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Thursday, June 04, 2009

I'm In!

Yours Truly was selected in the lottery for the New York City marathon! This will be my 6th marathon and it's one I've had my eye on. Although I was raised in California and consider myself to be a Californian, I was born in the Bronx and figured I should run New York sometime. It will be interesting to run through all five boroughs. I haven't step foot in the Bronx since I was a teenager in 1969, when I went back to visit the "old neighborhood." It looked like a war zone and scared the crap out of me and my visits to NYC since then consisted solely of Manhattan. I never had the courage to venture beyond there.

When I was in Minneapolis last October, I asked my running buddies what fall marathon were we going to do--New York or Chicago. The answer was unanimous: New York. Some of my running friends here in SLO also wanted to do New York; of the four that entered, only two got picked. One woman who didn't get picked is looking for a charity to sign up with. I didn't want to do any fund raising, although I'm sure I'll be envious when she gets to be inside the tent before the race.

But before I can think about that marathon, I need to get through Seattle. I thought I had one more training week than I actually do, so I'm trying to cram. Yes I know you can't cram for a marathon. I was planning to run 18 miles on Tuesday and then 20 miles the following week, but that only gives me ten days to recover before the marathon. I think that's cutting it too close, so I'm going to try to do my 20 miler this Tuesday instead. I ran 16 hilly miles this week for my long run, and so far have logged 36 miles.

I was reading an athlete's article on what he learned from his last marathon, which was Boston. He said he would have trained on more downhills, so today I ran 7 miles of hills. There is a 6% grade near my house that goes for 5 miles. I couldn't bring myself to run uphill for 2.5 miles, so I did a few out and backs--uphill for one mile, downhill for two miles, back uphill for one mile, then downhill for 1.5 miles and back uphill for the final 1.5. It wasn't as difficult as I expected. I took walking breaks every 9 minutes and ran strong.

Tomorrow some of us are going on a 20 mile bike ride and then a 3 mile run, so that will bring my mileage up to 39 for the week. I've never run after a bike ride but I hear it's difficult. I'm hoping it won't be too bad since we're only riding for 20 miles.

I've already told you about Irene's San Diego race, but kudo's also to Sunshine for finishing the Inaugural Minneapolis half-marathon with a pain level of 9 on a scale of 10 and to Shirley-Perly for placing second in her AG at the Rock n Roll half-Ironman. She got the coolest trophy--a replica of Jimi Hendrix's guitar!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Fit and Strong

Today is the Rock n Roll Seattle marathon and Irene is running it. Go Irene! Actually, by this time, she ran it but I don't know her results yet. It won't be her fastest marathon, but she is recovering from a serious injury and the fact that she can race at all is a miracle.

It's been a good week and I ran a total of 36 miles. My running confidence is restored after running 15 miles on Tuesday. Seriously, I was not sure if I could even run 12 miles and we (Bunny and me) didn't start out to run 15 miles. We ran along Hwy. 1 from Cambria towards the San Simeon pier and couldn't resist putting in another mile so that we could use the bathroom at the pier. We ran strong on the way back and even picked up the pace at the end.

Yesterday I did some speedwork on the treadmill, running 8x800s (Yasso 800s)after a 1.5 mile warmup. I ran the 800s in 5 minutes and took 5 minutes recovery in between. Supposedly, if I can do 10 of these, I can run a 5 hour marathon. I didn't think I'd even do 8, because I hadn't eaten more than a bowl of cereal three hours before my workout and didn't even have a Gu with me. But a challenge is a challenge and I was happy to be able to finish. I'll try again next week.

Today I cross-trained by doing a spinning class for 45 minutes. It was pretty good, not as challenging as I expected but maybe I needed to increase the tension. Whatever. As we were climbing a hill, the instructor said something inspirational. I'll leave you with this thought:
You are stronger than you think you are.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Eighteen Again


Sadly, that title does not refer to the distance of my latest long run. I ran a whopping 9 miles on Sunday, but I plan to run long tomorrow. I'd love to be able to do 14, but that may be too ambitious. I want to get my mileage up again but not at the risk of injury. Bunny, M.A. and I are running at the beach tomorrow for a somewhat flat distance.

What the title refers to is the Avila Blues Festival that SD and I attended yesterday. This year's acts were people I had never heard of, although SD knew of Susan Tedeschi. Shemekia Copeland opened the show and she was great. Very engaging; she had a radio show on Sirius radio until they merged with XM and got rid of her. She sang a song title, "Who Stole My Radio?", but she wanted to say "Who stole my damnned radio show!". Uh, Bob Dylan?

