Rubber Side Down

Napa Valley Marathon 2009

2009-03-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

It was a dark and stormy morning. Dark until the sun came up anyway as we stood around in Calistoga waiting. If you are going to run a marathon in the pouring rain (with a slight head wind from time to time,) might as well make it one where you PR.

Going into Napa I felt that a 4:30:00 finish would be about right based on my long runs and my general condition but I guess what the say about racing is true, it fires you up and motivates you in positive ways, which at least partly explains the 4:08:20 finish. The rest I'll have to put down to some luck with choices.

Knowing there was going to be rain, the first decisions were what to wear. I've run in the rain plenty before and the forecast was for mild temperatures (50s F) so I didn't want to wear a thick layer that I would have to take off later in the race. I settled on a short sleeve dryfit shirt and a thin longsleeve Nike pullover over it. The pull has a small gel pouch in the back that I had never used so this was a nice opportunity.

The choice of what to wear before the start was simplified by the Napa Marathon providing a swag backpack with attached bib number that doubled as a sweats bag. I brought a warm cotton hoodie and an umbrella which kept me quite comfortable while I was standing around waiting. Then I changed into the $2 poncho Mike bought me at the Expo and dropped everything off on the bus for the finish line. I also wore my thinnest running gloves that I knew would not get too hot even if the weather got warm (it didn't.) I didn't expect them to get quite so soaked from absorbing the rain, but a little fist clenching every so often squeezed out the excess water, and they worked well to wipe the rain out of my eyes. I also opted for my thinnest running socks because my standard ones were feeling too thick and heavy lately. They ended up working well even after I had soaked both feet by stepping in puddles on the road.

Napa was unique in my marathon experience by providing boxes for racers to have their own drinks delivered to any of the aid stations. Mike clued me in to this and so I used 2 700ml water bottles with sports tops and filled them with 200 calories of HEED from Hammer Nutrition. I carried a 3rd bottle from the start mixed with a light solution of Perpetuem. This turned out to work perfectly. Starting off with a bananna 30 minutes before post time, I sipped the first bottle slowly over the first 6 miles, finishing it off with a gel at mile 6.5 about an hour into the race. I ran the next 5.5 miles without stopping and picked up my 2nd bottle at mile 11.9. I drank that more aggressively and finished it over about 4 miles. I ran the next couple miles not having to stop or carry anything, feeling pretty good until I grabbed my next bottle at the 18.4 mile aid station. I drank that bottle over the next 4 miles, stopping somewhere near the end of the bottle to down my 2nd gel - this time one with caffeine.

After that it was settle in for the final miles. I attempted to grab gatorade at one of the later stations but the thought came too late and I ended up past the gatorade and into the plain water cups and for whatever reason decided to just not bother stopping at all (a clue that racing often distrubs rational thought.) I did eat one piece of bananna in the middle-late miles but other than that I ran through every aid station. Having fluids with me was a huge benefit both by being able to hydrate when I wanted and avoiding having to slow down and drink from the cups. Having the cool weather and being soaked in rain the whole way made it possible to get away with just the 3 bottles. During the race it seemed like a lot of fluid but in hind sight it probably wasn't enough by a third; a liter an hour would have been better and that is supported by what I experienced during the race. Even though I was drinking large gulps at a time, I never felt like I had too much liquid in my stomach. Psychologically I thought it was a lot, but my body could have taken more.

The crowds were great during the race, there were large groups at various places on the road even though the weather was so bad - everyone cheering for all the runners and hardly any of the evil purple people fans. I found myself unconsciously surging every time I ran through the crowd.

I kept my pacing pretty even through the whole race - I fought the urge to surge at the start even though I still ran the first mile at 8:45 but I was passed by tons of people. I had thought to hold a 10min pace for the first 6 miles, but I slowed and pretty easily kept a 9:15-9:30 pace even as more people were passing me. I would see them again later. My training runs had led me to think a 10min pace or slower for the first half would be necessary to maintain strength until the finish but I continued at mid 9min pace making sure I never felt like I was working so hard that my breathing quickened. Being faster than my target it was a little easier to talk myself into slowing on the hills, again based on keeping my breathing steady, and that's the guide I used all the way to mile 25. By mile 25 I had already been passing runner after runner for some time. Some where pulling up to walk, others shuffling along trying to maintain a least the form of running. Right after passing a pair of guys I heard one of them say that he was falling apart and apologize to the other guy for holding him back. Its a completely different experience to be in the last miles of a marathon and know that you still have gas in the tank. My legs were definitely starting to hurt but my breathing was normal and my head clear. Around mile 25 I caught up and started to pass another group of runners just behind a woman who also seemed to be running strong and starting her last mile kick. I slotted in a couple yards behind her and we ran up to the final 200meters at about a 9 min pace.

The Napa finish is about as devious as it gets, with no less than 3 or 4 turns in the last 200 meters before you catch sight of the finish line. With 4:08 on the clock above the finish tape and the seconds passing, I ran past and into my new PR.

The Napa runner's buffet was a bit thin but hot soup was wonderful after being soaked. The drive back home was fun as Mike and I recounted our various race experiences and I was still a bit shocked that I was so drastically faster than my expected finish. I guess the good thing about low expectations are they are easy to exceed ;)

a great run, not such a great race.

2007-04-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

The Great Race, 4 miles from Saratoga to Los Gatos along Hwy 9, April 15 2007. Celebrating in its 30th anniversary, the Great Run still has no web site (??). Why would I care ? It's not just because I'm a web freak. I also want to know where the start line is, right ?

I registered online with Active. The next day I received my bib in an envelope. It was a small envelope, and the only thing inside was a bib number. Not even a single piece of paper with race day information. Not even the race date. And, did I mention that there was no web site? I sent an email to Eric Eberle, president of the LG Rotary, twice, but received no reply.

Patrick arrive at my place in the morning and we had coffee and bagel. We then ran 1.3 miles to the start line, a nice and easy warm up.

Patrick signed up and got his bib number. We did what men has to do and we were all set to start. We head to the start line, and moved up to the 7 minutes pace sign where we found Sheila, Joe and David. I relaxed, stretched up, to the side, the other side, and down - only then I noticed that many runners have this thing on their foot that's called time chip. Where that came from ? ? "one minute to start", the call said. Darned, we're going to run without a chip. At least we will have gun time.

The run went very well. My first split 7:05, the second mile 7:13. Then my GPS dies out of battery. OK, I thought to myself, just keep going and keep the good pace.

The last mile is mostly flat with some downhill. I turned onto Santa Cruz road and could see the finish line down the street. I gave my best out for a strong finish and just before the finish line passed this 12 years girl who was doing remarkably well (she won her division, F 2-13 !). The official clock shows 28:30 and I was ready to hand my bib slip away. There was no one to collect it, though. "I think you need to have a chip to get your time in", one official said, "didn't you read the email?". What email? the email from Active did not say anything about time chips. There was no web site, remember? no race day pamphlet, no nothing ! Even the race day registration desk did not direct us to pick our chips. Aparently there was one more email with instructions, not from Active (then from whom?). I missed that one.

By now I am quite upset. Patrick did not receive the finisher's ribbon. They just let him pass through the finish line without handing it to him. He had to go back and ask the young guy (a third grader) to give him one. We ran back with Sheila to Saratoga, making it a total 10+ miles before we call the day.

The day after. As anticipated, we're not showing up on the results list. It's not like I would use this result as a BQ, but we do deserve to be listed. It took a couple days and several emails until I finally had this fixed.

Yes, it is a great run, but the organizers have to greatly improve the race communication to make this race hold up to its name.

Arnon

What not to do - Marathon training part 2

2007-03-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Running Rancho can be dangerous, especially if you're clumsy. Running on uneven ground is supposed to help your ankle strength, that is unless you decide to roll you ankle underneath you as you put all your weight on it. Item 1 shows the bruising along the lateral right foot. Obviously some tearing in the tissue. Item 2 shows the swelling difference between the right and left feet.
Of course this had to happen 6 weeks out from the Big Sur marathon, with 2 long runs still on the schedule. Luckily the damage seems to be survivable. With light ankle exercises, stretching and walking, I was able to put my full weight on the foot after 2 days. I don't have full range of motion yet, but running seems emminently feasible. The focus has been on rehabilitation. I didn't use ice, ibuprofen was enough to keep the pain in check for the first 3 days. Physical therapy right away is the key!
These abrasions resulted from a headlong fall after clipping my toe in a downhill run at speed. You can't see it here but there was also a light contusion along the head of the Vastus medialis. Considering the speed I was going I got off pretty light, nothing broken and no damage to my hands or head despite getting a mouthful of dirt while skidding to a stop.

Tucson marathon

2007-01-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday morning, 12/09/2006. Thorsten and I are 26.2 miles north to the Hilton Tucon. That's quite far away. We are in the middle of nowhere. There are hills around us, surrounded by tall mountains. A single lane road, a remoted ranch, and about 1500 runners jumping from one leg to the other while waiting in line for the porta pottys.

We are going for an ambitious 3:20 time goal - would be a BQ for me. Thorsten came all this way to pace me. Why would I have any reason to believe that I can run a 3:20 ? well, I did run a 3:39 a couple months ago at hilly SF (take off 5 minutes), with a toes cramp (take off the 3 minutes stop). Since then, I did lots of track work (several minutes for sure). Tucson marathon goes 1500 feet downhill, and Thorsten as a pacer. A 3:20 is ambitious - we go for all or nothing.

We start high. High in elevation as in expectations. Elevation is 4500 feet or so. Thorsten and I are on a fast pace. The first miles have some strong downhills, and a few short uphills. We get rid of the gloves and sweatshirts around mile 4. The first six miles passed at a 7:23 avarage pace, 15 seconds bellow our required overall average pace of 3:38, and right where we want to be in these first downhill miles.

At mile 6 the head wind starts. A very sturdy wind, average 10mph with 15mph gusts. We have to push through. We still keep our miles bellow 3:39, but this requires heavier breathing and more effort than I planned to spend at this early stage of the run.

