High levels of lactic acid, carbon dioxide emissions and body heat are mosquito magnets, apparently. Enjoy that evening run!
Filed under: everyday life, physiology | 1 Comment »
Omens in the road
Posted on July 12, 2008 by threlkeld
A squashed Boston Red Sox cap appeared at the foot of our street the other day. Each time I’ve passed by it, I’ve thought of Joan Benoit finishing the 1979 Boston Marathon wearing that cap (and again at the trials in April).
[minor chord crescendo]
An omen of some sort, perhaps?
There’s also a squashed possum about 20 feet further down the hill.
[minor chord crescendo]
Omen?
Probably not. Just a squashed cap and some roadkill.
Now, if the possum were actually wearing the baseball cap — well, I’d have to spend some time pondering the possible omens there.
Filed under: elites, everyday life, westchester | 1 Comment »
Central Park: Heaven or Hell for runners?
Posted on June 27, 2008 by threlkeld
Two wildly divergent views on what Central Park has to offer runners.
First, the good from the New York Times. Includes a very handy interactive map.
Next, the bad from New York Magazine, regarding the tensions between walkers, dog owners, runners and cyclists. Can’t we all just get along?
Filed under: central park, everyday life | Leave a comment »
"Mr. Ski Gloves" and other mysteries…solved!
Posted on June 21, 2008 by threlkeld
I posted about a person I see just about every day, walking in the hottest of weather wearing Michelin Man ski gloves*: At random points in his perambulations, he drops to the pavement and does pushups. I guess the gloves are to protect his hands. Still seems like overkill, though.
The forecast for tomorrow’s half marathon in Connecticut is for 70 degrees and around 80% humidity. I suppose it could be worse (and it has been in past years, or so I’ve read). Fortunately, much of the course is reported to be shaded, so I’ll just focus on getting the water down my throat rather than the front of my shirt and taking it easy on the hills.
I will be one of 274 women in the 40-49 age group running (perhaps more, if there are race day registrations) tomorrow. I recognize one name from the NYRR races — someone who always beats me by just a minute or two. I want to try to reverse that trend tomorrow (although by her recent race times, it looks like she’s impervious to heat).
We’re promised a post-race “beach party,” which I hope means ice cream and beer (don’t ask me why I make that association). Way before noon! Sometimes, when you get over the whole taxes, home repairs, needing to hold down a job thing, being an adult is a lot of fun. Anyway, I’m hoping this “party” will make up for the fact that I need to get up at 4:30AM tomorrow morning to drive an hour and engage in strenuous exercise in high humidity.
Before I go, I want to praise Tivo. Because of Tivo we’ve been able to watch every single match in the Euro 2008 Football cup, at our leisure, in the evening. And we have about 30 “track and field” broadcasts scheduled to record in the coming weeks, Olympic trials from Eugene and otherwise. Heaven. Sheer heaven.
Also, since I’ve been making very little progress with weight (or, rather, butt) loss lately, despite running 90 miles a week and dropping my caloric intake to around 1500 a day, I decided to give the whole “your body will go into starvation mode and hold onto fat like it’s going out of style” theory some credence. For the past week or so, I’ve been experimenting with eating more (and more frequently). And rapidly losing fat. Who knew?
*Originally reported as “mittens.” I see now that they are in fact gloves.
Filed under: eating, elites, everyday life, meets, racing | 1 Comment »
Fall Training: Week 4
Posted on June 15, 2008 by threlkeld
I’m currently in a post-prandial stupor, probably headed off for a short nap soon. What better time to recap the week’s running?
This was my highest mileage week since February: 90 miles. Hard to believe. Still, just 1.5 miles more than two weeks ago. But some of them were tough miles indeed.
A look back at the week:
- Monday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.9 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Tuesday: 6 miles recovery pace (AM); 5.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Wednesday: 11 miles with 5 x 1 mile hill repeats (AM); 4 miles easy pace (PM)
- Thursday: 7.9 miles easy(!) pace; 4.2 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Friday: 6.4 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Saturday: 6.1 miles recovery pace (AM); 3.4 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Sunday: 20 mile long run with 2 miles at marathon pace
Total mileage: 90 miles
Paces this week:
- Recovery: 9:22 – 11:13
- Hills: 8:49
- Easy: 7:59 – 8:49
- Long: 8:30 with 2 x 1 miles at 7:35 pace
We had a real heat wave for the early part of the week. Then the weather eased up a bit and it was both cooler and drier. But still pretty hot.
Wednesday’s hill run went well, considering that it’s been months since I’ve done any hill-specific running. We found a great half-mile long hill in Scarsdale along Grand Boulevard. It starts with a big uphill, then a little dip, then a shorter uphill. On a mile round-trip you get to work the legs (and lungs!) on both types of hills, extreme up and extreme down. I did five repeats sandwiched inbetween three miles there and three miles back — and was wiped by the end.
Oddly, though, my legs felt very fresh later in the day, so my planned recovery run turned into a fairly quick easy run. I have days where I decide to just run faster if I feel good, just as I make a day that doesn’t feel good into a slower day.
