40 Minutes Ritz J/W

Good class at Wharton so far...we ended the day talking about emotional intelligence, which is alot to do about how you talk to yourself and how others will react to you depending upon where there emotions are at the time. To cut it down to simple steps --every morning between now and June 1, 2008 I need to wake up and say, this training is going to enable me to complete the RNR 1/2 Marathon in a reasonable time while jogging and walking my way to the finish.

So at 9PM when we got back to the hotel, I quickly changed into my workout gear and convened with the treadmill for 40 Minutes during Deal or No Deal. This time he took $200K when he had a case for $750K -- still a good deal for an hours work.

Class seems good so far, but tomorrow is a killer day -- but I guess the upside is no foam roller!

Sweet 16

Happy Birthday to one of my coolest nieces! Great family brunch (missing the other niece) hosted again by my sister with fabulous cooking by both Rob & Lou. Headed north to Philadelphia today so its a rest day for me. Lets hope I can balance training with school this week!

Marine Corp Butler Relay 10K

Chilly morning in Quantico VA, home of the inaugural Marine Corp Butler Relay. I arrived in Quantico around 7:15 for an 8:00AM Start. Spent several minutes vascillating what to wear in the 38 degree weather for the 6.2 miles ahead. Finally decided on 2 dri wik shirts, and I made my way to the start.

Pomp and circumstance at the start with the National Anthem from the MC Band, the color guard and shotgun start all made it pretty cool. Thank goodness for my friend Melba (like the toast) that befriended me at mile 1 and we stayed together for the full 6.2 miles and were the absolute last 2 people crossing the finish line at 1:40!

I was extremely pleased with the first 4 miles at just an hour (15:00 pace) and some killer hills on a dirt trail slowed us down between miles 4 and 5. It was wonderful to have the marines along the way cheering us on -- and pretty cool to come across the finish at the new Butler track.

I also found out that my guaranteed admission for the historic 1st MC 1/2 Marathon in Fredricksburg on May 18, may have some value!

Glad the day started out fun...the afternoon and evening are all about my annual letter to the IRS for income taxes!

Butler 10K Tomorrow

Since I can't hook up with my fellow TNTrs, I figured I would substitute with the Marines!
Headed down to Quantico for the Butler Relay 10K (6.2 Miles) at Quantico. The Saturday run for training is 5-7 miiles for RNR, so why not. I'll get to try that "chip" thing this time and jog/walk by myself (without the benefits of nephew power).

http://www.marinecorpshistorichalf.com/Left_Nav/MCM_Event_Series/Butler_Relay.htm

Now that I am committed/registered to the Marine Corp, I'm thinking a 30 minute j/w for today. The bad news is that by doing Butler I get automatic admission to the MC 1/2 on May 18, 2008 -- not sure I want to do a 1/2 2 weeks before the Rock and Roll :)

40 Ellipmill, 3 Miles

From Coach Joe in his weekly e-mail to TNT'rs "“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” <--I really like this one and want to remember it when the road seems long, hilly and far.

40 Minute Cross Training tonight - so I did 20 minutes on the elliptical for 2 Miles and then 20 mintues on the treadmill for 1 mile - total of 3. I'm hoping the elliptical will help me increase my jog time versus walk time.

YOYO 30 Minute Elliptical

Motivation....Endurance
Today was a challenge for me to get back out on Monday after a long jog/walk on Sunday. The schedule called for a 30 minute j/w ~ since I wasn't outside I decided to do a 30 minute elliptical while watching "Deal or No Deal." The contestant had a $1M case but she settled just shy of $400K. Can't quite imagine that kind of deal. I'm glad that I am back on schedule -- would like to get something in every day before the trip back east on Thursday!

10K, 100 Minutes GGP

Golden Gate Park in San Francisco was the venue today.
What a beautiful place, and once again, the camera didn't work so I couldn't capture any of the beauty that I saw, and boy was there alot of it. The flowers at the Conservatory were fabulous, and the lakes were filled with ducks and the trees were beautiful. Many Easter Picnics out on the grounds, and I only saw one "Easter Hat" in the crowd.

