Camera Dump

I misplaced my memory card reader at some point between vacation and now. As a result, I've had a lot of iPhone pictures on here, and a lot of pictures building up on my (real) camera. Still no sign of the reader, but I did track down the data transfer cord that came with the camera.

And, yeah. Lots of pictures.

Like from when we climbed a lighthouse in the Outer Banks.










And when PhillyGuy and I took the pups to cheer on runners (and bloggers) at Broad Street.






Cosmo wasn't the biggest fan of the crowds.



Sophie wasn't the biggest fan of the walk. A two-mile round trip is a little much for those short little legs.



"Oh ma. I quit."

Still weeding through these pictures. I wonder what else I'm going to find on here.



Looking forward to my second CrossFit class tonight. According to the website, tonight's skillwork is Russian kettlebell swings. I'm pretty pumped, even though my legs are STILL sore from squatting a piece of PVC pipe the other night.

PhillyGirlNeverRuns

that's what i should rename this blog. Or maybe "PhillyGirlNeverF!@kingRuns&isSuperBitterAboutIt."

It's been a nutty week. We road tripped it back home on Sunday and spent most of the evening getting everything in order to get back to the real world on Monday.

LOVE road trip snacks. I definitely had my fill of "junk food" on vacation, so I was ready to get back to eating normal stuff. And yes, beef jerky - in all of its sodium-laden beauty - is "normal" for me.

Between catching up on what went on while I was gone, addressing a couple of minor emergencies, managing a closing that I had hoped - foolishly - would happen while I was gone, and having one major crisis on Thursday (yes, I did actually cry at work. in my office. while my boss was there. don't worry, she offered me Crown Royal), this week was exhausting. I managed to work out pretty regularly, and the beautiful weather made my commute very calming - thank goodness.

Honestly, I think those two things - a gorgeous commute and regular sweat sessions - are the only two things that kept me from collapsing on Thursday. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, and all I wanted was comfort food. So, I came home, put on my bedazzled Phillies sweatpants, and ordered my new favorite takeout - a chicken kabob salad with feta cheese from the pizza place across the street.

Not pictured is the enormous styrofoam vat of hummus I ordered with my salad. I mean, come on. I cried at work. Do you think I was really going to soothe that with lettuce? I ate just about the entire order of hummus, between dipping my chicken in it, dipping my veggies in it, and just flat out dipping my fork in it.

But hey - it wasn't an entire pizza.

All of this was further complicated by the fact that Broad Street was coming up. I've mentioned before that my knee started bothering me right around the time I registered. And true to form, I've been short-sighted and I've kept myself from healing by continuing to run a couple times a week, 3-4 miles at a shot, with plenty of intervals and speedwork. It's satisfying, in the short term. It gives me a good sweat, releases some endorphins, and helps me stay sane. But I never felt 100% and I never did long runs, since I'd inevitably start one and punk out at 4 or 5 miles, when my IT band or my patella started to hurt.

I didn't want to admit to myself that there was no way I could get in shape for this race. Could I have finished the ten miles? Probably. Would I have been risking a much more serious injury? Also probably. Would I have been hard on myself for running at a pace likely 90 seconds over my goal pace? Definitely. Am I going to be hard on myself tomorrow, when I'm down at Broad & South with my camera, looking for my friends? Well...I'm going to try not to be.

And maybe next time I won't be so shortsighted. In the meantime, I spent 20 sweaty minutes on the bike today, followed by a shoulder-and-arm-blasting session of P90X that left me totally smoked. And now it's time to settle in for some Ghost Adventures, a sleeping Sophie and a bowl of roasted veggies, chicken and marinara sauce.

Good luck tomorrow, Broad Streeters! Look for me at South Street!

Sounds Familiar

Hmm.

I feel like history might be repeating itself.

Last year, when I signed up for Broad Street after months of successful and pain-free running, my knee started bothering me that very same day.

This year, when I signed up for Broad Street after even MORE consecutive months of successful and pain-free running (including a half marathon, dammit), and after making a public announcement about an ambitious goal, my knee started bothering me. This time, it had the decency to wait a couple of days.

Monday I hopped on the treadmill, eager to bust out my first three-mile "official" training run. I planned for three easy, steady-state miles. I actually spent hours psyching myself up, since I don't know when the last time I ran for thirty minutes on the treadmill at the same pace was...my hamster-wheel syndrome has left me doing lots and lots of intervals lately.

So color me shocked when my biggest challenge wasn't some kind of mental game. Nope. It was the twinge directly beneath my right kneecap that I haven't felt in months now. I kept going for a few minutes, since sometimes I get a little tiny pain that goes away after the first quarter mile or so.

