I've moved!

Please go to petitepacer.com to continue reading my ruminations about running..

A new route!

38 °, WSW 4,  72% H,  UV 0, Dp 30° 

The coldest morning I've run in so far this autumn. I wore my long pant, 1 tech shirt, 1 tech pullover, gloves, and my cotton gator. It was pretty much perfect.  I knew I was going for an adventure today, running Sea Cliff's hills. I took the road I came across a few days ago. Half way down, I was able to over look Hempstead Harbor to the north, the orange and pink glow settling above the horizon. It made me smile. So did the downhill. I pushed the thought out of my head that I'd have to come UP that hill on the way back.

The route took me down yet another hill which would wind it's way down to the water. There I would run past Sea Cliff beach, the yacht club, and the marinas. I saw the sunfish sailboat that I had gotten from a patient several years ago. It was in need of repair which I did not have the skills for - so I donated it to the sailing school at the beach.  He looks fine and well sitting with the rest of them in their respective racks.

The traffic was light as  I made my way down to the end of Shore Road before turning around and headed back. I slowed down, or tried to - as I knew I had those two hills to climb. I wanted to stop and take more pictures, but I knew I had to get home and get ready for the ride out east. Plus, my sister was running a 10 miler Monster Dash ( How can a dash be 10 miles, I wonder..) and I wanted to at least follow her for the start of that.

My performance was only fair.  I had a burrito right before bed last night - (my daughter and her friends brought it back for me, and they eat later than I do) - and I think wearing all those clothes for the first time made me feel constricted. I also weight trained shoulders and arms yesterday after work. I've been up since 4:00 am - the excitement of a new route and catching the bus for the wine tour today kept my brain churning away once I left what I would guess was my final REM sleep of the night. Yeah, I'm just LOOKING for excuses, aren't I ?!  :)

Oh, and I bought Gevalia coffee for a change up.  Delightful.

Get a gander at that hill. The two blended together. The flat is along the shore.
Ok - I have to run.  Hopefully tomorrow, Selden.

New routes, calf tightness and a new look coming soon!

Tuesday, October 22nd
52°,  SW 3,  85%  H,   UV 0,  Dp 48° 

I didn't jot down any notes about my Tuesday morning run, so I'm having a hard time remembering the specifics. I ran less than 2 miles. The sun comes up later, and my scheduling has gotten tighter again. And I wasn't really feeling it.  After the 5k race in Oyster Bay on Saturday, I was supposed to go out to Selden on Sunday and run with the Hillbilly Warriors. But later on in the day on Saturday, my calf began to tighten up again. I foam rolled, stretched my back out, and tried my best to relax. At the same time, however, my sister set me up on Wordpress, gave me the 'keys' so to speak, and I sat on my ass all day and learned as much as I could. That lead to more tightening, headaches, eye strain and the like. Needless to say, Sunday I was even tighter, and decided not to risk straining the calf again by running 6 miles, on hills, no less.  So, the logical thing to do (not) was to stay home on my ass all day again and delve into the creative aspect of my new blog site. After 6 days, it's almost complete, and should be debuting shortly. And my calf is feeling better too.


Thursday, October 24th 42°,  W 10,  72% H,  UV 0,  Dp 33°

This morning was a whole different animal. I watched a video featuring Karnazes running in Greece. That inspired me to finish my coffee as quickly as possible and get out there and try to run as effortless as Dean looks when he runs. Once outside on this beautiful October morning I noticed just a wee bit tightness in my lateral gastroc head - but it eased out during the short walk to the end of the block that I usually do for my warm up. 
My goal was 5 miles.  I tried to keep my heart rate under 150, then under 160 and finally gave up and just ran.
I really need to find and run different routes. I find that running elsewhere really motivates me to get out there to begin with, and gets me to stay out running longer. 

AND I'M TIRED OF ALL THE CARS AND EXHAUST.

In my attempt to change things up a bit and get away from the main roads and traffic, I started running down the smaller roads in my neighborhood. I came across this gem.

























Downhill, with Hempstead harbor in the distance. Sweet. I didn't take that route, but one day soon I will. I imagine after running Selden on a more frequent basis, these local hills will be akin to speed bumps. At least that's what I'm hoping. Seldens hills are long and steep - the hills I have here locally are shorter distance, and variable in elevation.

Another 10k is coming up in less than 2 weeks. I've got to start getting runs in on both days over my weekends. I'm going on a wine tour with my friends at work on Saturday, so I'm hoping to get out on the roads early and be ready for the bus at 10:30am. Less than moderate drinking and a good nights sleep that day, then a drive out to Selden on Sunday morning early. At least that's the plan.

Oyster Bay Supervisor's 5k Recap

48°,  ESE 5,  72% H,  UV low,  Dp 40

Brrr! Chilly and dry.. just the way I like it. I must say, though -  I believe that the sudden change of weather conditions played a part in how I felt during the race. I'm not blaming the weather, because I think that my finish time reflects my training.  But during the race, I really felt poorly in my lungs and throat. I don't have any type of respiratory issues, but I think I now have some idea how asthmatics must feel. My breathing felt like it became more constricted over the course of the race, and I found that most of my energy was consumed by literally, 'sucking wind'. I'm hoping it was just because of the combination of first time running in the cold this season, PLUS racing, that caused this to happen. Although I did not PR or place, I came in faster than my last 5k, so I'm happy about that. I like to try to rationalize my performances and find some good if I can.

But, the thing I'm MOST happy about, is that I finally met my running blogger guru, The Emerging Runner! I've been reading his blog since the start of my running, and I felt like I met a celebrity!

yay! But God, I'm short.

He is every bit as nice as I thought he would be. We chatted up a storm, took a warm up run together, and talked about things running related and not. He recommended some races that he has enjoyed during his running career, and I'll be reviewing them right after this post and probably start signing up. 

It was a very friendly, community type atmosphere - GLIRC supported. I'm assuming most members of the Selden Hills group were there, but I've only met a few of them once, so I didn't really recognize anyone. The finish line snacks were awesome. Oh, the muffins. How to decide? I walked the entire length of the table, noticing the healthy stuff was at the end. Eh. I'll go back and get a MUFFIN. It was enormous. And delicious. Poor ER. He had to watch me snarf that muffin down. So much for social graces.

The hooded sweatshirts are very nice. Let's see what happens when I wash/dry it. I hope I took the right size.

Instead of finding our times on the side of a van, we waited online to get handed our times on a slip of paper. Classy! I think I remember getting something like this at a kiosk after a race last year? -- but it spit out a blank piece of paper at me.  I just remembered this at this very moment. *sigh*  Loosing one's mind sucks. I hope if am in the beginning throes of dementia, that I become a happy, mindless geriatric instead of a nasty one.

The course itself was great. That downhill was a relief. I stopped to drink at the top of the hill, and I stopped to walk again briefly half way down. My lungs were cold, yet felt like they were on fire at the same time. Weird.

Magellan did ok with the splits,

but took a dump on translating it to graphics. Nice job, problem child Magellen... I see a new Garmin model in my future..

The JMS Timing website was fun to use. Here is a screen capture of my stats.

I'm hoping I feel up to Selden Hills tomorrow morning. I'm not looking at another race until the second week of November. Although, the racing calendar I just prepared shows that I have 4 races up until December 1st. They'll act as my speed training maybe?
Do you think that's a good idea?
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!