Strength in numbers

This past week was a good training week for me. Numbers wise it's looking good to be a solid upcoming season. After a dismal week the week before, and deciding to take accountability for my own actions or lack thereof, I was able to pull off some semi-impressive (at least in my own training history) feats.
It started off on Monday. After weeks of lifting I am proud to say that I can now free squat over my own weight. Made my day being able to stack the bar with 45lb plates. I do have one gripe for the day, as I was getting my run in for the day on the dreaded treadmill (never my 1st choice but most sensible since I was already at the gym), someone comes and plops on the treadmill directly next to mine. I know it seems trivial, and maybe it is, but there are over 20 other EMPTY treadmills at that time, why do you have to situate right next to me. I understand when it's busy, there's no choice, but when I'm the only person on the treadmill I just don't find it necessary. It's one of my crazy pet peeves, unless I'm training with you, there's no need to get all that up close and personal with me. Rant over, just had to get that out.
On to Tuesday's practice, which proved to show that my training is on the right track. Most of our workouts these past couple of weeks have been speed endurance building workouts, this one was more of a 400m specific workout to see kind of where we are. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to roll out, especially after not running for almost a week, a not so solid warmup and following a pretty heavy lifting session the day before. Usually this time of year, if I'm healthy, for 400's I'm hitting in the mid 70's, for 300's I'm mid 50's, and 200's anywhere from 35-32. Well much to my surprise, only after looking at my coach like he had 3 heads when he wanted 65 for our 4, I managed to come in a low 67. The crazy part was I pushing to race not even train 65/64 at the end of last season, much to my dismay, so that was quite a shock. For the 300's I pulled in some low 50's and the 200's were 31-32. A very promising start. I won't say that it was an easy feat and by the end of the workout my entire body was on fire from my lungs down deep into the muscle fibers of every body part, especially the legs. Some serious lactic acid. I'm super happy to know that I'm well ahead of where I've been in years and it's just the beginning.
My week continued on not at quite as fast of a pace. On Thursday I learned that jump roping for 100 meters  times 16 with high knees is difficult and painful but with the right group of people can be quite humorous. I'm beginning to find little joy in the things I enjoyed as a kid like skipping and jump roping. Encompassing them into the track world brings a whole new meaning to the once cute actions. Saturday morning I wrapped my week up with a long early morning trek to Van Cortlandt Park for the breakfast of champions, 10x150m hill repeats.
I'm proud I made it through a week unscathed and managed to not miss any workouts. Well almost, I did push off my yoga class I planned on doing on Sunday night, but since it was my rest day I may be able to let that one go (6 days out of 7 ought to count for something right?).

Excuses are just that...excuses

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit" -Aristotle

Highlights of my training week/week:

1. A workout consisting of only skips, no running, just skips. A cumulative 1050 meters of high skips and fast skips. Skipping will never be the same. My calves will never be the same.
2.  3 1/2 days of semi-forced rest, not because my body necessarily needed it but due to travel and emotional distress (The passing of a dear friend). 
3. Learning curves & mental notes to self:  

• Refer to entry quote. 
• Stop making excuses like #2 no matter how legit it may seem to be.
• I only hurt myself in the long run with missed workouts. Unless I'm laid up in bed or injured there's really no reason not to get out
• I always tell my clients, something is better than nothing. Take my own advice.
• Don't beat myself up over the past, what I didn't do, or what I should have done. Move on to the next day and try not to repeat the bad

Hello to a brand new week.

Singing a New Tune

I know, I know I've been slacking in my blog world. For starters not too much has actually been happening so it's kind of hard to pull together something enlightening, and though I do have a few post dated posts that still need to be finished well, they weren't all that inspiring to me so I've been pushing them to the side. It's funny it seems so easy to go on and on about the good and the great, but when I've been stuck in my off/comeback/base phase these past few years it's so much harder to report back about them. Don't get me wrong I do take something from both the good and the bad, it's far more easier to type up a happy-go-lucky post versus a woe-is-me post. Though it's not a new year it is the beginning of a new season for me so I'm going to make a new season resolution : No matter how boring it may be I'm going to post at least once a week, even if it means just fiddling an inspiring quote or photo.

First though I suppose I should catch you all up to speed.
May: I start a new "career" path. I passed the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer exam, I signed at New York Sports Club to be a personal trainer. Coincidentally my boss is also one of my coaches. Though it's the middle of the season he starts me lifting. We're outdoors training, my work load at the track is heavy hurdles.

