Back to what this blog was originally about! RUNNING!

Running has taken its proper place back in my list of priorities. Since I had signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Miler, I decided most of my training needs to be on hills and on trails.

First of all, let me go over my hydration pack woes. I have FOUR, count 'em, FOUR hydration packs. #1 is an old Nathan 2 liter vest that I kind of like, but it's a little heavy for my taste and is a bit awkward looking. It is a great pack for the cost, and I'm going to keep it around. #2 is my Ultraspire Spry vest, which I love love love, but the nozzle broke off recently and I've been to lazy to change it. I also find that it goes lopsided on me, I think because the straw pulls it over. And sometimes I think 1 liter just won't cut it. I also have vest #3 which is the Orange Mud Hydraquiver Single Barrel vest. It's OKAY. I like the concept, and love the bottle. It's so easy to refill. However, on the last two runs I used it on, I noticed my hair was super sticky and wet from the bottle. I am not sure if I left open the top, but oh man that was not fun. I kept ripping my hair on it because it was so sticky. Gross.

So enter vest #4 which is my Salomon S-Lab vest. It's great, except now that I'm 10 lbs lighter from last year, it is too big for me. When I got it, I was sized somewhere between the XXS and the XS/S, so I got the XS/S. Poor choice. I also didn't like the snap system in the front, and as great as those flexible bottles are, I find them pretty annoying. They get floppy when they're empty, and they're hard to put ice in and mix fluids in. Cleaning them is a pain, and I just don't see why everyone raves about them.

Oh, and it gave me a killer burn on my collarbones from being too large. By the end of the run, I just yanked the bottles out and ran with them in my hands so it would stop the chaffing. The burn was surprisingly deep, and I was hurting all week from that.

I am going to sell my Salomon Vest, and replace it with the Ultimate Direction Jenny Vesta. I tried it on, and the fit is great. I love how small it is, and how the bottles ride above the boobage, so you don't have that awkward look going on. I am not sure how I feel about the bottles that come with it, I hear a lot of people have issues with the caps being hard on the teeth, so I got two replacement nathan bottles with soft pull out valves that will fit. I also got a 1.5 Liter bladder for the back for super long runs. I will report to you guys next week. :)

It is week 3 of our 16 week training plan. I think my approach is going well. I am trying to do MAF runs during the week, and harder trail runs on the weekend. I even did hill repeats last week which were all at my MAF heart rate. It was a slow walk up hill and then a fast run downhill. I felt amazingly fresh doing that, compared with the other hill sprints I did the week before. That week I had ran fast up hill and then had to stop to catch my breath or walk downhill. Turns out I was only 30 seconds slower per mile with my MAF heart rate. A small price to pay for how much better I felt, and how much healthier my legs were for the week.

My hill sprints fast uphill- 735 feet gained

MAF Hill day - walking uphill - 778 feet gained

Doing hill repeats on this 50 foot hill wasn't too bad actually, especially if you have a sunset to watch the entire time. It is a good mental exercise as well, so I'm going to be including it once a week.

This weekend we conquered two peaks. One was Eagle Peak at Mt. Diablo. Jon and his sister were backpacking up, and I ran by myself. I would run a bit and then go back to check in with them, and then run farther. I ended up doing 11.5 miles and over 3,700 feet of elevation! I was mostly walking since the sections were pretty freaking steep. It was rewarding to get all of that elevation in. We even spotted a tarantula. They are known to come out around this time for mating season.

Part of the harder sections of the trail. So steep!

Photo Credit to Jon Martin

The next day we ran up Montara Mountain. Jon needed to get in 3000 feet for his training plan, and I needed to get in 8-9 miles for mine. I wasn't intending on doing so much elevation but I got over 2,300. I had a new technique of something between going all out and MAF. I would let my heart rate go to about 165-170 before I would walk, and then run again. I was basically walking for 10 steps then running for 10 and so on. I have to say, it felt GREAT. I had so much energy the entire day, never felt weak, and maintained a somewhat decent pace. This type of trail running is definitely going to be a regular technique for me from now on.

Last but not least, I had a run today that went really well! My heart rate was low, and even though it was pretty windy out, I was able to do a below MAF run at 145bpm, AND do a 10 min mile. Not sure how that happened, but I'm happy with it!

Tomorrow is hill day, Thursday is a fun run with the co-workers, and then this weekend Jon and I are planning on running up Mt. Tam for the first time! I have to say, I don't want to get all cheesy but I really am thankful for having Jon. How lucky am I to have a partner that I can go off and explore trails together with? Looking forward to taking the rest of the weekend to catch up on other things in life and to maybe even have a day where I can do completely nothing! I won't hold my breath though.

