supersonique’s land

Pre-Race

In November of 2007, I made my first attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon. All was good until mile 18, where I bonked badly and ended up missing qualifying by 3 minutes. My training had been spotty as I had been sick a lot in the fall. I had also gained weight. During the race, I had probably started off too fast and didn’t take-in the proper nutrition (note to self: it is not smart to drink smart water as an “electrolyte replacement” during a race)

I learned my lesson(s) and was determined to not let something like that happen for my second attempt.

Initially, I had chosen the Napa Marathon on March 2nd, but it was not logistically feasible, so I chose the National Marathon instead. I figured it would be a nice opportunity to visit with family and friends, too, since they live in the D.C area.

Between November and March, I followed my training plan really well. I changed my eating habits and lost 15 pounds. I incorporated speedwork at track. A half marathon 5 weeks out went decently (PR), as did a 30k race that was 3 weeks out. I still had another long run after that, so I was curious as to how my body would handle a short taper - something I had never tried before.

The night before, my friends threw a carbo loading party for a RAAM team member (who did his first marathon and kicked ass) and for me. It was great to meet all the RAAM teammates and enjoy some yummy food (and customary glass of red wine!).

Race

Race morning I woke up at 5am, had coffee, my friends’ magic bread, and gathered my nutrition (Cytomax this time!) - I had GU’s as well but figured I would chase them with the water at the aid stations.

I started off VERY leisurely - I didn’t want to take any chances. At mile 1, I saw my friends and ditched my warmup jacket and maintained the leisurely pace. Unfortunately, I was having some stomach issues. At mile 3 I had to make a pit stop (sorry if TMI!) - oh well - I just kept going and didn’t think about the loss of time.

My GPS stopwatch was set to stop when I stopped, so it didn’t count that time - ditto with going under tunnels, so I’d just have to mentally add them in. At the 10k, I figured my pace was just under 9 mins/mile, so I picked it up just a tad - but still maintained an easy pace until Mile 10. I picked it up a bit and my stomach started to feel a bit better…except after the half I had to make a pit stop AGAIN. At the half I was basically just at the pace I would need to be to qualify since I had lost some time at mile 3…but for some reason, I wasn’t worried. The whole time I had it in my head that I was going to do it no matter what.

Anyways, after the half it was pretty much game on. My nutrition had been spot on and my energy level was good.

At mile 20, there was a bridge with an incline. I was still feeling good, so that’s where I decided to gun it. I couldn’t believe it and I was wondering when the “hurt” would come since it usually does for me in long distance running, but it never did. Instead of being passed at the end (as usually happens with me), I was the one doing the passing.

My last 10k averaged 8 mins/mile and my last mile was my fastest (7:18 - the red bull at mile 23 gave me wings). Must admit at the end, up the climb at RFK stadium, I was beginning to get tired, but a friend was there on his bike motivating me the whole way up so I kept going.

At the end my stopwatch said 3:36. I figured that for three minutes, I was going under tunnels (so maybe closer to 3:39 running) and then I prob. lost 3 more minutes with the 2 pit stops, but since I had mentally added them in, I knew my stopwatch needed to read less than 3:40…so I knew I had qualified and that chip time was prob. around 3:42 when I finished. Was happy at the finish line and glad to see my family and friends (thanks for coming to cheer!!)

Results/Stats

half marathon split = 1:52:31 pace at half = 8:35
overall time = 3:42:41 overall pace = 8:30

average heartrate = 159
energy expenditure = 2300 kCals (i made this up post-race with my twice-a-year treat: a gigantic cheeseburger with fries)

Take Aways

START EASY, START EASY, START EASY

I really enjoyed this race. Even though this course had more hills, this race felt much more pleasant and easier than Philly because even though I was pushing hard at the end, I was never out of control or hurting.

I couldn’t do much about the pit stops. Goes to show the unexpected can always happen in a race - that is why I was running a sub 3:40 pace so I had a 5-minute “cushion” for hiccups and didn’t worry much about losing the 3 minutes.