Best estimate is 6.2 Miles ( at 10 Kilometers a mile, but I think I actually improved my time) -- no markers on the trip for distance so I had to guess it from the map.
Link to map: http://www.parks.sfgov.org/wcm_recpark/GGP/GGPMap.pdf

I had a great time out today - down Martin Luther King Blvd and back JFK Drive to end up at Kezar Stadium. Tne "N" was running really slowly so it was an hour trip back to the Beacon.

Big shout out to Ms Schneider who made a whopping contribution to the cause and has been extremely supportive of all the TNT activities. Thanks!

8.4 Kilometers, 84 Minutes

Here I thought I was going for 4 Miles roundtrip - turned into 5.2 Miles Roundtrip on a gorgeous Good Friday night here in San Francisco. I headed out on the Embarcadero jog/walking with a goal of Bay Street and then walk home. Well its 2.6 miles to Bay Street I come to find out when I got back to the house!

I think this will be a good distance for me to build my endurance and jog walking, and get me ready for the 1/2 marathon on June 1, 2008. Its about 16 minutes a mile, would like to be down in the 13 or 14 by the time I get to the race -- just need to push to jog more and walk less.

Was accompanied by music the whole way and that really does make it much better. Going to have to find headphones I can wear at RNR to keep me company.

Once again, a week with little workouts and work as an excuse. Gotta reprioritize next week.

Celebrate for the Cause

Tonight was the celebrate for the Cause event. Thank goodness Aimee and Debbie were there otherwise we were surrounded by the all vocal "tri-team." Learned a bit more about the work the LLS does, and found that we have raised over $500K across all the teams to date.

Tomorrow is recommitment day when I officially say I'm headed to San Diego on June 1st. Bring it on -- but I've got a long way to go from a running perspective to have better time.

Thanks Aimee for riding home with me and teaching me that not all bus stops require a Bus Barn!

Rest -- Tour of San Francisco

The best Monday yet for me. Robbie stayed for another day of vacation and we had a great day. Early launch (9AM) from Pier 33 for the Alcatraz Tour. The 0.25 walk up the hill to the cellblock was a bit of a killer. We toured the facility and got on the 11:25AM trip back. Neither of us realized how much sun there was on the boat ride back (we both have red faces tonight).

From Pier 33, down to the Ferry Building for lunch at Taylors (burgers on sourdough) and then back up to the tourist area - Ghiradelli Square, Pier 39 to see the seals and then watching the crowd. Our feet were both tired so we headed back to the Beacon to rest a bit.

Dinner tonight at Palomino -- great food, poor service. Robbie heads out to Oakland Airport at 5:45 am and then I'm back to work and working out.

Emerald Nuts 12 K -- 82 (1:30 Intervals)

Nephew power! Thanks to Rob who pushed me through, we crossed the fnish line in 2 hours. The first 5 were jog/walk the last 2.5 was walk at a steady pace to get through. Bummer is I forgot my battery for the camera so no shots of the race. More later need food.

So the official site says our time was 2:02:12 and I was #2805 of the finishers, but #69 of the age group 55-59. (Somewhere in the 140's of the 44-49 year old age group) The fact that I'm not in the age group says I didn't fill out my form correctly. I had a great race.

Sunday night we found a beautiful church on Bush Street for Palm Sunday mass -- I think I'll switch to there from St. Patricks going forward.

20 Minute J/W with Robbie

Robbie's Here! Whoo! Hoo!
We had a first night here in SFO, dinner at Tres Agaves - nice ambiance and walking distance from home. (Thanks Rachel for the recommendation.) He stayed up for 24 hours before crashing. Its great to have him here as my first East Coast visitor.

This morning we did an Embarcadero session - I did my jog/walk for 20 minutes and he did a run -- figured I'd let him enjoy himself before he is strapped to me tomorrow.

Today is sightseeing in SFO -- Cable Cars cross town to Fisherman's Wharf, Segway Tour of Marina District up to the Golden Gate Bridge and then Dinner at the Salt House. Robbie's friend Meg (and her friend Jason) joined us and we had a great day!

