30+ DRC Day 479

I'm not making ANY MORE PROMISES!

I keep saying I'm gonna stick regular to this blog and I never do. Oh well. I'll take it as I go.

So the last time I posted anything I gave a post-race report of the SVMH and mentioned something called the Tin Man Challenge that OldGuyRunning on Instagram posted up. I took up the challenge and completed it.

The challenge called for having completed 93.3 miles in a month.

I ran 104.56 miles in August. I'd say I did fairly well. September isn't looking too well right now, but I'm gonna see how well I do. I'm not trying the challenge again, but I am trying to keep my single mile runs to a minimum. I'm trying to get at least 20 miles in a week.

Week 1: 21.2
Week 2: 21.2
Week 3: 15.8 (story time in a bit)
Week 4: 12.1 . . .

If I just run 3 miles in the next couple of days, I'll make my goal. But I want to have at least a 6 mile run on Saturday, so that should push me over to 24 miles for this week . . . kinda making up what happened last week.

Speaking of which . . .

Last week was almost normal:
Monday, I wasn't feeling to well and kept it short hoping to make it up later in the week with a longer run.
Tuesday, I left work to go pick up the brat for her cheer coaching gig and went for my run (4 miles).
Wednesday, the same as Tuesday except I ran 3 miles.
Thursday, ditto, but ran 4 miles.
Friday . . . Friday . . .

Friday was an adventure, to say the least. One of my cousins was moving to Glendale in Southern California. Near Burbank and LA and all that fancy crap I can do without. I hate LA. It's a nice place to visit, but you better be a pedestrian or a cyclist if you want to get anywhere if you live there.

I woke up relatively early to get my run out of the way because I was gonna help him and his family move. I kept it short and ran 1.5 miles around the neighborhood. Jumped in the shower and headed out after to pick up the brat to drop her off at school. I grabbed bad food for breakfast (Carls Jr. Biscuit Sausage, Egg and Cheese sammich and an OJ) and headed out to my cuzzos.

He had already made arrangements to pick up a U-Haul and off we went in his little 2007 Chevy Aveo. He special ordered this thing stripped down to the basics. Manual everything . . . except the transmission. I wish I'd known the history of this car before agreeing to driving this beater. He'd done all the fluid changes and he said it was ready to go . . . ugh.

The car felt a bit weird and loose, but I just figured it was just me noticing the differences between this car and mine.  We got back to his pad with the truck and loaded her up in about 3 hours (with a LOT of nagging from my aunt on how to load it). We stuck around for a bit and had lunch and then we rolled out.

He had asked if I had two-way radios to use for the trip. A bit better than cell phones and cheaper for him because he is weird and has one of those AT&T pay as you go phones. The radios would end up being a godsend.

We left Salinas around noon or so and drove the stinkin' speed limit. We made it to Paso Robles then took the 46 to Lost Hills. In Lost Hills, we made a pit stop and grabbed some refreshments. I smelled something, but I figured it was all the trucks driving around. We left there and jumped onto Interstate 5 and were still driving the stinkin speed limit.

And did you know that in the state of California you have to go through the state weigh stations? I didn't, but my cousin asked the U Haul guy. I followed him through the exit thinking that there would be a bypass or something for cars . . . nope. I had to follow him through sheepishly. I had the windows rolled down and still smelled something weird. But I was surrounded by monster trucks and pushed it out of my nagging mind.

Once we passed the weigh station, we began the climb up the I5 Grapevine. I kept smelling something, but it smelled sweet, like radiator fluid. Then I'd get that weird fishy smell, too. Again, I thought it was all the trucks making the climb or going into the valleys of the mountain. It wasn't strong because I was driving with the window open.

About 15 miles before Castaic . . . it happened. The transmission took a dump . . . literally. I was cruising along just fine, then the engine red-lined. I let go of the gas, shifted into neutral and it slowed to about 30 (luckily not much traffic and moved to the truck lane) and tried to put it in Drive again. No go. I radioed my cousin and let him know the car dropped it's transmission or something. I still had enough momentum to pull off to the side of the road and park.

He pulled off about a quarter mile in front of me and asked if the car would move at ALL. I tried it and it caught. I was able to drive to him. At that moment a tow truck pulled up. Apparently it's a state provided tow truck to pull cars off the dangerous highway. We popped the hood and checked the transmission dipstick.

Bone dry.

I looked under the car and it was greasy, but nothing was pouring or dripping out. I figured all the shit I was smelling was the transmission fluid spilling out. The tow truck driver kindly got us to the next rest stop (that was closed to remodeling, lucky us) and let us know the next town over was Castaic and about a 15 minute drive.

We pondered getting a trailer hitch for the U Haul to tow the car on, but he wanted to try getting some fluid into the car first. I was a bit peeved, but okay. We headed out to Castaic and along the way he proceeds to inform me that the replacement transmission appears to be faulty . . . that luckily he has a warranty on it and that he just needs to find out how to get it serviced.

Both him and his wife were oblivious to my seething, silent anger. If I'd known about the transmission, I would've been checking every so often along the way.

We got to an AutoZone in Castaic and got 3 quarts of fluid and a quart of some transmission stop-leak stuff. Didn't work, but may have helped some. After pouring one in, the stick still read bone dry. Loaded another, and it was just hitting the tip. One more and just a bit more on the stick. Started her up and tried her out.

She lost 4th gear. We drove ALL THE WAY TO GLENDALE AT 50 MILES PER HOUR!

She was at 5000 RPM's all the way til we got off the highway. By the time we got to a gas station there, we looked under the car and she looked like a stuck pig. Tranny fluid rapidly dripping out. We hurried to his new apartment.

Anger inducing moment number 2: He found an old apartment in great neighborhood . . . with no parking garage. Parking literally is at a premium. People that have driveway or something will rent out their spot to people that will pay! We found a spot for his tiny car, but the U Haul we had to park at the local college about a 10 minute walk away from his new home.

Oh! And did I tell you he mentioned NOTHING about getting a second story apartment?! His door is on the ground floor and I was like "Cool! It won't be so bad!"

Then he opened the door.

There is a stairway/hall directly in front of the door going to the rest of his apartment. How fun!

Anyway. What should have been a nice 5 hour and change drive ended us arriving at his pad at around 9:30 at night! So almost twice as long as it should'a.

One thing I'll say is that his neighborhood is NICE! Something you won't see in Salinas is people walking their dogs or having an evening stroll with all the family. It was odd, but comforting.

But this might explain everything:

I felt much safer when I realized BA would be watching my back!

Once we got a late BK dinner and parked the truck, we headed back at some and then made plans for the next day. I asked him what time he wanted to get started. I had already mapped out a route around his neighborhood for a 3 mile run in the morning. He said he wanted to start at 6am . . .

There went my plans for the run. I didn't think I'd be able to sleep right away as I was still a bit jazzed from the drive. But once I changed into some shorts and curled myself around the blankets we brought in, I was out! I woke up around 5:45 and got ready to begin the move. I stepped out the room and I heard not a peep from his room. Dammit.

I debated changing into my running gear and heading out. Once decided, I changed and as I was about to head out he stepped out of the room and went to the bathroom. Crap. I went back and changed again and waited . . .

and waited . . .

and waited.

He was in there a half hour or so! It was nearly 7 when he finally stepped out and went back to his room. I expected him to step out again to get started. Nope. He went back to sleep. Fuck.

I didn't get to run in Glendale. He finally got up around 8am and we headed out to the truck and grabbed some breakfast. Here's a weird thing about this part of Glendale, Starbucks are few and far between. You want coffee? Go to a fast food joint or a doughnut shop. Umm, no. I wanted a COFFEE shop. Nobody we asked knew one close by. I Googled one, but it was 10 minutes away. I made do without coffee.

The whole moving thing was okay. One thing I learned is that I am awesome! Whereas my cousin and his wife were dying going up and down the stairs, I was practically running with all the crap we were unloading. All that running he was making fun of me for was paying off . . . or he was taking advantage of me . . . bastard!

No, he WAS dying. Everytime we moved something big and cumbersome and we finally got to the top step, he needed a breather. He was red as fuck and sweating up a storm. I was sweating, but I was doing okay. I guess this made up for not running . . . not really. I really wanted to run.

In total, I think we got everything off the truck in a couple of hours. It's easier to destroy than make. We hydrated, showered and waited for his sister to arrive with his OTHER car. We headed out from his apartment around 1, dropped off the truck at the local U Haul place and went to a pizza place we hadn't seen since our childhood when Salinas used to have one, Shakey's Pizza Parlour.

That's where it should'a stayed. The pizza was edible, like Chuck E. Cheese's pizza, but the Mojo's haven't changed. Those were still great. The thing they've added is the fried chicken. Greasy as fuck! But tasty.

Hey, I was hungry!

We left Glendale around 3 and made it to Salinas by 8:30. I got home and went for my run after taking care of some stuff, showered and crashed out.

Sunday was football for the brats cheer squad. Luckily, it was just her game and part of the Midgets. My Browns won, so it was a good Sunday.

The rest of this week has been relatively uneventful aside from my runs.

I think that's all for now. I'm tired and I need a nap. Just reliving those two days got me tired.

I make no promises, but maybe I'll be more up to date with this blog . . . HA!

