Tues track practice 8/11/9

So I am back to training today after being off my feet per the Dr's orders for a week and 2 days.
I had Football feet for a couple days than went to the Dr. well he was not happy with me ;-O,
He said to stay off my feet for a week and keep them elevated or I would not be able to do my marathon. So I have not walked in a week and I was a little concerned about keeping up and getting back in the game, but I got out and started doing laps around the track, at first I was a little out of breath but after my 5th lap or so I felt ok. I did about 9 laps than Coach had us do some grab bag drills, she has a different drill on several strips of paper and she gives us a strip and we would go and do that drill and after completing that one we would come back and get another one. My first drill was doing the egg walk for 1/4 lap than changing fartlicks (don't ask, but yes it is) than girlie walk and hands behind back, than a sprint and recover lap, my second drill was bleachers and wow I am feeling it today. I finished 2 other drills and on the last drill I had to sprint 2 laps and amazingly I did it, I did'nt even stop half way to recover, I just kept going, and OMG did it feel good!!!!
We had aone of the little honoree's visit training practice and he decided he wanted to do a lap with us, boy did he just take of and run the whole lap. After he was done with the first lap we asked him if he was ready for another lap and he said " oh I think I'm done" he is so cut. I posted a picture of him with the team, and another one of me after sprinting laps ;-)
Saturday is the 12 mile Dress rehearsal for the Kaua'i half marathon and I feel good.

Harvey West/Pogonip 10 miles 8/1/9

Started the 10 mile trek right in front of Harvey West Park, headed straight down towards Costco and right towards the back of Harvey West. This was almost the same trail as the firecracker race I did on 4th of July but in reverse and a whole lot more!! For the next 2 miles they had us doing uphill and it was brutal, I kept thinking come on, lets get real here, you have us start off @ 7:30 in the morning on a Sat. and than first thing we do is a brutal 2miles UP HILL! Give me a break. Well that was just the beginning of it and the worse was yet to come....oh Joy Joy.
We now are heading into Pogonip, and I would say for a good 2 miles we did flat land on dirt trails, I loved this part of it, it is so beautiful along these trails, lots of trees and with plenty of shade to keep us out of the hot sun. That was about when all the site seeing and fun ended and I entered Hell. We now are headed to the top of Hell Hill (not really the name, I felt it fit this name) and we kept going up and up and I was hoping it had a end somewhere, thats when we got to the switchbacks but they still kept us going up, all though it seemed a lot .asier doing the swithbacks than the straight up hill.
The Team in Training Capt's put pictures of our honoree's on posters and posted them all along the uphill trails, so as we are painfully conquering Hell Hill and thinking "OMG I don't know if I can do this, oh my legs,my hips, my butt hurts" just whining a long and than I would look and see one of the posters, WOW now I remember why I am doing this, yes it is hard but it is so worth it. It sure made it much easier for me to finish after seeing the posters, what a awesome idea.
We finally made it to the top and stopped to fuel up and stretch a bit and than turn around and head back down to the finish, we did the same trail back down. When we got down to the streets again I knew we were so close to the end and got my second wind and just picked it up and raced back to the end. Ahh and there at the end the coaches and runners were there cheering us in, what a great way to bring it home!!
As I was driving home I kept thnking that I was beat but really not as sore as I had been before after finishing 10 miles, but kept thinking that it will hit me later or tomorrow I'm sure.. It hit me the next day and for about a week I was a little sore and my feet were swollen like a footballs.

Wharf to Wharf ----- Jacob's Birthday

Today is my son's 14th Birthday---Happy Birthday Jacob----
and it is also The Wharf to Wharf Race, which I have entered.
I am so glad that Jacob is being such a trooper about this, I mean what 14 year old do you know that wants to spend his birthday at his ol mom's racing event. But we will make it up to him after the race.