RTFM for the GPS - so that I can learn how to set it right to keep going during stops so I don’t have to think about math while racing.

The short taper worked for me. So did the more thoughtful nutrition plan. So did yoga for staying injury-free.

I could have started just a tad faster (5-10 seconds/mile) so I will try that next time but will DEFINITELY KEEP STARTING OFF SLOW. It works and is conducive to a negative split. Hopefully I have learned to have patience at the beginning of races LOL.

Can’t wait ’till the 2009 Boston Marathon!

Greetings from Boston.

In many ways, Boston is a nice place to live. It has great universities and it’s very pretty in the spring and summer. Running around the Charles river is nice. So is the bike riding scenery once you get a bit outside the city. Other nice things include: the majority of the population has similar political beliefs to mine, it’s not hard to find a job, there are plenty of cool places to shop, you don’t have to travel too far to get from one part of the city to another, etc etc etc.

Sometimes, though, I wished I lived somewhere else. Yes, it’s frigid here - even at the end of March - and many of the days are gray and depressing. The cost of living is outrageous. Housing for instance..and most of the houses here are old, small, and rickety. Forget anything affordable in the new/green-built/contemporary category! But…it’s not all those reasons that make me want to move out.

It’s M*ssholes! Yup - a portmanteau of Massachusetts and *sshole.

NOT all people who are from here and live here are like that, though - if they were, I wouldn’t live here. However, there are probably enough of them around that are vocal and annoying enough to piss off the most seasoned Yogi master.

For those visiting Boston, there are a few distinguishing characteristics so that you can steer clear:

Personality

Surly, grouchy, and selfish.

Accent

Drop “r”s that appear after vowels in words (car becomes cah - department becomes depahtment)

In some words, ADD an “r” to the end (ie Santa becomes Santer - spa becomes spar)

Driving Style

Offensive. Prepared to be cut-off at 90 miles per hour. Use of a directional (aka “Blinkah”) is non-existent. The roads around here are a clustahf*ck, so there is no indication when 4 lanes turn into 2 lanes, however, if you don’t know that and accidentally get stuck, prepare to get the fingah…and the haaaaahn (aka you will be honked at and shall receive the bird simultaneously).

Demographics

M*ssholes come in old, young, male, and female varieties. They also live in various geographical areas throughout Eastern and Central Massachusetts. I have been to Western Massachusetts, but haven’t encountered many M*ssholes there.

According to natives, accents vary from between Southie, Everett, Revere, North Shore, and South Shore varieties.

Occupation

Again, there are many varieties here. They can be white collar, blue collar, clerical, or unemployed.

Since their work style tends to be VERY LAZY, they look for jobs where they can get away with murder without being canned. Those in white collar occupations tend to be pencil-pushers. Those in clerical occupations ditto. Many are in state agencies or government due to the lax atmosphere (private sector is a bit more challenging for them) - for instance, check out City Hall or the RMV. For all occupations, you can see many of them slacking off and ordering a “lahge regulah” (it is a large coffee with cream and sugar) at Dunkin Donuts.

Look at the “big dig” - that is the biggest example of M*ssholiness on all different levels of occupations.

The corporate people don’t take responsibility for pocketing all of that taxpayer money - they pass the buck onto each other (each company says it’s another company’s fault and that the other company stole). According to all of the major newspapers and news agencies (AND a few people who were on the project) many of the laborers were intoxicated on the job. Finally, the government agencies were too lazy to do anything about it until it was too late (a woman got killed when she was driving through it and a concrete slab fell off and smashed her). If you ask anyone who had anything to do in the project why it went wrong - u guessed it - “NOT MY DEPAAAHTMENT!”

Yes, this is “state of the art” construction in one of the states with the highest tax rate in one of the richest countries in the world…not to mention one of the highest-costing urban projects ever.

Whatever they do, If something goes well (rarely) they take full responsibility for it, however, when they get called out, they love to pass the buck whenever something is wrong because it’s never “theah depahtment”.

