Queens' Half

So - wow. Went out to Queens this morning and ran a pretty crappy run, even considering the heat and lack of training. Finished in 1:43:27.

From the start, I could tell it wasn't going as smoothly as planned. I was trying to do it as a training run and, in fact, was going to run with Gorgeous, but couldn't find her at the start. No worries: I came with the Engineer, who was planning to run around an 8:00/mile pace. "Alright", I thought, "This shouldn't be too bad". Well. From the first mile, my legs felt tired. Really tired. Which is strange, as I hadn't run for two days before. In fact, I had been so tired the day before that I had actually gotten about 10 hours sleep! Now, given the heat and such, the tiredness was understandable to a point but this was supposed to be a fairly easy pace for me. My lungs were fine. No problems there throughout the whole race. It was just my legs. I couldn't get into a rythym and my back started hurting.

We took the first mile at 8:19, the next at 7:50, the third at 7:35, then slowed down a bit again, as I knew that the Engineer had aimed for an average 8:00/mile pace. We kept running together through the first two out and backs. I'm pretty sure he was right behind me at around mile 8 but I was getting that feeling that, if I didn't speed up a bit, I would just walk off the course and call it a day. At this point, the heat was getting to me a bit. I drank too much water on the course and my stomach felt sloshy. I really think the key to this summer running is not to be in air conditioning unless you can help it. I should have insisted on no air last night!

After about mile 9 or so, other people were feeling it, too. My back was feeling much better - I think because I had sped up a bit, changing my stride. Since the injury, my stride has felt a bit different and my gluts and back have been tighter and hurting more. Passing people on this part - and the partial shade and breeze - made it feel better. Rounding out to mile 12, I was happy to be almost done and happy that I wasn't feeling too badly. Interestingly, my legs felt no more tired at mile 12 than they did at mile 1! Pushed the pace a bit the last mile or two but I didn't have my watch so I don't really know by how much.

Not an epic fail - my quad feels ok and my other parts are hurting only slightly. Still not the easy training run my time would indicate.

Hopefully, I'll have better luck on intellectual endeavors today!

Wow!

Tonight's race was inspirational! But first......

I waited to see if anyone would show but left at 7:17 pm. I figured the time of year, the heat, and the race would prevent others from coming out. In fact, once I hit the start of the race, I saw why! Those who I hadn't seen running the race were volunteering for it. It was so exciting to see familiar faces, I stopped to chat for a minute.

But then I started again. Serious business to take care of, you know! I had to watch the race. After all, I was wearing my PPTC sports bra in support.


The first man was flying. Wow. And in the weather, that was exceptional. What was even more exceptional was the first woman. Holy moly! Not only was she cute but she was about 6th in the whole race when I saw her. With a stride that cried "I mean business", she was outstripping most of the men. So awe-inducing.

The Child Whisperer was doing quite well for herself, in 3rd when I saw her, hanging on in front of a younger woman who was trying to poach her place. And other teammates were soldiering on in the heat, making me feel like a slacker.

Exactly what I needed! Some alone time, some inspiration....And, wait, there's someone behind me!

Blue Eyes found me around the last mile and I got to have some one-on-one time with him as we finished off the run.

So satisfying. Some slower running, some striders, some speed at the end with Blue Eyes. And some more striders on the way home. My quad is still tired - I'm glad I only did 6.4 today - but the 2nd week in a row of running 3 days in a row has gone quite well, if slowly. I might try for number four in Manhattan tomorrow!

Feeling like a Snowball in H@@@

After having too much delicious food and sunning myself in the gorgeous weather in both Kona and Oahu, I shook off my jet lag and decided to get back to business yesterday, both figuratively and literally. After sending off a paper, I met the speedy blonde for a loop of Central Park.

At 3:00pm. When it was over one hundred degrees outside. Maybe not the smartest move!

However, we had the park pretty much to ourselves, with the exception of the desperate bicycle taxis, offering us rides around the park. Plus, I hadn't seen the speedy blonde for a while and we both had races and plans to relate. So we chatted excitedly through the first few miles, not even feeling the heat so much. After the excitement wore off, the sun started coming through the asphalt and we faltered a bit. She suggested we cut the loop off at the transverse - a wise move, given the day. Aftervgetting through the transverse, I received the 'weenie of the day' award by suggesting that we walk for a bit. I was hyperventilating, likely due to both the heat and my excessive time off.

We finished, though. Which was great. And now we've got plans to go running again, which is also great. What a good person to run with.

Not so great: the cross-training I tried in Hawaii kind of backfired on me. Recumbent bikes are not a great idea for my knees, it turns out. Going to physical therapy again! Was up half the night because of weird leg pains.

Got to do the Sunday crossword on paper again. What a treat! I liked the theme of this one: took a second to figure out but was easy as pie once you did.

I've actually never understood why pie was considered easy. Making pie crust is a type of art form.

I'm going to call yesterday five miles. Artistic license.

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!

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.