Finding your happy place

Often a happy place is in one's mind, perhaps a memory that conjures up positive energy and good times.  I have those happy places too but I also have a physical location for my happiness and gratitude and positive energy.

If you didn't know to look for it, you might just pass it up.   After surfacing from the subway, head East

Don't let the seemingly "closed for the day" vibe of the surrounding businesses fool you

The door is never locked, the creaky stairs await you.

Warm up to warm up, climb 3 flights of this walk-up ...but don't rest here, it's just the bathroom

The hues indicate something welcoming inside but that's just the surface. 

My happy place  ...where or what is yours?

Sending out a SRS

Summer
Racing
Sucks

Take it easy, don't expect a PR opportunity and chalk it up to another running experience.

Making the most of my Firebolt

Ah yes, once again I've let my time on the blog slip away.  Fear not, life continues moving forward although at times it does seem to be a blur of working hours, running hours, weekend trips and guests coming and going.  The Reader's Digest version of what's been going is as Wooderson from Dazed and Confused says "L-I-V-I-N"

One day at a time.

I decided to get the wheel rolling on training again, working towards a goal or two in the fall.   The exact race(s)/goal(s) are not yet in cement but I'm running & working with Lloyd - yay!  And mixing it up a lot:  running with various peeps like EG, ES, LK and SS, joining groups at times and hitting the trails.  It's all a tremendously good time.  With the warm weather and humidity you really need more options and ways to deal with the conditions.  These peeps and new routes are a huge aid!   And of course, I'm still lucky to get a few miles in here and there with Missy!!   Not long now and her baby girl will join the world and start rocking out her new BOB stroller - cannot wait to meet this future Boston Qualifier with over 1000 miles under her belt come her birth day.

Finally got my carcass back to the yoga studio too and don't plan to stray in the near future.  My body reminded me that yoga is part of the deal.   No building miles and miles without adequate time at Kula.  Summer time at the studio is especially fun and challenging and very slippery as temps in the rooms there can get to quite the stifling point.  All in all it makes for a great 90 mins per session even if I do look like I'm coming out of a pool.  I can practically hear my body sigh in relief after some time spent there or maybe that's just my pores gurgling with sweat - either way, it is so worth it.
 
And seeing as it's now over halfway through 2010, the folks at KR and I started checking in on our goals for the year to see where we all stood.  As posted at the end of 2009:

• #1 goal is to run a strong marathon
• Run at least 2000 miles
• Stay healthy
• Expand my yoga practice
• Run a HM PR

So I'd say I've got about 3.75 of the 5 covered or on-track to cover.  I'm still chasing that elusive strong marathon but I did nail a beautiful HM PR in March and have 1440 miles for the year already logged.  I've also managed to stay relatively uninjured and quite healthy (no colds or sickness of any kind in quite awhile - yay green monsters!). My yoga practice hasn't expanded in quite the way I thought when I posted this goal but I'm certainly getting more and more out of every session.  I'd really love to make it to one of Kula's yoga retreats this year but if not, next year is just as good.

Outside of running and yoga we've had a number of visitors in the last several weeks and have traveled to a big family reunion for my dad's side of the family.  Good times continue into the summer - coming up next, yummy eats during restaurant week and catching Thierry Henry's debut with the NY Red Bulls vs. Tottenham.

Stay cool peeps!

Oh and yes my firebolt aka the mini stub of a ponytail shooting straight out of the back of my head - she's a keeper!

R,R and R

Recap
VCM ended at mile 15 for me when I stepped off the course.  I'm still not exactly sure what happened but I believe it began a week or so prior to the race when I experienced some crampy legs.  I treated them by stretching more, wearing my compression sleeves and drinking a bit of A-to-B Calm. Ultimately I believe I had an electrolyte or other imbalance that resulted in some roasty, toasty legs well before I would have/should have felt them.  I also had some GI distress that caused 3 stops during those 15 miles where I'm unsure if it was related to the imbalance in my other systems or merely another fun facet of this particular day.  Ultimately, it's not how I envisioned my training ending nor representative of where I know my level of running currently resides.  But it's a part of my history and more in a continuing education in running.  Josh Cox raced the Comrades Marathon that same weekend and ended up with a less than ideal result (for him), he posted this shortly after finishing...

