RNR Recovery and Amsterdam

I've been super lazy on the workout front ever since I bailed on the San Jose Rock 'n Roll Half.

How Lazy?  Well, let's just say I did Bikram the day after, and then didn't do a single workout until arriving in Amsterdam the AM of 10/12, whereupon I commenced my standard travel cross-training regimen of personal physical transit coupled with all the good local beer, wine, and food that my belly can handle.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city full of canals and bikes.  (Also, it is a direct flight from SFO and a good, fun weekend layover city if you're headed to Barcelona). 

It's such a bike-friendly city that our hotel had bikes for free use.  We took full advantage and it was awesome.  I did much walking, biking, and sight-seeing, but no running in Amsterdam.  So, despite several miles of non-running self-propelled transport, and some bikram, I completed my first run-free week in quite some time.  (Also, I was ridiculously relaxed.  I'm hoping these two facts are unrelated.)

Typical Intersection with bike and walk lights

Rijksmuseum

One of too many canals to name

Gorgeous street night view. 

Self-explanatory.

Night bike and canal view.

Royal Palace

One of many ridiculous red light district views.

Red light district part 2.

Transitioning out of the red light district...

A fashion alley to make @Arvay proud...

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Barcelona: A Short Story

On our last full day in Barcelona, after an awesome Bikram Class, I went in search of delicious goodies to take with us on our next travel leg. Since it treated us so well last time, I originally planned to go to to the Boqueria, or Mercat St. Josep:

The Entrance to the Boqueria on La Rambla

One of the many awesome preserved meat vendors.

Fruits

Escargots (en Catalan) -- one of the examples of how Catalan sometimes makes more sense than Spanish to me.  I do *not* know the word for snail off the top of my head in Spanish, but I do in French, and it's pretty close to the Catalan.

So many delicious olives!

And while I love food markets in general, my real goal was to re-create the scene below, only with me doing the selection of meat instead of E.

Because we'd already seen the Boqueria, and there are so many markets in Barcelona, I decided to walk to one that was well-reviewed, less touristy, and closer to our hotel:  The Mercat de Sant Antoni.

It was a lovely walk.

Tortoise Sculpture Under Naked Children

Typical intersection -- love the trees, ironwork, architecture and pedestrian and bike-friendliness of this city.

Unfortunately, despite checking the website for hours and concluding I should be able to get there during operating hours, my plan had a flaw:

Not what I wanted to see...

Looks like a gorgeous market that will be even better when the reconstruction is finished.

Even with the disappointment, this story has a happy ending.  The supermarket near our hotel had several displays like the one below, plus aisles upon aisles of preserved awesomeness and a bakery and a butcher ready to slice anything and everything I might desire.  Did I mention I love this country?  

In keeping with tradition, we will have amazing sandwiches on our travel leg out of Spain.

The End.

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SJ RNR 6 miler

Yeah, you read that correctly.  6 miler.

Yes, I had registered for and half-assedly trained for the half.  But it was not to be.

I decided the night before that the weather was not on my side, so I'd just take it easy and do a nice easy half.  Given the Zoom Point Pinole half time of 2:09, I'd previously thought I could target an attempt to beat last year's time of 2:06:25. It's a fast course, whereas Zoom Point Pinole had some hills and gravel, so I figured it was possible.  But, after a long week of work, a predicted high in the 80s, and the knowledge that no matter what I wasn't in close to PR shape, I decided to just start a corral behind my assigned location and go for an easy long run.

The last 2 weeks before the race were pretty lame on the training front. My last long run was supposed to be 10-12 miles, but I settled for 8 with F at a 10:30 pace on Friday before a weekend off in Santa Cruz.  The last week was simply 8 miles total, all easy jogging or walking except 10X1 min fartlek in one run and 3 miles containing 1.75 miles of speed/strength work at 8:49; 8:34; and 8:06/mile paces.  I took the last 2 days completely off before the race due to work and a quick visit to my hometown to see my mom, a friend, and to go to dinner with my bro and niece and to watch her soccer game.

In other words, I was *very* tapered.

Saturday -- I just made it back to San Jose in time to pick up my bib.  I was supremely annoyed with myself because I'd gone to family court in downtown San Jose on Friday before I'd left town, but I'd completely forgotten about the expo that was one block away from the court.

