Girl In Motion

An uneventful weekend, so I’ll just do a quickie here for your skimming pleasure.

Saturday was a 5-mile recovery run, which I’m learning to appreciate more these days, now that my quality runs are more purposeful.

Yesterday was 16 on a perfectly beautiful afternoon. Still thinking I have a shoe issue, since my legs, feet or knees begin to feel creaky after about 10, yet said niggles disappear after the run is over. So my mission this week is to find which of the running stores in my area do a full evaluation with a treadmill. When I went to Philadelphia Runners, there was no gait analysis and the salesman was a little unenthusiastic and not very insightful.

As for today, it’s a day of rest, then hopefully a tempo tomorrow, though it’s supposed to be windy - my absolute favorite condition for a hard effort. cough.

Looking ahead to this Sunday is my first mile time-trial, ever. I need to remain ambivalent about it as a barometer of fitness or speed, classifying it only as an amusing thing to do, since a few of my forum buddies will be there. But the chance of it making me all frowny is a definite possibility, despite my good intentions.

I’ve never tried to run a mile my fastest, and have a feeling I’ll be all over the place, too fast, slowing down, speeding up, slowing down. Plus, I’m not doing myself any favors by running a tempo on Tuesday and a speed session on Thursday, but seeing as how my goal 5K is on April 15th and Broad St. is right behind it, I can’t afford to change my schedule for a one-mile jaunt.

Hmmm, come to think of it, if it wasn’t for the forumite get-together, I’d bag it.

Do you hear that Matt? Do we really have to do it?
Signed: Your Attempting-To-Weasel-Out-Of-It Friend,

Flo
(who knows it’s ridiculous to worry about something that’ll take less than 7 minutes out of my life, but here I am doing it) Ambivalent, my ass.

Feeling drunk on it today! It appears my workouts are working.

Got out on this dark, rainy afternoon for a set of 6×880s. Happy to report, I am showing progress, not only in the speed of my intervals, but I also cut 30 seconds off my recoveries and even jogged them a tad faster than before.

Splits were 3:36, 3:39, 3:35, 3:40, 3:38, 3:35. And this includes some indigestion on the run for having eaten left-over Indian food about an hour before departing…because I’m stupid like that.

How satisfying to look upon my calendar and see I have 5 more quality days (3 tempos and 2 intervals or vice versa) until the Clean Air 5K. Add to that two 16-milers, a one-mile time-trial plus a handful of easy days and it all comes out to a useful block of development time before the big day.

And with that, my dear readers, I am on my way to the bathroom where a box of brown hair dye awaits. Yes, after 9 months of being various shades and stripes of blonde, I am going back to the old familiar color scheme. I dreamt about it last night and have been looking at old pictures, getting a little sentimental about that brunette I used to know.

So out with the new, back in with the old. Here I go for my extreme makeover. (Oh, Preference 5A Medium Brown, please don’t leave me looking like a big old bore…)

Twas one of those great running afternoons. It was tempo day today and since the last two I did were 5-milers, I thought instead of going up again, I’d do a faster 4-miler just for fun.

Before I went out, I reread portions of Daniels’ Running Formula online (thanks to the ole Electronic Resources my library offers). The first thing I wanted to check on was warmups, since I am forever stuck in the beginning runner’s head of “if I do too much warmup, won’t that steal from my remaining energy and make me tired sooner?” but as I read the pages on warming up, I started to see the light. Especially when he asks (paraphrasing here) that when you do intervals, don’t you usually feel better after the 2nd or third one? Why yes, Jack Daniels, I do!

So today, instead of doing my usual one-mile warmup for tempo and then bing, jumping into tempo pace, I did a two mile warmup with the last mile gradually speeding up, so the tempo pace was less of a shock to the system. Very good, I liked it.

Tempo over and it’s time to implement another Daniels suggestion, adding in strides during cooldown.

Now, reading that I thought, “What the?? I’m going to be too pooped to do strides, not to mention I’ll have done that extra warmup mile so I’ll probably be super-pooped right there”, but no - ole Dr. Daniels knows his stuff. The strides actually “woke me up” during the cooldown, gave my legs a little energy back. Seems totally antithetical but there you have it.

So I’m feeling happy and strong right now, so much so that I finally ordered Daniels’ Running Formula from Amazon because it’s really the last important running book missing from my library and nothing beats a hard copy. I also ordered Running Within, less life and death but worthy of owning and more importantly, it qualified me for free shipping.

Next on the agenda? Taking a stroll to Whole Foods to buy some good rolls…we’re grilling hamburgers tonight. Spring is in the air!

