movingdogward

Laying low and wasting time

2012-01-03T13:35:00.003-05:00

IT LIVES!!!!

I have not updated in a while. Not that there's been much to update, but I have been internet running related laying low. I figured I would do the old year end/new year wrap up.

In 2011, I ran 1264 miles. Not setting any records there, but it was 200 miles more than 2010.

I PRed in the half, but missed my goals of breaking 1:40 in the half and 3:40 in the full. I felt like I had a lot of solid running. With moving across the country, it's taken me some time to get my running routine together. I'm still working on that. I've set no solid running goals for 2012. No marathons, no halfs, nothing really planned other than some trail races. I feel like after years of chasing Boston, I need a break for serious goal chasing. I don't think I'm done, I know there are faster times in me. I'm just going to focus on some other things.

Since moving, I've been doing more trail running. I love it. It's a nice change from road running. Time is less important. It's very mental. It's also very beautiful. It's also making me stronger which is awesome.

My biggest goals for 2012 are high points. I have 32 done. In 2011, I did 4. HI, FL, AZ, and AL. It's getting tougher to get a lot done in 1 year and several done in 1 trip. We should be able to get 3-4 in a trip to the midwest. IL is tough because it's on private property that is only open 4 weekends a year. Another challenge is the high points themselves. A sample of what's left:

Mt Rainier: 14, 410' glaciated peak.

Mt Hood 11, 239' glaciated peak

Granite Peak 12,799', 22 miles round trip, plus technical climbing

Gannett Peak 13, 804' 40 miles round trip, plus technical climbing

Denali the name says it all.

This year, we're planning on Hood and Rainier. The High Pointers club is having the yearly convention in OR so Loren and I have been in touch with people about planning a climb. An old friend of Loren's is a former professional guide and has agreed to do Rainier with us. I'm really excited about both of these trip.

This weekend, we're running Crystal Springs (the 11 mile course). We went out last week to check out the course. Should be lots of fun! As I said, I'm digging these trail runs.

I'll sign off with a picture of us at the AL high point, which was also Bea's 8th.

I really f*cked it up this time, didn't I my dear

2011-11-01T14:06:00.003-04:00

I'm 40 years old. I started running track when I was about 9 and continued to do so off, but mostly on since then. And apparently that's not long enough to learn not to do stupid things. This weekend I am chalking up to another f*cking growth opportunity (this is my post of profanity). I wasn't even going to write about this, but I'm actually glad it happened because I did learn a few things and I'm glad for that, even if I had a sucky race.

On Sunday, I ran the Zombie Runner half marathon. After my terrible run at San Jose, I wanted to try again. This race was put on by Coastal Trail Runs. They also put on the Diablo race I did last month. They really do put on great events. They're small and mostly train runs. This course was very flat and a variety of not very technical surfaces, dirt, some gravel, road. There were 4 aid stations on the course and I figured that would be enough and I wouldn't have to carry my own water. This would come back to bite me right in the ass.

From looking at past events on this course, I figured I could start close to the front. The half marathon and the full started together. Based on previous women's times, I figured I'd be in the top 5ish. Since it was the day before halloween, there were a lot of people in costumes which was fun. Personally, I don't think I could race dressed up, but it was fun to see others.

I started out feeling great. I fell into a nice rhythm and didn't get sucked into the faster pace of the guys ahead of me. The first aid station was at about 2.5 miles. When I went by, they really weren't set up or I didn't slow down/stop to really see, but I didn't see any cups out as I went by so I kept going.

I fell in with 2 guys, 1 doing the full and 1 doing the half. I knew there were 3 women ahead of me. Far ahead of me. As we came up on mile 6, I took a gel knowing there'd be another aid station soon. I could see the tent and as I came up on it I grabbed a cup as I was running by.

It was empty.

@&*^*%^!!!!

I'm now 6+ miles in, I've got gel mouth, and no water. I was not happy. I was, however, still on 1:40 pace but knew this was going to get tough. The next aid station wasn't until 8.5 miles.

In the distance, I could see 3rd place woman coming back to me. I kept my eyes on her and made it a goal to pass her. Once I did, I dropped her like a bad habit. I think she may have gone out a bit fast. I knew not far behind her was Loren who had a sore hamstring and was just running easy.

By mile 8, I was slooooowing down. I was so pissed. Dude I had been running with earlier came up on me with encouraging words. Before the next aid station , I took another gel, which hit my stomach hard. When I hit the tent, I gulped 2 cups of water but I knew it was too late. From the way the course snaked around, I could see Loren was gaining on me, or rather I was slowing so much I was going to fall behind her.

For the last 2.5 miles or so, there was an out and back and another aid station at mile 11ish. I took more water and Loren was really close to me. I was running like 8:15 pace and couldn't go any faster. Ugh.

While I was feeling like complete ass, it was fun to see all the other folks on the out and back in costume and being very encouraging, that did help even though the last mile was total hell. With about a half mile to go, Loren passed me and said not to worry she had no kick. I was like please, no kick? I go no nothin. This is it for me. The finish could not come soon enough.

So in the grand scheme of things...I ran a 1:45:25. Slower than San Jose by about 20 seconds. Continuing with the them for the year, I was 4th woman (22nd over all) and I won my age group. Little consolation, as I said to my pal Flo, I'd rather have a good race than an AG win. Loren was 3rd woman and won her AG. Since her birthday is soon, this is the last time in a while we won't be in the same AG.

There are 2 big things I came away with:

1. Water. Carry it. If there isn't aids stations at like every mile from now on, I'm carrying water. Clearly that was a huge mistake on my part.

2. I'm not in shape to run as fast as I'd like. After these 2 races, I've put a lot of thought into this. ALL my PRs have come when I'm marathon training. When I'm marathon training, I'm running higher milage. This was the first time I trained just for a half. Clearly, I'm not running enough. This is something that can be easily fixed.

Another part of this is I'm still adjusting to a new city. I have some running routes mapped out that I do but it's not the same comfort level I had in NYC.

So I know what I need to do. I'm not in any hurry to get out and race another half, I want to put in some more milage, do some more trail running and set this goal on the back burner for a few months until I feel more ready for it.

What you had, And what you lost

2011-10-02T16:52:00.003-04:00

I ran the San Jose half today. This race has been on the calender for a while. I decided to take a break from marathons for a while so I set my sights on actually training for a half and FINALLY breaking 1:40. I set up a training plan and enlisted Loren to run as well. Best laid plans and all of that, turns out she had to go to HI for work. Rough, I know.
My training cycle went well. I felt really good about this race going into. I did until Friday anyway, but I'll get to that in a minute.
2 guys from the CA forum on Runner's World offered to run with me since they had similar goals of running under 1:40. Very sweet of them and I took them up on it. It lasted about 5 miles. I just did not have it today. My legs felt heavy, I tried to rally and it just wasn't happening. Actually, it really went down hill after 10k (I was pretty on pace until that point). I phoned it around mile 7 and just ran to finish. Not like I could have run any faster if I wanted to. I finished in 1:44:01. No, it's not a bad time. Yes it's way off my goal. I can deal with that. I'll pick another race and give it another shot.

I know what's partially responsible for my poor run today, though as I was running I told myself I was not going to use this as an excuse.

As I was getting ready to leave the house on Friday morning, I was reading Facebook when some horrible news came across my feed. Yes, this is how we find things out these days. My old friend from my HS days posted that his sister, someone I was also friends with and who I went to HS with, passed away while giving birth. Her son also did not make it.
This news is beyond horrifying and I instantly burst into tears.
Even now...it's totally surreal. The last few days have been a sea of sorrow and reconnecting with people from the past.
My high school experience was not the best. I very much looked forward to the day when it would be over. I had a great extended group of freakish friends from out side of school, a very John Hughesesque group of kids. Gia and her brother were both a big part of that crowd. Going to see Rocky Horror, trips into Philly for all age punk shows, and nights dancing at Revival. Scott is a year older than me and went to a different school, Gia a year younger. It was great to have Gia at school during the day, an ally in otherness.
We had kept in touch over the years, though college and when she came to NYC for grad school we'd hang out.
Like most people these days, we had connected again on Facebook. It was great to be back in touch, see how her family had grown to include her husband Charlie and their twin boys, Charlie and Nate.
She was so excited about being pregnant again and sharing all the changes and how her boys were adjusting to a new one coming along. I was excited for her and looked forward to her updates. She was always supportive of my adventures.
As I was running today, my mantra became "sorrow into strength" but honesly, there was none of that. I haven't slept well the last few nights. My mind is constantly thinking about this huge loss.
I'm sure I could go on and on but I'm not going to, there just aren't the right words for this.
Gia was an amazing person. Smart and beautiful and full of talent. The loss is immense for all those who knew her and most certainly for her family.

If you're the praying type, please keep her husband, her boys, her brother and mom in your prayers. If you're not the praying type, please keep them in your thoughts.

xoxoxo

The Devil Inside

2011-09-18T16:00:00.004-04:00

This week was a very sold training week, I was tired from our trip to AZ, but things went well:
Tues 6.4 miles with 5x1k
Wed: 3.6 easy
Thurs 13.1
Sat 3 easy, 4 mile race
Sun 3.25
I went into the week tired and was pretty much running tired all week, but ran everything as planned.

Last month, my ol' training pal Claudia (we've been running together since the late 90s and have done 2 Ironmans together) told me her and her GF would be in SF for a few days, they planned on doing the Diablo Trail Run. The race has several options: 4 miles, 10 miles, 12 miles, marathon, and 50k. They all have a significant elevation gain. Since I have my sights set on San Jose in a few weeks, I said I'd do the 4. They were doing the 10 and surprisingly, Loren said she'd do the 10 as well. That's a real role reversal, I usually run the longer stuff.
According to the race website:" The 4 mile course is relatively flat and fast within Mitchell Canyon" The key word there is RELATIVELY. The elevation gain for the 4 is 400', the elevation for the 10 is 2420', the half is 3420', and on from there. In other worse, none of it is flat or fast.
Here's the profile for the 4 miler

My plan for this race was run fast. I didn't really know what to expect, this being the 2 year of the event and me having never run on the course. I warmed up for .75 of a mile on the course. Ok, not bad, gradual uphill but I can handle it. Back down I noted where the half mile to go was so I had a good idea of when I should try and kick.
For the start, I wanted to be up front since I knew the 4 mile group wasn't too big (and oddly, mostly women. 44 out of 58 runners) and the folks running longer would not go out fast.
First mile and I felt a little off. It was harder than the warm up! And I noticed I was weezing. Dust. It is a trail after all. There are about 5 guys ahead of me and a few women passed me. I could tell by number who was running what race. I just tried to hold steady. I have done races before that go straight up then straight down. I have to say, they're a little odd.
The 2nd mile, I had gotten into a rhythm though I wasn't flying. Another woman caught me and we together for a bit.
Then I saw the turn around cone and was ready to blow down these 2 miles. This should be fun. From the looks of it, I averaged 8:47 going up. I figured if I ran 7:15s going down, I'd be happy.
As I turned around I looked over my should and there was a woman close behind me and I heard "hey!" Guess who? Flowy shorts! Small world! Ok, now I had to really move, I know Shorts has a kick and I didn't want her catching me.
Ah down hill. I was FLYING. At one point, I looked at my Garmin. It said I was running about 6:30 pace, yet my heart rate was 147, which is low (in fairness, it topped out over 180 for the day). I was running as fast as I could, my legs couldn't go any faster but my heart wasn't working hard at all. Weird!
After the turn around, I saw Loren, she told me I was 4th woman. My theme for the year and really for this race. Then I saw Claudia and Evelyn as well. Claudia is recovering from a broken elbow so she wasn't running hard.
I was coming up on the heels of woman #3. I didn't want to pass her too soon only to have her pass me back, so I let her pace me for a while. Well the point of passing her became moot because she took it into a gear I just didn't have and dropped me.
I got to the half mile to go point, which also had a nice little uphill. My legs were so confused: run hard up hill, run hard down hill, up, now down!
I didn't know where shorts was but I wasn't taking any chances, I pushed. I came in @ 31:30 for 8:05 pace (the official course distance is 3.9)
Wow. That was hard and fun! I then cooled down for 1.5 miles and waited for the girls to finish. Loren came in 2 woman (4th over all) and won her AG in 1:37:41. Today, she's sore. She said it feels like someone turned her upside down and hit the bottom of her feet with a hammer.
my stats:
4th woman out of 44 women , 4th AG (the 40-49s were FAST yesterday!) There's a real 4 theme here. I was 6th over all out of 58.
Mile 1 8:24
Mile 2 9:17
Mile 3 6:37 (!!!)
Mile 4 6:54

Me finishing:

Loren finishing (she says she looks like she doesn't know where her legs are going to land):

This run was put on by Costal Trail Runs. I gotta say, these guys do an awesome job. They have trail races all year and every event has different distance so there really is something for everyone. I'm looking forward to doing more of their events.

Loren and I capped our day with a party at Clif Family Winery and Farm (yup, the Clif Bar people). It was a great event on their farm/vineyard. Lots of food, of which we ate tons. Even though my race was short, it felt like an effort for something along the lines of a 10 miler. A really cool event. They have a garden that grows enough food for a small CSA and are starting to grow olives for oil as well as making wine. Man can not live on clif shot alone!! Ew, that would be gross.

2 weeks left until San Jose, I'm excited and feeling really ready.

In every moment there's a reason to carry on

2011-09-13T13:10:00.002-04:00

After last week's less than great tempo run, I was hoping to have a better one. I did. 4 miles at 7:30 pace. Right on the money. I love how a good work out can make up for a bad one. I felt really good.

As I said last time, I knew my training for the week would be thrown off with a high pointing trip. At this point, I'm more willing to scrap long runs than speed sessions, which is more my weak point.

On Friday, Loren and I left for Arizona for what I like to now refer to as my Annual Mid-September Media Blackout™ (how could I possibly ever forget when I am constantly reminded?). We landed in Phoenix in the late morning and headed up to Flagstaff. Right out of Flagstaff, we got hit by a crazy ass storm. Off in the distance, we could see the very dark clouds and amazing bolts of lightning. Within about 15 minutes, it was right over us and raining hard. The big heavy drops quickly turned to quarter-sized hail and pinged and bounced off of everything, causing traffic to come to a literal stop. It was amazing and over within about 8 minutes or so. The emergency broadcast system broke into the radio station AFTER we had driven through the storm.
We made it to Flagstaff and hung out in the cute little town, got some food, checked the weather, and headed towards Arizona Snow Bowl, where Humphrey's Peak, the AZ high point, is located.
There was a chance of rain over night and a chance the next day. Thunderstorms gather very quickly up on this mountain and serious weather, like that hail and even snow, can blow in with little notice. On top of a 12,000' mountain is not where I want to be when there's hail and or lightning. We decided on a sunrise hike.
Can I just say the National Forest service is really cool? On the way up to the mountain there is a dispersed camping area, meaning there are camp site with no services, but nice spots for tents and fire pits and totally free. Awesome. Loren and I found a nice spot, pitched out tent, set an alarm for 5 AM and lights were out by 9.
We had planned to be on the trail by 6AM but due to a road closure for construction, we were slightly delayed. By 6:40, we were on the trail along with 4 other people. We went back and forth with them for most of the hike up. A few miles in, we were passed by a woman just FLYING up the trail. Granted Loren and I weren't going slow, but we're also not acclimated to the altitude (the trail starts at 9500'). While we were taking a water snack break, she passed us again headed back down. I was like like wow, you got up there fast! She said, no, I have limited time today so I set an alarm on my watch to turn around. I'd say she' got within a mile or so of the summit and did so very fast. I was impressed.
Around 9:30, we hit the top. The 4 people we left with got there right before us. We hung out, took some pictures, had a snack, and watched the clouds gather around.

This is #31 for me and #33 for Loren. Here's a lovely piece of trivia: I have worn that hat on most of my high points. It's a 1998 Yankees World Series hat. Loren has also worn her Blue Buffalo hat on most high points. It use to be dark blue and she almost lost it when it blew out the window of the car somewhere in OK last year.
I can't tell you how glad I am that we went up early. It was a parade of people headed up as we headed down. I'd say at least 50 others. This is a popular and accessible trail, I just haven't seen that many people headed to a high point in a while. We were down by about 12:30.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in Flagstaff, eating. That night we headed toward Sedona where we rented a cute little cabin for 2 nights. While Sedona is beautiful, the landscape and all that, I could really do without the super tourist aspect of things. Luckily, it only takes hiking a mile or so to really get away from it.
The night of our hike, we had dinner at Elote which is a pretty hyped up place but I'd say it lives up to it. The food was really good.
The next day and a half we spent exploring some trails and hikes in Sedona, including a run on Soldier's trail which was pretty awesome. I'm posting this picture of Loren running because I love it.

People look at us like we're nuts when they come across us running on hiking trails. It's a great away to get a run in and see everything. Plus, when we got the trail head, it was closing in an hour so we didn't have a lot of time!
Monday morning we got up early again to get 1 last hike in before catching our flight. We headed to Cathedral Rock. It was nice to be there early before the heat and once again before most people. It's a short steep climb up to a really beautiful view. A great way to end the trip. It also reminded me how far I've come in the last few years in my hiking. Not long ago scurrying up rocks like this would have made me pretty nervous. Not that I'm not careful still, I just don't see it as big of a deal as I use to.

The grabbing hands grab all they can

2011-09-05T16:43:00.002-04:00

With the summer racing series over, I've switched to my own speed workouts. This was an interesting week for that. Neither work out was awesome. To start, I did the first one wrong. Planned was 5x3 minutes @10k pace. I did 5x5 mins. Ooops. I had a feeling this wasn't right sometime into my 2nd one. I was like, oh well, I just do this. It ended up being 10 minutes of faster running than planned and it was a little slower than planned.
Next up was a tempo run. 4 miles. Now, hmmm, I started out with a few strikes:1. lady time. 2. Sore ass from doing some squats. Seriously, not a lot and with no weight, I was like WTF. Again, the milage was done, but the speed was off. It's frustrating. I'm not concerned really since I know from the Thurs. night races I can hit the paces. It was just 2 off workouts in a row.
All my other runs have been totally fine.
Today's speed session was 4x800. I haven't run on a track in ages. Generally when I have a workout like this, I just do them where every I happen to be running. Since I'm still figuring out where to run by my house that's not too hilly, I decided to take this one to the track. Plus Loren is off today so we did it together.
This workout made up for the 2 boob moves from last week. My intervals went like this: 3:34, 3:28, 3:29, 3:24. I felt really good. We followed it up with some strides and drills in the field barefoot.

This coming weekend, Loren and I are headed to AZ to hit the hight point. I need to shuffle some workouts around. The hike will be 9 miles and gain 3500' up to 12,633'. I think I will keep my speed workouts, I need to focus on that more than distance, and scrap the 13 miler my long run for the week. With the hike, it will be a similar effort.

I also signed up for a 4 mile trail race the following weekend, some East coast friends will be out for a tougher 10 mile race. I'm taking the easier route with the 4. Loren's going for the 10. This should be interesting....

You better be good to me

2011-08-26T11:47:00.003-04:00

So far, this has been a pretty fun week.
On Wed. nights, I usually run with a group from Sports Basement. It's a fun diverse group of runners and while I really enjoy running alone, it's nice to have some company from time to time. After this week's run, there was a Fit Fest, which had about a dozen vendors and snacks and raffles. Raffles are always fun! There were also people there from Rock Tape taping people and people doing ART so I got my hip/leg worked on post run. And who doesn't love snacks?
And free socks?
I did win a raffle, it was a gift bag with a rather interesting array of items, including:
Asics running hat
Saucony tshirt
kid's teko socks (I really wish they fit me)
Rock tape
water bottle
tiny travel locks
comprehensive guide to marine first aid (total odd ball in the bag)
and the crown jewel: a gift certificate for a pair of UGG sneakers.
Now what I REALLY wanted (not that these things weren't awesome) was the steripen water purifier. Anyone who reads my blog knows Loren and I do a lot of hiking and backpacking so this would really come in handy. Well, I didn't win that. I sized up the couple that did win it to see if I could negotiate. I went up to them and asked what they likelyhood was that they would use it. The guy was like probably and the woman was like, why, whatcha got? I said GC for a pair of UGGS. The words weren't even totally out of my mouth and she was like DONE!
SCORE! I was pretty excited about this swap.

Last night was the end of the 12 week race series put on by DSE Runners. It's been a great 12 weeks of running. I've done 10 of the 12 races and have had a blast. Simple, no nonsense running, gotta love it.
Last night was a big turn out, most of the characters were there and a whole new team of HS runners. All I had to do to win my age group for the series was finish.
Last week, I actually had a conversation with Flowy Shorts (I now know her name!). This week, I talked to big legs, she was actually very chatty and had just run the Pike's Peak Marathon.
Before hand, I warmed up for a mile and a half and felt pretty good.
This weeks route was counter-clockwise which is the hillier direction. And the hills come at about 2.5 miles so late into the 4.5 mile loop. I don't like this direction. I had no expectations of PRing. Since missing last week by 1 second, I was bummed we weren't going the faster way.
Shorts and I line up together and ran pretty much the whole race side by side or trading the lead by a few feet. Around mile 2, tattoo guy from last week joined us.
When we got to the hills, the 3 of us were in a nice little pack. I think this really helped me. I'm a good hill runner and often pass people at this point in the race but the 3 of us working together pushed us all along.
With about a quarter mile to go, Shorts gapped me a bit. I had decided I was going to let her go if she went, but I wasn't too far behind. I also gapped Tattoo dude. I knew from last week he didn't have the gear to come get me.
I took peak at my watch and couldn't believe it.
I had a real shot at a PR. I really didn't think it would happen in this direction. I pushed.
While I was a few feet behind Shorts at the finish, I hit my watch at 33:06, a 9 second PR!
I felt slightly like I wanted to throw up but otherwise felt great. HIgh fives all around from Shorts and Tattooed dude.
I'm pretty sure there was a new woman in my AG ahead of me and I was prob. at least 4th. I did, however, pass Legs at mile 2, first time I beat her. Though, come on, she just ran that marathon.
With that, I locked up my age group for the series. I got a very generic medal that says first place, which I love. I love the low keyness of the entire thing.
Now on to the San Jose half in 5 weeks. I may do 1 more race before then to see where I am. It's a flat course, I think sub 1:40 is possible. This is also the LAST Rock n Roll event I do. They're overpriced and no same day # pick up which is a real pain in the ass.

Unless you live under a rock, no doubt you've seen the news of good ol' Irene heading for the East Coast. Even though I'm not there, I've been following news and weather. Be safe over there East Coasters. Batten down NYers, this could be a big one. And for the love of the running gods, stop complaining about the Bronx Half being cancelled and not getting a refund. It's minor in the grand scheme of things. Run now while it's still nice out.

After the boys of summer have gone

2011-08-19T14:28:00.003-04:00

Things are coming to an end at Thursday Night at the Races. Here in SF, school has started again. Last night the fast redhead was gone, her cross country practice has probably started again (or she has 15 AP classes to study for). The HS boy's team was no there either. It's just back to the grown ups. There's 1 week of racing left.
There was, however, a new character. Rubber Band Man. He's an older gentleman. He was wearing earbud headphones, and to keep them in place, he has a rubber band wrapped around his head. I can not make this stuff up. Runners are total freaks.
I finally got to see WHO the faster woman in my AG was. I started behind her and she was clearly taking it easy since she wasn't very far ahead of me for most of the race. Flowy shorts was also there.
As we started I knew I just didn't feel like running very hard to I started off easy. I let fast chick go, I didn't try to stay with shorts.
Since this was my 9th week running here, I've gotten to know the course in both directions pretty well. This week was the direction I like, I think it's faster.
Just before mile 3. a guy passed me. A real macho guy. He was in board shorts and a cotton tank top. His arms were covered to the wrist with tattoos and I could see they covered most of his back and chest. I caught him and he would not let me pass, to the point of stepping over so I couldn't pass. I was like, ok, whatever dude and just stayed with him. Right before my garmin hit 4 miles, I did pass him. I knew when I did it would be for good. With a half mile to go I picked up the pace. I didn't want him out sprinting me just on principle. I looked down at my garmin. As I've noted before, I'm old school. Races I care about, the garmin stays at home and I run with a watch. It's just easier for my brain to deal with just the time and hitting lap. For these runs, I wear my garmin, mostly because there are no mile markers, though by now I have a good sense of the course and where I am. I knew that the best I had run this course was the first week, 7:24 pace. My garmin was telling me that's what I was averaging. I didn't know my exact time off the top of my head from that first week. I hit STOP at 33:16. When I got home and looked up my time from week 1, it was 33:15. So close. We'll see what the official time was in a few days.
Tattoo man came in behind me and I gave him a high five. He told me he wanted to stay with me at the end but just couldn't. Mwahahaha.
After the race, I actually talked to flowy shorts and speedy woman. Funny, big legs has not been there for the last 2 weeks.
I'm surprised by my time last night, I did not expect or plan to run as well as I did. This is a good sign, things are coming along. I'm happy about that, I thought I was just stagnating for a while but this seems to be a mini break.
On the first week, I was given #17, I've reused the same number every week. Man, I wish it was 4 since I think I've come in 4th woman more than any other place.
1 more week to go. I'm still leading my age group. This has been a fun series.

We'll get higher and higher Straight up we'll climb

2011-08-15T12:55:00.003-04:00

Update on the lost day hikers from last week: Ok, I don't have one. I'm sure they got out, I'm just waiting for them to mail me back my stuff.
My training week the week of the hike was thrown off a bit because well, we were in the woods. I had done my long run before leaving and I was surprisingly sore when I got back. It threw a wrench in the start of last week. Though I figure 15+ miles of strenuous backpacking counts for something. Seriously, my calfs were oddly sore. I expected my hips to be sore, I haven't carried a pack in a while, but the calf soreness was a surprise. It left me shuffling my week around.
I blew off my planned Monday speedwork and took the day off from running. Tues. I did a recovery run. I was on the fence about Thurs. night's race. I was thinking about doing a 10k on Sat, mostly because it's called The Big Gay 10k. Since I wasn't feeling like I could really race it well, I decided to skip it. I did race on Thurs. I wasn't out there giving the effort I usually do but was surprised I finished in about the same time. I also wore my HR monitor, which I usually don't do. I averaged 175, which is a tick higher than I would be for a tempo run so that's all good.
This week I was 4th and 1st in my AG. The girl who has won ever week she's run is 16. I swear she shows up 2 minutes before the start, no warm up and churns out 6:30s. By the time I'm done she's gone. I imagine her mom waiting for her in the car, waiting to whisk her off to her next activity.
The last few weeks a group of HS boys have been showing up as well. It's very cute to watch them do all their drills together before the race. It's also very satisfying to pass most of them by mile 3 since they go out way too fast.
2 weeks of racing left!

In other news, Loren and I are plotting out more high points. Our plan this summer was to do Rainier (which Loren's done a few times already). We're lucky that Loren has a friend who is a professional guide and could walk up that mountain in her sleep. She has offered to take us up. With the move and everything, time is getting short for this season. We decided to put it off to next summer. I'm bummed but this will give me lots of time to get in shape specifically for that. We're also planning on doing Hood next summer with the High Pointers when they have their annual convention which will be in OR. (yes there is a club, yes we are members, yes Loren is mildly embarrassed by this). We still have some serious peaks to hit. WY and MT are very serious multi-day treks/climbs. ID has something called Chicken Out Ridge that has turned around more than a few very serious hikers, to say nothing of AK. We're hoping to take a weekend in Sept. to do either AZ or ID, both are day hikes. We are planning a Mid-Western trifecta this fall, going or MN, MI, and WI. So Midwesterners, be warned! We may be heading your way!

They'll have to make the best of things, It's an uphill climb

2011-08-08T11:38:00.003-04:00

No Thursday night race report for last Thurs. Loren and I had tickets for the Giants/Phillies game so no racing for me. I checked the overall standings for the series and I have a thin lead for my age group. 3 weeks to go! It's been a fun series.

This weekend, we went on our first backpacking adventure since moving. This would be Bea's, our dog, first backpacking trip. We've gone car camping and hiking with her but this was new.
Friday afternoon, we headed up to the Snow Mountain area of Medocino National Forest for the weekend. We started out with some less than wonderful google map directions to get to the ranger station for a more detailed map. We hit the trail head at 4:30, later than expected.
Friday evening was our day of dumb. Nothing terrible happened, things just didn't go as planned. We hiked a bit further than expected up a really really steep trail with lots of switch backs. Bea was game. The ranger we spoke to hadn't really had a trail report for where we were going for about a month. There was less water than expected. Less being almost none. We took a trail in a different direction than our overall plan to get water. We still had about a liter, but for 2 people and a dog. more would have been better.
We found a very nice camping area at another trail head. It was clear no one had been here for months. Apparently the road leading up to this trail head isn't passable, leaving it unused. It's really too bad, it's an awesome camping area. We followed the map to where a spring should have been. It was a bit of a hunt. Then, there in a field, was a bathtub. No really. LIke an old clawfoot tub someone dragged up there. There was a hose coming out of it but no water. I guess in the spring, when the snow is melting of the mountain, there is a lot of water. For now, there was a trickle running down hill. It wasn't great, but it was enough for the night.
While it was clear no one had been up here in a while, a ranger did stop to talk to us as we were getting ready to hike in. He told us to be on the look out for growers (people go up into the forrest to grow weed). He said they wouldn't look like hikers, they would usually be alone and not carrying anything. I find it hard to believe people would hump all the way out there empty handed but I guess they have some nice set ups deep in the woods. I can understand why people would grow up there, everything grows up there. During our conversation, he said he didn't mind the growing so much as the pesticides which were killing other plants and trees and starting to kill the wild life. I said they could really use the organic label as a marketing tool if they stopped using pesticides. He chuckled, shook his head and said "yea, I really can't say anything about that".
By the time we got camp set up and ate, we were in the dark and pretty pooped. Even though Bea had been camping once before, she got a little freaked out if one of us went off to do some sorta chore that require breaking the pack up. For the first night and most the next day, we did everything together which could get to be a pain.
Once in the tent, we came up with a plan for the next day. We knew there was water where we were, but it sucked. We would hit the next trail split, and decide if we should ditch our packs, day hike for a while, then hike out or bring our packs and find a nice camping area along the trail. We ended up with option 2.
The trail we were on was 2 miles long then would split into a few different trails. At the juncture, there was an awesome spring. We refilled all our bottles, ditched our big packs, packed up a day pack, and went for a few more miles up the trail.
It was beautiful, lots of wild flowers and huge trees, old burnt out trees from a 1987 fire. It was getting warm and we were at about 6500'.
As the day went on, it was clear Bea was hot. She started running from shady patch to shady patch, sitting down every once in a while. We'd let her sit in a shaded area for a while then move on. This was a lot for her.
We got back to the site where we dropped our stuff, set up the tent, which bea could not wait to get in, and spend the afternoon lounging about, playing cards, snacking. The dog pretty much slept.
After a few hours, we went to scout a better campsite for the night.
In the back country, there really aren't campgrounds. Where we were for the afternoon was clearly a set camp, but other areas campers aren't suppose leave fire rings or make it seem like people have been there. But they do, which is ok by me, it makes it easier when the next person shows up as long as the area isn't trashed. At this point, we hadn't seen another person since we got on the trail.
We found an awesome spot. Tucked in behind some big trees off the trail, it had a fire ring, a cozy little spot shaded by some trees for our tent, and an AMAZING view.