Have a great long weekend Everyone! Here's a recent photo of chickens just because...

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Running up Mountains (baby ones) and my quest for the perfect vest.

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This post might not be the greatest if you're looking for juicy running stuff (because my running life is that interesting). However, I still am running! I run about four times a week now, mainly sticking with flat MAF runs. Things have been going well! I'm still searching for the right workout balance, and this past week my experiment was doing weightlifting/climbing in the morning, and running at night. But who am I kidding, I barely climb now a days. It doesn't even really count. I did however play around at Dogpatch Boulders last week for a couple of hours. I worked on this competition style problem which was fun! I didn't get it though :( But came close enough. 

Competition style V3. A bit stretchy! lol

Running at night has been great though. One minor caveat is that my digestive system hasn't really been nailed down for evening runs. I think just about every time I go running at night I end up in a mad rush for the bathroom (maybe TMI? But who cares, runner's are notorious for their bathroom tales). And UNFORTUNATELY, the rangers that take care of the public bathrooms in the park are irritatingly timely when it comes to locking the doors. Luckily I have found refuge at the Hilton's bathrooms...which I should say are quite fancy!

Yay for pristine bathrooms!

Another negative aspect to running at night: when things get dark, the nocturnal animals come out! I see multiple skunks and raccoons. Which might be a positive for some people, but I think getting sprayed by a skunk might just ruin my day.

Two of the little stinkers crossed my path on this run.

The perks are that it's cooler out. It can get a bit breezy on the ol' bay trail, especially in the evening, but I find the breeze kind of welcome in the heat. Also, the sunset. I really look forward to any time that I can catch the sunrise or sunset. My body is also much more warmed up and ready to run as opposed to going the first thing in the morning.

By the beach in Burlingame - night run.

I just need to adjust my eating schedule I guess. Maybe I shouldn't down a large meal 15 minutes before running.

Aside from running, Jon and I have been focusing on backpacking and training for our upcoming hike up the Mountaineer's route at Mt. Whitney. We are both new to the sport, and knew it wasn't going to be easy, so we've been doing some hikes around the bay area with loaded packs.

Two weeks ago, we did one of the most popular Bay Area hikes - Mission Peak in Fremont. Just a skip and a hop across the 92. We wanted to go somewhere new, and since I had heard so much about Mission Peak I decided it would be a good spot to do our first hike. Plus I heard there were cows. SOLD.

We went with our friend Kelvin, and packed our bags full to ensure a good workout. My bag ended up weighing 34 pounds.

The total elevation for our little loop was just over 2100, however almost all of the elevation gain was within three miles, so it was pretty steep most of the way up.

We left bright and early, and for the first time in a long time, I got to see a sunrise. I knew that there was no shade at Mission Peak and that it was supposed to be a hot day in Fremont.

The first thing we noticed was that it was CROWDED. Even at 7am, we had to park about a mile away. There was a flood of people, and to me it looked like a pilgrimage to the top...something I really haven't seen before on a hike.

We were the only ones with giant packs on, and I think almost everyone that walked by us made comments about it.

Our pace that we maintained was steady. I practiced the "rest step" technique that my mountaineer friends (Rini and Brandon) told me about, and I think it helped from burning out.

We summited in just over an hour, and joined a large crowd that was on the top. There was a long line to take photos with the notorious marker at the top. While the guys sat and took pictures and at their lunch, I decided to hop in the line, the entire time talking myself in and out of standing there. In the end, I gave in, and we snagged a photo.

The stupidly long line to take a photo

Anddd here we are! Complimentary colors!

Oh, and I can't forget the cow photos. We were able to get pretty close to them. So cute!

COW

The hike back down was a relief. I ended up slowly jogging most of the way down, much to the disapproval of Jon, and my quads.

Credit to Jon - hiking down Mission Peak

This morning was our second backpacking trip. I managed to squeeze in another pound, with my bag tipping the scales at 35. Kelvin joined us again, as well as another group of friends that had coincidentally planned a hiking trip at the same place!

Our plan was to arrive at the park at 7 and start hiking. Mt. Diablo gets HOT. The last time Jon and I attempted a run up it, we ended up turning around and not summiting because of the heat. We didn't want to make that same mistake, so an early start was a requirement.

What we didn't realize, was that the state park didn't even open until 8:00am. FAIL. Luckily after about 15 minutes one of the rangers opened it early for us, and we got to a start at 7:30.

Cred to Jon for this photo! Hot hot hot!

