Biting Tongue

2012-02-10T22:13:00.000-08:00

Bikram 10 day challenge: Half-way

Today's AM class was tough. I suspect that's always true at this studio, but I found it more difficult than last night's class.

I struggled through as long as I could (no straight leg head to knee for me. Just holding the foot, locking the leg, thanks). Eventually, I opted out of the first triangle pose, but after granting myself that respite, I pushed through all the other poses and I did several of the backbends at an actual "I'm trying" effort whereas before I've just been going through the motions 'til I felt certain I could finish the series.

When I wasn't desperately trying to regulate my nose breathing, I couldn't help but notice that a new student actually managed to leave the room in today's class.

After 5 consecutive days, and after wanting to do so myself, I've never seen anyone successfully do so.

There is mad group psychological pressure and tricks going on in Bikram. Make no mistake. They are geared to make you better in your practice, but they are strong, and not to be underestimated.

The instructor tried to convince her to stay, but eventually, the vulcan mind tricks that worked on me and convinced me to tough it out failed, and she escaped.

In an unfortunate coincidence for her, being new, she made the faux-pas of bringing her purse into the practice room, so she couldn't actually leave for good. And, in all honesty, she probably couldn't have left anyways, because this studio locks the front doors during the class (I wonder how this lines up with fire codes?).

At the end of the class, I was pleased to see the group of people encouraging the new student to come back. I'd been exactly behind her, and I'd watched her rest and try to engage through the remainder of the class once she'd been coaxed back into the room. I told her I'd almost puked my first class 5 days ago, but that I felt much better in the heat now, and that at this point I could make it through the entire series (or, almost, anyways).

I hope she comes back.

Either way, I'm impressed that I've done 5 days straight and I'm excited for the next 5.

2012-02-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

10 Day Bikram Challenge: Day 4

I learned from yesterday. I had a *very* light lunch and found it much easier to get through today's afternoon/evening class.

It was less crowded and I sat near the door for better access the cooling breeze, but overall, I was just stronger and better able to deal with the heat this time. When I made it through the entire standing series without opting out of any poses, I was fairly certain I could push through the floor series to finish all 52 poses for the first time in a very long time (and the very first time in such heat).

And, I did it.

The instructor, Mary, was very supportive when I thanked her for teaching such a great class and let her know that it was my first time through the whole thing without needing a break at this studio.

I'm hoping to keep this up for the remaining 6 days.

2012-02-08T20:54:00.000-08:00

Bikram 10-day Challenge: Day 3

Today's class was much more difficult than yesterday's.

First, despite the fact that I finished lunch almost 4 hours before class, the residual food and digestion did not treat me well (and I'd even specifically requested that my business meeting serve mediterranean food, hoping that veggie would be easier). I found I was much more likely to become nauseous in today's 4:30 - 6 PM class than I had in the 2 previous AM classes I'd attended with an empty belly.

Second, this class was crowded, so there was much more heat and humidity than the last one. Also, I arrived close to starting time, so I found a place in the corner, far from the cooling door of welcome breeze that is opened a few times to allow fresh air to bathe the practice. Talk about incentive to arrive earlier!

I did a very ugly bargaining about quitting/leaving with myself a few times.

I would have done so in the first class, but then, Cynthia Wehr, the owner, had me in her sights. She made it clear that she really wanted me to stay in the room and I didn't want to let her down, plus for no good reason I could identify, I inherently trusted that she wouldn't try to keep me there if I really couldn't handle it. After the class, on my way out, she confirmed that she was very happy I'd been able to stay in the room.

I've never had a yoga instructor who was so personally attuned to my struggle. I've also never struggled so much in a class. But that was then, Class 1.

This afternoon, class 3, she was not the instructor (she did her own practice), and I was not the new student targeted for special attention. So I struggled even more and the quitter/protector in me tried to convince the more committed one that I should leave a few times ("It's so hot... this can't be good for you." "40 More minutes? How can you possibly do that? Do you want to?" etc.).

Success. I stuck it out. 3 down. 7 to go.

And, thanks to the re-introduction to the practice at this local studio, I'm even more fascinated by the Bikram practice than ever before. In particular, I'm finding the lessons I learned in my other Yogic studies to be so much more powerful in the Bikram setting than they were in the normal (non-heated) yoga room.

The first time I did Bikram, I was *just* an ex-athlete. It was an awesomely demanding athletic endeavor. It drew me into yoga. I followed through and explored.

And now, after that exploration, I've got 3+ years of regular study of Ashtanga, Iyengar, Power-yoga, Vinyasa, restorative, yoga-shakti, blended-personal-whatever under my belt. I can reach deep and use tools I've built to work through the difficult stuff. And, I'm realizing, it's a good thing I can, because the original Bikram studio I attended was much less militant than Mountain View's.

I have no idea if I could have been a Bikram follower in the Mountain View studio without my previous studies. Of course, I see others in the classes that are clearly just meeting yoga for the first time, and they are inspired and committed, so perhaps I am unreasonable.

But, this time around, what I'm finding is, the heat is a ridiculous equalizer. My original introduction to Bikram was nowhere near as hot as this studio. It was perfect for me then (typically maxing out at 100F), but it didn't require anything close to what this studio requires (often maxing out at 108F). This studio puts me into survival mode and I drop all extraneous thoughts other than getting through the class and the occasionally self-aware thought about how I am doing, how my body frame looks in the mirror (and how to modify it), how I could probably push the current pose further, etc. There is just no space for thoughts about anything outside of my physical body.

If I'm honest, I have to admit that I made many more comparisons of myself against other students in a non-heated yoga room when I was developing a more "traditional" practice. I often felt pride in my flexibility, my strength, my ability to keep up with those doing teacher-trainings even though I wasn't.

But here... sheesh, I'm just happy I manage to stop myself from running out of the room screaming for cool air. Also, I find that I close my eyes in relaxing poses and when they remind us that Bikram is 90 minutes of eye-open meditation, I feel lazy. Because, damn, it feels so good to close your eyes and try to escape in the Shavasana before you have to start moving again... but no, this studio's Bikram is truly about forcing you to be present in a *very* *uncomofortable* reality.

For the first time ever in my yoga practice, I often catch myself *just* breathing with a calm mind (usually right before I freak out about how difficult the class is).

I feel like I'm learning more about myself, my honesty with myself about how uncomfortable I actually am in any given moment, and what I'm capable of than I've learned in a very long time.

Also, I'm just so grateful such a challenging practice opened so close to my home. In the locker room today, I chatted with a runner who had done her first Bikram class -- she asked me for confirmation, "I mean, this is harder than a half marathon, right?" I hadn't thought about it on those terms, but when challenged, I had to agree. If you don't put a pace goal on a half, and you just have to finish -- oh, hell yes, a Mountain View Bikram 90 minute yoga session is much harder (**full and fair disclosure, at your edge race pace, I think a half is probably slightly harder because you can slack between poses in the class, but that's not what this woman wanted to discuss**)

In short, I don't know where this will lead, but I fully expect to finish my 10-day self-challenge of Bikram and, given the benefits I've already experienced, I suspect I will be developing a long-term relationship with Bikram Yoga Mountain View.

(Today's pose summary: skipped 2nd triangle, 1st tree, 1st 1/2 lotus, 1st camel -- 48/52 completed. Touched my forehead to the ground in separate leg stretching and sat all the way down in fixed firm.)

Here's a video of how hardcore the owner is (a year ago, 3 years after she won the world yoga championship) to help you understand where some of my awe for this studio comes from:

2012-02-07T17:31:00.000-08:00

Bikram Challenge: Day 2

Today was much easier, no doubt partially due to the heat acclimatization from yesterday's sweat-stravaganza. Also, the class was much smaller, maybe half the size of yesterday's (less body heat). We probably maxed out around 107F, but most of the class was at 105-6.

The instructor from yesterday just took the class as a participant -- I can see why she was the 2007 World Yoga Champion. Yikes. I had no idea some of the poses could be extended so far.

I am happy to state that I attempted at least one of all of the 26 postures and made it through both of most of them.

I fell out of one of the standing bow-pulling poses and decided it was a good time to take a standing break. I also opted out of the second tree pose for a kneeling break. On the floor, I rested instead of doing (i) the 2nd half lotus pose (man, that pose is *very* physically demanding); and (ii) the first bow-pulling pose. Also, I only did 5 seconds of the first camel with just the slightest backward lean with my hands on my lower back. I managed the entire second camel, but again, only with the slightest backward lean with my hands on my lower back.

So, of the 52 poses, I was able to get through 47. Yesterday, I probably only made it through 40 or so. I'd be thrilled to be able to complete the entire series by the end of this 10-day series.

This morning, I wasn't too sore, but now I can feel it. I suspect tomorrow's class will be a different challenge with the added obstacle of soreness.

In an interesting alignment of my life with pop culture, I listened to William Broad's interview on Fresh Air about his new book The Science of Yoga.

I was pleased to learn that Bikram does not include the poses he found to be the most dangerous: inversions that place the neck under extreme pressure in unnatural bends such as plow or shoulder stand (which many of my prior yogic studies have incorporated in their finishing series).

I was also amused to learn that most forms of yoga slow the body down and, if all other variables remain unchanged, will result in weight gain, not weight loss. I can confirm that during class, Bikram does not slow the body down. I took my pulse several times during today's class and it was right where it is when I'm in the middle of a run.

Finally, I have to say that Bikram definitely results in one type of awareness that I don't get from other yoga studies. Staring at your body in a mirror while contorting yourself, sweating heavily, and wearing very little clothing for 90 minutes means that there's no way to kid yourself about your current state of fitness. You can see how much you are struggling. You can see the actual form of your body in the various poses. This is a nice dovetail with my 2012 goal to get down to racing weight. I can visually see that some of these poses are more difficult than they could be, partially because I have excess mass getting in the way.

2012-02-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

10-day Bikram Challenge: Day 1

I've done Bikram in the past and have always enjoyed it. It's a demanding workout and yet, you get the extra benefits of yoga (a breathing practice, some relaxation at the end, stretching). For some reason, I've been struggling with returning to my yoga practice, so when I saw that a new local Bikram studio had opened, I figured the answer was clear.

I'm amused at how different Bikram is from other forms of yoga. The copyright, the trademark, the owner control, the strict adherence to the timeline of 26 poses at a specific heat and humidity, the lawsuits against former instructors who try to go off on their own and modify the style, and, of course, the World Yoga Championship. I've read and heard many practitioners of more traditional yoga styles complain and speak poorly of Bikram.

But, for me, I have nothing bad to say -- it was a great gateway into yoga when I started my practice. It was much more like the sports I'd grown up with than traditional yoga, because the physical demands and the discipline are front and center as opposed to spirituality. Since I'm having such a hard time motivating to get back to a regular more traditional yoga practice, I figured if Bikram worked once, perhaps it would work again.

So, Yesterday, I started a 10-day Bikram Challenge. The deal I made with myself is that I have to show up for a class every day for 10 days.

Wow.

I've never gone to a Bikram studio this hardcore. The owner was the 2007 World Yoga Champion. She ran an amazing class yesterday and managed to motivate me to stay for the entire 90 minutes despite needing to kneel or lie down to opt out of at least 15% of the poses. The packed room often hit 108F. No one left. We all struggled through as best we could.

I now know why Bikram refers to his studios as "torture chambers."

I'm excited about this challenge. Yesterday's class showed me that I definitely haven't been pushing myself as much as I could physically. I pride myself on not getting injured and listening to my body. What yesterday's class showed me is that I definitely err far on the side of comfort when it comes to athletics. Showing up to struggle for 90 minutes on a daily basis is going to be great for me: physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Today, I'm a bit sore, but ready to return.

2012-02-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

Failed: Fast, Early, Better (Working on often)

E and I were discussing the roots of the "Fail early, Fail often, Fail better, Fail fast" meme of Silicon Valley tonight.

I suggested that it must have started with Beckett:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. -- Westward Ho, 1983.

E suggested it was a riff on the storied political phrase:

Vote Early, Vote Often.

The truth is likely somewhere in between. E had no idea of the Beckett quote, and my only exposure to the political phrase was thanks to Gangs of New York.

We are a good sample for the edges of Silicon Valley (him, on the super-techy-bleeding-edge side, me on the blend of semi-related fields with tech side).

The fact that a combination of both of our suggested sources is necessary to get to the full meme hints at how we much we need seemingly unrelated intellectual neighbors to get to the heart of the mash-up hack-it 'til it works culture of Silicon Valley.

But, to bring it back to the completely personal level, I just want to talk about my failure today. I failed early and fast. I was supposed to run the Kaiser Half Marathon. My training hadn't been fabulous, but last weekend's 10-miler with several long mile-plus track intervals in the middle convinced me that a 2-hour-ish half marathon was not going to be a problem today.

It started well (aka fast). 8:55 for the first mile. 8:44 pace for the second (this felt too aggressive, so I hit the lap button at 1.8 and backed off, telling running buddy H that I'd see her speedy self at the finish and letting my breath come back to me).

Unfortunately, once I slowed, I realized I needed a restroom, stat. Typically, this is something race organizers have planned for. But not this race. I'll spare you the details, but after 15 minutes of hoping the next corner would have an aid station with bathrooms, I had to re-route my course. Once that was done, I realized I needed to get to the finish in an unreasonable amount of time to keep my other social obligations for the day.

So, I accepted failure somewhere around 4.6 miles in (early). I ducked under the tape and jumped into the 5K lane. My 4+ mile loop wasn't included in their course, so I had about 2 miles to go to hit the 3.1 goal. They were all walkers. Mainly families with children, either in strollers or toddling along. Some families pushing elders in wheelchairs. It was a side of the running/walking community I've never interacted with and I couldn't believe how awesomely supportive they all were of one another (yelling back and forth as they zigged and zagged between running and jogging). Also, many of them cheered for me as I passed them in my constant run. In particular, parents encouraged their children to try to keep up with me for a couple of minutes.

I felt so lucky to experience such a gorgeous day in Golden Gate park with such a supportive group of people. Middle of the pack runners who don't fail never see this.

I ran those short few miles at approximately my goal half marathon pace and crossed the 5K finish line with the *slowest* officially recorded 5K I've *ever* completed (I was surprised to see that they didn't count my first loop on the electronic chip and just tallied my start and finish times for a 5K time).

In short, I totally failed. And it felt awesome.

Plus, I was able to cheer all half marathon finishers for the first 2h15m. Watching the winners and early finishers struggle was inspirational. The pure physicality of the men running 1h07m half marathons and the women running 1h18m was impressive. Come to think of it, the reason I couldn't tear myself away 'til 2h15 is that *everyone* was inspirational, from the age group leaders to the eldest healthy folks with their altered gaits but triumphant "I am still a finisher" arms held high to the skinny young men and women kicking past 5 competitors on the last 100 uphill yards -- all of it, was inspirational beyond belief.

So yeah. I failed to reach my goal today. But in allowing myself to do so, I learned more about the running community (particularly the bay area running culture and its various historic races and running clubs) than I'd over known.

And, truly, my body made it very clear it didn't want to do the half today, so while I could have forced it, if I had, I wouldn't have failed early or fast (you know, the graceful kind of failure, when, as soon as it's unavoidable, you admit things aren't going in the right direction and you do something else).

Had I not listened to my body, I might not have failed at all. I likely would have just finished slowly, which means I surely couldn't have failed often (as today is only the Second time I've opted to DNF, and I'm led to believe often requires at least 2 or more.)

And, most importantly, I *definitely* wouldn't have failed better.

I am so grateful for my experience today. The weather was perfect. 4 miles on the half course with dedicated runners opened up a great workout for me. 2+ closing out on the 5K course showed me parts of the running community that made me feel proud and grateful, and watching the finishers was irreplaceable.

Meeting up with H at the end (congrats to her on the 1:48!) and walking back to her car for 2.5+ miles while chatting and catching up reminded me that sometimes, regardless of the failed goals, showing up is all that matters for true success. So, I failed on some metrics. If only every one of my failures could come alongside lessons and alternate successes like these (all beneath perfect weather while walking through one of the most beautiful parks in the world)...

To more failure! Onward!

2012-02-03T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hippy-Dippy

Arvay, I see your tofu eggplant stir-fry over rice with random green bits and raise you last night's left over Saag Paneer over rice with tonight's shiitake mushroom brown lentils.

Like Arvay, food like this is *not* part of my heritage. And yet, here we are.

The Berkeley. She is strong.

2012-02-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

Permission

After months of limping along by running a hard drive diagnostic post-blue screen (which, for some completely unexplained reason appeared to quell the repeat-blue-screen-loop), today, on the third blue-screen of the day, I succumbed.

My laptop is at Computer Care. I'm working from an Asus EE netbook.

Better than nothing? You bet. Close to my normal set up? Even with Dropbox and USB keys of backups, not even close.

Slow and hard to get work done. Easier to waste time on the internet while things load/process/etc.

Suffice it to say, today's day of no calls and many documents to be edited did not go according to plan. I spent too much time on random internet shit (essentially forgiving myself for the waste) and then...

Healthy night was canceled in favor of Fiesta Del Mar.

See, in my spare time today, while waiting for documents to sync from back-up and being frustrated with technology, between internet ridiculousness, I managed to schedule a couple of contractors to stop by.

Oh joy! I learned our bathroom is even more screwed than we thought (the two different sets of tiles in the shower? Yeah, that's evidence of a prior quick fix where they recognized water damage and decided to hide it.) The remodel will *not* be cheap. And since the master bedroom was destroyed to the point of non-functionality, it's not like we can avoid the expenditure.

Thanks, prior owner guy -- your decision to go completely non-professional DIY and drop a pseudo sub-floor on a patio, plumb it, wall it up, drop tile against the drywall without any mortar and call it a master bathroom definitely increased the purchase price in your favor, too bad for us that since purchase it's been destroyed by the one-two punch of water/steam/fungus damage (no fan or airflow? Why would you need that?), and subterranean termites who had easy access since you just dropped the wooden subfloor against the outside dirt around the house.

The contractor actually admitted feeling sorry for us today, "Normally, I don't take on things this ugly. It never turns out well in the end. There's always something else I discover that's been done with cut corners that's fucked up and needs to be fixed and the homeowners are never happy to learn of it."

Yikes.

Not a great day. But, I gave myself permission to slack. I had a ridiculous todo list. I didn't get through 30% of it. And all due to first world problems. I'm working on being totally okay with what that is.

Which means, if I am honest with myself, overall, educational about things I might have preferred to ignore, but not really a bad day.

2012-01-31T23:46:00.000-08:00

So Happy

Woot! I started Mandarin Lessons in order to hit one of my goals for 2012.

My teacher is a very close friend. We share a love of language (in fairness, I may think of myself as a language lover, but I've got nothing on G--she easily puts in 20 hours per week on her linguistic hobbies).

Because we share the linguist passion, each lesson involves us gleefully discussing and comparing other languages, and pronunciation, and grammar, and general word nerdery between the Mandarin I'm learning and the languages either or both of us have learned in the past or actually speak to some level of competency.

Tonight, I learned that I'm learning the old-school version of Chinese characters. The kind used by Taiwan and many immigrants to California. The kind that will be the most useful to me, I'm told. I inherently trust G, so if that's what she thinks I should learn, that's what I will learn.

It doesn't hurt that I've invited an additional person (L) to my lessons (Lessons? Party nights? How could you tell?). L is a Singaporean native, a very disciplined individual, and she agrees that it's easier to learn the classic complicated characters first, followed by the simplified, modern characters. So, yeah, Complex Characters? That's what I'll be learning. I'm led to believe they have a name. Perhaps I'll learn it and refer to them accordingly at some point in the future. For now, I'm swimming through the 4 tones and all of the pinyin. Yikes! That's enough!

When L learned that I was doing Mandarin lessons with G, it quickly became apparent that she'd be great fun as an addition. She learned Mandarin (and Hokkien) as a child, natively in Singapore, but since she learned by osmosis and moved to Canada at age 10(ish), she doesn't know the formal rules as well as G, who is English-first, American-University-Chinese-Degree-trained, worked in Taiwan for two separate jobs, and now is a professional technical translator from Chinese to English.

In short, with the combination of the two of them (and G's selected curriculum of ChinesePod for this week's lesson), I couldn't help but feel that I have the best self-made Chinese study program, EVER!!!

G showed up at my house and quizzed me on a bunch of Pinyin (I'd say I got about 85% correct. Much better than last week, but still, nowhere close to what I need.)

Then, L showed up, so we did last week's vocab and memorized conversation + variants, then we reviewed brush strokes and my writing homework (which, amusingly, I'd spent quite some time practicing and memorizing how to do completely backwards by assuming the numbered points on the diagrams drawn by G were the finishing points of the strokes instead of the starting points) and finally we moved to a new lesson of vocab, memorized convo for next week and additional characters to learn how to write.

After the lesson, we cooked dinner. L & G conversed in easy Mandarin while I listened (my favorite way to learn a language) and made pork belly, onion, butternut squash stew. L asked G technical linguistic questions. G asked L native speaker and cultural distinction questions. I was able to prepare delicious simple food to feed people I care about while learning a new language from people who really care about the linguistic nuances and were willing to discuss them at length in front of me.

I was, basically, in heaven.

Thank goodness the homemade garden-grown butternut squash, onion, pork-belly stew was a hit. The Holiday Cheese collection as a post-meal treat didn't earn me any enemies either.

Good Times!

2012-01-24T22:28:00.001-08:00

2012 Goals

1. 9,000 pages read. This is a direct response to the ridiculousness that my 30 book goal imposed. Due to the shuffling, I know I have a minimum of 2 huge books on tap, REAMDE (at 1044) and 1Q84 (at 925).

2. Chinese language study. My general goal is to do one in-person private lesson per week with a good friend of mine. Bonus -- she's ridiculously fluent and a linguist and happy to dork out with me about pronunciation, grammar, and comparisons to other languages. Tonight's lesson was one of the more fun nights I've had in a long time. We used to do Spanish night, which was appreciated. But Chinese night is a completely different level of enjoyment for me. I feel so blessed to know someone who enjoys the same things as me and wants to share them with me. Yay!

3. Race Weight. So, I read Racing Weight and confirmed what I already suspected. If I want to PR in the half or the full marathon, I really need to get down to a weight that means I'm not carrying around a bunch of body fat that's not necessary. Painful to admit, but here's to being American. So this year, I have a goal to be at my racing weight by the time I show up for my second marathon.

4. 2 Marathons. I've already committed to what will no doubt be an awesome experience at the Equinox Marathon. Additionally, once I've recovered from that one, I'll fit in a late fall race when and where makes sense.

5. 52 Healthy Days with E. Historically, I've happily congratulated myself and given myself credit for any one of the healthy habits of a yoga session or a vegetarian meal or an alcohol free night (well, technically, I count it as a day, as I rarely drink before night, but you know what I mean). This year, E and I agreed, we want to commit to 52 days that are vegetarian, alcohol free, and include a joint yoga session (typically before bed). The interesting thing on this one is that given my recent crazy life, I'm already *way* behind schedule -- while there have been a few yoga sessions, many vegetarian days, and a few 24-hour+ stints of no alcohol, thus far, they've only met in the holy trifecta of healthiness on one occasion in 2012. I predict that this is the goal that will result in the most scrambling at the end of the year (e.g. see this year's books scrambling).

To 2012!

2012-01-23T09:42:00.000-08:00

Mania

At times like these, I can see why bi-polar disorder "works" in an odd way.

Since November 15th, I've only had 19 dinners in my hometown without guests (almost all with E, which is awesome). In lieu of the 50 other peaceful dinners I could have had in my hometown, I've caught up with countless friends and family, and done some very rewarding things for my life and business.

Several of these alternate dinners were simply changed by the blessing of people I care about coming to us, either to stay in the guest bedroom or to share a meal.

But, there's also been much motion on my part: driving, flying, and physically making the effort to be elsewhere for the privilege of connecting with people I don't often see and/or doing things in person that make sense.

This weekend was a perfect example of the high-effort life I've been sustaining for the last 69 days.

Saturday AM, after a night of late work, I woke to pack, drive to Oakland, and run around Lake Merritt and Piedmont with a friend. We ate a delicious brunch, and then I drove to the Sacramento area to visit brother, niece, and mom.

First, I was delivering brother's new computer, thanks to E and Metamatt. He was so excited, it was great to see. We had a delicious sushi dinner to celebrate my niece's birthday. Finally, I arrived at my mom's where I caught up with my mom and D and then cleaned up work files 'til 2 AM.

Sunday, I was woken at 6:30 AM by my mom and D yelling at their dog. It's their house, and completely reasonable for them to continue in their normal daily existence. But it resulted in a shorter night of sleep than the already truncated one I'd expected.

I tried to snooze 'til 7:30 and then caffeinated myself with a latte so I could join my mom for her first 5K.

Like most of what I've done these last 69 days, I'm so glad I made the effort to be there and run with her. It was so special to see her realize she is capable of finishing 3.1 miles at a reasonably brisk pace. Many women of her generation just don't think of themselves as athletic or physically capable of things that "athletic people" do. It is wonderful to watch her perception of herself change, and inspiring to be reminded that we are free to change and grow, even in retirement (so why not now?).

I followed this one up with another brunch and great conversation with my step-dad, a drive to Oakland to join friends and E at an Oyster-pocalypse party (mmmm.... oysters), and the a drive home.

Every single event I fit in the 48 hours was fun and rewarding and I'm very glad I did them all.

But, after 69 days full of 48-72 hour stints like this one, I am excited about the consecutive 12 nights at home on my calendar starting tonight.

We can elevate ourselves to a ridiculously high level of physical and mental activity and interaction with others. I definitely do so at times like the holidays, birthdays, special events, with visitors who make the effort, or when there's an unexpected opportunity to catch up with long lost friends or family.

I'm always pleased I amplified my energy output for the benefits of these opportunities.

But, I'm also realistic that this style of living comes at a cost of the downtime and the easy slow existence of breathing, not rushing, and being present with myself in a regular, daily life.

I definitely need to force myself to take some downtime. I suspect, if I were bi-polar, this would be one of those periods when my brain chemistry switched from mania to depression.

