Regardless, I really do need to keep occasional fast stuff in, even when “on break” because I lose my edge pretty quickly.  Perhaps it’s more mental than physical, but if I don’t remind myself what it’s like to push hard, easy paces are all I want to do.

So next week I’ll do a couple more fartlek days and that should get me right back into proper workout mode.  Funny, because this is actually Hudson’s M.O. entirely by giving you fartleks before you get into quality work.  Maybe I’m subconsciously getting into a 20-week marathon cycle, after all.

In other news, I wore my Pro-tec IT strap for the first time today.  This strap gets great reviews as far as injury accoutrements go but I’ve been relunctant to try it because I can’t help thinking, “why am I changing everything because of this one injury?” and “what if it hurts me somehow because I’m adding yet another foreign object into my life?” but with my mileage back to the 60s and a 14-miler set for Sunday (oooh, so looong ), I thought it worthwhile to try out – because I do foresee some IT band shadowing for that 14.

It was great, actually!  Felt supporting and didn’t slide down as I thought it might.  I was worried that  when I took it off, the truth would out and my IT band would suddenly be hurting double, but not a peep, leg feels fab.  So that’ll be a for-sure wardrobe addition on Sunday’s LR.

Another thing I’ve added (again with the “why am I changing everything?”) is I bought some Glucosamine/chondroitin/msm capsules yesterday.  I don’t really know if it’ll help, I don’t have arthritis or creaky joints per se (though I do my share of occasional groaning), but I’m going to be an elderly 48 in a couple months, so maybe it’ll be insurance of sorts, plus, I’ve read that some folks get good results for tendon-related issues from using it, so what the hell?  While it’s not a soft-tissue fix, I suppose that helping the surrounding areas improves everything connected, so I’m game to try it.

As you can see, I’m in that place where my previous confidence level of “I am strong, I am invincible, I am womaaaaan” has been shattered somewhat.  In the back of my mind, I’m reminded how crucial it will be to run genuinely Long starting next month without any owees involved, so that’s where I’m at:  a little Frankenstein, a little PT, a little wacko nut-job.  Same old, same old.

On the running front, things are going great.  The IT band is (dare I say it?) normal again, though I feel it’s one of those injuries that once you have it, you’re always open to reinjury, so I take it with a grain of salt.  It ended up lasting 6 weeks exactly, but now that I know what to do about it if it returns, I don’t foresee it being so drawn-out again.

Last week was a nice, fat, undramatic 61 mile week and boy, did that make me happy.  Pacing was slower than usual because it kept being mid-80s by the time I got out and with all that had been going on, I was satisfied to plod through most of them, so my runs averaged 8:51 to 8:08, depending on the day.

Continuing the trend, yesterday was a 7-mile recoveryish run at 8:53 (87 degrees) and today’s 9 averaged 8:24.  I’m just running by feel – haven’t worn my HR monitor in weeks, either.

Here’s what my tentative calendar looks like for the rest of the month.  I’ll probably get a day off in there somewhere, just not sure when.

Except for progression runs starting the 19th, I haven’t marked any quality runs in yet, choosing  to play it by ear since I’m not training yet.  I figure I’ll start with a short tempo this week, then alternate intervals and tempos till August.  I’m still feeling very much in “taking it easy” mode after being in running rehab the last few weeks.  Funny how easy it is to get out of the quality work habit once you’ve let it lapse.

One interesting note is that if I started Hudson at the 20-week mark (instead of doing my own base-building this month), marathon training would have begun this week.  As it is, I have no interest in calling anything “marathon training” 20-weeks out, so I’m ignoring the little numbers to the left of the calendar until August.  Nod to Hudson for the progression runs, though.

Besides that, I’ve been quite industrious these last few days, adding 10 new designs to The Gifted Runner, so check it out if you’re curious.  But ladies, don’t ask me why the pink wicking shirts are showing up as white, I’ve got a tech support email out to Zazzle to fix it.  It’s not my fault, I swear.

