And We're Off

T and I are heading down to Huntington Beach area for the Surf City 1/2 this weekend. I'm a bit anxious since I'm not sure I'm completely recovered from my illness. I'm not expecting a PR, although that would be nice, I really just want to be able to finish the run. I haven't run more than 5 miles in almost 2 weeks. Wish me luck. :-)

Spinning my wheels

I climbed up on the bicycle trainer this evening in an effort to get some sort of exercise in. I rode for around a 1/2 hour, I think, and 5 miles. And again, I was wiped out. Stupid virus or whatever has sapped my stamina even tho in general I feel a lot better. Keep those fingers crossed that I get some strength back by Sunday otherwise it's going to be a *long* run. Well, I mean, I know it's long, but....ah, you know what I mean. ;-)

Easing back into it

So luckily this is my 'taper' week, because with having been sick I'm definitely not ready for a full on week of running. I really felt the need to just get out and loosen up my legs a bit. So I hooked up the pup (I know, I know, she's not a 'pup' any more, but she is to me :-) and we took off for a bit of a jog. I didn't want to push too much because I *definitely* don't want to relapse. So I figured a nice easy 4-5 miles at a nice easy pace. Bam and I were both lagging. I think we both push a lot more when we have companions to keep up with. Ah well, I'm supposed to be taking it easy anyway, right?

My Nike+ was working today....I think. The Garmin logged in 4.53 miles, which I think is accurate, but Nike+ logged in 5.53, or something like that. Bizarre.

I'm definitely not fully recovered. While the run was nice and easy, I'm a lot more tired than I think I should be. I haven't had too much of an appetite, which is probably part of it. I need to eat more and drink a lot more (water!) in the next week to get fully recovered for the 1/2 on Sunday. We'll see how it goes.

Here are the Garmin stats:

This Sux

I've got a 1/2 marathon to run in a week and 3 days. And I've been down for the count with a cold or the flu or something. I haven't been feeling 100% since last week, but did the 10 miler on Saturday anyway. And while it went fairly well, I think it was my undoing. I pretty much crashed on Sunday and by Monday I was fighting a fever, chills, body ache, fatigue, you name it. Yuck. My fever has finally broken after topping out just under 102 degrees. I was truly miserable and am so thankful to be even just a bit better. I'm not going to expect much from my performance next week in the 1/2. T will just have to leave me behind and run her scorching pace all by herself. Hopefully I'll finish in enough time to catch our flight. T ~ hold the shuttle for me, k? ;-)

Long Run

This morning Tina and I did our long run of the week. We were shooting for a 10-miler. We've been doing our longer runs out at Sawyer trail just for a change of scenery, so we headed over about 8:00 this morning. Now, I know Tina has *said* she's not the competitive type, but on the way there she asks me what I set my Garmin at. Hmm, I didn't set it at anything. I thought we were just going out for a nice EASY long run. Guess not. She set her training guy for 10 miles at a 10:00/mile pace. WHAT?!?! Now who's being Jillian?!?! (Biggest Loser reference for those of you not familiar with the dreaded Jillian.)

It started out really well, because as you may or may not remember, Sawyer starts off pretty down hill. So, we were cruising right along. And there was also this woman with an annoyingly weird gait that we had to get away from. The way she ran, it sounded like she was wearing flip flops. Her feet were hitting the ground *that* hard. And I thought my foot strikes were noisy.

I've been fighting the most tenacious cold and I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace, but I just tried to stick to T's heels as we headed out towards the dreaded hill between mile 4.5 and 5. I asked her how we were doing compared to the little training man, but she wouldn't look at him. I tried to tell her that ignoring him wasn't going to make him go away. ;-) The hill tried to kill me but I made it up and we recovered a bit by jogging on the flat at the top before heading back down. Needless to say, the downhill was sooooo much better than the uphill. :-) But the trail, I think, is a bit more uphill on the way back. Sawyer is really strange. It seems like you're going downhill part of the time, but when you reverse direction it doesn't seem too uphill. Weird. Anyway, I was just watching the distance like a hawk, pleading with my body to keep going until we got back to the start. I just couldn't keep myself from obsessively watching the 1/2 mile markers on the trail on the way back. And that made the run back to the start seem extra long. We hit 10 miles and still had about a 1/4 mile to get back to the beginning but we eventually made it.

T checked the training guy.....and.......we beat him by 15 seconds. Now *that's* close! Uh huh, she's definitely competitive.

You can click on the graph for a larger view and to get a peek at the 'stats' for the run. I think those weird peaks on the speed plot are where the Garmin lost satellite signal because I'm *pretty* sure I never hit 30+ mph.

Slackin'

Quick update....

On Tuesday Tina, Teva, Bam and I did about 5.25 miles. Included 2 mile warm up, 4x400 intervals and 2 more miles to finish up. I'll have to get the graph posted up. Our intervals were in the 8:30/mile range, which is good, but the 'rest' phase was in the 18:30/mile range. So we averaged out to a 10:00/mile pace. Which is just about right. It was super foggy and we were out there super early. It was so foggy, we could see better with our headlights off. Kinda creepy.

I *should* have run today but this stupid cold that I've been battling has had a resurgence and I just feel crappy. So I figured I'd be better off to relax for a day than try to push it. But with the 1/2 just over 2 weeks away, I feel out of shape and not prepared at all. Sigh.

