Archive for August, 2011

What was called for: 17 miles (2 warmup, 3@7:00, 7 easy, 3@7:00, 2 cooldown).  Here’s what I did: 17.25 miles (2wu, 3@7:01, 7.75@8:05, 3.25@6:58, 1.25 cd).

Now, this was a really interesting run.  First off, yesterday I had a tired 12-miler so wasn’t too sure of what today would bring but because of the moving crap, I needed to get it done today.  Once in the midst of the run, I was able to get up to tempo speed immediately, which was cool, but it wasn’t that comfortable, which was not cool.  It wasn’t awful but I had one of those “I’m gonna have to do this for 13.1?” moments.  After that first bout, I felt real heavy-legged and was sure that the second tempo part was doomed.

Then, around mile 10-11, something happened.  It might have to do with me thinking happier thoughts or else I finally woke up, but suddenly my easy pace, which had been a respectable enough 8:07 (though again, did not feel “light” if you know what I mean) dropped to 7:50s yet my HR stayed the same comfortable number (69%HRR) and my whole body felt different, like energy restored, light and fast.  Was so weird.  But I love this because it’s one of those memories you can use in a race when things feel like shit, you just remember that one run where things magically turned around.  I need more memories like that.

Anyway, at that point I knew the 2nd tempo portion would be much easier since I was already going 7:55 and 7:00 isn’t that much of a jump.  And it was. I added .25 mile to the second tempo portion just because I could. Average pace for the whole 17.25mi was 7:46.  Average heart rate on the tempo parts was 171bpm (82%HRR), and for the whole shebang 158 (73%HRR).

Monthly Mileage and Mileage Stuff
Very happy with my total miles this month: 380.1.  That included a day off for Irene and a full cutback week.  Next month will be much less because of the race.  But I’m good with that, I’m really not an exercise freak who doesn’t like cutbacks or tapers, I appreciate them fully and am ready for a little breakette.

Speaking of mileage, here’s something good I wanted to share with you if you haven’t seen it. It’s a series on volume and determining how much mileage is right for you by Kevin Beck.  Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 (there’ll be a few more installments).  I found a good deal of what he wrote relateable to my own situation.

Someone messaged me in Facebook the other day asking if I thought my mileage increase had helped as she was thinking of raising hers.  The question made me laugh.  It has not only helped, it has transformed my running completely.  Completely.  And I think there’s still a lot more to come, whether from aerobic or efficiency gains, I don’t think the improvements are stopping any time soon. (famous last words, but one hopes)

So if there’s one thing you can do to get improvements, especially after you feel tapped out from interval sessions galore and doing things the same way you’ve been doing them: up your mileage.  It’s magic.

Various Tidbits
I got my confirmation for the Half in September and for possibly the first time ever, the time I predicted when I signed up is within seconds of my goal for the race.  Yay for lack of embarrassment!

Two more days and I’m outta here. This place continues to send me signs of “get out get out” in the form of a mouse turd on my bed, washing machine in the basement broken for over a week, one of the new tenants leaving a thick scent of cigarette smoke throughout the building and refusing to lock the front door properly, even the mailman has given up: instead of putting mail in the mailbox he’s taken to dumping it in a pile on the vestibule floor.

Meanwhile, I’m so excited because I’m about to have windows!!  Technically, I have 3 right now: the bedroom one’s been broken (sealed shut) for about 6 weeks, another has an air conditioner in it, so basically, I have one window.  ONE.  The new place has 5 windows + central air, so no window shakers.  I’ll have died and gone to heaven.

And that’s it from Flo Central on this lovely Wednesday.  Hope you guys are enjoying your week.  Next time I post, I’ll be in the new digs.  WOOHOO!!!

With all the hurricane hubbub, I had decided on Friday that Sunday would be a rare day off (my last rest day was June 23rd) so I packed in the mileage as best I could, hitting 85mi yesterday.  But this morning, it doesn’t look bad out and by the afternoon will be even better, leading me to go back and forth with “run or don’t run?”  The river is set to reach historical flood levels not seen since the 1800s, so that’s worth a view but on the other hand, if it’s between going 5mi to reach my magic 90 for the week or taking a day off, what’s better for me?

The answer is glaringly obvious…day off it is.

