How much do you really want it

A young man asked Socrates how he could get wisdom. Socrates replied, "Come with me."
He took the lad to a river, pushed the boy's head under water, held it there until the boy was gasping for air, then relaxed and released his head.
When the boy regained his composure, Socrates asked him, "What did you desire most when you were under water?"
"I wanted air," said the boy
Socrates said to him, "When you want wisdom as much as you wanted air when you were immersed in the water, you will receive it."



I found this on a fellow teammate's page on facebook and it totally moved me, so I thought I'd share it with you. How true.

Merry Happy Holiday

Wishing the best day to you and your family!

Only in Horse shoes and hand grenades

Almost. I almost made this decision, I almost did this or that, I almost got it, I almost... You hear that word so often and possibly say it on a regular basis. The dictionary defines it as not quite; slightly short of, nearly.

Yesterday was the first meet of the indoor season. I decided to run one of the random distances that is only offered at a couple of the meets, 1000 meters. I don't particularly like this race but it's good to mix it up with and odd distance here and there. I seeded myself so that I was in a middle of the road heat, wasn't quite sure where I was racing wise but I was confident enough that I knew I could hit somewhere near my seed time. Threw the iPod on my pre-race mix warmed up, and hoped it would all click. Click it did. I surprisingly ran relaxed and in control. My 200 splits were not all over the place like the last couple of 1000's I ran last indoor...they were pretty even minus getting only slightly lost in the middle and coming back for the last lap like a bat out of hell. I don't think the 2 girls ahead of me knew what hit them as I whizzed passed them in the last 100 meters to win that heat. And of course I can't forget that almost moment...I ALMOST hit a pb, but missed it by .41-less than a half a second, wow how's that for an opening season race.

A Thankfulgiving Day

Today is a day to be grateful and count those small incurious details that our lives have been blessed with. Okay so it should technically be everyday but I think it serves as a reminder or reflection time since sometimes in our busy lives we forget. So to everyone and everything out there...Thank You...because you can never say it enough times.

That's my little turn inside thought for the day, which in turn was quite blessed and I am quite thankful for. It all started with a tradition that I started 4 years ago, a turkey trot in Andover called the Feaster Five. I don't know what exactly spurred this "tradition", it was before Greater Boston so I wasn't super serious about my racing again, but still continue on. I still recall that first race. I geared up, planted myself in the middle of the 7000+ trotters, and did not finish well in any sense. And here I stand 4 races later and you'd never know it was me running that first race. Each consecutive year after that disastrous race I have improved by leaps, all time wise. This year was no exception. I shaved approximately 50 sec off of my time from last year, almost breaking my 5K PR. Though that was not the best improvement or proudest that I made in this race. It was my mile splits. I have never in any of my years racing ever ran an even split race, ever, especially not a 5K. This would be my first. Funny thing is I didn't realize it until hours later when I went to recall my mile times. I clocked my first mile in 6:26, the second was 6:27, my third 1.1miles was 7:12 (which with the math boils down to a 6:30ish 3rd mile). I definitely have to add that to one of the best/proudest racing moments of my career. It's such a great feeling when your training finally shines, if even for the smallest moment, through.

After that early morning jolt instead of heading up to NH to my parents house like I normally do, I went back home. Here was another shining moment of the day-I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for my family at my house in Boston. Might I add it turned out wonderfully too. A fabulous day spent with my mom, dad and sisters...and the oven.

Selective Memory?

I ponder a simple question that came to me yesterday as I lugged up Summit Hill for a continuous hill workout. I know before I'm going to start this workout that it's going to hurt. It hurt the last time I did it. Yet somehow in the 1.43 mile warmup to the hill I forget that there's going to be any pain involved and trot up the massive hill. That is of course until I reach just past where we stop for sprint hills and the intense burning from lactic acid starts to creep in. Then all of the sudden that memory comes back to the previous times of doing this workout. It's quite painful! How do you forget something so vivid so quickly?

Late can sometimes be Great

As most people know I'm notoriously late for most things. The whole time management concept, not one of my strongest suits. It's me, I try and that's all I can offer. Today however I honed in on my tardiness. I managed to make it to the race today relatively on time, which meant that I had time to warm-up and stretch and whatnot before the race started. I will state that there's no reason for me to be at a cross country race any more than 45 min prior to the start so I consider getting there 40 min before, on time. Well we all start lining up at the start line, I do a couple of striders, the official states the race will go off in 5 min, I start to get super cotton mouth. So I thought that I'd have time to quickly sprint to my stuff not too far from the line and grab a quick sip of water. As I'm heading back to the start to my surprise the gun went off before I made it back. Not expecting that, what a way to get into the race! Of course through the madness of processing everything I was trying to search for my teammates so I could pace with someone. Not an easy task with a mass of runners. I just gave up and ran, figuring that one way or another either I would find them or they'd find me, which did happen eventually. From start to finish it was an interesting race. I was late to the start. I played cat and mouse a couple of times with a few runners in the middle. The most energy efficient tactic it is not but it worked for me. Then I ran down quite a few runners in last 100 meters. Oh how I love when my track speed conveys out on the finishes! Such a great feeling! Best part of it all I shaved 1:10 off of my time from 2 weeks ago giving me an all time personal best for a 5K cross country course and an inside peak to what is to come I hope!
Here's a link to a pretty cool pic that was snapped of me at this race http://eliterunning.com/photos/index.php?g2_itemId=160771

Will do a half-marathon for...