June: Still lifting, still lots of hurdles, proper technique is still just ok. Seeing small improvements in hurdle races, but also reverts in the open events

July: Club Nationals roll around I PR=awesome, but know that I didn't race with all I had. Left me wanting more. Season ends I take a break to rewire and reload.

 August: Birthday rolls around I turn 30. Was gifted a photo shoot, took some amazing and great fitness shots. Start a horrendous lifting program and cross training (which by the way when you work side by side with your coach it's so much harder to slack). Spend the rest of the month in DOMS, but looking super muscular and feeling uber strong

September: Running phase begins, start a week later due to wedding obligations. Still in the horrendous lifting phase but finishing up near the end of it, DOMS has slowly dissipated. Running economy is surprisingly really good. Feeling strong in workouts, form is looking better than before, though still in need of tweaking.
Now: Switched over to a much nicer lifting program, 10lbs shy of free squatting my own body weight. Running workouts though are battling I still find a way to blaze through them. I have a new sense of renewal and longing to be fast. Looking forward to sharing my joyful and sometimes painful (literally and figuratively)  journey to bettering myself in my sport.

A girl can dream

While most women my age are dreaming of the perfect house, husband, family, vacation, or maybe even the perfect outfit and shoes for some big extravaganza. I've been known on occasion to dream of those things, but mostly I'm sitting here dreaming of running fast and how I can run faster...364 days until the start of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. It may be a pike dream but I'm willing to do what I need to at least try.

And just for the purposes of countdowns: 9 days until I can hit the weights/crosstraining and appx 17-23 days until running workouts grace themselves in my life again. Can you tell the withdrawls are getting to me?? So eager to get my body moving but to no avail rest is needed.

Dude, where's my mind

I'm thinking that somewhere amidst my days of studying, working, and working out that I may have hit my head on a blunt object. It could have been a book or most likely a hurdle. Exhibit A : what in the world am I thinking opting to race outside in March, in the northeast, when there's one last indoor meet the day before. Exhibit B: 400IH/800 double!!! way to open a season?! Not an easy double by any means even if there's time in between each event
Ok maybe these were coach's 'what's probably best suggestions' but I agreed to them. I seem to be working on one of those 5 step or 8 step program thingamagigs, apparently I'm on the "acceptance" step. We'll see where this acceptance leaves me.

Thursday Night at the Races...

or more like Friday morning at the races. This goes down in the books as a memorable meet, not exactly in the best sense either. These Thursday night at the Races are sponsered by NYRR and there are about 5 that occur about every other Thursday night during the indoor sesaon. They are mostly distance races with the shortest being an 800. On the last meet they host a 10x1000m relay, with 10 runners alternating running 5 200's. The Armory is shut down for the night, meaning no practice for the evening. 5x200 with about 5min rest is equivalent to a typical workout so we gathered 10 teammates to make this a simulated workout. Little did we know that it was going to go into the wee hours of the morning. Of the 3 heats my team was in the very last heat. The relays themselves didn't go off until much later than expected, needless to say my team didn't end up starting until 12a, technically the next day. In the end we rocked it with our 9 ladies, 1 gentleman team taking 2nd place overall after an all men's team. Impressive I might say. Do it next year...eh ask me next year.

Taking 1 second at a time

Did my numbers game play out the way I had hoped? Not exactly. Though I most definitely am not allowed to complain about it because I did walk away with a PB in the open 400, so not a total loss. Sometimes I wrap my mind around times that I can't just let go and run. I constantly fight this battle of what I know I'm cabable of running and what I actually race. I then fail to recognize a gain when it's right in front of me. Again need to work on this.

No whammy, no whammy, no whammy

As I set out to a trek back to the motherland for the weekend, I sit in my head playing the numbers game. Never a good thing with me, but it's hard not to when you're sitting on a bus for 4 hours (though admittedly I started playing this one on Tuesday). In practice you can normally gauge your performances to a degree, what you do repeatedly becomes a second nature. Of course with me it can go every which way, since I'm not a professional athlete it's a little harder to control much of my outside occurrences. I only sit here thinking about my meet on Sunday just because of our workout on Tue. A single 350m, there wasn't any time to meet it was just run it all out. We did a 350 a couple weeks ago and I can't remember exactly what I ran it in but I know that it worked out to be a 64sec 400m. Per usual I raced 2 days before it and ran a 65, makes no sense. Back to this past Tuesday's workout I was able to reel out the distance in 53 seconds. 53 + 8 =61 simple math makes sense, what I will actually do is an unknown variable. Could this be my break?