I am so thankful not to have such extreme swings as to be bi-polar, but I'm also mindful that even the super-powered manic folks eventually crash. If they can't sustain it, I certainly can't.

So, I am excited to make a commitment to rest and rejuvenation before I ramp up again for my trip to Cambodia in February.

2012-01-10T13:38:00.001-08:00

What We Want To Hear

You know those terrible conversations where one person is hurt? And they are desperately trying to explain to the other person that they are hurt in connection with something that other person did?

Those conversations almost never go according to plan, right?

They usually spiral into one person or the other (or both) trying to blame the other and neither person expressing enough empathy or taking appropriate ownership of their role in the situation.

I'm human, and I've messed this stuff up and gotten it just as horrifically wrong as the next person.

However, I've recently counseled a few friends through some conflicts, and it's so much easier to see a way forward when you aren't in the middle. So here's what I could see from the outside:

As a general rule, if someone is hurt in connection with your actions, they usually want a few very simple things:

1. They want you to listen to what they are saying while they are venting and expressing their frustration, anger, sadness, disappointment and hurt.

**This is the hardest step. When someone is hurt they often lash out or resort to passive aggressive miscommunication. If they are direct, they are often too direct, saying things that are hurtful and not necessary or related to their pain. In my experience, the more often someone trusts that they are going to have their needs met by sharing their pain the more pleasant they are in the communication of their needs. If you are committed to helping heal the conflict, you have to be the bigger person here, and just listen. This is hard.

2. When they are done venting, they want you to put yourself in their shoes, and say, "Yes, I can see how if I were you, what I did would suck."

**Okay, maybe this is actually the hardest step. Keeping quiet and really listening when someone is saying difficult things about you (#1) is hard, but then putting aside your pain to address theirs from their point of view is even harder.

3. They want you to say, "I definitely could have done better. In fact, I really should have done better. Perhaps I could have done X. Would that have been preferable?"

**This part is usually not so tough so long as you sincerely committed to #1 and #2. In fact, if you can get here and be creative, you are well on your way to smoothing things over. Ideally, their response will be positive and their feedback will help you understand how to avoid similar conflicts in the future.

4. Finally, they want you to say, "I feel terrible that you are hurt. I want to make you feel better. I think I can try to you feel better by doing X, right now, and doing my best to do Z, in the future. Would that work?"

**It is important to note the acknowledgement of how bad you feel and the desire to make it better. This is a component of emotional conflict resolution that is often ignored. It is not enough to say you are sorry, in most cases. Sorry is an empty word without some showing of vulnerability and an effort and commitment to avoid repeating the pattern that caused the pain.

Note, nothing they want is about you.

They don't want to know why you did what you did. They don't want to know why you think they are overreacting or how you think they are being unfair. They *really* don't want to know anything about what they've done that might be cause for pain on your part.

Is that fair?

No.

In fact, it is likely that in addition to having completely reasonable complaints you'd like to see addressed at the same time as theirs, you will also be hurt simply by listening to them in #1 and possibly by their responses to your efforts in #2-#4.

However, unless the other person is being abusive or disrespectful (in which case you should stand up for yourself and point it out), I promise you, the fastest way to a solution and smoothing over of a conflict is to swallow your hurt and focus solely on theirs. You can raise your pain *after* theirs has been properly addressed.

(P.S. -- why do I feel like this post is going to come back and bite me in the butt?)

2012-01-08T22:09:00.000-08:00

Skip Barber Racing School

Yeah, this happened today.

A huge thanks to our friends D&K who got me the intro to racing class as a birthday gift.

Oh, man.

So fun.

As E, D&K suspected, I'm hooked.

D, however, may not let me drive his lemons car.

Turns out, in an interesting contrast to my professional life, I'm very risk-tolerant on the track.

This resulted in me spinning out to the inside of turn 9 on Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at the end of my first session.

Sand bags were displaced. Body damage occurred. And I learned that it's amazing how fast a Formula 1 car going full throttle and spinning out with BT in tow will stop when brakes and clutch are applied full force.

When I finally made it back to the pit (embarrassed to keep the rest of the class waiting), one of the instructors pointed me to a new car, and then asked the head instructor and my pace card driver (rather reasonably, in my opinion) "Do you want to move her to a different group?"

My pace car driver said, "No. She should stay with this group. She's fast."

And there you have it. On a race track, I am much less risk averse than anywhere else I've been in a long time.

The rush of driving fast and trying to keep up was awesome. My group was (i) a 35-yr-old U.S. Marshall who has 15 yrs of motorcycle experience and acts as a flag man at Laguna Seca MotoGP races; (ii) a 20-yr-old self-professed street and canyon racer with ridiculous quick-twitch muscle control; and (iii) me.

I did my best to keep up and they kept speeding up. At some point, something had to give and, clearly, it was my lack of high-speed road-racing experience and skill at managing sharp turns at scarily high speeds in a vehicle (albeit a ridiculously stable and forgiving one).

Within 30 seconds of starting I was grinning from ear to ear and whooping with joy. After 20 minutes of driving in one session, my heart was happily beating along at a nice 60% of it's max (yeah, I took my pulse while I waited for the tow-truck. What?), and I was drenched with sweat. The instructors had consistently referred to racing as a "Sport" and I could now completely understand why and agree. I was exhausted from the mental focus, aerobically challenged during the entire session, and now, weird muscles are sore from shifting, braking, and accelerating from the flat L-shaped seat and bracing myself in the car (unlike the larger folks, even with the 5-point restraint and foam they added, I still slid around a little bit and have to prop myself up so I could see and steer and manage the pedals and gears on fast turns).

I haven't had that level of pleasure coupled with in-the-moment focus since collegiate athletics.

So, I suspect I'll be going back.

(Oh, and also, a huge thanks to E for driving to Carmel and back and joining me on an awesome date night stay (complete with ocean-view hot-tub, balcony, and in-room fireplace) at the Highlands Inn with a delicious dinner at Pacific Edge (the sommelier's willingness to let us order Vieux Telegraph 2008 Chateuneuf du Pape by the glass since it was on the tasting menu pairing list despite our lack of tasting menu? Awesome. We have a new value wine to add to the cellar!)

2012-01-06T12:56:00.000-08:00

Different, But Good

Today, I had a hectic AM and calls starting at noon, so I stopped at the Mexican restaurant next door to our grocery store for a quick lunch.

I saw that they had tortilla soup, one of my favorites, so I ordered some to go.

I opened the plastic quart and inhaled. Mmm.... a heavenly smell. A hint of lime and cumin, my favorite spice. The top layer was a gorgeous collection of queso fresco chunks, avocado, and tortilla strips.

I dunked the spoon and stirred: smiling with anticipation as I saw fresh-grilled corn kernels, slices of broiled pasilla, cooked onions, and... pinto beans?

Pinto beans?

I tasted it. Absolutely Delicious.

Not a hint of tomatoes, and no chicken. Not at all what I thought I was ordering. But, healthy, vegetarian (yet full of protein), and so yummy.

And just like that, I've found another delicious, filling, vegetarian soup lunch option.

2012-01-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

2011, The Year in Books

I struggled with my books goal this year. The random selection of the yearly goal of 30 pushed me well beyond what I otherwise would have done. As of March 8th, I had read none. Yikes. That may be the longest period of time I've gone without reading a book since I learned to read.

I eeked out 12 by early June. This was around the time when I realized LuLu completely took advantage of me with respect to the Flower Girl Saves the Day book I wrote for my niece in June. Not a good books moment in my life, overall.

Thankfully, I turned it around and hit 20 books by October 3, 2011, which was not on track for the goal. So, I took drastic action and focused on short books for the rest of the year.

I increased the randomness in my life by quite a bit and ripped through books 21-28 in less than a month.

I also cleared 30 books with plenty to spare. Here's the rundown:

The History of Argentina (Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) by Daniel K. Lewis. Amazing cultural background for our trip to Argentina. Fascinating how different the experience has been of people my age, many of whom I interacted with. Particularly amazing that women didn't vote 'til 1947, and no peaceful change of political regimes until the late 20th century.

Dreaming the Biosphere by Rebecca Reider. A very well-researched academic look at the biosphere. A bit too much focus on myth and history for my preference, but I sincerely enjoyed learning about the crazy details of the folks behind the project.

The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside the Biosphere by Jane Poynter. A personal account of the first stay in the biosphere. I very much enjoyed her accounts of the day-to-day farming tasks and cringed at the detail and extent of the political interpersonal dramas

Labyrithns: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges. Puzzles within puzzles. English translated from one of the most well-known Argentinian voices. Often I found myself starting a short story only to exhaust myself with promises of "later, when I have more time to focus." Much philosophical and historical meaning buried and hidden in the beautiful multi-stepped passages of this book. Enjoyable, but thought-provoking in a difficult way.

Saturday by Ian McEwan. A beautiful tale of a very full day that examines the interelations between all of life's unseemingly connected events.

Mennonite In a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. A hilariously snarky tale of a sheltered Mennonite who became a world-weary academic and eventually goes home again. Also, fascinating details on the Mennonite culture and its evolution in modern America.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. In the tradition of epic tales, while wonderfully modern and questioning in a non-biased way. Upon finishing, I wanted to re-read it immediately, to think and absorb the powerful lessons that it hinted at but did not preach -- are historic ways better? Are humans merely seeking more motion? Are running shoes a terrible thing (I wear them and replace them often!)?

Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. A great perspective on proper running form, relaxing into the run (interestingly similar to the themes in Born to Run), and incorporating principles of proper Chi into running and life.

Unacustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. Gorgeous vignettes of the Bengali-American or Bengali-British experience. Pain and loss told acheingly well.

Atonement by Ian McEwan. A child's crime. Embraced and given momentum by adults in a terrible display of humanity's worst. War. Writing. All told with an embrace of the mundane details one remembers when in the midst of heatwrenching drama.

Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo. A lovingly intimate story of a family in a small town. Infinities within infinties -- drama and intrigue all buried in what appears from the outside to be a boringly normal and uninteresting group who tend to a corner store.

Thoughtful Gardening by Robin Lane Fox. A collection of 2-5 page articles from a British Master Gardener sharing thoughts on flowers, gardens, beauty, history and civilization. A great introduction to the art of gardening for beauty's sake (instead of food).

The Heart And the Fist by Eric Greitens. A personal tale of aid and conflict, struggles with protection and leading. Navy Seals. Adventures. Overall, an easy, informative, wonderfully entertaining read.

Moneyball by Michael Lewis. A baseball parable of exploiting the human bias that often gets in the way of accepting mathematically or scientifically uncomfortable truths.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Mr. McCourt's memoir of growing up as an Irish-American in Brooklyn and Limerick is filled with almost shocking tales of a child's matter of fact approach to life in extreme poverty.

Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Futuristic speculative fiction at its finest. Physical and philosophical concepts retold, reinvented, and most importantly, all renamed in fictional languages. One of the more impressive written works of imaginative cohesiveness I've ever read.

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. A data nerd and control-freak ex-lawyer-cum-author's novel about her year-long approach to increasing happiness. I enjoyed it thoroughly. But, I may be biased…

House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. The heartwrenching tragedy of a gorgeous young woman constantly self-sabotaging in the whimsicle leisure classes of early 20th century New York.

Ringworld by Larry Niven. (The origin of the Halo Game) Painfully stark (emphasis on *painful*) wording combines with great imagination on the science side and ridiculous stereotypes on the gender side for one of the great Sci-Fi classics.

An artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (see the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Mudbound by Hilary Jordan. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Running For The Hansons by Sage Canaday. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Notes from My Travels by Angelina Jolie. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs by Heather Lende. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

90-Day Geisha by Chelsea Haywood. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffengger. (See the 20-28 book blog post for more detail)

The Help by Kathryn Stockett. There's a reason this book became a New York Times Bestseller and then was optioned into a movie. It was good. You should read it. I read it and had a book club conversation with my sister, which was a first for us. And fun.

Consumption by Kevin Patterson. Ay. So much to say -- human evolution. Epidemologic evolution. Inuits. Mainlanders. Health. Disease. Death. Hunting. Life. Adventure. Love (fleetingly). A great tale.

Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould. This book drove me crazy. The points he made are interesting, but the writing style was Not. For. Me. "So far I have only demonstrated…" "Most of this chapter has focused on…" Uggghh! Just write what you want to say, Man. E says the reason I didn't enjoy this book is that I don't know how to skim. I think he's right. Occupational hazard, I suppose.

Codex by Lev Grossman. A very enjoyable modern mystery. Multi-player games, steganograms, library science, New York youth and British old money. Very satisfying during the read, but I felt the ending was a bit of a let-down (or a set-up for a sequel).

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. A sad tale of uptight british lovers who part ways on their wedding night after an abismal failure to communicate about the oh-so-embarrassing realities of consummation (or failure thereof).

So, in the books mirrors life category, we've got 1 on travel, 2 on running, 1 on gardening, and a bunch of navel gazing about life experiences or locations I've never experienced. Seems about right.

As an aside: 13/33 books were written by women (39.4%), a non-trivial increase over the 7-yr average of 58/174 (33.3%). It occurred to me at some point this year that I don't select books on the basis of the gender of the author at all, but, I do fall in love with certain authors and try to read whatever I can get my hands on that they've written. When I realized this, I wondered if I had a bias, in terms of gender, and it appears that I do, although I'm not aware of the actual statistics in terms of number of books with female authors vs. male and in particular, how those numbers play out in areas where I'm interested in reading, so it may be that my bias is not my own and rather is caused by availability.

2011-12-31T14:16:00.000-08:00

The year according to my feet

I pledged to get back into running shape this year.

I did it the only way I know how -- I commited to a bunch of races. Over the course of 2011, I registered for and completed 2 marathons, 6 half marathons, and 4 10Ks.

I trained with the highest overall mileage I've ever done for both marathons, which pushed me to my highest mileage year, by far: 1,659.73.

In other words, I averaged 31.9 miles per week.

And, if I'm honest, I'm a little burnt out from all those miles. While elite runners may put in 100+ mile weeks, this year's mileage wiped me out, motivation wise.

Yes, I'm still recovering from CIM, so no doubt that's contributing a bit to my funk.

But, physically, I'm pretty much recovered (although I'm much tighter than I've ever been and I need to focus more on my flexibility and yoga in 2012). Psychologically, though, well, let's just say I'm definitely loafing these days.

We have an out of town visitor, so I had awesome company for the last run of the year today. Even so, after a slow 5 miles, I asked if we could stop and walk the last 2 because I just wasn't feeling like running.

Now that I've done the long slog to get back into decent running shape, I'm looking forward to focusing more on the quality of my runs and less on the quantity in 2012.

So far, I only have 3 definite races on tap for 2012: a 5K with my mom (her first) in January, The Kaiser Half, and the 50th anniversary of the Equinox Marathon (with Arvay! Yay!).

I'm sure I'll add a few more events as the year goes on, but I'm really hoping that I can maintain the aerobic fitness I've built up while focusing on building up my speed, all while returning to a more balanced, but regular, running schedule.

Happy Running in 2012!

2011-12-27T18:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas with the family

Family -- Mom, MomHubby, Sis, SisHubby, BabyA, Brother, Niece, E, and I all gathered for a few days. It was great to see everyone and catch up.

Fun -- We laughed and played games galore: Wii, Settlers of Catan, Poker (tournament at the casino for me, brother, and MomHubby).

Food -- Beef Wellington -- a longstanding family tradition (Sis, Mom, and I shared the duties and it turned out perfectly):

Friends -- we had surprise visits from several folks we hadn't seen in ages.

And, my Christmas surprise from mom? My wedding dress, made into pillows for our guest bedroom. How awesome is that?

Happy winter holidays to all, and Happy Almost New Year!

2011-12-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

It feels like I did *something* right

I received a shipment of books from Arvay a day or so ago.

I can't wait to finish them. They were a very welcome receipt.

Tonight, E2 and J came to stay the night and we enjoyed delicious healthy food (which the guys prepared while E2 and I did accounting, the guys grumbling the entire cooktime about the lack of steak). How lucky am I that I have a good friend (with a background in econ!) willing to help with my books?

Dinner was delicious, and the homemade biscotti dessert that E2 and J brought reminded me of the biscotti E2 would make with angst in Berkeley. Ahhh.. to be young roommates, again.

Looking back on college, how could I not feel lucky?

I was ridiculously lucky to meet Arvay as a young student and, also, our shared friend K, who to this day swears I insulted her for blocking my view of the board. Me? I'd like to say that the deep sigh and the slammed books and moved desks and statement about her tall persona blocking my short view was not intended as an insult. But, intent doesn't really matter, now does it? So, it's possible I did insult her. I mean, let's be honest... I probably did respond inappropriately. {{Sigh.}}

Back to feeling lucky -- I feel lucky to have known E2 since 3rd grade (or maybe earlier?) and to have shared tons of familial chaos with her. My grandma, who is entering dementia via the doors of old age, Parkinson's, and more, recently asked me about E2 when I visited in person (for E2 and I have visited her in person at least once per year for at least the last decade). My gran asks about E2 despite her declining awareness and E2s mom made homemade soup and noodles for my recent Pre-Marathon meal. How wonderful and adorable is that? E2 and I are clearly close friends!

Tonight, E2 and her husband are passing through our place on their way to the East Coast. The world is big. (5 AM wake-up for a flight out of SJC big -- blech).

And yet small.

I am lucky.

And grateful that I'll be driving to the CA foothills and back and not much else this holiday season.

Happy Holidays to all!

2011-12-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Weekend

A long time ago (a decade ago, in fact), E and I moved down the peninsula and told ourselves that we'd take a hotel room when we were missing out on stuff in San Francisco. That was how we justified the loss of a true culturally diverse city in exchange for our plot with a garden and good, sunny weather, and a shorter commute.

We haven't taken ourselves up on our promise to return and stay in hotels as much as we should have. But we've done it more than most. In fact, we do it at least once a year thanks to my first post-college-employer, who invites us to their holiday party every year.

This year, we crammed as much as possible into the weekend. I started with Friday business meetings and lunch with a law school friend at Claudine followed by tea with another lawyer at the Ferry Building and late afternoon work at Ritual. We swung by Aldea Niños to buy a baby gift on our way to our friends before they drove us to dinner at A47 (in an unplanned coincidence, each of us had driven the route in France within the last 6 months, which was pretty cool -- the map on the menu made sense to all of us and we discussed our favorite stops).

So, really, could I have a more stereotypical SF Friday?

Why, no. And how grand was that?

Wonderous. Like driving down Lombard Street.

Which, for some reason, I also did this weekend. As a passenger. Damn, that's cool...

We stayed at the Embarcadero and enjoyed views of the holiday ice skaters (the majority were ice wobblers, actually), Christmas lights, and holiday shoppers.

We attended the holiday party at Alexander's Steakhouse and we had brunch twice with friends, once at Kingdom of Dumpling (how can you argue with that name?) and once at Just For You Cafe.

Overall, it was a whirlwind of social activities with some work squeezed in between. But the weather was perfect, the views were amazing, and we were reminded, once again, why San Francisco really is one of the greatest cities.

P.S. Sometimes, San Francisco looks like Tron:

2011-12-05T19:50:00.000-08:00

Run Your Own Race

Desiree Davila solo at the 15K, well behind the lead pack at the 2011 Boston Marathon. As you may know, she eventually fought an exciting multi-surge sprint-to-the-finish battle to a 2 second loss for 2nd place. (And if you don't know, you should watch it, this is history in the making, and a great race. American women are slowly climbing the ladder to be able to compete with the African Women in distance running.)

She put in the best American woman's Boston Marathon performance in at least 16 years.

And, consequently, this picture is one of my favorite sport photos of all time.

If you miss the confidence in her gait, you might think she's falling off the pack.

But, I know how it ends. I woke my husband that AM with my PST shouting, cheering, and crying as she almost became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon since 1985 in the waning EST morning of 2011.

This picture demonstrates the point. Look at her. All alone. Trailing. Alone. Confident that she's doing what makes sense for her and not following the crowd just to be part of the group. When interviewed pre-race about tactics, she's often quoted as saying, "I'm just going to run my own race."

And she did. Boy, did she.

I am inspired to be so focused. First, I want to have the confidence to actually do the research and have the faith in knowing what my own race is (no denial, honesty about my own abilities and how I'm likely to do best). And second, I want to have the courage to run my own race, regardless of what everyone else is doing.

At the risk of being annoyingly obvious -- I'm not just talking about running.

2011-12-05T09:01:00.001-08:00

California International Marathon (take two)

Quick Summary:

-Perfect weather (gorgeous clear day, below 40F at the start high 50s at the finish) and a fast, rolling, downhill course (8 U.S. Men and 25 U.S. Women ran the Olympic Marathon Qualifying Standard!)

-Great 4 Hour pace team leaders (Karyn Hoffman, 10 days after completing the Cozumel IronMan; and Bill Finkbeiner, 27-time Leadville finisher)

-Awesome hydration and fueling. The best I've ever had for a marathon. Thanks to JB, E2's mom, & the SRA!

-My 2nd fastest marathon to date: 4:09:26 (5 minutes short of the PR I was hoping to break)

My training was probably the best I've ever done for a marathon. 721.59 miles in 18 weeks. An average of 40.3 miles per week. Weekly speed work or strength work. Weekly tempo runs (if I'm honest, this is where I cut the most corners. My running buddy didn't. She ran a 3:49!). Sure, I didn't hit all of the workouts perfectly, but I definitely hit more than I ever had in the past.

Nutrition and hydration-wise, I was thrilled. I really messed these up at CDA, so I was very happy that I've figured out what to do.

A huge thanks to JB for the Powerbar products, they aided me through the entire training segment and on race day I easily put away a breakfast of coffee with milk and chocolate syrup, 2 Irongirl bars, and 1 Simply Energy bar -- 500 calories and it felt like nothing in my stomach. No cramping. No GI issues. Perfect.

E2's mom made her mother's chinese noodles for pre-race dinner -- boiled chinese wheat noodles topped with hard boiled eggs, chives, pulled chicken, soy sauce, and homemade chicken stock (you know your friend's mom loves you when she makes homemade stock the night before you visit because they live 0.5 miles from the start and she wants you to have a good pre-race meal!). E and I added rooster sauce to the mix. Delicious. Easy to digest. High in carbs, light proteins, and sodium to pre-load my electrolytes.

I'll avoid the detailed report, but by the time I was leaving the house for the race, I was comfortable from the evidence that I was headed to the start with the perfect balance of water, electrolytes, and a light, relatively empty GI tract.

On the course, I took electrolytes at all aid stations where I didn't have Gu and water where I did. I had GU/water at 7 miles, 13 miles, 14.5 miles, 20 miles, and 23 miles. I've never had that many GUs in a race and I'd heard stories about folks having serious GI issues, so I was pleased to learn that I could handle it just fine. Now that I know I can handle it, I think on my next marathon I'll try to do GU every 25-30 minutes starting at 1 hour.

So, what went wrong? First, I came down with a cold 2 days before the race. I took every over-the-counter remedy I could find, and rested, and hydrated as best I could to get the major symptoms under control. But, I was still producing more mucus than normal at the start, I had some post-nasal drip, some coughing, etc.

I'd done some research, and it appears that the majority takes the position that if your symptoms are entirely above your neck (and you have no fever), a cold shouldn't get in the way of your run. For me, after 2 races with colds, I can say this isn't true. I don't think running with a cold harms me, but I do think it affects my performance. At this year's US Half I was disappointed with my performance (and beat it by 8.5 minutes 3 weeks later, when not sick). On the course at CIM, I began to cough up mucus at about mile 14. After the finish, there were 30 minutes where I coughed deeply and almost without pause until I'd cleared a bunch of crud from my lungs.

Other than the cold, I think I can attribute my failure to beat my PR on 2 things: 1) I seriously considered dropping out and having E come to pick me up at mile 20. This decreased commitment, between coughs, resulted in a decreased pace until I decided I'd just tough it out. 2) Now that I've finished the Hanson's training program with its higher overall mileage but shorter long runs -- I think I personally need at least one 20 mile (or longer) long run during my training cycle so I've practiced the mental toughness to push to the finish. This was the first time I'd trained for a marathon without completing at least one 20-miler and I found myself nervous and doubtful before the race, which was compounded by the cold, and resulted in a significant lack of commitment and slow-down during the 17-20 mile segment because I was very suspicious of how I'd hold up.

I owe the fact that I finished to my 9-yr-old niece and mom. They'd run the 2.62 fun run and were waiting for me at the finish. I knew E and E2 would completely understand if I decided to drop out, treat it as a training run, and enter a replacement marathon in 8 weeks or so, but I also knew my niece wouldn't understand at all.

The truth was, if I dropped out, she's see it as an example saying it's okay to quit. And sometimes it is. This time, if I wanted to save the energy and go for the PR at the Surf City Marathon it totally would have been. But she wouldn't have understood why. She wasn't going to be at the finish line at Surf City. She was as the finish line at CIM. So, I pushed past the 20 mile marker and after the 21 mile marker confirmed that I really didn't have that much to go, I started to speed up again.

By the end, I was back to faster than my goal pace, pushed along by the specter of the closing 4:10 pace group that I wasn't about to let pass me. It was so great to see my niece at the finish, high-pitched screeching with my mom, holding a sign with my name. She told me all about her 2.62 mile run, being filmed by the TV crews, and watching the winners and the qualifiers for the Olympic Trials. I gave her my medal -- and I told her she was the reason I finished. She told me I was stinky.

When all was said and done, it was not the performance I was hoping for, but it was great, nonetheless. I ran the whole thing and didn't stop except to walk through the aid stations (vs. CDA where I took a walk break on Mile 26). I made a 3:46 improvement over Coeur D'alene and ran my second fastest marathon. More importantly, I ran a much smarter race than Coeur D'alene, without hydration and fuel issues and with a smarter, slower start and a 4:59 improvement on the back half, despite my 3-4 mile lack of commitment and slowdown.

So, while I'm disappointed, I'm excited to think about how close to that PR I am if I can avoid a cold and stay committed through the late teens and early 20s miles of the race. I'll get that last 4:59 somewhere, someday.

