I was perfectly content with my running schedule for the rest of this season. I knew that I had a couple of long runs planned with some sprinklings of speed work, but I hadn't intended on doing any more races.

Then my friend Audrey asked if I wanted to do some 5k race in Palo Alto on the 27th. I told her that I think I would need to do a longer distance race, so she told me to check out the Victory Half Marathon which was going on the same day. THENN the gears started turning...and I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole. I discovered Brazen Racing had this awesome triple medal going on since the Bay Breeze Race and the Victory Race combined to one ultra medal called Breeze to Victory. For the record, Brazen has some of the best medals, and some of the most impressive art of any race organization. The triple piece medals are our favorites...

I assume there are a lot of runners like me, but I'm kind of a sucker for medals. I don't even know why, I just hang them all on top of each other like an elaborately colored and sparkly sandwich. This was only before Jon made me a medal rack since my friend told me it was terrible luck for me to stash them in my bottom drawer like I used to. 

I looked at the date of the Bay Breeze race...it was Saturday 2/13...the very next day (I looked it up on on Friday 2/12). It was so close that they even closed the online registration and we could only sign up race day. Luckily, I have a couple of equally spontaneous and medal loving friends, and a very sweet fiance. Did I mention that this day is also our fifth anniversary? Kind of a big deal. 

My plan was to do the half marathon as part of my scheduled 20 mile long run. Nice and easy, not pushing the pace. I'm going to attempt to get some speed on the Victory race in two more weeks, so a hard effort would be poor training. I don't have a problem doing races just for fun. I like the energy and it's nice to have a little bit of nutritional support along the way as well. 

Jon and I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, and we both wondered why we were doing this again. We had a quick drive over to San Leandro which is on the East Bay, just a skip and a hop over the 92 bridge.

The morning was unusually foggy, and we even witnessed a car accident on the bridge right in front of us because of it. We made it to the race in one piece, but the thick fog remained through most of the race. 

There was no line for the race day registration, and parking was ample although it was just about a half mile away. I was really surprised at how many runners were attending! It was a pretty major race with pacers and everything! I'm used to Brazen Racing's smaller trail runs, but this one was really bustling. 

The registration for the half marathon was $70. In return, I received a small goody bag with a couple of weird foods. A bag of sriracha cashews, some probiotic prunes, and a corn cake. Nonetheless, the shirt was really cool! I opt for the cotton tees instead of the tech ones, because I find I wear them more often. Additionally, were tons of porta-potties there, and I had no problem going in 15 minutes before and coming back out with plenty of time before the start. That is always a HUGE perk in a race for me. They also had a gear check station and supplied garbage bags with our bib numbers written on them.

At 8:00 the 413 half marathoners took off across a bumpy grass patch before hitting the asphalt trails. There was also a 10k that left at 8:15 and a 5k that ran at 8:30. For half marathon "Hikers", they were allowed to start at 7:30.

I kept my pace pretty easy, never breathing hard. The weather was PERFECT, not too cold or hot with a nice blanket of fog between my skin and the sun. The trails were flat and easy, although I wasn't too keen on the gravel. Up until about mile 2.5 it was paved, but then it was mostly gravel until the turn around. It wasn't bad at all but if you're looking for speed it's something to think about.

There were several pacers, and I tried to stick between the 2:00 pacers and the 2:10 pacers. 

I wore my pack since I wasn't sure what kind of nutrition they'd have there. My stomach really isn't too fond of Cytomax, so I like to have my Tailwind just in case. I didn't stop at any of the aid stations, but there were three of them. One at mile 1, mile 3, and mile 5. 

I finished the race in 2 hours and 2 minutes, snagging 174th place and averaging a nice 9:18 min/mi. I was awfully tempted to squeak in under 2 hours but didn't want to anger my coach since I'm sure he wasn't too pleased about me hopping into a last minute race. Jon waited at the finish and snapped some quick pictures. 

The super cheery volunteers happily handed me this gigantic medal.

I made a quick pitstop at the finish to drop off my pack, and then headed back out for another 7 miles. Jon also had his long run scheduled, so he went off for an additional 9. People looked at us like we were crazy, and we got a lot of "wrong way" jokes. When I finished, I stopped through to see if there was any food left over, but it was mostly picked through at that point. I grabbed some extra bagels, rice krispy treats, and skittles (definitely not doing the low carb thing now), and hobbled back to the car.

Overall it was a surprisingly good day. My run was easy, effortless, and the 20 miles went so much faster breaking it up into a half + 7 miles. Everyone was really friendly and supportive, and the race was executed very smoothly with a ton of really kind volunteers. It was a great way to do our long run together on our super special 5th anniversary. I can't wait for the Victory half in two more weeks!

bay breeze bay breeze half marathon brazen racing breeze to victory marathon training race report running training

Bay Breeze Half Marathon Recap - Brazen Racing

HeatherIhn 0

Read More

I've been quiet. Not because I stopped running, but because chickens are very time consuming creatures. Whenever I have any free time I just want to spend it staring at them while they peck around. Just look how pretty their eggs are! I am becoming more and more serious of starting a farmlittlegoat blog. 

