Last Woman Standing

The twelve Cliburn semifinalists have been announced.  One woman, Rachel Cheung from Hong Kong, remains.  She has been my favorite woman since the preliminaries, so I'm very glad I get a chance to hear her again.

In this round, each contestant plays twice:  a 60-minute recital and a full Mozart Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony.

For her recital, she's playing Schumann's Kreisleriana (not one of my favorite pieces, but I will listen with an open mind - yet again - maybe she'll be the one to finally make me like it!) and Prokofiev's 6th Sonata.  For the concerto, she will play my favorite Mozart - K. 466 in D minor.  I posted a video of 12-year-old me few weeks ago, playing the first movement in 1982, accompanied by Jorge Bolet.  If you have ever watched the movie "Amadeus," this concerto is featured quite a lot throughout the movie.  The ending credits roll to the 2nd movement opening theme.

I got to thinking about being the last one standing in terms of health and fitness.  When you look at the number of entrants in a race, once you start getting to the 60+ age group, there are not too many people.  Sometimes, if you just show up and finish vertically, you will win an award, and I think that's absolutely fine!  As my mother, Brooklyn Born, has reminded us at times - 80% of success in life is just showing up.  She has said before that she intends to keep doing this as long as she can... which just might mean at some point she winds up being the last woman (or at least the oldest woman) still standing at that starting line.

I'm proud of Rachel Cheung and proud of all people - men and women - who stick it out to pursue their lifelong goals and dreams.  Let's all continue to put our best foot forward as long as we are able.

In case you're interested, you can see Rachel's semifinal round online at http://cliburn.org/
Her recital will be Sunday, June 4, at 4:50 Eastern Time.
Her concerto will be Monday, June 5.  The concerto concert begins at 8:30 Eastern Time.  She is the 4th contestant, so I'd estimate she'll probably begin to play between 10-10:30 PM.
Go, Rachel!  Go for the gold!

I Feel Good?

I just looked up the results from yesterday's 10K.  One neat thing the local running shop (which times the events) does now is provide a link to video footage of your finish.  It links directly to the time you come in, so you don't even have to search for yourself.  Here I am:

Jeanne's 10K finish

Notice the song playing?  James Brown's "I Feel Good."

I said in my blog yesterday how hard I had to work to keep that 8:02-minute mile pace for 6+ miles.  As I approached the finish line, I remember laughing silently to myself, thinking, "This is the wrong song for me!  I don't feel good!"  I was very glad to cross that finish line.

What you can't see from the race finish footage is what we look like after leaving the chip mat finish area.  I stopped, bent over, and just BREATHED.  I took deep breaths and blew them out slowly and my heart rate came down.  Within 20-30 seconds, I felt much better and started looking around for other people I know.

The fact that I was able to recover so quickly from my exertion means that, even at the very finish, I didn't feel bad.  I often ask myself when I'm working hard, "Do I feel bad or do I just feel tired?"  It's okay to feel tired!  But there's a "good" tired and a "bad" tired.

Some things I assess when I'm running:
Do I have a side stitch?  (If yes - slow down or walk a while)
Do I have goosebumps when I'm hot?  (If yes - slow down a LOT, walk, drink fluids, dump water on yourself - you could have heat exhaustion and be on your way to something worse)
Am I lightheaded or dizzy?  (If yes - stop and rest!!)

There are probably more things to consider that I hope you will share in the comments.

Here's a "before" and "after" picture.  I'm sure you can tell which is which, but what strikes me is that in both of them, I look like I FEEL GOOD!!!!  (da na na na na na na!)

Just Try!

This morning, I was messaging back and forth with my good friend, a pianist, in Ireland (using WhatsApp).  I met her at the Charlotte airport when we were both en route to the 2016 Cliburn Amateur Competition.  During the course of the competition, we became good friends and have met a few times since - at the Washington D.C. competition and again when we each played recitals at the Gasteig in Munich.