Susan Tedeschi followed and at first it was hard to warm up to her, since she didn't interact with the audience. She just played guitar, but wow, she can really play! Not a bad singer, either. She has a style similar to Bonnie Raitt. She closed with a great song, but I don't know the title. I wanted to buy it and asked several people if they knew what that last song was, but nobody did.

They saved the best for last--Kenny Wayne Shepherd. This man is H-O-T-hot, and he's a decent guitar player too. ;-) I don't know anything about him, but I could watch him play guitar all night. He finished with a Jimi Hendrix song--Voodoo Child. He even played some of it with his guitar raised behind his head although he didn't light his guitar on fire at the end. It was still smoking, though.

When I was a teenager, I listened to "underground" music. The stations on FM radio used to only play classical music; AM was where all the popular music was played. The counter culture discovered they could use FM to broadcast album cuts, similar to the Deep Tracks on XM today, and that what I listened to. I loved blues guitarist, like Johnny Winter and of course, Hendrix. Watching Kenny Wayne play returned me to my lost youth.

Here's Kenny Wayne in action. Let me know what you think.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Bike Geeks


Bicycling magazine held a contest to give away a new bicycle. To win, you had to send in a video groveling detailing why you deserved a new bike. The staff came up with the top 10 and the public gets to vote on who deserves the best bike. They video's are very creative, but this one was among the best.

He's not the one I voted for, though. I voted for this guy, because I have a soft spot for the back of the pack. Also cuz I love animation.

Last week I ran a whopping 5 miles, due to a combination of jet lag and allergies. The temperature was in the 90s and I went foolishly went out at 1:00. I was running in the country and passed a small herd of cattle, lying down in the shade. I questioned who was the smarter animal, but concluded that I still was because I'm smart enough to not be eaten. But it was a narrow margin. :-)

This week I'm doing better, with 21 miles in 3 days and I'll run tomorrow too. I feel horribly out of shape and am just trying to get a base going again before I start running long again. I had hopes of doing three 20 milers before the marathon, but I'll be lucky now if I get one in.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Medieval Times

Bonjour.
Still in France but through the magic of WiFi, I've been able to keep up with most of your blog posts. So before I get to moi, I want to send out good wishes to those of you running Fargo this weekend: Beth, AmyBee, Nat, and ShirleyPerly. Also to Marlene in Canada, running her fifth half-marathon and maybe setting a PR. I'd also like to bring to your attention that Danielle ran the Boston Marathon this year and wrote a great post about it.

This week was a journey through the middle ages. It's kind of a blur, really. We are in Olonzac, a town in Languedoc-Roussillon region of southwest France. It feels more like Spain than France though, with tile roofs and dry weather. Sometimes it felt like we were still in California! But those snow-capped mountains were the Pyrenees, not the Sierra Nevada's, and that ocean I dipped my tootsies into was the Mediterranean, not the Pacific.

We took many day trips from Olonzac, to towns that were built centuries ago. One of the best was Carcassonne. It was like strolling through Disneyland, it was that picture-perfect. Only it was real. I don't have time to go into detail about it, but you can click on the link to learn more.

Another town that was a surprise to us was Mirepoix. We went there today and stumbled into a town square that dates back to 1290. Stores in France close for lunch from 12 til 2:30, and that's when we happened to arrive, so we found a nice restaurant and had lunch. Afterward we walked into the church of Saint Maurice, a Gothic style church in serious need of renovation, but which houses a massive pipe organ. We were lucky enough to arrive when someone was playing it, probably rehearsing for a concert. If you're a cook, you may be familiar with the term mirepoix. It turns out that the sauce which is made with a mirepoix (a combination of celery, carrots and onions) was named for the Duke of Mirepoix in the 18th century.

Near to Olonzac is the Canal du Midi. It was dredged during the 1600s and provides a waterway between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Horses were used to tow the barges and the remnants of that tow path is now a bike path. It's unpaved and pretty rough but good enough to run on, which I did--twice. The highway's here have no shoulder so it was much safer to risk a twisted ankle than a collision with a fast moving vehicle. SD found a quiet road to walk on and I used that today. It turned into a dirt road, a tractor road, and I was enjoying running through the vineyards when it occurred to me I might be running on private property so I turned around and stayed on the asphalt. I barely made it 6 miles, but I rewarded myself with un croissant au beurre and a grand cafe creme. I ended all my runs that way and enjoyed sitting at the Cafe de la Poste, watching the town go by. Just like home. :-)

Friday, May 01, 2009

Into the Woods



Bonjour!

