Niece Week

Every year, E and I host my niece for a week in the summer.

Rockets on the launch pad for Niece's second launch.

Last year, in addition to some pure family time with us, she was also a commuter at a local soccer camp.  She informed me that she wanted to come back this year and stay in the dorms.  Apparently, staying with your aunt who's even older than your father is violently uncool compared to staying on a college campus where the adult supervision is college kids and 20-something professional athletes and coaches.

So, this means that she was only actually with us for 3-4 days, and now she's on her own in the dorms, with a roommate who shares her initials, her new best friend for the week.  I commute to watch her games at the end of each day if I can fit it in and, if I'm lucky, I get to say hello.

She's such a pleasure to be around these days.  She cracks hilarious and stunning adult-level humor jokes, but she's simultaneously childlike in ways that I find refreshing and, at times, educational.  I'm sad that she wasn't able to spend more time with us, but I also understand how fun and important it is for her to go and do things outside the protective cocoon of the family with other kids her age.

On the running front, this week was good in terms of increased distance.  I put in a total of 34.02 miles on my feet.  But... because Niece was here, I substituted a couple of the runs for walking together.  Friday, I opted out of my run, but we walked to and from a client meeting at a local Starbucks and we walked downtown to meet E for her selected dinner of Sushi.

Thursday, while I worked, she sorted all my leftover foreign currency from the year's travels.  What?  I needed to keep her busy while I worked, so I gave her Chinese, Japanese, and Hong Kong currency (the harder stuff) as well as New Zealand, Australian, and some Euros -- she did a great job looking through all the currency and grouping them accordingly, matching up the various monies to the countries (impressively getting 100% matching the bills and coins to characters I wrote for her to designate China and Japan).   When she was done, we looked up conversion rates and then I sent her off to do the calculations into USD. (Again, people, I needed to work.)  Finally, we walked downtown to the bank and back (where she was thrilled to exchange it all for her own funky bluish-tinged brand new $100 bill with all sorts of wacky additional color security features).  FYI, it took a $3 infusion from me to cover the roughly 3% difference between online currency conversion and the local branch conversion rates, but I felt it was only fair.  In the end, I gave up my run for a walk, but she's $100 richer *and* it was obvious that we were the most fun that bank teller had all day.  Bonus, I feel like I didn't fail completely on the auntie entertainment scale, and now E and I don't have to deal with the pile of small bills of foreign currency.  Everybody wins! (Well, almost everybody.  They didn't take the coins...)

Started circulation in October 2013 (http://www.newmoney.gov/)

New back of the Benjamin.

Due to swapping walks for runs, the percentage mileage under 10:00/mile was only 4%.  But, today was a nice lead-in to the season of increasing long runs with good solid easy 5 solo, followed by a walk to stay warm until I could start the 3X10:00 easy w/2:00 RI with G -- Total: 8.44 miles, slightly more than what my training plan required for the long run this week.

This is definitely the least work-focused weekend I've spent in a *long* time.  Since Niece is here, she took up most of my weekend attention, so my working hours and work focus took a huge hit (this is not necessarily a bad thing).  Friday night, after walking downtown, a dinner of sushi, and laundry to prep for her camp, we headed next door for a Karaoke party hosted by neighbors, where I confirmed that she's her father's and grandmother's daughter with quite a fabulous voice.  Saturday, I woke to make her breakfast, fit in a short run while she showered, went to a rocket launch where she had 2 successful launches, enjoyed a big ramen lunch with friends, then supervised packing and took her to camp and got her settled.  A couple of hours later, I returned to watch her first soccer game, followed by a late appearance at a second local (but different people) Karaoke party.  Today, I did the aforementioned long run, enjoyed an Italian lunch with E, and then headed to the east bay for joint college roommate and husband drinks at the awesomely hip Grand Tavern followed by a rooftop beers and burgers party overlooking the lake where we watched the exciting see-saw of the US-Portugal world cup game.

Did you notice that *nothing* in the previous paragraph was about work?  I can't remember the last time I was this relaxed about work on a Sunday.  Niece week is such a great gift.

Transitions

So, a week or two ago, I finally admitted that we weren't getting any more lettuce from our spring garden:

The most bolted lettuce I've ever had in the garden

When the lettuce is exposed to too much heat and sun, it grows tall and bitter in its efforts to send up seed pods.  I can tell you from personal experience that you don't want to eat any of the leaves after this happens.  It's a sure-fire way to turn someone who is on the fence about leafy greens into dead-set opposition, they (both the leaves and the skeptical greens-eater) truly do become quite bitter.

Despite my Summer blog post, I'm actually very well aware of the current seasonal limbo.  We keep going from days of extreme heat back down to highs in the reasonable 70s like today, where we met up with friends for a run at 10 AM (something that would have been crazy 2 weeks ago when the highs were over 90F).

For me, the epitome of Summer is tomato harvest.

And right now, while we've got a good start, there's quite a ways to go (note the complete and utter lack of any color other than green on the tomato plants).

Same story with my running.  I'm aware that I'm actually training for and running two fall marathons.  But, truly, it's so far away, that nothing feels real yet.  I've got 17 weeks 'til Chicago.  In the meantime, I've got a visit from my niece and brother, a trip to Raleigh and 10K in ATL, a trip to NYC for family, a trip to Napa with family, a getaway weekend in Half Moon Bay, and a Ragnar Relay from SF to Napa.  There will be many long, long runs in there.  But right now after today's 6+ mile long run, it seems so unreal.  4 (Four!) X as long as today?  Really?  Best not to think about it.

This week, I made my way through 28.82+ miles on my feet, with much walking.  But, I hit a localized low point on the scale, which was a nice development (as I really do need to drop several pounds to have pleasant marathon experiences).

June is a rough month for work due to the end of the traditional fiscal quarter, so I haven't made it back to track club since before my last half marathon.  Instead, I did some tempo interval work and managed to fit in 14% of my miles this week sub 10 min/mile, including at least a mile total somewhere in the 8s, which feels good.

Today's run felt like a turning point, in terms of effort.  I started with 3.72 easy on my own, running in high 10s/mile on super low effort, and then I joined our recent every-weekend run and brunch group (E, C, G and me) and pulled off 2.9 miles of harder intervals 4:00/1:00 walking R/I with G, running the last one solo at a reasonable approximation of target marathon pace.  Nothing huge in terms of distance or speed, but a solid effort and one that left me hungry for next week, and curious about where my fitness actually is, which is a good sign.

In personal literary news, I ordered entirely too many books from the local independent bookstore and left with a very heavy bag on Saturday.  I think I have to cut myself off.  I haven't really counted, but between Harry Potter book I'm co-reading with my niece, Arvay's last shipment, E2's recent donations, a book or two from E, the required books for next book club (Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles) and my recent additions from the support-your-local-bookstore binge, I probably have 15 physical books in my current queue, not to mention the audio books in my wishlist.

And, on the linguistic front,  DuoLingo owns me.  I am fully engaged in their "game-oriented" learning approach.  I did sit down to work on the *real* textbook this weekend (as promised).  But, I've been a bit shocked to realize just how much effort I will make to play the silly games.  Given that it's just improving my grammar, vocabulary, and formal Spanish knowledge, I'm not complaining at all.

So there you have it, garden, running, reading, and language.  Add that E2 and I are doing well, I seem to be keeping the practice of law confined to 55-65 hours per week, we had some fun nights out with friends last week, BBQ season is in full swing, and we're looking forward to hosting the niece this week and that's my current life in a nutshell.  

Confessions Of a Pattern Matcher: Spanish

It looks like, yet again, my life is being arranged such that I may be able to speak some Spanish in a native speaker environment before the end of the year.

Every time I go to a Spanish-speaking country, I tell myself, "One Day.  One Day I will *actually* speak this language."

But, other than one semester of conversational Spanish that E and I took back in 2005 and making my way from beginning pimsleur Spanish through intermediate/advanced, I've never formally studied the language.

I formally studied French and Italian, so I get many of the Spanish complexities for free, but really,  I'm a big cheater, and it shows when I speak with fluent adults.

