Every running program has a graduation. A race where you get to see the progress you've made and the product of all that hard work and dedication over the last few months. For FTM, graduation was the Marine Corps Marathon. Hai and I opted for an early graduation with the Baltimore Marathon, where we exceled, and then used MCM as a celebratory race for our success. For SDP, graduation was the Pike's Peek 10K. This race also bears the weight of being what they use to assign you to a pace group for FTM. There's a lot riding on this little race, which made me all the more excited about it before I took those 2.5 weeks off leading up to it.
All winter long, we trained (even with all the snow!). Track on Tuesdays and long runs on Saturdays. Those track workouts were rough, but I always went home feeling great knowing that I had put in a lot of hard work. By the end of February, I was already beginning to see how much I had benefited from this program. I was running more comfortably at faster paces and killed my previous PR's by over 5 minutes at the RRCA 10 Mile Challenge and National Marathon with not as much effort as I would've expected to make those times.
Then came April and traveling sidetracked my running. I managed two runs total in the 2.5 weeks leading up to Pike's Peek and made it back from Cali the night before the race. Being on Pacific Time was not very fun at all, especially considering that I was sleeping in til 8-9 am instead of getting up at my usual 5 am over there. I spent most of the night away counting down the hours I had left til I had to get up.
The weather was cold, rainy, and humid that morning. Although most considered this weather ideal as opposed to hot and sunny, I did not appreciate it as it made me feel groggier than I already was from the lack of sleep. Hai and I got into the 7:00-8:00 min/mile wave start with a couple of other people in our 8:00 min pace group. I tried to follow Coach Tom's advice and start conservatively. Although I thought I was running at a comfortable pace, Hai caught up to me and told me I was doing 7:15 min/mile for mile 1.
It all went downhill after that. The effort and ease of running fast that came to me in February and March as a result of those tough track workouts had escaped from me with that long April hiatus. I struggled through the rest of the race not focusing so much on time as on watching most of my peers from the program pass me.
I learned a very valuable lesson that if you don't keep working at something, you will lose those abilities very quickly. Although I still PRed by almost 4 minutes from last year's race, I guess I was disappointed in my performance because I had been looking forward to this race for so long and know that I could have done a lot better and with less effort had this race taken place before my 2.5 week hiatus. I was one of the slowest in my 8:00 pace group and when we shared our finish times with each other and I told them mine, one of them had a shocked expression on his face and asked "What happened?" I couldn't help but laugh and think "My thoughts, exactly!" Regardless of the circumstances, I am still very proud and thankful for what SDP has brought out in the runner inside me. Hard work DOES pay off! I am excited for what this summer's Experienced Marathoners Program has to offer and hope for some positive results in my fall marathon, Steamtown.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Road Trip to Cali
A road trip from MD to Cali is something I've always wanted to do and now I can finally say I've done it. Driving cross country really gives me an appreciation for just how big and diverse this country is. I loved experiencing all the different climates and cultures/people/accents (if you haven't already noticed, I have a thing for accents!). I also realized that I need to brush up on my U.S. geography!
Day 1 (Sunday):
We jam-packed all of our things into Vi's little car and headed out on I-70W on Sunday morning. As we hit the C&O Canal and surrounding area, I was fondly reminded of that crazy 50 mile race I did back in November on those paths. Good times! We sliced into a tiny piece of Virginia before going into West Virginia for a short period of time and then it was back into Virginia coasting along 81 for what seemed like a very long time (perhaps because I've seen Virginia enough times and had no interest in it). I was very excited to reach Tennessee, as it was the first of the four states (TN, AR, OK, NM) on this trip that I'd never been to before. We stopped in Nashville for the night. We drove down Broadway St. and I was surprised to see/hear how happening this street was on a Sunday night with all the live music (no wonder they call Nashville "Music City").
