W9D6

The 20 miler.

Terry had something significantly less on her calendar, so she planned to run elsewhere. The CA Cruiser planned on running Back Bay in Newport Beach. That loop is about 11 miles with the option of extending the run on the San Diego River Bike Trail. I would likely be running alone so I opted to head to the old standard long run route on the bike path at Huntington Beach. It is tried and true with ample amenities (read - bathrooms).

I'm happy to report that other than 4 stops to use the aforementioned amenities, the run went superbly well. Although I ran alone there are plenty of others out on the path logging their own scheduled miles. Besides I had Paul Wright, Brandon Boyd, Mike Shinoda, Sonny Sandoval and Rob Beckley to keep me company. Near mile 15 I ran into Tom, a local and frequent runner on the bike path. I've run into before in HB. Today we ran together for about a mile.

I used the 5:15/0:45 run:walk schedule that we used last weekend in San Fran. I started out on the slower side with some 10:30 miles but by the time I was at Mile 16 and on I was pretty consistently knocking them off in 9:40 to 9:50 pace. It is always good to finish strong.

I made it to the end with "gas in the tank" and not completely spent. The conditions were pretty darn near perfect for a long run on August 1st in SoCal. The sun didn't make an appearance until I was finished and the temps are always cooler at the beach. This long run will serve me well in Missouri.

After the run, Lisa and Tyler drove down and met me. We drove over the the HB pier and had breakfast at Ruby's Diner out on the end of the pier and then spent the afternoon soaking up the sun on the beach.

A good long run and a good day.

W9D4

"You've got to roll with it, baby" - Steve Winwood

This has happened in quite a while, but tonight's planned run didn't go quite as planned. The plan was another 10 miler with 8 miles at marathon pace. I did this same workout last week on Tuesday, 3 days after my successful 18 miler. I've got the 20 miler looming out there on Saturday so I thought about flopping this week's schedule around and doing the 10 miler on Tuesday and the easy 4 today. But thinking back to the weekend with the decreased miles and leisurely pace of the half marathon I figured I'd stick to the schedule as written.

Where I jump onto the river trail is just about midway of the run. I go 2.5 miles out and back one way and 2.5 miles out and back the other. Because its not quite half way my warm up mile was only about 3/4 of a mile. Off I went. My goal pace was 9:00 miles, just like last week.

Mile 1 ticked off in 9:06, 2 and 3 were 8:43 and 8:48. It was still early on but man I was tired. My legs had no energy and my arms were sore. Mile 4 was 8:57. Mile 5 and things deteriorated badly. I took two walk breaks during that mile and it took a lot to eke out another 8:57 mile.

At that point I decided to shut it down. I did two more miles of cool down, one at 10:02 and the last at 9:16 (so there was still something left) and then the last quarter of a mile or so to finish off the 8 mile run in 1:13:37.

I'm not really sure what caused the melt down. I may have been the heat. The schedule may have just caught up with me. It might have been the donut and chocolate chip cookie I had a work today.

I will take advantage of Friday's rest day and hopefully be ready to grind out 20 miles on Saturday morning. Roll with it, Baby!

W9D3

I fell asleep in the family room chair and woke up just in time to get this posted before I turned into a pumpkin.

Seven miles, easy pace, on the dirt path that winds through the city of Walnut. I managed to make it past the first park bathroom this time around but did stop at the second one.

After dinner I forced myself off to the gym. I put off going Monday morning in SF and last night back home after the easy 4 miles. I worked out back and biceps. My trainer is still off in Hawaii. He was the best man in a wedding on Saturday and now I'm sure he's teaching himself how to surf. Hawaii is another one of those places I've haven't been to yet in my life. I will make it eventually for this or this. I may even learn how to surf.

Off to bed before the horses turn into mices.

W9D2

A pic of our little entourage the day before the race and some picks of the Golden Gate Bridge during the race. I'm in the third pic wearing my long sleeve light blue shirt from the Rocket City Marathon, December 2007.

I neglected to mention that Lisa finished the 5K on Sunday while they rest of us were out running the bridge. She walked the 5K in 52:26. I think it was pretty awesome that she got involved like that.

Today I was back to following the miles laid out for me by Mr. Yasso. By the way, I stopped by his booth at the expo and talked to him a little about the schedule. I made sure to tell him about completing the 8 x 800 just a couple of days before. He wasn't aware of the Heart of America Marathon and asked me to let him know how it goes. I'll have my people call his people, Ha!

My new fave 4 miler is out the trail on the west side of Bonelli and then onto the road over the dam and back on Raging Waters Drive. The bunny tally was 12 for a nice round 3.0 BPM. I saw something tonight I hadn't seen in quite a while in the park. I turned a corner on the trail and came upon pack of four coyotes. Luckily they scurried off into the brush. As I continued on past where they disappeared I hoped they stayed put. I had the distinct feeling that if they wanted to the four of them together could easily have turned me into Ken-L Ration.

W9D1

The San Francisco 1st Half Half Marathon was a lot of fun. Terry, Mike, Carol and I ran together the entire way. The goal was to take it easy, enjoy the view, and have fun. And that's what we did. Our 2:22:09 finish time reflects that.

The trip up to SF was full of mishaps. The flight was initially delayed over an hour and then unexpectedly moved up nearly 30 minutes so we almost missed the last call to board. Once on board, we had to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes due to delays in SFO. We finally took off and then when we hit SFO airspace we had to circle for an additional 30 minutes before we could land. On the ground the luggage carousel went on the fritz causing delays in getting our bags. Luckily the trip on BART was uneventful; dropping us off within 2 blocks of our hotel.

Mark Twain's immortal quote about the warmest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco is so true. What a shock to the system to go from our 90+ days in LA to SF highs in the 60's. It was hard to believe that it was summer. During the day the weather was actually very nice, but the wind kicked up periodically making it seem colder than it was.

Race morning was cool; ideal conditions for the race. At the starting line at Mission and Embarcadero the sky was calm and clear. Terry had convinced me to wear both a short and long sleeve shirt. The long sleeve could just be tied around my waist if the day warmed up. Our wave, #4, started just before 6:00 a.m. We expected to be done long before the day began to warm up which was usually well after 10:00 when the sun finally burnt through the fog. After spending a couple of chilling evenings in SF, Mike convinced me that I should also wear my jacket. He thought it would be really windy and cold on the bridge. The jacket ended up tied around my waist before the race even started. The long sleeve stayed on the entire route. I could probably could have done without, but since I had it I wore it.

Race conditions were wonderful on the city. Running over the Golden Gate Bridge was a real treat. As is often the case the bridge was shrouded in fog. From afar only the bottom of the bridge was visible. On the bridge we could see about half way up. As we went out over the bridge the fog grew thicker and thicker. Our clothes got increasing wet. Once we turned around on the other side and started the return trip, it was so foggy you couldn't even see the bridge from a distance. The fog made the metal expansion joints very slippery so you had to be very careful. Back on the mainland, the fog dissipated and we continued on in ideal conditions.

Mike was our timer and we used a 5:15/0:45 run:walk ratio. The last 4 miles of the half were rolling hills. Terry and I kept pulling away on the ways. We had to be very diligent in holding ourselves back to Mike and Carol's pace. After mile 12 we had a really hard time staying back, but we ended up all crossing the finish line together. Our pace was a leisurely 10:51/mile. Overall the race is a well run event. There is a wave start with nearly an hour from the first wave to the last. The waves are necessary to control the flow of traffic over and back on the Golden Gate since the runners only get half the bridge. Congestion is already noticeable on the bridge with the wave start, without it the whole race would come to a virtual halt on the bridge.

This was our first trip to San Francisco and the city was everything we expected - fun, funky, alive. The city is very walkable and there is more to do than can be crammed into a weekend trip. So we stuck to the usual tourist things - rode the cable cars, walked Fisherman's Wharf from Pier 54 to 39, had clam chowder in a bread bowl, saw the seals at Pier 39, rode the #3 bus and the F trolley, Lombard Street, the Painted Ladies at Alamo Park and ate some good food. Some of the best food was the pre-race pasta we had at Ristorante Umbria - the food was to die for and service superb. After the race we enjoyed a great casual lunch at the quirky atmosphere of the Grove Cafe in the Marina District.

BART and Jet Blue got a safely and efficiently back home to some real summer weather back in Covina. I went for a 5 mile walk in Bonelli in the late afternoon. The same wind that made the 60 degree temps miserable in San Francisco, made the 90 degree temps tolerable in here.

I ended Week 8 with 4 days running & 37.1 miles on a schedule that called for 5 and 41. Back at it tomorrow.