A couple weeks ago, Nick’s 92-year old dad (a spritely, adorable, funny guy, who lives in the ground floor apartment with his second wife) was diagnosed with cancer.  He’s turned bright yellow, including the whites of his eyes, because it’s in his liver – a shocking sight.

Nick has protected and cared for him for the past 30 years, the roles of father-son long reversed.  Six years ago, Nick’s dad had cancer and went through an operation but no one told him he had cancer because they were sure he’d “give up”, so they told him it was something else and he’s thrived beautifully until now.

But here it is again and the time-frame is finite.  He could have chemo and get maybe 8-10 months, or just keep on without and maybe have 4 weeks left.  The doctor said they ordinarily wouldn’t even prescribe chemo to someone his age, but he’s so young for his years, that they thought he could benefit, though the side-effects need to be weighed.

Nick and his dad’s wife have been wrestling about how much to tell him, hadn’t even mentioned the word cancer yet because, again, they feared he’d wither at the news.  Finally, because time is so critical, they took him to meet with the doctor yesterday who laid it all out, said you have to start chemo today or it’ll be too late.  After all these years protecting his dad, Nick was surprised how well his dad took it – he’s going to fight for the time he has left and started chemo last night.

I know, you’re probably all thinking “he’s 92, isn’t it his time to go?”  But there’s a huge amount of history and back story to Nick’s dad, whose own father (Mykola Kulish, a hugely famous playwright in the Ukraine) was arrested and jailed for being a “counterrevolutionary”.  They kept him for 10 years, until he was put to death by the government.

Nick’s parents, penniless, escaped to Argentina, though neither of them spoke Spanish and had certainly never lived in such poverty.  They had Nick while living there and when Nick was 10 years-old, they got on a banana boat to the USA.  Nick’s brother died a couple years ago, so once his dad goes, Nick will be the only one left to have experienced any of this family history.  It’s weighing on him so heavily…that he’ll be the “last one”.  My poor baby.

And because his Dad’s prognosis isn’t enough of a knife-twist in Nick’s heart, Nick’s son (a 25 year-old problem child who lives in another apartment in this house) has reached a crisis point, so his 22-year old sister came from Oregon this week to help him empty the apartment and take him to Portland with her, to live.  He’s never lived anywhere but Philly, so this’ll be a fresh start away from the old triggers here.  They’re flying out this afternoon.

So that’s the dealio here.  It’s been an anxiety-ridden, painful time that makes Running an almost inconsequential activity, though the joy it’s brought as an escape has been invaluable.

Before I close, I want to wish my American readers a fine holiday weekend and for my foreign friends, have a wonderful few days wherever you are.  Peace to all.

I haven’t been sleeping, mostly because of an evil red cardinal living in our courtyard that loves taunting Kitsia, our cat, who’s always laying out on the deck.  The cardinal will stand on the deck rail starting at 5am and chirp loudly and unceasingly to get a rise out her, but the cat doesn’t give a shit.  I’ve taken to scaring it away myself by storming onto the deck with a really mean face, yelling “Go away you stupid bird!!”  But the bird doesn’t give a shit.

In work news, I got that voiceover job for the Rita’s commercial (the funny one requiring a bit of Swedish pronunciation) so I’m doing that this afternoon.  Yay.

Other than that, been doing a lot of designing and redesigning for Adorableshirts.com so I hope to get those up in the next day, then do a couple more running shirts for Gifted Runner, then the big job after that will be getting my music section off Fishpie.com and make its own seperate shop/website.  So I’ve gone from not doing anything designwise for a year to giving myself enough work to be steadily occupied for the next few months and beyond.  I wish I had more of a money-lust, then I’d work hard all the time.  As it is, I wait until some dwindling has occurred, then hurry to catch up.

