Today's Training Tips

Greetings from Chi-town!

Today we are going to review some important aspects of training for the Sfaffy, as listed below courtesy of Croat and Cube. For the sake of clarity, helpful illustrations have also been added.

Step 1: Do the damn thing! Go out and do your run, do whatever Hal tells you to do. (Full disclosure: we def just made it up tonight. We had NO idea where we were supposed to be on Hal's schedule, so we just tried to get a nice 7 miler in since we've both been giant slackers.)

Step 2: Hydrate! Never forget to drink lots of water post-run. Especially if you boozed all wknd. Cheers!

Step 3: Blog about it! This step is very important. Brag about your latest 8 miler! Boast about how hard core you've been in the rain! Shame your friends into doing their mileage too! Peer pressure and public shaming will take you EVERYWHERE.

Repeat.

long overdue...

pics from jp morgan chase corporate challenge in nyc!

EXTRA EXTRA: CHI-TOWN CLAIMS FORMER NYC RESIDENT

in tabloids today, i read that the great city of nyc is short one young cube woman currently training for the sfaffy! ha. anyway, just thought that the world and all of our loyal readers (i believe cube's mom has read this once and cube's bf was forced to read it and laugh at it by cube on one occasion...are there more??) should know about my recent CITY SWITCH! so now the ratio is 2:1 in favor of chi-town, and not nyc. craziness!

in other news, um, what wk are we on with the hal training program? i need to get with the program. i have sort of fallen off the wagon what with all of the moving and all, but i am totally dying to get back on! but seriously, what week are we on? im looking fwd to doing a lake run instead of my usual river runs! im also going to try to go to chi yoges tonight, so wish me luck. i think there is a 97% chance that i will hate it and say that it sucks and wish desperately that i was in class with cassandra instead, but we shall see! maybe ill love it!

anyway, just had marathon (of the studying variety) sesh with the new toots. i think it is time for a break. and ps i need a map of chicago. last nt on my first foray into the city, i think i took a wrong turn and went somewhere very random and desolate. i called cubes sister (croat was not available for phone calls, apparently, bc i called her too) and was like "um, where are all the people?!?!" oh, new cities.

oh and yes lets coordinate on flts! croat--we are going to have dinner or a drink or something SATURDAY and it will be awesome and amazing and i cant wait and we'll discuss flts then! hooray!

ps-miss you chilena!

UPDATE: worst yoga class ever, i hated it and it sucked. ugh. back to the drawing board...

FLIGHTS (air and stairs)!

Good work, chicas de Nueva York. This too is several days late, but in the spirit of the SF team, I ran last Wednesday as well. I logged 7 miles on the lakefront bike path. No elbows, but dodged a lot of shaky rollerbladers, bike racers, teams of drunk corporate types waiting for their next chicago sport and social beach volleyball game...Corey, you'll see. :) I felt so great that I decided to run another 8 miles last night. Now, I don't need a Nike+ chip to know that on top of the other runs, I logged 24.14016 km this week! Greetz right back at ya, Tony. Okay, I'm pretty sore, maybe.

So for the real reason I am posting this morning, I suggest that we start to focus on flights. First, flight to SFO before prices and availability get crazy. What days? Times? Maybe we should each research and e-mail what we find? More importantly, I've decided that I'm going to spice up Hal's training program with stairs. I think running stairs between running days will get my Midwest legs ready for the hills of SF. I have 56 flights so let me know if you want to make it a date, even if it's virtual...everyone is doing it these days.

swinging elbows in the rain

this is 2 days too late, but i just wante to report that chilena and i successfully finished the jpm corp challenge on wed! it def started raining a few seconds before the start and never ever let up. luckily, we had some rainy runs under our belt, so it was no big deal and actually felt kind of nice! i ran as a fake colleague of chilenas and had a great time--we managed to stay together the whole race and finished 1-2-3 along with another colleague. went on to drink one blue moon at the afterparty, which mysteriously made me quite drunk--something i only realized when i popped into starbucks en route to the subway and noticed i was feeling very overwhelmed and confused by the barristas' very non-complex questions about the race...

but anyway. all in all a success and i love that now all three of us--the cube, the croat and the chilena--have completed the jpm corp challenge in their respective cities!

ok nap time for cube. last nts happy hour-that-turns-into-an-all-nt-late-nt-affair with some coworker friends has left me all tuckered out. a million pierogies and ukrainian meatballs at veselka for lunch today couldnt save me. bleh. and i supposedly have a run to do today!? eek.

tony is in with the lingo

according to urbandictionary.com, "greetz" is a term used by hackers for shoutouts.

omg, tony is a hacker!!!

