October 4th, 2009
…going on your Sunday run and finding yourself running upstream against a gaggle of 5Kers hoofing it to the finish. Such joy knowing whatever you have planned won’t reach one iota of the hurt those guys are feeling.
Cool is…seeing someone you know up near the front of the pack, looking unfazed and zoomy. That’d be RunForLife – great job girl!! Leave us a little comment/race report telling us how it went. You looked fabulous this morning!
So where’d I leave off? Oh yeah, Friday was a bit of LT fun, 11 miles with 3x10min @ HM/10k pace w/4min recs in the middle. It went ok, the fast bits went 7:05,6:55,6:49. I was complaining to my buddies on the sub3:20 thread on RW that I feel as if I’m wussing out a bit lately when a workout calls for 5k or 10k pace. Like I’m not digging deep enough (though it feels like pure effort while I’m doing it). I’ve gotta make my brain shut up though, that way of thinking is truly useless negativity. The important thing is I’m working hard, and though I’m already getting nervous about what the final outcome will bring, all I can do is what I can do, right? Ah, I feel better already. 
Yesterday was 9 easy and today, Hudson told me to back off the Long Run miles and I happily complied. Just 14.34mi this morning, but with some added interest in there: 5x3min@MP w/3min easy between. I enjoyed it, dialing into MP for short stretches is a good exercise in getting used to the pace. Started the run slow as usual, first 6 miles averaged 8:48, then after the interval-ettes I came home with around 5 miles @ 8:05, so avg. 8:24 for the run. Funny how coming home at that faster pace seems so much easier than those initial, slower miles.
In life news, I finally had it the other day. Ever since I moved into this place, the upstairs neighbor wakes me at 6am or earlier. I hoped I’d get used to it, but after a month, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. So I got my nerve together and walked upstairs a couple days ago, knocked on the door and said I was really sorry for asking this and the last thing I want to do is make anyone self-conscious in their own apt, but if you could just keep it down in the early hours so I could sleep through, I’d be sooo appreciative.
All that nervousness for nothing, she was very sweet, said it’s her boyfriend and she’d talk to him. Turns out they have lovely hardwood floors up there which made me jealous since I have an ocean of blue office flecked wall-to-wall, but that explains the noise. Anyway, that was 2 days ago and since then, I’ve slept through! I saw the boyfriend in the hall yesterday and thanked him profusely. I don’t hate my apartment anymore, in fact, I love my little blue hovel. Now if only a dishwasher could magically appear, I’d be in heaven.
The outlet/recharging situation is still annoying though. I realized my Braun electric toothbrush was losing it’s usual exuberance (yes, I can run 70+miles/week but somehow using a regular toothbrush is way too much effort). I moved the charging station to the living room and suddenly, my toothbrush was reborn, excited once again to be cleaning my big chompers. Granted, it’s going to be a little weird keeping my toothbrush in the living room, but at least its shiny blue handle goes beautifully with the carpet.
Posted in 
Tags: 15 Responses to “Happiness is…”
Leave a Reply
Sign Up For My Newsletter and get
Click here for more info
|
|
|
|
Another nice run this morning and I’m sure the pace work is not that much of and issue at this point. Are you planning on taking the taper straight from the plan or have you developed something on your own?
Glad the upstairs wasn’t a psycho and it worked out. Rare in today’s world.
plz let me know when you get a dishwasher to appear and send me one.
kthnxbi
Sorry about the race lol. I know I hate when I find myself running into one as well…not quite sure why they put some right in the middle of the Kelly. I came in 4th female OA at 20:42. Anyway, pretty uneventful race besides dodging bikers and a few obnoxious high schoolers that had to line up straight across the front and get in everybody’s way in the beginning, but what can you do?
Glad you like your apartment now and good run today. Keep up the good work
Jhowdy, I’m going to be a pod person and do the taper as given, I don’t have enough experience to come up with a better idea and I like that it’s not super long, so hopefully it’ll work out fine.
Doggie, I can’t get over how the dishes keep regenerating themselves. It’s really irritating. Funny weird ending of your post, had to look up what that meant, never saw that before. You’re so hip with the internet lingo.
Runforlife, I must have written that wrong, I enjoy other people racing, it was fun to watch everyone huffing and puffing while I get to saunter on. What I hate is watching people sauntering by while I’m racing.
Was pretty cool because I hit the path just a little before the first guys started coming in, very unexpected treat. Great job, girl! It was near 70 degrees, too, so a couple extra points for you.
That sort of long and short pick-ups in long runs is one of the things Spedding considers a key to his success, as it helped him mightily in surges and in tough stretches of his races.
“Hoofing it”? I have a vision of a horde of folks in strawhats and canes smiling as they propel themselves sideways toward the finish. Like Fred and Ginger. Or as Sam said in “Cheers,” like Fred and Ethel.
