Okay-- so here's one of the joys in my life-- my niece Grace-- on her 4th birthday last Saturday. I got to see her after my long run and that pained smile makes me wonder if I still smelled despite my quick shower. 
So this is the route I did tonight. I think I need to keep better track of my training--I've been slipping.
So last week:
Last Saturday: 10 miles (hurt ankle so limped the last of those miles)
Tuesday: speed training-- two laps warm up, 6 laps surge 6 laps jog-- half mile (2 laps) recover (about 4 miles total)-- surge at 9 minutes per mile and jog from 11-13. Had to stop cause went out to fast w/ Lou and Haley.
Wed: break
Thursday: TNR Run-- a bit late and had my i-pod all set up-- my TNR buddies were laughing when I walked up to stretch with them. "Have any Rubens?" Anika asked when I came up. Ah, news spreads fast. There was a rather confusing new route someone came up w/ and since I had to get my Garmen set up I fell behind, esp. at Woodward--so I did my own route- at times just running around neighborhoods in circles to get up the mileage when I realized I was getting to the Farmer's Market too soon. total miles: 5
Total Week's Miles: 19
This week so far:
Saturday: supposed to do 10 at race (near the Martian Marathon) overslept a bit and left phone in car so I didn't hear Lou calling me before 7 to get me up--he was going to pick me up but I didn't tumble out of bed and find my phone until he was halfway to the race. I put on my running clothes anyway to race in my car to the race--pulled on my armor like sports bra, my running shorts and singlet, my ankle brace, my double socks to prevent blisters, my Garmen, and even my I-Pod. Walked into the bedroom to say goodbye to Mark--and promptly crawled back into bed w/ him.
I woke up four hours later still in my running gear. HA! so all dressed up and no where I ran to. I did change, shower, and get my nails done, though. So at least I left the house.
Total miles: 0
Nails polished: 20 (had pedicure too)
Sunday: did the above map my run (wanted to 10 miles but my Garmen ran out of battery after 3 miles so I just sort of ran around where ever, remembering the streets so I would be able to "map my run". Only made it to 6 miles (this included a few stretch stops and one stop at a gas station to refuel my water in their nasty bathroom).
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Map my run runs
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Return of the Stitch
Adam (a new reporter at the Scriptor) took a photo of Austyn and I at the computer in newspaper class today for a TNT video project. It's great having Austyn back in newspaper--victorious over her cancer. She is now one of our opinion editors and working on an article about the student trip to France this past summer.
She has always been athletic and probably already learned what I did yesterday just before my training run: before I was defeated by a Ruben sandwich.
I should have globalized that lesson.
Last night was our weekly, team TNR (Thursday Night Run--but sounds oh so official as an acronym).
This mixed group of ability runners includes those who run a 6-7 minute 10K, a 7-9 minute 10K, and then me- you might call me the anchor, the one who gets lost at the end of the pack, the slowest runner. It's cool though because everyone is so nice-- Lou esp. who ran with me my first few times out and even dragged me pouting, sweating, and seething in anger off of various lawns when I refused to run anymore the first few weeks I ever ran. On days we go out afterward, they wait for me at the Farmer's Market. They usually they only have to wait ten or so minutes, and they don't make fun of me too much for being so slow at this early point in my running journey.
Today, though, well today, was just plain embarrassing.
Pre-run drink: gulped down organic pineapple juice from Trader Joes 30 to 20 minutes before the run. I actually thought all that sugar would be great glycogen fuel for my legs
Pre-run meal: greasy Ruben and cheese sandwich with hot sauerkraut in buttery pita bread.
Eaten fifteen minutes before my planned 6-8 mile run with my team.
Showed up at Farmer's Market to stretch w/ the team and we all chatted runner chat-- breaking in new shoes, merits of Brooks vs other shoes, road vs trail, how to get your Garmin to find a satellite faster (Lou doesn't believe me that holding it up toward the sky and away from buildings helps-- Mark also thinks this is ridiculous and says I look like I am ET trying to phone home with my running watch). What we planned to run this Saturday and what we planned to run on Thursday nights as the Saturday runs got longer, etc. Anyway, I felt like a seasoned runner with seasoned runner obsessions, interests, concerns.
My teammates noted all my electronic paraphernalia as we started out: my beeping Garmin (to tell me I was running too slow) my I-Pod, my high tech attached to the arm water bottle, my no glare sunglasses. I laughed and said "Beem me up Scotty!" and right then the Garmin beeped again--we were running and laughing and I barely noticed how fast we were going .
HA!!! very soon all I had was the fight between my lungs and legs to keep me company--oh and my up-chucked Ruben.
