Finding My Way Through Irvine

I'm in Irvine, CA for business. I'm kicking off a new project with one of our largest customers. It's a great opportunity for me, even if I am only "on loan" to this other group for the time being.

I have mixed feelings about business trips - I don't mind the travel and I love being in new places. However, I also like having my routine...and business trips really messes that up.

I finally arrived at my hotel on Sunday night at 11:30pm Pacific (that's 2:30am in my home Eastern time zone). My cellphone rang at 2am Pacific with issues at one of the maintenance window activities I was managing. By the time I "woke up" in the morning, I was really tired and in no mood for a run.

After the workday, I decided to head out for dinner and watch Monday Night Football - which starts at 6pm out here. Wow! I walked over to an awesome place called the Yard House and had some very good food (seared tuna and hot spinach and cheese dip) and excellent beer (Young's Chocolate Stout and Maredsous 8). On the way back from the restaurant, I found that there was a bike path behind my hotel - and I had seen the path on my walk to the restaurant - so I knew what I was going to do for my run the next morning!

One of the benefits to running with a Garmin Forerunner (305), is that I no longer need to meticulously map out my runs beforehand to see where I'm going to go and how long it is going to take. I can just get up and go - RedG maps everything out and tells me how far I have gone. As long as I remember where I'm going - so I can get back to point A - I don't have to think too much about my route anymore.

I ended up waking up a little before 5am (this Pacific time zone stuff is killing me!). It was still dark outside so I waited about an hour until the sun started coming up. It was a crisp 50 degrees, and although there was a chill in the air it felt great running in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt again. I guess 50 degrees is cold for California since everyone else who was out on the bike path that morning was bundled up!

The path ran against a wide creek bed that was completely dry. I suppose that when it rains here, this probably flows like a river - there were lots of signs warning about flooding conditions. The trail was very nice - a wide asphalt path that went under the major streets. No worrying about stopping for traffic or watching for cars - awesome!

I ran for about a mile and a quarter, and then the path stopped at a street that it did not go under. When I got up to the road, there was no crosswalk and there was a median in the middle of the road. I guess it was time to turn back towards the hotel and then continue on past the hotel. After passing the hotel, I was able to go another mile before the path ended in that direction. So my out-and-back one way and out-and-back the other way route was a bit over 4.5 miles. I had run nice and easy at a 10:15/mile average pace.

Later today, I took a look at Google maps to figure out if this path goes further than that street where I stopped on my way out. It ends up that if I go up to the street, turn right and go about a tenth of a mile, I'll be able to pick up the path to go under the road and continue on. And there's a long network of paths after that. So...it looks like I'll be good for a longer run tomorrow and/or on Thursday. Woo hoo!

Looking Back At Last Week And Ahead To This One

Last week was my highest mileage week so far this year - 34 miles - and included my longest run of the year so far, 17 miles. The best thing was that all of the runs felt great!

The great feeling was partially due to the wonderful weather and partially due to the fact that my conditioning is improving.

This morning will be another bump-up. I'm scheduled to run 36 miles - 5, 8, 5 and 18. I went out for the first 5 miler this morning, and although I didn't do poorly (10:48/mile pace with an average HR of 149), I wasn't feeling the same way as last week. The weather was a little more humid this morning, so I hope that's the issue.

My plan this week is to run on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with my long run on Sunday. I have signed up for the Parks Half Marathon this Sunday, so I will park my car about 5 miles from the starting line, run to the race and then do 13.1 miles of the race. My goal here is to run an even-paced 2:20 Half Marathon. It doesn't seem too difficult to do, however, I need to remember that this will be miles 6 through 18 and not miles 1 through 13 :-)

Week 10 Plan

After last week - where almost of all my plans went out the window - I'm wondering if I should even bother putting a plan together. However, my type-A, Project Manager self needs a plan...even if there is no follow through.

The training plan shows runs of 4, 8, 4 and 17. Yes...that's SEVENTEEN miles on the weekend. I think the last time I ran anything that long was when I ran the Frederick Marathon last May.

