July 31, 2005
Happy Birthday, E.!
Want to post quickly to wish my oldest (no, not oldest as in most elderly... oldest as in we met in Ms. K.'s cloakroom when we were 7) friend E. a happy 30th birthday!
Will update later on the weekend running.
Posted by alweiss at 11:39 PM | Comments (1)
July 28, 2005
Softball 1, Running 0
Yesterday was somewhat of a failure, running-wise. My big plan was to take advantage of the cool weather and do my workout at lunch, then go for a short run after playing softball in the evening. I ended up having to stay in the office during lunch to wait for a phone call, so I decided I'd do the workout after softball and not double. That was my firm plan when I arrived at the softball field in Washington Park (where I had planned to run my workout anyway). However, a couple of hours in the sun and a couple of hot dogs later, my resolution began to waver. And by the time we called the game on account of darkness I was ready to accept a ride to my car (yes, I'll admit it). So, the only running I ended up doing yesterday (probably the best running day of the summer) was to chase after balls that went over my head (and there were quite a few of those). On the one hand I was probably due for a day off. On the other hand, I had planned to do 90 miles this week, and now I'm only going to get 80. But I had planned 80 for next week, so I'll just switch up and do 90 next week instead.
Enough of my motivational woes. It seems that all the Harry Potter geeks have finished the book, so I'll share some of my thoughts. Part of the reason I've enjoyed the Harry Potter books so much is that, up until "The Half-Blood Prince," they've all ended with some sort of triumph of David over Goliath, and good over evil. Harry and his friends, though less skilled and experienced than the forces they battle, emerge triumphant because their sum is greater than their parts, and because they believe in themselves and one another.
I eagerly pawed my way through "The Half-Blood Prince" expecting to get my fix of warm fuzzies at the end. I went into the book expecting to emerge uplifted; instead, as I closed the book I felt bereft. This installment of Harry Potter seems to reflect the realities of the world we live in. Things seem to be getting continually worse, and the powers that be prefer to give the appearance of doing something to combat the darkness (like the Ministry of Magic's arresting the guy from the Knight Bus) rather than actually making a difference.
Dumbledore's death shook me, but the circumstances of his death were what really disturbed me. All along, I had been lulled into believing that Dumbledore was infallible. Although Snape's actions often seemed suspicious, I had complete trust in Dumbledore's powers of discernment. It is unclear whether Dumbledore was as certain of Snape's loyalty, or if he thought that his belief in Snape would instill loyalty and in the end make him do the right thing, but either way he was wrong and it was his trust in his own judgment that led to his death. Suddenly everything I knew to be true was no longer so, and the greatest force of good was no more.
It really brought up memories for me of 9/11. I was running a bit late for work that day, so I was on my way out of my building when the first plane hit. My doorman told me, as I was leaving, that a plane had flown into the WTC. Like many people did, I assumed it was some little Cessna or something, and I continued on my way to work (as a sports producer for a local NYC television station), assuming that regardless of the excitement we'd get at least a couple of minutes for sports. I'm embarrased to admit, we had a lot planned for the sports segment that day and my primary concern was over whether some little plane was going to cut into our time. I arrived at the elevators at work at the same time as Tom Brokaw and took the elevator up with him; by that time the reality that my mind continued to try to reject was apparent: we were under attack; "it" could happen there, in my city. Similarly, until Snape uttered the Avadra Kadavra curse that slayed Dumbledore, I refused to believe that he was on Voldemort's side; I thought surely he would turn around and prove to be loyal. And until Harry found Dumbledore's body, I refused to believe that death could happen to Dumbledore.
Now, it seems that Harry's world is similar to our own: hope shines weakly and seems to huddle in remote corners, pushed aside by the burgeoning, strengthening badness. And those most powerful who would combat the badness seem directionless and misguided. There is no one wise, powerful, and able to lead on the side of good.
Amendment: I assume that in the next book Harry et al triumph over Voldemort and his supporters. I think that the only way to stop all the terrible things that are happening in the world today is for each of us to contribute what we can, as powerless as we appear to be. Those who could potentially do the most seem to have lost their way, so it is up to the small(er) to turn the tide. I'm looking forward to a little inspiration from Harry.
Posted by alweiss at 10:13 AM | Comments (3)
July 25, 2005
Alone Again
My mom and Granddad flew home today, leaving me with the usual mixed feelings of regret and relief brought about by the departure of dear out-of-town visitors. It was a huge relief to get home tonight and just be, without having to worry about rushing out to entertain anyone. But at the same time, I miss being able to spend time with them; and I'm not sure when exactly I'll next see them.
I got a little teary as I was running on the treadmill at lunch when I realized that they'd be in the air in a few minutes, and thought about how much fun the visit would have been had it taken place 10 yrs. ago, when my Granddad didn't have so much trouble getting around, and when my Grandmother would have been with him instead of my mom. However, the immutable law that running and crying are mutually exclusive once again held true and I managed to pull myself together before I choked to death.
