Stay Abreast!

First things first...I'm continuing my effort to get Betty a race bib for next Sunday's Surf City 1/2 Marathon. Betty THOUGHT she registered for the race, but somehow her registration didn't go through. Maybe she didn't hit "submit," we don't know. It's all very odd, because I THOUGHT that I checked everyone's registrations about a month ago and saw it there, but it's not there now and the race is sold out. It doesn't look like she ever got billed for it, so it's not on her cc statement. If you know, or hear, of someone who is registered, but who is NOT planning on running, and who is willing to sell her a bib, please give him/her my email address hefferblog at gmail dot com.
___________________________________________

This morning we did our weekly long run with the SDTC which met at South Carlsbad State Beach.

Don't hate me, but it was one of those mornings that makes me happy I live here (yes, I know that many of you are living in sub-freezing areas...consider the photo post a public service).

 

The tide this morning was high and the surf, huge (settle down people). 

At one place further down the road, the surf was crashing into the seawall and onto the road we were running on. Betty told me later that she saw one runner just get drenched. 

Yes, I had to stop and take on self-photo at the water station with the surf in the background

The morning plan was for me to pick up at Betty's at 6:20, so of course I woke up at 3:15, then 4:20, then 5:15 (which is probably when I should have gotten up, but I thought I could sleep for 15 more minutes) and then at 6:09.

F! F! F!

I broke some land-speed records that's for sure, coffee, bagel, dressed (luckily, I had pulled together the bulk of my running gear and gadgets the night before), face washed, teeth brushed, found my phone (THAT took 5 minutes...finding my phone which I'd cleverly left in my car the night before) and I was out the door in less than 20 minutes. I picked up Betty, Mik and Kat at Betty's and we were off to Carlsbad - about 35 minutes away from La Mesa. Yes, we were going to be late.

So we got to the beach parking lot, missed the warmup, but heard the tail end of Coach Paul's announcements (Betty was unprepared to hear the reminder to remember to run TWO ABREAST and burst out laughing).

Our track club group (we're called INXS - each year the different pace groups in the track club have different rock band names - Betty, Elsie and I run with the 10 minute mile or slower group), was supposed to run for an hour (30 minutes up Pacific Coast Highway) and 30 minutes back, but we wanted to run a little longer than that, so we left at the end of the B group (that was running for 1:15).

Probably because I was running with a faster group of runners, and even though I was being passed right and left, I was still running pretty fast, especially for me at the beginning of a run. But I felt really strong. I hadn't run since Wednesday's track club workout. Taking a couple of days off before a long run works for me.

Anyway, here are my splits

Clearly I cannot run 13 miles at an 11:02 pace, not next weekend anyway.

The 6th and 7th miles would have been a lot slower had BBJ not run by and patted me on the SHOULDER as he has sworn off slapping me on the ass (of course, I have NOT returned that favor thus far), and had Santiago not run past me as I was going up a hill, since I refuse to be walking when someone I know is around, and had some other SDTC fast guy, when running past me encouraged me to "finish strong.

In any event, there'll be no 10 minute miles for me next weekend, as my goal is to finish with a smile, but it's nice to know that I have it in me.

Some things I was thinking about as I ran.

Injuries

• I spend an insane amount of time thinking about running related injuries these days--what I've done (or may be doing) to incur them and what I can do to avoid them. This morning, I tried something as simple as tying my shoes a little tighter because the last couple of times I've run, I've sorta felt like my foot was just flopping around in my shoe, and I figured that COULDN'T be good for my, probably still not 100% healed stress fracture. It seemed to help.
• I am having some knee pain, not when I run, not even after I run. Mostly after I've been sitting for awhile, it get's stiff on the inside part of my knee. GAH!
• Runner's World this month has a nice article about injury. Most of what's written is stuff I already know. Don't run through pain; rest; stretch; don't do too much, too fast. I am guilty of doing (or not doing) all of those things in the past. 
• I thought this morning about how being injured has actually been a good thing. I'm certainly much more knowledgeable about running than I was a year ago. 
• Worst injury of the morning was some chafing under my arm from my running bra. I wore, what I thought, was a pretty good sports bra by Moving Comfort. I like this bra because it is padded and I need a padded bra. I've had two kids, nursed them both, and as Betty so eloquently noted a couple of years ago, it's really, really, easy to tell which women have nursed. Anyway, I need a new bra.