Obviously, if you forget about the expo and bib pick up, you're not exactly excited to race.  And I wasn't.  But I'd paid the registration fee and trained without a GPS watch, so I was committed.

On Sunday, I got up, parked in my usual spot, used the bathrooms in the convention center (so much better than the porta-potties), and walked to the corrals.  It wasn't as hot as I expected, and I headed out at a nice easy effort.

I was shocked to hit the one-mile marker at 9:12 -- due to my broken watch I had no idea what pace I was running, but it *felt* like a 10ish pace.  No complaints here.

I kept my effort nice and easy and hit the 5K at 29:24 and re-assessed.  Perhaps I *could* beat my time from last year.  That would be nice.

At some point right around this time, I saw Paulette up ahead in her Oiselle tank, so I sped up a bit to chat with her.  I lost her at the aid station, but that was fine.  I walked through nice and slow taking in gatorade and water and got back into my easy groove.

Somehow, I missed the 4 mile marker, but hit mile 5 at an average pace of 9:35.  Thanks to walking through the aid stations, I was slowing, slightly, but, I was surprised at how great I felt and still thought that it was very possible I may be able to dig deep and just squeak past last year's time. 

My favorite part of this course is the out and back where you get to see the leaders.  As soon as they started to approach us, I checked out and cheered and ran, inspired, during this portion.  Fast runners are so cool to see.

Unfortunately, something happened while I was checked out.  I'm not really sure what it was, but when I hit the 6 mile marker, I hit the lap button on my watch (9:56/mile -- apparently cheering slows me down) and realized that I had a sharp pain in my left quad and hip flexor with every step.  This had happened at the end of the SLO marathon and Point Pinole as well -- in both races I'd had searing pain the last couple of miles and had obviously pulled my hip flexor and quad.  But in those races it had set in at mile 10 and mile 22 respectively.  Here, it was setting in at mile 6.  And I was running away from the start line.  There was no way this was going to end well if I continued.

Could I have finished?  Absolutely.  Did I want to?  Nope. Not if it meant I would injure myself or be in pain for the next 7.1 miles.

So, I decided to throw in the towel.  I stepped across the opposing traffic of speedy folks and hit the sidewalk for a nice 2 mile cooldown walk back to the start.  I stretched later in the day and met up with a friend I hadn't seen in years for brunch after her 2:01 finish.

The next day my leg was slightly sore, but obviously just fine.  So, I'll take the 6.1ish miles at 9:40ish pace as a good solid effort.  My only regret is that I didn't realize there was a 10K mat.  It would have been nice to have an *unofficial* time for the distance, but since they seem to have erased all evidence of my participation in the race due to my DNF, it really would have only been for my own short-term enjoyment on Sunday when my 5K result was briefly available with a "Runner may have stopped running?" qualifier.

Take home on running without a GPS watch?  Meh.  There are some benefits.  I slowed down more than I realized on my long runs and it didn't seem to negatively affect my race paces too much, so perhaps that's the benefit I'll take away.  Easy runs should be crazy easy.  I can do that.

Even so, I'll likely buy a replacement GPS watch this week.  I just like data too much... 

 

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Dear Dad

I'm sure you know, but I feel the need to write and record that I felt you out there today.

The feeling was strong.

Launching the boat, I could hear you saying what a nice boat ramp and docking station they had.  (It was the nicest put-in I'd ever seen up close.)  It didn't hurt that E said many of the things you would have said about the facilities.

The weather, of course, was amazing, as was the water -- glassy, no swells, seriously gorgeous.  J & E2 commented on how it's *never* this nice at 9 AM.  And, of course, I couldn't help but think that yet again, you and papa (and now gran, too, most likely -- although she probably grumped about the fishing being the reason we were all communing) were pulling weather for me.

I told E and E2 and J that I felt so close to you.  I'm sure you knew my grin was almost painful with its expansive growth upon each amazing wildlife brush:  The guy on the Jetty who caught the huge Salmon -- yeah, I felt you smiling and congratulating him.  The first seal?  Yeah, that one too.  The second and third and forth seal/sea lions?  Finally, I just started to relax and enjoy my wide-mouth grin -- it was going to be *that* kind of day.  There were geese, seagulls, sea lions, seals, sea otters, dolphins and more...

