I'm still alive

It seems like I'm beginning most posts now with the phrase "It's been a long time since..." The only excuse for it is that I'm getting lazy. There are things to post about but just getting myself to sit down and write is the hard part. I'm hoping to write something up about all the terrific shows I have been to in the last week--three within a week--Josh Ritter at the El Rey (I know the El Rey is redundant but that is its proper name), the Walkmen at the Glass House in Pomona (yay, SGV), and Cold War Kids/Tapes n Tapes at the Echo. All terrific and fun shows. I have a couple of pictures from the Walkmen show and quite a few from the Echo.

Here are a couple:


Cold War Kids getting an assist from the lead singer of Tapes n Tapes


Cold War Kids repaying the debt

If that wasn't enough I also have three more shows to check out in the next week. I won tickets today to Friday's Neko Case show at the Henry Fonda Theater (not my favorite venue) and I also have tickets for Be Your Own Pet this Sunday at the Glass House and Band of Horses at the Echo, again, next Friday. After that I plan on taking a wee bit of a break. I need to start looking for a job.

I also need to write about the Mud Run this past weekend. Hopefully I'll have pictures of that event to post soon.

Other than that I have just been working at my boring job.

They are runners too!

I love it when I find out that my favorite artists also love doing things that I enjoy.

I was reading the July issue of Runner's World and got to the end and saw a picture of a good-looking bloke. It dawned on me that it was Josh Ritter, a terrific singer/songwriter, whose The Animal Years is one of my favorite albums of 2006. He ran the Phoenix Rock n' Roll Marathon in January and posted an impressive first marathon time of 3:32. Not only is he a great artist, he's also a great runner. I'm catching his show in LA this Friday, a show I've been eagerly awaiting for two months. His albums are highly recommended!

Then today while surfing the web for more information about Sufjan Stevens's upcoming album (Stevens is just about my favorite artist right now), I came across this tidbit from the Asthmatic Kitty website. Sufjan Stevens's brother, Marzuki, finished 20th in this year's Boston Marathon. His time was 2:20:11. How amazing is that! It qualified him for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials. Reading things like these inspire me to strive to be a better runner.

On another note, congratulations to all who completed this weekend's San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon!

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!

40 Percent

That's the chance of me running San Diego now. I just haven't been able to train as well as I hoped, and with classes winding down and graduation a couple of weeks away, I doubt I'll get in some quality running time. I figure it's better to save my $90 registration and put it towards a race I can properly train for and hopefully PR. Something in the fall, perhaps.

With June clear of a marathon, I can now aim towards some half marathons at the end of May in Laguna Hills, CA. I really need to work on my speed training if I want to get under 9:00/mile. While I have Boston as a goal in the distant future, my more immediate target is to beat the time of one of my favorite singers, Josh Ritter. I posted something about Josh a few weeks ago and his fantastic album, The Animal Years. He ran the Phoenix RNR Marathon in January and managed a time of 3:34. So, now, beating Ritter's time is my main motivation.

On tap for this week is to get in a couple of short runs and a longer run on Sunday (16 miles?) with FJ.

the best intentions

I had grand designs on running like a madman this week, possibly up to 32 miles. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. I haven't run once since the 13 miler on Saturday. I was hoping to run tonight, but I have some reading for class to do and to top it off I've been feeling like I'm coming down with something. I've been fighting it off with lots of water, Robek's smoothies with Immunibek, 2 oz. wheatgrass shots, and so far it hasn't gotten worse. I'll see how quickly I read tonight and how well I feel afterwards before I decide on the run.

how's the go going?

The hardest thing about running is getting started. I just don't mean the physical act of taking the first step on a long run but also the idea of starting over again after you have finished. For a couple of weeks there I was basking in the glory of another marathon completed, but with the San Diego Marathon as a possible race, I had to start up again. I allowed my body to recover for a couple of weeks, but now I have to step it up if I'm going to be in shape for San Diego, and this time I won't be part of Team in Training. If I do San Diego, it will mark my first marathon outside of the TNT family. So far, I've found it hard to get motivated to wake up at 6:30AM on a Saturday morning to go for an extended run. Not only do I have to motivate myself to run, I also have to motivate myself to show up at the trails. I have made myself some promises for this year, not quite resolutions, but goals or points of action, and chief among them is to be more proactive about many, many things. One of them is being proactive about improving my speed and fitness. With school ending soon, I can't really blame that any more for taking focus away from my training.

With all of that said, I ventured out on my longest run since the marathon--13 miles. I've done regular four mile runs in the last couple of weeks and two six mile runs, but nothing topping double digits. My goal was to run a 9:00/mile pace, but by mile 5 I was already laboring at a pace that was slightly above 9:00/mile. I didn't expect to shave off any time for the next three miles because it was all uphill, climbing up to Angeles National Forest past the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Once I reach my turnaround point perhaps I could make up some time on the downhill. It was a pleasant day with some cloud cover. It helped that I was shaded for most of the uphill portion and the lovely view of the stream running along the trail helped distract me. Still, when I got up to the turnaround point with only five mile left, I was exhausted. I couldn't believe I ran twice this distance only a month ago.

On the way down, I ran into FJ, my running partner from last fall. We had been planning to run together in the future, but as it turned out yesterday, we just missed each other by about 10 minutes. He ran 14 miles. It would have been nice to run with someone because it does get lonely and taxing trying to motivate yourself to keep going. If FJ had been there, it would have helped a great deal.

I ran the remaining four miles after chatting with FJ at a sub 9:00/mile pace. I cancelled all walkbreaks but two and got to the finish line at 2:07. Shave off about five minutes I spent catching up with FJ and that makes for a time of about 2:02 for 13 miles. Not too bad for my first long run in four weeks.

Next Saturday the goal is to run 16 miles. Hopefully FJ will be free to do so on Saturday and we can catch up on music and reality TV while we run.

Josh Ritter

If you're a Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen fan, pick up Josh Ritter's The Animal Years and thank me later. It may just be the best album of the year.

horse race

I've been watching what I eat the last couple of weeks, except for last night. I had dinner with a friend and gave in to my craving for a big, fat burger. I've been good for so many days that I think I earned one good/bad meal. I may have lost a couple of pounds since starting this "diet," and I would love to be at about 155 by marathon time in June.

Speaking of running, I'm running a 5K tomorrow at Santa Anita Park. The race finishes in the infield of the horse track and afterwards we get to stay in the park and watch the races. It's a tough finish since your feet sink into the dirt, but it's also exhilarating as you enter the park and feel the inner racehorse in you gallop to the finish. It has only been three weeks since the marathon, so I'll try not to push myself too much, but it's tough to do when I see others passing me. The competitive fire just starts burning and next thing I know I'm no longer running an "easy" 3.1 miles. After this week I'm going to amp up my running. The longest run I've done since the marathon was six miles last Sunday, which felt really good.

In other news, work really drains me even though I really don't do much. I'm getting burned out with school and work. School wraps up next month, so that will free up more time, but I'd prefer if work wrapped up. If not for the money I would have been long gone, focusing instead on school.