I ain't trippin

CHECK MY PREVIOUS BLOG FOR SOME DAMN GOOD NEWS!!


Well a Saturday came and went without my feet so much as touching my running shoes. It was Jamie’s birthday weekend on August 23rd and my brother Trevor and his wife Rachel came down from the Bay to go to a Dave Matthews Band concert with us in San Diego. The weekend was a blast, and we gave Jamie the full birthday treatment. Thanks guys for heading down; it meant a lot to us!

From Monday on we put ourselves in a serious training mode; 18 miles was on the horizon and we had to ready our bodies for it. Constant hydration and daily stretching were a must; we made a consorted effort to hit the z’s early, but only managed to do so the night before the run. The team also started a new mid-week workout called speed intervals. Basically we run at about 85% of our max speed for a timed interval and then rest for a period of time and then repeat. Repeating this five times put us halfway through our workout and the remainder was wrapped up with a two mile run.

The morning of the big run Jamie and I were up before the sky even cracked a shade of blue. We each downed water and a protein-berry-oatmeal-almond milk-banana-peanut butter smoothie (I know it sounds kinda weird, but it gets me going and keeps me going). We charge out the door into the dark morning sky ready to take on what would be our second longest run in training. The morning air was thick with remnants of a southern tropical storm, but retained the cool temperatures of a typical Southern California morning. We stretched our reluctant legs, and were off pounding the trail before sunrise.

We were doing three loops today; one 8 mile loop and two 5 mile loops. At about halfway through the first loop I found myself running in a small group of runners. This was a bit unusual for me because I typically run alone, but I figured this would be good practice for race day (when I plan to run with Jamie and my mentor Paul). Our pace was a bit slower then I was accustomed to, but I acclimated to it and focused on my form. The loops went by pretty uneventfully until the final loop.

We were pushing through the last miles of our run and fatigue was beginning to set in for me. We were on a stretch of concrete bike path when just in front of us two people walking opposite directions stopped and allowed their dogs to stretch their retractable leashes across the entire length of the path to sniff each other out. As soon as I saw this it seemed too late for me and I yelled out “excuse me!” I got no reaction from them as they condoned their dogs’ indulgence in each other. It seemed like a split second before I was upon their trip line of leashes and having to take evasive maneuvers; I darted off the path hitting one of the ladies pretty hard and shredding through the grass. Luckily I caught my footing pretty well and was able to continue running uninjured.

After this bit of excitement it was back at it. We had about two miles left and they were clocking in as the toughest yet. I found myself convincing my legs that this was a cool down run, and that it was just an easy jog in. My legs fell for this sham and before I knew it the pain and fatigue were subsiding and I was devouring the last mile.

I finished out the run with fellow teammate Debbie, and we were the first to cross the finish line. Our time was not the best, but we were glad to be done. Jamie did awsome today and finished not too long after us… WAY TO ROCK IT BABY!! We hung around for some breakfast and then took off for our post run recovery.

Try and keep up with me.

you gotta read this!!

Since I laced up my running shoes and took the first steps on my marathon journey I have carried with me the battle my dad is waging against cancer. I think about what he’s going through mentally and physically and how on some small remote level I am paralleling his endeavors. I can’t even begin to imagine where he is at in his head though. I do however understand how he pulls from within himself to say “NO! I will not accept defeat!”… “I WILL PERSEVERE!!” It is what I carry with me when I run and hit those rough patches. But just like my completion of those hard training days, my dad pushes through and gets his victories.

