Archive for September, 2011

You know how I usually write about a few subjects in each post and that the post title is generally the one subject or feeling that stands out for me.  Yesterday, when I started this post, I titled it “Last Tempo, Worst Tempo” because yesterday I had the worst workout this entire cycle.  But today, it’s just something that happened that doesn’t mean a thing (which I knew yesterday but you know, it was still a bummer).  Besides, I was due a crappy workout after that long string of successful ones.  Of course, it would have been nice had it not happened the week before the race, but such is life.

The workout was 1 hour easy, then 40min@Half Pace (which I translated into 6mi@HP).  My myriad of excuses consist of:
1) 75 degrees with 70 dewpoint
2) leftover fatigue from unpacking/assembling furniture/putting my new abode together
3) due to major river flooding this week, there were a couple mud bogs on the path which, until I finally got it together to run on the road, required slow, slippery tiptoeing through one and running up a set of stairs to detour the other one.

Whatever, it sucked and I wanted it to stop after the 3rd tempo mile.

The hour easy was uneventful.  After the initial mile, I was around 8:15ish and my heartrate was real comfy@145 (65%HRR).  Still, I wasn’t feeling confident about the upcoming tempo portion so I tried to pump myself up with a pep-talk but my innate cynicism makes pep-talks difficult since I’m always too aware of the I’m-faking-this underlayer required to do the job.  I probably should work on that.

Edit: in exquisite timing, after I wrote this I stumbled on an article about just that subject and while I won’t be talking to myself in front of the mirror anytime soon (that is just weird to me), there is some good stuff that you and I can use, so give it a read.

Anyway, first tempo miles were ok though behind goal @7:05s…and then the unraveling began.  Splits for the last 4 miles went 7:17, 7:15, 7:14, 7:14 – I just couldn’t go any faster.  My heartrate was low too, averaging 167 (79%HRR), so more like Marathon effort than Half.

On a brighter note, despite my abject misery, I ended up being quite the social butterfly during those tempo miles.  I usually say hi or smile to a ton of people anyway but yesterday was way more words and sentences than usual.

First off, I saw my friends Lindsay and Jo out there (separate sightings) so we exchanged “Hey Girl!”s.  Then Older Asian Lady rode by yelling out “I miss you!” and I yelled back I missed her too.  Then when I came upon the muddy/waterlogged area that sent me up the stairs, I think I said “shit”, “fuck” and “damn” in succession then realized there was some runner dude there, so I apologized for the cussing which luckily, made him laugh.

Then there was this one jogging lady who tried to ask me a question as I ran by and I’m thinking “ask someone who doesn’t look like they’re going through hell right now!” but actually said “I can’t talk to you now”, then felt bad and added, “I’m doing a workout”, then she said “What?” and I had to say it all over again.  Lastly, there is a regular gal that I like a lot and we passed each other 4 times yesterday, so there was a shared chuckle and a couple words over that.  All this just during the tempo!

But back to the crap part: I was spitting a lot and some of my exhalations actually whistled.  In fact, I thought I was in perfect sync with a bird’s singing till I realized the sound was coming from my throat.

All told, the tempo portion averaged 7:11 and the whole 13.7mi run averaged 7:53.  When I got home I was so wiped out, I slept for 1½ hours.

Today, I was kind of nervous about getting out there again even though it was just for an easy 9.  Because of course, you have one crap run and there’s a totally unfounded fear of “Uh oh, did I flip some switch that means I will now suck forever and ever, hereafter?”  As these things go, it turned out to be a really great run with a string of comfortable sub8s.  And please know that I don’t compensate for a crap run by pushing myself faster the next day to prove I “still have it”, I’m not that insecure. Today was me looking down at the Garmin thinking it was giving me bogus readings but which turned out to be correct.

The rest of the week’s runs
Thank goodness it was a cutback week, I don’t think I’d have been very happy dealing with a full mileage load, moving into a new pad and sidestepping a flood.

The flooding left behind a mess of ripped asphalt on the highly-traveled road parallel to the bikepath.  That, along with portions of it still submerged forced them to close off the road for two days.  I was shocked by what the water had done to a healthily-paved road, those large gashes and holes were a sad sight, but a surreal army of repair trucks on the morning of Day Two made it drivable by Day Three.

