But work wasn't the least of it. Between the two boys, I have spent my evenings rushing home from work and straight to a baseball game for the past three days. There is another game tomorrow night along with swimming lessons.

By the time we get home from the games, I have two hungry and tired boys. These same boys also have homework to do. And tired boys mean boys that need help on their homework. It's not wonder that I haven't been able to get a few moments of computer time to write my blog.

This week, as usual, I've done my runs at lunch. I am on a 5-8-5 mile pattern during the week. I managed to fit in Yasso repeats x 8 on Wednesday's 8 mile run. They were pretty much in the ballpark; I only had 2 outliers of 3:58 & 4:01. The rest were 8:51 or less. Tomorrow I get my usual Friday rest day. You know what that means ~ I get to work even harder on that protocol.

I'm tired, but I am also looking forward to my weekend training. I am looking forward to the break. I am looking forward to some ME time. My weekend holds 8 + 18 mile runs (that's a total of 26 miles). That's a marathon worth of ME time. I should be back to normal again by Monday.

Posted by Juls at 10:05 PM | Permalink

I felt lucky to get two hugs this morning - one from each of my sons. BoBo has actually given good-bye hugs out freely since starting middle school. YaYa however is still in the stage where he fears that anyone will see him hugging his Mom. Usually, YaYa only gives me a high-five. I gave him a hug while we were in the hidden space between the buildings. Just before he opened the door to the daycare, he carefully and thoroughly wiped his mouth. I laughed and reminded him that I didn't kiss him (it was only a hug). He smiled and pushed past me to be the first inside.

YaYa likes being first. Sometimes, YaYa and I race to the childcare center before school. He ALWAYS beats me. He also ALWAYS cheats. There was no racing to be done this morning however; my legs were sore from the weekend runs.

Saturday's 8 mile run was not bad at all. It wasn't as fast as it should have been, but then again the GPS was shorting me on the mileage. The distance was probably more than 8, which would mean that we ran faster than 9:26/mile. Actually, I KNOW that we were running faster than that. On Sunday, I ran my 17 miles at a pace that felt about the same as Saturday's pace. It was probably slower in the beginning, but faster in the end. My average pace for Sunday's run was 8:44/mile. There is nothing wrong with that.

Today is the Monday after the 17 miler. It feels like the Monday after the long run too. I had packed my cycling gear to spin for 30 minutes on the spin bike. Instead of spinning, I went for a walk. It felt good to just walk off the soreness. Tomorrow, my short run is increased to 5 miles. Can you believe that 5 miles is "short"? Well it is all relative; compared to 17 miles, 5 miles IS short. 

Posted by Juls at 8:47 PM | Permalink

There was a lot of quick running today, but not by me. Although it was to be a pace run, it didn't turn out to be the right pace when it was all said and done. Some days are just like that - today was one of them. Needless today, we got the allotted 8 miles in.

YaYa didn't have a very good day either. His nice solid hit when just outside the foul ball line. He ran as fast as he could, and was just putting his foot on 1st base when he got called back to the plate. Moments later, he was a sad and confused to find out that the foul ball counted as a strike.

We rushed, from YaYa's game, over to see the tail end of BoBo's game. They were tied 1:1 when we arrived. In the 9th inning, BoBo's team scored 3 additional runs. The other team was only able to bring 1 more run in - meaning a WIN for BoBo's team.

Tonight I've been making my preparations for my long run. I am hoping that it will go well tomorrow. We got lucky on the weather today. The forecasted weather called for shower and thunderstorms, but we only got a few sprinkles instead. I hope my luck holds out tomorrow. I've got a 17 miler ahead of me. This will finish off a 41 mile week.

Posted by Juls at 9:44 PM | Permalink

About 3 a.m., I heard rumblings downstairs. We have another kid spending the night, and my responsible Mom-self listened to check the footstep pattern and discern who was awake. After a trip to the bathroom, they returned to the couch (I think?). I went back to sleep. Later, at about 5 a.m., I heard the dog up jiggling his collar just outside my door. Ugh! He is supposed to sleep in his crate so that there are not any extra gifts left on the carpet. I got up to let him outside.

So, by the time the alarm sounded at 6 a.m. I was far from ready to get up. I pulled the covers over my head and signaled to my husband that it was time for HIM to get up (he had a training session at 8a.m.) Before leaving to work, my dear husband arrived at my side with a hot cup of coffee. I faked a smile, as he is normally the one still in bed and I am on the way out early.

