Flying Solo

March 11, 2014March 11, 2014 ~ meh ~ 2 Comments

so lonely

Last week it became official: the three (nameless) individuals who I was supposed to run races with this spring (both Run the Bluegrass and the SLO Half) have, for various reasons, all backed out.

So I spent a lot of last week on the fence. The weather was crappy. Work was busy. Shins were hurting. I was exhausted. Motivation was very low. Training for 13 miles started to seem stupid.

On Thursday I made a deal with myself. I would suck it up and do the 10 mile run on Saturday. If I had any hip, knee, or shin pain, I would skip RTBG, mellow out on the longer runs for the next week or two, and re-evaluate for SLO.

Saturday morning I woke up really grouchy, not wanting to run at. all. But (after a lot of bitching…sorry Paul), out I trudged.

The weather was…great. And the run felt good. Almost easy.

So for now, we’re sticking with the plan. Sometimes flying solo isn’t a bad thing.

Roundup: Week 9

March 10, 2014March 17, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

Since I shortened my long run last week, my long runs are now bumped back a week and the longest I’m going to end up doing will be 11 miles this coming weekend (as opposed to 12.) Which is fine. As I’ve mentioned before, Hal Higdon’s beginner plans have 10 miles as your longest run before a half. I think I’ll be fine.

Monday: nada

Tuesday: 4 miles on the TM before work…it was gross out

Wednesday: nothing (this is bad, I’ve been ignoring Wednesday cross training pretty consistently)

Thursday: 6 miles on the TM at lunch…Real Housewives of NYC is back on!

Friday: 1500 swim straight. At the Y. I literally had half an hour to do something (including getting showered and dressed). So I did what I could.

Saturday: 10 miles first thing in the morning. Outside. I was dreading it. It wasn’t bad at all.

Sunday: 2100 swim at the Y (swim meet at the pool in the morning). Almost didn’t go, was good that I got in at all. Main set: 5 x 100 @ 1:15. Just to get the blood flowing.

As of Thursday the ice is gone…I don’t want to say the S word and jinx it, but fingers crossed that it is just around the corner…

Books

March 6, 2014 ~ meh ~ 3 Comments

Looking at pictures of shelves of books on Pintrest is like crack. I know….where does the excitement end.

Books are potentially good that I started this year and have not been able to get through:

Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling. I had been looking to read this book since it came out like 2 years ago. One afternoon, after a rough week at work, I was in Target for a baby something and decided to splurge and bought it. SUPER. EXCITED. Got about 150 pages in and found myself forgetting to pick it up when I had a free minute, and not remembering what was going on when I started reading again (the biggest signs that I am just not into it). It is dark. The characters are depressing. You know it isn’t going anywhere good. Maybe it was just the wrong time for me to read it? But I put it down and picked up…
Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Great name (the book). A few tech blogs I read had said it was a really fast, fun read. I was very excited. And I liked it, for the first part. But about 2/3 of the way through it started to drag. Plus the way they talked about certain parts of the tech community in Silicon Valley kind of bugged. So I quit and moved onto….
The Sting Man by Robert Green. Story of Abscam (Americna Hustle). Organized crime, corrupt politicians, scandal, intrigue…totally up my alley. But the writing style for some reason didn’t work for me. So many names. Had serious trouble engaging. Could not get into it.

Time to bring in the pinch hitter…

The Goldfinch. Since everyone and their mother was talking about it. Finished it 3 weeks ago. Winner!

Books I have been reading on and off that I like:

My Best Race. A series of short stores by 50 runners talking about what their greatest race was (and in many cases, it’s not the biggest race or the one that brought them the highest accolades.) I like it.

Books sitting on the sidelines that I plan to read next:

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. As a rule I do not do sci-fi. I have been told by multiple people to ignore the genre and go for it.
Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon.
The New American Road Trip Mixtape by Brendan Leonard.

…and there, my friends, is a book update.

Roundup: Week 8

March 4, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

…and things were going so well…

Monday: walk with the fam to the rugby field

Tuesday: 4 miles outside after work.

Wednesday: nothing

Thursday: 6 miles outside. This was an ugly run, for a few reasons:

Ran at lunch. Totally kosher, but I still have PTSD from previous jobs and run with my work phone and stress the whole time. Plus I was under a time crunch.
That morning, I found out that both Andrea and Margaret WILL NOT be running RTBG with me. So…I’m rolling solo. And lacking a little bit of motivation.
Because it was lunch and I was starving, I stuffed my face with 5 thin mints as I was walking out the door.

Spent a lot of the run feeling like I was going to barf up cookies. Walked up the one big hill. Lame.

Friday: Happy hour with coworkers! Who needs to cross train.

