Speedy Samo

Bay 2 Breakers Centipede

2010-05-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Bay 2 Breakers is a HUGE (50k+ people), partying, 12k race from the Bay Bridge to the ocean, East to West, across San Francisco. Every year my running team fields at least 2 centipede teams. Each consists of 13 runners tied together by our super-secret-patented-speed tie system and 2 floating runners in case someone has a bad day or trips over a salmon-runner or gets hit by a rogue flying tortilla. Only one 3-block steep hill slows the runners at about 2.5 miles and the rest of the race is mostly downhill to the coast.

I've wanted to be a part of the women's centipede since I started with the Aggies in late 2004. It took 6 years of running, injury, time-off, self-coaching and finally hiring a coach to get my first chance, and it was definitely an experience. I'm not a fan of the 5-9 mile race distance yet, and wanted to see if this 12k would inch me toward liking it. Here's how it went:

I was hooked into the middle of the centipede, and was so glad I wasn't a floater! When the countdown clock hit 00:00, we were really close to the start, all lined up in a long column, so our front runner (wearing the antennae!) was about 3 rows back and I was about 6-10. We started out at 6:30 and I thought I may be able to keep up, but it was going to be hard. Some crazy was running back to the start in the first half mile and collided with us. A young naked guy ran past a little later. Tortillas were flying. Red Coats fired party-popper rifles. The hill caused my belt to squeeze me because the 'peders in front and behind me were too far away. At mile 4, I thought, "We are over halfway there!" And then I thought, "And the distance left is more than most of my running races!" A little after that marker, the ladies sped up and I was pulled for the rest of the race. We finished together! And finished first in the women's centipede division.

I had a lot of people encouraging me the whole way and making sure I stayed hooked in, and without them I likely would have bailed. I'm so happy I didn't. It was hard and a blast and I was sore for over a week.

But, I still am not keen on that race distance.

Kauai Loves You

2010-05-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

First Olympic Triathlon

Lessons Learned:

Asking a ton of questions at the packet pickup the day before makes me feel a lot better.
Running and biking and swimming the course beforehand also makes me feel better.
Shoelaces make OK race belts in a pinch.
Taking a look at competitors on the start line at a small race might be a good idea.
Kauai is full of micro-climates.
Try to eat more during olympic distance tris than just 267 calories.

When signing up for the Kauai Loves You Triathlon, one had a choice of olympic or sprint distance. This benefitted the Kauai Aquatic Club, so a ton of the competitors were swimmers by nature. The olympic course consisted of a 2-lap open ocean swim in a "bay" with waves and swells. It went almost parallel to the beach back and forth, and measured about 100+ meters short of the traditional olympic distance of 1500m. The way out was aided by a current, so the way back was much slower. The bike portion was almost 4 miles short. It too was 2 laps. We went over a big hill and a fun little dip with a one-way bridge at the bottom, then slightly uphill until a turnaround when the backroad reached the highway. The run was through the Marriott golf course and by the Lihue airport. It went uphill for about 1.5 miles and then ever-so-slowly lost elevation until the turn around a smidge after 5k. Once back near the main Marriott road, we took a left and finished at the opposite end of the beach from which we started.

Triathlons in Hawaii need to be thought about differently than those in California. First of all, the water is much warmer, so wetsuits are not necessary. I usually put my number on my skinsuit under my wetsuit, but no wetsuit meant a number would be draggy in the water. I wanted to put it on for the run, but I didn't have a race belt. So, after futilely trying to take belts off of hiking pants, I finally pinned the number onto a shoelace and that worked ok.

My goals for this race were A) to swim hard, but survive the waves without a wetsuit and B) to bike time-trial hard.

My parents were my cheering section and the main job of the cheering section is not to cheer, but to yell out placing. I estimated there were about 8 women in the olympic distance race of 29 total participants. We started the swim briefly after the sprint-distance athletes, and soon we were really spread out. I had a hard time breathing with more than 2 strokes. The only thing notable about the swim, besides the quick swim to the far bouy and the slow swim back was that they moved the far buoy in closer during the second lap for some odd reason. As I ran toward transition, my parents notified me that there were 5 women in the olympic race who had already exited the water, and my declaration that I would be one of the slowest swimmers seemed to have come true.

Shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and I started out on the first mile, passing a lot of ladies. I didn’t know whether they were slower sprint swimmers or in my race. When I reached the first turnaround at the far end, it was pouring and my sunglasses were splotched. After lap 1, my parents said, “I think you’re in first?” I shrugged. I passed 2 more competitors in the second lap, we were spread out by then. The rain moved to the midpoint on the course during the out portion and then settled for pouring in transition when I completed the bike leg. Woo!

Now soaking, I tied my running shoes, grabbed the shoelace belt and my hat and headed out for the 10k. The rain ceased after about half a mile. The sun came out and started baking us and converting the rainwater to super-humidity. Yucko. A guy left transition a few seconds ahead of me and he was the only place I swapped with during the run, which felt great until about the 5k. The air felt still and sticky and warm after the turnaround and seemed to suck out energy. Every incline provided achy legs. Another guy in front of me probably felt the same way because he looked back at me at one point to see how far away I was. Fortunately, the finishing mile-plus was down hill and partially shady.

This was the longest race time-wise I've ever time-trialed. All my energy was gone at the finish, and I just wanted to take a nap on the grass and not move. Battles with the 10k run distance are now 0-2. I'm losing.

On a more pleasant note, it turns out that we had 12 women in the olympic distance race, so I was smack in the middle of the competition for the swim. I ended up placing 6th overall and 1st woman, thus winning a triathlon for the first time.

Humboldt Half 2009

2009-10-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Even though I didn't really race this one, I want to write a quick report as it was my first half marathon that I've actually entered in, and there are some points that I'd like to capture. First of all, this was the most gorgeous race I've run. It probably helped that it was longer and that I wasn't focused on running fast, so I could enjoy the scenery. The course was out and back along a road that took us through giant redwoods. Most of the time we were in their shade, but sometimes the light would filter through the needles and it was lovely. *sigh*

Second, it is important to note that no matter how much talking and mental prep-work I do beforehand, I'll still get a thrill out of passing people. The goal was to run between 8 and 8:30 minutes/mile pace. I believe I ran 51:25 for the out-leg (about 7:50/mile), and I only was able to do that by making a deal that if I stayed at an 'easy' pace back I could run faster on the way back. Of course, the return leg was about 49 minutes even though it was slightly farther. Weee!

Third, having a gel at the turnaround was great and the first time I've ever taken food while running faster than easy pace. So, that was cool.

Lastly, they have BEER as an age group prize! I was so lucky that very few fast people were in my age group and I got one. Local brewery too. Yum!

All in all, I don't hate half marathons like I hate 10ks. It all depends on the first experience.

Willow Hills XC Challenge 2009

2009-10-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was totally wavering on whether to run this race or not. Because it was so far away, I told myself that I'd go if I found a carpool buddy. Found one on Friday, but Friday night I really didn't want to race. Too bad for me, now I was stuck. I think I'm mentally burnt from racing every weekend.

Another YouTube video, this time of the start and finish:

This course was two loops of about 2 longer hills and one really short, really steep bump, and some rollers. My first lap was about 10:28 and I finished in 21:03, which now seems better than if I said I positive-splitted in 6:30, 6:42 and 7:00 min/mile. Maybe the two laps weren't really that equal as we went around a lake two different ways for the two laps. I thought that my best time for this course was in the high 20s, so I was disappointed with a time of 21:03 but looking back, it seems that I was mistaken and it was in the high 21s instead. Two people I'd been finishing near beat me by several seconds. Gotta get them next time. Must note that I got a weird side-ache before the last long hill, but it went away in about a minute.

Presidio XC Challenge 2009

2009-10-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I was guessing that I'd probably finish around 26:30 by looking at past performances of others, so I was hoping to hit near that time. I didn't. Here's how it went.

So, the Presidio course is the most challenging of all the races in the PAUSATF XC series. It races like a 4-mile cross country course, except that it is only 3.55. I was going to write that nobody is fond of this race, however, one of my teammates says this is her favorite race. Not sure if she counts though, as she is a total "mountain goat". The course does two-ish loops of sandy-hill, long-hill-along-road, steep-downhill, and steep-hill. Those are my names for them of course. Then, we finished going backwards down sandy-hill, and around a big grass field. All I can say is, "PAIN."

Found a video of the first time up the steep-hill! Thanks walkerfamilymedia!

This time was better than all the other times I've raced this course, so I was happy with the result. I beat my predicted time by almost 30 seconds! The flats and slight downhill were where people would pass me, but I seemed to do the passing on the steep ups and downs. Totally pooped out at the end and like 5 people passed me in the last 400m.

Garin Park XC Challenge 2009

2009-09-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

I wasn't really focusing on this race with as much intensity as the previous XC races this season. Perhaps that was because I just wasn't as nervous for this one. I've proved to myself that I can race faster than prior years; I'm in the middle of my hard training and have been tired from it recently, and we weren't going to have a full team. Then, we got the e-mail that we had 5 gals! It didn't hit me that now I had pressure to run fast until I walked to registration this morning. "They are counting on me to get as many places as possible in the end," I thought. Nervousness ensued. I saw one teammate and we warmed up together, but we didn't see any more until about 15 minutes before the race. Only 2 more. We didn't have a 5th. So, the race started and the pressure was off... all of us.

Garin is pretty hilly in the middle miles. You start out in a valley and after about a half mile, the course climbs until the mile mark, then there is a slight downhill until a hairpin turn that takes you up a steep incline that eases out, brings you into a dip and then takes you up a shorter steep hill. Then we went careening down hill (FUN!) and into a loop with less steep inclines and declines. At about 2.5 miles, we lose all that elevation gain in a quarter mile or less and race back through the valley to the finish.

My splits from the Garmin were: 7:04, 7:09, 6:41, extra time to get to the finish. I don't have my official time yet, but my watch said 21:46. That is 5 seconds faster than my PR on that course. My legs aren't feeling wasted yet, so I didn't obliterate myself. Last weekend, I did a tempo interval workout at Garin and I could barely walk after. Either that helped, or I didn't push the hills as hard. Or both. This was mostly of the time-trial sort of race for me mentally than a competitive session.

JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge 2009

2009-09-24T13:59:00.001-07:00

Woo! I wasn't really focusing on this race and decided to use it as a workout, doing about tempo pace. The race is a super flat 3.5 miles around Chrissy Field in San Francisco. Here were my random goals/wants:

Break 24 minutes (6:51 pace)
Finish in the top 20 women

Boy, do goals really get you going fast. This was the second time this season where I felt I was actually racing instead of running a time trial. So, after a really short warmup, I started off at what I thought was a relaxed pace, only to find out at the mile mark that I ran 6:07. Whoops! Immediately after, we ran against a long 1+ mile headwind section. It felt like a bike race, where I just drafted behind guys and gals in front of me. I tried to stay with/keep in sight the gals with me and in front of me and we all pretty much did that, albeit much slower than the first mile. The second two miles were at 6:40 pace. By the way, I went through 3 miles at 19:35, which extrapolated to 3.1 would be about 20:15. I haven't done a 20:15 in a long while, and I think I can actually break the 20-minute barrier if I do a flat 5k road race this season. That was so exciting!

In the end I finished 18th woman at 22:57, a full minute faster than my goal, and good thing, because otherwise I wouldn't have made it in the top 20. This race (especially that first mile) was definitely a confidence booster.

Golden Gate Park Open 2009

2009-09-13T16:57:00.000-07:00

Did I meet my goals? Barely no.

The course is two, 2-mile loops of grass, dirt trails and a bit of sand in places with a log-jump thrown in for good measure. A bunch of us were wearing Garmins during the race and pinned the total distance between 4.08 and 4.14 miles. Mine recorded 4.09.

The legs did feel less snappy than at Santa Cruz, and the terrain was a little more slippery too, especially since I was wearing my XC waffles from HS and somehow they were a little too big. Weird. Hopefully, I'll get used to this new training intensity for the next race at Garin (in 2 weeks.)

I tried to go out conservatively, but that only worked for the first 300 meters and then I started passing people and got excited and motivated to pass more people until I petered out a little before mile 1. That is when people started passing me. I passed a few people who looked like they suddenly pooped out and a few going my pace, but overall I believe I was in the negative side of passing people the last 3 miles. I think I was positive in the uphill or downhill sections, but those silly flat parts...

