I love the showtime Lakers. I am plenty old enough to remember Magic and Kareem and the epic battles with the Celtics, Sixers, and Pistons. I am a born and raised NoCal and really enjoy hating on the Dodgers and LA Kings. SoCal is stupid, but I still always made an exception for the Lakers when I was a kid. Back then, come playoff time, the Warriors were no longer on television, so the Lakers were the team in this household that time of year. Yesterday, the Warriors went up 3-1 over Denver, and the Lakers got swept in the first round against the Spurs. Without David Lee, this will not be the Warriors' year. Still, look for them in the playoffs for years to come, but do not expect for the Lakers to be down for long.
Ever since the incident in Colorado, I have been a Kobe hater. Being a Kobe hater has made me a Laker hater. I have a lot of Laker fan pals, like Kevin my bro in Huntington and Maggie at the gym. I actually like rooting for teams my friends root for, since I like it when they are stoked. I can even be happy for Josh and Thao, when the Cowboys win (but barely). The Lakers would be a great team for be to be able to get behind, at least a little and at least every once in a while. But that thing in Colorado, the alleged rape or sexual assault, ruined it for me. And if you defend Kobe, you should stop.
My own analysis of the publicly-known fats of the case is that Kobe is a slimeball and maybe even a sexual predator. But since I am asking you to judge here, I will stick to the facts. Kobe cheated on his wife. Kobe was flippant in trying to talk his way out of a very serious, disgusting, and violent act. Kobe was probably the best basketball player on the planet and revered worldwide. It seems like pretty much everybody has excused one and two because of three, and this drives me crazy -- especially when the fans are women. And it is not just Kobe, either. I hate Ben Roethlisberger too. The view in this country that you can be an ass to women if you are a good enough athlete is disgusting. That we hold certain gifted people to different standards is weird enough if you really think about it. But when it comes to basic human decency, there should not be exceptions.
I am really bothered by what Kobe may have done to that woman in Colorado. He was legally cleared, however, so I certainly must consider that all that may have been fun and consensual at the time. But he is still an ass for embarrassing his wife and seeming so selfish and casual about the whole thing. If he did nothing wrong, why was he so quick to through Shaq under the bus and suggest throwing money at it to make it go away? And that he is so famous, what makes it excusable to so many people, is what makes it more frustrating to reasonable people. I like Charles Barkley but all that mess about him not being a role model is ridiculous. If you are famous for being a good athlete, kids are going to look up to you. It is not a choice the athlete makes. If he (or she) does not want to be imitated by children, he should pick another profession. If the athlete takes the huge sums of money to play whatever game, the athlete accepts this responsibility and needs to not be a disgusting pig in a hotel room. Being famous makes it less OK to be an ass, not more OK. This is not enforced in the World, but it should be.
So I hate Kobe. And he needs to go away, so I can go back to liking the Lakers.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Quicksilver course tour/Big Sur solidarity run.
For a variety of reasons (pre-Big Sur dinner with the Parks, Jill's horse show thing), Sunday run worked out better than Saturday after yoga this week. Totally a good thing, since I would have otherwise been obsessed with watching others run Big Sur online. It was Jill and my weekend training run, plus we invited Robert and Coach Erich from SVTC. Robert is running the Quicksilver 50M, so Jill and I were giving him a course preview. We were going to do the red section, so he would know how the race started. But he opted for green, when he found out that that was the section with most of the old mining ruins. Fine with me. Same distance, although I have always thought green was tougher. Erich just came along because he was available and is interested on running more on trails -- to train for XTERRA events and his first fifty-miler. It was pretty cool to have my track coach (If I am not mistaken, Coach Erich is a pro triathlete. If not pro, certainly well sponsored.) show up for a trail workout led by me. He showed up without any water bottles. I asked. He said he was not going to do the full 18 or whatever we had planned. He turn back the first time we passed Randol, so he still did 12 or so with a few gnarly-enough climbs without any water. Crazy.
So Erich is hella fit and super fast. He ran up front with me. We chatted. Even though we switched routes to green, we started up Virl Norton and Hacienda to Capehorn to where it starts. He continued chatting effortlessly as we started up the first climb, and I immediately began to struggle to form complete sentences. He was merciful and did not mock my stuttered, incomplete speech. He asked is I knew Chikara. I was like, uh I actually sorta do. Erich, who lives .66 miles from Mockingbird (according to his jog there this morning tracked by Garmin), had seen Chikara training at Quicksilver yesterday and given him some candybars. Chikara has a notoriously filthy diet. Erich runs with Chikara for Excelsior. I explained that I run against him with Quicksilver and told my Chikara stories, admitting that I was a bit of a fanboy. Coach said Chikara and I were his go-to guys when it cambe to picking brains for ultras. I almost died. That was the second biggest compliment of the weekend, and the first one was very unexpected and totally unbeatable.
Bob (I never knew whether to call him Robert or Bob. He is Robert on Facebook, but Sopheak calls him Bob.) and Jill were never far behind us. Jill was not fully recovered from RA (and actually cut out two miles and some elevation to take it easy), and Bob is an Ironman with several ultras under his belt. So there was not too much waiting at the intersections, especially since I used the breaks to disguise how hard I was being pushed by Erich the first time up Mine Hill.
It got hot almost immediately. I told Bob when we got to the bottom on the McAbee side that the race, and our run, really began at this point. We were roughly at the halfway point of our run, and not far from that on the 50M course. From McAbee, you dig up over four miles back to the top of Mine Hill, after having already crossed over it from Mockingbird and run down (knowing full well you have to turn around and run back up). Bob took it like a champ. We went through the ruins at English Camp, and he got a huge kick out of that. Then we went down the trail English Camp to Hacienda, where we dug back up and over to the parking lot and Start/Finish of our run. (Did I mention that) It was hot, and some of those Hacienda climbs are brutal -- short, but steep and just downright cruel at that point of the day. We just caught Jill, who was about to leave but was able to join us for lunch. She beat us back to the parking lot by about a half hour, since she took a slightly shorter but easier route. She earned it at RA for sure.
It was a really nice run. The wildflowers are hanging in there, and the park was packed! We were always on wide trails. Since we did not have to dodge bodies on any singletrack, it was nice to see all the people outside enjoying the park. I got a bit of a sunburn on my face, in spite of having sunscreen on. By the time I was done, I had heard from Elisa. She was feeling better and able to start and finish her Big Sur run. I was invited to her and Annie's pre-race Big Sur dinner, and she was not feeling well then at all. That little firecracker rallied and did it. She waited for Annie at the aid stations and finished wishing she had been able to run the full marathon and really "gone all out". So sexy! But yeah glad she felt better, and they enjoyed the beautiful run. I was and am wiped out. That combination of Sun and miles and climbing...Zzzzz...
So Erich is hella fit and super fast. He ran up front with me. We chatted. Even though we switched routes to green, we started up Virl Norton and Hacienda to Capehorn to where it starts. He continued chatting effortlessly as we started up the first climb, and I immediately began to struggle to form complete sentences. He was merciful and did not mock my stuttered, incomplete speech. He asked is I knew Chikara. I was like, uh I actually sorta do. Erich, who lives .66 miles from Mockingbird (according to his jog there this morning tracked by Garmin), had seen Chikara training at Quicksilver yesterday and given him some candybars. Chikara has a notoriously filthy diet. Erich runs with Chikara for Excelsior. I explained that I run against him with Quicksilver and told my Chikara stories, admitting that I was a bit of a fanboy. Coach said Chikara and I were his go-to guys when it cambe to picking brains for ultras. I almost died. That was the second biggest compliment of the weekend, and the first one was very unexpected and totally unbeatable.
Bob (I never knew whether to call him Robert or Bob. He is Robert on Facebook, but Sopheak calls him Bob.) and Jill were never far behind us. Jill was not fully recovered from RA (and actually cut out two miles and some elevation to take it easy), and Bob is an Ironman with several ultras under his belt. So there was not too much waiting at the intersections, especially since I used the breaks to disguise how hard I was being pushed by Erich the first time up Mine Hill.
