06/18/2012

Wow I can't believe that it had been 10 months since I have posted anything here. Well 2012 had been an exciting year so far, I ran 3 marathons, a 1/2 marathon, a 10k and a 5k and it's only June 18. Also, I became a member of the 50 States Marathon club, I have completed 13 states as of now. I am training for a back to back marathon weekend this October, so my plate is full. I am still a vegan and still working on losing some more weight. Well that is all for now, will try to post more often.

Leading Ladies Marathon, Spearfish SD

Last weekend, Cindy and I took a roadtrip to South Dakota to run the Leading Ladies Marathon for me and the Half Marathon for Cindy, and we felt in love with South Dakota.

This is Bridal Veil water fall scene on our route thru Spearfish canyon. I have been injured since the end of June with my ankle then with my back three weeks prior to this race, my goal for this race was to finish and enjoy the day without any major back pain or ankle pain issues.

Pre-race picture with some marathon maniacs folks, good times meeting other maniacs like me. This course is beautiful and mostly downhill (quad busting), mostly on asphalt with a few miles of dirt roads in there for kicks.

A little foggy here in the morning, but beautiful just the same. I finished the marathon with not my worse time nor my best time, just finish and can add South Dakota to my list for my 50 States marathon quest.

                                 View of the Spearfish Canyon from the run.

Heading towards the finish line.     

Cindy fisnished her half with another personal best again! After the race we both headed

out to sight seeing Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse, that was fantastic and amazing.

                                         Cindy infront of the presidents.

                                             Crazy Horse in progress

July 9th 2011 - Good Morning

It had been a little bit over a month since my last post, what's been going on with my training? Well I have been adding trail running as part of my routine and am loving it.

I have also added mountain biking to my training schedule and really enjoying that too.

I celebrated my 47th birthday on June 24th and went for a trail run at Walker Ranch trail, this trail is beautiful and is not as busy as some other trails around here. The view was gorgeous and the smell of pine tree was intoxicating, however 2 miles into my run I twisted my ankle and had been injured since.

Since the injury i have been training in the pool, swimming and also i have been lifting weights to maintain my fitness. i miss running though and am looking forward to a run this weekend.

Casper Marathon

Thumbs up to Dawn and the rest of the race committee. Pre-race expo was a breeze - in and out. Low profile and a relaxed atmosphere. I did the marathon and for the most part loved the course along the river. We could have used more water stations, due to the direct sun along the entire course.

The marathon started at 5270 feet and went up a bit from there. The temperature at the start was 48, but it rose to 88 at my finish, with intense sun. There were definitely times when my mouth was calling for water but the next aid station was a mile away.

The marathon course follows a lovely paved trail along the North Platte River. Today, that river is well over its banks and flowing rapidly toward the Missouri, then the Mississippi, and finally New Orleans. The water was high enough to cover some of the paved trails, so the race directors had to redirect us on dirt trails in a few places. No problem here - I love dirt trails, have been quite happy with marathons that are ALL trails. They improvised well.

My Splits: mile 1= 11:30, mile 2=12.01, mile 3=12:41, mile 4=12:08, mile 5=11:46
mile 7=13:09, mile 8=12:21, mile 9=12:34, mile 10=12:34, mile 11=13:16, mile 12=13:12
mile 13=13:13, mile 14=13:55, mile 15=14:56, mile 16=16:52, mile 17=15:29
mile 18=14:45, mile 19= 15:35, mile 20= 15:24, mile 21=16:13, mile 22=16:18
mile 23=15:48, mile 24=15:26, mile 25=16:44 mile 26=15:12

I battled a flooded race course and near-record heat temperature, and upset stomach, I crossed the finished line in 6:06 at an average pace of 13:59, not my best but not my worst either. This is my reward for completing this race.

The Mesa Trail

Last Sunday I got a chance to run the Mesa trail and it was wonderful. The Mesa trail is the main artery along the foothills of Boulder. We park at the Doudy trail head parking lot near Eldorado Canyon and walked over to the Mesa trail head. The weather was crisp and perfect for trail running. This trail runs north and south between Chautauqua and Eldorado Springs around 6 miles one way and is intersected by most of the mountain trails in the area.

