In the Drops

I went on 28.5 mile bike ride today. The knee feels a lot better. I headed out to Dublin and then back up to Alamo. During that bike ride, there was a break through! If you can believe, i've never attempted to ride in the drop position. Something came over me today and I just placed both hands on the drops. Amazingly I didn't lose balance during the switch over and was riding just fine. It felt unusual, like I was a curled up ball. However, I could instantly tell I was going faster in the headwind. My next goal is to tackle the aerobars!

A Rough One

Training through the Holidays is tough. I can't wait for it to be all over. Today was a sucky training day. Let me start off by saying I did nothing in terms of training this past week. My car's transmission was having problems and after it got fixed, I had to pick it up after work on Tuesday. Hence no buddy run. Thursday was Christmas. No workout. So I was really excited to run with the team on Saturday to work off those extra pounds gained.

Well Friday night right before I was about to sleep, I was walking in the dark and banged my left knee into the corner of the coffee table. I walked into it at full speed and immediate thoughts were of me not being able to run. After the initial shock of me doing such a stupid thing, I quickly iced my knee.

Saturday morning, I looked at my clock and it said 7:15 am. I slept through my alarm. I never and I mean NEVER sleep through my alarm. If anything I wake up seconds before my alarm goes off. I had about 15-20 minutes to get ready. I had no time to digest real food so I shot a GU in my mouth, downed some water, and headed out the door in 15 minutes. Well I got to the run 20 minutes early. Now I had wished I took my time.

Anyways the run was cold. The goal was to do 6 miles. Somehow I got suckered into doing 8 miles. That was a bad decision. At the 4 mile mark, my knee began to bother me. Worst of all I had to use the restroom so bad. Things were not going right at all. I began walking. I found a restroom at a gas station. Afterwards I hauled ass back to the start. Well I finished dead last, but I got through the run. Now my knee is sore. I'm icing it. I hope it quickly heals.

I Really <3 Hills!

Anytime I get to run a new trail, i'm filled with lots of excitement. There's nothing like anticipating the unexpected. Having not been on the marathon team in a few seasons, I missed out running at Canyon Meadow in Redwood Regional Park. I got to the park way early around 7:15 am only to find myself parked in position #2 behind Coaches Ron and Susan. The gate to the park was not open. It was a chilling 29 degrees outside. A man finally came to open the gates at 7:49 am.

The plan was to run 10 miles, but after talking to Coach Al while we were waiting for the gates to open, he suggested 8 would be good enough because apparently this course is mega-hilly. Great! a cold and hilly run. I came into the run not knowing about this course except only to bring an old pair of running shoes because it was going to get muddy.

We started the run and within the first 3 minutes there was this giant hill. And it just kept going up..all the way up to the first water stop at 2.8 miles. I'd have to say this course is probably more hillier than Lake Chabot and a great training run for Nike! After lollygagging at the water stop, I turned left to do an out and back with more hills. When I got back to the water stop, I had finished 5.8 miles. To do 10 miles we had to run at a different direction. Here is where I got madly confused. I thought it was going to be a 0.5 mile out and 0.5 mile back and then run down the 2.8 miles we came up in order to complete the full 10 miles.

I became extremely confused when I kept running and could not find the 0.5 miles and I knew for a fact I had ran more than that. Still, I was curious to see where the final markings would be. So I ventured out another 20 minutes and could not believe I had not seen any mile markings except for TNT flour with an arrow to keep going. At this point, I said it was too crazy and I turned around. I really didn't want to run a half marathon today. About 0.3 miles of going back, I bumped into Teammate Kristen, who told me it was actually NOT an out and back and the run finished off with a loop to get the full 10. Okay! Now things made sense. The rest of the run was extremely muddy and the downhill were very steep. Still I felt great. It looked like the visits to the chiropractor are paying off.

The run was actually great. It was all trail and i'm beginning to think trail running is for me. Of course I have difficulty planting my feet and I think about 7 times I had near ankle twist moments. Still something about running through nature makes it so comforting. I finished 10 miles or so and I didn't keep track of time. I spent a lot of it, stopping to take photos of the team. I still think i'm maintaining my pace (or perhaps doing better). All I know is that running hills is not difficult as it once was.

I <3 Hill Repeats!

I would have never guessed it, but I love hill repeats. Tonight I met up with the team at Dougherty Valley High to run up and down the hills of San Ramon. It started sprinkling at the start, but it soon went away. I ran up the hills at 80% effort as Coach directed. I was gasping for air near the top, but it all felt great. We did a total of 4 hills and ran for about 4 miles or so. I felt like I could have done the 4 hills again!

