Rainy Weekend and Start of Week 9

Finally got some rain here in Southern California last week and over the weekend.  It didn't rain quite as much as I thought.  There were periods of heavy rain and then a lot of sprinkles and light rain.   It's much needed here so any rain is good.

I had a long run this past Saturday and I got out about 5:57am.  It was still pretty dark so I had to take it really slow because the ground was wet, there was a light mist in the air, and I was wearing my sunglasses.  Yes, I wear prescription sunglasses and do so even when it's dark out because I'm far better with them on than without.  The rainy conditions presented a little bit of a challenge with the sunglasses since they were getting wet and making it hard to see.  I finally had to just take them off about halfway through.  By that time there was a little bit of daylight so it wasn't too bad.

So this week is already week 9 (out of 16) on the training schedule.  I can't believe how quickly time is going.   Number of training days is increasing this week so it's going to be a challenge keeping it up especially with how busy it gets around this time (for both work and personal life).

2010 Races

I've been trying to plan what races I'll be doing next year.  This is what I have so far:

02/07/2010 - Surf City Half Marathon
This is the race I am currently training for.  I have a lot of friends running in this race and I'm excited about this one.  My wife will also be running her first half marathon at this race so I'm really excited for her! When I started seeing some of my Facebook friends posting about running in this race last year, this is what sparked my initial interest in running and now a year later I'll actually be a participant in it.

04/10/2010 - Seal Beach 10K
I want to run this again because this was the first ever race I participated in in and will likely make it an annual event from now on.   I'll have about a year's worth of experience under my belt by then so I'm hoping I'll have a much better time.  This one will have to definitely be under 1:00.

05/02/2010 - Orange County Half Marathon (or possibly Marathon!)
This is on the same day as the PCRF Cinco de Mayo Reaching for the Cure races in Irvine.  I raced in the 10K in 2009 for that one but in 2010 I want to check out the Orange County Half Marathon and am seriously considering maybe trying the marathon.  It will depend on how I feel after Surf City and whether I think I'll have enough time to train for the marathon.  But for sure, I'll be doing the half marathon at least.

09/05/2010 - Disneyland Half Marathon
I had fun running in this race in 2009 despite how crowded it was.  The atmosphere was great and I'm planning on doing it again in 2010.  My wife will probably be running with me at this one this year which will be cool!

10/17/2010 - Long Beach Half Marathon (or Marathon)
Not 100% I'll be doing this one but I'm putting it on my plan for next year anyway.  If I don't do the Orange County Marathon in May, then I'll set my sights on running in the Long Beach Marathon instead.

11/27/2010 - San Dimas Turkey Trot 10K
This is a nice little turkey trot close to home so I'll plan on doing it again in 2010.

That looks like a pretty decent schedule to me.  Really looking forward to a great 2010!

San Dimas Turkey Trot 10K and The Blind Side

Last Saturday was the San Dimas Turkey Trot.  I had decided to run in this race because I've been itching to get out and do another 10K just to make sure I'm improving and I figured I would do this in place of my scheduled long run for the week which was supposed to only be 8 miles anyway. 

I woke up pretty early because I was pretty excited to finally get to participate in a race again.  The last one I had done was the Disneyland half marathon in September but the last 10K I had done was back in May.  I got dressed, got my Garmin and iPhone ready, did a little bit of stretching, had a small bowl of granola and non-fat milk, and before I knew it, I was on the road heading to Bonelli Park,  the location for this turkey trot.  I had also made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because I knew I might get a little hungry since I was going to be there pretty early.

So it's just a little past 6am and I'm already heading to San Dimas.   The park isn't that far from my house (maybe about a 15-20 minute drive) so I was there well before 6:30am.   Anytime I'm not familiar with a place I'm going to, I tend to get there super early just because I'd rather be really early than stressing out and rushing.   Another reason was that I missed the cutoff time for online registration so I knew I'd have to do late registration there.