Devoid of religion as I am, this year I celebrated Easter the best way I know how: stuffing my face with Robins Eggs, Whoppers (because the Robin’s Eggs coating seem mildly toxic, an opinion I established after eating the entire bag), Reese’s Pieces and to cap a wonderful Saturday date-night with Nick, we stopped at our local diner for a slab o’ German Chocolate Cake.

A thoroughly satisfying holiday.

Friday night was happy hour with our friend Yvonne and the groupette of the week (she’s our resident event planner, always creating a party out of her huge list of friends). We went to a hipster bar where a couple of Jameson Whiskey girls wasted a couple hours of their lives going around the room offering shots and letting the patrons roll dice for a prize. I won some Jameson branded breath-strips. Seriously.

Saturday was a 5-mile recovery run after Friday’s intervals, then later the fabulous Date Night occurred. We’ve decided to make more of an effort to have them, because we really do have a good time out with each other - dressing up a little, talking about the people around us, eating good food and then going home for some drunken antics.

The latter bit caused me to tweak my hip a tad, though (why do I get all my injuries this way?) so yesterday’s long run was interesting. It was a 14-miler that I decided to do as a progression run.

I started the run at 9:15 pace and finished at 8:28. Felt really good about it, despite my niggling hip. Additionally, I came to the conclusion that my 2130s are not the fab shoes I want them to be - my suspicions were confirmed when my right arch started smarting, as it usually does after about 10 miles. I’ve tried lacing them tighter or looser but alas, it’s the way they are (or my foot is).

Luckily, I have 3 other pairs of shoes with varying degrees of mileage so I can use my 2120s for long runs, but I need to get fitted for a different shoe soon since a couple pairs are nearing the 400 mile mark.

But what was interesting about this run was that belly breathing thing I keep yammering on about. I didn’t pay much attention to it at the first half of the run, but when I started speeding up, my hip and arch were beginning to really irritate so I moved my attention to breathing which turned out to be a smart move.

I felt myself straighten up, get less tired of all things, and it wasn’t long until I did a body check and realized my arch and hip weren’t hurting anymore! I’m cynical enough to know that it wasn’t the magic of breathing per se, more likely the simple distraction of thinking about something else, but that’s cool! Whatever it takes.

I finished the run on a high note and today, even though I don’t feel my hip at all, I’m taking the day off before tomorrow’s tempo run. I want to be more prudent with rest so that my quality runs are full-on qualitastic from here on in. No tired legs for me.

So that’s the weekend in a nutshell. Hope you guys had a good one, too!

Just a quickie. Speedwork today in gusting wind by the river, 6×880s. Fastest intervals so far, I didn’t walk once during recoveries, and the whole time I ran, I made a point to talk nicely to myself. I told myself I was fluid, relaxed, like water flowing through the wind and you know what? It made a huge difference in my attitude and physicality.

I’m sold.

I had such a great run today, an easy 9 after an 8 w/5@tempo yesterday. I didn’t think it was going to be such a fun run, considering that the wind is unrelenting today and that is always cause for alarm to me. Not sure why, it’s not like wind physically hurts me but I seem to fear it as if it will.

So what was different? Well, this morning I partook of my local Library’s electronic resources and read a cool book online, “Running Within” by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott. It’s about the mental aspects of running, stuff that usually has me rolling my eyes this way and that, because I suck at visualization and affirmation-type stuff, cynical wench that I am.

But this book had some points that grabbed me immediately, especially since I’ve been honing my skills at negative self-talk for a while now; during races, on training runs, pretty much wherever I can practice a hit of demoralization, I have been.

Apparently though, I have the power to stop it, and today, I did. Using one of the suggestions in the book, to write all the crappy stuff you say to yourself and turn it around into a positive affirmation using the present tense, I saw in black and white what I’ve been saying to myself…sheesh!

So, taking one of my bon mots, “I’ve stopped improving”, I wrote down this affirmation, “I’m a baby in this sport and have years of dropping times ahead of me.” Another one was “My posture sucks” which I responded with, “My form is strong and beautiful.”

No, I didn’t rhyme the affirmations the way the author suggests, because there’s a limit to my sense of irony, but what I came up with feels like something I can work with.

I must say, the book is extremely uplifting and makes you realize the dirt you tell yourself is just that, dirt. So today I was going to be running in my most hated weather, heavy wind. That in mind, I traded the message, “I hate the wind” with “I cut through wind like a knife.” And you know what? I did! OK, so maybe a 118 lb. butter knife, but it felt good, all the same.