The sheer joy and pleasure-ummm no that's definitely not it. Yep I'll break down and admit it I'll only do it for the swag. Last year I accidentally entered myself in the Nike Women's Half Marathon out in San Francisco. When I say accidentally, I mean that I entered myself purposely but it was a random drawing and didn't think that I'd be picked. Joke was on me I was picked, so I set out last October to do this thing. What enticed me into even thinking about entering was that every finisher received a custom designed Tiffany's necklace. I was sold, what girl doesn't like the sight of that little blue box even if she's not a huge fan of the designer. Though it started off only doing it for the glitz, the end result was for a very worthy cause that meant something to me- The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. After I was through with that I swore that I would never run another 1/2 again for a very long time. Oops so I was swayed by swag again this year, though this time around I wasn't going out to Cali to run this one and it was a key chain (still designed by Tiffany's) instead of a necklace but the proceeds went to the same charity. It was the same Nike Women's Half Marathon except it was virtual through the Nike + system (a glorified high tech pedometer) letting you run wherever you happen to be and enabling you to not have to run it in one fail swoop. As long as I clocked in 13.1 miles in the day I was set as a "finisher". Which is exactly what I did 5.1 miles in the morning and a blistering cold long 8 miles at night. Pretty cool but pretty crazy. I did it though and now that's it's all over I promise myself that I will try not to be swayed by glittery objects to do obscene amounts of unnecessary mileage next year. Key word here is try.

Along for the hills

Can I offer you a hill, more hills, or how about a large hill with many more hills. Ah yes that would be this past week in a nutshell. It started with Tuesday when Jess and I decided to do continuous Summit Hills since our annual meeting was later on that night and there wasn't going to be practice. Well little did we know that continuous hills are excruciating and that we'd be doing a hill workout on Thursday. I got through both workouts without too much of a hitch. Amongst my many plans on ramping up the training is adding a third day to the mix. It just so happened that there was a cross country race going on for today so I figured that since my team needed a couple of girls to score for the grand prix that it would be a perfect training run for me. I also haven't raced this pre-season except for the mistake 5 miler earlier in Sept. Why not, a little through the woods action, change up the terrain, 3.1 miles, fairly easy. That's right I forgot to mention the HILLS! Not just 1, many, I stopped counting after 2. I wasn't expecting to throw a 3rd day of running up inclines into the mix, but like the other days I got through it and didn't finish with too shabby of a time (It was a cross country PR with GBTC). Now that that's all over with I think that I will stay as far away for hills for at least a week, hopefully longer.

Back to the Basics

I finally started up my training again, it has only been 6 weeks but it feels like it's been 6 years or my body felt like that. It's amazing how much running economy you lose in such a short period of time, though I guess I could have thwarted that by cross training. Oops too late to think about that now. I did enjoy the time off after a few weeks of moping about not running, and my body certainly thanks me and will be thanking me later on.

I opened this lovely pre-season with a 5 miler that I've been racing for the past 5 years. Probably not the best of choices considering I had just laced up the sneaks literally a week prior and never topped 3 miles in all of the 5 runs. I think in future years as much as I want to feel obligated to run this race, I may have to rethink the idea since it's not at the most opportune time for me-always right as my break ends and it's just long. In the end through the uber humidity, and all too many miles I finished and with a minute faster than last year. It's not a PR for that race but I'm just happy that I was able to finish.

Photo by Ted Tyler from Coolrunning.com

Now the fun begins-Base training. Hill repeats, stadium stairs, jump runs, and active recovery runs. Going to have to make sure the ice maker's cranking out ice because I see a lot of ice bathes in my future:).

Making the most of it

As my season came to an end on July 19th, I've been trying to make the best out of the downtime I'll have until September when I start base training. It's been quite a task to not go run. It's amusing to me that a majority of people have a difficult time going out for a run and here I am having difficulty not running. I have so much free time (okay not that much) that I don't know what to do with myself, lucky for me the Olympics are on so they have helped me pass a bit of the time away. The rest has been divvied up between sleeping, eating, working and actually having a social life. I've watched Shakespeare in the Commons, auctioned myself off to raise money, danced the night away, lunches, dinners, BBQs, celebrated my birthday, watched amazing athletes become the best in the world, this weekend I have a wedding and the next I fly down to VA for another wedding. It's been a great summer but I really can't wait to start running again. It's one of those itches that you can't stop scratching.

One of the best bday bashes in some years

400IH USATF Club Nationals

Kansas recap

Okay so this is a late posting, but here's recap on my trip to Kansas.


Thursday:

I arrive in Kansas City, MO around 10:30a after leaving on a crazy early flight from Boston (5:30a), gather the gals that were assigned to my car, pickup the rental, and drive to Olathe, KS. Not too much excitement in this day. It goes like this in a brief synopsis-Meet whoever else is in KS. Lunch. Target. Home Depot. Hotel attempt for pool. No pool. Check in to room. Hang out. Target again. Find and jog to track. Track closed. Debate crawling under gate to get to track. Decide not. Jog back to hotel. Grocery store to stock up food. Get lost finding grocery store. Finally find. Shop. Grill chicken make pasta salad upon return. Share with friends. Shower. Sleep. Or something to that effect.

Friday:

Today is the first day of competition. It starts off at the University of Kansas for the Hammer Throw. A small group of us decided to drive up the 30min to the campus to cheer on the one teammate who's throwing. Watched some hammer, took some pics, then when she was done headed back to home quarters to do a shake out run and continue the rest of the competition. Since my event wasn't until Sat I was able to float around to take pictures and cheer on my teammates. Lots of great performances all around. Nice and easy day. I will add that it was a great experience to be able to cheer the field events since they typically are in effect during running events so it's hard to give support to fellow jumpers and throwers (which they expressed they appreciated).

Saturday:

Today is the 2nd and last day of competitions which includes a handful of field events, open events and the everyone's favorite relays. Started the day off lending a cheer squad for men Javelin, then I was off for a trial pre-race ritual. Since my nerves have started to get the best of me lately, especially with the hurdles, I decided to try and listen to music beforehand to take my mind away from the whole performance anxiety. It was also an experiment because I'm debating getting an IPod, as one of the last people in the world not to own one I'm unsure if I want to jump on the bandwagon, but I figure if it can distract me it might be worth it. The music did help dispel some nervous energy. I didn't PR, I finished 8th total but I did score 1 point for the team which was good. It was only race #4 so next season I will be able to build from that. I was just happy that I was able to join the team in KS and find an event that I could potentially be pretty decent at with time and practice.

