"Ohhhh! Where is your wonderful hat?" asked the woman at the place I went for lunch.

(I explained about riding my bike to work now. She was reassured to learn that I do wear a helmet when I ride, and that I believe in obeying traffic laws and wearing lots of lights when I ride at night.)

From a recent book review in the New Yorker:

[Republican political analyst Leslie] Sanchez acknowledges that Sarah Palin was a problematic candidate. She writes that Palin’s interviews were "a mess," and that Palin gave Katie Couric "lackluster answers—many of which were downright incoherent." And yet she manages to wonder why female voters wouldn’t "applaud her candidacy as a fellow-woman?"

When Gloria Steinem wrote, in the Los Angeles Times, that "Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton," Sanchez was outraged. She tells us, "As I read that, it means, 'you can run, Sarah Palin, but you won’t get my support because you don’t believe in all the same things I believe in.'"

Um... yeah. That's what politics tends to be about. "I will vote for this person to be my political representative, because their beliefs and priorities are similar to mine so they will be easily able to represent me." Not that the logic always holds when it comes time to put campaign promises into action, but there's nothing illogical about deciding who to vote for based on whether you agree with them.

Duh.

If you haven't read the book review, it's liable to tick you off, for the reason stated at the close of the piece:

The amazing journey of American women is easier to take pride in if you banish thoughts about the roads not taken. When you consider all those women struggling to earn a paycheck while rearing their children, and start to imagine what might have been, it’s enough to make you want to burn something.

First, there's the San Francisco Bike Expo at the Cow Palace on Saturday. There'll be lots of vendors; we're planning to get a couple of BikeGlow safety lights and two Down Low Glow systems, and want to check out the under-seat bags from Krieg Cycling. I'm also looking forward to the different clothing vendors, and intend to try on as many pairs of riding knickers/capris and as much merino wool as I can.

After the expo, around 7:00 pm (after dark), the Rock the Bike crew will be leading a ride (no doubt complete with lights and music) back to the Mission, destination Baobab Village for the Outside In street food fest.

Then on Sunday, there's the Oakland Taco Truck Tour Numero Dos (Foothill* Boulevard Edition). Meet up at the Lake Merritt BART station at 12:30 pm, then ride up Foothill, stopping at four taco trucks on the way, winding up at Nieves Cinco de Mayo ice cream by the Fruitvale BART station, with the further option of continuing on to the Trappist, for those with enough energy...

(And somewhere in there, the monkey and I are hoping to get a run in. Yeah, that's likely. Ahem.)

So c'mon, get up on your bike!



* I first typed "Foodhill". Freudian slip, I guess.

So, it's been a while since I've posted a marathon training log update. The restriction and discomfort in my left ankle that started developing a month or so ago was getting severe enough that curtailing training seemed like the only sensible thing to do.

We tried to go for a training run around Lake Merritt on Friday, October 30, but halfway through my ankle hurt badly enough that I called the run off. I was already feeling frustrated and upset about not being able to run, and then right after calling off the run we saw a sign on a lamppost: "LOST CAT! Please check your garage or storage shed — he may be trapped and starving to death!"

"Dammit," I managed to get out to Pirate, "I did not need to see a sign like that right now!" at which point I burst into tears.

So I went to the SF Egoscue clinic the following Monday and have been doing my new menu of E-cises diligently since then. My ankle has been getting markedly better (it was noticeably better the morning after the appointment and has only continued to improve since then), and I've been looking at the training schedule and telling myself "Yeah, we can get back on schedule and do the marathon in March. Of course we can. Man I hope I don't get injured again. It'll be fine."

And then spiritualmonkey managed to jack himself up in a bike crash last week (which he has promised to write up) and has been groaning in pain when he moves ever since Thursday.

Saturday morning he looked at me and said, "Hey, hon, what would you think about stepping down to the half marathon instead?"

Wait, what? Is this the same to deal with life, strap on your helmet, put your chin down, and run FULL SPEED AHEAD guy I've been with for the past 14 years? Advocating moderation? Advocating "let's know our prudent limits and stay within them"?

But he pointed out that we're not doing this to run a marathon in March 2010, we're doing this so we can be running until we're 100. He also reminded me of how much emphasis Pavel puts on the idea of "Don't train to failure — train to success!" Pavel says you should always end a workout with something left in the tank and feeling like you could have kept going. By that standard, if we cross the half-marathon finish line saying "damn, I could do another one of these right now, no problem!" it should be counted as a success, I guess.

So that's what we're going to do: take advantage of the Oakland Marathon's generous policy that allows registrants to downgrade to a shorter race. We're going to run the half marathon in March, instead of the marathon. And, with luck, we are going to keep ourselves free of pressure and stress in the process.

Rather than post training logs on my LJ, I'm using MapMyRun instead. If you have a MapMyRun userid and are interested, let me know and I'll add you to my friends list so you can see my log.

