Archive for May, 2011

Heat came to the Northeast this week, hitting the 90s, so I begrudgingly moved my running schedule to the morning.  It happens every summer but I find the transition difficult, requiring as much acclimation as the temperature.   In an effort to fight sleep deficit, I’ve been taking melatonin more regularly and even bought a sleep mask to hide the early rays of sun.  The mask seems to be effective but I feel pretty silly in it, like Mrs. Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island.  I don’t know if Lovey had a scene where she wore one, but that’s how I think I look in it.

Aside from Monday, morning temps were all in the 80s with crappy dewpoints.  Not exactly sure why it affects my innards but I’ve been spitting like a hardcore smoker on every single run this week.   On the good note, I’ve improved on power and trajectory to where chin dribble is now at a minimum.  Still, I’d rather not need to at all.

Notable runs were:

Tuesday, a 17-miler.  It’s been 5 months since I went that far.

Thursday’s run was quite peppy with some miles in the 7:30s.  It surprised me, I figured the whole week would be laggardly.

Saturday was full of action…

1. I passed an extremely well-built African guy (I know that sounds stupid, like a “North American guy”, but I didn’t ask what country he was from) who immediately appeared alongside me and asked how far I was going, he was doing 20.  We chatted some but his accent was so thick that I had a difficult time understanding him, plus I’m such an anti-social runner anyway that I eventually excused myself and wished him a great run.  Then for the next mile, we switched leads a couple times with some friendly joking till I picked up speed for good.  It was cute.

2. I stopped at a water fountain where a group of 3 runner girls were standing.  One of them looked at me and squealed outright, then began chattering on about something while staring at my chest.  Then I realized she was going on about my sports bra in a wildly effervescent manner “OH MY GOD, I have that sports bra! It’s from Target, isn’t it?  It’s my favorite bra, I just LOVE it!  Moving Comfort wanted $65 for a bra I tried on and I hated the way it fit blah blah…” She was kinda crazy.

Now, it just so happens that I love my new sports bras and was going to write about them eventually, anyway.  They’re just Target bras but they’re the camisole style, very flattering without the usual bulky straps.  I bought one last year and was surprised by how well it supported so I recently bought a few more. (this is not me, as you can tell from the blonde hair and bigger boobs.)Here are the bras if you want to check them out.  Beware the pink one though, I saw it in the store and it’s truly day-glo (as the reviewer notes).

3. I saw someone fall flat on their face as she was running towards me on Fall’s bridge.  She was fine, picked herself right back up, but you know that moment of stopped time when you see somebody’s arms and legs fly up into the air and there’s nothing you can do except go “Ooooohhh!”?  As painful to watch as when it’s you doing the falling.

All in all, quite an eventful little run.

The Week In Running:
Monday: 9@8:29
Tuesday: 17@8:25
Wednesday: 12@8:21
Thursday: 14@7:58
Friday: 11@8:32
Saturday: 16@8:14
Sunday: 11@8:25
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:19)

Not that there could possibly be a connection, but the night before both the zippy Thursday run and Saturday’s good-run-despite-no-sleep-and-crappy-weather I had a burger and sweet potato fries for dinner.  Has to be a coincidence but I dunno, I have had a number of good runs when I ate that combo the night before.

My First Giveaway!
As you know, I’ve been getting books to review which has been interesting (next up: Chris McCormack’s I’m Here To Win).  But this week something new arose – two separate companies emailed and asked if I wanted to do Giveaways with their products.  I’ve never done a giveaway before so I’m kind of excited about it – it’ll be fun to have one of you guys win something.

So the first giveaway starts this Wednesday in honor of National Running Day.  I won’t say what it is but it’s substantial, so get your ass back over here on Wednesday to find out what you can win.

Back to the book thing, does anyone want me to review The Complete Idiots Guide To Marathon Training?  I’m a little torn about what sort of stuff to review because there aren’t going to be many “advanced” books since it takes a celebrated coach to write those and they’re in limited supply.   But I suspect there are a lot of readers who haven’t done a marathon yet and are curious, just not sure how many of you care about such basic basics.  Anyway, the publisher has offered to send me a review copy, so if you think that sounds worthy of review, let me know in a comment please.

Grand Rapids Half in 2012?
Here’s something funny.  It started on Friday when a Facebook friend posted an amazing little video that I reposted on my Wall.  The story behind the video is that Newsweek called Grand Rapids a “dying city” so in response, the city made a fantastic promo: a lip dub to Don McClean’s live version of American Pie.  It’s almost 10 minutes long and was done in one continuous take!  That in itself is an incredible achievement because there were thousands of people involved, even pyrotechnics and a helicopter, so the enormity of the task is mind boggling. Plus, it’s just a wonderful, wonderful video.