GD

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

30+ DRC Day 429 and the Salinas Valley Half Marathon

The fourth annual Salinas Valley Half Marathon was this past Saturday August 3, 2013.

I've run this one since the inaugural event in 2010. Well . . . run would be very liberal use of the word. Up until this past weekend.

I wish I could describe the my other experiences of the SVHM, but all I remember was running some and walking most of the race. Except for last year, in which I had trained a bit better. And this year in which I focused on preparing for this one a LOT more. Training with the YMCA/SVHM group was awesome and I couldn't have done as well without them. Coach Chris "Z" Zepeda, Coach Monica Jo Nicholson and Coach Francisco Cornejo were amazing coaches and I learned a lot from them. Hopefully, the program will continue next year and beyond.

I credit that training program with really getting me into running. I only participated in the 2010 SVMH because the YMCA began a free program for the the inaugural event. You can't beat free. I remember when I first began, the first few days of the first week consisted of running 1 minute and walking two for thirty minutes. I was DYING in that first workout! I didn't think I would be able to finish, but I labored on. Running was HARD! By the end of the program I was able to run an hour non-stop . . . on a track. I also had excruciating shin splints every time I finished running and no shoe was able to fix it. I was fitted with several pairs before the shoe store just gave me a massive discount on my last pair and called it quits (with an apology for not being able to help figure out what was going on).

That year I completed the SVHM in 3 hours 24 minutes and 3 seconds. I remember pain when crossing the finish line, feeling so nauseous that I hurried to the port-o-potties to spew . . . but I was happy. Not because it was over, but because I actually finished! I was nearly 300 lbs then, too.

I didn't run much after that for a while until it came around again and I joined the YMCA training group for the second year. I had focused on diet a lot more and had dropped some fat along the way. I was probably around 280 then. I'd also discovered minimal shoes during the winter and I think I ran in lighter shoe. I finished the 2011 SVHM in 3 hours and 24 seconds. Again, I was nauseous at the finish and spewed.

Last year, I hit a bump. I had begun running a bit more consistently. At least 3 times a week and with toe shoes when on the road. On trails I was running with the then new, NB Minimus Trails. During one run, I landed in a shallow hole that had been hidden by some brush and in it was a stone. If I'd been running with my toe shoes, I probably would've broke something. As it was, I twisted my ankle a bit and bruised the ball of my foot. Luckily, the ankle was fine the next day. Just a bit stiff. The bruise was another matter. It still bothers me because I believe it's developed into an neuroma (a build up of tissue around a bunch of nerves). But that's my professional diagnosis. It hasn't gotten worse and it slowly appears to be going away.

The 2012 SVHM I ran with my Vibram FiveFingers Bikila LS's. I loved those shoes, but I still was an aching mess when I crossed the finish line. Feet took a beating and my hips were killing me. It hurt to walk and I was still dry heaving a few minutes after crossing the finish line. But I think I figured out what the problem was (dehydration) from the previous years so the nausea wasn't so bad. I completed that half marathon in 2 hours, 47 minutes and 6 seconds. I was ecstatic! I ran a lot of it, but not as much as I had planned for. I was about 260 lbs, maybe?

This year was awesome. Last year on June 4th, I began a 30 day challenge posted up by Trisha Reeves at Barefoot Monologues (link is to actual post). The challenge was to run at least 1 mile every day for 30 days. If you missed a day, you started over. Hence part of the title of todays post. If/when I run today, I will have completed 429 consecutive days of running at least a mile.

I'll tell you, I believe it helped last year to improve my time at the 2012 SVHM and it definitely contributed to getting me ready for the intense YMCA/SVHM training this year.

I had decided to have fun with this one since I knew I'd be better prepared for it. I had seriously been considering running something more comfortable than shorts. Jason Robillard at Barefoot Running University reviewed a Sport Kilt a while back and raved about it. I must say, I have to rave about it too. No more shorts riding up or anything. Unfortunately I opted to go non-traditional. I wore performance boxer briefs. There would be children around and I didn't want any inadvertent peep shows.

In hindsight, I wish I had opted for another shirt. It was too heavy. It was my first time wearing that particular jersey and I bought it specifically for this race. This was my first experience with chafed nipples. Ouch.

And if you're wondering about the get-up, it's a reference to the San Patricios (Saint Patrick's Battalion). I got a lot of odd looks at first. But once I explained, I still got odd looks. The beard completed the look. Didn't want anyone giving me shit for wearing a "skirt" . . . bastards.

A lot of pictures were taken and compliments as well, surprisingly. I did see one other guy in a running skirt. And it was a SKIRT.

I ran this half a lot more conservatively than previous years. I always started out way too fast and then crashed about halfway through. This time I had a goal time and pace and I was able to stay on both fairly well. I was still a bit fast at the beginning, but I didn't shotgun through the pack like before. Here is the map:

The race being next to a mountain, it's gonna be hilly. I didn't really notice them in my previous races because by the time I reached the hard ones, I was already walking. This time, I felt them. I am happy to say that I was able to attack them all. Getting that granny-gear going and just chugging up'em. These are my splits according to Nike+

I ran most of it up until mile 11 where I let myself wuss out. But I made sure I reached the marker first. Then it was walk/run. I was ahead of 2:20 pacer Cassie up until halfway through mile 10 when she came up even. She really helped push/tow me along until mile 11. I'm disappointed in myself a bit that I wasn't able to keep going. What REALLY pisses me off is that I forgot about the granny-gear. I call it the granny-gear because no matter how tired I am, I can still shuffle along at a quicker pace than walking in the granny-gear. And I can run forever with it. And I FORGOT! I was tired and I think I was dehydrated a bit. I hit every aid station and took two cups at each station (one water, one Gatoraid). Should've tossed back three!

I finally remembered the granny-near in the last half mile and was able to finish fairly strong. As I was nearing the end, I heard a lot of cheering in Spanish urging me to go, that I was almost there and to go faster. I guess I wore the right shirt after all. Though next time, I'm wearing pasties.

Once I crossed, they threw my medal around my neck and I proceeded to get food and fluids in me. I didn't want to be heavin' later. I grabbed a cold bottle of water, two banana halves, a pack of sliced apples and two chocolate milks. I tossed back the milk and wolfed the bananas. I took my time with the apples and water during the cheering-on. I grabbed a couple of more bottles of water during the cheering. After a while I headed into the celebration area and bought a tri-tip plate from my godsons team (awesome tri-tip sandwich with grilled peppers and onion) and sat with some of the training group and chatted.

And here I am with my Instagram pic of the medal, not feeling nauseous at all!

The ribbon was pretty cool and  not so plain-Jane as in the previous years. And the medal also doubled as a wine stopper, since the finish happens to end at Pessagno Winery. I'll probably use it to stopper my 22's of Stone and Rogue, though.  And because I was so awesome this year, I had my medal engraved with my completion time:

I think it was $15 well spent.

I said my good-byes and headed out around noon. We got bused back to the start to our cars and I headed home. Once home immediately jumped in the shower and shaved. I couldn't stand the beard any more! It felt like I had ants crawling on my face all the time!

That's Gorda in the background and me, relieved to be clean shaven again.

There's a gentleman I follow on Instagram who goes by OldGuyRunning. He's made some impressive changes in his life. He's lost 30 pounds since May through running and clean eating. He's posting up some incredible distances every week. He has different challenges to try and the one I'm going to attempt is the Tin Man Challenge. Ideally it's supposed to be as follows:

Day 1: 3.11 miles
Day 2, 3 and 4: 5 miles each
Day 5: Active rest day
Day 7: Cross Train

And repeat for one month for a total of 93.3 miles. You can modify it anyway you like to suit your needs. I'll probably be running most days, but I will need to include some weight training now that I don't have to focus on the half until next year. I want to get stronger. I need to get stronger.

God willing and the creeks don't rise, I want to see sub-2 hours next year for the half!

GD

p.s.
i really don't drink that much.
p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC Day 423 - Should I Or Shouldn't I?

Four more days. Four more days for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon. I don't think I could be more ready than I am now.

So . . . should I or shouldn't I?

As you see from title, today is day 423 of my daily running streak. I've been seriously debating taking the next couple days off from running my requisite minumum mile per day. I mean, it's only a mile. About ten measly minutes of my life. I could just take it super slow. Not that my speed has increased any, but my stamina definitely has.

Heck! A couple of Saturdays ago I ran the furthest I've EVER run non-stop!

Ten miles!

Non Stop!

And there were HILLS!

And my knees were aching in the last couple of miles . . . ON THE HILLS!

Right now I'm almost over one side of the fence here. I think I'm going to continue to run my daily mile. It's only a mile, right?

And speaking of miles, tonight we have our final YMCA track workout. Tonight is the final Mile Test. The first time I ran it, I ran an 8:09 min/mile. I'm curious to see if I've really improved. I haven't been feeling particularly speedy lately though. Sore. Tired. Beat t'shit.

But check this out!

Week 16 or 17 is when I began my training on my own. Week 22 is when I began training with the YMCA group. It's pretty significant bump in mileage. AAAAND, this past Saturday I broke 100 miles for a month for the first time ever! And the month isn't even over yet! I have tonight's mileage to count still.

