Monday Mario

I have been meaning to share this photo for ages. Clicked it in the parking lot after the Napa Valley Marathon in March:

I think it is so awesome they make bunny stickers for this type of thing.

Running-wise, the last week has been pretty frustrating.

I was surprisingly not sore after the double. I guess taking things slower than usual has its paybacks. Because of this, I got back out there running pretty quickly again. Did a 3 and 6 miler the week after the races which is more than I'd usually do the week after a marathon. I felt a little tired but nothing terrible.

This week I dove back into marathon training. My next marathon is the Santa Rosa Marathon at the end of August. I actually have 10 weeks of training before this race. I decided I'd do a regular training cycle and my goal is to push a little. The weather may be warm for me this time of year, but I'd love to run something between a 4:19 and 4:23.

That said, here are my runs for the past week:

Sunday: 7 miles @ 10:02 pace; First day back on a training plan! Started off with tired legs but the last two miles felt good and pushed a teensy bit.

Tuesday: 7 miles including 4 miles @ 8:51 pace; This was supposed to be a 5 mile pick-up. At mile 2 of the pick-up I had to take a 1 minute walk break to bring my heart rate down. Something was definitely off. I rallied and got another two miles done but decided to cut out the last mile. I felt the power meter depleting rapidly and didn't have it in me to fight out that last mile. In my mind I rationalized that the double was only one week ago and my legs were probably still tired. They can't all be great runs, right?

Wednesday: 6 miles @ 10:16; My legs were very heavy and I struggled through this.

Friday: 16 miles @ 10:58; I went into this doing a 0.1 mile walk break every two miles. With the week I had I knew my legs were still tired from the double and I figured this was a good way to make the run mentally more easy for me. I really struggled the last two miles. Blargh.

I was looking at my paces going into the double and my paces coming out of the double. It is pretty obvious to me that while I wasn't too sore after the races my legs are definitely fatigued. I hope they get their zip back soon!

Also, HUGE congratulations to my pal, Ron, for becoming an Ironman last night. A bunch of us had a twitter party tracking him and cheering him on. SO SO proud of you!

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

First off, overall I was very impressed with the marathons. I paid $95ish total for both races. That is pretty good for two marathons with medals and tech shirts. Of course you all know how impressed I am that they did gender-specific tech shirts. Why larger marathons can't is seriously beyond me.

Though the portapotties the last half of both days were rather sparse, I think for the type of race it was the support on the course was good. You go in knowing the tables are farther apart than usual and you plan accordingly. The volunteers were amazing and I made sure to thank every one of them for being out there for us. Spectators were pretty much non-existent, but I think I actually enjoy races like that every now and then.

My main gripe with the race are the open roads. I don't think it makes sense for them to close the roads for such a small race, but a few "Caution, Runners on the road" signs couldn't have hurt. These weren't 25 mph or 35 mph roads we were running on. The speed limit was 55 to 65 mph on some of the roads! I would have been willing to pay a little more to have some police presence on the roads, too.

Now for all those promises I made myself during the second race: While I was running I decided I'd never do another marathon double, marathon with Altitude, or open course marathon again. It will therefore surprise none of you, I'm sure, that I am planning on running the Tahoe Triple next year (you run 3 marathons on 3 consecutive days around Lake Tahoe --complete with Altitude, open roads and, well... consecutiveness).

There is also a part of me that wants to do another double at sea level. I want to know what part of all that torture was from Altitude and what part was from second-day weariness. I imagine what would happen is that day 1 would be faster and day 2 may suck more than at Altitude since you went out faster the day before. But I sort of want to try it to know for myself.

One neat thing about this race experience was the amount of Marathon Maniacs and 50 States people who were there. I guess something small and crazy like this attracts people who are into multiple marathoning or running a marathon in every state. Day 1, especially, felt like a reunion for all these runners who knew each other from other races. Listening and talking to them I felt like what I was doing this year was not even interesting. Everyone there had run a marathon in the past month (or week!) and had one (or three or four) coming up again soon.

I think a lot of people do a one-time running streak of minimum requirement to get into Marathon Maniacs. These people I met lived and breathed this stuff. I found it both inspiring and slightly frightening.

A lot of people have been asking me if I am going to join Marathon Maniacs or try to do all 50 states. The short answer, is "No." The long answer is that I don't see the value of Marathon Maniacs for myself. I've been told (and witnessed firsthand myself) about the camaraderie you get when you wear the jersey at races. That's great. But I don't think I'd wear their jersey at races. I don't see the point of paying a yearly fee to have my name on a list somewhere. I didn't set out to run all these races to qualify for their group. It doesn't define or in any way validate anything I set out to do this year. But that is just me. If anyone is a member and has any other insights, please let me know!