Sure, it’s all mental, but isn’t that a gazillion percentage of running anyway? And as I was being pushed backwards on one stretch by the river today, I had a smile that would not stop. I felt strong and healthy and despite the hold the wind had on me, I knew it was a gust that would end and I’d be forward bound in no time. Not only did that hold true, but I had a really fast time for the run overall!

Here’s another happy thing that went on during today’s run: I’m an allergy sufferer and have been using Flonase (not because of it’s ultra-fabu name, but because my doctor recommended it). I’ve been bad with it, and not using it regularly because it seemed to lose it’s magic.

Then I saw an ad for a free trial of Veramyst which is kind of the same thing, but not exactly. This stuff rocks! I actually ran for a lot of my run today breathing through my nose, just because I could. So if you’re an allergy sufferer, go to the Veramyst site, they’ll send you a coupon for your first prescription for free (full-size even - $73 worth!).

One more deal; if any of you have Comcast and have had it for a while, call them and tell them Direct TV has been sending you offers that make you want to switch. Nick did it yesterday and within one minute, he got a “customer retention” deal that gives us Showtime, Encore, Starz and whatever else is left (we already had HBO) for $40 less than he was paying. Brain rot, here we come…

Been thinking about the race, mulling over some bits I left out.

Something I didn’t want to admit because it touches a self-conscious nerve, especially because there’s a thread going on about this in the Marathon Race Training forum…

Well, you know how I’ve been placing in some local races? I get a few rows back, but not too far, because in a non-chipped race it’s the gun that counts.

So this was a fast race runner-wise, faster than any I’ve been in, though I didn’t know it at the time. As one of the fastest local Masters said in his blog, he never found the course to be as fast as advertised, but the competition is. His 16:45 (the guy did a Half the preceding weekend) got him 44th place. There were 9 sub 15s, 15 sub 16s - and this with 623 finishers.

Anyway, getting back to my shame, Lara and I lined a good clump of rows back, there were women in front of me that looked like they had a plan, and enough who didn’t behind me, so that’s pretty much how we ended up.

The gun goes off and with it a time lag before movement is even possible. Within a second or two some big guy, I’d say in his 50s, comes charging from the back and hits me outright, knocking me sideways into some people (as he does everyone in his path), yelling angrily about getting out of his way.

Lara, who was until that point, next to me, was oblivious to what happened, and while I’m falling, the runners he pushes me into get mad, thinking I’m just carelessly barreling ahead. I’m apologizing while scrambling to right myself, then have to surge to get back up next to Lara. It was really fucked up.

I mean, truth be told, I felt really really bad, like I’d totally messed with this guys race and therein lies my shame. However! Why did he stand so far back? There was a good clump ahead of us and no one was able to move before he came charging through. Then again, I should have known this was a fast race and gone farther back myself. But yet, I did not need to be hit, the guy was an asshole. Good cop, bad cop. Aaargh.

All I know is, that’s a really shitty way to start a race - tense and panicky. And as I’m writing this, I’m beginning to put two and two together, because I’m remembering my arms. Throughout the race, my arms felt incredibly heavy. I carried so much tension in them that they actually hurt and I shook them out a couple times. That’s a new one on me - usually it’s my jaw and shoulders. I think the breathing thing relaxed my upper body so I transferred the tension to my arms, that or I was still in defense mode from being pushed. It was weird.

So that was the negative thing that happened. On a good note (besides the fun time I had overall), I did not once feel like puking, which I usually do near the end of a race. Also, the horrendously ugly green tech shirts they gave us (which, as usual, are in mens sizes so way too big for most women…why must they do that?) was diminished by the fact that Brooks was there giving away free black tech shirts (cute ones!) that came in XS, so I got a wearable shirt out of it after all.

Then the other cool thing was that Lara informed me that we need to do Powerball because the jackpot was $275 million. So when we get back to Philly, we go to this neat place called “Check Cashing.”

If you’ve never been in a Check Cashing store, yes, they are as disgusting as you imagine; smoky, wads of trash on the floor, miscreants everywhere and you know it’s a house of addiction when the lady behind the bullet-proof window giving out the tickets is, at the same time, filling out her own lottery cards. I mean, she’s there the whole damn day. Must be an expensive job.

But anyway, we got our tickets then went next door to the huge Asian market that recently opened where, at Lara’s advice, I bought some White Rabbits, yummy asian candy that I can only hope are not laced with battery acid or antifreeze or whatever the Chinese are exporting in food these days.

