My Running Blog

Roses

2006-06-22T22:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday 6/22 : 6.2 miles @ Rose Bowl ....53:57 (8:39 pace)

Leaving to San Diego on Saturday. I'll probably squeeze in one (maybe 2 runs) while I'm down there.

Slacking

2006-06-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I've updated my runs...here's a quick summary:

Friday June 9 : 3.15 mile walk (started the girls on a walking thing once a week)

Tuesday, June 13 : 6.22 miles in 53:22 (8:34 miles)

Thursday, June 15 : 6.19 miles in 52:24 (8:27 mile pace)

Friday, June 16 : 2.73 mile walk

Saturday, June 17 : 3.25 miles in 29:13 (8:59 mile pace). This was a trail run with "Triathalon" Glenn. It was actually a nice run, and very easy on the knees.

Sunday, June 18 : 3.97 miles in 37:06 (9:20 pace)....Liked the trail so much, I went back the next day in the middle of a heat wave.

Monday, June 19 : 3 miles in 23:51 (7:58 mile pace) ....my new "Jamba Juice" run...starting and ending at the Jamba parking lot, all fruit smoothie at the end.

Tuesday, June 20 : 6.06 miles in 56:43 (9:21 pace) at guess where? the same trail as the weekend....I wanted to see how far away the 110 and Arroyo golf course was....it ended up being almost exactly 3 mile to the 110 and the 3 miles back. Could I be turning into a (gasp) "trail runner"!? Actually it's just a nice change of pace from the Rose Bowl "circle" I've been doing for the past year...I think I need to find more places to run.

Next up : Thursday 6 miles.

9 Again

2006-06-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

Nine miles today at the Rose Bowl : http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=888954

Splits :

Mile 1 : 9:38
Mile 2 : 9:19
Mile 3 : 9:22
Mile 4 : 9:38
Mile 5 : 9:18
Mile 6 : 9:21
Mile 7 : 9:22
Mile 8 : 9:08
Mile 9 : 8:46
Mile 0.28 : 2:26

Total Time : 1:26:22
Average Pace : 9:18/mi
Average Speed : 6.4 mph
Total Calories : 1486
Supplement : Snickers Marathon, 2 hours pre

Quick update

2006-06-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

Update of latest runs....I'll fill in times/splits later...

Friday 6/2 : 3.42 Miles : Hill Training around the Rose Bowl ; 30:50
This one is up the side streets to the side of the main Rose Bowl course, there are two major hills to climb.

Mile 1 : 9:23
Mile 2 : 8:46
Mile 3 : 8:58
Mile 0.42 : 3:42

Total Time : 30:50
Average Pace : 9:01/mile
Average speed : 6.7 mph
Total Calories : 587

**********************

Saturday 6/3/06 : 6.36 miles ; 58:18 ; Up Verdugo and back.
Miles 1 -3 were pretty much uphill all the way, hence the progressively slower splits. A good hill training course with a slight upgrade, nothing too severe.

Mile 1 : 9:09
Mile 2 : 9:07
Mile 3 : 9:27
Mile 4 : 9:02
Mile 5 : 9:05
Mile 6 : 8:58
Mile 0.37 : 3:27

Total Time : 58:18
Average Pace : 9:09/mile
Average Speed : 6.5 mph
Total Calories : 1086

*************************

Tuesday 6/6 : 6.19 miles ; 50:07 (new 10k pb; 8:05/mile pace). I think maybe the two previous hill training courses helped out a little on this run, it made the one hill (Miles 1 and 4) on this 10k course a little easier.

