Girl In Motion

Today was one of the scariest runs in the book, 12 w/7 tempo.  There’s been a fun and interesting discussion on RW about this particular run, a lot of controversy because the general definition of a tempo run is what you can race in 1 hour, even Pfitzinger says so a couple times in Advanced Marathoning.  So 7 miles of tempo would be really overdoing it for someone like me with a 3:40 marathon goal.

However, while he says the 1-hour thing a few times in his book, he states much more often that tempos should be run at a pace between 15K and Half race pace, which, unless you’re planning on a 3:01 marathon, makes the 1 hour definition moot.  There are LT pace charts at the back of the book that support the 15K-Half paces over the 1-hour definition.  Anyway, all this chat did nothing to deter me, but it did have me seriously mulling over my goal for today.

I could use Daniels’ pace for a 7 mi tempo at my projected MP, which would be 8:17, but he’s on the slow end of the scale and since I’d done my last 6 at 8:02, 8:17 seemed laggardly.  On the other hand, with the Distance Run on the near horizon, it made a lot of sense to use my projected goal Half pace, giving it some extra gas if I had it and I knew I’d have some because this morning was set to be beautifully cool.  Good temps had to account for something and was the only reason I wasn’t quite as nervous about today as I might have been.

Considering I won’t be tapered for PDR and will be running a 20 the weekend before, I figured sticking with 8:02 for the Half pace sounded reasonable.  That equates to a 1:45 Half.

So out I go, in love with the 63-degree temperature, and start with 3 easy because 2.5 gets me to the last water fountain and there was no way on earth I was going to stop during the fast miles.  I start the tempo, ramping up a bit on the first mile, ending up with an 8:09 average.  Hmmm, it’s a start,  but I had more in the tank today, so I got into a groove and ended up kicking 8:02 out of the park.

Tempo splits were: 8:09, 7:45, 7:49, 7:49, 7:53, 7:52, 7:49.  My average?  7:52! Woo-fucking-hoo!!!  I just gave myself an unofficial new 10K PR!

Two cooldown miles later - a comfortable 9:05 avg. that included stopping at the water fountain - I’m feeling like everything I’m working towards isn’t as nebulous as I (too often) imagine.  The training is coming together as it should.  What an overwhelming relief.

Another night of 4.5 hours sleep to get up early enough to beat the heat, or the illusion of beating it - in these temps, taming it is the best you can do. Like every night before a challenging run, I get a little excited of what the morning will bring and today with 11 miles and a 6 mile tempo thrown in the middle, was no exception.

I left the house at a really easy 10:18 which is funny in itself, since last year when I finally got into the 9s, I wouldn’t dare do 10 anything from that point on. Seriously, it wasn’t till this training cycle, when I’m trying to follow the correct way to T, that I’m finally going slower so I can go faster and by golly, the shit’s working!

I would have liked to have to started the tempo at 2 miles in, but because there are few fountains in the park and I didn’t want to interrupt the tempo portion if I could, I started at mile 3 so I could get my last sip at the fountain before the doing the deed. As usual, with these long Pfitz tempos, when I’m finishing that last warmup mile, I ask myself how in hell am I going to be able to do this, it’s almost 2 minutes faster that what I’m doing now and I’m not walking. Waaaahhhh.

Internal tantrums aside, I kicked it! Yuh-huh! My tempo avg was 8:02, splits were 8:05, 8:03, 8:02, 7:57, 8:04, 8:05. On an 80 degree morning with a thimble of sleep…I’ll take it!

One thing that helped is, you know I’d been leaving my music turned off recently? Last night I made a playlist especially for today’s run. I’ve been downloading a lot of fun stuff anyway, so I put 4 of the slower songs at the top, then a transition song, then the good stuff took me through the tempo. Favorite songs from this round are Idlewild’s “You Held The World In Your Arms” (not a great video, but the song is infuckingcredible) and Carolina Liar’s “Show Me What I’m Looking For”
(talk about an anthem! who wouldn’t want to run to those chimes, that choir…ah!).

