I'm In It

This just in - I'm doing the Trail of Torment 10K this Sunday.

I'm planning a triple medal January!

Superfeet, Not So Super

Last week, when the X-ray technician showed me the X-rays of my feet he said, "The right foot has a pretty large bone spur." My reply was, "Nifty, but it's the left foot that hurts."

Since this summer I've had problems with both of my feet. At the end of each race or workout, I'm limpin' and gimpin' on extremely tender tootsies. My plantar facsiae are irritable and those nasty facsaie have my heels aching whenever I run or jump. The X-rays where just to confirm that there aren't any broken or fractured bones. The bones are fine, even with the bone spurs.

When my foot problems first started, I had some Superfeet insoles custom made for my running shoes. Essentially they put your Superfeet insoles into an EasyBake oven to melt them, then the insoles are reformed around your foot. In theory, you should have insoles that precisely support your feet. People rave about Superfeet and I figured with custom fitting, they'd be perfect.

Except not. This weekend at training, I finally figured it out. It's the stupid insole that's the problem. I ripped it out of my shoe and ran with substantially less pain.

Merry Christmas

This is my Mom and I in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center.

Oh, and just for the record. I owned the hot pink coat, but my mom loaned me the hot pink hat. She also had a matching scarf. We are hot pink people.

Brrr!

Landed in Pennsylvania to 22 degree weather. That's 22 Fahrenheit, not Celsius. My flip flop wearing self was in shock. Yes, I did grow up here and I know that winters are cold, but I left Pennsylvania 15 years ago. I've lost my ability to endure weather colder than about 55 degrees. For instance, I'd completely forgotten about "wind chill". That 22 degrees felt like -2. Icy roads, I'd forgotten about those too.

Still I try. I managed to bring gloves all the way from my home in San Diego to my parents house in PA. However, I forgot to take my gloves with me to Manhattan.

Just Once

I'd like to make it to the airport without gobs of rushing and stress. Also, I forgot my phone. Damn.

Character Builder

When I was riding my bike there was on stop sign I called "the character builder". It's midway up a hill on the ride home. You have to decide to fully stop the bike and put your foot down on the ground. Then you need to decide to start pedaling again mid-hill when you're tired. The other option is to do a slow-and-go and hope that neither the coaches nor the cops catch you. Deciding to stop the bike when you're tired - character builder.

I've got a few character builder hills for running also. One is at the tail end of Sunset Cliffs. You go up a very steep hill and then do a little dogleg to go up the steepest hill I've ever run. You can pretend you don't know about that dogleg and skip that last part of the hill, but then that's not a character builder.

To prep for Dallas, I planned a little 10 miler though Sunset Cliffs. I blew away that hill, better than I've EVER done it. In fact, I was able to keep up with Pat who normally beats me easily on hills. A week earlier I bounded on up Laurel Street hill like it was flat.

I've got to credit the cross training from Peak Performance. We haven't been running hills, but I'm a much improved climber.

I'm So There

If you call a race the Trail of Torment 10K, then you're pretty much guaranteed that I want to do it. I hope there's a full race series - perhaps the Poke in the Eye 5K and the Kick to the Head Marathon.

I talked to my friends at the San Diego Running Institute who are sponsoring the race, and here's the low-down:

• No official time limit.
• One tough hill in the early part of the race - compare it to inner Torrey Pines.
• After that it's mostly rolling hills and flat trails.
• Medal to all finishers
  

Oh, trails, hills, short distance and a medal. Try and keep me away from it.

And This Is Where You Start Paying....In Sweat

This has been some week.

Monday night was our hardest core workout to date. Tonight at Rehab United was brutal. Our trainer Justin was in a no mercy mood. He's an absolute sweetie, but he can put together a killer workout - sumo squats with chest press, X-chops, shoulder & squat series, tall box climbs, ab dollies, 3 direction lunge series, medicine ball toss/catch, and water buckets. Then do the whole thing again.

Wow. Our sweat coefficient was very high tonight. Our entire team was as drenched in sweat.

At this rate, I wonder what Todd has in store for our Saturday workout at Velocity.

All That and a Bag of (Tortilla) Chips

The tacos at Fuel City are as good as they're reputed to be. I recommend the barbacoa, the pastor (picante!) and picadillo. Oh, and the tomatillo sauce.

Fuel City tacos, chicken fried rib-eye from Breadwinners and beef ribs from Pappas. Who doesn't love beef ribs from a BBQ pit with a cow on the roof.

Dallas has good food. Souvenir eating at it's finest.

Short Race Report - White Rock Half Marathon

Roxie smoked it. She did awesome and I was incredibly happy and proud. Congratulate her! She earned it.

Starting Line: Fun, but there were no corrals and there were 17,000 runners. Officially, there were 3 groups, but there was no indication of where the 3 groups were supposed to queue. Also, there were a fair number of spectators in the runner's chute. It was just a huge mass of people going all different paces.
Miles 1-4: good.
Miles 5-7: my plantar fasciae started to be tender and then moved to full-on pain. I've struggled with plantar fasciitis for months, but never so badly during a workout.
Mile 8: I tried to lift my spirits by cheering for other people which sort of worked for awhile.
Miles 9 -13.1: I remember nothing but my heels hurting. Last night someone asked if we'd gone along McCommas Boulevard and I didn't know. It was all pain, all the time. I'd run a minute to relieve the pain, then that would hurt. Then I'd walk a minute for some relief, than that would hurt. Then I'd stop and stretch. Lather, Rinse, Repeat for 4 miles.

My slowest half marathon ever, but I had a great weekend in Dallas.

Calling doctor for a referral to physical therapy.

Back in Dallas

Friends, Tex-Mex and Chicken Fried Steak.

Welcome Back to the Big D.

It's Good to Read the Course Map

Just now, I looked at the course map for the White Rock Half Marathon that I'm doing in 3 days.

The course is different this year and the last 5K are on Katy Trail. Katy Trail, where Tina and I logged about a 500 miles one year. We meandered down the trail and discussed relationship angst, job angst and occasionally busy-bodied into the angst of our friends.

I can't believe how different it is now. Those troubling relationships and jobs are long gone. Luckily, we've got the same group of friends who've also dropped off some of their burdens.

Katy Trail, it will be good to see you again.

The Prince and the Pea

I'm not saying my cat, Toby, is spoiled, but he's no longer content to merely sleep on the couch.

He now sleeps on the couch perched on multiple layers of pillows.

The Things That Please Me

This summer I had some major landscaping done at my house. I pulled out all of my grass, because this is the desert. The outside area is now all patios and plants that are more suitable. All the plants either flower or produce fruit. Even plants need to earn their keep around here - flowers or fruit or get yanked.

I've been anxiously waiting to see if my camellias would bloom. Here is a photo of the first one.

I'm so proud.

Hoppy Birdy Two Ewe

The guy I'm hugging in this photo has a birthday today. That makes him 3 years older than I am!

Happy Birthday Steve!

My Name Is Christine and I'm a Race-a-holic

I was posting over at RunnersWorld.com and realized I've signed up for half marathons for 3 straight weekends.

Sunday, January 18 - Rock 'n' Roll Arizona
Sunday, January 25 - Carlsbad Half-Marathon
Sunday, February 1 - Surf City

I need to get into some sort of 12-step program for half marathon addicts. Of course, if I ran 12 steps I'd want a finishers medal at the end.