Pretrianing week: Friday and Saturday

Friday: Rest Day. Aahhh!

Saturday: Gravity was my running partner today.
I chose a route with a WICKED hill this morning - it hit me in the first mile and was steep! I kept thinking it felt like I was pulling a person behind me (damn gravity), but I made it up. But, what comes up must come down, and I rather enjoyed the downhill. By mile three I was thinking "what was I complaining about? I could do this forever." Only because it felt like there was a person pushing me down the hill....

Pretraining Week: Thursday

Cross training day, HOORAY!!! I only had to do 30 minutes and I decided to get back in the pool. Swimming was my first sports love and I used to swim 45 mintues 5 times per week in college. I've badly fallen off the wagon and thought it would be a perfect way to spend my cross-training day. I figure it's good to add such a low impact sport in twice a week. I went to the pool at the Kennedy Club Fitness in SLO, which is a chlorine-free, Olympic-sized pool. I love that my skin doesn't smell like chlorine for days. The 50 meter lanes also add an unexpected mental challenge. I'll be cruising down the lane and my brain thinks "you're almost there" and then I peak forward and I'm only halfway down the lane.

Thanks to my Type A personality, I have a workout regime:

100 m Warm-Up
100 m. Kick
400 m. Freestyle
200 m. Backstroke + Breaststroke
400 m. Pull
400 m. Freestyle

Pretraining Week: Wednesday

Today was my first "HARD" run day, which means I needed to include hills or sprints into the run. I created this run on mapmyrun.com, not knowing it was in a gated community. I pulled up, parked, and wondered how I was going to get in. Just then, about ten high school cross-country runners came running down the hill and swung to the left of the entrance gate, where there was a little trail I hadn't noticed. If this neighborhood is used to the high school cross-country team running through it, surely they won't mind little 'ole me, right? So, I began my ascent up Falcon Crest Drive, which is the nicest neighborhood. Can you believe I accomplished my first hill run AND found the next place we're going to live? ha ha, in my dreams. Every house was on at least a one acre lot, and one of the streets ws called Coastal View Drive with - you guessed it - the most amazing views. I even passed a house with a little vineyard in their front yard! This was a GREAT run, there was no traffic and beautiful views. It felt like Pleasantville. There were two surreal parts for me. First surreal moment was when I passed a woman walking her golden retriever, off leash and just following her. Where can I get one of those?!! Then, I passed a little girl swinging on her tree swing (a great, giant oak, swoon!) and her black lab was sitting in the drive way, alert and watching her, but not running up to me. A dog that stays in the driveway? No way! I found it amusing that the two dogs I saw were each one of the breeds of my dogs.

Oh, and did I mention all the birds on the run? Not only did I hear many different species calling, but there was a red-shouldered hawk foraging low, nearby.

I was pretty happy with my pace - I managed to uphold my regular pace, even though I had the added hills. Go me!


I decided to include a picture of my black lab, Puck, since he won't be making it on any runs with me (he has a bum elbow). I love his face. I think he could be a dog model!

Pretraining Week: Tuesday

Today I was on my own for the run, since Mike teaches in the evenings. So, I grabbed a new running partner - my golden retriever, Nugget. He's got A LOT of energy, so he will definitely
benefit from this half-marathon training. He loves to run. The only problem was I had not taken him running with me for about six months (don't worry, he gets lots of exercise at the dog park), so we had to get back into our groove. Nugget does this thing where he bumps me from the side as we're running, which I think is a dominance maneuver.
Fresh off listening to four hours of Cesar Milan on our way up to Tahoe last week, I wouldn't have any of it. He got the hint after a few minutes. All was well and good until we came up to a yard with two large snarling beasts. Well, they sounded like it, anyway, but as we got closer I noticed they were dachshunds! Whether the dog is fifty pounds or five, Nugget's always eager to defend us if the other dog is barking. I couldn't let him get away with this, though, because it will continue to interrupt our runs. I applied pressure to his neck with my hand in a claw shape and made the "gsst" sound. At that point two walkers passed and gave me a weird look. At first, Nugget totally ignored me, but after doing it four times, he cowered on the ground. When I let him stand up, he was still interested in the snarling beasts, but he wasn't pulling on me to go see them (he just kept looking back). I think this was a small victory. Maybe soon we will be able to make it an entire run without him pulling my shoulder out of its socket!
He loves to rest, too (in off-limits places).

Pretraining Week: Monday

We started our training today! Mike went on a nifty new website, Mapmyrun.com and found a 2.0 mile route for us. We set off with my brand new running shoes (I have to drag Mike shopping to get him a pair) to the starting location and began our jog. It was just sunset and dark by the end of our run, yikes! The road we chose to run on was rural with a narrow shoulder - we won't be doing that one again (especially at night). Narrow shoulder aside, it was a really pleasant run with two small hills (less than 3% grade) and career goals accomplished? SCORE!

This was my first day running with my new Asics gels and inserts, and WHAT A DIFFERNCE good shoes and inserts make! I have almost entirely flat feet so creating a slight arch really helps my feet feel better when I run. Thanks to Amber for that tip!