New Race Records...

I had a great month of running. I've been setting personal best times in every race I've done this past month. It's been incredible.

So, On October 7th I ran the Sacramento Cowtown Marathon. It's a pretty fast course, but it's two loops of a Half Marathon distance. Kind of OK, but can get a bit boring. Fortunately, I didn't know the course, so it was all pretty new to me. I took 3 minutes off my previous best time for the marathon, which I set back in 2002, finishing in 3:45.

On October 14th, yep, just one week later, I ran that Rock 'n' Roll San Jose Half Marathon. I blew away my previous best time for this distance, taking over 7 minutes off my time and finishing in 1:33. In addition, I checked my split times and I'd also taken over a minute off my 10k best time, during the first 10k of the half marathon. So, in two weeks I set 3 new personal best race times. Wow!

Now, yesterday I ran the Silicon Valley Marathon, in San Jose, CA and did it again. This time I took a whopping 13 minutes off my best time from just a few weeks ago. I finished this race in 3:32. That's just 12 minutes over what I need to qualify for Boston.

Over the winter I'm switching up my training program, I'm going to buckle down to SparkPeople again and lower my weight a little more and improve my strength and speed, so that in May I can do that qualifying run.

Updated Body Comp...

I scheduled another body composition test with the manager of the company gym today, so I had that done at lunch before I went out for my run in 88F 29% humidity conditions, to work on my tan.

I had the caliper test done last in mid March, so it's been a while. I've dropped 15lbs since then and the test shows that I've also dropped another 3% BF.

I'm down to 14% body fat and looking at my new target of 160lbs and 10% BF. Let's see if I can get there. This last stretch is going to be a tough one, I'm sure.

Now I need to start working some resistance training into my program as I appear to be losing a little muscle mass, or lean body mass, along with the fat.

The tan is coming along well. Hopefully, I'll have some more progress shots to show after my week in Yosemite, later this month.

Still running...

I've been getting out running. A lot! Saturday, I didn't have enough time to run the entire distance in one go, so I go out early and ran 5 miles. Then attended the San Jose Fit seminar and took my group out for another 7 miles. At that point I had to leave and be assistant coach at my 7yr old daughter's final soccer game of the spring season. The girls did great, so the coach wanted to get them all together for ice cream as a celebration for a great season. The girls won all but one of their games.

I was supposed to take my older daughter to her game after that, but my wife decided that she'd go instead because otherwise we would have had to swap kids so that the younger one could still go to the ice cream gathering. When I got home, my 13yr old son was finally out of bed, at 11am, so I left him to watch the 7yr old while I ran another 6 miles.

When my older daughter got back from her game, she wanted to go out and run another mile, since we're trying to improve her fitness level and get out a few times a week to run a 1 mile loop in our neighborhood. So, 19 miles total for the day. It was a pretty cool day, starting off in the high 60's and my last run was in the high 70's.

I've been running topless, too. ;-) Gotta work on that tan, eh? So, when I ran at 11am on Saturday, I didn't bother to dirty another shirt. ;-) I've been running my weekday lunchtime runs without a shirt, too, or at least I've been taking the shirt off part way through the run.

The only disadvantage to this is now I'll have a tanned upper body and lower legs, but I'll have this awful honky white ass. hahaha! ;-)

We started our hill runs last night. Every Monday, from now until mid-September, we'll get together at a local county park and run up into the hills and back. Usually we'll run between 4 and 9 miles, depending on the group and the route, and how we feel. Last night was almost 10k in just over an hour.

I'm still trying to think about my reward for achieving my weight loss goal. I've really got an itch to get my nipples pierced, but my wife is trying to persuade me not to do it, so I'm still up in the air about it. I hadn't really thought about anything else. Also, now I'm at my original goal weight, I still see all these rolls of fat around my waist and don't feel that I've really accomplished what I wanted, so I'm pushing ahead for another 10lbs to see if I can work those off and get closer to being able to see those abs. ;-)

My 10yr old's soccer team had a swim party on Sunday, at a local cabana club. I got a lot of compliments about my weight loss there from some of the other parents who've known me for a while. That was pretty cool, and I got to work on my tan a bit more, too. ;-)

SparkPeople Stages...

Wow! I just signed over to Stage 4 in this SP thing. It's hard to believe I've been here that long, but just looking at my weight loss chart I've come a long way. I need to get some progress photos into my gallery this weekend. I know I've come a long way there, since the March shots when I weighed 190lbs. I've weighed in at the gym at 170lbs for the past two days, so that's what I've just updated my progress to.

Marathon season is heating up, so my running is going to be increasing distance. I've got to train for San Francisco a the end of July, at which point I plan to have lost another 10lbs and be in great shape for setting a new marathon PR.

So, last month's Nike+ challenge finished. I won! Whoo hoo! With my 11 mile run yesterday, I was able to jump over the other two guys ahead of me and win by about 6 miles. Now, let's see if I can do it again for June, eh?

I celebrated by riding my bicycle to work again. That's another 1000 calories burned today, along with the 650 calories for today's 5 mile run. 14 miles scheduled for tomorrow, too.


and... after a break....

So, my training schedule for San Francisco called for 14 miles today. San Jose Fit were running 9 miles this morning, so that was a good start. I had thought I would have time to ru the extra 5 miles right after I'd got back with my group, but it didn't turn out that way. My daughter has a soccer game in Salinas, so my wife needed to leave around 10am to take her there. She couldn't take my other daughter, because they wouldn't be back in time for her game at 2pm, so I needed to be available for the trade off.

So, we met at Starbucks and grabbed a coffee and a bagel. That's my lunch for today, since I ate breakfast at 6:30am this morning, before going for my run.

Once I got back to the house, my son was finally awake -- teenagers, eh? ;-) So, now he can watch the 7yr old while I finish up that last 5 miles. Well, I don't really have a 5 mile loop, but I do have a 6 mile loop. So, that's what I ran. Total distance 15 mile, time 2hrs 4 min. Not bad.

After I cleaned up I took some new progress shots, since I'm now a pretty consistent 170lbs, which happens to be my original goal. So Whoo Hoo! me! Way to go, pat on the bad and a jolly good show and all that. Now, on to my revised goal of 160lbs by the end of July, which is what I want to weigh when I make my benchmark attempt at the Boston Qualifying time.



I guess I need to work on my tan now. ;-) Have a good weekend.

Nike+ Challenges...

I haven't blogged in a while. I've been cycling a lot more recently, trying to force more of a calorie deficit by adding 20 miles of cycling a day. I'm commuting on my bike, rather than driving or taking public transit. It's better for the environment, too. ;-)

Anyway, I've been a bit on the injured reserve as far as running goes. I've got this nagging calf muscle pain, but I think I've figured it all out now and I should be getting back out there again, today.

I've got about 8 miles planned for today, then about 5 tomorrow and 14 on Saturday. After that, we'll see how things are looking again. I'm lining up my training in preparation for the San Francisco Marathon on July 29th. I also want to lose about another 10lbs before I get there, so that I can put in a really good showing towards my Boston Qualifying time.


OK, I caved to the pressure to win. This morning I was 0.2 miles behind the leader in my May Nike+ challenge. The question was how many miles does he have left to upload? How many miles will he run today?

I thought I'd go out for an 8 mile run. Perhaps that would be enough. Right? Well, when I got out there, I felt pretty good, so I kept going. Past the turn around for 9 miles, and a bit further. By the time I got back to work, I'd clocked 11.2 miles on the Nike+. Cool, eh? Stupid perhaps? Will I win? We'll find out tomorrow.