The downhill slope is now much less noticable than before. We run alongside state road 77 - a major two lanes road. In some parts one lane is closed for us, and in other parts we run outside of the yellow line. Make sure you don't trip and fall past the cones into the lane because cars and trucks are passing by at 60+mph.

We pass the half point at 1:37:52. This is great, right where we wanted to be. A few minutes to spare for the second half. And is my new halfs PR !!

The head wind does not let go. Thorsten runs in front of me to break the wind, and I trail him to save energy. He pushes the pace a notch and we catch up with a group of runners and blend in. It does help to run inside the group. Still, I am getting tired. I take a gu every 5 miles, and a couple e-caps every hour.

The miles become longer, and uphill. At least this is my feeling. The wind keep blowing in our faces. It is draining my energy and I slow down. Miles 15-19 go at an average 8:25 pace. It could have been a great pace for any other shiny day, however it is far too slow for today's ambitious goal. We no longer wish for a 3:20, but if we keep this pace we should still be able to make a 3:30.

We drink at any aid station. Prior to the run I finished one bottle of water and another of gatorade. I also carry my fuel belt with two little bottles. The temperature is between 50-60, an ideal temprature. It does not feel hot.

Miles 20-22 go at a 9:15 pace. Running is hard, and Thorsten does everything to cheer me up and keep my pace. I feel depleted but I keep going.

At mile 22 I get cramps. My right leg first, left leg follows. We keep running, although the pace is now 10+ minutes per mile. This is quite a painful struggle. Miles 25 and 26 are even slower, 11 minutes pace. Every time that I try to pick up the pace the cramps instantly tight up. I do not walk, but for Thorsten this is kinda walking pace. He tells me jokes and cheers me for every mile mark we pass. I am no longer a fun partner to run with, I must admit but he has infinte patience and not a single comment. He is there just for me. A true friend.

The last mile is uphill, alongside a very long traffic jam (we cannot escape the gasoline odor). We enter the finish line zone and the director even announce my name. A 3:41:29 finish time. It is over !

Not quite over yet. Thorsten sits down to rest, and I fight my cramped legs. I cannot sit - they would instantly cramp, toes to hips. I can hardly walk either. And I feel worse than after any previous marathon. My face are all salty, from the e-caps. I wonder, how comes I have such strong cramps if I took all these electrolytes ? Thorsten gives one look at me and says "I think that you are dehydrated".

Dahhh. It hits me. Of course I am. Pretty badly dehydrated, I must say. How could I be there and not notice it myself ? Yes, I had a bit more water than I usualy drink through a marathon. However, I have zero experience with running marathons in the desert. Humidity is 30%, compared to 90-97% in the bay area. We get some more water and other drinks. Within the first ten minutes after the run I finish four bottles of liquids, and two more within the next 20 minutes or so. This is three liters! And nothing will come out for the next couple of hours, while I keep sipping more water. I never been so dehydrated before.

Three weeks later. My recovery is very slow. I could not walk straight for the first three days. After one week I had a first short run. My right foot swells and hurts after 4-6 miles. I run slower, shorter, and it is improving. The blisters are mostly gone, and I only have one black toe nail. I hope to be back to normal in a few more weeks.

The moral? my first marathon outside of California. A totally different weather; high elevation, head wind, very dry - all were overlooked. Running with a friend makes a huge difference, especially when it's hard and painful. Time of 3:41 is very good, given the cramps etc. Still, I must be alert to my body condition, and adjust my plan (gu, water etc) based on the conditions. Other than that, Gary was right- long downhills do cause blisters. And what about Boston ? Fortunatly, every year I get older ... and next year my BQ will go up to 3:30. I hope to see you in Boston 2008 :-)

Nike Marathon

2006-11-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

What's the Nike Women marathon in SF ? A very impressive organization - check out their web site http://www.nike.com/nikemarathon/. It sells out very quickly, months before the event.

How do I get into that? Well, have you seen "The Bachelor" ? Inspired by the movie, I finally had my wet dream come true - to run in San Francisco with thousands of women running after me :-) The full marathon had about 240 men, 3,700 women. Overall there were about 15,000 runners in the Nike event, perhaps half are Team and Training (!). TnT secured a huge chunk of the registrations - hence why the event is sold out so early (in May).

It's a very nice course, starting from Union Sqr, down to Embarcadero, all the way to Presidio, keeping the coastal road past Legion of Honors to the Great Hwy, into the GG park - touring most of it, then back on the Great Hwy, going south past the zoo, around Merced lake and a nice golf course, and finally heading north back to GG park and the finish line. I like it better than the San Francisco Marathon course, except that it misses the GG bridge.

Until mile 20 I was just a minute behind my 3:30 target time, with a 1:45:05 split at the first half and already having all the hills behind. A bit tired, I must say, but happy and energized. Nike have a very nice pace calculator on the web site, with splits adjusted to mile's difficulty - and I was following it very closely. It works great. I took one e-cap and one s-cap capsole every hour, water at every other aid station, and a Gu every 5-6 miles. However at mile mark 20, Lake Merced, my left foot toes suddenly cramped - they instantly curled under my foot. I was literally stepping over my own toes... hhmm, I almost tripped over, right on the "Mile 20" mark, in fron of a few surprised spectators. It felt somewhat like a race car crashing into the barriers and flipping over. I had to take off my shoe and sock to stretch and massage my toes and take a couple more e-caps. It only took a few minutes, but I could no longer make a 3:30 ... that's left for the next time.

There are lots of goodies along the way - chocolate, foot massage (?) and even free pairs of shoes... I skipped them all. The right way to enjoy this marathon is to stop at all these stations. Just don't try to make it your new PR.

I finished in 3:39:39 - knocking about 3 minutes off my previous PR !! I placed 175 overall, 15 in men and 5th in my age group. It felt great. The cramps were over and I just received the finisher's Tiffany neckless from a guy in tuxedo and the "Run like a girl" tech-shirt :-)

And what about all the women behind ? well, hhm, some of them were actually ahead of me. The bechelor must have ran faster to leave them all behind. I did not look back very often, but one difference I able to notice - they had very different outfit than in the picture :-)

Arnon

SAD Living Memorial Inaugural Run

2006-10-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

I got a chance to enjoy a morning run at Rancho, without all the noise and chatter of my usually unstoppable monologue. The reason being I was the only one running this morning.

It was a perfect fall morning in Northern California, sun shining, that clear, warm light that bathed the hills and trails. I decided to visit some of the "old" places I hadn't seen in awhile. (What comes from not running so much this summer.) So I headed the long way, Farm Bypass and up Upper Wildcat Canyon and down Upper Rogue Valley to the little pond. Its completely dried up at the moment, which was kind of a surprise.

Coming back I crossed the causeway and went up to the junction with Chemise and then back down and around to meet up with Rogue Valley and out to the farm. All the time enjoying the cool, still morning. There were plenty of deer, squirrel, rabbit and birds, but not too many humans. I caught up with one of them on the last leg past the fallen oak, only to have him shoot away in an urgent shuffle. Well, I'm not into racing so whatever, except then he slows down again, and since I'm just keeping my pace, I catch up to him again, and now he's off again! So what the heck, I think, if he's got that much energy, he must need some motivation. So putting thoughts to deeds, I pump it up a little so that I'm just within that "he's back there, I can feel 'em" distance all the way back to the bridge.

It was a good pick up for me, and I kept him from slacking off at the end of his run, mission accomplished.

The S.A.D. run name comes from Sissie, Arnon, and Dayle, all of who are out this week for various reasons. Seeing as its usually me that's MIA, it is appropriate that I step up and put some miles in for the team.

And really, how can one avoid a Rancho run, when just this summer there were sightings of bobcats, snakes, and coyote; and I personally got to witness a red-tail hawk descend and retreive a fat grey rat from the bushes. Not to mention the somewhat awesome sight of a giant oak limb, more like a half-tree, broken off and fallen from its parent.

Nope, you just can't beat running in the Bay Area.

A bitter runner's perspective

2006-09-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.slate.com/id/2149867/?GT1=8592

Running in Ashland, OR

2006-09-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about my training (or lack thereof, I should say) - for a while, so I thought I'd post again. Recently on Labor Day weekend Steven and I drove up to stay at a B&B in Ashland, OR. Our trip consisted of plans for Crater Lake, a play (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), some winery touring, and Lassen peak.

On the winery day ("Off day" for us) I decided to go for a run. Having felt sluggish, then energetic, then sluggish for the past month, I finally felt good enough to attempt a nice one just for myself. 45 min out, then back, I told myself - should be around a good 9 mi.

I took off in the early OR sun, temperatures mild, on a run on the old Highway 99, where our B&B was situated. The road reminded me of Alma, except there were no downhills or many flats on the way out. I jogged slowly, thinking, wow I must do like this running thing, or why was I out here by myself trudging up a hill, getting barked at by unfriendly oregonian(?) dogs, etc.? I trudged on, up and up, until I hit my goal, turned around, and flew down the hill to my awaiting B&B breakfast.

Newly home, I realized despite all my complaints that running is now part of me - I pack with my running gear, I make sure I always have a clean set of running stuff, I have my shoes (both road and trail) perpetually stashed in my car. Whether it's 8, or 12, or 21 mi - I have found a way to coexist with my sport without having the drive/fear of a race or marathon spurring me on. Sure, I wasn't logging the insane miles I used to. At the same time, I am enjoying running, just for the hell of it. And for now that's good enough for me!

San Francisco Night and Day Challenge

2006-07-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

Zachi and I ("Hillbusters" team) ran the 7 hours SF N&D challenge.
We've run a total of 30 miles around the city, had a lot of fun, some
cramps, and collected enough points to win the 7-hr runners division.

See our report at
http://www.nightanddaychallenge.com/hillbusters-sfnd-2006-report.html

and results :
http://www.nightanddaychallenge.com/results.asp#sf-results

arnon

BSIM 06 - what a thrill !

