Not much to say today. Getting ready for Friday’s short run (8 to 10 miles). Let’s see if I can keep up the pace. Last time I finished strong, so Thursday I’ll stretch do some ab work and pretty much recover from today’s speed work. I hit a pace of 6.3 mph race walking. It feels good to go that fast and still be on the ground.

Meanwhile here is a panoramic shot taken in Oregon in August of 2005. Heceta Light House. This is a five frame composition stiched together. Cheers.

I’m recuperating quite well from my 20 mile walk. I have one more long walk before the actual event on March 19th and will try to remember to hydrate every thirty minutes and control my urge to go fast in the beginning.

I read a really interesting article on www.runnersworld.com. It has to do with burning calories, differences between walking and running per mile. Basically running burns more calories below five miles per hour. Once you hit five miles per hour, walking burns more calories than running.

What I have noticed is that my heart rate when walking past five miles per hour really soars. I have to run much faster to achieve the same heart rate. This is encouraging for me, it also explains why last year I was passing runners on the first seven miles of the LA Marathon ( I paid for it later), and later hit the wall at seven plus miles. It was horrible after that, nineteen miles of sheer pain. I will not make the same mistake this year.

Yesterday I had my worst day as far as energy was concerned. I was supposed to have a short run with a friend of mine but I just could not do it. I went to the gym and did only stretching. Today was a different story. I had a really good workout (called the bear); it’s a full body workout. I used an Olympic size bar, with two, ten pound plates. It involves doing dead lifts, clean jerks, shoulder presses and squats all in one move. Really exhilarating, did that for three sets of six reps plus one of two. Ran out of time and finished the workout with a short stationary bike run for a few minutes.

So this past Friday (February 10, 2006), I reached the 20.7 mile mark on my Marathon training for March 19th in LA. I had my usual Oatmeal with nuts and Chia seeds breakfast. Plenty of water for the road (64oz of Gatorade mixed with a little bit of protein). I had Trader Joe’s Power Bar with Almond Butter and few other ingredients plus a large (24 oz) frozen smoothie for a roving lunch.

I tried to complete the mileage using a pace where the every four mile section I would either slow down and speed up, recover and speed up. I figured this would get me through the entire length of the course without burning out. So I went kind of easy on the first four miles, I pushed for the next four (I was also going uphill by then so it was particularly brutal). I rested by slowing down for the next four, picked up the pace again for the next four. Now I’m at 16miles I figure I got it made…..

What is this pain I feel on my right foot? All of a sudden my right shoe seems to tight and my foot starts hurting, throbbing, arhggg! Ok, so I stop, loosen the shoe, keep going for another tow miles and …there it is again. Most annoying! Everything has come to a crawl, I can’t go any faster because the pain reminds me to slow down, I’m running out of water,… two miles to go and…now I’m out of water and there is absolutely no way I can loosen my right shoe any more. Unless I take it completely off. In addition my right leg, inner thigh starts to cramp up. Oh just great!

I finally made it home, took long shower and had some food to replenish my spent energy. My average miles were 3+ miles per hour and I hit a maximum of 11+ mph at some point; probably when I was coming down hill for a few seconds.

Next, one more long walk in a couple of weeks and then I’ll be tapering down; ready for the big day.

So I did my eight miler this past Friday in preparation for an 18 or 19 miler next week. I drove to San Luis Obispo and stopped at the Pismo beach monarch sanctuary once more and here is a partial success. I call 'a gathering', sort of like the start of any Marathon. Full of anticipation, excitment and so on. These little critters will start their journey back up North once they mate. The males ...well they're staying for good. Kind of a rotten deal I think :-( Waiting for six months for the perfect mate and boom, the female takes off and all they see is this white bright light...cheers.

And these is what Chia seed look like soaking in water...

Monarch butterflies, Pismo Beach CA

It's around lunch time here in Norwalk, CA on this Thursday, February 2, 2006. Getting ready to go to the gym to do a short stretching routine and get ready for my next 8 miler. I'll probably do while in San Luis Obispo, Ca since that's where I'm going with my family this weekend. I'm also hoping to catch the Monarch migration which occurs at this time of the year. The last I heard there were about 2o,ooo Monarch butterflies hanging out at the Eucalyptus grove in Pismo Beach. Let's see what I can record. We'll also do a little horseback riding around the beach and have some fun doing that. So off we go!