Clear Your Head

New Shoes!!!!!

2009-04-07T14:40:00.002-04:00

Getting new running shoes makes me giddy. And the last pair I bought, Nike Air Triaxx something or the other, I HATED! On mile 8 of the Philadelphia Distance Run last Sept., when the shoes were just a couple of weeks old, I could feel my feet pound the pavement and my hip start to ache. I kept using them, mainly cause I couldn't afford more.

So last night, with a little State of Georgia tax refund in my pocket, I headed off to West Stride, a running store closest to being on the west side of town. It was the first time that someone analyzed my gait on a treadmill with a camera filming my feet from behind. (thank goodness not much of my ample Behind appeared on film.) Turns out I have a pretty neutral stride. My left foot pronates just a tad. (and now I actually know what pronating looks like). I have run in shoes that were for stability, but the guy helping me said I didn't really need that. I tried on 4 shoes including the newest version of my beloved Asics Gel Kayanos. (15's). The Brooks "slapped" on the ground when I ran. The Saucony's felt good. The Gel Kayano 15's were clunky. Toooo much stability, so I had to leave them behind. Then I tried the Asics GT-2140. Loved them!!!

Just had time for a quick 2 miles on the treadmill by the time I finished last night. And I can't completely break up with my Nike's. Gonna keep them in the rotation to stretch the miles.

I forgot to run a 5K!

2009-04-04T20:06:00.003-04:00

Yep. This morning. It was a run done by the Physician's Assistant school at Emory and benefits Good Sam. The place where I am the development director. I was supposed to sign up this week, take some materials about Good Sam out to Lullwater park early this a.m., and run on the anniversary of my first race post knee surgery last year.

And I didn't remember until I was driving by Lullwater Park after digging up plants from a friend's yard, picking up a few more at Pike's on my way to HD for soil conditioner. I looked down the park driveway and saw the last of the people carrying gear up the hill from the race.

Sigh. Apparently I've been a little busy and distracted.

On the upside, I've gotten in my 2 3-mile runs this week, including yesterday a hilly run at Brookhaven at a 9:13 pace. Tomorrow, severe weather permitting, I plan to do 5.

If I remember.

finally (?)

2009-03-16T21:22:00.002-04:00

Thank heaven for daylight savings time. Started last Wed to run with a co-worker during lunch. I've been so slack at running, that I was worried about going out for 3 mile run. But even with a pretty warm day, we did a 9:54 pace and I didn't die! We have a similar pace, even though she's about 6 inches taller than me. Thank goodness for someone else who loves running and will go out with me. If we make it one day/week, I'll go out one other time too.

Then Sunday, after it finally quit raining so hard, I headed out to the Silver Comet trail for another 3. But it became 4 and generally felt good at a 10 min/mi pace.

Boooorrring entry, but I just need to get this out there.

Then there was my dream. I swear I dreamed an entire 10 mile run through my favorite neighborhoods last Fri. night. The sun was out, about 65 degrees. It seemed like I felt every footfall, heard the neighborhood sounds, felt the changes in my heart rate and breathing. It felt great! Can't wait for it to happen when I'm awake and out of the bed!!

2009-01-18T18:19:00.001-05:00

Copied from my home blog:

Fiscal considerations have caused me to put my gym membership on hold for now, so any running I do must be done outside. (Brrrr!) It's been another opportunity to venture out in the neigborhood in search of the miles I need. I can go in circles around the park on my own block, but since this is the only place I walk the dogs, I'm rather bored with that.

So far, I've ventured down the main road that runs through the neighborhood on a quiet Sunday morning and during daylight rush hour. (Don't worry, I have a neat little elastic wristband with pepper spray for stray dogs and other unsavory characters.) Soon, my work will relocate to a new building only a mile and a half from home. Since we'll have a shower there, I'll be able to switch 2 runs a week to my lunch hour and run home, let the dogs out and run back.

One Sunday I passed Chris and Star, a couple who live on my block, on my way back from a run. They were on their way to church, but we took a moment to talk about running and a half marathon that's in late March here. To my great surprise and delight, Chris showed up at my door several days later and asked about the race. We talked about running routes. It's so exciting that they may do this run. I may even gain a running partner.

I had no horse!

2008-06-13T09:45:00.003-04:00

That's how I felt on my planned 6 miles yesterday. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but after the 1st mile warm up and 2 at tempo, I was dying. Dead legs, felt like I was running in waist deep water. Decided to go out and back for a 4th mile and call it, but ended up doing a shorter loop that put me closer to 5 miles. It was 90 and high humidity, so some conditioning and better hydration are in order I think

Up Yonder on the Chattahoochie

2008-06-03T12:51:00.002-04:00

I got my long run in after work - 7 miles. I ran on the 3 mile loop at the Chattahoochie off New Northside. It's pretty well shaded, pretty well flat, soft trails, and, most importantly, has water fountains along the way. It also has distance markers every quarter mile.

