The Modicum of Restraint

I followed all the advice. Cut my miles down to almost zero. Got the massages. Wore the girdle - I mean, compression shorts.

I even did the hardest thing I've done, running-wise, in a while: I had my marathon number in my grasp, had been able to see how few women were in the field, and returned it to get a number for the half.

While the hardest, that was also the wisest thing I've done in a while. A little-used part of my brain must have found a large club and beaten the rest of my brain into some semblance of submission.

For, as I was struggling through the last part of the half, losing speed, wheezing, and having to concentrate on different parts of my form to ignore the strident voices in my head saying things like "doesn't that view look nice? You should stop there for a while!", intermixed with the one part of "Welcome to the Jungle" that was playing on repeat between my ears, I kept thinking to myself "Thank god I'm not doing the full marathon!"

You see, dear reader, I had initially convinced myself that, whatever race I did, It would be at a (fairly) leisurely pace. "this will be great!" I thought. "I'll bring my camera. Stop for photo ops. Finally look good in a race photo. Maybe I'll even wear a bit of makeup, in case I run near anyone cute."

This is where the little-used part of my brain wisely waded in. Although I was certainly not running a blazing pace, effort-wise it felt like it. So, I'm glad that part stepped in. Although when "----- Gilette, first woman with a time of 3:07:59" came over the loudspeakers, I did feel a serious pang of regret. Until I remembered how sore I was already! Maybe another year.

For those of you who just want to hear about the race, that part starts here.

I woke up around 3:45, checked my email, found a possible rejection for an article I had submitted too long ago, and had a conversation with The Life of The Party about it. That put me in a weird mood, but I resolved to enjoy the fact that I was about to run a race in Hawaii, under better conditions than most of my teammates were going to be experiencing at the Cosme 5k in Brooklyn. Took the obligatory pre-race photo with mini-Ox and headed out the door, making sure that I had stuffed into my sports bra everything I would need or might need during the race. I swear, I don't know heat men do with their stuff!

Drove to the start, hid my rental keys, and went in search for a bathroom. The hotel near where the start was located would only unlock one bathroom in it's lobby, likely to discourage strange running people from wandering around. Not confident that the situation wouldn't be worse near the start (with only one port-a-John, as I later discovered, it likely was), I wandered back over to my car. Unfortunately, it was growing lighter and lighter outside and there were still people parking. Making an executive decision, I went up the hill to an overgrown area, where I used the facilities next to what appeared to be someone's meth cooking kit, breathing in the aroma of something not-so-recently dead. That was creepy. I made sure not to look around too much, having read a fair amount of stories where the looking around would inevitably lead to blue flashing lights and me puking somewhere while police asked me questions. It would have made me miss the start, you see!

Anyway, I warmed up as best I could. My quad felt kind of tight, which worried me, but I hoped it would loosen up a bit in the race, or at least not get worse. The compression shorts were already a bit warm but it was too late for wardrobe switch-outs.
I got to the start a bit earlier than was necessary but was happy about this in the end. As suspected, there was no real starting line and certainly no real attempt at self-ordering based on projected speed. In fact, two seconds after Miss Kona Coffee said "go",someone fell because he/she was much slower and got pushed over by the swell of much faster people behind. This is something I've never understood. When I was slower, I always made sure to stand far back of the front. Even now, when I'm a bit faster, I don't try to get all the way up to the absolute front. It's really dangerous to do this, for the slower person and everyone else. I wish people would see that a minute or two faster on their time does not support the risk of not finishing at all because they were pushed to the ground.