I lifted then ran on the treadmill and once again found myself stuck on a Woodway treadmill. All of the Life Fitness treadmills were taken, save one that was missing and two that were designated "slow speed -- no faster than 3.5 mph" (they must have been semi-broken). Luckily I only had to do 4 and 1/4 miles (with the 3/4 of a mi. to the gym, that gave me 5), and when I wasn't dwelling on gloomy thoughts of my family's departure, I contented myself with glaring at a woman who was walking extremely slowly on one of the full-speed Life Fitness treadmills. Sometimes I'm amazed by peoples' lack of consideration.
I ran another 7 miles on my way home from work and managed to bump into three classmates in the lobby of my building. Love bumping into acquaintances and future professional contacts when I'm red-faced, shirtless, and look as if I've just fallen into the lake. But I figure they already thought I was a bit... odd.
Posted by alweiss at 08:31 PM | Comments (1)
July 24, 2005
Not a Dream
Sometimes when I plan to get up early to do a workout, I'll dream I'm doing the workout, only to wake up and discover I have to start all over again. It always seems grossly unfair. So, as I was finishing my long run this morning and feeling that it was too good to be true, I had a sudden flash of panic: maybe it WAS too good to be true. I spent the last 10 mins. or so of the run worrying that I was actually dreaming and I'd have to wake up and do the whole thing all over again and I just COULDN'T have faced that.
About the best thing I can say about the run is that it's over. I started about 5:20, 20 mins. later than planned. Although the sun wasn't quite up and it certainly wasn't very hot, I was soaked after about 2 miles. It was super-humid and difficult to breathe and I was running VERY slowly. My legs were tired before I started the run.
Although I just did 10 easy miles of running yesterday morning, my mom decided that she wanted to go for a walk with me in the afternoon. A walk for my mom isn't a leisurely 2-mile stroll. It's 6 miles of clipping along at 12-min. mile pace. It's quite puzzling really, how she generates that much speed. She's not very tall and has these short little legs; her turnover must be incredible. So, anyway, yesterday wasn't quite the recovery day it was supposed to be.
But I managed to get my 2 and 1/2 hrs. in today despite myself. It was kind of nice to be done with my long run for the week before 8AM on Sunday, since I've gotten into such a bad habit of procrastinating and running it on Monday or Tuesday. In fact, I think this is the first long run this training cycle that I've actually done on a Sunday, disturbingly enough. I don't know what it is. It's not that I find long runs the challenge that some people do -- running hard and fast is vastly more difficult for me than just running long; rather, I think it's that I'm a closet couch potato (guess I'm out now) and find it hard to reconcile myself to committing to 2 and 1/2 hrs. of continuous physical activity. Ah, sloth.
Posted by alweiss at 12:28 PM | Comments (1)
July 22, 2005
Wardrobe Malfunction in Bizarro World
As Bridget so eloquently spoke about on her blog yesterday, there are a lot of terrible bizarre things happening in the world right now (or maybe the tragedy of these things is that they happen with enough frequency or are foreseeable enough that they don't really seem bizarre to us). The species of bizarre human behavior I stumbled upon this evening was, fortunately, not of that ilk.
When I arrived at the track where I've been doing my workouts, there were about 15 people sitting in lawn chairs lined up along one side of the track, facing the infield. This wouldn't have seemed strange had there been something, anything, happening on the track. But there wasn't a soul on either the track or the infield. Nor was there any sign that anything had been taking place there. So, I assumed that something was going to be taking place either on the track or the infield in the immediate future.
Not particularly troubled by my audience, I started my intervals (6x1200 w/4 mins. jog recovery). Then, at some point between my second and third interval, they all just got up and left, leaving me to puzzle over the purpose of their presence for the third interval, and to be relieved that they had absented themselves when, during the fourth interval, my shorts started sliding down. This tends to happen with my favorite style of adidas shorts when they get rain- or sweat-soaked. Further complicating the problem, the string in the waistband is a loop, which means that you don't lose one end of it into the band in the wash, but also means that it's difficult (if not impossible) to tie it effectively. In fact, I've never been able to tie it tightly enough to prevent the shorts from falling down when they've decided that's what they want to do. The best method I've discovered for keeping the shorts up when they're soaked is to fold over the waistband. Unfortunately, this shortens the shorts enough that my rear ends up hanging out the bottom of them.
So, I mooned the empty track for 2 more 1200s, then took the show on the road, so to speak, running along the lake and then home for my cool-down.
I didn't time the intervals, just the recovery. I decided that if I wasn't hitting my splits, I didn't want to know about it. I certainly don't think I could have put any more effort in (I was having trouble maintaining forward momentum on the cool-down), so I think it was a good workout. Unfortunately, I was so flattened that I was semi-catatonic at dinner with my mom and Granddad, making me perhaps not the world's liveliest dinner companion. I will have to make it up to them tomorrow.
Ok, I'll end here. I'm looking forward to a solid 9 hrs. of sleep tonight. Bed is calling.
Posted by alweiss at 10:09 PM | Comments (5)
July 21, 2005
Go (White) Sox!
