“So I sold my dog and bought a snowboard.”

Those words actually came out of my buddy’s mouth yesterday. It kinda sums up the intensity he brings to the mountain. The comment might have shocked me, but the guy had already tricked me into riding my first real Black Diamond trail.

Yeah, seriously, he tricked me. Amid his pre-ride coaching I promised to give a Black Diamond a go before the end of the day but requested a slow start.

“Let’s start on an easy one. Ok? An intermediate slope?!”

“Sure, let’s go this way.” As he disappeared over a hill. Ummm, not an easy one!!!

But I have to give the guy lots o’ credit. If I had known I was riding it, I probably would have let my nerves get the most of me. High-five Gross-man for the manipulation. Well respected. It made me want to go back for more. So I did… and I ROCKED IT!

Look! See? Me rockin’ out:

I rocked it one and half times… one and a half times before I ate it… wiped out on my booty…

and kept on sliding…

and tried to ride out the momentum and get up mid-slide…

annnnnd… sorry, I dont have anymore screenshots to show the next slick move. But let’s say as my cameraman flew past me, I continued to gain speed, and when trying to pop back up into a standing position I caught the front edge of my trusty Troop and dove chest-first downhill into the hard-packed snow ahead of me. Since my hands decided to sit this one out, my full weight landed on my right rib cage, creating a sweet crunching sound… and knocking every molecule of air out of me. (Does air travel in molecules? I need a scientist to weigh in on this one.)

If I could get the video plug-in on WordPress to work, I’d air Gross-man’s monologue about my disappearance — its entertaining. But alas, too difficult for my half-conscious mind.

Currently my body is demanding a state of immobility out of fear of moving through a position that is going to trigger excruciating pain to rocket through my nerves and make my stomach nauseous. Not fun! The Stratton first aid clinic thinks I’ll be a-ok if I lay off the moving around and lay on the ice. But I think Im gonna get a second opinion from an x-ray machine.

This really dampens my half-marathon training, but as crazy as it makes me sound, it was so worth it. SUCH A RUSH!

I dance on my snowboard when I’m chuffed with my runs!

Thanks for the runs and the fun camera work Gross-man.

Sidenote: I had bruised ribs last time I rode Stratton Mtn with my ladies. And that was a dancin’-good time also!

Anyone have any advice for possibly cracked ribs?? 

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How to find a training buddy

Many runners like to run on their own; while many like to have a friend or partner at their side. Running with someone is beneficial in maintaining motivation and staying on track. For example,

1. it will push you to keep going when you are feeling exhausted… or when your ankle feels broken or you develop a stitch in your side that feels like a stab wound, and
2. having someone to chat to will distract you from exhaustion… and sensations that resemble a broken ankle or a stab wound in your side.

The most difficult part of your training might be convincing said friend/partner to sign up for a half-marathon that you have registered for. Here is some advice for that:

• After you run 3.6 miles, head to an awesome pizza bar to continue socializing. Each order a pizza and a pint of beer. Continue socializing. Order a second round of beers. Wait till the grease and alcohol drowns running endorphins. Suggest friend run same half-marathon as yourself.

Voila! You have a training buddy! 

With that said, I am back on the training game. I’ve signed up for the More Magazine + Fitness Women’s Half Marathon in Central Park this April. And, using the cunning advice above, my TNT running buddy will be running it with me. YAY INES! 

BACK TO TUESDAY NIGHT TRAINING Bs&Gs!

Had so much fun the first time, I'm doing it again! (Also proof that I checked in at the TNT booth at the Nike race.)

I will not be running this for charity. Without a doubt, I will do that again, but this one is just for me.

Sooo stay tuned… and watch this page for more fun training updates.

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Cheese, races and grandma!

Wow!!! It’s been more than two months since I last posted. WTF? How inconsiderate of me. Sorry blog.

The first week of November I attended a press trip to Wisconsin to tour the Dairyland’s famous creameries. After three days of eating more cheese than I thought my body could handle, I received an early morning phonecall from a sad sad voice.

It was mom. My grandma had passed away. The week prior she had been back in the hospital with pneumonia and a broken arm. I had visited her on a Saturday afternoon.

“Ooooh hiiii!” She laughed when I walked in as if she had been secretly expecting me. I am not sure she knew who I was but she was glad to see someone familiar and have some company.

She told me some borderline coherent stories, most of which included the name “George” (my grandpa) and she hollered at the moaning woman she was stuck sharing a room with: “Ohhhh shut up! What are you complaining about?”

Then to me: “What is HER problem?”

I rubbed her head till she started to doze. When I stopped she perked up again and asked me if I was leaving. I couldn’t make out the words but the disappointment was clear.

I told her I was “going to check on grandpa… George.”

She giggled with her eyes closed and asked what he was doing and what he was going to eat for dinner since she couldn’t make him anything. I promised I’d bring him something delicious to eat. (We had Olive Garden that night, his favorite.)

“Ok. You better go then.” Thats grandma; always putting someone else first.

“I love you grandma!”

“Oooooh ha, I love you too!” And when she squeezed my hand, I knew it was the last time I was going to see her. Just for a flash; I could sense that this was it…

… so I gave her a kiss and the biggest smile I could conjure up while sucking in the tears.

A few weeks later we celebrated her life with a wake full of photos, stories and smiles. She was not only one of the happiest persons that I knew, but she had spread her infectious positivity everywhere she went and with everyone she met.

At some point in the mourning process it occurred to me, ‘this was the first time I had lost someone close to me.’

At the ripe age of 29, I’m pretty damn lucky to make this claim. At the same time, it was unfamiliar territory.

I didn’t feel like blogging. I didn’t feel like advertising it on Facebook. I didn’t feel like telling people and hearing condolences. I just wanted to sit with it, digest it and accept it.

So I did.

Every time Ive sat down to type since, I didnt know where to start. I couldnt write about anything until I wrote about her… and I didn’t know what to say.

Two days ago my friend told me his grandma died. My grief popped its ugly head but this time it left me smiling. I miss her… especially at the holidays… but she lived with a smile so I better too.

There’s been a lot else going on as well. Following Wisconsin I took off on a couple more business trips, including a second landing in San Francisco which only heightened my desire to live there. I had the chance to wander around Union Sq and reminisce about my run. Ahhhhh. Remember that? Did I mention I ran a half marathon in San Fran?

$60 of cheese I brought home from the Madison Farmers Market — the largest producer market in the country.

I’ve kept up the running. Didn’t even stop for that freak blizzard/storm that hit the tri-state area in October. Actually, instead of staying warm/dry, Azzy, Kenny and I ran/climbed/jumped our way through the Men’s Health Urbanathlon — a military-style obstacle course with an urban/city-twist. You know, like climbing over taxi cabs and MTA buses, army crawling under chain link fences and jumping traffic cones.

The course was 9.something miles with 8 obstacles, two of which were running staircases at Arthur Ashe Stadium and Citifield. We split the bee-otch up and relayed it, each taking on a 3ish-mile section.

It was awesome.

It was HARD.