End of rant. So, I start running. I knew I was running too fast, abandoning the pretense of the nice, easy jog I had promised that I would do. I also knew that this was potentially problematic for my quad. But I didn't care. I had my stride back and my quad was loosening up! Either that or my body pumped itself up with so many endorphins that I couldn't feel it. Checking my watch after the first half-mile, I realized that I was going at about a 6:49 pace. Telling myself that I was not in shape for that pace, I forced myself to slow down. However, something else happened within this half mile that was quite strange: I looked around me and didn't see a single woman near me or ahead of me. And I was wearing my contacts! "weird" I thought. "I know that this is a small race (591finishers) and last year's winning time wasn't that fast as finishing times go, but 1:25 is still only to be found in my dreams and not in any race records for me. "
This motivated me not to slow up as much as I would have otherwise. Around mile two, I started chatting a bit with a really nice man who lived in the area. He was trying to qualify for Boston and needed a 1:35 or under, which would be a PR for him. Around mile four, he was able to keep the pace and raise it a bit, while I was already feeling that tired-legs feeling, not a Goidelic sign so close to the start and a direct result of my lack of training. Several times, both then and when I saw him coming the other way on the out-and-back, he encouraged me to speed up and run with him but I was just too out-of-shape to even try. He ended up with a 1:31 something, apparently smashing his PR by more than five minutes. Wow. And he looked great the whole time.
Which is more than I can say for myself. I was gone enough by the turn-around that I thought I was hallucinating when women started clapping and cheering for me. "first woman!" are they crazy?
I had realized by this point that my watch could only be the most basic of indicators concerning pace and distance. Either they grossly mis-measured the course or, more likely, my watch was not getting good satellite locks. I had been worried about this on the training run, when the watch took almost five minutes to locate the satellites. It seems quite implausible that a race with a 17-year history and on the same course as the Hawaii ironman would have made the course too short by over a half-mile.
The course turned around in the parking lot of a shopping center. That was weird, psychologically, because the way it was set up, you couldn't see the turn-around until you were almost on top of it. This is where the marathoners would go out onto the highway and get onto the flat part of the course. I turned around with a wheeze of relief and went back to tackle the return trip. "it's all downhill from the turn-around", Frank Shorter and many others said before and during the race. They must have meant psychologically because, physically, it was not. True to the nature of race advertising, the course was announced as one with only 200 feet total increase in elevation. Well, Baltimore has only a bit more than that on their course and it's known as one of the hillier marathon courses. Similarly, this course consisted in a series of steep, short-ish hills. On the way back, they were pretty brutal for someone without enough training and who had been running primarily in flat Brooklyn. I kept looking at my watch as a rough guide. I have no idea of the accuracy but, when it seemed i was slowing down significantly according to the watch, I would speed myself up a bit. I kept waiting for another woman to pass me. I was going so slowly! A couple of times, I heard footsteps slowly creeping closer and I would think "now's the time....someone intelligently started more slowly and is now kicking into high gear". But, each time, it was a guy who passed me.
We were in the midst of the 10k runners at this point, as their turn-around was closer in to the finish. These were middle-of-the-pack runners, so I spent the time trying to pass as many as I could. At this point in the race, I was holding on to some semblance of a pace with force of will and these sorts of tricks. At around mile eleven, I started getting a lung cramp and coughing that high-pitched cough that warns me of an incipient asthma attack and irritates everyone around me. So, I wouldn't be sprinting to the finish.
And then there was the turn to the finish, less than 200 yards away. When I crossed, I heard the announcer: "with a time of 1:34:16, Sarah Scott from Brooklyn NY is the first woman to cross the finish line for the half."
What!? And how embarrassing that everyone heard my time! That was slower than the first halves of at least the last two marathons I'd run, and I went on to run another 13.1 after that!
But, I wasn't in shape.

Things I've learned: it's really important to be in shape for a race. Compression tights are hot as heck. Even if you don't feel like you've run a good time or a good race, you win if you are out in front. When asked, I will say that I won the Kona half. When asked my time, I will pretend that I have something pressing to do elsewhere. Like trying on more compression tights.

We'll see how the quad feels later this week. Right now it's quite sore but I was also trying to work on it last night.

Running With The Girdle!

A far cry from running with the devil. Maybe its nerdy opposite!

