October 2008 Archives

So Marc's been packing up the booth for the past week and a half.  All the hardware should be at the NY marathon warehouse, big shipment of the clothing took off today and more will follow tomorrow.  The coordination is killing me.  I guess it's so much against my nature -- organized, scheduled, coordinated, on time -- all the things that I continually learn how to do better.  Anyways, this weekend I'll start getting MY bags packed. 

Can't wait to actually be in NYC.  This is my favorite expo so far on our circuit -- who know how it will ultimately compare to London or Rome?  But for the good ole USA, this marathon is such an intense bundle of energy, I can't wait to be a part of it.  Third time around I'm feeling more comfortable with the whole ordeal.  We are a little nervous about the economy, but doing our best to staying optimist.  I figure if we can maintain throughout this economic craze running divas can take us to far places.  And with all the divas coming over to NY from Europe, it's always so interesting just walking around the expo. 

One great addition this year will be meeting up w/ Team Running Divas New York.  This is the first women's running club we've sponsored, and no greater place than The City.  If we can arrange, I hope to get photos of the RDNY gals when they're visiting us at the booth!  More to follow on this one.

Then there's the city -- can't wait to walk around and feel like one-out-of-a-bazillion.  Little different than our morning walks in Los Osos, off-leash, on-trails where we're expecting to see the coyotes, owls and oh yeah, every now and then other humans w/ dogs. 

We'll be busy.  We arrive on Tuesday evening, and crash at our hotel.  Wednesday is set-up -- this is where we are stressing over all the boxes we shipped out east and hoping, praying that everything arrived.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday is endless expo hours.  I'm envisioning crowded aisles and lines coming from the diva booth!  Then Sunday -- race day -- we PLAN to sleep end, then walk over to Central Park to see the elite finishers on their final stretch (this is amazing to see how fast they are racing at the end of 26.2 miles -- they are tiny and mighty people.  Incredible strong mindset -- yes freakishly so.  We also talked about Greenwich Village, Soho or catching a play...  We'll see how much energy we have after the three day event!

We get back to SLO on Monday (Nov 3).  It's always so nice to see the doggies.  I have the hardest time leaving them when we go all these great places.  But not for long, on Tuesday I jump on Amtrak and head south for a conference in San Diego thru Thursday.  I'm looking forward to the train trip -- but not the time away from home.

It's always such a important thing to make sure I get my runs in while away from my everyday routine.  With this upcoming schedule I need to be realistic w/ what I can expect to accomplish as far as miles and cross training.  The focus really needs to be, maintaining consistent miles that provide some normality to this crazy schedule.

Oh yeah, then there's San Antonio the following week -- this time it's a shorter trip (than NYC), only Wed - Sunday!  Yeah.  Texas here we come, I'm all fired up.

Okay, enough stressing about the non-here and now.  I'm hungry.  Need to get dinner rolling, Marc should be home in 1/2 hour and it would be good to have warm food waiting for our bellies!  Just what I need to help me w/ tomorrow's morning workout.  Another great group is meeting up to get in a grass 200 workout.  Sounds fun, short and sweet. 

If you're around this weekend, hope I'll see you at the Octoberfest 4 mile run in downtown Baywood.  It's the best one of the year.  Roudy course (mile 3 is long), fun prizes, street faire all day, and oh yeah, great beer gardens!  See you there.  aero out.  

Got her in.  Not my prettist race ever, but it was a solid effort.  Finished 7th overall -- felt tired from the start and kept going.  The best parts of this race:  it was local, very tough course (all dirt, lots of hills) and I got together w/ Robin Root (now Schmidt I believe) a fellow alumni from the Cal Poly track team.  I was hoping to feel more energetic at this race, but w/ all the craziness of the Channel Islands expo/race, diva lounge opening and worksmirk trips out of the area -- what could I really expect. 

I have the hardest time keeping an honest perspective of where I'm at with my running.  I always expect top notch from my self, when ultimately I need to realize there are ups and downs -- it's not always your A game, going for the Oly Trials.  And when it's not at that level, I still need to be satisfied with stirring it up, toeing the line and getting burly w/ the other running divas.  Bottom line, I love to run and race regardless of where I finish in the race.  And to be 41, and finishing in the top 10 -- well in advance of many young divas racing in college -- I need to appreciate what I'm able to accomplish.

In looking over my running log for the past few months, I've been hitting 45 miles / week very consistently.  Can't seem to get to the 50 mile level, but at least know my body seems to be coming all together without any lingering aches and pains.  I believe I can hold on to this level all the way through this year, even with the trips to NY, San Diego and San Antonio that are set for the first two weeks in November.  I have a four mile road race here in Baywood next Sunday and then I'm hoping to pull of the PA XC Champion Race the week we return from San Antonio.  XC Nationals up in Spokane is still in the air -- by the time we get to December we may be extremely burnt out on the whole travel concept. 