As far as the 50 states thing, currently I don't think I'll ever make it a goal. That is a lot of traveling to a lot of states and would get amazingly expensive. I think at the end of the year I'll be up to 10 states. I do believe 10 is a VERY small chunk of 50. I am finding that I like these smaller, unique races over the big city races so may continue to rack up the states unintentionally. I suppose if I ever got up to 40 I would try to garner up the last 10. But I think that is a long way off and not something I'm currently consciously working towards.

To end, I'd like to celebrate the fact that with these two marathons I have completed 12 marathons in 12 months (July '09 to June '10). The first three marathons of these twelve such a goal was not even on my radar. But I suppose that doesn't take away from the fact that this time period will always be my first 12 in 12.

A video of Bear Lake I shot from a scenic point on my drive back to Salt Lake City. I am sad I never got to see the lake in full sunshine. And holy cats that's a big lake!

Monday Mario

We were at Costco the other week and grabbed this box to help us carry stuff to the car. I was about to take it down for recycling when Boyfriend pointed out Mario would probably have some fun with it. Another bunny "toy" cluttering up the living room.

At first he seemed to favor the Batcave under the box but lately he likes the penthouse view.

Bear Lake Utah Marathon

The Mario Recap, Marathon #19:

Started off feeling okay! Died shortly after the halfway point. Wanted to commit runner suicide at mile 19. Double Done!

The Full Recap, Marathon #19:

Packet pick-up for the Utah race. Low, low-key.

Big pimpin' it with my gold safety pins. Have never gotten gold ones before!

Day 2 dawned bright and early again. The shuttle bus to the start line in Idaho (where we left off the day before) literally picked up right across the street from my motel which made things very easy. Once again I was amazed how long 26.2 miles feels when you're in a vehicle. My legs were feeling pretty good when I woke up. I didn't feel like I had run a marathon at all! There was some light, deep soreness but nothing terrible.

I knew that the weather was forecast to be nastier on Saturday than Friday. It was definitely chillier on Saturday. I had learned my lesson Friday and came to the dance in two layers of shirts, gloves, and my skirt with shorts underneath (vs. regular shorts the day before). It was not so much the temperature but it was much more likely to rain this day and was also supposed to be windier.

Once again, the start was low-key. The race director even waited for everyone to get through the portapotty lines before starting the race. There were probably double the number of people running the Utah edition vs. the Idaho race.

Once I got going I was immediately greeted by Altitude. I was gasping for air almost as soon as I started running. I think it was because the start was on a bit of an incline and I was probably going out faster than I thought with the crowd around me. I reined in the effort and my breathing returned to normal.

My strategy for day two? Walk 0.1 miles every mile from the very beginning of the race for as long as possible. It was sort of funny because as soon as the crowd spread out over the first mile, I found myself right next to my two leap frog friends from the day before! I got a good chuckle over that. Equally paced indeed!

For a while I felt as if the closest big pack of people in front of me was slowly pulling off into the distance. I kept up with my 0.1 mile walk every mile. Then something kind of funny happened. I slowly started to catch up to everyone. I guess it took a few miles to work out some stiffness from the day before and my legs started finding their groove. After about 5 or 6 miles, I actually left my leap frog friends behind and surprisingly never saw them again the rest of the race.

The race from day 1 ended with the hillier segments at the end. That sucked. But this meant that day 2 started with the hilliest segments in the beginning. I thought I may have to walk up some of the inclines, but I was able to keep plugging up the hills. I can't be sure, but I think I may have acclimated a teensy bit more to Altitude overnight. Hurrah!

For a few miles I was feeling pretty good! It was easy-peasy to run 0.9 miles before getting a break. My running pace was fairly slow (11:00 minute/miles) but I felt decent. I reminded myself I had felt pretty good until mile 7 the day before and that there was still plenty of time to start feeling bad.

On the drive up I wasn't sitting next to a window and didn't think to look for portapotties at the end of the course. I happened to look out a window at one point and saw 4 shiny blue portapotties in a row. I later felt as if we had driven a VERY far way afterwards and decided that those 4 portapotties must be at the half start (there was also a half marathon going on). I decided that no matter what, I would use the bathroom when I hit that row of 4 at mile 13ish. That way if there were no more restrooms the rest of the way or if they were very sparse like the day before I'd probably be okay.

