Archives for Random category
Posted on Jan 22, 2010 under Random |
I’m sitting here, a little over 24 hours before my half marathon, reading about race information I need to know so that I don’t have to worry about something as trivial as logistics before the big day. But what I should really be doing is focusing on the upcoming race. Unlike many other runners that I’ve known or read about in blogs, I get pretty tense around race day. The pressure just seems to build up, and it’s always been like this even back in high school running cross country and track. Before and during each meet, I would see my teammates joking around having fun, while I’m sitting down, listening to my CD-Player (iPod not invented yet!) trying to concentrate on the upcoming race. Maybe it’s because I was never as talented as them or they just didn’t care as much as I did about doing well. But the truth of the matter is, that’s just the type of person I’ve always been. Even for other things like tests, I would always be nervous and not want to do anything ‘fun’ until I got the test over with first. It’s sort of like that saying, ‘work now, play later’.
I think when other people know about your race, it just to add to that pressure. I never talked to my old boss that often, but one day he asked me what I was doing for the weekend. Other than races and visits back home, I never have anything eventful planned. But my boss happened to ask the week before my first half marathon, so I told him. He wasn’t necessarily a runner, but he had ran a marathon the year before and he did work out pretty often. So knowing that my boss knew about the race and would most likely ask how I did made me feel pressured to do well. The same for my upcoming race. I just found out one of my new co-workers is a frequent runner and was training for her first marathon, got injured but still managed to run a half while training for the full. So the Friday before my race, out of nowhere she asks me when my next race was. I mean, what are the odds? So I’ll be going into the race with more pressure than I would have wanted.
That’s why when I read about runners who ‘had so much fun’ at race xyz, I’m thinking, ‘Really? Was it really that fun running so hard, being so tired?’. But I think that’s just the pessimist in me thinking out loud. Or else, why would I keep doing it? Why put yourself through so much pain for months at a time all for one moment, one event, which itself is no picnic? Because I can. And I will keep doing it until my legs give out. End. Rant.
Update: Apparently the pressure didn’t get to me and I rocked my Half marathon the next day, 1:28:53, 6th AG, 102 Overall. Full race report of the Carlsbad Half Marathon.
Posted on Jan 06, 2010 under Random |
Welcome to 2010, runners! I hope everybody had a safe/fun holiday the past couple of weeks. For me, it was filled with lots of driving, eating, visiting family, lounging around and a little bit of running on the side. My half marathon was in mid-November and my next one is in late January, which meant I was supposed to start my 10-week training right after that half.
My 2009 year end report according to DailyMile.
I took a couple of days off to recover from my half and then didn’t really follow any training plan after that. I have been trying to continue to run so that I didn’t get out of shape and maybe even run more miles to build up my base. What I learned from my first half is that I definitely have the speed, but not the endurance. To compensate for that, I have been trying to run more miles than I did from my last training. One way to help is by running 7 days a week, instead of 6. Another thing I did was just have a regular run instead of intervals since that is usually 3-4 miles total. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Dec 22, 2009 under Random |
I was contacted by an editor from Archie Grand, a notebook publishing company in Sweden. From his email, it sounded like he used to be a runner, but now with three kids (and probably many years later), he doesn’t run much anymore. As a thank you, he offered to send me one of his notebooks, Runners I Met And Liked. It was a very nice gesture and like always, I am very thankful for it. If you go to the site, you’ll see that they make these small notebooks with random “[type of person] I Met and Liked” notebooks. These are pretty nice notebooks: the paper is really thick and the binding and cover is very sturdy and smooth. But it’s so nice; I don’t want to waste the pages on just anything. I used to have a notebook to write down my runs, but then went digital and posted them online. Also during my first half training, I wrote down some of my splits during intervals. I’m still thinking about what would be the best use of this really cool notebook.
Runners I Met And Liked
Writing about this book gave me the idea to talk about running in 2009. I ran for a short time in 2008, but it just got too hard and I wasn’t really motivated or had much support. I tried again early this year and was on a running forum and someone mentioned a website where you can post your runs and talk to other runners. Runners on DailyMile were very supportive and provided me with that bit of motivation needed to keep me running. That, integrated with Twitter really got me into running and racing for the first time in years helped push me over the top. Since then, I have ran 3 5K’s (including an AG win), a 10K and my very first half marathon. That half marathon was my greatest achievement to date; I never thought I would be able to race that many miles. With that under my belt, I know that a full marathon is just around the corner (Rock n’ Roll San Diego). I have quite a few half marathons planned throughout 2010, admission into the Brooks I.D. program and like I just said, my first full marathon.
I’m not necessarily going to name runners that I met and liked, mostly because I haven’t really met any runners, per se. I have gotten to know, received support, and talked to many runners in 2009 from: DailyMile, Twitter, blogs, forums, Meetup.com and Nikeplus.com. I probably wouldn’t still be running today if it weren’t for all of the people from these great places. I have also received many running products from some generous companies for me to test and review. Although that is very nice of these companies, I have to say that getting to know all the runners is the best gift I can ask for. I feel very thankful this holiday season; I know not everyone can say the same. It has been a very tough year (economically) with so much happening around the world; you’d think it’d never stop. 2010 is a new decade, which can mean many things: a new year, new job, new running season and just a fresh start all-around. Hopefully everyone enjoys their Christmas and New Years to get 2010 started off right.
Keep on running!!
SDrunner
Posted on Oct 28, 2009 under Random |
I’ve always wanted to create a running quotes page (link also on the top of the blog..), but just never had the time to find all the good ones and compile into one list, and I still don’t.
