Wild Runs and Wild Life

I haven’t blogged in two weeks.  Bad blogger.  School started this morning and in the past couple of weeks we seemed to be busy squeezing all we could out of the summer.  I am going to use this post to recap some of my runs over the past couple of weeks.

Last Saturday, we had a great long run down at the beach.  The weather was still uncharacteristically cool and the sun didn’t come out at the beach our entire run.  I had twenty on my schedule, but Kelly and Joan wanted to do eighteen.  I took the long way to get to Kelly’s house before driving to the pier and gave myself almost a two mile head start.  We ended up running nineteen, giving me twenty one for the day!  We ran up to “the water tower.”  I had never been on this run, but it was obvious where our turnaround spot was.  The crazy thing is that the water tower is an actual home!  They apparently live up in the round part of the tower.  Cool!


That Tuesday, I met Joan for a run in the trails.  She had shown me a fabulous trail off Weir Canyon the week before and I was eager to run it again.  It has a lot of hills and mostly single track.  At one point, we ran through a tunnel under a road.  I don't mean an underpass, but an honest-to-goodness tunnel.  At one point we couldn’t see our feet, even though we could see the light coming through the other end.  Trippy.

Joan realized that trails don’t scare me.  I don’t worry about getting lost and am willing to try a new one if it means finding a fun new route.  She asked if I wanted to try a trail she had always wanted to explore, but didn’t want to do it alone.  Of course I would!  From this point on, we explored the area, trying new trails and some areas that weren’t even trails.  We battled overgrown brush and even some giant spiders.  Yuck!

At one point, we looked up at the top of the hill and saw a deer.  We stopped and tried to wait for him to run down the hill, but he/she saw us and was willing to wait us out.  I am glad that the deer is as far as the wild life got that day.  We were out a bit later than normal and the sun was really starting to get hot.  I was very worried about seeing a snake (I HATE SNAKES), and thank goodness I didn’t.

I met Marci last Wednesday for an eight miles tempo run.  We did a good job of keeping our pace faster than marathon pace (8:45), but not quite to half marathon pace (a little over 8:00).  Most of our tempo miles were right around 8:30.  It felt good to work a little harder and remind my legs how to run a bit faster.   We ran through a neighborhood that had a lot of horse properties.  Every other house or so had a stable or corral and horses.  I was taken by surprise when I saw a ZEBRA!
You can see his buddy the llama (or alpaca) coming up behind him.  These people also had an ostrich, a pot-bellied pig, more llamas and a bunch of donkeys.   You really don’t see that every day!

We have run a couple times in the last week into the Boy Scout camp just past Irvine Park.  It is a great hilly run with a lot to see.  How beautiful is this run??
  
Yesterday, we saw a different kind of critter.  No deer or even coyotes were spotted.  Just an incredibly creepy crawly.

Joan put her hand down to give reference to show how big this thing was.  Ewwwwww.
   
And, of course, we run our beloved Santiago Creek at least once a week.  I never get tired of this place to run.  Now that we have branched out and tried new trails from this route, I know I’ll never get bored here.  There are so many trails and so many kinds of terrain.


In the middle of all these great runs was a little race called the LA Mud Run.  I will post a race report soon.  I still have to get the pictures developed, and that is something I am not used to doing.  I ran with a disposable water proof camera so I am hoping for some fun muddy pictures.

I am so lucky to live so close to such fabulous places to run.  Add all the wonderful people I have met to run with, this is turning out to be a great training cycle!

Happy Running!

Palos Verdes Half Marathon Race Report

 

This was a last minute race for me.  I had been thinking about it for a while.  I have it penciled into my schedule as a possible race.  I decided to run it sometime on Thursday because I knew I needed to get a good, solid long run in and wasn’t sure I had the motivation to do it by myself.  I didn’t register, but knew that they had race day registration available.  Then I received a text from Rod that he, Jeff and Joan were running it and would I like to ride with them.  Yippee!!  I was excited that I didn’t have to drive 45 minutes by myself and hang out for an hour before the race.

We met at 5:30 to drive down there.  It was chilly, but not cold. I ended up wearing a tank top, my arm warmers and shorts and was completely comfortable throughout the race.  It stayed overcast in the upper 50’s the entire time.  Perfect running weather.