Mile 1 : 8:34
Mile 2 : 8:03
Mile 3 : 7:55
Mile 4 : 8:21
Mile 5 : 8:11
Mile 6 : 7:41
Mile 0.19 : 1:19

Total Time : 50:07 (I'll break that 50 mark someday!)
Average Speed : 7.4 mph
Average Pace : 8:05/mile
Calories : 1068

Next run : Thursday 6 miles @ RB

Another 9

2006-05-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Did 9.3 miles again at the Rose Bowl. This is the third of forth time at this distance. I was aiming for 9:30/miles. Took a Snickers Marathon (I think this is my pre-workout choice now) about 1.5 hours before exercise. It was sorta hot today....about 70 at my 6:00pm start time, so I didn't think I was going to be able to finish the 9 miles. Splits below:

Mile 1 : 9:28
Mile 2 : 9:07
Mile 3 : 9:18
Mile 4 : 9:32
Mile 5 : 8:58
Mile 6 : 9:06
Mile 7 : 9:17
Mile 8 : 8:56
Mile 9 : 8:55
Mile 0.25 : 2:14

Total : 1:24:54 (My fastest 3 laps around the RB so far)
Average pace : 9:10/mile
Average speed : 6.5
Total calories : 1646

Next run : Thursday 6 or 7 miles.

Unrelated running side note : saw Xmen3 on Monday. I thought it was ok, not as bad as all the reviews I was reading. A good, superficial, no storyline, summer movie if that makes sense at all. Of course, they hardly stuck to any of the comic book Xmen universe, but I didn't really expect them too anyways, this whole series has been about appealing to the non-comic book reading population, and they did a good job doing that.

Side note 2 : Kitty should have been played by a hotter actress in my opinion....same with Rogue. Beast was good, Colossus (one of my favorite characters) had like two lines, which I was disappointed in. They could have renamed the movie "Wolverine and His Scrub Mutant Buddies" and no one would have complained I think. I would have preferred other character development, but I guess they knew what they were doing to the tune of $122 million.

Griffith 6 Mile

2006-05-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

Ran at Griffith park on Saturday, since there was some sort of Jazz fest going on at the Rose Bowl for Memorial Day weekend. Starts out being hilly for the first 3 miles, then semi-flat for the last three. End up passing by the golf course, the L.A. Zoo parking lot and the Autry Museum...not alot of people running or biking there though. I did see a coyote running down the street as I was driving away though, I wonder if they attack people? It was pretty skinny and malnourished looking though.

Mile 1 : 8:37
Mile 2 : 8:49
Mile 3 : 8:39
Mile 4 : 8:48
Mile 5 : 8:58
Mile 6 : 8:56
Mile 0.15 : 1:12

Total : 53:57
Average pace : 8:46
Average speed : 6.8mph
Total Calories : 1168

Next run : Tuesday? Rosebowl 6 or 7miles.

5k Today

2006-05-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my "Easy Week" theme. I did a 5k today at the RB (although this didn't feel very "easy" as I was trying to beat my 5k PB of 24:13). Here are the splits:

Mile 1 : 7:39
Mile 2 : 7:22
Mile 3 : 7:57
Mile 0.1 : 0:46

Total : 23:46
Average pace : 7:40
Average speed : 7.8mph
Total calories : 523

The first mile is mostly uphill from where I start, that 7:39 took some energy out of me. The 2nd mile is flat and then downhill, hence the 7:22...the last mile is half downhill and half up, the uphill in combination with feeling tired got me 7:57. I did beat my previous PB for a 5k though.

Next run : Friday 6 miles at the RB most likely.

Easy Week

2006-05-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

Between my 9.3 mile run and my 10k PB last week, I thought I'd take it easy this week and allow some of the nagging injuries (knee tendonitis, plantar fasciitis) I have to get better. Did 6.2 miles at the RB on Wednesday. I was aiming for 9:00 miles. Here's the splits :

Mile 1 : 9:05
Mile 2 : 8:36
Mile 3 : 8:37
Mile 4 : 9:11
Mile 5 : 9:06
Mile 6 : 9:02
Mile 0.2 : 1:44

Total : 55:23
Average pace : 8:56/mile
Total Calories : 1134
Supplement : EAS pre-workout powder.

Almost broke the 150 pound mark in weight today....I came in at 150.5. I've been hanging around 151, 152 for the past few weeks...not really trying to actively lose any more weight though, I think if I hang around 146-149 I'll be fine.

Think I'll do two more easy 6 milers at the 9:00 pace this week....probably Friday and Sunday. Then I'll try another 9 miler next week. Not going to up my long distance runs to 10 miles until June.