That wasn't then end of my day, I still had a leg in the 4x800. We came in 2nd, were under the cut off time and scored some more points for the team. YAY!
At the end of it all the ladies came in 4th place, the men in 5th place and combined overall we came in 4th. Not too shabby with a team of 14 women and 14 men Go GBTC!
We celebrated the end of our season with some midwest BBQ--YUM and mini party in the hotel not without a shortage of belly laughs.

Sunday:

Check out at the hotel was noon but most everyone's flights didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so we decided to drive to Kansas City to check out some sights and kill time. After time elapsed we head to the airport with intentions of heading back home. Oh how disillusioned, how convenient our flight was delayed so they said we wouldn't make our connecting flight and they had no other flights to Boston until Monday morning. Okay so we're stuck here until the morning, fine. Not so fine the airline wasn't going to pay for our hotel room. They said they could offer a distressed rate at certain hotels which wasn't distressed at $70/night for a crap shoot hotel. Note to self is never fly Delta again and they will be getting a nasty letter from me. What's even more ridiculous is I paid extra to fly out on a Sun flight. Also that other teammates got stuck in their layover for 2 days and yet their airline (United, which is usually who I fly) paid for their hotel and gave them food vouchers. NOT right. I know that there's an economic setback right now in the airline industry (as well as every other industry) but that doesn't make it okay not to take care of paying customers. That is how you lose business and put yourself more in a crunch. Sorry I just had to rant about that because it angers me.

More of my photos at http://runphotos.shutterfly.com/

Meet Photographers link of 400IH and the rest of the meet http://www.backprint.com/view_event_photos.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=39109&ID=53454794&FROM=browser&CAT=180836&SUB=0

Hello Kansas

I have made it safely to Kansas and didn't even drop a house on anyone.....yet! More to come as events progress.

Living on Words

It's been a while since I've blogged on a quote, mainly just due to not coming across any that really move me, but today warrants a posting. As I was perusing the web on this lovely Sunday afternoon, (because hey I have nothing better to do) I came across an interview on Lolo Jones http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/lolo-jones-interview . Lolo is a 60m and 100m hurdler, and she is going to the Olympics to represent the U.S. in the 100mH. She is amazing to watch, I actually got to watch her up close win the 60m Hurdles at the Indoor National Meet this year--awesome. Anyways to the point, in this interview she sites the quote by Frederick Douglass, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." I love that just a few simple words can provoke so much emotion and power. This one may be one of the few that can hold a candle to my absolute live-by Jack London quote.

Food+Friends=Fabulous

What makes a great day even better...Great friends!! HAPPY 4th of July Weekend!

Congratulations GBTC

2008 Women's Regional Champions

2008 Men's Runners-up

Congrats to both teams for their impressive performances all over the board. Wow can't believe Nationals are coming up fast! Now if only my form over the hurdles would come just as fast.

Things we do to hurdle

This is dedicated to my fellow IH buddy Jess. On the way to New Englands, as I proceed to get lost in the burbs, we started blurting out the things that we do just to hurdle. Oh the madness and I know that there are many more we haven't come across yet!

1. Take an hour to drive to a meet that's only 20min away
2. Drive for 2.5hrs one way then a couple hours later drive back 2.5 hrs
3. Do a half bitten power 15min warmup before a race
4. Endure absurd temperatures
5. Wait inbetween monsoons to go for a run
6. Run in those monsoons when they just won't break
7. Take the entire side of a knee off
8. Lie and say that you're still in college and maintaining yourself while "on break" all the while practicing on a track your not supposed to be on
9. Dip into the cash reserve to buy plane tickets
10. Wake up early on a morning you could be sleeping in
11. Find obscure objects like barricades and hurdle them (even moving ones)
12. Watch the sky get really dark and light up then continue to do the workout
13. Get excited when you find out that jumping in the air if lighting's about to stike you could save your life
14. Bruise toes, feet, legs to no end
15. Miss out on parties during holidays
16. Get lost in the wrong part of town (aka the ghetto)

To be continued....

There's no place like...

KANSAS!! Dorothy has clicked her spikes 3 times and is on her way to Club Nationals! I got my break in the 400 hurdles today, I hit the qualifying standard with a few seconds to spare. Though I won't pretend that it was a pretty sight, I still need some work with my form, but for what it's worth it was my debut race and I haven't had as much time working with the hurdles as I should have under my belt, I'll take it. I have 4 weeks to pelter out form and rack up some speed. In the line up for the meet today I also threw in the 800 for good measure. It wasn't disasterous, obviously needs work (as much of my racing does), but my time is going in the right direction...down, I'll take that one too. Then I topped off the absurd double with a leg in the 4x4. Hey we can't win then all, but not totally a bust.

The highlight of my day besides my hurdle time was my family came down to watch and cheer me on, even though today was Father's Day and they could have been doing other things with my Dad. It's a blessing to me that they finally are much more supportive with my running than in the past and take the effort to come to meets when possible. Might have to be with the baby sis who's following in her big sister's footsteps or that they realize that it's my passion and want to support it. Whatever the cicumstance may be, I'll take it.

What a fabulous day. Got to believe that anything's possible if you set your mind to it!

My lil 100m hurdler

Another Simple Thanks

"A father gives a child his DNA but a Dad gives a child his heart."

A special thank you to my Dad, grandfather, and all the other dads out there. What's a girl to do with out the guidance and unconditional love of her dad (and Pepere). Oh and who would be there to fix her car when the thing goes awry, or to disapprove of all the guys she dates. Thanks for being the men in my life that I know I can always count on!

HAPPY DAD'S DAY!

Dedication or Just Plain Craziness

Today's one of those days when I wonder what's really going on in my head. Am I a sheer mental case or truly dedicated? Maybe a bit of both? You won't find many people out doing a grueling workout in the 90 degree heat and blazing sun at noon. There certainly wasn't anyone out on the track joining in my madness. I guess my passion and drive exceeds the pain? Which coincidentally yesterday a regular at my restaurant and I had somehow gotten on the topic of running (not a hard thing to do), he then said to me at the end of our conversation that he's never seen someone talk about something and light up the way I did when I talked about running. What a way to put it in to perspective. Thank you dear patron for making me not doubt or confuse my devotion to the sport.

