New York Marathon Spectating Weekend

A good friend of mine, A, left California and moved to Rochester, New York a while back.  We hung out earlier this year and realized we needed to schedule some quality time together.  So, we decided to go spectate the New York Marathon, just us.

It was a wonderful weekend.

If I had it to do again, I would register for the Abbott 5K on the Saturday before the marathon, which is an impressive event that shuts down Sixth Avenue.  We spectated it as well, and it was fun to see all the fast folks zoom by.

The reservoir in Central park -- such a great run!

I walked and ran more than a marathon's distance over the 3 days in town.  I fueled with Peruvian food, Columbian street cart food in Central Park, Pizza (Napoletana) in Brooklyn, Soup dumplings & other Chinese food, Vietnamese won ton soup, and Per Se!

One of many Central Park Views

My friend, F, was running the NY Marathon and somehow managed to get me added to her reservation at Per Se, so I ended up with an unexpected 3-star Michelin meal to boot.  It was, as you'd expect from Thomas Keller, divine.

Look at that form!

Running in Central Park hours before the marathon participants would arrive was very cool.  It was just me and all the cyclists and roller bladers who take advantage of the closed course and do a 26.2 mile ride or blade that finishes before the race events start. At the end of my run, I encountered the youth runners, all lined up and ready to race in Central Park.

All the youth, lined up for their race.

It was a very motivating weekend, running-wise.

Watching Shalane pull into 3rd place on the big screen while sitting in the grandstand seating at the finish was the highlight, but it was also wonderful to watch the Americans roll in and chat with Allie Kieffer's friends and family (all sporting flat Allie on popsicle sticks) and cheer her on as she moved from 11th to finish 7th.

Lots of discussion in the grandstands about tree-trimming 

that could have made things better...

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend.  Catching up with A was so good.  New York is a place I will always love to visit -- it is so alive and I adore it every time I come.  I've lost count, but I believe the current total visit count is 10ish, making it one of the cities outside of California where I've spent the most time.  Nothing's changed -- I still want to go back.

Parkrun PR (Brave Like Gabe)

E and I decided to spend a couple of nights in the city for Memorial Day weekend.

Low light sunset over piers 1.5 - 3.

Friday night, I met an attorney-friend for celebratory drinks because our GDPR nightmare was now just ongoing and not a deadline.  After that, E and I enjoyed a delicious early date night dinner of grilled octopus, burrata salad, and mussels with homemade saffron fettuccine.  We were back in the hotel lounge for a nightcap by 8 and in bed, watching the adorable Lady Bird by 9, pounding sparkling water and water to hydrate for the next day's Crissy Field Parkrun. (Also, my honorary Brave Like Gabe 5K -- when I tried to register, they weren't accepting virtual registrations anymore, so I just made a donation to the organization in general and mentally made a note to run hard to push for people who are sick.)

I love how golden Oakland looks at sunset.

We fell asleep before 11:30 and slept peacefully until the hotel phone randomly woke us up with loud ringing at 3:52 AM.  No one was on the line.  It was bizarre.  Unfortunately, both of us had a difficult time getting back to sleep.

When my alarm went off at 7:05, I reset it for 7:20 and actually fell back asleep and started dreaming before the 7:20 alarm woke me up.  Groggy, we finally got up, did the vitamin taking, teethbrushing, and dressing required before heading up to the lounge for cappuccinos and a light pre-race breakfast.

Love Crissy Field Parkrun!

As I've been slowly increasing my fitness, my goal was to run sub 30.  I lined up towards the back of the pack and fidgeted with my headphones and phone, not quite working everything out by the time I heard "1-2-3 Go!"  So, we were off, and after a couple of minutes, noting that I was averaging 9:22/mile when my goal was 9:39 for the first mile, I decided to try to make the music work.  Eventually, after rebooting my phone, I got my Bluetooth headphones connected, saw 9:46 as the average pace for the lap on my garmin and picked it up.  E stayed with me and matched his pace to mine for that first mile, which was very helpful.

Magritte's Scheherazade

The Magritte exhibit at SF MoMA is one of

my favorite museum exhibits I've ever seen.

I hit the mile at 0.2 seconds faster than my target pace -- a little too close for comfort.  So I tried to pick it up just a little bit and E stayed with me.  Somewhere around 1.5 miles, he waved goodbye and took off (finishing 2m4s ahead of me).  I kept checking my watch, pushing and occasionally passing folks, hitting mile 2 with a 9:36.5 split.

Magritte's Personal Values

Okay.  At this point, I was working hard, but happy with where I was. I felt comfortable that I could probably keep it under 9:39 average and finish sub 30 to meet my goal.  It was a beautiful cool foggy day with views of the Golden Gate bridge and I was consciously practicing gratitude.