I will be playing a bit of "Mr Mom" during the mornings this week. Sherry's school started today, my older son starts tomorrow, but my younger son doesn't start until next week. Luckily, work is still a bit quiet and my boss is on vacation. I'll likely log into work in the morning while watching my younger son and then take him to the gym at some point so he can interact with other children and caregivers (i.e. babysitting!) and I can get my weekday runs in. Sherry will return in the early afternoon and I'll go back into the office.

For the long weekend run, I've asked a few runners in the area if they would like to run a 17 miler together. I'm hoping to find someone as I think the run will be a little more enjoyable. Not that I dislike running alone or with the iPod, but my run in Central Park seemed to go by so quickly due to the conversation. Anything that can make a 3 hour run seem a bit shorter will be welcomed.

More Plans Gone Awry

I was planning to do this weekend's 11 miler on the Rockville Millennium Trail with my sister. She is training to do the Parks Half Marathon in a few weeks and it would be a nice opportunity to go running with her.

Although I normally do my long runs on Saturday, she was free on Sunday so I decided to push the run out for one day and run with her.

I got a call this morning that she's under the weather and won't be able to run tomorrow :-(

I'm not sure if I'll run the same route tomorrow morning or not. And part of tonight will be spent trying to pick which music to put on the iPod for my run tomorrow. Oh well...

Plans Get Thrown Out The Window

My plan for this morning - do my 11 mile long run for the week since our plan for this weekend was to go up to the Poconos for a birthday/retreat/Israeli Dance bash that a friend of mine has organized.

This morning's run started to unravel around 12:30am when my younger son appeared in our room. Unfortunately the game of trying to get him to sleep lasted a few hours - we would put him back in his bed and eventually he was back in our room, he would get into bed with us and then move around too much, etc. I eventually woke up at 6:30am and there was no way I was heading out for an 11 mile run. I stayed in bed until the munchkin woke up a little after 7am.

It actually won't be such a tragedy, as it looks like I should be able to get my long run in this weekend. With my wife's new job, the students arrive on Monday and there is still tons to do. So, it looks like we will not be going to the Poconos after all. At first we were kicking around scenarios where I would go with the kids and she would stay or she would stay with the kids and I would go, but in the end we decided it was best to stay together.

As they say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...

A New Paradigm For The Fox Family - And A Facebook Faux Pas

DISCLAIMER - Anyone who is only interested in my running can stop reading now :-)

Life in the Fox Family has been shaken up a bit over the past few days.

My wife Sherry is a teacher by trade. Since the time our first child was born, she has been a Stay-At-Home-Mom - with a private tutoring business on the side. This has been great when the kids were really young - it gave her flexibility to be with the kids during the day, and then I would watch them after work in the early evening while she tutored.

Now that my older son is going into 2nd grade, and my younger son will be going to Nursery School 5 days a week until 2pm, Sherry was going to try and change the business model of her tutoring business. Many private schools in the area allow tutors to come in during school hours to work with their students, and my wife was hoping to line up her sessions while the kids were in school. She had done this with one of her students last year and it worked out great.

That was the plan...until Thursday morning.

We logged into our email at the hotel on our way back from Florida on Thursday morning and found that the private school where Sherry tutored last year had a teaching position open. They were trying to contact her to see if she was interested in the position.

She spent many hours on the phone (luckily I was doing most of the driving) getting more information on the position and trying to come to a favorable agreement for her and the school. Long story short - she started today!

Her employment does change a lot of things for us. First of all, I will need to drive my younger son to school each day (Sherry will drive carpool in the morning for our older son on the way to her school). Also, we need to work out coverage for the kids this week (while she is at the school planning and preparing) and for my younger son next week (his school starts a week after everyone else does). Coverage for the kids was rarely an issue in the SAHM days.

It also means that things are just less flexible around here. If I want to run in the morning, I need to ensure I'm up and out the door by a specific time to be back before Sherry leaves for work/carpool. Looking ahead, I have some 8 mile weekday runs on the schedule coming up...I'll likely need to get out the door in the 5:30am timeframe for those. Ouch!