It is not often in ones life that we get phone calls that totally rock our worlds. My initial discovery of my dad’s cancer was on a cell phone call stuck in L.A. traffic on Highway 5 coming back from San Diego… not the best timing eh? Well yesterday I got the call that has put a shiny gloss on that experience. On the other end of the phone line was my dad, and he had just gotten back from his doctor appointment... “the results from my bone marrow taken a month ago show that I have 0.92% myeloma cells, and the doctor said that with the additional month of treatment I have gone through since the test was done, he believes that I am in 100% remission” …yeah you read that right ONE HUNDRED F’N PERCENT REMISSION!!! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Not only that but my dad continued to say that the doctor believes he is in the 60-70% of people who, after a stem cell transplant, will be cured for life. HELL YEAH!! CURED FOR LIFE!! You hear that everyone?!? I’ll say it again CURED FOR LIFE!!

The battle is not over. The roughest part of my dad’s battle is still ahead of him. Fortunately his test results have shown that he is a prime candidate for a stem cell transplant. My dad has a great circle of support, and by you just reading this you are unknowingly sending him positive energy. So keep it coming. Thanks for lending me your eyes.

I love you dad!!

A Lesson in Hydration

We were out of bed and to practice before the sun broke the horizon this Saturday morning. Today we were out at Balboa Park and were set to do 16 miles; fortunately this will be completed in three laps as opposed to the 168 laps that it took me to complete 14 miles on the gym track two weeks ago.

The minute I took off from the starting line I noticed some apprehension from my legs. They were not happy about the task they were just given, and it took me about three miles to warm them up to the idea of doing thirteen more. The first lap I deemed my warm up lap and by the end of it my body had settled in to a pretty good groove. The remaining laps I labeled my big push, and my cool down. Then there was the final mile which I appropriately called my final stretch. Breaking the course down like this really helped with my motivation.

Staying hydrated and energized throughout my runs has long been a challenge for me. I decided for this run it was going to be different and implemented a new strategy to better accomplish this. I prepared two bottles of Gatorade Endurance (one for my hydration belt and the other I would pick up later in my run), and filled a small squeeze bottle with energy gel. For the Gatorade I needed to finish a bottle an hour, and for the energy gel I needed to squeeze a gulp in every half an hour. The energy gel, for those wondering, is a blend of carbohydrates, sugar, electrolytes and sometimes caffeine all mashed into a thick goo. Sounds appetizing, huh? Well as you might imagine, the gel was the hardest part - my mouth never wanted this sticky goo, and always opted for the wet beverage. Getting all that fluid in was also a challenge – the feeling of liquid sloshing around in my stomach as I tromped down the course did not sit well with me.

When I hit the second lap (my big push) I really laid into it. I felt my energy level was good, so I bumped up my pace and shredded miles 6 through 10. I pushed through the water stations, and was totally reliant upon my own hydration system. At mile 10 I made a quick stop to grab my second bottle of Gatorade and was off.

The third lap was definitely the most challenging of the three laps. As I pressed through miles 11 through 15 I could feel a variety of pains pulsing through my legs. These were no match for me though - I had good energy and was able to suppress them and forge ahead. When I reached mile 15 I hit a quick roundabout and headed back out for a mile loop to finish out the 16th mile.

With the idea of the finish line less then a mile away, the final stretch turned out to be much easier then I thought it would be. As soon as I finished though, all those nasty little pains I suppressed hit me at once, and I was inundated with a bunch of screaming joints. HOLY CRAP was this PAINFUL!! Never at the end of a run had I felt this kind of pain before. With a little bit of stretching and hydration the pains soon subsided, and I was able get out on the finish line to high five teammates as they came running in.

Overall I can say my new hydration strategy worked. Although in the beginning I was questioning the effects of all this goo and extra hydration; in the later mileage my energy level definitely reaped the rewards.

Try and keep up with me.

Just Keep Going!

We made another return back to the rolling hills of Porter Ranch this week. Seven miles was on our agenda, and none of us were leaving without breaking a serious sweat. Coach Brett mapped out an aggressive course with a pretty serious hill for us to climb… 2.5 miles of straight upward. I was looking forward to this run and had high expectations of myself. I wanted bite into it, chew it up and spit it out. My run however did not come with its challenges.

