Saturday, February 23, 2013

Santa Rosa Plateau 2013

As relatives get ready for another snow storm in Kansas, it was a beautiful day in California. My family took a hike around the Santa Rosa Plateau. Our chocolate labs, Dallas and Cowboy, love it on the reserve.
It's is beautiful here because all of the rain we've been experiencing.
We walked a little over 2 miles and a nice pace.
 
 This plateau has some great mountain bike and hiking trails! The meadows are green and the weather is amazing. .
 
Our daughter is visitng from Japan. Wow, we miss her a lot!
 
 
It's very peaceful here.
I've ridden my mountain bike under this tree. Yeah I live on the wild side!
Two more of my kids lead the pack.
At times we jog, but mostly just enjoy the moment
Heading back to the car.
 
 
bye bye...see you again soon!

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Here Comes the BOOM!



 
                                             My new favorite work out song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhJfdWxpI2Q&feature=player_embedded

I was working on my training schedule for up coming races:
*La Jolla Half Marathon April 28, 2013
*Rock-n-Roll Marathon San Diego June 2, 2013
*Hopefully, Nike's Women's Marathon San Francisco October, 2013.

The La Jolla is next.  Found this awesome video to reflect upon as I work harder on my uphills.  http://youtu.be/eEkmKQ25W0I .
It made me tear up :)




I need to keep focus on having fun and enjoying these events. Sometimes I get myself wrapped up in PR's. So it's on! I will jump the shark at the next race. Thanks to Amazon, I will be wearing a snazzy, shizzlelicious pink tu tu!

Bring on the BOOM!

San Dieguito Half Marathon 2013

At least it's not snow!
 
Good morning! Last weekend, I  ran San Dieguito Half Marathon on my birthday! My running friend Ann suggested this race.
San Dieguito claims it's one of America's Oldest Half Marathon. During the second week after the Carlsbad Marathon, it began to rain. But at least it was only rain and not a complete white out with upwards of 25+ feet of snow on the east coast! I was only able to get 7 miles out before the race day.
This is live feed of the snow storm from on top of Rockefeller Center.
 
 
 Ann had ran this race in the past. She described it as rolling hills but nothing like Malibu Marathon's last 8 miles.  The day before the race, carb loading started out early with a pancake breakfast for a fund raiser for the travel ball team my son plays on.
 While doing some last minute spending, at the Laces Running Company in Scripps Ranch: http://lacesrunning.com/ ,  a friendly sales man at the store, said he liked the San Dieguito Half Marathon because it was affordable, small in comparison to other half marathons, and beautiful.  He said there wasn't any really tough hills in the whole course.
 One of my daughters and her BFF came with me and we did a little carb loading after shopping at China Fun : http://newmychinafun.com/ . The food is hot and delicious.




Sunday morning, Ann and I arrive  San Dieguito Park at 0700. The weather about 42 degrees with dark clouds, chilly, and a little breeze. The race starts in the San Dieguito County Park at 0800. We hike DOWN, Down, down a dirt path into the park for about half a mile to the start line. The race is on time. There's no fuss, just the national anthem, and GO! We're off and going down hill for one mile at a 10:15 pace as it begins to sprinkle. In the past, I have read there is an elderly woman at the first water station that runners nicknamed the "Queen", because she wears a tiara.  Sadly, she wasn't there this year. The race course takes us out of the park and the rest of the half marathon is in residential area of the life-styles-of-rich. It's quiet with very little wind. There are no spectators except an occasional home owner.  At mile around 1.5 miles, it begins to go up hill for 275ft climb for 2 miles.



We are truly dorks and waited for almost 40 minutes in a single line to what we thought was the only bathroom available...it wasn't!Thank you for the kind hearted folks at the chili station for letting us warm ourselves and get out of the rain.
 
 
We run our way through the hills. As described the hills are rolling except for mile 5.5 to 6.5 where it's just straight up with quick winding turns. My pace is slow 11:21...like a hippopotamus where Ann is like a gazelle zipping up the hills. I think I heard her singing "tra la la la la laaaaaa"!  I thought I took a video but it ended up to be a picture of a runner's butt; DELETE!
Miles 7 and 8 are out towards San Dieguito Reservoir. Unfortunately, before the turn around, a runner was down on the ground with a significant head injury. Facebook page for the San Dieguito race posted: "For those of you who have asked and saw the man taken to the hospital; he is improving and we are checking on his status. Thank you."  A few days later posts: "He is home now and he appreciates and thanks everyone for your thoughts and your concern."
Thank you to the runners who stopped and took care of him until the ambulance arrived.
 
Miles 9, 10, and 11 continue to take us back the way we came. My pace varies from 10:13 to 10:40. At mile 12, we turn and uphill back into the park. It's a steady climb. Ann takes off and I keep going with my pace of10:36 dropping to 11:42.
Ann's time was 2:23:45 and mine was 2:25:06.  The hill are definitely something I still need to work on more. Ann tries to soften the reality by saying, "you did good for someone who just ran a marathon two weeks ago!"   Thanks Ann! 
Ann and I aren't much for post race events. The line for the chili is long and it's starting to sprinkle again.  
Hahaha we stop for one last mac cheeeese. Dang it Ann! Try again! The next day Ann sent me this text: Good morning...how ya feeling? Do u know that u turned 45 and San Dieguito celebrated #45 soooo, when u were born they started that race, LOL!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Post Marathon Recovery January 2013

There are many ways to recover from a marathon, but I've found out that REST is the best method.  My strep throat turned into a little cough. Boo hoo...time to move on.
  It's a little siesta for my body and my mind. Recovery for me is much needed before beginning training runs again next week. I have the San Dieguito Half Marathon two weeks : http://www.kathyloperevents.com/sandieguitohalf/ with these elevation changes to look conquer

I'm enjoying the down time.  I've been stretching out my muscles a lot and found I have time to drink all of my coffee! It was delicious!

I took my dogs for a walk this morning and heard birds chirping, no sweating, and wore jeans!
This is a picture hill I'll be going the other direction as a change in routes to better prepare for San Dieguito Half and the La Jolla Half Marathon in April: http://www.lajollahalfmarathon.com/ .

The best thing about hills is that it gets rid of the vajiggle jaggle in your butt! Right June, mommy to Honey Boo Boo? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQk9pNDC8wE&feature=player_embedded!!!!
I've been asked thse questions a lot recently: "How long are you going to keep running?" and "Are you ever going to stop?" My answer is that I'll keep going as long as my body will let me. Thanks again to my family and friends for all their words of wisdom and support.
Tomorrow is Super Bowl XLVII and I'll be making puffs = cream cheese, cheddar, & jalapenos filled won ton wrappers deep fat fried!