Change of Pace

It's About Time

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 15:58:11 -0500

I know, I know...it's just been a crazy few weeks and I've hardly known which way is up, much less had time to sit down and formulate a coherent blog-thought. But here I am, and I'll try to start from the beginning as best I can. So, I think I said that the insanity started with a 10K team points race, which actually turned out to be a somewhat more manageable 4 mile race. Since I have pretty much zero speed in my legs these days, I busted out a 6:13 first mile and then promptly died for the rest of the race. I ended up with a 6:35 pace overall, which is fine, but it's a far cry from where I was just a few months ago. Honestly, three weeks later, I don't even remember much about the race, except that I think it was warm out. It was July, that's a pretty safe bet. After that, I finished up my last week of work for a company where I've been for nearly 13 years. It's remarkable how freakishly easy it was to just walk away. I mean, I've come by my bitterness honestly as far as my feelings towards the CBS Evening News and 90 percent of the people who work there, but I've been really happy at the network's website for the last year. Nonetheless, when it came time to walk out the door, I can't really say I felt even a faint sense of regret about it. The network, and the industry in general, are in such an uncertain sense of flux, it actually feels really natural to take a time-out to examine the business in an academic setting. The process of getting ready to leave my friends was definitely tougher, but that really started back when my pals started gettin' married and havin' babies and I started working crazy overnight hours and jetting off to the midwest every few weeks. Plus, I've developed quite a few friendships right here with the runner/blogger set and those folk are conveniently portable. The day before the actual load up the truck and move date, I hauled myself out to the park one last time for the NYC Half, a race I originally intended to make my last racing hurrah, with a hardcore race plan and a shot at PR at the distance. One food poisoning incident, trip to Cuba and Summer head cold later, it was clear that a fast time wasn't even remotely in the cards.

Plan B of pacing my friend Connie to 7:30 miles in the race turned out to be much more sensible and fun anyway. It was still challenging enough to be a great workout, but sane enough not to wipe me out for the move and my plan to pace Meghan for the last part of her 100-miler not even a week later. THAT story will come next.

I also briefly saw another blogger, Quinto Sol, at the end of the race, which was kind of cool, even though we just barely got to say hi since I was all focused on finding the fiance at the finish right then. Alright, that's enough catch up for now. I'll tackle the next chapter in a bit.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:35:22 -0500

My mother was visiting this past weekend, so running and packing and fixing my disassembled kitchen sink all got put on the back burner so we could just have a fun, New York weekend full of nice meals, walks in the park, museums and theater. We're down to T-minus 13 days until I abandon this fair city, so it was really nice to just slow down and enjoy it before it's gone. After she headed back to Richmond though, I laced up the Asics and headed out to see what 12 miles would feel like. It's actually something of a huge relief to report that it didn't feel bad at all. I finished up feeling quite fresh having run at a relatively brisk 8:15 pace on a warm summer evening, so I may not be the pathetic and disappointing 100-mile race pacer that I feared I might be three weeks from now. I don't know if running 35 miles as said pacer is realistic, but at least now I feel confident that 20+ miles is an easily doable goal. Besides, if my runner is suffering after running 80 miles or so, can't I provide a better level of support if I can truly feel her pain? I'm still feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all the things that have to happen here before I leave, but I know one way or another, all the most urgent of them will get accomplished. My sink is now "sort of" fixed, except that the hot water only comes out as a trickle, but I'm hoping maybe Jack can tackle that project when he gets here right at the end. I'll get a crown replaced on my tooth tomorrow (tying up loose ends before moving gets expensive) and hopefully still be able to go for a run and have time to do some packing. I need to find a notary so I can give my uncle power of attorney since he'll have to proxy for me at my subletter's board interview two days after I leave. So much packing left to do, and must sign up with AAA so I can get the discount on the moving truck and still need to get wardrobe boxes and call ahead to turn on the electricity and set up cable and figure out if we can stop at my grandmother's halfway through our journey, and schedule an exit interview at work and figure out how long I have to pay back that loan I took on my 401K when I bought the apartment and I sure as hell better be getting paid for all that vacation time I never took..... My head starts to spin as soon as I begin mentally cataloguing all there is to do, and I didn't even include the 10K and the half marathon that are getting crammed in there as well! Running 35 miles after all that might be an absolute relief, to just focus on a specific, physical task and have permission to completely shut out the rest of the world for those few hours.