TGIF! It is good that today is a rest day because I need it. One more day of work - then it looks like some harder training weekends are ahead of me beginning with this one. My weekend runs consist of an 8 mile pace run on Saturday & 17 miles long on Sunday. I've trained for 9 marathons before this one, but have not used Hal's programs before. The pace/long combo is definitely more challenging (especially with the increasing miles).

Today, I just don't care about anything. I'm wasted - and I wish my head would stop pounding. I hate migraines and I don't want this to become one. So, Please be nice to me; today - I am breakable.

Posted by Juls at 7:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Starting out, I set the speed for 6.7 mph with the incline set at 1%. I did this for the first mile. Read closely as this is an interesting experiment. I wore my Forerunner (GPS) to record the time of each mile as I know that I don't remember the numbers later on but MUST have the numbers. Its just me. The first mile was done in 8:55. I pressed the button as I watched the mill record the distance as 1 mile. After this mile, I increased the incline from 1% to 1.5%, leaving the speed set at 6.7 mph. This second mile was done in 8:49. Now, I increased the speed to 6.8 mph, leaving the incline at 1.5%. The third mile was run in 8:43. Here is a small flaw, I had originally pushed the 5K selection, but was wanting to run 4 miles so I stopped both my watch and the mill after the 3rd mile. I reset the mill to manual and began the forth mile returning (eventually) to a speed of 6.8 mph and increasing the incline to 2%. This mile was run in 8:42 making the total 4 mile workout in 35:10 (average pace 8:47/mile).

I walked for an additional 1/4 mile to cool down, wiped off the machine and proceed to the weight machines. I began on the leg press with a couple of adjustments trying to figure out where the weight used to be when I had been doing my strength workouts. I settled on a number and began my repetitions but, since I was now listening to a podcast series on the Boston Marathon, I was a little distracted. I forgot to stop at 12...or even 15. I might have been up around 20 reps when I realized what was happening. Lucky for me, the weight were not set heavy so I don't think it mattered much.

I concentrated better on the upper body machines. I went through them rather quickly, not wasting any time moving from one to the next. I kept the weights set where I could feel my muscles working but also careful not to induce a shocking soreness that I would later regret during my weekend runs.

While leaving the gym, I glanced over at the clock. It was past 1:30 pm. The cafeteria was closed. It's a good thing that I have Oatmeal and Raisins in my office.

Posted by Juls at 4:25 PM | Permalink

It worked out nicely. Past the parking lot and onto the main part of the trail, I hit my lap button to begin my first of six 800 (? mile) repeats. During this segment, the speed alarms were blaring continuously like a horn signaling all walkers to move over. They were probably thinking, ?How rude!?

After hearing the beats to signal that I had run the required ? mile, I slowed down and glanced at the elapsed time for that lap. It was 3:49. Perfect!

I began a recovery jog (3 minutes 50 seconds), and then I decided to change the speed zones to eliminate the annoying alarms. I stopped the timer to do this and, after resuming my recovery jog, I pressed the lap button prior to the timer reaching 3:50. I figured that I had received the balance in rest during the time that I was reprogramming the watch.

My next ? mile repeat was finished in 3:55. I was NOT pleased with this time. I was running into a headwind, but I still had 4 more repeats to go. I tried not to worry and recovered for the allotted 3:50. My next repeat was 3:44. I completed my recovery jog and then turned around and headed back to the office. The following repeats were 3:43, 3:42, and 3:47. Not bad for my first Yasso 800s off the treadmill.

Posted by Juls at 3:54 PM | Permalink

As I ran, I saw a lot of new faces. There were runners out all over the trails. I might add that there has not been many runners out in the previous months of rain, rain, rain. Today, however, the men were running shirtless - they were showing off the fact that they had NOT been running for the past many rainy months. Ugh! I was warm, but I wasn't hot. There are some things that you just don't need to see.

Although I HAVE been running, whether rain or shine, I left MY shirt ON. I am certain that the world appreciates it.

Posted by Juls at 10:39 PM | Permalink

I hate it when one project can take over so drastically, that nothing else matters while I am working on it. Not breakfast, lunch, not even to go to the bathroom.

By 1:45 p.m. it was complete. I sent it off, for the last time, to welcome comments. In my email I stated that I would be in the fitness center. Finally I got a break to clear my mind of work, and let it fill with meaningless propaganda of television.

I got the remote control and set the TV for NBC. It was time for "Passions" ~ a strange, but entertaining SOAP that I often watch (We have a family member acting on the show). So there I was spinning on the cycle, reading the captions, and trying to block out the load music that was playing.