Anyway, after I posted it, my runner friend who lives up there, Carl (I know him from the RW 3:20 thread) jumped on the Facebook update and told me I should do the Metro Health Grand Rapids marathon in October, that he was already signed up.  He was teasing, knowing full well that I don’t do marathons anymore, but told me I’ve gotta get up there to race one of these days.  Then later, another FB friend, fellow blogger Marcia, jumped on board and said both the Grand Rapids Full and Half are “spectacular races”.  Okay….

But the kicker was yesterday, when someone named Don Kern wrote on my Facebook update “See you in October, Flo?”

Now, I don’t know who Don Kern is, he’s not a Facebook friend, so I clicked his name and it turns out he’s the race director for the Grand Rapids Marathon and Half!  I’ve no idea how he landed on my FB Wall to post that, but it gave me a great laugh.  I replied that I’m booked this Fall (Philly in Sept. and Vegas in Dec.) but that I might just have to race it in October 2012.  I also noted that a higher power is obviously at work here (Facebook) so far be it from me to fight such a force.

About a month ago, I wrote about a short conversation I had with Coach Adam/A muse concerning Elites and why they’re able to keep improving from year to year.  I was trying to find sense and logic behind that long period of speed stagnation.  When he said they have a “massive aerobic foundation” it was a lightbulb moment and helped drive my mileage build.

Since that post, I’ve been haunted, or rather captivated, by the whole notion of development and growth.  I have this, possibly unfounded, inner conviction that despite my incredibly late start as a runner, I have just as much room to improve as the active child I might have been.

Because aerobically speaking, kids aren’t so different from adults.  We all have mitochondria, we all have capillary beds.  The ability to increase both does not shrivel up with age.  Yes, there are other things that impede our progress; joints get tired, tendons, muscles and bones may become more fragile, but those two basic building blocks for running development are there for the creating!

So some of my reading lately has been about children coming to the sport, how they’re coached and the changes they experience along the way (minus the whole puberty thing…don’t care).

I found an intense thread on LetsRun that made me realize the way you train a child runner applies just as much to late-starting adults.  A kid who might naturally be better at VO2max can develop that system successfully for about 2-3 years but then they’ll eventually stop improving and plateau (hello!).  Then there’s the kid you let develop more aerobically by building mileage over the years (because that’s how long it takes to fully develop your aerobic system…years) – that kid’ll take longer to reach his/her potential but it’ll be a lasting journey.  Additonally, if you train a kid the first way, as many of us late-starters train, you can always change course after they’ve stopped improving and begin working on creating a stronger aerobic foundation.  Sound familiar?

So for all us late-starters who might have stopped growing after the “freebies” of speedwork dry up (I’m talking standard newbie runner gains), it’s time to be that other kid, the one who takes a long-term approach to realizing their potential. Then we can play coach too, and remind that kid to be patient, that it might seem like nothing’s happening but that a breakthrough or two is on the way.

Now, I’m no coach and I’m no expert, all I do is read a lot, think a lot and enjoy a good experiment.  So I can’t tell you what type of gains this aerobic party will yield for me, when it’ll start to happen, or if it even will, it’s all just ideas at this point.  But I have read so many exciting stories from college kids to masters who’ve raised their mileage similarly with stunning results, that if I can have a tidbit of that, I’ll be thrilled.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I will continue to channel my inner eight-grader and hope for the best.

Have a great holiday weekend folks!

I’m getting it, it’s coming, in fact I can almost taste it.  You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?! (nah, I know you don’t)…the urge for fast stuff!

Remember me saying I wasn’t going to add quality workouts until I genuinely wanted to?  And that I might go the whole summer without doing any?  Well, I signed up for the Philly Half in September and did the little calendar thing, working back to see when I would start a real pre-race training schedule, figuring 8 weeks should be enough while leaving me fresh for a similar buildup before December’s Half (going to Vegas, baby!).  This means mid-July is when I’d start traditional interval and tempo workouts.

After I got that squared away, I realized I had about 1½ months in the meantime, so what do I want to do till then?  I’ve leveled off the mileage, this being my 3rd week at 90, so I can safely assume my body isn’t going to fall apart now. I could either continue with the easy running or get a head-start and begin adding some little fun stuff in.

