Playing blog catch up

My mom told me to just write a sentence or two about everything that's happened since the last time I posted. That's probably the best idea, but I don't think I'm capable of boiling each thing down to even two sentences so this will probably be a long post :) I promise I'll be better about blogging from now on... I won't make it my New Year's Resolution since that will doom it to certain failure but I'll do my best to update more :D

First things first... I'M OLD(ER)!! WAHH! I started out the birthday celebration with dinner on my actual birthday with Claudia and Jeanette. Although I had a party planned for the next Saturday, I couldn't just sit home and do nothing on my actual birthday so we did a little mellow celebrating. We had a yummy dinner at OI-C Bowl in WC and then headed across the street to 1515 for drinks and dessert. Lindsay was able to meet up with us there for a little bit. THANK YOU girls for making my real birthday a very enjoyable one!!!

The 2nd birthday celebration was on Saturday... I invited some friends over for dinner, drinks and some hanging out. Having a winter birthday means you don't have as many options when it comes to celebrating, especially because I don't really feel like fighting all the holiday crowds to go out to dinner. I cooked up some chili and a potato dish from The Pioneer Woman and Claudia brought me a super yummy cake with berries and pomegranate seeds on top! At the beginning part of the evening, I felt like I was at a high school dance... all the boys were in one room and the girls where in another. Once the food came out there was a little more mingling going on! Of course the evening ended with a couple rounds of my favorite new board game, Rigamarole!! THANK YOU to everyone who came over... I had a fantastic time celebrating with all of you!!

After all the birthday celebrating, it was time for Christmas! I went home to my parent's on Tuesday, picking up my brother at the airport in Sacramento on the way. It was a very relaxing week and weekend with the family... we visited some family and friends, did the whole Xmas thing, went to a couple of movies, ate a lot, and even had a party! Although I missed going to Maui like we have the past few years, it was nice to have a "cold" Xmas, and it definitely made it easier to get back into post-vacation mode when I came back to WC.

Pre-Christmas the running was going very well. We got in some hill training during our "track" workouts and ran a very hilly, but very gorgeous, 7 miles on the 19th. I usually hate hills and don't do very well on them but I've been very proud of myself... I haven't walked any of our hills during track, and only walked a couple of the really big hills during our Coached Run. I think it helped that our Coached Run was somewhere that I've never run before... usually our hilly run is a Lake Chabot, which I'm not a big fan of, but this time we ran at Redwood Regional Park up in the Oakland Hills. Although the first half of the run was almost entirely uphill (switching between mild inclines and steep sections), the gorgeous scenery distracted us, and we got to enjoy a very fast downhill run back!

Running up one of the hills during our hill workout.

The hardy Hill crew

Starting the Redwood Park run... no big hills yet but plenty of frost on the ground!

Post-Christmas the running has been non-existent! I brought my running stuff home with my but never actually went for a run. Tonight will be the first time I've run in over a week and then of course we don't have track this week because it's New Year's Day... but at least it will get me out there doing something, and I can pick back up with our regular schedule on Saturday!

Neglectful Blogger

My poor blog has been very neglected lately :( I have so much to post about-- a birthday, running and Christmas-- that every time I think about it I get overwhelmed! I swear that this week I will write a big update, or maybe spread it out over a few days. Needless to say, I will stop neglecting my poor blog! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!

Snow!

Yep, that's right... it has snowed in the East Bay! Our latest frigid weather has brought us one nice thing... snow on the top of Mt. Diablo! And not just a light dusting that quickly melted... it dumped 6 inches and today I can still see it up there!

Last night Coach Gary led us on a Holiday Buddy Run in that frigid weather! We have a bigger crowd than usual thanks to a couple of mentors who moved their run over to Heather Farms for the special occasion. :) We had a bunch of people show up in Santa hats and even garland! We started out along the trail as we usually do, but at Oak Grove, we turned right off the trail and then left onto Peachwillow. There are a bunch of houses in that neighborhood with very colorful lights and Christmas decorations, but there was one house in particular that we were going to. After turning on Peachwillow, we took a right onto Candleberry and saw the most insanely decorated house I've ever seen! Every single inch of this house, lawn and trees are covered with lights, decorations, ornaments, presents, and even a little train. For a few minutes, it was enough to make us forgot how cold we were! I can't imagine how long it took them to put that all up, and what their PG&E bill is for the month of December! We all oohed and ahhhed, took some pictures, and then made our way back to Heather Farms!

