The Frugal Runner is back again, this time with a tip borne out of this morning’s hamstring injury.

I got home, made my blog post and immediately set about following good ole RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  I managed R, I and E with no problem, but what to do about C?  The only compression things I have are for the ankle, so I looked around the apartment for a McGuyvery-type alternative (because after limping home 4.25 miles, the last thing you want to do is hobble over to the drugstore).

I tried wrapping a towel: too bulky.  My homemade neck gaiter: too big.  Then it hit me…the lingerie drawer!  Aha!!  I have a bunch of old tights and pantyhose that I wasn’t going to be wearing in the foreseeable future, if ever, so I started pulling out stuff, ending up with a pair of thick black tights and an old pair of Leggs Sheer Energy Pantyhose, especially perfect because they’re support hose, so they’re thicker and tighter – in fact, I think they’re from when I started running (which I feel the need to mention because I’m not a supp-hose type of gal).  Anyway…

You’ll want 2 pairs.  Take the hose/tights and cut the panty part off and the toes, so you’re left with 4 tubes.

These are it!  Depending on how tight they are and what area you need to support (I’m mostly hamming it up here, though I wanted the top of my calf, too), the toe end is usually smaller so if you want to favor the thigh, pull the toe end up first.  Also, put the looser tubes on first, which in my case are the black tights.  Lastly, ask your wife’s permission before you go cutting up her stuff.  Et voila!

Not the prettiest thing but dang if it doesn’t work well – I’m a sausage!  So there you go.  R-I-C-E.  Done.

Wow.  I had an extremely boring post ready to go, then wouldn’t you know, something happened on my run to spice it up.  Just not in the good way.

The irony was I woke up feeling like a million bucks, my ankle has been great for the past few days thanks to going back to full-dosing on the Glucosamine and changing brands.  Suddenly, that dark cloud hanging over me since April was finally receding for real.

And yesterday I had the pleasure of running with a fellow blogger, MarathonMaiden, who was in Philly for job training.  She’s sweet as can be and it’s always a blast meeting someone you’ve come to know online, in the flesh.  We happened to run into each other in the park this morning, too, which put a huge smile on my face.

So I was feeling great for today’s tempo workout: 9 miles with 10 min@Half pace, 10min@15k pace, 10 min@10k pace, w/2 min. rec’s. between each.  Even though the weather was pure suckage (79 w/dewpoint 75), I felt confident about it and completed the first portion only 5 seconds over my “if the weather wasn’t pure suckage” pace, so 7:15/mi.  About halfway into the second portion is when it happened.

In the blink of a hamstring
I’ve heard the injury description “it felt like I’d been shot” , and while I’ve been held up by a gun-wielding man before, he didn’t actually use it, so I can’t say that’s how it felt.  And I imagine that if I was shot, I’d start crying and this didn’t make me cry, but damn, it was an instant shock of pain.  If we were to compare it to imagined weaponry, I’d say it felt like I got tasered.

That was the end of that tempo.  That was the end of that run.  It hurt too much to do anything but limp home, 4.25 miles.

I stopped once to feel along the leg and check for swelling, there wasn’t (and still isn’t yet) but while I ran my fingers over the area, I felt the taser again, so now I’m reticent to even touch it.  I’m not even familiar enough with where it is on my leg because I don’t want to feel that feeling again, but it’s somewhere above the crook of my knee.  Time for a Google injury hunt, woohoo…

So now it remains to be seen what damage has been done.  I’m sitting on my huge pillow-sized icepack while I write this.  This was a cutback week and tomorrow, thankfully, was a scheduled rest day anyway.  I’m just worried that this is a “real” injury.  If so, I’m screwed.  So I’m not going there mentally yet.  Ice and NSAIDS will be my BFFs for the next couple days and we’ll see what Sunday brings.  Definitely not a long run, that’s for sure.

Never a dull moment.

11am Edit: OK, feeling way better already.  I’m not limping one bit and it doesn’t hurt unless I stretch it by mistake.  Consider it a comma, not a full stop!

Heya folks, hope you had a good weekend with some fine running and other entertaining escapades.  My weekend brought a recovery 6 on Saturday and then yesterday, a 14-miler w/5 progression to Half pace, closing a 61mi week.

