After Christmas Special

So, you spent the Christmas holidays doing intervals between Nordstroms and the other stores? Ate more than a Offensive Tackle for the local football team?  Feeling broke?  Then it's time to lace on the sneaks and take those slow and easy steps back to fitness. Also a good time to look at a race calendar, figure out which races you't like to do and plan a training schedule. In my case, my first race won't be until February at the earliest and I'll look at it as a way to gauge my fitness. my peak races are always in the late summer of fall. So my suggestion to you is that if your peak race is after the spring, ease back into training slowly. Slow runs with only one intense workout a week. The key is to not try to get into race fitness as soon as possible. Doing that will result in two things-burnout (if you're lucky) or an injury. So avoid that and take it easy, just like Chilly Willy in the picture. Cheers!!

I love the off season

Time for golf at Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

Playing some soccer and work on my Irish tan.

More golf at the Pacific Grove Golf Links

Still more golf-hole in one at the Grayson puny muni.

Cross Training for Trail Runners part 2

BALANCE

One legged stands-lift one leg and see how long before you start sibling and have to put the leg down,
One legged stands with your eyes closed.No, I'm not kidding. Just don't do it near stairs or a cliff.
If you have access to an Indonesia board, use it. An Indonesia board is a two foot ong piece of wood balanced atop a barrel Rock back and forth. If you want to get creative, stand on it and hold a weight and do some square.

CORE

Planks
Crunches
Dips
Back extensions
All the usual stuff we all know and love
Do these A's often A's possible.

OTHER SPORTS

Now is the time to swim, try the rock climbing gym, spin class whatever floats your boat. Don't feel guilty about not running. Scott Jurek, the great trail runner, winner of 7 Wester States 100 mile races, takes a couple months off with no running, every off season. So relax and enjoy the off season!


OKAY, get off the couch, turn off the TV and get ready for next season.

Oh and try to get dome runs in.

Cross Training for Trail Runners

It was an epic day on Mount Diablo. Just me, running the trails and hundreds of bunnie rabbits. Instead of patting myself on the back for deciding to take a day off, I thought about the off season and doing the cross training we runners all tell ourselves we're going to do and don't. I decided that for trail runners, there are things that can always be improved upon. These are:

1) Agility
2) leg strength
3) Balance
3) Core strength

Suggestions for off season workouts (November to February)

AGILITY

Jump rope-keep the feet low to the ground, jump for one to three minutes, rest and repeat
Step ups on a bench or platform
Slalom runs-set up objects on the ground approximate three feet apart and run sprints
Stair sprints-moving your feet A's fast A's possible, run up and down flights of stairs, focus on being quick

LEG STRENGTH

Off to the gym you go, leg presses, leg extensions, use all the leg machines, while doing these with your iPod, remember to thank Steve Jobs.
Long jumps-stand, bend the knees and jump out, do over a dozen times. Don't be shocked if you find yourself exhausted doing these, then try them with one leg
Now, it's back to the stairs. Jump up one or two stairs with both legs at the same time. You'll hate me now, but, you'll think fond of me when you pass all those frat boys on the hills

fun time in Portland

If you run, whether it's a 5K up to an ultra marathon, you need to race in Oregon. Imagine being surrounded by thousands of runners and being able to run on the streets without fearing for your life. We stayed in the downtown Hilton, where the expo was located. Very nice swag, great tech shirt and other goodies. Spent a half an hour chatting with Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic gold medalist in the marathon. We mostly talked about work, his hike in the hills above Portland and his bum right knee. Very bright and interesting guy.

The race went well. A light drizzle, nothing serious. Crowded from beginning to end. Ran a consistent 8 minute pace for a 3:35, 18th in my age group. The biggest reward for me was knowing I was able to focus the entire race even when things got grim.

RACE WEEK

It's the Tuesday before the Portland Marathon and the future is cloudy. Woke up with a cold on Sunday morning. I responded by vegging all day Sunday and knocking myself out with Nyquil-on of the world's greatest inventions. The forecast for the race is rain and since it's Oregon, there will be lots of rain and it will be cold. I've been through this before, many times in fact. The deal is that its been years since I've raced in Oregon in the fall-college in fact.

It's obviously I'm suffering from pre-race jitters, the ones that all racers get. "Have I trained enough?" "Am I sick, injured?" "Why is my calf hurting?"  The usual. It's not unexpected and I know I'll be ready by Sunday.

A sublime ending to the 2011 Season for the Oakland A's.

Mixing the awful (dental appointment) with the great, (A's game), on my day off resulted in some serious reflection between innings of the A's vs. Texas game. This season I went to more games than I have since my college days when tickets were cheap and I had more free time than I needed. To my delight, my wife the lovely one became an A's fan and we spent some great time together at the games. She teases me that I am like Jimmy Fallon's character in "Fever Pitch."  I might be, but, I haven't been able to find an Oakland A's shower curtain, but, I'm still looking.