After having a poor night's sleep, including a pretty bad asthma attack, I woke up early. Too much mold and old cigarette smoke in the room! However, I took the opportunity to look for a possible car rental and, more importantly, a new hotel before the front desk opened. Not having a car was a mistake!
Actually, it would have been ok, if not ideal, if I were truly racing. But I forget how helpful a car is in other parts of the country.having talked to the front desk and not wanting to stay in the room, I decided to clear out some of my jet lag and run along part of Kona's main drag.
Boy, was I nervous! This quad issue has been lingering forever and I've been despairing of ever getting rid of it. As the speedy blonde says, "it's only when you are injured that you realize how amazing it is when all of your parts work.". Definitely true.
Prior to leaving, I took Story Teller up on her offer to help me find compression tights between World Cup matches. What a schedule we had on Wednesday! Rooftop Deck had been persuading me earlier that compression tights were the way to go. "my husband even sleeps in them sometimes, he's such a convert", she said. He's a serious cyclist, way more serious than I am as a runner. So I decided to try them, or something like them.
Surprisingly, Jackrabbit had neither the thigh compression sleeve nor women's compression shorts. Next stop was Paragon, a place to which I don't usually venture. Like I feared, most of the sales staff had no idea where any of the merchandise was. However, after safari-ing through all the levels, we found the compression sleeve.
Did you know they don't make these in sizes smaller than small? I'm glad I tried it on! Fail. Desperate, I remembered again about the shorts/tights. The vivacious redhead had counciled me to try my full-length ones last week but I couldn't face the weather in them.
As tight as those are, I found out they weren't tight enough!
"imagine you are back in the eighties, trying to contort yourself into your favorite pair of acid-washed jeans", I was counciled. "you'll really need to wiggle! That's when you know they're tight enough!"
Ok.......sounds awesome. I am the sort of person who avoids control-top pantyhose. How is this going to work?
Test run today showed that they work surprisingly well! Mine are still likely not quite tight enough, at least at the bottom, near the knee. And they are certainly quite a change from my short shorts or skirts I am used to wearing in hot weather. Vanity-wise, I didn't love the roll-over at the top, a reminder that I've been eating as if I were training without the training part.
But, as I went out and back for my four-mile run by the gorgeous coastline of Kona, my leg felt pretty good! Sure, I felt out of shape and I let a sixty-something year-old man pull ahead of me at the end. But my stride was back! I'm nowhere near my regular fast-ish pace right now but I managed about a 7:30 on some slight hills without feeling too winded. Whoo-hoo!

(knocks immediately on wood)

Swallowing my pride, and maybe a few less onion rings! I might be a convert. Now, if only they would make these shorts/tights in hot pink or lime green......
Covered in biofreeze, waiting for a new hotel and trying to find a car. And happier about the jog on Sunday than I have been in a while. Finished thursday's crossword. I figured out the theme almost from the beginning but didn't figure out its specific layout for a while. I'll blame it on the air travel!

The Internal Luddite

So, I'm pretty excited about my new Ipad. In honor of it's first day with me, I gave up my treasured paper Sunday Crossword to do the crossword on its screen.
Nice features: it automatically loads the puzzle, strikes out the clues you've answered, gives you easy access to past puzzles.
Reasons why I am still a luddite, of sorts: you can't see the whole puzzle at once without making it too small to type, it tries to make you answer the clues in a certain order and forces you to scroll around a lot when you won't, it's hard to see both across and down clues together, hard to toggle back and forth between across and down.

Ok. So some of these will improve with time. But I still think it was telling that, on a Tuesday puzzle, which I tried after Sunday's, it took me almost 10 and a half minutes. That's way longer than my normal time! And, at least in part, I think it was because I couldn't work it the way that I wanted to.

Right, Sarah. Blame the puzzle.......

Really! I went back to my favorite form of non-paper puzzle today - the ancient AcrossLite2 - and had a grand old time filling out the crossword. I can work it just the way that I want to and can see the whole puzzle at once.

No truly inspired clues today, although 'still mooing' for rare was kind of funny. I always do like it when words like 'calibrate' are in the puzzle. The theme - sign on the dotted line - was too easy to figure out, however.

On the ancient technology: 6:58

In lieu of running, as I seem to be interested more in expanding in other ways, I will vicariously live through the soccer players in the World Cup.

I will stretch today, too. Must do this and push-ups as soon as I get off the computer. I'm still worried about my leg. Every time I try to work on it, that quad gets sore. Really sore. Something still just doesn't feel quite right about it. Hopefully, all of this additional rest will help it. Knock on wood for me, please! I've got to start training for NY or equivalent sometime next week! The race this weekend is pretty much a total bust but at least I'll have good scenery for it.
I'll post a 'travelogue', if you will, about it after the race.

