Inching Towards Peachtree

So, per the usual, E & I are registered for the Peachtree Road Race (AKA one of the largest 10Ks in the US despite subjecting its participants to heat, humidity, and hills on the 4th of July in Atlanta, Georgia).

Speaking of heat and humidity -- a memorial day pig roast in Texas is HOT!

Last Year's Peachtree is probably my favorite to date of the four I've done (2011, 2014, 2017 & 2018), mainly because it was also the US 10K nationals, and I was able to watch Steph Bruce win on the big screen just before crossing into the starting corral.  So emotional!

The cinderblock oven with aluminum foil plywood lid and vents works very well!

This has been the longest, biggest, running break I've taken since I started running regularly in the mid 2000s.  I intentionally took some time off before Morocco so that my pesky left leg hamstring insertion/deep glute inflammation could heal.  And then, the dog bite really reined in any aggressive running efforts while it was healing.

Fritos on chili -- very Texas.

Now, my bite wound is almost healed, and it turns out, my left hamstring/glute/whatnot is the best and most balanced it's been in years.  It's almost like the 6+ weeks of forced chill and doing some physical stuff that was more wholistic functional fitness and mostly not running-related were just what the doctor ordered.

Feta, swiss cheese, chicken sausage frittata --

The latest effort to sneak garden greens (chard) into dinner

Here's to hoping I can get the mileage for the week above 15 by Sunday and move forward from there.  I've been doing yoga, calisthenics, jump rope, and biking, but other than a few very easy aerobic low-heart rate jogs, I have no real idea where my running fitness is, so fingers crossed...

England and Paris

After the chaos of the Morocco dog bite and the subsequent Morocco adventures, we were happy to land in London and settle in for some Global City travel.

Random Tulip Garden in London near Temple Station

We spectated the London Marathon, which was awesome.  Then, between visits to the travel medical clinic, we visited with multiple friends who've left the bay area and E's parents who were vacationing in the Cotswolds.

I don't have the words for how great it was to spend a weekend with these ladies!

And then, on our way out of Europe, we chunneled to Paris and spent an awesome 40 hours or so there, walking in parks and eating our way through the best the city has to offer.

One of dozens of Eiffel Tower photos I took.

We are now home.  I'm slowly recovering from the dog bite (the final rabies vaccination in the US cost more than all of the other medical care combined, in keeping with stereotypes).  The actual wound itself is likely to take another 3-4 weeks to fully heal, but I think I can jog on it tomorrow, so that's my plan. In other news, I've put together a mild training plan for The Peachtree Road Race (10K).  This means I plan to start actually running some workouts again soon.

I'm hoping to start with a long run of 4 miles next week and increase 'til 8 miles before stepping back for the race.  After Memorial Day, I'll also be shooting for 1 yoga studio session per week, 1 track day per week, and some more easy miles and general fitness workouts (with a focus on shoulder and glute/hamstring stability).  Wish me luck.

Not Quite There

I'd hoped that the early 2019 fitness efforts would result in yet another decade 5K PR last weekend.  It was not to be.

I'd been averaging 18.18 miles per week for 2019 (including walking when I remembered to enter it), so certainly, I didn't have volume on my side.  But, I'd been having some success in my hard workouts, so I was still hopeful.

My last hard workout before the Run Rocklin was a treadmill workout in Cabo.  I hit decent paces and time intervals and left feeling confident, although my pesky left hamstring insertion was annoyingly triggered by it.  Then, I bruised my heel walking barefoot in the resort post workout, or so I thought (turns out, I actually stepped on a teensy-tiny piece of metal (think glitter sized) that embedded itself in my heel, and after a week of "bruising" that seemed to be getting worse, I finally inspected it and realized I needed to remove the intruding metal splinter that was causing inflammation with tweezers).

The week after we got home, before I realized what was going on with my heel, I aggressively dialed back my workouts to recover from the "bruise" but even so, I still felt like a decade PR was totally doable -- I was just extra-tapered.

And then, the day of the race came.  I was, as planned, tapered.  The highs were projected for the low 70s, but we saw 80F in the car on the temperature readout later in the day.  After more days of rain than Norcal is used to, no one was complaining about the first gorgeous true day of Spring.  But it was hotter than I expected and I'm not great in the heat, so secretly, I had some complaints.

Also, D (my Rocklin running buddy) is not a morning person, and E managed to forget to pack his shoes, so we showed up as a rag-tag group trying to find our way to bib pick-up and only succeeding after much confusion just as they started the 5K.  After the gun (and bib pinning) we ran from the bib building to the finish arch only to be informed that the start was actually the non-marked chip crossing "way over there" much closer to the bib pick up.  Good times.

Eventually, we crossed the start line as the last 3 runners and proceeded to weave our way through the walkers for most of mile 1.  This did not lend itself to race pace effort.

I hit mile 1 at 9:45 and knew this was going to be a good workout, but nothing spectacular.  My goal had been 9:20 miles and I easily let that go.  I trailed E & D, who were clearly faster and more fit than me, catching up to them each time they stopped to get water or walk uphill.  Eventually, around mile 2, E admitted that he was going to walk the remaining mile because he had a blister from running in his Simples.

I finished sub 32 on a course with lots of turns and a few hills.  I ran a race in my hometown and coupled it with a visit to my brother, sister & her husband and nieces and nephews as well as D and her extended family.  I was sore the next day in that pleasant "Oh, yeah.  I totally pushed myself" way.  It was a weekend well spent.

