Dirty Stinking Habit

Picture the scene this morning... the rising sun is almost cresting the horizon... the it just rained smell is quite pleasant... I'm peacefully alone and warming up as I jog easily along the road toward the track... mentally preparing for a great run workout...

And then, the stench of cigarette smoke. Really, old woman? It's 6:30 AM and you're waiting at the bus stop and puffing hard on your cigarette in a valiant effort to burn it down before the bus comes?

She blew out a big puff right in my face as I ran by. Seriously? In an obvious show of displeasure, I waved my hand back and forth in front of my nose and picked up the pace. Ugh. She probably thought I was as nuts as I thought she was... different planets that we live on in this little Hawaiian town...

I managed to let it go with just a shake of my head. Focus on the run ahead.

I finished my workout at the local high school track just as the students are arriving on campus. Some are hanging out in their little cliques waiting for the bell to ring... others are still making their way toward the school... swarming the sidewalks. It's my job to pick my way through them as I jog home and I feel like a fish swimming upstream.

Up ahead I see a punk looking kid. Probably 17. Looking oh so cool smoking his cigarette as he swaggers. Immediately I sense that this kid has never been taught any manners, let alone respect for his elders (and yes, at 35, I am his elder). We lock eyes as I run straight toward him. I'm on the edge of the sidewalk, unable to step off into the road unless I want to become the next headline reading "Pedestrian Killed By Oncoming Vehicle..."

I was hoping that my stare would intimidate him enough that he would move slightly to his right so that I could pass by without having to step into the street. We are staring each other down. This guy isn't budging- he just continues walking his straight line right toward me. Finally, when we're about a foot away from each other, I motion to him to move over while verbally instructing him to do so as well.

Punk clearly isn't interested in giving me any room to run by, but I'm not interested in becoming roadkill on this Tuesday morning, so we pass by with a pretty solid bump of the shoulders. Seriously, cool guy?

I was so disgusted by this kid's lack of common courtesy and respect. I spent the rest of my run home vowing to myself that Moana will never act like that. Mama's gonna teach her daughter some manners...

Beyond The Gate

Today I went for an awesome run with Sara. It was raining (again) but that makes for pleasant running conditions around here...

We decided to tackle some hills today so we headed off toward the botanical gardens that are just a couple of miles from my house. I think I've written about this run here before... it's totally my favorite route. Stunning and incredible scenery and just impossible to get bored while running because of all the hills and twists and turns. The plan was to run out and back to the end of the road, then add in another loop coming home to total out the run to 13 miles.

As we were nearing our planned turn around point, it occurred to me that the road does continue on... I've never run past the fence, but I did bike it one time with a friend of mine... pretty scary bike ride on this old road that is no longer maintained and just goes straight up the side of the mountain...

Anyway, I was wearing my garmin, so we figured we'd go ahead and run up the Old Pali Road until it was time to turn around. Seriously, it was incredible up there!

I didn't actually have my camera with me so I shamelessly stole these pictures from other people's websites. Crazy what you find when you do a google search for 'Old Pali Road'... all these scary stories about it being haunted up there... and the weird energy... I don't know. We didn't feel any weird energy. I think we were too in awe of how stunning it was to feel any weird energy.

But legend has it that about 250 years ago, King Kamehameha was making his effort to take over the island of Oahu and an epic battle ensued where he drove the warriors from Oahu up the Pali where a bunch of 'em jumped off the cliff rather than allowing themselves to be captured...

Now I'm gonna be all freaked out when I go and run up there again.

Funny thing was that my garmin actually stopped receiving signal for a while up there. That didn't make sense to me since I figured we were actually closer to those satellites in space than usual- you'd think the signal would have been stronger? Maybe it was the ghosts.

It Just Takes One

Some days here in Hawaii are just gorgeous. Blue sky, warm, a little breeze...

Yesterday was not that day.

Forecast called for wind, heavy rains and thunderstorms. Sweet. Love it when that happens on a Saturday. If it was still January, we probably would have skipped or postponed our ride. But it's March. So we went.

The plan was that 8 people were gonna show up. I was psyched for a good hard fast ride, and mentally prepared myself to be very wet and cold all day.

1/2 of the group slept in and opted to stay dry. 1/2 the group went and got our mud on. You know which group I was in!

I was thinking about all you folks on the mainland who don't get to ride outside at all for months on end. So while I'm sure many of you had way nicer weather than we did yesterday, I didn't complain at all. (Ok, at one point coming home and pushing into a brutal relentless wind I did yell something out that I might not have wanted to daughter to hear, but that was just once.)

