Posts Tagged ‘voiceovers’

Today was one of those days when everything goes right.

I had a voiceover in the morning at a studio that I don’t get a lot of work from, not for any reason but that I haven’t built up any relationships there, though they have my demo and that’s how I got this job.

Now, when you do voiceovers, the client is often there at the session – “client” usually meaning  the ad agency or whatever company has hired you, though sometimes the actual client client is there (meaning the company who hired the ad agency to begin with).  Then sometimes, like today, there’s no one but you and the engineer present, but the client (in this case the ad agency) does a phone patch, so they are able to be with you at the session without having to physically be in the studio.

Today’s session was uber fun because the ad agency fellow was a total sweetie, before I started he asked me all sorts of questions about my background, where I was from and things that didn’t have anything to do with the job.  When it got time to do the spot, they were so happy with it that one of the ad people, remembering I’d said I was from Arkansas, asked me to audition for another spot with a Southern accent.  So I may get another job from this one, plus the impression I left the engineer with was that I’m a pleasure to work with which will surely get passed to the higher-ups.

Oh, and I got a parking spot right in front of the building, which in downtown Philly is no small feat.  Then when I got home, I got a spot right in front of my apartment.  A lucky day.

Today’s run

48 degrees!! Capris and a top…heaven.  11mi w/Billat 30-30s (ended up doing 21 reps).

When I do a quality session it’s usually bookended with a pretty good chunk of miles – today, 6.75mi till I started the fast part.  Because I don’t want to “use myself up” before I get to the work, I always take those miles preceding it very easy – usually 8:45s before I get to the good stuff.  But today was different.

At about 2.5 miles, there was a large group of middle-school boys running on the path.  They weren’t too fast but to get past them, I sped up to around 8:15 pace.  After I passed, I considered slowing back down because I didn’t want to compromise the 30-30s but it hit me that I’ve been spending a lot of time in 8:30-8:45 land these days or sub 8:00s, but hardly any time at 8:15ish, though I did more of that last cycle.

It felt pretty good going that pace, easier than the 8:45s for some reason so I kept on.  Then, when it came time for the workout, I had no problems, in fact I was faster this week than last.  So, many thanks to the school boys, you helped me decide to do more 8:15ish runs in the next few weeks.

Arms and Legs

You know the arm/leg connection?  That if you move your arms faster, your legs will go faster as well?  I’ve known this tidbit for a long time but don’t make good use of it because 1. I always get the feeling that I’m wasting energy using the arms that way and 2. I’m not able to speed my arms up easily, it’s like the pace rut I mention above, making my arms move faster isn’t as easy as just thinking it, when you’re already going fast it seems like they’re moving as fast as they can.

But no.  This time I made a concerted effort to really pump my arms and let it see if it tuckered me out more or what.  The What is that I went fucking fast!  I had a few sub 6s in there, which I never do.  Yeah, it was only for 30secs each, but 5:xx is not something I ever see.  So I’ll be messing around with this again.  It’s not something I think is useful for regular marathony stuff (aside from the Billats, of course) but when I get to do 400s come Spring, I’ll see if it’s transferable.  I still think it makes you more tired but maybe that’s because you end up running faster in general.

So that’s my great day today.  Hope you guys had a great one, too!

A gal who makes an entire video wearing a shithead wig and discussing the wiley ways of The Bear has no business running out of dessert on a Wednesday evening and eating a mammoth bowl of frosted shredded wheat as a poor substitute.  Especially if that gal goes on a tempo run the next morning without doing her, er…business, beforehand.

Backtracking, Tuesday was quite a good run – hill reps day -  so 10mi w/5 x.25mi repeats.  When I did these 3 weeks ago, I was pretty satisfied with the workout though if you remember, once home and looking at my logs, realized I’d lost quite a chunk of fitness since last Fall’s buildup.  So this Tuesday was great because it was 10sec faster per rep, had an additional rep than the last time and a lower heart rate, to boot. Plus, they were all into the wind.  A needed confidence booster.

