Buddy Run by Myself

I am actually liking the solo runs now. Bryan started his chemo yesterday. Transitioning back to work was more than uncomfortable. Final fundraising day is this Thursday and I am pretty short. UGH, the run was a cleanse and I found myself stopping at 5 miles and wanting to go more, but it was getting dark and I should stick to my training anyway.

Tapered Run 1

We met at Alameda Ferry Terminal to run 8 miles today. Flat as a pancake - the run was quick and to the point. Felt like piece of cake after twenty last weekend.

Mandeville Canyon Buddy Run with Dad

This week I am in LA while Natalie has come down to film in West Hollywood. For my buddy run I decided to invite Dad on one of our old runs through the canyon we used to do every Wednesday when I lived here. Also the dogs came along and I tried letting rhea off the leash in the canyon for the first time. SO CUTE! We hiked up the canyon about 30 minuts. Then I ran the fire roads, in the past I have struggled on these, and this time I totally kicked the canyons butt, or hills I should say. I really did feel pleased with my hill training after realizing how far I had come today. Poor little rhea quit on me halfway up the hill but jumped back in on my way down. It was so nice to run on soft dirt, be in warm weather and just be back in LA. The run wasn't necessarily a long one (like 3 miles or so) but the hike up and back down was about an hour and a pretty consistently intense incline/decline, so I felt the strength training aspect for the day also.

20 Seems Plenty

Last night we finally got in from the drive home around 10pm. By the time the dogs were walked and we had finally gotten to bed it was around 11. I think I would have been more nervous about 20 in the morning, but my mind was still in temporary shock from the day we were finishing. Chipper Sue had agreed to pick me up in the morning at 6am and we would carpool into the city to meet at Queen Willemena's Windmill where Golden Gate Park meets Ocean Beach. This would be our starting point. Starting time was set at 7am. That's great except that the directions were incorrect and we ended up being 20 minutes late. We began at 7:30. It was raining and pretty cold. After last week, I know I prefer cold over hot so I wasn't bothered. We left Golden Gate Park and started off our first 5 miles all uphill. Oh yay. We ran up around the Presidio into the Marina (past Robin William's house) and I discovered this really cool old bath house at the bottom of this sea cliff we were running over. Note to self: when not trying to run 5 miles uphill, I should really come leisurely check out these cool sites I am running past! We hit a random point marked on the side of the street we were running and were told to turn around and go back to start. Once we got back to GGP, we entered the park and ran along trails past the buffalos, the water falls, the silver pond, tons of Saturday league games going on, then we turned around at the end of the park and ran back the other side towards Ocean Beach again. When we reached the Ocean we turned left and started our shot down the Great Highway. Everyone seems to hate this part of the run because they say it is boring, but I LOVE running along the ocean. Granted, this one isn't warm and sandy, but jagged and rocky and pretty cold. I noticed all the surfers floating on their boards and they gave me a feeling of company out there other than all the runners in their own worlds. We took a left on sloat which directed us past the SF Zoo and down onto the trail around Lake Merced. This is the infamous four mile lake that is always uphill. Physically I don't understand how it can all be uphill, but it is. I thougt I would never find the end of Lake Merced, but finally I was running back past the zoo again and dumping out onto the Great Highway once more for the final two miles. I could see the giant windmill in the distance and it didn't look so far. But my feet felt like cinder blocks, my right knee was burning and Chipper Sue's back was getting really sore. So we reached this point where we looked at eachother and said "no more talking. let's just get it done." For miles 18-20 I looked down at my feet and watched one foot lap the next for two freakin' miles. It felt like forever. The minute I stopped running my body began registering pain. Hips, knees, feet...feet, and my lower back felt like I had been hit with a hammer. They wanted me to eat, but all I wanted to do was put on sweat pants, a jacket and use the restroom. It took us 4.5 hours to run 20 miles. Unfortunately at least half an hour of that was bathroom stops because there weren't port-o-potty's and with several teams training out there today, the few public restrooms through golden gate had huge lines each time. Also, Chipper Sue and I stopped to stretch at least four or five times. Perhaps I didn't prepare well for this run yesterday, with the road trip, not enough hydration, not ample sleep, etc. Also, this run told me I should strength train so much more than I have. Later when I was home and had taken my ice bath, consumed massive amounts of water, eaten almost an entire pizza and slept for a few hours, I took inventory of my body. Three of my toe nails were black and one was falling off, but most painful was my back. My water bottle resting in my fuel belt had created a huge welt on the right side of my spine and was the reason I felt a hammer had hit me in the back. So...nixing the fuel belt and opting for a handheld from now on. (later I discovered my running shoes are half a size too small when my feet swell on a long run, so I bought new shoes and hopefully - toe nail problem solved.)
Tomorrow I ride in a car all the way to LA for 6 hours; making sure to pack my ice packs on my hips/knees and elevating my legs on the dash board. Bring on sappy tunes of Delilah playing on the car radio for hours and too many drive through starbucks lattes! If anything I will distract myself from my current situation during my vacation this week.
Oh, and today is my dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad!

