Change of Pace

Here I am six days later and everything actually seems pretty good. There's a bit of residual tightness/tenderness in my right calf, but that's really about it. I jogged about four miles yesterday and kept getting odd tweak signals from my knees, but I'm guessing those will go away on their own. Amazingly, I never felt my pulled hamstring during the marathon and it feels just fine now. I guess it really did heal in the time I gave it before the race.

Thanks to all of you for your comments, support, encouragement and congratulations. I think it's unlikely that I'll be considering another marathon before Fall '09 at the earliest, but if I'm able to keep up with the training and keep bringing down my PRs in shorter races, who knows what kinds of crazy ideas I'll get in my head.

Right now my big marathon goals revolve around trying to figure out the iMovie software well enough edit together all the video that Jack took on the course. I'll put a link on here once I do that, but I have a feeling that my short film project will be most interesting to ME. I'll definitely take Yvonne up on that offer of a beer though!

That day that many of us (vain) runners wait for after a race arrived yesterday when Brightroom posted race photos. I was a little bummed that they didn't get any finish line photos of me, but there were a few flattering ones that make me look like a real runner. I wish it wasn't so pricey to buy copies because then you really feel vain, but photographing them off the computer screen (as I've done here) is probably pretty vain too.

Another photo has me grinning like I'm doing a charity power walk instead of a marathon. I don't clearly remember this one being taken, but I guess there's something about seeing a camera pointed in my direction that gives me flashbacks to childhood and being forced to stand there posing until I finally forced a smile for the photographer. I know that there are other instances where I've concentrated on looking tough or badass when there are cameras on the course, but this wasn't one of those times.

Also amusing are the photos of the talented masters runner who by dint of his physical stature, hair style and jewelry was unfortunately confused for being a remarkably muscular woman by more people than me. Apparently the organizers saw him coming and pulled out the finishing banner for the first woman.

Some of the proof of fitness has got to be in the recovery time. I went up to my college's Founders Day this Saturday with plans to jog the cross-country alumni fun run and when the gun went off, I just felt like racing. My poor old coach is probably still grumbling about how offensive it is for me to show up a week after a marathon and PR on the course that I could barely run in 23 minutes as a college student. It was hardly my fastest 3-miler, but it's the fastest I've ever done that course, which is fairly hilly. And it felt good! I was a little worn out towards the end, but I'm amazed myself at how quickly my legs have bounced back.

I'm still babying myself for the next few weeks and taking it easy with the mileage, but I have to admit to high hopes for a 10K in two weeks and even higher hopes for another one in a month. Ah, 10Ks...almost all of the gratification of a marathon with none of the mental anguish.

I've also completed a little vanity project that no one is even remotely obligated to watch, but I've justified it with the fact that I really do need to learn video editing for my next life as a photographer or a photo editor or visual communications specialist or whatever it is that I end up being. Below is my Kentucky marathon experience boiled down to a 10 minute YouTube video:

I'm a little slow getting to this, but I've been a little unmotivated to blog as late. Turns out that recovery is just as dull as tapering and since I only ran 9 miles last week, there's just not much to say about it.

I did however receive a fabulous book in the mail today and while most of my readers probably already know about it, I still wanted to make sure I gave it a plug here.

Alison Wade took on the monumental project of assembling 100 favorite recipes from great runners and putting them all together in a book to benefit the Jenny Crain "Make It Happen" Fund and the Ryan Shay Memorial Fund. The Runner's Cookbook is available for purchase at lulu.com and is fun just to read to get a sense of the personalities of the recipe authors, but I'm really, really looking forward to actually tasting some of these meals. If you do check it out, you should note that the default shipping option is not the most economical one, so watch out for that.

And speaking of being fast, I'm running a 10K tomorrow morning that should be an interesting test of how my recovery is progressing. I've really barely run at all over the last few weeks, so I don't know how the benefits of rest will balance out against the steady loss of my marathon fitness. I've put on a few pounds since the race (see title of post), but I still feel pretty strong. I felt like I was flying through the rain when I went to splash out four miles in the park today, even though I wasn't really going all that fast.

We shall see. I will try (as usual) to stay fairly conservative for the first couple miles, but I think there's a good chance that I could still come in under 40 minutes.

Ha, shows what he knows... 40:14.

I'm not really sure where to primarily place the blame for not going under 40, but I don't want to beat myself up too much over what is still a healthy, competitive time that most people would be heavens-to-betsy thrilled with.

