Good training

My training for the Surf City marathon has been going fantastic! It feels so good to have all of my runs in my calendar and have a specific goal that I am working towards. It makes me a little disappointed in myself that I sputtered along for so many months. But, I am back at it now and I must say, I have never felt this prepared for a race since I started racing. My paces are all on track for my goal time. Looking back through my stats leading up to all of my other races, I am consistently close to a minute per mile faster. That's a good thing. When I first started running, I was plagued (like most people) with some injuries that threatened to sideline me for awhile. That really bummed me out and I discovered low heart rate training. Which basically gets you to slow down a bit, which in turn, tends to mitigate future injury.

I believe in low heart rate training, but like anything, TOO MUCH of a good thing is bad. You HAVE to mix in speed work or else you become, well... slow! It worked out ok for me because I needed that huge aerobic base for my cross country run, but, it wasn't that great for races. Now, I am mixing in speed work, tempo runs, hill training, Lasso 800's etc. and everything is working beautifully. I did my last 20 miler at a 10:01 avg. which is much better than my previous long runs leading up to my marathons. My tempo runs have been very comfortable at around 8:30's and it was effortless to do a sub 9 the last mile of my 12 on Sunday. All very good signs to shoot for a sub 4:00 marathon. Boy wouldn't that be great? But, I will be happy with a PR of 4:07 or less.

Now, all this running has got me thinking about another adventure. Of course running across Europe holds a great appeal for me. But, realistically, that may be a few years off due to logistics. So, maybe something a little more close to home. Possibly the southbound route from Canada to Mexico, or maybe Maine to Key West. An east coast run sounds like so much fun! I have become so fascinated with history that my own little tour of the 13 colonies would be amazing. We'll see, but it is very much on my mind and when I do a big run this time, it will be coming from a happy place. Not running away from anything, but towards something. Meeting great people and seeing beautiful places. That sounds like something to look forward to!

Goals are good!

Yes, goals are good! It's funny, I kind of forgot this for the last year or so. It was hard to get excited for a race, but once I committed to doing the Surf City Marathon, everything just sort of fell into place. My training has been going very well. I have a goal time in mind and my paces have been right on target for my projected time. It has been nice to be training at higher paces as opposed to the slower paces that I was training at in preparation for my run across America and the couple +50 milers I did earlier this year. I have a 5k this Saturday that I am running with Brittany and I am very excited to be able to do races with her, now that she is a California girl again :)

I would love, of course, to PR the 5k. I'm not sure if I can do better than a 23:13, but I'm gonna try and it's gonna hurt. I get the most nervous for 5k's because there is no time to settle in. It's uncomfortable the whole way at close to my max heart rate. I prefer half marathons, but there's nothing like a 5k to see where you are really at.

I have retired the Vibrams for the time being and have been running in these.

The New Balance Minimalis shoes. After running so many miles in the Vibrams, I needed to find a very light shoe and these are working great. There's no doubt the Vibrams helped my form tremendously and switching to these shoes has made running a faster pace seem almost easy. And now, I can step on rocks and I don't feel it. That's a good thing!

So, I have taken my own advice, registered for races and have very specific training runs in my calendar. All is right with the world.

Paul

Surf City Marathon

Have you ever had such a bad headache that once it was gone, you felt better than If you had never had it? That describes, pretty well, how I feel right now.

Chris and I finished the run one year ago on Wednesday. It's been an interesting, and quite honestly, a tough year. Ive struggled with setting a new goal, which for me and most people reading this, I'm sure, is a must to keep my sanity. My only real goal for the last year has been to see how much of the beer, that I've been brewing, I can drink every night. Of course, I'm pretty good at hunkering down and achieving the goals that I set for myself..... this probably hasn't been the best thing to spend my time on.

Depression!

Since I have been back from the run, I have become FASCINATED with history, particularly American history. Seeing so many amazing places across this country, especially east of the Mississippi, has given me a voracious appetite to learn as much as I can about our past as a nation. In my studies, I have been especially interested in the Lewis and Clark expedition. For obvious reasons, I am intrigued by their story of crossing this country. It's easy to draw a parallel between theirs and our journey, although, I will concede that even though the "Galt" and the baby jogger and Chris's bike and trailer were harsh conditions, they didn't compare to what Lewis and Clark encountered on their journey west. But what is no doubt the same no matter when and how you embark on such a long trip, is how you are forced to look inward and confront yourself, sometimes what you see is good, sometimes it's not so good. Also, the things that everyone gets accustomed to, the daily routine where your own little world, with it's trivial details, becomes drastically stripped away and suddenly, it's hard not to see the bigger picture. The TV doesn't matter, who's ON the TV, REALLY doesn't matter. How many toys you have or how nice your clothes are, just doesn't seem important. It's hard to step back into "regular life" where those priorities are crammed down everyone's throat 24/7. It's easy to feel like an alien at times.
I've told the story of all the people that tried to hand me money when I was pushing the baby jogger. They thought I was homeless. It makes me think sometimes. "Homeless"?? It has such an automatic negative connotation to it. I'm not talking about freezing, starving people here, with children, looking for shelter. But I would venture to guess that there a a good number of people who CHOOSE to be "homeless". They are "dropping out" if you will, from the rat race that has been created as a result of the industrial revolution. I've seen a documentary on this and there were several people who said it. They don't want to play the game. And I understand. The rat race is a hard thing to go back to and it's hard not to ask "why?" Even though it was way back in 1809, I wonder if these weren't some of the feelings Lewis and Clark had? Sadly, Meriwether Lewis shot himself. Luckily, I haven't been that depressed.

Selfish

I've talked about it before, I believe that the thing that I needed to discover about myself, and I DID, in a REALLY BIG WAY! Was how selfish I've been my entire life.
One of the hardest things for me, has always been to find balance. In this case, it has been about being strong, being true to yourself, not letting people get in your way, being goal oriented and accomplishing anything at all costs!! But, in doing so, I realized out on the run, that I have hurt many people over the years, not caring how they've felt, only caring about myself. It wasn't malicious, it's that my priorities were wrong. I thought that the ends justified the means and that if I could achieve everything that I wanted, I could provide everything to the people that I loved. There's that saying "The road to ruin is paved with good intentions".

It's easy to only think of yourself. More so now, with the "Me Generation" and our reality shows, facebook feeds and twitter feeds all about US. Even my blog, is mostly about me. We have slogans "If it feels good do it!" Or my new favorite "Follow your heart". Which the more I think about it, is just an excuse for people to do whatever they want, often ignoring any commitment they have made. Like they need to do whatever it is that they are being lead to do by some inner voice. I've always listened to that voice inside me, but I've also argued with it when I need to. When we have people like Kim Kardashian (who I have no kind words for) saying that she "followed her heart" and filed for divorce 72 days after getting married. Clearly, not everyone should be listening to their heart.

Of course, listening to your heart can be a really good thing. Again, it's all about balance. As it's never good to hurt someone else. It's also not good to hurt yourself. In my pursuit of being "selfless" I managed to lose myself. It's been nobody's fault but my own. I stopped thinking about me and what I wanted. I stopped communicating with friends. I stopped dreaming about the future. I stopped living, basically. I was waiting.... waiting for something that I had no control over. I've always told my daughters that the best way you can be good for someone, is to be the best person you could be. Here I was, not taking my own advice. Finding that balance is hard. For me, it is being strong, motivated, goal oriented and driven, without hurting anyone in the process.