When we saw the course map, I begged for the section that included monkey bars… I don’t want toot my own horn, but I kinda rocked the monkey bars as a kid. All good right?! That section also included military hurdles. Those mothereffers were like 5-foot-something high. Thank god some Greg T (Z100) lookalike showed up and let me step on his back. Otherwise I’d have failed my team. Note to self: must exercise upper body more.

Us enjoying the beer tent after the race.

Anyways. It was awesome. I’ve kept with the running since and ran a PR Turkey Trot 5k, signed up for two NYRR races in January, including the Manhattan half-marathon, and entered the lottery for the NYC Half and the ING NYC Marathon. What did I do?

Then as an early Christmas gift I went and gave myself tendinitis in the bottom of my right foot — legwarmers were the culprit — and have been out of commission for two+ weeks.

IM GOING CRAZY!!!!!!

My awesome podiatrist is “cautiously optimistic” that I can run the half on Jan 21st, and I’ll be playing with my gal in Conn this weekend instead of running the Joe Kleinerman 10K. *tear*

It was kinda convenient that this happened now — I’ve been working on a project at work that has actually been taking all my evening time so I haven’t had to voluntarily compromise running time. And the new website looks gooooood.

With that said, it’s a new year! I am making 2012 the year of SMILES AND POSITIVITY!!!

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The Nike Women’s Marathon… 12 days later

Twelve days ago I ran the Nike Women’s [Half] Marathon. Remember that race? Have I mentioned it?

Anyways. It was 12 days ago. What have I done since? Well, for starters, I got a massage and sat on my butt for five days. Then, after that, I ran a 10k with my cousin. (Sean of Seanzanne.)

Yeah, not smart. Apparently you need to keep your legs moving if you want them to race for you. Its somewhere in the fine print of the sport… I just overlooked it.

The first three miles were hellish and I felt like my legs were full of cement. But at mile 4ish I loosened up and picked up the pace. Yay for negative splits!

I finished at…

Not great.... but not baaaad!

There was honestly one point in the race that I was completely 100% OK with stopping, walking off the course and Google mapping my way back to the finish line to wait for my cousin.

I didn’t. Obviously. But I wouldn’t feel bad if I had.

So, lesson learned. Don’t stop running. It makes it that much harder.

I also hit up the beach for a run. I havent run the Jones Beach boardwalk in a long time and it was SO REFRESHING. It was the absolute PERFECT combination of sun, breeze and warmth that makes me happy. Like warm fuzzies deep in your soul happy. Everything is perfect when running by the beach on a clear sunny day. EVERYTHING. I’m such a Pisces.

Ok, back to the race. When I ended my recap I declared one more order of business — a THANK YOU.

I don’t know where to start and I know I am going to tear up at some point in trying to say this.

When I asked you all to support my race, I was looking for some financial donations and maybe some running tips. What I didn’t realize at the time, was that I needed so much more.

The physical part of training was turned out to be slightly more difficult than I expected but the fundraising was much easier than I expected. That, B&Gs is allll thanks to you.

I asked you to support a good cause that had some personal meaning to me and would make a difference and you all did. You gave me a reason to run and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

When I say I needed so much more, I am referring to understanding, patience and compromise.  Annnnd here come the tears. 

Thank you for putting up with my “alcohol-free, early-to-bed Friday nights.”

Thank you for tolerating my crankiness while my body adapted to being tortured four days a week and had sleep removed from its daily regimen.

Thank you for adapting the menu when I showed up to dinner with sweet potatoes because “I have a long run in the morning and I need running fuel.”

Thank you for feeding me when I randomly showed up at the house (mom and dad) all sweaty and gross and then proceed to eat everything in sight.

Thank you for understanding why I needed to postpone Friday night pub night for, like, 5 months.

Thank you for listening to me talk about running… alllll the time. I mean, like all the time. I know, I was annoying.

Thank you for asking me about how training is going even though you know its going to start a really long rambling about running.

Thank you for all your FB “likes” and comments on Nike+ to cheer me on during my runs. I honestly get so excited when my iPod cheers for me.

Thank you for the stories about your loved ones that battled Leukemia or Lymphoma. You brought tears to my eyes — and emotion is running fuel.

Thank you for all the articles, links and magazines you passed on with advice.

Thank you for taking care of me when I thought I could still drink two martinis.

Thank you for the tums when my stomach decided to backlash after I decided to jump full into a 300-crunches a day ab workout. (Yeah, I’ve since toned that down…)

Thank you for not commenting on the smells coming from my day-two running shorts.

Thank you for discussing running shoe brands (Brooks rule!!), hydration belts and fuel packets for periods of time much longer than necessary and I ever thought possible.

Thank you for almost always getting my “egg and ham on a scooped out whole wheat bagel” order correct.

Thank you for letting me stay at your apt in the city Friday night so I didn’t have to take a 5:30am train to get to practice on time.

Thank you for always making sure there were lots of carbo-packed sweet treats sitting around the house — and ice cream for the hot days.

Thank you to my coaches for all your help and support. Esp Coach Christine and Coach Wanda. You are both awesome and kinda my idols.

Thank you for dealing with my taper crankiness.

Thank you for going on spontaneous Saturday morning runs with me when I mis-COOCOO the train schedule and miss practice.

Thank you for all the music recommendations. I LOVED my playlist!

Thank you for all your texts and messages DURING the race… they were so much fun to read afterwards.

Thank you for the congratulatory flowers.

Thank you for your generous gifts and cards before the big day. They meant the world to me.

Thank you for letting me, mom and Andrew stay at your house in San Fran and stepping up as lead Marathon Groupie.

Thank you mom and Andrew for coming to San Francisco. I know you didnt really want to have to go there, but you did for me. 🙂 It made me so happy to see you guys there.

See? Sooo excited! Hugs anyone? I'm not THAT sweaty yet!

Thank you for keeping me going. Whenever I felt frustrated and down, someone was there to perk me up, remind me that I was capable of doing whatever it was I wasn’t sure I could do and encourage me to troop on no matter what.

Most of all, thank you for donating to such an amazing cause. LLS provides almost all the funds to help patients get treatment, and they work their butts off to raise money. Like REALLY work their butts off… and some of them run their butts off. lol. Their enthusiasm made me want to work all that much harder.

It took me a while to get to this entry because I didn’t feel confident that I could express the emotion that goes along with what I wanted to say. Now, reading this, I realize I am still not capable of expressing my gratitude. This sucks.

But I honestly don’t know if its possible, so I am going to give you these words for now… and maybe I’ll try again soon. (Saaaaay, with baked goods?)

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I wish I could hug you all at once.

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My boyfriend, Brooks

Of all the interests and sports and extracurriculars that stumble across this blog, there is one topic that rarely rears its head.

Dating.

The lack of coverage my dating and romantic life receives is not a reflection of my interest in it. In fact, contrary to many of my 30ish-year-old counterparts, I happen to really enjoy dating.

I like the excitement of meeting someone new, asking them 4,000 questions, analyzing all their answers, categorizing them into one of Helen Fisher’s personality descriptions (that’s my favorite part, actually), deciding if their classification mixes with mine and leaving either thrilled at the prospect of a second interview or pleased with my ability to feign interest and a new experience and lesson under my belt.

I also like relationships. I’m pretty intuitive when it comes to knowing what I want and like; rarely does a second date not lead to something long-term. You’re either in or out buddy.

