Egg Muffins

I am beyond thrilled that our chickens started laying again this week. I could tell earlier this week that something was going on as they have been getting up earlier and they've started pacing in their run waiting for me to bring them goodies!

I only have 4 eggs so far from the past two days of them laying so I decided to make half a recipe of egg muffins for the remainder of the week.

4 eggs
2 green onions
half a bell pepper
Handful of Italian Parsley
2 tablespoons of shredded cheese

I happen to have a 6 cup muffin pan, but if you don't you can use a full size one and just put a small amount of water in each empty slot.

Spray your pan with non-stick spray and pre-heat your oven to 350.

I started out by sauteing green onions and some bell pepper. I prefer red, orange or yellow bells to the green ones.

I mixed up my 4 eggs and added the veggies. My garden is also over flowing with beautiful Italian Parsley so I rough chopped a handful of that and added to the eggs. Lastly I added a small amount of shredded jack cheese.

Pour the mixture into the cups and bake for 15 minutes.

Let the muffins cool for a couple of minutes in the pan before removing. If you are prepping these in advance, remove them from the pan and them cool on a wire rack prior to storing them in the fridge.

These can be reheated in the microwave for a quick breakfast.

Enjoy!

TriSports Ambassador

I am thrilled to be back for my sixth year as a TriSports Ambassador. Six years ago TriSports selected me to be an Ambassador when I was "just" a runner. I was so thrilled by their support that I slowly made my way into multi-sport. Over the years they have invited me back and have been of amazing support to me while I was racing, injured and even during my life changing out of state move!

Over the years, what keeps me coming back is their customer service. I remember being pleasantly surprised when I received my first order and the invoice had a hand written note that said "Thank you for your order Meredith!" The one time that I had to return a product, they made the process seamless for me. These days I not only shop for myself but now for my girls as well. My girls are year round swimmers and seasonal tri-athletes. Lately, those cherished boxes that arrive saying "TriSports" are filled with swim gear for the kiddos!

Essentially, anything you need for swimming, biking or running can be found at TriSports. I even order nutrition products from them. My girls and I both love Honey Stinger products and TriSports carries their kids line of products as well.

With all that being said I'm happy to extend to you a 15% discount for shopping at TriSports through my Ambassador link. Just click here and enter "SHARE15" to receive your discount.

Happy Shopping!

Southern Oregon Runners Turkey Trot

Turkey Trotting has been a long standing tradition for our family. Sometimes the kids participate and some years it would be just the hubby and I. Since Southern Oregon Runners puts on a 2 mile run, we knew the kids would appreciate the shorter distance and we could make it a family fun run.

Things we appreciate about the races that Southern Oregon Runners put on: getting to show up 30 minutes prior to race start, the friendly peeps and the level of fun. This run was a record turn out with about 600 runners for the 2 mile and 250+ for the 8 mile run. This was far better than the 10,000 participant run we were used to in the Bay Area.

My husband was running with my oldest daughter who was in search of a 2 mile, sub 20 minute PR. My goal was to run with our youngest and get her to a 2 mile PR as well. One of her swim team buddies also showed up to run, so I had the task of trying to keep up with two 8 year olds who were out of the gate faster than I would have liked! Almost right away a young boy zig zagged right in front of me causing me trip on the back of his foot. I saved myself from a face plant but landed on my bad knee in a way that wasn't so great. Shortly after that as I was trying to keep up with the 8 year olds I saw my daughter and husband on the side of the course and my daughter was sobbing. A young boy (hmmm...) had tripped her from the rear, causing her shoe to come off and her to fall. Her hand was bleeding and she was trying to get her shoe back on. I stopped to make sure she was okay and told her she was strong and was going to be okay. I then left her with my husband and tried to catch up to those 8 year olds again. I hadn't planned on so much sprinting!

Shortly after Sydney passed me and looked pretty strong, I was hopeful that she could earn that PR she was looking for despite the mishap. The 8 year olds found a sort of aid station where there was no water in cups so the volunteer just gave them full bottles of water. Ugh, of course who do you think ended up carrying those bottles of water?? The Moms of course. I did make Kylie carry hers for a good 5 minutes as a lesson that you don't carry a water bottle during a race!

