Swimming with a Sailfish

When I initially started swimming this morning the pool was so empty that I had my own lane, plus there was even a completely open lane! I was happy. Then it happened. The first person came in where it was necessary to double up. Why pick me? I knew this guy was a fast swimmer before he even got into the pool - had that swimmer body - broad shoulders and the European style trunks that are just slightly more modest than a Speedo. He jumped in and quickly did down and back before I even got one length in. Oh and did I mention that he scared me because he was underwater for so long (half the length of the pool) before he popped up out of the murky water (the Y is having problems with the cloudiness of the water)? Well according to Rob & Clare's Travel Almanac, as well as verification with a few other sources, the fastest fish in the world is a sailfish. Apparently this dude was raised by a pack of them.

Schenley Oval

Tonight was my first experience running at the Schenley Oval since back in the ole days of running cross country for the CMU Invitational. (Note - Nathan lived in Pgh at the time when I ran there when we were seniors and he was late to the race and missed my finish. He tried to play it off that he had seen me finish, but he made it just in time to see Deb and that was it.) Anyhow - a bit of an intimidating experience there - lots of good runner and also lots of people in general. Almost like being at the airport with all of the people-watching!

Clear Sky

Today was a 5 miler. It wasn't overly exciting. It is really chilly in the morning and the sky is so clear. It's really pretty. We hung a right on the bike trail this morning and ran out about 2 miles, then came back. I left Ryan at the entry of the complex and then I headed into the residential area. It's crazy to look at some of these homes. They all look the same, or they rotate from one style then another style, then back to the first style. It's kind of weird. There are a LOT of homes for sale and a lot of foreclosures. Obviously people got into situations that they couldn't afford.

The marathon is coming up so quickly! It will be here in no time. :) Have a good day!

Hills? On a Long Run?

Its been so long since we've done hills on a long run, that Lisa and I had almost forgotten what it was like! Hills on a tempo run are so much different than on a long run after you've already gone 9 or 10 miles...interesting! Anyhow - it was a great run and my Sunday felt completely open since we got the run in Saturday a.m.

Searching for Diablo

Today was our 14-miler. We headed out around 7am, due to late night bowling with Ryan's co-workers (which was surprisingly fun). Ryan was equipped on the bike, I had my new fluorescent green shorts on, and we were off. To the marina we went via the bike trail/gravel farm land path. Everyone we saw greeted us with smiles and hellos, which I'm finding to be quite typical. On our way back, we saw the same guy that tripped with his dog earlier in the week! It was crazy, we were trying to figure out if it was him, and then the second he gave us that knowing look of "I've seen you around here before", it was validated. At least he didn't look too harmed from his accident. One couple we passed made a comment about how lucky I was to have a personal trainer. Ha! It was comical. I tried a different goo, one of the "gu" brands and it was fantastic! I was surprised. I might need to add them into the rotation. Overall it was an overcast day. We weren't blessed with seeing the sun shine on Mt. Diablo in the distance as we were last week. But at least I didn't add too much to my arm crease tans. Hideous.

I hope you two have/had a good run! It will be so good to see you both in just two weeks. :) I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I'll have a job by then! Wonders never cease.

Roundabout

This morning was my 6 miler. Ryan ran 3.5 and I finished on my own. It is starting to be very dark in the morning, and quite cool. The days are getting shorter, as summer flies away. We ran on the bike trail. We saw this man (kind of a big guy) running with his dog. Somehow the dog or the leash got in the way and the guy tripped! It was so sad! I bolted up to see if he was ok, I think he was just mainly embarrassed. He was wearing one of those knee braces and kind of fell pretty hard on it. I hope he's ok. After the bike trail I ran in some residential neighborhoods. Did you know that they have roundabouts for sidewalks? I'm not quite sure of the purpose, but they had plants in the middle of it. I guess it was overly necessary to plant them right there, forcing a roundabout to be created. Interesting. That was pretty much all of the exciting news from my run.

So cute, there are little boys on those scooter things outside the window. He just waved to his mom, cute.

Hopefully your weather in PA is treating you well!

Solo swimming downtown/Track workout with the hubby

Well, I absolutely agree. Swimming is probably my favorite workout after a long run; probably a lot having to do with the no impact. I think that there were more lifeguards and instructors than swimmers yesterday, shocking for diving in just after 5 pm. In the process of banging out a quick 800m, I almost died -swam too fast to breathe and inhaled a ton of water in the deepest part of the pool. After having a loud coughing spell, I moved on, avoiding eye contact with the guard.

