The Mighty Pen

The Arrival of the Bike

2007-01-09T16:50:00.000-05:00

Sitting here awaiting the bike. Finally, I ordered it and it will be here today (if UPS tracking is anywhere near accurate it has been in a van in my neighbirhood since 3:00 a.m.) Hurry up already.

It's not a fancy schmanzy bike like y'all in Triland have but it is a road bike, a motobecane called Gigi and just like this blog, it is pink - i just love it when tech equipment is rendered girly thanks to a coat of pink paint...I can hammer you in a bike race, on a pink bike...totally cool thought.

Hoping to get back to blogging in this new year but as I haven't gotten around to making resolutions yet, I'm not too sure.

Planning on getting all sorts of fit too!

The Mighty Pen

2006-10-30T09:39:00.000-05:00

Well last week went pretty well although I swapped out a gym session on Friday for a run on Saturday.

I ran 6 miles on Saturday. 6 miles under a clear blue sky, through fall foliage and a gusting wind and with a huge number of birds overhead taking advantage of the wind, catching thermals and making up miles on their migration. I watched a bald eagle fight off a crow as I ran. That was great.

This morning it was back to the gym again - I am working on upper body strength for this season and am really enjoying the free weights program that the trainer developed for me. Yes, I am a wimp compared to others in the free weights area but I don't care, I can definitely feel myself get stronger!

This week:
Monday: gym (done)
Tuesday: run
Wednesday: gym
Thursday: run
Friday: gym (maybe)
Saturday: run (hopefully)

Extenuating circumstances on Friday caused by arrival of important birthday and organization of attendant celebration on Saturday may impede progress towards goal - hence the caveats!

Back on track

2006-10-23T17:52:00.000-04:00

So, I've been off exercise since the end of the tri season.
Work, a cold and then creeping laziness have all conspired to keep me sedentary.
But no more.
This week I get back into it.
Tomorrow morning, I will go to the gym.
Wednesday evening, I will go for a run.
Friday morning, I will return to the gym.
And, Saturday or Sunday I will take a bike ride.

Ok, I know it's not high mileage stuff but I have to ease back into it.
My energy seems to be sapped…I think I'm sleeping too much.
It's too darned cold in the morning to convince myself out of bed!

Here's hoping that posting will place me back on track.

Team Tri-On

2006-09-21T15:16:00.000-04:00

Team Tri-on is the name we have given our women triathlon team. Yes, the double meaning is intentional! This team started with Deb, Chris, Lisa, Rachel and me last year doing the Danskin Tri for the first time. Deb did the Wisconsin one and we did the NJ one.

This year we had a team of nine women doing the Danskin Tri. This year we all met and did the NJ one and boy, was it great!

Since that first Tri last September, I have done two Olympic-distance Tri’s (one DNF) and this latest sprint tri, Chris has done an Olympic distance and Deb has rocked the house with another sprint and an Olympic. In fact, Deb ranked 65 out of 1280 in last weekend’s Sprint! Of ther others in Team Tri-on, I think Julia has another Tri under her belt but the others were all newbies to the sport.

So, thanks to team Tri-on 9 women have completed 20 triathlons between them….awesome!

I had the best time at the Danskin Tri last week. I was wiped out from a crazy week at work. I was at a bachelorette party on the Friday night before and had to attend a work affair at the other end of the state on the night before the event. So, when the alarm went off at 4:30 on Sunday morning, I was not ready to get going. But get going, I did.

We drove from Asbury Park, where we were staying in a hotel straight out of a David Lunch movie, to Sandy Hook, the site of Danskin NJ. We arrived as dawn was breaking and as we got out of our cars, we were swarmed with NJ tough mosquitoes…it was worse than any camping I have ever done and worse because I had forgotten bug juice or my ever trusty bug clothes! It was also worse as we couldn’t swat them away while holding my bike and tri box!

A nice man in the line to the transition area sprayed Chris and I with Off! May that man have a very nice life.

We milled, we moaned and we made merry! Soon it was time to start and the excellent Sally Edwards was there to see us off…man is she inspiring! As soon as wave eight got into the relatively cool water, I was happy and ready to go.

The swim was shorter than the mandated ½ mile because of coastguard regs, it was a lovely swim, no waves and over in about 15 minutes! The bike ride was on a flat out and back course, Lovely out but head wind back. And the run, well it was only 5k so it was over in a flash!

My total time of 1:30 is a PR…woohooo, I have a PR in sprint tri’s now!!!

Of course, I could have had a better time if I wasn’t so tired and had actually done as I had planned to do, work on my speed in the run up to the race! But there’s always a reason to beat myself up.
So, this is the end of my tri racing season and while it was tough at times, I must say that the journey of training and the destination of racing are equally important and worthwhile experiences.

From now until the end of the year, the goals are to loose some weight, build some strength and get some speed. I think I’ll stay out of the pool for a while though! And of course, I’ll be getting a go-faster bike sometime in the next few months too!!!

The Mighty Pen

2006-09-11T09:16:00.000-04:00

So. I've a big birthday coming up in November.
And. I've decided that the time has come and the occasion is appropriate to buy myself that go-faster, be "in with the in crowd" racing bike. If I can maintain 16mph on my old Gary Fisher Utopia Hybrid racing wannabe bike, I know I can kick ass on a bike that is actually made for racing.

So. Where on earth do I start? So, much out there. So much information. So many pretty bikes.

My budget is around $1,500 - my requests - a light bike, a fit that suits, a frame that corners well, components that are good but not hugely expensive to repair/replace and a neat color/pattern (yes, I'm a girl!)

So, if anyone out there is still reading my blog - and why would you? I've been so boring recently. Tell me how you chose your bike and what source of information was most valuable...please.

Nova Scotia

2006-08-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

Just back from bike touring in Nova Scotia. BH and I cycled between 40 and 60 miles a day for one week along the south shore of Nove Scotia carrying our clothes, our tent, our sleeping bags and etc.

If you've ever thought about bike touring, do it. It's a work out and a holiday at the same time. Because I tour on the bike I race on, going from a bike with 30 pounds of gear on it to a bike with no gear whatsoever is a really cool training technique! Although I haven't run since the oly tri and haven't swm since then either I feel pretty good but am now facing a 4 week training period for the nest tri, the Danskin Sprint Tri in Sandy Hook, NJ in September.

I know I can improve my running time and my cycling time on last year's Tri but I'm still worried about my swim time on last year!

More later.

Timeless

2006-08-03T14:05:00.000-04:00

Swimming one mile

59:06

Cycling 40K

1:28:03

running 10K

1:05:35

Completing your first Olympic Triathlon...timeless!!!

Breaking my duck in a goose toilet!

2006-07-23T16:22:00.000-04:00

It was so nice this morning to get up from my own bed and travel about 10 miles to the site of the first NJ State Triathlon. I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn either, which was great too!

Yesterday it rained all day and today dawned cool and overcast, perfect triathlon weather! I joined over 1400 other athletes milling about at Mercer County Park and got all my gear together. I had an opportunity to swim in the lake beforehand. I had breakfast and coffee, used the facilities and generally hung out for a couple of hours with other crazy people about to throw themselves into a day of triathlon and personal testing...and it was a personal test for me. I was running this race against myself, my weak swimming and my DNF at Escape from Fort Delaware in June.

So, I was wave 14 out of 15 total waves...not a good place for a weak swimmer to be, but what the hey, they put me in the wave, I would deal with it.

The swim was an in water start. The water temperature was 82 degrees. The course was an out and back. I took off and didn’t really get comfortable until the turn around point. I didn’t get fully comfortable to try T.I. at any stage either. The lake was warm, calm and murky! But, I got comfortable and did breast stroke and finished the swim in an incredibly long time of 58 minutes! Oh my.

But, my bike was not the last in the transition area. I was not the last biker on the course. The bike course was two laps and I was quickly lapped by folks finishing their second lap. That was fine by me as I had company. I rocked the first lap in around 43 minutes and I think, did negative splits on the second lap. A cyclist who had made an error on the first lap - she thought she had only to do one lap, struggled to ctach up with me and made mention of the fact that I was “cooking” even though I was not on a "go faster bike." I did not have the worst bike time. I was not the last bike to finish. I even managed to take a few people.

For the run course, I had a minor ace up my sleeve because I knew the course and could pace myself pretty well. Coming off the bike, I knew I would easily come in under my hoped for four hours and that set me off on the 10K run in a positive frame of mind. It was getting hot at this stage but I made a steady pace, stopping once in the woods for a bathroom break but otherwise maintaining, I think, around an 11 minute mile pace, slow for me but fine for my aching knees. I was not the last on the run course and managed to take a few people here too!

So I finished the race in 3 hours 37 minutes, according to my timepiece. My goal was in under four and I rocked that goal. If I do say so myself!

I will see what the official timing was, I will also post and splits and T times and some photograps when I get them.

The best things - Lisa and Harry and their dog cheering me on at every point in the race. Meeting BH (beoved husband) who had come to cheer me on half way through my run. The way the race organizers had “3 miles to go,” “2 miles to go,” down to “1/2 a mile to go,” signs on the second half of the route.

The worst thing - being in the second to last wave really made me feel slow even though I was only moderately slow. Having a sprint tri going on at the same time meant some people were finished by the time I got out of the water - make the sprinters go after the Olympicers!

Now, rest glorious rest!

Thanks to everyone who sent me mental cheers today!

Rationalizations:

2006-07-19T16:22:00.000-04:00

1. 1.5km does not EXACTLY equal one mile. It is in fact 0.93 miles…so the swim is not nearly as long as I thought it was!

2. Goose poop must contain sodium therefore the addition of copious amounts of it to the water will make me more bouyant.

3. Goose poop is disgusting therefore I'll swim quicker to get out of the water.

4. In agreement with Dawn the Pink Lady, arriving last into T1 is a benefit as my bike will be easier to find.

5. 40K is not 26 miles…it's only 25

6. OK, 10K is a little more than 6 miles but I know this running course and know where I can speed up, slow down and how to do it on tired legs.

7. Conditions will be so much better than my previous try at an Oly Tri because (a) the water is a pond not the freakin' Delaware River, (b) the course is flat, flat, flat and (c) there will not be a killer wind throughout the bike ride.

8. If I finish this I will buy myself something new to wear in Anthropologie. (But, if I use Anthropologie as a reward when am I gonna get my Garmin Forerunner?)

9. I'm feeling wiped out this week because of anxiety and heat stress, not lack of fitness or preparedness.

10. If my monthly visit happens on race day, as is scheduled to happen*, there are drugs to mitigate it and they do say that exercise is the best things for aching ovaries, a sore back and other associated wimmin pains.

*and you could set your clock by my system!

Tri day minus five

2006-07-17T18:04:00.000-04:00

Tri day minus five

Holy heatwave batman. It's 100 degrees or something outside right now. It is meant to break by the weekend so the Triathlon will be cooler, I hope as I dread to think what this weather is doing to the water quality in the goose toilet we have to swim in.

Anyway, T minus 5 and I am sick with apprehension, anticipation and anxiety - what hoo for alliteration there! I discovered today that I am in the second to last wave - yessirreee, I am in wave 14 and there are 15 waves at this Tri - 1400 athletes and the majority of them will take off before me.

So to accompany my angst for the week, I have a picture of lonely old me swimming through the goose poop in Mercer lake next Saturday, pulling myself out, shaking myself off like an old dog and racing to the transition area where there's only one bike left - It's mine!!!!!

Why can't I do visualizations? Why, whenever I try to visualize positive things, my mind tunes in to the critic in my head…or, more usually, the comic on my head.

Must work on my visualizations! No mirrors for me this week, I'll create an alternate universe where I am fit, fast and floatable!

Brief update

2006-07-10T13:23:00.000-04:00

Still training and tri-ing with 2 weeks to go until next try at Oly Tri!

I have to say that I nearly quit last week because Tri stress was leading to insomnia which was leading to an inability to train which in turn led to more Tri stress!

But, I went for a 10K run on the Tri course and it felt so good, I stopped trying to quit.

Yesterday I got into open water for the first time since my last Tri - it was a positive experience.

But, I am in an insomniac cycle and I am constantly hungry so somethings need to give. I need to improve my diet - eat more - and somehow figure out a better way to sleep!

But I'm still here and still tri-ing!

The blahs!

2006-06-28T10:10:00.000-04:00

The alarm clock went off this morning and I turned it off and turned myself over and went back to sleep. I really did not want to get into the pool this morning. I am tired of swimming, I am tired of trying to get this swim thing sorted. I am tired, tired, tired.

It is 4 weeks to Olympic Tri, and my second try at completing this distance. I really want to complete but my swimming confidence is decreasing every time I get into the pool. I am so self-conscious about my swimming now and am not enjoying swim training any more.

I know I can do the run and the cycle, but if I bail out of the swim again I am going to be so pissed with myself. The conditions will be so different to the last try at a Tri but still I feel insecure in my attempt.

This insecurity is leading me to bail on my training - NOT GOOD. I know the remedy is to get into open water soon and deal with it. I might try to do that this weekend. Maybe I should hold off on swimming for a week or so, just to give myself a break.

After this Tri, I don't have another one until September (Danskin Sprint woohooo!) and I intend on taking a long rest - apart from two weeks cycling in Nova Scotia - that I'm looking forward to!

P.s. I'm sorry for not commenting on all the blogs I read, but I am hard pressed to post let alone comment! I am, of course, sending good vibes for everyone engaged in these relentless pursuits!

Back to the Grindstone

2006-06-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

I took it easy last week and am glad I did.
We had a board meeting at the beach so after it was over and everyone was gone, I went for a 5 mile run. Saturday I cycled for 32 miles and my legs were tired.
But - with 5 weeks to go to next Olympic Distance Tri and my second attempt to become an Olympic Triathlon, I need to get back in the saddle/pool/road!!!

In an effort to deal with my dallying I will post goals for this next 5 week training session and my training plans for this week.

Goals for next training session:
(In order of importance, with goal one being the most important)

1. Learn how to swim one mile in open water.
2. Acclimatize to New Jersey summer.
3. Strengthen the run with some speed sessions.
4. Strengthen the bike with some speed sessions.

This week:

Monday: Swim then bike (p.m.)
Tuesday: Bike and run (a.m.)
Wednesday: squeeze in a swim (a very busy day)
Thursday: Short bike and speed run workout (a.m.)
Friday: Swim (a.m.) and bike (p.m.)
Saturday: Run long

Escape from Fort Delaware

2006-06-10T19:35:00.000-04:00

A ferry took wetsuited, bright capped nervous triathletes across the Delaware River to an island called Pea Patch. Old time Tri participants on the ferry shared stories about the swim and how challenging it was. Two years ago, they had to pull about 100 participants from the water, last year about 30 or so. The problem is the river and the tide and the other weather conditions that can affect the ease with which the swim can take place.

As we crossed in our ferry, some of the old timers remarked that the river looked really fast and that the rains of the previous two days had negated the calming affect of the incoming tide. As we crossed, the wind picked up and the river became choppy and breezy.

There’s a lot of hanging about at the Escape From Fort Delaware Tri - the transition area opens early and closes early, the ferries take 20 minute round trips to bring all the participants to the island. The time spent on the island prior to the swim can be well over an hour.

So, it was for me and Chris. We stood in line for the ‘facilities’ for over an hour listening to horror stories about previous swims and stories about death and drowning.

The the woman who started the race arrived and told us we were all crazy for wanting to swim in the river in these conditions - sheez!

Suddenly we were at the edge of the dock and just as suddenly, I jumped in. I never jump in, never ever...I wade in, I drop myself in, I walk in. Jumping into the rain-swollen Delaware River was probably one of the bravest things I, as a physically cowardly individual, have recently done.

And so, with the sage words of Bolder and Cliff in my mind, I set off slow, I keep my head up until I get comfortable. I strike out across the river. But...however hard I stroke, I’m not going anywhere. I am being slapped in the face with wave after wave, the current is pulling me south and I am working really hard to make progress. The river is full of flourescent swim caps forging ahead in these conditions. I get to one bouy, I get to another bouy and then it hits me.