Essentially, I can pattern-match my way through any and all necessary Spanish conversations, and I do so.  Ideally, I would buckle down and lock in a proper understanding of the language so I'm not mimicking every Hispanophone I encounter in my desire to be understood.  But, I've never been disciplined enough to do the heavy grammar lifting.  Pimsleur is *amazing* for advancing your spoken language and comprehension in day-to-day interactions and I highly recommend it if your goal is to be able to communicate.  But my Spanish has been at the point where I can communicate and understand what's going on just fine for far too long, so Pimsleur isn't going to help me.

MY PROBLEM? I SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.

My Spanish accent and patterns of speech are a BT-unique disaster.

I started with a subtle French and Italian lilt even when speaking Spanish words (and I don't hesitate to try bastardized versions of the French or Italian word if I find I don't know the Spanish one).

While I spent some time in Mexico (Mazatlan) in 2000 and probably picked up a few bad habits there, I didn't get serious about my own personal version of Spanish until I studied conversational Spanish at our local community college in 2005 with E.

After this class, we headed to Puerto Rico for vacation, where they speak a form of Spanish that is all their own due to the melting pot of history and trade.  At times, it was closer to French as sometimes they swallow many of their consonants.  At other times, it was like learning a new language (or, as my brain likes to think of it, *extending* my Spanish), so I learned the local dialect words that aren't used in other Spanish speaking environments (but I don't let that stop me from adding them to my internal "Spanish" dictionary and deploying them when I think they may be useful).

I boldly and loudly took my odd Franco-Italo-Boricua version of Spanish to Mexico twice in 2006, once in 2007, and again in 2008 and added some Mexican influences.  Yet, still, I was regularly asked, "Where are you from? Are you Argentinian?"

Not to run the risk of undoing the damage, in 2010, we spent two weeks in Argentina and Uruguay and I picked up the habit of using the "Vos" (not properly, I assure you) and strengthened my so-called Argentinian accent (to my brain, Argentinian Spanish has much more of the Italian-style sing-song than other Spanishes, and it's easier for me to follow and speak).

In 2011, we did a long trip through Spain where I regularly encountered confused stares in response to my use of the "Vos".  I didn't get completely rid of the vos, but I did leave Madrid with a Madrilleño lisp (in fairness, I did manage to drop the "ll/y" --> "zh/j" patterns from Argentina almost immediately).

On the same trip, we finished up in Barcelona where I learned I could actually understand and passably speak Catalan.  The only problem?  I thought it was Spanish.  My lack of formal training in the language means that I survive on the basis of minute-to-minute pattern matching and word roots.  When you have studied Latin, speak French and Italian and can sometimes understand Portuguese but don't have any real serious formal training in Spanish, your Spanish turns into Catalan quick-fast, I promise.

Then, in 2013, we returned to Barcelona, and by the end of the trip I was regularly being *complimented* on how refreshing it was that a foreigner spoke Catalan (all the while, my brain thought I was speaking "Spanish").

In other news, I'm on the fence about whether to join OpenLanguage for my new commitment to formal Spanish studies -- I took their placement exam and they claim I'm B1 on the CEF.  I'm sure their lessons would be very helpful, but given my historic preference for linguistic cheating, I'm wondering if I'd be better off focusing elsewhere, at least until I can test into a C-level CEF proficiency.

All of this is the lead-up to say that I'm committed to actually completing the full Spanish textbook and workbook I have (18 chapters), as well as daily lessons every day on DuoLingo this year before we go somewhere where Spanish is spoken natively.  I think this level of commitment is likely to push me over the edge and *finally* I *WILL* actually speak Spanish.

Here's to hoping...      

A Very Slow Start (But a Start Nonetheless)

So, technically, this week was the first week of my Hanson's training plan for the Chicago Marathon.  18 weeks from today, if all goes according to plan, I will be lining up in Chicago and setting out to run 26.2 miles.  (This seems ridiculous right now.)

But, this week was also doing double duty as a good recovery week from the Windermere Half, and, if I'm being totally honest, a big "welcome to the glorious decadence of Summer -- enjoy it while you can" week.

So, I was very social.  In lieu of a scheduled run, if there was an opportunity to talk on the phone and walk, I did so.  There were two opportunities to run-walk with friends and chat, and I took advantage of both, opting to count total mileage and not worry about total time running.    Friends of mine who are moms had time to go out to dinner now that their kids' school schedules had changed and I took advantage of that too (I didn't get home 'til 11:45 PM!).  And, this Thursday, in a surprise after last week's soft opening BBQ, we hosted a *huge* barbeque full of perhaps the most eclectic cross-section of our friends that has ever graced our home and I didn't get to bed 'til 12:30 AM.

I walked every day this week.  But, I didn't run very much.  And I didn't run faster than 10 min/mile at all.

However, I managed 32.62 miles total, approximately 10 miles of actually running, and I feel ready to head into next week's running mileage.

My favorite run, by far, was today's 4.2 miles of run-walking with E2 in the early morning calm of Santa Cruz fog and surf.  Years ago, E2 was my go-to run buddy.  But she's been battling injuries and stress-related pain for several years.  Recently, she's gotten her pain under better control and has started running a bit, so today, after they graciously hosted us for a Saturday night evening, we left their home and headed out for a beautiful fog-covered run along the harbor, out to the lighthouse, along the beach, through neighborhoods and back to their home as the fog burned off in a wonderfully awesome return to something I've missed so very much.  There are few things better than a good run and chat with a good friend.  Oh, unless that's followed up by some much needed rolling and stretching and a perfect bloody mary and brunch overlooking the harbor under the bright blue sky.

Spokane -- Windermere Half Marathon

This weekend, E and I headed to Spokane to have a family meet up with my sis, her husband, my adorable nephew and niece, and my mom and step-dad.  Yay, family weekend!

Saturday, we spent the day celebrating the nephew's birthday at a local kids' science play museum, which was oddly exhasuting.  After walking there, half an hour of set up, 2 hours of toddler wrangling (including at least an hour of infant niece holding -- she's still at the age where she does best if she's in someone's arms, and bonus, my voice is so similar to my sister's that I don't completely register as a stranger even though I haven't seen her for the last 50% of her life or so), a half hour of take down, another half hour of just getting all the gear and stuff loaded in the appropriate vehicles, and then another half hour of picking up our race bibs at the expo, I was exhausted and needed a nap.  So, for the second race in a row, I took a pre-race nap the afternoon before.  I think the day-before race nap is going into my bag of required tricks for an ideal race.  (Mom and sis simultaneously napped too, so I feel good about that, like we were doing family bonding on the sleep plane.)

After the nap, we hung out with sis & bro-in-law and the niece and nephew for a bit and then met with grandma (aka my mom) and grandpa and walked along the river, looked at the falls, walked across several footbridges and just enjoyed being outdoors in gorgeous nature and weather with family.

It was very strange for these Californians to see so much water.

To close out the day, we carb-loaded with a leisurely family dinner overlooking the river, walked back to the cars, and headed to the hotel.  Upon arriving home, I realized I'd been out and about, on my feet from 5 PM - 8:30 PM -- not exactly my ideal pre-race routine, but then again, I'd rather hang out with my family than race a minute or two faster on a just-enjoy-it race.

Sunday AM, my sis and her husband picked me up at our hotel and we drove to the start of the half while mom & step-dad hung out at their house to watch the kids (How adorable are they to get up at 5 AM to drive to sister's house to do kid duty so sis & her hubby could race?).

We arrived at the race at 6:20, which was good, because upon arriving, I realized I'd forgotten to pin on my bib (in other words, it was back at the hotel).  Seriously?  This was, according to my records, my 41st half marathon, and more than my 60th race since 2005.  I *forgot* my bib?  I've never done this before.  WTF? 

Thankfully, this is a small town in the pacific northwest and the race organizers laughed at me, mock threatened, "No.  You can't run!" and then gave me a new bib and promised it would be corrected in the system before I finished.  Awesome! 