I'm all nerves and anxiousness right now. I've been sleeping okay, so that's a good thing. Tonight I begin the carbo-loading with some hamburger'mac'n'cheese . . . and a salad I guess. I've requested tomorrow and Friday off as vacation so I'm good there. I'll be drinking water  . . . and other dark amber fluids all day tomorrow and Friday to make sure I'm properly hydrated.

I feel so ready right now. I know a bunch of things can happen between now and Saturday morning. But God willing and the creeks don't rise, I'll be running a 2:15 half marathon Saturday morning.

GD

p.s.

just wait 'til you see my running togs for the half!

p.p.s.

to excited to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC Day 410: I'm so tired.

Training is getting more intense and the aches are getting to be more of a bother. This morning I woke up with a bout of plantar fasciitis. I haven't had that for a while, but my guess is the warm up yesterday did me in.

Usually the warm ups the coaches put us through are great. But one element of it yesterday may have caused the PF to kick in again. The pogos. We started with double legged pogos (like jump roping without the rope) and then shifted to single legged pogos. I didn't feel anything until after the warm ups, but my foot was feeling a bit tight.

Last Saturday we had kind of a progress check for our long run. We were to run a trail that we had run back about a month ago and for the same distance from the last time. It was our first hill-work trail and we were to see if we had improved any. The previous run on this trail was a six mile run and I had a pace of 10:48 min/mile. I can tell you I did a LOT of walking near the end of this run the first time.

This past Saturday, I did NO walking and I improved my time on it to 10:35 min/mile. I was a bit dissappointed that it wasn't better, but I wasn't feeling too good anyway. So felt like crap AND improved my time?! Good enough for me.

Monday's track workout was one hell of a workover. I don't know why I was talked into going into the "crazy ladies" (CL) group, but I was. One of jerks (and I mean it in as much as loving way as possible) had convinced me by joining our group and told me I NEEDED to move up to the faster group.

FYI: Because we have such a wide range of ability levels training, we are separated into different groups according to what our goal end-time is going to be at the Salinas Valley Half Marathon. By now we should know where we are in our groups.

I was supposed to be in the 2:15 to 2:20 group, but they were going too slow. So I moved up a group. But that group got shorter and shorter each week. Unfortunately for me, I was struggling to keep up . . . but I was keeping up (dammit).

Usually there are about 10 of us in the group and it's only me and this other guy to make up for the lack of testosterone. But both of us are fighting tooth and NAIL to keep up with this uber-competitive group of ladies! The other guy is nearly the youngest one of the group (mid-30's) and the ladies are about my age (39+) or older!

Now, the lady who convinced me to go back to the CL's stuck around for the first mile then dropped back to a slower group. I should have followed her back to the group behind us, but I didn't remember that the CL's could actually keep up that stinkin' pace!

If you keep up with my DailyMile, you'll have noticed the workout for Monday (07/15/2013). I've never been able to keep up that kind of pace for that long. Those are fast mile times for me. 8:15 to 8:25 for the first three miles. I dropped a minute each mile after to around a 9:30 average for the last two miles). But I somehow made it.

Yesterday wasn't as hard, but the pace was much faster for all four miles. But they were broken up into 400 meters with a 100 meter (1 minute walk) rest. My left calf and my right foot wanted to cramp up on me around the last 5 laps, though. The calf I was able to relax through. My foot as well, but I knew it wasn't a good sign. It started to stiffen up on me and kinda ache after I cooled down enough. After the run, I stretched about 10 minutes. I should have focused on my foot more.

Today I am BEAT! I'm going to try to pull out those 3 requisite miles (supposed to be four). I tried to sleep last night, but my legs were too worked up still. I popped a couple of magnesium pills to help relax and it helped a bit. Tonight should be much better.

Saturday sees another long run near the beach and it's supposed to be 10 miles.

God willing and the creeks don't rise.

GD

p.s.
too sore, too tired. run smiley :)

30+ DRC Day 403

The last time we heard from our intrepid hero, he had begun some adventuresome training through the YMCA to prepare for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon. He saw his running future with rose colored lenses!

Ugh.

The excitement has worn off and it has almost begun to feel like work . . . except that the improvements keep coming and keep busting through personal barriers. For instance I finally went past 8 miles for a long run and cranked out 9 solid miles on a relatively flat course. I felt strong enough to have actually regretted not going further out.

I'm learning more about fartleks and tempo runs and all that other jazz that I thought I knew. The long runs lately haven't been that great for me either. Of the last three long runs, two have been too warm and muggy to be comfortable.

The first of the three started at what the local runners call The Stumps. The county has left a bunch of tree trunks along the trail head. Now, I think my problem may lie in hydration. I never take anything with me on these long runs. What I try to do prepare for them though, is I make sure I'm drinking a bit more water than I normally do. I toss back about 3 liters of water a day. Beginning Thursday, I make it at least 4 liters. Let's just say that sleeping through the WHOLE night can be a bit difficult.

That was working for me before those warm, muggy runs. The run at The Stumps was my first fail for a long run. The pace for it wasn't too bad at 11:29 min/mile, but it's not what I was pulling off before on the previous long runs which were closer to a 10 minute mile. I walked a lot of miles 6 to 8. And I'd like to blame it on hydration. Maybe if I'd taken a bottle with me, I would'a been okay.

The group runs and track workouts during the week weren't too bad. I actually had a bit of fun on the track workouts. The group run after the workshop was a bit uncomfortable because it was hot. To give you some perspective, I live in a temperate climate. Winters may touch 32 degrees, but mostly stay around 40 to 50. Summers, we're used to seeing temperatures in the 70. They might get up to mid 90's, but not for long.

We were in a some heatwave caused by Arizona or something and we had been sitting in the mid 80's for a couple of weeks. I'm a whiny little bitch, I know. But it was too fuggin' hot to be running in this! For the Stumps run, it was already 77 degrees at 8 in the friggin' morning! The track workout was at 80-sumpin' and the YMCA group run was hitting 90!

To be fair, the coach did say to take it easy on the hot days. He didn't want anyone frying their brain. But still, I'm trying to do my best to improve here. Gotta be stupid sometimes.

The next long run was at Monterey along the Monterey Bay Recreational Trail (MBT), but this time we went the opposite direction from the last time we were here. We started at the same place near the wharf and headed off towards Point Pinos. Or for those who wanted to go further, go up to or just past 17 Mile Drive.

I wanted more and if I was brave enough, could've done more. But I let my moron-ness get to me. It's a good thing too! I, again, began flagging just past mile six because of the heat and ended up walking some. Not as much as the previous week, but some. If I had been psychologically stronger, I could'a psyched myself out to keep pushing and had a much better pace than a 10:19 min/mile.

The week before this one I wanted to increase my weekly distance so I started pushing for more mileage on my non-YMCA days. The track day were hot, but fun. Because it was the week of the 4th, we only had the one track day. Coach wanted us to participate in the local 10K race, but I wasn't feeling it. I ended up trying to do my own 10K that morning. It didn't go so well. It was too warm. I know, I'm a whiny bitch. But I was able to push out 3 HARD miles that morning.

And ruined it all with Lagunitas Lucky 13 and several shots of Corralejo Reposado tequila later that day in the 110 degree furnace of Los Banos! Family, food and alcohol! Great way to spend the 4th!

This past Saturday, I finally pushed past one of my personal barriers. I completed NINE non-stop miles! My pace was slow (10:48 min/mile), but it was still an accomplishment because I nearly turned back just past mile 3 of this run.

I started out the run okay, but my right foot was bugging me. It's been a pain for several months, but only when I walk. During a run, I'm fine . . . most of the time. This past Saturday was one of those days it was bugging me during the run. It's an annoying ache that ends up spreading up my leg to begin tightening up my IT Band. Therefore I begin running stiff legged on my right side. It's not usually a big problem because it has only happened on my shorter runs.

My leg started tightening up after the first mile and by the second mile I was doing everything I could to try to relax my leg . . . it wasn't working. I was at a snails pace at mile three and I had decided to turn around. I actually DID turn around and began heading back, then I did some mental calculations to fool myself into thinking that 6 miles wasn't that much more than 8 and I only needed to run another mile to be at the halfway point for 9. You get that?

So! I turned right back around and continued on my merry, aching way and got my 4.5 miles in and began heading back to the start of the run. By mile five, EVERYTHING fell into place and I was relaxed once more. Weird. I was really cruisin' along the last two miles . . . literally! I had a nice constant pace going at about 10:30 min/mile. Not bad. If I can cruise along at that pace for the Half come August, I could nearly pull off my goal time of 2:15. It'll be closer to 2:20, but I usually start out too fast so I might be able to pull it off.

Last night we had a track workout of fartleks and I'm a bit sore. My leg is still bugging me, but I finally got my foam roller and I'm gonna be kneading my leg as much as possible. Hopefully it'll stay as cool as it was on last Saturday for this coming Saturday's run. Gonna be another hill workout and I'm looking forward to it . . . if it isn't hot.

GD

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

30+ DRC 380

So it's been several weeks since my last post.