One of my favorites.

Except all of a sudden, it became apparent that many of the people I'd passed were using me as a pacer.  The first woman I'd previously passed, passed me and started clipping people off as she headed down the last 3/4 mile to the finish, much stronger than I was.  I'm not gonna lie.  I found it very difficult to be grateful about THAT.

Possibly my absolute favorite.

Honestly, I hadn't raced in such a long time I'd forgotten it was a thing.  I was so used to comparing myself against only myself that I found it shocking that I actually cared what the people around me were doing.

The next woman who tried to pass caused me to dig in and match her, staying just in front of her shoulder for a minute or so, until eventually, she stopped pushing me and I saw that I was close to a guy I'd been trailing for most of the race.  I pushed to pass him and he really didn't like that option.  He tried to surge past me, so I matched.  He dropped back for a few seconds.  He tried to surge again, I matched again.  He dropped back again.  This pattern played out a few more times until the last 10th of a mile where I never saw him again.

Meanwhile, about 4 of the women I'd passed earlier in the race took the opportunity to cleanly and strongly pass me while I was battling with surging dude.  I tried to push as hard as I could, but I couldn't stay with any of them.  My chest was hurting in that "this is uncomfortable, but I can probably keep this up 'til the finish" kind of way.  My legs felt like they probably had more to give, but my cardiovascular system did not.

Finally, I crossed the line and stopped my watch, very happy to see 29:39. My 3rd mile split was 9:29 with the last bit of the 5K at 9:10/mile pace.  All in all, a very well executed negative split race.

Post race dinner splurge.

This is nowhere in contention for the fastest 5K I've ever run.  In fact, it's about 29 seconds per mile slower than my PR marathon pace.  But, I haven't broken 30 in a 5K since I'd done so at Memorial Day Parkrun 2 years ago, and this time is faster than that one, setting a Parkrun course PR for me.

It's the highest percentage age grade race (50.99%) I've posted in about 3 years.  My age grade best is 60.30%, so I feel comfortable that I'm headed in the right direction fitness wise, AND, if I stay on it, I've got plenty of room for improvement within my historic norms.  I just need to continue putting up consistent basic good healthy habits and training.  And, I'm excited to get after it.

Closing Out 2017

I spent Christmas eve and Christmas day at a hospital, supporting family, grateful for medical care and the impressive things that can be done to save and prolong lives.  It was the first time I've ever celebrated Christmas where I wasn't at a family home-hosted celebration.  Sure, there has been the occasional celebratory Christmas eve or Christmas day meal at a restaurant, but it's always been tagged on to a gathering of either my family or E's family (and often friends as well), with the general celebration based in someone's decorated home with presents.

Christmas Eve Seafood Dinner

Mom and I left the hospital for two meals -- Christmas eve at an oyster bar and Christmas day at a Sushi restaurant.  At both places, I was so thankful for the servers, chefs, bartenders and other service professionals who worked on the holiday, most of whom wore Christmas-themed clothing and played Christmas music.  I saw many single people, sitting at bars, enjoying a holiday meal alone.  And I was so, so grateful for the people who made their and our evening out possible, as well as the great fortune I've had to be able to celebrate the holidays in a family member's home as their guest.  I teared up when I dialed in to watch the unwrapping festivities with E's family -- I very much wanted to be there. Somehow, I'd never realized just how lucky I've been to have experienced joyous Christmas present unwrapping with family every year of my life.  Acknowledging that I'd taken this amazing gift for granted was very humbling.

[Edit: E reminded me that we spent Christmas eve in Sydney and Christmas day in Wellington in 2014.  So, we have spent one Christmas away from other friends and family, I've just never done so before this year in the United States.]

Octopus Ceviche Starter for Christmas Dinner

On the running front, I am tentatively hopeful that I'll be able to continue to improve and actually complete the Kaiser half marathon.

This week's mileage totaled 20.5, almost all of it running, and definitely the highest quality week since I'd admitted my leg was injured (and probably the highest quality week for a couple of weeks before the admission as well).

Christmas day, I did a solo chilly hour along the dike of the Mississippi river, 20 easy minutes out and 40 minutes strides/walk intervals followed by stretching, rolling, and glute work.

Tuesday, I rested, and Wednesday I ran a 5K in the ATL hills @ 11:53 average pace.  Afterward, I dropped in 4 60-second strides by effort (some on hills) @ 9:34; 8:27; 9:25; 10:28 per mile pace with walking recovery.  This was, essentially, the first real "workout" I'd done in 3 weeks and I managed to roll and stretch my leg afterwards until it felt pretty good.