At all of these competitions and recitals, one thing we couldn't help noticing was the disproportionate number of women.  Women make up roughly 50% of the population.  Yet at the Amateur Cliburn, about 1/3 of the starting field was female.  By the semifinals (top 12), only 3 of us were women.  Then all 3 of us were eliminated for the finals (top 6).  In Washington, D.C., we fared better, with my friend and I both making the top 6.  She won a couple special awards and I won 2nd overall.  In Munich, there were 11 recitals.  She and I were the only women.

The "real" Cliburn began this past Thursday.  This is for pianists ages 18-30 who are shooting for concert careers.  A win at the Cliburn can indeed launch a superstar career.  It's the Olympics of piano competitions and an absolutely grueling test of nerves and endurance over 4 rounds spanning 2.5 weeks.  Each contestant prepares roughly 4 hours worth of memorized repertoire.

290 people applied and 30 were ultimately accepted.  9 were women.  So, again, roughly 1/3 of the field.  I watched live online last night as they announced the 20 quarterfinalists.  17 men.  3 women.  Of the 10 eliminated after the preliminary round, 6 were female.  

Now, let me set the record straight, just in case you think I am complaining or saying it's unfair.  I'm not.  I believe the best should advance and the jury (male and female members) know what they're doing.  However, I can't help noticing a pattern here... that piano competition is a very male-dominated field.  I am not sure why that is.  Is it due to our physical differences?  In general, women are not as big and we don't have as large a hand span.  It's harder for us to play big chords and with as big a sound.  Do the men generate more dynamic contrast and more excitement, and does that give them an edge?  I found myself feeling dismayed that the majority of these women had worked so hard to be eliminated early on.

I thought about this all today while I ran the third race in our local summer race series - the Memorial Day 10K.  

In sports, we compete separately due to the general physical differences between genders.  As I ran this out and back course, I was able to count the women ahead of me.  When the faster women started going by me after the turn-around, I counted them as they came at me.  I was 9th.

I was working really hard, holding roughly an 8-minute mile pace.  Many times, I felt like packing it in and slowing down, thinking, "What does it matter, really?  I'm never going to be the best.  Why am I doing this to myself?"  Then I thought of those women at the professional Cliburn.  I thought of the women who compete in the amateur ranks.  Looking at results of past competitions, we really have our work cut out for us.  However, IF WE DON'T AT LEAST TRY, we are defeated before we've even begun.

So I resolved to keep up the intensity, to keep trying to distract myself with pleasant thoughts and memories, to JUST KEEP TRYING HARD.

I stayed in 9th place until the end, and you know what else, the man on my heels for the last 2 miles never did catch me, either.

The local women in my 45-49 age group are quite fast, as a group.  Three of us were in the top 10.  My time (49:47, or an 8:02/mile pace) was good enough for 2nd place in my age group today.  I even won a door prize of a hanging basket of petunias.

I'm watching the quarterfinals of the Cliburn as I type this blog.  (An Italian guy just finished Rachmaninoff's Variations on a Theme of Chopin, Op. 22, to a standing ovation and whoops and hollers.)  Everyone in this competition is trying hard; hoping to change their life.  I'm sure those three women in the quarterfinals are not thinking about the fact that so few of them made it.  Perhaps the men have an edge, but if they do, I'm sure the women are instead focusing on controlling what they can control and doing what they can do.

We won't all be top prizewinners on a world stage, but that shouldn't matter.  We have to believe in ourselves and make every effort to be our best, giving everything we've got.

Breakfast Inspiration at SparkPeople

90% of the time, I log in to SparkPeople using my laptop, rather than the app on my phone.  Usually I ignore the videos playing in the sidebar, but yesterday a recipe video from Eggland's Best caught my eye.  I'm glad I watched it because I can't find the video anywhere - at SP or on the EB site.  Even though I don't remember the exact amounts to use, I remembered the ingredients.  Here ya go:

One mini naan bread (which I found in the bakery breads section at Kroger)
Cream cheese (I used whipped cream cheese/greek yogurt)
grape tomatoes (cut in half)
fresh mozzarella (cut up)
fresh basil leaves (I tore them into smaller pieces)
salt/pepper  (a few sprinkles)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 400* (I think).  Spread the cream cheese on the bread.  Top with tomatoes, mozzarella, basil.  Sprinkle with salt & pepper.  Break an egg over the top of it.  Bake until the egg is cooked.