Ohlone Wilderness 50k

I really wanted to stay in bed when my alarm went off at 4:30am yesterday. Ugh! I've scheduled a race! The biggest motivator for getting out of bed was that I'd paid good money for the run, and damn it, I was going to participate, no matter how much it hurt.

All week I'd been suffering from pain in my right calf. It started during my Tuesday run and then got worse when I tried to run home from the office on Wednesday. Consequently, I didn't run again until Saturday, with my group at the San Jose Fit training. Even there, I ended up walking part of the last mile of the 7 mile run.

So, come Sunday morning, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to complete the 50k distance, or if I'd just get pulled at the 9 mile cut-off point for failing to progress.

I had everything laid out the night before, so I was ready to go. I chowed down on my breakfast; some Nature's Path Granola, a banana, and some Kefir. The Dean Karnazes recipe calls for Greek Yogurt, but the Kefir works just as well, I'm sure.

It was about an hour drive from my house in San Jose, up to Livermore and to the Del Valle Regional Park. The race organizers had arranged to have most of the runners park at the finish and then take a bus to the starting area in Fremont. That just happens to be half way back home for me, but this arrangement is easier for me, since I'll have a car at the end and not have to rely on a crew, or my family coming to collect me. I was expecting school buses, but we ended up with 3 party buses -- the ones with wavy cushioned seats, a wet bar, tv/dvd, radio, etc -- and two stretch hummer limos. That was a nice way to travel to the start of a race. ;-)

Once we all arrived at the start area, we had to checkin with the race volunteers, so that they knew how many runners actually started the race. Then we had about 40 minutes to wait inline for the bathrooms, before the race actually started.

Just before 8am we all gathered to hear the pre-race briefing. We were told about a course change, which really meant nothing to me as I'd never run this one before, and that the course might seem a little shorter than in previous years. Oh, big deal! Anyway, runners who were concerned about the shortened course were advised to run around the parking lot at the end of the run to make up as much distance as they wanted to. ;-)

Now, the race starts in the Mission Peak Regional Park, travels though along the Ohlone Wilderness Trail and finishes in the Lake Del Valle Regional Park. For those who don't know this area, it's pretty hilly. It looks like a bunch of ruffles in the landscape between the San Francisco Bay Area and the California Central Valley. Fortunately, we didn't have to run all the way to the Central Valley side of the hills. So, anyway, this kind of meant that we start the run and immediately begin to climb. Because of my calf problems, I decided to take things easy and start this race at a blistering walking pace.

The first 4 or 5 miles of the course wind up the hillside to the top of Mission Peak. There's a relatively easy path on a fire road, which is where most visitors travel. About 1/3 of the way up the hill, our course takes off on a less traveled single track and starts bouncing up and down, instead of continuing upwards. We passed through fields of cows, a couple of streams and lots of switchbacks before finally arriving at the top, where there is an observation post.I've been to this point before, so I know that the post contains about a dozen telescope type tubes that you can use to view various Bay Area landmarks. They're all labelled so you know what you're looking at. It's pretty neat. Anyway, on race day, we don't stop to take a look. We have to be satisfied with the fleeting glimpses of the spectacular panoramic vistas, and continue on our way. From this point we head downhill for a ways and lose sight of the Bay Area as we head into the trees.

Of course, the problem with downhill is that you have to watch your footing. About half-way down the single track coming off the top of the peak, I managed to plant both feet and have them slip from under me. Fortunately, I was able to spare my left hand any injury because I was holding a water bottle and it cushioned the impact. My right hand didn't fair as well, but was still OK. My butt got a little dirty, but I had instant visions of having ripped my shorts and having to run the rest of the race with my ass cheeks hanging out. Gee, if I'd wanted to do that all day, I'd have run the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco instead. Fortunately, all was fine and I could continue on.

The first aid station doesn't have much beyond the electrolyte drink and some Clif Shots, so I rinsed off the dirty bottle form my fall, refilled all of my water bottles, grab a Raspberry energy gel and head on to the bottom of the hill at the Sunol aid station.

The trails to Sunol were uneventful. They were a moderate downhill, which gave me an opportunity to test my leg muscles for running and I was pleasantly surprised that I was fine. There was still some sensation in the muscles, but not really any pain. So, I kept going at an easy relaxed pace.

They had strawberries at Sunol. Yum! Of course, they also had the usual PB&J sandwiches, but this group used whole wheat bread. Score! Awesome! ..and Grandma's cookies, too. I'm in heaven! Great aid station food, my legs are feeling pretty good. Onward!

On Wednesday, I took at seminar on race walking techniques. I tried to put these to good use over the remainder of the race. For the 10 miles after Sunol, the course was mostly uphill. I had thought that Mission Peak was the highest point on the course, until around mile 18, when I looked back to see that we'd climbed above the level of Mission Peak and still hadn't reached the top of the final climb. Ugh! It turned out that we hit close to 4000 feet of elevation at the highest point. So, 2/3 of the way through the run and now it's mostly downhill. Of course, the trouble is that the term "mostly" is used instead of "all". ;-)

Yes, there was still plenty of uphill left for us on this course. The rest is kind of blurry in my memory. I ended up running most of the last 10 miles with my friend Christina. I think the only reason I was able to stay with her was because she had run a 50 mile race the previous weekend and a 100k race a week or two before that. If I hadn't had calf problems I could have stayed ahead of her on this run, but satisfied myself with some company. We traveled up and down on both fire road and single track. Some of the single track trails were quite overgrown, too, making the progress difficult, even though about 150 people had come through there ahead of us.

During that last 10 miles, we also started passing people. Those who had started out too quickly and were beginning to fade. The race walking and my energy reserves were doing well for me in this one and I was able to run all the flat sections and a lot of the downhills. Some of the fire road downhills were still a bit too steep to be run comfortably, so I kept my speed in check. That's a bit tough on the quads, though, but at least I didn't fall again.

We started getting glimpses of the lake we'd left earlier in the morning. A positive sign that we were almost done. Just keep putting one foot infront of the other and we'll get there. Then I spotted a car, then the rest of the parking lot. It must be close now! Around a corner and things started to look familiar, then I spotted the finish shoot. The trail had been flat for about half a mile, so I was still running and I kicked it up a bit just to get things over with.

I finished in a little over 8hrs and 10 minutes. Considering the elevation change along the course, and my muscle issues from the start, I think that worked quite well. My calf didn't really hurt anymore, but I wasn't sure if that was because it was better, or because the pain from everywhere else was just masking it. ;-)

My rewards for running that distance, and surviving? A nicely carved wooden plaque, a commemorative pair of running shorts, and a fluorescent green running shirt!

They had a BBQ laid on, but most of it was picked over by the time I got there. I retrieved my sweat check back, my goodie bag, grabbed a drink and headed to my car. It was time to leave. My mother-in-law was minding my kids and I needed to rescue her from them. ;-)

When it rains...

Well, I'm in recovery again. No long runs recently, but I'm getting back to it. I have to be ready for the Ohlone Wilderness 50k this weekend.

Trouble is I got myself into a bit of a pickle last week, which is why I haven't really been posting anything, since there wasn't that much to write about. Anyway, here's what happened.