I pull up to the gate at the entrance to Bonelli Park, pay the $10 parking fee (I hate parking fees!), and start driving off.  I soon realize that I forgot to ask the person at the gate where the actual turkey trot was.  I figured there would be signs or at least somebody there to direct me but after driving for a couple minutes and seeing a bunch of empty parking lots, I decided to turn around and go back to ask for directions.   I get back and find out I was supposed to make the first left turn right as I entered the park.   As I pull up to the parking lot, I see a few cars, a few other runners walking around trying to keep warm, and the lights and tents from the registration area just below the parking lot area.  I walked down and filled out a late registration card, paid the registration fee, got my goody bag and t-shirt, and headed back to my car to put all the stuff away.  It's about 6:30am and I have my time chip tied to my shoes and my bib pinned to my shirt.  Now, what the heck do I do?!?  The race is scheduled to start at 8am.  I know for next time, I can easily take my time getting there since it's a much smaller race than the other ones I've been part of.  All the other previous races I've done have always had thousands of runners whereas this one had a total of 167 runners for the 10K (and another 161 runners for the 5K).

I head back down to the registration area to kill some time and look around.  There is one retail tent for gypsyrunner.com and I check out the Spibelt which I ended up buying later on for my wife.  There was one other tent that had a bunch of flyers and pamphlets for other upcoming races as well as some t-shirts for sale.  Other than that, not much else.

 

Down by the registration area.  Gypsyrunner.com tent is on the left.  Volunteers on the right side cutting up pumpkin pie for after the race.

 

The start (and finish) line

 

Map of the 10K route

Okay, fast forward an hour later.   The race director is on the mic and mentions that there is a stream crossing on the 10K route.  He explains that the stream is normally about a couple inches high (I think, "Cool, that's not too bad") but then shortly afterwards mentioned that it was actually about 1.5 foot high today.  Nice.

I didn't care too much about my shoes getting wet but didn't really like the idea of having to run in wet socks after that crossing.  The race director also mentioned that anybody wanting to back out of the 10K and do the 5K instead would have that option because some runners expressed concern over getting their shoes wet.  I didn't care, I was ready to do the 10K no matter what so that wasn't an option for me.

 

Anxiously waiting for the start of the race

The 5K started at 8am and the 10K started 10 minutes later.   After the 5K started, the 10K runners started slowly filing into the starting chute.  I didn't go too close to the front because I didn't want to get caught up in the starting frenzy and go out too fast.  As it got closer to 8:10am, I watch the clock up at the front as it started to tick closer to 10:00....9:50, 9:51, 9:52.  I was waiting to hear some kind of countdown or something but all of a sudden I just remember hearing the air horn blast and everybody just started running.

I knew I wanted to keep the first mile at around a 10:00/mile pace because that's what I normally run and then I could go from there.  My main goal was to beat my previous 10K time so I wasn't worried about trying to race against anybody other than myself.  As I started out along the route and just trying to "go with the flow", I checked my pace and I was going at a 9 minute mile which, for me, is too fast.  I settle down and find my groove and watch more people pass and see the big pack of people go off in the distance.

Sometime after mile 2, we head into the first dirt trail portion of the race with a pretty good incline.  It soon started descending down and we were then on pavement again going along the lake.  It was nice, pretty quiet, and scenery was beautiful.  Pretty soon, we were all back on dirt trails again.

After mile 3, the stream finally came up.  It was pretty muddy and slippery so I had to take my time getting up to the stream.  Three other runners were there and I saw them head upstream and stepping on some rocks to get across.  I decided I'd do that too.  Now, I'm across the stream with muddy shoes (but fairly dry socks!).

Mile 4 went along a road that had a view of the nearby airport which then doubled back along the same road.  I remember another uphill portion after this that seemed to go on forever.  I just kept thinking to myself, "Keep moving, keep moving" and was also glad that I had been including some hills on my running routes recently.   This definitely made it a little easier for me.   If I had done this route last May, I would've had to walk this portion of the race for sure.

