Road to 50k Week 9 - What The Hill?

Hey hey. Two Months out from Lake Hodges 50k. So Week 9 of this insane thing I decided to set my sights on, to earn the Ultra Runner title.
This week started off great. I performed the National Anthem for AFC Half Marathon & ran the race as well. I never thought I would see the day when a Half Marathon would serve as one of my training runs. I did have a moment where I cramped and had to walk a couple of miles, but upon getting to the final hill, I got a second wind in me. It was a great feeling seeing my NPSD people at the bottom of that hill, ready to cheer me on and run up the final hill with me.
Monday at NP, we met at Birch Aquarium doing Hill Repeats and ended with a group workout and run as a team, because fish travel in schools & we were in Back to School Month. But it helped reiterate the tribe mentality within November Project, that we are all part of tribe - all here for each other.

I also tried Animal Flow for the first time at Movement Space SD, in their Flow State class. It's a great workout incorporating quadrupedal & multi-planar ground based movements. One of the funnest workouts I've done and I am looking forward to doing it more often.

I ended up skipping Fit Expo Anaheim this year, which I had planned to attend on Saturday but it turned out to be perfect. I attended the SDAFFL Laces & Lashes Charity Event with my buddy Grant, which ended up being more fun than the Fit Expo could have been. The event is one of the biggest nights in SDAFFL season & is a jocks in drag performance which is just the funnest and most entertaining night of the year.

And by the way, if you haven't seen Crazy Rich Asians - go watch it. It's a great movie. You'll love it.

Hills Hills Hills - between AFC Half Marathon, Hill Repeats at Birch Aquarium with NP on Monday, Hill Repeats at NP on Wednesday and Stairs on Friday, I'd say I had one hill of a week. See what I did there?
We are now two months out from the 50k AND 2 & 1/2 weeks from North Face Endurance Wisconsin - where I'll be running the Marathon Relay through Kettle Moraine outside of Milwaukee during NP Summit week. What is November Project Summit? Read all about it. I'll make sure to break it down in a few weeks from my perspective, after my experience.

Final Hill Stretch of AFC Half Marathon with Navid

Flow State (Animal Flow) at The Movement Space, SD

November Project at Birch Aquarium - Schools of Fish

Road to 50k Week 8 - Friends For The Journey

This week I'm on Week 8. Alright, two months in and my weekly miles are 4 times what they were before I started training. Yes, you read that right. QUADRUPLED MY WEEKLY MILES. Due to my training, I have had to miss some outings with friends and group events. Luckily, I'm blessed with the best friends ever who understand my need to have to do this and support my journey towards becoming an UltraRunner.
I was very happy this week to be surrounded by so many friends. I kicked off my Sunday with a group of my November Project buddies hiking South Fortuna cos selfies, duh. Those stairs still kill me. Monday was my long run and it was all kinds of all over the place. The heat made me stop and rest at the beach a bit before continuing on. I arrived in Oceanside only to find out I missed the coaster and had to wait another hour and a half. Rather than sit and wallow, I ran another 1.7 miles around Oceanside Transit Center. And after that I had theee best Yoga class at The Movement Space SD. Legs up the wall never felt better.
Wednesday, November Project SD had a pretty awesome workout that had us running through the jungle and incorporating the Avengers into our workout. Here's a tip, if you ever need to do a 3 legged race, coordinate outside - inside before you start running. We almost face planted a few times before figuring it out. It was a great workout still and I got to meet Benny, a traverbaler from November Project New Orleans and join in on the NPNOLA 31 Burpee Challenge for August.
Luckily, the weather has chilled out in San Diego so I was able to do Mt Soledad later in the day on Thursday. And FRIDAY was a blast. Joalby was back at DTF (DownTown Fridays Stair Group) at the San Diego Convention Center with an epic circuit workout led by Jo. Between South Fortuna, NP and DTF, I was surrounded by so many friends this week.
Wrapped up with a run on the boardwalk to get a shakeout run in prior to Sunday's AFC Half Marathon. I'm ready!!!

Two of my best friends are leaving this week for a month, Blaise to Antarctica and Tim on a military training thing. I'm glad I got to hang out with both of them before they left. And my girl Dev who did her first NPC Competition this week was welcomed back on Friday with a night of drinks, food and all the fun stuff she couldn't indulge in during her training.

And another huge thank you to Jared Campbell,DC at Fix Body Group for this week's Chiro Appointment. That shockwave therapy and active release was painful in every sense of that good hurt kinda way. Hurt me if it means I'm gonna be better for it.

