Yesterday’s workout was: 10.7 miles w/5 x 1.25mi @10k pace, avg. 3:40 recoveries.  I averaged 6:59s.  It was 81 degrees and Daniels and Tinman say that’s equivalent to 6:47s in normal temps, so I plugged it into McMillan and dang if it doesn’t spit out my Half PR from last year.  Of course, this is all calculated approximation so TWB (tinged with bullshit) but I haven’t been in spitting distance for close to a year, so this is a beautiful thing.

Btw, some weather trivia I just read: this is the hottest Philly summer on record, and by a wide margin.  Highs averaged 88.7!  Last winter had record snowfall.  If this keeps up, I may just move my ass outta here.  But back to running…

Race Goals For The 19th
As mentioned, I’m not looking for a PR for this one, instead my main focus will be getting hydration down right.  I’ll also be tweaking the nutrition aspect and for the first time, at Adam’s suggestion, will take 2 gels, one 30 minutes in, the next 30 minutes afterward.  I think this is a great idea, I’ve always scrimped on that stuff during Halfs but now I have no problem taking gels (they used to remind me of snot but now I find them quite tasty, or else I’ve established a craving for eating snot).  But back to the goal…

1:34 has a nice ring to it; challenging, but not tempting fate too much.   Having trained in this miserable weather for months, it’s hard to realistically know what’ll happen.  It’s like you’re rehearsing for a dance but only marking your moves for months, then suddenly you have a week to dance all-out (assuming we’ll have some cooler weather before the 19th).  Should be interesting, if nothing else.  Plus, the major happiness with this race is the girlies coming in: there’ll be Reyana coming from California, Rebecca from Alabama, Doggie & Loren and Kat.  So it’s a chickfest in the works!

Meanwhile, I’m actually looking forward to my 6@Half pace tempo this Friday (or Saturday if the weather’s better) to see where my heart rate lies.  Who is this person?  Looking forward to quality runs again?  No defeatist attitude?  Some actual confidence?  She seems familiar but I can’t quite place her.  Looking forward to become reacquainted with her as the Fall progresses, though.  Speaking of…

Fall Races
I started scouting out races to do between this Half and the November one, and compiled a nice little list, which I’ve put on my At The Races page. I’ll pick 3 but those are the choices so far.   It’ll be so good to get back in the game – the longer I’m away, the more nerve-wracking it is to race.  Which is another reason I’m happy that September’s Half will be a rustbuster and not one that (in my mind) counts.

Back to the present
I had a fun 11-miler this morning, the first few miles run with blog commenter and friend Steph, who is one half of a pair of athletic twins (missed you today, Linds!).  I see them both in the park and they look so remarkably identical, the only way I can tell them apart is one wears red, the other wears blue.  I’m still not convinced there are two of them since I’ve yet to see them together.

Anyway, we had a fun time jabbering about the park regulars, it’s so satisfying to have your observations of weirdos and funny running styles confirmed.  Btw, they’re not the only twin runners in the park, there’s another set of sisters in their 20′s too, though they’re much easier to tell apart.  They’re also very sweet and always say hi.

I’ll end today’s post with a shout-out to my friend Matt Tartar, whom I met doing the Runner’s Roundtable.  He’s got a cool podcast called Dump Runner’s Club where he talks of all things running.  If you’re a podcast listener, add him to your list, he’s a funny guy and a sweetie, besides.

And that concludes today’s blah blah.   I wish you all the blah blah for the next couple blah.   Be safe and make sure to blah your blah blah because it might get itchy if you’re not careful.

As I’ve said, mile repeats are my least favorite workout, they’re just so interminably long, and with today’s schedule having 5 of them, I wasn’t too thrilled.  On the other hand, I wasn’t too freaked either, since the pace was 15k, a nebulous speed found only from McMillan’s calculator since I’ve never raced a 15k. It’s actually quite a nice pace, a little faster than Half, little slower than 10k, so it seemed doable going into it.