It's good practice to race cross country.  The distance is the big challenge for me to mentally stay focused and compete strong all the way through the line.  Ultimately, if I can race strong for a 5 or 8k distance it will make the 1500 on the track that much more enjoyable.  This spring I hope to fit in more 800s than the year prior and see how far I can go throughout track season.

I have a normal week coming up and should be able to get lots of rest and hard workouts logged.  That always makes me feel good!  I should even be able to get more cross training under my belt -- especially deep water running.  The sit-ups and push-ups are becoming more routine, so w/ that, running steady, 3-4 dog hikes, one surf session and 2 deep water runs I should be very happy.

Okay, so now what about this weekend.  Time to get caught up around the house, hang out w/ the doggies and wash my car if I'm lucky.  I do have a social engagement this afternoon -- Jilly's baby shower -- so I'm looking forward to visiting with all the divas. Talk w/ you soon.  aero 

Wow, it's already Friday... nearly one week since the debut of the diva lounge!  What a great party.  Very successful turnout.  All the running divas who were in town showed up and hung out for a while!  Even some divas that I didn't know came over.  And my mom, Steve, aunt Marlene and Marc's brother Jeff also came down for the party. 

The lounge looks great.  All the color, furniture, clothing and artwork came together perfectly.  We love the space and can't wait to hold more shows throughout the year.  Once I get some of the photos from Aunt Marlene I'll be sure to upload to the website -- stay tuned.  

Just got back from Sacramento where I've been in a conference for the past two days.  Good conference on environmental emergency response planning.  During the communication/messaging training I definitely learned about some great web-based tools that will benefit both the air district and r.d. Making videos in particular -- one of our main thoughts w/ the lounge is to video tape conversations w/ divas throughout the years and gain a better sense of what inspires these ladies to be running divas. 

But in the meantime, I off to the office for a short Friday.  Then getting in a light easy shake out to prepare me for the Cal Poly Cross Country Invite on Saturday!  I've been so confused about this darn race (first I had the wrong date for the race) and now I'm not even sure of the race distance and start time.  All I know is it may be one of my only XC races this season based on the expo/work schedule planned out for November. So I better get busy -- get burly and mess it up w/ the divas in the dirt! 

Okay -- all for today.  Need to print out orders for Marco, info on Las Vegas marathon (can't decide if we'll be making that show...) and get to work. aero out.  

Things are coming together for our gathering this Saturday. The words out, folks have told me they'll be there, now it's the fun part -- pulling everything together. 

Marc and I have always enjoyed setting up shop -- This showroom will be more of an art installation than traditional retail outlet.  We're calling it the Diva Lounge art gallery -- w/ fashion too.  Can't wait to see what it looks like all pulled together.  The new place has a great feel to it.  The art studio / print shop is separated from the office and the lounge.  The colors (orange and blue) are working well w/ the funky, random, vintage decor.  I will take photos and do my best to load them to the blog.

I'm tired though.  Work continues to kick my butt -- too much on the proverbial plate, and I can't seem to push away from the plate.  I will be taking some time off this week to prep for our big gig!  Very excited.

Workouts have been going well.  I haven't talked yet about my race last Sunday down at the Channel Islands.  We had a booth at this small local running event (~2.5 hrs from home), and I was able to jump into the 5k.  Rare, usually after working the marathon expos I'm lucky just to get in a easy run.  Anyways, the 5k went well.  No pressure going in -- really intended to be a tempo workout to get a better idea of my fitness.  I thought I'd run roughly 6 minute pace -- nice controlled and relaxed.  Turned out my first mile was much quicker (5:20), this did make me a little nervous, but I just relaxed and kept the tempo.  Finished in 16:47 -- not bad seeing how I was shooting for an 18 something race.  It's a road race, so you can't compare the times like I do on the track.  But running this race, winning and hitting a respectable time definitely helps my confidence as I work into some XC races.  The best part of this race was being able to run with the gals that we meet during the expo -- enjoying the running divas tribe!

Oh yeah -- just found out yesterday that the race I thought I would be in this weekend (Cal Poly XC Invite) is actually on October 18!  Glad I found out before Saturday morning.  This will help mellow things out for our party.  Thank Kara.

Speaking of Kara, had a great time working out Wednesday early morning.  Actually grouped up w/ four other ladies at the Cuesta XC course and did a workout together.  It's great to workout in a group -- you get to be chatty, motivated by the other individuals and overall the workout seems to go much quicker.  We had a good group the first part of track season last year, so I'm looking for to this group throughout XC.

I got to get my day rolling.  Hope to see you all this Saturday!  aero