Archive for January, 2009

Or rather, getting over it does.

I took yesterday off since all I could stomach on Tuesday was saltines, I knew I needed another day to rest up so I took it without hesitation.  I felt better into the evening and this morning I checked my resting HR to see if I was back to normal and surprise of surprises, it landed on a new low…45!  How fun is that?  I should get sick more often.

I’ll be venturing out for an easy something today, somewhere between 7 and 9, I’ll see once I’m out there.

I got my box of goodies from Runningwarehouse, which I can afford because I no longer buy civilian clothing or shoes.  I got my new model Inspires which are lighter than last year’s model and Elixir 4s, which are lighter by a smidge, but cute with a new mesh upper.  I’ll be taking the Inspires out today for a test run.  I’m thoroughly relieved that they and the Elixirs feel the same as the previous models, standing anyway, so hopefully running in them will be the same, too.

I also got my new small water bottle, which is perfect, about the size of my hand, so that’ll go out with me on the weekend.  Lastly, I got a new pair of light gloves because my Nike’s are fine but they’re basically thick polyester and I wanted some that feel less plasticy (my eyes always tear in the cold and wiping at them with Leisure Suit fabric sucks).   Test run on those today.

So yay, huge relief that this was a short bout (I’ll never forget last year’s chest crap that put me out for a few weeks) and normalcy is returned.   Have a great day, my friends!

Sunday was a 12-miler (8:43 avg. pace), giving me 52.2 miles for the week.  Then yesterday I ran 7 @ 8:19 (sped up in the middle with some 8:04s).  Last night my quads were feeling it, so today, hopefully, will be an easy run.

“Hopefully” because I woke up with diarrhea.  Very annoying, especially when I’ve only missed one day of running this month, a rest day taken before I uttered the word “streak”.    I’m on Jim’s page now though, and no longer see it as a streak, but my new 7 day/week schedule.  Still, it’d be nice to keep going since everything else feels fine.

Potential Double Pooh, too, because we’re expecting some major weather to begin this afternoon through tomorrow and I’m on track for a mileage record this month.  That’ll come through even if I miss a day though, so no big worry there.

What cheap entertainment, creating records just because I feel like it.  Running is so useful that way.

12pm edit:  Now my tummy feels like crap.   Looks like a rest day today. Why couldn’t this happen tomorrow when ice pellets are in the forecast? Sigh.

They’re up, though it took some sorting in Excel to figure out my standing since they’re ordered by prediction winners.

I was the 2nd woman and fifth finisher in the 3.08 run with a time of 21:46.  That works out to a 21:54 5K.  Woohoo!  Sayonara 22′s – it was short and sweet, but I hope we never meet again.

Now the question is, how much of that improvement was due to weight-loss (currently down 6 lbs.), how much was training and how much was not wearing a watch.  Crazy set of variables, huh?

The lack of watch could go either way.  I suspect the weight-loss had a substantial hand in it, but then again, I started running every day this month and have been doing those progression runs and keeping up the intervals…

Eh, who cares?  I’m getting faster.

What a blast: a funny race in a beautiful state park and for only $10.  Loved it.

So the deal is, you predict your time and the people closest to getting their prediction win awards.  No watches, Garmins or HR monitors allowed.

I’ve been changing my predicted time for the last couple days because I couldn’t figure out what to go for.  I knew I’d be slower without a watch, but by how much?  A few people ran it last week (it was cancelled due to it being 7 degrees, but some people showed up so they ran it) and the posted times were quite slow.  I didn’t know how much of that was the course and how much due to the cold that day, so by time I got to the race, I settled on a final prediction of 23:00.

As it turned out, all that goal musing was for naught because you weren’t allowed to change the prediction you put on your online registration form.  Oh well.  I had put 22:14, my last PR, so I knew that was going to be way off.

Before the race started, I got to meet up with my forum-buddy-race-friend Matt.  It’d been months since I’d seen him and he’s a real sweetie, so we had a quick chat before my warmup – a totally half-assed warmup because I only had 5 minutes before the gun.

Time to line up, we’re told to hold up our wrists to prove we were all watchless.  Snow starts falling, the gun goes off and we’re chasing a guy in a pickle suit who peels off quickly to take photos of everybody (I think he was one of the race directors).

Everybody starts together down the same path (paved bike trail) and then the people doing the longer trail run turn off, while the rest of us continue on the path.  Matt and I were both doing the 3.08 miler, so we ran together for about the first third, then I went on ahead.  There were some rolling hills and wind in spots, but nothing too bad.   One guy passed me near the beginning, as did a couple, but the couple went on to the trail portion, so I managed to keep my place from that point on.

