Why Nala's Quest

When Lisa and I got married 11 years ago, one of our first major purchses together was a Siberian Husky puppy.





We fell in love with her as soon as we saw her ice blue eyes and her beautiful coat of black and white fur. It took us awhile before deciding on a name. In the end, we went with Nala, Simba's mate from the Lion King, because of her playful, friendly disposition. From the start she was a rambuncious, free-spirited puppy, and all she wanted to do was explore new territory and play. Once familiar with her new home, she now had a new desire: RUN!!!

11 years ago, I was nowhere close to being a runner. For me, exercise was going to the gym and lifting weights. But I did take Nala on walks to Starbucks, strapped a harness on her and went roller-blading with her, and played catch with her in the snow. But I hardly ever went running with her because I HATED to run. Well, Nala was born to run and when she was off-leash, she would run around the dog-park at high speeds continuously until I was bored and had to rein her in to go home.

Four years later, our first daughter was born. Two years later, our second daughter was born. By that time, we were too busy with our girls to be able to spend adequate time with Nala. So we gave her away to my brother-in-law where she was pampered and treated like a queen. Last year, she had major complications from bleeding ulcers and had to be put down. She was only 10 years old.

I decided to name my blog "Nala's Quest" in honor of her. Running for her came naturally. When she ran, it seemed effortless, and she enjoyed it. I'm halfway towards emulating her as a runner. While I do love running, I'm still learning to run efficiently. It'll come eventually. In the meantime, I'll continue to run while remembering Nala's quest.

Week 1 - Check!

Well, I made it through my first week of training. Granted it is going to be the easiest week, by far (not counting the taper weeks), but still, I survived without injury, which is my goal as I go through this Pfitz cycle.

Yesterday, I was planning out my 12 miler, and after feeling the onset of a sore throat, I debated whether it was better to get rest and sleep in or run early. Before turning in for the night, I decided to run early. Then around 2 a.m. I woke up and my throat felt worse. So, I turned off the alarm and decided to run later in the day.

It turned out to be pretty good weather for running, despite the forecast for rain. It was windy, but cool and overcast. I decided to do a hilly run today and try my best to stick to the pacing that Pfitz recommends. His pacing calls for running the long run 10 - 20% slower than marathon pace. My goal is to run at around 9:00/mile which would translate to running between 9:54/mile and 10:48/mile for my long runs. For the most part, I was able to keep it in that range, but towards the end, I sped up a little, just to see how my legs would feel at marathon pace. Overall the run went well and my new shoes felt pretty good. Here are the numbers:

12 miles/1:58:01/9:50/mile

Week 2 calls for pretty much the same runs with a few more miles tacked on. As for me, I'm exhausted from my run and will be going to sleep early tonight!

Have a great week everyone!

Heroes, Slowing Down, and a New Ride

As a Netflix subscriber, one of the benefits is you can watch DVDs instantly online instead of having to wait to receive the physical DVD. With the lack of good shows on TV these days, I decided to browse the selections of programs that I could watch online at the Netflix website. I stumbled upon Heroes, which I've heard great reviews about from my friends, but have never watched before. So I decided to watch the first episode to see what all the hype was about. 43 minutes later, I watched the next episode, and then the next episode. The next night, I watched two more episodes. I think I'm hooked on the show. I usually have a rule about not watching new shows, because I can get addicted pretty quick. Now I know why I made this rule! Hopefully, I don't skip any runs to get caught up with the story line.



Since my last post, I've been out 3 times for runs. The first run was an general aerobic (GE) run of 7 miles followed by 10 reps of 100m sprints. The 7 miles were fine, run at about 9:10/mile pace. I have never done the sprints before and it was quite an experience for me. I enjoyed the quick burst of speed and the rapid leg turnover. I couldn't remember exactly what Pfitz recommended for the way the sprints were run, so I just sprinted them out one after another with a 10 second break in between. By the 6th rep, I was sucking air, but loving the burn in the legs. The next day, I could feel it in the quads. I usually only feel soreness after a run in the hammys and calves, but never the quads.



My next run was on Thursday. It was another GE, this time 9 miles. I got up before 5am to drink some water and stretch before heading to the gym. I know some runners hate the dreadmill, but I don't mind it, especially in the morning, where I have a bathroom handy in case I need it. I'm always amazed at how many people are in the gym at 5am in the morning. Don't people have a life?!? =) I even saw my principal at the gym. The run was pretty uneventful, but I did end up running next to two other women running longer distances on the treadmill, which helped the boredom. Usually when I'm on the treadmill, I take the time to think through my day, pray for others, and catch up on the news.