The 14 went well, though the progression was peppered with that negative brain chatter I can’t seem to stop.  “I’m afraid I can’t” or “I should be doing this better” does not help me, yet it’s constantly there for anything more than easy or recovery pace.  So I beseech the Running Gods, “Please, please, let this cycle crack the plateau and give me back some confidence.  Just a little something – like one of those runs I used to have where you’re going so fast but it feels mysteriously easy, or you average a wickedly low heart rate or gee I could do 3 more of those…something.”  please?

Or another thing those ole Running Gods could do is get rid of my ankle annoyance, which disappeared while I was Ibuprofening my groin last week, but now that I’m au naturel, it’s back and ain’t going anywhere.  Which leads me to this weekend’s entertaining little DIY project…

Ice Packs!
OK, so yeah, a bag of frozen peas makes a usable icepack.  But my favorite ice pack ever was a slushy gel one – it molded perfectly to the body’s nooks and crannies and seemed colder than anything.  Alas, I left it with Nick when we split, so lately I’ve been making do with a half-empty bag of crappy tasting green beans.

I’ve been wanting a proper ice pack, though – something sturdier and “real”, so I was looking around the web on Saturday and not liking the price tags on the fancy ones, when I happened upon a recipe for making your very own slush ice pack!

The Recipe
3 parts water and 1 part rubbing alcohol.  That’s it!

Pour the mixture into a ziplock (with at least one other one around it for leak insurance) or better yet, and what I did, get one of those comic strip looking ice packs at the drugstore because they don’t leak or sweat like a Ziplock will.  Stick it in the freezer overnight and voila!

Here’s my funny rubber icepack and some extra I put in a ziplock.  It’s green because I got wintergreen rubbing alcohol.  And it’s huge because I tried someone’s recipe of 2:1 which resulted in a very liquidy mix so I had to add a ton more water.

The rubber thing was definitely a good purchase ($11, but you can get them for 1/2 that online), it’s super sturdy and retains the cold well. As for attaching these (or any other ice packy thing) to a body part, I use a velcro IT Band strap I bought last year during my IT Band drama.  It makes a good clincher, but you can use a scarf, too.

Little tip on the recipe: if you want it to be less slushy, increase the water ratio – for a softer pack, add more alcohol.  Also, it’s toxic, so don’t go serving it in a daiquiri glass by mistake.

Had a good run this morning: 10mi w/8x2min fartleks (rests averaged about 1:30).  Fine effort for the weather.  And the groin was blessedly silent thanks to the Vitamin I regime.  I’m glad to go off it though, bloats me up something fierce.

Couple things on my mind today:

It’s astounding how much we become party to the life and death of people we’d never have known if not through the internet.  The world has become so much smaller, happier and tragic because of it.

Don’t know if any of you know the RW forumite Mere Runner.  I got to meet her in March at the Shamrock Marathon and we’re FB friends. She’s a 30-year old, super fast, sweet girl of a runner and she got married 3 short months ago.  The thing is, her husband had cancer and last night, he died.  I don’t know why I’m sharing this, maybe some of you know her, but it really killed me to hear it.  It’s just so insanely heartbreaking.

The other thing I wanted to mention was I think I need a new forum home.  I’m fed up with some of the pricks on MRT at the Runners World forums.  There’s a glaring lack of empathy for others and the resident “good ole boy” network is a carnival of rampant egos – a total dick-sucking contest.  This is nothing new, btw, it’s always been like that, but where I used to find it entertaining, now it’s just annoying.

I’ll still post in the Sub 3:20 thread because those folks are top-of-the line fabulous and true friends, but aside from that, where to go?  I’m thinking of checking in with the Masters or maybe I should check out RunningAhead or maybe I should just skip forums altogether.  I don’t participate as much as I used to and am not sure I want to share on a daily basis anymore.  Anyway, that’s what’s going through my head.

Other than that, I’m going to a party tomorrow and when I asked Deb, the hostess, “So…any single men coming?” Deb replied, “Nobody that doesn’t have a reason to be.”  Hah!  But damn.

Tomorrow I have an odd voiceover job, a narration for a plastic surgery learning module.  It’s kind of depressing reading over the script and learning there is an actual mathematical ratio for beauty called the “divine proportion”.  The funny/sad thing is that the people using this information will contribute to the growing number of faces that resemble aliens from a distant planet.