I kept motoring on and kept feeling fairly decent. I passed mile 7 and still felt okay! Maybe today wouldn't suck nearly as bad as yesterday. Of course, I figured the extra 26.2 miles on my legs would probably catch up to me even if Altitude didn't.

The weather was cooler than the day before and I think with the looming rain it was also slightly more humid. I found myself drinking water slightly less than day 1 and even wiped a bead of sweat off my face at one point (the air was so dry up there perspiration evaporates immediately).

By the time I got to the halfway point, I had to pee a little but nothing too terrible. But I didn't want a repeat of the day before so I hopped into a portapotty. Then Altitude (or maybe the extra miles) caught up with me at about mile 14-15. Oh, well. I had a good run. I slowly slipped back into the walk when you need to, run when you can survival mode with which I had gotten familiar.

It also started to lightly rain at mile 14ish. Around mile 15 a wicked wind developed. First it was a headwind, and as the course wound it's way it became a side-wind. I'm not a very good judge of how high a wind is, but it was strong enough that I had to grab my hat for fear it would fly off. It was also strong enough that I had a hard time breathing. Thanks. As if it wasn't bad enough with Altitude.

The light rain continued and coupled with the wind I started to get very cold. Even under my gloves my hands started to feel the way they had the day before without gloves. The course turned slightly again and the side wind became a fun tailwind! I kicked things back up to a run to take advantage of this development.

At mile 17 we turned onto a dirt road. With the steady rain overnight and the current drizzle the road had devolved into a puddly, muddy, soggy mess. I noticed that everyone in front of me was walking the segment. I didn't need another excuse to walk instead of run! Walk it would be! Sadly the dirt road continued on for a little over a mile. Though I tried to run a few steps here and there I pretty much walked the entire thing. No need to fall flat in the mud or twist an ankle.

Once we left the dirt road we turned back onto the main road. Thus began my least favorite part of the races from the two days. There was hardly any shoulder on the road. The traffic was whizzing by next to us. And since it was rainy the cars just sounded scarier and often spritzed you with road water as they passed. I know the drivers must have thought we were nuts and since I was all alone and felt fairly far back in the pack I must have looked like marathon road-kill. How depressing.

I kept plugging away at the miles. Walk when I need to, run when I can. Though earlier in the day I thought it might have been possible to beat my first day time, my end-goal was to come in within 10 minutes of my previous day time (some arbitrary number put into my head by Marathon Maniac man the day before) and to hopefully come in under 5:30.

Somewhere around mile 19 I felt absolutely miserable. I decided it was the most miserable I have ever felt on a run ever. I was cold. I was wet. The cars were speeding by next to me. My legs were tired. Oh, and I had to pee. I had to pee so bad it actually hampered my ability to run. And my inability to run stopped me from getting my temperature up which made me feel even colder. I started thinking about how I could use the bathroom on the side of the road. I hadn't seen a blue portapotty for miles and miles and sort of doubted there were anymore to find. I don't remember the exact mile, but somewhere in the low 20's I saw a portapotty on the side of the road. It wasn't a race bathroom but I think one the city had set out for lake gazers. Heaven. I couldn't believe that I had peed TWICE in a race.

Now that my bladder was happy I was able to try to run a little more. But at this point I was still pretty much picking spots up ahead to run to before taking a walking break. I promised myself I would never run another race with Altitude again. I promised myself I would never do a double again. What was the point!? Of course you could make it, but it was going to be miserable.

Then an 18 wheeler tried to kill me. I saw him coming up ahead and was running on the white line of the road (there was no actual shoulder). Every other vehicle would cross over the yellow line a little to give us a bit more room. I fully expected this guy to do this, too. It became obvious, though, that he was playing chicken with me and when he was about 20 feet from me, I jumped off the road. I threw up an arm to say, "What the hell?!" to him. It was then I promised myself I'd never run another race on an open course again, either.

This must be right around mile 24 or so.

On this second day, instead of mile markers they had signs which told you how much farther you had to go before the finish. So at mile 1.2 the sign said, "25 miles to go." I'm not sure which I prefer. I can tell you it wasn't cute until it read "2 miles to go," though.

The last few miles are a blur now. I knew I was fairly safe for finishing within 10 minutes of my first day's time and wanted to be sure I'd make it under 5:30. I kept reminding myself I'd kick myself later if I missed this by seconds or even minutes. So I tried to run as much as I could for as far as I could. When I got to "1 mile to go" I tried to bolster my spirits. "You've run 51.4 miles over the last two days. What's one more?" I asked myself. 51.4 miles. I got a little teary.

