Running and Quesadillas

Yesterday was our group's run out of the city - I love these runs because I can explore parts of the city I wouldnt have known existed. I was told to do a 70 minute run at easy pace. I love those runs because I can just zone out and watch the trees fly by. Easy pace there is a little slower than in the city because we were up at 10,000 feet and surrounded by hills, but I still really enjoyed it. After our run we set out to Desierto de los Leones (odd name because we were not near a desert and there were definitely no lions) for our breakfast. On the way up the mountain I saw about 100 bikers and started to get really excited for when my bike comes, because this would be perfect training. Straight up a mountain and then back down with some scary ass turns. Hopefully it will get here this weekend so I can make the trek out there next sunday. Anyway, there is this restaurant in the middle of nowhere that serves quesadillas that are amazing. We ordered about 15 of these and all had coffee and fresh squeezed juice and it was a total of $18.00. Blue corn tortilla with cheese, nopal and lost of other yummy things.

Love it. Best news is that my stomach is not sick today (it is always a gamble when you eat at out of the way places here).
I once again forgot the camera, but am for sure taking it on the long run today. I am horrible lately with the camera. My mom has been begging me to send pictures of our place and her granddogs and I still havent done it. Today is the day - promise.
Also, congrats to everyone who raced Kona!

More Running

I realize I am slagging on the blogging front, but it is mostly because there is nothing new to report. Honu is tomorrow and I am so bummed I am not racing it. I signed up a year ago before I knew I was moving to Mexico and am wishing I were in Kona right now. I have lots of blogger friends racing it, so GOOD LUCK! I will be tracking you all online while I wait for my washer/dryer to be delivered. I hear it is going to be hot hot hot, but even hearing that doesnt make me feel better about missing it. Instead of racing Honu I will be traveling outside of the city to Ocotal to do some more trail running. I am just about to ramp up for the NYC half Marathon and whatever fall marathon I decide to do, and I cant think of a prettier place to do my long runs. Again we will be at 10,000 feet, but this time I will come with warmer clothes.


Last Sunday we got a driver and a maid/cook. This is one of the benefits of living in Mexico. I will never have to go to the grocery store or do a load of laundry as long as I am living here. The first few days I was hesitant to ask for help with things, but now I have our driver walking the dogs twice a day and paying our bills at the bank. And as soon as our furniture gets here I am going to have our maid show me how to cook some authentic Mexican meals. I cant wait. This is definitely a luxury that we will miss when I move back to the states, but it is the way of life here, and I am going to enjoy it while I can.

Running at 10,000 feet is hard

Today was the third day with the running group and saturdays have quickly become my favorites. One day a week is a track workout (yuck), one day is tempo in the park and saturdays we all leave the city for some trail running. Today the run was here:

When we got out of the car I was freezing and wished I had my ear warmers. I made a comment about how it was colder and one of my running friends told me we were the same level as Cuzco. WTF - that is 10k feet! Running in Mexico is still hard for me and that is only 7500 feet. I guess this is good training for my Machu Picchu hike I am planning to do. Since I am doing my first road race here tomorrow, the coach told me to only go 70 minutes easy. Quickly my running went from easy to really hard and I couldnt keep my heart rate down without walking some of the hills because we were so high up. But the scenery was so beautiful it made it a little easier, plus if I stopped I would start to freeze again so this was my main motivation. It was my first trail run in a long time and I loved every minute of it, even the few times that I got lost. And at the end we all had a fresh fruit drink with pollen on top. No clue what it was called, but they made it right there and it was good. I really hope we go back here again soon. Especially since this is where my 21K is going to be in a few weeks and I need all the altitude practice I can get. Apparently in August and September all the pros are out here training for NYC and Chicago, so that will be fun to see.

Yesterday was our second earthquake in a month, and this one felt much stronger since it was only 85K away from the city. My dad called this morning to see how we were. I love how my dad is always a day late with this sort of thing. He called to tell me that there was an earthquake, and I always tell him I know. Then he asks how I know, and I have to remind him that I felt it. Then he asks if I am ok. I tell him yes, but am really thinking that if something had happened he is 24 hours too late to really help me. I think he sees these things in the paper and frantically calls to check on me not realizing that whatever happened occurred the day before, but it is the thought that counts.

Today is a big day- it is the first full day that Chris has actually been living in Mexico. We are now living in an empty shell that will be a little less empty tonight when the dogs arrive. They actually arrived in Mexico yesterday, but had to wait in customs until tonight. We were sent a picture of them to prove that they are ok. Here they are in custom's jail.

Not quite as bad as when Nola was in Hawaii's jail.

The moving company said that our stuff will arrive the first Tuesday in June, but I would imagine in Mexico that means July. Chris is a total rock star - not only has he cleaned out my old apartment I just moved out of, taken care of the dogs and getting the house organized, in less than 24 hours he has secured two interviews! All without knowing very much spanish at all.
Also some news- I found a coach! I start wednesday AM with him and if all goes well he will coach me at least through the marathon. I run with him three times a week with one other person (the friend who introduced us) and on saturdays in a group. There are track workouts, trail runs and once a week we do a long run outside of the city. Plus he schedules daily workouts for me including weights and cross training based on my goals. I was told to bring the pair of shoes I have worn longest so he can look at my stride, but with my crazy zoot addiction, I really dont have any that are too worn out. All this for a whopping 650 pesos a month (roughly 50 a month). Hopefully this will get me in a good routine now that my Hawaii travel is no longer.