The weather these last two days has been infinitely better, enough so that I haven’t had to set the alarm – went to bed at midnight and woke up at 7am, which is way more my style.  Btw, those 8-hour nights I’d been shooting for will probably never happen, but 7 is a huge improvement.  Temps-wise, it was 68 degrees when I got outside, low 70s by the end of the run.

Adequate rest and great weather had me running faster than planned and the kicker is that I actually considered adding an extra interval.  Shocking.  I ultimately decided against it, wanting to savor the feeling of having a tad extra in the tank because I haven’t felt this “right” in so long.

Funny how all it takes is one great workout to make you feel more confident about the rest of the schedule.  Friday’s tempo lands on another great weather day and I’m actually looking forward to it…more shock and awe.

Weight update
My weight hasn’t moved in a week and a half, though my bodyfat number is going down.  I’m really glad I got that scale, otherwise I’d be feeling a bit irritated about the plateau, but the bodyfat number decreasing totally makes up for it.  For the record, I’m at 118 right now so I’ve lost 5lbs since I started a month ago.

Also, I’m eating 1900-2000 calories now.  Feeling like I could stick with this calorie load forever.  In the Spring, in a misguided attempt to lose weight, I ate salad almost every night and lunch was always a turkey sandwich.  Yawn.  Haven’t had either of those in weeks, much more varied on the menu front.

And with that, it’s time to figure out what I’m having for lunch.  Likely it will involve my boyfriend, Joe.  Trader Joe, that is.  He’s dreamy and knows just how to feed a girl right.

On Tuesday, I had 10mi w/ 5x1K @ 5K pace – 90sec rec’s, though the original schedule was 2x(5x1k@10k – 1min rec’s). I changed it because A) first and foremost, it was 80 degrees and the dewpoint equation was 149, so I wasn’t going to do 10 of anything much less 1ks and B) I remember that workout as the hardest one when I was training for Philly, and since I’m not marathon training anymore, I reserve the right to balk at such things. :-)  So I shortened it but sped it up.

My other workout was a tempo on Friday: 9mi w/6@Half pace, which went well albeit with an adjusted target pace for 79 degrees.  No heart rate to compare since I haven’t worn the strap in weeks, so I’m trusting it was the right effort.

Lastly on the quality front was a 17-miler in the trails yesterday.  Happily, it didn’t follow a tempo day, as my recent LRs have due to weather switch-ups.  Because of that, my legs were feeling good but it was humid as hell so it was still a slow one.  It rained through a large part of it which was wonderful except for the one shoe squeaking for about 14 miles.

Hydration was crazy: I refilled my 12oz. handheld 3 times plus long slurps from each fountain.  So I figure I had about 60 oz while on the road and still needed a couple large glasses once I got home.  Which makes this next bit somewhat ironic…

Giving Up The Bottle
They added a new fountain on my loop which happens to fall at a key point on my runs, so aside from trail runs, I haven’t carried a handheld all summer – a fact I’ve come to adore.  But it hasn’t escaped my mind that I need to address this since I have a Half coming up.

As most of you know, I always do Halfs and Fulls with a handheld, thanks to that first hospital incident a couple years ago.  I’ve yet to feel confident about doing water stops efficiently so it’s been easier mentally to carry my own.  But the fountains have spoiled me rotten so I’ve asked my friend Lara to help me practice in a couple weeks – she’ll stand outside my apartment building with a raincoat and galoshes while I soak both of us until I get it right.

Btw, I know how to fold the cup and all, it’s really more of me respecting the time it takes to get the fluid down, which’ll probably have me walking through the stops.   The good thing is that since I’ve already demoted the Distance Run from a goal race to a race race, I can afford to forfeit clock time if need be (not that I should lose a great deal, but hydration must be the priority).  So with this as a practice race, November’s Half should go swimmingly.

