Week Four Stress Fracture

I have not run in 26 days. When I write that it seems  inconsequential but it feels like years instead of days. Since breaking my foot I have either swam, deep water ran, rowed or biked every day, often a combination of 2 or 3 activities because I cannot get the intensity of running.

I have been a bit depressed because everyone I spoke to that had food fractures told me it hurt for a few days and that was it. Mine hurts 24/7. My third metatarsal broke clear though. It swells up my foot and I have a big red bump on top.  I feel like I am constantly being stung by a bee. My x-ray at day 1 and 14  showed no healing but today I went to a new doc. Dr. Donald Rose, orthopedist to the stars of dance, most notably Alvin Ailey. One of my colleagues was a prima for Ailey and knows all the best doctors. It turns out that Rose was also PhD.D dissertation adviser for another one of my colleagues.  I knew I would be well taken care of. He was excellent. He thoroughly checked out my foot, took three x-rays, showed me everything, went over it and made some changes in my orthopedic boot. Man, I hate this boot. I clearly saw the break and the healing, even a novice could pick it out the x-ray was so clear. So I feel much better seeing that my bone is healing.

In the meantime I am desprete to keep my  fitness. I am on the 9 week Pfitzinger deep water running plan. I am swimming and begin a master swim stroke clinic on July 2. It meets 3x a week all the way through August at the 14th street Y in Manhattan. After 25 coached swims I will have to be a more fit and a stronger swimmer. I am not a good swimmer. I never had lessons and taught myself by doing it and having friends give me pointers. I also discovered Concept 2 rowing. Wow I love rowing. This is almost as good as running. I was rowing like mad every day and met with a coach. But I was also really torquing my feet so I have to lay off it for a bit. In it’s place I am using a hand-cycle and that is really fun too. I think most people feel hand-cycling is only for rehab,  but this thing is awesome. Again one of my colleague’s from the PT division told me to try it for cardio and it’s great. And technically I am in rehab, working out the rest of my body while by bone heals.

This weekend is Pride. I get to watch my Front Runner teammates run the Gay Pride Race. I hate standing on the sidelines. I planned on winning our teams master division this year. I guess it is not a good idea to plan on winning, one never knows what may happen.

No more grinning

I put off updating my blog because I did not want to admit that I ran myself into the ground and have been given a forced leave of absence. One thing I have never really worried about is stress fractures. I am not sure why I did not worry, a huge number of my team mates have or have had them and now it is my turn. After a robust spring of setting new PR’s in the 10K, 45:51, the 4 mile, 28:27 and Cross Country 23:03 I got sidelined on Memorial Day. And I had such an awesome X-C race on May 18th. With over 100 runners, two college teams and one high school team I came in 5th female overall and first in the 40-49 AG. I won a carrot muffin! That was the best race prize ever – well not really I do like winning the money.

My week went like this. Thursday  I raced X-C, Friday I ran 8 miles easy, Saturday I ran 10 hard, Sunday 8 easy  and Monday I was out for a 15. At mile 3 the ball of my left foot hurt so I stopped, took off my shoe and loosened it up. But instead of feeling better it  hurt, so I put my shoe back on and walked home. During the walk I knew I broke it. The whole way back I was planning which doctor I would call, what PT’s I would schedule and what my workouts would look like.

At 8:30 Tuesday morning I called Dr. Greg Rock who was recommended by Coach Kelsey. I saw him at 11:00 and he was far more interested in  doing bunion surgery  than any boring old fracture. He finally let it go when I said, “I have the NYC marathon in November, Boston in April, and Trans Rockies in August, when do you suppose you would remove the bunions which cause me no pain what so ever.”  He x-rayed my foot  but nothing showed up as predicted. He will x-ray again on June 9th. But he said, “I know right where it is, HERE,” and pinched my third metatarsal. Gee, I hope seeing me almost hit the ceiling confirmed that.  I did not push for an MRI,  I could not walk so it really did not matter. If the next  x-ray does not show the callusing on the bone I will get an MRI. I saw Rock all of 4 minutes and walked out with my tail between my legs and a boot on my foot.

After hanging out at home with the dogs on Wednesday I put everyting into order. Dogs had to get boarded in upstate NY since I cannot walk them. PT evaluation set for thursday with rehab on Friday. Book pool rehab with second PT the following Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And swimming every day. I love my health care professionals! I love NYC with all it’s amenitites!