It got hot almost immediately. I told Bob when we got to the bottom on the McAbee side that the race, and our run, really began at this point. We were roughly at the halfway point of our run, and not far from that on the 50M course. From McAbee, you dig up over four miles back to the top of Mine Hill, after having already crossed over it from Mockingbird and run down (knowing full well you have to turn around and run back up). Bob took it like a champ. We went through the ruins at English Camp, and he got a huge kick out of that. Then we went down the trail English Camp to Hacienda, where we dug back up and over to the parking lot and Start/Finish of our run. (Did I mention that) It was hot, and some of those Hacienda climbs are brutal -- short, but steep and just downright cruel at that point of the day. We just caught Jill, who was about to leave but was able to join us for lunch. She beat us back to the parking lot by about a half hour, since she took a slightly shorter but easier route. She earned it at RA for sure.
It was a really nice run. The wildflowers are hanging in there, and the park was packed! We were always on wide trails. Since we did not have to dodge bodies on any singletrack, it was nice to see all the people outside enjoying the park. I got a bit of a sunburn on my face, in spite of having sunscreen on. By the time I was done, I had heard from Elisa. She was feeling better and able to start and finish her Big Sur run. I was invited to her and Annie's pre-race Big Sur dinner, and she was not feeling well then at all. That little firecracker rallied and did it. She waited for Annie at the aid stations and finished wishing she had been able to run the full marathon and really "gone all out". So sexy! But yeah glad she felt better, and they enjoyed the beautiful run. I was and am wiped out. That combination of Sun and miles and climbing...Zzzzz...
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Race envy sucks. Big Sur tomorrow, but not for me.
Today (by the time anybody sees this) is the Big Sur Marathon, which must be one of the most beautiful in the World and is as likely to be one of the most popular. I know several people running it, among them my #1 favorite amateur athlete and her sister -- Annie is in town to run Big Sur with her wedding-party-of-one big sister Elisa. Annie decided to do this in lieu of a bachelorette party. But by the time that she had this adorable idea, the full marathon distance had already sold out. I was not kidding about it being probably one of the most popular marathons, and this was based on having heard that it is among the fastest to sell out. So they are doing the 21-miler. For some reason, Big Sur has a bunch of random distances, like 9, 10.6, and 21 miles, in addition to the full marathon and 5K. The half is its own race in like November. Weird, right? Why not use that permit space for the popular full distance? There must be a practical reason, most likely maximizing profits or stipulations of the permit. But that is the way it is, and the Park sisters are running twenty-one miles.
The Monterey Peninsula is, as far as I can tell, one of the most spectacular chunks of planet on Earth. The California coast is breathtaking, and this is one of the nicest pieces of it. Running 26.2 miles on a point-to-point course must be the coolest! I would not know, since I have not run it yet and did not get in this year. I saw the Big Sur booth at the SJRNR expo and tried to register, and that is when I found out it was hella popular and had already been sold out since like forever. So I will have to wait until at least next year to cross Big Sur off of my marathon to-do list. Another thing I am discovering as a very new runner is race envy: that selfish feeling of being left out when "everybody else" is running a race you want to be running. I had it for CIM, Lake Sonoma, Boston, and almost certainly others. The latest edition is Big Sur. While everybody is waking up early and hanging out with the badass sweethearts and getting medals and tech shirts and free carbs and electrolytes, you are paralyzed by the jealousy with which you watch your more fortunate comrades on Facebook and results pages. They are competing (or at least completing), while you sit and watch from the sidelines. You keep forgetting to be excited for your friends in the event, because you are so pissed you are not in the event. That is race envy.
Good thing I have my own run tomorrow. Jill and I are doing another course tour of Quicksilver with Robert from SVTC. Robert is also running the 50M at Quicksilver in a few weeks. Coach Erich said he would join us too, since he will be running more trail in the XTERRA tri season and has some interest in ultras. He lives in Almaden, so he can jog over. We will do the red section (first 25K) of the Quicksilver and back to Mockingbird for about seventeen or eighteen miles. If not for that, I would sit at home and pout and watch results online or something like that. Either way, I will be anxiously awaiting a text report from Elisa about how her and Annie do on their run. Annie confessed to not having trained much, but those girls seem to be able to run well cold. I know from experience and firsthand account that Elisa can, and have heard sister has the same trait. They may not be super fast, but they are relentless. The slower pace will help with taking in the views and hopefully getting some pictures.
My next bout with race envy will be next weekend at Miwok. That will be my first experience as an aid station volunteer. I am not sure how volunteering will be for race envy. It seems like a great way to cope with it, but it could also be painfully close to the action. Since Miwok is a lottery, and volunteering gets one an extra entry, there is a proactive element to volunteering for maybe avoiding Miwok race envy next year. It will also be tempting to just take off and start running around the course like a jerk. That is a hard area for me not to be running anyway. After that, I have Quicksilver and Ohlone on back-to-back weekends. Then I can go back to being justifiably self-absorbed, which seems to be a sweet spot for an ultrarunner.
The Monterey Peninsula is, as far as I can tell, one of the most spectacular chunks of planet on Earth. The California coast is breathtaking, and this is one of the nicest pieces of it. Running 26.2 miles on a point-to-point course must be the coolest! I would not know, since I have not run it yet and did not get in this year. I saw the Big Sur booth at the SJRNR expo and tried to register, and that is when I found out it was hella popular and had already been sold out since like forever. So I will have to wait until at least next year to cross Big Sur off of my marathon to-do list. Another thing I am discovering as a very new runner is race envy: that selfish feeling of being left out when "everybody else" is running a race you want to be running. I had it for CIM, Lake Sonoma, Boston, and almost certainly others. The latest edition is Big Sur. While everybody is waking up early and hanging out with the badass sweethearts and getting medals and tech shirts and free carbs and electrolytes, you are paralyzed by the jealousy with which you watch your more fortunate comrades on Facebook and results pages. They are competing (or at least completing), while you sit and watch from the sidelines. You keep forgetting to be excited for your friends in the event, because you are so pissed you are not in the event. That is race envy.
Good thing I have my own run tomorrow. Jill and I are doing another course tour of Quicksilver with Robert from SVTC. Robert is also running the 50M at Quicksilver in a few weeks. Coach Erich said he would join us too, since he will be running more trail in the XTERRA tri season and has some interest in ultras. He lives in Almaden, so he can jog over. We will do the red section (first 25K) of the Quicksilver and back to Mockingbird for about seventeen or eighteen miles. If not for that, I would sit at home and pout and watch results online or something like that. Either way, I will be anxiously awaiting a text report from Elisa about how her and Annie do on their run. Annie confessed to not having trained much, but those girls seem to be able to run well cold. I know from experience and firsthand account that Elisa can, and have heard sister has the same trait. They may not be super fast, but they are relentless. The slower pace will help with taking in the views and hopefully getting some pictures.
My next bout with race envy will be next weekend at Miwok. That will be my first experience as an aid station volunteer. I am not sure how volunteering will be for race envy. It seems like a great way to cope with it, but it could also be painfully close to the action. Since Miwok is a lottery, and volunteering gets one an extra entry, there is a proactive element to volunteering for maybe avoiding Miwok race envy next year. It will also be tempting to just take off and start running around the course like a jerk. That is a hard area for me not to be running anyway. After that, I have Quicksilver and Ohlone on back-to-back weekends. Then I can go back to being justifiably self-absorbed, which seems to be a sweet spot for an ultrarunner.
Friday, April 26, 2013
12 or so miles of pain-free gratitude.
Injuries scare the heck out of me. For one thing, the thought of not being able to run for an extended period of time terrifies me. For another, I do not really have an injury history. (Knock on wood. For reals.) I have no idea what is a big deal and what is not. My recent knee thing felt serious -- like it definitely could have held the potential for further, long-term injury. So I almost feel guilty to report that it had been totally fine since Sunday evening or so. I felt it a couple of times, oddly enough usually while laying down, in the day or so after RA. People kept telling me to expect it to hurt going down stairs. Well, I have stairs in my house and always take them at work and was not feeling the tiniest bit of discomfort. It was like, Dangit I wimped out on 100K for nothing! Totally false. It was because I stopped and rested a bit that things were back to normal so quickly. Still though, I sorta felt guilty for not being in more pain for a few more days. Weird, but it makes sense to me, so I am fine.