Race updates : Nothing planned for June. Between graduations, working two weekends, and then going down to San Diego the last weekend in June to watch the Padres and Seattle at Petco, my weekends are pretty much booked. Will probably look for a 10k to do in July.

I'm a PB Fool

2006-05-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ran my new PB (personal best) for 10k today...breaking my record set 9 days ago.

Splits :

Mile 1 : 8:01
Mile 2 : 7:51
Mile 3 : 8:01
Mile 4 : 8:59 (yes I was in semi-recovery from the three previous 8:00/miles)
Mile 5 : 8:23
Mile 6 : 7:56 (looked at my watch and realized I had a chance to PB again)
Mile 0.21 : 1:29

Total : 50:42 (topping my previous 10k time of 51:07 on 5/9)

Pre-workout supplement : Snickers Marathon (17o calories, 25g carbs) taken about 2 hours prior to run (was gonna take it an hour prior to run, but I had back to back patients)

Subjective : I was pretty spent after finishing....I'm not sure if I'll be able to top that time until I work on more aerobic conditioning. Hard to believe that to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I'd have to do 7:26 miles.....26 times in a row (ouch). I'm a few years off from even considering that I think....or if I wait until I'm 40, I'd have to do 7:38 miles since I'd be in a new qualifying age group.

Considering doing the 5k at Angel stadium on 5/20/06....part of the run is through the outfield and then around the bases inside Angel stadium...how fun would that be? I was looking for a 10k to do, but nothing is working out in my schedule so far.

Next run : 5k Saturday or a 10k Rose Bowl run if I don't do the Angel thing.

Nine @ RB

2006-05-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

9.3 miles today at the Rose Bowl...slowed down pace and upped the mileage again.

Motionbased link : http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=778130

Splits :

Mile 1 - 9:18
Mile 2 - 9:26
Mile 3 - 9:29
Mile 4 - 9:44
Mile 5 - 9:36
Mile 6 - 9:30
Mile 7 - 9:38
Mile 8 - 9:21
Mile 9 - 9:17
Mile 0.31 - 2:43

Nutritional supplement : EAS pre-workout powder (40 cal, 7g carbs, 199mg caffeine)

Thoughts : I wanted to do 10:00 miles but that pace felt really, really slow to me. I stayed closer to 9:30/miles which felt more comfortable. I could have kept running to 12.4 miles but didn't want to push myself or risk injury or something like that.

Injury updates : Left knee patellar tendonitis seems to be under control with patellar knee strap. Right foot plantar fasciitis appears to be gone; I'm no longer having to tape my foot to control the over pronation. I do tighten my right shoe a bit tighter to try to limit the motion my foot goes through during stance phase.

Thoughts Part 2 : I like to analyze other runners gaits while I'm running next to them or behind them. I've considered running up to the painful looking ones and offering advice or asking, "Do you have pain in your (knee, foot, hip,etc)?" depending on what I see....but that's probably bad runners etiquette.

Seven

2006-05-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

Seven miles today at the Rose Bowl. My current nutritional supplement experiment is with Power Bar Gel....100 calories, 26g of carbs of strawberry-banana flavored goo. I took it one hour prior to running. I did a slow run today, trying to stay near 9:00/mile for seven. Here's the splits :

Mile 1 : 8:53
Mile 2 : 8:45
Mile 3 : 8:43
Mile 4 : 9:08
Mile 5 : 9:20
Mile 6 : 9:05
Mile 7 : 8:59

Total : 1:02:57

At the end I felt I could have gone another lap around the RB (3.1) but it was getting late (7:18PM when I ended). I'm not sure if the goo helped since I was running slower today since I was adding another mile to my usual 6. I did find out that the bikers do about 3.1 miles in 9 minutes over and over.....they kept passing me at the mile markers every 9 or so minutes.

Next up : Saturday or Sunday 6 miles.

Low to High

2006-05-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Went and ran 6.2 training run at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, 5/6/06 and got one of my worst 10k times in the past few weeks : 56:32. I think it might have been a combination of running in the morning ( I usually run at 6pm) and the margaritas and beer I had for Cinco de Mayo the previous night. Kinda set me back a bit, but I knew that running after making your body process alcohol wasn't a good thing.