I took Thursday as a rest day, and headed out Friday with hopes of a nice slow 5 miler.  Unfortunately, my leg was not on board.  I did 2.55 miles @ 12:16, but then the tightness in the side and back of my leg made me think it would be best to stop to stretch out my glute and hamstring.  From there, I did some intermittent run/jogging to close out the day with a total of 5.2 miles, although probably only 3.5 or so was actually running.  Upon return to the house, I aggressively rolled and stretched and hoped for the best.

Piedmont Park is a great place for flat strength intervals

Saturday AM, my leg surprised me by feeling much better, so I decided to go forward with the planned for (very short) workout.  I did side lunges and glute bridges to warm up, then walked to Piedmont Park, and ran a mile @ 9:44.  The original goal had been 10:30, but E came along and pulled me at a faster than planned pace.  I walked the 5 minutes to recover and started up again for a second mile, but it was not to be.  After 0.25 miles of starting at 9:44 and eventually slowing to 10:11/mile average pace, I walked a bit to recover and closed out the last 0.75 miles @ 10:34.  Looks like the original plan of 2 mile intervals at 10:30 pace was the right call... BUT, I fit in some 8:45 pace strides on the way home from the park and my leg held up afterwards, so this, too, was a success.

Sunday's plan was pace agnostic -- just 3 miles to get me over 20 for the week.  I rolled and did side lunges and glute bridges beforehand and headed out with my father in law for his favorite loop, warning him that I wanted to take it very easy.  We finished 1m30s faster than the last time we'd run it together a couple of weeks ago, and better yet, my leg was barely annoyed with me.  Three 11:30 pain free miles on a perfectly chilly day including 244 ft of elevation gain and loss?  It's a great way to close out the year.

Happy New Year's Eve, y'all.  Stay safe and I'll see you in 2018!

A Glorious Weekend

Last week was an exercise in patience and working on healing my left leg.  Conveniently, the low mileage, high rolling goal meant that I could take Friday completely off my feet, which was good, since I was scheduled for an all-day conference in SF.  (Note, one benefit of the beasties is that I could fit one in my purse and slyly slide it under my leg and roll out the tightness that built up while seated at the conference table all day.)

My favorite piece from the Klimt exhibit:

An unfinished portrait of a woman.

While at the conference, E emailed me about two big errors I'd made.  First, I'd booked our flights to Mexico to last for 5 weeks, instead of the 1 week trip we'd planned (wrong return month!).  Yikes.  Thankfully, there was still availability on the return flights and I just had to suck it up and pay the change fee, which hurt, but given that the flights I was buying were *less* than the flights we'd originally booked, meant that we didn't even have to pay the full change fee.

Second, I'd somehow made Friday's reservations for dinner at Pabu Boston instead of San Francisco.  Booking at the SF location the day of was not an option, so we took the opportunity to return to Ozumo for moriawase with o-toro for dessert instead.  Date night heaven!

The Baby.  

I found this piece super creepy.

Saturday AM, I went to the hotel gym and gamefully did 2 X (2 miles in 8 min cycling at decent resistance) interspersed with all of my assigned glute activation stretching/glute bridges, lateral lunges (5 lbs), 10 lb medicine ball pony squats, captain's chair leg lifts/scissor kicks, and a few other random core stuff plus stretching.  E left for a run while I was doing all of this and I was very jealous -- I love to run along the embarcadero, but I also want to get better.  So, discipline.

Cliff House Selfie

We were able to get reservations for lunch at Sutro's before our scheduled entrance to the Klimt Exhibit, and they seated us at a window table.  Date weekend win, yet again - lunch was delicious and it was a perfectly clear day to enjoy the views.

The Klimt Exhibit was interspersed with Rodin.

They met once, in the early 1900s.

Saturday was SantaCon in San Francisco.  On our drive out to Ocean Beach, we saw some of the partiers getting started around noon.  On our drive back to the embarcadero around 4 PM, we saw several Santas who were stumblingly headed home for the day, as well as many hearty souls gearing up for a full evening of revelry.  Per the usual for this time of year, we headed out to the annual holiday party of one of my former employers who is gracious enough to invite us every year.  We always look forward to the food, white elephant fun, and seeing old friends, and as always, it was a blast.

The Virgin.

Sunday AM, we slept in and then I headed out to meet up with friend who recently moved to SOMA.  She was one of my local running buddies before they moved, so it was awesome to join her for a nice slow relatively pain-free 3 miles along the embarcadero before cleaning up and enjoying a catch-up couples brunch of ceviche, octopus, grilled veggies and cocktails at La Mar.

Happy Holidays!  We don't decorate for Christmas.

But we do travel to SF for a holiday weekend 

every year, which is an awesomely 

enjoyable tradition.

