Finally a Good Run...

After missing Tuesday's early morning swim due to the desire to stay in bed, I decided to try again Wednesday and set my alarm for 5am. My wife and I had a guest in our bedroom all night...a cricket (get your minds out of the gutter) and I didn't sleep much. Actually I spent most of the night with a flashlight trying to find the thing...and never did. Needless to say...I skipped the swim. As I sat there reading tweets and blogs about people's workout they had done or were going to do, I thought, I gotta quit f#*king around. I said to myself...self...you gotta run 5 miles tonight. I quickly made it home and changed and headed out for my 5 miles. I have several 5 mile routes I could take but I saw my neighbor and her daughter running up the hill so I decided to chase them down. They were about 150 yds a head of me and by the time I reached the top of the first hill...I caught them. We chatted for a minute and when they said they were heading the other direction, I took off fo the major hill loop. I haven't run this route in a while but it is a 4.5 mile loop with 534 feet of elevation gain...something I can use to prepare for my leg in the RnR San Diego Relay. I was cruising along at a pretty good pace and hit the steep section which is about 1 mile long and I ran that at a 10:27/mi pace. I was very happy about that. I made it to the top and headed down the other side and kept a nice even pace, never feeling labored, actually, I probably could have given it a bit more. In the end it was 4.5 miles in 39:12 (8:52/mi avg)

This morning I finally got that swim in that I had been trying get in all week. 1700 yards in 38:59, seeing some improvement in the water, but need to start doing 3 swim workouts per week. My arms and shoulders felt tired, so I am thinking some weight workouts are in order....where to find the time though???

From the "Unbelievable File"

Last Saturday morning on my run, I came to a stop light. While I was standing there I noticed that the curbs were freshly painted red. When I looked over at the storm drain, this is what I saw...the brilliant City of Los Angeles Street maintenance people painted the trash that was in the storm drain instead of removing it first. This is one big #FAIL!!!

I Seemed to Have Misplaced My Mojo...Once Again!

A few weeks ago I thought I had got my swimming/biking/running mojo back after the LA Marathon and got back to my regular schedule of swimming, biking and running. This week, it seems that I have misplaced it once again. I am finding it more enjoyable to stay in bed in the morning, instead of heading to the gym to swim or out on the streets to run. On Sunday's, which is my normal bike day, I just find it too much work to get all of my bike gear together, pump the tires and head out for a ride. The last few weeks, I have done a run on Sunday instead. This week I even joined Ms. V's Virtual 10K and placed in my age group! Woo Hoo...I think I was the only one in my age group though, but I'll take it!

I think part of the problem is that I do 90% of my training alone and in the past I have enjoyed that. I was only running with other people on Thursday nights and occasionally with my running partner on Saturdays when I wasn't running with the MT Gleason (SRLA) Runners. I can't wait to get back to running with the kids, they are a lot of fun to be around. Lately, our Thursday night "Fun Runs" have been just that...lots of fun and now I am craving that on every run! It sure make the runs more enjoyable when you have some great people to laugh with. So I guess what I am saying is...RP, lets not make those runs so much fun :) Actually, it looks like this week, there wont be so much laughing as we start to pick up some speed over 7 miles...should be interesting. The next few weeks are going to be challenging as I am off to back to back trade shows although I am looking forward to Nashville next week. I have never been and thanks to Penny @southbaygirl, she has given me some tips on areas to run while I am there. Hopefully after mid May, I can find the mojo and get back a regular training schedule.

A while back I posted that I was working on a medal rack for my medals so I could have a place to hang and display them instead of hanging them on the corners of bookshelves in my office. Here is a picture of the finished product, but I am working on Medal Rack V1.2 and that one will go to my RP.

San Diego Rock N Roll Recon

Last Thursday while I was in San Diego on business, I decided to drive my leg (leg #2  7 miles) of the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon Relay.  For those running the full marathon, this will be miles 7.5-14.5  I based this on the most recent course map that was available.

 I started at the transition point down near the Sante Fe railroad station and proceeded to drive up Broadway. There is a slight incline all the way up Broadway, but it is not too bad. I made a left onto 11th and proceeded to get onto the 163 freeway. I am not sure if the course runs north on the northbound lanes or north on the southbound lanes, but in any case the incline is the same. As Glenn pointed out in a comment, the road does have a fair amount of camber and the shoulders are the most flat spot to run. The incline is about 250 feet over 2.5 miles and there is a 1.5 mile downhill into Fashion Valley. Once on Friar's Road it is a fairly flat 2 miles with some small rollers into the transition area.