It is a cross training day. As Hal Higdon puts it, today was supposed to be ?a day of relative rest?. I decided that I would spin with some resistance, but not a lot during the show. Then, with each commercial break I would get out of the saddle for a standing climb. By the end of the 45 minutes that I was there, my legs were telling me that this was not really rest, but perhaps a pretty good workout.

The show is chalk full of broken hearts, witches, men lurking in the shaddows with knifes, and of course a full bolus of PASSIONate scenes. Watching Noah & Fancy, Chris & Sheridan, and all of the other quirky characters was "just the thing" on a hard work day. It was just a nice break from reality to a, sometimes really bizarre, very dramatic daytime show.

Later in the evening, I tried to tune into OLN for my Boston Marathon fix. I asked Cindy to TiVo the coverage for me, but I wanted to see it sooner. Poor calculations on my part; I saw that the repeat coverage was to occur at 5 p.m. When I considered that the posted time was EST, I figured the coverage would be at 8 p.m. (instead of 2 p.m. PST) For now, all I have are the few photos that were posted to the Boston website.

Posted by Juls at 10:13 PM | Permalink

On Easter Morning my run was a mere 7 miles. Following Saturday's mid-afternoon 12 mile run was difficult. I woke up at 6:30 a.m., and crawled out of bed at 7 a.m. to head off for a run around the city. It was quiet out. I was a bit sore but, because there was hardly anyone in sight, I felt peaceful and comfortable on the streets.

The kids and hubby were home sleeping as I ran past quiet houses and later past church goers heading into Easter Mass. Further along, I smelt pancakes cooking in some of the houses, bringing back memories of childhood Easters with my family.

The run was slow but that was okay. Back at home we did the egg hunt, followed by a delicious breakfast. Then, later in the day, DD came home for a visit from L.A. and we had my Mom over for lasagna. Yum! It was nearly midnight by the time my head hit the pillow.

Posted by Juls at 9:48 PM | Permalink

But the sun didn't last. Within an hour of my setting my feet to the floor, there were sprinkles of raindrops falling. I should have run earlier, but I didn't. I just didn't feel like it.

After a baseball game where my 7 year old got to pitch to the last batter before the 5 run rule ended the game, I made my way to running errands. It would be a bit before I'd be able to get away for a run.

By 4:30 p.m. I was heading out for a 12 mile run. Running down the running/bike path with the river flowing along side of me. The water was moving fast, and caught my attention. It was as if the water was challanging me to a race. I ran swiftly but kept in mind that I had a long road ahead of me, not to mention the return trip.

It was cool and cloudy, but the sun was actually out. I noticed that I was happy today to run alone. This was different from last week when the long run felt lonely and isolated. I listened to my music ~ its beat kept my turnover quick. And as I ran I fell into relaxation. I let my body release the pent up energy from a hard work week, and imagined the sun refueling my body.

The run wasn't all easy; my right foot hurt at the ball of my foot. I took my shoe off and rubbed my foot at mile 10. Resuming my run, I became aware of my legs aching. I was tiring and my pace was slowing. But in wasn't long before I happily stopped running after a 12.3 mile run.

Posted by Juls at 9:10 PM | Permalink

Yes, I am still only "dreaming" of running the Boston Marathon. A year ago, I was reviewing the kid's school calendar and was excited to find that the Boston Marathon would exactly line up with their spring break. I blocked out April 14th - 20th on my work Outlook calendar.

Now, 1 year later, I head to off to work after asking my friend to TiVo the marathon coverage on OLN. How could this have happened? How could I have trained so hard, and still not made the cut?

It wasn't for the lack of trying. I ran the Silicon Valley Marathon at the end of October and suffered from the runs before the race and dry heaves during the race. Needless to say, it wasn't my best performance. I backed off my training, hoping for a speedy recovery, and ran the California International Marathon just 5 weeks later. Although my performance was better than the last, I didn't make the required time.

In the past couple of days I've been aware of everyone heading off to Boston. I'm envious, but proud of them. I wish them all the best and wish that I was able to go along for the ride. I'll run in 2007. Am I dreaming? Perhaps. Still, I think I will block out some time on my calendar anyhow.

After all, look at the story of Bobbi Gibb, the 1st woman to run the Boston Marathon. She wasn't invited, in fact she was told that women were not capable of running an entire marathon. She showed them, but not before hitting some obstacles of her own. Without a coach, suffering through injuries, and having to disguise herself as a man, Bobbi Gibbs not only was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, but she opened doors for women to follow in her footsteps and do the same. In 2007, it will be my turn.