Anyway, it raises my hackles reading it (akin to doing a commercial for cigarettes) though at the same time, it’s admittedly fascinating.  I can’t write too much about it for confidentiality, but the whole first half of the script is basically a sales pitch for being beautiful.  So many Pros! -  higher pay in the workplace, the ability to win more arguments, plus you get more help from strangers.

My non-divinely mathematical eyes are rolling outta my head.  Though it sucks that it’s true.

A Little Blog Help, Please
No biggie and I don’t need everybody’s help, just those who are kind enough to subscribe to this blog and any of you fab Bloggers who link it on your blogrolls.

Here’s the deal:  Remember a few months ago, when I got my hands on the domain girlinmotion.com so I could lose the dashed version, girl-in-motion.com?  The switchover was fine except for one thing: I (and my hosting company) am not able to get the RSS feed redirected properly.

This means I have 2 identical feeds:  the original www.girl-in-motion.com/feed with the bulk of my subscribers and www.girlinmotion.com/feed with 30 newer ones.   I need to consolidate  you guys but can’t do it without your assistance.

Additionally, as long as the original girl-in-motion.com is linked around the interwebs, I’m stuck having to hold onto that extra domain name.  I’ll eventually dump it permanently and when I do, those links aren’t going to work anymore.

The Request
Blog Subscribers: I’d be grateful if you could add a subscription to www.girlinmotion.com/feed (or click here to do it) and then delete your old subscription.

Blog Owners: if you’ve got me linked on your blog, just edit the link from www.girl-in-motion.com to www.girlinmotion.com.  That’s it!

Thank you!

Feed Readers Are Cool
If you don’t read your blogs through a reader, I highly recommend it, it makes blog reading a lot easier and faster: you don’t have to check to see if your favorite blogs have updated, they’ll appear in the reader as soon as there’s a new entry…plus it’s free.  I’ve tried a couple and my favorite is Google’s, it seems to update fastest.

And that’s it for the day.  Saved you from having to hear about how damn hot it is here again.  Oh OK – really fucking hot.  Groin pull is getting better though, should be good for quality on Friday.  Yay, life goes on.

No, this is not another tired video about running drills, nutrition or hill sprints.  It’s time to get real and tackle the truly important subjects that we, as runners, must face on a daily basis in an effort to make a difference in the sport.  Like neatening up your headphone cord.

Note: I feel it’s important to remain consistent in the videos I present to you, so I made sure you get the same low quality you’ve come to expect.  You even get an added bonus with this one because I didn’t realize auto-focus was changing the lighting, so crossing my fingers…no epileptic seizures for you!   Until I get paid for this shyte, I’m not sweatin’ the particulars – it’s just fun.

Btw, if you want better quality, change the settings on the video from 360p to 480p (at the bottom of the YouTube playback window…it’ll sound way better).

Got My Insurance Bill
…via email today from the heatstroke 5K.
Hospital charges for ER + one-night stay: $34,988 (plus $600 in incidentals)
What the insurance company turns it into: $4760 (gee, somebody must know someone)
What they’re charging me: $150 in copays and another $150 for the releasing doctor to say I could leave.  The second $150 is total bullshit (I’m appealing it), as is the whole inflated pricing system.  I really don’t get the health system and never will.

The Sleep Nazi’s New Gadget
I’m loving my new-found affair with sleep – I swear, I feel rejuvenated and motivated again (thus the new video).   This is serious stuff!

So wouldn’t you know, after 7 months of nobody living above me, I finally got a new neighbor: a sweet, petite young woman who volunteered she’s “never around”…music to my ears.  That said, although she steps way lighter then the asshole did, the floors are always going to creak and I can hear stuff through the walls (not just hers).

So…I ordered this very cool white noise machine.  It’s got 1000 reviews and people love the thing – many of them apartment dwellers with my exact scenario.  Granted, I’m not thrilled about replacing sound with sound, but if it makes sleeping easier and deeper, I’m all for it.  I’ll keep you posted when I get it.

The Hot Week Ahead
It’s going to be a challenge with another heatwave of 100s and 90s.  I also pulled something in my groin on Saturday’s run which is still hanging about despite yesterday’s rest day, so hopefully it’ll be fine by the time I need to run hard, though considering the temps, we’ll see how hard “hard” is.  I had to bag my hill sprints today which bummed me out, but I’ll do them later in the week.

Be careful everyone, get out there early as you can, drink up and don’t be macho with your paces.