So I went back on Tuesday, 5/9/06 and ran the 6.2 miles in 51:07, average pace 8:15; low 7:49, high 8:45. My fastest 10k to date. I did eat a Snickers Marathon bar two hour prior to the run, maybe that had something to do with being able to keep my pace up for so long. I usually just drink water or maybe a Gatorade 30 to 40 minutes prior to my runs.

Next run : Thursday 6 miles.

10k PB

2006-05-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

I ran at the Rose Bowl today. It was pretty cold so I had to wear two shirts for the first lap. Surprised I was able to run my fastest time for the 10k distance today. I thought I would be tired from the 9.3 on Monday. Here's the splits:

Mile 1 : 8:29
Mile 2 : 8:21
Mile 3 : 8:37
Mile 4 : 8:40
Mile 5 : 8:38
Mile 6 : 8:09
0.2 Miles : 1:26

Total : 52:24

I threw my top layer shirt on my car as I passed by it after the first 3.1. Kinda figured no one would pick up a sweaty shirt laying on a car anyways (I was right, it was still there when I was done.)

I'm not sure how I'm going to manage clothing at the half marathon in September. It starts at 6:00am, so it will be cold...but since the 13 miles will take me about 2 hours, I'm sure I'll be warm after the first 3-6 miles...and want to take off some layers and throw em somewhere. I wonder if they make disposeable clothing? Or I could strategically place my three daughters throughout the course so I can discard my sweaty garments on them as I pass? I'll have to look into something before September.

Running Log

2006-05-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

Just putting times/days in today....

Friday : Treadmill 3.1 miles @ 7.5mph

Monday : Rose Bowl : 9.3 miles @ ~ 10:00/mile pace ...1 hour 29 minutes.

Next up : Wednesday ...6 miles somewhere.

Strange Weather

2006-04-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

What's up with the California weather? It was nice last week...in the 70's up until 6:30pm....it's cold and drizzly now, so I was forced back into 24 Hour Fitness to run on the treadmill.

Did a quick run : 3 miles @ 7.5 mph (8:00 mile pace). Felt pretty easy, I think I can break my 5k PR 24:13 in the next 5k that I do.

Next run : Friday 3 miles (hopefully outdoors).

Trail Running

2006-04-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

Did a 6 mile out and back at Griffith Park today. It was mostly on trails, relatively flat with a few hills. Here's the motion based link : http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=660991

Some positives of trail running at Griffith Park :
- Softer impact on the joints (versus street running)
- Nice, shady, tree lined run. (Too bad it was 62 degrees and I'm fighting off a cold)
- Scenery ranges from running along the 5 freeway to a golf course to the front of the L.A. Zoo.

Some negatives of trail running at Griffith Park:
- Road apples. The trail is used by the horses there and you must keep your eyes scanning the road or else.
- Running alone there (especially if you're a girl) can be kinda scary. The trail winds around some secluded areas and bushes.
- My white Asics got dirty. I need to buy some trail shoes now.

It was a nice change of pace from the Rose Bowl. I'll add as one of my stored courses on my Garmin.

Next run : Wednesday 3 miles (I'm tapering my miles in prep for a possible 10k on Sunday).

Weekend Update

2006-04-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

Short one today...

Did 6.2 miles at the Rose Bowl in 53:28. Here's a Motionbased link with stats: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=641262

On Saturday, I was forced to run on the treadmill because it was cold and drizzling off and on all day. Did 6.6 miles @ 6.0 mph the whole time.

I think I'm starting the beginnings of a cold (scratchy throat, post nasal drip, etc). Next run is probably Monday 6.2 at the RB again, unless the cold gets worse.

Tuesday at the Bowl

2006-04-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Nothing special for today. Ran two laps around the Rose Bowl again...6.20 miles. I ran against my 'virtual self' on my Garmin 205 (shows a little cartoon of two runners, one from a previous run and another of the current run) and I beat myself by 8 seconds. Total time was 55:09. Some other stats from the run:

- Burned 1045 calories (I think the calorie formula may be off a bit...should be closer to about 100 cals /mile or 600 cals for a 6 mile run)
- Average pace 8:53 miles
- Average speed 6.7 mph
- Ascent time : 22:02
- Descent time : 23:23
- Flat : 9:44
- Temp : 75 degrees at 6:00pm.