Much to my surprise, Geoff asked if he could run with me this morning. So we set out down McClure to Commercial where I had clocked out a half mile loop around the block. It was fun to have someone run with me this morning and Geoff did pretty well even though complaining about being really out of shape - I think he might be getting nervous about running the 10k!

Megan - nice Chicago detail on the blogs - very technologically savvy!

Future Olympic Swimmer

No...I'm not talking about myself. I swam at the Baierl YMCA tonight and there was a dad there who was obsessively coaching his 8 year old (my best guess) to be a star swimmer. It was intense. Some of the comments I overheard were: "You have to shoot out like a torpedo from the wall." "No freestyle kick. We're working on breaststroke." "OK, 5 more times and then you're done." I wanted to tell the dad to just let him go play Marco Polo with the rest of the kids.

Swimming felt fantastic after the 20 mile run. It felt good to just shake everything out!

8 Mile Road

Well well...so my 20 miler started on Saturday morning at precisely 6am. Ryan was equipped with biker shorts (under his baggy shorts) and a full water bottle. I was weighted down with my three goos (which stands for ooz and are repulsive). Ryan mapped out our route on Thursday, and we drove it Friday. Parts of it were gated off, so we didn't get to literally see the whole course. It started off in a nice residential neighborhood, then we headed into farm land, wrapped around water, and returned on the same road we started on. There were acres and acres of corn on one side and tomatoes on the other. We headed straight out until the road forked at this marina and then we ran on the path which was right next to the waterway. It was really cool, beautiful and literally cool. It was abstolutely ideal running weather.

We noticed this time as we encountered the first fence that it had a no trespassing sign. We still hopped the fence. Why didn't we think about this last night, who knows. We continued on, past this scary home with gnarly dogs...where I picked up my pace even though I didn't feel like it, just to escape the scariness. Then we encountered another fence, this one looked electric. Ryan tested it out and it was cool, so we hopped it, lliterally. Then I noticed the ground I was running on was covered in sheep poo!! GROSS!! We continued trekking. Another electric fence, same as before and we jumped it. ANOTHER electric fence, and we jumped the non active electirc gate. Then a farm guy drove up to us and said, "This is private property and you really shouldn't be out here". Ryan handled it and the guy was really cool. I was getting a little bratty at this point. It was about the 13 mile mark. Ryan was very helpful with the water bottle and trying to keep my spirits up, which usually meant pure silence. We finally finished running by the water and headed back on 8 Mile Road, what we started out on. Sometimes the out and pack situations are helpful, but this wasn't. I couldn't see very much in the distance and it all just looked so far ahead. Ryan continued to remind me, only 40 minutes left. We somehow made it in a little under 3. I was so happy to have completed that one!

Once we returned to the apartment, I started to not feel very good and Ryan had stepped into the bathroom. My eyes started getting cloudy and it felt all dark and everything sounded hollow. I thought I was going down. I hollered to Ryan that I wasn't feeling very good...at ALL and he raced in with a towel and shoved a lemonade at me. I sat down, drank, and was brought back to life. :) It really wasn't that dramatic, but it was very odd. I hadn't felt that way after running before. I must have just had a really low blood sugar level.

That was my big 20 miler! So glad the next time we're running in the 2X's, will be in CHICAGO and I'll be with you two!!! :)

Oh-funny side note, I had a tan line on each arm where my arms creased from being at a 90 degree angle for so long. Sad. Not too noticeable though. :)

Let the Taper Begin!

Megan and I met at the trailhead at 6am this morning. It was pitch black and easily the COLDEST run we've had in a long time. It took until mile 4 for it to become light enough to know for sure that I could see my breath in the chilly 40 degree weather. The trail was slow this morning, probably due to very cold joints. Not a lot was seen in the first ten miles but on the way back we saw three deer right on the trail and a whole gang of TIT members. We are both a little stiff but pleased with the finish at just over three hours. I can't believe all the hard runs are over!!

In honor of our first long run without Amber - Megan ran in capris & Lisa blew more snot rockets than you can imagine!

Also, we booked our flights today (finally!) so we now are officially going to Chicago. We arrive in Chi-town close to noon on Friday and are flying out around 8pm Sunday night. ADJ - make sure that you get a booklet in the mail about the marathon. You need it to pickup your packet!