For the short term, I'm going to give myself a few days off and think about what my next goal might be. I really liked the idea of going for the PR in Huntington Beach, but after completing the full 26.2, I'm hobbling around and not sure I have enough time to recover and get back into marathon shape by early Feb. Perhaps it's time to do some shorter distances...

2011-11-28T07:32:00.001-08:00

Turkey Week

E and I headed to the land of his people (aka, the deep fat fried South) for Thanksgiving.

(Lake Burton, GA)

(Flood control drops the lake well below the dock)

So far, it's been full of family (new niece!), fun, and opportunities for Southern delicacies such as:

-duck fat fried pickles (delicious!)
-deliciously greasy crispy brussel sprouts
-deep fried Thanksgiving Turkey (with a second smoked option, just in case)
-several types of dressing including E's mom's famous sausage, bacon, chestnut offering
-truffled mac and cheese
-more pickles; and
-snack bacon (you know, just 2 lbs of cooked bacon, in the fridge, in case you get hungry)

The first few days, I was relatively well behaved due to my desire to put in a reasonable performance at the Atlanta Half Marathon.

While I didn't stay with the 1:50 pace group as I'd hoped, I still came in at a respectable 1:58:03 despite the hills, which was helpful for establishing a good goal pace for my marathon. I did the last quarter mile at a 7:47 pace, so I definitely had some energy left, which is a good feeling since I have to do 26.2 miles next Sunday.

I also confirmed my favorite night-before-race meal: Broth-based asian soups with noodles or dumplings. Low fiber, medium protein, good for electrolyte loading and carbohydrates, filling but not so heavy as to cause stomach upset pre-race.

Pre-race, I had coffee, a couple of handfulls of cheerios, a half a banana, and immediately before the start, I chomped down a package of Power Bar Energy Blasts. During, I walked through the aid stations and opted for water at 2 and 4 miles and Powerade at 6, 8, and 10 miles. Overall, I feel pretty good about the race. I correctly recognized that 8:24 was going to take too much out of me (and would likely destroy my marathon), so I slowed, but pushed myself to maintain a sub-9:00 pace, and was pleased to find that it wasn't too difficult to do so.

Even better, the next day, my legs weren't sore at all.

I'm in full-on taper mode, now.

First, because that's what's on the schedule. But, even more so because I fell and bruised my ribs going down slippery hard wood stairs in socks on Thanksgiving evening (read: I've had to take post-Thanksgiving runs even easier than I otherwise would thanks to the pain associated with taking deep breaths).

It is raining cats and dogs today, so I think I'll just take the day even easier than scheduled and either take it off or do a simple treadmill workout with a few pick-ups to remind my legs of the pace they are supposed to keep on Sunday.

And with that, it's back to a full-length regular work week (half on EST and half on PST), hopes for fully healed ribs, and then the Marathon.

2011-11-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

Random Short Books

Back in October, I realized I needed to take drastic action if I were to meet the 30 books by the end of the year goal I'd set for myself.

So, I did.

I ripped through all these, each short, and in their own way, awesomely enjoyable, and not necessarily something I'd read if it weren't for the need for brevity:

20. An artist of the Floating World, Kazuo Ishiguro. An elderly Japanese painter walks us through his current life after the war, trying to arrange a marriage match for his 26-year-old daughter in the absence of his wife, who died in a raid, and his son, who died in action. Interspersed with his memories from his early training, merrymaking in the pleasure-districts, and a commitment to nationalism that the author slowly admits resulted in unnecessary deaths.

21. Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriguez. Gritty real-world tale of trying to establish a beauty school in post-taliban Kabul. Culture shock at its most extreme layered over a desire to help the Afghani women and an unlikely marriage to an Afghan man with another wife and family.

22. Mudbound, Hilary Jordan. A tragedy filled with racism, the after-effects of war, love and marriage, and death and revenge. You know it's going to end badly and it still surprises you with how.

23. Running For The Hansons, Sage Canaday. First-person account of the day-to-day life of a member of the Hansons Brooks team. Very detailed information on training plans, gastrointestinal setbacks, internal group competition and more. Timely insights into the current day stars of U.S. long distance running prior to the 2012 Olympics.

24. Notes from My Travels, Angelina Jolie. Dense, difficult, and detailed accounts of missions with the UNHCR with refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador. The reality of the plight of refugees is very difficult to understand and accept. I had nightmares.

25. Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs, Heather Lende. A true Alaskan memoir. Poignant tales of community, survival, death, hunting, music, faith, friendship, love, and forgiveness told by a woman who successfully recovered from being hit by a truck and broken to pieces.

26. 90-Day Geisha, Chelsea Haywood. Brightly lit and depressingly awesome and addictively over-the-top tale of Japanese perversion, ridiculousness, and a young beautiful woman trying to make her way in life in the Japanese Hostess Culture. Fascinating. I started and finished it in less than 48 hours (during the work week).

27. Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro. My second book by Mr. Ishiguro and I'm impressed -- a poignant, Booker Prize winning life story of a British butler. Ishiguro's understanding of the British and their sense of honor and duty (not to mention linguistic nuances) lead me to believe I was reading a blue-blood Britain's words. But Mr. Ishiguro is an immigrant to Englad, he arrived, with his Japanese family, at the age of 6. This makes both this book, and the last book of his I read (An Artist of the Floating World) even more amazing. He manages to render a believable tale from the viewpoint of a born and rasied british butler. Similarly, in Artist, he rendered a tender and believable tale of Japanese cultural modification after the war as if he had lived it himself. In each case, he did not. And his ability to bring you into a world he never actually inhabited is fascinating.

28. The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffengger. My college roommate's favorite book. I finally read it on vacation and found myself shocked to be crying on a hammock in Kauai. V claimed she didn't like sad books! Liar. Even so, it's a gorgeous painful tale of true love and hurt and pain and loss and longing and death and the tricks that time plays. Highly recommended.

And now? Nothing but 2 to go 'til December 31, 2011.

Easy, Peasy.

2011-11-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

The Sacrifices We Make

So it's the 4th week of training left before my next scheduled marathon.

52.18 miles on the feet. Tired, but not exhausted. The NY marathon inspired me, with friends who did well, and, the always amusing and awesome Lauren Fleshman's pre-race insight was awesome too.

I sincerely enjoyed a powerbar and skinny vanilla latte before today's dismal half-marathon performance (2:06:27) -- but, honestly, I'm not too upset. They re-routed the course and added an extra half mile up the marin headlands around mile 7. I walked. You know, don't lose the energy in the beginning, save it for the end.

Jen Ran.

She met our goal time. Less than 1:55. Also, she has been in better shape than me on our latest tempo runs, so this is not remotely surprising.

What was surprising (to me) was that by following the ("Save Energy For When You Need It") standard advice, I hit ridiculous traffic of people trying to cross each other on the bridge due the the 1X1 cross-traffic between miles 7.5 and 9.5 or so.

Ouch. 1 person per lane and thousands waiting to cross.

Ugly.

My favorite bay area race, definitely not in its best form for the 10th anniversary.

In hindsight, I should have ran the entirety of their additional hill up. I totally ran downhill (that's how I roll), but the 2 minutes of walking where I only lost about 30 seconds of running time? Yeah, that was probably 50 people who passed me, and then stood there in front of me at the 1X1 intersection no the bridge...

Tick, tick, tick went the race clock.

But, whatever. I am continuing my streak. I've started the US half in November every year since 2005. I love this race, and unless I have a good reason not to be in town (NYM would be a good reason, in my book, but we'll see), I plan to run it every year.

2005: 1:57:06
2006: 1:58:54
2007: 1:58:35
2008: 1:55:54
2009: 2:19:38
2010: DNF
2011: 2:06:37

Also, this year, I suspect there will be many complaints about how poorly the race was organized and run due to the construction re-routes and runner delays due to back-ups on the bridge.

But man, we got a gorgeous November clear sky day in San Francisco. Rain was on the schedule, but not a drop. There are few things more glorious in the world than this course on a beautiful day.

Sure, some stuff could have been done better, but at the end of the day, this race is small, wonderful, and infinitely more pleasant and cool than many of the other SF races with which it doesn't even compete.

And, the last 3 miles are flat, flat, flat. I'd love to say I picked it up and killed it on them. But I didn't. I reserved enough to pass several people on the last hill in Fort Mason at the end, but truly, I should have killed the entirety of the 3 miles, the last mile's cardiovascular performance made it clear that I had it in me. But, either the cold or just general laziness kicked in and I didn't do it.

Overall, I'm thrilled with the weekend (pre-race dinner at Scoma's was delicious!) but I'm disappointed with myself. I'd hoped for a better showing. But given the cold, the course changes, and the fact that I smoked at least 15 people on the final hills into the finish in fort mason, I'm still feeling pretty good about my training.

I can't help it, I'm a bit of an optimist.

Sure, it's scary to finish a 1/2 marathon 4 weeks before the full at 1 minute per mile slower than full target pace. (yikes!) For comparison, my last marathon, where I bonked was at today's pace.

Holy crappy half marathon pace today.

But, I'm just going to regroup. Get over this cold. and I've got the ATL half marathon in my sights now. Healthy to the start line and a good race to help me pick an appropriate goal pace for CIM. That's the goal.

Wish me luck. Onward.

2011-11-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

Why I Run

Arvay's most recent post How I Run started me thinking about WHY I run.

Unlike Arvay, I do not run purely for joy. On occasion, it's joyful. And those episodes are wonderful. They definitely hold a special place in my heart and form some of the motivation for heading out the door.

But often, especially now, when I'm pushing the limits of my fitness, running is not joyful at all for me. Instead it's difficult, challenging, and makes me question whether I want to do it at all.

Take last night's strength intervals, for example. The schedule called for 4X2400 at 10 seconds faster than race pace. When I showed up at the track, my legs were tight. I was tired and my running buddy was tired too. We pushed through the first two at 8:13/mile and 8:17/mile, but I couldn't motivate to do the last two. I was fairly certain they would take more out of me than I would get back in terms of fitness (my hamstrings were extra tight and my gait just felt wrong). So, we just just jogged the last 3 miles and called it a day.

If I ran purely for joy, I'm not sure I would have ran at all yesterday. I'm certain I wouldn't have finished the last 3 miles. But, I run for so many other reasons beside joy, too.

I run for discipline. Setting a goal and working towards it in a predictable step-wise fashion reminds me on a daily basis that I can do anything I choose, it's just a matter of follow-through. It also reminds me to be mindful about what I choose, because the follow-through can be time consuming, exhausting, painful, and take time away from other passions in my life.

I run to stay (or get) in shape. I love feeling like I'm taking care of my body. And, I like the way I look and clothes fit when I'm in better shape, too.

I run to stay sane. This is probably the biggest reason I run. I don't have to be on a training plan to run, but one of the biggest benefits of a training plan is that a good one demands enough of me physically that my emotional responses are damped. I have found that I am less prone to anxiety, anger, frustration, and other negative emotional responses when I run. This makes me happier, and a better wife and friend.

Essentially, I run because I feel it makes me a better person.

2011-10-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

CIM week -5

The hardest thing about trying to train on a semi-serious training schedule for a marathon?

Life.

I'm hungry. All the time. I'm dropping about 0.5 lbs per week, which is by design. But occasionally, my body revolts against this plan. Yesterday, when we unexpectedly ran into a friend and his younger almost-brother-in-law for brunch after my super-easy recovery run, I was excited to realize I could order an entire extra pizza after everyone was done. Of course the college kid would agree to help me eat it. Sweet college kids. Love their metabolism. Such a metaphor for just how alive they are at that point in their lives.

Not me, though. I'm tired. I just need more sleep. And more breaks. Wah. Wah.

Why? Because I'm overworked, which is good, financially. But I have no one to blame except my boss and it's severe enough these days that it keeps me up with frantic racing thoughts, so it's bad, with respect to insomnia, and how heavy I feel I sit on the good wife/friend/sister/daughter scale.

We're in the middle of some crazy stuff at our house with respect to E's business, our investments, our long term planning (termites? remodel? travel? move?), and you know, just general life stuff.

What was I saying?

Oh, yes. Life. Ain't it grand? Aren't we lucky to have it?

I'm loving my reading challenge and the randomness it's brought to my life. I'm loving my attempt at the most difficult running training schedule I've ever done, even if it does inspire occasional thoughts regarding my own (and my running buddy's) insanity.

Yeah, I cut a few of the shorter runs this week a little short (but adding walking where I could), and, today?

Well, today, I had to be honest. 13 out and back up a mountain with 2275 of elevation change is almost the same as 16 flat. Too bad we didn't schedule it flat since we had 16 on the training calendar.

Overall, my running buddy and I may have called it short (I felt naseous), but we were honest and while running kept the long run at a decent pace (thanks Powerbar Energy Blasts) despite the climbs and descents (which were worse than the Kirkland half, and it's supposed to be a training for next weekend's half...).

So, let's see -- A simple summary.

Isomnia? Annoying. At least last night was just simple insomnia. No anxiety. Just straight up awake at 3 AM. What you gonna do? Nothing but breathe and try to relax. Bad.

Fitness? Clearly Improving. Good.

Long run? Shorter than planned, but impressive elevation performance and credit for not pushing it when no benefits from the training were available. Neutral.

Weekly Mileage: 51.84. Largest weekly volume in my running life. Good.

Reading? Random and more than normal. Good.

Halloween? E's and my 11th dating anniversary. Excellent.

Social and Family life? We've got time scheduled with many folks we care about in the next several weeks/months. It feels good.

Work? Crazy for both of us. But we're career-focused folks in our early to mid 30s. If it wasn't crazy, we'd probably be doing something wrong.

So, overall, not bad at all.

2011-10-29T10:06:00.000-07:00

Refugees

People who know me well know that I am a huge fan of Angelina Jolie. I think she's intelligent, beautiful, human, and a *very* powerful woman.

I am always shocked at how much hatred people who have never met her feel towards her. Particularly since I feel a natural affinity and inclination to like her. Recently a friend responded to my surprise at the loathe that many feel towards her with a simple statement, "But isn't that how it always is with powerful women who make it fairly clear that they don't care what people think about them?" A very interesting perspective.

Because of my short book kick, I purchased her book Notes from My Travels (all proceeds go to the UNHCR).

I haven't read a book this difficult to read in a very long time.

The lives of refugees in Africa, Cambodia, Pakistan and Ecuador are unbelievably difficult and painful. War, death, disease, hunger, heat, cold, insects, land mines, lost loved ones, and still smiles and laughter between the tears.

This book describes her missions with the UNHCR to visit with and learn more about refugees. At 25, she took her first mission and put herself directly in a danger zone where aid workers often die. She writes honestly about how difficult it was to see the plight of the refugees, how she couldn't help but feel that she has wasted many of the first world gifts and opportunities she's been given, and how she really knows so little of what truly matters in the world.

I am inspired by Angelina's efforts to make us more aware of the plight of the 20 million refugees in the world. And, I am sad that I was definitely less aware of the reality than I should have been, despite how ugly it is.

Refugees will definitely be on my list of charitable causes going forward.

2011-10-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Sonoma Gluttony and Week -6

I was 1 lb away from high race weight before we left for Sonoma. (woot!)

And yet, just a simple trip to Sonoma later, here I am, 2.8 lbs back from the goal... (le sigh)

It was worth it.

You see that picture? That's what happens when you are lucky enough to be born in the right place and the right time to have the former sous-chef of a Michelin star restaurant (who was there when they were awarded the star) as a childhood friend (best friend's little brother and very good friend of my little brother).

Okay, so you have to be lucky enough to have all of these things happen, and then you have to come visit the hotel attached to his restaurant, and he has to arrange for an "employee-favor" rate/room, and, the next thing you know, the head of front desk guest operations is leaving a hand-written card next to this ridiculous cheese-board.

Just in case you weren't in enough awe, when you show up for dinner with the former sous-chef, at said restaurant, you will be privy to the best treatment and service at a meal you've ever your life. And the discount on the bill will make you cringe because, honestly, you've never left a tip that was 200% of the bill. But, in this case, anything less should be insulting.

Basically, our trip to Sonoma was perfect. Slept in the car while E drove (yay!). Lots of reading (double yay!). No computer or work for at least 30 hours. That's a record for the last 4-5 months. I'm going to try to break it soon. I do love arbitrary goals.

And, in running news, I hit 47.53 miles for the week. Approximately 15 miles more than I did this week last cycle. It includes 5.6 unscheduled extra miles of walking. I dialed a couple of the workouts back, but I actually added unexpected walks in SF, Infineon raceway (hills!), and after the short-cut tempo run such that my overall mileage was higher than expected.

Overall, I'm amused to be high on mileage despite my inability to do 9 miles at race pace. I did 7. Painful Miles. On a treadmill. While trying to watch TV on 6 different channels at the gym. But everything was horrid. When I called it a day, I guiltily walked an extra mile to cool down. It was a strong effort, but nothing close to what was on the schedule.

I'm very interested to see how this all plays out. Part of me thinks this training schedule is insane for any adult with a truly demanding job or family (and gasp, what if you have both?). This part thinks that even my paltry efforts at sort of sticking to it are crazy.

The other part of me knows that while this schedule probably doesn't make sense, I've done more mileage per week than ever before in my life. I'm more fit than I've been in at least 3.5 years. I'm being reasonable about cutting myself slack on the recovery days and just trying to hit quality workouts in a reasonable fashion (even if I have to drop 2 miles from a tempo run).

Did I mention the post-Sonoma gluttony long run was cut from 10 to 6? Yeah. That happened. But it was a non-quality workout, and my hips hurt in the car, so it seemed like I made the right call.

I still hit 47+ for the week.

Wish me well for 51 miles on schedule for this week. I'm definitely in the thick of things, now.

2011-10-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Imposed Structure

So, back in January, suffering from a fit of motivation overload, I picked an actual number for my books goal this year: 30.

A few weeks ago I realized there were only 12 weeks left in the year and I still had 10 books to go.

I did what any goal-oriented lawyer would do -- I figured out how to technically comply with the rules in a way that made the most sense.

First, I went through my pile of books to be read soon and pulled the smaller books to the top. Just like that, all of the big books were pushed to 2012.

Then, I went on Amazon and ordered a bunch of smaller, shorter books that had been on my wish list for a while but I hadn't had the momentum to order.

Finally, I mentioned to Arvay I was looking for books and she promptly sent me a nice bite-sized gem that I'm looking forward to starting tonight.

I get a weird sense of accomplishment out of moving things around to reach arbitrary goals. In some sense, I know that reaching an arbitrary goal is, well, arbitrary.

And, I know that I don't have time to follow my normal patterns and just go through my books-to-be-read pile in order *and* meet my 30 books goal.

I even know that the movement is likely to be zero sum -- next year, I will likely read a lower number of books as a direct result of pushing the big books forward.

Even so, I'm getting a kick out of the idea that I'll be reading a few extra minutes each day and a bunch of stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have gotten to this year (if at all).

I think, often, that's the real value of goals. They help you change. Even if the change is quite small and may not matter at all in the long term. It's very good to remind ourselves that not only are we free to do things differently, we can and will.

2011-10-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

CIM, week -7

44.11 miles.

As hoped, I finally did the full 10X800 Yassos. Holy crap that was one of the hardest workouts I've ever done. I'd hoped for 3:45s, but I averaged 3:51s. Supposedly, this is a good high-end estimate of the fastest marathon I could run right now. I'd be *thrilled* with a 3:51. I'm not sure I'm ready to try to hit that, but I'm pleased with the idea that it's an option.

Of course, despite my 44, the training schedule called for 51.

Yesterday I *had* to finish our taxes as it was the last day to send them in after filing for an extension. Unfortunately, due to ridiculousness with E's company's 1065 that I discovered last weekend, what should have been a simple fill-in-one-remaining-blank on our 1040 exercise took me from 8 AM to 12 PM.

Next year, we are committed to hiring a CPA. I sacrificed at least 4 weekend days to our taxes for 2010. Historically, I've hesitated spending the money to have someone else do our taxes. It isn't rocket science, it's just arcane and takes a ton of time. Generally, I hate to pay people to do things I know I can do -- especially if it's a good thing for me to have a very solid understanding of what's being done.

But, given that I haven't had a weekend where I didn't have to work for my business or E's business in at least 4 months, at this point, E and I agreed, we need to actively offload the least profitable weekend work I've been doing because it gets in the way of things I want to do.

Back to the run -- come noon yesterday, no way could I head out in the heat and do 8 miles without food. I could snack and head out, but then I'd miss my only opportunity for weekend brunch with E (which is one of my favorite events of the week). So, while I enjoyed Hwe Dup Bob and E noshed Sushi, I struggled to find a way to fit my 8 miles in the afternoon, after digesting, but before an early dinner with friends.

Finally, I admitted that I had enough work, gardening, running, and social obligations for the day that something was going to have to take the hit. Winner? The run. Plus, I wanted to join E for some delicious sake with lunch. I did. It was lovely. And gardening in the sun post-sake felt great.

That's the main lesson I've learned this training cycle. Between traveling, work, social obligations, family, and general life, my running often takes a hit. I've modified at least one run per week for the last 7 weeks, and I've flat out skipped 6 workouts in the last 7 weeks. Several of them I've replaced with walking miles, which is better than nothing, but in terms of strictly following a training plan, I suck.

This lack of discipline in running is not new for me. I wrote about it back in 2008, a few weeks before I set my still-standing PR for a 10K and a few months before setting my annual mileage record of 1391.38 miles in one year.

This year, despite blowing off and rescheduling workouts on a weekly basis, I'm still on track to kill the annual mileage record. I'm currently at 1304, so as long as I stay healthy and actually complete CIM, this year will be a new high-water mark. I'm hoping that the increased mileage and pseudo-committed training will bear some PR fruit as well, but only time will tell.

Finally, after the rest day, today's 16 was great. I got a late 10 AM start (2 cups of coffee and an old-fashioned powerbar pre-race), but headed up the foothills to a local junior college, and made myself do a mile on the track at goal race pace, before running down the hills home.

With 3 miles to go, my Amphipod was empty. So I ducked into the CVS to fill it with cold Gatorade.

I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to stay in front of the fridge (yeah, I steamed up the door, just standing there). But, the looks I was getting from the other patrons made me realize I was very stinky. Ooops. It was hot today (83F when I got home). And I'm a sweaty, stinky runner after 13 miles in the sun.

The checker was not thrilled with the sopping wet $20 bill I pulled from my Amphipod pocket and he was very careful not to touch *anything* I handed to him, scanning the Gatorade bottle from as far away as possible with his light gun, and going so far as to grab the garbage can and bring it up to eye level so I could throw out my Powerbar Energy Blast trash.

Take home?

I'm hard-core enough to be disgustingly gross to the CVS staff and patrons, but not remotely hard-core enough to strictly follow the high-end of the Hanson Brooks Marathon Training Plan (for non-elites).

2011-10-11T07:05:00.001-07:00

Good To See You!

My dad showed up in my dreams last night.

It was so nice to hang out with him and Nolan.

He was his smiling, happy self. He had on a dark blue polo shirt that looked great, and when I woke I smiled because I don't think he ever had that shirt in real life. My brain (or whatever else controls my dreams) essentially created a *new* memory of my dad for me in my sleep.

How cool is that?

2011-10-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

CIM, Week -8

I'm about to go lie down and try to take a nap. This week, I skipped 2 workouts, and then, decided to try to make up for lost mileage by going hard on the weekend.

Overall, I think it worked out pretty well. But, predictably, I'm exhausted.

Yesterday, I did 9 miles in the San Jose foothills, including a total of at least 2,000 ft. of elevation gain and loss. It was slow, but a *very* difficult workout. It was all I could do to hold out 'til 8:30 PM before leaving a friend's birthday party (but showed up at 5 and helped cook, so that counts for something, right?).

Today, I woke refreshed from the full night's sleep, jogged to the start of a local 10K, and started with the super small crowd and managed to finish as the first female in something around 54 minutes (I took a wrong turn, so hard to be certain of what my actual finishing time should have been), and then jogged my way home. The day's total was a fun 10 miles, and the 10K portion was faster than my current guess at what makes sense for a target marathon pace (8:55?). Since it was the day after a major hill workout, I was quite happy -- this tells me I'm on the right track in terms of my goal pacing and fitness.

For comparison, I did a 10K in Bellevue last training cycle at week -6. It was (a) a minute slower, although much more hilly; (b) part of a week with almost the same mileage as this one; and (c) with 4 easy flat miles instead of 9 hard hill/trails miles the day before the race. I'm telling myself this means I'm much more fit this time around than last time. [And I'm hoping it's true :)]

Next week, I'm doing my best to do all scheduled workouts, including a full set of 10 Yasso 800s. So far, my best has been 8. But I've never given myself the full recovery interval (an equal amount of time walking/jogging to the time spent running), so I'm going to hope that with that modification, I can do all 10. Wish me luck.

[In other news, work is crazy busy, and E's business is even more crazy with fundraising and product madness. We're very happy to be home so we can attack the crazy from our comfort zone. Yes, we've got more nights and weekends booked with work-related stuff than we'd like, but at least we're home.]

2011-10-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Week -9

E and I went to New York this week.

Tuesday night, I had to bail on intervals with my running buddy. I had way too much work and still hadn't packed for our departure on Wednesday.

I would have loved to make up the miles on Wednesday (a scheduled rest day), but I had to work onsite at a client until E picked me up and we boarded. We didn't check-in to our hotel until 1 AM EDT. So, if I wanted to get on local time, there was no workout for me that day.

Thursday AM, I did 5.5 of strength intervals on the treadmill at an 8:20 pace. It was sort of a hybrid of the missed speed intervals (which would have been shorter, but at a 7:30 pace) and the tempo run I had scheduled (where I probably would have targeted 8:45 - 8:55).

Friday AM, my body revolted and demanded sleep. I thought I could fit in my workout later in the day, but alas, it was the last day of the quarter and additional work sprung up.

Saturday, I did a very slow 8 miles in Central Park. I enjoyed it immensely. Running in Central Park is such a stereotypical runner activity, and now I've joined the hordes of people and dogs who have done it.