Guess What?

I'm going to post more later. Exciting new technology is in my hands! This will be a great way to do the crossword!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

FInally! I got to run today!

According to my plan, I was not allowed to run again until today. Such an amazing day to do it, though! Got to hear Gorgeous talk about Dollywood. Ran with Gorgeous and the vivacious redhead down Carroll to Henry, then down to the promenade and through the new park, before going down Jay Street to Smith. Not currently used to the heat but it felt nicer than I was expecting and the sunlight was amazing. Even helped a tourist/NJ person find his car after his run.

On my first step, I automatically limped and was ready with the wince. But the same soreness didn't come!

I felt the pull some when we went down Carroll and some other steep hills. I felt the being-out-of-shape part when we were doing some easy running up some of the hills and I thought 'wow. I'm really tired and out of breath!'

But the run still went well. (Knocking on wood.)

Plus, I got to have my new obsession for lunch: sauteed vegetables.

And I got to see Toy Story III.

What more could a girl ask for?

And the crossword was surprisingly easy today!

One of the funnier clues of the day......See people = Popes! Hah.

Oh, and Suave and I came up with a new joke.

What do you call a malice-minded Boy Scout?


Evil Intent.........

Think about that one for a minute.


Yes. Puns ARE funny. They are, in fact, the most intellectual joke you might make!

(Ok. That last part was a bit of an exaggeration.)

Did about 8 1/2 miles. Time for the Saturday crossword? A woman never tells that information!

Zaftig

The best clues have been in the upper left quadrant for the last two days. Probably a coincidence. Still, interesting to note. This clue wasn't funny: I was just proud of the fact that I got it at all.

Divine inspiration, maybe? I don't know where I dredged up the fact that zaftig = well-proportioned!

This puzzle was actually rather educational. I can now sound quite erudite at the track when I place my 'Quinella' bet at the track and when I speak learnedly of the Oleta river or of the baobab tree.

I don't set the timer on Friday's crossword. It's too depressing for the middling crossword-solvers like me. Maybe someday I, too, can solve Saturday's puzzle in 15 minutes or less.

A girl can dream!

This zaftig woman will probably head off to watch more World Cup today, sublimating her desire for exercise by watching others do so.

Tommorrow. Just like in solving Friday's crossword, I must learn patience with my own body and its healing process.

Anxious and garrulous! Unlike 59-across.

It Extends About a Yard

Tired and a bit sad from last night's basketball game, I turned to yesterday's crossword, which I had neglected doing.

The title of this post was probably the funniest clue in the entire crossword. It was a puzzle that had extra words stuck into it, which I usually like - see, for example, last weekend's fantastic multi-level flags crossword - but there was no joy in it for me. Well, there was because that was the secret extra word but I didn't feel much joy filling in the extra words. Themes are only worthwhile if they are sly, or funny, or challenging. Otherwise, they are just a bit of a pain.

Maybe that's just sour grapes talking, though. My brain is slow today - took me 14:30 to do the puzzle and it was pretty easy. I did learn that Chris Isaak spells his last name with a k, though!

Maybe I should try English crosswords. I've been told they are actually quite funny. I'm not sure I'm ready for that step, however. I enjoy my baby crosswords and don't know how I'd fare in the big leagues!

Back in the Saddle

The number of pigeons Ivy League and I saw when we were running today was absurd! They must love the strange weather. Humid like it's going to be about 100, yet with a wind that makes you shiver. I got an opportunity to stretch out my legs after rubberizing them during yoga and talk World Cup as we ran down Eastern Parkway. Ivy League is really observant, getting the details in sports. A side effect from the precision with which he must execute his job?

The cops got in a run of their own, as two of them chased down a sprinting suspect. Had Ivy League gone after the alleged perp, I think he would have gotten caught more quickly. As it was, it took a poor flight path decision from the a.p. for the cops to catch up with him. I don't think I would have wanted to race this guy in the quarter mile!

