The Neon Run San Diego

We spent last weekend in San Diego having a great time with some friends and John's parents.

Happy Birthday Arisa and Bradie!

Although it's never a bad idea to head to San Diego for the weekend, I had another particular reason to be there - The Neon Run. I thought it was really fun, there was plenty of paint.

There were some rumblings that things weren't quite right for the Phoenix one - too dark, not enough paint etc.

I'm told this race was an improvement, so that's great. It was still quite crowded, and I wished I'd known how few blacklights there would be, because I would have gone more "glow in the dark" with my attire. Most of the race we weren't really flourescent-ing. Still, people got really into it and it was cool to see all the wild neon costumes. We got our entrance with a Living Social deal.

I ran with two of my classmates - hi ladies!

We didn't stay long for the dance party at the end - mostly because we were super hungrypants. So instead we went and scared an IHOP. There were lots of other racers there, it was good to see I wasn't the only one with an Oompa Loompa face.

Note the beautiful bronze-y glow to my skin.

It's my first colored or dressed up 5k - most of the others I've done were simple ones just for charity. It was really fun and makes me want to find another wild one to run soon. 

I still have orange paint in my ear. Worth it. 

Cascade Half Marathon Recap - Snow Race!

As I mentioned earlier, this is Oregon's only January Half Marathon.

I'm so so glad they have it though, because I've never had such a gorgeous run. The snow started coming down around Mile 2 and lasted through Mile 8, and then the sun came out and followed me back. It was a crazy range of conditions, but I loved it. 

It's in its 13th year, so it was well-organized and delightfully small. They can only keep people on the roads directing traffic until 11:30 am, so the half-marathon has more than one start time, just in case you'll take longer than 2.5 hours you can start at 8 am. I chose the early start because I didn't know if I might have to walk some of it. It turned out I didn't need to be in that group, but I'm so glad I was because we were the ones that got the good snow at the beginning of the run. 

But for the early start, Mom and I got up pretty early to drive across town and make sure I had time to pick up my packet and get everything pinned on and ready to go. 

Morning face.

And at 8 I was ready to go!

I'm the one jumping between the white Tshirt and gray coat. In black.

It's all flat and road running, and everyone seemed to really have a good time. It was a little strange when it started snowing - I felt like I had to adjust my gait to keep from falling. At first I tried to run in other footprints, but then I realized it was safer to use the fresh snow for traction. It was all right, I didn't see anyone fall.

I definitely caught a few snowflakes on my tongue.

I was really struggling with my pace in the final miles. I knew I was going slower than I mentally wanted to, but I couldn't make my body move any faster for more than a few seconds. Still, less pain than my last one. 

But I was really glad to be done.

At the end there's soup, hot drinks and cookies in the high school cafeteria. Most of it's not vegan-friendly of course, but it was nice to have a warm friendly gathering place like that. 

The course was 13.26 miles by my Garmin, and I had a time of 2:14:05, which I'm totally happy with considering I averaged two to occasionally three runs per week for the past 6 weeks. Three weeks ago I ran 10 miles to make sure I wouldn't die, and then the rest of them never got above 5 miles, so I'm actually feeling pretty all right about that time. 

At 13.1 (by the Garmin) I was 2:12:21. Is that exactly the same as my April race? Yes. Yes it is. Great coincidences.

I placed 269/396 overall and 9/14 in my age group. No delusions here of being a champion, just fun. 

However, I was the ONLY half-marathon participant claiming California as a home base. John pointed out that makes me the Californian CHAMPION. Yes. 

And the best part was having my Mom out supporting me. 

Stay tuned for the refueling post!

Do you like rainy/snowy running or do you stick to sun? 
Personally I much prefer these conditions. I can't stand to be hot.

Snowy Half-Marathon!

My wishes were granted! Perfect, enormous, fluffy snowflakes through over half the race!

And also I survived.

Race recap coming up!

Vegan Pre-Race Fuel Trial and Error

Let's talk fuel. I came home this morning to run a half-marathon tomorrow, so I'm gearing up. 

Part I: Night-before Dinner

I don't think I'm yet a sufficiently experienced racer to have a favorite pre-race dinner. I have some NOT favorites. 

The first race I don't even remember what I ate. Cookies I think. For real. I'm pretty sure I was full up on like 5 macaroons. 

Get this recipe here.