Yesterday was a long, tough day. Whenever it rains, we teachers know that it will be a crazy day. Indoor recess for us means that the students stay in the classroom, and we don't get the needed break that we usually get. The students don't get to run around, so they are wound up, which makes the teaching part even more difficult. There was a saving grace to the day (besides getting to watch two more Heroes episodes). When I got home, I found a package from Amazon! New shoes! I decided to give the Saucony Trigon Ride a try. I've now gone from a stability shoe, to a neutral shoe, back to a stability shoe, and finally back again to a neutral shoe. Being a relatively new runner (about a 1 year now), I've been following different salesmen's advice about shoes. Now that I've run about 1000 miles in different pairs of shoes, I'm going to follow my own advice and I think that neutral shoes are what I need. I went out for a recovery run this morning, 4 miles, and the shoes felt great. If everything feels comfortable the next few weeks, I'm thinking about stocking up on this shoe. I got a great deal on Amazon and saved about $30 over what they were charging at RoadRunner Sports.


Here are the numbers for the 3 runs:


7 miles/1:04:32/9:14
9 miles/1:23:00/9:14
4 miles/39:20/9:50


I've decided to run the GE, recovery, and long runs slower and at the recommended paces. Especially with the increase in weekly mileage, I know that I need to develop a better base before trying to increase my speed. It's difficult sometimes, because I just want to let the legs loose. I have to remind myself that I need to stay healthy and injury free and save the legs for the speedwork.


Special thanks to Aron, Billy, and Moz for the enouragements and/or personal testimony on Pfitz training!

Advanced Marathoning

I've been reading Advanced Marathoning, by Pete Pfitzinger, one of the premier running books to read if you want to seriously improve your running times. I will be starting his 18/55 program (18 weeks of training, maxing out at 55 miles/week) this week and am very excited, but at the same time nervous. My hope is to be able to complete it injury free. For my first marathon I tried Hal Higdon's Novice program and missed 3 weeks of training because of injuries. I also missed 3 runs of 15 miles or longer, which I believe contributed to me hitting the wall at mile 18. Below is the actual program:

I highlighted the different types of runs so I can visually see what kind of week I have ahead for me. The first two weeks should be relatively easy with a few general aerobic runs (green), a recovery run (yellow), and a long run (blue). With 8 weeks until marathon time, I hit the high point of the training, 55 miles for the week. That will consist of a 6 mile recovery run, a 12 mile lactate threshold run (orange), which is run at 15K race pace, 12 mile long run, 5 mile recovery run, and then a 20 mile long run on the weekend. The red color is the VO2 max runs, where I will be running intervals at certain paces to maximize my oxygen intake. I built in an extra week in case of injury or sickness, but (knock on wood), if everything goes fine, I'll just have an extra week of training. Tomorrow is day 1 of my journey to break the 4 hour mark. Better get to bed soon . . .

149

Tuesday morning, I got up for my first early run of the year. I woke up at 5 AM, drank a glass of water, and waited for my system to do its work. I'm pretty regular in the mornings and when I'm not, I'm worried that my workout will be interrupted . . . Well, there was no movement this morning, but I felt good so I went to the gym to run on the treadmill. I know that a lot of runners hate the treadmill, but I find that it serves its purposes. This particular morning, I figured that in case I needed to go run and relieve myself, I would have easy access. I ended up being fine and ran my usual 6 miles at an easy pace. Here are the numbers:

6 miles, 57:45 time, 9:45/mile

I've been taking it easy on my runs for the last 2 1/2 weeks, testing to see how my knee feels. Overall, I still feel some dullness on the knee towards the end of the run, but after RICEing it, it feels fine the next day. So, yesterday, I decided to "stretch my legs" and give them a chance to get out and run around (I feel like I'm talking to my girls).

