It Doesn’t Come Down to One Day

The term, "big day", is a fairly common one. It could be used for the day you graduate from school, take a big exam, get married, have a child, etc. Or it could be used in reference to some other big event in a person's life – particularly something they have been working a long time for and put in a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears to achieve a specific goal.
This past weekend, I had the privilege of going to watch my running buddies compete in one of the toughest races I know – Ironman. For those of who don't know what Ironman is, it consists of a person swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles (a full marathon). Yes, all in one day. Actually, less than a day – you have 17 hours to complete this insanity should you sign up for it. And I have friends who love this kind of thing. Given that I had 9 of my Coach Lesley teammates competing in the race in Penticton, BC (Canada) and my "unexpected summer vacation", I decided to jump on the opportunity to cheer everyone on when I heard that another mate was heading up for just a very quick trip.
I actually decided to treat this like a business trip. I know it sounds wacky, but I felt like my job was to do whatever I could to cheer on the athletes and make them feel more positive when they saw us on the course, and were probably feeling less than stellar. It wasn't about me taking in some of the very well respected wineries in the area, sleeping in, etc. So Libby and I decided to leave on Saturday morning after she kicked some butt in a local triathlon (1^st in her group) and I did my 10 mile run with Andria.
Libby and I had a good ride up, and maybe told a fib at the Canadian border crossing about a couple of things. We arrived at the spectator house (there were about 20-25 people in town cheering just for Coach Lesley athletes) as they were having dinner, and received some instructions on how we were to help on Sunday. It was a bit hectic at the house to say the least and we had an early start on Sunday morning – 5:15am wake-up so we could walk down to the start for 6am. So we pretty much arrived, had some dinner, drank some wine, and crashed.
The house was going pretty early before our alarm clock went off, and we walked down to the start so we could give our chums a word or two of support before they embarked on their odyssey. They were all pretty much in good spirits – a bit nervous, which was completely understandable. Then we went off to the beach to see the start of the swim. The pros went off 15 minutes earlier than everyone else, and then the fun began. 17 hours of it. I waded into the water to cheer on some of our teammates, and was texting Libby and another teammate, David, on when we saw our swimmers come out of the water.
It was pretty cool to see them all make it out of the water before the cut-off, as it was the weakest event for a couple of people, so then we went off to grab something to eat before heading off to the bike course. We originally thought we would be at around mile 80 on the bike course on one of the tough hills, but by the time Libby and I made it out of town, we saw a boatload of people at mile 93 so we parked there. Great move as some of our gang were at the mile 80 stop so we were able to spread out the cheering sections for the Coach Lesley team. Our friends, Steve and Katie, were at an earlier part of the course at mile 42, so they texted us when our folks passed them with the hope we would have a good idea of when to look for them.
It was pouring for a bit while we were waiting for the cyclists, so obviously we were concerned for their safety. Then the rain let up. Lesley came on through first – she wasn't racing, but she was out there having fun. We chatted with her for a bit and she looked good. After she went off, we saw Tricia and she was psyched to see us. I decided to throw caution to the wind and run up the hill in my sandals (please don't be mad at me, Coach!) as she biked. She was tired (wouldn't you?) but was doing ok. I left her and just as got back down the hill where Libby was, Diego was coming. What was good for one, was good for another. So I ran up with him. Of course as "luck" would have it – I got to the bottom of the hill and Patricia (aka PNak) showed up. Up I went again. Whew!
We had a break in the action before we saw the next group of teammates, Paul, Ann and Dana. I was able to run alongside of Ann, and then Dana, and I think Ann might have been mad that I didn't have a Molson Canadian with me to hand her (not sure). And yes, as I got back to the bottom of the hill after running with Ann, Dana showed up, so I was getting quite the workout. Libby then suggested that I change into sneakers so I don't trash my body before my race next week. Smart move.
Finally at around 3:15pm, we saw Eileen come through and I ran with her (we had a tradition to keep). I came down the hill, and saw Sjohn so I ran with her as she was able to catch Eileen. I don't know if Sjohn ever stopped smiling the entire day. Seriously. What a way to go! Finally I got a break (or I thought) because I only got about halfway down the hill when I saw Mimi come through, but since she was the last cyclist in our group, I ran with her past the top of the hill. All of a sudden I found myself running a bit faster, which of course made sense because she was now on flat ground and I was trying to keep up with her since I knew she could catch Sjohn and Eileen. Jeez. My legs were tired.
Libby and I then headed back to town for the marathon part of the course. The weather was all over the place – stormy, sunny, rainy, etc. I found PNak and she was looking so consistent in her pace (consistent is a very positive thing). Her attitude was great. Awesome. I found Diego next and he was looking good as well.
Then I found Tricia. The "big day" stopped going the way she wanted it to go. And this is why I get so frustrated with the term, "big day". The fact that Tricia wasn't going to have the day she wanted wasn't going to change one iota about how I felt about her with respect to her being a good friend and great person. It doesn't take away from all of the training she did over the past year and the discipline she showed in doing workouts in good times and in bad. Same with our friend, Ann, who just had a knee that was being a bit problematic.
I walked with Tricia for a few miles along the marathon course (almost managed to get her disqualified – that would have been bad). Dana actually saw me getting a lecture from the race marshal and started yelling at me, which was pretty freaking hilarious. So I hitched a ride back to town and found Libby, and we were able to get Tricia and Lesley's stuff in the gear tents. I really needed to eat at this stage. By the time we sat down to eat and have a much needed beer, it was probably close to 8:30pm. We were able to see PNak pass us at mile 24 of the marathon, which was awesome. She had a great day! Unfortunately we missed Dana and Diego, but they were moving along. Then we caught up with Lesley to see if we could find some of our other mates.
We saw Sjohn and Mimi at mile 23 at around 10:45pm, and they were all smiles. Every time we saw them, they were in such great spirits. They were easily going to finish before the cut-off, which was their goal. We didn't know where Eileen was, so we decided to go to the finish to see Sjohn and Mimi cross the finish line, which we did. It was a great moment to see.
And then there was Eileen. Eileen has done 2 Ironmans previously, but not made the cut-off even though she did complete the course. It was 11:15pm when Sjohn and Mimi crossed, and Lesley, Diego, Libby, Gina and I were getting worried. Libby and I walked up to around mile 24 ½ hoping to see Eileen and sure enough 15 minutes later, we saw her walking and both thought, "uh oh, this is going to be close". Eileen found a little extra gear and crossed the finish line with about 6 or 7 minutes to spare. What a great achievement.
By the time we found some of our other crew and went back to the house, it was past 12:30am. We were beat from running around and crashed. In looking back on the day, I was glad to have made a positive impact on my friends and to bring smiles to their faces when they saw me. The messages they have sent me thanking me have really been heartwarming since they were the ones who did the hard work. I was pumped for the folks who had a great day, and I was sad for the folks who didn't have the day that they were hoping to have. No middle ground.
As expected, it was an emotional and long day. Thanks to Libby for being a good partner-in-crime for the 60 or so hours of this roadtrip. It was appreciated, especially when it seemed like the wheels were falling off on some of the plans that were laid out.
Pictures here.

Pounding Out Some Pent Up Frustration

There hasn't been much going on from the Becks' in terms of blogging over the past 6-8 weeks. It's been pretty hectic here with some changes, which I will cover in a later entry, but we'll try and get back to it. Mostly the past 6-8 weeks has been filled with lots of fun with Marc, friends and visiting family, so we can't really complain over here in the northwest.

The blog blackout has also coincided with a running injury that started to rear itself back in April and then started to intensify at the end of June right before my last race, the Seattle Rock 'n Roll ½ Marathon. While I did very well in that race, with much thanks to Coach Lesley, I knew that the pain increasing was not a good sign and that I needed to get it checked out. So I have been doing lots of physical therapy (PT) over July and August with the hopes of rehabbing this issue before my next race in a couple of weeks. It looks like I will not be completely healed, but it should be good enough as the course is a flat one and the hip doesn't seem to bark as much on flat ground.

I have tried running hills at various times over the past 6-8 weeks and have had limited success. That is frustrating only because Seattle is so hilly and it doesn't leave you with many options with respect to running on varied trails. The other frustration has been around 'speedwork' and me not really being cleared to do any because of my injury. This means no track work with the gals. Even though I feel like vomiting after some track sessions because they are pretty hard, I do enjoy the chatter on the recovery laps so not being able to partake in that has been a bit of a bummer.

I've done some "faster" runs over the past couple of months, which has helped, but this morning, I ran a local 10K (~6.2 miles) that benefited Seattle Children's Hospital. I'll add that because of some of the aforementioned changes, my schedule has been really tight in some areas and very loose in other areas. So when I e-mailed Coach Lesley about the normal Saturday run yesterday, I was reminded that I had signed up for the 10K – good one, Jill.

After a great trip to Mt. Rainier for some hiking yesterday and some kayaking the other morning, I was probably a bit tired when I got up this morning. I didn't organize everything the way I typically do before a race, so I got off a bit later than I wanted to. It didn't help that I forgot that the road I would typically take across the lake was closed, so I had to back-track which probably added about 20 minutes to my drive. I *MAY* have broken a few speeding laws as I ventured over to Woodinville, home of some great wineries and the Red Hook Brewery (the race start/finish point). That aside, it was actually a really pretty morning with the sun coming up.

I literally get my chip, bib and everything else worked out with about a minute to spare before the gun goes off at 8am. I take in the smell of barley and hops, which I guess was appropriate given I was at a brewery and all. Race starts and I do the typical weave in and out of people in the 1^st ½ mile or so, and I start to settle into a rhythm of some sort. The calf hurts a little, but is tolerable. But in mile 2, I do start to wonder if I need to just take a break from running because I am thinking what a long way I have to go in the race – generally means burnout.

I didn't really put much thought into a goal for this race, so I just decided to go with how I felt. Much to my surprise, I am hitting mile splits at under 8 minutes per mile. I am working hard but figured I would be working much harder to be clocking those times. I guess it helped that the weather was really nice for racing. Partly sunny and in the mid-50s. Oh – and the course was relatively flat, so no real hill struggles.