Also, while I didn't hit my time goal, thanks to E's failure to pack his running shoes, I have my first 5K where I beat E in the last decade or so, so that's something.

And now, while I'm still chasing my decade PRs and my 2019 running goals, I'm putting dedicated running goals on hold in lieu of some general fitness goals such as lots of yoga, healing up my hamstring, and good nutrition coupled with general purpose aerobic fitness (including biking and hiking in Morocco and the UK).  I'll dial back in to a more dedicated running/training goal in the Summer, but for now, I'm happy to just enjoy moving my body.

My Oakland Running Festival Ridonculousness

Last week I had a good tempo run that convinced me I should be able to shoot for a 2:20ish half marathon.

This morning, despite generally not being an appreciator of gratitude memes, Neely Spence Gracey, posted one on twitter that really resonated with how I was feeling about yesterday's Oakland Marathon.

Oh, right.  Instead of looking at it as a thing to be laughed at (which isn't a terrible perspective), I can also view it with gratitude, which is a much better perspective.

My goals had been:

A goal: 2:20 or better (10:40/mile)
B goal: sub 11 min/mile
C goal: improve against my last half marathon (sub 11:55/mile)
D goal: finish healthy

I pretty much decided to let the A goal go before the start.  I met up with Jen, and she'd said she was going to try to run 11/mile, so I decided that pace with the potential of having a friend to chat with was a much better goal than 10:40 with the pace group.  Unfortunately, I had to stop in the first mile to take off my long sleeve shirt (that I should have taken off before the start) and I fell behind Jen, never making up the loss and only continuing to fall further behind.

Early on, it was clear that this race was something new for me. I wasn't breathing very hard at all during most of the race except a few uphills, but my legs were just too dead to go any faster, most specifically, my hip flexors felt like they were at the end of a marathon instead of the beginning of a half marathon.

Free photos -- at the Crucible

I ended up walking through the aid stations, and just keeping whatever pace I could manage, which by mile 8 was 12:04/mile.  I got through miles 9 and 10 with a few walk breaks, letting my average pace decrease to 12:20/mile, assuming that I'd be able to pick it up at the end.

And, then, a guy in an orange shirt who had been in front of me stutter stepped off the course, between two parked cars and onto the sidewalk.  His hands went to his knees and then he kind of leaned against an electric pole.  As I ran by, I asked, "Are you okay?" expecting him to look up and waive me on.

Instead, he moaned, "Nooo.." and then coughed and gagged.  I asked if he wanted medical attention and he said yes.  So, I ran as fast as I could (turns out, according to my garmin I could run at a 6:45 pace when I think I'm unable to muster up anything better than a 12 minute mile) for 200 meters or so, and asked the course volunteer to call the paramedics.  People behind me came up waiving at the volunteer, yelling that there was a sick puking dude, all asking her to call, and it was chaotic for a minute or so while we assured them that she was on it.

The starting chute is very narrow, so the 11 minute/mile 

folks didn't cross the line 'til 2+ minutes after the gun

A nurse came up and told me I should go back to my "friend" and stay with him and make sure he sat upright instead of standing or laying down until the paramedics came.  I explained that I didn't know him, and the nurse looked pained as if he didn't want to go back, but someone really should, so I just said something along the lines of, "it's fine, I'm having a terrible race anyways, I'll go sit with him."  So, that's what I did.  And I guess it was a good idea because someone tried to be helpful and give the heaving, retching dude (dude thought it was probably dehydration) a Cliff shot with no water, and he kind of groggily took it and looked at it like he was pondering the existence of the Universe, but that he just might take it.  So, I thanked them but explained that it was probably a choking hazard and also may not sit well given the nausea -- as some people can't keep those things down without any medical issues. Dude just let it fall from his hand.  Eventually, the paramedics came and dude was more coherent, so I left, run-walking a bit until my Garmin beeped to let me know it was going into power-save mode because I'd accidentally stopped it when I thought I'd restarted it as I got back on the course. (In hindsight, this race stop was all about paying it forward from my Market Street Angel.)

My hips had really tightened up due to the stop.  The sun was out.  And I was supremely unmotivated.  But the course is pretty remote, so there was nothing I could really do except finish.  I ran-walked my way through the last 2.9 miles at an average pace of 14:14 and gave myself silly goals to pass the time, like, "See that run-walker up ahead, let's pass them."  And, "Run to that power-up sign, tap it, and keep running until you are far enough away that you don't feel bad walking."  Eventually, I started to feel much better and my running in the last 2 miles was back under 12 minutes/mile, which meant I was passing people consistently.  The final 2 goals I set for myself were pretty funny:

First, there was a landshark who'd passed while I was helping the dude.  He was ahead of me but quite visible and he was walking more and more as time passed.  It was probably 70F+ at this point, and I was hot in my tank top and shorts. I assume he was very, very hot.  I decided I would run to him, get a selfie, and then run until the finish.

Thanks, Landshark!

Then, there were the East Bay Beer Runners handing out shots of beer.  "I've never had beer during a run," I thought.  So I stopped for that, too, telling myself that unless the beer made me loopy I had to run the rest of the way to the finish.  Surprisingly, the beer wasn't gross at all.  It was kind of refreshing, actually (although not as refreshing as the on-course Gatorade Endurance Lemon Lime).  And then, I just ran to the finish and laughed at the 2:55 on the clock.  Final result: 2:52:53 chip time (13:11/mile).  My garmin has a total time of 2:46:15, but that includes some of the time helping the dude, and doesn't include some of the time on the actual course, so who knows what my actual average running/on-course pace was.  

