Still Plugging Along

I'm still here and I'm still as busy as ever. WE are still as busy as ever. I've been enjoying having the hubby home and spending time with him. The nice thing that has happened is that as a result of all my training with my personal trainer and the weight loss I have gotten faster and can now actually keep up and train with Rocky. That has been a lot of fun.

We cleaned up my bike and took it out for a nice 25 mile bike ride two weekends ago. I was pretty tired and out of breath for the first 10 miles but the rest of the ride was really nice and I actually enjoyed it. I plan on getting on my bike as much as I can before winter. I'm really hoping to get an Olympic or Half Ironman done soon but that will all depend on the hubby's upcoming schedule :)

On Labor Day we ran a 5K at Lake Merritt which was a fundraiser for the East Bay Walk Team. They did a great job on setting it up and hubby even won 1st place. After the race we headed out to Shadow Cliffs and did a half mile swim. I felt pretty pooped on the first two loops but after that I got in a groove and felt pretty good.

So I've decided to keep it up and add the swimming and the biking to my running as much as I can til winter hits.

This week I also joined a spin class that's being tought by Rocky's Ironteam Coach at Sports Basement in Walnut Creek. He'll be doing it for 7 weeks and I plan to join them for the entire time. I wanted to puke on Tuesday during and after but it was a great spin and although I'm sore today I felt good doing it. Something new to throw into the mix.

Rocky has signed up for another race, Iromman Coeur dalene in June 2011. We are very excited and look forward to him racing there next year. So the fun of training will start for him soon and so will my cooking, laundry and support :) I'm really excited though and can't wait for him to get started.

This Sunday we are doing a short "training" Tri. It's 700 yards swim, 18 mile bike and 4 mile run. It nice and short and it'll be fun to get out there.

Next on the running race books is San Jose Rock and Roll Half for me and Nike for Rocky. I am really hoping to PR at San Jose since it's a nice flat and fast course. We shall see though how that goes.

San Francisco Half Marathon

I ran the 2nd half of the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday.

The 2nd Half Marathon covers the second half of The San Francisco Marathon™ course with a slight deviation at Mile 2. The race starts in at Spreckel's Lake in Golden Gate Park and finishes on the Embarcadero (near the Ferry Building). It passes through Haight/Ashbury, the Mission District, into Mission Bay, and passes AT&T Park, finishing just before the Ferry Building.

and for the first time since 2003 I managed to have a great and fast (for me) race :o) My final time was 2:18:19 which was a PR. My last best time was in 2003 at the Avenue of the Giants Race and it was 2:19:28. YIPEEE!!! The races after that have been 2:20, 2:30 and 2:40ish time frame. I somehow progressively got worse instead of better :o(

I fully believe that the cross training with my trainer is what paid off and what has made me a much stronger runner because honestly I did not train as well as I should have for this race. I was suppose to be running Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and that did NOT happen, I was mostly just running on Saturday's and going to the gym twice a week.

I loved the race although I think because there were 3 different races doing on (2 half marathons and a full) it probably wasn't the most easiest race to spectate, I'm not sure, it seemed like there were many parts where no one was cheering and it got quiet out there. The race itself was well supported with water, cytomax and GU. I'm also very thankful that Olivia convinced me to do the second half and not the first. It was a lot less hilly although there were a lot of gradual inclines and it also started at 8:30 :o) I didn't have to get up til 6am which was very nice. Hubby dropped us off at the start line and then him and my parents went to mile 6. It was really nice to see them there but I was feeling so good that I didn't want to stop. I waved hello at them and threw my long sleeve shirt at Rocky and then kept going.

I believe they tried to see us at 9 but missed us so we just saw them again at the finish line. We got lots and lots of goodies at the finish although next time they need to give us a bag to put them all in. I could barely carry it all. I'm very happy I did this race, it's one I hadn't done before and I'm so happy with the way I performed :o) YAY for a good race.