Back again...

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:12:35 -0500

I actually got back about a week ago, but the combination of being around my sick brother and not sleeping enough and traveling on airplanes and sleeping in airports and kissing lots of strangers on the cheek left me with a icky, summer cold for all of this past week, so I barely had the energy to make it to work and home each day, much less think clearly enough to write a blog entry. I did however catch up on reading some of my friends' blogs, so that's something at least. Cuba did not prove to be a running paradise this time around, though I did get in a couple of hot & steamy six milers while I was there. The track that I ran on last time has not been well maintained over the last 14 months and much of it was almost completely overgrown with weeds. And I remembered it being a fairly decent clay surface track! I did get another photo to add to the series I started last time though, Things That Run In Havana: They're too similar to put them both in the series, so loyal readers, which is it...I was leaning towards the one with the barefoot boy closer to the viewer, but now I'm thinking the curvy seawall with the colorful bathing trunks is better. What do you think? And if anyone's interested, I did manage to crank out an article about one aspect of my trip for work. I'd like to write more about some of the artists I met and interviewed while I was there, but that might have to wait until after my big move out west.

Revolutionizing My Training

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:36:48 -0500

It was fairly hot and humid here today, but I still shouldn't have been as wiped out as I was after nine easy miles around the park. Meghan is expecting me to pace her for a good chunk of the last 35 miles of her 100-mile run at the beginning of August, so while it might be okay for me to write off the July 27 half marathon that I've putzed away my training for, I am not about to let down a friend. I've got some work to do. So, in that spirit, I'm headed back down to Cuba again for some grade-A, professional heat and humidity. That's got to be as good a place as any to acclimate in anticipation of Cleveland's famously uncomfortable dog days. I'm taking down another load of old running shoes, since those seemed to be appreciated by the local youth athletic director, though I never did get my act together to collect shoes from other people, so I hope there are a lot of size 6 1/2 runners' feet in Havana. It's my kid brother's 30th birthday this week too, so hopefully we can celebrate that a little while I'm there. I remember it being over 100 degrees for his 21st birthday in DC a few years back, but when you're born on the 4th of July, that just comes with the territory. It's kind of funny. Last time I was down there we went to the big Nationalistic parade that they hold for May Day. This time around I'm going to a U.S. Independence Day party. Somehow I don't think Fidel will be showing up to this event either!

Balls in the Air

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:46:12 -0500

Something had to give and it's not too surprising that it was my training for the NYC half. I'll still run the damn thing, but there's just not enough hours in the day lately to train properly for it. I can thank my lucky stars for my devoted and thoughtful beloved for spending the last few days getting most of my stuff boxed up and ready to make the trip west. That was a huge weight off of me as it came time to show my apartment and try and find a subletter. And then that project had to take priority over running when I found out that the board of my building only interviews and accepts applicants on a periodic basis and I'll have to find someone willing to fork over $1000 to apply on July 30th in the hopes of being accepted in time for a Aug. 1 move in date! New York real estate is a strange and ferocious beast and if you don't live here, it's hard to explain the illogic of it all. It looks like it will all pan out in the end though and with any luck I found the lovely young woman who will inhabit my abode next year. I do believe that she's Romanian as well, which is an added perk since my brother is moving there next year and it would be handy to have a few contacts in Bucharest. Small world, as always, I shouldn't even be surprised at how these things work out anymore. So with any luck, I should be able to start running again tomorrow. And I remain hopeful that I'll be able to run at least a little bit next week when I head down to Cuba again for the better part of a week. I certainly won't be fast on July 27 or even particularly fit, but maybe I can eke out enough training in the next few weeks to at least be able to squeak under 1:30 in the actual race.