I'm taking my Granddad to the White Sox game tonight, so I had to get the bulk of my training for the day in this morning. I'm really excited for the game: the White Sox are playing the Red Sox, who are leading the Yankees by just a half game in the AL East. Both my Granddad (who grew up on the South side of Chicago and is a life-long ChiSox fan) and I (being a life-long Yankees fan) will be pulling hard for Chicago. Buerle is pitching for Chicago and he tends to be extremely efficient so the game shouldn't (fingers crossed) turn into one of those 4-hr. American League dogs. Unless the ChiSox pound Clement (Boston's starter), which wouldn't be an entirely bad thing (I can't say that I'd ever object to Boston's suffering an ignominious shelling, although I vastly prefer pitchers' duels -- a late-inning 1-0 loss is certainly more heartbreaking than a 10-3 drubbing), the game should be over at a reasonable hour, so I might even be able to sneak in a morning run tomorrow.
I got home pretty late last night after dropping the family off at their hotel and then had trouble getting to sleep (ok, I'll admit that it was partially that I was stressing a bit over my training schedule for the next few days), so when the alarm went off I was very tempted to go back to sleep. But I was meeting G. for a run, so I didn't have that option (probably the BEST thing about having someone to run with in the mornings is that it takes away the option of going back to sleep). We ran for an hour, probably about 8 miles. Afterwards I lifted for the first time since last Wednesday. I find it so difficult to motivate myself to lift. It's not that I dislike lifting; in fact, when I'm doing it I kind of enjoy it. I think part of the problem is that I actually have to go to the gym to lift, and do it during the hours the gym is open. The other part of the problem is that while I KNOW on one level that lifting helps make me faster, on another level it's hard to see the results of lifting as the results of lifting -- I can't isolate them from the results of, say, running intervals, and the connection between running hard intervals and improvement is the more intuitive one to make.
I'm going to do another short run this evening before going to the game: just 4 miles or so on my way home from work. Since our dinner reservation for tomorrow night isn't until 8, I was thinking of trying to squeeze in my interval workout after work if it isn't too hot (or, if I by some miracle get home really early from the game, tomorrow morning). I'm concerned because I know I'm going to get home late tomorrow evening and I'm afraid I won't want to get up early enough Saturday morning to do the workout before it gets hot. Sigh. I miss being able to just run whenever and not have to plan my workouts around the heat. Can't wait for fall!
Posted by alweiss at 02:53 PM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2005
Only Happy When it Rains
Due to a flood in my bathroom (apparently with a source somewhere above me) last night, I got to bed a little late to contemplate a 6AM workout. So, I revised the plan and decided to do it at lunch on the treadmill. But it turned out that the law school had decided to throw a barbeque for faculty and staff at lunch, only they neglected to tell anyone about it (this won't come as a surprise for anyone associated with the school). Once the food started arriving in the Green Lounge (the main student/faculty lounge), word quickly traveled and it reached me before I set out for the gym. So I put off the workout yet again.
I'm glad I did so. I don't like doing my workouts on the treadmill except when absolutely necessary. I did the majority of my workouts for my first marathon on a treadmill because I had no convenient access to a track and I figured it was a handy way of keeping track of my pace. However, I believe that this ended up being to my detriment. When I did the workouts on the treadmill, I didn't have to put in any mental effort to maintain the pace/effort the workouts demanded. When I got tired, the treadmill did all the mental work for me; all I had to do was keep up. I had no choice to slow down, and hence didn't have to overcome the urge to do so. So, when I started feeling bad in my actual marathon, I just wasn't mentally equipped to fight through it. In training for my second marathon, I didn't do any workouts on the treadmill and while I wasn't as fit as I was going into my first marathon, I was more mentally equipped and, hence, ran close to 8 mins. faster.
By the time I did my workout this afternoon (around 4:30), it had rained and cooled off some (instead of being 95 in the shade and humid, it was 85 in the shade and humid), so I returned to Plan A and did the workout in Washington Park. I did 6x6 min. at threshold pace with a minute rest. I was pleased with my effort, although I have no idea what pace I was going. I noted that I completed my second loop of the park in 10 mins., including a minute of shuffling, so I don't think a loop is quite a mile and a half. If it is, I'm absolutely thrilled with the workout, considering the conditions.
Ok, I'll end here. I have to go pick up my mom and Granddad and take them to dinner. My mother is bellyaching about the weather. She apparently has a very high opinion of my powers and abilities as she seems to hold me responsible for it.
Posted by alweiss at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2005
I've Been Remiss
I am a terrible person: I have been neglecting my blog. Seeing as my friend E. has been getting on me about this, I decided I'd better get back on track.
Part of the reason I haven't been updating is that my running of late hasn't been all that interesting. I did a lot of sitting on my couch reading this weekend (the new Harry Potter book arrived on Saturday) and not a lot of running. It was beastly hot and humid all weekend, so I kept putting off my long run and doing shorter runs. When I did it yet again last night, I decided it had gotten ridiculous, so I bit the bullet this morning, set the alarm for 5AM, and went for 2:15. I felt good and held 7:30s pretty comfortably, but I should have, seeing as my legs were pretty well rested (the last time I did a strenuous run was my workout on Thursday... the rest of the runs were just recovery-type runs, although Sunday's run was at a decent pace, especially for the temperature, because I was annoyed with myself).
