Getting My Andy Pettitte On

Posted on March 24, 2013 by scoopsontherun

Remember shortly after my marathon that didn’t happen (thanks Hurricane Sandy) and I had all that newfound speed? Well my body forgot all about it and has no idea where we put it.

Yeah, technically I know it’s still in me. I just have to run more consistently and do some speed work to get it back. Blah, blah, blah. That’s always so much easier to say than actually do but today was a positive step in that direction.

Look at Andy's focus. That is FIERCE!

Look at Andy’s focus. That is FIERCE!

When I don’t run consistently one of the first things I lose is my ability to find a comfortable pace for whatever type of run I’m doing. For example, if I’m supposed to be doing a long run that is supposed to be a minute to two minutes slower than my race pace , I will run too fast and be out of breath by the third mile. Finding that conversation pace is hard then I try to run fast for some speed work or a tempo run and I just can’t turn it on.

During times like this, whether it’s on a long run or during a race, I do what I refer to as my Andy Pettitte. When Andy is on the mound and staring into the catcher’s mitt he pulls the brim of his cap down so that is all he can see. He zeroes in on the one thing he needs to focus on. When I feel things getting out of whack I do the same thing. I pull the brim of cap down so that I’m forced to keep my head up and look straight ahead and not get distracted by what is going on around me. (Best not to do this if you can’t see cars next to you. My public service announcement of the day.) Then I focus on my my form. My arms should be on the outside of my brim. You need to open up your chest. Remember your legs go as your arms go and it’s easier for those legs to go when your arms aren’t closing in on your torso.

I look more serious than fierce. Need to work on my fierce face.

I look more serious than fierce. Need to work on my fierce face.

That really did help get me through today’s long run. I’ve had such a bad tendency to start out too fast even when I know I shouldn’t I just somehow do. But once I got my Andy Pettitte on my pace started to even out and I felt better. The focus was where I needed it to be instead of thinking about cutting the run short or having to trick myself to keep running.

This was my first long run for the Brooklyn Half even though technically training started las week with the NYC Half as the first long run.

I start some of my two a day workouts during the latter half of the week and I’m oddly excited about that. If all goes well, it should really help me get closer to half marathon and marathon goals for this year.

I’m feeling like a runner again and I’m going to to thank Andy for that.

 

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How Far Will You Go?

Posted on March 21, 2013 by scoopsontherun

NYCRUNS posted this question on their Facebook page today, “Finding your optimal distance is crucial to racing your best. What’s yours, and how did you find it?”

I think for me it is the half marathon. It’s a nice long distance race but not as taxing as a full marathon is — but I still love the marathon too.

Training for the full marathon requires a huge time commitment that not only you as the runner has to buy into but those who are close to you as well. If you have ever run one you know that you can’t fake it. You can’t cram for the marathon like you can a history test. What you put in is what you get out of it.

Look at me finishing my first half marathon in Brooklyn. That is an, "Oh thank god this is over" look. Also, I think I felt as though I were going to die.

Look at me finishing my first half marathon in Brooklyn. That is an, “Oh thank god this is over” look. Also, I think I felt as though I were going to die. But look at how happy the woman behind me is. I beat her while she was being happy.

The half marathon is similar but doesn’t require the extensive training that the full does. I’ve proven on several occasions that with a solid base and consistent running you can make descent show of things. It may not have been pretty but I got them done.

The Brooklyn Half Marathon in 2009 was my very first half. I didn’t have a training plan just a vague idea that I should increase my mileage a little bit each week. This May I will be returning to Brooklyn for my 15th half and that seems like perfection to me.

Last week was supposed to be the start of my training for Brooklyn but yeah, I had to run another half marathon through Central Park, Times Square, the Battery Tunnel, and South Street Seaport. That made this week a well needed rest week.

I’m going to try for the half marathon PR again and that means I’ve got to stick to the training plan as much as possible. In order to do this I’ll be experimenting with my two a day workouts. If this works well I’ll be using that for the NYC Marathon training so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’ll also need to refocus on my nutrition which tanked this winter. Everything about this winter really beat me up but I’ve got get things back in shape. I’ve pulled out all of my old nutrition plans from my former nutritionist so that I can things back in order.