Before we could even set up the tent, Bea wanted to be in it. She was so tired she was giving up on caring if one of us went off.
I decided to go fetch water as Loren finished up setting up camp, this way it would be done and we wouldn't have to back track on the way out the next day.
I'm walking down to the creak having a hippie moment in nature, enjoying the few minutes alone, the quiet, thinking about how I haven't seen anyone else.
And then
I see someone else.
A few someones actually, a youngish man and woman and their dog. They're right by the trail junction where the water is. I know just by looking at them they're lost. They're both in shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers.
I had looked at the map pretty closely and several times, I knew where all the trails in the area were. Loren and I had been hanging out in the same area for hours, we would have seen them had they come this way. There was another trail head much further north. I quickly figured that's where they came from. They were WAY off from where they wanted to be.
This isn't like a national park where rangers are patrolling the trails. National forests are more like, ok, here's a trail, here's a mark on a map where there's water, there are some established campground out there but you're not going to find much. HAVE FUN! And it is fun, until you're lost and have no idea where you should be going and it's 6:30PM. This can and does happen as demonstrated by the couple I just ran into.
We talked for a few minutes to try and determine where they were and where they went wrong, but they didn't have a map. I brought them back to our camp. Loren and Bea were both surprised to see other people. Bea was very surprised and not too happy to see another dog.
We figured out where they missed their turn around point, which was several miles away. Which was several miles away from the trail head where they parked. I gave them our map of the area, as we would be hiking out the way we came in in the morning and we were pretty familiar with where we were going. There was only 1 turn off to our trail and we had already passed it 3 times. We also gave them a headlamp since they had a dying flashlight, some food, and the space blanket out of our first aid kit. They had about 7 miles of hiking to go and about 2.5 hours of day light at most. I think they'd make it out, it just wasn't going to be a whole lotta fun.
My public service announcement for the day: if you go out hiking someplace unfamiliar, bring a map, bring water, bring snacks, something warms, a light, and let someone know where you're going and when you expect to be back. It really doesn't take much to go from, oh lovely walk in the woods, to oh crap I'm stuck and drinking my own pee.
After our new friends were on our way, we settled in for the night, falling asleep before it was even totally dark. I wanted to get up early and head out before the heat of the day.
We all fell right to sleep. Some point during the night, I woke up to coyotes singing somewhere out in the woods. Such a cool cool sound.
The next morning we were on the trail by 7:20AM. It was a lovely morning and the hike out was mostly downhill. I hadn't realized just how steep those switchbacks were until we went down them.
Half way down the trail, we had our 2nd human interaction. We ran into a young guy with a big pack, he was headed out for 5-6 days. We gave him the lowdown on the water situation and good camping areas and we were all on our way.
Bea got some of her energy back for the hike out. There were squirrels and chippies all over making her totally crazy.
Once we hit our car though, she was in the back seat and sound asleep. She slept the whole way home. This trip took a lot out of her! I think it'll be a couple of days before she's back up to her normal energy levels.
On our way out, we stopped by the ranger station to tell them about the folks we saw, just it case. I didn't think to give them my # so we'd know if they got out. The ranger thanked us and said, well, this is more information than we usually have. Last time someone got lost out there they just sat on a rock until we found them. Im pretty sure they made it out ok.

I was due to do a speed workout today. But ya know what? My ass is sore and my calves are killing me which I'm a little surprised by. I'll either do a short recovery run or take the day off. Taking the day off is really winning in my head at the moment.

These are the people in your neighborhood

2011-08-01T11:47:00.003-04:00

After 22 years of living in NYC and many of them as a runner, I got to know some real characters. NYC is a huge huge HUGE running city. Central Park is like the world's biggest track. I miss it more than anything in NYC. There were people I'd see all the time. Like this woman who had such a strangle gait, like every step was a struggle. I do think she has a muscular or nerve problem. I would see her everywhere, no matter what time of day or where I was running. Then there's the time I was running with my friend Ishii who is friendly to everyone. We ran pass a guy and Ishii smiled and said hi, he smiled and said hi in return. She says to me "he looks familiar, I think maybe I met him at the club". Me: "Ishii, he looks familiar because he's Anthony Edwards". So yes, there are celebrity runner sightings as well.
Then there's the local hall of fame of characters. NYers, I'm sure you'll recognize some of these favorites: Old Asian man with bells, Crazy old tattoo lady (who I think may also be known as the dinosaur), Ginny (those not familiar with her by that name may also know her as shitty pants), and one of my personal faves, the older black woman who more shuffles than runs. She's in her 70s I'm sure. A few years ago, I was working at a XC race the week after the marathon. There she was brining up the rear, running with her marathon medal on. I always made a point of saying hello to her when I saw her in the park. She would always say hello back and tell me I was looking strong or running beautifully. Good for the ego for sure.
Now I'm in a new city. So far my running has been more spread out and I haven't gotten to know all the characters yet. Doing the Thursday night race series I am coming up with a few. My new cast of characters include: The redhead (really fast HS girl, wins all the time) Mr 200 (ran his 200th marathon yesterday) Flowy shorts (we go neck and neck a lot) Crutches (the guy who was doing the races on crutches for the first few weeks. Who ran sub 3 yesterday). And my biggest character of all who goes by many names. My mom called her Blonde Pony tail when she was here visiting. I call her Big Legs. From her build I thought she was a triathlete but it turns out she's a body builder. She's always just ahead of me every week and she has never spoken to me. She's one of those women, one of those women who make me want to bang my head against a wall. I see her talk to all the men, and rarely any women, unless they are a lot slower than her. What is that all about? I think the next race I'm just going to go introduce myself to her, mostly because I think it will be unsettling for her.
Anyway this last week's race brought me 4th woman and 1st age group. Oddly, I was the only one in my age group. The turn out was smaller than usual due to the SF marathon being on Sunday.
Speaking of the SF marathon, I went and cheered at mile 22 with the folks from Sports Basement. I run with them on Wed. evenings and they're a fun crowd. There were about 7 people I knew from NYC running so it was a good spot to try and see everyone (I caught about 5 of them). I also saw some of my new SF characters: Mr. 200, crutches (I was really amazed how fast he was running), another fast woman from Thursday night. She was a pace leader. For the 3:10 group. That's impressive.
A shout out to Cenk, who graciously tried to pace me in the Brooklyn Half, PRed on this hilly course. So congrats to you my friend! And no tears this time! None that I saw anyway.
I am ramping up my training for the San Jose half and that is going well. I'm about to head out for a nice tempoish run, though my ass feels like a cinder block from cheering for 4 hours yesterday. Cheering is hard work I tell ya!

So move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass

2011-07-22T13:38:00.002-04:00

Holy July. I know most of the US is dealing with a horrible heat wave. I do not miss that. Not at all. July is also causing me to be on a total sports bender. First, the Women's World Cup. Now the Tour de France. With the time difference, I've been getting up pretty early to watch live. It's really hard to not see what happened (thanks interwebs) if I wait to watch a replay. Oh yea, and throw in some World Series of Poker (no really, I watched for hours) and by the end of the month I'm going to have a huge sports hangover.

In my own little sports world, I'm continuing with my Thursday night races. As I've stated, these are low key hand timed races so I usually don't know the actual results until several days after. Last week, the fast girls took the week off. It was also what I think is the harder direction, which I like less. I was 5th over all and first in my AG with a time of 34:10 (4.5 miles).
This week, I think I may have been 5th or 6th and I'm not sure if super fast 40 something was there, so AG unclear. 33:35.
I did, however, run what I thought was a smart race. This direction starts with a slight downhill. I know I've gone out too fast in the past. Sure enough I looked at my Garmin (which I generally don't race with but since these are really tempoish runs with no mile markers, I use it) and it said 6:44 pace. I don't run that fast so I slowed myself down. I took note of the women around me, a few high schoolers were off the front and 1 or 2 I thought would blow up (1 did). I was very close to a women who's bested me before so I know she's generally a bit faster, I decided not to stay with her. Just before mile 2, my friend Anna caught me. We we were both close to the other woman (who Anna has named flowy shorts). For a while we were all in a little pack. I decided to keep the pace steady and not react if shorts was going to go. We ran side by side for at least a mile. Then, she tucked in behind me. And I mean RIGHT behind me. I couldn't see her at all but I knew she was there. I was like, ok, I'll pace you for now. It's very difficult to try and be subtle about peaking back when someone is running behind you like this. With a mile to go I noticed she was drifting off a bit. I peaked back to see where her and Anna were. A little day light between all of us but I didn't want to take any chances. I didn't want either of them sneaking up on me. I keep the pace steady and decided at a half mile, which is a gradual incline, I'd go.
No more looking back if they were going to catch me, not much I could do about it at this point. I figured I had enough of a gap on them. I did have a funny moment when I was closing in on the guy in front of me with about 100m to go. He turned back, saw me, and of course not wanting to be chicked at the end, took off.
I crossed the line very satisfied in my tactics. Not a PR, but a smartly run race.
As far as over all standings for the series, I'm holding on to first in my AG. Though I missed 1 race and know I will miss 1 more. THere's a woman who's run all of them so she is just lurking behind me in points.

Since moving, I've obviously had to learn new running routes. I haven't really found any right out the door that I'm totally in love with. Where I live in SF is very hilly and there's lots of concrete. My body is not loving this. I'm developing a bit of a shin ache. It's not pain, it doesn't hurt when I run, it aches a bit after. I would like to not have this please. I'm icing and stretching (not as much as I should) where a dorky compression sleeve, and will throw a new pair of shoes into the rotation. I'm going to look at softer surfaces to run on and less hills, both a challenge as the trails near my house are hills. I hate crap like this.

This weekend is Ironman Lake Placid. Ya know, the Ironman I signed up for. I have moments of wishing I was there but the reality is, I'm glad I'm not. It's going to be hotter than satan's gstring and who wants that? Plus, I also would have had to, oh, get in shape. And fly across the country. And do the Ironman. So best of luck to my friends who are racing. If it's really hot, please be careful. That Lake Placid weather is crazy. All my other friends running and racing in the pits of hell, please do be careful. Hydrate, slow down, run on the dreadmill or take a few days off.

Loves got the world in motion

2011-07-11T12:58:00.004-04:00

That last few weeks have been HUGE sports weeks. For those who know me, I am a huge sports fan. As we speak, the Tour de France and the Women's World Cup are happening. Both odd, not hugely followed sports in the States, but both so exciting to watch. For me, the World Cup is really exciting. I grew up playing soccer and it will always be my first love.
Yesterday, the US women beat Brazil in a game that will go down as one of the best ever played. There is a long history between these 2 teams and you could not have made up the way this match went down. Due to a red card, the US played a player down for more than half the game (if someone gets a red card, they must leave the game and can not be replaced). This resulted in Brazil taking and scoring on a penalty kick (I'm giving a very brief summary of what actually happened) Brazil scored in extra time to go ahead 2-1. Then in the 122nd minute of play, extra time in extra time (there are no time outs so when a player gets injured or there's a delay, the ref adds time on) this happened:

This sent the game to penalty kicks and the US won. This happening 12 years to the day after this happened:

A moment I remember as if it was yesterday and a moment I think truly changed women's sports, and the sports bra, forever. I heard a stat yesterday that after the women won the World Cup in 1999, the number of girls playing soccer quadrupled. How amazing is that? Now the US takes on France on Wed. in the semifinals. SO EXCITING!

And now on to slower, older, less amazing chicks in sports, namely me. I missed Thursday night at the races the week before last because Loren, Bea and myself we off exploring beaches. Tough work, I know. I returned this past week with my friend and fellow NY transplant Anna. Anna tends to call me speedy, but she's full of crap and she was either 2 steps behind me or 2 steps in front of me for the entire race.
As the series has gone on, the group has gotten faster. A few weeks ago we saw the addition of some high school girls out there running 6:40 pace. They've been coming back and battling it out with each other. I'd love to see this but, um, I'm a bit far behind them. The margin this week was 2 seconds. In my absence last week, someone else in my age group joined the mix. She was back again this week and bringing her 6:45 pace. So yea, there goes my AG wins! I know it's all about who shows up and she's showing up and I can't even see the back of her head in the race. That's all fine and good. I'm still holding on to the over all AG lead for the series (for now).
As for how I actually ran, I was 2nd in my AG, 7th woman with a time of 33:49. Anna was right behind me in 8th, also 2nd in her AG. I've been running this race consistently and getting in a speed workout which is what my intention is so success.
I'm starting to look ahead to the San Jose half which Loren and I are running in Oct so I hope to get my running into a more serious gear. I admit it's been tough with the move and all that to really focus on running seriously. Having something on the calender helps, but I am also enjoying having some pressure free time to get to know my new home.

I keep up with the racing rats

2011-06-27T13:45:00.003-04:00

Welcome to my new training plan: run almost not at all and race my way into semi-shape. I'll let you know how that works out for me. Anyway, here's an update:
Last week at the races, I thought I was 4th. I was actually 3rd.
This week at Thursday's race, all the fun and games came to an end. School is out and the high school girls have come to put us old ladies in our place. I wasn't planning on running fast on Thurs. since I was running the SF Pride Run on Sat. The girl who won is 16 and ran 6:48 pace. #2 wasn't far behind @6:49 pace (and 18 years old). I can kiss my top 3s good bye if these girls show up every week. I'm fine with that. Even not racing I was 7th and 1st in my age group.
Now on to Saturday's race. The Pride Run here is a much different affair than in NYC which had over 5000 runners this year. SF gets a couple of hundred and does a 5k and a 10k. Loren and I did the 10k, my mom who is here visiting walked the 5k. The 2 loop 10k course was hillier than expected but with my new stellar training plan, I did ok. 47:23 won me my age group and I was 8th woman. Loren was about a minute ahead and was 5th woman.
I know moving to SF I've coming to a much smaller pond of runners. I've never placed so high so often in races.
The Pride Run also brought out all kinds of NYC expats. Here are a transplanted crew of New York Front Runners representing.

I admit to being a bit homesick this weekend. We watched the NY state senate pass marriage equality online Friday night, long time coming. For years I lived on Christopher St right where the Pride March ended, that kept me from going to Pride for a long time. It's not that much fun when it ends in front of your house. This year was different however, I do wish I had been there to celebrate. Oh well. I will be here in CA when Prop 8 is thrown out the window for good. In the mean time, I'll continue to work to destroy the marriages of straight people :P

it's all business in the left hand lane

2011-06-17T19:55:00.002-04:00

Update from last week's race:
I did in fact come in 4th (women) and won my age group. Of course all I get for that is to say I was 4th and won my AG, there aren't any prizes. I think at the end of the 12 week series they give awards, I'm not sure how that works other than you have to do at least 6 races.
Fast forward to this weeks race: same distance, opposite direction of last week, just to keep things interesting. I found this direction harder than last week. It was also a bit windier. Once again, I was running 4 or 5. I was trading places with one woman for a good part of the race. At mile 1 she said to me nice pace. I replied with we'll see in a few miles. She led me for a good mile and a half after that. Once we came around the turn on the lake, I passed her but not by much. I figured I'd just hold my pace and see what happens. Every once in a while I'd peak back to see where she was. She was fading. There's a long hill in this direction and figured I'd keep her away on the hill and I did.
Loren, running the other direction, passed me with a little more than a mile to go and told me I was 4th. Again.
With a half mile to go, I could tell I was far enough ahead that #5 wasn't going to catch me.
I finished in 33:58, 43 seconds slower than last week. 7:33 pace. I'm pretty sure I won my AG again. The woman who won last week was 3rd.
I'll go again next week but run it easy since on Sunday I'll running the San Francisco Pride Run and really want to race that. Loren's running it as well and since my mom is here visiting, she'll be walking the 5k.

How’s your engine running

2011-06-10T00:09:00.002-04:00

One of the few things I knew I'd miss about NYC is the Van Cortlandt Track Club's summer cross country series. A fun, low key series with muffins and carrot cake. Though with the heat wave NYC is having now... not too sad about missing tonight's.
Out here in SF where it was a balmy 65 today, I found another summer racing series put on by Dolphin South End Runners. Every Thurs. evening for 12 weeks, $1 a race. You can't beat that. The 4.5 mile course goes around Lake Merced and is fairly flat. Now, I am in no way shape or form in racing shape. It's my intention to use these has fastish tempo runs.
Now a moment from our sponsors at It's A Small World...as I was getting my number, a woman said she thought I knew who I was. I was like, oh I don't think, I just moved here. She said she knew me from my blog, which she found from flo's blog. This isn't the first time this has happened to me, though I'm usually surprised when it does since I certainly don't feel like the masses are out there reading about lil ol' me.
Anyway, off to the races.
This is a 4.5 mile loop around a lake. It's fairly flat, there are some gentle rollers but nothing like the hills I'm getting run by our new place. There were maybe 75 people or so in the race. I started sorta near the front, but ya know, not really a big field.
Since I was going tempo-ish, I figured anything under 8s would be good.
From what I could tell coming to mile 1 I was about the 5th woman. THan at mile 1, I saw the woman who was leading just stop and start walking back. I didn't see her again at the finish so I don't know what that was about.
At mile 3, the woman who was just ahead of me stopped at a water fountain (????). I passed her and she never passed me back, so now I was from what I could tell, 4th.
Around 3.5, I made a tactical error. I was coming up on the next woman. I could see she had headphones on and I passed her. I should have waited. She couldn't hear me so she didn't know I was there. I could have just let her pace us in and out kicked her. Instead, she had the from behind advantage, and I knew it as soon as I made the move. With about a quarter mile to go, she made the move and I couldn't answer. Oh well. Live and learn.
From what I could tell, I think I was 4th woman. Results will be up in a few days.
Splits:
1 7:18
2 7:20
3 7:36
4 7:24
.5 3:35
total 33:15 7:24 pace
Must faster than I expected though I didn't feel like I was killing myself.
I feel really good about this, on my way over I was thinking I'm in a bit of a funk. Since the move my training has been all over the place. Perhaps this is the little jump start I needed.

Shine on you crazy diamond

2011-06-02T17:44:00.003-04:00

Amazing how lazy I've become since canned my Ironman. I haven't gone swimming, I've only ridden my bike to get around town. I have, of course, run since that requires almost zero planning. My May milage for every thing was not at all stellar:
Running 72.4
Biking about 180 miles
swimming 6 miles
I've been fending off calls from the Guinness book of world records all day.
I feel good about this however, there's not this huge thing looming over me. Of course, I can never just sit still so I signed up for a half marathon (though it's not until Oct). I just feel like I need something in the future.

In other news, I want to take a moment to mention the passing of a really awesome guy, my pal Brantley.
I knew Brantley from NYC biking circles. He worked check points at a few women's alleycats I put on, I'd see him at other events, we hung out on a close knit cycling message board. Brantley's been on a once in a life time 'round the world trip, having all kinds of crazy adventures. You can read about them on his Tumblr.
He posted that picture of himself on May 8 at the base of Anaapurna (I happen to be reading this book now).
I sent him a note saying how awesome his trip looked and we had an exchange about adventures and high pointing and the stuff we love.
It's weird to wrap my head around, emailing, facebooking, across the world, sharing these awesome adventures almost in real time. We see everything instantly.
His last Facebook update reads "Shot through zim, now in Zambia, and loving it. Stories soon..."
I know I'm not alone when I say I wish I could hear those stories.
RIP Brantley, you'll be missed. I hope to have half the adventures you did.

If I'm wrong I am right, no need to look no further.

2011-05-30T11:40:00.004-04:00

After 3 trips back and forth form the East coast to the West coast, I am happy to announce the entire Farrooney clan is finally in CA. Bea was the last one to make the trip after 6 weeks at Nanny's. I knew the whole trip back for be exhausting: running the Brooklyn half, trying to see as many people as I could, sleeping on the floor of my former apartment (don't ask), going to Philly, and finally, shoving my 20lb dog into a bag and under the seat in front of me on the plane. It didn't help that the flight was delayed and we had turbulence for the duration. Bea was high so she didn't care so much. By hour 4 of the flight, my ass was killing me.
That's pretty much when I decided to change the course of my summer.
I'm not going to do the Ironman in July.
There are several reasons for this decision, which because I'm me, took me a while to finalize.
First, I can not deal with flying across the country again (I've done it 3 times since mid march). On top of the flying, there's then the driving to Lake Placid, which is close to no where. Dealing with getting my bike there, covering the 140.2 mile race, then doing all that traveling again.
Ugh.
I was really looking forward to doing this as a celebration of doing my first one with 2 very long time and dear friends of mine but the reality is, my heart isn't in it. I've done 3 other Ironmans, I know what it takes. When I told my friend Claudia who I was going to do this with, she understood and said "your heart needs to be in it or it's just a long painfu day without much of a silver lining".
Yup. It's a long painful day even if you're heart is in it. No getting around that. I have nothing to prove. This is the right decision for me now.
When I talked to Loren about this, she was a little relieved. We live in a new place with new adventures. While she would be totally supportive of me in this, she did say in the back of her mind she wasn't really looking forward to weekends where I couldn't do something because I have to go ride 80 miles. After that, all I kept hearing was "ride 80 miles...ride 80 miles..." who the hell wants to go ride 80 miles? Ok, I love cycling. I'd love to ride 80 miles. If that's all it was. I'm sure there's be a 15 mile run the day before or a 10 mile run right after. No thanks.
With that, I withdrew. And I am relieved.
This of course does not mean I will be totally sitting on my ass. Oh no.
We're planning on going up Rainier this summer (we were planning that anyway) and my focus has shifted to what I need to do to get ready for that.
Oh yea, and there's that sub 1:40 half I'm chasing. I'm looking for a race in the fall/winter. A race that does not require flying! So I'm taking suggestions.

Ahh Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in

2011-05-22T22:19:00.003-04:00

Ahhh The Brooklyn Half. I was curious how may times I've run this race so looked on the NYRR site, this was my 8th time. I think there are few races I've run as many times.
Since just missing hitting sub 1:40 in Asbury Park I figured I'm try again in Brooklyn. Well a lot has happened since that NJ race. For one, I moved across the country. Ok, that's enough of a distraction. I also ran Boston, which shouldn't be that big of a deal, I've come of off Boston and run great halfs. Truth is, the move was (obviously) huge. I have been running, but done no speed work and nothing over 9 miles. I knew it was a long shot but figured I was still going to try. Why not?
My friend Cenk also offered to pace me. I admit I was a little worried about that because I didn't want to go out too fast and was concerned I was biting off more than I could chew.
The morning of the race, it was 55 degrees. Perfect right? Sure, if the humidity wasn't 98%. The first almost 7 miles of this race is in Prospect Park. That weather made it like a rain forrest.
Cenk found me in my corral and I said I wanted to start conservatively. He was cool with that and then pick it open once we got out on to Ocean Parkway.
Well....
I pretty much knew right away this was not going to be my day. I've done several races in this park, I have a pretty good idea how I should feel at different parts of the park. I did not feel good.
At mile 4, I told Cenk to go. He said no, it was too soon to make the call. I said, no, I know. Not happening. So he ran with me for a few more minutes and went.
Going up the hill for the 2nd time, my friend HIlary caught me. I though, oh good, I'll run with Hilary, we run together all the time. She went passed me on the uphill and I caught her on the down hill. Well that didn't last. After that, I decided to phone it in and just get the milage in.
I will admit, it kinda sucked. I wasn't disappointed that I wasn't hitting my goal, it just sucked. It was humid. My ITB hurt outa nowhere and I just wanted to be done. 1:48 later, I was.
Oh well.
We all know we have sucky days.
It did make me seriously think about buckling down this fall and, oh, actually TRAINING for just a half. None of this half during marathon training, running them half assed. I want to run a really good half.
CA people, I'm taking suggestions for races.

Just eat it

2011-05-15T21:36:00.003-04:00

As I've been ramping up everything for this Ironman, one thing that has really ramped up is my caloric intake. When I look at my week, it doesn't seem like a lot but I can feel my body shifting into the more mode which means the more food mode.
I am not complaining about this.
Let's look at the week shall we?
Run 22.4 miles
Bike 42.4 (this is from actual road bike riding. I'm guessing I also rode 10-15 miles of getting around town riding. While this might not seem like a ton, I ride a fixed gear bike around and every ride home ends with a hill at least a half mile long)
Swim 2.1 miles.

On Thurs, Loren and I took part in Ride your bike to work day. Or in my case, ride someone else to work. There's a ride that was started by some folks at Google that rides down that way several times a week, so we rode with them. While I was bitching last week about group rides, this ride was actually awesome. It was organized and everyone was very nice. The route which was new to us was very well marked. While I'm trying and looking for a job, I hope to do it once or twice a week then take the train back. Perhaps as I get in better shape, ride back as well (although the headwinds coming north can really suck). We're going to do it again tomorrow, taking a different route.

This week, I'm also heading back East to fetch my dog. I can't wait to have Bea out here with us! While I'm there, I'm going to run the Brooklyn Half. I had all these grand plans of going to this race and crushing 1:40. Well...we'll see. I did my longest post Boston run yesterday, a little over 9 miles. I have done no speedwork. I'm still going to go for it but I don't think it's a gimme. While I'm East, my focus will shift back to running since I won't have a bike and swimming might be tough logistically. I forgot how much juggling goes into Ironman training. Who's idea was this?

I'm heading for that golden gate

2011-05-09T00:25:00.002-04:00

Getting settled in here on the West Coast. All of our stuff got here this week which was great. Sleeping on an air mattress is fine for a few nights, but for over a week kinda sucked. It was also a bit colder than expected so Loren and I were huddled up with the cats for most of the night. Poor cats. They're not gonna be too happy when the dog gets here.
I was really excited about the bikes showing up. Not so much to get out and go for some long riding (though I was looking forward to that) but mostly to be able to commute around the city on my beater. While I was very use to riding around NYC and all the ups and downs that comes with, San Francisco has a very different culture around commuting by bike. It's much much more common and accepted. Lots of bike lanes and bike racks and places with indoor/covered parking. It's a lovely way to get around this city. Except that hill longer than a half mile I have to ride up to get to my place, but I'm sure I'll get use to that.

It looks like this week marked the actual start of my Ironman training. It's about time. I'm not terrible concerned about my running since I just ran a marathon, I know I can let the running take a bit of a back seat. Honestly, I'm not crazy about that. I've spent the last few years really focusing on my running and I rather enjoy it. I do, however, need to work on the other 2 events. Luckily, I started doing triathlons over a decade ago. Swimming and cycling come back to me very quickly. So here's a run down of what my week looked like:
Tues- swim .9 miles. I planned on swimming a mile but miss counted my laps. Close enough. Honestly, I don't remember the last time I was in the pool.
Wed running 5 miles. I went with my friend Anna and Loren to the Sports Basement fun run. I feel like most of my group run days are behind me. I like to run at my pace and when/where I feel like it. But hey, I'm in a new city and don't know my way around running wise well yet and don't know a lot of runners so what the hell.
Friday swim 1 miles. I must say, I'm really glad I can just get in the pool and swim a mile without any trouble.
Sat run 5.62 miles. Loren and I tried out a new route before coffee club. 20 mile fixie ride. My friend Emily from coffee club wanted to take her bike out for the first time this spring. My fix bike was the only one ready to go. It was actually a really nice ride to the beach.
Sun ride 44 miles ride over the Golden Gate with Loren and Anna. We had planned on going with a local club (see my note about running groups, that's mild compared to how I feel about cycling groups. But again, new city, new people, but sadly, same douchebag attitude coming from other cyclists. That's one I know I won't go back to). The ride itself was beautiful and hilly. It'll take a little trial end error to learn the local routes, but that's also exciting.
This doesn't include what probably amounts to 15 or so miles of incidental riding. I'd say a pretty solid week to start. All my runs since Boston have been under 6 miles, I plan on changing that this week.