My plan was to do a short tempo run. 1 mile warm-up, 4 miles at 8:00/mile, 1 mile cool-down. When I started my run, I felt great and was excited about pushing myself during this run. When mile 2 came, I started to kick it up a notch. I had the same cadence as my warm-up, but I just took longer strides. I tried breathing deeper, from my abs, and letting my legs take me down my usual course. At the end of the 2nd mile, I realized I had gone out to quickly - 7:41/mile. I knew I was going to run out of gas if I kept this up. I slowed the next two miles down a little, but by the time I got to the last tempo mile, I was done. I ended up using the last 2 mile as a cool-down. Here are the totals for the run:

Tempo miles -
Mile 1 - 7:41/mile
Mile 2 - 7:48/mile
Mile 3 - 7:58/mile

6 miles, 50:47 time, 8:28/mile

After the run, I weighed myself and saw 149 on the scale for the first time since high school. I've been trying to get down to the high 140s, as I think this will be the ideal running weight for me. I decided to go out and celebrate with Lisa by going out to eat at a Japanese restaurant and stuffing ourselves with sushi! When I got home, I stepped on the scale and found that I was back in the 150s!

Yogurt's organic isn't it?

This weekend, my brother-in-law came to visit us from Chicago. We always have a great time together, partly because my daughters love hanging out with him, and also because we eat out a lot and eat well. We ate so well, that Lisa and I temporarily fell off the healthy food wagon for the weekend. Let's see what we had this weekend: authentic Japanese food (Tajima 2), Hawaiian BBQ (L&L, love the macaroni salad), vietnamese food (pho), New York Bagels and cream cheese, and authentic Taiwanese food (Tea Station). Oh, and I should mention that we had frozen yogurt . . . 3 days in a row! Frozen yogurt places are the latest fad in San Diego. You walk into one of these shops and it's all self-serve. First, you choose from 15-20 flavors of frozen yogurt. Next, you pick any toppings you want, from fruit, to flavored syrups, to candy, and even cereal. Finally, you bring your cup to the cash register and they charge you by the ounce. Most places are 38 cents an ounce. For my daughters, knowing that we are going there for dessert is a great incentive for them because it means that if they don't finish their dinner, they aren't going to get any dessert. I think it goes without saying that they all got dessert each night!

This afternoon, my brother-in-law left for Chicago and so did our food splurge for the weekend. When we got home, I watched the Chargers fight valiantly to overcome playing without their top offensive and defensive weapons, L.T. and Merriman. In the end, it wasn't meant to be, but hats off to them this season for playing their hearts out and making the most of their season!

After the game, since my knee was feeling fine after a day of rest, I decided to go out for a very quick run. I ran a 3 mile loop and caught a beautiful picture of sunset/dusk on the way home. My knee felt okay and I didn't start to feel anything until the last quarter mile. Here are the stats for the run:

3 miles, 28:35 time, 9:32/mile

We'll see how things are tomorrow. If everything feels good, my plan is to ramp up in anticipation of starting my official 18 week marathoning training next week!

Back on the Bandwagon

After taking a week off from running, I was itching to get out and just run yesterday. The weather was great, the week was finally over, and I felt that my knee joint had enough rest. On top of that, my brother-in-law, who is in town for the weekend, was out with my wife and my girls, hiking around Torrey Pines State Park, so I had some time on my hands. So, I went out on my usual 6 mile loop around my home. It's an out and back (3 miles out and 3 miles back) with some hills and lots of scenery (mostly smaller mountains in the background). Since I don't usually run with music, I paid careful attention to how my knee was feeling. For the first mile, everything felt great. I started off at a 9:20 mile pace and took it easy. From there, I played it by ear and just tried to run smooth and easy. The next mile was a little quicker, 9:00 mile, but I did start to feel some soreness in the knee joint. It wasn't a pain or ache, but I could feel it starting to complain a little. From there, the rest of the run was similar to mile 2 and just for the sake of stretching out the legs I ran the last mile at an 8:30 mile pace. Here are the totals for the run:

6.0 miles 53:36 time 8:56 mile pace

This morning, I can feel some dullness at the knee joint, but certainly not as bad as the last run I had. I'll probably go for a run some time this weekend and see how things go. With marathon training starting in a week, I want to make sure that everything is working fine.

12:00 Organic Mile

You know you're getting old when it takes you 3 days to get over the soreness from a workout. I did some weightlifting on Sunday and my whole body was sore until today! Since I was feeling better, I went back to the gym and did some more strength training. At the end of the workout I decided to test my knee by trying a very slow jog on the treadmill. I set it to 5.0 mph and jogged a mile in 12 minutes. Everything felt pretty good, but I probably won't do any real training runs until at least the weekend.