Perhaps most importantly I’m excited about training again. (See note above about winter.) I’m ready to feel good about my running, to want to log all of those miles, and return to being that crazy person who says that they only ran 18 miles on a given day.

I am so ready to go the distance again.

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NYC Half Marathon

Posted on March 17, 2013 by scoopsontherun
So ran a little half marathon today.

So I ran a little half marathon today.

It was pretty darn cold this morning but running gets you warm right? Well maybe six miles into it.

This was going to be a tough for me no matter what the temperature was. Three half marathons each within three weeks of each other. It’s the first time I’ve done that and the only half that got consistent training for was the first one in Miami.

It was 28 degrees at the start of the NYC Half with a field of about 14,500. There were so many people in this race that we were lapped by the elite men before we were even near the start. The elite women lapped us when we were about 20 feet from the start.

The first half of this race is the always the most technically challenging due to the hills of Central Park. Then you throw in the cold weather and things just started off slow. I was worried about going out to fast but thankfully didn’t have to worry because just about everyone was slow.

Hello Times Square, I am so happy to see you after all those hills in Central Park. (c) Stacey Cooper

Hello Times Square, I am so happy to see you after all those hills in Central Park. (c) Stacey Cooper

It was such a relief to leave the park where the course steadily goes downhill, but that didn’t mean it was going to be easy. The wind coming off the Hudson River as we turned onto 42nd Street.

I chose not to fight that wind and do my best to conserve my energy for the straight away on the West Side Highway and I am glad I did.

I felt pretty good the whole way on this stretch and started picking off people who had either been running close to me and then others who were ahead of me. One, I even picked off right at the finish. Sorry Nicole or Nicola, I’m not too sure which name the announcer said, but I was tired of all of the TnT coaches running onto the course to talk to you.

It is always a good feeling to pick people off during the late stages of a race and I’m glad that I was able to do that and not feel dead.

This was also the first major race in the city since Hurricane Sandy and it was nice to see the support for all of the runners along the course. It was even better to give some business to local restaurants in the downtown area that are still recovering from the storm.

Overall, this was the race I expected it to be. I knew it was going to be tough and I knew I wouldn’t have a great finishing time. But I am happy with how I was able to keep a steady pace and finish strong. It’s a good measuring stick for what I need to do to get ready for half marathon number 15 — the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May.

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In Defense of NYRR

Posted on March 16, 2013 by scoopsontherun

This is in response to an article that appeared in today’s NY Times on the eve of the NYC Half Marathon. I had initially posted a response about this on my Facebook but as I was writing my comment I realized that there was much more I wanted to say.

Overall, I felt that the article was flawed and so I’m going to break things down bit by bit.

1. The article starts off by mentioning that the number of finishers in the first two races of the years was down from the year before.

First citing that two races (Joe Kleinerman 1ok and the Al Gordon 4m) in winter are not a good measuring stick of a problem. In the years that I have been participating in NYRR races, since 2009, I have never seen these two events sell out. Not even when the Kleinerman was held in December and more people ran this event to get in their nine qualifying races to get guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon.

It was also colder this winter than it was last year and well so many reasons why the total number of finishers could have been down.

Second, the NYC Half, Coogan’s, Brooklyn Half, and Colon Cancer Challenge races have already sold out. Other races like the Women’s More Magazine Half Marathon and Scotland 10k are nearing capacity and I have a feeling many more races will also sell out as registration opens for those events.

2. The article cites competition from the organizers of the Rock-n-Roll race series and NYCRUNs.

It’s hard to say the the one RnR 10k event serves as any sort of competition to NYRR. They’ve held this event twice and from people I know who ran the first year it was held said it was a disaster. When you expand to the rest of their events outside of NYC they also have mixed results with runner satisfaction. Last year’s DC event had many organization problems and let’s not forget their event and the not so great water issue.