I started out running with Rod.  We have very similar PR’s, but he is just faster than I am.  I knew that we could definitely push each other.  It was a bit crowded in the beginning where we had to walk for a bit until it opened up, but we got into a rhythm fairly soon.  We went out faster than I normally would, but I thought that I might be able to keep it up.  Could I get a PR?  Hmmm…   Rod offered to slow down when I commented that our first mile was 8:13 (even with the slow start), but I wanted to see what we could do.

The second mile started to climb, but we kept pushing the pace.  We kept up our pace and were average under my PR pace of 8:19.  We ran the second mile in 8:23.

But that is when it started to get steep; really steep.  I wasn’t even really warmed up (it often takes me a few miles to really feel warmed up) and the course turned on to Western Ave which was quite a climb.  I knew I needed to slow down.  My pace slowed down closer to ten minute miles.  I saw Rod start to get ahead of me.  I knew we had over ten miles to go and I didn’t want to kill myself by trying to keep up with him.  As I saw him get farther up the hill ahead of me, I hoped I could catch him toward the end. At the very top, I stopped briefly at the water station, even though I was carrying my own water.  I gave myself permission to stop to gather myself before continuing on. Mile three was 9:42, the slowest of the day.

The course then flattened out for a bit.  That next mile was full of rolling hills, which weren’t nearly as bad.  The scenery was wonderful and I even pulled my phone out to snap a picture.  That is Trump National Golf Course in the distance.  I ran mile four in 8:26.


Then we hit the longest downhill of the day.  It felt great, except for the fact that I knew that I would have to come up that hill toward the end of the race.  I really wanted to take advantage of that downhill, however, to bank some time.  Mile five was the fastest of the day: 7:41—woo hoo!

It continued with the gradual downhill for close to another mile.  That was followed with some steep, short rollers.  The turn-around came and I had to do those rollers again.  Mile six and seven were 8:17 and 8:20.

I’ve decided that I actually like out-and-back courses. but only when I am running with other people.  I love being able to see all my friends.  I was able to see Jeff, who was about ten minutes ahead of me.  I saw that Rod was a couple minutes ahead of me and Joan was about ten minutes behind me.  I also was able to see Penny and give her a high five.  During the time before and after the turn-around, looking for my friends was a great distraction from running.

Miles eight, nine and ten slowed down again (8:54, 9:38 and 9:13) as the course went back up the hill (remember those zippy miles in miles five, six and seven?).  At the end of mile nine (the second slowest of the race) I could see the top of the long incline (so I thought).  I told myself that I would have my last Gu at the top.  When I reached the point, I discovered that it was merely a turn in the road and it continued up for another half mile!  Holy hell!  Why didn’t I pay more attention on the way down???

The last three miles were mostly downhill (8:25, 7:50 and 8:33).  The steep hill on Western Avenue wasn’t as fun as I thought it would be (although, I did haul some booty with a sub-8 mile.  woo hoo!).  While I am getting better at the downhills, at the end of a tough run, I felt like my feet were pounding the pavement.  Even though another runner warned me earlier, I completely forgot that the race started with a gradual decline (maybe that is why that first mile was so fast).  Well, during the last mile of a hard-run half marathon, an incline, even a gradual one, is disheartening.  I like to put on the gas during the last mile of a race, but that last bit felt really hard.  When I finally saw the finish I gave it everything I had.  I saw Jeff on the sideline cheering me in and I gave my last bit of steam to cross the finish.  I had the volunteer tear off the bottom of my bib, since I couldn’t even get my hands to work.

My official results:

Time: 1:53:19
Overall: 268/1118
Division:14/88

Palos Verdes elevation profile

This was one of the hardest races I have run.  The trail races* are technically harder, but there is so much less pressure to run fast (and therefore, I ran them an hour slower). This was very similar to La Jolla Half in terms of hill climbing.  La Jolla has a longer hill, and this one has two big hills.  I’ve looked at the elevation profiles and can’t tell which one is more difficult.  Either way, I am happy to have run this one three minutes faster than La Jolla, which I ran in 1:56:39.  I am happy to be only four minutes off my half marathon PR (1:49) on a course like this.  In fact, I have only run two half marathons faster than I did on Saturday (Carlsbad and Southern California).

