30+ DRC 211

I have been seriously reconsidering this whole running challenge thing lately. I'm not terribly injured, but my knee isn't making running fun any more . . . at least right now.

I know if I stop to rest up a week or so, my knee will be fine again. But I'm not certain what would happen after. Would I want to try to start another non-stop challenge? Right now I'm not certain. But I think I'd lean towards a "no".

I know I'm not aggravating the knee, just prolonging the healing it could be doing. By running on it, I already feel my other leg working more than it did. And the leg with the bum knee, well that's working a bit different too. I'm feeling other parts of my legs that I didn't feel before and I don't think that's a good thing. My time has drastically dropped because of it.

And the thing is, I finally figured out where the problem stems from.

 These mofo's!

Ever since I bought these damn things and worn them, something funky crops up in my running. Be it my knee (currently) or my stinkin' ankle! Aaaaand it's always the same leg! These boots are so comfortably awesome, it's a shame I can't use them any more. And they're practically new! I only use them when I have to go onto the farm and walk the rooms. I can't be walking into those growing rooms with toe-shoes or my Merrells.

The boots are just too cushy. I need a boot that has a hard sole and insole.No cushyness. The closest thing I can think of is my old Altama military combat boots.

I had started wearing these boots in high school. At times after school, I'd go to the local flea market and help out some of the vendors there for a bit of money. Mainly the produce guys. It was open a few times a week. A couple of hours work and $20 was pretty good back then. These boots got me through a lot of shit. Sometimes literally . . . or almost. Rotten fruit and produce at the end of the weekend, no bueno.

I kept on buying these every few years because I couldn't find any other boots as comfortable. I've always tended towards harder soled shoes and boots. Vans, Chucks and Dickies shoes were great as well. The Dickies Vulcans were uber-cushy, but at the time I liked them.

I LOVE the look of some of the Red Wing Heritage boots. Especially these babies!

Red Wing Heritage Iron Ranger Style No. 8111's.

Old school. Love the damn boots. Just a bit pricey. They're around $250. But they last forever, so I think they'd be worth the price.

As far as running . . . I'm gonna keep at it. It's gotten a bit better. But I think that's because I'm REALLY concentrating on my form when running. And I try to wear my VFF's or Merrells when I can. I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and take it slow until my knee heals up.

GD

p.s.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

p.p.s.
take it easy, too lazy. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 207. Yeah, I'm Getting Lazier

And I figured it was about time I abbreviated the titles to these damn updates. So today is day 207 of the 30+ day running challenge . . . or as abbreviated 30+ Day Running Challenge 207.

I think I have to work on that.

Anyway, for any regular readers, I think you'll understand.

My legs were doing ok. They weren't feeling as leaden in these past couple of days. I'm running slower now that I've essentially doubled my mileage, but it's not too bad. On Monday, Christmas Eve, I ran two miles and they were ok. Rainy, chilly, but ok. I got back, showered and made myself presentable and headed over to my parents house to spend the night with them.

My Dad asked after the daughter, godson and cousin. As I was telling him, my mom who was at the table, got up abruptly and stalked away. That hurt. I played the good son the rest of the night. Dinner, smiles and some conversation. I mainly conversed with my brother-in-law and my brother and his girlfriend. I stayed away from my mom. Soon midnight came around, handed the presents out the the kids and then went home around 1am.

Christmas day on Tuesday, I was not up to seeing family. I called the brat and spoke with her, my godson and my cousin. They LOVED the presents I had sent them. I got my cousin a Kindle Fire and the daughter told me she screamed. The same went with the godson, whom I made a 50/50 split buy on a new XBox 360 since he RR'ed his last on. The daughter already knew what was waiting for her at home, but I did send along a giant gummy bear. FIVE POUNDS! I love Amazon. The rest of the day was spent reading and glued to Netflix. I went for a run in the midafternoon and continued with the Netflixing.


Wednesday, I received a call from another cousin asking if I could give her a ride to pick up something from friends house in Marina. I agreed and as soon as I got home I got into my gear and headed out the door for two. After my shower I went to pick her up and along tagged along two other brats. I had planned to spill my guts to my cousin, but with her two nieces along . . . nope. Still, I made it the trip an event. My cousin is the WORST navigator on the planet. She'd been to her friends house several times, but apparently not at night. And she never paid attention to landmarks either. She finally got the address, but my map app couldn't pinpoint the house. Just kinda give us an general idea. So I was dealing with digital version of my cousin. I finally broke out the flashlight (I always carry one in the car) and started spotlighting the numbers on the homes (dark street). We had passed the house like three or four times! And when we finally found it, she finally recognized her friends car!!!!

Her nieces were laughing so hard, it was contagious. I really needed that.

When she finally dropped off some gifts and received some in turn, we headed back to town. On the way we were getting close to this really good frozen yogurt shop called MYO (Make Your Own). I parked and everyone wanted some. They poured their favorites and loaded up the toppings they wanted. Everyone was happy. I finally dropped them off and the nieces mom, gave me the evil eye :)

I forgot to mention that during the run, I was nearing the end and began pushing to go a bit faster in the last two tenths. Just as I was about to finish, I tweaked something in my knee. I had to slow down and finish much slower than before.

It's been aching off and on all day. It's not too bad, yet. I hope it doesn't bug me too much tonight when I go for my run.

GD

too lazy. run smiley :)

Day 204 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

And boy, I'm beat! And I've been trying to figure out WHY until I got my training report this morning.

For the past month (until last Monday) I'd been running a mile a day, to keep up with the Running Challenge. I'd been laid out with the flu and later with a cold. I don't think going out and running hurt me. When I went out for my run, my sinuses would clear up and my coughing would alleviate for hours, at times. Nearly four full weeks of running one stinkin' mile a day, needless to say my mileage dropped a bit.

And apparently it hurt me.

Last Monday (December 17th), I went out for a three mile run. I felt fantastic! It was great to be out there again for more than ten minutes. I had planned for at least five miles, but I was huffing it a bit near the third mile and called it quits when the clock turned over. I felt good though. After the run the glums hit hard, but I worked through it.

Tuesday, I made myself go for three. It was freakin' cold out. Once I got warmed up though, it was fine. Just a bit of skin burning off for a few minutes. I was really puffin' away by the time I got to the three mile mark.

Wednesday is when it really hit me. I started out great and about a half mile out, my legs really started to let me know that I was pushing them further than I have for a while. Just in the last two days, I'd put almost as many miles as I had last WEEK! And the previous weeks as well! But for some reason it didn't want to click into my dense skull. Mentally I was still in my 15+ mile-a-week mode. That's a big NOPE! And insult to injury, I thought running with my Merrell Trail Gloves would be ok. Again a bit NOPE! Not on pavement.

Thursday SUCKED. I didn't even get to start comfortable. My legs were sore and heavy from the get-go! It didn't help that it was really cold! My joints actually hurt, and not just legs. I was hoping it wasn't a flu relapse. I was beginning to reconsider my need for some sort of running pants.

I must apologize to Brent. I have foot-in-mouth disease. I've ran in the cold before, but not every single day. I've been able to make do on those days I did run in the cold, not needing to consider that I may be running in the cold again. Well now that I am running everyday, I want to make sure I stay motivated. And the only way to stay motivated is to be comfortable.

So I must buy pants.

Friday wasn't so bad. Yeah it was cold. But it was also rainy. It was something novel and I had fun. Because of the toe-shoes, my tootsies were soggy as well. They were cold at first, but the water in them warmed up enough to not be an issue.

On a side note, as I was starting out, my neighbors were just arriving from . . . wherever they were arriving from and were looking at me as if I had just grown another head or something. I said hi and continued on my way.

On Saturdays, I like to start my run around 8am or thereabouts. The covers were holding me down longer than usual and the fight that ensued was bloody. There was fleece and cotton everywhere, but I eventually prevailed. I got to the trail head an hour later than usual and started my run . . . about the same time it began drizzling . . . then raining. And continued until I was finished with my two miles. And stopped. Neat.

Yesterday . . . the battle with the blankets was epic! I got to the trail head two hours later than usual. It was raining pretty steadily and it was a might, bit colder than yesterday. As I was reaching the turnaround point, the heavens opened up. I was drenched and shivering by the time I finished my cool-down walk.

Though my legs are still a bit beat, I'm getting back into the groove of things. As to why I've been having so much trouble with my mileage? Let me give you a rundown of the last four weeks:

11/25/2012 to 12/01/2012
  8.16 Miles

12/02/2012 to 12/08/2012
  7.31 Miles

12/09/2012 to 12/15/2012
  7.35 Miles

12/16/2012 to 12/22/2012
  15.49 Miles

Even though I've gone back to the mileage I've had before, I've pretty much doubled my mileage after a near hiatus of almost a month. I didn't think it would hurt me this bad, but hopefully when it happens again, it won't be as big a surprise. It feels good to be back here again. I'll be staying here for a while, God willing.