Big shout out to Nancy who sent in a contribution to LLS today!

Back in the Game

You might have noticed that there weren't many postings this week as I was having "get your tush off the couch" problems, but I got myself to the Coaches Workout at Kezar Stadium and it was just what I needed to get back on track.

Lots of folks running the 12K on Sunday, and some helpful hints, but the runs tonight were jog 200 meters then jog/walk 200 meters 6 times. Well I made it around 9 times for 2.25 miles and my pace on the jog was pretty good (and consistent) i thought at 1:45. Coach Leslie and the team were very encouraging and one of the mentors had the team wait for me on one of the intervals which was greatly appreciated. I didn't feel dead at the end which was great!

And a huge shoutout to the Somers family in North Hollywood Florida! Those IPS girls really know how to help out a friend and the LLS even after 30+ years. My nephew Rob arrives tomorrow to see San Francisco and to provide encouragement to me on my first endurance race.

Core Training with Too Much Rest

Somehow I couldn't motivate my old bones to exercise yesterday and I felt it today at Core Class. The intensity of the workout continues to build, and I continue to see advancement every week (which is good).

Back on the schedule now and ready to work up to the Emerald Nuts on Sunday!

Cardinal Advance to Final Pac10

Rest day today absorbed at the HP Pavilion to watch the Quarterfinals of the PAC-10 Women's Basketball tournament. ASU gave Cal a game and it was close right up till the end. Stanford blew away UCLA (78-45) and their top player "Wiggins" couldn't even make a basket. The first string sat on the bench for the 2nd half to rest for the finals tomorrow night. It was a fun day.

One has to ask (and I captured in a picture) what kind of a team would have a mascot called "Cardinal" which is a color so they use a tree for the actual mascot???

I spent the evening at Mountain View Healthcare visiting with Aunt Sheila -- we had fun and caught up on baseball and lots of other things. Back in SFO by 9PM.

4 Mi Tennessee Valley & PAC10

The top picture is a view of the Team on the Marin Tennessee Valleey trail ahead of me so you can see how beautiful it is (and how many of us there are). The second picture is me at the beachhead (2 Miles) thanks to a fellow TNTr who took the pic for me.

The day started out with a hilly 4 mile jog/walk on the Tennessee Valley Trail (out to the beachhead). Rachel and I saw a coyote cross the road on our way into the trail! The trip was hard, but invigorating as I came back up to everyone else just under one hour and got a great "way to go" from all the team at the top. Something you just don't get when you workout by yourself.

Headed down to the PAC-10 Women's Basketball Tournament at the HP Pavilion, and watched the #1 (Stanford) and #2 (UC Berkley a/k/a Cal) beat their Oregonian competition. Karen and her niece Maiya along with a friend joined at the first game. I was too pooped to stay for the USC/UCLA game and came home on the 7PM Train from San Jose. Back tomorrow for 2 more games and maybe a side trip to Los Altos.

Pretty nervous about how beat I'll be next week after the 12K, but still confident that by hook or crook (or walking) I'll make it to the finish if they don't close the race.

101 and Plans to Run

Thanks to my cousin Kathy in NH, check out this link about a man at 101 who plans to run a marathon. Sure inspires me to try to keep up the workout -- and he's going the full 26.2 miles!

http://abcnews.go.com/International/Story?id=4385601&page=1

Today is a rest day, and I plan to do just that before the Mentor Run tomorrow. Tonight kicks off the PAC 10 Women's Basketball Tournament which I plan to attend all weekend. Go Stanford Cardinal!

Coaches Workout!!!

My first coaches workout at Kezar Stadium. It was wonderful to catch up with my TNT gal friends I hadn't seen in a while: Rachel, Sara, Amy. Met Heather and a couple others as we started out on our run.

After a warmup lap, we ran for a mile straight with a hill at the end of each 1/4 mile. Coach Leslie says there are a couple killer hills at the Emerald Nuts race so they want us to get ready. Pretty jazzed that I stayed at 2 minutes run/1 minute walk for the full mile in about 18 minutes!