Writing this on the last night in La Maraval, our vacation home away from home. We've had a wonderful time here and it flew by. Here's a link if you'd like to see pictures of the property and read about its history.

Yesterday we drove to St. Emilion, a wine region in Bordaux. The town itself is ancient and one of the oldest vineyards in the world is located there. While the guys went wine tasting, we girls toured the ancient underground church. The town is incredible, built out of the stone that was excavated to build the church.

Today we stayed close to home, visiting the caves of Villar and having lunch at the quaint town of St. Jean de Cole. It has an interesting church: they could not figure out how to build a dome, so they filled in the space with timber.

Last Wednesday, we went to Perigueux, which has a farmer's market. The town was much larger than we expected--a city really, and the market was great! We spent a small fortune on cheese, but it was truly artisanal--down to milking the cows by hand in order to get the utmost quality control. Frankly, I'm happy with string cheese from Trader Joe's, but I can appreciate good cheese when I taste it. Unfortunately, so can my waistline.

The day before that, we went to Brantome, which has an abbey founded by Charlemagne. We purchased regional specialties there: mushrooms, duck sausage, wine. One of my favorite regional specialities, however, is the foie gras. I'm embarrased to admit it, because it's not nice to the geese, but OMG does it taste good!

I've managed to get a little bit of running in this week. Besides the 5 miler last Sunday, I got in a quick 3 miler in on Wednesday and then ran 10 miles this morning. There is a "rails to trails" path that starts in St. Pardoux la Riviere called the Voie Vert and it is wonderful. I ran through woods and under arched bridges and past flowering trees. I encountered only two other people, locals out for a stroll and it was peaceful and quiet. I swear I heard a cuckoo bird; it sounded just like a cuckoo clock.

I must be off. It's 11:30 in the evening and everyone in the house is in bed. We have an early start tomorrow to our next destination, so I will say au revoir for now. I'll post pictures when I can, but it may not be until I get back.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Vive La France


Bonjour! Writing this from St. Front a la Riviere, in the Aquitaine. SD and I landed in Paris on Wednesday and joined two friends for a fun-filled adventure in France. We spent three nights in Paris and drove to our 17th century manor house in the French countryside yesterday, stopping in Chartres first to see the magnificent cathedral. Our friends rented this house and it's way cool and will serve as our base for the next week. Our little home away from home.

My training plan just blew up, though. I ran 6 miles last Sunday, then didn't run again until Friday morning where I ran 8 miles in the Luxembourg gardens. I had hoped to get more runs in, but between jet lag and sightseeing, it just didn't happen. So I only ran 14 miles last week, but the run in the Luxembourg gardens is another memorable vacation run. :-)

I was able to run this evening (Sunday) for 5 miles. I started late so only had an hour because the sun was setting and I didn't want to be out after dark. This is a very quiet area and it was a little unsettling being out, although I was fine. The roads are almost wide enough for a car, so one got a little too close even though I was on the very edge. I came close to flipping him off, but prudence prevailed. I may bring a stick with me next time and hold it horizontally so that the drivers will either move over or get their car scratched. I'm guessing they'll move over.

But the country is so beautiful! Stone houses, older than the United States, surrounded by woods and fields. Sheep and cattle graze alongside the road. It's all quite bucolic, although the satellite dishes on the side of the buildings are an anomaly.

We're in the Dordogne and plan to explore the area's cave paintings and vineyards. We're near Bordeaux, so of course we have to visit some wineries. We will also be visiting the many restaurants the region has to offer since it is known for its food. Mon Dieu! It's a good thing I'm a runner. :-)

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Wind and Hills


Thank you all for your condolences. It does mean a lot to me.

Life goes on and I have a marathon to train for. Today I ran 18 miles in incredibly windy conditions. Bunny ran with me and we pushed the pace a little bit. When it got really hard, I thought about all my cousin Gwen had to deal with. When I questioned why I put myself through this, I came up with three answers: because I can; because it makes me tough; because if I can do this perhaps I can handle anything life throws at me.