At any race, it was a great hard workout and I'll get over the 30 mile mark for this week, so maybe I can start feeling like a runner again after toying with the temptation to just stop training altogether for a while.

When I retitled this blog last fall, it was with an eye towards far-in-the-future events that are now suddenly imminent...my official departure from New York City. My life is about to undergo a wholesale renovation. After spending a full third of my life working in this manic megalopolis for one major media company, I'm leaving to become a married (or at least betrothed to start with) midwestern graduate student and after that, hopefully, a professional photographer and possibly a parent (and definitely a step-parent). I'm apparently in a very alliterative mood today.

Anyway, as of tomorrow I'll be at T-minus nine weeks and there's an awful lot to do between now and then. I have an apartment to sublet or sell and either way, there's a lot of clutter that's accumulated in it that has to go, so most of my free time is being spent deciding whether to keep, pitch or give away various items. Some things leave me feeling physically depleted when I decide to let them go - others make me wonder why I thought it was important to keep them in the first place.

A typical episode is the bag full of shopping bags that I found yesterday. I came across it and thought, fabulous, an obvious, easy "pitch" item. And then I realized that the bags were all marathon baggage bags from various races over the last 10+ years. I had to stop and remind myself that I have medals and photos and certificates and t-shirts and newspaper results listings and maps and a host of other tchotchkes and I need to just let the baggage bags go. So into the trash they went, but this routine has been repeating itself over and over again with bridesmaids dresses and old letters and race shirts that I never wear. Purging is an emotionally challenging experience.

Another "pitch" item I came across was an envelope full of old Runner's Worlds that a neighbor had loaned to me a couple of years ago and I'd forgotten to ever return. At this point, I'm guessing that I'm doing her a favor by not returning her clutter to her, so into the recycling bin they went. (Though I hope she didn't see them there) Before doing that though, I quickly skimmed the table of contents to see if there was anything useful to rip out and read. And what do you know....a 9-week half marathon training plan. It just so happens that the New York City half marathon is nine weeks away tomorrow, the day before I pack up the truck and leave.

When they first introduced this race I griped that it was too expensive and too gimmicky and too crowded and not worth the hype. I still think it's too expensive, but from what I've heard, it's very well organized and a fast course and a kick to get to race through Times Square. So what better way to bid farewell to my fair city than to race the length of the island? I signed myself up and will start the official training plan on Monday. Or Tuesday, since the first day of the plan is oddly a rest day. Actually, I'll probably just do the "Tuesday" workout on Monday because...well, why not just get started?

It'll be an interesting experience to see how I respond to these workouts. Over the last few years I've come to the conclusion that I see the greatest results from a program of long, moderate distance and a lot of it. This particular plan involves a lot of interval work on the track and relatively low mileage. If I start to feel a lot of aches and pains after the first few weeks I'll probably fall back to what I'm comfortable with, but since I'm going to be pressed for time getting ready for the move, I figure I might as well try something that will use up a few less hours of my day.

I just finished the first track workout of my new half marathon training plan and it was a total bitch. It shouldn't have been...I mean, the times I was aiming for on the mile repeats were slower than what I just ran for 10K, but between starting off too fast (shocking, I know) and the sun being really strong and there being a pretty stiff wind off the river and the normal Riverbank State Park obstacle course of errant soccer balls and delinquent children, I'm feeling pretty intimidated by the nine or so track workouts left to go.

Today was tough workout #2 of the random Runner's World 9-week half marathon training plan. Only I forgot to look at it before I headed out to the park so I couldn't remember the exact details of what I was supposed to do.

Turns out the scheduled workout was:

• 3 miles @ 6:30 pace
• 2 x 800 in 3:00 w/ 200 jog recovery
• 4 x 100 strides

• 3 miles in 19:10
• 3 x 800 in 3:04/3:04/3:01 with about 2 min. walking rest in between
• Total mileage with warm up, cool down, etc... 8.25 miles

The rest of the week is pretty chill with just easy mileage, a day off and a longish run of 13 miles. According to the schedule, next week looks exactly the same as this one, but instead I'm going to be engaging in a stupid week.

A stupid week is where you do dumb shit that puts you at risk of injury and most likely backfires so you end up with crap results instead of progress. Nonetheless, at some point I decided that all the elements that make up my stupid week seemed like good ideas individually, so now I'm faced with seven days containing three races, two track workouts, a long run and a college reunion. If I have any brains at all, something will have to give, but it remains to be seen if I do indeed have said brains, and if so, what it is that will give.