Wednesday was an 8mi recovery, then yesterday, a not-so-hot tempo.  It was 13mi. w/4tempo and I struggled to keep the tempo miles at anything approaching a good pace, they veered from 7:20s to 7:25, which really super sucks but honestly, I was ok with it!

Having Tuesday’s good workout was like, “Ok, this was just an off day, there’s still good things going on beyond this one run.”   I rarely do morning runs in the winter anyway, so maybe I wasn’t all there, but also…the bear! My last tempo mile was crazy fighting that gnarly wooly creature off.  Thankfully, the tempo portion ended just in front of the restrooms.   I guess you need to be careful of what you talk about, or else it might come round to bite you in the ass.  Literally.

Today is a day off, but well spent.  I made a narration demo!  I love Mike and Deb, the studio owners.  They’re a blast to hang with and she makes a mean chicken casserole.  Here are the fruits of our labor.  (warning: it’s not at all thrilling but since I’m such a media whore these days, may as well post it).

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Other than that, I’ve become enamored with Facebook this week. Last night I made a Fan Page for Gifted Runner and it’s already got 50 fans.  Half are my friends while the other half are people I don’t even know and they’re actually going to the website, so this is a very cool development. Didn’t realize just how useful it could be, so if you have a site, I highly recommend making a Page for it. And once you get 25 Fans, you can go to www.facebook.com/username to get a pretty URL for it, so I’ve got www.facebook.com/giftedrunner. Niiice.

There’s very little on the page right now but one thing I posted is a promise of new designs by February 9th. How’s that for a publicly self-imposed kick in the ass? Anyway, if you’d like to become a Fan of Gifted Runner, please do. And while I’m in beggar mode, if you want to add me to your friend pile, I’m game: www.facebook.com/flo.karp (you can get a nice URL for your personal page, too).

And with that, I’m going to enjoy the rest of this frigid day off by doing absolutely nothing and not eating shredded wheat because I have 10 w/8MP tomorrow. Just wish it wasn’t going to be 14 degrees. Winter bites.

I did my first proper speed session in a while (5 x .5mi w/ 2min rec) and did alright!  Nothing to write home about because I am at home already – that’s where the computer lives – but enough to put a smile on my face.

The intervals went 3:20, 3:18, 3:20, 3:19, 3:21 (avg pace 6:39mi).  They’re about 5 seconds off where I was in September, but hey…last January I did these at 7:04 pace, so no complaints.

One thing I’m looking forward to after this marathon business is over: shorter speed and tempo workouts – and I don’t mean the quality portion.  Because I want to keep the mileage at a certain level and endurance is part of the marathon game, I’m compelled to have that extra padding around the interval session to get at least 9 miles, so today I did 3.5 warmup and 2.75 cooldown for 9.54 miles total.  Ditto the tempos, they’re sitting within 13 and 14 milers.  It’ll be so nice to just do 1.5 for warmup and cooldown.

In non-running stuff, I finished a major site overhaul on Fish Pie and added some new designs, so today I have to work on getting a newsletter out for that.  Here’s one of the new ones:

Also, looks like the narration/medical voiceover demo might not be as simple as I’d hoped. I thought I’d just compile bits of past jobs, same as a commercial demo, but since it’s largely pharmaceutical stuff (with all the legal crap surrounding it) I might not be able to do that.  I’m waiting to hear from the studio to see if I have to rerecord something new or will have to spend some time sifting for generic bits.  Yawn.

And that’s it for now.  Have beautiful runs, my lovelies.

Yesterday was a run I really enjoyed, even if it was a reality check.   It was 12 miles with Higdon’s 35min Tempo in there (which amounts to a little over 20 minutes actual tempo since he includes 15-20 min warmup).

On this run, I discovered my Half and 10K pace are no longer what they used to be, in fact, I was working hard at 7:20 pace!  The good thing is, I’m totally cool with it.  Why?  I looked back at my log and saw that for the last 8 weeks, I’ve averaged 46mi/week.  This included a taper week and race week.  That’s a 35% reduction in average weekly mileage!  And except for a couple short jabs at speed (a crappy interval session, one fartlek and last week’s 3MP), it was all easy miles.