I just reread what you wrote and I misinterpreted it before somehow. But now it seems quite clear what you meant considering the post is named Happiness is :P Anyway thanks for the shout out !
Glad you’re feeling better already. Your training looks fine. Better than fine in fact. Watching a race while on the run is fun – and yes, 5ks hurt, but they’re over quick!
Good to see you’ve finally found your piece of matching blue paradise. Uninterrupted sleep is the competitive runner’s dream.
I had to look up DPs post too. God I’m old.
I’m with you on how those Hudson mini-intervals put some zip into the rest of the run.
I’ve been thinking about your electrical troubles. This circuit that drives those outlets might be incorrectly wired, with the neutral and ground wires crossed. (Or even live and ground – eek!). Hardware stores have little tester plugs that can detect that type of problem.
Flo – I have a selfish request if you can help.
I have developed ITBS on my left side…
Can you post a link for me to the blog in your archives about when you had some? I searched and I’m apparently useless.
Alternatively, can you give me a rundown of how yours went and how you got rid of it and how you knew it was gone for good?
I’m really nervous that this may mess with my Philly plans. I last ran on 10/1 after deciding to take 1-2 weeks to recover and re-assess.
Thank you so much..
Todd…eek! Seems to be a lot of that going around lately, sorry to hear you’ve got it. Here are my ITBS posts http://www.GirlinMotion.com/?s=itbs but the one called Miracle Pills has the final word. Basically MSM (or glucosamine w/ MSM) fixed me. Also lots of rolling but the supplements made a quick finish for what was lingering forever. I knew it was gone because there wasn’t even a shadow of that feeling you get when you know it’s weak but present. Downhills are the best test to know if it’s gone since even a little decline would let me know if it was there or not. I’m not sure if taking 1-2 weeks off is necessary, just do 1 if you must. Also do the exercises (read the comments in those posts because people gave a lot of good links). Here’s hoping it goes quickly!! Also, I just realized my tag search isn’t working so it wasn’t you not finding what you were looking for, it was the tag thingy which I’ll work on now.
Jim, I might just get a tester because it’s so weird, thanks for the tip.
Hi Flo! Yay for a happy post (well, except for the toothbrush).
Dishwasher? Pete and I have one and we almost never use it. We first didn’t have one when we lived in SF for 3 years, got out of the habit, and, more than 15 years later, still only use it when we have guests over. So you’re welcome to it!
I struggle with sticking to the prescribed paces for the 5K/10K intervals, as you know. In fact, I got a PM talking-to by A Muse not long ago for running my fartleks and tempos too fast. OK, and my LRs too.
runforlife20: Congrats!
dog: Thanks for teaching me more interweb speak! Just when I think I’m starting to get the hang of all of these tubes…
Great running, dear! Oh yeah, just a tip from Mrs. Germaphobic- your family room is a lot more germy than the bathroom. You should really buy one of those sanitizing holders for your toothbrush. I mean, if you’re going to splurge on an electric toothbrush, you might as well have the works. Right?
Hey, I ran on Kelly Dr. on Sat. and Sun. mornings and kept imagining that I’d see you. I didn’t, but you must have gotten there on Sunday as I was leaving cause I was passed by the 5K winners in their final kick.
Judy, pooh! Wish I’d seen you, I would have loved a hug. :-) Funny how we were probably so close to each other. Sending Katie zillions of curing wishes, I think about her and you sometimes out of the blue.
Flo,
First off I am SOO sorry for the dark dark days you are having. I can only imagine having to deal with all that. I hope your running is going well and is serving as a distraction for you.
Thank you for helping me find your ITBS posts. It sounds like you recognized yours as a problem a lot sooner than I did mine. Mine had started to be a noticeable issue at the beginning of my runs and walking. Stupid me.
I have one more question, if you are able to answer it. In your posts, you refer to having to stop and stretch during the runs when you’d feel the ITB twinges. Is it a specific stretch that you’re doing at those points? I’m wondering if the same approach could help me.
I took a week off and kept cardio up with elliptical and stretched and rolled and iced and Naproxen-ed like it was my job. Everything felt normal, so I went out for a 6 miler yesterday and right from the beginning there was the nagging pain outside my knee again. I ran anyway and the discomfort lightened up during the run. A few times later in the day, the knee reminded me it was there, so that’s not good.
I cannot bag this marathon after so much training for the second year in a row.
Any advice you can give, I would appreciate. PS, about 3-4 weeks ago a PT who was giving a clinic checked me and said it is ITBS but that with icing 10 mins after runs, foam roller 10 min/day and stretching (the “good leg over the bad one and lean to the good side” stretch) that I should be able to continue running without a break. I feel like that stretch doesn’t stretch a whole lot. What’s your secret?
All the best
Todd