Oh, the drama!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. It probably would have been easier to post about all of this stuff as it happened, but it's been a bit draining, to say the least.

First of all, I have a new neighbor. Usually, I don't notice my neighbors - which is very, very good. I've lived in my apartment complex for quite a few years now, and I don't think I've ever exchanged much beyond a hello-how-ya-doin' and a nod with any of them. Friendly enough, but not friends. No spats, no major disturbances, no noise that kept anyone up half the night.

Until about ten days, almost two weeks ago. My new upstairs neighbor moved in. I really didn't get much of a look of a look at her, but I did hear her music. 1) She really likes Billy Joel. 2) She really, really, really likes the song Piano Man, which she played on what seemed like infinite loop over the. entire. weekend. Now, I'm pretty neutral on Billy Joel (not a favorite, but I certainly don't hate him); however, I don't even listen to songs I like over and over and over and over.... So, that was the warning shot. Then during the week last week, there were several nights when she arrived late, like 10 pm, bringing tons of gear she had to haul upstairs and put away. This would go on until 1 or 2 am. Then there was a quiet night or two, and I figured, great, she's moved in, it's over.

Newp. We had a couple of nights in a row of her being up until 4 am. I was so spitting mad and frustrated, I didn't even go up to complain because I was afraid I'd act like a raving lunatic. Which was pretty much how I felt. Monday was a quiet day, and I though, wow, YES! Finally, it's over. But newp again. Tuesday night she was at it again, and I felt myself totally getting would up. Gave myself a bit of time to calm down, and around 1 am went up and asked her actually quite nicely to please be a bit more quiet. Next morning, I had a note under my door, with a profuse apology, and later in the day we met up and lo and behold, truce. Turns out she's pretty nice, but going through a very stressful time and said she finds herself with tons of energy sometimes and she just keeps going.... I don't know why it didn't occur to her that other people might be trying to sleep at that hour, but whatever.

So I'm happy it worked out, but damn, I hate sleep deprivation. I get very grumpy, to say the least, and my workouts suffer.

Next drama involves another neighbor, a nice young gal who is an artist by trade. She's also a manic depressive in the manic phase, which means, among other things, she'll chew your ear off given half the chance, and call at all hours. (This morning, it was 5:30 am. I wouldn't have answered, except I use my cell phone as an alarm clock, and the ringer is the alarm.) She's also a member of a 12 step group, and this past weekend, one of the male members of the same group sexually assaulted her. Apparently this guy has a history of doing this, and the women have let it go. Not neighbor artist girl. I'm not completely sure what she's going to do, but I know he's been arrested and charged, and that she's contacted the local news stations. (I know a whole lot more, too, but damn, it's tiring just remembering all this stuff.) She also has a harassment suit going against the manager of the apartment complex AND is the defendant in a criminal case (assaulting a police officer).

I must be getting old, because I need a scorecard to keep up with her. Makes me appreciate the times when my life is drama-free, though.

All of the workouts stuff is going well. I will be very, very happy when Stage 5 of NROL/W is done. I have to say this is the first stage of this program that I have not enjoyed; the workouts just take too freaking long. Yesterday I did the A workout at home and gave myself the full 2 minutes rest between, well, more sets than usual, and the workout plus my warm-up (joint mobility work and glute activation exercises, which to my happy surprise seem to be making a difference) took and hour and 45 minutes. There was no joy in Mudville. When I was done all I could think was, just three more of these fuckers... I suppose I could have done things differently by opting to do just three sets per exercise, but there's not much sense in changing course now.

This past Sunday I went to Special Training for the first time in a year. I missed two last year when I was sick and didn't go to the one in January, as I had barely just restarted karate at that point. It was great to be back in that atmosphere! We did mostly weapons work (bo staff), which was a great change of pace. It was supposed to have been an outdoor training, which would have been really cool, but that was called because of rain. The next one, in July, is also supposed to be outdoors, at the beach. That could be very interesting!

And to close, finally remembered to get on the scale again, and am down 12#. Woo! 5 more and I'm back in "happy" range. And to really, really close, some gratuitous kitteh shots:

Grif - who knew pineapples were so fascinating?


Jack, looking regal.


The very handsome Junior.

Weird feeling of guilt...

Damn. How do parents do this?

Sundays are generally my rest days right now. I usually take a walk in the morning, come home and have a decadent (for me) breakfast (oatmeal/protein pancakes - not necessarily calorically decadent, but they do take a bit of time to make; I usually don't fuss over breakfast. Today I also watched the finals of the Monte Carlo Masters (not much of a match, as it happened) and even took a nap (lol, all before 1 PM, believe it or not). I'm not usually much of a napper, but I slept like crap last night due to my having coffee too late in the day yesterday, so I figured, why not?