I started out too fast: a 6.5 minute pace--ouch, ouch, ouch-- I just wanted to be able to talk w/ people as I ran. Well, I changed that goal after just .10 of a mile and realized it was either slow down or fling myself onto the nearest lawn. So I slowed to a more comfortable 9.5-10 minute pace--ah, felt good, turned on my I-Pod and enjoyed a little "Walking on Sunshine--Oh Yeah! and don't it feel good!!"
Only about a mile into the run, my breathing got crazy labored and it started to feel like a small balloon was being inflated in my esophagus. My legs were doing fine though, actually my legs really enjoyed the forward momentum and wanted to go faster. My lungs puffed out and crawled up into my mouth and begged me to stop.
What the heck is going on? I just ran an easy five miles on Tuesday after my 10 K on Sunday-- easy, fun, runner's high inducing 5 miles. Why am I choking after only one mile??? My legs told my lungs to suck it up and keep going, so I listened to them and did. By 1.6 miles, the cramp that had also began with my choking feeling got worse. It started to feel like a very angry Ed Ghein was performing indelicate surgery with a butcher knife through my stomach wall and into my intestines. My stomach not only cramped, it burned and twisted and I had to stop and walk. From then on, it was walk a little, run a little, walk a little w/ arms above my head, walk a little. I took a different path at this point than my team (couldn't even see em at this point anyway) and decided to cut my rout and make it just a 4-miler. My legs really started to feel good and I ran another mile: my legs and lungs and gut fighting it out the whole way. Legs: "This is fun!! This is what we love! I'm flyingj!!!" My gut: "If you don't stop I'm going to get ripped in half or puke on you." Legs: "Whatever, get over yourself. Wimp. The feeling will pass." Lungs: (in a hoarse and faint whisper) "I ccccan't bbbreath, please stop".
Stupid me, I listened to the legs.
Next thing I knew about 2.6 miles, up came the evil Rubin and his evil side kick Sauerkraut. You know how sometimes throw up tastes like the food itself? Well I learned that a digested Ruben tastes just like you image eating a bowl of throw up would. I didn't want to throw up Ruben on my white running shirt, so I swallowed that now digested Ruben back down. Oh that acid burn. I will never, and I mean never, be able to eat neither a Ruben sandwich nor sauerkraut again. Actually, just writing about it is making me a bit queasy. Especially because I kept listening to legs, even after that, and kept letting them revolve almost mindlessly underneath me-- quite unsympathetic to what my gastro-intestinal system just endured.
Well, Ruben and Sauerkraut came back at mile 4 again and this time with a vengeance that didn't let me swallow them back down. I doubled over and puked off of 11 mile road, just blocks before my return to the Farmers Market. I gulped down a ton of water and it helped some. That was it. No more listening to legs. I walked briskly to the start-- none of my teammates were there. I had only run/walked 4 miles while they did 6-- I had either gotten there before them or so far after them that they were already home, showered, and probably asleep by the time I finished. I stretched a bit, but I didn't hang round too long. I didn't want to answer questions about where I had gone off to during the run.
So, learning time:
NO FOOD. NONE!!! Within one to two hours before running (esp. not greasy, heavy food)
DO NOT START TOO FAST--even if I do want the company of more elite runners. It's just not worth it!
IF SOMETHING IS REALLY GOING WRONG ON A RUN DON'T LISTEN TO LEGS!!! Listen to lungs and slow down.
Coach Randy writes: "We all have bad runs. After a bad run, just tell yourself 'I've logged in my bad run. I'm glad I can check that off my list.'"
OH yeah, I'm checking that one off my list alright.
Tomorrow is my 9 mile in Royal Oak-- no food, just lots and lots of water pre-run (and no fancy organic juice either) I'm also going to will myself to actually start out SLOWER than my normal pace!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
10K Zoo Angel
Sept. 16, 2007
Just finished the Detroit Zoo race. Mark's nephews, Evan and Nathaniel above, came to watch me race and explore the zoo after. This is a rare moment of them being sweet to each other-- might actually have been a shameless ploy to get me to take a picture of them.
Right now, I'm taking Lou's advice, Lou's hugely painful advice, and giving my swollen, re-injured ankle a post race ice bath in a white bucket. It feels like a thousand Lilliputians with fire arrows sending a million salvos into my heel, toes, and top foot.
I ran my best 10K to date! this morning! Thanks to the running angel to my left in the other photo. He seemed to know many people along the way, kept saying "hi" to people watching from their lawns.