One thing I've noticed is that the more long runs I do and the more comfortable I get doing them, the less I require to do them. When I first started doing really long runs (I consider anything longer than 90 mins. really long, though some probably don't), I had to eat something before going and had to have gatorade strategically planted. Now I just get out of bed and go. I stopped once for water at a fountain this morning, not because I felt as if I needed it, but because I felt as if I should. I realize that not taking in fluids and nutrition during a long run is a bad habit to get into, especially since long runs should be sort of dry runs for one's marathon, but I sometimes wonder if I'm wasting time/energy trying to take in fluids and nutrition in the actual marathon. I'm a little nervous, though, to try running a marathon not taking anything, or just taking in some water at the halfway point. More on this as the summer goes on.
I just re-read the last paragraph and realized that it's kind of misleading. It probably didn't get any warmer than 70 degrees this morning and was, for once, not very humid. Had it been warmer or more humid, and had it not been so early, and had the sun been fully up, I obviously would have required more water. And I would never assume I wasn't going to need water and not plan to have it available (one nice feature of the lakefront path is the water fountains every 1/4 mi. or so). The point I'm trying to make is that under NON-EXTREME conditions I seem to require less than I at one time thought I did to get me through a longer run.
Now that I've managed to put my long run off to this late in the week, it's going to be a bit tricky to get my two workouts in (even more complicated than it would be because my Mom and Granddad will be in town and expect to be entertained by moi, surprisingly). But I think I'll do one tomorrow morning and one on Saturday morning.
I went to a (really good!) concert with G. on Friday night and on the way back, after waiting for a while, we gave up on our connecting bus (buses in Hyde Park don't really seem to follow a schedule during the summer: they just come when they want to) and decided to hoof it back. On our way, we walked past Washington Park (? I think), which I've known was there but never really paid attention to. It looks as if there's a nice, somewhat shady dirt path around the park that I vaguely remember being told is about a mile and a half long. I think I may go over there tomorrow morning to do my workout.
Ok, now I can stop feeling guilty about not updating the blog. :)
Posted by alweiss at 08:24 AM | Comments (6)
July 14, 2005
Erikson, Gandhi & What Every Runner Knows
I had my first track workout - my first real speed workout - today. I ran from work over to a nearby track and did a couple of laps to finish my warm-up. Then I did a few strides... which made me realize that I should probably start doing strides after all my runs, something I haven't been doing, because they felt HARD. Then I stretched for a few minutes. Finally, being unable to postpone the inevitable any longer, I started the workout (6x1200 in 4:30 w/4:00 jog rest, which worked out to be 2 laps, give or take a few seconds). The first one wasn't bad -- 4:31, so I was almost on. Then 4:33, 4:34, then I really fell off: 4:37. I didn't time the last two (decided it would be counter-productive), just ran them all-out. As it always does, the workout flattened me.
I was reading something the other day about psychoanalyst Erik Erikson's work on Gandhi, called "Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence." In it, Erikson criticizes Gandhi for not practicing the same non-violence he preached and practiced toward others with regard to himself, saying, "You should stop terrorizing yourself and approach your own body with nonviolence." This really bothered me. If everyone took Erikson's approach, we would have a society of mediocrity. I don't think there is any way to fulfill one's potential without approaching oneself with a certain amount of violence -- pushing oneself to one's limits and always demanding more. Every runner knows this. Improvement comes at a certain cost: sweat, pain, fatigue, time. Gandhi's power and his ability to motivate the people who followed him came from his aceticism and self-denial, from the violence he practiced toward himself. Distance running is the most Gandhi-like sport I can think of: every runner is violently abusing his own body while practicing non-violence toward his/her competition. There is no contact -- all agression is directed inward.
I think too many Americans take Erikson's approach and practice non-violence toward themselves. There were a number of people walking around the track or playing with their children on the infield as I did my workout today, and except for one very nice lady who kept cheering me on, the looks they shot me reflected suspicion and serious concern. Basically, they thought I was a complete nutcase, because what human in her right mind would inflict on her body the distress I was quite obviously inflicting on mine?
Who knows -- maybe I am a nutcase, maybe we're all nutcases. But I can no more understand not being curious to discover what can be accomplished when one pushes oneself to one's limits than the people who were watching me in horror this afternoon could understand what was motivating me.
Posted by alweiss at 08:50 PM | Comments (5)
July 13, 2005
Misery Loves Company (and so do I!)
I may have found myself a running partner. G. and I became friendly this past fall and winter when I was injured and consequently swimming every day. G. is the swim coach here at school and as we chatted we discovered that he had grown up swimming with some of my college swimming teammates (I took temporary leave of my senses and swam for a season in college; it was a disaster; I'm a terrible swimmer), he knew my college swimming and sometimes running coach, and we shared an enthusiasm for marathoning. He did a couple of swim workouts with me (which must have been torture for him since he was an All-America swimmer) and we kept saying that we should go running together sometime... but my injury didn't seem to want to cooperate. By the time I was able to run again, I never wanted to go back to the pool -- I was sick of my skin peeling, my hair falling out, and constantly reeking of chlorine -- so I didn't. But I had the good fortune to bump into G. on Friday as I was leaving the gym after lifting and we made tentative plans to run sometime this week.
We met up this morning and fell into what felt like a perfect pace for me and did about 7 and 1/2. Good conversation, ideal pace: it was just a really fun run. I was telling him about my training program and he said he'd be up for doing some of the workouts with me. Yippee!
I did an anticlimactic 5 and 1/2 this evening on my own.