W8D5

A couple of days ago I shuffled things around a little because I was unsure of my runs this weekend. That isn't entirely true. I know what one of the runs is. The schedule says 20 but I'm only doing 13.1 on Sunday. I may try to throw in another short run on Saturday.

I running the First Half of the San Francisco Marathon. I signed up for this race way back in January, when at the time I didn't know if I could even run it. Happily things have worked out well. This is one of the destination races for the CA Cruisers. I'm flying up this morning with my wife. Terry and John from our Paso Robles trip and meeting another couple, Mike and Carole. Terry, Mike, Carol and I are all running the First Half together purely for the fun factor. Our plan is to take our cameras and take our time. While we're out running across the Golden Gate Bridge, twice, Lisa has signed herself up for the 5K. She'll walk it, but how cool is that.

We've lived in California for 26 years and this will be our first trip to San Francisco. I'm looking forward to it. I'm leaving the computer behind so I won't be back until W9D1 with a race report. Have a great weekend.

W8D4

Today was the Yasso 800 day. There was another runner quandary associated with this run. The book schedule said to do 8 x 800. The magazine version said to do 6 x 800. This is the problem with trying to reconcile two versions of the same schedule. What's a guy to do?

First thing I did was choose my track. In years past on the rare occasion that I actually did speedwork I would go over to the middle school track near my home. The track at the local high school is locked up tighter than a drum. The middle school track is in disrepair, very rutted especially in turns 3 and 4. I decided to try a track in San Dimas that I'd seen for years. It was built by a joint venture between the city and the school so the track is open to the public.

I drover to with 1.5 miles of the track and began my warm up. Once I got to the track the temperatures were still near 90-degrees. I picked my starting point, hit the watch and took off. I completed the first 800 in a pace faster than intended. I jogged a lap between each 800 and ended up doing all 8 of them. My times were:

3:56, 4:03, 4:05, 4:06, 4:03, 4:02, 4:01 and the last one in 3:59:99!

I was pretty proud of myself for sticking it out for the entire 8 Yasso's. 9 miles total including the warm up and cool down.

This is what your shoes look like after 24 laps on the red dirt track.

W8D3

As adamant as I was about keeping to the schedule yesterday, today I played a little running plan shuffle. On paper, today was a rest day between the two big midweek workouts. But because of our weekend plans I don't know for sure exactly when or if I'll have time to run so I moved the weekend easy 4 miler to today.

I had another session with the trainer today, because he is going to Hawaii for 10 days so he won't be around for the next two weekends. We worked back and biceps. I warmed up with a mile and half on the treadmill and then headed over to My Park afterward and hit the trails for three and a half more miles. So the 4 became 5, but with a break in the middle.

I was more tired than I expected to be on the run so tomorrow's Yasso 800's should be quite the challenge.

W8D2

When I finally returned home from my run tonight around 8:30 p.m. the following conversation occurred:

Me: "10 miles sure is a long way to run on a week night."
Wife: "It is. So why did you go that far?"
Me: "Because the schedule said to."
Wife - rolls eyes
End of conversation!

10 miles MPW was on the paper. One mile warm up, 8 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile cool down. I'm still not completely clear on just what my marathon pace would be, but it seems that the MPW workout should be run at a pace a little more strenuous than a normal "easy" run. My typical pace on an easy day is 9:30 to 10:00 mpm so I settled on 9:00 miles as marathon pace.

After the mile warm up, I ratcheted things up but was having a difficult time settling into the faster pace. The first half mile at supposed MPW showed me to be still at 10:00 miles. I picked it up a little more. After the first mile I finally hit my groove and the 8 miles at MPW went down like this:
9:20, 9:02, 8:31, 8:47, 8:50, 8:47, 8:47 and 9:02

I had no trouble ramping back down to 10:00 pace for the last cool down mile.

In the end I got it done, but who runs 10 milers in the middle of the week after work? Its crazy. It pretty much takes up the whole evening. In 6 years of running I've only done it a couple of times and it was usually a long run I pushed into Friday or during a holiday week.

Except for the time commitment, it was a good run. I felt good. The old adage says - what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger. I'll go with that.

W7D7

Gasp! Dead air space or in this case dead blog space. I didn't realize until I posted yesterday that I completely flaked out on Friday, W7D5. After 46 consecutive posts, I fell asleep, literally, on the job. Friday was a hectic day - work as usual, an unexpected visit from the in-laws, dinner, small group and prep for the long run. By 11:15 I was tired and anticipating the 4:30 wake up so off to bed I went. I never really intended to have a blogging streak but it was sort of fun to try to keep it going.

I ended the week with 41 miles. I've steadily increased my miles week by week from 1 mile 29 weeks ago. Today's run was an easy 3 miler. It was easy because it was "only" 3 miles. I was supposed to keep the pace easy too, but ended up with a 9:13 pace. Easy? I dunno.

I followed that up with a session with the personal trainer; chest and abs. It has been 10 days since my last session with him. It was good to be pushed a little.

Next week the midweek runs are crazy at 10 and 9, one with speedwork. I'm changing the end of the week up a bit from the prescribed 20 miler. I think I'll be fine without it. I've still got another 20 and 22 miler in the works and the change of plans should be a lot of fun.

W8D1 is a scheduled rest day. So now that the streak is broken I'll be back on W8D2 unless something really earth shattering happens.

W7D6

Awesome - Every long run should be this way.

My friend Terry and I are on similar long run schedules. We both had 18 miles on deck. After getting notification from the CA Cruisers that the planned run this weekend was Two Parks, Two Loops, Terry and I decided to head down to Huntington Beach instead. The trip to HB gave us a reprieve from the hot temps expected in the valley. To further avoid the heat we decided to get started earlier than usual at 6:00 a.m.

Apparently we weren't the only Cruisers that headed to the beach today. We ran into Jay and Ron & Lisa. We also saw one of Terry's friends Myrna, along with a ton of other runners.

We used a 6:1 run:walk ratio throughout and finished up in 2:56 for a 9:47 pace. I usually dread the 18 mile distance. Somehow it seems harder than even the 20 or 22. But today everything went spectacularly. I had no major aches or pains, no chafing, and best of all no GI issues. I was even good at taking in fluids as evidenced by the bathroom stops (I did make three quick stops at the bathrooms along the bike path). Fluids in means fluids out, which is why I typically neglect drinking as much as recommended. I was even able to pick up the pace for the last mile and finished strong. Terry is notorious for her "horse to barn" finishes on long runs but today I outpaced her. Feeling strong at the end of a long run is a rare occurrence for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Two more really long ones before the big day at HOA. Right now I say - Bring it on!

W7D4

8 miles speedwork - that's all the schedule said. The description said not to worry about the miles, with the warm up and cool down the actual speedwork amounted to 3 miles. The rest was left up to me. Pretty fuzzy. I don't do fuzzy very well. I need rules, guidelines, parameters. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. I'd figured something out but I wasn't completely at ease with it.

8 miles speedwork - that's what the Yasso schedule in the book said. I took a look at the RW version. It said "2 mile warm up, 3 x 1 mile @ 10K pace, w/400 meter recovery, 2 mile cool down TOTAL: 8 miles." Now that's some rules, guidelines and parameters. That I can work with. That I can do.

Mile repeats meant I was headed back to the San Gabriel River Trail for this one. The trail is marked in 1/4 mile increments. After a 2 mile warm up it was time for the mile repeats. My 10K goal pace was 8:57 based on the 10K I ran back in November. I took off and settled into a pace that was fast but comfortable. The first repeat came in at 8:13; faster than expected but it felt comfortable, fast yes but doable. The second one came in at 8:21 and the third at 8:04. I followed that up with about 3 miles at 10:00 pace.

I did the mile repeats at a pace faster than 10K but at a pace I was easily able to maintain. Hopefully I didn't do any harm. It felt right. So I don't always follow the rules but at least I had an understanding of what they were.

On the way home I saw one of these. Now that's more rare than any bunny or hawk.

W7D3

Normally with 3 miles on the schedule I would have headed over to the equestrian trail in Via Verde but since half of it has now been converted to concrete I had to rethink my easy 3 mile route. It didn't take me too long to settle on a route in Bonelli. Surprising, I know.

I liked the old 3 miler for the dirt surface to run on, so the trails made good sense. I ran some of the trails I use infrequently. After getting into the park I headed out the Treeline Trail that goes over the ridge that intersects the picnic loop. At the end of that I crossed over the main street and jumped onto the Parkview Trail, one of the few single track trails in the park. That put me onto the Middlecrest Trail and eventually onto the fire road that leads up to the small reservoir. The fire road is the beginning and ending of my usual 5 mile loop. I paused for a minute or two on the fire road to watch a red tail hawk flying from tree to tree. I think it was the biggest one I'd ever seen, the wing span was easily 5 feet. The BPM for the run was 4.66.

