Finally Back

My last post ended with my run on the Alter-G and a new stress fracture. Today, three months later, 2 days shy of 12 weeks I am running.  Most days my foot does not hurt, except when I am walking my very unruly dogs who jerk me all over.  All this time off since May 26, the first break, has given me a lot of time to think, to lay on my sofa and be depressed and  be pissed off and think of what I want to change in my life.  Now it is fall and all those races which I thought I would run were cancelled, but I smartly registered for Boston the day I canceled my NYC marathon.

I knew I could write my own training plan, but I wanted to be sure. I was ready to work with John Henwood when I read an article by Coach Roy Benson in Running Times. Something in it make me  call Roy and discuss my breaks and my approach back to racing. I was so taken by Roy that I wanted to work with him, to collaborate, his words, on my training plan. I have never felt such confidence in any coach or any training as I do now with Roy. I started the plan October 19th after clearance from my doc. It began with running a total of 110 minutes over four  days for the week. The plan incorporated my swimming and rowing workouts. I was thrilled to begin again and I just had to trust the plan and that I would come back. My first 25 minute jog  at a 9:00 pace felt like I was pushing a bolder up a mountain. I was not sweating, or heart pounding, it was just that my body did not want to move. In these last five weeks I have seen some  9:45’s  and even 10:00’s when I ran two days in a row. But my longest run was on Sunday, a full 60 minutes. The breakdown was 8:30, 8:40, 8:29, 8:31, 8:00, 7:19, 9:30, 7:53. That 8:00 – 7:19 I met a runner along the way and ran with him, though he left me at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge with a huge hill to climb and tired legs, that is where the 9:30 came in. It was rough, but I was so happy.

From now until the end of January I will be base building, no speed work, no repeats, a few steady state and a lot of general aerobic. I have it in my mind that I just want to have fun in Boston not worry about my time goals. I will leave my time goals behind, expect that I want a PR of course. Some really exciting news is that I will be doing a few long runs in Iceland. In January, I am flying to Reykavik to meet my Dutch artist friend Miek for some big hiking and a day at the Blue Lagoon.  then we are off to the Netherlands and our annual big sea walk, a 7 hour walk along the North Sea. It is Miek’s 65 birthday and I have not seen her in two years. She is a physical power house and I am really looking forward to our big walks. One year we were both guests of the Miskolc Museum of Contemporary Art in Hungary. Every morning we got up at 7:00 am, robustly walked 8k to the hot springs, bathed for 2-3 hours, then walked or jogged back to the studios to work. It was one of the most fantastic summers ever.

The Alter-G trainer is here!

Hilary Lorenz on the Alter-G

I just had the best workout of my life. Many of us fantasize about having more training time, having the cool gadgets that the pros have and planning how we be  faster, stronger and more competitive.  Yesterday in  NYC one of  my dreams  came true; the ability to train on the Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill, just like Paula Radcliffe, who owns two of the $75,000 machines, Dathan Ritzenhein and  Kara Goucher.

Prior to finding Barry Heyden, Former Director of Fitness and Conditioning for the New York Mets and founder of Full Spectrum New York, I thought the Alter-G treadmills were only for the pros and if there were any available it would be wildly expensive. I did find one other machine at New York Hospital for Special Surgery’s Performance lab.It turns out the Barry spearheaded the development of  the hospitals Performance Center and the training for the Alter-G. Any individual can work out at the hospital but it is expensive, $350 for the initial consultation and $100 an hour. I do not see myself running on theirs any time soon. However Barry is making his very accessible to a wide range of people where you can buy a 10 hour package for only $450. At $45 an hour that is the same a a cheap Chinatown massage and less than one hour with the dog walker. Save all that mental health therapy money you have been spending because your injured  and invest it in training on this thing. You can run even with a stress fracture or in Radcliffe’s case after bunion surgery.

Blossom on the Alter-G trainer

My reason  for training on this is to get my fitness back faster after breaking my foot 12 weeks ago.  I had been pool running but felt myself getting slower and slower. My return to land running is  difficult and I hate running on a treadmill. But the G-trainer is built around a Woodway Treadmill which makes  gym treadmills feel like caveman tools. It feels fantastic both forward and backward.

I also want to do overspeed training. The G-trainer is the perfect tool for overspeed training. As the individual decreases their weight they’re able to increase their speed beyond what they could normally do at full weight. They are able to run at a faster turnover rate increasing their body’s familiarity with higher speeds. The muscle memory from these increased speed sessions increases the overall speed potential of the individual when at full body weight. The G-Trainer’s broad variable range for weight, speed, and incline allows people to customize their workout session to their specific needs. After warming up I was able to run a 5:20 mile pace, something I have never done on land. It felt like I was running really fast on the track. I was light on my feet yet felt the full extension of my legs and the balls of my feet hitting the ground and pawing back. I had such a nice back kick that I could feel my foot coming to my butt. It was fast but always in total control.

I can’t say enough good things about this treadmill and Barry who is a super nice guy and truly a brilliant and gifted trainer. He gave me a few  $50 vouchers that I can give out to friends so if you are in NYC and want to try this for free let me know. My plan is to train at Barry’s  2-3 days a week though the end of year to increase endurance, then use it for stamina training  in preparation for the Boston Marathon in April.

If you make an appointment with Barry directly tell him Hilary sent you and if you want a free voucher let me know I will be in Central Park this Saturday morning.

Happy running.