According to the Garmin, my first mile was 6:36. Not bad. ;) My first 2 miles were 13:43 and the second two were 13:52. According to the race markings, my first lap was 13:48 (I think that is what it said...maybe it was 13:58?), and the second must have been 14:13 (or 14:03? that makes a bit more sense...), because I finished in 28:01. That's two seconds out of may goal. So close. But, it was exactly 30 seconds slower than Santa Cruz. heh! Magic 30 seconds.

I would like to note that my average heart rate for the last mile was 200. I didn't know I could hold that rate for that long, but I guess I was working hard...

Golden Gate Goals

2009-09-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend comes the true test of fitness. I've run the Golden Gate XC course at least 6 times, so I have a great array of attempts and durations. Most importantly, I have results there when I've been my fittest post-collegiately. Looking at past results, it seems as if my best time is 28:43. Comparing other runners' times between same-year UCSC and Golden Gate results, it seems doable to finish within 30 seconds of my Santa Cruz time.

Goals:

Break 28 minutes
Hydrate this week
Once again, start the race conservatively

My only worry is that this is the first week of longer speedwork -- I have two workouts during the week -- and I may be tired for the race. It isn't a big deal because this is still an early-season race, but I'd like to do well regardless.

UC Santa Cruz Challenge 2009

2009-08-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

We had a bazillion and one ladies from my cross country team show up to race on Saturday in Santa Cruz. We had at least 11 at the line! It was just amazing for such a small race of 60 or so women, and a little reminiscent of the team domination at races with my cycling team.

The course is 4 miles on gravelly fireroads. The first 1+ miles starts with a steep wind-sucking uphill and then flattens for about 30 seconds and remains uphill for a long long time. Then it flattens out slightly, we do a 180 at a little less than 2 miles in, backtrack for a mile and come down a gradual decline until the last 200m which takes you past the starting line and up a bit of the first hill to the finish.

My goals were to beat my course best of 29:06, and to go out conservatively so I wouldn't blow up like I did last year. Therefore, I declared at the starting line that my goal was to be the last person up the first steep hill and placed myself in the back of our team line, where I belong anyway. (The other ladies would finish well under 28 minutes.) The starter announced that there were fires in the mountains north of us and for people with asthma to be cautious. I hadn't noticed any smoke on the warmup...

BANG! It's not very often that you get a gun-start at a tiny XC race, but we were off, and I was holding back as much as I could. For the first time, I could smell smoke, but that disappeared after a couple minutes. I just kept telling myself to stay relaxed and let it rip on the downhill. But then, I started catching teammates and all these positive thoughts went through my head and I got really excited. It is SO GREAT to be racing alongside teammates. I was a big dork and wore my Garmin that's as big as my head, but I have mile splits now! Ha! So, the first mile was about 7:20, which is excellent for an uphill mile, and right on pace to break 29.

There were at least 3 of us in a little group at the turn-around (possibly 5). For some reason I couldn't turn as efficiently as the other two ladies and I lost contact and couldn't seem to catch back up on the flats. One of our star runners who had a tough time with the smoke and the hill, flashed by me as if I were standing still and cheered some encouragement to follow her, but there was no way I was going to try to match the speed of a sub-6 minute/mile marathoner, even if she is out of shape. I'm out of shape too if she is. About this time, I recorded my second mile in about 6:55. Way cool! Now I'll really break 29. Anyway, another teammate passed me at a much slower rate, gave the same encouragement, and I latched on. She did all the work, and I did all I could to not get dropped on the long downhill. We passed the 3 mile mark and my split was about 6:35. By this time, I could no longer calculate chances of finishing time and just focused on staying near my teammate. One gal with great turnover passed us, but that was it. My teammate surged with about 600 to go and I couldn't respond. I caught back up to her on the finishing hill right as we crossed the line and left no space for anyone to sqeeze between us. I didn't see the official results, but my time ended up being about 27:30. The last mile was 6:15ish.

Holy cow, I just ran faster per mile in a 4-mile XC race than I did at a flat road 5k 7 weeks ago! And I totally blew my previous best out of the water.

Today, I can barely walk.

Cross Country Season is Upon Us

2009-08-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Alright. Goals:

Beat all my times from all past PA races.
Stay injury-free by being careful and mindful.
Learn about how I improve (and fail to improve) by following a specific training plan tailored to me.

Santa Cruz is coming up on Saturday and looking at my past times on the course, I would like to run 28 minutes. Previous best from 2005 is 29:06, and last year I wasn't running much and completely bonked after the steep, uphill start, coming just under 31. This course is up up up for the first mile, flat for the 2nd and 3rd miles and a nice long downhill for the 4th mile. The finish is about 200 meters uphill. I've been practicing the uphill, so if I relax, I think I'll be able to finish strong.
Santa Cruz Goals:

Break 29 minutes
Go out at a moderate pace up the first steep hill. Pick off runners later.
Hammer the last two miles.

I'm looking forward to racing with tons of teammates this year and hopefully blowing my old times out of the water. (But I say that every year. *sigh*)

Pozo 5k Race Report -July 4 2009

2009-07-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

I guess my attitude toward the Pozo 5k was less race than milestone. I only just started running again at the end of May and Pozo was on July 4th. 6 weeks of 17-31 miles a week and no speed-work resulted in a time that wasn't embarrassing and was a good starting point for improvement, 21:28. Since I hadn't raced a 5k on the road since maybe Pozo 2 years ago, my goal was to start off conservatively and pick it up from there. That is exactly what happened, and I turned in negative splits, possibly for the first time on that course (7:01, 6:57, 6:47). The splits are from the Garmin instead of the chalk markers, so maybe that helped. It was nice for a change to pass the runners who normally pass me after the turn-around.

Early Bird Criterium #3 2009

2009-01-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

I was totally tired before this race. I had practically done a road race the day before, climbing OLH and Tunitas Creek with some pretty fast folks and my lungs were still recovering. Even though this criterium wasn't a *real* race, our team talked about a race plan and learned a lot during the race. I attacked the peloton twice during the race. The first time was in the first or second lap and I didn't realize that they had caught up with me until I looked back and saw that I was pulling the whole group. oops. Made a mental note to learn how to find out if someone is on my wheel. The second time was slightly more successful and I was out front for about 1/4 of a lap, making the other ladies work hard to latch back on.

My goals for this race were to become more comfortable in the pack, follow wheels moving up, and keep my wheel through the corners (so I wouldn't have to sprint as much out of a corner). I think I met those goals. Because of that, I found myself in the front group of riders for the last 2 laps. That put me in a position to be in the running for the final sprint. I think I was 4th wheel coming into the long finish straight-away. I passed two gals, but the winner came around all of us on the right-hand side, and I finished 3rd! I was surprised because I wasn't planning to try for the sprint when I started the race. Cycling does that to me. I love putting on some speed and passing people.

Log: Jun 9 - 15 2008

2008-06-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work (31.4 mph on the flat going home!)
Tue: Bike to/from work
Treadmill run 30 min (3.75)
Wed: Run 30 minutes (3.5)
Thu: Bike to/from work
Fri: Bike to/from work
Run 31 minutes (4)
Sat: Ran hard a bit volunteering for bike race (1.5)
Sun: DNE

Totals
Run: 12.75 miles
Bike: 140 miles

Log: Jun 2 - 8 2008

2008-06-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work w/ Frank
Tue: Bike to/from work
run on treadmill (2), 1/2 pullup at level 2, 4 min abs, some weights, 55 minutes bike home!
run to/from voting location (2.5)
Wed: 2.5 miles on treadmill at 8 min/mile pace, 5 min abs
Thu: Bike to work, bike to CalTrain, bike from Union City BART (25)
Fri: Bike to/from work (54 minutes home!), two laps around complex w/ Max and Patrick at >7:30 pace (26:20).
Sat: 30 min run easy (3.5)
Sun: 66 min run long (8)

Totals
Run: 17.5 miles
Bike: 130 miles

Log: May 26 - Jun 1 2008

2008-06-02T20:53:00.000-07:00

Mon: DNE
Tue: run 1.75 on treadmill, 7 pull-ups at level 5
Bike to/from work
Wed: run 39 min (3.75)
Bike to work
Thu: run 39 min around work (3.5)
Bike to/from work
Fri: Bike to/from work
Sat: DNE
Sun: 61 mile bike ride up to Berkeley Hills Road Race course, did a loop and stopped in Orinda (+2 from BART)24:48 up Palomares!

Totals
Run: 9 miles
Bike: 185 miles

Log: May 19 - 25 2008

2008-05-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Mon: 40 min run (3.75)
.5 mile swim
Tue: Bike to/from work, slightly sick
Wed: Sick, but worked
Thu: Sick, stayed at home
Fri: bike to/from bike shop, backpack in Sunol (3)
Sat: 14 mile backpack
Sun: 2.5 backpack

Totals
Run: 3.75 miles
Bike: 35 miles

Log: May 12 - May 18 2008

2008-05-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work 59.5 min THERE (with some drafting)
2.5 mile run on treadmill at 7mph, 3.5 min abs
Tue: Bike to/from work
1.25 mile speed walk, 10 pull-ups at level 6, 3 min abs
Wed: 42 min run (5)
Bike to/from work
.5 mile swim
walk around complex
Thu: Bike to/from work
Fri: 30 min run (3.5)
Bike to/from work
1 pull-up at level 3 !!!! 3.5 min abs
Sat: Bike to/from work (yes, I worked)
Sun: 28 min run. (3.25)

Totals
Run: 14.25 miles
Bike: 210 miles
Swim: .5 miles

Log: May 5 - May 11 2008

2008-05-12T10:57:00.000-07:00

Mon: 28 min run (3.5)
Bike to/from work, 3+ min abs
Tue: 32 min run (3.75)
Wed: Bike to/from work
3.5 mile tempo run w/ Max
Thu: Bike to/from work
Fri: Bike to work
15 min treadmill (1.75), 3.5 min abs 5 pull-ups at level 6
Sat: EBC Crit 10 min warmup, 40 min race, avg 23.3mph according to another racer. (~20 miles w/ warmup+lap and cool down lap)
Sun: 2.5 hour hike in Huddard, 63 min run to Garin park (7)

Totals
Run: 18.5 miles
Bike: 137 miles

Log: Apr 28 - May 4 2008

2008-05-05T16:49:00.000-07:00

Mon: Attempted to bike to work, back tire blew out from screw at about 4 miles.
38 minutes on spin bike, with about 15 minutes of standing.
45 minutes on spin bike, 5-4-3-2-1 w/ 1 minute recovery 10 minutes at fast cadence, hard.
Tue: 30 min run (3.5),
Bike to/from work,
Weights: 3lb. running and front and side raises, 2x10 tricep rope pull-downs, 1x10 pull-ups at level 7, .75 pull-ups at level 4, 3 min abs.
Wed: Bike to/from work,
10 min wm, 5x 2min @9mph w/ 2 min recovery @ 7mph, total 30 min (3.75)
Windy walk around complex with Shawn
Thu: Bike to/from work,
34.5 minutes running with Matt T. (3.75)
Fri: DNE
Sat: Mt. Hamilton, hill in 1:59:45 (80 miles)
Sun: 70 min ride (17 miles), 33 min hilly run (3.5?)

Totals
Run: 14.5 miles
Bike: 206 miles (plus 80 minutes on the spin bike)

Wente Vineyards RR 2008

2008-04-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

My first real bike race ever, and I was so nervous my hands were shaking. Someone mentioned at the line that I'd feel better once we started. Unfortunately, I haven't ridden in a pack like that with my new bike and the nerves became worse so that my bike was wobbly too. I just sat at the very back for the first mile or so, and then moved up before the first turn.

I'd practiced this course a few weeks prior and new that the next turn was a huge grade-shift. Several ladies passed by to get a better position. When we started up the hill, I got stuck behind a much slower gal and more of the pack passed me as I tried to get around her. Finally able to pedal freely, the leaders continued to pick up the pace and I was dropped about 3 miles into the 35 mile race. A few of us got together and traded pulls to get back on, but we weren't strong enough. I attacked the front and no one followed. It looked like it was going to be a 30-mile time trial.

About half-way through the first lap, I passed a couple gals in my race. One caught up with me later and we traded pulls until the hill on the second lap, where she was another one of its victims. I think negative-split'ed that hill the three times I climbed it. Next time I race this course, I'll warm up first. I figured I was warmed up because it felt like it was 95 degrees out. Anyway, my soigneur was lovely enough to give me two full water bottles on that hill and I was absolutely grateful. One more lap!

The next lap was the same as the first, except now the older men were passing me and I don't think I passed anyone. Maybe a couple of junior boys. I finished though -- apparently in the middle of all the finishers of my race.