But nope. So I fought back tears, hopped on the stupid recumbent bike, and felt sorry for myself for the next 40 minutes or so.

So what have I been doing (besides, of course, trying not to panic or overreact)? Quad-strengthening exercises from my PT last year. Elliptical and recumbent bike. P90X strength stuff. I'm going to try my damnedest to be patient, because even if I have to wait until February to start really training, I still have plenty of time to work on my speed.

In the meantime...I'll keep making lots of eggs.

With broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, salsa, hot sauce and cheese.

I'll keep working on my first knitting projects.

Scarf...

...and hat...

...the products of the beginner's knitting class that Sabrina and I are taking at Loop Yarn at 19th and South.

And I'll drink out of the cute new pink water bottle I bought myself today for no reason whatsoever.

And for now, I'll get ready to make dinner with PhillyGuy and snuggle with the sleepiest puppy in the world.

Life's rough.

Broad Street Training!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

really, it is. I love signing up for a race and planning a new challenge. I even love the first couple weeks of training, where I'm all inspired to achieve my new goals and all of my runs are fun.

And then the novelty wears off about three weeks in and I'm in the middle of a tempo run on the treadmill thinking to myself "WHY? I mean...WHY? This isn't fun and no one is going to care if you stop!"

Oh well.

So, in 2010 I got a new race distance under my belt, and I overcame my knee issues enough to train consistently. But lately I've been running shorter and quicker - instead of nine or ten 10:20 miles, I'm doing three or four 8-something or 9:00 miles.

And you know what? I've missed it. A bunch. And I think I'm ready to try to get 2011's Broad Street time down to my 2008 "debut" time of 1:30.59.

I'm nervous about it, but also excited. I have 15 weeks to train, which is plenty of time for me to start off with building a bit of a base and then ramp up the speedwork. If 2010 taught me anything, it's that (i) I can add distance without aggravating my knees if I don't do speedwork or junk miles, and (ii) if I don't do speedwork or junk miles, I will add plenty of distance but will never get faster.

And I'm ready to get faster.

I'm kind of scared, too. I don't want to burn out and I don't want to hurt myself. But most of all...I don't want to fail. I don't want to talk a big game (to teh internets, nonetheless) and then start trying to come up with excuses in five or six or fifteen weeks when I don't deliver.

oh well. Here goes nothing.

Broad Street Recap

Oh, Broad Street.



I think I'll always have a special place in my heart for this race. It was my first distance race, and my first race other than the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k. I consider it my first "real" race -- and the first time I ran it (in 2008) was the first time I'd ever run 10 miles. I've never "officially" run a longer distance.



This year...well, let's just say another PR wasn't in the cards like I'd originally hoped. After my knee injury flared up again in February -- the same day I registered for the race -- I more or less didn't train, at all. I started P90X and ran about once a week, on average, for about four miles or so at a time.



Even though my doctor told me I could train and still run it, my actual training didn't really put me where I needed to be, and as of a few weeks ago, I'd all but given up on the race. I considered selling my bib, or going to pick up the t-shirt at the expo and just cheering on the sidelines. But, for whatever reason, I got a wild hair up my ass to see what I could do. When I was able to run eight miles somewhat comfortably, without dying, the week before the race, I figured -- what the hell.



Thankfully, Stephanie from The Bright Side answered my plea on Twitter, and welcomed me to run with her and her sister during the race. And good grief, thank GOD for Stephanie.



The morning of the race, as everyone knows, was not exactly ideal conditions. The humidity was bordering on obnoxious, even at 7:15 in the morning when I got off the subway at Olney. At first, it was overcast -- which we all agreed wouldn't be SO bad. Naturally, before the first gun went off for the wheelchair start, the sun came out. How...sweet.



This year, they introduced corrals and a wave start -- as opposed to 2008, for example, when they just had people standing with signs. "9:00 PACE HERE. 8:00 PACE HERE." etc, etc. -- and all 25,000 or so people just started at once, which led to some great bottlenecking.



Although I was assigned to the green corral (with the other 4,499 people who intended to finish between 1:29 and 1:30), I started a corral back with Stephanie and her sister. Our corral didn't cross the starting line until almost 8:50 -- a good 18 minutes after the official start, and, as I pointed out, after the leaders had probably covered four miles already.



I spent the first three miles of the race like I spend the first chunk of any race -- with an excellent negative internal monologue. "WHY did I sign up for this? WHAT am I doing? There is NO WAY I can finish...what was I thinking? I could still be in bed -- in the air conditioning -- with my dogs and my husband. What is WRONG with me? This is no way to spend a Saturday morning!" etc, etc, etc. I even told myself that, if I just made it to South Street, where PhillyGuy would be looking for me -- I could just hang a hard right and the two of us would head home together.