The silver lining was that it prompted me to cross the closed-off street at a spot I’d always wondered about.  Turned out to be a nice area that circles Laurel Hill Cemetery.  Aside from the initial stoplight, there are no cars to worry about for 2 uninterrupted miles, plus it has a nice long hill in it.  Good find.

Lastly, you’ll notice my run distances are wacky this week due to flood detours but my new location doesn’t help either.  I have to remember to add an extra ¼ mile then keep going another .13mi to even it out.  Today I almost did it correctly but ended up with an extra ½ mi because I wasn’t paying attention.  But dang, while it’s not neat and tidy being .62 from the first mile marker, I’m only ¼ mile from the park now!  Talk about spoiled – I love it.

Cutback & New Apartment Week In Review
Monday: 9@8:22 (drills and strides)
Tuesday: 8.94@7:36 (9x 3min on/1min off)
Wednesday: 10.35@8:20
Thursday: 8.97@8:32
Friday: 11.65@8:22
Saturday: 13.7@7:53 (7mi easy, 6@7:11 <–grrr)
Sunday: 9.5@8:08
Total: 72.11 mi

The Taper Ahead and Some Things I’ve Learned
Coach Adam/A muse asked me what I respond to as far as tapering and I had to admit, I have no clue.  I’ve never received enough of a real message when it comes to “taper vs. race result” to know what works best for me.  I know a lot of higher mileage people don’t do a huge taper so there’s that plus it’s a Half, so doesn’t require the same sort of time-out.  So Adam suggested a Hudson-type taper, running normally the next few days with 3-4 mile reps at 10k-Half pace on Tuesday, then a steep 4-day taper.  Sounds good to me.

While I’m not sure about the best taper for me, I did learn a lot about myself this cycle and one of them is the length of time to be in workout-mode; this one turned out just right.  If I had to extend it a couple more weeks, I think I’d have started to reach ThisIsNotFunAnymore stage. So 7-8 weeks of concentrated workouts are what I’ll plan on from here on in, 12-16 weeks can go suck it.

Another thing I learned from this cycle is that cutback weeks are beautiful things and I run better the week after one.  So I’m feeling good about this upcoming easy week on the heels of the past week’s cutback (which was only a cutback in mileage, not workouts).   I think my legs will be real happy come Sunday.

Life
My apartment is beautiful, glorious, wonderful, a dream.   We’ve had some rainy days this week so on Friday, when I walked by the bedroom, I was convinced I’d left the light on.  This happened twice.  Apparently there’s this thing called “sunlight” which I’ve not seen in full indoor splendor for quite some time.  Shocking.

And the fan above the stove is actually attached to a vent, unlike the fake-out one in the Blue Hovel.  My beautiful fridge has so much more room, I didn’t realize quite how stunted the Hovel one was.  And the neighborhood is so great, even my 20-minute walk downtown to the recording studio is so much prettier – amazing what a difference just a few blocks make.

Meanwhile, I’ve been on a huge shopping spree, now that I have places to put things and room to own stuff.  Not just for furniture-type items but for silly stuff a grown woman deserves to have.  Like, instead of storing my meager jewelry in two cheap-ass plastic containers from Dollar Store as I always have, I bought an honest-to-goodness swanky jewelry box.  I also got one of those sit-up-in-bed pillows that look like something your grandma would use but is so great for laptop perusing in bed.  Lots of little unnecessary but lovely comfort-oriented things that in my mind, signifies leaving transient “make do” mode and approaches “settling down” land.  Don’t know if I’ll ever feel truly settled anywhere, but this is the closest I’ve ever come to the idea of it.

Cute Video
I’ll leave you with this video posted on Runblogger from the owner of Natural Running Store.  It shows you the effect of shoes on balance.  Not sure I buy the theory completely but the video is entertaining and made me laugh.

Hilarious…I’m 50 friggin’ years old today.  Seriously, this is the goofiest birthday ever: a half-century old, that much closer to death, recent recipient of an AARP card…but really, there’s only one thing that matters on this day and it’s not my health.  It’s the fact that I’m now a baby in a brand new Age Group.  Yeehaw! Gonna create some 50-54 year-old carnage this year (and the next and the next).