Headband Talk
Thanks to everyone who took a look and especially those who purchased and also shared the link via Facebook or email.  That was so sweet of you kids, I couldn’t believe it.  I’m really excited about the biz and have already had a couple opportunities come my way.  Between invites to do a blog giveaway and the Pittsburgh Marathon Expo, I’m already dreaming ahead of myself.  So this week’s task is to make a Facebook page and start promoting.  In fact, if any of you guys have some promotional ideas, please let me know.

Aside from that, the wide velvet came in, so 1.5″ headbands are ready, as are solid colors.  It took all my will, and I mean ALL my will, not to go to the fabric store this weekend.  I had forgotten what a drug that is, all those gorgeous bolts of potential just begging you to take them home.  But I already have a crapload of materials, so I’ll wait a week…or 3 or 4 days anyway.

OK, that’s it for blather, I’m off for a 6 with 6×30/60 hillettes.  The weather is finally calming down this week so I can sleep and run later.  Woohoo!!  Have a good one, folks.

Speaking of  “if you read the last post”, I was impressed by how many actually did.  Around 700 unique readers, which is a lot for a post where I don’t go to the hospital or have some other kooky crappy escapade.  I got so many cool comments, both on here and on Facebook that I wanted to thank you folks for taking the time to read the thing and also, that I love how alike so many of our experiences are.  Makes the world a smaller place, for sure.

Training
I thought it’d be a good time to compare my original training plan with what I’ve done so far.  Because the weather has been an unyielding bitch since June, some of the workouts were adjusted, made shorter or slower, or run on different days to chase a cooler temp.  I also had the hamstring incident that added an extra rest day and forfeited some hard running.

Today’s workout was changed, btw, twice.  Adam noted that 6×1000@5k was going to be too tough, so make it 5×1000, but then when I cried Help! because the heat index at 6am was going to be low 80s, he took pity on me and made it 12×400 with generously long recoveries (2min).  I loved it!

Click on it for full-size.  The original plan is on the left, starting with July 12th and goes through this week.  I know it’s a bit confusing, just note that the workouts are written above the days and each week’s total mileage is to the right, outside of the calendar days.

For Ilana
Sweet Ilana lives in the cool recesses of Colorado and enjoys gloating over her 50 degree weather on Facebook.  She contemplates wearing a jacket and will be in snowshoes the next time she checks in.  So today, when I returned from my 8.5 miles, I wrung out my sports bra and shorts just for her – a nice, thick, white sweat so she could share some summer love with the rest of us whiners.  Goes great in coffee, too.

A little over an hour's running and this is what my clothes had to show for it.

And that’s it for now.  Gotta dash off and talk about Alsarraf septorhinoplasty and mucoperichondrium now, because I’m cool like that.  Have a nice Wednesday, all.

I did this a couple weeks ago in similar conditions, so I have something to compare it to (the one two weeks ago sucked, btw).  My workout was infinitely better yesterday, my splits dead even and I was in control throughout.  They also averaged 10 sec’s faster.

A couple reasons this workout was probably much better than two weeks ago is:
#1) My new fueling regime.  I ate nothing before the workout 2 weeks ago, figuring the previous evening’s food would tide me over (wrong!).  Yesterday, an hour before leaving for the run, I had a slice of whole wheat with peanut butter and 1/2 banana.
#2) I did those Ryan Hall leg drills before leaving the house.  (I’ve been doing the RW exercises every day but didn’t feel like getting on the floor yesterday)

Btw, I’m keeping my interval and tempo paces under my hat for a bit so I don’t feel pressured about any of the workouts.  I’ll return to reporting all the dirty details soon enough, but right now I’m in a transition period so mum’s the word.

I Love My Fancy-Ass Tanita Scale!
Got it on Monday, and of course, spent the day hopping on and off to see how the numbers changed depending on how close to meals, hydration level, etc.  Don’t worry, I’m not an obsessive weigher at all, but it is a new toy, so the entertainment factor was high.