Log: Apr 21 - 27 2008

2008-04-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work, 30 min treadmill @ 7mph with 8 mins @ 9mph in middle (3.75)
Tue: 29 min run (3.5), Bike to work, 4,3,3 pullups at level 7, 1 at level 5, tri-pulldowns, 3 min abs
Wed: 20 min run (2.25), very tired legs
Thu: Bike to/from work
Fri: 29 min run (3.25), felt great!
Sat: Wente Road Race, 35 miles, 30 mile time trail, pretty much. < 2 hours
Sun: 1 hour run (7)

Totals
Run: 19.75 miles
Bike: 122 miles

Log: Apr 14 - 20 2008

2008-04-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work
Tue: Bike to/from work, 20 min treadmill (2.25), 2x5 pull-ups at level 7, attempted 1 at level 4 and failed, 5 min abs, 10 girl push-ups
Wed: Bike to work, 3 miles on treadmill
Thu: 30 min spinning class, bike from work
Fri: 30 min run (3.5), walk around complex, bike to/from work
Sat: 60 mile bike ride, Palomares(28:30) and Calaveras (~15)
Sun: DNE

Totals
Run: 8.75 miles
Bike: 200 miles

Log: Apr 7 - 13 2008

2008-04-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

Mon: Bike to/from work (35 miles)
Tue: Bike to/from work, weights, 1 mile run?
Wed: Lunch run (29 min). PM: Up Palomares (25:03) with Bernhard and Lucia from my place.
Thu: DNE
Fri: 29 minute morning run, bike to/from work
Sat: 45 mile bike ride (3 loops of Wente course) (2:50), yardwork
Sun: 52 minutes "long" run, easy walk along river

Totals:
Run: 14 miles, I think, probably more.
Bike: 170 miles

Gosling Season!

2008-04-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hooray! I'm back on the bike. So far, I've commuted to work 3-4 times per week by bicycle. On the way home, I usually see Canadian geese in the back bay along 84. A pair has about five little ones, and they are adorable. Maybe I'll take a camera phone picture.

Speaking of commuting, since I bought a new bike I have a new record. This past week on a windy day, it only took me 56 minutes to get home. Whee!

Today, Bernhard and I rode the Wente road race course three times for a total of 45 miles). I'm proud of myself; It only took 2:49. I'm hoping to race in two weeks, even though I'm not in great shape.

Another injury recovery period

2008-04-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Will I ever get in shape? On Jan 30th I broke both collarbones from a bicycle accident. Fortunately, I didn't have any surgery or scrapes, only a few bruises and a concussion. At 4.5 weeks, I started running, and now I can run 40+ minutes at 8:30 pace. Last week, I picked up a brand new road bike and rode it for the first time on Saturday and then again on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Now my butt just needs to get used to it.

Morning Weight: 146
Miles Today: 4.7 run
Other Exercise: Walk around complex
Total Miles this Week: 7.5 run, 70 bike

Log: Jan 14 - 26 2008

2008-01-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

Mon: 30 min run, bike to/from work
Tue: 50 min run, Spinning class
Wed: bike to/from work w/ Tuna
15 min run on treadmill, 5 min abs, 15 min run on treadmill
Thu: 1 hour hilly run in Coyote Hills
Fri: 30 min run, bike to/from work
Sat: 102 min long run
Sun: bike to/from Early Bird Crit Course, drills, 45 min. race ,
14 min run

Totals:
Run: 316 minutes (5.25 hours)
Bike: 135 miles

Mon: DNE, Played on the bike trainer for several minutes
Tue: 40 min on treadmill (10 min @ 7.0, 20 min steady state @ 8.0, 10 min @ 7.0)
5 min abs, 1 pull-up at level 3,
Spinning class
Wed: 30 min run, 40 min exercise bike
Thur: 30 min biking
Fri: 45 min run (15 wm/cd) 3x(4x 30sec on/30 sec off) w/ 1 min extra between sets
Sat: 40 min Quarry Lakes loop, counter-clockwise
bike to/from work
Sun:

Totals:
Run:
Bike:

Criterium Racing

2008-01-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hi! It's been a long time... Well, I've started bike racing, and I have my first two races under my belt. Well, they aren't real races, because no results were taken, but they are great practice for the real thing. Before each race, we have a training session to learn how to ride in a pack, take corners, what not to do, etc.

Criteriums are a strange race. First of all, the racers go around in loops -- usually downtown or in a business park -- for a specific amount of time. But, that time is only an estimate, because the race official will count down the last 5 laps for the field, after figuring out how much time it will take the particular race to go 5 laps. The first cyclist across the line at the end of the 5-lap-countdown wins. Primes (pronounced preems) are sprints for the finish line in the middle of the race. The official will let the field know when a prime is coming up and the first cyclists through the start/finish line on the following lap win the prime. The race keeps going after.

I'm having a blast. In the first crit, there were only about 16 of us averaging 17mph, with a breakaway at the end. I was in the breakaway and 4th. The field wasn't too great at taking the corners, so they were an easy way to move up. The second probably had about 35 women with one prime. I was either 1st or second in the prime and in the top 10 for the finish. Corners were tighter that time around and we averaged 20mph. My front wheel was loose, so one of the mentors helped me out and we got back in the race when the ladies came around again. (Only in a practice race can I do that.) We have two more practice races and then one real one. I'm so excited!

Morning Weight: 143
Miles Today: 3.5
Other Exercise: Biking to/from work, 35 miles

Updates, Contest and Records

2007-11-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was the longest I've run since April -- 8 miles. I'm hoping to run the same or farther tomorrow.

My foot feels great. I can run 3 days in a row and only feel a tightness in my arch by the end. I'm cycling consistently M/W/F with a spinning workout on Tues and that doesn't smack my energy stores into a black hole like it used to. It is amazing to feel like I'm almost out of this injury. My future for so long was, "Maybe, someday I can hike that trail. Maybe, someday I can go running with you..." Yay! I can hike trails and run with people again! Depending on how this goes, I'm planning to start working on speed after Thanksgiving.

I have since purchased skinny tires for my bike and they are AMAZING! New records:
To Work: 1:05 (i think)
To Home: 57.5

Also, there is another new weight-loss contest at work. Percentage lost is the winner. $100. Ends in December, I think the 14th.

Morning Weight: 148.5
Miles Today: 4.75
Other Exercise: Walking
Total Miles this Week: 105 cycling, 1 swimming, 23.5 running

California Condors

2007-09-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

I've been utilizing the empty, wide dirt-roaded Quarry Lakes park for my runs, and I keep seeing birds that look like what I think a California Condor would, up close. Finally, I checked on wikipedia, and, WOW, the rarest bird when I was growing up, now in my neighborhood! I'm awestruck and moved, even though they are a tad on the ugly side.

On the get-back-in-shape front, I've been able to commute to work via bicycle 3 times in a week (17 miles each way), and run every other day. My runs started at 20 minutes per session, and are now at 40 minutes, with a long day of 60. Two months ago I ran an hour on the beach with my mom at 10+ minutes per mile, and afterwards I couldn't walk. When I ran long on Tuesday, I was going 8:30 pace on hard surfaces and felt great the rest of the day. Yay for improvement!

Soon to break these (mostly because I'm going to buy thinner tires)
Record to work: 1:14 (9-14-07)
Record from work: 1:05 (9-12-07)

Morning Weight: 152.5
Miles Today: 4.75
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week:14.5 run / 80 bike (recovery week)

Ok. Thought of a couple things

2007-08-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

<155: Better bike pedals. My current SPDs are too localized on my forefoot and that may be contributing to my plantar faciitis.
<135: speedometer/odometer for my bike.

After a few weeks of talk, I finally rode Calaveras Rd. and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was riding from Milpitas to North Fremont with all the traffic signals and cars, and a slight headwind. I think I may make it a weekend tradition. It took me 3 hours and 2 minutes with signals. I'll admit that I'm completely wiped tonight though. *yawn*

Week Plan:
Mon - AM run/walk 3 miles
    LU bike 20 mins, weights, abs
Tue - AM run/walk 3 miles
    LU 1 hour stationary bike
Wed - AM/PM Bike to Work
    LU 10 min elliptical, weights, abs
Thu - AM run/walk 3 miles
    LU 1 hour stationary bike
Fri - CAMP! run 20 mins.
Sat - CAMP! Bike 1 hour
Sun - CAMP! 50 mile bike ride.
Mon - CAMP! 20 min run.

Morning Weight: 156
Miles Today: 40 on the bike, Calaveras Rd.
Other Exercise: walked around the neighborhood (1 mile)

What I said before...

2007-08-23T17:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I had a little help with the weight gain because I hurt my foot, not being able to run AT ALL and then proceeded to get sick for 6 weeks which left me energy-less and wiped, but still with a good appetite. I also overate.

My foot is still messed up. I've self-diagnosed plantar fasciitis. woot. But, I can use the stationary bike, so that is good, and keeping me at least at a static weight. I've attempted to do 20-minute runs, but that just seems to help my foot not to improve.

I'm not sure exactly what got me motivated... oh yeah Aggie Camp and XC start soon... but I finally started entering stuff into physicsdiet and fitday again. Hopefully, that will help me reach some weight goals and prizes.

When my average weight (according to physicsdiet) is under:
150: get that massage from that fancy place that I have an awesome gift card for.
145: motorcycle gloves for winter!
140: synthetic motorcycle outfit
135: ...I'm sure I'll think of something...
130: speedy road bicycle!
130 for a year: projector and screen for my living room?

Morning Weight: 155.5
Miles Today: 3 walking
Other Exercise: 50 min stationary bike
Total Miles this Week: 2.3 on treadmill

What it means when my blog goes stagnant

2007-03-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

Wow. So, when I disappear from this blog, it means that I'm busy gaining weight and running sporadically. I've learned that this happens when I'm stressed. Now, I just have to learn how to deal with that stress in a different way than over-eating.

Updates!
Miraculously, I won the weight-loss contest, weighing in at 138, and proceeded to gain like 10 pounds in the following 5 weeks because I needed to clean my place and get a whole load of stuff done before a party I was hosting at my disaster-ified place. That party occured on Sunday, and now that I finally cleaned my place, I feel SO MUCH BETTER. I've eaten only when I've been hungry the last few days and lost an extra 4 pounds of food that was sitting in my body.

Last week, I hurt my foot running a lot on asphalt and cycling too much, so I stopped running and spinning Tuesday-Sunday. I started up again with a 20 minute run on Monday, and have been doing steady runs since. I'm hoping to run a workout either tomorrow or Saturday, but we'll see how my feet feel.

Morning Weight: 143.5
Miles Today: 5.5
Other Exercise: 5 mins abs
Total Miles this Week: 26.5

Last Push

2007-01-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Another stagnant week behind me. I didn't run as much as I'd hoped and had a couple of days where I ate more than I should have, but I did get a lot of ab work in and a bunch of spinning/biking, so that is good. I ran the farthest I'd ever run in my life on Saturday -- 16 miles!

I feel like I fail miserably every time I announce my goals for the week, and do really well when I don't. This week, I have goals, but I'm not going to write them down. I will check back in a week though.

Morning Weight: 138
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Weights, 5 mins of abs
Total Miles this Week: 15

Log: Jan 14 - 20 2007

2007-01-22T09:35:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: 14, DNR ~18 miles biking, 9.25+1.5 spinning class 3 min abs, DNR minimal weights 5 min abs, 2.5 spinning class 3 min abs, 5.5 minimal weights 5 min abs, 16 = 49

My (first) long run was great this week. I hit a little less than 8:30s average and ran 60 minutes out and it only took me 59 back. Yay! I even saw a deer with short antlers in the creek bed and a great blue heron on the trail. I love my new running area! After Tuesday, I just couldn't get up in the morning and get myself to run in the cold and dark after the -2C (29F) temperature of Tuesday. All the rest of my runs were on a treadmill. I think I'm afraid of the cold again. That wasn't pleasant.

Over Half Way!

2007-01-15T21:56:00.001-08:00

So last week (and... um... today) I totally binged. Having a stocked fridge is bad. But I think the real reason is that I'm dehydrated and instead of drinking a bunch of water, I just eat cereal. That's just my theory -- I really don't know, but I do know I need to get this under control. I haven't really moved my weight since the end of December, and if I want to have a chance of winning, I'd better focus and aim for under 2k calories a day. If I do everything I want this week, I'll probably hit about 65 miles plus 3.5 hours of biking, two weight workouts and several core sessions. I should be under 135 by next Monday.