When I got up Thursday, I made a  feeble attempt to walk the dogs. I only took them to the corner and back upstairs. The PT I saw is at Long Island University where I teach. I went there because I wanted to use the super cool therapy pool. An endless pool with a elevating floor, video camera, an underwater treadmill to 8.5 mpr, 7:04 pace, and it is 94 degrees. I am really looking forward to running 7:00 pace at 94 degrees with water resistance! And since we have a great fitness center  I went early and worked out in the gym and swam for an hour.

My main concern is not losing fitness so I have put together a regiment of deep water running on the Pfitzinger schedule. I am also doing PT 3-4 times a week, strength training to varying levels 5 days a week and swimming at least 3 days a week.  I will take advance of this time to become a better swimmer. Other things that I have managed to accompish in my “down time” is get a hair cut,  get new glasses, clean my apartment and grocery shop, you know (or maybe you don’t) those things “normal” people do. If you asked me why I think I got a stress fracture I would say, I have been eating  poorly meaning; very little, not taking my supplements, not getting enough sleep, and basically not taking care of myself. I had a bad cold  for a week which kept me out of work and in bed, except for when I woke up and ran.    So did it just happen out of bad luck,maybe maybe not.  I neglected my self care, I knew it and others saw it and had commended, my boss in particular.  So now I have lots of self care time.

A final note. The two photos on this page are from two different 10k races a couple of weeks apart.  It rained like crazy during both races and  we got soaked, all 7,000 – 8,000 runners yes that is 8,000 per race!

North Face Endurance Challenge!

Finish of North Face Endurance Challenge

I just got home and I am grinning from ear to ear. Today was my first mountain trail race the 1/2 marathon at Bear Mountain, part of the North FAce Challenge Series. There is a five star ranking series on this race, elevation change 4 out of 5, technical terrain 5 out of 5, overall difficulty 5 out of 5 and scenery 5 out of 5. How hard is it to run a trail race as compared to a road race? I looked up the results from2008 the first over all male, Oliver Obagi ran it in 2:15, a 10:22 pace,  the first overall female professional ultra distance runner Nikki Kimball ran it in 2:25 an 11:07 pace. In the 40-49 year old women the first place women, Judy Stobbe ran it in 3:15.  The first place non-prof women was 2:52. This was going to be a hard race!

I do not have trail running shoes and the trail is all rock and rivers. At the last minute I decided to wear my hiking shoes. Heck I have no experience doing thing, I am not sure what to expect besides mud and rocks, and if it took Nikki Kimball 2:25, when her last road marathon was 3:08, I am going to be out there for a while. We were told that there would be 3 aid stations so we needed to carry provisions. OK I am ready.

All night I watched the thunder and lightning but by 9:00am race start it was just raining. A total  308 people, 234 men and 74 women,  lined up, I was standing with my friends Rachel, Claudia and Les. The horn went off and we ran, no walked, ran, walked. Hey, what is going on? It was a  crowded and the first mile as it went up hill people were already walking! To get around them and find some space that mile was a big chuckle taking  just under 12:00 minutes to complete. Wow if they are walking already it is going to be a long day. In no time though I found some space, I lost my teammates, one ahead two behind,  and I was just out for a trail run. I came across the first aid station and on to my first 1000 foot climb. Piece of cake, this really feels good. The pace got much quicker and I fell in with a group of dudes. From running cross country I know I can always kick their ass on the uphill, but they can kick mine on the down hill and that is how it went most of the race. But at one time it just got a out of hand. There was an 800 foot direct downhill of  rocks, suddenly the dudes were flying down the hill and falling, taking out each other like it was a bowling alley, sliding down the wet mud, hitting the rocks. It was a too much. I decided I need to run away from them which I did. I moved forward and fell into a group of older duded that I ran with most of the race. Now when I say older, most are still under 35. It seems that trail racing is a young guys sport, there were only 14 women in my age group. At New York road race there are often 300+. We had some big steep climbs, at certain points there was a string of men about 8 deep all walking. The trail was extremely narrow so I just fell in behind them and walked, took the time to eat a gel and drink my water, the pace was down to 14:00. But the time we got to the top, they were ready to rest so I motored on. One of them  emerged about one mile later and passed me.

