They’re here!

I got a special surprise in the mail today. My two tickets to see Spirit of the Marathon II arrived today! After hours of calling stores, waiting for posters to arrive, and then driving out to deliver posters, my reward is here! I am so excited to see the movie and hope there’s a good group of us that gets together (so far there’s four of us) to share in the inspiration that will come from this amazing film.

Signed by the producer herself

Signed by the producer herself

I was able to get 17 posters into local sports stores to help promote this movie. So I will also receive some other goodies coming in the mail at a later time (a t-shirt and autographed DVD).

June 12th is the showing at 7pm at many theaters nationwide. So go to www.fathomevents.com to check out the theaters closest to you.

Even if you are not a runner, you will find this film very special. If you haven’t watched the first Spirit of the Marathon movie, you should watch it. Sometimes, I like to watch it before my races to get me motivated and excited for my next journey and adventure.

Happy Friday!

Watch out Berlin!

This week is my first week of training for the Berlin Marathon. 18 weeks of gearing up for another World Marathon Major race. It’s exciting!

I’ve already been training a little since my last race in March (after a three week recovery). I’ve added more strength and endurance training into the mix in hopes of becoming a little faster. I feel really good. I’ve tried to run faster sprints and tempo runs. I think I’m just trying to push myself harder than I have been. I’ve been in a comfortable zone for a while, but I think I’m ready to work harder.

263-1I mostly train by myself so I have to constantly stay motivated. I’m pretty good about it, but I may have a day here or there when I get in a funk or just can’t get out the door. It happens to us all.

Within this 18 weeks, I am also running the Giants Half Marathon in San Francisco in August. I figured it would be good timing to have a 13.1 mile race in the middle of my training and to test myself.

I have a goal in mind for the Berlin Marathon – PR or qualify for the Boston Marathon. I’m going to refrain from putting a lot of pressure on myself, but just work harder on my training beforehand and make sure my body feels good.

I’m looking forward to the next 18 weeks. I even have a cool German flag flying on my front porch. I literally almost rode over it on my bike over the weekend, so I picked it up and posted it out front. Maybe it’s a sign of something good to come. Scratch that! I just walked outside to take a picture, and someone stole it! Grrr! Oh well. I’ll keep you posted over the next few months on how training is going. I hope you all have some great races or adventures to look forward to!

Tidbits

This week has been interesting.

Boston Strong

Wednesday was May 15th and one month since the Boston Marathon and bombings. It’s strange how time flies. It was also announced on Thursday May 16th that the B.A.A. will allow all participants of the 2013 Boston Marathon that did not get to finish a spot in the 2014 race. This is really good news for all those folks and I am glad the B.A.A. chose to do this.

Here’s a video of the announcement: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200667695768359&set=vb.293299436656&type=2&theater

A lot of people are still waiting to hear if the B.A.A. will open the race to more participants in 2014; opening the field to all runners and not just qualifiers. We will find out more in the months to come.

Stomach Pains

My running and workouts have been going well, until Thursday. I woke up Thursday morning sweating and with a fever. Then to chills, then to sweats, then to chills…and slept a lot of the day. This carried on into Friday, but then I had pains in my stomach. I, of course, woke up on Friday morning and thought, “Maybe I can go for a run.” And my boyfriend told me not to do it. Grrr. But I forced myself to get work done since my Thursday was wasted doing nothing. Which leads me to my next “tidbit”. (As I type this, I still don’t feel good and it’s now three days of no exercise…I’m going crazy.)

SOTM

Remember, I told you that I was going to help promote the Spirit of the Marathon II movie to get free tickets? So I received the posters last weekend and had been waiting for the postcards to arrive as well to hit up the stores to drop off all the items at once. Well, the postcards never arrived for whatever reason. On Friday, I got myself together (stomach pains and all) and made my rounds, with my dogs as my passengers, and dropped off posters to several local sporting goods and running stores. I had to also take pictures as proof of where I posted them and had to email them back to the producers. I got 10 stores done yesterday. Not bad! I am on my way to getting at least two free tickets to see the movie and a t-shirt. I have still have 9-10 left to post and that will get me an autographed DVD of the movie. I really only did this to help promote the movie and to get free tickets to see it, but the other goodies are cool bonuses.

photo(27)For those of you that live locally in Sacramento, this movie is only showing at three eight theaters on June 12 at 7pm. It’s just one night, one showing. Go to www.fathomevents.com to find the theater closest to you and to buy tickets.

Zombies, Oh My!