The rest of the race was uneventful, Kylie started to lose her motivation (too fast at the start) but I was watching the time on my watch and I knew she was going to have a big PR if she could just maintain her pace. Once we got close to the finish line I told her no more walk breaks, she had this in the bag. As soon as we rounded the last corner that girl kicked it into high gear and sprinted all the way in (leaving me in the dust).

As much as she said she couldn't do it, Kylie earned a 3 minute PR! When we got back and Sydney checked her results she had also earned a 3 minute PR coming in at 17:33 - way better than her goal! I can only imagine what time she would have run if she hadn't fell and had to stop to put her shoe back on!

It was a great day running with friends and this great community! We happily went home to start cooking and consuming way more calories than we burned!

A big thank you to SunRype for having me on their Ambassador Team this year! The bars were a huge hit with the crowd!

Where and how to get back on the wagon

I am fast approaching my one year anniversary of living in Oregon. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of all Southern Oregon has to offer.

The past 10 months have been filled with making the adjustment for the kids as seamless as possible. They have made some wonderful new friends and have adjusted to their new community beautifully. They are doing amazing on their new swim team and have participated in basketball, parkour and running events. This month they completed their first triathlon here in Oregon. It gives me great pleasure to watch them set goals and meet them.

Now that everyone feels mostly settled it's time to start focusing on my goals. It's been a rough 18 months for me trying to diagnose an injury. Selling a home, buying a home and moving is not recommended while you trying to figure out why you are dizzy and experience headaches every day. Eventually I discovered that I was suffering from compression issues. They had gotten so bad that it caused dizziness in my normal day activities, when it had started with just swimming. I've been in physical therapy for months now trying all sorts of different things to hopefully improve the issues. While I feel better in my day to day activities, I'm really not going to know the full extent of my progress until I return to swimming, biking and running.

I've had injuries before and getting back on the wagon is always a struggle. But I've never quite had this level of starting over. I'm essentially starting from scratch, the place I started from 10 years ago. I'm not going to lie, it's brutally hard. My physical therapist asked me if I was afraid to get back in the pool, because he is wondering why I haven't. Yes, I'm scared to get back in the pool, I'm also scared to ride my bike again and scared to run again. I'm afraid I'm going to suck! I think I've reached that point where knowing I suck is scarier than actually getting out there and sucking while at least trying. It's time to put myself first and stop worrying about everyone else.

So far, I've gone for one sucky run and one sucky bike ride. But I did it. Soon I will go for one sucky swim and get it over with. The goal is to keep moving my way through the suckiness until it no longer sucks. I know it won't suck forever.

Forward is a pace.

My first Oregon Race Report

So technically my first race in Oregon was the Love Stinks 5k, which was really fun! However, I ran with my seven year old daughter who had a huge PR, alas it was pretty far off from my best time. Which was totally fine because I've only recently started running again after the move.

The annual Pear Blossom Festival was coming up and along with that the Rogue Valley YMCA hosts the Pear Blossom Run. They were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the run and since I'm in my 40th year, it seemed appropriate for me to do this race for the first time.

With a 7 am start I arrived around 6:30 am since I already had my bib and everything I needed. I did a warm up jog from the parking lot to the start line and then did some stretching. As I walked over to the start line I was amazed that people for the most part actually followed the pace signs. As soon as they came out people started moving back to the area designated for their pace. I felt like this was amazing because that so rarely happens in California. Once the gun went off I really only had to navigate past one group of women walking, everyone else was running at a similar pace to myself.

This was really a shake out run for me. I've only been running around 2 miles at the house and lately I've been running on the treadmill at the gym while the kids are at swim practice. The dreadmill is so much harder than real life running and the gym is stuffy, so basically most of my treadmill runs have been very sucky. I had no idea if I could even cover the entire distance without walking.

I didn't look at my watch much. I wasn't going for a specific pace, I just wanted to run based on feel and hope I could find a pace I could carry out for the entire run and not have to walk. The first mile felt pretty good and when I did glance at my watch I had run a 10:07, I was pleased with that, and hoped I could maintain that for the next 2.10 miles. I didn't look at my watch again until 2.31 miles because I didn't remember feeling the vibration my watch sends after each mile. I was getting fatigued and was wondering how far away I was from the 2 mile point. I was pleased to look at my watch and see that I had already passed it! That little nugget of information kept me going. There was a definite happy dance moment going on when I saw the 3 mile sign and rounded the corner to the finish line. I managed to kick it into high gear and pass the woman in front of me for a 32.10 finish and 17/88 in my age group.

