Diablo 50K

I had never enjoyed a marathon when I decided I wanted to do Diablo 50K. I figured training for a trail run and the event itself would be better. 17 weeks of training paid off in a wonderful day.

I ran for more than nine hours, over 31 miles and a climb that made me feel like Vegeta because it was "over 9000!". But the best part was having friends there. I had friends both there at the finish and running with me. There were times when I was full of steely determination thinking failure was not an option, there were times when I broke down in tears feeling I couldn't possibly continue. But mostly I felt so happy and prepared and good.

I paced very conservatively, keeping my heart rate to around 145 even though I felt like I had a lot more energy. Didn't have 90+ degree heat, although it did get hot enough to slow me down for a while. I paid close attention to food, eating nearly 350 calories every hour. I managed hydration and salt intake well. The descent took the same time both times, but getting up the hill took an extra hour the second time around. First loop took 4:10, Second loop took 5:10.
For several hours my training buddy Enrique ran next me. It's strange knowing someone is the exact same pace as you.. to the minute out of hours and hours. Every single time I got ahead of him he would catch me after a few hours, and vice versa. It was pretty clear that if I was going faster than him I was probably working too hard and the reverse was true as well. Toward the end of the race I just decided to use that knowledge and we just went the same pace.

It was a wonderful adventure. I'm looking forward to doing my second 50K at North Face.

Silly Link

hehe http://www.noob.us/humor/toddler-fails-at-hula-hoop/

If running long is wrong, I don't want to be right

I love the feeling I have after a run. I feel as if I can sit here comfortably all day and do nothing. Like everything is right in the world and there is no pressing reason for me to do anything. I feel like I've been challenged and rose to the occasion.

There were some amazing views from the top of the mountain. I saw San Francisco completely blanketed by fog with only the Sutro Towers poking out. I saw trees and flowers, lizards and birds. I felt the hot sun beating down on me, and cold in the shade. I danced on the downhills avoiding rock outcrops and low hanging branches. I felt the tightness in my legs as I got dehydrated, the soreness of my toes from running the rocky trail, the burn of hard effort as the trail tipped upward, and the refreshment as I stopped at a water fountain and drank deeply. Now I mostly just feel relaxed.

Some people think I'm crazy because of the goals I have, the workouts I do, but I just love the feeling that comes when I finish a run.

EFA Race Report 6/14/2009

Video of the swim start:

http://vimeo.com/5157053

Pics of me at the race:

http://jay.ligda.net/photos/0906C_EFA/med_DSC_0182.JPG
http://jay.ligda.net/photos/0906C_EFA/med_DSC_0600.JPG
http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?54378938

The short story:
I did the swim in 57 minutes. I figure the wetsuit would have been 7-13 minutes faster, based on how I usually place for tri swims. I regained normal warmth after about 30 minutes on the bike. Nothing was numb although I did feel pinpricks in my feet. I finished the entire race.

The long story:
I wanted to do the EFA swim w/o wetsuit as a personal achievement thing. A few short years ago I couldn't swim. my first triathlon I managed to flail for 200 meters and had to had to ask for help after realizing just how hard another 200 meters would be.

My first race w/o wetsuit was last year..Big Kahuna. I brought a wetsuit but the zipper stuck so I threw it in the trash and did it without. I've been swimming off and on in AP for years sometimes with and sometime without wetsuit... but my swims are usually pretty short maybe two buoy lines or a perimeter loop.

Last year I wanted to do EFA without wetsuit but I hadn't really been in enough right before the race to be sure about handling the temps. Last year I did an ironman, but after that I took most of a year off from exercise completely. A few months ago I started getting back in shape and it's been a hard process. My goal has been 3hrs in the water per week. Four weeks ago I found out I might get an Alcatraz slot, and three weeks ago I started getting in AP trying for 3-4 times a week. I started with one buoy line, then two, then two again then three a couple times then four then, perimeter + buoy line where I kinda leveled off. Sometimes I would get out cold enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to bike. Starting last weekend I felt warmer than ever getting out.. The warmer water and sun made it much easier.

The actually swim probably wasn't much tougher than 4 buoy lines.. mainly because I didn't have to fight current. I was lucky to have a warm and sunny day, and I wasn't really affected by the chop. I got kicked hard in the face once, but the advantage of the aqua-sphere goggles is that you can "take a punch". 50% of the time I aimed at sutro tower and 50% I was aiming at 11'o clock from the tower. The variation was due to trying to avoid another kick to the face. I was very scared of missing the beach, but I came near the second yellow bouy and shortly turned to swim parallel to the beach.

Transitioning to the bike I was slow. I saw people run in after me and leave before me, but I wanted to get warm gear on. I had arm warmers, tights, booties, glove, and a helmet liner. I put the gloves in a pocket, put on the armwarmers and helmet liner but skipped the booties and tights. I was not cold so didn't need nearly as much as I prepared, but was afraid my core temp might continue to drop for a while and I would get cold later.