Here's what I've got:

As previously mentioned in my last post, we took a fitness test. We had a pretty good warm-up that was about 20 minutes long doing a bunch of weird jogs and stuff. A lot of it reminded me of the Ministry of Silly Walks:

Once that was done, we began the test. I ran my mile in 8:09. I probably could've pushed it and had a better time, but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't. After the test we thought we were done. Nope. The beginners got to go stretch out and stuff, while intermediates and advanced got to run another mile at 80% effort. In other words our expected half marathon time.

Our HM pace was calculated by adding 90 seconds to our mile time. So for me, it was about a 9:40 pace. That second mile was very comfortable. We ended with a cooling off lap and stretches and then home.

Next day was just a simple mile and the day after was another track workout. This time we did a 3 lap warmup and then the MOSW stuff followed by the main workout.

Now here's the thing, we were supposed to be running 12X400 at HM pace with a 200m jog in between each 400. Unfortunately I have a group that's very competitive and push that envelope HARD! Each lap was being run at about 2:10. That's an 8:40 mile! The first mile was okay, I started falling behind after our 6th turn. I was finishing about 5 to 10 seconds behind most of the group. Luckily, I wasn't the only one.

Next day I took another short mile and it was SLOW! It was supposed to be slow, but at marathon pace. I was like forget that. I just pushing this mile out. Same with the day after. Just a mile.

My second group run had me a bit nervous, but excited. It was going to be hill work. At first, I understood the email to be that we were to run half the distance of our previous long run. I misread the email. We were expected to run 1 to 2 miles less. So either 6 or 7 miles for me. I opted for 6 because Coach Z really wanted us to power up the hills. I ended up with 6 miles at a 10:48 pace. I was tore up, but happy that I did that well for this run. I got lazy in the last half mile and walked a lot of it. Okay, not lazy. The wall kicked me in my hips. Very difficult to keep running.

The next group meeting was a workshop on nutrition. Same old stuff about what one needs to properly fuel. Then we had another group run. Went with my crazy group and again, did they push hard! I ran my fastest time for 4 miles ever, 9:26 pace!

We had more track workouts, but I didn't do too well. I was able to keep up for the most part? But I kept lagging behind the crazy ladies.

Before our latest long run this past weekend, I was worried. My IT band started acting up in like the first time EVER. But come Saturday morning, it wasn't an issue and again I had another milestone moment.

8 miles @ 9:57 min/mile pace!

HOLY CRAP! This training shit really works!

I probably should've hit the beach after to ice up the legs because the last couple of days have been painful. I did okay on our fartleks tonight, but I probably would've done better had I jumped on the ocean after the long run on Saturday.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Looking forward to continuing this training for the rest of this program. I can only get better.

GD

p.s.

too sore to check. run smiley :)

30+ Daily Run Challenge Day 365!!!

One muther-flubbin year people! I am so close to completing one year!

In my last post I mentioned that I won a contest for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon Race and training sessions. Since I had already registered, I had a race to give away. The only one who took me up on the offer was my brother. But the next day he was hemmin' and hawin' cause he doesn't want to "lose mass". He's bulking up. He's running it though, cause he already registered.

I kept the training program because the coach that runs it is really good. Besides, all my friends/family are lazy bastards. Okay, not totally true. Just kinda, relatively accurate. And I'm the one that won it dammit! I'm keeping it!

The first session was a "workshop" at the Y. So after work I headed straight over there and thought I was gonna be early. NOPE. There were promotion ceremonies all over the city and one was going on at the high school where I had intended to park. Finding parking at the Y is a nightmare and the school parking lot is only a block away. No parking available. I ended up parking about 3 blocks away, so still not too bad. Just made it with a couple of minutes to spare. But because of the parking situation, they started 30 minutes later -_-


The session was about what to expect, some shoe discussion and how/why to achieve our goals for the half. then we were informed of our first group long run that was to be at Monterey. It was to start near Fisherman's Wharf by London Bridge Pub. It's an area I'm really familiar with as I bicycled through it a LOT! Relatively flat with some nice long hills to climb.

After everyone had their questions answered we were supposed to go for a run. Umm, I didn't know about that last part. I was still in jeans. It's a good thing that I had already had my run earlier in the day. I went and thanked Stephanie, the race director of the SVHM (who also completed the Boston Marathon this year) for offering up the contest.

So . . . during this time, I've been almost excruciatingly sore. My hamstrings for the most part. It was like crossfit: day one all over again. It was because I started working out again, but with a 45 pound barbell included on my squats. You think, "45 pounds? No problem!"

It was a problem. But it's something I must include if I want to improve my distance running comfort. That Thursday and Friday were a bit painful for the runs even with a little warmup. It took about a quarter mile to get comfortable. Friday's single mile took me 11 minutes! I was dreading Saturday morning.

Saturday morning shows up and I am beat. I wanted to sleep in, but I had to get to Monterey still. That early on a Saturday and traffic isn't too bad for the most part . . . unless there's some event going on. Luckily, nothing crazy big. I had planned to stop by somewhere for coffee, but when I woke up again (yup, fell asleep again) I had just enough time for two of the three "S's" (no shave) and the drive. I was going to run coffee free. Sucks to be me. I got there at 5 til 8 found some decent parking. hobbled over to the group and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited.

The coach finally told us what landmarks to look for on the distances we wanted to run and gave us our pep talk and sent us on our way. I started out stiff and I got quite a few questions regarding my VFF Bikila LS's I was running with.

Now, it's been a while since I ran and talked. As a matter of fact, I was never EVER comfortable with it. I'd be gasping for breath trying to finish my thoughts. Sometimes I was able to verbalize said thoughts. Saturday was another matter entirely. I was holding a comfortable conversation as I was running. And I didn't even realize it until after I got home and mentally went through my run!

I was trying to convince others to drink the Kool-Aid and failing miserably. At least that's what I took away from it. There were several eyebrows raised when they saw me at the finish. Walking comfortably and actually sprinting the last few yards just for shitz'n'gigglez.

As usual though, the first four miles were great. The next two I was beginning to feel it and the last two I was fighting mentally. I was trying to relax and having to focus on that. My shoulders were getting tight and knotting up on me. It was hard, but I did it . . . again. Even with all those long hills, I felt good.

After I crossed the finish, the coach recommended that I take a dip in the "natures ice bath". I was skeptical, but it wouldn't hurt to try it out. It was fuggin' COLD! I stayed in for about 10 minutes because I quickly got used to it. I rushed into it once I got my feet in because if I didn't I wasn't going any deeper. I got up to my belly cause once you get to the nads, it's difficult to get any further.

I will now begin convincing people to start making their own ice baths. I have never felt better after a long run like that, EVER! That shit is awesome. Usually my knees would ache a bit after and other muscles and joints would be stiff. I was good the rest of the day AND the day after!

Ice baths = Post-Run awesomeness!

Tonight we have a fitness test. I'm pretty sure we'll be going through some warm-up before and then we'll have the test. It's just to see how fast one can run a mile. Based off that, you get an idea of what to expect from the training and what time you should see at the race.

So for DAY 365 of my Daily Run Challenge, I'm testing. What a way to finish a year. I'm still going to continue with this running-everyday thing though. I don't want to lose what I've gained.

Here's to many more miles!

GD

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

30+ DRC 360

See that title?

30+ DRC 360. 30+ Daily Run Challenge: Day 360

I'm a week away from completing a full year of running every day. I'll reminisce about that later.

I haven't posted on here for a while, about three weeks. Not much has happened in those weeks. My mid-week long runs have been decent but have been taking a nose dive as far as comfort level. I was supposed to have had an 8 miler on the 12, but ended up short for the same reason.

So I've been wondering about why my longer runs have been getting less comfortable.

When I first started this "real" training, I had been including the Fitocracy Challenges you'd see posted on my DailyMile updates if you ever stalked me there (it's cool, at least I'm getting some attention). I continued with it for a while But then being the lazy bastard I am, I listened to some bad advice.

I was told that since I was running every day anyway, there was no real need to keep up with extra stuff. Focus on the running. I was like, "COOL! Sounds good to me!"

Bad move. As I've said, my running comfort has gotten worse since then and this last week has been proof of that.

If I could describe what my comfort level looks like over the past couple of weeks it'd be an airplane wing:

Starting from the left that rise up to that red spot at the top of the wing, that's my first 8 mile run. I was ecstatic with that run. I stopped the crosstraining after that run. A bit further down to the right of that red spot would be my next few weeks of runs. Up until this last Sunday when I had a bad 8 mile run that I FOUGHT not to stop on.

I was pretty much decided to continue with the crosstraining after that run. My midweek longish run last Wednesday was a clue as to how I was going to struggle with Sunday. My pace was okay, but I was kinda fighting that one too. The Sunday long run on the 19th was really bad! I didn't even run the 8 miles. Heck, not even 7 that day. And I WALKED most of the last two miles!

So I started the crosstraining again yesterday. And I'm sore. I don't think it helped any that I ran the Shitty Work Trail, either. Stupid hills kick my ass. But I'm going to have to start looking at this as a good thing. I learned something about myself and what I need to do to improve.

On another note, last week on Facebook, the Salinas Valley Half Marathon and 102.5 KDON through Clear Channel had a contest to win a free pass to the SVHM Training Program and also for the SVHM itself.

Guess who won?