Sunday, I woke early, picked up Nish and headed to the start of a half marathon in Long Island. I did a nice 1.3 mile warm-up at a 9:09 pace. Then we did the half in a very impressive 2:17 debut for Nish. Something tells me she's going to be much faster in her next attempt -- we sped up for each of the final miles until we were going at an 8:37 pace for the final 0.1 miles. After crossing the finish line, she offered to run the remaining 0.5 miles with me so I could hit my 15 total. Yeah, she definitely had some more gas in the tank.

Overall, I completely missed 2 workouts, Tuesday's speed and Friday's 6. My mileage for the week totaled 39.85, including the walking in New York. That's 11 miles short for the week's planned mileage, but still 13 more miles than the same week last time around.

I'm definitely looking forward to being home without major travel for the next 7 weeks. Even with the workouts I've dropped, I think I'm on track for a good showing at CIM, but I'm hopeful that if I get a little closer to my stated training goals, I'll be able to enjoy some additional fitness and speed increases before the race.

2011-10-03T22:41:00.000-07:00

Survey

Today, I posted this to Facebook:

This AM, the welcome home household shopping survey found 1/4 roll of TP (shared between 2 bathrooms) and 1/8 pint of milk, poured in the coffee before I discovered it was spoiled. Thank goodness we have 7 weeks straight without any flights... Here's to home cooked meals from a full fridge, garden harvests, and no packed bags!

(Talk about giving up all semblances of anonymity!)

Our NY trip was wonderful. But it was jam-packed. Grandparents, legal work, friend visits, and a half marathon all in less than 5 days? Sure, why not?

But, if I am honest, the speed of things has been increasing for us. So, there may be a reason why the trip might not have made sense. E's business is even more crazy now than it was a month ago. My business just keeps getting busier.

Ostensibly, these are great things.

But, every once in a while, I think, "Huh. Should I be slowing down? Are there roses I should be smelling?"

Last night, after midnight, catching up on email and getting responses from clients after 1 AM was one of those times. Jet Lag was not in my favor. I'd been up since 3:00 AM PST, and there it was after 1 AM, still working.

I'm trying. I really am. The reason the homefront is so neglected (see the Facebook post above) is that I've fit in visits to my sister, nephew and brother-in-law, plus the New York trip -- both trips are focused first and foremost on family and friends. But, somehow, the commitment to friends and family ended up in the last 3 weeks of the quarter (you know, when my clients freak out and want all of my attention)...

Overall, I think I'm in a very introspective phase at the moment. I just finished my 20th book, Ringworld. And, I enjoyed it. But prior to that, I was on a clip of more than 2 books per month.

Starting in August, that books completed rate fell to something more like 1 or less books per month. This makes me sad. Reading for a living with nothing else to do actually sounds boring to me. I'd admire someone with a tiger who had the guts not to sell tiger stuff. I think I'd have trouble passing it up.

With that in mind, I'll simply say that this week's running took some hits from life. But at the end of the week, the half marathon with Nish was awesome, and, surprisingly unaffected by the prior day's 8 in central park or 6 the next day on our trail in MV.

Okay, back to the grind (work, and for balance, harvesting when the sun comes out, only 10 books to go 'til the year's total of 30, and running and trying to hit my weight loss goal before the marathon and holidays).

2011-09-25T10:23:00.001-07:00

Spokane

Fall had already arrived, but she went into hiding for my glorious 5 day visit to Spokane. Nothing but sunshine, trees, views of the river and valley, and wonderful outdoor runs and meals.

My sister and B are the most chill parents I know. The dearth of baby stuff was refreshing. The baby is a point on the triangle of their family, rather than the center of their orbit. They seem to believe that little A will be just fine with their attention, and he is. More than fine. He's perfect.

In the mall, when A spit up on himself as I held him, I told my sister, who was busy paying for parking. "Oh, just rub it into his clothes. That's why he wears them."

Right. Love the low stress parenting. It was so fun to hang out with their family.

In running, while alone, I made nothing but wrong turns. One day my run ended up with 400 ft down the back of the ridge (their dog pulled me back up). Another day, I mistakenly ran 400 ft down the front of the ridge (I had to pull the dog back up that time). And finally, on the day I made it onto the trails along the ridgeline, I was repeatedly stung by a wasp who took the unfortunate resting place between my sock and shoe. Ouch.

Despite the suboptimal training, I raced a scenic 10K with sis along the Spokane River, and the clock showed a PR of 49:05. Unfortunately, I knew from my effort level that the course had to be short. I'd forgotten my GPS watch, but I asked two of the women who beat us and they reported 5.85 and 5.84 miles. So, not quite PR pace, but a respectable showing of 8:23's nonetheless. A great training run. And super fun to do it with my sister.

This week is threatening chaos. Close of the quarter. A trip to New York. So, while I want nothing more than a lazy Sunday of nothing, I'm going to try to buckle down and do a ton of stuff today.

2011-09-18T17:41:00.001-07:00

Rest Day

I've had too much, lately.

Too much work. Too much running. Too much to do to keep my life on track (garden chores, replacing the totaled car, thank yous, bills, taxes, managing investments, eating well). I've got two weeks of travel coming up, as well, and, while I'm looking forward to both trips, I know they are going to put even more on my plate.

In hindsight, I should have run the full 14 yesterday if my legs could take it, and then I should have planned to take today off. Instead, I raced the 4 and totaled 8 and over 1,000 feet of elevation climb and pushed the 14 to today, where I could do it flat.

But, Life had other plans for me.

I woke on time, nice and early, with 30 minutes to drink some coffee, eat some fuel, and get an audiobook onto my Sanza Mini-Cruzer to entertain me through the run. I had a fight with Audible.com and lost. 30 minutes later, I did not have the audiobook I'd hoped to run to, but I'd paid for and committed to a recurring subscription of audiobooks that didn't work with my device. Couldn't even cancel, had to wait 'til Monday to speak with a human.

Then, I got an email from my visiting childhood friend, informing me she'd be early, so I wouldn't have time to do the last 30-60 minutes of my run. I should have cut my run short, but instead, I decided I'd bust through some of my todo list and try to do it in the evening.

While I did get quite a bit of work and life stuff done, I also needed to take an hour nap before she arrived. By the time she got here, it was in the 80s and climbing, and despite the nap, I was still tired. That evening run was looking less and less attractive.

At lunch, I admitted defeat. I was yawning, starving, and generally overwhelmed with how much I needed to get done before getting on a plane on Tuesday.

So, I took today off running entirely. This means I'm doing the cardinal sin of skipping the long run during marathon training. Frankly, once I decided to do it, I'm not the least bit concerned. Even without the long run, week -11 totaled out at 35.7 miles. This includes a brutal speed session, 8 miles in the hills (nay, Mountains) on Saturday, and almost all of the miles under a 10 minute pace. Week -11 for CDA was 21.84 miles. I'm over 107 miles ahead of where I was at this point for CDA.

A missed long run isn't going to kill me. In fact, given that I came home after lunch and took a second nap of almost 2 hours, I think my body just really needed to rest and recover from the demands I've been placing on it.

And, I only have two more contracts to finish before I can go into Monday without any backlogged work for the first time in at least 2 months. Yay!

2011-09-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

Re-Evaluation

After yesterday's realization that I'd like to actually complete my 50 mile week and be functional for next week's schedule, I decided the Mt. Diablo 4-miler was the best plan. 400 ft up, 400 ft down. I could do it as many times as made sense.

I ran the race hard. Harder than I expected, actually. I took it easy up, but I love me some downhills, and I really enjoy passing people. So, 11's on the way up and low 8's on the way down. I finished dripping with sweat and beat the female course record (although several women finished before me, so they also beat it before I got to the line).

I checked in with my mom, who'd driven with me (she got up at 5:30 AM with me to go, how sweet is that?) and had set up her water colors for a morning of painting in the mountain light. She was all set up with pigments and brushes and paper and wished me well. She also introduced me to the 71-year-old who took 1st in his age group that I *barely* passed to beat on the downhill (e.g. he kicked my ass on the uphill).

After some snacking, I headed out again for another 4, but halfway through the uphill realized I had intestinal issues. Fun. So that loop was only 1 out and back for a total of 2. After a pit stop and checking in on the progress of mom's paintings (she's doing 3 different tigers and it is super cool to watch them evolve as she paints the various layers), I headed out for the remaining 8, with a plan for two consecutive 4 mile out and backs.

At around 0.5 miles up the hill, I realized my hips were starting to get sore. I started to do some math and realized that if I completed my plan, even without the crazy elevation change, I'd be on my feet about an hour longer than if I'd done the 14 on flat ground. I thought about the last time I ran hills and how long it took me to recover. So, I decided to make it one more 2 mile out and back for a total of 8.

And, there, easy as pie, I'm all signed up for 14 tomorrow AM. Nice and flat. Around the bay. Sea level. Followed by dim sum with an old childhood friend who's driving through town.

In fact, I think she may be the friend I've known the longest. It's possible I may have known her longer than E2.

It's good to have memories of gymnastics with a friend you still speak to in the back of your 4th grade teacher's class room. Plus, she had her picture taken with Kerri Strug today (which is national gymnastics day). How cool is that?

2011-09-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

Tomorrow, I'm registered for the Mt. Diablo half marathon.

3,240 feet of elevation up and back down. I figured it would make a great strength run.

Now, I'm re-evaluating whether it might make sense to do the 10 Miler and the 4 Miler to eliminate 1,000 or so on both sides.

Either way, I'm going to be quite sore, methinks.

Off to go hit the foam roller and stretch before the self-inflicted ridiculousness.

2011-09-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Week -12

45.67 miles for this step-back week.

It actually felt like I was giving my body a break (of course, I did take Monday off and only walked the 6 make-up miles, so I didn't run as much as I was supposed to).

For CDA this mileage was the second highest volume week I ran. This cycle, I'm facing another 10 consecutive weeks with mileage over 46 before the taper week of 38ish.

It's interesting how quickly my perspective has changed. A 45 mile week used to be a big deal. I'd only done 3 in my life before starting this training program. And yet, here I am, more than comfortable after a 45 mile step-back week to recover from last week's 51.

Here's to hoping this program results in speed benefits in addition to the obvious endurance benefits.

2011-09-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

Healthy Discoveries

So, the healthy streak of no alcohol and low-glycemic index ovo-lacto vegetarian food was going swimmingly. The original plan was 10 days straight commencing the day we returned from our travels.

But, on night 3, E2 & J asked if they could come spend the night on their way up north. We were super excited to hang out with them, and, truly, both E and I were more than happy to take a quick break from the streak for a little wine with friends. So, we all sat around the dinner table, sipping wine and eating garden gazpacho, sliced garden veggies dipped in homemade hummus, brown rice tomato risotto (with oyster mushrooms for E) and J added some chicken sausages to his meal as he could not quite go full veggie after doing physical labor all day.

In exchange for the night off, E and I agreed that we should tack 2 full days to the remainder of the streak. We'll do this for every day we don't completely meet the goal (e.g. yesterday, I did a veggie juice fast for lunch, and the dinner meal was entirely on target...except the wine, but we've decided that any slip = 2 more full days). The current count is 9 days left, but we have plans on that 9th day with friends at a winery. So right now, it looks like the best we could do is 2 on, 1 off, 7 on, 1 off, 3 on. It should be interesting to see how long it takes us to get through the full streak and how many days we do in total before returning to our more ordinary reasonably healthy (but not super healthy) lifestyle. I have high hopes...

This morning, E2 and I headed out for a wonderful 4 mile walk (the last 4 I had to make up from the 6 I missed on Monday AM after the wedding). We hit up Starbucks and I opted for my favorite pre-workout drink -- a skinny vanilla latte (although sometimes I go Hazelnut). 9g protein. 14g carbs. 125mg Sodium. 75mg Caffeine. 90 Calories. What's not to like? We alternated talking and ended with a long-overdue fully-caught-up hug. I've missed my weekend long runs with E2, but a walk is almost as good.

After an hour of walking, my Garmin needed charging, so I stretched a bit and ate a Harvest Energy Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Bar. Mmmm... this tastes like a treat and at 250Cal with 9g fat, I wouldn't ordinarily want to indulge. But, I knew I had 8 solo miles to run and it was getting warm, so I erred on the side of extra fuel and electrolytes (140mg Na; 200mg K) , especially since I didn't have any sports drinks available to take with me.

And, what do you know? Between the latte and the bar, I made it through a 4 mile walking warm-up and a fairly difficult out and back 8 miler that ended in 84F heat (1200 ft total ascent, 300 ft net climb out and drop back) with nothing but water. I kept the run under 10 minute miles, including the stops for water walking, so my average pace without the stops was somewhere in the 9:40 range. Given that it seemed difficult, but not terrible, even with the heat and hills, I was quite pleased. Even better, when I got home, I wasn't totally useless. I wasted some time at the computer, took a good shower and prepared lunch without any of the post-workout fall-out I often experience if I don't tend to my energy/fuel needs.

The biggest healthy-related discovery of the week, however, was how delicious the St. Pauli N.A. tasted with lunch after my workout. I've never been a big fan of beer after runs. Some people swear by it, but the smell of the alcohol nauseates me after a hard work-out. It usually takes me at least an hour post-workout before a beer (or any alcohol) even starts to sound good. But, now, I've found the solution. Non-alcoholic beer! What a brilliant idea.

I thought I was being quite clever with my discovery. However, a German brewery already thought of this and ran a scientific study around the Munich Marathon (scientific abstract here). They concluded that non-alcoholic beer is an excellent long distance recovery beverage -- it's got all the great carbs you need plus it's got additional goodies that boost the immune system and help control inflammation, both of which are negative side effects of long distance high volume training and racing.

The moral of the story? Sometimes it's actually *good* to miss your goals and adjust.

1. If I hadn't missed my Monday run, I'm not sure I would have done the 4 mile walk with E2 *and* the 8 mile run this AM. The time with E2 was one of the best parts of my week, while the run was harder (aka better training) than it would have been in the cooler AM.

2. If we hadn't asked J and E2 to show up with wine last night, we would have drank the St. Pauli Girl N.A.s, and I wouldn't have learned the beauty of non-alcoholic beer as a training aid. 96Cals, 23g Carbs plus all the B vitamins and other random goodness you get from the brewing process without the stink of alcohol? I'm a fan. Besides, it tastes better than any other recovery drink I've tried.

2011-09-08T07:41:00.001-07:00

Week -13

It's actually halfway through week -12 by now, and as the delay would indicate, last week was quite busy.

The last BBQ of the season was a blast and an unexpected reunion of several folks from one of E's long ago employers. My clients are all gearing back up and keeping me ridiculously busy. E's business is in one of those wacky start-up cycles where everything seems to be happening at the same time (financing, customers, hardware deliveries, and more). R & B's awesome wedding (How cool is a quick thunderstorm and double rainbow on your special day in Pasadena on Labor Day? Talk about an auspicious sign of good fortune!).

On the running front, I actually did more miles than the schedule required thanks to extra walking in Pasadena. 51+ miles including 400 intervals at a much faster than expected pace (including one at 6:47!), and a 12 mile loop that heads up into the mountains and back down (i.e. Lots of hillwork). No wonder I'm exhausted. But in a good way.

Monday, the day after the wedding (technically week -12), I skipped my run. Too much fun with nothing left for the body. Tuesday's intervals on the strand in Santa Monica to Marina del Rey and back were gorgeous, but slower than expected. Oh well, c'est la vie.

So, here I am, headed into the back half of the week, finally starting to catch up on work and the garden. Last night was 8 cans of tomato sauce and I'll be canning, roasting and pickling (I've got a bumper crop of cucumbers as well) every night this week.

E and I just started our traditional post-BBQ healthy vegetarian, yoga-full, alcohol-free stint last night. I woke this morning slightly more rested and definitely convinced that changing gears on the consumption is a good idea. I look forward to seeing how this treats my running. And, it is my hope that by the end of the 10 days, I should be ready for the next social onslaught.

2011-08-31T12:01:00.000-07:00

The Ebb and Flow

After a relatively mellow August, my clients are all of a sudden exploding with emergency work for me to do.

I just compiled my to-do list after an AM of conference calls and realized that I owe 10 contract mark-ups to various clients, all due today!

Good thing E has a business dinner meeting -- when I'm only fending for myself I can live off uncooked veggies that take no time at all to prepare.

In other news, the early AM 7 miler today was a piece of cake. The effort felt like 4 or 5 felt a few months ago. This despite the fact that it's my 8th day straight of running without a day off. Yay! I love getting in better shape -- it's so fun.

2011-08-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Week -14

Well, that went fast. It's been a week and 44.04 miles on my feet since I last posted and, it's good to summarize, because if I don't, I'm not sure I'd know where the time went.

In addition to work, life, and the running miles, I fit in a mid-week visit to a friend I hadn't seen in 10 years and a day trip to Tomales Bay as a final Californian hurrah with a friend who's moving to the East Coast.

Tuesday, H (running buddy) and I headed out to join Palo Alto Run Club for speed intervals, but they decided to do hill repeats at the the Dish instead.

Ouch. It took almost 3 full days to recover to the point where I didn't have hip soreness.

Yesterday, I headed out for 8 miles with Metamatt. He's so much faster than me that I knew it was going to be a difficult run. The Giants ballpark dinner as a pre-run meal wasn't helping much, either. Thankfully, he slowed it down but kept me at a solid 9:04 average pace. We shared a Pure Energy Bar and a Powerbar endurance bar beforehand and we snacked on energy chews during the run. Ocean Beach and Golden Gate park were predictably cold and foggy, but the day cleared up by mid afternoon and we enjoyed sunny blue skies in M's backyard before our drive home.

After a delicious brunch at Beretta (carbonara pizza? Oh, hell yes.), I needed a 1.5 hour nap before I could even try to accomplish anything else in my day. And, to be honest, I didn't really accomplish much.

This morning, I had 10 miles on tap with H. I expected it to be difficult given the mileage step up week and the hard run the day before.

But, we shared a Pure Energy Bar over coffee and easily warmed up to a much faster pace than I expected. My watch battery died, so I can't be sure, but I think we did the whole 10 at an average pace of 9:30 or so, which is a marked improvement from last week's slow and steady 10 miler.

And there you have it. One more week down. One week closer to the race. Lots of running. Gorgeous California late summer weather. Busy social life. Busy work life. And not much else to report.

2011-08-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

Week -15

I'm following a training plan based on the Hanson Brooks Marathon Training Plan.

It's different than any plan I've ever followed. The biggest difference? The longest run I'm going to do is 18.2 miles (which is actually longer than they recommend, but I found a trail run that looks too fun to miss). In exchange for the lost long runs of 18-20 miles, I'm running 6 days per week including speed and strength workouts and other than speed days, I don't have a single run shorter than 6 miles 'til the week of the race.

This week, I substituted 3 miles of walking with a friend for the easy 6 on Monday, but I did everything else as prescribed. 37 miles and change. For CDA, I didn't hit that mileage 'til Week -8. My overall mileage is going to be much larger this time around.

Saturday's 6 miler was very difficult, and I was exhausted afterwards, so I was very apprehensive about Sunday's 10. But, the 10 was actually much more pleasant than the 6.

I chomped down a Power Bar Pure and Simple Energy Bar (roasted peanut butter... this may be my favorite energy bar I've ever tried! Yum!) on the drive out, and then my running buddy and I shared a package of the Cola flavored Energy Blasts on the run. The conversation, caffeine, and available sugars combined to make the last 10 of a 37 mile week much less difficult than I expected. Sure, we were slow, but that was fine. We are supposed to run the long run on tired legs -- that's the point, the long runs are supposed to feel like the last miles of the marathon.

Given how much better I felt than planned when I got back to the house, I decided not to push my luck. Rather than the planned lunch of gazpacho, I told E I needed something more substantial, so we agreed on sushi for lunch and gazpacho for dinner.

Before my shower, I drank 2 cups of vegetable juice from the juicer (Kale, apricot, carrot, celery, cucumber, tomato). Considering that I was starving, the juice did an admirable job of keeping me upright and functional through my tomato harvest and visit to the farmer's market until E and I sat for sushi.

By 2 PM, I felt renewed and easily finished my gardening todo list.

There were several variables between Saturday's 6 and Sunday's 10. But, at least one of them was that I intentionally ate to run/recover as opposed to just running. I like to think I can do 6 miles in just about any condition, and I probably can. But it's interesting to see that an intentional 10 can feel better (and leave me less trashed) than an un-thoughtfully executed 6.

2011-08-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Powerbar Trial

As you may recall, I totally bonked on my Memorial Day Marathon in Coeur d'Alene.

R's fiancé works for Powerbar.

He read that I showed up without my own race fuel and likely hit the wall due to the poor electrolyte and carbohydrate quality of the race's provided fuel and immediately set out to make certain I would not suffer the same fate again.

So, a wonderful care package arrived on my birthday:

Just in time, too. (Thanks B!)

This week is week -15 on my training for the California International Marathon. My goal is to run a Personal Record (which means I need to beat my previous CIM time of 4:04). Ideally, I'd like to break 4 hours and I'd love to break 3:50 or even 3:40, but I need to see how my long runs are looking closer to the race before I can determine if those are reasonable goals or not.

I do, however, feel pretty damn good about the prospect of a PR this race as I have several things on my side:

1. The Powerbar products. Up until this training cycle, I've always been fairly haphazard about fueling during training because I often prefer to take the performance hit and run slower without fuel for the weight management benefits. For CDA, I only used fuel on the longest run of the week and races -- I performed much better on those runs. This time around, I'm taking a different approach. I'm going to use fuel on every run over 10 miles and work to push myself on speed and performance instead of worrying about the calories. I'm hopeful that using fuel to improve the quality of my training will improve the quality of my race performance as well.

2. I'm already in decent running shape. If I had to, I could run a reasonable half marathon today (as opposed to when I started training for CDA and I still needed to put in 5 weeks before I could comfortably run a half marathon at a 9 minute pace.)

3. More Mileage. I'm committed to the most aggressive training schedule I've ever attempted for a marathon. For CDA, I did an average of 31 miles per week over the 17 week training cycle (which was the most I'd ever done). This time around, I'm shooting for an average of 43 miles per week. I'm pleased to see that even though I'm finishing up the first few not-so-serious weeks of training, I'm already more than 20 miles ahead of where I was for CDA with 15 weeks to go.

4. I have a running buddy. I haven't ever trained for a time-goal marathon with a friend. This time around, H, the friend who flew up to Washington to join me for the Kirkland Half Marathon, is committed to a similar training schedule for CIM. We've got plans for two runs together during the week, and weekends as well, if we're both in town. It's so much easier to motivate for those medium long runs when I have a training buddy. Thanks, H!

With all of those benefits, I'm feeling very well positioned to get into shape and run a great race on a fast, downhill course. Onward!

2011-08-17T18:54:00.001-07:00

Egypt, Le Fin

The last entry from my last hand-written travel journal

1/12/04

We’re at the airport. To be honest, it felt as if our journey home began last night the second that we set foot in the Sheraton Heliopolis.

But, I’m getting ahead.

We took a very short cab ride from the train station and paid 30 EGP for it. Neither of us minded because the driver was so animated and earnest. He stopped to ask several people if they spoke English to determine where we wanted to go, but it turns out that “Museum” is not a common word in their vocabulary of learned English words. Odd. They seem to have a fabulous command of most other tourist-centric language. Finally, he dropped us at “Masree” which as near as we could tell was the Arabic word for the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. We sent our bags through the X-ray, checked them, bought our tickets and ambled around the museum for quite a while.

At one point, R realized he was hungry. I might have been but it was difficult to tell with my stomach pain. We left the museum and went to the adjacent museum café to eat. From the window, we had views of spare Egyptian monuments erected in the courtyard as if to say, “Why Not? We have so many!”

The second time into the museum I had to buy another 20 EGP ticket because I couldn’t find my other one. Typical. Thankfully, the King Tut exhibit was worth the second price of admission.

We easily hailed a cab that agreed to take us to Sheraton Heliopolis for 40 EGP. I was shocked to watch the guards search under the taxi for bombs before they let us approach. That had not happened anywhere else we had stayed in Egypt. It definitely made me appreciative that we’d opted out of the traditional western tourist experience.

After we bid our driver adieu, we stepped into the opulence and realized we were basically home. Service, Luxory, English – whatever you needed or wanted. I was amazed to think this is what some people see and think of as “Egypt.” The Heliopolis Sheraton was by far the most extravagant hotel we stayed in, but it was creepy, too. R and I were definitely the only people our age walking around.
Dinner at the Lebanese restaurant was the most expensive meal of the trip at 160 EGP, or roughly 28 USD for two with egyptian white wine (dry, uninteresting chenin gris) for me. We stayed for the belly dancing and wished we hadn’t. She wasn’t very good, although the musicians were amazing. The way that her dress showed off her breasts instead of her stomach was odd and her pandering to the lecherous older men was a bit much to watch.

So, we asked for the check and went back to the room and up to bed.

I finished Palace Walk in my last night in Egypt. It was a good book and a great thing to read while there.

So, here we are, at the airport, but really, having left the Egypt we came to visit last night. It’s been a wonderful, difficult, educational, and interesting trip.

They are calling for boarding.

2011-08-16T18:00:00.001-07:00

Egypt, 1/11/04

The 8th journal entry from my trip to Egypt in 2004.

The 9th was not so much fun -- I was sick all day and did little more than nap in our room, eat a couple of bananas, and finally one last amazing Siwan outing.

We walked to the hill of the dead and looked at the beautiful sights. We saw some Japanese tourists and finally, the group of Italian tourists from the goat dinner came down the hill as well. They raved about the locked tombs, which we wouldn't have seen without their prompt.

They asked if we knew any of the history of the hill, so I attempted to translate the guidebook's explanation for them. Boy has my Italian deteriorated. It's sad. One of the women finally took the book from me and translated the last bits for their group. Watching her, I remembered how much easier it is to translate *into* your native language instead of *out of* it. In hindsight I should have just given them the book and let them ask me about words they didn't know.

After speaking with them, we went to the key-keeper and he took us to each of the locked tombs: one with pictures of Amon, two with mummies and skeletons and one with a picture of crocodiles. R was right when he said it twas too much to get your head around.