Posted by alweiss at 08:33 PM | Comments (3)
July 12, 2005
An Early Start (well, almost)
When my friend H. said she had to be at work early today, I figured walking with her would give me incentive to get out of bed and I could accompany her as far as the gym, then lift and go for a run. It almost worked. I got up and walked in the direction of work with her at 7, as planned... only I kept on walking past the gym... and on to work. I decided that I would go to work, have a cup of coffee, and ease into my day less violently than I had planned. Having gotten in ridiculously early, I was able to take an early 2-hr. lunch. I ran the 3/4 of a mile to the gym as warm-up, lifted for 40 mins. or so, then ran 7 and 1/4 on the treadmill (7:30, 7:30, 7:30, 7:30, 7:15, 7:00, 6:45). It was a relief to feel good on the run; I actually felt stronger and smoother as I picked up the pace after getting bored running 7:30s.
It occurred to me on my second run of the day (a 5-miler which I did on my way home from work) why running on the treadmill always feels absurdly easy to me: I'm so accustomed now to battling the wind every time I go for a run that my body can't believe its good fortune to find itself in the absence of wind resistance. My easy 5-miler ended up being not so easy: the first 3 and 1/2 miles were into a nasty headwind. Then, for the last mile and a half, the wind behind me felt like a hand on my back pushing me along as my legs struggled to keep up with the trajectory of my body. However, there was an upside to the gusting winds: I made it through the run without encountering a single gnat. All in all, it was a good day. :)
Posted by alweiss at 08:24 PM | Comments (2)
TL Workout
For some reason I was just exhausted yesterday morning. All that sitting on the couch watching a 3 and 1/2 hr. Bollywood movie (Bollywood movies are one of my favorite guilty pleasures), reading, and not doing a single thing on my to-do list on Sunday must've really tuckered me out. At any rate, my TL workout ended up being postponed to the evening as I slept perilously late.
I had made plans to get ice cream with my friend H. at 9, which meant I had to be out the door by 7. Having a deadline by which I have to start a workout is a very good thing for me because otherwise I procrastinate and things tend to get late.
The workout was 2x12 min. at lactate threshold pace with 2 min. recovery in between, followed by an hour run. It was still quite hot when I started and I was running into what felt like a pretty decent headwind (if ever you're running on the lake path and you think there's no wind, the safer assumption is that the wind is at your back), but even so the workout should have gone better than it did. I felt as if I was running the wrong way on a moving sidewalk: I was expending all this effort, but getting nowhere. Despite the 24 mins. of lactate threshold effort on the way out and the fact that the gnats had reached critical mass by the time I made the turnaround (necessitating my frequently helicoptoring my arms in front of my face while blowing out to avoid getting gnats in my mouth and up my nose), I ended up running back a minute faster at an easy effort the whole way.
I have to remind myself that it's always this way, so I shouldn't get discouraged. I'm not one of those people who makes slow and steady progress and can see improvement from week to week. I struggle for weeks then wake up one morning to find that running is suddenly... easy. Running will just become this completely different thing than it had been for the past weeks and weeks. The change is that dramatic. It's such a breathtaking affirmation of all the effort I've put in that when it happens I wouldn't ever trade it for slow and steady improvement. But I'm an impatient person, so right now I really wish the Running Gods would give me a little something -- an advance, say, since I haven't earned it yet.
Posted by alweiss at 08:15 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2005
A Perfect Day
Today was one of those rare days about which I wouldn't change a thing. I slept in then went to brunch at Tiffin with my friend H. After stuffing ourselves with really, really good Indian food, we went shopping and then to see Batman Begins which was the best movie I've seen in a while (which isn't saying much as it's only the second movie I've seen in a theater since last summer -- no, I don't get out much ;-) ). When I got home I attempted to take a nap, but my Dusky Conure, Toby, decided that she needed to air her grievances (pictures on link aren't of Toby, obviously, but that's what she looks like; it's hard to believe that such a tiny creature can generate such VOLUME) so I gave up and watched the Sox game instead then did an easy 10-miler along the lake. I was a little stiff at first (sore from lifting yesterday) -- was feeling like an old lady -- but my legs loosened up as I ran. That's about it. I'll (hopefully) write an entry with a little more zing tomorrow.
Posted by alweiss at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)
July 08, 2005
My Life as a Hamster
I got in 15 miles today, 11 and 1/2 of which were on the treadmill at the gym. :P (The other 3 and 1/2 consisted of running from work to the gym -- twice -- and from the gym home, plus a short add-on for which I was rewarded by a coating of gnats). I ended up sleeping in this morning (surprise, surprise) because I woke up at 3 and didn't fall back to sleep until 6:30 or so. I really wanted to double, though, so I did my first workout on the treadmill at the gym at lunch. I ran the 3/4 of a mile to the gym to save time then did 5 and 1/4 mi. on the treadmill (7:45, 7:30, 7:15, 7:00, 6:45) for 6 miles.
I was all proud of myself for remembering to bring soap and shampoo with me this morning. Sadly it didn't occur to me to bring a towel. So I got to be the weirdo standing buck-naked in the locker room wiping herself dry with paper towels. Definitely not one of my life's most comfortable moments.