Following the 'Red Rubberized Road'

The munchkins told me that if I follow the 'Red Rubberized/Synthetic Road' that it would lead me to Emerald City then I'd be on my way to Kansas. Well I've been following this road for a very long time and I can see the Emerald City across the field through all the jumpers and throwers but I'm not there yet. It's all that witches fault making it so difficult to get there. And now she's put a sleeping spell on me. I will fight my way through this little detour though, smack right into Emerald City-it won't know what hit it- then jet set my way to Kansas.
Haha I couldn't resist using that analogy, first because "The Wizard of Oz" is one of my all time favorite movies and because the club National meet just happens to be in Kansas. I seriously feel like Dorothy trying to find her way to the EC running into setbacks and overcoming them to finally get home. Though I was hoping for my breakthrough at the HiPi meet yesterday it didn't happen. I'm not devastated, bummed a bit yes, but I will give myself on leap forward since I did run the most even split 800 that I've run in a long time. Now the task at hand is getting good leg turn over, which with speedy workouts I shouldn't have too much of an issue. The next task is figuring out what exactly I want to try to qualify for.There's 3 races that I could potentially hit the mark, but timing is everything. I think that I'm going to have to let the next couple of practices dictate that. To hurdle or not to hurdle that is the biggest question. Hmmmmm...can you smell the smoke. --Hey watch it now, it's not what you're thinking-it's the witch melting away.

A break from the mundane

This weekend turned out to be a little unexpected break from my whirlwind days that have been procuring lately. On Saturday night after work I headed over to Hennesey's to meet up with some teammates to watch the best 80's cover band 'Fast Times". This was completely a last minute decision, didn't know that anyone was going out until a fluke phone call on the way to work, and actually made up my mind to go while walking out of work at 11p. As I was waiting in line (an uncharacteristic move seeing as I've worked in the business for entirely too long and know the people to "know" to prevent that) one of the bouncer's standing at the exit door randomly says to me 'you work at Gold's Gym'. Um yeah. 'Trying to go in here?' Um yeah. 'Go in this way' Um sweet! Okay so I thought it to be a bit odd that he knew I worked at the gym seeing as I work in the daycare and unless you're bringing a kid in while you workout, you probably don't know I work there. And I'm 100% positive that he has not brought a child in. Hmmm. Oh well I got in and didn't have to wait so what do I care, still a bit strange. Had a great time blasting lyrics word for word, fist pumping, and dancing mad to music that I did not grow up on despite growing up in the 80's--funny how music works that way. Fun times had by all.

Today was super special. The family that I used to nanny/sit for and that I rent my condo from were in town. They now live in Minnesota, I haven't seen then since they left last June. Boy have the girls grown. We started off the day going to brunch at My Diner. Then since it was a beautiful day I decided that I should get some flowers to finally plant in the front window boxes (which I've procrastinated doing). I thought it would be nice to take Syd (the oldest of the girls) with me to pick out the flowers and help plant. We also decided to bake some mini cupcakes to bring to a BBQ we were going to later on. It was such a sweet afternoon. Syd was well behaved as always and talked my ear off, filling me in on everything's that been going on in her life. This little girl is one of the most intelligent 4 year olds that I've ever met and I can completely say that it had/has been always a delight to watch her. Later at the BBQ I spent some time with the youngest Tess, who doesn't remember me, but that's to be expected since she was only 1 when they left. She's such a little brute and firecracker but it's so adorable. Her favorite thing was to knock me down then sit on my stomach and bounce--Enchanting! A simply superb time , I even missed my run for the day, and it was well worth it.

Keep the faith alive

Mini Meet #1 =mission completed. Or something to that effect. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into tonight, all I knew was that I asked for the night off so I could "race" and that was that. I still at 3pm this afternoon didn't know what event I wanted to do. I thought that I had settled on doing the mile and the 200m while circling for 20 min around the parking lot waiting to pounce on a spot. When I paid my fee and signed up that was my intention. I hurried along to a half-bitten warmup (since as usual I was running late). At 6:30ish we lined up for the start of the mile, originally they were going to run guys and gals together but they deemed last min to run us separately. A little bummed for that because I was planning on pulling off some of the guys for pace, since I didn't know any of the girls who were running and was unsure of their paces. I of course pulled out front, settled back into a comfortable rhythm (a little too comfortable in the end) and ran. I stayed front leader for the entirety of the race pulled out my last lap per usual 10 seconds faster than the previous lap, hence the too comfy of a pace. My other indication that I was settled a bit too much was I recovered entirely too fast. My time was the same as I ran back in February which is neither good nor bad but my recovery tells me that I can pull a lot more out of myself. So in that end I resolved to make the meet a workout instead. At the very last minute I added the 400 into my mix of races. And when I say last min I mean, approximately 15 min (or less) after I finished the mile and 2 min before the 400 was going to start, last minute. Again ran ok, sadly I could have finished faster than I did had I opened my stride going down the back stretch--definite mental block on that one, I can pinpoint myself telling myself that I wasn't going to finish in a great time so pretty much I just strided out the last 100m. I really got to work my mental game. As I finished up the 4 I jogged down to the opposite corner for the start of the 200. Physically my body was tight at this point but I proceeded to run anyways, it's only a 1/2 a lap. Another ok time.
I was not disheartened by any of my performances. For one I had very little recovery time in between each event, two, my knee still doesn't have full range of motion without pain, and three, we just haven't gotten to the super speed workouts yet in practice. And hey I did plan on it being a practice day. In the end I'm keeping the belief of working on my head thinking way too much, more speed, and whatever else can be improved, to take my races in the next couple of weeks to the next level.

Just when you thought you were safe

True story this happened to me last Monday. I was just running around the track, minding my own business, when out of the first curve jumps this hurdle. It was only 30in at the approach but as it came closer to me it grew to a whopping 50in. It knocked me down sending me skidding across the track. Thankfully it was a chillier day and I had pants and long sleeves because it could have been a brutal attack. I only suffered a large scrape on my left knee and a few scrapes and bruises on my hands. I had heard stories about these hurdles gone wild but I'd never experienced it myself, so I was skeptical about believing this. But folks it's true so be careful if you see stray hurdles on the side of the track, they may be malicious.