As I finish mile 4, we hit part of the course that is an "out and back" type of thing. I now know I am going to see faster people as I make my way "out" to the turnaround point. Sometimes it is demoralizing seeing all of those people ahead of you, but I tried to stay focus on hitting my pace. I was running with the same 3 or 4 people throughout most of the race so my goal was to stick with them as much as I could. By mile 4 ½, I knew it was very possible to do something I had never done before – do a 10K in under 50 minutes. A pretty cool milestone, if I can keep with it.

I am coming close to the end of mile 6 and I see my split coming in at 8:00 for that mile, and I tried to get it under so I could have all sub-8:00 splits. No luck. It's 8:00 exactly for mile 6 as I head into the homestretch. Fortunately the finish was very cut and dried, as opposed to making you wind around for an extra ¼ mile to finish the race – now that is demoralizing! My watch says 49:02 with a 7:53 average pace per mile. I am very pleased. I walk around a bit after to get some water and other stuff, and then head to the car. Was glad that I had a bit of a walk to stretch out my legs and hips after the race. Now I am thinking if DeLILLE CELLARS is open for me to grab a glass of D2. J


The compression socks probably helped a bit and didn't make me feel overheated, so I liked that. The pain on the left side came and went, but was tolerable. Not sure how that will translate for my ½ marathon in a couple of weeks, but we'll deal with it. I feel like my upper body was weak as I was moving along in the race, and I am unsure if that is still the residual effects from kayaking for the 1^st time in a long time on Wednesday or from yesterday's hike carrying a small'ish backpack. I'll need to work on my arms and shoulders not feeling so tired during intense efforts.

Overall a great effort for a great cause. My new PR for 10Ks was improved by over 5 ½ minutes, so that is something to be proud of. I think I was able to pound out my frustration around not being able to get in some of that much needed 'speedwork'

Switching Roles for “Team Surf & Turf”

Yesterday I had the privilege of supporting Marc for a change in a sporting event, "Swim for Life", which benefits the Puget Sound Blood Center. It is a swim across Lake Washington people form their own teams based on how fast their pace is. Given the inherent danger of swimming in the lake, which is fairly large, it is required that all teams had to have a kayaker alongside of them as they swam. This is where I came in. The way I saw it, my job was to:

• Ensure my swimmers, Marc, Tricia (who has been mentioned in a number of my running entries on this blog) and Lauren, were not in distress as they swam.
• Not hit any swimmers in the head with the paddle or my kayak, for that matter.
• Not inadvertently flip the kayak, which would have meant all of our gear would have been in the water in protective bags – and oh yeah, I would have been in the water, too.

Pretty simple, right? I had been kayaking a number of times before, but definitely did not consider myself an expert. I actually flipped a boat once, which gave a few of my friends who were present for that event to call me "Captain Nemo". But sometimes mistakes as are when you learn the most, and I definitely was aware of the careless move I made that made me flip. OK, but I was ready. One of my Coach Lesley teammates, Jan, was kind enough to pick up the kayak rental for me and bring it back, so no stress there.

We made arrangements with our friend, Mike, to carpool to the start in Medina, home of super-duper mega-mansions and the highest police-to-resident ratio ever recorded (ok, that was made up – kind of). When Marc and I woke up that morning at 5:30am, he noticed it was cloudy and windy. Great – now I may have to make a costume change as it could be cold being on the water, as opposed to being in the water in a wetsuit. As we were crossing the 520 bridge over Lake Washington, the 3 of us kind of let out a sigh when we saw some whitecaps bouncing on the water. We park and get to the beach, and then Marc and I find our boat, so we start the usual pre-race stuff (bathroom, waiver signing, etc.) and I see some of my fellow Coach Lesley chums racing in different waves.

But it is cold and windy on the beach. The air temperature may have been in the low 60s but it felt about 10 degrees cooler. The water looks very choppy. I was regretting not wearing one of my turtlenecks at that stage. I didn't panic, but I'll admit that I was nervous. I knew this was important to Tricia in terms of her prep for Ironman in just over a week, and didn't want to let down her, Marc or Lauren. It was the first time I ever paid attention in the safety briefing of a race. Due to the awesome swimmers I had under my watch on "Team Surf & Turf" (READ: VERY FAST), we were in the first wave of teams to go out.

We were given the ok to start with others in the initial wave, and the 1^st ½ mile didn't exactly reassure me. The kayakers and swimmers went off from a very small beach, so it was chaotic and there was a very strong current in addition to bouncing everywhere because of the chop from the whitecaps. I almost hit a couple of swimmers, but my "gang" was doing great and managed to create some separation plus they stayed together. I was trying to get out of the way of some folks so I got ahead of them (not good) but then we all eventually settled into a rhythm. In order to counteract the current, I had to revert back to my coxswain days so the boat didn't keep spinning around (just what I would have needed in a bouncy kayak). Leveraged some of the oar skills and just paddled along.

My swimmers looked great, although I think Lauren wanted to show off her youth by doing some "extra credit" swimming and taking a slightly longer route across the lake. J We were basically going with 2 other teams and the swimmers were all mixed in together. So the other 2 kayakers and I worked together just to ensure that everyone was ok, whether the swimmers were on our team or not. It was great. The choppiness didn't go away and I definitely felt like I was bouncing around quite a bit. I tried getting some pictures but they are either lopsided or a tad blurry. But overall, I was enjoying things once I got past that initial ½ mile. I wished it was sunnier because it is such a unique perspective to take in the very diverse landscape from the surface of Lake Washington.

I only met Lauren that morning (she is Tricia's niece) so I didn't have a benchmark on how she was doing, but based on what I observed of Marc, he looked like he was having fun chatting with the kayaker upfront from another team and other swimmers. Given the conditions, it is amazing how easy he made it all look although try getting him to admit that….. I train with Tricia on land a fair amount during her runs, and she looked like she was just cruising at a really easy and consistent pace. I am very excited for her in her upcoming Ironman, and am so proud of her efforts given some adversity she has had over the past 18 months.

The last ¼ mile pretty much just pushed us all in to Madison Park beach. Success! No injuries or kayak flipping in our group! Woo woo! The other 2 Coach Lesley teams did a great job, too. We later heard a decent amount of people had asked to be pulled out of the water, so we considered ourselves fortunate that nothing went wrong. It was really great to kayak next to Marc and provide support for a change, since he always does it for me in my running races. We were driving home and my arms/shoulders started to feel a tad sore, and I had a session planned at the range later on with another friend to work on my golf game. I guess Ibuprofen was my BFF yesterday.

Overall it was a great day in the midst of some very good days over the past 6 weeks. I got to support Marc and a good friend in an endeavor that was important to them, had a solid workout to test out an injury I am battling, and was able to see Marisa to catch up on a variety of topics (we'll leave the state of how I am hitting my long irons out of this and stick with the positive – like some of the advice she was giving me on a specific topic). Much to be thankful for.

Until next time and I have some overdue entries, so stay tuned.

Oh and more pics here.

Getting Back Out There

With the effort put in about 10 days ago in the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, last week was a light week when it came to working out. At least I thought so and I think that is what Coach Lesley had planned as well. Unfortunately I hadn't pulled weeds in awhile and it was starting to get pretty bad. So I figured that I would pull some weeds and then go for my 1^st run on Saturday, which was supposed to entail 6 easy miles. Unfortunately once I started, I felt like I had to finish the area I was working on. This led to me being out there for 2 ½ hours. Marc helped a little after he swam, but in the last 30 minutes, my calves and hamstrings were not pleased with me.

I probably should have iced, but didn't and that led to me not doing my run. I opted for the recumbent bike, which probably helped on some level in terms of getting out some soreness. But when I woke up on Sunday, my lower extremities were still unhappy with me. Fortunately a good friend was coming over for a walk around Greenlake and for lunch, so I felt like I could handle that. After lunch, I felt good enough for a light cardio session on the elliptical so the body was feeling a bit better.

I needed to get out there and for whatever reason this past weekend, I wasn't aching to get back out there. Potential burnout? Who knows, but I wasn't pumped to get in a run. This morning, I had to force myself out there and Lesley had an interval run on tap for me which still had me doing 6 miles, but instead of going "easy", I was down for an interval workout. This consisted of 1.0 mile easy, 1.0 mile at an 8:30 minute/pace, and repeat 2 more times with a little cool down. I knew it would be tough because 8:30 was what I averaged in the race, and that was by no means a "comfortable pace". LOL.

It was a very overcast morning, which actually worked out really well because Greenlake was not crowded. It wasn't cold and I was probably overdressed with a long-sleeved t-shirt. The clouds kept people away which meant I didn't have to expend too much energy weaving in and out of folks. The initial mile was easy, and then I shifted into high gear for the 2^nd mile. I knew I was running pretty fast but didn't want to check my watch to see how fast because I didn't want to get depressed that I was only something like a ¼ of the way through the sprint mile. By the time I checked about ¾ through the mile, I saw that my pace was around 7:35 which led me to think "oops – Coach is not going to be pleased." I toned it down and finished the 2^nd mile at 7:51, which was still very fast.

The 3^rd and 5^th miles were easy and done in under 9:20 minute/pace. The pace felt easy but I don't know if my heart rate would show that it was easy. Believe me after averaging 8:05 minutes/mile on the sprint/hard miles, the 9:20 pace was very welcomed and felt like I was moving in slow motion. Of course, it seemed like the easy miles went way faster than the hard miles even though theoretically, you're moving quicker in the hard miles – what is up with that? Given that it was warm enough, even with the cloud cover, I was sure to bring a bottle along to hydrate on the easy miles. Good call because with the hard effort, my body needed fluids before I would get home (I learned this one the hard way).

I walked home and stretched a bit, and was happy to get the run in on a day where I wasn't chomping at the bit to get out there. I'm ready to roll on prep for my next race, which will be on flat ground and will most likely have me doing laps around Greenlake again since it's one of the few non-hilly places in Seattle.

And note to self: No yardwork 36 hours prior to a critical run. Fortunately Saturday wasn't supposed to be one of those, but still – lesson learned.

Oh - I'd be remiss if I didn't call out Lesley for being mentioned twice in this month's Runner's World on triathlon training. One article about swimming is online and the other one about cycling isn't on the site yet. Way to go, Coach!