My 5k pace is about 7:47 miles....where I should be for my 10k pace (according to general running formulas) is +15secs to my 5k, or 8:02. So I'm off by about :51 seconds. This indicates that I need to build my aerobic base (not surprising since I've only been running for about 8 months...and prior to that my excercise consisted of slaying dragons on Everquest).

So how to build an aerobic base? Increase miles per week at 60-80% peak heart rate (HR) or 40-60% VO2 max (no I'm not going to buy a heart rate monitor!), or a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) rating of 11-16 (light to hard), 3-5 days per week.

My peak HR is (220-35 = 185). So I want to stay from 111 to 148. I'd probably classify my run today as an 11 to 13 on the Borg RPE scale (equivalent to 110 to 130HR). Here's the Borg scale and the approximate equivalent HR:

6 No exertion at all ( HR = 60)
7 Extremely light (7.5)8 (HR = 70 )
9 Very light (HR = 90)
10 (HR =100)
11 Light (HR =110)
12
13 Somewhat hard (HR = 130)
14
15 Hard (heavy) (HR = 150)
16
17 Very hard (HR = 170)
18
19 Extremely hard (HR = 190)
20 Maximal exertion (HR = 200)

9 corresponds to "very light" exercise. For a healthy person, it is like walking slowly at his or her own pace for some minutes
13 on the scale is "somewhat hard" exercise, but it still feels OK to continue.
17 "very hard" is very strenuous. A healthy person can still go on, but he or she really has to push him- or herself. It feels very heavy, and the person is very tired.
19 on the scale is an extremely strenuous exercise level. For most people this is the most strenuous exercise they have ever experienced.

While monitoring excerise with a HRM is more objective. If you are out of shape, overweight, have high blood pressure, etc., your HR is going to be through the roof on the monitors, and if you try to stay within a certain "zone", you may not be getting the most efficient work for your time. There's probably more reasons why I'm sticking to RPE vs HRM, but I'd have to dig through all my excercise physiology books from PT school...probably easier to google RPE vs HR.

Next run : Thursday @ the Rose Bowl, 6.2 miles.

GPS and Things

2006-04-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

I finally went out and bought a GPS watch. I picked up the Garmin Forerunner 205 (http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner205/) for $249.99. I considered the 305 for a short time, but I didn't think monitoring my heart rate was something that I needed. I really just needed it for the running speed, time and distance.
I was also considering a non-GPS watch like the Polar RS200sd (http://www.polarelectro.com.sg/html/segments/Running/RS200sd/allfeatures.html )or the Polar s625x (http://www.polarelectro.com.sg/html/segments/Running/S625x/allfeatures.html).
Both of the Polars have a shoe pod that you strap to your shoe that sends data to the watch in the form of speed, distance, elevation. The s625x has a heart rate monitor that you strap to your chest. Both are good watches from what I read, but the idea of putting a watch, a shoe pod, and a chest strap, along with my Ipod and headphones was not something I thought I would enjoy doing every single time I went out....so I went with the Garmin...one piece on and I'm good to go. Here's a pic of the Garmin on my wrist :

Looks kinda big, but it's pretty light (2.72 oz). It has a bunch of configureable windows like speed, time, laps, grade%, elevation, fastest lap, date, sunrise, sunset, and some other stuff I haven't looked at. The cool thing is that you can connect it to your computer with a USB cable and upload all your running data into something called Garmin Training Center where you can analyze your speed, ascent, descent, calories burned, miles run, all that good stuff. There's also a web site called MotionBased (http://www.motionbased.com) where you can upload your running data and see the same stats as Training Center but there's also a prettier map where you can 'play' back your run (it shows a dot moving across the map). Here's a link to my Rosebowl 6 mile run on Motionbased (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=608653). I'm not sure if you have to have an account to view it, but signing up is free.