Though I still miss the Chipmunk, my brat is with her mom and brother. I can take comfort in that. She's with some of her cousins and is having fun. She says she misses me and wishes I could be there with them. My godson says the same. Maybe next year I'll go there with them for at least a few days to spend Christmas with them. Though my mom will be upset. I'll deal with it when the time comes.

So to any of you who read this self-serving blog, Merry Christmas! Love your family, cause as the kids say . . . YOLO!

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

Day 198 of 30+ Day Running Challenge . . . And Teen Girls.

I had posted up on DailyMile that I was going to break 500 miles for the year. Yeeeeaaaah. Not gonna happen. I'm a dumbass. I hadn't realized that just running a mile a day for about a month was going to set me back this far.I would've had to run at least eight miles last night to break 500.

One highlight of the night though, as I was about the halfway point of my run, I ran past these high school girls. They were across the street. I was wearing my reflecting anklets and had my Knuckle Lights on (awesome fashion accessories). A moment later I hear some giggling and the pitter-patter of someone running behind me. I was being chased by one of the girls while her friends were yelling at her to run faster! Awesome! I'm still hot enough to chase!

Anyway . . . if I had to, I probably could've run 5 miles earlier in the day. But by the time I got home, it being dark and cold and drizzling and a MAJOR case of the glums, I just wasn't feeling it.


Why the glums, you ask?

The daughter is gone :'(

Her mom came down last Friday night from Yuma and took the daughter away for Xmas break on Sunday night. Saturday, I spent the day chauffeuring her and the daughter around taking care of some stuff before she had to head back to Yuma. I was holding up like a champ until her ride arrived Sunday night and my cousin says "Awwww! Your Uncle GD is gonna cry!"

And the daughter looked at me with her crumpled face in tears. Ugh! That broke me. The tears came and we hugged each other for a good minute or so. All the while my cousin (the heartless bitch) was laughing her ass off. Before they got into their ride, I gave my cousin a heartfelt hug and the daughter another long hug.

The daughter later texted me a several minutes after they left that her mom was crying, too. So maybe she isn't such a heartless bitch after all. This Christmas is gonna feel a bit more empty without the brat around . . .

GD

p.s.
too bummed to check. try to run smiley :')

Day 192. 12/12/12

Ooooooh. Supposedly, this is this century's last sequential date.

I call shenanigans.

There hasn't been a TRUE sequential date since the beginning of the Gregorian calendar. I mean, seriously!

January 1st, 1 - 1/1/1
February 2nd, 2 - 2/2/2
March 3rd, 3 - 3/3/3
April 4th, 4 - . . . and so on

You get the picture. After the first twelve years, sequential dates were DONE! If you wanna make a big deal outta the dates, then you can play with the binary stuff.

January 1st, 1 - 01/01/01
January 10th, 1 - 01/10/01
November 11th, 1111 - 11/11/1111
And blah, blah, blah.

When the second millenium began, fun stuff with binary dates was gone, too. I guess you can start playing with other numerology stuff, but the above mentioned ones are the ones that I thought a bit funny when people made a big deal about it.

The whole Mayan prophecy thing, today was one date a lot of people thought marked the end of the world. Others say it's the 21st of this month. Terrence McKenna, one of the new age philosophy gurus thought something significant would occur on the 21st. He "discovered" a pattern throughout history that the Mayan calendar appeared to match up with. Something to do with a 67 year cycle. But I remember reading somewhere that McKenna kinda fudged a date to match up with the Mayan calendar.

McKenna had an "Omega Point" theory. Having something to do with our mental capability increasing to such a high point that it was theoretically infinite. That Omega Point would occur December 21st, 2012. According to his theory though, that point should have occurred sometime in mid-November, which would mark the 67-point-something year cycle. The beginning of that cycle having occurred with the bombing of Hiroshima.

All that aside, there is a lot of things happening in this world. The main reason people take notice though, is that we literally have information at our fingertips. Most of my friends have smartphones. I know of only two hold-outs that adamantly refuse to get anything more than a simple text-capable phone. And they are married to each other. I use my iPhone all the time to look up stuff.

But my friends and I refuse to be like those dumb asses in group settings staring at their phone. Sure we'll take pictures and take calls if necessary, but we will NOT be Facebooking, Instagraming, Tweeting or whatever when we are trying to catch up on each others lives!

If you're one of those people,  STOP IT! You're in a social situation with REAL PEOPLE! Socialize with your friends, meet new people if you want, but get OFF the damn phone!

My brother was one of those guys. He's a kid (relatively speaking) at 23 years old so he's into the whole social media stuff. I won't call it crap, because . . . come on. I'm blogging right now. He wanted to hang out with my friends and I. Cool! We got to the bar ordered some beers and burgers.

Pulls out his phone takes a picture of us, his food and beer. And starts tapping away. Bad move, dude.

My friends gave him so much shit, I almost started to feel bad for him . . . almost. He gave as good as he got, though. Pretty good, considering the smack talk thrown his way. But he got the point. From then on he only took pictures and updated his status' on the ride back home. Lesson learned.

Oh, and the running updates?

Still a bit of a cold. But I hope to be well enough for a good long run (long for me) on Saturday . . . maybe even Sunday.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 190 of blah, blah, blah . . . ugh.

The title has nothing to do with my motivation of keeping up with the running streak. It's to do with this stinkin' flu-turned-to-cold that is lingering like death on battlefield. But I'm fighting off the mother with everything I have. I'm near the end of the hit right now, thank the gods. I've had this thing for the past two weeks and right now, it's just some congestion and a bit of a cough.

And it's all because I gave my brother a ride from work . . . bastard.

About a month back, I had finished my run and had just got home and was about to jump in the shower when my brother called. His girlfriend was at work and he needed a ride from work later that afternoon. I agreed and I had been wanting to hang out with him for a while and asked him if he wanted to go have a beer and a burger. He said he had a cold, but he wanted to go anyway. I didn't think his being sick was a big deal. Oops.

We had a great lunch with some awesome beer at BJ's Brew House. I had their California Burger  with blue cheese crumbles and an Arrogant Bastard . . . or three. My brother, ever the adventurer, got the Bacon Cheeseburger and the AB as well. He was coughing a bit, but nothing major. He just happened to cough in my general direction once in a while. Again, I thought it no biggie.

That weekend I started getting sick. Just a general feeling of . . . blah. By Monday I was bad. Headache, runny nose, cough . . . I think even a slight fever. I left work early and went for a run. That cleared up the headache surprisingly. As well as the sinus issues. Cough worsened though. Dry air and deep breaths would do that. I coughed all night into Tuesday morning. I ended up biting the bullet and hit up the 24-hour Safeway and bought some Nyquil/Dayquil caps.

I attempted to speak to my boss and call in sick in the morning, but my voice was gone. I think he got the point. I crashed out after taking the daughter to school. I didn't wake up again until my alarm went off to go pick up the daughter. We got back home, I took a shower and made her some hamburger-mac-n-cheese. Homemade, even. No boxed stuff for the brat. Real sharp cheddar. Awesome. After giving her dinner, I went for my run.

That's when the single mile streak began.

It wasn't until this week that I began feeling a bit better and probably could have gone for more. But every time I finish a mile and stop, I begin coughing intermittently for a while. I had my first spaz attack a few days ago and again really bad yesterday. A couple of hours later though, I can take deep breaths again with no problems. It's really pissing me off.

I'm hoping by Wednesday I'll be able to start kicking up the miles again. It's sad seeing single digits on my weekly training log.

GD

p.s.
almost too sick to check, just lazy. run smiley :)

Day 183. Six Fuggin' Months!

Holy crap! Six months today!

And unfortunately it'll be a short run of a mile . . . again. For the past week or so, I've been really laid up with a nasty roller-coaster cold. Why roller-coaster? It shifts from being tolerable to horrible within a very short period. AAAAND . . . I had to contend with the weather as well!

When I was feeling good, I had no problem going out in the rain for a run. But being miserable and then having to go out in this miserable weather? Nuh-uh! So I'd wait for a break in the weather and in my cold and go out for my mile. It's been like that all week.

Today I'm feeling a bit better, not as foggy but contending with a bit of a cough and phlegm build-up. No rain, but it's a tad nipply. Usually great conditions for run when feeling well. Not today. I wanted to mark the dianniversary with a 6 mile run. But I guess it'll have to wait a bit. Hopefully this weekend.

If it feels like I'm rambling on, I probably am. Feeling a bit foggy again. Ugh.

GD

p.s.
ugh. run smiley :)

Day 180 and I feel like crap.

This past week has been a dog! I started feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on on Sunday night and it just progressively worse! Tuesday was the horrible and I ended up leaving work to go home. Wednesday, I called in and potatoed all day. Yesterday, I came in to work and left early a couple of hours after lunch. Needless to say it's been a very low mileage week. Only a mile each day.

