Hill Workouts

It's 1 mile up.

 

 I've been working on hills training and wondering if anyone else has problems getting up hills?  These articles have been helpful:
1. http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_1/104.shtml

 2. http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/general/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hill-training/159.html

The view is amazing.

 

Most of the videos are by an elite athletes.  As I watched these videos and wrinkle my nose, I think "do elite athletes watch videos about running up hills?  Hahahaha very doubtful! Hill workouts are the ONLY time I wish I didn't have boobies!

My running pal Ann aka gazelle, told me to relax and allow my arms to drop down instead of tightening them. This technique has been the best advised EVER!  There is a lot to be said about core workouts and I try to do at least one a week. The building I work in have some killer stairs that are high and steep.  I'm not sure if this helps but it gets my heart pumping.

Since the change in my running route, I do dread getting out there until I'm actually on the hill going up. My pace does slow down but I'm hoping over time it will pick up. Because I run on a large sidewalk, I found the cross walk areas are the areas that are flatter and I can pick up a little speed here. My legs fair well, but sometimes my knees begin to ache. Down hills are my favorite. I set back and enjoy the ride! 

Hahaha music helped cover up my heavy breathing!

 

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!

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!

Carlsbad Marathon 2013

A little over two months ago I ran my first marathon. I am hooked!  Half marathons are still amazing but I love trying to push my body to the edge. Well...my body fell off the edge into a volcano wearing running shoes!
While training for this marathon I suffered gastroenteritis, a chest cold while in Vegas, & one day prior to this marathon strep throat.
*shrug* what's a girl to do?  You get you f#$%ing ass out there and run the marathon!

I spent the night at my friend Ann's house who lives closer Carlsbad. She was going to run with me, but she settled for the half marathon instead.  During carbohydrate loading all week, I felt fine. My "grandma" came to visit at the beginning of the week. Some women call "grandma" their "aunt flo". Other than that, training was tapered runs, until it started raining. Of course it starts to rain. Why wouldn't it considering everything else?! 
Friday afternoon I started to get a scratchy throat. By Saturday, Expo day, my throat was like hot lava!
I begin pumping myself with Zicam, Cold Ezze, & Airborne. My hubby would say, "it's all in your mind", but hot lava is hard to ignore! 

The Carlsbad Marathon & Half Marathon Expo, was under a big tent and the same as last year. The floor was sopping wet and as I walked through the tent, my jeans began to absorb the water on the turf.  I purchased the a couple of Carlsbad Marathon shirts, a waist belt to carry my phone, and some Stinger Gels. My friend and I talked about doing the Run Catalina Island in September 2013: http://runcatalina.com/index.php/catalina-island-conservancy-half-marathon

After getting our bibs, we left for more carb loading at the Old Spaghetti Factory and stopped off at the grocery store for sore throat medication. The medication helped me sleep for a little while. I woke up at 1:00am and took some more.

At 4:30am, my phone alarm sounded and I got up to dress. I can hear the rain and hoped it would stop.  After coffee and PB&J, we headed to the Westfield Mall for the start line. The year before I parked by the porta potties and was stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours after the race, trying to get out of the parking lot. This year we parked at the far end near the entrance into the mall. It took us only 15 minutes to get out after the race.  The rain didn't let up but was lighter then earlier. My friend Ann, brought blankets to cover us because she was going back to her car to wait for the half marathon start.

Ann did awesome & ran the half in 2:13 with a pace 10:11!!!
The marathon race was on time, but unlike last year, it was really subdue and the announcers sounded like a commercial. There was no upbeat music blasting, maybe because it was 6:15am!  My hubby calls this smile the mac cheeeeezzzeee smile!

 

My feeble attempt at stretching!
 

6:15am the race starts! Yippee. It's cold and lots of drizzle.  The road is easy to see because there is a little light.  Besides, I'm use to running in the dark. There are tons of water stations throughout this marathon. Some of the water stations had costume themes. So cool getting water from a pirate!

  Reading the blogs about last years marathoners getting lost and only completing 23 miles,  made me cautious and alert to all signs.  I didn't have to worry.  The organizers fixed these problems.  Unless you were blind, there was no excuses about which way to go on the marathon route.
 Miles 1 through 5 are a breeze before you turn to go up Palomar Airport Road.   This wasn't as bad as I had read about, but it IS boooooring for 6 miles. There are groups of spectators that came out to cheer runners on. Thank you, thank you thank you! Love the sign that said, "you trained longer than Kim Kardashian was married"!

 My pace was 11:00. There were two bands on this road, coming and going, and OH a giant shoe. Tada!

The weather was cold and wet. The cones kept the runners on the right path with another turn at mile 13 and 15.  At mile 14 the ear bud suctioned into my wet ear and got stuck as I tried to readjust them.   Hahaha I had to coax it out and refit it back onto the ear piece!  I think I feel asleep during the last mile.  My pace was 10:51.

This is about mile 4 and would have been in the dark if I had taken the pic My friend sent it to me. Sorry I was too sick to take video :(

 

At mile 15, the course joins the half marathoner on Hwy 101 along with the half marathoners.  I ran the Carlsbad half marathon last year and knew what to expect. It's crowded and it's difficult to keep a good pace because you're having to slow down, then manuver around other runners. I  NEVER say anything negative to other runners in ANY race. Besides, this race is too big to have any type of runner's etiquette  and I don't want anyone to have a bad experience in a race. I take these hiccups in stride and adapt☺
The best part about the marathon is the Pacific Ocean is on the right!  Unfortunately, the sun never broke through the clouds.

Beginning about 1/4 mile from mile 16, there are sign with arrows pointing "half marathon <----  & full marathon ---->".  The signs are everywhere leading up to mile 16. There was no way anyone could miss them.

 

Mile 16, 17, 18 passes by camp grounds and there's little to no view. My body is shivering. My pace here is 11:12. At the turnaround, my cold medicine had worn off and I was feeling horrible. During miles 19 and 20, I walked off and on. I lost site of the 4:45 pacer group, I had been keeping up with. Unable to keep warm, my curly hair was out of control, and I must have looked a hot mess because around mile 21, the medic on the bicycle came up to me asking if I was okay. I told him, "yes, thank you. I'm going to finish".  Here's were I get a little teary eyed. 

 I consider myself pretty tough for a non runner.  At mile 22,  my body was fighting me hard, and I begin talking to myself to my family members, such as "hello, hubby...I am struggling and need you to help me out here." This kept my mind occupied and I saved my talk with my hubby and God until the last mile.  My pace was 11:45 through miles 24 up to finish. I had empty my tank. There was no sprint to the end. Just me putting my hands up over my head as I crossed the finish line.

Finishers!

 

Ice Ice Baby!

To quote Gomer Pile, surprise surprise surprise! As I headed around the corner into our culdasac, after a short run of 4.5 miles, I ran over a wet area on the side walk caused by a neighborhood sprinkler. I slid about 2 feet and realized it was ice! There's no way I saw that coming. I am very talented. I can run aaaaaaaaaand ice skate all at once!
We're having a cold winter and I find myself stocking the the racks of base layers at the sporting good stores. I don't like cold weather, but hate running on my treadmill even more. Here's another problem. What am I going to wear for the Carlsbad Marathon? I don't run fast enough to just wear shorts and a tank top, like the NCAA Division II Cross Contry Champship runners. I think these guys train in their underware!
There are miles during my long run, where I cool down and have to redress after I've already took off some layers. What is that perfect outfit?