Dodging Duck Poop

Ahhh, Lake Merritt... a beautiful oasis surrounded by duck poop and crazy people near downtown Oakland. This was the location of our Mentor Led Run on Saturday. I don't hate running at Lake Merritt, but I don't particularly LOVE it either. I think my least favorite part is (aside from all the duck poop) that you're just running in a circle. I'd much rather do an out and back course because then you have a clear sense of your halfway point. When you're running in a circle, you (or rather I, since I don't know how everyone else feels) don't ever get that feeling of being halfway done.

The one thing I was very happy about was all the sun we had on Saturday! When I woke up I expected to hear raindrops but it was thankfully silent. Even with the sun I was all bundled up when we first started out on our run and halfway through I had warmed up enough to peel off most of my layers. I had intended to do about 5 miles, but after one loop around the lake I was done. I'm not sure why I didn't have a great run (I won't say it was an awful run, just not great)-- I ate pretty well and slept well the night before, although I didn't eat breakfast. Whoops :( There were quiet a few of the other runners out there who said they also didn't have a great run. It must have just been one of those days!

Dreaded Hills

Have I mentioned how much I HATE running hills? Hate them, loath them, dread them... I'm just no good at running hills. Which probably means I need to do them more!

This week, instead of going to DVC for our usual track workout, our calender said we'd be meeting at another track for a hill workout. What?? We're not doing any hilly courses this season, so WHY do we have to do hills? I know, they make us faster and better runners. Still, I was not looking forward to the workout.

The team met up at Daugherty Valley High School way out in the new developments in San Ramon. We weren't actually going to be doing any running on the track-- the school was just our meeting place. After everyone arrived, we started out on our "warm-up" run to a park about .75 miles away, which is kind of a long warm up. We spent some time stretching there, and then waiting for a few more stragglers, and then we ran another half mile or so to our "hill." The street that we were going to run on was in a residential area, and curved around in a horseshoe, U shape. We started our running up the hill on one side, and then met at the top in the middle of the U to catch our breaths. The hill wasn't that bad but I was definitely huffing and puffing at the top! After a break, we got to go down the other side of the U.

Since Phil wasn't there last night, he put me in charge of taking pictures. I stopped half way down the hill so that I could take pictures of everyone as they came back up the hill. That didn't work so well... it's hard to take pictures of running figures in the dark! I ran up the rest of the hill with them and we took a breather again at the top, before heading back down the first hill to our starting point. At this point it was already 7:45 and I wasn't sure if that was the end of our workout. Nope, that was just half of it! Coach Al K. had everyone do that same set up hills again. One of my mentees wasn't feeling well, so I hung out with her at the bottom of the hill while everyone did the other set. After they all got back, we still had to go all the way back to the high school, which was a mile away. I stuck with a couple of girls who were walking so we didn't get back to our cars until 8:30, and by the time I got him it was 9:00 :(

Even though I only did one set of hills, it was still a good workout and I was happy to see that I wasn't the last one up the hill :) I can feel a little soreness in my calves today, but it's not too bad. We're scheduled to do hills workouts instead of track the next few weeks-- all I have to say is that all these hill workouts better lead to an improvement in my running!

Frozen fingers

Have I mentioned that it's cold out now?! Okay, it could be worse... in the Bay Area we don't have to worry about snow, or sleet, or freezing rain. But it's still darn cold out! Last night it was very hard to get off the couch and go to the Buddy Run. I have to be there though, which thankfully keeps me from flaking!

Despite the cold temperatures, we had a good number of people out there. We were even entertained while we waited for people to arrive in the parking lot by some man doing exercises while his car stereo blared next to him. There are people out there doing boot camp, so the fact that he was doing exercises in the parking lot wasn't what was so funny-- it was the fact that he was doing a combination of Karate Kid and Rocky exercises and the music he was playing was decidedly NOT workout music! He kept us entertained though while we waited for everyone to arrive!

The run went pretty well-- we did about 32 minutes (2.68 miles) it's been fun to see how all the first time runners are improving. People who needed to take walk breaks during the first few Buddy Runs, are now able to run the entire time! Next week we'll be increasing our times-- just as they've gotten used to running 30-45 minutes, we bump them up to 45-60 minutes. I'll be happy to start getting in longer runs during the week!

Running update

I can't believe I haven't posted an update since last week! Sorry! It hasn't been because there's nothing to update on... I've just been super busy!

