Weird Sleep

It's interesting. Someone else on my blog reading list just posted on this, I noticed, as I signed in to write this post.

12:58 am. I'm awake. Go to the bathroom. Take my inhaler.

I am still awake.

After re-arranging "Tiny" so that she no longer cuts off circulation in my legs, I fall back asleep.

Eventually.

Then, 2:00am. I'm awake. Either cold or sweating.

My radiator finally works, unlike the first two years I lived in my aparment.

This is a good thing.

A working radiator, however, cannot erase the fact that my apartment has no insulation.

So, there are a lot of covers on the bed. Thus, the cold or sweating.

Sweating if the radiator is on. Cold if it has turned off and the wind has whipped through the pathetic plastic band-aid I put over the windows.

Then, some interesting thoughts. 2:00am is a good time for interesting thoughts.

But interesting thoughts are not conducive to sleep.

Finally, right before 5:00am, I'll fall back asleep.

To wake up at 6:00am, 6:30am and, finally, at 6:45am.

At night, I've been so tired that I'll stop watching a show and fall asleep by 10:00pm or so.

You'd think I'd be well-rested!

It then it just continues the cycle.

I'm yawning right now.

Is it because I'm running less, do you think? Though I ran yesterday. My sore calves are proof!

Or just the change in the weather?

It's weird.

I don't know that I mind it but this is above and beyond my usualy problems with sleeping.

Maybe I'll just get more reading done!

Reading at 2:00am might be interesting, too.

An Interesting Side Effect

This week, I just haven't been feeling 100%. Either because of the cold, or other issues, or general weenie-ness.

On Tuesday, I actually cancelled a run with the Speedy Blonde.

"What! You are cancelling! You never cancel just because!!!!!!"

I was cold. My office wasn't heated. But that's not much of an excuse: the run might have made me warmer.

Yesterday, didn't feel great and had a lot of work come up.

Instead of running, I ate a gooey dessert and watched a movie.

Not sure that the two things have the same long-term outcome.

So I laced on the shoes this morning: I was going to get this run in before I was able to psych myself out of it!

And I strapped on my backpack. Might as well get to school while doing this!

Oi. It was heavy. Really heavy. I had to bring two computers.

Adding to this was my decision to bring a full water bottle, to save money when I got there.

Chug. Chug. Chug.

Heavy Breathing.

I felt some serious tightness in my chest over the bridge. Combatted this by allowing my ire at all the clueless pedestrians crowding all the way across the Brooklyn Bridge to rise up inside me.

I even threw in a few "You idiots!" under my breath, for good measure.

Well, it got me over the bridge!

And, after all, posing three abreast in the middle of a bike lane, with bikes whizzing by, as other large groups of people crowd the walking lane is NOT the most intelligent thing to do in the world - unless your intention is to get hit by a bike.

Onto the West Side highway I chugged.

There was a lot of phlegm.

What?! I told you that I wasn't feeling 100%!

It was yellow. This was reassuring.

"If the phlegm is clear or yellow, the patient will live. If it is black, the patient will die."

So I would remain alive, allegedly.

On I chugged.

My rear started burning. Seemed perfectly reasonable: after all, I'm not in the best shape right now and I had a heavy backpack on.

My feet started hurting a bit. Again, perfectly reasonable: I've had to gain weight, putting more pressure on my feet, and I'd added additional weight by strapping on the backpack.

My biceps and tricepts started feeling tired.

Weird.

I had to think about this one a little bit. It's not like I was doing speedwork, where I was really using my whole body to propel myself forward......

What could it be?

I was using my arms more to prevent myself from falling over, stranded turtle-like, in the middle of the West Side Highway path!

Interesting!

Well, I got there, anyway.

Ah. If it were only Friday Again.....

Or Thursday.

Not for the day of the week: rather, for the weather.

Ran to work with the Vivacious Redhead on Thursday. The shorts I was wearing were a bit ambitious, even for the relatively balmy temperatures.

However, the train rolled all the way to Whole Foods!

I was teaching the Vivacious Redhead my trick that I use when that particular run feels long.

I pretend I'm the 3 train, then the 1 train.

Including informing the passengers in my head to which trains they might transfer, and the name of the next stop.

I don't think she found it as amusing as I did.

Then, Friday. Gorgeous Friday!

