OMG another hill.

Test

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:11:25 -0400

Test

Golden Gate bridge run (10.04mi)

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 05:47:00 -0400

Practice 10 mile run with MJ in preparation for my half marathon on Sunday. Never ran across Golden Gate Bridge before and it was quite nice and breezy.

I think I’m discovering that 10-10:30 is more of my pace right now as I’ve been a little burned out half way, through. I don’t want to go up to 14:00 by the time I get to the 13 mile mark so I’ll experiment with taking it easier in the beginning.

Also, got my new Garmin GPS. Pretty lightweight and handy. Sure beats carrying around a phone in my hand and having Run Keeper crash. Seeing my heart rate is kinda neat, too!

Getting faster.

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:01:38 -0400

Lately MJ and I have been trying to run on routes that have less stops to mimic more of a marathon situation in preperation for my half Marathon next Sunday. We decided to do this run along the Embarcadero (which is unfortunately flatter than I would like but will do for now.)

We did the route 2 weeks ago:

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/18823674 (6.28 mi)

At a pace of 10:29 and a week later:

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/19099087 (6.26 mi)

At a pace of 9:30 shaving six whole minutes off our run!

Also, I finally switched to a Garmin watch (305) so goodbye Run Keeper!

Warrior Dash NorCal results!

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:47:59 -0400

Warrior Dash results are in! My time was 29:51 and my average pace was 8:32/M (in the top 17% percentile). Not bad considering having to run up and down steep hills, over hurdles, cars, and fire, through tunnels, and crawling through the mud. F yeah!

Full results list here: http://www.warriordash.com/register2010_norcal.php

17 mile "marathon" run (16.85 mi)

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:30:41 -0400

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/17989689 (16.85 mi)

I’m still a bit sore from yesterday’s run. We attempted a 20-miler tracing most of the route of the Nike’s Women’s Marathon that MJ is doing next week.

The route was fairly smooth with a minimal amount of stopping and some of the best views that SF has to offer. I did decently (for my skill level) up to mile 16.5 - but after that we stopped in a store for some gatorade and I found my legs didn’t want to go much further after that - in hindsight we should have just finished the last three miles before breaking.

In any case, MJ, the four-time marathon runner was fine and I”m sure she’ll do awesomely at next weeks race. Good luck MJ!

Wednesday night Lululemon 10k run (6 mi)

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:28:00 -0400

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/17989689 (6 mi)

A pretty flat route created by Lululemon. I liked that there was only a few stoplights which really improved our average time (but also prevented us from resting - we love / hate lights!). We attempted to do this run pretty fast. We came 15 minutes or so after the run started but we knew the route.

The original route had us go to the end of the pier but unfortunately it was closed.

Central Park Run (6.7 mi)

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:13:00 -0400

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/17715054 (6.7 mi)

Short run in Central Park with Takashi while I was in New York. Relatively flat and scenic route around the whole park - only one real hilly spot named “Harlem Hill”. We walked the last two miles and chatted.

Butterlap ride! (16.85 mi)

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:38:00 -0400

map

Butterlap, the deceptively named ~17mile weekly bike ride starting from the Ferry Building in SF’s Financial District, up along the northern coast of SF, through Golden Gate park, across the well known bike route known as “the wiggle”, and finally ending at Bender’s Bar in the Mission is not as easy as the name envisions! It does feature a considerable amount of smooth and fun downhilling (also probably the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike), but to work up to those high points you need to climb about 250 feet on a few hills along the way - some quick, the way I like it, but some very gradual and tortuous.

By the end I was pretty beat, but glad I didn’t give up. Overall, it ended up being a pretty great ride with 30-40 other riders, with enough breaks after the larger hills to regain some energy.

My RunKeeper app I normally used didn’t work so well on this trip - probably due to the fact that it was in my pocket. Until I devise a better plan of recording next week’s ride, I’ve linked the GPS route of someone else who did it a few months ago using a Garmin watch.

Golden Gate Park to Outter Sunset ride (8.62 mi)

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:36:00 -0400

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/16841599 (8.62 mi)

My first long bike ride with the new road bike (a blue 2011 Giant Defy 1). Both first road bike I’ve ever had and first time using clipless pedals (special shoes that connect directly to the pedals.)

One big hill climb of almost 200ft on Fell St which I’ll note not to take again. Its a tight single lane shared with cars. Everything else was pretty much smooth sailing.

As a pretty inexperienced runner I’ve had to learn a few...

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:17:00 -0400

As a pretty inexperienced runner I’ve had to learn a few things like not to eat an hour or two before runs (to avoid stomach aches), divide up my meals into smaller portions to be consumed throughout the day (this is just good to do all around so your body doesn’t store as much fat), practice better running posture, etc.

Some issues I’ve encountered during my runs are pain in the (left) arch of my foot occasionally and pain in my (right) knee which gets exponentially worse on longer runs starting at around eight miles or so - by mile 12 I’m limping a little.

I’m not sure whether this is caused by bad running posture, bad shoes, not enough hydration (I’m drinking about 16oz every five miles now), or simply because my body isn’t used to running long distance, but it was getting to the point where I set up an appointment with my doctor. I wore a knee brace during runs in the meantime (which helped considerably). I also ended up getting an expensive pair of running shoes, which ended up fixing the arch issue - and things were looking a lot better - though not 100%.

I talked to someone about my knee issue and he jokingly(?) recommended some Joint Juice. I thought, the name sounded funny but maybe some lube in my joints is exactly what I needed. During lunch, I checked my local Walgreens and lo and behold it was there in a glorious pomegranate-flavored 6-pack. I started drinking them on the morning of my run days (4 days a week) and even during the end of the first day I was feeling a lot less achey in my joint. I did a 10 mile run with no problems (and no knee brace). I ended up canceling my doctor’s appointment because I had no pain at all to show him.

While I don’t want to be dependent on Joint Juice, it’s really helped me on my runs and apparently its active ingredients are pretty popular with marathoners. The makers even sponsor a run in Chicago. We’ll see how the next 15-miler goes.

Hunter's point run (9.25 mi)

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 05:24:00 -0400

First long solo run today from my place, down Embarcadero, to the very tip of Hunter’s Point, then to Philz Coffee in the Mission!

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/16786539 (4.41 mi)

Map
http://runkeeper.com/user/krunkosaurus/activity/16786662 (4.84 mi)

(Run Keeper stopped on me, so I had to submit as two runs.)

My fastest 1 mile split so far at 8:53. Still haven’t hit that sub 8, I’m hoping for yet!