People in motion

2011-05-01T14:20:00.003-04:00

A lot has happened in the barely 2 weeks since Boston. A LOT I tells ya!
First, I got a cold. That doesn't really surprise me, I've gotten sick post marathon before. Ye olde immune system really takes a nose dive. Sitting on a sold out Megabus for 4 hours the day after doesn't help either.
Then Loren and I packed up everything and moved to SF. Ok, that was in the works for a while, but the actually happening of it was about a week after Boston. The week of Boston I spent packing up our place while Loren was in CA for work. She came home for the weekend and the mad packing push. I thank Day/Niquil for seeing me through these days. It's a big job to pack up 20+ years of life in one city and move it to the other side of the country. Not to mention 2 cats who had little interest in going anywhere.
Luckily, getting everything out of our place (movers. Young, strong men) was fairly drama free. Much to my surprise, flying with the cats was also fairly drama free. Everything from drugging them, to getting them in their carriers, through security and on the plane went off pretty much without a hitch. Of course Beans is still freaked out here in the new place. (just a side note: yes, my pets have facebook pages. With beans, I do not know who 140 of her 170 fans are. She's taken on a life of her own). Tobias is much better adjusted. He's acting like he's been here his whole life.
Now we're in our new place but our stuff is not. Living like we're camping with an airmatress, a camp towel, 1 take out container as our plate/bowl, and a pot borrowed from a neighbor. Our stuff should be here this week.
As for running, I'm totally ready to get back on the horse. It's also a great way to explore the new 'hood. Yesterday Loren and I did 4 miles before joining an old pal of mine for an established weekly coffee club meeting. That was great, I love the girls who meet and feel like there's an instant posse. The run itself was fairly hilly. That is my new challenge. I don't mind running hills, but some of this stuff up in here is crazy. This morning i went out on my own from another 4 in a different direction. I think exploring all of this will be fun.
I'm looking forward to getting my bikes out here as well. There's a group that bike commutes down to Google. Loren will be working not far from there as well. I'm hoping to hop on the rides once or twice a week as I train for the Ironman (oh yea, that thing). To start I'll ride down and train back and as I get in better shape, ride down and back. I'm so looking forward to that and just having my bike to get around the city.
Well, lots of new adventures to be had out here I'm sure, so stay tuned!

So tell me now where was my fault, in loving you with all my heart

2011-04-20T07:48:00.008-04:00

Boston '11 in the books. For those of you who don't want to read the whole story, here are the details.
3:47:39 which is 8:41 pace. Good enough to requalify but a good 10 minutes off my A goal. I think this was somewhere around my D goal. However, I am not (really) disappointed. While people were saying weather conditions for the day were once in a life time kind of conditions, I don't think those people actually run. Perhaps it was perfect for folks up in wave 1, but us mere mortals back in waves 2 (20 minutes after wave 1) and 3 (40 minutes after wave 1) it was a tad warm. While there was a tail wind, the sun was also out in full force turning people into crusty, salting looking pretzel like beings.
Anyway, on to the race.
After last year's race, I could have left well enough alone. I had such an awesome time. I PRed, met a lot of great people and it was really memorable. I wanted to come back, however, because most the girls I actually train with were planning on running this year. I wanted to run with them. While the whole crew didn't make it, the Rachels did (Rock and Rayk). We had someone of a loose plan to run together. My goal was under 3:38 which is the qualifying time for the NYC Marathon. I don't have any intentions of running NYC this year and have already qualified with a half, I just set this as a goal. My pal Barb joined in for the fun.
At the starting area, we couldn't find Rayk so Barb, Rock and myself headed over to the corrals. It was brisk at the start, some gusting wind but not cold.
We lined up and the wait wasn't very long, before we knew it we were heading down hill towards Boston.
Part of what makes Boston tough is while it has a net elevation loss, most of that is in the first half. It is mostly down hill until mile 16 where the Newton HIlls start, culminating with Heartbreak hill which is around mile 20. If you run that first half too fast, which is easy to do, you will have more than a broken heart at mile 20. (elevation chart)
I started off feeling pretty good but not OH MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE MY DAY. We were steadily ticking off the miles and came through the first 5k in 26:21, 8:28 pace. A little slower than target but I'd rather have a slow start.
At mile 5, I checked in with Barb, she said she was a little tired. Not a good sign at mile 5.
The thing about running races together for me is there has to be a commitment...to leave each other. I want to know going into it everyone is going to be ok with that because when the time comes, it's hard. Doing the leaving and being left and I've done both. By mile 6, Barb had faded behind Rock and I and I took my first gel.
10k time 51:49 8:21 pace. We had taken back some time but we were still a little behind pace.
I was still feeling good. The sun was strong for sure. This tail wind everyone talked about I really only noticed when a wave of rogue empty cups would swarm us from behind.
We hit the 15k mark (1:17:36 8:19 pace) picking up a bit more time. I remember 15k because they have a big crew of photographers taking official race photos hanging over the course. We were also going to see Rock's mom, stepdad, and girlfriend at mile 10. Knowing where people are going to be really helps. Sure enough, mile 10, there they were.
Coming up on mile 11, we found Rayk. She said everything hurt and she didn't think she'd stay with us. At mile 11, we saw another cheer squad: Sandi, Rayk's girlfriend and a bunch of our other NYC running girls (sorry girls, I can't remember everyone who was there, I just remember Sandi in that Gay Vest). I think Rayk was with us for about a mile.
Next up: Wellesley. Which means the Wellesley Scream tunnel. Which means hundreds of girls screaming holding signs of every variety saying KISS ME. There are so many cool traditions about Boston that I love. Clearly, this one is close to the top. Not just because of the invitation to kiss college aged girls (no really) but because for a half mile leading up to the fray, you can hear them screaming. Long before you can see them. And it's awesome. It just before half way and it's such a motivator. As Rock and I ran through, I spotted a "kiss me I'm a vegetarian" sign and went over and happily obliged.
Shortly after, we hit the half way point (1:49:03 8:19 pace) Still holding on right around pace.
It was now noon and the sun was high in the sky and after this point, I would begin to slow down. Interestingly, it was subtle. Last year I remember struggling at the start of the hills but seeing friends cheering and it gave me a boost. I was hoping for the same. I knew we were going to see Rock's people again so I was looking forward to that. Around mile 16 we did. We knew we were falling off the sub 3:38 goal so we went to plan B sub 3:40. That would still be good enough for a PR for me and also requalify me for next year.
25k 2:09:49 8:21 pace, still not bad.
And now ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to the Newton HIlls. Please leave your quads at the mile 16 marker, they will be returned to you at the finish line the form of hamburger. While none of these hills are terribly hard, string them all together this late in a marathon and you've got some pain coming your way.
Rock and I were still together, though she lingered a little longer at family visit #2. I was hoping she was up for what was coming. At mile 17, I knew we were off pace. I took my pace band off and threw it. It was just going to drive me nuts. We were still on for plan B. About a mile later, Rock started drifting a few steps behind me. I turned my head and gave her some encouragement. Somewhere in mile 18 I think she said something to me and she faded back. That kinda sucked. I was hoping we would finish together. For about the next mile, I'd quickly look back to see if she was coming back to me.
30k 2:37:38 8:27 pace. Yup, giving time back to the hills.
Mile 19, ah what a sight for sore eyes. A bunch of Front Runner boys cheering like madmen when they saw me. So helpful. Zander, a marathon maniac (make that lunatic) excitedly jumped in with me for a few steps to make sure I was ok. About a minute later, my friend Susan jumped out of the crowd and ran me up the hill in mile 19, telling me how the boys we knew in the race were doing and updating me on the texting marathon she and Loren were having. At this point I was glad someone was talking to me but I don't remember saying much back.
I knew after I crested that hill I had a small break before it came.
The hill.
The one this race is known for.
Ok, I'm being dramatic, I don't think Heartbreak Hill is that bad. It's not easy, it's just late in the race and seems endless. One good thing about it is it goes right through Boston College and the kids come out in force. Last year I could smell the beer. This year it was such a nice day, the crowds were huge and loud and really really helpful. THUMP THUMP THUMP was written on the road every few yards followed by a huge broken heart. At this point, I started singing the Mumford and Sons song this post is named for. Don't ask why. I have no idea, it was just going over and over in my head.
Steady steady up the hill. This is the last real hill on the course. I just had to get up this and then it would be downhill. At this point, however, my legs are shreaded and the downhill doesn't help much. I think somewhere in here I moved on to my C goal. Sub 3:45.
My friend Nolan got this shot of me at the top of Heartbreak. I got seriously ugly race face going on.

I asked her where this was and she told me "Mile 21, about 25 feet after you reach the top of heartbreak hill and realize your quads are somewhere back on mile 16. If had you looked good there, you weren't running fast enough..."
35k 3:06:16 8:33 pace
Hello D goal which was under 3:50 and would requalify me for next year. I have less than 5 miles to go now. I'm really gritting my teeth and digging deep. The crowd is just amazing. There are days when such a swarm of loud people can be maddening. This isn't one of them. I am totally feeding off their energy and using it to push myself to the finish. I take my 4th and finally gel.
Somewhere close to 24 miles, I see the girls cheering again. I think that's where it was. Really, I'm in brain blur mode. I'd look at my watch thinking several minutes had gone by and it was usually about 40 seconds.
40k 3:35:07 8:39 pace.
I am holding on, that sub 3:50 is within reach unless something serious happens. Never rule that out, there were people down and out in the last mile.
Leading up to mile 25, there is a sneaky overpass. You wouldn't think it's much until you have to run it at mile 25. The first year I came to Boston to cheer, I stood there for hours watching so I am very aware of that little hill. The nice this is I know shortly after, I will see the sign for ONE MILE TO GO.
The crowd noise is still carrying me.
In the distance I see this very tall thin woman I've seen at several races in the past and I make passing her my goal. This late in the race, it's the little things. I am so happy when I pass her.
Soon, this will all be over.
There is a running joke about the straightaway nature of Boston's course, that there are really only 2 turns and they're in the last half mile.
Right on Hereford, the left on Boylston.
Hitting Hereford, you're so close.
Hitting Boylston, you can see the finish. But man, it seems so far away.
I see the 26 mile mark painted on the street and dig dig dig for that finish line.
3:47:39 8:41 pace. Good enough to come back next year. Which I am not planning on doing, but nice to run the time.
I wander through the finish area, get wrapped in foil like a baked potato, get my medal, get my clothes so I can get out of these shoes. Call Loren, call my mom, look at all the text messages that have blown up my phone through out the day. Thanks everyone!
I make my way over to the family greeting area where I find Rock's posse. A few minutes later she joins me, having finished her first Boston.

Here are the results for my cast of characters:
Rock 4:04:28
Barb 3:48:11
Rayk 4:06:30
So a tough day out there for the Rachels. But hey, first time, it's not an easy course! And Barb with a lovely comeback!
I am so thrilled to have finished another Boston, While I didn't hit my time goal, I ran the best I could on the day and you can't ask for more than that.
Oh yea, we also raised $5341 for the Trevor Project, passing the $5000 goal. A huge thank you for everyone who donated! And a huge thank you for everyone's support during this training cycle.

These changes ain't changing me

2011-04-15T09:06:00.003-04:00

Radio silence over here leading up to the Boston Marathon. Sorry about that.
Ya know, I found a GREAT cure for Taper Madness. It's called planning a cross country move. It does wonders. Takes your mind right off that pesky 26.2 mile run coming up.
All my running has felt really good. I was very happy to see the taper this time around. I guess I really don't have a lot to say. I'm looking forward to going to Boston, seeing all my imaginary friends and hanging out with the Uptown Girls. Rayk and Rock are both making their Boston debuts so that is VERY exciting and a big part of the reason I'm running this year.
Just a couple of things:
-if you want to track me on Monday, my # is 16421 (tracking is at baa.org)
-We're so close to my (random) goal of $5000 for the Trevor project. There's still time to donate!
Support for this has been so amazing, I can't even tell you. Thanks to EVERYONE who has supported this!

Hello Hello San Francisco

2011-04-01T18:43:00.003-04:00

First another ticker update. My cardiologist wanted to do blood work on me even though I had just had it done in Nov. It turns out I'm a little low on magnesium which could be part of the issue. So now I'm taking that to see if it helps.
The last few days it's been much much better, really no fluttering at all. I'm thinking it was a combo of stress, low mag, and maybe a week of pushing too hard.
Now moving on o actually running. I've been in SF for the last week (more on that later) and wrapped up my last 20 miler with Barb, also know to the RWOL folks as BarBq. Nice to get that one out of the way, and run with someone else, and run somewhere else. Loren joined for the last 8. I felt like a total slug but it's done. I had a few other runs as well while I was out there.
Now I'm looking at my weekend which calls for a tune up race and a 16. Honestly, I'm thinking of blowing off the tune up. There's really no race to be had this weekend and I'm tired from all the stress of travel and...
the fact that we're moving to San Francisco. I mentioned this somewhere else today and someone called shenanagins due to the date, but it's true. We're packing up and heading west. I kept it kinda quiet until we found a place to live which was what this trip was all about. And we did! I'm very excited and freaked out at the same time.
This all comes while I'm getting ready for that little race in Boston so...it's stressful.
Anyhoo, I don't think blowing of a tune up which I'd end up doing on my own as a tempo is going to make or break anything with a little over 2 weeks to go. We'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow.
WOOOHOOOO!!!

unbreak my heart

2011-03-23T10:40:00.003-04:00

Here's the update on Ye Ole Ticker.
It's fine.
I wore my bomb for 24 hours. While it looked like I was having an irregular beat a bit higher than the DRs liked, after a stress test and another EKG, it looks fine. They don't know what causes it and it might come and go. I could go on beta blockers but with my running, she really doesn't want to go that route and neither do I. I'm having blood work done to get out my thyroid though I just had that done in Nov.
So...that's that. After 3 days of not running (which in these weeks leading up to Boston has felt like forever) I'm cleared to hit the road again. WOOHOO just in time for CRAPPY weather.
Oh and hello, who invented that stress test thing? How the hell you suppose to do that without a bra?

I know that it's a heartquake

2011-03-21T12:37:00.002-04:00

There will be bonus points for getting the title of this post.
NO GOOGLING
So last week, it was a tough week. I think I packed too much in without enough recovery, something that I honestly rarely do. I tend to err on the side of a lot of recovery.
Because I'm lazy.
Ok, no really, I don't want to get hurt and the older I get the more I see how important recovery is.
For a while now, I've had this weird fluttering in my chest. Initially I thought it might have been some dehydration. Still possible. It comes and goes. After last week, it came and stayed. My resting HR has been a little high so I'm sure that could be some over training. Boston is 4 weeks away and boy am I ready. Hitchcock and I pretty much ran our long run on Sat. threatening each other so we'd get through it. After that run, I decided 2 days off. No running at all. I also decided to go see my Dr cause why not.
I really like my Dr. He's curious about things and tend to go on the side of less is more which I find refreshing.
They hooked me up to an ECG to see what was up with my ticker. It's true, my resting heart rate is higher than it's been on my last few doctor visits. When he asked me to describe what it felt like, I told him it felt like my heart was skipping a beat. He looked at his computer and said, well, that's because it is. He showed me the read out and yup, there it is! WEIRD.
It also feels weird. He went to talk to the cardiologist in his office. She, too, thought it was a little odd but not serious. Mostly odd because they don't know why it's happening.
Now I'm hooked up to a heart rate monitor for the next 24 hours. This thing is RIDICULOUS. Just imagine running with one of these instead of the nice Garmins we all have. As the nurse was hooking it up, she told me to tuck all the wires in my pocket so people wouldn't think I had a bomb. I love post 9/11 thinking.
In short, he doesn't think it's anything serious and prob. can't do anything about it but it's annoying.
I will update after they remove this contraption.

`cause down the shore everything's all right

2011-03-13T18:36:00.002-04:00

I have been tardy in my blogging. So much to report!
Recap of the last 2 weeks of running:
Week before last RayK and I headed out for what most people following Pfitz marathon plans dread: the long run with marathon pace miles. This time it was 15 miles with 12 at MP. I was hoping for 8:20 pace for the MP portion. We ended up averaging 8:10s. And I felt great. Yes, it was a tough workout that one always is but I don't think I killed myself. It felt comfortably hard.
Last weekend, Loren and I headed to FL to surprise her dad for his 70th bday. I got in a 10 miler and a 6 miler. IN SHORTS. That was very very nice. We also hit the FL highpoint at a whopping 345 feet. That brought my total to 30, Loren's to 32.

This week's running called for high milage (for me). I ran my 20 earlier in the week so I could do a tune up race today. 20 miles on River Road. I usually ride river road from my house, it's a nice 26 miles loop. When I run it, it's an out and back. With hills. A lot of hills. Long hills. almost 2300' of hills. Up and down which is good, but it is a TOUGH run. I was cooked for a few days after. Did a recovery run with the dog the day after. Man oh man.
This had me concerned about today's race. Loren, Bea and I ran 5 yesterday and I felt ok. A little dead in the legs.
Yesterday afternoon, I took the train to Asbury Park to meet my long time friends Paul and Frank who have a place out there and were kind enough to put me up and hang out with me. Paul and I went to get my number yesterday and it was windy. I was concerned about that. And the weird course: 4 loops covering boardwalk, road, and um, marble flooring. On the course, we ran though the convention center and a falling apart casino. I would certainly say this was the most interesting course I've run.
Before going to bed last night, I was bellyaching to Loren about my tired legs, the wind, the weird course, what was I thinking? She told me to put the p***y away and run hard. She gives the best pep talks.
I got up this morning, ate, and paul brought me over to the start. It was about 40, a nice temp, but yes there was wind. My hat flew off in the first quarter mile.
Mile 1 7:39 well look at that, perfectly paced
Mile 2 7:42 I had fallen in step with a guy between mile 2 and 3. He asked me my goal and I said sub 1:40. He told me his was sub 1:50. I shot him a look and said well you're way ahead of that!
Mile 3 7:25 wind sorta at my back and on the boardwalk, getting ready to run through the convention hall for the first time. End of lap 1.
Mile 4 7:42
Mile 5 7:40
Ok, I know I saw mile markers 6-8, though not when I RAN miles 6-8. No lie, I think they blew away. Still with my pal, I think his name was Mike. He was pretty sure I was one of the lead woman and I just laughed. I was like, no way. I know at least 10 women are ahead of me.
miles 6-8 23:04
Coming up on loop 3.
Mile 9 7:34. I was running the longer portion of the boardwalk well but then once through the convention center the wind would pick up. UGH
Mile 10 7:41
And here, ladies and gentlemen, is when I lost my sub 1:40. Mile 11 because of the wind tunnel from hell. It had picked up so much I felt like I was being pushed back. I know there's nothing I could have done about it. I was running my ass off, even tucking behind Mike when I could and it just didn't matter.
Mile 11 8:11. That is just so terrible. I was so mad. And then, ya know, I'm trying to do math (I don't recommend this this late in a race. It's just not good for you.) So I knew the sub 1:40 was gone unless I pulled a seriously miracle out of my ass. Unlikely. But I could still PR.
Mile 12 7:45 Last long straightaway on the boards and through the building, the finish was right beyond that.
Mile 13 7:39 Just like I started with! This wasn't pretty, I could feel the drool on my face.
.1 44 seconds
Finish 1:40:53
OH WINDY MILE 11 I CURSE THEE!!!
Mike finished just ahead of me, I went over to him, gave him a big hug and said sub 1:50 my ass. He was thrilled, telling me he coached HS XC and doesn't race much any more. So good for you Mike!!
There is some good news:
1. The race was won by a woman. I love it when that happens. She ran 5:54 pace (1:17:26) and beat the first guy by 30 seconds.
2. I PRed
3. I qualified for next year's NYC marathon. No more 9+1 for me. Take that NYRRs!!!
4. This capped off a 48+ mile week
and the stats:
20/188 women 5/59 age group (40-49) 5/77 master (over 40) 83/416 over all.
I'd say at the end of a tough week, this is an awesome result.
5 weeks until Boston! Who's excited?

Hey when she moves When she moves When she moves like she runs

2011-02-28T09:59:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I capped off my highest milage running week in 2 years. A whopping 46.2 miles. While I know to a lot of you, that's not a lot but with the nagging plantar fasciitis I've had for the last couple of years, I haven't been able to handle the higher milage stuff. Plus, after PRing in Boston last year with a peak week around 45 miles, I'm not sure I need to go up anywhere crazy (I think my highest milage week ever was when I was training for NJ and that was 60 miles). Yes, I know there are people out there who preach you're not going to get faster unless you RUN MORE. I think you're not going to get faster unless you figure out WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. RIght now, this is working for me and I do not want to run the risk of that horrible pain in my foot coming back. I've been keeping it mostly at bay, a nag here and there, but upping my over all strength seems to have really helped.

This weekend was a mix of running and socializing with runners. A lot. Long run on Sat with the gang of uptown girls and Ms. Bea who ran a personal distance of 8 miles. I ran 18. After, there was a big tired love fest.
She was TIRED after her run but loved it. She (with the help of Loren) has been coming along for part of my long runs and really loves running with a pack.
Sat. night I went to Dessert Wars, a fundraiser for The Boston Arts Academy, the charity my pal Rayk is running Boston for.
I intentionally did my 18 miler before going to this event, as there were close to 40 desserts to try. I will be detoxing for weeks.
Sunday, Loren and I headed to The Armory for the Heps, which is the Ivy League championships. We went to a pre-meet breakfast with Cornell (Loren's school) alums and stayed to watch the meet. While by nature, track meets are boring, there were some exciting races. Most notably, the women's 4x800 relay. Princeton set a league record running it in 8:43:16. Really, the most amazing moment of the day was watching Kate Grace, a senior from Yale and their anchor, take her team from 7th place (and a good 50 yards back on the track) to 3rd over all. She ran a 2:03 800. For those of you who don't know anything about times, that is FAST. Really fast, esp. in a relay. It was 2 seconds faster than the individual 800 that she ran and also won.
Another moment I enjoyed off the track was watching Loren give the winners of the mile and the 800 their awards. They announced the presenter "Loren Mooney winner of this event in 1993" when she presented for the mile. When she came back to her seat I said "most those girls weren't even born when you won this event, they're looking at you like you're some old lady". Over all, it was pretty fun.
After, I came home for my slow recovery run and then had an evening of Oscars.
This week's milage should be about last week's, maybe a hair less. Here's to continuing a strong training cycle.

I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb

2011-02-21T09:44:00.003-05:00

Here's the recap of yesterday's Cherry Tree 10 miler. I've done this race before and it's a great event, but man has it grown over the years! And gotten very competitive. The first time Loren and I did it, it was as a relay. I don't even remember what year it was. It was a small field, made up mostly of people doing the relay. We won the women's division. There were maybe 5 women's teams. There's also the option of doing the entire 10 miles solo, what they call the "race of the hardcore". The race is 3 loops of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. I tried to find a better elevation map, but this will have to do. You get the idea of the hills. They're not terrible, but ya know, they're there.
This year's race saw a pretty big field (106 relay teams, 3 to a team) and 802 "hardcore" 10 milers. There were some fast times as well-first male 53:53 and the first female 1:00:05.
Yea, I was no where near that.
My goals for this race were to run strong and PR. I was planning on perhaps 7:45 as a pace. Just an FYI from my last post, I went with my DS trainers. I had only done 1 run in my Mirages and only 4 miles. I didn't think that was enough to go out and race a 10 miler with.
Here are the splits:
1 7:29
2 8:09
3 7:36
4 7:22
5 7:51
6 7:57
7 7:33
8 7:54
9 8:10
10 7:28
Total 1:17:35 (just about 7:45 pace)
PR of close to 2 minutes.
Can you guess where the hills where?
This race has a tricky start. It's very easy to go out way too fast because it starts on a big down hill and everyone starts together. I didn't want to get sucked into running as fast as the relay people or blowing down the downhill. I noticed I was doing a bit of both so I eased up a bit. I also knew the hill would becoming before the end of mile 2 so I wanted to be in a nice rhythm by then.
I fell into step with someone where the familiar Front Runner jersey and we ran together. I'm embarrassed to admit it took me about a mile to realize I actually knew this person, Michael. We ran together, mostly in silence. I'd call out the splits every mile and if I'd lag, he'd look back to make sure I was staying with him. I felt like I was running an even effort, perhaps picking it up on the downhills.
One cool thing about running the whole 10 miles is you pass the transition area twice. Each time, the energy level is really high as runners head in for the hand off and the next wave starts with a huge burst of energy. The 2nd time around, I said to Michael if sounded as if we were being chased by a stampede. the sound of oncoming footsteps was so loud.
One more time up the hill, then it's pretty much down hill to the finish, but the way the park curves, it feels like a looooong mile. I just focused on pushing and glanced at my watch to see where I was. Under 1:18 was pretty much in the bag, and I was happy about that. Michael and I crossed the line together.

(thanks to Dave for the photo!)
Oh yea, this was also my first race as a master and was good enough for 3rd place in my new AG.
In other news, this was Loren's first 10 miler. I swear, she sandbags even when she doesn't mean to. She never expects to run as fast as she does. Just pin a number on her and off she goes. She ran 1:09:11 (6:55 pace) and won her AG by a minute. I have to enjoy these few months I have until she joins me in the 40s.

In these shoes? I doubt you'd survive

2011-02-17T09:29:00.002-05:00

Ah I love the smell of new shoes in the morning! Finding the right shoes however...
For years I was running in Asics 21XX series. Until they did something to the 2150s that, well, I just could not forgive them for. Why do shoe companies do that? Such a huge change. I went through 1 pair and they sucked. To add insult to injury, my marathon shoe of choice was the Asics DS trainer. The up dated version also had changes, so I never even when there with the 15. Luckily, right before Boston last year, I found a pair of 14s and have been carefully NOT running too much in them incase I want to run Boston in them this year as well (they have less than 200 miles on them).
Since the new Asics sucked, I moved to Brooks Adrenalines which I've been totally happy with as a trainer, though I want something a bit lighter to race in. With my problems with PF and some flattish feet, I need a bit of support in my shoes. I've had super feet insoles and they've worked great. Adding more strength training to my routine I believe has also helped my issues. I've heard rave reviews about the Kinvara but just didn't want to risk going to a neutral shoe. I've also heard they're good up until mile 20 of a marathon. I want something good up until mile 26.2 of a marathon. So now Saucony has introduced the Mirage, in the same family but with a little bit of support. I just got a pair of these and I'm itching to take them out. They'll go on a recovery run today and hopefully I will race the Cherry Tree 10 miler in them on Sunday. I will report back.

Speaking of 10 miler, since I'm racing this weekend, I've rearranged my running a bit. On Sat, I did my long run on 16 then yesterday I did 17 so I'd have time to recover and be able to race on Sunday and not have to worry about getting the long run in.
While that's a little closer than I'd normally want my long runs to be, I felt pretty good. The pace was about the same for both and I've had minimal pain.
So yes, I'm doing a 10 miler on Sun. I really like this distance and it's too bad there are so few 10 mile races. This course is 3 loops of Prospect Park in Brooklyn which is fairly rolling with a big up hill and a big down hill. It will be my first race as a master and I am hoping to PR.

In other news, anyone even slightly interested in running has by now heard of the Boston Marathon changing it's registration process and qualifying times. While slightly confusing for 2012-13, I think it's pretty much the best they could do. What does this mean for me? (since this is all about ME!) well, nothing really, since I don't think I'm going to run Boston again (for a while anyway) but hypothetically, it means for next year, I would need to run a 3:50, but if I ran my goal time of sub 3:40, I'd be able to sign up earlier. For 2013, my qualifying time goes back to 3:45 which is what it was when I first qualified. But like I said, I don't have any plans on going it after this year.

And lastly, last week I posted about raising money for The Trevor Project. The response so far has been GREAT. In one week, we've raised over $2200! We also got a shout out on The Trevor Project's Facebook. Thanks to all of you who donated and the donation site will be up until Boston.

Money, that's what I want.

2011-02-09T14:54:00.003-05:00

Back in October, I wrote about going over the George Washington bridge and the suicide prevention signs that had been posted on the walk way. Registration for the Boston Marathon was also around that time. On that bike ride, I hatched the idea of running the Boston marathon for The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project runs a 24/7 suicide prevention hotline aimed at helping LGBT kids, who are FOUR TIMES more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. Yes, four times.

I came up with this idea to raise money for the work The Trevor Project does and to hopefully be an example for younger LGBT people. I have also asked other LGBT runners running Boston to help me so this is a group effort. We all want to make a difference.

All of us running would be running anyway. We are all qualified for Boston and we are all paying our own way to get there. Other than the service fee Crowdrise charges (if you donate through them) all the money will be going directly to The Trevor Project.
So I am asking you to join us and make a donation to The Trevor Project. Just follow the link.
If you are running Boston and would like to join the fundraising team (you don't even have to be gay!) please let me know.

Finally, I want to share the "It's Gets Better" video made by Front Runners New York, NY's LGBT running club. The club has been around for more than 30 years and I started running with them in 1999. Here members (some of whom will be running with me in Boston!) talk about coming out, growing up, and why life does get better.

Land of the Lost

2011-02-06T10:56:00.003-05:00

I'm baaaaack!
As earlier noted, I was slatted to start Pfitz 12/55 for Boston on 1/24. I had been having some strong running weeks leading up to that, except for getting sick right after my birthday. The only really issue with starting my plan on 1/24 was, and I know this is a totally hardship, I was going to be in Hawaii.
I'll pass for a minute so you can all really grasp the difficulty in this.