Other than that, most of you probably know about the drama thread at RW since that’s where the bulk of you guys come from anyway and that thing sent over a ton of people yesterday. Anyway, just an amusing note about it all, a do-gooder poster let me know that he reported the thread yesterday to the admins because he thought the OP was a little unstable. I understood, but wanted the truth to be out, so didn’t really want the thread removed.

As it happens, the only fallout from the admins was a PM for me today, admonishing me for cussing in a thread with one of my oh-so-clever workarounds (in this case “fuc-king”, and if you see it in context, it’s completely justified). Actually I was pretty proud of that one (looks better than schit which I write for shit), but that’s cool. I understand their point. Happily, I have no such rules on this blog, so I want to say this (and I mean it in only the nicest possible way)…have a fucking fabulous Friday, each and every one of you. Later, babies.

Had a great weekend hanging with my friends and doing activities. We got a little culture in, going to Olana, home of the famous landscape artist Frederic Church where we took a house tour. Admittedly, I’m not much of a history maven, so I was just happy the place was air-conditioned. Afterwards we went to Mama Mia! which Nick and I pretty much despised, though the rest of the group liked it. I think Abba is pretty high on the genius scale as far as pop-songwriting, so the familiar tunes were the only thing that kept me from wanting to poke its movie eyes out.

Got back to Philly yesterday afternoon and I’m happy to say I’ve already completed today’s hot, miserable tempo run - 10 w/5 tempo. You know it’s trouble when it’s 81 degrees out at 5:30 am.  It was 6:15 when I got outside.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to dreading this workout. I mean, tempos are hard on their own, without being couched between 5 extra miles. Ordinarily I’d do all but one of the regular miles up front, then the tempo, leaving a single mile left for cooldown, but it wasn’t going to get cooler and I figured I’d better get the tempo crap done sooner rather that later, so 3 miles, then the 5 tempo, then 2 sluggish miles at the end.

The tempo was good, near the top I passed a guy going the other way and when I turned around, he was ahead but pretty much even with my pace, so I used him as a carrot. Then he walked so I passed him, stopping later at a fountain and when the tempo portion ended, the guy (very nice Brit) caught up and ran next to me, saying he hoped it was ok that he’d been pacing off me. I think he was afraid I’d think he’d been stalking me, but I laughed and said, “sure!”

I gave myself a pass as far as pace because the heat was undeniable. My tempo miles averaged 8:10, and according to Glover or Daniel’s accounting for heat, that’s equal to 16 to 22 seconds faster, so actually pretty darn good! I stopped 4 times at the fountains - once before the tempo, once during and twice after, that last time I pretty much parked myself there for 30 seconds, couldn’t get enough! I admit to stopping my clock today at every fountain stop, better that than feeling rushed and not drinking enough.

I brought music with me but during the first tempo mile felt it was slowing me down so I tucked my ear buds away. I’m turning the music off or leaving it at home more often lately but I think it’s mainly because I need some new stuff. That’s the good thing about car trips…Nick has XM in his car so I write down songs I like and get them at Napster or Itunes when I get home. Got a handful to download from this weekend’s trip so I suppose it’s time to refresh the soundtrack to my running life. Later, kids.

80 degrees and humid but what else should I expect?

Today’s Pfitzinger madness entailed 9 miles with 4@tempo, so I did 4 at regular pace, then the 4 tempo miles (8:13, 8:03,8:04,7:55 for 8:03avg), then one last mile back at normal pace. Nothing amazing, but considering the temps, I’m happily satisfied.

What else is going on? Well, I do have something in the works that I’ll be ready to announce (hopefully) by the end of the week. It’s keeping me excited and busy and industriously occupied, but you’ll just have to live with that tease for now.

Oh, I had a depressing shorts-searching expedition the other day, where I tried on tons of shorts looking for a cute pair of black ones, but it was a scene from Goldilocks, everything was too big, too small or fit weird. So I ordered 4 pair online, thinking one of them has to work. Et Voila! These Reebok shorts were the hands-down winners. A little pricey but they have a back pocket and a great inseam length. I’ll be taking them out for my mid-long on Thursday, so we’ll see how they do. I’m mistrustful after the Nike Pacer fiasco.