Next......well, next might be San Jose Rock and Roll which I have a few more days to decide on before the price goes up or I may just wait to do Nike in October. I would love to do San Jose because it's a flatter course and maybe I could even get a better time but we shall see.

THANK YOU!!! to my hubby for skipping out his bike ride to come cheer me on and to my parents for getting up at the crack of dawn to join them.

WHOA stop the time!!

When did it become July, weren't we just celebrating Christmas? GEESH!!

Life at Casa de Reyes continues to be busy as usual. My hubby is doing AMAZING with his training (read here). I can't believe he started this back in November and now his race is only a month away. I"m already getting excited and nervous and I'm not the one doing the race, haa, haa. I am incredibly proud of him and what he has done so far.

I also continue to do well with my training although I did fall off the wagon a bit after we went on vacation at the end of April. It ended up being a month of going to the gym by the time I went back but the good news is that I managed to maintain my weight. I am only doing 2 days a week this time instead of 3 because working out on Friday's before a run is tough. I don't end up getting enough time to recove for my Saturday runs.

I am not running as much this season but luckily all the hard work from the gym has paid off on the road and I'm feeling great during the days I do run which are mainly on Saturday. I am signed up to do San Francisco Half in July with Olivia and I'm looking forwad to it.

Other than that I've been keeping really busy with stuff around the house and having some fun in the sun (now that it's finally sunny and warm out) with the BFF. We did manage to go to Hawaii in April and we'll be taking a small trip in July for our family reunion but until hubby is done at the end of July we won't be doing much traveling.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July weekend :o)

The Yard - AFTER :o)

If you are facing the house to the left we had Succulents put in. Our neighbor, Ingrid, has succulents and we figured it would look nice to keep it all looking the same and she's done a great job over there already.

In the middle right in front of the house we put a Japanese Maple Tree (Fireglow)

3 Astilbe right behind the tree which look like this now

but will hopefully look like this

and towards the front of the tree we put 3 African Daisy's

and on the right side we put

3 Salvia Plants

5 Variegated Hebe which will have purple flowers that attract butterflies :o)

and 2 Golden Euonymus

I love our yard and can't wait to continue in the back yard :o)

The Yard - Before

I think I mentioned last year when we bought the house that I am NOT a gardner at all. I know nothing about plants and the few that I've tried to plant inside in pots and outside I've managed to kill :o( So there was no way that I was going to take on the challenge of making the yard look nice on my own. I actually attempted to plant a few things last year and I did not enjoy it but then you have my neighbor who's out there all summer and see's it as a stress reliever. I think I got more stressed, haa, haa.

Anyway, last year we did the kitchen and this year we'll focus on the yards. The backyard is going to be done in stages because I"m sure it won't be cheap so we'll take it a little bit at a time. The front yard is much smaller and we aren't putting too much out there so hired a gardner and he started last weekend. We initially hired him to clean out the weeds in both the back and the front but then he told me if I just went and picked up all the plants at Home Depot he'd put them in the ground for us. YAY!!! They finished doing the work last night and we love it. It makes our house look so much prettier. The challenge now will be not to kill the plants but I think I can handle watering. I'm so happy with the way it looks that that's motiviation enough to get me out there with the hose.

Here is what it looked like before and later today I'll take pictures of the after.

Bad Hair Day

I don't typically have Patch groomed at the groomers because he's always been easy to deal with at home but his fur has gotten a little out of control recently and since he needed his nails trimmed I decided to take him and Daisy in today. I don't like Daisy's hair short but it tends to get too wild especially around her face if it's too long so I have her done every few months. At one point we attempted to do it and that didn't go so well, it's not as easy at it looks.