It's so odd how hard the first mile or so of a race is before you get into your stride. I saw a fellow runner from TNT just before the race started--He called out to me and I ran over to give him a hug; it was so nice to see a familiar face. Then I looked around and realized he was near the mid front of the group-oh no, not falling into that trap again. But I did-- I started out w/ him even though he runs twice as fast as me. So I did what coach Ken preaches never to do: I ran out too fast, much faster than my fastest pace (by the Garmin that was 6.34 minute mile--ouch) I slowed and slowed to 9, then 10, then 11 and kept a pretty comfortable pace at 11. I was still suffering from my first mistake around mile 3, when I ripped off the gel safety pined to my shorts and held it, ready to squeeze it down w/ the next water. At that moment, this Latino looking guy said something to me-- my I-Pod was blaring so I didn't hear him, but I clearly made out "BEAUTIFUL" and thought-- "oh jeez, you've got to be kidding me-- it's all I can do to keep one leg before the other and now some yahoo is hitting on me during a 10k race" Well, what an ego I have! I found out after he kept getting my attention and I was running past Joanna's house on one side and the golf course on the other that he was talking about how BEAUTIFUL the golf course was!! Then he kept looking back to check me and my pace. He motioned me up and said "You are my pace so don't slow me down, get up here." So I laughed and turned off my music, picked up my pace, and mused with him about the beautiful houses and trees. He noticed my breathing get really labored at this pace (10 minute) and he said "Imagine something beautiful, something full of energy and take yourself there." I thought about it, and I imagined the creeks that Mark and I go to up north, the ones with such a strong pulling current that you have to struggle up stream and then fly on the current downstream. "Water!" I said "Rapids". "Good" he said. "Now your breathing. Listen to it. Make it very quiet and listen to it. Stay on the rapids and listen to your breath."
My lord! It worked. I imagined myself floating fast down those rapids and made my breath quiet.
"You can run forever this way" he said.
He was right! When the pain got a bit too much and breath got all out of control again, I imagined myself cantering on a chestnut horse through a beautiful forest--real controlled speed, and I leaned forward and pumped my arms straighter and my strides longer and I started to get ahead of Zoo Angel (or he let me get ahead). I saw my split at mile 4 and couldn't believe it was only 43 minutes! I was going to make it in just over hour! The last 10K up north I did in an hour and 17 minutes and the one before that in Dearborn 1 hour and 35 minutes! (sad I know). After the five mile mark, when we had only half a mile by my Garmin, I told him and he said you take the lead--made me get in front of him and at only a quarter mile left I felt the surge, the effortless surge, put my I-Pod back to blaring and finished in an hour and six minutes!!! My best yet-- I wanted to thank Zoo Angel, but I had double and tripled tied my timing chip onto my shoelaces and it took me nearly two minutes to get it off and drop it in the chute bucket. By that time, Zoo Angel was gone.
Some truly funny stuff that happened during this race:
Every time we passed a race volunteer they clapped and cheered for us--really, even though you don't know them, I swear it gives your legs energy. Well, I didn't time my spit to well during one of these bends where the volunteers directed, and just as I spit she clapped. I turned to Zoo Angel and said "She just cheered on my spit!" After that, every time I spit, ZA clapped for me.
Also, when I announced by my Garmin that we had less than a mile left. ZA said we had to sing something--He asked if I knew any Jewish songs-- "No sorry" so we ran in silence-- all I could think was "I once was lost but now am found . . ." but didn't think that would be a cool song for him to sing (a Spanish looking Jewish man-- very odd) so I suddenly bust out "She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes" and he responded "She'll be comin round the mountain when she comes" She'll be coming round the mountain, she'll be comin round the mountain, she'll be comin round the mountain when she comes. "She'll be riding six white horses when she comes" Zoo Angel "Oh, she'll be riding six white horses when she comes"-- People were looking at us like we were crazy. When we got closer, we stopped singing and he said "Okay. let's just run-- you lead the way" and so we did and I did and I pumped out the last few yards with Radar Love blasting and I saw Mark, Caroline, and my two nephews cheering me on just before the finish. I see now in the photo that, at that point, my ZA was just next to me--grinning.
This video below shows my "blue butterfly" in take off. A host of butterflies of all colors swoop around the Detroit Zoo Butterfly Exhibit, and they land on various flowers, plants, stone water fountains, but this blue one zoomed erratically: was the most beautiful and the most hard to photograph. I literally chased it around, dodging in and out of families, trying to get its picture. Finally realized I was going to have to stalk it w/ strategy rather than dumb speed. I waited until it landed, closed those brown mottled wings (which hid the azure inside) and then I turned on my camera to video and waited, and waited, on until it fluttered off the rock.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
non run journal
Looks like my dog Flappy but doesn't look at all like the inside of my car.
Okay, so the packet I got from TNT that was written by coach Randy, owner of Running Fit, says that runners should log in "non-runs". In other words, journal on days that they are supposed to run and don't. "Looking at all those skipped days will get you out the door."
Well, here it is: was supposed to run today, didn't. Was supposed to run Tuesday. Didn't. Sunday. Didn't. Was supposed to run a long run (6 miles) on Saturday and . . . didn't.
Wow, I feel so much better.
