It's taper time for me too, right?

Whoa baby, it’s Friday already?

First I want to give a GINORMOUS shout out to my good friend JEN who is doing IMAZ on Sunday!!!!! It’s been awesome to follow her journey and even accompany her for part of it. You’re such an inspiration my tri-GURU! I can’t wait to stalk her Sunday and hear all about her race when she returns. GO JEN!!!!!!!

Second, um, I’m running a half tomorrow. This week has been busy workwise so I used it as a “taper” week, haha! I kinda threw my running “plan” out the window awhile back and decided to run a minimum of 3 times per week and run on feel. This worked out great. It allowed me to make a triumphant return to crazyweights—yeah! I’ve also done a few home yoga sessions, some spinning and even the elliptical. My runs have been mostly good. The course is flat but I did many of my long runs on hilly routes so I don’t know if that will hurt or help me. I’ve tried to look at my watch less and concentrate on my breathing more. I didn’t set any goals for this half. I’ve kinda been anti goal setting lately. I want to have fun with Mr. Pi and the co-worker…if I PR great, if I don’t then, no biggy! Either way, I’ll have earned my cider post-race.

Let’s see…coming up next week is the Virtual Turkey Trot! I've got quite the list started (check it out below and make sure you’re on it, if you’re not sign up!!!—just leave me a comment telling me you want in and what distance you’ll be running. Plethora of choices: 1 mile, 5k, 5 mi, 10k, 10 mile, 1/2 mary!):

Mel (aka Tall Mom)
aka Alice
Kristen (will run for win)
Kristen (bestie Kristen, from Kristen keeping up)
MR. PI (as in my speedy hubby)
Caylx
Donna
Mica
Lena
Boyfriend (Mica's man)
D10
Aron
MarathonMaritza
Runninglaur
Mel 2nd Chances
Petra
Sarah (of glowblades who is super speedy...watch out 5k'ers she may take the cake or in this case the super awesome downloadable ribbons I'll be posting)

Not to late to sign up...I'll be accepting signups until next Wednesday! Leave me a comment and I'll add you to the list of trotters.

Also, next week I will be hosting my very first GIVEAWAY! Giveaway will open on BLACK FRIDAY so stay tuned.

With that, I’ll leave you to enjoy your happy Friday. Lots of racers this weekend, good luck Philly runners and to any early turkey trotters.

Turkey Trot Race Registration & My new love for spandex

Ambitious Aspirations 1st Annual Virtual Turkey Trot is now open for registration!

To register, simply leave a comment with your intent to enter and the distance you plan to run. There are a plethora of distances: 1 mile, 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 mile and Half Marathon!

Below is the official race bib! Simply click on the image and copy over to your blog (or print and wear on Turkey Day). I'll have a call for race results after Thanksgiving. Looking forward to hosting this virtual race.

For my P-town peeps: I'll be printing bibs and distributing course routes soon, stay tuned.

Now I'm turning my attention to the weekend. One of Mr. Pi's old college friends' was in town for the weekend. His sister is a XC star at Cal Berkeley who was running down in Springfield. On Saturday we trekked down to Springfield and spectated his sisters race. I've never spectated a XC race before and it was crazy. I think the spectators got almost as much of a workout as the runners; it was chaos--spectators running all over the place. The rest of Saturday was spent drinking beer and enjoying the dry weather!

Sunday, Mr. Pi and I got a late start to our run but we made it out there. We were both going for 10 miles. My goal for the run was to test out my half marathon outfit (yes, I am running a half mary next weekend! YIKES!) and to try to run purely on feel. I tend to be a little obsessed with my Garmin which isn't always a good thing. I tried to concentrate on my breathing and on running safely through the ghet-toe! The first three miles of the run are a little sketchy so I was trying to be ultra aware of my surroundings. The run...

It was great for the first 5 miles, I was consistently running at about a 10:45 pace and feeling great. I slowed a little in the middle miles but finished it up with two fast-ish miles, the last mile was 10:12! Whoa!