I have no regrets about taking it easy – I worked so hard the last cycle, the step-back was necessary for my mind as much as my body.  This is all undiscovered territory though, since by this time last year I’d spent a month working on 5Ks and continued that push until the Half in May.  I’ve never taken such a sizable “vacation” so it’ll be interesting to see how fast it comes back.  I don’t suppose it’ll take too long but if it does, no problem, I’ll just change my goal.  It’s lovely having nothing to prove.

On the financial marathon front, after months of working on this one ginormous project (a music t-shirt/gift site) I am finally about two hours away from putting in the last few products – no small feat considering it has over 11,000 items!  If it wasn’t for my new-found determination, I’d have been working on this for the better part of the year, but thanks to Firefox iMacros and some huge dollops of elbow grease, I’ll be done after dinner.

Speaking of the financial marathon and the universe providing blah blah blah, it seems to be continuing in a positive manner.  I lost a voiceover this month because they’ve stopped production on the drug, but the woman in charge recommended me for something else and spent a good deal of time discussing my putting together a medical/narration demo and exactly what she’d like included.  I’ve already done all the characters on assorted jobs (doctor, patient, etc) so I just need to compile it.  My laziness with getting VO work has been utterly stupid because it’s so lucrative and I’m good at it,  yet I truly dislike marketing myself.  But after that conversation, I’ve got no excuse, she basically laid it out on a silver platter.

Also, there’s an Internet Marketing forum I frequent (lurk at actually, because the people there scare me – it’s hard core).  Anyway, a regular there posted an offer for free mentoring of 10 people for 90 days, which includes twice-a-week webinars with question/answers after.  You had to PM him and explain why you should be chosen and I got picked!  I’m thrilled beyond belief because I’ve been dabbling in some of that stuff the last few months but really need guidance to understand some key ideas.  And I’d never have written the guy if it hadn’t been for the financial marathon.

So 2010 looks good so far:

Running-wise, I’m learning more about myself and relieving a great deal of the pressure I created, trusting that this is a long-term process and that it doesn’t have to be one huge tidal wave, that there’ll be ebbs and flows.  Also, the UPS guy just dropped off some Mizuno Inspire 5’s from RunningWarehouse, on sale since the 6s came out, so I got two pairs (ah, excess!).

Work-wise, I’m learning that specific goals and making interim steps to achieve them rocks!  Put it out there and opportunity will come to meet you.

Hygiene-wise, I finally laundered my fleece jacket this morning, which has been on too many runs without a wash.  The geese on the bike-path were becoming offended, now they can breathe.

All is right with the world.

Last week, the title of this post found its way into my head.  It was a couple days after I’d written that Financial Marathon post when I got a last minute voiceover for the following day.  I’d already figured December would be pretty sucky on the VO front with only a couple on the schedule, so that was a nice unexpected shot of dough.  Then, in the last few days, I booked 3 more (2 for tomorrow and one for the first week of January).  Considering it’s the holidays when that kind of work tends to go deadsville, this is pretty dang good.  So once again, the phrase “The Universe Will Provide” popped into my brain.

Today however, it graduated to becoming my new mantra.

For the last 4 days, I’ve been worrying about the wall of snow my car’s been sitting behind.  Since tomorrow morning’s job is a 40-minute drive away, I had to do something about it.  Sweet Nick, who’s been getting me out of tight spots for the last 5 years and continues to do so, even though we’re no longer an item, said “let’s dig each others cars out together and if mine is easier, you can borrow it to get to the job” which instantly made me feel better, since there was no way I could have done it alone.

So this morning, we look at my car and realize it’s worse than I thought, there was just too much hardened snow to even try clearing it.  While I could borrow Nick’s car to get to my job, it meant my Xmas plans (driving to upstate NY to my best friend’s annual sleepover party) would have to be canceled.

The Universe Will Provide.

We’re standing there, looking at it, realizing it’s a lost cause, when that funny old guy I mentioned in the last post, the one who lent me his shovel, appears with that same huge grin on his face and starts chatting with us.  He’s been working over there the past couple days removing snow from the Union Hall parking lot, a few yards from where my car was parked.