My Age Graded scores promise to be quite fun as well.  Unless something goes terribly wrong (because wrong is never complete until it has “terribly” before it), it looks like I’ll be solidly in the 80% “National Class” bracket from here on in.  I’d already hit 79% for a couple distances but if I get my goal for this coming Half (1:31:40) I’ll have an AG of 81.35% and if I get even the slightest sub20 5K (19:59) I’ll have an AG of 83.89%!  Makes life a little more entertaining, anyway.

I don’t have a lot to say about the birthday itself, every time I think “OK this is the best time of my life”, it manages to get even better. And for a hermit like myself, to have all you blog readers, forum pals and Facebook friends always being so supportive and constantly sharing the good vibes, you really bring me joy.  Imaginary or real, I’m honored to have all you crazy cats in my life.

I guess now would be the perfect time to instill you with something wise and elder-ish, but in lieu of that, here’s my favorite 50 year-old of all time, Ms. Sally O’Malley.  She can kick, stretch and kick!

As for me, I did what any self-respecting 50-year old running freak would do…celebrated with a hard run: my usual 9x (3min on/1 off) fartlek fun.  Here’s the old lady on the way out the door (she kicked ass, btw:  8.9 mi@7:38).

I moved.  My standard of living just did a 180° and I keep thinking there’s some glitch, that it’s not real.  But it is.  I went from this:

Bye bye Funeral Home, I'll miss you.

To this:

Instead of hearing the upstairs neighbor clomping above my head, the other tenants slamming the front door and constant radio blaring/car noise from 4 lanes of traffic, I hear birds and cicadas.  Instead of strewn garbage and cracked concrete ugliness, I see tons of flowers, trees and gorgeous historic buildings.  I even saw lightening bugs yesterday!

It turns out I have 7 windows which is just amazing to me and even though the building is between two others, I somehow have a corner of windows in the bedroom, one facing the city.

Southern view

Note the big brown high-rise, that’s the one that wouldn’t check my credit rating or rent to me because of my 1040.  If I’d have taken it, my only view would be the gas station that ripped me off for about $500 every time I got my car inspected, which also happens to be on my old ugly street but on an even more depressing section.  Also of note, I’m next door to what used to be Vince Fumo’s fancy-schmancy house (corrupt politician, now in jail), so their back patio is really pretty and you can see they also have a major sunroom which should be fun for spying.  Lastly, the black rectangle at the top right is the Peco building, the black thing is a huge ticker that usually has kooky crap scrolling across (as well as current time and temp).  I guess they turn it off on Sunday morning (and the Lord rested his neon ticker tape…).

Here are a couple shots from inside the turret, my new beautiful sewing area.

There was this small piece of wood that had been nailed into the round part, right under the window (gotta love that curved window) making a little shelf that just happens to fit my sewing machine perfectly! I thought I was going to have to buy a sewing table (I had been using the dining room table) but nope, it’s as if it was made for it, exactly the right height and since I’m only sewing headbands, I don’t need any space behind it.  The little room is even large enough to keep my ironing board out all the time, so it’s about as perfect a sewing space as can be.  And here’s a cool bonus: when I’m sitting there, if I look to the left, I can see the museum!  (top left building)

I’ll post interior shots when I’m set up.  I ordered a big comfy chair (I have room for a big comfy chair!  Two of ‘em if I wanted!) and some various furniturey stuff.  Meanwhile, there are so many things that excite me about this place:

1. I used to have to have a fan pointed on me all the time in my old apartment (except in the winter).  This place has so much fresh air circulation, I actually had to sleep with a blanket the last couple nights even though the temps haven’t changed.  The window situation is better than sex.  Well, almost.

2. There are lights in the ceiling and ceiling fans, too!  Wow, living the high life for sure.

3. There’s a fantastic little grocery store in the neighborhood that I had no idea about. It’s in the base of a high-rise apartment building and I’ve passed it a zillion times, I always thought it was one of those tiny corner store delis but it turns out they have all the stuff I used to have to rent a Zipcar to drive to the big grocery store for.  And they have fresh pickles in a bin!  I walked down the street yesterday eating a giant pickle.