The route is gently rolling, but on dirt. I took in easy in light of last night's marathon pace workout and the speed work slated for tomorrow. That is going to be fun.

After the run, we had take out Chinese for dinner and then a little later I headed off to the gym and did some chest and tricep work on my own.

W7D2

Here we go! Right into the week with pretty big workout - 9 miles with 7 at marathon pace.

Just what is my marathon pace?

The pace at HOA will likely be approaching 11:00 miles. I imagine our projected finish time will be in the 4:30 to 4:45 ball park. If that's the case I'm already running my long runs faster than marathon pace. Not much of a challenge there, this would just be a relatively long mid week LSD.

I could shoot for 10:00 miles but that still isn't much of a challenge. A 4:00 marathon would mean the MP would be 9:10. My pie in the sky BQ pace (3:30 finish) would be 8:01 pace. Lets not get too crazy here.

I settled on a decent challenge and would try to keep the pace in the 9:00 to 9:30 range. To stay on pace I needed the comfort of mile markers so I went to the San Gabriel River Trail to get the miles in.

After the mile warm up, I picked up the pace. Mile 1 was 9:28. Mile 2 was 9:03; followed by 9:30 and 8:30. Clearly I'm not very good at gauging pace. Mile 5 was 9:03. I then messed up the watch an mile 6 was unknown. I was getting pretty tired. So I mentally gave up and decided to just cruise in the last 2 miles. It turns out I didn't slow down all that much Mile 7 was 9:33, still pretty much on track even though I had given in and tried to slow down. The cool down mile I was finally able to slow down to 10:10.

I was satisfied with the workout. I proved to myself that I could push the pace a little and held it for 7 miles. I've clearly got a way to go to get back to sub 4:00 shape, but progress is progress no matter how gradual.

W7D1

Last weekend while Dr. John and I were celebrating our birthdays another stalwart member of the CA Cruisers was off running a marathon. John Creel (74) completed the Missoula Montana Marathon in a very respectable 4:34 for 2nd place in his age group. Missoula was his 10th state! 50 state fever runs strong in our little group.

As usual I started off the week with a rest day. I took advantage of the free time to go pick up my birthday present.

This is about an hour afterward and it is still wrapped in cellophane. It is on my left calf. I've toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo for at least 10 years. I hesitated mostly because I couldn't commit to a design, a tattoo is pretty permanent after all. This is a custom design bringing together some of my favorite elements.

W6D7

Week 6 of HOA training concluded with an easy 4 miler this morning in Bonelli. I encountered 19 rabbits for an outstanding 4.75 BPM. Running the trails in the morning had to help that ratio out significantly.

The week ended with 35 miles in 5 days of running including the much fretted about hill repeats.

Next week things get interesting with a couple of pretty long runs mid week, one with the majority of the miles at marathon pace and another with 3 miles of speedwork. Determining the marathon pace will be an interesting exercise. The speedwork gives no other details than to cover a total of 3 miles during the speed session. These are the details that will keep my mind churning up until I actually hit the road for these workouts.

Tomorrow its back to the full time job and back to running after work rather than whenever the running muse hit me. Its a tough life.

W6D6

Today the CA Cruisers were celebrating the birthday of my running inspiration, Dr. John Strand. Dr. John turned 75 years old on July 3rd. With all the races in the area over the Independence Day weekend the Cruisers were flung far and wide so the celebration was postponed until today, July 11. It just so happens that today is also my birthday.

John Strand (age 75) and me (age 48) after my 14 mile run.

I’ve mentioned before that Dr. John's running was chronicled in a chapter of a new book Run for Life. As part of our shopping expedition yesterday, I purchased a copy and asked Dr. John to sign it for me this morning. John has run a marathon in 50 states, all 7 continents and is up to at least 115 lifetime marathons at this point. Quite the inspiration. His birthday celebration attracted quite the crowd of runners.

The 14 miler was done on the Santa Ana River Trail. I headed south for 7 miles and came back. My final time was 2:15:40 for a 9:41 pace, with the last mile being the fastest at 9:08.

W6D5

Officially a rest day, but it felt really odd to be doing nothing in the physical fitness front on a perfectly good day off.

I did fill the day with activity none the less. I went to breakfast with my wife at a new place called Rocky's. It had moved in to what had been a Chinese buffet restaurant. It was reasonably priced and the service was good. Not much more you could ask for at breakfast.

We then went shopping at the Victoria Gardens Shopping Center out in Rancho Cucamonga (yes, cucamonga is a real place). Victoria Gardens is one of the new shopping centers that resembles a pseudo down town. The center is built around contrived main streets with open space and other old town amenities. VG has a fountain for the kids to play in, a Cultural Center with a playhouse and a library. This type of shopping experience is popping up all over the country. I visited a similar set up at Crocker Park in Westlake, OH a few years ago while on a business trip. Crocker Park even goes so far as to combine shopping and living in the same "down town". There are condos and apartments available above most of the stores. I guess these places are the new way to experience life in the city, plenty of shopping and restaurants nearby, but no grocers, doctors, post offices or jobs.

Today was our maiden trip to VG. We had no shopping agenda in mind but found a wine storage unit at Crate & Barrel at a 66% discount and a quilted comforter at West Elm at 75% discount. It is always fun to find a bargain when you weren't expecting it.

Later that afternoon I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a hike in Bonelli. I took the usual 5 mile loop (1.0 BPM). Although I was there during the hottest part of the day (3:00 to 4:30), there was a nice breeze blowing through the canyons so I never really broke a sweat. Because of the hike, today was the first day I didn't get an afternoon nap during this week's vacation. I'm not usually a nap person, but I think I might miss them next week when I go back to work.

W6D4

Today was the day. It was inevitable. Hill repeats must be done today. My schedule said so.

I figured out the confusion of yesterday. I took my plan from Yasso's book, taking the liberty to switch the Sunday long run to Saturday. I also pulled out the RW version of the plan. Both are sitting next to the computer in my stack. The two are slightly different. The runs each week are the same, the weekly mileage is the same, its just that some of the runs have moved days and the rest days have moved from one version to the other. Either way the plan called for hill repeats in the middle of an 8 mile run.

The repeats had me anxious over all the details. I had to find the right hill. I had to find a route that got me to that hill after a 2 mile warm up. And then there's all that up and down of the same hill. The mental monotony is more than my little brain can take. I love hills, just not the same hill, up and down, up and down, 12 times.

I started the day with a visit to my personal trainer. The plan was back and biceps today. Chris decided it was a good idea to throw in some legs too, although I tried to back out due to the hills I was anticipating. I relented realizing that the leg work would be minimal by working three body parts and Chris agreed to keep it more aerobic than power on the legs. It was a good overall workout.

Then I was off to tackle the hill repeats. I settled on the Via Verde hill. After a little more than a 2 mile warm up the work began. I resigned myself to the task and dove in. The repeats were broken in thirds; a set of short ones, a set a long ones, followed by another set of short ones.

The first criterion was finding a hill that was at least 2 minutes long. The Via Verde Hill takes me 8:00 to tackle the whole thing. So check that off the list.

The first set of repeats were described as a set of short hills: three or four sprints half way up then jog back down. I set my watch for 1:00 and dug in for the climb and jogged back down when the watch beeped at me. 4 repeats done, so far so good.

The second set of repeats were described as a set of long hills: three or four hard runs all the way up, jog half way back down and sprint the other half down. OK, here goes. I kept the watch at 1:00 and stopped when it beeped the second time. The second minute was definitely more grueling than the first. The jog and sprint to the bottom were needed and fun. The only problem was once I sprinted to the bottom I was expected to continue with a hard run back up for another 2 minutes. I took the liberty of a 15 second "catch my breath" break between each of the 4 long repeats.

The third set echoed the first. I was pretty happy that although my legs were beginning to feel like lead by now I made it make up to roughly the same spot on the hill at each 1:00 segment.

I followed that up with an easy 2.5 miles to flesh out the 8 miles.

Hill repeats - DONE!

Next week we go to real speedwork. Yikes, something else to fret about for 7 days, in fact I've already started thinking about it.

W6D3

I woke up on my own at 6:30 this morning. I thought about getting my run done, the hill repeat run that I wasn't really looking forward to.

