Running in My Sleep

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December 31, 2004

No Workout Today :-(

Well, I got 8 1/2 hour of sleep but not on purpose. R. woke me up at 6:32, at which point I started freaking out because I was supposed to be at work at 5:45. Being late is such a huge stressor to me. When I called the office, my government counterpart - such a sweetie - totally assuaged my panicky mood. I stopped rushing and took my time to get ready and play with our cat Ophelia, who greets me in the bathroom first thing in the morning for her daily tail pulling. Yes, tail pulling. She's a weird one who masochistically likes to have her tail pulled hard and never ceases to come back for more. Please don't call the SPCA on me.

Anyhow, since I got to work late, I wasn't able to lift and bike like I had planned. I'm kind of bummed, but I'll try to make it up over the weekend, if there's time. We have plans to meet friends for a Latin-flavored New Years dinner at Cafe Atlantico in DC. Depending on my mood, we may stick around for the dancing afterward or head back to the suburbs for game night with our friends M. and A. and their newly adopted Chinese baby (our goddaughter). I have to say that she was our best Christmas present this year, when they asked us to be her godparents. She is such an adorable, well-behaved and fun baby...and she sleeps through the night. I hope that when we have kids that they're as well adjusted from birth.

Cheers to everyone! Have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Posted by Leilani at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2004

Great Run, Thanks to Music

I don't like to run outside with headphones for safety reasons and the fact that I like to take note of my auditory environment - whether it's traffic, leaves rustling in the breeze, territorial geese squawking at me, or my own footsteps. I wanted to try out my new Zen Micro, though, so I brought it along for what was supposed to be another easy run. The music had me going. I kind of lost myself in the beat and pushed harder than I planned, but my body felt good, so why not? I had an awesome 68 minute run and finished up with 7 x 30 second striders in a parking lot near my house. I initially tried a grassy straight-away near a lake, but it was a pure mudfest - not too good of footing.

Even though I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm not tired at the moment. I promised myself to get to bed earlier tonight, since I'm working the early shift again tomorrow for a co-worker on vacation. Now that I'm warmed back up from my run and had a snack (two small pieces of pizza), I'm headed to the pool. I'm going to conquer this swimming thing eventually (hopefully before my triathlon in May), even if I end up inhaling all of the Great Lakes!

Posted by Leilani at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2004

Adjusting This Week's Training Plan

This'll be a quick one...I have to get up at 4:30am tomorrow for work, so I ought to get to bed soon! I had off today, and thankfully it was a gorgeous day. I got a bunch of errands done, which involved spending a lot of money: car maintenance ($350); bought a swimsuit and fins ($60); neoprene booties for biking and a box of Gu ($40); printer cartridges ($50); a birthday present for my new goddaughter and miscellaneous items at Walmart ($50). I still need to get my brake pads replaced and a new tire. That means my wallet's going to be kind of thin for a while. I do like to spend, but I can't stand being in debt. This means I always pay off my credit card as soon as possible, even if my checkbook winds up low.

I ran for 45 minutes this afternoon. I think it was in the mid-50s and sunny, shorts and t-shirt weather. If only it could stay like that or even a bit cooler all winter, I'd be a happy, happy camper. I ran easy since I was going to do my 20 mile long run after work tomorrow. We were planning on going snowshoeing in West Virginia for New Years, but the forecast is calling for 60s - not so good for snow. I'll run long on Saturday and we'll probably end up going for a long bike ride on Sunday, since R's training for a Half Ironman.

Once R. got home from work, we went to the pool. He swam for a mile+, while I struggled with my drills, breathing, and lack of endurance. I got some laps in there too and the fins seemed to help propel my lower body, which prefers to sink. I was a bit discouraged, though, because my impatient self doesn't want to wait to see results. I mean, shouldn't I be swimming like Michael Phelps after two lessons? It'll get better with practice, I know; I just wish it were yesterday. On that note, I seriously need to crash or I'm going to be a crabby patty tomorrow.

