Seven Miles of Suckitude

Dude, Saturday suuuuuuuuucked. I thought I was all raring to go, but apparently not. The schedule was 7 miles at Griffith Park. I had a good week of training; I did one extra day of walking, included some jogging, and generally felt like I was on track. Only to hit the brick wall of Griffith Park. I don't even know what happened, but I seriously considered quitting and heading straight to my car. I don't know why I hate that particular lap, the "Los Feliz Lap," that we started off with today (and also the last day I was cranky), but I do. I hate it. It's boring, long, goes across a freeway, and it irritates me. But I think I just need to get over it because I think that's how we'll be starting all our long distance Griffith Park sessions.

Saturday we met our Team Captains, alumni who will help us train and on the day of the race. One of my captains was Debra, who was a total lifesaver! Even though she had just walked 19 miles of the LA Marathon last Saturday, she walked with me for the last 5 miles and kept me totally motivated and on pace. I seriously would have headed for the parking lot at about mile 3 without her.

Coach Bert walked a 15 minute pace, and we were supposed to stay ahead of him if we're doing the Santa Barbara half-marathon. I did okay for about a mile and half, two miles, then just suuuuuuuuucked. Of course, Bert passed me like he was out for a casual stroll, while I'm red, huffing and puffing, sucking water, and cranky. Needless to say, I did not make the 15 minute mile pace, and came in at about 16:10 pace. Grrrrrrr.

I also had equipment issues. I needed something to hold water and the iPod, yet I was resisting the fanny pack. Drew helpfully suggested the beer can hat



I ended up getting something similar to this


at the running store. I might be rethinking that beer can helmet. The water bottle bounced up and down too much when lamely attempting to jog. But that's what the training is for, to experiment and see what I like and don't like.

I think our coaches like the Fuel Belt

but it is seriously dorkier than a fanny pack. It also seems awfully intense for a half-marathon. It's only 13 miles!

So, anyway, I survived! I did the 7 miles, came home and took a really, really long hot bath. I tweaked some muscle that I'm not even sure I know what it is. My trainer Shari said it was the psoas...pronounced sooh az. Yup, so' azzzz is what I had. Anyway, I did lots of stretches in Pilates on Tuesday and it's better. I also did some jogging on the treadmill at the gym today, and saw Thomas Dekker from Terminator TV series and some chick from High School Musical at my gym today. Then I went to the Post Office and saw a woman have a 20 minute fight with the poster of the Statue of Liberty on the wall. That's HOLLYWOOD, baby! Celebrities and nutballs.

Enough moaning and groaning. I have a super busy week, so it's going to be a challenge to even get training in, much less trying to increase my pace, but I will do my best!