Instead I thought about my to do list and decided to get started on that instead. I almost always make time for my run in my day, but I've spent plenty of days off with undone to do lists. One of the items on the list was replacing the attic fan. I've put that off for a while now because by the time I think about it its 100 plus degrees in the attic. I made the trip to Home Depot, bought the fan and had it installed by 8:00, long before the day warmed up.

I followed that up with a couple of other smaller items on the list and then spent a couple of hours in the middle of the day trimming my never ending hedge. In the late afternoon I came inside and sat down to read the August Runner's World that came in the mail yesterday. Guess what, I fell asleep again. I hadn't even run yet.

Somehow dinner was ready before I was ready to run. I still had those hills to get done. I ate dinner around 6:30 and hoped it would be settled enough in an hour to go tackle the hills.

I changed my clothes and laced up the shoes. On the way out I checked the schedule one last time and found that the hill repeats were on Thursday not today. Hallelujah! I'd been mulling over the repeats all day. Today was an easy 4 miler. I was totally up for that.

Off to the Picnic Loop in Bonelli. I started running at 8:00 p.m. and by the time I was done it was dark. I did see something I don't see often, nor really want to, on the loop. There were 4 skunks along the way (1.0 SPM). Luckily they were far enough off the path that my passing didn't provoke them.

W6D2

Thanks to the appointment, the visit to the DMV went smoothly. It didn't start off too well, though. It took my 15 minutes to find a parking space. Once inside I was given a number, F113. The whole process was 21 minutes from start to finish. Much better than expected.

For the 5 mile scheduled run, I decided to take advantage of the time at home during the day and run somewhere different than Bonelli. I headed east to the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. It has been nearly 18 months since I last ran there.

I got there at 11:30, before the major heat of the day. The main trail is a loop with connecting trail that can increase the distance if desired. The loop is "approximately 5 miles" based on the map at the trailhead. I suppose this run could qualify as a hill run, but the hills are on the schedule tomorrow. Today's run was supposed to be "easy." So I took it as easy as I could. I took it jogged slowly up and held back on the way down. There was a pretty nice breeze, so although it was mid day and most of the trail is fully exposed it wasn't terribly hot.My time was 53 minutes.

When I got home I had some lunch and then I sat down to work on the crossword before I got into some of the vacation to do list. Apparently the easy 5 miles on the Claremont Hills took more out of me that I thought. I ended up taking a good hour nap. Even after I woke up it took me a while to get moving at any decent pace again.

Oh well, I AM on vacation after all.

W6D1

Day One of the mandatory summer vacation week:

Rest day on the running schedule.

Off to the gym at 8:00 a.m. for a session with the personal trainer (chest and triceps).

Then off to the beach with my lovely wife for a day in the sun.

Stopped and had frozen yogurt on the way home.

Did some yard work before and after dinner.

Watched some TV, started falling asleep in the chair, so I'm calling it a day.

I have an appointment at the DMV in the morning to renew my driver license.

W5D7

The long run fell to Sunday this week due to the 5K yesterday. Before I left I deleted some music and added some new stuff to the ipod and charged the thing up to make sure I got through the nearly 3 hours of running I was anticipating. When I started running I hit play button and the first song up was "Hit the Ground Running". This is the same song that came up first on my last long run two weeks ago. What a bizarre coincidence. I couldn't have planned that if I tried.

I headed over to the San Gabriel River Trail but this time I ran from the spill way of the dam, near mile 29.5, south to mile marker 21.5 and back. I'd had covered this ground just last weekend on the bike trip to the beach.

I had given myself the expectation of no less than 10:00 miles but I never checked my watch. I hit the chrono when I started and never looked at it again until I got back to where I started. Although I've dismissed walking breaks for nearly all my runs, I used a 6:1 run:walk ratio for this one. I drank 14 of the 21 ounces of fluid I brought with me, which is pretty good for me. I'm notoriously bad about keeping up my fluid intake. I took half a strawberry banana gel at mile 8 and the other half at mile 11, something else I'm not very good at.

My final time for the 16 miles was 2:41, almost smack dab on my preset target. I ended the week with 36.6 miles.

I read the July 2009 Runner's World magazine yesterday. I'm using the Marathon Challenge plan published there on page 57. I'm actually using the same plan from Yasso's book "My Life on the Run". I just finished Week 7 of the plan although I jumped in late so I'm at my Week 5.

Next week begins Hill Repeats. That freaks me out a bit. I love running hills, but finding the hill of the predetermined distance is stressful. I'll figure it out somehow.

Off to week 6 (or 8 depending on how you're counting).

W5D6

Me, Brian, his wife Jen and their friend Jennifer after the Surf City 5K.

I had the chance this morning to run with my good friend and old running partner Brian. Brian and I signed up together for the marathon training program back in 2003. We've started my first 4 marathons together but never finished one together. Brian went off to Boston to dental school at Tufts but now is back in SoCal practicing dentistry. We've been trying to get together for a run for months and this finally worked out. The Surf City 5K was my first race ever so I like to run it when I can. In all the miles that we trained together in 2003 and 2004, he and I've have never run a 5K together. He hasn't been putting in nearly the training I have so I let him set the pace. For me today was supposed to be an easy day. The race was just a good excuse to run with Brian. The 5K time was 29:05. I put in 1.5 warmup before hand for 4.6 miles for the day.

On my way home from the beach I got off the freeway right at Bonelli Park so I took the opportunity to go for a 5 mile walk (1BPM). Since I had the camera I took a couple pictures of the picnic area and the lake from the trail.

Along the trail it is not uncommom for me to run into mourning doves. They are ususally in pairs and fly off upon my approach with a flutter of wings and their characteristic cooing. I happened along a single dove on my walk pecking away at the dirt on the trail. As I approached, it scooted on further down the trail and continued about its pecking. All of a sudden a small hawk swooped out of the brush, grabbed the dove in its talons and took off. Kind of a crazy sight to see.

I headed home and then spent the afternoon hanging around the pool and we're about to sit down to tri-tip, potato salad, roasted corn, watermelon and a couple of cold ones.

The American flag hanging outside our front door

Happy July 4th to all. Enjoy the day and be thankful for the freedoms we enjoy.

W5D5

A running friend passed this along. My apologies, but it made me chuckle.

No running or gym to report today, just a much appreciated rest day.

For many people today was a corporate holiday in observance of July 4th on Saturday. Our company, in their benevolence, moved the holiday to Monday and added a mandatory vacation for the rest of the weak to "assist you in meeting your vacation objectives." So we worked. No big deal really except....

There a small group of us that sometimes go out to lunch on Fridays and sometimes we go for dim sum. One of the group is leaving the company to pursue personal endeavours (she's going to start her own professional wedding photography business). I suggested that we take the opportunity to go out for dim sum one last time. That turned out to be a bad idea for several reasons.

1. Although we were at work today, nearly everyone else around us was on vacation.
2. Dim sum is a very popular lunch option on weekends and holidays. The wait can easily be over an hour, during the week it is a great lunch option.
3. The dim sum restaurants are located in a neighborhood that is predominately Asian, Asians that had the day off.

We picked the wrong day for dim sum. Lesson learned. We went to another traditional Chinese restaurant. The dim sum will have to wait until another day.

W5D4

Apparently I've got the easy part down on the 5 miles easy that Yasso recommended today. The clock read 54:46. Ah... well, just following the plan.

My chosen 5 mile route was the Cottontail route in Bonelli. It is named because of my son singing Peter Cottontail as he accompanied on the bike a couple of summers ago in response to all the little bunnies on the trail.

Since I was on Cottontail I thought I'd try my hand at a something Jean does and calculate my BPM (bunnies per mile). How could I not come up with a pretty good ratio on the Cottontail route.

Only about half the route is on the trail the rest is on the road. Once I hit the trail it was a good while before the first bunny spotting. Two pretty close together and then nothing again up to the turn around point. On the way back I saw two bunnies in the same spot. For all I know they may have been the same two I saw on the way out. I'm not sure if repeat rabbits count. I''ll have to ask Jean for a ruling on that one. Later I saw two more for a final tally of 6 bunnies or 1.2 BPM. If you only count the trail part, where I actually saw all the little cottontails, I'd get a more respectable 2.4 BPM.

W5D3

I neglected to give the monthly mileage tally yesterday. June was 129.3 miles. This was the highest mileage this year. That is easy to believe, what is harder to believe is I haven't run that kind of monthly mileage since August 2007.

Today called for the hilly 7 mile run. Back over to the route from 2 weeks ago I went.