A mere $25 later, he and his Toro snow blower had cleared all the snow around the car but not before showing me his handgun (kept under 4 pairs of pants which entailed an amusingly tame strip session), telling me about his colon cancer in ‘03 and his wife who has Alzheimer’s, and sharing with me a few joyous philosophies on life.  I couldn’t help but hug the guy in thanks and that 73 year-old hugged me back so hard, he picked me up off the ground!  Then Nick helped with the finishing touches (because my battery died, too, so when we got his car out, Nick saved my ass with a charge).  Suddenly, my worries from the last 4 days evaporated and in its place, an incredible feeling of inner peace.

The Universe does appear to be providing, and just when I need it.  I also love saying it because “The Universe” is such a profound, infinite thing, it makes me feel there are positive forces at work.  But don’t worry, I’m not going all New Agey on you all, I’m too pragmatic for that, but it doesn’t hurt to have a positive outlook right now. I think it’s making me more receptive to whatever opportunities arise.

Off topic, I wanted to say that it never fails to amaze me how many people comment on this blog. I feel the love and want you to know I’m sending it back in waves.  But sometimes I feel guilty because while one day I might be in talky mode and reply to everything, or at least a few comments,  often I don’t even have the energy to reply to anything.  That’s totally my weird hermit ways and why, though I’m technically on Facebook, I only log in fast enough to check out whatever it is I’ve been told to go see, before logging off within seconds.  So if I don’t reply to your blog comment please know that it’s not because I don’t cherish it and sincerely thank you for contributing, it’s just because I’m a hermit freak sometimes.

I’ll leave you with something from my apartment building that made me laugh.  There’s a new sign on the inside of the front door, I guess in case you can’t remember how you got in the building in the first place or for those who think that the street and cars seen through both outer door’s glass panes might be a mirage.

So my plan to increase my income by a few hundred bucks has evolved into something bigger.  New plan is to double my income by June 30.  And I can do it.

I was thinking about what running has brought into my life;  structure, determination, acquiring of goals, self-esteem – all things that can be transferred to anything you want to motivate yourself to do!  So the last couple days I’ve been devising a plan and getting as motivated as I would for any new training cycle, only this time, it’s for life stuff.

I’ve often said that the reason training plans appeal to me is that I have little structure in my days.  Being free and easy is fab, but knowing I waste copious amounts of time is not something that brings me happiness.  There is something soul-infecting when you’ve finished reading all your pertinent news sites, forums and checked all your stats 10 times, only to end up on TMZ or People.com.  I can do better.

With this in mind, I’ve devised a 28-week Financial marathon cycle.  While it doesn’t have much in the way of LT runs or VO2 sessions, it does have checkmarks each month for where I want my financial “fitness” to be.  I believe it’ll only require a mere 30 hours of solid work a week to achieve – though I’m not including voiceover work in this (currently, more than half my income) – this is all for the stuff I can do without anyone else’s intervention: my t-shirt sites and affiliate sales sites.

A major realization moving forward  is that I could never get motivated when the goal was “to have more money”.  I’ve tried that before, but money without a reason is meaningless to me, so this apartment situation is like a gift because suddenly, I have a pressing goal with a timeframe attached.   I also have a car goal, but that’s secondary since my ugly car still works, though if all goes as planned, I’ll be able to have both, anyway.

So I’ve got a beautiful picture on my computer desktop now with the apartment I want and the car I want along with June’s monetary goal written across.  It’s beautiful!!  I’ve also got a fancy notebook where I’ve written out my plan and motivational thoughts to keep me on the steady.  I could write the plan and motivational bon mots in the computer, but I think there’s something to be said about writing goals by hand, it feels warmer and more immediate. Add to this a little visualization and I am pumped!

And that’s the scoop.   I’ll keep you guys posted when anything worth mentioning arises, and maybe some of you can think about ways to incorporate your own dedication to running into something tangible for 2010.  We’re strong people, us runners – we know how to follow through.  And I firmly believe this sport can bring us more than fun in the sun, medals and PRs, it has the power to change our lives.