Math and I haven't gotten along so well since 8th grade when Mr. Coffee "lost" several of my tests and I almost failed and would go off on screaming jags and throw books at the class and stuff. But I digress. I have to be very literal about keeping up with miles and it usually takes way more thought than it should to figure out how to track 7 miles on a 3 mile loop.

On this trail, I go from the start marker around to the 3 mile marker - which is NOT at the same place as the start marker. So I turn around there and run the trail backwards. I planned, once I arrived back at start, to turn around and go back out for 1/2 mile and back. But it was a tough run, and I knew that there was no way that I would go back out for that last mile if my car was in sight at mile 6. So hang in there with me: I'm running "backwards" according to the mile markers. At the mile 1 marker (which was the end of mile 5 of the run), I turned around, ran back to the 1.5 mile marker, then turned back around to finish. See, I really had to think all of this through in just as much detail as I'm writing it to be sure I was figuring the miles correctly.

The deal with myself was that once I got to the 1 mile marker again (mile 6 in my run), I'd just try to keep running as far as I could back to the car/start marker. If I had to quit, it was okay. But I didn't quit!

no long run

2008-06-01T22:05:00.002-04:00

I was supposed to do 7 miles as my long run today, but my knee is hurting. Hopefully I can get it in after work tomorrow. It may be time to have a follow up PT visit to see if I'm not recovering as I should or if my head is just messed up.

Vacation

2008-05-29T10:52:00.003-04:00

I got some great runs in while at the beach for a long weekend. Running on the beach was out. It was too unstable for my knee. But I did get a 4+ miler in on Sat., and a 6+ miler on Mon. I also had a beach romance with a bike - a little pedal thing with no gears and cute little basket.

I just checked out my routes on Map My Run, and it turns out I rode nearly 12 miles on Sunday evening, then another 12 miles right after my 6 mile run on Monday morning (can you say dead legs), and a final 7 to pick up chocolate croissants for breakfast on Tuesday. This was in my final quest to find something useful to tote in my basket.

It was hard to walk away from that cute little bike, but it was just a vacation romance.

Questions

2008-05-21T13:57:00.003-04:00

Feeling some pain and swelling after the 5 miles Sun., so I didn't run my easy 2 yesterday. I'm going to do them today no matter what, but I wonder if it's part of the process or if it's a problem.

This recovery process is as much mental as anything. I find myself analyzing every twinge and wondering is this "recovery pain" or "injury pain", swelling from just getting back into it or swelling because something's wrong. My thinking needs to get in shape as much as my body does.

The Mile that Counts

2008-05-19T17:00:00.002-04:00

Every time I add a mile, it's the first time I've run X miles since November. Yesterday it was 5 miles. I did it on the 5K trail by the Chattahoochie, since it's soft. Kept a 10 min avg pace - high 10:05, low 9:53 - and it was the last mile.

As I turned the loop for mile 5, the mile I haven't done since November, I was telling myself "this is the mile that counts, the one that's going to get you back." Yeah I know - when you aren't listening to music you talk to yourself a lot - or I do anyway.

The run felt great, the knee feels ok - it's still a little swollen today.

Training Again

2008-05-15T16:42:00.003-04:00

I've been gone a while haven't I? I'm finally back to a training schedule and my weekly mileage has crossed into double digits. Last Saturday, I did my 2nd 5K of the spring. My time was really slow because of the crowd and because I chose to run and visit with a volunteer running for our organization. It was more about the cause (Susan G. Komen for the Cure) than time anyway.

Here's proof I did it - and proof I've gotten plenty flabby in the past several months.

Oh and that's not my volunteer - this was the last 1/2 mile when she stopped to walk and I tried to pick up the pace.

the first mile

2008-03-12T09:22:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I did my first jog post-op. I had tried one run on the treadmill before my surgery. In fact, it was the cramping and pain after half a mile that led to me deciding to have the surgery after all.

Yesterday's run was much better. Did a mile on the elliptical and stretched to warm up. Then hopped on the treadmill. Definitely this will take humility. I started very slowly and worked up the speed, but ended up with a blazing 13:20 mile. The good news was that I could have kept going. My new life is going to involve ice and ibuprofen (multiples of both) after my runs, at least for now. But that can't put a damper on the great feeling of finally moving forward.