The good, the bad, and the what happened

Started off my year with the first race of 2011 in a brand spanking new uniform top racing my first 500 at a last minute decision meet. In similar suits of the couple of previous meets that I've raced this indoor season this one did pan out quite as I had high hopes for. The funniest part of it is at Tuesday's practice we did 3x500 and the first rep I did was almost exactly what my race time was, 1 tenth of a second off. This is where I KNOW that math & whatnot are not adding up. On one hand I really can't be disappointed because it was the first time I'd ever raced that distance, I was stuck in lane 6 for 200+ meters (which is not an easy lane to be in), and I also in the past have always struggled to hit my times in practice for 500. On the other hand I have every right to be disappointed because I was able to hit that exact time without spikes and without the extra boost & cheering section that always comes with meets. I know I've been sounding like a broken record lately but it is really frustrating me to no end. Hoping for a break sometime soon...persistence is a charm??? (at least that's what my heart telling me)

Embracing the Imperfect

'Perfection is not just about control, it's also about letting go.'
 I went and saw Black Swan today and it kind of hit home a bit. I'm not a dancer and I don't think that the pressure that revolves around the dancer world is quite the same as the running world. I did however feel a connection though with how much the lead character wanted to be perfect. I won't goes as far as to say we were the same (she was definitely on the other end of crazy scale) but similarities exist and it got me thinking.  So much of my life is maintaining control over everyday things and hiding imperfections, after a while it starts to weigh me down. Even though I don't do the whole resolution thing I think in the spirit of it being a new year I'm going to do something similar to a resolution. I'm going to embrace the bad that comes with my running and racing. I usually do try my hardest to look at the bright side of a down fall but I don't always acknowledge it to the fullest. With that I will start to keep a log of all my race performances, whether I find them acceptable or not. I always try to hide that nasty little number when I'm embarrassed and striving for unattainable perfection. Now it's time to take those numbers and wrap my arms around them,bring them to the surface then send them on their merry way.
I'm also going to embrace my new training regimen as I really haven't quite yet grasped it yet. I still want to think like I was training with Boston, but the truth is I'm in NY and I need to get in that NY state of mind while I'm here. My coach is a coach for a reason, they know what they're doing so I need to embrace it.
There's going to be a lot of hugging and imperfections this year, or atleast an attempt.

What Makes A Man Run

My favorite board at the Amory

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can

I've always compared my running from the very first time I joined the cross-country/track team in high school to the book 'The Little Engine that Could'. My little train has had it's hills to pull the load over, and  it's succeed for the most part but there's always a new hill to conquer. My new hill isn't such a new hill just a long one that's not moving quite as quickly as my chugging heart would like it to. I'm making those adjustments to pull harder as I go along but one minor glitch holds me back. Competitions and my mental attachment. I train hard but when it comes to meet day I sometimes fall short of expectations. Earlier on when I came back from my break I realized I had too high expectations so I learned to make reachable hopes, but as of lately what I thought was reasonable hasn't been so attainable. I'm trying to be as optimistic as I can, but some days it begs to be difficult. Meet after meet I question what's gone wrong, then start to analyze numbers and times, doesn't always add up, and they won't because there's nothing wrong with the numbers, it's all in my head. Don't get me wrong I run because I love it, not for reach of certain times or bragging rights but when you put so much time and effort in to something, you really want that recognition to come out in your races. I believe somehow through the fog I will keep huffing and puffing along up my hill until I finally get to top to say "I knew I could", to start my next hill. It's just a wonder when and how.

Happy Holidays

Star light, star bright, first NYC thing I see in sight, I wish I may, I wish
I might, have this Holiday wish I wish for you tonight

A little change here, a big change there

I opened my season off in Boston at one of the low-key BU mini meets. I had some high expectations but they definitely did not pan out quite as I had hoped. Since I've always opened with an 800, I figured why change now. The catch here is my training's completely different than what I have done in the past. I thought in my mind that the speed work that we've been doing would translate to the middle distance arena, but in my case it did not. I've been doing much much speedier work than I had in the past with not as much volume. I wasn't so happy or proud with my performance, but in the end I hope to see the changes that are being made progress in the areas where I want it to matter the most. May patience be with me.