Posted by Leilani at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2004

Not Up to Par, But That's Okay

I pulled myself out of bed this morning with enough time to get my run in before work, and I'm sure glad I did it. The sun was coming up, which made me feel happy and peaceful. It didn't seem like 14 degrees since I wore a light jacket on top of my polypro. I could've probably managed just fine with shorts, but my hands were sooooo cold even with my new fleece mittens. I should just accept the fact that my hands will never be warm regardless of what fancy gloves I wear. Maybe I should buy stock in Heat Treat, the company that makes those disposable hand warmers. Anyhow, I'm supposed to be talking about my run....I warmed up for 15 minutes, then set out for 7 x 3 minutes on/3 minutes off starting at 10k pace and cutting down to 5k pace. The first couple repeats went as planned, but then my hip muscles started tightening up from lifting last night. After that I couldn't even force the pace by swinging my arms harder or quickening my stride, so I just resigned to keeping a respectable pace during the "on" portions. I had to stop a couple times to stretch my hip extensors. That loosened things up for short spurts during which I was able to push hard, but the nominal hills on the trip back on Fairfax County Parkway (they felt bigger today) kept slowing me down. I ended up cooling down for 12-13 minutes, interspersing some 20 second striders so I could work on turnover and feel like I finished somewhat strong. A couple of positive notes: my quad hasn't bugged me since a "shout out" in my blog (maybe it just wanted attention) and my hips have been healthy. Even though the speed isn't back yet, and I don't expect it to be anytime soon, I'm running injury free. I certainly hope it stays that way!

Posted by Leilani at 09:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2004

Avoiding an Ex at the Gym

I wasn't successful in getting up early enough to lift and run this morning. My head was kind of stuffy from inhaling all that water on the swim yesterday. Oh well. Some days are just worse than others (getting out of bed, that is), but I won't complain since I got to run and lift tonight. I went to the gym and ran easy on the treadmill for 50 minutes. It wasn't too terribly cold outside, but I had to make optimal use of my time in order to get the two workouts accomplished without staying up until midnight. My run was uneventful except for when I spotted an ex-boyfriend who I didn't want to recognize me. I dumped him over six or seven years ago, and it would've been an awkward encounter. So, I tried to avoid eye contact by feigning watching TV and playing with volume settings. Besides, I don't like idle chatter interrupting my workout sessions...darn it, I'm on a mission! After the treadmill, I finished up my arm lifting session from yesterday (lats, back, bis, and tris today) and lifted legs too. I got some running-specific exercises from my chiropractor, so I tried a couple of those out. It's hard to maintain balance on the one-legged ones. Hopefully I won't be stiff tomorrow - it's a speed/fartlek day.

I'm so excited because I get Wednesday off this week; I need the extra time to get errands done like my 100,000 mile maintenance on my car and researching/finalizing plans for a snowshoeing day trip somewhere in West Virginia or Pennsylvania this weekend. And I'd like to check out the after-Christmas sales, but that's lower on the priority list. Still no plans for New Years Eve yet, but hopefully my friends will come up with something good that's not too too crazy. I'm getting old...

Posted by Leilani at 11:12 PM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2004

Post-Christmas Weekend Report

Whew! We finally made it back from Virginia Beach this afternoon after driving through some unexpected snow that prolonged our trip home. Christmas was nice albeit melancholy because my brother shunned the family for an entire week, choosing instead to party like a rock star with his friends (my mom flew him out from California last minute for a $1,000 before his trial at the end of the month). Of course our feelings were hurt, but even without him, we had a good time visiting with family and my best friend and playing with my sister's new video game system with all the cool games that I grew up with in the 80s like Paperboy, Mario Brothers, Pacman, etc. With the limited time we had in town and trying to see so many people, it was a challenge to fit in all my planned runs...but I did it!

Friday, Dec 24
43 minutes easy
around mom's neighborhood at night
colder than I expected it to be down there

Saturday, Dec 25
1:50 - my long run for the week
around mom's neighborhood again at dusk/night
The neighorhood Christmas lights, for the most part, were actually tasteful and not horrifically gaudy. My hands got unbearably cold after an hour, so I stopped back home and got some handwarmers. That was a huge relief, and I was able to resume my run at a faster pace. My family tried to stop the madness and coax me into cutting the run short to stay warm in the house. It didn't work.

Sunday, Dec 26
Swim - mostly drills and lots of water up my nose...argh!
45 minutes easy running
quicky arm lifting session
Miraculously after sitting in five+ hours of traffic, I still made it to my swimming lesson on time and got to run.