After that stretches and just chatter. Learned a couple stretches to do at home as well. It was a great night - and next week it will be even better when its lighter out as the time changes. Thanks to Rachel for a ride home to make it a quicker trip back to the Beacon

Big shout out to the Dukes of Silver Spring who contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to help me on my journey.

Picture from 1979 and C/Training

Well this picture showed up in my inbox from almost 30 years ago and since I got a chuckle, I thought those of you who know us well would as well.

Cross Training for 35 Minutes with the elliptical for 2 miles in 35 minutes. I can count at least 4 times I wanted to stop and call it a night, but I thought of all those who had sponsored me as well as all those struggling with a much harder battle and I persevered. Tomorrow night is my first time at a "Coaches Workout." Wonder what surprises that will bring.

Core Workout with Natashza

I'm pretty certain you'd have to have been in this class with me, but tonight I'm excited that I could lay on the foam roller, lift my left leg up to my belly button and do a crunch at the same time without falling over :) I can't do it yet at the speed or counts she wants but I at least did it tonight along with 5 push ups (she wanted 20).

Class was good and I see some improvement in my strength after 5 weeks.

I got my first number "3060" today for the Emerald Nuts Race on 3/16/08!

2 Miles 30 Minutes J/W

Schedule called for 25 Min J/W but the treadmill called me to 30 minutes or the 2 mile mark. The first 20 minutes were 2 jog/1 walk followed by 10 minutes of 2 jog/2 walk. Pace seemed pretty hard but something to aim for as I continue to prepare for the 12K on 3/16/08. I just want to finish (they shut down the course after a certain time).

Big shout out to Coach Blood & Jude for their contribution to LLS and to the Manter family who also weighed in big today. Both of these families have been my friends for 25 years plus ~ they know the good, bad and ugly about me. Back to core training tomorrow and that nasty roller :)

Big Red: 3 Wins, 1 Loss

After the 5 miles on Saturday the rest of the weekend was all about Cornell Women's Softball, and it was a good one.

Saturday the Big Red split their double header beating Qunnipiac and loosing to the host team George Mason. My sister and her husband hosted the 4th Annual Team Dinner at their house in Burke for 60 people. The Big Red Sauce in the Lasagne was enjoyed by all along with caesar salad and bread. The girls looked great in their new Nike warm-up suits and were gracious as usual.

Sunday they took both games (the first one was a nail biter) beating Niagra and George Mason. Great attendance from Cornell Fans including some family including Kevin, Rick, Lou, Rob, Jude and myself. It was all wrapped up by 1:15PM when the team bus (in good spirits) and all the travelers headed home.

This was a great weekend -- friends, family, food, fun and a little softball. Well worth the trip east from SFO. Today was a rest day for me in terms of TNT, back at it tomorrow.

5 Miles on the W&OD Trail

A jog/walking milestone for me as I jog/walked 5 Miles this morning accompanied by my runnin' cousin Jude on the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail today in Ashburn VA from mile marker 29.5 to Milemarker 32 and then turned around in 80 minutes!!! What a difference a friend makes! Based on the self portrait above, I'm convinced that I need to wear a hat anytime I run!

We first synched up with Tina from TNT DC and introduced ourselves, but decided to start out on the trip by our selves and knew that several TNT'rs would pass us on the trip. Jude and I talked about everything but running and I tried not to curse too often at the little beeper on my watch which times our intervals. Did pretty well on the trip out, and the trip back was more walking than jogging -- but it was awesome.

I thought it was cold so I started out with long johns on top and bottom and at about mile 3 I had to do a quick change out of the long john top :) Along the way we saw a cardinal and 2 blue birds and a turkey vulture (and lots of runners).

I was especially encouraged when I saw a lady at the back of the pack of the TNT Team much like myself struggling to keep up and I hope we gave her a bit of encouragement and a push. She's doing the Ankorage Marathon, so I probaby won't see her again.
We now switch gears to Big Red Softball in town for a tournament at Mason. Go Big Red!