La Jolla 5k Post-Mortem

34:59

I was shooting for 30:00.

Ultimately, I underestimated the HUGE descent at the beginning. I'm very careful about putting excess pounding on my joints, so I don't even train downhills. As you'd imagine, the 6-9% grade whomped a hurting on me. I knew there was some hills, but I underestimated the severity of the initial decline and what it would do to me.
Basically, I saw the elevation color coding and flagged the red part as "this'll be tough" but essentially looked past the green. Green's a friendly color, right? Green says "go!". Green, generally, doesn't say "I will mash your quads into hamburger and make your lower-legs malfunction."

Generally.

All-in-all, while it was great to go down to San Diego, this race was not a good one for me.

I am still determined to break 30:00, so I'm going to find and register for the closest flat-course 5k I can find. The sooner the better. I want to redeem myself.


Exeunt.

(Oh, quick side-note: @MapleJen handled the hill better than me and beat me in the race. Kudos! Also: @RussellNuts absolutely blew through the half-marathon course, clocking in somewhere under 1:32:00. Truly impressive stuff. Again, kudos!)


Elevation image courtesy the fantastic MapMyRun.com

San Diego 2: The Redemption. Kind of.

Another warm day in San Diego. @LosBee and @MapleJen were off doing lady stuff™ and @Russellnuts had to go to work, so I broke loose and hit Florida Street canyon again. The results were a little better than yesterday, but I still fell short of my 3 mile mark.

Ahh well.

I'm realizing how the ramp-up process takes time. I took a whole month off, probably gained a couple pounds, and I just gotta get back into it.

Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!

Sannn Deee Ahh Maaaay Go!

I do likes me some San Diego. Luckily, @LosBee and I were down visiting some friends and enjoying the sunshine. It was as sunny as usual, a little warmer than it normally is in January, and gorgeous.

I do have a wee little bit of an issue with heat, in that I tend to have crappy runs when it's warm, and this run was no different.

But whatever, it was fun. And gorgeous out. And everything.

While @Russellnuts went to tennis class and @MapleJen and @LosBee hit the spa for a little mani-pedi, I trotted through Florida Street canyon.

It's a beautiful place near Balboa Park. The run was a wee bit crappy, but at least I put some time in.

While @Russellnuts was finishing up, I sprawled out on the bleachers at a nearby baseball diamond and caught some sun. So good, y'all. So good.

Image courtesy of Snorg Tees. Now that's a damn fine shirt.

How Do You Decide Where to Live?

This has been a recurring topic in the Frenette household in recent months. Our moves have really challenged our perceptions of what location means to us, and what criteria we value in making choices.

What's Important to You?

How would you rank (1,2,3...) the following factors?
__ Career/Job Market
__ Housing Market
__ Proximity to Where You Grew Up (close or far)
__ Weather
__ City Size & Type (urban, suburban, rural)
__ Culture
__ Schools
__ Proximity to Family
__ Crime Rate
__ Other:

So, with the comments form waiting in breathless anticipation, tell me: how you make this important decision?

Photos courtesy kangotraveler, pingnews.com and Michael in San Diego on Flickr.

6 Miler, Powered by Hot Dogs™

I love hot dogs. I can't help it—I was raised in Chicago, by two Chicagoans. That's what we do.

Being in Chicago this week, I had to make a stop at Portillo's, my favorite weenie vendor. I ate at this place 3 times a week during high school, as scary as that is. But it's delicious stuff. A chili dog, half an italian beef and a large fry and I was set.

Too bad I had to run 6 miles today. Greasy fast food isn't exactly the best way to fill up your glycogen stores, but whatchagonna do.

The Chicago lake shore was my chosen running route; Chicago sits on Lake Michigan, and a great running and bike path stretches from the far south side to well into the north. Plenty of space to stretch the legs and get some relatively fresh air.

Getting to the lake shore from our hotel—and getting back—was the only tricky part of the run. On the way back you can see the dip in my pace, where I had to wait for traffic lights and huff up a couple flights of stairs. All in all, though, it was a great run on a beautiful, moody-midwestern-weather day.

These recent trips have been a "Best Of" tour of the places I've lived. I haven't been back to Chicago in quite some time, but this is my "home" city, and the city I grew up. I had forgotten how amazing this city really is. Amazing architecture, interesting people, lots to see and do.

The trip to San Diego was interesting, too, because the move from San Diego to San Francisco is much more recent, and I still feel some ties. But San Francisco is much more like Chicago, and I have to admit: I'd almost prefer living in Chicago to SF. Granted, the weather's been nice here, and that's a major issue with Chicago. But outside of that, I really don't see why San Francisco would be so much more preferable to Chicago. Chicago's great, and at half the price, it's twice as nice.

Good to be back.

We were able to catch a show at The Metro—one of my old haunts. The band was Ha Ha Tonka, which is sort of an indie rock band with an inbred twist. They were good; 4 part harmonies, technically solid and proficient drumming, interesting song arrangements.

A good first day in Chicago.

Images courtesy midiman and pingnews.com on Flickr.

I Think I'd Benefit from a Running Club

After a couple days off this week from the plan—as well as missing my last 2 long runs—I'm gearing up for tomorrow's long run/Nike+ Human Race.

Today's run went great. At first.
As you can plainly see on the right, I was cruising along under and around a 10 minute mile pace for a while there, which is pretty damn good for me.

But somewhere around 2 and a half miles I just quit. My proclivity for what Vanilla at Half-Fast calls "The Quitter" expresses itself once more. I just quit.

The Rundown

♠ The scenery was great; I ran along Mission Bay in San Diego just at sunset, which has a nice lighted, paved path along the water.
♠ I love San Diego, so the warmth and wetness of the evening air was pretty fantastic. It was a wee bit warm, which I don't do well with. But not that warm.
♠ The legs felt great.
♠ The lungs felt great.
♠ The heart felt great.
♠ I did have to run through quite a bit of dizziness early on (which I seem to get quite a bit when my sleep cycle is jacked up—which is very much is right now).
♠ I wasn't running to Hella Sound stuff; having recorded pretty intensely this week, I wanted to step away from what I was working on to get a little objectivity and a little perspective—something I generally do with creative projects. As a result, the iPod was on shuffle, which does have a potentially negative effect.

But shit, I should be able to knock out 3 miles with my eyes closed.

To this I say WTF.

I'm thinking I might benefit from joining a running club. Lord knows there's plenty of them in San Francisco. I have about a month before the San Jose Rock & Roll Half-Marathon, so if the group runs fit well with my training schedule, it's on like Donkey Kong. After the R&R, I'll adjust my plan to accommodate group runs regularly.

Long post, I know. Was it good for you?

Yeah, So I'm Down in San Diego

So I'm down in San Diego this week, helping out a friend and taking care of some bidness.

@LosBee and I lived here for 6 (or was it 7?) years before moving to San Francisco in the summer of 2007. It's a beautiful place, and while it's great to be back, it's not without mixed feelings.

Funny how that works. I guess it's not always easy to change—to pack up everything you own and leave everything you've become familiar and comfortable with and start something wholly new.

Yeah. Anyway, here I am back in San Diego for the week, hoping to get some sun, stay on track in my half-marathon training program and record, record, record.

After spending an inordinate amount of time making like Georgie does in this pic, I hit the gym for some treadmill and some weights.

Got in a little less than a 3 mile run with hills (5.5 degrees) and did 3 sets of squats @ 135lbs, 5 reps each.

Tomorrow's a full day, and I'm looking to hit it hard.

Photos courtesy of Michael in San Diego and jsome1 on Flickr, accordingly.