I am going to run tom for three easy miles cause I'm supposed to do my long run as a 7 miler. Ouch and I just celebrated breaking the 3 mile barrier.
Me to Lou before my first 10K race, after I nearly passed out from my first five mile run w/ him:
"Does it count as five miles if you don't actually run half the time?"
Lou: "If you're not riding in the car, it counts."
Okay, going to keep that in mind on my long run this weekend.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
broke 3 miles with body guard dog!
Brought my own body guard: Robbie, my Rott/Doberman mix. I was not afraid tonight even when I ran past an empty parking lot and some scowling, fifty something, ragged looking, smoking (of course) guy gaped at me.
I usually get annoyed when people shrink from Robbie because it's such a case of judging the book by the cover. His favorite sport is cuddling and watching TV, not rabidly ripping apart the mail lady (who refuses to deliver our mail even if Robbie is outside with us). At 95 pounds, though, and with a clear Doberman body and Rott heft, I must admit he is a bit intimidating.
I had to run after 9 p.m. tonight, when I got home from work, and I really wanted to run further than three miles, but that meant going farther a field and even past some scary-at-night long stretches of dark, empty construction sites. Well, as I tugged on my road shoes, Robbie wagged his tail so hard he banged out a rhythm against the closet and bashed his nose into my leg. "Oh, sweety, you want to go for a walk." It hit me! Take him running w/ me! Why had I not thought of this before? This is not a dog most people make cooing noises and try to pet. Some people glance at him and scowl at me for my audacity at letting this beast out in public, or, especially if they are walking with children, perform a sudden, quick hop to the other side of the sidewalk, kids clutched to their sides, to avoid him.
I had never run w/ Robbie before and I worried he might not be as well behaved as Flappy--- but he was AWESOME! He stayed right by me and even agily weaved with me in and out of smoking obstacles in leather, studded jackets sauntering down the side walks of Main. He even kindly moved closer to my left leg when we ran by anyone.
Only problem: that dog is not as in shape as his muscles would imply. He ran about half a foot behind me and I had to keep yanking on the leash or saying his name to get him into my peripheral vision. His tongue nearly dragged behind him and he panted the entire run. This is not an old dog and he should not be so out of shape. It did make running with him a bit like trying to drag a wheeled cart full of mud at the same time.
Stats: My Garmin was not charged so these are not as specific
Distance: 4.07 (thank you "map my run")
stops: two-- one short one to stretch, one longer half block one to catch my breath
Smoky smelling houses: too many to count-- I just don't get how houses can actually smell like smoke--whenever I run by one and it's just overpowering I always look for someone on the porch smoking and there isn't anyone--I think one time I'm just going to walk four miles and really investigate this house smoke smell. Thing I hate: after passing a few of these I can really feel the slow down and my lungs fill w/ sludge. Ugggh. My civil libertarian sensibilities fight with my desire to breath in no Co2 and just let big ol' brother outlaw smoking all together.
Dog drag: 95 pounds
Beautiful, starry night-- loved stretching afterwards, especially when I was in triangle pose and lifted my head and arms up-- just amazing sight and it felt like my body was flying into it-- yes, that is a runner's high talking. Nothing like it.
Pace: again I tried the fall into the run near my toes stride--it is faster. I also did alot of inner association (and some disassociation--at one time I actually reached a perfect yoga state of mind and was not thinking at all-- then I realized I was doing that and began a whole lot of analyzing how I did it and what it meant and if I was conscious how I could really be thinking nothing--which is also a form of inner dissociation--just not as complete). What worked the best tonight as far as pace, comfort, mood: imagining I was in a race and certain landmarks ahead were the finish line-- often the end of a block or a traffic light. It's weird but that mindset made me surge forward w/out much effort or pain. It felt good. At one point, I even realized the slight tension in my legs and chest felt good. Felt like life.
pace: no idea--- again, no Garmen. But I feel like, at points, it was faster than my recent, and very sad, 11 minute miles. I did have to practically drag my very large, teenage-in-dog-years Dob most of the way.
I'm excited now for the zoo 10K in two sat.
The night's run ended perfectly with a stop at the mailbox to find that three very, very generous people donated to the Leukemia/Lymphoma society. It really added more joy to my run. One of my colleagues was just diagnosed with Meyloma and I think about her along w/ my beautiful, brave, gloriously alive newspaper student who just won her first round against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I visualize both of them now when I get to a sinister hill ,and I want to stop. It helps. Both of them have a bravery I hope I never have to find within myself.
A family friend sent me a note the other day that his dad died in 1973 (the year I was born) of Leukemia. This note came with an astoundingly generous donation to the TNT Leukemia/Lymphoma society. I guess you never know who has been impacted by these cancers. I look at smiling, bright Austyn, now back in my newspaper class, and I have hope.