I'm looking forward to sending my great doc and physical therapist some pictures of me finishing a race.

The Road Back

2008-03-11T09:09:00.002-04:00

Today's my last physical therapy appointment for a while. Got released from the dr. yesterday after my 2nd post-op visit. Only a torn meniscus resulted in 3 1/2 months of no running.

The PT goal today is to jog on the treadmill and get me started back to running. I celebrated by signing up for the Peachtree Road Race (thanks to the generosity of a race sponsor and a friend!). I'll hopefully run or run/walk a couple of 5K's this spring too.

Now we'll see just how lazy I've gotten. I feel jealous and sad when I see runners out on Sat. a.m. doing their long runs. That should be me. But the feeling I want is me when I was in shape to run. Will I be humble enough to start from scratch again? To wonder if I can finish that 3 miles, 5 miles, heck even 1.5 miles?

Today is the first step on the road!

Roadblocks and Disappointments

2007-12-12T22:33:00.001-05:00

Wed., Dec. 12

My half marathon was last Sat. On that day, I was finishing up day 6 on crutches in a knee brace. It happened when a mile into an easy TM run, my knee wouldn't stop being twingy and the back of my knee was cramping up. I stopped, I stretched a bit, I took a step and POP! I crumpled and could barely get my self to the front of the gym to ask for ice and cry like a baby.

Still waiting on an MRI and follow up with dr. - it initially looked like an MCL tear with possible miniscus damage. Pretty good news considering - MCL heals without surgery, miniscus requires a scope at most.

Today, the physical therapist did an evaluation and seemed convinced that the ACL is the real problem. Not such good news. So now I wait, frustrated at all of my life being on hold, wondering how long the road back to running is going to be.

It sucks. It's depressing to only be able to sleep on my back with my leg propped up or to wake up in the morning and realize I've got to swing out gingerly, figure out what I can wear that I can strap on my big old brace with, test what my knee will do for the day.

Thankfully, while I wait, I at least was cleared today to do some stretch and strength exercises for my legs, stationery bike (10 min, 0 resistance), and whatever upper body work I can do with my knee being stable.

This doesn't fit in the plan and it makes me mad. I can't even discuss if a May marathon is a possibility til I get MRI results.

One of those runs

2007-11-15T14:25:00.000-05:00

Supposedly a 5 mile pace run, on the dreaded TM. But it was a struggle every step. I kept walking and slowing down my pace and eventually quit at 3.5. And left the gym in tears.

I need to take a look at nutrition (lack of) and hydration for sure. But I'm hoping it was just one of those runs.

I'm baaa-ack!

2007-11-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

Not sure anyone will even check here anymore.

After logging a grand total of 5.5 miles for the whole month of October, I'm ramping up for a Dec. 8 half marathon. Yikes. Such is the price to be paid for buying a fixer upper and having a moving deadline. The real test was Sunday's 8 mile run. I figure if I can get to that long run in 2 weeks, I've got a shot at making it to 13 in the time I have.

Went out quite unprepared - no water, a new trail that turned out not to be marked well with mileage, no hat, no gum.... But it was an exquisite fall day and the scenery kept my mind off the lack of preparation, while the mile markers that were there let me do a pretty good job of estimating my pace and the distance.

Finished in 1:18:57. Little twinging in my left knee which I chalk up to increasing mileage so quickly.

This week, I should hit 20 miles. We shall see.

Getting Passed

2007-09-16T14:38:00.000-04:00

Wasn't there an entry about the guy who didn't seem to want me to pass him? Did 8 this morning at avg. 10:53 (I think I tad faster, cause I went a little further than the mapmyrun route) But everybody passed me - going uphill, going downhill. I think one guy passed me twice after he did a little loop off the route. I hope not. I hope it was another old runner guy in shorts way too short.

So, with the shoe on the other foot, I'm happy to report that indeed I was alternately laughing and reminding myself that this was my run, these were my miles, this pace was a part of my traning. All in all very at peace with it.

Happily I pulled of a speed interval workout on Friday too. I really hate those - do them on the TM because I don't push myself hard enough on a track and need the threat of falling on my face if I don't keep up.

Still not sure I'lll pull off running the 10K on the 29th as life will soon change with the purchase and renovation of a house, but I'm training like I'm going to.

Faster or Older

2007-09-08T17:11:00.000-04:00

This morning was a charity 5K that benefits my agency. A "voluntary" work day, as such. So I signed up to run, fully expecting to show up and complete it and that is all - given my uber slack attitude toward running.

Then yesterday, I made the mistake of opening the results from last year to realize I placed 4th in my age group. And they give medals to places 1-3. Why oh why did I look at that? Cause of course I had to try for that #3 spot.