Ok. I think we're all ready to move forward. I, of course, had every intention of running while in HI since it would be warm and I could wear just 1 layer. And I did run. A totally of 11 miles.
The day we got there, it was late. We stayed in some dumpy hotel in Kona and I figured we'd be up early with jetlag and get a run in. Sure enough, I was up at 5 and we were out before the sun was up. We weren't alone. HI is the land of run before the sun is up (for sane people anyway). Kona is also the land of Ironman and even in Jan. full of fit people working out. We saw a lot of people out running at that hour. We'd also see lots of people out riding on the Queen K, the highway where the bike portion on the Ironman is. Thing about that road is: 1. it's not pretty 2. it's hotter than HELL 3. it's windy. I wouldn't want to ride on it. Which leads to the usual question: If I ever (HA!) qualified for Kona, would I do the race. I've never had any desire to. I also have no realistic shot of ever getting in so it's not a serious concern. I think it's safe to say I'd pass on that race. The town of Kona was not at all impressive. It's like a bad touristy Jersey beach town. No thanks!
Anyhooo... So Loren and I did have a great 6 mile run with the sun coming up and yes, I was in shorts. That part was great.
Later that day, one of the BQ Babes, Wes, who lives on Oahu, flew over to spend the day with us. That was awesome! Thanks for coming over Wes.
We spent that night camping on the beach which is a great thing about HI. There are tons on campgrounds on the beach and they're super cheap.
The next morning, we got up just before sunrise to start our trek up Muana Kea , the high point of HI and the biggest mountain in the world. At 13796' feet, we had a long day ahead of us. We stared with our feet in the ocean than drove to the Visitor's center at about 9000' where we would hike to the top. The hike is about 6 miles and gains over 4500'. Not an easy day, esp. since we've been at sea level and weren't acclimated to any kind of elevation.
It was a tough hike. It was steep, lots of lava rocks, and a snow field. It took us over 4 hours to get to the top. The nice thing, however, is people drive up in jeeps and other 4 wheel drive vehicles and from time to time you'll see a rogue rental car though I would not want to take the chance on the road leading up to the top.
Once we hit the summit, we decided we'd try to hitch a ride back down. Hitching is fairly common in HI, though it's not fairly common in the mind of american tourists. The first 2 cars drive by and just waved at us, sort as they had done when the passed us on the road in the last mile of the hike. Then a jeep pulled over. And driving said jeep: a German tourist. I have a theory which has proven to be true for both Loren and I. No matter where you are in the world, you will run into a German tourist. We shared this with our kind driver which he found surprising. Loren and I refer to ourselves as German tourist who happen to be american since we seem to share the same love of travel.
Once we got back to our car, we headed over to Hilo where we found a rather interesting place to stay for the night and my friend Sam from my Esalen days joined us for a sushi pig out. I was pooped from the hike.
The next morning, we again woke up early and did a recovery run. Later in the day, we headed to Volcano national park where we would spend the next few days backing packing to back country beaches.
It was some awesome hiking through some interesting conditions to some very remote beaches. We hiked 18 miles in the 2.5 days we were out there. It was great. I want to turn 40 every year.
So while I was short on the running, I did hike 24 miles, that has to count for something.
For pictures of our trip, check out here and here.

Once we returned to NY, i got back on track (mostly). I had a really good tempo run this year and an awesome 15 miler yesterday, so I'm not too worried about my 11 mile week.

Fools and horses Running their courses

2011-01-21T18:07:00.002-05:00

My first week as a master is not going at all like I planned.
I turned 40 last week. For my birthday, I did a birthday triathlon that consisted of a run, a trip the Russian Baths, and sushi. I did this last year as well and it's a great time. I get to do things I love with people I love.
One down side this year: Loren got terribly sick and missed the whole thing. And upside: my BFF Tracy surprised me at dinner, which was awesome. She lives in Philly so we don't see each other all that much. The day after my birthday, however, I too got sick. BOOOO.
I missed 4 days of running. Not that big of a deal, but ya know let's be honest. Runners are addicts. At least I am anyway. I don't like to miss my runs.
I was getting back on track this week, running with Loren and the dog a couple of times.
This weekend is the Manhattan Half, the first in a series of halfs in NYC, one in each borough. For a while now I've had plans for this race, plans I've kept in my head until now.
1. have this be my first race as a master
2 run the qualifying time for the NYC marathon, which is sub 1:44.
WEll...
these things may not happen. I'm feeling like crap again. I've run sub 1:44 before though I'm not really in shape for it. Before getting sick, I as prob. right on the edge of that. I was getting my milage up and starting to do speedwork again. Tomorrow's weather at race time is 15 degrees with a windchill of 1. I'm not too worried about that. in 2008, the race had similar conditions and I PRed. My hair also completely froze.
What's making me really think about just sleeping in is we're leaving for Hawaii on monday to climb Mauna Kea . Yes! The high point of Hawaii!!! This trip is more important than a race I'm really not in shape to race the way I want to.
I do, however, have a hard time letting go of races I've signed up for. I don't know why. If I feel like crap in the am but feel better later in the day, I can still go out and get a long run in. I guess I feel like I'm missing the jump start to my Boston training, even though I know there's nothing I can do about getting sick.
I just keep telling myself my first week of training will be done in Hawaii. And will be done in shorts.

I'll be coming home next year

2010-12-31T11:16:00.003-05:00

Ah yes, the last day of the year when bloggers/facebookers/tweeters/number FREAKS start talking stats.
Well, mine are low compared to years past. I knew they would be but I was surprised by how much.
This year, I ran 1057 miles. That's almost 500 miles less that last year.
I rode 1010 miles and swam 27 miles in my half baked return to triathlons.
There are several reasons for the lower milage. I stopped marathon training and longer running after Boston as I knew I wasn't doing any big fall racing. I was still struggling with the naggin PF. Loren and I had a lot of hiking planned.
So let's review some high lights shall we?
Shamrock Half 1:41:18 PR while the sub 1:40 still eludes me, I'm really close and think 2011 might be the year.
Boston Marathon 3:41:07 PR BQ My first real shot at sub 3:40 and a BQ. I'm aging up so as things now with the BAA, I need a 3:50. We'll see how that changes going forward, though I don't plan on running Boston again for a while after 2011.
On the high pointing front, it was a hugely successful year, one which I don't think we'll be able to out do. We hit 17 high points brining my total to 28 and Loren's to 31. Oh and Ms Bea now has 7. In this quest, we ascended 40,220' (this number includes La Plata, which is not a state high point but is the 5th highest peak in CO at 14,336' and is a tougher hike than it's neighbor Mt Elbert which is CO high point). We did 2 winter climbs Mt Marcy in NY and Mt Mansfield in VT. Winter hiking is an amazing thing. These were my first 2 serious winter climbs and I loved every minute of it, even that brief time when I was bonking on Marcy.
We've seen amazing, beautiful, odd, parts of the US that most people never see and/or never think about. Some serious true America. This country is beautiful and amazing. Nature is one of the few places I know of where I can go out and meet someone I know has values and ideas that could not be more opposite than mine and yet that does not matter because we have (literally) this enormous common ground. When your 20 miles out from anything, your life may also depend on a stranger on the trail with you, political difference mean little in such situations.

So what does 2011 look like? Well here are my goals:
sub 1:40 in the half. I don't know which half yet
sub 3:40 in Boston (this is all starting to sound a bit familiar)
Sub 13 hour Ironman. I haven't done an Ironman since 2004. I think I am a much better athlete now so this should be interesting.
Summit Mauna Kea the high point of HI. I'm turning 40 in a few weeks so this will be my birthday present. While I won't be there for my actual birthday, Loren and I are planning for late Jan.
Summit Mt Rainer the high point of WA. Still working on when this will be as the climbing season is short but this is very exciting.
See what other high points we throw in there.

I think that about wraps it up. Thanks for following along this year and I wish all of you a Happy New Year.

I might be old but I'm someone new she said

2010-12-19T16:47:00.003-05:00

As you might remember, last week, I ran a 15k in Van Corlandt park. It was wet, windy and wild. It wasn't a great run, but all things considered...
I also knew I'd be doing it again this week though in the friendlier Central Park. There was almost no chance the weather would repeat itself. Plus it wouldn't be on trails and mud even if it did rain/snow/ blow a house in my direction.
At the start, it was just about freezing, which is actually a nice temp. to run in.
I started running with old pal Megan. I knew I wanted to run faster than last week's 1:23:40 which, come on, shouldn't be hard. I told Megan I was looking to go somewhere between 8:30s-8:45. Just sorta a longish run a bit faster than a long run. Megan hasn't run that far since the NYC Marathon back in Nov.
Well weren't we just running and chatting. When I looked at my watch, I was surprised by the pace. It was hovering around 8 minute pace and didn't feel hard. This wasn't a goal race by any means so it was nice to run this way, chat through the miles and enjoy the morning.
Megan told me she wanted to finish fast and would pick it up at mile 6. I was quite content to stay right where I was, so off she went.
As she was leaving me, my long time friend and sometime coach Kelsey came by. He was out on a longish run as he gets ready to run his first Boston (fear not Kelsey, you're going to run through this winter!!!). Kelsey is a sub 3 hour marathoner so my pace was no problem for him. We spent the last 3 miles catching up and chatting. Just after mile 8, we saw Loren out running with Bea.
We came through the finish together.
This week: 1:15:59 about 8:09 pace.
I admit, I was surprised. I ran a 10k 2 weeks ago at 8:15 pace that felt a lot harder. This does tell me, however, I'm going into my Boston training pretty fit. Of course with my history of plantar fasciitis I do worry about it rearing it's ugly head (and painful heel) again. Loren and I have made a serious effort to do strength training for the last few weeks. Things that strengthen the core and hips and things that are generally weak with runners. After just a few sessions, I'm noticing a difference. Fingers crossed this is the piece that's been missing.
This will be my last race for the year. This will also be my last race (barring me getting some crazy idea in my head) as an open runner. Gulp. Yes, in a few week's time, I'll be debuting as a master. Fear not, however, I plan on staying the same immature jackass I've always been!

Against the wind

2010-12-12T19:35:00.003-05:00

While getting back into shape, I've pinned on a number and run a few "races" the last 2 weeks. Last week was mostly so I'd get some speed work in. Look, I know I'm not in shape. No where near it. I had also just returned from my winter hiking trip which covered about 22 miles and 5000' or so of ascending and descending a couple of New England mountains that were frozen and snow covered, in 2 days.
Last week was a 10k that I ran with my pals Ishii and Rock. It actually went much better than I expected. 51:21 which is about 8:15 pace. So semi-tempo for right now.
This week however, oh this week was something special indeed. I've mentioned running cross country in Van Cortlandt park about a million times here. Well, every year, they end the season with a gift to all of us dirt devils: The Pete McArdle Cross Country Classic. Now in it's 49th year, this 15k race takes us on 3 lovely loops of the 5k course.
There are a few reasons I wanted to do this race:
1. I love it. It's crazy.
2. I really really really like 15k as a distance and it's just not a distance that's run often.
3. 15k is a nice build up for me milage wise. I don't think I've run even close to this far in months.
4. It started at 11:30 am
Now if this course isn't hard enough just on it's own, Mother Nature decided to pin a number on and come along this year. It was pouring off and on. Like sideways pouring. And it was sideways pouring because there was wind gusting up to about 30MPH.
The course is 3 loops, half hills in the woods, half flat flat flat straightaways.
Due to construction in the park, the start this year was a bit different. Instead of a nice fast straight on a lovely groomed path, we ran straight across a soggy soggy, like geese swimming in the grass soggy field. This wasn't too bad since once we hit that flat flat flat straightway, we were smacked in the face with the 30mph wind. It was relentless.
Every lap.
There's a lovely down hill that takes us out of the woods to the flats. Usually I look forward to this. I'm a good downhill runner and look forward to making up some time in the flats.
Nope.
Nothing.
I was climbing the hills faster than I was running the flats. It was so strong you couldn't hear the person next to you, it was pulling drool out of my mouth. Such a good look. There was a reprieve for maybe a quarter mile leading back to the woods.
All things considered, I felt pretty good. I ran consistently though not fast AT ALL (1:23:40). Like 10 minutes slower than I've run 15k. Ok, yes, I know I'm not in shape, but times here were soft (first woman 1:14) though I do not think for lack of trying. I now feel like I had my ass seriously kicked.
In the end, it's all about who shows up. And today, not a lot of people showed up but the 165 who did earned their stripes. Holy crap, and those volunteers, oh man, what a great group. And or course a special thanks to Loren and Rayk who came out and did their own run while we were racing and cheered us all on.
My showing up was good for 2nd in my age group and 10th woman over all.
Lucky for me, I get to do the distance again next week, though in Central Park. That will be a cake walk compared to today.
Take a look at some photos of the race.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-06T11:29:00.005-05:00

In late 2003, Loren and I planned on hiking Mt Marcy, the high point of NY. This trip never happened thanks to an insane blizzard. On the high point list, she had already done NY and I was missing it. Somewhere in my mind was the thought that I wanted to do it as a winter hike. Partially because I didn't get to do it when we first planned on it and partially because there are other mountains that are high points that require winter like skills, such as Mt Rainer, Mt Hood, and of course, Denali.
Mt Mansfield, the high point of VT isn't far from Marcy, so we decided on a double header.
Luckily with our schedules right now we can be flexible, which is a very good thing. We had planned on going the day after Thanksgiving. After keeping a close eye on the summit forcasts, we decided that 90 mile an hour winds with windchill of -20 just wasn't an option so we postponed the trip. For the next week, we watched and watched and watched until we found a window. Thurs and Fri we'd have air temps in the low teens with a wind chill of about 0 or maybe -2. PERFECT! (did I just say that?)
We drove up to Burlington on Wed. in the pouring rain. The entire way. We stayed with an old Esalen pal of mine for the night.
Thurs. morning, we headed to Stowe for the hike up Mansfield. There's a big difference between East coast and Western mountains. Western mountains are huge. They're high but generally have nice winding trails. East coast mountains are not very high (Mansfield tops out at 4393', Marcy 5244') but they are steep and rocky. The hike to the summit of Mansfield gains 2800' in 2.3 miles. It took us 6 hours to get up and back down, so do the math: less than a mile an hour.
What's also nice about East coast mountains are east coasters are crazy. About 1.8 miles up there trail (the Long Trail for those interested in the route), there's a lodge. And not a small one. 30 people could easily sleep in the bunkbed like platforms. I know in the summer it's gets a lot of use, but it does not sit empty in the winter either. People hike up the mountain all winter long, some of them then skiing back down the slopes of Stowe. We took off our spikes on the big porch (yup, spikes. The trail was pretty much a frozen stream bed) and sat inside for some tea and a snack before the last push up.
At the lodge, the trail splits giving one the option to stay in the nice warm protection of the trees for the last half mile. This is an option we took since it was very windy out of the tree line. Of course, there is a trade off for this. The trail, aptly called Profanity Trail, goes straight up and at times requires use of both hands and (spiked) feet.

Coming down it is no picnic either. I think we both fell at least twice.
Once above tree line, the weather changed dramatically. No more trees to protect us from the -0 windchill. This is not something you want to linger in, so we scurried to the summit, snapped some photos and got the hell outa there.

Once we hiked out and back to the car, we stopped at the Ben and Jerry's factory to refuel. Yes, it's winter and below freezing, but come on, how can I say no to ice cream?
Then on to NY. It was about a 3 hour drive and we arrived at the Adirondak Loj at about 8:30 pm. The loj has been there since 1890 (see? East coasters-CRAZY) and has a sign that says something like "hospitality since 1882". For the winter they keep half the camp ground open. Loren and I found a lovely lean to, pitched the tent inside and crawled into our 0 degree sleeping bags. It was about 25 degrees out so we were totally toasty.
We were the only ones camping.
The alarm went off at 5am. We were up, did camp chores and hit the trail head, with headlamps on, at 6:30.
The Van Hoevenberg trail to the summit is 14.8 miles round trip and gains 3200'. There was already snow on the ground and it fell lightly all day. After about 2.5 hours, we stopped for our first break. Right after, we had a tricky stream crossing. Luckily, we both made it with out soaking ourselves. If we had, it would have been grounds to turn around. No one wants to risk what would be 6 more hours with a frozen foot. Shortly after the stream, we put the spikes on.
We saw no one else on our way to the summit. We were following foot steps of someone, I assume a guy from the size of the foot prints, all the way up to the summit. He was alone and I thought about when he was there and what his accent was like. I also thought about the young man who has gone (what seems to be intentionally) missing the week before. While search parties were sent out searching, the only sign of him to turn up was his jacket at the Marcy Dam campground , 2 miles up the trail.
As we got to the sign indicating the summit was .6 miles away, we stepped out of the trees. Like in VT, the wind picked up and every thing was frozen and covered in rime ice. The trail blazed in yellow blocks of paint on this point of the trail, were almost impossible to find as most of the rocks they were painted on were covered in snow and ice. We relied on the large stone cairns hikers build for each other so the trail can be found. Those too, were covered in ice and snow but still visible.
It was a very steep climb up what was pretty much a sheet of ice.

Here's Loren on the last stretch. Snow shoes are required if there is more than 8' of snow. Since we didn't know what trail conditions were like that high up, we both had to carry our snow shoes which never left our packs. A Cairn is off to her left.
It didn't feel as cold on top of Marcy, but we didn't linger. Getting to the top is only half way. We still had 7.4 miles to negotiate back down.

I did climb on top of this rock slab to try and find the actual USGA marker but with no luck, it's under snow.
We hustled back down the mountain faster than we went up, going ass over tea kettle once or twice.
As we got about 4 miles down the trail, I was getting pretty tired. My feet hurt from walking on rocks for 2 days, in truth (yes Loren, I believe you were right) I may have been bonking a little. We stopped at Marcy Dam sat in a lean to and had a snack. I felt so much better. We covered the last 2.1 miles in about an hour. Over all, it took us 9 hours.
Once we returned to the trail head, wet shoes/socks and gaters were removed and we packed up all our gear.
2 more high points for me, brining my total to 26. More than half way there!
Just a few things about this sort of hiking:
1. yes it's cold, but your body will generate a lot of heat doing this sorta thing.
2. yes, it can be dangerous. Very. You slip and break your leg out there, you can be in serious trouble.
3. Wanna try it? Take a winter camping/hiking class or pal up to someone with some experience. Try something easy at first.
4. Invest in good equipment. It could, with out exaggeration, save your life.
5. Don't do anything stupid!
More pictures can be seen >here starting with 131.

Just a half a mile from the railroad track

2010-11-26T10:05:00.006-05:00

As runners across the country know, Thanksgiving is about more than just eating and wearing pants with elastic waist bands. Thanksgiving is about Turkey Trots (not to be confused with runner's trots which may or may not occur during said turkey trots). This year in the Bronx, a new tradition was started with The Thanksgiving Marathon. This is a different kind of turkey trot. For one, it's a marathon. Or a half. Or a long 10k (6.5 miles to be exact). Another thing that sets it apart is it's free. No clocks. No bibs. No tshirts. No qualifying times. Pretty much, you show up and you run. When you finish you get a fork on a ribbon with "Thanksgiving 10k (or what ever distance)" written in sharpie on the fork.
I love this. I love this idea. In an age where races are trying to be bigger and bigger and more and more expensive and closing with in minutes of opening up to a year before the event, it's awesome to show up, run as far as you feel like running, have someone put a fork around your neck when you finish, write your results in a notebook (yes, that is the official time keeping device), stuff a few bucks in a paper bag left by said notebook to cover costs, eat a banana, see familiar faces, and just have a good time.
The organizers of this race laid out a great course. While I run in Van Cortlandt park a lot, they went of the beaten paths to come up with their 6.5 mile loop. It was on a several trails I had never been on, a nice mix of hills and flats, and over all beautiful. A nice change form the usually courses up in the park.
Since this was a rather casual affair, I emailed the race director to see if my dog Bea could run the race. He replied very quickly saying yes, dogs were allowed on the trails and she was welcome to run.
WOOHOO! Bea's first race! We've been running with her since she's come to live with us and this fall we've been building her milage. She was easily running a little over 5 miles so I didn't think one loop of the course would be a stretch. The weather was cool, which is to her liking.
Loren and I wanted to make sure she wouldn't annoy other runners. There were also 2 other dogs running, one the half and one the 10k. I wasn't sure how she would be with the other dogs, it can be hit or miss. She spent the first half of the race trying to catch a female pittbull. When she finally did catch her (and left me in the dust) she just wanted to run with her. They ran the last 2 miles with each other. Being the loyal companion she is, with about a quarter mile to go, she waited for me. She had a great time, finishing the course in about 58 minutes. She even got a fork.

I'm really looking forward to more of these free, laid back "races", though I think I'll be skipping the 100 miles around the Central Park Res.
Post run family photo

more race picture here

Deep in the heart of Texas.

2010-11-16T19:01:00.005-05:00

Ok, not so much the heart, more like the tip of the ear of Texas. For Loren's birthday, we went to do the high point of Texas, Guadalupe Peak. We've been eying this one for a while. I don't know why, something about it seemed very interesting. It's very remote, one of the remotest National Parks. Guadalupe National Park is desert, with a big mountain. About 300 million years ago, it was under an ocean so the peak itself and El Capitan, a weird odd shape mountain across from the high point were once part of a huge reef. All these millions of years later, it still has an ocean feel to it, even the desert scrub seems like sea weed.
The summers are very very hot and subject to very high winds and thunderstorms roll in quickly. Fall seemed like the perfect time to go. Little did we know it was also when leaf peepers went. Ok, I fully admit as an East Coaster, this idea seemed silly to me. There are a handful of trees out there that turn and while yes, they are beautiful, it's just so...ok, I sound like an East coast snob. I'll just keep it at yes, they're beautiful and pretty cool to see in the desert.
We flew into El Paso on Friday, found the divest Mexican place we could find for lunch (amazing), loaded up on supplies and headed out. We got extremely lucky with the camp site. As I said, I had no idea it would be packed. There is 1 campground in the park (car camping that is, there are several back country camp grounds, but no water anywhere so schlepping in several gallons of water was not in the cards for this trip). Wally, the camp ground host, directed us to the last camp site in the park, a handicap accessible site a mile down the road from the main camp ground. It was nice enough, elevated so someone in a wheel chair could use the site pretty easily. There was one site next to us that was being used by 3 folks from a NM meet up hiking group. The 5 of us swapped stories and shared the picnic table.
Sat. morning we woke to a hard frost on our tent. One of the difficult things about fall/winter camping is the lack of sunlight. It's a lot of time staying warm and time in the tent. We made breakfast and got an early start up the trail. Guadalupe is a 8.4 hike that gains 3000'. We caught a beautiful windless day with lots of people on the trail. It was a truly beautiful day. Photos can be seen here (the last 25 or so). There are other pictures of the trip here.
Later that day, we did the Smith Spring trail as well.
Sunday we drove up to Carlsbad Caverns to see the largest cave in North America. There are trails in the cave that allow you to walk several miles through the cave. It's pretty cool.
We then drove to McKittick Canyon. This is a 6.8 mile hike, we decided to run it. It was a fairly flat though slightly rocky trail. By people's reactions to us, you'd think they never in their lives saw anyone running. The day was beautiful and this is rated "moderate" hike so the trail was packed with people. We had people laugh, call us tough, call us crazy, one guy offer us his water bottle. I really enjoyed seeing people's reactions to something that is so normal for me to be doing.
It was also Loren's birthday. Here are some pictures from the run.

So yes, I have been running! Not too much, mostly with the dog, but I am starting to ramp back up. My body has really needed this cut back. Ha, cut back. Cut back from running. Over the last few months, I've hiked over 100 miles and gone up and down about 40,000'. Even if my running milage is low this year (it will be) that counts for something! I'm looking forward to the winter ramp up and starting to train for Boston.

new york NEW YORK!

2010-11-08T10:08:00.003-05:00

Well another NYC marathon has come and gone. I didn't run this year as I really needed a marathon cycle off to let myself (hopefully) get healthy before starting to train for Boston. As I do every year I don't run, I worked the mile 24 waterstation. This leaves me only slightly less tired than if I had actually run.
It was a great day yesterday. A day that saw the world record holder haile gebrselassie drop out and announce his retirement and new comer Shalane Flanagan finish her first marathon in 2nd place.
I also witnessed some amazing things by my friends and running partners. In no particular order:
1. Jill PRing by almost an hour.
2. Mariella, Scoops, Amy, and Annie finish their first marathon.
3. Cenk with crying face at mile 24 on his way to a PR.
4. Melissa mother of 2 year old triplets (yes I said triplets!) stop to kiss her babies.
5. Sharon stop to kiss me (well hello there )
6. Les yelling "call me a P***Y!"
7. Dr Mick giving mouth to mouth at the finish line and saving some one's life AFTER running the marathon.
8.. Sandi screaming, busting into tears, hugging me all in one motion when I told her how well Rayk ran (all while running).
9. Megan PRing and BQing.
10. Ok, I admit, this may be my favorite thing about yesterday. My training pal who helped me so much to BQ FINALLY qualifying for Boston. And doing it on her Birthday. And running a huge PR. Congrats RayK on the race of a lifetime, totally proud of you!

With that, I'm excited to start getting ready for Boston. So long run crew, I hope you're ready to log some miles this winter!

Bridge over troubled water

2010-10-14T20:23:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, Loren and I went for a bike ride over in NJ. To do this, we ride over the George Washington bridge, something thousands of runners, walkers, and cyclists do every weekend. Riding over the bridge is just that, a bridge, a bridge to great escapes and adventures. A beautiful view of the Palisades and of the Manhattan skyline. As we rode over, I noticed striped of rainbow crepe paper hanging on the bridge, I noticed it but really didn't think very much of it and soon forgot about it.
This morning, I went out on my own over the bridge. The paper was still hanging from bridge and it suddenly hit me like a punch to the stomach. It was there for Tyler Clementi.
As I continued to ride over the span, I noticed a new sign (3 of them actually). They weren't there over the weekend.

Ok, at this point, I nearly burst into tears (damn PMS).
You'd have to live under a rock to not have seen all the publicity about bulling in schools and the recent suicides of all these young LGTB kids. While it's great that it's getting publicity, this really isn't anything new. Queer kids have been killing themselves at much higher rates than their straight peers for a long long time. It's just now that it's getting some real attention. Bullying and name calling is nothing new either. I clearly remember the first time someone called me "dyke" to my face. I'm sure it never occurred to this person that I would hold that memory some 25 years later, but I do. When I heard he had dropped dead before reaching 40, that's the first thing I thought of. Who wants to be remembered for that?
While I think I got through my teen years relatively unscathed from actions like that (even surviving catholic HS) a lot of my friends have some real horror stories. A lot of kids today have horror stories, some so bad they feel they have no other way out other than to kill themselves.
I started this blog to be about my training and racing and that kind of thing, but for now, I'm stepping on my soapbox. I'm asking everyone reading this to please make a donation to The Trevor Project or donate $20 to GLSEN to give all schools a Safe Space. Skip the Starbucks this week and help a kid out.

I ain't missing you

2010-10-11T11:45:00.002-04:00

Holy crap?!?!?! Where I have I been?
Actually, I've been all over the place. Really! With a lot of time on my hands, Loren and I went on an epic trip. I think I've mentioned before my extremely geeky hobby of hitting the high point of every state. Yes, total nerd alert. Now the thing about this hobby is the USA actually has very cool and varying landscapes. I knew I needed a break from running and training, so why not go climb some high mountains?
From Sept 4th until Oct 6th, we did 8 high points, all of them in the west. The high points we did were:
Mt Wheeler NM 13,161'
Black Mesa, OK 4973' (this was 8 miles which we ran. Totally beautiful running)
Mt Sunflower KS 4039'
Panorama Point NE 5424'
Mt Elbert CO 14433' (while in CO we also did La Plata which is 14336' which is actually tougher than Elbert)
Flew back east, ran Philly distance run. And ran it slowly since I didn't train for it at all. Then back west!
Kings Peak UT 13528' (this is also close to a 28 mile hike so it was a 3 day back pack)
Mt Whitney CA 14494' The highest point in the lower 48!
Boundary Peak NV 13143'
We spent so much time above 9000' by the time we got to Whitney we were totally acclimated and had no trouble with altitude sickness the entire trip (minus a few minutes of feeling like I was going to hurl after Wheeler). I think we hiked close to 100 miles and went up and down 10s of thousands of feet.
Interested in what some of this looks like?
this album shows the first part of our trip, as well as some other high points we've done.
this one shows CA and NV.
I now have done 23 high points and Loren has done 28.

I didn't run for 3 weeks. What a great break. Today I got back on the horse. Well, yesterday I got back on the bike for an easy ride then this morning I ran an easy 4.
After following the marathonpalooza that was 101010 yesterday along with following the Kona Ironman on Sat, I got a little excited about training again. I am so glad I'm taking this training cycle off, it's letting my body and mind rest.
I'm starting to think about my next big training push: Boston in April and Lake Placid Ironman in July. I plan to spend the next couple of month with low running milage, like 20-25 miles a week with more focus on swimming, cycling and core strength. I want to go into these races strong.
Now that the heat of summer is finally gone being outside should be more fun.
Until we're under a foot of snow.

