pack your party shoes...

i'm throwing an engagement party for my best friend from high school in san francisco at the wine jar this weekend. i'm quite excited about our little getaway. the party should be a blast and my best friend finally gets to meet james. THEN, i will wake up post wine-jar and run 20 miles, with some serious chunks at race pace. luckily, my pacer james has agreed to partake, maybe even for the whole thing? right james?


so, i'm asking for some assistance here. have pity on my soon-to-be-hungover soul (i can't remember the last time i had more than 2 glasses of wine, but around my good old friends i tend to pretend like it is old times and i can drink my face off.) HERE'S THE QUESTION: anyone have a good 20-miler in the city of san francisco? i'm thinking of starting in pacific heights (where we're staying), heading towards golden gate park, up through the presidio, over golden gate bridge into marin and back along chrissie field/the marina.


i just really don't know what streets/trails are good or bad, or if you can keep running once you get over the gg bridge (or are you like on the highway or something?). so, if you have any ideas or running maps or experience or what NOT to do, please let me know! i may be in a bit of a fog after saturday and need all the hand-holding and pre-planning i can get to avoid any mid run meltdowns...i think if i can pull off a good enough route that doesn't circle back to the starting point until we're done, i can really screw james into running the whole thing with me.

silver strand half marathon race report.

the weather in san diego has been pretty schizophrenic lately. today was full-on summer with the scary kind of winds that cause wildfires. today's goal was to break 1:30 in the half marathon. we woke up early (poor james had only slept a few hours after he pedaled his chicken legs off at a 12-hour mountainbike race on saturday. of course, did awesome. check out his race report).
but my man sucked it up like a champ and shuttled me and my friend molly to the start line (i think i get the award for "picks-the-most-logistically-nightmarish-point-to-point-or-two-transition-races... LUCKY JAMES!). thanks to him, i've never had to take the stinking (literally) race shuttles.
i met up with the breakaway training boys at the start and we were off. the first 6 or so miles were as smooth as they come. it was hot, but the conditions were nice, and the course couldn't get any flatter. i settled in with some folks running the same pace and we were what i'd call "comfortably charging it".
THEN, someone turned up the inferno winds and we proceeded to run straight into a headwind for 5 miles. no, i am not (well only mildly) making excuses for my super-flawed anti-negative split pacing. this wind was for real. see?


at this point (when things got mega windy) i was quite lucky to be a girl...i have found the running male folk to be very accomodating and motivating to women who can keep up with them. several fine lads today were excellent wind shields, split-givers and morale boosters... i got some great pep-talks, "just one girl ahead!" or "she's fading"..."looking strong"... "let's catch that girl!". ....even "hey, you're lucho's girl! california training!" (thanks for the help, Nick!). no need for positive self-talk and brain training for me- i've got the nice running dudes!

when all was said and done, i ran my tail off and squeaked out a 1:28:30. (6:45min/mi pace) 2nd woman overall! (clearly there was no money on this course to draw out the big time racers/competition, but i'll take 2nd in a race of 4,000 any day!). first place was less than a minute ahead. i saw her on a short out and back. but didn't have it to catch her. no problem. today i was racing myself.

PHOTO TIME:

here's james, chilling after the race. i'm not sure what this look is, maybe his faris look? or blayne gone rugged.


me and molly (rockstar who ran 1:37 (i think) in her first standalone half!!) pre race walking to the start. those sweats i am wearing are now hopefully acting as a nice pillow or something for someone needy (had to ditch 'em- good old point to point races)


post race with felipe and molly....


me and faris...



the breakaway training elite team crew: felipe, erik, and some chick whose shorts are hiked up too far because she pinned her race number to them

so, good times, good times...i'm really a lucky one to haveawesome teammates and coaches with breakaway and mr. tim (who lives with lots of goats as i found out from kerrie's blog) and my life coach, james.

Thank you, Veterans!

Those who have worked hard to protect our country earned me one fantastic fall day off complete with a chatty girly coffee ride with bethany. the plan was to sleep until SEVEN! (gasp!) well, i made it until about 6, and out the door before 6:30 for a short run. (this week i am "unloading fatigue"- better know as running less- wahoo!) the fatigue is being unloaded because i need to make room to pile on the speed this weekend for the Silver Strand Half Marathon. my 2nd half and last chance to break 1:30 in 2008. i'm ready to go!

anwhoo....i got home from my morning yogg and headed out the door with the skinfit twins en route to meet bethany. (james' coach trevor has been in town and i have been the TOTAL 3rd wheel. ) here are some photos of the happy couple:

at a mountainbike race in temecula (i ran 12 mountainous miles while they raced)

riding on the coast. just like CHIPS. here they sported their yin and yang look:

well, as i said, the boys chauffered me (in their draft) down to solana beach to meet bethany for a cruisey ride.

for a girl who had EIGHTEEN 3-inch metal screws placed in her spine about 4 months ago, she is doing darn great. she was apologizing when we were going slow up the hills, but my legs were burning and i was secretly thankful she is still "recovering' . talk about a speedy recovery.

mid ride lattes in full effect:

(by the way, check out these screws! gnarly. she is literally made of steel)

as for my healthy eating mission...its going just okay. could be better for sure. but you should see what i'm up against. THIS is sitting on my couch every night with wine, the nut canister (below) and an open bag of kettle chips:

alright, i need to go unload some fatigue and get my sleep on....speaking of, check out my running coach's blog on the importance of rest.