Hobbies

Going to the bah (bar) for beeeahz (beers). Favorite is Millah Lite (for its cheapness).

Looking for baaaaahgains (Christmas Tree Shop, building 19 and whatever, etc etc)

Watching The Pats and The Sox (nothing wrong with these - I like both teams…however, be careful where you sit when you go to any of the games). Also, to some extent, Nascah, although they have to go ovah the bordah to New Hampshire to watch.

Reading the Herald (a godawful newspaper - the ugly red-headed step-sibling of the Globe).

This Sunday, I am going to be a speaker in a panel called “Try the Tri”. One of the questions asks “how do you balance training with work and the rest of your life?”. To that question, I say there are many different priorities that people have.

Training/exercise is a pretty important important part of my life. I am not a professional athlete or a fast age grouper, I just happen to be a middle-of-the-pack-ster who really enjoys the sport.

So, I have taken certain steps in my life so that my life situation is conducive to training and an active lifestyle.

Family: I married an endurance athlete. He pushes me to train and vice versa - obviously, he is supportive (and that is also why he sought a partner similar to himself) so the more I train and race, the more he does and the happier we both are. Thankfully, in our marriage, there’s no such thing as “lockdown” (ie “oh you’re training way too much and not spending enough time with me”) because we spend a lot of time together in our hobby. We are not having children, but instead we adopted a doggie named Louie who we love very much and who loves to run with us (he does 14 mile runs with us and isn’t even tired!). Also, my brother is a fast age-grouper triathlete and we make family trips out of racing which is great.

Work: I got a job that is conducive to training. I’m a graphic designer and the first three and a half years I did triathlon, I was self-employed so my schedule was flexible and I could train and travel whenever I wanted to - plus, I could work from wherever. Now I am employed full-time, but I made sure it was in an environment that would not interfere with my training.

I am not too “work-driven”…I basically work so that it covers expenses to eat healthily, live in a nice area, train, travel, and shop. It is not important to me whether I have a mansion or amass millions of dollars. Obviously, it is important that I enjoy what I am doing, which I do, however, there needs to be a balance and I think that in our culture here in the U.S., too much importance is placed on work/career/money/power and it sacrifices other aspects of life that make it enjoyable.

My organization encourages employees to be healthy and active (not that I need that type of motivation, but it is a good indicator of their values). The work-week is 35 hours and lunch is a full hour, but is flexible with training (ie if I take longer, I just work a little later which is no big deal). There is almost-free access to their state-of-the art gyms and I get a lot of vacation time to travel to my races and training camps. They appreciate that while I am there, I work very hard, but they are really good about respecting their employee’s time and that they have a life outside of work, so they don’t make people work ridiculous hours.

Furthermore, there is a group of employees who are triathletes and/or runners and often we train together at lunch. It’s also nice to see my department head at a race because I know that being active and having a balanced life is a priority for her too and will reflect upon the culture at work.

One thing, though, is the gym where the pool is is a little old and ratty. Not dirty, just that it was built in the 40’s. Swimming is my weakest sport, and I need to do it a lot. I go swimming at lunch, sometimes with a friend, but usually by myself, so I really don’t push myself much. I just signed up for a master’s swim class at a really nice gym - but - it is EARLY. For those of you who know me, I am not a big morning person, but I suppose that paying a few hundred dollars to go to these classes encourages me to “maximize my investment” by sucking it up and waking up at 5am. The workouts are very challenging, but hopefully that will make me faster. I am hoping that I get used to the schedule, especially with the time change, because I am a bit tired all the time now. I do feel a good sense of accomplishement having been awake for 4 hours before starting work, though. I just need to turn into a “Morning Person” like my mom and probably a lot of triathletes.

It seems like around here - and possibly in many places - there are a number of athletes who aren’t particularly into fashion. It either doesn’t interest them (ie they are fine with clothing as long as it fits and/or covers them and it doesn’t have any holes), they think it is frivolous, or they feel it isn’t applicable to sports (ie success in sports comes from the inside…how hard you’ve trained, what shape you are in, your mental state etc etc). It is often that I spot a high incidence of mommy jeans paired with white running shoes and a baggy t-shirt while athletes are in non-training attire - whether it’s going out to lunch, at a bar, etc etc. And training attire? that’s a whole other ballgame!