So, why am I laying this all out in my blog? Because I know we all deal with this in some form or another. If you do endurance sports, you've no doubt wondered if all of your training is taking too much time away from your family. Or if the hobbies you do are worth the time you devote to them, etc. My conclusion is to exercise "rational self interest". I think of it this way, if a plane is going down, and you have a baby next to you, it's better to take the first breath from the oxygen mask, so you can keep giving oxygen to the baby. That's not being selfish, that's balance!

So, I've finally started thinking about me again and registered for my first big race since being back. I'm doing the Surf City Marathon on February 5th. Pretty cool since this was my first Marathon back in 2007. It feels great to be training for a race and have a training schedule in my calendar! It also feels good to be me again, this time, hopefully keeping all of my priorities in order.

8 weeks to Long Beach

I am half way through my training plan in preparation for The Long Beach Marathon. I really do love this point in a marathon training program. I love high mileage! I feel pretty relaxed most of the time and find it very easy to sleep :) This week I will run 54 miles and it will look like this..

Monday: 4 miles- easy

Tuesday: 10 miles

Wednesday: 5 miles

Thursday: 45 min tempo

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 10 miles- marathon race pace

Sunday: 20 miles

I am feeling really good and I have been training at the paces that would indicate a sub-4 marathon. That would be sweet! I will be visualizing a 3:xx:xx on the clock from now until Oct. 11th. And, of course, praying for great weather!

We shot more footage on Sunday for my "Run for Liberty". I, once again, was not at a loss for words as I rambled on about all things running. I really do love this sport and get VERY excited when I talk about it. We have enough footage for our first piece and Chris is editing it now. It should be done in the next few days. I am working on the website in the meantime. I am more than excited to get this first clip up!

I am looking for a Trainer and Nutritionist to help me prepare for the run. It's not easy, since this type of endeavor has it's own specific challenges. You can't open up the Yellow Pages and find "Transcontinental run" under "Trainer". In any event, I think it will be similar to training for an Ironman, as opposed to training for a 5K. I will need to get my body used to staying aerobic for anywhere from 6-10 hours a day, pretty much everyday. And preparing my body for the pounding it will take day after day after day. And then, of course there is the nutrition part. I see a LOT of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in my future! By the way, why is it that so many runners and triathletes love PB&J? I digress.... If anyone knows of a trainer or nutritionist that might be qualified in this area and is not camera shy ;), please let me know.

Paul

A new PR, hardware and a little road trip

I'm a bit behind on the blogging, so let's get right to it! Brittany and I ran the Guy Poncy Memorial 5K today, at Angel Stadium. My mileage is up, in preparation for the Long Beach Marathon in October, so I was feelin' good vibes about todays race. I woke up at 6 am to find my Garmin Forerunner 305 dead as a doornail. Bummer! I am a stats FREAK but, alas, I would have to do todays race au natural.... or as one of my tweeps put it "Zen".

What a race! I felt great, and running sans gadgets (even without my iPhone) proved to be a good move. I PR'd by 13 seconds with a 23:13 and even better, placed 2nd in my Age Group. Was there another race today?? I mean, I am VERY happy with my PR, but my time wouldn't usually snag 2nd, in the m-40-44 age group. Oh well, I got hardware and and I'm not gonna question it!

Brittany ran a great race as well. This is her second race running barefoot and finished in 29:41! She was asked several times about running barefoot and was quite the ambassador for the cause. Spurred even more, no doubt, by a recent article in the OC Register about barefoot running.

We also met up with a couple cool runnin' tweeps Danica and Carmen and talked running and snapped a photo to document our "tweetup".

Now, about this "Road trip". It's interesting, with social media being as it is, this won't be the first that I have talked about my plans, but this will serve as more of a formal announcement than tweeting about it or through status updates on facebook.

I am going to run across the United States, from the Huntington Beach Pier to the Statue of Liberty. I will run between 20 and 30 miles a day and the run will take approximately 4 months. The tentative plan is to start in late January or early February. I will do it with a support vehicle and will most likely be shooting it for a documentary.

Why do I want to do this? The simple answer is, that I LOVE TO RUN. It has become my passion and my therapy. Every night when I go to bed, no matter how challenging the day has been, I look forward to running the next morning. It's almost like a new beginning, and every day I get to challenge myself with a specific purpose, which is usually a training session designed to make me faster at my next race. It reminds me every day that, although we have no real control in our lives, that in the things we can control, we have a responsibility to do them, whole heartedly and with passion. There are some circumstances in my life right now that have been really challenging for me and have beaten me down pretty bad. There have been times when I have felt like I have come to a real fork in the road. Where, depending on my response and attitude, it could go two very different ways. I have decided to take a road which, I believe will get me much better results.

I can't really explain where I got my idea for my "Run for Liberty". But I do know that it has been nagging at me for quite some time now and won't let go. As I started mentioning it to people, a surprising thing happened. Instead of "that's impossible" or "your crazy", people have been very supportive. I've heard things like "what route will you take?" and "anything you need, just let me know". It has been a very pleasant surprise.

But, I have no delusions about this run. It will be extremely hard. I am not an elite athlete. But I am is extremely focused (read.. obsessed) and... well... stubborn! I have run 4 full marathons, 2 ultra marathons (50k's) and an Ironman. I have a pretty good idea, the level of fatigue, boredom and sheer determination it will take to get to NY.

There have been approx. 220 Trans Continental runs recorded. Of these, 6 were unsupported and the rest were supported with some sort of support vehicle. Originally my plan was to go unsupported. I wanted to go almost immediately. I wanted to go buy a baby jogger, load it with my essentials and take off. See where fate took me (cause of that fork in the road I was talking about). I planned a route to San Francisco, so I could avoid the heat, and then I would make a right and head East. As I planned my original route and saw the real possibility that I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no water or food, I started thinking I need a better plan. I decided a Jan/Feb start will be much better weather wise and will allow me to take the southern route. I will do it supported, which in all honesty, takes care of my biggest anxiety... a place to sleep.

I am very fortunate to work in the Film/TV production and post production industry. I know a lot of people which I hope to use to my advantage in documenting this entire journey. Anyone who reads my blog or knows me, knows how I feel about reality shows. The last thing I want, is to shoot a reality show and be scripting fights between me and the Driver. It ain't gonna happen. But the reality is, running across the country is going to take money and the way to get money is sponsors. The way to get sponsors is exposure. I think there is an honorable way to document this, that other runners (and anyone with a crazy dream) will find interesting. I will be pursuing, as sponsors, companies that make the products that I use.

We are going to start shooting very soon, starting with an appointment with a Sports Physiologist/Trainer to discuss my fitness level and a training program to get me ready for the run. The plan is to post those clips as webisodes as we go along. I am hoping that people will want to follow this journey. It is a cliche but "A journey of a (3) thousand miles, starts with a single step". I've taken about 2 steps so far.. the rest is faith. Oh, and LOTS of hard work!