2006-05-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

It was the best preparation I ever had for any marathon. We followed Patrick schedule, and were not shy to run in cold, rain, mud and even snow. We had lots of hill work. Only hill work, to be accurate. That includes two 5-6 miles weekday runs at Rancho and long runs on hills - several PG&E-s (9m/1:40h), Black Mountains (17m/3:40h), and a couple LGHS to QuickSilver (22m/5h). I had one run in La Jolla, to the beach, all the boardwalk down to the marine, and back, San Diego (17m/3h). I take Patrick's comment that if we would have put in some track work it could have improved our pace.

5:00 AM - we are at the start line, after an hour drive from Monterey. It's dark and cold. Runners are gathering around in the parking lot. There is free coffee, bananas and vaseline - pick your favorite. I searched for Dayle, Patrick, and others - you must set up a meeting point if you want to find anyone in the dark.

Right after crossing the start line I found Carol. She has a similar time goal - under 4 hours. We ran together for a few miles before she pushed me not to wait - "go, I don't want to slow you down". "Well," I said, "see you again at mile 20 when you will pass me".

One thing for sure -I enjoyed every uphill along BSM ! After climbing some 3000 feet mountains in training runs, the BSM hills feel small and easy. The first 10 miles were easy hills, at a pretty steady pace of 8:25-8:30 per mile. Hurricane Point was where the training started to pay off. The first mile was 10:06 minutes, the second 9:06 (it feels less steep than the first mile). I went down from there at about 8 minute pace. Last year, running this part in the relay, my miles were 9:00 and 8:00 uphill and a sub-7 downhill :-). The second half it was rolling hills all the way. My pace slowed down a bit and ranged between 9-10:00 minutes per mile.

The view was spectacular. Well, the first half was foggy, and hurricane point was in the clouds. But the second half was clear and sunny and most beautiful. And the drums, the piano, the bands, the strawberries, the food, the soup, and even free beer at the finish, everything was perfect.

Carol passed me at mile 24. She was going FAST. Very fast. "Hey, Arnon, come on with us". I thought it was Thorsten pacing Carol. He later declined, so I still do not know who was he. But it was fast. I could only keep up with them for half a mile when the gap between us started to widen. I was still going much faster than before. I ran the last couple of miles at 8:35 pace - very unusual. I had to call up a few runners "on your left" ... It felt like some of them were walking backwards. That's a thrill. My finish time was 3:54 - great !! Carol finished more than a minute earlier ! Wow ! What a finish. Way to go, Carol !!! I owe you 3 minutes of my marathon time !!

I took with me a Power belt with two bottles of gatorade, some 6 Gu-s, and the Endurolights Patrick gave me a few days ago. I took one Gu every 40 minutes or so, and one e-cap after every hour. I had water/sport drink at almost every aid station. At mile 22 I felt like my calf is going to cramp and immediately took two e-caps. It helped a lot - within 10 minutes the signs were gone and never came back.

My new Garmin Forerunner 305 was not as great. I only had it for three days before the run, and was not used to use it. I accidentally stopped it at mile 1, instead of pressing the Lap button, and restarted around mile 2. Later it lost signal at least three times (why ?). The accumulated elevation is not very accurate. It shows 3400 feet up, 3600 down, but I believe that it should total about 2500 feet up, 2700 down. Overall the GPS was not accurate enough to provide me instantaneous feedback of my pace - duh, I do it better with a regular watch and time splits. I still need to explore how to use this techi gadget to effectively help my running.

2006-05-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

BSIM 06 - Coyote view

2006-05-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

I like Dayle's post style, so I'm copying her.

Weather=comfortable. 50 degrees at the start, overcast but warm enough with a sweatshirt and fleece blanket for my legs. Warm enough to ditch both and stand for 25 minutes on Hwy1 waiting for the gun. Sun came out at mile 13, just as I crossed Bixby bridge, so that was just about perfect.
Gear=perfect. Standard nike running clothes and my asics road shoes with orthoctics, no rash, no blisters, no complaints.
Food+liquids=good. I didn't carry any water with me, and that was a tough decision because I've carried something both other marathons. I had one Builder Bar in my pocket and I drank water at every stop and gatorade at most, that's every 2.5 miles for about the first 1/3-half and every 1.5 for the rest. I felt pretty well hydrated at the end. Gels at 2 locations, I pocketed one at the first hand out and didn't use it until the end. I think I could have taken one or two more in the last 1-1/2 hours to improve energy levels, even though I didn't feel like I needed a gel.
Mood=good. I was more nervous about this one than the last one I think, but by the 2nd hour felt like I was in a pretty good groove.
Sleep=good. I function terribly on not enough sleep, and getting up at 2am was the plan, so I made sure I hit the bed by 6pm.

So I feel like the whole conservative approach worked for me this time, as long as I discount ever breaking 4 hours. The 3-day hill training cycle and creative long runs developed by ID and Arnon put down a sufficient base. I was injury free for the whole period including the marathon, so obviously my body had enough time to recover at this level. In addition, my race was very conservative, just trying to maintain 10's the whole way, including walk breaks and drinking. From this perspective, the race was much more like our training runs, where distance is the only factor, not time. By keeping my early pace under control, and not over-exerting on the hills, I had the stores to keep going at the end. Walking every now and then to eat some Builder bar was a good thing too. I think those moments of rest all along the way are key to keeping the muscles from building up too much fatigue, and consequently they are much fresher at the end.
I do think that more track training would have made me feel that little bit more confident, but it could have also induced an injury, we'll see since I'm going to add them back in this summer. Also, I have to note that the gel thing really works for me if I have gotten to the last 1/4 of the race in good shape. I noticed it in the Sac marathon and in BSIM. Always run in races with plentiful, evenly spaced water stations, its the difference between a fun marathon and a grueling last 6 miles.

Big Sur Marathon

2006-05-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

Weather=perfect. Overcast and warm at the start. Sunny but not too hot at the finish.
Shoes+clothes=perfect. For some reason, Ascics work for marathons.
Food+liquids supply=overstocked, so heavy. 1 liter of pedialyte was overkill; I had more than 1/2 of it at the end.
Mood=good. The relay runners who bounded past me with their "I just started" leaps made me smile. Oh, to be them, or at least to feel as bouncy as they looked...
Sleep coefficient=good enough. Better than other times (Sacramento, San Diego,...)

So why was I sooooooo slow? (4:46).
Explanations:
overtraining - I was tired on those last long runs,
incorrect training - we did drop track in favor of hills,
vegetarianism - this one would get my chiropractor's vote, but Scott Jurek wins ultras on potatoes and beans!
old age - not yet, pleeez,
motherhood - another "catch-all" I don't want to accept,
forgot to eat the e-caps - maybe, but there was the Pedialyte,
lack of a personal trainer - hmmm.

Comfortable driving in white socks, no shoes ?

2006-04-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

If your answer is yes, you are a very dedicated runner !!

Why would anyone drive in white socks, no shoes ?
Well, this is what you would do if your shoes were *very* muddy.
You just take them off and place them in a plastic bag on the passenger's side.
If you've done it more than once, possibly many times, I'd bet you run
muddy trails in the rain! That's crazy !!! But you're a very dedicated runner !!!!

My portrait

2006-04-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

don't read me wrong - this is while hiking, not running !!! We have a lot of fun together !!!

a 22 miles of mud slides

2006-04-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dayle and I ran agian the 22 miles from LGHS to McAbee. It was exactly the same course we did three weeks ago. The weather was good, no showers, not too cold. However the trail condition was very different from two and three weeks ago. There were many mud slides and fallen rocks along the way, and quite many puddles and muddy sections to cross. This large one in the pictures bellow blocked the way completely and had us walk on the edge around, through the mud and above the edge.

This is the same mud slide from the other side. It will take a lot of work to clear it and restore the trail. The mud is between 2-4 feet high.

These pictures do not do justice to reality - they were suppose to convince you that we got a fair share of mud, however it looks pretty clean in these pictures.

At Hicks point I sat down on the road to take some stones out form my shoe. This was a short break, 3:20 hours into the run. Why would you care about it ? well, after I stood up I just could not run anymore ! It was a pain between my legs that hit me pretty badly. No, it's not what you're thinking about, so wipe this smile off your face. It took me maybe 15 minutes of walk and some electrolytes to recover. After another 40 minutes it was completely gone. That was an interesting lesson to remember.

Overall it was easier than last time. We made it in 4:55 hours, despite of all the mud and obstacles, and were much more alive at the end than before. And it was suppose to be better - afterall, this was my birthday !!

Check out the run

2006-03-29T10:48:00.000-08:00

I just have to say I love playing around with google earth. Maybe its the God's eye view but it is a great thing to be able to see something up close like running a trail for 5 hours, and then be able swoop down on it and get the big picture. This is the data from my gps converted into a Google Earth .kmz file. You have to install Google Earth to view it, but its worth it if you have a PC. I wish they had a Mac version.

We ran this roughly 22 mile trail in under 5 hours. Now that's a morning workout.

From Los Gatos through St. Joseph Hill and Sierra Azul to QuickSilver

2006-03-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

Did you read the title ? That's already too many park names to put in one blog, not to mention running them all on one Sunday morning. Yes, that was March 19, 2006.

See a gmap of the run at : http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=73009

Disclaimer - the photos were taken with an E850 phone. Under most circumstances I would not use my phone to take pictures, nor I would use my camera to call you. Hence the bush is not blue and our legs are not yellow, for most of the time.

We started from LGHS (elevation 350 feet) and ran across the St. Joseph hill to Alma road. In nother five minutes we were at the trailhead of Limekiln trail (2.7miles). The trail climbs on the south side of the Limekiln canyon. It is very pretty, mostly covered with trees, and we could hear the water in the creek bellow. Sissie and Alana turned back half the way in, as they planned to.

