I’ve been meaning to write about my 12 miler for a few days now, but work, this website going down, and lots of Easter chocolate have kept getting in the way. Now that dinner is in the oven, Ashok is asleep and Brian is watching the Lakers, I have a chance to post.
Happily, I can report that the run went great! So, so, so much better than my 10 miler two weeks before. I drank a crapload of water the day before, made sure to get out early and beat the heat and took it slooow. Aside from a couple of quick walk breaks to drink water and eat my Clif Blocks, and one quickie right around mile 10 going uphill, I ran everything else. It was such a relief to knwo I could get through it. Time was 2:10:36. I would love to go faster, of course, but I’m trying to focus on just getting through it at this point. This weekend I do 8 and then the Great Race of Agoura Hills is the week after! I am still trying to decide if I am going to stay out there the night before. The race is about 45 minutes from where I live and starts at 7am so I would have to get up pretty effing early to get there on time but then again, there is something to be said for sleeping in your own bed. I’ll continue to ponder. I’m starting to get excited!
Of course, I’m also excited because the day after my race, we are getting on a plane and going to Maui for a week! We haven’t had a real vacation like this in a loooong time, not since we went to the Big Island which was a year before Ashok was born. I can’t wait. Naturally, this Hawaiian vacation will not be quite as relaxing since we will have a toddler along with us, but I am really excited to do all sorts of fun stuff with him. As long as he sleeps (please!), I think we will survive.
March 26th, 2008
March 23rd, 2008
Yes, it’s true. I was sick again! Just this week, another cold hit both Ashok and I but luckily no ear infections or other maladies requiring a doctor and/or antibiotics. I am soooo ready for the end of goddamned cold and flu season.
Happily, my ailment was waning by the weekend and I was able to get my 8 miles in. It was a much better run than last weekend, I averaged 10:24/mi which is about what I was doing before that sucky 10 miler. This weekend is 12, god help me. I am going to try and get it over with on Saturday (starting early this time-7am!) so I can spend the rest of my weekend eating the piles of candy that will be heaped upon Ashok this Easter weekend.
See? He’ll eat anything. He doesn’t need that candy. It’s bad for his teeth.
March 18th, 2008
I ran my first 10 miler ever today. It sucked. I felt like I was dragging ass the whole way and nothing helped, not water, not clif blocks, not nothing. I won’t post my splits because I was so unbelievably slow and I don’t want to look at them again.
Of course, the big problem today was the heat. I didn’t get out early enough, and by the time I was heading back it was about 75 degrees. That doesn’t sound so bad, but I’m just not used to running in warmer weather right now. Also, I am brown. That’s not a problem, mind you, but I’ve always felt like my skin and my black hair soak up the sun like a sponge. Maybe I’m just making excuses….I do have a good hat. I went through all my water today which I never do, which makes me think that I probably wasn’t drinking enough water in the last 24 hours to get ready for this run, and I ended up walking a quarter mile stretch just after the 8 mile mark. There was a point around 9 where I even considered calling Brian to come get me, but I was so close at that point that I just sucked it up and got myself home.
Next week’s long run is back down to 8 and then 2 weeks from today I do 12, which is my longest long run before the half on April 5th. I really hope that run goes better than today’s and obviously, I need to plan a little better and make sure I get my ass out the door before it gets too warm. The race, thankfully, starts at 7:00 am.
I have so much stuff to do today, mostly practicing, but I feel like just sitting around and sulking. I have an important recording coming up in about a week and I need to do some serious work to get ready for that, but I’m having trouble finding the motivation. It’s a piece I performed many times, so I know it well, but recording is a whole different ball game. I have to be able to play really clean and precise since I know the folks putting this album together have limited time for editing. It is a great opportunity and I’m excited somewhere deep inside, but right now I just don’t feel like dealing with it.