My wife & I were engaging in some "adult gymnastics" on the Sunday before last, and something got tweaked. I think this is only the second injury, in my life, from this kind of activity. ;-) Two injuries 20 years apart. Not bad a bad record, I suppose. ;-)

Anyway things felt like a muscle strain, or cramp. Obviously activities had to stop and I spent some time trying to relax and let the muscle return to normal. I thought it was a psoas cramp. Relaxing seemed to help, but Monday morning I was still in pain and sitting or moving around seemed to aggravate the condition.

I tried a Yoga class at lunch to see if stretching would help. There was mild relief, but nothing long lasting. I was still having trouble.

By Monday afternoon I was still in pain, so I called my chiropractor and got an appointment to see him to sort out the pelvic alignment. It turns out that my sacrum and lumbar were locked up and he was able to free that. This gave me a little relief, but not much.

Tuesday morning seemed better, but not really. After walking around for a while things became progressively more painful. So, I called my GP to see if I could get to see him. My wife was leaving early anyway, so she came to drive me home, since we'd carpooled together earlier in the day. By this time the "muscle strain" had transformed to a feeling like I'd been kicked in the nuts. Ugh! This was painful!

I had a couple of hours before my appointment with the Doc, so I rested laying down on the couch. This helped enormously, so that by the time we left the house, for my appointment, I was feeling more normal again. At least for a short while.

As the doc checked me out, he decided that my abdominal muscles seemed fine, as did the intestines, and there was no sign of a hernia, either. I didn't have any apparent symptoms of an appendix problem, so all that was good, too. However, I did have some slight swelling of the vas deferens and epididymis, near my vasectomy site, which lead the GP to consider that I might have a slight infection in that area. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics and suggested that I see a urologist, just to be sure. I filled the Rx immediately and started taking the meds, then tried to get an appointment with another doc.

I was able to see a urologist almost immediately, so off we went to the other side of town to see that guy. He confirmed my GP's diagnosis, after using a little ultrasound wand to check that everything else was in order. In addition to the antibiotics, he recommended 600mg of ibuprofen three times a day for the next two weeks, along with hot compresses and more supportive clothing, until the infection is well under control.

This also means that I shouldn't be running for a week or so. Ugh! That's going to be tough. Even riding a bicycle could be painful in this situation! How am I going to get my exercise?

However, the following morning I felt like a different person. No pain to speak of, although the occasional twinge to let me know something is still going on, but otherwise I'm fine. It's as though yesterday never happened. Weird! Those antibiotics and the anti-inflamatories were really working.

I was able to use the recumbent stationary bike at the gym today with no problems, so I'll probably be able to use those for the rest of the week, until I can run again. Still, I'll be glad to get back out on the trails again. I have a 50k race on May 20th and I need to get out and run, so that I'll be somewhat prepared for it.

I have been able to run over this past weekend. Things have been feeling pretty good, so I think I'll be ok for the race. Of course, I just ran at lunch and now my right calf is sore. Ugh! I've iced that, so with any luck I'll be OK tomorrow. Hopefully, this won't affect my ride home -- I've ridden my bicycle to work twice this week, as part of Bike-to-work week. It's pretty good really. As a promotion for the company's commute alternatives, I get a free lunch and a free t-shirt, just for pledging to ride at least one day this week. Then, the gym are running a raffle for those who ride in. Each day you ride, you get an extra ticket for the raffle. Cool, eh?!

Tomorrow is the Race Walking seminar, then Thursday I have an appointment with the Endocrinologist about my thyroid, Friday I have an appointment with my chiropractor, Saturday is a 7 mile run with San Jose Fit and then Sunday is the 50k.

I think I'm doing pretty well, as the doc said to take it easy with the running for a week. I lasted 3 days. ;-)

Recovering...

Sunday's marathon left me with a sore ligament on the inside of my left knee. I've been icing it and taking Arnica to aid healing, but there's still a little twinge now and then, especially when walking stairs.

I've taken Yoga twice this week to get everything stretched out and work those sore muscles, and I've been walking on the treadmill, too. Today I actually tried running on the treadmill. Nothing too fast, just an easy jogging pace. Things are feeling pretty good. While running, I don't have any knee problems, so I think they stem from the terrain we had to deal with on Sunday and not the running itself. Which is good, because I want to keep running.

I'm going to keep up the icing and stretching and hopefully this will all be cleared up by next week and I can start more strenuous workouts again.

Mount Diablo Marathon

So, yesterday I ran the PCTR Mount Diablo Marathon. I met up with several friends that I've known from many other races and ultra events. It was a great crowd.

Particularly, I met up with Addy, who I promised to run with. We took it easy and along with time we took for photos and admiring the views, it took us 9hrs 10 minutes to complete the marathon distance. This has to be the longest time that I've taken to run a marathon, but not the longest time I've taken on an ultra trail race. The weather conditions were fabulous, the trail was dry, but most of our course was single track trails that were pretty steep and covered in loose material. It was really technical, especially the last 8 miles of downhill.



This photo was taken somewhere in the first few miles of the course. We were climbing almost constantly from the start up to the Summit around mile 9 of the course.




When we reached the Summit, we were encouraged to climb to the top of the observation deck to view the surrounding landscape. Awesome!






The early morning overcast hasn't burned off yet, in the valley that we climbed out of.







Here are my friends Addy and Karen. Addy & I ran the complete distance together and had a great time. Karen didn't spend as much time taking pictures as we did, so I think she finished an hour ahead of us.



This is Addy as we're leaving the Juniper Aid Station for the second time.
We're on our way to the Summit for the final time with less than 10 miles to the finish.

To read more about our run, check out Addy's blog from my favorite blogs list. She's an English major and is so much more prolific in her writing than I am.

Santa Cruz Half Photos

Here are a few shots taken along the SC Half course.

This photo is on the bluffs above the Pacific Ocean in Wilder Ranch. This is about 6 miles into the race and I'm averaging a 7:30min/mile pace.












On the way back to the finish, somewhere along West Cliff Drive.

Warm Run Day

The weather has certainly picked up around the SF Bay Area this week. It must have been close to 80F out there today.

I ran a nice 6.5 miles along the Guadalupe Creek Trail up past the SJ Airport. I tired to push a little bit more on the way back and completed the run with a 7:48min/mile average.

Now on to tomorrow's San Jose Fit training run -- a really short one at this time of the season -- then Sunday's Mt. Diablo Marathon.

TreeSpirit Photo

This is the photo that we took for Earth Day on Sunday. As you can see, we're all pretty anonymous. I'm the one up at the top of the image on the left. There must be at least another 40' of the tree above the top of this image.

To see more of Jack's spectacular images, check out his website.
http://www.treespiritproject.com/

Fun Run

Today was Adobe's Springtime 5k Fun Run. We run 6 laps around the Children's Discovery Museum (http://www.cdm.org/) in Downtown San Jose. at previous fun runs I've been the lead runner and really haven't had any challengers, so even though I've set pretty good times, I haven't been really pushed. Today was a little different.

We met at the Fitness Center at noon and walked over to Discovery Meadow as a small group. Once we'd arrived and stretched a little we described the course to everyone who hadn't done this before, and then we were off.

Starting out there was a group of 4 of us in the lead. I set the pace and made it a brisk one, but one that I was relaxed with. Well, the other 3 guys were jostling behind me and I kept feeling like I was being pushed, so the overall pace increased.

We completed the first two loops with a lightning 6min 20sec pace, and we didn't slow down. After the 3rd loop we'd lost one guy and a second stopped to stretch. That just left Dave & I to complete the 5k neck and neck. He seemed to be much more capable than I felt, so I just tried to hang on for the last 3 loops around the museum. We kept getting faster.