The history was ridiculous. The tombs and mummies were ptolemaic and 26th dynasty, the Romans had reused it, and when the Siwans had escaped to the hill during bombings in 1940, they discovered the tombs and lived there for 3 years. Italian Solders excavated many of the paintings for cheap payments to the Siwans after the bombings, and now, in 2004, we were here as tourists.

As we entered, we were invited to tea by another man, Muhammed, who by the looks of it, lived at the hill. The process was slow and careful. First, a fire was stoked in an old blackened half of a radiator. Then, the tea-maker, a blackened metal cup with a twisted wire handle was filled with tea leaves and water and placed on the fire. As it heated, serving glasses (roughly glass shot glasses) and the serving tea pot were washed with water. Muhammed ladled sugar into the serving pot, and added the tea when it boiled over the metal cup. Then, Muhammed poured the tea from the serving pot into one of the glasses in a high, long stream of liquid. The cup of tea was poured back into the pot and this process was repeated several times. Finally, when the tea was cool enough to drink, we were given our cups.

So, there we were, in an excavated tomb, on top of the hill of the dead, overlooking the sunset and enjoying the silence over tea with two men. It was peaceful and wonderful. They offered us food as well, and we tried to say no, but our refusals were ignored. R took a banana and a tangerine. I took a tangerine. They also offered us cigarettes. Unfortunately, the strong tea and acidic tangerine were too much for my stomach, so I had to leave. R followed later after paying baksheesh to both men of 10 EGP each ($1.60 USD, generous by local standards).

Apparently, the men had tried to invite R back for Siwan whiskey after the cop was gone (there was a cop observing our entire visit to the hill of the dead). He laughed and said no.

After the hill of the dead, I slept until it was time to catch the bus. We ended up on a street in the dark with no other bus-riders. Confused, we asked a shopkeeper if the bus came here. He answered yes and a few minutes later brought chairs outside for us to sit on to wait for the bus. We experienced several acts of kindness like this one in Siwa -- they were absolutely charming.

The bus ride was as expected. 9 hours, cold, and uncomfortable. But, the good news is that with the help of Immodium and rest stops, I was able to make the trip successfully.

We arrived at Sidi Gaber in Alexandria around 6 AM. We waded through a million taxi offers to get our bags from the luggage compartment. We trudged through sludge, mud and the people of Alexandria who are in the street at 6 AM (much like the street people of the night in other major cities, they were hungry, huddled, and not interested in us).

We bought our train tickets to Cairo and set out to catch a cab, which in an ironic twist after the throngs of offers earlier was very difficult. Several cabs drove by, but none of them stopped. We guessed it had something to do with the cop in the street, but who knows? Finally, a cab pulled up and nervously stopped, yelling at us to get in on the passenger side. This was the first time we'd seen a cab driver in Egypt concerned about any rules, so we assumed our cop theory was correct.

We checked into the Cecil Hotel for $120 USD (a good rate for us, as the book claimed rates ranged from $130-207). They asked our budget and we said we'd like to spend $120 USD, which they liked. In fact, they upgraded us to an executive suite and we found ourselves in a lovely, well-maintained, European-style room with an oh-so-welcoming western bathroom.

R hadn't slept on the bus, so he immediately went to bed. I showered, took a bubble bath and fell into a restful sleep. We woke around 1 pm and walked to the library. We were informed that it was open at 3 PM, so we went back to the cafe we visited last time and I calmed my stomach with sprite and bread.

While R ate, we made the acquaintance of a Quebecoise pianist who was performing classical music at the library's concert hall the next night. She was adorable and I was sorry that were weren't free to stay for another night to go to her performance.

We bid her farewell and entered the library, checking our bags at the ticket counter. The first thing we saw in the great library of Alexandria was the poster announcing her performance.

The library's greatest asset, to my mind, is the architecture. The stairs mount from the bottom to the top in a series of connected slopes, evocative of a pyramid. The supporting structures and ceiling are a modern blend of curves and angles. The book collection is small for such a large space, but I imagine that in time it will be impressive. The computer terminals were available for free to anyone with tickets, but mail.yahoo.com was blocked. After an hour or so, we left.

Lazily, we walked back toward our hotel. We stopped in an Internet cafe where we used demo copies of Windows XP to check and send email, read the news, etc. Our total visit came to 3 EGP ($0.50).

We continued our walk until we saw a modern cafe where (gasp) women and men were sitting together in both pairs and groups. We entered and they all looked up, but it was not shocked looks we've gotten used to receiving. Instead, they realized we were foreigners and quickly returned to their conversations.

I had another sprite while R snacked on another croissant. He claimed he's over turkish coffee and ordered a capuccino. We briefly returned to the Sanctuary of our room and rested -- R found Italian TV and we laughed at it.

At 8 PM, we followed Lonely Planet's advice and walk to Havanna, "the Best Bar in Egypt" which also served food. It was closed.

So we set out the find Cap D'or, but were not successful. A gentlemen who was following us asked if he could help, saying that he had been in Canada 23 years ago. We followed him for a while, but I became uneasy and when a second gentlemen stepped behind us, I told R. It was probably nothing, but regardless, we thanked him and turned in the opposite direction.

We found our way back to the Corniche and a gorgeous lighted gate supported by pillars was our reward. We took a picture and then walked back toward our hotel with our sights set on another dinner for R at Denis. On the way, we saw a fancy greek-style fish restaurant and decided to go there instead. We were the only patrons seated in the gorgeous room and the service was *superb.* The food was exquisite. R ordered Meyas (which I suspect was Makerel, but I'm not certain), hummous, a greek salad and Heineken (brewed locally). The bread was actually leavened (!) and topped with sesame seeds. I was so excited to see proper bread, especially because I could eat a little bit of it. They brought us babaganoush even though we didn't order it and I made a dinner of my roll with hummous and babaganoush and a beer and a half. I actually felt okay.

We had two servers all to ourselves and they were dedicated, whisking in and out with plates, matches, ashtrays, cups, napkins, drinks, whatever you could possibly want. A camera-touting gentleman took our photo at the table and returned with it in a paper frame 10 minutes later. R bought it for his mother.

We returned to the hotel and I took *another* luxurious bubble bath and slept.

This morning, I woke to my stomach slightly upset, but nothing terrible. Definitely the best I've been feeling since I became ill. I started this entry from our balcony and enjoyed a diet coke while writing it. Also, my fingernails are clean! It's a wonderful thing.

We showered, packed, and took a taxi to the train station where we caught the train to Cairo without too much difficulty. And now, we're speeding towards our last Egyptian adventure -- the Cairo Museum and our last night in Heliopolis.

2011-08-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Siwa, 1/9/04

The 7th journal entry from my trip to Egypt in 2004

Yesterday was a *very* full day. We walked to a cafe, had coffee, explored the shali on foot (adorable children) and found ourselves in the charge of young Muhammed as passengers on his donkey cart.

We went to Alexander's supposed tomb, the oracle of Amon, the Cleopatra springs and back home. On the ride, we ate delicious oranges (4 for 1 Egyptian Pound).

We lunched at a restaurant on top of the Shali lodge amongst the palms, where R was inspired to state, "I feel like a Columbian drug lord." My cooked vegetables and couscous was delicious as was my salad of tehini, tomatoes and cucumbers, and finally, some good bread, too.

Ali, our server, came to sit and talk with us after the meal. He brought little shot glasses of sweet tea which were excellent.

From there, we headed back out in Muhammed's cart for a trip out to fatmis island to watch the sunset over the dessert. It was gorgeous.

Unfortunately, we let ourselves be talked into attending a BBQ hosted by our hotel. Perhaps it was the goat, or perhaps it was the uncooked tomatoes and cucumbers, but whatever it was, I was up all night with a fever, chills, and diarrhea. Gross.

Tonight, we take the 10 PM bus to Alexandria. The hope is that my digestive system will be under control by then. The headache, lack of my own bathroom, and sickness was enough to make me just wish I was back home. Sucks. I'm hoping my attitude will improve with my health.

2011-08-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

Egypt, quick snippit

01/08/04

Siwa.

It's already worth yesterday's 9 hr bus ride. A village with history separate from the rest of Egypt. Mud-brick enclosures, donkey-cart taxis, a book on the culture of the Berber-Siwan people written by a native siwan and signed by the author in his shop last night.

R, in an amazing display of relaxation, is sleeping in this morning after sleeping the majority of the bus trip yesterday.

So, I'm relaxing under the palm trees and enjoying the quiet.

2011-08-15T14:32:00.001-07:00

Alexandria, 1/7/04

The fifth journal entry from my trip to Egypt in 2004

We arrived at Station Masr in Alexandria around 1:30 PM yesterday. The walk to the hotel appeared straightforward from the map, so I led us from the station, first right and then up towards the ocean. Except, we ended up walking for an hour and a half through working class neighborhoods.

Children and adults greeted us with English, Arabic and waves. The daily activities were ours to witness alone -- we did not see a single tourist. Eventually, we reached a small waterway and I was confused. I did not recall any water ways on the straightforward walk. We consulted the book once more and found that we'd walked to the opposite side of the peninsula. Several older men in robes to their sandals convened to help us. We found the square we were looking for in the book and repeated the name to taxi drivers. Eventually one of older men took us as his cause, hailed a cab and arranged our transport.

R tried to tip the older man 1 Egyptian Pound, but he said, "La, hamsa!" which means, "No, Five!" So, R counted out 5 ones and gave them to the man, assuming they were baksheesh. But, instead, the man handed them to the driver, paying our fare as we drove away. It was an adorable gesture.

From the backseat of the cab, we retreated through the neighborhoods we'd walked. We stopped to pick up what appeared to be one of the taxi driver's friends, who got out to get some money from the vegetable vendor in a quick handshake exchange. We dropped the friend at his destination and then finally, we made it to Midan Sa'ab Zhaglou.

We walked to the great library of Alexandria, but it was closed, so we enjoyed the view from a cafe and walked back to our hotel.

After a brief break at the hotel, we finally found a great meal in Egypt. Thus far, the food has been nothing to write about: dry pita-like bread and bland uninspired combinations of meat and vegetables. The guide book sent us to Restaurant Denis, a greek-style fish bar, and we were thrilled.

First we were shown a platter of frozen/fresh perch, trout, and calamari. We selected the calamari and perch. It was some of the best fried fish I've ever had and it was served with tahini, tomatoes and onions, fuul, pickled radishes and pommes frites. It was the best calamari I've ever had. We ate and drank stella until we were going to explode and then we stumbled home and fell asleep by 10 PM. It was a fabulous way to finish a day of Egyptian perfection.

Today we are off to Siwa.

2011-08-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

Egypt, continued

1/6/04.

Last night was a night of fear for me. The newness and foreign sights, sounds and treatment here had taken their toll on me. I found myself anxious to leave Cafe Riche and Groppi cafe because I was sick of being a tourist.

There are many mistakes to be made and the emails to home reminded me just how foreign this place is. R is treated better than me due to his gender and skin color and I don't like it.

In this petulant child-state, I researched Sinai, Aswan and Siwa in order to plan our next few days. I was annoyed and frustrated to learn that each of the trips required more transit time than I expected, so we'd only be able to make one. I found myself scared to go to Siwa due to its proximity to Libya, scared to go to Luxor/Aswan because of previous terrorism and the obvious dislike for me that had been displayed by many people throughout the day. I was depressed at the idea of close to 2 and half full days to get to mount sinai, not to mention the cultural conflicts that I'd encounter at the border to Israel. I wanted more time in the actual destinations to justify the travel commitments and I simultaneously just wanted to go home where I felt safe.

I talked with R and we decided to go to the travel agent this AM to figure out if Siwa is a reservable option. And then, fitfully, I slept.

But, a wonderful thing happened. I woke refreshed, unscared, and comfortable once again with the idea of winging it on our own.

We checked out with no problems. The bellhop got us a taxi and negotiated a fare (no doubt with a commission for himself). Our taxi got us to the train station with no problem. We greeted the information desk with (this is a photo of how I wrote what we said to him -- sadly I can no longer read or understand what it says):

He immediately smiled, replied, and was very friendly to us. We found the ATM, got cash, got tickets to the train to Alexandria, deciphered the Arabic to get to the right track, bought snacks (again greeting the clerk in Arabic and being very well received). In fact, the snack vendor gave me 10 Egpytian Pounds too little in change, and when I showed him, he smiled, apologized and immediately gave me the rest. He apologized again, obviously sorry. I said, "Malesh" (forget about it) and "Shukran" (thank you). He smiled.

We found our car and seats, passed the conductor without problems, and now we are on the train to Alexandria. I'm watching the countryside roll by. This feeling, now more than anything, is why I travel. I feel bigger, better, and more capable of handling setbacks, difficult situations, and fear. Today, I'm happy.

I also finally learned the entire Arabic alphabet and feel that I should be able to progress in my studies. Already, it's come in wonderfully handy/necessary. Little things like being able to find a street by the sign, or read the train schedule are fabulous. (And now, in 2011, I can't read or speak a word. How sad)

On that victorious note, I think I'll stop to read and rest.

'til tomorrow

2011-08-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have nothing but awe

For full time parents.

It's the end of day 4 of niece week. And I'm nothing short of exhausted.

Between balancing her sleep schedule, her hilarious social schedule (could she be any more of her father's daughter? How does she have more neighborhood friends than we do?), the rocket-building and setting-off schedule (thanks Uncle E) and life...

Well, frankly, I'm having a hard time taking the strong line against her desire to sleep in and miss the first hour of lego camp in the mornings.

Except, of course, that I have to work...

Silly Work.

Did I mention that I adore having her here and thank my lucky stars that her parents let her come?

2011-08-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

Egypt, 3rd installment

The third of several journal entries from my trip to Egypt in 2004

1/5/04. Night.

Today was a full day. We took a cab to our cheaper Cairo hotel -- Hotel Grand at the corner of Talaat Harb and 26 July Street. *Adorable.* We are on the 7th floor, overlooking the hustle and bustle of downtown, listening (right now) to the sunset call to prayer mixed with honking and traffic.

The call to prayer is amazingly pervasive. It covers the city and envelopes all of life in a way I've never experienced with a repeating sound. At noon today, we were lost in the Islamic quarter at a large square when the call rang out. It was a gorgeous experience.

After marveling at our wonderful room and balcony, we walked to the Midam Ataba, the Ezbekiya gardens and tried to find our way to the Khan El Kahlili. We found several street markets but they were modern markets with no tourists to be seen. This is not how the Khan El Khalili is described.

Eventually, we asked some police and one of their English speaking friends for directions. First, they asked for our passports. R gave his. They informed us that R did not "look" Canadian. But I did. Hah.

Many Egyptians today were proud of figuring out that R was Indian. One of the adorable serving boys at Midan El Hussein kept pointing at R and saying, "Indian." He was quite proud of himself and the scene was cute and funny in that way that only a foreign experience can be.

After traipsing through Khan El Khalili (Canadians get directions, apparently), we ate at one of the tourist traps looking at the mosque of Muhammed Hussein (where non-muslims are not allowed).

We then tried to walk to a mosque for entrance but accidentally tried the University entrance (where we were promptly turned away, seeing as how we are not University students).

At the mosque entrance, we had a storybook tout encounter. A young man named Muhammed (Ahmed) tried to show us "Egyptian Hospitality," sheesha, and hand-made handicrafts. We declined, but then he offered to take us to the Blue Mosque, where we could climb the tower and see the pyramids, citadel, cairo tower, etc. We went with him, deeper, and deeper into old Cairo.

Finally, we arrived at the mosque and he said that the student price was 20 Egyptian Pounds, while the regular price was 40 Egyptian Pounds. R declined saying he didn't want to pay to see a mosque. I started to take off my shoes, but thought better of it, deciding instead not to go if R didn't go.

Muhammed was flustered at first and then asked "why?" several times. Finally he asked for a "donation" to help his studies because, "he really needed it."

I was not pleased to find myself the victim of a scam. I explained to him that because he'd told us he wanted to practice his English and only wanted to be friends and show us hospitality, we'd gone with him. If he wanted to be paid, he needed to be honest about it up front so that we could decide if we wanted to pay or not before we went with him. He kept demanding money and I explained that we were not going to give him any, fairly loudly, in the street, in front of various folks in their doorsteps who watched with curiosity at the crazy English speaking lady. After a final emphatic "No" we walked away.

I was frustrated that we'd let ourselves get so far deep into old Cairo before he'd demanded money, and angry that he'd likely used this tactic to get money from others before.

R and I continued walking in the direction we had begun, even deeper into Old Cairo. I was very happy to have the turtleneck to cover me, but even so, we got plenty of stares and some hisses (at me, I assume). We spoke with a few adorable children, including a girl who stepped in front of R and said, "Wot is yur name?" When he replied she babbled in Arabic and ran off.

Eventually, we found some cops, but of course, they only spoke Arabic and initially, they were not friendly. Finally we got them to understand, "Wayen el Allah?" (Where is the Citadel) and they gave us directions. The cop smiled and asked me (while looking at R) if I spoke Arabic. I replied, "a little." He asked again, more emphatically, and I said one of my memorized phrases, which means, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Arabic that well." This made him very happy and he and his friend told us to have a good day.

I was uncomfortable for the rest of the walk, but we did find the Citadel eventually, after passing yet another crudely labeled, "Free Blue Mosque." I stopped R from entering because I was fairly paranoid that the helpful folks at the entrance would hold our shoes for ransome or something like that.

The Citadel was a welcome tourist attraction after the stark poverty and reality of Old Cairo. We ran into one of the taxi fight arbitrators from our morning and he called out to us, asking if the driver we ended up with was good. We looked for him when we left, but he was gone.

In the Citadel, we viewed the mosque of Muhammed Ali, the military museum, and the palace at the Citadel. The views of the city, mosques, towers, and pyramids in the background were my favorite part of the day.

Our taxi ride back to the hotel was a true Cairo rush hour experience complete with mopeds splitting the non-existent lanes against traffic, bottlenecks, pedestrians, bicycles, bus passengers getting on and off in the middle of the street and traffic lights which are defied by the masses.

Now we're off to dinner, Internet Cafe and Coffee at Midan Talaat Harb.

2011-07-31T22:41:00.001-07:00

Egypt, Entry 2

The second of several journal entries from my trip to Egypt in 2004

1/5/04. 9:30 AM.

I thought I was tired when I wrote the last entry. I must have been, as I chose to use this book with the top sheet margin on the bottom. Oh Well.

Yesterday was an *eventful* day.

We met our taxi driver at 9 AM and he drove us to his buddies' stable at the pyramids. We told him that we probably wanted to walk, but he said it was far, and, since he was driving, we ended up at the stables.

We decided to go on horseback to see the sphinx, the sphinx tomb, the 3 big pyramids of Giza and the 6 small pyramids of Giza. We talked him down to 140 Egyptian Pounds (EGP), which was a pretty good price, $25 USD for 2 hours with horses, a guide, and entrance to the small pyramid and sphinx's tomb.

The pyramids were larger than I expected. Galloping through the desert was a blast. Our guide Muhammed was adorable and the photo opportunities on the mountain above the pyramids were much better than those we would have gotten on foot.

In short, it was a great way to start our trip.

Unfortunately, we returned to the hotel in time for me to have a good sized allergy attack from the horses and dust. The pollution doesn't help. I thought it was bad yesterday because my nose burnt with every breath. But this morning, from our balcony, I see that yesterday's haze is only 1/3 of today's brown-grey cloud. It was Sunday yesterday and most of the shops and businesses were closed. I suppose that does make a difference.

After a quick rest at the hotel, R and I walked to the metero, rode to the neighborhood where the Egyptian Student Center was, and got him a youth card. I was *extremely* self-conscious of my open v-neck sweater. Only 3 inches of my neck and upper chest showed. But it was enough to garner stares, comments, and help from an international businessman who blocked me from the hissing on the metro. I quickly realized that I hadn't seen any other women who were showing any skin below their neck.

The travel literature did not adequately prepare me for that reality. Thankfully, R had a windbreaker, which, once I donned, completely changed the reaction I was receiving.

From there, we took the metro to our new hotel, made a reservation, and walked for about an hour and a half downtown, across Gezira, through Zamelek, along the Nile and back to our hotel.

The walk was a great way to get a feel for the city. Once, when we were lost, we asked for directions in English and a nice man, roughly our age, pointed us in the correct direction. Over all, the people are respectful and polite.

With R, I feel very safe. Without him, as this morning in the elevator, I am a target, and a Saudi man felt free to touch my back, arm, etc. Disgusting.

Oh well. At least I have a turtleneck for today's outings. I'm sure the grime in the air will be on my face at the end of the day.

Off to the citadel!

2011-07-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Egypt, Day One

The first of several journal entries from my trip to Egypt in 2004

1/4/04. 2 AM. Cairo - overlooking the Nile.

Almost 24 hours after departing, we arrived (really? I didn't recall the trip being that brutal. Good thing I got it out of my system while I was young).

Despite the fear and warnings of many, I found navigating the airport, taxi, and hotel check-in to be *very* painless. Egypt is friendly and wonderful so far. The typical tourist expensive car at the airport was running, but even though neither of us really speaks Arabic, we were able to get a general service taxi to our hotel.

Our driver spoke passable English and again, horrible attempts at the native language get you *very* far. He is coming to pick us up at 9 AM to go see the Pyramids of Giza.

I'm excited to see them and happy with the feel of Cairo. I expected to be more overwhelmed.

No surprise, our $70 USD hotel room is ridiculously nice. Gorgeous dark hardwood floors, marble in the bathroom, modern wallpaper and molding, and best of all, a balcony on the 17th floor overlooking the Nile. Life is good.

I fear I may not be able to sleep, but a shower and a unisom should do the trick.

2011-07-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

Decluttering

Today, my todo list was simple.

1. A 6 mile run with a friend.
2. Do some decluttering of the house.

How decadent! So much free time!

The run was done and I was showered by 10 AM.

So, I gardened.

I collected our first true summer harvest (July 30th is the latest date I've ever experienced for the first real tomato).

E and I biked to a local outdoor hotel restaurant and enjoyed a very american and reasonably-priced brunch around their pool -- the architecture, the elderly crowd, the menu of omelettes and salads and sandwiches, and of course, the view of the pool and the guests frolicking -- it felt like something out of The Graduate.

After a failed attempt at a nap, I cleaned and put things in three boxes for exit, one for trash, one for donation, and one for return to our former renter.

In the course of doing so, I found my journal from Egypt.

After reading it, I decided I will post the entries before I throw it away. Egypt may be the last trip I took without a computer, where I actually kept a written diary.

How times change.

2011-07-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

The Down Side of Travel

That aluminum germ tube? Jetting through the air full of recycled coughs, sneezes, etc?

Yeah, Europe gave me one final present.

I've been fighting this cold for 7 days. After 3 days, I had a brief respite when I thought it was gone. But no, it came back that night with a vengeance. It has been much stronger and humbling than any onslaught my body has faced in quite some time.

I've taken to sleeping in the guest room so as not to wake up E.

Prior to this, we've never slept apart if we were both at home. I don't like being away from him in the night. But, I also hated the feeling that I was making both of us suffer with each hack, sniffle, snort, and groan. In an effort to be a polite bed-mate, I was opting not to take advantage of the OTC meds in the middle of the night (which makes noise). Since I've moved to the guest room, I can rustle open the bag of cough drops, and open the pill bottles in the night with impunity.

This morning, I canceled my attendance at a professional event. Last night, I had the realization that even though I'm starting to *feel* better (and likely am no longer contagious), I sound so terrible that it would be a distraction and perceived as extremely rude by those who didn't know how long I'd been fighting the virus.

I can't remember the last time I didn't attend something due to sickness.

Generally, I'm a very healthy trooper. I have allergies, which are mildly annoying, but I almost never get the usual bugs that make the rounds. Historically, I've rarely fallen ill, but when I do, I fall hard, and often with things that no one else seems to catch.

This time fits the pattern. I am the sickest I've been in years. And, miraculously, E appears to have escaped it.

The upside is that I'm so grateful for the wonderful health I typically have and excited to get it back. My goal is remember this thankfulness and celebrate my health going forward.

2011-07-18T13:39:00.000-07:00

London

Almost home, but not. Quite. The English Language. But different. Summer. But raining intermittently.

The hip hotels here make me feel like my ordinary self on vacation at home, but for some reason I want to call it "holiday" and there are different toilet flush buttons, odd power outlets, and 0 is the ground floor.

To start our British adventure, we spent a beautifully stereotypical British Night and Day with two of my college roommates.

First, E and I missed our Eurostar train from Paris. This should say something about how laissez-faire Europe had made us. And, in fairness, we didn't really miss it, but we didn't arrive before they closed boarding, so we stared at our train from the platform above for 10 minutes before it departed. They wouldn't let us even try to board. Eventually, they gave us seat assignments on the next train. They did not seem to think the hour between trains should matter. And, since we were on Holiday, they were right.

Note to self, while much has not changed in the decade I've been gone, the Eurostar between France and the UK is much more complex, process-oriented, strict-like-TSA, and takes much more time to manage. If time is of the essence, be sure to arrive with at least an hour to spare for security, customs, etc.

We left the rainy overcast skies of Paris, and after passing through the chunnel were surprised to find London to welcome us with sunshine and an arch covered with Olympic rings that seemed to proclaim the great discovery we quickly made: St. Pancras has free wireless! Ahhh... the sweet sensation of sliding towards home -- the Internet is necessary and ubiquitous here, unlike at Gare du Nord, where we couldn't even pay for access.

After an email to our hosts explaining our delay, we took a quick tube ride to V's house, we walked a Kilometer or so and there we were: Guests in a beautiful Northern London home with dinner reservations for N's birthday at Veeraswamy.

Veeraswamy was easily one of the best meals of the trip, and definitely the finest Indian dining experience of my life. Yummmmm! Thanks to N's friend in LA who sent the recommendation!

Sunday, we slept in, had a big breakfast of toast, coffee, fruit, ham, and cheese. Except the ham was turkey, because our hosts were Jewish. But their kids still called it ham, because they are British and have hefty British accents (despite a German-American-English accented mother and American-English speaking father).

