A Half-Marathon and a Half-Heel

So two weeks ago, I ran a half-marathon. 13.1 big ones. Pretty exciting if I say so myself. The only problem with running a half-marathon is the sweat. It's fine getting all sweaty, but in Seattle's cold weather, it can get a little daunting for the nips. In any case, I'm pretty sure I looked something close to this:

So over the past two weeks, I've been dealing with what I think is shaping up to be achilles tendonitis. I went running once a week over the past two weeks because this thing has been bugging me. Otherwise, I've been trying to keep it as immobile as possible. I tried to go running again today, but only got 1.5 miles before stopping. EFFballs. I don't think it's so bad that I need to get it treated, but I am looking into getting an ankle brace for the next week or something. Or maybe I can just rock these:

With 46 days left, I'm getting a little nervous with this setback, but I'm praying it'll heal by the end of this week. In the meantime, I've decided to work a little harder on the diet part of this training. Eating right is seriously one of the hardest things to do, ever. And on top of that, my friend, Steph, visited Seattle a week and a half ago, and we ate EVERYthing. Seriously. After Steph got back to LA, she sent me a list of everything we ate. It looked like this:

Seattle: chicken empanadilla, beef alcapurria, bacalaitos, camarones, gandules dip and tostones, pulled pork pastelon, mojitos, Pike Place samples (smoked salmon, fruit, chocolate pasta), lamb burger, chickpea salad, albacore sandwich, scallop chowder, lemon semifreddo, apple cinnamon bread pudding with vanilla ice cream, New York cheesecake, turtle cheesecake, mint chocolate cheesecake truffle, dozen QuilBay Quencher oysters, two Kusshi oysters, brie and basil waffle, banana brulee waffle, Starbucks coffee, Lemon Zester (Limoncello, Prosecco, hibiscus syrup), absinthe cocktail, clams with sauerkraut and pretzel, red wine braised beef tongue, lemongrass scallion crab cakes with squash and bitter melon, beignets with vanilla mascarpone and pear butter, sour cream lemon pie, Blueberry Tea (Earl Grey, Grand Marnier, Amaretto), B & O Espresso (raspberry vodka, Kahlua, Bailey's, espresso), mac and cheese, spiced nuts, Dark & Stormy (rum, ginger beer), Blue Moon (gin, creme de violette, lemon), swimming rama with fried tofu, pad thai, black milk tea boba, jasmine milk tea boba, six ice cream samples, Memphis King ice cream (peanut butter, banana, chocolate-covered bacon), sweet potato ice cream, glazed pumpkin old-fashioned donut, double chocolate donut, seven ice cream samples, "Scout" mint ice cream, cardamom ice cream, honey lavender ice cream, Starburst ice cream, chocolate coconut donut, glazed donut, raspberry glazed donut, duck and pork burger, sweet potato fries, nutella shake, Mauby (boiled tree bark punch), Sorrel (hibiscus petal punch), curried bone-in goat, roti, curried potatoes and garbanzo beans, pelau, spicy jerk chicken, fried rice, veal sweetbreads, lamb belly, pear tart tatin with rosemary ice cream, lemon pot de creme with sesame cookies, spinach quiche croissant, hazelnut twist, lemon tart, kougin amann, pear frangipane, pain au chocolat, raspberry and salted caramel macarons. Did I miss anything, Mike?

NO, we did NOT miss anything Steph...And after all that, my favorite place is still Matt's In the Market. There's a fatty review up that I posted recently with some fatty pictures.

Anyways, wish me luck, and hopefully my next post will involve more running. In the meantime, you can look forward to hearing more about LiNK in the near future.

Longtime Sunshine

Title has no relation to anything in this post besides the fact that's it been a while since I posted and Weezer is pretty cool.

Quick update on the running:
Week of Jan 11 & 18: I ran 4 out of the 7 days. Upped to 3 miles a run by the end of it. Still ate like a fat, fat llama. Sprinkled a couple meals of chicken breast + vegetable and special K cereal, which by the way, is great in all its flavors: fruits and cream, blueberry, strawberry.. mmmm delicious.