The climb up to Eagle Peak was brutal. Some of the parts had up to a 40% elevation grade, which is pretty steep. Having the backpack and hiking those steep grades was really difficult for me, as well as hiking down the really steep sections. There were moments when I would have to slide on my butt and then attempt to stand back up from a deep squat.

Our group at the top of Eagle Peak - Credit to Jon

I also had no idea how large my backpack was, and constantly snagged tree branches and brush. Apologies to my friends that I may have snapped branches in their faces! I think/hope that I was able to maneuver through the gross amounts of poison oak that lined the trails, especially for Jon's sake since he seems super sensitive to it.

Credit to Jon

The trail is undeniably beautiful, but I couldn't spend much time looking around since I was so focused on walking straight and not tripping. I was really feeling the weight of the bag on the uphills this time around, and was definitely the slowest of the bunch. To my defense, I also had the most weight in my bag. My heart was pounding! Luckily my friends were kind enough to wait for me, or hang back to make sure I didn't fall off a cliff (which was actually a real danger considering how clumsy and unbalanced I was with the pack).

Are we in a drought?

I don't think I've ever drank so much water on a workout before, and I am pretty sure I'm still dehydrated. We were all sweating buckets because the sun was really unforgiving, especially towards the end of the summit, and the entire hike back down. I literally watched Kelvin darken about three shades from the sun, even with sunscreen.

Me literally begging for Jon to help me take water bottles out of my pack. "WATER. WATER."

We all celebrated when we finally reached the top, and then proceeded to tear through our packs to eat lunch and refill our waters. The view was spectacular, and we were able to see several landmarks due to the crystal clear skies.

checking out the view

Jon's better pano

After an hour of dilly dallying, we worked our way back down. The sun was much stronger by that point (around 12:30). The way we took back down was a much friendlier road, a fire road for the most part that was on a steady and easier grade. This was the way that I ran up it previously maybe a year ago, and seemed so much easier.

There was about .01% shade on the trail going down. Everyone's feet started to really ache and blister, and you could feel the energy from our group being sucked away by the intense rays. My heels began to blister in strange spots, so I ended up favoring my toes for the second half of the decent.

Hiking down - Credit to Jon

I started chatting with one of my friends, and we were able to make time go seemingly much faster. At least it took our minds off of our aching feet. We talked about many things, but most of the subjects were the cold drinks that we were going to indulge in after. Jamba Juice...pina coladas...bloody mary's...otter pops...

Once again, we were cheering when the cars were in sight, and immediately I took off my pack. It surprised me at how I felt like I cut off a limb of my body when I took it off. Walking without it felt strange!

Total elevation was just over 3900 feet of gain, and 13.6 miles.

After all of our talk of Jamba Juice (or more, me talking up about how good it is after a long workout), we all promptly headed to the nearest one. I drank my Strawberry Whirl sz. Medium in record time.

Pretty sure I'll be sore tomorrow, but I think it was an excellent hike to help prepare us for Whitney. 

Anddd to end this super long post, here are some random photos that describe the rest of my week.

Some of our heirloom tomatoes from the garden

The girls are getting bigger! Treat time!

Chickens!

Sandwich makers are greatly under appreciated. Tuna melt for dinner!

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Giving backpacking a shot!

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Oh Boy, where do I even begin? It has been a roller coaster of a weekend, and maybe to your disappointment, there wasn't a lot of running involved. This is why. Meet the Girls.

Wednesday morning was pretty much one of the happiest days of my life! I got to pick up our newly hatched baby chicks from the post office. It was a highly anticipated day for me, and I've been preparing for probably a month now! 

I ordered 5 baby chicks from mypetchicken.com. The ship as little as 3 per order to your house, and you can get all kinds of breeds. It's recommended to find a nearby farm to avoid the stress to the chicks, but I wanted specific breeds with friendly temperaments. The result? Dyno - the Easter Egger, Nugget - the Buff Orpington, and Eggitha, Pebble and Margaret Hatcher. One is a Black Copper Maran, another is an Australorp, and the last is an olive egger but right now it's hard to tell the three apart. They should all lay different color eggs except for the Australorp and Buff Orpington which is a standard brown egg. I'll try to spare you from the hundreds of photos we took, but here's a couple of my favorites.

Jon and I fell instantly in love with these little ladies. They are just the cutest things I've ever seen! They grow so fast too so every day you will see something new, whether it's new feathers, or a new skill. Prettttty sure I'm driving everyone mad with all of our chicken updates on fb and instagram, it's just totally devouring my time, energy, and life right now. Please bear with me...there will be running talk.