Goose Egg

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:24:11 -0500

You'd think, with as many miles as I sometimes squeeze into a seven day period, that if I went an entire week without running at all that I would miss it at least a little bit. You might also think that clearing my schedule of all that time spent running and dressing to run and stretching and all those extra showers would lead me with tons of extra time and I'd be incredibly productive. As you might have already guessed, neither of those assumptions proved to be true. Granted, the first part of this week, I was either very, very sick or very, very weak, so I certainly didn't consider running anywhere but to the bathroom during that time, but even today when the weather was relatively mild and I felt just fine, I thought I might as well just wait until tomorrow after work rather that end up with a six-mile week. I guess it's good that I'm not obsessive about the sport, but sometimes it amazes me how incredibly simple it would be to just stop being a runner. Then again, I went for years during my twenties where it was completely typical for me to only run once or twice a week, if that, and I still considered myself a runner then, so perhaps it's an identity that I'd never be able to fully escape, even if I tried.

Raw Tomatoes & Fried Runners

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:07:33 -0500

I'm a little slow getting to my race report here, but it's been a rough week. The short and sweet of it is that I ate something (possibly, but not definitely, tomatoes) on Friday that gave me an upset stomach overnight and left me feeling woozy on the starting like of the Mini 10K on Saturday morning. I felt a little shaky and weak in the legs at that point, but it was easy to blame that on the warmer than usual temperature and the fact that I hadn't slept very well the night before.

I didn't have high hopes for a fast time, but I didn't figure it would be too much slower than the 40:14 I ran in my last outing at this distance. As usual, I started too fast and hit mile one in 6:08, but I didn't feel too bad, so I just tried to relax and back off a little. There was a lot of adrenaline from having the women's Olympic marathon team in the race and so many strong local runners around, so I figured I'd just let the excitement of the race carry me. Mile 2 was a lot saner at 6:22, which is probably where I should have been to start with and mile 3 was 6:28, which wasn't so promising since that was a mostly downhill mile.

Here's where things started to get tough, which is pretty much par for this particular course under the best of circumstances. Despite water stops and hoses on the course, the heat was starting to wear on a lot of people, and I've got to imagine that became even more true further back in the pack. I squeaked up the east side of the Harlem Hills in barely under 7 and I passed four other people in the process. I was hurting, but it was clear that I wasn't the only one. More than the heat though, I was starting to deal with some pretty uncomfortable, sharp cramps in my gut. Relax, relax...I kept telling myself, breathe, relax... Who knows, maybe concentrating on my dodgy tummy kept me from being as fazed by the heat? I did start feeling some chills in the last mile or so, which was a bad sign, but in hindsight, that might have just been the fever that was starting to come on. All in all, I think I did a stellar job of holding things together. I had nothing left to hold off another girl in a sprint at the end, but I finished up in 40:33, quite satisfied with the effort, though I did need to go into fetal position at the side of the road to avoid puking which seemed to freak people out. Why do people always want to help you when all you really want is to be left alone?I managed to jog a two mile cool down home with Jack who was in town for the weekend before we embarked on the last big challenge of the weekend. The reunion. I'd arranged for a car rental out at the airport so that we'd be able to drive up to Minnewaska State Park Preserve on Sunday for some hiking, but even just that turned into an ordeal. The Budget national computer system was apparently down, so it took an hour and a half just to get the car and I blamed it on the heat at the time, but I kept having these weird dizzy, faint spells. Once we finally got going, I felt a little better, but Jack noticed that my body temperature was really high and I noticed that the skin on my arms and legs hurt when he touched it. I kept hydrating all the way, but still felt pretty woozy when we got up to Vassar. We stayed with the cross country coach and his girlfriend up there, a very cool couple who we unfortunately barely saw while were were there. It was pretty much time for dinner when we got there, but I'm afraid I wasn't up for a wild night of reliving my college years. At least I WAS able to eat, even if I couldn't drink alcohol, since the dinner cost $60 to attend, but the fever, headache and nausea kept getting gradually worse, and the rumblings in my tummy were starting to get more ominous. It's funny, I'd start to feel better and then it would get worse and then back and forth again. I guess at that point my body was really struggling to fight off whatever infection was taking hold of my innards and it must have been touch and go which side would win. Jack made the call that hiking up a mountain in 99 degree heat would NOT be in the best interests of my feverish, confused bod, so we just wandered around campus a bit on Sunday with my old X-C bud Marit and headed back to the city early. Stomach issues kept me up a lot of the night Sunday night, but I was still trying to be a trooper and dragged myself in for work at 7 am on Monday. My fever was down to under 100 by then and I wasn't feeling too, too terrible, but it's embarrassing in an open office when people start to notice how many times you've been up to use the loo, until finally my news editor told me to go home and I was happy to oblige. Tuesday, there was no debate, I'd been up every hour and a half during the night dealing with the unhappy tummy and there was no way I was making it into work. I paid a visit to the doctor that afternoon, got my antibiotics, and like magic...I was healed. Well, not quite like magic. All the most troublesome symptoms went away lickety-split, but I'm still really weak and my abdominal muscles are still all crampy and sore. Apparently Cipro also makes you really prone to ruptured tendons as well, so I'm not supposed to run again until three days after I stop taking it. We'll see. I might still try a really easy jog over the weekend if I'm feeling better.