The next wave of swimmers hits me. I am nudged, knocked, drafted, and generally churned around a little bit. I’m hitting the middle of the river which is the deepest and the roughest and I decide that I cannot take it any more. I call out and bow out of the swim and spend the next half an hour in the coastguard boat with about 5 other individuals who bowed out. Other boats with failed swimmers congregate...from what I can gather about 30 people have been pulled this year. As swimmers continue to struggle to the end of the swim, the organizers pro-activeley pull people out. The time cut off for the swim came and went, and swimmers still struggled on. It took strong swimmers well over one hour to swim one mile.

So, there I am sitting on a boat, getting cold and hungry and trying to decide what to do. I can’t decide whether to pack it in and have breakfast or carry on as a disqualified participant. I’ve already handed in my timing chip.

I get into the transition area and my adrenaline arrives back in my bloodstrem. I say “bleep it,” I trained for all three legs and I’m gonna do the other two.

So, I quickly transition to the bike and take off on the bike route. The first 4 miles are cool - up a steep bridge and down the other side hitting 34 mph, cruisin’ baby! Then on the flats of this marshy coastland, the winds re-introduce themselves. There are headwinds and sidewinds and in some, very rare moments, tailwinds. I am at the rear of the pack, but not the last. I follow the course along flat exposed roads, through wildlife preserves (damn wildlife got me all distracted again!) and along farm roads. Every turn I expect,and hope for, a remission from the wind but it keeps getting worse. Few trees exist to provide shelter and many roads are right along the Delaware river shore with the winds howling in.

The last straight was back over the aforementioned bridge - why does it seem a hell of a lot steeper on the flip side. The downhill off the bridge was done in first gear as I felt my front tire raise off the ground with the wind and only a little guard wall between me and the Delaware River.

I overtake Chris on the bike and tell her I’ll do the run with her. I’ve no time at stake in this race now as I am disqualified and I really want her to finish. So I hang in the transition area until Chris comes and then we take off on the 10K run. The run is lovely. It’s flat, it’s easy. There’s a water station at every mile, staffed with what becomes our own personal cheering team. We’re the last ones on the course.

We’re escorted in with a police motorcycle and a pair of paramedics as well as the kids from the refreshment tables. All my training is paying off, I feel easy in the run, I could go another 4 miles at the pace Chris and I take.

Finally, we reach the finish line and as the final finishers, we reap the rewards of an awesome welcome from the still present crowds...awesome. I let Chris over the line first as she is still in the race. I have nothing to loose and having just completed a Triathlon (a 1/4 mile swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run triathlon mind you), I have gained everything I needed to gain from the day.

Am I truely happy with my performance? Yes. Could I have trained harder? Yes. Would it have made a difference? Possibly. But the bottom line is that I need to crack this swimming lark and be as strong in the water as I am on a bike being buffeted by gusts and gales on a high bridge.

Know what I mean?

My friends ROCK!

2006-06-02T16:41:00.000-04:00

Quick swimming update: Last night I went to the pool determined to swim a mile. I was 50 lengths into my necessary 72 lengths when the pool attendant made us all leave the pool because of lightning. It’s an indoor pool.

But, the good news is that at 50 lengths, I was feeling comfortable. I started slow and alternated breaststroke and TI freestyle. So, I’ve some confidence back.

This afternoon, I logged onto my personal e-mail account and found that my friend Lisa has e-mailed Jayne Williams, the author of the Slow Fat Triathlete, our tri-bible because of its pragmatism, sense of humor and non-elite approach to tri’s. She e-mailed Jayne to ask her to send an email boost to me and Chris, as we were freaking out about June 10th. We are freaking out about June 10th.

Lo and behold, Jayne sent us a great encouraging e-mail back, telling us it would be fine, that we wouldn’t drown and to remember to enjoy ourselves next week. Her e-mail reminded me of the reason I love her book in the first place. I’ve printed her email and will carry it with me for moral support through next week.

Next week is going to be torture for me.

Standing at Tri minus 7 and feelin’ nervous.

I’ve also got a HELL OF A WORK WEEK NEXT WEEK – jeeeeeeez!

Open Water Sink

2006-05-31T18:05:00.000-04:00

Yes, the old open water swim did not go well on Saturday. I started off too fast, lost my breath too quickly and got panicked almost immediately. I was very frustrated but we stuck it out and eventually I got into some sort of rhythm and did some freestyle but with my head out of the water…every time I put my face in my diaphragm would clench up and breathing would cease. I was annoyed as I have been working SO HARD on swimming since ages ago…ages I tell you.

We then did our 24 mile bike ride….oh bike, glorious bike. Such a pleasure. We followed that by a 3-mile run which was dead tough as it was 90 degrees out and in the Pine Barrens of NJ, 90 degrees just bakes on the blacktop and reflects out of the sugar sand. That was tough.

The rest of the weekend I was floored by my monthly gender reminder –

Hello this is your monthly gender reminder, here to tell you:
“Don’t get too uppity, you’re not a man,
See here’s the proof,
You. are. not. a. man.
Do I have to remind you every 28 days?????”

And then I organized a golf tournament, made loads o bucks for my organization, had a couple of policy arguments with people that I won, got an important meeting that will make loads more bucks for my organization and kept everyone happy and shiny throughout. “You da man!”

So now I am ready to head into the final straits or should that be rephrased as the Dire Straits of my first Olympic Triathlon!!!

This week was a good week

2006-05-26T09:22:00.000-04:00

This weekend, i.e. tomorrow, my Tri partner Chris and me are taking to the lake to go swimming. It is my first open water swim of the season, my first swim as a newly minted TI’er and my first swim in a wetsuit. So do you think I’ll be able to sleep tonight?

I’ve had a great week exercise light on the running, heavy on the swimming and moderate on the cycling. I need to get more running miles under me but I’m mellow about the running right now.

I did a couple of great cardio workouts this week on the bike at the gym – that was awesome….really got my heart rate up.

But I am here today to give huge kudos to yoga. I’ve been dealing with stiffness a lot recently and decided it was time to go back to yoga in earnest. I am really great at stretching but find I don’t hold the stretches long enough or make them deep enough for real relief…yoga makes me better.

So, I did a session on Wednesday night. Thursday my limbs were limber again and I felt loose all day, until I did my bike ride last night and my swim this morning – now I’m slightly stiff again. I could do with Yoga twice a week.

Here’s what I did this past week:

Monday: Swim and Cardio bike work out
Tuesday: run
Wednesday: swim, cardio bike workout and yoga
Thursday: bike
Friday: swim
And tomorrow
Saturday: swim, bike and run!!!!
Sunday: probably a rest day

Countdown continues

2006-05-24T11:41:00.000-04:00

The count down continues to my first Olympic Tri. The swimming still freaks me out but I am hoping that the wetsuit open water test swim this Saturday alleviates some of my concerns.

My two-week hiatus appears to have had very little adverse effect on my running. I can run 10k no problem and have settled into a nice pace for such a distance. I anticipate pushing this pace a bit next week and then employing the faster pace over shorter distances during taper week.

My cycling is going well but I’ve an awful problem trying to stay focused on training rides. I keep getting distracted by nature. I’m barelling along at 22 mph when suddenly I see a cardinal or a red tailed hawk or a deer or a rabbit and then I’m cruising at 15mph looking around me and admiring the scenery. To solve this problem, I did a high intensity cardio work out on the gym bike this week – that was awesome and there were no distractions apart from the guy next to me who was sweating cascades…unreal!

Simply Stu’s podcast is keeping me motivated. I listen to it running and, if I listen to it on my way home, I am more likely to go running or cycling than if I listen to music on my way home. A shout out to Simply Stu and his tri-geek podcast!!!!

Remaining to be done:

Wetsuit test swim
Deciding what to wear on the day
Gear-list check list
Deciding fuel list for the day – any suggestions for Oly tri eating plan?
Booking post tri massage
Bicycle tune-up
Numerous BRICKS
Make 10k playlist for ipod

Still here and still tri-ing

2006-05-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

So I took a couple of weeks off. This was not intentional. It just happened.
I did not take these weeks off completely. I did some swimming and a lot more cycling but I strayed off my plan and failed to blog.

I have a problem with self-discipline. This problem leads me to fall of my exercise wagon. I need to work on self-discipline.

I’ve three weeks and a week taper before my first Olympic distance tri. I am not confident. I think I can finish it but I am not confident.

The swim is the thing.

I’m working hard on it and still struggling with the breathing. But using the Total Immersion ethos, I am taking it slowly and not allowing myself to get into a struggling habit. This morning was good. I could feel the right rhythmic breathing beginning to happen.

Yesterday I traveled to NYC to buy a triathlon wet suit – there is not one single tri shop in New Jersey so I went to Jack Rabbit, a store that has been in Brooklyn for some time and has now opened a store in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. I would heartily recommend Jack Rabbit – the staff there are just great and friendly and knowledgeable.

A+

2006-04-24T08:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, folks today I am awarding myself an A+ score for last week’s workout. I accomplished everything on my list. On Saturday I substituted the long run for 3 hours at an Earth Day stream clean-up – then on Sunday, my traditional rest day, I ran for 6 miles.

The clean-up was hard work – hauling bags of garbage through the woods, carrying old tires out of the woods, bending and stretching…a good workout.

When I went out for the run on Sunday, I thought I’d just do 4.5 miles but when I was back in town, I said, just to Mike and Steph’s house, then, just to Al’s house, then, just to the river..etc until I had completed 6 miles, I was very happy with that.

With 6 weeks training and 1 week tapering left my plan for the week is:
Monday: Swimming – done
Tuesday: Cycle and short run
Wednesday: Swimming a.m., Weights and Yoga p.m.
Thursday: run
Friday: Swimming
Saturday: Arbor Day tree planting
Sunday: Cycle and run

I love my bike

2006-04-21T09:41:00.000-04:00

Imagine a scenario where you don’t run or swim for 5 months and you suddenly take to the road or the pool and go all out. You would be hurting and you would probably be injured or drowned or both.

Now imagine a scenario where you don’t ride for 5 months, you pass your bike locked to your porch every day for 5 months and you ignore it. You see it covered in snow, lashed by rain and sat on by squirrels and cats. You are, in essence, a bad bad bike caretaker!

So, after this treatment you take your bike, clean it, grease it and hop on it. You cycle out the road on a lovely spring evening and…

It’s great. Your bike doesn’t seize, it doesn’t get a flat, throw a spoke or make your butt sore. It allows your legs to do their job with ease and efficiency. It lets you cycle out and back for your pre-determined training time and when you get back in to town you just have to cycle round cause you don’t want to get off just yet.

This was my experience the other evening. I got on my bike after a 5 month hiatus and it felt like coming home…I kid you not.

My bike is not a high tech bike with “X” somewhere in its name. It doesn’t have aerobars or drop handlebars or any doodads that are necessary for effective Tri biking. It’s got the geometry of a tourer, the wheels of a racer and the gears of a commuter. It has over 3,000 miles on it and has never, ever let me down.

I envy the high tech toys of Bolder and others and I really really want a go-faster bike but I know, deep down in my little tri- soul, that this is the bike for me and I am the rider for this bike!

Roll-on.

Breakthrough

2006-04-18T09:28:00.000-04:00

So last night I went to the pool to make up for the insomniac morning. I had put my swim gear in the car before I went to work so when I decided to leave work early – 5:30 p.m., I was psyched to be able to go straight to the gym – had I gone home first, I would have stayed home. (Note: positive influence of new car on fitness regime.)

So I got in the pool and things, once again, fell in to place. At one stage, for about 3 strokes or so, I felt like I was in a T.I. video. It all just clicked together. It was great. I was even critiqueing other folks’strokes while I was chilling – that’s funny!

At one stage, I had the entire pool to myself – that was wonderful.

So, I went home, ate dinner, watched The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill on DVD, went to bed and slept for 10 hours. That means that I missed this morning’s bike ride but I know I’ll take the bike out when I get home this evening…no worries.

I am feeling a lot more confident today as I have cracked the swimming thing, again. I must write to Terry at TI and tell him about another successful customer!

The Mighty Pen

2006-04-17T10:52:00.000-04:00

Yes, I ended the week with a B+.

Last week, I managed to do all but one day’s workout – Thursday morning’s bike/run.
I did run for 5.5 miles on Saturday…not the previously planned 6 miles. But who’s going to quibble with 0.5 miles at this stage.

Anyway I did a stoopid stoopid thing on my run on Saturday. I ran in the wrong shoes. I accidentally pulled on my Kayano X’s not my Kayano IX’s and ran 5.5 miles in them. Result…a possible return of last summer’s bursitis. My hip has been sore all weekend.

Learning a lesson from last summer, I will not run until later in the week. I would usually strive for a run on Tuesday but will replace this with a bike ride instead.

I’ve started this week already behind myself. I was meant to get up and go swimming this morning but last night I had my bi-monthly insomnia night so was too exhausted to even try to get up at 6:30 – in fact I didn’t get to the office until 9:30 this morning. But I’ve my swim gear in the car in case I can leave around 5:30 and make up this missed session.

So my hopes for the week:
Monday: swim
Tuesday: bike ride for one hour
Wednesday: abs and swim
Thursday: bike ride and short run
Friday: swim
Saturday: long run

I really need to crack the swimming this week. My insomnia was driven by two stressors last night – worries about work (non-specific and mostly imaginary) and worries about June 10th Tri (swimming related.) So I reckon that if I can crack the swimming thing, I can remove one stressor from my life and sleep better.

Want an axe to break the ice?

2006-04-14T11:52:00.000-04:00

I missed yesterday’s planned workout in the morning and was planning to leave work on time and do it in the evening...my phone rang at 4:30 and I was still talking at 5:30. I finally got home in time to ahve something to eat and go to Tai Chi with my friend Jackie. I know Tai Chi is not an equal swop for a bike/run...but there’s nothing I could do about it.

This morning I swam and boy was it tough. I could not get my breath at all and struggled through drills and some strokes. It was not a happy swimming day at all.

But, as I’m off work today, I went and treated myself to Eggs Benedict, breakfast potatoes and two lovely cups of coffee at a nearby restaurant. I love having breakfast out...it is so luxurious and decadent...in fact, I prefer breakfast out to any other meal out with dinner being my least favorite meal to eat away from home...funny that.

Anyway, tomorrow morning I have to run for 6 miles. If i do that I can give myself a B+ for this week’s effort.

Driving Simply Stu

2006-04-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

Yahoo for Simply Stu – his podcast, if it doesn’t become too technical and high level for me, will become another tool in my armory for fighting my inner slob and keeping me on tri track. Last night on my way home I listened to part of his interview with TI founder – Terry (I am not worthy) – this helped inspire me and made me keep to my schedule of going to bed early and getting up to go for a run this morning – 4.5 gorgeous miles!

But, I think I dreamt about swimming not running. I am so into visualizing swimming right now, I can’t wait to get to the pool tomorrow morning!

I got a car – yahoo! It’s an old nondescript japanese automobile but it is going to make my life SO MUCH EASIER! Just take this morning, I was able to do a decent stretch and sit-up routine after my run, and still make my train on time because I could drive to the train station – of joy, oh freedom of the open road, oh sorry planet earth…

So, with my recent investment in the Olympic Tri*, the discovery of Simply Stu, the purchase of a car and the all round improvement of the weather, I’m ready to go!

This week training:
Monday: swim – check
Tuesday: run – check
Wednesday – abs then swim
Thursday – bike then run
Friday – swim then bike
Saturday – long run

* a few blogthletes remarked on the expense of the Tri on my expenses list. That is not the most expensive Tri in the area, by far. Everything in the east coast megalopolis is expensive…ever tried to by a house here???

Breakthrough

2006-04-10T09:18:00.000-04:00

The bad news: Last week was shot for me because I have ovaries. The least said about that the better but it sucks big time that every 28 days us girlie runners, swimmers, bikers, tri-ers, get thrown off schedule…not fair.

The good news: I swam entire lengths of the pool in freestyle this morning. Yes Mama! I spent as much time as I could watching the last drills on the TI video and practiced zipper switch while hanging out in my house, in the shower, before getting out of bed etc. I visualized the drill and the stroke and I dreamt about it last night.

So, this morning I was psyched to get into the pool and pull all the months, MONTHS, I tell you, of hard work together and do some strokes. At the beginning of the session I struggled, I did zipper drill, zipper switch and zipper overswitch – I rolled and breathed and spent more time in sweet spot. I swallowed a lot of water and snorted some more.