Because frankly, I’m getting excited at the thought of progressing!  Kinda want to get the ball rolling but on the same token, it’s gotta stay light, casual and fun.  Them’s the rules.

This is what I came up with:
Starting next week, I’ll be adding strides to 2 runs a week – that’ll continue indefinitely.  Then the following week I’ll begin alternating, in no particular order:

1. Various on/off workouts, ie. 8 x(2min on/1min off)
2. Those 8-9% grade ramps at the museum, 108m long, make for a great short hill rep workout.
3. Cross the street to Lemon Hill and do the loop a few times, it’s a convenient way to get some regular hills going
4. Some tempoish stuff, but laid back, nothing real fast, more steady state, maybe some cruise intervals.

Here is what I will not do: (until proper training starts in July)
No intervals by distance!  I am adamant about not wanting to compare hard and fast numbers from week to week or get in a head of “beating my times” in similar workouts.  When I do on/offs, I won’t be running back and forth over a specific spot, they’ll be in a continuous direction within my usual run, the better to remain inexact.  The whole point is to run hard, out of my comfort zone – how fast it ends up is irrelevant.

If there is one thing that is important above all else this summer, it’s volume – everything else is icing on the cake.  But I’m pretty sure, come July, I’ll be chomping at the bit for those “real” workouts to start, because these fun forays, as casual and no-pressure as they are, are going to improve my speed.  How could they not?  And that’ll be all the motivation I need.

A Running Soap Opera
This was posted on LetsRun the other day and is a pretty entertaining read: She Was Once A Runner.  It’s a story about a female collegiate runner and the eating disorders among her teammates as well as, what appears to be unfolding, her own.  It’s in blog form, so if you want to read it, go back to the first post and then work your way to the present.  There’s a new post daily.

Along with the story itself, the commentary from LetsRun posters (the thread is 17 pages long now!) is pretty entertaining, from guessing which school it is to people who had that same experience.  I’m kind of addicted to the thread now, I want to stop reading it but I keep going back.

Speaking of eating
I’ve been craving protein like it’s going out of style.  The other night at midnight, when it’s time to wind down for bed, I started thinking about this hard-boiled egg in my fridge.  It could have been a Krispy Kreme for how much I was wanting it, imagining biting into it, not to mention the pleasure I felt when I finally consumed the thing.  I wonder if this is some byproduct of running more miles since our bodies tend to crave what what we need, maybe it knows protein is good for recovery?

Anyway, I usually buy half-cartons of eggs but in the name of running success (and midnight cravings) I went out the next day and bought a dozen.

Because you can’t mention eggs without a scene from John Water’s Pink Flamingos.

…to being an asshole today and going 12 just so I could write “oooh, I went 91 miles, look at me, I PRd again!” but good sense prevailed and I left it at 90.  I had to, otherwise there will be no end to this.  But I admit, it was tempting.

Anyway, it was a stellar week on the joy scale.  It rained for 5 days and with it came some intensely beautiful scenery: deep dark skies, vibrant flora and fuzzy waddling fat-bottomed baby geese.  A deep serenity accompanied me everywhere.  Should I be embarrassed to say that running is why?  Yeah, ok, I kind of am, but hell, happiness is happiness and as long as I’m not drugging, robbing banks or stealing children, there should be no shame in the mild-mannered way I’m getting mine.

Two runs that mattered
Tuesday’s 14 was such a good time that I extended it to 16 and if I hadn’t had a job to get back for, I would have made it 17.  Considering the big deal I made at the start of this aerobic adventure “I don’t have to go farther than 14mi if I don’t want to!”  this is some funny shite.

The thing is, the more I cover 14mi, the shorter it feels, so it went from being “my long run” to “the one that takes me to the prettiest place in the park”.  I love my 14s.  And once I’m at the turnaround point, what’s an extra mile?  Nothing.  In my goofy reasoning, it’s only 4 more minutes since ½ mile later, I’m turning to come home.

So this month has introduced a good number of 15s.  16s will soon become common and probably 17s, too.  This is helpful since longer runs mean I can have some shorter ones, too.  A gal likes to have options.

The other run worth mentioning was on Thursday.  I rarely wear my heart rate monitor these days and if you remember, the last three “fitness checks” were all in 55 degree temps.  But now, with summer emerging, it was time to see how my heart fares in warmer, muggier conditions.  And the verdict is:  it fared fricking fabulously! 81 degrees, very humid, more sun than clouds: 15@8:01, 73%HRR (157).

Here is what that means in English:  No longer will I wistfully recall 2009 as the peak in my running life.  That was just the first one.  The second one begins now.