Dyno has new shoulder feathers!

Speaking of which, most of my runs have been very chill lately, and I only did two weight lifting sessions last week. Jon and I just craved to be home to spend time with the chicks. It was nice though, and I gave myself a bit of a break from all the exercise since last week was really pushing the envelope for me. I am pretty sure I was on the verge of overtraining with all the climbing, lifting, and the two races back to back.

Since my last post I have done one 4 mile run, one 8 mile run, and one 10 mile run. The 4 miler was a bit slow which I expected from the hard week prior. The 8 miler was in the afternoon and I kept it under MAF for once! It was so relaxing and beautiful. It was supposed to be a 6 mile run but I extended it so I could catch more of the gorgeous sunset. 

I tried to keep them all at MAF (149 heart beat or below) but the 10 miler yesterday was really hard to keep my heart rate down.

The reasoning? Well, #1 it was hot. It has been scorching in San Mateo recently. It'd be great if we had air conditioning to catch some relief, but our house is built like an oven and it's often hotter inside! Also, my diet has been complete crap lately. My typically iron-strength willpower has been caving to plenty of carbs...hot dogs with giant fluffy buns, pho, and hard ciders. My salads no longer contain the plateful of lettuce topped with veggies. Instead it's...a plate of tomatoes with some mushrooms and radishes sprinkled on top. I need to get back on track with eating more veggies. 

My heart rate Sunday was also high because I was also under an unusual amount of stress because one of our chicks (little Nugget) was falling ill.

I noticed that she was unusually sluggish on Saturday. She has always been the smallest of all of them, which is why I named her Nugget in the first place. She was sleeping a lot, not eating, or drinking, so we basically carried her around in our hands to keep her warm with our body heat and tried to get her to eat and drink for the entire day. My stress levels were slowly going through the roof seeing her go downhill. She started to get better Saturday night though, and eating more.

Sunday, after my run I spent the day painting the chicken coop. I think it's turning out well! What you can't see is that there are shingles on top. It's so cute!

By the end of the day though, little Nugget still wasn't feeling well, and at midnight we decided to take her to the only emergency veterinary office that would do anything for us. Turns out, she wasn't an expert, and actually knew next to nothing about chickens. While she was very sweet, I am pretty sure I could literally hear her typing, searching for treatments in the room next to us.

Long story short, little Nugget passed away sometime last night. I woke up at 7am to check on her, after getting to bed after 2am. 

We sobbed. All day. 8 hours of crying. I can't remember the last time I've cried this hard. It was just so difficult watching her become so week that she could barely do her signature peep. I felt so helpless.

Wah wah. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer and have almost an entire post about chickens and death, but that's basically everything that's been going on. Here's Little Eggitha was able to get a smile on our faces with her new skill of perching.

To take our mind off of things I ended up going to the gym to get back into the weightlifting routine. Bodybuilding.com made sure to remind me that I was a slacker, and needed to get back on track. 

I enjoy the workouts for the most part. I like that they mix them up every 1-2 weeks, and it doesn't get boring. What I don't like is that some of the workouts are really...weird...and not very convenient. Sometimes they use very specific machines that are hard to find in regular gyms. Other times require a partner, and while sometimes Jon hops in to help me, I'm usually forever alone.

I've been slacking on progress photos, but honestly I am not sure if I can see much of a difference. I *feel* a difference though, and I think that's what matters. Things I've noticed though are that I definitely have more strength. I have gone up in the weights, and struggle way less than before. I also have lost some belly fat, and have less of a muffin top. So that's nice. I haven't lost too much weight, but that wasn't my goal. 

Before and after. When I first started training to today. Cheesy bicep pose.

Before and after. Photo on right is from today.

Oh, and to swing things back to running, here are some photos I found of myself at the Double Dipsea. I didn't realize how terribly balanced my running vest is! I guess I noticed that it slips off my shoulder, but I can see now it's because the straw is pulling it over. It might need some tweaks. I'm surprised I'm running in any of these photos. That was a tough race.

Anywho, that's about all I have in store for this post. I plan on getting back on track and training longer distances to prepare for our three person team for Brazen's Dirty Dozen and Half Dozen. So excited for this race! I will probably just be doing about a half marathon, but hopefully will be able to push the pace a bit so we can score well. The race is July 11th, so definitely check back afterwards to see my race report about it!

Ok, somehow I'm still running on 5 hours of sleep but I think I need to go to bed before I pass out. RIP my little Nugget. This one goes out for you.

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A week of MAF...and baby chicks.

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