Love going down Eastern Parkway, past the end of the Greenway. It's so interesting to look at and to observe. The cute fairy hasn't gotten drunk and drizzled too much cute dust all over it, like she seems to have done in much of Park Slope. Not to say that there isn't also sad stuff to see but, unlike when I'm reading, I can sometimes handle depressing sights on the hoof.

I felt my quad a bit but it really loosened up on the run. Now I've realized exactly how out-of-shape my muscles are. That's a good thing. It's like when you finally step on that scale and face the numbers. You know from where you are starting.


Ready to be 100% for the build-up to my next race. A whopping 10.5 miles or so this week, so far. Appreciating my PT.



Puzzle in 7:28. Is the injury affecting my brain, too? That might just be the exessive energy affecting my concentration, though.

I Get the Official 'Weenie of the Month' Award!

I'm downgrading. I was talking to my PT yesterday, and she brought up some really good points. Hey, we've got to talk about something to distract me while she digs deeply into the !finally discovered! real problem area, right under the major quad muscle.

"Look. You've done how many miles recently? And you are still feeling a bit of soreness? You know that you won't be able to race well with such a low base of miles.

"Sure, you'll be able to finish. That's not an issue. But how sore do you want to be afterwards?"

I've got a bad memory. A really bad memory. That is likely why I've run the types of races I have and why I have the body art that I do. I remember only the positive aspects, dumping the negatives out with the names of people I've only met once and what I did last week. Yet, all of a sudden, I remembered something.

"Do I really need to pee? Or can I wait a while? It's not so bad." Thirty minutes later. "Yeah, hey, you. Either get your friend to hold my hand while I'm in there or get out of the handicapped stall! I need those transfer bars!"

This dialogue actually happened in my head after one of my first marathons. One where I didn't train particularly well or hard and certainly didn't put in enough miles. For me to remember this meant my thighs must have really hurt. Really hurt.

Hawai'i is no longer my goal race for the second half of the year. It can't be: I'm just not ready enough for it. And even if I don't do NY, whatever marathon I might do would likely be in the same general time period. Not having as good a base as I usually would, I'm going to have to train much harder for it. And being sore enough to need a bathroom buddie for two weeks really doesn't seem like the smartest way to start that training.

So, the half it is. And a slow half it will be. But it should be fun to be able to look around and enjoy the scenery. And I will be able to pee in splendid solitude afterwards.


Why so long a post? Well, I'm such a goal-driven person. That's probably why I have the degrees that I do and why I do what I do, both for fun and for profit. I've got to convince myself that downgrading is the best option that I have.

After all, November isn't so far away.

Back in 'Bama

Or, at least, I felt that way as I sweated through my shirt, two towels and the surrounding carpet. (Why carpet, by the way, in a space where people are supposed to be sweating their rear end off? Seems like a poor design choice to me.)

Originally, I was going to meet push-up queen and superman at the Bikram place on Flatbush today but both had to beg off because of various emergencies. Still motivated to move somehow - no matter how uncomfortable it might be - I found myself surrounded by strangers, spraying sweat, while attempting to balance on one leg and 'breathe'.

I was torn between respecting those men who were comfortable enough with themselves that they wore, basically, boxer briefs and nothing else and wishing that I hadn't seen what I did. To quote the sports fan, "What has been seen, cannot be unseen." Luckily, there was a mirror right in front of me, so I just stared into my own eyes, in a weird narcissistic trance.

To be fair, they had to witness me, too. And that wasn't pretty, either.

Hour and a half of Bikram = 20-miler in Alabama in August. At least, sweat-wise. Certain poses became slip-n-slide moves.

Don't know if I'd ever get used to the smell. No one smells pretty in a race, either. There's something about stale sweat trapped in a room with the remnants of previous days' and months' stale sweat that really gets you in the back of the throat.

The things we'll do when we can't do what we want to do.......

Tapering

Yes, friends. After logging in those massive amount of miles the past few weeks, I am now resting those legs. And, boy, am I!

After all, they're exhausted from running whopping 20-mile weeks!

Of course I'm joking. What I'm not joking about, though, is the amount of taper that I'm doing. With Kona less than a week away, and with my fitness not going to magically reappear on the scene, I've decided to really try, instead, to get my quad back into fighting shape and to really limit the amount of miles that I do before the race.

