littlemamalopez's blog

All my co-workers and friends called me crazy for planning to run 23 miles in the rain last Saturday. While I was looking at it as "playing in the rain", everyone else here in California was preparing for the waves of storms set to roll through the weekend. And it did rain hard this weekend, but the running gods were looking down on us and spared us the precipitation just long enough for our group to run 23 miles! Yes, it was cold and windy, but no rain. Who could ask for more?

Hmm...everyone must be feeling the cold since no one seems to be blogging lately. Right now in Los Angeles it's 55. I myself have been out of the running scene since my PR at the City of Angels Half. Chest congestion, sinuses...blah. So this week when I wanted to get back into my routine of 5:30am runs, it has been a little nippy. This morning was 38 Brrrrrrr.

It was a good day. A very good day. 46 degrees and sunny as 3305 people lined up for the 2nd annual City of Angels 1/2 Marathon. Lots of Road Runners and LA Leggers at the start at the LA Zoo. There were 9 members from our 11 minute pace group keeping warm by huddling around portable heaters. Me, sipping my Sbux as usual, and inhaling 2 rice krispy treats. No one in the group was interested in staying at an 11 minute pace, so we made plans for a 9:30 pace. We all had that little gleam in our eyes.....

It was a chilly 45 degrees this morning at 5:30. Brrrrrrr - I am a Miami girl at heart!

As I run quietly in the morning I'm always alert for homes for sale, thinking of the day when homes become a little more affordable. But this morning I had to stop my self because I may not be here in beautiful Southern California a year. My husband got the "hypothetical talk" of "would you consider NYC if the territory opened up?" Sigh. That was the same talk that brought us out here from Miami 2 1/2 years ago. I'm sure I would love NYC, as I'm sure I would love running in NYC. But I really like Los Angeles.

I've had a good week. After tomorrow's 16 miler, my mileage will be 30 for the week! Here's the breakdown:

Mon - easy run of 4 miles (no garmin).
Tue - tempo run (15 minutes at an 8:45 pace).
Wed - rest day
Thu - easy run of 2 miles followed by sand dune repeats x5
Fri - temp run (20 minutes at an 8:45 pace).
Sat - long run of 16 miles.

My weekly mileage is down from 25 – 30 miles a week, to 15 -20 miles per week. I could blame it on the “cooler” weather (this is LA). Or I could blame it on how dark it is at 5:30am. But what it all boils down to is that I really do love my pillow. So last Friday, my pillow talked me into running at lunch instead of at 5:30 am. I have an hour and a half for lunch on Fridays so why not?

I really look forward to my Thursday morning runs. There is something about meeting people at an ungodly hour like 5:30 that helps you to get out of bed. I meet two of my running friends at Sand Dune Park in Manhattan Beach (Cali) at 5:30. We run 1 mile out and 1 mile back to warm up and then we tackle the sand dune for repeats. I know I've mentioned it before, but it is a 100 foot climb up a mountain of sand. Paste the link below into your browser for a view from the top of the dune. Today we did 5 repeats. Whew! Lots of huffing and puffing going on this morning. But I felt great.

Olympic trials, NYC marathon - all in one weekend. My husband gets a little tired of hearing about running and training and races I'd like to do in the future, but he did show a spark of interest with all the running on tv this past weekend. He gave me the go ahead to try for the NYC lottery for next year, and even suggested that I do the Barcelona Marathon in March. Where did Barcelona come from you may ask? Well, we've been to Barcelona before, and we do want to go back, and when I hear the word marathon I get that glossy look in my eyes........

It's only been 4 days since NWM and I feel absolutely great!