La Jolla elevation profile

Despite the difficulty of the course, I can definitely see myself doing this race again.  I actually enjoyed it and felt a sense of accomplishment after finishing strong.

Once again, thanks for reading.  And happy running...

*Malibu Creek 22K, Malibu Creek 25K, and the Winter Trail Series 21K races had insane elevation profiles and rough terrain.

Last week's update-- a good week of running

I am a little late posting about last week's runs. It was another big week, at least for me. I ran another 37 miles. It was probably my toughest week as I added speed and hills to the mix.

Monday-- rest
Tuesday--5 miles easy
Wednesday-- 6 mile hill workout
Thursday-- 6 miles easy
Friday-- 5 mile track workout
Saturday-- rest
Sunday-- 15 miles

I did three runs in a row in my neighborhood. I didn't mean to, but I got lazy. I couldn't pull myself out of bed early enough. I had every intention of driving to Lake Murray on one or two days, but I dilly dallied around until it was getting too late. I need to be home by 7:30 or so in order to get the kids ready for their days. It takes about 15 minutes to drive to the lake, so I need to factor in an extra half an hour if I want to run there. The only problem with running so much in my neighborhood is the fact that there are so many hills. To leave my immediate neighborhood, I would have to run down a very steep hill (which means running or walking back up it at the end). Hills aren't a bad thing, but they are tough every day.

My hill workout was brutal. I didn't have much of a plan, so I just ran a hill, went back down and ran it again and then found another one. We have a hill in our neighborhood that isn't quite as steep as the others. It is a little less than a half mile long and is not quite as steep as 6th street, the main hill at the end of the AFC Half Marathon. I ran up our hill at race pace. At the top, I thought I was going to pass out or throw up. It was tough. It made me realize that I might need to count on running that mile or so during AFC a bit slower than my race pace. It also means that if I am going to PR, I might have to run the early miles faster. I think I like the early hills of La Jolla better. Once you have the big hill out of the way, you can push yourself till the end. My legs were jello by the end of that hill workout. So a question about hills-- should I focus on running up them at an easy pace where I can breath regularly, getting used to the incline or power up them at an anaerobic level? What do you do?

I did have a plan for the track workout. I used a combination of some calculations from my certification training and McMillan. McMillan was a bit faster than the paces I figured on my own. It gave me a nice range to shoot for. I decided to try to aim toward the fast side of things, just to see if my legs could still move quickly. It is funny how much you can dread a track workout. It is a lot of work. But it ended up being fun. Here is what my plan was:
1 mile warm up
4 X 100 @ :24-:28 with 100m walk
4 X 200 @ :45-:57 with 200m jog
4 X 800 @ 3:40- 4:00 with 200m jog
1 mile cool down

Here's what I did:
4 X 100 @ :20*, :22, :23, :25 w/ 100m walk/jog
4 X 200 @ :48, :49, :47, :49 w/ 200m walk/jog
4 X 800 @ 3:44, 3:49, 3:46, 3:49 with a short water break getting my heart rate down-- no distance between sets
3/4 mile cool down (it was getting late, so I skipped the last lap)

Obviously, I got a bit slower as I went on, but I am happy with it. I still kept well below my original paces (the higher end of the ranges). I am going to add a few miles at race pace this week in order to train my legs to run at that speed. I am hoping for a race pace of around 8:25 per mile. I know that is a pretty aggressive goal. As we get closer to the race, I may reevaluate that goal.

I thought of Terri during the sprinting portion of the workout. She often wrote about how much she loves the sprints. During the 100's, I felt free. I just ran fast, without really worrying about the time. The longer intervals were harder. I had to really push myself on one or two of the 800's. I considered skipping the last one, but am glad I completed all the intervals.