Now, I am **not** a Stacey London from What Not To Wear out to throw people’s “bad fashion” clothing in the garbage pail….if people aren’t interested in fashion, nothing wrong with that as it’s totally up to them. BUT it would be very nice to find more like-minded women (and guys too!) who share a love for sports, fitness AND fashion.

I have always as far as I can remember, been into fashion. I even saved up my allowance in sixth grade for 2 months to be the first girl in school to wear Guess jeans (it was 1983). I have recently gotten into sports/fitness - particularly triathlon and yoga - about 5 years ago. I don’t think my two interests are mutually exclusive.

A lot of workout gear - even some geared towards women - isn’t too attractive. Functional, yes, but fashionable, no. Wearing it, I feel like I look dorky, un-sexy, and not feminine (especially on the bike since you’re wearing shorts padded in the butt and a helmet).

I do have a few female friends (and my husband) who are all great athletes (who take training and racing quite seriously and are successful at it) **and** also happen to like fashion. While I do agree with success in training/racing comes from the inside, I really don’t feel like being fashionable takes away from the seriousness of competition.

Eventually, it would be cool to start a social network site similar to Stylediary or Stylemob, but geared towards athletes. It can be training or non-training attire, but the fashion-related social network sites that exist now either pertain to street fashion, runway, celebrity fashion, or “looks for less”. These are all great, but an athletic one is missing.

I **know** there are others who feel the same way I do because there are some websites that sell fashionable workout clothing…and magazines that feature such clothing, however, I think that a lot of athletes still are “in the closet” about being into workout fashion because they feel the might be perceived as “not serious”. That is why I mentioned my three female friends and my husband (all elite athletes) who appreciate training fashion and also Nicole DeBoom, a pro triathlete, who has made a business - yes a business - out of this! I am sure there are plenty of athletes and fitness buffs of all abilities, shapes, and sizes who share this interests. BE PROUD!

Skirt Sports

The most points definitely goes to Skirt Sports from pro triathlete Nicole DeBoom. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Along with most of their products, I love their tough girl skirt. I also love their skorts and wear mine running quite a bit.

Lululemon

Another great - mostly for yoga, but also for running. I love their clothes because you can go have a coffee in them after yoga class and not look ridiculous. I get a lot of compliments about a raincoat I have from them. My friend Mo loves them too and we plan shopping trips there when we feel we “need” cute new workout outfits. Check them out here

Terry

This is a women’s specific cycling company. They make bikes and bike attire for women. On my wishlist is the bike tunic. How cool! If i am wearing cycling knickers, it looks like I am wearing a regular tunic dress with leggings…another outfit that I wouldn’t be ashamed wearing if I stopped for coffee after a bike ride!!!

Others

There are a few others such as Athleta and Title 9 that specialize in women’s and have decent athletic attire from several manufacturers, however, they tend to have a lot of “casual lifestyle” clothing - some of which is cute, but some of it is a bit frumpy.

There are also some European functional brands which, once in a while, have somethign really cute. I have a lot of Craft stuff. They have great functional products, but I feel like they need to get more feminine-fashion-friendly. I do have a great running bra top from them, though, which is a sample but hopefully they’ll make. There is also Skinfit from Austria. This past summer in Germany, they had this very cool technical tee which I regret not getting as it is not available in the U.S.

Anyways, If you’re an athlete who is also into fashion, please get in touch! Maybe sometime soon there’ll be a social network site for us

I am hoping that after a series of unfortunate events at races, luck will turn around and be on my side. After the Philly incident (missing Boston-Qualifying by three minutes), I took some steps to make sure that wouldn’t happen in my next marathon. I adjusted my physique (lost 14 pounds and did more strength training), I started up with speedwork, and I went back to doing yoga. Last Sunday was a race called the Boston Prep 16-miler. I thought I would do well because I had been running well on hills and I had been hitting my goals in track workouts - I felt like I was back to my “old self” running-wise. In addition, I had a pacing and nutrition strategy (in Philly I started at my desired marathon pace and I brought water instead of sports drink) - here I planned on starting out slowly, and speeding up to do 8 minute or so miles.