But the funny thing about this is I sheepishly asked my UPS guy yesterday, who is just the sweetest soft-spoken fellow, “Do I get the most deliveries on my block? I do, don’t I?”. He told me that I’m tied with two others, which cracked me up. At least I’m not the official worst. Yet.

Glad that’s over. :-)

I was doing my best not to fear today’s run (8 w/4 tempo) but was admittedly kinda nervous because, aside from strides, it’s the fastest I’ve run since my 10-mile race on May 4th, not to mention my mileage has been whacked drastically since then.

Additionally, looking at Pfitzinger’s schedule the other day, I realized that while some things seem easier to me (one hard run a week instead of the two I’d been doing), he adds a level of difficulty by padding those quality runs with some extra miles, so today’s run had 3 warmup miles instead of my usual 1 or 2. Pooh. I like to get rid of hard workouts as quickly as possible, but Pfitz would prefer us to suffer more. Oh well.

I aimed for the conservative side of the range, figuring 8:00 would be doable. Ended up with an 8:01 average, so I’m feeling good about it. This is my first hard workout in ages, so I’ll get back to my April tempo speed before too long, I’m sure.

Aside from the tempo run, I forgot to mention that on vacation, while running on a Holiday Inn Express treadmill and simultaneously admiring myself in the mirror, I realized that those comfortable sports bras I’ve got a zillion of are comfortable because they suck. My boobs were losing more calories than my body was, they were flapping around so much. So last night I finally weeded all offending undergarments from my drawer. It was an uplifting experience. Yuck yuck. Now on to Target to replenish my supply…

…when Jesus Guy is back on his bench. Same two pictures, too.

You also know it’s summer when I either set my alarm or have Nick wake me to get out early enough before the sun’s in full force. Speaking as a spoiled, self-employed individual, it’s a testament to my obsession that I’d voluntarily set an alarm clock for anything, much less running.

It was worth the early rising today, had a great run - 8 w/6@tempo. I usually do 4-mile tempos with the occasional 5, but since Broad St. is almost here, I figured 6 would be the smarter choice. I was sweating like a pig but didn’t even whine once in my head about wishing I could stop early.

Worked on keeping my feet beneath my hips again, feel like I’m getting the hang of it, too, at least that’s what I gathered from seeing my reflection in parked cars (wish they’d give more than a nanosecond’s view).

Funny thing is, I started looking at more of the pics from the 5K and at one point where the first guys/gals are coming in after the turnaround, several of them are overstriding! I figured that was relegated to the less speedy, but I guess it’s a free nation as far as heel-striking/overstriding is concerned. At least I’m in good company.

So the foot wasn’t hurting so bad today, though it was still sending me a low-level “I’m heeeere” sort of presence, so I popped a couple Ibuprofen at breakfast, but am keeping them to a minimum because I want to keep tabs on what the bottom line is, pain-wise.

Meanwhile, I spent more time yesterday looking up posts on the RW Injury forum and on Google for anything foot-related which is such a dumb thing for me to do - because in my mind, what starts as a small foot pain by the end has escalated to a full-blown stress fracture or leprosy.

While perusing posts on PF and tendon problems, I kept reading about people running through their pain and ending up with injuries far more serious, which left me thinking over and over again “What idiots! How stupid do you have to be to be injured and keep running? Seriously, it’s irrational, irresponsible and just plain dumb.”

So I did 8 miles today w/4@tempo (the fastest tempo miles I’ve ever done, as a matter of fact).

I know, I know, such idiocy, but my foot seemed better and I have my goal race coming up and I had to prove to myself that the mile time-trial result really had no meaning, and I could go on and on because I’m a runner and we’re a stubborn lot, as you very well know.

Anyway, it was the perfect run. Tempo splits were 7:45, 7:35, 7:44, 7:42, giving me a 7:41 avg. Confidence is back to where it was before the weekend. (how easily I crumble, huh?)

The foot didn’t hurt at all on the run, but now it’s bleeding like a fountain and I can’t walk. Joking, joking, nothing untoward has happened, it’s resting on ice now and I’m feeling happy. Tonight and tomorrow will tell me if I did a very bad thing by running through it or if I got away with it.