Week of Jan 25: Did not run AT ALL. ate EVERYTHING. But got these awesome running shoes from Jimmy Lee for my birthday on the 30th (part of the reason why I justified eating fajitas, queso dip, kimchee and fried chicken, tacos, tacos, tacos, tacos)

BUT THIS WEEK! (Feb 1-7)
I am running! I am strong! I was made fun of Sunday night by my dad's friend who is 60+ years old and runs marathons all the time. I was embarassed and furious. But I went out that night and ate creme brulee and banana fosters while smoking a cigar and drinking scotch... seriously.

BUT MONDAY MORNING! I strapped my shoes, puts some underwear on, imagined the rocky montage - and with my ipod in hand/ears - I did my 3 miles, 50 situps, 25 pushup and yoga poses in the morning! YES! WIN!

THEN MONDAY NIGHT! I go out and meet some church friends and we decide to jacuzzi.. we also read the Bible while jacuzzing.. it was pretty holy. and then some of us decided to go to our new favorite mexican taco/burrito/torta/quesadilla place in Los Angeles (in Glendale). Seriously. amazing... wait a hot darn minute! Isn't this blog about marathon running, Alex!?! I know, shut up! I have to build up to the image I'm about to post. Anyways, I realize for the 5th time that night that I have no self control and eat two tacos (lengua and pastor & half a chicken burrito & bites of someone else's quesadilla) AND the best horchata ever. you don't believe me huh? you think your mexican hole-in-the-wall is better and greasier and mexicaner huh? unfortunately, you're very wrong and you can kindly stick yourself in your hole-in-the-wall place and continue to live a life of lies and tootsie rolls....  just kidding, but you should check it out. 

TACO AZTECA (http://www.yelp.com/biz/taco-azteca-glendale-2)

Also, did I just yelp the above taco place just now in the middle of this blog? Kind of.

Sooooooooo... i eat and eat and eat..... would I be able to wake up the next morning to run? Will the 60+ years korean man be right? Who loves orange soda? Why do I continue to be an enormous fat lard?  because it makes for an epic RUN then next morning!!!!! continue....

I wake up, I may have had less than 5 hours of sleep... BUT I got up and got on the treadmill and started at spead 5.5 (which is about 11 min per mile) but then decided.. EFF IT. LETS DO THIS! and went to 6 (10 min per mile)! Granted this is all a treadmill and it carries you and nya nya nya nya. ok. SHUT UP.

It was a hard run because well.. if you've gotten down to here.. you should know by now.. but two things I would like the mass and millions of rabid fans that are reading this blog to get from this run. Two things that capsulate the experience vicariously of what went on during this epic run....

NUMBER ONE - this is what I felt was going on inside my ass around mile 2.5:

AND NUMBER TWO - I had a GREAT GRRRREEATT ipod shuffle. It wasn't necessarily the best mix for running but it just hit hard in all the right places with things going on in my life and what I was feeling while running and..... it was just a good time to reflect and it got me going through the image above and stay committed to running the rest of the run.. even if it was just for one more day. I really enjoyed the little victories this morning.

Here's the playlist:

1. *Overrated - Gavin Degraw [Chariot Stripped]
2. Sympathetic Vibrations [The Paper Raincoat]
3. Detlef Schrempf - Band of Horses [Cease to Begin]
4. Stop This Train - John Mayer [Continuum]
5. Make It Mine - Jason Mraz [We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things]
6. Red - Okkervil River [Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See]
7. Pistachio - Lisa Hannigan [Sea Sew]
8. Career Day - The Format [Interventions and Lullabies]
9. Fight Test - Flaming Lips [Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots]

*I skipped halfway through because it was really slow but I listened back on the way to work and it was great!

anyways, back to work. hahahahhaah toodles.