I felt good, not dying, just a steady hard effort.  Turned the final corner, saw the clock and was shocked.  I’m not sure of my final time because I can’t remember if I saw 21:40 when I first spotted the clock or when I passed it, but I think that’s my final time.  I’m pretty sure whatever it was is the equivalent of a sub-22 5K, Final time: 21:46 (which comes out to a 21:54 5K).  Needless to say, I am one happy woman.

I was the 2nd woman overall on the 3.08 race portion, but didn’t win anything since it’s all about hitting your prediction.  Matt won a pickle wearing a sombrero and sitting in a beer glass (the pickle, not him), I think he was just 5 or 6 seconds from his prediction.  Monday is Take Your Pickle To Work Day, so he and the other winners were ordered to take photos of their pickles at work for the Pickle website.   Good times, good times.

Remember how I was going on about wearing my shoes till they got to 500?  Well, I’ve been feeling a little nervous about them since they’ve hit the 400s – I felt an ankle twinge on a couple mornings that disappeared when I wore my newest pair.

So today I did an experiment and put one new shoe (75 miles) on one foot and on the other foot, a 421-miled shoe.  It felt like I had a shorter leg.  Seriously, the old shoe was noticeably compressed.  My 364-miled shoe felt pretty close to the new one, but the 402-miled shoe was almost as bad as the 421. Thus, I tossed the 421 and 401 pair and kept the 364 (which I’ll throw out at 400 miles).

This left me no choice but to go on a shoe shopping spree at Running Warehouse.  Such fun, because both my Mizuno Inspires and lightweight Elixirs have new models (no complaints heard on either yet, knock on wood) and the women’s models are both lighter, so yay.

I also bought a small version (12 oz.) of my Amphipod handheld.  I’ve been ignoring hydration in these cold winter runs – haven’t felt the need to bring anything, but my longer runs could use something, so the little bottle looks perfect.  I might occasionally bring a gel on my long runs again, too, since I’ll have some water to down it with.

Temps look fine for Saturday’s Pickle, 26 degrees windchill, though I could do without the 15mph wind they’re calling for.  Not that it matters, it’s not a real race and I’m just going to go there with fun on my brain (hey, didn’t I give myself this same propaganda pep talk last week?).

On the run menu, yesterday I had 7 w/8 strides, avg pace 8:28.  And I forgot to post the pace on my 7.25 fartlek the other day – even with snowy footing at spots, a very zippy 8:13 avg.  Been a fast week, aside from the recovery run.

Today’s going to be 6 at a modest pace.  Since I’m not tapering for tomorrow, I figure I should at least make today a slower one.  It’ll be my shortest run since Xmas week, I seemed to have stopped doing 5s and 6s these days.

I will close this entry with an embarrassing admission:  I have been using my HR monitor more lately but haven’t been washing the strap when I get home, so over the last few days I’ve developed an annoying rash under my boobage area.   Little red bumps, not itchy, just hot and uncomfortable.  So I’m hereby going to be extra clean with my strap, and no monitoring for me till these little bumps go away.  Just when my HR info was getting interesting, too…

From short legs to rashy bumps.  I know, I know, my hawtness intimidates you.  Deal with it, people.

Philly Marathon next November.  I’m in.

I know, it’s quite a way aways, but I’m in Big Picture mode right now, filling out my schedule for the year, so it seems as good a time as any to commit.

Originally, I was all “I want my next marathon to be a destination race, sounds like such fun to travel to a race.”  I was also thinking about how much I loved the size of Steamtown and would prefer a similar sized small field.  But then I remembered that I’m lazy at heart, don’t like the pressure of finding the “perfect” race, and am not very motivated to travel, which made my decision pretty easy.

The Philly Marathon has so many plusses for me:  it’s my home running ground, it starts a couple blocks from my front door, my friends can come out and cheer me on and the course is pretty close to perfect as far as a few hilly bits but mostly flat.  Besides, Boston 2010 definitely applies as a destination race so I’ll be getting my travel in then.

What’s seriously fun though, is not having a clue what goal pace I’ll end up chasing.  I have my Half cycle ahead and when that’s over there’ll be about 3 months before marathon training begins, so a lot can and will happen between now and then.  It adds an element of titillation to the deal.

As for today’s run, a sweet 9-miler, avg pace 8:27.  I’ve said this before, but when I’m running well, I feel as though I’m dancing, grand jeté-ing myself back home.  That’s how it was today.  I felt light and beautiful.