Riding at the back of the pack I passed many people. I wasn't really going fast.. It's just my swim had taken longer so I was around slower riders. I was strong on the hills but made sure to mostly even pace it. The run sucked. It featured a lot of walking as my legs hurt so much. I hadn't done enough prep work and I knew it. I was dehydrated also. Eventually I got my water right and could run at normal speed, but there real time loss for me was more on the run than the swim.

I finished strong and I'm feeling good today.(although slightly sunburnt)

Commute 5/28/09

I couldn't get out of bed till the last minute. I finally got ready and started off on my bike then I realized I had parked in the wrong spot and would be ticketed unless I moved my car. Went back home got keys moved the car, then went to Ritual Roasters for coffee and called you guys since there was no way I could get over there anytime soon. I started the bayway with one other guy at 6:30. He had an important 9:30 meeting at Google so was in a bit of rush. He Immediately dropped on the first hill, Cortland st.. he was going twice as fast as I was up the hill. I rejoined, but he dropped me on the second hill and I could see how this was going to work.. not so much. When I caught up I told him to go ahead since I knew the route well and he couldn't be late. The rest of the ride I did as fast as I could. It took me 2:10 or so from Ritual Roasters to get to PDI. It was like the hardest ride ever, (not really, but you know).

There is a big difference between what my legs can handle now and what they could handle last year. I'm well on my way to coming back, but still have a very long way to go... Although I don't think I could have kept up with that guy even if I were in shape.

http://connect.garmin.com/player/6241428

Storm Day

I got in a great day of storm skiing at Alpine Meadows. I had planned on going to Squaw but the entire top of the mountain was closed there. I saw that Sherwood was open at Alpine so went there instead.

Set my alarm for 4:30. At 4:30 I really didn't want to get up and go skiing. I thought the storm might close the mountain wasting a day of driving. I thought it might be too dangerous to drive in the snow going up there. Whatever, I left my place around 5:30.

I made it to the lift around 10:30. I spent maybe 30 minutes at the grocery store and coffee place on the way up. I don't know how long it took to get clothes straight and walk to the lift. Much of the drive had been through the storm at 30 miles per hour. The car is actually great in snow like that, but I wish I had snow tires.

I rented Nordica Hellcat skis for most of the day. I liked them a lot but they are a lot of work! Later in the day I rented Nordica Enforcer's and they were so much less work it was unbelievable. I couldn't see bumps in the low light of the storm but the Enforcers just floated over the bumps either feeling great or dropping me down a making me do a little grunt to recover from the shock delivered from the bump. I was exhaused after the Enforcers so I asked for something really easy. I got the Solomen XWings. Woah these were insanely easy to drive. All of a sudden it felt like I could turn on a dime and the bumps were not shocking me anymore. Probably these skis are too easy for me, but I've got to admit I liked them.

Itunes Playlists

I've been playing around with itunes... way too much. One of the cool features they have are "smart playlists". Smart playlists let you create a list of songs dynamically based on things like when it was last played, or what type of song it is etc... Here are some of the settings I'm using to make smart playlists:

• High Playcount
  1. Last Skipped is not in the last 180 days
  2. Last Played is not in the last last 30 days
  3. Rating is 1
     
  4. Play Count is greater than 4
  5. Randomly select 250 MB
     
• High Rating
  1. Rating greater than 1 star
  2. Last Played is not in the last 30 days
  3. Last Skipped in not in the last 60 days
  4. playlist is not "High Playcount"
  5. Randomly Select 250 MB
     
• Random
  1. Bit Rate is greater than 130kpbs
  2. Skip Count is 0
  3. Last Played is not in the last 90 days
  4. Unrated
  5. Randomly select 600 MB
     
• Recently Added / Unplayed
  1. Artist/Album not blank
  2. Play Count & Skip Count are 0
  3. Bit Rate is greater than 127 kbs
  4. Podcast is false
  5. Kind does not contain video
  6. Rating is not 1 star
  7. Select 500 MB by most recently added
     
• Played but unrated
  
  1. Play Count is between 1 and 5
  2. Skip Count is less than 3
  3. LastPlayed is not in the last 30 days
  4. Last Skipped is not in the last 120 days
  5. Unrated
  6. Bit Rate is greater than 120kpbs
  7. Select 400MB randomly
     

I have around 250GB/55000 songs. It's enough to play straight for 260 hours. I like to explore it by using the "random" playlist. As you can see most of these playlists drop any music that isn't at least 130kps. This is the bottom limit because I find some audiobooks encoded to that rate and I'd like to exclude them. Also the lower the bit rate the worse the music sounds. I've found some songs that I dislike at a low bit rate but like at a higher one. If I'm exploring around there's a chance of getting a negative impression of an artist I've never heard before just because I heard them at a low bit rate.

If a song gets "skipped" it gets kicked out of most of these playlists for 30 days. That mostly works, but I may bump that up to several months.

For Ratings I mark songs I never want to hear again with 1 star. 2 or more stars and it gets picked up more frequently by my "High Rating playlist". One problem I have with the high rating playlist is that I haven't rated enough songs so it tend to have the same stuff all the time.