Day 2 (Monday):
We stopped at The Parthenon in Centennial Park before heading out. It was a very pretty park, I saw a group of runners and was very jealous of where they got to run. We passed right by Memphis and I could see St. Jude Children's Research Hospital from the highway. Ever since volunteering in the Pediatric Care Research Unit at Hopkins in 2004, I have always wanted to work at St. Jude's, although 1) I don't want to live in Memphis and 2) that would be an extremely depressing job. I don't remember much about Arkansas except a lot of open fields and cows. Sadly, I did not even know that AR neighbored TN and OK. Next up was Oklahoma! We stayed for the night in Oklahoma City with Amy and John (thanks guys!). It was nice to see their place and meet Holly. She liked me (Amy said she likes pink) and I wasn't even wearing any pink! Must've been her pink intuition! The only thing I know about Oklahoma is the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I did not know that they made a memorial at the bomb sight, but that was very cool to see.
Day 3 (Tuesday):
On the road again with the next state being Texas. Technically, I have been in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport for layovers, but I guess you can't really count that as a visit. The highlight of our brief encounter with this state was seeing tumbleweeds rolling across the roads, it was just like in the cartoons! Next, we hit New Mexico. There are a lot of Indian reservations in NM. We reached Arizona and stopped in Flagstaff for the night. It was colder than I had expected and I was surprised to see a good amount of snow still on the ground.
Day 4 (Wednesday):
We took the day off from driving and went to see the Grand Canyon. This is definitely something worth seeing in person, as pictures cannot even begin to do this place any justice. It was also nice to take a break from 11 to 13-hour days of driving, although the driving did not seem as bad as I expected it to be. It had been a full week since the last time I had run or done any form of exercise, so I was really anxious to do some form of physical activity. Vi and I were really excited to use the hotel's "fitness center" until we turned on the treadmill and realized that the speed would not go pass 3.6 mph. WTF?! By this time, I was beginning to lose track of dates and times altogether, especially with crossing all those time zones.
Day 5 (Thursday):
We decided to spend another day playing by visiting the parks in Sedona, AZ. We visited Slide Rock State Park, the downtown district of Sedona, and Red Rock State Park before deciding we had had enough of red rocks and continued onward with our road trip. No wonder why Arizona is always symbolized with a cactus, there were cacti everywhere and they were huge! We decided that if we headed to Phoenix, it would be too early in the day to want to stop driving, but if we tried to make it all the way to San Diego, we wouldn't get there til past midnight. So we chose a random city in between: Blythe, CA. Just over the border between Arizona and California, Blythe was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and basically seemed like a "pitstop" kind of town. Also, why does California make you stop at their border for inspection and make you throw away all your produce?
Day 6 (Friday):
Just a couple more hours before we reach our final destination. The drive out there seemed to happen so fast, that I didn't expect it to be over already. Everything went so smoothly, the weather was sunny the whole way, and we only hit traffic once for about a half an hour in Tennessee. The first place we hit up upon reaching San Diego was apartment complex choice #1. This place looked very appealing and almost seemed like a resort. We checked out a few more places and then checked into our hotel on base at Camp Pendleton.
Days 7-13 (Saturday - Friday):
We spent the weekend in the hotel and then moved to the beach cottage on San Onofre Beach during the week. Saturday was spent doing more apartment hunting before Vi ultimately decided to go with choice #1. We then proceeded with the moving process by going furniture shopping over the next two days. We also took multiple trips to Super Walmart (or as Vi's GPS calls it, "Wooooowwwmart") for numerous exchanges, returns, and forgotten items. There was hardly any free time with all the chores to do and waiting around for furniture, the cable guy, and the Navy movers to arrive. Vi unfortunately had to report to work right away on Monday, but was lucky enough to get Thursday and Friday off. I was able to get in one run on the beach and one around her neighborhood (life without humidity is so great!). We also went to Mission Beach, Coronado Island, and Santa Ana. I really like the place that Vi chose to live, Oceanside. It's so close to plenty of stores and a lot of good food! Avocados are cheap there, only 50 cents each!
Day 14 (Saturday):
The end of the trip =(. Let's just say I was glad to be riding a 4 1/2 hour plane back to MD rather than driving all that way back!