We completed the 6 loops for our 5k run and we were still neck and neck. I tried to pull away at the last feww hundred feet, but Dave just stuck with me. We cross the finish line in a photo finish, but wihtout the camera evidence to show who was first. ;-) We called it a tie. Final 5k time -- 18min 35sec. That's the fastest I've ever run this distance. Probably about 2 minutes faster than anything I've done before. Wow! I probably wouldn't have pulled that off without Dave to pull me along.

One or two of the other guys set personal best times today, too. The weather was great and we had a great time.

My next race is the PCTR Mt. Diablo Marathon on Sunday. This won't be a personal best for me because of the close to 8000 ft of climbing. However, I'm going to run it with my friend Addy, so we're looking forward to great weather and great company.

Earth Day

Earth Day started pretty early for me today. I dragged my butt out of bed just after 5:30am, so I could make it down to Santa Cruz before 7am. It was the Santa Cruz Half Marathon this morning.

I had planned to meet up with my SP friend Addy, but I didn't see her at the start area -- there were quite a few people there, dispite the bad forecast.

I arrived just before 7am to find that they were having trouble with the bib number handout and timing chips, so they were delaying the start for 10 - 15 minutes.

Since I'd tweaked my knee just last week during the 50 mile run, I had thought that I wouldn't run this morning and I'd just hand out flyers for San Jose Fit, since we're already into our program now. However, when I got there, the energy was up and I was fire up to try running. I made myself a promise that I would stop running and walk back at the first sign of a problem with my knee. I started at the back of the pack to stop myself from going out too fast. It took a good 4 minutes for me to cross the starting line from my position, so I didn't start my GPS timing until I hit the start.

Off we went. There's a short uphill right at the beginning, so a lot of people had trouble with that -- especially the people who should have started at the back. I started out easy and just ran along.

The weather was awesome! Considering the forecast for rain, we had a great time. The clouds rolled back just before the start and we hd blue skies above us for the entire run.

The course runs from the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, along West Cliff Drive to Natural Bridges State Park, around and into Wilder Ranch, looping around the bluffs and back the way we came.

Since I was taking it easy, I didn't push too hard along the way. Starting at the back meant I could keep passinng people through the run, until I found the group running my pace. This didn't really happen, though, as I kept passing people all the way to the finish and set a new PR for the Half-marathon (1:38:59 -- if I can keep this pace for another 13.1 miles, I get the Boston Qualifier that I want.). The last 100ft of the course takes you out on the beach at the Santa Cruz pier. Not the best running surface, but at least it was only a short distance.

Since I didn't pay for the race, I refused the medal from the volunteers. It's not like I need a t-shirt or medal for the half. ;-)

After the run, I walked back to my car, grabbed the flyers and plastered as many cars as I could, until 10:00am. At that time, I got back tot he car and headed over to UCSC for a TreeSpirit Photo.


http://www.treespiritproject.com/

Jack Gescheidt takes some awesome photos blending the beauty of trees with the beauty of the naked human form. He recently took a photo at the UC Berkeley campus in support of saving the grove of old growth oak trees. Today, we were trying to create a photo to increase the awareness about the UC Santa Cruz campus plans to develop certain forest areas around the campus. There were a couple of dozen people who came along to help out, or just lend a hand and some support. My wife drove down from San Jose to appear in this photo, too. It was a great a experience, enjoyed by all. Even though it was a little cool and wet, and we needed a ladder to start our climb up the tree, once we were up in the branches it was fine.

I climbed up to the top of the photo frame and found a spot off to one side of the proposed shot. We were all given some finishing touch instructions from Jack and then we disrobed. I was able to store my clothing out of the picture, on a branch on the back side of the tree. I didn't want to climb naked because of the temperature and I wasn't sure how my feet would react, having just ran 13.1 miles. Fortunately, the tree was quite smooth, from all the other people who've climbed this tree before us. The footing was secure, as were the hand and arm support locations. I had no problems arranging my body close to the tree in order to obtian the look that Jack was trying to get from the image. Trying not to shiver, we all stayed still for a few minutes while Jack took some long exposure shots on B&W film. Then he took a couple of shots on his digital camera, so that we would all be able to see the shots after we got down out of the tree.

A few people had to leave right away, so they climbed down and got dressed. The rest of us remained naked in the tree for a few more minutes, so that Jack could take a different angle shot. One that was more vertical to capture more of the height of this amazing tree that we were standing in.

We were back at our cars and heading home by 1:30pm. Time to get something to eat and get home for a refreshing shower.

Knee is fine...

Well, almost anyway...

A quick visit to my chiropractor to make sure there was nothing wrong with the joint itself. Turns out that it's just a strain of the ligament, so rest and ice should fix it up in no time.

I did yoga today, followed by 2 miles of walking on the treadmill -- no running. I've iced the area twice and I'm applying ALCiS to it a couple of times a day. ALCiS is a topical pain reliever that I picked up at the post race gathering for the Los Gatos Great Race on Sunday. It seems to work pretty well and basically applies asprin directly to the affected area. Along with the icing I'm not really getting any pain in the area, though I know I need to be carefull with it so as not to cause a problem that will hinder me for a longer period.

There's still some minor swelling around the knee that I need to take care of with the ice.

American River 50 mile.

Saturday I participated in the American River 50 mile endurance race. We ran from Sacramento, CA, near the Cal State Sacramento campus, up stream along the American River, past Folsom lake and on to finish at the Auburn Dam Overlook in Auburn, CA.

The weather wasn't all that kind to us. Although it was nowhere near as bad as they're going to have in Boston today for their marathon.

The rain, cold, and wind just added to the extreme endurance thrill of the event. Of course, the slippery mud which caused me to fall during a moment of lapsed concentration, around mile 35, causing me to tweak my left knee, requiring that I walk the last 6 miles, really added to the experience, too. ;-)

Since I had to walk so much I didn't break my previous time for the course, so I'll have to come back again next year, I suppose. I completed the distance in 11hrs 52 minutes, and I have the blue fleece jacket to prove it. ;-)

No I have to rest my knee so that I can run the Mt. Diablo Marathon in two weeks.

The advantage to walking the last 6 miles is that my quads feel like I did a long run, but aren't shot like they normally would be from a 50 miler. ;-)

Things that worked well:

Eating enough -- cookies, chips, m&m's, melon, pb&j, gu, brownies, chicken noodle soup. All good stuff to keep my energy up and not mess with my stomach. I had no stomach issues related to food.

Changing shirt and jacket half way through the 12 hr run was a good idea. I was able to warm up a little from that and get a little more comfortable. At least for a while.

The choice to wear Brooks Adreneline Trail shoes was a good one. These shoes have good motion control support, so I was able to wear them on the asphalt portion of the race, as well as the dirt/mud trail section. This saved time at the half-way point, in that I didn't need to switch from road shoes to a pair of dedicated trail shoes.


Things I could improve on:

Pre-Race Carbo-unloading -- a good friend of mine tells a tale of how he goes for a short half-mile run before heading off to the race. It serves multiple purposes. It provides a preview of the weather conditions, provides a little warmup in preparation for pre-race stretching, and the big one is that it fools his body into thinking that he's on his run and that it's time to dump those undigested food materials. Since he's coming back to the house before really heading to the race, he has that last chance to make use of his own facilities, as opposed to the shared, gross, ones available at the starting line, or along the race course.