Cazadero "Highway"

While not the most ideal running terrain, I opted to do the 8 mile tempo right out the front door of Trestle Cabin on Cazadero Highway. I put the highway in quotations above because I wouldn't necessarily classify the road as a highway. As I was running, I contemplated what the AAA people use as their basis for putting a road on a map. My reasoning brought me to the conclusion that it has something to do with the post offices. If a town is large enough to have a post office, a road must go to it. That is the case with Cazadero Highway - not a major road at all, but there is a post office at the end of it. The cabin is 6 miles up the road and the post office is about 6.5, so I first ran to the post office and then came back in front of the cabin and did 3.5 miles before I turned around and came back. While the cars go fairly quickly (speed limit is 35, but I don't think most follow that) my best estimate is that there was an average of less than 5 cars per mile that actually passed me, so all in all a successful run in not getting hit by a car, which leads me to my next comment:

I want to state for the record that I do not believe it is a good idea for either of you (especially Amber might get the itch for this dream) to have the goal of cycling on Highway 1. It seems to be somewhat of a pilgrimage for some people, as we saw many cyclists loaded down with gear for a long trek. Its not that I don't think you could do it from a physcial perspective - I'm quite sure you could. But from a getting hit by a car perspective, I am not so confident. We almost wiped out at least a dozen cyclists. The road is just not made for two cars and one bicycle at the same time. In many places it is, in fact, barely made for two cars. So, that's my thoughts on that.

PS - Crosstraining this week consisted of canoeing, hiking and golfing. Not extremely cardivascular, but hey, I was on vacation.

Fall is here.

After running in Cancun proved difficult (90 degrees and severe humidity even at 8am) and resulted in a little more cross training than running I set out last night back at home for the 8 mile tempo. Even though it was 77 degrees it felt much cooler as the humidity was down near 40%. It is very obvious that fall has arrived very very quickly. The run started out slow and stiff but somehow the half bag of snickers I devoured during the hellish afternoon of tax returns gave me extra energy as I began running unofficial negative splits. Even though I finished my distance at the gas station, I opted to run up Braddock to my house (needless to say I slowed down a little).

The weather looks promising for our 20 miler on Sunday: Sunny, low humidity and 50-70 degrees depending on time of run. I would be ok with either morning or afternoon - although we do have a Steeler game at 1:00. If we do have a themed meal, it'd be very easy this time with some buffalo chicken wings....

Also, terrible breaking news: the Pittsburgh Marathon has been postponed to 2009 due to lack of time to plan appropriately. I had trouble finding a news article link to post here but several people have seen it on various news venues.

New Look for Crazy Daisies

Nathan was tired of the old dots template and requested an upgrade. Stay tuned for other updates that tech-savy husand wants me to implement!

Pacific Mist

I haven't quite figured out the climate here. The weatherman has been way off on his weather predictions. Its been cold where he told me it would be warm and its been warm where he told me it would be cold. This morning I headed out for the speed workout (luckily it was 2 minutes fast, 2 minutes recovery, so no track needed) and after only 5 minutes of running I was soaked from sweat? mist? seaspray? Who knows...

The Mendocino Headlands State Park was only a 3 minute jog from our bed & breakfast and virtually my whole planned route had a good view of the Pacific since we are somewhat on a peninsula that juts out into the ocean. There was less than a mile that could be run in the park, but the small town streets of Mendocino were just as fun to run on. Mendocino is an interesting place - a mix of modern and olde time. They call it a New England style village, which makes me feel more like I'm in Maine than Northern California. The town does not have a water system, so each house has to have its own water tank. Many sit above the house, I presume so they can use gravity to get some kind of pressure? While its quaint and well-maintained (and, of course, an upscale touristy spot...) there are still the standard hippie/homeless wanderers that populate all of California.

On my second loop I must have transformed into someone who looked like a knowledgable local and another runner asked me for directions back to town. It would be really hard to get lost here, but I was happy to oblige and told him "turn right on Lansing." All in all, a fantastic run!