Old New Hampshire Grand and Great

2010-08-24T13:23:00.002-04:00

As many as you know, Loren and I (and a few of our boyfriends TIm and Chris) signed up for Timberman last fall. Timberman is a pretty big half ironman, attracting a large pro field and some top notch amateurs hoping to place high enough for the half ironman worlds. I fall into neither of these categories by the way.
After giving up tri training the last few years to focus on qualifying and then running Boston, I sorta crammed for this race. I didn't start swimming or riding until after Boston. While I have deep reserves in these other sports, I was a bit rusty getting ready. Yes things came back but I'd say I wasn't really in top form when I got to New Hampshire. I wasn't really worried about anything, I just felt like I could have been better prepared. But chances are, we can always be better prepared.
We made the drive up on Friday giving us plenty of time to relax.
Funny thing happened, I woke up Sat with sore legs. Sore like I had run a hard speed workout the day before sore. I'm not entirely sure why. While packing up the car, I made a few trips up the 6 flights of stairs to my apt, but I do that all the time. I've lived in a 6 floor walk up for years.
It was really annoying me. WTF. I don't want to start the race sore. I tried to be calm about it, since, really, there's nothing I could do about it. I would either feel better or I wouldn't.
I have done this race once before in 2005. This was before the Ironman corporation took it over. It is now A LOT bigger. This is a wee bit problematic. With the start on Lake Winnipesaukee, there's just not a lot of room to fit so many people. It's impossible to park at the start. We took a shuttle bus from a few miles away. We arrived at the staging area at about 6:30 am. There were 18 waves. Loren and I were in...the 18th wave. We had almost 2 hours to kill and the transition area closed at 6:45 so we needed to have all our crap in order by then.
The good thing about starting so late, is we got to watch the pros start which was really cool. The lead guy came out of the water with over a minute lead. The first woman out of the water, Chrissie Wellington came out not after. Chrissie is the current and 3x Ironman world champ. When she got out of the water and got her wet suit off, one of the pro men stopped in his tracks to let her go in front of him into the bike transition area. She is very well respected by pro men and women. After seeing the pro fields get going on the bike, we headed over to the swim start. Where we still had about a half hour to wait.
We waited as wave by wave, people went off and the crowd on the beach got smaller. At least the water was warm.
And finally, wave 18, women 35-39 were ready to go.
In the Tour de France, they call the last rider to finish the Lanterne Rouge, meaning the red light, the caboose. The end. It's no surprise that as the last wave to go off, we were given red swim caps.
Now if you've never done a triathlon swim let me tell you: it's no picnic out there. This is no leisurely laps in the pool, no quaint paddling around. This is a rugby scrum. Under water. This can be very scary and intimidating to a lot of people. Me? Well, I some how find myself right in the middle of it. Mostly because I, like everyone else out there, wants a good position. I want to be right on the buoys that mark the course so I swim the shortest distance possible. So there's kicking, and shoving, and people swimming over people. It's crazy. After a few 100 meters, it's settles down and I find a nice rhythm. The lake has found a rhythm too, and it's choppy. More than once I come up for air only to be smacked in the face with water, which I guess is better than being smacked in the face with a foot. I don't recall it looking this choppy when the pros went out 90 minutes earlier.
In the last straightaway, I stole a peek at my watch. I wonder if anyone heard me say FUCK under water. I was way off my pace. I came out of the water in 41:28, a good 5 minutes slower than I wanted. I got up on shore and ran past some very slow swimming men making their way to transition. I had a couple of kids pull my wetsuit off (note to new triathletes: if a race has wetsuit peelers, USE THEM! It makes life in that moment so much better) and headed to my bike. It did make me feel better to hear other people grumbling about the chop in the water, it seemed to slow everyone down.
Helmet on, shoes on, glasses on, on bike, off we go.
I consider my self an above average cyclist so I expected to be passing a lot of people on the bike. A lot. Esp. with this late start. I was right. I was to the left an awful lot. Though ya know what? I was lacking in some power. Stupid pre race sore legs. Oh and what's that blowing in my face? Oh that's wind. Oh hey while we're at it, let's have some rain!
I was resenting starting last.
56 miles is a pretty far way to ride, esp. when you have to run 13.1 miles after. Oh and you just swam 1.2 miles. I found a nice groove and just tried to stay there. This is a course with a couple of climbs and some rolling hills. It's very nice and does have some stretches that can be very fast. A lot of that changes when the road is wet however. Wet roads bring out flat tires and bike crashes, 2 things no one ever wants. I hate seeing riders down, I hate the thought that that could be me, it could be someone I know. So far it hasn't been either, but some knows every rider down.
At mile 25, Loren passes me. I know in every race, she's going to pass me. She spots me a few minutes in the swim but I know it's coming, and lately, it's been sooner than I expect. She looks very very strong as she goes flying by. I don't see her ahead of me for long. She's gone. I'm not riding as well as I want. In my head I'm just trying to chalk it up to not a great day. Get met to the run. I'm curious to see how my years off of tri training to focus just on running pay off.
The last 3 miles of the bike, I can see people out on the run portion. There are so many of them! Now I'm really annoyed I had to start so late.
I get into the transition area: Helmet off, hat on, shoes off, socks on (I bike without socks) shoes on, gel in pockets:GO.
Luckily, my bike rack was right near the exit to the run.
I suck down a Clif Shot.
Oh hello legs, why you feel like lead. This should be interesting.
The longer the race, the longer it takes to get land legs. They just feel heavy, I feel slow. I start doing math. Ok, I think a PR is out so let's try for under 6 hours and while we're at it, let's get this run done in under 2 hours.
I hit the first mile in a little over 9 minutes. As I go on, I start ticking off sub 9 minute miles. Not too bad. By mile 4 I feel fairly normal. I'm running with a 25 year old women (we all have our ages on the back of our legs). We're keeping a very good pace together. She leaves me around mile 7 and I pick up someone else who is my age. I'm feeling good.
The run is a 2 loop out and back. I see Chris twice, Tim twice, and Loren 3 times. The last time I saw Loren she was at mile 11. She looked at me and just said ouch.
The run has 1 significant hill which is run twice since it's 2 loops. I run so many hills where I live. I remember doing this course 5 years ago and thinking it was a monster. This time, I knew it was there, but it was no problem. I was passing people on it left and right.
When I hit mile 10, I started to pick it up. Under 6 hours was in the bag and I was feeling really good. Just past mile 12, I saw Loren on the side of the road cheering me in.
While final turn and a grassy straightaway to the finish line. I passed at least 5 people in that last stretch.
I hit my watch: 5:50. Way under 6 hours, about 2 minutes off my PR. My run time was 1:54, by far the fasted run I've ever done in a half ironman.
As I'm crossing through the finishing area, a woman out stretches a medal to put around my neck and says in a British accent CONGRATULATIONS! I look up, and it's Chrissie Wellington. Still in race clothes. She had to have finished hours earlier and here she is, giving out metals to us age groupers. I was in shock. I asked her if she won and she said yes, in the modest tone she's known for. I don't think I've ever been so star struck before, which even surprised me.
Loren met me at the finishing area and we went and sat in the lake. AAHHHH it felt so good on the legs!
After eating ( A LOT), packing up all our crap (A LOT) we headed to the shuttle bus back. It has been about 2 hours since we finished. Off in the distance, I could see Chrissie by herself, carrying all her gear and rolling her bike away. I'd love to see more pro athletes like that.
Ok, let's get to the numbers shall we? The results haven't been totally sorted out but I think there were 141 people in my age group and 2141 finishers.
Me: 5:50:25 35th in age group swim 41:28 (65th in AG) bike 3:08:46 (45th in AG) run 1:54:53 (25th in AG)
Loren 5:31:11 (18th in AG. FIRST TIME AT DISTANCE)
And a shout out to Chris (5:30:38) and Tim (5:47:47) for finishing your first (and not last I'm sure. I don't care what you say Stoia) Half Ironman.

Now you seen me, now you don't

2010-08-15T16:43:00.002-04:00

ok ok ok, I've been MIA. Much to report on. Let's do some bullet points to get you all up to date.
• The day after my last post I was up to da bronx to run cross country again. Why did I think this was a good idea? I was tired. I felt like my heart was going to burst through my lungs and jump out of my chest. I didn't run well, it was more like a tempo run which is fine. Amazingly enough, I was 2nd in my age group. The killer is I got out kicked by the woman who WON my age group in the last 100m. Oh well. There was no way I could have held her off.
• 2 weeks after that, I was back to da bronx to keep my string of winning baked goods alive. I was not successful in that effort. During my warm up, I completely ate shit on the trail, twisting my ankle, skinning my knee, covering myself in dust and looking like a fool walking back to the start with a number pinned on. Since I race there often, one of the organizers took one look at me, shook his head, and handed me my $5 back. So the bake goods streak for the summer ended at 2 muffins and 1 piece of carrot cake. Not bad.
• The ankle is fine, it wasn't a bad twist. A few days off and ready to go again. Skinned knees. I'm almost 40.
• I do not remember the last time I did speed work.
• Getting ready for this half ironman has been interesting. I've been riding well and running pretty well, except for the no speed work out thing. Will report back next week post race.
• I ran the Bronx half today. I figured since I'm doing a half ironman next week I should make sure I can still run 13.1 miles. Again, not being raced. I ran 1:51:18 8:30 pace. Just fine for a long run. Thankfully the temps were down though it was still really really humid. Glad to have that over.
• And lastly, after cursing Active.com endlessly, lots of online chats, more cursing, some texts and a phone call, I signed up for Ironman Lake Placid for next July This will be my 4th Ironman. Minutes after signing up I also said to myself, this will be my last Ironman. Those are famous last words. Stayed tuned for the next, oh YEAR, as I get ready for an adventure I haven't been on since 2004.

Oh, yeah, it's Rollercoaster time

2010-07-22T06:52:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I headed out to Emmaus, Pa, hometown of Rodale publishing who puts out Bicycling. Also home to some really really strong and really really crazy riders. Every year for the last several years, a group of these crazy riders have done what's known as 2/5/10 on the 2nd rest day of the Tour de France. Here's a little bit about the ride:
Ride the 3 hills of Emmaus (2nd, 5th and 10th streets) with a group of people who love bikes. And then, keep riding those hills 10 total times.
Simple enough right? These are no little road bumps. Some more about the ride:
Mileage per lap: 10.19 miles
Elevation per lap: 1,473 feet
Approximate time per lap: 47 minutes (HA!)
Approximate time climbing per lap: 26 minutes
Approximate avg. speed: 13.1 mph (I averaged 11.3 for the whole ride)
Highest % grade: 22% (on 10th)
Avg. grade of all climbs: 6.3%
My intention was to ride 6 laps. I'm not in shape to ride 100 miles right now and certainly not when it involves so much climbing. I got in touch with my old pal Kristy who lives and rides out there to see if she was riding. I know she had done the entire thing last year. She was in.
We rolled out of South Mountain Cycles a little passed 7AM, about 30 of us. We start the first climb on 2nd st right away. A nice flat warm up would have been nice, but oh well. I hung on to the back of the pack and tried to find my legs. I managed to hang on to the back until we got to 10th st, the 3rd climb of the loop. 10th st has a section that is 22% grade. The rest of it isn't too much better. Bye bye, doggie. I was off the back questioning my sanity. On lap 1. Kristy, kind soul that she is, rode with me.
After every lap, we roll through the bike shop where our times and laps are recorded on a white board. When I rolled in on the first lap, the group was gone already. Lap 1 took 47 minutes. HA! The rest of my laps would be about 57 minutes.
2nd time around, I actually felt better. Now I knew what was coming.
Before the 3 lap, I stopped to fill my bottle and have a gel. It was getting warm and it was humid. Climbing 2nd st wasn't too bad. It's fairly long but not too steep and in the shade. Climbing 10th st, I would sweat so much I would be soaked to the bone and sweat running into my eyes. On 10th st on lap 3, I looked at Kristy and said, I'm sitting the next lap out. I hadn't enough very much before the ride started and I was feel a little cooked. My hands hurt from pulling on the bars up the hills.
I spent the next 50 minutes or so drinking tea, having snacks and chatting with the folks hanging out at the shop.
I jumped back in with Kristy for my 4th lap, her 5th. I felt much better. The break was a good one. Somewhere on lap 4 I decided I was going to be done at 5 laps. After my 4th lap, same routine: stop, fill bottles, snack, go. I was pounding fluids. The bank clock next to the bike shop read 92 degrees.
I knew Loren was going to join the ride on her lunch break. Just before Kristy and I turned on to the 5th st climb, there she was. She had taken a short cut to find us and rode the rest of the lap with us. New legs in the group is nice (ha group, me and Kristy. But people do rotate in and out all day which helps the people going long keep going). This was my last lap. Last time up 10th st. UGH. It was a nice feeling knowing I was going to be done for the day and lunch would be waiting for us back at the shop. The whole group was back together wolfing down pizza. Kristy was in for some more and Loren went out for full loop. I rehydrated and relaxed, my day DONE. Kristy did 8 laps.
I rode just over 50 miles and climbed over 7000 feet. Ya know, just an easy day in the saddle. Check out the elevation chart from my garmin, it looks like an EKG.

The ants go marching two by two

2010-07-12T09:23:00.004-04:00

Last week...SO.FRIGGIN.HOT. I was planning on upping my milage a bit from the previous week's whopping 15 miles, but Mother Nature had different plans. We were graced with a few days of 100+ heat. I am not running in that. No way. Even early in the morning it was hot and humid. The one day I thought I'd run I went swimming since my options for lap swimming are limited: 6am-8am. Oh well. Missing 1 run when it's that hot is not going to kill me. Running when it's that hot could, however.
Wed. it was still really hot. I knew I was going to run Thurs. and with my foot, I'm not running consecutive days right now so I rode. It's much easier to ride when it's hot since you create your own breeze.
Thurs. was Van Cortlandt Track Club's annual 2x2 relay. 2 runners, 2 miles. Of course in typical Van Cortlandt style, they are not easy miles. I've run this race several times before and like all events put on by VCTC, it was a good time. Loren and I ran as a team, though since she's a workaholic, she ran on 2 teams. First she did the first leg for our pal Amy, then she did the 2nd loop for our team. Before anything, we warmed up for 2 miles which I think we did a bit too early, there was a lot of waiting around before the start. This was also my first run with super feet in my shoes. I must say, they felt pretty good.
Due to construction in the park, the course this year was a bit different. Same distance and same idea, just starting in a different direction. I think I went out a hair too fast. I should know better by now, I've been running up there for years. I paced myself on Cemetery Hill, ran like a wild woman down the other side and out of the woods. Once making the final turn, however, I was greeted with a wall of wind. For the last quarter mile. It was terrible. Then watching people finish while I cooled down, man, people looked like they were in slow motion. Anyway, back to the action. I finished in 15:44. I wasn't happy about that. I was hopping to get under 15. I cooled down and cheered people in as I waited for Loren to come back out. She hit the line and we had a combined time of 29:30. 2 mile cool down, 6 miles on the day.
I was hoping we'd win our age group, but as it turns out, we were the first women's team over all. Our prize? Carrot Cake. Really good, baked that day across the street carrot cake.
Here we are, looking like our usual jackass selves with said cake:

Thanks to Dave for the picture.
I looked up my results from last years race in my training log. I had run a minute faster. Granted the course was different and I think I was in better running shape, but the real kicker was it was 15 degrees COOLER last year. Yea, that'll slow you down. No pain in the my foot while running, a little soreness after but I think that was from the new insoles which is not uncommon. So good signs.
I have been stretching my legs and feet every morning before I get out of bed and have been wearing shoes around the house all the time (which I hate but have gotten use to) so I think both those things are key.
As for the rest of the week, I took Friday off and Sat. Loren and I did a brick. It was hot and humid with threats of thunderstorms that never happened. We rode a zippy 35 miles and followed it with a 5.5 mile run. It was a great workout! Yesterday I did a nice recovery swim.
This week I really am hoping to up my milage. I'm also hoping the 100 degree days are behind us. It does make me happy that I'm not trying for a fall marathon.

I can gather all the news I need on the weather report

2010-07-05T08:10:00.002-04:00

June has come and gone. Don't know how that happened. It came and went with very little running milage for me. I ran 52.6 miles for the month. Yes, the month. During marathon training, that would be for a week. I'm not concerned. I intentionally took time off when my foot started flaring up. The flip side, with getting ready for timberman, cross training is a must. Duh. I logged 280 miles on my road bike, throw in incidental riding around town ( I cut way down on this during marathon training and now I'm back to it. Boy did I miss it!) I rode well over 300 miles in June. I also swam 5+ miles. I also got a very high compliment when I went to get my bike tweaked by Lori. She had me on my bike all wired up to a machine that checks wattage and cadence and all kinds of stuff I never actually think about. She said to me where did you learn how to pedal? Damn your smooth and efficient. Fixed gear city riding people. They're not junk miles, they make you a better cyclist.
This week I saw PT Pete again and we have a plan of action. I do think my foot is getting better. I am feeling it creep up a little in my OTHER foot. The plan is: New shoes. I switched to the Brooks Adrenaline. Are they the lightest shoe in the world? No. Do I care? No. I can't be concerned about shoe weight right now. It doesn't matter how light my shoes are if I can't actually run. When I did the tri a few weeks ago, I raced in my DS trainers so I think I can still race in those. For right now, however, no racing flats. Period. Also, for the time being, I'm adding super feet insoles to my shoes. I've run in the news shoes but haven't added the insoles yet. So far so good with the shoes. I like them. I'm also stretching every morning before I even get out of bed. It takes less than 10 minutes and I'm not having that first step out of bed pain. Arnica gel 3x a day, ice, and all my PT stuff on top of it. Pete said if it's not better in 2 weeks, we look at another shot in the foot. I'm really hoping I can avoid that.
I ran 15 miles last week, my longest being 7 miles. Feeling good, I think much like before, I can't really run more than 3x a week and maybe not more than 25 miles a week. With the cross training, I'll think I'll be ok. How FIRSTish.
Yesterday, Loren and I went on a long hilly ride. I haven't done this ride in....I actually have no idea. It's very possible it's been 10 years. It ended up being just about 69 miles door to door with lots of climbing.
Little Tor Loop
Find more Bike Rides in New York, New York
It's a beautiful ride but man, it got hot. Our plan was not stop until about 50 miles but by 46 miles, all 3 of our water bottles were totally dry. It got hot and hot fast. Luckily, there was little humidity. I felt really really good the whole ride. Of course I spent the rest of the day rehydrating. Today my legs are tired but not at all sore. My cycling form is really coming along, I'm very happy about that. My new bike is so awesome. Have I said that before? I'm gonna say it again. I love it. I so look forward to riding, it's amazing.
This week looks like it's going to be terribly hot, like high 90s up to 100 all week. Ugh, Running will have to be at crack of ass AM. Those few days of cool weather last week, oh how I miss them already.

The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising,

2010-06-28T13:28:00.004-04:00

The heat. Yes, blah blah blah, you all know the drill. It's hot, it's humid, the running sucks. But I did run today. First time since my tri about 10 days ago. I should have gone out earlier that 8:30, when it was already over 80 degrees with high humidity. Loren's outa town, however, and I like to give Bea as much time outside in the morning as I can. I can deal with the heat better that she can and she's been feeling a little cooped up. Even though I have the AC on, I think she likes being able to be outside for long stretches of time. In this heat, she just wilts and her little tongue hang downs to the ground.
Anywooo. I've been giving myself time off from running, trying to get this foot under control. PT twice a week is now down to once a week along with stretching, icing, taping, and all that stuff. Really, I'd like it to just be better. And of course there's the fear it's going to hurt when I run. It did a bit when I started and loosened up a bit. I'd say it's about 80-85%. I ran 4 miles. I easily could have done more but I didn't want to push it and it was disgusting out.
My half ironman is in 8 weeks. The good news, I have some serious running fitness coming off of Boston (still!) Would I like to be running more? Yes. And I will, but it's not going to be high milage. For one, clearly I can't right now. Also, I do have 2 other sports to work on, so silver lining. I don't think I'm going to give up too much running fitness though I would like to run more. Right now, I'm thinking 3 runs a week (maybe 4 with a brick).
My cycling form is coming along. I rode over 100 miles last week. Sat. Loren and I did a great 50 mile ride with some serious intervals and hills. I love love love my new bike. The swimming is coming around as well. We headed out to Coney Island on Sunday for a nice open water swim. For me, I don't even worry about time on these swims, it's just practicing in the open water which is totally different than the pool.
So right now, the thorn in my side is running, which does bum me out. I am planning on an easy fall, but man, I'd like to have it under control!

Balancing on one wounded wing

2010-06-20T17:11:00.003-04:00

Let's pick up where we left off shall we?
Last week, I ran a 10k. Ok, I ran a mile and a half of a 10k then jogged to the finish line with a foot in a lot of pain. I thought for sure this was more than the usual PF I've had off and on and I'd be taking a nice long running vacation. On Monday I went to see my trusty physical therapists to see if I could get to the bottom of this (har har, bottom...of...my foot...ok, never mind). John saw me and work on my foot and my calf and thought I had perhaps strained something a little deeper on my foot. He figured at least a week off of running. On Thurs. I went back and saw Pete. It was feeling better. I have been doing everything I'm suppose to with this foot of mine and also decided to started 10 days of ibuprofin to try and blow out the inflammation. We talked about what caused the flare up, Pete didn't think it was just running. It could have been aggravated by running in flats that day but the most likely culprit: walking the dog. I walk the dog at least 90 minutes every day and while I wear good shoes, clearly my fairly flat foot isn't getting enough support. He suggested putting superfeet insoles in my dog walking shoes. I have a pair in my hiking boots, so they're going in my dog walking shoes. I asked about maybe running this weekend. Pete looked at John and they both sorta shrugged. I signed up to do an Olympic distance tri as a tune up for a half ironman Loren and I are doing in Aug. I hated the thought of paying so much money for a race and not doing it or doing just the swim and the bike. My plan was to do the swim and the bike and see how I felt in the run, if it hurt, I'd stop. They were both fine with that. They figured I might aggravated it a bit but not do any harm.
Being totally honest, I really hadn't trained for this race. An Olympic distance race is a 1500m swim (I've been swimming again for about a 6 weeks), 24 mile bike (I've ridden maybe just over 100 miles this year and they had to cut the bike 2 miles), and a 10k run (which was about a third of a mile short, very annoying).
We spent Friday night at Loren's friend Marge's house and drove to the race very early Sat. morning. Triathlons, require so much stuff which makes them kinda a pain. We checked in, unloaded the car of bikes, and crap, squeezed into wetsuits and got ready to go. It's been about 2 years since I've done a full on triathlon. This should be interesting.
The women were the 3rd wave of the swim. All the girls gathered at the edge of the lake and got ready for the start. Once we were off, I settled into a rhythm quickly. I was also in a nice little pack, trying to avoid feet to the face. We were swimming into the sun which made it very hard to sight. I knew this wasn't going to be my best swim ever since I'm just getting back into swimming shape. As I got out of the water, I looked at my watch, just over 34 minutes. Not terrible, I should be at least 2 minutes faster. Out of 29 people in my age group, I was 19th. There was long run from the swim exit to the bikes. I wasn't too happy about doing this in my bare feet with my foot feeling the was it was.
Get into transition, get off wet suit, put on helmet, put on shoes, go. Transition took me 1:54.
Off to the bike.
Immediately, I started powering on the bike, passing people just settling in. Faster guys from the swim wave behind me passed me in the first 2 miles or so of the bike, but that was generally it. I've been cycling for about 15 years. That really really helps. Cycling relies a lot on muscle memory so even when I'm not in top cycling form, it comes back very quickly. This was a tough bike course, there was a lot of climbing. On every hill, I just settled in...a passed a ton of people. I would pass women and notice them trying to hang on. Nope. Nice try.
One woman passed me on the bike and stayed in front of me.
It happened at mile 13 and it was Loren. I was actually surprised, she usually passes me, but it's in the run. She's getting better at swimming and hilly bikes courses are her strength. About 22 miles in 1:20. I had really hoped to have a faster bike split, but those hills...ugh. I had the 4th fasted split in the bike in my AG (Loren had the 2nd as far as over all women, Loren's was 8th, mine was 14th). Off the bike, rack bike, off with helmet, off with bike shoes, on with running shoes. Ok, I wasn't sure what to expect here. It felt ok. It was a little sore. I figured I'd just see what happens. The run is a 2 loop course so if it sucks, I can drop out after one loop or sooner and just walk or hobble back. I think it was really nice and warmed up from the bike and swim. First mile, I look at my watch: 8:18. Ok, that's pretty good. It's a little funny trying to get land legs after a bike and difficult to gauge how I'm actually running. Plus, the first half of the first loop was down hill. Before the turn around, I saw Loren heading the other way, she looked really good. After half a loop, I knew I was going to be ok and started targeting people to pick off. It was a little more difficult on the 2nd loop because I didn't know if I was passing people or lapping people. There were also only 2 miles markers so after the 2nd turn around, I wasn't really sure where I was. I was ready to be done, that's for sure. I started doing runner's math, which is never a good idea. I figured maybe I'd get in under 50 minutes for the 10k which I thought was a little crazy given the week I was having and the fact that I had a hill to run up before I finished.
I was really really happy to be able to actually run. Seriously.
Last straight away then a left to the finish. PHEW! 2:47:08. Really really not bad. My run time was 47:48. The course was short. If it was right, I may have edged in under 50. What's so annoying though is there was another women (in my AG with the same run time who I think came in before me so she was placed ahead of me. There was another women 1 second ahead of both of us.) I was 9th in my AG on the run. Loren? Well, Loren was first in our AG on the run. Oh yea, she also had the fasted run of any woman that day with 41:13. Hot damn that girl is fast!
So when all is said in done, this is what it looks like:
Loren 2/29 in AG 14th woman over all.
Me 6/29 in AG 23rd woman over all.
This race was the regional qualifier for the Olympic distance Nation AG Championships, we both qualified. I'm pretty ok with that result all things considered!
My foot really held up. It was a little sore after, but not bad. There was someone there doing active release after the race and he worked on it which I think really helped. I think I'll take another week off of running and go to PT 2x again this week and take it from there.
With the half ironman 9 weeks away, I'll start hitting the pool and the bike just a wee bit more seriously. I'm not too concerned with my running fitness so while I'd like my foot to be 100%, it's not and I can deal with it as we go along.

rusted wheel can't move on

2010-06-12T12:53:00.002-04:00

I had some high hopes for the NY Mini 10k. I really like this race, it's women only and has a very unique course in NYC, starting on Central Park West out of the park. The first mile is fast and flat. It also has a huge pro field and a great history. There's a really cool video about it here. After missing my 10k PR by 2 seconds right before Boston, I was targeting this race. The last few weeks I've done specific speed work on what's the 3rd mile of this course as it historically gives me trouble. And there's something else that historically gives me trouble: my foot.
It's felt fine. I ran low milage going into Boston, I've run lower milage since, adding swimming and biking. After a hill workout this week, it really flared up. Frustrating as I've been doing everything I'm suppose to be doing to take care of it. There is a theory that perhaps swimming and biking is aggravating something. While it doesn't hurt while doing either of those things, perhaps it's just manifesting when I run. I'm going to PT on Monday, I want to get this taken care of and if that means no running for a while, fine.
Anyway, back to the race. Since this is all women, I get a nice start up in the front (blue bib as those of us in NY call it, since first corals have blue bibs). Historically, I run the first mile way too fast. I found my pal Megan to start with. We had talked during the week about trying to keep that first mile under control. And we did. 7:33. The pace felt great, I thought it was a good way to start. Then I just got this terrible pain in my foot. I felt like I was altering my gait and it just plain old hurt. I decided to ease up. I ran a 7:44 2nd mile and decided to phone it in. Stopped to stretch (miles 3, 4, and 5 were in the 9s) and finished with an 8:28 mile 6. Total time 53:27. Meh.
After I was very frustrated. My friend Sharon asked if I was frustrated because of the pain or because I didn't run well. It's the pain. I don't really care that I didn't PR. It's a 10k. Not something I've ever specifically trained for and not like a marathon that if you blow it, you can't try again for months. If I was totally healthy, I could do it again next week no biggie. I can easily (well, sometimes) just let the race go if it's not going my way, chalk it up to a throw away. Not to mention I can look back to a time when this was my race pace and now, my HR wasn't even up for the last 5 miles.
So PT Monday and we'll see where we go from here. The next big just running race I'm planning on isn't until Sept. I do have 2 triathlons before that, one isn't until the end of Aug so I have time to just cross train, I know my running will come back quickly if I have to be on the shelf a bit. Plus, I have this totally beautiful new bike that I'm really enjoying getting to know.
And finally, Megan's smart start today really paid off. She ran 43:40 (7:02 pace!!!!) for a big PR. Girl, you're inching ever closer to that sub 7 pace. I hope I'm there when you do it.

He's racing and pacing and plotting the course,

2010-06-02T09:27:00.003-04:00

This is a bit of a delayed report about my first XC race of the spring. I'm sure I've talking about running xc in Van Cortlandt before. It's great to have such a great course so close to home. I like xc because I ran it in HS and that was my first foray into any kind of distance running. Funny, these days I think of 5k as very very short. Also, it's like trail running light and it takes me out of my usual routes and routines. The gang at VCTC who put on the races are really nice and it's a laid back evening. Oh except for the running. The course has changed a bit this year due to construction in the park. I like the change, it takes us away from a very long flat start that I always run too fast and pay for later. Once in the woods, we have about 1.5 miles of hills, up and down. It's challenging, but gets easier the more you run it.
I had a good start, I marked a woman who looked to be a bit older than me and decided to run with her. Then I looked down at my Garmin and saw yes, in fact, I was going too fast, so I eased off. Normally I wear xc spikes on this course but with my PF problems of late, I opted for racing flats that have a hair more support. It was dry so I didn't think the spikes were needed.
Well low and behold once in the woods my shoe came untied. At the bottom of a hill. I was so pissed. Honestly, I do not remember the last time this happened. A quick stop to retie, but that costs time, esp. in such a short race. I didn't want to risk leaving it and going ass over teakettle while barreling down hill.
Ugh.
I made up time lost someone, or position anyway.
Coming down the final down hill and out of the park, the guy directing people told me I was 6th woman. It's a deceptive 700m or so to the finish from here. Woman #7 came right up on me. We sized each other up. I looked at her and said "I'm not going" and she chuckled. We really pushed each other. A glance down at my garmin told me I was going sub 7. The course finishes on a long straightaway which seems endless. With in the last 100m, she went and I couldn't hold on.
23:24. 3 seconds slower than I ran last year. Stupid shoelace.
I did finish 7th woman and won my age group, so I took home a nice carrot muffin.
Luckily, they do this every 2 weeks so I can try again. I hope to get under 23 on this course this year.