The night before my run, when I typically explore dreamland, I was wide awake - not just for couple hours, but for the ENTIRE NIGHT! I could not for the life of me catch a wink of sleep. ‘Insomnia’ most people call it, more like INSANITY. I tossed and turned and tried to wrestle my eyes to sleep, but nothing that I tried put me out. I entered my morning with blood stricken eyes and a cloud that only I could see.

I took off from the starting line with a bit of a lag. I could feel the affects of the night on my energy level and knew that I somehow had to muscle past it. This did not take long. When I hit the hill my mind turned to fighting mode. This was MY hill, I thought, and I’ll be damned if I’m not the first person up it. My feet were with me and my legs seconded the notion, so… IT WAS ON! The street poured behind me as I forged my way to the summit. I knew that Quincy Avenue marked the highest point on the hill and I chased it down with a fury. As I climbed the hill's gritty face I carried with me the notion that once I hit that crest I will have conquered the largest hill I will face on race day. Check it out...



Though my energy level was lower then normal, I still managed to reach the top just behind Robert (the fastest guy on our team). I felt accomplished and took a quick breather to regroup. I passed through our water station without a stop and continued down the backside of the hill. Downhill running is not my favorite. Though I don’t feel it while I’m running, the aftermath usually tells of a medley of knee pains. I tend to take it pretty easy on the downhills, regulating my speed and periodically walking.

I brought the last mile in with one of my teammates Elaine, and we finished about three minutes behind Robert. I felt my run was good, but I was insanely tired. Jamie came burning in about 10 minutes after us and looked great. WOW!.. she has really pushed passed her injuries and is doing AWSOME!! We hung around to cheer on the rest of the team as they finished up, and then took off.

Breakfast, ice and a shower were all an order, but the afternoon nap was pure unadulterated bliss.

As I run I think of the many challenges that face people each day with cancer. I run for hope, for the challenge, and most of all for the battle against cancer. But sometimes that battle is not always won. Recently the running community suffered a huge loss with the passing of Craig (The Moose) Chambers. Craig was a local running figure who spent most of his spare time running the hills and streets of Los Angeles. His battle with melanoma did not slow his spirit though and he completed the L.A. marathon last year in true form. I would like to take this moment to thank Craig for being an inspiration to us all. I will tag my jersey with your name on race day!!

Just keep going!!

A Kinship With the Mythical Phoenix

Phoenix - a mythical bird which at the end
of its lifespan burns fiercely and is reduced to
ashes, from which a new, young Phoenix arises.

We were away from the TEAM this past weekend and away from the cooler temperatures that typically accompany our runs. Instead we headed east to the sweltering furnace that is Phoenix, Arizona. I know, I know… what the hell were we thinking?? That’s exactly what was crossing our minds. The reason for this gross scenery change was our nephew’s 1st birthday, and that was all the reason we needed.

Fortunately we did not have to drive the usual 6 hour journey from Los Angeles. My beautiful sister-in-law Diana and her husband Matt flew us out for the weekend… THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! This gave us the leg up that we needed to tackle the 14 miles on Saturday morning.

We hit the Z’s early and woke up late, clocking in about 9 hours of sleep. Physically I was ready to take on this challenge, but my motivation to do so was teetering on “E”. We made the decision to head to a local gym to run the mileage on a treadmill to avoid the triple digit heat, but the idea of running in place for over two hours did not resonate well with me. Jamie had the motivation going for her, so I climbed aboard and rode her wave to the gym.

The gym, not surprisingly, was mostly empty. Fortunately the facilities came equipped with an indoor track relieving us of our treadmill duty. This wasn’t your typical track though – 12 laps was the equivalent of ONE MILE!.. someone somewhere was laughing at us.