My brother just called from Dulles. He is stuck there because his flight back to California got delayed. I'm feeling horrible that I'm not picking him up (it's just right around the corner), but in addition to rejecting us, he sent me a pretty nasty (and unwarranted) text message for which he has not apologized. It's hard to take a tough stance, but we can't continue to let him manipulate and use us when he needs something only to be ignored or cursed out later for no reason at all. My family drama...I'll need to pray for him extra hard tonight.

Time to run to bed now. I need to try to knock out all my exercise in the AM, so we can visit my friend's new adopted baby after work. I hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Posted by Leilani at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)

December 23, 2004

Lazy Girl

I can take an unplanned day off every now and then, right? I was tired and starving for dinner after class and range time, so I came home and threw marinated salmon in the oven instead of running. I'll do my easy 45 minutes and lift tomorrow, which is supposed to be my day off. Blame it on the weather because I had plenty of opportunity to get it done this morning, but the it was raining hard and dreary...very sleep-inducing. So instead, I cleaned the house, folded laundry, shopped online for a new swimsuit, went grocery shopping, and took a nap.

I received my Christmas present to myself in the mail today. After some research and polling some of my techno-geek coworkers (it's like having PC Magazine at your fingertips), I ordered Creative Lab's Zen Micro mp3 player, which is the 5GB counterpart to the Mini iPod. That equates to 1,500 more songs! It also has a removable rechargeable battery, better sound than any other mp3 player except Virgin's, FM radio, voice recording, and an address book and calendar. I'll have to see if it lives up to the hype.

I've got to finish up packing. We're headed to Virginia Beach to see the fam, but not until traffic dies down. If any of you are traveling out there, I hope your trip is smooth and safe. And in case I don't make it to the computer to post tomorrow, Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Posted by Leilani at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Name Calling

Perhaps my body parts would behave if I talked to them (like Beth) instead of calling them names. My left quad is affectionately known as "bum quad" at this point in time. Well, I took my bum quad this morning to the chiropractor for some electric stim and it feels a lot looser now. Between that and my massage on Saturday, I've cajoled it into feeling better this week. As I've mentioned before, my quad has been continuously sore for over a month due to some scar tissue and general weakness in my vastus lateralis. My chiropractor gave me some runner-specific one legged strengthening exercises. I have a zillion...okay, maybe not that many...strengthening exercises in my brain from when I originally got my trainer certification in 2000, but not any of these ones. Cool! I always like learning new exercises. In fact, I recently bought a lower body strengthening book with even more exercises.

Since I went to the chiropractor this morning, I won't have time for a run 'til tonight. I did have two great workouts yesterday, though. I swam for 40 minutes in the morning. Although it felt easier than my years of flailing to the other end of the pool, I still don't feel 100% comfortable in the water. Once I build up my endurance, hopefully the "I'm going to drown for sure" feelings will go away.

After work, I did another cutdown fartlek workout. I really do like these. I warmed up for 16 minutes, then did 5 and 4 minute intervals with a 3 minute jog between and 3, 2, and 1 minute intervals with a 1 minute jog between. I started at around 10k pace and worked down to all out for the last 1 minute rep. My legs and hips were a bit stiff from lifting legs on Monday night, so I really had to use my arms to power through each stride. It was sort of an adventure because the trail was dark and curvy, so I had to take extra precautions not to trip on random branches and things on the trail. Then, I cooled down for 19 minutes until I got home. I can't remember the last time that I had that much fun on an alone weeknight training run.

Hopefully more tonight...

Posted by Leilani at 08:44 AM | Comments (2)

December 20, 2004

Just a Dusting

As my title suggests, we got barely a dusting of snow, if you even want to call it that. I had my alarm set for 5:50, so I could go for a run or lift before work. That didn't happen. I just don't get it. I find it hard to sleep in past 8 or 9 on the weekends, but on workdays, it's a huge struggle to pull myself out of bed. It was just as well because it was sooooo cold when I finally emerged from my house to drive to work. At least I didn't have to crawl through my trunk like one of my co-workers did to get into his car this morning. Anyhow, I did an easy 45 minute run tonight as well as a lifting session for both arms and legs. I ran on the treadmill in order to get all my planned exercise in. Therefore, there's nothing exciting to write about my run today.

I'm off to eat dinner, watch Forensic Files, and daydream about being a forensic investigator solving crimes...