At 13.09 miles in my log, this is the lowest mileage week I've done in a very long time.  But, my leg is feeling more stable, stronger, and less likely to have a muscle freak out with each passing day.  My original goal had been to increase my fitness until running the Kaiser half marathon in February.  At this point, I'm happy to just maintain my current fitness and heal.  If I am able to finish the Kaiser half at all, I'll be very grateful, regardless of how long it takes me.

A very short list: things the US does more efficiently than Japan

So, it's laundry day, yet again, which, you might have noticed is a big deal on this Sabbatical.  It's overhead that must be dealt with regularly as we only have 7 days of clean clothes.  But we are in Japan, which is a wonderfully civilized country.  We've been thrilled to find that most moderately priced business hotels (<$100 USD/night) have COIN LAUNDRY *IN* THE HOTEL for super reasonable prices (typically 300Y to wash and 100Y to dry for 20-30 minutes -- total for all of our cold-weather/heavy laundry is always less than $15USD and sometimes less than $10).  What a fabulous idea!  Why doesn't any other country we've visited do this?

Typical Japanese Business Hotel Laundry Center.

Even better, Japan's coin washers are pre-filled with their own detergent and they dispense it during the cycle for you.  Like many of the amazing ways Japan treats us, this hand-holding care is simultaneously wonderful and yet it feels like they are judging us, as if we couldn't possibly be trusted to figure out what detergent to buy, how much to use, where to put it, etc.  And you know what?  After struggling with all of those questions in 10+ countries so far, I'm totally down with Japan's decision that we might not be qualified.  It's been dangerously close on several occasions.  I think they made the right call.  Also, the laundry machines only take 100 yen coins.  But don't worry, they are always on the same floor as the vending machines (including beer), and you can get change from them.  It's really just the perfect system.

Obligatory homage to Japan's Amazing Trains

Anyways, we've got another week left in Japan, but after 2 weeks, we feel fairly comfortable, like we've got a decent handle on what to expect (including the signs that things are headed somewhere we don't understand and we should just go ahead and expect it to be weird). 

Hermetically Sealed Bathroom Capsule, dropped into most of our hotel rooms.

Japan has the highest general standard of Okay of any country we've visited.  And we are currently in relatively rural Japan, on Shikoku, the smallest of the 4 major islands, with less than 5% of the population.  Even here, most things work quite well (and certainly they work much more predictably and reliably than equivalently rural areas of the US and Canada that we visited on our road trip)

Ichiran Ramen Ordering Stations (further customized by paper forms after you are seated)

Because it's so rare, E and I made a list of the very few examples we can come up with where the U.S. is *actually* more efficient than Japan:

1. Hotel check-out and check-in.  For some inexplicable reason, this almost always takes tons of time with several sheets of paper exchanged (even for pre-paid rooms with no mini-bar or restaurant).  I don't like going through the motions of filling in paperwork when I already entered the same info on the Internet and I really like just leaving my key in the room and leaving.

2. Wrapping and unwrapping.  Of everything, but especially food.  Holy over-packaging batman.
 
3. Toilets (rural train station toilets are squat toilets, so if you are sensitive to that issue, you may find the US more efficient on a different axis).  For us, the efficiency kicks in with the automated toilets, I'm not necessarily complaining about the luxury experience, but it does slow things down if your toilet has either some sort of water-flowing boot-up sequence it has to complete before you can flush, or it thinks it needs to greet you with a song and slow-motion auto-opening lid.

4.  Crossing the street (rare in bigger cities where there are entire underground tunnel complexes to eliminate the need for this entirely).  Due to the rule-following culture, jay-walking is rare, and people often just stand at the side of the road, waiting for the walk sign to turn green on 1 lane roads with no cars or motorcycles or bikes.

And... that's all we've got. 

Hers and his RFID-billed plate stacks at Kaiten-zushi

Everything else we can think of that we've encountered this trip Japan has the US beat on efficiency/dependability: subways, trains, grocery shopping, buying pre-prepared food from vendors, food stalls, eating at mid-range sit-down restaurants (using a call button to get a server immediately, whenever you want one and not having to deal with the "How are we doing?" interruptions), vending machines, convenience stores (more, so easier to get to), everyone keeping their phones in silent mode (no talking) in public spaces to preserve a communal quiet, the speed with which messes are cleaned up in the street, and more.

Taking It Easy, Wine Country Edition

Russian River Valley Views

I was fairly proud of myself for sucking it up and busting out the See Jane Run Half.  Good thing, too, because my left foot's blister was aggravated by the effort and I needed two full days to recover with no running.  On Tuesday, I did all of the tabatas in my tabata bootcamp that I'd missed in one big chunk.  The whole point of the Tabata protocol is 4ish minutes of ultra high effort once a day, 6 days a week.  Let's just say that when you skip them on busy days and then string 5 of them together on a single day, it's a bit of a disaster, in terms of ability to maintain maximum effort as well as post-workout soreness.  But, I did it.  So that counts for something.