Instead of a 40-mile week this week, I'm shooting for more like a 22-mile week, running Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday. I'll try to throw in some masochistic stretching, a.k.a. 'yoga', to try to stave off the edginess I am already feeling as the result of having comparatively little exercise for almost the past month. (I've never tapered for a month before. I think that's what the experts call 'excessive'.) And then, next week, I'll likely only run once - sometime, a day or two before the race, to get the legs back into some sort of gear and to ease the plane stiffness.

My two enemies right now are that edginess and the desire to eliminate that edginess. During work yesterday, I had to force myself to focus on one task at a time, instead of flitting from task to task as they came up on my radar, leaving each in a different stage of completion. The focusing worked but it took a lot of effort. And, so, often, I find myself wandering over to the fridge, or to the corner store. After all, eating constantly while grading eliminates grading edginess. Why not non-exercise edginess?

Of course, one of the worst things would be to arrive a the starting line poorly trained, (hopefully) newly uninjured, and 10 pounds heavier. I think I need to stock up on celery.

As a bonus, I've read 3 books in the past week, have kept up on the crossword and have had the chance to watch sporting events galore! Even had a chance to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in a while. Maybe this is why some people think running as much (or as little) as I usually do is slightly crazy.

I hope the course in Hawai'i is as beautiful as I'm imagining. Given the time it will likely take for me to run it, I think I'll bring my camera. Look for some ocean shots sometime after the 27th.

Puzzle today: 5:36. Not bad for a semi-hack. The themes for the beginning of the week, as silly as they are, really amuse me. There's also a pun on 'switch' in this one. I love puns!

Purgatory

Heh. Quick note. Today's crossword had a cute theme. It's important to buy round trip tickets!

about 4:30

Notice I don't ever post the time it takes me to do Saturday's!

Sore and Happy

Yes. I am sore. From a slow, seven-mile run.

Yes, that is pathetic.

No, that does not bode well for the 27th, when I'm allegedly running 26.2 miles.

(I'm rethinking that!)

But I am very happy that I was able to run the seven miles. The vivacious redhead, who's been tsk-ing me (rightly) when I've been running recently, even said that my stride looked good!

I can't fully celebrate yet. But running around the outside of the park was likely to tweak my leg more, as it has a slant that I was running on in the bad direction and it has a really big downhill.

We had a new person join us. He was really nice, as far as I could tell, although he didn't say more than a sentence to me while we were all running. I wonder what was going through his mind as me and the vivacious redhead were chatting about school, coffee, shopping, etc.?

Likely, "My lord. Running is supposed to be soothing and contemplative. What in the H@@@ are these ladies yammering about and why did I forget my earplugs?!"

Heh. Too bad. If you want me to shut up, you need to make me run faster.

By the way, I would have failed flag class. I had to identify almost all the flags asked about in the crossword yesterday by their cross-clues. That's what you get when you try to include the nerdy people into the World Cup excitement. The sports clues are predominantly baseball and tennis, with a bit of golf thrown in. So, they can't possibly ask something about the NBA finals or about the soccer players in the World Cup. Too hard! Unlike asking for the conductor of the Chicago Orchestra from 1924-1932. Or what every country's flag looks like.......

Yes. I did just out myself as a tad culturally unaware. I'll remember, however, for at least the next week the colors in Romania's flag.

I Eat Pretzels. I Won't Practice Cannibalism.

"First, put your leg over your arm. Next, put your foot behind your head. Then, lift yourself up with your hands....."

Maybe the lubricated salt lick that had been my skin would cause my leg to glide over my shoulder. I dismissed the rest of the instructions. Beginners, after all, aren't expected to followall the directions, right?

Ok. Histerical laughter threatened. Even with all the sweat, my leg was going nowhere near my shoulder. The running that made me injured enough to attempt yoga again was also the running that made me so inflexible that touching my toes is a problem.

Story finder had taken my to Jivamukti Yoga, on Broadway between 13th and 14th, for a little alternative exercise. The difference between our relative abilities was pretty hilarious. She would get into these great poses, while I would be standing there, struggling to stay upright, with my foot held at some very acute angle, instead of the straightened leg required by a given pose.