Still, since the very beginning it only actually hurt while running. I was aware of it at other times, but I only felt that catch while running. So until I tried to run, I could not be sure. I went on my first run since RA yesterday with Jeremy. We did what I call "red lite" at Quicksilver Almaden. The 50M course at the park consists of Red, Green, and Blue sections (on the map): red is the first half of the 50K, green is the second half of the 50K, and blue is the last twenty miles of the 50M. Red lite is red, without the first climb up Virl Norton -- thus, "red lite". Red lite is still a pretty challenging twelve miles and a terrific run. The hills are already turning brown, so it was a good time to say goodbye to the Spring wildflowers. Jeremy is fast, especially uphill. And he and I are very competitive, especially with eachother. So even though I kept telling myself and Jeremy that I would be taking it easy to test out the outer left knee, I knew that it was going to be tough to hold back even with a conscious effort.
I behaved myself in so much as I kept telling myself to take it easy. I do this thing where I roll my shoulders back and try to stand up straighter to slow myself down. I am not sure at all if it works, but it is what I do. I was doing that a lot. Jeremy was right on my heels, letting me take the lead since I knew where I was going. He had not been running consistently for a while, and not with me for even longer. He said he was worried about keeping up. I knew there was no chance I could lose him in anything under fifteen miles or so, so I knew he would not have any trouble. Last time I saw and ran with Jeremy was late January, when I was hella peaking for Surf City. To this day, I am not sure I have ever felt faster. Jill and I ran into him on Los Gatos Creek Trail at the Lexington end of Vasona. I took off and he followed me. We were flying, probably close to 7:00 pace for a couple of miles (both of us already several miles into our runs). Jeremy was right there behind me, and I wondered if I could ever make him go away. Then...he started chatting with me. Probably about his Dodgers. He was calm and peaceful as could be. Uh oh. I knew I was dust. He realized I would be terrible company, since I had no air for words, and he took off for Campbell Park. He beat me there by a couple of minutes. Even if he had been away from running for a while, or even since then, no way waiting up for him was going to be an issue.
We cruised along, with the first half of the run being the totally kickass New Almaden Trail -- six miles of single track wildflower green goodness. Clicking along at 10:00 pace, which I consider darn solid on this trail, we both still had plenty of air and patience to chit chat. Me made the turn up Mine Hill at Guadalupe, then back mostly Randol to Capehorn then down Hacienda. Jeremy stayed with me pretty much from the intersection of Randol and Prospect #3 to the parking lot, because his endurance was starting to catch up with him. We were entering my sweet spot, but he usually only runs about ten miles on his own (and always without carrying water, as he was not today). So although he was running away up Mine Hill and Randol, by the time we got to the picnic table that marks the final stretch for me, he was content to hang with me. (Most people think I can run pretty ridiculously fast uphill. OK. Imagine Jeremy running away from me and disappearing into the woods within the first hundred yards. I know how you folks behind me on the hills feel now.) He actually could not keep up with me for the descent down Hacienda, because his quads were blown out to the point of not being able to run downhill. I may never be faster than Jeremy (who is an ex-pro D League soccer player, so obviously a gifted athlete), but at least I can give him a good workout these days.
Much more importantly, however, is that my knee held up like a champ. Not a single complaint from it all day. I may have felt "it" (haha...or IT...runners get it) a few times along the way, but never that "catch". I am still going to take it easy. I am still not going to try and PR at NorCal Half next weekend -- and have found the perfect way to insure that. But I am no longer concerned about my start at Quicksilver 50M in just over a couple of weeks. I swear I was not wussing out at RA. That could have been serious. That WAS serious. I just got lucky again. I can still claim no history of injuries. I can still claim ignorance of what is really serious, but just may have a good sense of what it is now. Racing competitively can really test you. You have to be tough enough to finish when you can, and still smart enough to know to stop when you must. That truly must be as much art as science. I am working on it. So far so good. I have been very fortunate. And for twelve miles yesterday, I felt gratitude that my body has put up with what it has. Twelve miles of gratitude for this very durable body that is mine due as much to good luck (genetics) as hard work. I know so many people who do not run or are not active simply because they cannot. It is an emotional thing for me, and I run for them always. Hang in there, body. Especially outer left knee.
Still, since the very beginning it only actually hurt while running. I was aware of it at other times, but I only felt that catch while running. So until I tried to run, I could not be sure. I went on my first run since RA yesterday with Jeremy. We did what I call "red lite" at Quicksilver Almaden. The 50M course at the park consists of Red, Green, and Blue sections (on the map): red is the first half of the 50K, green is the second half of the 50K, and blue is the last twenty miles of the 50M. Red lite is red, without the first climb up Virl Norton -- thus, "red lite". Red lite is still a pretty challenging twelve miles and a terrific run. The hills are already turning brown, so it was a good time to say goodbye to the Spring wildflowers. Jeremy is fast, especially uphill. And he and I are very competitive, especially with eachother. So even though I kept telling myself and Jeremy that I would be taking it easy to test out the outer left knee, I knew that it was going to be tough to hold back even with a conscious effort.
I behaved myself in so much as I kept telling myself to take it easy. I do this thing where I roll my shoulders back and try to stand up straighter to slow myself down. I am not sure at all if it works, but it is what I do. I was doing that a lot. Jeremy was right on my heels, letting me take the lead since I knew where I was going. He had not been running consistently for a while, and not with me for even longer. He said he was worried about keeping up. I knew there was no chance I could lose him in anything under fifteen miles or so, so I knew he would not have any trouble. Last time I saw and ran with Jeremy was late January, when I was hella peaking for Surf City. To this day, I am not sure I have ever felt faster. Jill and I ran into him on Los Gatos Creek Trail at the Lexington end of Vasona. I took off and he followed me. We were flying, probably close to 7:00 pace for a couple of miles (both of us already several miles into our runs). Jeremy was right there behind me, and I wondered if I could ever make him go away. Then...he started chatting with me. Probably about his Dodgers. He was calm and peaceful as could be. Uh oh. I knew I was dust. He realized I would be terrible company, since I had no air for words, and he took off for Campbell Park. He beat me there by a couple of minutes. Even if he had been away from running for a while, or even since then, no way waiting up for him was going to be an issue.
We cruised along, with the first half of the run being the totally kickass New Almaden Trail -- six miles of single track wildflower green goodness. Clicking along at 10:00 pace, which I consider darn solid on this trail, we both still had plenty of air and patience to chit chat. Me made the turn up Mine Hill at Guadalupe, then back mostly Randol to Capehorn then down Hacienda. Jeremy stayed with me pretty much from the intersection of Randol and Prospect #3 to the parking lot, because his endurance was starting to catch up with him. We were entering my sweet spot, but he usually only runs about ten miles on his own (and always without carrying water, as he was not today). So although he was running away up Mine Hill and Randol, by the time we got to the picnic table that marks the final stretch for me, he was content to hang with me. (Most people think I can run pretty ridiculously fast uphill. OK. Imagine Jeremy running away from me and disappearing into the woods within the first hundred yards. I know how you folks behind me on the hills feel now.) He actually could not keep up with me for the descent down Hacienda, because his quads were blown out to the point of not being able to run downhill. I may never be faster than Jeremy (who is an ex-pro D League soccer player, so obviously a gifted athlete), but at least I can give him a good workout these days.
Much more importantly, however, is that my knee held up like a champ. Not a single complaint from it all day. I may have felt "it" (haha...or IT...runners get it) a few times along the way, but never that "catch". I am still going to take it easy. I am still not going to try and PR at NorCal Half next weekend -- and have found the perfect way to insure that. But I am no longer concerned about my start at Quicksilver 50M in just over a couple of weeks. I swear I was not wussing out at RA. That could have been serious. That WAS serious. I just got lucky again. I can still claim no history of injuries. I can still claim ignorance of what is really serious, but just may have a good sense of what it is now. Racing competitively can really test you. You have to be tough enough to finish when you can, and still smart enough to know to stop when you must. That truly must be as much art as science. I am working on it. So far so good. I have been very fortunate. And for twelve miles yesterday, I felt gratitude that my body has put up with what it has. Twelve miles of gratitude for this very durable body that is mine due as much to good luck (genetics) as hard work. I know so many people who do not run or are not active simply because they cannot. It is an emotional thing for me, and I run for them always. Hang in there, body. Especially outer left knee.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
What do I do with all these calories?