Posted by Leilani at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2004

Swimming Like a Fish

Not yet, but I definitely felt like I was working less and getting further/breathing easier after my first swim lesson. I love my new instructor; the way she demonstrated the movements and guided my arms, one by one, made everything come together and seem so natural. Now, I've taken two or three swim classes before and never has it clicked like this, so it makes me excited about getting in the pool again. I've never said that before! We didn't do any endurance swimming today, mostly drills on land and in the shallow end to work on correct muscle memory. We finished up by practicing kicking with the kick board. My kick is strong, but I need to keep my knees straighter and use my glutes more. I'm a lot more motivated to swim now because I feel like it's something that I can actually become good at.

Actually, today has been a very good, productive but not stressed day. It helps now that the semester is over. I slept in until ~7:45, then knocked out all my Christmas cards and went for an easy 45 minute run. It was chilly and drizzly, but not "freeze your butt off" cold like early yesterday. We also finished up all of our Christmas shopping without having to stand in too many lines, washed and folded laundry, and wrapped gifts. All that's left for this week is to clean the house and my horrendous desk, print some wedding pictures for family, and hopefully complete my pistol class if my coach is free one night this week. I wanted to go to the gym to lift tonight, but I was just too pooped. I'll try to do that in the morning, since it's going to be below freezing in the AM. Yikes! I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Posted by Leilani at 11:17 PM | Comments (1)

December 18, 2004

Another 20 Down

And this time it wasn't on the treadmill, so I enjoyed myself a lot more despite the frigid temps at the start. I woke up promptly at 5:30am to eat breakfast and to make sure that I had all my gear before I drove out to Arlington. I brought all configurations of running clothes in case I had to add or remove layers. When I started my stealth 8 miles at 6:40am, it was still pretty dark, but Custis Trail was well lit. I chose Custis because I wanted to challenge myself with hills; my neighborhood is mostly flat and I actually kind of miss being able to run strong on hills. It took awhile to get warmed up. I was in shorts, which was fine, by my fingers were furrrr-eeezing, and my hips kind of felt like an unlubricated bike chain. Once I turned around in order to get back for the 8am SLR start, my stride felt normal and I could tackle the hills with some gumption.

I got back 10 minutes early and jumped in my car with the heat to change clothes/gloves, eat a Gu, and open a pack of handwarmers. It was a huge mistake to sit down, even if only for five minutes. My hamstrings tightened up for the remainder of the run and my left quad was being a pesky thing again. One girl asked if I had Raynaud's phenomenon when she saw the handwarmers. I said that I had no idea what it was but that I did have really bad frostbite a few years ago. She thought that I may have it and recommended a topical ointment that skiers use. Hmm, I need to read up this ailment! Today's route was the annual Christmas tree run. We run through DC to see the National and Capitol Christmas trees. I even saw the one at Union Station, which was prettier than the one in front of the White House. Personally, and other people agree, I think that the former is gaudy and ugly and that the ornaments on the little trees around it look like little kids put their holiday projects there. The tree in front of the Capitol building has a cheesy appeal to it too, but at least there are a variety of ornaments and the tree looks real. It was fun running with different people on different parts of the run, and it made time go by faster. My quad issue became most prevalent with about 20 minutes left. By then, everyone had turned off to finish up their shorter runs. The sun was out and it was warming up along the Potomac River, with the ducks frolicking in the water - really such a beautiful and peaceful day. All I could think about, though, was how my quad hurt with each impact. My energy level was high; I was hydrated. Even so, those last 20 minutes were murder on my leg. At one point, I stopped to stretch at the top of a bridge, and Jessie flew by me finishing up her 18 miles. That motivated me to get my slack butt back to Iwo Jima, where we did a little cool down lap around the memorial. My second 20 mile training run done! It may have been closer to 21 miles, but it's hard to tell because my pace was varied throughout. I rather underestimate than overestimate mileage...

After a quick shower and lunch, I had a massage appointment. It was really relaxing (and painful, in good way) , even though my therapist and I talked the entire time. She worked on my quad and feet a lot, but she said that I would need to continue massaging my quad later as it was very tight and not too cooperative. I'm going to try to sneak in a tiny nap before church and Jessie and her roommate's party tonight. Ooh, and Christmas cards have to go out too!!