Opps I did it again, but this time I was official, first time I have done W2W with a official bib #.
The race started at 8:30 and I was really excited, I knew the gun was going to go any minute now to start the race and I still jumped, and than we were off. It was so hard getting going because there were thousands of people running in the race and everyone wants to beat the next person. I have to say that most people were really nice in the race, but there were a few people that just shoved me out of the way a couple times.
All along the way people are cheering you on and there are all kinds of bands and singing groups, dancers, and you name it they did had all kinds of entertainment, it was awesome. I really love the route that we do, all along you have a great view of the ocean, what more could I ask for? I had to make one stop during the whole race, one of the runners accidentely stepped on the back of my shoe just as I was about to step forward, causing my shoe to fall off my foot and go flying up the street. That was my first and only pit stop to put the tread back on my foot. All and All the race went really well and I felt totally great through the whole thing. although I really can't believe that at the end of the race they expect you to trudge all the way down the beach, through the sand, to collect you race package and shirt, right after you just finished the race, I mean really people get real ;-)
The race was 6 miles and it really was a pretty good race, I think I will make it a yearly event for me.
I started at 8:30 and came through the finish line at exactly 10:00, that is 30 minutes faster than last year, I'm stoked!!!

Friday Bocci's Cellar 7-24-09

Today we started in front of Bocci's cellar in Santa Cruz.
I was not able to run with the pack that evening so I decided to do a hike through Fall Creek.
I again grabbed my friend Susan and we headed up to Fall Creek to do a nice little 2.5 mile trail.
We decided to walk up to the kilns, which is a nice slow incline uphill. It really is not a brutal uphill hike so it is one of my favorite trails to do, it keeps your heart pumping and gives you a nice slow workout. So we got to the kilns and although we had done this trail a few times before, I never really got a chance to look around the kilns, so I decided I wanted to explore. So Susan and I are exploring the kilns and she see's a different trail off to the left that looked like a trail we had never been on, and looked to be a nice trail, so what do we do?...hmmm we decide to try this new trail going up and up and up and still more up it went, until we wound ourselfs all the way to the top of the flippin hill. Now that was a little more than I anticipated and not what we planned. So now here we are at the top of this hill on a paved road, so we decide we are going to walk down the road back to the entrace of the park where we parked my car. It turned out to be a very bad Idea for a few reasons, the first and most important reason was this read happened to have no sidewalks and kind of a steep hill going down, and very narrow, and all the cars coming down the road were flying way over the speed limit and we pretty much had nowhere to move to, seeing as there was nowhere to go, except over the edge of the hill. We decided are best bet would be to run fast down the hill and hope to god we don't plowed over by a speed demon coming down the hill.
Well I am writing this so you probably figured it out, we made it back to my car and agreed we would never do that trail ever again.
I'm not really to sure how far we went, but I'm guessing it was well over 3 miles.

Wharf to Barf starts today 7/23/09

Today is the first day of Wharf to Barf and it is also the Birthday of a good friend(Paul)
Happy birthday Paul! ;-)
I belong to another running group called the Surf City Hash House Harriers, and every year we do a event called Wharf to Barf. This event is always the same weekend of Wharf to Wharf, and it is a 4 day running event that Starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday.
Thursday we started at the County offices off of Emiline, and did a nice trek around Santa Cruz, along the city streets and ending at the Medical offices on Water. The total trail was around 3 miles with not to much uphill :-)
A perfect start for my 4 day adventure.
Thanx PG and Cl.

Tues track practice 7-21-09 sprint and recovery

Today we are working on sprinting and recovering.
This is one of the toughest for me because I am not a very fast walker, Robin I know if you are reading this you probably don't agree with me because you always say I walk fast, and you have to jog to keep up with me. But really I suck at speed and I have to say at first my speed really bothered me! I would see all these other girls just flash around the track and here comes Michelle doing turbo turtle. So I had this thing about going faster and getting a better time, or being very unrealistic about my goal time. That reality has come and gone and I think Coach Terri and Haley will be very happy to hear that.
So now we will work on how to keep up a fast steady pace, and recovery after, I love the recovery ;-).
We did 4 laps regular speed (medium)than coach had us do 2 minute sprint and 8 minute recovery. Ok so picture the School track and we would sprint down the straight part and recover going around the round part, we did that for a few laps, than it was, do a lap of sprinting and one of recovering, that was for another few laps, ending with a recovery lap. Workout today went very well, and I feel like every time we meet for track I get some really great advise from my coaches!

Natural Bridges Westt Cliff Dr.