Today, I almost didn't make it in. But after a good, hot shower. I felt a bit better and decided to try and ride it out. Boy, was that almost a bad decision!

As you may have heard, we are having a so called "Super Storm" on the west coast. It has not stopped raining since around 3 this morning. I don't remember it raining that long since the floods of 1995. I wasn't in California when that occurred, but it was all over the news in Phoenix when it got really bad. A few calls to family at the time informed me of some problems in Salinas, and some major flooding in the Watsonville area. Highway 1 in Watsonville had barrells and other flotsam all over it for a several days.

I've heard stories from several growers here on the farm about some crazy flash floods that nearly took out several grow houses. Those problems have been long fixed. But when weather gets bad like this, you always see the maintenance crews zipping all over the farm making sure all the fixes are working.

And this morning as I was coming in to work, I could'a pinched out a diamond coming through one of the highway construction zones! It was so bad there that with a bit of planning and the proper vehicle, you could actually go skiing. There's an overpass being built in the area and there is a temporary road through that winds like a mofo. It's a clusterfuck waiting to happen. And I think it may happen today. It almost happened in front of me and I probably would'a shit my pants when it happened.

I like to believe I'm a cautious driver. Yes, I do have a heavy foot at time. But only when I know I can be safe about it. That construction zone is recommended highway speed or less for me ALL THE TIME! I've seen to many near-hits in that area not to have at least several (as in 6) car-lengths in front of me. It's a 55 mph road and that's where I usually sit, sometimes less. It can get bad there. Too many morons thinking it's a proper road. There are concrete barriers on both sides, so no way to veer away if something in front of you happens. You either have plenty of room in front of you or excellent, stop-on-a-dime brakes . . . and pray the driver behind you doesn't plow into you.

I'm also not a nervous driver. I'm fairly cool-headed and try not to be in a hurry. Plan ahead and all that. I'm not a granny-driver . . . except for today. And I am certain that if I took that road like I normally would on a dry day, it would'a been a baaaaad start to the day.

It was coming down pretty hard when I got to 101. It's 65 mph, there and I was driving around 60 mph. So was everyone around me . . . except for this big rig coming up behind us in the fast lane. Easily going 80 mph. Everyone got out of the way. As we were coming up to the construction area, everyone slowed way the fuck down to around 40 . . . waiting to see what would happen when the truck entered.

All you saw was this huge wall of water go over the big rig and the driver desperately try to control the death machine. It was ALL OVER both lanes and road up one of the barricades and came back down and . . . just kept going . . . at a much more reasonable speed. I thought the dude was fucked. And I'm glad everyone driving near was aware of what could'a and did happen. The barricade seemed to have held it's position, with only a tire mark riding up it.

Everyone was going really slow through the area until we got to the highway proper again and then everyone sped up to 55 again. Great way to start the day.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 176 . . . and stuff

Here I am on day ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY SIX!

My half-year journey ends next Monday on December 3rd, 2012. I never would'a thunk I'd get this far! I don't wanna count my chickens, but I've got the potential to make it all the way to Day 183!

So what's after this? The continuation of the next half a year and the completion of one whole year!

Okay. Enough of tootin that horn.

Last time I posted a few changes occurred in my life:

One, I've had to change my regular route because of:
Two, the daughter is back in my regular life.

With my cousin having to go to Yuma (she's an inventory specialist for a big produce company), she's reluctantly left her baby behind so she would keep up with schoolwork and cheer . . . and given me all the headaches a sixteen year old, hormone ridden teen girl exudes! Keee-ripes!

I've only had her for a couple of weeks and already, she's driving me crazy. The mood swings are incredible! I used to think my teen years weren't that long ago. But now, I'm remembering all the things I made myself forget!

Last year started out a bit difficult when the transition was made, but it got better. This year she's had a tough time and she almost decided to go with her mom because of some issues she was having at school. But I'm proud of her that she decided to "man up" and tough it out. She's made some inroads with some of the people she had beef with and now it's become a kind of cold acquaintanceship with them. A nod hello and on her way.

She's a little thing and her mom has always made a point of raising a girly-girl. But one with an iron will . . . as long as it didn't contradict hers. If it did, holy crap, the slag that would fly! And most of it coming off the brat. She'd lick her wounds, cry a bit and apologize to mommy.

It's been a couple of weeks already and she's doing well. Of course, it's been vacation time for her and hasn't had much social interaction at school. I'll see how things go this week. Hopefully things stay well.

GD

too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 166 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

My thoughts so far:

It's day 166 and I still have to go out for my run this evening. It's raining, but it's not as cold as it was the last time I ran in the rain. It shouldn't be too bad.

But what are my overall feelings with this challenge so far? I must say I feel so much better for it. Not just mentally because of the whole "testicular fortitude" thing, but also physically. Last year when I'd run, I was going for about the same distance I'm doing now, but only about three days a week . . . if that! I'd find some excuse not to go and then beat myself up about it because I knew I was just fooling myself.

Another thing, I was hurting back then . . . a LOT. I was still a relative n00b to the whole minimalist/barefoot wave going through the running community so I was still trying to nail down my form. I was doing much better than I had been with regular shoes, but I still had those really painful mornings when the first few minutes of walking around were a tad excruciating. Now I only have those painful mornings maybe a couple times a month. And it takes only a couple of steps to work out whatever the kink was. So, MUCH better than before!

And I would have to include joint pain along with that as well. Knees are fine, my creaky hip . . . gone (god, I sound like I was way past 50!). I would have to attribute the lack of pain with the necessity of having a comfortable run every day. By going out every day, I've had to self-evaluate what I was doing so I wouldn't be regretting my run later. Focusing on how I placed my footing, how my knees were bent, keeping my back straight, head up . . .

And the major plus to this whole enchilada? SLEEP!

I used to have restless nights and wake up horribly groggy. And it was a struggle to keep my chipper personality at work. I still have those restless nights, but they are so few and far between. And they are always caused by something I had eaten that I shouldn't have. Usually some sugar loaded treat that I still fool myself into thinking I can handle. But sleep is so wonderful now. Once I'm in bed, I'm knocked out within a few minutes. Rarely do I wake up in the middle of the night. And when I do, it's to hit the head after a night of beer and buds.

And when I wake up in the morning, it's no longer having to fight the blanket monster keeping me comfortably in bed. I'm still a bit slow to get out of bed, but it isn't a fight. Wake up before the alarm, turn it off, crawl out of bed and hit the shower. Wide awake once the water starts hitting me. So much different than last year.

So if I keep up with this running challenge, it's mainly going to be because of the whole sleep benefit. I'm still only getting about six hours of sleep, but it is the best sleep I've had since I was a wee lad.

GD

p.s.
ain't checking. run smiley :)

Day 164 of the 30+ Day Running Challenge

And I'm feeling pretty good!

With the time change occurring within the last week, I've had to start using my Knuckle Lights. I purchased these last year and used them a couple times when I would go out for a run at night. This year, I've used them almost every night during the week! I don't usually get into town until after 5:30pm. So by the time I get to my usual trail, it's already dark.

The first night I went there, I saw a some runners. No more than five others, I think. The second night, maybe two runners and a shitload of mountain bikers. They were from the Salinas High School Mountain Biking team and they were coming back from Fort Ord trails. The third night, there were a couple of dog walkers. And after that, nothing. I was the lone runner out at that trail, in the dark . . . with my Knuckle Lights!

There is still a dog walker or two every so often, but most of the time I have the trail to myself. Should I be worried? Nope. Most of my two mile out-and-back is in between a heavily trafficked highway and residential fenced backyards. I still carry my Silent Soldier neck knife tucked under my shirt, for that just-in-case moment. I do live in Salinas!

And I must say, ever since the weather got a bit cooler, I've been improving my pace times. I had been averaging around 10 min/mile. But with getter out later and enjoying the cooler run, I've been improving my time. Awesome! But I think that will change once I begin lifting and working out more, though. I'm starting that again this weekend. I'll be following a modified crossfit program (again). I'm not working out to hurt myself, but to make some improvement on leanness. I stopped my 4HB program to see if I could maintain with a "regular" diet and I have so far. But I've stalled at 230 lbs. I would like to drop another 30 lbs by spring and I think I can do that with the workouts and 4HB.

To help with that, I'll start posting up my workouts on here along with what I've been eating. But that shouldn't begin until sometime this weekend. And Thanksgiving is not gonna be easy. I make an awesome spread and my mom just potatoes all day watching me suffer in the kitchen while snickering that she suckered me into it again. Ugh.

GD

p.s.
didn't check. run smiley :)

Day 145 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

GO San Francisco GIANTS!

Ok, now that THAT is outta the way . . . sorry Brent, but the Tigers are going DOWN!

