Sunday, September 24, 2006

New Surroundings, Bad Health Report

I had a feeling the first week of training was going too easily. At the beginning of week two, I got hit with a double whammy: a series of twelve-hour days at work, followed by a cold that drained me for most of the week. As a result, I did not get my first run of the week in until Friday, and that was only because I took a day off from work. By the end of the week, however, I was able to salvage an "OK" week of training and still feel that I am on track.

Two of my workouts during week two were in a town called New Cuyama, population 80, in central California. New Cuyama is located along Highway 166, about 50 miles east of Santa Maria between the coast and Bakersfield. Much of the landscape around New Cuyama must be similar to what the moon must look like, and we even had the chance to drive on an unpaved road which ran right along the San Andreas Fault. I also found out that the exit to get to New Cuyama from Interstate 5 is Frazier Park, which was the site of the campsite for UCLA Unicamp, where I met Jessica.

We were in New Cuyama for the wedding of one of Jessica's cousins, Tony. We had a great time visiting with Jessica's family, including being treated to fantastic barbeque (amazing ribs!) for the rehearsal dinner at a ranch run by Jessica's Aunt Claudia and cousin Jubil. The wedding was beautiful, and both the ceremony and reception were held in a space built to resemble a traditional Mexican zocalo complete with a bullring! Needless to say, we had a really good time.

We were lucky enough to get to stay in the only motel in town, the Cuyama Buckhorn, which was only about 3 ½ miles from the wedding site (rather than the 50 mile drive back to Santa Maria). The Cuyama Buckhorn
The Buckhorn is a lot of fun with comfortable rooms (and only 40 bucks a night!!), a bar, and a restaurant that unfortunately is only open for breakfast and lunch. If you make it there, be sure to try the biscuits & gravy as well as the tuna melt (which may be the subject of another blog of mine one day).

On the afternoon before the wedding, I decided to take a run along the road behind the Buckhorn, which apparently is in use by an oil company. Unfortunately, they did not take good care of the road and it was completely broken up, making for a treacherous run. Here I am, gazing down the road I had just run
After about 2 ¼ miles, the road also ended unexpectedly at a gate monitored by video. Rather than risk it, I turned around and finished my six mile run by running through the neighborhood of New Cuyama. On Sunday morning, I got up and ran 7 miles along the highway, going out and back from the Buckhorn to the wedding site. Other than the traffic whizzing by to get to the coast, it was pretty peaceful and completely flat.

Here are the current totals:

Week Two
Miles: 16
Time: 2:16:28

Totals
Total miles (running): 37.9
Total time (running): 5:23:42

I made it through the week, and would like to think that I got my cold out of the way early in the training. More to come soon!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Week One Recap

My poor training habits as a high school track athlete (playing basketball instead of running, etc.) were mentioned previously. I think that our coach (Mr. Voss?) got wise to this at some point and made some changes. One day, without any explanation, he loaded a bunch of us into the back of his truck and started driving. And he kept driving. After we got a considerable distance away from school, he stopped on the side of the road and told us to get out and run back to school. By taking away access to distractions, he forced us into a "proper" workout.

I decided to relive those days with today’s long run. I had Jessica drive me out to the Emeryville marina, a distance about 10 miles from the house, on her way to a class in San Francisco. Unlike the high school days, however, I had a pretty good idea about where I was going. I mapped out my route using the “America’s Running Routes” feature on the U.S.A. Track & Field Web site. The route is pretty varied, starting with views of the Bay and San Francisco from the Emeryville marina. It goes under the 80 and passes through the Bay Street shopping center, and then travels down the newly-refurbished Mandela Parkway. The route then crosses under the 880 and heads through Jack London Square (which was crowded due to the Farmer’s Market). From Jack London Square, I headed up Oak Street (and back under the 880) to Lake Merritt. After going around Lake Merritt, and in about the last mile or mile and a half, I faced the only difficult part of the course: heading up the hill from MacArthur Boulevard between Lake Shore and Park (an approximate increase of 200 feet in elevation in about a half-mile). From MacArthur, it was a short run over the 580 back to the house. All in all, I ran 9.78 miles in 1:24:34 (about 8:39/mile), although I told myself to go much slower.

During today’s run, I tried out my new Brooks “Water Boy” water bottle. I should mention that I never run with water, and rarely feel the need to drink water during a run. Since I am now going on longer runs, and “eating” during the runs (I tried a mocha-flavored Clif Shot today after about 7 miles. This flavor has caffeine and really packs a punch!), carrying water has become a necessity. This bottle has grooves for your fingers and thumbs, and fits comfortably in either hand. I am happy to report that the bottle really was not a distraction at all!