Saturday: 6.8 miles in some nice weather. But I felt pretty crappy (not from happy hour, the whole week I was dragging big time, really tired.) Also started to get some minor shin pain. Decided there was no reason to push.

Sunday: 2500 swim. Main set:
400 swim fast in and out of one wall (so every other turn) @ b+15
50 easy stroke
2 x 100 FAST @ 2:00
300 swim fast in and out of one wall @ b+15
50 easy stroke
2 x 100 FAST @ 2:00
200 swim no breathing inside the flags @ b+15
50 easy stroke
2 x 100 FAST @ 2:00
100 swim no breathing inside the flags @ b+15
50 easy stroke
2 x 100 FAST @ 2:00

That set is actually a really great, quick 2000. I coached the group I would normally swim with (people always go faster on fast swims when there is someone on deck yelling out times as you come into the wall), so I ended up doing this set by myself. Plus I was in a little bit of a rush. So I made a few modifications: the 400, 300, 200, 100 were all @ 1:20 base, 50s all on 1:00, and the 100s were just on 1:15, not all out.

Then on Sunday….

That is Spike and Paul walking down the middle of our street at 8am on Monday. Sunday night was freezing rain followed by 5 inches of snow. Then Monday afternoon the sun came out, and it melted, then the temps dropped again at night…

…and the world is once again covered in ice.

Yogashark

February 26, 2014February 26, 2014 ~ meh ~ 2 Comments

9 week old HH getting her yoga on

A few weeks before I went back to work, I was at the pool and ran into a woman that I used to coach and hadn’t seen in about a year. She was like, What have you been up to?? I was like, well, I had a baby a month ago…and she was like OH MY GOD I TEACH BABY YOGA you have to come! I was like that sounds great, but people actually bring their babies to yoga? She goes, oh no, it’s yoga FOR the baby!

Um.

“Yoga for babies?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s based on Itsy Bitsy Yoga. We do a lot of stretches and positions…it helps with digestion.”
“Isn’t there a lot of crying and pooping and stuff?”
“Oh, people change and feed during class. But if someone starts to cry we all sit in a circle and wait, because we don’t want anyone to feel left out.”

Well. Obviously I had to go (plus classes were free. And btw, Itsy Bitsy Yoga is a real thing. Look it up.)

I went once and Marsha, who is kind of a yogi herself, took over after I went back to work. Every Wednesday morning at 10 they would go to yoga and come home for a nap.

A few weeks ago, baby yoga got cancelled for good. Bummer. Might have to start baby meditation now, help HH re-find her zen.

Figaro

February 25, 2014February 26, 2014 ~ meh ~ 1 Comment

When I lived in San Francisco, one of my coworkers told me that one day, after living in SF for about 8 years, she was walking down the street and a girl wearing no pants walked past her. And she barely noticed. That, she said, was the moment she realized it was time for her to move.

I feel like the YMCA has a number of proverbial pantless pedestrians wandering its hallways.

There is one older/middle-aged woman who was obviously a singer in a previous life and likes to sing opera, loudly, in the locker room. Full volume loudly. And apparently we’re on the same workout schedule, because she is there more often than not.

At first it was awkward, I wasn’t sure how to react…when she makes eye contact with you do you smile like a normal person and pretend like she’s not doing that or what? Now it’s like, whatever…preferable to the usual locker room rants about how the 84 degree pool water is too cold.

So when I was greeted by La Traviata after my swim this morning, I ignored. Per usual. But this time, someone taking a shower decided she needed accompanyment. When Singer #2, another silver-haired vocalist, emerged from the shower, Singer #1, at this point fully dressed and about to walk out the front door, approached a totally naked Singer #2. They clearly did not know each other. The following conversation ensued, naked, next to me as I got ready for work:

“Well, thank you for the beautiful harmony today.”

“Oh yes, well, I just recognized the hymn, and you know the alto part goes, ‘hum HUM HUM hum hum…”

“Ah yes that’s different than the mezzo-alto part that we normally sing in church. I heard you singing something else, what was that?”

“Oh, that was At the Cross…you know, ‘at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light…”

“…’and the burden of my heart rolled awaaaAAAAaaaaAAAAAY!'”

…and there was my cue. Exit scene.

Roundup: Week 7

February 24, 2014February 24, 2014 ~ meh ~ 11 Comments

Monday: nothing.

Tuesday: 4 treacherous, treacherous miles outside. It rained Monday night and was super sunny Tuesday morning, so I was like, awesome! This is going to be awesome!

Then the sidewalks looked like this:

And the roads, though clear, were COVERED in secret, killer black ice. Ugh. Like, seriously. Enough with the ice.

Wednesday: family walk to the rugby field

I know, forward-facing carrying is controversial. But she hates facing inward and loves facing outward and we all got to enjoy the sunset.

