Wednesday June 13th - Back to the Basics / Training

IGLA 2007, Paris has come and gone. I swam really well and enjoyed my week hiatus in Italy. Now its time for my next journey in my athletic life for 2007-2008. There are a few journies within the yearly journey.

1) - Long Beach Marathon - Sunday, October 14th.

I have already done two 1/2 marathons (HB in 2006 and 2007) and 1 marathon (LA 2006), so running isn't as new a sport to me anymore. Each time I run a race, I get better and better, as my body learns this new sport. Running is a very humbling act for me, since up until 3 years ago, the farthest I had ran was probably 2 or 3 miles. I am by no means as fast runner, or even moderately fast. But thanks to my athletic background, I am also not one of the slow ones either. The sport of running embraces me more and more as I do it. I am lucky to live close to the beach that a lot of my runs are along or around the harbor or ocean. With my ipod and my thoughts, I ride off of my endorphins and enjoy life. The first 2 miles are always rocky for me, but then after that I feel as though I can run forever. Shoreline Village in downtown Long Beach is so fun to run around with the water as the background.

My first 1/2 marathon I ran in February 2006, I ran right around 2:11:11. The first half of the race I averaged 10:30/mile, and the second half was around 9:30/mile. That put my race at 10:00/mile. You can read about it here: HB 1/2 Marathon 2006,

I followed up this race with the LA Marathon the next month. I ran with Drew, JC and Kevin all together, which made the experience a lot of fun. We did the race strategy of 6 mins of running / 1 min of walking the entire time. Its not my preference, but for this marathon, I wanted it to be fun and be with friends. I finished around 5:09:00, accomplishing my goal of finishing, but short of my goal of being under 5 hours. I was certain I had blogged my experience, but I can't find a record of it. I will search further later on.

Then I pretty much didn't run after that. In November, Drew talked me into signing up for the HB 1/2 Marathon again. I began to train for that half-ass in December, running probably on average once a week, doing no more than 3 or 4 miles. Ya I know, not great training. Drew eventually withdrew from the race since he injured himself, thus leaving me by myself. Well not so much by myself, as I had other friends run it. I ran great and went 2:05, thus dropping my time from last year with hardly any training. You can read about my race here: HB 1/2 Marathon 2007,


So here I am again. Not sure why I signed up to do the marathon, but I did. So here we go. I purchased new running shoes yesterday to get me through this round. They feel a lot better than my other shoes did, so I am excited. My plan is to run 3 times a week, doing roughly 3 or 4 miles on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then my long runs with a group on Saturdays. The group is already up to 11 miles on Saturday, which I am not. As I stated in an earlier blog, I ran 8 miles on Saturday, which was probably too much. I will probably repeat the 8 miles again this Saturday or Sunday and then join back up with the group in a week.

2) IGLA 2008 - Washington D.C.

This is my other journey. The one I love more. Its swimming. I have set my goal times for next year and am now focusing on training even harder this year and working on the little things.

Taken from my kick-ass runner pal Elaine, I will state what I am happy of from this year and things I need to work on for next year:

Things I am happy about :
- Stepping up and doing the 200 fly at IGLA
- Working more consistently hard leading up to IGLA
- Focusing on my butterfly more
- All my performances at IGLA, especially the 800 free in the final heat

This I need to work on:
- More butterfly training - higher hips, more drills, entering the 200 fly in more meets
- Flip turns, focusing on streamlining off the wall and not breathing first thing. This is the PRIMARY focus. Try to avoid popping right up.
- Endurance races, I need to enter more of them in little meets. I also need to use Friday nights to create my own workouts for me.
- Take advantage when I can get my own lane to do faster intervals that others cannot. This morning was a perfect chance.