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.

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