And now, thanks to Neely, here's my gratitude take instead of my disappointed take.  First, I love this race -- it has such a great vibe.  I love the city of Oakland and I love the chance to visit and see how it's changed every year.  I love that doing this race gives me an opportunity to eat delicious noodles with my college roommate the night before the race.

Marufuku Ramen -- so delicious!

I have a new PR -- 2:52 is now my on-course-medical-assistance-landshark-beer PR.

And *of course* I got to catch up with Jen and enjoy post-race brunch with a friend, which is always one of my favorite things in the world.

PC: Jen

I was *super* sore and exhausted after this race.  I pretty much slept on the drive back and didn't move off the couch once home until bedtime.  In hindsight, it was probably a blessing that I let my time goals go, because I don't think I was supposed to run fast (for me) yesterday.  Perhaps running a race pace (and the last 2 miles faster 10K) 7 days out from a half marathon, *and* running a 9:05/mile 12-minute cooper test in the wind 4 days out was not the right way to prepare my legs for this half marathon.  My legs were sore for 2 days from the cooper test, and I don't think you are supposed to feel like that 3 and 2 days before a half marathon.

With all of that, I'm going to reframe and just call this a reasonable super-easy long run in my pursuit of a 5K decade PR.  I never really struggled cardiovascularly, which was quite pleasant, and tells me that I'm much more cardiovascularly fit than at other times in the past when I've had to push it to keep my pace below 12 minutes/mile at the end of a half.

My target race is now the Run Rocklin 5K on April 7, where I'm very hopeful I can better my decade PR.  My big goal is sub 29.  Wish me luck.

San Jose Shamrock Run, Lead-up and 1st Year Race Report

I was looking forward to a nice mellow week.  We were home and had no plans.

Woke in time for the sunrise on race day.

While work was fairly busy in terms of leftover obligations from Montana, I knew from the past that it would be a good catch-up week because, like Burning Man, a non-trivial subset of my clients attend SXSW and while they are there, they aren't focused on work that needs my attention.  Also, two of my busiest clients hinted that they would be taking the week to enjoy the snow and go skiing with their families, so I knew they wouldn't be scheduling calls or pushing me too hard.

Ground turkey, ancini di pepe, garden greens, straciatella style soup -- 

race tested and approved, like Asian noodle soup, this is a good pre-race meal.

I took advantage of the flexibility and managed my first 30+ mileage week of the year (30.65).  Notable workouts included:

1. A 3 miler with just my phone's stopwatch (Garmin was dead), averaging 10:55/mile -- close enough to what I wanted to run in today's 10K "race" that I was pleased.

2. A long run with just my phone's stopwatch (Garmin may be needing a replacement...) for 9.87 miles at 12:15/mile.  The goal had been 12 miles, but at the 2 hour mark, unfueled and starting to battle nausea, I called it and opted to walk to the nearest restaurant for food.

3. A day before the race mini-track-workout of 3.07 miles total, with a half mile jog to the track for some short quality work of 1 mile at 5K pace; 4X 200 RI/200 targeting sub 8 min/mile.  I have to say, this workout surprised me -- I felt great.  I was trying to thread the needle between getting in some quality and not destroying my legs before the race, and I think I did a good job of it.  Have I mentioned I love having a track a 1/2 mile from the house?

4. And, of course, there was my first running of, and the organizer's first hosting of, today's 10K race.

The planned for course was a 10K consisting of 5K on the roads of San Jose plus a nice out and back along the Guadalupe River Trail.  While California is celebrating that it is completely out of drought for the first time in 7 years, the trail we were supposed to run on is currently flooded. I have to hand it to Represent Running -- they took it in stride, and made last minute changes to keep the race going, including large on-course routing signs directing us through a modified course (essentially twice the urban 5K) to avoid the flood.

There were a *few* turns...

There's a 2:20 pace group at the Oakland Running Festival, so, I've been flirting with trying to hang with them as my A goal.  With that in mind, my goal for today's "race" was to run a good race-effort tempo to confirm that I wasn't insane with this plan.  I decided to keep all my miles sub 10:40, and ratchet down the pace towards the end, if possible.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how I executed:

Did I really run this 1-wk out pre-race tempo 10K run faster than the raced Kaiser 10K a month ago?

Probably not... (The course was *probably* short. My Garmin thought so, too.)

The finish of this race had two annoying things.  First?  A false finish.  When you turn the last corner and you see the arch?  That is not your finish.  If you are me and you push towards it as if you are done, you will be disappointed.  Instead, you need to keep running until you see this:

Pre-race photo of the *actual* finish

Second?  I'm almost certain the course was short.  My Garmin had it at 5.94 miles, which, even accounting for GPS errors in the tall building corridors and overpasses is still quite short (4.2%). Given all of the turns on the course, I'd actually expect to register a *long* course as I definitely couldn't run the tangents on the first loop with all of the people of varying paces around me.  Also, I just don't think I made the effort necessary to run a 1:01:37 10K today.

Start and finish by the picturesque San Pedro Square

But, honestly, those are my only two complaints. It was a well-run race.  The second issue is probably entirely due to the last minute re-routing and they did a good job making the most of the mess they had.  Given the flooding and the obligation to re-route within the previously permitted closed roads, a slight deviation is completely understandable.