A very happy Hilary running the trails

I was smiling whole race. It did not matter if it was up hill, down hill, running though shin deep water, over a mile of sharp rocks. Okay the rocks did really hurt, in this particular spot there was 4 miles to go, I had a major blister under my left bunion and the rocks were killing it. But I got off the rocks, and onto a beautiful wide path and running all alone in that last three miles, I managed to clock some 7:30’s. I took it easy, I never felt stressed, never tired, never frustrated. It was beautiful the whole way. Early on I got my fall out of the wall, tripping on a rock or my feet on a downhill. I rolled up like a little pill bug, did a complete left to right should hip roll and came right back onto my feet. One women that I did see early on, immediately asked if I needed help, the dudes just kept going. I am glad I ended up beating them all, HA! It was around mile 4.5 that I fell because my shoes were already soaked and they got very loose. I stopped after that to tighten them up. This is probably one of the downsides of running in hiking shoes, but they  protected my feet, that and my crew style wool socks. With my skinny legs and short black socks I looked like a little old man but the knees down.

I am checking out my GPS, I had 5646 of ascent and 5730 decent. The course was changed from last year and made easier, I mean faster.  My friend a 5X iron man, runs every intense race and tri across the country and many in European races said this was by far the hardest course she had ever run. It did take me a long time, 2:39, but I am totally happy. Out of 308 runners I was very middle of the pack, 172. Of the women I was 30 out of 74 and of the 14  40-49 year old’s a solid 7th.Judy Stobbe who won my age group last year with a  3:15 ran a 2:29 this year and came in 5th. She may be more experienced this year, but most likely this was a  reflection of the course change. The majority of the women, 32 of them were 21-29. Of the 234 men, 95 were 30-39. There were only 2 men over 60 and no women. At 44 years of age I am an old timer in this crowd. Was it slow, sure, but I had a great time.  I was not racing, I was experiencing. I was learning how to trail run, what it is like, and let me tell you. I may never go back to the road again. This was a blast. I love being covered with mud and dirt and smelling like some god awful swamp creature. I am wearing my scraped leg and bruised write like a badge of honor. I had plenty of energy to run hard the last couple of miles, and picked off 5 guys in my last mile. It took me an hour longer than it would have taken me on the road, but it was so much more fun you can’t imagine. I honestly was not ready to leave the woods, I would have ran it again. Speaking of that, next year I am doing to 50K. That is in preparation for the Trans Rockies, a 6 days, 113 mile multi-stage race through the Colorado Rockies. I got an email just last week from a women asking me to be her partner – you bet I could easily get used to this.

New Race, New PR!

Pouring rain, 46º and over 7,000 runners. I do not know the total because the results are not posted. I raced today in New York City’s Central Park for the Scotland 10K. It was a giant mud bath in the baggage area and pretty darn cold, but overall a fun day.

A lot  happened in the past two months, which I will share with you for two reasons. One, people are asking me how I got faster, thinking it was all the speed training over the winter and two, knowing that we runners go through all kinds of crazy self doubt, self abuse, and obsessing, I will share my crazies and what I did about it.

To put things into pespective, I needed something to focus my training on. In January met my coach, Kelsey of Front Runners, who helped me lay out goal times for all my races, and dates when I need to hit them, 5k, 4 mile, 10k, 1/2marathon all looking toward my fall NYC marathon goal. Worrying that if I miss one goal on any of these races, my marathon 11 months away will be crap. I would get so worked up before a race that I could do little else, no social life, no working in my studio, just sitting at home with my dogs reading about how I can run better. When I was not running or reading, I was strength training. Hell, I could not even watch a movie without doing leg lifts during it. You get the picture; I was having a mental breakdown. I was  fighting myself and got in a rut like a stuck looping CD.

Late breaking news: 7603 runners, 3584 women, and 285 in my age group. I came in 11th place in my age group, missed 10th by 2 seconds, 70.7%AG. Out of the 3584 women I came in 144. I beat old PR by 4 minutes and 7 seconds! Average pace 7:23.

How do I feel? Pretty fuckin’ awesome.

This is what I did.  I asked for help from Kristen Dieffenbach, Ph.D. Professor at West Virginia University. She is a certified consultant, CC,  with the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology, AASP, and an advisory board member with the USA Cycling coaching education committee and is the cycling psychology editor for Peak Conditioning for Cycling. She is owner of Mountains, Marathons & More and holds an elite level USA Cycling license and has earned a Level II endurance specialization from USA Track and Field. She has coached for over 10 years at the high school, collegiate, recreational, and elite levels in cross country, track and, for the past 7 years, road and mountain cycling.