Spent the afternoon watching the Phils lose and catching up on some interwebs stuff, headphones on as usual when I'm checking stuff with audio. Around an hour ago I got a call from my folks, wondering why I hadn't called them back. (Wellllll, I never heard the phone ring, and it didn't occur to me to check for messages after I popped off the 'phones.) It was no big deal, just a dinner invite which I declined, since I already had dinner in the works, but DAMN, I felt so guilty! WTF is up with that? Oh well. Maybe I'm still a little tired and off.

I could also eat the house down, and intend to do so as soon as I finish this. I did my longest run so far yesterday, 5 miles, which isn't much, really, but I was very happy with how doable it felt, all things considered. I hadn't planned to run that far yet, but I really wanted to hit a couple of parks, and that loop allowed me to hit two. It was also interesting in that the first two miles were basically straight into the wind, which was kicking up yesterday, and the last mile was all hills, so finishing it strong made me feel pretty good. That made a bit over 13 miles total for last week, and I probably won't nudge that up too much more for the duration of NROL/W Stage 5 because the workouts are soooo damned long (hour fifteen to an hour and a half, including the cardio, and NOT including my warm-up). The Stage 6 workouts, in contrast, are probably half as long, so I figure that's the time to look at one more day of running and get the miles up to 20 or so per week, where I want to be when I start training for the half (which will be the week I end NROL/W, if all goes according to Hoyle, last week in June).

Still not sure what I'm going to do for strength training during the half prep, although I'm leaning now toward doing the regular NROL fat loss rotation workouts, as written or slightly bastardized. Not that I expect to be looking to lose fat at that point, but the rep ranges and exercises work for my purposes, too, so I'll probably do a couple of weeks of each of the workouts. And you know what's the oddest thing? I'm happy with that plan, and with the running plan (Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1/2 marathon program), and I'm two and a half months out. Usually I'm second guessing until launch date, but I'm familiar with and like the NR plans, and I'm familiar with and like Hal's plans, so there you have it.

A Small Victory

Rules are made to be broken, right?

All of my carefully planned, no-pressure rules for running have pretty much gone out the window this past week. I had that really good run last Saturday, and just HAD to see how far I'd gone... which lead me to start planning my runs by mileage, as opposed to time. Then again, planning by time was starting to not work out so well because I really couldn't figure out how far to go before heading for home. (I almost never run out and backs; they tend to be extremely boring, plus the timing never works out because I tend to run faster later in the run.) So, that lead to me planning by mileage (I picked 4 miles, since that was what I covered in the comfy run), which lead to my noting the time and switching on the mental calculator, to now knowing my time by mile. Which, this morning, was 9:24 - not fast, not even my old "comfy" pace of 8:30, 9/per, but a damned sight better than a month ago in all respects.

I've had people tell me they admired my patience, to which I can only say, look what patience gets you? The ever-mythical "results."

It's been a great week overall. I did not start NROL/W S5 yesterday: will start tomorrow. Yesterday I had yoga class in the morning and took a long, unnecessary walk in the evening to the post office to mail my tax return. Mostly I needed to cool off, because for the first time in over a decade, I actually will be getting money back from both the state and the feds. This was completely unexpected: I thought I would owe both, hence my waiting until the last minute to do my taxes. It's not a lot, but going into the exercise with a shitload of dread, expecting to write out a couple of pretty big checks and then coming out ahead - damn! Priceless. I may splurge and buy myself a couple of pairs of running shorts, because I'm sort of over the skirt thing.

I've been kicking around a few half marathon training schedules. Most of them don't accommodate much strength training; those that do include two days at the most. I had sort of been thinking I'd do the Female Body Breakthrough workouts (just the gym stuff, not the cardio, or as she likes to call it, the "metabolic workouts") during the training, but that works out to three days of weights, three days of karate, and five days of running, which, if you factor in a rest day (and I will), means two a days most days. Take out one day of strength training, and I can at least do a decent job of balancing easy and hard days. So I may shelve FBB (which does look interesting enough to do) until post half mary, and look for something else to do for about 8 weeks.

I have a good 2 1/2 months to get a schedule tacked to the fridge - I imagine I'll figure it out by then. In the mean time - keep on building the base, keep on with NR, keep kicking and punching. (Come to think of it, I still have one more new kata to learn...)