I personally like NYCRUNs and have participated in a few of their events and have been satisfied. As stated in the Times article, they do cater to a smaller more community type of event. So far, no event has had more then 1,500 by design. Can NYRR learn from NYCRUNs? Yes, especially in reaching out to their community.

NYCRUNs can also learn from NYRR. The complete race results from their recent marathon and half marathon were not posted until three days after the event and it took about a week for results for a recent track meet to be posted. If NYRR had been this late posting results people would be calling for Mary Wittenberg’s head.

3. There was a complaint about the quality of t-shirts declining in recent years.

We’re starting to get into a pettiness area. But ok, let’s address this. Are you running the shirt? Yes, it is nice to have swag for these events but I’m not sure I completely understand this one. In the races I have participated in the common type of shirt was a cotton t-shirt. That has been pretty standard. But in recent years I have noticed that more and more races are proving tech shirts. So much so that you can almost run in only the tech shirt races and still get your nine qualifying races completed. Now the quality of the tech shirts has varied. These aren’t cheap and if you are only paying 18 bucks for a race don’t expect some Nike Dri-Fit.

4. NYRUNs has better bagels and gives out hot chocolate.

I wasn’t going to include because of the pure STUPIDITY of this. It’s so stupid I had to put it in all caps. Really, people complain about the bagels.

I haven’t had a bagel after a NYCRUNs event so I can’t offer a comparison. But realistically, even though we live in the bagel capital of the world, I’m not sure that there are too many companies that can provide over 6,000 bagels for an event as compared to those that can provide “better” bagels for an event with no more than 1,500 people.

Again this is just pure STUPID.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m all rah, rah, rah, NYRR. The organization does have areas where they can improve.

The article mentions that their marketing strategist has left and longtime spokesperson will soon be leaving. This could be a good thing because NYRR’s PR stinks.

Remember the outrage before the 2011 marathon when the NYTimes reported that NYRR spent a million dollars on a new logo and website? In actuality, that’s not what they really spent the money on. It was on a marketing strategy to increase their presence in the community and encourage healthy living through running. That message got lost because 1) NYRR failed to notify the membership first where they could have controlled the message and focused more on the community initiatives. 2) Of course, the Times would focus on the money aspect which is then what everyone else focused on.

NYRR has a wonderful program for kids that is now spreading outside of NYC. We should be proud of that. I don’t see RnR or NYCRUNs doing that.

I’m not sure if I want to touch on Ponchogate as I’m not sure there was a way that NYRR could have managed that better. Maybe if they came up with their ultimate decision of a choice between baggage or no baggage earlier that would have help because I know the no baggage policy was discussed much earlier than when it was announced.

I’m not touching on the whole marathon cancellation thing. That has been done ad nauseum already.

NYRR is not perfect but neither are RnR and NYCRUNs. But I do know that there are few organizations that can put on a well organized race better than NYRR. I think we have all experienced those horribly organized events and became appreciative of something we have become spoiled to.

I also believe that some of the people who constantly complain about NYRR are similar to those who hate Apple or Microsoft just because who they are and that there is nothing that can be done to win those people over.

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Stuff for Runners — Part Two

Posted on March 12, 2013 by scoopsontherun

I got to test out my new Tech4o accelerator watch and so far I’m pretty happy with it.

The watch calculates distance without gps and use of a foot pod, meaning it’s in the watch and basically relies on your arm swing to help calculate your stride, more on this later.

As with most gadget things there are instructions. Instructions that can make life difficult if your dyslexic like me. After a few reads through I was finally able to figure out what to do to calibrate it. First I did the walk and then the run portion around the park by my house. Ideally, when you calibrate these things you should do this on a track where you know the measured distance and it is flat. But oh well, I’m a rebel like that.

After calibrating, I took it out on my seven mile long run. It did get ahead of my actual distance by a mile or so. I wasn’t too concerned as that has been my experience with non-gps devices and that whole not calibrating on the track but on hills.

I then took it with me to the gym on Monday, where I really wanted to use this. I did a great job. It matched the treadmill up until I took a walk break and didn’t swing my damn arm. The watch registered zero speed while I was walking but I wasn’t swinging my arm enough. That’s hard to do on a treadmill without looking like a dork.