Wednesday’s effort definitely lingered, though. My legs were sore and tired (very tired) Thursday, making for glacial paces on that day’s runs. Then I did a very fast easy run on Friday morning, because the weather was so lovely — cool, dry and in the 60s. Paid for it yesterday, when my legs were again complaining.
Yesterday also brought the worst thunderstorms we’ve had since moving up here roughly 14 years ago. Heavy rain started a little after 6PM and I waited for it to move on. It went on and on. I did my little recovery run inside on the treadmill, but Jonathan had gone out to do his on the path. I finished up at 6:40 or so and was in the kitchen, looking out the window, when the sky went black in the space of about 10 seconds. I thought, “Hmm, this doesn’t look good.” Then the skies opened up and buckets of rain came down, punctuated by lightning strikes.
Since I am the panicky sort, I got in the car to go look for Jonathan. Driving along the Bronx River Parkway, it was impossible to see more than five feet in front of the car. The roadway was a giant puddle, so I got off at Crestwood train station, hoping he’d taken shelter there. Ran up the stairs to see if he was inside, but no luck. Since the parkway was rapidly flooding, I decided to take local streets home to wait for him. But the streets were flooding too. I had a moment, right before driving into about two feet of water, where I thought, “I’m doing what stupid people do right now. I may need to abandon the car if it stalls out.”
Made it through the puddle and continued to stupidly think, “Well, I’m going uphill to our house. Higher ground should be safer.” Made the turn onto Underhill and it was a waterfall. I gunned the engine and hoped I’d make it up the hill. At our street, the situation was even worse: about a foot of water was rushing down the hill, carrying branches and boulders with it. The source was a drainage sluice that runs alongside our driveway, which didn’t look passable, let along driveable.
At that point, I pull up onto a neighbor’s raised driveway, turned on AM radio and waited. Flash flood warnings! Big shocker there. After about five minutes, the rain let up and the floodwaters started to ebb. Just as I was deciding what to do next, I saw Jonathan trudging up the street, looking like a drowned rat. It turns out he took shelter about a hundred feet north of the train station in a stand of trees. So I just missed him.
It was an exciting evening, to say the least. I had no plans to drink, but a shot of vodka was in order for its calming properties. Then a big bowl of mac and cheese and early bed for…
…the big run of the week: a 20 miler with some late miles at current marathon fitness pace (~7:35). Did this one on the treadmill due to dreadful humidity this morning. Luckily, I’ve got a 3+ hour mix of music on my MP3 player and for visual entertainment I watched “Waterworld” without the sound. “Waterworld” is sort of like “The Road Warrior” but with lots of water and none of the suspense or excitement.
I’d planned to do the last three miles at marathon pace, but my legs were complaining, so I cut it to doing miles 18 and 19, then a cooldown mile for 20. Yet another case of reminding myself that this is just basebuilding time, not real training yet. But soon. Soon.
Coming up in Fall Training Week 5: The mileage gets cut by 12 miles in order to be somewhat fresh for the Stratton Faxon Fairfield Half on Sunday. But not before a serious speed session on Wednesday.
Filed under: basebuilding, everyday life, training, westchester | 2 Comments »
Sightings
Posted on June 10, 2008 by threlkeld
On recent local runs I’ve seen:
- An enormous tortoise. About a foot long. Or maybe more than one, since between Jonathan and myself we’ve spotted three in radically different locations. They can’t swim, and it’s hard to believe they could move that fast on land. Now we’re thinking that someone’s introduced a set of them into the environment recently.
- Our own local African elite. We’ve both spotted a rail thin, fast guy who looks to be possibly Kenyan or Ethiopian cruising along the path. I wonder who he is. He is much faster than the tortoise. Or me, for that matter.
- A man inexplicably wearing heavy ski mittens. We’re talking thick space shuttle jobbies. He was wearing them this morning when it was 90 degrees outside. Shorts, tee shirt — and 10 lb. plastic mittens. Mental illness, medical condition or just garden variety eccentricity? You decide.
- A small bag of pot on the ground. Really! Just south of the White Plains train station. Needless to say, I now keep my eyes peeled while in that area now.
The last few days have been crazy hot. But not too humid, which has helped. The heat wave is supposed to break overnight. I sure hope so, because tomorrow morning I have to go run up and down a half mile hill five times.
Filed under: everyday life, westchester | 1 Comment »
Fall Training: Week 3
Posted on June 8, 2008 by threlkeld
I took a recovery week this week, having increased mileage significantly over the past few weeks, up from the ~45 miles per week I did during post-marathon recovery. I took Monday off and spent most of my sessions running at around 66% max heart rate. Very easy paces. I enjoyed all that slow running, actually. It gave me lots of time to think about all the not-so-slow running I’ll be doing in short order.
I had a good race yesterday, all things considered (weather, mostly). Then got my aching legs out of bed at 5:30AM this morning so I could be out doing my long run at 6:30 to beat the heat. Good strategy; I had a much better run as compared to last week’s Sunday death march.
