Inner Truth Scarf

These days, I just want to sit and knit, so I'm making an Inner Truth scarf by Laura Andersson. The pattern no longer seems to be publicly available on the Internet, so I won't print it here. The original pattern was made with a 100% cashmere aran yarn, which is hard to find, so I'm using the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran yarn, a soft blend of wool, microfiber, and cashmere (that's machine washable) on size 10 needles. The grey color makes the scarf androgynous and suitable for any member of the family, like my husband and I who both want to wear it. I really like the horseshoe cable pattern with the smaller cables inside.

Here's a like to a better photo on Flickr.

The pattern calls for a left twist stitch on the opposite side of the scarf (you can see it right next to the seed stitch boarder), which is meant to provide some design interest on the wrong side.

For the longest time, I could never figure out how to make a left twist, and of course, I didn't want to ask anyone. Finally....I thought of YouTube!! And sure enough, I found a video to teach me how to do this stitch. YouTube is a patient teacher and doesn't complain if you need to repeat more than once.

The video shows that the first stitch is dropped, but when I tried it, I kept pulling out that stitch. I find it helpful to hold the first stitch between my thumb and forefinger as I knit into the back of the next stitch.

I'm enjoying the scarf, which has enough twists and turns to keep me interested, but I have the urge to knit a sweater next.

Swimming in the Fridge

It seems like whenever something really good happens to me, then something really bad happens. I am now in the middle of a family crisis that won't be resolved for a while. Of course I've developed stress-related back pain and a slobbery cold. I went to a swim meet on Saturday in effort to get my mind off of the entire situation, as if I could think of anything else. But when I came back, it took a turn for the worse. Please say a prayer for the entire family.

I was so very much on the fence about whether to go to this meet at all, but my husband encouraged me to do so. About a half-hour before the online registration system closed, I signed up. Because I'd signed up so late, I thought for sure that I wouldn't get picked for a relay, which didn't bother me this time. Wrong! The coach must have put the relay teams together immediately after the registration system closed and found my name there. The relay was actually the highlight of the day. If I'm reading the results right, I swam a very fast 100 free. Because I have not been swimming regularly and because of my life events, I chose two shorter events, thinking that it would be easier. I swam a 50 breast for the first time which turned out reasonable, but then I swam a 50 free after the relay and was 4 seconds slower than my previous time. I'm not sure why. My entry and turn was pretty good, my stroke was better, and I didn't breathe too much.

Several other things worked out well at this meet and I achieved my goal of being more independent. The online entry system generated a meet program that was e-mailed to all participants in advance of the meet. The PA system and room acoustics were good and with the printed program, it was easy to follow along and know when I needed to be on deck. I walked up to the starters before the meet, introduced myself and explained that I'm deaf and requested a visual signal, which was no problem. They made a note of my events and my request and the visual signal helped me dive right in! Another highlight was when my coach teased me about my hearing loss. When we were lined up for the relay, he was there encouraging the two teams. "Did you hear what they said?" he asked me. I said no -- and realized the joke was on me. Of course he knew that I couldn't hear anything at all.

One of the best things about being on the swim team is the inspirational people I meet. Before the meet, I began chatting with a women who mentioned that she was swimming "unattached," meaning that she wasn't affiliated with a particular team. She'd swum years ago when she was in college, and now that here children were off in college themselves, she was taking up swimming again at two local pools. I was amazed. I wouldn't have been brave enough to navigate through an entire swim meet unless I had a team to be with. I hope she joins up to a team.

The meet was held at a pool with the room temperature of a refrigerator. Before long, I realized that everyone was cold, not just me. One team member came prepared with a fleece jacket to wear in between events, but noted that he's been to other meets at this location. The locker rooms had cold, clammy concrete floors and the only saving grace was the steamy, hot showers.

Baltimore Half-Marathon

Everything about the half-marathon was perfect.

This year, I did packet pickup and learned how to drive to the stadium using the official directions to reach the parking lot. It sounds silly but for years, I looked at the stadium map and the directions, but I could never figure it out. One big reason I wanted my husband to do the race with me was so that he could drive. This year, I finally figured out how to get there.

Last year, we left the house later and wound up scrambling for a parking spot after the roads closed, making it to the starting line with only 5 mins. to spare. This time, I made a detailed agenda because my husband would be doing the 5K and I would be doing the half-marathon. The agenda called for leaving the house earlier and we arrived at the stadium in plenty of time for parking.