Overall, I would say this is a good watch for shorter distances but make sure you keep your arms moving but not so much for longer distances. Perhaps I will actually get a track and re-calibrate and then re-check the accuracy on a long run.

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Stuff for Runners

Posted on March 9, 2013 by scoopsontherun

There are those runners who always run naked (sans gadgets for those of you with dirty minds) and they scoff at those of us who use gadgets on a regular basis. Running or not, I love my gizmos, always have so of course this came over when I started running.

Because of my love for gadgets, this have given me the opportunity to be a bit of guinea pig at times. I love passing on my knowledge of things to you and you can count on these being honest reviews since I get zero compensation from anyone.

This week, I happened to try out two new things: KT Tape Skin Prep Spray and a Tooks hatphone.

KT Tape is not new and I’ve used it regularly for the past couple of years. But sometime during the summer I started having problems with the strips sticking at all or for less than a day. That’s not great when you want it to stay in place for 4-5 days. I’ve been good about following the directions for applying the tape but still, it was always hit or miss on how long the tape would last. I had resorted to using a bandage skin prep that is used in hospitals but that is expensive. Finally, I hit the KT Tape forum to see if I was the only pathetic soul with this problem — I’m not. It was reading through this thread that I learned that KT Tape makes their own skin cleaner and skin prep spray.

I got to try this out with the tendonitis on the top of my foot that bothers me from time to time. The feet are tricky because putting on and taking off socks can cause enough friction to pull on the tape and also get caught on sheets when you sleep. Last night I put on a new application using both the cleaning spray and the skin prep spray. Right away I could tell I was going to get a good stick. So far this has been working great and I can tell this application will last the whole week. I do have some parts that are pulling up but that’s because I didn’t wear a sock when I slept last night as is recommended. But if you have problems getting the tape to stick I would get this spray. You can buy the combo pack directly from KT Tape for about 20 bucks.

Years ago when Nike and Apple had their partnership with the iPod Nano and the Nike+ app they came out with a hatphone which was a beanie with built in headphones and a pouch for your nano. I loved this hat. My nano fit great and not having to string regular headphones under a beanie was a plus. They always seemed a little tight in my ears when I did that. I still use the hat but now I clip my shuffle into the Nano pouch. The hat however is white, or was white, and I wanted to get a black one to go with it but Nike doesn’t make them any more.

Bring in Tooks. There’s nothing complex about these hats. They have removable headphones that align with your ears. You can adjust the actual placement with the velcro on the headphones. Just plug the cord into your device and you’re ready to go. My one negative about this is that it just has the one long cord length so I have to coil the cord up into the hat to prevent it from swinging around. Since I attach my shuffle to the hat I don’t need all the cord. The Nike hat had a short cord but came with an extension if you wanted to use it with something other than the Nano. I don’t feel the cord so this is fine, just a minor inconvenience.

The sound quality is pretty good and you can still hear things around you like traffic. It comes in a bunch of different styles and is reasonably priced. I got mine for 18 bucks through the Active GearUp deals.

I was hoping to review the Tech4o watch that will accurately calculate distance without the use of a foot pod but my mailman was late today. I’m hoping to test it out tomorrow and will double fist with my Garmin to test it accuracy.

Gadgets are fun, especially when they work!

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Get Over It

Posted on March 3, 2013 by scoopsontherun

I still haven’t exactly found my running mojo and that has gotten me a little angry.

I had two weeks of not so great race results. The Central Park Half Marathon last week and the Coogan’s Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5k today. Very different distances, but same sluggish results. But there are things that I was able to take away from these two races that can help get me back on track as well as a couple of things I’m doing on my own.

First, even with the minimal amount of running, I’m too far off from where I want to be. I was looking back at my running log for the year, yes, it’s only March but the one notation I have for every single week is to “run more consistently.” I feel confident that things will fall into place if I just start running more consistently.