7:15 Saturday Morning.
We all met a few blocks from Natural Bridges, and this morning I will be doing 10 miles.
I especially enjoyed the first part of the walk because we are all refreshed and ready to go, and mostly we are not so tired to enjoy the great view of the ocean for the first 3 miles or so.
We made to mile 5 and I felt pretty good, we than had a very little uphill to do and than back to the flat streets. I prefer the trails through the woods or the scenic beach verses the boring city streets. It seems to go by so slowly when you are on the boring streets and it is a pretty hot day to boot, seems like it took so much longer to walk the long straight away up Bay st. Wow and thats when I felt it. My body started to ache and out of no where I felt all my energy drain out of me, I was so glad that my walking buddy for the day (Sandie) was one of the teams mentors, so she suggested I take one of the packets of Goo. All I know is that within 5-10 minutes I felt way better and got a huge charge of energy, all better bring it on.
We turned around at that point and headed back to West Cliff Dr. Yea back to the beach. I felt pretty good most of the way back until about mile 9, thats when my body was screaming at me ( hey you what are you doing to me? here, you feel this? no, ok how about this!) ok ok I hear you but I still have just one more mile to go and than I will stop. We came up to the entrance of Natural Bridges and thats when I got my last gust of energy and gave it all I had to just finish, I was just so excited to know the the end was so near. I ended up coming in with Erin and the rest of the team was there waiting for us, it felt great hearing them cheering us on as we finished.
That was the day when I learned that time is not always the most important, finishing is.
Thanx to Coach Terri I learned a hard lesson that day.

Tues track practice Hills 7-14-09

We started again today with laps, we did 4 and than some sprinting and recovery, about another 4 doing that. Coach than had us doing ladders which is a hill that she wants us to do in segments. So coach gives a few different turn around points and we head up the hill to the first point and turn around and come back down, than she we go up to the second point passing the first point and turn around and come back down. It really is like doing steps on a latter, you walk up to the first step than back down than to step 2 and down, and you keep doing that until you get to the top.Coach had us doing this at Blue Ball Park and boy let me tell you it was a huge steep hill.
We finished the ladder than sprinted to the fence and back and called it a night. Well of course after we stretched and did are ground exercises, than we really called it a night.
I really felt it in my butt and my calves, and boy ice was my best friend for a few days.

Saturday Henry Cowell The Bench

Today is a Buddy training on your own so I decided to grab my Friend Susan again and head out to Henry Cowell Park.
We have this short little hike uphill to the bench that we really enjoy doing (not) We mostly do it to get a good cardio workout and to try to get back in to shape.
This particular hike is pretty brutal, it has a steady incline that really kicks your butt, and than you get to the hill and thats always so much fun to walk up.
The best part of the hill is when you get to the top there is a bench with a view that is awesome. You can see all the way to the Boardwalk and on a really clear quit day you can actually hear people on the rides screaming. So Susan and I made it to the bench, got a few sips of water and a little fuel for the body and headed back down. I think the total hike is a little over 7 miles.
I felt a little sore after but all and all it was all good.

Tues track practice 7-7-09 (stairs)

Today we started off doing laps, and it was one of those days when I felt like they were lucky I was there. Coach had us do 4 laps and than wanted us to sprint a certain distance than recover , and alternate the sprinting and recover for another 4 laps. Next she had us start practicing on stairs and small uphills. We are learning the technique of how to walk uphill and keep the same steady pace and also how to walk downhill and not get injured. I was very gratefull to learn the downhill technique as I always have a lot of pain in my knees after I have done a downhill hike. We practiced the rest of the hour with the stairs and hills, up and down, it was a great workout and seemed to go by pretty quickly.
Not to bad ;-)