Cinnamon Pecan Walnut Meringues (w/ touch of chocolate of course)

So The Modern Baker is a great cookbook that Jill gave me. It has an Espresso Walnut Meringues recipe that offers substitutions on nuts and the coffee. This is helpful when you marry a non-coffee drinker such as Jill. Cinnamon is one of my favorites anyway, so popping that in was very tasty. And the recipe has a smidge of chocolate which enhances the cookie and makes it Marc friendlier than it was already.

Espresso Walnut Meringues

4 large egg whites

Pinch of salt

½ cup to 1 cup sugar (recipe was vague here – says one cup but only mentions half in the instructions)

1 ¼ cups (about 5 oz.) walnut pieces, finely chopped – not ground

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 oz. (25 grams) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons corn starch

Directions

1. Set oven to 300F
   
2. Place egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip with the whisk attachment on medium speed until white, opaque, and beginning to hold their shape. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip in ½ cup of the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time continuing to whip until the egg whites are stiff, but not dry. (this is where I split the diff and used ¾ cup sugar)
   
3. Remove the bowl from the mixer and scatter the walnuts, then the espresso powder, chocolate, and cornstarch on top, one at a time, in order. Do not mix them all together beforehand. Use a large rubber spatula to fold them in.
   
4. Use a soup spoon to make rough mounds of the meringue, about 2 inches apart on all sides, on jelly roll pans lined with parchment paper or silpat.
   
5. Bake the meringues until they are almost dry (poke one with a fingertip to see), about 30 minutes. Slide the papers from the pans onto racks to cool.
   

Keep the cookies between sheets of wax paper in a tin or plastic container with a tight fitting lid.

SUBSTITUTIONS

Substitute pecans or hazelnuts (with skins on) for the walnuts. Omit the espresso and substitute 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

This worked well!

Revenge On The Mind…..

As I have mentioned in some of the more recent running-related blog entries, I have been gearing up for the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon (13.1 miles). It was a quick turnaround from my race on Long Island in early May, but I was determined to run RnR because of my less than stellar performance in the inaugural event last year.

Many reasons existed why I didn't run it so well in 2009, but a major culprit was the heat on race day. It was a gorgeous day, which would have been awesome if you were cheering people on, but not so much if you're running the race. And it generally doesn't get *THAT* hot in Seattle so I wasn't used to it. This morning, we had GREAT conditions for racing. It was cloudy and in the low to mid 50s. And while it felt a bit humid in the 1^st 5 miles, overall I could not complain about the weather.

As always, the day started with Marc getting up with me BEFORE dawn (sunrise is around 5am this time of year in Seattle) so he could drive some of my running buddies and I down to the start of the course. To say that this makes my life easier when I train on long runs and for races is a huge understatement. Marc had all of my drinks loaded up and knew where to meet Coach Lesley and I at a couple of points on the course. Excellent.

I asked Lesley to pace me for this race. I was hoping to marginally improve on the PR (personal record) I set in May, but I also knew this was a hillier course that would test me more in the last third of the race. What I have learned from one of the critical training runs I did late last year with Lesley and the Seattle Half Marathon from last November is that if someone is pacing me, I am better off letting them "do their jobs" and not look at my watch to see how I am doing. For those of you who know me well, you know that this is easier said than done. So Marc knew the pace so he knew when to meet us. A couple of my teammates, Libby and Ty, who started the race with us, knew the plan. I didn't.

The 1^st 4 miles of the race were uneventful except for the fact that my heart rate monitor was picking up some wacky readings (like I should have been dead or something really close to that). So we scrapped the chest strap when we saw Marc later as it was more of an annoyance and we didn't want it to detract from my focus or energy trying to get it to work. The course is relatively flat at this stage, so I was thinking we were just focused on staying at a moderate pace and not working too hard. The race organizers had bands playing at every mile, and they definitely had better bands this year than they did last year.

Since I wasn't looking at the pacing data on my watch, I didn't have too much of an idea on how we were doing other than seeing the clocks at the mile markers. But I didn't do the math because quite honestly, I couldn't remember what the clock said a mile back. At mile 5, you have the longest hill of the course which is steady and lasts for a full mile. We saw Jan, one of our teammates, which was nice. Once we finished that, Lesley swapped drinks and empty bottles with Marc, and I kept on running. There was a downhill for about a ½ mile, and then we were running along Lake Washington for just over 3 miles.

I saw two of my friends, Leslie and Sarah, which was a huge boost! It was nice and flat but I felt like I was battling a bit at this point. Mind you I didn't feel as bad as I did a year ago at this stage of the race, but I wasn't rocking it like I did on Long Island. So I started thinking to myself that every race can't be awesome and figured that Lesley knew what she was doing. She was giving me guidance, kept me in good spirits and gave me liquids when it looked like I needed them. Libby and Ty left us and started to pick up their pace. At the start of mile 9, there was another hill for another ½ mile and then we were in the tunnel.

Last year, the tunnel was NOT my friend and it didn't help that the band playing in there was a heavy metal band. So while AC/DC would have been great, it was just one blaring noise that rattled your head and not in a good way. This year, it still blared but they put in a DJ so it wasn't nearly as obnoxious. I felt like I was getting slower and slower at this stage. Lesley told me to just take smaller steps. My left hip started to hurt, one of my right toes started to throb and my stomach didn't feel awesome.

As we finished mile 10 just outside of the tunnel, Lesley reminded me that we had "less than a Green lake lap". Green lake is a place where I run on a regular basis where the outer loop is 3.2 miles and the inner loop is 2.8 miles. So it is more of a psychological deal because I've done plenty of laps around it. We see Marc as we hit downtown Seattle at mile 11.5, and Lesley swaps out some other stuff with Marc. I wave and continue on. I am still not feeling great and tell Lesley, who in turn tells me not to think about it in a very polite way (in other words, "shut the [bleep] up, you're almost done, come on!).

I am feeling slower at this point, but continue on the gradual uphill and the pain becomes less of a factor. I am breathing hard, swearing inside of my head and continuing to grind. As we start mile 13, I am ready for this to be over. I feel slow but am steady and taking those small steps. We get off of the Viaduct, and have about a ½ mile left until the finish. OK – finish strong and just hope the time is less than 2 hours when we cross the end.

I turn the corner to Qwest Field (home of the Seattle Sounders and the Seattle Seahawks) and see the finish in the distance. I then see the gun time and remember that we started about 3 minutes after the gun went off. I then realize that we are on target for a PR for me…. Holy crap! We crossed the finish line at 1 hour and 53 minutes. I am absolutely pumped! Of course when I get home and look at the splits on my watch, I see why I was feeling as though I was battling and in "some pain". LOL.

My official time was 1:53:03, which is 90+ seconds improvement from my PR on the very flat Long Island Half Marathon course. And more importantly, it is a 17+ minute improvement from when I ran this same course in 2009 – so yeah, I GOT MY REVENGE! Celebration time awaits with Marc and Lesley tonight, the people who were largely responsible for making the achievement possible. You know there will be some nice wine involved. Woo woo!

“Cut-Down”!

My final long run before the Seattle Rock 'n Roll ½ marathon had me running in a section of town called West Seattle. For the New York-based readers, it is similar to the "West End" in Long Beach. As it's now crunch time for both the runners and the triathletes, the normal gang is sometimes split up as the triathletes are doing their long bike rides, as opposed to their long runs, on Saturdays. Because of this, it gets more challenging for Coach to support both groups.
As such, Coach Lesley asked me about getting to West Seattle about an hour earlier than the originally scheduled time for a few reasons that made sense. Getting up even earlier on a weekend is typically not something that I am a fan of. I thought about it and decided to do it even though Marc wondered why I didn't just do my run on my own and he'd help me out with fluids, etc. Given that the weather forecast was looking pretty nice and I knew the views would be pretty stellar of Mt. Rainier and the Olympic Mountains, I didn't want to miss it.
As soon as I started running along Alki Beach, I was SO GLAD that I started earlier. It felt pretty warm even before 7am and the sun was out. It was a pretty nice course, but I had business to take care of my run. I was assigned a "cut-down run", which basically meant that I needed to get faster as the run went on. The 1^st and 11^th miles were supposed to be warm-up and cool-down miles, so that left 9 miles for me to do some math.
The course was pretty flat with the exception of one mile that had me huffing and puffing quite a bit (ok, I was swearing too). That mile was pretty hard for me to improve upon my pace from the previous mile, but other than that, I did better than I expected. It's pretty hard for me to manage my pace to an exact time, so I tried to get within 5 seconds (pace per mile) of what Lesley told me to do. But overall the 2^nd half of my run was definitely quicker than the 1^st half, so I was pleased even though something tells me I went a bit harder than I was supposed to (oops).
When I hit the end of mile 10 to start my final mile, I tried to tell myself to make it a cool down mile and go slower but I think my body just wants to just finish the run, so I ran the last mile at a pretty fast clip (more oops). Fortunately when I hit 11 miles, I still had about a ½ mile to walk to my car so that kind of worked out as a "pseudo cool down" which also included some stretching.
I still had lots to do after the run, including heading to Pike Place Market to get some newly caught salmon for a dinner party we were hosting later. As Marc is not a seafood fan, I don't have many opportunities to perfect my seafood culinary skills. Fortunately the dish was well received by our friends (Marc had a "special" dish for him). Made some strawberry bellinis for the 1^st time, which seemed appropriate given that it finally seems as though summer has arrived in Seattle. Our guests had us chuckling throughout the evening. It was a great way to end a fun day, especially with the Yanks winning again and the USA playing to a draw against the English in the World Cup.
Let's just hope it's not TOO WARM on the morning of June 26^th – the day of the Seattle RnR. And now the taper begins.

Eh – Maybe That Race Schedule Wasn’t Such A Good Idea?

I am signed up for the Seattle Rock 'n Roll ½ Marathon at the end of this month. It's been on my calendar since June 28, 2009 when we received the early-bird discount e-mail for the 2010 race. The reality is that I wanted to run the race again after last year's performance when I bonked in the 2^nd half of the race. The truth is that I had been sick leading up to that race, but I really thought I had it in me to rally on race day. Yeah, not so much.