Ten weeks of cross training

I hoped that at week 1o of my stress fracture healing  I would be able to run the New York Road Runners Team Championships. I knew it would not be a great race but an okay race. I began my rehab running back on July 14 and it is now August 8th. One week ago I did my first continuous 30 minutes of running and on Monday I ran 4 x 1 mile. But no way am I ready.

I began cross training the morning after breaking my third metatarsal all the way through. I deep water ran 5 days a week, rode my bike everywhere  and began swimming lessons. I  swim with a masters team 3x a week and do strength training. I work out about 2+ hours a day in an attempt to keep fit and to make it easier when I started running again. My runs began over three weeks ago with a 5 minute walk and a 1 minute run x 5. progressing until I was running 30 continuous minutes. I have done this 7 days a week for over three weeks.  So it should feel easy right?

The reality is my body feels like a rigid piece of metal. My upper body feels like it moves independent of my lower body. My trunk does not seem to connect with my legs and each step  takes effort and thought. My form is crap. My first real test  was the 4 x 1 mile. I waited until dark because it was  hot and humid. I jogged over to the 6th street track which is 1.06 miles away. My pace  on the track was 7:29, 7:28, 7:24, 7:59. I do not know what happened on that last one but it was such a big jump that I stopped there. I had thought about doing 5.  I  noticed my shadow as I ran and it appeared that I might have a  limp. My last two 30 minutes continuous runs averaged 8:15 pace. I would like that to be my marathon pace! To put things in perspective my 10k pace is 7:20 and my 4 mile pace 7:00.

Back in May running a fast cross country pace  felt very free and loose. I love that feeling of running up and down the steep dirt hills. But today’s run over the Williamsburg Bridge I had to focus on each step. Honestly, I  wanted to stop. My foot did not hurt, but my body  did not feel like it could  move. Going up the steepest sections I felt depressed when my garmin read 9:55 pace. Hopefully it was a malfunction or I pulled it together because my average at the end of the 3.5 mile run was 8:40. The pace is not bad for an easy  run, but  it was not easy, and that is frustrating. It is not taxing on my aerobic system and I barely sweat, but moving my legs feels very mechanical and labored. I came home and did 30 minutes of yoga which reinforces to me how much stronger  my muscles are;  now if I could just figure out how to make them move again. I know it takes time and I am happy I can run continuously. But for those of you with stress fractures, just know it can feel like you are learning to run all over again.

Day 55 of Stress Fracture Rehab

I am very happy when I hear from people who are running after 5 or 6 weeks of their stress fractures. The short times saves oneself from accumulating adipose tissue while simultaneously losing their mind. I am on week 8 and suffering from both. In all fairness I did start running; rehab running with the Pete Pfitzinger, “Return to running after a stress fracture program. ” While my friends were out doing an 18 miler I was running 5 minutes walking 5 minutes x 3. But at least I was doing some movement that looked somewhat like running and it was not in the water.

The first week of the program was good.  There are three runs in 7 days. They were not without pain. My foot ached but stopped as soon as I began walking. The pain was not in the 3rd metatarsal but rather it is a general pain that moves around under my big toe and second toe and occasionally on the bottom of my foot and the top. Because it was not localized  I completed the workout.

Over the weekend I also found the excellent source of The Brigham and Women’s Hospital,  Dept of Rehab. They have a great Running Injury Prevention Tips & Return to Running Program. In fact they take you through a 4 phase program. Phase 1: You should be able to walk, pain free, aggressively in a controlled environment. Phase 11 is a plyomeric program consisting of 470 jumps first with both feet then on each foot. Once a person can do that pain free they can move onto Phase 111 which begins with walking 5 minutes, running 1 x 5 and progresses over 5 stages. I am not pain free in the plyo but I am still adding Phase III, I spoke with my PT about it and we are monitoring it closely. This is a long program. Once Phase 111 is complete which is variable based on each runners healing the runner should be able to run 30 minutes every other day without pain in order to go into Phase IV.  Phase IV takes you from 30 minutes every other day up to 45 minutes multiple days in a row over a 12 week progression. That’s right week one starts with 4 runs, 3 at 30 min and 1 at 35. By week 11 you run 4 days at 45 mins., 1 days at 40 and 1 day at 35.  Twelve weeks to run  only 4.25 hours. I thought within 12 weeks I would be running at least 10 hours a week.

Fourteen weeks from now is the NYC marathon. Obviously I am out. There is no way even if I could double up this program could I run it. Thank goodness I qualified for Boston last year. I decided my next big race goal will be the Boston Marathon. In the meantime I am reading Brad Hudson’s, Run Faster from 5k to marathons. Hudson is the coach of Dathan Ritzenhein who often comes up in conversations about elite runners and injury, since Ritzenheim had suffered many injuries prior to working with Hudson. While I work my running legs back up I am swimming 3x a week and building some nice upper body muscles. From now until the end of the year it will be all about building strength and aerobic base and dealing with the unfortunate depression of standing on the sidelines watching all the racers go by.

Six Week Update

Excellent news. Dr Donald Rose said my stress fracture showed “significant healing.” I cannot run on land  for another 4 weeks. But this afternoon I get to pretend I am a pro-runner by doing my workout in a State-of-the-art HydroWorx® 2000 8’ x 16’ therapeutic pool with an adjustable floor, underwater treadmill, jets and cameras. I will make a video for you. It is very cool. I fantasize about putting one of these in my NYC apartment.

Today is the start of Badwater, make sure and check it out. It was already 127 degrees.

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.