Out the flat section of Via Verde
Up the long Via Verde hill (7:48)
Down the Via Verde hill (6:20)
up and down through the neighborhood on Via Palomares and Calle Cecelia
Out the flat section of Via Verde
Back up the Via Verde hill (8:07)
Back down the Via Verde hill (6:21)
Right back up Via Verde hill (8:23)
Right back down Via Verde hill (5:45)
and finally back out the flat section of Via Verde
DONE!

The ups were a bit slower than two weeks ago but the downs were faster. Overall my time was 2 minutes faster than that run two weeks ago.

One cool thing happened on this run. About half way up the long hill the second time around a fit women was on her way down the hill. She gave me a thumbs up and a "Looking good" or "Good job." I cant' recall her exact words. My mind went blank for a second as I said "Thanks!" and smiled from ear to ear without breaking stride.

W5D2

There was an easy 4 miler on the schedule today, but first I had a session with the trainer.

Sunday morning when I got there, Chris the trainer, wanted to work on legs. I wasn't up to that considering the mileage I'd run that week. I decided that today would be a good day for a leg work out. It had been 9 days since my last one, so I figured I was ready for another go at it.

I got to the gym and warmed up with a mile on the treadmill. When I got off the mill he asked what we were doing today. I suggested legs. He said "Nope, we're doing chest. We can do chest AND legs, but we're doing CHEST." Well OK then, who am I to argue. Actually I know I need to do the leg workouts but they are tough so breaking it up with some other body part was just fine with me.

I followed the workout with three more miles over in Via Verde next to the new concrete, to complete the days planned mileage.

W5D1

Today was a rest day as per the plan. Instead of running I trimmed the hedges and pulled weeds, stuff I should/could have done yesterday instead of going to the beach. The beach was more fun.

This evening we got a new higher speed modem. I've lost most of my favorites and almost broke my streak. Computer geeks, which I am not, rule the world.

W4D7

This is has been an odd week of training for me. It was my highest mileage week, at 34 miles, since November 2007. That's right 2007. I started off 2008 injured (stress fracture) and my mileage build to my one and only marathon, St. Jude, got me close at 33.7 but needless to say it has been a long time for this kind of mileage. I hope I'm not tempting fate by getting there. The schedule only goes up from here, making 34 look like an easy week.

This week was also odd in that there was no long run, i.e. a run longer than 10 miles. There weren't really any short runs, less than 5 miles in my mind. The whole week was a bunch of medium length runs. 7, 7, 8, 6 and 6 miles were the daily tallies.

The week ended with today's 6 miler. I got up and ran from home another one of my old routes on the streets. I followed that up with a session with the personal trainer. We worked out shoulders and biceps. I really like working with the trainer because he pushes me beyond what I would do on my own.

After a quick shower, Mrs J and I followed the lead of David and Mrs T, and headed off to spend the afternoon on the beach at Corona Del Mar, enjoying the sun, the surf, the cooler temps and catching up on some reading.

We returned home to temperatures at least 15 degrees warmer, took the kids to dinner, I went to church, went to the grocery store and another week has come to a close.

Next week's schedule looks doable. There's a traditional long run and even three runs of 5 miles or less. Very traditional.

W4D6

Lisa and I have dinner with Mike and Maria several times a year. Our youngest sons grew up together. They were in the same sports league but on opposing teams. The boys went to different schools starting in junior high and sort of went their own separate ways but we parents have stayed friends even now that the boys are a year out of high school.

Mike and Maria have both run at times. so they understand my mindset when it comes to that discipline. Mike is mostly into pick up basketball and bike riding now. He and I have talked about getting together for a ride one day. Back in December we made tentative plans for a ride in the spring. One thing or another kept postponing it until finally this weekend, technically summer, we made it out for the ride.

I rode the street bike with the only issue being achy shoulders. The ride from Azusa to Seal Beach was about 35 miles and took us about2.5 hours. We met our wives in Seal Beach for breakfast at the River's End Cafe at mile marker 00.00. It seemed to be a favorite hang our for bikers and the food, at least breakfast food, was pretty good.

It was a beautiful morning for a ride and a beautiful day at the beach but we loaded the bikes into the car and headed back home before noon.

W4D5

The life schedule necessitated another change in the running schedule. Rather than a rest day, Saturday's workout was moved up to Friday after work. The schedule called for a 5K race with a 2 mile warm up and a 1 mile cool down. 5K's on a Friday night are hard to come by.

I decided to modify things a little by heading over to marked trail on the San Gabriel River Bike Path. I modified the 5K to a simpler 3 miles. I kept the warm up nice and easy at around 10:20 pace. My goal for the 3 mile section was 8:00 miles.

I took off down the path at a pretty good clip. I hit the first mile mark in 7:46. "Whoa there Nellie, slow down a little or you'll never make it to the end", I thought to myself. I kept on going. At 1.5 miles I was beginning to wonder if I could really keep up the pace for 3 miles. It had been a long time since I tried to do anything even remotely resembling speed. I hit the second mile mark in 7:27. what, what, WHAT!! Way faster than expected. I tried to slow down a bit for mile 3, but I still came in at 7:27. I think I sped up a little near the end to just get the thing over with. 7:34 pace overall is way beyond what I expected out of this run. You can bet I took it nice and easy for the 1 mile cool down.

I'm calling this a successful little test of the speed capabilities. Yasso says "the point this week is to go out and enjoy racing." Although I only raced myself, I'd have to say I did enjoy it.

W4D4

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change
- Michael Jackson

I was never a die hard fan but back in the day I enjoyed a good MJ song or two. This one wasn't particularly a standout for me until I heard it while running the Las Vegas Marathon in 2005. It was playing over the loud speakers while we ran through the Fremont Street Experience early on that cold windy morning. It was a cool memory of the day. This video is a bit long, but I'm a sucker for anything with a gospel choir. Enjoy.



Today was 8 miles with Hills. The instructions were still to find a hilly route and not to treat it like an easy run. I strung together two of my favorite 4 mile routes in Bonelli. I tried by best to hammer the run, but I felt more like a tack hammer than a sledge hammer. I took a fair share of walk breaks but tried to keep them to 30 seconds before "tacking" away again.

I wore a new pair of Adrenaline ASR, the all terrain version of my favorite Adrenaline GTS. I wore these once back 6 months ago and wasn't too sure I like them. They have heavier tread and seemed bulkier all around although they do have a nice roomy toe box. They've been sitting in the closet ever since. Today I appreciated the new shoe bounce as I made my way over the hills.

W4D3

Another 7 miler today. Seven miles isn't a distance that I run often, at least not lately. Monday I mapped out a couple of routes from home. One was the route I did yesterday and the other was a route I used to do a couple of years ago occasionally when I needed the 7 mile distance. That particular route is straight out one street to a main intersection and then straight back. Not a very exciting route but an easy one to get on cruise control and just run.

During the day today I remembered a route I used to run a couple of years ago when my left hip (sciatica) first started hurting. It is mostly on equestrian trails in the city of Walnut. The loop is almost exactly 7 miles. The route is gently rolling with quite a few left and right turns that make it more forgiving on the legs and more interesting for the brain. The other nice thing about this route is that it passes two parks with bathrooms. Today was a good day to choose this route over the simple out and back. For some reason I needed to stop at both bathrooms. I guess I did a pretty good job of getting my water in this afternoon at work.

W4D2

Had a midweek visit with the personal trainer. We worked on chest and triceps today. It was a good workout.

I followed that up with 7 miles easy. I ran straight from home over to what used to be the equestrian trail in Via Verde and then back.

I need to send a Thank You note to the city of San Dimas. The equestrian trail in Via Verde extends all the way from the horse stables near the freeway up the hill to the entrance of Bonelli. There is an additional section that runs perpendicular on Puente Ave. My regular easy 3 mile route was run on the dirt along Puente and Via Verde Avenues and back again. I've run that route extensively in the last six years. The dirt has been there for well over 20 years.

For some reason, maybe it was Obama stimulus money, someone in the city government decided that the dirt on Puente Ave needed to be turned into a proper sidewalk. There are only 6 houses on that stretch of Puente Ave, why a sidewalk was necessary I'll never know. Many people ride, walk or RUN up and down that section of the street. The concrete will be nice for the walkers and riders, but now the sensible runners are forced into the street. I wish someone had consulted me before they poured all that knee busting cement. My easy 3 milers will never be the same.

W4D1

My legs are way sorer than I expected them to be after that workout yesterday. I guess I should have thrown in a few more sets of biceps. Then again, my biceps are pretty darn sore too.

I was orginally planning on switching things up a little this week too since I'd just had a rest day yesterday. But with the sore legs I opted to stick to Monday as a rest day anyway.