Patrick, Dayle, Carol and I finally reached the top of the ridge and the cross with Priest Rock Trail (1600f). On the map it shows 1.4 miles from Alma Rd to this point, however the GPS showed almost 2 miles, and so did our time. We continued with the Limekiln trail (this section is also a part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail) for another 3+ miles, up to the top of Mt. El Sombroso (2999f). So far 2:10 hours on the trail, 8+miles uphill. This is also the closest point on our trail to Mt. Umunhum.

What you see here never happened. Never believe any pictures other people show you. Yes, the mountain is there, and we were there, but there was no one else to take our group picture. I carry my phone without a tripod. And it's not photoshop either!! Nop. I use a different photo editor, called LView Pro.

We have room for one

more person on the left.

If you will send me your

picture (and $$) I will

add you in.

Going down Woods trail we saw some bikers going up - this trail seems even steeper than the one we took up. Going down was not easy, but we did not whine. It took us about an hour to get to Hicks road, where we entered the Almaden QuickSilver park. So far about 15 miles, 3.5 hours.

Most of the last 6.5 miles were downhill, and very pretty. But we did notice every short uphill as well, like the one past the Copper Mine.

We finished just bellow 5 hours !!! The car we left the night before at the McAbby entrance was still there. Oh, how many smiling faces to see a parking car, taking their shoes off and jumping in. The drive back to LGHS was effortless, isn't it ?

Mushrooms

2006-03-19T16:58:00.000-08:00

As promissed (see Sissie's blog), here are some mushrooms that I shot at Point Lobos in December 05. I had an opportunity to spend a couple of hours alone with my D50 camera, a Nikon 60mm Macro and a couple of tripods, one small enough to position the camera at ground level.

I take flower photos for years, but this is my first attmpt at mushrooms. Unlike flowers, mushrooms grow very close to the ground, often hidden between leaves, and only in dark areas.

I don't know mushroom names, however these bellow are very tiny ones. These mushrooms are smaller than a fingernail, 1.5" tall, and their stems are thin as a pine needle, many of which are shown in the background. On my laptop screen they appear in this little image in natural size. I had to wait for the clouds to open to get this sun light.

The truth is, i never intended to shoot mushrooms. I went there to catch big waves. Like this one. The middle rock is about 30-40 feet high above the water. A wave like that comes once in every 20-30 minutes. The camera was mounted on the tripod, in manual-everything mode. The camera's wireless remote control was very handy to shoot a sequence of frames when the wave arrived.

Oh, I almost forgot - this is a running blog, not my photo album ! Did I mention that I also ran around the Point Lobos park ? in shorts and running shoes, without my camera. It's a very scenic one hour run !

Arnon

Gory Trouble

2006-03-17T15:15:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when Rancho jumps up and bites you

at the woodpile

2006-03-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

It's not that cold, really, you can even sit on this snow

Arnon gives us the camera

2006-03-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

Arnon and the snow in Aldercroft Heights

34 degrees and shorts

2006-03-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Coyote and ID posing with the snow

Temperatures that morning

2006-03-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

SNOW in Los Gatos hills

2006-03-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, March 12th, we ran one of our coldest runs, in the snow even!

An early run with Arnon

2006-02-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say that I was worried about having to do a run just with Arnon - the fastest of the bunch! But we had a very nice conversation about photography (something I'm hoping to get into once I realized how much wedding photographers make!) and got some ideas from him on how to start. He's also going to post some mushroom photos for us :-)

Not happy

2006-01-24T14:51:00.000-08:00

IT Band issues suck! 2 weeks and it was getting better, but any little downhill and its flaring back up. This post is a reminder to myself to stop abusing my legs until they are healed! I was barreling down the trails when we did Alum Rock park, so I know they can do it.

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/2000/02_00/fredericson.htm

One of those days

2006-01-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

You ever have one of those days where you just want to scream at someone at work? well - it's one of those days. Just makes me wanna go out and run until I'm no longer mad (that'll take a while)

Incidentally snowboarding was QUITE fun - had a great 2 days up in the great white sierras. Worked out some fun different leg muscles so we'll see how I hold up tomorrow morning.

Patrick's new shoes

2006-01-23T16:49:00.000-08:00

You've seen them before on this blog, nice and shiny. Here is an updated photo of their condition as of yesterday. We will keep you updated on this topic.

A muddy PG&E

2006-01-23T15:59:00.000-08:00

It was Sunday, sunny and muddy. We've made it to the bench in x+42 minutes, and back in 50 minutes via Rogue Valley. x is a unknown scalar, denoting the time it took me before I realized that we are going to arrive to the top at no (zero) time unless I will press the watch's Start button. It's value believed to be around 10 minutes :-)

We enjoied a good weather; cool but not freezing, sunny but not hot, and muddy, of course. Most of the mud was at the bottom of the PG&E trail, after the water tower junction going up the uphill section and the flat that follows it. The rest of PG&E is mostly in good condition. We also ran into mud on the way down, on High Meadows about half way to the junction with Upper Wildcat. Rogue Valley was in great condition. We do not have videos of sliding through the mud but we have some pictorial evidence of surviving it without diving head first.

Patrick and Dayle at the famous bench.

Dayle's orange slices have become a trademark.

Happy to be back at the parking lot. It was 9+ miles and a nice run.

It surly feel more muddy than it looks in this picture.

Go Geek!

2006-01-21T10:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=12713

Great little article about the Garmin heartrate/GPS watches. The writer also bicycles, so its a perfect match for me! :P

Nutrition Info Website

2006-01-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

Interesting website I found while trying to find a calorie calculator

http://www.nutritiondata.com/calories-burned.html

It has a general nutrition summary including images of Nutrition Facts labels, interesting charts that you can click on and get lists of foods based on its fat/protein/carb ratio or filling/nutrious cross section.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/explorer.html

New Shoes too (2?)

2006-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Northface Ultra 103 XCR, water proof and rock proof. Of course it feels like running on a couple of planks with all the reinforcment in the sole...

A new me?

2005-12-31T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here's my new avatar, created on Yahoo. It's pretty fun, go try it! Sorry it's not running themed, maybe I'll try and create one of those ;-)

Dean's rejoinder

2005-12-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

http://outside.away.com/outside/news/20051018_1.html

Karnazes Completes 350-Mile Run

By Charles Bethea

October 18, 2005 On Wednesday, October 12, at 2 p.m., ultrarunner Dean Karnazes went for a run. At 10:44 p.m. on Saturday, October 15, 80 hours and 44 minutes later, he had covered 350 miles in a nonstop, sleepless loop through the San Francisco Bay Area.

So I guess, despite his claim that Pam was "more competetive than him" I guess he had to go out and beat her 300 miles. LOL He ran 151 miles ot the start of The Relay and then did it.

New Trail Shoes

2005-12-15T14:26:00.000-08:00

I finally went out and got new trail shoes for all those muddy/gunky/crusty runs up on the trails. Here they are - happy running!

CIM 2005 - or "don't try that either"

2005-12-12T21:40:00.000-08:00

If you have not read Patrick's "don't tray this at home", go first and read it, then come back here.

Let's start with my 10K Run to The Far Side, a week before the California International marathon. I was after three weeks of good training, which followed about four weeks of almost no running. My target was a fast 7:30 pace. Kind of a test before the marathon. Great expectations, with some uncertainty.

I ran the 10K on a nearly constant pace for a finish time of 45:39 - a solid 7:20 pace. A new PR. An awesome feeling. I am ready for the marathon.

I feel marathon-ready. But what time should I shoot for? 3:42 is my previous PR, and I want to break it. 3:20 is my BQ time, and is out of reach. So it could be 3:35. Or maybe even 3:30. Yea, how about an 8 minutes per mile pace for a marathon? I just ran a 10K at 7:20 pace, so a 3:30 sounds like a good goal.

In all my previous marathon PR-s, the good time was a result of careful pacing. Starting just a little bit faster than my goal pace and stocking a few minutes, then keeping these few extra minutes up to mile 20, and then slowing down a bit (unavoidable) and zooming into the finish line at the original target time.

Last time, SFM-05, I started with the 3:40 pacing group and ran ahead of the pack, then slowed down, and made the finish line at 3:42. This time, I said to myself, why not to start with the faster group and slow down ? so I ended up starting with the 3:20 pacing group.

They went out fast. That's fine, I thought, as I can still keep up. But looking at my splits (8:02, 7:28, 7:27), I quickly realized that THEY are going faster than their 3:20 target time (!) So I slowed down a bit (7:34 for the next four miles). Anyone could tell that this is still too fast. I chose to ignore the signs. Mile 10 passed at 1:17 hours, a 7:42 average pace so far. The half marathon time was 1:41:48, a new PR for half marathon run ! How nice, I thought. That's a good time. A 7:46 pace !

The second half was not exactly the same. Not at all. At mile 15 I slowed down to a 8:35 pace and was able to keep it for another three miles. At mile 19 I was on a 8:52 pace, and already tired. The 3:30 pace group just passed me. They were right on their 8:00 minutes pace. I was behind.

At mile 20 I started to feel bad. At Mile 21 I felt short, quick cramps. I never had cramps in marathons before. Well, I had them once, but it was after the run. I tried to loosen my legs while running. At mile 22 it hit me hard. Very strong, both legs. I changed to walking. Actually, it was painful even to walk. The people on the street were very nice "you can do it !! keep going". I tried to run, but this hurts. Walking felt a bit better. At this point, it was clear to me that the time is not going to make any difference anymore. It was mile 23 and it was all about finishing.

So, I decided to walk up to the next aid station and fill myself with GU2O - it has lots of what I needed - electrolytes! It took me 17 minutes to walk through mile 24, and having four cups of GU2O. A few minutes later I felt a bit better, and started jogging. At a 11:50 minutes pace I do not call it running. That's jogging. My goal now was to finish, and without cramps, if possible. It took about 25 minutes, and I finally finished the run. My time was 3:56:18, surprisingly still under 4 hours. On the good side, the cramps were gone. My legs were stiff and sore for the next several days - it took an unusually long recovery.