Mile 1 was 8:05. Then mile 2, with a long hill, my low mileage and low hydration and general lack of "give a damn" showed up and I struggled. Even walked for 1:11. (this is important). Got myself together before Mile 3 began - blessedly downhill Mile 3. Paced myself well, kicked my speed up enough but not too much so there was something left at the end.

Finished at 26:24, almost 2 min. under my time last year. Filled out the little card and went to drop it in the box for my age group at the same time another woman did. But there were already 3 cards in there. #4 again. Should I kick myself for walking at all? Should I be glad to do well even unprepared? I would have had the medal in the next age group -- so I'd better get faster or older for next year.

I really suck

2007-09-06T14:55:00.001-04:00

or the motivation has just been sucked out of me.

No runs for a week.

No real motivation to run.

Apparently trying to buy a house and staying on a running schedule don't mesh well for me. - yeah, yeah, it really is just excuses.

Like Scarlett, I'll think about it tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.

Days that Count

2007-08-19T20:20:00.000-04:00

Sunday, August 19

Today was a long run scheduled. I decided to do a route that would let me do 7, but be easy to cut to 6 if needed.

It was muggy but 75 instead of 80 at 7:30. A little aside here - I wouldn't wish a hurricane on anyone, but it's gonna take a tropical system blowing through to break the drought and heat around here. Can't remember the last time a drop of rain fell on my house.

Anyway, this was one of those runs that was a struggle from the first steps, and never let up. You just knew that the only thing that was going to be easy about is was stopping at the end. By the 2nd mile, I couldn't wait for it to be over and planned to cut it to 6. In the middle of mile 3 I decided that since there was very little hope of this being an enjoyable run, I might as well give myself the satisfaction of getting 7 in. So I hung a left to add the extra mile. See I think it's the runs you do when nothing in your head or your body wants to do it that count the most. Or the mile that you want to lay off on, but you push yourself instead.

And a nod to my own hypocrisy. During the last 2 miles, I came out of a park, just as a guy cut across to my side of the street ahead of me. He was struggling (like I wasn't), and was handling his run by going faster than he should have, and having to stop often to walk. These miles included 2 hills of close to a half mile each. Even at my plodding 10:30 pace, I was going to over take him. Except that whenever I'd get 5-6 yards behind him, he would take off running again and get 20-30 yards ahead, then stop to walk. The last time it happened I laughed out loud at his pride in not wanting to get passed by some old chick huffing and puffing along. Finally, I caught him and he must have had nothing left cause he let me by. I got ahead a bit and I heard him start running again behind me. Now I've made fun of him on other boards, but the truth is, deep inside my own pride rose up and I really didn't want him to pass me back. While he was trying to stay ahead, I was thinking about how I wasn't doing anything but running my miles. How it wasn't important if I was behind or ahead.

Thankfully, he really was dying cause I stayed ahead without having to be a total hypocrite and speed up to do it. And in the end it gave me something else to focus on at the end of difficult run. Who knows? I may have helped his training while I was at it.

Hopefully this was a day that counts.

Speeding Up

2007-08-16T19:33:00.000-04:00

Thursday, August 16

Today I completed the speedwork on my training schedule. This is huge, 'cause I never finish it the way the schedule says I'm supposed to. I usually keep paring down the distances. Just run 1 lap and jog 1/2 cause I can't keep going for 2 laps. You know the drill.

But today, in the lovely air conditioning of the gym, on a treadmill set a low incline, I did it! 1 mile warmup at 10:54, then 4x800 at 4:20 with 400 jogs in between, then a mile to cool down back at 10:54.

Drove home smelling like the football locker rooms of my coach's daughter childhood. Only to discover that my house was 93 degrees and the a/c was not cooling. Suspect that even after my shower, I'll have a locker room odor.

Accidental Mileage

2007-08-11T15:47:00.000-04:00

Saturday, August 11

Just before 7 a.m. I strapped bandaids over the 4 blisters on my heels and toes resulting from a work shoes meets running from the subway incident, pulled on my shiny new Gel Kayano 13's (Asics) and headed out for 6 easy miles. The plan was to meet a friend doing 18. She started with her first 8 at 6 a.m., and I was to meet her for the middle miles.

The sun was just up, already nearly 80 degrees already (Day 4 of triple digits, day 3 of record breaking temps). There were people like my friend already drenched from an hour's running.

My friend is a machine, so even though she was going to do an easy pace for her, I knew that would push me a little. I arrived in time to do a mile warm up before meeting her. The plan was to head down a flat neighborhood road with bike lanes that ends in a flat park trail by the river. From the parking lot to the far end of the park trail and back is 8 miles. (don't think I quite realized this).