"Thanks for the well wishes. It's tough when 6 months of work doesn't pan out but I'm blessed that my "bad" day involves running a race."

I could not agree more.  Sure I could have suffered through 11 more miles of the race in Burlington that day but I had nothing to prove.  It was simply not my day.  After all is said and done, the time since I started this cycle has been HUGE for me and netted me so many happy days of miles and smiles.

• I started working with Lloyd as a coach and developed even more of a respect for a super talented runner and great coach!   He brought me back to where running every day is fun and kept me at a level I know I can maintain in the future without getting injured or burnt out.  
• I hit my highest weekly and monthly mileage and look forward to hitting them again and maybe even bettering them, next cycle.  I love me lots and lots of miles.
• On the sweetest of March mornings I caught a glimpse of just how far my training has come when I ran a relaxed and strong 1:40 HM.  And I know it's only the tip of the iceberg.
• Since late last summer I've been blessed with not one, not two but three superb regular running partners.  Missy, baby squash and Bella.   They come as a package and they make every outing fun and fleet.

Recovery
One of the most key aspects to training for me this time around is closing the book on one cycle and feeling recovered enough to start another.  It might not be so black and white for others but I've basically been in the same cycle of training since late last spring, early last summer when anticipating a marathon in St. George and then CIM.  Of course neither happened but I was running with the purpose of those races the entire time.  I simply continued to roll over my training and ultimately build a big base for what would be IL and then VCM.  Recovery is also different this time around, since I didn't end up racing either of the two May marathons to anywhere near my max and so I'm not very beat up physically.   But mentally, I was/am bushed!  Enter a perfectly timed trip to Mexico.

Relaxation
Now I knew Jason and I needed a vacation, we both knew it.   Hell, we knew it on January 1.  We'd both worked extremely hard in our jobs throughout 2009 without any break in 2010.  Major product releases, large partnership opportunities & contracts, very long hours, it all took it's toll.  Add to that training for a couple races that took up the better part of a year and without a break, complete & total meltdown was imminent.  Thank god our friends Mario & Melissa decided to do a destination wedding in Riviera Maya and we booked and confirmed early on.  Traveling south of the border provided the perfect opportunity to quite literally unplug from everything.  No phones, no emails, no Facebook, no Twitter, no blogs, no meetings, no nothing but the simple necessities of life.  Food, drink, friends, water and good ole vitamin D!  It was heaven.  I got out for a couple very short and sweaty runs but not because I felt I needed to but because I wanted to.  The relaxation continues this week although with a more reality based twist.  Back at home in NYC and working and what not although I'm not yet following any training plan nor have any solid plans for what's next.  This will undoubtedly change soon but for now I'm enjoying the unstructured nature to my workouts.  And with the Caribbean's influence I may even get my butt back to the pool  :-)

Mental branding

Just 3 sleeps till VCM and while the weather isn't looking great, I'm focusing only on what I can control.  The weather will rarely be ideal and frankly, I'm tired of making excuses b/c of it.  To use a way-overplayed phrase, it is what it is.  Weather aside, I want this race to be about not making excuses.  No "but this... " or "but that... " as an explanation as to why I didn't stick with my plan.  Sure, things may happen that I don't want around me but as long as I recover and get back to my plan, I'll consider that a successful race.

I want to remain in control, I want to be the boss of both my body and my monkey mind.