It wasn't until the flock of geese went directly overhead our boat and I heard the "whoosh-whoosh-whoosh" of their flapping wings that I realized you had made an effort to join me in a way I couldn't possibly ignore.  I had to speak up and explain that I half-expected to hear the shotgun as the next refrain in that long-held song...

I heard it in my head and heart.

I love and miss you.

And I had such an amazing day today, dad.  But you know that.  You saw the dolphins blowing their blowholes.  In fact, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure you've met J's dad, and you guys were hanging out pulling weather and wildlife and inviting any other fishermen up there to add their effort to make sure our day was amazing (J would have loved a salmon, FYI...).

I'm almost certain you took this opportunity because you knew that the hand blender you gave me 10+ years ago would choose today to die.  On any other day, I would be sad, distraught, and frustrated by the end of your gift's functionality.

But today, after feeling so close to you (and papa and gran), it's okay.

So thanks, Dad.  I know you loved the day on the bay today.  I did too - I loved spending time with friends, nature, DNR, the CA environmental surveyists, and random strangers on the dock -- it was a day you would have celebrated and I did my best to do the same.  You probably pulled some tricks to make it better than it otherwise would have been, and I'm very appreciative -- I want you to know that I feel so lucky and loved to know that you're taking care of me from afar.

With love,
Your daughter   

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A Goreous Day on Santa Cruz Bay

We were supposed to go camping this weekend.

But, due to E's broken foot, we decided camping was too much, so we visited E2 & J in Santa Cruz instead.  They made us an awesome dinner of ceviche and sausage on Friday and we talked and laughed over wine 'til it was time to sleep.  Saturday, after E2 and I enjoyed a lovely walk to Verve, they took us out on their Boston Whaler to go try our luck with the fish.

Apparently, we got lucky with the water and weather.  Even though we didn't head out 'til 9 AM, it was still nothing but glass and sunshine.  (If you zoom in, you can see the Santa Cruz boardwalk)  

It was so peaceful and pleasant.

J baited the lines and we all relaxed, enjoying the sounds and sights of the seagulls, geese, sea lions, dolphins, sea otters (so cute!!!), and, of course, the vermillion rock fish we caught (we threw it back).

I feel like I already had a full weekend and it's only Saturday afternoon!

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2 weeks to go

I've been about halfway as disciplined as I probably should be to be training for a half marathon.  Better than nothing, for sure.  But I think it's probably time to step it up a notch for the next couple of weeks or the race is going to be painful.

Monday, I did the scheduled run: 50-60 min w/10X15 sec fast w/ 1 min R/I (actual 50:27 w/13X15-22 second CI; Approx 4.85 miles run with a 2 min walking c/d; 83.3F, so I was reasonably pleased with the outcome.

Tuesday, I made it back to Bikram and stayed in the room the entire time.  I did almost all of the poses, too.  The Tuesday 8:15 AM class seems to be a good option for me, so I'll try to hit that one up again this week.

Wednesday, a scheduled off day, I walked 1.8 miles and did some gardening.

Thursday, I definitely cheated.  I just wasn't feeling my run, so after a couple of slow minutes, I decided to replace it with some intervals and walking recovery.  End result? 6X3 minute intervals.  35 minutes total including the walking for an uninspired total of 2.73 miles.

Friday, I took it very easy in prep for my long run on Sunday -- 3 miles without GPS data in 32:45.  Yikes, I'm slow on these easy runs.

Saturday, I had a *very* rough run.  I met up with F and Jen at the Los Gatos Creek trail.  The goal was 10 at approximately 10 minute/mile pace, which should have been extremely doable considering last week's half-marathon on gravel and with some hills which was at 9:59 pace.  I was supposed to do an additional 2 miles after the 10 with F, but that didn't happen.  From the start, I just felt off and struggled to keep up with them.  I'd let them get ahead of me then try to catch up and did manage to get back to them by the 5 mile turn-around.  However, after the turn around, they started to put some distance between us, and I just couldn't close the gap.  Eventually, I decided they must have picked up the pace and that I should just run as best I could on my own.  Thankfully, when I met up with F at the end, she agreed that they had sped up on the return.  Since I didn't bring a watch, I'm not exactly sure what my final overall pace was, but I suspect it was somewhere right around 10:00/mile.  Very slow for how much effort I put in, but sometimes it's just completing the miles that matters for my fitness, so I'm hoping this one will pay dividends despite the lackluster performance.  I am pleased with how I pushed myself despite how off everything felt.  I only stopped twice, both times for water and some energy chews.  I'm hopeful this week's long run will be much easier.