So that's a far cry from my best 5k time, but I was so pleased with that time I can't even tell you. I have not run on a regular basis in probably 9 months. Due to health issues and the sale of our home and move, running had just not been on the radar. It was depressing to not having the abilities I used to have and it was causing all sorts of self doubt about my worth as a runner. Now that life has mellowed out being able to take back this part of my life has brought me great happiness. This little 5k reminded me that I can do it, I can still do it and I will do it. It even gave me the thought that just maybe I can do that half marathon next year.

Post race reward 

This was a great fun race. I can't wait to do it next year, the course is super flat so it's a great race to work on a PR.

I'm thinking I may try a trail run in a couple of weeks. The Southern Oregon running community is such a great one that is so supportive, and the races are so inexpensive it's hard to pass up the opportunity to sign up!

Farm life

It's been a busy weekend on our "farm" and it only has highlighted how much more work we have to do!

When we were looking at homes we toured one that had a barn with horse stalls. Thankfully it wasn't a final contender because how do you explain to children that just because a home has room for horses doesn't mean you are going to get them! We did promise the kids that we would get chickens because I have always wanted them and I knew we would have enough space for them. Earlier in the week we purchased everything we would need to set up a brooder, since our local farm supply store was receiving their first order of chicks. We are very fortunate to have a large garage with a second floor full of storage. So we set the brooder up there to ensure it would stay draft free.

On Friday we picked out our chicks and brought them home! We tried to pick out some that had distinguishing marks but I'm not sure we will be able to tell them apart.

On the same day we brought home our chicks, the owl nesting box arrived. Which is super exciting, but it meant double projects this weekend. We are hoping to encourage the nesting of Barn Owl's to increase their population and to help decrease the rodent population on our land.

We are concerned that it sways too much if an owl lands on it, so we may need to change out the pole on it for a wider one.

Meanwhile Tacoma was excited to explore more areas. This was a big hike for her and she's now happily snoozing in bed.

We managed to get one post sunk this weekend for the chicken run. However, with intermittent rain and all of the other projects that is as far as we got. We are building the run next to our garden area. We will add additional smaller chicken wire along the existing fence line of the garden and will build the sides along our irrigation canal. Since we have lots of aerial predators as well as ground predators we will also cover the run with the smaller chicken wire as well.

Lots of work to do outside and we will just keep plugging away at it. It's exciting and overwhelming to have so much land to work with!

Love Stinks 5k

Now that we are feeling mostly settled in our new home it was time to start researching races for 2016. From my research it seemed like a local running club Southern Oregon Runners hosts many of the runs in the area. I stumbled upon the Love Stinks 5k and I was surprised when the entire family said they wanted in.

With a 9:15 am start and a 10 minute drive this was an ideal family race. Kylie had actually gotten a few runs in the week prior but Sydney had opted not to join us, so I don't think anyone really had any expectations other to go out and have fun. Scott and Sydney took off and Kylie and I ran together  on the out and back course. It was fun to see so many people dressed up for the run and it kept us entertained along the course. Kylie was doing a good job of managing run/walk intervals and so many people were cheering her along; which really helped because after while everything I was saying was not appreciated.

As we rounded the last corner we could hear Scott and Sydney cheering and two other women also started cheering for Kylie, it was awesome. She picked up her pace and I had to sprint just to keep up with her. It was a great finish.

As it turns out both girls placed second in their age groups! They also both recorded personal record's beating their previous times from a race in 2014. It was a great race and such a supportive community, we are looking forward to our next race together.

Weekly round up

It was a busy week of exploring town. I realized it was time to start finding my favorites. This involved getting a pedicure and trying lunch at Agave. It also involved taking the kids to the local tea shop after school for some amazing snacks, and now they ask to go back almost everyday.