My interest in sports teams are a bit scattered:

Baseball: Diehard Giants fan since I was a youngin'. Too many games to recall going to with family.

Football: Didn't much care for it. One day decided to finally support a team and the Browns had come back to Cleveland so . . . Go Browns!

Hockey: I've always loved watching hockey. Something about guys the size of linebackers smashing each other at totally unsafe speeds and then skating away as if (almost) nothing had happened. Only to pay that mofo back by smashing back into him at an even more unsafe speed . . . with a high stick thrown in for good measure. But the funny thing is, I never really had a team I'd follow. Only because it was rarely shown on TV here on the west coast. At least until the Sharks came to San Jose. I had moved to Phoenix around '95 and the Coyotes came to town the next year. I got lucky and was able to grab a ticket for the first home game . . . which I somehow lost on my move back to California in '97.
GO 'YOTES!

Sorry. That was a bit of a ramble. The point is that the Giants are in the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. I was expecting the Tigers to take Game 1 with Verlander on the mound. But I guess that LONG rest they had was a bit too long and made them lose a bit of momentum. Game 2 was last night and that was a definite battle. GREAT game! I just don't want a repeat of 2010 with a seven game series. TOO much of a nail biter there.

Why the extra bit of info? Brent at RunFatBrentRun "nominated" me for Liebster Award. And now I can't see or hear about Joseph Leiberman without giggling about his comparison to Emperor Palpatine!

What does that nomination get me? Nothin'. It's just a bloggers version of a chain mail. But a fun one!

 Let's get on with it:
11 Facts about myself:
01: I hate hot weather. Phoenix pretty much taught me that. You don't want to do ANYTHING in that weather! Hence number two.

02: Before moving to Phoenix, I was an extremely fit 175 lbs. Out of high school in 1992, I kept myself in shape. I had a car, but preferred my bicycle for around town.

03: When I came back to Salinas from Phoenix, I was nearly 300 lbs. Bad food, alcohol, stress . . . all contributing factors. Not an alcoholic, but pretty damned close. Then again, maybe it was denial?

04: 2007 I was diagnosed with hypertension and near diabetic. The reason I went to the doctor was because I thought I was having a mild heart attack. I was experiencing pressure in my chest and my heart would be racing as if I'd just run as fast as I could. And that was with me waking up in the middle of the night to hit the can!  After the diagnoses, I was like "FUCK THAT! I've got some changes to do!!!"

05: I cut out all simple sugars in my diet. I had to learn to drink my coffee black, blechh!

06: I learned to LOVE black coffee! I discovered sooo many flavors that were masked by all the cream and sugar I'd add my cup. I stopped drinking crap beer . . .

07: No more Corona, Miller High Life, etc. I began trying out new beers. My favorite brew now is Stone's Arrogant Bastard Oaked! But sometimes you want a good IPA, so I'll grab a Sierra or to REALLY bite ya', a Stone Ruination.

08: Along with the diet change, I began moving again. Only because I threw out my back in the most improbable way possible. It was the end of the day on Friday after a pretty hard day making mushroom test trays and we were cleaning up. The test lab had been washed down and we were just drying it up with floor squeegees. I was squeegeeing (is that a word?!) the floor when my back went out. I barely got to my car and because it was the weekend, I had to wait until Monday to go see the doctor. Yeah. I'm a moron. I waited until Monday. I made myself a promise not to let this happen again, if I could help it.

09: I brought my passion of bicycling back into my life! I used to Frankenstein bicycles for shits'n'giggles all the time. If I had a camera back then, I think I'd be famous with the crap I put together. I went and hit up garage sales and found some decent parts and put together a decent crappy bike. After getting used to that I decided to buy a "good" bike and bought a steel Surly CrossxCheck. I've got her tricked out with a nice black Brooks B17 leather seat, a Nitto Moustache bar, too many mods from stock. I'll have to get a picture of her to post on here. She's my baby.  Steel is real!

10: Bicycling really helped a lot. I dropped some weight, I felt better . . . but I wanted more change. In the spring of 2010 the YMCA began a program to train people for the first annual Salinas Valley Half Marathon. I joined up. And I discovered that I couldn't run for shit. I had horrible shin splints throughout the training, but I completed my half marathon in 3.5 hours.

11: I discovered Born to Run after trying to figure out how to stop shin splints and began looking for a minimalist shoe. I found the Merrell Trail gloves were about to be released in February of 2011 and got them. I've been running in minimalist shoes ever since with nary a problem (except for the once when I screwed up my foot with pulled tendon).

That's probably a little more info and facts about me than you wanted to read . . . but anyway, onto the 11 questions posed by Brent to his nominees:

01: What kind of animals do you have and what are their names?
I have 4 ankle-biters (chihuahua mixes) and a pitbull.
 Chihuahuas: Baby, Pee-wee, Gorda, Princess. A random bit of info: When Gorda was born to Baby, she was the last of a litter of 4 and the still-born runt. A bit of CPR and she began breathing on her own. She grew to be the biggest of the litter and my favorite. I spoil that bitch!
Pitbull: Cici. She can't stand Gorda or Princess. She's also the oldest pitbull I've ever known. She's 14!

02: Do you have a favorite or "lucky" article of clothing?
More along the idea of favorite, I love my VFF Bikila shoes. I wish I could wear them everywhere, but the PTB's at work kinda frown upon toe-shoes. And the ladies get a little weirded out.

03: When you have a night to yourself to go somewhere, where do you hang out?
I know this sound a bit cheesy, but I love hanging out with my cousin and her kids (the "daughter" and my godson) and have a family night at her home. Bad food and a movie can't get any better.

04: What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
I had to really think about this one because I could remember right away. But the last movie I watched was Hit And Run with Dax Shepard. That was a really fun movie!

05: What's your guilty music pleasure?
Katy Perry. I'm sorry. I feel dirty now.

06: Do you have a personal catch phrase or motto when it comes to life? If so, what is it? If not, make one up . . . now.
Ooooh, what is THAT? (usually said right before doing something relatively stupid but not "illegal" and pissing off whomever happens to be with me at the time)

07: What's the ONE possession (not family or animals, they're safe) you'd grab if your house were going up in flames?
This one's easy, my backup drive. I have all my music and photos on there. It's so important to me that I have a backup of my backup that I bring home from work to backup, just in case. That should've been one of the facts about me. I don't want to lose any digital info that I've worked so hard to keep. And I also have another backup of the backup at home. They're all backed up once a week or whenever there is a big data dump occurring. Did I forget to mention that I'm called the Alpha-Geek at work?

08: Do you run outside in inclement weather? Is there a limit where you draw a line and say "Nope, not today", and do you switch to indoor exercise of some type?
I do run in inclement weather, like a downpour. If there is a limit to it, I haven't met it yet. But then again, my rainy day runs have been during summers and fall here. Our winters are relatively mild. The coldest we'll see is maybe 28 degrees, and only in the early morning. During the day, it'll creep up to 35. So maybe some ice, but not really. I wanna keep that streak going!

09: What's the most "jerkface" thing you've seen done during a road race from a fellow runner or even a spectator?
Hmm. Being that I haven't been in many road races and guessing most jerks would be at least in the middle of the pack and up, I haven't had the pleasure to observe said "jerkface" actions. But since you asked about the MOST "jerkface" thing done, I guess that would be a volunteer accidentally dropping a cup right before the runner ahead of me grabbed it.

10: If you were going to be turned into an aquatic animal, and there is no way to avoid it, what would you choose to be? Anything that spends the majority of it's time in water is allowed.
A sea lion. Those mofo's are awesome! They're the wolves of the sea. You get to be fat and it's GOOD for you! Go grub, lounge on a rock and take in some rays . . . just gotta keep an eye our for those damn "Free Willy's". They keep playing catch and eatin' up all your friends! Stinkin' orcas.

11: Have you ever been part of any kind of protest? And what was if for or against?
Yes I have, but we called it a demonstration. It was part of a Bike Week thing that we did here in Salinas. And I also participated in a Critical Mass in San Francisco. That was fun.

Now if I can count (and I'm pretty sure I can), I've just answered SIXTEEN questions from Mr. Pittenger. So with that being said, I'll skip that part that asks I nominate eleven other blogs. I don't read that many blogs and the ones I do are tech blogs and other blogs that are kinda crazy popular with a shit-ton of readers.

BUT . . . I will ask some questions for anyone who cares to answer them:

01: Why keep reading this scatter-brained blog? (yes, I gotta feed the ego)
02:  Have you considered running barefoot/minimalist?
03: In your opinion, what is the best scary movie you've watched?
04: What are you reading now?
05: What genre of books do you prefer?
06: Do you believe, even a little bit, that the world will end this year (2012)?
07: What is your opinion on the 2013 VW Beetle?
08: If you could move ANYWHERE in the world, would you eat their cheese? (I like cheese!)
09: Have you ever seen the ocean in person?
10:  Do you have a favorite sport (or sport-like activity) that you participate in?
11: And the most important question: What is your favorite brew (coffee/tea/beer)?

