10 Days Until Terror Strikes!

Know what today marks?  10 days.  10 days until the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.

TEN days.

Eeeeeek!!!

Suffice it to say I’m not feeling ready for it at all.  Still battling IT Band Syndrome, I did manage to complete 8 miles last weekend, my final long “run” of pre-race training… but I walked a huge chunk of it, only managed a 14:22/mile average pace, and by the end, my knee contained David Banner-like fury (though it did not turn green, thankfully.)  It wasn’t the kind of training run that elicits a sense of comfort and “Yeah, I’ve got this!” y’know? 

So I’ve been spending time focusing on the race planning elements that have nothing to do with running in order to distract my mind from thoughts of gloom and doom.  For starters, my race outfit.

I’m not doing a full-on costume – I’m all about comfort and I’m not very good at costuming in the first place.  I’ve known for a while that I want to wear my Badass Mother Runner tank and decided to add a skirt from Team Sparkle to wear over my go-to running skort.  Add on a matchy BondiBand to wick away forehead sweat and – voila!  My outfit is complete.

I may not be fast, and I may not even be able to run much, but by golly – I’ll look festive!

I’ve also spent lots of time putting together a special playlist for the race.  When I realized how much I’ll be walking, I knew I’d need more music loaded in, so what I wound up with is a mix of creepy, dark, themed sounds with a few pieces that are outside of the theme, but are proven pick-me-ups when the going gets tough.  Since I can’t count on maintaining a certain pace, I gave up on sequencing the playlist and I’ll just let it shuffle.  Here it is, all shuffled up:

Agent Orange: “A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad”

London Philharmonic: “Carmina Burana, O Fortuna”

Social Distortion: “The Creeps”

Ray Parker, Jr.: “Ghostbusters”

Queen Latifah & L’il Kim, Feat. Macy Gray: Cell Block Tango”

Madonna: “Die Another Day”

Metallica: “Enter Sandman”

Daft Punk: “Derezzed”

Nin Inch Nails: “Sin”

Tones on Tail: “Go!”

Pitbull: “Back in Time” (from Men in Black III)

Green Day: “Brain Stew”

Marilyn Manson: “The Beautiful People”

Kanye West: “Gold Digger” (don't judge - it's got the perfect rhythm!)

Cee Lo Green: “Love Gun”

Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Daft Punk: “End of Line”

“Halloween” main theme

Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Higher Ground”

The Cult: “Fire Woman”

Blondie: “Rapture”

MC Hammer: “U Can’T Touch This”

Nine Inch Nails: “Head Like a Hole”

Eurythmics: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”

Danny Elfman: “Mission Impossible” main theme

Florence & the Machine: “Dog Days are Over”

Michael Sembello: “Maniac” (because Flashdance was totally badass)

Marilyn Manson: “This is Halloween”

Girl Talk: “Oh No”

Girl Talk: “Here’s the Thing”

Salt-n-Pepa: “Push It”

Pink Floyd: “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”

Metallica: “Master of Puppets”

John Williams: “The Imperial March” (Star Wars) (I'm not into character pics, but if I see Vader? Watch out)

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic: “Danse Macabre, Op. 40”

Danzig: “Mother”

Will Smith: “Men in Black”

Survivor: “Eye of the Tiger” (please - you know it's the BEST motivating song ever!)

Daft Punk: “Arena”

Michael Jackson: “Thriller” (the full version, Vincent Price included, natch)

“X-Files” main theme

Social Distortion: “Mommy’s Little Monster”

I’ve tried it out on a couple runs and it works well.  I just hope “Halloween” doesn’t come up in a particularly dark, empty stretch, as it did the other night… while I was running after dark… all alone… next to a stand of creepy cypress trees… ~shudder~

With my outfit and soundtrack ready to roll, the next planning steps should be easy: scheduling and packing.  10 days – eek… again!

10 (Running) Things...

You know those “25 (or 10, or 20, whatever) Things You Don’t Know About Me” lists that were popping up on Facebook with the frequency of pimples on a hormonal teen’s face a while back? I loved them.  LOVED. them.  (The lists, I mean, not the pimples.  Thank all that is good in the universe for Retinol.)  I love answering quizzes, making lists, and, just as much, reading everyone else’s answers and lists.  I don’t much like people, as a whole, but I find them fascinating and those Facebook lists never failed to entertain me.  But they’ve been absent from my life for quite a while and, though I social media it up as a profession, I’m not a Facebook trendsetter, so I haven’t had the nerve to start a new one up.