Of the many pluses, the weather was a perfect (for me) cool start in the high 40s and the finish was comfortable, but never felt warm, even in the direct sun in the last mile.

The Schwag comes in *all* the greens!

The shirt was thin and high-quality (although the colors were somewhat questionable due to the St. Patrick's theme).  The post race food/drink seemed good (water, goldfish, gummy bears, kind bars) plus there's a Guiness coupon, but I didn't use it, so I'm not sure what kind of drink it was for.

A free race photo -- never the most flattering, but proof that it happened.

They even had free photos.  Of course, free photos are usually taken from the ground (not expensive overhangs), which is not exactly the most flattering angle.  But, they are free, and well-focused, so that's a bonus.

Same weekend, same chin, very different angle.

Overall, I was very happy with my race today, not the least because I met up with Angela before and after, and while we failed to get a photo, we did catch up over delicious post-race huevos rancheros.  Any time I get post-race brunch and catch-up with a friend, it just feels like a perfectly accomplished day.

Progress at home, and in Montana

Lone Mountain Peak, Big Sky Montana

Two weeks ago, I put in a nice running buildup week for the Oakland Running Festival half marathon.  Only 21.52 miles total on my feet, but it included a hilly hike with a friend, some decent shorter faster intervals (always good to see 7 in the minutes place on my pace), and, finally, a 9.4 mile long run.  Also, I dragged myself back to the yoga studio, putting me on track for a yoga session at the studio an average of every 2.5 weeks so far this year.

I have enjoyed returning to a more regular yoga practice, so in addition to my 2019 running and protein source goals, I think I'll add a goal of 20 yoga studio sessions to the list (4 down, 16 to go).

After the week of positive running momentum, I hopped on a plane and headed to Montana for our annual ski week with E's family.

It was the *COLDEST* ski trip I've ever taken.

Highs in the single digits.

Most of the ski towns where we stay don't have good gyms and running in the snow is not usually an option.  So, instead of running, I try to fit in whatever workouts other than skiing make sense and take it as a down week.

I grew up skiing from age 4 - 13.  My gymnastics coach demanded that I stop when I was 13 because if I was going to get injured from something, he wanted it to be gymnastics (I'm sort of joking, but not really).  It wasn't too hard to comply since I didn't really have much time to ski between school, coaching, practice, and competitions.

After I quit gymnastics, I tried snowboarding in college and quickly reverted to being a skier, as it was clear I'd have to spend a few painful seasons boarding before I became even remotely close to as good of a boarder as I was a skier.  I did a few college ski trips (including one memorable one where I was the *only* person in a car full of boarding bros who knew how to put on snow chains) and then I stopped skiing once the college ski club was not part of my life.

Yellowstone National Park in the Winter is very beautiful

Fast forward several years, and I'm dating E.  It turns out, E's family does a week long ski trip every year and they invite me along.  Ever since then, with very few exceptions, I've returned to being a skier, if only for one week, once a year.  It's been a great source of fun and joy in my life.  But, I've definitely got a healthy respect for the dangers of the sport and I'm much less aggressive than I was when I was 13 (when I was the best I'll ever have been).

Last year, in Telluride, I didn't get in much running due to having just dislocated my shoulder the weekend before we went.  I also didn't ski (due to the shoulder as well).  So, it was a very low-key week on the workout side of things.  

42 minutes of speedwork/recovery on a treadmill at 7,500 ft 

results in *much* less distance than at sea level

This year, I was on the fence about whether I would ski or not.  My fear was that if I were to fall, it was likely I'd dislocate again and potentially injure the structure of my shoulder.  In its current incarnation, I do not need surgery.  If the frequency of dislocation increases, I will.

The medical recommendations I've gotten are to push out surgery as long as I can (with shoulder strengthening work and avoiding activities that cause problems) in hopes that I can have one more reconstruction and not have to go down the multiple surgeries route.

I'd also forgotten that I didn't really have the freedom not to work the whole week, so between my injury fears and professional obligations, I settled on a tentative plan of 1 full day of skiing, 1 day in Yellowstone, and the rest of the days working and fitting in whatever I could.

Petrified trees soaked up the minerals from the geothermal features.

Hard to date, but probably at least 1,000 years old.

Big Sky, Montana is beautiful!  But, boy was it cold.  According to the lifties, Bozeman set records for the coldest temperatures in March since 1955 while we were there.

I had such a good time skiing on Tuesday (remembering that I'm actually a pretty decent skier, and as long as I ski conservatively, I'm unlikely to fall) that I moved my work obligations around and rented gear for a second day on Friday.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great, so I settled for a half day and didn't go back out after lunch.

All told, I managed 2 treadmill workouts, 2 days of skiing, one shoulder strength session, 1 core/strap stretching session (to keep the peace with my traitorous left leg) and a short run at target half marathon pace on Sunday after we returned.  The week at elevation probably did some good for my fitness as well.  As expected, time with family from the South and in Montana means I had 6 servings of red meat in 8 days instead of the annual average target of less than 2 per week.  There will be lots of running and vegetarian/fish meals in the last 2 weeks before the Oakland Half Marathon.

Missed It

My calendar had me racing a 10K this weekend.  Jen was pacing a half marathon at a local race, so I figured I'd register for the associated 10K on Saturday and run the race on Sunday.