Finally though it somehow clicked. There I was switch, switch, switch, breath…all the way down one length of the pool. I did a little happy dance in the deep end of the pool and tried to do it again in the other direction. It worked. Wow.

Cliff – thank you so much for your ongoing support on this one. For anyone seeking to learn how to swim, buy the TI video and drill cards and enlist Cliff as your mentor!

All is not ended here – I still miss the stroke, I need to build up to a mile and I know there is some serious work to be done on my core strength to help me with these drills. But 8 weeks out from the Olympic Tri, I’m at the place I want to be and can work now from a well founded base with an efficient stroke and the drills to make it better.

Happy Dance anyone?

April - Yeuch

2006-04-04T13:51:00.000-04:00

April is now cold and horrible. It’s amazing how much the thoughts of running in sunshine make thoughts of running pleasurable! Today is icky and I have to run this evening when I get home. I had a dentist appt this morning so could not run.

My plan for the week is:
Monday: swim
Tuesday: run 4.5 miles
Wednesday: swim and perhaps yoga in the p.m.
Thursday: run 4.5 miles
Friday: swim
Saturday: run 6 miles

I’m upping my swimming from 2 days to 3 days per week as I want to try to get to actual strokes by Friday. Next week represents week one of the 8 week training period for the Olympic Tri – so I need to see what my base is at the end of this week.

I have not had my butt on a bike since last year sometime but I am less worried about 40K on a bike than I am about 1-mile swim and 10K run. I will degrease and lube my bicycle this weekend. I may even take it out for a spin on Sunday.

BTW – check out my new tracking list on the right, for expenditures on Tri this year!

D&R Canal 5K

2006-04-01T13:03:00.000-05:00

April 1, 2006 dawned warm and dry. I arrived at the race site, Washington Crossing state park - the MOST important site in the revolutionary war - at 8:30 a.m. I was wearing level one tights and a coolmax tshirt - short sleeved. It was already 60 degrees but a bit blustery. I wasn’t to sure what to wear...my legs are so not ready to be exposed yet this year!

I registered, took the oblligatory t-shirt and proceeded to create a new race playlist on the “on the go” feature on my ipod. The I took a walk to experience the neat atmosphere and the great morning. I ran into Shore Turtle and his wife Redhead Fan Girl - these are very nice people and my first blogthletes that I’ve met. I hope I run into them again at races in the future.

Shore Turtle and Redhead fan Girl were doing the walk but they nicely stuck around for the beginning of the race so I had someone to wave me off - thanks guys!

So the race started.

Songs 1 and 2:
Saw Doctors - The Hay Wrap
& Cornershop - Brimful of Asha

The first mile is a straight shot along river road, it parallels the mighty Delaware and makes its way through one of the sweetest streets in the garden state. I felt good and decided to take it easier that I had at the last race as I didn’t want to use all my energy in the first mile. It was warm...I had changed into shorts and hope the glare from the lilly white legs didn’t harm anyone’s irises. I ran the first mile in 9:40 minutes - not very fast but not my usual 10 minutes either.
Note to self: Put “Hay wrap” towards the end of a running playlist as it really gets the legs moving

Songs 2 and 3
Trance - You make me feel so good
Dead or Alive - You spin me right round like a record baby

During mile 2, I picked up the pace a bit and started to pick people off. I still felt good but hot. I hate when there’s a turn -around and you can see the fast guys...I saw the fast guys. But they did spur me on a little. The turn around brings you up onto a path that parallels the great and historic Delaware and Raritan Canal - it’s like central NJ’s linear Central Park . I missed the marking for mile 2 so have no idea what my split was and whether it was negative or not!!!

Songs 4 and 5
No idea, can’t remember

During the last mile and a bit, I picked it up, slacked off, picked it up, slacked off. the straightness of the path meant I could see the end for at least three quarters of a mile so I was conscious of not pulling out all the stops. When I got closer, I pulled out all the stops and then my feckin’ shoelace came undone. Now, in your marathon or endurance race a shoelace undoing is not a big deal but today it was. I stopped re-did it and ran to the end.

Race time: 28: 30 - not a PR...maybe my legs were tired from the hour i spent in the pool on Friday?

Who knows, who cares? I don’t..the D&R canal watch race remains one of my favorite races. I’ve done it in seasonal April weather, I’ve run it in the snow and now I’ve run it in the heat of an unseasonal spring day.

The coolest was meetin Shore Turtle, RedHead Fan Girl and Frank a sprightly 70 year old who has been racing for 40 years!

Doing this one a slow connection so I'll hyperlink ShoreTurtle and Redhead Fan Girl when I'm back in the office.

40 degrees rising to 68

2006-03-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

Isn’t it lovely when you wake up and go for a run and the weather lady tells you that it is 40 degrees rising to 68 degrees? Isn’t it lovely when you start your run in 40 degree temps and finish it when it’s already 48 degrees outside? Isn’t spring the best time ever?

This morning I took a nice 4.5 mile run this morning. I’ve taken to leaving my stop watch at home – it needs a new strap – so I don’t time myself on these runs too much anymore but I think I completed 4.5 miles in 40 minutes which is great.

The morning was perfect…just enough of crispness in the air, the smell of spring, a blue sky and peace of few cars and few people. I ran in the least layers so far this year and could easily have downgraded to lower thermal quality tights but I might keep that pleasure for the forthcoming 5K on Saturday…see you there Shoreturtle!

Tomorrow I’m taking a day off in compensation for working all last weekend and aim to spend some quality time in the pool looking for a breakthrough on the old T.I. technique. I’m getting to a critical point with it now and am eager to see if I can overcome that final obstacle – breathing while moving!

On food and training

2006-03-29T09:08:00.000-05:00

I am spending this week and next getting to a base level before I start the 8-week training plan that will bring me to the olympic triathlon in June. I’ve decided not to do the half-marathon because that was causing a distraction to the tri training.

So by April 8th, I need to be ready to be able to run 10K, bike 40K and swim – yes, just swim.
I need a wetsuit. This tri is "wetsuit mandatory" – I cannot spend a whole heap of money on a wetsuit so I will be shopping around. Any tips on what to buy would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I need to figure my diet out. I’m constantly hungry which is not good.
My usual day of eating goes something like this:

Breakfast – bowl of cheerios and 1% milk
Mid morning – banana
Lunch – salad with an avocado or some cheese, low cal soda
Mid afternoon – yoghurt
Dinner – tofu stir fry or pasta, sauce and protein crumbles
Post Dinner – a cookie or a cup of hot chocolate

Is this enough food?

NUTS?

2006-03-22T16:34:00.000-05:00

I have not yet graduated from the T.I. school of effective swimming. My comfortable run lies somewhere between 4 and 5 miles and I haven’t been on a bike in ages.

So why have I committed to doing an Olympic Triathlon on June 10th?

Because I’m crazy that’s why.

I have eleven weeks to get tri ready. I’ve run 10K at my pre-Christmas fitness levels, I know I can easily cycle 40K – speed will not enter the picture during this tri. But I worry about swimming a mile in under an hour – can I do that? I hope so.

I swam half a mile in 23 minutes so hope with my new swimming technique that I can better that at the June Tri. Wetsuits are mandatory at this tri so that will, no doubt, give me a technical advantage as they boost bouyancy – although with the T.I. method that could be bad.

So my plans, hopes and dreams for the coming race season are:
April 1st – 5K race on the D&R canal path (shoreturtle are you doing this one?)
April 30th – Jersey Shore half marathon
June 10th – Delaware Triathlon
July 23rd – NJ State Triathlon
Sept 17th – Danskin Tri

Now I need input from my blogthlete buddies.
Am I over-reaching here?
Is the overall goal achievable?

Driven or Driving?

2006-03-21T09:49:00.000-05:00

On Sunday I could barely walk – my abs were sore, my calves were sore and a little area on each hip was sore. That made me happy as I considered it a badge of having run my heart out on Saturday…which is what I did. It’s also a sign that I’m not in my fittest shape ever – but I’m ignoring that fact right now as it is ONLY March and it is STILL cold here!

Monday I was stiff too.

But Lisa and I resumed our swimming/gym ritual with a trip to the pool and picking up on the TI drills once again. I am so excited about these drills cause I’m getting close to pulling it all together and doing my first freestyle stroke as a newly minted graduate from the TI school of effortless swimming. I can feel it, I can nearly touch it and I’m thrilled to be getting there. I have thought myself to swim – how cool is that?

I have another new gym buddy – Jackie. She is trying to loose baby weight and helpe me go to yoga once a week. Last week our usual yoga teacher was absent and we had Joe – I will post more on Joe later – but Joe did a work out that left us feeling like we’d had the best massage ever…it was such a good class. But the usual teacher is back this week so we are back to straight Hatha. I need to return to Joe’s Power Yoga but the timing doesn’t work for me right now!

Good news – after nearly four years as a single car family (both BH* and me are environmentalists and make our life choices under that light!) we are compelled to buy another car because of my job – I am out and about a lot more than in previous positions. It sucks having to buy another car but I’m happy as it will give me a flexibility that I’ve missed over these past few years. This flexibility will be directed towards having easier transportation to the gym without having to enter into logistical discussions with BH – oh the freedom of the open road.

BH* = Beloved husband…sometimes stated in an ironic manner but usually invoked in a sincere tone of voice!

I rock!

2006-03-18T11:39:00.000-05:00

Yes, indeed I do! I’ve just completed my first race of the season and I am happy as a pig in poop right now! I’m happy because I did it, I finished it and I think I had a PR race today. I finished the 5K in 27:10 and just checked my records and it is a PR for me...even more exciting, i ran the first mile in 8:30.

When I went to bed last night, I had not decided whether I was going to race or not. But, I had a great night’s sleep, the race didn’t start until 10:00 and it was 5 blocks from my house. So when I got up I had no excuse.

When I arrived at the registration area, I once again sniffed the excitement of race day in a small town and was thrilled by the sensation of excitment and comraderie. I hung out and registered and chatted to a few people. Then the mayor sounded the alarm and we were off. It was a great day for racing - cool and a slight breeze. Our town is flat and easy to run and it was a pleasure to be able to take the middle of the road instead of my usual hugging of the shoulders!

There are many advantages to running a race in your home town - the first is that you can decide the morning of the race that you are going to race, the second is that all you need is your normal running gear - no wallet, no bag etc., the third is that you get to say hi to all the people you know in town as you race and they shout encourgement in your name, the fourth is that you can stretch after the race in the comfort of your own home and the final and fifth advantage is that you can update your blog when the euphoria of the race is still streaming through your system!

I can’t believe I just ran a mile in 8:30 - I rock! and I’m hooked all over again!

Brief Update

2006-03-13T08:55:00.000-05:00

I've been on a break for a couple of weeks - I was getting too tired from burning the candle at both ends. But I'm ready to get back in the saddle again and am planning to get out and about this week - hopefully some running, some yoga and some swimming.
We've got a 5K coming up on Saturday in my town - it's always my first race of the season so I plan to do this and move on from there.
I've still not got a schedule that is working for me so we continue with a work in progress...I'm really annoyed with not being able to sort this thing out...why can't I have a satisfying busy job and continue to work out...other people do it, why can't I?
I'm hopeful though...always hopeful...spring is around the corner and I am determined to get something that works for me.

Sole flapping

2006-02-24T13:42:00.000-05:00

I canned this morning’s swim session. An all day meeting followed by a nighttime meeting left me feeling more tired than the commentary on NBC’s Olympics coverage! (I’m sorry but some of this commentary is intense in its partisanship and o.t.t. in its metaphorical meanderings!)

But I did squeeze a 4 mile run in after yesterday’s day meeting and before the night meeting. So I’m not feeling too bad. This week so far, I’ve swum, I’ve run twice and I did some core work in the gym. Tomorrow morning I hope to go for another run – before going car shopping. I hate car shopping.

Here’s a funny story.

Yesterday I had to leave early to get to a meeting in central New Jersey. The meeting was being held at the Duke Estates – a 2,700 acre estate in Somerville NJ. It was an important meeting. My organization was hosting it. It was my first important public event since assuming my new role.

Because I was leaving the house early I left my clothes in the spare bedroom and got dressed there so I wouldn’t wake BH. So, I dressed and left not checking out anything like the state of my shoes…

At the meet and greet part of the meeting, I am standing and schmoozing and gripping and grinning and I turn suddenly and feel like I’ve trodden on something on the floor. I look down and there is the leather sole of my shoe detaching itself from the shoe. It’s a crisis. If I walk, I flap. If I don’t walk, I’m stuck standing in the middle of a room of very important people for the entirity of the meeting. I have to walk.

So I do this shuffle-like limp back to my chair and die! I’ve to get up during the meeting to participate and then there’s the lunch period. The break too. The further schmoozing. The embarrassment. Ohmigod!

So inspiration strikes. I may be on this beautiful estate but I’m still in New Jersey where there’s a mall on every corner and a shoe store in every mall. I quickly make my way to the door – luckily I was near to door - and proceeded to flap my way to the car.

I drive out of the estate and up the road to a mall. Here I find a shoe shop and a Gap – but it’s 9:45 a.m. and they don’t open until 10:00. So I sit in the car and at 10:00 a.m. I flap into the Gap, but all they have are sandals. The lovely lady in the store did give me some strong sticky tape…but I was wary of its efficacy so I flapped into Payless and bought a pair of $20 shoes – good grief, what in the world is with disposable shoes?

So, I get back to the meeting in time for the morning break. Nobody missed me. Death averted.

The moral of this story is either:
It’s great to live in New Jersey when a shoe crisis happens,
Or
Get your shoes re-soled at the first sign of disintegration.

Taxes and running

2006-02-20T16:17:00.000-05:00

Another Monday, another day at home!! I could really and truly get used to four day weeks.

This past weekend I did nothing, diddly squat, nada, rien..no exercise. It was too damn cold to remain outdoors for a long time so instead we took in a cool Ansel Adams exhibit at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, Bucks County, PA and watched Transamerica in our local indie movie house (go see Transamerica, now, everyone, immediatly)

So, this morning I once again (like last Monday) spurned a comfie lie-in and went drillin’ again at the pool. I can now see the light at the end of this particular tunnel - I can really feel that I’ve made strides (or should I say strokes) towards becoming a proper swimmer. As Cliff says, I will soon be swimming like the fishes, as opposed to swimming with the fishes (that happens a lot here in New Jersey.)

I’ve a whizzy new O.S. on the Mac and completed my taxes today - yahoo and a sense of accomplishment all round. I now have to sleep on them for a week or so before I get the confidence that I’ve done them correctly and send the returns in for scrutiny by Uncle Sam’s calculator. But, the worst is over.

To celebrate, I went for a run . Boy, it was tough. I’m as stiff as the IRS rules governing deductions (ha ha a tax joke) and I found it hard to get around today. My legs are tired, my hamstrings are strung out and my achilles are aching...I need to get back to Yoga. Maybe I’m coming down with something? Can you get the flu by talking to someone on the phone who has the flu? Queenie?

I’ve to go stretch now. I’ve a bear of a week ahead and am glad I tucked in two workouts today. I’m planning workouts as time becomes available these days. I know I’m off doing core work on Wednesday but hope to get a run in sometime before then. It’s not looking likely though!

But who’s going to beat me up about it now. After all, I’ve got my taxes done!!!

Swrunning again

2006-02-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

As most of the world seems to know, the northeast was hit by a wee snow storm at the weekend. It was lovely, a real excuse to chill out, calm down and watch the olympics.Monday was a Lincoln's birthday, which means in the Garden State, a day off for all state workers. I'm not a state worker but I'm housed in a state building ergo I had a day off too. Instead of enjoying a snowy lie-in, Lisa and I went to the gym - we were the only two women in the changing room at one stage - hard.core! We went drillin and swimmin and hot tubbin - for those in the total immersion program, I have happily reached the Skate drill - yahoo!

After I dropped Lisa off at the train I went home to dedicate the day to Turbo Tax. I collected my papers, flexed my calculator, turned on my Mac and loaded Turbo Tax. Nothing happened. I reached for a magnifier and read the small print on the box - the software requires OS10.4 or above.