Morning Weight: 136
Miles Today: None
Other Exercise: Biked about 18 miles (84 minutes)
Total Miles this Week: 14

Log: Jan 7 - 13 2007

2007-01-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: DNR, 3 weights 5 min abs, 9 spinning class 3 min abs, 1.5 15 min bike .5 hour core class, 9 spinning class 3 min abs, 6.5, 7.75 = 36.75

Saw a skunk on Thursday morning. Listening to PodRunner for the first time on a run, I was catching up to this black cat-like animal in the dark, and as I got closer, I could see a poofy tail. Having smelled skunky-ness earlier along the trail, I decided to stop. The animal ran off into the bushes on the side, I swung wide, and we both successfully avoided each other.

Log: Dec 31 - Jan 6 2006-2007

2007-01-10T22:42:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: DNR, 8.25, 5.5 weights 5 min abs, 7, 8 weights 1/4 deck of push-ups 5 min abs, 6.5, 7.25 = 42.5

Bucked

2007-01-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

I got broadsided by the new year festivities, and got lazy and fell off the horse the last few days, but luckily the horse didn't run away, so I've climbed back on. I would have written this update yesterday, but I didn't have access to a scale in the morning.

I really want to get down to 135 next Monday, so this week is going to really suck. I had a terrible run on Saturday. It was great for about 25 minutes and then I bonked. It was an hour run. Maybe I should run again today?

Morning Weight: 138
Miles Today: 5.5
Other Exercise: Weight Lifting, 5 mins abs
Total Miles this Week: 13.75

Log: Dec 24 - 30 2006

2007-01-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: 10 5 min abs, 7, 6.5, DNR, 8.75, 6.5, 7 = 46.75

Home for the Holiday

2006-12-25T14:57:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! I always lose weight when I visit my parents', even during the holidays. They just eat less and infrequently and Mom gives me guilt trips for having snacks. My last few days have been less than 2k calories and I've continued my 50+ miles/week rate of running. The holidays are my secret weapon. =) Although, I have no idea how I weighed 137 this morning. Yesterday I was 140. I'm not dehydrated. We'll see what tomorrow is...

This past week I was really good. Eating under 2000/day is getting slightly easier, and I didn't have any days over 2500 calories. However, I'm tired most of the time and my running pace has slowed. I knew that would happen, but I'm also sure I'll bounce back when I even out my intake/expenditure.

I'll check back in the new year!

Morning Weight: 137
Miles Today: 7
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 17

Log: Dec 17 - 23 2006

2006-12-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: 12, 6.5 and 3.5 3 min abs, 4.75 max weight (see below) 5 min abs, 6 3 min abs, 8 32 min on bike 3 min abs, 6.5 weights 5 min abs, 5.5 = 52.75

current maxes:
bench press: 80 lbs.
squat: 65 lbs. (took this easy as my hamstrings are still tender and this was my first time squatting weights ever)
pullup: level 2 (the lower the level, the better)
dip: not tried yet.

One Week Down

2006-12-18T16:53:00.000-08:00

That first week was tough. I slipped a couple of days last week (Thurs and Sat.), but not too far and got right back into eating properly. I have to remember that alcohol and emotions mess up my logic. I can avoid alcohol for the most part, but I'll just have to make a hard-fast rule to calm down before I eat instead of trying to use food to calm down. Maybe tea will do the trick?

Speaking of tea, I've been drinking a WHOLE lot more of the stuff. I'm really digging Genmaicha (green tea with brown rice in the tea bag) and this Stash Decaf Carmel tea. Mmmm.

My mileage should hit about 50 miles this week, plus I want to do a cycling workout or two, but we'll see.

Morning Weight: 142.5
Miles Today: 10
Other Exercise: 3 min abs
Total Miles this Week: 22

Log: Dec 10 - 16 2006

2006-12-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

Sun-Sat: DNR, 3 weights 5 min abs, 7, 3.5, 6.5 weights 5 min abs, 6.5, 6.5 = 33

This time it's for money

2006-12-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

So, Holly is putting on an 8-week weight-loss challenge at work. Whoever loses the highest percentage of their starting weight wins! Starting today. 10 bucks buys you entry and there are 9 people so far. If I can get down to 129, I have a good chance of winning. I need to start running more again. I'm not going to worry about intensity until late-Feb/early-March, so I can just focus on this challenge. Let's just hope that I can maintain this focus and determination for 8 weeks. It will be REALLY nice to be under 130 again.

Morning Weight: 144.5
Miles Today: 3
Other Exercise: weights and 5 mins. of abs
Total Miles this Week: 3

Log: Nov 26 - Dec 2 2006

2006-11-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

Sun: 7, 62 minutes
Mon: .5 miles on treadmill after weights
weights and 5 min abs
Tue: 9.5, 2.5 wm, 4 strides, 4x 1 mile (Adams State) on Stanford Ave (7:07[up], 6:37[down], 7:02[up], 6:30[down]) with ~3 min recovery between each. Better/faster than last time! =), 2 mile cd
2 miles, 3 min abs
Wed: ?
Thu: ?
Fri: ?
Sat: ?

Total: ???

Log: Nov 19 - 25 2006

2006-11-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

Sun: 8 miles, 2 wm, 2 cd, 4 strides 6k race, PA Championships, 26:00, first mile at 6:2-, 13:2-, 20:3-, 114th, hammy hurt on cool down
Mon: 2 left hamstring still hurts
weights, 5 min abs
48 min bike
Tue: 7 (57:48) Big Stanford Campus Loop w/ David
Wed: DNR
Thu: 8.25 2.25 wm, 2 cd, 1 x 800 @5k pace up incline, tempo until completion of 30 minutes
Fri: 2.75 (24 minutes)
2.5 moderate and 5 mile strenous hikes
Sat: 5.75 (50 minutes)

Total: 33.75 (plus 7.5 mile hiking, plus 48 min biking)

Log: Nov 12 - 18 2006

2006-11-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

Sun: 9.5 (80 minutes) around Quarry Lakes and trails
Mon: 5.5 (48.5 minutes) loop around horseshoe lake
weights and 5 min abs
Tue: 8 2.5 wm (incl. 4 strides) 3.75 x 3 min (I had to stop the last one because my left hammy was twinging badly) w/ 2-3 min recov on bark chip trails, 3 mile cd
3.75 with holly
Wed: 5 (46) out to middle of horseshoe lake and back. easy
Thu: DNR
weights and 5 min abs
Fri: 6.5 2.25 wm, 2.5 cd, 4 strides, 90 sec on/off x 4
2.75 on treadmill and 3 min abs
Sat: 4

Total: 45

Log: Nov 5 - 11 2006

2006-11-13T18:19:00.000-08:00

Sun: 10.5 (93:--)
Mon: DNR
Weights and 5 min abs
Tue: 10 3 mile wm, 4 strides, 4 x Adams State miles (up, down, up, down : 7:14, 6:36, 7:28, 6:53) on Stanford Ave. with 3-4 minutes recovery. 2 mile cool down.
3.5 (26:53) 2 laps around complex
3 min abs
Wed: 5 miles around RWC high school track with Holly
Thu: DNR
Weights and 5 min abs
Fri: 6.5 to stanford track and back, 2 strides, hamstring hurt a bit
moved, up and down two flights of stairs with stuff for 2+ hours
Sat: 7 3 wm, 1.75 cd, 3x3 min at 5k pace, 3 min at tempo from mission blvd. to a little past sequoia bridge.

Total: 42.5

Log: Oct 29 - Nov 4 2006

2006-11-04T17:32:00.000-08:00

Sun: 10.5 (92:16) Around Stanford on trails I could find.
Mon: 7 (~57) Edgewood with Max
weights and 5 min abs.
Tue: 9 Sawyer Camp, 2 mile wm/cd, 4 strides, 4x1 mile back and forth between mile marker 2 and 1. 3-4 min recovery, (6:43, 6:51, 6:42, 6:53). Yes, the slight downhill efforts were slower than the uphill efforts. Need to work on downhills more.
3 (27 mins) and 3 min abs
Wed: 6 (50:19) around Stanford with David
Thu: 6 2 wm, 1.75 cd, 6x400 at 90 pace on treadmill with 200 recov.
Fri: 4 (~37)
Sat: 8.5 Fleet Feet Sac race, 2 wm, 2.5+ cd, 4 strides, pulled my left hammy jumping at the starting line, 25:26 for 6km race

Total: 54

Log: Oct 22 - 28 2006

2006-10-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

Sun: 11 (93:46) out on Alameda de las Pulgas and Ferndale in RWC and back, felt good, evening run
Mon: 6 (52:12) Stanford Lake Loop, stiff from last night, really foggy weather
weights and 5 min abs
Tue: 7.5 2.25 wm, 4 strides, 4x800 at 3k pace w/ 1 lap recovery (3:09, 3:08, 3:08, 3:05), 2 mile cd, those were hard. Reminder: PAHS track is cold!
3.5 (29:24) two laps around complex with Josh and Mike
Wed: 7.5 (67:36) Rancho San Antonio, valley loop, DARK (new moon), 6am start.
3 mins abs
Thu: 6 (49:21) Stanford Lake Loop, evening run.
weights and 5 min abs
Fri: 4.25 4 EASY miles around complex at lunch, 4 strides
Sat: 9.25 Tamalpa 4.25 mile race (30:58), 4 strides, 20 min wm, 30 min cd

Total: 55

Log: Oct 15 - 21 2006

2006-10-21T20:46:00.000-07:00

Sun: 11 (90 minutes) City to Sea
Mon: 5.5 (44:41) Golf Course Loop in LO
Tue: 8 cool weather, felt really hard to run today, lungs at capacity, 3.5 wm, 3 strides, PAHS 6x400 w/ 200 recov (execpt the last one, 400 reovery before that) (91, 88, 91, 91, 91, 89) 2 cd
Wed: DNR weights and 5 min abs
Thu: 6, 3 to Stanford, 4 strides, got kicked off the track (I wish they would post when the track is closed. grr), 4 strides on the barkchip trails. 2 miles home.
3 on treadmill, 3 min abs
Fri: 4 around work complex
Sat: 7.75 2.5 wm, 2.25 cd, 5k Shoreline race (20:53)

Total: 45.25

Log: Oct 8 - 14 2006

2006-10-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Sun: 13.25 (2 hours) on Alpine Rd.
Mon: 3.5 (32+) Stanford 3.5 loop
weights and 5 min abs
1.65 on treadmill, knee hurt so I rode
16 mins on the bike
Tue: 11 20 min wm, 4 strides, 8 x 1k at 10k effort on the bark chip trails at Stanford, 2 minutes recovery, roughly (4:27, 4:35, 4:23, 4:22, 4:29, 4:28, 4:21, 4:10), 17 min cooldown
Wed: 7.75 (65:36), last two miles was 15:38, first two was 18:03.
3.5 29 minutes on treadmill
5 min abs
Thu: 7 warmup to/from Stanford track 8 x 100 strides, jog the turns
weights and 3 mins abs
50 minutes of spinning class
Fri: 4 on treadmill, 3 mins abs, stretched
Sat: 8.25 3.25 wm, 4 strides, 8 x 300m hills (10 minutes) 2.25 cool down

Total: 60

Log: Oct 1 - 7 2006

2006-10-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sun: 14 Ran for 2 hours around Fremont trails
Mon: 3.5 treadmill
weights, 5 min abs.
3.5 Stanford loop 28:??
Tue: 10.25, 2.5 warmup, 4 strides, 4x 7 min on Stanford bark trails at 10k pace, 3 minutes recovery, 2 mile cooldown
Wed: DNR, cuz I suck and it was dark and wet.
Thu: 8, 2.5 wm, 8 x 1:30 at 3k effort with 1 minute recovery 2 mile cd
weights, 5 min abs.
3.5 one loop around complex, rest on treadmill
Fri: DNR, cuz I suck.
Sat: 9.75, 2.75 wm, 3.5 cd, 2 strides, Presidio Race 3.55 miles, the hills kicked my butt, but I ran 1 second faster than last year and felt terrible.