I catch up to my friend, Merv, at about the 5.7 mile mark and he asked me if we still had a chance to make it under an hour.  I looked at my watch and we were at about 55 minutes with about .5 mile to go.  I tell Merv we have 5 minutes and we start to pick up our pace.  As I rounded the last turn towards the finish line, I looked at my watch and it showed 00:59:47.   I sprinted towards the finish line and stopped my watch right at 1:00:00.   My official finish time was 1:00:34.   Not sure why I was off by so much between my own time and the official time.  Nonetheless, I was pretty happy to have beaten my previous time by a good 6 minutes!  Next time, I definitely will get it under an hour.

Final split times:

mile 1 - 10:00

mile 2 - 9:37

mile 3 - 9:57

mile 4 - 9:32

mile 5 - 9:31

mile 6 - 9:16

last 0.2 - 7:52

 

Ran into friend of mine, Mervin, and his brother Glenn.  Here we wait for the 10K awards.  Glenn actually placed 3rd in his age group.  This was his first 10K too.  Nice job Glenn!

View of Puddingstone Lake from the starting area

Later in the day, I got to watch The Blind Side with my wife.   I really enjoyed it and was impressed with the acting and good balance of story with some football action.  The pace of the movie was good and I never once felt any lull in the story.  One surefire way I knew it was good was that I didn't fall asleep even for one second during this movie.  Since we had watched it AFTER eating lunch and the fact that I had woken up pretty early that morning AND ran a 10K, I would definitely have fallen asleep if it had just been a little bit boring or slow.  I felt pretty satisfied with the movie and would recommend it highly.

All in all...a great day!

Week After Thanksgiving

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend.   It's always tough to get back into the groove of things after a long weekend.   So last Saturday I ran in the San Dimas Turkey Trot (10K) and also got to see The Blind Side.  I'll post my reviews of both later this week.

Have a good week!

To Turkey Trot!

I've decided to go ahead and run in the San Dimas Turkey Trot 10K this coming Saturday.  I've been wanting to do another 10K for a while now.  The last one I ran was last May and I just want to see if I can run it faster now.  Also, I normally take my son to piano classes on Saturday mornings but this weekend they are off because of the Thanksgiving weekend so that gave me that window of opportunity to join this race.

And another plus, my wife and I have our date night scheduled for Saturday also so even more good things to look forward to.  Probably will do dinner and a movie.  We'll be watching The Blind Side which seems to be a pretty good movie.  Can't wait to see it!

And one last shout out goes to NBC news anchorman, Chris Schauble, for completing his first Ironman this past weekend.  This consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 miles on bike, and a full marathon (26.2 mile run!!).  That is some serious endurance and I can only dream of doing that one day.  I think for now, I set my sights on doing a full marathon sometime next year.

To Turkey Trot or Not to Turkey Trot

I did a 7 miler yesterday but it had been one week since my last run before that because I didn't get to run at all during the week.  I've been feeling a little under the weather and decided it might be better to rest during the week to try and keep myself as healthy as possible. 

Can't wait to get into some longer miles.  I've been trying to figure out some other routes around my neighborhood and am excited to try a couple that I've been wanting to run but just haven't had an opportunity yet because I'm waiting until I get into some bigger mileage in my training.

This coming week I have a 7 mile tempo run and my long run next weekend will be 8 miles (unless I end up doing the 10K San Dimas Turkey Trot).   I think I'll decide tomorrow whether I'll do it or not.  

South Carolina Bound

This week I've been on a business trip in Greenville, South Carolina.  It's the first time I've ever been in this state.  I'm staying at a hotel in downtown Greenville and it's really nice here...friendly people, lot of nice restaurants (that are actually open pretty late).  Only thing I wasn't prepared for was the rain.  I had checked the 5-day forecast last week but didn't bother checking it again before I left so I didn't expect there to be any rain.  I was planning to try running outside in the morning but haven't been able to because of the rain and wind.  Actually, I haven't even had a chance to run, period, because I've been up late working.  

