luluorange’s Training Blog

I wanted to sleep in and take it easy today, my busy season is officially starting when I go back to work tomorrow. Not looking forward to it but I had a great and fun summer. A little sad that it’s over, but oh well, there are better things to come.

I woke up with a slightly sore lower back and stiff quadriceps, I popped two Ibuprofen, and I am good to go. My husband and I took a leisure walk by Santa Monica Pier, then strolled on the the 3rd street Promenade, did a little shopping, had lunch, savoring the last relaxing long weekend of the year. Life is good…

Logbook Activity

• Type: Walk
• Date: 09/01/2008
• Time: 20:31:39
• Total Time: 00:52:00.00
• Distance: 3.2 miles
• Average Pace: 16:15.61/mile

Last night at 8:31 p.m., 12,000 runners lined up at the gate of LA Coliseum to be part of history. We are the last city globally to run this race. It was exciting and fun, my goal for this race was to run under 55 minutes. Not knowing the terrain and alleviation of the route, I wasn’t exactly putting a lot of pressure on myself other than just to go out and have fun.

The stage was setup with concerts and hugh screens, and all along the route, there were performances representing different countries, Nike spent money on this. I was impressed with the setup and organization. As far as the race itself, all I remember was that it was an endless waves of passing people, finding a space to get ahead. Completely counter intuitive of pace, rhythm and momentum. I took one walk break for 30 seconds at mile 4, not used to running faster than my usual pace continually without any breaks. I pushed thru the end.

The last 1/2 miles was hard, trying to pick up the pace along with all the rest of people doing the same thing. I got elbowed a few times, trapped behind people and frustrated, approaching the finish line (back to the entrance of the Coliseum), the crowd, flood lights, music, cameras were all very exciting! All I could do is look down and focus on the blue stripes of the finish line, trying not to get blinded by all the lights and trip over myself. Next thing I know, I entered the Coliseum!

What a night, what a experience! I look up race result this morning, I placed 72,489 amongst the one million runners in the world, I guess that’s not bad… I had a great time, this is not a experience I will soon forget!

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/31/2008
• Time: 20:31:00
• Total Time: 00:57:18.00
• Distance: 6.2 miles
• Average Pace: 9:14.7/mile

Our pace leader is out of town, so we had a substitute pacer. He doesn’t have the watch that tracks pace, so he asked me to pace the group with him. We have about 20 people today, running at the very front of the pack is a bit strange to me. I got very busy very quick, between passing (faster pace) multiple pace groups on the Venice Board walk, returning the group to our pace and tracking time for walking break. It was a different experience, and I like it, kept me busy…

After we drop off the LA marathon group at mile 6, the Pasadena marathon group went for additional 3 miles. Overall, it was a really good run; the last quarter of mile, some of the runners want to sprint to the finish. I held back and maintained my pace, I wanted to reserve myself for tomorrow’s race. Certainly don’t want to blow out and hurt myself, I am in this for the long run.

All done and good, ready to take on my long weekend.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/30/2008
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 1:28:00.00
• Distance: 9 miles
• Average Pace: 9:46.32/mile

I picked my packet and T-shirt at Nike Town in Beverly Hills. The T-shirt has the bib number already built-in. Yeah, no safety pins! It’s Nike dri-fit shirt, very cute, I love it.

My co-worker and I did a quick almost 5 mile run using the Nike training route. More than half of the 5 miles were hills, it was humid, not a easy run. But I finish strong and happy. Can’t wait till race day on Sunday, the time is 8 pm because we are the last city in the world to run out of the 25 city participating.

One more run before Sunday night, I should get decent mileage in this week since it’s a recovery week per my training schedule.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/28/2008
• Total Time: 00:44:49.00
• Distance: 4.76 miles
• Average Pace: 9:25.15/mile

The class was intense, a lot of hills.  I forget that I really enjoy spinning.  I got to do this more often.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 08/26/2008
• Time: 15:45:05
• Total Time: 00:50:00.00

I haven’t done much.  Tried to listen to my body and to focus on recovering well.  The cold epson salt bath and 90-minute massage session really helped.  I walked for two miles on Sunday and 3 miles on Monday.  The soreness has gone away, yeah!

Today is the long run with Leggers and the weather God is with us. 18 miles was scheduled, we went around the golf course and had extra 0.4 mile.
Ran at a good consistent pace, to my surprise, I wasn’t even thinking about mileage, I was just enjoying myself. After mile 16, some soreness and discomfort sets in, I told myself, two more miles and you are done. I finished strong, and I am so happy I did it!!!

After the run, my legs were really stiff and sore, I went home and soaked in cold Epson salt bath and felt much better.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/23/2008
• Time: 06:40:00
• Total Time: 3:04:00.00
• Distance: 18.4 miles
• Average Pace: 10:00/mile

I hope my time will be better than 58 minutes, I guess it will depend on the course of the race. It’s 11 days away, it’s gonna be a fun race, the best part of the race is that it’s at 8pm, yeah, no sun!

This will be the last time I run this week before Saturday, Saturday will be my long run with Leggers - 18 miles!!!
I am gonna rest my legs, take walks, and do other kinds of workout for the next two days.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/20/2008
• Time: 16:02:08
• Total Time: 00:58:00.00
• Distance: 6.3 miles
• Average Pace: 9:12.15/mile

The human stories behind the athletes, the hard-work beyond our imagination they put in. The single-mindedness of success, the sacrifice they make to get to the games. These are the best of the best at their sports.

I watched the women’s marathon on Saturday, heart-felt sadness for Deena Kastor, she won the qualifying trial (ran a 2:19 marathon, amazing), but her right foot broke at mile 3. All the preparation it took to get there, to drop out at the beggining of the marathon…Then there was Paula Radcliffe suffering through the entire marathon running on one leg because the old injury of a stress fracture flared up; determined to finish because she didn’t want to be called a “quitter” again by the Brittish press. The pain on her face as she entered the bird’s nest, she still ran a 2:36 minute marathon which is nothing to laugh about.

These athletes are my inspiration, their determination and committment is something I think about whenever I have negative thoughts about stopping in the middle of my run. They are my heros.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/19/2008
• Time: 14:48:33
• Total Time: 00:39:00.00
• Distance: 4.1 miles
• Average Pace: 9:30.52/mile

After yesterday’s bad run with the Leggers, I wanted to head out and do a good run on my own despite of this being a scheduled rest day.

Early bird do get the worm, the street and the beach are pretty empty and I get the beautiful Santa Monica canyon and beach all to myself. I breath in the scenery and feel energetic throughout my run. I stop the clock by the Santa Monica stairs and instead of walk up the stairs, I took the hill route, I did lounges all the way up the hill to my car. I even manage to do a good long stretch at the end. I’ll bet my butt will be seriously hurting tomorrow.

As I drove home while sipping my coffee, I was on auto-pilot, realizing that my mind was blank (in a good way). This was a therapeutic run, in a “dumping the mental trash” sort of way. Boy, did I need this! Now the rest of my Sunday is gravy, it’s ALL GOOD!!

Logbook Activity

• Type: Run
• Date: 08/17/2008
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:12:00.00
• Distance: 7.51 miles
• Average Pace: 9:35.08/mile