After carbo-loading on Saturday, I woke up on Sunday with pain in my chest, coughing up phlegm (ewwww) and with a resting heartrate much higher than normal. Uh oh. Well, I might as well try my best since I am signed up right? The worst that could happen? I could be slow and I could get more sick. I am already sick, and if I go slow, it would still be a training run which I could use. So, I took some Robitussin so I wouldn’t be coughing the whole way as it was pretty cold out.

I get to Derry and it was snowing hard. I had just gotten yax trax, but I had not thought I would need them so I left them at home. I started out with my husband and two friends since we’re all around the same pace. We ran together for the first half, it was definitely slower than expected because of the snow. It was challenging to maneuver and if you found the pavement “trail”, it was much easier, but people could get in the way. I was okay for the first half, but the second half, my body was just not having it - I told my two friends I wasn’t feeling well and dropped back. Whatever it is I have (still) made me very weak. I slowed down to a crawl and had to walk quite a bit. The cutoff was 3 hours, but it was very cold so I didn’t want to walk because I was all wet and my body temp could drop a lot, but least I wasn’t coughing b/c the medicine was still in effect because it hurts when I cough. So, I pretty much jogged until the end - even though I felt very beat and it was even hard to do that, the snow looked really nice so I wasn’t really in a miserable mood. I finished very slowly but at least I got a 16 mile training run in.

Anyways, on a brighter note - about fashion & completely unrelated to racing - I am extremely psyched that one of my favorite stores, H&M, will be carrying clothes from one of my favorite designers, Marimekko, this summer! It is coming in April. I haven’t seen any photos of the garments, but here is where I saw the info. I will be popping-in regularly in April to see when they get it in, because it is likely that the collection will sell-out quickly (they might send an email about it).

For the past few weeks, I’ve had minimal satisfaction with myself and my existence. I am increasingly frustrated with where I live (cold and gray with Massholes), other people (annoying, rude, unfriendly, see previous about Massholes), lack of freedom, wanting more money blah blah blah. I am happy that I have lost 13 pounds, but I miss having a lot of foods I used to eat.

The hope is that with a few tweaks and changes, I can be a little more content.

To Do

Behavioral
- Focus More
- Relax More
- Work Harder
- Continue watching what I eat

Races to Do
- Boston Marathon
- Rock n Roll Marathon
- Vineman
- Ironman Lanzarote
- Pucon 70.3
- St. Croix Half Ironman
- Ironman New Zealand

Places to Visit
- Triathlon Destinations Above
- Somewhere isolated in Florida (Captiva Island)
- South Pacific

Books to Read
- Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
- Go Ask Alice (Paperback)
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Hardcover)
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Paperback)
- Atonement: A Novel (Paperback)
- Water for Elephants (Paperback)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns (Hardcover)

To Don’t

- React (relax, think, and do instead)
- Scatterbrain (focus on the task at hand instead)
- Shop for clothes (I already have enough for a small country)
- Putz around (if it’s not the most important thing I could be doing, rethink and change behavior)
- Eat too many goodies

Here in Boston, it is not a very nice time of year. January, February, and March are usually cold, gray, and icy. This is the time of year when I wished I lived somewhere warmer. I am trying to stick to my workouts so that I can get faster and also keep my weight down. Dieting is challenging. I am always hungry and it’s not a good feeling because I have trouble concentrating on other stuff. I wish I could be more postitive and cheery at this time of year.

As far as good things, I have almost reached my goal weight, I got a new trainer since my old one died, and I found a nice yoga class to go to on a regular basis.