I will be tweeting, facebooking, blogging and updating my website as things progress.

Oh... And here's my hardware.

I'm sure glad the super fast guys didn't show up :)

Paul

LA Marathon

It wasn't an easy decision, "should I run the LA Marathon this year?" I have wanted to run LA for the last few years but, so far, had not worked in my schedule due to other races. This year, it wasn't another race that stood in the way, but the fact that I may not be properly trained in time for the race. Since my hernia surgery in early February, I have struggled to get my mileage up to pre surgery levels. I think I underestimated the time that your body needs to recover from surgery and thought I could just continue on without missing a step... Wrong!

Looking back at the previous 3 months before each of my marathons and comparing the miles, I only did about half the miles that I did at last years Long Beach Marathon, where I ran a PR of 4:07. So, it is really no surprise that I ran a 4:29:32 in LA. It is still disappointing. It's a few seconds slower than my first Marathon, making it my slowest. Each of my previous 3 marathons had progressively gotten faster, so this was a bit of a bummer. If I were to do it over?? I'd do it in a heartbeat, cause it was a BLAST!!!

I'll spare you all the gory details of the pain in the last few miles and instead focus on what went right. The running community was a little concerned about this race, particularly the change in date and the chance for much warmer temperatures than it's usual March date. Lickily we were blessed with perfect conditions. The temperatures held in the mid 60's assisted by a nice marine layer! It was truly a gorgeous day. The spectators were INCREDIBLE! I can't remember any significant section of the course that wasn't lined with enthusiastic supporters. It really was amazing. The race itself was very well run and organized. Even the parking was effortless. I left WAY too early, expecting traffic and hassles and they simply did not exist. Kudos to the new owner of the LA Marathon for a very enjoyable race. I will be there for my revenge next year.

I also had the pleasure of meeting some of my new twitter pals at the race. It was really cool to meet them in person after chatting for the past couple of weeks. We are all still chatting and now a bunch of us are planning on doing the Long Beach Marathon in October. Very, very cool!!

I apologize for the lack of links and pictures in this post, but I am writing this on my iPhone as I am on the trainer (that nasty multitasking thing) and the app that I am using is a somewhat limited program.

Running while twittering

While there is a law in California against texting while driving, there is no such law against twittering while running. So, I am afraid that I will have to rely on my own better judgement and refrain from doing any of the following:

1. twittering "And... we're off!"

2. twittering my location at each mile marker.

3. checking to see if any of my twitter friends have twittered me.

I also promise to refrain from:

4. bragging at mile 15 "Wow, I feel great; at this pace, I should break 3:55!"

5. twittering at mile 18 "This is crazy, I think I'll speed up and go for 3:50."

6. at mile 20, twittering "Something doesn't feel right in my stomach."

Or:

7. at mile 22, describing what happened back at mile 21 1/2

8. twittering at mile 23, "I don't remember it hurting THIS bad."

9. getting mad at people twittering me saying, "You're almooossstttt there!"

And finally I promise not to:

10. Well, I promise not to twitter (during the race anyway :)

That's right, I have a twitter addiction. I really do. I have met so many cool people on twitter and it has made tomorrow's race that much more fun and exciting. The running community is a large part of why I love racing so much (there's just something about runners that make them really cool to be around). Twitter has made it easier to find people who are running the LA Marathon and get a chance to chat with them before the race. Not only am I thinking about how I will do tomorrow, now I have all these other people that I will be cheering on. Just click la marathon to see how you can search for any word and how easy it is to find people with similar interests. Pretty cool!

So, even though I won't be twittering DURING the race, I will be sending out tweets and meeting up with my new friends, which have been dubbed "Runnin' Fools" after the race.

Here is a short list of some of the runners I have been chatting with @anotorias, @Cassandrasruns, @runnrgrl @Runner03 @PunkRockRunner @slinkerbell @carmen57

@262RUNR and more. Not all of them are running the LA Marathon but they are all runners and really cool people.

The race starts at 7:20. The weather forcast is calling for a high of 69° with partly cloudy skies. Perfect! I am feeling pretty good about the race in general and although I don't feel that I will be beating my fastest time of 4:07:51 I am very excited to go out and have fun. Who knows, I may just surprise myself and go out more conservative the first half of the race, which could in turn facilitate an overall faster time. Wouldn't that be nice!

Now nutrition. In case you wonder what it takes to fuel me through 26.2 miles, I will have this strapped around my waist.

Yes, I do get funny looks and comments. 8 Gels. 1 every 3 miles. I stick to water at the aid stations and try to stay away from whatever "Brand X" sports drink happens to be at that particular race, since I usually don't know how my stomach will react. This plan has worked for me in my last 2 marathons so I'm stickin' with it.

Well, this is a short post, but I wanted to write something before the race.

See you on the next post.... or of course twitter.

Paul

Under the knife!

The other day my friend asked me why I had written so much about my reunion in my blog, when mine was a "Running blog?" I guess that is a valid question and I do write a lot about running, triathlon and racing. But looking back, I have written on other topics, and like in life, I am trying to be more balanced. As much as I would love to train all day, everyday, that is not possible due to things like bills, family and all of life's other commitments. Not to mention the body breaking down from continuous stress. Heck, I can hardly run 20 miles a week right now without getting severely ...... wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

Let's talk about running, or in my case, lack of running, due to a pesky little hernia that I chose to have repaired about 4 weeks ago. It's funny, everyone knows what a hernia is, or I should say, has heard of a hernia. But a lot of people, me included, don't really know what a hernia IS or looks like. I found out one morning about a year ago. I was lying in bed and I looked down and saw a bulge on the lower left side of my abdomen, above my groin. It kinda scared me. I'm a bit of a wuss and when anything is abnormal on me, my first thought is "I'm dying". Well, I felt it to see if it was a life threatening tumor of some sort, but it wasn't hard or anything and it didn't hurt. In fact I was able to kind of push it back into place..... Hmmmmm, I thought, that's weird. We learn lots of new things about our bodies as we age. We start feeling all sort of parts we didn't know existed. I mean how do you know you have an appendix if it never hurt before. Anyway, I got to work and asked my buddy Chris, if he knew what it could be. And, as luck would have it, I asked the right guy because Chris had the same thing and lived with it for 4 or 5 years before having it repaired about a year prior. It wan an inguinal hernia. Not life threatening just annoying and if you think about it, kinda disgusting. The muscle in my stomach had weakened and torn enough to allow some of my innards (intestines) to bulge out.

How does this happen? I guess it can be genetic, my Mother had a hernia and that could explain it. That, along with my allergic episodes, where I can rattle off a good 50 sneezes in less than five minutes. I am sure it was only a matter of time before I would get a hernia and find myself stuffing my guts back in to my abdominal cavity every half hour or so. Sure, it usually popped right back out, in which case I could immediately push it back in, but how would you explain what you are doing to people? So every 30 minutes seemed like a good compromise. It wasn't really that bad. It rarely hurt, I was more concerned that it would get worse in which case it could strangulate. With all of the training that I do, I knew that I needed to get it taken care of, it was just a matter of when. And, of course I would be scheduling around races.