I spoke with Kristin once a week for the past 4 weeks and what she is helping me do is reframe my goals and motivation for running. Obviously we can’t control the weather, who shows up or how fast we run on race day. But I learned to make a strategic plan, to list what I can control that is not goal oriented such as I want to be in the top 10.  Plus I would learn to plug myself back into the process of running. For example my old way of pushing myself during as race was by saying, “keeping going, good job, your strong” all valid self talk but it was not working.  Now I map out the course, decide how I am going to run each mile and experiment. That’s right experiment. Not worry about the outcome but pick one or two things to try during a race. In my last 4-mile race it was to push my speed up hills. A scary prospect, but why not try and put a bunch of energy in the uphill to push the pace. The result, I took one full minute off my 4-mile time. Today my plan was no time goal; in fact my watch broke this morning so I did not wear one. I would stay in constant awareness of what my hips and shoulders are doing and relax my abdomen. I would not tighten anything and I would use the momentum of my hips, all 33 1/2” of them, to swing my leg through. The result, more than 4 minutes off my best 10K time and I never felt like I was pushing hard or working against myself as I “normally”  feel. I did not have the usual vomit feeling at the finish and I did not get cramps in my psoas. At the top of the Harlem Hills I was able to make a mental note to practice the east hills. I was not pushing as hard as I could, in fact I was not pushing at all, I was using my hips and shoulders to propel my legs and take note of how everything feels, that was my goal. That’s it. The last 200 meters my legs were getting pretty heavy and very cold, but no problem it was an experiment that yielded a positive result! I am far more body aware, I was tuned into everyone around me and for the first time I did not run myself into the ground but I ran much faster.

This is so cool, Thank you Kristen!

More about how I am learning about my hips in the next post and who else is helping me that.

Big Races, Fast Times

Last Sunday it was a beautiful 45º day with the winds a mild 7 mph. I was in Central Park running the 4-mile race, Run for the Parks. There were a total of 5751 people in this race, 2919 men and 2832 women, 267 of which were in my age group, 40-44. My previous best in the four mile were in 2008 one week before the Boston marathon and following intensive training and a taper, then two weeks ago I bettered that time by 9 seconds, going from a 29:29 to a 29:20. Today I secretly hoped to go below 29:00 but since I just raced the week prior it was a lot to ask.

But this race I began differently. I knew last time the rolling hills at mile 3 slowed me down, so on Tuesday I ran 5 ½ miles of fartleks back and forth over that mile strip, 1 minute at 7:15, 1 minute at 8:45, 20 times. When I began the race today I was relaxed and had a plan of how I wanted to run the race. I was going to experiment and not worry about the outcome. I was going to do what is normally discouraged, put a lot of extra effort going up the hills, push forward and do multiple surges of speed over the whole four-mile course. Well I was so busy going over my plan and not looking at my watch I had no idea what pace I was running, but it felt easy. It felt maybe slow, I was not sure. It was not too stressful. I did get a very bad side cramp during mile three and every time I tried to push the pace on the downhill it hurt a bit more. I decided that I did my plan I will maintain through the fourth mile and kick it in the best I can in the end. I crossed the finish line and looked at my watch, 28:27, 53 seconds faster! Was it that it I could finally race in shorts, was it the wine I drank the night before, (I almost never drink) was it some miracle that happened from one week to the next? What I am convinced of it was my brain. It was having a plan, relaxing and not worrying about the outcome, but about “how to run the race.” It was not about what place will I get, (6th by the way at a 72.2% AG!) but about the tactics of running such a race. It was fantastic.

I tried to keep my first mile the easy, but at the same time get out of the crowed start. Of the 5751 people, I was lined up in the first 1200. I ran the first mile at 7:10, then as the street cleared and the road went downhill I hit the second at 6:45. It felt good to get out of the crowd and really nice to have that pace. My finishing overall pace was 7:06. I pushed up the hills and picked out targets on the back of people’s head and charged after them. It worked, it all worked and it was a joy running over that finish line. This Saturday I have a 10k race, I am excited to set out my tactics on this.

Racing Extravaganza

Micky, Katrina, Hilary, Megan (Bernie is missing)

Last weekend there were two NYRR races, a 4 miler and 15K. Early in the year, January 1st I signed up for as many open races as possible since this year NYRR is put a cap of 5,000 people in each race. Most of the races filled a couple weeks before the race, but all of them are filling up. Last year with over 6,000 in each race, they just got to be too big for the park and not to mention a bit frustrating to run since the first mile is nothing but elbowing your way through. NYRR has start corral by pace with volunteering watching to make sure people go into their correct pace. There is nothing more frustrating when walker or 12 minute milers put themselves in the 6:00 milers start.

