I'm pooped

Wow, this was one busy weekend! I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend!

Friday night brought dinner with Brandy and friends-- July 28 was the day that Brandy and Keith's son Cole passed away from cancer 2 years ago so we spent the evening with her eating yummy food and chatting.

Cole

Saturday morning we were off to the Fall Season Kick Off in SF. We spent the morning meeting our new participants and getting pumped up for the new season! I can't believe that the new season is already starting... it seems like the Spring season JUST ended! By the time I got home at 3:00 (after a yummy lunch at the Daily Grill and a trip to the yarn store) it was time for a serious nap!

My roomie/co-captain and I at Kick Off

EARLY Sunday morning I headed out to cheer on Julie and Sarah at the San Francisco Marathon. The weather was beautiful out there and even with the parking hassles, I was able to see them a few times along the course. I even saw Mama Lisa out there as well as Haakon and Deb, two Spring season alums! After the marathon it was off to the A's game in Oakland where we took in the action from our cushy Luxury Suite, courtesy of Phil! And 11 hours after I left the house that morning, I was finally back home!

Our Luxury Box

So even though I didn't get any running in this weekend, I spent lots of quality time with TNT friends and climbed a few SF hills... can I count that as training?

Thank you, thank you, thank you :D

Thank you so much to Tom, Matt and Karen for being the very first people to donate money to me this season! I'm so excited that I already have $150 in and the season hasn't even started! Thank you guys for being such great supporters of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

I love the A/C...

In fact, I love it so much that I was unwilling to drag myself from my air conditioned apartment to go for a run last night. And since I read an article this morning about how over 40 people have died so far from the heat, maybe it was a good thing I stayed inside :D I keep telling myself that I should just get up in the morning and go for a run at 6 AM but I love my bed too much, even more than I love the A/C :D

Just do the Damn Thing!

The plan for Saturday was for Karen, Claudia and I to run 7 miles at the Berkeley Marina at 7:30. We hoped that running a half hour early right next to the Bay would keep us a little cooler during this heat wave we've been having. Friday night we realized that while it may be cooler by the bay, there is NO SHADE anywhere on that trail. So much for that plan. Karen ended up running on her own and Claudia and I hit the shadier Iron Horse Trail behind our house at 7:00.
I have to admit that I was a little nervous about doing 7 miles. But surprisingly, I felt great! Other than the heat, the 7 miles was no problem! I'm so glad that we started running at 7:00 because by the time we turned around at Heather Farms, it was heating up and our shade was dwindling. I think it took me a full hour to cool down, even after a nice cool shower my face was beet red and I was sweating! The other nice thing about starting out so early? You get home early... early enough to take a shower and jump back into bed for a nap! :D

This weekend also brought some exciting news... my friend (and team honoree) Brenda is finally home from the hospital!!! She came home Friday and now gets to spend some well deserved and well needed time at home with her hubby, 2 sons and dogs, before she heads back for her next round of chemo.

Lazy Bum

Yep, that's me, a lazy bum :D I didn't run at all on Tuesday... it was too darn hot. And as my friend Phil says, we weren't being wimps, just exercising good judgment. Because really, how can it be healthy to run in this weather!? So what did I do instead on Tuesday night? Plopped my big butt on the couch, ate some Chubby Hubby ice cream and watched a marathon of Kathy Griffin, My Life on the D-List. Productive, huh?!

Last night was much cooler, I think the coolest day we're supposed to have for awhile, but no running. Instead I spent my evening listening to Mama Lisa teach all the Summer and Fall season mentors/captains how to be good mentors and cappies :D

And tonight, there will be no running again since a group of knitters I know through TNT (we dubbed ourselves the "Running Chicks with Sticks") and I will be attending the Stitch N' Pitch Giants game. We've all knitted black and orange beanies to wear to the game-- so if you're watching the game tonight, look for a group of ladies (and a couple guys) in the stands wearing orange and black knit hats! No matter what it should be a fun time... what's better than hanging out with friends, talking about the things we love (knitting and running) , watching a baseball game and eating some not-so-good-for-you food :D

After all the lazing around and crappy eating I've done this week, I'll have to make up for it this Saturday at our run!

Run to Eat

Since I was in the YC on Saturday, Phil, Karen and I got together on Sunday to run the Iron Horse Trail in Danville. We met up at 8:00 and started out on the trail with all the other die hard runners out there :D We decided to do about 5 miles since it felt like it was going to warm up pretty quickly. And boy we were right! Thank god that stretch of the trail is shady because if we had been any more in the sun, I think I would have burst just like a hot dog left too long on the grill! We actually did a little less than five miles, at least if the old TNT mileage markings in chalk on the trail were correct. That's fine, I was happy with my almost 5 miles and, even though it was so much hotter than Tuesday night, the run felt great, thanks in part to Phil's entertaining tales of the potties in China :D

A fews hours later, Phil, Karen and I followed the run up with a nice big lunch! We had our End of the Season party for the Spring Season at a park in Concord. It was great seeing everyone again and we spent the afternoon filling and tossing water balloons, stuffing our faces with watermelon, chicken, chips and dip, passing out the team awards and trying not to melt in the heat. Just as one season ends, another one is about to begin... our Fall Season starts in just two weeks and many of our Spring participants and mentors are returning as mentors!