So there you have it, a little fleshing out of the day. Oh, and for the record, neither of us won Powerball - but there’s always a next time.

1 second.

No joke, 1 stinkin’ second for a new PR of 23:29. But before you think I’m all down about it (well sure, I’m a little unhappy) the course wasn’t as flat as my previous 5K, so it’s not a complete “what the fuck?!” - just a partial one.

I was 5th in my age group, 45-49, as was Lara in hers, 35-39, with a new GGPR (see comments) of 23:58…and she’s mainly a bicycle chick, so she rocked!

Meanwhile, I tried to do the belly breathing thing the whole way, but it’s something I need to work on. I still heard myself breathing noisily throughout, but less gaspiness, more exhaliness, so it was a less irritating improvement.

Speaking of improvements, my next 5K is 5 weeks away and I am bound and determined to work hard on speed in the meantime. Five weeks isn’t a huge block of time, but a concerted effort with intervals simply has to bring a meatier PR come April 19th. Famous last words.

Btw, I wore my HR monitor during this race, which I haven’t worn since my first race last April. I hit a max HR of 190, same as the high I’d recorded before, again reinforcing the fact that those silly calculations of 220-age are totally bogus. But then, you knew that, right?

Lastly, I would be so over-the-moon stinkin’ happy if once, just once, I’d remember to stop my Garmin after a race. It hasn’t happened yet, so I highly doubt it’s even possible, but I’ll be dreaming of that great day as something to achieve in the future.

And with that, I’m signing off to play with my new Time Master time calculator that just came in the mail. How I love a new toy!

Did a short 3 with strides today as a taper for Saturday, using my new-found “belly breathing” method from yesterday’s post. I think this is for me - felt like I was getting more air into my body and it had a sense of relaxation to it. And need I say? No cramp.

An interesting bit of useless information is that while I usually run with a 2-2 pattern (2 steps inhale, 2 exhale…not because I’m trying, it’s just something I notice), I realized today that by focusing on the exhale, I was exhaling 3 and inhaling 2, which was kind of weird.

I’d like to have tried it for longer and with a chunk of speed beyond strides, but I’m trying to behave taperwise, so today’s taste will have to do.

Tomorrow I rest and then a little racy-poo on Saturday. Fun, fun fun!

Late Edit: Read Dave’s comment in Light Bulb Moments for a very cool addition about breathing.

Last Thursday, I woke up with a cramp that felt exactly like a side-stitch you get when running. It hurt a lot merely to be sitting and when I sneezed? Soooo painful. That day I had an interval session, and the funny thing was that as soon as I started running, the cramp disappeared, then when I got home, it was back…the anti-side-stitch, as it were.

Meanwhile, it’s been hanging around for days, but diminished to almost nothing while sitting. Instead, it’s begun to infiltrate my runs, though not during the meat of the run or fast stuff - just during slow cooldown miles.

So today I go out for a recovery jog and get the cramp almost from the start (and I was doing 10min/miles!). I suffered through the run for about 4 miles trying everything: bending, straightening, exhaling on the left footfall, raising my arm, pressing the area, stopping entirely (temporary fix), but nothing was working.

Then I tried something that I must have hinted at during the “exhale on the left foot” attempt…I started forcefully exhaling to the point where I could hear the air huff out of me, like some weird Lamaze class. And in no time at all, I felt the cramp subside till it was gone entirely. That was the first light bulb. But wait, there’s more!

For just three easy payments of $19.95… No seriously, there is more.

Because remember in my 10K report, I mentioned how I was gasping for air and embarrassed by the sound? Well, today I realized that by accentuating the exhale, the inhale takes care of itself and gasping is no longer an option! It’s not physically possible.

So I get back from my run and immediately go on the net, finding an article from a book that explains this stuff perfectly. Took me a minute to realize I already own this book! It’s Programmed to Run by Thomas Miller. I bought it for tips on running form, totally ignoring the section on breath. That’ll teach me to read selectively.

Anyway, here’s the article, and a telling paragraph:

The next opportunity you have to watch a roadrace, observe the breathing techniques of the frontrunners, the midpackers, and the tail-enders as they near the finish line. Typically, the leaders breathe with short, forceful exhales and quiet inhales. The midpackers begin to gasp as they start their drive to the finish. These runners suck in harder as they try to breathe more deeply. Finally, the slowest runners often don’t change their effort or breathing at all.

Looks like I’ve got some experimenting to do on tomorrow’s run. And if it works like I think it will, I may or may not have my fastest 5K this Saturday, but it will certainly be my quietest!