Since I didn't take this to heart on Saturday, I found myself in need of a restroom around mile 5. I managed to find one at mile 16.5. By which time my bowels were in an uproar. Fortunately, one quick visit left me feeling *much* better. ;-)

Don't lose concentration! So, the next thing to note is that you shouldn't move along a muddy, slippery course with your head held high, looking at the sky, while drinking, because when you do that you slip and fall and tweak ligaments that will stop you from running the last 6 miles of the course and completely screw up your finish time.

Even if the weather seems OK, if it's been raining, take your gloves with you when you change clothes at the half-way point. My hands were freezing by the end, especially as I had to do so much walking. I could hardly hold anything in those last few miles.

Know that your iPod Nano is going to rollover the time at 10hrs, so it thinks your 50 mile run only took 1hr 51 minutes and therefore won't upload to NikePlus.com because their server won't validate the run data. Ugh! I could have reset and started a new workout at the halfway point, but I wanted to get the 50 mile as a new "longest" run record. There goes 50 miles of my challenge accumulation for the month. I'll never catch up with everyone else now.

Flash ah AH Savior of the Universe...

Well, there I go again with the Queen lyrics. ;-)

I start an online Adobe Flash course today, through the DeAnza Junior College. It should be interesting and hopefully it'll be useful, but it's going to take some of my free time.

Sunday Running...

A nice relaxing 16 miles on Sunday. I met up with Audrey, Dawn, and Rossanne and we ran from Campbell Park to Los Gatos High School. There we picked up Mike and ran back to Campbell Park. That was the first 12 miles.

We left Dawn to relax in the park, while we ran another 2 miles out and back to make the 16 miles total. Average pace was about 9:25min/mile. Really great for such a long run.

That gave me enough fast miles last week to give me a 3:33 marathon finish, had I run all the fast miles together. This is the fastest Parrott Predictor week that I've ever had. Really nice!

George Parrott, known affectionately as "Coach George" on the Dead Runners Society listserve, presented this idea a couple of years ago. He suggests that a runner can run no faster in the Marathon than he runs his fastest 26.2 miles in a week during training.

Bicycling to work on Friday morning...

Well, it's not quite the lyrics to the Queen song, but it's close.

So, it's Good Friday, so my kids and my wife are all off school today, but I have to work. So, I decided that I would ride my bicycle the 11 miles from my house, along the creek trails, into downtown San Jose and into work. My company provides secure bicycle cages in the parking garages and we have an onsite gym, so it's really easy to park the bike and get a shower before heading into the office.

I love this job. ;-)

That was a great way to start the day. I'm going to take a class at lunchtime. I think it's time to try the kickboxing class. I'll let you know how it goes.

New earring...

After our naked hippie crunchy granola hot springs weekend, I went and bought a new ear ring. Something a little more robust that the one I've been wearing for the past few years. I used this as an excuse to checkout the place where I'm planning to get my other piercings. The place looks pretty good and I got some reasonable answers to my questions about the healing process.

At the Hot Springs Passion training retreat, I also met two people who had body piercings and was able to chat with them about their experiences. We'll see how things go after AR50 mile.

Edit

Water Breathing revisited

So, still at Harbin, our next experience with Water Breathing was amazing.

Our first experience was about relaxing. This one was about controlling your breath and breathing deep and fast. Apparently, this was the precursor to the out of body experiences of Shamanism. The fast, deep breathing caused an imbalance in the blood gases which caused the muscles to tingle and the body to shudder. By the time I'd finished I could hardly move my quads and forearms. My fingers were not cramped, but were constricted, as were my lips and face. It was the weirdest feeling.

After lunch we took a hike around the resort and hit the meditation pools again. Being a Saturday there were far more people in the pools that the previous day. We didn't stay long, since we preferred the seclusion and less strict talking policy of our conference center. I chose to lay around naked and soak up some sun.

Before dinner, we tried a similar fast, deep breathing exercise while laying on the conference room's carpeted floor and listening to really loud drumbeat music. I was glad that I'd chosen to wear shorts for this experience, since I started to feel some sexual arrousal this time. Although the experience wasn't quite as intense as the previous water experience, I still felt the tingling hands and legs. Wow, all this just from breathing! If I'd known that breathing was this much fun, I'd have tried it earlier. ;-)


More incredible food for dinner. Vegan nut loaf, some incredible soup, and various salad fixings. Yum!

Tantra. Now, I've heard of the term, and I saw it on the schedule, but I really didn't understand what it meant. Following a short break after dinner, we began with another heart sharing exercise, but this time with the partner that we came with. So, my wife & I sat close and began to talk heart-to-heart. I think I'm getting better at this.

The basic premise for this is to touch each other in a way that the person being touch likes. Now the only way to know if the person being touched likes the touches is for them to tell the person touching them. So, this exercise was to lay down close to each other and for one person at a time to be the toucher and to follow all the exact instructions about type of touch, pressure of the touch, speed of the motion and all that. First we did the exercise avoiding genitals, but then repeated the exercise afterwards without any limits except our own. That one was a little too much for my wife, who was very explicit that in a group setting there would be no genital fondling. This too was part of the Tantra communications. You have to verbalize your boundaries so that both partners are aware of them and comfortable with them. I didn't have any issues with this, since we were all in different corners of the room and no one was really interested in what everyone else was doing, it was all very much focussing on the partnerships.

Anyhow, once this exercise was over, the goal was to move into the pool and practice some Tranta along with the water breath. However, my wife was pretty tired from our hike, the Shamanism, and all the emotional expenditure of the day and didn't feel up to participating in anymore group activities, so we retired to the sleeping area and called it a day.

Naked Yoga and Sharing

Saturday morning's schedule started early, so I got up at 6:30am so I could head out for a run around the 1100 acre grounds of Harbin before our 8am Yoga practice.

The place is pretty hilly, so I keep running up and down and around the area. I got back to the conference center with about 20 minutes before Yoga. I went to shower and worked out that in the dark I'd setup in the women's bathroom. Fortunately, Kim had about as much of a problem with me using those facilities as I did, so I just stripped down, while she was brushing her teeth, and I jumped into the shower. I hadn't taken a change of clothes to the shower, so I walked back to the sleeping area with just my towel and my sweaty running clothes. I walked through the main open area where LiOr was about to start Yoga. He asked if I was joining them because they were just about to start. Well, I've always wanted to practice Yoga while naked, so I put my dirty clothes against the wall and dropped my towel on the floor and stayed to practice Yoga naked. I thought that perhaps someone else would join me, but noone took up the hint. At least at that time. ;-)

Breakfast was granola and fruit, along with toast and other sundries.

After breakfast LiOr had us just walk in circles aroudn the room. Past each other, faster, slower, random direction changes. Then stop. Take the hand of the nearest person and now do some trust drills. Walk around leading the other person while their eyes are closed. Faster, Slower, random directions, switching which person leads. This exercise gave me some insight into how much trust my friend's blind running friend has in him when they are running marathons. She has to put complete trust in him that he will make sure that she doesn't trip and fall and that she will get back to where she came from. It's incredible when you're being led around. I knew there was nothing on the floor except pillows, but I kept thinking about my toes.

At the end of that piece, we had to sit down with this person that we really didn't know that well, and share some intimate knowledge. This stuff is really difficult for me. I have trouble opening up, but I gave it a go. I think if I'd gone second instead of first that I might have had courage and inspiration to say something meaningful. As it was, I think I simply waffled my 5 minutes away.

Grouped into two fours instead of four twos, we then had to share how we had felt about the previous heart sharing, amongst this new bigger group. I still wasn't with my wife in this group, and I think that helped me to relax into the sharing. These people don't know me, and have no preconceptions of my behaviors. It was pretty good.