It's heatin' up...

... And that means no run for me last night! After Tuesday night's run I thought that I may attempt another solo run tonight but that didn't happen. Tuesday night was gorgeous weather for a run, last night was NOT. And since I do not do well in the heat, I decided to relax in the comfort of my air conditioned apartment and watch Wed. night's episode and Project Runway!

Claudia and Rocky are off to San Diego today so Patch and I are spending some quality time together :D Tonight we're off to my parent's in Yuba City to hang out, go to lunch Sat. for my Aunt's birthday and try to avoid the 100 plus degree heat! Ick!

Laps with Brenda

Wednesday night I headed out to UCSF to visit my friend and team honoree Brenda. Brenda just finished the first of three rounds of chemo she needs to get before she can have a bone marrow transplant. Brenda is just one of the many amazing people that I have met through Team In Training and she is an inspiration not just to me but to hundreds of others as well.

Anyone who knows Brenda, knows she isn't one to loaf around-- and in true Brenda style, my visit turned into a workout :D We did about 13 laps around her hospital floor, which equals about 1 mile. And Brenda isn't one to casually stroll... she's pulling her IV pole, I'm recording each lap on a paper taped to her door and all the while we're chatting and dodging the robotic floor cleaner, doctors, nurses and unidentifiable (to me at least) hospital equipment along the way!

While I was there, she got some great news... her levels of white blood cells, neutrophils, etc. have all been improving enough so that she may be able to come home this weekend! YEAH!! She'll also be finding out on Wednesday if any of the potential donors they have are actually a match!

Buddy(less) Run

During the season, Tuesday evenings bring Buddy Runs-- a 3-6 mile run with other TNT participants. Meeting up with a group of fellow marathoners- and half marathoners-in-training and running together is what makes training easier. But since the Fall Season doesn't start for another few weeks, and the weather was so nice last night, I headed out for my run soon after I got home from work. I decided to run on the Iron Horse Trail, conveniently accessed right across the street from our apartment, and head out to Ygnacio Valley Rd (roughly 3 or so miles round trip).

This run drove home the reason why I love training with the team-- I HATE running on my own! For the entire run I felt off... I couldn't find that groove. Was I out of breath and feeling crappy because I was running too fast (not likely :D)? Because I hadn't eaten anything since lunch? Because I ate a crappy lunch? Who knows. :( I couldn't blame it on the heat this time... the weather was perfect for a run--cool and breezy.

I may attempt another solo run on Thursday, hopefully that one feels better than last night's run!

FINALLY the training starts!

After many weeks of THINKING about how I need to start training for the Disneyland Half, I finally started training! I finally ran out of excuses!

I met up with Phil, Claudia and Karen for a run in Alameda. The Summer team was out there so we decided to tag along... it's a run that we all like, flat, usually cool and lots of pretty houses and a view of the city to look at! Since the Summer team was having one of their clinics and we wanted to run before it really heated up, we started out on our own. We decided to do just 4 miles (why kill ourselves the first time out!) so we ran out to the bridge and back. The run started out fairly cool but soon after I commented on how nice it was, it started to warm up. By the time we got to the 2 mile mark and the water stop, I was definitely feeling the heat! The way back wasn't too bad though... until we ran into the mass of Summer team participants at the end. :P I think we all felt pretty good... Karen even whipped out 4 miles and came in not too far behind us! Woo hoo!

Now that the first day of training is behind me, I just need to keep it up!

On the Bandwagon!

Yep, I've decided to take the plunge... I am jumping on the blogging bandwagon. I figured that I since I spend so much time reading about OTHER people, that maybe there are some people out there that would enjoy reading about ME... or mainly about my training! (I promise not to bore you with all the minute details about my life!)

This blog will basically be a place for me to write about how my training is going for the next few months. Since I had such a fun, fantastic time at marathon #2 (NOT!) I've decided to focus on running half marathons for right now. They're just enough of a challenge to make it interesting but not quite so hard on my body (and mind!).

The first race on the schedule is the inaugural Disneyland Half Marathon on September 17, followed two weeks later by the inaugural San Jose Half Marathon and then, because I need to train for something during my next TNT season, I'll be doing the Arizona Half Marathon on January 14, 2007! Pheeew! I'm pooped already!

Now I just need to get my lazy butt in gear and START training!