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