Posts Tagged ‘voiceovers’

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.

Today’s commotion was my downstairs neighbor yelling in the courtyard at a man on a ladder who was working on the building.  She was screaming at him for “watching me while I was walking around undressed.”

A couple hours later, I notice someone opening my door with a key (my desk is a foot away from the door).  I freak out and open the door after a harried “who’s there?”, turns out to be the owner of the building who wasn’t even aware this apartment was occupied (everything’s done through a rental agency).  He was investigating the alleged problem with the guy on the ladder, don’t know what he needed to see in here, though.

As for running, let’s see what’s been going on since I wrote last.  Sunday was supposed to be 17 but I had a really bad pain in my lateral shin from the previous day’s hill repeats (which started the day before that) and I got really scared, so I walked about 3/4 mile.  One of those times when you’re all “this is new, it feels more serious, there’s no muscle there so it must be a sfx!” so I went online when I got home, read scary stuff for about 2 hours (because if you’re going to make yourself miserable, you might as well do it up right) and decided it was a fibular sfx.

Such thoughts I had, like how horrible to be this close to doing something of substance and now  my running “career” is over and what the hell am I going to do????  I’ll get fat and lose my fitness and have to come back in 2010, slower and older and I brought this upon myself, oh what have I done? waaaaahhhh.

Turned out to be shin splints.  First time I’d had it in that location, but taking yesterday off and a bunch of ibuprofen fixed me right up.  I’m telling you, I was afraid to use The Stick, thinking I’d break my leg clean in two with shards of bone floating around.  I’m really an idiot some times.

Today was a Hudson run, 3 easy, 3  from MP to 5K pace, 3 easy.  I did it no prob, not even a hint of leg pain, lol.

I’ve got a big Half this weekend, the infamous PDR that landed me in the hospital last year, so I’m hydrating my ass off and will be carrying my small water bottle.  I’m thrilled that the weather looks like it’ll be under 60 degrees for the start.  Not feeling hugely confident about racing, though I’m not sure why.  Part of it is just feeling complacent for not having raced in a while, it’s scary getting back into it and having to see where I’m at.  Anyway, I’ll be shooting for sub 1:33.

What else?  Oh yeah, shyster fucking car inspection assholes got me for the usual $535.  I know they make it up because on the phone he lists the stuff and says I need a new battery, so I say uh-uh, that is a new battery, so he says OK and takes if off the list.  If he can take that off the list, then why is anything on the list?  Has to add up to $535 is why (I swear, when I take it there it’s always that amount of money..but it’s convenient to walk home from, sigh).  I’m just dividing it by 12 and telling myself it’s $45/month to use the car.  That hurts less.

In kooky news, I got an email today sent to my Voiceover website email asking if I was Flo Karp the musician?  Turns out it was someone that used to play in my band and he had been listening to an old song of mine and then found me on the web.  Was too cool to reconnect as he’s had a big full life since then and so have I.

Looking forward to tomorrow, my friend Simon comes down from NYC for a bunking party at my hovel, then a big Ikea shopping expedition.  I can’t wait to unload on him, the poor man. :-)  I’m expecting much laughter and a couple buckets worth of tears, too.

I haven’t talked much about Nick, but we’re doing great (as great as can be under the circumstances).  We took each other out for two excellent birthday dinners the first week of September (two Virgos) and have spent some time together since with dinner/tv and a morning coffee, phone calls and emails, too.  Life is strange not living with him but it has to be and I’m just grateful that we’re both from progressive backgrounds so remaining close friends is a given.

And that’s about everything on my mind at the moment.  Tomorrow I’ll go out for 12, then I can relax about mileage for the rest of the week because even with the day off last week, I wracked up 70 miles (actually 69.90 miles…I am not a slave to the decimal, dammit!).  So I figure tomorrow will be a slow and comfortable 12, then the rest of the week will probably go 10 w/strides, 9, 5w/strides, Race.  Eek.