On a funny note (though entirely aggravating to me), I discovered that after redoing my x-rated shirt site using Zazzle products instead of Cafepress, someone else on Zazzle had immediately copied two of my designs!  With great joy I submitted a copyright violation report with Zazzle and they removed the offending copies without ado, but still.  People are so stupid sometimes.

As far as running goes, I’m hopefully going to get my mileage back to the 60s starting this week.  June saw weekly averages of low 50s thanks to the IT band adventure.   This actually worked out well in the end, since a cutback is a healthy thing anyway and I wouldn’t have done it voluntarily.   So now I’m crossing fingers and toes for a strong mileage return without incident (though keeping toes crossed sounds like another cause for injury, so maybe I’ll stick with fingers).

Oh, and I never did share a chuckle at the havoc my IT rehab ended up wreaking.  Overzealous stretching awoke my dormant ankle bursitis (I’ve since laid off the heavy stretching so my ankle’s back to normal, thank god) but I also burned the side of my knee by icing it so much and not using a cover over the gel ice pack, so I now have a large scabby circle there.

If it’s not one thing…

Honestly, I would have bagged this race if I hadn’t already bagged the Media 5-miler a couple weeks ago because it was another hot one – sunny and 76 degrees.  But one of the benefits of having a blog is you have to do shit you’ve committed to, else you look like a big wuss to a ton of people.  That said, though it sucked time-wise, it was pretty entertaining in all other aspects.

The race goes around a sports arena, the Wachovia Center, home to the 76ers (the Philly basketball team, for those as sports-retarded as me).  It circles the arena and a large parking lot 2.5 times so it’s all on concrete sidewalks.  Half the course (around the perimeter of the parking lot) smells like piss, which makes you want to go faster, though I couldn’t, try as I might.

I knew it was going to be a difficult run during my warmup when my strides clocked a blistering 6:50.  Oh well, as I wrote in the Women’s BQ thread, I’m due a “fun run” so this was it.

For the bulk of the race, there was a young thing neck-and-neck with me and another woman right ahead of us.  There were also 2 girls ahead but not within my immediate area.  All I could manage was 6:55 mi, which on one hand was “omg, look how hard I suck”  but on the other hand, I just worried about these two others and fought for placing.

At 3/4 mile left to go, the one girl in front of me just plain gave up…stopped dead in her tracks.  That was fabu, though I totally understood the feeling and felt bad for her.  The neck-and-neck girl slowed down as well, so I beat her, too.

Cut to the chase, I won 3rd place OA with a 21:29. 1st and 2nd were a 19 and 20 year old (see how I make myself feel better for a cruddy race by blaming the youth of today?)

But the bounty!  Oh my, if I cared about basketball, I’d be in heaven.  As it is, Nick’s kids (one of whom is visiting from Oregon, the other lives in an apt. below) were like pigs in shit splitting up the booty.  Otherwise, I’d have put it all on Ebay.

The one thing I kept is a certificate for 2 Club Box tickets to a 76ers game this coming season – supposedly that’s pretty cool with waiter service and everything.  As for the rest, I got a ton of signed crap; 3 mini-basketballs, 2 framed photos, 3 hats, a t-shirt, a basketball jersey, a journal, playing cards, noisemaker, water bottle and a duffel bag to hold it all (cat not included).

So I had a fine time despite my silly finishing time.  In fact, I’m kind of happy that I finally had a “fun run” of a race.  Onward and upward, now I can concentrate on enjoying the rest of the summer, rebuilding my mileage and getting ready for marathon training in August.

Ciao darlings.  Until the next installment, run well everyone!

I’m in good spirits because I’ve been keeping busy.  After I got Gifted Runner redone, I redid another one of my t-shirt sites (x-rated shirts and no, I won’t provide a link ).  After all this re-making of old crap, and to wipe the nasty off, I was inspired to do a brand new t-shirt site based on sweet, innocent kiddy designs.   I’m still working on adding stuff, but here it is, AdorableShirts.com.  Forgive the stupid name, that’s me whoring for Google’s attention.