One of the challenges I have faced for the past year is that I am not able to run in the evening due to other responsibilities that I have. While switching over to the early morning run was a challenge it quickly began to embrace it and enjoy that time. But winter took a toll on me and that became harder to accomplish. I’m still going to get my ass out of bed at 5:00 am but I joined the gym right next to my office. The treadmill is not the most ideal place to get my daily miles in but at least I can get them in during lunch.

The treadmill also plays into a bigger plan for my upcoming training. Due to the time constraints I haven’t been able to log all the miles that half marathon and full marathon training plans require. I’ve been able to get the weekend long runs done but during the week I can rarely run longer than four miles. Enter the two a day work out. I’ve done this in other sports and have read a lot about runners doing the same. So that is the plan as training ramps up for the Brooklyn Half and then the NYC Marathon. I’ll run my three miles in the morning and log the remaining miles during lunch.

Brooklyn is my next goal race for getting a new half marathon PR. Training for that will officially starts on March 11 but that is the week of the NYC Half so it will be a low mileage week. I’ll have to pay closer attention to my body and realize that on some days the two a day workouts may not be the best thing. But I’m optimistic about the results that this can bring me.

Just getting this plan together has me excited about running again and that in itself is the start that I need.

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Finding the Passion…Again

Posted on February 23, 2013 by scoopsontherun

We all know I don’t like winter that much and this always plays a major role in the amount of running that I do. In other words, I find it really hard to run in winter. Now throw in 5:00 am, temperatures in the teens, and a warm comfy bed. The bed usually wins.

Oh, Central Park how I have missed you. (c) Stacey Cooper

Oh, Central Park how I have missed you. (c) Stacey Cooper

This past week turned out to be a bit better and has me getting excited about running again. Let’s say I used all the tricks in the book — the group run, a race with buddies, and being prepared for that early morning run.

First, I joined my running club, Front Runners, for our Saturday morning fun run. It has been a while since I have joined the running part of the fun run and I really enjoyed getting out there again. Of course the weather wasn’t too bad so that helped — a lot.

The next day I headed over to Brooklyn for the Prospect Park Track Club’s Cherry Tree Relay. It’s always fun to participate in this event even though it is always fucking cold. But it is the race for the hardcore as they say. The 2013 edition of the SloHoMos finished 3rd from last in the women’s division. We represent the back of the pack well.

Then just once this week I was able to get myself out of bed at 5:00 am and run. It felt great. Only two of my early morning runners were out but it was great to see them as we ran by each other. That was on Wednesday, I think the warmest morning of the week.

I was hoping to run more consistently this week because I do have a half marathon on Sunday. Even though it’s not a goal race I still want to feel less sloth-like.

But this is a good start. When I started running at 5:00 am at this time last year, it wasn’t until late spring when it finally kicked in. I know it will take some time to get back into the habit and that’s really what it is a habit, a very good habit.

Now, I’ve got to finish this up and get ready for this morning’s little run. It might be raining a little bit and that makes me excited. You know the passion is starting to return when running in inclement weather gets you excited.

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The Snow Took My Mojo

Posted on February 9, 2013 by scoopsontherun

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I was in Miami? Yeah, me too. I want to be back there — now.

12 inches of snow does not make me happy. (c) Stacey Cooper

12 inches of snow does not make me happy. (c) Stacey Cooper

Where I live in New York, we got hit with just about a foot of snow. It was predicted to be worse so I guess I’ll take it. I was supposed to run 10 miles today but I will be nice and let people clear their sidewalks first. So tomorrow I will head out wearing my trail shoes and my YakTrax because that’s what life is like when it snows this much in Westchester County.

My running has just about been nonexistent since I got back from Miami. It has been cold and my motivation is still down south. I went running last weekend, another snowy day and I’m hoping my somewhat enjoyment of running in the snow will get me out the door tomorrow.

I’ve got a half marathon on February 24 but I really don’t have any goals attached to that and that is exactly how I want it. This race is more or less a way to keep me moving and running so that I won’t be a complete slug for the NYC Half Marathon in March.

I would like to find my motivation soon and get back to my routine of getting in the morning and running before work because I really do feel better when I do that. I’m just having just a hard time forcing myself out the door. But it is the weekend and another new week is upon us. Perfect for a fresh start.