Some photo highlights from the week:

Carnitas and Camarones Tacos at Agave

Amazing hot chocolate and shortbread at Dobra Tea

Cinnamon Pear Cider at Standing Stone Brewery

The other exciting news is that I am back for my 5th year as a TriSports.com Champion! I can't believe it's been 5 years and I'm so grateful to this amazing organization for supporting me all of these years. This means another year of 20% off discounts for you! As in past years I have unique codes for the discount, so if you want one, just shoot me a message and I will send you a code to use.

I'm actively searching the Southern Oregon area for races for 2016, so if you know of any great ones, be sure to let me know.

Welcome to Oregon

It's been a crazy 5 months! At the end of August we made the decision to move to Southern Oregon and by December 1st we had closed on a beautiful house in rural Ashland.

Needless to say, my blogging and race schedule took a significant hit at the end of 2015 due to an enormous work load of selling two properties and buying two others. Now that I am here and settled in I can say that all of the stress, tears and physical pain was worth it, but I never want to do it again.

The girls have settled in nicely to the community, making friends and enrolled in sports and after school activities already. They are loving the new house and even though they have awesome rooms with their own bathrooms, they take turns sleeping in each other rooms!

Now that I have an actual desk and work space set up, working from home is better than ever! I brought most of my clients with me and would love to take on one or two new clients here in the Ashland area. So if you know of anyone looking for social media help, send them my way!

I don't have a race schedule set up yet for 2016 as I'm still exploring local race opportunities and trying to get back into a schedule where I can swim, bike and run. Hopefully that will all fall into place soon.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos of our new home.

Summer, Swimming & Good Eats

As we entered our fourth season of summer rec swimming, I became hyper focused on healthy eating and meal prep. During pre-season I successfully found recipes I could make ahead of time and have ready when we returned home from practice at 7pm. It was a lot of work, but well worth the efforts for all of us to have a warm and healthy meal after a long day.

As we moved to summer with morning practices and Wednesday night & Saturday morning meets, I looked to continue the tradition. I remember last summer growing bored of sandwiches by mid July and looking for healthier options than cup-of-noodles and pizza that are so frequent at meets.

I started bookmarking recipes that looked yummy and portable and started purchasing reusable containers for easy travel. My hope is to share some of what I've learned over the summer!

I started with yogurt. My husband and I love yogurt parfaits and frequently buy them from the grocery store. My kids love "Gogurt" which I hate because they are filled with sugar. I normally eat plain greek yogurt but for the family I purchased some vanilla greek yogurt and to my surprise, the kids liked it! Next we worked on toppings. Every two weeks I make a batch of granola. It's so easy to make, and I feel better knowing what's inside my granola! I use the Skratch Labs recipe for my granola.

The kids pick from fresh fruit; raspberries, blueberries, strawberries etc. I also let them add mini chocolate chips, and my husband adds shaved coconut.

I found these great containers at Safeway but you can also find on Amazon.

So far we've been very successful! The family is happy and the kids are swimming well.

We'll go with her great backstroke start is a result of all the healthy food she's eating.

Wolfpack Mother's Day Run

I love Wolfpack Events. The races are so close to home, small and inexpensive. The Mother's Day race is especially nice because they give all the mom's a gift. I received a cute mug and flower at the end of the race. 

This course is always difficult as about one mile in you hit fire road which starts as ground up pavement then turns into dirt trail heading up hill. Two years ago when I did this race I remember following a gentleman with a US Coast Guard shirt on. In the last mile of the race he ended up pulling away from me. We chatted post race and we both placed in our age groups. 

Fast forward to today and I see him at the start line! We chat for a couple of minutes and I have a feeling I won't be able to pace behind him for too long. I also met another SunRype Ambassador right before the start. The field was small for the 5k, only 66 runners. I probably took the first mile too fast, but I was trying to get in some good speed before I hit the fire road and the tedious uphill to the turn-around. 

Once the the lead 5k runners came back down the hill, I started counting. My fellow ambassador was the second place woman and my friend Paul was also doing well. As I hit the turn-around I realized I was the sixth place woman. I tried hard to hold onto a pace but I was getting more and more tired. I kept looking behind me to make sure I wasn't going to get passed. The only people passing me were the top three runners from the five mile course, man were they flying! I made the mistake of seeing a shed that I thought was the one close to the finish line, only to realize I was not that close to the finish line. This caused me to lose some steam. I pretty much wanted to die, but my Garmin assured me I was not going to die. 