Graduation Day

It is Wednesday and my run total in the past 7 days since we sold the car has been close to 70 miles. Yesterday I showed up to the mall and to the chiropracter straight off of a run and really sweaty. The first few times I was in public places like that I was a little embarrassed, but now I just go with it. If I am going somewhere really nice I will run with an extra shirt to put on. It doesnt help that it has been really hot here, but it is the first time that the heat hasnt bothered me, which is really weird. Normally I dont sweat at all and get really overheated, but I ran 8 miles yesterday at 3 and felt great.

Last night Chris finally graduated from getting his masters. After I told him congratulations, I then reminded him he now has to get a job. The ceremony was long (I dont remember anything about my graduation, but I am pretty sure we didnt have 4 speakers at it), but it was great to get to see him walk across the stage to get his diploma after working so hard the past two years. Here are a couple of photos from last night at the Waikiki Shell, I must say that Hawaii is probably the most beautiful place to graduate.
Here we are before the ceremony - notice the awful post run bangs? That is what getting ready in 15 minutes will do. But as Chris said when I told him I needed to get a little bit more fixed up - for once it is my day and noone will be looking at you. Point taken. We were also instructed to take off our sunny-Gs that I normally use to hide my wrinkles, but we were facing the sun so now it looks like I dont have any eyes.

And here he is trying to put on his robe. It took him a couple of times to actually zip it up right. I guess they dont teach you that in grad school.


I am so proud of you babe, but seriously, this....

is not going to get you a job!

I learned how to pace from my dogs

Morning jog: 30 minutes with little monsters. I try and take them out every morning to get them tired for the rest of the day, and since the little one cant go very far it was an easy run for me to test out my ankle today after totally laying off of it yesterday. I got ready and hooked them up to their "best friends leash" (best leash ever for dog owners!) so that they wont totally knock me over chasing a bird or fish on the ala wai.

The run with the dogs is always the same, and has become increasingly similar to my pacing in recent races:
I spend the first minutes in zone 5 trying to keep up with the dogs while they sprint down the ala wai. Once they get tired they start to play-fight because they know I will make them stop and calm down. The next few minutes are great because we are all side by side though I can tell that they are getting tired. Then at the turnaround they get a burst of energy and haul ass again (zone 5 for me) for about 90 seconds until they realize that they forgot how tired they are. At this point the little guy will usually stop dead in his tracks and lie down on the grass. The last 13 or so minutes is always me pulling them on the leash to speed up and they are dragging behind me barely able to run. They then spend the rest of the day like this:


I keep telling them to slow down at the beginning but they never listen, and today I realized I should be taking my own advice. Other than this past race where I was forced to run slow because of an minor injury I start out too fast and run until I die, which is usually before the finish line. My goal for next race is a negative split. During the run the ankle was sore at first, but loosened up and felt good the whole time so I am going to try a hill workout this afternoon.
Totally unrelated, I am supposed to go into the office this morning here, and when I started getting ready I realized that I forgot to keep any work clothes from being moved so they are all on their way to Mexico. I have a choice between lululemon stretch pants and a tank top or really dirty jeans, not sure which is less offensive.

Down for the count

I am a believer that if I dont say something out loud, then it isnt really true. I have been keeping my mouth shut about some ankle pain I have been having hoping that it would go away. When I went to the chiropracter on Friday I mentioned it to him and he told me that I popped it out of socket and that I had been running like that for a few days. I have no ligaments in my ankle anymore due to a highschool injury. My ankle is held together by about 10 screws and some rubber so when the joint got unaligned, apparently it just stayed there. He popped it back in (not a pleasant sound) and said I should be good to go. I was until I woke up to chase the BananaMan in the 5K run. I was running to the start about 2 miles away and was in some pain - I knew that I had popped my ankle out again, so I tried to move it around and see if it would go back into place. It didnt, but I knew I could finish three miles. I also knew I couldnt run my fastest or really sprint because that was when it really hurt, so I really just got to relax and enjoy the my last race in Hawaii (at least for a while). I finished with 8:13 pace (not really that great, but I was fine with it considering I had to stop every 500 meters or so and shake around my ankle), and I got a really good acai cup and the finish line. I also caught at least one guy dressed in a Banana suit. The fastest time was a guy who ran it in 14:30. Incredible.
It looks like fast running and track workouts are out for a little while - even walking hurts right now. I am going back to the chiropracter this week to see what he thinks, and I may have to place a call into the ankle doctor who did my surgery in highschool. The last time I saw him I was in for shattering my heel after jumping into a friend's pool from their second story balcony about 5 years ago. He wasnt happy, and kept asking me how I could potentially have messed up his perfect ankle reconstruction. My only answer was the beer made me do it.
After the race I went to a friend's birthday party where we played pin the hose on the fireman. Here is the birthday girl...

And here my friend Sharon and I are demonstrating how to play the game...