And for the last one I had homemade pizza and pita chips. I ate way too many pita chips and was retaining water like no other in the morning. Terrible feeling. 

But I was happy with my pizza.

So all I've done so far is some experiments in what does not work. 

So what to do?

I tried a new one tonight - Mom's cooking. Obviously it's better than anything else because Moms put magic in the food they make. It's a variation on my Cheezy Veggie Potato Mash, but we did veggies on the side and put some corn in there at my sister Nicola's request. Great idea. Also I skipped the full cheese sauce and just scooped some nooch on. And I'm going easy on the salt. 

And apple for dessert.

It tasted perfect. Plenty of carbohydrates with good-for-me fiber and nutrients. Here's hoping it fuels me well so I won't have to keep trying different race dinners.

Part II: Breakfast. 

For this one I do have a favorite. Which doesn't make any sense. I haven't eaten more race breakfasts than I have dinners, but I just think this one works well for me and therefore do not mess with it. 

Nut Butter Toast with Banana. This picture is of peanut butter, but almond butter or cashew butter does me great as well. Coffee.

I'll let you know tomorrow how it works for me this time. Wish me luck!

Pre-Race Thoughts

I'm pretty sure most of you read me in a reader, but in case you're looking at the real blog, what do you think of the new header?

Tomorrow is a half-marathon. I'm nervous. It's going to be ruulll cold.

I'm running the Cascade Half Marathon here in my hometown. It's Oregon's only January half-marathon, which is pretty cool. One of the things I wanted to do in 2012 was run a race in the rain. Looks like I may get my wish.

Check out this weather update from the website:

Weather forecast as of 1/14: Outside - Snow showers. High near 36. South wind between 8 and 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible.

[source]

We can only hope. 

The major advantage is that it's at a high school, so everything will be set up indoors at the gym and I can just venture out right when it's time to run. 

It's a straight up out and back:

[source]

Start on the left, run to the right along the dots, turn around and end at the left again. 

Simple right?

This is my third half-marathon - the last was in April. I wrote about it here. My time was 2:12:21. My PR from my first race Nov 2010 is 2:08:40. 

I'm not really running this for a specific finish time. I'm much less trained than both of the other races. This is more a test of my baseline fitness and a chance to run in the rain (snow?!) here in my favorite corner of the country. 

That said I can't help but want to just improve a little. This course is much flatter than April's,  but considering I'm less trained, it's a tossup how the times will compare. 

As I've been training the past couple weeks I kept accidentally leaving things in Portland when I came home on weekends. First it was my ipod. Then my headphones. Then my Garmin charger. I finally remembered to bring home all my gadgets: Garmin, RoadID, iPod Shuffle, headphones. Everything's charged. New music on the iPod. So I'm all set.

Stay tuned - pre-race fuel post is next!

Advice for running in the rain/snow? I'm Californian now, I don't know anything. 

Northwest Running

As I'm living in Portland for this rotation, I'm also trying to be ready for a half-marathon coming up this Sunday, which has led me to run here at least a little bit.

Portland Reservoir #1

Every time I go to a new place it's a different adventure figuring out where might make a good run. 

Factors to consider:

1. What to wear?

2. Is it a safe area?

3. Are there sidewalks?

4. Are there vicious potholes, landmines or sewer creatures? What about large dogs?

5. Do I have to drive to get to my preferred starting point? (I much prefer to just run out my front door.)

6. Is it pretty?

Let's take it by numbers:

1. What to wear: Northwest running is different from Southern California running, most notably in the icy feeling in my hands and the requirement to wear long sleeves even sometimes when it's light outside. However, I got a great running wardrobe for Christmas and have plenty to choose from. Thanks to Shannon for the Air Force jacket in the picture at the top. 

2-5. Safety/Specs/Location: With so many clouds, it's much darker here even at night-time, so I've just done daylight runs so far. If I stick close to the campus streetlights I could probably run before it's light, but I just want to be as safe as possible. The loop I've been doing is a perfect ~5 mile out and back to a nearby reservoir, with nice hills. Though I do cross a freeway. Don't worry - there's a bridge.

6. Is it pretty? Yes.

There are so many reasons I want to move back here, but even if I hated everything else, this might be reason enough. 