Truthfully, I think my addiction to running has turned into an addiction to chickens. 

I have been running a lot though. My weekly mileage has been creeping back into the upper 30's and 40's now. In my Strava graph you can visibly see me clawing back to my usual mileage. Most of it has been on the long stretch of the bay trail. I have that trail memorized like the back of my hand by now...

I'm still following the training plans of Nark Running Strategies. We've gotten to the point where I've been gifted some speed work. Some people get bored of running, but I'm pretty sure that all they need to do is incorporate some speed workouts into their schedule, and vary it up a bit. Some of the workouts I'm designated can get a bit complicated, but luckily I've figured out how to create workouts to put into my Garmin watch, and it just spits out instructions on the fly. No more complex math problems in my head (although any math problem turns complex while running). 

It turns out that my legs usually feel best after a speed workout. Adrenaline? Stretching the legs out? I'm not sure what it is, but I love it. As much slow running as I do, I really don't enjoy it that much and I'd much rather be going fast.

The first real speed test was this little 5k that I signed up for. I was convinced to do this race, since it's a tradition to do races whenever my friend comes up to the Bay Area. I call her the Purple Running Monster now, because she always wears these purple capris when she decides to stomp on the competition. She's fast. 

She also happened to be wearing purple from head to toe.

The elusive purple running monster

Anyone that knows me, knows that it's really atypical for me to sign up for one of the shorter distances in a race. Since I had been running on the flats, I didn't quite trust my knees yet so I wanted to play it safe. The 5k was the flattest that I found with a baby bump of an elevation profile of only about 200ft. 

We got to the race bright and early. It was held in the China Camp State Park in San Rafael. It had just rained the day before, so we had some puddles to hop. The weather was bitterly cold. Jon was begging me for my down jacket, so I let him use my rain jacket shield his arms from the bitter wind.

The half marathoners were the first to go, at a very punctual 8:30. Next, at 8:40 was the 10k race. And last was the 5k, at 8:50. I had done a mile warmup, and luckily managed to get back to the start just before they sent everyone off. (they were a couple of minutes early). 

The trail was great! I didn't feel totally comfortable with the grip of my Hoka Challengers. I'm sure they were totally adequate but I did not want to take a fall on a 5k. 

Since there were a whopping 28 count of runners in the 5k, I made sure to scoot toward the front and try to keep my eyes on the 1st place female. We headed off into the woods, mainly on well groomed trails but veering off into some slightly rockier trails and some with small puddles to hop over.

I never did catch her, but I was only 23 seconds behind in the end with the official time of 27:42. I walked away 2nd female overall (out of 13) and 1st in my age group (out of 3 lol). I got a snazzy pint glass to go with my race shirt that was noticeably well designed and I was happy I didn't forgo the shirt for an extra $5. The pint glasses are turning into my favorite running swag, although I was very jealous of the first place winners of the half that were handsomly rewarded with entire bulk packs of fancy beers and wines. Oh, and did I mention that the first place winner overall of the 5k was a TEN YEAR OLD??? Don't worry, he was not gifted alcohol.

After the race, I kept trotting along out to some other parts of the park for my two mile cool down. It was gorgeous. I was a little concerned when I saw a ranger looking guy walking away with one of those sticks that you pick up snakes with, but thankfully I didn't see any on the trails.

I came back, got my post race snacks, stood alone like the lone wolf I am, and waited for Jon and my other friends to come in. I was worried about them since the purple running monster had a pretty serious stomach flu that she was just overcoming, and Jon also had a stomach flu earlier in the week with some pretty rocky runs. I also got it during the week which made some really awful runs...not literally (for me), but Jon definitely got it way worse than me. They all survived the race, despite the 1600 feet of elevation they dealt with, and rolled in like champs. Jon continued for another 3 miles for his long training run.

That's all, folks! The race was a success, and it was ran really smoothly by Urban Coyote Racing. Everyone seemed happy, we were all well fed (including some hot chili!) and the prices were right. $35 for the 5k, $45 for the 10k and $55 for the half. I hope to do more of their races once my knees feel good about handling some elevation. :)

Here's a rainbow pic from one of my weekly runs to end the post.

5k china camp race race report running trail running training

China Camp 5k - Urban Coyote Racing

HeatherIhn 0

Read More

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!

backpacking bouldering climbing diablo diablo state park hiking hills hillwork MAF maffetone method maffetone training mission peak running training

Giving backpacking a shot!

HeatherIhn 0

Read More

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.

bodybuilding bodybuilding.com chicken chickens chicks double dipsea MAF maffetone method nugget progress progress photos running strength training weightlifting

A week of MAF...and baby chicks.

HeatherIhn 1

Read More