The boys were plagued by flats all day. Right in the first mile Aaron blew his tire in half running over something very sharp. POW! He and Mike went back to the house to get a new tire so Sandy and I were on our own. Girls ride.

You'd think maybe this would be an opportunity for us to just cruise since we didn't have any boys to pull us... but it was actually the opposite. We cranked it out. Maybe in an effort to prove to ourselves that we don't need any darn boys to drag us around. We can do it just fine on our own, thank you very much.

So while sometimes its awesome to ride in a big group, it really just takes one good solid training partner to get your best workout in. Sandy is my Partner in Pain on the bike. I love training with her!

Achieving Goals

My friend Marc Rubin raced at Ironman New Zealand today. He did awesome.

Marc used to weigh 320 pounds. Then Marc changed his life.

I remember meeting Marc years ago when I was living in Scottsdale. He was this overweight slow guy who would show up on our group training rides religiously. He always got dropped. We always waited at the top of the hill for him. Sometimes for a long time.

Then one day I was racing another friend up a hill and killing myself to hang on to his wheel... get to the top... and who's right on my wheel? Marc. Wow. Where'd that come from? Marc was getting faster.

I think that was in 2004. Marc did his first Ironman in Arizona in 2005 and finished in like 14+ hours. He kept at it. Obsessively. He made his goals known to everyone. Break 10 hours.

I think he's done like 7 Ironmans over the last couple of years... sometimes getting pretty darn close to that magic 10 hour mark but never actually getting under it. The run was his weakness. This year, he decided to turn himself into a runner.

Marc blogs about his journey... see the link in my sidebar (Marc Rubin's Quest for 10 Hours). He's been talking about his obsessiveness and all that he's been doing to turn himself into a runner so he could reach his goal. This year he hired a coach to help him and then definitely put the work in... Today Marc ran 3:36 on his way to his 9:55 finish time. Incredible!

Marc's goal wasn't just to break 10 hours. Marc wants to race in Kona. He was 11th in his age group today so we'll see tomorrow if that was enough to get him there. I hope so. I'd love to see Marc in Kona!!

Marc's story is such an inspiration to me because I, too, am working on turning myself into a runner. I'm seeing some progress, which just fuels my motivation even more... and now I'm incredibly happy to report that I'm working with Jen Harrison who will be guiding me along the route to success! She says it starts with believing in yourself and your plan. Marc believed. I believe. And I'm so excited about my journey... although Jen did say something about suffering... In fact, she's mentioned that several times already... so I better go get some sleep.

Moana The Wet Sherpa

Yesterday I planned to run with Moana. I've found that it's important to go on the run in the right time frame so as not to mess up her eating/napping routine. I've allowed myself to become much more a slave to the routine lately because we're on a 5 night streak of sleeping through the night and I'm not going to risk screwing it up. So what this means is that she eats, we play a little, then I try to get going on the run about 30 minutes before its time for her to nap... that way she is happy looking around at the world in the beginning of our run, but easily is lulled to sleep half way through. She gets at least a 30 minute nap in, sometimes more if she continues to sleep after I haul her car seat back up into the house when we're done.

So yesterday I got her all packed up in the jogger and just as we were about to go, it started raining. Not hard rain... just a drizzle... If I were alone I wouldn't have even flinched at running in it, but it did occur to me that subjecting my 4 month old to conditions like that so I could get an easy run in wasn't exactly appropriate. I waited a few minutes, because sometimes weather changes really fast here, but ended up unpacking her and lugging her back upstairs after she started getting restless.

We were on a 15 minute rain delay. It did appear to clear up so I thought I would give it another go. Packed back up in her car seat, we went back downstairs and got going.

I was having a good run... pushing those 40 lbs up the hills around my house is getting easier all the time.

Unfortunately, with about a mile and a half left until we got home, the sky just opened up on us. I don't know where that storm came from (I swear it was sunny when we left!), but it moved in on us quickly and produced rain that came from the side. I covered Moana with the canopy of the jogger and the canopy of the car seat and hoped it would be enough to keep her dry until we got home.

In good news, I found out a couple of things:

A) The jogger does go at threshold pace after all.
B) The canopy does a pretty good job of keeping a baby dry.
c) Moana can sleep through anything.

She woke up as I was bringing her back upstairs afterward... apparently she sleeps through anything except Mama's wet hat dripping water on her... But check it out... turns out Moana makes a good sherpa.