Perspective The Day before 20

This week has been a little tough. Timewise it's been difficult to get in training. Work has been really long and last Sunday my step dad Bryan went to the hospital with shallow breath and a very swollen leg. Evidently he has blood clots in his body, which is scary enough, but they discovered nodules in his lungs that seem to have an unfortunate connection with blood clots leading to a scary diagnosis. He has been there all week, going through scan after test after test...and repeat ten thousand times. They came back with results showing a large mass on his liver and several smaller ones in his lungs. Wednesday they performed a biopsy and today they came back with results. Natalie and I decided to drive out and be there for the results. Chipper Sue kindly offered to stop by our house and take the dogs on a couple of walks throughout the day. It's been a while since I've felt the feeling of having a friend there for times like this. The results turned out bleak with stage four colon cancer being his diagnosis. While I was there they removed the cancer from his colon, the mass on his liver is inoperable and chemo has been scheduled for the first of October. The road it seems he so suddenly turned down seems long and difficult with big monster hills scheduled every two weeks for the next six months. I cannot even imagine facing this and I am sad my family faces it now. Cancer is sudden and stealth and horrible and the ugliest thing I've seen. Today Bryan is given news of his diagnosis and chemo schedule, and he sits and talks to me about how I will run my 20 miles tomorrow. The new perspective is at the very least interesting.

YOYO at Marina Bay

Sue and I wanted to switch things up a bit and run a course we haven't yet for our yoyo run today. (your on your own)For some reason we decided to start our run at 1pm instead of earlier in the day, but it was on the water so the heat wasn't so bad. So we started at the Albany Bulb and went up through Pt. Isabel and through Marina Bay until we hit the end of the road, or pier rather, and turned around. Nice quick 10 mile run with beautiful views and refreshing breezes. I can't complain.

Track with ZERO slack

I guess track was so tough today because it's our last one before our big bad 20 mile long run pre race day. Coach Al told us not to worry about the hills on the Nike Preview run (oh, this run is staged for the race course, not exactly but really similar) and then he laughed and rubbed his hands together saying "not after today at least." He was kidding...only not. We ran hill repeats (no drills, only hills this time) in loops like we usually do, only he upped the sets and added in the unthinkable hill, the one my car literally putts up when I park for track. It's the hill that when you walk it to your car, you lean your whole body into a huge lunge to just sclep your body at a walking pace up the damn thing. Yes, he said we must add this hill to our rounds today. Let's just say that I did it of course, but at the expense of my poor right soleus. It worked so hard to get me up that last monster hill of each set that I actually strained the little sucker. For the rest of the day I massaged and iced it. It took a couple of days but was back to good after stretching and massage before the next big run. So this weekend is a run on our own. Next weeked is the big kahuna, well the big nike preview at least.

