Saddleback Memorial Half Marathon

Location: Laguna Hills, CA
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 1:52:01

The Saddleback Memorial Half Marathon was a race I signed up for on a whim when it became clear that my haphazard training since L.A. would not allow me to run the San Diego RNR Marathon in a respectable manner. Audrey had been pushing me to run this with her, and when my schedule opened up I signed up for it without really worrying about training. I ran 13 miles last weekend with FJ, the longest I've run in weeks, and managed to keep up with FJ who has gotten himself in incredible shape for San Diego. However, I didn't have any juice left when I tried to outsprint him to the finish. He beat me by 10 yards.

Half marathon has become an "easy" race for me. It's not that I disrespect the difficulty of running a half marathon, but I feel like I'm more confident about my abilities and health that I have no qualms about 13.1 miles. 13.1 miles is now, for me, a manageable distance. I'm amazed that I can say that. 13.1 miles is a long way, but half marathons have become my favorite distance. I don't have to sprint all out, I can get into a groove, and I'm not broken down by the end of it. It's just about perfect.

I didn't PR yesterday, but it was good enough for me. The course had rolling hills and the temperature got very warm. There was little to no shade in the course and the hills were saved until the end. I feel like I could have pushed myself harder, but I wanted to run a comfortable race. That I was only 2.5 minutes off my best half marathon time in a difficult course was a good thing in my book. Still, I wish I had pushed myself a little harder--two seconds harder--so my time read 1:51:59 instead of 1:52:01.

Next up for me is possibly a 10K in two weeks during Pride Weekend in West Hollywood. Otherwise it's the Mud Run in Camp Pendleton on June 17. I can't wait.

Sore Arms

The running program is still sputtering along, but now that I'm done with school (I graduated on Saturday), hopefully I can get into a regular schedule. Along with running, I'm going to implement a weight training program, which I pretty much abandoned when I started training for marathons. With work, school, and a social life to balance, I either ran or lifted weights. By that time I was tired of the same workout routine and running was a new activity to master. Not that I've completely mastered it, but I think I've got it pretty well down.

The bad thing about skipping out on weight training for the better part of a year and a half is that I have lost all the gains I had. My muscle mass has shrunk, I'm flabbier, and to make it worse, I'm heavier now than I was pre-marathon training. It's the eating that screwed me up. The lack of weight training was evident the last two nights when I barely managed to do four sets of any exercise using respectable manly weights. I am probably lifting at 30-35% of what I was doing before. My arms and shoulders are incredibly sore from curling 20 pound dumbells. Now I have to start over. Drats!

The goal is to--hopefully--lose 15 pounds by the Mud Run in the middle of June. I want to look respectable for the Marines. I figure losing the weight won't hurt my running either.

Another goal is to be a better blogger. I think I need to expand the scope of this blog a little bit more to more than document my training program. The only problem is whether I have a life to document. We shall see. Now that I have more free time I ought to be able to do more fun things.

Senioritis

Senioritis is hitting me hard. I have one paper to do, and once I finish it all that will be left will be for me to walk and pick up that piece of paper. However, I don't feel like doing it now. I have this weekend to finish it, but I'm exhausted and my brain is fried. I'll suck it up and get it done, but I won't like it.

I haven't been running much the last two weeks. I ran for the first time in two weeks last night, a six-miler. A cold sidelined me from my planned run with FJ last weekend, but hopefully I can sneak in a run with him on Sunday. Today I ran a quick 3 miles at the gym during lunch.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!