To summarize, I had my fastest half ever, my slowest mile ever, my first cramps
experience, and a swing of mood from very high to very low. Overall not my best marathon experience, but it came with several good lessons:
1. I had to prepare better. My training break hurts (I got tired too soon)
2. I need to carry e-caps for such occasions. And maybe even have some as preventive care.
3. And, most of all, I need to decide if I want to run a full marathon BEFORE I run the first half. And PACE myself to the right goal of the two. Marathon is all about pacing, pacing and pacing yourself.

Happy holidays,
Arnon

Peak Top Conversation

2005-11-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

http://latc.com/news/news4.html

Can you imagine trying to run up BMT with mountain bikers barreling down on us? One of the mountain bikers mentioned this when we were talking to them on Thursday morning. They didn't seem in favor of it, but then again, they could bike right from their own houses.

Black Mountain Peak Run

2005-11-25T09:36:00.000-08:00

THIS IS the longest run in Rancho San Antonio Preserve, from the parking lot to the top of Black Mountain is 8 miles, with about 2400 feet of elevation. Its perfect to keep the marathon edge on during the off months.

If you use Google Earth, you can put these coordinates in and get a nice view of the top. (You might have to change your options to set you Lat/Lon to degrees instead of degrees,minutes,seconds)

Lat: 37.3173408508439
Lon: -122.1479949951172

On the Way Up

2005-11-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

WE'RE ABOUT 15 minutes from the power pole on the way up and stopping for a little sight seeing and a munch. This is really an excellent trail to run.

Mmmmm, Yummy Hummus....mmmmmm

2005-11-24T15:19:00.001-08:00

Tired at The Top

2005-11-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

Big Sur Training

2005-11-24T15:18:00.000-08:00

The Lone Trail Runner

2005-11-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

Black Mountain Peak II - The Return of the Runners

2005-11-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

WE MADE it again to the top of Black Moutain Peak, this time the weather was much nicer as you can see if you look back in the blog from last year. In fact it was so nice we took a little extra time and had a picnic (I carried the turkey) on a set of rocks that are just a little way past this station. While we were admiring the views a trio of mountain bikers joined us and we had all sorts of interesting endurance sporte related talks. We even learned about a couple other spots; Grizzly [Peak,Basin?], China Grade - from which we could run from/to/through.

I even learned that there are horseback endurance events, doing 150 miles through rough terrain on horseback which sounded fun.

Sissie is even sporting her new Big Sur Training long-sleeve that is pretty cool. Look out April, here we come!

Don't try this at home folks!

2005-10-31T13:34:00.000-08:00

So I finally posted another finish. One DNS is enough and frankly when I thought I might have a stress fracture I was pretty bummed. Looking back at my calendar it was exactly 1 month ago when the doctor noticed something odd about my MRI and ordered the bone scan and followup. That took most of 2 weeks to sort itself out with my training on complete hold. Add another week of total demotivation and there I was one week out from my marathon, deciding I was going to do it with 3 weeks of muscle atrophy.

So, let me tell you here and now, a 10 mile run, 20 mile bike ride and a few 400m sprints do not make up for 3 weeks of couch potato-ism.

The race went okay for the first half. I am lucky enough to have ID and PS, 2 great runners who came out for some fun and support and we spent the time talking and everything went by reasonably well. I finished the first half in something over 1:58 (this is very close to my time for the SF Half that I did a year ago, but back then I was done, and couldn't have gone on for another 13.1. +1 for a year of training.)

That is around a 9:02 pace for the first half. By this time I knew I was in trouble, my quads were already feeling beat up and it seemed a real possibility that I'd be doing 12 or 13's by the end. This was just hammered home as I came out of LG High School and headed up, up, up one of the roads there. This was supposed to be a flat marathon!

After I painfully made my way to the top, I was lucky enough to run into another Fitter making his way back into Vasona park and the trail. I crunched another couple miles just making small talk with him. From then on it was slog, slog, walk through the water stations, slog some more. Sometime after 3 hours I grabbed a mango clif shot, it was nirvana. Those things really taste good!

It was after this I had a pretty good couple of miles, 20 and 21 and so I made a point to eat a clif shot at the next 2 water stations, but it was all just borrowed time.

Miles 23-finish were kind of a haze of pain, except I clearly remember being passed by Yuka and just never making up the lost ground. Curses! Mentally I was undone and I walked for about 40 seconds every water station or mile mark and a couple half mile marks as well for good measure.

The finish through the park was mixed both with relief at being done (almost) and sheer torture getting my legs to move those last few hundred strides. Finish time was 4:14:33 which is a 9:42.5 pace, but my second half split time was 2:16+ which is really a 10:25 pace. Almost a full minute and a half per mile slower than the first half. Which is why I say, don't try this for your next marathon :)

On the positive side it was almost 20 minutes faster than my Sacramento time. And my 2nd half pace for SV was the same as my overall pace for Sacramento, meaning I had 13 good avg. 9:00 pace miles. Its a good trend that I'll try to keep going in the right direction!

The Relay

2005-10-17T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is my "morning after" two days and one night of running and sitting in the van. This is also my third day after returning from Switzerland. As you can tell by the time of this post, I am not in perfect condition (brainwise) to run in to work and dive into the details... so, how was it?

We met at Arnon's on Saturday morning. In typical Amir-ican fashion, we were treated to breakfast, including excellent cappuccini. Yummy. Needless to say, we required a little coaxing to leave the comforts of this nuturing environment to pile into Terry's van, loaded with extra clothing, shoes, bottles of water, gatorade, snacks, cameras, blankies, pillows, sunscreen and, well, you get the idea. Some of the perhaps unexpected items to note were Erin's teddy bear and Arnon's "Wall Street Journal".

Well-nourished and caffeinated, we got on the road maybe 1/2 hour later than predicted and booted it up to Calistoga. We arrived in time and, due to the brilliance of the organizing committee, flew through the registration with peerless efficiency. Erin was off in a flash, wearing the latest in female running apparel: a running skirt! (I put this in to appease the "hair and nails" community).

As to the day, it too was brilliant: sunny, still cool, but warming up rapidly. As a newbie to the relay, I was entertained by the other vans: each displaying the team name with accessorizing props. Some examples: "Twinkie", "Texas Starbutts" (with that familiar green circle and the lone star of Texas on the back of their running shorts), "Nice Assets" (you can imagine the prop - if you can't, go look around the Hallowe'en costume stores). People were supportive and enthusiastic - cheering all the runners as they ran past.

Inside our van, the atmosphere was unwinding from the earlier tension and we were settling in to enjoy the day; the warm weather helped, too. Sailing through the first legs, things began to heat up. En route, we visited some cute little towns, Yountville and of course, got some strange looks. We got to the church in the middle of the afternoon for the shower and pasta lunch. To add the element of danger and precariousness to this tale, it should be noted that we were among the last people (Arnon was the last, in fact) who managed to shower before it was closed by the city due to an overflowing sewage problem. Hmmm, time to leave (and step carefully in the parking lot).

Now we were free! Van#2 was "on" and we could power down for the interim. Blissful, right? Like all good 'mericans, we were unable to turn off, and reached for... Starbucks! I think we were in Petaluma, at this point. Our rendez-vous point with van#2 was conveniently scheduled at a place - the cheese factory - without cellphone coverage, so it was one of those "hurry up and wait" deals, where you have to be "ready" but also "patient". Darkness fell and with it dropped the temperature. People were dressed in everything imaginable at this point: towel-wrapped shorts and t-shirts, pseudo-ski wear - ski hats (tuques to any Canucks), fleece, warmup suits, reflecto-wear, electro-wear (that means lights on their heads, backs, fronts, and feet (Gary), chemico-wear (glowsticks).

The combined jetlag and cold temp made this a tough stretch for me. During a moment of reflection with Arnon, we both came to the same conclusion: this was insane. We were waiting for a runner we couldn't recognize, at a place without phone service, in the dark of the night. The mood picked up once we transferred the arm band and were off down the road, following Erin. Once again, we sailed through the legs. Ok, there was an identification problem when the rest of the group picked someone else out as me and tried to get the armband from her at the transfer point. But no harm was done and the luxury of the carpetted bathroom facilities at this intersection quickly became the hot topic of conversation.

The peak of the experience was not far off at this point - it was Arnon's run up to and across the GG bridge. The perfect night: cool but not cold, clear, windless and le coup de grace - a full moon. The city twinkled in the background. Arnon's pace was not one of the whimsical romantic, however. He rose to the challenge of a nearby runner and the competition surged. With a strong finish, we handed off to Paul and now it was naptime. Getting to naptime was a little drive, so next year we need someone on the team to have a place in Daly City... (note to selves). And so it went: a little soap, a little soup, a little sleep, a little ... RUN! The next day was here and our last leg was about to begin: ~Redwood City to Hwy 9/Skyline. Our resolve was strong - people made heroic efforts pulling out reserves of energy from any hidden stores to advance our cause. Our victory was close at hand as we went to Arnon's for a final shower and celebratory lunch.

It was all smiles and hugs on the beach at Santa Cruz, sore muscles mellowed by beer, as we crossed the finish line with Lynne and all the van #2 crew. The setting sun drew our adventure to a close, but many were already talking about the next relay (in April). See you there! Thanks to all for a great time, especially the van #2 folks - we didn't get to know each other as well as the intravan folks, but we sure depended on you to be there.

Big Sur is coming!!

2005-09-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sign up for Big Sur! Great opportunity to make sure we run through the winter :-)

Dayle and I are in - be sure to get in now!!

Pain Free Running

2005-09-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

It seems a little like tempting fate to expound on the exhiliration of running without an injury, especially when we all suffer ups and downs in that department, and yet with the endorphins running rampant after a really awesome track workout it seems I can't help myself.

It was just Dayle and myself this morning and coming in the middle of a pretty strenuous week (for me) I was mentally fatigued. While I had trouble summoning the energy to break into our warm-up trot, Dayle seemed raring to go. Mentally grumbling to myself I decided to "choose my attitude" and suck it up. Still it wasn't until my first set of strides that I felt like I had something in me today, so it was pretty surprising, shocking really, when I completed my 1x1600m at a 7:00 pace, a full 20sec/mile faster than my target. Hoookay. Did I miss a lap?