I did finally spend some time on the road bike. It is quite a different sensation from the mountain bike. I could definitely get up more speed, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Faster just means a harder and uglier fall, at least in my head. I had a hard time getting used to the gears and the angle of the brakes is way different than the mountain bike. I only rode for about 10-12 miles. The only thing that really hurts is my neck and shoulders. The road bike certainly doesn't have the shock absorbtion of the mountain bike either. The long ride to the beach should be an interesting one.

The picture is the happy graduate on his way to reality. Notice he's still smiling!!

W3D7

My second rest day this week had gotten pushed out to Sunday since I took advantage of the mornings at home at the end of the week to get the miles on the books. I was looking forward to not running although I usually like to "celebrate" holidays with a good run. I had already tallied up my weekly/annual/lifetime miles on Saturday evening. The numbers, in case you wondered, were:

32 for the week (5 days of running)
472.7 for 2009
7794.2 Lifetime (since June 2003)

I had an appointment with my trainer this morning. He always has me do about 10 minutes of aerobic activity before beginning the weights. Since I've been on the marathon training plan, I've used the elliptical to accomplish this. I don't track those miles. For some reason I jumped on the treadmill this morning and put in a mile before the work out. When I got home I upped all my totals by one. (I'll let you do the math.)

I did a leg workout with the trainer but it was tempered somewhat by inserting a few bicep sets into the mix.

When I got home, Lisa made breakfast for us. That was nice, since weekend breakfast is usually my forte and responsibility. The whole family went out in the middle afternoon for Father's Day Mexican Food. We've been doing this annually for 22 years since Lisa was pregnant with Tyler and I wasn't quite officially a father yet.

I hope all the Dads out there, especially the running variety, all had a wonderful family filled day.

Off to week 4 of the plan with 11 weeks until the big day in the Heart of America. I'm #66, Joe is #61. Looks like there's still plenty of room for you. You've got plenty of time to train for a marathon, right? Anybody else want to predict #65 as the winner?

W3D6

The graduation ceremony went off without a hitch. By the way things went it wasn't too difficult to tell that the place is a liberal arts school in California. All the regular pomp and circumstance was just a bit more casual and twisted than you might find at an East Coast Ivy League school. The place is full of talented out-of-the-box folks, both teachers and students. Afterwards we headed over to the Little Italy section of downtown San Diego from some great Italian food (of course). Ten friends and family enjoyed a wonderful meal at Cafe Zucchero.

We had made arrangements to spend the night in San Diego, so I woke up this morning and ran 4 miles on the San Diego River Pedestrian and Bike Trail. Being concrete, the trail is very well suited to pedestrians and bikes. Concrete is not a runner's best friend, at least not this runner, but for a one off run it was a nice little route.

On the way home we accidentally came across Road Runner Sports store headquarterd near San Diego. We decided to stop in and Lisa bought me a couple of pairs of shorts and new shirt as a Father's Day gift. The RRS stuff was buy one get 40% off a second item. Can't pass up a sale. While I was there I decided to have a running analysis done. It seems that I've been using the right style shoe - stability - all along. It is always good to have confirmation, especially in light of the last two years injuries.

We made a leisurely trip back home by 2:00 in the afternoon. Tyler and his girlfriend on the other hand had left San Diego at 5:30 a.m. to rush home to spend the rest of the day doing food prep and final arrangements for a 75th birthday party with appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts for 60 people. They have been doing a couple of catering jobs on the side but this is their most ambitious project to date. They've been prepping for the better part of the week. The graduation ceremony mid stream just when the major work needed to be done added an extra little wrinkle to the whole project.

I pitched in a little at the end by helping grill some steaks and picking up the cakes that had been stored in Grandma's fridge and delivering them to the party. Otherwise the two of them did all the work on their own and from the reviews I heard at the party (we were invited guests) the clients and their guests were very happy with the food. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new venture.

W3D5

Friday is supposed to be a day off but because of the graduation festivities later today I took to opportunity to get it done this morning on familiar paths near home.

Last night I loaded up some new music on the ipod for today's run. Mat Kearny makes some good music for LSD runs (not the 70's kind), especially the City of Black and White album. I have two of his albums on the ipod and with it on random his songs came up frequently.

Strange coincidence the first song that came on today as I started the run was "Hit the Ground Running" by Keith Urban. I'm not usually a country music fan, but I really like the duet he sang with Kris Allen on the American Idol finale, I Want to Kiss a Girl, and ended up downloading the entire CD from itunes. I've probably already listened to it too many times, but I really like it.

I did the 13 mile run over on the San Gabriel River Trail. I ended up running into a friend of mine out for a bike ride. He and I are supposed to ride bikes to the beach next weekend, but I have yet to get on the road bike for any kind of practice. I usually ride my mountain bike but I will be hopelessly behind since he'll be on a road bike.

I actually was able to pull of negative splits on this. I hear about this practice all the time, especially in training plans but I rarely am able to pull it off. My first few miles were 9:45, 10:01, 10:13 and 9:41. With 5 miles left to go I was able to ratchet things up a bit with the last 5 clocking 9:33, 9:30, 9:33, 9:02 and 8:40. Good stuff.

Now its off to San Diego as Tyler gets his Bachelor's degree in Culinary Management.

W3D4

On vacation today. Had another good workout with Chris at 7:30 a.m. and then just over 12 hours after the hill run yesterday I was back out running again. This time it was 4 miles easy.

I decided on the picnic loop at Bonelli; into the park, 2 times around the picnic loop, then back out of the park is 4 miles. It was a beautifully peaceful morning. At times it seemed like I had the hold place to myself. On the first trip around the loop I came upon the grassy section and it occurred to me to give barefoot running a try. I've heard good things about it so on my second loop around off came the shoes and socks and into the grass I went.

It felt sort of cool to run barefoot, kind of free. The grass was wet and cool from the dew and the ground was even sort of soft and moist. I ran for about a half mile on the grass. Putting my shoes back on for the run up the road out of the park felt a little odd at first. My feet were warm with the shoes on, the weight of the shoes was noticeable and the tightness of the laces was even a little annoying at first. I'm not sure how much barefoot running there will be in the future, but it was fun to take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself.

Lisa and I spent the rest of the day in Temecula visiting with her Dad and step-Mom. We visited a couple of our favorite wineries and then had dinner at Rustico. Tomorrow is the big graduation day so we'll be back in San Diego in the early afternoon.

W3D3

7 miles hills - Done!

At this point in the Yasso schedule the hill runs are described as: " The seasoned schedule calls for runs on hills this week. Later in the program, these will become hill repeats; but this week, just pick a run with lots of hills with possible." This week the hill workout adds this little tidbit: "As usual, this should be the hilliest loop you can find for the distance and shouldn't be treated as an easy run."

Well, I got the hills and the distance right. I may have messed up a little on the part about not treating it as an easy run. Last week's note on hills did say "You'll know you've found the right (hill) loop if it's too steep to run easily." I did get that part right. My hill is runnable but not entirely easy.

The route I've used the last couple of weeks includes a hill that is 0.7 mile up. I've been keeping track of my up and down times. This week I ran the hill 3 times. The up times were 7:41, 7:59 and 7:58. The first two downs were 6:38 and 6:40. On the third downhill I decided to kick it in gear a little. I concentrated on keeping by chest up and my shoulders back and just let my legs fly a little. I made it down in 5:48. The rest of the flatter part of the route was taken at a fairly easy pace.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of hill repeats coming up in the future. I've got a couple more weeks before they show up on the schedule so I've got a couple of weeks to fret about them.

W3D2

I took full advantage of the rest day. My sister and her boyfriend arrived from Ohio. It seems like only yesterday that I saw them. We took the whole family to In-n-Out Burger so the boyfriend could be properly indoctrinated to SoCal. He enjoyed his Double Double and Fries Animal Style.

Tomorrow, I will be back at it with 7 miles of hills.

W3D1

Running plans are an ever changing thing. Once its on paper I like to stick to it the way it is written but I'm not so rigid that I can't change things around as the rest of my life dictates. Really, I'm not and I can.

In anticipation of my sister's arrival tomorrow evening; in for the graduation ceremony later this week; I ran my 4 miler today, a scheduled rest day. I ran the same route I ran yesterday but didn't feel nearly as peppy as I did then. It may just be the difference between running in the morning and running after a day at work. I took about 1:30 longer than the day before to cover the same distance.

My favorite little spot of local running haven has been marred by violence. It really is too bad that people feel the need to shoot each other, but can't they do it in their own backyard rather than in mine?

W2D7

Week two complete and pretty much the way it was written on paper. 28 miles in 5 days.I made up for the shortage on the hill run when we accidentally missed the turn around point on the long run on Saturday. It's nice when things work out like that.

