tweaks or soreness) indicate that everything is back to normal.

If anyone cares, average paces this week went like this:
Mon, 5 – 8:11
Tues, 8 – 8:36
Thurs, 7 – 8:08
Fri, 10 – 8:25
Sun, 13 – 8:26

So I ended up with 43 miles.  This week I’ll be at 52ish with two progression runs on the menu, for sure.

Latest Form Tweak
I’ve given overstriding/gait attention an indefinite break for the last few months since it’s much improved and that’s good enough for now.  My posture is also so much better than it used to be; the hunched back that used to plague me (in non-running as well) is dramatically better.  But my shoulder carriage, on the other hand, this needs attention – too many turtle race photos lately.  Gotta get that space between my ears and shoulders longer and more relaxed.

To that end, I’ve started doing some specific shoulder exercises.  I’m liking the immediacy and simplicity of dumbbells so that’s my preferred method at the moment (as opposed to my Pilates DVDs which would also help but I’m bored with).  What’s nice about focusing on shoulders is that, unlike gait, foot plant and posture, which can all have a big disconnect to what you think you’re doing and what you’re actually doing, there’s no mystery to your shoulders’ location, so it should be a straightforward fix.

Kinvaras for $36!!
At 6pm.  There are only a few left and they’re mainly smaller men’s sizes, but if you check out the Shoefitr thing in use at Runningwarehouse (which is a totally cool 3D shoe scanning technology, independent of Running Warehouse), it shows that 1 size less is nearly identical to the Women’s version except a tad wider in the forefoot.  This could be perfect for me since I always have to cut that bit out for my little toe, so I ordered 3 pairs.

Couldn’t have been timed better because I just went to RunningWarehouse the other day to buy another pair to switch with my black ones and was not happy with the screaming color selection (traffic cone orange?  don’t you forget I’m a girl pink?  blech).  The ones I just bought are way more low-key…here’s hoping they fit well, too.

Btw, that Shoefitr thing is pretty fabulous, it’s in most of Runningwarehouse’s shoe detail pages, so play around with it.  It’s supposedly accurate and could be insanely handy if you want to switch shoe models or, as in this case, compare men’s sizing to the female version.

Edit: oops, the price on those Kinvaras is now $54.  Sorry folks, was a great deal while it lasted.

That’s it from my corner of the world.  Have a great holiday Monday.  I know all you North American cats are going to be shooting up, stripping at work and lighting firecrackers on the scalps of small children since that is the Presidents’ Day tradition (you foreigners have no clue what you’re missing, do you?) so enjoy that sacrificial rooster ceremony tonight and I’ll see you back here in a couple days.

Tomorrow marks 4 years of running, a milestone my younger self would have had a great belly-laugh over if given an inkling of the future.  “Huh?  I’m going to do what?  And love it?  You’re shittin’ me, give me my money back.”

What was I doing before I ran?  Who was I?

All I remember is that I had lots more cellulite and didn’t care too passionately about anything.  And while I’m slightly embarrassed by how much this simplistic activity owns me, I’d now be a bored, ugly blob with nothing to look forward to had I not found it.

Instead, I have a wide circle of real and imaginary friends who share my passion, I’ve reasons to travel, goals to shoot for, an excuse to write, a little extra money in my pocket, a crazy good sense of well-being and an unsated urge to find out what’ll happen next.  There’s actually more stuff than that but the sentence was getting too long. 

All this, just from putting one foot in front of the other. I’ll never be less than amazed by it.

Information Overload?
Apparently not.  According to the comments on my last post, the majority of you do read the splits and other data, so I’ll keep on with it as usual and let the skimmers skim and the skippers skip. Thanks to all who piped up. Wish I had you people’s patience. :-) So now let’s all cross fingers that the numbers I post this year have some sort of downward trend.  If not, I’m going to start skimming over my own numbers.

I bought an iPhone
I was tired of saying “I suck at texting” due to my lame hunting/pecking skills and the idea of having a keyboard with actual punctuation at my fingertips was a dream I could no longer deny.  Not writing like a 12-year old  (Ill call u 2morrow) was imprtnt 4 me 2.

I did have a lot of back and forth between Droid or iPhone but in the end, battery-life, not having to root the phone (which I would have done because I’m always compelled to mess with such things) and some specific apps made iPhone the winner.  I LOVE this thing, even if I do have a deep disdain for all things Apple.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of apps already.  The Zipcar one rocks, I can now lock and unlock a Zipcar with my phone and do other useful Zip things, but my favorite is TuneIn Radio that lets you search any radio station in the world by genre or location.  Yesterday I was listening to Alternative music stations in Paris, Sydney and London.  You can even pause, rewind or record. Way cool.

Also excellent is the Netflix app since I already have a streaming account.  This makes me want to have more dentist and doctor appointments so I can watch movies in waiting rooms.  Just because I can.

An FE!
This last Sunday, I had the pleasure of having an FE (Forum Encounter, where you meet a forum friend in real life) with my long-time MRT 3:20 posting buddy, ESG/Ron.  This was the second time we’d met, the first being last year at the Boston Marathon when he hosted a wonderful pre-race party for the 3:20 crew.

On Saturday, he completed his first Ultra (woohoo, Ron!) and had a few hours of layover in Philly.  So I stole him away from the airport to share some cheesesteak goodness at Tony Lukes.  No surprise, the conversation was easy and overflowing as if we were well used to seeing each other in real life.  Good times, good times.

New Boston Marathon Qualifying Standards and Sign-Up Process
The running world was abuzz  yesterday when the BAA published its updated qualifying process for the 2012 Boston Marathon and AG qualifying times for 2013 (5min. less per each AG).  The new sign-up for process for 2012 will go in “waves” according to how fast you are.  Faster runners get to sign up first followed by a 2-day spread for the subsequent waves.  Here’s the full link.

Last week’s return was happily without incident.  My legs toughened back up after the third run (that second day was a quad killer) and progress is going swimmingly.  Pacewise, the week ranged from 8:42 for Tuesday’s oh-so-those-are-my-tendons-and-muscles 5-miler to 8:05 for yesterday’s 9er, which included a couple miles at 7:40 for the hell of it.

On the subject of paces, or rather, the posting of them, do you guys even care when I give such details?   I almost always list paces for my runs, but in all honestly, when I read a runner’s blog or someone’s paces on a forum post or Facebook update, I almost always skim over the numbers.  Yes, I’m ashamed to admit that I, poster of numbers in excess, really don’t care whether someone ran 9:54s or 7:15s or 5:32s or if their heart rate was 129 or 183.

That’s not to say I’m disinterested in others’ running exploits, far from it!  I guess what grabs me are the feelings and conclusions associated with a run: whether it was a suckfest extraordinaire, an effortless “felt like I was flying” run, or anything in between.  But that’s just me and my limited brain capacity.

Yes, this appears hypocritical considering I always share such minutia, but I could just as easily not offer it up if it’s information overload.  I always assumed enough people were interested but now that I’m coming clean with my own view, it occurs to me that it might be a big yawn to you, too.

Let me know what you think in a comment, please.  Maybe it’s data best saved for something that really matters,  like race splits or a breakthrough run.  I’d be cool with that.

This week
The main points are to retain distance modulation, add in a 6th day and make a couple of them progression runs, so I’m thinking this:
Mon: 5
Tues: 8 (progression)
Wed: off
Thurs: 7
Fri: 8 (4 year running anniversary, woohoo!)
Sat: 6
Sun: 11 (progression)
Total: 45

And with that, I’m off into the day to work, run and be happy.  Not a bad combo.  Happy Valentines Day, all!