You know that cold temperature PR I was looking for?  Yeah, Spokane was in the middle of celebrating unseasonably hot (but beautiful) weather...It hit 70+ before the finish and most of the race was in full sun.  Oh, well, at least I'd trained in the heat.

Despite the heat, it was a gorgeous, fun course, and very well run after the start (we didn't get under way until 30 minutes after the scheduled start...).  Impressively, there were about 10 aid stations on the half.  Almost all had sports drink *and* water, plus there were two gel stations, and, bonus--many of the stations had little mini cups of gummi bears, plus all aid stations had 2 potajohns.  This race is definitely in contention for one of the best aid supported runs I've ever ran.

The first seven miles ticked along exactly as I'd planned, roughly 9:55 pace average, faster on the downhills, slower on the uphills, walking through the aid stations, but maintaining nice and easy effort and breath.

Mile 8, unfortunately, did not go so well...mid 10s were a bit of a struggle and it became clear that I had GI issues... Annoying!

I pushed through the last long(ish) uphill in Mile 9 for a mile split of 10:25, watching my time goal of 2:10 slip away.  But, the one good thing about the GI pain is that I didn't have much brain space to be disappointed about my decreasing speed.  The joy of seeing the aid station with portajohns at mile 9.23 almost made up for the decreased pace. (Almost)

1 minute and 42 seconds later, my belly felt much better.  But my legs had tightened up...And, the rest of the race was a slog.

0.7 miles at a frustratingly high effort 10:27/mile pace.
1 mile @ 10:50.
0.34 miles @ 11:06/mile pace. (???)
14 seconds walking through an aid station
0.59 miles @ 10:51/mile pace
1 mile @ 10:27
0.14 miles @ 9:19/mile pace to the finish.

So, I finished.  But it wasn't pretty.  Around mile 10 or so, I decided that my much modified goal would be to finish faster than SLO if I subtracted the portajohn stop.  Mind you, my original A goal had been to finish at 2:10 or below, and I (mistakenly) had thought it was a very conservative goal due to the cool temps (that didn't materialize) and the net downhill course.  Today's reality said otherwise...(2:15:53 says the Garmin).

Somewhere in those last miles, I slowly did (and redid with late stage race brain that has trouble) the math and figured that 1:42 + SLO's 2:14:XX meant that I should try to shoot for 2:16 or lower on the clock when I crossed the line.  I did what I thought I needed to do to make that happen.  Finally, I turned on to the Howard Street bridge and saw the finishing clock reading 2:18:XX -- WHAT??? I was supremely disappointed and the sadness definitely killed my ability to finish strong.  I smiled at E when I saw him waiting there, but there was no last minute push.  It was only after I crossed the finish line and pushed stop on my watch that I realized the clock was set for the marathoners, who had started a few minutes before the half.  So, technically, I actually met my late stage make-up goal, but barely.

Overall, I felt *meh* about the race, but *YAY* about the weekend.  Anytime you're healthy enough to finish a half marathon, it's good.  But I had been looking forward to seeing some obvious fitness improvements, and it didn't happen.  However, my sis ran sub 1:50 to PR by quite a bit (not surprising given some of her recent stroller running exploits) and my bro-in-law ran a healthy sub 1:28, so it was a good day in the family for running, and any day you can go run a race with family, finish healthy, and enjoy a hearty breakfast afterwards with your parents, niece and nephew, everything is awesome.

Weekly total mileage: 28.31.  Below 10/mile: 33%.  And, just like that, I'm officially in my first week of training for the Chicago Marathon.  Wish me luck!

Summer

I am aware that *technically* Summer in the Northern Hemisphere does not arrive until the Summer Solstice (this year on June 21st).

However, for me, spiritually, Summer always begins on Memorial Day weekend.  By now, the lettuce have bolted, and the broccoli and cauliflower have all been harvested (all brassicas, really), and the summer garden is in full swing.  It is hot.  The days are long.  My Summer is here.

What's left of the "Spring Garden" -- bolted lettuce and broccolli leaves with no heads.

For the first time in a long time, we are home, with no pre-scheduled plans for Memorial Day, and we both plan to take the majority of the Monday holiday off of work.  3 days!  No work!  Home!

Today, after my first trip to our local farmers' market in well over a year (California produce is *so* glorious at this time of year), a short run, and a long laid-back lunch while people watching with E, I decided I'd just like to take the day to read a book straight through. It had been so long since I'd indulged like this.  Typically, this is something I am only able to do on vacation, by a pool, on a chaise lounge (and I have to agree that the oh-so-precious vacation day that could be spent sight-seeing or hiking or whatever will be spent there, by the pool, doing nothing other than reading, swimming to cool off, and, ideally, drinking drinks with umbrellas in them).  According to my calendar, the last time we took a trip where this was even possible (and I'm not sure I dedicated the necessary time to make it happen) was October of 2012.

Today, when I turned the last page of my book, the pleasure reminded me of something from my childhood:  on Summer vacations, I often competed in the local library reading contests, and easily put away a book a day.

Today's cover-to-cover indulgence.

(This book was classic Murakami: cats, nighttime, darkness, duality of worlds, loneliness, Japanese culture, outsiders, Jazz, and some of the best writing and symbolism available from a modern author today.) 

I told E I was going to lay on the couch until the book was done.  I had a *goal*.  I cheated, about halfway through, and moved to the guest room carpet floor, substituting the mild couch yoga hip twists I'd been doing for real stretching and rolling while reading.  My legs were so thankful!  I may be able to justify the 1-day book more often now that I know how loose and wonderful I feel.

In other news, on the running front, this was a good week.

33.4 miles total.  25% sub 10 minutes/mile.  Quite a bit of walking and easy run-walking.

Track workout was great (I cut off the 200s on the back end and substituted 2X800 since I've got the half marathon coming up and I thought I'd fare better from some longer efforts): (5X200/30; 3X800/400 jog: 46, 47, 55, 54, 49; 8:13/mile; 8:46/mile; 8:41/mile).

Long workout hit a bit of a snag,  I did 4.3ish to a local 5K, only to learn that it was on grass and consisted of 10 oddly shaped laps in a single direction.  My inside foot also happened to be the foot I rolled, *and* a foot that has a mild bunion that has never seriously bothered me until this week, while recovering from the 4th/5th metatarsal sprain.  By the end of the first mile, I could tell I'd need to modify my plan, so I did.  I opted for mile intervals with walking recovery instead of a constant 5K, and I let the paces slide as much as I needed to when it became clear that my bunion was *not* happy with the setup.  I finished, but slowly.  And then I called E and asked him to come pick me up rather than running the way back home.  So, my last long run before my half marathon with my sis was shy of 8 miles instead of 11ish.  I'm not too concerned about the decrease in mileage.  I was able to do 2 miles with E today (1 @ 9:34 in the heat, followed by an easy mile) with no pain, so I think I made the right call.

And, now, I'm so excited to enjoy Monday as a true holiday!  It's been a long time since I've decided to take a holiday that many in the start-up world don't take.  But, you know what?  I'm slowly getting better at drawing the boundaries I need (and, it doesn't hurt that this memorial day is still 6 days before the end of the month (before the final month of the financial quarter rush) so there's not as much pressure to close deals as normal).

I hope you all have a great holiday!  Happy Summer! (Enjoy gratuitous turtle/tortoise preserve photos!)

Beautiful Burmese Star Tortoises

Grown-up Yellowfoot tortoise (what Guito will look like when he's 30)

A very small subset of the 100+ acquatic turtles

The Russian Tortoise breeding program has been *very* successful.

Beh-Beh Tortoises!  Hatchlings, less than one-week old, note the hand for size)

Ginormous Aldabra Tortoises hiding from the wind behind their house.

Atlanta: Food Town

Look closely... yes, that is a donut bacon cheeseburger

The first time I went to Atlanta, way back in the Fall of 2000, when all of the world had comforted ourselves with the fact that we'd survived the Y2K fall-out, and it was apparent that the 2000 tech bubble was going to result in some alternate fall-out, I attended the Atlanta Linux Showcase for work.