Well, my friends, I had OS 10.1.2. - how degrading, how backward off me, how awful...how do I manage to have the most recently published books, the latest in fitness gear, the hippest ever music collection but I'm 3 versions away from a minimum system requirement!!!

Having had my tax day ruined, this intrepid blogthlete proceeded to strap on some slip resistant gizmos on her shoes and go running in the snow.

Running in the snow is so much better than doing taxes.
Who knew?

So another day, another swrun...and a swrun in the snow to be sure!!!

Tuesday I was back at work but work that day meant circumnavigating the state to meetings at its farthest reaches. Now I know those of you who live in big states, and you know who you are, couldn't contemplate driving to one of your state's farthest reaches, but we do it all the time here in NJ..."counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, we all go to look for America.." Anyway, I did the old turnpike thing and when I completed my last meeting at 4:30, I was 30 minutes from home or ten minutes from work. So, I stared down the barrel of congestion on Rte One and made an OC(Obsessive Compulsive) Blogthlete decision...home and get running.

Yes, indeed. My OC Blogthlete fought with my lazy ass blogslob and won. By 5:00 pm I was home and running underneath an orange sky - grrreat!

Wednesday I gymned and my upper arm bit where it goes into my chest area part is sore today. I don't know when I'm going to get that upper body strength - it's taking time coming. Work commitments killed any and all exercise on Thursday and Friday but guess what, I've got Monday off 'cause it's Washington's Birthday - aaah the joys of the four day work week!!!!

SWRUN

2006-02-10T16:34:00.000-05:00

Not a Brick - bike/run, but a Swrun, a swim run.

That's what I did this morning.

This morning, Lisa and I drilled and floated - I had a breathing issue. I kept panicking every time I put my head under for this particular drill. So, I hung on to the sides for a while and practiced and then moved on to the drill - success! I celebrated with an extra few minutes in the hot tub! I am getting kinda addicted to hot tubs!!!!

Then I took a shower, dried my hair, dressed in my running clothes, drove home and, went. for. a. run - howsattt? Pretty cool huh?

OK, ok all you hard-core, tri-training, iron man planning, obsessive compulsives, a swrun may not seem much to you, but to me, it was a real achievement and now I'm wiped out and ready to sleep - the sofa beckons, it's planning to snow tomorrow, I've got movies to watch and pizza to eat. I don't care, I swrunned this morning!!!

This nearly makes up for missing the Grammies t'other night.

Have a good weekend all you obsessive blogthletes - and remember, the reason I abuse you is that I want to be you!

Brief Update

2006-02-08T11:06:00.000-05:00

So far, so good this week. I was in the pool Monday morning working on the Total Immersion drills. These are giving me some sort of neck stiffness that is related to me being not very relaxed in the water so I’ve to work more on relaxing and then I can continue to move ahead with the drills. I think I’m going to really appreciate this system once I get to a certain point in the program but for now, I am finding it hard work.

In the continual search for my groove, a thought struck me yesterday in a meeting that I should leave the office two evenings a week at my normal time and do two week time runs on these evenings. Then I can do my long run on a Saturday morning. I have not had a lot of work getting up early every morning in a 5 day period so I rationalized that evening runs have worked well for me in the past and I should return to them.

So, last night I got the 5:30 train and was out my door running at 6:00 – it was great. I didn’t know that it was still light at 5:30! I thought I’d do one lap of the town but ended up doing 2, 5 miles in total and it felt great – hey that 2 month recovery period really worked well for me!!!! So I now plan to leave the office on Tuesday nights and Thursday nights. And there’s a really cool 3-day half marathon training plan in this month’s Runner’s World that I intend to follow…it all fits nicely together!

This morning I was all about "the strength" in the gym. I hated the gym back in the beginning but now, that I can feel some improvement I don’t mind it too much. I am pretty much focused on core and arms and hope one day to be able to flex something that will cause something else to bulge somewhere!!!!

Almost perfect

2006-02-02T09:09:00.000-05:00

This morning I managed to begin to break into my new groove and actually haul my ass out of bed to go for a run. It was really great to be out in the morning with the frost on the cars, the underbellies of the clouds tinged pink with the sunrise and the V’s of geese flying somewhere for something really important!

I have not stuck to my planned schedule but I feel great because I went for a run. I plan to go for a long run on Saturday morning , something I’ve not done since mid-December. I know my fitness level has not remained to allow me to run 10 miles like I did in December but that’s ok. I’ll mark Saturday as the beginning of my training for the Jersey Shore half and take it from there. Maybe the lack of a race goal was partly to blame for my hiatus from running. I have a goal for swimming – learn how to do it and a goal for the gym – my stomach, but no recent running goal – maybe this will help.

So far, I’ve got my breakfast groove back and a new lunch groove going. I really feel like I’m on the way back to a running groove! And maybe a blogging groove too…I calculated last night that I am working ten hours a days, five days a week. I am only conscious for a max of 16 hours a day, and I need two hours to chill in the evenings (sorry you driven folks, but I like relaxation); take one hour for dinner; devote one hour in total for commuting to and from work; allow one hour for maintenance at the beginning and end of the day; and leave one hour that gets frittered away somehow. This does not leave me with any time to do anything now does it? So I need to work fewer than 10 hours a day! This is why I’m taking the first 30 minutes of today to write this!!!

Who moved my groove?

2006-01-28T07:34:00.000-05:00

I managed to carry out the three gym based activities this week. This is because Lisa is waiting for me to pick her up in the mornings and I don't want to let her down. So, running is now being avoided. I used to run after work or during work with Rebecca. With my new job, I am getting home a lot later and during the day I am too busy to e-mail Rebecca let alone call her for a run! Also, they knew me in my last job and it didn't feel wierd getting dressed into running tights in the middle of the day to go for a run...not too sure what they'd think about that in my new place.

But, I am the boss, so I shouldn't care too much.

I know I'm not going to do anything today as my day has already been eaten up and it is 7:00 am right now!

I do have a plan though - I don't believe in complaining without a plan for improvement...it's pointless.

I noticed this week that the mornings are starting to arrive earlier now. It's almost light at 6:30 a.m. - light enough to go running. Unlike some of the crazy driven blogthletes that I read, I cannot run in the dark in the morning - it's just not safe. So, starting next week, I'm going to shift my routine to the morning.

Duh - many of you will be saying right now, especially those who have their whole lives mapped out around this crazy pursuit but it's not that easy for me.

I'm a ritualistic sort of person and when I get a groove that works for me I love it. But when I'm thrown out of that groove, I find it very hard to push the re-set button...I wander round in a daze for a while wondering where my old groove is, completely ignoring the new groove potential in front of my eyes.

Many of my rituals have been upset by this new job...I've sorted some out, but not them all.

I give you The Breakfast Ritual:
Throughout my entire working career, I have brought my breakfast to work. I cannot, for whatever reason, eat breakfast at home and then go to work. At my last job I got into a great breakfast groove - coffee at Dunkin Donuts and a bowl of oatmeal with blueberries - the best breakfast ever.
Now, my new job is in this great big office place...not the 1800's house of my last position. So things like microwaves are not easy to find. Someone has one somewhere but I don't know who, where or what the etiquetter is.
So, my breakfast groove is gone. I'm also no longer passing Dunkin Donuts on my way to work.

Life's a beach!

For two weeks, I walk around in a daze trying the muffins in the nearby deli and drinking their coffee. The coffee is good - nice flavors, fresh brews etc. But, I can't spend the rest of my life eating muffins for breakfast - yueuch. I can't do much harder baked goods than muffins cause of my braces and I am not eating cold toast or a cooked breakfast from said Deli either!

So, one morning as I stand forlornly in my kitchen at home gazing at the much loved, but recently abandoned, oatmeal box, I realize that I can have the same healthy breakfast but with a cold cereal. And (drum roll here) a new breakfast ritual is born.

I am now happy with my cheerios, banana and milk breakfast. I still get my coffee from the new deli and will, now and again, get a muffin. But I have a new breakfast groove. This is probably my 6th breakfast groove in my career to date. My favorite was the Rhubarb Yoghurt I loved when I worked in the UK. Anyone know anyone who sells rhubarn yoghurt in the Northeastern United States?

So, to cut to the chase...I need to re-estalish the following grooves - lunch, running with Rebecca, keeping my blog up to date, running alone, and power yoga!

In between all these grooves lies a pretty spontaneous person you know!!!

Aim for next week's exercise:
Mon, Weds and Fri - Gym for swim or strength
Tues & Thurs morning*- run for cryin' out loud
Saturday - longer run.
*One of these runs may become a lunchtime run if I can hook up with Rebecca.

A quick note:

2006-01-23T08:59:00.000-05:00

OK, my new job is taking all of my time at the moment. Blogging time needs to be slotted in elsewhere, not during the 9-5 hours when I did it in my previous job!!!!

This update is to say that I fell off the wagon again. I missed another week of exercise. But I’ve climbed back on again and was drillin’ in the pool this a.m.

I have a neck issue going on which I need to sort out but the 5 minutes in the hot tub after swimming this morning helped a great deal.

Here is my plan for the week. I hope that a good start will allow me to continue. I hope to get back to blogging soon and to commenting soon. I miss you guys!

Monday: swim drills
Tuesday night: running
Wednesday: strength
Thursday: running
Friday: swimming
Saturday: who knows???

I’ll talk to you all soon. I’m not yet disappeared but I’m a bit distracted!

Poetry in Motion

2006-01-11T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is Wednesday night and I'm making my first visit to Blogland since Monday.
Something must be up? Well, a decent job that keeps the brain engaged and away from the internets that's what's up. I've been in the new job two days now and haven't managed to mess anything up...achievement!

Also, I've managed to keep to my fitness regimen at the same time. I'm on track to meet my goals for the week....serious achievment!!

Currently, our original tri-team are setting goals for the year and we are having a hard time coordinating schedules so it looks like we'l be going our own ways until the Danskin tri in September (are you with me here Gretchen?)

So I will be doing my first Olympic distance solo - I'm not too bothered about that in actual fact. Sometimes I like to have the companionship on race day but I think I actually prefer going it alone...you get better head space, it feels like a strong lone challenge and you can set your pre-race rituals and bathroom visits to your own timing! I will probably do the half-marathon by myself too - me and my iPod!

Speaking of iPods, on Monday when I went running I took my iPod instead of the radio. Now I don't like to run "long" to music as I tend to go too fast and tire quickly. So I checked out what audio I had on the old iPod and found a track called the Essential Dylan Thomas - it was wonderful. "A Child's Christmas in Wales," as read by Richard Burton, saw me through a good twenty minutes while "the Peaches," a delightful short story about a young boy's summer on the farm saw me through the rest. In fact I didn't get to the end of that story so am looking forward to a long run soon so I can find out what happens. Now, Dylan Thomas may not be everyone's idea of relaxed running noise but I found it distracting and entertaining and educational at the same time!!!

Back on the wagon

2006-01-09T11:54:00.000-05:00

This morning I jumped out of bed when the alarm clock went off and quickly dressed in my swim suit and whatever and went to get Lisa for the drive to the gym. Lisa wimped out and did weights but I plunged straight back into the cool pool to re-start my drills and my laps. Who coined the term resolutionits? It’s a good term...our pool was full of resolutionites - wonder how long it will take to get my lane back to myself?

Anyway the drillin’ went well and I managed to swim 4 laps of freestyle - yippee. I’m psyched that my swimming is progressing, slowly but progressing nevertheless!

After dropping Lisa to the train, I came home, dropped BH to work, returned home once more and turned around and ran 4 miles! It is gorgeous today, 50 degrees and sunny. It was a real pleasure to be in level one winter gear and only one layer of everything! Wow, I’d forgotten what that felt like.

So, now I’m stretched and ready to get on with my last free day (well until MLK day next week!) before I start my new job.

As you can tell, I am happy to be back doing what I enjoy doing. My legs remember 4 miles and I bet they’ll remember 6 miles when I attempt it later this week and then 10 miles when I get around to that sometime in the next two weeks. Once I get back into the 10 mile long run, I’ll start to ramp up for a half marathon.

My new job is as Executive Director of a statewide environmental non-profit. It’s a big job and I am depending on exercise to get me through the first stressful year or so!

Let’s start with the first week first though!

Goals and all that

2006-01-07T10:22:00.000-05:00

I did not make it out for a run yesterday but I did this morning. My run this morning was shorter than normal but it was enough to remind my legs what to do and persuade me that all has not been lost in the past couple of weeks of inactivity. I will run again following a swim with Lisa on Monday morning...that will meet my stated goals earlier this week.

So, I feel more confident now that I can get back on the excercise wagon again and in that vein I will set some goals for next week but also set my goals for the year. My last goal was the 15K in NYC which I bagged due to timing and over-commitment issues. My goals for 2006 are modest by the standards of most other blogthletes but as I only did my first Tri last September, I think this is the wisest tack to take.

For next week:

Monday: Swim and run in the morning
Wednesday: swim in the morning
Thursday: run in the evening
Friday: strength in the morning
Sunday: run in the morning (big maybe there)

I’ve a lot on next week. I’m also starting my new job so I have to be careful what I schedule as I don’t really know what my new life in 2006 will be like.

My fitness goals for the year:

4/30/06: New Jersey Shore Half Marathon
7/23/06: New Jersey Triathlon - Olympic Distance
9/17/06: Danksin Tri NY/NJ Metro

To acheive these goals I’ve to get my running to a comfortable 13 miles, my swimming to a state of grace and my cycling to something a bit more competitive than the 19 mph I generally spin at. Much work to do. I also need to get my bike legs moving this year as I intend to cycle tour for a couple of weeks in NovaScotia, Prince Edward Island and wherever else we decide to go in that crazypart of the world!

Walking down the street shanananana

2006-01-05T15:16:00.000-05:00

I was walking down the street today at lunchtime with Rebecca and who ran past me but Shore Turtle – I didn’t stop him as it would have been too long to explain to Rebecca about this blog world we live in. As Queenie recently found out, I like to keep my surreal world separate to my real world, so I tell very few earth bound people about my blog! I'm a scorpio ya see!

Anyway – I want to roam off topic here for an instant.

It’s my last day at my current job and the reason I was out on the streets at lunchtime was that I had to buy my own lunch on my last day. I am still in absolute shock about this. Since I’ve been with this organization, I’ve substantially grown every revenue stream that I was responsible for. I grew the net proceeds from the special event by 100% in two years…two years! I worked hard until I got disillusioned with the management and really made a huge difference. When I joined they had no formal program for fundraising…it happened in an ad hoc reactive way – now they have a program, a timeline, a work plan and even color-coordinated files which I am leaving in impeccable order as well as comprehensive handover document listing immediate tasks to be done in my absence.

This treatment is so ignorant. I’ve worked my ass off for two years and they can’t even buy me a sandwich!

Well so long and thanks for all the fish you ungrateful employers you...you miserly bosses...you unsocialized staffers! Except for Rebecca who bought me lunch because I complained so much..she's great!

P.s. I plan to run tomorrow (all together now “run al run”…I can’t hear you…”Run Al Run”…..I still can’t hear you….”RUN AL RUN”)

New Year’s Motivation

2006-01-04T13:01:00.000-05:00

After my great Christmas vacation, I am having trouble getting my ass out the door to do exercise. I’m suffering from insomnia due to the abrupt withdrawal from all alcoholic beverages after a week of over-indulgence; a messed up sleep cycle after a week of late nights and later mornings; and new-job induced anxiety.

The result of this insomnia is an enduring tiredness that makes it impossible for me to get up at 6:30 and go to the pool. Add to this, some late evenings at work due to impending departure and a couple of post-work commitments. These factors are halting my return to evening running.

If this sounds like a whole load of hogwash – well it is. If it walks like a hog and oinks like a hog, then it’s a hog.

It’s simple really. I’ve institutionalized laziness following a lazy week.

Why is it so easy to institutionalize laziness yet impossible to institutionalize goodness and exercise and early mornings??? I just don’t geddit.

Anyways, in the spirit of using my blogthlete compadres, I am stating here, for the record, that I will run at least twice before next Monday 9th January. I don’t know when I’m going to do it, how long I will go for or how I’ll feel afterwards but that’s what I aim to do. I will also swim next Monday morning with Lisa (even though I’ve the day off in between jobs.)

