December was my third highest mileage month for 2007 - and my fourth highest mileage month ever. I managed to run 73.78 miles this month.

For 2007 - I ran 700.13 miles (obviously my best year since it has been my only complete year of running.) For comparison, I ran 463.67 miles in 2006.

I ran:

2 5k Races
1 5k+ Race
1 Half Marathon
1 HTC Relay

The Furry 5k was ran in both 2006 and 2007 - 2007's pace was an improvement of approximately 44 seconds per mile.

After HTC (August 24th and 25,) I took approximately two months off to nurse my right hip flexor back to health - 20.22 miles in September and 15.75 miles in October - my two lowest months ever.

I was trying to get an idea of what the hills look like that I've ran, and compare them to what I'm expected to run for HTC.

Here are yesterday's hills:



Then for kicks and giggles, here is the Furry 5k hill from a month or so ago: (My very first hill that I ever attempted over a year ago)



And the Capital City Half:

The hill right at 9.5 miles is what killed me - I wasn't prepared for something like that, especially at that distance. I never recovered properly the rest of the race.


And the 12ks of Christmas (which I'm still VERY surprised that I maintained a 9:26 pace for this run - I can barely do that in my training runs. I need to find a way to have that race intensity when I'm training:)

Obviously these hills were the worst that I have ever run on, but I never once stopped running - ever - and I still maintained a 9:26 pace.

So by looking at these, I can tell you that Leg 27 (5.98 miles - moderate rating) shouldn't provide any problems other than exhaustion. It's a rolling course, but the gains and losses are all minimal - nothing over 25 feet either way at one time.

Leg 15 (7.25 miles - hard rating) shouldn't be too bad since, like the leg above, which technically happens after this leg . . .) it has rolling hills at times, with elevation gains no higher (or lower) than 50 feet. Plus I also have to factor in the fact that this leg will be ran right around midnight.

Now Leg 3 is a different story. Rated easy and goes for 3.93 miles - the entire leg is downhill. Over those four miles, I'm dropping about a thousand feet in elevation. A thousand feet! Advice given - go slow, and then go even slower, and to take small steps. Even though it's downhill and easy, it's too easy to want to want to catch up with the people in front of you and to wear yourself out. I also have to consider that less than 12 hours after running this leg, I have my 7 miler in the middle of the night to run.

Almost forgot -

Tonight is the 2007 Seafair Torchlight Run.

Last year, this race was my second race ever and I had a blast. It was the "baby step" that I needed to prepare me for the 10k I was thinking about doing in September, which of course led me down the path of running a half marathon just this past May.

I wanted to re-run all of last year's races just to see how much I have improved - I successfully completed the Furry 5k again and set a new PR for myself - but I wasn't sure about this run for some reason. Guess it works out though since I'm not feeling very well and the last thing I need to do is to go running.

Week In Review

---

I've been quiet the past week (which I hope was obvious.) Not necessarily because I've been busy or anything, just distracted lately. As usual, work has been taking a lot out of me. I was hoping that my vacation to Hawaii would have recharged my batteries more than they did - I really needed that time to relax. And relax I did, but just not enough. Not exactly sure why I'm all ready drained at work but I am a little bit.

---

The dog situation has really take its toll on me. I haven't commented on it since last Sunday, and today's entry will probably be the last entry about it.

Long story short - I took him back to the Humane Society. Last Sunday, April called when I was on my way up to Seattle to run the Furry 5k race and let me know that he dug underneath the kennel and escaped. That's probably why I was really heart broken after my run last week.

The decision was one of the hardest that I had to make, but it was something that I needed to do for his best interest. It made me really sad to see his face look at mine in the mirror, and then to walk out of the Humane Society without him. It was especially hard because last Sunday night, he was a perfect angel. I had to move some stuff into the garage and he came in with me, found Cheyenne's old bed, and immediately plopped down on it and fell asleep. I moved the bed outside when I was done, and he spent the whole night on there - not a peep at all.

While he was everything that I wanted or needed in a dog, I wasn't what he needed for his best interest. He needed someone who was able to spend more time with him than I was able to. I wrote lots of kind and awesome things about him on the turn in slip hoping that his new owners would understand him better in the beginning than I did.

This past week, even though I really didn't want to, April and I talked about it and made some plans of how we could make it work. But it was still a decision that I had to make - did I want to get him back and fully commit to making our time together work out best for both of us. And how was I going to do that.

I made the decision yesterday that yes, I wanted him back. I missed him too much and didn't give him enough of a chance to get used to us and the schedule that we wanted him to be on. But something happened yesterday that made all the heartbreak come back, but then also made me very happy all at the same time - I called the Humane Society to see if there was any chance that I could have him back, but he was adopted the day before. He found a new home. He's with a new family that has one of the best dogs as their newest family member.

---

The race on Sunday - something I haven't talked too much about - went off quite well. The timing was done differently this year than last year - while we were all chipped - there was no starting line that triggered your chip time - there's only the official time, and since I was a space cadet on Sunday morning, I forgot to bring my Garmin with me, so I have no idea what my chip time was for this race. The official time was 28:05.2 - which compared to last year's official time of 30:22.6 is almost a two minute faster run. My whole goal was to finish it faster than last year, and I did exactly that.

And here's the picture (don't think I need to buy this one - even though it's the only running picture that I have where it looks like I'm actually running):



Oh, and yes, I did beat the girl in the picture too. Go me!

---

Went diving again last night for the first time in awhile. The goal was to take lots of pictures of jellyfish - and there were lots of jellyfish to take pictures of - but for some reason, my external flash would never fire. At all. Everything was hooked up right (at least it appeared to be when I checked under water) but the flash would never fire. I'm hoping that something is just loose, or dirty. My fear is that my fiber optic cable is broke and that will really piss me off if I had to buy a new one.