With that said, why don’t I talk about my dating escapades on here? I often ask myself that. And the only conclusion I can come to is that I have yet to find someone I feel comfortable immortalizing on the blog. I refuse to delete or edit my entries after they are posted — or at least after the 24-hour edit period I allow myself after one goes up — so if you make it in, you’re there for good baby.

So here, for the first time, let’s talk about my love life.

I’ve been single since the middle of January. Along with the dreary post-holiday winter months came the end to an enjoyable and pretty healthy relationship. It just wasn’t “right” and I walked away hurt and disappointed on the premise that it “failed” but respectful of the fact that we just didn’t do it for each other. He was a good person. So am I. We just weren’t the kinda good that each other needed.

Ever since I’ve been happily bouncing through life unattached, free to dedicate my time to anything I please. And to be honest, I’ve kinda fallen in love with it.

But as it always goes, I cannot stay single for long. It occurred to me that while I appear on the surface to be single and unattached, I am in a very serious relationship.

For the past five months, I have been in a relationship with my Brooks running sneakers. They are all rolling their eyes thinking, yeah, ok, cute Lizzie, fun analogy; you’re point?

No seriously, hear me out. My approach to running in many ways mimics my approach to relationships. And I’m learning a lot about myself.

For starters, it often requires a huge compromise. Any given day I have a dozen things I need to and want to get done. Many of them do not include sweating around Manhattan, yet I make that compromise to keep the connection between me and “running” strong. I’ve done the “no compromise/ignoring” game in relationships — it doesnt seem to work too well. Significant others seem to want attention. Who knew? My shoes are the same. They are not happy sitting in my closet. Ok, the floor. They never make it home to the closet.

I’m also recognizing a mean competitive streak poking its head out to play. Another trait that tends to flourish in relationships. Just today, on my way out for a run, I was chatting on the phone with a friend who said “I ran a 10k today.” My reply, “Oh yeah? I’ll go run a 10k now.” Clearly he was challenging me, no? That’s what I got from that sentence.

Competitiveness has been a bit of a problem for me in relationships in the past. I am attracted to assertive, ambitious guys. Ambition breeds competition. Before you know it, I’m playing the “I can do it better” game with the one I love. (And for some reason we are never playing that game in the bedroom.)

Just like a boyfriend, my run proceeded to mess with my head for the five miles I did complete (failed on the 10k front). Too fast, too slow, too out of breath. I was all over the place. I just could not get my feet to listen and I was not listening to them. Sh!t happens! Sometimes communication just sucks.

Dude, WTF? Pace is ALL over the place.

Note to self: Buy a Garmin running watch. Nike+ is cool but there is no way you sped up from a 10:34 pace to a 7:51 instantly. The GPS tracking is all over the place.

PS Note to self: Win lotto to afford Garmin running watch.

Running, like [some of] my boyfriends makes me very proud. We share milestones together. Today, even though we were lacking the ability to communicate clearly, was one of those days I wanted to give running a big high-five, smooch on the lips. Today we hit 300 miles on Nike+. Yay Lizzie and Brooks. You guys rock!

That

Another tendency in my relationships is to eat more… like a lot more… than is normal and necessary for my body size. Maybe its some weird suppressed issue, but eating must turn me on because I seem to find men who had to be extreme eaters in another life. And (note the competitive comment above), I sometimes see it as a challenge. I AM NOT PROUD OF THIS. But when they sit down to a three-course meal of meat and sweets, you sure as hell bet that I will be eating the same. I once had a BF drop his fork on the table and gawk at me like a zoo animal… “I seriously just can not believe how much you eat sometimes. It doesn’t seem feasible.” Umm… yeah, it is!

Running also makes me eat… a lot!! Thank you running!

On the positive side, running has brought out my positive qualities, like a healthy relationship should. It’s helped me slow down and pace my life (more to come on that), as well as boosting up my butt and giving me some hamstring muscles. I’ve allllways wanted hamstrings. Like wanted them like the way a LI girl wants a monster Tiffany’s engagement ring.

Oh, and did I mention running gave me a Tiffany’s necklace? Yeah, it did. It’s an awesome BF.

Collecting my Tiffany

Anyways, all this time I thought I was single and I’m really not. I’m wholeheartedly dedicated and very deep in like with my running shoes and the wind in my hair. I’m even more in like with it now that its 55-degrees in the evening and not 90. Cool enough to wear my new long sleeve pink running shirt, but warm enough that all the men running are still in shorts. Yay running thighs. I’m such a sucker for quads. [shudder] Sooo sexy!

This relationship seems to suit me. It’s easy. It’s rewarding. Its supportive. Its healthy. More of my friends are taking it up so we can double date. And most of all it makes me smile.

“They” say ‘you know when it’s right.’ So until I meet someone who I want immortalized on the blog, I’m gonna stick with my Brooks.

After five months together, we are in that comfy stage where we’re not afraid to get a little dirty with each other.

Ahhh, Bliss.

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My inner white robot, called Grit

In my Nike Women’s [Half] Marathon recap I referenced my inner white robot. As I typed it, I realized I had never actually discussed the inner white robot before and therefore was making no sense to most [read: all] of you.

Back in May, when running a half-marathon was only a figment of my dreams, I stumbled upon an article on Women’s Health called:

Determination: How to Get What You Want.

Determination? I have determination. Or do I? I must read this and find out. 

And without getting all weird and deep on you, it kinda changed my outlook on life… well, maybe not life, but definitely running. So I think you should read it too…

Ok…

you finished…?

If you didn’t read it, basically what it talks about is having grit.

… in 2002, Angela Duckworth, Ph.D., a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, and her colleagues interviewed high achievers in various fields and found that they all shared one personal quality: grit. Defined as “sustained perseverance and passion for long-term goals,” grit seemed to explain why more top CEOs hail from state schools than from the Ivy League, and why some people gut out that last series of situps in boot camp while others flop on the floor when the burn really kicks in. According to Duckworth, “Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges and maintaining effort and interest despite failure, adversity, and plateaus.” While some people cut their losses when faced with boredom or disappointment, those with grit stay the course.

The article uses 29-year-old Micha Burden as an example. An average swimmer who went out and trained for a grueling ocean marathon called Open Water Swimming. She wanted to not only compete, but win. It states:

“I showed up for my workouts and got my butt kicked every day,” she says. But she didn’t give up, despite the fact that even Kenneth Baum, the sports performance consultant she had hired, pointed out how difficult it would be for her to reach her ambitious goal. “Her times were so slow; she was far off the national mark,” admits Baum, author of The Mental Edge, who nonetheless stuck by his client. “At one point I was thinking, You’re kidding—this isn’t going to happen. And then she blew everybody’s mind.”

And everyone out of the water. In October 2007, Burden managed to beat 24 superior athletes to win the U. S. Open Water World Championship Trials in Fort Myers, Florida. How’d she pull it off? Baum chalks it up to grit.

I remember reading that and thinking, Hell, I don’t even want to win the damn half-marathon. I just want to finish.

So pre-marathon sign-up I decided, whatever it is I decided to do next, I was doing it with grit. 