Finally, the finish line was in site and several people cheered me in, which was super nice at such a small race. Glad to be done and to see that I had placed 2nd in my age group. Then I realized next year I will be considered a "master" runner at this race once I turn 40! This is a frightening thought, I don't feel that old!!!! 

Next up is the Catfish 1.2 mile swim.

Second place

My buddy Paul

Moraga Tri

Each year I have dropped a leg of this triathlon, which I have decided is awesome. The first year I did the entire tri myself, and hated almost every minute of it. Last year I did the swim and run and enjoyed it much more. This year I did the swim only and had the best time ever! You can't complain when your leg of the race is a 400 meter swim and your done in under 10 minutes.

Going into the race I wasn't feeling spectacular about my swim. I had been swimming but probably not as much as I could have and my swims didn't seem to be any faster than the previous year. Then on the Wednesday before the race I went to the pool to do an easy last swim. I decided to time my 400 yard warm-up to give me an idea of where I might be at. That means it wasn't really a warm up, I just went 400 all out. I nearly cheered out loud when I saw my time - 7:57. For all of my swimming friends this is slow, but for me, this was my fastest 400 EVER. My next best time had been 8:15 which I swam last year before the Moraga Tri, and never got anywhere close to that time again.

This really inspired me going into the race. Granted, I was swimming 400 meters long course not 400 yards short course, I knew that if I could hold a pace close to what I did that day, I would swim faster than the previous year.

Race morning came and we had two adults and one child racing. Which meant lots of coordinating and packing. It had rained most of the night and morning which presented some concerns for the bike course, but since I only had to swim I just focused on 400 meters in the water.

My game face

I had been seeded a little earlier than last year even though I used the same swim time to register. I handed my parka to the kids and gave them hugs and hopped in for my swim. I did my best to keep good form with long arms. The gentleman behind me passed me on lap two but I slowly started picking off people in front of me. It felt really good to pass five people as I traversed the eight 50 meter lanes. On my last lap I focused on kicking fast to try and get the blood flow moving back up through my body to ready myself to climb out of the pool and run across the timing mat  into transition. I had to wait for one gentleman to climb out of the pool ahead of me but I finished my swim in 9:06, and crossed the timing mat at 9:35. This earned me a :23 second PR from last year.

I sprinted into transition and placed the timing chip on Scott's ankle and sent him out on his 14 mile bike ride. At that point I basically tried to not throw up all over my children. I was able to get changed into warm clothes and back to transition to watch Scott hand off to our friend Eric before I had to get Kylie up the pool deck for her pre-race instructions. At this point I switched over from athlete to Tri Mom.

Scott with the fastest bike time of all the relay teams

Eric running a crazy fast 5k

Team Yox/Benson

Right as Kylie was lined up to start her swim, Eric, Scott and Sydney came down from the track. Eric had a really great run, but we didn't know his or our total time. Kylie raced like a champ. This little girl is so tough, I love it! She swam hard for 50 meters (her first time swimming long course!), biked hard through the hallways of the high school and proceeded to run like I have never seen her run before. She ran past one of the race director's who said "I love her smile!". That's my Smiley Kylie, having fun the entire time.

Smiley Kylie Swimming Happy

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Proud finisher

Kylie placed 3rd in her AG and was 10th OA. She immediately asked when she could do it again.

As it turns out our relay team placed third! Scott has the fastest bike of all the relay teams, so I'm super proud of him and our entire team!

Thanks to TriSports.com for outfitting the entire family on race day! This year I made sure Scott represented as well!

Next up is a fun Mother's Day 5k this weekend.

Marin Splash and Dash

One day a coupon for this little race showed up in my email box. Hmm, Marin Splash and Dash... That sounds like fun and would be a good warm-up race to the Moraga Tri. Famous. Last. Words.

When I signed up for this race I didn't pay much attention to the fact that it was a 1pm start. When I realized it was a 1pm start, I thought "Oh cool, I don't have to get up BFE". Then, a few days before the race I realized the family could come. All seemed like great ideas until the family was loaded into the car, the kids were asking me a billion questions when I really just wanted to zone out and traffic on a Saturday at 11am to San Rafael was a nightmare.