Wednesday, I pulled off a fairly pedestrian 4X400 @ 8:30/mile on the TM at 1% with walking recovery for a total of 3 miles.  But hey, haven't you heard? some effort is better than nothing.  I'm just generally relaxing more and more now that my practice is approaching the full-time sabbatical.  Less and less clients to deal with and more time to focus on chores and trip prep.  Thursday and Friday, I was pressed for time, so my runs took a hit and both were squished down to 2 miles with 0.5ish miles walking.  But, again, I'm a believer that something is better than nothing.

Speaking of relaxing...

 

Garden and Insectiary at Dry Creek Vineyards

E's best man and his wife came into town for their 10th anniversary and we joined them on a wonderful trip up to Sonoma.  It's the most relaxed I've been there in ages, possibly ever.  It's a bit sad to realize how many times I've been unable to truly relax on previous trips to this region due to the work that's been lurking in the background, silently pushing on my shoulders.  Always reminding me that it's not getting done for every minute that I'm choosing not to do it.

Even though it hasn't fully started, this sabbatical year is already teaching me things.  I do love the practice of law, but being the service provider that is meeting such an extreme need (or what is perceived as an extreme need by my clients) is very, very, emotionally exhausting.  I've been carrying much more stress around with me for the last 10 years than I realized (possibly because if I admitted it, I might have to do something about it).

Some seriously unique and delicious dishes at Meadowood.

Super relaxed, we enjoyed a perfect itinerary (arranged entirely by our friends, which was awesome) of Friday night dinner at Meadowood, 3 wineries on Saturday (with a picnic lunch), a party in Healdsburg hosted by a high-school classmate of E & E's best man, dinner at Shed, 3 wineries on Sunday (another picnic lunch), dinner at Madrona Manor, 2 wineries on Monday AM, and lunch at Bravas before heading back to reality.

More at Dry Creek Vineyards

On both Saturday and Sunday, S and I rolled out of bed, took in the gorgeous views from the Healdsburg home we'd rented and ran 3 beautiful miles before starting each day's debauchery.

Total wine purchased: 2.5 cases.  Total mileage for the week: 15. Total weight change over the 3 days in wine country: I lost 2 pounds! (Most likely residual benefits from the last 2 higher mileage weeks and healthy eating before the half marathon, but hey, I'll pretend it's just that wine country indulgence is good for me.  That's totally possible, right?  That I just need to indulge more?)

SF Kaiser Half Race Report (with Bonus Olympic Trials Reporting)

Happy Valentine's Day SF Embarcadero Arrow!

Saturday AM, I watched the US Olympic trials with Jen and Cat because somehow, despite being overworked and egregiously tired, Jen saw my tweet asking if anyone wanted company to watch the trials and confirmed that I could invite myself over she could host us if we were willing to come to her.

Little known fact about BT -- I *love* watching sports.  I am a dedicated sports spectator and I don't really care what the sport is.  The Olympics *destroy* my productivity.  Same for the World Cup.  UFC.  Weightlifting.  Martial Arts.  Boxing.  Track and Field.  American Football.  Baseball.  Basketball.  Gymnastics & Diving (duh!).  Same for just about any physically demanding sporting event.  I just love watching the human body do cool things (and all the drama and dedication and whatnot that I know goes into it just makes it that much better for me).

So, watching the US marathon trials with fellow running lovers and cheering on the hard work (and crying, hopefully discreetly, at powerful finishes) was a great way to spend the Saturday AM before my first half marathon in 7 months.   Also, I think I'm going to go try to watch in person next time.  I was super jealous of the folks who were there.

Take home points:

1. Desi is the best pacer ever.  She is a metronome and smart and disciplined and remains my run-your-own race idol.

2. Amy and Shalane have a strong friendship and watching their emotional bond and Shalane's competitiveness visibly overcome the physicality of heat exhaustion to get Shalane over the finish line and make the Olympic team was inspirational teamwork at its best.

3. Kara Goucher is back!  That performance was nothing short of awesome, particularly admitting that she pretty much knew she wasn't likely to make the team from mile 22 on and yet she kept pushing to do her absolute best.  Gutsy and brave showing.  I'm so excited to see what she does in the 10K.  I have a good feeling!  (And, I was so sad for her, too.) 

4. Meb is the epitome of what the sport and humanity has to offer.

5. Galen Rupp's bouncing necklace would drive me nuts!

After the trials, E & I and a bunch of friends contributed to the Deadpool box office route, then I made lentil soup and drank lots of tea before bed. Sunday AM everything went according to plan.  I got up on time, drove to my usual Kaiser SF parking spot, took the bus to the start, used the portajohns, and started back a minute or so.