Work (full time job) is what it is - there…other than the commute which is annoying, it’s fine. I can swim during lunch because there’s a pool there, so that’s a positive. As for consulting, I am putting a wordpress site on my domain so that it is easier to update. I’m currently writing content in addition to doing some client work. Hopefully it will be done soon.

So I guess a New Year is supposed to be a new start - although I really don’t feel any differently than I did yesterday. I have told myself about some “resolutions” although I am wondering how they will stick since it’s been spotty in the past. For me, it’s more of a matter of changing something when I can no longer tolerate the previous behavior or situation.

Same usual stuff for me:
- be more frugal (especially with clothes shopping) so I gave myself a monthly budget for clothes
- eat healthier and train more consistently to get faster and keep body composition in check
- try to be more relaxed/content and not freak out as much
- get my bloody website up along with at least one “web property” which I hope to sell so I am not stuck in a 9 to 5 for the rest of my life

Today I did a 10k - I am 8 pounds lighter than a month ago, but for some reason I am slower. It is very frustrating. I thought being lighter was supposed to make me faster. I know I have not done any speedwork, but the first mile I hoped to hold that pace and I could not, so I finished in a snail’s pace and was not happy about it. I am wondering how much muscle mass I have lost - I’ve been trying to not lose more than 2 pounds a week (that in itself is extremely tough for me)…but I thought it would affect cycling and not running. Hopefully I will get faster in time for my race. I start track next week and (in hopes that I don’t get injured as I usually do in track) it always seems to help me get faster.

The Saturday before Christmas, I was very glad to leave this cold, snowy, grey, miserable New England weather for warm, sunny Florida. We got there Saturday and did the usual shopping. On Sunday, Daniel’s half-brother and his granddaughter came from Baton Rouge with a surprise…basically David’s present to Helga - a little puppy.

Other than that, we got a lot of training in including swimming and running outside - something we can’t do here in Boston too much. The first day we swam, we ended up sharing a lane with Lisa Bentley, a pro triathlete. As much as it blows to be on a diet over the holidays, it was motivating to see her and think of the positive results of exercising and eating healthy. I also got a great 12-mile run on the path.

We also went to Sea World (I hadn’t been there before) and then to Mount Dora, a cute little town north of Clermont which was the only place in the area that had MBT shoes (even though there’s no known cure, I’ll do anything to minimize my cellulite and tome my tush).

Anyways, we came back to the miserable weather last Thursday. I weighed-in and was very happy to see that I had lost weight (under 120 YAY!). In the airport on the way to Florida, I got a book called “skinny bitch” which is an awesome nutrition book which I think contributed to my weight loss during the holidays…and also I really want to move somewhere warm since it seems to be conducive to exercising.

Since Thursday, I have been doing nothing. It’s been awhile and it feels good (I’ve been exercising, but that is fun…by “nothing” I just mean I haven’t been doing work because that’s **not** too fun haha).

Another thing, I have found that not eating too late really helps me. Late at night I am very hungry, but the following morning I almost always weigh less if I eat around 6pm so I really try to suck it up. I am now at 118.6 and have lost 8 pounds in the past month…and have 3 pounds to go. It’s really hard even though it’s only 2 pounds a week. If I don’t eat enough, I don’t have any energy to exercise. I honestly admire those people on shows like “the biggest loser” who lose 7 or 9 pounds in a week. Hopefully in 2 weeks (by mid January) I will succeed in getting to my goal weight.

Saturday was long run day. It was originally supposed to be Sunday (today) - however, today there is a blizzard and the thought of running 2 hours on a treadmill was a bit much - so the other choice was sunny and a balmy 17F (-8.5C). Anyways, it wasn’t so bad with all the gear I had. I took some of those hand warmer things for construction workers and put them in my gloves. 2 pairs of tights and other miscellaneous gear later, (like ski socks…see photo), I was off. Did it very slowly - my energy level is a little low because I have been losing weight (7 pounds so far), but hopefully once I reach my desired weight, I can eat normally again and my energy level will return. Florida will be great for vacation, but I will need to get used to winter training in New England!