After the food fest that was Thanksgiving, I came back to the Bay Area ready to get back into running (plus, I needed to burn off all of that pie)! Tuesday night we had our usual Buddy Run and our numbers were back up after low attendance the week before. The run went really well but unfortunately I was battling some winter allergies and was feeling a little sluggish. I ended up running with Amy and one of my mentees and I think we were all pretty evenly paced that night. I felt a little better at the end of the run and managed to sprint the last section of trail! After this week we'll be increasing our run times on Tuesday night which will be nice... running just 30 minutes is enough to build up a sweat, but I'd like to be doing a little more!

Thursday night was had track at DVC again. This time there were no hang up with the gate, or lights and we got in just fine. It was cold out that night, but not too bad up in the parking lot. The track though is down in a little bowl, and the cold air just sits down there. I don't think I really warmed up the entire workout! We did a bunch of intervals last week:

2 laps warm up

Some core exercises (although still difficult, I'm happy to report they were easier than the first track workout!)

Run 1 lap at 80%

Walk 0.5 lap

Run 1.5 laps at 80%

Walk 0.5 lap

Run 2 laps at 80%

Rest and repeat it all again

After the first set of intervals, I was pooped and was chugging water like it was 90 degrees out! I was not looking forward to doing it all again, but it was actually easier the second time around-- probably due to the fact that I was going a lot slower :)

Saturday we had a Coached Run out on Walnut Creek at Arbolado Park. I had never been there, or done a run there so I was looking forward to checking out a new route, especially one so close to me! I drove over around 7:30 and I couldn't believe all the fog! Not only was it very foggy, but it was also very cold! We did a quick warm up and stretch and then started off on the trail. After we started running, I realized that I had run this trail once before, but it had been from the other direction. Even though this route included a big hill (and even a tunnel), it was a pretty easy, flat course. I ran out for two miles and back with a couple of my mentees and when they veered off back to our starting point after 4 miles, I kept going out on the trail for another mile and then back for 6 miles total. I felt really good the whole time, although we started out way too fast at the beginning! After our run, we had our Honoree Potluck-- we have some new honorees this season so this was the first time I heard their stories. As usual, their stories were both motivating, and sad at the same time.

Yes, I am WALKING up the hill :)

On Sunday Claudia and I left for Sacramento at the butt crack of dawn to cheer on some of our friends who were doing the Cal International Marathon. We froze our hinies off up there, but were able to see our friend Lael and a few other runners we knew at mile 5, 10, 17 and the finish. Everyone did a really good job and Lael even PRed!! I had, of course, made Lael a bright neon sign-- not only to cheer him on, but also to help him spot us along the course. Since I knew we'd be standing around at each location waiting for Lael, on the other side of the sign I wrote something for all the runners. I think that my sign was a pretty big hit, judging from all the thumbs ups, thank yous, and "Nice sign" comments I got from runners and spectators. It was kind of creepy though because people kept stopping to take a picture of the sign-- they'd either stop right in front of me (without saying anything to me) or I'd see them from a few feet away aiming their cameras my direction. I felt a little like a minor celebrity, or a freak. Next time I'm charging people to take pictures!

CONGRATULATIONS to everyone who finished the marathon... GREAT JOB!!

How much running does it take to burn off pie?

The answer to that is probably more running than I'm doing :) Thanksgiving was great, and I did actually manage to fit a run in while I was in Yuba City. I made my brother go out with me on Thanksgiving morning for a short little jog. We ran over a few neighborhoods, around a new park and then tried to cut over to another road to head back to the house. Unfortunately, there was a big field separating us from the road so we decided to just cut across :) I didn't mind so much because it gave me a chance to catch my breathe after trying to keep up with my brother who, even though he was running slow for him, was still faster than me!

Thanksgiving was spent at my Aunt's house with my family, my two cousins, and my cousin's wife and daughter. We ate way too much yummy food and had fun catching up with eachother. Later that evening we headed over to my great aunt's house to meet up with another set of cousins and see some slides (not the old fashioned kind, but now done on the computer :)) from my cousin Ron's Africa trip.

The rest of my time in YC was spent hanging out with my family, doing a little shopping, and of course, more eating :) My parents just returned from a cruise through the Panama Canal and they had a little "suprise" for my brother and I... they made one of their favorite cruise martini's while we watched a little slideshow of their trip!

My brother had to fly out of Sacramento on Saturday so we went to the Roseville mall to walk around before dropping him off... because we slept in that morning, we didn't have time to run before we had to leave. I'm glad that I at least got one run in over the long weekend!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Now it's time to get ready for Christmas!