Day 1 (Sunday):
We jam-packed all of our things into Vi's little car and headed out on I-70W on Sunday morning. As we hit the C&O Canal and surrounding area, I was fondly reminded of that crazy 50 mile race I did back in November on those paths. Good times! We sliced into a tiny piece of Virginia before going into West Virginia for a short period of time and then it was back into Virginia coasting along 81 for what seemed like a very long time (perhaps because I've seen Virginia enough times and had no interest in it). I was very excited to reach Tennessee, as it was the first of the four states (TN, AR, OK, NM) on this trip that I'd never been to before. We stopped in Nashville for the night. We drove down Broadway St. and I was surprised to see/hear how happening this street was on a Sunday night with all the live music (no wonder they call Nashville "Music City").
Day 2 (Monday):
We stopped at The Parthenon in Centennial Park before heading out. It was a very pretty park, I saw a group of runners and was very jealous of where they got to run. We passed right by Memphis and I could see St. Jude Children's Research Hospital from the highway. Ever since volunteering in the Pediatric Care Research Unit at Hopkins in 2004, I have always wanted to work at St. Jude's, although 1) I don't want to live in Memphis and 2) that would be an extremely depressing job. I don't remember much about Arkansas except a lot of open fields and cows. Sadly, I did not even know that AR neighbored TN and OK. Next up was Oklahoma! We stayed for the night in Oklahoma City with Amy and John (thanks guys!). It was nice to see their place and meet Holly. She liked me (Amy said she likes pink) and I wasn't even wearing any pink! Must've been her pink intuition! The only thing I know about Oklahoma is the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. I did not know that they made a memorial at the bomb sight, but that was very cool to see.
Day 3 (Tuesday):
On the road again with the next state being Texas. Technically, I have been in the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport for layovers, but I guess you can't really count that as a visit. The highlight of our brief encounter with this state was seeing tumbleweeds rolling across the roads, it was just like in the cartoons! Next, we hit New Mexico. There are a lot of Indian reservations in NM. We reached Arizona and stopped in Flagstaff for the night. It was colder than I had expected and I was surprised to see a good amount of snow still on the ground.
Day 4 (Wednesday):
We took the day off from driving and went to see the Grand Canyon. This is definitely something worth seeing in person, as pictures cannot even begin to do this place any justice. It was also nice to take a break from 11 to 13-hour days of driving, although the driving did not seem as bad as I expected it to be. It had been a full week since the last time I had run or done any form of exercise, so I was really anxious to do some form of physical activity. Vi and I were really excited to use the hotel's "fitness center" until we turned on the treadmill and realized that the speed would not go pass 3.6 mph. WTF?! By this time, I was beginning to lose track of dates and times altogether, especially with crossing all those time zones.
Day 5 (Thursday):
We decided to spend another day playing by visiting the parks in Sedona, AZ. We visited Slide Rock State Park, the downtown district of Sedona, and Red Rock State Park before deciding we had had enough of red rocks and continued onward with our road trip. No wonder why Arizona is always symbolized with a cactus, there were cacti everywhere and they were huge! We decided that if we headed to Phoenix, it would be too early in the day to want to stop driving, but if we tried to make it all the way to San Diego, we wouldn't get there til past midnight. So we chose a random city in between: Blythe, CA. Just over the border between Arizona and California, Blythe was pretty much in the middle of nowhere and basically seemed like a "pitstop" kind of town. Also, why does California make you stop at their border for inspection and make you throw away all your produce?
Day 6 (Friday):
Just a couple more hours before we reach our final destination. The drive out there seemed to happen so fast, that I didn't expect it to be over already. Everything went so smoothly, the weather was sunny the whole way, and we only hit traffic once for about a half an hour in Tennessee. The first place we hit up upon reaching San Diego was apartment complex choice #1. This place looked very appealing and almost seemed like a resort. We checked out a few more places and then checked into our hotel on base at Camp Pendleton.