I love the Egoscue Method.

Yeah, yeah, I keep saying that. But I do!

My left ankle has been bothering me for a couple of weeks, and was getting to the point where it was beginning to interfere with our marathon training (we cut Friday's run by about half, skipped the run on Sunday and went for a bike ride instead, and haven't done any running so far this week). So on Monday spiritualmonkey and I went into SF for a tune-up appointment at the Egoscue Clinic. We met with David (the clinic director) and Johnny (a new therapist, I believe — new since we'd been in, at least) and each got a new menu of E-cises.

Tuesday I didn't notice significant difference. Yesterday it was noticeably improved — much less pain and discomfort. And today it's so much better that the sensation feels closer to a deep itch than it does to pain.

I'm doing my newest menu every morning and will continue to do so for a couple of weeks, I think. It's a tough one, in large part because I need these particular exercises so badly right now; doing the foot circles and point-and-flex exercise hits what I think must be either my tibialis anterior or peroneus longus with a burning sensation like a thousand Guy Fawkes Day bonfires. Thank goodness for Zheng Gu Shui, which I have been applying liberally before beginning my exercise menu.

It's looking as though a gentle run will be possible this evening. Yay!

I came across this video while reading the RW Daily blog at Runners World — last-minute race tips from Toby Tanser ("NYC-based coach, founder of the charity organization Shoe4Africa, RW Hero of Running, and all-around good guy" according to RW):


Last Minute Marathon Tips: shot with Nikon D90 from Mike Kobal on Vimeo.

Transcript of the tips (for easier reference) behind the cut: ( Nerves are normal )

Wow, what a fantastic day yesterday was!

After doing 3.5 miles on our morning training run (details to follow; need to catch up on my training log), Pirate and I hopped on our bikes and headed over to Lake Merritt BART to meet up with the taco truck bike tour organized by Cyrus Farivar of the California Taco Trucks blog. The turnout was great (word was that somebody counted 35 of us at one point), the weather was perfect, the food was quite tasty (mmm, tacos!) and I pretty much can't imagine having had a better time.

As we headed off from Lake Merritt BART, somebody said "This is like Critical Mass, only with less aggression and more tacos!" Sounds like a decent approach to most things: less aggression, more tacos. *grin*

Also, I continue to LOVE (omg LOVE) my bike. Talk about "makes with the zoom"! On the first leg of the route, from Lake Merritt BART over to Tacos Sinaloa, I had started out toward the middle of the pack, but soon found myself riding up front chatting with Cyrus as we rolled up International. "Wow," I said to Pirate as we were waiting for our tacos, "it's not that I'm trying to be out front — the bike just goes fast!"

Of course, by the last leg of the trip (from Nieves Cinco de Mayo ice cream at Fruitvale BART back downtown to the Trappist) I was actually trying to be in front. Partly because I know the area and so could easily navigate us back downtown, and partly because I was tired of biting my tongue not to yell Drive your bike like a vehicle, dammit! Take the whole lane when you need it! Don't putz around at traffic lights doing the "am I a vehicle? am I pedestrian? am I just going to ride through the crosswalk like neither a vehicle nor a pedestrian?" thing — take the lane, claim your space, signal your turns, and RIDE.

(Honestly, folks, if you need to make a left turn, throw your left arm out straight to signal and then move to the left into the appropriate turning lane. Whatever you do, do NOT roll up to the signal in the right-hand bike lane and then try to turn left from there. Too many bicyclists get killed at intersections already, and that's when they're riding legally. Please don't get yourself killed by doing something dumb like turning left from the right-hand lane.)

I had a chicken taco at each truck so I could compare them. My rating:
1. Tacos Sinaloa
2. El Grullo
3. Mi Grullense
4. El Ojo de Agua (note: rating for taco only; for licuados they rule)

Lots of fun. I hope Cyrus makes this an ongoing thing.

Monday, 10/19/09:
Egoscue personal menu #6.
Two-mile walk home.
Rest day on the training schedule, so no running.
Did the full 1-hour Callanetics workout. Was able to keep up with almost everything until the pelvic circles/pelvic scoops.
Pedometer for the day: 8793.

Tuesday, 10/20/09:
Egoscue personal menu #7.

2.67 mile bike ride home (according to MapMyRun). Incidentally, WHEE!!! Love my new bike!

45 minutes run/walk 30/30 ratio; with two walk breaks for some coconut water we were out 52 minutes total. 3.2 miles according to MapMyRun. Feeling good, strong. Could have kept going, but Galloway is very big on not doing too much too fast. Besides, my left ankle is... not hurting, really; I'm not sure the sensation even qualifies as "discomfort". It's a sensation that I've come to interpret Egoscue-wise as meaning things are shifting in relationship to each other... which, based on what I see when I look in the mirror, means my alignment is continuing to improve. Yay!