Not shockingly, those were the hardest miles. They were also our fastest. When Stephanie and I stopped to walk through the first water station, we were both starting to feel it. As I told her then, there were times during that first chunk where I was absolutely, positively, one-thousand-percent certain that I was about to die...and then times when I felt GOOD. Like, okay, I can do this.

I finally started to hit my stride as we approached Spring Garden. It was around that time that I took my first (and only) gel. God, I hate that stuff...but it really does work.

The next few miles started to tick by. Although the tightness in my legs and hips was increasing, the miles were going by much faster, and every time we ran through one of the fire-hydrants-turned-sprinklers, I felt downright refreshed and happy (for a GOOD two seconds a time!). We circled City Hall, where a band was rockin' out "Mustang Sally." I was anxiously awaiting South Street, where PhillyGuy was waiting for me -- and this year, with a camera! He even got a great picture of me and Steph:



What? You don't see me? Let me help.



The perils of running a race with your 30,000 closest friends? When your husband has a great shot of you waving and smiling, you can get overtaken in an instant by someone...maybe someone in a blue shirt...juuuuuuust fast enough to step directly into the shot. Oh, and check out the dude running without a bib. BANDIT!

From then on, it was GAME ON. The last half of the race was -- while significantly slower than the first -- by far my better half. Sure, my legs were screamin' and sure, my hips were unbelievably tight. Sure, we walked it out at the remaining water stations, and sure, we walked a little during Mile 7 as well. But for me, the miles were starting to fly by, and as we got further and further south, I was actually believing that I was -- for real! -- going to finish this.

After we walked for a chunk of Mile 7 to stretch out our legs, Steph and I agreed we'd knock out the last two miles without stopping -- and we did. My god, I have never been so happy to see the Naval Shipyard. Although the vast majority of our gas was long since spent, we both managed to pick it up and "sprint" (if you can call it that!) for the last tenth of a mile or so towards the finish line.

My official chip time was 1:47:57, which sounds about right -- I didn't hit the "stop" button on my Garmin until after we'd gone over the finish line -- I was too busy smiling and waving like a toolbox.



Splits:



Not too shabby, considering the absolutely abysmal conditions. I am sunburned like a mofo, and I believe the official reading was 67% humidity. On any other day, this would have been a treadmill workout, no question about it. I cannot even describe how important it was that I had Steph to run with, either -- if it weren't for her there next to me, it's very likely that I'd have stopped to walk sometime during one of those first three negative, painful miles -- and probably would have added an easy 20 or so minutes to my total time.

After PhillyGuy and I managed to find each other at the shipyard, we started to walk (well, he walked -- I sort of waddled) back to the subway. I was tired and sweaty and happy -- but not nearly as happy as I was when we made our way back to the city, and I finally sat down to this:



A post-race burrito. The most delicious meal I have ever eaten.

I spent a big chunk of the afternoon napping in bed with my dogs. Sophie curled up next to my head on a pillow, while Cosmo snuggled next to my leg. I closed my eyes sometime around 1:30pm and did not open them again until 3:30...and my god, was that glorious.

So...let's see. Am I pleasantly surprised to find that I have a base level of fitness that allows me to complete a 10-mile run without any prior training? Definitely. Would I ever do this again without training? Um, no chance. Even though I came in 17 minutes over my 2008 time, this run was about four billion times more difficult than 2008.

HOWEVER...I've learned something. And this might sound really obvious or really stupid, but it's sort of opened up a new world for me. I don't HAVE to do all of my long runs at a 9:00 pace. In fact -- if I just slow it down a little bit -- I can go a whole lot further and not burn out so quickly.

Um. Rocket science? not so much. But maybe, with this epiphany, there might just be a Philly Half in my not-so-distance future.

Pre-Recap-Recap

More detail coming later. In short -- I did NOT die, although there were a few times where I was certain that I was going to, moreso in the first half of the race.

I came in at a whopping 17 minutes slower than my previous Broad Street time -- but considering (1) the 67% humidity (no, really), and (2) my complete lack of training, I am incredibly happy with that. It would have been a much slower time if I didn't have Stephanie to run with and keep me going!

The lululemon Run:Swiftly tank was an absolute lifesaver. It's like running shirtless while still being clothed. Also, props to SPIbelt for allowing my to keep my cell phone with me and avoid the gear check completely.

I'm a little sunburnt and a little sore today, but all in all, I feel remarkably good. I love Broad Street!