Now, the slightly unusual part. What do we feel that we need to be nurtured? One at a time, the four of us had to tell the other three what we wanted from them to feel nurtured. We had massage oil. They had 6 hands. We all got naked. I had initially thought that I would embarass myself by becoming sexually arroused during my turn. However, although the touch of two beautiful women massaging my body, while I was laying naked on my back, the experience wasn't sexual. I really enjoyed giving massages to those same women, too. Still naked at the end of this, covered in massage oil, we all hugged and shared how the nurturing had made us feel. Pretty cool stuff.

Given a short break to cleanup before hitting the pool again for more water breathing, I followed my wife back into the shower to help her wash off the oil from her back. Of course, two of the other women were in there, too. I really like these clothing optional resorts. Everyone is so relaxed about nudity.

My Naked Hippie Crunchy Granola Weekend

Yes, there was nudity, and yes, there was granola. Well, ya gotta eat something for breakfast, right? ;-)

My wife & I went to a Passion Training retreat at Harbin Hot Springs, at the north end of the Napa Valley. The schedule for the weekend had things like yoga, breathing, and water breathing. Hey, I can do those. This should be a nice relaxing weekend. Plus, the Hot Springs pools are clothing optional, meaning that most people are naked when soaking. Now, that's just gotta be a good combination for a relaxing weekend.

We drove up on Friday and stopped for a few tastings at St. Supery and Beringer wineries. We arrived at Harbin in the late afternoon, but our first scheduled event was dinner at 7pm. So, we took some time to walk to the pools and try soaking. The main pools are a quiet zone. They don't allow talking in the area and the extremely hot 114F soak pool is silence only. That's really tough when you're trying to get into water of that temperature without screaming.

Even though it was Friday, there were many more people at Harbin than we've seen at other Naturist resorts that we've visited in the past. In combination with the quiet zone, we decided that this wasn't the best place for us, so we went back to the conference center where we would be staying for the weekend. We had about 1/2 acre of buildings and grounds for our group. That included bathrooms, a kitchen where our meals were prepared, about 1000 sqft sleeping area, two outdoor 98F pools and a large 1000sqft+ indoor area for our main conference facility.

All of our food for the weekend was vegan because that was the preference of the organizer. For Sunday lunch we had some awesome baked yams. Towards the end of the weekend he told us about a previous conference he'd hosted where people asked about meat in their meals. He brought two live chickens to the kitchen and told those wanting meat that they were welcome to prepare it themselves. As for the rest of them, they prepared their lovely vegetables.

After dinner we began the training. LiOr introduced himself and the aims and goals of the training. Basically, we were going to learn how to focus our lives and passions. Yeah, pretty vague, but there was more to it when he described it. We started with some breathing techniques in the conference center, then moved that practice out to the pool. There were eight of us, plus LiOr, and we were all able to fit nicely into one of the small pools. Of course, it was dark by this time, but everyone stripped down and used the warm outdoor shower to rinse ourselves before using the 98F pool. Ah! The water was devine. ;-)

So, the idea with the breathing was to put floats under your knees and lay back in the water while your partner supports your head so that your head stays above water. This gives you close contact with your partner ( there were 3 couples and a pair of very good friends, who weren't lovers ). This gave you an opportunity to develop a deeper level of trust in your partner, while developing the breathing skills that would be built upon throughout the weekend.

This exercise ended close to 11:30pm and hugs all around before heading to bed. So, getting hugs from my wife was fine, but even though we were in the pool, it was still a bit weird to be hugging 7 other naked strangers. However, this certainly was an ice breaker, even though there wasn't much chance of any ice in water that warm. ;-)

Of course there was really no reason to put any clothes back on. Why would I? Everyone had already seen me naked, what's left?

Body Piercing?

So, I'm thinking about rewarding myself when I really hit my goal weight, which shouldn't be too long now. So, sometime after I run the American River 50 mile race on April 14th I'm considering seom more body piercing. Not ears, as I've had my left ear pierced for about 15 years. This would be something more like nipples. If that goes well, perhaps a little foreskin piercing, or a scrotal ring. I'm not really sure, yet.

Anyway, I've found this great place that local. http://www.bodyexotic.com/

I've read some great reviews about the place, but I haven't found anyone that's done anything like this before. The last thing I want to happen is the recover to affect my running. If there's no way to protect the piercings from my sweat and clothing while I run, then all bets are off.

Anyone out there have any information, or comments?

Feeling great!

Well, I thought my recovery would take a lot longer after setting a new PR at the 50k on Saturday, but everything is feeling great. I did Yoga yesterday and that went well. Nothing too sore and nothing too tight -- although my gluteuls are getting to be rock hard with all this running and loss of body fat. ;-)

It was really windy in San Jose today, so instead of heading out onto the trail to test out my new Garmin 305 and heart rate monitor, I whimped out and stayed on the treadmill in the gym.

I think I must have overdone my celebrations this past weekend because I'm back up in weight by a couple of lbs. Not to worry though, this weight loss thing is all about 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I needed those calories to get through the run and to recover. Now it's time to hit the road and get back into weight loss mode again.

Uh-Oh

So, I just found out that an old running friend of mine, who ran the PCTR PC 50k with me yesterday, spent quite some time runing with a new friend of mine, Addy, who I met through SparkPeople. Addy & I share an interest in weight loss and a love of running.

Anyway, even though I'm happily married and I'm not expecting to date either of these women, I get this creepy crawly feeling that it's like the old girlfriend meeting the new girlfriend situation and wondering what they told each other about me.

Of course, their conversation was probably all of "oh you know Terry?", "Yeah, I know him, too", "Oh, Cool", "Hey that's a really nice Lavendar outfit your wearing", "Thanks"... and they never spoke about me again.

I'm weird, huh?

So, back to running....

Tomorrow is Yoga and a couple of easy miles on the treadmill. Then I have a dental appointment in the afternoon.

Hey, did anyone watch Battlestar Gallactica tonight? Ugh! That was the finale and they're not showing anymore episodes until 2008!!!!! Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!! That's my favorite show. This sucks!

Although, we almost missed the episode, too, because earlier in the day, my son & I moved his basketball hoop from the back yard into the front yard. He wanted better access to the hoop where he didn't have to worry about a glass topped patio table and letting his ball drop into the swimming pool. Well, on the way along the side yard, we hit hte satellite dish with the backboard of the hoop. the dish looked OK, so we kind of forgot about it. The afternoon progressed and there were no complaints about the TV, so I really forgot about it. 7pm rolls around and we sit down to watch the BSG episode. Turn on the TV and switch away from the video games that the kids have been playing all afternoon. The TV screen simply says "Searching for Satellite signal... Press select for utilities and setup". Uh-Oh! Then I remembered about the dish. Oh, dear.

We spent the better part of the hour fixing up the dish. We figured out that it was mis-aligned. We had to find the right Azimuth and Elevation settings for our location, find a compass and a socket set, then realign the dish until we got a reasonable signal report from the system diagnostics. Fortunately, because we get the East Coast feed of the Sci-Fi channel, we could wait until 9pm to see the rebroadcast.

I really don't think they finished that episode very well. I hate season Finales where they leave you hanging like that. Especially when they go and tell you that the next episode isn't going to be for at least 8 months, perhaps 9 months.

Well, at least Stargate will be back on in a couple of week. Although it's the last season for SG1. I really hope they wrap things up properly before they quit. Otherwise that'll suck, too.