Posted by Leilani at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2004

Brrr...It's Offically Cold

Okay, today you won't hear me complaining about feeling hot wearing tights. My legs were happy to be covered up! It was 19 degrees when I set out for my 45 minute recovery run. My legs actually felt decent during the run, probably because the rest of my body was so cold. My cardio was definitely worn out with the last 10 minutes, though. All in all, not shabby after a hard track workout yesterday. We were supposed to do 4 x 1 mile at 10k pace and a 400m jog, but my coach gave me 5 x 1 mile. I warmed up for a mile, then my splits went like: 7:04, 6:55, 6:59, 6:57, 6:53. The crowd I usually pace with wasn't there, but I met two new guys, Evan and Michael, who I successfully recruited for the extra repeat. I was very pleased with this effort after that fluke workout-run-fade...whatever you want to call it...on Sunday. My legs felt strong, turnover was consistent and controlled, and it didn't feel too too hard. Evan even said we probably could have pushed it a bit harder for the last lap, but oh well. I was just ecstatic to have company. We then cooled down for a mile, and I told him that he has to come out to our Saturday Long Runs because there are a lot of young, single, attractive women for him to meet.

I did a little bit of reading up on quad soreness, and I'm going to try to see if lifting legs more regularly (once a week) will help. I think my leg strength went downhill when injury sidelined me. I simply didn't cross train enough, and now I'm paying the price. I also made an appointment for a massage on Saturday after my long run. I can't wait!!

I just got back from a 3-hour pistol class. Even after shooting for years, I learned some new things about my "bad habits" that should help me do a lot better on the range. I asked so many questions that we didn't even finish. Hopefully we'll do that next week. I'm off to bed now, so I can get up early and cross train before work. G'night!

Posted by Leilani at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2004

Nothing exciting to report today

I ran for just over an hour easy this morning and again, I felt warm in tights. I could've sworn last year that I was covering my legs when it was in the low 30s, but maybe wind was a factor. I'll keep on experimenting until I remember what my shorts to tights conversion is. After work, I lifted both arms and legs because I slacked off last week and only got in one lifting session.

Good news is that the pain near my right shin went away yesterday, I think. Not so good news is that even after my easy mileage week my left quad is back to being sore nearly all the time. I manage it okay with deep tissue massage, ice, and heat, but the deep soreness is just not going away. I don't want to go into a marathon with a bum quad, so I need to do some research for some other home remedies. It's a bummer to not be able to set my expectations high this time around, but I also can't whine about what's not happened yet, right? Be positive, be positive, be positive...

Posted by Leilani at 09:07 PM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2004

Bonk!

Today just wasn't a good day for either of my runs. For my first six miler, I set out in a tights, a long sleeve top, and fleece vest because Accuweather claimed it was 31 degrees. I was wishing I wore less clothes - it felt so warm. My effort was supposed be a slow, aerobic one, but I felt like a 500 pound gorilla lumbering along. Once I finished up that run, I scooped up R. at home, and we headed to Maryland for one of the club's Snowball Series races, the Bread Run 10k. My stomach wasn't feeling well at this point, but I forced myself to eat a few bites of PowerBar to have some energy. I ran the first two miles at a respectable pace before it all started falling apart. My stomach was hurting. I couldn't get any turnover in my legs. My energy level was low. Everyone was passing me, even hairy back man. How embarassing. I just kept slowing down more and more, and there was nothing that I could do about it. It's a shame because the course is actually a pretty decent one that runs mostly on the C&O Canal. Well, I'm glad it's all done now. I probably got in a total of 13.5-14 miles between the two runs and warm up/cool down. I think next time I have a race planned on a long run day, I will do the extra miles afterward. We'll see if that works out better for me. Everything is a learning process, right?

On the brighter side of things, the holiday cookie baking party was a lot of fun yesterday. About half the girls were my old running partners, while the other half were friends of the hostess. This is the 4th year we've had it and every year it gets bigger! I baked one batch of banana chocolate chips bars and in return, I got to take home like 10 other kinds of cookies. Yum, yum! I snacked all afternoon like a little piggy. The rest of the evening was low key; we made dinner and I studied for my final. I feel completely prepared, so I'm going to take a break tonight and watch Oceans Twelve. I can't wait!