At the beginning of 2013, I joined the Quicksilver Running Club and their Ultra Racing Team and convinced Jill to do the same. The Quicksilver team is very competitive in the USA Track and Field Pacific Association Ultra Running Grand Prix, and I figured I would run as many of those races as I could:
http://www.pausatf.org/data/2013/mutsched13.html
This is a pretty aggressive schedule, especially for a newb like me. April and May have some big distances packed pretty tightly together. There certainly is a chance that my Ruth Anderson experience was due at least in part to the fact that I had run my first fifty-miler only a couple of weeks prior. That thought makes running Ohlone the weekend after Quicksilver even more intimidating, but no point worrying about that now. I just need to be smart and careful. Anyway...
Obviously, this is my first year running like this. Obviously, this is my first season racing competitively. I say obviously because not many posts ago I explained that I just started doing races and ultras last Summer. Well, so far, the most difficult thing about the tightly packed schedule is what to do with all these calories between races. It may become avoiding injury, but so far it is not feeling fat and out-of-shape while tapering/recovering between races. I worked my tail off getting into marathon shape and beyond. But what happens when the recovery from one race, like AR50, runs right into the taper of the next, like RA? Or what the heck am I going to do the one week between Quicksilver 50M and Ohlone 50K?
The week before and after races I skip a workout or two and easily justify ingesting more and denser calories. Right now, that is covering pretty much all of April and May. I can see it happening already in August. I could easily see it happening some more in the Fall. Thus the question, what do I do with all these extra calories?
So far, I am happy to report that my weight is hanging in there in that sweet spot from 158 to 163. We can debate whether or not I should edge closer to 150, as I think maybe I should, but not now. Nonetheless, there is still considerable anxiety about all the skipped workouts, even if they are to recover, and the extra calories -- fewer out and at the same time more in. Today, in addition to it being a million dollar day in South San Jose (and assuredly Quicksilver Park), I just want to run for fun and because Jeremy can join us (and I want to show him New Almaden Trail and the park). Considering the last post, however, today may make a better day off. Then again, even though I may burn three or even five thousand calories during a big race, there is no replacing Jill and my weekly runs for mental and physical fitness.
And there is the food. My diet is usually pretty solid. My weakness has gone from ice cream to frozen yogurt and is properly in moderation. Mostly. Loading or replacing race fuel is just too compelling of an excuse to miss, and I seldom do. It has been used to justify lots of extra frozen yogurt and french fries and desserts. I guess the punchline is really that I am still in the sweet spot bodyweight wise. But no. The punchline is really that I should still be eating clean and practicing good habits. So all this justified workout skipping and dessert not-skipping is not healthy. Some is. Totally. And some celebratory meals are too, and fit conveniently with the loading or replacing race fuel methodology. As such, some of the anxiety is warranted.
I wonder what the elites do? I should ask my teammates, and my superfreaky friends like Coach Coady. I have access to really cool coaches through Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. I will ask them too. I am guessing that I should just eat like normal, only slightly more if doing back-to-backs. Wow. What a boring post. Sometimes when I think aloud (I really prefer outloud, but it apparently is not a word.), it can be pretty entertaining. This is not one of those times. My apologies, but this had been bothering me a lot lately. It might bring me some good suggestions, so it will be worth it to me -- at your expense.
http://www.pausatf.org/data/2013/mutsched13.html
This is a pretty aggressive schedule, especially for a newb like me. April and May have some big distances packed pretty tightly together. There certainly is a chance that my Ruth Anderson experience was due at least in part to the fact that I had run my first fifty-miler only a couple of weeks prior. That thought makes running Ohlone the weekend after Quicksilver even more intimidating, but no point worrying about that now. I just need to be smart and careful. Anyway...
Obviously, this is my first year running like this. Obviously, this is my first season racing competitively. I say obviously because not many posts ago I explained that I just started doing races and ultras last Summer. Well, so far, the most difficult thing about the tightly packed schedule is what to do with all these calories between races. It may become avoiding injury, but so far it is not feeling fat and out-of-shape while tapering/recovering between races. I worked my tail off getting into marathon shape and beyond. But what happens when the recovery from one race, like AR50, runs right into the taper of the next, like RA? Or what the heck am I going to do the one week between Quicksilver 50M and Ohlone 50K?
The week before and after races I skip a workout or two and easily justify ingesting more and denser calories. Right now, that is covering pretty much all of April and May. I can see it happening already in August. I could easily see it happening some more in the Fall. Thus the question, what do I do with all these extra calories?
So far, I am happy to report that my weight is hanging in there in that sweet spot from 158 to 163. We can debate whether or not I should edge closer to 150, as I think maybe I should, but not now. Nonetheless, there is still considerable anxiety about all the skipped workouts, even if they are to recover, and the extra calories -- fewer out and at the same time more in. Today, in addition to it being a million dollar day in South San Jose (and assuredly Quicksilver Park), I just want to run for fun and because Jeremy can join us (and I want to show him New Almaden Trail and the park). Considering the last post, however, today may make a better day off. Then again, even though I may burn three or even five thousand calories during a big race, there is no replacing Jill and my weekly runs for mental and physical fitness.
And there is the food. My diet is usually pretty solid. My weakness has gone from ice cream to frozen yogurt and is properly in moderation. Mostly. Loading or replacing race fuel is just too compelling of an excuse to miss, and I seldom do. It has been used to justify lots of extra frozen yogurt and french fries and desserts. I guess the punchline is really that I am still in the sweet spot bodyweight wise. But no. The punchline is really that I should still be eating clean and practicing good habits. So all this justified workout skipping and dessert not-skipping is not healthy. Some is. Totally. And some celebratory meals are too, and fit conveniently with the loading or replacing race fuel methodology. As such, some of the anxiety is warranted.
I wonder what the elites do? I should ask my teammates, and my superfreaky friends like Coach Coady. I have access to really cool coaches through Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. I will ask them too. I am guessing that I should just eat like normal, only slightly more if doing back-to-backs. Wow. What a boring post. Sometimes when I think aloud (I really prefer outloud, but it apparently is not a word.), it can be pretty entertaining. This is not one of those times. My apologies, but this had been bothering me a lot lately. It might bring me some good suggestions, so it will be worth it to me -- at your expense.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Ruth Anderson 50K/50M/100K -- sorta my first DNF.
This past Saturday was Ruth Anderson 50K/50M/100K, a classic and old school San Francisco ultramarathon now run by Rajeev. RA has a very unique format. You can choose your distance on the course, but you must complete the distance you are on or DNF (Did Not Finish) the entire race. So once you hit 50K, you must declare yourself a finisher (and take your result in the 50K) or a participant in the next distance. Once you decide to continue, you must get to 50M or DNF. At 50M, you have another chance to declare yourself a finisher or you can decide to be an entrant in the 100K. If you stop between 50M and 100K, you DNF. I was coming off a much better than expected result at the American River 50 Mile Endurance Run two weeks prior. RA was a relatively flat, loop course around Lake Merced, so it seemed the perfect time and place to make my first attempt at 100K. I still think so, even in light of recent events described here.
RA is loop event, kinda like New Years One Day. At NYOD, you had six, twelve, or twenty-four hours to complete as many laps at Crissy Field as possible. The laps are barely over a mile, and at the end of your time you are credited with the sum of the distance of the number of laps you completed. RA is also laps. The RA laps are almost four and a half miles each around Lake Merced, bordering San Francisco State University and around Harding Park Golf Course. Unlike NYOD, at RA you must cover a prescribed distance. The only cutoff is eleven hours to complete fifty miles, if you wish to attempt 100K. Rajeev is a charming and funny dude who puts on a good race. He loves being around his people, and ultrarunners are his people.
Jill and I stayed at Elisa's (one l Elisa, not two l Ellisa from the previous post) apartment Friday night, and I stayed up to watch the fireworks at AT&T Park after the Giants game from Elisa's couch. Elisa was away in Asilomar near Monterrey at a symphony retreat. Jill and I woke up at 4:45AM, made final race preparations, and drove the three or so miles from Elisa's apartment to Lake Merced. We could have walked or run it, but there was plenty of that to come that morning and afternoon. Jill was attempting 50M for her first time. I was gunning for 100K. We got good parking, picked up and pinned our bibs, and set out in the not-so-cold to mingle with the ultra crowd -- always a good time. Rajeev led us away from the parking lot at about 6:10 to walk to the official Start and give final instructions, particularly about the course and format. He was charming as could be and made a few introductions of noteworthy participants -- folks that had run a long time ago or a connection to the race. At 6:30, off we went.