Pedometer for the day: 13401.

Also, I mapped the marathon course at MapMyRun. Unfortunately they have the embed code set up using frames, which don't play nicely here at LJ, so you'll have to click through to see it:


I don't know why it shows it as being less than 26.2. I believe marathon organizers tend to be fairly persnickety about that. The street-by-street listing that's up on the marathon's website is fairly unclear at points, and (IMO) has a couple of turns missing or wrong, so it may be that I didn't get it entered exactly as they intended it to be. Oh, well.

What a fantastic idea:

Wednesday, 10/14/09:

Egoscue personal menu #3.
Two-mile walk home.
Rest day on the training schedule, so nothing else today.
Pedometer for the day: 8115.

Thursday, 10/15/09:
Egoscue personal menu #5.
Two-mile walk home.
Was 4/5 through the 1-hour Callanetics workout when my stomach started feeling upset, so called it there. (Dunno what was wrong with it. I made some nice, non-challenging rice porridge and went to bed early.)
Rest day on the training schedule.
Pedometer for the day: 8416.

Friday, 10/16/09:
Egoscue personal menu #7.
Two-mile walk home.
45 minutes run/walk, 30/30 ratio. Did a loop from home to the Embarcadero, along the waterfront, then back home. Felt really good. Very glad we bought the the various reflective and illuminated things we have; we're finding that having a strobing headlamp blinking "DON'T HIT ME! DON'T HIT ME! DON'T HIT ME!" noticeably increases one's peace of mind when running at twilight and after dark.
Pedometer for the day: 14815.

Saturday, 10/17/09:
Slothful day marked by afternoon nap and no Egoscue or Callanetics or anything. *yawn*

Sunday, 10/18/09:
Egoscue personal menu #3.

Long run day! 7.5 miles at a 30/30 run/walk ratio; took about 100 minutes total. Took two breaks at about 2/5 and 4/5 of the way through to have some Vita Coco coconut water and some peanut butter with honey. Went from home to Lake Merritt, up Lakeshore to Grand, up Grand to Broadway, then up College as far as Derby (dood, I just ran from home to Berkeley — zowie!), where we turned and headed down to Telegraph, then down Telegraph to Bake Sale Betty — seven and a half miles, yay us! — for lunch. Boy, did those fried chicken sandwiches taste good! And the line got long just after we got on line (yay!) so we scored two cookies while waiting as well.

After eating lunch at our favorite bench beside the little (currently dry) creek that runs behind the Claremont DMV, we walked down to Tip Top Bike Shop at Telegraph and 48th, where we spent about an hour and a half happily puttering around and test riding bikes before dropping a large chunk of tax refund on a long-planned, long-needed purchase of two new bikes.

NEW BIKE WOOT!!! I got a Jamis Allegro 2 (on sale, since it's the end of the 2009 model year). Love it so far. (Well, aside from the bit where we were halfway home and the cable to the front shifter went spoing! and popped loose. We didn't feel like heading back at the time to get it taken care of, so Pirate's going to take it back tomorrow to have them fix it.) Got a couple of racks and two Banjo Brothers Market Panniers, a couple of Kryptonite locks (I think they're this model), and locking skewers for both bikes. They also tossed in a free "I hella bike Oakland" shirt for me and would have tossed one in for Pirate but were out of his size, so he got a rain check.



Very happy with the experience. And did I mention NEW BIKE YAY!!!! MOBILE AGAIN WHEE!?

Feeling really good about the run. When we got to Betty's for lunch, we both agreed that if we had more water or Vita Coco and a bit more to snack on to keep the blood sugar levels up, we could easily run the rest of the way home, no problem — and that would have been a half marathon!

Well, there would have been a fair bit of disappointment at having to run past without stopping for lunch, but aside from that... felt strong and good. My feet are just a little tired (need better shoes — going to order a pair of these since these are back-ordered until December). Also my trapezius is a little tight and tired, which I'm interpreting as a sign that my alignment and form need a little adjustment. Time to go back to the Egoscue clinic for a tune-up, I think. We still have a couple of sessions on the package deal we signed up for.

Pedometer for the day: 21970.

Man, I feel good. I feel stronger and better than I ever remember feeling before. This rocks.

Egoscue personal menu #7.

30 minutes run/walk, 30/30 ratio. Hills (oh, yeah).

Pedometer for the day: 9798. (And that's with not having walked home, as we were out doing errands by bus instead.)

Bumped the ratio to 30/30 because the 20/40 wasn't feeling enough like work. This felt more like work, but still felt good. Very exhilarated by the end of the run. The rain had cleared up and it was beautiful out.

Woke up feeling crampy & icky; went back to sleep for several hours. Figured a long walk would help me feel better, and was correct.