Thursday & Friday
Thursday was a swell run, the calf tweak was totally gone and thanks to another early voiceover job, I again started in the dark which is pretty cool if you can forget about the Philly crime element: 15 miles@8:11 with the first half at 8:19, second half at 8:02.  Felt light and efficient with no fatigue from the previous day’s tempo.

Friday was the fartlek session that, thanks to the upcoming rest day and not wanting to lose much mileage, I stuck within a 13-miler beginning at the 6.5 mile mark.  One thing that has been bugging me are my delayed starts for faster paces, so I made a point to run hard from the first one which made it a very different workout from my previous fartlek sessions.  I went too fast on a couple, lost steam at the end, even walked a few steps in a recovery portion, but my pace was the best it’s been on these.

Saturday: a 20 miler!
The last time I ran 20 miles was the Boston Marathon 2010 – almost 1½ years ago.  I wasn’t even planning to go 20, I headed out for 17, but an impending rest day coupled with feeling good plus the novelty factor of hitting 20 made it a fun mid-run decision.  It was pre-hurricane crappy out with dewpoint 73 though thankfully overcast.  I lost a lot of fluid, 5lbs despite lots of fountain glugging but felt strong to the end, the last 4 miles averaging 7:55/mi.  Once home, I stuffed my pie hole with an inordinate amount of French toast and took a nap.  Successful Saturday.

What’s funny is comparing how I used to be when I had 20 on the schedule.  I’d get a little nervous and be all anal about how many gels to shove into my handheld bottle pocket and if it was a grossly humid day like yesterday, I’d have brought electrolyte capsules wrapped in saran wrap, carefully plotting when to take both.  It was always A Thing.

Here’s what I brought yesterday: nothing.  Even if I’d known beforehand that I was going for 20 I wouldn’t have brought anything since I never bring gels or a handheld on long runs anymore and 3 more miles wouldn’t warrant a change in procedure.  Granted, if I was marathon training, there would be a point where I’d bring gels as rehearsal for the race, but otherwise, I’ve learned that I’m fine without.  This is one of the benefits of consistent higher mileage – what used to be a big deal to me is not anymore.

Hurricane Irene Week In Review
No drills or strides this week.  After the calf thing was over, there really wasn’t an open slot for them.

On a completely delayed note, I wanted to explain the point of Wednesday’s tempo run for those who might not have picked up on it.  The hour of easy running before the tempo miles introduces fatigue to the workout so by the time you get to the tempo portion, it mimics the end of the race.  Thought that worth mentioning.  This week’s tempo will be a sandwich within a 17 miler: wu-3tempo-7easy-3tempo-cd.

Lastly but most importantly, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I felt like this was a turning point of a week.  I was able to accomplish a lot in a short span of time with strong paces and great energy throughout.  I envision myself standing near the top of the triangle that is Peaking and have to admit, I like the view from here.

Monday: 15@8:34
Tuesday: 9@8:56 (calf recovery)
Wednesday: 13@7:48 (7.25mi easy, 4.75mi@7:00/mi, cd)
Thursday: 15@8:11
Friday: 13.2@7:55 (6.5 easy, 9x(3min on/1min off), cd)
Saturday: 20@8:21
Sunday: Rest
Total:  85.2 mi

Other Stuff
Remember that older Asian woman I mentioned a few weeks back?  Well, now I see her every day on her bike, milk crate attached to the back, and she’s friggin’ hilarious.  If she’s coming towards me, no matter how far away, the second I’m in her line of site, her arm shoots up and she waves like mad, then when she’s near says something like “you late today” or “how far you go today?” along with some other stuff I can’t understand.  If she’s behind me, I’ll hear a bing, bing, bing of a bike bell and there she is, again saying something funny I can’t decipher.  But I don’t need to, her enthusiasm makes me laugh every time and I’m driven to blow her the occasional kiss; I can’t help it, she’s so cute.

Aside from that and completely unrelated, my head is currently consumed by the fact that I’m moving into my new apartment on Friday.  I am not a good mover.  Anxiety about getting the key from some old man I don’t know (new landlords are on holiday in Greece), how clean will the apartment be?  how well do I have to clean this one? how many boxes do I need to get?  I need to get boxes now! will the movers be jerks? address changes, utility changes, etc. are a low-level but constant hum.  On the good note, I don’t have a lot of stuff anyway and today is purge day where I will throw away all the crap I don’t need.  On an even better note is that I’m just days away from leaving the Blue Hovel forever.  Cannot Wait.