On the bright side, we’re going out tonight to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Dinner will be at one of our favorites, Pizzeria Mozza. If you live in the LA area and haven’t been there, get to it! It is easier to get a reservation than the Osteria and the food is fantastic and although not as fancy, slightly cheaper. I can’t wait. Hopefully, a Butterscotch Budino will help pull me out of this funk.
March 9th, 2008
For the last couple of months while I have been training for my upcoming half marathon (omg! hills! fuck!), I haven’t really been focusing on speedwork or trying to run fast (or my version of “fast”) at all. It had been a really, really long time since I ran a mile under 9:00. But today:
1 - 9:08
2 - 9:16
3 - 8:35
Of course, I was practically hyperventilating by the end, but at least I know I can still do it. Had it not been for a couple of bathroom breaks courtesy of Lucy, those first couple of miles might have been a bit faster as well. Not that I’m blaming you, dog, you’re a very good girl. Oh, who am I kidding, she stopped reading this blog months ago.
Modeling the latest style from the pages of Dog Vogue
March 7th, 2008
Congratulations, Brian! My husband had a great race this weekend coming in at 4:16:23. Ashok, my mom and I went out so see him at mile 19, which was right in front of Staples Center where a Laker game was about to start, and he looked great. Unfortunately, my hands were a bit too full to take any pictures of him running by, but I did get some shots of the spectators:
On the (not so) mean streets of L.A….
My Dad is My Hero
It was a beautiful day, highs in the low 70’s, although, according to Brian, a bit too warm and sunny for running 26+ miles. After mile 19, we walked down Flower Street in downtown and I was once again confounded by street closures and barricades and unable to get to the finish line. We managed to find him afterwards, but I wish we could have seen him cross. Maybe if the LA Marathon website wasn’t such a useless piece of crap, they could actually have some helpful information for spectators? Regardless, it was a great day and inspiring as usual too see all the runners and the thousands of people who came out to cheer them on. The marathon always makes me excited to live in L.A.
After coming home, where some people showered and other smaller people napped, we went out for dinner at The York. The York used to be The Wild Hare, which was one of our favorite bars when we lived in Highland Park. We celebrated many different occasions over there, including Brian’s first marathon in 2006. The Wild Hare was a bit of a dive, which I loved, don’t get me wrong, and we were sad to see it go but The York is pretty nice. Excellent beers, a full wine list, great food, and so far none of the hipsters have sneered at the baby in the high chair. I had a fantastic pan-seared tilapia with lentils, swiss chard and bacon and a Crafstman Hefeweizen-I’m drooling just thinking about it. After all that eating, we gave Ashok a bath and both boys were in bed by 8:00. It was a good day.
Now that Brian’s big race is over, I’m realizing that my half marathon is only a month away. I am on track with my training schedule but I looked at the elevation chart for the race today and….crap! What was I thinking?? Am I going to be able to make it through those first 8 miles? Oh well, too late now. If anyone has any recommendations for hill training, I’ll take all the help I can get.
March 3rd, 2008
….but this is so damn cute.
Do you think I could convince Ashok to help me clean with this?
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for cooler weather for the L.A. Marathon this Sunday. Good luck, Brian!
February 29th, 2008
…a week off from running somehow turned into a couple off from blogging. I just haven’t had much material lately and quite frankly, if I have to write another post about being sick, I’m going to slap myself in the face.
Because yes, I have been sick. Again. What was it last time, stomach flu? Oh yes, and then of course Ashok and I got matching ear infections. He’s doing much better but I’m still waiting for my doctor to call. Add to that equation a ton of work over the last couple of weeks, an unexpected bout of insomnia that had me sleeping an average of 3 hours a night while my baby boy slept blissfully through the night, lots of rain, and well….you get the picture. Not much to write about, just a lot of whining.
Sickness aside, Ashok has been really fun lately. He is learning new words every day, it seems. His repertoire now includes bye, box, duck, milk, and eye among others and he will also point to various facial features on request. We have recently discovered him to be bilingual-he says “agua”. I’m just waiting for him to bust out with “Donde esta la biblioteca?” one of these days and then we can make it official. Perhaps that would explain his fascination with Mariachis?