Posted by Juls at 10:42 PM | Permalink

Tom and I did some household chores, and I reviewed my training schedule carefully. I decided to make a last minute change. Next weeks long run was a scheduled step-back week. I decided to run 11 miles today instead of running 15 miles. This will mean that next Sunday?s run will call for 16 miles. At 1 p.m. I was heading to the local trail to get my run in. By this point the black clouds loomed in the sky and threatened rain.

I wasn?t at all into it. I hit the trail to find many people rushing back towards their cars as the rain was just starting. Why had I waited so long to get going? Today was not looking like a day when I was happy to be out running. Instead it was a day that I was going through the motions, feeling isolated from the world, and just getting it done.

I know that it sounds miserable, but it really wasn?t like that at all. By the time I hit mile 2, the rain had stopped. And even though I had been tempted to cut my newly shortened mileage short, I DID complete the distance. Training for a marathon is not all fun and games. It?s hard work. It?s getting out there when you don?t want to and doing it anyways. I am proud to say that, even though I made a last minute change in plans, I was able complete another week of training.

Posted by Juls at 8:47 PM | Permalink

I read Hals words and know that it is true. This is one of the reasons that I have chosen not to run races with friends. While it is nice to have the company and distraction from challenges of the race, I know that I have issues when I don?t race alone. Take the Silicon Valley Marathon for example: although the first miles were close to my planned pace, they were a bit fast as I ran with Cindy for the 1st eight miles. Feeling that she wanted to go faster, I insisted that she go ahead only to find that her running ahead of me left me feeling slow. At CIM, in 2003, my sister joined me at mile 10. She meant well, but her enthusiastic ?helpful hints? rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of motivating me, they left me feeling unprepared. Sometimes the well meaning efforts of a friend can back firing in relation to keeping focuses during a race. Generally, I am a people person, but I am a loner when it comes to running. Where does the motivation come from then? I look to my refrigerator.

Now I know what you must be thinking, but read on as you might be wrong.

The side of my refrigerator is decorated with papers and photos. It has the usual display of my children?s select papers showing off a good grade or a certificate for perfect attendance in school. I don?t want my children to think that I have overlooked their hard efforts. Each week, as I go through the stack of papers, I choose a couple of special papers to plaster to the side of the refrigerator. They stay there for a week or so and then get filed in the circular file.

Then there is a section for my benefit. Beside the informational pamphlet, and confirmation card, for the Grandma?s Marathon I have a couple of other items. It starts with a picture of Cindy and I that was taken after running the Home Depot Half Marathon. Above that picture it says I-AM-FAST. Then there are small magnetized words spelling out BORN-TO-HAVE that are placed strategically above a picture magnet of BOSTON. Finally, the refrigerator has my printed training schedule. It is all for the purpose of motivation.

I consult the schedule to remind myself what this weekend holds for me. On Saturday, I will run a 7 mile run at marathon pace, followed by a 15 mile long run on Sunday. I?m 10 weeks away from Grandma?s Marathon, and I will need to stay focused on my goal now more than ever before. In order to stay motivated, I set a goal, plan the training it will take to achieve it, and recognize the little achievements along the way. At least I TRY to.

Posted by Juls at 5:49 PM | Permalink

Thirteen years ago my husband and I walked on fire for New Years. Fire walking is an amazing experience. To do it and avoid getting burned, you need to believe in yourself. The whole thing started with the group building the fire. Then we meditated for hours. Finally we were in the right frame of mind to step onto the hot coals. I remember than once I made the decision to walk into the flames, there was not turning back. I just kept on moving until I was on the other side of the raked out coals. Wow! It was the cold grass on the other side that hurt.

I thought about that experience on the way to work this morning as Rodney Atkin's new song played on the radio. The words have been getting louder in my head all day long.

Yeah, If you're going through hell

If you're going through hell
Keep on going, Don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

This week, it feels like I am facing the fire again. Lately, my runs have been my meditation, but I just don't know if that is enough. I need to make some time for myself to meditate. Then I only need to tell myself that I CAN walk through the fire again without getting burned. And I surely hope that I can get out before the devil even knows that I'm there

And what is the fire? Is it work? Is it issues with bringing up children in this world of new pressures and standards? Or is it from the hustle and bustle of life in the bay area? I keep telling myself to just believe that it will all come out okay. And it will.