Part of my prep for a race involves music, it comes to my aid both on a daily basis and pre-race.  I'm a big music fan, of most varieties and while I don't listen to it while running races and only at times during training, I can recall music and lyrics most anytime I want.  I can also usually remember the context in which I heard a song and this can be very motivating.  Case in point, Intro by The XX.  Hearing it in the context of this video has already come to my mind while executing a workout.   It gives me chills both when in the accompaniment of the video and all on it's own.  It stirs something deep inside me.  Lyrics are like mantras.  So when I'm feeling the need to mellow out I find something on the iPod that suits me or when I'm ready to pump it up, I've always got a go-to tune or two to get me rev'ed up.  When I'm with other members of Team Pfeiffer pre-race we're all about listening to Girl Talk but lately it's a song by Fabolous and my interpretation of some of his lyrics.


Go hard, today 
The past is the past, you know
Can't worry the past cause that ye-sterday
It's a new day bro
Ima put it on the line cause it's my time
My day, gotta do it now
Hey hey hey heey
I gotta stay on my grind cause it's my time (hey)
My time (hey), my time (hey) 

Team Pfeiffer jammin' out prior to last year's San Francisco HM

Meanwhile back in taper town

It's a funny thing tapering twice for marathons within 4 weeks of one another.  Well I guess it's not strange or odd for multiple marathon folks but I don't normally fall into that category so it's a little trippy for me.  Probably the best thing I can say and feel about it is that I don't feel in dire need of a taper.  Sure, I need and want the extra time to really solidify my race plan and visualize it's execution but I don't feel beat up and that was one of my larger concerns about squeezing in another May race.

The last physical & mental boost experienced came about yesterday in the form of the Brooklyn HM.  I had already registered for this race before deciding upon VCM so after consulting coach, we decided that it would still be a go but that I'd have a specific plan in place for the 13.1 miles.   Start easy (4-5 mi), slide down into MP (4-5 mi) and finish easy.  Do not race it in.  Remain in control and fight off dropping the pace outside of the specified MP window.  Got it.  Good.

I ran this race last year too and really liked it.  The course has you running two loops of Prospect Park and then heading out onto Ocean Parkway running a pretty straight line out to Coney Island, finishing on the boardwalk.  A HUGE improvement over how the course used to run (up until last year) where you started at Coney Island and finished with two loops of P.Park.   Improvement b/c if you've ever run Prospect you know it's not flat and there's one big dude of a hill in particular that can slow you down quite a bit + you gotta suck it up for two loops. But I digress... race went pretty much as expected:

M1: 8:24
M2: 8:27
M3: 8:05 - PMPM (premature marathon pace mile)
M4: 8:01 - another PMPM
M5: 8:25
M6: 8:25
M7: 7:46 - MP
M8: 7:57 - MP
M9: 8:04 - MP
M10: 8:08 - MP
M11: 9:06
M12: 8:38
M13: 9:39 (including a porta potty stop)
M _.1: :54 

Finished with an official time of 1:50:07

I was pleased with the effort, how it felt very controlled and how my mental game played out (stick with the plan!).  I feel extraordinarily blessed receiving some really great advice and encouragement from you all here on the blog, in person and via email messages.  It really means a lot to me and I really tried to put much of it into practice along the course on Saturday.   I'm planting the thoughts further into my race plan for this coming weekend, I certainly feel ready!

It's all in my head

Another "any one who knows me knows" statement coming in 3, 2, 1 ...  I consider myself a pretty tough individual.  It doesn't hurt that I'm stubborn as all hell and being a typical Taurus, a hardworking, determined individual.   I welcome any physical challenge that comes my way and often have great success with them.  I don't like to say "I can't" to anything.   I will spend hours and hours and months and months building up to a single event but, and this is where I need some help, this is where I struggle.

I always have.  

I get into my own head too much.

I start to put boundaries on what I'm doing and where I'm going.  Most specifically, while running a marathon.  Maybe it's the logical, detail oriented business analyst in me maybe it's something else but I need to get past it.  I have the means to get past it, I have the physical capabilities to make anything happen but still I get hung up. 

Mantras help.  Focus helps.  Confidence helps. 

What do you do to get yourself past these points?   Brute force?  Finding your special place deep inside the mind?  Disassociating completely?