Pride is, depending upon context,either a high sense of the worth of one's self and one's own, or a pleasure taken in the contemplation of these thing

One definition of pride in the first sense comes from Augustine: "the love of one's own excellence."

Teamwork "a joint action by 2 or more people' or a group, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group."

This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.

Sometimes pride gets in the way of teamwork. And sometimes pride gets in the way of help. Needing help when truely needed, and letting someone help you, is not a sign of weekness, but a sign of great strength.

I faced reality this week that life is teamwork. As is friendship.

Last night's workout surprised me. Not the workout, but my "performance." Since I ran 9 miles the night before, my legs were trashed. So I knew the run up Liliano was going to be tough, not like it's easy with fresh legs.

What surprised me was, yes I died about 2/3s of the way but since I went out too fast, but I wasn't as far behind others than I had thought. Then the backwards run up was "easier" than I thought. I actually thought it was easier than just running up forwards. And I loved the view of the city lights! Yes we are lucky to live her in So Cal, where the winter nights allow us to run in T-shirts and have great views of the city. I almost (really was past the 1/2 point) on the next set of lunges and broadjumps when time ran out.

The only part that really sucked last night was my favorite water bottle disappeared. My nice Sigg with a carabiner :0 bummer

One the positive side, I have more water bottles and that's one less taking up space. I just won't bring my favorite ones out. OK it's still a bummer. But there are worse things in life to worry about than a missing water bottle.

Now the question tonight is .... 5K before class? or Rest day before class? or the 250 rainbow 250 jumping jack challenge? I guess we'll all find out tomorrow.

9.15=1:49

Well at least there's consistancy at a 12mm pace.

It still amazes me that my mantra of "I hate running with a passion" is really something that is good for me. Not the mantra, but the running. I guess what we like the least may be what we really need. When I started the run tonight, I didn't have much energy. My head wasn't in the right place but I needed to do a long run since I'm already committed for the Pasadena Half (or as my family thinks, I SHOULD be committed). Should I do 8 miles? 10? 3? Just put on the shoes, the ipod, need my vest & headlamp, tell Dave what route and ... just go. Yes he want to know my route. And that's good in case a search party is required. And that also keeps me committed to those roads. Maybe not the distances, but at least the route.

After the first mile, my concentration was on form, how tight my calf felt, what other parts hurt, but I just kept going. That took my mind off of other things life tends to throw in front of us. But I noticed I started to have a change in dispostion, in a positive way. No worries when running. Maybe aches and pains, but no worries.

My mind likes to go into design mode. What next on the yard? What next for the house? How can we improvise on this problem? So this run was good. There's an artisic glass medium yahoo group I'm in and they do monthly contests. Next month is windchimes. So on this run, I completed the preliminary design into a final one. Now I just need to execute and hope and pray it comes out right. Its always a crapshoot and usually not successful. But it makes the ones that do come out right even that much more meaningful.

So I'm still keeping my mantra, but as Nietzshe says "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

10 miles

Last night was 10 miles. Here's the route-

Start from the house, run over to Arcadia Park, down around the golf course and park, up Santa Anita to Sierra Madre Blvd, over to Baldwin (mile 7 - 1:36), back to the house.

Time: 2 hrs. Just about exactly 2 hours. Really 1:59:45. So let's just call that 2 hours to make the math much easier. 2 hr = 12mm pace.

Let see...knees started to bug me around mile 6. Since we did the Firecracker 10K last week, and my knees didn't bug me then, maybe it was my gracefullness of the fall last week that did something. We'll see over time. And my calves started to get REALLY tight around mile 8. That can be dealt with over time, I think. My feet started to hurt between miles 8 and 9, especially around the heels. Could that have something to do with the tight calves? Maybe. I thought I needed new shoes since they felt unresponsive. But maybe it was me and not the shoes. I have to figure out how many miles I have on them. I don't think I have many miles on them though. So right now I have to put the problem on me.

So the purpose of doing 10 miles, besides Just Doing 10 miles, was to concentrate on form. I lost my form during the Firecracker 10K. Well I didn't lose it, I forgot to work on it until...mile 5. DUH! During the first mile, warmup really, I didn't think about it. Until I remembered and noticed how my body was feeling, like I was bending at the hips. I hate that! I see old people run like that. So...remember to keep my chest up, feel like I'm leading from my hips and not sitting or squating when I run ( and I'm using the term running loosely).

When I got to mile 4, I felt good. I felt like I could run all night. Even when I got to Sierra Madre Blvd, I still felt good. Maybe it was form. Maybe because I filled my water bottles with Ultima and not just plain water. To the Rec center, still felt OK, but wishing I was wearing my reflective vest. Had my lights, and I thought I would stay on sidewalks all the way, but I really prefer running on the asphalt. Around Mountain Trail I started to hurt and fade. Walk half a block and take a drink. Touch the Stop sign, turn around and head on home!!!!

Since it's downhill most of the way, I felt OK until I hit Whispering Oaks. I could start to feel the fatigue in my legs but at that pace, I could breath normally. That's a good sign, I think Or it means I wasn't pushing myself enough. Oh well, I'll work that out later. On Colorado, around 5th, my calves felt like they might cramp up. That's when I encountered the barking dog in the middle of the street. I stopped and walked, not wanting to be chased by it. It stayed in the middle of the road, barking. Every time I turned around and called it over, it turned around. Good. Maybe it was going home. I turned around to walk away, and it would go back into the middle of the street to bark. We played this scenario a number of times, each time I walked further and further away. I didn't want this dog to get hit, but I didn't want to chase him either. I don't know if this dog was frightened or was playing some type of game. But cars were going by and it was in the middle, barking at me. Since I was the center of it's attention, I thought it best to leave.

That pace was all on me. Can't blame the long stop lights. Can't blame the dog barking at me in the middle of the road. Why do I seem to attract these loose dogs that won't let me save them? Can't blame anything. Nope. It's all on me. But if I do a constant 12 mm pace, that puts my half marathon at 2:36. So now I know a realistic time. Now, let's see if I can get that to improve to sub 2:30? Maybe let's even shoot for a 2:20. That may be doable. That would be around a 10:41 pace. Can I increase my pace over 13 miles from 12 mm to 10:41?

Ahhhh Karma

Yup that's karma.

I could have done speed work tonight on a nice, well lit track. But since I don't like speed work and they were doing 400 repeats, I decided to just do a run tonight and do speed work Saturday AM.

I could have done the 10 miles I mapped out but decided a recovery run sounded better. And I can do the long miles Sunday. So I did my normal Hillcrest loop. From the house it's 3.8 miles, just under 300 ft elev gain the first half. Not bad.
Mile 1 10:45
Mile 2 23:02
Mile 2.75 where Karma kicked it about 30 min.
Mile 4 41:58

Should have done the 10 miles.

In the past 12 days since my last blog, I have...
1. Spent a weekend helping the company I work for move locations.
2. Been totally thrown off from my "good eatting" habits.
3. Watched a SuperBowl game...actually the commercials.
4. Ran a 10K in 1:09. Not my best time and not what I was hoping for. But I can't change what I did. I can only change my training for the next one.
5. Celebrated Dave's BD.
6. Really gotten into the first of a 6-series book
7. AND caught a cold! HMMMFFFF How annoying!