The training program starts tonight and I just registered using the promo code I received from them. Unfortunately I had already signed up for the half marathon back in December. I now have a free promo code and I got to find out if I know anyone who might want it. The struggle of being a friend.

GD

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

30+ DRC 339

The last week or so hasn't been too eventful. I've been keeping up with the training so far. Last Wednesday I had a speedwork run (which I probably failed at) of 4 miles. And it was supposed to be the following:

• 4 Miles, including warm-up of a mile
• One mile at a 9:37 pace
• Half mile at a jog
• One mile at a 9:37 pace
• Half mile cool-down

Because I used my Nike+ GPS watch, I averaged for the whole run a 9:58 pace. So on paper I did what I was supposed to do. Problem is, I'm running faster than what the training plan calls for. I'm supposed to be running an 11:49 mile. I've tried and tried to do that, but I just can't get that slow. If you check up on my DailyMile, you'll see that the slowest I run at is a 10:44. And that's on my long run of 8 miles!

So should I be knocking off 2 to 3 minutes off my real average pace?! That's gonna be a little difficult because there is no way I could keep a pace of 7 or 8 minute miles! I think I could push 9, and still be able to do this speedwork run.

Tomorrow I have tempo run of five miles. It's supposed to be a mile warm-up, three miles at a 10:11 pace and then the last mile a cool-down. I'm really confused and I have no idea what I should really do. I just want to be able to run the whole half marathon in August. That's it! Pace be damned! I think if I kinda follow the plan, it'll get me there. Seeing as I've already had two fantastic long runs of 8 miles each, I think the plan will work . . . sort'a. What I mean is I'll be able to run the whole shebang non-stop.

I think I've even figured out the whole dinner-before-a-long-run thing! I've been careful with my food during the week. Weekends are ok. The Saturday night before my first 8-miler, some of my friend and my brother headed off to Round Table for some pizza and beer. I stuff my face and had pretty much a whole pitcher of Sierra Nevada to myself (I have wuss drinking mates). Got home (didn't drive) and chugged a shit-load of water and crashed out. Got up several times during the night to drain the weasel and woke up feeling fantastic! Had a good strong cup of coffee, some water and took the Browns to the Superbowl then headed out the door.

That first 8-miler was awesome! I started the run not worrying about the distance and just cruised. I knew I could run five miles and convinced myself that six was doable. By the sixth mile, I got my second wind because I felt that I could finish this run completely. By the time I finished my 8th mile, I was ecstatic! I probably could have done all 13 miles that day, but I knew that was only asking for problems.

I tried to duplicate THAT weekend this past weekend. Didn't work out as well. But I still was able to complete the 8 miles, just felt a bit more beat. And I would put that off to the fact that I knew I could now run the whole 8 miles and the excitement for the run wasn't there anymore. So it was another run . . . just longer.

The first 8-miler was 1:24:37 at an average pace of 10:33. This last 8-miler was 1:26:01 at an average pace of 10:44. I would attribute the slower pace two the previously mentioned lack of excitement, but also to the crappy dinner the night before of crappy Pizza Hut pizza and lack of beer. Also, it was windy as FUCK!

I was getting buffeted around a LOT on the way out. I thought it would at least help on the way back, but I think I expended a lot of energy trying to run into it that I was pooped out for the way back. And it still felt at times that it was pushing against me.

But the way I figure it is I only lost a little time on the run, a couple of minutes. Sure, it slowed me down a bit. But I still ran the whole thing. Good enough for me.

This next Sunday calls for a 9-miler. I've already called my friends and we'll be hitting up Round Table Saturday night.

GD

p.s.

too lazy to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 330

Last I posted, we'd had Boston. One "suspect" killed and the other captured after ALL of Boston was shut down. Amazing that. We'd also had the fertilizer plant explosion at West, Texas. There were 14 people killed, and part of a town leveled.

On something closer to home. My brat was supposed to have gone to Bakersfield for her last competition with her team. Umm . . . didn't happen. Of the three girls left, the brats best friend was nailed by a nasty flu. It got so bad for her that she was taken to the hospital. Everything turned out well, but there was no way her mom would risk taking her to competition in that condition.

They COULD have gone with just two girls, but the dance had already been drastically changed for three girls. They would have to relearn a completely new routine to compete. They ended up bowing out. I thought the chipmunk would have been devastated, but she was ok with it. It gave her a chance to go as a coach and see her Jr. Cubs go through their final tryouts. So everything turned out ok.

Last Monday I began a proper training plan for the Salinas Valley Half Marathon on August 3rd, 2013. Now the thing is, I've been running all year and my pace is usually in the 9's for my shorter distances of 1 to 2 miles. I start moving the distance up and so does my pace. When I do my four milers at the Toro Estates, I think I'm running 11:30 or something.

The beginning of the plan calls for 2 miles at 11:29. Nope. Too damn slow. I tried though.

Monday ("rest day"): 1.51 miles @ 9:29 min/mile pace
Tuesday: 2.05 miles @ 9:38 min/mile pace

Last Wednesday I had a midweek longer run of 5 miles. I was wary of it because I haven't run that kind of distance in a long time. I took the afternoon off from work (half a comp day) and headed to my chosen route. It's relatively flat until about the second mile where I start getting some little dips and rises. Not really hills. It's a big sidewalk meant for walkers and runners and it's about five miles long. Not too many intersections either because it's at the edge of town. Crossing the street wasn't too bad and I didn't have to stop at any (though I did have to sprint a couple to beat a few cars across).

Anyway, so I started the run and I tried to keep it slow but looking at the gps map, I started fast. The first mile was at 9:30. According to the plan, I was supposed to run it at 11:29. I tried, but I just couldn't. I ended the run at 10:07 min/mile. And I ran the whole thing non-stop. I usually have or two stops after the first couple of miles. That run surprised me.

Thursday ("rest day"): 1.46 miles @ 9:29 min/mile pace
Friday: 2.04 miles @ 9:55 min/mile pace

Saturday was weird. Friday night one of my cousins posted a picture of a tiny terrier up for adoption (free to a good home). Cutest little thing. I assumed that the dog was in Los Banos (about 45 minutes away from Salinas). I forwarded the picture that was posted on FB to my other cousin (the brats mom). She fell in love with it and asked me to find out if it was still available. It was and she wanted it.

Unfortunately it was in Bakersfield. 3 frickin' hours away and I had already said I'd take it. So off to Bakersfield at 7 in the morning. Cute dog though, huh?

The brat was the only one who rode with me to Bakersfield. And she slept the whole damn way. We got to the house and the god is one hairy mess. Not so cute. It was a mop. She needed a groomer. We left the old owners and their daughter was in tears. They had to give it up because the daughter wasn't taking care of her. We could tell. She's a spoiled rat right now, but by next week my cousin and the brat will have a quiet dog. I don't know how they do it. They could give Cesar Millan lessons. And the brat did a pretty good job at trimming her that night. Got rid of most of the knots!

So Saturday ("rest day"): 1.49 miles @ 9:33 min/mile pace

Sunday was a shocker for me. This was supposed to be my Long Run for the week. 8 miles at 11:29 pace is what the plan called for. I figured I'd get that with the walking I'd do. I was sure I'd be walking at some point. But I guess I prepared right the night before. I went to Round Table with some friends and had pizza and Sierra Nevada. Lots of pizza and beer. I don't like eating before a run and I knew I'd need something to keep me going. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I got up at 6:30 am Sunday morning and made myself some strong coffee using Sweet Maria's Clever Dripper:

I highly recommend one if you love making your own coffee. You steep your coffee like you would with a French Press, but you don't get all the gritty grounds. I used some Santa Cruz Roasting Company French Roast beans. Love the stuff.

Soon enough, I took the Browns to the Super Bowl and out the door I went for my run.

The fastest I got was a 9:12 and that was only within the first couple of hundred yards then I relaxed and really slowed it down. Slow and steady I took it. I forced myself to relax (oxymoron?) and breath from the belly and lower ribs. Something I've been practicing for a while, the lower ribs part. Next thing I knew I was at the turn-around and circled back. The return trip I was struggling a bit every once in a while. I'd go through surges of high energy and low. I realized that I was starting to tense up again. So I just relaxed and took comfortable breaths.

At some intersections I had to sprint across before the light turned red on me and those felt really good! But I would pay for those sprints a bit later. But I just kept going . . . relaxed.

I think at around the 5th mile, I started to feel my shoulder begin to bug me. Strange since I hardly move my arms when running. I keep my elbows in barely move my arms back and forth. I had this stupid thing running in my head that it was a sign of a heart attack. My arm wasn't going numb, just aching at the joint. I'd make windmills to try to loosen it up and that helped.

I was also beginning to feel my hip flexors. They were getting sore. But I was able to finish the run relatively comfortably.

Sunday (Long Run): 8.01 miles @ 10:34 min/mile Pace

I was already grinning like a damn fool before I finished my run. I knew I was going to finish it non-stop. I just didn't expect to see my average pace to be that low! That let out loud "YEAH!" when I saw it. Unfortunately it was still early for a Sunday in that area and no one was around to share in my excitement. So sad. But I called Steve. He's one of the people that encourage me and tell me to push harder. I'm brush him off and take it at my own pace, but I accept the encouragement! He's struggling with an injury right now and is really jealous of my fat ass right now. But he was happy for me.

