Bandito

15.7 miles in 2:05

I met Sarah for a long run this morning that happened to coincide with the course of the Oakland Half Marathon. My stiff back put me on notice early in the run, but began to feel better with the activity, as I tried to stick with my mission of pacing 7:55 miles for Sarah, who is three weeks out from Boston.

I really enjoyed the marathon/half marathon course, which I had planned to run legitimately before January got in the way. It was a tour of many lovely and not-so-lovely parts of the Town, highlighted for me (who am I kidding - for everybody!) by running through a flaming arch set up for the occasion in front of The Crucible. Crowd support was great, and people seemed stoked to be running Oakland.

I bailed a little early, at mile 8 of the course and mile 12 or so of my run, to head home for a bit more Silas birthday celebration: the bestowing of his first bicycle. It's a 12" Specialized that I bought from Cycles of Change, a local nonprofit. I removed the pedals and lowered the seat so that Si can "scoot" on it. Not surprisingly to me, he cried when he first saw it, but calmed down a bit after I explained to him that when I was his age, I didn't know how to ride a bike either. He then declared that, even though he didn't like it, he wanted to practice. And, within 30 minutes: "I love my bike!"

Lazy Sunday

7.3 miles in 1:01

Ran a short Marin loop (I'm sure its mapped somewhere) listening to an old This American Life ("Somewhere Out There") that made me laugh, made me cry. Came home and made yeast-risen waffles before pruning the blackberry bush. The waffles were pretty good, but will be better with blackberry compote this summer.

Long and hilly

Saturday am, 17 miles? in 2:31

Another long run with Sarah this morning, joined for the first time by Asa. Sarah's following Jack Daniel's plan for her Boston training, which meant that today would be something like a 2 mile warmup, 2x10 minutes of tempo pace, 80 minutes easy, 15 minutes of tempo pace, and a 2 mile cooldown. We didn't exactly stick to the plan, but got most of the main elements with the added bonus of staying on the Strawberry Canyon and Tilden Park trails. That meant a lot of hills, a lot of roots and rocks, and some good conversation. I also saw some great parts of Tilden that I hadn't run through before.

Altitude Training

Sunday, 5+ miles, untimed

We were in Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. I was headed to the treadmill for my only run of the trip when I realized that *melting* snow on the ground meant that I could run outside. I took a meandering route across the state line, behind the casinos, and found a great trail through a frozen marsh down to the lake. I found myself alone on the beach, with the ripple of the water and the birds the only sounds around. I paused for a few minutes to enjoy it, then ran back on the beach.

Sunday, 16.7 miles in 2:26

Okay, I'm clearly not running a marathon this month, bu my third run of the week was a good one. I joined my friend Sarah for a long run prescribed by Dr. Jack Daniels. The drill was a 2 mile warmup, then 4x5 minutes at tempo pace, an hour easy, 15 minutes at tempo pace, and a 2 mile cool down. We took the Bay Trail south towards the Emeryville marina, which I had never done. Sarah and I often carpool to runs or track workouts but seldom actually run together, so it was nice to have a partner for a 2+ hour run for a change. Finally, I came home to fresh blueberry muffins by Christine and Silas, and I made some fried eggs with Balsamic reduction to complete the breakfast of champions.

Hopefully I'll get two runs in this week, but then it's off to the mountains for a few days skiing.