Total: 52.5

Log: Sept 24 - 30 2006

2006-10-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

Sun: 13 (119:5?) Ran in wee hours of the morning to Corte Madera and Alpine and back.
Mon: 7 (58:46) To first bridge on Stanford Ave and back. Last two miles were 15:40. Last mile was 7:35.
Tue: 9.25 (24:50) Dish Loop Tempo (hard), 3 mile wm/cd
3.5 (31) On treadmill, started at 9+/mile, finished at 8:30s
Wed: 7.75 (68:59) Big Stanford Loop, really tired from yesterday. Saw David and ran with him for a couple miles. owwie.
Thu: 6.75 I think I ran to/from Stanford track and did 4 strides.
Fri: 4
Sat: 7 Garrin Park race 2 miles wm and cd, 5k race (21:51)

Total: 58.25

Results: 2006 Bananaman Chase

2006-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Well, that was the fastest I've run for the first mile of a race in a LONG time. Unfortunately, my pace was that much slower the last two miles. The course was slightly different (we essentially ran it backwards). I beat my time from last year by about 50 seconds. The official time had me at 20:17, which is 6:31 pace. My splits were about (6:09, 12:56[6:47], 19:40[6:44]). I didn't feel like I slowed down, but more people passed me than I passed. Of course, the first mile was all downhill... so that could have something to do with it. I was 61st female, 200th overall, 11th in my age group. I was a little bummed that I didn't break 20, but the race was at the end of a hard and high-mileage week. Next year, I guess. Or, maybe I'll run awesomely at Shoreline on Oct 21st. That is my taper week. =)

Morning Weight: 140
Miles Today: 12.75
Other Exercise: 3 minutes abs
Total Miles this Week: 32.75

Log: Sept 17 - 23 2006

2006-09-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

Sun: 7 Bananaman Chase 5k, 2.5 wm, 1.5 cd, 4 strides, my time: 20:15 (6:09,12:56[6:45],19:40[6:44]) official time: 20:17
Mon: 11 (96:??) Explored Woodside Hills, Weights. 5min abs
Tues: 7 Warmup/cooldown to/from Stanford track, 4 strides, 6x300 w/ 200 recovery w/ Dave (60, 60, 61, 62, 62, 61)
Weds: 6 (53:30) Lake Loop
Thur: 7 (61:??) Out on ECR and Stanford Ave and back. Turned around at 31 minutes. left hammy still twingeing. Weights. 5min abs
3.5 (31:30) lunch run with Mike out on dirt trail a bit and back.
Fri: DNR
Sat: 7 2.5 wm/2.25 cd 3x5 min w/ 1 min rest, out on Junipero Serra

Total: 48.5

Log: Sept 10 - 16 2006

2006-09-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try to (re)start my running log on here. No food intake. Just athletic endeavors.

Sun:13.25 (120:00) Up to a little past Home rd and Old La Honda rd and back. walked the last quarter mile. Achilles twinged.
Mon:7 ran (limped) in morning for 9 minutes. Went on the elliptical for 50 minutes in the evening. It said I "ran" 7 miles, but my heart rate was around 140 the whole time. level 9, 160+spm (strides per minute) Weights. 4 mins abs.
Tues:9 Warmed up to/from Stanford track long way, 4 strides 11x200 w/ 200 recovery (41,43,43,42,42,41,41,41,40,41,40)
Weds: 7.75 (66:02) Stanford Ave Loop
Thur: 7.75 Ran to/from Stanford track long way, 8 stride the straights/jog the turns. Ran from Chevron after dropping off my car. Weights. 5 mins abs.
.75 Ran to Chevron to pick up car.
Fri: 7 (58:36) out on Sand Hill and back. Almost to parking area on other side of 280. WINDY going out. Turned around at 31:15
4 tried my second run outside (.25 miles), but achilles hurt a bit. Used elliptical for 30 minutes instead. Level 10. 160+spm (strides per minute)
Sat: 4 (??) to Campus Loop turnaround, 1 stride, left hamstring hurt.

Total: 60.5

Results: 2006 Golden Gate

2006-09-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

Stream of consciousness:

59th. An improvement of 22 places. 28:42. An improvement of 1:50 from last year's race and 0:47 from Regionals. So yay! I achieved my goals! I don't have any splits except for the 3 mile, which I ran through in about 21:12. Four miles is LONG, but I'm getting better at it. I had a side stitch in the middle of the race that fortunately disappeared. I wonder if I drank too much water beforehand.

Next week is the Bananaman Chase 5k. I'm going to try to break 20 minutes. Last year I ran 21:05. I want to run 60 miles next week as well, so I may just end up in the low 20s. I'll be training through the races, so I can peak at Nationals and do better than 9th from last.

Morning Weight: 137
Miles Today: 12.5
Other Exercise: Walked around Downtown Menlo
Total Miles this Week: 55.5

First XC race of the 2006 season

2006-09-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I run the 2006 Golden Gate Open. My time last year for the race was 30:32 and my best time (at the championships last year) was 29:29. My goal is to improve my best time. I'm feeling the fittest I've been since being out of school, and it is great. I've been lifting 1-2 times a week and this is the least I've weighed since college. This course can be tricky, but it is two loops of grass and dirt and I'm pretty sure I understand it after running it 3 times. I plan to run the second loop stronger than the first. Right now, I'm debating on whether to use my waffles or my spikes, so I'll probably bring both tomorrow and decide on my warmup. Ready... Race!

Morning Weight: 137.5
Miles Today: 4
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 43

Scraping the seconds (not the lunch plate)

2006-08-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

David and I did the dish loop again yesterday. Our goal was to run with a good effort. That meant little talking. We both felt fairly stiff and our muscles were tired before we started, so we knew it was going to hurt and probably not result in a superior time. At least, we hoped, it would be better than the 28+ minutes it took us last week. We leapt from the start, and the up-hills did NOT feel good. My glutes were not happy. My lungs suffered because I was still slightly dehydrated from not drinking enough water on the weekend. BUT, we ran a decent time: 26:42 and only 8 seconds off the record.

Holly and I have a goal for the next two weeks. We are going to be VERY good. I'm trying to lose 2 lbs/week before I head off to running camp (and no scale) on Sept. 1st. On Monday, I weighed (a dehydrated) 136.5, and I think that I'm hydrated now, so that means I should aim for 135 by Friday morning of next week. My calorie intake goal is 2000/day and my exercise goal is to average 1000 calories burned. So far, I've managed the latter, but I've been struggling with the food. I need to take a tip from Holly and eat more fruit. At least I've been under 2500 per day, so that is a start. We'll see how hungry I get today. Tea, fruit and veggies are my friends.

Morning Weight: 138
Miles Today: 6
Other Exercise: Bike to/from work
Total Miles this Week: 30

Time Goals: 3/3!

2006-07-31T00:08:00.000-07:00

Yay! My triathlon a week ago was a success! I beat my goal of 90 minutes by over 2.5 minutes! The official time was 1:27:25. I had my mom as my lap counter (I had to swim 18 of them) and she handed me my watch when I got out of the pool. It took me a while to heave myself over the large wall, but when I was upright and jogging to the transition area, I looked at my watch and it said 15:26. I'm thinking I swam around 15:20. Not bad for a non-flipturn swim. I didn't do any warmup laps before I went, so the first 5 laps consisted of a lot of adrenaline and breathing strokes. I can definitely see how an open water swim could be overwhelming.

The transition was smooth. I had my towel folded so I could stand on it and wipe my feet as I put on my helmet, sunglasses, shorts and racing flats. Putting on my shoes took the longest amount of time, because I didn't want to have to re-tie them or have them be uncomfortable for 15 miles of bike riding and 3 miles of running. I did a great job in that respect. I didn't even feel the shoes. I was worried that I'd make the shoes soggy and heavy because I was still dripping water everywhere, but I think it all soaked into the bike seat. Off I went out of the transition area! I had placed my livestrong band on my cateye speedometer, and when I went to start the clock on the cateye, I knocked the band and it fell onto the street. Poop. I didn't want to wear it swimming because of the drag. Oh well. I had been dreading the biking portion of this thing since I learning about triathlons, and surprisingly, it was my favorite part of the race! Since I started at about 7:20 am, there was still cloud-cover and it was cool out. I sped up and down those rolling hills! A few people passed me, but I passed several people as well. If I had remembered to stop my cateye, it would have said I averaged about 19mph with a top speed of something in the low-30s. I was moving on the flats at 22mph. Wow. I certainly did much better on the bike than I predicted, finishing that portion in under 50 minutes (probably around 48).

I think I probably had the fastest bike-to-run transition of the day. I unbuckled my helmet as I set my bike on the rack and took off my sunglasses and helmet. As soon as I placed my helmet on the towel, I was off and putting my sunglasses on as I ran through the transition area. Whee! When I was setting up my bike and arranging my stuff that morning, I looked at the way a few others had placed their bikes. Some had the seats resting on the bar, others had the brakes over the bar. I tried both ways and thought about how I'd be rushing. I think I tried about 4 different setups before I felt good about which rack and where on the rack and which side of the rack I put my stuff on and which way my bike hung. In the end, I was on the far end of rack 3 with my bike hanging from the seat, so I could go straight toward the exit without having to back it up or turn anything around or worry about people in the way.

When I left the transition area for the run, my watch said 1:06:10, so I figured I had about 24 minutes to run a 5k and to reach my goal. I knew I could do that, but it would be difficult because my legs felt like jelly. It took me only 21:15 to get from that point to the finish line. I think that the start of the 5k was at the finish of the bike instead of at the other end of the transition area (where I looked at my watch) because I didn't run THAT fast. My first 1/3 of a mile was great. Then, I got a painful side stitch and it miraculously disappeared after the first water station. I don't remember my legs bothering me after that.

Those three miles went by fast, and so did the people I passed. It was so strange to be running a race and passing people as if they were standing still. And these were fit-looking people too. It boggled my mind and made me a little unfocused. That was something I didn't expect. I expected the run to have people I could key off of and try hard to run down. It was definitely different than a cross country race where everyone starts at the same time.

I flew by these guys sitting and smoking outside a bar or something, and one yells, "I hope you twist your fucking ankle!" I was having so much fun, my response was a thumbs-up. Fortunately no-one else on the road had that sort of attitude. The race had volunteers every so often cheering us on. Some people had set out lawn chairs at the ends of their driveways and were cheering. Coming up to the first water station on the bike portion, I read cardboard signs saying that I was leaving the USA and heading to Mexico. Right before the water/gatorate, there was a huge line drawn in chalk across the road that had "USA" on one side and "Mexico" on the other. There were welcome signs and colorfully dressed people. About a quarter mile after the station, there was a sign that said, "Don't Drink the Water!" I laughed. On the run, we went over the railroad and back under it. The Southern Pacific had stopped on the bridge as I went under it and the conductor was out on the tracks leaning over the wall of the bridge and cheering. People had hoses and squirt guns ready to cool the runners down. There were chalk markings on the sidewalk like mini versions of the Tour de France chalk on the mountain stages, encouraging runners up Johnson Street. I had such a blast.

I couldn't have done this alone. My mom lent me her bike and numerous people gave me advice and their training time. I would like to thank the following people for helping me to achieve this goal: Holly, David, Tim, Mike, Mom, Frank, Doug, Marny, and Dad.

Morning Weight: 140
Miles Today: 10+
Other Exercise: Walked to the store and around Shoreline
Total Miles this Week: 10

Where did that come from? 1600 Time-Trial

2006-07-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

So, I decided that driving to Davis and paying $20+ for a mile race plus $20+ for gas was a silly idea, especially when I'd be giving up my socializing all Sunday (the Tour and the World Cup were on). Instead, I saved 50 bucks and 4 hours of my time by, warming up to my local track, doing a few strides, changing into spikes and running 1600m in 5:41.1 (hand-timed ;} ). What the!?! Wow! Splits were 85, 2:49(84), 4:15(86), 5:41(86). That hurt my lungs. All this biking has really made my legs stronger and my turn-over quicker.

Unfortunately, My weight was 141 Sunday morning, so my weight goal wasn't realized, and I have a feeling that my triathlon weight goal of hitting <136 is unattainable now, but I'm still going to try to break 90 minutes. I want to break 16 in the swim, 52 in the bike and 22 in the run. That leaves no time for transitions, so I have to better all my goals and practice the transitions, so I can get the transitions under a total of 2 minutes. This is going to be very difficult. Wish me luck!

Morning Weight: 143
Miles Today: Day Off
Other Exercise: Biking and Swimming
Total Miles this Week: 5.5

One goal down, 2.5 to go

2006-07-04T18:09:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! The Pozo 5k was today and Joe made me "Beer Gal". I've always aspired to be Beer Gal and have been a teeny jealous of the other beer gals at that race in the past. For those who don't know the Pozo 5k tradition, the women who beat the Beer Gal or men the Beer Guy, get a free beer. Talk about pressure. But I prevailed. 5 ladies beat me and two were under 21. I ran my fastest time for a 5k since college, 20:11. That is 6:30 pace! My splits were 6:24 and 13:10(oops,6:46), and the last 1.1 came out to 6:22 pace. Third in my age group. Cool.

Next goal: Break 6 minutes in the Davis mile. (and be about 138.5 lbs.)