I discovered it a couple of months before IMAZ. Obviously it would have to wait till after the Ironman. I did some research and from what I could gather, recovery could take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months. But when they talk recovery, they're most likely talking about returning to normal activities. I'm talking about running.... WHEN CAN I START RUNNING AGAIN? Or more precisely, how long do I have to STOP running?

One month of no training? I had to find a spot in the calendar, between races, where not only could I stop training for a month but have the time to ramp back up for whatever race I had next. After IMAZ I did an Ultra almost right on top of it and after that I was training for the Long Beach Marathon in October. The Surf City Marathon is becoming a tradition, so that training would come on the heals of LB. All races after that were up in the air and I had not actually registered for anything, so the beginning of February looked like the perfect time.

I went in for surgery Feb. 9th. It was an outpatient surgery and the Doctor put a mesh over the tear. The procedure took about an hour and a half. That was the easy part. The last month, however, has been a bit more of a challenge.

Oops! I just realized I blew right past the Surf City Marathon! I guess I should talk about it. After all, this is a running blog.

I did run Surf City. But like last year, I ran the half. Mainly because it was the same day as the reunion and I didn't want to be too tired. I went into the race hoping to do under 1:50. My PR is 1:48:19 which I ran last year on Memorial Day in Laguna Beach. I have always felt like it was a fluke and that the course was a net downhill. That along with me being in the best possible shape coming off of IMAZ. According to the McMillan running calculator, with a 1:48:19 half marathon time, I should be able to run a 3:48:26. My Marathon PR is 4:07:02. So, you can see where I would be happy with a 1:50. I ran the race in 1:49:53! Very cool, it was the perfect start to a perfect day.

I also had a lot of friends there as well. Some where running, some (due to injuries and other circumstances) where not. Julie has been training for her first 5K for the last 3 months. She has been doing the Couch to 5K program and doing very well. Based on her training paces I estimated a 31-32 minute finish time for her.

She finished in 31:37! It was a GREAT first 5K and she is training now for another 5K and a 10K in the next few months. She plans to do The Long Beach Half in October and if all goes well, do her first full marathon at Surf City next year. There is nothing better than watching someone find the joy of running. And even better to be a part of it.

My friends Lori, Marisol and Paul also came out to the race. Unfortunately none of them were able to run this year. Lori had a sprained ankle, Paul broke something and Marisol is 6 months pregnant. They were there to cheer everyone on and after the race Julie, Lori, Mari and I went and had a great breakfast.

Ok, so where was I? The pain from the surgery wasn't too bad. It was what I expected. It was hard to stand all the way up and if I was laying down, it was uncomfortable to roll over or sit up. Pretty much what you would expect. I had the surgery on Friday and on Sunday I went to the mall and walked around the entire thing without too much pain.

I went back to work on Tuesday, and Wednesday I went to the gym for the first time and (very carefully) did about 30 minutes on the bike. I figured the bike would be easy and that running would be the thing that would hurt the most. I was actually afraid to start running. What if it hurt really bad and I realized I would not be able to run for an extended period of time? I am not sure I could handle that. It was the following week before I planned a running day. It was surprisingly easy. I felt no pain in the area of my hernia. What a relief! Physically this was going to be a piece of cake. And it has been except for one problem. I keep getting sick. My resting heart rate has been running about 20 bpm higher than normal. That is usually a really good indication that you are fighting something. I went to the Doctor and he said that everything looks fine with the affected area and that I am most likely battling a cold, flu or whatever is going around right now. And I imagine that de conditioning is also partly responsible. This last week has been better. I have been able to run more consistently and have kept a better balance between training and rest. Ahh, rest, man that is hard to do sometimes. Looking at the big picture and realizing that the best training that you can that day is NO training. In any event, regardless of having a valid reason, looking at my numbers for the month of February is really depressing. I feel fatigued, fat and cranky and it is because I don't have my drug of choice.... endorphins!

What would I do if I had to live a sedentary life? What did I do for all those years before I trained? Sometimes I think, no wonder we have all the disease and illness that we have in our society. I can't imagine feeling half as bad as I have this last month, on any sort of regular basis. And I remember feeling like that all the time. And, I know that is how a lot of people feel these days, with the lack of physical activity that comes with a desk job, commuting by car and then sitting on a couch. Thank God I have found the life that I have and I hope that I will be blessed with the ability and desire to do it as long as I am alive. Because this last month, I have gotten a glimpse of the alternative and it wasn't pretty.

Paul

Past, Present and Future

It's been a couple of months since my last blog. There has been so much to talk about but very little time. Rather than wait until have I enough time to write about everything in one shot I figured I would give a brief synopsis of the goings on and then divide it up into 3 separate blogs with more detail.... Hence the name. I have also found a way to write one blog and have that update on Blogger, my website and even my facebook page. 

Ahhh yes, facebook. Facebook is a great place to keep in contact with family and friends and as it turns out an amazing way to find people from your PAST! While I spent a large portion of the last 2 months preparing for a gathering with a group of people from my past, I also continued training for my 3rd "Surf City" race in Huntington Beach. This time doing the half marathon as I didn't want to be too tired for the event that would happen later that evening, on, yes, Super Bowl Sunday.  

I love to race and there are very few things I will allow to get in the way of it. But sometimes it is unavoidable. I have had a hernia for the last year or so and have known that I would need to find time to get it taken care of sooner or later. I decided to shoe horn it in, between "Surf City" and the "Sycamore Canyon 50K", coming up on March 29th. As I sit here NOW,  I am one week post-op and still pretty sore. I have been able to walk between a mile and 2 miles for the past few days, but I am a good week away from doing any sort of running.

Having so much time sitting on my butt, has given me the opportunity to really think about the FUTURE. Something about remembering who you were, and where you are, can certainly lead you to ponder where you are going. I have always been a very goal oriented person and am pretty good at setting goals and achieving them. Part of successful goal setting is being precise on what it is that you want. Well, this has been my biggest problem the last few years, deciding on  what I want. I am getting much closer to the answer and am now getting down to defining those goals and getting very specific on how to go about making them a reality. 

Life is great right now. I know so much of our world is uneasy due to tough economic times. But, I hope that things don't get too bad and we are just in for a readjustment and, perhaps, a reassessment of priorities. It's too easy to get caught up in a routine where you start "going through the motions". Pretty soon you are no longer living the life you wanted, but just living. Next thing you know, life has passed you by. I am glad that I have had to slow down these past couple of weeks,  Long enough to look around and make sure I am going down the right road. 

My next post will be about my 8th grade MGM reunion. That's right.... 8th grade..... and it was AMAZING!

Paul

When 4th becomes 3rd

I received an email from the Race Director of the Run Through The Pines 1/2 marathon today.

“Yes, you did place third.  Someone ran with the wrong bib.  We will be sending the trophies out on Friday.  You should receive by next tuesday.  Congratulations.”