The camera issue was just the beginning of a hellish dive - after fiddling with things for about ten minutes (Jerome also had camera issues - his flash wouldn't fire either) we attempt to go out and just enjoy the dive site. And of course, we immediately lose each other. Damn. Oh, and I when I realize that Jerome is not with me, I find the biggest warbonnet that I have ever seen - completely out in the open - and my damn camera won't work.

But my lucks gets worse . . .

I start swimming back towards shore and in about 15 feet or so, I look up from my compass and notice that I was just about to run into some massive tentacles from a nasty big brown jellyfish. Those same tentacles - 20 or so - wash right across the only part of my body that is exposed underwater - my lips and cheeks - and immediately it's pure agony - the worst burning sensation that I have ever felt on my face before. It was awful.

At this point I decided fuck-it - I'm surfacing, which I do. Jerome is there waiting for me so at least he made it back too.

Vinegar is one of the easiest methods to treat jellyfish stings - so when I got home, I rinsed my face quite a bit with vinegar - and even now I'm sure I can still smell it. Yuck.

Today everything is much, MUCH better.

EDIT - You'll never guess what works absolutely great now? Yeah, my camera. The flash is firing like a champ. I wonder if the weight that is strapped onto the handle can somehow crimp the fiber optic cable? Something to experiment with for sure.

---

April and her mom left for SanFran this morning. She's down there for a 6-day conference, and her mom went for some quality bonding and shopping time together, which will be fun for both of them. April is wanting to buy a Chanel purse (scary!) and I'm all for it. Only because her purse will cost about the same as a new drysuit will for me. So you see how that works - new purse for her, new drysuit for me.

After dropping them off at the airport, I continued north up to Alki to do some running. Needed a change of scenery from running at home or down on Ruston. Did a little over 6 and a half miles - not my best run by any means, but at least I got some good distance in, and even with a few walking breaks, still averaged pretty close to a ten minute mile pace - definitely a lot slower than my racing pace, but right now, I'm trying to regain my stamina, and then work on speed.

Had to head off to Target for toothpaste and I was really self-conscious of how I smelled. I knew I probably didn't smell too good and felt really odd about being at a store not smelling my best. Only a got a few strange looks from kids (probably because my hair is all crazy looking and I have some sexy running socks on.)

---

And now I'm home. Needing to shower and then do some laundry today. If the weather was nicer, I would probably do some weed whacking (or line-trimming - whatever you want to call it) but I probably won't do that until later this week when it's nicer out.

Not much planned for the week - no wild parties or debauchery - just work and then heading home. Probably watch some movies or something if I feel like it. Really want to continue watching The West Wing (something we started watching this week) but April's gone, so that won't work. Hmmm . . .

I'm in my car by Seward Park in Seattle. I finished the race - and I think that I beat my time from last year.

( Read more... )

Here's my running and diving entry:

Oh wonderful weather in the 60s, oh how I've missed you! While not quite where I was before my half marathon, today's run was so much better than all of last week's runs. I'm just not used to running in 80 degree weather yet (not sure I will ever be for that matter.)

I'm not sure if we'll be doing the 2007 Furry 5k or not. Part me isn't too interested (and neither is the wife) but then again, part of me really wants to do a repeat of every race I ran last year just to see how much (if any) I have improved in a year's time.

Not that there will be any shortage of 5ks or anything . . .

---

Today I filled out my registration slip for the 2007 Hood to Coast Relay. It's 11 weeks ago! I am beyond excited!

---

Jerome made it back from San Diego and we thought about diving on Sunday, but with the weather being as gorgeous as it was (no parking at the dive sites then) and the fact that I needed to be home with my dog, diving is put on hold. Not even sure if we'll be diving this weekend since Pierce County is having a passport fair on Saturday and I need to take care of that, and then Sunday is the possible race mentioned above. Just have to see how everything comes together.

As soon as my coffee is finished, I'm going to officially join the world.

Take a shower, head to my credit union and get a check to pay a bill since I forgot to yesterday until it was too late, get gas, maybe get some air for my empty dive tank, and then visit Target since the wife wants to get some outdoor lounge chairs.

Thinking that it's shorts kind of weather too.

I wonder if Jerome made it back from San Diego yet - there was discussion of diving today.

Next week I'm going to go and get my passport on Saturday, and then (as far as I know,) run the 2007 Furry 5k up in Seattle. Mental note - register!

This insanely exciting post brought to you by Kona Coffee.

Not that I trust the cheap-o scale in the bathroom, but I still don't necessarily appreciate the weight that it is giving me. I can tell that I've put on about five or ten since I last weighed myself about five weeks or so ago, but twenty? I hope that that is not the case. Some weight gain is expected - my running has slowed down, and then I was on vacation, and now after I ran my last race, I've been starving when it comes to meal times.

My body is pretty good with the results of my run - I was VERY sore on Monday, little less sore yesterday, and now I can barely feel any soreness, other than when I walk down stairs. My quads are still a bit sore.

Now, my chest is a whole other experience. Neosporin and Band-Aids have become new best friends. At least I'm not bleeding anymore.

I wonder when my race picture will be ready - I'm excited about seeing it since I think I got a good one taken of me.

Had a checkup appointment at the dermatologist this morning. The official diagnosis is rosacea.

I'm going to start running again this weekend - I miss it, and it's only been three days since I've done it last. I'm going to hopefully run the 2007 Furry 5k in a few weeks. Marks my one year racing anniversary. The Rainier to Ruston Relay is off - I'm a little bummed, but it's okay.

Something else I haven't done in a while - cold water diving. Have a dive planned first thing Saturday - and maybe another one Sunday (slim chance for Sunday though.)

I think it's time for bed.