So, Mile 1 an easy out and back warm up mile at 10 min. My friend shows up, and we take off. Our pace ranged between 9:15-9:35 for most of the time we ran together. Miles 2-4.5 were down the bike lanes, with me doing some chatting and occasionally attempting to help her back off to my easy pace closer to 10. But she'd drift back to a faster pace and I would follow along without thinking. Mile 4.5 we reach the riverside trail - much softer. By this time of the morning, there's not only a constant flow of runners and bikers but a literal line of cars loaded with bikes, running gear, kayaks, and dogs trying to get to the park. Mile 4.5- 6.5 were through the park (with thankfully a couple of water fountains). Remember I only prepared for 6 total miles, but have now committed to the 8 mile out and back with my warm up mile thrown in. No water with me, no sport beans.

Passed my super runner boss at mile 6 - he saw me and said a pleasant hello. Brilliant career move, I tell you. Back to the paved road and my friend decided to do 1 more mile looping back on the riverside trail, so we part ways. And my pace immediately dropped back to my own long run pace. In fact I was soooo hot that I wasn't sure I'd make it. I ran 1.5, then walked for 2 minutes so I could run the final stretch of the run. As I started back up, a man caught up to me and startd chatting. He asks how I'm doing and I say "great." He says "I'm dying". So I fess up that I'm dying too on mile 9 of my 6 mile run. It's mile 20 for him. So he says he'll just run with me for this last part. He's training for Toronto. It's his 2nd running career. He did Chicago last year. He qualified for Boston. Me, I was just trying to breathe because he was back at that faster pace. I politely offered that I didn't want to hold him back, but no he'd hang back and finish with me.

I'm sore and tired. But it was really good to be pushed on my pace. The extra miles won't hurt (I hope).

Weather Report

2007-08-08T19:04:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2007

oppressive (adj) Definition: hot

Synonyms: airless, close, heavy, humid, muggy, overpowering, steam bath, steamy, sticky, stifling, stuffy, suffocating, sultry, sweat box, torrid

Yep that about sums it up. Call me a baby if you must, but this week of stifling (or suffocating or overpowering or torrid) heat combined with air quality that's worse than bad has been more than I could handle. Just walking home from the dog park this evening had me struggling to catch my breath.

Last night I asked a fellow dog park frequenter how he was doing. He replied, "I'm doing my best to think of anything else to talk about besides how bad the weather is." Several long seconds of silence, shuffling feet, racking our brains followed. Then he said, "So how are you running in this?"

Singing the praises of the treadmill, that's how. Sure my super-running boss is going out on a shady trail tonight, but I got my tempo run done inside, catching up on #756 on ESPN and the SC primary plans on CNN. I started out with the best of intentions: early start to work, early exit to get on the trail before the worst of the heat, then work from home the balance of the day. Instead, a record was set for the highest low temperature, I had a flat tire (nixing the early start, and the heat index was over 100 by 11 a.m. Now I'm looking forward to Sat. a.m. when, even if it's 85 at 6 a.m., I'll be out pounding some pavement.

Trudging Along

2007-08-06T13:41:00.001-04:00

Heat, extreme ozone levels, extreme smog levels, too many things going both weekend mornings to do a longish run - of course I stayed firmly planted inside. In spite of the lethargy, I did manage to do 3 miles outside on Sat. at a faster pace. Then I logged 3 more easy miles on the treadmill Sunday.

Looking forward to being back on the race training schedule.

Shake Up

2007-08-01T15:17:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, August 1

First, I'm being a lazy bum right now.

And I've turned my running plans all around. Decided to drop training for a half in Sept. that I can't really afford to travel to anyway. (Sorry Teresa!)

Instead, I'm going to do the Kiawah Island Half on Dec. 8 with some hometown friends.

And I'm going to try to do one qualifying 10K this fall to try to get subseeded (and chip timed) at the Peachtree next summer. (must run a 54 min race).

And I think I'm going to train for my first full in at the Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April 08.

Throw in the ING Georgia Half Marathon for hometown spirit and training, and some shorter races for fun and I feel much better about the running year ahead.

Why? I'll have people to train and run with for the Kiawah (and split travel expenses). If I don't get the time I want in the Sept. 10K, I've got plenty of time to try again. Lots of folks here train for the Nashville race, so I have a hope meeting some training partners. Trying not to be so solitary with the running, though I'll need to keep my share of solo runs for my own sanity.

So now, I need to re-orient my workouts/running schedule.

And that ends the most boring post ever!!