Lockdown- eating with the marathon in mind

Okay. 5 weeks out from the marathon. as of today, i am still in one piece. so, it's time for lockdown. Now, i'm not overweight, but i have a little ways to go to get to my feel-fast race weight. I mean, who wants to lug a few extra lbs 26.2 miles?

There was a nice little table in Runner's World last year that illustrates how much faster you could be if you lost weight. Of course, this would not take into account speed increases due to training.

Pounds Lost	5k	10k	1/2 Marathon	Marathon
2	:12.4	:25	:52	1:45
5	31	1:02	2:11	4:22
10	1:02	2:04	4:22	8:44
20	2:04	4:08	8:44	17:28

According to RW author Amby Burfoot, the table is based on research that runners, on average get 2 seconds per mile faster for every pound they lose. The times you see above are the amounts a runner can shave off his/her race times by losing weight.

To be fair, runner's world also said this:

Note: Weight loss is for people who are overweight - not for people who are already slim. Losing weight when you are slim means you are losing muscle tissue and that means you are losing strength which in turn makes you slower. If at all in doubt, discuss with a professional (a doctor or your coach).

true true. you want to be sure to not lose too much muscle tissue or strength...but i like the chart all the same. If i can lose a few pounds (the right way :) ), it would make the marathon easier to run at the pace i want to run.

I could say I'm on nutritional "lock down" to get rid of all the toxins and crap in my body, but really that's not true. Getting detoxified is just a side effect to wanting a hot body that runs fast. To be honest, if a strict diet of frozen yogurt, chocolate, peanut butter pretzels and granola got me there, I'd be IN. Pass the peanut butter pretzels dipped in frozen yogurt and roll it in granola please!!!

the good thing is that I LOVE healthy good for you foods and that's already at least 85% of what I eat.

my downfalls are
1) Free food.
This one has nothing to do with being too cheap to buy nice healthy food. We spend abnormal amounts of money on beautiful fruits, vegetables, organic, nitrite free, cage free, wild caught, you name it. I eat them all, but I ALSO eat significant amounts of free-trans-fat-laden-i-would-never-buy-this-but-i'll-sure-eat-it foods... for some reason though, if I didn't buy it, and it's available to me, I MUST eat it! Working at a school, this includes daily baked goods and candy from the teachers lounge. and I can't stop.

2) Frozen yogurt.
(warning: i will sound like an addict here). I got down to 3 times a week, but it crept back up to 5 or 6. When james was in maui I had frozen yogurt for dinner 2 of the 3 nights he was gone. Now, this may not soudn like a big deal, but we go to a "self serve" where they weigh it to see how much of a fatty you are and mine typically hovers around 16 or 17 ounces. Yes, that's a POUND of frozen yogurt per day. But I get mostly the low carb/low sugar/low calorie kind. Double but, I do exactly what you are not supposed to do and eat twice as much becuase I think its "not so bad for you".

3) Snacking on whatever James eats after dinner.
this often involves a bag of kettle chips or a canister of nuts. and several dips into the peanut butter jar. then some dark chocolate. maybe some wine.

So this all sounds pretty bad, but the rest of the day is filled with cottage cheese, berries, salads, apples, grilled vegetables and grilled fish and that's it. so I'm really almost there. I just need to cut it out. Get on lockdown, and eliminate my numbers 1-3 above.

so here's the plan for the next 5 weeks:
1) I will eat nothing at school that I did not bring (I even skipped the leftover halloween candy everywhere today!!). and no baked goods or candy AT ALL.
2) A SMALL frozen yogurt 2 weekend nights a week and no toppings :( .
3) No eating after dinner. period. unless its frozen yogurt night.

james is my nutritional coach. well, coach is not the right word. I KNOW what to do, I just need an enforcer. he is being awesome. probably not exactly what he wants to be doing at the start of his off season, but i think he gets a kick out of slapping my hand away from the snacks.
I'm tring to think of a good reward if I make it two weeks on the plan. I'm thinking I need a new pair of sunglasses :)

Oh, and the baked goods thing doesn't count on Thanksgiving day. In reason, of course.

Okay, gotta go, I heard the PTA just put bagels and brownies in the teachers lounge :)