I finally saw the last turn into Garden City Park up ahead. I crossed the line in 5:26. Only 5 minutes slower than my time the day before.

We ran clockwise the second day, too.

I stuck around to see a few more people cross the line but pretty much just grabbed a cookie and cup of water and headed back to my hotel. I had a half a mile walk home and knew I'd be feeling cold soon with the rain.

Another gender specific tech tee that fits. Win!

The medal from Day 2. Sort of anticlimactic to get all the cool swag the first day, though.

Post-race thoughts and wrap-up coming in the next post!

Bear Lake Idaho Marathon

The Mario Recap, Marathon #18:

I survived. It was very tough. Went slow out of necessity vs. practicality.

The Full Recap, Marathon #18:

I drove into Garden City from Salt Lake City Thursday afternoon. Upon seeing Bear Lake for the first time as I crested a hill I could not believe how huge it was. I don't know what I thought a 50 mile perimeter lake would look like, but I guess I didn't think it would look that huge. I thought about the notion of running around the entire thing and felt a little ill.

My first views of Bear Lake

Friday morning I was up before the alarm to head over to Garden City Park to pick up my race number. There were about 70 runners which was actually a lot more than I had been expecting. Things were VERY low-key. There had been lots of rain-talk from the weather forecasters. Though the sky was very overcast it seemed that the rain would hold off until after the race. It was a little chilly. I'm guesstimating it was in the low 40's at the start.

The race started and off we went. I had decided I would walk 0.1 miles every two miles for as long as I could hold out. I could feel myself breathing harder than normal for the effort level I was giving and said, "Hello!" to my new friend, Altitude. I'd say the first 3 walk breaks, I didn't really need and I forced myself to take in order to keep things low key. But this all ended at mile 7 when I took an "unplanned" walk break early. I think that from that point on, I took a 0.1 mile walk break every single mile.

We crossed into Idaho about 4.5 miles into the race.

Since the race was so spread out, after the first 8 miles or so I was pretty much all alone. There were two other runners I kept leap-frogging with as we took staggered walk breaks here and there. The roads were not closed to traffic so we were instructed to run on the left side of the road, facing oncoming traffic. We were in the busiest section of town early on in the day (race start at 6 am) so the cars didn't bother me. They were going fairly fast (55 mph on some stretches) but were all fairly considerate. Early on in the race the shoulder by the road was dirt and I tried to stay on it as much as possible to make things easier on my legs.

The weather was perfect for running! Super overcast and very cool. I had debated whether or not to wear gloves and had decided to leave them in my check bag. For a few miles once I got warmed up, I was very happy with this decision. Then a crisp breeze started up and my hands slowly but surely froze. The rest of my body felt fine, but my hands were SO cold. I had to try to pull down my arm warmers to cover as much of my hands as possible. Apparel Planning Fail.

There were aid stations every 3 miles and we were told there were going to be portapotties every 3 miles as well. The first 9 miles I'd say there were indeed portapotties along the side of the road every few miles. Why do I bring this up? According to my running log, I've run almost 7,500 miles since I started keeping track. I am going to estimate that is probably over 1,500 different runs. I can literally count on ONE HAND the number of times I have stopped to use the bathroom in the middle of a run. I consider it a great gift of mine as a runner. Once I get going, any urge to use the bathroom is squelched and suppressed. I have often arrived at the start of the run needing to go fairly badly, but once I start running I can last 2-3 hours without even a whimper from my bladder.

I noticed that even though it was very cool (my hands were frozen solid) I was drinking a lot of water. I chocked this up to my now enemy, Altitude. I figured all was well. I made sure I filled up my handheld at aid stations more diligently. Right around mile 10 I felt like I had to pee. I figured since I was taking it slow I would stop at the next portapotty I saw. A few miles went by and I figured I'd see one soon. A few more miles went by and there was nothing. By this time I really had to go and was still drinking down water like a camel. I didn't come across a portapotty until mile 18 or so! Gah! For a little while I thought the blue portapotty in the distance was a mirage. I even asked my two fellow leap-froggers if that was indeed a portapotty in the distance. For the first time ever in a marathon, I stopped to take a quick pee.

The wheels totally fell off around mile 18-19. I walked when I needed to and ran when I could. It sucked. My two leapfrog friends pulled away into the distance, never to be seen again. There was a deep-seated fatigue in my legs I can only attribute to Altitude. It was demoralizing to be feeling so low on day one.