They call it the Sunset District for a reason...Dinner with Friends on Monday.

 I'd set some modest goals, and I showed up ready to do my best.  Jen had reminded me that the course has some nice downhills and that I should be ready to take advantage of them, because they are fun, so I did.

Miles 1-3: Average pace 10:53/mile.  I was happy with this as I tried to run by effort and every time in the first 2 miles I looked down at my watch, I saw 10:0X.  Yikes.  I knew I couldn't do a half at that pace, but I also knew the first couple of miles were relatively downhill, so I cut myself some slack, slowed down but finished the first miles in high 10s and then naturally slowed down for the 3rd uphill mile in 11:27.

Mile 4: Took a liberal Gu walking water/fuel break around mile 3.4, left my watch running, picked the pace back up and hit the mile marker at 11:04.

Mile 5: 11:05 on the nose including another walking water break.

Mile 6: 10:25 for a net elevation loss of 105 ft.

Mile 7: 10:59 including a Gu walking water/fuel break at the 10K and a net elevation loss of 92 ft.

Mile 8: 11:23.  Woo-Hoo!  After passing the 8 mile marker, I get music! 

Mile 9: 12:19.  The first song was a gift, my cadence naturally increased and I started slowly passing people.  I felt so strong and energetic.  And then... my phone muted the sound at the end of the song.  I stopped to walk and trouble shoot.  Rebooted my phone.  Walked through the water station and fueled with my 3rd Gu.  Started running again.  Started a new song.  It gave me tons of energy.  It then also muted at the end.  WTF?  I stopped to walk and troubleshoot again, frustrated.  No, not frustrated, fucking angry.  WHY WON'T MY MUSIC WORK?  I crossed the 9 mile marker and realized I was averaging 11:07/mile at that point.

Wow.  I took a minute to congratulate myself a bit.  I had more or less hit my A pace goals on point by mile 9 and I still felt fairly good.  This was already a victory.  

Except, frankly, at this point, I was more interested in fighting with my phone, listening to music, and just finishing easily than trying to push it.  So that's what I did.

I fought with the audio features (pulling the volume bar up to hear music and then watch it slide back down to mute of its own accord is particularly frustrating at mile 10) for another 3 miles before finally solving the mystery.  My headset has been dying and its death results in a signal of disconnection which results in a mute because no one wants to hear you blasting whatever it was you previously had in headphones.  AH-HAH!

Mile 10:  11:53 -- phone/music struggles, running easily when music worked
Mile 11:  12:13 -- more of the same
Mile 12:  13:08 -- lots of walking through water stations, electrolyte liquid stations, finally understanding why music that won't play at volume.  Decided to skip the last Gu station.  I wasn't pushing my blood sugar performance limits at all.  I knew I had enough gas in the tank to finish.
Mile 13:  11:33 -- Now that I'd figured out the music issue, I ignored the hot spot on my right foot and ran the last 1.5 miles or so straight to the finish.
Last 0.28:  12:04/mile pace with 26 feet of elevation gain in the short distance.

The final story is simple.  I was very happy with the performance. (Garmin: 13.28 miles @ 11:28 AVG; Chip: 13.1 @ 11:37 AVG)  I did worse than McMillan predicted (of course, he didn't predict my music woes) but better than last year.  I was very happy to take that as a good solid step in the right direction towards regained fitness and a good performance in Oakland.

Sunday night Valentine's day date dinner was deliciously decadent multi-course Italian.  The next day, E & I slept in, relaxed with coffee on the balcony, worked a bit, and then walked to and climbed the stairs up to Coit tower before viewing the line of tourists and deciding we'd come back on a less popular day.  We hiked back down, had a brunch of oysters at Waterbar, relaxed and pseudo-worked on the holiday afternoon and went to dinner at friends' in the Sunset for home-cooked Korean food (YUMM!!! Korean shrimp vegetable pancakes, where have you been my whole life?).

Today, my calves are super tight (perhaps the post-first-half-in-7-months shouldn't be followed with stairs up to and down from Coit tower?) and my left shin has some indications of anterior tibialis pain.  (Lame.  But not surprising given the multiple left ankle sprains in the late fall.)  Today I took it easy and did recumbant bike and weight lifting to help my legs recover.

Next up?  Downhill Skiing for the first time in 2 years... I'll do my best to turn it into some form of useful cross-training for Oakland.  

Wish me luck!

Great Food Week, Meh Running Week

So, E's brother in law sent him a gigantic Wagyu steak for his Christmas present (delicious guilt flown from Japan to New York to California).

So Marbled!