You, my friends are now responsible for helping me to do this.
Cause if I don’t exercise, I can’t blog about exercise and if I can’t blog about exercise well…NJ politics, small town politics, weather reports, dinner menus, books I read, vids I watch…anyone? anyone?

On having guests for Christmas

2006-01-02T09:25:00.000-05:00

Advice: If you want to have a great blow-out Christmas season, invite Irish people to your house. If, on the other hand, you want to continue your training over the time most people are partying, ban Irish people from your house.

This may seem harsh but let me, for illustrative purposes only, compare and contrast the holidays with and without Irish people in your house.

With Irish people in your house your Christmas holiday goes as follows: meet, talk, eat, talk, drink, talk, presents, drink, talk, talk, sleep, breakfast, less talk, walk, Washington crosses the Delaware, talk, limoncello cosmopolitans, talk, chop, cook, nut roast (5,000 calories a slice), talk, drink, prosecco, pinto grigio, bordeaux, bailey’s irish cream, play complicated board game, win complicated board game (we-hey), talk, breakfast, hike, talk, eat, new york city, shopping, anthropologie, shopping, amazing pair of boots, shopping, talk, talk, eat at cool French bistro, talk, eat, drink, guest #1 departs, talk, pizza, wine, talk, Philadelphia, South street, Italian market, philly cheese steaks, walk, anthropologie, talk, Chinese take-out, more limoncello cosmopolitans, wine, talk, breakfast, pancakes, walk, Princeton, talk, lunch, home, airport for remaining two guests, home, collapse.

Without Irish people in your house your Christmas holiday has gone as follows in the past: time off, wine, presents, talk, Washington crosses the Delaware, volunteer work, eat healthy dinner, little more wine, movie, a lot of sleep, hike, talk, getting regular runs in, talking, walking, normal schedule.

So thank to my sister Eils, her better half Stevo and Ms. L from Nova Scotia for giving us the best New Jersey Christmas ever.

P.s. Tomorrow I’m back on the exercise treadmill!!!

Happy Holidays

2005-12-22T11:45:00.000-05:00

I’m off until the New Year.
I’ll see y’all January 2nd with tales of too much food and not enough exercise …although I have a 6 mile walk planned for my guests in NYC …but don’t tell them about it!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and here’s hoping for a peaceful and successful 2005 for everyone.

Back on the road

2005-12-21T10:40:00.000-05:00

Last night I ran 6 miles and it was easy. It was cold though – I had level 3 tights on and I was still cold. I think it was minus 100 degrees – or something like that. I circumnavigated the town twice and Google pedometer has told me that I ran 6.06 miles in 60 minutes. Not bad, not bad at all.

It’s been a while since I was out on the road running so it was good to do it again. If I can get another 6 miles in before the weekend, I’ll be happy.

So last night as I stressed about not having the house ready for the holidays, BH kindly refrained from pointing out that if I had not gone running for one hour and stretching for another 30 minutes that I could have got some stuff done…he refrained but I know he was thinking it…I just know it.

I went to the gym this morning for a strength session. That was good – I can begin to feel an improvement especially in the core area and in my upper body strength. I’m still not strong but lifting the weenie weights is becoming so much easier for me!

Tomorrow morning I meet with my new board president to sign the contract for my new position. I’m psyched about that. I am starting the second week in January and am hoping that I am not immediately plunged into over-work and under-exercise!

Rest for the Wicked

2005-12-19T10:54:00.000-05:00

So much for the planned run Saturday morning…I went to bed on Friday night at 10:00 p.m. and woke on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. 12 Hours sleep…I think the body was trying to tell the mind something. The mind listened and slept with funny new job related management anxiety dreams – but hey, a dream’s a dream - it means you're asleep!

I ran around all weekend and am pleased to report that I have much to show for it. Although the house is still messy I have two guest rooms ready and a decorated tree that does not lean too much!

Went swimming this morning and joy of joys, they’ve raised the temperature at the pool. It is now bearable and this change made the whole immersion thing a lot easier! I did some drills, I think. Lisa told me that my swimming was looking a lot better but the teenage lifeguard looked alarmed a lot. I was pleased to hear what Lisa said though and I’ve a sent a note to Santa requesting the Total Immersion DVD for Christmas!!!! I don’t expect to get it as Santa does not read my notes or my blog.

The streets are now mostly clear of the white cold stuff so I am looking forward to getting out on the road running tomorrow night. I really don’t mind the cold, just the snow and ice. I’ve sent Santa a note asking him for YakTrax but am not hopeful (see reason above!)

Officially, I am no longer in race training mode vis a vis running. I am in plateau mode where I plan to solidify all the work I’ve been doing recently. I will work to make 15K a more comfortable distance to run, I will then add some speed. I will continue the strength training and maybe actually gain some strength in my upper body. I will focus on the swimming mainly – maybe structure a better plan, read some books, buy some videos, set some better goals – although the goal of one length freestyle is still a good and challenging one for me!

Am I becoming a swim bore? Tell me if I am…I don’t talk about swimming in normal conversations with anyone. In fact I was at a party Saturday night and did not mention running, swimming, biking, tri-ing or training once…it’s my secret life.

I noticed a funny thing at the party – there was loads of grazeable food there but there was also a sit down dinner. Normally I would have grazed until the “cows come home” but because I’m wearing braces I can’t, because who knows what will get stuck in the wires when I’m making small talk to a complete stranger. So I consumed many fewer calories – esp cashew nut calories – than I would have normally at such an event. The moral of this story - Braces are good to avoid holiday overeating!

Happier now

2005-12-16T14:13:00.000-05:00

I’m happy that you all helped me to reach a decision vis a vis tomorrow’s race. There is a partial strike in NYC so I don’t really know what I would have done had I not decided to cancel. I will go for a run tomorrow morning though – maybe 15K, maybe not. Last night’s rain washed a lot of the snow away and it is balmy weather here in NJ. So I’m happy to run again.

Keryn – thanks for the idea about the Yahoo Avatar! Looking forward to changing it as the seasons change!!

I got offered the job I was anxious about earlier this week. More details on that score later. But it will mean a hectic few weeks and I have got to keep on top of exercise or else I’ll loose my mind!

So, in the spirit of hoping for the best here are my plans for the coming week’s exercise:

Saturday: Run
Sunday: Rest – like I need it after slacking off all week…
Monday: Swim (a.m)
Tuesday: Run in the evening
Wednesday: Strength
Thursday: Run at work?
Friday: Swim (a.m)

The day after that my lovely guests arrive and I put everything on hold for a week of food, wine and conversation and maybe a hike or two thrown in for good measure! Ho Ho Ho!

To can or not to can...

2005-12-15T15:17:00.000-05:00

Sitting here trying to write the text of an e-mail for my organization’s year-end fund appeal. I have no inspiration at the moment so I thought I’d blog instead.

I’m thinking of canning Saturday regardless of what happens with the transit strike. I am exhausted. I have been out every night this week. A meeting I was meant to attend tonight has been cancelled …my 2 minute relief at that cancellation soon vanished when I realized that this freed me up to attend another meeting that I am expected at. Tomorrow night will be my only night at home this week and I want a good night sleep – not the anxiety sleep I normally have when I’ve to either get up early, meet someone at a specific time or run a race. In this case, all three would be in play if I decided to go ahead with this plan.

If it was just me I’d cancel, no problem, but it’s not and I don’t want to let Rebecca down. I’m torn, totally torn.

I have a lot to do next week in preparation for family and friends arriving for Christmas. One room has to be un-transformed from my fitness/dressing/yoga room back into a bedroom. Another room has to be transformed from BH’s office into something that resembles a room and not the apartment of a shut-away!

If I do the race I loose a full free day this weekend and I have commitments Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

All this is piling anxiety on top of anxiety and that is not what this exercise lark is supposed to do. It’s supposed to help ease anxiety.

OK – I’m decided, I can’t press on with this anxiety. I will cancel. The goal of training for a 15K race was to be able to run 15K – I can now run 15K – goal achieved. I can make my own t-shirt.

Thanks, that helped a lot.

Musical Fartleks

2005-12-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

I went to the gym this morning with Lisa to get some running done. I was meant to do strength training but as I haven’t been running in a while I thought I had better loosen my legs up a bit in case the transit people do not strike and I do have to go to NYC Saturday morning. It is looking less and less attractive. I’m consoling myself with the thoughts of boot shopping afterwards!

I know I have a limited amount of time in the mornings as I have to make sure we leave the gym in time to first drop Lisa off at her train – she takes the big train, and then get home for my train – the small train! So I knew I could do three to four miles. How to make the best of it?

I played Musical Fartleks. (Have I invented Musical Fartleks? – I hope so!) First off, for those of you with sophomoric funny bones and little knowledge of running terms (and you know who you are!) – Fartleks is Swedish for Speed Play – a well-known speed training technique. Anyway I got Madonna’s Confessions running on the iPod and ran along at faster than my normal running pace – I usually stick at 6 mph, today I set it at 6.2. So I was running at a fair clip – for me. Every time the music got faster, I increased the speed up to 6.8 – 7 mph and ran at that speed for as long as I could deal with it. Then dropped the speed back down, chilled at 6.2 mph until the music got fast again. It worked really well to dispel all sense of running in one place until my iPod decided to give up the ghost and I ended up listening to XM satellite radio through the machine and running at a sedate pace to some stupid Guns ‘n’ Roses song.

Lesson of the day: Soft rock ain’t conducive to running – disco, rap, trance and heavy rock are much better!
Note to self: Make a trance list from iTunes or get much trendier friends to do it for me.

Friday I’ll be back at the gym to continue swimming then we’ll see about Saturday in the city.

Stressing

2005-12-13T13:38:00.000-05:00

Number 1: That the looming transit strike will cause Rebecca and me to abandon our 15K plans in NYC Saturday. WE will know on Thursday night – at midnight – whether the transit workers in NYC will strike. There has not been a transit strike in many years in the city but if there is I’m damned if I’m driving into NYC, the last Saturday before Christmas when no trains are running. Grid.lock.

Number 2: I’ve not been running since last Wednesday. I’m off schedule and not happy about it. You know what my schedule means to me people. Last week’s snow storms blew me off my schedule and I’ve not been able to climb back since. I went swimming on Monday morning and will run tomorrow on the treadmill. Right now at 1:00 p.m. it’s 25 degrees F (that’s -4 degrees C) without the wind chill. Level two thermals all around today so outdoor running is seriously unfeasible.

Number 3: I’m in the running – no pun intended - for a new job. I’ve been through the second interview. They’ve asked for my references. Now they want my salary history. I think they’re going to offer it to me. But, they won’t do it until after a meeting on Thursday night. So I won’t know until Friday…just like the transit strike! Will I get the job? Do I want the job? Will I regret taking the job, like I do my current one? Will I ever find a job I like? Why do I care so much?

Some good things are happening though. I managed to swim a number of lengths freestyle on Monday morning. I swallowed half the pool and burped all morning but I did it. It was funny though that I could only do the freestyle lengths from the deep end to the shallow end, every time I tried to go shallow to deep, I messed up somehow. But finally I did a shallow to deep length and was satisfied. I will persevere and soon begin to look less like drowning and wipe the look of concern off the teenage lifeguard’s face for once and for all. “I’m fine – gasp – I’m totally fine I tell you!”

I fit into skinny jeans this morning. I have not worn these jeans in about two years but needed their heavy canvas to block the wind chill this morning so I tried them on – tada! They fit. It must help that my entire day yesterday was fueled by – English muffin and egg for breakfast; tiny raw tuna appetizer for lunch; cookie and a handful of yoghurt covered raisins for dinner. That is not enough food for me.

In summary, between looming strikes and looming job offers, my anxiety quotient is high and I can’t wait for Friday morning and I need to eat more!

What are you doing?

2005-12-09T10:12:00.000-05:00

This morning we canned the gym excursion because it was snowing heavily and I am of the firm opinion that if you don’t need to drive in the snow at rush hour on main highways, don’t!

So, I’m behind one scheduled session this week so far – a swim session. Oh I’m so disappointed right now that I was unable to plunge myself into cold water and simulate drowning for half an hour this morning.

Because I take the train to work, I can never have a snow day. That irritates me. I can’t get snowed in like all my car dependent colleagues do. My colleagues are either working at home or taking vacation days today…well the ones I have heard from! I’m the only person in the entire office!

Tomorrow I am scheduled to run 9 miles or so. I am so glad that I ran an accidental 10 miles last Saturday because if I had not and then was unable to run tomorrow because of snow, I would be freaked out by the prospect of doing the 15K race on the 17th. But, even if I don’t manage 9 miles tomorrow, I know I can run it the following week ‘cause I’ve done it already! Are you following me?
But I must strap on my ice protecting gear tomorrow morning and see what running I can do. It’s hard to walk in all this white stuff, let alone run – I guess you get more muscles working when you run in the snow.

Today required level 1 thermals, level 4 hat and gloves and level 2 jacket. The stuff is melting already so I’ll be broiling on my way home tonight!

Here’s a question:

What are you doing right now?

I ask this question because yesterday I was e-mailing one friend who was three sheets to the wind in advance of her workplace Christmas party while I was also e-mailing another friend who was home from the hospital after an unsuccessful labor induction and was having contractions every 15 minutes but dreading a looming c-section.

So, apart from blogging and reading blogs – what are you doing right now?

Be as specific as you want or as vague as you need to be.

Squeezing it in

2005-12-08T10:31:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning it was eye-wateringly cold when Lisa and I went to the gym to workout. I noticed it was eye-wateringly cold but the ever-present TV’s in the weight section told me that this cold had broken some one hundred year record. Not what I wanted to hear when I was contemplating running outside after my strength workout – I had some free time thanks to an off-site meeting so could squeeze a run in between gym and train.

But I didn’t. It was bone-achingly cold when I got out of the car on my return from the gym and the idea of a nice hot bowl of oatmeal and a warming cup of coffee just overwhelmed me.

Fast forward to the end of the day…My meeting finished at 5:00 p.m. (ish) – I had to attend another meeting later yesterday evening – Planning Board (yaaawn) – but did not need to get there until around 8:00 p.m. So I could either, stay in the city where the meeting was and do some much needed Christmas shopping or come home and go for a run in the cold, dark arctic night.

Guess what I chose to do?

Yes folks, within the hour I had traveled by foot and by two trains and got home, pulled on the level 2* running tights, the trail shoes, the layers, the light sticks and the level 2 gloves and took to the dark, icy roads. I ran 5 miles – a double circumnavigation of the town - and was in good time to eat and shower before heading out to the meeting.

But…as I approached the last intersection before home I see a big old Cadillac stopped in the middle of the intersection and a little old woman getting out wondering what on earth had happened to her. She didn’t know what to do. Her car had just stopped. I helped her call 911 ‘cause her car was stopped in a dangerous place and call AAA to come and tow her. I used my light stick and reflective vest to help traffic see the damn car and not run into it, I made sure she was ok and resumed my run home….of course I was freezing by then.

So, it’s getting close to the time I’ve to get to the meeting. I am going in support of BH’s work on a study for the town. This will be presented at 8:15 p.m. I’m told. I arrive at the meeting, hair still wet and stomach achingly empty. Phew, it’s just 8:00, I’m o.k. At 10:45 p.m. the study is finally presented to the board and I get home at 11:00p.m. just in time to eat some cold baked Ziti Sicilian and go to bed!

Talk about squeezing it all in.

Level 2* - this represents the second level of thermal protection I wear. As the winter progresses, I have level 3 and level 4 gloves, jackets etc. A friend recently broke out her top level protection and I told her she’d regret it as she had nowhere to go once the real chills of February arrived.

Snowfall Number 2

2005-12-06T09:56:00.000-05:00

Our second snowfall of the season happened last night and I am worried that our sidewalks and running paths are gone forever or, at least until April next year. I have a pair of trail shoes which I will test tomorrow. (I am skipping today’s run thanks to the weather and a dinner commitment and doing it tomorrow morning after my strength session at the gym.)

Hopefully the trail shoes will help me on the winter roads. I have dreadful balance and am terrified of falling while running. I fell recently while walking and have a lovely scab on my knee that reminds me of my 12 year old self! So winter running worries me a lot. My trail shoes do not have Gore-Tex or anything like that – maybe I should invest in a pair with Gore-Tex so I can go running in the snow like ShoreTurtle.