Overall, I ended with 10 miles at 11:13 avg pace. Best news of the whole run though was my rockin' spandex Sugoi compression tights. They are A-MAZ-ING!!!!!!! More to come on these puppies. Here I am rockin' my spandex after 10 miles in the west drizzle that is the NW for the next 9 months.

Don't forget to sign up for my virtual turkey trot!

Rock the Clock

I am rockin’ the AM train.

Monday-Rest other than a fun walk with Zoey!
Tuesday-Weights AM/5 mi Hill Run PM (got stuck in a downpour—such is life in the NW)
Wednesday-4 mi tempo run AM (two miles at 9:45)
Thursday-Weights & Spin AM
Friday- 5-7 mi Run AM (planned)

Bo-ya! Sorry for the boring re-cap. But I had to share my AM success of the week. I’m lovin’ it and feel like I have tons of energy. I do crash about 8:45 pm but I’m also wide awake at 5!

I’ve been uber busy at work so I haven’t had time to create the race registration for my virtual turkey trot but I will be offering a plethora of distance options, including: a family friendly 1 mile (also an option for this awesome lady who will be 4 days post-IM!!!!!), 5k, 5 mi, 10k, 10 mi and the motherload of calorie burning Half Mary! Assuming the weather isn’t terrible, I’ll be going for the motherload! Look for clickable bibs soon. (RunningLaur, I may need your expert advice on bib design and clickability.) P-town peeps, I’ll be posting a meeting spot and time for our “live” trot (distance to be determined by the individual…I’m hoping maybe I will get to meet CilleyGirl and hang out with Cindy again!). I’ll be printing out a bib for myself (and Mr. Pi—yes hon, you get to wear a handcrafted bib), if anyone else wants a real bib I’m happy to print others.

Thank you to everyone that commented on my 70.3 aspirations. I have been so inspired by so many of you and really appreciate everyone’s willingness to share their training plans, advice, etc. My goal in the next few months is to hit weights and build up a good strength base. Over Thanksgiving and Xmas, I’ll be sorting through all of the wonderful training plans I’ve collected and will develop a plan of attack (the plan definitely needs a catchy name like Kristen’s Project SUCK-IT).

I added a few new pieces of winter essentials into my closet. A headlamp and running tights. If I’m brave enough to take pictures in spandex maybe in my next post I’ll have a picture for you. (I know Mica will be disappointed that this post is pictureless…sorry chica!)

As we start to think about 2010, I found a coupon for a local race already! Anyone wanting to plan in advance, here’s a link to a $5 coupon for Race for the Roses.

Happy Thursday…almost Friday (for some of you, it is your Friday—not fair!)

Rockstar

Whoa it’s November already, where did the fall go?

It’s been a little while since I posted but I have some fun things to update you all on.

Last weekend, I had a horrible last 4 miles of my long run and was kinda lack luster all week. I did take some fun pictures! And really, it wasn’t THAT horrible of run in fact, the first 7 miles were awesome. I was under 11:00 which is speedy for me on hills (or really any long run). I don’t know quite what happened, in the last 4 miles my pace dropped by almost a minute per mile. Whatever, I finished and I survived!

Tryon Creek Park

Me around mile 5, all smiles!

Sun came out around mile 8.

This week I made a triumphant return to crazyweights (and had sore everything to prove it). I plan to continue crazyweights through the winter. Get all buff before…

TA DA…

BARB’S RACE 2010 70.3

Barb's race is part of the Vineman triathlon series. I’m still thinking through a training plan but I’ll have two partners in crime Kristen and Tara. We’ve decided we’re team KAT! I’m excited to hear from CarolinaJohn, Caylx and Missy who all raced B2B this weekend!

I had a great Saturday night belting out tunes to celebrate one of my favorite people’s birthday’s—SARAH! There are some great pics on facebook. It was re-enforced that I cannot sing but a surprise rockstar was our almost-ironmaner Jen! She can sing!

Jen!

Sarah belting out the spice girls!