What do you do to get yourself motivated after a running slump?

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On the Lanai

Posted on January 28, 2013 by scoopsontherun

How many of you learned what a lanai was from watching the Golden Girls? It’s ok to admit that, we didn’t have lanai’s in Texas.

This distracted me. It would distract you too if you came from frigid NYC. Miami Beach temp 78, NYC temp 31. (c) Stacey Cooper

This distracted me. It would distract you too if you came from frigid NYC. Miami Beach temp 78, NYC temp 31. (c) Stacey Cooper

That’s where I was sitting at my hotel when I had every intention of writing this post but I got distracted by a beach.

I was relaxing after a lovely massage after running the half marathon and I just kept thinking that a nice dip in the chilly ocean would be a nice substitute for an ice bath. It was. You are now jealous. Like the lanai thing, it’s ok.

So about that race. As you know I my number one goal was to get that elusive PR. I didn’t. But I’m ok with that. Seriously, I am. Because of my lack of consistency in training for the previous two weeks I knew it was going to be tough. Also, the humidity. That always plays a role. What I did accomplish was getting a course PR and that I will take any day.

The day before the race I went out for an easy shakeout run to get that heaviness out of my legs. I did this along the path off Ocean Drive. I could see the beach from where I ran. You are still jealous. My legs felt ok, but I felt slow even for a shakeout run which is supposed to be slow. I took it easy the whole day by staying out of the sun for extended periods of time, I hydrated well, and I rested — on the beach.

I slept well the night before, unlike the previous year, I made sure that I didn’t have to stand around too long. I started off slow, but since I am the queen of the positive split, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to speed up during the last few miles. I was ok with that. Last year, I went out too fast and the wheels fell off at mile 10. Those last three miles were horrendous. This year, I maintained a fairly steady pace even though I did have a few positive splits. But I felt ok. In my mind I kept thinking that I would be able to speed things up at mile 10, then I got to mile 10 and thought save it until mile 11, and then I thought just stay steady as I was starting to feel tired.

Got my race bling - right side up this year. (c) Stacey Cooper

Got my race bling – right side up this year. (c) Stacey Cooper

Could I have pushed harder the last few miles? Maybe. But I wanted to have a good feeling about this race since I didn’t last year. I was able to chat with a few during the last few miles and even smile at the end.

I also wasn’t crazy sore like I was last year. Yes, one could argue that’s because I didn’t push myself hard enough but that pain is not fun. I was able to get off the shuttle bus without crying as I walked off the steps. That alone is a victory! I was also able to walk to the place to get my massage. You are still jealous.

That was a spiritual experience. It is located in this little alcove on Lincoln Rd. right next to the Miami Beach Community Church. There was a nice breeze, nice wind chimes, and you could hear the people in church singing their hymns. It was a lovely experience and my masseuse got out some serious knots in my shoulders.

My original plan was to go back to the hotel and have an ice bath, but my room did not have a tub just a lovely marble shower. I would not call it a sex shower but it was nice. That’s where the idea of going to the beach came in. Nice option, I know.

The water was cool enough but I knew the salt water was going to hurt the numerous chafing areas on my body. Seriously, who knew you could chafe along your belly button. But it was just what I needed. The water worked, I spread out in the sun to dry off and I saw bare breasts. Perfect beach day!

This morning, my legs feel great. No delayed onset soreness. I refuse to refer to that as DOMS because that sounds like a sexually transmitted disease. The chafing areas are not bothering me, well the one around my belly button is still tender, and I rested well after the race. Also, no sunburn!

Now I’m just waiting for my flight back to New York where it is snowing/sleeting/raining. You are smirking at me and saying I deserve it for rubbing my sunny awesomeness in your face.

I still want to PR for the half marathon in 2013. That’s my big running goal. Right now I’m  thinking that the next serious option will be Brooklyn in May although I do have have marathons planned for February and March. I’m not planning the PR attempt for those races as I’m not too sure about the training. This is the first time I’m doing three half marathons right on top of each other with only a few weeks between each one. But who knows maybe that is what I need.

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