The wind came from the Northwest, and although it was supposed to be 12-15 miles per hour, we had very strong gusts. At one point I told Bunny it felt like I was running backward! Last week I ran 16 miles along the coast and ran into the wind (and rain!)for the first half, so that the wind would be at my back on the return. Today we considered doing that, but that would have put us at Starbucks in the middle of the run and we wanted to finish there. So we had the wind at our backs as we ran up the hills, then battled it when we were already tired. I was very happy to be finished with this run, although I did finish strong.

Last week's total mileage was 35.5. So far this week, I've run 24 miles. But a 10% increase would mean 38 miles, so I have another 14 miles to go. I'm running tomorrow, but depending how I feel, I may only run 4 miles. If I can do 5 on Thursday and 5 on Friday, I'll hit my goal. I'm not used to running 5 days a week, so that will be a challenge, but I hope to get up to 50 weekly miles so I'd better get used to it.

My sister, Deni, came to visit over the weekend and she brought her new dog. He's approximately 1.5 years old. I haven't run with a dog in decades, but she let me take him on my training run. He did pretty well, and it was fun to have a four-legged running partner. We ran 6 miles of hill fartleks, so it was a good workout for both of us. I imagine he slept well on the 3-hour ride home. :-)

Monday, April 13, 2009

For Gwen

Forever Young
My cousin lost her battle with ovarian cancer yesterday morning. She was in the hospital for 48 consecutive days. She leaves behind her husband, baby girl (pictured below), parents, siblings and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.

I didn't know her well. We are several years apart in age and she grew up hours away from me. Still, I remember her and it's a sad day. The picture above was taken at Disneyland last December, so you can see she was young. Less than a month later she learned she had Stage IV ovarian cancer.


Motherless child

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Wine Country Half

Paradise


Time: 2:29:32.170
Pace (Min/Mi): 11:24
Overall Rank: 384
Female Rank: 214
Female 55-59 Rank: 3

That was one tough race! The course itself was relatively flat, but there was some wicked wind blowing and the sun beat relentlessly towards the last three miles. Plus, there was that awful hill at mile 13. Ugh! I'm still sore.

So, I didn't get my 11 minute miles as I hoped. This was actually only my third best time. I was on target, finishing mile 10 at 1:50, when I crashed, figuratively speaking. I tried to rally by telling myself I only had a 5k left, but it was no use. I ate another gel and waited for it to work its magic. It got me to the finish line is about all I can say.

But notice that age group rank--I came in third and got a medal for my effort! I'm so used to the big races, that I didn't dream I would ever place, but my running friend, S., convinced me to check. There were four women in my AG, so I actually came in over two minutes faster than the last runner. This has never happened to me before!

Sweet Victory

You will recall that I had two goals for this race, and although I didn't finish in the time I wanted, I did reach my other goal. That's right, I went through the entire race without having to stop for a portapotty! I didn't want to lose valuable time like I did at Big Sur. The last portapotty at mile 12 didn't even have a line, but I knew I could wait till the end of the race. Good thing, too, or I wouldn't have gotten that medal.

I dedicated this race to my cousin, Gwen, who has been in the hospital for 36 consecutive days. She has Stage 4 ovarian cancer, which was discovered in January when she went in for what was supposed to be a routine procedure. Gwen is fairly young, and has a toddler, so I don't know how this could have gone undetected. I'll take this opportunity to remind you ladies to put your feet in the stirrups once a year and get that exam.

I haven't spoken to my cousin, but I keep updated on her through the Caring Bridge page that her husband maintains. She sounds like a determined young woman with a positive attitude. And we runners know how far a good attitude will take us. I have to tell you, I'm getting a little tired of all the cancer around me. Acquaintances, friends, and now family members have all battled with the Big C. Let's get a freakin' cure already!

Glycogen depletion doesn't seem like much when you think about someone lying in a hospital bed for over a month. During the race, I never felt sorry for myself, never questioned why I run races; I just kept moving forward. Actually, I was enjoying the race for the first 8 miles. We started on a dirt trail through tall green grass, which I thought was beautiful. And we passed a horse farm that had lots of mares and their babies with long, gangly legs. They were so cute!

I was listening to my iPod the whole time, something I don't normally do, and was singing to Mary Chapin Carpenter's "I Feel Lucky." I ran hard and walked through the water stops, although I wore a water belt which held my Ultima drink. The early miles were under 11 minutes, which is too fast but I thought that would give me a cushion for later in the race. That's probably why I folded at the end. But as I headed toward the finish, I managed to sprint past the girl in front of me. Heh heh.