Catch up for the last few days…

Monday was an 8.2 mile recovery run @9:19, Tuesday was a mixed pace workout, 12.75 miles that went: 3 miles easy, 15min@MPish (7:23), 1min rec, 15min@HP (7:04), 1min rec, 15min@HM-10k pace(6:51), 3.75 miles home…7:59 avg. for the entire run.

Yesterday, I took a day off.  No real reason except I haven’t had one in 9 weeks, nor have I had a cutback week during this period, so I figured I was due.  The annoying thing is that I figured today’s run would be all sprightly for having had a rest day yesterday but it turned out to be the opposite.  Heavy legs and I didn’t have any energy, so I managed a sluggish 12 at 8:46.

Tomorrow is set to be hill reps, though it’s supposed to rain all day and because of where Smile Hill is, I’ll have to run about 4 more miles than the workout calls for, so I might do something else instead.  We’ll see.

Aside from running, life is up and down.  My apartment continues to be a source of joy and grief.  To think I was so excited to get away from the nail gun that had been banging away next door at Nick’s for the last 3 months (the building next to his has been under major renovation and it’s been months of noise starting at 7:15am, 6 days/week), only to find that I live in the loudest apartment I’ve ever lived in – and I lived in NYC for 15 years, probably 6 apartments there total, none of which compares to this.

The bedroom is extremely quiet, thankfully devoid of any street noise, but the guy who lives above me wakes me up in the morning with his footsteps through my ceiling.  In the living area, the buses and motorcycles are non-stop…it’s truly hateful.  On a positive note, there is  a funeral home a couple doors away which seems to do a booming business and the groups of mourners as they wait outside beneath my window are oddly comforting, their quiet voices and light conversation calming with all the hustle and bustle surrounding it.

What this noise crap is doing though, is lighting an even bigger fire under my ass to get some major income over this next year so I can get a better apartment and wouldn’t you know…I’m also going to need a new (used) car very soon.  I’m even wondering if I should go to Boston in April since that money could be better spent elsewhere, I’ll have to wait and see how it goes.

The good news is after all these years of making websites and pretty much sucking at SEO (search engine optimization), I recently figured out a key process that I never had a handle on before, so I’m expecting some major success from optimizing my old sites as well as some recent ones I’ve just finished, plus I have a handful of new sites I’m going to build.

Now what I should do is make a fresh voiceover demo and send that out and about, but frankly, I’m more interested in things I can do entirely on my own which makes web marketing a more interesting and entertaining pursuit.  It’s like a game of strategy – huge fun.

A side effect of this recent tunnel vision for the web stuff and building a moolah empire is that it has equalized my running freakdom in a healthy way.  I’m no longer spending copious amounts of time on the forums or messing around with my running schedule and daydreaming about running.  Don’t get me wrong, I live for running, that hasn’t changed, but it’s a constant in the background and I feel confident that as long as I do the workouts, it’ll continue to build quietly and steadily without me constantly poring over my logs or trying to figure out how fast I can get in X amount of time.

I’m sure that’ll change in a couple weeks as PDR is happening the weekend after this and then Philly will be sneaking up soon after, but it’s nice for now anyway, to have another main focus beyond what I can or can’t accomplish out on the road.

Hi folks, just a quickie to say I’m taking a short vacation from blogging and visiting the running forums till after I’m in the new place.  In pretty good spirits though – been working like a madwoman from early morning to midnight every day.  I knew it was serious when I finally closed the Firefox tab for the RW forums, something I always have open.

The thing is, I’d been worrying about finances and rejoining the rent-paying world, but like a gift from the heavens, I booked a bunch more voiceover jobs and then I had a major light-bulb moment for some non-t-shirt websites I’m working on.  So joy of joys, I’m not freaked out about dough anymore – I’m gonna be just fine.

I want to wish you all a great end of August.  Run well, my friends and I’ll see you back in September.  Big smoochies for you 

P.S. Runforlife, I know you were waiting for more designs before ordering a shirt but with all this other stuff going on, I only got one done, it’s the design in the ad on the right menu: “Running Tattoo”.  That’ll be it for awhile.