To race, or not to race? Or, Duhhhhh

I've never really understood the allure of the 5K race. I know it's a popular distance, possibly because it seems doable to people, possibly because you can run it in about that 1/2 hour time that corresponds to the basic recommendation for cardio activity (hence, it makes for a tangible training goal), possibly because that distance is easier, logistically, on race organizers - I truly don't know. I've generally held that I'd probably never do one unless it practically started on my doorstep because it made no sense to me to spend more time traveling to a race than actually running it. Never mind that for years I did various horseback riding competitions, wherein it usually took me longer to BRAID my horse than to do my rides, to say nothing of the grooming, tack cleaning, trailer packing, and hauling to the show (to further say nothing of getting my own food/clothes/self organized and ready). Although, come to think of it, maybe that is part of the reason for my attytood toward shorter races - if I'm going to do a low fuss event, it truly has to be low fuss.

While at the gym the other day, I saw a flyer for a 5K race that - yep - practically starts on my doorstep, in a conservation area about two (long) blocks away. So I picked one up thinking, "Huh, well, maybe... why not? Baseline... could be fun... would give me a reason to try to put some speed to my runs... etc." So I read the entire thing, and would you believe - the entry fee was not printed ANYWHERE, not even on the entry form itself?

I eventually found the online registration site, and learned it would cost me about twice what I'm willing to pay to have someone time me doing what is essentially one of my own established running routes. I would get a t-shirt and a bagel out of the deal, but still... I suppose that is the drawback of doing a race that essentially starts on your doorstep - you've probably already done it. So I will probably pass on this one, but it did get me wondering if I do want to try to do a race this year. The only two I've seriously contemplated are the Philadelphia Marathon (November) and the Philadelphia Distance Run (September), a half marathon. The marathon would necessarily take over my training time in a way that I'm not sure would be productive given my other goals (karate, maintaining a run/strength training balance), but a half marathon? Worth thinking about. I was very much encouraged by yesterday's run, with was the farthest and fastest I've run yet. (Fast being closer to normal for me, not fast by objective standards.)



Sports: The Phils are off to a really good start, which is fantastic because the Flyers have been trying really, really hard not to make the playoffs lately, after they basically seemed to have been on course to be safely in, as of several weeks ago. Well, as of this afternoon, they may be OUT, if they lose the last game of the season. The only good thing about their situation is, if they DO get in, they won't have to play Washington in the first round, and may actually have a chance against NJ or Buffalo. Argh. I don't know what to wish for - a fast ending, so we can be put out of their misery and perhaps management will be prompted to really look for What Went Wrong (hint: start with the work ethic) - or a deep playoff run, which could be fun, short term, but will probably ultimately mean we'll have the same team, more or less, next year, a team that I think may have lived down to its potential.

*Yawn

You'd think someone who has the kind of time on their hands that I do would have time to blog...

I guess it's not so much a matter of time, though, as substance. The original purpose of this repurposed blog was to blog my workouts. Well, yawn. One thing I am when it comes to this shit is boringly predictable.

Most days, I still put in a walk, about 45 minutes. It's become habit; I'm sure that will change at some point, but for now, I'm just keeping it up. Beyond that:

Monday - NROL workout @ the gym
Tuesday - run, karate
Wednesday - yoga class, NROL workout @ home
Thursday - run, karate
Friday - NROL workout @ the gym
Saturday - karate, run
Sunday - rest

I mean, that's only so interesting and blog-worthy. I like having a schedule because it sort of leaves me with a certain framework to progress within: I see how my kata improve, or my sparring, or my weapons handling; I see how much further/faster I can run; I see how much more I can lift. It's actually such a rewarding way of doing things that I wonder how I played video lotto ("hmm, what video do I want to do today?") for so long before falling back on, basically, the sorts of workouts I cut my teeth doing (weights, running, sport specific skills). Other people seem to get along fine on the lotto and more power to them, but that never really worked for me.

Whatever makes you happy and gets your ass moving, eh?

Anyway, since I titled this *Yawn, a word on the beauty of sleep. Toward the end of last week, I had a couple of nights of horrible sleep. There was nothing specific going on, just a couple of late nights - stayed up to watch a sporting event, got home late from karate, that sort of thing. By Saturday I felt completely washed out, and practically had to drag my ass around the neighborhood for my run. I thought, WTF is wrong with me? Push too hard this week? Poor nutrition? Were the cats really that big a pain in the ass? (I have a queen sized bed - you'd think one fairly small human and three felines could flop out with no overlapping parts, and you'd be wrong.) As it happened, that night I slept like a fucking log, and as soon as I could form a cohesive thought the next day, it was along the lines of "Duh, chiquita, you needed sleep."

So I'm watching for that now. Sleep: it does a body good.