So imagine my joyful surprise (picture a kid awaking to find a pile of Benjamin’s left under her pillow by the Tooth Fairy) when my favorite lady runners posted this little number on AnotherMotherRunner.com this morning: 10 Running Related Personal Questions.

Ooooooooooo!!!  Yes, I literally squealed in delight.  In the middle of car circle, whilst dropping off my 10-year-old son at school.  He was… thrilled.  I’m sure.

I’ve been mentally working on my answers all day and I’m now ready to commit them to paper (pixels, whatever) and share with you.  And I’ll be checking back on Another Mother Runner’s site to see what other people answer – remember, the answers of others are even more fun than listing your own!  Hope to see yours, too.

1. Best run ever: This is actually a tough one and I have to do that annoying thing of giving it a tie.  Go ahead and hate me now.  It’s hard to beat the excitement of my first race, especially when it involved running in one of my favorite spots on earth – Epcot – with my favorite person, the thrilled son mentioned above.  It was runDisney’s Royal Family 5K in Feb. 2012; we weren’t fast, but we took lots of pictures, made lots of memories and became inextricably hooked on running in Disney.  Which makes my second nominee for Best Run Ever rather unsurprising: my first time over 7 miles, run while on vacation this past summer in Disney World.  We were staying at Disney’s Beach Club Villas and it was a beautiful, strong, well-paced run… with the promise of rides and piles of yummy food offerings at its conclusion.

2. Three words that describe my running: Determined. Cleansing.  Wonky. (‘Cause that’s how I run – wonky.)

3. My go-to running outfit is: A C9 black running skort from Target, Badass Mother Runner tank, black compression calf sleeves, white visor.

4. Quirky habit while running: As I’ve written before, my cadence naturally goes along with the beats per minute of whatever music I’m listening to. Though I’m not sure that’s very “quirky.”

5. Morning, midday, evening: Morning, in order to get the miles in before the temp here in Florida goes from “hot” to “surface of the freaking sun”, but I much prefer late afternoon.

6. I won’t run outside when it’s: Monsooning.  No – make that monsooning with lightning.  Because I’ll totally run in a torrential rain – I’d just prefer not to be electrocuted.  Unless that would speed up my pace…

7. Worst injury—and how I got over it: IT Band Syndrome.  I’m still working on it.

8. I felt most like a badass mother runner when: I took on a mountainside in North Carolina – 300’ elevation climb in less than ½ a mile.  Boo-ya!

9. Next race is: runDisney’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler, Sept.. 29

10. Potential running goal for 2013: There is no "potential": this IS the goal - runDisney’s Princess Half-Marathon, Feb. 2013 – with the most amazing group of fellow Mother Runners a gal could ask for!

Trying to go the distance...

Wow – it’s been an interesting few weeks.  With only four weeks until the runDisney Tower of Terror 10-Miler, I’m looking at two more long runs of 10 and 11 miles… and hoping I can manage even half of that.

That’s because I’ve been beset by the dreaded IT Band Syndrome.  Apparently, months of running ever-increasing long runs on Florida’s steeply angled roadways/sidewalks/paths are partly to blame.  Add to that my wonky gait thanks to scoliosis and it seems my body never gets a chance to run in any way that’s level and balanced.  Whatever.  All I know is that for the past month and a half, it feels like someone’s taken an ax to the outside of my left knee at mile 7.  I limped through my last long run to reach that magic double-digit 10, but the last few miles were pretty bad.  And that’s not even counting the monsoon in which I ran the final mile!  That actually felt good, comparatively.

So now I’m only running until the pain starts, and then stopping, regardless of how far that is.  Last weekend, I only made it 3 miles.  I stuck with the treadmill earlier this week and did 2.5 miles pain-free, and went outdoors for a slow-paced run with Leo the other day – 2.5 again with no pain.  I’m hopeful, but not optimistic, about my chances for pulling a full 10 miles this weekend.

Meanwhile, there are some bright spots in my running life…

For one thing, Leos’ running with me again!  He took the summer off because, well… because it’s HOT and HUMID down here and who actually wants to run in that?!  I’ve had to, since I signed up for a race at the end of stupid September, but Leo didn’t.  But we’re signed up to run a 5K in November, so he’s doing a short run or two with me each week again.  I missed him!  It’s nice to have him along for the ride again. :)

I’m also trying out a pair of Newton running shoes. 

