Lorenzpsu in San Diego

It was my first day back after a two month period of sporadic runs and low motivation. Today marks the day that I have recommitted myself to training. To keep my motivation high, I have set the goal to run the Silver Strand Half Marathon on November 11th and attempt to break my PR of 1:55. Lots of work ahead of me, since today's early morning run was difficult (not to mention my unanticipated sprint during the last mile to deter the person following me!) I am excited to get back into it!

Somehow I managed to get up at 5:15 to make it to a one hour spin class today. I am definitely out of spinning shape!  The "hills" were challenging, but I did my best to keep the resistance as high as possible. My goal is to spin at least twice a week, and hopefully get at least one bike ride in on the weekends. Need to build up my legs, first!

Decided to hit the pool for an evening swim. I managed to finish 1000 meters, 250 with hand paddles. It was a slow swim and my arms were fatigued when I was done. Felt good to be back in the pool. Total swim time was just over 25 minutes.

Just went for a quick run this morning, but incorporated a few moderate hills. It gave me a chance to explore my neighborhood and get the blood flowing. My calves were a little sore, but overall, I felt good.

Well, I had planned on participating in the AIDS Walk/Run 10K, but due to a power outage, I slept in a little too long. Instead, I did my own 6 mile loop along the harbor (much more scenic than Balboa park, in my mind, not to mention, free!). In hindsight, I am glad that I did not do the 10K, b/c today was very difficult and my calves were tight. I've never had this problem before, so I'm going to rest tomorrow. Monday is typically my day off, too. My 6 miles took me 52:06, and my split was only negative by 2 seconds! I certainly have my work cut out for me if I want to PR in the Silver Strand Half in November!

Today was a much needed day of rest. The first week of getting back into a routine always seems to be the most difficult. I am looking forward to my 6 mile run tomorrow morning! I only hope my calves have loosened up a bit by then.

"Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher

Well, I did it! It wasn't easy, but the quote that I posted last night gave me that last push that I needed to get out of bed! I think I'm going to have a "love/hate" relationship with this blog. Getting up early to run always sounds so good the night before...but when that alarm goes off, it's another story. If nothing else, this is a good lesson in keeping your word.

I decided to mix things up a bit and start my run at my usual turnaround spot. It's always interesting how mind games as little as this can have a significant impact on your run. I started my run along the harbor just before dark, running towards the city...allowing me to watch the city slowly wake up and come to life (complete with a cruise ship coming into port!). I tried to pick up the pace to slightly less than a sprint for the last 1/2 mile of the first half of the run and then again in the last 1/2 mile of the entire run. It was difficult, but felt good. I even had a negative split of over one minute! My total time was 42:19 (but I don't have my exact splits with me since I left my watch at home today.)  I can't wait to do it again on Thurday.

Friends were in town, so I had to make this quick. It felt good to get out, but I wasn't able to do the long run that I had hoped for.

Well, it's been quite a while. In between work taking an unexpected twist requiring me to stay late nights and friends coming to visit, I haven't done much running recently, let alone blogging. But I'm back now and believe that things should be settled enough that I can focus on the Silver Stand Half Marathon on November 11th. I also received good news that Shauna will be coming out to run it, too! All the more reason to train hard.

So, in an effort to re-motivate myself, I purchased a Garmin (and some new running clothes) on Friday. I was so excited to put them all to use on Saturday morning, but when I opened the door to leave, I realized it was POURING down rain. (It would have been nice to have realized this before I got out of bed, but such is life.) I have been fighting a cold all week, so I decided it was probably best to post-pone the run. But I did manage to get out on Sunday, which was beautiful!!! I am now 100% addicted to the Garmin. If you know anything about me, I tend to become rather obsessed with gadgets, etc., especially those that aid in training. I set the watch to alert me when I was running faster than and 8min/mile pace and/or slower than a 10min/mile pace. It's nice when your watch is telling you to "slow down" but can be aggravating when it tells to you "speed up". Overall,  a great purchase.

My pace averaged to be slightly over a 9 min/mile and I finished in 1 hour, 26 mins and 25 seconds. Not too bad, but I was definitely beat for the remainder of the day. I took today (Monday is when I'm posting this) off, but will spin tomorrow (Tuesday).

In the meantime, I can't wait to catch up on everyone else's blogs!

Great spin class this morning! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to run a few miles last night to try to loosen up the legs, so they were a little tight when I started out. After a few good "hills", they started to feel pretty good. I'm looking forward to my 5-6 mile run tomorrow by the harbor!

I woke up a little under the weather this morning...I was coughing all night so I didn't sleep well, but I was still prepared to attempt the run....until I looked outside and realized that it was pouring down rain! So, I packed my gym back and went to work. My plan is to run at least 4 on the treadmill (mainly intervals) and swim for at least 20 minutes after work tonight. I'm writing this down so I stick to it!

Well, I almost did it. I did make it to the gym and on the treadmill, but only managed to squeeze out 3. Better than nothing, right? I did intervals of 2 minutes at slightly faster than a 5K pace and then 2 minutes of a recovery jog to make the time go by faster....tonight's workout inspired me to get up early tomorrow and run outside so I don't find myself on the treadmill again tomorrow night.

Contrary to my recent blog history, I have been somewhat consistent with my running, spinning and swimming the past few weeks. This was mainly attributed to the fact that I had signed up for the Silver Strand Half Marathon and invited Shauna (friend, fellow blogger and previous co-worker while I lived in Phoenix) to come to San Diego for the weekend to run it with me. (By with me, I meant line up at the start together...I am a firm believer that two people rarely have the same pace on the same day and that each person should run his or her own race.) Although I cannot say that I diligently trained for this race, I did do three to four 10-12 milers the previous month (this is where it would have been nice to have kept up with my blog so you all could see exactly what I did or did not do...lesson learned!) and tried to complete one to two 5-6 mile runs during the week, in addition to a few swims and spin classes. Knowing that I am not at my fitness peak right now, I was curious to see how my body would react to this race.

As Shauna explained (I defer to her blog to obtain more details of the actual race course) the course was rather flat and straight, but we did have to fight a headwind most of the way. All of my splits were under 9 minutes except one, which was a 9:05 (that last little hill got me). I do not have my exact finishing time since my Garmin died at mile 12.9, but I believe it will be around 20-30 seconds under my PR, which I certainly cannot complain about.  The clock time was 1:55.34, but I am still awaiting my chip time, which I believe was about 20 seconds behind the clock....my (hopefully previous) PR was 1:55.42.

As for today, my quads are a little tight, but oddly enough, my calves are what are bothering me the most. I rarely have much calf soreness and have never felt the calf fatigue that I am experiencing today (and yesterday during the race), even after speed workouts. I'm not sure why it decided to come out on race day!

Lessons learned this race:

1) I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was and with a little dedication, I can likely reach my sub 1:50 goal for my  next half in January.

2)It's important to replace your batteries on your GARMIN on race day...no matter what the indicator tells you.

3) "Race Parking" signs can sneak up on you pre-race when you are not really thinking about driving and more focused on the race. (I hope the rest of the field was able to find their way around despite my inadvertant relocation of the sign.)

Overall, a decent race, a great race experience, and most importantly, an enjoyable weekend spent with a great person.

Still a little too tender today to do much. I am going to either spin or swim tomorrow, but the thought of running right now is not the least bit appealing to my calves. I've been rolling out my legs with "The Stick" (if you do not have one of these, I HIGHLY recommend it..it's like a very thin, flexible rolling pin), which seems to be helping somewhat. I am anxious to get back at it!