Firecracker Race

4th of July
Saturday we alternate, one Sat. with the team and coaches and the next is buddy training or you train on your own.
I decided to enter the 4th of July Firecracker 10k Race in Santa Cruz with my Friend Susan.
This was very exciting for me because it was my first official 10k race, however I had no idea what I was getting my self in to.
The Race started at Harvey West Park and looped around the park and led us down River street, than turning onto a side street that led us up in to Pogonip area. This started the incline uphill which steadily increased to a steeper incline, for what seemed like forever. As we are making are way up the hill (at this point I was thinking we were doing the thrill of the Hill, WRONGO) they had these really great motivational signs posted saying, "Are you Ready to Embrass the Challenge Of the Hill", and I'm pretty sure one also said, "Are you Ready To Meet Your Maker. So we Finally get to the Water Stop and the Nice lady that hands us water informs us that the best it yet to come oh, and she also says in her cute little english accent, " It is rather tricky, that hill it is", I'm thinking bring it on. Well It definatley was a Thrill alright, it turned out to be one of the steepest hills I have done. By the time I finished the Ginormous Hill my legs were pretty shacky, and at this point we still were no where near finished.
The view was great at the top of the hill and the trail was awesome, I was really happy that we were in the woods shaded by trees and done with the Thrill of the hill.
We passed through the woodsy area pretty quickly and this let us back on to the streets, and looping around the urban area. On every block of the streets we had people rooting us on and giving us water, it really was nice to see so many nice people out there that really cared.
Now we got to the down hill part and we started to go a lot faster especially knowing that the finish was very close YEA.
Susan and I must of got a second wind so we decided to start jogging, this really didn't feel to bad so we kept it up and came in jogging.
It felt so great completing my first 10k race, It really made my day to see my good friend Emilee waiting for me to finish at the finish line..
I have to say that it sure seemed alot easier having my friend with me, it really went by faster just having her there.. Thanx Susan

Tues track practice

Today we met at Soquel High School Track, and if you haven't noticed yet, every
Tues we meet at the same track with the coaches. Today we mostly focused on are walk technique.
We did some lunges( I know I'm going to feel the lunges for the next few days) lunge hold, lunge hold, lunge hold, that was fun. The coaches have us doing some sprinting and recovery time and a lot of exercises to help with the walking technique. There are two that are especially fun to do, one is the girlie walk and that is where we are walking kind of like Charlie Chaplin with our hand in front of us swaying them back and forth, I know I look too funny. And the other is with are arms in straight out in front palms facing up in a cup position, looks like we are walking holding an egg, that is where we all are cracking up, and so is everyone in the bleachers that is watching us.
At the end of every workout the coaches will have us do stretches along with some leg, arm and stomach exercises.
It's all about the walking technique and stretches this week....
Practice, practice and more practice.

Saturday 6/27/09 8 miles

Training started @ 730 am at Dominican Hospital, we started in back of the Hospital and followed a chalk marked route down Soquel turning by Harbour High School, making are way up to DeLaveaga Park, and let me tell you it was UP!

The uphill was a lot more than I ever expected and there were times when I thought what the heck am I doing, this is crazy!! there is now way I'm going to make it up there. but I just kept treaking a long and kept thinking that I can do this, no sweat.... ha ha ha and boy was I sweating.

The uphill finally came to an end and we started back down and that eventually came to the paved streets and headed back towards the start, I kept telling myself, Almost there, it's just around the bend.

I was really lucky to be walking with one of my coaches Haley, who is soooo Awsome. She really helped me to keep up the pace and than some. She would make me pick a focal point way a head of us and then we would sprint to that point, we did this all along the trail on our way back and before I knew it we were sprinting back to the start and I Finished !!!
My time for the day was a little over 2 hours.
I felt pretty good right after i finished, it was probably the addrenalin still kicking in.
That all changed when I drove home and it hit me like a ton of bricks!! Felt like a Mack truck hit me and I could barely keep my eyes open, Nappy time for me. I was pretty useless for the rest of the day and pretty crabby. But come Sunday I felt more human, I have to tell you I had some pretty achy muscles though but not still feel lively and ready for more!!!!
So ready for Tuesdays uphill training. GO TEAM

Tues. Track Training 6/23/09 Back from Camping.