On another note, my wife, Lisa, and I have been trying to eat healthier lately. We've been looking into more organic foods for a variety of reasons, one of which is not price! One great benefit about running long distances is that you burn so many calories that you can practically eat anything after a run and not gain weight. For example, two Sundays ago, I ran 15 miles and burned over 1700 calories in the process! There are some days that I go the whole day without eating that much. As a result of my free-spirited eating habits, I have been putting a lot of junk in my body (i.e. donuts, chips, and cookies). So Lisa and I are trying to hop on the healthy eating bandwagon. We'll see how long it lasts. The good news is that we're both on it so we can keep each other accountable. Usually it's one or the other, which meant one person was trying to eat healthy while watching the other pig out!

Knee Feels Good: 1/2 Mile Workout

Today, my knee felt much better. There was no pain at all and I was very tempted to go out for a run. The weather here in San Diego has been perfect: 50s and partly sunny. But a little voice inside my head told me to wait a few more days. So, instead I went to the gym again; this time for a swim. My swimming technique is quite pitiful. I can barely swim a lap (50 meters) without gasping for air at the end. I've tried different breathing patterns, different speeds for my arm stroke, breathing only out of my mouth, and only out of my nose. Nothing seems to work. So, I alternated swimming 1 lap freestyle and then 1 lap backstoke. My heart rate was pretty elevated throughout so it was probably a good cardio workout. In all, I swam 16 laps for a VERY slow 1/2 mile in about 30 minutes!!! You can probably tell that I'm itching to get back out on the road for a run.

12 Miler?

This weekend I had a 12 miler scheduled. I did end up doing a 12 miler, unfortunately it was done driving to church. The night after my treadmill run, I experienced some knee discomfort while falling asleep. The next morning I could still feel some soreness around my right knee and it was slightly painful to walk. My right knee has been nagging me for the last 2 weeks so I think it's time to rest it for a week. I'm usually someone that will try to run through pain, but after doing some research on the Internet, it seems that knee pain is not something to run through. Also, I begin marathon training for the San Diego Rock n Roll in 2 weeks and I figure it would be better to be rested and healed before I start.

So instead of running this weekend, I decided to go to the gym to cross train and lift weights. When I was younger (which was many years ago . . .) I used to go to the gym and ONLY lift weights. Since I've started running, I SELDOM lift weights anymore; there just isn't that much time. So I went to the gym and did all sorts of weight training on my legs and core. In addition I did some pull-ups and dips, but mostly focused on muscles used for running. Afterwards, I biked for a short time and got home in time to watch the Chargers shock the Colts!

Today, I'm pretty sore and feeling it everywhere. My knee pain is almost completely gone, which made me tempted to go out and run. Instead, I went to school to get ready for Monday. It was great having 2 weeks off, but I didn't do much planning for this week.

Tempo Run

Today, I went to RoadRunner Sports to use their Shoe Dog program. They videotape you running barefoot on a treadmill to analyze your running pattern. Then, they show you how you run in slow motion to point out your running tendencies. I was there three months ago when my toes started getting a little numb while I was running. At the time I was wearing a neutral shoe (basically an ordinary shoe that doesn't try to correct any running tendencies) and they had recommended a stability shoe (the video of my feet showed that I was rolling my feet inward toward my big toe instead of straight forward). After running in this shoe for three months, I recently encountered some knee joint pain. So, I decided to go back today and see what the Shoe Dog would have to say this time. The "Shoe Dog Expert" did a much better job showing and explaning my running patterns and basically told me that I was actually in between a neutral and stability shoe, or a neutral + shoe. Great, now I have to buy another shoe! The good news is that my generous 5th grade parents pitched in to get me a gift card to Road Runner so I guess my new pair of shoes will be on them. The gift card has a special restriction that wouldn't allow me to use it until Monday so I'll be back there next week to purchase my new shoes.

Tonight I went to the gym and ran in my old neutral pair of shoes. I was scheduled for a tempo run (slightly faster than marathon pace, which for me is 9:05/mile to break the 4 hour barrier, but because I've had knee pain the past two runs, I decided to ease off a bit. Here's the low down on the run:

Mile 1 (Warm-up) 10:00/mile

Mile 2-6 8:57/mile

Mile 7 (Cool-down) 10:00/mile

In all, I ran 7 miles at a 9:09/mile pace. The best news was that I had no knee pain through the run! I'm not sure if it's because I ran with a different shoe, or if it's because I ran slower. Either way, I'm just thrilled that I was able to run pain free. Hopefully tomorrow everything will be feeling fine. I'm planning for a 12 miler some time this weekend.