A look back at the week:
- Monday: Rest day
- Tuesday: 5 miles recovery pace (AM); 4 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Wednesday: 7 miles recovery pace (AM); 6.1 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Thursday: 7.3 miles recovery pace
- Friday: 6.3 miles recovery pace (AM); 4.8 miles recovery pace (PM)
- Saturday: 6.2 mile race
- Sunday: 14.3 mile long run (steady pace)
Total mileage: 61 miles
Paces this week:
- Recovery: 9:18 – 10:46
- Race: 7:07*
- Long: 8:42
Despite the fact that the heat index was around 85 degrees this morning, I felt surprisingly good on my long run. Well, at least for the first seven miles. Once the sun came up over the trees, I had to slow down a bit. I did a repeat of a 7+ mile loop so I could stash a big bottle of water at the halfway point. That seemed to help a lot, as I always felt much better following the three stops for water over the course of two hours.
My legs are quite tired today, though. I know it’s from yesterday’s race, because the fatigue is in the muscles I’m only aware of after running fast up and down hills: adductors, glutes, hamstrings, quads. (Seems like there’s not much left, doesn’t it?)
Still, running in the heat this morning wasn’t that bad. The humidity was actually pretty low (around 60%), so that helped, despite the high temperatures. It was nice to be done with my long run by 9AM (shower included). It typically monopolizes my entire Sunday morning.
During the workweek I’ve been getting up earlier either to do some work in peace (before the rest of the world wakes up and starts bombarding me with email, phone calls and instant messages), or to go running. The flipside, of course, is that I’ve been going to bed earlier and earlier (because I fall asleep in my chair) as a result of getting up at 5:30 AM these days. At least my hours are reasonably flexible, so what I’ve often done is do the bulk of my work starting very early in the day, go out for a run from 11:00-12:00, then knock off work at 3:30 or so to relax or get errands done until I have to go running again at 6:00. Now that summer’s here, however, I suspect I’ll be trying to run as early as possible to beat the heat. In any case, I am so grateful that I don’t have to commute.
Another flipside, though, if you can have three of them, is that since I freelance in addition to my M-F contracting gig, I often have to work weekends to get all the work done to meet deadlines. This weekend was the first one in nearly two months during which I had no freelance work to do! So I’ve enjoyed the hours of nothingness. I’ve watched television, websurfed on the couch, napped and generally avoided anything resembling productivity, such as housework, bill-paying or errands. Even with the oppressive heat, it’s been a great weekend. And now, since it’s Sunday (my “free day” to eat and drink what I want), I think I’ll go crack open that bottle of sauvignon blanc…
Coming up in Fall Training Week 4: The mileage ramps back up to 88. Plus I do my first hill repeat session and cap the week with another 20 miler with the last few at marathon pace. Whee!
*Garmin says I ran 6.45 miles. I believe it; it was very crowded in spots.
Filed under: basebuilding, everyday life, training | Leave a comment »
Whine
Posted on May 23, 2008 by threlkeld
Well, here we have a beautiful weekend coming up — a three day holiday weekend, no less — and I have to work! I have freelance work coming out of my ears these days, which is good. But not so good when it’s an ideal set of spring days.
I just wish the deadlines weren’t all so tight. And my regular 9-5 contracting gig has been crazy busy all week, especially today. Damned Europeans. Don’t they know it’s Memorial Day weekend?!
Just whining. It still beats being unemployed and starving. Sort of.
Goals are to spend no more than half of each weekend day working. Get all my quality runs in. Go see “Iron Man.” Drink heavily on Sunday evening and eat pot roast.
Filed under: everyday life | 2 Comments »
Lovely Betty
Posted on May 7, 2008 by threlkeld
My grandmother died a few days ago. She meant a lot to me. Here’s the obituary I wrote for her, with help from my mother and sister.
I’ve had work to do this week, but took a few hours yesterday to plant some new flowers in our garden and reflect on my grandmother’s life and what I think about love, life and death. I don’t often use the term “bittersweet,” but it has been apt in those moments.
I’m off to Iowa again soon for the funeral. As my sister said to me recently, “Mortality sucks.”
We both ran our best races ever in New Jersey on Sunday, and I’ll give a full report soon. But I came home to this bad news that afternoon and it’s overshadowed everything for the past few days.
Filed under: everyday life, inspiration | 3 Comments »
Spring is in full swing
Posted on April 28, 2008 by threlkeld
Jonathan saw a red fox with a very bushy tail while out on his run this afternoon, emerging from a small wood next to some condominiums in Tuckahoe. It’s only the second time either of us has ever seen a fox around here. Brave little fox.
And just now a wild rabbit scampered across our lawn. For several years, a couple of ducks would fly onto our lawn and spend a few days floating around in the runoff stream (aka “drainage sluice”) that runs alongside our house. They haven’t been back for a few years. Or maybe they were different ducks. Who can tell?
In other news, my niece’s high school varsity Ultimate (frisbee) team just won the California youth championship yesterday. In a few weeks she goes to the regional (Western) championships in Missouri. I am proud to have a niece who can kick her some frisbee ass.
Filed under: everyday life, westchester | 1 Comment »
Races Like a Girl 