10x400m was what was left on the schedule for today. First lap 1:45! My mental target was 1:55. Alright, I could slow it down a little. Next was 1:47, 1:50, 1:48, 1:47, 1:48, now I was really feeling it, committ to 2 more, 1:53, 1:52. Its not until I get home that I look up 1:45 in lane 7 - 6:19 pace!! And all my intervals are sub-7 pace. Where did it come from? I still don't know.

I don't know if I can put in words the feeling of having "conquered" my knee injury. Having lived with nagging pain for so long and now to be able to run pain-free is just amazing.

Mile High Club - Training at altitude

2005-08-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

It was perfect weather up at Lake Tahoe this weekend. I went up for a friend's birthday party, but it was the perfect place to kill 2 birds with one stone. Saturday morning was bright and clear and a temperature that felt neither warm nor cool. Liz was running her first 10 miler, and I was hoping to accomplish the 18 that was in the training schedule.

Most of the other people in the cabin were heavily sleeping off the late night party from Fri. while we picked our way through the sleeping bags and air matresses trying to wake up fully. The anaerobic training seems to have helped, the high altitude didn't seem to affect my sleep at all, but the real test would be once we hit the road.

We stayed in a little South Lake Tahoe neighborhood about 3 miles from the Nevada state border. I didn't have a plan, just my gps and a primary goal of 10 miles. We wended our way through tree line streets going at a temperate pace. The shade was very pleasant, the sunlight was very strong, even though the air wasn't warm, and we made our way into the mall-like area near the border. We hit Nevada at about mile 4 and the sign said 6250 feet of altitude. A bit higher than I thought, and the pace was not stressing out my cardiovascular system, so I was pretty happy at this point.

We turned around and made our way back to the house, took a quick break for more water and then ran the neighborhood to make up the last 2 miles in 2:14. That was a loooong 10 miles and my legs and feet were starting to feel the build-up of the steady punishment. I filled up my bottles and set off again on my own. At this point I was thinking I'd be fine if I could just put in another 4 miles/40 minutes and I headed back to the Nevada border. I ran along the lake front for a short while, but the path wasn't long and kept getting broken up by private beaches so I went back to Hwy 50. At mile 2 (12) I committed myself to try for 6 total. My breathing was pretty fast for a 10 min/mile pace, so I was finally experiencing the altitude. Mile 3 (13) was right at the border and I turned around to head home, mercifully the way was slightly downhill, so my pace picked up to around 9:15. My feet were really starting to hurt and the bursitis in my left leg was starting to bug me, I was ready to be done for sure.

So there it was, I finished the 6 mile loop in bright sunshine in just under an hour. The views of the lake were magnificent, and running among trees is nice, even if you are still pounding pavement. I got to spend the afternoon swimming in the lake which felt great on my legs. I even tried a few laps of free style, but if I'm going to do a triathlon, I'm going to need a _lot_ of practice!

6 x 800m of Fun!

2005-08-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

We ran our 800m intervals this morning. With people on the DL, on vacation or just plain busy, we're re-syncing. Dayle's done them several times, so has Stefan. Today's experience was a little different from last week for me. First, I didn't have a hamburger the night before; +1 bonus point for me.

2nd and more to the point, I kept thinking about what Sissie had been saying about running faster by pushing off harder, and Stefan easily beating my by a 100 meters and not being out of breath, but he said his legs hurt. Hmmm, my legs don't really hurt. How can I get my legs to hurt? Push off harder maybe?

So that's what I did, concentrating on using my quadraceps to really push forward, and making sure I didn't overstride and that my feet landed underneath me, leg slightly bent, weight landing more on the middle front of my foot.

Net result: 3:48 for 800m on my last lap, vs 3:44 last week. The difference? My steps per minute were lower somewhat since I was going farther with each step, my breathing was a smidgen easier through most of the 800m, and my legs were a lot more tired. Even though I wasn't gasping as much for air this time, I do feel like I worked harder.

2 laps in lane 7 at 3:48 = 6:52 pace.

Now the question is can I hold sub-7:00 for a whole mile. And how about my potential 5k time?

Injury and Recovery

2005-08-24T11:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a bit as I've been frankly very depressed about my shin splints. With Dayle and Pat's great support though I think it has been recovering. I'm now ready to face the 18 miler this weekend!

In the meantime, it's definitely been a humbling experience to have people moving by me (usually it's the other way around :-) That's ok though. I'm on a kick right now of asking myself "What did I learn" from every experience (running, work, etc.) So what I learned is - stretch - take care of body - don't assume just because things are good that I don't need injury prevention!

For the record

2005-08-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

Sissie's great track calculator comes to the ego rescue. According to its great mathmatic wisdom, a 3:40 800m interval in lane 6 (roughly where we were running) calculates to a 6:49 pace...!!! And Stefan who finished ahead of me while in lane 7 was probably doing something like 6:25.

I told Stefan this morning about the lane calculator, which I hadn't used before now, but I remembered Sissie saying it was over a 1% difference per lane going out, which could be as much as 10% on the outside. He thought it was pretty detailed (translate "hardcore") to know this kind of thing. He's probably right.

According to the calculator, it takes as much as 9 seconds more per lap to be running in lane 6 at our target 800m interval pace. That's almost 20 seconds I could have added to my target time, hot dog!

But just like I told Stefan, I'm not ready to change my targets just because of the lane change. I'll use it to salve my ego after a depressing (and yet still exhilirating) track session, but I like the fact that I can push myself a little harder mentally just by moving out a few yards, and have it all pay off come marathon time.

Well, next week is 1600m intervals, maybe I will cut myself a little slack...

Visit the site again

http://www.philsport.com/narf/atrack.htm

The difference of a couple seconds?

2005-08-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

It wasn't like I hadn't done 800m intervals before. It wasn't even that the pace was unusual, we had trained at 7:08 over the winter. But with a couple months on the bench and a target time of 3:35/interval I met my own personal vO2max.

ID's co-worker Stefan joined me at Stanford track this morning for my scheduled 6x800m, training week 3 on the FIRST program. Stefan being much more dedicated was actually on week 5 or 6, but decided he could come back and revisit week 3.

The first lap was just as I expected, hard but I was fresh and it takes me a couple laps to warm up so my 3:40 finish time wasn't unexpected. I was breathing much harder than I thought I should be and I had a hard time keeping up with Stefan still we ran the 2nd interval with only a single lap break (not enough) and posted the same time. Okay, okay enough's enough, I need that 5 seconds and I'm going to get it.

3rd lap I go try pacing Stefan and things start falling apart quickly. I can't remember exactly what the first half lap time was, but maybe 44 45 sec, the second 200m was an exercise in agony, there is no way I can keep this pace. I enter the 2nd and final lap and I'm backing off trying to catch my breath, wondering if I will even try to finish the next 3 intervals. (CO2 narcosis makes me think very strange things.) The last lap feels like I'm barely moving, I'm recovering my breathing enough to finish but I'm positive I'm coming in at least 15-20sec slower than lap 2, Stefan is 50 meters ahead of me at the end. Finish time 3:41 Huh?

Welcome to the vO2max zone. The next 3 laps were as hard as ever but I pay closer attention to my breathing, keeping it just below hyperventilation until the last 50 meters and post 3:42 - 3:44. The experience was educational. A couple seconds per mile faster and I couldn't get enough oxygen to my body.

A good article on vO2 max and conditioning factors that contribute to it

Interestingly, the article finds that in conditioned athletes, its the ability to get the oygenated blood to the muscle tissue that is the main limiting factor in vO2 max. So its really your heart you need to work on. Increase the blood flow and pressure in the system and you can infuse more muscle tissue and activate more muscle fiber. Seems simple enough ;)

SFM 2005

2005-07-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

So, here it comes. A lot of hill work in the past 4 months, but no planned schedule for long runs (one 20M and three 15M runs in the past eight weeks) has brought me to San Francisco with the ambition to break a PR. I had a 3:50 in CIM 2004, and so my target was to finish under 3:45.

There were about 15,000 runners, about half of them ran the full marathon and the rest ran the any of the two halfs. Start time was 5:20-5:35, in what they call a rolling start (broken by pace into groups). I started in the second batch at 5:21. I was going to run my first miles with the 3:40 pace group, when I saw that the pacer does not even know where to position the group behind the start line, dah ? so I decided to go solo.

The first five miles go along Embarcadero. It was not too cold at all, perfect weather apart of the thick fog. Two uphills behind and we went onto the Golden Gate bridge. You could not see the towers even when you pass under. I passed Mile 7 at the end of the bridge at 57:52. Cruising back on the bridge I saw Debbye (first half) and later Gary.

Miles 11.5-12.5 from the bridge to the Golden Gate Park were hilly. I was still on a good pace, and made the half marathon point at 1:47:48 - not to bad for such a hilly course, and 2:30 minutes ahead of target time. Yupi :-)

This year the course has changed - not only it goes over the GGB, but it also makes a couple of loops in the GG park. This park is hilly ! at mile 15-17 evel little hills cannot be ignored. Here goes 1:30 minutes from the little slack.

The Mile 20 mark passes by, time is 2:46:59. The 3:40 pace group is still one minute behind me. This is the point I was waiting for. In all my previous marathons I slowed down after mile 20, sometimes before it. I keep pushing ahead. 8:23, 8:43, 8:56 and I am at Mile 23. The pace group just passed me. They keep an 8:25 pace. Mile 24 goes by at 8:56, Mile 25 at 9:18 and at the last mile I feel g*o*o*d, 8:53 and to the finish line at 3:41.59 !! a new PR !!!

Not only that, but I also felt really good in the last 6 miles, compared to any of my past marathons. It was not a straggle. It was a run. What a big difference.