Nutrition

• I watched Food Inc this afternoon. About seven or eight years ago, I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, so I'd read the story about the little boy who died of e-coli. Brutal reading. That's pretty much when I stopped eating fast food. In fact, DramaGirl called it the "evil book" because when I stopped going to McDonalds, there were no more Happy Meals and no more LPS (little piece of shiz) toys for me to trip over. 
• Last night I told Walter I was going to watch the movie, and that I'll be rethinking how we eat. I'm already pretty good about buying organic and local. I shop at Trader Joes, Henry's (a local market that sells mostly organic and locally grown foods), and I get our meat from a local butcher shop where you actually can pick out which meats you want and they wrap it in white butcher paper...very old school. I LOVE that. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been in an actual supermarket this year. I do shop at Costco, but I don't buy much food there anymore. All that being said, I can do better for myself and for my family

Other Random Thoughts

• I hope the weather is as beautiful next weekend as it was this morning.
• What was Apple thinking naming their new device an iPad? Clearly there were no women in the room when they decided to call it THAT (and I thought that even BEFORE I saw the SNL skit from a few years ago on YouTube).

And finally...one more shot, just cuz...

When I was taking this shot, three track club guys ran past me and laughed and warned me to not send it to people in other parts as they might all decide to move here...I decided to risk it anyway!

Foto Friday - The Family

We had some family photos taken about a month ago by our friends and neighbors Paul and Amy Reams. They really made all of us really good.

I really have no comments about any of the photos...but, I mean, aren't we adorable?

 

DramaGirl's eye. Amy took this one. I like their style of photography. We took some more "traditional" ones with everyone all looking forward, but really, these are some of my favorites

I think Walter looks like he's going to bite me

And he's a good kisser (we took several takes to get this shot)

Anyway, you should know that I've just posted some of my families pix today. Actually we took pictures of the whole clan (grandparents to babies...) I think there were about 20 of us in the whole family shot...and BTW, getting 20 people to look at the camera and smile at the same time is no small feat (at least not in THIS family).

Here's more (if you are so inclined to see more photos of the whole family - Walter's side)

Full disclosure: I paid Amy and Paul to take our family pix. I am not getting compensation for bragging about what an awesome job they did. However, in the interest of even fuller disclosure, they do live in one of our rental properties, so I do have, I guess, somewhat of an interest in their gaining some additional clients. On the other hand, they both have other jobs, so I'm not too worried about whether or not they'll pay rent as a result of this.


___________________________
Hey...Betty made an error. She THOUGHT she registered for the Surf City 1/2 Marathon, but somehow her registration didn't go through, so she's looking for a bib. It's all very odd, because I thought that I checked everyone's registrations about a month ago and saw it there, but it's not there now. The race is sold out, so she can't buy it now.

So, if you know of someone who has a Surf City 1/2 Marathon bib and is not going to be able to run, please email me and let me know. We'd really appreciate it.

More Herd Running

Our Rockin' and Running training group posted some pix of this past Saturday's run on the San Diego Bay on it's website. As I (and lots of other SoCal bloggers) have mentioned, it rained A LOT last week. You can see how wet the streets are, but the sun came out and it was a wonderful morning for a run.

Here are some of our finer moments...

BBJ...mostly his arm...in blue

Fly like the wind Mik

Me and my new friend John...

One of the great things about the track club (besides having a personal photographer) is meeting new people. I ran most of the time within a few steps of this guy. We ended up running the last mile together. At this point, about 2.5 miles into the run, I didn't realize he was right behind me.

 

 Betty. I thought she was nuts for wearing shorts. Turned out to be a good decision.

 Elsie...bummed that she forgot her sunglasses (yeah, that sun reflecting off the wet streets? Brutal!)

Couldn't find a trackclub picture of Santiago, but that may be because the photographer is afraid of him.

