Week of rest-Garage Sale Plans

This week I only ran a short run of 3 miles on Tuesday. The rest of the week was a wash due to a slight injury with my foot. Basically, it is just sore on the bottom, which could be the beginning of plantar fascitis (sp?) which I had my first year. So, it is not serious as long as I rest it for a little while and get some new running shoes for my next long run. I am planning on runnning 14 this weekend and hoping that my foot will be recovered by then.

To keep myself busy, I have been organizing a garage sale to benefit the LLS. A great number of people have donated items and I will be spending the next couple of weeks arranging pick up times for the donations.

No New Pics this week-hopefully next week.

This week, I would like to thank Roccio and Jessica, the two most recent donors to the LLS. I would also like to thank Sybil for her donations of toys and other treasures to the garage sale. Thank you!!!

Warning Rough Trail Ahead.

Week 9 at Redwood Park.

Another hilly course through the Oakland Hills-6 miles out and 6 miles back. This is our longest run of the season on a trail and we started at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Running up the hills, I was feeling sort of sluggish and I wonder if it was my diet. I tried to eat more than I'm used to on Thursday and Friday to prepare, but it is possible that I ate too much and/or ate the wrong combination of food. On Friday, I ate a 1/2 chicken omlette, 3 large pancakes, a piece of cake, and a large bowl of pasta. Hmmm...it sounds like too much.

At mile 6, when we turned around, I was running out of energy, but I took a GU and felt alot better after about 1 mile. I was lucky to have Dave, Nicole, and Rocky to run with-they kept me going on the way back on some of those hills with their stories and comments.

Next week another 12

P.S. I am holding a Garage Sale and looking for donated items to sell. Please contact me if you would like to contribute anything.

Keep on Smiling, Keep on Running!-May you go Far

This is the eighth week of training. Tuesday was typical-went to Lake Merritt and ran around the Lake, which is approximately three miles. I may start going around the Lake twice on Tuesdays-just to up the mileage a bit. On this Thursday, there was not a track practice in the evening, so I went to the Borders in San Francisco to see Dean Karnazes (ultra marathon man) with my friend Sam. Dean is a guy who started running long, and I mean long, distances later in life. He has run a marathon in Antartica, the Badwater (which is about 145 miles through Death Valley) and, Western States (100 mile trail run in Northern CA). Most recently, he ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days, in 50 different states. So, it was really inspiring to hear him speak about his experiences. In my book, he wrote "Keep on Smiling, Keep on Running!-May you go Far"

On Saturday, we had the long run with the Team. I was back at Inspiration Point, which is more hills, more hills, and more hills. I had a really great run with everyone. For some people, it was their first time to run in double digits, so it is always fun to see how excited and happy people are.

I'm having a great injury free season so far and am looking forward to my next long run of 12 miles next Saturday.

15 running and 15 walking

Week 8- Running. Tuesday and Thursday-the same as every other week-ran 3 miles at the Lake on Tuesday and ran track Thursday evening-trying to get a little faster.

Saturday-a different story for a lot of reasons; 1) my first double digit run of the season 2) it was hot 3) it was hill after hill after hill for 10 miles-in fact it is called 10 hill run (i think). Basically, every Friday night during training, I try to go to bed early to prepare for the Saturday run, which is always the longest of the week. In addition, I try (and, I emphasize try) to eat well and stay hydrated throughout the week. It's a challenge-mostly due to my schedule.

I anticipated a hot run on Saturday morning-even though we met at 7:30 a.m.-it was already sunny and warming up steadily. My plan was to go out very slow-due to the heat and the hills. The first part of the course (about 4 miles) is hilly, but paved and I had run it many times before. Most of the rest of the course was hilly and a trail-which meant it was uneven and rocky. So, needless to say-the first part went fairly well. There was a fair amount of shade and my body is used to 4 miles. Once I hit the second part of the course -it was more mentally challenging than anything else. As soon as I would go up a hill, I could see the next hill in the distance, which is a little annoying. And, the thing is that in the distance, they all seem to be the same steepness. In actuality, many of them were long, but the incline was manageable. In fact, I was going the slowest on the way down. I don't like running down hills-particularly those that are uneven and rocky-because I always seem to either hurt my knees and/or trip. I am not the most coordinated person on the run when there are terrain changes. Therefore, I tend to pass people going up and they pass me going down. And, so it went for hill after hill.

At approximately mile 8.5, there was another hill and it did happen to be quite steep. By this time, I was feeling the effects of the heat and the hills. Despite not going that fast and drinking a lot of water, my quads were hurting and I was hot, so I walked up 1/2 of that hill. And I was so disappointed in myself because when and I got to the top, I could see that the last mile was completely downhill. But, I guess, mentally, I was toast and I had no idea what the rest of the course was like. In any case, the last mile was a welcome change-and I finished without overheating or being injured by falling.

A lot of people ask me what I think about when running and I have to say that when I am running well-meaning with little effort-I am not thinking about anything. It's the best thing because my mind is clear and I am not worried about work or any minor things that tend to clutter my mind during the course of the day. This changes when the course is difficult. For example during the hills or in the late stages of a long run-all you want to do is quit. During those times, your mind is sort of trying to take over your body. Then, I think about why I am doing the training-to raise awareness for LLS. I also remind myself again and again about how lucky I am to be able to do this and that there will sometime come a day when I will wish I could run up a hill. So, I definitely attempt to do as well as I can, though sometimes I fail (as evidenced by the hill at mile 8.5)

So, the 15 and 15 means that I ran 15 miles this week and also walked 15 miles this week with Triton. So, if I am grumpy or tired, bear with me :0) (P.S.-Hope to have pictures of this run up soon)

Thank you on this Sunday to the most recent donors to the LLS: Harry, Don and Jan, and Dominic. I appreciate the support!

Honorees Summer 2009-Bruce, Sonal, Maddie, Matt, Harry , and our honoree capt Tori

Hills and 8 mile Run

This week at track, we worked on hill training, which is really difficult-but I love it, because it breaks up the running. So, Coach Al had us run up a steep hill and walk down (to save our knees and shins) about 4 times. When I get to the steepest part of the hill, it almost feels like I am walking. But, this totally helps foot speed and builds strength in your quads.

On Saturday, after out long run,we had our honoree potluck. The honorees for our team are: Madison, Sonal, Jon, Bruce, Matthew, and Harry. They all have some form of leukemia and are in various stages of recovery. After the run, they told us their stories about their journey. Matt is someone I did a waterstop with in the winter of 2007. I had recently completed my first marathon and I was just back with the Team to help with waterstop duties. I was paired with Matt. We were at Lake Chabot and we were at the waterstop for about two hours. In order to get there, we had to pull a wagon with our water and gatorade out about 1 mile on the trail. Of course, I talked non stop the whole way. And, during that time, I learned that Matt had luekemia and that he was going through treatment. In fact, at the time, it was difficult for him to walk the mile and he was very cold due to weakness from the treatment.

This year, he is one of the summer teams honorees and he is actually running one of the events with us. So, it is really great to see him out there. And, he is able to do that, in part, because of a pill used to treat non-hodgkins lymphoma that was developed by LLS.

Thank you very much to my most recent donor: Rachel!

Jason and Me at my Bday