I know what you're thinking but I swear that this has nothing to do with me paying so much attention to where my arms were and how much bend was at my hip while my lead leg went over the hurdle that my trail leg foot clipped the edge sending me flying during hurdle practice. Absolutely nothing to do with that.

Lab Rat

If someone offered to pay you $150 to hook you up to an ultrasound, sonogram, breathing apparatuses and and nerve stimulator while doing breathing exercises then study the data they collected, would you do it? If it required 2 trips, the first a 2 hour preliminary screening, the second a 4-5 hour testing, would you still do it? What if you could not exercise for 48 hours, drink caffeine for 24 hours, and fast for 12 hours before the testing? Would that deter you? Well none of the above faltered me away, I did it, though not without first cringing and flinching at the whole no exercise, caffeine and fasting part. I still can't decide which was the hardest to do.
I figured why not. There were no intrinsic side effects, I wasn't going to miss out an too much work, they were going to pay me, it hopefully will help someone and maybe by some chance later in my life I may benefit from this research.

A Simple Thank You

Just wanted to wish my Mom, my Grandmother and all the other mothers a day that is as special, caring and compassionate as they are. I want to thank you all for everything that I have learned over the years about children and hope that one day when I decide to become a mother that all that information will be put to good use.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

The bit of something called life

I'm still trying to figure out where the month of April's gone. It's been quite a whirl wind, so much has happened in such a short span of time I'm wondering if it's all been real. My month started off with a trip to Virginia to go to a baby shower for a close friend of mine. I came home and my work schedule has changed-a good change more hours. I also started to increase my mileage ten-fold once my body healed up. Add another baby shower, some planning for a bridal shower designing the invitations, extra childcare duty, my official 1st meet of the season in a debut race and one meet in Providence. Ah yes and lets not forget the ever lasting search (since Feb) for a roommate in the mix. Wow my head is spinning just typing this and I'm sure that there's more I'm forgetting to mention. The good news is I'm not too run down from this schedule, my mileage is where is should be, my cash flow is looking nice, and most importantly I found a good roommate. PHEW! Crazy part about this is it's not looking like I'm slowing down too much soon, if anything my schedule's becoming fuller. But I must admit I love it!
Now back to the ever so popular running thing I do. I forwent Penn Relays this year which was a bummer but I think a wise decision for a couple reasons. I did end up going to Brown earlier today for another stab at the steeple. I PRed by 40 sec which was awesome. I was hoping to cut under 12min but I'll take what I get. I realized that it's not a race that I will train wholly for (3000m is just too long) so I will start to transition back to my 800m with a possibility of playing with the 400m intermediate hurdles. I sure do enjoy hurdling over things. All's well that ends well --for now at least.
Here's a link to the looooonnnggg video (12 min) of mine and my teammate's steeple chase at Brown taped by another teammate http://blip.tv/file/880018

Getting my feet wet

Yay I made my debut in the steeple chase today. Had to start my outdoor season with a bang since I wasn't able to race in the first meet, been on the DL for a couple of weeks and needed to redeem my indoor season. What better way than to start with a race I've never raced before along with a distance I've never raced before. To add boot I hadn't practiced hurdles in quite some years so I only had 2 practices before hand, as well as I'd been taking it very easy for the past couple of weeks for being broken. Adding all of those factors together I did pretty okay. I mean I didn't have a outlandishly amazing debut time like my teammate who ran with me, but I finished well for my prevailing circumstances. I learned a bit more about the race, ran pain-free, and had fun. And really that's all that counts. I've left myself plenty of room for improvement as the season continues and I begin to get back on the track.

Congrats Ms V for your victorious debut race today!! Can't wait to take on Brown...I'll be in better shape to keep up with you so we can dominate! Go GBTC SC!

It's a mystery but it's history

I am happy to say that I am officially gluteally pain free. I had been taking it easy for the past couple of weeks, doing strictly mileage-no track intervals and stretching like a mad man. I still had remnants of the "injury" (I'm still unsure if it was really an injury) but it wasn't near as uncomfortable than when I first started feeling the pain. After a 2 week pause from training with the team, I finally had a Tuesday off (I had also been working during practice days) and went to practice. It happen to be a hill workout. I was a bit shaky on how the muscles were going to react but I decided to go for it and see how I fared. The first one was blah, the next felt okay, by the 3rd one I didn't feel a thing. Continuously through number 10, I didn't feel any pain whatsoever. I did worry a bit thinking it might have just been endorphins kicking in so I knew I'd have to wait and see. Wed morning I woke up-nothing. All the rest of the day-nada. This morning and afternoon-zilch. NO PAIN!! It wasn't the endorphins. Don't ask me what it was because I haven't a clue. I don't know if my stride going up the hill stretched out the muscles and that's all that was needed in the first place or what it was. At this point it doesn't matter all that matters is I can go back to my normal training regimen.

I'll take Quotes for 1000

"Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'" -Lao-Tzu

Okay I have a slight obsession with my thoughts of the day/quotes. The thing is whenever I need an uplift or just reflection on what's going on in the moment, I open the email that says 'Real Simple Daily Thought' and there stands a almost seemingly perfect reply. Kinda bizarre but a very lovely surprise to say the least.Time is always a virtued entity for myself since I'm always doing something at every given moment. I work multiple jobs, I run (a lot), and I try to keep a somewhat balanced social life. Last week I had a coworker ask me where I found the time to run since I worked so much. My reply was that If you truly enjoy doing something you find the time. Funny thing is my favorite and most used excuse for the things that I really have no interest in at the moment is not having the time. Hmm maybe I should rethink that excuse and find another. Haha.

