hmmm...

I visit this website wayyyy too much. And it is looking like I may to be in Southern Africa for work in both January AND April.....

8 miles in two hours.

What it looks like to wander around a mountain for two hours in South Africa.

I would have kept going, it was actaully fabulous, but a lack of water and food forced me to stumble down back towards (what I thought) was the direction of the hotel.

Home Sweet NYC

My I-pod shuffle chose to stay in Durban.  With this view, I don't blame it.

After an incident free two weeks in South Africa, it only took 5 minutes in a NYC Cab to get into a car accident.  And have the driver blame me.  And then have him bitch when I refused to tip him for trying to give me whiplash.  Home sweet NYC.

But a music-free, car-free, perfect weather marathon pace run in the park welcomed me back with open arms- especially after 10 days on the treadmill.  That machine messes with my mind and confidence, but I'm ready.  Excited for the half in two weeks, and getting there with the marathon.

Excuse me while I find anything else to do to fight the urge to go to sleep.  I could unpack, but that is just WAY too obvious.

Talking Politics.

South African politics, that is.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/09/23/south.africa.resignations/index.html

Over my two weeks in South Africa, I have been able to experience a dramatic sequence of events that have led to the (forced) resignation of the president, and today to the resignation of a portion of his cabinet.  The country now hangs in a strange space, with an acting president being appointed on Thursday morning, and an election next April with an predictable outcome.

I am not well enough versed to come close to understanding all the politics and history behind what has occurred over the past few weeks (the Zuma trial, the 'verdict' of the courts, the recall, and subsequent resignation of Mbeki and the cabinet).  

However, I have had the unique experience to be surrounded the last few weeks with South Africans from all walks of life.  I have spent time with highly educated, politically motivated and politically connected academics and scientists, and also spent hours with members of the more general South Africa community- including men and women, HIV positive and negative, white, black, and Asian.  Native and ex-pat.  Hearing their opinions and watching their reactions has been a unique experience.  And it has been an experience in humility.

I say humility because sometimes we (in the general sense, myself included) have the tendency to lose perspective.  Yes, our country is in an interesting place in it's history and has a major decision to make November 2.  Yes, this decision will have drastic effects on the direction our country will take over the coming years.  

However, regardless of the election results, as an American- even if I am 'scared' about the results of the coming election- I am not scared for my security, my way of life, or the future of my younger sister and possible daughter.  I am not scared that my county could revert to political upheaval, a culture of violent crime, and economic disrepair.  And these are fears shared across the South African population, not in pockets or neighborhoods. 

I guess I am suffering from a case of a forever-adjusting sense of perspective, which is impossible to verbalize or put into words. I'm going to stop because what I want to say isn't coming out right, but I want to put the words down so I can try to keep the persepective.

No half.

I'm not going to run the half.  I am having a bit of shin pain (haven't been able to ice since being away), and really want to go into my last three hard weeks of training 100%.

I also really don't want a 4am wake up call, which would be required for a 6:30am start in Pretoria (I am staying in Johannesburg).

Also- I want to be a tourist.  

Last time I visited Johannesburg, I worked for 3 days and flew out.  This visit I have a Saturday stay in the city and would rather spend the day seeing the city than recovering from a 4am wake up call.

We are going to go on a tour of Soweto, to the Apartheid Museum in Sowetwo, and to the Farmer's Market, which sells crafts from all over Southern Africa.  Very excited.  Just have to get through the 2nd of 3 clinic visits today.  Here are some pics from our clinic outside of Cape Town, in a township called Gugulethu:

The entrance to the clinic

A beauty salon in the township- they are made out of old shipping containers

A house in New Crossroads Township (I think). There really isn't a 'typical' house in the townships, they range from hand-made shacks constructed of scrap metal with no running water or electricity, to brick multi-room houses. The house pictures above is made of ASBESTOS, and provided by the government, nonetheless. Crazy...there is currently a court case surrounding these asbestos houses.


This little boy was scared to death of me. Our driver, from a neighboring township, said I was probably the first white person he had ever seen. Even though he was scared and crying, he still managed to say "MoloSisi" (hello to a friendly female, in Xhosa).