On a lighter and happier note I was able to join Greater Boston for a last official who-rah at the team's annual holiday party. I had an amazing time seeing and catching up with everyone. I couldn't have asked for a better consolation to my race earlier in the day. After all was said and done I was able to shoot up north to have an early Christmas visit with the family.



I found this photo amusing as I looked way too exhausted for not enough exertion
Photo by Chris McConnell



"There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs" -Unknown

"Everyone wants happiness, no one wants pain; but you can't have a rainbow without a little rain" -Unknown

Hurdle with Caution

Sometimes you fall down but you dust yourself off and pick yourself up. As a hurdler you absolutely cannot be afraid to fall, it's inevitable and it happens at least once in the season. This time around the hurdle got the best of my shin, some nice bruising and a small gash that probably could have used a stitch (maybe a butterfly one at the least).

Right after it all went "down"



A post 3 day color explosion



I am Thankful for...

• my life and the wayward adventures that go with it
• my health and being injury free (for the most part)
• my family (including my lovable yet neurotic cat)
• my friends that surround me near and far
• my teammates- new and old -always there to cheer you on
• my present and past coaches that have/are been patient with  me
• each passing day as it teaches me to be grateful for all that I have been given 

A little bit famous

One day at practice a couple weeks ago my coach happen to ask if anyone wanted to be interviewed for an article about sprinting for the NY Times. I started to hesitate but then all I could think about was trying to get the word out about being a sprinter and how frustrated I get trying to explain it all. One of my biggest grievances with being a runner and telling people I am so is their first response, it's always are you running or training for such and such marathon. No, never, not a snowball's chance in any near future. Then I get the whole break down of but why not, you run don't you. There is SO much more to the world of running than marathons. I am a sprinter and hurdler, for some odd reason many people just can't gasp that. The whole how many miles do you run a week, again I'm not a distance runner so I don't account my mileage as highly as someone who runs much longer distances than myself. Don't get me wrong mileage is accrued and important but high mileage is not so much.
In light of it I decided YES I will volunteer my voice, and I thought it would be pretty cool to be in print in the newspaper. When I got the call from the reporter doing the article I was stoked. But then after I gave her all my info about myself the interview started to go a bit off. It wasn't in a bad way, just strange. I realized at that point I would not be getting the word out about the sprinting arena quite the way I thought. A few of the questions just weren't congruent with the sport as a sport. At one point she asked how many times I attended the sprint classes, well they're not classes it's practice. It's not like a spin or aerobics class, I do this in order to compete. Another bizarre question was have you noticed your body change since you started sprinting, wasn't really sure how to respond to this one. At the end I felt like I was questioning myself not knowing how to answer her questions. I was beyond curious as to what this article was going say.
A few weeks later it came out and just as I suspected not what I was hoping for. It wasn't bad, just not about sprinters as a separate entity in the sport.  Here's the link to the write up: NY Times.

It's all new to me

You know that when you go into anything new, it's not going to be the same. There's going to be an acclimation period. Of course that period can be a bit of a tough one when you're so used to one thing. You'd think it's just running, what could really be so different, you put one foot in front of the other and accelerate for a distance and time, then repeat that a few times. If only it were that easy. It's kind of like going to a new job. You've done this job for years and feel proficient in the knowledge of it all, but that doesn't cut it because things are run differently, there are different people and even the air is different.
This is the point at where I am with joining my new team.
I started my first practices with Central Park this week. I started a week or two later than I had planned but better late than never. As I arrive to the track, I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was it was it wasn't what I thought it would be. It was somewhat of a surreal experience to be at the track with other runners that will become my teammates but feel so disconnected. I was waiting for the stories of the week, or what happened while we were on break. I was waiting for the excessive laughter, giggles and child-like bit of banter. I was waiting for someone to take the reins and gather the bodies to do a warmup and drills together. I was waiting to hear that we had active intervals, or a jump run as the workout. I was waiting for anything familiar, essentially I was waiting for GBTC but I got CPTC.
I know that it'll take some time to get used to and I'm willing to give it that time because in the end I know that I'm doing what's best for me and my running.