Jill and I started off with a couple of Quicksilver runners, including Jim, Lisa, and Chihping. Jim has run over a hundred ultras and ended up doing 100K. Lisa is super cool and was chatting it up with Jill. Chihping has a skill that I want. He can run and take pictures at the same time. My goal was to finish under ten hours, since a single-digit finishing time obviously looks so much cooler on the Internet and would be sure to impress Elisa. Elisa was already impressed that I got up and started the race, even though she does these things herself. She appreciates the effort required to do these things, and considers the total effort if one spends time training hard. So she did not need the ten hours. Nonetheless, lately I must admit using impressing her as motivation on the course -- not necessarily to finish but to be fast. This is not called hella foot vanity for nothing. Anyway, I wanted to finish under ten hours, and that meant keeping my pace between nine and ten minute miles. That was based on rounding 100K to sixty miles at ten minutes each for ten hours. For survival's sake, it had to be over nine minutes. (I actually did the math just now. 100K in ten hours is 9:36 pace, so I needed to be a lot more aggressive than I thought. As we will soon see, it did not matter much, but it is funny to me that I was not more careful about calculating my pace. Rounding 100K to sixty miles was off by :24 per mile for ten hours. That is a lot and could have really made it tough to catch up, especially since I had not figured this out yet at what should have been the halfway point. Hopefully another lesson learned, but I should keep the story going.)
As far as pace and effort, I was cruising for almost a marathon. The loop format can be mind-numbing, and the urban scenery was not all that great -- even with the golf course, lake, and my alma mater (SFSU MA 2008). Pavement sucks to run on, but there was a dirt shoulder most of the time that I usually stayed on. There were a lot of distractions. Other runners and bikes and strollers. Cars on the road adjacent to the path. Boats and rowing teams on the lake. And the friggin gun range. A lot of distractions, which is usually no worse than a not-bad thing when running an ultra. If you are thinking about choking the guy who keeps getting in your way with his stroller or the nerve-rattling shotgun fire, you are not thinking about how bored you are or how bad your quads hurt. This is a good thing, as long as you remember to fuel and hydrate.
Perhaps the most critical difference between a lap/loop course and an actual course in a park is the car. On a course, somewhere after the halfway point, I realize that I am running to my car. All I have to do is get back to the car. I say it to people I pass along the way. All we have to do is get back to the car. Then I can be done and mess with my cell phone. It is the best motivator. This works against me and everybody else (in a similar manner, perhaps not the car and iPhone, but something like it) in a loop format event. You pass the car way, way too often. And everytime, you pass its temptations, like quitting. I decided to wait until I had a marathon split to post before stopping at my chair (where Jill and I had stored our comfort bags near the Finish) to update Facebook with a live race status. Another stupid motivator, but seriously whatever works for you do it. So that was mine right then.
With about a half lap left to go for that marathon split closest to the chair, my knee started acting up. It was not a nagging pain slowly getting worse, but a sharp pain to my outer left knee that was happening more and more frequently. And unlike a nagging pain, it seemed like it could snap, crackle, or pop at some point if I continued to bound off of it. I hoped it was an anomaly at first, then tried to walk it off, and pretty quickly realized that my race was over. I was lucky that I was close to, but before, the 50K cutoff. Had this happened a couple of laps later, I would have been committed to 50M. I could have finished, but that would have been a lot of walking -- for a long time. Maybe the 50M result would have been better for the Quicksilver team. But I walked the last lap to 50K having my meltdown (like when I blew up trying to qualify for Boston at Surf City in February) and tapped out. 100K fail. Just like Surf City's BQ failure, I was beating the heck out of myself emotionally. I was hella bummed and disappointed and pissed. I took my phone with me on that last lap -- the lap from the marathon split to the 50K finish -- and expressed my disappointment on Facebook via race status update (limping badly and about to quit). Feedback there and texts direct from Hector and Marne, and Kate's responses to my texts to her, helped me rally.
By the time I was in my chair pouting in the Sun after my 50K tap, Joe reminded me via Facebook that I had a teammate and bff still on the course trying to finish her fist fifty-miler. That threw me into crew mode and salvaged the rest of my day. By the time I saw Jill, she was down to her final three or four laps. The leaderboard for 50M was pretty bare. She definitely had a shot to place overall and win the women's race. I got her some Advil, did not mention the leaderboard, and cheered her along her final few passes through the Finish. I kept peeps posted on Facebook, and she friggin won the darn thing and was fifth overall.
I had a few hours to wait for Jill, plus Jill and I waited around a while to root others (especially Quicksilver folks) to their goals. The ultra crowd is one of the coolest. I call them badass sweethearts, and that is exactly who they are. Always nice, but tough as nails. You cannot surround yourself with better people. Sure, there are jerks in every crowd, but they are almost impossible to find in this one. At the end of the day, Jean was second in the 100K, Jill won the 50M, and Amy won the 50K. Go QSURT! My 100K DNF hurt the team, but hopefully my crappy, injured 50K time will somehow help. I got to chat with Chikara Omine -- one of my many ultra heroes who was out to root for his friends, particularly his New Balance Excelsior teammates. He is running the Quicksilver 50M, so I will see him again soon. (I love that in this sport we can regularly compete along side the elites and pros.) I spent a lot of time with Kat (also from Quicksilver) and a guy I met on the course, Gavin. Me and Tony (Endorphin Dude) had a nice chat. He PRd his 50K by like two hours. I think he finished in around six and a half and is currently on his way to run the Great Wall Marathon. I spent a little with Jean, Marco (QS), and Rajeev. I got razzed for quitting by Jim (who had big bloody wounds on his elbow from a fall and had run Lake Sonoma the weekend before), and a lot of encouragement from others. It was a bright sunny day. It was cold, but not too cold and not too windy. It was pretty fantastic. The whole day was, in spite of the result of my race.
I realized that this sport is hard. If you never experience personal failure in ultrarunning, you are taking it far too easy on yourself. And if you are taking it that easy on yourself, you are not doing ultras properly -- pushing yourself to and past your limits. I realized that a lot of the people out there had experienced it maybe dozens of times, and that I was being a big baby. I threw my handheld at a fence on that last lap. Cute. Endurance sports mean enduring these failures too and responding like a badass sweetheart. Maybe rest more. Maybe train differently. Quit pouting for sure. Quicksilver 50M is coming up on my birthday (5/11). It is going to be hard -- much more difficult than American River 50M. I cannot friggin wait. Bring on the dirt!
RA is loop event, kinda like New Years One Day. At NYOD, you had six, twelve, or twenty-four hours to complete as many laps at Crissy Field as possible. The laps are barely over a mile, and at the end of your time you are credited with the sum of the distance of the number of laps you completed. RA is also laps. The RA laps are almost four and a half miles each around Lake Merced, bordering San Francisco State University and around Harding Park Golf Course. Unlike NYOD, at RA you must cover a prescribed distance. The only cutoff is eleven hours to complete fifty miles, if you wish to attempt 100K. Rajeev is a charming and funny dude who puts on a good race. He loves being around his people, and ultrarunners are his people.
Jill and I stayed at Elisa's (one l Elisa, not two l Ellisa from the previous post) apartment Friday night, and I stayed up to watch the fireworks at AT&T Park after the Giants game from Elisa's couch. Elisa was away in Asilomar near Monterrey at a symphony retreat. Jill and I woke up at 4:45AM, made final race preparations, and drove the three or so miles from Elisa's apartment to Lake Merced. We could have walked or run it, but there was plenty of that to come that morning and afternoon. Jill was attempting 50M for her first time. I was gunning for 100K. We got good parking, picked up and pinned our bibs, and set out in the not-so-cold to mingle with the ultra crowd -- always a good time. Rajeev led us away from the parking lot at about 6:10 to walk to the official Start and give final instructions, particularly about the course and format. He was charming as could be and made a few introductions of noteworthy participants -- folks that had run a long time ago or a connection to the race. At 6:30, off we went.