As mentioned in an earlier entry, the week following the LI ½ marathon was rough on me physically. Obviously I was really pleased with the outcome but I didn't plan on the flight back home kicking the crap out of me. And I didn't plan on not feeling like working out at all for almost the entire week following the race. When I looked at the calendar and saw that RnR was less than 60 days away, I knew I cut it a bit too close on scheduling the two ½ marathons so close together. Ideally I probably would have liked a couple of weeks to have some easy workouts before throwing on the higher intensity stuff but the situation was laid out. Skipping the RnR was not an option as I wanted revenge after last year's debacle.

The other wrench that was thrown in was that Marc and I were going to be away for a week at the end of May, which would also be a key time to get some of the longer mileage in. This presented Coach Lesley with a ton of constraints when figuring out my workouts for the months of May and June. I started to feel a little less stressed when I got out for 8 miles on the Saturday after the race. I was initially scheduled for 6 miles, but felt good enough to do 8 so I was pleased.

I still was a bit tired and opted not to do "Beat the Bridge" the following week because I just didn't feel that great the morning of the race. It's for a cause that is near and dear to my heart (JDRF), but at the end of the day, I felt that not racing that day was actually better for me mentally. I didn't confer with Coach when I was making the call, but when I told her after the fact, she agreed with the decision and more importantly, the thought process. It is good that my instincts are mostly leading me in the right direction as I try to improve, and it does a ton for my confidence.

Before I left, I managed to squeeze in a 12-mile run with Tricia and Lesley. The weather was pretty good – rain was expected for much of the run, but it only stuck around for the 1^st mile or so. I got to run on some trails that I had never run on before, including in the Arboretum and some of the trails by UW near the Montlake Cut. The run had a bit of everything – nice scenery, pavement, trail, banter, swearing, rolling hills, etc. – but I was able to get in half of the miles at race pace, which was the goal. It was a good way to head into my vacation as Lesley and I worked that out to be an "easy" week, which it was.

Came back from vacation and hit Ladies Night at the track later in the week. I found a similar workout from almost 3 months earlier and it was nice to see some improvement. And given that the same people hit the track workouts, that means we have all gotten a bit quicker in our track workouts since we all pace each other. Go Team! Track workouts are hard because they are so intense. A typical track workout may not take more than 45 minutes but you are going extremely hard for chunks of it.

Two days later, I found myself preparing to run 14 miles for only the 2^nd time ever. I'll admit that the initial run of 14 miles a couple of months earlier really did help on race day given that a ½ marathon is 13.1 miles, so I was keen on doing it again. Saturday was warmer and more humid than I expected. I figured it would be cooler because of the location of the run and because the path was completely shaded. Fortunately I wasn't too over-dressed and put in a solid effort on a course that was a gradual, yet steady uphill for the 1^st 11 miles. I ran with Jen, one of my teammates from the Mt. Si relay, for the 1^st 8 miles and then I was on my own. I was hoping to meet up with Tricia, PNak and Sjohn later in the run, but unfortunately that didn't work out so I was on my own for the last 6 miles.

Other than the 1^st mile having part of the trail washed out and me having to jump in the water to get through (yes, that meant running in wet socks for 13 ½ miles – lovely), I really enjoyed it. The sounds from the local gun club were a little disturbing, but I remembered we had a similar warning when we did the Mt. Si relay. We were told that the club sounds a lot closer than it is – uh, ok. I felt pretty good about my splits after the run and other then getting pulled over by a police officer, who also happened to be a first-class jerk, the morning was a success – wet socks and all.

I still have a little ache on my left side and while I wish I could have had a bit more cushion between the races, it is what it is. I'm getting close to where I would like to be on race day, but work still remains. I have one more long run left and then the taper starts. Given that there are more hills on the RnR course than the LI course, I do not expect to PR, but I am hoping to put in a solid effort to make up for what happened in 2009.

Accountability anyone?

Accountability was a theme for me this week.

This was a pretty eventful week in baseball - one perfect game by Roy Halladay, one "almost perfect game" by Armando Galarraga (more on that in a bit) and Ken Griffey, Jr.'s retirement. As someone who is pretty familiar with Halladay from his days of pitching with the Toronto Blue Jays and how he dominated the toughest offensive division in MLB, I thought this was just another reason that he should be a lock for the Hall of Fame – for the non-baseball fans, only 20 people in the entire history of baseball of 100+ years have achieved this accomplishment. I hope he does not get burned by not having a gaudy win total because he was on a team that didn't generate much offense while he pitched for them.

Griffey's retirement was bittersweet. I was actually fortunate enough to be at the game where he got his last hit, which led to a walk-off win for the Mariners. I did mention to my colleagues at the game when he came up to bat that if he won the game for the Ms, he would retire right after. As soon as the hit happened, I felt sad that Marc wasn't there with me. Griffey is probably the reason why Marc got into baseball. It took about 10 days for Griffey to release a statement about retirement. I believed it was time for him to retire and didn't think he should have been signed in 2010, but with all of that said, I was bummed that Marc didn't get to see him play this year. The walk-off was one of those moments that should have been shared with Marc, even if I was at Safeco Field for a work function.

Now to the "almost perfect game". To sum it up, Galarraga retired the 1^st 26 batters of the opposing team. To get a perfect game, you need 27. The 27^th batter hit a ground ball and was erroneously called safe when he should have been out, which would have given Galarraga his perfect game (the 21^st in MLB history spanning over 100 years). The replays showed the batter was out by a good margin within 20 seconds and outrage hammered Twitter, Facebook and every other social media outlet known to the world.

Now baseball doesn't have instant replay for this scenario, so the only way the call could be overturned was if another umpire saw it differently. Jim Joyce probably had the best angle, so that wasn't going to happen. Joyce went into the umpire's room in the stadium and asked to see the replay. He was horrified by what he saw and immediately sought out Galarraga to apologize. Note that when the call was made that the batter was safe, Galarraga didn't argue at all and kept his composure. Joyce wanted to make his apology in-person and he faced the man who he robbed of being a part of MLB history. Bravo, Jim Joyce although when people say he "manned up", it makes me gag.

While it is great that Jim Joyce was immediately accountable for his mistake, I think it is sad that accountability is now the exception, as opposed to the norm. Everyone is praising Joyce for doing the right thing, but shouldn't people be accustomed to doing the right thing? What does it say about society today when we are shocked that someone owns up to their mistakes? Read here about more graciousness the next day, which will probably make me a fan of Jim Leyland and Galarraga for a long time (except when they play the Yanks, of course).

Peggy Noonan of the WSJ (disclaimer: I am a huge fan of her writing) wrote an eloquent column linking baseball, the "almost perfect game" and the fact that there is an instruction gap in our country about accountability. She put it as, "What was sweet and surprising was that all the principals in the story comported themselves as fully formed adults, with patience, grace and dignity." Too bad our elected officials (both parties) do not have the ability to demonstrate the same qualities as they try to figure out how to solve some of our nation's woes.

Accountability is a big thing for me. I was brought up to be accountable, although there were times I screwed up on this when I was younger and paid the price. While I am not perfect, if someone calls me out on something, I'd like to think I am able to acknowledge where I wronged someone and do what I can to make things right with the individual(s).

This week, I ended a friendship with someone who felt that they didn't need to be accountable even though they screwed up in a major way and multiple times. Their ego got in the way, which, in retrospect, I suppose is why this person was on thin ice to begin with. I won't say it wasn't a difficult decision, but it was something that had been brewing for some time so I had come to grips with it some time back. When I finally made the decision to end the friendship and communicated it to this person, they finally decided to own up to their actions. Up until this point, this individual had been given multiple opportunities to be accountable and they refused. It wasn't so much that they refused; they also deflected responsibility, which is also bad. When you finally get to the point that you decide to end a friendship, apologies don't really resonate.

Maybe this person will take a page from Jim Joyce and learn what accountability really means. Maybe they won't. But accountability for when you mess up is pretty important. None of us are perfect, so it's a pretty good idea to learn early on how to take your lumps, be humble, learn the value of apologizing and yes, be accountable. Normally I don't cover such personal topics on the blog, but given the events of the week, it just seemed appropriate. Life is too short to associate with people who do not understand how you treat meaningful folks in your life. Onwards and upwards!

And RIP to another high-character role model - John Wooden. Most of us could only aspire to handle ourselves with the dignity and class that he lived by.

Gaucho Reunion in Wine Country

In a distant land overlooking the Pacific Ocean a long, long time ago, Stu and I met as roommates in Anacapa Hall on the UCSB campus. Over the years on campus and off in Isla Vista, Stuart brought Port from St Amant – the winery his parent's had started and he now runs as his second job out in Lodi, CA. Jill and I had not been here before and I had not seen Stu since the college days, so we choose to take a trip out to Lodi.
Let me tell you that the Lodi appellation is large and the vines go for miles. There are vines from over 100 years ago and there are many small family wineries trying to make a business now. Some of them also source grapes from the Sierra foothills.
We met up with Stuart and got re-acquainted and then he graciously showed us around for a day. The places we were shown gave us a good sampling of the diversity of families making a business creating wine.
We started at St Amant where we tasted everything in the bottle right now along with several barrel samples. And this was before we got to the St Amant specialty – port! One of my favorite things from back in the college days.
The day prior to our arrival some Canadians came through Lodi and tasted the individual Portuguese grape components that go into port before they are blended. So there was plenty still available for us to do the same – the different 2007 grapes aging right now. It was an interesting blessing to see the components and what each contributes to a finished port.
This is when we learned about bastardo the grape. For his tawny port, this ages for years basically untouched and spending time "cooking" outdoors in the sun. Eventually it gets blended from a few vintages into the tawny port. It was amazing to see how different the 2007 was from the finished tawny right now that contains 2002, 2003, and 2004 bastardo grapes. Wow.
We went to one of the better known area producers, Michael David, first for lunch and then we tasted their offerings. We were going to go to Alebrijes but it is closed on Mondays. Never fear, we went the following day on our own and it was great Mexican food.
After this, we went over to Harney Lane Winery where Kyle opened up on a Monday just for us. To be more accurate, just for Stu. We learned from spending the entire day with Stu that he is well respected for his knowledge, experience, or something intangible. The wines were solid and Kyle showed us the remarkable machine that can harvest efficiently right in the vineyard with a sorting belt included. It was impressive and was partially dismantled for storage.
From here, we went to M2 where we met the mad scientist also known as Layne. We tasted a lot of stuff and got some great stories about the local parachuters among other things.
Finally we landed at Macchia where madness and stories continued. An entire family of characters with stories of Newport Beach (just got back that day), Italy, and more. The wines all end in "ous" and some of them were marvelous although I don't think they use that adjective. They turned their living room into the tasting room, so their main living space is the water tower on their property.
This was a long day so Stu obviously could not join us for dinner. I had booked a newer place – Crush Kitchen – that Stu had not been too just in case he could join us. From our 3 evening meals in Lodi, this place was definitely the best. The food was tasty, innovative, and fresh. And Michael Warren, the owner, is a character.
The following day we got recommendations from Stu on places to visit. We started at Van Ruiten which was a forgettable experience with forgettable wines. It is conceivable the pourer was the difference – he had little knowledge or enthusiasm and someone else may have totally changed the experience. Not a problem, there are plenty of other places in this area.