In other news, since I was so close to a 10k PR right before Boston, I've been going out and doing speed work on sections of the 10k course for the Mini 10k. It's a course they only use for this race and there are sections that traditionally slow me down. I'm hoping to avoid that this year.
I'm also relearning to balance working out in 3 sports for my upcoming triathlons. And ya know what? I'm finding myself just wanting to run.
Interesting.
On that note, I have a beautiful new road bike that was just built up and keeps whispering to me when I walk by "ride me", so that's what I'm going to do.

shoutout "go Brooklyn", they representin it

2010-05-25T09:18:00.004-04:00

On Sunday, I ran the Brooklyn Half. I didn't make a big deal out of this since I hadn't trained at all for it. I was just piggy backing off of my Boston fitness. Last year I ran it 3 weeks after the NJ Marathon and PRed. This year, it was about a month after Boston. I did exactly 1 double digit milage run before this race.
I've run the Brooklyn half 6-7 times. People get very excited about this race and well, Brooklynites get very excited about Brooklyn so that's pretty cool. The course use to start in Coney Island and end in Prospect Park which was a bit of a killer since the last 3-4 miles of the race were hilly. Now they've reversed the course so it starts in the park and then heads along Ocean Parkway to Coney Island.
It's a nice course but not with out it's issues such as:
1. 2 loops of the park. While not hilly, there is a hill and some rolling. Last year was a disaster with people getting lapped but they seemed to have fixed that this year with tweaking the course a bit.
2.7 am start with train that goes to the start not running. Luckily, I got a ride. I still had to get up at 5am.
3. 6 miles on Ocean Parkway. It's just endless. And people claim it's flat. It's not. You can see by running on it and seeing nothing but the road ahead of you it's not flat. You can see the mile markers coming but it's difficult to tell how far from them you really are.
4. Ending on the board walk. It can be sketchy trying to kick on the board walk!
But I digress.
So I decided I was going for it. I really want to break 1:40 and I am a firm believer in throw away races. Yes, I have a goal, but this is not a goal race so why not take it as an opportunity to just throw it out there and see what happens? If I blow up, so be it. It's an opportunity to see where I am and what I need to do to get to where I want to be.

I started with Rayk and Da PIng, both also have the sub 1:40 goal. Ishii started with us too which surprised me since she claimed to not want to run that fast.
Mile 1 8:00 nice start, not going crazy on the downhill
Mile 2 7:54 hill
Mile 3 7:36 some down hill, trying to work that. All 4 of us are still together
Mile 4 7:33 more down hill, 2nd lap of park
Mile 5 7:52 climbing again. Rayk asks me if I wanna run even in the park and pick it up on the parkway, I say yes. Get these 7 miles done then run the last 10k like a 10k
Mile 6 7:52 how consistent. I notice I'm looking around to see who's still with me. I see Da right on my shoulder and say to myself "stop looking!" they're either with me or they're not.
Mile 7 7:21 down hill leading out of the park on to the parkway
Mile 8 7:37 Da come up in front of me, I keep my eye on him
Mile 9 7:41 I think this is when he started pulling away and I just couldn't stay with him, but I keep him in my sights.
Mile 10 7:46 yup, this is my pace right now. I know coming up to mile 10 Team Cheers Beers and Coney Island will be there (they've were Team Cheers Beers and Chowdah in Boston, Team Cheers, Beers, and CHeesestaeaks in Philly. Convenient all those Cs). Generally, I can take or leave crowd support, but it's TOALLY different when it's people you know and you know where they'll be.
Mile 11 7:45 I just don't have any power to go any faster. Hello no training.
Mile 12 7:55 Here Ocean Park way turns right and then there's a nasty sharp left up a steep ramp up to the board walk. Like she was last year, Sandi was standing at the ramp cheering her head off. See above comment about people you know cheering.
I'm trying to stay on the straight part of the planks which are easier to run than the slanted ones.
Mile 13 7:47 I have an idea where the finish is but hello I'd like it to be here now. I look at my watch and see how close I am to my PR (1:41:07) and am a little annoyed that I'm going to miss.
.1 43 seconds.
Finish: 1:41:28
Da broke 1:40. Ishii PR by 3 minutes, and Rayk ran a really solid race coming off her own spring marathon campaign.
I'm really happy with my time all things considered. I know I need to get some speed work in and I'd like to try and solve the piece of the puzzle of looking for more when I need it. That might just come with speed work. I do think by the time the Philly distancerockandrunhalfmararoll rolls around in Sept, I'll be read to smash 1:40.

I must say, it's nice to not have a marathon on the horizon. No long crazy runs (except with Sharon) no feeling like I'm totally beat up and more time for other things. Don't get me wrong, I'm still loving my running, it's just nice to have a different goal that I can recover from relatively quickly and try again sooner if the goal race doesn't go well.

swimmin, swimmin in the water

2010-05-08T09:39:00.002-04:00

I feel a little bit all over the place right now, trainingwise. I took 7 days off of running and my first run back was yesterday. It was ok. 5.5 miles with Rayk and Ishii. I have no foot pain while running, and a hint of it after. It's frustrating. I'd really like to try and get to the bottom of this. The upside is I don't have any huge distance races (like, ya know, a marathon) in my future so I don't need high milage. As I've mentioned before though, I've gotten use to running a lot. I just have to switch my mindset a bit. I think I'm going to go back to PT next week and just get really worked on. I've been extremely tight ever since Boston even with all the stretching I do.
In other news, since I'm not running what I normally do, I've gone swimming several times this week. This morning I dragged Loren around the pool for a mile. Quite a change from how it goes when we run together. Being in good running shape has gotten me into decent swimming shape. Obviously totally different muscle groups, but aerobically, no problem what so ever. I also went for my first real bike ride this week. River Road is just over the George Washington Bridge and runs along the Hudson. It's a beautiful road to ride on with almost no car traffic. It's a good work out with some nice climbing and a 26 mile round trip from my house. I admit my quads are a little sore, those cycling muscles have ben hibernating for a while.
So yea, I'm staying in shape. I'm getting ready for that that tri next month. I would like to be running more. I think low(er) milage is in my future for the time being, but clearly that didn't hurt me in Boston so I'm sure it'll all be ok in the end.

right here right now

2010-05-04T13:06:00.002-04:00

Well, we're a few weeks out from Boston and I'm sure many of you are sitting there thinking....hhmmm...I wonder what Doggie's doing?
I've done several 4-5 mile runs since the race and was feeling not too terrible. The I started getting the PF feeling in MY OTHER FOOT. Unlike last year when this started happening after NJ, I decided to take a week off. No running. At all. I hate it. I've become so accustom to running. Better now by choice than latter by force. Since I'm not doing a fall marathon, I don't have anything of that level coming up and right now is the perfect time to do it. So here goes (only 3 days left).
What have I been doing instead you may ask? Well, Loren and I are signed up for 2 triathlons. The Pat Griskus which is an olympic distance race and Timberman which is a half ironman, a distance I love. I did my first tri about 11 years ago , so it's not like I don't know what to expect. The last few years, however, I have been pretty much just a runner. Sure, I'll sprinkle a ride in from time to time and maybe go for a swim, but I am not in tri shape. So, I've gone swimming twice this week. To my surprise, I can swim a mile fairly easily. It's been at least 6 months since I've been in the pool. In the next few days, I'll get back on my road bike as well. I'm waiting for my Calfee to be built up. I'm actually pretty excited about that.
With all the pure running I've been doing over the last few years, it should be interesting to see how I do in these races. The weight loss won't hurt either. I do, however, expect Loren to pass me in the first few miles of the run. Well, maybe I can hold her off in the Half, that's totally new territory for her.

pick the beat up and kick your feet up

2010-04-20T18:32:00.003-04:00

I'm not even sure to begin with my Boston experience. I guess I'll start with my finishing time for those of you who dont know:
3:41:07. (8:26 pace). That's a PR of almost 4 minutes!
Now those who read regularly know a lot about my journey so I'll spare everyone the entire story.

This was an amazing weekend. I was very excited about going and meeting so many of my BQ Babes that I had yet to meet in person. Oh yea, I was excite about the race too, but also rather calm. I didn't feel any huge pressure since all the pressure was just getting to Boston.
I got in Sat. after noon and met Kat and Flo to hit the expo and number pick up. After, Flo, my roomate for the weekend, and I grabbed dinner just the 2 of us. Later that night, it was off to Beerworks for more mingling with interweb and real life pals.
Sunday morning, Flo and I did a nice and easy 3 mile shake out run. The weather in Boston had been cool bordering on cold and off and on rain. Later that morning, another get together. Let's face it, this weekend is one big runner's party. All the girls got together for brunch. I had the afternoon to relax. My mom and Ruth decided sorta last minute to drive up to Boston (about a 5 hour drive) so I got to hang out with them for a while. By the evening, Loren and my BFF Tracy showed up. We ordered take out from a local place and ate at the hotel. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the hotel and getting everything ready. Rocky was on TV (though very poorly edited). I watched the whole thing.
Monday morning, up at 5. Eat, get dressed, get it together. Met a crew in the lobby and off to the buses. Since Boston is an out and back, it's a long trip on a school bus. A school bus packed with runners. Once at the Athlete's Village, there's time to kill, portopotties lines to wait in, and people to see. Since I was in the 2nd wave, I had even more time. As the first wave went to line up and start, most the folks left behind were women. I was hanging out with my BQ Babes from wave 2 just waiting or the start of the thing we'd all been waiting so long for!
Nina and I had talked about starting together since our goals were similar. We both wanted to requalify but really wanted to go under 3:40.
For my pace band, I used Greg's pace chart set for 3:39. He's figured out elevation and effort/fade into his formulas. On my other wrist, I had hill locations, up and down and length. I have Flo to thank for that idea. It was very very helpful.
Here we go, mile by mile. First I'll post my actual split then what my pace band said
1 8:31 (8:51) ooops. I bit fast but feeling relaxed. Which I should. It's MILE ONE
2 8:14 (8:30) ok, still a bit fast. Trying to keep it under control. This race does pretty much just go downhill to start
3 8:18 (8:09) that's better
4 8:08 (8:03) it's still fairly crowded here, but not insane. Racing in NYC all the time, I'm use to crowded.
5 8:26 (8:20) first gel. Had also been thinking about peeing but only if I saw an open portopotty
6 8:12 (8:11)
7 8:15 (8:12) still a little ahead, still with Nina. Feeling pretty good. I think I saw Paul here.
8 8:16 (8:19) Saw Tracy cheering!!! Or she saw me!
9 8:38 (8:14) I decided to pee. It was annoying me and figured I'd just keep thinking about it if I didn't. Bolted off to a portopotty just as someone else went in so I said screw it and went behind. I was joined by 2 other women and we looked like a little row of ducklings just peeing behind the portopotties. Yes, runners do this kinda stuff. I lost Nina for a mile or so but then found her again. This stop put me exactly on pace. Every time Nina and I crossed a tracking mat, we joked about our pals following along online and if they'd figure out we were running together.
10 8:04 (8:20) this I was a little hyped off from having stopped
11 8:05 (8:20) um yea. Now ahead. I think this is when I rejoined Nina. Gel 2
12 8:09 (8:07)
13 8:16 (8:18) still feeling good. Still on pace or a bit ahead. 2nd half coming! Since most of the down hills are in the first part of the race and the ups in the 2nd, most people run a positive split, meaning the run the first half faster than the 2nd. My pacing was set to have me do that by 1:21. I came in half way at 1:48:33
14 8:16 (8:17)
15 8:26 (8:21) I'm starting to notice that I'm running.
16 8:11 (8:00) The Newton hills start just after mile 16. I was starting to feel tired. Then I heard someone SCREAM my name, I turned to the right and saw the cheering squad of Cheers Beers and Chowdah going nuts. It was just the boost I needed at just the right time. Not 100 yards later, I saw the young and pretty boys of FRNY cheering as well. I was totally reenergized. Sometime around here, I lost Nina again. She said she was going to use a the bathroom and I didn't see her again. :(
I was hoping she'd catch me again.
17 8:32 (8:38) Let the hills begin. They go from 16.7 to about 21. OH GOOD TIMES TO BE HAD! I felt pretty good. I was running them well. I was passing people. Gel 3
18 8:43 (8:38) um. Hills? Ok, still moving well. Not worried about my time.
19 8:32 (8:11) My goal's slipping. I dont feel terrible.
20 8:50 (8:31) The thing is...it's WHEN the hills come! I'm still running them pretty strong. I'm still passing people, some who are walking, I just don't have a lot of power and my legs feel like cement blocks.
21 9:01 (8:51) my only 9 minute mile. Remember when I use to say no 10 minute miles? Now I say no 9 minute miles. CLose enough. Gel 4. Heartbreak Hill is mine, and the cherry on top, I see Loren, my mom, and Ruth. I give a big wave.
22 8:23 (8:10) even going down hill hurts. I know at this point I'll pretty much have to completely blow up to not get under 3:45 even if I'm just pulling away from 3:40.
23 8:39 (8:16) I'm really having an are we there yet moment. I pass my pal Miranda who I rode the bus over with. I hate passing my friends, esp when I know their goals and they're not having the best days. I shout out encouragement.
24 8:33 (8:26) From here you can see the ginormous Citgo sign, it's looming in the distance. And that distance...it is a hill. The last one.
25 8:51 (8:18) I hear someone scream my name, and I see Todd cheering like a madman. Thanks so much Todd, great boost for the last mile. And the famous words....left on Boylston. The crowd is huge and loud and crazy and holy crap there's the finish line will it not come soon enough.
26 8:50 (8:24) I think I hit my watch late for this split. I'm really moving as fast I can can to get under that huge banner.
.2 1:34
And scene.
3:41:07
Holy crap, I PRed and I BQed. By a lot. For both.
I am so happy. I feel actually pretty good. I waited to a few minutes to see if Nina was behind me but was hurried along (Nina finished in 3:44:29)
I have to say now a day out, I dont feel that bad. I certainly have felt worse. I think I felt worse after Steamtown.
I had an amazing weekend with friends old and new. I plan on going back next year and bring some friends along...you all know who you are!
Thanks to everyone who came up to Boston and who cheer from afar.

wicked little town

2010-04-16T09:55:00.002-04:00

Welp, the time is almost year. YEARS in the making. I'm leaving for Boston in the morning. I did my last real work out yesterday, 7 miles with 2 at marathon pace. It felt great. This is the most relaxed I've been for a marathon in a long time, since this is the big pay off.
I'm so excited to get up there and hang out with all my real and imaginary friends. I'll be rooming with Flo which if our past experiences together are any indication, will be a total friggin blast. Loren is away for work so she'll joining us on Sunday.
I wanna thank all of you out there who read this for your support through this journey. It's been amazing, it really has. I know some people, most people, never get to Boston. I'm happy to share this experience with all of you.
And a big thanks to everyone who is coming up to Boston: Loren, my mom, my SIL, my BFF, the FRNY who are making the journey, and the special group of insane girls known as Cheers, Beers, and Chowdah.
Oh and if you want to track me, my bib #18236.
Full report when I get back!

mad world, mad world

2010-04-12T14:04:00.002-04:00

Taper madness. It's real. Really. Someone should study it. I thought I was going to escape it this time around since I was coming off an injury and wasn't sure how my running was going to go. Also, my last few races have been trying to GET to Boston. This one IS Boston.
Well I was wrong. I came down with TAPER MADNESS.
To keep the voices at at least a whisper, I went on a planning spree.
Loren and I planned 2 high point trips. First one is a early summer road trip hitting PA, MD, and WV. Bea gets to come on this one too! The next one is in early Sept, hitting NM and CO. I also hope to hit VT and NY since Loren has both of those already and they're easy enough to get from here.
I've also been thinking about another ironman. It's been 6 years since my last one. And I fully admit the sport has changed and gotten douchy. I try to ignore all of that because I'm a pretty good triathlete and I like it. I just ignore all the dick measuring. I'm also curious to see how I'd do after years of just focused running. I was trying to decide which race to do. Do I do something new? Do I go for a course I know? These things are crazy, you have to sign up A YEAR a head of time. As I was looking things over, I had an idea:
Next year marks 10 years since my first IM in Lake Placid. I got to thinking that might be the thing to do, return to the scene of the crime. Not only should I return to the scene, I should take the people with me who got me there in the first place. I shot off an email to my pals Les and Claudia. We all did LP together and it was a first for all of us. I shot off an email to them saying let's get the band back together and do a 10 year Lake Placid reunion. With in the hour, I got 2 replies, both saying yes.
I have insane friends.
Of course I'm getting ahead of myself, I still have to run this little race on Monday, but it is fun to plan.

I'm taking time out in the name of love

2010-04-06T18:55:00.003-04:00

I'm taking a time out from talking about my own running for a moment to acknowledge the loss of a great running mind.
The man behind the name Jim2 passed away on April 1st.
Anyone who frequents the runners world forums knows Jim2 as he has helped countless runners become more knowledgeable about running and taught us how to train smarter and hit our goals. His web site is a cornucopia of information and stats that is a must read for any geeky running nerd. (a fave is the Boston Qualifying statistics ).
Even through out his illness, Jim had a way of making his stories of treatment for cancer interesting, informative, and often hilarious. Having lost my own father to cancer almost 9 years ago, his recountings of his treatment rung familiar to me and I was saddened to hear of some one else going through this battle. His strength though his illness was an inspiration to me and something I will take with me from Hopkinton into Boston.
Rest in peace Jim2, you will be missed and remembered on roads and trails everywhere.

under my thumb

2010-04-02T10:21:00.002-04:00

Remember I told you all about the idiot who stepped in front of me to have his picture taken?
Well here he is!
Thumbs up and all!
And this was the first time he did it, as you can tell by the look on my face I am not pleased or impressed. (he's in the red jacket)
He did it again and then I left him in the dust.
Dude, if you can do this while racing, you're not running hard enough.

OOPS! I did it again.

2010-03-28T20:37:00.003-04:00

I PRed in the Colon Cancer 15k. I must say, I was very disappointed (as were many others) that NYRRs didn't have the giant colon you could walk through like they did last year. Apparently Central Park charged them too much to have it there because it was too big.
Really.
On to the race: I claimed I was going to run this with a number, not really race it. I warmed up 3 miles. Actually, I just ran to the start from home. And ya know, I don't feel like I raced it. No, I didn't hang back and just run it easy, but until the last maybe .1 of the race, I didn't run all out either.
Let me tell you, there was this guy, man, I really wanted to kick him in the pants. 4 times he stepped in front of me and slowed down. Once because I think he didn't want to be passed by a woman, the 2nd time at a water table, and the last 2, oh get this, WAS TO POSE FOR THE FRIGGIN PHOTOGRAPHERS. The 2nd time he did that I said dude, come on and I passed him. For good. Jack ass.
Anyway, I didn't even know what my PR was for the 15k until I got home and saw I PRed by 5 seconds.
The wrap up:
1:12:39
over all: 422/2407
AG 6/319 (what?!?!)
Women 71/1267

So these are my scheme and these are my plans.

2010-03-26T15:23:00.003-04:00

I'm at that point in the marathon training cycle where I'm ready to be done. A hair over 3 weeks to go, I'm ready to be done! All the excitement is starting to brew. After Sunday's awesome race I came into this week with a ton of confidence, though not a ton of desire for what the week had in store.
Monday I took off except to go to PT to get stretched out. PT Pete says I'm looking really good and it turns out, he and his partner John have a bet about me and Hilary and Boston, though neither would disclose the details. Silly boys. Hilary and I dont even get competitive with each other.
Tues: 9 miles with 4x1200. I did these around the Res. in Central Park. It was windy. I was tired. I averaged about 7:20 pace for the repeats. I know I can run them faster, but coming off the race and all...that'll do.
Thurs: off
Today: Last 20 miler!
Before I go into details about that, let's back up to yesterday:
Yesterday was International Waffle Day. To celebrate, I went out with Liz, Mariela, and Sharon. While these girls claim to be my friends, they let me eat a nutella waffle sundae for dinner. It was gross. I ate the whole thing.
I had a totally awesome 20 miler today! Ishii and Sharon joined me for parts of it. While the forecast was calling for rain and even snow, we had none of it. Wind, however, we had. The temp. just below 50 and by the end, mostly blue skies.
I averaged 9:05 pace, running the last 6 miles under 9 minute pace. Man, I felt SO GOOD. All this on lower milage than last cycle.
Amazing.

So I've been toying with Boston goals. So hard to say up until now with my lower milage and the mental and physical aspects of coming back from an injury. All that said, I think I'm going to go for something in the high 3:30s. All signs point to me being able to do that, but as we all know, I still gonna run the thing.

Come sail away

2010-03-22T09:22:00.003-04:00

Why did I go to VA Beach to run a half marathon? Why that is a very good question. VA Beach is near nothing. Ok, it's not anywhere near me that's for sure. Well, one of my BQ Babes came up with this crazy idea of going down there and running it. Then the crazy idea turned into let's do it as a team. The time worked perfectly as a Boston tune up and these girls are a good time, so I was in. I talked Loren into it too.
To break up the trip, Loren and I headed to my mom's on Friday night. Flo met us there Sat. morning and we headed off to meet our team captain, Kat, down in VA.
A word about google map directions: ok, really, who reads completely through them before heading out on a trip? I never do. I will from now on! Believe me, if it says "ferry" any where on the directions, you're getting on a boat. With your car. We ended up on the Cape May Ferry. And boy were we lucky. We got there about 15 before the boat was leaving and they only run 4x a day. If we had missed that one, we would have been screwed. That little adventure started us off.
We got to the hotel and met Kat and got to the expo will little time to spare. Big shout out to Kaptain Kat for finding us a hotel 4 blocks from the start and about 6 blocks from the finish. It was perfect. We ran to the start and didn't need to check a bag!
The morning of the race, the alarm went off at 5:30. Got up, did all my PT, shoved food down my throat. Loren was not feeling well, she had been having stomach issues. I wasn't sure she was even going to start.
At 6:30, we collected the other girls and jogged over to the start. We were all in the first corral. The sun was barely up, it was just under 50 degrees, a perfect start.
At the gun, we were all off. At mile 1, I was concerned I had gone out a little fast but I felt good. That's a trap. You always feel good at mile 1. Unless you're Loren, then in this race, you feel like you're going to puke. She tucked in behind me and said she was going to hang with me. This was an odd feeling for me. When and if we ever race together, she's either pacing me so she's in front or she's just no where to be seen because she is a lot faster than I am. It was a little strange having her just hang on my shoulder and I couldn't help but worry about how she was feeling.
I didn't have to worry for long. By mile 4 she was ahead of me. By mile 5, I couldn't see her anymore.
Around mile 4, I caught Kat and I was feeling good. I noticed I had fallen in step with a guy about my age. He and I ran a few miles together silently. It's amazing these unspoken relationships you have out there running. We knew we were running together, but not a word was said and I was glad to have him. Then, as can happen in relationships, I left him.
Even though I was concerned I may have gone out too fast, I was feeling good and showing no signs of fading. I took a gel at 5.5 miles and decided if I still felt good at mile 7, I was going to pick up the pace and run the last 10k like a 10k.
And that's exactly what I did. I was passing people left and right and my pace was dropping.
The course is and out and backish course with a loop. It's known to have some strong winds. For most of the race, it was not a problem. As we made the turn, I could feel it sideways but it didn't impact my pace.
Let me just say, this is a beautiful flat course with tons of support. And beer at mile 3 and 9.5, which yes, I saw people taking both times.
Mile 9.5 I took my 2nd gel. I use to be a 1 gel gal for halfs, but I've found a 2nd one late in the race just tops off the tank enough to give me a nice push.
Here we were back on the out and back and I could feel the head wind. I was trying to tuck in behind people but I was a bit in no mans land. I would come up on someone and end up just passing them.
Just before mile 11, I was in a pack of 4 women and we were all working together. I dropped 2 of them. Me and 1 woman were really pushing each other, back and forth. I thought good, she's gonna get me to the end strong. The wind was slowing me ever so slightly but I was using her to get me going. Then and mile 12, she just stopped and stepped off the course. I had a second of looking back to see if she was ok and thought about calling to her to get her going, but ya know, no time for that now. I pushed on.
With about a half mile to go, we heading on to the boardwalk. From here, you can see this huge statue of Neptune and the finish line. It seems ENDLESS. There's something tough about seeing the finish line and it just not getting any closer.
Push push push....huge crowds. I hear the announcer call my name and I stop my watch.
1:41:18.
I'm thrilled, beating my old PR of 1:42:02. Slowing chipping away, soon I WILL get under 1:40.
Flo and Loren were waiting for me just after the finish line. Flo finished in 1:35:02 and WON HER AGE GROUP. Loren finished in 1:38:25. Kat wasn't far behind me with a 1:44:01, a PR for her as well.
Once we all finished, it was off to the ocean for nature's ice bath. Man the water was cold but felt so good on the legs and we were all giddy as little kids.
As far as the team race, we won the women's open division. We were also 3rd team over all, out of 32 teams. The only teams in front of us were a men's masters team (1st over all) and a men's open team.
That's right, the women bring home the hardware. Except there was no awards ceremony of even results posted anywhere.
While we had great conditions for our race, the marathoners didn't fare so well. They started an hour after us and things heated up quickly with long stretches of the course having no shade. We hung out at the finish and watched pace group leaders come to the line alone. Sad sad sad. So sorry for everyone who was out there doing the marathon death march.
While our drive home was very long, we did manage to avoid any and all ferry rides.
Here are the splits/stats for the race:
7:49
7:49
7:54
7:41
7:46
7:50
7:34
7:38
7:44
7:39
7:40
7:45
7:44
.1 .44=6:53 pace

over all 379/6546
women 96/4030
AG 12/683

Make these old bones shiver

2010-03-14T15:28:00.005-04:00

Ok, some of you may have noticed my blog post titles are song lyrics. I come by them in different ways. Today, this song was playing when I got home from my run. I think only once before have I actually included the song in my post. This song gets special treatment because I LOVE THROWING MUSES and it reminds me of 2 old and dear friends, Tracy and Beau. So this is for you guys.

Now on to my week in running!!!! THis is the big week, the bulk week. The week that may kill me. Ok, that's a bit much. It is, or was, however, my highest milage week of the cycle. 48.2 Yes, I know, not breaking any milage records here. Not even close to the 60 mile week I peaked with getting ready for NJ. Not even the 55 miles that Pfitz calls for for this week. But like I've been doing all along this time around, I'm modifying. And I'm running really well so I'm not worried about it. I do think it is enough.

And this is how it went:
Tues: 6 easy with Ishii
Wed 12.2 7 @ half to 15k pace. This is tricky since I haven't raced full out these distances in a while. I PRed in the half in Sept. with a pace of 7:48. I was a bit hurt then too. 2 weeks later I pretty much hung it up for the fall. I thought that might be a bit aggressive right now. So my fast miles were:
8:01, 8:04,7:48, 8:07, 7:58, 7:50,7:57
I averaged 7:56 and felt really good doing it, so I think that's a good sign.
Oh yes, Ishii ran this with me too.
Thurs: no running, but I went to PT. I'm feeling a little ITB and just want to stay on top of it. Pete is going to work with me once a week to make sure I get to Boston as healthy as I can be.
Fri. I moved my 20 to Thurs even though it was a little close to that hard 12 mile work out. NYC was expecting an Ark needing like storm over the weekend. And we sure got it! I did not want to run 20 in that. Oh yea, Ishii ran 14 with me.
Sat: off. Could have gone swimming down my street. There's also a big early season local bike race every spring down the block from me that circles Grant's Tomb Loren and I usually go watch our cycling friends race since it's just down the street and it's a lot of fun. I thought for sure it would be cancelled due to the weather, but while going to walk Bea, I decided to check it out.
Nope. It was happening.
I stayed long enough to see my pal Mattio take a few laps but then Bea was shivering and had to get home.
Now, a lot of us have run long races in the pouring rain. Hell, I BQed and PRed in NJ in horrible rainy weather. But let me tell you, running in the rain is an absolute cake walk compared to racing a bike in it. So Mattio, you get the Brass Ovaries award for the week. Great job pulling for your team and way to get out again the next day and race AGAIN in Central Park.
Ok, back to ME.
Sun: I ran 10 with Loren. Even though I'm a bit creaky and tired, this was an awesome run. A bit of rain, some clouds, and a touch of haul ass. Averaged 8:41 pace and my HR averaged 164 which is awesome since I try and stay below 165 on my run of the mill runs.
Really really good week.
5 weeks to go!
And thanks for running so much with me this week Ishii. The favor will be returned and we will get you to Boston!

Sandwiches time Sandwiches time Sandwiches on my mind

2010-03-07T11:26:00.002-05:00

This morning, the sandwich run.
The plan: run 3 miles up town. Really, up. If I walk out my door, I go down hill about 3 blocks. Then up hill for about a mile an a half so that's a nice warm up. Then do Coogan's 5k. Also, not flat. There's a lot of ups and downs on this courses. And let's face it, I dont like 5ks. I just dont. Unless they're cross country races, those I love. Dont ask me why. Then I ran 3 miles home to cool down. The run home is nice since I get to go down those hills I ran up. Ishii and Loren ran up there with me, and Loren ran home with me. During the race, she was cheerleader extraordinaire.
Anyway, the 5k. I decided to use this as my speed/tempo work out this week. Pfitz called for 10 miles with 5x1000 at 5k pace. I did this instead. Now I know they're not the same work out and I would fun 1000s fasters, but oh well. I like doing this race, so that's what I did.
No real expectations. That seems to be a theme for me lately. I never know how to gauge 5ks since I dont run them often and when I do they're usually XC.
I finished in 23:04, then of course I was annoyed that I was so close to breaking 23 minutes. Over all, pretty good given that I did my MP run 2 days ago and this was part of a 9 mile run.
Stats:
7:26 pace
1099 out of 5629
women: 174 out of 2612
age group 16 out of 382 (this really suprised me).

I'm going to end my entry today by bragging about my pal Megan Jenkins. Megan and I often trade off in races depending on the day, distance, position of the moon, whatever. She usually beats me however. This week, she was telling me of her frustration of working specifically on shorter distances and feeling like she's not getting any faster. I said, well, maybe you've hit a plateau and you'll push over it soon enough. At the start of the race today I asked her what she hoped to run. She wanted to PR (her PR 7:01 pace) but had doubts.
We started together but I only saw her for about the first mile. Then she took off, never to be seen by me again.
She finished in 21:10. 6:49 pace. 70% age grade.
Megan, I think you're over your plateau.
Way to seriously kick some ass out there today on a very tough course.