12-Mile Run

Being in Seattle in the winter and all, I thought I wouldn't really have a chance to train outside. The weather these days have been more or less something like this:

Thankfully, today's weather, despite the forecasts, was more like this:

Man, cirrus clouds are the best. I just stole that picture from some other site, but regardless, it was perfect weather for a long run. I decided to try to run a little further this time, but take a one-minute break to walk and drink water every two or so miles. Here's the map:

View Larger Map

12 miles! WOO!!!! I thought it would be more painful than it was. Thank God it wasn't. It was actually really nice running around and seeing all the random shops, restaurants, and water towers.

I know. Kinda random. If anything, the run was more painful because I ran by a few of my favorite joints in the neighborhood, like Salvatore Ristorante, Peak's Frozen Custard, and Teddy's Tavern. After hitting mile 8 or so, it was ridiculously tempting to just hop in and get a Wild Boar Tagliatelle, a Vanilla Frozen Custard to wash down the pasta, and a Mac & Jack to wash down the custard. Something tells me that's not part of the training plan...

Anyways, gotta get back to reading those law book things.

70 Days.

Where Things Stand

I started "training" about two and a half weeks ago.

I'm training loosely based on the Novice schedule put out by Hal Higdon. Basically, the week gets split up into two rest days, two "short run" days, one "short-long run" day (longer than a short run, shorter than a long run), one "long run" day, and one "cross" day (any exercise that's not running). That's the idea behind the program at least.

Week 1: Pulled in three three-mile short runs. Nipple chafe.

Week 2: Started running five-mile short-long runs. Attempted a 10-mile long run. Fail.

And now we're in Week 3. I have to run indoors these days because of Seattle weather. Week 3 brings in the new year. That means setting motivated goals and shooting for the stars. The stars, for me, include a more consistent training schedule, and a more nutritional diet plan. I like to eat, and there aren't many healthy options around school, so this might be tough.

Monday, I did a five-mile short run. I have anti nipple chafe ointment now, thank God.

Yesterday, I got all dressed up in my gear and went to run, thinking I'd push my limits a little and shoot for 6 miles. I think I ran about 30 seconds before my left calf muscle cramped up and I had to baby it for the next five minutes. Meanwhile, the lady running next to me gave me those judgment eyes:

So much for pushing the limits.

I was going to make Wednesday my rest day, but considering yesterday's sad excuse for a run, I think I'll go for a run tonight.

73 Days.

Where Things Started

Me: So I think I'm gonna run the LA marathon.

Friend Who Runs Marathons: Awesome!!! When's the race??

Me: March 21st.

Friend Who Runs Marathons: Okay, cool, you still have time. Have you started training??

Me: No.

Friend Who Runs Marathons: How often do you run??

Me: I haven't ran for at least two months now.

Friend Who Runs Marathons: Okay...

Me: ...

Friend Who Runs Marathons: You'll be fine! So what made you decide to run a marathon? The Biggest Loser or something?

Me:

Friend Who Runs Marathons: Oh.

Or something like that.

So then I recruited my friend, Alex, to join me in this sad attempt at a marathon. We used to run in the morning in college together with a third guy, Kevin. Nothing serious. We usually ran about two and a half miles, followed by some stair-climbing and lap-swimming, but once in a while, we'd have to resort to these. It wasn't pretty then, and it isn't pretty now.

In any case, we've committed to this ridiculous idea of pulling off a marathon. We've also decided to run for a cause or two. I'm running for a non-profit organization that addresses a cause that I'm really passionate about: human rights in North Korea. It's called:

I'll talk about this organization more from time to time, but for now, check out their page at www.linkglobal.org.

I'll let Alex pitch what he's running for, but it has something to do with variations of this:

So that's where things started.

Alex ran... kinda

I should have started running yesterday. That didn't happen.
I should have waited 30 minutes before running today. That didn't happen.
I started 10 minute per mile pace and then threw up. That ALMOST happened.

2 miles down... so many, many, many more.

There's a pecan pie sitting seductively in the kitchen. Oh my, oh my. Jesus.