Has Been a Good Month

Thus far February has been a good month of training. Tanya and I have been getting in daily miles, and though I am still not 100%; with each week I feel better and better. The Race Bug has been nibbling at us though, this past week end was the Orange Curtain 50K and the Pasadena Marathon. We ran both of those races last year. I would have loved to have been out there, especially with them being so close to home, but I know my body is not ready for that distance yet. I have been dealing with Piriformis Syndrome, which is similar to sciatica in symptoms, so you can imagine the discomfort I feel at times. I have been working my miles up slowly, this morning was the longest I've run in months, 10 miles. I had no discomfort until mile 8, so then I slowed my pace and did some walk intervals. In May we are going to run the Broad Street run, and the Grand Canyon. I wish to miss neither, so when my body talks I listen. Running with pain is no fun.
I look forward to sharing with you our new adventures, I think 2010 is going to be full of them!
MJ

Getting Strong Again

I am looking forward to tomorrow, instead of going for a long trail run, I'm going to go for a long mtn bike ride. Can't wait, I have been riding a lot more in the last couple of months. Great Cross-training.
MJ

It's Been Awhile

Let nothing perturb you,nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.

~Mother Teresa

I can hardly believe it is already January 27th, 2010. It just blows my mind, time seems to be passing so quickly. There is so much I still want to do and achieve, but I often feel time is not on my side. 2009 kinda ended on a sour note, our last major race the Javalina Jundered ended early for both Tanya and I. As much as we prepared, things are still out of our control. The Sunday before the race Tanya can down with a light cold, which was accompanied with a heavy chronic cough. I don't think she has had a cold in years, but it would come the week before we attempted to run 100 miles. My trouble was of a different sort that started the Wednesday morning before the race. I was taking a morning shower, I slightly bent down to cross my right leg across my left knee to scrub my foot. I first felt a twitch in my right lower back and then Bam lock down , I couldn't move and the pain was intense. From that moment forward the slightest movement, or strain just took my breath away. To make a long story short we still drove out to Arizona and attempted the race anyway. We made it through the day, but as the night approached and the temperatures cooled, Tanya's cough reappeared and got worse and worse; and my low back locked down and my entire body stiffened. We made it to mile 60, and both decided it's better to live to fight another day. Tanya has completely recovered, by I have some lingering effects, which has caused me to drop my weekly miles considerably. With Chiropractic treatment, weight training and rest, I feel that the worse has passed.

We are presently running and riding base miles, but have no events penned in as of yet. I take that back we will be running across the Grand Canyon again with friends in May. That's always a blast.

We did spend a day exploring Joshua Tree National Park recently. The Park is not far from Palm Springs, CA. The rock formations there are incredible, almost like being on another planet. It's a cool and far out place.

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What do you see? Let me know.

Rock climbing been there done that, not my cup of tea.

Time stops for no one, let's get outside, go somewhere, do something you have been dreaming about. Life is too short not too.

One Love

~Marc and Tanya

2009 LONG BEACH 1/2

With only few more days to go before we run the Javalina Jundred I thought I would post an update on what we have been up to in the last few weeks.

A few weekends ago to take a mental break from the back to back long weekend runs; we ran the Long Beach 1/2 marathon. We arrived early before the sun rose to make sure we missed the pre-race chaos, which includes closed streets and jocking for parking. Long Beach has become one of our favorite local 1/2's to run, not only because the course is flat and fast, the the beach atmosphere and the crowds cheering the runners on is great.

This was the events 25th year so the organisers were expecting record numbers of participants and spectators.

Our goal was to run an easy pace and to just have a fun time.

We did, we also saw a number of running Friends which always makes the day great.

At the parking lot nice and early. Penny and Tanya eating breakfast and making a last check on gear.

After taking some time off from running Penny is back and ready. Let's go have some fun.

Still smiling coming around the final corner just before the finish line. You go Penny. Welcome back.

Wait, who is that? That's the dynamic due of Emily and Ivonne looking all fly! You say "1/2 marathon" and they say "when and where!"

We had a fun morning the weather was perfect, and I can't think of to many better ways to Spend a Sunday morning than running a few miles with friends.