The article goes on to explain that while some people naturally have grit, others can learn and develop it. Phew. I was in the latter category. I knew I could do it — but without some tricks it’d be hard.

Baum, the author noted above, suggests in the article “latching on to mind games to help you push through the discomfort.” The article quotes:

Baum personally uses imagery to get through difficult races. “I say to myself, My legs are like pistons, my lungs like bellows,” he explains. “It lets me focus on the mechanics and not on the pain.”

After reading this article, I was at the beach attempting about 3-4 miles; it was one of my first times out after signing on the dotted line and I felt a stitch abruptly tear through my abdomen.

I thought to myself “I am not human; this is not pain. I am… I am…” and completely forgetting the reference he had made — probably becuase I don’t even know what pistons look like — the white robot from the movie, I, Robot, popped into mind.

I trucked on realizing about a half a mile later that while my stitch was still there, I hadn’t been paying attention. As far as I was concerned I was a machine that was not held down by human traits such as stomach cramps. Grrrrrrr.

Pretty intense right?

Whatever. It works.

There were a couple times out there on the Nike course that I channeled my inner white robot — one being up the big hill and then sporadically throughout the last two miles. Oh and at the end when I sprinted to the finish line.

Here I am channeling my inner white robot to make it to the finish line as fast as bloody possible.

Can’t you see the white robot there? See? Vrooom!

One other thing worth noting in the article is that grit requires more than just mental determination. It requires passion. You have to love what you are doing to want to get out and do it.

I did/do love running. But not all the time. There were days that I ran because I had to and days that I ran because I wanted to.

Now that the race is in the past *tear* a lot of people have asked me, “Are you going to keep it up?” I remind myself before flashing a look of offense that before May I was a very sporadic runner. It’s a very very fair question.

The answer is also very very easy. OF COURSE.

I genuinely really enjoy it. I love the sweat. I love the runner’s high. I love the sore legs. I love the anticipation before a run. I love knowing that I have that outlet.

I’ll keep it up. I may not run on those days that I “don’t feel like running.” I will likely replace some of those days with yoga/pilates classes. But running’s here to stay.

However, with that said, I did tell myself I would take a break after the run. The tightness and pain I was feeling after the run was too much to consider running in the next few days.

But that was before I went for a massage (THANKS TO MY LADIES FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL AND PERFECT GIFT!) at my favorite spa and all the pain washed away. Seriously, that woman had the hands of a hot fireman who had just given me a blue box (there go those visualizations again). She was WONDERFUL!

Today I felt the anticipation. My legs were itching to get out there… so I planned on coming home and doing just that.

Yeeeeeah, well, that didnt happen. I got sidetracked and distracted.

Instead of being outdoors pounding pavement I’m sitting in my kitchen with a grilled cheese sandwich and a glass of champers (THANK YOU LIBBY!!!) celebrating not running. I held off on cheese the entire week before the run (it tends to upset my stomach) so I needed to indulge a bit.

This is basically my idea of heaven. Cowgirl Creamery at the Ferry market in SF.

Oh, I am also casually looking at the photo of me running that is now my iPhone backdrop. (Oh boy!)

I clearly have no problem celebrating myself with myself; who else loves me this much. lol.

As to getting back in my running shoes, I am running a 10K with my cousin this weekend, the NYC Urbanathlon next weekend…

and currently Googling 2012 halfs… Nashville? Napa? New Orleans?

What do you think? Any recommendations for the perfect location for a SECOND half marathon?

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An early morning jaunt around San Francisco, aka the Nike Women’s Marathon

Half-marathon? Check.

I did it. I ran 13.1 miles of up and down the San Francisco hills alongside 22,000 other [crazy] women and 2,000 men.

Where do I start… seriously, my brain is not functioning at the moment so expect this blog to make as much sense as running 13.1 miles up and down hills for fun does.

I slept about 4 solid hours Saturday night before the nightmares about missing the race kicked in waking up every ten minutes to check the time. Combined with the 5 hours of sleep I got last night after the 13.1-mile jaunt around town and some afternoon sight-seeing, I’m in the “bite me zone.”

What is the “bite me zone” you ask? I just learned about the “bite me zone” at the TNT inspiration dinner (which was RIDICULOUSLY tear-jerking and inspiring) from our speaker, John Bingham, runner and author. As he says, it’s the point of the race when “you are running out there with your bestest girlfriend… you are closer to this person than anyone in your life… you are closer to this person than your own family… you love this person more than you do your own children… and around mile 21 you turn to her and say, ‘SHUT UUUUUP!!!!!!’”

It’s true ladies and gents. I approached it… and I wasn’t even playing near “mile 21.” Ha! I was on the verge of my “bite me zone” at two points – mile 10ish right before I saw my family cheering me on, and right NOW!

Bare with me please.

The race.

Throughout this training I have on numerous occasion referred to this event as the ‘second hardest physical challenge I have embarked on to date.’

I was wrong. It is THE hardest. Backpacking 192-miles across Northern England is a piece of cake compared to this. Psssssh. Coast to Coast, you got NOTHING!

But I am proud – VERY proud, actually – to say that I not only ran the bloody thing, but I ran it smart. According to Nike – and who knows better than the sports goddess herself (yes, Nike is a female, duh!) – my average pace across the 5k, 10k and 15k splits were within a 15-second range. If that’s not some smart pacing, I don’t know what is.

(Less than) 24 hours to go…

AHHHHHH!!!

If all goes well, and as planned, in 24 hours I will be a half-marathoner. I will be at the San Francisco beach celebrating with my family and team.

Even though I’ve been in San Francisco since Wednesday night, it’s only now starting to hit me that tomorrow, I am running 13.1 miles.

Holy shit!

I’m feeling a mix of motivation and dread. We are staying in SF with my mom’s college friend and her husband is a 5-time marathoner and many more half-marathoner, triathlete and a bunch of other length’ers. He keeps saying I’ll be just fine. So I know I will be.

I think my nervousness comes from the sheer size of this race. There are 20,000+ peeps running the Nike Women’s Marathon and Half, including all 56 (is that right?) chapters of the LLS Team in Training program. I have seen a lot of them about the city over the last couple of days — ladies with Team in Training t-shirts, ladies with running/race t-shirts, ladies and men running around the city and ladies sight-seeing with killer leg muscles that they MUST be running this marathon. (Seriously, I have never seen so many amazingly toned quads and calves in one place before. I’m in awe.)

In the meantime, we have been doing some awesome sight-seeing. I am in love with San Francisco. Like, I want to pack my bags up and move here tomorrow, in love. Not sure why, maybe just because I’ve always had it in my head that I wanted to live here without any rhyme or reason, but I love it. Everywhere you look, there are amazing views, hills, water, bridges. It’s got a bustling NY-style financial district (downtown) area, fun-looking houses/apts and fabulous food. The only thing missing is snow and snowboarding — but Lake Tahoe is only three hours away. That’ll do I guess.

Here are a some (a very few) highlights of the touristy part of the trip so far:

The big gold bridge

Andrew and mom on Alcatraz island in front of the big gold bridge.