4. I have a dishwasher and a much bigger, better refrigerator.  Heaven.

5. No mice so I can keep my bread on the counter instead of an upper cabinet.

And now, for the money thing, because it’s been a journey to get here with my Financial Marathon (can you believe it?  It worked!) so while it’s nobody’s business what I pay in rent, I think it’s fun to share since the Blue Hovel was such a complete dump and this place is so so so much better.  So OK, I used to pay $850 and now I’m paying $1200.  Needless to say, I’m getting a ton more for the extra money, the high-rises in the area are more expensive than this and this is a much better scenario anyway.  Even the movers (who turned out to be the cutest trio of long-haired hippy guys, carrying all my stuff on their backs like Sherpas) commented on what a tony block I managed to land on and how cool the apartment was.

So it’s official: I’m in the best living situation I’ve ever been in.  Funny how life keeps getting better and better.  I hope you youngsters take this to heart, that it really doesn’t matter what sort of timeframe you think you’re on, be open to changes, experiences and exploring different routes within your life and watch it unfold for you over and over again.

The week’s runs including an injury
Monday: apres-Irene, huge swaths of extremely slippery mud, part run, part tip-toeing obstacle course.

Tuesday, tired.

Wednesday, the tempo run from my last post.

Thursday, something troublesome.  The day before I’d started to feel a little twinge at my peroneal tendon (directly behind that knobby ankle bone) but it was very intermittent and I forgot about it.  Thursday, it piped up a little more but disappeared during the run.  However, during the day, while packing and moving stuff, it began to hurt in a very concerning manner, like electric shock sharp pain.  Not all the time but when I stepped a certain way. Very concerning.

Now, Friday was moving day and my original plan was to get up early to run, go to a voiceover job at 9:00, come home and finish packing, movers were due in the early afternoon.  But the tendon thing freaked me out, so instead of running, at 7am I got a Zipcar and moved some fragile stuff to the new place.  The tendon didn’t hurt at all when I woke up but as I carried the stuff up the stairs, with each trip, it made itself known.  At this point I was really worried about it and expected to take Saturday off too because peroneal tendonitis is not something to mess around with.

But here’s what I did: as soon as I got home from carting stuff, I put on an ankle brace and wore it for the entire day, even to the voiceover gig.  I had stuff still to pack but I didn’t lift anything heavy from that point on and much to my happiness, it disappeared!  So I’m going to call it a moving injury rather than a running one.

Saturday I wake up and am so relieved because my ankle feels normal and I can’t replicate the hurt so I figure I’ll run but if it barks again, I’ll stop (you guys know I’m not going to put anything on the line at this stage of the game).  Not a peep, so I ended up with 14.72mi – I’ve not yet figured out where to turn around now to get nice, pretty, even numbers.

While the ankle felt fine, I was truly exhausted the rest of the day and my big plans to unpack everything turned into a few hours of internet shopping for furniture and apartment stuff.  I was simply too pooped from the whole moving upheaval to do much more then laundry and hang some hangers.

Which brings us to today.  I didn’t get a speed session this week and today was my last day to get something in.  Last night I was thinking to do an abbreviated set of fartleks, like 6x(3min on/1 off) because after the stresses of this week, a full session was not gonna happen, especially after such a depleted Saturday.  But you know what?  I thought a little more and said nah, screw the workout, an easy run is all I’m gonna do – no pressure, just run and enjoy it.  Turned out to be a pretty great run, the last 5 miles all 7:3x-7:4xs.

No regret at all about the lost quality session either, it was absolutely the right decision.  Better to go into my last full training week strong which is, incidentally a planned mileage cutback.  This works out great – not that I’m into a big taper, especially for a Half, but a few less miles won’t hurt and the quality sessions will still be full-on 100%.  Win win.

Moving week in review
Monday: 13.1@8:40
Tuesday: 12@8:42
Wednesday: 17.25@7:46 (2wu,3@7:00, 7.75@8:05, 3.25@6:58, 1.25cd)
Thursday: 12@8:32
Friday: rest (peroneal ouchy + moving)
Saturday: 14.72@8:28
Sunday: 15.12@8:01
Total: 84.19 mi

And now I leave this overly long post wishing a Happy Labor Day for my US friends and to my international pals, have a great finish to your weekend.