I woke at 6:50 am on Saturday and decided to get up rather than go back to sleep to prime myself for the Sunday race time.  So, I enjoyed my coffee and mucked around the Internet, including splurging on a huge order from Rancho Gordo.

At 8:20 or so I checked my phone and saw a text from Jen, asking if she'd see me at the race.  Oh... the race was SATURDAY.  So, that wasn't happening.  I was bummed to miss Jen, but I headed out for a short track workout instead.  Then we went to brunch with some friends.

Risotto with mirepoix, made with artichoke & mushroom broth

I spent the rest of the weekend being lazy.  E did tons of work related to our car situation, but I was a complete sloth other than an easy 3 miler on Sunday. And it was awesome.

Chicken sausage minestrone with alphabet pasta!

For the week, I put in several decent workouts and we ate plenty of delicious vegetarian meals.

Poached egg over cheesy millett with cabbage salad.

Mileage for the week was 25+ despite a fairly heavy workload, so even though I missed the race, I'm pleased.

Austin 5K, Revisited

In what is becoming an annual tradition, we headed to Austin to visit friends and run the 5K.  On Saturday, we picked up our packets at the same time as the Manzano Mile.

No filter sunset arrival at AUS

What a cool event.  I sincerely enjoyed watching the elites race the mile.  They stage the non-elite milers by age group before the main event of the speedsters, and I think I may try to run it next year.  Improving my mile time is one of my fitness goalsand having a goal race to perform at to see how those efforts have paid off could be fun.

Look at all those fit ladies -- it was fun to watch them take off fast, 

run by on their way back on the outside of the finish,
and return to close the loop to finish the mile

Sunday AM, we woke up in time, and enjoyed the gorgeous sunrise on the drive to the start.  From there, it was a very pleasant 20 minutes to take advantage of the blocked off streets, empty port-a-potties and time between the close of the half/full marathon start line (their start is open from 7 - 7:15), and the 5K start (7:30).

Sunrise in Austin on race day -- gorgeous

Unfortunately, we lined up too far back in the 5K crowd and I spent the first minute or two weaving and jogging in place behind some slower folks -- this was doubly frustrating because this portion of the course is downhill.  Eventually, after much effort, I found some space to run without obstacles and hit mile 1 at 9:59.  Given the congestion and that the first mile contains 75 ft of climb, I couldn't complain.

Texas is Texas and Beef loving is everywhere!

Mile 2 is 2/3 climb (another 75 ft) to the turn around, when, thankfully, you start to drop the altitude you've gained with 20ish ft of lost elevation before the mile marker.  The constant climb in miles 1 and 2 had started to take a toll on my speed, and even with the downhill at the end, I finished mile 2 @ 10:31.

I was glad to see the long downhill in front of me, because I was going to need to push to beat my performance from last year (31:46).  I tried to take advantage of 127 ft drop in this mile, hitting the 3 mile marker and lowest point of the race @ 9:49.  And then, because this course is brutal, I pumped my arms and tried to go as fast as I could, struggling against the 43 feet climb in the last 0.1 mile from the river to the finish line.

The finish photo game was a bit off - this photographer was 

ANGRY!  Yelling at all the finishers to keep moving...

Understood that he had photos to take, but um... 

people just finished a race

if they want to slow down that's kind of okay...

I crossed the line with a time of 31:29 (10:06/mile pace).  A 17 second improvement over last year, and definite confirmation that this course is difficult (only 2 seconds per mile faster than the 10K two weeks ago?  Oh, right, because it had 2.5 times the elevation gain in half the distance and was net neutral instead of net downhill).

Forever Sunset on our trip home.

Overall, I really like this race.  Not a PR course, but it's got a good vibe, and it's a great excuse to combine racing with visiting friends.  Plus,a 5K with the hills really makes it a harder effort than most of the stuff I run these days, so that feels good.

Kaiser SF 10K

Waiting for the Start in Golden Gate Park

The Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Half Marathon is a great local bay area race.  I'd loved running it in 2014, 2015, 2016, and then DNF'd last year but still enjoyed the post-race brunch.  This year, I hadn't registered, but they'd added a 10K, which, realistically speaking, given my 2019 running goals and my current fitness, was exactly the length of race I should be considering for February.

The weather forecast called for rain and wind (both of which can be brutal on the out-and-back on the Great Highway for the half).  I wasn't remotely interested, but then I realized two of my favorite bay area running friends (Angela and Jen) were participating, *and* that Angela was down to host a post-race brunch, *and* that the 10K's last 2 miles were downhill to the finish, but avoided the exposed Great Highway section.  Whelp, that was enough for me.  I registered on Thursday, even though it still looked like rain, and then, the weather gods smiled upon me (thanks fam!) and updated the forecast to foggy/cloudy for the 4 hour window of the race.

Last year's shuttles from the parking to the start were fancy tech buses, 

but this year they were back to the yellow school buses, 

which always remind me of my long-lost friend Cat.

In the two weeks since my decade 5K PR, I hadn't done much that was impressive, workout wise.  But, I had stayed healthy and pain free, so there was that.

Last week was 16.08 miles on my feet, 6 miles of biking, and a couple of nights of strap leg mobility & shoulder/core work.  Those 16.08 miles included 2 miles walking in a Suburban sprawl with friends and their children to lunch as what passed for a "workout" after a very late and celebratory birthday party (the Lyft driver who took us back was incredulous... "You *WALKED* Here?").  Despite the low mileage, the week did include 3 actual, if super short, workouts with warmup and cooldown around 5X200/200, 1 mile @ target 5K pace, and a *long* run of 6 miles).