We went over to Harmony Wynelands. The family was welcoming. Bob had built the building that became the tasting room for a huge movie studio organ. By the time we left, Bob was playing tunes for Jill including "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" which was awesome. Once in a lifetime experience. Shaun is a gaucho so I made sure he knew that Stu is too – they (the family) didn't seem to know this. And they definitely questioned if he ever graduated!
We heard from a few people to check out Jessie's Grove. We enjoyed it and the person working with us has a son at UC Davis who is a top swimmer. So we had a lot to connect on there. She had not met Stu, but now she knows he swam at UCSB!
We ended on a place that makes our favorite style – Rhone blends at Borra Winery. We had bought a Fusion our first night in town with dinner, so this was mostly something we wanted to go see before we left. The wines there are definitely good.
It was a long time in the making, but we learned a lot from Stu and the people of the area. The families were nice and I learned how much winemaking knowledge that Stu has accumulated. We both enjoyed and appreciated the experience of these 3 days immensely.

Why Don’t You Cheer For The Mariners, Jill? They Are Such Nice Guys!

Yes, this was actually said to me during my 1^st baseball season in Seattle while I was working at Washington Mutual. This person was seriously convinced that he could lobby me to leave my lifelong devotion to the Yankees and start cheering for the Mariners. My immediate response to him was, "if you moved to New York, would you become a Yankees fan?" Of course, he said no but he still seemed dumbfounded on why I couldn't support the Mariners as my #1 team because "they were such nice guys!"

Let me be clear. If the Mariners do well, it is good for the city of Seattle, which is good for me. More people spending money downtown around Safeco Field and in the stadium is good because that means they need more people to serve the patrons of those establishments. That means jobs and those folks then pumping money into the local economy.

With that said, my loyalty will ALWAYS be with the Yankees no matter how long I live in Seattle. It is the team I grew up with and the team I chose when my brother and I were fighting as kids when we were 5 or 6. He warned, "Once you pick a team, you can't change." And whatever Glenn did, I did the opposite and hence, I was welcomed to the "Bronx Zoo". For some reason, my parents chose NOT to tell me about the infamous "wife swapping" incident that took place a couple of years earlier. Wonder why?

I know most people think that Yankees fans are insufferable, arrogant and entitled pains in the neck. I get that but I won't apologize for it. I am proud to support a team that has an owner that is 100% committed to putting the best product out on the field. And if he has to line the pockets of his competitors in the process to do it (see 'tax, luxury'), so be it. The Steinbrenner family is committed to playing for the World Series every year, and that makes me very happy.

I have friends that say that they respect the Yankees but do not like Steinbrenner. Why? Who paid for the players to be on the roster? It wasn't the 'Tooth Fairy'. Has George Steinbrenner done a few controversial things? Yeah, but let's start digging into all of the owners, right? But George has also been very loyal to former Yankee greats who have had their share of problems post-baseball. We won't even get into the many "under the radar" charitable donations that are made by the Steinbrenners, including numerous ones to the "Jimmy Fund", the primary charity of the Boston Red Sox.

So how does this impact my ability to cheer for the Mariners? The 2010 season is quickly looking more and more like the debacle season in 2008 where the Mariners achieved the dubious distinction of spending over $100 million dollars and still losing over 100 games. The season was over for them by this time 2 years ago and attendance was an absolute joke except when the Yankees and Red Sox came to town. We had partial season packages for 5 years prior and after 2008, when the Mariners decided not to give discounts for 2009 to the folks who had to SUFFER through 2008 or throw in extra games, we were done. We figured that we could just buy tickets to the games we were interested in and that would be it. It's clear that the Marketing people for the Mariners are not nearly as bright and in-touch with the fan base as the folks who work for the Sounders are.

Obviously there was lots of tension and infighting in the clubhouse given the amount of losses, so the new GM (Jack Z.) decided to bring back the Mariners' savior in the mid-90s – Ken Griffey, Jr. To me, it was a cheap move to get people to buy season ticket plans after the '08 nightmare, especially considering that Junior was way past his prime even if he just DH'ed. As it turns out, the Mariners overachieved in 2009 and the clubhouse was way more loose and cohesive, probably because of Junior's influence. I was wrong about the impact Junior would have on the clubhouse. We went to Junior's last game of 2009 thinking this would be the end considering his bat was gone but knowing he was integral in changing the clubhouse for the better.

WRONG! The Mariners decided to bring Griffey back for another year. Why would you go into the season knowingly having a platoon DH (Designated Hitter), one of whom you know can't really hit anymore? Isn't that the whole point of a DH?? When you start making moves like those, that tells me you are not committed to putting the best product on the field for your fans.

Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon were both available as free agents, and definitely would have done damage in Safeco, plus they had already succeeded in high pressure markets. They are both considered "good clubhouse guys". And while Johnny Damon's arm is terrible for throwing, at least he could fill in as an emergency left fielder (he actually played 1^st base a couple of times for the Yanks during some tough times with injuries on the roster). And the DH market was crowded, which meant there were definite bargains out there.

With just over 6 weeks into the season, we are in the midst of "Sleepgate" here in Seattle with Ken Griffey being ratted out for sleeping during a game and not being able to pinch-hit in a close game. No one knows what happened, but it seems odd that the TWO people who acted as the sources for this story made this up. And no evidence has really come up to contradict this. I'm sorry, Mike Sweeney threatening to beat up the sources in a locker room fight and no one taking him up on that offer – that just doesn't count as evidence that the beat writer made the story up. Of course, the big joke is that some people were hoping that Sweeney would fight someone so he could throw his back out and go on the DL – again (!), so someone else could be added to the roster.

The 2010 Mariners team was put together under the mindset that pitching and defense are supreme. Well, the starting pitching has been phenomenal for the most part. I am not kidding. But since the bullpen is a disaster and since there are no real offensive juggernauts, except for Ichiro, it leaves no room for error in your pitching and fielding. So now you have 4 out of the 5 members of the starting rotations sporting very solid ERAs, but too many one-run losses and walk-off losses to show for it.

Another thing that irks me about the Mariners is how much they cater to Ichiro Suzuki. Apparently it is common knowledge among the Japanese media that Ichiro and Hideki Matsui are not BFFs, although I am told it is more because Ichiro has always been in Matsui's shadow. Well if Ichiro was focused on winning, he would have lobbied the Mariners execs to bring Matsui over (Seattle is a VERY Japanese-friendly market) as a DH. Matsui had just won the World Series MVP and it was evident that the Yankees were going to let him go as a free agent.

Furthermore when the Mariners signed Chone Figgins as a free agent, my take was that he should bat lead-off and Ichiro should bat 2^nd. Why? I've seen Ichiro's power and while Ichiro is fast, I felt like Figgins was more aggressive on the basepaths and remembering him causing the Yanks a lot more havoc if he got on base. But everything I read said that Ichiro was going to retain his #1 line-up spot. Now someone is saying to bat Figgins 9^th, so Ichiro can follow him when the line-up turns over. Nothing for nothing, Ichiro has been hitting #1 for quite some time now and it hasn't really resulted in any playoff appearances. Maybe it's time for a change.

Finally, do not even get me started on the blind love affair that people in Seattle have with Ken Griffey, Jr. after he essentially forced a trade out of Seattle in 1999 and handcuffed the organization into who they could trade with. The Mariners could not maximize the value they could have in return for who arguably was the game's best player at the time. If that is not selfish, I don't know what is.

But yet, Alex Rodriguez is vilified every time he visits Seattle. As a matter of fact, it is the most noise you will hear from Mariners fans all season – pathetic. Don't start blaming the PED stuff because the hatred was visceral before that came out, and you never know who else was on that infamous 2003 list or did stuff prior to the new drug testing rules. A-Rod left as a FREE AGENT and some players have come out and said that they feel an extraordinary amount of pressure to take the highest offer and not take a "hometown discount". See Morgan Ensberg's take here (scroll through comments). At least the Mariners got free agent compensation in the form of draft picks of their choosing as opposed to whatever was available in the Reds farm system (yech!).

As a baseball fan, I do not want to settle for sentiment over talent, or loyalty over ability. I want to cheer for a team and an organization committed to winning. It doesn't always happen, but I know the Yanks do their best.

Moms and Dads – Need some help for a friend!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there. My hope is that you feel appreciated every day and not just on a couple of days throughout the year.

I received an e-mail late last week which is kind of timely given the Mother's Day holiday, but I think it applies to Moms and Dads. Here is where I can use some input from the parents out there:

A friend of mine, who is married with 3 young kids (under the age of 10), had started running about a year ago and slowly built up to running her 1^st 10K earlier this year. She has a job outside of the home in addition to the job she has as "Mom extraordinaire". But with stuff going on at work (outside of the home), shuttling the kids to different activities and her stuff at home, her runs have come to a halt. I'll add that the hubby is a very cool guy, who also works outside of the home in addition to the parenting responsibilities.

I can tell this is frustrating to her because she worked hard to get to the 10K point and she is struggling with how to stay motivated. So she asked me how I stayed motivated and how I continue to get my workouts in. I gave her my thoughts but they were lacking a certain perspective.