Whelp, that's it for me. I've been jumping on and off this computer all day. Gotta go soon and begin my weekend. Have a good one!

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :) 

Day 128 of 30+Day Running Challenge

Nothing really eventful has happened since I last posted.

I still haven't gone on that run I've been wanted to take to Laguna Seca . . . yet. I hope to get it in before my half year mark in December. I think my main goal is to just keep up with the running for now, no matter the distance. As long as I'm able to keep it to at least 2 miles a day.

I know . . . I'm aiming low. I don't care! I'm not hurting like I was at this time last year and I'm sleeping like a baby now. A lot of the complaints I had last year physically, are pretty much gone. Even the weight is slowly dropping off. As long as I keep up with the slow-carb stuff, I drop at least 3 pounds a week.

This week will NOT be one of those weeks. My guess I'll have dropped only a pound or two . . . but at least I'm dropping. Considering I started around at 250 lbs on this adventure, I should be down to 225 lbs by Friday. That's the lowest I've seen in over 10 years!

The problem for me this week is my schedule is FULL. I really should'a prepped my meals for the week on Sunday, but I was beat and lazy by the end of the day. So right now, I'm trying to keep the grubbin' as healthy as possible. It's kinda hard when mom cooks up a nice chicken soup on a cool day.

But as long as I see a drop in numbers, I'll be happy.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Day 116 of 30+ Day Running Challenge

I'm still chuggin' along on this challenge, but my mileage isn't improving.  I'm trying to at least get a four mile run in on the weekends and they aren't too bad. I've been looking at this one trail I was close to last year, but I'm unfamiliar with it. I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and risk the run.

It on the Fort Ord Bureau of Land Management property.  It takes you from the outskirts of Salinas to Monterey.  Some of the trails hit Laguna Seca Raceway! There are mountain bikers always on those trails and I hear them discussing if they should go through Laguna Seca or other routes. One of these days I'm taking my Surly CrossXcheck for a spin through those trails . . . or maybe just grow some and run there!

I think it'd only be a 10 to 15 mile round trip. If I plan it right, I could make my own little half marathon out of it. Take a small pack with some water and grub and take my time with it . . . I'm kinda liking the idea!

Looks like I might have a fun run this Saturday! I'll post on how it goes ASAP.

GD

p.s.

too excited now to check! run smiley :)

9/11 and Day 100

Today is September 11th and I'm pretty sure there are THOUSANDS of people writing their own personal accounts of what their day was like. And I am fairly certain my day was nowhere near as straining as a lot of those.

What I remember of that day was having gotten out of the shower, I turned on the radio to listen to some talk radio program. I think it was local show before the syndicated shows began. On that morning they had just had a blurb of an unconfirmed report that a small plane may had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. Me, being the cold-hearted bastard that I am, didn't really put much thought into it.

As I'm driving into work though, the local news station gets taken over by a nationwide news broadcast stating that a commercial airliner had hit one of the Towers. I didn't want to believe it because I knew that would mean something a bit more important than an airplane malfunction. I didn't want to think the T word . . . not yet.

I got the lab and on entering asked if anyone had heard about the plane crash. Nope. I set up the rabbit ears on our rinky-dink lab tv and tuned it to one of the three stations we recieved that wasn't in spanish. It was KSBW, our local NBC affiliate. It was a live, distant, aerial view of one of the Towers smoking from a fairly large hole of where the plane had struck. Everyone in the lab was silent listening to what the reporters thought may have happened. Pilot or mechanical error, or the possibility of . . . the T word.

EVERYONE exclaimed the exact same thing as if we had rehearsed the line thousands of times when we saw the second plane enter the picture. "OHMYGOD!"

I will never forget that image and everyone in that room. We were all shocked. It may have been 3000 miles away, but we felt that plane hit that tower. We knew what it meant. The T word now had solidity. It was an actual term in our everyday language. Terrorists. There is a color chart stating the threat level of possible Terrorist Attacks in the USA. I don't know if it's still in use today, but I remember we'd go from level yellow to orange a lot for a while.

One funny thing to note, though. I know it should be somber time, but we've grown to become wary and the government has used that as an excuse to plant their boot on our backsides to do what the government wants to do . . . sorry.

I got sidetracked. But a funny thing happened when I was listening to the radio several days later. Maybe weeks or months later, I can't quite remember. What I do remember was that there were a couple of radio dj's talking and one of them talked about how he had been in the station on the morning of the 9/11 attacks. They were scheduled to have a psychic reader do her weekly 30 minute call in program on their show.

From what he said, she walked in completely oblivious to the shock and fear everyone at the station was in after the Towers had been hit. Here was a psychic, a sensitive, and she didn't know what was going on.

I usually changed the station or switched off the radio whenever she was on anyway.

And that is my account of an extraordinary day that I pray doesn't EVER get repeated in any way, shape or form. Anywhere.


Now back to our irregularly scheduled blog post.

It's Day 100 of my 30+ Day Running Challenge!

Last time I posted was on Labor Day, a bit over a week ago. And it's been quite a week. Monday through Wednesday were all flat runs. I was pulling my hair out because I didn't know if I would have time to do all I had to do for Saturday's event (which I'll get to in a minute). I had scheduled Thursday and Friday off to hopefully be able to accomplish that. Which I barely did.

Thursday I decided to run Toro Park again after a fairly long hiatus. I guess I was afraid of the trail as that is where I last got majorly worked over and fucked up my foot (pulled my foot and had plantar fasciitis for months after). I am happy to say that it will be a regular part of my schedule because it beat the living shit outta me.

I've described the trail on here once before. Let me remind you. I'm working on getting better and with this daily run thing, it's getting more comfortable, but not better. Toro Park will get me better. Where as Manzanita Park is steep hills and you know you're going to get worked over, Toro Park appears benign.

But it's not!

You go from 140 feet to 380 feet in about a mile and change. It's not much at all if you're used to it. I'm not. It's a constant climb, no breaks. Coming back down is cake . . . until it's not. You can only bomb downhill for so long before quads and calves start complaining.

I am soooo looking forward to running this trail again. I want to get to the running condition I had when I was running it relatively easily again. I think a combination of running the Toro Park Howling Windmill Trail (it's what I call it . . . TPHW for short) and the Toro Park Estates trail (TPE) will help me get there.

I'll be at the TPHW tonight. Can't wait!

GD

p.s.
fingers are cramping from too much typing to check. run smiley :)

Day 92: LABOR DAY!

It's labor day and I'm looking forward to a FLAT run today. Oof!

Two days in a row of running Manazanita Park. I mean, I COULD go today since I'm at work and the park is on the way home . . . maybe I might go. I still have a few hours to decide.

What's putting me in mind of actually running it is that these last three days have not been ideal as far as following the 4 hour body recommended diet. Friday, Saturday AND Sunday have been horrible, horrible cheat days! It was only supposed to be one day!

But . . . I've given myself the excuse that it was my birthday Friday and that I might as well make a full weekend of it. Since I don't like drinking myself into a stupor any more, I may as well make it carb hangover instead of a alcohol hangover. Either way, I was going to regret it.

And today . . . not so much regret.

I don't feel to bad about screwing up the diet. The end goal is to reduce the bad food intake and I have to say that I did fairly well compared to what I would have done a month or so back. So I'm making psychological changes as far as food is concerned. I kept the bad stuff barely tame because I remembered how I felt last weekend and I didn't want a repeat. Though I did enjoy myself.

Friday and Saturday were good. Yesterday was another matter.

There was some excitement at work that involved one of the test facility supervisor to lose it and have a nervous breakdown. He completely flipped out and scared five grown men to run up to our lab and hide out. He wasn't threatening anyone, he just freaked everyone out with his paranoid rantings. He thought some of his employees were out to kill him.

Some more shit happened where he shattered a toilet, messed up some of our trials and then proceeded to jump onto the back of a tractor trailer ladder and hang on for dear life for about 6 miles and run from police once it stopped at an intersection.

We always joked that this place would get to us and lose it . . . we just never really thought it would happen to anyone.

Live and learn.

Why do I bring this up?  Because now we are having to shift schedules around to accomodate the absences left behind our once former colleague. I had Friday off because there was no way in hell I could come in on my birthday. But Saturday and Sunday I was here at work. And today, too.

I didn't get a chance to plan Saturdays meals well, so I had relatively bad food from the taco truck for brunch (no breakfast, so lunch was breakfast/lunch). Manzanita Park run. Dinner was shrimp cocktail, Mexican style! Relatively healthy, except for the Clamato. But awesome.