So since my last post I've put in three runs. Tuesday 4/11/06 I did a 6.09 mile run in Montclair, total time 55:35. Then on Thursday 4/13/06 I did a 6.19 mile run around the Rosebowl twice in 55:17. And Saturday, I decided to do a 3 mile run around the house for some hill training: 3.05 miles in 29:47. I found out that need to do more hill training....at one point in the run there was a 30% grade according to my watch (ouch). I think I might be doing 6 more miles at the Rosebowl on Sunday depending on how my body responds to the hill training I did today and if it rains or not.

Carlsbad 5000

2006-04-10T15:01:00.000-07:00

I ran in the Carlsbad 5000 this weekend. It was a pretty huge event with about 8000 runners registered. Got a blue Under Armor tech tee with the event logo on it. Here's me and Mike before the race.

This was the first race I've been in with timing chips. They had mats you had to step on at the start and finish. It'd be cool if they had them at the mile splits also, but I guess that would be overkill for a 3 mile race. Here's a pic of my shoe with the chip.

I guess because they had so many runners at the event, they had to stagger the start times by age groups. I was in the 30-39 male group starting at 9:25am. Here's a picture of the start of my race, they had a pace car with police motorcycles escorting it. (Amazing what a $20.00 entry fee can get you these days :) )

I started with what I thought was and 8:30 pace....I hit the first mile marker at 7 minutes 30 seconds....."Ohoh", I thought to myself, "this could end badly." The run was up and down along the Pacific ocean, starting and ending in the village. It must have been around 60-65 degrees, a perfect day. I adjusted my pace slightly, saw the eventual winner (I think he ended with a 15' 15") of my division running by in the opposite direction. Hit the turn and started back up the coast, running by a group of elementary school cheerleaders giving encouragement to the runners. I was running behind people, figuring I might as well try to draft (does that really help?) but couldn't find anyone that was consistently going at my pace. I hit the mile 2 marker at slightly over 15 minutes. Then I was thinking, "If I just end with a 10 minute mile, I will break my personal record for a 5k.". I was going to try to pick up the pace slightly after the second turn and then use my "kick" for the last few hundred yards when I got a visual of the finish line. I made the final turn before getting the visual of the finish at around 23 minutes 30 seconds....wow, I can break 24:00 if I just sprint the last leg! Sent a signal to my leg muscles saying, "OK, turbo power initiate!", for some reason, they wouldn't cooperate and I came across at 24 minutes 13 seconds. Beats my previous PR by about 1 minutes 20 seconds, I guess the extended miles I put on since the last race helped a little. I'll try to break the 24 minute mark next time.

Here's some post race pics :

Mike at the finish:

Me and Mindy:

The rest of the family, strollers, kids, etc:

Here's what the view of the coast looked like for the race :

Well that's it for the race report. Overall a fun weekend, will probably go back next year and do it again. For now it's back to training for the next event...probably a 10k in June or July.

It's Thursday

2006-04-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'll edit this and add more later....

6 mile run today on treadmill @ 6.0mph for 1 hour.

18 miles total for this week.

Chafing and Shorts

2006-04-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is an update for my last two runs. I had to switch things around a bit since Monday was the big NCAA championship game, UCLA vs Florida. Congratz to the Gators btw, they played a good game and I was surprised at the game of Joakim Noah. The Bruins are usually able to contain a big name person like that, see: "Big Nasty", Arkansas in 1995, "Big Baby" in 2006 against LSU. They did have problems against Pervis "Never Nervous" Ellison though way back when....and Noah gave them the same problems....he should have an ok NBA career, they are comparing his game to Tyson Chandler, but that 227 pounds on a 6'11" frame doesn't go that far in the NBA. My prediction is he'll take a few years to put on some muscle and then he'll probably be a 12 ppg 8 rpg sorta guy.

Anyways, enough on basketball, on to running....

