SriChinmoy Mile 27-Nov

Well I've been chilling most of November recovering from the high intensity at the end of the season. That last 7 weeks from the 100k finishing with the 50k a month ago was a lot but my body recovered. Today was like one of those last chance meets we had in college-today was my last chance to get the All American standard this year since there will be no 3000m races til next yr nor do I think I have a snowball's chance in hell of meeting the standard a month from now in the mile because I always seem to have a winter slump time wise Dec-Feb.My track times suffer then but I seriously think the fact that the indoor tracks are banked here is one of the main reasons for said slump. Well lack of daylight isn't helping the cause either.

I got to the track, got a number, and headed off to warm up. I never go under 6 min on these damn banked tracks though 5:30 or sometimes better as was the case in the summer is childsplay once I get on an outdoor track. I was glad to see Lena M. today as my first though was thank God, there will be someone to stick to tooth and nail that can run that darn standard I need. None of the other girls in my group can. I ran with Lena back in June and we both ran blazing fast road miles. She is a great middle distance masters runner one year my senior. So that was my task- risk it and stick to Lena even if it hurts because she will rabbit me to that standard. I would not have attempted this had I not run a solid set of 400s on Wednesday all inside 83-85 sec on flippin' snow. That was a sign my winter blahs haven't fully set in. The plan was to hope Lena shows up and voila I will have a pacer. Most winters, she kicks my sweet ass from 15-30 seconds-yes that's how bad my speed tanks and how far into the gutter I go til March/April. I need to start moving my butt next month because the 100K Worlds are early this year-April so I can't slack much this winter but keeping track speed is a project.
So off we were and I just stuck to Lena the whole way even if she picked up to try to dop me and anyone else back there. I was actually trying not to step on her most of the way but passing is not what you do til there is less than 200 to go. She got me today by a couple seconds but I made the standard with 10 seconds to spare coming in at 5.40 according to the clock, coach , and others standing at the finish. They gave me 5.50 in the results though- actually everyoine got added 10 seconds ....strange. USATF goes by what's in the results so it's still good....barely...kind of the pits because this is the best indoor time on these banked tracks I ever put down. I'm a crappy short distance runner but strangely enough all this ultrarunning has helped my speed thiis year. I once again was totally focused on sitting on the person in front of me and could hear someone behind me in the first 800 or so but had no idea the next woman had dropped over 100m back. My job was getting the All American standard I missed this year simply because every outdoor track meet I would have run in conflicted with an ultra or marathon the SAME DARN DAY! The mile is the hardest event for me to get it in as the distances get shorter, it's harder for me to do well. 3000-10,000m is easy it's finding a track meet that's hard! I finished a close second and Lena won today.
I'm off to Vilnius for the first of two visa runs in the morning and supposed to be back in 4 days. The next visa run and final one will be early Feb probably again to Vilnius for 1 day service. It's an expensive PITA but such is the price of freedom to once again work for myself. I'll run the winter marathon as one of my December long runs on the 10th hence the visa run now not later.

I'd have to attribute today's result to the basics-hills and a sane schedule. I quit shift work and go to bed and get up at roughly the same time every day. I'm going to stay on my diet of hills this winter and want to train more like i did when i was in Alaska and that means HILLS in the winter=strength and fast times come springtime. I am still doing my foot and calf strength exercises and am starting to feel a difference. My legs didn't get as beat up on the turns today and I seemed stronger. Knock on wood things will continue to develop.

Thank You to Dr Rose

I have known Les and Rose since the 90s. Les was one of the guys in the Alpine Runners back in Lake Zurich,Il that "suckered" me into my first ultra back in 98 where I subsequently won. Rose his wonderful wife who is a Dr at the Healthy U in Palatine.
I have known for years my running form sucks. (so did Jim Ryun)I've compensated with strength and endurance over the years to put down the performance that I have. I have been observed by more than one coach and all have said that my crappy form is costing me about FIFTEEN possibly up to TWENTY minutes in a marathon. The first time I was told this, I thought they were joking, but no several coaches have seen me race and said the same thing.

Ok thanks for the lip service but how about addressing the problem and how to fix it? I know I have a tilted pelvis that causes a leg length discrepancy. Yes, it's fixable but I need to know HOW??!! Rose  asked if I had any nagging owies or if anything was bothering me. No, not really nothing major save for my piraformus and sciatic issue in my right ass 2 yrs ago I had treated and fixed. I do put up with minor achillies tendonits from time to time and it's been going on for about 2 yrs. I just ice massage it and stretch it. She wanted to have a closer look...

She had one look at my feet and of course noticed the tilted pelvis and said that weak feet and the fact I was using less than half my muscles (not using the inner thighs at all or the inside part of my calves) was the culprit. I admitted i had crappy form and suspected the pelvis thing but the pelvis thing is a result of tight muscles on the right side always overcompensating. Why- my feet especially my left foot are totally collapsed. After analyzing the situation, she showed me how in realitymy first 2 toes on BOTH feet were doing nothingand the other 3 piggies had been picking up slack over the yrs. This would also explain how a small bunion mysteriously appeared at the end of the 2008 season almost overnight over the course of a month. It's not hurting me,but it's ugly.

So after working on me for a couple hours(damn she's good), she finally did what no one had ever bothered to do in the past-SHOW ME HOW I CAN FIX THIS PROBLEM! She SHOWED me strengthening exercise to do for my feet,piggies, and the whole inner part of my legs. Then she WATCHED to make sure I was doing them RIGHT!Woo hoo I am a kinesthetic learner and I need to do things right and esp right from the beginning to get it down. Rose has 2 PhDs and teaches chi running. She's right -if I don't address the problem now, I'm getting to the age where my crappy form could start wrecking joints and body parts and my poor knees. So, guess what I'm going to be working on over the winter?! Cut 15 min? HA we'll see but I would like to fix the problem so I'm no longer running with the parking brake on!