And the soles of your shoes are all worn down

2010-03-05T16:53:00.003-05:00

Here's an update on my week:
Sunday I did my long run, 18 miles. I had company for most of it, buncha girls running a buncha different distances. That's sorta the nice thing about running in Central Park. People just sorta jump in and out at different points. So for my whole 18 miles, I think I ran 5 of it alone. And the conversations are certainly are never boring. We either have people running to get away from us or hanging on a little to close to see what we're talking about (perhaps sorry they did).
While I certainly wasn't breaking any speed records on this run, it made me tired. It also made me a little sore. Then it dawned on me, I might just be a little tired. Over the last few weeks, I've had a chest cold, a kidney stone, flew cross country, then got my period.
Yea. That might take a bit outa a person.
Monday easy recovery.
Tues. Off
Wed. run o the mill 12
Thus off
Fri the dreaded Pfitz 15 with 12 at marathon pace.
Now, anyone who's been reading here knows I'm coming off an injury. I have no friggin idea what marathon pace is right now. My last half was in Jan and I ran 8:40 pace without too much trouble. That was my longest run in months and really I just wanted to cover the distance. I ran that 10k in SF at about 7:42 pace and felt good. I gave myself a range of 8:20-8:40. Yea, casting a big net but all still under 3:50 which would qualify me again, which I'd like to do. That's as close to stating a goal I'm going to get right now.
I warmed up for 2 miles, met Ishii (who is becoming as common as my running shoes on my runs) and off we went. She did a lap of the park with me (which is 6 miles) then it was me and Dan Savage for the rest of the run (and running into RayK again...I'm sensing a pattern here).
I wont bore you with splits, but I averaged 8:28s for my MP miles. Fastest was 8:19 I think, slowest, up Harlem hill 8:41. Average for the whole run: 8:48.
I'm rather happy with that. And my heart rate was rather low, I averaged 162 (my max is 200 if you feel like doing math). So I wasn't even working that hard.
This is a nice little shot of confidence. In a couple of weeks, me, Loren Flo, and Kat are heading down to Virginia Beach to the run the Shamrock Half as a team (team BQ Babes!). That will give me a really good idea of what I can aim for in Boston.
This weekend, I'm running Coogan's 5k. I'm not really racing it, more like a tempo run. I'll run up there (it's a lovely 3 hilly miles from my house) do the race, run home. I really like this race. It's fun to race in NYC and NOT in CP. Washington Heights is a funky hood and tons of people come out to cheer. And it's a tough 5k, a distance I dont really like to begin with. I tend to like them more when they're hilly, I think it reminds me of cross country.

So people, we are just about 6 weeks out from Boston.
Excited yet?

I want to get back to my city by the bay

2010-02-27T09:38:00.003-05:00

Oh boy. So much to update you all on! So sorry about my absence. Ok, maybe you haven't even noticed.
First, let's start with the kidney stone. I started to post this last week then I some how deleted it and didn't have the energy to rewrite it all. For those of you who don't know the kidney stone back story, it's here.
Thurs. after this incident, I was feeling mostly fine. I had planned on going out to Jersey with Ishii and running back over the GWB for my long run. Something different. Before leaving, I was starting to get that not so great feeling of having to pee every few minutes and having not much come out. As we drove over to Jersey, I was starting to think this run wasn't such a good idea. I wasn't in pain, I just felt a little weird. The pee things was annoying and I was feeling this pressure on my side where the pain was a few days before. The run went fine except for several pit stops (including one UNDER the GWB, cause I'm KLASSY like that).
I ran about 9 miles with Ishii then headed over to Central Park to finish. Where I ran into Rayk. Then Rayk's sister. See, NYC isn't that big of a town.
After my run, I just didn't feel right. I called my DR, who's office is still in chaos and got referred to a urologist. Long story short, he confirmed I had a stone. Good thing was, as far as he could tell, it had made about 98% of the trip out. He also gave me pain killers to take just in case, and Flomax to help with the peeing problem. And as a karmic payback for constantly making fun of those commercials. I was going for a CT scan the next morning, and while waiting for that, I passed the stone. It didn't hurt but was more like an odd sensation. They did the scan anyway to make sure it didn't have any friends waiting in the wings and all looked good.

Sat. I flew out to SF. The NYC winter is really getting me down this year. It's been cold. It's been wet and snowy. I'm over it. I needed a break so off I went. Before going, I found a race to do while out there. It's nice to race in different places. Sunday, I ran the Chinese New Year 10k. I enlisted my pal Meredith who I was visiting, to run as well. We were good friends when we were kids and have not seen each other in, well, an embarrassingly long time.
At the start of the race, it was about 50 degrees with a misty kinda rain. Perfect shorts weather for someone who's spent the last few months running in sub freezing temps. Perfect wear 5 layers weather for someone who thinks 50 degrees is cold.
This was a smallish race, which was nice. My only problem with it, besides a hill that wanted to make me vomit at mile 3, was the 5k and the 10k started together and was all gun timed. So I wanted to start close to the front but not get sucked in by running too fast with the 5k folks. I did a fairly good job. Threw a few elbows, managed to get clear. Ran my first mile in 7:10. Ooops.
Since coming back from my injury I really haven't raced. I didn't have any really huge expectations. I was thinking sub 50 would be good for this race. I felt pretty steady and the crowd really thinned out after the 5k people turned off to finish.
My time was 47:44, 7:42 pace. Not bad. It didn't kill me and was well under sub 50. Based on past times, I figured I could get a top 10 finish. I was 11th. Age group awards were under 19 and over 19 so that was so not going to happen, but over all, happy with the results.
After the race, someone came up to me and asked if I was Dog Pound. Funny as it sounds, it's not the first time this has happened and I always get a kick out of it. It was Jim. He and I both read and comment on Flo's blog and he recognized me. See, small world!

The rest of my running week consisted of a recovery run with Meredith on Monday, a 12 miler on Wed, and an unexpected tempo run on Fri. I was suppose to fly back to NYC on Thurs but with the snowicane or whatever they're calling this last winter storm hit NYC and my flight was cancelled. No real complaints from me about staying in CA another day. Before leaving yesterday morning. Me and my new west coast running pal headed out. I was planning on a tempoish run. I warmed up for 2 miles, then did 4 at whatever pace that was. I was hoping to stay close to 8s or just under but I was just over. It was 58 degrees and humid and I just felt sluggish. I'm just gonna write it off as it is what it is and not worry about it.

So now I've returned to the snowicane conditions I was trying to leave in the first place. Sigh. Oh well. It's not all that cold, there's just a lot of snow. Off for an 18 miler tomorrow where I will not be wearing shorts.

And I leave you with a picture of me and Meredith post race. Clearly, you can see who lives where by our outfits.

You come on like a flame Then you turn a cold shoulder

2010-02-16T22:28:00.003-05:00

Really people. Enough with the winter. I'm over it. I think Bea may be over it as well. She went from running all over like a mad woman to ok, I've pooped, I'm going home.
I know how she feels.
I headed out for 11 today and cut it short at 8. It was snowing, which was fine. Around mile 4 it got to be wet snow and was sticking and making the roads in Central Park a mess. Mixed with the horse shit from those terrible carriage in the south end of the park, and well, yuck. Having that muck splash up all over yourself is gross. Plus, the footing was getting bad and Ishii and I could barely go below 10 minute miles. Just not worth it.
It's a good thing I cut it short too and here's why. I came home and I get cold pretty quickly when I stop running in the winter, even though I sweat like mad. So I got in a warm tub and I'm just lying there relaxing and suddenly, it felt like someone stabbed me in the side. I could barely get myself up. I managed to get to the bed with out even drying off and just laid there trying to figure out what to do. I called loren: got voice mail, same with my mom, called Ishii cause we had just run together.
After an annoying conversation with my Dr's office and considering a trip to the ER, the pain went away. There's a chance it was a kidney stone, who knows. I went to urgent care to play it safe. The Dr told me if it was a stone, it passed or I'd still be in pain and probably throwing my guts up. Man, it was BAD!
And here's where all my reading of RWOL has come in handy. He prescribbed Cipro and I had this moment: wait a minute...that's oh wait...Hey Dr, doesn't that have a side effect that can damage tendon? He wasn't sure so he looked it up and said, Huh, well look at that tendon ruptures. I wasn't surprised he didn't know that. How often you think it comes up? I was surprised that I remembered it and remembered reading about someone's bad experience with it. So, he gave me something else. Knowledge is power people!!!!

And now on to something totally different.
After my 16 mile run on Sat, I headed down to my mom's for dinner with her, my grandfather, my bro and his gf. Oh yea, and Loren.
My grandfather is 85 and originally from MA. During dinner he turns to me and says "So I hear you'll be running on Patriot's day this year". Only runners and people from MA knows this means: so you're doing Boston. He then went on to tell stories of watching the race when he was younger. Pretty cool! Just goes to show people who live where storied races like that take place also get a real kick out of it.

I'll be moving my long run to Thurs this week as a mini taper for my trip out to CA. Man, I hope the sleet/ice/crap is off the road for that. I can not wait to go someplace where there's no snow for a few days.

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

2010-02-11T17:27:00.003-05:00

oops, I said I was going to post pictures on my bike and didn't. So if you clicky here you can see my beautiful new Calfee. Unfortunately for me, NYC is under almost a foot of snow, so it'll be a wall hanger for now. I'll have more pics when it's totally built up.
So yes, snow. The East coast got hit really hard over the weekend but it completely missed NYC. I mean, totally. I know my pals in Philly and DC/B'more got hammered. And then got hammered again yesterday. We got snow yesterday but it wasn't the oh my god locusts are falling from the sky variety some people thought it would be. It was actually rather nice.
As you can see, Bea has been enjoying it.

In running news, I had a wee bit of a chest cold. Just a hint of one. I know a lot of people think you shouldn't run which such things, but I disagree when it's mild. For me, it really helps to get things moving and I think helps getting it going on it's way. And who wants such an uninvited guest anyway?
Last Sat. I had my longest run post injury, 15 miles. And it was COLD. About 24 and felt like it was in the teens. And windy too. Lucky for me, Loren ran most of it with me.
Sunday, I did an easy recovery 4.
Tues, out with Ishii for 8
Today, I started with RayK then met Hilary. I did 11.
Generally, I have no pain in my foot. I'll feel a little ache from time to time, esp. after longer things, but the major pain isn't there. Also, I've been taping it for longer runs.
I must say as well, here in NYC, we're very lucky that Central Park is really on top of clearling the road in the park. It's awesome. The park is really beautiful in the snow and it's a hoot to watch all these older Upper West Side ladies break out their cross country skis and ski around the park. See kids slide down every little hill on everything you can imagine. Hawks flying beautifully over head. I've lived in NYC for so long, my I <3 NY moments dont come that often, but scenes like this are certainly one of them.

Marching forward with no doubt in his head

2010-02-02T18:57:00.002-05:00

Wow.
Such a busy day! So much going on!
First, I volunteered this morning for the Empire State Building Run Up which is a truly insane (bordering on stupid!) race up 86 flights of steps to the observation deck. I volunteered last year as well. Loren was pretty sure I'd want to do it after working it.
Nope.
No desire. Pretty cool to watch, but just not my thing.
So after 4 hours of standing around watching people exit the stair case and try to resume some sort of natural running gait (not possible), I set out on a run of my own.

For a few reasons, one being familiarity, I am sorta following Pfitz's 12/55 training plan for Boston. I'm not quite running all the miles and not sure I will get up to 55, but I'm using it as a guide. Still being cautious about building my milage. Better safe than injured.
So today, was 8 miles with 4 at 15k/half pace. Well...I went a bit faster than that. More like a tempo cause my last half I intentionally ran as a long run and I'm not really sure where I am speed/fitnesswise. I was aiming for 8-8:15 pace in Central Park, which we all know: has hills! So my pals Ishii and Hilary joined me for the fun. I did 2 to warm up and then:
8:07, 7:55, 8:02 (with cat hill) 7:50
So a bit under 8. I am very happy about this. And I dont feel totally fried.
I am going to be in SF at the end of the month and am running the Chinese New Year 10k I'd like to go under 50 minutes and dont think that will be a problem.

And lastly, because Loren is awesome, she got me a new bike for my birthday. I've been riding for a really long time and have never had a road bike that actually fits. Mostly because I'm a short women. Anyway, that's another story for another time. So back in Oct. I went to get a soup to nuts fitting and sent off all the info to Calfee to see what they could do for me. Calfee has been building carbon bikes since 1987. That's a long time in the world of carbon bikes. You can read the history of geekiness if you're interested here. I've always been a steal girl myself, but I made the jump.
And today, well, today, my new carbon baby was delivered to me. And man oh man is it beautiful. I'll post pictures later this week.
I am so excited about this. It makes me look forward to spring and my post Boston life of being on my bike more.
Almost nothing beats NEW BIKE DAY!

the city's so dangerous on your own

2010-01-31T18:37:00.002-05:00

I think I recently mentioned something about running alone a lot and funny how when you say something, the opposite will become the truth. This week, every run I did was with someone else.
Monday, after the Manhattan Half, I ran 2 miles with Bea. Yes, she's a dog but still, I was not alone.
Wed. I ran with the 4th Running Rachel I have met. 8.8 miles. I really hadn't intended to run that far but it was a nice night and generally, I'd rather run home than take the subway.
Friday, 5.75 mile run with Ishii.
Today, Sunday, was like a relay of eating and running. Several people running several distances all meeting up for a few or a lot of miles followed by coffee and snacks at Chez Farrooney, also known as my house. And in a lovely role reversal of gender stereotypes, fresh baked goods by honorary running girl, Chris Stoia. I ran 13.
So this week, I tickled 30 miles and hit 105.5 miles for the month. I'm happy with my progress and my pain free running.
Boston is merely 11 weeks away.
I leave you with this awesome photograph taken by the very talented Mariela Lombard. She really captures what a run that started at noon looks like at 5:30 when people are still eating, watching tennis, and in the case of some, sleeping.

On the run Till we're caught in New York

2010-01-25T10:48:00.002-05:00

I'm slowly hitting all the milestone I've set for myself on my road to recovery. The latest being the Manhattan Half. I ran this last year while I was training for NJ. Last year, it was 14 degrees and felt like 5. Temps that low do not stop me from sweating like mad and my hair got soaking wet then froze. It's funny to go back and read my blog entry about this race. (Look Rachel, you were the new girl!). It was much warmer this year, 35ish.
I had some concern before the run. After my speed workout on Friday, my bad spot on my foot was starting to hurt a bit. I've been doing all my stretching and icing and everything. I taped it up with kineseo tape the night before. I was waffling about running at all. I really dont want to go back into the land of the hurt. Plus I have this cold which is not helping with the cranky factor. So my plan as of the morning of the race was start and see what happens. If after one loop of the race (6ish miles) it hurt, I'd stop.
I was approaching this as a long run, not a race. No really time goal other than under 2 hours.
My splits:
1: 9:05 ok, not a bad way to start. If I can stick around here, I'm good with that
2: 8:52 with cat hill.
3: 8:20 well ok then,
4: 8:47 feel like I'm settling into this even with Harlem HIll
5: 8:46
6: 8:24
7: 8:44 take (chew) clif shot
8: 9:00 Cat hill again
9: 8:19
10:9:09 Harlem hill again. And look, I'm not just trying to run home.
11: 8:48 I'm starting to stiffen up a bit. I haven't run this far since Oct and I'm feeling it a little
12: 8:26 but clearly not slowing down
13: 8:21
.1: .46
finish: 1:53:42.
Not bad, not bad at all, esp since last year I was TRYING to race this and ran a 1:50:51. No pain in my foot while running, and none after. I'm thinking maybe the pain after speed was caused by doing a little too much or doing it in pretty much brand new shoes. I ran yesterday in my older shoes. I do admit to being a hair sore and stiff today.
Onward with my cautious progress. I ran 27 miles last week (I know, not breaking any records here). I'm thinking of cutting back a wee bit this week and thing pushing on the week after.
People. Boston is in 12 weeks.
This is serious.

If anything could ever be this good again

2010-01-22T16:53:00.003-05:00

I'll start with shoes. As I said in my last post I had a shoe problem. The lovely folks at Jackrabbit let me exchange my shoes. So now, I have a new (and pinkish...hhmmm....) pair of Asics 2150s. I've been wearing this line of Asics for years and years, always an 8.5. This time the 8.5 felt big, so I went down a size. I also went down to a narrow. The felt so good when I tried them on and so far, they feel really good to run in.

As for running this week, I did 5ish on Monday, when I discovered the shoe issue. Tues, with new shoes, I ran 3 easy with Bea. I've also had a bit of a head cold that I'm trying to blow out with little success. Running makes me feel better for a little while anyway. Today, I wanted to try adding some speed. I think it's time if for nothing else to see how much fitness I've lost over the last few months. Ok, that's a negative spin, let's put it this way: to see where I am fitness-wise right now.
I met Ishii in the park and was decided what to do, tempo, hills...tempoish hills is what we decided on. 2 clockwise loops of the Harlem Hills. It's a nice 1.4 mile loop that has a bit of everything, 2 nice uphills, a long downhill, and a fairly flat straightaway. I figured maybe I'd be able to do 8-8:10 pace with the shape I'm in.
lap 1: 10:51 which is about 7:50 pace. I was surprised by that. 2 minute rest and away we go.
Lp 2. 10:51. I was actually really surprised that we were that fast and that consistent. I certainly felt like I was working but not dying and could have gone again (thankfully wasn't going to). 6 miles for the day. So, even with that time recovering, better shape than I expected! This makes me feel a little better about Boston which I feel way behind in training for.
This weekend is the Manhattan Half marathon. When I started running again, I made this a goal in terms of long run distance, so I'll be doing that on Sunday.
I'm still being cautious, but things are going pretty well on the recovery.

Baby come back, you can blame it all on me

2010-01-19T16:28:00.002-05:00

I was wrong and I just can't live....
Dear Asics, I am truely sorry. Yes, I started seeing someone else it's true. Blame it on the 7 year itch, their new shiney looks. I should know better. I DO know better and I have learned my lesson. Sure things started out great between me and Mizuno. You know how it goes, long runs in the park...one run leads to another...and then. It happened. Searing pain in the side of my foot. How could this happen? We were just getting to know each other, I thought things were going fine. My 2140s never did this to me. Where did I go wrong?
Well, now it's over my dear Asics, I'm back to stay.
I promise, this week we'll go out to our old stomping grounds and I'll show you a really good time.

she's running out the door

2010-01-15T16:58:00.002-05:00

ok, this is just a quick little update because I'm pretty excited by this.
I ran in the double digits today for the first time since Oct.
10.3 miles, 9:40 pace with my pal Ishii.
It felt awesome. This is a run that I think it really helped to do with someone else. Not that I struggled, but just mentally.
So thanks Jen!

And the blood runs crazy with giant strides

2010-01-14T10:04:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was the first, though not the last, Birthday Triathalon™. It was mostly a relay though there were 3 of us who dared to go the whole distance.
First leg: run in Central Park. Ok, I dont know who set that pace but we were trucking. It felt good. I'm not quite ready to run that fast on just my every day runs, but close. Just under 6 mile. (Ishii, I'm sorry we missed you...you were actually early, the time screw up was totally my fault).
Leg 2: trip to the russian baths. Dont let the name fool you. It's not really baths, but steam rooms. Also, dont let that description fool you either. It's in a basement. And you can tell. Sure you never feel rushed to book a massage because you'll be hounded the minute you walk in. But that aside, I love this place. It is completely lacking in glamour but is a true New York experience. Since it was my birthday, I got a Platza. Here's how is a platza is described: Lie down while in the Russian Room and a platza specialist will scrub you (actually beat you) with a broom made of fresh oak leaves, sopping with olive oil soap. The oak leaves contain a natural astringent, which will open your pours, remove toxins, and actually take off layers of dead skin. Some described the platza as "Jewish acupuncture".
What it feels like: lay down on your stomach on the top row of the russian room, which is a very hot radiant heat room. A large russian man will cover your head with a wet towel and then will beat you like you're in a car wash. You'll get to the point of feeling very very hot, he will know this then add more soapy water to your person to cool you off. He was also poor cold water on your head as you good. Having seen this done, it kinda looks like you're being waterboarded but it doesn't feel that way. He then massages you and stretches you out. Your rolled over on to your back and the process is repeated. Then, he sits you up, and washes you off. Usually afterwards, you're placed in the cold plunge. They had just rechlorinated it and it smelled terrible, so he stuck me in a shower and rinsed me off (believe me, at this point, you can't really do it yourself). I was then covered in towels and a robe and sat down. Now this was new, my fellow bathers did not have this experience during their beatings: he covered my face in honey. It was a slightly odd experience, as was the desire to lick my own face which is not really possible (not for lack of trying). Voila: noodle body, pudding brain. It felt awesome. I highly recommend it. These guys are incredibly strong and I can not imagine spending my day in a very very hot room doing that to people.
Once I was able to speak in complete sentences again, we headed to the final leg.
Leg 3: SUSHI. Funny, this leg had the most people...hmmm. I picked a place close to the baths so I could just stumble over. Fu Sushi. I had never been there it was close by and had really good reviews. Man, it was amazing. The service was quick and the food was really really good. Melt in your mouth sushi.
Over all, a total success. I hope for the next one some of you will hike up the skirts and do more than just the last event!
Special shout out to Sharon and Sandi who completed all 3 events.

movin on up

2010-01-10T17:30:00.002-05:00

Here at Dog Pound Farms™, we're slowly building our miles up. Look I'm speaking in plural! Ok, I'm talking about me and Bea. Loren took her for her first run since she got sick. She did an easy 3 at 10 minute pace yesterday. It wore her out. I thought you'd all like to know how Bea's doing. She's back to herself which is great news. I missed running with her and hope to start again this week.
As far as my running goes, I just finished my first 20 miles week since early Oct. I've been slowly taking baby steps to get back into marathon training shape. This week also brought me back into the world of running with other people (people who aren't Bea or Loren). I really enjoy running alone and am lucky enough to be able to run alone and push myself, and get myself out the door and do what I'm suppose to do and all that. That's not to say I dont mind company from time to time. It can make those long runs, those really cold runs, those really long cold runs, much more tolerable. Wed, I did an 8 miler, my longest run in months. I went out in the evening with a bunch of the ladies and it was lovely. It make the time fly and it actually felt easy. Totally honest: I was a bit sore the next day. Nothing major but a sign I still have some work to do to get back into shape, but I'm on the right road.
This week I also got some new shoes. I had been running in Asics 2140s for training and raced my last marathon and longer races in DS trainers which I really like. I just wanted to get something less anchor like than the 2140s and a bit more substantial than the trainers for now. So, like many of my running ladies, got Mizuno Inspires. 2 runs so far and I really like them.
I have been giving a lot of thought to my racing year. I dont think Im going to race as much this year. I also thinking I'm gong to skip a fall marathon and focus on the half. I want to give my body a break from the high miles and I also want to try and go sub 1:37 in the half. The magic qualify for NYC time! Unlike qualifying for Boston, you have to run it when you're that age. So even though I'll be 40 next year, to qualify now, I still have to run a sub 1:37. Make sense? Once I'm 40, I need a 1:44 which I know I can do.
So new fall goal. I'm looking forward to that, I love the half. I think I'll go back to the Philly Distance run for that.

everybody's gotta learn sometime

2010-01-05T10:00:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year all the faithful readers and runners.
Here's on the East coast, we're starting of the New Year with arctic winds and below freezing temps. All the time. This is not fun. I'm continuing to plod along, running every other day. I have hit 2 mild milestones:
1. I'm up to 6 miles. I'm going for 8 tomorrow.
2. I had my first run where I averaged under 9 minute pace. So I'm making my way back. My HR was a little high, but I'm not going to worry about that. It was really cold and I'm just getting back into something that resembles shape.
I do seem to being having a little trouble getting motivated about Boston training. There are a couple of reasons for this.
(this is my entry of lists).
1. IT'S COLD. Ok, yea, so what. It was cold last year when I trained for NJ. Which brings me to #2.
2. Lack of the Eye of the Tiger as my pal Dr. Abbott put it. Last year, after several near misses for my Boston time, I was very motivated. Now, a bit less motivated. Makes the cold actually seem cold where as last year I was like cold? BRING IT!!!
3. I am a bit fearful about re-injuring myself. I know that's totally normal and I'm making my way back in a way I feel is smart so I need to just keep doing that and let go of worrying about my foot flaring up again.
I do think some new shoes are a good idea. I'm going to go and start from scratch and see what that does. My current every day shoes have a little over 300 miles on them anyway.
4. I haven't set my mind on a training plan. My plan right now, is to base build for a few more weeks. I was thinking of then going to Pfitz 12/55. Then Girl in Motion got me thinking about Higdon's advanced plans. So perhaps I'll spend some more time looking over those and adjust.
What it comes down to is (here we go again)
1. I'm not going to have a super high milage training cycle.
2. Boston may be more of a victory lap than a let's go for a PR here. That's fine with me. I have to work with what I have right now. Being that I'm about to age up, I have 5 more minutes for my BQ so I can always BQ again. Though given my feeling about the city of Boston, I dont think I'll need to run it again. But who know.
In other news, I've started the Hundred Push up challenge. That's going well and I hope the new found strength will help me when I finally get back in the pool.

And FINALLY one more thing. Last year, a buncha people over at RWOL started a New Year's weight loss thingie. Support group? Challenge? Whatever? Anyway, at the time I was going between about 125-128lbs. Yea, I know that's not a lot, but it was a lot more than I had ever weighted. I didn't think too much about it. I just figured, oh well, you get older, you gain weight. You move to Esalen, for a year, you gain weight. It's true. Just about everyone I know/knew there gained weight. There are a lot of reasons for that, but perhaps some other time. In short, that happened to me. About 10lbs actually.
My initial goal was to gain some where around 5lbs, get down to 120. I started monitoring what I ate, nothing drastic. I didn't completely cut out anything. I'm sure my higher milage help as well. I go down to 120. And it kept dropping. I think I got down to 114 or 115.
Here we are, a year later. I weighed myself for the first time in a while yesterday. 117. That's about where I've stayed, I bounce a bit between 115-118. Even with running less, the weight has stayed off and I'm really happy about it. I do believe this has also really helped my running. 10lbs or so is a lot to carry around.

Ok, enough on line therapy, now I'm really going to get new shoes.

This is the end

2009-12-31T15:54:00.002-05:00

End of 2009! As far as running goes, it's been a great year. I could have done with out the nagging foot problems of the last few months, but oh well
This year I ran 1531.3 miles. That's up from 1270 of last year. I didn't hit my semi-goal of 2000 since the last quarter of the year saw some seriously low milage. I had some other great milestones. I PRed in the 5k, 4m, 5m, 10k, 10m, 15k, half marathon, and full marathon.
And of course, the cherry on top, I FINALLY qualified for Boston.
Not only is this the end of the year, it's also the end of the decade (which honestly I didn't realize until like last week). This decade has been my 2nd life as an athlete. I got back into running in 1999. Since then, I've run 115 New York Road Runners races, ALL of them as a Front Runner. I've also done countless other road races and triathlons including 3 Ironmans and 8 marathons (4 NYC)
That is a lot!
I'll be starting of the next decade getting ready for Boston, the Shamrock half marathon which I'm running with some of my BQ Babes, and TImberman, a half ironman. Beyond that I'm not sure what 2010 will bring race-wise. I've had so many marathon cycles over the last 3 years I may sit the fall out. We'll see! I do plan on running more with Bea, and Loren, and riding and swimming more.
Here's to many fun and happy miles to all of you.
Happy New Year.

"Bah, humbug!" No, that's too strong

2009-12-25T14:13:00.003-05:00

Ho ho who you calling ho. I'm in Alabama for the yearly trek to the Mooney's. This year, I almost didn't make it. Actually, Bea, my pup and running partner picture here in all her snow glory, was suppose to join us. Bea got really sick a few hours after this picture was taken. Honestly, I have no idea what she got into, but she got into something that made her really sick. She spent 3 days at the vet.
Poor baby. It was awful seeing her like that.
I really thought about not making the trip down here this year and staying home with her. She came home about 2 hours before Loren and I were to leave. Luckily, Bea has a HUGE fan club. After seeing her at home, consulting with all my dog owner friends, and friend and super star pet sitter Denise agreed to (nurse) watch her while we were gone, I decided to come to Alabama.
It actually might be better that I came as to avoid me watching her non stop to make sure she's breathing and obsessing in a way that only I can.
Reports say she's getting back to her old self. I am so relieved.
On the running front, things are going slow and steady. Loren and I ran 4 miles through the snow of Central park on Wed. Today, we went with the long time Farrooney tradition of running on xmas. Loren and I drove over to her HS track where her parents walked and she and I ran. We started on the track then ran her old 2 mile XC course. Once back on the track I did a temp 400 which felt pretty good at 7:40 pace. 4.5 miles for the day.
At this rate, I'll eventually be up to 20 miles a week! Seriously, I'm feeling pretty good. My foot was a bit aggravated from flying but that's normal.
That's all from down south, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays.