Jill and I started off with a couple of Quicksilver runners, including Jim, Lisa, and Chihping. Jim has run over a hundred ultras and ended up doing 100K. Lisa is super cool and was chatting it up with Jill. Chihping has a skill that I want. He can run and take pictures at the same time. My goal was to finish under ten hours, since a single-digit finishing time obviously looks so much cooler on the Internet and would be sure to impress Elisa. Elisa was already impressed that I got up and started the race, even though she does these things herself. She appreciates the effort required to do these things, and considers the total effort if one spends time training hard. So she did not need the ten hours. Nonetheless, lately I must admit using impressing her as motivation on the course -- not necessarily to finish but to be fast. This is not called hella foot vanity for nothing. Anyway, I wanted to finish under ten hours, and that meant keeping my pace between nine and ten minute miles. That was based on rounding 100K to sixty miles at ten minutes each for ten hours. For survival's sake, it had to be over nine minutes. (I actually did the math just now. 100K in ten hours is 9:36 pace, so I needed to be a lot more aggressive than I thought. As we will soon see, it did not matter much, but it is funny to me that I was not more careful about calculating my pace. Rounding 100K to sixty miles was off by :24 per mile for ten hours. That is a lot and could have really made it tough to catch up, especially since I had not figured this out yet at what should have been the halfway point. Hopefully another lesson learned, but I should keep the story going.)
As far as pace and effort, I was cruising for almost a marathon. The loop format can be mind-numbing, and the urban scenery was not all that great -- even with the golf course, lake, and my alma mater (SFSU MA 2008). Pavement sucks to run on, but there was a dirt shoulder most of the time that I usually stayed on. There were a lot of distractions. Other runners and bikes and strollers. Cars on the road adjacent to the path. Boats and rowing teams on the lake. And the friggin gun range. A lot of distractions, which is usually no worse than a not-bad thing when running an ultra. If you are thinking about choking the guy who keeps getting in your way with his stroller or the nerve-rattling shotgun fire, you are not thinking about how bored you are or how bad your quads hurt. This is a good thing, as long as you remember to fuel and hydrate.
Perhaps the most critical difference between a lap/loop course and an actual course in a park is the car. On a course, somewhere after the halfway point, I realize that I am running to my car. All I have to do is get back to the car. I say it to people I pass along the way. All we have to do is get back to the car. Then I can be done and mess with my cell phone. It is the best motivator. This works against me and everybody else (in a similar manner, perhaps not the car and iPhone, but something like it) in a loop format event. You pass the car way, way too often. And everytime, you pass its temptations, like quitting. I decided to wait until I had a marathon split to post before stopping at my chair (where Jill and I had stored our comfort bags near the Finish) to update Facebook with a live race status. Another stupid motivator, but seriously whatever works for you do it. So that was mine right then.
With about a half lap left to go for that marathon split closest to the chair, my knee started acting up. It was not a nagging pain slowly getting worse, but a sharp pain to my outer left knee that was happening more and more frequently. And unlike a nagging pain, it seemed like it could snap, crackle, or pop at some point if I continued to bound off of it. I hoped it was an anomaly at first, then tried to walk it off, and pretty quickly realized that my race was over. I was lucky that I was close to, but before, the 50K cutoff. Had this happened a couple of laps later, I would have been committed to 50M. I could have finished, but that would have been a lot of walking -- for a long time. Maybe the 50M result would have been better for the Quicksilver team. But I walked the last lap to 50K having my meltdown (like when I blew up trying to qualify for Boston at Surf City in February) and tapped out. 100K fail. Just like Surf City's BQ failure, I was beating the heck out of myself emotionally. I was hella bummed and disappointed and pissed. I took my phone with me on that last lap -- the lap from the marathon split to the 50K finish -- and expressed my disappointment on Facebook via race status update (limping badly and about to quit). Feedback there and texts direct from Hector and Marne, and Kate's responses to my texts to her, helped me rally.
By the time I was in my chair pouting in the Sun after my 50K tap, Joe reminded me via Facebook that I had a teammate and bff still on the course trying to finish her fist fifty-miler. That threw me into crew mode and salvaged the rest of my day. By the time I saw Jill, she was down to her final three or four laps. The leaderboard for 50M was pretty bare. She definitely had a shot to place overall and win the women's race. I got her some Advil, did not mention the leaderboard, and cheered her along her final few passes through the Finish. I kept peeps posted on Facebook, and she friggin won the darn thing and was fifth overall.
I had a few hours to wait for Jill, plus Jill and I waited around a while to root others (especially Quicksilver folks) to their goals. The ultra crowd is one of the coolest. I call them badass sweethearts, and that is exactly who they are. Always nice, but tough as nails. You cannot surround yourself with better people. Sure, there are jerks in every crowd, but they are almost impossible to find in this one. At the end of the day, Jean was second in the 100K, Jill won the 50M, and Amy won the 50K. Go QSURT! My 100K DNF hurt the team, but hopefully my crappy, injured 50K time will somehow help. I got to chat with Chikara Omine -- one of my many ultra heroes who was out to root for his friends, particularly his New Balance Excelsior teammates. He is running the Quicksilver 50M, so I will see him again soon. (I love that in this sport we can regularly compete along side the elites and pros.) I spent a lot of time with Kat (also from Quicksilver) and a guy I met on the course, Gavin. Me and Tony (Endorphin Dude) had a nice chat. He PRd his 50K by like two hours. I think he finished in around six and a half and is currently on his way to run the Great Wall Marathon. I spent a little with Jean, Marco (QS), and Rajeev. I got razzed for quitting by Jim (who had big bloody wounds on his elbow from a fall and had run Lake Sonoma the weekend before), and a lot of encouragement from others. It was a bright sunny day. It was cold, but not too cold and not too windy. It was pretty fantastic. The whole day was, in spite of the result of my race.
I realized that this sport is hard. If you never experience personal failure in ultrarunning, you are taking it far too easy on yourself. And if you are taking it that easy on yourself, you are not doing ultras properly -- pushing yourself to and past your limits. I realized that a lot of the people out there had experienced it maybe dozens of times, and that I was being a big baby. I threw my handheld at a fence on that last lap. Cute. Endurance sports mean enduring these failures too and responding like a badass sweetheart. Maybe rest more. Maybe train differently. Quit pouting for sure. Quicksilver 50M is coming up on my birthday (5/11). It is going to be hard -- much more difficult than American River 50M. I cannot friggin wait. Bring on the dirt!
Check it out! I am a pretty average ultrarunner.
One of the things I get asked a lot* is how I got into running.
I have always had to make an effort to not be fat. If I did not watch what I ate and workout, I would be overweight. For most of my years since from high school on, I did that. My hella foot vanity requires me to note that I was much more often fit than not in those years, but probably usually a little overweight. That is totally normal and probably better than average in this country. There were times though when I did not pay close attention to diet and exercise and got fat. The most recent of those times ended in the Summer of 2011 at 234 pounds. I saw my not-biological mother in Gulf Shores, Alabama in July of that year, and she came up with what became the SEC Weightloss Challenge. We both needed to lose some weight, so she challenged us to each lose 20 (or 30? No. Maybe.) pounds in time for my visit to Tuscaloosa in November (for the Game of the Century between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers).
I did. I started walking around the Alviso wetlands, trying to time it such as to have to rush back to the car before they close the gate after sunset (but have enough time to stop and take pictures). I set a goal of being able to walk the entire nine mile loop (Alviso Slough Trail from Alviso Marina County Park). I would walk out to the first mile marker, then the second, then the third and always have to get back to my car. About the time I reached mile marker three (I do not think I waited until four.), I decided I might as well go for it. I made it all the way around the loop -- a nine mile walk.
People always assume I lost weight running. That is false. I lost a whole lot of weight walking -- maybe most of it. But then I lost some more by running and doing the things like yoga and rowing to make me a better runner. I also cut back and then out fast food. I stopped drinking soda a long time ago. You should stop too. There is more about both of those things and other things food on Facebook. For the record, I currently can generally be found somewhere between 158 and 163 pounds, depending on where I am with racing and training (taper/recover, ramping up/down) and obviously the food and workout choices I am making.
About the time I got up to the full loop in Alviso, I started going back to the gym -- maybe a bit sooner. I had not been going consistently, since Cisco moved the gym from SJ6 to SJQ (and I was working part-time and as a grad student at SJSU). I was soon doing an hour or so of cardio, followed by twenty or thirty minutes of weights with stretching between sets. I did not goof around in the gym and packed in the sets and stretching. I was pretty darn consistent, going four or five days per week.