Morning Weight: 140.25
Miles Today: 7
Other Exercise: Kayaking to the fireworks
Total Miles this Week: 20

It's been about a year of blogging

2006-06-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I took my heart rate for the second time in about a year. It was 46. Awesome! I'd love it if I could remember to do that every morning, so I could determine if I need to rest and load up on Vitamin C for fighting something that doesn't have any other symptoms yet besides an elevated heart rate.

Looking through the past year of posts, I watched my weight go down and back up, my speed follow the same path, and my confidence steadily increase. I'm glad that my weight is 10 pounds less than a year ago today, my resting heart rate is 5bpm lower, and I'm running faster. That is encouraging. It also reminds me that I haven't reached my goals. I still have about 12 pounds to go to hit 130, a couple minutes to slice off my 5k time, and I have yet to run a track season or in the Bay to Breakers Centipede yet. In the next year, I'm setting out to accomplish these goals. I'd love to run a steeplechase race again and be fast enough that I'm routinely in the top 33% of elite races. But, one baby step at a time. My most immediate goals are to break 21 at the Pozo 5k on the 4th of July (I'd really like to break 20, but Pozo is usually slower for me for some reason), break 6 minutes at the Davis Mile race, and break 90 minutes at the SLO Triathlon where I'll be ~136lbs.

Morning Weight: 140.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Bike from work, swim 1800yrds
Total Miles this Week: 30

Oops, I did it again

2006-06-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

So Dave and I ran the dish loop again, and we talked pretty much the whole way while maintaining a tempo pace and not pushing overly hard. I was less sore this week than last and my hill strength and speed has improved dramatically. I am slightly sore from running downhill in Rancho San Antonio on Sunday, but it didn't affect the uphills at all and that is where you get your most speed improvements. Anyway, we ran another new record, and we weren't even trying to! Sweet! 26:34. My goal of breaking 26 is looking very attainable now. Maybe we can even break 25 by the end of August, but we'll see.

Morning Weight: 141.5
Miles Today: 6.5
Other Exercise: Spinning Class (moderate), swimming workout 1800yrds
Total Miles this Week: 22.5

And I thought 35 minutes was a lofty goal

2006-06-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

Considering that I had run 7:18s for a 10k 4 weeks ago, and the fact that I hadn't run a 5k under 7s yet this year, I figured that breaking 35 minutes in an 8k was a long shot. I thought it was going to be the toughest race so far in 2006. I had no idea how to run an 8k, so I went out fairly conservatively the first mile. When I looked at my watch, it said 6:51! I said to myself, "If you want to continue to break 7s you are going to have to pick it up, because you know the 2nd mile is always slower than the first." So, I increased my pace and went through the 2nd mile in 13:35! Whoa! A few more miles and a 20:25 and 27:14 later, I was on track to break 34, not 35. I don't know where any of this sudden return of speed came from, or where it went between November and June for that matter. I was so relieved at mile 4, since I had to run a 7:45 or better to achieve my goal, that I let up a little and a few people passed me. A little voice in my head said, "If you really push it, you can break 34..." and I returned, "Maybe, but it will hurt a lot and I already made my goal... so nah, I'll pass, but keep running strong and stay with the ladies in front of me." After a little less than a half mile, my body and mind realized that we didn't have much farther to go and picked it up a little. There was a "400 meters to go" sign and upon seeing that in the distance, I let my turnover and push-off increase. Looking at my watch a bit after the sign, I calculated that I would have to run a 94 to break 34 minutes, which seemed like a hard thing to do, but I decided to try anyway. At the 100m mark, I looked at the finish-line clock, and I had 30 more seconds! "Oh! I guess I'm going to beat my goal time by more than a minute!," I said in my head. Pushing the last bit, I finished in 33:52 (33:50 by my watch). I am so proud of myself.

Morning Weight: 142
Miles Today: 6
Other Exercise: biking to work
Total Miles this Week: 16

New Dish Loop Record

2006-06-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday David and I ran the Dish Loop as fast as I could again. We broke the time from before by 51 seconds, coming through at 26:56. My hammy's were tight for some reason, but we kicked our previous butts, so YAY! My goal for the summer is to be able to break 26. Then, at lunch I did a spinning workout. I'm hoping all this cross training I'm doing will reflect in my race this weekend. My goal is to break 35 minutes for the 8k (or faster than 7 min/miles). The weather is supposed to be an almost record high in Sacramento though, so it may be too hot to run fast, but we'll see. I'm going to take it easy the next two days, with doing some quick strides tomorrow on my run with an easy lunch spin session (maybe), and only running 3-4 miles on Friday and no cross-training.

Morning Weight: 143.25
Miles Today: 5.5
Other Exercise: Commuting to/from work on bike, swimming 900yrds
Total Miles this Week: 28.25

Food and Weight Logs

2006-06-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

I've gone outside the blog world and signed up for a couple of sites that work better at tracking what and how much I eat each day, and that chart my weight. The links are now in the Linkspeed section on the right. Enjoy! Holly pointed me to them. Thanks Holly!

Morning Weight: 142.5
Miles Today: 6.75
Other Exercise: Spinning Class
Total Miles this Week: 23.5

8 x 400 cutdowns

2006-06-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I ran to the middle school track in Los Osos and was going to run 2x(4x440 )at 3k pace with 220 recovery and a lap jog between sets. After the first one in 99, I decided that 3k effort would be a better way to go because the track is eroded and the grass is growing into lane 1, so it ends up being a fairly sandy > 1/4 mile. Anyway, I guess I got used to being on a track again, because these were my times: (99,97,98,96,96,95,93,88). Whee! What's that, a 12:45 or so 2 mile?

After breakfast, I rode 40k into SLO on LOVR and back on 1. That's 25 miles and I averaged 27kph. Note to self: change CatEye to MILES next time you ride Mom's bike.

Morning Weight: 144.5
Miles Today: 10.5
Other Exercise: Spinning class at gym, 1 hour
Total Miles this Week: 10.5

Cross Training Galore

2006-06-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been cycling about 5x per week, running 6x, and swimming 1 (hopefully 3x in the future), and I feel really strong and energized. It's awesome... and totally weird. I work out 2-3 times a day, but my easy runs don't feel like a chore and I don't waddle around the office from soreness and achey legs. Instead of doing 3 running workouts a week, I'm doing 2 running and 1 biking. Maybe my energy can be attributed to running workouts that aren't as strenuous. My last two workouts were 4x5min fartlek with 2-5min rest at easy day pace today, and a 1600m time trial on Saturday. I'm mad at myself concerning the time trial. It was 6:07. Grrrcicle. (88,92,95,92) And the weird part was my lungs were the threshold and not my legs. I'm doing a mile road race in a month and my goal is to break 6 minutes. Hopefully by then, I'll have broken 140lbs. as well.

My food goal is to eat only when I'm hungry the next 4 days. I think I'm doing well so far. I'm glad I have plenty of snacks at my desk like apple rings and rice cakes. mmmm!

Morning Weight: 145.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Lift Weights/Abs
Total Miles this Week: 22.5 running, 30 biking, .5 swimming

2006 Marin 10k and first fast Dish Loop

2006-05-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

David made me do a tempo dish loop Tuesday. Talk about a confidence booster. We were chatting a lot of the way and still finished in 27:47. My goal is to break 26 by the end of the summer.

My first 10k race in my life was today. 45:17 by my watch, 45:21 by the race's. The start was slow. I think half the people didn't know they were doing the start. Some of those people were on the front line. Oh well. I started my watch when I crossed the line. My first mile was at 7:04, then 14:36 (7:32), 21:58 (7:22), (5k at 22:46), 29:12 (7:14), 36:39 (7:27), 43:53(7:14), (2nd 5k at 22:31). Yay for negative splits! I passed many people on the way to the finish after the 5k mark. Of anything, I'm proud of that. Considering that my best 5k time this year is 21:55, I think I did well. My goal that I didn't think I'd get was to go under 45, but I came pretty close, so I'm relatively happy about that. I don't think I want to race 10k again any time soon though. Ew and ouch. I'm going back to 5ks.

I lost a bunch of weight when I went to King's Canyon National Park with my parents. Hiking takes my mind off of food and keeps me entertained, so I don't eat so much.

Morning Weight: 145.5
Miles Today: 9.25
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 12.25

On my own for a bit it seems

2006-05-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

My coach didn't give me any new workouts for this period of time, so I took a little time off of workouts last week, focused on cross-training, and started again on Saturday. Saturday, I ran a 30 min warmup and 8x90 seconds at about 3k effort or harder with 90 seconds rest. I was dead on the last repeat. Then, I ran 12x200 cutdowns on Monday with 200 rest. (44,48,47?,46?,44,43,43,43,38,39,38,37) With trainers and no spikes. I'm glad I can go under 40, but I feel luke warm about the results. I was going HARD and they are still above 35. Blah.

Since it feels like summer now, I've gone into summer training mode. I just want to get myself ready for cross country season, which means getting to my racing weight, doing a lot of cross-training of swimming and biking (and saving gas along the way). I've biked to work Tues, Weds, and today so far this week. Wheee!

Morning Weight: 149.5
Miles Today: none
Other Exercise: Biked to and from work (15 miles)
Total Miles this Week: 27

Two races and an in/out workout

2006-05-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Not-so Zippy 5k, 6 x in/outs, and SLOW Run for the Future 5k. Both 5ks were on Sundays. I ran the Zippy in 21:55. Mile splits were approximately 6:49, 7:26 (14:15), and about 7. The 5k-pace part of the in/outs (21:34) were: 95,99,101,100,99?,98? Humph. That HURT. So this last week was a trial on all the things I shouldn't do a week before a race. 1) Wake up with the sun so I don't get my full 8+ hours any of the nights in the week except maybe Fri and Sat. 2) Forget to drink water 3) Drive to LA Weds/Thurs and back Fri. 4) Party on Thurs and get dehydrated. 5) Ride a motorcycle 45 miles on Sat.

Yeah. So I ran 22:10ish. I don't have the official results yet. I am sore today and it is probably from a combination of riding the motorcycle and running.

I really really need some speed. I also really really need to lose weight. Heavy legs are not fast legs.

Goal: 136 or lower by the time I do the SLO Triathlon this year. (July 23) That is 12 weeks away which is one pound a week.
Goal this week: Sleep 8+ hours a night starting tonight. (last night was ~3)

Morning Weight: 147
Miles Today: 12
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 19.5

Workouts for 4/12 and 4/15

2006-04-19T20:34:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, I ran 3 x 1600 in 6:46, 6:37 and 6:39, with 800 jog between each. Wore trainers. Warmed up 3 miles, 4 strides, 6 diagonals with spikes, 4 x 200 after the 1600s (--, 43, 43, 42)

Saturday, I was in my hometown and ran the first two miles of the 4-mile race there, backwards. The first mile was at tempo pace in 7:38 and the second was 7:11 at 10k pace. Total: 14:49

Today was 6 x in/outs which is a 400 at 5k pace and another 400 at faster than easy pace (about 15-20 seconds slower than 5k per lap), no rest between each in/out. My 5k laps were at 98, 97, 99, 97, 99, 97 and the total was 21:32 (for 3 miles). I thought that was pretty sweet.

Morning Weight: 148.5 (yesterday)
Miles Today: 10.5
Other Exercise: brick workout with ~45 min. on the bike
Total Miles this Week: 36.5

Two more Pretty Good Workouts

2006-04-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

So, that last workout left me tired until Thursday/Friday. The following are the results from my two workouts last week...

Wednesday: Stanford Track inner lane. 3 mile wm, 4 strides, 6 long accelerations (it was dark and raining and the inside of the track was muddy, so I did them on the track instead of on the infield.), 4x800 at 3k pace w/ 400 recovery (w/ spikes) Puddles galore on the track surface. (3:05, 3:07, 3:08, 3:04), w/ David. 2.5 mile cool down.

Saturday: Palo Alto HS, 3.5 mile wm, 4 strides, 6 long accelerations (on the track, the infield was muddy, ew.), 3 sets of 4x400, 100 jog between 400s, 500 jog between sets. Last 400 in a set was at 5k pace, the rest were at 10k. (102,102,100,94, 104,100,101,95, 102,101,101,95), 2 mile cool down.