Beyond Meat Crumble stuffed bell pepper (prepared as if it was ground beef):

mirepoix, brown rice, canned garden tomato sauce, crumbles, spices & mozzarella

A very easy on the digestive system pre-race meal.

This week, including the 10K, the mileage totaled 23.75.  Woo hoo! First 20+ mile week of 2019!  Key workouts?  4 sub-tempo @ 11:11; 3.5 miles total at medium average pace including 1 mile w/E at sub 10K pace (9:47) and 6 X 1 min 10K pace/ 1 min jog; the 10K race.

Obviously, my mileage is low.  But I'm making more time for mobility and ART/massage and core/shoulders than normal.  Also, I'm opting for shorter workouts of quality over longer workouts of "meh".  Right now, this feels like the right trade off for me.  My short quality seems to be improving, whereas, I haven't seen great improvements in the longer distances in the limited amount of time I've had to invest over the last 1.5years+.

Going in to today's 10K, I felt that shooting for sub 1h05 for the 10K was reasonable, but would still be a challenge.

Map and Elevation profile of the 10K.  The scale on the elevation profile is deceiving.

I went out easy and was thrilled to hit mile 1 at 10:02.  I tried to keep myself reined in and did so, which I was very happy about when I hit mile 4.  Mile 4 (always the toughest mile in a 10K for me) felt like it had (and visually appeared to have) a significant climb.  But then, when it was done, because I'd kept it comfortable, I could lean forward and speed up through the drops over miles 5 and 6.  It was so much fun!

Hey, hey!  First negative split in a *long* time.  

It is *so* much more pleasant to be speeding up on the backend instead of slowing down.

Also, I was very happy to realize I closed the last 0.26 of this race *faster* than I closed the 5K at Crissy Field.

Overall, I'm obviously improving in my running fitness versus the last few years of my life, and I'm very much enjoying it.

Here's to a new 10K decade PR (faster than any 10K I've run since 2014).

Crissy Field Parkrun Progress

I had client meetings in SF and E had work, so we did our first home-away-from-home SF night of the year, enjoying a delicious sushi date night before an early bed-bound movie and Saturday morning Parkrun.

A beautiful view, perfect running weather, friendly Brits, what's not to love?

As they petitioned for volunteers because they were short, I realized I've taken advantage of this wonderful event enough times that I really do need to pay it forward.  So, one of these weekends, I'll likely volunteer instead of run.  If I time it for a night where we've stayed in the city, I may just run there, volunteer and run back to the hotel for a broken up high mileage (for this 5K-focused runner) day.

My running so far in 2019 had been minimal in volume (15ish miles per week average), but, in less than 3 weeks, despite the travel, I'd gotten in 3 solid speed/strength workouts (including last week's cooper test), plus 2 sets of strap/stretching/rehab and 3 core/yoga workouts.  So, I was feeling optimistic.

My A goal was to finish sub 9:30 min/mile.  My B goal was to beat my decade PR 5K pace (anything sub 9:34/mile average).  My C goal was a course PR (anything sub 29:56).

I headed out for the first mile with the group and had to rein myself in, mentally repeating "easy, full of joy" while letting lots of folks (including a girl who must have been younger than 10) pass me.  Even with the effort to avoid the early excitement, E & I hit the 1 mile mark at 9:11.  I felt good, so tried to ignore the concerned internal voice that worried I may have gone out too fast (spoiler -- I probably did).

About halfway through mile 2, it started to feel harder, but not too hard to keep it at 9:30/mile (which had been my goal pace for the whole race) so I just kept checking in with my watch every few minutes and did my best to keep that mile's pace on track.  This portion of the race had significant puddles and mud which slowed everyone down, but I managed to speed up once we were back on pavement and crossed mile 2 with a 9:31 split.

I definitely struggled through mile 3, and several people passed me.  About halfway through the mile, I looked down to see a pace of 9:55/mile and, despite my perceived effort being high, did my best to push for a while, only to look down and see 9:50 -- clearly, I was not making up the time nearly fast enough.  I hit mile 3 with a 9:48 split.

I found a little extra energy to push for 9:21/mile pace for the last tenth of a mile, but I must have been passed by 5 people in that time.

I finished, high-fived E (who'd ditched me around the halfway point per his usual), and turned to congratulate D, who'd surprised me by being so close to my finish, as she'd estimated finishing 3+ minutes slower.

I looked at my watch and learned that I'd missed my A goal, but met my B goal.  JUST BARELY.  My average pace was 9:33/mile.  1 second per mile improvement.  I was happy.  But also, just barely.

Once back at the hotel, I uploaded my garmin data and realized I'd hit the lap button at the finish and then the stop button about 9 seconds later.

I DID MEET MY A GOAL!

29:31.  Good enough for 9:29/mile.  Oh my goodness!  I was so much happier once I realized my error.  What a difference 9 seconds can make.  Of course, my actual performance hadn't changed at all.  Just my perception of it.  I knew I'd pushed hard.  I should have been proud, regardless.  And yet, that verifiable data of positive improvement and reaching my goal made all the difference in the world.

I was rewarded with burnt-off fog for a gorgeous celebratory brunch on the embarcadero.