Saturday night pre-race fancy seafood dinner (with caviar!), followed by dim sum post-race brunch, followed by wagyu post-race dinner -- net zero I'm sure.

Why yes, the grease fire did continue after the steak was removed.

It was delicious.  We served 4. 

2 friends came over to enjoy the spoils, and when it looked like the guys might actually challenge each other to finish (which surely would have made them ill from how rich it was), I offered to take the leftovers and make a bolognese we could take to their house and have for dinner on Tuesday.  Turns out, refrigerated wagyu leftovers are roughly as easy to chop as refrigerated bacon.  Probably because the fat/protein ratio is the same.

Wagyu Bolognese.

Unfortunately, I woke on Monday to pain on the left side of my foot.  Right below where I'd rolled my ankle both times.   I took a full day of rest and used my new spiralizer to make zucchini noodle "ramen". (Don't even get me started on how obsessed I am with the spiralizer -- fully half of the meals I've made since we've been home in 2016 have required this gadget.)

This spiral slicer has taken over my 2016 cooking.

The "ramen" was a big hit, and nice and healthy and light.

Veggie "ramen"

Unfortunately, the outside of my left foot was still sore on Tuesday.  I was excited to keep up the running momentum, but didn't want to do anything stupid, so I opted to walk 3 miles instead of run.

Wednesday, I hiked the Stanford dish with a friend, foot sore and grumpy but not noticeably getting worse.

Finally, Thursday, it seemed to have recovered.  So, I did some treadmill intervals while finishing my book club book during the walking recovery.  I finished 3 miles total, and although 2/3 was walking, the 4 short speed intervals were at 7:30/mile pace and 1% incline.  It's been a long time since I asked my body to move that quickly.  No post-workout foot pain, although the next day my glutes and hamstrings were very confused and sore.

Friday, I headed out for a short easy run but the foot flared up at 0.61 miles, so, resigning myself to the wiser option, I walked back home.  Discouraging.

Saturday, I pulled off 1.75 miles in the mid 11s without pain and decided to end on a good note, feeling that 6+ miles on Sunday with a friend should be doable in my current state.  I walked another 0.75 home.

And, today, I joined a friend who's on 4:00 jog/ 1:00 walk intervals and we chatted our way through a 6.7ish mile loop around Grand Lake in Oakland.  Success!  Only minor foot soreness now, but nothing compared to last week's tenderness.

Bonus!  It's restaurant week in Oakland, and we enjoyed a delicious (and authentically slow) 3-course post run Italian brunch at Bellanico for $20.  Best value meal I've enjoyed in a *long* time.

Total mileage for the week?  22.28.  Only 50% running.  I very much hope that my foot is healing and won't continue to be an issue. 

France, A Love Story in Food (now with more travel chaos!)

View from our hotel -- Terrible room, but great view.

I've stayed in France many times, mainly with friends, but once living in my own apartment as a French government employee for the entire summer. This time, however, I was like a normal business traveler, working all day in English from my hotel and eating out for every meal.  Not my ideal way to visit a country whose culture and language I LOVE.  But I still went and did my best to enjoy it...

Okay, it wasn't all work. This was our hotel's 34th floor bar view. It didn't suck.

Despite this, one of the things I could make time for was a checklist of the French Foods I wanted to enjoy.  So, most days, I took myself out for a solo lunch at a local brasserie and also tried to influence the dinner group to check one or more boxes on my food list as well.

Nighttime view -- the hotel room was small, old, and lame -- peeling paint, non-functional tub, but damn, what a view!

Soupe a L'ognion -- check. (Yes, this was my first choice. Lunch.  Paris.  Smokers in my outdoor/indoor glass cabin.  What can I say?  It was iconic and I love me some French Onion Soup. Also, perhaps I just love butter, but either way, it was delicious.)

Iconic.  Place de la Bastille -- unexpected  bonus of lunch with my childhood French pen-pal.

Moules Frites -- check. (Across the street from the hotel, a chain, and deliciously so, and from Belgium, whose people, supposedly, are responsible for both the moules in the preparation we enjoyed and the frites, so it was wonderful.) 

Bistek tartare – check.

Crepes -- check.  We went to the  closest creperie to our hotel, just off the Champs Elysees, not too far from the Franklin Roosevelt metro station.  I assumed that if a creperie could stay open in Paris it wouldn’t be bad.  And my assumption was correct.  Normally, I opt out of the dessert crepe, but E convinced me we needed one.  He was right.  The savory buckwheat crepes were delicious (mmm… mushrooms, emmenthal, et jambon).  But the Nutella caramel white wheat crepe was sublime.  The quintessential dessert.

You know you are jealous!