Memorably, I was told by a potential customer/prospect, "You're too attractive to be in tech" -- Oh, great, a fully-voiced version of the classic demeaning compliment-insult that many women experience when trying to break into technology.

For me, frankly, it was the first time I'd really encountered this perspective and I was a bit confused.  At the time, I had a purple streak in my hair and I wore doc martins.  I certainly wasn't going for "attractive" as a visual goal.  In the bay area, my apparel and hair choices made this clear and I didn't have to deal with sexist bullshit.  But in Atlanta, apparently, my boobs and butt meant that I was still obviously female and people were going to try to schmooze me along standard gender norms (BLECH!).

At the time, the frothy tech-bubble was big enough that the conference was full of all sorts of ridiculousness like booth-babes who were scantily clad by professional standards but strippers in their other lives, so super comfortable in what seemed like not enough clothes to me, and many folks who had paid full price to attend the conference and yet were just there to see the booth babes and talk with whomever with no command of technology at all (in case you've forgotten, this was the year of the Pets.com epic puppet commercial at the Superbowl).

For some reason, at the end of my trip, my flights got messed up and I ended up staying the last night of the trip at the parents of one of my co-workers.  Full disclosure:  that co-worker was E.  And E's dad basically decided we were dating and said, "Us L men need strong women, I'm happy E has obviously found himself one."  You might think this would be awkward, and truly, it should have been, but it just sort of helped me feel comfortable with the reality that E was my soulmate and I did want to be dating him, even though we hadn't really discussed dating or anything else along those lines.

My memories of this first trip regarding food are that outside of E's mom's awesome cooking, there wasn't much other than Waffle House, Chick Fil A, and Cracker Barrel, plus other less memorable options at the conference food court.  Certainly no-one tried to make the case that Atlanta was a food destination at the time.

After E and I admitted we were dating, I started coming to Atlanta on a regular basis.  Initially, foodwise, it felt very stereotypically American and Southern.  I was treated to great barbeque (Georgian and South Carolinan Style).  I was introduced to the awesome options of fried okra, fried green tomatoes, and fried pickles.  And I had *many* great home-cooked meals including bacon and grits, greens and black-eyed peas, succatoush, brunswick stew and more.

Back then, it felt like a big cultural trip -- there was a huge disparity between California and Georgia. But, over the years, that's changed when it comes to food.

Salad course at Tomo

This visit, I had the best Japanese meal I've had this year (omakase at Tomo), despite having spent a week in Japan in February.  And, I joined E's mom, dad, and sister for an amazing high-end Mother's day lunch present (it's good to be the plus-one!) at a fancy seafood restaurant.

Atlanta has emerged as a serious food city, which means it's become more international and experimental.    Watch any reality-tv chef competition and there's guaranteed to be a contender from ATL

This trip, we were there while E's sister was the managing director of a food-based benefit for the local children's hospital.  Local restaurants all set up booths and competed with food and drink entries so the attendees could vote (the donut bacon cheeseburger won).  There were too many delicious options of all types of cuisine and I couldn't even eat a bite of everything.

It's only been 14 years, but Atlanta's food scene has changed dramatically in that time.  You can still get great barbeque and southern food, but if you tire of that, you can also get just about anything else your heart desires.        

Last Week

We spent last week in ATL, for work, and also visiting family.

It was a great time.  At one of the tech parties, we had our caricatures done, which was fun:

The downside was that I rolled my ankle on my run on Wednesday.  After the caricature party, we arrived home and I found myself the owner of a stiff, painful foot that hurt to walk.  I iced.  And I was scared.

I woke the next AM to similar stiffness and inability to walk.  I iced again.

By Thursday PM (after E's mom bought me an elastic ace bandage which ended up being way more helpful than expected), it was clear that I would make it through, and quickly.  E's father took advantage of my convalescence to get me to commit to driving his 1985 Porsche 911 to the detailer's (no one else in the family is comfortable driving a mechanical stick shift).  I have to admit, Friday's diversion of detailing, plus coffee at the nearby cafe and reading CAFC's Oracle v. Google Ruling, followed by post-lunch high speed road driving and donuts in local parking lots?  Well, it was a fabulous way to spend half of Friday not working.

Overall, the running was not as impressive as it otherwise would have been, thanks to the concerns about the rolled ankle:  19.33 miles total with only 5% at high intensity.  In fairness, I can only blame Thursday and Friday on the ankle.  The big failure was Sunday -- ridiculous weather with torrential rain kept me off my feet.  But, overall, I'm just happy to be healthy.

I celebrated the new week with book club.  The meeting to discuss A Study in Scarlet was educational and enjoyable.  If nothing else, we were all in agreement that Book 2 was a crazy surprise, and not necessarily a welcome one.

Looking forward to a good run tomorrow!

Teetering

Today, I found myself alone, carrying my portable office (always heavy full of books, laptop, papers, etc), my purse (always heavy because I'm one of those stereotypical ladies with a purse that has everything but the kitchen sink), and a huge rolling garment bag (46 lbs, according to the airline) down a staircase.

I did it.

But it wasn't pretty.

The garment bag hit the stairs with every step because I am too short to hold it high enough to avoid the scrape when I drop to the lower stair.  The purse and the portable office bag weren't close to 46 lbs on my opposite arm, so I was off-kilter.  In the interests of safety, I took the stairs with baby steps, putting both feet on each step.

Once at the curb, I couldn't help but feel like the picture I'd created on the staircase was such a visual metaphor for my life these days.  (Let's not even examine the extension of the metaphor whereby there is actually a different way down with a fully functional escalator that I didn't take...)

Lately, I've been trying to cut myself more slack.  When I feel overwhelmed, I've been trying to tell myself that it's okay not to work 15 hours in a day just because my clients have needs.

In short, I've been trying to prioritize my own needs, and I suck at it.  I take all the bags and load myself up and make it down to where I need to be in one trip without aid from many of the people I'm traveling with.  Why?  Well, because I can and they are doing other things.  I just max myself out.  That's what I typically do.

As I've evolved as a blogger, more and more of the blog has been focused on running.  I think this is due to two things:

1) It's an area where I don't owe anyone anything.  It's me, doing stuff for me, and for some reason, unlike the rest of my life where I make an effort, I'm perfectly comfortable being average.  The posts may read as boring and technical and fact-filled, but make no mistake, they are *highly personal* and even though I almost always let my professional obligations run my life, I do know that doing stuff for myself is important.  Even though I don't do as good of a job about it as I could do, I'm proud that I do make time to regularly run and try to stay relatively fit.

2) As I've aged and opted not to have children, I've reconciled myself to the reality that I have less and less in common with the majority of my cohort.  Running is this great social binder that doesn't care about the differences between people and only cares if you care about running.

The last few weeks, I've been suffering from some major professional burnout.  This is normal in my line of work.  What's not normal for me is that I've actually been scaling back work commitments and scheduling more me time in response (which translates to more gardening, Internet piddling, running, walking, and reading).  In doing so, I've read more about running, run more, and watched more running videos than normal.  Finally, headed into next week, I'm feeling a bit recovered and I'm amused that running has become such a large part of my life that it's the place I turn when feeling overwhelmed.

Did i say amused?  Oh, I meant that, but really, I'm grateful.  I'm so grateful.

**Weekly Running Recap?  27.97 miles, 3 rest days (2 garden, 1 travel, but a 12 mile long run and 15% high effort miles sub-10.  Best workout of the week?  18X200 100 R/I w/track club averaging  54-55s -- felt so great and strong after this workout and very much enjoyed the camaraderie of the group.) 

And we're walking, walking, walking...

This week, to recover from SLO, I cut myself all kinds of slack.

And yet, much to my surprise, I still hit 25.24 total miles, including 12% of that volume at sub-10 min/mile.  This % of miles at sub 10 is a new metric you'll see me touting going forward this year.

I read this post on the application of the so-called 80/20 rule to running and it resonated with me.  (It also tightly correlated with the pace goals for the Hansons running plans I've followed in the past and had great success with.)