One point eight percent

It was a light week, running wise.  Total mileage (including walking) was almost 18, so nothing impressive on that front.

But hey, I got in a cooper test on Saturday and dropped my pace to 9:06 minutes/mile.  Progress! (A 1.8% improvement over my previous best "this-decade" pace of 9:16.)

2124 meters.  Just 176 meters to go to "VERY GOOD."

2019: Goals

Last year, I didn't have many explicit year-long goals.

The only fitness goal I openly stated was that I wanted to try to improve my fitness to the point where I could run "very good" on the Cooper Test. I didn't even come close (it requires running 8:23/mile for 12 minutes).  My first cooper test of the year was at a 9:34/mile pace.  Over the course of the year, I dropped it down to a 9:16/mile pace.  But, I also decreased my 5K pace over the year down to 9:34 (so my 12 minute best became my almost 30 minute best pace) and I ran an 8:52 minute mile at the end of the year.  Both of these made me happy, as my fitness obviously improved.  Any year where you end the year better than where you started is a good one!

I bought myself Lauren Fleshman's Believe

Training Journal for Christmas

This year, I decided to set some concrete running goals:

1. A sub 1 hour 10K (looking for a good late fall option as the target race, with a few races over the course of the year to inch towards that time)

2. A sub 29 minute 5K (I'm hopeful I can do this sometime this Spring)

3. A sub 8 minute mile (this one is a stretch, so in the meantime I'll be happy with sub 8:30 as a stepping stone by June)

4. Very Good on the Cooper Test (probably not doable unless I can get close to the sub 8 minute mile, but I'll chip away at it)

I'm still scheduling my workout and target race schedule for the first few months of the year, and I'm looking forward to having a few racing opportunities to ratchet down towards these goals and hopefully also see and catch up with some of my running friends.

Example weeks from my food log

(can you spot the two weeks with travel & visitors?)

Another thing I did last year was I labeled my days as red (ate red meat), beige (ate poultry), blue (ate fish/seafood), or white (ate ovo-lacto vegetarian).  If I ate two of the categories, I used the color that was higher in the unhealthy/environmentally damaging order.

Due to the negative health associations and negative environmental impact of red meat, I started last year with a goal of keeping my red days below 1/3 of the total and just observing the other days. About halfway through the year, I realized that achieving this goal would be harder than I assumed.

The story I tell myself is that I eat vegetarian about 75% of the time.  And, when left to my own devices (E & I, eating alone, at home), I definitely did eat vegetarian about 75% of the time, with about 5% of my meals containing poultry and approximately 10% containing red meat, while 10% contained fish.

But, any time we have visitors, or we travel, I end up splurging.  Because I don't really enjoy most poultry, splurging for me generally results in red meat.  It was very easy to see the weeks where we had visitors, or were traveling simply by looking at the color patterns on the spreadsheet.

All in all, I finished out the year with 40% of my days being red (145 days), 8% beige (28 days), 15% blue (54 days), and 36% white (133 days). I definitely eat red meat more often than I thought I did.

Logging by day instead of meal does not give me a great insight into the actual percentage of my meals that contain the various protein sources.  I was insistent on logging any day where I had a piece of bacon or 2 ounces of charcuterie as red, for the sake of honesty.  Also, occasionally, I'd opt for a second serving of red meat on a day when I knew it was already marked red -- the day was blown, so why not indulge even more?  So, this year, I'll continue with the color coding for the frequency imagery, but I'm going to do the actual logging by servings (4 oz), with a half serving for small things like a piece of bacon.

In the interest of my health and the environment, my 2019 food goals are: less than 100 servings of red meat & at least 100 servings of fish/seafood (with a focus on sustainable sources) while maintaining my relatively low poultry intake (and thus getting a majority of my protein and other nutrients from plants, dairy, and eggs).  And, of course, I'll continue to try to eat locally sourced and produced food wherever possible (with the *most* local source, of course, being my garden).

Winter lettuces and veggies -- ready to go into the garden.

If you are interested in learning more about the environmental impacts of food production, I highly recommend this fascinating study.

 

Time to Regroup

The cold virus that took me out last week was no joke.  I had a physical this week and while I was recovered enough to see the doctor, she noticed my residual symptoms and asked, "Oh dear -- did you get that terrible virus that's going around where it starts with a super sore throat and you can barely swallow, then the mucus builds like crazy and you lose your voice?"  Um, yes.  I did.  Apparently, my 7 days of serious symptoms followed by 7 days of minor symptoms are on the light side of what this virus has done to her practice -- take care of yourselves, friends!

From Aruba

Given the residual infection, I tried to reign in my running efforts in hopes of an aggressive taper, improving health, and eventually being able to race my last target race of the year.

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.  The morning of the race, I still had a stuffy nose and mild sinus pressure and it was scheduled to be pouring down rain during the race.  I went back and forth on what to do (should I be smart?  I did cough quite a bit after waking up... but then the coughs stopped.  Am I wimping out?  I am more fit than I've been in ages and I think I can definitely set a decade PR, even with the rain... and on, and on).

Finally, I decided not to do a hard effort in the cold rain while still recovering from the worst virus I'd had in at least 3-4 years, mainly for the sake of my brother and mother's husband, both of whom are severely immunocompromised.  I was really looking forward to Christmas with the family, and the reality is, if I relapsed to how sick I had been, I would have to avoid the big family gatherings altogether.