Down by the riverside, it's bound to be a better ride

2009-12-16T13:38:00.003-05:00

I went to see Pete yesterday and after poking, prodding, stretching, ultrasound and all that stuff, he said "ok, I dont want to see you again unless you're in serious pain". So I'm cleared to run. His advice: build slowly, nothing more than 5 miles. Of course, he didn't say for how long but I think I'll know when to bump up. Not to mention right now I'm not sure I COULD run 5 miles. Ok, I guess I could but it would be very slow and I'm sure not too much fun. I have run 3x this week, 2 2 milers and just got back from a 3 miler. All with Bea. I'm thinking of starting a new running team: Bitches with Bitches.
I've been in pretty much a constant state of marathon training for several years. It feels really weird to be starting from 2 mile runs. Honestly, I dont remember the last time I had to start from such a place. I'm guessing after a few weeks, my body will remember all of this and I'll be back to my old self. For now, slow slow slow. I've been looking at a few plans to get me going again, mostly Hudson's level 1 marathon plan as a guide. I can just piece things together and adjust on how things are going. I'm thinking 1 more run this week, maybe not quite 5 miles.
I dont think Bea knows what she's in for. She does like to run with me but she has no idea I intend to make her my primary running mate for a while. She's now passed out on the bedroom floor.

Oh one more thing! Today's run got me past the 1500 mile mark for the year. In my mind, I was hoping to hit 2000 miles for the year, but the injury put an end to that idea. Maybe in 2010!

Maybe two is better than one

2009-12-14T19:51:00.003-05:00

I am slowly recovering from my jet lag. Countless hours of travel, 60 degree temp difference, and an 8 hour time change really takes it's toll on a person.
This afternoon I ran 2.1 miles with Bea. Slow. I feel like I'm starting from square one since I sorta am. We're talking like 10 minute pace here. 2 runs, both pain free, going to see Pete tomorrow.
Reading everyone officially starting training for Boston today has given me some anxiety. I have no base. I ran 37 miles in Oct. I ran 2 in november. These numbers for 2 months are usually what I do in what week.
Of course there's that part of my brain that is saying, come on, get over it. There's plenty of time before Boston and you'll bounce back quickly if you run smart and stay pain free. And of course there's the fear that I'm going to get hurt again.
Oh well. Just need to get back on the horse. Slowly. I believe the next several weeks I will be running alone or with Bea.

In other news, my pictures from Tanzania are up here

And every stranger's face I see Reminds me that I long to be

2009-12-12T18:14:00.002-05:00

I am home.
And I just ran 2 miles with Bea and Loren. It felt really good to 1. run outside 2. actually move my body after my insane few days of travel.
Let's take a look at the last few days shall we?
First of all, when I left Dar es Salaam, it was over 90 degrees with humidity almost as high. When I landed in NYC this morning, it was 31 degrees. I've been use to being out in shorts and sweeting my ass off for the last 2 weeks. Running tonight in temps about freezing was a bit of a shock to my system.
It's a little after 6pm here in NYC, Dar is 8 hours ahead so I feel like it's the middle of the night.
I've sorta been traveling since thurs, my last few days look like this:
Thurs morning: Drive from Bukoba to about 1k from the Uganda border. (a little over an hour drive) do bike handover, drive back to Bukoba. Thurs afternoon, fly to Mwanza on a Fantasy Island type plane, 45 minute flight. 4 hour layover, have dinner. Thurs evening, 2 hour flight to Dar. Get in late, argue with hotel clerk about shitty room with shower that doesn't drain.
Friday: hang out in Dar for a few hours, really just killing time. 3pm leave for airport, hit horrible traffic, cab driver makes NYC cabbies look like grandmothers driving to church on sunday by driving on sidewalks, over ditches, and just creating lanes.
5:30 fly to Dubai-flight time about 5 hours. 2 hour layover in Dubai airport, one of the most bizarre places on earth.
2am Dubai time take off for NYC. Flight time: 13.5 hours. Land about 7 am.
Loren, saint that she is, loads Bea into the car and comes and picks me up.
So basically, I feel like I've been hit by a truck.
Like I said, running felt great. It's been about 3 weeks. I was advised to start off on the treadmill. I figured since I took an extra week off of running, running short outside would be ok. I had no foot pain while I was away.
I know several of you want to hear more about the trip, so stay tuned. Once I get a handle of the time zone and sleep and all that, I'll post more with pictures.

just a song before I go

2009-12-07T12:21:00.002-05:00

Hey all out there in blog land. Just a quick update.
I put off running for another week and for a very good reason...I'm in tanzania putting together and giving away bikes. I was only suppose to be here a week but then the opportunity came up for me to stay longer and I decided, hey, when will I be in Tanzania again?
The first week I was in Kibaha, then a few days in Dar es Salaam, and now in Bukoba which is on the shores of Lake Victoria.
In total, close to 300 bikes will be built and given to health care workers to help fight HIV/AIDS. I will post more when I get back, but if you want to learn more or donate to the project, please go to:
biketownafrica.org

Everybody cut footloose

2009-11-23T12:24:00.005-05:00

ok, yes, so I ran the other day. While there was no pain while running or right after, it did act up a bit after. And through the weekend. Now I know being on my feet and all over the place on Sunday at the philly marathon didn't help. I was debating running on it again to see what happened then decided not to. I call my Dr this morning to tell her what's what. This is the plan:
No running until I get back from Africa, which pretty much means 2 more weeks off.
Start going to PT again.
If when I run when I get back from Africa I have the same issue, another shot in ye foot.
She's encouraged that it didn't hurt when I ran, so she thinks we're on the right track.
As I've been saying (for far too long now) better now than into my Boston cycle. If I'm gonna rest, let it be now. Oh and I keep pulling out that old Esalen chestnut, trust the process. At least I learned something in the fog of Big Sur.

I was down in philly yesterday to cheer on my BQ ladies and my beloved FRNY team mates. I had such a blast. There should be a marathon maniacs for cheering, this was 3rd marathon cheerathon this fall. It leaves me almost as tired as running does. So many amazing people I finally got to meet in person. Us BQ ladies have been online together for....over a year and a half? So nice to put faces to screen names.

All of you had awesome races yesterday! From gutsy performances (FLO!) to Prs, BQs (Kevin, no lie I almost cried when i saw you and your mom both BQed), to first times, to runs to get back in the swing of things, to cheerleading like you wouldn't believe. It was an awesome weekend, can't wait for the Boston Reunion.

Time up and time out

2009-11-19T12:27:00.003-05:00

Yes, folks, the day you've all been waiting for is finally here. I know all of you have been on the edge of your chairs.
I ran.
Yes, you heard me right! I whole 2.1 miles! Slow and easy, a nice 9:30 pace. We won't talk about my heart rate. It was pain free. I'd feel a hint of soreness, but I'm totally paranoid about it. I think the test will be if it's sore in the next few hours. I've already stretched and I'm icing as I speak. So now nice and easy and hopefully I'm on the right track.

And now on to some other news. As many of you know (and many of you do too) I spend a lot of time on the Runner's World forum. We have a nice band of ladies all with the goal of BQing and most of have reached it. It's been an unbelievable support and source of info, training buddies, racing pals, and couches to sleep on. Last year, one of our girls got attacked while running, something should never ever happen to anyone. This week, that piece of trash got sentenced to SIXTY YEARS in prison, and I hope he serves every minute of it. Just a reminder to be safe out there, esp. in these colder months when there are less people out and less light.

Many of these same girls are traveling to Philly this weekend for the Philly marathon/half marathon. This will be a meeting of epic proportions, so if you are within 150 mile radius of Philly and hear shrieking laughter, it's us. Also a shout out to me home team who's making the trip down there. Remember, dont go out to fast, check your baggage with your baggage, and run your asses off.

put the needle on the record

2009-11-09T10:20:00.003-05:00

I do believe I am now on the longest running break I've had in years. It's over the 2 week mark with over a week to go. I only have short burst of going insane. I fully admit to obsessing over my foot and every thing that may or may not be an ache or a pain or the ghost of either or. Really, it doesn't hurt. When I do feel something there, I think it's the spot from the shot. Because, ya know, there was a needle in the bottom of my foot.
So now we wait. And as we wait, we plan for 2010.
As everyone knows, I'm running Boston in April.
Other things I'm doing for thinking about doing are:
Mt Washington Road Race (hey only 1 hill!) This has a lottery, so we'll have to see.
Timberman, which is a half ironman. That's in August. I've done this race once before and really liked it. Loren's also doing it, it'll be here first half. Rumor has it my pal Chris is also doing it.
I want to do some short distance tris as well. I also want to do some half marathons. Last year, I did 3 of the NYC races, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Brooklyn. I most likely will do those again. Maybe the Philly distance run. I'd really like to break 1:40 in the half.
As far as fall marathon, Im not sure. I have a spot in NYC. We'll see. I have tons of time to plan for that.
Anyway, still alive over here on my couch.

Shot through the heart

2009-11-05T12:14:00.002-05:00

Today I went back to the Dr. With the xray negative, like her, my PT, me, the dog, and some random guy on the street knew it would be, she recommended a steroid shot to the irritated area. She doesn't think it's torn or anything, still just irritated. Perhaps after my week of drugs (when if felt good) I returned to running too soon.
Her course of action: steroid shot, no running or anything else that causes it to hurt, for 2 more week, when I return to running, short runs on the DREADMILL. I have the treadmill. I dont even have a gym membership to go an use one. Oh well. If it still hurts after this, MRI and possibly another shot. There's a 90% chance this will do the trick. I hope so!

These streets will make you feel brand new, the lights will inspire you, Let's hear it for New York

2009-11-03T14:58:00.003-05:00

The 40th NYC Marathon is in the books and did not disappoint.
Sat. morning I went to the FRNY pancake breakfast, a Front Runners tradition. It was here I really realized I was not upset about running. All that tension and stress I normally feel the day before a marathon was gone. I wasn't worrying about the weather, every little ache and pain, if someone was giving me some unknown cootie. I got to just wish everyone luck and relax.
Race morning, Loren and I rode over to our friend Marge's house to watch the pros. I'm usually in the park to see the pros go by mile 24. While that is totally cool to see them in person I then miss the end of the race which is pretty cool to see. So this time I watched in on TV.
Watching Meb win was totally amazing. He ran a really smart race. Incredible to finally see an American win NYC.
Shortly after, Loren and I high tailed it over to mile 24. Riding our bikes, we were there in less than 10 minutes. With the range of runners our team has and with the new wave start, I knew it was going to be a long day. I had to pace myself. The mile 24 water station is also a FRNY tradition (click here for a lovely photo from the '82 crowd). As I've mentioned before, I do it the years I dont run and since a marathon is out of the question for the wifey, this was her 8th year of service. If you run NYC, look for Loren in the Ithaca is Gorges Tshirt. She's use to hugs, hellos, and the stray kiss.
We got there just as our first runner came through. Rich clocked a blistering 2:41. We spent the next several hours handing out water and cheering. It's a long day but so worth. It's so much fun watching everyone come though. I know from my experiences running NYC that it is so cool to get to mile 24 and see someone you know, even if it's just one person, it can make all the difference.
All in all, FRNY, had 108 people run, times varying from 2:41 to 7:11 and everything inbetween. PR, BQ, first time, and even some devil dogs that made it the whole 26.2.
I'm proud of all of you and I hope you're proud of yourselves!

Ok, now on to me.
Still not running. I had an xray this morning to rule out a stress fracture which neither my PT or my DR think I have but in order to get an MRI, I need an xray first. Totally stupid. There's a chance I have a tear in my facia. I'm hoping it's just really irritated. I haven't run in close to 2 weeks. Well,if I need to take an extended break, let it be now so I can go into Boston ready to kick some ass.
I'll keep you posted.

Time after time

2009-10-30T14:35:00.002-04:00

On Nov. 5th 1989, I was 18 years old and had been living in NYC for about 2 months. Sometime in the afternoon, I left my rodent infested shitbox of an apartment on 91st and Broadway for the Met. I would go there on Sundays with my pal Jen and draw. Sometimes I would ride my bike, sometimes I would walk. This day, I walked. I cut across Central Park having no idea it was marathon weekend. I stood very close to where my team, Front Runners, hands out water at mile 24. I dont remember how long I stood there watching. I do remember thinking it was really really cool and I very clearly remember 1 man who ran by.
He was missing a leg and going at it on crutches. That image has stuck with me over time.
My 18 year old self had no idea that 10 years later my 28 year old self would run NY for the first time. My high school XC coach talked about running NYC and running Boston and I thought he was nuts. By 18, I don't think I had ever run more than 6 miles at once.
Now my 38 year old self looks back over those 10 years since my first NYC and my first marathon. That 28 year old had no idea I'd run NYC 4 times (and counting!) along with 7 other marathons and be planning a trip to Boston in April.
I did hope to run this year but it's just not in the cards which is fine. NY will be here, it will always be my favorite marathon even if it's not my fastest or best.
This year, as I've done every year I haven't run but 1 since running my first NYC, I'll be out at mile 24 along with my team mates cheering and handing out water. So for all of you first time marathoners, first time runners of NYC, those looking to go under 3, those who claim it's their last, seekers of PRs, crazy maniacs, SloHoMos, BQ chasers, marathon weekend is here. All your work is done. Go out and run YOUR race and have a good time doing it.
I'll be watching!

no parking on the dance floor

2009-10-25T17:44:00.002-04:00

After another 4 mile run this week (the run itself was GREAT) followed by a sore foot, I put myself back on the shelf. At least another week of no running and more anti inflammatories. I am thinking of actually not running for 2 weeks. This way, all my running pals are tapering for NYC this weekend and then will be having an easy/off week the following week. Then we can all start up again together. We'll see. John did tell me if there's still pain after this go round, back to the Dr.
Since there's no running right now, I have been on my bike more. With high running milage, I tend to ride around less. Like less city riding. So now, more city riding. I actually really like that and since I ride a fixed gear around town, my pedal stroke gets smooth and it's like adding cycling strength without a whole lot of work.
Today Loren and I hopped on the road bikes and did the 26 mile River Road loop. It was a beautiful day. All the leaves are changing out there and I just felt really really good.
So I'm trying to turn a negative about the running into a cycling positive.

fools and horses running their courses

2009-10-22T13:52:00.002-04:00

An update:
1. Canceled NYC. Totally fine with it. Actually glad cause now I can escape taper madness.
2. Running a bit, usually about 4 miles. I take Bea with me when I can cause her limit right now is about 4.5 so I know I wont be temepted to do anything crazy.
3. having PT 2x a week. Seems to be helping.
4. I am having a bit of pain but I think it's getting better. It's still under the 3 scale while running. I am thinking about taking some time totally off again to see if that helps.

Other than that, not much going on.

Walk 'til you run

2009-10-15T12:37:00.002-04:00

My last run was 12 days ago. This morning when I got up to run, it was 44 degrees and felt like 39. WOOHOOO!!!! I wore tights.
This was a back to running nothing fancy run, 3.35 miles slowly. I could feel my foot a bit as a started but that's no surprise. I hadn't been up very long and it's usually a bit still in the morning before the blood gets flowing.
I can't say anything extraordinary about this run other than I did it and there was no pain during or after.
I had PT at 10:45 where John put me through the usual routine. I also ended my round of anti-inflammatories. Everything seems to be moving along nicely. He told me on a scale of 0-10, 0 being no pain and 10 being holy crap get me to a hospital, I'm good running to about a 3.
So the plan now is to slowly build back up and see what happens.

I want to tell you something you've known all along

2009-10-13T11:31:00.002-04:00

Let see....running yet? Nope. Day what? hhmmmm, like 10 or something. I think the last time I took a break so long it was when I was in Africa last year. Dr told me not to run while on the drugs so I'm sticking to that. It's making me a little nuts. The upside, my foot is feeling better.
In the world of working out, Loren and I went for a nice 26 mile ride on Sunday. For those in the know, we did River Road. It was sorta like doing a tempo run. There's a very long hill at the end of River Road. My goal was to stay on Loren's wheel, which I did. My heart rate got up to a lovely 186 (my max is 200) so in running like terms, like a speed workout. Once we got out on the road back to the GWB, we pacelined each taking a minute at the front. It felt really good.
But ya know what, it's not running. On my quest to Boston I stopped my multisport self and turned into a pure runner for a few years. While I am looking forward to going back to triathlons next year, I still have a mostly running itch. I'm guessing that comes from not being able to run.
I'm going to do a short run on Thurs morning before PT. PT Pete is out with his new baby and the rest of his family for the month of Oct. so I've been seeing his counterpart, John twice a week. I feel like it's really coming along.
NY is totally doubtful, I've all but officially canceled which is fine.
This past weekend was the busiest weekend of marathoning I've done without actually running. I headed out to Hartford to watch my online pal Rebecca PR with a 3:06. Another online pal Kris also smoked the course in a jaw dropping 2:42.
Sunday, I lazily laid in bed and followed the Chicago marathon action online (after spending Sat night watching the Ironman worlds online). Congrats to everyone who ran! And a big shout out to Kieran taking home a 2:57 PR and Dave who will be COMING TO BOSTON!

Doctor doctor, can't you see I'm burning

2009-10-08T15:13:00.003-04:00

Today I went to get my foot check out by a pro. Well, by a Dr. away.
And here's how it went:
She gave me the option of getting a shot in my foot (something Fran has told me hurt more than giving birth) or going on anti-inflammarories. Guess what I picked? I've actually had a shot in my wrist before so I know how much that hurts. Pills I can handle.
So I've got some drugz for a few days, more PT and no running for a few more days. I haven't run since Sat. This is a record for the year! She thinks this should clear it up.
She didn't say OH MY GOD THERE IS NO WAY YOU CAN RUN THE MARATHON! She actually thinks it would be fine. I'm still on the fence, we'll see how the next few days go.
As it is, I was planning on not running if I was in Africa so this is pretty close to that.

Everything is Everything

2009-10-03T13:47:00.003-04:00

Ok, so a few things:
I should not even be posting this. I should be in Africa, jetlagged out of my mind, trying to figure out where I am and what day it is.
I'm not. There was a problem with the bikes and customs so the trip got put off, for Loren and I, possible canceled.
So here I am.
Another thing, today is the anniversary of this. Warning, if you click that, you will read about poop and people who poop themselves while running and continue to run.
I am not that person.
Anyway.
So yes, since I am here and since Grete's is always a friggin points race and since I never run it well, I ran it. (note to Flo, I did not RACE it).
It was an awful 65 degrees with 95% humidity. I had no intentions of racing it, I was treating it like my long run. I did 1.5 miles before hand to warm up.
Long run it is! I felt fine til, oh mile 3. Seriously, I phoned in the entire run finishing in 1:56:21. 8:52 pace, which is just dandy for a long run. But boy did it SUCK. And poopy pants (sans poop this year) passed me at mile 11.5.
Ok, ok, I should let it go. The woman is 76 years old and I can only hope and dream I am running like at in 40 years.
Oh my god, she's a lot older than I am!
Anyway...
Now for my dark cloud that I alluded when last I graced you with my wit:
I am seriously thinking of not running NYC.
I will now pause for dramatic purposes.
Everyone digest that?
Good.
My foot hurts. It hurts after I run. It's been hurting WHEN I run. I haven't run a week with more than 40 miles since July. While I'm getting quality workouts in and have had some good solid races (a great PR in Philly a few weeks ago) I'm not running the way I want to be running. I dont want to limp to the starting line just to finish this time. If I run, I want to run well. I want to be able to run with RayK so she can come to Boston. I dont wanna be out there in pain waiting to see my peeps at mile 24 and hoping I get to Tavern on the Green.
This is not an easy decision for me to make, though for anyone who is capable of making a sensible decision it should be (um, that would NOT be me. Remember when I ran it 3 weeks after Steamtown last year? Yea, hi.) So no doubt I will wrestle with this a while longer but that's what I'm thinking.
I want to start training for Boston healthy which means maybe really cutting back for the next month or so.
In the mean time, I'll be over here mourning my NYC marathon.
Please send cake.

In GOOD NEWS, a few shout outs:
1. Janice-way to finally get under 2 hours and PR today.
2. Anthony, same to you, great PR
3. Hikergirl 3:28:49 in St George...REALLY? Please pull me along in Beantown in April. Girl, you KILLED IT.

Time keeps on ticking...

2009-10-01T10:48:00.003-04:00

From the weekly FrontRunnerGram that goes out every Thurs. morning to FRNY:
In a historical note, 10 years ago was the last year that the Tune-up was a 30K race (18.6 miles). There were 17 Front Runner finishers. Among those, only Audra is a 2009 finisher. Twenty years ago (Remember 1989?), again 17 Front Runners finished the 30K Tune-up, including only Ms. Donna Checkan from among the 2009 finishers.
Wow. I was getting ready for my first marathon then. I ran that 30k at a 9:51 pace. I remember being lapped by a pack of fast men.
As I get set for my 10th anniversary of my first NYC marathon, and my first marathon, there is much on my mind about what will be my 5th NYC marathon, my 12th marathon in total. I'm not ready to say much more than that.

And the bus and the tourists are gone

2009-09-27T17:42:00.002-04:00

20 miler #2 of this cycle. This time around, it was an easy 2 followed by an "18 miler tune up race". Quotes because, well, I'm not going to race an 18 miler. It's great that NYRR puts on this race (with just for historical context, use to be a 30k). My plan was to do it as progression, since it's 3 six mile loops, it gives a great course to do such a thing. I did this last year while getting ready for Steamtown, it was my last 20 miler.
I started with RayK just below 9 minute pace and planned to speed up after. Once I got done with the first loop, I decided I was going to just stay right where I was. It was raining and I was tired. Maybe from my half last week. I just didn't feel like speeding up and decided that was ok. This is just a long run and no point in killing myself out there. Plus my foot hurt. I think that was in part due to the rain, maybe the slant of the road looping Central Park, maybe Mercury in retrograde. Who knows. I dont really care. Around 9s it is!
And that's what I did. 9:05 pace for 2:43:43. I was happy coming in under 2:45. Not a PR but another long run in the books.
Central Park was a complete ghost town this morning. Yes, it was a 7am start but that usually doesn't keep people out of the park. The rain, however, chased everyone who wasn't racing away.
A shout out to my teammate Rich who finished 2 over all with a blistering 1:48:33. People, that's a 6:01 pace. Thankfully he didn't lap me, I only got lapped by the overall winner. Better than last year when I also got lapped by the first woman...

you give me fever

2009-09-24T09:49:00.003-04:00

First, here's a picture of loren and I from the Philly Distance Run.
It's actually not bad! I certainly look better then I felt a few minutes before.
I think I found something to help my foot. Pete had been taping the bottom of my foot with kinesio tape. It had been helping. After the race on Sunday my foot was just killing me. When I got home, I saw a free sample of tape in the goodie bag. It also came with a chart showing how to tape every injury you can think of. I tried taping my for PF. It almost instantly felt better. So this will be my new taping course of action. I've run twice since, 2 days in a row, with much less pain after.
So about those runs. Tues I ran up in Van Cortlandt on the cross country trails. It's getting dark so much earlier that the 2nd time around it was pretty much trail running in the dark. That was kinda fun. I've run up there so much I know where every railroad tie is and every little crack, even in the dark. Though I really would not recommend doing this. It was a sorta slowish 5 hilly miles.
I know everyone is boohooing the end of summer and all that, but really, last night as the sun was fading, it was 80 degrees with 75% humidity. SO while I could do without the lack of light, I'd really like it to be a bit cooler!
I had an ok 7 mile run. Until I finished. I felt pretty light headed after. I was walking home and stopped to get some food, thinking maybe it was low blood sugar. As I'm standing in line to pay, the guy in front of me looks at me and says "Audra?". I slowly say yes. He explains to me who he is, a friend of an old girlfriend's. I say ah yes and exchange how are yous and all of that. After he leaves the woman behind the counter says oh it's so funny when that happens. I say yea, I have absolutely no idea who that guy is, he's going back in time a good 12 years.
I couldn't believe anyone would even recognize me since I felt like was about to crowned the prom queen of Hades.
When I got home, I was a bit feverish. I really felt like crap. I figured it was a combo of the weather and some side effects of the yellow fever vaccination I had the day before. I felt crappy for a few hours and by 11pm (though I wish I was asleep by then) was feeling much better.
Now that I think I have a handle on my foot, the rest of my week will look like this:
Thurs: off
Fri: 5-9 miles, I'll have to look at my half assed plan.
Sat: off
Sun 18 mile tune up, plus 2 miles to make 20.
I need to figure out how to run this. Last year it was my last long run before Steamtown so I ran it easy. This year, I think I want to do it as progression, starting easy and finishing close to MP. Rayk we should talk about this!

Streets of Philadelphia

2009-09-21T08:41:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I ran the Philly Distance Run, which is really Philly's big race. I've run it before but not for several years. It now has a different course (I think) and is a megathon with almost 13000 runners.

I really love this race and for several reasons. For one, it's in Philly. For those who don't know, I grew up about 12 miles out side of Philly in South Joisy. Back when Rocky was first running up the art museum steps, the Phillies were on their way to their first World Series, and William Penn was the highest thing in the skyline. My best friend, Tracy, also lives in Philly, so I've spent a fair amount of time there. It's a dirty, underdog kinda town.

It's also a flat and fast race who saw Ryan Hall and Catherine "The Great"Ndereba win. Of course they were long done by the time I finished. But anyway...

Loren and I drove down with Bea on Sat. We met up with Flo (blog famous Girl In Motion) and headed to the expo where we also met Kat, another Boston Bound Running Babe.

The morning of the race, Loren and I were up and out early. The race had a 7:45 start. With the crowd so big, it was going off in waves about 2 minutes apart. We were in the 2nd wave. We drove over to the start, beached the car in a lot and I needed to find a portapotty as my stomach felt like a cement mixer.

The start was chaos. The lines for the bathroom possibly the worst I have ever see. I knew there was no way I could go run this thing without going to the bathroom. I'm standing in line, which I'm sure is going to take 15 minutes to get to the front of. My wave is going off in about 7. As I'm commiserating with those around me, a woman looks at my bib number. She says to me, oh man, you're starting soon! You should cut the line, just go to the front and ask if you can go since you have such a low number.

So I did. I ran over to the line next to us. Just a note, I'd like to dedicate the rest of this story to Team SloHoMo, esp. Liz cause it totally made me think of you.

I went of to this woman wearing a hospital gown to keep warm and said can I cut in front of you? Im in the 2nd wave and we're about to start. She just looks at me. Then says, oh what, you assume I'm a slow runner? I actually hadn't given it any thought. I couldn't see her number but she didn't looked like she was in any really hurry to get to the start. So I didn't even know what to say. Then she says CAUSE I AM! and starts laughing. So miss self described slow runner, thank you so much for letting me cut the line and wishing me luck.

Loren and I then hurried to the start just in time for the national anthem (why do they do that at sporting events?) and for the first wave to get off. It was packed and crazy and chaotic. We actually got held til the 3rd wave but it didn't matter. Loren and I maybe ran the first 10 feet together and she was off.

I felt good. Telling myself, keep it easy, not too fast. I ran my first mile in 7:34. I knew to go under 1:40 I'd have to average 7:38 pace. I was doing just that. I came through 5k in 23:36, averaging 7:35s.

Now I know when I go out to fast, even when I'm doing it. I know what that feels like. This did not feel like that. I felt great. The flat Philly streets were a nice change from the rolling hills of Central Park where I usually run. I was passed by a DC Front Runner and exchanged hellos. There was also, I'm pretty sure, a FRNY person ahead of me though I dont know who it was.

This race was so big. As I was approaching mile 4, I could see people in wave 12 in their first mile.

I hit 10k in 47:18, 7:36 pace. So I was holding on. And still felt really good. I took a gel right after the 10k point.

Then. I'm not sure what happened. It's not like it got harder, it didn't. My legs got heavy. I had no power. I didn't feel like oh my god I'm crashing! But it was like a slow slowdown. I just couldn't hold it. I think I ran outa fuel. I'm not really sure. By 10 miles, (1:17:08) I had slowed to 7:42 pace and just couldn't pick it up. I should have tried another gel but my stomach was still a bit twisted up. Maybe that was the problem, I really dont know.

At mile 11, this woman comes up to me and says Come on NY. I turn, and she's wearing a Reservoir Dogs singlet, another NYC team. I said ah, a familiar face. There were a lot of NYC team runners in this race. I know Loren ran a good part of the race around some Central Park people and a Warren Street guy.

She says I'm trying for my first sub 1:40. I said me too but it's getting close. Yup, it's going to hurt she says. I tried to stay with her and I just couldn't. I was slowing down. I think I ran that mile in 8 minutes.

A guy behind me says hey Ironwoman, how you doing. I dont know if I had talked to him earlier. I have the periodic symbol for iron (FE 26) tattooed on the back on my right arm. It's the tattoo I get asked the most about. I gave the universal hand wave for so so and kept trying to grind it out.

I saw Loren, who was done, right before the mile 13 marker. I just shook my head. My last mile was by far the slowest at 8:10. I did manage to find a little something for that last .1 which I ran in 44 seconds.

I finished in 1:42:02.

While this is a really big PR, by about 90 seconds, I fully admit to being a bit disappointed. I was totally on pace. I felt great. There was just a little something missing. On the plus side, besides it being a big PR, I am fully confident that I can go under 1:40.

There are a few shout outs I want to give:

1. RayK who was off in Queen running a half and also in the Race for the Sub 1:40, ran a 1:40:31

2. Sharon, for running Queens on her BIRTHDAY!!!

3. Flo for her great 1:33:51 PR (and people Flo is 4748. This woman is a serious force)

4. Danielle, my childhood friend for finishing her first half yesterday

5.Kat who ran a PR of 1:45

6. and mostly, Loren who PRed by 2.5 minutes with a blistering 1:32:55 placing 13th in our age group out of 1100. 120th woman out of 6394. Loren's had a great running career and it's great to see her excited (even if she'll sorta deny it). This was Loren's 2nd half marathon and she totally surprised herself. She didn't surprise me. I figured that was about what she'd run. I'm totally proud of her.

Of course, my foot was killing me for the rest of the day (UGH) but is actually feeling much better today. Im not sore, just a little tired. I haven't fully decided on what I'll do this week yet. I am looking forward to the weeks post NYC marathon when I can take some time off from running completely and hopefully get 100% healthy.