It may be a long cold winter until spring training. But I've already put down my deposit for season tickets for next year. Also, Hollywood, or more specifically, Brad Pitt have produced a movie about Billy Beane and the 2002 Athletics. I hope the movie creates more fans because we sure do need more bodies out at the ballpark! 

I haven't set the date yet for my annual Baseball Movie Film Festival, but announcements should be made shortly. In the meantime, I will gaze fondly at the above photo and I hope you do too until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.

My Escape from Reality

Most of my summer was spent working on my backyard. We decided to make some major changes and I am so glad we did. Now when I come home from work, I go outside and sit on the swing and read or watch netflix movies on my ipad, enjoying the cool breeze and the quiet. Here's a sampleer.

What used to be grass, weeds and bare dirt is now this:

And this:

and this:

It's Been a Long Time!

Back again to post an update. Since my last post, I've run in a view trail races, ran the Oakland Half Marathon in 1:31 finishing 2nd in my age group, ran the 100th running of the Bay to Breakers in 50:14 and most recently, 30K trail race in Oakland where I finished 1st in my age group only because I was running against myself. My next race is the Portland Marathon in October, the first travel race I've done with my wife which is why I am starting up with this blog again, so I can chronicle our trip.

I've also been coaching a few runners for their own races which gives me a chance to write or say the word "I" less often. It was very satisfying seeing them reach their goals. It is true that men tend to do a poor job at running easy on "easy" days and that some women aren't so good at pushing themselves when running becomes painful. That said, it was a great experience and I am hoping to do more coaching in the future. 

Intervals

With the Bay to Breakers a mere 5 weeks away, it was time for some speed work, so off to the local track I went.

Memories of my high school track came flooding back as I warmed up. Familiar red cinder track crunching under my feet, I regained 35 years. Almost empty, except for one dog walker, I remembered going into oxygen debt on the 3rd lap, the elbows thrown while jockeying for position and the black spots in my eyes as I sprinted around the last curve to the homestretch. Today, I ran my intervals, not as fast as in high School or college, but the pain was oh so familiar. I could have worked at the state of the art track at the other high school in town

1st Race of the 2011 Season

To find out what kind of shape I'm in, I ran in the 2011 Oakland Half Marathon.  This is a failrly small race with less than 10,000 runners for both the Half and Full Marathon.  The event was well organized and I recommend it for all levels of runners. There is even a moonlight 5K that goes around Jack London Square. The expo was at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Oakland and it was fast and efficient with loads of booths for products and other races.

The start of the Half was set for 9:00 a.m on 3/27/11.  I drove to Oakland, arriving at Franklin and 14th Street around 6:45. I walked around the start, noting that all the runners had to sort of funnel through a inflatable staring gate. I decided to get in front to avoid any crashes in the iron gates near the start. I watched the start of the marathon at 7:30, saw that there was no problem getting through the starting gate and went back to the Jeep for my warmup. I stretched for a bit, then did a 10 minute per mile jog around the lake for about 3 miles.

At the start, I lined up at the front and got off all right. The pace felt quick, but I wanted to see what the split was at the first mile. It was 6:25, so I turned it down a bit, my goal being 6:50-7:00 per mile. From then on, I was able to keep a consistent pace, skipping the water startions because I felt pretty hydrated and it was very cool. If the sun had been out, I would have drank water after the halfway point. Around mile 10, the course wound around some muddy and curved trails at Lake Merritt. I lost some time here going around walkers and people hanging around the park. This is the only section of the race course I would change. Other than that, I liked the course.

Throughout the race, I was able to keep my pace consistent, but there was no speed. Not surprising because I haven't done any speed work so far this season. I was strong enough to have run the marathon if I had wanted to, probably in the 3:35-3:40 range. Instead of sprinting at the finish, I cruised in and my time was 1:31:45,  good for 2nd place in my age group and 62 overall. 

I'm happy with my level of fitness, but I need to focus on speed (intervals and surges) between now and May 15th, 2011 when I run in the Bay to Breakers.

On the Comeback Trail

Yes, it's been a long time between posts.  Life, as they say, got in the way.  That said, racing season is here. On March 27, 2011, I'll be racing the Oakland Half Marathon to see what kind of shape I am in. Then in May, I'll be running in the 100th Bay to Breakers. I was able to get in the first corral, so I don't have to spend the first mile weaving in and out of traffic. Then, there will be 2, maybe 3 trail races in the summer. The most important race for me this year is the Portland Marathon in October.  

So, that's my season. I'll do better with the postings, with photos etc.