I went to the Rose Bowl on Sunday with Mindy and the kids and did two laps. After some discussion with Glenn "The triathlete" and some searching through www.motionbased.com I found out that one lap around is 3.12 miles...almost a perfect 5k, so two laps is 6.24 miles or about a 10k. There was some sort of Cherry Blossom Festival going on along with AYSO kids playing soccer so the running wasn't boring. Parking in my usually spot (Lot K) was $5.00! so we had to park for free in the Aquatic center parking lot. Brought my stopwatch this time so was able to time the splits. First lap was 28:00 minutes and then completed the 2nd lap at 56:58 (ok I sprinted the last few feet to break 57:00 on purpose ;P ). So I guess that's my 10k time. I didn't think I could break an hour for a 10k but I think I can pretty regularly now.

Oh yeah, almost forgot this blog topic : Chafing and Shorts. I usually wear basketball shorts to run, cause I'm a g4ngst4 thug and that's how I roll (kidding) . Here's the one I wore on Sunday at the Rosebowl:

I'll spare you a pic of the results I got after an hour of running....but suffice it to say I finally found out what "chafing" was. I think it was finally time to go back to the 80's and wear some John Stockton style short shorts. I wasn't going to go all the way and buy a pair of Dolphin shorts with vertical stripes, but I think some actual "running" shorts were in order. This is what I bought :

I actually bought two pair and wore the other one to 24HourFitness and tested them out. Ran 6 miles on the treadmill @ 6.0 mph the whole time....and surprise! no chafing! I am officially endorsing "running shorts" and will have to add another two pair to my running wardrobe (hmm running is getting expensive...sorry Min).

Anyways that all for now, next run is Thursday, probably another 6 miles.

5k Day

2006-03-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

Decided to run the 5k on a treadmill today and go at "raceday" pace, since I have the Carlsbad 5k coming up in about 10 days. I started out at 7.0 mph and kept pace for the first mile...which ended up being 8:36 or so. I then bumped it up to 7.3 mph from 1.0 miles to 2.0 miles, I forgot what my split for that mile was..... After hitting 2 miles, I went up to 7.5 mph on the treadmill and kept that pace from 2 miles up to 2.6 miles. At 2.6 I upped the speed to 8.0 mph and kept that pace until I hit 3.1 miles (5k). Total time for 5k was 25:24. I "think" I may be able to keep up that pace for the actual race, I felt slightly winded after finishing but never know how conditions, weather, and adrenaline come into play on actual race days. One other thing I'm wondering about....I do most of my training at night, 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm ish. All of the races are like at 7 or 8 AM (I'm not a morning person), so I'm not sure how that affects my running times...I'll have to look into that.

I'm running on new shoes (Asics Gel Kayano XII) by the way, bought them on 3/17/06 and put them on just for running. Supposedly they are better if you are a slight over pronator like myself. I was previously on the Nike Shox 2:45, and had no problems with those, just felt like it was time to replace them. I'll see how many miles I get on them before they need to be replaced.

Here's a link the Kayano XII's : http://www.asicsamerica.com/product.asp?PRODUCT_ID=240005655&TITLE_CATEGORY_ID=250001174&BACK_CATEGORY_ID=250001173

A pic of my old 2:45's :

A pic of the Kayano XII's :

Next run : Friday 6 or 7 miles.

Short Training Day

2006-03-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

Was a rainy day in southern California today. (Do people run when it rains?) I guess they do cause there was a wait at the 24 Hour Fitness treadmills today. Nothing special happened today. Just ran 3.2 miles on the treadmill @ 6.0 mph. Seem to be running into the same people there...I think I'll name them "Guy Who Wears Hat And Three Layers of Clothes", "Older Lady With Book", and "Athletic Girl Who Walk/Jogs"....I run into those three all the time.

Got a flyer for the Carlsbad 5000 today. It's the 5k I'm running in on April 9. 2006....should be fun. Going to bring the whole family down and make a weekend of it, hit Sea World on Saturday and then hang out in Carlsbad on Sunday. Hope it doesn't rain that weekend.

Since I've made a habit of inserting random pics....here's one of me at a family party this weekend as I'm hustling cash from all the cousins. I'm the one in the "Windows" beanie. (Notice the chip leader status)

That's all for today....next run is Wednesday.

Road Work

2006-03-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the people at http://forums.runnersworld.com/ I've decided I need to add some road work to my work outs. I've been almost exclusively running on a treadmill since daylight savings time and the harsh southern California winters that we all know about. The reason I've been doing mostly treadmill work is because I usually run after work 6:00 to 6:30 PM ish and by that time it's usually pretty dark. Here's a picture of my commute home, look how scary and dark it's getting!