I went back to the gym this morning for my third session with the trainer this week. I followed my trainer to his new gym and finally used up the last of the sessions on Friday at the old gym. I will settle into a routine with one, maybe two sessions a week at the new place with Chris and once or twice a week at the old place on my own. I used the gym extensively during my rehab to cross train but now that I am in full swing marathon training it is harder to get there.

I got on the scale at the gym this morning and I'm down 6 pounds from about 3 months ago. Almost down to 160. I ran my best marathons when I was closer to 155. I was down to 150 at one point but most people thought I was too skinny then. If I could get back there, I might actually be able to see the abs I've been working on beneath the layer of middle aged blubber.

After the workout, it was off to Bonelli as usual for a 4 mile run. I felt really good. Many times on the return trip I'm just pushing forward to the finish. Today I felt like I could have easily kept going for awhile.

Back home, I made breakfast for my wife and me. Bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on whole wheat English muffins with some sliced strawberries on the side and a pot of coffee.

I can actually see glimpses of blue sky peaking out between the clouds today. We may see some sun for the first time in nearly two weeks.

W2D6

Time for the long run of the week, the second one of this training cycle. It is the shortest one on the schedule except for the run in two weeks which includes a 5k race.

I met the CA Cruiser for our old faithful run along the river path in Yorba Linda. I had invited my friend Terry from work to join us. Part of the group this morning included Kevin. Kevin is husband to a woman who runs with us frequently. Kevin is a much less frequent member of the group, being self employed Saturday is often is day off from running. Kevin and Terry have never joined us on the same day. It turns out that Kevin is Terry's accountant. Small world.

The three of us ran together at a fairly relaxed pace, taking walk breaks every 7 minutes. The kettle corn from last night did not materialize into the disaster I dreaded, but I did take advantage of the restrooms that were conveniently located about 7 miles into the route. Weather conditions were as expected; coolish, overcast, yet a tad humid. We did catch a very brief and faint glimpse of our shadows on the return trip, but otherwise the gloom continues on unabated. We totaled just over 10 miles in around 1:45.

The rest of the day's activities included some much needed yard work and shopping with the older son for appropriate graduation attire. Being a youth in California he rarely has need for real grown up clothes. The color of the shirt was the big sticking point. Black is the usual fall back color. He wanted to branch out a little but was afraid. Finally he picked a tie that he really liked and we went from there to find the shirt to go with it. He assured me he had a decent pair of dress pants. He was planning on wearing his black canvas Vans with the ensemble. I talked him into some real shoes and we found a pair of pretty hip looking black leather lace ups to bring him a little further into adulthood and fashion forwardness. His mother and girlfriend approved so I guess we did all right.

W2D5

Its Friday and a scheduled rest day, at least from running. I got up early and headed to the gym and road the bike for a while and then did some ab work before meeting with my trainer for a leg workout.

When I got home from work today I grabbed a bag of kettle corn the kids had brought home the day before from a trip to zoo. I sat and watched TV and munched kettle corn for over half an hour. I could stop myself even though I know that popcorn is not going to bode well for my intestinal health during tomorrow's long run.

Tyler cooked dinner for us. We had steak, sauteed carrots and risotto. I ate my helping of risotto and ended up cleaning up another portion left in the pan. I'm calling that carbo loading.

The June Gloom continues on with another sunless day. My gut may not hold up well tomorrow morning but I'm sure the weather will be runner perfect.

W2D4

Under the category of "Really!! Are you kidding me??!"

When I returned to work after my trip to Ohio all of the paper towel dispensers, the ones in cafeteria, in the lab and in the bathrooms, were adorned with the following laser printed sticker:

"The paper in this dispenser is recycled and EPA compliant"

Again I say, are you kidding me? How are we supposed to react to this. My morale meter certainly took a huge leap in the right direction based on this announcement. Yeah, right! This year many things have happened at work; A) our department was downsized by 25%, B) there are no merit increases for 2009, C) we are being forced to deplete our vacation balances and D) the CEO's base salary is $1.7 Million and with bonus, stocks and options can reach nearly $13 Million, for the year. For crying out loud what does he actually do to earn that amount of cash? But hey, our paper towels are EPA compliant! Good grief!!

(I know some would say I should be happy to be employed and I admit I'm not as happy about it as I should be. But being employed or not doesn't change the truth of A, B, C and D above.)

On the physical fitness front, I had a great work out with my trainer. I've being seeing some rewards in upper body strength lately. I followed that with a planned 6 mile run with hills. I had mapped out a route last night but altered it on the fly and ended up running 5.6 miles with 3 pretty good hills in the mix.

We had another pretty gloomy day, but the sun did shine for about an hour in the late afternoon. Even without the sun the temperatures were in the mid 70's, but still pretty enjoyable for running.

W2D3

This time of the year most of the mornings are grey and overcast. The phenomenon is caused by the clouds coming inland off the ocean; known by the meteorologists as marine layer or on-shore flow. The mornings are cloudy, but the sun usually takes over before noon. We call it May Grey and June Gloom. Today was the mother of all June Gloom days. I don't think the sun ever peeked through. We ate our lunch on the patio at work in the gloom and I drove home and then ran in the gloom as well. I really don't mind it. It makes for good running weather. Although for the most part I am a sun worshipper.

For my 4 miler I was back in Bonelli, heading out on the trail that goes north along the west side of the park and then back on the road from the dam. After the run I went to In-n-Out Burger to pick up dinner for the family and to celebrate my return to SoCal. If you've ever had a burger and fries from In-n-Out you'd agree that it was a good choice.

W2D2

Memories are funny things.

I have a sister that is 13 months younger than me. She recounted a story of a January when she and I were 18 and 19. She had just left the house and slipped and fell on ice on the sidewalk and broke her ankle. She crawled back up onto the porch and knocked on the door. I let her in and apparently questioned her on how she knew her ankle was broken. I called our Mom at work to come home to take her to the hospital. My sister remembers the whole ordeal in vivid detail, of course. She went back to college with her foot in a cast and on crutches. I have absolutely no memory of her with a broken ankle.

We both remember a story when she was 8 and had fallen off a bike riding down a hill and I ran back to the car and took care of her knee with a bandanna and left over water from my lunch box thermos. Wonder why I remember that incident and not the other?

For my last day in Ohio I headed back over to the Wellington Reservation and ran every inch of the trails there to get in my 4 mile run. It seems to be a pretty popular little destination. There were quite a few other folks out there walking the loops.

Tomorrow its back to work and back to my old faithful routes.

W2D1

Still in OH. My niece's graduation was yesterday. It sure takes a long time to read off 371 names. One cool thing during the ceremonies they had groups of students - athletes, honor students, etc - stand to be recognized. The group that got the most resounding and longest lasting applause where those that had enlisted in the military. Pretty cool, I thought.

Today is a scheduled rest day. I had hoped to take a long walk this afternoon. We've had rain showers this morning. I would have run in the rain, but see no real reason to walk in it. The weather seems to have cleared up for the moment so I may head out while the getting is good.

Tonight is the graduation party. Tomorrow afternoon I get on a plane and head back home to my real life. Hmmmmm..........

W1D7

Spent the rest of yesterday afternoon sitting on my parent back patio, reading a (running) magazine, watching the birds, took a little nap, then came in to catch up on some long overdue blog reading. Ah, vacation.

Up by 7:00 this morning. I only wanted to run about 3 miles this morning. The plan had 5 miles but I am trying not to increase my weekly mileage too much too soon so I had decided to scale back slightly. My plan was to go out and run around the above ground reservoir just outside of town. My Dad told me about a new park just across the road. The Wellington Reservation is also part of the Lorain County Metro Parks. There were about 4 miles of trails, some asphalt, some crushed gravel. I ended up running 3.8 miles. I will definitely add this run to list for future visits back home.

Week One of marathon training is in the books. The plan as written called for 30 miles in 5 days. I had hoped to keep that to no more than 28 miles. With the extra I ran on Thursday in Findley State Park, a little extra on the bike trail on Saturday and more than planned this morning at the Metro Park I actually ended up exceeding the plan by 0.3 for a total of 30.3 miles. The best part is so far the leg pains and aches are in check.

Off to week 2. Thirteen weeks to race day.

W1D6

Woke up at 6:00 to go pee. Decided that was too early to get started on the run so I laid back down. Didn't wake up again until 9:00. I haven't slept that long in quite a while. My Dad asked if I was going to run. My comment was that I should be almost done by now and I hadn't even started yet. I had some oatmeal and a cup of coffee before heading out on my run.