Post race nutrition included an egg and cheese burrito, which I scarfed down. Then SD and I headed to the spa, where we sat in an outdoor mineral bath and admired the view. Darrell ran the half, too, although he was already back at his hotel when I called him. He was here with his wife and another couple, so we got together at a local winery and had barrels of fun.

Roll out the barrel

Here are my mile splits. I had cleverly set my watch to go off every 11 minutes, so that I would easily know if I was on target. However, I forgot to turn off the 1 minute interval, so there went that plan. Sigh. Apparently I'm not only metrically challenged, I'm just challenged. The Garmin shows that I ran farther than 13.1, which is why my overall pace is faster than the official time. Such is life. You'll probably have to click on the image to read it.

Mile Splits

This was good practice for the Seattle marathon, which is (ack!) only 12 weeks away. It's clear I need to fit in some tempo runs as well as long runs. I was planning to do three 20 mile runs, but now I have scheduling conflicts. It's really hard to fit in marathon training around the rest of your life. But I'd better do something, cuz I won't get a medal if I hit the wall at mile 10!

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Day at the Races


Today I attended the San Luis Obispo County Track and Field Meet, for high school boys and girls. I had never been to a track meet before, but had two good reasons for going; one was to see Bunny's son, Jack, run the one mile event. Jack is a freshman and he shows strong promise.

The other reason I went was to see senior Jordan Hasay run. Bunny gave me a heads up that Jordan would be running and I wanted to see her run before she leaves for Oregon. Hasay, if you don't know, is a distance phenomenon among high school girls. She ran in the Olympic trials in Eugene and the crowd was chanting, "Come to Oregon". She came on the track and looks just like on TV--long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail that reaches her waist. She didn't PR today, but she was so far ahead of the other girls that it was just a contest to see who would come in second. Kind of like Tiger Woods.

But back to Jack. Bunny had a movie camera but was nervous for her son so SD videotaped the race for her. She said she'd send me a copy, but I don't have it yet. I'll post it when I get it. I brought my camera bag, but when I opened it up at the meet, the camera was missing. Someone had neglected to replace it when he last used the camera, so I don't have any pictures to post either.

Bunny was nervous because Jack was planning to PR in the one mile today. He ran past us at 400 meters and was 3 seconds over what he needed. Then at 800 meters he picked up his pace but was still 3 seconds behind. I don't remember what happened on the third lap; I was just screaming for him. Then finally on the home stretch he gave it all he had and the pain was showing on his face. He did it--4:59, a PR and he reached his goal of sub-5 minutes! It was as exciting as the Olympics for me.

We watched a few other races, then Jordan Hasay's, and afterward went to find Jack. While we were heading there, we saw Jordan being interviewed. I wanted to get her autograph, but was too shy so I asked SD if he would. NFW; he wouldn't do it. So I asked Bunny and she got two autographs, one for her youngest son. Then we went and congratulated Jack. He ran in his new racing flats, but Bunny told him if he did sub-5 she would buy him cleats. Not that he seems to need them, but the other kids run in them. Jack had accompanied Bunny and me on a few Sunday morning training runs and he told his mom he doesn't know how she can stand to run so slow!

As SD and I were leaving the parking lot, we saw Jordan running on her own. Cooling down, I guess. SD commented that's why she's so much better than the others, because she works so hard. We left SLO and headed to Paso Robles so I could pick up my race packet. I'm running the Wine Country Half-marathon tomorrow! I've done a couple of training runs on part of the course, so I have a pretty good idea what to expect. I haven't done any speed training, but I have two goals for tomorrow--run 11 minute miles and not stop for the portapotty. Darrell is running tomorrow and hopefully we can hook up for a photo. I met him at the Big Sur marathon last year.

At the expo, I bought a new running jacket! I figured it was time to retire my blue Northwest Club Run jacket. It served me well for many years, and I've run many races in it. This new one is a bright lime green Moving Comfort, lightweight and with lots of pockets and I got it at an end-of-season price. SD shouldn't have any trouble finding me in a crowd.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Erin, Go Buy a Sports Bra

Today's run was a 16 miler, same as I did last week. Last week I was supposed to do 15, but took a wrong turn which added a mile. So today I was saying 16, but thinking maybe 17.

