I Rocked it!

That’s right folks.  I kicked butt this morning and PRed by 7:24!  I was hoping to PR by a good 10 minutes, but I’ll still take it. My failing, I went out too fast in the first 4 miles.  By the end I was spent.  A full race report will be up soon.  Now to rest and recover. 

Yay!

I ordered a Nathan Endurance Hydration Vest for the Golden Gate Trail Marathon and it came in today.  Just in time for the Nikia’s Nippy Nor’easter Half Marathon tomorrow.  Yes, I double checked the date and time, and yes it is tomorrow! Ha!  I’m gathering up my gear and getting ready for bed.  It looks like I’ve got a 30% chance of rain, lets hope not!  I’ll report back after the race. 

That's It. I'm Insane!

I'm officially registered for the Golden Gate Trail Marathon on July 14th.  And why am I insane for registering for this? It's not like it's my first marathon. Well, it's not only a trail marathon, but it has some hellacious hills to contend with, and I've never been much of a hill person.  Here's a video someone took while running a 50K race around the same area.  The views look absolutely gorgeous, and well worth the training and hard work, or so I hope!

Goal Change

Well it's looking like my goals for 2012 are drastically changing from originally intended.

Goal One:  Increase my running frequency.  So far, I've been fairly consistent with last years frequency.

Goal Two:  Experiential running and sans timekeeping.  I've become much more subjective in evaluating my ruins, but with adding a half marathon, the timekeeping has crept back in.

Goal Three:  Find unusual/historical/intellectual/personal locations to run and document each one as an event.  I've done a few of these types of runs, but to be honest, 95% of my runs this year have been at one of two places (the lake at work, or the NCR Trail).  


In addition, I started out this year with no racing goals.  I did/do plan to run the Army 10 Miler, but that is my one yearly race.  Well, so far this year I've registered for, and about to run a half marathon, and I'm "This close" to registering for a trail marathon.   That's right!  I'm 98% sure I'm going to register for the Golden Gate Trail Marathon in July.  The family and I are taking a vacation to California, and this race just happens to fall on the last day there.  It'll be tough.  Within the first 1.5 miles there is a 900 foot climb, and the marathon is a two looper so I'll get to do it all over again.  I think I'm ready for the challenge and looking forward to switching up my running to include a heavy amount of hill work.  It's 16 weeks away and I'm already trained up to a half marathon so I've got the luxury of time to increase my distance and work on hills. 

We haven't yet bought the plane tickets, but once they're set, I'll most likely be registering for this one.  There goes my spring/summer of leisurely running!

I’m Such An Idiot

Have you ever gotten the date wrong for a race?  Well I have….. today!  I’m running the Nikia’s Nippy Nor’easter Half Marathon, and for the last several weeks, I was thinking the race was today.  So last night, we had the traditional Olive Garden dinner.  Then this morning I got up, grabbed my gear and hit the road.  It’s been rainy here and before I left I heard some thunder, so I was thinking the race might get cancelled.  I arrived at the location, a small parking area off the trail, an there were a few cars, but no signs of the race.  I just figured I was early, and with the rain things were running late.  An hour before race time, and I knew something wasn’t right. I grabbed my phone and looked up the site to see if the posted a cancellation.  Sure enough, I saw the first page and realized what was up.  The race is NEXT WEEK!  So here I am feeling like an idiot with one week to spare.  I guess it could have been worse, I could have been a week behind and missed the race!   Oh well, I really did not feel like running 13.1 miles in the cold rainy weather anyhow. 

Zippity Do Da

Since tracking my run on Sunday, I've been pleased with the pace I had.  It's been about 6 months since tracking my pace so I had no clue what it might be. Today, I squeezed in a quick 1.5 miles around the lake. Typically, shoot for four laps (3.08 miles) which makes almost a 5K, but today I didn't have the time.  So two laps it was.  I again sued Runkeeper to track my intervals, ans subsequently my pace.  I increased the ratio from 1:30/1:00, which I'll be using for my race, to a 1:45/1:00.  My thinking was that if I get used to running 1:45 at a time, then the race at 1:30 will feel easier.  I know a few other run/walkers that follow this philosophy and it works for them. 

Getting back to paces, take a look at my pacing for today.  I'm pleased, but I don't intend to make this a habit of tracking.  After the race, I'm going back to watch-free.  :)

Two Weeks To Go!

Two weeks from today and I’ll be running my second Half Marathon.  Today’s run was the first run in months that I actually kept track of my timing.  I averaged an 11:04.  At that pace, I’ll PR by nearly 10 minutes.  However, the first 3-4 miles I was at a much slower pace than the rest of the run.  I’m fairly confident that come race day, I’ll be down around a 10:45 pace.

I’m behind on some blog writing.  Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten in some great runs.  I’ll post them soon.  Last week, I was in Kentucky for work.  I found and ran a hellacious trail run.  It was so tough, It took me about 45 minutes just to go 2 miles!  Plus, I had a bit of an accident, nothing major though.  I’m 95% better, just some slight tenderness in my left ankle occasionally, when I walking down steps.  I’ll wait to share the specifics. 

In other news, I’m still eating a whole foods plant based lifestyle.  It’s been about two weeks without eating meat, but I have had some fish here and there.  My blood pressure has been below the hypertension level, not perfect, but technically not hypertension.  I’ve not had any acid reflux in several weeks, and haven’t had a pill in roughly a month.  My weight is hovering just above 200 lbs for the last week.  That’s about a 16-17 lb drop in two months.  Heck yeah!  I’m hoping that tomorrow mornings weigh in will have me below the 200lb mark. 

Well that’s about it for now.  As I mentioned before, I’ll post some experiential run reports soon!