At around 11:30 AM, we finally motivated to move the entire group quickly through one of the breaks in the rain -- we walked through a local park, enjoying a zoo with ring-tailed lemurs, a secret garden, a pergola, a pond, and, in a surprise to all of us, a street fair in Hampstead.

A friend came out to join us for a pint at a good old-fashioned English pub (The Duke of Hamilton), followed by a late lunch at the oh-so-British chain of Pizza Express, then more walking, a Pimm's (although it was overcast and rainy), a relaxing afternoon of catching up and take-out sushi dinner, and a tube ride to our hotel.

Today, we did lunch while enjoying the river views with W (a friend and client) from the restaurant on top of the Tate Modern. We toured W's company's offices in Bankside, did a bit of work, enjoyed the displays of the Tate, took a leisurely walk through St. James Park, Green Park, and Hyde Park (despite the intermittent rain), and treated ourselves to a delicious Moroccan dinner on Edgeware Road.

Tomorrow promises to be more clients, a trip to the science museum, a good-bye dinner with one last college friend (and client), and then it will be time to return to the U.S.

This trip has been one of the best two week periods of my life. I'm the most relaxed I've been in at least 5 years, perhaps longer.

It's as if the return to Europe after a decade of absence was a reset button on my stress levels allowing me to return to a life before law school, before my father died, before my brother was injured, before much of the major stresses in my life. Somehow, my aged self, when put in the face of these slightly foreign cultures that are reminiscent of habits and approaches I freely experienced in my younger days allowed me to let go of my current life and reconsider it in a way I haven't done in quite some time.

I have learned, that at its most basic, I love my life. I love my husband, my family, my friends, and that I've structured my life such that I can travel, because it is extremely important to me.

Here, in these cultures, I've found myself thinking regularly about how important it is that things be done well. Since becoming a lawyer, and likely before, I've always tried to do things both quickly and well, despite the inherent conflict.

Europe seems to understand that conflict, and, if I may be so bold as to generalize, appears to have erred on the side of doing things well. If I lived here full-time, I suspect I would rant like many of my friends have done to us, extolling the virtues of the American end-product-based analysis and service-based economy (when you are a consumer). But, this vacation has allowed me to see and enjoy the benefits of a non-service oriented economy (e.g. a process-based commitment to quality).

Here, my brain feasts on languages I can understand but that are not native, my nose and mouth feast on quality local specialty foods and smells that could make anyone swoon in delight, and my eyes feast on the colors, light, and beauty of Europe's gardens, architecture, and art. How could I not feel blessed? I am happy to say that I took the time to pause, meditate, light a candle and/or say thanks in no less than three of the most beautiful places of worship in the world.

Of course, this rose-colored view of Europe is unfair. Unlike most of my EU friends, I have a big refrigerator and freezer at home. Our gas is cheap and highway tolls are essentially non-existent. When I sit in a restaurant, I don't have to wait 15 minutes wondering if I will be served at all. And, the dollar goes *much* further at home.

But, on balance, this trip was just too much tipped in favor of Europe. In addition to all of the linguistic fun and positive different world-view experiences that gave me things to think about, emotionally, I was able to fit in several visits to friends I hadn't seen in a long time.

And, I was able to share the entire experience with my husband and best friend. At times I wanted to pinch myself with joy. He waited uncountable times while I took just "one more picture." And, even better, he patiently listened and joined me in the verbal rehash of each day as I savored the wonderful remnants of its experiences.

I'm already planning our European return...

2011-07-15T02:25:00.000-07:00

France

I had forgotten how much I love this beautiful country.

A TGV to Montpellier and an easy rental car acquisition and we were on our way (through the ridiculously expensive toll roads).

We spent two days with friends in Provence near St. Paul Trois Chateaux -- gorgeous, and more importantly, relaxing in a way that the U.S. never seems to be for me. There was very little to do except sleep, read, listen to crickets, walk, run, enjoy the views of lavender fields, swim in the pool during the hottest part of the day, and, of course, visit a few small local towns (populations 200, 600, and 5,000) with the obligatory breaks to eat and drink extremely well.

My French started to return to me. I dreamt in fitful spells of Spanish, English, and French as my brain traded its usual daily efforts of law and Californian life for linguistic puzzles of fun. The first night in the country, with no light except the stars, E and I slept for 10 hours.

Languidly, when our time was up, we drove north to visit my childhood pen-pal, her husband, her children, and her parents.

I had forgotten how their hospitality was beyond anything I'd ever experienced before in my life. They reminded me. Daily.

They prepared several meals for us based on their memories of what I liked most on my last visit, 10 years ago. My pen-pal and her husband gave up their bed and slept with their children so that we could have their bedroom. I offered to seek out a hotel, but this was not well-received. They were so pleased I had returned after such a long absence and that they could meet my husband. They would have nothing less than us, in their house, as their guests.

The rental car sat unused while they insisted on taking time off work and personally driving us throughout the region -- treating us to walks in beautiful local towns (from middle age castle and tower-filled stone villages through more recent establishments like Beaune, the capital of Burgundy Wines).

L's husband, G (who has passed one of France's more difficult wine-maker exams and has been making small production wines for almost 10 years) spoiled us with his own version of the tour of the largest winery in Burgundy.

E was wonderfully patient with the great conversation and catching up for days (almost entirely in French), and of course, there was so much cheese.

After we said our goodbyes, it was amazing to return to Paris after more than a 10 year absence -- you truly do not *need* French to get around in this city anymore.

This has been, without a doubt, my favorite visit to Paris.

The hotel points splurged on a free luxury hotel in the Place Vendome? Simply brilliant. The service and attention to detail here are amazing. For example, our room came with complimentary hot beverages every day. So each morning, we call for our capuccinos and they are delivered within 10 minutes so that we can enjoy them on our balcony.

Walking everywhere we feel like going without a rush to see it all has been the best part. I tried to count yesterday, and I believe this is my 4th or 5th visit to Paris. At this point, I have a decent sense of where things are in the city, which, combined with the large visible landmarks means we can just walk with a map and seek out the things we wish to see. No need for a guidebook or checklist. The tourist pressures (oh, so difficult!) we felt in Madrid and Barcelona are almost non-existent, which leaves us with plenty of time to just walk, eat, and watch the world go by. The air-swing? The Ferris Wheel? Sure, why not?

And yesterday? Bastille Day? What a pleasure.

I woke to hit the gym while watching the parade on TV. After our cappucinos, we left our balcony window-doors open and listened to the planes as they flew over Place de la Concorde a few blocks away. Then a day in Montparnasse, and a wonderful surprise meet-up with friends of friends who squeezed us into their reservation at the delicious Spring.

After dinner, E and I and our new friends settled on the ground along the Seine to watch the fireworks near the Eiffel Tower.

Today is our last full day in Paris, which is sad. I am, however, certain that I will do my best to make certain it is not 10 years before my next visit to France.

2011-07-08T10:17:00.001-07:00

Barcelona

The Sagrada Familia is the most visited tourist sight in Spain for a reason.

I felt like I was in the middle of an Escher painting -- the construction that is underway just exacerbated this sensation.

And, yes, the multiple recommendations we received to seek out Tapas 24 were all correct. Jamon, queso, y trufas en un bocadillo? Why have I never heard of this combination before? Simply one of the best things I've ever eaten.

Ever.

In other news, Catalan is messing with my head. I find that I can read it and understand without too much trouble, but I can't explain why. Some French, some Italian, some acquired Portuguese, Latin, Greek, and, of course, some Spanish.

Because I never really properly learned Spanish, whenever the opportunity arises, I find myself in a state of Spanish language acquisition (I surprised myself and some Madrileños by using the vosotros in response to a question in the street -- thanks Argentina!).

Madrid probably helped clean up some of my Argentinian-Italian habits and pushed me into more standard Spanish.

But Catalan? Not so much.

Do you know the excerpts where the first and last letter is correct but the middle is gibberish, and yet somehow, the human brain can read it? That's Catalan to me. I couldn't speak it to save my life, but I could try some spanglifrenchalian, and, unfortunately, when spoken to in Catalan, I do. Often to stares.

Nonetheless, despite the mind-bending nature of the written language here, I managed to have a fabulous time discussing cheese and olive oil with the woman at the cheese stand at the Boqueria -- Mercat de San Josep.

If you are a food nerd, this market is reason enough to come to this lovely city.

Okay, off to seek out some Basque ~~tapas~~ pixtos!

2011-07-05T14:21:00.001-07:00

Madrid

Oh, how I love it when cities have mass transit attached to their airports! Yay Madrid Metro!

Despite red-eye-fried-brains, we managed to get directions, pay 4 Euros for tickets, navigate the 1 connection, and voila, we were at Plaza de España within walking distance of our hotel.

On the other hand, the time change to Europe is never pleasant and despite the easy transit, this time was no exception. Thankfully, we'd done a 3 day stop in Atlanta, and we'd had to get up early for the Peachtree, so we only had 6 hours to cover instead of 9.

Even so, it took everything we had to check in and stay out of bed in lieu of the small walk to a nearby plaza, where we managed a deliciously languid half-awake lunch of delicious gazpacho, salad, and 27 month aged jamon iberico while we watched the world walk by as the misters sprayed us. Yup, in case we weren't certain, the hams hanging to cure from every open space in the restaurant ceiling confirmed it -- We were in Spain. Mmmmm.... Jamon.

A 3 hour nap, and then we were out on the town for a nice 6 mile walking loop at a pace that really couldn't be called walking with all of the stops (ice cream; wine, water, and olives; shopping at El Corte Ingles, dinner in Plaza Mayor while watching the sunset, and, of course, circular strolls through every plaza and alley we encountered. We left the hotel at 5:40 PM and finally returned at 10 PM -- hurrah for the contagious relaxation vibe here. At 9 PM, there are hordes of people strolling the very walkable streets, stopping for tapas or a glass of wine or a beer, not to mention the ubiquitous couples laying on the grass, relaxing and cuddling as if tomorrow couldn't possible hold any stress at all for them.

It is official, we are on vacation.

2011-06-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

The Flower Girl Saves the Day

So, you may recall, that last winter, I hired an illustrator and created a children's book from a story I made up for my neice to give it to her as a Christmas present.

She loved it.

It turned out very well, and I'm quite happy with it. You can see a preview of it on Lulu.

Lulu offers a promotional program called Global Reach where you pay them a fee and they list your book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and "other retail sites."

I signed up a while back and they informed me it would take 6-8 weeks for my listing to show up.

Today, on a lark, I searched on Amazon and finally found it.

They listed it for $147.65. You know, the paperback book written by a no-name author and illustrated by some talented but not very well-known illustrators. Ummmm.... What?

Let's see, you can buy it directly from Lulu for $15. You'd think they'd pick a mark-up for Amazon that allowed them to clear the same margin or something a little higher. I would not think the mark-up would be around 1000%.

Unfortunately, I'm much too busy to do anything about this right now except complain on this blog. But one of these days (after Europe), I'll chase 'em down and ask them for a refund or to explain how their pricing is in any way a good faith offering.

In short -- Consider yourself warned about the Lulu GlobalREACH Distribution service.

2011-06-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

Summer is Officially Here

As of 10:16 AM on Wednesday, the days are officially getting shorter. I can't believe how quickly the first half of the year flew by. But, it did.

In personal running news, weekly track intervals feel like they are paying off. Despite last night's barbeque, I ran my 3 mile loop at a nice 8:41 pace this AM. That's the fastest I've done the 3 mile loop since late April. I'm nowhere near my historical speed bests, but at least I'm headed in the right direction.

I must say, training for a 10K is much more manageable than training for a marathon. First, the overall mileage commitment is lower, so it takes less large chunks of time and sleep. Second, and perhaps the more enjoyable reason, you get to run faster, so the miles you do take less time than if you were doing them in marathon training.

Last night, I hid from the start of BBQ and watched the US outdoor track and field championships Women's 10K. Shalane Flannigan went out alone and stayed there to finish just under 31 minutes (30:59.97) -- I hadn't seen her run before, but I now understand why she is referred to as the current best U.S. female distance runner. Kara Goucher ran a great race for second (31:16.65) and Jennifer Rhines held on for third (31:30.37) after Kara dropped her, pushing to keep her lead when she saw Desi behind her on the big screen. Desiree Davila (one of my heroes) met the Class A standard time and a set a huge PR (31:37.14) for a solid 4th place. If any of the first three women are unable to run at World's Desi will have the opportunity take their place.

Tonight is the 5K, which I'd love to watch. The start list includes many of the 10K folks. Shalane promised to give it her all, while Kara indicated she may not run it if her coach doesn't think it's a good idea. Desi is on the list, and I'd love to see her run because she's almost certain to PR again and I'd like to see her show her stuff in a shorter race. Since she isn't guaranteed a spot on the 10K team, she may be willing to go all out in the 5K in a way that no one has seen her do in competition before. Unfortunately, the race is only available on TV (which we don't have).

In all honesty, it's probably for the best that I can't get sucked into all track and field, all night. The end of June is a rough time on a transactional attorney. I have way more to do than I have time to do it. So, now that I've finished my workout, today and tonight promises to be nothing more than working through a large list of work tasks. I'll fit in a couple of breaks for a healthy dinner (yumm leftover roasted veggies and beets from BBQ) before doing some yoga and heading to sleep.

Tomorrow, after a quick trip to the track for intervals, we're headed to beautiful San Diego for a wedding (and maybe, if I'm lucky, we'll be in the hotel during one of the re-plays of the 5K).

2011-06-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone, Other-wordly

A view of the run-off from one of the hot springs, depositing brightly colored mineral and bacterial deposits on its way to the river. Note the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Bright turquoise bacteria like it very hot -- 200F+ which is boiling at Yellowstone's altitudes in the 5000-6000 ft. range.

When the pressure builds, the geysers go. Search for videos of old faithful and boiling mud pots if you'd like to see some spectacular sights.

We saw tons of these. I assumed they must be baby meese. Brother informed me that they were Elk cows. Makes sense. I just wonder where all the boys were, we didn't see a single Elk rack.

The colors indicate temperature. If you had to choose your adventure, go for the red, as blue and turquoise are the hottest...

Bison, Bison everywhere. Zoom in for a look at the bison beh-behs. (Note the steaming thermal features in the background and the fact that it's snowing on May 30th).

And, of course, no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a visit to Grand Prismatic Spring -- Too huge and brightly colored to believe without walking the path around it.

2011-06-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

Mellowing Out

This week, E and I (each) have both had more than two separate (and unrelated) people tell us "You look like you could use a vacation."

That's a bummer, since, ostensibly, we just got back from one.

And, it was, in a way, a vacation. It was wonderful to see family, to run a marathon, to enjoy the beauty of Coeur D'alene, Yellowstone, and to drive parts of the country that many never see.

But, more importantly, the trip was really space and time to process and do all the things we needed to do in our very complicated business and personal lives prior to moving back home from 3+ months of a temporary existence in the Seattle area. Oh, and while we process that stuff, we needed to remain available for those in our business lives that claimed they couldn't let us go completely dark, so, believing them, we couldn't completely "check out."

Now, back at home, resettling, we just have to do the things we agreed needed to be done on the trip. Oh, and make up for lost time. So the so-called road trip vacation didn't really relax us if you do a net-net analysis (but man was it worth it, in terms of education about that part of the country and just thinking outside of our comfort zone due to the long hours in solitude with only each other).

Slowly, but surely, we've been crawling out of the hole of the undone todo lists. Estimated tax payments due 6/15? Done. Filing all the documents that haven't been dealt with in the last 3-4 months? Done. The rest of the year's travel plans? Done. Business chaos for E's startup? Ridiculous, but we've identified a date I feel I can count on whereby it will all be done, one way or another.

In short, we're moving, slowly, towards a place where I feel like our trip to Europe in July may actually feel like a true (European) vacation.

I'm starting to get excited!

2011-06-13T08:50:00.000-07:00

Citius, Altius, Fortius

This weekend, in addition to knocking many items off the todo lists, I was a running movie nut.

First, I watched and sincerely enjoyed Without Limits (one of the movies about Pre).

I also finally watched Chariots of Fire, which was such a wonderful story and much more than I expected -- full of history, musical theatre, and amusing portrayals of life in Cambridge and Scotland in the early 1920s. The famous theme song is only played during the introduction and the conclusion, but does not feature in the actual movie at all. Interesting that the song (and that it was a movie about running) was all I knew about the film before watching it.

Yesterday morning, I did speed intervals on a track for the first time in a very long time.

I had hoped to do 15X400 with 200 jogging recovery. Instead, I only managed 8X400 with 200 recovery (the last 4, I opted to walk the recovery).

Holy crap, that was a serious workout.

The total mileage (including a walk beforehand while chatting with R) was barely over 4.5 miles, but I was sore all day as if I'd raced all out for a 10K or more.

Interestingly, my abs and arms were also sore, which doesn't usually happen to me after a run.

Apparently, there's really something to the idea that running fast recruits more muscles and is a better workout than running slower.

I'll definitely be hitting the track a few more times before the Peachtree Road Race.

(oh, and R's fiancé works for Powerbar, so he's sending me a box of products to try so that I'm never unprepared to fuel for a race or long run again. Woot!).

2011-06-11T10:28:00.000-07:00

Full Plate

The last time I bought toilet paper, I bought a full 24-pack of 1-ply. It's very thin and not soft. Every trip to the bathroom is a reminder that I am not paying as much attention to details as I should be. I'm very excited to use the last roll and treat myself to some fluffy 2-ply tissue.

This morning, I woke after a night of insomnia and fitful dreams. I realized I just needed to buckle down and do a bunch of work - for my business, for E's business, and for our mutual finances and general life stuff. I actually need to knock things off the todo list. It's gotten to the point where I have no other choice.

I felt so disappointed.

I just wanted a weekend at home.

To do nothing and relax.

But, that is not what I get right now, and I have myself to blame. I am incapable of relaxing when the todo lists are too long. The good news is that my business is going very well. The bad news is that I let my todo lists get too long and there aren't 35 hours in the day.

And, we've got a big trip planned in July, so the deadlines are more concrete and immovable than they ordinarily would be.

Here's to hoping that after a weekend of effort, with shorter lists, I'll feel lighter, more on top of things, and less stressed.

Simplicity...

2011-06-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Vacation's Over

We had a wonderful time driving around the pacific northwest of the United States.

Soon, I will post photos of some of the gorgeous sights and wildlife we saw.

But not now.

My first dream last night was about running.

All of the rest were about work: invoices that need to be sent, piles that need to be handled or filed, and, of course, language that needs to be drafted. Today.

Back to the grind.

2011-06-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

Mid-Year Review

I'm inspired by a friend's blog post titled, "Where I've been so far this year" so I'm going to follow the theme, too.

Locations (this may be the most traveling I've ever done in 6 months):

Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Atlanta, Pasadena/Los Angeles, Bellevue/Seattle, Whistler, Spokane, Coeur D'alene, Montana (drive through), Yellowstone, Craters of the Moon, EBR-1, Twin Falls (and the gorgeous Shoshone Falls), Reno (CRAPS!), and of course, Lincoln/Rocklin (CA).

Yoga Classes:

0. I hope to change this number soon.

Miles:

645.6. I've registered for a 10K in July, a half marathon in October, and a marathon in December -- so if I stay healthy and train hard, I just may beat my annual mileage record of 1391.4. This isn't a goal, but if my training plans make it happen, so be it.

Books:

12. Not quite halfway to my goal of 30, but much better than the 0/30 I'd finished on March 8th.

Garden:

The Summer Garden is halfway in the ground. Typically, it's in the ground and done by mid-may, but with all of the travel and wacky weather this year, I'm very behind. Today, we bought a machete (MACHETE!) and E hacked down the remaining weeds in the last two boxes. It took him about 30 minutes to get them all down vs. the 3 hours it took me to do one box with the clippers two weeks ago. Apparently, we actually needed a machete. Who knew?

Work:

I've stayed quite busy these last 6 months. Every single new client I've taken on in the bay area this year is based in San Francisco. This is quite a change from my historic client base, which tended to be more peninsula/Silicon Valley centric.

2011-05-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

What a Beautiful Bonk (Coeur D'Alene Marathon Race Report)

All in all, it was a great race -- friendly runners, well organized, gorgeous views at every turn. E and I already talked about coming back one day (although folks on the course spoke highly of Windermere as a local alternative, so perhaps I'll do that one next time).

The race was a great size -- only 2500 total runners (1/2, full, and 5K), and just 600 marathoners, including the walkers, who started 2 hours before the runners. At the 7 AM marathon runners start, it was a cozy group of 200-300. We had the course to ourselves until the half marathon leaders started passing us (staggered starts for appropriate space are such a nice perk that many races don't manage well).

One interesting difference between this race and others I've done, due to their local roots, there were many Marathon Maniacs on the course (seemed like at least 5% of the pack). They lent a fun spirit to the day, constantly cheering each other on when they passed one another and offering tips of the trade to us non-maniacs. At one point, I sided up to a black-jerseyed-maniac and asked him how many marathons he'd done.

This is my 161st. But, I'm trying to get back into shape, so I'm treating it like a nice easy training run.

So much for my plan of using him as a pacing buddy...his training run left my race in the dust shortly after that conversation.

So, as the title of this post might indicate, I hit the wall. Hard.

Before the wall, all seemed quite well.

The weather, despite predictions of showers, had changed to beautifully cool partly sunny skies just two days before the race. The views on the course of the lake were some of the best I've ever had on a race.

I'd had chips and salsa and pasta for dinner (I love me some excuses to carb load!) and had hydrated while watching The Fighter for inspiration before a bedtime of 11 PM.

I woke early, relatively rested, and ate a good breakfast of a banana, a waffle with peanut butter and honey, coffee, OJ, and water.

I jogged to the start, waited just 7 minutes in the cold, and we were off.

My original goal was to break 4 hours, or, if I couldn't do that, then to try to beat my PR of 4:04:27. I successfully reigned myself in on the early miles (partially thanks to the continuing digestion of breakfast -- a good trick if you, like me, have a habit of going out to fast). I finished the first 3 miles in 25:49.07, despite feeling like I could have gone much faster.

Even with the conservative approach, I felt good and strong, and hit the half marathon around 1:58:30 or so (I forgot to hit lap on the garmin, so I'm guessing by a few seconds).

I kept the pace, comfortably, enjoying the gorgeous views of the lake and the river, and I managed to hit mile 18 at 2:46:42 -- a 9:16 average pace, which would have put me at the finish line at 4:02:47 -- and there were some downhills left.

Unfortunately, it was not to be. My average pace for the next 8 miles shows the explosion I had no idea was coming -- 10:49.50. I wish I could blame it on hills... but no. The worst was definitely behind me. In fact, there were some very nice forgiving downhills in the last few miles. I just couldn't take advantage of them.

Ouch.

At one point, I reassessed my goals and tried to set 4:10 as a new finish goal. But, no, I couldn't muster the energy for that one either.

4:13:12.

An average pace of 9:40.

Certainly, nothing to complain about. I'm healthy, which is always something to celebrate. It's the fastest time I've run out of all of my 5 marathons except for my PR, when I was almost 4 years younger and more than 6 pounds lighter on the awesomely downhill course of CIM.

Plus, my mom was able to come to the finish line since she was nearby to help with my sister's new baby. I never thought my mom would come watch me finish a marathon in Idaho, of all places. It was so fun to see her there and to enjoy lunch with her and E afterwards.

But, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, and I definitely learned a few lessons.

#1 -- It is not good to discover, the night before the race, after the expo has closed, that you forgot your preferred race fuel (in my case Gu). I read race reports and comforted myself with the claims that there were many aid stations and they were well stocked. Much better than nothing, but I would have preferred to bring my Gu. Next time, I will not make this mistake.

#2 -- Not all race fuels and sports drinks are equal (corollary -- it is not a good idea to learn how unequal they are during a marathon). For the first time in my life, I suffered a calf cramp on this run -- for about 4.5 miles from 19 - 23.5 I had to slow down by quite a bit to deal with the inability of my right calf to do its job. I was shocked. This is a very common runner's issue, but since I've never had one, I thought I was immune. My calves are kind of over-developed due to genetics, gymnastics, and diving (both sports in a past life, at this point) and I'm usually very good about making sure I've got my electrolyte intake nice and high, both before and during races.

This time I'd gone so far as to have a nice salty dinner and I'd eaten a banana before the race for potassium. During the race, I alternated the race-fuel options of Hammer Heed (not such a great taste) and Hammer Gel coupled with water at every other station.

To the race's credit, there were more aid stations on this marathon than any other race I've ever done. It seemed as if there was almost one every 1 - 1.5 miles. My experience would claim that this should keep me nice and well-fueled, especially given the pleasant temperatures of a start at 47F and a finish in the low 60s.

But, I sure didn't feel that way. From post-race research, I discovered 2 important differences between the Hammer products (which I'd never tried) and those I've used in the past: a) Hammer products have no simple sugars. They are sweetened with the no-cal sweetener Stevia and avoid glucose and sucrose. b) Hammer products have about 1/3 the sodium of other sports gels and drinks.

I can't be certain, but given how much I hit the wall, I think I'll err on the side of caution next time and be certain to stick to fuels with higher sodium and glucose/sucrose in addition to all the other goodies that Hammer's products contain.

#3 -- Racing experience can make up quite a bit of time. While this may be my 2nd fastest marathon, it did not feel that way. I hurt much more than I have in slower races. I was relatively well-trained, hitting a higher average weekly mileage than ever before during the marathon training cycle and thanks to the hills in Washington.

But, as I mentioned, I'm nowhere near my ideal race weight, and I've only been doing consistent longer distance weeks for 3-4 months instead of the more than a year of straight high mileage I've had under my belt for past marathons. I was pleased to see that these disadvantages were more than offset by my refusal to go faster than 8:45/mile (and my exception to the speed rule on downhills, where I let myself go as fast as I felt comfortable) and my refusal to walk without a very good reason -- I know I'm in good enough shape to run the whole 26.2, no use drawing it out.

So, I only stopped to walk through aid stations and once, on a hill during mile 26, when I was running on empty and it was apparent I wasn't going to break 4:10. I suspect that if I'd deployed these tactics in earlier races, those times may have been faster than this one, as I was lighter, younger, and had a better aerobic base. Chalk one up to age and deceit over youth and vigor [grin]!