I have been waiting to hear back from them as I was confused by the official results. At the race it was posted that I had placed 4th and the results said 3rd. I’m stoked! This is my first top 3 finish in my age group and although I had a finish time close to 11 minutes slower than my fastest 1/2 marathon time, the race was at a much higher elevation than I am used to running in and there were a lot of hills. I still don’t know how many people were in my age group, but I do know that I did race this and feel like I earned my 3rd place. About mile 11, I was feeling pretty spent and was starting slow a bit. I saw a guy a good 400 meters ahead of me and did my best to not let him pull any further ahead. By mile 12 I started to use some of the mental tricks that I have read about, like imagining a rope pulling you toward the person. I kept my cadence high and thought about anything BUT the discomfort I was feeling. The course turned around and doubled back onto a trail for the last mile. All of the trail running I have been doing helped in this part and I slowly gained of him. I caught up to him and passed him at around 12 1/2 miles. I had a feeling that he may have been in my age group. After I passed him it took everything I had to maintain my lead.



The last 1/4 mile was a nasty uphill section that we had done 4 times already, since it was a 4 loop course. I had to walk up the hill this last time even though I had run up it easily the other 4 times. I was scared that the guy was gonna catch me. I looked back and he was hurtin’ too. Once it leveled out I was back on pace and had a pretty good sprint left for the end.



I ended up finishing 9 seconds ahead of him and sure enough he was in my age group. So, although I don’t know the complete statistics of my age group, I do know that I had a pretty good race with this guy and I was pleased that I had a taste of what is is like to compete, even if it was 47 minutes behind the leader :).

I am now completely focused on Long Beach. The marathon is less than 2 months away. I have a clear goal of finishing under 4 hours this time. According to this with my recent 5k of 23:26 and my recent 1/2 of 1:48:08, I could finish in 3:48. I know that these calculators can’t predict what you can do especially if you don’t have the fitness to a run much longer race and maintain the same relative pace. Besides, anything can happen in a marathon. However, I am training at the recommended paces in all of my training runs and if I handle my nutrition right, which I have a much better handle on in road marathons, I am hopefully on track to break 4 hours.

Along with marathon training, Brittany and I have been hitting the weights hard. It feels great to do strength training again. It’ll really come in handy next year when I start training for Triathlon again. We also did some Yoga this morning. It has been a couple months since I went and I sure felt it. It was Brittany’s first time and she really enjoyed it. We’ll probably try to go 2 or 3 times a week.

I haven’t had much time to ride my bike to work the last few weeks. It seems work is really starting to infringe on my training... ha ha. But seriously, If I could find a way to make money while I was running, cycling or lifting, perhaps I would. Oh, wait..... thats a lot of peoples dream. Dreams, I have plenty and in typical fashion I move too quickly. Therefore I am concentrating on fulfilling (and living) some lifelong dreams of mine that I have already invested a lot of time, energy and yes, money in. I am entering into the “write it down, and make it real” stage. It is really important to be specific in what you want and since I know that I need to be careful what I wish for, I want to be very clear and sure of WHAT I want to do. Once I get more specific, I look forward to talking about it here. I’m sure it will be refreshing to hear about something other than running once in awhile.

Paul

Another obsession

One of the coolest things about the iPhones v.2.0 software is the ability to have applications on your phone. There are over 1,000 applications available at the App Store on iTunes, some useful and some not so useful. I recently found a really cool application called “Absolute Fitness” by Aqua Eagle. It is a really great nutrition and exercise diary that not only has an extensive database of nutrition info, but also allows you to add your own “favorites” to its database. Since I am a creature of habit and tend to eat the same things day after day, I don’t think it will take me too long to get everything that I eat into it’s memory.



So far, tracking what I eat has been enlightening. I have found that I ingest WAY TOO MUCH SODIUM! Not enough potassium and not enough calories in general. The main reason I wanted to start tracking my nutrition is that I am trying to eat more protein. Brittany and I are weight training and she is touting the benefits of more protein in the diet. After doing some research, I agree and am making the necessary changes. With all of the training that I do, I have never felt that I had a good handle on the nutrition part. Logging what I am eating is really helping me see where I am at. So, I am feeling pretty good about it.

The official results for last weeks “Run through the Pines” race came out. Ummmmm, it says I placed 3rd in my age group instead of 4th. Needless to say I was very excited to hear that. But, of course I am not sure that it is right. I emailed the Race Director but have not heard back from them yet. This would be my first 3rd place. If I had known, I would have stuck around for the hand carved awards they were giving out. But, the paper we looked at said I was 4th. So, ......... I wait ........ Yes, I do obsess .......... About everything .......... And Brittany said she is already tired of me obsessing about my nutrition ............. Argggg!!!!!!!


Paul

The Great Outdoors!

Saturday’s race was great! I have been very busy the last couple of days so I am just now getting a chance to report. I placed 4th in my age group! That’s the closest I have come to getting hardware. It was a great half marathon. The elevation was tough and there were plenty of hills, but the lake was beautiful! We ran around it 4 times and by the time the last lap rolled around I was glad I didn’t have to see the same landmarks again.



Brittany ran the 5k and had a great race as well. I am still waiting to see the official results for more detailed stats. Nonetheless, we went to have a great weekend and we really had a great time.





We camped about 20 miles away from the race venue, about halfway between Crestline and Big Bear. We spent most of the day Friday and the second half of Saturday at Big Bear lake. It was really cool to see all of the signs and posters for Ryan Hall plastered everywhere. The town is really proud of their local hero and I am looking forward to watching him race in Beijing.



Congratulations to everyone who ran at Mt. Disappointment on Saturday! I really wish I could have been there. However, the weekend turned out rather nicely and I rediscovered my love of camping and “The great outdoors”. I will be making a trip to REI in the near future to buy some camping gear and plan to do as much camping as I can fit into my schedule. There is nothing like going to sleep under the stars.



Paul

Procrastination

procrastinate |prəˈkrastəˌnāt; prō-|
verb [ intrans. ]
delay or postpone action; put off doing something : it won't be this price for long, so don't procrastinate.

Uh, yeah..... We all know what it means. And I have been meaning to stop doing it, procrastinating, that is. But, well..... In another stellar example of a bad character trait. I put off registering for the race this weekend. There was a semi valid reason other than sheer laziness. You could only register via snail mail. No online registration available. You had to print out the form along with proof of a prior marathon finish, to the Race Director. Arghhh! So many details. I finally sat down on Saturday evening at 10 PM to fill out the form, when I saw this...



Needles to say, my heart sank. I had NO idea this race would sell out. In fact the website mentioned registering the day before the race. I feel like such an idiot, ashamed almost. I trained for this race for the last 2 months. I did the training run on the course. My daughter Brittany, her boyfriend and I planned a camping trip around the race, and now.... nada, nothing, ZIP!

Well, after feeling sorry for myself for about an hour, I decided to come up with a plan B. I found a race at Lake Gregory this weekend. It is a 5K (which Brittany will do) and a half marathon that I will run. We found a really cool campsite in the area and are going to have a blast for 2 days in the mountains.

I haven’t decided for sure yet, but I am strongly considering doing the BullDog 50K on Aug 23rd. It is in the same area as The Sycamore Canyon 50K I did in May.

Well, this was a hard post to write, I feel stupid, and I have been so busy it has been tough to find the time to blog. So busy in fact that I still need to register us for this weekends race..... Yeah, that’s right, it’s Wednesday and I still haven’t registered. Sheesh, some people never learn.