We’ll see. I’ll give it a go tomorrow morning. No excuses.

On a wetter note, progress is being made on swimming. Thanks to Bolder and the others who gave me tips, I actually added stroke to the floating/kicking/breathing combo I’ve been working on for a while. The kick board and the Pull Buoy are very useful tools to help in the attainment of a stroke that works. The Pull Buoy will not stay in position though. This is, on reflection, a good thing.

The way I look at it is that the Pull Buoy is your father’s steadying hand on the back of your bicycle as you learn to ride. As your confidence increases he loosens his grip. He doesn’t tell you that he’s loosening his grip. You think that he’s holding on as tight as ever. Until one moment of one day, he lets go and you wobble on oblivious to his absence as your training wheels until suddenly you hear him cheer and encourage you from a distance. The departing Pull Buoy operates in the self same way.

Lost in Translation

2005-12-05T15:17:00.000-05:00

Sometimes plans come to fruition with no problem at all. Sometimes they get a bit lost in translation between planning and execution. Sometimes this loss is for the better, other times, not so much!

Friday night I pulled together some cold weather gear for my scheduled 80-minute run. An 80-minute run requires a new route as there is no way in hell that I am going to run around my town three times – there’s just something about a hamster in a cage that comes to mind when I try to contemplate a triple circumnavigation.

So I thought I’d run out into the country. I’d run out for forty minutes and back for forty minutes – easy.

Saturday morning dawned cold and windy – I struggled into my heavy weight tights – so soon? So early in the not-as-yet winter season? I decided that as I was leaving the confines of town I would take supplies – water, lip balm and money – so I strapped on a little pack with a water bottle and spare batteries for the radio and took to the roads. This, understand me here, is the first time I’ve ever run in such an encumbered way!

So off I go, out the road and into the farmland. Yes people, there is farmland in New Jersey – lots of it and it surrounds where I live.

So, I’m running out the road, past the houses into the farmland. I wish I had had a camera to capture the blue winter sky against the red barns and the streaks of clouds being pulled taut by the winter wind. Scott Simon was murmuring intelligent things in my ear and life was good until…

I came to a fork in the road. And you kow what that great New Jersey native Yogi Berra said – “if you come to a fork in the road, take it!” – so I did. I thought "well I’ll take this to the second left and that will bring me back into town." I thought wrong.

The second left actually brought me somewhere entirely different instead! It brought me to a lovely little village I did not expect to be in and left me totally disorientated. I have cycled these roads, I have driven these roads but somehow when I run these roads I end up somewhere different. It’s probably something to do with a space/time continuum. I’m sure a physicist could explain it to me.

Anyway my arrival in the village solidified a thought in my head that I was more than half way into my run time yet not half way back to my destination. I would be running longer today.

I corrected course and set off down this lovely country lane. The creek washed under the bridge, the piles of recently shed oak leaves swirled around the road. The traffic was Saturday calm and Scott Simon still distilled sweet nothings in my ear!

Soon enough I reached my road home, took a right- a very correct right, continued back into town and arrived home having run an accidental 10 miles! It felt great. I still had enough juice to ramp it up at the end and plenty left to get me through a weekend of Christmas chopping and party standing!

Plan for the week:
Monday: Swimming a.m.
Tuesday: running (tentative due to forthcoming snow storm)
Wednesday: Strength session a.m.
Thursday: running 6 miles
Friday: swimming a.m.
Saturday: a non-accidental 10 mile run!

Note: this is a tough week - I have after-work commitments every night so must exercise during the morning or at work or, not at all!

Reflection

2005-12-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

November has slipped quietly away leaving a potentially raucous December in its wake. As I sit enjoying the calm before the storm that is the holiday season, I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on the highs and lows of my November training.

The month started on a low point with missed days in the schedule due to birthday and birthday hangover. But as I look at my calendar I see that out of 30 days in November, I exercised 20. Not bad, not bad at all.

The significant advances for me in November were (a) getting back into the swim of things and realizing that it would take drills not lengths to improve my stroke and (b) meeting with a personal trainer to set up a strength training program for myself. Another significant advance happened in the area of my running. I have progressed in my running from short runs of 3 miles to short runs of 5 miles and during November I ran 7 miles for the very first time.

How do I feel with all these accomplishments? Well I feel fairly accomplished but it is still a struggle. It’s a struggle to get up in the mornings and go to the pool – having a swimming buddy makes it a lot easier. It’s tough to go for a run in the evenings after work when it’s dark and cold – having blog buddies make that a lot easier and having a work friend to run with at lunchtimes also eases the pain.

But sometimes I feel like I’m just about teetering on the edge of this particular exercise wagon. I worry that one bad day will send me back to my sedentary life. I am convinced that the lazy ass person I was is just in hiding and not yet fully vanquished. Sometimes I feel like a phony not the shiny happy athlete that I pretend to be. But it is only sometimes and that’s a good thing.

random web thoughts

2005-11-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

My friend Queenie sent this link to a new “online community, dude!” I’m not quite sure how it works or what the benefit is but it builds some sort of profile of the music you listen to and then allows you to listen online to a radio station built for you.

At the moment it thinks I am a Bruce Springsteen fan – which I am but I’m not an uber fan. I’m re-educating it now by listening to The Shins and other such hipster indie bands, dude!

This web based recommendation stuff weirds me out!

Netflix thinks I’m gay because I watched a gay movie once or twice, Amazon thinks I’m an architecture buff because I bought someone a book on architecture while iTunes wants to sell me songs by Haircut 100 and I have no idea why. I will be interested to see what sort of profile last.fm decides to build for me.

Granted, these recommendations do lead to interesting finds every now and again but I am, if nothing else, fickle in my tastes and behaviours. One day I can be getting my groove on with Led Zeppelin, another day Madonna and right now Solomon Burke is playing on my iTunes. Ditto with books and movies – I’ve just gone from Jose Saramago to Joan Didion and recently watched a documentary on recycling and a movie on teenage tearaways.

Classify that you freaky web program people.

On the exercise front – Joe (yogameister) made us fly like and eagle last night at Ying and Yang Power Yoga. Today I went for a sweaty muggy 5K run with Rebecca. I did not have enough time to do 5.5 miles as planned (damn deadlines!) so I may pop out this evening for a quickie (run that is!) Tomorrow morning’s strength session seems to be in jeopardy because of a volunteer commitment thingamajig. We’ll see…

Drilling not drowning

2005-11-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

Well Thanksgiving passed without me putting on too many extra pounds. Having no family nearby, it was just me and BH so we mellowed for four days. I swapped a swim/strength session for a 2 hour hike on Friday – not a direct swap in terms of energy expended but it was pretty nice to go hiking in the woods!

I remain on track with my training schedules.
I’ve trained 20 days out of 28 this month!
The days off included scheduled rest days, birthday, post-Bruce day and one Saturday where I just slept all day.
Let’s see how we fare in December – that will be tough due to Christmas and my impending (can’t wait for them) visitors – sister and boyfriend and best friend!!! Only four weeks now!

Anyway – this morning I was drillin’ in the pool.

I have the floating, kicking and breathing sorted out, now I need to incorporate the arms. Has anyone any tips on how to bring the arms into the equation without throwing the others out of synch? Currently I am floating face down in the pool, kicking and breathing with my arms straight ahead. I am not using any devices – how/when do I start moving the arms? If anyone has an “arm drill” I’d love to hear it.

My plan for the week:
Monday: Swim a.m. and Power Yoga p.m.
Tuesday: Run 6 miles
Wednesday: Strength training a.m.
Thursday: Run 6 miles
Friday: Swim or Strength
Saturday: Run 8 miles

Tip: Go see Capote with Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing the title role!

I won!

2005-11-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

The first ever BRPTT...well the central NJ race anyway.

I know I had some advantages what with Shore Turtle being out of state and me being the only one in the entire race!

So I declare victory for me - but cannot state whether it was a PB because it was in the middle of a 5 mile scheduled run.

Tomorrow - gym/swim combo.

Tonight - huge dinner - yummmm!

Last night

2005-11-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

Bruuuuuuuce!!!

What a night – this was not the anthemic Bruce as the poor people behind us soon realized when he opened his set with a voice distortion mike that played homage to Muddy Waters and the old blues guys. It was not an anthemic Bruce when he played on a pump organ, a yukelele or a grand piano. It wasn’t even the anthemic Bruce when he played the bottle neck guitar!

It was the musical genius Bruce who could hold an arena of 6,000 people in the palm of his hand while he sang “The Promised Land” while using his guitar as a drum and ended with a mantra-like rendition of a song called “Dream Baby Dream”.

Honorable mentions also go to – Ms. Patty harmonizing on “Mansion on the Hill” and then his entire family (about 20 people) with bells doing – Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town – man that was awesome!

Bruuuuuuuuce!!!

Back to exercise blogging soon!

Confessions…

2005-11-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

I did it.

I drove to the gym last night and ran 5 miles on the treadmill at a 6.00 – 6.5 mph pace. It was kinda boring and very hot but I persevered and did it. One of the great things about running in the gym is that you can do some great stretches afterwards in the stretch machines. When I go running from home stuff like laundry and dinner call to me when I try to stretch so I never stretch as long as I should.

Last week I bought Madonna’s new album “Confessions on a Dance Floor” and I’ll tell you – it rocks. It rocks, not in the musical Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones rockin’ way but in the fact that it is a perfect running/workout soundtrack. It is pure disco and it kept me going for the entire 50 minute run on the treadmill.

I used it again this morning when I did my strength training. Abs exercises are so much easier with Madge singing in your ear!!

I’m happy I ran 5 miles on the treadmill because I now know I can do it. I have no excuse for not running when there is bad winter weather. I can use treadmill runs as speed work sessions because I can mess with the pace better than I can on my own. Also, I didn’t fall off it last night – I usually fall off of the treadmill when I stop it and try to step off. But last night the brain got engaged and talked to the feet and asked them to take their time. For once, the feet listened. I think they were just tired from having run 5 miles while the brain had just hung out and listened to Madonna!!!

By posting my intentions on here I had an added incentive to go last night – I knew that I couldn’t come back today and admit to Access Hollywood watching thanks Bolder , your words reached me through the ether and I obeyed! So what did I miss on Access Hollywood last night? Anyone? Anyone?

weather warning

2005-11-21T16:53:00.000-05:00

A nor'easter has just struck outside my window.
I will not be running outside in the rain tonight.
My winter Plan B is to run on the treadmill at the gym.
Tonight Plan B is activated because I cannot go through the winter shirking my running responsibilities every time Mother Nature has a hissy fit.
Plan B is untried and requires a whole different approach.

interesting times...leading to multiple questions...
will she drive to to gym or watch access hollywood?
will she run on a treadmill for five miles or get bored after 2?
will she fall off the treadmill at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of her run?

stay tuned...

Weekend Update

2005-11-21T10:09:00.000-05:00

Well it happened as I knew it would.
I crashed.
Friday afternoon, at about 4:00 p.m., I began to feel really really tired. BH and I were meant to go see the WalMart movie on Friday night but I decided that I needed my sofa, so home we went for pizza and DVD’s. Saturday morning I had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to do a volunteer thing that I do but when I got home at 1:00 p.m. I fell fast asleep until 5:00 p.m. when I got up and later went out to celebrate the first fortieth birthday in our posse and stayed out way too late. So I slept late in the morning on Sunday. I did no exercise this weekend – I did not do my long run on Saturday. My head did not explode because I came off my schedule. In fact I feel pretty good for not pushing myself too hard. I’ve plenty of wiggle room built into this particular race training program so missing one long run won’t make a huge difference to my ability to ruin 15K. But – there will be no more crashing until after the 15K!

This morning I went swimming. As you know, I cannot swim freestyle. My winter goal is to get the freestyle stroke down. I had not been making any progress towards this goal because it seemed like I was not achieving anything with the drills I had set myself. I don’t know how smart it is to try to teach yourself a stroke you don’t even know!!! I am picking up tips on drills from magazines and will get into Total Immersion once I manage a coupld of lengths of my self-taught stroke!

Anyway, my little drills seemed so pathetic that I had mostly stuck to breaststroke lengths but this morning I realized that my little drills would remain pathetic if I didn’t practice them. So this morning I did lengths on my side up and down the pool – I then did floating and kicking, practicing moving my head out of the water in the correct way – keeping my ear close to my neck. Once I can maintain the floating/kicking/neck thing, I will then incorporate the arms. I’m really happy I did these silly little drills…I will get there.

My plan for the week:
Monday: swim a.m. + 5 mile run p.m.
Tuesday: gym a.m. + BRUCE concert p.m.
Wednesday: recover form BRUCE
Thursday: run 5 miles
Friday: strength and swim a.m.
Saturday: 75 minutes run

I've decided not to do a Turkey Trot on Thursday as they are only 5K and I need to get 5 miles under my belt!

aaah friday!

2005-11-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

Exercise update: Yesterday I ran at lunch time – 40 minutes at a really good pace – just a little over 4 miles in distance. This morning I did strength training again and felt more comfortable with it this time. It’s a mellower crowd in the morning.

I have to run for 75 minutes tomorrow and when I have done that I will have completed another full schedule. So far in November I’ve exercised 15 days out of 19 – now that’s not bad is it? I am feeling so good about this at the moment that I keep wondering when the other shoe is going to drop? When the injury will happen? When will the flu arrive? Having this voice in my head makes me be careful about stretching and not over extending – so we’ll see. I’m getting little aches in the arches of my feet that I need to address before they become worse.

One thing about all of this exercise that kills me is that my brain is in constant organization mode.

Here’s an example – Sunday night I get stuff ready to go to the pool Monday morning which means the clothes I’m going to wear to the office, my swim suit, my towels etc and the clothes I’m going to wear over my swim suit. At the same time I’ve to prepare another bag for Power Yoga on Monday night as I’ll be just popping in to the house to get it on my way from work and to the gym. Tuesday night, I run so that’s easy but I have to leave another bag over to Lisa on Tuesday night as we’re car sharing to go to the gym Wednesday night and make yet another bag for swimming Wednesday morning – basically a repeat of Sunday night. Thursday I’m running at work – bring in gloves and a jacket – must remember to bring them home again as they are the ones I’m using at home too. Thursday night prepare a bag for strength training session on Friday morning with work clothes for Friday. Saturday morning sigh a huge sigh of relief as I run from home and return to home, wearing running gear – no bags, no car pooling, no train timetables.

Because I don’t have a plethora of fitness clothes I’m in constant motion between the laundry basket and the washing machine. If I had more clothes I’d be better off. If I had a car I’d be better of – but would I be so organized???

A lone Gunman?

2005-11-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

What I found today:
Your past life diagnosis:
I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Greece around the year 1025.Your profession was that of a monk (nun), bee-keeper or lone gunman.
Your brief psychological profile in your past life:Such people are always involved with all new. You have always loved changes, especially in art, music, cooking.
The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:The world is full of ill and lonely people. You should help those, who are less fortunate than you are.
Do you remember now?

What were you in a previous life? Check here

Gym report

2005-11-17T08:58:00.000-05:00

Ouch
Eye candy
Perplexed
Kinda bored
Ouch again
Why do they grunt so much?
Sitting with 7.5 lbs doing some sort of curl/lift
The guy beside me sits with 75lbs doing the same thing
Feel wimpy in comparison
But can he run 10K? – probably not
Feel better already
iPod not useful in this situation
Not sure what to wear – too hot, then too cold
Start, stop, wait…start, stop, wait…start, stop, weight.

I like the squat machine. It makes me feel like Atlas

Looking forward to running today.

An accidental brick

2005-11-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

That’s what I did yesterday…an accidental brick. Well, can it be a brick if the bike and run are separated by a day in the office? Maybe it’s a broom – a bike and run with room in the middle?

Whatever you want to call it, I did it – 9 miles in the morning on my trusty steed and 5 miles in the evening on my trusty legs! Hey it never rained - darned weather forecasters!

So I’m now ahead of myself.
I have nine extra miles under my belt. I will bank them in anticipation of a few days off next week thanks to mother moon!

