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.
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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!