I also sold my first ad space on Websitebeginner.com last week which was a giggle-worthy event.  Sometimes I get emails from people inquiring about advertising and because I really don’t know how to deal with pricing for it, I just toss the emails away.  This time, because I need the moolah, I replied and the guy was very easy to deal with, so it worked out great.

While we’re on the subject of cash, yesterday morning I had a voiceover for a funny commercial, one where I start speaking at a normal rate, then speed up till I’m talking super fast – was great fun.  But it’s been slow for VO work the past month.  I’m up for another funny one, though, where I play a Language Instructor teaching Swedish – I had to learn the pronunciation off an mp3 for the audition.  I got a call yesterday that it’s between me and one other person, so crossing fingers I’ve got it.

I’m still planning on racing that 5K this Sunday, though it’ll be a hot one and I’ve not done anything fast since the last race, so no PRs for sure.  I might even ensure a particularly sucky time by getting drunk the night before since my friend’s having a party.   But then I’ll have to leave my magic shoes at home because that would be embarrassing to suck in magic shoes.  Then again, the race is “Run For Cover” to fight melanoma and I don’t wear sunscreen half the time, so I’m a total poser anyway.

Then it hit me.  Stretching and rolling are a superficial fix, they help the injury calm down but they don’t give insurance against a reappearance.  When I looked at the anatomy pictures and saw what the exercises target (upper butt and muscle around the IT band) and how little time they take to do, I was like…why wouldn’t I do these?  Strengthen the surrounding area and get a better butt in the meantime?  Win win.

I only picked two because I know I’ll stick with them if I don’t inundate myself.  One is balancing on one leg while standing on an air cushion from this excellent blog.  It’s especially good because it’ll also strengthen my weaker ankle (last year’s bursitis adventure).

You don’t need the cushion for that one, several sites mentioned simply balancing on one leg for 3-5 minutes, playing catch with a ball while balancing is another variation, but the cushion adds a good amount of difficulty.  Plus I already own one from when I bought those stupid posture-fixing items last year which, btw, is yet another testimony to exercise – I improved my lifelong sucky posture in a few months just by doing some pushups and chinups…what further proof do I need?

The other exercise is a variation on side leg-lifts.  I settled on this one over the oft-recommended “clamshell” because I could feel it working more.  Just nevermind that my resistance band says Jazzercise on the handles.

As for running, after my day off, yesterday was a brisk 7-miler.  For the first time in 3 weeks, I had total peace about me because I knew that even if the IT band gave me trouble on this run, I’m on the road to fixing it for good.   The rest day mixed with 3 days of exercises brought a great run, the IT band was silent.

I’m about to go for 8 or 9 on this wet Saturday.  Hopefully it’ll be another uneventful journey, but if it isn’t, that’s cool – I’ve turned in my victim card for good.  This injury no longer rules me, I am going to rule it.   Proactive, that’s the word of the day.

Since last Thursday, it’s been quiet.  I’ve kept to 9-milers, not wanting to chance double-digits for a week.  Sunday I had the 5K, then Monday I did a recovery 7-miler like a good girl, then yesterday decided to test double-digit territory; went 11 for the first time since this thing appeared 3 weeks ago.  It was a great run, some parts of it ecstatic even, but at 8.75 miles I felt the shadow around my knee.  I stopped and stretched, then a mile later felt the need to stretch again.  Got home fine after that, but I was discouraged at needing to stop at all.

Today I went 8 and horror of horrors, had to stretch at mile 5!  I was able to get home without walking, but it took a couple more stretch stops to get there.  So I’m kicking myself for easing up a bit on the rolling and stretching.  Looks like I’m stuck with doing it three times a day for a while.  And I was just beginning to feel like life could return to its old simplicity: get dressed, run, shower, sit on my ass till the next time.

It appears that rehab maintenance is part of my life from here on in.  But I can deal.  I’m telling myself that the elites do all sorts of rehabby, pt, stretching stuff all the time so if I need to stand on one leg for 5 minutes (my new exercise), it’s not that much of a sacrifice.