After my first year of running cross country, I had one of the senior XC captains (also a friend of my older brother) sign my yearbook. What he said was pretty encouraging and got me to train really hard that summer and improve that very next cross country season.
My old high school cross country coach did this thing at the end of the season where he got a picture of each of the runners from a race, wrote something about that runner, framed it and gave them as gifts during our cross country banquet. And behind that frame, he wrote a more personal note that only the runner got to read, I decided to share what my coach said to me.
I’m hoping I could think of more of these types of quotes, if not, at least put up some other ones that I remember from high school cross country or even now. I do get daily running quotes from Runner’s World, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Maybe this will help encourage others to either start running again or continue to train and work hard at whatever they’re trying to achieve.
Posted on Oct 21, 2009 under Random |
This is what my business card would look like if running was my job.
If running really was a job that I got paid for doing rather than just a hobby/obsession that I do on the side of my actual job, then I would be able to do all the things that professional athletes and coaches suggest to do as a runner. What I mean is, there is so much great advice from other runners and articles in magazines and online that will give you tips on how to be a better runner, but who really has the time to do all of that? From what I have read from runners on twitter, DailyMile and on blogs, it does seem like a fair amount of people do dedicate a lot of time to running, but for others (like myself), it’s hard to be able to follow through on all of the great advice that other runners provide. With that being said, if I actually got paid to run and could focus on it 24/7, I would do/focus all of the following:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Oct 06, 2009 under Random |
When my brother was in high school cross country, he would always show off his medals to my mom after his races. He had a little section in our room where he put all of his medals and trophies. When I ran a couple of years later, I didn’t get as many as him, but won my fair share of medals and trophies. They were all fun to get at the time and we kept them around the room, but after a while, we just decided to put the past behind us and store them away. When I visited my parents in LA not that long ago, I decided take a look at where all of the medals we have accumulated over our combined 6 years of running high school cross country and track. I didn’t bother with the trophies which are stored in some attic-like place in our room. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Jul 22, 2009 under Random |
I was recently asked to be interviewed by Dave Tiefenthaler of tips4running.com. I have never been interviewed before and although this was not a traditional interview in person, I still felt pretty special to even be asked in the first place. Just so everybody knows, Dave interviews many runners on his site, which you can read here. Either way, it still felt cool to be asked about how I got back into running, what kind of workouts I do and a lot of other personal questions that showed that he was truly interested. The answers to some of these questions I have never mentioned on my blog before. Not necessarily because I didn’t want to, but just never found the right time to say them. Dave did a great job asking interesting questions that allowed me to really express how into running I currently am.
The interview is linked at the top of my blog, but click here to read the running interview.
Posted on May 30, 2009 under Random |
Running in the Rain
I just got back from a run this morning and I’m hoping this will be my first post right after a run. I’ve always been a fan of running in the rain and feel that there are many positive benefits for many reasons. Now don’t get me wrong, it is never safe to be running in the rain when it is pouring outside. Even though today was just drizzling, my New Balance 768’s weren’t gripping to the road as well as I would have wanted them to. In fact, there were sharp turns on the road where I felt like I was going to slip a little. So you definitely need running shoes that will be able to grip the slippery roads. And you need to know when it is raining too hard to run because running with soaked clothes and shoes is just like running with added weights. But other than that, I think that the benefits of running in the run outweigh the disadvantages.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Apr 27, 2009 under Random |
UCSD Campus Loop: 4.01 Miles: 32:08 (8:02 min/mile)
The other night I was watching According to Jim on TV and his sister-in-law bet him that he could not beat her in the marathon, let alone finish. So what his plan was to start off ridiculously slow and trail off and hide somewhere while everyone else was running the race. He would then re-emerge back into the race and finish just ahead of his sister-in-law. Well, he dozed off during his pedicure (lol) and thought he wasn’t going to make it, so he started running to the finish. As he approached the finish line, he noticed the tape hadn’t been broken through; he was leading the race! The “real” first place runner was right behind him, obviously a lot more tired, so they battled it out and Jim won!
I recently experienced a situation very similar to that, but unintentionally, of course. I was running the campus loop (route that the shuttle takes) and noticed that there were people standing around the trail where local cross country races take place. So I assumed they were having a race on the trail, but I noticed chalk arrows on the cement on the route I was running. Then I noticed a couple of other runners ahead of me and people standing at the corners wearing some type of volunteer t-shirts. I accidentally jumped into a race and were passing people ahead of me and having the volunteers cheer for me!! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Apr 13, 2009 under Random |
Workout: 2 lap warm-up, 1 mile “Race”, 2 lap cool-down
Time: 6:02 Weather/Condition: Windy on the last 100 meters of the track
Best Week Ever!
I’m going to make a live post today, rather than going to my journal. The only reason for doing so is because I actually had a race-like run the other day and I really wanted to say something about the current events that are going on. Feel free to read the first part and ignore the rest, which is my little rant. 🙂
So this past week was the first time I ran 3 days in a row, which is quite an accomplishment for me, considering how I used to run so many miles 6-7 times a week back in high school. The first run wasn’t that special, I didn’t even time it because I wasn’t try to break any records or anything, just put in some miles and break a sweat and get used to waking up in the morning. During the 2nd day though, I ran the fastest time (only three laps around the block which is the only place I can run considering the time constraints) since I started doing this route. WalkJogRun says it’s a little under 3 miles, but I have a feeling it’s not, looking back at the times. The final time was about 9 seconds faster than my previous best. Why did I run so fast on this particular day?
Read the rest of this entry »