This week started a little iffy; I tweaked my calf on Monday’s 15miler due, I think, to messing around with some new calf-raises the day before.  It started hurting more as the run progressed and though I stopped to try and stretch it out, it was one of those things that feel worse with a stretch, so I was not happy by the end of it.  Once home, I iced, elevated and compressed, plus ibuprofened and massaged.  The next day it was better but still there, so I did a recovery 9-miler@8:56.

I was disappointed because we had 2 days of better weather ahead and I had my heart set on doing my tempo one of those days.  But after the calf tweak, I figured I’d be lucky to get it in by the end of the week and have to skip my fartlek workout entirely.

This morning, however, it felt a lot better and because of the way the tempo was (1 hour easy, 30min@7:00) I figured I may as well play it by ear since that easy 1 hour would let me assess if the calf was up for it or not.  It wasn’t as cool as forecasted at 68 degrees w/dewpoint 59 but not too bad at all.

From the get-go, I felt really good.  It was still dark out because I had a job to get to at 9am, so that was a fun way to start.  My first mile was a usual slow warmup @ 8:49 but I ran the rest of the hour between 8:19 and 8:02s.  This was helped by a group of army or police guys who were all over the bike path making me want to pass quickly.  Once past, I was pleased see my heart rate for 8:02 was swell and figured “I only have to lower my pace by 1 minute”…so of course I would do the tempo.  As for my calf, I could feel it some but not enough that I felt it would be dangerous and plus, I could always stop if it got bad.  Towards the end of the easy section, I had slowed down to 8:15ish so I wouldn’t run out of gas prematurely.

My first mile was much slower than goal, as is my annoying habit, though it also included the bridge which doesn’t help, plus I didn’t do any strides, I just went into it.  Here’s how it went:
7:13, 6:56, 6:58, 6:57 and the last 3/4 mile @6:58 pace…so 4.75 mi (33min) @7:00 – right on target!  Then my last mile home was 7:58 for an average of 13miles@7:48.  My heart rate averaged a lovely 170 (81%HRR) for the tempo section.

My calf didn’t bother me at all on the tempo but came back after, though not in a worrisome way, it just needs more healing time, plus tomorrow will be easy, of course.  So there you have it, another minutia-filled tempo run.  Sorry about that, I know it’s a bore to read, though it’s wonderful to have as a detailed log entry for myself since my actual logs entries are as wordy as “Great run” or “Hot out, felt tired”.

To thank you for your patience, I’ll leave you with something I posted on the forums that cracked me up.  A ridiculous “Runner” preview of a TV show.  I found about 12 things worth laughing about so consider it a Where’s Waldo and see if you can come up with a bunch too.  And I’m not even talking about the fact that the ocean is on their right for most of it except for the few seconds when it’s on their left.  EDIT: here’s the forum thread that describes a few of the offending goodies.

Have a happy Hump Day, folks and I’ll see you back here later.

Another solid week in the books, more progress and confidence is building – not to an asshole amount but to a “this race will likely not suck” level.  And with three weeks of workouts left before race week, I get six more opportunities to stoke the fire.  I’m rich, I’m rich!  What a welcome change from “OMG…only 3 weeks?  I need more time!!”

Mid-August Week In Review
Easy runs were slower this week, it rained just about every day and though I was able to avoid it for the most part, there was no avoiding the humidity – which matters naught since my quality runs were faster and that’s all that counts.

Monday: 15@8:36
Tuesday: 12.5@8:23 (6 hill sprints)
Wednesday: 9@7:37 (9x 3min on/1min off)
Thursday: 17@8:27
Friday: 11@8:55 (drills & strides…and found another dollar, woohoo! why won’t anyone drop a twenty?)
Saturday: 12@7:35 (9@7:17)
Sunday: 14@8:32
Total: 90.5 mi

The Fartlek
Wednesday was my 3rd on-off session, which actually didn’t start so well.  As usual I didn’t do any strides beforehand (my lazy casual approach to fartlek) and the first two “ons” were a little over 7:00, which was irksome.  But I kept whittling down so that by the 5th one, I was going faster than the previous week’s on/offs and held it to the finish.

The odd thing was that the recoveries ended up 30sec faster than usual, averaging 8:05s – I don’t know what that was about.  I only realized this after I got home since I don’t look at the Garmin on the rests, I just wait for it to beep.  So it was an admittedly messy session but a good workout, nevertheless.