Sunday started out bad. Stopped by McD's and grabbed their number 2 (sausage muffin/egg/cheese, hash brown and medium OJ). Lunch was taco truck carne asada tacos and a glass bottle Coke. Went to Manzanita Park for the run (felt ok). Went to the daughters football game to support her girls for cheer (they improved). The Steinbeck Cubs blew out the poor Watsonville Jr. Wildcats 54 to 0.

Dropped her and the boyfriend off at her moms and headed home because my parental units had said they were going to take me out for a birthday dinner. And they did take me out . . . to the back yard. We had a barbeque. And boy . . .  did I stuff my face! My moms home cooking is deadly for me. There was rice, mashed beans with Cotija cheese, macaroni salad (gobs and gobs!), and avocado salsa (Oh. My. GAWD!), chicken, carne asada. And the weird item, beef shish kabobs. But they were tasty.

But I tell you, that salsa was incredible! I ate so much of that stuff, and I couldn't stop! I almost put it on top of my cake and ice cream. Dude, I was rollin' from that dinner table after. And to add insult to injury, I wiped out a six pack of Sierra Nevada Torpedo's. No bueno.

I woke up a bit groggy, but no real hangover. I guess I had enough food to stabilize alcohol absorption. Though I do have to say I am feeling a bit of the carb hangover. Stomache isn't settling too well today. I don't have to worry about bad food for this week until next Sunday.

Can't wait!

GD

p.s.
too stuffed to check. run smiley :)

Day 88 and I LIED . . . to myself :(

It's Day 88 of the 30+ Day Running Challenge.

And I lied. I thought I had nailed down the food issue, but apparently not.

I went for my run at Manzanita Park last night after work and I got WORKED! I was beat before even starting the run! I managed to crank out at least 3/4ths of the run before having to run/walk the rest of it. I walked a bit at spots where I usually run up (just a few feet) and the big hill just kicked my ass.

And as exhausting as this run was, I kinda liked that it did that to me. Weird.Still, I hope my body gets used to this change fast! Cause it leaves me beat the next day, too.

Tonight I have a flat 2 miler scheduled . . . maybe three . . . or four. Depends on how much exhaustion I want to feel.

Tomorrow I'll be in Monterey for my birthday. I'll be 39 years old and I'll be running a short mile there. I've also got to finish paying off my tux rental for next week and I've gotta start writing my speech as a best man. I'm still debating if I should be humorous or somber. As I don't know either family very well (I don't know why he chose me, either), I may be going for somber. Dammit.

It is a day of reflection for me as well. It's my day to recharge my faith in humanity. What better place to do it than a tourist trap town with a bunch of foreigners and the locals being helpful.

Damn. That last bit makes me sound terrible. It's supposed to be taken in a positive light. Trust me.

GD

p.s.
too beat to check. run smiley :)

Day 87

Today is day 87 of 30+ Day Running Challenge.

And I think I finally nailed down my food intake for the 4 Hour Body lifestyle change.

Gotta call it that because I don't want to look at it as a diet. It should be something I'm comfortable with. And so far, I would say I am.

FYI: On Monday I felt pretty bad. I don't remember if I posted about that on my last post. But I had a pretty bad carb hangover. You might think it's a bunch of BS, but when you stick with 4HB, you do feel the difference after having loaded up on bad carbs.  I don't think allergies helped, but the queasiness I was feeling had nothing to do with allergies. And I had a different type of headache than what I usually associate with allergies. It really did feel like a minor hangover.

Most of the symptoms went away when I had my run at Manzanita Park, but that run was hellish! I mean, it is a diffcult trail to run, but I usually do better on it than I did that day.

This week has also been better as far as food intake. I think I nailed down what I needed to function normally.  My runs haven't been great, but they also haven't been terrible. I'm enjoying them, they're fun again.

Here's what I've been having as far as food for this week. It's just what I had when I first tried 4HB about a year ago and dropped 40 lbs.

Breakfast
8oz of Lentils
3 scrambled eggs (with olive oil)
70 grams of spinach (love my kitchen scale)

Lunch
A cup of pinto beans (either whole or mashed)
10 medium sized shrimp
A bunch of stir fried veggies (broccoli, cauliflower . . .)

Dinner
Dinner has been the same as lunch, except with chicken instead of shrimp.

As far as snacking, I haven't needed any. I've done well. Last time I did this, I needed my spoonful of almond butter. I anticipated this and I haven't had to crack open the jar, yet. I had some merlot last night. I think it was a bit old. I only had a couple of mouthfuls and tossed it out, blah. I'll be cracking open a bottle of Trader Joe's Charles Shaw Cabernet tonight. That'll be good. I know it doesn't really go with chicken, but I want some wine, dammit!

Gotta go. It's lunch time and I'm hungry.

GD

p.s.
too hungry to check. run smiley :)

Day 85

Today is day 85 of the 30+ Day Running Challenge.

And I'm beat.

I was a nice full weekend. Saturday morning, up early to take my godson to practice. Go to pick him up and the daughter decides to tag along for breakfast at Mickey D's. I've already had breakfast (lentils, spinach and eggs) so I get them their grub and then head over to Starbucks for a cup'o'joe (grande).

The email from the coaches said practice was from 8 to 9:30am. BUT . . . there was disclaimer that they would use the allotted time given them for use of the field if needed.  I guess they needed it because the kids weren't released until a bit after 10:30.

Once I took him back home, I headed over to my moms restaurant to help her out for the day (ALL DAY). It wasn't too busy, but Saturday never really are. So the cook plays catch-up for the week.

I was outta there by 7:15 and headed out to the Toro Park Estates trail for my run. Ran a quick mile and then headed over to my cousin's house to figure out the schedule for the next day.

Apparently her and the daughter made it a baking day and made pineapple enpanadas. And she had a piece (for shame!). She couldn't wait for Sunday to break into her cheat day.

We made plans to have breakfast at First Awakenings and then I headed home.

Up early Sunday and took care of my morning ablutions. Then out the door I went. No waiting at First Awakenings (first for me) and had excellent grub. I ordered their Triple Bogey which has two pieces of Texas Toast (awesome), two eggs and two sausages (or bacon). And I grabbed some of my godson's country potatoes . . . and some of the daughters strawberry topped blueberry pancakes.

I HAVEN'T HAD BAD CARBS ALL WEEK! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!

So . . . anyway:

Heading back to my cousins pad, the daughter and her mom are arguing about who's going to drop the kids off at the pool first. It was the funniest and strangest conversation I've heard in a while. We stayed there for a while until it was time to head out the door to our respective game sites.

My godson had his Toro Bulls game at RLS against the Carmel Panthers in Pebble Beach and I was taking the daughter to Seaside to coach her Cubs cheerleaders there against The Raiders.

I'm not sure what happened with my godsons team cause there was an issue. But the Steinbeck Cubs had a bit of a blowout game against the Seaside Raiders (26 to 6, Cubs).  Good game.

After the game, the daughter and I headed out to the Monterey Wharf and had  clam chowder bread bowls. Awesome. There also happened to be Turkish Day festivities in the plaza. Good music and fun for all.

The back home we went. Arrived a bit after 5pm.

I had a couple of Sierra Nevadas and the godson decided he wanted to go run with me. He's not used to running long (for him) distances so he went off and ran to fast. I gave him some tips and he did better.

But this old, fat ass still beat him . . . and I mocked him. I'm a jerk.

GD

p.s.
too much of a jerk to check. run smiley :)

Day 81 of the 30+ Day Running Challenge

And I've been kinda lagging it.

What with my godson's football practice and the daughters cheer practice AND their games . . . time is a precious commodity.

Typical week as of 2 weeks ago:

• Monday
• I can leave work late.
• Head over to Manzanita Park for hill work run
• Go home
• Tuesday
• Need to be out the door from work no later than 4:45pm
• Haul ass to daughters high school
• Crap! I need to feed her!
• Go ALL the way across town to other high school for her cheer coach gig.
• Go ALL the way back across town and out to usual running trail
• Try to squeeze in at least a mile.
• Pick up godson from football practice
• Go home
• Wednesday
• Go to Tuesday
• Thursday
• Repeat Tuesday until 5th bullet point
• After picking up godson, head ALL the way back to pick up daughter
• drop them both off and go home 
• Friday
• Run at Manzanita Park at lunch.
• No time after work anymore on Fridays
• Starting this week, High School Football
• Need to support the daughter in her cheering endeavors.
• Chat up the single moms. 
• Go home
• Saturday
• Help out at mom's restaurant
• Go for run around 8pm 
• Sunday
• Sleep in
• Pick up godson OR daughter
• Go to football game around 12.
• Get sunburnt.
• Go for run around 6pm.

Aaaand repeat.

So I'm a bit beat. Not much time for tv or anything like that. I'll get lucky if I can watch an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. And I just wanna finish it! I'm on the last stinkin' season about a third of the way through. So I've gotta decide: sleep or TV.

Ugh, priorities.

GD

p.s.
too tired to check. run smiley :)

Day 73 and still on a roll.