Since November after the NYC Marathon I have been speed training twice a week with low high intensity and low mileage. I gave up all the 1200, 1600, and 2000 meter repeats for 200, 400, 600 and a few 800 meter repeats to encourage faster turnover, better biomechanics, and stronger legs. There were days when faced with fast 400’s that I really missed those 20-mile runs, but it may be paying off.

On March 14, I ran the NYRR 8K. My goal was to be in the top 10% of my age group. There were 4618 runners, 2133 were women, and 179 in my age group. I ran it as hard as I could feeling that the hills were bringing me down, mental note-work on hills- and I felt pretty good when I came home. I waited to check the results, scanning over the 40-44 age group. I saw 179 in my group so I began looking for my name in the 10% range and saw nothing, feeling a bit of dread I expanded my search and there I was #10. This is the first race I placed in the top 10! I finally made it to the Honor Roll of NYRR. I was thrilled, relieved, proud, and oh man this is excellent!

One week later at the NYRR Colon Cancer 4M race I was hugely excited to be running the 4 miler rather than the 15K that followed. When I signed up for my races at the beginning of the year and knew I wanted to run short until Jun. Then I will began my ½ marathons and longer in preparation for my fall excellently fast full marathon. There were two races in the day, the cap of 5,000 was split between then. The 4M had 2040 runner, 1038 women, and 90 in my age category. The start was excellent; it was the first time in a long time that I did not feel like a cow being herded through the gates, it only took 30 seconds to reach the start line. My goal was to keep the first mile the slowest but steady. I planned to log each mile to see how evenly I ran my splits but unfortunately I clicked my watch off only getting the first and last mile, which was 2 seconds apart. Again I found the hills challenging. I was wearing my new racing flats but with my orthodics in them when on the third mile the most excruciating pain hit my right quad. It felt like my muscles were going to rip apart. I feared that I was heel striking too hard in these shoes, a habit I am trying to break, and I was forced to shift almost to a tiptoe to ease the pain. It really hurt as I ran on the outside of my right toes for over a mile and a half. But the strange gait eased the pain. The night before I made of goal of coming in 5th place in my age group, then the morning of the race took the mantra of 3rd place. So as the pain roared I just kept saying 3rd place, 3rd place without question. When I saw the finish I tried to kick it up a gear finding it difficult. My diaphragm began to compress and spasm and I could feel the dry heaves starting but more gently than usual. I crossed the finish line full on and the dry heaves came on strong but for only a few seconds and then I felt great. I felt strong, happy and exhilarated. To digress I saw my chiropractor a few days before and she found my diaphragm and lower lungs extremely compressed and tight. She worked on them to relax and it really made the difference in my day to day as well as the race, I could relax much quicker and be aware enough to try and counter act the tightening.

Megan Jenkins, Colon Cancer 4M

I met my teammate Megan Jenkins came in before me and we waited around for the results as we cheered on the 15k runners. We made it over to the board, she placed  2nd in her age group of 30-34 and I placed 5th  in the 40-44. For just a second I felt sad I did not place 3rd and then checked myself on that. This is the highest I have ever placed in a big race, I hit the 70%AG for the first time without getting any older, and I PR’d. My personal best for the 4 mile was last April one week before the Boston Marathon when I was peaking, this is only the beginning of the season with far less mileage on my legs and no hill training. I felt great and I felt like things were working. With the exception of my shoe laces, they came untied at mile 1 and I had to pull over to the side and tie them, it took maybe 7-10 seconds maybe more, but still not enough to catch 4th place. I now have lace clips, there is no excuse for untied shoes in a race. The funny thing is as I was walking from the finish line another teammate finished with an untied shoe, he ran the whole race that way, and another man also had to stop and tie his. What was it with this day that we could not tie our shoes properly?

Later in the morning I got an email. Front Runner Women in the 4 mile took 1st place in the team competition. Holy cow sure enough Megan Jenkins,  Hilary Lorenz, Bernadette Janelle, Katrina Amaro and Michele Comerford, the first place team. There are around 170 teams in the NYC area, I do not know how active they all are but the competition is fierce and we won, this is really terrific. This is my proudest metal!