Over-analysis

I was finally able to find some info on the half marathon I want to run this Saturday. I found a course description on the RunnersWorld South Africa Discussion Boards, by the race director:

Briefly, the race starts outside the CSIR International Convention Centre. The route is almost immediately uphill into the CSIR grounds for about 2km followed by a 1km downhill. You then have a fairly easy 3 to 4km loop out of the CSIR around the suburb of Brummeria - it's relatively flat here. Then back into the CSIR grounds for another serious climb and then a fast 1km downhill to the finish. The 21km splits from the 10km at 9km and besides an extra loop to make up the extra km, does the same lap again.

Yes, it is a tough course - make no bones about it. But there are some wonderful views from the highest points and last year we received far more compliments than complaints, which is why we've not changed it.

And here is a course profile of the 10k race, (so basically double this for the Half):

I laugh at this profile because the first climb is literally 'off the charts'. This person's motion based says there is about 1200ft of elevation gain/loss.

I'm over-analyzing not because the course seems difficult. I know myself all too well: I am worried I will get to the race and not be able to just run it as a long training run. I will want to race. I have been running more than ever before and haven't done a road race since last December.

However, I have an ambitious few weeks ahead of training before I start to taper (NYRR 18ish miler, Half Marathon RACE, 20 miler).

I wish I could decide last minute, but doing the race requires a driver and a 4am wake up call.

Hmmmmmmm...maybe I should just focus on work and getting to Johannesburg tomorrow?

Another reason to hate the treadmill.

Today I ran on the same treadmill that I ran my first miles after my injury.  It was in Cape Town in March that I started to test out my newly healed femur, with dismal results.  I was discouraged and sore, but so happy to have the confidence to give it a try.

So, 5 months later, I returned to the same treadmill.  Not by choice.  It is raining and hailing with gale force winds in Cape Town. 

I hopped on, walked a bit to warm up the legs.  I knew the treadmill would be in kilometers, but I figured 10k in an hour was a good recovery pace after the 18 on Saturday.  However, something was wrong.  10k/hour felt REALLY fast.  I thought maybe the 18 miles took more out of me than I thought.  I seriously couldn't hold 10k/hour pace...

I was sweating all over, sucking my water bottle, and my heart rate was through the roof.  I just couldn't do it.  I settled into a comfortable 8.6kilo/hour pace.  I was bummed, but then started to think more.

There is NO WAY this treadmill was right.  Then I started to do math....

Maybe the treadmill wasn't in kilometers after all?  NO WAY....no way I had been trying to run10 MILE/hour pace.  Wait....

So I sweated through 8 kilometers (miles?).  My heart rate was under control, but I just couldn't figure out the pace.  Hmmm, 8 miles in 57 minutes...hm, just over 7min/miles.  No freaking way.

Two of the cutie trainers that been watching me struggle (and probably laughing hysterically at the silly American girl) came over and said hello.  I politely smiled, tried my best to bat my eyelashes while still profusely sweating and said

"This may be a silly question, but is this treadmill in kilometers or miles?"

They looked at each other and laughed.  I wanted to run away and hide.  They asked what I thought it was.  I told them that I had just run the slowest and hardest 8k of my life, or just ran a 10k PR.

They laughed a bit more, then assured me the pace on the treadmill was fast.  They said there had been problems with the belt and that when they got it fixed it came back a bit 'fast'.  They were not sure exactly of the discrepancy, but said people estimated 6kilo/hour speed was more like 8, and 8.5 was more like 11.5.  So using that math, I ran 6.9 miles.  

Sweet.  So I accidentally did a tempo run.  And now when I think back, I actually felt pretty damn good at that pace.  Hopefully tomorrow I can just run outside.

An artistic interpretation of running in Cape Town:

UphillUphillUPhillUPHillUPHILLflatflatflatdownnhillUPHILLUPhill

(car exhaust)

repeat.

We tried to run' away' from the Mountain, as it is 'flatter'.  Most of the area near my hotel is quite similar to San Fransisco in the lay of the land and the grade of the streets (we ran in the Southern suburbs of Newlands/Claremont/Rodenbosch).  However, I have to admit, the hills are not CLOSE to as bad to the Kloof's Neck Section, which is WAY WORSE than San Fran.