The coast at Muir Beach

Redwoods at Muir Woods

Fisherman's Wharf

Us atop the hill of Coit Tower

Andrew on Twin Peaks with the Bay and the city in the background

Mom and Monique (our amazing hostess) atop Twin Peaks in front of the bridge

And that’s that kids, I’m off to hit up the markets and do more sight-seeing…

Then its off to the hotel to get ready for the big race. AHHHHHHH!!

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Spreading the Run Bug

I received the best email recently. My friend, who I will not name but call Izzy for the purpose of this blog, emailed me awesome news. Her birthday just passed. In addition to kicking off her 29^th anniversary of life with an awesome Mexican dinner from her favorite hole in the wall, she…

wait for it…

 

WENT FOR A RUN!

Her email read:

“So guess what, I am starting to run. I ran a half mile yesterday and it is the 2nd time I did it on the treadmill. That might not sound huge to you but that is the first time I ran in 6 years.

…

I am going to make it my “29” goal. I want to be able to run a half marathon for 30. That gives me a whole year to work up to 8 miles. You look like you are in great shape and it was inspiring.”

I honest to goodness threw my fist in the air when I read, “I ran a half mile…” No Izzy, that isn’t huge to me, that is extremely humungous to me. I  couldn’t wait to reply to her email and talk running. So I did. And we did. And she’s still on board.

What I love about Izzy, among other things, is her sheer determination/ stubbornness to meet her accomplishments. Some of my favorite quotes from our email thread include:

“13.1? A half marathon is 13.1 miles? Ahh crap, I thought it was 8 miles.”

“I don’t know if I like running, but I like setting a goal and meeting it.”

“When I hit 2 miles I will get into it more; right now I don’t want to psych myself out… God, I can’t imagine; what if I could actually run for 2 miles?”

Touche Izzy. I don’t even know if I like running yet. And if I do, I definitely don’t like the first 2 to 3 miles; I only start feeling warmed up at mile 3 or 4.

Me and Izzy at the NYC library when she visited NYC.

After I enthusiastically rambled to her, offered to send every piece of running advice I ever received and tried to recruit her for like 7 different half marathons, I told her about my high school gym teacher.

I wish I remembered the teacher’s name, but if you ask anyone who the bitchy gym teacher was in my HS during my reign, they’d know who I was talking about.

Every year we had to run one mile for our physical fitness test.

One mile! Only four laps around the track.

I never even ran one.

Everytime I would take off (too fast probably, considering what I know now), I would cramp up and almost collapse with a side stitch. OUCH!

• Gym Bitch said I shouldn’t eat before school. I skipped breakfast. I cramped.
• Gym Bitch said I should eat a small breakfast. I ate a small breakfast. I cramped.
• Gym Bitch said I should drink some juice. I drank some juice. I still cramped.
• Gym Bitch finally told me ‘You’re just not a runner. Don’t sign up for track.’

I never signed up for track.

But what Gym Bitch doesn’t know is that 8 years later I did sign up for a 5K. And another thing she doesn’t know is that next week I am running a half marathon.  Soooo, apparently Gym Bitch was wrong. I can run.

I remember running my first 5k. My bestie AAA coerced me into running with the ol’ run/walk around the track method. Before I knew it I was running a lap. Somehow I ok’d the registration for a 5k (a leap year 5k that took place on a rainy Feb 28^th at 10pm) and the next thing I knew I was a 5k-finisher.

AND THE CROWD ROARS!

The pride that I felt after finishing that race was nothing like I expected.  Sure for many, including my bestie who can run a 5k hungover faster my current PR, a measly 3.1 is just a fun run, but for me it was like climbing Mount Everest. It was something I had never thought I would do, wanted to do, aimed to do… but I did it!

So when I hear my gal friend Izzy is on track to cross the finish line of something she doesn’t even know if she likes doing (she does; she doesn’t know it yet), I get that rush all over again.

AAA waited at the finish line of the 5Ks we ran together cheering me on as if I had just broke the record for the NYC Marathon. That support is awesome. And the awesome thing about running is that you always suck at one point, and everyone out there pounding pavement knows how awesome it feels to progressively suck less.

So GO IZZY…. RUN! RUN! RUN!

Completely coincidental, I received another email — or IM rather — that same day that made me gleam with pride. My bestie from college, K-dawg, announced that she was running a 5K. Actually she said, in response to my question of ‘why are you traveling to [city] this weekend?’…

“Are you sitting down for this?? Ready? I am running a 5K.”

This time my jaw dropped a little bit, THEN my fist went into the air. Funny thing is, K used to run in college occasionally, although I always thought it was an excuse to visit her BF without having to tell me. 😉 Other than that, K doesn’t advertise herself as one for strenuous exercise so I was soooooooo excited that she was on board with the running bug.

WOO HOO K!!! 

Fast forward a couple weeks, K not only completed her 5k last weekend, she came in third in her age group with an 8:21 mile. HOLY COW K… ROCK ON! I am overly impressed that she walk/ran/trained her way to an 8:21 in five weeks. I am overly impressed that she ran a 8:21 period, even if she had been training for a year.

I am looking forward to running something with her soon… K, want to run something together soon? I’ll let you win. lol (No seriously, even if I could beat that time, I’d let her win… K doesn’t lose.)

K and I at our first "race" together... our senior year pub crawl...

I love hearing about my non-running friends becoming running friends.

I love that they love what I love… or at least I love that they are doing what I love whether they love it or not…

KEEP RUNNING GALS!!

PS. One week until my race… AHHHHH!!!

PPS. Did you donate yet?

 

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Three Cheers for Endurance Sports!

From the looks of my Facebook news feed, the fall endurance sports season is in full swing. All weekend friends and organizations were busy posting support and cheers for those participating in marathons, triathlons, charity walks and other races. Among those were my Hamptons marathon TNT teammates. GO HAMPTONS TEAM! Special shoutout to Ines, my running buddy who ran her first half in 2:20. I hope I come close to such an awesome time!

In the spirit of the season, I jumped on board completing my longest run yet — 11 miles — on Saturday and then heading to Westchester (at 530 am, mind you) to cheer on my friend Kenny while he completed his second triathlon.

My run is not much to talk about. I trooped it from Bethpage State Park (kinda in the middle of Long Island) down to the Massapequa Preserve and back. It was tiring and hard and I definitely didn’t fuel enough. I felt really sluggish with 1.5 miles to go, like REALLY sluggish, but I only had a Gu packet left and I really didn’t want to deal with digesting that with such little distance to go. (I remember when I couldn’t run a mile and now its a “small distance.” ha!)  I toughed it out and promised to better stagger my fuel next time.

My 11-mile route!

Today’s event was much more exciting. The Westchester Triathlon counts as an Olympic qualifier (not sure what that means, but you can imagine the caliber of contestants it attracts) and includes a .9-mile swim, 25-mile run and a 6.2-mile run. And Kenny rocked all three.

the crowds getting ready to hit the water!

Kenny's wave is off! GO KENNY!

our boy heads off to find his bike!

the bike lot emptying out fast as all the athletes take off on the second leg of the race!

Team Swierupski Cheer Squad (in uniform) waiting for him to round the corner of the run portion! (we estimated him to finish at 2:39!)

there he goes... finishing at... wait for it... 2:39!!! WOO HOO!

the recap! tell us about Kenneth!