Pain in the Butt

Saturday was supposed to be the first meet of the outdoor season, and yes it's cold outside. Unfortunatley I was sidelined for this one. I had every intention of racing but when I woke up I was unsure. I've been having a slight issue with a muscle in my glutes for the past month or so. I know that there were things that I probably shouldn't have done...like race last weekend...but honestly it only gets buggy every so often. It hurts the most though when I've been sitting for long periods of time, sitting on the floor is the worst, and when I drive. Of course any normal person would have gone to the doctor but I'm convinced that it's not that serious. So instead of trying to find a PT, I went online to self-diagnose. I believe it to be the piriformis muscle that is the cause of the inflicted leg. All the symptoms matched and the causes made sense. Though I won't rely solely on a web diagnostics, I'm going to take it easy (seriously), see where that leaves me and there after if it's still in the state it's been in, I will seek alternative measures, i.e. the real physical therapist. Or you know I could always just ice bath it :)

Gotta Watch

Here's an absolutly HILARIOUS clip that some of my teammates put together. Just visualize seeing this while walking down the streets in Boston. Hope it will make you laugh as hard as I did (PS. make sure you have the sound on)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfwBB_dxXnQ

A Day O'Lucky

WOOOHOOO!!! Is all I can say. I can't even begin to describe how happy that I am about my race today. This was my 4th annual race at the South Boston St. Patty's Day 5K. Since it's not a very competitive race I was hoping to go into the race and win it all, I was 2nd place female last year. That was until I found out that 2 of my teammates were going to run in it, so I knew that I clearly wasn't going to get that, both girls have far more strength in the distance area. I accepted that fact and instead decided to focus on #1 dropping my time from last year.

The race started off way too fast for my pace, I realized that quickly and settled back a bit. As I dropped the speed my teammate had said to me- 'You better be #3'. I hit mile 1 at 6:12, typical 1st mile split, fast but I didn't fell too strained. Rounded the statue chugged up the hill, split mile 2 at 6:30, surprisingly more even than it usually is. Basically I had been running by myself up until this point with a few guys sporadically passing me or vice versa. Then right after I passed the 2 mile mark I heard one of the spectators yell go #3 and 4. That's when I was made aware that there was a girl coming up on me. All that flashed through my head was #3, #3, #3, I didn't even care at that point what my time was, I was going to be the third female to come in. I felt her come up on my shoulder then she slightly got a step ahead. Randomly, I haven't a clue why I did it, but I said out loud "I don't think so" then proceeded to pick up the pace. She stayed on my back for the last mile and everytime she got too close I speed up. I was simply determined not to let her get past me. Once we rounded one of the last corners with about 300 meters to go I knew that she had nothing on me, I've got to hand it to my kick it's the thing that always comes through in the end. So in the end I got my #3 place. But that's not the only greatness that came out of the race. I had thought when I crossed the finish line that the clock had said 20:00. I was excited because it was a lifetime PR in the 5K but just slightly bummed because all last fall I was determined to break the 20 min barrier and this time I was actually sooooo close. Well folks my happy ending was granted because the race results had me clocked in at 19:59. I can't even tell you how elated, joyed, crazy happy I was.

It turned to be a fun and rewarding race. The 3 of us went 1, 2 & 3 for the females, the one that came in first won the entire race (yeah she's good). Go GBTC gals!!! And I also took home the metal for 1st South Boston female resident. Go ME!! I can only hope that this is just a glimpse into how the outdoor season's going to be. Here I come PR's.

119 24:24 7:52 23 20-29 34 F144 Deanna Clark S.Boston,MA (2005)
149 25:07 8:06 30 20-29 44 F130 Deanna Clark S.Boston,MA (2006)
16 21:02 6:47 2 20-29 2 F166 Deanna Clark Boston,MA (2007)
24 19:59 6:27 3 20-29 3 F506 Deanna Clark S. Boston,MA (2008)

Ouch

If there was another word for the pain I feel, then tally it with OUCH! Sometimes I over exaggerate things a bit, but now's not case. Tuesday's practice kicked not only my butt, but also my thighs, calves, pecs, abs, and pretty much every connective muscle in my body. Since we won't be competing for a while we've reverted back to some strength workouts. We did a set of 50 ab exercises, then 20 push ups, a drill for an extended amount of time, jog 200m, then sprint 200m, then repeat the sequence 8 times. Secretly I really love this workout. I have absolutely not an ounce of energy at the end but I enjoy the challenge. What I don't enjoy however is how my body feels not the next day but 2 days later. Oh the joy of delayed onset muscle soreness. I even ice bathed afterwards (which is seemly becoming a common practice of mine) and it still hurts. Runners...It's crazy to think what we put our bodies through hoping it will make that one moment down the line the most glorious one we've ever experienced. Can't wait for that day!

Reload, rewire, reassessment time

The indoor season is now officially over. Competing wise that is-thankfully we'll still be practicing inside for about another month. Sunday was the USATF Indoor Club New England meet, I ran the 800 and a leg of the 4x400. My parents came to watch with my youngest sister, who was so excited to see me run. I love that I aspire her to pursue being a runner. It makes me giddy when I hear that she wants to run track. She didn't get to see me run my best race or even close to it but I don't think she cared. And honestly I didn't really either, well I did care but it wasn't as disappointing as it has been in the past.
I decided that I would go out with a different race tactic than usual-Not go out into the lead right away but hang back a little and make a move on lap 3. Well it didn't exactly pan out quite like I planned. I did hang back but I never made the move up. I just didn't have it in me. I felt sluggish after the first 200, I didn't even have my infamous kick at the last lap. Even one of my teammates said I didn't look like myself. I'm not sure if it was the approach for the race or if it was just me being exhausted.
It is what it what it is...time for a new game plan. So I've taken myself back to earlier in the season when I was running strong, trying to pin point what I was doing differently then than I am now. I've found that I've been slacking in the weight training and mileage. I've decided that I'm going to rework my lifting schedule back into training more regularly as well as some hill workouts and stadium stairs. I hope that this will make a difference, if not than I'll figure something else out. I am absolutely stoked for the outdoor season to take off!! Ready to take on my PR's.