I sure hope I did, because I just don’t know what I’d do if I got leprosy right now.

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!

Cutting yesterday’s run was a smart move, and for this, I’m relieved. Because you know, there’s a demon in the back of your mind screaming “LOSER!!” if you do less than you had planned.

But lets start with this morning’s adventure; visiting the University of Penn School of Medicine to give a couple vials of blood. I’m participating in a study for people with high HDL cholesterol (the good kind) that my Doc recommended me for. They’re also recording my DNA with that blood, so unfortunately, I can’t murder anyone anymore. What a downer.

Anyway, one good thing that came from the test (besides helping mankind, lol) was that I had to fast for 12 hours beforehand, which kept me from stuffing food in my mouth until bedtime, like I usually do. I’ve heard ad naseum that eating at night is bad and since I want to lose a few pounds for racing, here is my new proclamation, “No more eating after 10PM from here on in!” We’ll see how long I adhere to it.

After giving blood, I waited a few hours then got in my running gear, and hoped that any vestige of tired from yesterday was only a memory. And yay, it was. I did 7 with 4@tempo, keeping a good speed, the third mile at 7:39, with an average for the tempo portion @7:47.

Once again, I have to laugh at the term “comfortably hard”, since throughout my tempo runs I’m always repeating the mantra, “when will it end, when will it end, when will it end…?” until it ends. But then, I’m a whiner by nature.

That said, it’s interesting how Daniel’s gives slower times for tempo runs than McMillan. I use this to my advantage. When I have a shitty tempo run, I just say to myself I was using Daniel’s that day.

On a totally unrelated note, yesterday before the big game, Nick (my honey) spent the afternoon on a group bicycle ride. I have to say, for all my runningness, Nick has become as enmeshed in his bicycle, and I love hearing about his rides because he can zoom up hills faster than his youthful counterparts, which is delicious for old people like me to hear. This is a guy who had an angioplasty a little over a year ago, then lost weight and now easily completes 90 miles on a weekend.

So after his ride, he went out for 3 beers with his new bike buddies and came home so drunk, it was hilarious. At one point, in the middle of the Superbowl (what a game!), I realized he was still wearing his tight biking clothes, so I suggested he go change into softypants (our silly term for PJs).

He goes into the bedroom and doesn’t come out, so I go in a couple minutes later and he’s lying on the bed with softypants in hand, fast asleep. I turn on the light and he springs up, insists he doesn’t want to sleep and tells me for the 5th time who was on the ride with him and how nice they were. And for the 5th time I asked, “and those were normal-sized beers?” Apparently, the Belgians know how to fuck you up for cheap.

So that’s the story from our House D’Exercise. Time for a snack…I’m going to eat all the things I would have eaten between 10PM and bedtime.

Yesterday’s voiceover jobs went exceptionally well, though I am a little horse from the medical one - I don’t talk much in life, much less for a solid 4-hour stretch. In comparison, the commercial was a breeze and took about 10 minutes, plus it was a comedy character (my forte) so it was a great capper to the day.

I just came back from a tempo run, 8-miles w/4 tempo, getting it in before Nick and I head up to NYC, because tomorrow the winds are supposed to be 26mph all day, and though I can take colder temperatures, I have no love for wind. So it’ll likely be another rest day for me. Even so, with yesterday and tomorrow off, I still have about 44 planned for the week, so it won’t really be a huge dent as far as cutback weeks go, but I’ll leave it open for now, playing it by ear.

Can’t wait for our city jaunt today. I lived in Manhattan for 15 years, so I have some very close friends I’m meeting for lunch and catch-up, then later we’ll see my bestest buddy Simon for dinner and then Kathy Griffin at Madison Square Garden (Simon got us tickets as a thank-you for something that didn’t deserve a gift, much less tickets to anything).

So I’m all happy. Hope you guys and gals are, too, with whatever you’re doing today. Run some joyous miles and do something nice for yourself, because symmetry is good and you deserve a happy day, too.