Here we are . . . Day 73.

73 days. 73 straight days of running at least a mile a day.

Who would'a thunk? 73 days! Damn.

I personally didn't think I would make it the first month.

I still don't know how I just kept walking out the door and heading to the trail. I guess initially the motivation was that I had to get ready for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon. I didn't want to miss that one.  I also didn't want to come through the finish line with a worse time than the previous year.

I improved my time a bit, but not as good as I hoped. But a 13 minute improvement is pretty decent, I guess. Need to do better for next year. So I guess I'm going to keep up the running everyday. I want to get comfortable. It's gotten relatively easier, but not much. There are days where I feel great, and most days when I'm just slogging through.

Hopefully that'll change beginning in a couple of weeks.  I'll be jumping back into the 4-Hour Body wagon on Monday. I know the first week is going to suck! So my times next week will be horrible. But when my body adjusts, things'll be back to normal and hopefully better than before.

I'll attempt to log what I'm grubbin' as much as I can. I'll be noting weight loss and possibly inches lost as well.  Hopefully, within a month, I'll be down to 220 lbs.

HOLY CRAP! 73 DAYS!!!

GD

p.s.
too excited to check. run smiley :)

Day 68 and SVHM Race Report

I don't really recall too much of the race, which is why I took pictures . . . which didn't help in me recalling much.

So here's my report in pictures with maybe a few blurbs.

This is an image from behind the wheel a bit after 6 in the morning heading to the place where it's HAPPENING! The beginning of the day. From Soledad, we are taking buses to the mission where the start begins.

I should have taken a picture of where the buses picked us up, but I'm a dumbass. We were picked up in the towns lone high school.  Below is probably the only picture of me on the web. Along with my friends sitting behind me. Ernesto and Charity. They are engaged and I'm supposed to be his Best Man. Though I'm really slacking off in the that department. I have NO idea what I'm supposed to do for his bachelor party. Any suggestions?

Everyone here is milling around trying to stay warm. It wasn't too bad when we arrived. But a few minutes after, it got a bit breezy and colder.

And as you can see, this is Ernesto embarrassing the shit out of Charity. In the tent behind them is the bagel and banana spread.

It's like 10 minutes before the start of the race and we've been ordered to go to the start . . .

. . . which Ernesto wanted an action shot in front of.

From here on out in the picture report, it'll mainly be pictures of the mile markers. Like I said, I'm a dumbass and should've planned on taking more of the surroundings. So here's a picture of the first mile marker next to the port-o-potties and hand wash station . .  and some runners and fields.

Keep an eye out for that tutu. She was taunting me throughout the race. I passed her and she's like "Oh, really!"
 Not really. I was thinking that after mile seven because she passed me and I was like "Hell no!" I did pass her AND her sister. Their mom beat the crap out of us though.

And here' s mile marker two. The chick stretching was with this dude who was in the port-o-potty behind us and she was getting antsy waiting for him. We passed each other at least twenty times throughout the race.

Here's mile marker three . . . and a car . . . and some barbed-wire fencing . . . and trees. Sorry, nothing interesting to report on this picture.

This is a blurry-cam picture of mile marker four and some of my fellow masochists.

And we arrive to our first aid station. Manned by the lovely young ladies of Notre Dame High School. FYI: At the time I arrived at this aid station, Danny Tapia (winner of SVHM 2012) was pretty damn close to crossing the line. He finished in 1:07:17.613 (Like thousandths of a second matter to ME!). At every aid station I passed, I tossed back at least three cups of fluid. I didn't get sick this year because of it.

Here's blurry-cam pic number 2. This one features my fellow masochists and fields and a hill.

Here we are arriving at mile marker six. As a side note, the shirts for this year were pretty sweet. Beautifully designed. Here are our beautiful models showing the back of it.

Mile marker six again along with our model. Also of note, I was feeling pretty good at this point . . .

It was a bit before mile marker seven that I had to start the run/walk strategy. The marker was also set up weirdly.  It was parallel to the road. Oh! And here's a small cliffside with a field on top of it.

As you can see in this picture of mile marker eight, runners are starting to drop off and begins seeing walking more. The lady in green was a badass. She was an older woman who finished WAY before I did. I think this was the only time she walked. The freakishly tall dude next to the marker on the other hand finished WAY behind me . . . like 30 minutes behind me. I don't know if he got hurt or what.

This picture was supposed to be a gratuitous picture of a smoking hot chick and her friend. The one in red. She also happened to be wearing Vibram FiveFingers Bikilas! I kept up with them as best I could using the view as an incentive, but they just kept going and I had to walk :(

Here's blurry-cam pic number 3. And mile marker 9 along with my fellow masochistic laggers. The VFF Bikila hot chick was still within reach . . .

Mile marker ten marked the point where I felt like I was back in East Salinas. The ladies on the right were speaking spanglish and annoying the shit out of me. Speak english or spanish! FUCK! Sorry, it's one of my pet peeves. I used that as an incentive to get the fuck away from them as quickly as possible.

Mile marker eleven and this guy knew NOTHING of who had won the race. Though he had a radio which he pulled out of his pocket just as I was passing by when he got a call from someone at the finish area. Jerk.

And this was probably everyone's favorite station. The Strawberry Stop! I think I ate like 10 strawberries. They were SOOOO friggin sweet and juicy!  Then again, maybe it was just my body screamin' for fuel. Oh! And mile marker twelve.

 Here we are at the bend nearing the finish line, which you can see in the distance. Also that annoying bitch must've passed me (and lost her friend at some point) while I was wolfing down the strawberries because I don't remember her doing that. I did beat her though. She walk into the finish area.

And here is me crossing the timing mats (there were two). I was really running at this point, hence the crappy angle of the camera. And also another lover-ly view of one of our models in the tech shirt.

I finished the race in 2:47:05.983 (Seriously?! Thousandths!) It's funny that in this shot of so many people, I can only spot one Waldo wearing this years tech shirt.

This is my godson's football team volunteers serving up some awesome tri-tip sandwiches!

And that's it. I hope I made it an entertaining read. Next year I hope to break 2:15!

GD

i'm done typing. run smiley :)

Day 66 . . . and a promise.

And that promise will be a race report on the Salinas Valley Half Marathon in the near future.

Just not today.

 If you look to the right, you'll notice my Dailymile mileage is LOW! I'm still feeling the aches of the relative long run this past Saturday.  Once I get back down to nine minutes for my mile, then I'll start racking up the miles again and progressing to longer and longer runs.  I want that half marathon to be CAKE next year, dammit!

I've got a whole year to work on that.

GD

p.s.
too lazy. run smiley :)

Day 61 and my MRG's

I love my Merrell Road Gloves. And I already need a new pair.

Here's a pic:

If you look back to Day 27, they were fine. Now I've somehow poked holes with my pinkie-toes after only about 140 miles in these shoes. The rest of the shoe is fine! My lace fix is holding up well and I will be running in these tomorrow for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon.

I'll be running a short mile today to keep up with the challenge and later tonight have some pizza and beer (maybe wings, too).

I'll try to post tomorrow after the run and maybe even some pictures. I'm still debating taking my iPhone for pictures during the run.  We'll see . . .

GD

p.s.
too excited to check. run smiley :)

Day 57

And I'm feeling pretty good!

Though that may have to do with the last four runs only being a mile each.  But I'll tell you, I'm surprised at the times I was pulling in for those.  On the first two, I felt like crap and I only went out there to keep with the spirit and law of the 30+ Day Challenge. And to make things a bit weird, on the last two days I was actually feeling much better but pulled in slower times . . . ? Weird.

And for today, I've already gone for a run. So I CAN write if off the books . . . but I can't. It was such a disappointing run that I have to run another tonight. I was about a mile and a half into it when I began feeling that twinge on my calf that I know means it wants to cramp up. It it was a flat trail, I would've kept going. But it occurred just as I was going up the BIG hill.

So I walked it . . . and the most of the rest of the trail.  Last thing I need right now is for me to damage something and not be able to make another race. I skipped out on the Santa Cruz Half because I was laid up with a horrible cold.

The Salinas Valley Half Marathon is on it's 3rd year. I was there for the inaugural run, so it'll be my 3rd year, too. This race is special to me. This is the race that got me running. I don't want to skip this one because of illness or injury.  I will limp the damn thing if I have to! I've put in too much time on the trails to not make it. I have 2:30 in my sites and I truly believe I'll make it!

If  don't injure myself.

So to make up this afternoons crappy run, I'll be going for another one tonight before picking up my godson from football practice. Don't know how long yet, but not too long. I'm calling it taper time now. Though I haven't even gone half the distance yet on ANY of my runs. Looking forward to it, though.

GD

p.s.
too tired to check. run smiley :)

Day 50

It's day 50 today with a run to come this evening.  I've got 128.43 miles accumulated.