No filter needed.

Thursday: 6 miles outside before work and it was a balmy, cloudy 60ish degrees at 7am. My favorite kind of running weather. Really, truly glorious. Felt like spring.

Friday: 2K super quick swim (same main set as last week, becoming my quick go-to 2K workout set: 5 x 200 @ 2:40, 2:35, 2:30, 2:35, 2:40

Saturday: 9 miles outside on a crisp, clear morning. No ice to dodge. It felt so great to just go.

Sunday: 5+ hours working at the Maher Mile Masters meet. I was hoping I could squeak into a later heat, but no room and no time for me to swim. Wah wah. I thought about doing a mile swim for time sometime this coming week in solidarity with everyone who raced in the meet, but…..yeeeah. We’ll see.

The Self-Reflecting Pool

February 20, 2014 ~ meh ~ 1 Comment

Sliding into the water is the easiest way to detach…

…

The experience is egalitarian. You don’t have to be a great swimmer to appreciate the benefits of sensory solitude and the equilibrium the water can bring.

Nice opinion piece from last week’s NYT that hones in on one of the central reasons why I still, and will continue to, swim as long as I can. Even if those moments of sensory solitude sometimes look like this.

Roundup: Week 6

February 18, 2014February 18, 2014 ~ meh ~ Leave a comment

Monday: nothing (I’ve been sticking with keeping Mondays off, even though I feel fine most Mondays. Mentally it’s nice to start the week without a workout hanging over my head. Plus I really like having a little more time after work to get all the crap I inevitably did not do Sunday ready for the rest of the week).

Tuesday: 4 miles on the TM. Got a TV but…it was Watch What Happens Live, one of the very few Bravo shows I can’t stand. Bummer.

Wednesday: nothing

Thursday: 4 miles on the TM and ANOTHER Watch What Happens Live with the Vanderpump group…did you know that Kristen lied and really DID cheat on Tom with Jax last summer and now Tom is dating ARIANA?? omg nfw stfu. (I really need to pay more attention to the Bravo schedule so this never happens again)

Friday: 2K super quick swim (main set: 5 x 200 @ 2:40, 2:35, 2:30, 2:35, 2:40)

Saturday: flew to BOSTON! …and of course my flight got delayed then cancelled then rescheduled, so nothing happened on the workout front.

Sunday: 8 (ish) slow, slippery, sloppy miles along the Charles. I dragged Emily along with me. About an hour in she was really happy with her decision to come.

…and we’re halfway there! 6 weeks to go.

Ice Ice Baby

February 14, 2014February 18, 2014 ~ meh ~ 1 Comment

weather confusion

Kentucky sits in kind of a weird place, where we get warm weather from the south, then the cold weather from the north, which in the winter means…ice. Lots of ice.

IMG_20140212_101723 (1) the side of our house right now

Schools have been closed for like 3 weeks this winter (poor kids are going to be in school through July). Last Friday it was 13 degrees, but midday the sun came out for the first time in what seemed like months. And it was spectacular.

You can’t really tell in that picture (maybe a little bit at the top of the tree), but the whole world sparkled.

Saturday Paul had to work all day, but the temps were reasonable (in the 20s) and Marsha said she would stop by and watch the baby while I went for a run. And while it was freezing rain early in the morning, then snowing later in the morning, the roads were pretty well clear, which meant…OUTSIDE RUN! So, out I went.

About 5 minutes in it became pretty clear that this was probably not the best idea I’ve ever had (see: here, here…). The sidewalks were a total mess, and a lot of the side streets had not been salted or plowed and were covered what was basically 3 weeks worth of thick ice then snow then ice then more snow then more ice then nice, fresh snow.

…and the snow was coming down pretty hard.

But I had someone watching the baby for an hour. There was no turning back.

Mile by mile I ticked off what you would probably expect:

10+ min/miles: Check.

(Multiple) rolled ankles from running on old, lumpy sidewalk ice: Check.

Scary clown-man face with eyebrow and eyelash crystals:

Check.

Dodging icy shrubberish obstacles taking over the sidewalk:

Check.

Totally bailing smack dab in the middle of the street, sliding 5 feet on my stomach while throwing my phone half a block ahead of me: Check.

Totally bailing a second time because I never learn my lesson the first time: Check.

Broken bones: NONE!! HUGE SUCCESS!!

Enjoying the scenery because it really is so beautiful when it snows:

Of course.

Very slow going, but whatever. 7 miles in the bank.

I’m flying to Boston this weekend. Or, I’m “flying to Boston on American Airlines” this weekend…aka sitting in O’Hare while my flights get delayed and delayed until the airport shuts down. Wish me luck.

FORTUNATELY:

No, duh. At least I’ll have Claire Underwood’s wardrobe to keep me company.