I need to say here that I love, love, love that Adam talked me into keeping fartleks instead of switching to traditional intervals.  It’s solid volume each week (around 4 miles worth of fast), the work-to-rest ratio is great at 3-to-1, yet they’re so much easier for me mentally.  Unlike intervals, I don’t make a big deal about each split and if the first one or two suck, it doesn’t mean the whole workout is doomed, there are enough reps that I can find my groove and feel good about it.  I’m not saying I’ll never get back to intervals but it’s been perfect for where I’m at right now.

The Recovery & Drills
Friday was a very purposeful recovery run (“slow down!”) since I’d just had two quality days with the fartlek and a 17-miler and had a tempo the next day.  I closed up with drills and strides – a nice finish to a recovery run since your body memory’s left with a little zing.  In fact, I used that memory in the following day’s tempo, adjusting my hip alignment a few times and also recalling the propulsion that goes into them.

The Tempo
Saturday was the high point of my week with the same tempo I did a couple weeks ago, but better.  The workout called for 12mi w/1hour @ 7:20 (marathonish paceish).  Last time, the tempo portion was 9mi@ 7:22.  This time, it was 9mi@ 7:17.  The great thing about this run, aside from the faster pace, was my heart rate: it averaged a tick less than the last time and had a wonderfully flat profile which means I could have continued at that pace for a good long time.  Sweet.

Weight
Amazing how effective a little calorie counting and mindfulness can be. I’m down 2 lbs already, not hungry and feeling properly fueled.  It’s been forever since I’ve seen consecutive days of 120 so this is way cool.  I might just get to my favorite race weight of 115 after all.  Not sweating it but it’d sure be a nice cherry on this sundae.

Once upon a time, long ago, I was an actress in NYC who hated auditions.  Due to being an overweight 20-something, I didn’t have many auditions to go to anyway, so my friend Simon and I took matters into our own hands and did some funny little musical shows in a few nightclubs.  I eventually went solo, becoming a fixture in gay nightclubs on the Lower East Side with my short one-woman musical extravaganzas, making a little dosh and garnering a loyal following.

A few years into it, I got tired of being funny all the time but really enjoyed the songwriting process, which at this point had been limited purely to comedy stuff, so I made a shift to writing standard, more pop-type songs.  The more I wrote, the more fascinated I became in arranging, building harmonies and creating perfect (to me) little 3-minute packages of sound from nothing.  I loved it.

I became especially enamored of the technical side, though because I was a singer and extremely cruddy keyboard player and most certainly not an audio engineer, I had to learn everything from scratch…how to hear, basically.  This is a hard thing to do on your own, but I managed by reading incessantly, experimenting, taking music theory classes, anything I could do to better understand music, the nature of audio and sound engineering. I never became a proficient instrumentalist, but would write in layers with the help of sequencing software, samplers, synths and my first recorder: a little Fostex 4-track.

As a fun aside, the first computer I ever bought was an AtariST, bought specifically for its built-in Midi ports (enables you to hook up and control electronic instruments, like synthesizers, directly to your computer, as well as to each other).  This was mid to late ’80s, btw.

When my Grandma died she left me some money which I spent on better recording equipment and tons of outboard gear.  This was before digital was affordable for home studios so a Tascam 8-track reel-to-reel was the hub of it all, mixed down to a ¼ inch two-track, then eventually DAT when that came on the scene.

I recorded a bunch of songs and eventually put an ad in the Village Voice for musicians and started a band.  The bass player, a loveable Dominican fella named Rigo, became my boyfriend and biggest musical champion – still is to this day.  We lived together for a few years.

Eventually, Rigo and I broke up, the band dissolved. I wrote a few more songs but then sold all my equipment.  This was when I got the job designing audio/visual systems for Planet Hollywood, which consumed my life for the next few years.  It was interesting work and made it easy to leave music behind.

But I didn’t just leave it behind, I shut the door and threw away the key.  Meaning, I didn’t sing again, save for a couple drunken times in a karaoke bar.  And I played one song off my demo for maybe 3 people in the last 19 years.  I couldn’t even listen to my own music.  There was something so raw and almost embarrassing about it, that I’d ever written any in the first place.  The same way I sometimes feel like a poseur in running, I felt that 10-fold with music.