A not so Daily Quote

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer"
-Albert Camus

Still learning

Yesterday and today marked the second to last meet of the indoor season, the BU Valentine Invitational. This was a HUGE meet with roughly 2800 athletes competing between the 2 days. Just like the Terrier Invite two weeks ago, the women ran on Fri with the DMR on Sat and the men ran on Sat with the DMR on Fri.
Yesterday turned out to be a long day. I went to work at the gym until noon, then I came home hoping to sneak a little nap in before I headed over to BU. Unfortunately my plans were a bit foiled. I kind of volunteered myself to take care of the team packet (collect $$ & make sure everyone has bib numbers) at the meet. I was unaware that I was meet manager for the team until I checked my email when I got home. So I had to pack up and rush to track much earlier than anticipated since the meet had already started at that point. I didn't mind going up early since all I would be doing anyways would be sitting around the house doing nothing, whereas at the track I could watch the races. The only downside of it was my race was the last of the night and it wasn't scheduled to go off until 8:55p.
I entered into the 1000m again looking to improve, though I guess that's what every runner has in mind when choosing what they're going to race. I've been working on my visualizations the past week, trying to get "on track". I definitely felt good. The race felt okay. I improved by 1 sec. Not bad. It's that learning experience thing. It was pretty much the same race as the last with my 200m splits (34.7, 37, 40, 43, 35)- So now it's trying to find a strategy to have more even splits. I led the way until about the 650 mark, and this is where I've been straggling in many of my races. Three girls passed me and I broke my focus. I've slowly becoming aware that this has been a mental breaking point for me, I've noticed it as well in practices. Not so much of the sense of defeat but more along the lines of losing the concentration. When I'm leading I have nothing to focus on except me, the track & my race, when I'm being passed at any point I shift focus onto the everything but me. I don't regain the focus back until I hit the last 200 and hear the lap bell, but by then I've given up too much time. It's very similar to when you're trying to get a child's attention, so you shake shake some keys or such and they look at you, then they turn back their attention to what they were doing before. That's what my races have been equated to. The distance coach {we'll call him Coach TD...for grace of not keeping names. He's not my coach} jokes with me that I fall asleep in the middle of the race. One amusing part of my night is Coach TD recalled one of the guys while watching my race commented on that I looked like I was dying and he promptly replied no she's just taking a snooze just wait she'll wake up in about 150 meters. I laughed, the infamous kick.
http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=172&id=8547 (Video of the 1000m on Fri)

Today in the whole wasn't there. I was present physically (sort of) but I truly wasn't there. The main factor here is sleep. I didn't get home until 11p and I wasn't able to unwind completely for a couple of hours after that. I was supposed to be up by 8a, that didn't happen, I got out of bed around 9:15ish. I knew I'd be cutting myself short since the DMR went off at 10:45a and it takes appx 30 min to get to BU taking the T (I would have drove but parking's more of a hassle than I care to deal with). I got there with an inkling of time to spare. I managed to shave some minutes by getting off the T a few stops earlier and used that as my warmup. Kudos to me for using a bit a ingenuity. Though I had a feeling when I got up that I wasn't up to par it became clearer when I started to do strides. My body felt so heavy and flat. There wasn't any spring in my step. Not being able to back out at this point being as it's a relay and there wasn't anyone there to replace my leg, I just ran to run. I didn't care to get my split time, knowing that if it wasn't what I should have run it would upset me. I ran what I could. I can't change today but I can certainly change tomorrow. I still have 5 months until all of this matters the most. Then I repeat the process again in Dec and it will continue until I stop running at the ripe age of let's say 90. One can only hope!

Believe

Here's an excerpt from the my so called life-haha I think that that show was actually supposed to be made for me, though I can't say I've ever watched it, so maybe just the title was meant for me. Anyways I've been slumming around the past couple of weeks after returning from my vacation, due to losing my job while I was away (it was by no fault of my own, I'm over it, there was nothing I could do) It's been kind of like getting hit by a freight train you didn't see coming, actually it is that, for some time now. I've sent out dozens of resumes, went on countless interviews and so far have come up empty handed. All the while I've been telling myself that everything will work out, just be patient, something will come out of the work. I've been trying to keep up the appearance of it's all good. But truthfully I've been doubting myself, I haven't been fully believing in the things that I keep telling myself. It's that slow creeping doubt, the one that isn't there initially but once it finds it's way in it lingers, then by the time you've flushed the negative thoughts it's too late. You become the victim of self sabotage. All too often I find myself in this tangled web I've spun in all aspects of my life. (Just to clear things I'm not always a "Negative Nelly" by any means, just at times)

Yesterday was the start of Lent. I'm not super crazy religious and what not but I have my beliefs (enough said). Typically I give up a food or something along those lines, this year after countless thinking of what vice I should give up, I decided to give up being negative and all negative thoughts. This all came about because last week I got a book to help guide me some with the mental aspect of my running. To briefly sum up the book, it's mind over matter, positive thinking, visualization techniques, etc., one of those self-help round-a-about kind of things. As I was reading it and contemplating giving up sweets, it came to me...what better way to kick start the mental game then to let go of the If-I-think-of-the-worst-possible-scenario-when-something-turns-out-bad-it-won't-be-as-bad-and when-it-turns-out-good-then-it's-great security blanket.

Well to get to the heart of the story, yesterday I went to a place that I knew was hiring, and filled out an application. The manager gave me an on the spot interview, I also interviewed with the owner. It went very well, and was told that the manager and owner would talk things over the following morning and I'd get a call today if they wanted to set something up with me. I left with a superbly great feeling. I woke up this morning, even with not getting a good night's sleep, very positive. So early this afternoon I decided to give my house a good scrubbing, it's been a tad bit neglected. At this point I hadn't heard anything back from the restaurant, but I made a promise to give up the negativity, so I continued to clean and not get down on it. As I was cleaning I picked a piece of paper and on it was the word "Believe", it happened to be part of a tattoo I started to design about 2 months ago. What's funny about this is on one side was mass doodling and on the other was the lone word without the rest of the design and phrase. I laughed to myself and thought I do need to believe, put the paper away and finished cleaning. I continued to think about that piece of paper and how ironic it was that it pops up in that very moment seeing as I haven't seen the paper in a while and I've been going through this whole epiphany thing. After the cleaning frenzy ended I sat down to check my email. NO joke there in my inbox is an email from the owner saying that the manager was out today and they'd like me to come in on Mon to train/trial period. It's sounds crazy that just thinking of a positive word brings a positive ending but as far as I'm concerned it's one step closer to me believing in me, in all my walks and runs of life!