Here's a picture:

It really is quite good and it wasn't much trouble to make.  More importantly, it's also not any trouble to clean up, as I just have to scrape the baking stone clean.

Some notes from my first attempt:

I wasn't sure if the video had said 350* or 400*, so I did 375*.  One thing I *did* remember, however, is that it said to bake it for 10 minutes.  10 minutes at 375 was not enough - the egg was not cooked at all.  So I turned up the heat to 400* and baked it another 4 minutes.  It still didn't look quite done.  I wound up going another 2 minutes.  Not sure.  So another 2 minutes.  I think it actually might have been ready 2 minutes prior to that, but it still tasted just fine.

Nutritional Information:

The mini naan bread has 150 calories.

The egg has 70 calories.

1 ounce of mozzarella has 80 calories.

2 Tablespoons of whipped cream cheese/greek yogurt has 45 calories.

Basil & tomato calories are quite minimal.

So overall, this seems like a pretty good breakfast to me.  It has a little bit of everything and the protein/fat/carb ratio (at my estimation) seems like a good balance.

Finding What Works... Rolling Along

On January 1^st of this year, I had the humbling realization that I weighed only 3 pounds less than when I checked into the hospital to have my first baby 21 years ago.  I hadn’t been able to fit into most of my dress pants for well over a year, and I was tired of having to wear the same few pants over and over.  I refused to spend money on bigger clothes and have to figure out where to store the old ones.  At 16 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, I set a goal to lose 12.

I lost about 5 pounds rather quickly simply by tracking my food intake.  I know people say it doesn’t take a lot of time to track, but to me, it does take too much time – even with the SP food tracker.  And frankly, I just don’t want to do it.  So of course, I didn’t stick with it. 

The result was I stayed at that weight, more or less, for the next 2+ months.  At least I wasn’t gaining, though.

Since I know I won’t track my food… at least, not long-term, I needed to find something else.  So I set a new exercise goal for myself – something I enjoy.  I decided to enter a summer race series to see if it might motivate me to train again.  There are seven races and you earn points based on your finish placement.  At the end of the series, they award top 3 overall, top master, and top 3 in each age group. 

At the first race, a 5K, I won a surprising 3^rd place in my age group.  I knew if I made an effort to train a little more, I’d be able to run even faster the next time.  So I made sure to run at least 4 days a week and do a little hill training, too.

At the second race, a 4-miler, I came in ahead of the woman who had won 1^st place in my age group at the previous race.  In fact, I wound up winning the 1^st place female master award (meaning out of all women over the age of 40).  The most satisfying thing, however, was that my overall pace was faster than the 5K just 3 weeks prior.  My training was working.

Then to my surprise, the running club posted the first ranking of the people in the race series.  My name was at the top for female master.  Seeing my name there motivated me to do what I can to stay there, which means to continue to run as well or better.  To do that, I really need to drop those extra, unneeded pounds and get to my goal.  The general rule of thumb in running is that for every pound you lose, at a certain level of exertion, you can run approximately 2 seconds per mile faster. 7 pounds less… 14 seconds per mile faster… that was a great incentive.

Knowing that I won’t track my food, I decided on the “just don’t buy it” method, combined with the “keep busy” method.  Luckily, there’s a lot going on in my life right now – good things – to keep me busy and away from the TV (a trigger for me).  That, combined with better training, has led to another 3-pound drop in the last month.  I hope I will reach my goal weight by mid-July.

I always tell people who are starting to exercise:  you have to find what you enjoy.  If you don’t have time for it or dislike it, you’re not going to stick with it.  We each have to find what works for us and is sustainable, long-term.  I have found that getting that ball rolling is the hardest part, but once it starts rolling, it almost feels like a downhill with the finish line in sight.

I have no idea where I’ll end up in the final rankings of the race series, but in the end, that particular result doesn’t really matter.  The victory will be to keep rolling along until I reach my goal weight and the successful completion of the race series.

Making the Grade

With school ending for many people at this time of year, you might think that's what this blog is about.  But it's not.  It's a continuation of my Heavy Breathing post.  HILLS!