Turns out the old scale was off by a little more than a pound which makes my weight from July 23rd when I started tracking, 123.  So  there’s the dealio today:

Weight: 119.4
Body Fat (averaged over 2 days):14.8%

Accuracy
Tanita says there’s a tolerance of +/-5% accuracy in their scales compared to DEXA testing, which is actually very accurate (.74% in this case).   Edit: Blogging pal Jaymee had hydrostatic testing done and found in comparison with that, the scales she’s tried are consistently 5 points higher for women,  making that 14.8% which I already thought was suspiciously low, to be 9.8%.  That’d be insanely low, knowing my pockets of fat (and the electrical current doesn’t reach the arms, just lower body), so I’ll stick with the scale number.  The measurement is for trends more than anything, anyway.

Whatever it is, it’s a pleasure after having the Omron handheld analyzer tell me I was 24% for over a year.  I knew it had to be wrong, but it still managed to mess with my head.  In the Omron’s defense, it takes its measurement through your arms so maybe my arm flab skewed the readings, though I have a lot of muscle there, too.  I’ll give it to my friend Lara and see what she gets.

There are a ton of additional stats I could share, like Metabolic Age, which puts me at 12 years old (12 is the lowest the scale goes, I’m sure it wants to tell me I’m a fetus, but can’t).  There’s also a BMR reading which is cool.  It’s more generous than the online calculators I’ve used in the past, and seems to fit better with the amount I actually eat/burn.

Dry Feet vs Wet
In the Racing Weight book, he tells you to moisten a towel before stepping on the scale to improve conductivity, but the Tanita FAQ only mentions that if you must wear nylons when measuring “…use a drop of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol on the foot pads to act as a conductor.”  Other than that, no mention of damp feet.  Some scales specifically ask for wet feet but since this doesn’t, I’m sticking to dry tootsies.

The Subject Of Food
Kristin, a wonderful blogger and smarty pants MIT student, made a comment in the last post that really hit home.  She said “I think your (and Jaymee’s) thoughts on weight are interesting because they sound so matter of fact and not emotional”.   This was pretty huge to read because I’ve spent the greater part of my life dealing with food as an emotional salve and going from fat to thin to fat again.   So I’m going to save this and more food talk for Friday because it really is a post a book unto itself.

So that’s about it for today.  Oh, if you find yourself in need of something to do at 8PM EST tonight, a reminder that I’ll be on Runners Round Table talking about running (or collapsing, lol)  in the heat.  Later, gators!

Also, this had my name all over it, “Excess body fat is also known to increase thermoregulatory strain during exercise, so by shedding fat, athletes can go faster without overheating.”  Boy, would I love a little help in that department.

Another great weight-related motivation was a post I read yesterday at Lauren Fleshman’s blog.  Btw, thanks Julie for turning me on to it, her blog is a truly fantastic read.  Lauren’s an elite runner with an engaging writing style who gives great advice, too.  Check out this entry, which is an excellent piece for anyone wanting to lose weight for running.

This really struck me, “…especially once I got to college and tended to carry an extra 5-8 pounds in the fall and winter.  Every year I would get beat by flash in the pan athletes, and it absolutely killed me.”  Now this gal is 5’8″ and 122!  So if 5-8 lbs got her beat by “flash in the pans”, then that’s just more confirmation of how that same amount of extra weight might affect a shorty such as myself.

Just remember folks, with all my blathering on the subject, it’s not just weight we’re talking about, but excess body fat, so if any of you apply this stuff to yourselves, please be healthy about this, don’t eat too little and do some supplementary exercises to keep your muscles strong.  They’ll only thank you for the trouble.

It’s In The Hips, Baby
Adam often supplies me with links to great articles on running mechanics.  This latest has to do with a conversation we had after I posted that gait video a few weeks back.  He suggested I “engage the hips more” and while I was all, “Oh yeah, ok, sounds great” I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant.  Then he sent me this article yesterday which made me a believer in the power of the hips.