I know I haven't made a entry in a while but we had a family camping trip planned. So we packed up and headed out to Kern River for some much needed rest and relaxation and some river rafting, let me clarify that for you I didnt do any rafting just relaxing ;-) relax ;-)
Came Back on Monday evening and back right back to training at the track Tues. Right off the bat coach Terry has us start doing laps. So she has us doing the straight part of the track sprinting and the round parts just Race walking, oh she had us do about a dozen of those or so, seemed like but honestly we did maybe 2 miles. She than had us doing lunge exercises and a variety of others, than we finished off with some more racewalking laps. I felt pretty good after we were done and I have to tell u it was a great workout!!
So a couple days have passed before I made this entry and you know I was not sure if I would be able to get the energy up to make this entry or ever walk again!! Those lunges killed me and I think the other exercises may have caused some of the pain I am experiencing. Getting up and down from any kind of sitting position is very difficult and causes some pain and the toilet at this point is my enemy to try to get up and down from. I am feeling every muscle these days and walking pretty funny looking so much so that, when I was leaving the grocery store a bagger came running up to me asked me if I was ok and just started pushing my grocery cart for me ;-O
It turned out to be the start of a great conversation and maybe a great lead to a donation woo hoo.
Can't wait till Sat Training...Bring it on

6/16/09

Today Training turned out to be really fun and A LOT of hard work.
I have never racewalked before, so learning all these new techniques is very challenging.
I felt like a cross between a salsa dancer moving my hips and a clown with big feet trying to walk like a duck. So many things to remember to do, Coach Terry telling me " Michelle take shorter steps"," swing those hips more", "make sure your heel comes down first"," lift those toes up Higher"," relax your shoulders", um how do you relax while walking like this? You just keep on practicing!!!!
Our fantastic Coaches had us do several laps back and forth, all of which were different drills to help you perfect your race walking skills. We did a good hour and a half workout and finished up with some really good stretches.
Still can't wait for the nest training on Sat.

6/13/09

We all met at Henry Cowell Park.
The weather was a moderate drizzle. I loved it!!
The Schedule for today is 4 miles.
We set right out and followed the marked trail through the park. We pretty much all stuck together and kept up a steady pace through the beautiful park. I have to say it is a really great park to run or walk through, it has the best views and it makes the workout a lot easier!! I think that's what got us through the brutal uphill ;-)
I finished my 4 miles @ 9:15am and I was home about 10:00.
All in All it was a great workout.
Can't wait till Tuesday Training

6/09/09

The Coaches started us with some new stretching and walking techniques,( and I thought how hard can walking be, just put one foot in front of the other and away we go WRONG!) a few laps around the park with my new walking technique, how hard is that? ha ha ha. We did some fast paced than slowed down then back again to faced paced and back again to slow down ( make up your minds already I'm thinking). We continued for a few more laps using the new race walking technique. The coaches are so awesome!! they really keep you motivated and moving, and just when you think "ok I'm done now" they're right there motivating you with just the right words to keep you going. I stayed with it although about half way through the 2nd to the last round my shins were screaming at me and I almost gave in and listened to them, but i didn't and kept on going.
I'm way to stubborn and no way was I going to give up...NEVER.
Bring it on. Still can't wait till Sat. we will do 4 miles.

The in between 6/08/09

Well as instructed I took Sunday off, but come Monday I jumped right back into schedule and walked started doing a mild 1 mile and worked my way up to a fast pace, total 3 miles. I really felt it more this time and was a little sore after. I think just walking around in a circle on the High school track seems a lot harder and longer.
Still can't wait for training with my coaches tomorrow...GO TEAM

June 6th 1st day of Official training

Training started @ 7:15 bright and Early Sat. ..I was so excited and ready to go!! We met up @ Soquel High with all the Santa Cruz Team N Training runners and race walkers, Wow there were a lot of members, that was so great to see! It looks like we have a more runners than race walkers, but, I was impressed to see so many people involved.
We met with are 2 awesome race walking coaches. They started off with basic stretches that led to some stretches I have never used before. We slowly started doing laps around the track (not so bad) than they started teaching us a whole new way of walking. It involved arm muscles, hip muscles, shin muscles ouch!! and I think I have a whole new muscle in my heel I never knew about. Walking has become a whole new adventure for me, I love it and yep I can feel it!! We started off mellow and started to progress in speed and worked are way up to 3 miles. The last mile they timed us and I came in at 16 minutes, not to bad for the 1st day.
I can't wait till my next training which is Tuesday.