My VFF Bikila LS's were great! Those toe shoes are awesome. My feet and legs felt great, even now a day later. My hip flexors are a tad sore, but nothing like yesterday. I have phantom aches in my shoulder, but it goes away quickly.

Tonight I have a short run since it's a "rest day". The title of today's post does say Day 330 of the Daily Run Challenge.

My next longish run is Thursday. 4 miles. It's a speedwork day. Included in that run is 2/1600 meter runs at 9:34 with 800 meter jogs/cooldowns. I could do 9:34 all day . . . not really. But it should be fine.

GD

p.s.

too damn long to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 319

It's been a pretty significant week, to say the least.

In the world view, it's what everyone has been talking about: The Boston Marathon.

Some moron with a grudge decided to pop some fireworks at a festive event. Several people killed and many, many more injured from shrapnel which consisted of nails purposefully embedded in the bomb and other shrapnel. Among the injured, children.

I'm going to guess this is a domestic born attack, like the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995. That attack occurred on April 19th of 1995. My guess is this might be some type of anniversary thing from some wack-job. Not that I'm a conspiracy nut, it just seems like too much a coincidence. But I could very likely be wrong (very likely).

Then last night we hear about a fertilizer plant going off in West, Texas near Waco. This morning I heard that there are , so far, 15 dead and nearly 200 people injured. The explosion damaged 60 homes. And this morning I heard they haven't even accounted for people that may still be under rubble. This reminds me of those silo explosions you hear about every year. It's a terrifying job to have.

Pray for Boston.

Pray for West.

Damn straight!

Trisha Reeves of Barefoot Monologues had a great article she posted up on her blog about Boston Pride. This touched upon something that really ticked me off the day of the explosions. One of my cousins on Facebook mentioned that this was a sign that the world was "slowly, but surely, coming to an end". I went off on her. I posted a fairly long rebuttal to that along the lines of what Trisha wrote about. First responders and many, MANY good Samaritans jumping into danger trying to help others out not knowing if other bombs could have gone off!

I would like to think that I would have done the same had I been in that situation. But one never really knows until you are. I've been in situations where there have been serious accidents and I'm the one having to help out whomever is hurt because everyone else in struck dumb and in shock. Broken bones, blood everywhere . . . that kind of thing. But nothing like possibly being in personal danger of explosions or shrapnel.

Give those people the respect they deserve. There is much more good in this world than bad.

On a more personal view, this has been a trying time in my life.

Now that momma is back, I no longer am in charge of the chipmunk. My brat. My nightmare. Fortunately, I've been able to help out my cuz with both brats. The chipmunk is a cheer coach for the Steinbeck Jr Cubs and has been at tryout practice all this week. Her mom doesn't want ANYTHING to do with Steinbeck because of some personal issues she has with some of the advisors there. But she fully supports her daughter in her decision. She just will NOT help her get to and from practice. Guess who will?

So while I'm there already, I go for my run. Since I needed to start working on pavement, I thought I might as well begin there. And I've also began to increase my mileage. If you look to the right, you'll see I've almost doubled the miles for this week compared to last. I can tell you, it's been a tad difficult. My feet definitely feel the difference from the trail runs. I'm actually considering some sort of cushioned minimalist shoe! I'll give it another week and see how it goes.

My godson has soccer practice Wednesdays and Fridays and his games are on Sundays. So far, I've been taking him to practice and his games (3 so far). Mom has only been able to make it to one game because she's supermom and works her ass off to support her babies (overtime like a madwoman).

This weekend, the chipmunk will be heading off to her last competition with the rest of the Salinas Riptide (she's in Riptides Royalty song-pom team) to Bakersfield to some HUGE cheer competition/convention. So far the brat's team has won all their competitions. They are a tightly knit team. The bad thing is, they'll be going with only 3 girls of their 6 girl team and they had to make drastic changes to their choreography. The other three dropped out because the local high schools all have their cheer tryouts this weekend, too. But the brat still seems confident and excited.

I wanted to go and cheer her on, but the boy has his game on Sunday and the brat and momma will still be in Bakersfield for the last day of competition. So that is a bit of a downer. All I can do is tell her to kick ass and take names. She knows I'm there in spirit, at least. They'll keep me updated as to how things are going and I'm pretty sure they'll be blowing up Instagram and Facebook.

I can't wait to find out how they do.

GD

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

30+ DRC 313

Friday the 313. Ooooooooooh.

Okay with that outta the way, check this out:

Before 2002. After April 11, 2013

The Before picture is from back in 2002. I got even bigger up until my scare in 2007. I can't recall if I've ever told the "Scare" story here before, so let me give you a quck recap.

Back in 2007 I was about 10lbs shy of 300 pounds. I KNOW that because that's what the doctor told me when I went to see them because I thought I was having the beginnings of a heart attack. What was discovered was that I had hypertension and was near diabetic. Both wonderful contributors to causing a heart attack in the near future.

As you can guess, that was a wake up call. My uncle passed because of complications with diabetes and a dictionary of other problems he added on to himself. He had to shoot insulin all the time and would still have monster amounts of sugar because he wanted too. He was a bit of a stubborn ass.

I mean that in the most loving way possible.

The point is, that was my wake up call to get my ass in gear and start changing things or I'd be saying hello to my uncle pretty soon again. I love my uncle, but I have no desire to see him quite yet. Again, said in the most loving way possible.

The doctor that gave me the rundown as to what was going on, was also a dietitian. She gave me a TON of information as to what would help me get started on the "road to recovery". I'll tell ya, changing one's ways after years of self-harm was friggin' hard. Just starting out the morning was a nightmare.

To begin with, my morning coffee was terrible. Black coffee by itself is very beneficial. The whole anti-oxidents thing and whatever. I still drink a shitload of BLACK coffee in the morning. But I didn't have black coffee. I'd load up my coffee with a shit-ton of creamer and massive amounts of sugar. It was the cafe-con-leche style my grandmother used to make us when we were kids. AND THEN, I'd have some mexican sweet bread or somthing like it. Maybe some super sweet oatmeal? Or a couple of PB&J sandwiches?

And I'd eat out A LOT! All the big chain fast food restaurants. And to end the week, lots of pizza and beer. And crappy beer at that. Bud, Coors, MGD . . . ugh, terrible.

At home wasn't any better. Too much food, not activity. But the "Scare" changed that. Diet drastically changed. I felt better after about a week. Any sugar I'd take in, would cause the symptoms to begin again.

Oh, they symptoms:

• Fast, hard heartbeat at rest (just laying in bed trying to get to sleep)
• Heavy pressure on my chest, like someone pressing down on it
• Scared shitless

I stuck with the whole reduced sugar thing for years, but I'd still get the symptoms every once in a while, just not as bad. Then in 2010, the YMCA started a free training program for the inaugural Salinas Valley Half Marathon. I'd always been a bit jealous of people who ran. I ran like a madman in highschool. It was FUN! But I no longer did it cause I was too damn fat and I got winded so quickly.

Free training?
Get in better shape,as in not round.?
Why not?

I still remember the first day of beginning the training. I had to run 1 minute and walk 2 minutes for 30 minutes. I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. FUCK. NO. I nearly collapsed after that first "workout"! The next day I had to walk half an hour. I was sooooo sooorrrre! The third day was the same and I was dreading it. It was so much worse cause I hurt like a mofo! Fourth day was walking again and still sore. Fifth and sixth day was more running.

Sunday I didn't want to move, but I took my bicycle to the Monterey Bay Recreational Trail and rode 20 miles. I went from Marina to Monterey and had fish'n'chips and an Arrogant Bastard. Walked around some for a few hours and got back on my bike and rode back to Marina.

My schedule was similar to that every week. Except I kept making the required improvements to be able to complete my first half-marathon. I finished my first half in 3 and a half hours. I was dry-heaving at the finish after cooling down. I now know it's because I didn't hydrate enough during the run. I'd only grab a cup at every water station. The year after, I completed the run in 3 hours. Last year, I finished in 2 hours 47 minutes.

For this year, my realistic goal is 2 hours and 30 minutes. My IDEAL goal is 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's a 10 and a half minute mile. I can't even do that on my 4 mile run right now. I've got a lot of work to do to be able to pull off my ideal. Which means a lot more distance to include in my runs now.

I'm gonna have to say goodbye to the Shitty-Work-Trail. I hate that trail. It's a hard run. I love it because it gave me time in the evening. But now that the daughters' mom is back, I can go for my long runs in the evening now. No more chintzy 20 minutes runs. Time to double up at least. Push for 4 right now at least every other day. And slowly increase. Gotta start using weights again. Ugh.

This whole workout thing, it's a love/hate relationship.

GD

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

30+ DRC 302

Two days after what was supposed to be a milestone, my joints ache. Never really knew weather could make me feel like this.

And why is it a milestone? Idunnoknow. I guess because it has a couple of zeros in it. It's only a couple of days difference from today, which really isn't much of a difference.

So, yay me! THREE HUNDRED AND TWO straight days of running at least a mile a day!

Ok. Now that THAT is out of the way.

I've been achin' bad these last couple of days. It's not the exercises I've been doing. I've cut back on those because of the achy-ness (am I spelling "achy" right?). It seems to have come along with the muggier weather we've been having this last week. I've woken up sore before, but this is ridiculous!