Paul

Feeling retro?

This week has been an exceptionally good training week. In preparation for next weeks 50K, I have been doing lots of hill training. Well, if you can call cranking the old treadmill to 5%, hill training. I feel really strong and my plan is to tear up all of that elevation gain. It’s amazing how much faster I feel when I am on flat terrain after “hill training”. I will hit the trails this weekend both Saturday and Sunday. I am now running in the pair of Salomon shoes that I received for free last year at the Pacific Shoreline Marathon. They definitely made a HUGE difference (thanks Lori and Mari, for the advice). I want to camp up in the Mt. Wilson area the night before and after the race. I am having a hard time finding a campground in the area. There seems to be a few, but there is very little information on the internet about the sites. So, if anyone knows of any good places to camp please leave a comment. It would be greatly appreciated.

I have been doing more location sound gigs recently. Tuesday, a couple of hours after our little shaker, I headed up to LA to the MTV studios to do a shoot with the band Panic! At The Disco. They were doing a promo for the game “Rock Band” and well, something about.... rock band....MTV.....cool rock tunes, got me feeling retro. So, I spent the better part of 2 days taking my braids out to give my hair and head a breather. I’m not sure if all this hair can take the amount of sweat I subject it to on a daily basis. Braids are very convenient. It’s that or dreads, we’ll see.. Until then.........



Paul

Surf City 5K Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the Surf City 5K





I think this might be one of the best pictures I have ever seen from a race. Of course I may be a little biased since it is of my daughter Brittany.



I don’t look nearly as good, but I was pushing for a PR :)

My training is going well in preparation for Mt. Disappointment. I will run about 58 miles this week and I am planing at least one of those runs on the trails. I am doing a 15 mile run next weekend on part of the trail that I will be racing. I am meeting up with a couple of girls that I met at the Sycamore Canyon race a couple of months ago. It will be a lot of fun. I will be experimenting with a new hydration pack and will try to dial in my nutrition. Let’s hope it’s not TOO hot!

Paul

Clarity and a PR to boot!

After a lot of thought, a little advice and some re accessing of my goals, I have formulated a new plan and made peace with it. I have decided not to do the Camp Pendleton Triathlon July 19th. Instead I will focus my training on running. Specifically I will be training for the Mt. Disappointment 50K on Aug. 9th. I will continue to ride my bike to work 3 days a week and I will weight train 3 days a week. I figure that this will be around 16 hours of training, but I am gaining back time because 6 hours of that is free since it is replacing time spent sitting in traffic. So, 10 hours of training will then leave plenty of time for my other goals, which are of equal if not more importance. I am going to start dedicating time to acting and music again. I have let them slip since there just wasn’t any time. The plan had been to set them aside till after IMAZ then hit it hard after. Somehow, after IMAZ I felt lost without all of the training and I made a less than wise decision. Not that doing another triathlon is a bad decision, it is just that right now I have to weigh time spent with return.

I am seeing great returns with running. Running is also logistically much easier to do. And I LOVE TO RUN. I have plenty of goals to keep me motivated, I plan on running a sub 4 hour marathon in Long Beach in October and LONG term eventually qualifying for Boston. I will keep trail running on my way to a 50 miler then perhaps a 100 miler. I am also hitting the weights again. I don’t really like the scrawny upper body I seem to be getting. It is typical for runners and cyclists because of all the attention our lower bodies get. This plan leaves time for weight training and that’s a good thing!

Finally, I am setting specific goals for music and acting. I will start talking about this part of my life more in this blog since it will be more a part of my life again:) I am attempting to be a more well rounded person. I tend to get obsessed with things and that can be good. But, it has it’s draw backs too. I needed to be obsessed with Ironman training to achieve that goal. But, I have no delusions of being a professional triathlete. So it becomes a question of risk vs. reward. I need to spend time doing things that give some return on investment. If I spent even 3 hours a week on writing a new song or submitting to casting agents, I would be so much closer to my professional and creative goals.



So, this is the beginning of a new and more well rounded life for me. And to kinda start it off, yesterday at the HB 4th of July 5K I ran my ass off for a PR of 23:26 (per my garmin). That is :30 faster than previous fastest 5K. it was not champion chip timing, so official gun time was 23:41. It was a great day. Brittany also PR’d the course by :30. We ate a great lunch, then I rode my bike to the beach and watched the fireworks.



Oh, and I will do another Ironman. Most likely IMAZ ’09. I can’t wait to actually race that Mutha’

Paul

A new PR!

Boy, did I need todays race! I have been feeling a little down lately. I have done 2 very long races in pretty bad conditions in the last month and a half. Granted both races had record DNF’s . Add the fact that both of these races were my first crack at these distances and being that they were my first, I was very, very slooooooow. I have trained so hard in the last year and these times make you start to wonder if you are doing something wrong.

The half marathon distance is my favorite road race distance. I race it at, what is for me, a comfortable level of exertion. Not redlined like in a 5K and not at a pace where you have to worry about going just a little bit too fast and bonking close to the end. No, the half marathon is just right! The half marathon is also the race, aside from the 5K, that I have raced most. This was
my 6th half and it was perfect.



Brittany and I got up around 5 am, ate breakfast and were out of the house by 5:30. The race was about 20 miles south and we arrived at the race site around 6 am. It started sprinkling on the way down and we couldn’t help but wonder if today might end up like the Surf City, or better known now as “Soak City” Marathon in February. It was a little chilly but not unbearable. We waited around until the last possible minute to give up our outer layers, then headed to the start.



I felt especially good this morning. I have been in one or two races like this before, where everything just felt right. The temperature was perfect. I felt well trained with no injuries or soreness to speak of. I had my pacing strategy together and a clear goal in mind. I wanted a PR and was gonna push myself hard to get it. Even if it was only by one second.


The gun went off and we were on our way. My previous PR of 1:56:02 translates to an 8:51 min/mile. I planned on holding an 8:30 min/mile pace for the first half of the race and if everything went well, I would try to negative split and kick it up the second half. Well I got a little excited and ran an 8:17 the first mile. Not too far off, but still a little faster than I had planned. The first mile or so was flat and went around the Laguna Hills Mall. Once we left that area, the course took us out to Alicia Parkway. This was a very beautiful course. There were rolling hills, but they were gentle and the elevation would gradually decline over the first half of the race. This would reflect in my mile splits. It felt pretty easy to keep my pace at around 8:00 min/miles. I run according to heart rate. I have a max HR of 210. I try to keep my HR in the lower part of the 180’s for a half marathon. I knew if I wanted to PR today, I would have to step out of my comfort zone and push harder. I figured I would let it hover around the upper 180’s and see how it went. The only thing that worried me was the hills and the overall elevation change. There was no course profile on the website so I was flying blind. I ran a risk of slowing down significantly, the second half of the race, if we had to make up the elevation lost on the first half of the course. But again, I was going to push it and I am glad that I did.