Oh, and one last thing. Some of you may already know this, but last year I organized a Zombie 5k Run in Sacramento. It turned out to be somewhat of a success. So, we are doing it again this year. We had to make some changes because my partner and I split up, but all looks good so far. I have a pretty good team working with me and we have been able to get a lot done in a short amount of time. Our Facebook page is up as of yesterday and our website will be live in a couple weeks. It’s called Capitol Apocalypse 5k Zombie Run and here’s our Facebook page for now with some details: https://www.facebook.com/CapitolApocalypse5kZombieRun. “Like” our page to get updates and more information about the event on Saturday October 26, 2013.

Capitol-Apocalypse-v.2

Have a good weekend!

Making a lifestyle change: veganism?

I met an interesting woman, Diane, and her dog, Molly, while I was working today. I work for a natural dog food company so we were talking about good things we should be putting into our dog’s bodies. She mentioned that she puts flaxseed oil and chia seeds in her dog’s diet. I thought that was interesting as I use chia seeds here and there as well in my own diet. She also mentioned she was vegan…

She was a very toned woman and looked great. She was dressed in sporty attire and running shoes, so I asked if she was a runner. She chuckled a little and said yes, but more of a trail runner. I was more curious of her being a runner AND being vegan. Oh, and she is certified in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University. She explained that there’s this misconception that you can’t be a runner and be vegan, but mentioned two books by ultrarunners that are on plant-based diets. I had heard of both these athletes, but have never read their books. One is by Scott Jurek, “Eat and Run”, and the other is by Rich Roll, “Finding Ultra”.

20120608_055913_10DCPBK_300

 

Here are a few links to read more about these athletes and their diets -

http://scottjurek.com/

http://www.greatveganathletes.com/rich_roll

http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-runners/eat-vegan-run?page=single

 

She explained that she used to be a body builder and would find that when her blood sugar would drop, she’d have to eat quickly. Since being on a plant-based diet, she said this doesn’t happen to her now. She doesn’t have the low blood sugar problems anymore. This is interesting to me because I know if I have not eaten in a while and can’t get to food when I’m hungry, I get really agitated and need to eat soon or I’ll get really cranky. I wonder if being on a plant-based diet would minimize this?

FINDING-ULTRA-COVER-FINAL1One of my concerns with being vegan is getting enough protein. As a runner, I need protein and if I haven’t had enough, I get hungry quickly or I’ll crash. I eat chicken, fish, lots of veggies and beans too, but if I were to take out the meat sources, I’d be left with just beans all the time? Could I manage that? (I’d probably be farting all the time too!)

She said that there are so many things you can eat and that she incorporates kale, spirulina, raw cacao, chia seeds, lentils, hemp seeds, avocado, brown rice, and lots of other protein sources into her diet.

It takes a lot of time and preparation to get whole foods (not processed foods or processed vegan foods), organic foods, getting the right things for your body, and switching to the lifestyle change. But I can see that there are a lot of great benefits. And after speaking to this woman today, she has seen great results as well. She has converted a lot of her clients and she said they PR all the time.

Prior to meeting Diane today, I had only seen a documentary called “Vegucated” and at the time I had wondered how I could make this transition being a runner. I really thought it would be impossible. However, I’d like to incorporate more of this plant-based diet into my own diet. I can’t say for sure yet if I will cut out chicken and fish all together, but we’ll see. Maybe I will cut it out little by little and see how I feel. But this really opened my eyes more to the diet and how it can improve your overall health and fitness.

What do you think of veganism? Do you think you could make this change?

Sweet sweat

I have been chasing my marathon PR of 3:40:43 for a few years now. I have read blogs or know people who PR all the time or make running 3:15-3:30 marathons look so easy. I guess it’s not that easy for me.

After my last marathon in March, I decided to incorporate even more strength training into my daily regimen to reach this goal faster. I’m so close, but I just need to shave off a few more minutes (more like 10-12). A fellow runner and ultramarathoner started going to my gym about a year and a half ago to get personal training sessions to help build endurance and help him increase his speed. After five months of additional training, he was able to shave an hour and a half off his 50-miler race time!

My gym owner also does personal training and offered to give me a few training sessions for free. So far we’ve only done one session, but I use the list she gave me with all the exercises and do this at least once a week.

training 4Last week I moved and had a crazy week (I was pretty exhausted), but was able to get a few runs in. On Thursday I did a short 4 mile run, then did another 45 minutes of strength training. This extra circuit training makes me sweat! I did step-ups, sissy squats, split squats, v-ups, Bosu pushups, planks, and shoulder, bicep and tricep exercises.

I was sore on Friday AND on Saturday! But a good sore in my quads, chest and abs. I’m only about 3 weeks into this additional training, but I’m excited to see what results come of this. I like that I am sweating even more than I already do. I am hoping I will be faster by the time I get to Berlin in September, which is also known for it’s fast course. I am hoping I will qualify for the Boston Marathon at this race. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and all the sweat that comes of this as well. Ha! #runforboston