Anyway, I haven’t had a day off since the 2nd and I’m coming off a 50-mile week with half of it devoted to IT band drama, plus a race.  I think it’s fair to say that taking a rest day tomorrow would be a wise move.  I’m going for it.

But enough about me, what do you guys and gals do for stretching/rolling/anything – do you have a routine?  Before your run, after your run or both?  And what exactly?  I’m interested.

OK, The Gifted Runner 2.0 is finally live for public consumption.  Take a look and let me know if something is weird or wrong because at this point, I’m absolutely cross-eyed.

No pressure for anyone here to ever buy anything ever, but if you spread the word among your running friends, I’ll be ever so grateful.

A couple fab things with the new site:

1. The shirts are customizable!  You can add your name and/or a message or graphic to the opposite side of the shirt for only $3.40.  You can actually attempt to add it to the existing graphic side for free, though you’ll probably have to mess around with my graphic to get it to fit.

2. A lot of the gift items are also customizable, you can change the background color on many of them so have at it…make that refrigerator magnet match your kitchen!

2. Besides the wicking shirts (yay!!!) there are tons of different regular t-shirt styles and colors.  Just click one of the picks under Fashion Shirts on each design page, there’s a link that takes you to all the available colors and styles.

3. I’m open to requests.  If you see a design you’d like in a different color, I’ll do it for you.  Ditto a design on the front or back that you’d like on the opposite side of the shirt, just email me through the customer service thing and I’ll post it with the rest of the collection.

I hope you like it.  I’m on a mission to keep designing and adding new stuff on a regular basis, so if you don’t like anything yet, keep checking, there might just be something for you there eventually.

Whew, I think I need a drink.

The race itself was small, 300 people.  Weather was cloudy and 68 degrees with a dewpoint of 59.

Unlike my other races this season, I put no pressure on myself at all.  I kind of knew I’d get a PR because the weather was better than my last 5K, plus I know the course completely and I had my magic shoes.

My goal was to see something between 6:30-6:35s in the Garmin and that’s how it went down.  I was the third woman at the beginning, then I passed Christine (who I know from the park and this blog) which left some tiny 20-something wisp of a gal in front of me.

She was an odd duck because she came out of nowhere about 3/4’s of a mile in, passing me and zooming ahead.  I talked to her after the race and she said she likes to do the slow start.  She also likes humidity, told me it means there’s more oxygen in the air.  Doesn’t work for me, but good for her.

Anyway, during the race I was thinking how good it was that she was there (as with all the women I’m ever behind) because without them, I wouldn’t push so hard.  I kept her in my sights the whole time, knew I couldn’t pass her but just tried to keep the space between us as tight as I could for as long as I could.

I noticed as I ran that for the most part my breath was 2:2, so I knew I was doing alright.  I tend to pay attention to these things now as it’s a barometer of how hard I’m working.  Not sure when my breath went 1:1, somewhere around the last half mile.

My Garmin autolap splits were right on with the first two mile markers which doesn’t happen too often.  You go under some overpasses so the Garmin tends to get wonky at those places (which I’ve just realized today after overlaying two races on the same course), but my Garmin splits were:
6:34,6:34,6:29, and though the last bit doesn’t come out right, Garmin shows me kicking in at 6:01 to finish.

As far as socializing, as mentioned, Audra’s girlfriend Loren was there with Bea the dog, Audra’s mom came with her nephews, also their friend and friend’s kid, plus my friend Yvonne showed up, so with Judy there too, it was quite a little party.

So looking to Friday evening, I really want to race it now because I’m feeling great off yesterday’s effort, but the weather looks like crap at this point, 77 degrees with dewpoint of 62 (exactly what I had for my last 5K) so unless that changes, I’m not going to drive out there for a tempo run.

And that’s it from race central for the moment.  Must get the website finished up today…

Later, loves.