So back to road work, the idea is that on a treadmill you are locked into the same running pattern and the muscles that are responsible for dealing with the various perturbations that you encounter while running outdoors aren't getting a proper workout or challenge. Anyways, that sounded good to me, so off to hit the road I went. I returned to the Rose Bowl, site of the Vince Young evisceration of the USC Trojans a few months ago. (Have to throw in a USC barb whenever possible....Go Bruins!). Arrived and started from the Lot K parking lot at 4:30 PM, Ipod mini charged and ready to go. I think I was going at a 5.5 mph pace, but I have no idea. The start of the run is slightly uphill and I could feel myself breathing harder than usual after about 5 minutes. Maybe it was the grade, the unknown pace, or aha! the perturbations! Those forum nerds eer gurus may have been correct.

The Rose Bowl had fewer walkers, runners, bikers than I remember. The massive bicycle amoeba (the 30+ or so bikers that ride together there) was absent. Halfway through the first lap, I was telling myself, maybe I'll just do the one lap (~2.5 miles) and stop, then thought, hmmm that would look terrible on my blog (darn why'd I have to start this blog thing this week). So I complete the 2.5 miles and kept going. I was keeping about the same pace, but forgot my watch so have no idea on the splits. The second lap wasn't as hard as I thought I would be. I passed the same guy and his rollerblading girlfriend going the opposite way for about the 4th time. Thought to myself, should I make eye contact, give some sort of "thumbs up"/"way to go" wave? Make some witty comment like, "Hey we meet again.". Of course, I did none of the above. I think I'm on the lower end of the socialization/communication totem pole. I think my brother-in-law would have had the names of their mothers, fathers, next of kin, eating habits, and social security numbers by this time (he's obviously a little higher on the socialization totem pole).

The rest of the run was uneventful. I completed the second lap for a total of about 5 miles in my estimation. Check the clock in my car and it said 5:27 PM, so I guess it took me about 57 minutes. I'll bring my watch next time and get a more accurate measurement.

Next up is a Monday short (3.5-4 miles) run. I'm changing my long run days to Fridays I think.

2006-03-23T19:51:00.000-08:00

I've decide to turn start a running blog to chronicle my running and training. A little background on my running history: I started running/walking about July, 2005 twice a week around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. My goal then was to be able to finish a 5k..after running for about 3 months, I did the 5k L.A. Cancer Challenge (http://www.lacancerchallenge.com/) and finished in a time of 26:43. Here' a picture of me an my wife, Mindy before the start of the race.

After that I decided to continue training and entered into another 5k run (the "Say No To Drugs" race in Griffith Park, CA). I invited my brother-in-law, Mike, and a friend Glenn who brought his cousin with him. I finished that one in 26:35 (iirc), a little better than my first race, but it was really hilly...so not as much of an improvement I was hoping for. This pic is of all of us at the end of the race. Glenn was having some hydration issues I think (haha).

The next race was in February 2006, (L.A. Kings Hockey Fights Cancer Race). I finished that one in 23:34 (but I'm not sure if it was a official 5k distance since that time was a large improvement over my PB). It came with some free hockey tickets so that was the first hockey game I ever attended. Here's me and Mikey after the race.

And that brings me up to this point. I'm currently training for another 5k in April (Carlsbad 5000), then probably a 10k in June or July, then the Disneyland half marathon (http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/westcoast/listing?name=WestCoastEventListingPage) in September....I'm considering continuing upping my miles after the 1/2 marathon and continuing to train for next years L.A. Marathon, but we'll see.

Anyways, today was a short run day, so I decided to see if I could keep up a 7.0 mph (8:34 minute mile) pace for the distance of 5k. It went pretty good, and I got up to 2.7 miles and decided to up the speed on the treadmill to 9.0 miles per hour for the last 0.4 miles. I finished in about 26:00, felt I still had some gas left in the tank and kept running until 3.5 miles. My next run is another short one (3.5 miles) on Friday.