So, Sunday, instead of racing, I hung out inside and worked on a new jigsaw puzzle with my visiting cousin.  Monday, I spent 2 hours gardening, mainly removing all of the remaining tomato plants that finally died, but also raking leaves and being shocked at how winded I got from it, although, in fairness, raking is a full body workout that recruits many muscles I don't usually use for aerobic work.

E with his standard "I hate selfies" look.

Tuesday, I finally headed out for an easy jog, running *very easy* to and from the pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  My Rx wasn't ready, so I took the 10 minutes they needed to prepare it to jog around behind the store and do some unplanned 8X15s strides with jogging recovery.  Woot!  First "workout" in a couple of weeks, with some actual speed work, even if *very* light. 2.5 miles + 1 hour gardening (still removing the plants).

When I couldn't do the 5K last weekend, I had to reset. My original end of year goals were:

1. At least 1 lesson of Spanish study every day between December 1 and the end of the year to prepare for our New Year's trip to CDMX.

2. 5K decade PR.  When it became clear that I wasn't going to run a 5K, I was sad, but fairly certain I could hit this goal in 2019.

3. *Very Good* on the Cooper Test.

I'd been doing well enough on the first goal that I'd started to have some Spanish dream snippits, so that was good.  But the 5K... After the failure on Sunday in San Jose, I knew I'd have to let this one go.  And, realistically speaking on the Cooper Test... I wasn't there yet.  I wanted to be.  Certainly.  But I just was not close enough to that fit.

A goal that seemed super doable, however, was a sub 9 minute mile.  I hadn't had one of those on my log in well over 2.5 years.

And that's what I did today.  Y'all, I managed 8:52 for a mile, and I'm happy.  May you all have great outcomes in 2019.

Achoo!

In connection with last weekend's CIM fun I spent some quality time with 5 children (3 nieces and nephews and 2 god-children).  You know, single-digit-aged-humans, otherwise known as virus probes?

Random but true:  The Little Shamrock is a *real* pub 

and also a major scene/character in the John Lescroart Dismas Hardy books.

Yeah, although I enjoyed my train ride back, it was clear that I'd came down with a nasty cold by Sunday night, and it just kept escalating.

Instead of the Parkrun, we went to the Conservatory of Flowers

I took Monday off from running, but headed out Tuesday in hopes of an easy run, despite the sniffles.  After 1.35 miles @ 10:56, it was very clear to me that I was not in good shape.  Less than 1.5 miles at just under 11 minutes per mile should not have been that hard.  I acknowledged that I was sick and cut myself infinite slack -- jog/walking my way home through the rest of the scheduled 4+ miler, finishing the last 3.02 miles at an average pace of 15:43.  And then I went to bed super early.

And the SF Botanical Gardens

And then, for the next 3 days, I didn't even think about running due to a sore throat, headaches, sinus pressure, ears that couldn't clear and more.

Sunset views of Coit Tower on our Lyft back from the park.

Man, I hate being sick.

Did I mention that the original plan had been to run the Crissy Field Parkrun and try to get a decade PR?  I'd put in some decent weeks of prep, and last week, I'd run an 85% effort Cooper test at 9:16/mile for 12 minutes as an easy workout before CIM, which made me think I could shoot for a 5K at 9:20ish pace and set yet another 40s PR.

Those flesh-colored bits are swimmers.  In the bay.  In December.

Yeah.  That totally didn't happen.  I couldn't really swallow for half the week without wincing.  I was coughing up gross stuff.

Ft. Mason -- one of many gorgeous views from our run.

The friend I'd invited to join me at the Parkrun was wonderfully understanding when I explained the situation.  E, unfortunately came down with the virus on Friday (it had looked like he was successfully avoiding it until then), so he bailed completely on Parkrun, and I opted for a 10 AM meetup with lightly jogging and some walk breaks for 3.8 miles @ 16:18 average pace (the jogging was in the 12ish/mile range, but every hint of hill plus some feelings of exhaustion towards the end resulted in walking).

A beautifully clear day at Fort Mason!

Last night, we went to an annual holiday party in SF and suffered the abuse of calling it *early* at 11:30 PM (my completely gravely voice was helpful here, as I claimed sickness as part of the reason we needed to leave before the white elephant exchange was over).

Tosca Cafe's back room -- full of theatre, dance, and film insider geekery.

Today, I woke for the first time in 6 days without a sore throat.  It was amazing.  I went to the hotel gym and busted out a treadmill workout that wasn't terrible. A full set of drills, 3 X 0.5 miles @ 9:13/mile and 0.5% incline with 0.1 walking recovery, plus 2 X 0.25 miles @ 8:00/mile and 0.5% incline.  I followed it up with 10 X 20 lb medicine ball kettle squat/swings and 20 X 20 lb bicep curls.  I headed upstairs feeling pretty darn great.  And then I almost passed out in the shower.

The Mark Hopkins in all of its Holiday glory.

Apparently, I'm not quite 100% yet. But, I'm no longer in pain from the virus.  I can breathe through both nostrils (which is more than I can say for when I hoofed it over Taylor street from Fisherman's Wharf to Sutter Street).

I now have minimal coughing.  And I'm excited for the last fast 5K of my fall buildup.

Keep your fingers crossed that I don't get another virus, please!  I'd very much like to cap off the fall of my minor (but valid) increases in fitness with a 5K decade PR.

Wish me luck!