Heavy Heart

My grandfather passed away today at the age of 93. He lived a full life. The family knew this day was coming. So i've been preparing for a better part of a month. I guess I had been doing everything with a heavy heart during that period that when I found out today, I wasn't sad. I was more relieved. Relieved that he was no longer in pain. Still there is an emptiness knowing that he's no longer physically here.

I've decided not to run Kaiser. I'm now battling a cold. My body has not been 100% since Arizona and I don't think a half marathon this weekend is gonna help the cause. Bad timing I guess. Too much stuff going on mentally and physically.

Unbelievable

First a stomach flu last week, then Sunday and today I have this horrendous cough/sore throat issue. Just tonight I started having runny nose. I'm pretty sure I have a cold. All started because of the stupid recalled Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bar. At this rate, 60% chance Kaiser is not happening unless everything is all fine by tomorrow morning. By the way, happy lunar new year!

Big K Date Change

Just got word from First Wave Events that the date for Big K has changed to Oct. 25. I'm a bit concerned because that will be 2 weeks after the Chicago Marathon. I think i'm going to have to opt out and get the full refund.

Why I Got Sick.

1. Just confirmed today I ate a recalled Peanut Butter Crunch Clif Bar Sunday morning of the Race.

2. Volunteers at one water stop did not wear gloves when handing out fire hydrant water.

all the signs for an intestinal flu.

So Close Yet So Far

I won't go into the boring details of the race. Only that the race course is as ugly as advertised.

The highlight of the race course was passing by the A's spring training home Papago Park!

My focus was just to run the best race as I could. Here are my splits:

Mile 01: 9:08
Mile 02: 9:28
Mile 03: 9:20
Mile 04: 9:48
Mile 05: 9:29
Mile 06: 10:19
Mile 07: 9:49
Mile 08: 10:07
Mile 09: 10:04
Mile 10: 10:06
Mile 11: 11:19
Mile 12: 10:23
Mile 13.1: 11:09

Clearly I went way too fast in the beginning. The calves started to cramp at mile 10. Seems to be the same story every single time. After running 8 marathons, I can almost predict how my body will react with every step of the race. I finished in 2:10:26. I just missed my PR by 1 minute 13 seconds. Still not bad since this training season has been very inconsistent. The only funny moment of the race was when I hit the mile 12 marker, the 2:07 race pacer was next to me. I thought "Yes!" I can PR. I then looked at my watch and I had 2 hours. There is no way she was going to run a 7 minute mile. Something was not right. Then I realized she had started in the race corral behind me which started 3 minutes later because of the wave starts. I was a little bummed, but at that point I just wanted to get the race over with.

So I guess I ate too much junk after my race and as a result am battling the stomach flu. I've been puking my brains out since Monday morning. I'm finally feeling "normal" today. Note to self: take it easy on the stomach especially after tearing up the body.

Bad Blogger

I've been such a bad blogger. This season's training has been outta funk and in turn so has the blogging. Last Tuesday, we had track workout instead of buddy runs because of Cause for Celebration on Thursday. Since we had missed the previous 2 track workouts because of the holidays, the coaches didn't want us to miss a third. We met up at Dougherty High again and did hill repeats. The same hills we did last time. I felt pretty good. I still like them hills!

Saturday, we had a mentor led run at San Leandro Marina. It's been ages since i've been there. The weather was really nice. It warmed up to the 60s. I only did 6 miles since I was tapering. I ran/walk the last 2 miles with a participant. Yup..i'm tapering! My event is this coming Sunday!

I think i'm finally getting excited since I need to pack. A participant had asked me if I was excited and I said unenthusiastically, "I guess." She wasn't convinced. It's hard to get pumped up. It's going to be my 8th half marathon, so the novelty has definitely worn off. Also this season's training has been whacked and so I have no idea if i'm going to PR or not. All signs point to "no" since I have been very inconsistent with my running. It's been a lot of stopping and running, stopping and running. I'm not even sure what my pace has been this season. It's like going to a race with an unknown. It feels very weird.

I'm just more excited i'll be in Phoenix this weekend where the Arizona Cardinals are hosting the Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC Championship on Marathon Sunday. Maybe i'll hit a bar after the run and watch the game. If the Cardinals win, i'm sure the town will go ballistic.

It's so Cold

I met up with the team on Saturday for the long-awaited 12 miler. This is the last long run before Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half, which is in 2 weeks. The run was at Heather Farms where the temperature was a frigid 36 degrees. I had lots of problems with this run. I discovered new aggravations and it seemed like every aggravation I had the past 3 years all made cameos. Within the first 3 miles, I felt what seemed like shin splints except they were on the sides of both legs. From miles 3-6, I felt numbness on the bottom of my right foot. It seemed like the 'ol plantar. Of course once I slowed down everything felt okay again. About mile 8, my calves were cramping. I definitely needed more salt. It pretty much yanked me back the next 4 miles. I ended up hobbling the last 0.5 miles. I was never tired. My stamina was still good. So I didn't mind sucking it up and enduring all the annoying aggravations.

On Sunday I met up with Sarah Crawford and her fall cycle crew for a nice stroll starting in Orinda and around the 3 bears. I thought Saturday was cold....Sunday was a blistering 30 degrees. I was a little apprehensive of climbing because I hadn't done any hill rides in a long time. As soon as we approached Mama Bear, it was like old times. I found a nice rhythm all the way up. Papa Bear was a little tougher than what I had remembered, but it was still fun. Goldilocks was still the same, a bitch. We finished 25 miles and I felt great. I almost could have done it again. Haha..maybe not. That was for IronTeam. I saw my tri coach from last season, Mike D. out there with a few of his fellow IronTeamers. They were doing 3 bears twice.

I've just signed up for tumblr. So if you just want the skinny on my training or want to read about any non-training things go here.

So this is the new year

Happy new year! I hope 2009 brings everyone happiness and great health. As for my new year's resolutions, I don't really have much in relation to training. I do hope to get down to 160 lbs. That'll be something. I just hope to continue training with a smile on my face.

So to recap what I did this week, I did a buddy run on Tuesday and ran for about 50 minutes. This Saturday i'm suppose to do 10-12 miles. It's the last long run before RNRAZ which is only 2 weeks away. I'm not looking to PR, but if it happens I don't mind. This season i've been either plagued with funky aggravations or been committed to my web captain duties that it's been a little difficult to push my training for personal bests. Which is fine. I really needed the break and this has been great in keeping me active, but not too active. If you know what I mean.