My Little Swimmer

Moana has learned to kick in the water during bath time. I don't know where she gets this kick? Not from me. I don't kick when I swim.

She thinks its so very funny to splash mommy in the bath. Although seriously, I don't know who's having more fun here... Mama or Moana?

Bath time has become part of our bedtime routine and it's clearly the best part.

At the risk of jeopardizing the good thing we've got going (I swear I shouldn't type this... I don't know what's wrong with me??), Moana has been sleeping 11 hours at a stretch lately! It's awesome. I appreciate sleep so much more now than I ever have before, and to get 8-9 hours of it... uninterrupted... is... well... there are no words.

Here's a trick Moana's doctor gave me about helping her sleep through the night. She said that by 4 months most babies are developed enough that they do not need to be fed in the middle of the night- that all of their nutrition can come during the day. SO... if baby wakes up in the middle of the night, rather than feeding her, give her water (via cup or bottle). This might satisfy her enough to get her to go back to sleep but won't trigger her digestive system... Dr said that after a couple nights of this that she won't even wake up for that middle of the night feeding, which was becoming more of a habit than a need. We tried this the other night when Moana woke up- she drank 2 oz of water in a bottle, and she hasn't woken up in the middle of the night since. Apparently Dr is a Bad A$$ in more ways than one... she deserves *Rock*Star* Status for that tip that worked like a charm.

Sleeping through the night has changed up our daytime routine a little... but it's good in that now she's awake from 6AM-7:30AM, so Scott gets to hang out with her and play in the mornings while I'm working out. She's like an angel baby during this time since she's just had so much sleep. I swear, babies are the best first thing in the morning. :)

A New PR!

This morning I went into town to run the Kapiolani Women's 10K. Like you might guess from the name of the race, it's a women's only event. This was my first year participating... I was planning on doing it last year but then found out I was pregnant about a week before so I skipped it. I'm sure I could have done it last year (pregnant and all) but I wanted to run it hard and set a new PR and of course that's not the best idea when you're growing a little baby.

So I missed my shot last year, but made up for it this year! I knew I was ready for a PR, though not sure what exactly it would be. I felt confident I could run a 46-something but wasn't sure today was the day... The wind was (is) howling, and this course goes up and over Diamond Head on the way out and back so it's not the fastest course in the world. I figured 47-something today would be good.

There were 2000+ women at the event this morning. It was cool and motivating to see so many women out there! I lined up near the front spotted Moana's pediatrician right there next to me... She's a Bad A$$, which is why I picked her to be Moana's doctor.

The canon went off and Dr Bad A$$ took off like a rocket. I held back a little more, knowing that we had a decent hill right off the bat and thinking that being conservative here would pay off later.

By mile 2 I was in a pack of about 10 gals cruising along at a good clip (7:20's). This was really cool to me. I've never before been fast enough to run in a pack like this. But it felt great to be a part of it. I was really happy to be there and felt fine. I don't remember actually thinking about anything... just running. Blank mind. It was also smart strategy to run with a pack at this point because the headwind was really strong over the first 1/2 of the course.

Dr. Bad A$$ was coming back to us... our pack caught her before eventually splitting up around mile 3. It just kind of strung out while some gals picked it up and others fell off. I was still kind of there right in the middle of it all, but just ahead of Dr Bad A$$.

Back up and over Diamond Head... checked the garmin and saw that at 5 miles I was 37 flat, which is a whole minute faster than I ran that 8K a few weeks ago. Nice. I felt confident that I was going to get my 46... shoot, if I hurried, maybe 45 high? That would be amazing! In fact, my garmin said I hit 6.2 miles at 45:56 but the actual race finish was still a few meters away... 46:03 official time. Holy cow! I was really psyched about that. It was definitely faster than I thought I could go on that course and in that wind.

Dr Bad A$$ finished a few seconds behind me and hugged me at the end... telling me she was trying to catch me because she thought that anyone who just had a baby 4 months ago shouldn't be beating her... pretty funny. :) What's ironic about that is that had I not had a baby 4 months ago, I might not have been even running near her. I've definitely got that post-partum miracle thing going on where I'm running faster than ever before. Had I known how good it would be, I would have had a baby years ago! ;)

Anyway, isn't it funny how no matter how fast you go, you're just never satisfied? Because while I'm trilled about today, I'm absolutely convinced that I can run quite a bit faster. Give me a flat course with less wind and I think I can get under 45. I'm gonna give it a shot in about 5 weeks at a different 10K...