Daisy looks cute

BUT

I'm not so happy about Patch :o( I was hoping he'd look like this. Short hair on the body and long hair on his ears and tail.

but instead he looks like this

They took his ear hair off :o(

Proud Oakland Resident

March 28th was the Inaugural Oakland Marathon/Half Marathon and I was part of the festivities. We heard about this race last year and since I am now a resident of Oakland and since the race is local and FLAT :o) I decided right away that I would do it. At some point last October my neighbor and I had been talking and she mentioned that she'd be interested in doing a half marathon for her 40th birthday (her bday was at the beginning of March) so this was perfect for her and I was her mentor/coach.

Ingrid did awesome this entire season considering she only ran on Saturday's and that her mom passed away at the end of January so she missed out on 3 weeks of training :o( She didn't let that stop her though and week after week she got out there and did her mileage and did great. I was gone at Wildflower with the hubby for the last short run before the race and for some reason Ingrid started having knee issues, issues that would become a problem on race day.

Saturday morning Ingrid and I headed over to the Marriott for the race expo. We quickly found out that it was not the expo that I am used to and really it was just a race number/shirt pick up location with a few booths advertising other races. They did have race shirts, hats and mugs so I picked up a shirt for myself although when I got home I realized it was 26.2 and not 13.1, boo. I also got hubby a sweatshirt. I guess the good thing about it not really being a place to shop is that my wallet stayed full :o) We left the expo and had a nice breakfast at Lynn & Lu's off Grand Avenue and then headed back home. I had cleaned the house on Friday and done grocery shopping early Saturday morning so that I could rest most of Saturday which is what I did til around 4pm I started preparing dinner for our "pasta party". Our little running group this season was Onweena, Sandra, Ingrid and myself so hubby and I invited everyone over for a little carbo loading. I decided to make salad, baked shrimp/feta over pasta and bread. Oweena was also spending the night since she lives in Fremont and darn that girl, she brought over cream puffs for dessert which I refrained from having til after the race. Gosh those things are yummy.

It was a nice evening which included a few gifts for the ladies :o) We did not get bags to check into gear check like most races so I made some for each of us.

but I also made this shirt for Ingrid

It made Ingrid cry and then Onweena and then Sandra and then me :o) but Ingrid loved it and it's what she wore on Sunday.

My hubby and his band played on the main stage and he was super lucky and scored a VIP parking pass which is funny because after all the worrying we did about how packed it'd be and where we would park it ended up not being a problem for anyone who got there around 8:00 (race start was 9am) but it was nice to be able to park super close.

My dad also joined us which is always a nice treat, he likes coming out to the races. I guess he couldn't convince my mom though to get up early, lol and join him. I don't blame her. It tends to be an early and of course long day.



Race started at 9am and I managed to finish in 2:41. I have to admit I really don't like the 9am start it's just too late to start a race. Of course it ended up being a warm weekend so it got a little too warm for us out there and we've been training in winter conditions. I still managed to have a good race though and I felt great at the end.



Ingrid also finished although not as great as she had hoped and a little injured :o( at 8 we separated because she had to slow down but around mile 9 she started to have some major knee pain and couldn't run so she walked from 9 to the finish. The good news is she completed her first half marathon and her hubby and daughter were there to see it :o) the bad news is she is still having some knee issues and will have to go through physical therapy. I am really proud of her and what she accomplished. YAY INGRID!!


The rest of our little group did great as well. Onween and Phil both PR'd :O) and Onweena now on her way to training for her first full marathon.

I think th race organizers did a great job in putting this race together and I'm happy that they will return next year. Oakland really needed this and I've read that Oakland brought in almost $2 million that weekend. The people of Oakland were also amazing in coming out and cheering. It was funny that so many people especially volunteers kept thanking us for "doing this for Oakland". I kept telling them NO THANK YOU for being out here for us runners.

I'm talking a little break and still seeing my trainer which continues to go well. I am most likely going to do the San Francisco Half but I'm still trying to decide since July is a very busy month for us and the race is one week before hubby's Ironman. We shall see. I did sign up for Nike Half again as a legacy runner and will be doing that in October. It has now become a tradition and it's the only race I'll keep doing over and over.