It was fun, though. Made me think about the couple of times I did yoga with Gorgeous and the Chestershire cat. Less chanting in this lesson, though, which is good for me.

After sweating more than the entire rest of the room combined, we laid down for some relaxation. The instructor caught me with my eyes wide open, counting the ceiling fans and sprinklers. I was rewarded with a towel draped over my eyes.

I can't wait until I can run well (for me) again! If I go this afternoon, I'll let people know whether it was a success.

Powers of Concentration

Or, How I Almost Got Hypothermia in a Heat Wave

I started laughing out loud about this on the train this morning and thought I should share a laugh for a Wednesday afternoon.......


Decided to be a bit more aggressive with the ice bath this time.

Timer ready. Hot molasses water a go. (For medicinal purposes. If you're going to torture yourself, why stop with a mere ice bath?!)

"I know." I think. "I'll pass the time by doing puzzles. They help drown out the "Adam had a party, check it out" guy on the 3. They'll have to mitigate the crawly numbness."
This is one of my more brilliant ideas. I nod smugly to myself as I throw open the valve to iciness.

Thunk. The ice is in. (As usual, it had partially melted together while in the 'lukewarmish'-er at the corner store.)

Tap. My thumb starts the game.

I finish one. Get a great time on a hard Sudoku. Start another.

"Hmmm." I pause. This puzzle is taking longer. "Didn't the last one take only eleven? Yet, it's been almost eighteen minutes and I haven't finished this one!"

Hold. On. I just read the suggestions yesterday. "Do not exceed fifteen minutes."

Yes. I am still in the ice bath. Because I am waiting for a stupid timer a full room away, when my puzzles can drown out the screaming mantra of a 3-train conspiracy theorist.

Great idea.

As I pull myself, carefully, out of the bath, unable to feel much of anything below my cropped grey sweatshirt, I have another brilliant thought.

If I were going to play puzzles while taking an ice bath, alone in my apartment, I should probably use the time on my game itself. After all, that would be right in front of my face.

Ah. This sort of critical thinking is why I've got a Ph.D. in philosophy from a top-ranked school.

I can't walk or think properly for about a half an hour. Brilliant.

Waiting for the Cure

Booh. I got some advice from Badwater yesterday, who's a pretty smart runner. So I'm taking his advice and taking another few days off. My leg still isn't 100% and I don't want to risk another, auxiliary injury. Instead, I took an ice bath yesterday, will yoga with story finder, and will wait until Friday to do what I've wanted to do all week: stretch my legs!

Instead of going out to get some Vitamin D and cardiovascular fitness, I made spicy lasagna and watched the game with Ivy League. Lifting your arm repeatedly to eat cupcakes is kind of like exercise, isn't it?

With all this running-substitute late-night game-watching, my jumpsuit and crosswords have been suffering horribly. Thursday........

See Above

That clue, and the one about couple swapping, were the funniest clues I've seen in a while. All of Sunday's crossword, in fact, was filled with a sly, humorous slant that made me giggle outloud while I was completing it. My favorite kind!

Ivy league and I ran down Eastern Parkway yesterday. I was rushing to fit a run in before a meeting, so I was the big weenie and cut it short. This is a run what I used to do all the time in the morning, before meeting up with someone. It's a very different run at a tad after five in the evening. The light pierces through the canopy, making the leaves seem to glow. Beautiful. Got Ivy league to check my stride, as I'm still limping. He wisely suggested some surges. Interesting that my limp went away when I did those. Maybe it's only when I really try to push myself that I can overcome the quad obstacle.

Again, behind on my miles but coming to terms with it. About 5 yesterday. It's either another 6 or so today, or the massage lady. My leg still doesn't feel 100%. Trying to figure out if that's because of my fear of re-injury, overshadowing all else, or if that's because I need to rest it some more. These are occasions when I wish I could look 'ahead' to that four-dimensional slice which would tell me the answer!

Updates on other interests later.

A Psychic Border Crossing

I feel like a frozen daquiri, made with extra ice and bad gin.

And yes, I do know that daquiris are not usually made with gin.