Morning Weight: 151 (after bowl of cereal)
Miles Today: 10 miles
Other Exercise:none
Total Miles this Week:10 miles

Good hard workout. Finally

2006-04-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

I finally had a long, hard workout that I finished. On Saturday. Yay! It was 3.25 mile wm, 4 strides, 6 diagonals, 4x1600 @ 10k pace (6:58,7:01,6:59,6:48) w/ 400 jog between each and 800 jog after the last one, 4x200 w/ 200 jog (43,44,44,43), 2 mile cd. Yay! I was totally wasted after that. I still feel dead today. (But in the Tri class, we did a bike workout and a running workout, so..... it could be a combo of both.) Oh yeah. I've been taking a triathlon class at the gym and it is pretty fun. Monday/Wednesday at lunch (11:30-1). Today we did a bike workout w/ 5 minute intervals of different stuff (sprinting, hill climbing, etc), and then we ran on the treadmill w/ 4x(10 minutes on and 2 minutes walking) increasing pace or incline during the time chunk. I didn't go fast. I stayed right around 8 min/mile pace for the running. Still, I'm totally pooped.

Morning Weight: 151
Miles Today: 6.75
Other Exercise: spinning for 30 minutes
Total Miles this Week: 6.75

Log for half week of 3/15-3/18

2006-04-03T16:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday: 148.5
9 miles: 3 mile wm, 4 strides, 8 diagonals, 6xin/outs (5k/MP), Palo Alto HS track.(6:5?, 7:14, 7:16) (14:30 for last 8 laps), 2 mile cool down.

2 miles: 10 minute wm on treadmill, spin workout for about an hour or so (OUCHIE) I was making it rain on the ground. ew. Then we got to run (yay!) on the treadmill for about 10 more minutes, slowly increasing speed. I was doing sub-8 pace at the end and feeling good. I was suprised that my legs un-jellofied pretty quickly. Talk about a confidence booster!

oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar[200], 2 egg whites[50], fresh pineapple[100], mocha[50], 2 hershey nuggets[150], salad[150], corn chowder[250], veggie strombolli[300], TJ choc. square[70], egg salad sandwich[400], yogurt[150], tortilla[110] = [1980]

Thursday: 147
7 miles: out on Junipero Serra for an hour, slowly.

PDI breakfast[350], banana[100], mazing bar and TJ square[150], M&Ms [100], soup, salad and veggies w/ rice [500], PDI cookies [300], ...= [1500]

Wow. I couldn't even finish a half week. Being stressed at work stinks. I won't stop trying to eat right!

Log for week of 3/5-3/11

2006-03-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Sunday: 149 (Parents')
Hiked up Bishop's Peak

Carlock's Bavarian Cream Donut [500], 3 big strawberries [50], a few chocolate chips and M&Ms [50], 4 homemade buttermilk pancakes (w/ choc. chips) [500], 1/3 of large Round Table Chicken Garlic Supreme [800?], Negra Modelo [150], choc. chips and M&Ms [300] = [2350]

Monday: 150.5
stiff from hike
7 miles - ran to Stanford track far side (27 mins) 8 strides of jog the turns, stride the straights, ran home (28 mins), a few walking drills, step-ups on bleachers
3.5 miles - 2 slow laps around business complex ~32 minutes

Oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar [200], fresh pineapple [100], 2 egg whites [50], mocha [50], fun size peanut M&Ms [100], salad [100], okra gumbo soup [100], brown rice and mu shu veggies [300], 1/2 egg salad sandwich on whole wheat [200], Dark chocolate square [70], Nature Valley choc. chip bar [120], fun size mazing bar [100], gatorade bar [250], bowl oatmeal [150], gardenburger patty [100] = [1990]

Tuesday: 150
sore in glutes, quads and hamstrings
7 miles - Raining. w/ David, up Dish loop and down the back side to the cow grate and back.

Oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar [200], fresh pineapple [100], 2 egg whites [50], bagel with strawberry cream cheese [400], mocha [50], salad w/ pasta [200], cheese sandwich [300], 2 chocolate squares [140], 2 gatorade bars [500], some strawberries [50] = [1990]

Wednesday: 148
still stiff
9 miles: 3 miles warm up SLOW, 4 strides, 6 diagonals with spikes, 2x1600 (7:23,7:23) w/ trainers on inside lane of Stanford (I was supposed to do four at 10k pace, but I did the first one and it was really difficult and I got such a slow time, any my lungs were a little rumbly, so I decided to do one more only) w/ David, 400 recovery, 5 min after, 4x200 w/ 200 recov at 3k pace (43,45,44,44). Man I'm slow. Those were hard. 2 mile cool down.

Oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar [200], baked omelet with spinach, matzo meal, and cheeses [150], mocha [50], maple yogurt [150], pastry thing [200], salad [150], 1/2 egg salad sandwich [250], 2 pieces olive cheese bread [300], 2 mazing crispy bars [150], chocolate square [70], carrot cake Clif Bar [240], strawberries [50]= [1960]

Thursday: 149.5
6 miles: ran around for ~53 minutes, slowly. sore and stiff.
1.75: 1 lap w/ Holly 16:26 windy!

Oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar [200], fresh pineapple [100], 2 egg whites [50], mocha [50], 4 rice cakes [140], veggie lasagna [300], greek salad [100], bread [100], 2 PDI cookies [300], choc. square [70], cereal [200], some sugarly snackies [100], Clif Bar [250] = [1960]

Friday: 148
DNR

??????

Log for half week of 3/1-3/4

2006-03-04T16:19:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday: 152.5
DNR: still gunk in my lungs

Oatmeal w/ dried cranberries and brown sugar [200], 2 hard-boiled egg whites [50], fresh pineapple [100], green tea, calcium pill, spinach and pasta salad [150], "Carrot and mushroom loaf with forest mushroom sauce and brown rice pilaf" [700], upside-down apple coffee cake [400], calcium pill, TJ's chocolate square [70], chocolate chip nature valley chewy granola bar [120], bowl of cheerios and cornflakes w/ milk [200], 2 liters water = [1990]

Thursday: 151.5
DNR: still gunk in my lungs

Oatmeal w/ dried cranberries and brown sugar [200], 2 hard-boiled egg whites [50], fresh pineapple [100], calcium pill, banana [100], salad [150], 1/2 veggie calzone [600], 2 PDI choc. chip cookies [400], calcium pill, peach wallaby organic yogurt (this stuff rocks! Usually I gag on the consistency of yogurt, and this is more liquidy) [130], stir fry from TJ's [270] = [2000]

Friday: 149.5
28 minutes of running. Ran for 1 minute. Had a hack attack with tears streaming down my face, and then tried cautiously running and felt fine! yay!
30 minutes of Yoga - easy, but I'll be sore tomorrow.

Oatmeal w/ dried cranberries and brown sugar [200], 2 hard-boiled egg whites [50], fresh pineapple [100], vanilla bean wallaby yogurt [140], macaroni and cheese [600], salad [50], mocha (nestle powder w/ 300 mg of calcium and coffee) [50], Nature Valley choc. chip chewy granola bar [120], calcium pill, pad thai [600] = [1910]

Saturday: 147.5 (Parents')
DNR: gunk

Choc. chip Gatorade Bar [250], 1/2 cup vanilla TJs yogurt [90], cheese sandwich [300], 1/2 a huge banana [70], nachos [250], 1/2 clam chowder in a bread bowl[ 500], red velvet cake [400], some choc. chips [40] = [1900]

Mardi Gras and Lent

2006-02-28T22:20:00.000-08:00

Yep. It is that time of year again! Lent! I just ate a chocolate chip muffin to celebrate. Yes. I know. BAD. 40 days of being good to come, I swear! At the last minute, I have decided (finally) what I am giving up for Lent this year. I am giving up eating more than 2000 calories/day and I'm going to log it. By 'day' I mean from 12:00am to 11:59pm. Let the log begin! Wish me luck! Oh. I should probably mention that Sundays don't "count" as part of the 40 days, so it is either ~46 days or Sundays are "freebies", but I'll see how I feel on Sunday =)

Log for week of 2/19-2/25

2006-02-28T22:10:00.000-08:00

Sunday: 148.5 (San Clemente)
12 miles: Ran with Katherine in Rancho Santa Fe, we started out fast and then I died on the hills. I was stiff to start out because of the hills and track workout yesterday and Katherine is in MUCH better shape. ugh. My butt hurts. I just couldn't hang on the hills. Pretty run and very peaceful. There were a ton of fast runners out there, wow! 98 minutes (which probably isn't 12 miles as I was probably running 9+ min/miles the last hour, but it felt like 20).

Gatorade Rain [150], Breakfast burrito [800], Endangered Species dark chocolate with raspberries (some of the best chocolate, yum! You can buy it at Whole Foods, but I found this in the Natural Section of Vons) [100], some bean chips and hummus [150], curry with rice [500], little penguin cabernet [150]

Monday:149.5 (San Clemente)
7 miles: Ran to middle school track along beach, 6 strides, back to apartment along El Camino

Rest of Gatorade [50], curry (for breakfast, I know)[200], Dreyers' chocolate chip cookie dough in a waffle cone [400], curry at a restaurant and pad thai [1000], non-fat decaf mocha [200], starbucks brownie [450]

Tuesday: 150.5
DNR sick.

Oatmeal with brown sugar [500], homemade noodle and veggie soup [600], chocolate [200]

Wednesday: forgot to weigh, I think
Jogged to track to meet Dave, probably 10 min miles (30 min wm), 2 strides, 1x800 at what felt like 5k pace but it wasn't =( (3:23)

==============
Well, I have been sick since that Monday. Didn't get any more log notes in and I don't really remember. I've been in a fog, but I'm feeling better. Unfortunately, it moved to my lungs and running has been a no-show. I tried during lunch today, but no luck. I'm going to try again tomorrow morning when my lungs are clearer.

Log for week of 2/12-2/18

2006-02-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

Friday: 150.5 (149 after run)
9 miles: Stanford Dish Loop from house (80:54) saw David on the loop and ran with him for a bit.

BOM (Big 'ol Mocha) *lol* [200], cream of wheat with a truffle in it (yes, that was chocolate, yum! There wasn't any other good sugar around) [200], banana [100], curry lentils and veggies [300], salad [100], "cheesecake" w/ strawberry topping [200], TJ's chocolate square [70], fun-size crunch bar [100], fun-size mazing bar [100], gatorade bar [250], some scotch tastes (ick. puke.) [70], yogurt [140], cherrios and soy milk [200], oatmeal [200], cheese and pita chips [600], garden burger [350] = [3180]

Saturday: 154 before I left (at 4am), less (150 or so) when I got to San Clemente.
11.5 miles: 3.5 mile warmup, 5 strides, 4x1600 with about 500 jog because I had to run in lane 4 on the HS track. (7:11,7:03,6:59,6:46) 27 minute cool down uphill.

Went for an afternoon short hike to the top of the hills.

Nutri-Grain bar [140], crepe w/ potatoes, cheese, onions, and I don't remember but it was neat. [600?], Nature Valley soft granola bar [140], beans, rice, cheese and 3 corn tortillas [800?], margarita [250?] = [1950]

Urg. I fell apart.

2006-02-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

Last week, I fell apart after Thursday. But, I weighed 148.5 on Monday. Probably a fluke though. This week my goal has been to not eat at my desk(s). I've been pretty successful so far, but I think it is just making me eat more in one sitting... Next week, I'll try a condensed version of my log. I'll put the foods in one line with commas, and I'll add to the same post throughout the week, republishing. I'm also going to try to drink at least 2 liters of water every day. In fact, I'll start tomorrow with the log.

Tonight for dinner I had spinach salad, cheerios w/ soy milk and 2 TJ's cookie dough frozen cookies.

Morning Weight: I don't remember. 152? 150? I forget.
Miles Today: None - it was cold outside and my bed was warm. It'll be colder tomorrow and I'm going to do the run I didn't do today... brr.
Other Exercise: None - went out to a birthday lunch.
Total Miles this Week: Urg. hold on... I'll add them up. 12+6+3+7.5+3+8.5+0=40 (planning to do 13 tomorrow and 10 on Sat.)

Thursday Log

2006-02-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

9 miles: Stanford Dish Loop, 78:36, felt pretty good, a little hamstring tiredness, almost hit by a car... This was the closest I'd ever been to being hit. I was running on the right side of the road so I could cross and turn right at the end of the crosswalk. The street is two lanes in both directions. The green man says I can run across. One car sits at the red light in the closest lane, but the far lane is open. As I pass the stopped car, an SUV slows down for the light and stops in the far lane (California style). At this point I am right in front of the SUV. I hear the engine rev and I yell, "AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Holy S#$%!" with my right arm out in a running-back pose and I swing wide. She slams on the breaks. If she hadn't stopped, I would have been a dent in her hood. Good thing I leave a "safety cushion" from cars when I run. Motorcyclists do that too. Stupid SUVs.

oatmeal w/ cranberries and brown sugar
2 hard-boiled egg whites
strawberries and pineapple
latte - decaf
chocolate frenzy (5 hershey nuggets, 2 fun-size peanut m&ms, 2 TJs squares)

The sugar frenzy just got worse from here...