This Week’s Pavement Escapades:
Monday: 9@8:33
Tuesday: 16@8:17
Wednesday: 12@8:17
Thursday: 15@8:01
Friday: 12@8:06
Saturday: 15@8:10
Sunday: 11@8:01
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:11)

A Social Weekend
My great pal and race roomie Audra recently moved from NYC to San Francisco, but she was in Philly this weekend so I got to hang with her over dinner last night.  I’m gonna miss that chaquita, even if we did only see each other a couple times a year.

And another online running friend was here from Australia, Rachel.  She was in town to run a Half this morning in the midst of some US traveling (and got 4th O.A., the fastie), so I got to meet her and share a lovely brunch with her family today.

I will never cease to be amazed at the number of wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in real life, just from a mutual love of running and an internet connection.  It’s fantastic.

Music
I’ve been downloading a good bit of new music recently – another reason running is exceptionally fun lately.

Simple Math from Manchester Orchestra totally fooled me.  When I heard it the first time I didn’t even get past the first few bars, thinking “oh, so plodding with that slow snare and [what seemed to me at the time] fragile vocal…definitely not a running song”.  But when I saw the video, which kept my attention from start to finish, I was blown away.  This song builds into something epic, and not in the throwaway use of the word, but in a Gone With The Wind type of Epic.

Around 3:12 to the end, when the strings build, drums become bullets and vocals harmonize into a wall of need, it absolutely moves me and I run like a demon.

As mentioned a couple weeks back, I received a copy of Run Your First Marathon by Grete Waitz and Gloria Averbuch to review on the blog. The timing is very sad since Grete passed away from cancer only a few short weeks ago.  I actually teared up after the first few pages because it’s there that she refers to herself as a “cancer survivor” which is a heartbreak to read.  But at the same token, it was wonderful to hear her throughout the book, the writing is so personable and supportive that you can truly feel her passion for the sport and her need to share it with the world.

I won’t give you her whole bio but her introduction to the US was a truly surreal story.  She came here in 1978 to be a rabbit (pacer) for the New York City Marathon. This was to be her running swan song as she was going to retire from the sport right after.  The portion of the race she was responsible for leading was the first 12 miles which incidentally, was the distance of the longest training run she’d ever done in her life.  Ever! And you know what that crazy gal did?  She won the damn race! And set a then-world record with a 2:32:30.  The announcers and press didn’t even know who she was when she crossed the finish  line – all they knew was her bib number!  This is the stuff fairy tales are made of.

Now I have to be honest, the book is aimed at extreme beginners, it includes a run/walk program to get sedentary folks into the running realm.  There’s also a simplistic marathon training plan but it’s as basic as they come starting at 14 miles a week and peaking at 37 with no workouts.  The whole idea of the book is to get you to finish a marathon rather than race one.

I’m not saying it’s empty reading by any means, it’s chock-full of classic information for someone who doesn’t know anything about the mysteries behind marathoning.  And like the Kara Goucher book I reviewed a few weeks ago, what I like best in this one are Grete’s personal stories and anecdotes from her running career.  She’s also got a real honesty about her; for example, she shares that she had some, er…nasty GI problems in two of her races but because it was win or lose, she had to keep going.  I have a few racer friends still trying to figure out those problems so it’s cool to see that even some Elites tackle similar troubles.

The book covers the usual areas: training, nutrition/hydration, mental, injury, shoes, the race itself and also includes some excellent candid color photos of racers in all shapes and sizes during the NYC marathon, as well as additional photos of Grete doing stretching exercises.

So my thoughts on the book are this: if you’re one of my regular blog readers, you’re most likely more advanced than the person this book is aimed for.  However, if someone you know is thinking of doing a marathon and needs a basic primer that is not technical but is fun to read and full of solid tips from an amazing marathoner, than this would make a great gift.

Not that I want to dissuade anyone from reading it, you won’t find Grete’s wonderful point of view in any other how-to marathon book, but if you’re looking to race a marathon (as in, focusing on a goal time you want to achieve), you’d be better off with Pete Pfizinger and Scott Douglas’ Advanced Marathoning.

This was not the plan at all but I ended up with a spankin’ new weekly mileage PR.

As you know, my running schedule these days is very loosey goosey but I do have a general idea of how I want the week to go.  What’s nice is that since it’s all “just running” I can switch it around to suit the weather or work or how I’m feeling that day.  So the week was planned to be 85 miles.  On Friday I did a 15 miler.  That left me with Saturday and Sunday to get 24 in.