Workout Recap

On Saturday, I met up with the team and ran around Lake Merritt a couple times. That was probably about 6 miles. I had the option of going 8, but I declined. I will probably shoot for 10 this coming weekend.

On Monday, I busted out the cycle trainer and rode for 40 minutes: 15 minutes warm up/ 3 x (3 minutes hard/2 minutes easy) /10 minutes cool.

Tonight, I joined the team for Coach Gary's annual holiday lights run. I finished close to 4.5 miles at 10 minute mile pace. I didn't take many "on the go" photos so I actually squeezed in what felt like a "real" run. I'm happy to report I felt fine. Nothing wrong with the knees/hammy. I got a surge of confidence for RNR AZ 1/2.

Ironman Championships on TV!

Saturday December 13, 11:30 AM PST NBC
Schedule subject to change, check your local listings.

Run Recap

Saturday's run went alright. Again, lots of running and stopping to take pictures. I couldn't really get into a rhythm. Around mile 5, my left leg started to feel numb. I kind of ran it off and it was okay.

Tonight's run at Berkeley Marina Buddy Run went well. Great view of SF and the temperature was a nice 55 degrees, which was probably a whole 10 degrees warmer than inland. Not sure how far I went. We did a 35 minute run from Sea Breeze Cafe to Chevy's and back.

Happy Holidays!

I posted on the Marathon Team's site, but wanted to share with the TNT Alums! Happy Holidays!

I'm good.

Well I made it through the night breathing with one nostril. Somehow I woke up breathing through both nasal passages, so i'm good. Tonight we had track at DVC. I arrived late because of ridiculous traffic on 24. I missed the warm-up run, but was able to do the core exercises and speed intervals:

run 1 lap at 80%
walk 0.5 lap
run 1.5 laps at 80%
walk 0.5 lap
run 2 laps at 80%
rest
run 1 lap at 80%
walk 0.5 lap
run 1.5 laps at 80%
walk 0.5 lap
run 2 laps at 80%

I don't consider myself a fast runner, but apparently I am to the track group. I get reminded of it, which i'm not all that comfortable with.

Winter Swimming

Sometimes I just think know i'm just stupid. It's been about a month since I last swam and I was really itching to get back in the pool. I was hoping to maintain what I had built up from the TRI. I can honestly say I have never swam in December... until tonight. By 6:30 pm, it was already 50 degrees. My neighbor was entering her condo when she saw me leave dressed in shorts, flops, and a long sleeve shirt and said, "you know, it's a little cold out there." I said, "yeah, I know."

I got to the pool and you could tell it was heated. The steam coming off of it made it look like a giant pot of boiling soup. I quickly stripped and jumped in the pool. I shot for 2000 yards (1.13 miles). I split it up 500 yards 4x. I felt great the first 1000 yards and then I was losing steam by the 3rd set. When I started the 4th and final set, my arms were tired. They felt like dead weight. Now I know not to wait 4 weeks until I swim again. The truly hard part of the night was getting out of the heated pool.

I grabbed onto the pole of the stairs to get out. Big mistake. I don't think I ever felt anything so cold in my life. My hands were instantly freezing. I then grabbed my water bottle and that felt like it came out of the freezer. I quickly grabbed my towel, half-ass dried myself and went quickly to the lockers. I got back in the car and it said the outside temp was 43 degrees. I sure do miss the swimming days of 100 degrees. Of course now i'm sneezing and have a runny nose. I'm either sick or still have an allergic reaction to the chlorine. I guess i'll find out tomorrow.

Varying Buddy Runs

As a Captain, I don't have to be locked down to a particular buddy run. So my goal is try to take photos at each buddy run. It's been quite fun hitting different buddy runs and see how they each operate. Tonight I made it out to the Concord buddy run. This one was quite chilly. I hate dressing in layers, so I took on the 50 degree temps in t-shirt and shorts. We ran on the Iron Horse Trail heading towards Martinez. It took me a while to realize I had run this trail a couple years back for a Coach's run. Of course at that time the trail was a blazing 99 degrees. It definitely was a trip. Anyways, I finished all 4 miles with Anita. I felt pretty good and enjoyed the course. Next week I plan to hit up Berkeley. After that comes the hard part...the AM buddy runs.

Open Registration

Have at it! Escape From Alcatraz triathlon registration is now open. I was this close to entering the lottery for Escape until I realized registration for the event was going to cost $400. Forget that. A little more $$ and I could apply for an Ironman entry.

Wildflower registration opens Dec. 8. I'm still debating if I want to do this. Right now, I only have eyes for Olympic for this course. Of course, there is this whole camping thing which is another deciding factor. The other big one is...cost.