I noticed that there are some sections of Broadway and 10/11th, the road is a bit rough, but once you are on Hwy 163 and Friar's Road, the pavement is pretty smooth.

San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon Course Map

Here is the video I shot, sorry for the poor quality, I was the driver, navigator and cameraman using a Flip video camera. There is a condensed version (1:14)  and the full length version (4:48).



Long Version




As far as training, I was able to get a 5.3 mile run in on Thursday afternoon after spending 9 hours in the car to and from San Diego. Needless to say, that run was crappy...should have gone to the pool to swim instead. I set out on Saturday with my running partner Melissa for a 12 mile run that we ended up cutting short at 7.25 miles because neither of us were feeling it and old injuries were acting up. Sunday is usually a bike day for me, but since I have had a reoccurring knee issue on the bike, I decided to run 6.2 miles instead. That was actually the best run of the week.

I Feel the Need...The "Need 4 Speed"!

Next up for me is the San Diego Rock N Roll Relay, while some people might be content to spend the weekend with some great friends, run a leg of the relay dressed as one famous, deceased (questionable), singer from Tupelo, Mississippi...not us! We, Team Need 4 Speed, have set out to not only do the aforementioned, but we want to run a sub 4 hour marathon as well! Keep in mind that none of us are world class, elite runners, but we have heart, determination and dedication. That will only get us so far...we are gonna need some speed.

Last weekend I set out on a 7 mile run with some hills to simulate my leg (leg #2) and try and keep an average pace of 8:30/mi. After analyzing the data from my garmin, I found that I ran "more hill" than I would be running in San Diego, but I was able to keep an average pace of 8:53/mi. Tomorrow, Today, Yesterday (depending on when you read this), I will be in San Diego on business and plan to drive as much of leg #2 as possible to get a feel for the hill in that leg. It looks to be a 250 foot gain over 3 miles.

This week has been kind of a let down. During Sunday's bike ride, I noticed a bit of pain on the outside of my left knee and it hasnt gotten much better with rest. I have not run nor have I been to the pool to swim and I am not happy about it. I am hoping to get in 6 miles when I get home from San Diego, but we'll see what happens. This is my busy time of year and I have 2 trade shows back to back the first 2 weeks of May. I have to get focused and get back to training.

Gettin' Back Into The Swing of Things

Weeks before the LA Marathon, I decided that I would take a few weeks off after the race to recover and give my groin time to properly heal, after all, I was training pretty hard for the last 18 weeks. For the month leading up to the marathon, I decided that I would focus solely on running and opted to not do any swim or bike workouts until the marathon was done. I didn't need to get sick from the pool or crash on the bike to ruin my marathon debut. After 4 days, I decided that taking a few weeks off was not for me and decided to get back into the pool. Surprisingly, after taking a month off, I seemed to remember how to swim and knocked out 1000 yards. Later that evening, I ran my first run since the marathon, 6 easy miles.

Last week saw 1700 yards in the pool, an easy 5 mile run on Thursday night and a 14.5 mile long run/adventure on Saturday. I must say that Saturday's 14.5 mile run/adventure was the most fun I have had while training in a long time...good friends, good location, good times!

This week, I will try to get back to a normal routine of 2 swims, 3 runs and 1-2 bike workouts per week. I am also starting a 1/2 marathon training plan in preparation for the San Diego Rock N Roll Relay that I am participating in. It has been decided that Team "Need 4 Speed" will be running a sub 4 hour relay, meaning I am running leg 2 (7 miles) at an 8:30/mi pace. Time for a little speed work.

On a side note, I went out to the Great Race of Agoura, armed with my new Nikon D 5000 camera and shot 300 pictures, mostly of friends running the race, but lots of strangers as well. This was the first race that I can remember not running, it was a bit strange to be a spectator, but truly enjoyable. Here are a few of my favorites...

You can find more of the pictures here and more are being posted as I get time. If you know anyone in the pictures and they would like the original, Hi-Res picture, at no charge, have them contact me and I would be happy to email it to them.