As for the GPS watch . . . well I picked up the Nike+ GPS Sportwatch (powered by TomTom).  I ordered it through Amazon for $152, shipped. I have four runs logged with the watch. I like it so far. You can set up the watch to give you whatever information you'd like, except elevation. But once you plug the watch in and download the info to Nike, you get a decent rundown of what your run was like along with elevation.

You can add information like you can on DailyMile, too. Like where you ran, weather, shoes . . . and you can export the run data to DailyMile. You only get the stats exported to DailyMile, though. Like time, distance and pace. I've gotta figure out how to send the map, too. I think eagerfeet.org will allow you to download it. I've gotta figure it out still.

From what I understand, you can use it on several other running blog sites. If Googled, I'm pretty sure the info will be there.  I'm already using enough. I'm on Fitocracy, which is fun if you're a gamer. Also DailyMile, and Runmeter through my iPhone. Though Runmeter is mainly a datalogger which allows you to send data to sharing sites . . . like DailyMile, Facebook, Twitter . . .

It can connect to the Nike shoe pod thing to help track distance in case you lose GPS signal. Also a heart rate strap. Not sure which one though as I'm not planning on needing one . . . yet.

I'm actually pretty glad I went with this instead of just a watch that measured the distance but didn't allow you to download it. I kinda keeps me motivated to keep running, too.

I'm feeling tired right now and I think it's stinkin' allergies. A lot of others around me seem to be feeling it, too. Once I get running though, sinuses opens up and I feel better. I guess that's another benefit to running. Damn.

Anyway . . . Day 50's run is supposed to be 4 miles. Hopefully I can kick it in without shorting myself. I'm feeling beat.

GD

p.s.
too lazy. run smiley :)

Today is day 38 . . .

And I feel like shit.

Well . . . not really. I've just had a couple of bad runs and I'm feeling down.  The real bad ones I blame on my boss who had a cold and kinda passed it to me. Bastard.  I got over it fairly quick but it was enough to bog me down.

And then yesterdays run . . . ugh.  I had already planned to make it a short miler because I wanted to the take the daughter and my godson to watch Brave (awesome movie).  I had to drag'em to it with bribes.  Anyway . . . I don't like the work trail.  The elevation changes are drastic and steep (though short). The trail itself if real short unless you take the older park trail, then you'll have an arduous run you'll regret unless you like LONG climbs. That part of the trail has what I call the hill-on-a-hill. 

It's a part of the trail that fools you.  You climb a couple of hundred yards up a steep, meandering hill and it veers off to the right (going up).  As it begins to veer off out of sight, it appears to level out . . . then you get to the next straight-away. Which is an even steeper hundred yard (at least) climb.

I like walking that trail, hell no am I attempting to run it.

I've gotta post pictures one day.  Today's nice. I might go out for a walk this afternoon.

Anyway, the run sucked and I paid for it all last night. You'd figure with ALL this running I've been doing, my legs would get better. NOPE. I was doing fine until I got sick. Then I think I got lazy on my runs and started screwing up my form.

OR

Maybe I've been running too much?

I've been seriously debating this. I have (including today) 25 days until the Salinas Valley Half Marathon. If I continue with crappy runs by Friday (day 40), I'll be taking the weekend off and focus on flats and distance beginning Monday (July 16th).

So my 30 day challenge will have been extended to 40 days.

IF my running feels better than it has this past week by Friday (day 40), I'll continue with the challenge. But I'll still take the weekend off. Kinda.  I'll keep those short with the shorter Toro Estates run (1.77 miles) and on Monday begin my flat/longer distance runs.

I'll be picking up a gps watch because I HATE running with my phone. There's a cheapish $100 watch called the Soleus GPS 1.0 that's had decent reviews. For tracking distance, it's fine.  Their upgraded version sucks balls (2.0) and only because of the software issue. You get the same watch with crappy software. Though I see that they've upgraded the software, so maybe they fixed it?

I just want to track distance and time. The 1.0 should work great for that. But I'll be shopping around (the Nike one looks pretty cool).

GD

p.s.
too lazy and hurt to check. run smiley :)

Day 32?

Yup. Day 32 today. Wow.

I've accumulated 81.43 miles in these 31 days, previous.  Tonight will be another day to log in.  I feel good, no major aches like I used to have when training for the SVHM in the two previous years.  The only problem is that I haven't run any real distances during these runs.

I've been running a brutal (for me) trail near work. Lots of terrain changes, sandy, long and steep hills, etc . . . and my times on it have been kind of improving on it.  I have noticed that my times on the flats have gotten better, but . . .

I suck at flats.

I'm not sucking wind or anything when running them, it's just that my legs don't do well.  I guess it's because it's the same set of muscle groups working for longer periods of time on the flats.  And seeing that the SVMH is MOSTLY flats, I'm going to have to start working on that. Damn.

I'm going to try something beginning tonight.  I've heard anecdotes of Crossfit people never having run long distances using Crossfit to train for a Half. So I'm going to attempt something similar.  I'd like to incorporate my trail run with Crossfit.

Seeing as I'm pretty well beat up after my run, that should mean I've got a pretty good warm-up in, right?  So . . . I'm going to take a 45lb plate with me to the trail and use it for some simple Crossfit workovers.  Like a modified Fran or something.  I'll get my post stretch in first then get to work.  Hopefully I don't look like a TOTAL doofus killing myself out there.

I know I'll be able to do it, too. By the end of the run, I'm pretty well spent.  But after the stretches and a bit of a rest as I'm walking back down the hill to my car, I feel as if I can go again.  I'm hoping to get to work after that. Though where the hell I'm gonna stash a 45lb plate while I'm running is going to be a bit of a problem. I don't wanna imagine running with that plate.

Though I could probably strap it to my back . . . hmm.

GD

too lazy to check. run smiley :)

Two more days :)

And I've accumulated 74 miles to date. I wanted to be further along in mileage but I think being a overweight bastard doesn't help recovery as quickly. I know I was feeling ok this last week, but beginning Thursday evening, I was feeling a bit off. Friday and Saturday went great as far as the run was concerned, but post-run . . .  not so much.

I'm beginning to suspect that I do need my fish oil. I haven't been taking any for about three weeks. I'll have to pick some up again. I've been eating half decently, and my appetite has changed. I'm not digging the carb loaded stuff like I used to before all this extra running. Proteins, veggies, fruit . . . I've been trying to be a bit smarter this time around.

But beer will always be there. But the craving has been only a bottle a night so far. Arrogant Bastard Oaked! Awesome. Looooove this stuff. I had been on an IPA kick (Stone Ruination), but ABOaked has been hitting the spot wonderfully post-run. Usually when sitting back before crashing for the night, reading.

I'm still feeling kind of blah right now, but that usually goes away during the run. Maybe it's a bug, who knows.  All I know is beginning Wednesday, I'm starting up Crossfit again and I can't wait!

GD

p.s.
run smiley :)

Today marks 24

 . . . and though that run still isn't easy, I keep improving on time.  Monday was a dog of a run.  I felt like I was dragging someone else with me, it was so hard.  But as hard as it was, I was able to improve my time somewhat compared to the previous run there.  But what I think dragged me down was my shoes.  I bought a pair of Yanks.  They are supposed to help in keeping your shoes on without having to tie them all the time. They're elastic, bungee laces.  I can see how they may help other people, but I need my shoes LOOSE!

Like so:

Those are my really well worn Merrell Trail Gloves. I love the lacing system on those. Really adjustable, and I can have them loose and comfortable. As you can see, I tied knots onto the laces ends. Perfect. The only reason I don't use them on the trail is that the sole is worn enough . . . sorry that's a load of bull.  I just wanted a newer pair of shoes. I use these at work in the lab. I have a pair of Redwing boots that I bought a year ago that still look new cause I use those only when I have to.

If there is any constriction on the top of my foot, it annoys the shit outta me.  It feels as if my foot is always flexing or something. It works harder than it should and I can't relax on my run.  I really tried to get the Yanks to work, but alas . . . they were not long enough to satisfy my requirements for a comfortably loose shoe. The original laces were also not long enough to tie.  That's why I went with the Yanks. So what were my choices if the Yanks didn't work nor the original laces?

I stuck with the original laces . . . with a bit of a modification:

These are my newish Merrell Road Gloves . . . with added zip ties :D

Yesterdays run was the first relatively comfortable run where I wasn't pissed at my shoes, just the trail. I wish it had the same lacing system as the Trail Gloves, but I made do. I still tied the lace ends but they were a bit too long, hence the zip ties. Perfect.

My times on this trail are all OVER the place.  Some days are good, others not so much. I'll say the bad days are due to the shoes being too tight. The good days prior to the lace fix, were due to having been wearing my Vibram Bikilas. Those are always comfy.

I'm feeling a relaxed kind of tired today.  It shouldn't hold me back on my run. I'm looking forward to a good one.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)