I once asked my chiropractor (whom I haven't been to in over a year. Awesome!) if weather could really affect joint pain. He replied with an affirmative. He said gas bubbles can build up in the joints, and with changes in air pressure, the bubbles can cause stress in the joints.

Isn't biological science awesome? Ugh.

So . . .  the joint pain . . .


Once I get moving, I feel better. But it got bad enough Saturday morning that I didn't want to move much. I had intended to get up earlier for an 8am run. It was hard, I'm not gonna lie. But I convinced myself that it would go away once I got moving. It did, but it took half a mile of pain to get through. Not fun.

But then again, certain types of pain I'm a wuss about:

• I've sliced my hand open, no problem. A few stitches and I was good as new.
• I've dislocated my shoulder. Ow, but was lucky enough to have a paramedic on the opposing roller hockey team set it back in. That felt worse than the the popping out. Bastard friends all had a good laugh at it. Jerks. But it was something relatively quick and the soreness after wasn't horribly bad.
• I've had my wrist broken (roller hockey again) where I was doped up in time at the clinic to not really feel it. After the surgery a couple of days later, I was given this massive bottle of vicodin. Took'em for a couple of days and stopped. I'd rather deal with the pain than the stoppage . . . if you catch my meaning (and I made a couple of hundred bucks selling 'em). I think the statute of limitations is in effect by now.

Looking back on those incidences, and many others, I've dealt with them ok. I don't know why the joint pain is buggin' the crap outta of me now considering all the past stuff. Weird.

 I'm going to have to look into what may be going on. My upper body isn't as bad as my legs, but there is a bit of it buggin' me.

Is it age?

Am I finally gettin' old that I'm gonna be complaining of joint pain?!

Is that wood box not too far in my future?

Nah! At least not if I can prevent it!

GD

p.s.
no time to check. run smiley :)

30+ DRC 288

This past week hasn't been anything to write home about. Just typical work related stuff in which you, at times, want to destroy new machinery because it does something unexpected and results in EXTREMELY faulty results. The baby is teething and we are working out her moods.

When she works, she works wonderfully! When she doesn't, the end cause is NOT what we expected. She's very finicky.

Training has been getting better. I still feel beat up after my work runs, but I somehow am able to increase my workload. Well . . . only in the workout part. I'm not going to be running longer on that SWT any longer than I have to. One and a half miles of that crap is enough!

Have I mention how much I hate the Sh*tty Work Trail.

I'm still doing the Push The Earth quest and the As Seen On TV quest from Fitocracy. I've just increased the initial numbers for the workouts. I'm feeling pretty good about it. I was afraid of screwing up my shoulder again with the pushups, but I've been taking it easy on it and slowly increasing the quantity of the pushups. It also doesn't hurt that I'm doing them in sets. Much more manageable that way. Maybe later I'll start doing them all at once.

One last note:

I feel ashamed.

I participated in played out meme.

But because I love the daughter, I participated enthusiastically in her Harlem Shake video.

It was stupid.

It was fun.

I can't believe I let her dress those poor boys like transvestite strippers.

Ugh. I'm going to hell . . .

GD

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

30+ DRC 278

It's been a couple of weeks since the last post I made. And it's been busy!

Mainly competition prep for the brat. Lot's'o'shuttlin' to and fro!

Work.
Home.
Feed.
Pick up bff.
Practice.
Beer (one for me, please).
Pick up from practice.
Drop off bff.
Home.
Homework (for her).
Beer (for me).
Sleep.
Repeat 4 times a week.

And they have another competition in Sacramento tomorrow. It was supposed to be in Bakersfield . . . but whatever. The venue changed back to Sacramento. It's now at the Sacramento Convention Center Complex, about a block down from the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium we were at only a couple of weeks ago. Last time the brat and I went with her bff's parents in a big ass SUV. This time (because I don't want to take my car) we will be driving up in a Scion xB. A tad more fuel efficient. And there are no mountains really to worry about so no need to worry about gettin' in the slow lane for people to pass us.

They're happy because the heater works in it. I've been to lazy to fix my heater in my car. We get cold over here on the left coast, but not so cold where a good jacket can't keep you warm enough. But the brats like being in a toasty enough where I wish I was in shorts and a tank top in a car. Not a pretty picture that.

And seeing as that we'll be leaving early to Sac-town, I've gotta get up early enough to go for my run before taking off. That's a 5am start to my day.

"Why so early," you ask, "if you're leaving at 7am?"

Because I'll be sharing a bathroom with a couple of divas who'll be cranky bitches in the morning of competition. You've obviously never dealt with "twin" divas in a single bathroom home. Don't.

So get up at 5am, get into my gear, jump out the door for a quick 10 minute run, get back home and jump into the shower before the witches wake up. I'll be out of the shower by 5:30 and that will still get the girls in a mood because I didn't get out in time.

So . . . while they're getting ready, I'll be taking a nap. I'd make breakfast, but they don't want a home cooked breakfast. They want McDonald's. As you can guess, this is going to be an bit of of an expensive day. Gas isn't cheap. So I'm looking at a six hour round trip as well. We won't be able to leave the competition grounds until all the awards have been given out. So with any luck, I'll be back home by 10pm or so.

I've already got my Arrogant Bastard: Oaked in the fridge. That is going to be the best tasting beer EVER when I get back home tomorrow night.

Wish me luck.

GD

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

p.p.s.
i just found out i have to be in sacramento by 8am. i gotta leave by 4am to get there for check-in. this sucks. i don't wanna be a daddy no more!

30+ DRC 264

Wow. 264 days run.

A little over three months and I'll have reached a year.

And what have I learned from this? That I can always make time for at least a mile. Twenty minutes out of my day to prep, run and cool down if I'm in a hurry. But I usually have more time to do more stuff so I take advantage of it.

I'm lucky about where I work. Yes, it can stink to high heaven at times. It's a mushroom farm and we make our own compost. But once you get used to it (after a few years), it ain't so bad. At times it smells like pork rinds for some reason. Then I get hungry.

Most of the time though, it's wonderful. The farm is situated in bowl, kinda. The composting yard up along one of the hill sides on a huge, paved area. It's on the opposite side of where I work. It's the start and end of what I call the SWT (Shitty Work Trail). As I've said before, it sucks because the elevation changes are spaced really close. I'm running on a sawtooth ridge.

On the map below, the Start is colored in what I think is teal? And the end is in black. The yellow spots are where I loop back. I kinda follow my gaming methodology in this. I always go right . . . until I can't. Then I loop back and go right again. It mostly works. Sort'a.

The big brown chocolate stain at the top of the picture is the composting yard, what is known in the mushroom industry as Phase 1. The white roofed buildings next to it are what are called the Phase 2 rooms. After they get the compost from phase 1, they stuff them in 4'X8' trays and stack them in these temperature controlled rooms get them colonized with what the growers call fire-fang. In the lab, we call it scytalidium. It a fungus that thrives in relatively high temperature. It's also food for agaricus bisporus . . . your typical, store bought white or portobello mushroom.

Yes, the white mushroom used on pizzas and salads are pretty much the same as the portobello mushrooms. They are analogous to how dogs are different, but can still breed with each other. Not you'd want to breed a Great Dane and a chihuahua . . . poor chihuahua.

The grey roofed buildings below the phase 2 rooms are the actual growing rooms. Most of it is dedicated to the white mushrooms. Each section of those buildings is a growing room. They are huge rooms. The buildings by where my trail starts are pretty much dedicated to growing the portobello mushrooms. Not as much coming out of those as the other side of the farm.

I don't know if I said before, but the reason I'm running the SWT is because I was getting tired of my bum knee. It really was jacked up and I couldn't comfortably run flats anymore. I took a shot at the trail one day to see if having a constantly changing trail would help my knee out.

Unfortunately it did. I hate it because of how friggin' hard the trail is to run. I mean, SHIT! It really kicks my ass! I love it because it's actually helped my knee. I love it because I get to do it at work early and not worry about having enough time to do it after work. So I get to spend more time with the daughter.

So . . . that's the lesson for the day. I want a 1000 word report on how fungi can save the world. Due next week.

GD

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

30+ DRC 248

This is a little test that I'm trying.

I once tried typing up a post on my iPhone . . . didn't work out so well. I just want to see how this post up later.

The last few runs have been getting better. Each day an improvement. I'm hoping by next week, I can start running the two miles regularly and slowly bump it up again.

The Santa Cruz Half Marathon is in April and I'd like to be able to run that one. Gotta get better and increase my mileage for obvious reasons.

The problem area has shifted from my knee (kinda) to my outer thigh. More of an ache though, because that muscle has been compensating for whatever I originally screwed up.

Also when I used to start out my runs, my ankle would want to stiffen up. But about a minute into the run it would be fine.

After very little thought, I finally remembered why I have so many problems with this leg. And it has to do with that ankle.

Back when I was working (full time) and going to school (full time), I was mean ol' fat bastard. Well not mean, just horrendously fat. Like 5' 6" and nearly 300lbs fat. I'm still not a pretty picture, but 225 (at last check a couple days ago) is much better than 300.