Needless to say, I’m exhausted today and it’s still stormy here in the NW so a long run for the week is looking unlikely. I am still planning the EWEB Run to Stay Warm ½ in two weeks. My training plan proved to be a little too overzealous for me so I’ve modified what I started with. I am planning two longish runs this week to make up for my lack of one this weekend. (Maybe an 8-10 sometime this week and a 12-13 next weekend.) I’ve decided running in the dark sucks, especially at night. For some reason dark in the morning is less scary than dark at night which means, I NEED TO GET OUT OF BED in the morning! Ptown runners, who wants a morning running buddy?!?!?!

I mentioned before a virtual race. Since I am already planning to organize a run/race here in Ptown for my runner buds on Thanksgiving and in honor of the very first race I ever ran, I decided to host a Turkey Trot! I’ll have bibs available and an official race registration post in a few days. Thanksgiving is such a great day to run for so many reasons. Lots of cities offer an official turkey trot but for those of you who don’t have an official race to run in (and even for those that do) you can participate with other runners in a virtual trot that’s free!!!!! I only know of one reader from overseas (the lovely Boston bound Petra) but for any of you lurkers out there, here’s your chance to partake in an American tradition…well, an American runner tradition how ‘bout. Be on the lookout this week for race registration!

My goal for the week is to GET UP IN THE MORNING and run/lift/spin/swim…! Who’s on the AM train with me?

I am SPARTACUS

I wish I was a more consistent blogger because I feel like everytime I do post I have a million things to recap!

Last week I felt like I was battling something so I didn't do a whole lot, I did run one glorious midweek run at a 10:XX pace on hills, which for me, is fabulous!

Saturday Mr. Pi and I went with JM and her man to the Field of Screams haunted corn maze on Sauvie Island, which despite the mile long line, was really fun. I used to be a summer ONLY kind of girl but there is something about the crisp fall air, pretty fall leaves, hot cider and scarfs that is growing on me. (That's not to say I don't miss my flipflops, hehe.)

Saturday Mr. Pi and I also introduced a new member into our family. World, meet Spartacus! (Thanks Tara for the awesome name suggestion. I have a feeling Spartacus and Fabio will be great friends.)
Isn't he handsome? He's my new Specialized Allez road bike. I'm nervous about the clipless pedals and skinny tires but I'm sure I'll get used to it with time. Jen said something funny to me the other day about getting used to a new bike and improving on the bike in general. I guess there is a saying called TITS (time in the saddle), hahaha! I can't wait to get in a good ride, sadly, the weather has been less than ideal for bike riding. I'm hoping for one clear day this weekend.

Sunday Mr. Pi, Jen and I went out the Banks Vernonia trail for a run. It was drizzly but not pouring. So crazy that I'm running in that kind of weather. It doesn't really even phase me too much anymore. Jen was running 17 miles, Mr. Pi and I were both doing 10-12ish. I ended up with 10.5 and I think Mr. Pi did 12 (he still beat me back to the car!). The fall leaves were amazing on the trail, I tried to snap a few pics while running, sorry for the blurryness!

Mr. Pi

Pretty trail, I think Mr. Pi is a little dot in the background.Jen over the bridge as we started out.Jen's in this one too but it's super blurry. Look for the pink/orange dot.
Me!Pretty trail!
Me, with my hot cider, dry clothes and Harry Potter waiting for Jen to finish her 17. (Yes, I am just now jumping on the Harry Potter train. Already through book 1 and well into book 2.)

I had a good run last night. 3 easy miles @ 11:04 pace. I didn't go the super hilly way but I still have at least 1 mile of hills (which was my slowest mile clocking in at 11:15). After the run I did a weights circuit with lots of abs at while catching up on TV online. I am feeling my arms, back and abs today--ouch!

I'm really trying to hit 1000 miles for the year. I'm pretty close, currently, 807.07. This means I pretty much need two months of 100 miles. Lately, my miles per week has varied a LOT. I had one week of 31 miles, then the next was only 15. I'm really trying to stay consistent and hit the 20-25 range.

