Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Victory is mine!

Saturday 13.0 miles/1:57:59/9:05 average pace

I did it! I whooped that trail's butt. Actually I just ran a lot smarter than last time- I started off at an easy pace for the 5 miles or so of gradual climbing, averaging about 9:30 or so. I was feeling good, so at mile 5 I ate a Clif Shot (Mocha flavor) and then picked it up a little until the turnaround and back up the hill. Still felt good, so I ran strong down the hill for the last 5 miles, averaging 8:20 or so with the last mile at 7:57. Whoo hoo! :) I felt fresh at the end, I actually had to talk myself out of running farther. It was a perfect run. It was cloudy and cool, low 40's, but I was warm enough and managed to avoid the rain that came later in the day. Overall, a great day.

Sunday I went into San Francisco to be one of the only spectators at the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon. Seriously, not a lotta crowd support out there. You better believe I cheered and hollered the whole time though, most loudly the two times I saw Zach. He looked very strong and had a great race- check out his race report. All the runners battled the elements- occasional rain and a brutal headwind out on the coast. But Zach and the others triumphed over the conditions and ran like rock stars. This was the first time I've truly spectated at a race and I loved it. Although I have to say I think I was more nervous before the race than Zach was! ha ha. Oh and the coolest thing happened- one of the runners shouted out "I love your blog!" :O Who was that? You are my favorite person ever. :)

After the race we had breakfast in SF and then headed home to unwind for a bit. We watched some of the superbowl but headed out about 4:30 pm to Yoshi's in Oakland to see Chris Botti perform. The show didn't actually start until 7:00 so we did watch the big game at the bar there - it was exciting. Anyway, we saw him in NYC at Blue Note and really enjoyed it so we went to his Bay Area show. I met him afterward and he signed a copy of his CD which was awesome.

I have lots of pictures from the weekend- I'll download them and post them tomorrow.

OK, TOTAL miles for last week: 35. Plus one swim session and one weights session.

Both Zach and I took yesterday off and did some errands and some fun stuff (like mini-golf, SO fun). I started the day off with an awesome run:

Monday 8.0 miles/1:08:15/8:32 average pace

The schedule called for 8 miles with 4 at Tempo Pace. Well I was not looking forward to that, so I told myself not to worry so much about the pace and just get the miles in. Turned out nature felt like helping me out though- it was VERY windy so my first 4 miles were slow due to the headwind. But when I turned around I used the tailwind and picked up the pace to a "comfortably hard" level. I usually push too hard on Tempo runs and cannot complete the workout non-stop, but yesterday I was smart and controlled and made the whole 4 miles with only the two mandatory street crossing pauses. Sweet! My splits for the last 4 miles were: 7:55, 7:55, 7:45, and 7:27.

Here's the schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday: 8 miles (4 LT) done!
Tuesday: xt
Wednesday: 11 miles Medium Long
Thursday: xt
Friday: 5 Easy
Saturday: 15 Long
Sunday: xt

Sunday we are leaving for Tahoe for a day of skiing/snowboarding (Zach skis (extremely well) and I (try to) snowboard). We'll drive home on Monday. It will be a very beautiful and fun trip, but I'm gonna be awful on the snow since I haven't skied since moving to California from Montana like 6 years ago. Yikes. Look out everyone.

Have a great week everyone! Will post pics soon.

And all you Super Tuesday staters better go VOTE today! We're going at noon.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jen,

That was me that shouted out to you! Thanks so much for coming out to cheer us on, esp on the brutal stretch of gusting headwinds and rain. Your blog is awesome! I'm out in the penninsula and would love to go running with you and the gals sometime.

Unknown said...

Cool, now not only are you getting in great workouts, but you are accumulating fans, too! Nice!

Ryan said...

Excellent job on the 13 -- AND the eight. So much activity in your life. I need to step back and spectate one of these days. Kudos to your commitment to Zach's half.

I like Chris Botti, but did you talk your man into missing one of the best super bowls ever for a saxophone jazz concert?

Keep up the great Boston training...

Ewen said...

Your blog is famous! That's got to be sweeter than revenge on the trail.

From the photos, it doesn't look like the most pleasant of days to be a spectator. Zach did well after a relaxed start - just snagged a PB too!

Judi said...

Hey Jen - your mileage is great and your times are awesome!! Those pix are gorgeous. I miss SF.

miss petite america said...

chica, chica, kicking ass left and right! awesome!

you'll have so much fun in tahoe...there's so much SNOOOOOW!