Splish, splash

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:44:30 -0500

Race #2 for the week was meant to be done as a lark. A fun, crazy, devil-may-care romp through the park. Whoo hoo, ain't it crazy to be up before the birds, look at me ma, it's 5 am! New York Road Runners Club decided to celebrate their founding, 50 years ago to the day, by hosting a free 5 mile race for 5,000 runners at 5:30 am. Hey, why not? As I stumbled out of my warm, dry bed at 4 dark thirty am, I had to keep reminding myself what a hoot this was going to be, but all that made me think of was owls. It was not fun getting up in the middle of the night. It was not fun getting drenched and hoping that the plastic bag in my backpack full of work clothes was keeping things dry. It was not fun standing on the start line with the less than 2,000 people who actually showed up, shivering our arses off. It was fun, crossing the finish line and having it all be over and being pleased with how well I stuck to just over 6:30 pace all the way through and how today that was good enough to win my age group. That was fun for about five minutes, until I started shivering again and it was time to put my cold, wet tee shirt back on and jog to work. Once I got changed into my blessedly dry dress and heels in my office bathroom, it was fun again for a bit because I felt like a badass for having already run a race that morning, but now I have to do laundry tonight and I can barely keep my eyes open, so I'm back to wondering again about when the fun starts. You can just barely see me in my yellow top, just to the right of smack dab of center in this photo.

In Praise Of Random Races

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:04:07 -0500

So I'm not even sure why I signed up for today's 4 miler in the park. I've never done it before and it doesn't count towards club team points. Maybe because it was sponsored by the Japanese government so I thought the t-shirts might be pretty, with cherry blossoms or some such? At any rate they were, but they also handed over some really nice race loot at the number pickup including a pretty blue water bottle, an energy bar, a big pouch of energy gel, a cool rotating pen with 8 different color inks - all in a nylon laptop bag. So I was already pleased that I'd signed up, even though I was a little worried about running the race too aggressively when I've still got two more races to come this week. I decided to bag the two track workouts and just count the races as speed work. Today was also supposed to be a longish run, so I did a three mile warm up and planned on getting in about seven more miles after the race. After finishing up those early, easy miles, I went straight to the start chute with about 10 minutes before the gun went off. I was already dripping with sweat by this point, so I figured this would be the first race of the season where heat was any kind of a factor. My very vague plan was to aim for 6:30s to start with and then see what I had left for the last couple of miles. Once the race started, it was clear that the usual crowd of 20-something former track stars had not come out for this race. The only women I could see ahead of me were the NY Road Runners' special guests for this race, elite marathon star and Beijing medal hopeful Reiko Tosa and another Japanese distance superstar, Chisato Osaki, jogging along at a pedestrian (for them) pace and then further up ahead, one of our top local masters runners. I tucked in behind the two Japanese runners, getting a contact high from being so close to world class runners, but still recognizing clearly that while I was working pretty hard, they were essentially strolling around Central Park checking out the sights. A little after the halfway point, Reiko and Chisato must have decided the were getting bored, because they did that little thing like in the cartoons where they take off and leave a little puff of smoke behind them. The motivating thing though, was that I could see the local runner slowly coming back to me. I forgot to hit my watch for the first mile split, but I hit the half in 12:44, so 6:22 pace. I tried to relax and just slowly reel in the woman ahead of me for the third mile and hit that in 6:32. I finally passed her with about three-quarters of a mile to go, but started to get paranoid that there was someone else right behind me so I really concentrated on breathing more deeply and "making it hurt". I blazed through that last mile in 6:07 and no one caught me, but here's where it gets confusing. A race marshal handed me a 3rd-place woman card, which made sense, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. But then they had a little awards ceremony and second place turned out to be a nice, cornfed white girl from Nebraska. What happened to Chisato and where was this girl during the race?? It gets more surreal though...they announced that my prize was a silver Tiffany's frame, which was lovely. Then Miss Cornhusker got two plane tickets to Japan and before I could even register any kind of twinge of jealousy over that, they announced that Reiko was donating her prize, a flat screen TV, to the third place finisher....aka me. All I can think is that because they're NYRRC guests and distance running celebrities, they just decided to leave the prizes and most of the glory to local runners? I don't honestly think I would be that noble, but then again, I'm not really sure what life is like as 2:22 marathoner or a 1:09 half-marathoner.