Cut To The Present
It’s nearly two decades later, and Rigo, who lives in the Dominican Republic and makes his living playing music, has been hounding me all this time to send him the songs so he can do something with them.  I was able to demure for years because they were all on DAT, a format that isn’t used anymore, which suited me fine because I didn’t want to hear them again.  I was afraid it’d be one big cringe festival.

As fate would have it, Nick, my ex, had an old DAT player stuck in the closet.  After the umpteenth request from Rigo, I finally borrowed the DAT machine and transferred the material.

Hearing the songs after all this time was both startling and incredibly bittersweet, reminding me of who I was at one time and how deeply I cared about it.  It’s funny how I can talk freely about past drug use or even my mother’s suicide without a moments hesitation, but this has remained under wraps for all these years.  I need to get over it.  It’s just some music.

So without further ado, here is one of my songs.  It’s one of my last ones written back in 1992, which I’d forgotten all about.  It’s just a simple, very imperfect demo called Missed The Boat.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

If the player doesn’t work for your browser, here’s a link to the song.

And for those who care about such things, here are the lyrics.

Knock on wood, I’m not someone who has a lot of aches and pains, a lucky thing considering my non-spring-chickenness.  But if I was to pinpoint one part of my body that is my weak spot, I’d say my ankles.  In 2008, I had an ankle injury that was diagnosed as heel bursitis with possibly some peroneal tendon involvement that lasted for weeks.  In the interim, I bought a couple different ankle braces, one neoprene and one more “official” lace-up brace that eventually did the trick of stabilizing my ankle till the injury finally abated.

I haven’t had an ankle injury since then, but there is the occasional morning when I get out of bed and the first few steps to the bathroom remind me that I do indeed have a pair of ankles.  It’s not really painful per se, just that I notice them.  So when I was offered a couple of compression sleeves from Tommie Copper, I was all over the ankle ones like white on rice.

While checking out their wares, I read about the proprietary fabric they use and that it’s got copper in it.  Now, I’m a cynical broad so any mention of metal, magnets, crystals or other mysterious healing catalysts will always get an eyeroll from me.  I can’t help it, it’s an involuntary reaction.  That said, you don’t have to believe in the healing powers of copper to know compression is a valuable healing method unto itself and the fact that these were said to be really light and all-day comfortable, seemed like it might just be the thing for occasional ankle stiffness.

There were some email back-and-forths to determine what size to order because the sizing chart has you measure around your heel and ankle and I was exactly on the cusp of both Small and Medium.  I left it up to the representative to choose, citing my shoe size as another measurement to judge by.

I received two Medium ankle sleeves.  The timing was good because I’d been having a couple days of ankle wake-up stiffness.

As far as the fabric goes, I love it, very silky and thin. I put them on and had to agree, they are extremely comfortable, enough so that you can wear them all day.  So I did.  I didn’t run with them but as soon as I got back, I put them on, wore them all day and even slept in them.  They’re comfortable enough to do that.  Actually, they feel like dress socks with an elastic band at the top.

However, they seemed only slightly more effective than wearing tight dress socks.  I woke up with the same ankle stiffness that I had the previous morning which was disappointing – I really wanted them to make a difference.  I wore them the next day/night but again…no love.

Now, part of the problem may be that the Medium wasn’t tight enough, I’m not sure how they’re supposed to fit, though from the photo on the site, it seems to look right with no sausage squish going on where the elastic hits the leg. But if they’re too large, it would stand to reason that my result wasn’t that great.

Nevertheless, I’ll wear them from time to time anyway – I think they’ll be good directly after a run when I’m sitting here on the computer.  After all, compression is our friend (remember my do-it-yourself compression sleeve) and while I’d never bother wearing any of my sturdier ankle braces unless I was injured, these are so transparent with their light compression that they’re worth donning.

I went around the web and found tons of great reviews for these, so take my experience with a grain of salt, it’s just one cynical woman’s opinion.

Last word on my ankles… I’ve taken to massaging them along with my feet before bed and it’s been really effective, the morning ankle stiffness is gone.  The more I go the self-massage route, the more I believe in the magical healing powers of fingers, hands and that ole standby, a tennis ball.  Not to say the hands-on approach replaces compression, it certainly doesn’t, but it might help you avoid getting to the point of needing any in the first place.