Here are my splits

Mile 1 8:17
Mile 2 8:03
Mile 3 7:39
Mile 4 8:06
Mile 5 7:54
Mile 6 8:07
Mile 7 8:08
Mile 8 8:03
Mile 9 8:39
Mile 10 8:15
Mile 11 8:25
Mile 12 8:27
Mile 13 8:34
Mile .1 8:59

I finished in 1:48:17. thats a 8:17 mil/mile pace. Avg. HR of 190. Much better than what I expected. The second half of the course was up hill. I am very glad that I was able to hold it together and not slow too badly. I can’t really fault myself for not negative splitting on this course. Had I ran by pace and not by feel and HR, I don’t think I would have ended up with as good a time. I also felt that I left most everything out on the course. I pushed hard and felt that I executed my plan well. It was a great feeling at about mile ten, when I was doing the math and figured that as long as I could maintain a 9 min/mile or better that I would break 1:50. There’s something about those ten minute increments and I have looked forward to breaking this one for awhile. I am very pleased!

Brittany had a good race as well. She really enjoyed the course and went at a comfortable pace to finish in 2:41:45, about 20 minutes slower than her best, but she hasn’t been training as much because of school. She is starting her training again soon for her 2nd full marathon in Long Beach in October.

We were both pretty sore, but managed to pick up a cool shirt for Brit, then hauled our butts to Mimi’s for some breakfast.

Another amazing day!

Paul

Sycamore Canyon 50K

Well, now I feel like I have just done a race. Not since my first marathon, have I felt this wrecked. And, I can almost assuredly attribute it to bonking. Or to be more descriptive, sitting on the side of a mountain in the blazing sun for 45 minutes, without seeing anyone, ready to puke, almost out of water, knowing you would be better off a couple hundred yards down the trail where there might be shade, but too dizzy to stand and get there. Yes, trail running gives a whole new meaning to the word bonk!

The Sycamore Canyon 50K is the first trail race that I have participated in. The thought of trail running appeals to me for obvious reasons. Beautiful scenery, lots of hill work (which I rarely do) and really great people! So, I was very excited about this race and figured I could finish the 31 miles in 6-6 1/2 hours. Oh ignorance is bliss. Not only did I pick the longest distance for this particular race but I also did ALL of my training on the road. I mean seriously, what was I thinking? For someone that can be sorta preachy at times with “learn from your mistakes” I can sure fail to heed my own advice. Because on top of everything else, once again I failed to get my nutrition right.

On to the race.




Point Mugu/ Sycamore Canyon is about 75 miles from my house in Huntington Beach. I had contemplated getting a hotel Saturday night, but figured that with an 8:30 am start I could leave around 5:30 which wouldn’t make it any earlier than any other race morning. So, I left in the morning and the drive was great. There was virtually no traffic that early on Sunday morning. Driving up PCH through Malibu is so beautiful. I haven’t been up there for a long time so the drive really got me in the mood for the day.

I arrived at the race site around 7 am. Plenty of time to get all of my stuff together and head to the start. This race was MUCH smaller than what I have become used to in road races. The overall vibe was a lot different and VERY cool. Everyone was very nice and there was more of a sense of belonging to a club than a competitive race. There’s nothing wrong with being competitive and believe me I wish I was ..lol... But since I am a mid packer (on a good day), the only person I am competing against is myself. So for me “races” are always about the experience and the social aspect of being with fellow runners. Anyway, I went to the registration table and gave Sarah, the race director, my name. She was so cool. She new that this was my first trail race and that I was doing the 50K. I wonder if she new what kind of trouble I would get into, would she have advised me to switch to the 30K?

There were 4 distances. 8K, 18K, 30K and 50K. I chose the 50K because my plan has been to do a 50 miler in August and you need to do a 50K before you can register for that race. The 18, 30 and 50K all started together at 8:30 and the 8K started at 8:45. After hearing the course directions from Wendell, the other race director, we were off.



44 people started the 50K. I was a little surprised at everyones pace. I had planned on going out a little slower, but I got caught up in the excitement and kept up for the first few miles. My heart rate was a good 8-10 BPM more than what I planned and I am sure it greatly contributed to my problems later in the day. The first aid station was about 6 miles into the course. The first 2 1/2 miles being a slow ascent of around 1,100 ft. I ran a good portion of this. It would have been better to walk ALL of these climbs and save the running for the flats and downhills. Again, I know this but sometimes in a race... well, you just make the same mistakes over and over again. Anyway, I got to the first aid station pretty uneventfully. I felt good and had eaten 2 gels. I headed off for the 2nd of 5 loops. This loop would turn out to be much more technical with some steeper climbs and some cool little zig zags. It was really cool running through all of those little obstacles. I felt like a real trail runner, agile and light on my feet. I met a couple of really cool girls and we talked for a good portion of that loop. We have done a lot of the same races and have been running about the same length of time. Our paces stayed the same most of the loop but towards the end I decided to slow it down a little because they were doing the 30K and they could afford to push it a little more than me.



The end of the second loop brings you back to where you started the loop. Mile 12 1/2 and I was still feeling really good. I loaded up on water and ate some pretzels and m&m’s. Then, headed out on the third loop which takes you back to the start. On the way out it was a 2 1/2 mile ascent and a 3 1/2 mile descent. Going back was much more difficult and this is where things starting going bad. I let the people I was running with go ahead as we started the climb. It was about 11:45 and the sun was really starting to beat down. This side of the climb had direct exposure with no shade for about 2 miles. I had probably had about 4 gels by now and 6- 20 oz bottles of water with nuun. Maybe it was the m&m’s but about 1 1/2 miles in I started to feel sick. These stomach issues are new to me. I usually never get sick to my stomach. It happened in the Ironman and now this race. I am wondering if the fuel belt that I am wearing is too tight? When I loosened it, it felt a little better. Or it is a problem with my nutrition and the duration of the events. On any note, this 6 mile leg back was tough. I had to stop and rest for the first time and try to get my heart rate down. Power hiking up this trail, had my HR over my average HR for a half marathon. There is simply no way that I can sustain that for over 6 or 7 hours. I started looking at my Garmin and doing the math and also started questioning whether I could make the cutoff of 8 1/2 hours. What if I dropped? The 30K finish was back at the start of the race. What happens if I go out there feeling like this, or worse? It’s not like a road race where there is an out just about everywhere. If I continue on, I am committed. I had a couple miles to think about it and those couple of miles were downhill and partially in the shade. I was feeling better. I was running a decent pace and even passing a few people.

I got back to the start at about 1:15 p.m.. I had completed a little over 19 miles. 5:45 into the race with another 11 miles to go, I would have to do each loop in around 1:45. This didn’t seem doable but when I arrived, Sarah asked how I was doing and I said “OK” and she said “well you look like you're doing good”. So that, along with the fact that I feel like quitting or not finishing what I start is like a cancer that grows if you let it in. I filled my bottles, ate some more pretzels, said goodbye to my new friends who just finished their 30K and were off to the pool, and headed back out on loop 4. I figured that if I get to the next aid station and can’t go any further or can’t make the cutoff, I can drop at that point and get a ride back. I will pretty much doing anything to not DNF. But you have to be smart and realize when you are stopping because you don’t WANT to go on or stopping because you CAN’T.