I definitely feel like I benefit when I increase my overall volume and don't focus too much on quality over quantity in terms of mileage.  I know I am lucky in that I don't tend to get injured (knock on wood) when I increase my volume, but, frankly, I also tend to increase it at paces that many folks would consider to be ridiculously slow.  I count walking miles.  I count super slow jogging miles.  I count run/walking miles.  I just want to increase the total mileage, which, truly, is just a proxy for increasing my overall aerobic load.  In fact, I could probably substitute cross-training for most of my running volume, and just run the minimal hard stuff I do and end up roughly in the same spot.  But, I digress -- I won't be doing that (unless injury requires it). 

Anyways, this year is a big running year for me.  I've got a half marathon coming up in 4 weeks where I hope to show some serious fitness gains.  Then, I've got the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta, where all I can do is make a strong effort to show that I did my best to handle the hills, heat, and humidity.  After that, it's a long high volume slog as I'm signed up for and hoping to do well at the Chicago Marathon and then, I'm looking forward to joining my college roommate for a fun and photo-heavy New York Marathon.

All along the way, I'm hoping to increase mileage with very little focus on pace.  I assume it will just naturally come down, like it always has when I've been honest about increasing volume.  I am not a high pressure runner (other than on race days, when, occasionally, I can put myself under a bit of pressure) and I have no plans to become one.

I was gratified to read the 80/20 rule post because it gave me a high-quality goal that I can focus on, but that I think I can actually hit quite easily.  And I look forward to doing so over the rest of the year.

Run happy friends!

  

Sub-5 Minute Beer Mile

Go California Runners!

Power Outage Date Night

Every time the power goes out, E & I play scrabble by candlelight.

Last night, I won by one point.


Current running game count since 2009:  BT: 3. E: 5.

Looks like I only need the power to go out 2 more times to tie it up...

SLO Half Marathon Weekend

Well, this race weekend was an unqualified success.

E and I drove down on Friday afternoon and enjoyed a beautiful and delicious date night on the ocean.  Saturday was race expo and carb loading with family plus a visit to a turtle and tortoise preserve. (Yes, you read that correctly.  That's our idea of fun.)

For the race, I had data from last year to help me calibrate my goals, and I was very proud to nail #1, which was the most important one -- I didn't blow up.  I ran a strong, smart race.

I also hit #2, which felt great!  First 6.55 miles: 1:08:08; Second 6.55 miles: 1:06:33.  Negative split!!

I hit #3 relatively easily, comfortable at the 10 mile marker that I would easily beat 2:20, and in the final miles, I kept gaining on the 2:15 pacers, to pass them in the final 0.25 miles and secure goal #4 (2:14:39 by my Garmin, AVG 10:11/mile).

Goal #5 was always a bit pie-in-the sky, and frankly, after the first 2-3 miles, I knew I needed to let it go or I’d risk missing my most important goal, #1.  So, I re-assessed, conserved energy, and even walked for a minute and finished the Gatorade from my aunt on the last bit of the final big brutal uphill before the 7+ mile turn-around point.

The second half of the race felt better than the first, which has been a long time coming.  I've overestimated my fitness on almost all of the half marathons I've done in the last 2 years, so the last half has typically been very painful.  For today's wonderful gift, I owe thanks to the sincere evaluation of reality I did the night before the race to make sure I had reasonable goals, as well as several *very* important things:

1. The elevation profile (the 2nd half was more downhill, and if I'm not dying, dowhills are my strength).  I took it easy on the uphills and passed folks on the downhills.  Interestingly, I was regularly passed on the downhills between miles 6-11 by a woman who was taking consistent 2-3 minute walk breaks on the uphills -- she had a similar downhill style to me, but after her walk breaks could jam down the hills faster than I could.  I took note, wondering if I may actually prefer this approach on a very hilly course.  Something to consider for the future...

2.  Carb Loading, for reals. I'd been knowingly negatively affecting my ability to run over the last couple of months by decreasing my carbs because I need to lose some weight, and for me, this is a strategy that is helpful.  This meant my long training runs, in particular, we typically brutal.  But, in prep for the race, I threw caution to the wind starting two Fridays ago.  If we were at a restaurant and there was bread, I ate as much as I wanted.  Two Fridays ago, on date night, I laid into such an epic serving of vegetarian pasta with olives, red pepper flakes and cheese that the server complimented me on finishing it, claiming, "I've never actually seen a lady finish this dish."  This Thursday, before a hike with E2, I did the same for lunch, finishing a large serving of seafood pasta and some bread.  Saturday, with my aunt and uncle for a pre-race meal, I had yet another pasta dish -- a delicious homemade garganelli with sausage, brocolli rabe, and peppers *with a side of polenta* (that E finished).  The interesting (to me) side effect of a week of choices like this (interspersed with more standard healthy light fare) was that it stopped the slow weight decline I'd been experiencing, but I could feel my energy levels going up on a daily basis and I started sleeping better.  For someone who loves pasta but almost never eats it, this week was a big splurge and I'm happy there were some obvious energy benefits.  The difference between my energy levels after an hour on almost all of my long runs in 2014 and today's race was like night and day.

  
3. Rest.   I left my last client of the day on Friday at 2 PM and set my out of office.  I took a call while E drove from 3 - 3:30 PM, and that was it.  I checked my email maybe one or two times over the weekend, but, for the most part, I didn't do any real work from 3:30 PM Friday until now.  Add to this that Friday night I was in bed, post hot tub, and healthy dinner by 10 PM, and that I took a nap on Saturday afternoon.  Oh, and miracle of miracles, somehow, despite the rock bands, with my earplugs, I was able to fall asleep in downtown SLO and sleep (albeit interrupted every few hours) from 10 PM to 5:45 AM.  I hadn't been this well rested in a long time.

All three of these variables combined (I might add, almost all of them existing due to the awesome support of my husband) with the good stuff I had coming in to outweigh the bad stuff I had coming in and enabled me to have a great race.

In fact, in a very common end of race story for me, yet again, the last 0.14 miles were all out.  In testament to just how well fueled I was, I did this bit at a 7:02/mile pace. A youngster at least 15 years younger than me (or so I told myself) came out of nowhere and decided to try to sprint past me in the final 0.1 mile.  I made her work for it, digging deep into the reserves I’d built up from all of the track sessions (and laughing at the ridiculousness of my pace for a 2:15ish half finish) but she managed to intelligently line up to pass the other folks in the chute, so I let her go rather than run over a couple in front of me.  Unlike other historic last minute sprints, this one didn’t bother me so much, she hadn’t been anywhere near me for any part of the race – I’m guessing she either started late or started *very* easy and just kept picking it up to the end.

Other beneficial race details?

As promised, my Aunt met me on course, with a sign, after the worst uphill, and she handed me the small Gatorade bottle I'd given her.  This meant I could hold it, run, and drink sports drink when I felt like it and keep a nice easy pace without worrying about aid stations until the top of the hill at Mile 7 (where I took a Mocha cliff shot… mmmm… caffeine).

The Gatorade plus 2 mocha cliff shots and water and sports drink on the course coupled with the carb loading meant that I felt the best I’ve felt at the finish of this race than I’ve felt in a long, long time at a finish.  I actually think I could have run another 5 miles at a good solid pace after the finish, but if you'd asked me whether I could do 17 at hard effort yesterday, I would have said, "NO WAY!"

Bonus, I just confirmed that I actually have 5 weeks ‘til my next race, a half with my sister, not 3, so I’m in perfect shape to capitalize on this run and make a strong effort to make additional fitness gains so I can enjoy a great race with her.  I haven't been this excited about running in a long time.

As for the race weekend, E, my aunt, uncle, and I solidified many details to make this race much more doable this year, including locking down the hotels to ensure comfort and luxury on Friday night date night and moving to a budget motel for walking distance to the start for Saturday, as well as driving plans for in-town family to aovid the road closures, and the go-to post-race brunch location (with awesome bloody mary’s).

My aunt was so adorably supportive this weekend.  She came with me to the expo and cracked up the cliff shot dude by telling him she wanted to put cliff shots on ice cream.  She was so obviously excited about being involved in the race weekend for the second year in a row and kept saying things prefaced with, “Next year, I’ll...” In her mind, there is no question.  This is an annual family tradition.