WTF Weather

So, I love -- LOVE -- hot and sunny weather. I love it. I even love when it's humid and sticky.

I don't really love running in hot and sunny weather. Over the summer I'll run in the morning -- 5:45, 6am -- before it really heats up, but even then, if it's a humid stretch, it's treadmill city to me.

So, you can imagine my internal conflict when I saw this weekend's weather report. High 80s both Saturday and Sunday? Sunny? Hot? YES! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

...but wait. Don't I have to run ten miles on Sunday? The day where there's a high of 88 to 90 degrees, with humidity and possible rain late in the day? Um...what?

You can further imagine how unsettling it was to get an e-mail from the sponsors of Broad Street, essentially saying the following:

"Dear Runners: So, you've seen the weather forecasts. Didn't see that one coming, did ya?? Neither did we. You know damn well you haven't trained in these conditions. And you know you weren't expecting this weather. We won't tell you what to do -- except for not get drunk on Saturday night. And make sure you start hydrating three days ago. And by the way, if you die during the race, it's TOTALLY your fault.

PS -- have fun at the expo!"

Ugh. Lame.

Remember how I was sort of vomiting with nerves already? Compound that by the fact that the last time I ran in this kind of heat and humidity -- over the summer -- I actually DID nearly vomit into a trashcan on Kelly Drive. (In front of a coworker, no less! Who hasn't really asked me to run with her again since. Hmm...coincidence, I'm sure.) And that was only FIVE miles.

Well, there's a long time between now and that starting line. I know one thing for sure: I am going to the Expo tomorrow morning and picking up my race packet (not to mention spending cash on a Bondi Band or two, and a SpiBelt). After that...well...I'll let you know if I end up dying.

Confession

Confession: I am petrified about running Broad Street this weekend.

My 8-miler really did go well, with no post-run fallout. And thanks to Steph at The Bright Side, I have some buddies to run with on Sunday. And it's not like I haven't done this before.

But I'm still so nervous that I'm going to injure myself. No matter how many times I tell myself that I'm going to be conservative, and stretch my hips regularly, and walk the second I feel like I need to -- I'm worried that I'm going to be my normal stupid self, and "push through" because I feel like I "should." And end up unable to walk down the stairs for weeks.

I'm being silly. At least, I think I am.

I skipped P90X plyo last night, reasoning that (1) jumping up and down repeatedly is not going to help my let's-not-injure-my-knee goal, and (2) Sunday's race will be more than enough cardio to make up for it. I was going to hop on the Hamster Wheel of Death (aka elliptical) with my new Fitness magazine instead, but that didn't happen.

Sigh. So nervous. So silly of me. I figure that once I pick up my packet, I'll be stuck -- since I can't really wear the shirt without running the race, right? And I can't bring in my bib to add to my display here at work either, right?



Yeah. I'd be a real poseur then.

Broad Street

Just registered for Broad Street! I'm excited. Broad Street was my first long race -- I ran it in 2008 -- and it was sometime during training for that race that I realized two things: (1) I really, REALLY enjoy long runs, and (2) I strongly prefer racing long distances to short ones. I loathe 5Ks -- there's something so nice about a race where you can take the first two or three miles to "warm up."

I didn't get to run it last year, since I was a bridesmaid in a friend's wedding the night before and didn't want to deal with the additional commitment and timing issues, but I'm so glad to be back at it this year. My time goal for 2008 was 90 minutes, and I JUUUUUUST made it with a time of 1:30:59. (woohoo, instant PR!) It was the first (and only!) time I'd ever run that distance, and I went into it with about six weeks of moderate, but consistent, training involving one long run, a shorter/easy run, and a 4 to 6-mile "quality" run, either speedwork, tempo or hills.

Ideally, I'd like to beat my '08 time (and PR again! who wouldn't?), but I will really need to see where training takes me. My knees gave me so much trouble this fall and winter that I am more out of shape than I've been in a while and I don't have a particularly reliable picture of where I am, since I haven't really pushed it at all.

So, right now, I'm fine with just taking it slow. I'll follow a similar plan as last time. For the first week or two of training, I want to focus on just making sure I can actually handle a solid base. I haven't run more than two or three days a week for months, and I haven't even run multiple consecutive two to three day weeks in a while, either. I'm crossing my fingers than my stamina and "speed" (heh) come back relatively quickly with some consistent training. But, whatever. I'm confident I can complete a ten-miler, even today -- it would just be significantly slower than I'd like -- so I'm just excited to have something to train for again.

Also, this time, PhillyGuy better bring a camera.

Who else is running this?