Chicago Lakefront 50/50 29-Oct

When visitors enter the US at immigration the border patrol asks them what the purpose of their visit to the United States is. Mine was clearly the Chicago Lakefront 50/50 all else was just secondary stuff -this is why I made the trip. Well, to make a long story short because I'm sick of ppl asking, this is also why I NEVER SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN ON THE BLOODY PLANE! In short, I get ONE TRIP per yr-I'm far from some rich brat that can afford random frequent pond crossings at my own expense and disposal. If I make a pond crossing, there is a damn good reason and if it's for a race as it almost always is, it's to do a DAMN GOOD JOB TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY.

Well lesson learned- NEVER FOLLOW THE LEADER BECAUSE HE DOES NOT KNOW WHERE HE IS GOING! Nice, some 15 k into the race I caught up with some of the top guys. I ran for a bit with them and asked if they were doing 50k or 50miles. It turned out we were all doing 50k. I had decided to do the 50k because my recovery was really good post 100k and even the marathon didn't kill my speed much. I figured I could put down another sub 4 performance. So I ran with the guy group for a while all the time seeing runners coming from the opposite direction from the turnaround-50milers who had started 2 hours ahead of us and were already making their rounds. After a bit, my guy group dropped back and I spent most of the rest of the day catching up with and or lapping 50milers and 50kers. The course was 3 loops. So, all day, I saw "traffic" other runners coming in the opposite direction and or I was passing someone along the way(lapping or passing ). So I kicked in the finish in 3:58 for the win.

 A while later the organizer who has known me since I was a high school brat said he thought a groupof lead runners had inadvertently cut what ended up being about 100m in the first lap. Did I have a clue that there was ANY screw up-NO because all day I had seen 2 way traffic with other runners never more than 50-100meters from sight. So, if there was a screw up in that spot we were not the only ones, it just got noticed because we were one of the lead packs. There was only 1 more group in front of us. The issue in question did not come up til the end of the race of course or I would have just dropped out earlier and saved my legs for smthg else in 2-4 weeks. Had it come up sooner it would have been easy to remedy the situation by telling us to add the small loop we had missed in the 2nd or 3rd lap-do it twice(sort of like what happened when we all got screwed up at the Worlds in Gibraltar last yr). It's not the race director's fault-he said the issue did not come up til after the race.

So, to be fair if indeed our group did screw up, I offered to give up first place and settle for second. Third woman was several minutes back and our screw up would not have affected the outcome there nor would it have affected the men's finish.  The second woman was about 2 min back,but truth be known had I WALKED that 100 meters, it still would have been a sub 4 for me. I deliberately slowed down in the first loop to run even and save myself for a negative split in the 2nd half. That's how I race and have some of my best races- Igo out reasonable and pick it up.

When I race, I get very focused. If I settle in right behind someone I absolutely zone and just focus on sitting on that person-it makes life easier when someone paces you. By the way, Leonid paced me in on the final loop which allowed me to cruise the final 8k at about 4.30km pace. I focus and just shut everything out-even pain which is sometimes a good thing to be able to shut out. How we missed the turn I don't know there were markings on the pavement but not signs and arrows on the turns. I was looking ahead at the guy in front of me that's all I could figure had happened.  Disgusted and embarrassed is an understatement for how I feel about the whole  situation.Embarrassing as hell-yeah because it happened in a place where everyone knows and remembers me from the running club and my racing even though I have been gone for over 15 yrs. It's just one of those major shit happens things where I got the complete shitty end of the stick. Not a fun way to end a season. I'm off to just stick my head in the sand for the winter now.

Care 4 Breast Cancer 5k 23-Oct.

Turnout for this one was huge this year pushing 2500. The plan was to just do this for my final speedworkout before running the 50K 6 days later. I always run the breast cancer runs in memory of Mom who lost her battle with breast cancer in January of 2007 at 60. She left us all too soon and I miss her more than anyone in the world.

This year the course was moved to Woodstock start/finish at the high school. I last did this run in 2009 with my"little" brother(he's actually 6'6" LOL). Last year I was already gone and back in Moscow when they had it. This year, Little Brother had to work church in the morning so Leonid and I had to go without him. Wanting to actually find a parking place, we left early enough...eek on the road at SIX AM! I just can't get used to these 8AM starts for most races in the US even when it's no longer hot outside. When I lived in Alaska our earliest starts were 10 or once in a very blue moon there was a stray 9 AMer. The only 8AM er was the Equinox marathon and that was to make sure ppl finished before the cutoff by dark. The earliest starts we have in Moscow are 10AMers most are 11 or nooners.

Weather was perfect for this one -just above freezing warming up a little after sunrise. Leonid and I lined up in front-holy stuff it was crowded and lots of folks were sporting pink in support of the cause. I ran about as even as even splits get finishing a very close second in a kick to the finish(ah that's the price one pays for downing 2 ultras and 2 marathons since early July not to mention a 100k and a marathon inside 4 weeks marathon being 2 weeks from this race). The course was flat and fast -missed going under 19 but cannot complain since I have been using these short races for my speedworkouts between ultras.
As the race director called us up for awards, he noticed the sign on my back: "Running in memory of Mom". He said,"This is why we are here." Yes it is, and I noticed he had the same sign on his back.