I was feeling a bit guilty about not getting in to work until practically 10 (my friend H. with whom I walk to work every day had alarm clock issues this morning) and then taking an hour and 20 minute lunch when my boss suggested I go watch the Friday afternoon movie (apparently Friday is "movie day" at work; in theory they show a different movie every Friday, though this was the first one they've shown this summer), "Chicago," appropriately. Since I had absolutely nothing on my desk to do and I hadn't seen it and had been meaning to forever, I went (albeit feeling like a total schmuck). I really enjoyed it. I would like to dislike Renee Zellweger, but she's really beginning to grow on me, between this movie and "Down With Love."
After the movie, it was time for workout #2. I ran to the gym as warm-up, lifted for 40 mins. or so (feeling incredibly wimpy using 10 lb. dumbbells; they had nothing between 10 and 15 lbs. and I didn't want to jump right into the 15 lb. weights since I can't remember the last time I lifted. I decided it would be better to use lighter weights and do more reps... it did occur to me, though, as I was working my way through my sets that my 60-something mother -- she'd kill me if I revealed the exact number -- uses heavier dumbbells than I was using), then returned to the treadmill.
The only available treadmills by this time were Woodway treadmills. Has anyone ever run on one of those? Everything seems to be at exactly the wrong height for me, so I kept bumping my elbows and knuckles on the treadmill. Then, when I'd been running for about a mile and a half something really embarassing happened: I somehow lost my footing. I'm not sure exactly how it happened. I may have bumped an elbow or my knuckles yet again and it threw me off... or my foot may have slipped off the front edge of the treadmill (because of the way the treadmill is designed, this is something that I kept having to watch out for)... or I may have simply tripped over my shoelaces. But suddenly I was clinging to the bar in the front of the treadmill and trying to keep from flying off the back. I finally thought to jump so I was straddling the treadmill belt and the guy on the treadmill next to me hit the stop button for me. Utter mortification. Once I got the treadmill going again, I plodded through 4 and 1/2 more miles then ran home, giving me a grand total of 9 for my second run of the day.
All in all, I got some quality work in today so I'm happy. And I know for the future to avoid the Woodway treadmills.
Posted by alweiss at 10:02 PM | Comments (4)
July 07, 2005
Another Brilliant Idea
I had planned to do a workout tomorrow morning (same one as last week - zzzz - 5.5 mi. of 4 min. hard/3 min. easy) but at some point this afternoon, as I was alternating between manically checking my e-mail and staring into space, I decided that it would be a really good idea to do it today instead. I had four reasons for this: I've been having a lot of difficulty getting up in the mornings and I figured that it would be easier to get myself out of bed for a run than for a workout; by doing it today I had less time to dread it; if I didn't do a workout tomorrow morning, I could start my ambitious lifting program tomorrow (cough, cough -- ambitious only in the sense that I'm planning to actually lift, an element that has been absent from my training since grad school); and, finally, I wanted to escape the debate that has been going on in my head all day (more on this later) and that clearly wasn't going to happen on an easy run.
As it turned out this wasn't the stroke of genius I thought it was. My legs are still adjusting to my somewhat sudden increase in mileage (up until last week I'd only been running an average of 4 days per week) and they probably hadn't fully recovered from Tuesday's 19+ miler. The workout was pretty ugly. I toyed with the idea of bagging it and trying again tomorrow about 2 mi. in, but I figured I was already more than 1/3 done, so I was invested. Instead, I just tried to concentrate on my form and turnover during the hard intervals. This proved to be a good strategy as I actually started running faster and it seemed to alleviate somewhat the burning in my right quad. This is something that first happened to me last fall while I was doing a tempo workout on the lake path. The strongest theory I have for why it happens is that my right hip is slightly higher than my left so my right leg has to work a little harder than the left. This is exacerbated by the fact that the way the lake path is cambered, the ground below my right leg is slightly lower than the ground below my left leg. At any rate, it's quite unpleasant.
A couple of bright spots: I now have the option to do my TL workout on Sunday with full recovery, or on Monday with an extra day of recovery (will probably opt for the latter because the whole workout shouldn't take me more than 1:45), and I certainly succeeded in pushing my ambivalent feelings on the events of the day from my head. I was, as I'm sure everyone was, sickened by the London bombings. And, coincidentally, I went to a works-in-progress discussion at lunch about a paper whose thesis was that judicial scrutiny of congressional or executive directives targeting minorities should be relaxed in times of emergency because 1) democratic failure is no more likely to occur in times of emergency than in times of normalcy and 2) the costs of wrongly invalidating a law go way up in such times. My gut instinct was, of course, to strongly disagree with this thesis. It seems to discount the fact that while costs (to national security, or what have you) of wrongful invalidation spike at such times, so do the costs to the minorities being targeted because their deprivations are more severe and more basic. It is one thing to unfairly tax an underrepresented group (as might happen in times of normalcy), but quite another to deprive an ethnic minority of basic civil liberties (think of the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans). How does one weigh the costs to the targeted group against the lives that might be saved were such methods truly effective (another thing that is difficult to prove)? Still, after the events this morning in London, I was inclined to look a little more favorably on the proposed thesis, a circumstance I find profoundly disturbing. I don't see any way to "win" the "war on terrorism" and I can't see any way around sacrificing in the coming months/years some of the liberties we most value in the interest of security, which truly saddens me. Ok, I realize that this isn't an entirely appropriate discussion for a running blog (sorry, Alison!), but I find it difficult to natter on about my running (trivial by comparison) without acknowledging what is happening in the greater world.