I did actually get to run 4 miles tonight on the treadmill downstairs in the gym.  It felt really good to run and not have to stop thinking about work for a little bit of time.  I also got to watch one of my favorite shows, Top Chef, while I ran so that was a plus.

Only two more days here and then I'll get to go home!  I miss my family and can't wait to see them again.

Week 3

This past Saturday I did my "long" run of 7 miles. I found a new route using mapmyrun.com and decided to give it a try.   It was definitely more challenging that my usual route because it was not as flat.  The combination of new route and more varying elevation was good as it gave me a fresh and different challenge to conquer. 

This is one of the trails I got to run alongside Grand Ave.  I've driven down this road hundreds of times and knew there was some kind of trail up there.  Didn't realize it was paved.  This was a nice stretch of straight running without having to stop for traffic lights and cars. 

This is at about mile 4 going down English Rd.  It was still pretty foggy as you can see.  This is another favorite stretch of road I like to run because there's not much traffic and no traffic lights.  It's exactly 1 mile to the end of the road and 1 mile back.  I usually see a lot of other runners on this road.

Tempo

Seemed like it has been a while since I had last run outside (it's probably because it HAS been a while).  My last run outside was last Saturday morning and I had a short run earlier this week that was done on a treadmill at the gym.

It was good to get out early and not be dark for a change.  It was pretty overcast and foggy this morning but didn't seem as cold as it had been in previous weeks.  All in all, it was good to get out and do my short tempo run (warmup, 3 tempo miles, and warmdown).

Splits:
1 - 10:51
2 - 10:07
3 - 9:54
4 - 9:59
5 - 11:31

The first tempo mile was done without looking at my watch so I was off on the slow side.   I did better on the next couple miles after that.  Next run will be Saturday morning (7 miles).  I'm looking forward to it.

On some unrelated topics... on my run this morning, I saw a high school kid going to school on a Segway.  I was thinking, "Wow, really?!?".  Even if I had one, not sure I'd be taking that to go to school.  Also, yesterday had some conversation on twitter regarding Nutella and couple people talking about how good it was.  I was curious and since I had to go too the grocery yesterday evening, I bought a jar and tried some last night.  That stuff is oh so yummy!  I think it's the same stuff they put inside those Ferrer Rocher chocolates (maybe?).

NOTE:  I just did a quick google on Ferrer Rocher and found on wikipedia that it's the same producer that makes both Ferrer Rocher and Nutella.  I knew it tasted familiar!

iPhone app review - Glympse

An app I have recently downloaded and installed on my iPhone is Glympse.  Basically, it allows you to share your location with different people via e-mail or text message.  You can even configure it to post to your twitter account if you so wish.

I mainly use this in order to share my location with my wife so that she knows where I am when I go out to run.  This way she is less worried (especially when I go out at night or early in the morning when it's still dark) and also has some idea about what time I will be home.   I carry my iPhone with me when I run so if she really needed to know where I was, she could call but the nice thing about this app is she doesn't have to call me and I don't have to worry about having to answer my phone while I'm trying to run.  She'll get the link in her e-mail and be able to check my whereabouts (make sure I'm still moving....) and then continue on with whatever she has to do.

You can choose to whomever you provide this information to, so it's not being broadcast to the world (unless you choose to do so).  Also, you choose the length of time that you will be broadcasting your location.

The one thing is that you have to have the app running in order for it to be able to track you which means if you use some other app on your iPhone (such as RunKeeper) then this won't work for you.

A New Week

I can't believe it is already November and now starting week 3 of my 16-week training for the Surf City Half Marathon.  I do most of my running now really early in the morning because I find that has been the best time for me.  With the time change this past Sunday, I'll be able to run with much more daylight now which will be cool.  I'm always afraid that I'll injure myself by stepping on something that I couldn't see in the dark.  At least now I won't have to worry about that as much.