Sunday, I had a nice easy run.  We'd gone out to dinner Saturday night and our friends had driven us home, so I ran about 3 easy miles to pick up the car and drove it home.

Total mileage: 26.88 including walking w/u and c/ds.  Definitely low for 2 weeks before a half marathon.  Oh well. 

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3 weeks 'til SJ RNR

Last week, due to work, plus wedding bookend weekends, E's broken foot and necessary trips to urgent care, and a quick 30 hour trip to Disneyland with my Bro, Niece and K, my mileage took a serious hit.  I substituted some cross training (including 50 bicep curls that left me unable to straighten my arms for a few days), but the running was nothing to write home about.  Total miles:  15.  Quality? Not much, most of it was just miles on my feet in the slow lumbering pace range.  Saturday, I did manage to fit in some treadmill intervals at target race pace: 1.5 miles, 0.75 miles, and 1 mile all at 9:05/mile pace w/0.5% incline and 3 minutes recovery.  But really, it was a lame running week.

This week was also less than stellar, but somehow, it managed to help my confidence quite a bit.

M: 5.6 miles @ 11:07 pace.  These slow paces are the result of the broken garmin and running with the audiobooks.  I just relax and go at whatever pace feels easy.  Part of me comes home and calculates the paces and thinks?  "Why am I so slow?"  But, part of me knows that there are multiple training plans that call for training miles at much slower paces than I usually settle for, so I tell myself, "Relax."  You're training without a pace watch for this segment.  It's science.

T/W -- 30 hour disney trip.  OFF running, although I think I may have walked up to 7-8 miles with all of the various park activities (including some unplanned speedwork chasing and racing my niece to various rides).

Th: My track group was doing the Cooper Test on Wed in my absence, so I decided to do it by myself.  So, I busted out a 2 mile 10 min/mile w/u, then 1.46 miles in 12 minutes (8:13/mile pace), then 10 minutes walking cooldown.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I figured I was in 8:10 mile pace for a full mile, so to realize I was close to this for 1.5 miles made my day.  Maybe there is something to this run by feel approach after all...

F: OFF.

Sa:  I got up at 5:20 AM to drive and pick up C, so we could drive to Jen's and then all drive together to the Zoom Point Pinole Half.  I was disappointed in my recent running, so my goals were quite simple.  Run the whole thing.  That's it.  So, I headed out conservatively and slowly stepped it up throughout.  I only stopped at aid stations, I ran the whole thing, and I did a great job of pushing myself the last couple of miles because I'd passed a woman I'd been jockeying with about 2 miles before the finish and I *really* didn't want her to pass me.  Overall, it was a great day. 2:09 half on a trail course with hills (albeit in perfect overcast chilly weather).  No complaints.  The post-race breakfast at tacubaya was to die for. BEST CHILAQUILES I'VE HAD IN THE US. (Oh, and FYI -- that Blue Bottle Coffee is not fucking around -- I had the jitters and was slightly nauseous  after half a cup with cream.  Be Aware!)

Su: I was worried about fitting my run in today.  We had a big, full day.  My bookkeeper was showing up at 9, we had brunch at 11, we were buying E a new suit after that, and then I had a huge chore/to-do list centered around taxes and general family administrative stuff.  But I woke at 5:50 (thanks to the day before's 5:20 AM wake-up call, I'd wanted to go to bed around 11 PM.).  I went back to sleep, but when I woke again at 7:20, fully rested, I took advantage.  I headed out for a *very* slow 4 miles (11:33/mile) plus another 0.5 mile walking cool down.   But I got it all done, plus a shower before my bookkeeper showed up. This, my friends, is how I define my own personal version of success. 

Total this week: 26.85 miles.  Most important -- a solid half and good cooper test have led me to believe that perhaps limiting my speed concerns to a couple of workouts a week is best....  I'll let you know.

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