Posted by alweiss at 08:06 PM | Comments (3)
July 06, 2005
Tired Legs
As I expected they would my legs felt a little tired and beat up from yesterday's long run. But for some reason I felt compelled to get 11 miles in anyway. I started from work, which is a great little psychological trick I play on myself. It's about 2 miles from work to my usual starting/ending point, so I end up having to run out a mile less than I would were I to start from home. For some reason that makes the distance seem shorter. I think it's something about not having to venture as far from home.
With about 3 and a half miles left, I saw a guy not too far ahead who looked as if he was working pretty hard... then he stopped and started walking. And as I drew closer I could JUST TELL. It was partly the way he was dressed (he was wearing one of those tank tops with the super large arm holes) and partly the fact that he was short and partly intangbiles like the way he carried himself. But I could just tell that he was one of those guys who would have trouble letting a woman run by him. And sure enough, after I passed him I heard behind me the pitter-patter of pursuing feet. I was just not in the mood to play cat-and-mouse games for the next however many miles so I decided to nip it in the bud and stealthily took off (well, as far as what I was doing on my weary legs could be called "taking off"). He lasted for about 50 feet then I stopped hearing him behind me. It's amazing the accuracy with which I am able to predict when coming on a guy from behind whether he is going to let me pass unchallenged. The mindset that leads a guy to suddenly pick up his pace when he's being passed by a woman, then slow down again when she's safely behind him, then pick up again when she catches him again, then slow down again, then pick up again... then suddenly turn off or stop to fix an imaginary shoelace is something I will never understand. I mean, unless I were a total moron, it would be safe to assume that I KNEW you were running at a slower pace than I since I caught up to you. Ok, I'll stop. I really shouldn't let it bother me... but it's just SUCH a pet peeve of mine.
Posted by alweiss at 08:50 PM | Comments (4)
Lakefront Nightlife
So, being myself, I ended up doing an easy 10-miler yesterday and putting off my long run 'til 8 o'clock or so tonight. Naturally it didn't really occur to me (ok, it did, but I was in denial) that that would mean I'd finish the run in the 10:30-10:45 range. The path was a bit lonely by the time I neared home. I kept being startled by little rabbits darting across (not as exciting as the rats I used to encounter on night runs in Central Park; I find rats infinitely interesting. Oh -- that has nothing to do with the title of my blog, though). But up North, the path was hopping. There were just tons of people out running, biking, and blading. There was even a roller hockey game going on at the rink at the North Avenue Beach. I was surprised at the amount of activity on the path so late at night -- I certainly hadn't expected to be dodging people. Although, I guess it was only 9:15 or 9:30 at that point. And I think it makes perfect sense to use the path after the sun goes down, especially in the beach-front area where there is just no way to get out of the sun. I find that if I start a run later than 6:30 in the morning I just bake.
I had gone into the run expecting to really struggle for the last half hour. I always DRAG on the last half hour of the first really long run of each training cycle. And considering that I haven't run longer than 1:50 or so since last September (?!), I expected this run to be especially icky. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I felt really strong in the last half hour. Even picked it up and had something left to "kick in" the last 400 (or, what I estimated to be the last 400 -- I had to do an extra lap around my block because I negative-splitted the run and I really wanted to run for the full 2:30).
All of that is to affirm that I wasn't in that muzzy, half-hallucinatory state one sometimes falls into toward the end of a long run when the following revelation came to me: I am the cause of the downfall of the Yankees' dynasty. Here are the facts: I started working in sports in New York, covering the Yankees, among all the other NY sports teams, in 1998, the year the Yankees' dynasty started (one could argue it started in 1996, but they didn't make the World Series in '97, so it really started in '98). My last day as a sports producer was Opening Day of 2002. In that time, the Yanks won 3 World Series and came within 2 outs of winning a fourth. In '02, they lost in the ALDS to Anaheim, 3-1. In '03, they made it to the Series, but lost to the Marlins, 4-2. But it wasn't until 6 weeks after I left NY to move to Chicago that they suffered the worst post-season collapse in MLB history, losing the ALCS to Boston (of all clubs!) after being up 3-0. This season, they are in danger of not making the playoffs for the first time since 1994. Meanwhile, now that I've moved to Chicago, the White Sox are unaccountably looking like the '98 Yankees. Ok, they have 3 starting pitchers that are putting together career seasons thus far. And they play a mean game of little ball. But they only have one guy on their roster hitting over .300, and he isn't even a starter. And their pitching falls off after the big 3. El Duque (currently on the DL) and Contreras (both former Yankees) just don't give one an easy feeling when they're on the mound. And yet... the Sox are unstoppable. There is just no other explanation. It's all me.
I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my blog and welcome me to your community!
Posted by alweiss at 12:10 AM | Comments (4)
July 03, 2005
Couch Potato
Today was an off day which I spent being a total couch potato. This was the first day in a really long time where I didn't have anywhere to be or anything to do. It was delicious.