He was absolutely mesmerized by these guys. When he wasn’t staring with his mouth open, he was “dancing” in his high chair-this consists of a lot of thrashing, mostly. When I was his age (and older), mariachis made me cry, I was terrified of them for some reason. I’ve managed to get over my fear of singing men in tight pants but I’m glad to see Ashok hasn’t inherited that dislike from me.
I have managed to keep running despite all the many ailments. Today I did 9:
1 - 10:36
2 - 10:08
3 - 10:04
4 - 11:30 (stopped to walk and have water and gel)
5 - 10:20
6 - 9:47
7 - 10:29
8 - 10: 06
9 - 9:25
I did the three-ish mile loop at the Rose Bowl three times and my splits pretty much reflect the ups and downs of that route-1st mile up, 2nd mile half and half, 3rd mile down. I’ve come to accept the fact that I will probably be running about this 10:20 pace for my half in April. I would have liked to have done it at a pace under 10:00 but I don’t think that’s realistic and I don’t want to hurt myself either.
This week will be a little easier work wise although we are playing Bruckner Symphony No. 7 down in Orange County. For those of you unfamiliar with Bruckner, let’s just say that this piece is a very long song-about an hour long, I believe, and even though the music is nice, I think I would rather be playing an hour of Mahler than an hour of Bruckner. Anyway, this means late nights this week since I will be commuting but since the insomnia seems to have subsided, it shouldn’t be too bad.
I almost forgot! Brian is running the L.A. Marathon is weekend so I hope to have pictures and a report sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed for cool weather for him and all the other runners…..
February 25th, 2008
Last weekend, I got hit with my third stomach flu in the last eight months. These are the joys of having a child, I am back to having stomach flus and ear infections. Of course, I was the only one who got sick so maybe I really shouldn’t be blaming Ashok. Anyway, I only had a few good days last week where I could have run and I was pretty much stuck in bed. By the time I was feeling better, it was back to work for a couple of absolutely lovely 14 hour days. I finally got back to running this weekend but I am slow and it is HOT. It was at least 80 degrees here yesterday and is shaping up to be the same today. It’s kind of fun, but isn’t it still February? Weird.
February 11th, 2008
This last week was brutal. Between the crazy, hectic work week and the non-stop rain (not complaining, we need it!) there was hardly any time for running or anything else. I only got two runs in but at least they were both good. Today I did 7.2 on the same course as last weekend’s seven. Total time was 1:11:12 and here are the splits:
1 - 10:41
2 - 9:56
3 - 9:39
4 - 9:59
5 - 9:51
6 - 9:37
7 - 9:29
.2 - 1:57
In general, today felt much better than last week. My overall pace was about 25 seconds faster which probably had a lot to do with finally getting a few good nights of sleep this past week. Ashok has taken to sleeping in until 7:15 again, god bless him! Even though we usually don’t take Lucy on long runs, she came with me today which probably helped too. She was so excited; after a rainy week of no running and only a few short walks here and there, she was still bouncing around the house like crazy even after a 7 mile run.
I still haven’t posted my food pictures yet-I’m hoping to figure it out this week when I get some much needed time off. Unfortunately, this break won’t last long. February had been looking nice and mellow for a while, but a bunch of work has come in and looks like it will be a crazy month.
But, before that all gets started I have something to look forward to: on Wednesday of this week, my sister turns 40 and we are going out to Osteria Mozza to celebrate. This restaurant is pretty new and has been the source of much buzz in L.A. so I am excited to check it out. If I can manage to take pictures of my meal without making a total ass of myself, I’ll post them here after. Those food pictures will probably be much more interesting than all that cereal and pasta I ate last week.
January 27th, 2008
Next Posts
Previous Posts