Yesterday, I ran my hilly route again - this time I did 5 out-n-backs for a total of 8.4 miles, with 10 hill climbs.  I checked RunKeeper this morning to see my splits.  I looked at the elevation profile and wondered what % grade the hills are, as one hill is shorter & quite steep, and the other hill is longer but not as steep.

The long hill (0.5 mile) has about 150 feet of elevation change.
The short hill (0.3 mile) has about 90 feet of elevation change.

The grade of a road is the road's steepness, meaning: "rise over run."  So this means to find the % grade, you divide the elevation change by the distance.  Of course, they need to be in the same units (feet, in this case), so you have to convert the miles to feet.

There are 5280 feet in a mile.
(0.5)(5280) = 2640
(0.3)(5280) = 1584

Now to find the grade:
Long Hill:  150 divided by 2640 = 0.05681818
Short Hill:   90 divided by 1584 = 0.05681818

What???  They're exactly the same grade!!

Written as a percent, that means both of these hills have a steepness grade of 5.68%, which is a pretty decent slope.

I was shocked when I got this result.  It is EXACTLY the same... I mean, super duper unbelievably exactly the same.  I could swear the shorter hill feels harder and steeper.  Shouldn't the longer hill, of the same grade, feel harder?  Because of this, I wondered if I calculated incorrectly.  So I double- and triple-checked my math.  You are welcome to quadruple check it for me and confirm it, but I'm quite sure I'm right.

This was quite a revelation this morning and I'm not sure what it means for my future hill runs.  Either the short hill won't seem quite as difficult or the long hill will now seem longer & more difficult.  I'm hoping for the former, since I try to think positively when I exercise.

If you use a fitness app that tracks elevation, this is a fun way to see just how hard you're working in various parts of your walks, hikes, runs, or bike rides.  If you need any help with the calculations, you can always ask Google "how to calculate the grade of a hill" and find a nice description, complete with a picture.  It's just one more tool to measure our individual progress and "make the grade!"

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of... Heavy Breathing!

Did that title get your attention?

I live in rural Virginia.  Hills are everywhere!  About a week ago, I did 6.8 miles with 8 substantial climbs.  The whole run was four out-n-backs.  A long down followed by a not-as-long climb... then turn around for a not-as-long down, and a looong climb.  I tried to make the most of it by working myself hard and running at a pretty good clip.

At one point, I marveled at the beautiful scenery, and heard in my mind Julie Andrews singing, "The hills are aliiiiiiive with the sound of" and then I realized I was breathing quite loudly through my mouth.  Hence, the funny title of my blog today.

Hill workouts are quite the challenge and they are very effective in burning calories, building muscle, and improving cardiovascular performance.

One result I especially like that comes from running in a hilly area is that when you run on flat terrain, it feels easy.  When I run at the beach, everything feels downhill... and my breathing is nice and quiet!

With an Oink Oink Here and an Oink Oink There

I went to walk at the track with my daughter after dinner yesterday evening.  As we approached the elementary school, I remarked, "Oh great, there's a dog on the loose."  As soon as I said the word "dog," I realized it was NOT a dog.  It was a large pig, complete with tusks.

There's a farm next door to the elementary school, and my daughter informed me that now and then, different animals get loose and crash their marching band practices.  (They rehearse on the field inside the track.)  I remember when I taught in a classroom trailer at that school 20 years ago, I'd periodically have to chase animals away, too.  I once looked up to find a goat standing in the open doorway of my music classroom.

Having lived in a rural area for 25 years, I've gotten used to assisting animals back home.  Several cows.  A miniature horse.  A regular horse.  I even helped an owner get her bull back in her pasture once.  (That one was a little scary.)

The pig headed toward the rather busy road in front of the school, so we ran after it, picked up long sticks, and headed it off.  I had my RunKeeper app going, so it recorded the whole crazy route as we tried to herd it back home... with an oink oink here and and oink oink there.  Eventually it crawled under its owner's fence in the woods.  Last we saw, it was happily munching grass at home.

And here you have the crazy route.