The problem with being asked this question is that I do not have kids. There are certain things I can relate to, but the big issue – the kids – is something that I cannot relate to. I am fortunate that if I ask Marc to give me some space for an hour so I can get my workout in that he will give it to me. But kids do not really understand that concept.

So if you have kids, how do you balance getting regular workouts in and staying motivated for the long-term in addition to your other responsibilities in and out of the house? For example:

• Does your partner/spouse watch the kids for an hour or so while you get out?
  
• Do you integrate it into a workday if you work outside of the home (some workplaces have gyms onsite)?
  
• Do you just warn people to stay away unless you get your workout in?
  
• Do you workout with your partner/spouse and use a babysitting service at a gym?
  
• Do you hire a babysitter to allow you to workout?
  
• Are you motivated to workout because of family health history or how you feel after a workout? Maybe motivated to set an example for your kids?
  

These are just some thoughts so feel free to add anything that helps you. Hopefully it helps my friend, or anyone else, who is struggling. Thanks!

Recovery Week – Ouch!

Note to self when traveling more than 2 hours for a race – don't fly back the next day. Oh yeah since notes are being taken, look into those things called 'compression socks' (aka the long socks that you used to see only on elderly people but now starting to see on athletes during a race and after a race).

Sunday was a great day and I was really proud of my effort (and new PR). I walked for a bit after the race, stretched and iced, but the 7 hours of being on a flight between boarding, the flight itself and deplaning really slowed down my recovery. It probably had to do with sitting for such an extended period of time along with the altitude and pressurized cabin. I was still having issues on Tuesday and finally started to feel a bit better on Wednesday even after doing some light rides on the recumbent bike along with some stretching.

Marc took me on a quick loop that he created on his own which had lots of quick hills which will come in handy for interval training. I'll admit that I underestimated the steepness of a couple of these hills and I was huffing and puffing quite a bit. Consider me motivated to kick the crap out of this loop the next time I attempt this. It will come in handy as I start working on some hills for my next race.

While I felt better as the week progressed, I realized that my lower body was still responding at a slower clip on recovering so I enlisted the services of a good friend's massage therapist. That helped quite a bit and set me up for this morning's run. The therapist also recommended the compression socks as she works with a good amount of Ironman athletes, and Coach Lesley agreed. Coach also told me that there are compression socks for racing and compression socks for recovery. Who knew that this could be so complicated, but I guess I need to start doing some research. If anyone has any insights on compression socks, please let me know.

This morning's run was either going to be 6 or 8 miles depending on how I felt. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning with perfect weather. The mountains were in full view. Truly awesome and we were talking during the run that this is why Seattle can be so great because of mornings like this. The run I did around Queen Anne a couple of months ago was probably a tad more spectacular just because we had to climb quite a bit on that run to get the view, but today was pretty darned nice.

I spent the entire run with Tricia and Dana, which was nice. They told me about the race they just did in SF, and it was fun to hear about their adventures. It was supposed to be an easy run and we had good intentions, but it probably ended up being more on the moderate side for me, which was fine. It was an awesome day to be outside and when we hit the 6 mile mark at Pike Place Market, I knew I wasn't done [grin]. And the best part is that I felt like I got my legs back after the run.

We Have A New PR In The House

FYI: Part one of this post is here.

Game time. Race starts and I cross the start line about 2 minutes after the gun goes off.

Side note: 'Gun time' is the difference between when the starter's gun goes off and when you cross the finish line. 'Net time' is the difference between when you cross the start line and when you cross the finish line. Depending on how big the race is, the differences between your 'gun time' and your 'net time' can be 10-15 minutes. Races tend to go by your 'net time' so it allows the elite runners to stay in the front unencumbered to run their race. If you start at the front because you are a very fast runner (aka elite), the gun time and the net time are going to be essentially the same.

Thought I hit my watch to start, but must have held the button too long so it stopped. I didn't notice this until 20 or 30 seconds into the race, or so I think. Grrrr. This is going to impact how much time I need to shave off in the end because I am not going to know and I like being precise about this stuff, especially when going for a new PR (personal record).
Furthermore Marc was texting me before the start of the race about the trouble him and Lisa were having getting to the spots we laid out for them to give me the beverage. Not a good way to kick things off. These things happen and they are no one's fault at all. But adjusting the game plan is parting of the learning process and it is something I can always improve on, especially given my planning instincts.
I got into a pretty good groove in the race but of course I'll admit that I was thinking about how I was going to manage the fluid consumption issue and the weather in the event that Marc and Lisa couldn't find me at all. My parents were slated to join in the cheering, but they didn't have the liquid I needed either. So I spent the 1^st 4 miles thinking about something that was now out of my control. It was pretty flat for that period but I was happy that my mile splits were very consistent. I took water at the stops and just kept throwing it on my neck to stay cool. I was slowly hydrating. At one point, I think I threw too much water on me as I started to feel weighed down.
At the start of mile 5, it was a very small incline. My left hip started aching a little. Then I saw the Holyrood Cemetery and thought of how many monuments my Dad designed there (yes, my Dad sells tombstones – no joke). Hey, at least it got me not thinking about my hip and sure enough the pain went away. Had another uphill, heard another cover band and then hit some much welcome shade as I finished mile 6. At this stage, I remained pretty consistent with my pace (8:43-8:51) and even though it was slightly off from my plan with Lesley, I was pretty happy with it as I have never run a race at such a steady (meaning – hard, but not "all out") pace.
I hit Jericho Turnpike, I knew I had to still be on the lookout for Marc and Lisa. More like I was hoping to see them. I had enough liquid to get me to the 2^nd planned meeting place if they weren't there, but still. I also knew that if they were there that it was very possible that Marc and Lisa wouldn't be at the 2^nd planned stop at mile 10 ½ so I need to carry an extra bottle for the homestretch. And I knew I needed to be prepared to run with more liquid in my belt than I normally carry.
Low and behold at mile 6.75, I see the bright yellow hat (Marc) and the big red-headed ponytail (Lisa). I relax a bit and put up 2 fingers as they snap some pictures and I throw an empty bottle at them. They yell some encouraging words back at me. This was absolutely HUGE in terms of morale that they found a way to dodge the police stops to get inside of the loop because no matter what happened, I had enough of my specially-made sports drink to finish.
The stop was in a middle of slight but long uphill. I knew I had another mile of the hill and then it would be pretty much downhill/flat for the remainder of the race. I get to the Wantagh Parkway (how crazy is it that you're running on the parkway and that there are people hanging out on the barrier cheering you on?) and there was a little bump as I finished mile 9. I was still hitting 8:40 – 8:50 per mile paces, so the consistency was really helping me relax a little bit more. Yes, I am using the word 'consistency' or some form of it a fair amount in this entry because that summed up the 1^st two-thirds of this race perfectly and that was a very good thing.
As I got off of the parkway and hit the mile 10 mark, I saw a sign for the elapsed time from when the gun off and was starting to do the math about what I needed for my goal time. As a side note, I had told a handful of people that I was going for under 1:55 in the month leading up to the race and when I did my 14-mile run almost a month earlier, I knew that it went from being a stretch goal to a realistic goal assuming no crazy weather conditions (yeah, ok – thanks to the weather gods for adding that extra degree of difficulty with the heat, humidity and pollen).
The problem with doing the math was that I was still trying to figure out how much time had elapsed before I realized something was up with my watch. Anyway before I know it, I'm approaching the intersection where I am supposed to see Puff Daddy, Sunny D, Marc and Lisa, and I hear my name called from an unfamiliar voice. It was Dena – Greg's wife! All cheering during a race is cool. When you get an unexpected personal cheer, it is absolutely awesome!

A couple of minutes later, I see the yellow hat, the red-headed pony tail, and the 'rents. I throw another empty water bottle at them and wave. This is probably mile 10.75 so now we are talking less than a "Greenlake lap". For those of you who don't know, Greenlake is a local park in Seattle that has a 2.8 inner loop around the lake. Time to get focused on finishing strong and pick up the pace to get under 8:40 per mile. I felt tired, but ok – not nearly as bad as I felt at the end of the Seattle ½ marathon with that last hill at the very end.
As I turned into the park, I noticed that I just ran past the Nassau County jail – so maybe that explained the extensive police presence. Who knows. Back to doing math based on what my watch said. I see that I have about 12-13 minutes to get in under my target time with about 1 ½ miles to go – hmmmm… And I still had to take into account what I figured was 20-30 seconds of the "lost time" at the beginning of the race. I just started picking people off and passing them. Finally saw the end and hit the stop button a couple of seconds after the obligatory picture at the finish line is snapped, which was around 10am.
Given that the race only shows the gun time as opposed to your individual race time and that I had the watch glitch earlier, I had to estimate my time which I really didn't like. Grrrr…. I figured it was somewhere between 1:54 and 1:55, but I was going for the 1:54 because it was a full 5 minute improvement from my previous PR in November. After a walk and some miscommunication, found the family and headed back to the house.
The ice bath was calling and I kept checking for the results to be posted. The only thing I could find was that even the winners of the race said that it was extraordinarily hot and humid for them and that the racing conditions were difficult. So even if I came in just over 1:55, I had a lot to be proud of. Started to marinate my rack of lamb for the family dinner later, watched the Yanks win and then family event kicked off at the house.
At around 4pm, the results get posted and I am stunned (not in a good way) to see my official 'net time' listed as 1:56:31 (no 'gun times' were posted). I figured I was about 2 minutes off of the 'gun time', but this was saying 'net time'. I was annoyed, disappointed and pissed at myself because of the watch snafu. I know that I will not make the watch mistake again, but still. I also knew my mile splits were right on target for a 1:54 finish, but maybe I didn't notice that my watch was not recording for 2 minutes, but that's a heck of a lot of time. I can't believe I would be *THAT* checked out in the beginning of a race while trying to settle into a pace.
I'll admit that I did think for a second that maybe the time tracking company made a mistake and I should contact them, but that seemed to be lame ass thinking and making excuses. It was still a 3 minute improvement from my previous PR in tough weather, but I knew I could have hit my goal.
I kept it together as the insanity of the 2 nephews took over the house and laughs were had. I made a honey-crusted rack of lamb as a thanks to Lisa and JB for hosting us (and Lisa for getting up at 6am on a Sunday) and we uncorked some Purple Teeth Cellars - '07 Alder Springs Syrah.
At around 9pm, Lisa wanted to see how one of her friends did and I noticed that they had posted NET and GUN times, which was different than earlier. Marc told me to check again on my result. Sure enough, I found my time at 1:54:35 and I was completely overjoyed! Seriously. I guess I only lost less than 10 seconds on my watch glitch because my watch had me at 1:54:40. Wow. I was psyched and yes, very proud.
Lots of people to thank in making this effort happen. So lucky to have so many people in my corner. It is truly humbling and very cool.
And I guess I should acknowledge that, yet again, Coach Lesley was right in telling me that the heat was psyching me out as opposed to believing in my training. Thanks, Coach!