It was the first Tri I ever attended and a lot of fun to track down and cheer for Kenny along the way! (I also enjoyed cheering for all the TNT teams.) He ran it in 2:39:something — an awesome time. We watched people continue to cross the finish line as we drank celebratory beers.

His cheer squad was very proud. I mean, he’s a triathlete… how cool is that? (And look how cute he looks in his unitard… his girlfriend is one lucky lady!)

 

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Guess what I am doing four weeks from today…

…. soooo… give up??

In four weeks from now I will be sitting down, hopefully somewhere with delicious food and alcohol, celebrating the second biggest physical accomplishments of my life. (Backpacking across England still takes the gold!) I will have run a half-marathon… 13.1 miles… up and down and all around the San Francisco hills.

Oh, wait, did you know I was training for half-marathon? ha! ha! ha! (Yes, yes, the email and blog harassment will stop after the race.)

So what does that mean? I got four weeks to get in better half-marathon shape and to stay in better half-marathon shape. I want to be at my peak for this thing and, I must confess, the last few weeks I’ve been lazy! But that all changed this weekend.

Friday night I went out for the first time since last weekend’s 16-miles-in-26-hours stunt. It was a good warm-up for Saturday’s race — the Fitness Magazine’s Mind, Body, Spirit Games 4-miler! Easy four miles throughout Central Park so I gave it as much as I had and ran it in record time. I maintained a less-than-10-min/mile pace the entire time. WOO HOO!!! That is awesome for me!

See?? I rocked it!

All the training is paying off — and the nice cool weather is helping! If I recall correctly, I ran my first 5k in about this time back in 2008 when I began to run casually here and there. So for someone who was always told she wasnt a runner, noooot bad! GO ME!

To kick up the training a bit, I had plans to go out with a friend to conquer some awesome hill workout he designed nearby his place in Queens. Time and other obligations prevented it so instead I headed out this morning to find some hills near my house. I hit up Levy Park in Merrick upon my dad’s recommendation. It’s a huge garbage dump that they covered over (I hope safely), grew some greenery and created a park with views of the surrounding towns, the bay and even the Manhattan skyline… off in the distance. And since it’s, well, one big hill, it was great hill training!

Here are some views from my run:

Manhattan in the distance... can you see? Look close!

Other people hiking the hills too... (they were walking; doesnt count!)

There is fishing!

Overlooking the bay... you can see the Jones Beach water tower and theater in the distance!

Someone else was out for a morning Sunday run. Well, I think she was out for food but it turned into a run when she got wind of me invading her territory.

 

Great place for hill training. Love it!

Gravel hills took a little getting used to but I’ve always preferred trail running… I think my next move needs to be to somewhere with lots of hilly trails… hmmm…

 

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Irene ruined my run

Pre-Irene beach run SUCKED!  Humans arent the only vultures stocking up on food and water. The mosquitoes were out to fill up too and wouldn’t leave me the hell alone. And let me point that that BUGS DON’T LIKE ME! I havent gotten a bug bite since I was about 7 years old… but these damn bugs were desperate. I couldn’t handle it and bailed early.

Irene didn’t make it easy either.

FOG!!! Oooooo

Bring it Irene!! COME ON!

Looking forward to a Monday-morning long run! 5.5 miles does NOT count as a long run anymore.

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I got that lovin’ runnin’ feeling!

SO BEHIND on blog entries. Seriously, like a dozen drafts sitting here… However, tonight I am WAY too tired to catch up on them properly. But I will tell you I had a fantastic run at the beach today. Just 4 miles — with storm clouds in the distance — and a bit of strength training… just like the training calendar says to do.

Running the boardwalk looks pretty boring from a GPS… back and forth, back and forth — and flat. BUT it has its own obstacles. For one, the wind is in my face in one direction. When its against me on the way out, I know I have a smooth trip back… but vice versa and I know I need to preserve some energy!

Pretty boring... back and forth!

There is also a scary vacant parking lot at the end that you must cross to reach the Health Walk 2.0 mile marker. During today’s run, my Nike+, my best running friend ever, told me I hit 2.0 a little before I reached the sign. I thought “Hmmm, should I turn around or finish crossing the scary, desolate lot?”

I finished. And I was so glad I did because I got to cheer for Ron. Who is Ron you ask? I have no idea… but Ron lost 65 lbs walking 325 miles. And he is proud of it. And I AM PROUD OF HIM! That’s a lot of walking… and that’s a lot of lbs…. and that’s one excited Ron! YOU ROCK RON!!!

Ron loves the Health Walk at Jones Beach as much as I do.

This was the sign posted on the marker:

Go RON! ROCK OUT! KEEP ON WALKING!

Seeing that sign made me smile so much. I love seeing people taking on challenges… and defeating them! It’s motivating!

The boardwalk is such a good run! It’s easy… and there are no hills (sorry Coach Christine)… and it’s only 4 miles… but it recharges me! And sometimes it doesnt matter how far, how fast or high high you run… you just need to love the run!

LOVE running at the beach!

And as I drove my car out of the parking lot I saw a bolt of lightning hit the ground behind me. Just in time Liz… Just in time!

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I ran 8—I mean 9—miles over bridges and stuff like that.

I RAN 9… as in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9… MILES THIS MORNING!! Not just any old 9 miles either. I ran nine miles that traveled across the Brooklyn Bridge, across the Manhattan Bridge up Park Avenue (yeah Summer Streets, woo hoo!!!) and across town to the West Side Highway, landing back at Urban Athletics in the financial center.

TNT conquering the Brooklyn Bridge

Proof that I owned this run. Nike+ never lies... GO LIZ!

(I headed back to Urban Athletics to buy a sweet new pair of Brooks Adrenaline 11s — Brooks saved my run and I will stay loyal till I cross this finish line!).

My updated Brooks Adrenalines in bluuuue!

This challenge was the perfect end to a rough work week. Twelve hour days and bringing work home makes it hard to work out in the evening, so instead of my usual 2,000+ squats, lunges and crunches, a yoga class and 8+ miles on my roller blades, I ran away my nights. The weather in the evenings has been PERFECT! It was cool, it was dry… ahhhh!

I rarely run this much in a week, but this week I nailed the Jones Beach 5K — the last race in the NYS Parks Summer Series. I finished 20 seconds later than the last one.

GO LIZ!

A 3-mile jaunt around town after missing Hill practice at Tuesday’s training (I was stuck working. Boo!), a 4-miler around town on Thursday and a Karaoke party for Dazrazzle’s birthday party on Friday! (I was good and only had one drink!) This was all after last weekend’s 8-mile run!! (I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE I RAN 8 MILES — AND I JUST RAN 9 :-o)

My 8 mile run along the Jones Beach path... SUCH a pretty run!

One of my fellow TNT runners asked me this morning (somewhere around mile 6.5) how long my longest run was I said “this is!” She said “I mean overall,” to which I said, “Every weekend I run with TNT is my longest run!”

HOW COOL IS THAT?  Every week I beat my own record.

I’m still messing with fuel. Bars dont settle well so I opted to rely just on Gatorade this week. Not a great idea. Not a terrible idea, but not a fantastic idea. It didnt energize me as much I needed to be, and the juice sloshed around in my tummy. Oooo.