We did 2 nine-mile loops so we could regroup at the hotel for bathroom break, refuel, water, etc- so the hills could not be avoided.  It was just one of those runs when I kept wondering how we could keep going UP without hardly ever doing DOWN!  I am so happy I got it done, I was pretty miserable by the end, but each long run has taught me something different.  

Some lessons from my first 18-miler:

1.  I like the solitude of doing my long runs alone.  The first 9 miles with my running partner were great, but when I started hurting and she started pulling away, it got me down mentally, even though I only had slowed down about 5/sec per mile (because of tummy issues, see #2).

2. Luna Moons=the devil.  I will not be touching these EVER again.  I had a package at mile 9, and was not able to eat anything else the entire run, and had pukey-burps for the next hour and a half.  NOT good at all.  Going to stick with the Gu (Chocolate and Espresso Love, to be exact).

3.  More reinforcement that my body can handle more than I give it credit for.  My long runs fell in the same week last week (Sunday, then Saturday), putting my mileage at 47.6 for the last 7 days.  And yes I am SORE, but not in PAIN, which is a key distinction that I am beginning to be able to make.  

This realization has also made me more confident that I am 'doing enough' for the marathon, in running just about every other day.  Sometimes I worry because that works out to only 3x per week, but that is OK. I am getting the mileage in, and being smart about what my body needs and can handle, and I need to be confident in that.

Jet lag sets in....

After our first clinic visit today, I was happy to see my favorite poster still remained:

(I am SO sad it came out a bit blurry, make it big to see the detail of the poor little man who didn't use his 'helmet' when 'diving'....)

Top 30 at Western States? Yeah, I can hang...

First of all, I honestly believe flying into Cape Town is one of the most beautiful views anywhere in the world.



My colleague, who is also a running buddy, has been in Cape Town for a few days now. There are multiple huge HIV-related meetings going on, and she met a lovely Tanzanian man, Simon, who is with his wife at one of the meetings. Turns out, he's a runner. Which is actually an understatement; Simon is a RUNNER. As in, top 30 at Western States for the past 7 years. As in, world record holder as the fastest man to ascend Mt. Kilimanjaro. And he is the most lovely 6'5, 150 pound man you've ever met. So we ran this morning.

And when I say 'we ran' I mean, he went for a nice morning jog and didn't even break a sweat, and I cursed the hills in Cape Town and hoped for traffic lights to turn red so I could catch up to him :) It was great.

Simon will race the 18-mile trail race around Table Mountain on Saturday morning. My colleague and I tried to enter this race, but it was sold out. Simon called the Race Director yesterday and got in, because he is special. We are not, so we will jog our little selves around Cape Town for three hours on Saturday morning.

I love it here.

Tomorrow: Africa

Ha. I leave tomorrow. In 48 hours I will get to swim-out my plane legs here (if it is warm enough!):


And haven't even dusted off my suitcases. At least I am still laughing about it at this point.

As I sit at my desk, my legs are throbbing. But in a sorta-good way. My hip is a bit sore, but it is to be expected. Yesterday's run really helped the confidence in a faster-paced long run. I am glad I went with it, and I am almost sure it was the copious amounts of wine last night that has made my neck and back a bit stiff today, not the run.

I just made an ART appointment for 6pm to force me to leave work by 5:15. I am also hoping this appointment will hold me over for my biggest week ever of running this week (!!), and a haf marathon the following week.

So maybe I should be working instead of catching up on weekend blogs? ehhh

Weekend Roud-up

Not much posting last week- a bunch of same-old, same-old going on in these parts.

Work is stressful, which in turn caused my stomach to revolt most of the week.  Did get in two great runs, one marathon-pace (the new 'tempo' run to see if my hip handles it better), and a longer, easy run in the park where I just set my watch and ran around with no agenda other than not running in circles.  Ran a bit in the trails in the north end of the park, a bit on the bridle path, down Cat Hill, it was nice.

Also did a short 2miler on Friday b/c I was feeling like a fat sloth after taking the day off work to let my stomach not hate me.

I tried to motivate to do something Saturday, but the air was thick and gross and they were calling for awful weather, so I did more sloth-like things, which amounted to a lot of nothing.