I have mentioned the track where I like to do these workouts. It is part of the Cuyamaca College campus, a junior college near my house. The track feels like a true community track. I always see other runners and walkers there. They have visitor parking spaces (where the rest of the campus is permit only). It has a drinking fountain and a porta potty. The other college nearby has a gate and I have encountered it locked on several occasions. There are ways in, but I then feel like I am trespassing. Well, the other night, it again felt like a community spot. There was a young sprinter, some walkers, a couple running laps and then going into the adjacent hills, and one special member of the community. This guy was booking across the track into the grassy infield. He's definitely not my favorite, but I would rather see him than the other pesky desert-dweller, the rattle snake. It was getting dark and I only had my phone with me, but I had to get a picture of this guy. It is a bit grainy, but I think you can get the picture. He was HUGE. I mean... almost as big as my hand! I would have put my hand down to give a point of reference, but I am not that crazy!

My last run of the week was my long run. Once again, it was a group run. This was one of those mornings I was thankful to be meeting the girls. I really didn't feel like running, but I was excited to keep up the momentum of these group runs. It was a smaller group this week (only five of us), but it was another success. I am particularly proud that all five runners completed five different distances, yet everyone felt like they were part of the group run. We had runners running eight, ten, eleven, and thirteen miles based on their individual plans and fitness. I had fifteen to do. Everyone ran at least four miles with someone else and two of the runners were able to run their entire distance with a friend.

The only bad part of the run was the return of my potty issues (warning: possible TMI ahead). I read AKA Alice's post last week that stated that the bathrooms at Balboa Park aren't open until 8 a.m. Uh Oh. That was NOT good news, since I was starting at 5:30 at Balboa Park and not running by any businesses until about mile seven! I tried to use the bathroom several times before leaving home. I started running with my friend, Anne, and all was well. I thought I could make it until I ran by the McDonald's later on. Unfortunately, around mile four, I was searching for a leftover porta potty from a park function or a race (I have found them in the past). I left Anne so she could finish her run (she had to be home earlier than the rest of us) and searched desperately for an open potty.

By the time I got back to the car, I was at a point where I couldn't run anymore. I needed a bathroom. I was meeting Alicia and Jenna and had ten more miles to complete with them. So I searched through the trunk of the car, grabbed a plastic bag, some baby wipes (always good to have!) and headed behind a bush**. AKA Alice, at this point, I thought of you and your bush. However, I didn't take a picture of my bush. It was not my finest hour.

The rest of the run went well. We ran up around the zoo parking lot and then down to the convention center. Comic Con was going on, but I didn't see any celebrities or cool costumes. It was probably too early. We did get some strange looks. Running in the sunshine is a foreign concept to some of the Comic Con attendees. LOL. We then ran up the route of the half marathon. Once again, I ran the hill twice, going back and checking on my runners. Running between the different pace groups helped give me an extra mile bringing my total to fifteen miles.

All in all, I'd say it was a successful weeek. Looking at the length of this post, I'd say I should have posted about each of the runs separately. If you read through the entire week... I thank you!


*I'm not 100% sure of this one. I think I started on the wrong line and ran a shorter distance for the first interval. When I stopped my watch, it said :14. I knew I didn't run 100 that quickly, so I estimated based upon my perceived speed in relation to the other four intervals.
**Hey... sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

It's been a slow week....literally

I have just felt like I am trudging along this week. Maybe it is the oppressive humidity. Well... it sure seemed oppressive to me. It is probably not nearly as bad as the humidity many of you East of here are facing. When it is getting up towards 90 degrees, 80 per cent humidity just makes me feel slow and sweaty. It was even super muggy down at the beach on Tuesday. I was a sweaty mess.

I barely got out there and ran this week. I ran almost 2.5 miles on Tuesday before my daughter and I were done with the stroller. We were at the beach and she had no desire to stay couped up in that stroller. I wasn't feeling it so much either, so we went walking on the beach and got our feet wet in the ocean.

Wednesday's run was a little better. I ran four miles around my neighborhood. The first mile and a half or so was four loops around my block which includes some decent hills. Then I sprinted (as much as I could) up a very steep hill. Hill repeats-- check. I tried to do a bit of a tempo run for the rest of it, but I just can't seem to go very fast by myself. One of my splits was 9:11, but it is mostly downhill. My average pace for the entire run was 9:30. It's not bad, but definitely not the tempo that I would like to see as I am approaching the half marathon next weekend.

