Rainy.

RAIN! Rainy day.

I was scheduled for a 4 miler and was going to do 5 miles, but the light drizzle turned to rain, which turned to soaking wet clothing which led to me tapping out at a little under two-and-a-half miles.

It was fun to run in light rain—certainly kept me nice and cool. And I wasn't the only one out there. Aside from the folks trotting on the streets, Kezar Stadium track had 5 other people running when I got there. They eventually all petered out when the rain picked up.

I was soaking wet when I got in my car and headed home. Fun. Not dying to do it again in the near future, but fun.

It's Feb-Uhr-Yoo-Airy

The stunningly beautiful, sunny, warm weather we've had recently is yielding to the grey sort of blech stuff we normally get this time of year. It could be worse—much worse; it could be bitter cold and snowing. Or slushy.

Today was only a little gray and cool. Honestly, I might not love San Francisco weather for hanging out or having a BBQ, but it is FANTASTIC running weather. It really helps mitigate the heat.

My running feels like it's coming along nicely, and lifting's going well as well. I'll be starting the Cool Running 10k Training Plan beginning in March, and I think I'll be in the right spot for it as far as pre-training. Looking forward to it!

Weightlifting

Bench Press: 3 sets of 5 reps @ 185lbs
Deadlift: 3 sets of 5 reps @ 115lbs
Still Dips: 3 sets of 5 reps
Pull-Downs: 3 sets of 5 reps @ heavy weight
Seated Elliptical Rows: 3 sets of 5 reps @ heavy weight
Forward/Backward Lunges: 3 set of 5 reps each side
Ball Crunches: 3 sets of 10 reps

Although my weight is still up, I think I'm getting a lot closer to pull-up strength. I'll probably start in the next month or so. I'll also be bumping up my bench, squat and deadlift weights now that I'm feeling comfortable and confident with my form again.

It's good, babies; it's good.

Final Test Run with Hella Sound Running Music

Oh babies.

We are so very close to wrapping the first release of running music at Hella Sound. Today was spent fine-tuning the first song for the various stride-rates, and I took the 160bpm version out on the road to test.

It.
Felt.
Great.

I'm giddy like a schoolgirl to share what we got brewin'. I have some more fine-tuning to do (and then some technical stuff to wrangle on the site), and then we'll be releasing the running music doves (as it were).

Stoked.

My Nike+ run data graph kinda looks all over the place, but it felt like a great, energized, consistent run. Me gusto.

Also, to keep y'all updated on the shoe-shim: as you may recall, I put a little lift in my right shoe to make up for the slight difference between the length of my ol' pegs. Well, it's been good. My right lower leg and hip have been pleased as punch, and my gait feels very natural.

I will say, though, that my left lower-leg is a little sore, and my lower back is a little tight. My rationalization-slash-armchair-podiatrist explanation is that my body is adjusting to being back into alignment when I run. So it'll take a little while to get used to it. It doesn't seem to be causing any issues or problems.

Weightlifting

Bench Press: 3 sets of 5 reps @ 205*, 185lbs
Squats (Smith machine): 3 sets of 5 reps @ 135, 185, 185lbs
Still Dips: 3 sets of 5 reps
Pull-Downs: 3 sets of 5 reps @ heavy weight
Seated Elliptical Rows: 3 sets of 5 reps @ heavy weight
Ball Crunches: snicker snicker
*When I got to the gym, both benches were taken. I ended up working in with a guy, and it looked like he was lifting 185lb. But man, the first set was harder than it should have been. While he did his last set I did some math and realized there were 45x2 and 35x2 on the bar (instead of 25x2). Heh heh heh. Hehe. *sigh*

Cocoa Pebble Pancreatitis

Notice how Fred is running in this picture? He seems energized? In full stride? Elated? In no way suffering some sort of horrible insulin flux?

This was not me.

Against my better judgement, I ate Cocoa Pebble Rice Crispy Treats instead of real food for breakfast and lunch, and suffered dearly for it during my run.

Didn't know you could make Rice Crispy Treats with Cocoa Pebbles? Yes, my friend. Yes you can. Normally I would never create such a high-fructose-corn-syrup-disaster, but I was cooking up a storm for the Superbowl and needed to supply something sweet for @LosBee. She's got celiac, so I couldn't use normal Rice Krispies (notice the "K"... I think there's a konspiracy in there somewhere...) because they gum them up with malt flavoring, which has gluten in it. Whole Foods was out of reach, so I grabbed our pal Cocoa Pebbles off the shelf.

Cocoa Pebbles Rice Crispy Treats are actually okay. Really, really sweet, but okay. Edible. They do in a pinch. But they are, to say the least, nutritionally unsound. But, being knee-deep in work and not having a moment to whip up something better, I chomped 'em down. And started wigging out in a sugar frenzy.

For the whole run I felt like I was dragging a piano behind me. After the first mile or so I started feeling a little bit better. But woof. No bueno.

I should probably check to see if I somehow gave myself Type I diabetes or something.

866 Calories Later...

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous day in San Francisco. Again! I'm starting to think I've died and gone to Southern California. Or something.

I spent the majority of the day getting food going for the Super Bowl. On the menu:
Grass-fed beef sliders with caramelized onions and Parrano cheese
Slow-cooked BBQ pork shortribs
Homemade guac
7 layer bean dip
Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Knowing I was going to pound down enormous amounts of calories during the game was a motivator to get my run in today. I skipped yesterday's run because by the time I got around to it I was feeling sorta crappy—like I got a little micro-cold or something. @LosBee says it is possible to catch a slight little cold, so I'm going to believe that's what I was feeling.

It was pretty warm and very sunny out there. I was glad that the warmth didn't completely crumble me. If I had more opportunities to run in heat at this level and a bit higher, I think I could get past my inability to handle it.

I felt like I was going pretty slow, but I was going steady. I cruised until about mile 2, then started focusing more. By mile 3 I was trying to focus on relaxing—relaxing my shoulders, relaxing my back, relaxing my arms. I even relaxed my face a little, like you do at the end of a yoga class. It was good. I felt like I had more energy and felt less fatigue in my upper body.

I'm not built like a runner. I'm pretty much built like a linebacker that's gone to seed. But I like having upper-body muscle that's ultimately impractical for running—just one of those things. It's how I'm built. Granted, I have quite a bit of non-muscular weight along for the ride, which sucks, but that's why I'm running. At some point I'll hopefully run that extra non-muscle meat off.

Tomorrow's a rest day for me, but it's also GROUNDHOG DAY! (W00T!) Growing up in Chicago, I know Groundhog Day psychologically matters more to folks that are struggling on the frozen tundra. Out here in San Francisco, I can't complain about sunny, 65+° days in January. So to all y'all that wake up to an ice-cold bedroom and have to scrape the ice off your cars every day, hopefully Punxsutawney Phil doesn't see his shadow tomorrow, and winter is over sooner rather than later.

(Oh, BTW: the little gel lift I put in my right shoe seems to be working nicely. I feel really comfortable with it, and so far my hip and other pains seem to have gone completely away. Pretty sweet, huh?)

Photos courtesy of rick and fauxto_digit on Flickr.