D10 sent me her tri maintenance plan and I've been looking at new plans for myself as well. I have a goal half in a few weeks that I'm currently training for with a new plan I created last week. It's a modified version of a Runner's World plan. I know tempo runs (or Pfitz users, LT runs) are great at building speed but I have such a hard time fitting them in since it's really hard for me to do a tempo run on hills and every route by my house is hilly. I'm thinking I may need to do these runs on the tready or the track. I'm going to stick to my plan as closely as possible but try not to stress out too much about pace. All I really want to do is beat my current PR, I don't have any other goals.

Happy Wednesday!

P.S. I'm thinking of hosting a virtual race a la RunningLaur style. Is there an interest in that fellow virtual friends?

Nike Women's Marathon 2009 Race Report and Weekend Recap

BEST.WEEKEND.EVER! I know I’m going to miss a lot of fun details and probably give too many details anyway. Really, the first line sums it up!

Friday morning started with a road trip to Cali. Car was full this time with Zoey, Mr. Pi, me, Sarah and the co-worker. There were fun stories told and lots of great music shared (clearly, I wasn’t the DJ since no one likes my hippty hop). We dropped Mr. Pi off somewhere along the 5, where he spent a few days with his family. The girls and I continued on to the Bay. We dropped the co-worker in Alameda then, Sarah and I were on a quest for ZACHARY’s!!!! YUM! Sarah has pictures!

Friday night we crashed with the lovely Julianne at her A-MAZ-ING house. We were pretty delirious by the time we got there but we so appreciated being hosted by her and her great hubby @donutfan (for all your tweeters). In the morning, we woke to glorious views of SF and breakfast prepared by the Donut Man. (No, it wasn’t donuts!)

Saturday was an amazing day. The weather was perfect, everything went smooth with packet pickup. Sarah and I met up with Aron and Tara and chatted for a little while. Sarah’s friend who helps put on the NWM hooked us up like royalty! SERIOUSLY! The rest of the day Sarah and I gallivanted around SF. We shopped, we ate, we walked up an infamous SF hill and we enjoyed the beautiful warm weather. We had one interesting adventure ending with a $12 cab ride to REI and $5 bucks worth of Gu. The day was pretty awesome! I don't have any pictures from our glorious day of sightseeing but Sarah does (now she has to write a race report and post lots of pictures!)

Kristen met up with us about dinner time and had made us reservations at an Italian place. Post dinner we all crashed after carefully laying out our race outfits. Kristen being our city expert had us in the BEST hotel ever, we were literally two blocks from the start line. No worrying about cabs to the start, we were going to walk right out the door to the start line.

Sunday morning was another early wake-up call. I did my pre-race coffee and tried to shove down a banana. Not too much to say about the morning other than us laughing about Sarah’s big butt (see below) and that comment making me have “I like big butt’s” go through my head for about an hour. At the start line we found Tara and Aron. It was a little interesting getting into the corral but we made it and before we knew it the gun went off. Kristen and I had decided to run the whole race together, have fun, take pictures, walk, stretch and just enjoy ourselves. My Garmin crapped out within the first mile, it would auto pause and auto resume, then tell me I was running a 5 min mile. I eventually just turned it off and really decided to have fun!

With Sarah and Kristen pre-race! I look wayyy too excited about being up before the sun!

Sarah's "big butt" stuffed with Gu, kleenex and her phone.

Staying warm in the VIP tent. Sarah, Tara, Aron, Me and Kristen.

Start line!

Mile 6ish?

In GGP, I think.

The course was hard, I won’t lie. Every time I saw another hill I thought “poor Sarah” since she was doing the full. The downhill portions were nice but it’s not like they were gentle downhills, they were steep too. Good thing we were running for fun! I cannot stress how fun and how fast the miles went by (despite them actually being slow for both Kristen and I). Running with a friend was amazing.

Another really cool thing was leap frogging with Audrey and her cousin. They were taking their time too and we kept leap frogging with them. Crazy thing is, Kristen got her bib from Audrey who had earned an extra one through a Nike running club but they had never met! Awesome! Seriously, Kristen and I chatted through the whole race as the miles flew by. Right before mile 11, I started looking for Roadbunner, right away I spotted her bright yellow hat with a bunny on it. She was a great spectator. We saw her again at the finish and then we hung out with her for awhile after too. She took lots of pictures!