I had over-shot my miles last week: still on doctor's orders, I'm really not supposed to be running almost 50, even if I did run a lot of them at quite a relaxed pace!

But the weather was so amazing......
So I ran down to Target, to get some weights and a balance ball.

If I can't run so much, might as well lift some weights!

Decided, after taking the subway back with all of my purchases, including the weights, that carrying them that far was enough of a workout that I didn't actually have to continue working out.
We'll see how the weights thing goes. 3 times a week, maybe? Suggestions?

Sunday came the Cherry Tree. I ran to the race, then ran one loop, for a bit under 6 miles.
Half of those were with me carrying my jacket to ward off the cold as I waited for my teammates to finish their loops.

Thankfully, my relay mates weren't expecting much from me. I just couldn't breathe.

It was a weird feeling, having my legs feel great and not tired at all, while my lungs were really tight the whole time.

Feeling really slow but not pushing too much, I did my loop in 23:40, or something like that. 3.35 miles in 23:40 is something more than a bit over a 7:00/mile pace.

Think: just in November, I ran a whole marathon at a pace faster than that.

Walked around yesterday. The puffy snow made the trees look amazing.

We will see about today. No heat in my office. Might not be warm enough to brave it.

Makes me yearn for the temperatures of Friday.

Or even Thursday.

I didn't have to wear tights on Friday.
Sigh.

Early Morning is Not for the Faint of Heart

My cat is HUGE.

Really.

And when it's cold outside, it's quite cold in my apartment. Her solution?

Sleep directly on me.

Sometimes she will pin down a leg.

Other times, when she is feeling particularly adventurous/homicidal, she will crawl up onto part of my rib cage.

And I wonder why I have problems sleeping!

Did I mention that she is HUGE?

Tuesday night, however, I deployed the secret weapon.

The air mattress.

It wasn't just for her: I had a guest staying with me, too.

Poor guest.

My cat LOVES the air mattress. It's as if it is a personal cat ed, proportioned to fit cats such as her.

I saw her for 30 seconds that night/morning, when she was trying to cage more food from me after she gobbled all that came out of her automatic feeder.

So you'd think that I slept the sleep of the innocent Tuesday night.

Actually, I hardly slept at all.

You see, I am not a morning person. And I was going to have to leave my house for a run at 5:55am.

"But really" , you are probably thinking to yourself. "What about all those early morning runs for the last two years? What about those emails you sent me at 4:15am?"

Did many of those emails make a lot of sense?

And I HAD to get up that early to get myself prepared for those hideously early runs before work. You wouldn't have wanted me to run into a telephone pole, now would you?

The fact that I have to get up so much earlier than the time that I run is a good indication of how much I am not a morning person, in fact! Ammunition for the defense!

So, now that I don't usually have to run as early, because of the change in my teaching schedule, I'm sleeping in. Sometimes until 7:00am!

And I was really worried that I wouldn't wake up to meet the Vivacious Redhead.

Instead, I just didn't really sleep. So I was nice and grumpy for this run.

Did I mention that it was also really cold, as well as dark?

But my spirits lifted after getting to Ft. Greene, where we could see the sun rising over downtown Brooklyn. Almost as breathtaking as Manhattan's sparkle coming over the Brooklyn Bridge as the sky turns pink.

Those spirits didn't lift as much as they could have, however, because my weenie meter was still going off. And the Vivacious Redhead decided that it was high time that we did stairs.

My rear end's nemisis. And probably its best friend, if I ever gave them a chance to really get to know each other.

Something the Vivacious Redhead said on Sunday bubbled into my mind.

Me: my hair looks flat and lumpy.
VR: as long as your read end doesn't look flat and lumpy! Really, that's all we can hope for out of life.

So I did the stairs.

They actually weren't so bad. We were trying to see how it would feel to take them two at a time but neither of us are coordinated enough to run them two at a time just yet. So we power-walked the three sets of stairs 4 times in a row and called it as day.

Back up Myrtle and then Washington, whence we came. The sky was now a gleaming blue and the temperature was rising. We split off at Eastern Parkway, me turning east and her turning west.
I have no real idea how far we went. I figure about 2 1/2 miles of me running solo, then maybe 4 of us running together? Easy running the whole time.
I'd better pick up the tempo a bit on Friday! I'm likely going to run with the Speedy Blonde next week, after all!
Off to work some before running to school.....