So, I am now committed to another 6 miles. But right now I feel alright except for some hoarseness in my voice, another interesting side affect that happens to me in endurance events. This first mile or so goes pretty well. I am alternating between a slow run and a power hike. It’s around 2:30 now and it’s getting pretty hot. I start hearing sirens way in the distance. first one or two then several. It sounded like they were around the base camp area. I of course thought “I hope thats not for one of the runners”. A few minutes later I saw a helicopter and it became clear that someone on the mountain was in trouble. About 10 minutes later 4 emergency vehicles came up the fire road. By the time I got to where they were parked, I found out that one of the runners had been airlifted out. Heat exhaustion, but he’ll be okay. I was able to get 4 little water bottles from one of the trucks. I filled my bottles up and one went over my head. It is amazing how important water becomes in situations like these.

I got back out to the last aid station at around 3:30. 7 hours into the race. Obviously there was NO way I was going to make it back 6 miles in 1 1/2 hours. Especially with that being the worst stretch in the hottest part of the day. So I started planning how I would get back to the start from the aid station. I figured they would drive me back since by road it is only about 5 minutes. I was really bummed but figured that they would have a cutoff at the last aid station. When I got there, Flora (the girl at the aid station) was very cool and asked me what she could get me. I sat down, emptied the rocks out of my shoes and asked her if I was the last 50K runner because I hadn’t seen anyone for a while. She said that there might be someone else but that several people had dropped at the 30K mark. I asked her about the cutoff and she said not too worry about it, that they would wait for me. So there it was, if I dropped it would have been because I didn’t want to keep going. So, I kept going.



I knew I had about 3 1/2 miles that were going to be rough. The sun was relentless at this point and this side was completely exposed. I didn’t even make it to the spot were I had problems the first time around. I started getting dizzy and nauseous. My HR was high and I had a hard time walking straight. I also started to feel my calves cramping. I had thought I was taking plenty of electrolytes but the cramping was worrying me. I sat down and rested briefly and got back up to keep going. I went about another 5 minutes and then it got worse. I went to sit down and I felt a cramp in my hip. I didn’t even know I could get one in my hip. I sat down on a stretch of trail that had no shade and was completely exposed. I ate another gel and drank some water and tried to get up. Whenever I tried to get up I would get very dizzy and sick. I had a shirt that Sarah gave me back at the 30K mark and I had soaked it in ice water back at the last aid station. I was using that to shield my face from the sun. I could see what I assumed would be a shaded section of the trail about 500 ft around a corner. But I couldn’t seem to get up. All kinds of crazy thoughts were going through my head. I’d only seen one person since the aid station and I was pretty sure that there was no one behind me. What if I couldn’t get up? I was already running out of water and I still had about 4 miles to go. I was stuck. I sat there for about 30 minutes, fly’s buzzing around me, rationing water and trying my best to get off my ass and keep going. If I wanted a challenge, this was it.

I sat there for what seemed like an eternity when Flora from the aid station came around the corner. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see someone. She asked me how I was doing and I told her I was really struggling. She asked me about fluids and electrolytes. I told her I could use some water. She filled me up and then gave me some Clif Shot Blocks. She said to take my time and she wouldn’t hang all over me. She understood how it is when you are feeling that bad. Some people like to talk some don’t. I am the “don’t like to talk” kind. Then she said that it would be better if I was sitting in the shade. I said that I thought there might be some around that corner but so far couldn’t get to it. The Shot Blocks really seemed to help. I sat there for another five minutes or so and was able to get up. I made it around the corner and found a rock with a bush over it and escaped the sun for another 5 or so minutes. She caught up to me again and gave me a few more shot blocks and I was good to go.

The rest of the way up and back down were much better. Aside from a severe cramp in my left calf that happened when I bent down to take the rocks out of my shoe, I went nonstop the rest of the way.

My official time was 9:35:46. Of the 44 people who started the 50K, 22 dropped. I finished 22nd. I can’t thank Wendell and Sarah enough for allowing me to finish the race even though they could have imposed a cutoff. I am extremely glad that I was able to finish and am looking forward to applying the things that I learned to the next race. I’ll tell you one thing for sure. Whether it is another couple 50K’s or a 50 miler, I will be training on lots of trails!

Paul

Dana Point Turkey Trot

What better way to start off Thanksgiving day, then with a race? This was my second year running at the Dana Point Turkey Trot . Brittany ran the race with me and although she has ran 2 half marathons, this was her first 10K distance race. She wanted to come in under an hour and was a little nervous about achieving her goal. She said that it was more fun doing races before she started setting goals for herself, and I understand. But, I guess that it is inevitable that as we progress, we gauge our progress with benchmarks. So, I said “it is the effort and the training that matters” and not to worry too much about the time. With all that said she came in at 59:31 and she was elated! She looked great and said that she felt fantastic.

Last year my time was 56:56, so I was definitely looking to beat that time. At this time last year, I was knee deep n marathon training and my weekly mileage was averaging over 40 miles a week. Right now I am doing between 20 and 25 miles a week since I am training in 3 different sports. So, I wasn’t entirely sure what I would finish at. I was very pleased with my time of 52:51. I felt really good the whole race. In fact, I felt much better than I remember feeling last year. I guess all of the cross training for Triathlon and the increased fitness does spill over to the other sports disciplines.

There were over 3,000 people at the race. It is a beautiful course along the coast and the race is run very well. My buddy Rich O’Neill was there and he finished in 51:21. What a great day! We plan on making this a Thanksgiving holiday tradition.
After the race, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house with a TON of food and great times with the family. I wish I had some pictures of everyone that was there (around 20) but I did get a shot of the food or what was left of it. Thanks Mom for another great Thanksgiving. Holidays are always special at my parents house.
My training is going very well. This week breaks down as follows:
2:30 Swim
5:55 Bike
4:05 Run
For a total of 12:30

My biggest challenge has been swimming. I never skate on a scheduled cycling or running workout . But, I have to confess that the same has not been true when it comes to the swim. I would try to figure out why. I would get in the pool and just stand there, trying to get motivated to swim for 45 minutes to an hour. It’s not that I am really bad at it. I have only been swimming for about 6 months and I do okay. I learned fairly quickly and it’s not that dreadful, but still I haven’t found myself looking forward to it like I do the other two sports. After giving it a lot of thought, I figured out that the difference has been the lack of a good way to monitor my progress and stats from my swim sessions. So, I bought an Timex Ironman stopwatch that keeps track of my laps and (due to a recent update to my logging software) I am able to manually enter my swim workouts and keep track of my 100 meter splits and pace. This has made all the difference in the world. I love stats and visually seeing numbers. It’s working and I have kept up with my scheduled swims for the last two weeks and I am actually starting to look forward to my swim sessions. Good thing because the Ironman is less than 20 weeks away and I was starting to get a little worried whether or not I was going to be ready. The plan is to get good enough to survive the swim and finish in about 90 minutes or so, saving plenty of energy for the bike and the run. My 100 meter splits are in line with that goal so I am feeling much better about it.

Next weeks training... 14:30. Man this is getting fun. I have never been happier in my life. Triathlon is the greatest sport.

Paul
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