Finish Line!!!

Half marathon finishers!

Kristen and I with Roadbunner, she's a great spectator!

Post-race I also ran into Mel which was so totally random and so totally great! Also, saw Aron, Tara, Shelly and Solorunner. This makes me seem like I know EVERYONE, I really don’t.

Mel, from 2ndChances, totally random blogger meetup!

I will for sure be signing up for the half marathon lottery again next year, it was a great race! I won't lie the Tiffany's bling was pretty nice too. Check out Aron's blog for pics! I won’t ever go for a PR, holy hills, but everything else was great. I’d post my finish time but I honestly don’t know it. The website is difficult to maneuver and my Garmin was off. My guess is 2:3X, which really isn’t all that far off from my current half PR so there is hope for me to PR at the HM distance.

What made this race so great, aside from all the things I have already mentioned, is that I got to see Sarah finish her first full marathon! I, along with Amy and the other PB&J’s, have been training together on Sunday’s for over a year. I was nervous, excited, happy and proud as Kristen and I waited to see her come through the marathon chute. She’ll have all the details from her perspective on her blog at some point but it was so awesome for me to be there when she finished! Sadly, the dumb guy next to me had his arm in the way of the picture I took, but I did get a couple of her as she passed by (Sarah, you'll have to post those too.).

WAY TO GO SARAH! You are a MARATHONER! You did great and I’m so happy that I got to be there to share the weekend with you!

Finishers!

Post-race we hoped in the car, well, hobbled is probably more accurate and headed to Mr. Pi’s parents place for a feast. Though, since it took a LOT longer to find the shuttle and get back to the hotel than we originally thought, we made a pit stop at a CA staple. (In n Out anyone? Best. Milkshake. Ever.)

The car ride home was relatively uneventful however; more fun times were had between the Dunlap’s and Sarah. I LOVE that girl!

All in all, Nike Women’s Marathon was a COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!!!!

Vacation Re-Cap!

Where do I begin…

The wedding in Napa was gorgeous. The bride was beautiful, the wine was tasty, the scenery was amazing! Here’s a pic of Mr. Pi and I in the car before we went to the ceremony. Sadly, that’s the only picture I have from the wedding.
After a long night, we arrived back to Sac from Napa pretty late that evening and we were up at 4:XX the next morning to get on the plane to HAWAII. It was a bit brutal but no complaining, we were off to HAWAII! Being so tired, I actually did a lot of sleeping on the plane which normally I can’t do. When we arrived in Maui it was a balmy 85 + 90% humidity. Glorious! Perfect beach weather.

Running to Lahina and back to the condo on Maui. Running to the top of Diamondhead (well running from Waikiki to the trailhead, I walked up to the top and most of the way down, too many tourists and too steep for me to run the whole way.)Top of Diamondhead.Mr. Pi waited for me at the start of Waikiki so we could run the rest of the way back together. What a guy!

Totally out of order photos, here is the view from our condo on Maui.Ocean swimming!

The wedding we went to on Wednesday was kind of odd. My grandpa now has a stepson who is only 6 months older than me. My new step grandma seemed nice enough and her family was pleasant. My thought on the whole thing is “if he’s happy, I’m happy.” He now has someone to explore new adventures and travel the world with, which makes me happy.

Before the wedding.My Mom and I on the beach after the wedding.

Mr. Pi and I post wedding, beach at sunset.

We’re now back in the NW, where it’s cloudy, windy and rainy, not everywhere can be Hawaii. I leave again on Friday for SF to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. I’m super excited to hang out with some new bloggers/tweeters and see some old friends (ROHO’s, RoadBunner, Audrey, Kristen, all my Cali friends). I don’t have any goals for the race other than to support my awesome friend Sarah (her first marathon) and enjoy the route. I’m ready to have some fun!

While I was away sooooo many people ran awesome races, congrats to you all! Most special congrats to my PB&J/R (depending on who you ask) marathoners Emily (who BQ’d) and Amy (who kicked her first marathon in the ass)—way to go ladies!