Playlist: Long Island Diva's Half

On Sunday I'm running the Divas Half Marathon in Long Island.  This will be my first women's half marathon, and it has great timing as I'll be spending the next three days in Baltimore at the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing!  With the rest of my week being about celebrating and empowering women, I created a playlist filled with songs from some of my favorite musical divas!

The playlist is about 2:20.  I had previously been hoping to beat my previous half marathon record of 2:03:27 at this race but with recent hip pain I don't know if that will be possible.

It's All Coming Back to Me Now Céline Dion
No more drama Mary J Blige
Irreplaceable Beyoncé
Karma Alicia Keys
Total Eclipse of the Heart   Bonnie Tyler
Rolling in the Deep Adele
I Heard It Through the Grapevine Gladys Knight & the Pips
Respect Aretha Franklin
Alone Heart
I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor
What's Love Got to Do With It  Tina Turner
Poker Face Lady GaGa
Awful Hole
Man! I Feel Like a Woman! Shania Twain
Girls Just Want to Have Fun Cyndi Lauper
I'm Every Woman Whitney Houston
Glamorous Fergie
Firework Katy Perry
Telephone (feat. Beyoncé) Lady GaGa
Dirrty (feat. Redman) Christina Aguilera
On the Floor (CCW Radio Mix) Jennifer Lopez
Hips Don't Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean) Shakira
Crocodile Rock Elton John
Drumming Song Florence + The Machine
Bad Romance Lady GaGa
Everlasting Love Gloria Estefan
Like a Prayer Madonna
The Sweet Escape (feat. Akon) Gwen Stefani
You Can't Hurry Love The Supremes
Believe Cher Believe
All for You Janet Jackson
All This And Heaven Too Florence & The Machine
Material Girl Madonna
I Say a Little Prayer Dionne Warwick
Dreamlover Mariah Carey
Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That Dolly Parton

Archery!

A few weeks ago I went with Alek and a group of friends to use a Google Offer we'd bought for indoor archery at Queens Archery.  I haven't touched a bow and arrow since I was 12 and in middle school gym class.  All I remember from that time is getting the arrows embedded in the grass.  

At queens archery, we used long bows and stood 5 yards, then 10 yards, and finally 20 yards (but for only one shot) away from the target.  My shoulder was less sore than I expected it to be after an hour of shooting and I managed to hit the target more often than I expected!

It was a great experience, but the hour went really quickly.  I can't wait to go again and rent a better bow for shooting.

Just fired.

My target: Not bad, but also not very good.

Happy National Dog Week!

National Dog week started on September 25th.

My dog, Emmy is a small Yorkshire Terrier.  She's too small to run with me, but she love to cuddle during my stretches after a long run.   Emmy is also good at providing motivation during planks, pushups and squats by lying under me.  If I fall, I'll fall on her.  Maybe she's a little too trusting...

Coach Emmy keeping me up during my squats

Do you run with your dog?  How far?

The Prognosis

"You're weak."  Not exactly what I thought I'd hear from the doctor when I went to have my hips checked.   But after a physical exam, the doc's conclusion is that my hip pain is caused by a minor strain.  The strain is caused by having weak abs, gluts and abductors (the muscles in the hip responsible for moving your leg to the side).  He suggested physical therapy, which I start today.  He also recommended that I use KT tape on the hip so that I can continue running without pain.

This is mostly good news.  It sucks to have pain.  The doctor said I can keep running as long as there isn't too much pain.  I went out for 3 mile yesterday in my Brooks Pureflows and pain was minimal.  It looks like I'll be able to keep training as normal, I'll just have to include more strength work.  I'll describe the physical therapy exercises after my session.

When I can't run, I get irritable.  After a weekend of rest, I found myself feeling stressed out and cranky by Sunday night.  Everyone around me should be relieved that a long rest is not a part of the doctor's orders!

Ouch! My hip!

I've been having pain on and off on the outside of my right hip for the past month.  I've tried the following at home remedies which have helped to relieve the pain to some extent:

• Sports massage: I've had two 30 minute massages which have focused on that hip.  After each one, the pain subsides until I try to run fast again.
• Foam rolling: I've rolled my glutes and quads to loosen up the IT band and the piriformis.  At the suggestion of my massage therapist I've also picked up some lacrosse balls to massage the bonier areas of my hip that I can't get with the foam roller.
• Strengthening: Squats, lunges, monster walk, and frequent planks to try to strengthen the hips and abs.

Last week I had a sport massage on Wednesday.  I then ran 5 miles on Thursday morning and felt fine. Friday night I went out for an easy three mile run.  About halfway through, my hip was killing me.  

My hip continued to hurt Saturday morning.  Although I was looking forward to running the Fifth Avenue Mile on Saturday, my long term goal is to complete the Goofy Challenge.  I didn't want to risk running through the pain and making it worse so I skipped the race.

I've only felt pain from runs after wearing my Vibram SeeYas.  Note, not all runs with them cause hip pain.  I haven't felt the hip pain after wearing my Brooks Pureflows though.  

I'm planning to experiment with shoes a bit.  I'll wear only the Pureflows for two weeks to see if I feel less pain.

Also, I'm going to a sports medicine doctor tonight just to make sure nothing is terribly wrong.  Update to come!

Playlist: NYRR 5th Avenue Mile

NYRR's 5th Avenue Mile is a twenty block run down 5th avenue.  As an endurance runner, I never run just one mile.  This race is particularly fun because I can go all out to see just how fast I can complete the mile.  Last year my time was 7:52.  I've sped up a lot since then so I'm excited to see just how I'll do!

The playlist (at nine minutes):

Dog Days Are Over  Florence + The Machine
Bionic  Placebo

Audiobook Review: Hyperion

Dan Simmons' Hyperion is about a group of seven pilgrims on a journey to the world Hyperion.  Along the way they share stories with one another about why each of them is going to Hyperion.  The novel therefore is a collection of short stories within a larger story.  The short stories are somewhat interrelated, and you learn quite a bit about the world and the mysteries of Hyperion while listening to them.

The book was ok as a background to runs.  The back and forth between character stories and events that occur during their journey make this not well suited to the audiobook format as its difficult to go back and reference earlier portions of the book.  Most of the characters weren't very likable, and there was little suspense leaving me eager to listen for more.  The book is twenty hours long which took me about a month to get through.   I've decided not to continue with the series right now as I'm just not interested in the story.