Gotta Get The Game Face On

Yesterday I ran what is probably the closest thing to my hometown ½ marathon, the Long Island Half Marathon. As usual, I was monitoring the weather in the days before but when you are travelling in advance of the race, it makes things a bit challenging from a "what do I wear" perspective. I thought I had the scenarios covered, but by the time I arrived in New York 4 days before the race, the weather forecast had shifted to being very warm on the day of the race. What do I consider warm? Anything above 60 degrees at race time. The forecast at race time had the temperature in the high 60s/low 70s. Given my last race in the heat, let's just say that I was not that excited about this.
On Friday, I decided that what I had packed was not going to work and I needed to focus on keeping cool. Good thing I was in New York City, where there is every store imaginable and as luck would have it, adidas has a store right near where we were staying. So a couple of purchases were made and that was that. When I went to pick up the race packets on Saturday, it was very warm and it was around the time that I would be finishing the race in 24 hours. A check-in to Coach Lesley was in order, even though she was in San Francisco with some of her other clients for Escape from Alcatraz – some crazy triathlon that has the athletes jump in the SF Bay (hello sharks!), run and bike some awful hills in SF.
Lesley got in touch and advised to take in more sodium given the heat forecasted for Sunday. The sweat factor will obviously be increased, which will necessitate the sodium intake. Fortunately I was in the mood for some "east coast" Chinese food (read: non-traditional) and the sodium in those dishes would probably make most cardiologists turn red, so it all worked out. LOL. Obviously it also meant lots of water consumption throughout Saturday.
After a family dinner (yes, I had wine), I got everything prepped given we were leaving early for the race and didn't want to wake up lil' JB. My phone pops up with an alert with a new e-mail. Nothing like getting a message from the race organizers less than 12 hours before the race notifying everyone of an extreme heat advisory and precautions are going to be taken with stopping the race or re-routing people if they are moving beyond a certain pace in the full marathon. Great.
I did figure that this would be good practice for a couple of other races that I have scheduled for later on in the year, so tried to focus on that. Lesley also told me that I was psyching myself out with the heat and to focus on my preparation. OK, time to believe in yourself and what Coach is saying. But I had a goal time in mind that involved finishing in under 1 hour and 55 minutes, so the heat was going to definitely impact that.
So we wake up on Sunday and head out to the start. Plans were laid out the night before about where to cheer for me and, more importantly, give me more of my race beverage. I get dropped off and one of my friends, Mike Roessner, from Massapequa High School ('89) spotted me and we exchanged a quick hug. I then needed to find my friend, Greg Jones (also of MHS '89 - pictured with me), because I had his race bib (along with his friend's). Fortunately Greg got there with his friend, Paul, and wife, Dena, so ok…. Bibs distributed – check. Mandatory bathroom stop before gun goes off – check. Belt secured – check. Watch on – check. It's starting to feel a tad warm, even with the cloud cover, but unfortunately, it is also starting to feel very humid as thunderstorms were in the forecast for later in the day. Lovely.
[Race recap is in the next entry – click here.]

Baseball, Football and Working Out Some Kinks

Baseball season is in full swing, and the Yankees have gotten off to a strong start. I typically don't put much stock in the April standings given that over the past 5 years in the AL East, both the Orioles and the Blue Jays were comfortably in 1^st place by the end of the month. By the All-Star Break, both teams were well out of the race for the division. I know the Red Sox faithful are debating whether to jump off of one of the many bridges that go over the Charles River, but I don't think they should worry. After all, the Yanks got off to a slow start last year and it seemed to work out well for them. Of course, I would love for the Sox to have a bad year.

The insanity that was the NFL Draft took place this past weekend. As a Giants fan, I do care about who they pick up but it's hard to say now if the draft is considered a "good one" for Big Blue. You tend not to know these things until a few years from now. I will say that the biggest shock of the year came in for Marc's team when the Denver Broncos drafted Tim Tebow from the University of Florida (and my brother-in-law's alma mater). Many reasons existed why Tebow was a high risk pick even though he had tremendous success on the college level and is considered a "good character" guy. Whatever. He's not a Giant, but I do hope he is successful in the NFL. Myron Rolle, too. If you haven't read his story yet, you should – it includes being a top player in college football AND being a Rhodes Scholar.

I had 2 runs scheduled for last week. Did one of them a day later than scheduled because of some other commitments, and it went pretty well. I always try and learn something new on a run in terms of something I should try again and something I should stay away from until I am more prepared to take it on. I did 7 miles on Thursday and as mentioned last week, my upcoming race is on a flat course, so I was at Greenlake again doing a couple of laps. I was trying to hit a specific pace without hitting my lactate threshold. Was mostly successful except for the very end because I slacked in mile 5 and went a little slower than I should have. Oh well. Lesson to pay more attention, but overall a solid run with some good lessons learned.

Yesterday I had 8 miles with Coach Lesley and the gang. I was excited because the start was right near the house, which means I can sleep later – woo woo! I felt kind of sluggish for the 1^st couple of miles keeping up with 2 of my friends that I was slated to run part of the way with. The wind definitely didn't help either, but at least the forecasted rain came in earlier than expected, so we didn't have to deal with that. I ended up settling into a decent pace and probably felt better in the last 2 miles than I did in the beginning of the run. Maybe the fact that I was done with the Stone Way climb helped.

But being the glutton for punishment that I am, I wanted to get to at least 8 miles. That meant going up the hill towards the house. So nothing like trying to sprint out the last quarter of a mile of a run up a hill – even if it was relatively small compared to other ones that I run regularly. As soon as the run stopped and I was walking back to the house, I felt something "squishy" on the bottom of the my foot. Uh oh.

Thinking I had a blister, I immediately reached out to Lesley for some advice. Well it was more like an "SOS". I have been very fortunate on the injury front for some time (knock wood please), so I wasn't sure what to do about this. We eventually figured out it is a 'hotspot', so for now, we are icing the foot. 36 hours later, it is a heck of a lot better but this is going to need some TLC from now until Sunday.

I'd also like to take this time to wish my friends who are running in races next week the best of luck – they are in events in New Jersey, Eugene (OR), Lincoln (NE), San Francisco, Vancouver (BC) and Long Island (NY).
OK folks, game time approaching…. Wish me luck! I hope I am ready!

Bringing It Down A Few Pips

Yesterday was my last "long" run before my race in a couple of weeks. It turns out May 2^nd is a very popular day to hold a race – I know of friends participating in races locally in Seattle, Vancouver (BC), Lincoln, New Jersey, Long Island and San Francisco on that day.

My run was originally slated to be 10 miles, but I asked Lesley if she would have any objection to me doing 12 miles instead. Thinking hard about the races I did last year, I am fine through the 1^st 10 miles, but I need to be stronger in the last 5k (3.2 miles) of the event. So the more times that I get runs in of 12 or more miles, the better. Oh yeah, the other reason for the extra 2 miles was that Marc and I were going to be hosting 6 other hard-core foodies and wine drinkers at the house later on that day. I needed to burn as many calories as I could before this dinner – you can see why here. What a fun time, but I digress.

Lesley was ok with it, although it meant getting up 30 minutes earlier on Saturday morning (6am) to meet an earlier group to take me to where the run would start. The positive side of getting up and meeting the 1st car at 6:30am was that I was able to see a pretty sunrise over Lake Washington and the Cascades (camera is terrible on the phone and no, I don't run with a camera). But I am still not a huge fan of getting up early on a weekend to run. Anyway, I was waiting with Carol in her car to start and was pleasantly surprised to see one of my running buddies, Tricia, also wanting to start early. Score. Off we went.

The course this morning had a little bit from the Seattle Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon course (June) and a fair amount of the Seattle Half Marathon course (November), so we were pretty familiar with what was in store for us. Tricia left me at mile 8 (she is doing triathlon training so gets other homework assigned to her schedule aside from running), and I went off for what was the hardest part of the run.

The 1^st 9 miles were flat and then there is a miserable climb that I remembered from the race that I PR'd back in November. It still sucks in case you were wondering because it is under a ½ mile but steep. I did run it a few seconds faster than I did in the race, which is good. I think having that positive experience from just a few months ago also helped keep me focused as I was swearing all the way up the hill. Once I reached the top, I knew I could finish the rest of the run at a very solid pace.

The intent was not to run at race pace, but at a moderate pace, which I think I did so it was a good outing.

With the race in under a couple of weeks, I need to stay active but ratchet down the intensity of my workouts a bit. I've been going at things at a fairly intense clip since the beginning of January between the runs and elliptical. I've haven't been as religious about doing my core work as I should have been and the aches/pains have crept in a little. I should be fine for the race, but am just going to be vigilant about getting extra stretching stuff in each night.

The difference in this training cycle has been that I had some lactate threshold testing done to identify my optimal training zones for my heart. The net effect is that my workouts on the elliptical have been closer to how I feel on a run in terms of how hard my heart is working. So it's been a good, but intense training effort since the beginning of the year. This means I am ready to taper, and am focused on staying healthy for the homestretch so I can give what I hope is a top-notch performance in a couple of weeks.