But, I did something I thought impossible today. I sat in an ice bath. With ice. And ice packs. For 15 minutes. I am a rockstar!

Those that know me might think that this is impossible. "Never", you'd say. "I won't believe it until I see the pictures." Well, I won't scar you with the pictures. But I did have a witness. Who got a great deal of enjoyment from pouring the ice into the water. The hysterical laughter would normally have caused me to throw a sharp elbow. But I was numb and couldn't move. Maybe another day.

I braved the frigid seas because, yes!, I got to go running today! Okay, more like jogging. But it was wonderous. I ran the outside of the park with the vivacious redhead, who suggested Milk Bar for coffee afterwards. What a good idea! We went a bit early to avoid the race in the park today but still managed to run into Coach and the lithe midwesterner.

Haven't checked the results yet but I'd be surprised if the lithe midwesterner didn't win the race. Boy does she fly!

Running back after coffee, my leg had relaxed so much that I didn't even feel it. The run itself felt much better, too. Only limped a bit starting and on the big downhill. Fingers and toes crossed!

Following a schedule, I usually feel like a failure if I don't (literally) do 110% of the miles required for the week. It's only when I'm injured that I realize it's okay if I don't hit all of those miles. Sure, I might not go as fast or feel as good, race-day, but it's not like I do this for a living!

Already behind in miles this week but just so happy I ran at all! About 6.7+ Ready for the crossword, wandering around Brooklyn, and potentially meeting up with the always-fun intellectual rapier!

Synchronicity

I am not a good waiter. Oh, I was great at waiting tables: "hi-my-name-is-......-may-I-Take-Your-Order-Please".......I meant just sitting around. Watching the world go by. Waiting to get to your destination.

Yet, twice this weekend, I swam up to the words "please check around your seats for your personal belongings." There is a syncronicity between the motion of the train and the motion of my brain as I engage in the crossword puzzle, or in logic puzzles in general, that puts me into a trance of sorts. I will spend hours reading at home but, put me in a position where I'm waiting for something and I can't really concentrate on the words on the page. I'm a fidgity mess.

Plunk the words "Sue has a birthday party today and she invited 3 boys (Alex, Robert and John) and 2 girls (Patricia and Helen)....." and a grid in front of me, and I get into a trance-like state. It's really weird.

I did think that yesterday's theme was really cute - the different exclamation words.

Instead of running, had a great time biking with my father. And produce-planting. And stake-inserting. And tree-saving. And that was all before lunch yesterday. I think I might know where I get my dislike of waiting.

Biked to Japan (in my mind)

The garden is beautiful. Here's for hoping the plants don't keel over on me!

Vegetables

I dream of greens. I lust after spinach. Count the hours until Brussels Sprouts. Swoon over Asperagus.

Odd for someone who will eat icing out of a jar.

No miles - hip sore still. Got some good advice about that from the speeding blonde, however.

Waiting on the crossword until tomorrow morning.

Why Injuries are Impossible for the Obsessive

So, this is week 3+ of being injured. Not enough now to keep me from running but enough to keep me from running as well or as long as I need to. Of course, the non-obsessive, intelligent and careful people would tell me to keep off my leg. After all, the injury has moved from my quad to my hip flexor/inner thigh area. But these would also be the same people who wouldn't be doing a marathon in Hawai'i in the middle of summer, or who would sensibly limit their mileage. When I don't run, I get so irritable and nervous. And it's harder for me to sleep, since I'm used to more miles. Which means that I am 'reasonable' by only running partway home from work today, instead of all the way. Sigh. When will I ever learn?

At least the crosswords have been going well. NYT Sunday had an interesting theme. Just did Monday's today (I was slacking). Slower than usual, probably because I did it at night.

Or, maybe I'm just slower at everything these days.

I'm missing just the experience of a good run. I'll be doing a lot more solo runs soon, as a result of the pilgrimage of friends to far-away places. Maybe July will be my month. I'll have a lot to run off my mind, then.

Down the West Side Highway to Borough Hall - about 6.65, about 21.65 for the week so far. Supposed to be at about 32 so far, as it's the last big week before Kona.

Monday's Crossword: 4:35. Not the best but not too painfully slow!