Rubber Side Down: March 2005

Sat. run along the Coyote Creek trail

Poor Bessie was too tired to greet us at the half-way point

Her friends weren't afraid to come up and say hello

They were friendly, REALLY friendly!

Beautiful big brown eyes

Our feet are blue!

We tried, but in the end we had to head back

This is really really cold!

The end of a fun and unusual 11 miles!

Schedule For April

Date == Run == Meeting Time and Place
Sat 2nd == 21 Miler == Los Gatos High School 8am
Sat 9th == SF Presido + Omelettes == Patrick's sister's house 8am
Sun 10th == SJ Mercury News 10k ==
Sat 16th == 1st day of SJ Fit +12 miles == LGHS 7:30am
Sun 17th == Cupertino 10k ==
Sat 23rd == SJ Fit == LGHS 7:30am
Sun 24th == 21 Miler == LGHS 8am

food at last...

all this, and strong coffee :) too

Yokoco with Steven

mmmmmm, razzies for Yazzie

raspberry girl

Run's done, to eat's a treat

le chef

Interesting science

Okay, so this is totally unconfirmed by other resources, but I found it interesting if you are into geeky number stuff

http://www.cbass.com/INTERVAL.HTM

During strenuous exercise, the rate of metabolism rises, going to about 15 times the basal metabolic rate (BMR) and even higher during intense interval work. For example, running 5 mi/hr the oxygen uptake required is 28 ml 02/min/kg of body weight with 3.7 cal/hr./lb burned, while a short burst of intense interval work may require 100 ml 02/min/kg with 13.8 cal/hr/lb burned

Schedule (proposed) for next couple weeks

Date == Run == Meeting Time and Place

Mon 14th == Stanford campus loop + dish trail == Stanford track 5:15pm COMPLETED

Wed 16th == Interval 20 x 100m @ 7:08 pace == Stanford track 7pm COMPLETED

Sat 19th == Alma triple bridge 17 miles == Los Gatos High School 8am Alma Bridge 13 miles due to rain

Mon 21st == Stanford campus loop + dish trail == Stanford track 5:15pm Tried switching with internval training but track closed, ran to dish and back

Wed 23rd == Interval 10 x 200m x 100m recovery == Stanford track 7:30 AM We did 8 and then didn't have any desire to do more :P

Sat 26th == Rancho BM Trail first power pole == Rancho bathrooms 7am Changed to Coyote Creek trail, ran 11 miles

Anticipation

So tomorrow's run to Alma got switched to "something" at Rancho with Yoko et al. Sissie says, "don't worry, it'll be long enough"... oh, the anticipation. Wondering how many hours of sleep Yoko will have had before...

Another 10k invite for you!

HP's Up and Running
in Cupertino on Sunday, April 17th, that's one week after the Mercury News 10k. 100% of $25 entry fee goes to Second Harvest Food Bank, so you can't lose.

Napa 2005 - can we break the 3:45

In the expo, the day before, I found Herzel touring the place for recognizable people. "Here, let me introduce you to Dick", he said. Dick Beardsley holds the Napa course record (2:09). Herzel bought his book at CIM. OK, here we come, SJF !! Each of us receives Dick's inscription on our bib numbers -a sign for a good luck!! I bought Richard Beyno's book, "Making the Marathon Your Event". I never read running books before, I just ran. But I'm going ot coach and so I thought it would be better to know a little bit about it. I also got Rich to sign his book, yupi.

At dinner time, Herzel wants a 3:45, to qualify for Boston. Dah, I'm too young for that. I'm also not very well prepared for such a pace. It sounds very ambitious, but on the other hand, I cannot let Herzel finish before me, right ? In the last five races we ran together, I always finished a few minutes ahead of him. This includes SFM and CIM and a few halfs.

Phil wants to have a sub-4. In all of his marathons he got cramps around mile 20 and could not break the 4 hours. While we practiced together, he said "if you can make me run a sub-4 at Napa I will buy you a dinner". So that's the goal for tomorrow - a sub-4 for Phil and a sub 3:45 for Herzel. How these two go together? well....

We arrive with the bus to Calistoga around 6:15. It is cold, and there are huge lines for the pottys. I notice that I have no time chip - but today it's not my fault - no one has chips. There's gun time only. Which means you wanna start as front as possible.

Herzel Phil and I have a strong start 8 min/mile. Ten minutes before the start Herzel decides to do 8 minutes - 30 seconds walk. He never practiced the run-walk. Where that comes from ? Soon after the start, his pattern breaks our sync. Phil and I continue on a steady pace of 8:20-8:30 for the first half. The hills are rolloing and the views around are beautiful. Herzel is a bit ahead of us, and we see him doing his 8-30.

At mile 14 phils drops back. He cannot keep up with this pace. I gradually catch up with Herzel and pass him as well. So far it feels very good, and we are a bit ahead of the 3:45 goal.

At mile 18 we are still on target. Mile 19 is coming, with the last long very moderate hill. I slow down to 9:14, and 9:55 at mile 20. I feel very tired. This hill caught me at a bad time. I feel like it's not going to be a great record after all. I slow down to some 11 minutes miles. The problem is, no one of Herzel and Phil catches up with me, thus I am crowling.