Around mile 7.5 I began to editorialize my desire for breakfast and made the gals I was running with hungry. So to celebrate our accomplishment, my running buddy Ines and I hit up brunch where I inhaled a massive omelet, home fries, whole wheat toast and a huge glass of apple juice that I chugged in 20 seconds. Yummmm. I love running 9 miles, burning like 900 calories and being able to eat my favorite meal of the day guilt free.

Ah-ha! THE BEST PART OF TRAINING!

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Like Emily, I run… because I can! … and for Mr. Flannery!

This story brought such tears to my eyes…

I Run… Because I Can: Countdown to the New York City Marathon by Emily Faherty at the Huffington Post.

READ IT! NOW!….

Ok, you done? You can continue reading this now…

This article hit a nerve. You’ll see my comment at the bottom — limited to the Huff Post’s 250 word count — but here’s the long version.

When I was in high school I had an English teacher, Mr. Flannery. It was senior year when I was supposed to be mentally checked out, yet he his class was one of the most engaging classes I participated in during my high school career. He covered interesting material and he did it all with passion. And he was fun!!

He was the type of teacher who would give sarcastic, mocking responses to stupid questions or make fun of himself when he made an error. He was also the type of teacher who tried to connect with his students — not in the “I can be hip and cool like you” way, but on a personal level. He told us stories — stories about his homeland, Ireland, stories about his family and travels and stories about his bladder cancer. Yeah, he was fighting the big C. He had done the chemo thing, etc, putting him in remission, or as close to remission as he was going to ever get, from what I remember.

I remembered him talking about his trips to the Dr and the support he got at home from his family. I remember fighting back tears. Yet, his stories were always told in a tone that said “Don’t be sad guys; I’m not!” He would drink bottle after bottle of water, jetting out spontaneously to the bathroom. Some days we would watch movies; those were his “I’m not up for teaching” days.

What I was too immature, or emotionally closed off, to appreciate at the time, was how he never let cancer get in the way of him doing what he loved to do — teach! It didn’t stop him from trying to get to know each and every one of us. It didn’t discourage him from encouraging us to pursue our dreams — and more so, our talents.

I did well in his class, and participated — which is not common for seniors. He asked me one day, “What are you majoring in next year?”

“Accounting.”

“Nah, you are going to be an English major.”

Laughing. “Nah, I want to make money Mr Flannery.”

“Yeah, ok. You’ll see. You are meant to study English,” he said with a bottle of water in hand and his signature chuckle.

This went on for months, till I graduated and went on to study accounting in college.

It wasn’t until I got an analytical paper back from my freshman English composition professor stating “You should consider majoring in English” that I reconsidered Mr. Flannery’s persistent insight. I went back to my high school during break to show him. He was out sick, battling cancer — with a smile I am sure. I left the paper in his mailbox with a note, “I thought you’d appreciate this!”

The next time I went back he was out sick, again — this time permanently. He had retired to battle his battle on his own schedule. A decision, I know was not easy. Teaching us pain-in-the-asses was his passion.

I don’t know how long it was after, but I heard from a teacher-friend that he had passed away.

I cried.

Years later, I cried again. I had quit accounting and was in grad school studying to become a writer. He had been right; I was meant to study English. And I wanted him to know. The only man I’ve ever wanted to say “you are right” to — and I couldn’t. Oh, the irony!

Teachers are supposed to recognize and encourage a student’s talents. But he took is a step further and recognized not only what I was good at, but what motivated me. He recognized my need for fulfillment and where I would find that. Basically, he knew what I needed to be happy… way before I had any bloody clue what that was. To me, that’s more than a teacher. I only wish I had gotten to know him as more than just my teacher.

Now, reading this article, I have more tears in my eyes. Mr. Flannery didn’t have blood cancer, but he fought with the C-word… and he did it with an unfaltering positivity and acceptance. He is just one more reason, one more person, I am running this long-ass half-marathon. My run and the money I raise may not be able to help him, but it can help someone else’s Mr. Flannery.

I’m with Emily. I am running… well, because I can. And if you can, why not? Right?

Here’s to you Mr. Flannery!! Keep on smiling.

Oh, and Mr. Flannery, you were right. I was meant to study English.

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CP, you are mine! Oh, and we love hills!

Dude, I ran all of Central Park this weekend. And by all of, I mean the entire loop top to bottom and back. Well, actually no, it was midway to top to midway to bottom and around again. All the times I have found myself up in the middle of Central Park, somewhere around 80th street, usually after a museum adventure or, more commonly, LOST, I always think, “Damn this park is huge!”

Well, you ain’t so big anymore CP. Now that I have traipsed all over you, pounding you one foot at a time with my Brooks, you are nothing. You hear me CP?? NOTHING!

This was my run. We left from Bethesda Terrace along the 72nd St traverse up around the upper loop than I figure-eight’d down around the lower loop ending at 6.5ish miles. (Annoyingly my phone died at mile 5.3 so I have no idea how much I really did… definitely fell short of the intended 7 though.)

Anyways, there were two highlights.

1. I think I saw John Krasinski running against me in the upper part of the upper loop. Does anyone know… does he run in CP? Him, or his lookalike, was looking HOT without a shirt on… and he totally looked at me as he ran by. I’m guessing it was likely NOT him, but a gal can dream, no?

2. It was hilly. This is being classified as a “highlight” because my race is going to have a lot of hills so me and the hills are going to have to become friends. The rinky-dink inclines I ran up and fell down in CP had me huffin’ and puffin’ like a 50-year smoker so I’m beginning to think I need some work in order to handle San Fran’s version.

Above are the climbs in CP…the biggest climb in this run is from 59 ft to 119 ft.

This is the elevation map of the Nike Women’s Half Marathon with an almost 300-ft climb in mile 6.

Luckily, Coach Christine has the next five weeks of Tuesday practices dedicated to hills. No joke, this is what our training schedule looks like:

Sooooo yeah.

I’m kinda looking forward to today’s practice. I knew from the beginning that in order to finish this race I was gonna have to conquer a lot of hills, so I might as well start mastering the art of running up and down without hurting myself.

Bring ’em on!!

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What your donation can do!

The first thing I wonder when receiving a request for a charity donation is “what is the money going to?” So I’m gonna go ahead and guess that many of you are wondering the same thing as I am begging you for donations…

Here is what your donation dollars can do!

How Your Donation Can Help

$50 will register 1 person to be a bone marrow donor.

$75 will provide HLA (bone marrow) typing for a family member of a patient with leukemia.

$100 will pay for the cost of 4 patient’s chemotherapy drug prescription co-payments.

$300 will train 25 peer volunteers who can provide emotional support to newly diagnosed patients.

$500 will provide patient aid to a person with Leukemia or a related cancer for a year.

$1000 allows patients to meet with health care specialists to design and discuss their disease, treatment plan and prepare them with the info they will need during the treatment process. $2000 provides patients with a one month supply of Gleevec.

Dude, having a blood/lymphatic cancer is NOT cheap. Soooo go on, donate to my race. Help a fellow patient out; you know you want to!

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Running, continued…

Long time, no blog about running. Allow me to explain.