Since today (Sunday) was supposed to be thunderstorms, I went 14 yesterday so I’d only have to do 10 today.  Turns out the thunderstorms were delayed and when I got out there, I felt pretty damn good!  So I just kept going.

I should mention that my paces this week are slower in general but not from the mileage increase.  The heavy-legged days turned out to be the same story as last month…PMS.  But unlike last month, it didn’t linger beyond the expected timeframe, so if iron was the culprit as I suspect it was, the supplementation and beef I’ve been eating have in fact helped.

The other slowdown was a purposeful choice made over the last couple days.  Not that I was denying myself any sub8 runs – I wasn’t feeling that peppy this weekend, but I’m trying to be careful about potential hazards that could come with pushing the mileage envelope (or I should say, the singles envelope because that’s what makes it a bit tricky).  I think there’s a potential for injury from clumping together a 15, 14 and 15 on consecutive days, at least while I’m in this “getting acquainted” stage.  So yesterday and today especially, I was trotting along at such a comfortable rate that even the suck of a dewpoint didn’t bother me one bit.  How things are changing!

The Time It Takes
I had a nice cup o’ joe yesterday with my pal Judy from the Women’s BQ Forum, she was in town and it was fun to catch up.  One thing she asked me was “How long is all this running taking you?” and when I told her 11 hours and change, she thought that was a lot (as I’m sure lots of people will).  FYI: this week, with the extra miles and slower paces, came out to 12:37, but the norm will be closer to 11:30.  Anyway, here’s my take on it…

I remember in my 20s when I went to a gym a few times a week.  I’d travel to the gym, change clothes, do a 1½ hour step class or “cardio” and then the machines, take a shower, get dressed and travel back home.  That had to have taken over 3 hours total.

Now I know a lot of you guys go to a gym in addition to your running or you get massages or spend a lot of time stretching or maybe you cross-train in the pool or cycle, etc.  All I do is run, so comparatively, it’s not really that much time spent.  And of course, I have no people commitments and my work is on my own terms, which makes it easier still.

Back To Beef
I’m on a huge mushroom burger kick now and what makes it particularly satisfying is that, thanks to the amount of running I’m doing, I can shove more food into my pie hole.  Ordinarily, if I was to eat a home-cooked burger, I wouldn’t have a starchy side dish with it because the burger and bread alone would comprise a good amount of calories.  But I was wandering down the frozen foods aisle of Whole Foods a couple weeks ago and on a whim, bought a bag of Alexia Spicy Sweet Potato Fries.

Oh My God!  They are now my favorite side dish in the whole wide world.  They’re frozen fries that bake up crispy in the oven or toaster oven (my weapon of choice) in 20 minutes.  The non-spicy ones are also very tasty, but these are my fave.  Best part is they’re not calorically dense or deep-fried like normal fries and are actually good for you!

Dinner at The Blue Hovel has improved a lot lately; I’m cooking more now.  Gone are the boxed dinners from Trader Joes I was so tethered to during my weight-loss phase last year.  Not that I’ve stopped shopping at Trader Joes…

One of my favorite T.Js items are their bags of 4 chicken breasts; I cook ‘em all at once and then add some to salads, quesadillas (another new addiction), etc. for the next few days.  It’s also handy to have some chicken in the fridge for right after a run when you need a bit of protein for recovery.

But what makes T.J.s bags of chicken so special isn’t the price (which is great) or the chicken itself (which is very tasty), but the packaging.  Gone is the usual styrofoam tray with that stinky diaper pad at the bottom – it’s just a bag.

Because living in a city apartment where they only collect garbage once a week, those chicken diapers start to smell like dead people after a couple days even if you rinse it out thoroughly – which is a disgusting exercise unto itself.  No longer must I walk the city streets in search of a dumpster or municipal trash bin to stealthily dispose of my smelly chicken wrappings.  Quality of life has been restored.

The Week In Running
My toe finally stopped hurting on Monday – I thought that was never gonna end!  And I had a bit of weirdness on Friday’s run when I stopped to adjust my shoe and soon after got a wicked side stitch that had me starting and stopping about 6 times until it finally abated.  Saturday was a nice rainy run and temps for the week were mostly mid-70s.

Monday: 9@8:15
Tuesday: 12@8:18
Wednesday: 14@8:10
Thursday: 11@9:02
Friday: 15@8:30
Saturday: 14@8:20
Sunday: 15@8:20
Total: 90 mi (avg pace 8:25)