2011-05-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

A Short Rant

For the second time in a month, Southwest has no record of a flight I swear I booked.

Today, we showed up at the airport and tried to check in for tonight's flight to Seattle prior to our drive to Spokane to meet my new nephew! Woo hoo!

Last time I caught it the day of when I tried to check in online (which I don't always do).

Both times I had the flight info in my outlook calendar, where I always enter the appointment *post* payment.

Yet somehow, those awesome sale fares were never booked. Instead, both times, the last minute flight has been 3-5X more expensive than the on-sale fare I thought I'd booked.

Moral of the story?

With Southwest, make sure to note the confirmation code before you put the flight in your calendar (especially when booking southwest sale fares).

Note -- with Alaska, I have never had this problem. If I enter the flight info after payment, I'm always *somewhere* in the system.

OF course, once that somewhere was a state where I was "cleared to fly" but not "in a seat." Had the plane been oversold, I would have been screwed. It took an agent 10 minutes to even figure out what happened (and the delay could have meant I wouldn't have made it to the gate in time except my flight ended up being delayed by 2 hours). Once they figured it out, they smiled and said, "Oh good, there are still seats left, I've booked you for a middle seat in row 27." At the time, I was, as you might imagine, underwhelmed with his success. Today, after having to accept that we'd just book middle seats on a flight tomorrow at 12:30 because tonight's evening flight was oversold, I realize just how lucky I was.

Have I mentioned I'm excited that tomorrow's flight to SEA is my last flight for a while?

Also, I should give huge props to Hyatt. Despite calling 2.5 hours after the "cancel without fees hour" when I explained my situation, they were very happy to cancel my reservation. I reiterate my position: Airline rewards are worthless. Hotels are where it's at.

2011-05-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

Touch and Go

A friend of mine was studying to get her pilot's license and often talked about "touch and goes." It sounded like a fairly complicated maneuver where one went through the mechanics of landing, rolled for a while and then went through the mechanics of take-off. You know, nothing but transitions, the hardest thing for humans to handle.

That's how I've felt for the last several months. Land in one city with just enough time to touch down, run around like a chicken with my head cut off, and then take off for another one.

Finally, as of last Wednesday (1 week ago already!) we only have one residence.

I've spent the last week enjoying the California weather, and tending to all of the things that were lost in the shuffle. Also, I was privileged to be the matron of honor in the gorgeous wedding of the friend I've had the longest out of all of my friends. It was very similar to my sister's wedding, in terms of my responsibilities and the number of familiar faces. This felt right, because in many ways, E2 feels like a sister as well.

Anyways, between the wedding, getting settled, getting the garden in the ground, catching up on bills and very busy clients, I've barely had time to come up for air.

Tomorrow evening, we head out for a road trip, where we visit my sister and her husband, I run my marathon, we visit Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone and on the way back we visit brother, mom and neice.

Except, of course, this is yet another touch and go -- my sister is being induced into labor tonight. So it's likely she won't be home yet or definitely won't want guests when we arrive.

No problem, we booked a room at the Davenport which was only $5 more than the Doubletree. Score! Hopefully we'll get to the meet the little man before we leave. Bonus, I'll get to see my mom as well.

This is the year that my travel planning has been epic in terms of timing. Between accidentally booking free hotels in Paris on Bastille Day and managing to plan a trip to visit my sister right when the baby is born before I knew she was pregnant, I'm thinking I may have missed my calling.

Anyways, that's a brief summary of where I've been and what I've been doing in the last few days. I can see a much more calm life and regular posting on the horizon and I'm excited to get there.

But, the excitement of my new nephew, the road trip, the marathon and the national parks calls for just one more lift off before I can touch down and relax for a more proper homecoming and rest.

2011-05-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

Nostalgic Already

Washington brought out the big guns and treated us to gorgeous weather (the bay area does not have skies that blue or water that gorgeous or snow-capped mountains in the distance). Also, our local friends made themselves amazingly available to say goodbye and hangout over our last few days.

This resulting in me, today, walking back to the apartment after lunch in the park with friends, sad. Much more sad than I expected. It was only 3 months.

And yet, we tried on a different life, and there are many great things we will miss:

-walking distance to friends (as in 1 block to their building!)
-a gorgeous park across the street with a lovely 1/2 mile gravel loop
-All of the Happy Hours full of amazingly decadent food and drinks
-the blissfully cool temperatures and hills that made me a much better runner faster than anything I could have done at home
-E's new friends at MSFT and AMZN
-A slower life. With less friends and business obligations, we had much more time to hang out, just the two of us. We will try to implement that policy at home, but if history is any guide, it will be difficult. In Washington, it was guiltless -- no refused invitations to spend the third Saturday in a row with just us -- it just happened that way. At home... well, we are, for better and for worse, much more frenetic.

But, we are now home. And that, too, is a great thing!

2011-05-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

My Next Long Run Will Be a Marathon

I switched up my training to add one more long run this week after I was unable to do the 20 miler last weekend. After reading about the Hansons' plan (which I may opt to do for my next marathon), I decided running on tired legs was a good thing. Especially if I had enough time to recover. And, of course, I was a little concerned about missing my last long run before the race.

So, today, the last predicted sunny day of our stay in Seattle, I decided to combine a friend's plan to run up Queen Anne with some additional mileage around Green Lake.

Wow. This was the hardest long run I'd done in a long time. It wasn't quite as bad as the training run from hell. But still -- starting with a warmup followed by a 1.6 mile climb up a large hill is a good way to tire yourself out long before the 16 miles are done. Oh, and when you do the 16 miles 5 days after the hilliest half marathon you've ever done (at marathon pace), you may not be totally recovered.

Plus, in my infinite wisdom, I had some wine while waiting for my delayed plane last night. I almost always choose to eat healthy and avoid alcohol the day before a long run. Today reminded me why.

Finally, I only brought 2 Gus. I really could have used 3 or 4. But, I was feeling like I could use some measures of caloric austerity after the wine last night. Note to self, skimp on the wine before the long run, not the Gus during...

Overall, I'm thrilled that I'm finally ready to taper. I'm tired. Literally. Lately, I fall asleep before the double digits on many nights a week. I've done more 40+ mile weeks in training for this marathon than ever before, and it is taking its tole on me, both physically and mentally.

Today, around mile 10, I experienced something I'd never experienced before. I just wanted to sleep on my run. I honestly considered whether I could fall asleep while running.

Thankfully, I pushed through, and now I'm on the downhill slope to the race. Nothing but 8 miles or less for 16 days (including some pure rest days!) and then I get to test my fitness against my old self.

Wish me luck!

2011-05-09T21:45:00.000-07:00

My Husband Is a Genius

On technical matters, I never forget. He's a freak of nature in how smart he is.

But tonight, we had the best date night we'd had in a long time. And I'd forgotten -- he's also a genius when it comes to enjoying steak.

At least 2 months ago, he'd identified John Howie Steak as the one big celebratory date night splurge meal he'd like to do before we left the Seattle area.

We'd been a few times for their Happy Hour and while I agreed that their offerings were good, I was not sold.

First, their menu was *very* expensive.

Second, with such a great happy hour menu, I found it hard to justify going all out.

But, E was insistent. He'd scoured their ever changing menu and drooled over drying cuts in the cold cellar. This was his one request while we were here.

So, of course, we made plans to fit it in (and, we wanted to do so with enough buffer before our trip to Spokane/Coeur D'alene/Yellowstone that we wouldn't want to avoid steak on our trip -- 'cause if she hasn't yet popped out the Kid, my pregnant sister has plans to treat us to steak, too! Yay!).

Turns out, tonight ended up being the night for steak. So, we made reservations and walked on down.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Best steakhouse I've been to in the United States.

E knows how to pick them. That is no joke.

Plus, we deployed the trick we learned in Argentina and opted to share. The 3 (4 oz.) filet sampler. USDA prime vs. American Wagyu vs. Australian Wagyu. We blind tasted and laughed -- telling the USDA prime from the Wagyu was a piece of cake. Telling the Wagyu from each other was an acquired taste.

Add a glass of bubbly for me and a syrah for E plus a half bottle of Sequel 2006 Syrah, salads beforehand (plus a breadbasket full of awesomely decadent bread selections), and sides of macaroni & cheese (to die for) and polenta with American Wagyu bolognese (too much, to be honest, we didn't even pack it to go) and we were in heaven.

All in all, it was a perfect date night.

2011-05-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

Oh My Aching Quads! (aka Kirkland Half Marathon Race Report)

Yesterday, I ran the most difficult half marathon course I've ever run -- the Kirkland Half Marathon.

It was near the top of my list in terms of total elevation change, but it was a road race instead of a trail run. The two other extremely hilly courses I've run were trail runs -- which are notoriously slower and less of a "race". Also, trails are much more forgiving on your feet, quads, and back when you are taking the extra force of the downhills.

Finally, several of the roads on this course were extremely banked. This meant that in addition to pounding on the pavement, at times, we were running at an angle, with one leg repeatedly hitting the ground lower and pushing off harder than the other leg. Unfortunately, this caused my running buddy to pull a muscle in her calf. (Poor thing! I'm so sad for her.)

The hills were placed such that there really weren't any long flats on the entire course. If you exclude an unscheduled walk break due to my running buddy's injury, I did the remainder of the course at 1 second/mile faster than my goal pace for the marathon (8:59). This felt great because the course was very difficult, so if all goes well, I feel confident that my marathon pacing goals are reasonable.

For example, while I hit my goal pace average with 1 second to spare, I only ran one split within 14 seconds/mile of goal pace (Mile 2, 9:00 on the dot). The remaining splits were all over the map including miles as fast as 8:03 and as slow as 9:42. The elevation chart from my Garmin explains why.

The first 1.3 miles were rolling hills with a net gain of over 270 ft. When we finally hit the crest of the final hill and could see the downhill, I looked at H and said, "Holy crap that was brutal. We're at least 30 seconds behind."

The next 2 miles (again rolling hills) had a net loss of 320 ft. So, we made up the lost time (and then some) and decided to try to hit our goal pace despite the surprise of the course difficulty. (Note to self, when races don't post pace elevation profiles, be very suspicious).

The next surprise was a 250 ft. climb over 0.7 miles for a 6.7% grade (9:24 for that mile). Followed by a 100 ft. drop over 0.5 miles, a 50 ft climb over 0.2 miles, and so it went...

From mile 5 to mile 7, we slightly rolled through a climb of 200 ft. The next downhill was my favorite (because I love downhills) but I heard the cursing and frustration of many whose knees, legs and backs did not enjoy it -- a 330 foot drop over 1.2 miles -- an average grade of -5.2%, which in reality was made steeper by the 2 sharp climbs of 30 and 20 feet they threw in the middle to break it up.

The remaining 5 miles of the race was nothing but a 50 ft climb, two 100 ft climbs, a 200 ft climb, and two 70 ft climbs plus the intermittent drops. Nary a flat to be found.

I was thrilled to open the elevation profile for my upcoming marathon and see that while there are some rolling hills with 20-30 ft climbs and drops none of them are particularly sharp, and there are only two serious climbs to consider. Both of them are around 100 feet in total gain (and loss) with an average max grade of 2.9%. Yes, I'm sure they will be difficult because a marathon always is, but at least the hills will be nothing compared with yesterday.

Due to H's injury, my plan of doing 7 out and back after the race turned into 1.5 out and back while she was in the medical trailer. My total mileage of 14.6 was nowhere near the 20 I'd hoped for. But, I didn't feel too disappointed. In fact, as the day wore on, and the physical side effects of the effort hit me, I realized it was probably for the best that I hadn't done the full 20 -- it would have likely beat me up a bit too much and this week's training would be shot.

So, I recorded the week's total mileage at 45.81 and moved things around this week to include a 16 miler instead of 12. Thankfully, I did fit in one 20 miler three weeks ago (I'd forgotten about it and was very happy to see it in my log), so I'll just have to make due with the late-stage sub 20 long runs and hope for the best.

3 weeks 'til the marathon (and the trip back to California where we can enjoy sunshine!)

2011-05-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

Blooms

This weekend, the weather treated us to gorgeous sunshine with a few clouds. So, in addition to enjoying my long runs and a barbeque with friends (and their chickens and kids). E and I drove out to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

There were rows of colors as far as the eye could see.

When the sun came out, the colors were almost too brilliant to bear.

They come in all shapes and sizes. This is one of my favorite tulips of the day, Claudia:

For Christmas, my brother-in-law gave me a book titled The Thoughtful Gardener. It is a hilarious collection of vignettes by a British Master gardner. I'm 3/4 through it, and only this week hit the first entry related to vegetable gardening. Previously, I enjoyed gardening for food. But this book (and the trip to the tulip festival) have broadened my horizons and I now have plans to plant bulbs and flowers for more than just attracting pollinating insects.

In running news, my mileage hit 47+ last week. I've never had a training week that heavy before, and this week's is scheduled to be even larger. So far, I'm holding up relatively well -- my legs are tired and tight from the weekend's long runs, but I feel strong and ready for today's 6 mile recovery run. 4 weeks 'til the marathon!

2011-04-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Conscious Eating and Depleting

So, I gained 10+ pounds last year. Between my brother living with us after his accident and starting my own law practice I found myself with many reasons to eat richly and not as many openings for vigorous caloric expenditure as I might want.

Lucky for me, I'm dense. I carry excess weight fairly efficiently. Based on how I look, I've never been problematically obese. I didn't have to buy new clothes, they just looked a little less attractive. So, I packed on a little less than one pound a month for a year and that was that.

But, now that I'm facing reality, obviously I need to lose the 10 pounds. And, once I started looking into the latest health and diet information, I found that I couldn't ignore the reports on adipose tissue around organs in western people vs. Afghanis.

And, I really can't ignore that as a very slow runner, I'm 30+ pounds heavier than my newfound hero Desiree Davila. As the fastest American Female Boston Marathoner, she's the epitome of health. While I, shorter than her, am fighting off 10 lbs to get to a *goal* weight that is 20+ pounds heavier than her race weight.

I've heard Kevin Patterson's saying: "Your body will forgive you for eating just about anything if you move enough." I like that logic. I just need to start moving enough to make me feel like I belong to the covered class.

Unfortunately, I've also read Born To Run (Awesome Book!) and it led me to think that if the secret to human health is running like the historic running cultures, then truly, it's also about a simple diet made primarily of plants.

Moving alone may not be sufficient.

Plus, in my newfound quest for health, I read the reports from the Biosphere and the amazing health benefits the previously healthy by western standards biospherians experienced from eating a diet that was entirely self-produced. And, there are tons of articles and studies showing the benefits of applying the principles of anti-inflammation to the modern diet -- most of the experts in this field have specific foods they recommend and almost all of them are unprocessed plants. It's pretty obvious where the science is headed (and I'm sad to see the information isn't getting as much press as I'd like because there's no money to be made off of it).

We may not like it, but it looks like Healthy Humans do best with regularly meeting 90%-100% of their needs (easy to do with a primarily plant-based diet), plus the occasional celebration full of caloric/protein/fat/mineral/vitamin/co-vitamin excess and the occasional starvation every now and again.

So, where does this leave me?

Well, for starters, I'm moving more. As I mentioned, I'm training for a marathon. It feels great to be so full of motion and momentum. Yesterday, I ran the fastest 3 miles I'd run in 2 years. I felt so alive.

On the other hand, if I am honest with myself, I think the issue is not just about movement. Let's say I accept that 1 tsp once every three days of Turmeric can significantly reduce inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis, or that 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil is as good as 200 mg Ibuprofen for calming muscular inflammation.

If that's true, then shouldn't the counter be true? Shouldn't 2 tsp of fats or sugars separated from their natural counterparts have similar strong effects on me? Isn't it weird that at the airport, when they offer me something fried as my quick meal before I board my flight, I can consume (in addition to whatever has been fried) 200 Cals of plant fats without the mulitple pints of fiber and all of the vitamins and minerals I'd historically have to consume to get those plant fats?)

And, yes, I'm aware of the Sugar is Poison movement.

But, I don't have a sweet tooth and I'm watching my caloric intake to get back into my acceptable weight range (so I can evaluate whether I need to re-define "acceptable"). Therefore, at the moment, I have no direct issues with sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Since I've been trying to eat primarily plant-based foods with minimal processing (limiting my grain intake to unmodified whole grains has been educational) and generally shy away from pre-prepared food, I haven't seen much of the backlash from this article, which apparently is large and fascinating. Good for Lestig.

In summary, tonight, at a local mediterranean joint, I was shocked when my squid came breaded and fried. The menu said that it was cooked in white wine and garlic. Little did I know that there was a breaded/fried portion of the prep. I realized it had been weeks, if not months since I had had truly fried food. Don't worry, I got over the surprise, enjoyed my unexpected treat, and the leftovers are in the fridge for tomorrow post run.

But, it got me thinking. If you're actually looking to implement a historically, evolutionarily healthy diet/lifestyle, you probably have to start with avoiding almost all of the culturally normal American food (fast food, restaurant food, packaged pre-prepared foods) and getting down to what Americans would consider an almost starvation weight. Once there, you'd need to stay active and continue to avoid the majority of the culturally normal American food except the occasional (once a month, perhaps?) splurge.

So, Washington -- Thanks! You gave me the time and space to experiment with instituting an eating pattern and level of running activity to become much healthier. Oh, and you made me appreciate my Californian weather in ways that nothing else ever could.

2011-04-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Exhausted

I had more girl time this weekend than I've had in a very long time.

3 roadtrips with friends.

Dinner with my mom, sister and our girlfriends.

Preparing for and helping to host my sister's baby shower.

The bachelorette party of one of my best friends.

A Sunday of recovery and hanging out with one of my college roommates.

Our flight back to Washington left at 6:40 AM, today.

Oh, and I kicked it all off with a 20 mile run on Friday morning.

Yes, I am about to lie down for a much-deserved nap. (Thanks to my clients who have treated me to a rather mellow Monday so far!)

2011-04-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

Boston, reviewed

So, the Boston Marathon was an epic event this year.

The fastest marathon ever ran by a human (2:03:02)? Check. The second place guy was faster than the standing world record as well. And he was in his debut marathon.

Ryan Hall running the fastest marathon ever run by an American (2:04:58) and taking fourth? Check.

Kara Goucher setting a PR by 2 minutes and taking 5th 6.5 months after giving birth to her first son? Check.

Desiree Davila (previously, a relatively unknown U.S. runner) leading for much of the final miles and thrilling us as she pushed the pace of the leaders and surged to battle for first, finally finishing second place (by 2 seconds) and breaking the U.S. women's course record? Check.

Joan Benoit Samuelson (holder of the prior U.S. women's course record) running a 2:51 at the age of 53? Yup, that happened too.

All in all, it was one of the most amazing sports events I've ever watched.

I may never be in good enough shape to qualify to run it now that the new standards are in place. But I'm definitely thrilled to enjoy it as a spectator and I may just go and volunteer one day to experience the thrill of the day in person.

2011-04-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Ahhh...Boston

On Monday I'm going to enjoy this year's Boston Marathon. I'm rooting for Kara Goucher, Ryan Hall, and Joan Benoit Samuelson to all have an excellent day. The international field is very strong with both of last year's winners returning and some wildcard debuts as well. It is going to be an exciting race.

My marathon PR is a 4:04:27. For the last several years, I've considered the potential goal of running the Boston Marathon. Until this year, my Boston qualifying time was 3:40:59. Based on some of my speed workouts in past years, when I've been at my fittest, I think it probably would have been possible for me to hit that time if all things went well, but I haven't made the lifestyle rearrangements and training commitment to make it happen.

This year was supposed to be a magical year -- because I will have switched age groups, I'd only have to hit 3:45:59 to qualify. My original plan was to get back into shape for the Coeur d'Alene Marathon and try to PR. Then, if I felt strong and motivated, I'd try to qualify for Boston at CIM in December.

Unfortunately, things have changed in Boston that make this plan less likely to be successful than I had hoped.

First, Boston registration has hit its max number of participants in record time in the last few years. Historically, you could register as late as February for the April race. But, 2010 registration closed in November 2009 (ahead of CIM in December). And, 2011 registration closed in just 9 hours when it opened in October.

To address this, the Boston Athletic Association has changed the way registration works. First, it will be open in September and will close two weeks later.

In other words, CIM BQ times run in December must be used for the Boston Marathon two calendar years after the calendar year of CIM. Or, in my case, no magical qualifying age-group boost from CIM this year.

Second, registration will now be in tiers. Athletes with a qualifying time of 20 minutes less than the BQ will be allowed to register first, 2 days later, those with 10 minutes to spare are welcome, then those with 5 minutes to spare, and finally open registration for all comers with a BQ who haven't yet registered.

If I am honest with myself, achieving a BQ time has always been a long shot goal for me (even with the now-unavailable magical age-group boost). Doable, but close.

My guess is that this year's registration will be full before the open registration period begins. I think the Boston Athletic Association thinks so too, because in addition to tiered registration, starting in 2013, the qualifying times will be 5m59s faster than their current levels (or, despite the new age group, I'm right back up to 3:40 again).

Additionally, Boston will now confirm people's times and register those in each tier in order of speediest qualifying finishes.

I belong to one of the most populous demographic groups in marathon running. So, I'm guessing the actual qualifying and registration time cutoffs for those in my group are going to be *MUCH* faster than they have been.

I guess what I'm saying is, it looks like if I want to qualify for and actually register for the Boston Marathon, it's going to be a much larger commitment than I originally expected.

I'm not sure how I feel about that, for me. I think it'll make for a much more competitive and prestigious race. But I'm just not sure that level of performance and the sacrifices it would require are attractive to me.

I think I'll just focus on Coeur d'Alene for now -- 6 weeks to go and I'm definitely getting back into shape. I checked my running logs and my 6 miler this week was faster than anything I've done in more than a year (including faster than runs I did 7 pounds lighter!). This has been a step-down week of 33 miles and I've got a 10K tomorrow, so after the race, I should have some good feedback on speed and fitness to help me reassess my marathon pace goals.

2011-04-15T00:21:00.001-07:00

Cooler Than We Thought

Thanks to my plane delay, tonight, we ended up showing up for one of our local late night happy hours for dinner at 11:15 PM. Pearl's free valet parking, mussels, tuna tartar, sautéed wild mushrooms, tenderloin bites with blue cheese and an extra side of bread? Oh, hell yes. We were spoiled rotten. And we devoured every bite amongst the cool digerati.

We were also out 'til after midnight, which for us is a serious rarity. Last night, I fell asleep at 10:30 PM before my 23-yr-old roommate in CA even made it home from his workout.

Add the pretty people in town for business in their gorgeous clothes and we were very happy with ourselves this evening. We felt like perhaps we were not seriously lame and old.

In fact, after our impressive late night performance on a Thursday (before a Friday and Saturday of ridiculously good behavior to prep for Sunday's race), the only downside was, by the time we got back to our building, all of the useful parking was taken and we had to park 2 floors down, far from the elevators.

All-in-all, given the scenery and delicious food, it was worth it. At least this once. Next time, we'll likely skip it, but at least we now know what it's all about and that next time we'd prefer a slightly less hip establishment.

Mmmm... I'm so happy to have butter sauce soaked bread (mussels with bacon and a separate mushroom dish???) in my belly. It's a rare option these last 4 months, since I've been committed to healthier eating and training. But, boy-oh-boy, when it's available, the hind-brain is all too happy to indulge in the high calorie protein/fat feast. Yummm!!!

2011-04-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Slow

Yesterday, I ran next weekend's 10K race course with V at a nice easy pace and was a super lazy bum for the rest of the day. I started and finished Mennonite in a Little Black Dress while laying in recovery yoga poses and laughing out loud -- one of the most relaxing days I've had in a while. It felt good to stay in one place for more than 24 hours after so many weeks of flying back and forth between the bay area and seattle.

Last night, we had a nice healthy meal of matzo ball soup (I now make it from scratch), steamed broccoli, and salad. I went to bed and fell asleep at a reasonable hour and had high hopes for yet another awesome weekend long run.

Today's long run was supposed to be 17 miles. I'd registered for the Soaring Eagle 10 mile trail run and figured I'd add the 5 mile loop and a 2 mile out and back to make the total.

Unfortunately, it did not go as smoothly as I hoped. First, despite printing directions from the race website rather than relying on the duplicitous google maps, the directions were still a bit confusing and I had to backtrack, making myself late for the start. A very sweet wife of a distance runner picked me up rather than continue on her exit as I parked (far from the start) and she drove me right up to the flags, assuring me that they'd just started and that she'd see me at the end. (She did, and she recognized me and introduced me to her husband. What a great running supporter!)

Since everyone else was already on the course, I skipped the registration tent and just asked the organizers which color streamers to follow (orange, they were all orange). I headed out and quickly slowed to a halting dance between puddles and muck. The entire 15 foot width of the main trail was a collection of muddy shoe prints! I don't mean slightly muddy, I mean, you could see the imprints of the sides of people's shoes in the mud. Extremely muddy! With all of the slipping and sliding, I was barely doing a 20 minute mile. After half a mile, I decided I'd be better just road running my long run and I turned around. But, once I returned to the start, the organizers saw me and pointed me up a single track trail that was in much better shape.

So, I headed up the hill once more, ran where I could, splashed through several puddles and creeks, slipped and slid through entirely too many mud patches to count, and finally finished the 10 mile loop in 2:01:08 (give or take a few percentage in either variable due to the turn around and watch stopping and general GPS tomfoolery in the forest).

Trouble was, after all the jumping, slipping, sliding, and avoiding roots, the 10 felt like much, much, more. And, my shoes were sopping wet and covered with mud.

I made a deal with myself and did another 2.5 miles and called it a day.

Yes, I was 4.5 miles short. No, I did not like that reality (although I did like the reality of the brownies and pizza at the "finish"). 3-4 inches of mud on the main road and creeks full of muddy water on the single track made for lots of jumping and lateral motions to deal with obstacles that couldn't be avoided. It felt like much more distance than it actually was. And, my shoes had some evidence of just how hard I'd worked for those 12.5 miles. Even after the last 2.5 miles on the road to shake loose much of the gunk, they looked like they'd had a rough day:

I'm hoping that in hindsight, the decision to limit the muddy miles will appear intelligent, but I'm somewhat apprehensive of the fact that it's 7 weeks 'til the marathon.