At this point in the story, Kate was training for a half marathon. Maybe not her first, but she was training hard and smart. She was into it. Andrea was training for the 408K. I was inspired. I used to preach and rant against running, especially racing. I had heard that it was bad for you and wanted to believe it. But Kate and Andrea got me thinking that I should at least be able to run these types of races and SJRNR, or at least your run-of-the-mill 10K, for social reasons and since I would soon be fit.
So you can say Kate and Andrea got me running. I am not sure when this was, but I think it was sometime around my trip to Tuscaloosa (November 2011). Now I want to say it was probably later than this, but it was right around this time. It is important to note that I could walk nine miles comfortably (without getting too sore) before I ran my first mile. My good fortune with injuries to date, in spite of my what is by all accounts rapid ascent in mileage and speed, was unintentionally built on the foundation of walk before you run. My runner muscles were greatly helped by hours and hours and hundreds of miles around the Alviso wetlands at regular speed. My joints and their support systems were given a head start on preparing for my upcoming assault on them. I give this and the fact that I had also already lost a lot of the weight walking all of the credit for my relatively non-existent injury history. Walk before you run. I also began walking and running in minimal footwear. That may or may not have helped. I think it did and run minimal now. I have put well over half of my near 2,000 miles on New Balance MT kicks. I have fewer than 400 miles in more traditional running shoes. I might do a post about shoes, but enough about that for now.
So, I am going to run. I run a mile on the treadmill after one of my SJQ workouts. It sucked, and I was ridiculously sore the next day. Remember, I am already working out most days of the week and doing an hour or so of cardio each of those days. And I just went on and on about the walking. But I was so sore after that one mile on the treadmill, that I could barely walk the next day. It was nuts. I kept at it though, slowly adding the miles. I remember being able to run four miles consistently. I remember the out-and-back out the garage, onto the canal at Snell, to almost Coleman (and back home) of over seven and a half miles. Of course, I remember running around the Alviso loop for the first time. I was about to turn forty and considered running a marathon that year.
By now, it is Spring 2012. I would not be ready to run a marathon in time for my May birthday, but I started eyeing Fall races. I was hearing that I should do something else, because, as I know, running sucks and is bad for you. Then, perhaps the most serendipitous moment of this story. On a flight to Alabama to celebrate Clint's marriage to Rachel, I sat next to Todd and April. Todd had done a few to several Ironmans, and April had run Boston a handful of times. I want to say seven times. They told me that the science behind running being bad for you was unjustly enhanced by it sucking. Basically, that you hear about running being bad for you, because people want to justify not doing it (because it sucks). They told me that running can be done well. It could be done right and not necessarily mean injuries -- at least not ones that could not be managed. There was just as much if not more science that running was good if done properly. I should point out that I totally shattered Todd's rules about mileage and recovery. You should not try to do what I have done. If you pay attention to the miles and dates throughout this post, it is not normal. I am not bragging or even being dramatic. Todd suggested no more than four marathons per year. I just finished my eleventh since September 2012. This flight was Cinco de Mayo weekend 2012. I was in 10K shape. So if you try to do what I did and get injured, you cannot blame Todd. But Todd and April said go ahead and run that marathon. You can find a place past the suck where it kind of rules. And they made being an endurance athlete, even an amateur one, seem really, really cool. Todd gave me a lot of advice and references for nutrition. We promised to keep in touch, and we have. April credits me with turning her to trail running and ultras. Typing that gives me goosebumps. How I was able to return that favor so quickly is a powerful thing to me. But, thanks to them, now I had some expert advice, and a credible blessing to carry on with marathon training.
So I get back from Tuscaloosa and register for the Half Moon Bay International Marathon (HMBIM) coming up that September. I had bought my first pair of running shoes a couple of weeks prior. I then got a pair from professionals at Running Revolution in Campbell. I started training with Jeremy. His sister, Amy, had recently run Boston. This was key, because Jeremy is hella fast and runs along the Los Gatos Creek Trail and in the hills of Saratoga. Running with Jeremy in general because he is fast, and in particular because he runs hills, helped make me the runner I am today. Training for my first marathon is when I got hooked on running. I met Franz, the training director for HMBIM and a grandslam ultrarunner, and was reading the Dean Karnazes books. (I was actually reading one on the Todd and April flight. I also eventually read Born to Run and Eat and Run.) I got into it. Hella into it. I heard about Western States (the 100 mile endurance run that used to be a horserace). I decided I want to do it one day. It is Summer 2012. I decided not only was I going to do a marathon. I was going to be an ultrarunner.
Through Tony, a chum from Santa Teresa High School (and a darn good athlete to this day) with whom I had connected on Facebook and connected on many levels like outdoors and fitness, I met Ellisa (also, Facebook). Ellisa was training for her first ultra, although I am not sure she knew which one yet. She was running the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, a relatively popular 50K in August in that Pacific Coast Mecca area that is centered in Auburn, as a supported training run. Ellisa and her husband live in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento. Ellisa heard about my new interest in ultrarunning and fueled it in a way I now know few can. She is an evangelist for the sport for sure. She does not approach it as a sport. She just loves running (walking the steep uphills usually maybe) outside in dirt and enjoying the views -- from the rocks and debris on the trails to the wildflowers and birds above them. But she gets it. She still preaches the virtues of high speed nature sightseeing, especially as opposed to running in lower quality air staring at and dodging cars. Most importantly, she convinced me that I should run Sly with her and her friends.
I signed up. I stepped up my training. I ran repeats of Mission Peak and met Sopheak of Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. I followed Kate again and started doing yoga religiously. I did the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, starting out and mostly sticking with Ellisa and her friend Anandi. 4:29. I had my first ultra experience, with the bananas and Clif Bars and badass sweethearts in the parking lot before sunrise. I finished strong, mostly because I stuck with the runner babes until the last six or so miles. I was convinced I could do this ultra thing sooner rather than later. Rather than pacing Ellisa at the next American River 50 Mile, I was going to run it myself. I ran my first ultra, a 50K in Folsom on September 15, with Ellisa and Nick and some of my new friends from Sly. 6:14. The following weekend, I ran the race that started it all: HMBIM. 4:19.
The day before yesterday, on April 20, 2013, I ran my eighth ultramarathon at Ruth Anderson 50K/50M/100K. 5:34. It was my eleventh marathon. Earlier this Spring, I ran Way Too Cool 50K and American River 50 Mile. 4:54 and 9:03. Those are famous California ultramarathons that I read about only a year ago. And that, sorta, kinda, more or less, is how I became a pretty average ultrarunner. With thanks to Kate, Andrea, Todd, April, Jeremy, Franz, Ellisa, Sopheak, and so many others, like the trainers and staff at Cisco SJQ.
*But not as much as food, but I addressed that on Facebook before this blog happened. For now, I am sticking to only original material here. So I cannot copy and paste it on principle. For now, you will have to go to Facebook for more thoughts on food. I cannot imagine there being enough of you not friends with me there seeing this that could ever constitute an outcry for my thoughts on food here, nor the time and lack of new material to provide them again.
I have always had to make an effort to not be fat. If I did not watch what I ate and workout, I would be overweight. For most of my years since from high school on, I did that. My hella foot vanity requires me to note that I was much more often fit than not in those years, but probably usually a little overweight. That is totally normal and probably better than average in this country. There were times though when I did not pay close attention to diet and exercise and got fat. The most recent of those times ended in the Summer of 2011 at 234 pounds. I saw my not-biological mother in Gulf Shores, Alabama in July of that year, and she came up with what became the SEC Weightloss Challenge. We both needed to lose some weight, so she challenged us to each lose 20 (or 30? No. Maybe.) pounds in time for my visit to Tuscaloosa in November (for the Game of the Century between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers).
I did. I started walking around the Alviso wetlands, trying to time it such as to have to rush back to the car before they close the gate after sunset (but have enough time to stop and take pictures). I set a goal of being able to walk the entire nine mile loop (Alviso Slough Trail from Alviso Marina County Park). I would walk out to the first mile marker, then the second, then the third and always have to get back to my car. About the time I reached mile marker three (I do not think I waited until four.), I decided I might as well go for it. I made it all the way around the loop -- a nine mile walk.