Thursday and Friday, I just couldn't get myself out of bed. On Thursday, I think I had some sort of migraine (odd visual disturbances followed by a headache that lasted all day) and Friday was just being lazy, I'm afraid. So I only ran twice during the week. hmmmff.

Funny story about Wednesday. I wore my oldest and most comfy running shorts. Toward the end of that short run, I surprisingly found myself getting a bit of chafing between my legs. I chalked it up to the icky humidity, but was disappointed that I would start having to use BodyGlide for short runs when I have barely needed it for long ones in the past. When I got home, I realized that my shorts were on BACKWARDS. *blush* Maybe the lack of sleep is getting to me ;-D

Reality check!

I have been getting really confident about my half marathon on August 17. Yesterday's 11.6 mile run was just the thing to make sure I don't suffer from over-confidence. I had been hoping to get pretty close to, if not under, two hours, but now I am not so sure. It wasn't a horrible run, but it certainly wasn't an easy one either.

We started in Balboa Park, right where the race ends. We ran the last few miles along the same streets as the race course, including a killer hill toward the end.

We started about two hours later than we had originally planned. The temperature wasn't too bad, but the humidity was horrible. I have never really been much of a sweater, but lately I am dripping! I brought a sweat towel with me and shoved it in an empty holster on my hydration belt. It really came in handy.

The first part of our run went along the same route as the marathon did. While I often think about the marathon as I drive through various parts of the city, this particular stretch didn't even feel familiar. It was so crowded then and I was so excited that I don't think I paid much attention to that first couple of miles. Once we hit Park Blvd., it all came back to me. I had a lot of fun during that part of the marathon.

As we ran around Petco Park toward the convention center, I was struck by how many people there were. Laura reminded me what it was-- Comic con! What is Comic Con? you may ask. I think it used to be a comic book convention. It has since moved to focus on general sci-fi and now it is described as 'pop culture.' It is the biggest convention in San Diego. This year, the sold out convention is expected to have over 125,000 self-proclaimed geeks and nerds attending. As we ran around the convention center, it was pretty clear that Laura and I stood out from the crowd. Whereas many of the people were dressed as everything from Storm Troopers to super heroes, I had my hydration belt, visor and sweat rag--my own version of a nerdy look. I told Laura that I doubted if too many of them ran 11 miles on a Saturday morning. I doubt if too many of them get outside much at all. Video games and movies all the time, just isn't my style.

Speaking of Heroes, at one point I actually thought it would be fun to go in. I heard, as we ran by, someone announce that they would be letting the Heroes line in. Little did I know but the entire cast of NBC's Heroes was there. I found out later that they showed a sneak preview of the season premiere! I never said I didn't have geek tendencies. I LOVE that show and can't wait for the premiere. But I digress.....

We ran past the convention center, along the embarcadero, on to Seaport Village, one of my favorite spots in San Diego. We ran along Harbor to Ash, where we started on the streets of the half marathon. On one hand, it was nice running through the city. On the other hand....yuck. All too often we would get an overwhelming whiff of urine. San Diego is a very clean city. If it smells like this throughout parts of this city with a nice bay breeze coming through, what do other cities smell like??? I can only imagine the city streets of New York. Laura, if you are reading, do you get horrible smells while you run in NYC??

We finally hit the dreaded 6th street. It doesn't seem like much of a hill. In fact, if you are in a car, you would never describe it as such. But for a mile, it is a continuous climb. After nine miles or so (eleven on race day), it really takes the wind out of your sails. Alissa, I hope you are doing some hills to prepare. Just try to do a long (about a mile) incline of 200+ feet or so at the end of one of your long runs.

In an interesting turnabout, my running partner, Laura, had to stop and walk for a bit around ten miles. This is the same Laura who kicked my ass in every run during marathon training and finished twenty minutes ahead of me in the race. She was having a rough day. It could have easily been me. My point in mentioning this at all is that I am running at par with her now. I think I have really improved in the seven weeks or so since the marathon.

I still have some training to do before AFC, especially if I want to break the two-hour mark. The good news is that no matter how I finish, it will be a PR since I have never run a half marathon. I need to just do the best I can.