I'm recording 36.06 miles for this week (instead of breaking 40, per my training schedule). This total includes a great mid-week loop with a friend (on sabbatical from UW -- academic life sounds heavenly!) around Greenlake and yesterday's trial of next weekend's race course.

I now know that next week's 10K will be *very* hilly (including starting on a very steep hill, which is probably smart to space out the runners, but quite difficult, nonetheless). I'm not looking to PR, but the course is fully paved and will be traffic-controlled, so I am excited to push myself and to use the results to inject some useful data into the assessment of just how fit I am (allowing me to evaluate my goal pace for my first marathon in more than 2 and half years).

Onward!

2011-04-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Need For Speed

I'm suffering from a cold. It sucks. Big time. My allergies are already super lame here -- who knew that Washington was the capitol of pollen? Even with all the rain to clear the air. But, after discussing with many folks, I've been re-educated. Snot is a way of life here for people like me. Blissfully non-allergenic air, like the sunshine, is just another thing about the bay area I didn't appropriately appreciate until now (and I'll never take for granted again).

Anyways, I've been suffering from a full-blown viral snot-reproduction party in my nasal cavities for the last several days. Lame.

Only up-side? Running clears my sinuses. I already had a pretty good incentive and motivation to run, but now, I've got to rein myself in from running more than what's on the training plan because I know that when I run, I can breathe.

Today, I did outdoor speed training at our local park. I haven't done outdoor speed training in a very long time. I'd forgotten how variable my top speed is while doing speed outdoors. The treadmill is so reliable on that issue -- it just does the speed you tell it to do, and voila´ you are training appropriately. Outdoors, there's wind, dogs, people, turns, and, of course, your own motivation.

Needless to say, while I felt more sore than a treadmill workout, the new Garmin that E bought for me was brutal and painfully accurate in its honesty. Today's outdoor workout was not anywhere near as fast as it would have been on a treadmill. And yet, I can't help but think it's better for me, nonetheless. I feel like I had a better workout than if I was on the treadmill. At the end of the day, I'll take that metric over the fancy wireless data feed anyday.

The goal was 6X0.25miles at 7:30 pace. Yes, I know many people would not consider this speed training.

Good for them.

Today, I averaged 7:45 or so across intervals at as quick of pace as 7:33 and 7:35 and as slow as 8:07. Clearly, consistency is not my strongsuit.

But, despite my sickness, I went out for the speed workout. And despite the variability and slower than hoped for times, it went well.

Overall, I'm happy to be moving, slowly, haltingly, perhaps incorrectly, but at all times with much momentum towards may Marathon in May.

Here's to increased speed and hopes for healthy fitness on the weekend of the race!

2011-04-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

Momentum Building

This week's long run was 15 miles. I haven't ran 15 miles (or more) in a single run since my last marathon, the San Francisco Marathon, in August of 2008.

So, completing 15 in one run feels like a huge milestone.

Today, I cleared it quite easily thanks to the weather and a new friend. I know V from lawyer networking in the bay area, but she's up here now, working for MSFT. She emailed me to let me know she's training for a half in May and looking for a weekend running buddy. Done!

We agreed that she'd try to join me on my medium length runs on the weekends. This weekend, we planned to meet up at Pioneer Park for a medium run on Sunday.

Yesterday, howevever, the weather was not on my side. So, I decided to hit the treadmill for a medium run on Saturday, and to fit our joint run into the middle of my long run on Sunday.

It worked perfectly. It was a little less than 7 miles from our place to the park entrance and because I knew I was meeting someone, I didn't let myself drop the pace -- I put in a nice solid 7 miles and arrived at exactly the moment V's car passed the entrance. Once we met up, we did a very enjoyable and amusing (muddy, a few adventures in getting lost) 5 miles. From there, V kindly drove me back to the main I-90 trail entrance where I did my remaining 3+ miles and then walked back to the apartment to cool down. 1 pre-run latte, 2 gus, some water, a post-race shower and lunch of Greek food, and I feel great.

In fact, the most sore part of my body right now is a strange collection of muscles including my right triceps, the muscle that does external rotation in my right forearm, and my right latissimus dorsi. WTF? I noticed it yesterday and asked E if he had any ideas -- nothing. But today, on my arrival back from the run, he asked, did you say your arm hurt? (while rubbing his right triceps and lat).

I laughed out loud. Once I saw that he was sore in the same areas, I knew exactly what had happened. Friday night date at the Arcade was apparently a little too aggressive on the air hockey and the ski-ball. Comedy.

In other news, my weekly mileage hit 39.59. Washington definitely seems to be agreeing with me and my running goals right now. Onward!

Marathon Countdown? 8 weeks to go.

2011-04-01T16:51:00.001-07:00

The Unhappy Hour

One of the great things about our temporary relocation is the opportunity to try new restaurants. When E's folks were in town, we ate out for every meal, both in the greater Seattle area and in Whistler.

We still have plans to hit up Salumi, Mario Battali's dad's deli, one of these days, but that will likely need to wait for a weekend so we can make a full Seattle day of it.

Due to the economic downturn, many of the fancy restaurants in the Seattle area have taken to having happy hour menus with small plates in the restaurant's theme and lower priced drinks. Since we live within walking distance of downtown Bellevue, we can walk to many of these options in less than 5 minutes. Additionally, some of the restaurants have taken to offering the happy hour menu again, after the traditional dinner hour. This results in the interesting side effect that the happy hour menu is available from 3 - midnight in many of these restaurants with only a short break from 6:30 to 9 or so.

So, we've taken to eating only during happy hour (or avoiding the "unhappy hour" as I like to call it) at some of our favorite restaurants like Seastar (a walk to an early dinner of half-priced oysters, deviled eggs, and raw fish?), Daniel's Broiler (early or late deliciousness with a view of Seattle from the 21st floor), and John Howie Steak (Did someone say *fried* gnochi?).

There are several more options we're looking forward to trying like Pearl and Monsoon.

Unfortunately, my favorite local restaurant, Din Tai Fung does not have happy hour, nor do they take reservations. So we go there at odd hours to avoid the 1.5 hour wait as well. E's favorite restaurant, Sushimaru is so reasonably priced that every seat along the conveyor belts are full with a wait on the benches along the wall during workday lunch and dinner hours.

In short, the traditional eating hours are not a good time to be eating at restaurants in the Seattle area. But if you're flexible on time, you can get quite a great deal.

2011-03-30T12:11:00.001-07:00

Christina Catzoela Is an Awesome Attorney

I had the privilege of meeting her in law school and becoming close friends with her when we worked together.

When she was a junior associate, she tried to help the customer of one of her law firm's clients.

She was rewarded with praise in a letter written by the customer.

Unfortunately, because the remainder of the letter was full of complaints, and it was posted to a complaints board, her name is now associated with a search result link whose title gives the opposite impression. If you read the letter, you will see that despite the author's negative opinions of the remainder of the treatment they received, they had nothing but good things to say about Ms. Catzoela.

This post serves two purposes: (1) to attempt to inject some additional explanation and positive mojo into Ms. Catzoela's Google juice. (2) to observe the effect, if any, a single blog post by me can have on a fairly low-volume search term in Google's results.

Update: Cool! Google apparently just slurps blogger posts straight into the index. Instant gratification!

2011-03-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Lake Sammamish Half

Vegetable udon soup may be my new pre-race meal, and the leftovers with extra sauteed udon were even better than the original (the mushroom flavor soaked into the broth and the added fat made it much more delicious). Healthy, hearty, but light.

A good night's sleep and an easy wake-up made me feel like this was going to be a good race.

I conned E into driving me to the start, which was awesome, since the course is one-way and the last bus was much too early for my taste.

We walked down to the Starbucks in our building, caffeinated, and we were off. Only problem was, Google maps decided to give us directions to the finish, not the start. Apparently, "Lake Sammamish" will give you directions to the Marymoor park, not Lake Sammamish State Park. They are both on the lake, but Google decided it knew best without informing me and by the time we figured it out, we were a 20 minute drive from the start (and we needed gas).

By the time we arrived, the centipede of runners was snaking away from the start and I had to run against them to try to get my chip activated. I finally turned the corner to see the start archway deflating.

Oh, well. I turned around, now the last person in the centipede and tried to make the best of it. My initial miles were on pace for my hoped for goal of breaking 2 hours. Unfortunately, around mile 6, I bonked and just couldn't keep that pace anymore. So, I did the best I could and completed 12.49 (I lost a bit of distance in the beginning madness) at the fastest pace I've in run a race in 2 years.

All in all, it was a great day. The weather held perfectly cool without raining. I pushed myself physically and found that yes, I am regaining my former fitness level, but, I still have a ways to go.

Vegetable Udon Soup

3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp ginger, chopped
Olive Oil
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
3-4 carrots, chopped into rounds
bunch of chives, chopped
1 small head of radicchio, chopped
2 blocks of frozen udon
Somen soup base
broth
chili paste

Night 1: Sautée ginger and garlic in olive oil on high until garlic starts to brown. Add carrots and stir. Add 2-4 cups broth, some somen base and water and bring to a boil. Add mushrooms and radicchio and simmer for 10 minutes. Add chives and 1 block of frozen udon, simmer for a few minutes until the udon is cooked through. Taste broth and add somen base if not flavorful enough. Serve with chili sauce as a garnish.

Night 2: heat leftovers in the microwave and sauté udon in olive oil and a tsp of somen soup base. Add sautéed noodles to re-heated broth and enjoy!

2011-03-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Can I have a Back-Up Camp?

When I informed her that I'd found a lego-mania camp for her summer visit, my almost not but thankfully still child-niece, sweet juvenile meaning-giving love of my live, asked me innocently, "Can we have a back-up camp?"

Perhaps this had something to do with last summer, when I sold the idea of lego-mania camp in May, only to call and find out that they all were booked, and then I booked her for gymnastics and rock-climbing camp (which was run by a former college gymnast colleague of mine and she appreciated and attacked with appropriate vigor).

If we are honest, her request may also be attached to my sale of "space camp" the year prior, only to learn it was no longer a local option at Moffett Field despite the signs on the road when you exited the 101, but rather, the camp was only in Alabama.

Regardless, the phone call, when you say, "I've got 8/1 (August 1) marked off for you to come and stay with us for lego camp," and she says, "Uhhh... ummm... if that doesn't work, can I have a back-up camp to go to pottery camp? And, I think I may have schoool..."

And I realize -- Oh shit: Last year. Your dad was paralyzed and you were dealing with it. You, a child, learned to think about things that are out of your control. We didn't get around to putting you in the lego camp we promised. You ended up in rock climbing camp and gymnastics camp. That would have been my heaven, by you are taller and less bendy, and more social and creative. You, adorably polite, never let us know, but you probably wished it were lego camp every day (which had been fully booked by the time we managed to schedule it... not this year, captain lego-mania!)

In short, NO. You may not have a back-up camp. Lego-mania is booked for you, my dear. And we are excited to have you as our guest. (Also, we'll go to color me mine with friends, so if anyone is interested, let us know.).

2011-03-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

Rollin'

Thanks to the commitment of Z and our joint registration many months ago, I completed my first half marathon in 9 months (and my 20th ever) today. It was even more important because it was the first half I *ran* since November 2009 as my last completed effort was a 3-hour run-walk to support a friend in her first (and post-pregnancy) half marathon.

Apparently, Z sent our weather down to the Los Angelese Marathon where hundreds were checked for hypothermia (and Ethiopians won both categories. Yay for underdogs!). The hypothermia concern is interesting to me, since the LA Marathon was merely 60F and rain, while we, up in the Seattle area literally cheered on command at the start to celebrate the first clear day of spring weather of sun and 45F and the only concern you might have heard was whether hands were too cold. I guess acclimatization is a much stronger force than I realized. Certainly, I have become much better at running in the cold since moving here. At least once or twice a week, I head out without hesitation between guaranteed rain in search of good weather that even if it holds would have been enough to keep me home in California.

So, here I am, in Washington, training for my first marathon in 2 years, 10 months, and I'm almost a year and half after running my last half. I gleefully finished today's half 5 minutes slower than my last real effort. Not so much slower that I felt bad, but enough to encourage me to work harder.

Overall, it was a perfect re-entry to racing. Doing it with a friend who flew up for a multi-day visit and who used to live here? Awesome. She directed us to delicious restaurants, asian bakeries, grocery stores (yay Uwajimaya), and cute neighborhoods we should check out. Also, magically, she brought fairytale weather for her visit so that we could enjoy a perfect day today for the Mercer Island Half. After an early Saturday night, we woke to sunshine and clear skies, which was important since the views of the lake and the snow-capped mountains behind the Seattle skyline were necessary to distract us from the hilly course.

Note: Just because a course is along a shoreline does not mean it is without hills. Particularly on an island (where obviously something is pushing it out of the water!). On the other hand, my ignorance of the elevation changes made today an awesome hilly training run for next weekend's small and supposedly flat along-the-lake race, where I'm hoping to test my fitness.

As for that marathon -- I'm registered and it's 10 weeks out. Wow. That's soon. Wish me luck!

2011-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

Bump on a Log

When we were being lazy or not moving fast enough, my dad used to say, "Don't just sit there like a bump on a log."

This saying annoyed the hell out of me when I was a kid.

So, Imagine my surprise to find that it's slipped out of my mouth a few times this week.

I used to think this saying was corny. For some reason it reminded me of the farm where my dad grew up. Perhaps because I'd heard my grandfather (papa) say it as well, and he lived on the farm until he died. I think I used to think it was provincial. Unsophisticated.

This week, when I've used it, I've been thoroughly amused. The first time, I thought, "Woah brain, way to dig deep back in time!" The second time, I smiled and thought, "Yeah, actually, he does physically resemble a bump on a log on that couch." And, the third time, last night, I mentally pictured a woodpile full of oak rounds, many of them with individual bumps and smiled at the appropriateness of the simile.

And, of course, every time I say it, I feel close to my father and his extended family.

So, if I start sounding more and more like a country bumpkin hick seed from the sticks, you can recall that it all started with a bump on a log.

2011-03-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Fast and Focused

2011 is flying by.

There's never enough time to do everything, but the temporary move has helped me change my priorities.

I'm nowhere near on-track for my 30 book challenge -- I haven't even finished the first book I started this year! I do love reading, but it's just not as important as many of the items that get my time lately.

I told myself that 2011 would be the year I finally got back into running shape and I seem to be committed (at the expense of books, clearly). I'm more or less in sync with my running goals, especially if you count last weekend's downhill skiing at elevation as acceptable cross-training instead of weekend long runs. I guess I'll find out when I head out for a 12 mile Saturday run with Z (who's flying up to join me for for my first half marathon this year!) followed by a 10 mile Sunday run through the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Work is busy for both E and me. Since we both work for ourselves, this is a good thing. We never have trouble making time for work a priority. On the other hand, it's hard to leave work at work when you work from the kitchen table of a rented apartment in a city away from your home.

By moving, we've eliminated the casual daily social interruptions, like business lunches or evenings/weekends outings with friends. Instead, our social life is much more dense but only in bursts. When I'm in California, I jam pack my schedule full of visits with clients, friends, and family as well as events -- but it's a limited time and I can only see those who have time to see me when I'm available.

In Washington, I'm basically free of social obligations except for time dedicated to people who made the effort to travel to see me and a few scattered friends who, because they live in WA, are not a daily part of my life. Over time, of course, if we were to stay here for longer, this would change. No doubt we'd develop a new social fabric in WA and slowly drift away from the California network. But, since we are so busy and we are only here temporarily, it's very easy to just focus on ourselves.

Between our travels and visits from family and friends (which clearly have been made a priority by everyone involved), we're living simply -- walking everywhere we can, eating healthy, enjoying lazy weekends without any obligations, basically, just enjoying being married to one another and building our businesses without too much external social interaction. It's interesting how easy it is to do this here, whereas at home it would probably feel unbalanced since it would be at the expense of all of the normal things we are used to doing.

Despite the WA social break (or perhaps because of it), this year is shaping up to be quite intense on both the social and the travel front. We already did South America and Whistler, and it doesn't look like we're going to slow down very much for the rest of the year.

Between almost weekly flights back to the Bay Area by me for the next 3 months, visits from family and friends, 3 weddings to attend (and all of the associated events for the two that involve family-like friends), training for and running a memorial day marathon in Idaho followed by a road trip through Yellowstone and a drive back to California, the incoming niece and nephew we are expecting (within 1 month of each other!) and visits to meet them, a half business/half pleasure 3 week trip to Europe, the annual week-long visit from my oldest neice to attend summer camp, and, holiday travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it looks like our entire year is spoken for.

Oh, also, back in California, we need to get a new roof, fumigate the house, and we keep going back and forth about the kitchen remodel.

Off to run!

2011-02-23T22:19:00.001-08:00

Snow is Better than Rain

So, after two full nights in our new (temporary) home in Bellevue, WA, I feel qualified to state that snow is much better than rain.

Snow bounces off of your jacket and you stay dry whereas rain does not bounce and makes you wet.

Snow is quieter than rain but it muffles outside sounds equally well (or perhaps even better?).

Snow is more picturesque than rain, especially when viewed against a streetlight.

Catching snowflakes on your tongue is much more fun than drinking rain.

E and I are very much enjoying our shared introduction to the snow culture as part of life (as opposed to only a ski vacation and freak weather situation). For example, we both now know that snow sticks to idle cars first, then dirt, then grass, then, if it's cold enough, cement/asphalt.

Also, we had a great dinner tonight at Seastar, but we won't be back for dinner. Oh, hell no, it's within walking distance -- next time, we're going to maximize the happy hour for all it's worth!

2011-02-21T21:30:00.000-08:00

Leftovers

One of E's colleagues took us out to a Vietnamese dinner a couple of weeks ago.

These were half of the leftovers with which we were sent home:

Culturally, it was clear something was going on. The feast to feed 25 when there were 6 of us at the table? No idea what it was, but it was clearly something, culturally. I just tried to make it clear that we were very grateful and that we were enjoying ourselves (and I was -- it was the best Vietnamese meal I've ever had in my life, by an order of magnitude, even if I was stuffed before we were 1/3 through).

Bonus -- the leftovers made for a wonderful lunch and a great seafood soup base for dinner with a friend a few days later.

2011-02-20T22:38:00.000-08:00

Northward Bound -- the friendliness increases

After a chaotic blitz through pouring rain on our way out of the bay area (car loaded with necessities for 3 months or so), we made it to the Sierra Nevada foothills north of Sacramento for a quick visit with family.

Dinner. Pictures. Catching up. Early sleep.

This morning, the skies were blue, the air was calm (and allergen free, post-rain) and I was able to do one of the best long runs I've done in years, from Lincoln, CA to Newcastle, CA.

This time of year, California is gorgeously green and fertile. The verdant hills were peppered with ewe, llamas, horses, and cows, which, along with the clear blue skies and foliage were a pleasant distraction from the shocking elevation changes (turns out, 10 miles around the San Francisco bay is a little less effort than 10 miles through the Foothills of Tahoe-Donner).

Typical for being out in the country, I found myself waiving hello and thankyou to all the huge pick-up trucks that felt it was necessary to pull to the middle of the road and straddle both lanes at least a mile before they came near me to let me know I was safe. Also, along my course, I waived hello to about 5 runners and gave one a high five. And, no doubt due to the amazing crisp weather and rolling elevation changes, it felt like I was passed and crossed paths with about 100 cyclists.

So, in short, my run was on track to be perfect, but I did need to stop for a pit stop and Gatorade. I'd hoped I could hit one of the general stores or, worst case scenario, a dive bar, along the route.

But, then, I turned the corner, and found Trailhead Coffee and Cycling Lounge, and I was filled with relief.

Runners are to cyclists like sisters are to brothers. And, much like the love you feel for a sibling, I knew with certitude I'd be welcome for a quick stop, even if I didn't have a bike or want any coffee.

As I expected, I was welcomed. I walked in, and before I could speak, the man behind the counter said, "Over there," pointing at the bathroom. I quickly walked past several middle-aged men in various stages of undress/lycra (most of whom had passed me on the way up the hill), smiled a thank you, and asked if they had Gatorade. It was on the counter waiting for me when I exited.

I paid, trying to avoid too long of a break in my run. While counting my change, between yelled exchanges with the various cyclists, the man running the show explained that I, like all runners, was always welcome to just come in and fill my water bottle there, get ice over there, and use the bathroom.

My only regret is that I didn't have my camera to take pictures on the run.

2011-02-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Latest Legal Spam

I received this gem in my law firm inbox today:

Dear Counsel,
we are in need of a litigation/business lawyer that will handle our case.
revat back to me for details.

Wow. Targeted enough to clear my spam filter (which is impressive since sometimes my clients' messages get stopped), but boy do you have the wrong Counsel.

And, "Revat"? What does that even mean?

2011-02-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

On the Road Again

My last attempt to train for and run a half marathon resulted in a turn-around and torn off number at the 2 mile mark, whereupon I ran back to the hotel and enjoyed a hot shower instead of continuing in the crowd of miserable people slipping and falling in the pouring rain.

I can now say I've *started* the US Half Marathon every year since 2005. I've finished it sub-2-hours 3 times, sub-2:15 once, and bailed at the 2 mile marker once (so far).

Overall, 2010 was a medium running year. I totaled 1067.7 miles, or about 20 miles per week. But, I didn't complete even a single race with a sub 10-minute-mile pace. When I look at my logs, the years I felt best in my running, I was doing marathons and totaling between 1200 and 1400 miles.

So, that's the goal this year. I'm working on my speed, and I've registered for two spring races and a memorial day marathon. By the time I toe the line at the marathon, it'll have been more almost 3 years since my last marathon, and 3.5 years since my marathon PR.

Ideally, I'd love to set a new PR. That will require much hard work and some luck, but it's good to have goals.

In fact, as a result of my renewed commitment to running, yesterday, I joined a Beer Run through Golden Gate park. Gorgeous weather, good post-race beer and food at Social, and new friends.

Not a bad start to the return to running.

2011-02-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

Iridium Flare

Two nights ago, E announced that a big bright shiny point of light would magically appear in the night sky at about 45 degrees at a certain point in time.

We went outside.

Nothing happened.

E then realized he had the date wrong.

So, last night, we went outside at the same time. And this time, as promised, the iridium flare was briefly the brightest thing in the sky.

It was cruising at a high speed when it lit up for 5 seconds or so, and then it returned to the brightness of a super small star zipping across the sky.

If you're interested, you should check one out.

2011-01-29T15:13:00.000-08:00

Kosher, but not so healthy...

For the last few years, I've kept boxes of Mannischewitz Matzo Ball and Soup Mix in the pantry as a go-to quick delicious light and healthy (or so I thought) soup meal. All it takes is water and eggs and you have a light but filling delicious soup in 20 minutes. Also, adding a bit of Sriracha makes an extra special treat.

Today, I pulled out the last box in the pantry for lunch and amused myself by reading the ingredients.

MSG? Really?

54% of my daily sodium?

9 Servings in this little box?

Holy Moley.

Seeing as how E and I often divide a box into 2 large servings with a 3rd serving left over, it would appear that every time we do so we're getting > 162% of our daily sodium and an extra dash of MSG to boot.

I will be learning to make this meal from scratch!

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I thought the general rule that pre-prepared foods are bad for you didn't apply to Matzo ball soup in my mind. But, I've learned my lesson. Beware the pre-prepared foods! Even when calorically sound, they often have other gotchas you just don't need.

2011-01-23T20:37:00.000-08:00

Argentina Food

Many other folks have written extensively about the amazing food of Argentina.

So, I'll just keep it to photos with minimal comments.

First, there is the glorious culture of the parilla:

Which results in juicy awesome steaks (Note: contrary to popular opinion, in our experience, the word Jugoso will get you a rare steak.):

But, the appetizers were the big surprise. Salads -- construct them from the ingredients on the menu. And, if you've never had fresh hearts of palm, order some palmitos. The fresh meristem of the palm has to be one of the most wonderously delicious vegetables on the planet (and, it's healthy!) Think artichoke hearts without the chokey flavor and an order of magnitude more succulent and yummy. Simply add a little balsamic vinegar, and some olive oil, and you are in heaven.

At one lunch, when I ordered sautéed vegetables as a break from the meat orgy, I was blessed with palm stringy things. I asked and more or less understood them to be related to hearts of palms, but easier to come by (and slightly less delicious, but still oh-so-salivation-inducing-tasty). Yet, upon arrival back home, despite at least 5 minutes of internet research, I was unable to identify what they were.

At the time, the server seemed so complacent that I figured it would be easy to figure out. But Google has thwarted me and instead distracted me to this hilarious video about someone stealing palm trees.

Back to Argentina. Have you heard of Empanadas?

Ay! Dios Mio! Que rico! And baked. The baked ones are to die for. They come in vegetarian cheesy goodness with tomatoes and other veggies, and of course, a full selection of meaty varieties, including chicken with curry flavors, which surprised me. I am sad that the ones we have in California are almost always fried. On the other hand, I'm trying to be caloricly deficient since our return, to eliminate the excess of Argentina that attached itself to me. So perhaps I'm not that sad...

And, now, to my favorite appetizer: Provoleta.

A huge hunk of locally made cow's milk cheese covered with herbs and grilled? As a starter? What a wonderful thing!

And, if you are lucky, you can order Provoleta a la napoletana or Provoleta completa which comes with ham and an onion tomato garlic sauce or just fresh chopped onions and tomatoes. Either way, it's a brilliant appetizer and I wonder why, with all of the Real California Cheese marketing they haven't figured out that this is an easy way to convince diners to order and consume half a pound of cheese, no problem.

Ahumados. Smoked Goodness. Ciervo (venison), Trucha (trout, including pink trout, delicious!), and Fabali (wild boar), plus, of course, queso (cheese, which they often interlace in meats prior to smoking... how cool is that?)