This past weekend it was great to watch the New York City Marathon.  I watched a part of it on universalsports.com early on Sunday and then watched the whole thing on NBC later in the day.  I'm always amazed and inspired watching the elite runners run and will definitely motivate me in my running this week. 

Right now my mileage is not much (only about 13-15 miles a week).  I'm tempted to do more and to go faster than what my Smart Coach training plan has laid out for me but I'm going to stick to the training plan.   One of the big problems I had in my previous training for the Disneyland Half Marathon this past September was developing ITBS which really messed up my training the last 2 months going into the race.  I didn't really follow any training plan other than doing a long run every weekend and increasing that mileage by slowly every week.  However, I was still pretty inconsistent with my training and I don't think I did enough strengthening exercises for my legs.  I almost didn't think I would be able to run the Disneyland Half Marathon and was doubting I could be able to do anymore running for a while.   I discovered KT Tape (which was a godsend) and just had to take it easy and do a lot of resting and I was fortunate to be able to complete the half marathon.  I had a lot of fun in that race and took a lot of pictures and some video which I'm glad I did.  Consequently, my time was less than spectactular (2:46:51) but I was proud of myself for just finishing it considering my ITBS issues.

So, after that race, I decided I would have to start all over from scratch and be a little more disciplined in my training.  I was able to do a few shorter runs of 2-4 miles which I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had no issue with my knee.  When the ITBS was at it's worst, I had one training run where I couldn't even make it 1 mile without being forced to turn back because the pain was too much.   I am training now using the Smart Coach training plan from the Runner's World site.  So far it has been good.  My longest run since this "restart" has been 6 miles but I've been able to do it relatively pain-free so far.  I'm hoping to keep it that way.

So, here's to a new month and new week!  Get out there and run for fun!

401K?

Found this old funny Dilbert quote.  I ended up putting this up in the description field of my blog:

Why aren’t you signed up for the 401K?
I’d never be able to run that far!

The Starting Line

I've finally taken the plunge and decided to start a blog.  I hope it will serve as a way to keep myself motivated, to keep track of my progress, and maybe even help and/or motivate others out there.  So, I'll start with a little bit on how I got into this business of running (not sure if I can even consider it "running" yet as I'm still pretty slow).

Running was never something I would have imagined myself getting into.  I always thought of running as boring and I would rather do almost anything else other than run.  Every time I would go to the gym, the treadmill would be the last piece of equipment I would ever use (although I still feel the same now because I don't like the treadmill much).

So, earlier this year, on the day of the 2009 Surf City Marathon, I noticed that I had a lot of friends on Facebook that had run in this race.  I thought that was pretty cool and kind of got me curious about possibly doing some kind of race also.  My wife and I spoke and decided we would set a goal to train for an upcoming 10K.  As we looked around for upcoming races, the one we set our sites on was the Seal Beach 10K  on April 4, 2009.  So we printed out a training plan from the Hal Higdon site and started on our journey.  About one week after, my wife found out she was pregnant with our 3rd child so she stopped her training but I continued on.

I ended up not really following the training plan that closely just because of work schedule and other scheduling conflicts with kid's activities and such that would come up.   I didn't really make the training a priority so it was getting brushed under the rug anytime something else came up.   Since I'm a beginner, I gave myself an easy and very attainable goal for the 10K which was to just finish it!  I could do that...

The day of the Seal Beach 10K came and my pregnant wife and 2 kids came with me that morning.  My wife ended up walking the 5K and pushing my 2 other kids in a stroller (talk about super woman!).   To make a long story short, I was able to complete the 10K in a time of 1:07:48.  It was such a great feeling to finish and that was the longest I had run up to that point so I was really proud for making it to the finish.

I ran another PCRF Reaching for the Cure 10K in Irvine the following month and improved a little bit on my time at 1:06:25.  My last race was the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sept. 6, 2009 which was really memorable not only because it was my first half marathon which I had a ton of fun running, but it was also the same day my 3rd daughter was born.  I think she waited to make sure I was able to run the race before deciding to come out :)

I'll write more later about the individual races at a later time.