I headed on over to the North Coast Inland Trail. I love that the trail is known as "the skinniest park in Lorain County." I jumped onto the trail in Kipton at the 2 mile mark and headed northeast. The first mile was 9:40, the second and third with just over 9:00. I needed to slow down, but once I'm in a rhythm I am pretty powerless to change it. The mile markers disappeared after that. I'd run for about 57 minutes when I came to an intersection that had a trail sign. I tried to mentally add up all the trail segments (from Rte 511 to Oberlin Road) and figured I run at least 6 miles.

I turned around at that point and headed back. I had a nice breeze on the way back that kept the heat level in check. It was too late to be running and the sun was shining brightly. Once I hit the mile markers I found that my pace had slowed due to fatigue with the last three being: 10:02, 10:13 and 10:48. This is really the pace I should have been all along.

Back home I g-mapped the route and determined I ran 12.5 miles in 1:57; 9:26 pace overall.

W1D5

Findlay State Park is just a couple of miles from my parents home in Ohio. When I was a kid our family camped there frequently. It was nice that we could pick up at a moments notice and be there. No reservations necessary. As kids, my oldest two sisters and I would wander all over the trails of the park. It seemed like we were gone forever exploring. Our parents usually had little idea of our exact whereabouts. We always made it back when we were supposed to. Times have changed.

Today I headed out to Findlay for a run on the Thorn Mountain Bike Trail. This trail didn't exist when I was a kid, but it is a fun little place to run. I ran here a couple of years ago when I was in town for a visit, my brother's wedding I think. The trail twists and turns like a snake on an acid trip. It was a little muddy, but that made it all the more fun.

The entire trail is just over 8 miles. I planned to run 6. I ran for 1:20 then walked the remaining distance back to the car. I got a little twisted around early on and ended up where I started about 20 minutes into the run. I finally figured out where I was and got on track. I figured I probably ran about 7 miles in reality.

Tonight I'm meeting with my brother and sisters to try to finalize the plans for our parents 50th wedding anniversary party in September. Another trip to Ohio so I hope another spin around the bike trail at Findlay State Park.

W1D4

Up at 4:00 a.m. to get to the airport. Arrived in OH at 5:00 p.m. Flew on Continental Airlines and actually got food on the flight. Cereal, milk and raisins from CA to TX; tuna sandwich, carrots, and a KitKat from TX to OH. I was shocked, I haven't gotten any kind of food on a flight in a long time.

Scrambled the schedule around a little and will run today's planned 6 miler on Friday.

W1D3

Yesterday's weather was beautiful, today's was So Cal June Gloom at his fullest. We even had rain, an actual bonafide thunder shower. I sit outside on a patio at work most days with several coworkers for lunch. One of the lightning flashes hit so close and exploded into thunder almost immediately that we all jumped.

The rain continued on into the afternoon. It was pretty light and wouldn't affect my planned run later in the evening. The problem was the thunder and lightning continued on until well into the afternoon. When a coworker left work they cautioned me about running outside. They'd just heard a report of a women getting struck by lighting at an outlet mall about 60 miles east of us.

The weather subsided sufficiently that I got my planned 4 miler in after work, outside. I texted my coworker "4 miles and no lightning strike." 24 hours after yesterday's leg work out I could really feel the effects on this run.

More foam rolling is in order. Now I've got to pack up my suitcase for the third time in 5 weeks for a long weekend trip back to OH for my oldest niece's high school graduation.

Today was National Running Day. I hope you were able to get your run on today.

W1D2

After the rest day yesterday, the real work began today.

Right after work I met with my trainer and did a 30 minute leg workout. That guy loves to do leg workouts. Me, I tolerate them. Today made me realize how tight my quads and hips are. I need to get back to the stretching and rolling. I've gotten lazy about them since I've been feeling better. Marathon training will be better served by finding the time to include them.

I followed up the leg work out by an doing an easy 3 miler. I ran in Bonelli- down Raging Waters Drive, across the dam and back again. I keeping the pace easy. I broke the run into quarters and took a one minute walk break every 3/4 of a mile or so.

I'm off to roll the quads and hips.

W1D1

I think I can do this. Marathon training has gone well so far. Today, W1D1 (week one, day one), went well. Today, like every Monday in the plan, was a Rest Day. I think I can do this.

Ryan Reynolds had an interesting quote in the March Men's Health magazine after having run the NYC marathon about goals versus expectations. He tries to avoid expectations saying, "When you have expectations, you are setting yourself for disappointment. I didn't expect to finish the marathon; I trained to finish it."

And so will I.

Time to Get Serious

The month of May has been a blur. I have managed to run consistently, 4 days a week. My weekly mileage is still on the low side at, 27, 27.4, 17.4, and 25 over the last 4 weeks. I even snuck in one of my favorite races, the Malibu Creek Trail Challenge. It is 14 miles in the Santa Monica Mountains. This was my third and slowest attempt at this race but it was good to be running. I haven't seen the physical therapist since April 24th. I've been running without any really significant pain and have eliminated walk breaks for the most part.

This month I put in some miles in Boston, some miles in Baltimore, and some miles in Carpinteria, CA with a few more thrown in at home and at various SoCal running destinations with the CA Cruisers. Mother's Day weekend we ran at a new destination; Powder Canyon; in La Habra Heights. The run has some nice rolling hills through both wooded terrain and open meadows with a mix of fire road and single track. I really hope we keep this in the regular rotation. This weekend we did another one of my faves - the Crystal Cove Beach run from Corona Del Mar south to the "wall". The tide was super low so it was great to run on the hard pack sand at the water's edge.

The really exciting news is.......State Number 14 is now on the schedule. Joe and I swapped a couple of emails a week or so ago and we are planning on meeting on Labor Day weekend to run the Heart of America Marathon in Columbia, Missouri. The registration forms calls it one of the oldest and toughest marathons. We'll be running the 50th anniversary edition. I'm always a sucker for a gimmick. Take a look at the reviews on marathonguide.com. Feel free to join us. It should be fun and you can't beat the $25 registration fee. I've paid more than that for some 5K's.

I've got 14 weeks to race day. I usually train using Hal Higdon's programs I found on-line back in 2004. This time around I'm going to give Bart Yasso's training schedules a try. I found them in his book "My Life on the Run" that I picked up while in Big Sur last year. I like the long run progressions. The mid week runs seem to get a little long, with a fair share of 8 to 10 milers sprinkled in. Those may be tough to fit into a weekday but we'll see how it goes. None the less I am excited to be continuing the 50 state journey, healthy at this point, with high hopes of staying that way for awhile.

Running Concierge

I just spent the end of last week, through the weekend, and into this week in Boston. Our annual industry trade show was there. When I found out last year that the show would be there, I hoped I would be able to attend. Thanks to being part of two teams that launched new products at the show I was given the green light. While my main focus was the show you know that running was a close second on my mind.

How could I go to Boston and not run? Boston is a running town. Or at least I imagine it so. We were staying at the hotel adjacent to the convention center. I had scoured the net for some suggested routes in the area and the hotel had a feature sponsored by Runner's World magazine. They had mapped out a 3 mile and 5 mile route from the hotel. Pretty cool.

Even cooler, when I arrived at the hotel and checked in there was a message on the room phone. I checked to see if some of my workers were checking in. The message was from Paul the Running Concierge at the Westin inviting the guests to join him the following morning, Friday, for a 3 mile jog around the area. How cool is that. I had already planned to run and now I had at least one partner.

I showed up at the fitness center at 6:25 the following morning and met the Running Concierge and 6 other folks. Two of the other runners were from my company. I had no idea they were runners. Cool again.

The run was a fun little jaunt around the south end of Boston, a recent redevelopment area. Our route took us just short of the North End and Hanover Street, home of some great Italian food.

The other two employees and I met up again on Saturday morning. We ran a 5 mile loop suggested by the RC, Paul. I took Sunday off and then met Paul for another 3 miler on Monday.

Tuesday Paul had invited anyone who was interested in joining in on a 5 miler. He was helping a fellow Westin employee train for a half marathon. I decided to venture out on my own instead and plotted a route to get me over the the Boston Marathon Finish Line. I couldn't travel to Boston and not see a running landmark as famous as the Boston Marathon Finish Line. It was, what else, pretty cool to see. It is 3 foot wide yellow band painted across the street. The route turned out to be about 5 miles.

On my flight home I was catching up on back issues of Runner's World and I came across a little blurb about Westin Hotels and their Running Concierges. They are piloting the program in several major cities. Westin Hotels are out of my personal price range but it a really great perk that lends a lot of credence to the popularity of running.