I’m naturally a mid-foot striker and Newtons are specifically designed to work with a mid-foot strike.  They aren’t cheap, but I was able to get a pair of Lady Isaac S on sale, so I thought I’d give them a try.   So far, I really like them!  They feel a little funny when walking, thanks to the nubs set into the sole of the forefoot, so I’m not sure how useful they’ll be to me on long runs, given my run-walk-run approach.  But when I’m running?  Ooooooo, they’re so good!  Lightweight and springy, I swear Newtons make me lope like a gazelle rather than plod like an elephant.  My only gripes are that the heels aren’t as snug as I like, given my freakishly narrow ankles and previous Achilles injury, and that the reduced cushioning of Newton’s design seems to leave my feet achy for a few days.  But I can address the heels by wearing thick socks and, from what I’ve read, my feet should gain strength and become less achy as time goes on.  I’m following Newton's advice to transition slowly, especially as I have a race coming up; I’m only doing a short run each week in the Newtons for now.  But I’m looking forward to giving them more bonding time, come October, and will report back with a full review.

Product Review: iSmoothRun

For several weeks, both Runkeeper and Active have been selling me the merits of a new (well, new to me) app called iSmoothRun.  A couple of my friends who run have been using it, too, and I decided last week to give it a try.  Know what sold me on it?  It records temperature and humidity.  That’s right, I paid $4.99 for a running app that’ll save for all time the weather conditions of my every run.

Best $4.99 I’ve ever spent with the iPhone App Store.

As anyone reading my blog posts knows, it’s bloody HOT down here in west-central Florida.  And hot, humid conditions mean a slower pace.  I know all of that and I’ve even mostly accepted it… but it’s still frustrating.  But to be able to look back at a run’s data and see, right there in black and white, that I managed a 12:14/mile average pace when the temp was 90° and humidity was 87%?  To quote a ridiculously annoying commercial we all know, it's “priceless.”

It turns out, though, that iSmoothRun came with a few more nifty features I really like, so here’s my little review…

• Its readout is BIG – as in, I can see my time and distance clearly through my armband without reading glasses.  Yes, the little voice tells me those things regularly, too, but I’m a visual learner; you can tell me something ‘til the cows come home, but it won’t sink in until I see it in print.  Really BIG print, now that I’m over 40.
  
• It allows me to track mileage on my shoes – no small feat, given that I’m rotating between four different pairs.  After each run, I need only scroll down in the edit function and select which pair of shoes was on my feet.  iSmoothRun keeps a total mileage tally going on each pair.

• There are options at the end of each run to tell how it felt via smilies.  Trust me – after my last 9-miler, when the most complicated thought I could muster was, “Guh,” picking a face that matched how I felt was a good thing.  At that I had a hard time choosing between an orange, slanty-mouthed “Blah” and a pink, tongue-out “Tired.”
  
• I can elect to have iSmoothRun tell me the fastest song I heard during each run.  This does nothing for my training, but is a nice little surprise to see while walking through a cool-down.

• Auto-pause – each time I stop for a red light, to tie my shoes, to refill a water bottle, to take a 2-minute mid-run swim in the pool (for real – I was roasting!), the app pauses and then resumes when it again feels motion.  From what I can tell, it does so very, very accurately, too.
  
• It tracks cadence!  As you know form my last post, I love counting my cadence.  But after about 5 miles, my brain can’t seem to count past 20 without losing track.  iSmoothRun tracks average cadence, though, so my walk intervals kind of kill any attempt to reach a “perfect” cadence of 90.  But, I’m pretty sure an average of 83 is pretty good, with walk breaks included.
  
• Aside from environmental conditions, though, my favorite element of my new app is the vocal feedback.  My new pal “Smoothy”, as I’ve come to think of the female voice-over used to report time, distance, etc., is very motivating.  Smoothy doesn’t say much – just enough to get her point across.  But her inflections are spot-on: in a perky, excited little voice that I just know belongs to a pony-tailed, pert-nosed, wisp of a cheerleader, Smoothy tells me when it’s time to “Run!”  A few minutes later, she informs me in a calm, relaxed tone to “Walk.”  Every so often, she lets me know how much time and distance have passed and how I’m doing on pace; she always sounds so positive and proud of my hard work.  And I just love when Smoothy busts in with an exuberant “You’re halfway to your goal!”  Which may or may not have anything to do with my final commendation for iSmoothRun…

• It makes me run faster!  Okay, maybe it just tracks differently than Runkeeper and only looks like I’m cranking out a faster pace.  Whatever.  Lower numbers keep me motivated, so it’s all good.