I’ve decided that I need to be careful not to over-train at the moment. I am focused on my running in anticipation of the 15K race in NYC in December. To that end I am following Hal Higdon’s half marathon training plan. Once I’ve gone through this plan, I will be half-marathon ready. I think I should stop and rest at this level for a while. I will spend December and January firming up my half-marathon readiness then I’ll have three months to get ready for my first marathon – the Jersey Shore marathon in April. My hopes of doing the Connemarathon have been put on hold for a year. I don’t think this is a suitable marathon to do as a first timer – so Connemarathon 2007 it is!!!!

Then I can put away the marathon need and concentrate on tri-ing again. Although how can I tri without a posh bike - thanks Bolder!

Am I being realistic in terms of advancing in distance from half-marathon to full marathon? I rationalize that maintaining half-marathon distance during December and January will be easier than extending distances and will also allow me wiggle room for bad weather conditions! I am also aware that rough March and April weather could put the kybosh on my plans for Jersey Shore.

Late post today thanks to Router f.u.b.a.r. at work! Why did it take the software company 3.5 hours to tell me that the red diag light meant that the router was dead?????

Tonight is my first attempt at machines in gym - must ensure sense of humor is in gym bag!

blasted weather

2005-11-15T15:56:00.000-05:00

Look at this map. No green rain anywhere else except slab dab in the middle of where I'm at.
I need to run tonight. I have to run tonight. Hal Higdon has told me to do 4.5 miles tonight.
This is a very good illustration of variant 6b of Murphy's Law - If it is going to rain, it will rain where you are!!!
Can I trade this morning's 9 mile cycle for a 4.5 mile run?
- no I can't -
this is not weight watchers, there are no exchange points!

Darnation - it'll be a wet one tonight scooby!

It’s all about the bike

2005-11-15T09:20:00.000-05:00

I woke up early this morning and went into another room to get dressed for work so I wouldn’t wake BH. This other room is our spare bedroom and when not in use it is usually overtaken by me with yoga mats, running shoes and all sorts of stretching equipment.

As I sat on the futon I listened to the weather and heard that the originally forecast rain had moved north and would not be heading my way. On hearing this some gremlin or other got into my head and within seconds I was peeling off my street clothes and ferreting around for my winter bike gear. Within minutes of this I had fixed a pannier to my bike and I was off to cycle to work!

Man, I love cycling. I am not a cycle racer. I don’t own one of those spiffy road bikes (although I would love one). I have traditional pedals and cycle in an old pair of timberland trail running shoes. I’m more of a utilitarian biker – I love getting from A to B on my bike, I love the urban assault course that is my commute to work, I love the potholes that make every cycle trip seem like an off-road adventure and I love the look on the faces of the motorists and roadside workers as I stream by, sometimes swearing, sometimes singing but at all times having an absolute blast.

I’ve always cycled. I never went through a “no cycling” period. I didn’t learn to drive until I was 26, I’ve never actually owned my own car, although now I guess I’m part owner of our only family car that I drive to and from the gym and that’s about it. Because of this, my bike remains imprinted on my psyche as a preferred method of transportation.

I detailed my cycle commute route in August – here’s a link to the august archive, scroll down to the bike commute post. It is 9 miles from my house to my office. It takes me 35 minutes. It is dicey in some areas but on the whole it is an enjoyable cycle. I used to cycle commute 14 miles each way but that was a different job.

Tonight when it is dark, I will cycle to the train station and take my bike home with me on the train! How cool is that?

Speedwork anyone?

2005-11-14T10:29:00.000-05:00

What glorious weather we had this past weekend. The skies were blue, the leaves were golden and the temperature was unbelievable. I don’t know what to wear anymore – it’s like 60 degrees here at the moment!

Anyway – I am starting this week on a high note. I managed to complete last week’s entire training plan without missing a single session. The last work out was planned for Saturday when I was slated to run for 70 minutes according to Hal Higdon’s half-marathon training plan.

I did not set my alarm but got up when I woke up. At about 8:30 a.m., I got dressed and left the house to find frost icing the steps of my porch – frost! I had planned for this run by downloading an episode of This American Life to my iPod – this would keep me going for 60 minutes and then for the remaining 10 minutes I would rely on music to get me through! And it did – I ran 6.8 miles in 70 minutes – the longest ever run for me.

I had been worried because there was some stiffness in my calf muscles following the medieval torture device on Thursday night but the stiffness soon decreased as the work out continued.

This week’s training plan:

Monday: swim (morning) and Power Yoga (eve)
Tuesday: Run after work 4.5 miles
Wednesday: swim (morning) and strength training (eve)
Thursday: run during work (speed work with Rebecca)
Friday: Strength training (morning)
Saturday: Run for 75 minutes

Rebecca and I are trying to do some speed work during the week – it’s easier to do speed work with a buddy. Our problem is that there are no tracks in Trenton that we can use and no measured miles either. We’re going to investigate options but I would be interested to hear how others manage to measure miles without (a) a track or (b) garmin girls! We also need to run “full out” which pretty much eliminates any down town running – people can get in the way!!!

My new schedule

2005-11-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

Still on track for the week – yippee!
One run to go this week then rest, blessed rest!

I now have an exercise chart. I have a sheet of paper with a list of 12 exercises that if carried out in sequence two to three times a week for the next three months will give me a better core and stronger back and arms. I could do with stronger arms believe you me!

The program starts with me placing myself into some sort of device that looks like it would not be out of place in a stable yard. I kept hoping the groomsman would come back and reclaim it. I’m to lie on this thing which supports me on my thighs and at the back of my calves at an angle from the floor – when in position I’ve to bend my body from the waist to make my torso parallel with the floor and then bend it back to get me 90 degrees to the floor.

And so on from one set of stable equipment onto mediaeval torture devices, a couple of free weights, some more torture devices and neat machine that piles pounds on my shoulders as I do squats!

Jeez louise – it’s so g’d complicated. I don’t know how I’m going to tackle one round by myself all alone!

I’m not sure the young man who set this schedule up really grasped my incompetence in the face of such body building technology – I should have known when he expressed deep admiration and awe for the fact that I run three or four times a week. He’s not one of us. He’s one of them…the device users!! He thinks nothing of bench pressing (whatever that is) twice his weight but wouldn’t dream of taking to the OUTDOORS –aaaaagh – for some exercise. Actually he was also in serious awe of the fact that I run outside – in the unconditioned, unfiltered, unaccommodating air!

So, we’ll see. As I previously alluded to, I need some strength in my arms. I had to admit defeat with 10 pound weights for shoulder strength last night and ask for 7.5 pounds – that’ll show you how weak I am. That’s why I need to keep it up.

I’ll set two gym sessions into my schedule for next week. I am seriously dependent on Lisa for my ongoing commitment to this facet of fitness training but imagine that when I see progress, I’ll be more inspired.

Now, where do I get those groovy weight belts and gloves that the pro’s were all wearing last night?

humor from the office

2005-11-10T13:30:00.000-05:00

I just went for a run 3.7 miles.

On my way out the door of the office my colleague says:
"You're not going for a run in that wind are you?"

hmmm.

also: I ran in a cotton t-shirt today and didn't die. What's that all about?

Gym thoughts

2005-11-10T09:57:00.000-05:00

Tonight I’m going to the gym to meet with a “personal trainer” – someone who works at the gym – to get a program of strength training set up for me.

I have a very poor history with strength training, weights, machines and such like. I find it tries my patience and I have not successfully followed any program that has ever been set out for me.

So it’s with some trepidation that I enter into another program. I don’t like to start things when I know they have a high chance of failure.

But I rationalize that I’m in a different place than I was the last time I attempted such an endeavor. I am fitter, more organized, and more focused on getting fit and staying that way. I also have Lisa who provides car rides for me to the gym and who helps me set the dates in my calendar. Yeah for Lisa.

I totally need to work on my CORE - a lovely name for the pudgy middle part of me. I also need more strength in my arms. I want a little teeny bit of definition in those parts – actually I want a lot of definition in my CORE!

Food for Thought

2005-11-09T10:08:00.000-05:00

Last night: 5 mile run
This morning: 0.5 mile swim
So far so good this week. I’m still on track.

I’ve been thinking about food.
I imagine that anyone who endeavors to exercise and live a healthy life thinks a lot about food.

I am pretty rigid about my eating. I am pretty rigid about my eating because (a) I am a vegetarian, (b) I am currently wearing brace and (c) I travel most places by train or bicycle. These facts lead me to adopt a quasi-obsessive attitude to food sourcing. I like to know where I am getting my food from on any given day and what I am going to eat.

On being a vegetarian: The fact that I am a vegetarian limits my choices in the big bad world of food retail. At home I have a selection of yummy foods to choose from but once I’m away from my home I am at the mercy of chains, deli’s and, on the odd occasion, restaurants. Happily I eat cheese – boy oh boy am I glad I eat cheese. But even the most dedicated vegetarian gets tired of cheese sandwiches and cheese hoagies and plain pizza. I give a huge shout out to Subway here – they know how to make a decent cheese hoagie with lashings of fresh salad stuff – yeah. They also have a veggie max which is a veggie patty and is gorgeous but probably full of fat!

On wearing braces: In short, no salads. I cannot eat salads because all the little bits and pieces get stuck all over the grid. I love salads but unless I’m alone in the office I cannot go there. I also can’t eat chips (a good thing), bagels or anything chewy. I have to cut up the aforementioned subway sandwiches and currently I am existing on Amy’s soups (3 for $5 at Wholefoods.)

On taking mass transit: Yesterday, I was at a meeting in a city north of here and wanted to get some lunch to eat on the train on the way home. The options involved Saladworks (out for orthodontic reasons), a burrito place (no suitable for eating on a train) or a deli – so my choices were limited at best. If I had been driving back to the office I could have stopped into Wholefoods, the Whole Earth Center, Simply Radishing or a Subway. But no, I was stuck with a meager cheese sandwich and when I was opening a tin of tuna later in the day to fuel my evening run, my boss asked why I hadn’t stopped at Wendy’s on the way down. “Because the train doesn’t stop at Wendy’s – that’s why.”

Also I don’t go to Wendy’s, Mickey D’s, KFC or any of the other fryer-fest restaurants - I try to eat a healthy diet – this also restricts my choices. I cannot just stop into a Mickey D’s and get a cheeseburger and fries for all the reasons laid out above and many many more that I won’t elucidate here.

This is why I empathize with Susan’s breakdown over Tofu, I would do exactly the same in her position. Shoreturtle, thanks for the info on the NJ State Tri - I never contemplated swimming in "Lake Mercer" but may give it a go!

In the swim

2005-11-08T14:02:00.000-05:00

I went swimming this morning. I meant to swim long enough to leave me time to rest my legs in the hot tub pool at the gym but instead I kept on swimming. I know I should do drills or something but at the moment I just like swimming back and forth in the pool – I’ve even stopped working on the freestyle. I’ll get back to that later this week I think. I had a bit of a hiatus from swimming so must get back to a certain comfort level before I start extending my reach.

The original group of 4 women novice triathletes has now grown to an e-mail list of 9 women determined to increase their fitness levels to allow them to participate in a triathlon next year. We all have varying degrees of fitness and are using different routes to get to the Tri but we are working as a team, encouraging each other, sharing information, arranging join exercise events etc. I am probably the weakest link in the network – I can’t seem to get to any of the joint sessions and I really want to concentrate on my running.

As the year moves on, I am sure I will merge again with the group. After the 15K in December I will reassess and set out the races I want to do in 2006 to include a marathon, a sprint triathlon and maybe a duathlon as well as any number of races in between.

A perfect weekend

2005-11-07T09:52:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to everyone who ran the very warm New York City Marathon yesterday. Rebecca came in at 4:48 and is pleased because she didn’t think she was fit enough and because it was damned hot.

I did not run a marathon this weekend but I did hike for 2.5 hours on Saturday, run for 60 minutes on Sunday and hiked an up hill trail for 90 minutes later that day.

You see, this weekend was a perfect fall weekend in NJ. Our fall foliage is at peak, temps were in the seventies and there was no humidity, no bugs and no clouds in the sky. It was one of those weekends where all errands should be put to on side for the glories of the natural world. We will spend plenty of weekends in doors during the forthcoming winter – errands can wait until then!

Anyway, I ran on Sunday morning for 60 minutes – 5.5 miles. So I finished the week one activity short of my action plan for the week.

Here goes my plan for this week:

Monday: rest – all that hiking and running has left my legs sore!
Tuesday: swim a.m.; run p.m.
Wednesday: swim
Thursday: run at lunch time and meet with personal trainer in the p.m.
Friday: swim a.m.
Saturday: Run 70 minutes

Phew - that feels better!

2005-11-04T13:20:00.000-05:00

Now that feels better!

I braved the 70 degree, blue sky, sunshiny day and went for a run at lunchtime. It was a short run. I basically followed shoreturtle's route from the other day but made it a bit shorter because I felt safer staying on the river. I was by myself and felt ever so slightly sewlf conscious. I passed the same sites as photographed in shoreturtle's blog but the men were no longer hanging from the building – I guess that’s a good thing!

I had last night’s leftovers for lunch and I’m now back at my desk happy to be only one activity off my exercise plan for the week.

calories burned: 299
calories eaten for lunch afterwards: about 299

A real treat

2005-11-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well last night I had such a treat. As a vegetarian, I am used to going out to dinner and searching for the one thing on the menu that has no meat in it. I am used to ordering the same few entrees in our local eateries and to looking longingly towards NYC or Philadelphia where there is much more choice for the discerning veggie seeking more than pasta and sauce.

Last night BH put me and a bottle of chilled Prosecco in the car and drove into Pennsylvania to a great little vegetarian restaurant called The Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille. A whole entire restaurant where I can choose anything off the menu – wow! And if the menu was inspiring, the food did not disappoint. It was really great. In fact, I took my leftovers home with me – something I never ever do.

So, birthday blues are over. I missed one planned work out so far this week so I must get back on my exercise wagon – a short run today and a long run tomorrow. Then glorious Sunday rest day and we start all over again!

Retail therapy

2005-11-03T14:36:00.000-05:00

When your get up and go has got up and gone – get up and go shopping!

Rebecca gave me a $10 gift certificate for iTunes. I decided to spend some work time researching and buying the 10 best running songs ever. I’ve published it on iTunes as Al Carter’s Awesome Running List – or something like that.

For your listening pleasure I present a list of 10 Awesome Running Songs – 46 minutes of rockin’ running songs with associated times:

Tubthumping 4:39 Chumbawamba
Can't Get You out of My Head 3:51 Kylie Minogue
American Idiot 2:53 Green Day
Lose Yourself 5:22 Eminem
Jump 4:02 Van Halen
Love Shack 5:21 The B-52's
True Faith 5:49 New Order
Boulevard of Broken Dreams 4:22 Green Day
Pump Up the Volume (USA 12" Mix) 6:47 Colourbox
I Will Survive 3:18 Gloria Gaynor

I did not run at lunch time – I ate chocolate cake instead. Tonight I will drink Prosecco to celebrate the end of my birthday day.

Birthday blues

2005-11-03T10:13:00.000-05:00

It’s my birthday today and I’m not happy.

I don’t mind having birthdays – things seem to get better as I get older. I am currently happy with where I am in the my life – my career is about to take a turn for the better, my fitness is growing every day, my weight is dropping and the advance of gray hair has been stalled temporarily thanks to the marvels of modern chemistry.

Anyway, I might go for a run today at lunch time to sort myself out – but then again I might just go and overeat instead!

I’ll be back to normal tomorrow – this is an annual grumblefest and I’ll be over it once my birthday is done and dusted.

Note: this post has been edited as it was full of silly whiny stuff that is totally unlike me and made me cringe!!! Apologies to anyone who had to read it.

Quantum Leap

2005-11-02T09:50:00.000-05:00

When is a short run not a short run?
When it is a long run!

Let me explain. When I started this running business it would take me about 30 minutes to run around my town – it’s a very small town. The distance was usually between 2.5 and 3 miles depending on short cuts and diversions. At the beginning it was difficult. At the very beginning I would stop and walk every few minutes – I think I was using Hal Higdon’s Ultimate 5 K plan. My BH who ran with me then would run on, loop back and start running with me again.

Then after perseverance and many false starts I made a leap to running it in under 30 minutes and running it comfortably. Then I reduced my time to 25 minutes. So my normal route around town became my short run. My run to do when time disallowed other runs, my speed-work run, my comfort run, my “shake the legs out” run.