Although there is no real elevation change from its northern point to its southern point, there is still plenty of elevation change along the way. The trail climbs and descents again and again so be ready for a great work out.

This trail is well maintained and spends most of its time right at the base of the foothills in coniferous forest. All along the trail are beautiful views out over Boulder City and the eastern plains. Over all it was a great trail and very close almost in my backyard. I plan to come here more often this summer to practice trail running.

My running mates, Cindy and Truman.


                             

Greenland Trail 50k Race Report

At the start of Greenland Trail 50k the weather was clear and cool and I ran into a marathon maniac Lisa, she told me that the Greenland course is a fast course and it's one of the easier ultra trail course, no hills. She also told me that she DFL this course last year as well. Being an ultra virgin I did not know what DFL means but affraid to ask, I later found out what DFL means "dead fucking last", and I also want to acknowledge that the Greenland course is not easy or fast in my humble opinion, this course is wicked hard with some epic climbs and some quad busting downhills and the uneven surface covered with loose gravel and and sand did not make the footing any easier to run on.
This course is divided in 4 laps of around 8 miles per lap, I went into this event knowing that I have not trained enough on the trails, but I kinda thought if I ran and completed five marathons already, this 50k should not be much harder right? just another five extra miles, how hard can that be? Well to my surprise, it was a lot tougher than I expected it to be, trail running is a lot different than road running, treadmill running or any other form of normal running.

I used the Galloway's method of 3:1, run 3 minutes and walk 1 minute for the first 2 laps. In retrospect, I should have reduced that ratio to 1:1 at the begining of this course. The course had two water stations, one at the turning around spot and the other at three and half miles away. I did not refilled my water bottle after the first lap and ran out of water prior to the next water station on the second lap, which did not help my cause for the day. Oh did I tell you that this course was all up hill for the first 5 miles or so then it was all quads busting downhill for the last 3 miles, yes that is what I remembered and I am sticking to that.
I ran into my girlfriend/pacer #1 at the start of the 3rd lap and she ran with me and let me tell you by that time I was not having fun anymore, my energy was depleted, I did not fuel enough, drank enough electrolytes and my body was giving me fits. Cindy was there to talk to me and keep me going when I wanted to quit, and even by the end of lap 3 I told myself and Cindy that I will walk to the car and call it a day after this lap since I did not have anything left in my tank, I was in a dark place of the mind that I never want to be there again. Somehow at the end of lap three my marathon maniacs friend Lisa ran by me and her energy just gave me a boost and I felt reenergize and motivated to complete this task.

My brother paced me on the last lap, we played games like let run around the next three corners before we walk, let count to seven and do five set of sevens before we walked, or let's run to the next marker before we walk. Since there is a time limit on this course which is 8 hours, I was now battling myself, the course and to finish on time as well. Well I am happy to report that I crossed the finish chute in 8:06 and was second to last place, Lisa DFL again :)

I am an Ultra Runner!!

Starting the tracking process anew

Today I listened to a podcast by dr. Maoshing Ni about the secrets of healing yourself and was inspired to begin my own inner healing process. What I learned from this podcast was that I am capable of healing myself from my compulsive over eating habits! Over the past five months I have been eating what ever I want when ever I want and not worry about the consequences. My goals for the new awareness in me will be to practice the principle of eating until I am 3/4 full then stop, also I am practicing to eat like a king during the day and like a pauper at night. Also I want to learn to eat between 1200 to 1500 calories per day. Continue on my vegan journey, run 4 to 5 days per week, plus adding in some cross training workouts like bicycling and elliptical. To lose 2 pounds per week, and hitting my weight goal of 155 lbs by December 31, 2011.
According to dr. Maoshing, it's better to eat less then what you want because you will free up your body energy from digesting the foods to do other things like healing itself from other illness. Digesting foods take a lot of energy and especially if we over eat, so less foods mean less stress on the body! What a great concept for me to visualize when I want to over eat to ponder on!

Gotta run!