Other news this week in semi-long-bullet format

• Have I mentioned, after all my whining and bitching and moaning about what a crazy teaching schedule I had last fall, I have THE BEST schedule this spring. My Tuesday/Thursday course load is pretty full (I teach almost straight through from 9am to 4pm) but the rest of the week is SUH-WHEEEEET. On Monday I just have two short classes, with a nice long break between and on Wednesday, I have a one hour class at 8am, and then I'm done teaching for the day...which gives me lots of time on Wednesdays to get planned, grade papers, and, of course, mess around on the blog and on FB.So...you can probably expect regular Wednesday posts (and comments) from me for the next couple of months. Ah...midweek Heffernews. Can't wait!
• The herd IS running Surf City 1/2 in two weeks. Yes, I'm crazy for even attempting it, but I can't have the herd going to Orange County without me!
• You'll definitely read more of my ranting about my crazy weekend next week, but suffice it to say that next Friday-Sunday should be EXCITING as I fly from one city to the next, one event to the next. Three events, three cities, two days. Should be fun.
• Penny is being an absolute ROCKSTAR-GODDESS, and is picking up the herd's race bibs and tags from the Surf City expo for us, since none of the herd will be in HB (Huntington Beach) the day before the race. She is an honorary heffer for this!
• I have continued being a GymRat and have been to the gym on both Monday and Tuesday nights.
• Tonight is the SDTC track workout. The three person relay...can't wait for THAT!
• This weekend's long run is in Carlsbad. I love running in Carlsbad. I didn't do the Carlsbad 1/2 last week, so this will have to suffice.
  
• An finally...one of my best friends from high school/college has started a fitness blog called Training to be a Superhero and she has one lonely follower (me). If you've got a few seconds, go check her out. She is completely a funny and entertaining writer and you'll love her. I promise.
  

Back to the Routine

It has POURED here this week, and to be honest, SoCal is just not set up for it. We've had tornado warnings, more rain in a week than we typically see in a year. Drains plug; Hillsides slide; Flash floods occur. Yesterday we saw hail--twice. Most of Mission Valley (one of the main parts of the city) is built on a riverbed...I know, smart. Most of the time? No big deal. Rain comes? It floods.

Mona's husband was a hero this week. (He's a lifeguard, and they do more than pull people from the oceans around here).

Gotta love SoCal. We get to experience all weather here. Unfortunately, it's been all in one week.

So, it was with some trepidation that I got up at the butt-crack of dawn, to get to my first SDTC workout of the season. I actually had some serious second thoughts about running this morning, especially when I went to bed last night and I could hear the wind howling and the rain pummeling the side of the house. But my goal was to run about 5 miles without pain, so when my alarm (AKA my bladder) went off at 5:45am, I winced and got out of bed, thinking, once again, WTF do I do this?

As usual, I picked up Betty and Mik at Betty's. I guess it was a good thing I was a couple of minutes late (got there about 6:35) because apparently Betty woke up at 6:29. I'm sure she appreciated the extra 6 minutes. Then we headed out to Hospitality Point.

As we were driving to the run, it started to rain again. Looking west, we could see blue skies. We just hoped they'd be over our heads.

In truth, it was a cool, but beautiful this morning. The rain and the wind has blown all of the muck out of the sky, so it was crystal clear and while we ran the skies were blue. The roads were a bit wet, so when we ran into the sun, it glared off of the asphalt, which made me happy that I remembered to wear my sunglasses. We joined the club as they had started their warmup lap and BBJ slapped my ass to say hello (he swears it was my hip, but it's all ass back there to me). We stretched and listened to Coach Paul give his usual admonitions to stay "two abreastas we ran down the streets. This, of course, always makes me giggle, but it's good advice. We run on some pretty busy roads and their are clearly drivers who are more focused on where they are trying to get to than the herd of 300+ runners coming their way. The reflection from the wet roads couldn't have helped this morning.

But hearing "TWO ABREAST" as I'm running down the street always makes me laugh.

This year's RnR crew...Santiago (who smiled for TWO pictures this morning), Elsie, Mik, Me, Betty, and BBJ

It was actually a relatively small group this morning as lots of club member sat this one out because they're running the Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon tomorrow.

The run felt GREAT! Occasionally, I'd feel a twinge in my foot, but no REAL pain. But I do have to take it easy this week. I can tell I'm not 100% yet. I'm trying to be smart this year. My goal is to remain uninjured. The fourth and fifth miles were the best.

Overall 4.92 miles/56:14/11:25 mi

Not bad!

After the run, we, of course (this is for you Diana) went to Elsie's and had pancakes, blueberries, and mimosas.

YUM! Yes, we are creatures of habit...

We took silly pictures of the flower that Elsie's boyfriend brought her when he picked her up from the airport last Sunday.

We think there's a subliminal message here..don't you? I've never seen a rose with that much stamen.

Elsie and Mik...with the empty bottle

So, yes, it appears that we are back to our normal routine. Run, Eat, Drink, Blog, Repeat.

Good luck to everyone who is running Carlsbad this weekend (Penny, Irene (I think), and everyone else who I'm forgetting. Have a great run. Can't wait to read your race reports!)

Things I Did and Did NOT do last Weekend

Yes, I know that you've all been waiting with bated (baited?) breath for the weekend heffer-tour-de-Tahoe report and WHERE THE HECK IS IT ALICE?