On the flip side, it should ease things up for us financially. We should be able to chip away at some debt (Home Equity lines of credit always seem like a good idea when you first use them...) and even start to save more (maybe for another Disney vacation???)
------------

We had a Facebook Faux Pas last night.

My wife went to change her status to "I'm starting a NEW JOB tomorrow!". However, our shared computer in the kitchen popped my email address in the user login window instead of hers and she ended up changing my status to this.

An hour later I open my email to see about 20 comments about my Facebook status. When I started to read these comments I immediately knew what had happened. Sherry updated the wrong account's status!

I wrote a comment explaining that it was Sherry starting the new job, not me...that the computer signed in with the wrong account.

Luckily, I have not "friended" any of the colleagues in my group at work nor any of my customers (some of my work friends that I worked with before are FB friends, but no one in my current group). That would have been really embarrasing!!!

Marathon Pace Run - Sort Of...

I'm in week 9 of my training plan. It is a "step back" week on mileage and calls for runs of 4, 7, 4 and 11 miles.

Again, life takes over - there is no way that I'll be able to do a long run over the weekend, so I'm rearranging this to 7 today, 4 tomorrow, 11 on Thursday and 4 on Saturday or Sunday if I can get it in.

So...my plan for today was a 7 miler before work. I was going to attempt a marathon pace run - at around a 10:40/mile pace. It's not really a speed session - so I won't tire myself out for the rest of the day - but it is not as pokey as my long runs have been.

After this weekend's long run, I was thinking that a 7 miler would be a piece of cake. It's amazing what a 15 mile run can do for your perspective!

Once again, the weather this morning was great. Humidity not too high and the temperatures were in the mid-60s.

I started running - and I felt good. It's nice to have that feeling again :-)

The first mile I came in at 10:29. Then a 10:23. Mile three was 9:47. Oops!

I slowed myself down after that - but although none of my miles were sub-10:00, none of them were over 10:40 either.

I finished my run strong - totals of 7.12 miles in 1:12:28; a 10:11/mile pace with an average HR of 157.

Next time I do a marathon pace run, I'm leaving the iPod at home and I'll focus on trying to hit my pace. However, getting out there and running faster than I have been felt really good!!!

Nice And Easy!

Since I'll be on the road to Florida tomorrow and Friday, I had to cram my 3rd and final weekday run in today. I was out late last night so it was a lunchtime run for me.

Despite being the 4th day of running in a row, my body felt good. I took it nice and easy on the treadmill at the gym today - set it at 5.2 mph for the first mile and 5.5 mph for the next 3 miles.

Ended up with 4 miles in 44:19 - an 11:05/mile pace with an average heart rate of 139!!! I don't ever recall having a run this long with an average HR under 140.

Tomorrow morning we're up bright and early (OK, we're always up bright and early) and hitting the road. I'm a bit nervous about doing a 14 mile run in Boynton Beach on Saturday morning. The overnight low on Friday night is 78 degrees. 14 miles in 80 degree weather? ICK! I'm definitely bringing my water belt...

Scheduling The Next Two Weeks and This Morning's Run

Last week was a "step down" week...now back to increasing miles on the training plan. This week will be a challenge - 4, 7, 4 and 14 miles. On a normal week it wouldn't be too bad.

But the next two weeks are not normal weeks. On Thursday we are driving to Florida - as the start of our week-long vacation which will feature 4-days and 3-nights in Disney World!

I will try to get my weekly runs in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll have two "rest" days on Thursday and Friday (driving down to Boynton Beach, FL). I'll try to do my long run on Saturday morning. Then on Sunday morning it is off to Orlando!

Next week will be just as challenging. I hear you do tons of walking at Disney World. Do I really want to run 7 miles one morning and then walk 15 miles around the park? The hotel I'm staying at has a gym with a treadmill, but we'll see how exhausted I am.
-----

My run this morning went really well. I remember last year that my easy runs that immediately followed the long run or speedwork runs went really well - and today was no exception.

4.48 miles in 46:47 - a 10:27/mile pace with an average HR of 150 bpm. I'm really excited about the pace - that's a full minute per mile faster than my run yesterday, at only a slightly higher average heart rate.

Finally, I'm seeing the benefits of my training!