Browse Category: go beak go

Chugging Along

I’ve been chugging along these past couple weeks with work and running.

At work, I’m transitioning from the Outpatient service to the Acute Inpatient Rehab service.  This means juggling my usual schedule of 20-25 patients/week with the one patient (staying in the hospital) that needs to be seen twice daily.  It has certainly been quite an experience so far but luckily I’m paired up with my favorite PT, a good friend of mine, who keeps me laughing and in check as I’m learning the ropes.  The only bummer about this new assignment is that I have to see him at 8:15 in the morning, which is 45 minutes earlier than usual for me. I also have a student following me around all week, which has slowed me down a little bit.  Luckily she’s fun to have around.

As for the half marathon training, I’m up to 6 miles now with a little under 2 months to go.  I’m on a steady routine of 3-4 days/week of running, which includes the Long Run on the weekend.  I’ve been injury-free so far (knock on wood) and it’s getting a little easier each week.  Last week I ran from my house to Fisherman’s Wharf and back, which was a little crazy trying to dodge all the tourists and street performers.  I may need to rethink my route for this weekend.

This week it’s been raining and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to go skiing for the first time this season.  I was told that I wasn’t needed at work on Monday after all so it looks like Tahoe may be in my near future…this weekend perhaps?!

Feel-Good Movies

hulagirls

I renewed our Netflix subscription last month and I’ve been doing some catching up. I’m not sure I ever mentioned this but I once belonged to a hula halau (Dance Troupe) in Torrance. It was a great way to unwind after work, was actually a good workout, and was just plain fun. Well, when the foreign film “Hula Girls” came out it intrigued me and I finally got to see it. It’s based on a true story and featured a small group of coal mining daughters who went against the wishes of their parents to learn hula and helped rebuild their dying economy. The Hawaiian Center still exists today and it’s a thriving oasis for tourists who want to escape the cold.

runfatboyrun

The second movie I just saw was “Run Fatboy Run“. It’s about a lazy hack of a guy who tries to win his true love back by proving he could finish something in life. That something happened to be a marathon, which was what her fiance happened to be training for.  I’m not really doing the plot much justice but it was rather funny and entertaining. With my Half Marathon coming up in April, this movie was a great way to keep me going.

Coincidentally, I just found out that a running friend of mine has joined a halau up here in the Bay Area and I might be checking it out soon.  It’s funny how both running and hula have crossed paths again.

A Run Through the Woods

Kaiser_01

This morning the alarm went off at 6 am and we were out the door by 6:45.  We ran the Kaiser Permanente 5K this morning and it was a lot of fun.  The course went by the new Academy of Sciences and wound around Golden Gate Park with rolling hills and pockets of sun and shade.

Kaiser_02

It was a fast race and I managed to finish 3.1  under 30 mins.  My Garmin was a little ahead of the race and I clocked 3.3 miles in 30:16 so I don’t actually know my official race time.

Kaiser_03

In any case, I had a great time, we got nice long-sleeved t-shirts, and getting home was a breeze on Muni.


View Larger Map

Here are the rest of the photos.

Booked and Registered

morefitnessOn Friday, I got my days off approved so I hopped on the computer and booked our flights to NYC and registered for the race. Yay!  This has got to be one of the cheapest races ever. Registration was only 25 bucks!! AND it includes a free one-year subscription to Fitness Magazine. Score! It’ll be in the Spring (end of April) and the route goes through Central Park.  Should be fun!!!  The race is scheduled smack dab in the middle of our 5-day trip so hopefully it will give me ample time to explore and recover.

Back on the Road


View Larger Map

Now that my lungs are back (sorta), I’ve put my tennies back on and started a new 15-week half marathon training program that I created.  Jia signed up for a race in New York and I hope to get the time off to join her. I’ve started slowly and my mileage is still pretty low but my lungs are thanking me right now. My legs, however, are screaming for more. Oh we’ll see how they feel in a couple weeks. They should be crying for mercy pretty soon.

The dog has also been going with me but I think he’s hurting today.  His tail was droopy last night and he puked up his kibble this evening.  I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t take him along tonight.

Oh my legs…

Brother and Joy came up for the weekend to run the Nike Women’s Half Marathon on Sunday.  Joy was the only one that actually got an official registration (it was a lottery) but Brother and I planned to “run” the race with her anyways.

It was a cold and early 5 am rise for us and I made sure to eat my usual peanut butter sandwich and banana.  Fortunately for us (and Jes), the shuttle from AT&T Park was free so we got a ride to the start in a fancy tour bus.  The race started at 7am but there were so many people in front of us that we didn’t actually cross the start line until 7:20 am.

The sun was starting to come out by then but the run through the financial district and along Embarcadero was still pretty cold.

The scenery, of course, was awesome and we got quite a few photos taken along the way.  I think they changed the course on us a little this year because I could have sworn the first big hill was easier this time around.  But the middle 6 miles of the course was pretty brutal.  It was hill after hill after hill.

Surprisingly, my legs were going strong and our pace was pretty steady.  I managed to stick by Joy the entire time and supposedly pushed her to keep going on the hills.  I guess there’s something to be said for teamwork.

Near the end of the race, Vyl called to warn me that she got pulled off the race for not having a number.  So, I stayed right behind Joy on our way in, we crossed the finish line together at 2 hours, 37 mins, and we both scored a necklace and t-shirt.  Awesome.

Joy and I felt pretty good afterwards but Brother was hurtin’ all over the place.  Unfortunately, my body decided to punish me this morning as I rolled out of bed.  My legs are achey and squatting down to play with the kids at work is not easy today.  Luckily, this is a good soreness and not the I-totally-injured-myself soreness.  I should be fine in another day or so.  I guess I was more trained that I had thought.  It’s nice to know that I’ve still got it in me.

Here are the photos!!