Vegan MoFo 29: The Final Fitness Update

At the beginning of Vegan MoFo I planned to give the occasional update on my workouts, if for no other reason than to remind myself that a healthy counterbalance to all kinds of Month of Food eating is regular exercise. It also happened that Vegan MoFo fell during my outpatient/elective rotations, and I've had a little more time to work it in.

So how much exercise actually got done?

Well, here's the summary - in calendar form, because who doesn't love a calendar?

Oct	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1st	-	-	-	-	-	-	Off
2nd-8th	5 mi run	DVD	4 mi run	3 mi run	swim	4 mi run	Off
9th-15th	5 mi run	3 mi run	4 mi run	swim	swim	4 mi run	Off
16th-22nd	6 mi run	swim	3 mi run	5 mi run	swim	4 mi run	Off
23rd-29th	7 mi run	swim	3 mi run	5 mi run	swim	4 mi run	Off
30th->	5 mi run	swim

       

Intentional days off are Saturdays, and then the red workouts are those that were planned but didn't happen. 

Putting it all together like this, I'm actually impressed. I did a pretty good job. I think week by week I often feel like, "Oh, I missed that workout. I'm such a slacker." And in the big picture, maybe this is another area in which I can work on being kinder to myself. 

Did you have any fitness goals for Vegan MoFo? How did they go?

3 am Alarm, 6 am Flight, 8:15 am Home in Oregon!

I had grand intentions of writing lots and catching up on some post ideas I've had in my days here in Oregon, but it turns out my family's internet connection is stuck in the last millennium and it's too frustratingly slow to post from home. So, although it's now my third day at home, I've just now ventured out to a Starbucks to take care of school business as well as write a post about how lovely it is here, even sans internet. 


So...

I arrived safely home. My flight was quite early, so John was rather awesome in his willingness to drive me to the airport. I read a book, had some Biscoff cookies on the plane, looked out the window, and before I knew it, landed at home.

Rather empty at 4:40 am.

Mom and I stopped at Trader Joe's in Lake Oswego on our way home. The one in Salem opens on June 17th (1 week!) but just not in time to feed me on this particular trip. I'm very familiar with Trader Joe's so Mom let me walk her through every aisle, tell her what I'd tried and hadn't, what I liked and not-so-much, and we left with quite a cartload. Next time I visit, there will be one here in Salem. People are pretty excited about it.

After our grocery adventure we ended up at Sweet Tomatoes (AKA Souplantation in other parts, I think, or maybe just remarkably identical in concept and decor?) and I had an enormous salad and apple. Some branches guarantee a vegan soup, but there's lactose in the vegetable base, and this one didn't have any soups that didn't use that base.

I went out to lunch with my Mom again the next day at a new-to-me restaurant in Salem - Venti's. It's very vegetarian/vegan friendly but has lots of omnivore options as well. There's also a basement bar, but I didn't check that out. Yellow curry (rather too spicy we thought) for her and a veggie wrap for me. It's nice to know there's a restaurant in town with "vegan" on the menu. It's very popular though especially since it's downtown, we got there and it was empty at 11:45, but the line was out the door my noon. They're opening another branch on Commercial soon, but it probably won't really cut down the downtown lunch crowd, since I would imagine many people walk from work.

I love her. 

I also crashed my sister Emma's last class as a high schooler. AP Art History - I took the class six years ago (really? six?) and it was nice to say hello to an old teacher as well. I also saw her get some awards at the Senior Awards assembly. I'm so proud. I mean, look at that face.

I also bought new running shoes. Correction: Mom bought me new running shoes because she's wonderful. It had been a year since my last new pair...oops. They're the Asics GT series, a stability shoe, and basically the current model of the exact shoe I had before. I tried on 3 others, but they couldn't compete.

Now I just need a new race to train for...

And finally, last night my beautiful friend Rachael drove all the way down from Portland to have dinner with me. It was wonderful to catch up with her over some summer rolls and curry at the Thai Orchid. Talking with her always makes me want to move to Portland that much sooner. As you can see, she also makes a lovely model for our appetizer. Thanks Rachael!

And now, while I still have internet, I'm looking forward to catching up on all your blogs, and then I have a cooking date with Mom and Emma's graduation is tonight! My flight is early on Sunday, so I really only have another day and a half here at home. It seems like too short a time when I get to visit so infrequently now. It always makes me wish I could move back a little sooner.

Also, it's the weekend, so I hope you all have a great one.

Do you live far from your family? How often do you get to see them?