Lots of excuses, including (this is gonna require bullets):

• the Charger loss to the J E T S, Jets, Jets, Jets that was occurring as I arrived home on Sunday, in which NOBODY at my house seemed happy to see me (except for DramaGirl...props to her for meeting me on the driveway, although I expect she was just trying to get away from the herd of boys in the house)
  
• having to spends some time with said family on Monday,
• having to get syllabi ready for classes (next Monday),
• having to get materials ready for a presentation I'm doing on Thursday (oh yeah...that's today...tells you when I started writing this epic)
  
• Then on Tuesday night the power went out oh about 11 hours, thus limited Internet (and I have just too much to write about to do it all on the iPhone, which doesn't have photos on it anyway).
• It rained CATS and FREEKIN' DOGS here yesterday too. GAH! (I know, I know, it's only three days, get over it!)
  

So...The herd had a great time at Tahoe last weekend and there's no way on God's Green Earth that I can retell it all, so here's the trip in photos.

To start, here are some things that we did:

Elsie, Betty, Mik and I drank Limoncello to toast our trip

We got to the airport on time

We partied at a fine bar in Reno and the herd got to meet one of my high school BFs (not pictured)

We took photos in a photo booth

Friday, we went skiing (me in foreground, Mik and Betty behind me, Elise's foot is behind them). Mik took me down a double-black diamond run where I skied like a novice. And no JoLynn, I did not wear a helmet this time.

Double-diamond run led to beers in the lodge (which I needed for recovery)

After beers, we skied some more (lake Tahoe in the background...BEE-U-TI-FUL).

Back to the cabin. Drank much wine while waiting for the rest of the herd to arrive

Drank all the wine. Texted the herd to inform them of our situation.

Took silly pictures in all the rooms of the house (yes, this one is in the shower)

Took more silly pix (Mik on the washing machine)

Then went outside where it was cold

Momma (and the rest of the herd arrived)

We went skiing again on Saturday (Mik, Wilma and I)

We ate an awesome dinner of Mac and Cheese (fixed by Mona...our chef)

Then there were some things I did NOT do

I did not plunge a toilet (but Mik did...and later Clarence). Trust me. This is VERY important

I did not bail out a sink (I was skiing) when the water backed up.

Momma and Daisy are smiling...but that's NOT what they're thinking at this moment

I did not do dishes outside, but Elsie did

By now, some of you have guessed that the plumbing went out...It's a very long and tragic story, but lets just say that there was no running water for the rest of the weekend)

Daisy also did dishes outside

So, to make a long story short...some of us decided to go to Reno, where there were flushing toilets and showers. Others decided to be real women and tough it out for an extra night. You can probably guess which group I was in...

So, Mik, Elsie, Wilma and I went to Reno where (in addition to showering and flushing) we:

Ran the next morning through the Reno hills (it was cold, although NOT as cold as Vegas), but I inconveniently forgot that Reno mud is not wet dirt, like it is in SoCal. It's more like sticky clay which SERIOUSLY weighs down the shoes and has to be scraped off with a stick

And of course, we had mimosas afterward

Then Mik, Elsie and I flew back to San Diego (while the Chargers lost...in all honesty, I'm glad I didn't have to see it)

While we were in Reno, the Tahoe-Heffers (BTW...I am making this part up. After all I was in Reno) had fun while they:

Enjoyed an awesome and beautiful snowfall

Took pictures of ceramic cows in the snow

Obtained glasses of snow (I assume for beverages?)

Marked their territory?

Had a snowball fight - probably to let off some steam after a tragic Charger loss to the Jets. GRRRRRRR - By the looks of this one, Daisy lost.

Were, overall, the epitome of real women -Mona, Momma, Betty, Daisy, and Clarence

Were led out of the mountains by Mona and went to Reno

Stayed at the Grand Sierra Hotel and watched planes land

Drew a diagram of what really happened and where in Momma's cabin. I love that the dishes are outside. Someone will have to fill us in on the rest...

And flew home. From what I understand it was a bumpy ride and there were no working toilets on the plane either

So there you have it, almost like two heffer trips to Tahoe.

Thanks again to Momma for letting us use and break her cabin.

As for running this week? I've done none of that, but I'm off to 'mill it this morning. Then presenst some shiz to the faculty. Now that I'm back in school, I'll probably be back to my twice a week posting schedule.

I'm woefully behind in blog reading this week, but I'll catch up with you all soon!