I haven’t reported on this week’s earlier runs, so I will mention them briefly. On Wednesday, the weather was kind of nasty, so I decided to run 5 miles on the treadmill. I chose a very slow pace (8:57/mile pace), and man was that boring! On Friday, I ran four miles around the neighborhood in 33:10 (8:17/mile pace). Here are the totals for week one:

Total miles (running): 21.9
Total time (running): 3:07:14
Next run: Tuesday

So far, so good!

Monday, September 04, 2006

Training Begins!

Prior to starting training today, I spent the weekend engaged in activities that are not conducive to exercise, or healthy living in general. On Friday evening, we went to a dinner party at a friend's house and had a few glasses of wine (we had to leave fairly early, though, since the party was in San Francisco and the bridge was closing to east-bound traffic for the entire weekend at midnight).

To help make sure that I got it all out of my system, my friends Dave and Heidi came up from Los Angeles on Saturday. I went to high school with Dave and he was also on the track team but, like me until recently, swore off running for the "good life." Recently, however, he has decided to start exercising again, although he is having the natural tendency to push himself too hard rather than ease in to training. I definitely started out this way, and wound up with various injuries, including a stress fracture in my left leg. I tried to encourage him by letting him know that he'll reach whatever fitness level he wants to reach, but also reminding him that it is important to be patient and not do more than your body can handle.

We spent Saturday catching up, starting with visiting Dave's older brother and his beautiful brand new (one week old) baby. We then went to lunch at Quinn's Lighthouse, an eclectic place on the marina in Oakland. After Quinn's, we went to Alameda for vodka tasting at Hangar One. The location is amazing with great views of San Francisco, and they have a fantastic array of vodka products. We then headed into San Francisco, and had a glass of wine at the wine bar in the Ferry Building, walked up to Gordon Biersch for some garlic fries and a beer, and then headed to Tres Agaves for dinner. I didn't think that getting a table at Tres Agaves would be a problem since the Giants were not in town (the restaurant is right by the ballpark), but the place was packed! We were told that there no were tables available because the "Cazadores Girls" were performing. I have no idea if this is actually the reason why the restaurant was so packed (we saw the performance, which was basically a marketing campaign for Cazadores tequila), but we were able to find some room at the bar and enjoy some of Julio's fine margaritas (as well as some delicious carnitas and carne asada). After dinner, we walked over to The 21st Amendment, before winding up at the Gold Dust Lounge in Union Square. In all, a very full day!

Sunday was more of the same, as Dave's parents joined us for a trip to the Wine Country. They had never been, and it is always fun to introduce people to some of the world's best. We started out with a tasting on the "Member's Patio" at Cakebread, which was very relaxing. We then headed for the exact opposite experience at V. Sattui: it was wall to wall people, although we were able to get a table on the grounds there for a picnic lunch. After lunch, we headed to Heitz (great wine, and no charge for tasting!), Goosecross Cellars (a nice smaller winery off the beaten track), and ended the day with some sparkling wine at Domaine Chandon. For dinner, we headed back to Berkeley for barbecue at T-Rex. We ended the night with a drink at a new tiki bar on Piedmont Avenue called the Kona Club. This place used to be a great dive bar called the King's X, and while they definitely seemed like they were trying, they didn't quite have the full concept down yet. After all of this, we got home and were in bed by around midnight.

After this action-packed weekend, I had put on a few pounds (current weight: 173 pounds) and was definitely ready to start training. I still have not settled on the exact training that I will follow, but will most likely combine one of Hal Higdon's training schedules with some of the other schedules out there, like the recent marathon training published by Runner's World that requires only three days of running per week. I don't know if running only three days per week will be effective, but it certainly sounds realistic!

Mondays are typically rest days but, because I did not run a long run on Sunday, I decided to start the training with a short run. We were thinking about going to Lake Merritt, but instead decided on Inspiration Point, which is the course for the Tilden Tough Ten annual race in May. I run this course pretty regularly and forgot that the course is called "Tough" for a reason: it contains plenty of rolling hills (as Dave reminded me once we completed our workout up there). We got there at about 10:30 a.m., and the sky was clear with some fog in the direction of San Francisco. It was fairly warm, although a cool breeze was blowing through the open parts of the course.

I started with a five-minute warm-up walk (.33 miles), followed by an out-and-back totaling about 3 miles (1.53 miles on the way out in 12:07, or 7:54/mile pace, and 1.59 miles on the way back in 12:38, or 7:58/mile pace). I ended the workout with a quarter-mile walk in 3:40. One easy day down!

Total miles (running): 3.12
Total time (running): 24:45
Next run: Wednesday (5 miles)