Posted by Leilani at 01:40 PM | Comments (2)

December 10, 2004

Tough Easy Run

Up until I came back from San Diego, I was pretty disciplined about getting up early before work to run, lift, or do schoolwork. This week, however, it's been a chore to get myself out of bed in time to get ready for my shift. Today this meant that I had to postpone my run until later in the day, which ended up being my lunch period at 2pm. It wouldn't have been so bad except that I ran on an old, duct taped treadmill (this was the "good" treadmill, by the way) in my office gym with no diversion save my tunes. I felt kind of claustrophobic because the gym is so tiny and the walls are blah gray. When I'm on the treadmill, I need sensory overload...to people watch, to laugh at muscle-bound guys trying to pick up overly tan and enhanced girls, to hear the next trivia question on Jeopardy...something to not be completely bored out of my mind! Ugh. Well, I managed to grind out 43 minutes of physically easy running though it was tough mentally. A couple times I was tempted to bump up the speed to mix things up, but I had to remind myself that it was a recovery run and that I want to race-workout the Snowball race on Sunday.

R. and I had a nice Thai dinner after work. I ordered an appetizer, soup, and entree since all I ate today was a bagel, yogurt, pear, and a few Frosted Mini-Wheats. I was starving. Now I've got to go study (and eat some ice cream). I know, lame for a Friday night, but it looks like a full weekend on tap, so I need to get ahead while I can. Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by Leilani at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2004

Sign Me Up

Oh boy, I've done it this time. I'm going to end up drowning or getting eaten by a shark. I signed up for my first triathlon, the St. Croix Sprint Tri in May. I wouldn't travel that far for my first tri, except that R. and his friends are doing the accompanying Half Ironman. And I didn't just want to be on the sidelines for this one. This is a huge step for me because I am a scaredy, scaredy cat in the pool without my water jogger belt or some other flotation device that will keeps me above water. I almost drowned in swim class as a kid, so I've been averse to deep water since. While I'm hoping to beat R's friends that are doing the shorter race, I have no hard set goals other than to finish. And now that I'm committed, I need to get a swimmin'. I thought about taking another swim class through the county RecCenter, but I do need some one on one attention to learn how to tread water. Funny, I can swim but can't tread water. One lady I talked to today teaches the Total Immersion method, but she costs $65 an hour! Is that normal??? The costs of my athletic pursuits are racking up between the chiropractor, gym and registration fees, foam rollers/sticks, etc.

I had a decent hour long recovery run tonight. My legs were a bit tired from track, but I ran real slow so I'll be okay. The past couple days I've had what feels like a bruise near my right lower shin; yet, when I put pressure on the area it doesn't hurt. Only when I flex my foot or I'm sitting around. Weird.

I'm so happy tomorrow is Friday. I have a cookie baking party on Saturday and hope to watch Oceans Twelve this weekend. And once the semester is over next week, I can tackle my stack of leisurely reading books. Yay!

Posted by Leilani at 09:48 PM | Comments (1)

December 08, 2004

Feeling Strong

I think easy mileage last week definitely helped to restore some juice in my legs after feeling consistently sore or tired for the past 2-3 weeks. I can say this now because I've had two good, hard workouts this week. Whoo hoo! Today at track we ran 15 minutes tempo, a 2 minute easy jog, then 12 minutes tempo. I maintained right around a 7 minute pace or just a tad under, which I'm quite happy with since I was shooting for a 7:15ish pace. But I felt smooth, controlled, and that I wasn't working too hard, so I didn't want to force a slower, heavier stride. It was great to see everyone again, since it feels like I hadn't been to track in forever. And it's much, much easier to these tempo or speed workouts with a pace group - both physically and mentally.

Okay, gotta run. Trying to reason with my troublemaker brother; his trial is tomorrow. Let's hope he acts like a grown adult and keeps his temper down.

Posted by Leilani at 11:26 PM | Comments (1)

December 07, 2004

Warning: Duh!

Catching up from San Diego

I could write about work over the past few days in San Diego, but the ubiquity of ridiculous signs warrants a more entertaining discussion. Everywhere I went, I saw signs like “Smoking is permitted in some guest rooms and smoking, to the State of California, is known to cause cancer. (CA Code xxxx)” Well, duh! I didn’t need a stupid sign to tell me that. Last time I checked, smoking caused cancer in all 50 states. Or what about “Caution: Rodents in this area…do not handle rodent feces.” Hmm, that was a tough one to resist. I mean, c’mon people…did common sense go out the window? The litigation attorneys must have been raking in the dinero before the advent of these no liability signs. Even though I spent half of my childhood in California, I almost felt like I was in a different country this time. I was tempted to have dinner at a steakhouse just to see if I could order my meat rare or medium rare, which I hear you can’t do in Cali.