Debbye finished 3rd in her division !!! WOW ! nd only 10 seconds after the second place. Cheers to Debbye !!! She then picked up the shuttle and found me at the finish line. We could not find any other SJF runners, so we headed to the awards ceremony and received her plaque. I placed 691 from 4918 runners, 111 in my division.

So, what's the secret ? a disciplined schedule of three weekday hillwork runs. No track work, no flats, only hills, hills and hills. Hills take you higher!

Ou est la coureuse?

2005-07-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

I keep meaning to ask, but where is coureuse? Isn't she coming to run SF marathon this Sunday?

The Joy of the Track Workout

2005-07-28T13:04:00.000-07:00

Heavenly pink for this post... so, by now we are all on the same page for track workouts. YAY! For me, the Wednesday 4x1200m assignment got pushed to Thursday 7:30 a.m. Nice and cool, of course. Here are my times: 6:00, 6:07, 6:02, 6:03. No, not bragging. It's for the record AND to point out that I am too slow for the program. At 7:20 min miles, my times should be 1:50x4=5:30. Hmm. Of all the laps I did, my fastest was the first one @ 1:53. Not too far off, but that was only one lap. Since this is my second time doing the week2 workout (Ja, eben), I put this out there for comments... what should I do next week? Go back to the beginning of the program for the third time? Keep going, even though I'm slower than target pace? I'm not sure what the right approach is. Am I too slow because I am doing too much? because breakfast was too recent? because this is my max speed and I'm not willing to detect that? Puzzled.

the Wall...

2005-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'm on a roll in terms of posts!

Recently both Dayle and I have individually hit "the wall". I hit "the wall" yesterday at the Wharf-to-Wharf run. I'd say it literally was that I didn't feel like running. My body was complaining the whole way and there was no lift in my legs at all. That, plus an achy old injury kept me pretty unhappy the whole way. It really was a long 6 miles...

Surprisingly, that makes me happy instead of not. I still love running and now I know I've been doing too much running. So scaling back (i.e., taking a day off) is *good*. Rather than feeling bummed about my incredible inability to run, I'm happy that I'm so close to the edge of what I can do.

Resting up for Wed's crazy track. I hope Dayle feels the same.

RSD Blog reaches 150 posts!

2005-07-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

Who knew we would reach 150 posts on this illustrious blog? How wonderful! :-)

I found this nice link to share with everyone and also so I could claim 151st!

here you go: http://www.philsport.com/narf/atrack.htm

So yes Pat, lane 8 is about 12% longer than lane 1!!

2005-07-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

hmm, maybe I should ride this bike today... could the trickster be tricked into this?

2005-07-21T22:29:00.000-07:00

another Sunday, another ride

Where has he been?

2005-07-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in soooo long, mostly because I haven't been running. And while I should blog the oh-so-uninteresting details of meniscectomy surgery, MRI's and recovery, I thought I'd just post this. Something I found on Runner's World. The SF and London marathon's make guest appearances. I especially like the part where he runs off his "pregnancy" LOL

Run World, Run

ID's track

2005-07-20T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have to just drop a quick line quoting this morning's conversation:

Coyote/PegaSissie: "I wonder where Dayle is?"
C: "I think she's biking, she called at 7:30 saying she'd be here at 8:00."
PS: "She may be running from home."
C: "No way, that's 8 mi."
PS: "But Dayle is crazy sometimes."

...20 minutes later...
...ID breezes onto the track, running...

PS: "Where'd you come from?"
ID: "Work."
PS: "How far is that?"
ID: "4 miles."

...8 400m sprints later...

PS: "Do you want a ride back?"
ID: "No."

I rest my case. QED hypothesis that ID==crazy

2005-07-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

I'm reporting my first orienteering run, Sunday with the BAOC. You get a map and a start time and off you go. I got lost in the middle, but was able to rescue myself from the woods and I am safe now. These guys run where there are no mile marks and sometimes no trails at all ! and they wear those funny colored costumes, think of Robin Hood in red/yellow/orange colors. They have a techi device to determine their splits - an electronic key that you punch into a little box at each control point and it records the point + time. Cool ! What a funny group of people. I'm happy that for most of the time they are lost in the woods. They say on their web site that it is often called the "thinking sport". I was very encouraged to find that I can use my well trained legs to somewhat cover for the lack of any brain :-) it was a lot of fun !! and the course length is a warm-up distance for us - if we only knew how to convert 3.5 Km to Miles (aerial distance). Highly recommended !!!

2005-07-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Starting from Meridian and counting backwards from 8.35

2005-07-12T21:30:00.000-07:00

slick sis

Enlightenment comes via a track workout

2005-07-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

You already know I'm crazy, so this post won't be out of character.

The latest Runner's World has an article where you train harder, but only 3 days a week. Since I already run a lot, I thought I'd just replace my track workout with theirs and see how it goes... Week 1 track assignment = 8 x 400 m repeats at 10km - 55-60 seconds. "Sounds reasonable", I think, but knowing that that means close to 7 minute miles and I don't know if that's even possible for me. Ok, so I start out as per usual - long warmup and then strides. I'm hungry since it's after 7 p.m. already and a long time since lunch. Starting the reps, I am feeling heavy and slow. I can't get much under an 8 min mile pace. I keep thinking about food. There is a weird pain in my left leg. Not really an ache, but more of a numbness. I wonder if it should be a reason to stop these laps. I am still less than halfway through the reps. I think of Dean K. and decide to push through it. I realize how much I just go on blind faith that my body can do it, how little I really know or have control over. For example, if there was some kind of blockage building up, I'd be completely unaware until it stopped me in my tracks. This realization suddenly got bigger. It's the same for other stuff. There is just no way I can understand/control all the things that I want to in this world. I have to stop trying and just go on blind faith that things will work out. Back at the track, it's now rep #5 and the strange feeling in my left leg has gone. The "Dean" approach worked. I am feeling better and going faster with each successive lap. I didn't get anywhere near the 7 min mile pace, but I chalk that up to lack of food/energy and being worn down by a long day at work. I will do this again.

graffiti while biking in the middle of the jungle ?

2005-07-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

dah, this was an intersting challange. The four of us (picture to come ?) cycled all the way from LGHS to Meridian and back, repainting the mile marks. And yes, the Jungle run was set for the same time on the same trail. First hand experience in riding with all these slow runners huffing and puffing around us.

Never before I gave any attention to the signs along the trail. "10 MPH limit" and "look out for pets", or is it peds ? same thing, in the eyes of those sleek bikers. All these slow, unwheeled animals are just obstacles that you better avoid. You may curve around them on the left, pass them on the right, or "ding-ding-ding" their guts out. It does feel like biking in the jungle, isn't it ?

Yes, I know what all these runners think : "these bikers go for a ten miles loop and think they did some sport. Let's see them running ten mile, AH ? wimps. ha, ha, ha."

now he's really gone ...

2005-07-10T21:42:00.000-07:00

believe it or not.

20.2 miles

2005-07-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

a few logs ago, id suggested that biking will get me tired and slow me down. Would it work ? we'll have to try it. In the meantime, consider yesterday's run a solution. Here is the recipie of how to get me tired and slow me down:

1. 4 miles pre-group run @ 9 min per mile.
2. Alma loop (12.2 miles)
3. another 4 miles on the trail at Sissie's pace !!

My original plan did not include Alma, but my group told me that this is the plan for today... it did not take much persuasion. It took us only 53:40 to the bridge and 49:15 back around the lake, with a 3:30 minutes break in between. At a sub-8:30 average pace (!), this is my fastest Alma *ever*, thus the real fast guys were more than half a mile ahead of me.

Last came the final four. I could barely keep up with Sissie for three miles. In the last mile I dragged myself back at a 10:30 pace. Sissie took off, looking fresh and happy like it was her first four miles for the day. In fact, she was just finishing her 19 miles run ! way to go !!

RSD runners add cycling to their program

2005-07-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Coyote's back with a vengeance! With a new road bike, we're all on two wheels now and we're enjoying the absence of the pounding on our bodies, the cool breeze afforded by the higher speeds and the increase in the number of scenic views in a single workout.

"But don't you miss running?", the crowds are asking. Of course we do, so in typical biathlon/triathlon order, we run after the bike ride. It's a technique I'm very pleased with as it's a way to slow Sissie down to my pace for a run!!!

The next question: which will come first - counting 100 jerseys (on riders we see out on the road) OR seeing coyote in one? L&G, place your bets.

2005-07-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Now for Sunday and a coyote trick. Download the next 3 pix and play in movie mode. Now you see him...

2005-07-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

now you don't

2005-07-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

now you see him

2005-07-04T14:30:00.000-07:00

Pit manager

2005-07-04T14:29:00.001-07:00

Steven's pit crew

2005-07-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

can you find the butterfly?

2005-07-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

Coyote creek trail on Saturday

recent traning runs

2005-06-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

Hi

In the last few weeks I had some good training runs, so I decided to blog them. The first one was on the 11th, 4 miles before the group run and then 11 miles with the group. Total time 2:03, or 8:12 average pace. The week after was 3+9+3=15 again a 15 miles, but with wo breaks. Time was about the same, maybe a minute faster. What's nice is that the middle part of the group run (4 miles on the first week, 3 miles on the second) was going at about 7:20-7:30 per mile ! gee, that's a new territory for me, going that fast for that long and without a downhill.

Today Bruce, George and I ran PG&E to the bench. We started slow and kept a steady pace, sometimes walking the steepest slopes. We made it to the top in 47:20 minutes ! had a short rest and zoomed down through high middows and rouge valley. Alltogether 1:26:15 without the rest.

If I did not misuse the map calculator, then what we did is 9.4 miles total, 1715 feet climb.
It comes out as 4.2 miles up (& down) on the PG&E trail to the bench in 47:15 minutes,
then 5.2 miles down via Upper Middow and Rouge Valley in 39 minutes. George's GPS
distance shows 9 miles and if I recall something like 7:30, 7:33, 7:33, 7:57 and 7:57 for
the last five miles (downhill and then flat). Going up was more like 12 minutes per mile :-)
It was a very nice run with a strong finish. We plan to go again.