I'd love to say I took it really easy but truth be told I was pretty much doing the best I could out there.

I kept thinking about how hard it was and how I had to do it all again tomorrow.

I didn't mention it before, but there were no mile markers on the course. I have never been so happy to have a Garmin. Of course, there was no way to know if the course was measuring long against my Garmin measurement. One of the race directors was manning the last aid station. He yelled some encouragement to me as I passed by. I thought he mentioned the number "3." I had no idea what he was talking about. My Garmin was reading 24ish miles at this point and I kept thinking, "Did he say I have three miles to go?!" "Or was he saying less than three miles?" "Or did he not even say 'three?!'" It drove me nutty. I was thinking of trying to run the last mile but wasn't sure if I'd get to 26.2 on my Garmin and still be nowhere near the finish.

Eventually I got close to 26 miles on Garmin and noticed, could that be? Yes, it is a group of people standing in the middle of the road up ahead! I cursed the fact I wasn't aware the finish was so close and ran the rest of the way. Talk about a low-key finish to a low-key race! There was not even a line drawn on the ground to indicate the finish line. Finish time: 5:21 (Sidenote: Garmin ended up measuring 26.23 miles)

A women at the finish line pointed out Garden City across the lake from us. "You ran all the way from there over here!" she exclaimed. I didn't realize it at the time, but it hit me later that I have never run a marathon before where you could trace the entire course from the finish (this was only the case the first day, not the second). Let me tell you, when you see 26.2 miles laid out like that, it is a freakin' far way to go!

We ran clockwise.

Before the race at packet pickup we were given this awesome shirt:

Gender specific! And it fits me!!!

After crossing the finish I was handed this medal:

Last year, I read that people got the same medal both days. It was nice to know we'd be getting two different medals.

Of course, the above two things pretty much made it NOT AN OPTION to not finish the second marathon the day after. I even emailed my parents after the race and said, "When I think about doing it again tomorrow I want to cry. We got cool shirts & medals today though that said we did the double so there is no way I am not finishing tomorrow."

After taking a shower and eating lunch I pondered how to kill time in good 'ole Garden City.

Garden City

I had sort of imagined myself sitting lakeside reading books or knitting, but the foul weather erased that option (the rain broke right around the time I got back to the hotel). So I decided the next smartest thing to do was to visit Minnetonka Cave.

Because you know, this:

is the best thing to tackle when you're recovering from, and resting for a marathon the next day.

Another man in my tour group was doing the marathon the next day. He hadn't done the Idaho 26.2 but was a Marathon Maniac and had just done one in Wyoming the week before (more on this later). I asked him if he had done doubles before and he said he had finished within 10 minutes of his first day time the second day. I told him, "I'd be estatic if I finished within 10 minutes of my time tomorrow!"

My legs were tired but not marathon-day sore. They felt like I had perhaps done a hard tempo run earlier. That type of tiredness. I was able to walk up and down all the steps in the tour normally. Marathon Maniac man even commented that I was moving really well for having just done a marathon. The only section that really got me was those 71 steep stairs.

When I got to the top of these stairs, I was breathing so hard from Altitude and my heart was beating faster than I think it ever has in my life! Gah!

Cute little bats in the cave (about 2.5 inches long)

Some of the neat formations

From the cave, I drove back to Garden City Park to pick up my number for the Utah edition the next day.

To be continued...

Monday Mario

Mario enjoys parking himself in the Garage during the day. He almost looks like he's tucked into a sleeping bag:

The rear view:

One Lake, Two States, Two Days

I'm headed to Utah tomorrow to run the Idaho Bear Lake Marathon on Friday and the Utah Bear Lake Marathon on Saturday. Over the course of two days I will run around this lake. The lunacy of this is only now starting to hit me.

First off, to finish off my taper week of running:

Sunday: 6 miles @ 9:55 pace

Monday: 3 miles @ 9:58 pace

Wednesday: 6 miles including 4 mi @ 8:46 pace; The air-sucking portions of the pick-up I imagined I was high at altitude running 10:00++ minute miles.

It has been almost five weeks since my last marathon which is the longest break I have had all year. This has allowed me to do some real training in recent weeks which has been quite enjoyable.

As far as my expectations for this weekend, there are three things scaring the heck out of me:

1) The race is at altitude. 6000ish feet. Not terribly high but I am definitely going to be feeling the effects. I read somewhere that the effects of altitude have nothing to do with how fit you are, it is entirely dependent on how your personal physiology adapts. I have no doubt I am one of those people who does not adapt well.