It had been a LONG week at work and at school. A lot of projects and reports due (AAS in computer tech). School was 5 days a week from 6pm to 10:30pm. I carried two backpacks full of books and supplies EVERYWHERE.

I was relieved that I completed everything on time and was very satisfied that I'd get excellent scores and grades. Not being cocky, just very thorough (and I did, btw). I skipped pizza and beer with my friends that night because I had to work the next morning (on a Saturday, ugh).

I got home and headed to the garage to throw my backpacks on my desk . . . and misjudged a step down. I rolled my ankle and heard a snap. Then I felt it. I wanted to scream like a little girl and I don't know why I didn't. I still don't remember how I ended up on the sofa a few minutes later with an ice pack wrapped around my ankle.

I probably should have gone to the doctor . . . but I didn't. My ankle was the size of a football at first, but the swelling had gone down to about softball size the next morning.

Continuing this story on my computer now because it's a bit tedious typing on this crappy screen for this long!

Just so you know, that isn't really the beginning of the crappy day that I had.  It started earlier in the day right after I got out of work. My friend and I worked at the same place (he was my boss at the time) and we commuted together. We took turns driving. It was his turn that day. He's one of those drivers that sits really close to the wheel and tailgates like a mofo! I think he does it more when I'm in the car with him to keep me a nervous wreck.

Anyway, so it's the end of the day and we are sitting at the stop waiting to make a left-hand-turn at a notoriously dangerous intersection. There hasn't been a month that goes by that someone ends up in the ditch on either side of the road on hit by another car.

I guess we were selected to get T-boned that day.

We had left early that day that we got out at the same time school lets out so there were a lot of cars going by on the main road. It's a 55 mph curvy mountainous road. The road we were on had the elementary school, so people were turning onto it. When it was his turn to wait to make that left, there was a line of cars about 7 deep on the near side of the main road in front of us all slowing down to turn onto the road we were on. All the cars appeared to be making that turn. They were all signalling.

But I saw a work truck speeding up from behind those other cars and when my friend asked if he should turn, I told him no. He hit the gas.

The truck hit us.

We were soooooo lucky! And I'm not being sarcastic about this. It could have been so much worse.

When the truck hit us, nailed the back end of the drivers side hard enough to tattoo the license plate number on the body. We spun around a couple of time and ended up in the ditch right across from where we were at just a few seconds ago. The car was ass down, nose up at about a 60 degree angle. For some reason, I pictured us about to take off into space when we ended up there.

I asked my bud if he was ok. He said he was fine, then the jerk asked where his glasses were at. I told him no, I'm fine too! I wasn't calm, but I wasn't too upset. From the moment we stopped in the ditch, I knew we were more than fine. The car was totaled, but we were fine. I got out to make sure of my self assessment and make sure he was ok. He seemed a bit dazed. I had him sit down on the hood of the car while I checked on the driver of the truck. He was running towards us wanting to make sure WE were fine. He was just as scared shitless as my friend. When he saw that we were ok, he literally just dropped to his knees in relief . . . in the middle of the road. I helped him back up and had him sit next to my friend.

His truck . . . perfectly fine. Just a bit of paint from my friends car. No other sign that it had been in an accident. My friends car . . . all three back windows gone, driver side window gone, windshield spiderwebbed, body had a 15 degree angle to it now from the rear driver-side door (4 door Honda). Oh, and it was in the ditch.

Other drivers had pulled off the road and asking if we were ok and were calling 911. I found my buds glasses in the middle of the road. Not a scratch on 'em.

Something was in the cards for that day.

So there I am, on the sofa with my ankle FUBAR'ed. After the accident earlier I was supposed to pick him up the next day because he didn't have a car to go to work yet. But here was the problem: At the time I drove a 1981 Toyota Longbed pickup . . . STICK! I needed both feet to drive!

Crap. I just realized that's not the reason why I'm having trouble with my right leg now. I guess it's just a  regular injury. Bummer. Oh well, might as well finish the damn story.

My LEFT ankle was my clutch foot. How the fuck was I going to drive to work! I called him and told him what happened. Being the idiot that I am, he convinced me to pick him up anyway.

I somehow hobbled out to my truck and miraculously figured out how to press in the clutch without TOO much pain. When I got to his house, I told him to drive. The fucker tells me he doesn't know how to drive my truck. He once had manual 4 speed Hyundai. I forgot about that like an idiot until MUCH LATER!

We somehow get to work without killing us and I told him I was just going to sit in the lab with my ankle elevated and that he can fuck off if he wanted me to work. I was too pissed and in pain to actually be able to work anyway. He left me alone until noon when we finally left. I didn't speak to him that whole week.

I didn't break anything and I think the only thing the visit to the doctor would have done was put me in a cast to minimize movement. I put a wrap around it and was on crutches for about a week I think.

I'm sorry for the long post, but I'm a bit worried. That happened in a February. My two personal car accidents (none my fault) were in February. My street hockey related broken wrist . . . February. My slashed on the are by some crazy random dude when I was 12 . . . February.

February and I don't get along. 28 days is too long for February. I'm not too superstitious except for this. I have several years between major incidences, but I'm still wary. Every friggin' year I watch for extra crazy stuff.

GD

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

30+ DRC 243

The last couple of weeks haven't really been to interesting in the running aspect of my life. Other than really trying to keep up with the extra exercises after my runs. One of the reasons I actually keep up with it is because of the Fitocracy app on my iPhone.

Fitocracy is a social network for exercise. Only I don't really use it for the social aspect of it much. It's just another log I use to help keep track of what I'm doing. It's another reminder that I gotta keep going so I don't fall back to my former potato-ness. It's a great tool.

The other neat thing about it is that you level up! So it throws in that gaming aspect to your fitness. As of now, I'm at level 23 and I only need 1754 points to reach level 24. If I keep up the effort, I can break through to level 24 in about a week! Ok, I'm not really that excited about it. But sometimes you like to look at your level and appreciate all the work you put into what you've done. You have a hard number to work off of.

Another reason Fitocracy helps is because if you're really motivated, you can set up your exercises for the day and if you don't do them they are a glaring reminder of what you didn't do. It's a whole psychological thing with it. And it's helped me get through my days. You can track your running on it as well as a ton of other exercises they have on there. You can set up routines or follow one of the Quests they have. A LOT of them I cannot do yet. But there are two that I do follow. The Push The Earth Quest and the As Seen On TV Quest.

Push The Earth is as follows:
20 Reps - Body Weight Lunge
30 Reps - Body Weight Squat
20 Reps - Pushups or Kneeling Pushups
10 Reps - Jump Squats (Toyotas)

When I first completed PTE, I followed it exactly except for the pushups. When you select PTE for your quest, it actually posts both the regular pushups and the kneeling pushing for your routine. What I didn't know was that you could edit it out . . . until much later. But by then, I was already incorporating both into my version of PTE. I was doing the 20 kneeling pushups, but  only 5 regular pushups for the quest. And I was happy with that because it was something I wasn't doing before.

For the squats and lunges, I was happy that I'd taken a beginning class for Crossfit a while back. I remembered how to stay on my heels when doing the squats and the lunges were nice and wide without my knee passing my foot. The Toyotas were a bit of a surprise. I forgot how difficult they can be.

Now here's the thing about the quest. It tells you that you are supposed to complete the quest within one day. So you can spread out the quest throughout your day. You don't have to do them all at once. As long as you finish them all within that 24 hour period. But I figure since I go for my run when I get home and I'm all warmed up  . . . might as well just finish it all in one go. Sort of my own modified Crossfit routine.

When you complete the quest, you go to your workout for the day in the app or on your pc and you add in how much you did for each exercise. Now I've been slowly increasing the reps since I've started following PTE. This is what my PTE looked like yesterday:


30 Reps - Body Weight Lunge
15 Reps - Pushups
40 Reps - Body Weight Squat
20 Reps - Kneeling Pushups
20 Reps - Jump Squats (Toyotas)

Fucking Toyotas, man.

I try to complete this quest on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The As Seen On TV quest is a bit more diffcult:

5 Reps - Pushups
100 Reps - Jumping Jacks
30 Reps - Crunches
10 Reps - Body Weight Squat
30 Sec - Plank
15 Rep - Body Weight Lunge
20 Rep - Bicycle (abs)

The first time I did this quest, I only changed the pushups to 10 instead of the 5. I'm trying to build my upper body strength damn it! As with the PTE quest, I've also been increasing the reps on this one, as well as the order in which I do them. The following is what I did on Wednesday:

10 Reps - Pushups
40 Sec - Plank
30 Reps - Squats
40 Reps - Crunches
100 Reps - Jumping Jacks
50 Reps - Bicycles
30 Reps - Lunges

And I used to think planks were easy to do. What a dumbass. What probably makes them even more difficult is that I do the plank right after the pushups so I stop at the top and hold the position for the 30 or more seconds needed to complete the plank.

What trips me out is that I have no problem with all these leg exercises. But when I'm running, my knee is getting all out of whack and I can run further than maybe a mile and a half. It's been slowly getting better, and I think it's because I've been doing these quests. I'm would like to try to run 4 miles on Saturday at the Toro Estates. Hopefully I can.

Again with another long post, but I hope it was somewhat informative.

GD

p.s.
too lazy. run smiley :)