After today, with perfect weather, a great race, and beautiful views of the San Luis Obispo hills, I tend to agree with her.

Here's to next year!

SLO half marathon pre-race check-in

E and I drove down to Pismo/Shell beach on Friday.  It rained the whole drive, while we visited a local friend at her gymnastics gym, throughout dinner, and while we lounged in the hot tub after dinner.

And then, magically, just before we headed up, the weather cleared so we could enjoy a beautiful sunset overlooking the ocean from our hotel balcony.

We were in bed, asleep by 10 PM or so.  Oh, how an ideal date night has changed over the years...

This morning, I headed out for a quick 2 mile shakeout.  I did drills, 1/2 mile easy, a mile at target race pace (which felt good, effort wise), and a 1/2 mile cool down easy.  This ritual has worked for me in the past -- to help myself lock in to target pace the day before, and to ensure my legs don't feel sluggish at the start.

After the run, E and I hit up the hotel breakfast (I downed a liter of pelligrino), I went to the expo with my aunt (her first, she's a fan of Cliff Mocha shots), bought some good gear at 50% off, enjoyed a delicious cafe brunch, and took a tour of a tortoise and turtle preserve.  (Photos later).

We booked a hotel near the start downtown for tonight, so we checked in and I read and took a nap
(an auspicious sign, since I typically don't sleep that well the night before a race, having a good 9 hours last night plus a nap today is great!).

We enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner with my aunt and uncle, and now I'm trying to set reasonable goals for tomorrow so that I can execute on a smart race.

Turns out, it's a bit complicated to guess how tomorrow will (or should) play out.

The good:
-I've strung together 10 weeks averaging 29.5 miles/week since my last half marathon.
-I've lost 5-6 pounds since my last half marathon.
-The weather is supposed to be almost perfect for me --  48F at the start, 53F max at the finish.  Partly cloudy with a 20% chance of showers, 5-6 mph NNW wind (meaning crosswinds with a net minimal headwind on the way out and a minimal net tailwind on the way back)
-my 10K effort indicated I was in decent shape three weeks ago, and according to McMillan should translate to a 2:10 half marathon without too much trouble.
-taking half of Friday and all of Saturday to relax and prepare for the race is a luxury I rarely get to indulge in, and one that I assume will pay benefits in the race
-my aunt is going to be somewhere between miles 4 and 6 at the top of the hardest climb, waiting with a sign, Gatorade, and able to take my jacket (which I typically just tie around my waist once I warm up on a cold day)
-I carb-loaded fairly well all week, doing much better to pay attention to simpler carbs than I normally do

The bad:
-I haven't really had a good long run at anything close to what I'd like to target as race pace in this whole build-up.  The closest I can get is a 12 miler at 11:23 w/F, but that was on a *very* flat course.
-The hills on this course are insane. Last time, they killed me.
-My last long run was 9 miles with Jen and F, and the climb and descent were extremely difficult for me, resulting in a high-effort 11:14 pace.  I will be encountering more climb and descent than we did on that run in the first 4 miles of this course and it keeps going from there.
-Even with the lost weight, I'm still not back in my ideal 10 lb range, which means I'm still carrying more weight than I am used to racing with.
-I thought I had a reasonable A goal, but when I looked back to last year while running the full, I missed it by 4 minutes and I was much more fit back then.  Granted, it was a full, and it was very windy, but still, I didn't realize the goal was so ambitious.

So, after a bit of additional thought, here are my goals in order of attainability:

1.  To finish a good effort solid half marathon and *not* completely blow up at the end.  The main goal here is to ensure that tomorrow's run is a building block for the 1/2 marathon I'm running in Spokane in 3 weeks with my sister (which is relatively flat and net downhill).  I will re-assess my approach around mile 4 and slow down as much as I think is required to be sure I hit this one.   

2.  To negative split.

3.  To beat my Kaiser time of 2:20ish. (10:41/mile pace)

4.  To beat 2:15. (10:18/mile pace)

5.  To hit 2:10. (9:55/mile pace)

And now, to hydrate and read until I fall asleep...

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow!

Running Greatness

I was so happy for Meb on Monday.  I was onsite at a client, meeting with another attorney, and I had the race streaming.  When it came down to the last few seconds, I turned my screen so we could all watch history happen.  It was fun to share the moment with someone who'd never watched a marathon before.  He was surprised, "they are that close at the end of 26.2 miles?"  and "he's running how fast at how old?"

I've spent the last few days in a glow.  I bought Meb's audiobook Running to Overcome, and I'm enjoying learning more about this man who I already admired so much.  I read all the press I could get my hands on and was so proud of the American men for working as a team (great coverage here).

Today, I received the second email from a running friend regarding pulling together a team of women to do a Ragnar relay.  I'm very interested and I think I'd like to join.  I hope it works out.

After replying, I realized, wow, I'm totally excited about this event that includes a group of women, most of whom I've never met, and no men.

This is not normal for me.  I'm generally apprehensive about social interactions with groups of women.  One on one, I feel completely comfortable.  But 2 or more and I get concerned.  I actively dread baby showers and bridal showers.  I go to them and I'm usually glad that I did, but they require so much effort for me.  If I relax and just act like my normal self, I generally end up offending someone.  Obviously, that's not what I want to do.  So, I have to spend a bunch of extra effort reminding myself of things, like, "take the time to notice 4 things and compliment them as being cute, stylish, interesting, etc."  And, "Just because this person is talking about this topic doesn't mean that they actually want to know your opinion on it.  WAIT to see if they pause or ask for your input, don't just assume they are interested in what you have to say."  And, hardest of all, "Nod.  Smile.  Pay Attention.  Listen!" I have a very bad habit of tuning out stuff that I don't find interesting.  And, unfortunately, many of the standard topics of conversation when groups of women get together are  not that interesting to me. 

So, when I realized I was actually excited about Ragnar, even though it contained a bunch of women I'd never met, a light went on in my head.  Duh!  I have a history of doing sports with other women, and it has never been scary or awkward.  With sports, we all have a shared physical goal and we hang out together while trying to accomplish it.  I can be myself and focus and tune out and there's very little danger of my actions being interpreted as rude.

It's always amazing to me when, as an adult, you realize something for the first time that has been true about yourself since childhood.

I've categorically told myself that I don't feel totally comfortable in all female groups.  But that's not true at all.  I feel perfectly comfortable in all female groups when the reason we're gathering is athletics.  I've felt comfortable on gymnastics teams, soccer teams, diving teams, swim teams, drill team, and a cheerleading team.  These days, I *love* running with female companions, whether close friends or new acquaintances.  And I always look forward to going to the track group.

So there you have it.  Yet another reason running is great.  It helps me compensate for my social awkwardness.  

Last Week Before SLO Taper

This week was an interesting one.  Total Mileage: 25.2 -- if I was trying to taper, I'd be stoked.  But I wasn't, so that's not so great.

I did hit my 3 goal running workouts, managed to get in some solid core and stretching, and I ate well and lost another pound.  So, overall, I'm very happy with the week (even though it was much lower mileage than I would have preferred).

But there was also quite a bit of random stuff to contend with, and frankly, I'm not quite sure what to expect next week at the SLO half marathon.

Strength:  Monday was awesome.  After the easy long run with Jen on Sunday, I headed out for 3 in the early evening at a medium effort and easily hit 9:36/mile without feeling like it was horridly difficult.  I felt that I could have done the loop at least a minute faster for sure, which was a great feeling.  