Thankfully we arrived with plenty of time as the runners from the half marathon had vacated and the vendors started to leaving. This was a little sad... I guess our numbers weren't large enough to warrant staying for our event. Except for Jolyn, they stayed! Our friend Heather Petri is a rep for them so the kids were super excited to see her! It was also great to see Mary Sue and Christina; two other friends who would also be splashing and dashing.

Swimming with friends 

This was a very low key event, which was great for my very low key attitude towards racing. My mind set was to just have fun. the 500 meter swim would be a great test of where my swim ability was at so early in the season. I've been running, so the 5k should be fine; it would more be a matter of how much was left in my tank after swimming in the bay.

Trying to swim in father than my swim buddy

I was disappointed to not be able to warm up, but even more disappointed to learn we were starting from the beach rather than the deep water start I had expected.  I was quickly reminded why that sucks. Diving into cold water is a shock to the body, it has a tendency to cause hyperventilating. At the very least it causes your heart to beat faster making your cardiovascular system work harder than necessary. This adding to the fact that I had not used my wet-suit in two years left me feeling like a mess in the water. I had to breathe every two strokes, not my favorite, especially with a shoulder issue. I prefer to breathe bilaterally, every three  strokes. I don't think there was one moment of the swim that I enjoyed. I was dropped by what seemed like 3/4 of the field pretty quickly. I knew there were swimmers behind me but I felt mostly alone, with no one to draft off of. The next buoy seemed so far away and my suit was killing me. I wanted to unzip it so I could get more neck mobility, I also felt like I couldn't get a full kick with it. I fought a mental battle with myself the entire swim. I wondered if I could just tell them I was done after the swim, I felt like I was using so much energy that there would be nothing left for a run. For what was supposed to be a fun event, I was feeling none of it. Clearing the final buoy seemed like a huge achievement but there was still so much further to go. By this point I had one guy who was swimming with me. For what it's worth, as much as I was struggling he was struggling more. Every time I looked at him he was swimming with his ahead above water. We swam side by side until we finally reached the beach and exited the water.

Don't judge! 

I had no idea how I was going to go run a 5k, but I was pretty stoked to be out of the water. I didn't care, I walked to my transition area and sat down to take my wet-suit off. I struggled getting my suit off over my timing chip; another reason to love racing without a wet-suit. I gabbed my stuff and headed out on the run. I was miserable and felt bad because Scott and the kids were cheering me on and I couldn't even muster a smile for them. The other unknown about this race was that I thought the run course was flat. Ha! That must be the kids race that takes place here in November, because this course was for sure not flat! I walked the entire giant hill out of the parking lot and did my best to suck down a gel. Many thanks to the very kind park ranger at the guard gate who took my sticky gel garbage when I asked if there was a garbage can on the way out of the park. I ran the flats and

downhill and became slightly depressed when I saw that I would have to go back uphill to get back into the park. It did feel good to pass one guy on the run course, it slightly made up for the two Crossfit women that passed me with gigantic biceps. Seriously, if I'd have enough energy to compliment them on their arms I would have. The final uphill was so terrible. I walked it and kept an eye on the guy behind me to make sure he wouldn't catch me, he was walking too. When I re-entered the park it was all downhill and dirt trail. I was confident I would not get passed at this point. I was so excited, my focus was to just run and feel good about crossing the finish line. The view was beautiful and I finally felt good knowing the end was near. The kids and Scott missed me crossing the finish line because they were flying kites, oh well.

Big smile to be done

As miserable as I felt through out most of the race, I sure felt good when I was done. When I looked back and saw my swim time it was actually right around what I had estimated. Even though it felt horrible it was a pretty solid swim for open water in a wet-suit. I don't have an official time from the race except for the swim time, and I completely forgot to hit my watch through transition and into my run. I'm good with having just a swim time, that's what I really needed to gauge in preparation for the Moraga Tri.

This was a great small event. It's hosted by Sustainable Sports Foundation that does some great things. They had solar panels there running their equipment and when we crossed the finish line instead of a disposable bottle of water we were handed a very nice aluminum bottle filled with water. I would do this race again next year if they have it again.