OK, that's enough rambling for now. I'm off to bed. Zebedee just told me to go.

Forty Four

I ran the PCTR Pirates Cove 50k on Saturday. This was my 44th Marathon or longer distance race. What a race! Lots of hills compared to most of the other 50k runs I do. This one has about 6000 ft of climbing, whereas the others have had between 3000 and 4000 ft.

I had adjusted my expectations for the run based on this increased difficulty and decided that it I could finish in under 7 1/2hrs that I would be happy with the result.

I'd been planning to see Addy, a friend that I've been chatting with online since we found each other on a forum and discovered that we'd both been running the PCTR Woodside run at the beginning of February and hadn't realized it at the time. She's a senior at UC Berkley and preparing to attend Grad School at UCSC in July. She's only recently started running trails and is doing a fantastic job with her running and her weight loss program, using SparkPeople.

The weather wasn't that great in San Francisco yesterday. We have a low overcast and some brisk winds. With all the hills that we climbed paired with the low overcast, we were actually running in the clouds for a good portion of the day. It was interesting watching the mist being blown sideways across the trails ahead of us.

We started at 8:30am, or there abouts, and the 30k and 50k competitors were off together, since we all complete a 30k loop before the 50k runners head back out for an additional 20k loop.

There were probably 200 runners in that initial wave. More than half of them were only running 30k, which meant that I had to be careful not to latch onto one of them and find myself out of energy for the second loop.

All the weight I've lost recently certainly seems to have helped my performance, though. I was able to slowly run up the initial hills and stay with, or ahead of, some of the runners that I would normally trail far behind. I ended up playing leaf frog with one guy, Chuck Wilson, who I've met a many, many runs before, until I finally pulled away from him after the 30k aid station and didn't see him again until after the finish. I was very impressed with myself.

There would have been spectacular views of the SF Bay area, Sausalito, and the Pacific Ocean, even the Golden Gate bridge, if we could have seen more than 100 yds ahead of us. The course was still spectacular, though. We had a mix of fire roads and single track trails. Oh, and then there was the beach, too. Ugh! Black sand that didn't clump together, no matter how close you get to the waterline. So, at the end of both loops, we had about 1/4 mile of trudging through sand in order to get from the bluff over to the parking lot and the finish line.

My final time? 6hrs 11min. A personal best by 11 minutes. This is incredible really, since I only just set a PR at my last 50k in February, and this was *such* a more difficult course.

So, in celebration, I've uploaded some more progress photos to my SparkPeople gallery. I think my weight loss has played a really big part in my running performance, so I'm again looking seriously at a Boston Qualifier this year. Here's one of the photos I took today to celebrate my race and my terrific accomplishments with weight loss.

Great Weather, awesome run, fabulous weigh-in...

I ran at lunch today. Awesome weather! We're in the mid-70's today wiht a nice warm breeze. Perfect!

Another co-worker joined me today. we started out at a good pace, but it was a bit too fast for him, so after we turned around we slowed quite a bit. I ran an extra half mile just to get a good buzz with the heart rate and then jogged back with him at about a 9:00min.mile pace, after I caught up with him again.

So, I've been following the SparkPeople.com healthy lifestyle program for a couple of months now and making excellent progress. After my run today, I weighed myself on the gym scales -- I've dipped under the 180lbs mark! WhooHoo! It was a solid 179lbs today. Yes, I always check the zero reading on those scales, just to be sure no one is messing with them or has knocked them out of whack. So, that puts me at 25lbs down from when I started at the beginning of the year.

Hey, I'm taking it! So, I'll keep this up and take some pictures on Saturday, after my 50k, to post as progress monitors.

I love it when a plan comes together. ;-)

Hoorah!

San Jose Fit Season Approaches...

I coach marathon runners through San Jose Fit in San Jose, CA.

We meet at the Los Gatos High School at 7:30am on Saturday mornings from mid-April through late October.

Online Registration is open. Logon to http://www.sanjosefit.com

In person signups, in Los Gatos, on April 14th and April 21st 2007 at 7:00am, and at Sports Basement in Sunnyvale, on April 4th and April 11th at 6:00pm.

Physical Exam...

Today I went to the Dr to get a physical. It's been probably 4 years since I went, so I thought it was about time. Especially as I just turned 40. Time to get another baseline measurement, really. I stopped going after I had a few bad cholesterol readings and I didn't want to end up being forced to take medication for it. Silly really, when you think about it.

Well, the good news is that my carido-vascular system looks and sounds fine. Not really surprising with the amount of cardio exercise that I do. My cholesterol level is just awesome right now, so I needn't have been worried about that. However, he had a couple of comments about some of the tests. Apparently my blood glucose level is higher than expected. Even though it's not necessarily out of range, it could be a sign of impending diabetes, so we're going to retest it in about 6 weeks.

In addition to the glucose issue, there are signs of elevated Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, so we're going to retest that too. It's quite a way above the normal range and he wants to make sure that I'm not on my way to a failed Thyroid for any reason. Even though the thyroid palpates fine, so there's no swelling or inflamation that would suggest an abnormality, and usually thyroid issues are accompanied by high cholesterol levels, which I don't have.

Bottom line is that I'm scheduled for a follow up visit in 6 weeks to have these items reviewed.

On a lighter note, I didn't have to cough and I didn't have to bend over. ;-) I expected both of those with the "I'm 40 now" statement, but they didn't appear. Lucky me, eh? ;-)

Good weather again...

So, the weather's great again today, especially for running. Not too hot and no rain.

I emailed a couple of co-workers to see if they wanted to join me and Erik made it out. We took things a little slower than last week when we ran together, but still ended up logging 5 miles in 8:12min/mile average. Including a couple of minutes where Erik had to stop and stretch.

I really need to order a new Garmin GPS and this time get the model that includes a heart rate monitor. Today's run was pretty relaxed and I hardly felt that I was working, but I've never been able to do that pace with that perceived effort level before. I felt great! With the HRM I can push a little harder and know that I'm not going to kill myself. If I'm going to improve enough to get the Boston Qualifying time, then I need to improve my training techniques.

I'm hoping that the new manager at the company gym will be able to help me out a bit there. She's the American Record holder for the 50km race walk. Since she can walk a 50k faster than I can run one, I think she's got a lot of information that she can pass along. One of my toughest areas with these trail ultras is the walking uphill. If I can improve that speed, then I can reduce my finish times.

Today's Running...

I was hoping to be able to get out onto the Guadalupe Creek Trail at lunch today, but I had a meeting. As part of the MERT group at work, I like to attend as many of the training and information meetings as possible. Those tend to be at lunchtimes and conflict with my running. Today's presentation was from the American Red Cross about Disaster Preparedness.

Since I'm also a Ham Radio operator, this is a topic which interests me quite a lot, although I haven't implemented more than making sure my radio gear is ready for such occasions, wiht backup batteries and the like.

So, after an hour or more of lunchtime spent with that, I really couldn't afford to go for a long run. Then it also rained. Ugh! So, I hit the treadmill for a quick 5k. That'll have to do for today. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and I can put in a nice 6 miles, or more.

I've got myself into a set of challenges using my iPod Nano and the Nike+ system. When you upload your run data from the iPod to the Nike+ website you get to see how you're doing against other people. I have a group of 4 friends who also have these devices and we're all trying to see who, within reason, can run the most miles each month. Well, I won January and February with about 150 miles each month. I'm on for that amount again this month, but the others are hot on my trail.