The last time I raced this distance I actually finished with the same time as Reiko today....that put me in 28th place that day! So today, with a time 39 seconds slower, I'm walking away with an expensive piece of electronics. Go figure.

The timing is awfully good though. I don't even have a television here in New York, and the perfect place for one in the little house I rented in Missouri will only work with a flat screen. Oh, and the last part of the finishing-place mystery, where did the "second" woman come from...she actually started further back in the corral than I did so her chip time was three seconds faster than mine. If I could have somehow known that I was in a sprint for a the finish there, would I have been able to come up with another gear at the end? There's really no way to know that, but all in all, if I even hint at complaining about how things turned out, somebody should slap me...and hard.

Remembering What Summer Feels Like

Wed, 28 May 2008 19:39:26 -0500

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

What I ended up actually doing was:

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

So all in all, not too bad. I don't really know that strides will do much for me anyway, but they're sprinkled liberally into the plan, so I'm sure I'll still get plenty of chances to fit those in. 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.

Track Work On A Holiday

Mon, 26 May 2008 16:39:06 -0500

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.

Proscribed	Actual
4 x 1 mile @ 6:30	6:12
400m recovery jog	6:29
	6:29
	6:30

6 x 200m @ :45	:44
100m recovery jog	:43
	:45
	:43
	:41
	:42

I also did a slow, easy 2 miles each way to and from the track to warm up and cool down. I guess it's understandable that I was a little wiped out at the end after burning up those last couple of 200s, but I was almost done at that point anyway and I really didn't want to run slower than I was supposed to for any of them. The park was really crowded with picnickers and barbequers enjoying their day off by making a lot of noise and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. I felt a bit of a judgmental twinge wondering how many of them gave any thought to what Memorial Day is about and if they paused to explain to their children and remember those that had died in service to this country. But then I thought, a lot of the people who frequent this park are exactly the families whose sons and daughters are serving in the military, so I shushed my misplaced feelings of moral superiority and sent out a quiet thank you to all the families who are spending this beautiful, sunny day off missing a son or daughter who didn't make it home safely.

Nine Weeks

Sat, 24 May 2008 19:10:42 -0500

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.

Shocking Joseph

Sat, 17 May 2008 13:18:20 -0500

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.

I started out planning to just stay with a teammate who has been running times comparable with mine lately, but I knew pretty quickly that the effort was a bit too much. I stayed pretty relaxed for the next couple miles after that and concentrated on running my own race, but the first big hill in the fourth mile just knocked me out. I recovered from that reasonably well, but ended up "sprinting" in my last .2 in 6:50 pace, so I couldn't have left much of anything on the course.

6:11
6:26
6:28
6:51
6:22
6:31
1:22

I guess my legs feel sort of dead from the beginning, but sometimes that feeling is more in your head than anything else. There was a lot of pollen in the air and I'm still coughing a bit from that, so maybe that was a factor. And I was out with friends for a birthday party until midnight last night, but I only had a couple of glasses of wine and still woke up naturally before 7 this morning, so I don't think that had much of an effect. Just a little bit of everything I guess, plus the random, unfathomable whims of this sport that sometimes decides that you've been using up more than your share of PRs lately and it's time to learn a little humility. 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.

Runners Love Food

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:07:40 -0500

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.

It's totally a worthwhile cause and you'll definitely improve your karma by buying one, but beyond that, I think it's just interesting to see what's on the menus of the people I dream of being as fast as. 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.

10Ks and Vanity Projects

Mon, 05 May 2008 22:29:17 -0500

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: