Plate to Plate RR

Short version:
Plate to Plate was awesome again this year. 45:45 A new 5K PR for me!!

Long version:
Plate to Plate was awesome again this year A little back round, last year was kind of a struggle for me. Truth be, told most of my previous races have been a struggle for me, I like to start off to fast burn out and then die for the rest of the run. This year I fell in Feb on my right hip during an early morning run, darn sidewalks. I didn’t run on it for about a month, saw a chiro and it got better, so I thought. Fast forward to about a month and a half ago, and starting to train for my first ½ the stupid thing flared up again. So it was back to the chiro, but this time it didn’t help. So I thought I would try ART (active release therapy) at this point the hip had been painful for about a month, and I was desperate and beginning to think that running was not really for me. I found a wonderful ART practitioner in Berkeley. Things were looking up, I have had one set back and it was Friday before the race this weekend, the hip was back to hurting all the time. I was pretty sure that I was not going to be able to run the 5K on Sunday. The cool thing about Plate to Plate is that you get to run across home plate at AT&T park (it will always be PacBell to me), but you had to be in the stadium before 10am. I was shooting to walk the race and make it in time to cross the plate. I woke up on race morning, to my surprise everything felt pretty good. The hip was much better then it was on Friday. So I dressed to run and off we went, my DH and DS (who ran as well) and my training partner. We got to the parking lot at about 7:30 found our space and went in search of safety pins. We found DH a good place to watch the jumbotron from on the other side of the cove, after using the porta-potties. My training partner fell as we went out for our run on Friday and was not sure if she was going to run, but did so at 9:01 garmin time we were off and running. DS was with us until we got out in front of the ball park, then he was off to run his own race. It was crowded and so the there was a lot of weaving in and out of groups of people that were walking. I lost my training partner pretty early on, she is much faster them me, even with a bum knee and ankle.I was starting to fade but I found a lady that was just ahead of me I was matching her foot steps, so I stayed right behind her. As we moved along I glanced at the garmin, and thought dang I am moving, we were doing 13 and change at this point. I saw DS after he made the turn and was heading to the stadium, he is a fast little son of a gun, he was still looking strong heading in to the 2nd mile, he finished in 37 and change. I am still flowing the “rabbit” that I had found, I would like to take this time to thank her for letting me tail her, and listening to my panting as we ran. We reached the turn around and I found my training partner, she had slowed up some, I lost the “rabbit” at this point, I was hoping to see her again so I could thank her, but I never did. We made it to the stadium at about 9:30 ran on the track to the foul line and then across home plate. This year I hope I am looking up and not at my feet in the pic. Out of the stadium we go and off to the finish line, garmin time has me at 45:45 my fasted 5K time. Not bad for a bum hip and not much running in the past 2 months.

GET OUT OF MY POOL!!!!!!!!!!!

So I have not been running due to hip issues, so I have taken up swimming as a cardio replacement. There are a few people who come and use the pool. The one that has been there constantly is the guy in the white swim cap, he is some one who swims for real, and he can do the fancy turns and all that jazz, quite impressive I might add. There have also been a few times 2 guys that I will call “thugs” I have no idea if this is true or not, it is a snap judgment made by me. Thug 1 knows how to swim (sorta) and sometimes comes by himself, thug 2 is learning to swim (swims loudly) so on days that thug 2 is there then it is “Teach a thug to swim day” Last week, “guy in black Speedo” showed up, he is a hairy gentleman who uses the sauna. There is also and older guy that uses the hot tub we will call him “old guy in hot tub”. Oh Creepy guy has been there some times too, he is creepy because when he was using the steam room he stood at the door and watch us swim. The came out and sat on the bench to watch us swim, he doesn’t swim well. Some of the other random people who use the steam room are interesting too, but they are not in the pool so I don’t really care.

So now that we have most if the cast of people in my adventures in swimming here is what went down today. Most morning it is just my training partner and I at the pool, some times it is just me at the pool. “Thugs” 1 and 2 are there, usually on Fridays. Guy in the white swim cap comes in some mornings, not really picked up on which days he is there but sometime. They clean the pool on Fridays at the gym so the water is on the let’s say effen cold side, not all bad tends to cut down on the time wasting maneuvers that I have developed at the end of the laps that do with the style I like to call my “trying not to drowned” stroke, it is a hybrid freestyle, crawl, doggy paddle type stroke. It does get me from one end of the pool to the other so I guess it works.

Today is Friday and I have no idea what the temp of the water in the pool was like when I got there this morning, keep in mind that this at 4:45am, yes am, in the morning. The pool was already in use by some lady in a blue suit, I have never seen her here before, as well as the guy in the white swim cap and “Thugs” 1 & 2. Blue suite swims like the guy in the white swim cap, she know what she is doing in the water, so they share a lane. The other lane was in use by the “thugs”, now I am not sure how to share a lane with more then 2 people and while the “thugs”, I am sure are quiet nice I was not about to ask them if I can use their lane as well. So crap now what do I do, Training partner is running today so she will be busy for at least 30 min. I know I will use the steam room, kinda like working out you get sweaty, and that is what matter right. So I shower before entering the pool area and head to the steam room, crap there is no steam in the steam room, they were not done cleaning it yet. It clearly state that the steam room opens at 5:00am. It is now 5:00am and there is no steam. Crap, now what, how about the sauna, maybe the steam room will be done soon and I can move over there. So, in to the room that I think smells some what like an old shoe, it is warm but not to warm, I kinda stand there due to the fact that none of the benches were in place. All the time watching the bodies in the pool swim, what is the reason behind me getting my butt out of bed. About 10 min in to my stay in the smelly old shoe room some one comes in to share the space with me. So out I go to see of the steam room is up and running…but no such luck, ok now what to do. I still have about 15 min to kill before training partner is ready to go. So I make my way to the hot tub to find “old guy” in the hot tub, he opens one eye to see who is entering his tub and tells me that it is not very warm. He is not wrong it was mostly a lukewarm tub. So, there I sat in the lukewarm tub willing the “thugs” to be done so I can swim for a little bit before it is time for us to go, but no one finished up. The lukewarm tub shuts off the “old guy” gets out, the guy in the white swim cap gets out of the pool, but at last it was time for me to meet my training partner so we can leave. So no swimming for me today, I hope that I can get to swim next week.

Days 19 and 20

Day 19-Friday was full contact shoe shopping, I was trying on shoes next thing I know I am flat on azz looking up. This should have been a warning for how the rest of my weekend was going to go.

Day 20-Saturday we went kayaking at Lake Merritt, in Oakland it is the oldest wildlife refuge in the US. And on Saturday the water was quite nice for swimming in, which is what I ended up doing when I flipped my kayak at the end of the training what we were having. The “kid” that was our guide was on his way back to the boathouse when tipped over and hit the water. My best friend was in her kayak so I handed her my hat and shoes that were in the now full of water and not Kish kayak. So as the guide makes his way back to us I start swimming and towing my kayak back towards the boathouse. The guide came back and tried to radio the rescue boat, his radio didn’t work. So he was all just hang tight I will go get the rescue boat. I kept swimming; there was no way I was just going to wait for him to get back we were a good 15 min paddle from where we started. He finally shows up with the rescue boat, by this time we have hooked my kayak to hers and she is taking us in. So Skippy shows up with the rescue boat, the plan is to get my happy wet azz in the boat, here is the kicker he is about half my size and from where I am floating the boat is about arms length above my head and my PFD is trying to kill me. He take a hold of my PFD and we bob 3 times and I am to haul my azz up and in to the boat, YEAH RIGHT!!! We try this 3 times with no success. I am not having fun at this point. I asked him if it was ok if I just swim back to the launch area, he said not really. At this time I point out that I most likely out weigh him by at least 2 time and there was no way in hell we were going to get my in to that boat. So I am back to being towed in my best friend in the other kayak. We get to the dock there is still really no place for me to get to dry land, then it dawned on the kid that there was a ladder on the other side of the dock we were at, I finally get to dry land. So I got see the lake from a very unique prospective.
Other then the really wet part kayaking was great.

Day 15, 16 and 17

Day-15 Gym day- was a no go; we are not going to move that to Thursday. Monday is just too hard for us to get our poop in a group to go, it is Monday after all.

Day-16 3.5 mile run- I would like to state for the record that I do not like this distance, it is longer then my short run and shorter then my long run at 5:00am I am having some trouble getting my person to get on board with this new distance.

Day-17 Strength- We have moved the strength training that was on Fridays to Wednesday mornings, we are now swimming laps at the gym, I didn’t hate it I was surprised that I was not unhappy about it. Water is not strong suit. I can swim enough to save my life, but that is about it. I would like to say that swimming laps is hard. I hope some day we will be able to do more then one lap with out stopping to gasp for breath between them.

Day-17 2 mile run-I am going to run this evening with my Vibrums again. that didn't happen.