People always assume I lost weight running. That is false. I lost a whole lot of weight walking -- maybe most of it. But then I lost some more by running and doing the things like yoga and rowing to make me a better runner. I also cut back and then out fast food. I stopped drinking soda a long time ago. You should stop too. There is more about both of those things and other things food on Facebook. For the record, I currently can generally be found somewhere between 158 and 163 pounds, depending on where I am with racing and training (taper/recover, ramping up/down) and obviously the food and workout choices I am making.
About the time I got up to the full loop in Alviso, I started going back to the gym -- maybe a bit sooner. I had not been going consistently, since Cisco moved the gym from SJ6 to SJQ (and I was working part-time and as a grad student at SJSU). I was soon doing an hour or so of cardio, followed by twenty or thirty minutes of weights with stretching between sets. I did not goof around in the gym and packed in the sets and stretching. I was pretty darn consistent, going four or five days per week.
At this point in the story, Kate was training for a half marathon. Maybe not her first, but she was training hard and smart. She was into it. Andrea was training for the 408K. I was inspired. I used to preach and rant against running, especially racing. I had heard that it was bad for you and wanted to believe it. But Kate and Andrea got me thinking that I should at least be able to run these types of races and SJRNR, or at least your run-of-the-mill 10K, for social reasons and since I would soon be fit.
So you can say Kate and Andrea got me running. I am not sure when this was, but I think it was sometime around my trip to Tuscaloosa (November 2011). Now I want to say it was probably later than this, but it was right around this time. It is important to note that I could walk nine miles comfortably (without getting too sore) before I ran my first mile. My good fortune with injuries to date, in spite of my what is by all accounts rapid ascent in mileage and speed, was unintentionally built on the foundation of walk before you run. My runner muscles were greatly helped by hours and hours and hundreds of miles around the Alviso wetlands at regular speed. My joints and their support systems were given a head start on preparing for my upcoming assault on them. I give this and the fact that I had also already lost a lot of the weight walking all of the credit for my relatively non-existent injury history. Walk before you run. I also began walking and running in minimal footwear. That may or may not have helped. I think it did and run minimal now. I have put well over half of my near 2,000 miles on New Balance MT kicks. I have fewer than 400 miles in more traditional running shoes. I might do a post about shoes, but enough about that for now.
So, I am going to run. I run a mile on the treadmill after one of my SJQ workouts. It sucked, and I was ridiculously sore the next day. Remember, I am already working out most days of the week and doing an hour or so of cardio each of those days. And I just went on and on about the walking. But I was so sore after that one mile on the treadmill, that I could barely walk the next day. It was nuts. I kept at it though, slowly adding the miles. I remember being able to run four miles consistently. I remember the out-and-back out the garage, onto the canal at Snell, to almost Coleman (and back home) of over seven and a half miles. Of course, I remember running around the Alviso loop for the first time. I was about to turn forty and considered running a marathon that year.
By now, it is Spring 2012. I would not be ready to run a marathon in time for my May birthday, but I started eyeing Fall races. I was hearing that I should do something else, because, as I know, running sucks and is bad for you. Then, perhaps the most serendipitous moment of this story. On a flight to Alabama to celebrate Clint's marriage to Rachel, I sat next to Todd and April. Todd had done a few to several Ironmans, and April had run Boston a handful of times. I want to say seven times. They told me that the science behind running being bad for you was unjustly enhanced by it sucking. Basically, that you hear about running being bad for you, because people want to justify not doing it (because it sucks). They told me that running can be done well. It could be done right and not necessarily mean injuries -- at least not ones that could not be managed. There was just as much if not more science that running was good if done properly. I should point out that I totally shattered Todd's rules about mileage and recovery. You should not try to do what I have done. If you pay attention to the miles and dates throughout this post, it is not normal. I am not bragging or even being dramatic. Todd suggested no more than four marathons per year. I just finished my eleventh since September 2012. This flight was Cinco de Mayo weekend 2012. I was in 10K shape. So if you try to do what I did and get injured, you cannot blame Todd. But Todd and April said go ahead and run that marathon. You can find a place past the suck where it kind of rules. And they made being an endurance athlete, even an amateur one, seem really, really cool. Todd gave me a lot of advice and references for nutrition. We promised to keep in touch, and we have. April credits me with turning her to trail running and ultras. Typing that gives me goosebumps. How I was able to return that favor so quickly is a powerful thing to me. But, thanks to them, now I had some expert advice, and a credible blessing to carry on with marathon training.
So I get back from Tuscaloosa and register for the Half Moon Bay International Marathon (HMBIM) coming up that September. I had bought my first pair of running shoes a couple of weeks prior. I then got a pair from professionals at Running Revolution in Campbell. I started training with Jeremy. His sister, Amy, had recently run Boston. This was key, because Jeremy is hella fast and runs along the Los Gatos Creek Trail and in the hills of Saratoga. Running with Jeremy in general because he is fast, and in particular because he runs hills, helped make me the runner I am today. Training for my first marathon is when I got hooked on running. I met Franz, the training director for HMBIM and a grandslam ultrarunner, and was reading the Dean Karnazes books. (I was actually reading one on the Todd and April flight. I also eventually read Born to Run and Eat and Run.) I got into it. Hella into it. I heard about Western States (the 100 mile endurance run that used to be a horserace). I decided I want to do it one day. It is Summer 2012. I decided not only was I going to do a marathon. I was going to be an ultrarunner.
Through Tony, a chum from Santa Teresa High School (and a darn good athlete to this day) with whom I had connected on Facebook and connected on many levels like outdoors and fitness, I met Ellisa (also, Facebook). Ellisa was training for her first ultra, although I am not sure she knew which one yet. She was running the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, a relatively popular 50K in August in that Pacific Coast Mecca area that is centered in Auburn, as a supported training run. Ellisa and her husband live in Elk Grove, a suburb of Sacramento. Ellisa heard about my new interest in ultrarunning and fueled it in a way I now know few can. She is an evangelist for the sport for sure. She does not approach it as a sport. She just loves running (walking the steep uphills usually maybe) outside in dirt and enjoying the views -- from the rocks and debris on the trails to the wildflowers and birds above them. But she gets it. She still preaches the virtues of high speed nature sightseeing, especially as opposed to running in lower quality air staring at and dodging cars. Most importantly, she convinced me that I should run Sly with her and her friends.
I signed up. I stepped up my training. I ran repeats of Mission Peak and met Sopheak of Silicon Valley Triathlon Club. I followed Kate again and started doing yoga religiously. I did the 20M distance at Run on the Sly, starting out and mostly sticking with Ellisa and her friend Anandi. 4:29. I had my first ultra experience, with the bananas and Clif Bars and badass sweethearts in the parking lot before sunrise. I finished strong, mostly because I stuck with the runner babes until the last six or so miles. I was convinced I could do this ultra thing sooner rather than later. Rather than pacing Ellisa at the next American River 50 Mile, I was going to run it myself. I ran my first ultra, a 50K in Folsom on September 15, with Ellisa and Nick and some of my new friends from Sly. 6:14. The following weekend, I ran the race that started it all: HMBIM. 4:19.
The day before yesterday, on April 20, 2013, I ran my eighth ultramarathon at Ruth Anderson 50K/50M/100K. 5:34. It was my eleventh marathon. Earlier this Spring, I ran Way Too Cool 50K and American River 50 Mile. 4:54 and 9:03. Those are famous California ultramarathons that I read about only a year ago. And that, sorta, kinda, more or less, is how I became a pretty average ultrarunner. With thanks to Kate, Andrea, Todd, April, Jeremy, Franz, Ellisa, Sopheak, and so many others, like the trainers and staff at Cisco SJQ.
*But not as much as food, but I addressed that on Facebook before this blog happened. For now, I am sticking to only original material here. So I cannot copy and paste it on principle. For now, you will have to go to Facebook for more thoughts on food. I cannot imagine there being enough of you not friends with me there seeing this that could ever constitute an outcry for my thoughts on food here, nor the time and lack of new material to provide them again.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
What are you doing here? How did you find me?
I get asked a lot of questions more than once. This will help me answer them consistently and refer back to them to keep me from embellishing. Also, if I am in a hurry, I can send people here for reference. I also like the sound of my own voice. I am wondering if maybe this will save you folks from hearing it so much. I can supplement some of that attention and quench the need for it with any drawn here. If any of this helps or entertains you, that would be terrific.
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