In every other way, iSmoothRun offers the same things I had before using Runkeeper alone: the ability to set up customized intervals, data tracking, synchronization with social media, mapping, etc.  And it works with Runkeeper, so each iSmoothRun is uploaded to my Runkeeper profile.  I’m looking forward to many more fun runs with Smoothy by my side!

Run Me Daddy, Eight-to-the-Bar

(Somewhere in LA, a couple Andrews Sisters are rolling over in their graves right now.)

I discovered something interesting the other day… Studying the data produced by Runkeeper for my last few runs, I noticed a pattern: my pace during run intervals is all over the place – 12:48, 10:17, 11:22, 9:55… it changes by the minute!  Why would that be?  It always feels like I’m running a nice, even pace…

I thought and thought, and then it hit me – music!  It seems my cadence matches the EXACT. RHYTHM. of whatever the shuffle turns up on my iPhone.  Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” playing?  I’m running a precise (and INSANE!) 220 steps per minute.  Florence and her Machine step in with “Dog Days Are Over”?  Yep, I’m magically transported to 150 steps per minute.

I don’t know why this surprises me.  After all, I more or less go through life in eight-count rhythm.  For real.  Apparently my many years as a dancer have resulted in some sort of mental metronome.  I regularly find myself mentally tapping out a beat while preparing breakfast, taking a shower, typing, even reading.  “One, two, three and four, five, six, sevennnn, eight,” as I crack an egg, stir it with a spatula and pop two slices of bread into the toaster.

And oh yes, when I’m running you better believe I’m doing so “eight-to-the-bar.”  Which, by the way, makes it really hard for this math-challenged lady to calculate cadence; my brain counts in eights, but I lack the skills to figure out on the fly just how many steps per minute I’m running if I’m doing seven sets of eight steps in twenty seconds.  (I’d place this type of equation right up there with the classic, “If two trains leave their stations, one in Philadelphia and one in San Francisco… makes my brain hurt.)  So I instead try counting by tens and routinely get lost somewhere around 40, when my inner rhythm section valiantly pulls me back to whatever music is being pumped through my headphones. 

I’ve pondered this for a week and, aside from making for an interesting (to me, anyway), blog post, I see the potential to make this idiosyncrasy work for me: what if I were to stack my running deck by creating a race-day playlist with musical selections that result in the perfect cadence for every portion of the run?  Some slower songs for miles one and two, somewhere in the 150-160 beats-per-minute (BPM) range to force an easy, relaxed warm-up pace… then bring in a nice medley with a consistent 170-180 BPM for endurance through miles three through eight… and finish strong with the power of a solid 182-190 BPM over the final two miles…  Could I possibly create my dream race through music selection alone?

Seems plausible, so I’m going to test it out!  Hopefully with some help from a few DJ and musician friends, I’ll try to piece together the Perfect Playlist for the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.  I’ll be testing it out over the next two months and will report back on my findings.

One of "Those" Runs

I just had "one of those runs"...

Mile 1: remember that I forgot to take preemptive action against my monthly visitor, due any minute; retrace steps back home to remedy.

Mile 2: What's that twinge in my right knee? No worries - a faster cadence makes it go away.

Miles 3-6: This is great! I love running! Look at the pretty trees, listen to the pretty birds! Good morning, world!

Mile 6: left ankle feels "funny" and I'm having tunnel vision. Why are my fingers swollen to the size of bratwurst?

Mile 6.5: Ooooowwwww! Pain shooting back and forth between left ankle and left knee.

Mile 7-8: start taking longer walk intervals, hoping pain will subside; it doesn't.

Mile 8: give in to the pain and hobble the rest of the way home.

Home: discover that I'd been so focused on knee pain, I'd completely missed the chafing situation under my new running skort's legs; take ice bath, pop an Aleve, slather on some hydrocortisone, lay on the couch wondering why I ever thought running would be a fun thing to do.

:)

Who ran Disney? I did!

Well folks, I’m freshly back from a fantastic 10 days at Disney World and happy to report that I continued to train during that time!  I had four runs planned – three short and one long – and pulled off three of the four, including the long run.  Sadly, my feet were just too worn out from theme parking to do the last run – a route to which I was very much looking forward.  :(  Oh well, there’s always next time, right?