The Gentle Drill Sargent

The Speedy Blonde is determined to single-handedly get me back into shape, whether I want to or not.

Prior to the run, I tried to get out of it. Here's the texting:

"What temperature is it outside? I might not have brought enough clothes!"

"It's 34!"

"Oh. I guess I'll be ok, then."

Wind whipping everywhere, it sure didn't seem like it was 34.

Or maybe it was just that my weenie-meter was about to hit the red zone.

Appropriately chastised, I pulled on thick tights, a long-sleeved shirt, a thermal and a jacket and hat to go run around the outside of the park to meet her on the east side around 72nd.

I don't go that direction much outside the park.

Luckily, I had my phone with me.

While I usually sneer at those who are texting/taking calls while running - I mean, really: if you don't have a small child, these things can wait a half an hour, can't they?! - I joined their ranks.

You see, I forgot that I had to run about 200 feet further than what seems to be the edge of the park to get onto 5th Ave. Otherwise, you are sucked right back into the park.

Texting commenced and the crisis was averted. Whew!

While the Speedy Blonde is determined to get me back into shape by pushing my poor out-of-shape body faster than it wants to go (I even tried the old 'talk about an injury' trick to make her slow down. It did nothing!), I decided to slyly fight back.

"What new did you learn at school?" I asked.

Hah! I got her talking for most of the rest of the loop!

Of course, I was actually really interested in what she had to say. But it also meant that I had her exerting herself more. Talking and running can be hard. I figured it was only fair: after all, the pace that had me huffing and puffing was, to her, a leisurely jog.

Maybe I shouldn't have let out my plan.......She sometimes reads this.....

Too late.

Near the Harlem Hill, she also let me run on the inside, which helped.

Meeting a friend I hadn't seen in 6 years, I had to leave off early and make my grand exit at Columbus Circle.

Thank goodness for friends who are willing to almost double their run so that I can run a loop with them in the park. I don't think I would have gotten out, otherwise.

Scratch that: I know that I wouldn't have! The weenie-meter was screeching yesterday!

Loving my Valentine's Run

Why was my knee hurting?

I went through a slew of possibilities. My left hamstring had been tight because of the plane rides.

I had been running at a different pace than I was used to for the race and then sprinted at the end.

I had gained weight.

I didn't figure it out until this morning.

D. None of the above.

On the way from the airport, I had slammed my knee into the side of the cab. It was bruised.

Regardless, I didn't let a little knee pain stop me from getting in a run with Ivy League on Monday evening.

After a harrowing plane ride (the stewardess was a little too happy that we landed safely!), it was almost a necessity to try to stretch my legs.

The only thing, besides my knee, that was a little tired was my rear. Those hills in Birmingham made me realize that I've got to do strength training more than once a year.

I resolved to go to Atlantic Center to get a ball and weights this Friday.

Otherwise, it was a great run! We ran pretty slowly, as Ivy League hadn't been running since his PR marathon - by 20+ minutes!

Ran to GAP, then around to the transverse, down the transverse and back, and around the rest of the park.

Then, because I was running with Ivy League, and neither of us had plans......

Of course we went to eat! MMMMMMMMMM

Amarino's. Delicious. What a great Valentine's Day.

About 5 1/2 miles.

Guest Blogger!

Several times before coming to Birmingham, I was asked why would I go to Alabama to run a race when there are so many great races right around NYC. The obvious answer was that the weather is much nicer there in February, but I now realize there is a bit more to it. In NYC, I've become so used to the races being huge, logistical nightmares. Even with copious amounts of public transportation, I always find myself needing the train that isn't running that weekend or I have to stand around for two hours before the race because I couldn't make the trip into Manhattan the day before to pick up my race number. Even 5Ks in the city offer a level stress that I just didn't feel here. The people were friendly and helpful. When I downgraded to the half from the full marathon, I received a personal email from a women named Jill less than an hour after I sent my request. I only had to leave my hotel room 28 minutes before the race began. And finally, the weather was spectacular. All of these elements allowed me to have a personal best in the half. This is why it is worth it to come to Alabama to run a race. Now if only there was a little less fried food and more fresh fruit, it would truly have been perfect.