I have another race in a week. It sounds like a lot of racing but I have different goals for each one and different tactics to try so that I become a more tactical and faster racer. I started my hill training this week, 10x the west side of Harlem Hill in Central Park, about a 400 meter steep climb and extended my repeats to include 1200’s and 2000’s  but keep my longish run more moderate under 15 miles, yesterday we ended it at 10 which is fine and I am good with that. It is my goal to train smart this year and stay fresh rather than beat myself into the ground. And so far it is working beautifully!

Back at It

Oh, not a pretty picture! This is the finish of New York Road Runner’s Coogan’s 5k. It is a very hilly out and back 5k, and on this day it was barely 30 degrees. I still do not think it was 30 as reported with 10 mph winds. I think it was about 15. I had anxiety for days because this was the first team points race of the year, we had been pounding ourselves to the ground with indoor track workouts and now was the test to see if it all worked. Or at least that is how I thought  after my last 12 x 400.

Statistically, I place 19th out of 196 in my age group, I placed 5th for our team, 1st in the masters, which is important because being a points race it is all the NYC teams competing against each other and they only score the first 5 runners. There were 4703 runner in the race and it was crowded, I was very discouraged in the beginning because I could not navigate though all the slower runners. The course is difficult, it is all hills, up and down the entire race, more hills than even the Van Cortland X-C course. But I missed my goal time, I PR’d by 20 seconds over my X-C time so I am still not sure that counts, but was almost 40 seconds shy of my goal. That is huge. So what does that say? My goal was too lofty, the course was too hard, I am not as fit as I could be? I was freezing my ass off. I basically ran my tempo run pace, but by the looks on my face I was not too happy and I have to chuckle because my teammate to the right looks as though she is dry heaving, perhaps she is, I will have to ask her later. That is the one true indication that I ran my all in a short race, a bit of constricting diaphragm and gagging at the end.I am glad this race is over.

My next race is less than a week away. It is March 14, the New York Road Runners 8000. I am more excited about this. I know the course well. I had never runs Coogans on the streets of Washingington Heights neighborhood. I think I will do better split wise in the 8K over the 5k. This time I am looking forward to it. I have rallied some new support structure and began a new strength workout that I am very excited about. All power and speed drills, I will tell you about that as it progresses.

In the meantime, Happy Running!

Art Exhibition Opening

I am laying in bed, two dogs stretched out around me and I am coughing like crazy. My brain is in overdrive with teaching too many classes, taking too many classes, my exhibition opening and obsessing about running. So one at a time.

Exhibition. On Saturday I am showing at a new gallery in Brooklyn New York, Shop Art Gallery. It is very exciting, the gallery just opening in December. I delivered the show today, brand new 2009 etchings some combined with digital photographs plus watercolor drawings. Delivering the exhibition is a huge relief as I have been printing and cutting and framing like crazy, sleeping less than 5 hours a night. The opening reception is Saturday February 7, 2009 from 4-7pm. Come on by.

I was fighting a cold but I lost. I began getting sick on Friday and thought I would be fine to race on Sunday in Central Park the Gridiron Classic 4 miler. Five thousand, two hundred and sixy eight people came out in the nice 30 degree weather. Yes that is 5,268 runners. It was a tough and crowded race, I did not do as well as I wished but I did place 13th in my age group, not bad but I want to be in the single digitsl. I have been working out twice a week with Front Runners. I have not been doing much mileage mostly under 30 per week,  a far cry from the 50-65 I was doing last year at this time. I also hired the expertise of runner and coach Lowell Ladd an NCAA All-American (10,000m), one of the top ten Americans at Boston Marathon twice (2002 & 2003)  runner-up finish at 2005 Steamtown Marathon. and first place in the 36th Annual Harrisburg Marathon, 2009, to help me out with my training. Right now I am trying out a four week plan to get started so that we can see how each other works. My current training was a mix of my most excellent FR coach Kelsey Louie, an amazing  short distance runner,  workouts from  Pfitzinger ’s marathon schedule and strength training from my favorite PT’s at Dynamic Sports Physical Therapy. Pete and John fix me up and help me to work on all my weak points. They are responsible for putting some muscles into my skinny distance runner legs. I am at a point that I need to have someone put everything together, look at what I am doing and validate or rewrite it.  I speak to Lowell once a week on the phone and plan my running, right now the focus is tempo runs.