Arnon

Ready to run again

2005-06-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's the 4th day after the marathon and I'm ready to run again.
Here's an observation: I think I've been under the influence of a
prolonged endorphin high these past days. Ok, in the moment right
after the race, I was down and in pain, but since then I'm thinking:
Wazzup? I still feel "pumped up". So I'm wondering: with such a long
distance, does this make sense? a longer endorphin high?

Here is my new strategy to reach 4 hour marathon. What do you think
of fixing the pace (9 minutes) and running as many miles as you can
sustain this pace, with the idea that you would eventually reach 26.2
miles? A variation would be to pick two paces (say 8 and 9 minute miles)
and alternate: one week running the faster pace (shorter) and the next
running the slower (longer). I'm thinking of devoting one day to this,
and keeping all the rest of the runs as before (Sat: team, Mon: hills,
Wed: track). My proposed course would be to start at LGHS, run to Alma
bridge and back, then Campbell park and back.

Rock 'N Roll on TV

2005-06-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

Look for yourself!

The Coca-Cola Zero Rock 'n' Roll Marathon will be televised locally and nationally.

Fox Sports Net (FSN) Saturday, June 18, 2 pm*
NBC 7/39 Sunday, June 12, 3 pm
*Check local listings for local air dates and time

Try a Tri?

2005-06-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

We were having some discussions about Triathlons and their length. Here is a good site that lists the main distances

How to Measure a Triathlon

Pegasissie and Coyote Spirit Marathon

2005-06-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well, besides the occasional buckling of my legs due to muscle fatigue, I am back to real life.

Let's see - where to even start on this blog? I, like Dayle, thought this marathon was totally different than the first. The first was so emotional and meaningful as a life accomplishment. The second was all about toughness and belief in myself.

All through the winter training I had been saying "I have no time goal", probably since I just didn't want the pressure and loved to run for the sake of it. I loved the long runs chatting about every which thing with Coyote and ID and really didn't care about whether it was a 9:00 mile or not. In fact, when I first started on Crystal Springs back in October with Dayle and Arnon, I was struggling so much just to do sub-10!

As I neared this marathon, I think all the training and cold winter mornings and rainstorms really paid off - I felt faster and could keep it up. When I did the 23.3 in about a 4 hour pace I knew in my mind I was close -- and somewhere in the haze of work and craziness I decided that 4 hours was my target.

So on to the race. It started nicely, me trying to keep somewhere near the 4:00 sign-guy. It was fairly tough since I like running with breathing space (as do all people) but the first 8 miles or so was just jam packed. Luckily I started in Corral 4 so there weren't lots of slower folks in front of me.

At 7 I looked for Steven and picked up my replenishment, a potato packet. I stuffed one in my mouth and it stayed there -- not good. It felt really heavy in my hand too, sort of irrationally so. I also needed the portapotty and couldn't just 'whip it out' like all the men. At 11 I finally jumped in a portapotty. I also decided to dump the potatoes - they must still be in a snack ziplock sitting on the floor of a portapotty (for all I know)

At 12 I saw Pat and exchanged a slightly depleted pretzel package for a full one. By this time I was just forcedly swallowing food. I also forced myself to drink at almost every stop, even though half the cup always ended on my face and shirt. (I didn't learn ID's 'siphon' trick until *after* the marathon :-)

At 13 I looked at my watch - it said 1:55! I thought - rockin! Should I try for Boston today?? Then I thought - nah, no way. I looked forward to mile 19 where I would see Steven and go for the final push. Between 13 and 19 was a haze, although each mile got progressively not-as-fast. Instead of 8:50s I was doing 9:10s, then 9:15s. This worried me a lot - would I make it?

At 19 Steven came to my rescue and took my waist-packet (which was really awful and kept slipping around - teaches me not to change gear at the last second!) I was still on track. 19 to 25 was pretty painful. I kept thinking - ok, pretend like you're running a normal short run but you're in a LOT of pain. It was pretty awful, plus the faces of all the people grimacing wasn't a cheery sight either. Steven really pushed me and motivated me, kept me out of my misery by talking to me. He really helped and I definitely couldn't have made it without his moral and mental support.

At 25 the end was near, the cheering was close. I came up to the Reebok sign (which was a FAKE end), then the grandstands, then I saw the clock. 3:59:00! I raced to the finish, even though I knew I hadn't started at 0:00:00 I wanted to make absolutely sure my efforts weren't going to waste. I crossed somewhere at 3:59:xx (don't remember any more) feeling exhilarated and jubilant. At Sacramento I was emotional, at San Diego, elated!

I guess that's my long-winded recount of my run. Really, it felt so amazing to accomplish my goal. I've been so down at work that this run boosted me - I did this run on my own two legs, no one else can take that from me. It also makes me scared because the next thing I'll want to do is try for Boston. Is that even possible? Who knows :-)

Steven was so great through the run and those last miles. Having a loved one with me kept my spirits up even as my body was crashing.

I have special thanks for Coyote, whose spirit was with me in the hat and on the course. He will be back and I will definitely be there in support!

Of course ID, I could not have done it with her, my fellow demoted yellow 2 coach. She is such an awesome person, a true and honest friend, the most dedicated athlete I know!

my Rock'n'Roll story

2005-06-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

Wanting to write this before I get back into the workaday world... I'm really glad I went. You know, it's a long time since Sacramento and it's amazing how different the two marathons were for me. The first one: all worried about avoiding the wall which I guarded against by eating just HUGE quantities of food in the 2 or 3 days leading up. The second one: not really paying attention to this or eating even the NORMAL amount in the days leading up (due to the travel, being in a different city and not making an effort to find the food I wanted, etc, etc) but not worrying about that, thinking that I have more muscle mass than I did last Oct and also that it was more important to eat DURING than PRIOR to the race. Only, I kind of forgot to follow through. Why? I think I started out feeling like 9s would be tough. Only they weren't. In fact, they felt slow and pretty effortless. This lead me to a false sense of security that I would just keep them up and sail in, easily in 4 hours. I really got caught up in this. Endorphins? It was really a fun feeling, just knocking off the miles. This probably sounds crazy (and it will to me in a couple of months if I look back at it, I'm guessing), but I felt like the miles were really going by faster than ever before. I was thinking, "it can't already be the next mile" but sure enough it was. I started fantasizing about it getting more fun, the faster you went. Like I already blogblabbed, I really believed this was going to be easy and so didn't worry about food. Somewhere between 16-19 miles, I started to get slower and I couldn't get back the pace. Once I changed to walk just for a minute, my hips really made their tiredness known. I didn't stop to stretch but I did keep switching between walking and (much slower than 9min pace) jogging.

Lessons learned:
- Do like Sissie - force food down in small amounts, but at regular intervals.
- Continue to build endurance so that walk-breaks are not needed. For me, once I start to walk, I want more - better to just not go there until after 26.2.
- Pamper myself more when it's a unknown location. Don't push it with skipping meals, driving crazy distances, wasting time getting lost due to poor navigation while driving, delays due to traffic jams and construction. Marathon's are hard enough without these extra stresses.

The best parts:
- Tylenol-free this time, despite my new vocation as Tylenol-spokesperson (see photos). I can't say that about Sacramento ;)
- I had at least 16 great 9 minute miles and I know that was not possible last October, so this is proof of the benefit of training over the winter.
- Support from the other RSDers, Coyote and Pegasissie, and Steven!

And the results are!!!

2005-06-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Last Name

First Name

Gender

Age

City

State

Bib Number

Place

Gender Place

Division

Division Place

Pace

Gun Time

Net (Chip) Time

10K

Half

22 mi.

Total In Div.

Hsiao

Sissie

Santa Clara

14249

2598

679

F_25-29

184

9:04

3:59:25

3:57:37

55:09

1:56:36

3:18:40

2040

Kotturi

Karen

Cupertino

9192

5448

1907

F_40-44

200

10:12

4:30:23

4:27:10

55:32

1:58:56

3:35:00

1023

2005-06-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

The finish is in sight

2005-06-06T16:26:00.000-07:00

Some final words of encouragment

2005-06-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

ID is picked to be the next Tylenol spokesperson

2005-06-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

Iron Dayle about to cross the finish tape

2005-06-06T16:22:00.001-07:00

Sleeping like an angel

2005-06-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

No rest for the weary

2005-06-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

Pegasissie in the latest high-tech fashion

2005-06-06T16:20:00.000-07:00

RSD Iron Dayle bags another medal

2005-06-06T16:19:00.001-07:00

Mmmm, Supersize my marathon

2005-06-06T16:19:00.000-07:00

Oooo, that's a big one

Everything you want to know about Meniscii

2005-05-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Coyote here, back from an extended tour of Italy, gorgeous country of espresso, prosciutto, mozzerella and gelato.

And also the place that I succumbed to my first crippling injury. Okay, so I'm being melodramatic. I can still walk just fine, but what I did was probably tear my meniscus in my left knee doing a simple 12 mile run around Lucca.

Today I got the MRI's done, and next week the doctor will diagnose. I have them with my right now, fascinating, but hard to diganose without any experience. The web is a wonderful place and there are several good websites all about this particular facet of sports injury, including people posting their MRI pics, but not in large enough detail to be of much use in comparing to mine.

The most positive news is that with a fairly simple surgery removing the torn bit of meniscus, recovery can be as quick as 3-4 weeks. The downside is high probability for future arthritis in the joint, especially with continued high impact. Oh well, some things are worth doing and I'm not going to give up running just yet.

A good site showing a meniscus repair

I'll post more next week when I get the final diagnosis. For now its some proactive research for a good surgeon, of which I have several to pick from. I seem to know quite a few people with knee problems :)

2005-05-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

The view from the wall around Lucca

2005-05-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, that thing really does lean!

2005-05-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

The Spanish steps, a great place to do stadiums, except for the crowd ;)

2005-05-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

Mom and me on Capri island