For starters, this is what is going on in New York City. Notice the “feels like?” And notice that this is at 8:45 am? Thankfully I was finishing my run.

I don’t handle the heat well. So in attempt to avoid posting something negative and complain’y, I’ve just held off on blogging. The heat and I have never gotten along. It drains me, makes me cranky and triggers my migraines. (If you get migraines, you know how hellish the feeling is and how desperate you can be to avoid it.) I love being outside in the sun and I love a good workout sweat, but the 69% humidity at 8:45am is not ok with me, my brain or my body.

I try to avoid posting photos of myself, esp ones of me looking a sweaty mess, but in order to fully express the intensity of the situation… this is what I amounted to at the end of today’s workout.

Notice the shimmer? It’s not body spray.

Which brings me to the other reason for my absence: I haven’t been able to run as much. Whatever I did to my ankle a couple weeks ago has taken its toll. It had been feeling ok, so I wrapped and ran. It still felt ok, so I continued to wrap and run.

Last week after my Sunday 6-miler, which followed a late-night Wednesday 4-mile run (to make up for missing Tuesday’s practice to go to the opera) and a light 3-mile Thursday run, I was hurting. I skipped this Tuesday’s practice to go to yoga, needing the stretch a lot more than the mileage, annnnnd that was it. The next day I woke up with my first case of shin splints, accompanied with sporadic knee pain and a dull ache in my ankle.

Siiiiiiigh.

I’m not good at the taking a break thing — rest days are nothing but frustrating to me — but I tried to run Wednesday with no success and stayed off it, except for strength training isolations and whatnot, till this morning.

And as an extra precaution, I opted to rack up miles on my blades (9 miles) and keep the run to a minimum (3 miles). And that, above, is the result B&Gs.

Now, laying in the A/C with ice packs balanced on my shins and icy hot sending tingles to my bones (seriously, Icy Hot is the greatest invention ever. Thank you Z for introducing me!), I’m feeling more positive.

You see, I may sometimes have a slight tendency to over-dramatize things. For example, every time I discover a new ache or pain, an image of myself sprawled out on a hospital bed with my leg bandaged and elevated during race day flashes through my subconscious. Meanwhile my conscious thought won’t even consider making a doctor’s appt until either the pain increases over an 8-week period or I can’t actually stand. My brain is such a paradox.

However, I think tomorrow I’ll be getting up a bit earlier than today. I was on the move by 7am today but finishing at 845 (that included a skate, run and an ab/upper body workout) was brutal. The cicadas were buzzing, the trees drooping and the air choking on its own humidity. 1,000% ugh!

This is what I consumed during my workout —
and I haven’t peed yet!

I’m also slacking a bit on the ‘group training‘ and the fundraising. (PLEASE DONATE TO MY RACE! :-))  I havent had it in me the last two Saturdays to get up at 4am to be on a 5am train to make it to a 7am practice, and there is no way I was running with the 830am crowd. I know, I know, “there may be a heatwave during the race; what will I do then?” I will tough it out then; but until then I am running in as cool of weather as possible. If for no other reason than to protect my brain from the torment of fighting brain cells.

Oh! And I signed up for a 5k race on Monday evening at Robert Moses State Park. I’m excited because I haven’t ran any sort of timed race in years and my pace has gone up since then. I think beating my past time will boost my confidence.

STAY COOL!!

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Ankles! At attention!

My ex-BF once said to me laughing (at me), “It’s funny. You go through clumsy phases. One day you just start dropping things and tripping over your feet and then just like that you stop.” (Add a Hugh Grant accent.)

He was right. (What he would have done to hear those words years ago.) Usually around the time my body kicks off a hormonal dance party I start to fall over, drop things, trip over the shoes I am wearing and spill everything I eat down my front.

Basically, I become, for a short while, mentally-, physically- and, for that matter, emotionally-impaired.

How do I manage this short spurt of incompetence? I laugh at myself… along with whoever sees me fall on my face.

However, no matter how funny I find my faulty balance there are times it can be detrimental. Like on Tuesday, for instance, when I rolled my ankle on the way to work walking down the stairs of Penn Station. (Thankfully I have an ice pack on hand in the office.)

Apparently my body was not happy with the minimal damage that fall caused because I rolled it again later in the day, during mile 4 of my run. I was on such a runner’s high — Tuesday was probably one of my most energetic runs ever — that I didn’t feel any pain… that was until I woke up at 3 am with a severe throbbing around my Achilles.

(This has become my nightly routine.)

I would have worried more but sore ankles are part of my usual exercise routine. It all started years ago in high school when I took a sweet fall off the staircase banister that I insisted on sliding down and won myself a hard cast for 6 weeks due to pulling, as my Dr put it, “all the ligaments and tendons in there.” Apparently my ankles hyper-extend and this is common.

Anyways… that was followed by a trip off the step in the lecture hall in college and being out of commission for a month. Then there was a second few-week period I was limping after a dance performance gone wrong. Ooooh, and snowboarding last year (I think the link is to the entry about when I broke my arm — different limb, same point.) when my board flipped one way and my boot stubbornly stayed put! Who knew you could twist anything in that massive foot gear?

So, what’s my trick for surviving the aftermath of my clumsiness you ask?

A very precise, secretive process: I rest it until it almost doesn’t really quite hurt that much anymore… and then I run/yoga/exercise/snowboard it off! It works every time.

And that’s  exactly what I did today on a 3-mileish run along the West Side path in Chelsea. It was HOT! I took it easy and then headed to an Injury Prevention Clinic put on by TNT. (I know, what a coincidence, right? The marathon-gods clearly had me in mind when they organized that!)

Michael from Finish Line Physical Therapy talked a lot about strength training. Yeah, yeah, I know. I had been doing well with my daily strength training but this week I’m slacking. Tomorrow, I vow to kickstart again!

You know what else I learned at the seminar? That it’s ok to run on injuries causing mild to slightly-moderate pain. Phew! Validation feels so goood!

Anyone else have advice for when they are hurt? How do you heal?

 

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The sneakers that saved the run!

I’m back kids!

Today I hopped over to JackRabbits (pun intended) on the way home from work. Let my feet have their 15 minutes of fame. Came home with a brand new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11 in red/white, which is coincidentally the colors of LLS. (Go me!)

JackRabbits is awesome. While I’ve gotten sneakers there before I’ve never been as invested in a pair of running shoes as I am now so I really appreciated how well Courtney at the 14th location store handled my indecisiveness. She had me run in a number of different pairs and showed me the effects of each on my stability — and then answered all my silly questions. I left feeling very confident with my purchase… not something I often experience. (I’m typically a buyer, trier and returner.)

To test our decision, I hit up Jones Beach for a quick, light 2.5-miler. I had promised my knees I would hold off running until Saturday’s group training but I really needed to give the new sneaks a whirl.

They were beautiful. Smooth run… lots of support… no aching knee pain… no side stitch… and I stuck to my ‘conversational’ pace, which I normally have a very difficult time doing during the first mile or so.

Of course I also hung around and did strength training after my run. The topless men doing some sort of bootcamp training on the sand provided excellent entertainment in between reps.

Overall, lovely run! I am really looking forward to my first Saturday run with TNT.

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