I have run one other marathon at altitude (after about 5 days acclimation) and clocked in at just under 6 hours. I am in far better shape now than I was when I ran that race so I don't think I will have any problems bringing the first day home faster than that (assuming 5 days acclimation vs. no days is equivalent). The second day... I have no clue.

2) Speaking of that second day, there is a SECOND day. I have never run marathons on two consecutive days. Six days apart is my shortest interval. The farthest I have run on consecutive days is 13.1 miles and 26.2 miles. I am not sure this translates into the ability to do 26.2/26.2. I have no illusions of being a hero and my main objective is to finish both races. There are no time limits for either race so no big pressure.

3) The weather has turned a little nasty. There are thunderstorms and thundershowers forecast for both mornings. The temperature has also fallen (which I am pleased about). But some forecasts have it dipping to 34 degrees as the low which is a tricky thing to plan for when there is rain in the forecast. I've packed for everything from freezing rain to a sunny day. I am a little concerned if there is lightening (thunderstorm implies lightening, yes?) a race may get canceled. But I am not going to think about that possibility.

I have a question: Do you think I should incorporate walking breaks from the very beginning of the first race? So for example should I plan to walk a few minutes every two miles or so on day one? Or would you just run as well as you could the first day and survive the second? I may devolve into dribbley puddles of walk from the altitude, but I'd like to go in with some plan.

I found this video on youtube:

If you can't stand to watch the whole thing fast forward to 5:25 to see "Downtown Garden City." I am going to be in this town for 3 days. By myself. I am hoping it will be an utterly serene and relaxing time vs. mind numbingly boring.

Thinking about the thin air, I am reminded of something one of my fellow marathoners at Safaricom in Kenya told me the day after the race:

"I never walk during marathons. When I started walking at 8k I thought, 'This is going to be interesting.'"

Thanks, Bruce. I'll remember you said that when I am asking myself "Why did I sign up to do this? Why did I sign up to do this here?" over and over again.

I think this is going to be very interesting.

Cross your fingers and toes for me!

Monday Mario

An older photo (pre-Garage). I always thought it was so funny how he'd wedge himself between the pen and the willow tent when he had the whole pen to spread out in.

I also like the commentary on Mario's catalog chew toy (click picture to enlarge).

Life is hard when you're a bunny.

I have been a bad blogger, again, but life has been busy. And I realized the other day that my RSS feed that I follow all your blogs on hadn't been updating in two weeks?! Gah. So I'll be stopping by your neck of the woods soon.

On the running front it is race week again! I will get another post up Wednesday before I leave for Utah, but just to update on my workouts:

Friday (May 28th): 10 miles, including 5 miles @ 8:50 pace; I've been working hard at my 9:00ish pace the last few weeks. I ran the last mile of the pick-up at 8:24 pace which is where I usually fall when I try to do 1600m intervals. While not easy, it is comfortably hard which is where I want to be going into my next training cycle after the marathons this week.

Sunday: 10 miles @ 10:18 pace

Tuesday: 7 miles, including 5 miles @ 8:48 pace; I've never done two tempo runs so close together. I had changed my speed day to Fridays the last few weeks in order to run long two days in a row earlier in the week. I switched back to my normal schedule of speed Tuesdays this week so had to run them close together. I didn't quite have the kick at the end like I have the last two speed workouts I've done, but I felt like the pace was comfortable.

Wednesday: 6 miles @ 9:51 pace

Friday: 8 miles @ 9:51 pace; My easy pace has started to fall below 10:00's again which is a sign that the tempo runs are doing their thing.

Monday (err, Tuesday) Mario

I apologize for the lack of "Monday Mario" yesterday. My parents were in town and I was out the whole day. We went up to Santa Rosa to check out the Charles M. Schulz Museum. It is a small museum but very enjoyable.

The only really different photos I have to share are all about the bathrooms:

I thought these were so cute!

So hilarious they had comics at "eye level."

Fine, fine. To keep "Monday Mario" classy I'll include another shot of the comic mural.

I got Mario a little button gift. Woodstock is my favorite character and I couldn't resist getting one of these buttons to hang on Mario's cage. Through some fancy photo work, I was able to let Mario express his disapproval about the belatedness of this post:

And yes, he is sitting on his garage. I have yet to see him do it inside his pen but have been stashing high-value veggies up on top of it to get him curious.