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 9
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 47.5

Wednesday Log

2006-02-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

10 miles: 30 min warm up, 4 strides, 5 x (3min on/off) on Junipero and Stanford Ave, 22 min cool down
3.5 miles: easy second run around complex w/ co-workers(29:39)

oatmeal with cranberries and brown sugar
Powerade w/ soda
mocha
pineapple and cantelope
earl grey tea
2 hard-boiled egg whites
salad w/ beans
chinese veggie soup
veggies and broth
chocolate TJ's square
bite-size milky way caramel
egg-salad sandwich
mocha
bite-size krackel bar
gatorade bar - chocolate chip
bread with cheese
cheerios w/ soy milk

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 13.5
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 38.5

Tuesday Log

2006-02-07T15:02:00.000-08:00

7.5 miles in morning around Stanford w/ David ~61 minutes, up part of dish loop and around the back to Alpine.

Oatmeal w/ brown sugar and cranberries
fresh pineapple
2 hard-boiled egg whites
Nestle hot chocolate w/ decaf coffee
bagel w/ cream cheese
curried veggies, rice, cabbage salad and half a pita
bread pudding w/ sauce
tomato lettuce and cheese sandwich on whole wheat
fun size mazing bar
square dark TJ's chocolate
Gatorade bar
Pitas with roasted veggies, misc mediterranean toppings

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 7.5
Other Exercise: Weights
Total Miles this Week: 25

Monday Log

2006-02-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

7 miles. ~58 minutes. Loop through Stanford, stiff right hammy. Tried one stride and ended up doing some walking drills.

Oatmeal with brown sugar and dried cranberries
fresh pineapple
2 hard-boiled egg whites
nestle hot-chocolate w/ decaf coffee
Nature Valley chewy granola bar
salad
spaghetti with roasted veggies
fun size mazing bar
dark chocolate square (TJs)
maple yogurt
bowl cold cereal
pria mint chocolate bar
spinach salad
pasta
bread w/ cheese

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 7
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 17.5

Sunday Log

2006-02-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

10.5 miles: 3 mile warm up to/around Palo Alto HS track, 5 strides, 4x1600 w/ 400 jog recovery (6:51,7:04,7:00,6:53), 2 mile cool down

Cherrios w/ soy milk
chips and 7-layer dip
fuzzy navel wine cooler
veggies
2 vodka/sprites
garden burger and bun
2 mint milano cookies
2 chocolate chunk cookies
Cherrios w/ soy milk

Morning Weight: 151.5
Miles Today: 10.5
Other Exercise: Super Bowl Cheering?
Total Miles this Week: 10.5

What a procrastinator - New Week Resolutions

2006-02-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

Oh man, it took me forever to catch up to my blog. I'm really going to try to post more often. At the end of the season, I weighed about 145. I got my cast off right after Thanksgiving and proceeded to make the same mistakes I did last year by not waking up early in the morning to go on my runs. It was dark and cold and wet. My bed was warm and dry. That decision-- "I'll run later,"-- seems SO appealing in the morning when you are groggy. Unfortunately, it was still dark and cold and wet when I got home from work and when you are exhausted from working all day, it is just as appealing to have dinner and crash as it is to stay in bed in the morning. Thus, I only ran about 4 days a week in December and the beginning of January. I did run every day when I had time off work though the week after Christmas.

If I weigh myself now, I'm probably 152 or something. =( It is the end of the day... hold on... 154.5 OUCH. Poop.

So, I'm terrible at New Year's Resolutions. I didn't make any this year. On the other hand, I have been making "New Week's Resolutions." Today is the end of the second week. I'm having a great deal of success. A week is so much less daunting than a year. Two weeks ago, my resolution was to wake up every morning and go running. I accomplished that and I'm so proud of myself. I even barely made it to work before 9 almost every morning. (They serve breakfast until 9 at work and then take it away). Last week my resolution was non-athletic related, so I won't post it here, but I still woke up 4 out of 5 days, and my excuse for the morning I didn't run was that I was really sore the day before, not that it was cold and wet. It has helped that the sun is finally rising earlier, the rain is only falling in the afternoon, and the cloud-cover has warmed the mornings. But I digress.

Next week's resolution:
Keep a running/food journal. I will post what I eat, drink and run this next week, Sun-Sat. I'd better behave, huh?

Nationals 2005 Rochester

2006-02-04T17:49:00.000-08:00

Rochester was beautiful at the end of November. The air was crisp; the trees were naked; all the leaves were sitting on the hard ground waiting to be crunched. It was awesome. Goals for the race: 1) Run a faster pace than PA's. 2) Don't get last. 3) Break 26 minutes. My co-workers thought that my second goal was stupid. "You're not going to get last." they said. That's what they thought. This is Nationals, not a fun run. My race was at 1pm which is the same as 10am my time. I didn't try to acclimate to the new timezone because most of my races for the season were around 10, so it was perfect to go to bed at 12:30am and wake up at 8:30am every morning. (We had been there since Thursday and the race was on Saturday.)

The 6k course was 2.5 loops of flat and a few rolling hills on grass, with some muddy parts. It cut across an asphalt trail 4 times each loop. Despite that, I decided to wear spikes... cross-country spikes. I think they were over 1/2" long. I had never worn long spikes for a cross-country race before... They turned out GREAT! That was an awesome decision. Running across the asphalt wasn't a problem as the spikes seems to sink right into it, and my grip on the soggy grass was excellent. I took turns without even worrying about slipping. Ahhhhhh.... Next year, I just need to remember to buy Asics spikes... I felt a little guilty about wearing Nike while representing Asics. Well, maybe that's why I finished so far back.... ;) Speaking of finishing, I met my goals. My time was 25:52, my pace was 6:56, and I finished 9th from last, beating 8 people. Heh.

Next season, nationals is at Golden Gate, which is the same course as PA's. (see previous post).

PA's/Regionals 2005

2006-02-04T17:26:00.000-08:00

Wheeee! My goal for this meet was to break 30 minutes and hopefully beat my time from the beginning of the season by at least a minute. And my guesses in this post were untrue about the second log. But really, I was just going to run hard because I didn't know how much my cast was going to affect me. From the start to the finish, this was an elbow-licious race. I really tried not to hurt anybodies elbows with my hard cast, so my swing was in constant adjustment. I'm way too nice. I should have just cracked their elbows for getting too close.

Well, the cool thing was that I achieved both my goals! And, I beat a Nike Farm Team gal. Those ladies are elite and it is nice to know that I'm getting closer to that level. I ended up 124th, and I'd love to finish in the top 100 next year. We'll see how track season goes.

2005 Tamalpa Challenge

2005-12-20T19:56:00.000-08:00

First race with a cast. It was a short cast, but I had had only 11.5 days of healing before the race, so I was racing very carefully. Have you ever run with the awareness of trying not to fall on trails for 30 minutes? It makes you much slower AND unbearably sore the next several days too! It felt as though I hadn't been training! Where did all that cross training go on the elliptical the week before? Ouchie. A cool lady passed me at mile 3 (in the 4.25 mile race) and encouraged me, "Let's go get the SLUGS!" (There were UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs running the race). When I tried to catch back up to her and didn't within the half minute of silence, she pants, "Come on, already!"
I breathe back, "I'm trying! My legs won't move!" Eventually, I catch her on a hill and say, "Last hill...".
"Really?" she asks.
"I think so."
Unfortunately, she didn't stay with me and I beat her. I felt a little bad about finishing ahead after all that encouragement, but we did both beat at least one slug. =)

Yes, I really did talk that much at the end of the race. My lungs were totally fine; my legs were the slowing down factor.

Oopsie

2005-12-19T22:15:00.000-08:00

So, in October, I broke my arm. It was the Monday night before Shoreline. Shoreline was significant to me because that was where I fell apart last year. I was SO looking forward to running, but the orthopedic doctor told me no. *sigh* I ran the next races and finished the season in a cast. I was 139 lbs. when I broke my arm.

2005 Folsom - another good race

2005-12-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

This was a confidence boost and the first race that I ran fairly even splits. Nobody passed me after 1 mile. With that territory, (and assuming I wasn't dead last, which I wasn't) means that I passed a fair amount of runners the last 2.1 miles. My time, unfortunately, was a disappointment. The course changed from last year and we all assumed it would be faster, but I ran 7 seconds slower. 7 seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but it is a ton if you've been breaking times from last year by at least 30 seconds every race and you think that the new course is faster. That is like running 50 seconds slower than expected. Comparing the results of last year and this year, however, shows that the new course is slower anyway. Hooray! Plus, I finished even higher up in the top 50%. 22:05

Presidio 2005 - The hilliest race I've ever run

2005-12-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

...and the longest 3.55 miles of my racing career. I raced at 7:50 pace apparently, but I raced fairly well, placing in the top 50%. I think my goals for this race was to break 8 minutes/mile, which I did. I hadn't ever raced this course before and looking at the previous year's times, I knew it was a SLOW course, so I couldn't really make any well-informed goals or plans. The best part was flying by people on the steep downhills and on the last steep uphill. I think I vowed to work harder at hills after this race.

2005 Jamba Juices

2005-10-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

My first road race of the season was the San Francisco Jamba Juice 5k. The week following, I ran a second 5k with the Jamba Juice theme. Ya know. Gotta pack the good stuff close together and all. My goal for the first was to beat my time from 2004 and break 21 minutes. The second's goal was to beat my time from the week prior. The results were thus: 21:05 for the San Francisco version and 20:32 for the Chase in Paso Robles. Not bad. I was happy with the second race. It didn't hurt to come in 3rd to earn a year's supply of Jamba Juice either... =)

2005 Golden Gate Park Race

2005-10-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

I got sick after Labor Day Weekend, and this race was the following weekend, so I was not feeling very peppy, but I did it anyway. I had a primary goal and a secondary goal. The primary goal was to beat my time from last year. The other goal was to break 30 minutes. Last year, I ran 31:08. This year, even though I was wanting to quit after 1 mile, with 3 to go, I ran 30:32. Nice! My goal at regionals is to beat that time by at least a minute. Pacewise, that is going from 7:40/mile to 7:25/mile, which should be way easy. I think I can even do 7:15s, giving me a 1:30 difference at around 29 minutes. This course does tend to be sneaky-hard though, and I heard that they add another big fat log for the runners to jump over at regionals.

I'm getting faster!

2005-10-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had an awesome workout. Please refer to this post as a reference for how awesome my workout was: crazy-nighthawk. Ok. I did 4x1600m with 1.25 laps jog between each repeat. I was supposed to do these at 10k race effort. So, I did the first one at a pace that I thought was fairly conservative. The result? 6:35. WHAT?! Holy cow! That's faster than my best 5k race pace this year, and it's even faster than my all-out mile in June. Yay! I only had three more efforts to go. The next two were both 6:43. I guess that is closer to 10k race pace, but I've never raced a 10k, so I don't really know how much slower it is than a 5k. The last 1600, I just wanted to see if I could do a 6:35 again. I was just messing around and I really shouldn't have. I should have stayed on the 10k pace, but I was too curious. It was fairly tough to run, but I accomplished it with a 6:30. =) Yippee!

On another note, the following should be added to the track etiquette list. There was a guy during one of my repeats walking in the lane I was in, in office-wear and talking on a cellphone! This boggles my mind. He wasn't paying an ounce of attention to anything that was going on around him. Dude.

Morning Weight: 138.5
Miles Today: 12
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 12, last week was 66

My second Team Camp

2005-09-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Every Labor Day weekend is planned for me until I decide not to associate myself with my running club, which will probably not happen. This was my second planned Labor Day, and I don't think I learned from the last one.

Lessons:
1) Take Friday off work. Traffic is horrendous all afternoon/evening Friday, so either leave in the early morning on Friday, or leave Thursday after work.
2) If you are planning to get anything done (like read a book) Labor Day weekend, forget it. It won't happen. All you will do is drink, socialize, sleep and run, in that order.
3) Make sure people your age are coming! All those old guys can get a little creepy sometimes.
4) Go to the meetings. They made me cross country captain for the women's open team while I was napping.
5) Bring chocolate and/or alcohol. Everyone will love you.

Actually, I'm really excited about number 4. If nothing else, it will keep me from quitting half-way through the season like I did last year.

Morning Weight: 143.5
Miles Today: 8
Other Exercise: None
Total Miles this Week: 58.5