Graphs of Runs

They're a little small and hard to read, but here are the graphs of my weekend runs. I'm showing Speed (blue) vs Elevation (Grey). Hmm, this could be fun. :-)

Sunday's Run:








Saturday's Run:

Weekend update

No, sorry it's not the SNL weekend update, it's just me.

Friday evening after work I had an appointment to get dunked. The tank is in a mobile-home type vehicle. It has a couple of changing rooms and a waiting 'area' and a super warm dunk tank. It's supposed to be the 'gold standard' of fat testing. Tina's work arranged for them to come out and she got us appointments. This was the second time we'd done it and the process was pretty much the same. Get your swimming suit on, weigh in, and then jump into the super warm tank. Then you prop yourself up on what's pretty much a meat scale. You have to blow *all* the air out of your lungs and as you do, you sink down. Your weight in the water vs. dry weight gives the body fat info. The good news...my fat % has gone down over 4% since last July. The bad news....I'm still fat. Well, I'm in the 'good' range, at 20.4%. I want to be in the awesome range, but I just don't think that's going to happen. Tina's in the awesome range. She's my hero. :-) I got home and a cold hit me like a brick wall. I knew I shouldn't have gone into that nasty water at the last appointment of the day. ;-)

Saturday early afternoon Tina and I were supposed to do our long run. I wasn't feeling too hot so I was pretty much just resting and waiting until she got home and was ready to head out. Soon enough Jeff yelled to me "You have mail!" Well, maybe it's not Tina. Darn! Well, maybe she doesn't want to go after all. Darn! Ah, well, then let's go and get it over with. We did a loop around Coyote Hills and a stretch down the Alameda trail. Our plan was 8 miles and T was really pushing the pace at about 10:00/mile. I was having a mediocre day and just followed along as best I could. We were approaching the 8 mile mark and I could see the underpass we had to get to in the distance. Okay, let's just get to there. We ended up at 8.5 miles. Since my Nano/Nike+ seems to be having issues and I don't know how to post the info from my Garmin, I'll have to summarize here:

Total mileage: 8.51
Time: 1:24:46
Average pace: 9:58/mile
Average heart rate: 173/bpm
Calories burned: 912

Sunday was spent running errands and then Jeff wanted to try running around Lake Elizabeth. I went along and took Bam for her walk/run since it would be a short one. We did one lap, 2 miles, where Jeff walked/ran and I mostly ran, except for the million times I stopped while the pup sniffed around. Bam and I caught up to Jeff right at the end and we walked another lap. Unfortunately the running was making Jeff's back ache. I don't know if his back will allow him to get up to the 6-ish miles that he'd have to do in the Flying Pig relay. We'll have to see how it goes. Summary for today:

Total mileage: 2.31
Time: 22:54
Average pace: 9:54/mile
Average heart rate: 156/bpm
Calories burned: 237

Kudos go out to my big brother, Jedi Dad! I checked out his blog and see he's done his longest run to date, 5.25 miles! Awesome job man, I'm so proud of you! Can't wait to run the 1/2 Pig with him, although he may just kick my ass!

Friday Fun

This cracks me up. And maybe someday I'll experience first hand how much Absolute Power rocks. But probably not...I'm just not that ambitious. :-)

Amazing

Okay, so now I feel bad that I gave Elena a hard time in my previous post.

Tina and I went to swim laps tonight and I pumped out 1250 yards (not quite 3/4 of a mile) with no real problems. Coincidentally 3/4 of a mile is the distance of the swim portion of the first tri (UVAS Tri) I've signed up for this year. Considering that I haven't been to the pool in ages, or the lake either, I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's attributable to better cardio endurance and increased upper body strength. Both are in some part due to working with Elena, especially the upper body conditioning. Maybe now I won't feel so bad when my shoulders outgrow all my t-shirts. :-)

De-Motivation for the day

This is dedicated to Elena, the trainer that Tina and I have been working with. Yes, she is mean and we're paying her to be that way. Sheesh.

Inspiration.....or not......

I was sent a bunch of 'demotivating' posters by a coworker. They're spoofs on those motivational posters you see in businesses. I like some of them a lot. I've decided to share. Here's today's, it's pretty much my mindset for the upcoming 1/2 that I'm *really* not prepared for:

Happy New Year...a bit late

Just trying to get back into the swing of things after the holiday break.

I spent Christmas with my family in Illinois. Amazingly, despite the nasty weather the day we arrived, our flight in was on time and our flight out was only delayed about an hour.

It was a fabulous visit, especially the time spent visiting at my brother's house. My nieces are 4 yrs old and 9 months old and man are they Supercute. That's right, with a capital S. Spencer (4 yrs) is incredibly bright and full of energy and Parker is crawling all around, so close to walking, and more contemplative. Just adorable. Oh, and it was nice to visit my brother and sister-in-law too. ;-)

I was able to squeeze in a 6 miler on Christmas afternoon when it was a balmy 41 degrees. Then a 3 miler with my brother when it was about 30 degrees. Brrrr. It was the first time my brother and I have run together in a *very* long time (like high school age) and it was nice. Too bad I don't live closer, it would be fun to run together more often. Although before long I'm sure he'd be leaving me in the dust.

We have both verbally committed to run the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati on May 4. Jeff's committed to running a leg in the marathon relay team that my cousin is putting together too. It'll be a family event with 2 of my cousins running, me and Jeff, my brother, and possibly my aunt. Oh, and Spencer is going to do the Flying Piglet, which is a little 'race' for kids. Her age group runs 50 yds and everybody gets a medal and t-shirt and goodie bag. "I like goodie bags" says Spencer. That's my girl. :-)