For real this time?

I have to confess...I did not run the last 2 days, and I at a whole bunch of crap.  As a a result, I now feel like total garbage.  The 4 mile run I just slogged through was also total garbage.  But in some way, I'm kind of glad I had that major slack session.

I think the best part of not training for anything is just being able to do what I feel like, and if that means lying on the couch eating handfuls of white chocolate chips (pshh who would do that?!), then that's what I'll do.  And inevitably, a day or two later I feel absolutely disgusting and it helps jolt me back to the reality that I actually do LOVE running, being active, having goals, and eating well.  So what does this mean now?

I have my sights set on a 50 K in the Marin headlands on December 18.  It's probably not in my best interest to attempt my first Ultra a few weeks before kicking off my training for Boston, but I didn't get to do that 50K I wanted to in August, and I think it would be a perfect way to round out what has definitely been the best running year of my life.  It also means I'm going to run 18 miles after work tomorrow. YIPEEE!!!

Friday afternoons have become "find a new trail" time for Mike and me.  Last week we drove down to Millbrae and ran 8 glorious miles on the Sawyer Camp Trail.  It was BEAUTIFUL and I loved that every half mile was marked!  Definitely not the last time we do that...

Very peaceful and relaxing.  Apparently it's a crazy mad house on weekends, so it was nice to run it at such a perfect time.

AND...some big news in the family: my dad qualified for Boston on Sunday (at the Portland Marathon) so we will be running it together in April!  We've talked about this since I first started running marathons 5 years ago, so I'm more than a little excited!  Congratulations, Dad!

Milestones

My husband has gotten so into running lately that not only will he get up and run with me at 5 AM and accompany me on mid-week, after-work 10-milers, but he's now beginning to train for an ultra!  Obviously this requires additional distance, so week by week we've been stepping up.  Last Saturday, we ran 16.2 miles, which was the farthest he's ever run!  It was a great run that included the Lake Merced path, Great Highway, and a GIANT set of stairs on the trail from Sutro heights park to Sea Cliff.

When we got home we celebrated with Green Monsters!

My usual recipe is:
1 frozen banana
1 cup almond milk
2 tbsp carob powder
2 tsp flax seeds
2 tsp chia seeds
a few handfuls of spinach

SO GOOD!

Another milestone happened the weekend before last.... I won a race!

OK, so it was a tiny race with only 89 people, but I've NEVER been first overall female before, and this time I was!  I ran 5 miles in 36:31 (7:18 min/mile) which was good for a 9-second PR and that pretty blue ribbon.

I love the Dolphin South End Running Club...they put on this race and the half marathon a couple weeks ago (and have $5 races pretty much every weekend).  If you're ever in San Francisco, definitely try out one of their events!  Everyone is super friendly and you can't beat the price.

The Finish Line

I have been really loving just kind of doing my own thing with regards to running.  I hate to say it, but I don't really miss tempo runs or track workouts (mainly because I haven't found a track close to my house yet).  I'm still figuring out which plan I'm going to use for Boston, but until Dec/Jan, I'm winging it and loving it!

Trails are my drug

For some reason I was kind of a giant stress-ball yesterday, which makes no sense because who gets stressed out on a Friday afternoon!?! I knew I needed to run, but the idea of doing our usual loop for the millionth time kind of made me feel like cracking open a beer instead.

So Mike and I jumped in the car and headed south to San Pedro Valley County Park in Pacifica. We didn't really know where we were going, but we were definitely climbing! We ended up on the Montara Mountain trail, and reached the summit 3.5 miles and at least 1700 feet of elevation gain later. The visibility was PERFECT!  This is looking north over Pacifica and towards San Francisco.  We could see the Golden Gate Bridge, which always makes me abnormally happy.

This is looking across the bay towards Oakland:

And here are my beautifully clean legs/shoes at the end of the run:

It's not very often it takes over 80 minutes to go 7 miles, but I seriously enjoyed every single mile.  Then we came home and had pizza and beer, which obviously tastes a whole lot better after a good sweaty, dirty trail run!

Lake Merced Half Marathon (and checking in with my goals)

Rocking my 2nd place (age group) medal and participant ribbon

This was just a test.


To say running hasn't been highest on my priority list might be a little bit of an understatement.  A new apartment and a new job kind of edged out speedwork in the "important life things" category, so for the past month or so I've been running a maximum of 35 miles a week, with long runs up to 13 miles. 


Then Mike found this race, which is a mile from our house and on the loop we run all the time, so we both decided to sign up and use it to gague our fitness levels.  Anything faster than my half split from San Francisco (about 1:46) would be a PR, but I honestly wasn't expecting to run anything faster than 1:50 because my runs have been so inconsistent.