Random thing #1 -- the speed workout from Silicon Valley Striders this week was insane, *and* I forgot my Garmin.  There were only 3 of us.  Me, the coach (who's faster than me at any distance longer than a 100), and N (who I regularly use as a pacer to pull me through the track intervals as I draft at paces I otherwise couldn't hit).  The workout was a ladder of insanity, starting with all-out sprinting, and extending into the territory of an 800 and back down, all with minimal recovery.  I did my best to hang, but after the first 400, it became very apparent that I'd need to either modify the distances, stop trying to keep up with them on pacing for the longer stuff, or increase my recovery interval.  I opted for #1, so my modified workout was as follows:

Preview:
50m (:30s rest) -- ALL OUT. 
100m (:30s rest) -- ALL OUT.
200m (:60s rest) -- 90%+
400m (2:00 rest) -- 1:55; 200 walk
600m (200 walk; 3:00 rest; or jog lap recovery) -- modified to 400 @ 1:54; 400 jog;
800m (3:00 passive rest or jog lap recovery) -- modified to 400 @ 1:58; 400 jog;
600m (200 walk; 3:00 rest; or jog lap recovery) -- modified to 400 @ 1:58; 400 jog;
400m (2:00 rest) -- I was asked to pace the group as they were dragging.  No watch, so I hit the 400 @ 1:51 (too fast, but felt great); walking 2:00 rest
200m (:60s rest) -- 90%+
100m (:30s rest) -- ALL OUT.
50m (:30s rest) -- ALL OUT.

The truth is, I hadn't run that fast or that hard for that many minutes in a single workout in a long time, regardless of the recovery.  The sprints recruited muscles in my butt, hamstrings, core, and more that hadn't felt the need to engage in runs in a long time.  I was shaky and sore immediately and for several days afterwards.

Core (AKA Random Thing #2): The next day, I hit up a Power Yoga class for 75 minutes of heated hard core strength and stretching.  When was the last time I'd done this, you ask?  Oh, probably at least 2-3 years ago.  Totally a good idea to do something this strenuous for the first time in years 10 days before your next race, right?  My legs were simultaneously thankful and shaky and mad.  The next day, all my core and arm muscles that have been neglected let me know that they were disappointed in me too...

Easy (AKA Random Thing #3): Friday and Saturday's easy runs were at paces that surprised me (and not in a good way), but I tried to chalk it up the combination of the ridiculous speed workout and the unexpected taxation of the yoga class that involved an inordinate amount of lunges, single leg balances, etc.

Long Run: Last night, I ate light, went to bed early, hydrated, and looked forward to today's long run with F and Jen.  We had 9 miles at Sawyer Camp Trail, and I felt strong.  I hung with them on the 4.5 mile climb at their selected paces ranging from 10:18-10:37/mile.  At the 4.5 mile turn-around, I asked to walk to take my Gu, but I could already start to feel my error. I had pushed it too hard.  The 4.5 miles back down were a big struggle for me (and downhills are usually my strength!).  I positive splitted by a long shot and finished running 8.86 miles at an average pace of 11:07 before I walked a bit to close it off.  Am I disappointed?  Not really.  It's still a better pace than I've hit on any of my other long runs (sadly), and the climbing definitely gets some credit (roughly 150 ft of climbing and the return on the way back), as does the consistent time on my feet with only one walk break.  If nothing else, this run reminded me *not* to go out too hard at SLO.

And there you have it.  The running week in an eggshell (in honor of the dyed-purple egg I ate at an Easter Brunch today).  I hope you had a great Easter/Passover/Gorgeous Weekend.

A Different View

A few months ago, I was randomly selected to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire for federal jury duty.

Looks like I made the cut...

I'm fascinated at the idea that I may end up on a federal jury.  I've heard two sets of conflicting feedback re: the likelihood that this may happen.

The most common theory is that lawyers always get stricken.  The party with the weaker legal case will use a challenge to get rid of you if you're a lawyer because you can easily spot the flaws in their case.

The other lore I've heard (from a career clerk for the federal judge I externed for who sat on 3 federal juries in her career and a few other sources) is that if they are going to trial, particularly federal trial, both parties think they have a great case and a lawyer is a much better bet than a random citizen in terms of actually paying attention to the evidence and ruling in accordance with the law.

I'm amused to see that I'm totally ambivalent on how this may play out.  I can't help but think that one of the reasons I can be ambivalent is because I saw how seriously the jurors took their duties when I was a federal extern.  The jury is one of the greatest legal concepts this country has (at least in the criminal and tort worlds, where I had the privilege of watching it be applied, very seriously and thoughtfully by randomly selected panels in the federal court system).

So, if I end up on a jury, so be it.  I'll serve to the best of my abilities and my practice, professional life, and personal life will all have to take the hit (given the dates at issue, I'll likely have to cancel pre-arranged travel).

If I don't end up on the jury, I won't be sad -- my practice, my professional life, and my personal life, will likely be better off.  Another individual will take my place.  And if my experience is any indicator, they will take it seriously and do a thoughtful deliberate job at arriving at their conclusions as well.

Procrastination Nation

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours sorting through and filing all the documents in my "file pile".

You read that correctly.  A couple of hours.

The primary reason for finally buckling down and doing this task that I only manage to complete a few times per year (hence how the pile gets to be so large and unwieldy)?

Well, kids.  The tax deadline is fast approaching.

Now, I have a folder with all of the tax documentation.  And, I've got the latest version of the tax prep software updated.

So, of course, I'm going to update my blog...

This week was a bit of a miss in terms of my running goals.  I didn't get in any good strength work at all, and my mileage was only 29.83 total.

My two good workouts weren't too bad, it was just the rest of the week that was tough.  The washing machine died on me, the kitchen remodel needed time with professionals on-site, and work picked up too -- which made committing to the scheduled mileage and/or workouts difficult.  I'm happy to say I made myself get on my feet and do *something* on every day but 1 day.  But the quality and time of those efforts was somewhat sub-par.  Oh well.  Some weeks I just have to tell myself that something is better than nothing.  And it is.

Despite the decreased mileage and crazy schedule, we ate quite healthy and I managed to drop another pound, so that's continued progress in that direction.

Speed -- track day:  This week's workout was a bit more difficult for me than normal because the track coach wasn't doing the workout.  When she's not also running, she tends to be much more strict about enforcing the recovery intervals.  My legs were still a bit heavy from the 10K last Sunday, but I just told myself to do my best.  I ran 2.21 miles warm-up to go get my car (which I'd left onsite at a client), drove the 7 minutes to the track, did another 0.18 mile jog/walk w/u at track and jumped in to the workout; 3 X (2 X 600 R/I:60) 400 R/I jogging between sets (splits: 3:00; 3:01; 3:05; 3:02; 3:05; 3:10), then I slapped on another 1.10 miles jog/walking c/d.  This pushed the mileage up to 6.41 miles, which is a great mid-week mileage day.  But, this week, it was my only mid-week day even remotely longer than 3 miles.

Long -- beautiful run in San Francisco with Jen today. 

(Stolen Photos from Jen below.)

One of the amazing views from the Lands End Trails

These stairs are why I didn't stress about the paces... no joke!

I had 14 on the calendar and Jen had 20, so we agreed to meet up at mile 6 of her run and do the last bit together.  I woke with a bit of a funky stomach, skipped the coffee as a result, and headed up to the meet-up place.  On the drive I got a text from Jen indicating that she may also have a bit of a funky belly, and that she would be 5 minutes later than expected due to a detour.  I walked a bit to warmup and placed myself at the intersection we'd agreed upon.  I waited several minutes longer than I expected and started to worry that it may have been a mistake to leave my phone back at my car (0.25 miles away at this point).  Just as I was deciding whether I should run back to my car, Jen came into sight -- turns out the map she'd used was short, the meetup point was at 6.6 miles instead of 6 miles!  Delay explained.

After this auspicious start, we decided to modify the route on the fly.  I was happy to write off the extra 0.6 miles, I just needed to get in a good long run.  Jen wanted to avoid the loop through the Sunset she'd originally planned because it had street intersection with traffic, so we headed down Sloat and along the Great Highway's trail.

Immediately, it became clear that my stomach was not happy with me and that I would need a restroom in the first couple of miles.  I considered hopping into a porta potty that was at someone's home for construction, but managed to preserve a small bit of dignity and held on for a public restroom.  And voila -- there it was -- the most glorious public bathroom I've ever used.  This building was my savior sent to me via time machine, complete with marble, tile, numerous stalls, molding at the ceiling -- all clean!  The world was a much better place after this gift from the past.