Got another 16 miler under my belt this morning, although this was my first long run that I decided to run with some friends.  Wasn't sure how I would like it, as I have gotten quite used to doing my own 'thang for my long runs (IE water stops when I want, bathroom stops when I want, the pace I want, etc).  It went pretty well, was MUCH faster than my last 16 miler (almost 1 mile/mile faster!), but my body held up well and we will see how I feel tomorrow.  The miles did seem to go by faster with company.

Spent the rest of the day in Queens celebrating my old roommate's birthday with a mimosa-brunch, a Patriot's win (he's a fan, not I), and then some nice drunken Taboo and Wii Bowling.  Then I had to sit in the subway for 30 minutes waiting for an R train back to the city.  Not too fun.

I have less than 48 hours until I leave for two weeks of work in South Africa.  I am very excited for the trip, and it has seemed to sneak up on me a bit.  I have my first ever 18 miler to get done next weekend, which I am doing with a colleague who is also training for the NYC marathon and has done some long runs in Cape Town last year, and I am really looking forward to it (will carry my camera if I can to document).

Then the following weekend I will be running a half marathon in Pretoria, which is about 45 minutes outside Johannesburg sans traffic, which should be an experience.  I have my favorite driver to take me out there at 4am (the race starts at 6:30am and I have to register before), and he is great.  When I was at this hotel in the spring and asked to see some of the soccer stadiums for the World Cup 2010, he literally broke me into the largest soccer stadium in Johannesburg and was just a riot.  Can't find any info on the course, so i think I will use it as just a way to get in the miles rather than to 'race'.  I have another half marathon planned a few weeks later that I think I will target to race to get a good estimate as to where my fitness is before the marathon and set some realistic goals.

So now I will watch the end of the VMAs rather than pack, b/c it's the wise thing to do.

Doc Update

Grade 2/3 Groin Pull? Who would have thought. I never even considered it being my groin, but the doc said all the symptoms I was describing are pointing to a severe groin pull. Apparently the severity/grade is based on if there is discomfort walking (YES) and sleeping (YES). And the fact that there is no lateral pain is a good thing on the stress fracture front.

I am obviously going to keep the the sports med consult next Monday, as this was my GP who I don't love and also told me my shin splits in June was a stress fracture. BUT just the possibility that it could be something else than a stress fracture makes me rest a bit easier right now.

Oh, and the cold dip? Not such a good idea for a pulled muscle (tightens it up even more), so that could be an explanation as to why it was feeling so much worse over the weekend (I did 20 in the cold plunge at my gym on Thursday night.)

....But I mean, let's be honest...all this happiness could also just be due to the wonderful 'narcotic-like' anti-inflammatory the doc prescribed :) I usually hate taking meds, I feel they just cover up injuries, leading to worse injuries with type-A's like we all are, however....this....is....bliss :)

So NOTHING is allowed until I see the Sports Med Doc. No swimming. No cycling. Obvs no running. Just a whole lotta time spent being that creepy person who goes to the gym and sits in the hot plunge and doesn't work out. Maybe I will make some interesting friends???

Nat- thanks for the advice on the shots. I did indeed take some Motrin over the weekend. Malaria doesn't have a vaccine option, so it's pills or nothing. Since work is paying the tab, i will definitely fill the prescrip, however it just depends on the area of India we end up in if they are even necessary.

________________________

And so this isn't a post/blog of only injury whimpering...I made my final travel arrangements today for my trip. And when I say final, that means they may only change 5 more times before I leave. I will be going to India for a conference to present research, with personal time on both sides of the work to travel and visit old friends. From there I will head straight to South Africa where I will be working the entire time, which means I get paid to play on the weekends....not bad. And one weekend happens to be Easter weekend which is a 4 day holiday there (Fri-Mon), which is also the weekend of the Two Oceans Marathon/Half Marathon. So as of today:
Feb 14-Feb 20 Mumbai (leave US Feb 14, arrive night of 15th).
Feb 21-Feb 29 New Delhi for work
March 1-March 9 Personal Travel time
March 10-March 14 Jo'burg
March 15-March 24 Cape Town (Two Oceans!)
March 25-17 Durban

WHEW, even though I am so so excited to be going, it makes me exhausted to even think about that. And how does one pack for 6 weeks and two continents??