Posts Tagged ‘neighbors’

Got back to running on Thursday morning, albeit stupidly going 8 when I should have capped it at 6 or 7.  My left calf, which ached during the race (maybe from all that starting up and slowing down) was still hurting.  I was already 4 miles out when I realized it wasn’t going to let up but I didn’t dare shorten the run since that would have required walking and my running ground is on the marathon course – no way in hell was I going to replay Sunday’s shame, recovery run or not, so rational self argued with wounded pride and the latter won.

This morning I went for a more reasonable 6.  The calf was better yet still a bit sore.  It’s nothing serious, just an annoying consolation prize after successfully remaining ache-free the entire cycle.

There were a couple bright spots this week.  First off, it looks like my evil upstairs neighbors are indeed moving out!  I heard them making all sorts of commotion on Wednesday and when I looked out the window, they were loading their refrigerator into somebody’s van.  This is HUGE!  I can’t tell you how depressing it’s been living beneath them – I got used to the street noise soon after moving in, but their constant loud presence waking me up and the memory of our altercation colored every single day these past two months with a negative vibe.  Not a good way to live.

Second bright spot was Thanksgiving dinner at Nick’s.  He made a wonderful feast for 6 of us which was just the ticket for warming my heart and belly.  Now I need to work on said belly which I’ve been stuffing for the last week with anything and everything.  Emotional eating + less running = Clydesdale in the making.

I received a wonderful reply from the real estate lady today in regards to my email documenting what happened on Friday (so if crazy lady killed me, they’d know why).  I truly didn’t expect anything as nice as this, or any reply at all, for that matter.  Maybe it’s because when she was standing in my doorway with the thrown water dripping off her face, I asked her if there was anything I could do for her or if she’d like a cup of coffee before the cops got here.  Here’s her reply.

I feel awful.  The upstairs people snapped when they were told their lease wouldn’t be renewed because of some issues the owner has had with them.  It may be small comfort right now but they are moving the end of November.  I will ask the owner to carpet the unit to help soundproof.  It is the upstair lady who goads the downstairs lady — I think she will be meeker when they are gone.  And then the downstairs people leave in April.  I know that is far off but I think having the upstairs people gone will solve most of the problem.  Please let me know if there is anything I can do and thank you for sending the message.

So this gives me a huge shot of peace, knowing they will definitely be out and that their place will be carpeted once they go.  I will soon return to loving my little apartment again. Ahhhh.

Then I had a really good speed session, despite it being my most heinous of distances…the mile.  It was 6xmile@10k pace + 5seconds (w/3min. recoveries).  That 5 seconds was a big help as far as not dreading it quite so much, because 6 miles is a lot for any interval session, if you ask me.  I was aiming for 6:50s and what I got was: 6:45,6:36,6:43,6:47,6:51,6:48.  Averages out to 6:45s, so I’m really happy with it.

One of the miles I ran for M, Nick’s ex.  I thought about how MS had messed with her body for so long and though she was still able to walk around, she’d been in constant pain for years and things like holding a fork could be impossible at times.  So while I bitch about how hard it is to run fast, I’ll never forget how lucky I am to be able to move around in this world the way I choose.   Visitation is tonight.  RIP M.

Like the pleasure of fresh undies, this week has got to be better than last.

On the apartment front, the freaks were gone all weekend, both the assholes from upstairs and the crazy loon from downstairs (they’re best friends, so they probably went to a weekend-long sheep slaughtering event or similar…ok, maybe a wedding ).

You’d think this would have eased my mind, but all weekend I kept having imaginary conversations with them which sometimes went my way, other times it ended with the crazy lady pushing me downstairs.   And I feel really bad for the girl who lives in the other apartment upstairs, because every time I’d hear someone going up the stairs I’d assume it was the couple, so I’d vigorously give my front door the finger (I’m mature like that).   Poor girl didn’t deserve such negative vibes.

One thing I forgot to mention is that after I went upstairs the first time and talked to the girlfriend, (and got 3 great mornings of sleep for my trouble) I saw the boyfriend on the landing and even told him “I love you!” and he had laughed and smiled, so it’s twisted how things went so sour in an instant.

Seriously though, I’ve had a really tough couple of days.  Saturday evening Nick invited me over to spend a few hours with his family.  I needed the company desperately and he knew it.  Was good to see them all and eat pierogies and laugh and cry together.

Then yesterday I ran 22.2 miles with the last 11 “moderate” as per Hudson (7:53s), avg. for the run 8:16.  The actual running was great, I felt healthy and strong and got to chat for a few minutes with my friend Lara, who was riding her bike in the park.  But my mind was ugly for the whole of those 3+ hours.

I kept thinking of Nick’s ex-wife and my mother (because this suicide business is an all-inclusive club) and this apartment and wondering how I’m going to deal with it and also, constant deep questions about myself and if I’m more of a screwed-up person than I admit to.  I think I’m about as pragmatic as they come, but with my mother’s history behind me, I’ll always have this fear that I’m not who I think I am.  That my hermit ways are a dangerous thing, though even in my aloneness, I’m vastly more social and lack the paranoia and schizophrenic traits my mother had.

One of the things I remembered during the run were these awful little calendar books I found when we cleaned up her apartment where my mother had written in each day, “bad” “bad” “good” “bad”.  There were overwhelmingly more bad days than good.  I take heart in knowing I enjoy life and if I kept such records, it’d mostly be “good”s.

On a science mystery note, I solved the oddity of the outlets not charging my phone or other battery devices.  I’m such a dodo…the outlets I was using were switched outlets!  So when the light switch goes off, so does the power to the outlet.  Duh.

Today is a dark, dark day.  Nick’s ex-wife who struggled with MS for years and has been deteriorating in mind and body (manic depressive and a constant source of anguish in the family, often getting in serious trouble) shot and killed her mother last night, then killed herself.  My poor, poor Nick…I kept telling him nothing more bad can happen because he’s had such a string of shit this year but apparently, I was so incredibly wrong.

Then (though this is so inconsequential in comparison),  I was awoken last night at 3:30am by my upstairs neighbor and kept awake for an hour so I put a little note under their door this morning at about 8am with a sad smiley face and the words “3:30-4:30am” (the girlfriend had said knock on my door if we wake you up again and I thought this would be nicer and non-confrontational).  The boyfriend puts it back under my door an hour later with the added words “you’re sad because you obviously have serious emotional problems!”

So I open the door and try to discuss it and the guy gets really angry and argues with me in a totally illogical manner, putting me on the defensive, then the crazy lady downstairs from yesterday’s post (she’s best friends with the upstairs neighbors) comes out and starts making up weird lying shit “you woke me up just now!, he didn’t wake me up, you woke me up!” (it’s 9:30am), then says ridiculous stuff like “I know all about your boyfriend” (she’s just pulling nonsense out of her ass because she’s crazy), then the girlfriend comes down so it’s 3 against me, making it like I’ve wronged them for being awoken in the middle of the night.

I just sent an email to the real estate woman (Judy of the water throwing incident) to document it, but I don’t want her to say anything because I’m afraid they’ll set fire to my apartment or something.  Judy told me yesterday that the upstairs neighbor’s lease expires in 2 months, so I guess they won’t be renewing it.  I can only hope.  This apartment stuff was funny yesterday – today, not so much.

…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.