After gazing at my watch for some 1000 times, I see that there is still a chance to finish bellow 4 hours. I keep going, doing mile 26 at 10 minutes and finishing at 3:57. A couple minutes later Phil shows up at the finish line. 3:59 !! that's bellow 4 hours for sure. Before we have time for blessings, Herzel arrives, 4:00 sharp.

So Herzel will have to wait for Boston, and Phil will buy us a dinner !! I did not break a PR, but got it under 4. The day belong to Phil, who got crapms in both legs at mile 16, and kept a 10 minutes per mile pace for the next 10 miles !!! Five days after, he is still not recovered from the pain and the blisers. That's a real fighter!! I think we should buy him the dinner.

You can make out El Camino in the top right corner. Galvez is the street that runs to the left of our loops. The track wasn't even built when they took these photos.

The long, lovely, lope from Los Gatos to Meridian and back on the LG trail.

Saturday's 18 (19) miles o' fun (and Monday's assorted funpak)

I remember when 18 miles...

was what I would run in a week. Maybe.
was 2 hours more than my "long" run.
was something only crazy people did.
could never ever even remotely get me out of bed on a Sat. morning.

What was a gorgeous sunrise in Los Altos turning the hillside outside my window golden orange became a flat gray morning in Los Gatos. Mike, Iron Dayle, Sissie and Tetsujin Yoko signed their certification papers by showing up bright and early 8am to run most or all of our planned 18 mile trek. And yes, they are all certifiable.

I.D. had already had her adrenaline shot of the day shuttling her son Sante to practice in Los Gatos...or was that Los Altos? Mom! I'm going to be late! So by the time she met me in Campbell park, she had already made the trip out and back and out again and instead of wondering what to do with the extra 45 minutes (stretching was the plan) she hadn't even had time to put on her running shoes.

We left our stash of M&M's, peanut butter filled pretzels, boiled potatoes and water in my car don't worry my precious little chocolate candies, we'll be back and met the rest of the band at LGHS.

Now we get to the part where Yoko gets her nickname. She had already warned us that she had some injuries that was keeping her from running long distances, and on top of it she was going out Friday night. Yet, there she was, on time in the parking lot ready to go out at least part way and then walk back. Did I mention that she made it with only an hour of sleep? And that she had been out drinking and dancing the night before? It seemed hard to believe especially since I got the distinct feeling that she was itching to pull away during that first 6 miles. Yes, what started out as perhaps a few miles out and a walk back turned into a full 12 mile loop for injured, sleep deprived Tetsujin Yoko. Please don't make me run with her when she's rested.

The 5 of us took a power break, reaping the reward of running - M&Ms. The middle 6 miles is a bridge to bridge loop, 2 miles and a 4 mile out and back to Meridian from the park. We parted from Mike and Yoko at mile 7; they went back and we went on to our 18 miles of glory. The next 12 miles is mostly a blur now. The sun came out, the weather turned exceptionally beautiful and other than dodging the odd puddle or muddy patch it was a text book run. The real reason why its so vague now was the intensely interesting conversation covering a wide swath of issues on rascism, sexism and our perception. I couldn't even begin to capture the essence of the discussion but the miles flew by.

We did have a bit of fun with a group of bicyclist we caught at the top of a hill coming back. We passed them as they waited at the top (they let us go by) and then they quickly passed us again, but we caught them at the top of the Vasona dam! And they didn't pass us again until the railroad tracks. We'll beat them next time!

A small point about distances, even though the route is nominally 18 miles, it is actually close to 19 and all that is required is another 2+ mile loop to bring us to our 21 miler in 3 weeks!

Monday 7+

Its well known that I.D. is the toughest one in our bunch, is the most consistent, runs the most and in most ways inspires us to greatness. That's why she's Iron Dayle. In yet another example of her Ironess, she casually mentions that Sunday in an effort not to be a source of discouragement to her daughter, she ran at Rancho. What happened to the meaning of rest day? So I think, well there is no way she's going to want to run up to the dish today. How little I know. Our little run around Stanford campus is 5.9 miles and yesterday we added 1-2 miles to that by running 2/3 of the dish loop from south gate to the north gate.

Remarkable what all that winter hill running does. I had remembered the loop being a bit more challenging, but to attempt to quote Sissie - "That's it? No more hills?"

Napa Marathon: dinner on Saturday 03/04/05 @ 06:07PM

Hi

We're going to have dinner on Saturday, the night before the run. If you are interested to join us, please send me an email to "arnon at comcast dot net". Any recommendations about an affordable restaurant are very welcome.

CU There,
Arnon

Mercury News 10k

http://www.mercuryrunwalk.com/index.html

This is the week before our 2nd 21 miler, but I'm going to run it with my friend. (Her first 10k!)

Rubber Side Down

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Sunday, March 27, 2005

Monday, March 21, 2005

Schedule For April

Saturday, March 19, 2005

all this, and strong coffee :) too

mmmmmm, razzies for Yazzie

Run's done, to eat's a treat

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Interesting science

Monday, March 14, 2005

Schedule (proposed) for next couple weeks

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Anticipation

Another 10k invite for you!

Friday, March 11, 2005

Napa 2005 - can we break the 3:45

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Saturday's 18 (19) miles o' fun (and Monday's assorted funpak)

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Napa Marathon: dinner on Saturday 03/04/05 @ 06:07PM

Mercury News 10k

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