From there, Jen and I gamely ran slowly but steadily, out the Great Highway, up past the Cliff House, up into Lands End and up a million stairs to the top of the trail.  Jen gave me a high-five when we reached the Lands End trail entrance and I smiled.  Nothing like another runner to know the internal pride you feel when you finish a climb like that one (169 feet in mile 4, plus another 108 feet in mile 5).

The Lands End trail system is gorgeous.  While I'd been going to the Cliff House and the Sutro Baths off and on since childhood, I'd never been out to the trails.  They are recently expanded, very well maintained and the views are some of the best in the world.  I think I may need to arrange a hike with a group of friends.

At mile 7 or so, I apologized to Jen for holding her back.  I was pokier than I'd planned and I knew she had some pace goals I may be keeping her from hitting.  She surprised me by saying that she was struggling (this was on the climb back into the city through Golden Gate park) and was thinking about cutting back the mileage.  In hindsight, it shouldn't have surprised me.  We were gamely doing our best, but the whole day hadn't really gone according to plan for either of us.

From here, I decided just to play it by ear.  We considered adding a loop around Stow lake, got lost on our way there, finally made it there and after about half a mile, decided to head back out to the main road and just run to the car and let the mileage land where it did.

Towards the end, since I knew I'd be a little shorter than my planned 14, I threw in 4 HIIT intervals, all under 1 minute.  I was pretty tired, and the paces I hit showed it: 7:52; 8:18; 8:48; 9:07.  But, there's something about throwing in a hard effort at the end of a long run that fills me with a sense of accomplishment.  For me, since pushing myself on pace is one of my weaknesses, I think hard efforts at the end of long runs are actually much more difficult than slogging through the extra miles.  After the intervals, I jogged and walked back to the car with Jen after we left the main part of the park.  Total miles: 12.  Average Pace: 12:00/mile including all the walk breaks and the hiking up and down the stairs.

Overall, I'm very happy with this run.  It was great to catch up with Jen, and it's the first time in a long time that 12 miles felt "easy".  While it was slower, given the hills, I think it was comparable to the last 12 miler I did with F.  The difference is, after that one I was completely done, as were my legs, whereas this time, I definitely had more than enough energy left.  Bonus, my legs feel relatively fresh right now a few hours later, which is the first time that's happened after a long run in quite a while (probably partially due to my accidental step-back week).

So that's the week in a nutshell.  Off to get Guito some much-needed sunshine (I'll get to those taxes, I swear...).

Double Duty

First there was the pyrex incident that killed our garbage disposal.  So, we're scraping by without one (for the first time in my life, actually) until we finish the kitchen remodel.

Then, a day or so ago, our washing machine decided to die mid-cycle.

(I think water-based appliances may be going on strike at our house).

But, I can't really complain.  We bought the cheapest washer and dryer that Sears would sell us 11 years ago and we haven't had a single problem.

The real issue was, why did it have to die mid-cycle?  These clothes were sopping wet. 

So, yesterday, instead of my run, I hand-wrung the clothes and found a new purpose for the tomato cages:

Thank goodness this didn't happen in late summer when the cages would all be occupied by 6 foot tall plants!

SLO Week -3 (Baby Steps)

On the running front, I managed to string together another decent week and I dropped a pound or so.  Both of these are baby steps (but in the right direction). My goals for each week continue to be simple:

1. Get in at least one good core strength and stretching day (either yoga or calisthenics/weight lifting/stretching in a gym).

2. Get in 3 substantive running workouts, ideally one speed, one strength, and one endurance.

3. Fit in as much mileage as I can, even if it's walking.  (This week's total:  36.49 miles)

This week, I hit all 3 (I'm counting a 10K with a 1.5 mile jogging warm-up as a mixed strength and endurance day), so I'm a happy kid.

Monday, E was sick, so we canceled our hotel up in SF and I made myself go to the gym and do an hour of cross-training.  10 minutes on the elliptical to warm-up.  Then a myriad of weights and calisthenics and stretching.

I am *always* so sore after my core/cross-training days.  Lately, I've been inspired by bloggers who are rehabbing from injuries as well as running magazines and I've been adding more glute-focused work as well as specifically recommended running-focused strength work.  It is clear that my muscle memory and brain think I am actually much stronger than my body actually is.  Every week, I do what I think should be a reasonable yoga and/or strength workout and the next day my muscles scream at me and I realize it was less reasonable than I thought.

I'm not complaining, it's just interesting.  I definitely don't have this issue with running.  I never go out for what I think is a reasonable speed workout, for example, and find out the next day that it was actually hard.  I *know* when my running workouts are hard while I'm doing them.  With weight-bearing strength though, not so much... And this, my friends, is why I am one of the few women in the world who can accidentally build too much muscle.

Turns out, despite the fears of most women, it's non-trivially difficult for most women (and men) to build too much bulk as a result of lifting weights and/or doing explosive dynamic loading.  Thanks to genetics, this is not completely true for me... and yet, I still lift and risk it.  Why?  Well, I am fairly certain that one of the main reasons I am rarely injured (despite consistently maintaining an average of 20-50 miles per week for almost 10 years and weight that has fluctuated more than 30 lbs up and down during that time) is that I am functionally strong.  In addition to strength genes, I believe I have a combination of a childhood of athletics and college athletics to thank for this.  But, now that I'm entering middle age, I just want to preserve and maintain as much of that strength in as intelligent of a manner as possible.

My substantive workouts were straightforward.

Track Day for Speed:   1.3 miles w/u jog, strides, and drills.  3.12 miles total intervals plus recovery (200, 2X400; 2X800; 2X400; 200) Paces:  6:44; 7:41; 7:37; 7:59; 8:04; 7:45; 7:49; 6:43  (It's so gratifying to watch my speed paces drop as the weeks go by...)

As I mentioned, I cheated and combined by strength and endurance workouts this week because I wanted to run in a local 10K to get a fitness check.  I jogged about 15 minutes to the start at an easy pace and stood in line for a very long time to register (partially killing my warm-up, but what are you going to do?) -- next time I'll definitely do the online registration and show up earlier!

My goal was to try to hit 9ish minute miles and to see if I could sustain it for the whole race.  Unfortunately, I wasn't quite in shape enough to pull it off, and I did the dreaded positive split, but I knew that was a possibility going in.  I pushed myself for a great hour-ish long sustained effort and it definitely helped me figure out where I am in my fitness (in hindsight, I should have gone out at 9:10 and tried to sustain and push it in the last mile... oh well...).

Splits:

1:  8:47
2:  8:54
3:  9:01
4:  9:23
5:  9:30 (5 second walk through the water break)
0.97: 9:17/mile pace

As you can see, the race was quite short for a 10K.   But, I wasn't complaining.  I was *done* when I hit the finish line.  I was thrilled to see 54:33 on the clock, but I knew I hadn't run anything close to the 8:48 pace that time would have required.

After the race, I met up with  Angela. We headed out for a hearty post-race breakfast and we chatted and became fast real-world friends to supplement our bloggy friendship.  She'd had quite an impressive performance in the 5K, so we headed back for the awards ceremony, where she picked up 2nd in her age group.  This race was actually much larger and faster than I expected.  The overall men's winner for the 5K ran a 16:XX and there were many folks in the 18s to the low 20s including several very impressive older masters and younger kids.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the event and I think I may try to make it a regular on my calendar -- it's hard to argue with a race you can jog to as a warm up from your front door.  Plus, three other folks from Silicon Valley Striders ran, and it's always fun to see folks you know at a race.

Finally, I got to do my shake-out easy day today with E and 2 other friends.  I ran 1.5ish miles to the trailhead, met them all there, we all did 0.5 miles medium with 0.25 walking intervals until we hit 3+; and then I ran home and we all went out for brunch.  This was a very pleasant and fun way to get in more than 6 miles on a recovery day.  Left to my own devices, I probably would have called it at 4 miles.  Yet another reason to be thankful for local friends!