The article has a link to RW for some hip exercises that are not only wonderful for getting your hips into the act, but are excellent for strengthening the lower back (bridges) and even address that hamstring injury I got last week, in particular, the last drill mimics the feeling I was going for in my LT workout before it tweaked – the lengthening that accompanies a stronger push-off.  I’m sold!  Did them today before my run and will keep on with them, too.

My Fancy New Air Popcorn Popper
I have to share this, because it’s too cool.  I hate microwave popcorn packets, they stink up the place and the taste is always a bit weird to me.  I used to have a special air popper bowl for the microwave but hadn’t gotten around to buying another.  Then I read that you can make air-popped popcorn in your microwave with a regular paper bag!

The bag has grease on it because for my first batch, I used a little oil, but then realized you don't need any.

All you do is throw in 1/4 – 1/3 cup of popcorn, fold over the top of the bag a couple times and stick it in the micro, you’ll have to experiment with time (mine takes 3:10).  No oil needed, it comes out perfectly!  Afterwards, I squirt some “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray on it with salt and yum.  A 1/3 cup makes a huge bowl, only 204 calories, 50 grams of carbs and 10 grams of fiber.  Yeah, baby!

Oh, and if you don’t have a bag, apparently you can use a bowl with a plate on top, though I haven’t tried it.  Just be careful when you take it out, it’ll be hot!

The hamstring injury had me nervous as it hadn’t completely left the building.  And while I’d said I wanted at least one perfect hamstring day before attempting this session, tomorrow and Sunday are going to be “feels like” high 80s by 6am, so it was now or never.  And it feels much better, so I thought it worth chancing.

When I left the house at 6:30am, it was “feels like” 82, deeming 10k pace a concept rather than an absolute – I just needed to manage 8 at “whatever”.  I had a 2.5mi warmup which included some strides, then I stretched the hamstring, jogged a bit more and began.

In the end, I completed 5 of them, the first 4 pacewise went 7:05, 6:59, 6:58, 6:58, then I gave the hamstring a long stretch which had the opposite effect as intended, making it announce its presence, so the 5th one fell in at 7:18 and at that point, it was time to pack it in.  Honestly, it was the hamstring, feeling cooked from the heat and a bad attitude.

On the bright side, I managed almost 18 minutes of effort-filled running, so it wasn’t a waste by any means, just not the most efficient bang for the buck.  But I feel better than if I hadn’t done anything hard this week.

Injury Reflection
I think I know how I got the hamstring injury in the first place.  It’s no secret I’m always on the hunt for improving my form and something I’d been playing with recently was stride length.  A couple sessions ago (the one before I strained it) I’d noticed that if I increase my pushoff and lengthen that back leg, I gained some speed.  The problem, I think, is that my hamstring wasn’t accustomed to supporting this exaggerated movement.   Live and learn.  That’s a potential byproduct of experimentation.

Pace or Effort?
There’s an interesting thread going on at MRT about whether you get the same workout running slower paces in hotter weather.  I’m of the opinion that you don’t get an equivalent workout in poor conditions.  Not to say you don’t get benefit, just that you get more improvement when you’re able to fire on all cylinders.

With this in mind, I don’t see myself having the outcome I want for the RNR Philly Half (aka Distance Run) in September, which is a PR.  So if you look at my At The Races page, I’ve removed the note “goal race” from that one and added the Philadelphia Half Marathon in November to the schedule.  It’s a tad slower course than the September Half, but I’ll have another 2 months to train and in cooler weather, so at least I’ll have a clue about where I stand.  Right now, I’m so mixed up with the sludge and my last races, that I don’t know what to expect.

But this is not a boohoo situation!  It’s a “try to see clearly and plan accordingly” type of deal.  I know good things will come, but it’s a matter of time.  This is all about discovery and realization and frankly, even though I whine a lot, I love it.  Yeah, I get frustrated not moving ahead the way I’d like, but running is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before – the way it unfolds is such a mystery.  It keeps us on our toes, gives us a menu of emotions to choose from and makes life exciting.  How many things can you say that about?