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?
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
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!
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
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? ;-)
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
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! ;-)
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.
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...
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?
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?
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