My run started out slow with my motivation dragging significantly behind me. The first two miles felt like an eternity. The laps seemed to drag by as I saw the same scenery over and over and over. As I pushed myself mentally through mile three I felt defeat fiercely closing in on me. I couldn’t let this happen – I couldn’t let these minuscule obstacles defeat me! So I decided to collect the smoldering pieces of my broken spirit and reemerge with a vengeance. Keeping track of my lap count was my most arduous task, so I resolved to monitor my mileage by using my one mile time. Each time my watch went off I completed a mile – this was easy enough and it allowed me to forget about the repetitious circles. All of a sudden I was in it – my motivation caught up to me, passed me and was blazing my path… I was REBORN!!

The mileage began to fall away and before I knew it I was on mile 10. With four more miles to go I could almost taste my victory. Unfortunately all was not smooth to the end. At about mile 12 the pain started to settle in and my pace tapered. With my spirits high I tried to look at this in a positive light - with each new mileage milestone my pain has shown up later and later, and this time was no different.

As I steamed past mile 13 a celebration exploded inside of me… I had just completed a HALF MARATHON!! YEEEEAAAAAH! HELL YEAH!!! WHERE"S MY HIGH FIVE??

With that feat under my belt I pressed on to finish out the last mile of my run. Once finished I took a quick breather and then caught up with Jamie to bring in the last quarter mile of her twelve mile run. She was only going to do 10 miles, but she pressed on and conquered 12. HELL YEAH BABY!!

Our post run recovery regimen was put on hold to celebrate our nephew’s 1st birthday. Little Jeffery rocked his birthday party like most 1-year olds, with wide eyed curiosity, smiles and a face full of birthday cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GUY!


That’s all for now. Try and keep up with me.

A Team For Better or For Worse

Another early Saturday morning brought another run to our feet. Porter Ranch welcomed us back with an ornery grin, and warmer temperatures. This run would take a shift for the better though – keeping consistent with our alternating weeks of long runs and short runs, we would be running a swift 6 miles today.

I started out my run with a moderate pace keeping with the lead pace group. The hills resonated deja vu with me and I could taste the essence of my previous tribulations through these hills. My reminiscent wander did not last long as I yanked myself back into my run - I was nearing the bottom of the hill and needed to prepare for some climbing.

The hill was as I remembered it, steep and long. I got about half way up when I got the word that Jamie was in some pretty severe pain. I knew this was big. I searched the horizon for her, and as soon as my eyes recognized her tiny blip I diverted my run towards her. When I reached her I could tell she was hurting. She has been going at these hills with a vengeance since her return back, and it has been taking its toll on her. She is a strong runner, but throw anyone straight into nonstop hill runs and they’re going to feel pain after a while.

I walked with Jamie from about mile one to mile three, and enjoyed the quiet time we had together. We bursted in to running spells when the geography permitted, but for the most part we hit a pretty aggressive walk.

When we hit mile three, we said our goodbyes and my feet sprung into action. From this point forward I was set to climb a mile-long hill. My mind and body were primed, and I was ready to wreak some havoc on this hill. My pace was fierce as my feet relentlessly consumed elevation. When I hit the top I simultaneously caught up with some fellow teammates. I shared a walk break with them and then took off down the backside of the hill.

It was not long before I was in the final stretch to the finish line. As I cruised in I saw Jamie heading out to finish up her nine miles… now that’s dedication!! At the finish line I took a breather and devoured some Gatorade and carbs. It was then right back out to catch up to Jamie.

The heat was moving in pretty bullishly and I could not run fast enough to escape it. As I ran my eyes continuously scanned the roadside for Jamie’s profile. At each turn I was expecting to see her, but NOTHING. My eagerness turned to worry as I rounded the last bend and didn’t see her. I slowed to a walk and really focused ahead, nothing but road signs, poles and… WAIT!.. what’s that??.. it’s?.. it’s?.. it’s Jamie!!! On her return back to the finish line! WEW!!

We walked back to the finish line with me constantly lagging behind her - her pace was much to fast for my weary legs. Our coach Brett came and met up with us to bring in the last leg. He offered to have Susan bring the car around to pick us up, and was met with savage ‘NO!!!’ from the both of us.