Big Sun Rising

Today was an early morning run on the bike trail that runs behind our apartment. It is kind of sketchy to go by myself when it's dark outside, so Ryan went with me. We ran 4 miles at tempo pace...meaning I wanted to cut my arms off because it was slightly painful. Thanks Ryan for the push...yuck. We separated ways after 4 and I did the last 2 on my own, which required a down and back sort of loop. On the way back, I looked up in the sky and there was this beautiful, gynormous sun! It was crazy! And huge and beautiful burnt orange. It was beautiful. All in all, the run was ok. Lis, you know how when we did tempos, one of us may get annoyed because we're not feeling too good but we rarely speak it out loud. When I run fast with Ryan, I start to complain and he's like, isn't this supposed to be your tempo? Yikes...um, yes...but it's not comfortable. The moral of the story, I complain more when I run with Ryan than I would with either of you two. I don't know how that makes sense, or if it only makes sense to me. Whatever. :) It is sunny and warm outside right now and I'm about to venture out to Safeway to get some ingredients for dinner. Megan, I'm thinking I might make those yummy chocolate truffle cookies that Tressa made. They look yummy! I miss you both. :)

Running Under the Redwoods

Nathan came into town with me this morning and camped out at a coffee shop with wifi and I headed up a nice road with a bike path berm to the Armstrong Redwood Preserve. I was on the road for about 2.5 miles and then in the preserve itself for about 5 miles. When I started at about 8 am it was only 47 degrees! The thing about the redwoods is that they are so tall and suck up all of the sunlight way at the top, so that even in midday you're running underneath them and it feels like dawn or dusk. It really only gets "warm" here from about noon - 3 pm.

Breaking in the new shoes

I broke down and got a new pair of shoes before the marathon. Today was the day to break them in. I was planning on doing my normal tempo route, but I saw what looked like a fire that was probably burning down all of Neville Island and I swore I heard firetrucks way off in the distance. As I headed down to 65, I saw a very bright flickering light and lots of smoke. By the time I got down there, I realized that it was just the normal eternal flame at the upstream side of the island...maybe a bit higher than normal and the smoke was nothing too abnormal either. I guess it was just a typical day for Neville Island. I was then punished for my curiousity by having to run back UP from 65.

Running at the Shore

Since I did my 18 miles before the weekend, I got to enjoy a short 6 mile tempo run while I was at the Shore. I figured I'd get it out of the way first thing Saturday morning so I didn't have to worry about it the rest of the week. I headed out before most people were out of bed in the morning and it was still cool enough to be an enjoyable temperature. I headed towards the beach and then ran along the boardwalk until it ended and then ran on the street. As I was coming back, the rest of the clan was just headed to WaWa to get coffee, so I cut my run a bit short to join them. I then guzzled a bottle of water and then enjoyed cooling off on the beach with a coffee! Ah...the life.

Jessie was disappointed that I didn't wake her up to run on Saturday, so the next morning I ended up doing a little more with her as well. She was supposed to do 12, so I just did the first 4 with her and then headed home. She is training for the Frankfurt, Germany marathon which is at the end of October. She also has a really cool GPS watch which tells you exactly how far you run and the average pace you run at. You can even upload it on the computer to have it map out what you ran, but Jessie has not done that yet.

Spinning again

So after the crappy workout last night I set my alarm hoping that I could crawl out of bed... Fortunately, Geoff had to get up at 4:30 for a fire drill for the nightshift so I was somewhat awake when the alarm went off. Emery, of course, was shocked to see me for the second time in two weeks. And I have to say that he has improved immensely. He still doesn't have rythym on the jumps but he has a much better concept of working out TO the music and it not just being background noise. Gerry (Jerry???) was shocked and excited to see me for the first time in months but did ask where Amber was. I didn't have the heart to tell him that you had moved to CA permanently - he did premise it that you just might stay!

Track workout?

Well tonight was supposed to be 10x400 so I headed up to Schenley for the first time. I love the trail (approx 3/4 mile) around the fields that allowed me to loop it twice for my warmup. My actual workout didn't go nearly as well as my leg was entirely too tight to do very many laps. I guess I needed to stretch a whole lot more than I did in the last few days. I came home and did about 40 minutes of stretching and am going to bed early so I actually get up for spinning in the am.

ADJ's last run in the Burgh

Amber and I set out for the Montour Trail this morning, getting there just as the sun was splattering the horizen with color. It was a chilly morning, in the low 50s. We could actually see our breath. Shockingly, we kept our t-shirts on - for the first 1 1/2 miles. The 18 miles was good and strong. We got a little out of hand clocking some of the later miles with 8:10 or 8:16 but were able to finish in 2:37.09 (including stops), crushing our expected time of 2:45. There is absolutely nothing wrong with negative splits! The people on the trail were super friendly, only a few ignored us, oblivious to the world. Looking forward to Oct 7th when we can all be reunited again!