Days 7-13 (Saturday - Friday):
We spent the weekend in the hotel and then moved to the beach cottage on San Onofre Beach during the week. Saturday was spent doing more apartment hunting before Vi ultimately decided to go with choice #1. We then proceeded with the moving process by going furniture shopping over the next two days. We also took multiple trips to Super Walmart (or as Vi's GPS calls it, "Wooooowwwmart") for numerous exchanges, returns, and forgotten items. There was hardly any free time with all the chores to do and waiting around for furniture, the cable guy, and the Navy movers to arrive. Vi unfortunately had to report to work right away on Monday, but was lucky enough to get Thursday and Friday off. I was able to get in one run on the beach and one around her neighborhood (life without humidity is so great!). We also went to Mission Beach, Coronado Island, and Santa Ana. I really like the place that Vi chose to live, Oceanside. It's so close to plenty of stores and a lot of good food! Avocados are cheap there, only 50 cents each!
Day 14 (Saturday):
The end of the trip =(. Let's just say I was glad to be riding a 4 1/2 hour plane back to MD rather than driving all that way back!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Exploring My Own Backyard
I've lived in Columbia/Ellicott City my whole life, but these past two weekends have made me realize how little I know/have explored about my own backyard. I get too excited about exploring new cities away from home that I forget about what remains to be discovered in my very own hometown.
What sparks this sudden urge to go exploring more of Columbia? Well, two things:
1) I've been spending a lot of time in downtown Bethesda due to running and biking and have really fallen in love with that place. They are trying to turn downtown Columbia into something similar to Bethesda Row. At first, I was not in the least bit excited about all the construction that this will bring to Columbia, as it will draw in more crowds and traffic. But now that I see all the cute little places there are to hang out in Bethesda and how little of those places we have around here (have you seen how packed Tutti Frutti gets every night?!), I am kind of excited for Columbia to have more locations to hang out. Plus, I have come to terms with the fact that Columbia is just going to get more and more built-up/city-like and crowded whether you like it or not, so either roll with it or move further out into the countryside.
2) I have recently started running with the Howard County Striders and discovered that Howard County is filled with plenty of walking/running/biking trails! I didn't even know we had a fitness trail by the Restaurant Lake! What's even sadder is that I didn't even know that lake was called Lake Kittamaqundi! For 23 years of my life, I always thought it was just the "Restaurant Lake." Running with the Montgomery County Road Runners Club has opened my eyes to all the parks and trails available in MoCo, so it's time I start learning more about HoCo!
So who wants to go exploring?!
What sparks this sudden urge to go exploring more of Columbia? Well, two things:
1) I've been spending a lot of time in downtown Bethesda due to running and biking and have really fallen in love with that place. They are trying to turn downtown Columbia into something similar to Bethesda Row. At first, I was not in the least bit excited about all the construction that this will bring to Columbia, as it will draw in more crowds and traffic. But now that I see all the cute little places there are to hang out in Bethesda and how little of those places we have around here (have you seen how packed Tutti Frutti gets every night?!), I am kind of excited for Columbia to have more locations to hang out. Plus, I have come to terms with the fact that Columbia is just going to get more and more built-up/city-like and crowded whether you like it or not, so either roll with it or move further out into the countryside.
2) I have recently started running with the Howard County Striders and discovered that Howard County is filled with plenty of walking/running/biking trails! I didn't even know we had a fitness trail by the Restaurant Lake! What's even sadder is that I didn't even know that lake was called Lake Kittamaqundi! For 23 years of my life, I always thought it was just the "Restaurant Lake." Running with the Montgomery County Road Runners Club has opened my eyes to all the parks and trails available in MoCo, so it's time I start learning more about HoCo!
So who wants to go exploring?!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Unpublished Posts
I had no posts in February not because I couldn't think of anything to write, but because I would start a post, get bored with it halfway through, and never finish it. I have a knack for doing that a lot and then never going back to finish what I started and often wondering what the heck I was trying to say in the post to begin with. So I finally decided to go back and attempt to finish what I started, or just publish them as is...
Part of it is because I think most of what I write is stupid and pointless and who would care to read it? But I have to remember that I'm not making anyone read my blog. I'm just publicly sharing my thoughts for anyone who happens to be interested in them. So write what you're passionate about. And if you don't like what you see, don't read it!
Part of it is because I think most of what I write is stupid and pointless and who would care to read it? But I have to remember that I'm not making anyone read my blog. I'm just publicly sharing my thoughts for anyone who happens to be interested in them. So write what you're passionate about. And if you don't like what you see, don't read it!
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