School. Oh. Yes I am working too much, don’t most people. I will not go into the details but I have way too many independent students who are not  independent. In the classes that I am taking I have an annotated bibliography to write – something we never did in art school and a whole lot of catching up since I missed yesterday and today because I was sick.

So until next time, happy running, go see some art and hire experts to make your life better.

Dogs, Art, Running, and Racing

This month I have a bit of it all, 4:30am walks with my new puppy, 8pm training runs at the New Balance Armory Track, New York Road Runners Thursday Night at the races -  track race,  an exhibition opening  February 7th and school started.  Plus it is cold.

I feel like hibernating at this time of year, it is cold, last Saturday my 12 mile run was done at -4 degrees, today was almost balmy at 26 degrees, but never the less I don’t like it. Tomorrow is NYRR 1/2 marathon but I am skipping it. Right now my focus is to get quick and all my short runs would not make for a good 1/2 marathon time.

Two weeks ago I got my nerve up to run at the NYRR Thursday night at the races. This indoor meet is for track racers, those speedy folks that run sub 5:00  miles. One man in the 45-49 age catagory ran a 4:28 mile! Clearly speed is not just for the 20 year olds! I thought there is no way I am going to race on that track, despite the fact  I train on it twice a week. Well I am super happy to report that not only did I race that night, I raced this week as well. I ran the mile, 3k, and 1500 meter all on a 200 meter track. Let me tell you, running 15 laps around a small highly banked track is not for the faint at heart, but I did it and ran a 12:48 3k, and  I was not last, but I was lapped. It did great things for my humility and my self esteem, all very positive, it also made me very sore. But I figure it will make me  stronger.

I am also training my new lab puppy, “Homer”  who is now 16 weeks old ans 23 pounds. As you may suspect he is a handful but very sweet. The dogs crawl all over me during yoga which you can see in the video. House-training is not so exciting. The last walk is at 11pm and the first at 5am, sometimes earlier, so I am quite sleep deprived these days. But I think he is going to be a good running partner.

On February 7th I have an exhibition opening in Brooklyn at a new gallery. I have a lot of work to do before that day, I am way behind. But it is going to look spectacular! Everyone is welcome. My info is not up on the website as of today, Jan. 24 but it will be soon.

Happy New Year

It is 17º here in NYC and a beautiful sunny day. By noon it will be an excellent day for a New Years Day Run. But for right now I have two black Labrador Retrievers curled up around me and I am having my morning coffee. Last year at this time I was writing to you from the beach shack on Cape Cod and while I am enjoying  heat, electricity and all those niceties of modern living I  miss the shack with the gorgeous golden sunlight and endless wooded trails to run.

I was just on the New York Road Runners website registering for my spring races. I had to tame my overachieving personality and not run races in January and the early part of February and not run too many races.  Right now I am running indoor speed training 2x a week and focusing on getting faster of course, but also improve my stride rate, pace, strength and over quality of my running. My ultimate goal is faster race times and stronger running. Last year I ran 4 marathons all about the same pace, this year I want to drop 10 minutes from that time, I also want to drop 1.5 minutes off my 4 mile time. To do this I am racing less and focusing more on training. Tuesday workout was as follows, 8 x 400 then 4 x 200 each interval had a 2.5 minute rest. My first 400 was my slowest, 1:36, my fourth and fifth the fastest 1:30. By the time I got to the 200’s I was running them at 40 seconds. I was tired and two days later I am still sore but a nice sore. The day before the speed training I was in the gym strength training. I did 4 sets of 15 on bench press, squats, and dead-lifts all with light weight, then an hour of yoga to stretch it all out. My hamstrings are always my weak point so I find if I weight training before running I run much better. Let’s see how that does over the next three months.

As far as New Years resolutions go, I try to avoid them or keep them more general. As I was working out my running goals which is a daily practice, not something reserved for new years, I came to the conclusion that a good resolution would be to treat myself really well in my training. To train hard but not beat the crap out of myself. To make sure I eat well and allow myself rest days, to properly prepare myself for trainings and races.  To consistently do strength training as injury prevention but above all to have fun and enjoy the whole process.

Today on this New Years Day 2009, I wish you a very happy, healthy, injury free, fun, adventurous and fast new year.

Taken from the AdventureCorp email I receive every week:

“It’s also helpful to realize that this very body that we have, that’s sitting right here right now, with its aches and its pleasures, is exactly what we need to be fully human, fully awake, fully alive.”
- Pema Chodron