It wouldn't have been too bad, but last week I went for a run and my iPod battery ran down, so I only recorded 1 mile of the 6 miles that I ran. Ugh! At least my closest competition has also has some trouble. First he lost 6 miles because he lost the shoe sensor during a run, then he lost about another 5 miles because he put his new sensor upside down on his shoe and it didn't record correctly. Phew! I might still win this.

Of course, I think I'll have them all after this weekend, when I run a 50k. hahahaha! ;-)

Upcoming races...

So, now that I'm posting here, I'm going to start with a list of my upcoming races, just as a way to fill some space.

March 24th -- PCTR Pirates Cove 50k
April 14th -- American River 50 mile
April 21st -- Santa Cruz Half Marathon (tentative)
April 29th -- PCTR Mt Diablo Marathon
May 20th -- Ohlone Wilderness 50k


Amongst all of this, I coach the San Jose Fit marathon training group in Los Gatos, CA. So, I'll be running every Saturday morning along the Los Gatos Creek Trail.

Progressing to my first marathon...

After that first race, I was hooked. I checked the race schedules, watched for fliers, and tried to find other races close to home, just to see what I could do.

When I was in High School, I did a little training. For a while my younger sisters were interested in race walking, and I would go along wiht the rest of the family to hang out and watch. I even tried the walking thing for a session or two, but I didn't really get the feel for it. However, they suggested I try talking to the track coach. I started running track. Just short distances, 100m, 200m, and 400m. I've never been able to recall the reasons why that all stopped.

I found a few races locally, and started entering. I'd get a t-shirt from each one, and a timed measured course to see how my pace improved. Cool!

I started talking with co-workers about my running, and found a few others who considered themselves runners. Then the marathon came to town. In September 1997 the first ever Silicon Valley Marathon was run in San Jose, CA. None of my running friends were in any condition to tackle the full distance, but that wasn't necessary. They had a relay option. We gathered a team of 4, and each of us ran about 10km of the marathon course. We would have finished much faster, but our first runner managed to get confused at the start. He didn't start with everyone else, then he could't find the course and had to run back to the start to get some help. By the time I took over, we were on a really slow pace. Ugh! We've never let him live that one down. ;-)

So, after that race, the organizers must have shared their registration list with other groups, because in February 1998, I got a flier in the mail about marathon training. When I saw this, I laughed at it and threw it in the garbage.

In March 1998, I started a new job. This is when I met Dina. We both started at the company on the same day, and over the next couple of weeks we got to chatting about all sorts of things. One topic that came up was running. The previous year, Dina had trained for and run a marathon. I told her that I'd received the flier in the mail, and that I'd thrown in away. The more she talked about her experiences, the more I thought that running a marathon was something I might be able to do myself. Surely, it was just a matter of training and running the right distances in preparation.

I started to reconsider that training program. I spoke with my friends from the marathon relay. They'd recieved the information, too. Should we try this? Could we run the full marathon, and not just the 10k?

After many rounds of discussion, I decided the throw caution to the wind -- can several other cliches -- and I signed up for the training program. I also persuaded my friend Gary to join me.

The program was quite straight-forward. In the beggining, run 3 or 4 times during the week, for 20 to 40 minutes, then run 3 to 5 miles on the weekend. The weekday runs increased to 40 to 60 minutes, and the weekend runs slowly increased to a peak run of 21 miles, using a kind of sawtooth system, where a peak run one weekend would be followed by a week or two of shorter distance, so your muscles could recover.

I had some muscle pull problems towards the end of the program, so my marathon result wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. I finished my first marathon in a time of 5hours and 10 minutes.

I knew I could do better, so I signed up again the following year. I improved to 4hours 40 minutes. Cool! I signed up again the following year.

As the years progressed, I became an assistant coach with the program. Initially, the responsibilities were limited to guiding groups of runners along the trail. Trying to keep a consistent pace throughout the run, and making sure that you come back with the same number of runners you took out -- the paperwork is hell, if you don't bring them all back. ;-)

I started running more and more marathons, and then moved into Ultra-marathons. How I got to that point is another story...

How this running thing got started...

Here's some history, just in case someone's interested...

I was a couch potota through high school, although I studied martial arts for a while. After college I didn't really do much in the way of regular exercise, though I made a few attempts I couldn't find anything that captured my interest enough to stick with it.

Finally, I hit 30. I had 2 kids, and I was just feeling fat and tired. The company I worked for at that time started a scheme within the benefits plan to encourage regular exercise amongst the employees. Basically, you get credit towards your health care contributions if you exercise regularly, attend health related seminars, and read health related materials.

I picked up Oprah's exercise book. The one she co-authored about her exercise program and personal trainer that helped her lose so much weight. The process seemed fairly straight-forward, so I tried it out. I hadn't really done much exercise since High School PE class, so I took things slowly. I got up early every morning and went for a brisk walk.

A couple of weeks of the walking, and paying closer attention to what I was eating, and I started to feel better. My heart rate wasn't elevating much with just walking, so I started to add short jogs into the routine. I couldn't jog far before I was out of breath, but a few of these short stints in each morning walk, and I felt like I'd actually accomplished something.

As the weeks progressed, I turned from mostly walking to mostly jogging. I'd warm up and cool down with a walk to and from a local school track, and spend 20 minutes running around the track.

A new gym opened up close to my house, so I joined to take advantage of the other equipment available. That was a bit farther away than the track, so I bicycled to the gym, worked out and then bicycled home, each morning.

I was really feeling good about this exercise thing now, but I needed to find something else to keep me motivated, otherwise I might be in danger of slacking off, or quiting altogether.

The First Race...


After several months of 20 - 30 minutes of treadmill, or track running I was starting to get pretty good at the running thing. I heard about a local race in San Francisco, call the Bay to Breakers. This race is 12km starting at the Bay side of the city and running across the penninsula, through Golden Gate park to the ocean. Anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 people take part in the race each year. There are serious runners, casual runners, and walkers. There are those with costumes, and those without, and those without clothing altogether.

My wife & I occasionally visit the local naturist resort in the Los Gatos hills. It's a fun, laid back place where you can enjoy the woods, lawn areas, a couple of swimming pools, hot tubs, tennis courts, and campsite areas, all while wearing as much, or as little clothing as you care to, with an emphasis on nothing at all. Well, through the people I know there, I learned of a group who participate in the Bay to Breakers naked. Hey, sounds fun to me! I've lost some weight from all the exercise I've been doing, so I don't feel that getting naked and running through the street of San Francisco will be a problem, why don't I try this? Of course, I need to train, so I know that I can complete 12km in one go, but where else are you going to be able to run naked through the middle of a major metropolis and not get arrested? ;-)

So, there it was; my motivation. I started running more each day, until I got up to a regular 45 to 50 minutes at least 3 times a week, with shorter runs, or other exercise, on the other days.

When race day finally arrived, I found that most of the naked group would walk the distance and only a handful of us would be running. I felt a little more vulnerable with such a small group, but after the first mile or so it wasn't a big problem. We were moving fairly quickly along the course and getting all sorts of comments from fellow runners and spectators. ;-)

I finished the run in a little over and hour and a quarter. Not bad for my first race, and considering all the hassles of trying to run through such a large crowd of people. I'd kept my clothing so that I could dress after passing the finish line, and then head back to my car for the drive home.

Wow! That was pretty cool. What race can I run next? I'll probably have to run it clothed, since I'm sure there aren't any others quite like Bay to Breakers, but I think I can deal with that. Right?