No pain, no gain...right??

I made the trek up to Dartmouth today so that I could get in an extra race in before the end of the indoor season. I also wanted to change up the scenery and race the mile, to hopefully drop my time from earlier in the season. I ran 5:33.71, which is a second faster than my mile in December. I'd be lying if I said I was pleased with the time, but at the same time I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I honestly should not have ran. So sometime last weekned my calves were getting a little achy but I just kind of pushed it to the back of my mind and iced. It wasn't anything painful until yesterday. When I finished my run, the pain was petty bad. I knew that I had shin splints. As I got ready in the morning I told myself that it's nothing to worry about, hopped in my car and made the 2 hour drive up to NH. I should have scratched, needless to add that I only had my sprint spikes with me...not helping the cause. I sucked it up, what else would a stubborn mule do, and raced the mile in the spikes...yes I hear you all reprimanding me right now. But see it's okay because I have to pay the consequences...because of my pig-headedness I have to take training off and sit on a bike for the next couple of days instead of running!! You see my friends that hurts worse than the pain in shins right now. It all could have been avoided had I just listened to the little aches and voices telling to take it easy. But seriously telling a runner to take it easy is like telling a child not touch something that they really want to touch. You know that 9 times out of 10 they're going to touch it.
So though I'm not happy with the race, I realize that external factors besides my mind contributed to my performance, therefore I can't be too upset about it and dwell on the negative. I'm working being more positive when I don't have a good race. I have the next race. This part of my training might just be more difficult than the physical part. It's a work in progress.

Just a thought

So I'm sent an email that contains a thought of the day. Sometimes I read them, most of the time I just trash it. But the one today kind of struck a chord with me in a few different aspects in my life, one definately being running. It said:
"We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies."— Roderick Thorp
I relate it back to the fact that I'm sometimes a little, ok a lot, hard on myself when I'm not performing up to par, but I'm working on it.

Timely Tuesday

Going into practice tonight I knew that it wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Tuesday workouts normally aren't. As I look through our intervals, my prediction was correct. We had an exceptional workout of 3x200 with 90sec rest between each 200, 3min rest, 2x300 with 2 min between the 300's, 6 min rest...now the fun starts 2x(600, 400, 300, 200, 100), the rest in between each of the interval started at 3min down to 60sec btwn and between the ladders was 6 min. For all you non-runners who won't quite understand what I just said...it basically means many fast laps hard with little time to rest. Oh and jello legs and your lungs coming out of your chest. I was skeptical of being able to keep up with my other 3 teammates but surprisingly I wasn't lagging behind like normal. I hit all my times-though I did cut the 600's back to 400's, for the sake of my legs being completely deteriorated. But most importantly I felt good. Exhausted but good. Now it's time to take a fabulous ice bath. BRRRRRR!! My legs will thank me tomorrow.

Weekend of Disappointment

This past weekend was the BU Terrier Invitational. I was excited to start the weekend off, erase last weekend's races, and come out running strong. Friday was day 1-the women's races. I decided to run the 1000. I seeded myself at 3:17 from my 1000 time earlier in the season at the Northeasten meet, even though I knew that I could absolutely run faster. I figured I'd let the race run itself. Right now I'm not fast enough for the heat I'm in to make that much of a difference. I ended up being in heat 4 of 4. I kept saying that all I really wanted to do was beat my seed time, which would result in a PR, but in the back of my mind I didn't just want to beat that time, I wanted to demolish it. I had visions of sugar plums dancing at 3:00. I played the splits I need to hit to achieve that goal, over and over in my head. Thinking I can absolutely do this no problem. Problem was I didn't do it. I did drop 5sec from my seed time resulting in a 3:12. Okay. Not great, but satisfactory, acceptable since I did PR. Here's wherein lies the fault making it just ok...my 200 splits were 34, 39, 42, 43, 34. So my first lap was fast, it always is, 2nd lap I settled a bit from going a bit fast in the 1st lap...perfect, what happened in laps 3 & 4??? And hello lap 5, a 9 sec drop from lap 4. Not good. I know that it's not the training or the body. I wish I could remember what was going through my head in the middle of the race. I remember the beginning and I clearly remember the end because I heard the last lap bell and took off like a bandit, determined to gain back my place loss. I'm satisfied with the time just disappointed in my performance.
Saturday was day 2- the men's races and the women's DMR. I was slated to run the 800 in the DMR. I woke up excited to race, ready to rock. Told my coach that I was going to run 2:24 since I raced an 800 on that track a month before in 2:25. Piece of cake. Not so much. I wish that I could even say ok. No, the time was unacceptable. It's so bad that I can't & won't even type it. Though my relay mates assure me that they're not upset at my piss poor performance. I just can't accept it. I don't believe that there is any excuse viable for the way I ran. My training's finally gotten aboard from being on vacation for 2 weeks. I felt good. So frustrated with myself. So I do what I do best when I'm upset at something. Sulk then punish myself for not being able to do something right by running excessively. I ran 3 times in the course of the day after my disaster. Let's not forget that I warmed up, and allegedly raced. Ok, I admit I went a bit overboard but it's my way of venting pent up anger. When you hear someone say runner's are a breed of their own...this is some of what they're talking about.
So after a rough weekend, I'm hoping that I can figure out where I'm going wrong. The heart's there, the passion's there, the training's there, the support's there. Now it's a matter of getting everything to work together as one.
http://www.flocasts.org/flotrack/coverage.php?c=163&id=7699 (here's video of my 1000 complete with the narrator calling me "Diane" how you get that pronunciation from Deanna I haven't a clue)