30 minutes run/walk, 20/40 ratio. Lots of hills.

Pedometer for the day: 11700

Friday, 10/9/09:

Egoscue personal menu #5.

Two-mile walk home.

Pedometer for the day: 7217.

Today was a day off on the training schedule (we're not using this exact schedule, but going based on it and on the schedule in Marathon). Galloway puts a lot of stress on the importance of periodicity (although I don't remember coming across the specific term in his writings yet) — your training needs to include rest days and easy days if you want to maximize your progress and avoid injury.

Saturday, 10/10/09:

Egoscue personal menu #6.

Long run day: 4.7 miles according to the Gmaps Pedometer. Went barefoot, as I'm not entirely happy with the shoes I have available, the Vibram Fivefingers Treks I'm planning to order won't be available until December at the earliest, and I haven't yet ordered a pair of Tarahumara-style huaraches from Barefoot Ted. My feet feel pretty good; the soles felt a little over-frictioned when I got home, but at this point feel mostly fine. Zero discomfort in terms of inside-the-foot pain; it was purely surface.

Pedometer for the day: 9615.

Feeling good. Feeling that yes, this is a feasible goal.

Egoscue personal menu #3 (the twisty one).

2-mile walk home.

5 minutes on the wobble board.

Basic one-hour Callanetics workout. Still brutal. Still not able to get all the way through 100% of it. At least several of the individual exercises feel easier than they used to.

Feeling tired but pleased. Going to have a small glass of wine and throw something together for dinner. Probably something in the pasta/zucchini/chèvre range.

2 mile walk home (as usual). 30 minutes run/walk, 20/40 ratio [ETA: about 1.8 miles, according to the Gmaps pedometer]. Felt energized and exhilarated afterward, as well as slightly more tired than yesterday (a good thing). Still felt like I could have easily kept going for a while.

Pedometer for the day: 12998

Feeling good.

ETA: Egoscue, of course; personal menu #7 this morning.

Brisk walk home from work (2 miles). 30 minutes run/walk, 10/50 ratio. Hills. (This is Oakland. The only way not to have hills is to run back & forth along the Embarcadero. *yawn*)

Feeling really good. We think we're going to extend the run/walk — probably 45 minutes next time. Galloway says not to do too much, no going too fast or too far, but Pirate & I talked about it on the walk home and we think that all the walking we've been doing over the past two years probably puts us at a higher baseline level of fitness than most beginning runners.

Really, when you're walking home afterward and have enough energy to feel bouncy... maybe you should do just a little more. *grin*

ETA: Egoscue personal menu #6 this morning.

Pedometer for the day: 13124.

Back in June I saw a news article saying that the first Oakland marathon in 25 years had been approved for March 2010. For some reason it stuck with me, despite my only experience with running before now having been failing the run-a-mile-in-10-minutes-or-less portion of the mandatory President's physical fitness test in high school PE class.

But so many things seem to be coming together from so many different directions, all pointing at the same thing, that somehow it made a weird kind of sense.

So this afternoon Pirate and I went out on our first training run. Thirty minutes at a run-walk ratio of 10/50, around our neighborhood (so moderately hilly).

And at the end of it, we both felt great.

March 28, here we come!

Poll #1465137 On the subject of club sandwiches
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

When you order a club sandwich, how many slices of bread do you expect it to include?

Bread - toasted or not?

Once made, how do you expect the sandwich to be sliced?

Toothpicks holding it together?

Should Lexi give up on the cafe whose employees are really nice but whose food is "meh" at best and "that's just not the way you make this" at worst?

Questions, comments, or otherwise?

Cheeky young rat to leopard: Hey, you gonna eat that?

I wish I liked the food at the cafe nearest work as much as I like the people who work there. The food's not bad, just... undistinguished.

*sigh*

The longer you live, the more sympathy cards you wind up buying.

I guess it's better than the alternatives.

From an SFGate article on the upcoming 2010 Oakland Marathon — the first marathon in Oakland in more than 25 years:

News of the marathon is beginning to make its way through local online groups of long-distance runners, university track programs and personal trainers.

"Is it going to go through the city's better neighborhoods, or are we going to need a police escort for part of the way?" asked Debbie Falls, a veteran of more than 40 marathons over the years and owner of Fleet Feet, an athletic shoe store in Pleasanton.

No, madam, it's going to go through ALL THE WORST NEIGHBORHOODS IN OAKLAND, straight up International Boulevard. Welcome to the shady 80s! Now passing through the lovely dirty thirties! Watch out for the homeless people camped near the 11th Street underpass — they're scary! Better run quick, or the gangstas and thugs will get you!

Bah.

I love my post-industrial hellhole.

Poor Ms. Falls, having to run through awful, dirty, dangerous Oakland. Maybe this is the problem. Ya think?