So last night I was planning to do this short run but discovered that it has now become too short! What? Too short? Yes, too short.

Last night all seemed normal as I set out to do this short run – my first after the 10K on Sunday. I was hoping to just stretch the legs and take it easy. When the gremlin in my subconscious told me to take the running radio instead of the iPod (the running radio is always used for longer slower runs) I knew something was up.

And it was. I ran my route through town and then at the end I avoided the lane where I usually sprint to a finish and repeated the whole circumnavigation one more time. I was comfortable, my breathing was even, my legs were strong and the second round went by faster than the first.

People – a revelation, a quantum leap, a critical point, maybe even a tipping point in my life. My short run is now 5 miles. How incredibly cool is that and how in heck did it happen?

chocolate and shopping

2005-11-01T10:57:00.000-05:00

So we’ve decided that the next race is not going to be a half marathon but instead a 15K.
Rebecca told me about the New York Road Runners Hot Chocolate 15K and I was immediately hooked. I’ve always wanted to run a race in Central Park and plan to do so on December 17th. The Rebecca and I will go shopping in Soho. What an incentive…

I have a bit of knee pain these last two days following the 10K – I think it’s a residue from an ITB issue I had some years ago – I didn’t stretch enough after the race on Sunday and missed Power Yoga last night thanks to Halloween. I really notice a difference in my flexibility from regular yoga sessions so I need to commit to once a week.

Last week I could place my palms flat on the floor with absolutely no effort, this week it takes a bit more effort.

I’ve to run tonight but will take it easy so I don’t exacerbate the knee issue. Seasonal shoe changing could also be a reason. I spent the last four and a half months in sandals and flip flops and am now in boots with varying heel heights – I’m sure there’s an impact, especially as I walk to and from the train on a daily basis. Who knows?

I know this is not an orthodontic blog but I had a brace adjustment today which means solid foods are out for a while. But I have lovely clean brace bits (“ligs” to the initiated) and really don’t want to eat as they will begin to get stained again!!!

Frost on the Pumpkin Race Report

2005-10-31T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well folks – I’ve now got my first 10K under my belt and boy, am I glad I did it. It was a beautiful morning for a race 50(ish) degrees F and a light breeze. I was torn between shorts or tights but stuck with the tights and a long sleeve shirt. I was glad I did – while the sun shone on parts of the race, other parts received no sun as we ran through tree shaded neighborhoods where it was quite chilly.

The big surprise though was the hills! We had long hills, we had steep hills and we had long and steep hills. The entire course appeared to be one long run up hill. We wound around suburban neighborhoods up hills, round corners, up more hills, round corners and hey, a switchback and up more hills.

I came out of the gate faster than I wanted – I ran the first mile in 9mins 30secs and was a bit worried. But I stuck to the pace, with Rebecca running the same pace, and managed 9mins 30secs per mile most of the way. My legs felt fine but my breathing got carried away at some uphill stretches – when it disappeared, I slowed the pace until I got my breath back again. I need to work on my breathing.

All in all it was a great experience. I’m glad Rebecca was there as her presence made it seem less daunting and also helped me run faster than I would have had I been by myself. We each got a coffee mug for being in the first 250 finishers. The joke here is that there were only about 200 people in the race!!!

Training hopes for this week:
Monday a.m.: swim (already done)
Tuesday p.m.: short run
Wednesday p.m.: Pilates
Thursday a.m.: swim
Friday lunchtime: run
Saturday a.m.: long run

I need to work another gym session into my week. I want to ritualize 2 swims per week, three runs per week and two gym sessions. Is that enough?

Yipppee

2005-10-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

Target: 60 minutes assuming flat course
Actual: 58.33 minutes on very hilly course

Full race report tomorrow!
Next stop: Half marathon

2005-10-28T16:15:00.000-04:00

Happy weekend everyone.

I am looking forward to the 10K race on Sunday. I haven’t run 10K ever in my life so it will be another first for me. I’m running it with my friend Rebecca who is using it as her taper run for next weekend’s New York marathon – lucky her.

The race is at 9:30 a.m. but the clocks are changing this weekend so my body will think that it is 10.30 a.m. – that’s awesome as I want to be able to get up early enough to stretch and warm up properly. Since I’ve ceased morning runs, I’ve become freaked about not warming up enough when I actually have to run in the mornings.

So fingers crossed for me and send me good karmic thoughts at some stage on Sunday morning.

Needs Must

2005-10-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

This morning I had to get up early to take two trains and walk 25 minutes to a meeting that started at 8:00 a.m. - luckily there is a Starbucks at the beginning of the walk!

Anyway, it was cold and I had an assortment of winter clothes awaiting my decision of what to wear – a skirt or pants? I decided to wear the pants because it was so cold but when I put them on I discovered that they were way too big for me. These pants fit me last year. They fit me fine last year. Now they could be pulled right down over my hips – they’re two sized too big!

So, you know what this means?
It means I need to go shopping.

And that, my friends, is a good thing!!!!

Some candy talking

2005-10-26T16:50:00.000-04:00

Last night I had debated the whole way home whether I would risk a quick 26 minute jaunt around the neighborhood or drive to the gym and run on the treadmill, thus adding 25 minutes to the program. When I arrived home it had just stopped raining (after 4 weeks of almost constant precipitation) so I decided to risk it.

It was dark, it was cold and it was dripping. I strapped on a reflective vest, wore a thicker pair of socks and pulled out my full length running tights from the back of the closet where they had languished since March this year. The lights in the park were not working, two alleyways on my route were unlit too (my town is safer than a locked box in Fort Knox), and the wind went through to my feet – but it felt good to be out running past the houses with the great Halloween decorations, through the fallen leaves, past the houses with their lights on but their drapes not yet drawn. It was a perfect fall night and I barely broke a sweat. My pace was good and I did my usual run in 26 minutes.

I was stiff as a board though around the abs region so my stretching/sit-up post-run routine was curtailed. I could not do one single sit-up. I love Power Yoga!!!!

This morning I picked up Lisa and went to the pool – shivering here in remembrance – the pool is kept cool so it is damn hard to immerse yourself into it on a dark cold morning. But I did and so did Lisa. I enjoyed my first swim in ages. I stopped early though to give my muscles a soak in the hot tub. I like the hot tub and I think I’m going to like it more and more as the fall declines to winter.

I just realized that my new obsession Power Yoga clashes with Halloween…damn now what do I do? Sit at home and hand candy to sugar freaked kids in silly store bought costumes or sit at yoga in a position that is guaranteed to give me more sore muscles…decisions decisions.

One more short run tomorrow and then two days until the 10K – cool!!!

Power Yoga

2005-10-25T15:21:00.000-04:00

My gym is great – they offer a really good selection of classes, everything from spinning to Pilates to kickboxing and yoga. So last night Lisa and I tried out the Power Yoga for Beginners and boy do I feel it today. My abs are aching – this is great. I really need something to work my abs as I am suffering from a dreadful late-30’s thickening of the waist.

I have very little body fat anywhere except this ring round my middle. A combination of diet and exercise should help and I think with the Power Yoga I’ve found the appropriate exercise. So my Monday nights are now spoken for.

I want to try to set a ritual for the winter of swimming, strength training, running and yoga. There are only so many daylight hours in the day and there is only so much free time in the week. Because I am car free I am stuck hustling rides from Lisa or trying to get BH to actually commit to being home at a certain time. I think I need to lay down the law.

It has now been raining for something like a month here in NJ – o.k. a slight exaggeration but it sure feels like a month. I want to run this evening after work but it has been raining all day – hopefully it will stop by this evening.

Tomorrow morning Lisa and I are going swimming. It will be cold and dark when I get up in the morning. The pool is cold. Oh dear.

Lisa and I have struck a deal – if we go swimming twice a week between November and March – we will reward ourselves with something we really want (as opposed to something we really need!). I am planning on buying something from Anthropologie (my favorite ever clothes store) that is not from the sales rack and Lisa will buy a Garmin training pal. It’s our motivation for the cold months to come. Fingers crossed…or in the case of power yoga – everything crossed!!!!

Back from vacation blues

2005-10-24T12:18:00.000-04:00

It rained the majority of my vacation but that was fine. It worked to make sure that we actually stopped and didn’t run around trying to do every single hike in the White Mountains. We explored instead and hung out and ate!

Exercise-wise I did one nice run in Vermont on the way up to New Hampshire and one 5 hour hike in the middle of the week. I then ran for 45 minutes yesterday when I got home. According to the pedometer it was 4.5 miles. I felt fine.

The 10K race is this Sunday and I am going to go for it even though I did not follow the training schedules or train enough. My legs feel strong. The longest I have ever run has been 4.5 miles – I think I can easily add another 1.5 to it and finish it in a nice time. I’m hoping for somewhere around 60 minutes – most of my times to date lead me to imagine that I could complete in 60 minutes.

My training plan for this week is as follows:

Tonight: Power Yoga
Tuesday evening: a short run
Wednesday morning: swimming
Thursday evening: a short run
Friday: rest
Saturday: rest
Sunday: Race!

Actually I’m not suffering the blues – I’m happy to be home and slotting myself back into a routine of exercise. What with mother visit and vacation, I’ve missed the weekly exercise plan.

Vacation bound

2005-10-14T10:08:00.000-04:00

Ok - I'm off for a week.
Yipppidity doo dah!
I will post again sometime the week beginning October 24th.
Don't do anything too interesting while I'm away.
Stay safe, run frequently and consume all things in moderation
...and that means martinis Susan and chocolate CJ

I hope to return fitter and faster and ready for the rapidly approaching 10K!

Good luck at Seaside ShoreTurtle! I hope it stops raining by then.

Thinking in the Rain

2005-10-13T13:46:00.000-04:00

It’s still raining here in New Jersey. Still raining…non-stop rain. I expect to see Noah and his Ark sail down the Delaware River sometime soon. I mean, it’s not stopping.

Ok, enough about the weather. I drove in to work today so was able to wear my new pink suede high heeled boots – yessir. Although I’ve to swap into my at-work running shoes to go out to lunch and I never, call it my Eurostyle, never wear running shoes with jeans – oh well.

Do you know that sneakers are called runners in Ireland and trainers in the UK? Also that a cupboard is a press, court shoes are pumps, jumpers are sweaters and anyone that contemplates physical exercise of any type is considered an absolute loon?

I’ve checked out some neat running routes in Providence and am looking forward to getting some hikes and runs in during the week of my vacation. I will be missing once again as I spend a week chilling with BH, connecting with nature and enjoying the hot tub in the cabin we’ve rented!

2005-10-12T14:41:00.000-04:00

It has been raining here for 5 days. We endured one day of rain in the entire month of September but we’ve had 5 so far in October. Last night when I got home it was not raining so I decided I’d go for a run in the evening rather than risk rain during the morning run.

It is easier for me to blow off a morning run – warm bed, quiet room, comfy husband – than it is to blow off an evening run where I usually arrive in slightly old and damp from the train anyway!

So I got changed and took off to what is now becoming my routine run – it is a hilly course out of town. I have run the same 3 mile course around town for ever so now I have a new course.

I started running and was planning to do a hilly 28 minutes but I felt great: my legs were strong; my breathing was good; and I was listening to “Under Milkwood” by Dylan Thomas on the iPod which is very distracting. So I decided to go a bit longer.

I ran for 38 minutes and could have gone longer had it not started pouring rain. It got dark too – who knew? So, I ran the last 15 minutes in the rain, loving every minute of it until I could feel my feet squishing in their shoes.

What shoes do people run in during the winter? I applauded the mesh on my Kayano’s during the summer heat but now must invest in something a bit warmer I think.

So, I’m back in the game. Last night I felt like I could have run 10 K and next week I will try to get at least two long runs in during vacation. We are ending our vacation in Providence, RI so I plan to find a running trail there.

Last night I went to bed at 10:00 p.m., I was asleep by 10:30 p.m. and I woke up this morning at 8:30 a.m. TEN hours sleep – man…I can’t remember the last time I slept for ten hours.

Next goal: To run once more before going on vacation on Saturday.

It's all my mother's fault

2005-10-11T15:52:00.000-04:00

I haven’t run in over a week. My last run was 45 minutes last Sunday. I blame my mother – yeah I know we all blame our mothers but in this case it was her visit that threw me off.

I was working at home in the mornings and then taking her to see stuff in the afternoons and then going to dinner at night so I had no time for myself or my exercise routine. Next week I’m off on vacation for a week so I’m thinking why bother but I need to get up to about 55 minutes in order to be ready for the 10-K – I must do this.

So, I plan to go tomorrow morning. I have a late start due to an off-site meeting so I will get up at my usual time, drag my lazy bones out in the cold and see what happens. But it looks like rain – it is looking like rain all week.

I really want to do this 10-K at the end of the month so I need to get going. Susan’s marathon report has helped inspired me as has reading all my regular and irregular running blogs.

I will report tomorrow.

Mother visit

2005-09-29T13:42:00.000-04:00

I may be missing for a while as my mother is coming to stay with me for a week and I’ll be away from computers during much of that time.

She is in the air right now and I will soon be departing for the airport. I’m excited as I haven’t seen her since March.

Preparing for her visit has stopped me in my training tracks – can housework qualify for inclusion on the training log? I really want to get some miles under my belt in preparation for the 10K at the end of the month so I cannot let her presence stop me. I will not let her visit be an excuse not to train. I will fit in runs somehow.

I am thinking of switching training plans from the Ultimate 10K to Hal Higdon’s – Hal Higdon’s seems a lot simpler to follow.

Food glorious food

2005-09-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

I got braces put on my teeth last Tuesday and had two teeth extracted as part of my mid life crisis orthodontic self-improvement project. The combination of the two procedures has meant that I have not eaten any solid food in a week. I cannot eat sandwiches, bagels, muffins, burgers etc.

Yesterday: Oatmeal with honey and blueberries and coffee; a banana; soup and soda; a peach; yoghurt; veggie chilli made from mycoprotein called Quorn.

The day before I had much the same.

Today I probably won’t diverge from this menu either although I may splash out on rice and beans from the local deli.

I have basically eliminated bread, chips, cheese and raw vegetables/salad from my diet. The elimination of chips is a huge big deal to me. What chocolate is to CJ, chips are to me. I love chips – real ones, low fat, crinkle cut, veggie chips, potato chips – anything that was once vaguely related to a potato or anything starchy. I also realized today that I love sandwiches. I accompanied a friend to subway and cried when her 12 inch veggie hoagie was prepared.

But the strangely amazing thing about this deprivation is that I do not feel deprived of food so much as I feel deprived of the sensation of eating food. Crunching, munching and chewing are really tied into the appetite and the feeling of fullness and I miss these activities more than the actual food itself – I can eat the same number of calories of non solid food but don’t feel as satisfied.

But I’ve lost 3.5 lbs since I got the braces – I was eating too much before hand – from boredom at work mostly – so am happy to loose some extra poundage.

I just want to give a shout out to Stephanie whose race report from her first marathon had me in tears yesterday. She is one brave gutsy woman

Back in the Saddle

2005-09-27T03:36:00.000-04:00

I am pleased to report that I am back in the saddle again. Following the post-tri regroup I am now committed to training for and running in a 10K race – Frost on the Pumpkin it’s called – on October 30th. To make it better one of my friends who is in training for the NYC marathon will do it with me. My original Tri buddies are not quite up to a 10K yet so I’m pleased to have someone to do the race with.

Last night I ran the 4 miles with Anaerobic Intervals – that was tough because (a) I don’t normally run four miles and (b) the intervals wiped me out – sorry, scratch that – the interval (singular) wiped me out. I tried a second interval on a lovely downhill stretch and that was fine. But I did complete the 4 miles and felt really good after it.

This morning I took myself back to the pool and went swimming. I swam my usual breast stroke for a while and then decided to work on the freestyle and managed to swim one length – yes ONE ENTIRE length of freestyle – so that made me happy as I know I can work on this through the winter and may not need to get swimming lessons just yet.

So my hopes for the rest of the week are:
Wednesday morning: 4 miles
Thursday: rest
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: rest
Sunday: 4 miles

My time is not my own right now so I am not at all sure I can fit all of this in. I will assess on a daily basis my ability to meet my training goals.