At the finish line we were greeted with clapping and cheering from our dedicated teammates. I could tell Jamie felt good about her accomplishment, and so did I.

Later that day we met up with some of our teammates at the Children’s Hospital to spread a little cheer. We visited the cancer ward and brought with us gifts, love and a little conversation. Our visit there was not one of ease. Seeing these young soles stricken with such a horrible disease was heart wrenching. As we entered each room the parent’s faces told the stories we dare not ask about. The children were SO grateful, and expressed it with what limited energy they had. My eyes could not help but show what I was feeling inside... yeah I admit it, I got a little misty... SO!! This experience has rocked me to my core and I will carry it with me as I finish out my training and complete this marathon. We ARE doing some good!!

Try and keep up with me!!

A Day of Focus, Falls and Freezing

As I train for this marathon I feel my body metamorphosing into a running machine. I have adapted quite well to the long distance running on the flats, and the hills have become my challenge. Fortunately our mid-week practice has made a shift to a different training style… hill repeats. What are hill repeats you might ask? Well they are exactly as they sound. We run up a hill for time frame set by our coach, and then walk back down the hill to the start. We repeat this five times. This was excellent conditioning, and I felt this throughout my entire lower body for the rest of the week.

Saturday came way too fast, and my body was still a bit sore from our new midweek regimen. I was excited though, and ready to conquer 12 miles. This was the last weekend we would see in a sequence of consecutive mileage increases. From this point forward we will have long mileage weeks alternated with short mileage weeks. I think I am ready for this.

Lake Balboa Park welcomed us with a vibrant pulse on this early Saturday morning. It was evident some serious mileage was about to be trampled out here today, and our team was ready. The gloomy haze over the morning sky told of cooler temperatures to come; a much welcomed relief to the ardent temperatures that typically accompany us.

As we charged off the starting line in our usual pace groups, I left my group behind to share this run with my Jamie. I was excited for her and wanted to be there when she completed her longest run yet. The pace was slower then what I was accustomed to, but it was good for me; it gave my mind the opportunity to really focus on my running form rather then “what the hell do I have to do to push myself through this?” This was important for me because I am battling the onset of shin splints. I got so consumed in my running form that I failed to notice a robust cobble crouched deviously in the middle of my path. I hit the ground hard, spraying dust all over my jersey. I tumbled it out, bounced back up and sprang back into my run. Jamie was horrified and determined that I was injured, but I pressed on and assured her that I was ok. We hit the six mile mark and the fork in our running path together. I pushed on to chisel away at my 12 miles and Jamie turned around to slam out her last mile. GO GET'M BABY!!

As we separated I felt my legs burst into an excited pace. I was pretty far behind from my pace group, and determined to shrink that distance as much as possible. I maintained a divided focus between my form and the goal at hand. The miles seemed longer with out Jamie, but were unmistakably shorter. I was passing fellow team mates and feeling a sense of accomplishment. It felt good to run hard and run long. My body now craves this, and without any remorse I dish it out. I passed through water stations taking in gatorade, water and an occasional snack. As I hit mile 9 I could feel the pains starting to settle in. I am growing accustomed to the pain, and am beginning to realize that this is just part of the training - we train to not only endure fatigue, but to endure the physical torture on our bodies.

I finished out my run a little under a mile behind my pace group and relished my victory. We hung around for a pot luck of carbs and fruit and then took off for home for icing and a nap. Our icing routine took a bit of a turn towards insanity today - as demented as this may sound, we took an ice bath. That’s right a tub filled with 20 pounds of ice and water. Our neighbors must have thought two girls were living next door. The initial shock was horrifying, but my body gradually thanked me for it. The following day I have never felt better, and I now plan to include this grotesque technique in my arsenal of recovery strategies.

Try and keep up with me...