The course was 2 4.5 mile loops plus a 4.1 mile loop.  Mike stayed with me for the first loop and a half but I could tell I was totally slowing him down.  I was feeling OK but not great, and was not totally thrilled about having to do roughly the same thing 3 times.  I finished the first loop in 34:58 and started in on the second just kind of going through the motions.  Halfway through the second lap Mike took off, which was fine with me because I didn't want to keep slowing him down.


I spent the rest of that loop passing then being passed by the same girl, and felt like I was slowing down. Sure enough, my second lap was 35:47.  By this point I had passed the girl from lap 2 for good and was just ready to be done.  I was coming up on another girl (who looked about my age), and for about a mile or so we were running right next to each other.  I caught myself thinking "this sucks, obviously she's just going to beat me," but then I realized that attitude was ridiculous.  I could tell she was working harder than I was, so I just relaxed and decided I'd wear her down and take off....which I kind of did (although I wouldn't call it taking off...it was more of just a slight pickup).


The rest of the third loop went by pretty quickly.  I was passing a lot of people doing the shorter race, which is always a big mental boost even if I'm not in direct competition with them.  I rounded the last corner into the parking lot well below my goal of 1:46, and crossed the line at 1:42:30.  I was the third female, and 2nd in my age group!  (Mike ran a huge PR too...1:38:59!!)


Going up to collect my medal:

I got some pretty sweet stuff in the goodie bag, too

So now that we're nearing the end of 2010 (holy crap how did that happen), I wanted to take a look at the goals I set back in January:


Goals for 2010:
1. Qualify for Boston (hopefully at the LA Marathon) - DONE (San Francisco Marathon)
2. Run at least two full marathons - DONE (LA and SF)
3. Set PRs at 2 or more different distances - DONE (5K, Half Marathon, and Marathon!)
4. Run at least one trail race - hopefully in October or November


Whew, it's been a pretty awesome year!

Perks of the Job

I've now completed 2 weeks as a PE teacher, and I am pretty stoked on the job. I have 4 periods of PE, which means plenty of opportunities to be active with the kids (my PE teacher in Middle school was a short, pudgy, obnoxious guy who just yelled at us and never did any physical activity himself).  Yesterday, I ran with the girls in each class for a total of 3.2 miles, and also did 40 pushups over the course of the day.  The girls were pretty excited that I was running with them, and of course an extra opportunity to run (while on the job) is pretty nice.

My own running has been up and down.  Fortunately there are TONS of amazing places to run around here.  Last week I managed to get 35 miles in, and on the weekend we did an awesome run along the coast with beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Having Lake Merced about a mile away (a 4.5 mile paved loop with no stoplights!) has been pretty nice, and today we're going to run up to Golden Gate Park for a total of 13 miles.  I'm not surprised at all that San Francisco is consistently ranked in the top 10 cities for running by Runners World. I love it!

There are races all.the.time up here, so hopefully I'll get back into that and train more consistently so this blog will see some action again.  In the meantime, happy running!

Adjustment

I'm still alive, and I'm still running (kind of).  It's been a CRAZY couple of weeks.  Within 10 days, I interviewed for a teaching job, got the job, packed up our house, and moved 3 1/2 hours away (to the San Francisco Bay Area!)

I've managed to squeeze a few runs in, but nothing impressive - just a few 45 minute 5-mile runs here and there that felt a LOT harder than they should have.  I'm starting my new job Monday and will be able to bike to work most days (up a GIANT hill), plus I'm teaching a few periods of PE, which I think will be really fun.

At this point, I'm just incredibly relieved I BQd in SF so I don't have to train for CIM right now, because I have so much going on - teaching for the first time, and living in a new place.  I'll get into a routine soon, I'm sure, and there are TONS of races up here, so stay tuned and happy running!

Now What?

I guess it's normal to have a little bit of a post-race let-down period.  I'm in the middle of one.

My right knee is having issues.

I'm not sure what I'm training for.

It's weird!

I definitely think I need a few days off to deal with this right knee issue.  I'm going to do some spin classes, bike rides, yoga, and weights and hopefully be back to normal running in the next few weeks.  I'm still tentatively planning to do a half marathon in October, but we'll see.

Also, I didn't gain any weight in New Zealand! That was definitely a pleasant surprise because I definitely indulged more than a little.  Now that I'm home I'm focusing on a clean diet and enjoying some cross-training. I think this little break is actually kind of nice!