I have a long run tomorrow (2 and 1/2 hrs.). I was debating driving out to McKinley Woods to do it there, but after yesterday and Friday I don't think I can face another encounter with Chicago traffic this weekend (Chicago traffic is the worst I've experienced anywhere. I had thought that nothing could be worse than Delhi, but Chicago has proven me wrong). So, the lake path it will be. :-P
Posted by alweiss at 06:42 PM | Comments (3)
July 02, 2005
Harley Fest!
I got to go running in scenic Racine, Wisconsin this morning. As I tied my shoes and prepared to head out, my friend J.'s mom suggested a loop around their development. I smiled and nodded politely then headed out of the development for the main strip because I knew that I could do an hour-long out-and-back along it without running out of road. It was ugly, and in the sun, but I figured it beat doing loops around J.'s family's development for an hour... and no one would be the wiser.
As luck would have it, there was some sort of Harley-Davidson and hot rod convention going on at the large Harley-Davidson showroom along the strip. It had spilled into and taken over the adjoining Dairy Queen parking lot as well. There were lots of biker types, as well as a surprising number of nerdy-looking posturers; not as many real characters as one might have hoped for, but, hey, it was pretty early. But the bikes. They were beautiful. The sight of them re-awakened in me my hankering for a motorcycle. I can't imagine that I would ever get one -- they're way too impractical -- but I can't think of anything that comes close to the the experience of riding one.
But, back to my run. I eventually ended up somehow running around a cemetery, then turned around and headed back (getting to pass by the Harley convention another time). As my luck would have it, I was found out. Turns out that J., her sisters, and her father drove past me as I was running back... and as soon as I walked in the door, her mother asked me where I had gone (she said she hadn't seen me running around the development). Whoops. At any rate, I got in a little over an hour, which I'm going to call 8 mi., judging by the rough clocking I did in my car on my way back to Chicago.
After a really yummy breakfast of rice and sambar, okra, potatoes, black-eyed peas, and cantaloupe (I really like American breakfast food -- could pretty much live on it -- but I like Indian breakfasts even better... especially post-run), my friend J., her sisters, and I headed to the mall to see "Bewitched." It was pretty entertaining. Nicole Kidman was excellent. It definitely beat the maudlin movie "The Notebook," which J. and her sisters rented last night.
Soon after the movie I headed back to Chicago. I thought about trying to find the Ice Age Trail, a trail in Wisconsin that was highly recommended by a runner classmate of mine, and run there on my way home from Racine. But in the end I decided that it would entail too much research, extra driving, and time spent getting lost for a measly 10-miler (although it would have been the perfect day for it -- sunny, cool, and dry). So I did my second run today on the lake path at sunset. It was a really good run. Probably quite slow (I didn't bother to start my watch), but it felt good. I was surprised at how good I felt on both runs today. I'd been feeling pretty terrible all week until yesterday. It's amazing what a difference cooler weather makes (it had been in the 90s for a week straight and the heat finally broke yesterday). I'm hoping we'll get a nice, long break before the mercury heads back into the 90s again.
Posted by alweiss at 09:56 PM | Comments (3)
July 01, 2005
A Taste of Chicago
So my boss announced yesterday that we'd be going to "A Taste of Chicago" (this big food festival in Grant Park where various Chicago restaurants offer samples of their fare -- a food-themed festival... seems Chicago-appropriate) for lunch and we weren't to go back to the office afterwards. I love my boss.
This left me with a little bit of free time this afternoon to do my workout (although I was a little bit nervous that I might get an unwanted second taste of Chicago, since I had to go about an hour after stuffing my face... happily this eventuality was never realized). The workout went ok. Not great or anything, but not a disaster. I'm not where I need to be right now (averaged 6:55 for the 5.5 mi. fartlek -- 6 min. pace or slightly slower for the hard parts, really slow for the easy parts), but I think I can get into decent shape for the Chicago Marathon (which I've entered). I think I'll probably do what I did last year and decide what I'm going to do based on my final Marathon Pace run. If I feel good on that run, I'll race the Chicago Marathon. If I don't feel good, I'll do 20-22 mi. of Chicago as a long run with my friend E. who is running it and then race the Tulsa Marathon a month later.
Posted by alweiss at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
Inauspicious Beginnings
Greetings! I was a bit hesitant to start this blog today for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that I bagged my run this morning. It was supposed to be a workout -- 5.5 mi. of 4 mins. hard/3 mins easy -- and was the absolute last thing I felt like doing when I woke up, one minute before my alarm was supposed to go off. Had I slept a minute later, I would have had to go (little chance of being able to fall back to sleep once awakened by the evil bleating), so I'll blame this one on the evil scheming of my subconscious. The other reason is that my computer is broken. My ethernet port has been fried for some time, and my wireless has apparently decided to give up the ghost as well. So, being computer-less (or internet access-less), I'm not sure that I'll get the chance to post over the weekend.
So, it seemed like perhaps today is not the best day to begin my running blog. But then my running "career" (emphatic quotation marks) began under similarly inauspicious circumstances: in a 5-mile road race (of which I walked at least 2 mi.) which left me hobbling for the next week. So, I figure it's a fitting beginning.
And I will get the workout in this evening, before I run off to Wisconsin to visit my good friend J. Look for my update!
Posted by alweiss at 11:14 AM | Comments (2)