Every single race (with the exception of the kid's fun run) was sold out this year. We watched the marathoners take off. First there were walkers, then wheelchair athletes, then the marathoners. I was surprised to see so many people scrambling to get in line at the last minute, but the sendoff was beautiful with confetti in the air.

Next, my husband took off with the 5K runners. The race starts off with a hill and I know he was really nervous about that hill. His strategy was to go out fast, rather than get stuck behind a mass of slow-moving people. It worked--too well. He hit mile 1 at 9 minutes, but then found himself out of energy for the rest of the race, which goes downhill. The route was also changed this year, which confused Tim and foiled his finish line strategy. Still, he had a great race and PR of 31:10--this is faster than my best time of 31:40!! He achieved his goal of being faster than I am.

Then, I headed over to the half-marathon start line which was about a half-mile away. I really had to go to the bathroom bad, and I was so grateful when I ducked into the Sheraton on the way and asked where the bathroom was, they directed me to it instead of making a fuss because I wasn't staying there. Of course, the next time I wanted to go, I got into the porta potty line like everyone else. The half-marathon begins at mile 13 of the marathon and I watched the marathoners go past on their way to Fort McHenry, and by the time we were ready to take off a little less than an hour later, the marathoners were coming back from FortMcHenry and passing us! Very impressive.

The day was the perfect temparature. In previous years, it's been in the 40s in the early morning, but it running clothes it felt like standing outside in the middle of winter in underwear. Today, the temperature was probably in the 50s in the early morning. Warm enough to stand outside and feel cool, but not cold. I hate being cold, so I put on two old long-sleeve shirts that I planned to discard, avoiding additional lines at the baggage check. Before the half-marathon start, the day was warming up nicely and I left my shirts near the start.

I still couldn't believe I was going to run 13.1 miles. But soon enough, confetti was released into the air and we started and headed past Johns Hopkins to Patterson Park. At the southwest corner of the park, we merged with the marathoners. As we went northward along the length of the park, there were actually two lanes, one for half-marathoners and one for marathoners, probably to ensure a gradual transition. But then the lane ended and we were all together. It was both inspiring and humbling to be running alongside people who had already run 16 miles, when were were only getting started with our race after three miles.

We ran northward through the dilapidated neighborhood in the east side of Baltimore. I've never seen so many boarded up houses. But people sat on their doorstep and watched and clapped and rang cowbells. Little kids gave runners a "high five." It made me feel really special. I reached mile 5 at about approximately 58 minutes, a bit off my projected time, and I hit mile 6 around 1:11, which is my 10K time on a flatter course. I was doing good. My right knee hurt, of course, but this went away as I went onward. I trained using a 4/1 run-walk ratio and now used it consistently throughout the race. Using a run-walk ratio was the smartest thing I ever did in training.

From about mile 5 to 10 the race is essentially one long climb....through the east side of Baltimore. Then runners come on Clifton Park which is pretty and then the beautiful Lake Montebello neighborhood. At the lake, there was a band playing and as I rounded the lake, I could hear strains of "I love rock 'n roll!" I loved it when neighborhoods play music. I never listen to music when I'm running, but I can see why so many people do because it's so motivational. The lake was beautiful and so was the older, established neighborhood around it. When I hit the 10 mile mark, I'd been running for nearly 2 hours. My hips began to feel sore, as they had during my longest run, so I'd expected this.

Then I came to the famous gummy bear station at 28th and Guilford when several volunteers stand around with silver platters with gummy bears. I let out a "ohhhhhhhh" and grabbed a handful. It was wonderful to put the little bears into my mouth one by one and chew them as I chugged along. By now, not only did my hips hurt, but everything below my hips were sore. The irony in all this was that my foot was fine--or at least it wasn't talking any louder than anything else below the waist.

The last 3 miles of the race are downhill, as the runners head south from the Johns Hopkins University campus to the finish. Before the race, I thought I would just coast through those last downhill miles. WRONG!!! I completely failed to consider how physically and psychologically difficult those last 3 miles can be--downhill or not. The hills had taken a lot out of me and I slowed to a shuffle. At times, I felt like my right leg was going to give out under me, and I slowed to a walk break, but never for more than a minute. Finally, it hurt too much to run, walk, then run again, so I just kept running very slowly. I was so very grateful for all of the spectators clapping, cheering, and playing music. Even if I wasn't visully aware of my surroundings in my fatigue, I could hear spectators say things like "just keep moving." And I did. I'm pleased with my race, satisfied with my time, but less than thrilled with the slow, shuffling finish.