All in all, lots of opportunities for things to work on in the next couple of weeks leading up to the Moraga Tri.

Thank you to SunRype and TriSports.com for supporting me on this journey.

With Heather who helped a nine year old swim the 500. 

Oakland Running Festival

This was my third year running the Oakland Running Festival's 5k. I always think that one year I want to do the half at this race, but then I remember that the half marathon distance starts at 9:15 am and that seems so ridiculously late to start running 13.1 miles.

I've been working on trying to regain my running speeds from last year; it's been an uphill battle for sure. I knew going into this race that I wouldn't be setting any personal records but I was hoping it would give me a good gauge on where I'm at and if I would see any improvements from the past couple of months.

I arrived in Oakland BFE to get good parking and nearly fell asleep in my car waiting for an appropriate time to get out of the car and brave the light mist that was falling. You know what's fun? Using a port-a-potty when it's still dark out. Thank goodness for the flashlight app! I cruised through the merchandise tent again because Corrigan Sports does a really nice job with their shirts and jackets, it's also a good way to kill time.

I wandered back up to the start line and checked my gear ahead of the marathoners starting. I must admit I'm a sentimental runner and I got a little misty watching them start their journey. The support from the community, race organizers, and OPD is overwhelming and genuine. It really is such a great day for runners and the community of Oakland. After the last brave soul headed out for their 26.2 miles I started a short warm up run and followed it up with some stretching. Once I was done 5k runners had already started to line up, so I worked my way through the crowds to place myself somewhere between the nine and ten minute mile markers.

It was a slow crawl to cross the start line as some of us were anxious to run and others just wanted to walk to the start line. I used the opportunity to control my pace; having big crowds ensures that you won't go out to hard. My goal was to not look at my watch and run based on feel since I had no idea what I would be capable of. I quickly remembered that this is the least straight course and it's impossible to run a clean line. I really didn't want to run this course long but with the crazy turns and switchbacks through the city, my chances were slim to none.

The first mile felt good and then we hit the long second mile where the scenery is less than entertaining. The Firehouse in this section was out and they were cheering us on. Everyone was so quiet so I yelled out "thank you!" which encouraged a few others to do the same. I always try to say thank you to the folks along the course who are supporting runners, because I do truly appreciate it.

I was doing a good job of not looking at my watch but I was counting blocks and paying attention to street signs to determine how much further until we hit the downhill section heading back towards Lake Merritt. At mile two my shoulder started to ache, which I realized meant that my form must have been suffering. I focused on holding my shoulders back and not slouching. Once I finally hit the downhill section I tried to take advantage as best as I could knowing that the final uphill to the finish line was going to hurt.

As I approached the hill that I had already run up during my warm up run I immediately got a cramp. Just another challenge to overcome, I moved up that hill as best as I could but clearly grimacing in pain. I just kept my head down and kept moving forward. Soon enough I crested the top of the hill and just needed to get my body across the finish line. I manged to fake a smile for the camera as I crossed the line.

Official time was 31:44, obviously not my best time but my an improvement over my last 5k, so progress is indeed being made. My nifty Garmin also flashed me a nice reminder that I had run the course long when it told me my 5k time was 30:46, sigh... if only I had really run 3.1 miles. I placed 44/604 in my age group. All things considered, I'm pretty happy with that!

Thanks to SunRype for allowing me to represent your brand; the fruit bars and strips were a huge hit!

As we move into April the focus moves to multi-sport where I will be swimming and running.

Progress

My days continue to become busier and busier. Which is a great thing, but I'm working very hard to keep track of all of my scheduling and all of the kids scheduling.

I did make some time to sit down and plan some races at least through June. I was disappointed to miss out on Brazen's Bay Breeze as it sold out about a week prior to the race. This really pushed me to sit down and find some races that I wanted to do and commit to them. I had been contemplating the Lucky Run again this year but running a shorter distance. I really had to decide if driving to Davis was worth it for a 7k run, I decided to try and find a more geographically desirable race despite the fact that I love the Lucky Run. Instead I signed up for the Oakland Running Festival's 5k. I also love this race, and was not able to attend last year since it's too close to the Lucky Run. March problem solved!