Relays, Utility Poles and Teamwork

Yesterday was a first. I did my 1^st relay race since I started running. The Mt. Si relay is something that Coach Lesley participates in annually, so I figured I would give it a shot. I was a little nervous going in not because of the miles or the legs that Lesley had signed me up for, but wasn't sure how my body was going to respond in between legs and the 2^nd leg I was slated to run.
The deal with this relay is that you have teams of 5 people, and you are assigned 2 legs for a total of 10 legs. If you run leg 1, you get leg 6. If you run leg 2, you get leg 7 – BTW, the 2 and 7 legs were by far the toughest legs combined. OK. I was assigned leg 5, which meant I also got the anchor leg. No pressure, right? Well leg 5 looked pretty tough given that it went up 500 ft. over 6 miles (most of the climb actually happened in the 1^st mile). The thing with relays is that you are there from beginning to end and you don't just show up for your leg (unless you are a last minute fill-in, which we needed on the other Coach Lesley team) so it's a long day.
Given that there was some elevation involved and the weather is frisky in terms of it could always go one way or the other, I spent about an hour just packing for the race on Saturday night. I took less on a recent trip to SF than I did for this race!! You need 2 sets of racing gear so you are not sitting in soaking wet clothes for the 3+ hours in between your legs plus food, sports drinks, lotion, Purell, etc.
Alarm went off at 4:45am and then a 45-minute drive out to Snoqualmie for the meet-up, etc. With the race starting at 6:30am, we needed about 45 minutes to get checked-in and get the cars loaded up the right way so certain things were more accessible than other items. Carol was in charge of all of this. Now the other thing that had to be managed that with a 6:30am race time and our expected pace, I wasn't expected to start until about 10:30am. Once the 3^rd leg started, I figured I would be good to eat. Morning progressed and at the start of the 4^th leg, I noticed it was cooler than expected, so I decided to switch to a turtleneck.
About 10 minutes before I think Libby (leg 4/9 owner) is going to finish, I get out of the car to start warming-up, and as luck would have it, the sun starts to come out and it feels about 7 degrees warmer. Unfortunately I don't have time to change back into the other shirt, so I am a bit overdressed as Libby comes in strong to hand things off to me.
I knew my leg was predominantly uphill, so I just tried to keep it slow and steady. My Garmin was losing its signal in the trees so it was hard for me to know what pace I was really going. All I knew is that the bulk of the uphill was in the 1^st mile and a quarter of the leg, so when I saw the marshall at the top and she told me the worst was behind me, I was psyched. It was still overall uphill, but way more gradual (or so it seemed – it is all relative). I was wrapping up mile 5 on what ended up being a very pretty trail when I saw some more marshalls pointing me in a sharp right direction and upwards. So stopped short and just walked up some uneven stairs and then had the last mile and a half to go on the main road.
I was getting tired at this stage because I was running pretty hard – my pace also slowed up a bit. I just wanted the leg to be done so I had to resort to the unthinkable. That's right – started counting utility poles. Seemed like every utility pole was 1/10^th of a mile. Told myself to only check my watch to see remaining distance every 2^nd pole and sure enough, I hit the very quick downhill for the last 1/10^th of a mile. Hand off to Dana and all important cool down after a tough run of 56:46 in 6.4 miles (8:54 pace).
As I was cooling down (thanks to Mike L. for the tips), I was thinking about the pace and was pretty pleased with the effort. I knew I was tired, but I just wanted to run a little before we headed to the next exchange. In the time I was gone, Dana found the radio station broadcasting the Masters and Marc started texting me play-by-play updates about the golf and the Yankees. All good. We get to the next exchange, I change and get a chance to stretch for 10 minutes. Ahh…..
About an hour later, I eat again and am very content cheering on my friends, listening to the Masters and getting text updates from Marc. We're all just making sure that we're eating enough and properly stretching between legs. The weather is good, so not much to complain about. Right before my 2^nd leg, we had a little communication mix-up, so I got to the start of my leg in the nick of time for me to start my leg at around 2:40pm. I'll admit that with the last minute rushing around plus me having the last leg that I was pretty amped up.
Libby comes in with a super strong pace again and I was off. About 5 minutes in, I felt side stitches coming on and thought "WTH? Why do I have these?" Then I looked at my watch and saw a pace of 7:50/mile on the watch. Oops – better bring it back a few pips. So I settled in and tried hard to stay focused with a goal of finishing strong. The last portion of my next race is going to have a long flat bit at the end so I needed to stay mentally in the game. Cheesy, but true.
I make the turn to the school (finish line) and it was one of those finish lines that had a roundabout way of finishing, which is really ****ing annoying when you think you are almost done. I finish and was pretty happy with my overall time as the pace I kept was better than any time I had ever done around Greenlake (similarly flat). I was beat.
Had a great dinner with Marc – chicken poached in red wine with some flageolets and charmoula. Had a chopped salad with some tarragon. He decided to uncork a 2005 Foradori from the fine folks from Italian Wine Merchants. After that, the bottom half of my body was pretty weak so after a re-cap with Lesley, an ice bath, some Masters and Yankees highlights (yes, I was also very happy about both outcomes), my bed was waiting. But a good day in many respects.
One of my running friends in the Northeast wanted to get my take on my 1^st relay, so here it is – I had a fun time and it was with a good group of people. But it's a long day (almost 12 hours from when I woke up to when I got back home) and on a Sunday, it's a bit much if I have a full work week ahead. Now if it was on a Saturday… that would have been great. To compare – even when I run a ½ marathon, I am done by 10am at the latest depending on the start time so I have time to relax and even do some things in the afternoon.
That said, I am glad that I tried it out – we ended up having great weather and a lot of people surprised themselves with excellent times on the course, so congrats to all of them for a great effort! Special congrats to Lesley for running with a client in the ultramarathon and then crewing 2 teams of clients. Uh hello superwoman!

14 miles – whoa!

I have been working on some new running goals with Coach Lesley since I reached my last milestone of completing a ½ marathon in under 2 hours. Many of you have been asking if I am going to be doing a full marathon anytime soon. Right now, the answer is no. I feel that if I am going to make the commitment of training and running 26.2 miles, I need to see how my body is going to react to the increase of mileage. Also if I am doing a full marathon, it means that I'll be needing to hit the pavement more as opposed to getting the bulk of my training done on the elliptical (on a simulated running setting). I've had shin splints in the past, so I'm going to need to manage this carefully.

Well one of the 1^st things that Les and I agreed on is that I need to change the mindset around the 13.1 (or 13.3 depending on how the course is measured) miles. More specifically, my body hadn't really gone more than 13.3 miles, let alone at a race pace, so naturally I am really beat when I get to the last bit of a race. When I did the PR in November with Andria and Michael, I was so spent at the end of that race, I really think I would have stopped and walked a little to catch my breath. And that would have been the difference between getting under 2 hours and coming in later. Andria had a good learning moment for me in her blog recap of the race, which I am grateful for.

On Saturday morning, Les had me run 14 miles for the 1^st time ever in my life. I knew that I would physically be able to do it. I had a solid 12+ miler with another person on the team, Carol, the previous week. I was more concerned about sticking with the pace goals that were outlined for me – yeah, right now I am in the "learn to go slower to go faster" phase. I hate it even though I know for a fact that it will pay dividends. OK, there I said it. But the 2010 plan is to have me run some longer distances with the hope of making those last couple of miles in the ½ marathons a bit easier for me to finish strong.

The weather forecast looked kind of crappy with lots of wind and rain, which wasn't making me super-excited either. But you do these runs in bad weather to build up some character and toughness, and to also figure out what to wear in different conditions. After all, what if the weather is awful on race day? Are you not going to race? The only exceptions to the 'run in all weather' tend to be when it is icy or when there is thunder and lightning.

You know it is not a good sign when you wake up to find an e-mail from Coach Lesley telling everyone that the pacing goals for today's run will be shelved because of the excessive wind she felt when she was marking up the course. My time to start my run with the group was 7:20am, and I was ready even after some food and wine with friends the previous night at Joule. It was windy and cold, but the rain hadn't arrived yet. It was in the high 30s/low 40s, so it was also a borderline call on the attire to wear on the run, which I hate. Ended up with capris, turtleneck, tech shirt and vest to go with a beanie cap to keep the head warm. The good news is that I was running with 2 of the regular crew for the 1^st part of the run. Jan hung around for 3 miles, and Tricia did 7 miles. It was windy for the 1^st half of the run, but running with the ladies helped as we tend to cover a range of topics and have some laughs along the way.

Tricia left me at 7.0, and I was on my own for the rest of the run. I felt good from a fitness perspective so I picked up the pace a bit. Went through some interesting neighborhoods (some very nice, some – eh, not so nice) and took my CarboPro drink along the way, which helped a lot. I'll admit that I was counting down the miles once I got to the start of mile 9, which made things probably seem slower than they actually were. For whatever reason, I was kind of bummed not to have any company on this training run in the 2^nd half. Maybe it was the new distance. Who knows. It is weird because I am not a runner who NEEDS to run with someone, but it has become a little more social for me recently, which isn't a bad thing. It probably speaks more to the quality of the people that I have gotten to know better since I have started to run.

Don't get me wrong. I still like to take a run on my own every once in awhile to just think through a situation, and in a race, I want to be completely focused on my plan and need to save my energy for the last bits instead of chatting away. At the start of mile 10, I made a turn and started climbing up what looked like to be a very long and gradual hill. I approach these hills different than the steeper and shorter ones. I find that I can keep my rhythm a bit more on the gradual ones, even if it is longer, and it also helps me recover in the event there is another hill to tackle later on in the run. But doing the steep hill repeats has definitely paid dividends along the way in terms of my fitness. I actually did a training run about a month ago that highlighted how much progress I made in the 2 years that I have increased the intensity of my training.

Back to the hill – at mile 11.5, the hill looks like it is going to crest and I also know where I am going so I know I need to head down to Seward Park and run along Lake Washington. Out of nowhere, the "crewing" car arrives with more fuel and out jumps Coach to run the last 2.5 miles with me. Woo woo! What a morale booster. I know that I would have finished the run and I knew I was running a decent pace, but running that last bit with someone totally made a difference. Even worked on a couple of things with Les, which I can use for my upcoming race.

When I downloaded everything from my watch to my computer, I was pretty pleased to see that I averaged just over 9 minutes/mile and that I did 'negative splits' in the 2^nd half of the run. Props to Tricia and Jan for setting me up for that. Based on some of the other stats I check out post-run, I was pretty happy with the run as a whole, especially with it being my 1^st effort at 14 miles. I'm getting closer to being where I want to be for race day.

And BTW, it never ended up raining. Nice.

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