Chillin' with Patty on my solo run

Today Chipper Sue wasn't available for the buddy portion of the buddy run, so I *cheated* and threw on my ipod and ran solo. Well, with Patty Griffin actually. She wailed and I ran, and together we did 4 miles. It was great, and fit perfectly between leaving work and meeting Nat at Bart to go to dinner.

Not so Sweet Sixteen

SO here we are...the big one six! 40 miles away no less - needless to say my Chipper Sue and I decided to car pool to our run. The whole concept of schlepping in a car (so far that you resort to carpooling)just to run on foot seems foriegn to me. Surely (I thought) the course would be so worth the drive. Like the redwood park, I would have driven an hour just to kill myself on those ridiculous mountains. It was so beautiful! Chipper Sue and I found ourselves ending the driving directions in an oh so ordinary looking suburb neighborhood. Walking up, we found everyone meeting by a picnic table next to a giant port-o-potty. Nice. What was even better was another team joined us and the line for the giant, single hole I might add, was around the friggin' culdesac! Turns out our sixteen mile run was along a dry river bed...get this, on a cement sidewalk! Literally we ran in direct sunlight along an unforgiving hard slab of concrete for four miles out one direction, turned around and ran the same damn sidewalk we just ran (hitting the exact same water stops)for four miles back, pass our trusty port-o-potty, and then do the same thing out the opposite direction from starting point. I was bored, bored, bored. So was Chipper Sue. The concrete and direct sun were so draining and hard on our bodies. Not to mention I was highly menstral, cramping and cranky as hell. Actually, I thought I was IN hell. Both of us stayed strong and toughed it out with as much positivity as we could muster. The last mile and a half was achy on my hips and knees. (After this run entered the realm of taping down my iliotibial band, so genius)When we finished both of us were pretty over the lame course we drove 40 miles to experience, neither of us were hungry enough to eat the grub provided, and opted to not revisit the same gloomy port-o-potty with the neverending line. Big double thumbs down for San Leandro "Alameda Creek" course. Afterwards I discovered big fat blisters on my feet, jumped in a giant triple bagged ice bath (woah, scale back to two next time!) and bee lined it to the taco shack for some yummy fish taco protien. Cross my fingers that 20 miles is better!

Only one kind of push up in my book.

You know, as much as it sucks to wake up in the dark and drive yourself to an hour of hill repeats, this whole AM track thing is really starting to grow on me. No matter what bullshit comes along the rest of the day I know I have kicked some hill butt before 7am and nothing will be more challenging the rest of the day. (hopefully) So this morning we did our routine circuit drills and hill repeats. Just the regular 3 hills with drills in between, for a total of 5 complete sets. I am officially the only girl to do the "boy" pushups. I had a mentor ask why I do them, and I responded that I didn't like the gender specific distinction and I saw only one way to do a pushup; the other is simply a modification to make it easier. The comment wasn't as well recieved as I'd hoped...but they never are. She said "of course they are gender specific, that's why I do the girl ones...because I'm a girl." She didn't get it - or maybe I'm just a push up snob. Either way, I guess my pecs appreciate me in the end.

Good ole buddy runs...

My chipper sue and I met after work at my house and ran around Berkeley for an hour. It's always pretty nice to run out of my front door and finish at my front door. As an unexpected side note, I find I run out the stress of my day before starting my evening at home...good way to keep it separated. :) That, unfortunately, is becoming crucial.

Completing Part Dos

So today I decided an afternoon run at the Berkeley Marina, aka flat breezy run, sounded more my style. I started as Sea Breeze Cafe and ran over the pedestrian bridge, around the large pond, back over the bridge and down the Marina to Chevy's and turned around and ran back. Really simple run, but for some reason I find it so satisfying. This surprises me because I can see the finish line the whole time. Usually this is a little mentally draining, but I guess the salty air, the constant foot traffic, and the sounds of the bay make it soothing. Anyway, I loved it. Finished up slightly over 6 miles and ready to start the evening feeling rejuvenated. Ahhh.