Despite the fact that I keep telling myself I should unsubscribe from the Active email list, I'm lazy and haven't. Which was a good thing since they sent out a coupon for the Marin Splash and Dash. This race is early April and will be a perfect warm-up for the Moraga Tri. Scott and I will be doing this as a relay again. It will also be some great open water practice before Catfish in June.

I'm also committing to Wolfpack's Mother's Day Run, because it's in my backyard and it's small, how can you say no to that.

I'm very excited now that I have started physical therapy for my shoulder and also started taking Pilates classes. I've been working with a Pilates trainer and also taking one of her classes. She immediately identified all of my weaknesses and has been coming up with a great workouts for me. My headaches have subsided and I'm on my way to a healthy shoulder, back and core. Which means I hope to slowly add in more swimming to prepare for all of this swimming I'm signed up to do.

Running is going along just as planned and I'm getting in three runs a week.

Run happy!

Summer in February

We are so miserably dry here in California, but it's difficult to be disgruntled over the phenomenal  weather we are experiencing.

On Thursday the weather was so amazing that I skipped my morning run in favor of a lunch time swim. I should have really taken some time before I got to the pool to review some of the new swim features on the Garmin 920xt, oops. However, I did get the chance to use my new Finis kick board. The amount of pool toys I bring to swim is ridiculous, but I'm lucky that the Finis alignment kick board is uber small and I can shove it into my swim bag with all of my other junk.  This board is amazing! I can't even begin to explain how much I love this, especially with my shoulder issues.

I used the board along with my swim snorkel and fins and kicked 400 yards in between sets. Due to my ongoing shoulder issues swimming has been difficult. Kicking with a traditional kick board, leaves my body in an unnatural position and causes neck and should pain. This board can go under water and you hold a streamline position, combining the board with my snorkel means no shoulder or neck pain. I really loved it.

As I work my way through some Pilates instruction and physical therapy for my shoulder, I'm hoping to be able to gradually increase my swimming and eventually get back on the bike.

For now, I'm looking at running the Oakland Running Festival's 5k for the third time and I'm possibly considering a splash and dash in early April.

Coyote Hills Run

As I plug along and try to get back into the swing of running I returned to the Coyote Hills 5k (um really 3.5 miles) run. The night before I was in quite a bit of pain with my reoccurring shoulder issue and a newly developed sciatica issue. I am so lucky, or dumb  for not taking better care of myself.

My chiropractor worked on the sciatica issue and I taped up my shoulder and went to bed hoping for the best. I woke up and was not experiencing as much pain as the night before so I called that a win and made the drive to Fremont.

This was more about just getting it done then anything else. I wanted to log the miles and enjoy the day. This course is always challenging; not just because of the extra distance but also the elevation gains as well as changing surfaces. You run pavement, dirt and wood piers, so you have to pay attention to the ever changing surfaces.

Early on when the course is crowded

I knew it would be a warm day but it was cold in the morning so I wore arm sleeves knowing I could push them down if I got hot. they lasted all of 3 minutes before I was too hot, a that point they come in very handy for wiping sweat off your face. 

It's always fun playing leap frog with people. I passed this one woman who took offense and passed me later. Then I passed her again, I felt like I was running a steady pace, so perhaps she was not. We leap frogged a few times but once we hit the hills, I never saw her again. 

I took some sort of sports drink at the aid station since I wasn't hydrated particularly well. As we made our way to the backside of the park I really took a moment to just take it all in, it's so pretty and I genuinely felt very lucky to have the ability to run in such a beautiful spot. Then it was back to negotiating the hills and passing the 10k walkers. As I approached the final hill it was all mental toughness to get to the top, but once I did I knew the worst was over. 

Coming downhill after the last climb.

As we rounded the corner you could just feel the relief from everyone around that we were almost done. I picked up the pace and made my way to the arch. 

This kid racing me to the line

So happy to be done! 

After the race Mary Sue and I chatted with our friend Pia that we met at this race last year. She reminded me that the Bay Breeze race is coming up on Valentine's Day, so this will probably be my next event. I'm hoping I'll have my first shipment of goodies from SunRype in time! 

Race stats:

13/49 AG

144/458 OA