Our trip began with two nights at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR), so that’s where I did my first short run.  I set out a few minute before sunrise, about 6:25am, and caught this gorgeous view as I began my run…

The CBR route is pretty straightforward: loop around the lake as many times as necessary to meet your time or distance goal.  A full loop is about 1.2 miles.

Mine was a time goal of 30 minutes, which resulted in about three loops with a detour through the center island because it’s pretty in there.  The CBR path is paved and well-maintained and mostly shaded – a major plus on a hot, mid-summer Florida run.  There were a few minor hills along the way, which spiced things up a bit, and lots of maintenance workers out sprucing up the beaches, hosing down pool decks, and keeping the beautiful resort looking tidy.  It was nice to see their smiling faces and hear their “Good morning!” greetings as I ran by. 

I give the CBR a solid A for a short run; the landscape is stunning and I ended my run feeling fresh and ready to take on the day!

Next up was my long run.  I was scheduled to do 7.5 miles, but after four Disney days, I was beat.  We took it easy the day before, spending lots of time off of my feet, but I was not feeling the running love by the time my alarm went off at 5:00am.  I decided to go for 5 miles… if I felt good at that point, I’d keep going; if not, 5 would be plenty with all of the walking I was doing in the parks.

We’d moved to the Beach Club Villas by then, so I used a few of the Epcot Resorts running routes to put in my miles.

I started with half a loop around Crescent Lake at sunrise – so pretty!

Just past the Boardwalk, I switched over to the Boardwalk Canal path and took it all the way down to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  I ran all the way up to the entrance plaza, which was neat – lots of activity up there as security and the bus drivers did their respective checks to get the park ready for opening.

From Hollywood studios, I backtracked along the canal and picked up the Crescent Lake loop again, completing the circle back to the Beach Club.  From there, I exited the resort and ran the 2.4-mile Epcot Resorts Blvd. and Buena Vista Dr. route, which brought me up to 5 miles by the time I reached the Beach Club again.  That’s a very pretty, somewhat shaded route with sidewalk for all but about 20 feet of it; beware, though, of the many short but steep little hills that run along the Swan and Dolphin properties!  Still, by the time I hit 5 miles, I was loosened up and feeling fine, so I did another loop around the lake, took a few paths through the Yacht and Beach Club properties and, yes, finished the full 7.5 miles!

My finish line – couldn’t be prettier:

After a cool-down walk to my room, I took an ice bath, ate a second breakfast and took a long shower.  I could have easily called it a day and lounged around the hotel the rest of the day, but I’d promised Leo a night at Hollywood Studios and, really, I knew it would be better for my legs to walk a bit.  Right?

Right!  I ate every calorie I’d burned earlier at the Hollywood Brown Derby and ended the night with a nod to the upcoming Tower of Terror 10-Miler.

Amazingly enough, I felt pretty okay the next day… but not okay enough to tackle a theme park first thing.  It’s not that anything hurt so much as I was just exhausted; just getting to the quiet pool right outside our room took monumental effort.  By evening, though, I was ready for a walk around Epcot to stretch the legs.

My third and, as it turned out, final Disney vacation run was a short one, so I circled Crescent Lake a couple times and did the Boardwalk Canal loop for a total of 2.5 miles.  We moved to the Villas at Wilderness Lodge for our last two nights and my final run was planned for the trail that runs between the Wilderness lodge and Fort Wilderness.

I was really excited for that one and planned it for our final morning at WDW, before checking out.  But we chose to stay out late at the Magic Kingdom the nightbefore and the combination of a late night and 10 days of being on my feet was just too much; I knew I didn’t have a mile left in me, let alone 2 or 3. 

All in all, I had a really good time running Disney and highly recommend it to anyone looking to stay on track on their Disney vacation!  I also feel like I learned some valuable things for my future long runDisney races:

1.       All of that walking adds up and means stress on your feet, if not your entire lower body.  I’ll be sure to resist any temptation to wander around parks the day before a big race.

2.       Fettuccine Alfredo the night before a long run is not a great idea.

3.       Pay no attention to the teen marathoners with ¼% body fat between the three of them lapping you 5 times in an hour.

4.       Have fun, have fun, have fun – you’re running at Disney World!

All of this will really come in handy now, too… because I am officially registered for the 2013 Princess Half-marathon!  No rest for the weary now; Princess training will commence within weeks after finishing the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.  Bring it.  :)