DTF Stairs DownTown Fridays (photo by Alex Pardus)

Never Stop Exploring - South Fortuna Group

Road to 50k Week 7 - We Were On TV (I'm Kind Of A Medium Deal)

We have now wrapped up on Week 7 of 50k Preparation Training.
After last week being sick and unable to do my programming, it felt great to be back and ready to work. Oh how good it feels to be back at it.
I kicked off my week with Yoga for Athletes at The Movement Space SD. Caring and allowing your body to heal and doing things to help rehabilitate it after what you ask of it during these weeks and months leading up to training has become as much a part of this process as the actual running and cross training.
Monday, I kicked off a Two In One Run Day, starting with a 17 Mile Run from Torrey Pines to Rancho Penasquitos and back along the SR-56 Bike Path. Then after a long and well deserved day off nap, I ended my evening with my friends at Lululemon Run Club in La Jolla doing a 5k and getting lost through the streets of La Jolla. Mind you, I've been going to this run club for months already and the route has not changed.
After 3 Weeks away from my November Project tribe due to illness, traveling to NP Oakland and my running schedule it felt wonderful to be there this week while we were featured on Fox5 Morning News in a segment by Heather Lake, for our focus to Free Fitness, scaleable to all fitness levels.
Click HERE to see the segment as it aired Wednesday, August 8th on Fox5 News. I'm kind of a big ahem medium deal.
With the mix this week of Recovery Runs, Run Strong Endurance and a Coastal 5k - I had my work cut out for me when I ended up having to do my hills and trails on Friday. I was assigned Tecolote Canyon and ended up doing 3.5 miles in the recent San Diego heat. By the way, I have to give it up to my boy Tim who came through in a big way. I reached out to see if anyone had a Camelbak or Hydration pack I could borrow a few weeks for my long runs & he went one further gifting me a new Camelbak 2liter capacity which pretty much saved me this week, with the heat causing my water intake to almost triple.

This week, I skipped Monday night Yoga, which I usually try to coincide with my Long Run Days; however, since I decided on doing Lululemon Run Club I didn't get to benefit from that post Long Run recovery and stretch. Due to that I took on a Stretch Therapy Session on Friday evening at Fix Body Group on Pacific Hiway. Best decision ever. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, maybe I just really needed a good stretch but damn was that not exactly what I needed.
Are you feeling that? You can go further
How about now? You can go further
Tell me when you start feeling it - You can go further
I slept better than I had in a looooong time, so thank you to Jared Campbell, D.C. at Fix Body Group Pacific Hiway.

Ended Week 7 with an awesome dropin at Crossfit Humanity for their Free Saturday Class. Finally got to meet Coach Huddie who I follow on IG and take a class with him. The class was programmed great focusing on a Team of Three Endurance Approach which had me sweating like crazy to the point my shirt was probably three shades darker.

It's great to be back on track. And with deciding to sign up to run AFC Half Marathon on August 19th, it's only gonna get better - but more on that next week. For now back to being Not That Impressive. However, the reason I chose this undertaking so that I can possibly help to motivate any heavyset kid or adult out there scared to take on a big goal. I might not have the "ideal" runners body, but come October 27th, I'll have something many of the "ideal" runner bodies don't. I'll have the title of Ultra Runner.

Yoga for Athletes at The Movement Space SD

November Project San Diego - Fox5 News

Road to 50k Week 6 - Everything Breaks Sometimes

We're 6 weeks in baby. I was hoping for this to be a great week and life just decided otherwise, as life sometimes tends to do. Monday, I was set to run 18 miles and after waking up feeling under the weather, I chose to instead not do my Long Run 18 Miles on Monday. Tuesday came around and I still was in pain unable to get around. On Wednesday, I decided to skip November Project and instead to break up my run over Wednesday & Thursday to ensure I get my miles in.
I woke up on Wednesday & ran 9.5miles before going into work. Halfway into my shift I knew I had made a mistake. I was still not well. Come to find out I was overheating and really dehydrated. I was experiencing nausea, vomiting and unable to keep down food. I mean on Monday all I had to eat was a cup of oatmeal that I had to break down over 3 meals because I couldn't keep my food down.
On Thursday I was sent home from work 4 hours into my shift & was asked to only work half of my shift on Friday. I hated not being able to push myself but I just didn't have the strength at all. I was falling asleep at work, weak and dizzy walking downstairs. Again, shit happens. I don't intend to have this happen again.
Saturday, I finally began to feel better and I ran the Balboa Park 8 Miler and led a group on my fellow NP Tribe from San Diego, DC and Denver in a bounce using the music of Cardi B... "These expensive. These is broken in. These is running shoes."
Starting with Brogan, Goldie, Lauren, Angelo from NPSD and Rachel from NP Denver for probably 4 seconds before they broke free and went fast as fuck, while I just worked to just finish and prove I was ok after the previous week of not being able to do anything.

To wrap up my Saturday, I did dinner with some of my best friends. As I was in Oakland last week during my best friend Tim's birthday, I made us Lobster Mac n Cheese with Habanero Cheddar & Jalapeno Creamy Gouda for Tim, Jess, Nathan and Alex. Some of my favourite people around celebrating one of my favourite person's birthday with games and dinner and best of times. I swear Secret Hitler is my favourite game ever.

Next week, I'm back at 100%. I have a lot to prove with this 50k and I'm not one to be satisfied NOT doing what I set out to do.

Balboa Park 8 Miler. Dig this picture... I'm have to buy it and frame it