Despite the ridiculous signs and the SoCal “winter storm”, or rain as we East Coasters call it, I had a productive and fun weekend with my unit’s San Diego Sailors and Marines. In interviewing the Inspector-Instructor staff and Reservists, I was able to identify issues, new project ideas, and questions that I can take back to my Commanding Officer and my Inspector-Instructor staff in Virginia. I didn’t get to do as much sightseeing as I hoped, since the workdays were long and the weather was dreary. What free time I could scare up, I spent studying for my final exam, selecting wedding photos, and exercising, of course. The gym opened at 4:30am and closed at midnight.

Thurs, Dec 2
Bike 1hr
Lift arms

Fri, Dec 3
Run ~12.5 miles Penasquitos Canyon Preserve
Awesome run (see below)

Sat, Dec 4
Elliptical 1 hr
Lift legs easy

Sun, Dec 5
Run easy 45 min (5.5mi) treadmill
Lift arms easy

Mon, Dec 6
15 min warm up
4 x 2 min @10k, 2 min easy; 1 min @ 5k, 1 min easy; 30 sec all out, 30 sec easy
25 min cool down
The 2 minutes after the 30 second easy was the hardest part of the workout, since I was still breathing heavy at that point.

The highlight of my trip was a run at Penasquitos Canyon Preserve, just a few exits north of Marine Corps Air Base Miramar. The dirt and rocky trail was a beautiful, peaceful out and back course with a waterfall, huge oak and sycamore trees, and some good hills. I had a flashback to Meghan’s mountain lion encounter when I saw a sign in the parking lot - “Warning: Entering Mountain Lion Country”. My initial reaction was “Cool! Mountain lions!” But I quickly did a mental 180, remembering her blog entry and thinking, “Crap, I didn’t bring my Leatherman!” Well, I am happy to report that the only fast creatures I saw were 3 jackrabbits and a few mountain bikers. Strangely, 40s in the canyon felt a lot colder than 40s back home. Maybe it was mental – being in SoCal, shouldn’t I be in a tank top? – or perhaps it was actually cooler, as the shrubs were frost-covered. Either way, my hands were fur-eeeeezing. I ran much faster on the way back just so I could get to my car heater.

Tues, Dec 7
40 min bike on trainer
Lift arms
20 min elliptical

It’s good to be home again. I think the cats missed me. I also visited the chiropractor for some quick retuning.

Thanks for your concern and advice on my black sheep brother. He's actually out of jail right now and trying to get his life together. We'll see how long that lasts. Off to catch up on everyone else’s adventures before bed…

Posted by Leilani at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2004

Windy Wednesday

Once again, I second guessed myself and ended up overdressing. It was in the mid 40s, which would normally be short sleeve weather. Instead, I put on a light long sleeve and my fleece vest. I expected it to feel cooler with the strong winds, but I was hot, hot, hot! I went out for an hour, encountering a *very* attractive guy on the trail. He's in town from Connecticut for a class and didn't know where to go, so we ran together until arriving at the trailhead. Then, he proceeded to leave me in the dust. It would've been nice if any of my single female friends were around to connect with this young, seemingly single guy. Muscular, strong legs....Anyhow, I digress. My run went extremely well, with the exception of some localized pain in my left quad - the vastus intermedias, to be exact. It wasn't until ~40 minutes into the run and didn't last long. I had to stop, though, to grind my thumb on my quad because it started to affect my stride. Once I finished, I shook out my quads with several accelerations in the parking lot. I've been terrible about icing and foam rollering this week.

I'm all set to leave for California tomorrow early. I finally found a hotel near the base and even got what sounds like an awesome long run route from a member of the San Diego Ultra Running Friends (SURF) club. I'm semi-familiar with running at the beaches, which I probably won't have time to drive to, as I anticipate early and long workdays. Thanks to google, I found this club and a link to a bunch of different San Diego run routes. (Alison, maybe you'll be near one of these routes?) SURF was very helpful in tracking down a member who could provide me with a place to run long near Miramar Air Base, home of Top Gun. I hope I can do some of their ultras in the future, since I've only done one and absolutely loved it....more so than road racing.

I'm bringing my laptop, so let's hope that I'll have high speed connectivity in my room. I'll be so sad if I can't blog until next week!

Posted by Leilani at 11:42 PM | Comments (4)