Posted by Juls at 8:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Rose buds all around my front yard awaiting the coming of spring. Technically, the season is spring, or so my son informed me one day after school. The rain, however, has not taken notice; it has been unrelenting. Until this afternoon that is.

I stepped outside, wearing shorts and my long-sleeved shirt, ready for a cool run. I had hoped that I could avoid the rain. I needed to get away from it all and get out for a HARD RUN. As luck would have it, I not only escaped the rain, but enjoyed a beautiful sunny day at that.

During the run I listened to my iPod running music and took in the lovely day. There were not any open roses to be seen, but there was so many beautiful flower blossoms on the trees. The geese were out honking at me, and people were out walking the trails in force.

There is nothing like a good and hard training session to drain the continued strains of life. I mulled over my current battles in my head and set my garmin for mile repeats. The session began with a mile warm up, and was followed by 1 mile intervals, and then a 1/4 mile easy job in between each mile repeat. My five repeats today were at a time 8:03-7:55 minutes per mile.

As in today's work out, running has been a tool for solving problems ever since I was a teenager. When I was a teen, I would run when I was upset. I would play out fights in my mind. Sometimes these were fights with my friends and other times with my parents. They were the fights I didn't have ~ the reason that I didn't need to talk back to my parents as much as my sisters did. But more than anything, when I was a teen, my running saved me from being the affect of peer pressure. What a gift running has been for me this life. It has saved from trouble and helped me able to cope with my problems.

To this day, I still can rely on it (rain or shine). 

Posted by Juls at 8:36 PM | Permalink

While on the treadmill, I glanced over at the girl next to me. I hate to be judgemental, but I remember walking over to the fitness center at a much faster pace than she was going on her treadmill. I don't know why this struck me so much, but it did. Does it even count as exercise when you go that slowly? Would she eventually speed up?

I got tired of waiting for THAT to happen. I had to get going to a meeting that went from 12:00-2:15 p.m. I can't believe that there wasn't any other time to have a meeting but during lunch. Food was to be provided, but I wasn't surprised that there was no food in sight when I arived in the room at 12:01 p.m.

Today, I HAD to get my run in. I didn't run yesterday. Actually, I didn't do anything at all. Although the training plan called for a 4 miler today, I only had time to run 3 miles. It was better than no workout at all.

After a 1 mile warm up, I began a set of Yasso 800s. It was no use. My body wasn't cooperating. My calf muscles were still sore from Sunday's long run. I did only 3 Yasso 800s and finished off the last bit at tempo pace.

Later at home I helped my son, BoBo, film a "Got Milk" commercial for school. It came out cute. I also gathered family information for a family tree project for YaYa.

All the while the dog kept following us around. I think he is waiting for something. Hmm. Food perhaps?

Posted by Juls at 7:47 PM | Permalink

In the past 13 weeks, I?ve enjoyed some good running. Blogging about my workouts has been a good way to keep me honest. I?ve been pretty consistent with my running mileage, and have done well keeping with the plan to include some speed work in my training. I?ve run 371 miles at an average pace of 8:52/mile. Although, I?ll have to run consistently 8:47/mile (or faster) during my next marathon in order to hit my BQ, I remind myself that this average pace also includes my long run that are ?supposed? to be done slow. I need to be more consistent with my strength and stretching; I?ve not been good about that. I?ll need to stay motivated, and keep up the speed work for longer workouts.

I?ve done well so far. I will just need to stick to the plan - keeping the pace for my training and, hopefully, that will translate to a successful race day.

Posted by Juls at 2:26 PM | Permalink

I tend to be one who hates letting things go to waste. I?ve sort of always been that way. I am also not one to save just a little bit for later. I?ll wrap up a good size portion, but I?ll finish off any small amount of excess food. When it?s all eaten up, I gently rub my belly and wonder what possessed me. It?s like this with other things too.

Take running for example: Today, I planned a run that was more than I was supposed to do. My schedule said to run 14 miles. I planned a 16 mile run. And although I have been doing my long runs on a flat, paved surface, today I was planning a VERY hilly run. It was a bit much, but I didn?t want to cut short a perfectly good run by turning around with only 1 mile more to the top of the hill. It just seemed a shame to go that far, without taking in the view from the top.

It WAS a spectacular view. Cindy and I came down the hill cautiously due to the muddy areas. We laughed as we went. In the last couple of miles we agreed not to increase the pace, as we usually do, and just finish. With pride for a run well done, we made our way home to the kids, and the weekend chores. As the day comes to an end, we gently rub our legs and wonder what possessed us this time.

Posted by Juls at 10:02 PM | Permalink