The third day’s bistro lunch was with a friend and I enjoyed choucroute de la mer avec la sauce beurre blanc (This was an adventure – something I’d never had before, I love me some Sauerkraut, but the French version at this restaurant with fish around it in a packed tube-like preparation with potatoes and rich sauce was entirely too much food, but delicious, of course.) (Café Europeen)

Love locks.  Going strong on the passarelles of Paris.

Nightitme Seine view.

Musee D'Orsay.

The Fourth day’s surprise lunch was simply opportunistic -- to avoid the long lines at the metro for the folks heading out for their weekend holidays, E & I went to a local fancy place (Le Congres).  La Degustation de fruit du mer had the expected oysters and prawns, but it also included a couple of surprises I’d never had before including *raw* mussels (les moules espagnoles) and les bulots.  I had to look “Bulots” up, as I’d never had them before, ever, and I didn’t know the English word either – so, in case you were wondering, “Whelks” are nautilus shells with delicious meat inside, and apparently this is the British term for cooked seasnails (not to be confused with landsnails/escargots).  Did I mention they were delicious? (Also, "Bulots" should not be confused with "Boulot" or job.  Good luck with the pronunciation differentiation on that one...)

On the Fourth night in Paris, E and I went out and I ordered encornets a la provencale. (Mmmmm…. Delicious.  New to me.  Never had squid in this style or preparation before.  Absolutely delicious.) (Restaurant Georges.)

The next AM, despite our best efforts, we left France in a typical international travel fiasco.  We arrived at Gare du Lyon 1 hour before our TGV.  We’d purchased tickets online, however, the automatic ticket machines wouldn’t recognize our US credit cards to print our tickets.  So, I went to information, explained the problem, was sent to the guichet, which took a while to find, finally arrived, took a number to wait to be helped for today’s travel issues (not to be confused with *future* day’s travel issues, a much shorter, faster line, for future reference), and learned that there were 34 people in front of me.

Place de la Concorde

I went back to where E was with the luggage, telling him, “Well, it looks like there are 37 minutes until our train departs and 34 people to be helped – this should be exciting.”  I was then treated to a very relaxed set of civil servants calling people to their desks by number and closing and opening their desks on 15 minute intervals as they alternated breaks.  Finally, as the number before mine appeared to be a no-show, I jumped up to the counter and explained my situation to the woman, correctly assessing from observing the previous folks in line that French would be faster even though I may not have all the necessary vocabulary. 

First, our reservations were a bit complicated to find (of course) because we hadn’t bought directly through the French site, but rather through an EU-wide site.  Then, when she found them, she asked, “Vous-etes bien sur que vous avez payez?  Je ne vois rien de charges.” (Essentially – I don’t see any charges on your credit card.  You don’t have *real* tickets!)   Yikes, I had stepped up to the desk with 6 minutes to spare, assuming all I needed to do was show my confirmation, and get the tickets.  Somehow, after I assured her that we had indeed been charged, she found my ticket and was getting ready to dismiss me with “Allez, tu dois faire le courir de ta vie” (Go, you must run for your life!) when I explained that I also needed E’s ticket.  She found it, printed it, and yelled at the people in front of the door to get out of my way, shouting at me as I left “Allez – VITE! VITE! Vous ne compostez pas, allez juste a la voie C et prennez la premiere voiture.” 

So, that’s what we did.  I ran frenetically zig-zagging and obviously-not-French through the crowds, found E, grabbed one of the bags, shouted at him – “Track C, First car!” and we ran.  We arrived with 30 seconds to spare.  The attendant asked as we arrived – “Lausanne?” “Oui!” I breathlessly confirmed.  “Allez alors!  Montez dans!”  Once we were on the stairs, safely inside the first class car, the conductor asked, “Which coach?”  Laughing, I admitted that I didn’t actually know.  We opened the tickets, confirmed that we had a nice long walk through the train and finally made our way to our 2nd class seats.

L'Obelisque de la Place de la Concorde.

Not yet done with the international ridiculousness, after we’d nicely kicked the guy who’d decided to squat in our seats out of the way, I found my way to the bar car to purchase lunches for E&me, since we hadn’t had time to do that in the station.  After our food was prepared and ready to go, the credit card system stopped working and I had to explain that all I had was 15 Euros and a bunch of American money.  The suite attendant refused to accept my apologies and sent me back to our seats with 26 EU worth of lunch and beer in exchange for my 15 Euros and the promise that I’d bring any and all change I could find.  I found less than 2 Euros in my jacket pocket and when I brought it back to him, apologizing yet again, he said, “Vous devez dejeuner.  Ce n’est pas votre faute que la machine ne marche pas. Enjoyez!”  (You have to eat lunch!  It’s not your fault the machine isn’t working.  Enjoy!)

Vivez la France!