Not! Although the course was relatively flat, we had a couple of killer hills and it was all I could do to run 16. Bunny and M.A. ran with me, although mostly they ran ahead of me. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wore my green shirt from the 2007 Human Race in St. Paul, which is held around March 17. That's one of the things I miss about Mpls., there were so many races. SLO county is not very populated, so we don't have the things that cities do, like a Nordstrom's or races. There was the Valentine's 15K that I was going to do, but nobody else was and I didn't feel like doing it alone.

I did sign up for the Wine Country half and today's run was along part of the course. We had to ditch our jackets because it was too warm, and we left them on a fence at mile 2. That's what I love about living here: you can leave your clothes and they'll be there three hours later when you get back. We ran past cows, horses, and vineyards. We stopped at a tasting room at around mile 12 and they filled our water bottles with ice cold water. So nice.

Afterwards, Bunny went to get a chocolate shake and M.A. and I went to get some food. I must have an iron stomach, because I don't have any trouble eating after a run. But M.A. was feeling nauseous and only took a couple of bites. Any ideas on how to prevent nausea during a run?

I composed a haiku while on the run for the holiday, even though there's nothing Irish about a Japanese haiku.
On St. Patrick's Day
Everybody celebrates.
Kiss me, I'm Irish!


In keeping with St. Patrick's Day tradition, I'll leave you with a few jokes.

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, "Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up Irish Whiskey". Miraculously, a parking place appeared. Paddy looked up again and said, "Never mind, I found one."


"Tell me, Patrick, how did you manage to get so very drunk last night?" asked the parish priest.

"Well you see, Father, it was like this. I got into very bad company after winning a bottle of whiskey at a raffle."

"But you were with Mick Mulligan, Sean O'Toole, and Peter Ryan and they don't drink."

"Dat's what I mean, Father..."


Kathleen Murphy was standing vigil over her husband's death bed. As she held his hand, her warm tears ran silently down her face, splashed onto his face, and roused him from his slumber. He looked up and his pale lips began to move slightly. "My darling Kathleen, " he whispered. "Hush, my love," she said. "Go back to sleep. Shhh, don't talk." But he was insistent. "Kathleen," he said in his tired voice, "I have to talk. I have something I must confess to you." "There's nothing to confess," replied the weeping Kathleen. "It's all right. Everything's all right, go to sleep now." "No, no. I must die in peace, Kathleen. I slept with your sister, your best friend, and your mother." Kathleen mustered a pained smile and stroked his hand. "Hush now Patrick, don't torment yourself. I know all about it," she said. "Why do you think I poisoned you?"


Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody! Erin go bragh!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Vote for Pedro


I made the cut! I submitted a story in Steve Stenzel's Tales of a Virgin Athlete contest and I'm in the top 10. There were 34 submissions, so that's a big deal to me. I was actually nervous about it and was hesitant to open Steve's email naming the finalists.

I read all the submissions and they're great! Some are funny, some are poignant, many are inspiring. Steve had ten people judge the entries to whittle it down to a manageable number. That must have been tough to do. There were a few entries that I thought should have made the cut (but who am I to quibble with the judges.) He'll put the final stories up on his blog tomorrow and open the voting up to you. I think it will be a blind vote, meaning no names associated with the stories, so that it won't be based on personalities.

In the interest of fairness, I won't tell you which is my entry until the judging is over. Not that the eight people who read this blog can tilt the results in my favor. But if you get a chance, go to his blog and vote. Voting for the top three starts Sunday, March 15; I don't know when the contest closes. Wish me luck!

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Metrically Challenged


As of Wednesday, I had run 28 miles for the week. I skipped my run yesterday, because a friend was visiting and she was leaving sometime in the morning. I normally run in the morning and even though I promised myself that I would run later, I didn't. I did manage to catch up on some Brothers and Sisters episodes, though.

So instead of cross-training today, I ran on the treadmill. I decided to do Yasso 800s, running 800 meters for 5 minutes at 10 min miles, with a 5 minute recovery. They were ridiculously easy even with the incline set to 1.5 and the 5 minute recovery was longer than necessary. But I got up to 8 repeats before I had to stop, since SD was waiting for me. Only two more and I'll have my 5 hour marathon. Yippee! My arm was starting to hurt from patting my own back over how great a shape I was in, when I realized that .25 miles was 400 meters, not 800. No wonder it was so easy!

I did get in 5 miles, at least, which brought my total for the week up to 33 miles. Tomorrow starts a new week.

I'd consider submitting that little anecdote to Steve Stenzel's Tales of a Virgin Athlete contest, but it's supposed to be for something you did as a novice, not as a supposedly experienced runner.