And then I hit the finish line in 2:38:10 and it was all over. This race concludes a season of firsts for me.

I like this video and now I can totally relate--even if I didn't do a full marathon!

On to Baltimore

I'm getting ready to run the Baltimore Half-Marathon on Saturday. This has been a year in the making and a testament to the notion that sometimes failure can lead to bigger and better things. Last year, I got injured trying to train for my first half-marathon. True, injury isn't personal failure, but when I set a goal, I like to achieve it, and I was upset when I didn't. But the injury led to swimming in the morning. And as I swam with two arms and one leg at first and watched the sun rise outside the window of the pool, I thought that maybe I should join the master's swim team. The triathlon seed had already been planted in my mind from a serendipitous combination of events, and I gradually began building up a base in three sports. I knew deep down that a stronger base was what I needed for the half marathon.

I used the same training plan this year from John Bingham's book, Marathoning for Mortals. (No, it's not a free plan online; you have to buy the book.) I really like his brand of good common sense. But this time around, I took the plan and made several modifications to suit my tastes:

• Walk/Run plan--I scaled back and used this plan, and all of my runs are built around some type of walk/run ratio. However, I've modified the ratios in the plans to suit my preferences, and my brainpower, as I find a ratio based on a 5- or 10-minute interval is easier to work with. My mid-week runs focus on my favorite run/walk 7/3 ratio, and later 8/2. I did some long runs based on the 3/2 ratio in the plan, but later I went to a 4/1 ratio and latched onto that.
• Mid-week treadmill runs--I read that it's easier on the knees, so all of my mid-week runs were on the treadmill instead of outdoors, which was challenging when I began the program in summer when it was light out in the morning and in the mid-70 degrees in the afternoon. The runs were time-based, and I modified the plan so that these runs approximated the longer time called for in the "run half marathon" plan.
• Interval workouts--I don't really know what's properly considered an "interval" as I'm not all that familiar with running terminology or speedwork. the plan called for a moderate run + form strides. But I switched to an "interval" run in which I alternate running-walking a slower and faster level on my treadmill, using a ratio that suits my mood. Later, for the last minute or two, I used an even faster level.
• Centennial Park long runs--I didn't do any hill work, but I knew the race course is hilly, so I did all of my long runs (with the exception of recovery week runs) on the hilly IronGirl route.
• Swimming and cycling--each week, I've done two workouts with the swim team and I tried to go cycling on Sundays, but then my knee hurt on Mondays, so I quit cycling for a while.
• Core workouts--my goal was to do 2-3 core workouts a week, but I find them really boring and slacked off.
• Massage--I went to a really great masseuse who I highly recommend!! This is probably the most selfish, frivilous expenditure I've ever made, but I enjoyed every single minute. Even without telling her the exact spot that I’m sore, she’ll find it and massage it.
  
  At heart, though, I’m a complete wimp. I like working out, but I hate the soreness. Even so, I cancelled a few appointments when things were going well and subsequently had a few cases of Monday Morning DOMS. After working out on the weekend, I'd waddle into work and take the elevator--right up to the second floor. It's silly. Of course as I continue to run, I’ve discovered other favorite home remedies, like foam rolling, self-massage, icing, hot Epsom salt baths, and cold water baths after a long run.

Instead of a public training blog, I kept a private journal, but I was grateful to be able to compare how I was feeling this year with what I wrote last year on my blog. I knew exactly at what point in the training program that I crashed and burned last year, and as the weeks went by, I began to get increasingly optimistic...and excited.

Of course, there were challenges...like the week my migraine stole my motivation...and moments of utter and complete stupidity...like when I inadvertently gave myself frostnip with my ice pack....and technical challenges...like when I bought a new Nike+iPod sensor, then had to buy a whole new system to get it to work, but then I lost a sensor on the run, so it worked out OK...and injury...I developed tendinitis on the top of my right foot during the taper. I iced and took ibuferin. I didn't swim last week for various reasons, and then when I went back to swimming this week, I re-injured the area and now it's worse than before, which concerns me. I fully expect that my foot will be talking to me several miles in the race. I've heard that everything hurts more in the taper, but this is getting ridiculous. Every part of my body that's ever bothered me is now making itself announced. I woke up this morning with a sore back....from sleeping??!!!! Hear me whine and see me foam roll!!!

But things could be worse. Earlier this week, the weather called for light rain. Now, it's changed to sun. Thousands of runners must have done a dance for the sun gods!

Whatever happens Saturday, I am going to try to be pleased with the outcome.