"maybe, greetz"

can anyone guess who spoke these (soon to be) famous words? well, ill tell you then! oh, but it's tony of course! HAHA. i just checked the nike challenge page to see how we were all doing, and then i suddenly REMEMBERED that post-7 mile run, chilena and i had decided to send out a little msg to our friend tony the rando who joined our challenge. cro, im not sure if youre able to view the nike page right now (have you bought your sensor yet??), but in case you cant, you should know that theres a fun little option on the challenge page called "trash talk". clearly, we love this option. it allows you to write a little msg to your fellow challengers that pops up in little talk bubbles with your name underneath it. our trash talk board currently looks a little something like this:

cube: "YEAH! LOVE IT!" [expressing approval of the nike challenge, as set up by chilena]

chilena: "oh PLEASE!"

chilena: "that just makes me SEETHE!!!!" [expressing disapproval of cube's clever move where she made sure to run .01 miles more than chilena so she could stay atop the leaderboard]

cube (although actually typed by chilena while at cube's apt): "tony! you're beating us!!"

tony: "maybe, greetz"

HUH? discuss.

we're so intense we can't even stop to drink water we have to toss it on ourselves and throw the plastic cups on the ground

jp morgan chase corporate challenge is tomorrow! cube and i have run this one before... it's only a 3.5 miler but boy is it a tough one. the heat, the crowds, the intensity!! if you happen to be there, you should be able to spot us easily enough--we'll be the 2 really hardcore girls running at lightning speed and barely slowing down at the water stops to toss cups of water on our heads. post race, you'll find us posing as investment bankers in our race day shirts and stealing fancy gatorade... yay corporate challenge!!

i can walk! it's a miracle!

following yesterday's 7-miler, i was expecting that every step today would be a painful one. was mentally preparing myself for a day of hobbling around the office, legs feeling as tight as stretched rubber bands. so, i tentatively stepped out of bed this morning and to my surprise, was thrilled to find that my legs felt fine. eerily fine. this is bizarre. and AWESOME! sfaffy here i come!

(ok, so my knees are kinda sore, but i can walk!)

btw, special thanks go out to cube, my official pacer. couldn't have done it without you cube.

the latina contingent: hard core--rain or shine!

according to paula radcliffe and lance armstrong, both chilena and i recorded our longest runs ever! (full disclosure: i got a new nike sensor post-marathon and have only been using this one for a month) HOORAY!

i suggested that we swap in wk 4's 5 mile wknd long run for wk 6's ( i think) 7 miler, in honor of chilenas and my last opportunity to do a wknd long run together, and potentially my last wknd in nyc (single silent tear). mother nature was not so much cheering us on, however. miles 1-4 were marked by intense heat and humidity, while miles 5-7 brought sheets of rain pouring down on us. visibility was not great and was a teens worried about my ipod breaking due to water damage, but it actually felt GREAT after the unbearable heat we had during the first part of the run (which was rough). and we felt super hard core running rocky style through the intense rain and intense shine.

finished the run with a nice little sprint (chills actually did TWO bc her ipod was lagging behind mine in recording the mileage and she couldnt bear the thought of her ipod not recording her run as anything short of a 7 miler--impressive!). anyway, that was it. felt good. YEAH! amit captured some of the post-race stretching (or just pose-striking, in some cases) for all to enjoy. please note the sweat and rain stains--badges of hard core.

FLIGHTS (not of sake, not of stairs)!

team!
now that we are all signed up and settled into this idea of the sfaff, we must buy tix to transport ourselves there! and soon too before they become outrageously pricey. theyre actually not that bad at all right now.
thoughts?
love,
~cube

bad idea...

wine and lamb and 50/50 fat & goose liver pate concoctions before long runs on sat. mornings... bad idea.

cro is slo

UM HELLO! CRO? chilena and i are here sipping wine and wondering what happened to you? are you running? are you training? are you boozing (likely)? WE MISS YOUR POSTS! TALK TO US , GOOSE! XOXO

ps-i love you croat. all of my antagonizing is in jest. i miss you so much and cant wait to see you in SF (or chi if i can ever find an apt!)!!!

love,
cuber

yo croat...

you training or what? flights of sakes? flights of stairs more like it!!! get to it CROAT!!!

ok cube. leave me alone. it's official.

i've signed up. my fate is sealed.

Momentary (ongoing?) freak out!

Signed up--it's official!!! Well, not exactly. Ok...here's what happened...I suffered a 72 HOUR freak out. Had to call Cube for emotional support. And then sleep on it. And then announce triumphantly via email that I had signed up! But I hadnt actually! HA! Then I slept on it again. And pondered a bit more. But then...

Have I signed up? Have I not? Wouldnt you like to know!

[to be continued...dun dun DUN...] hehehe ;)

TONY IS TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL

omg apparently tony is training for like the san francisco ultramarathon 100-mile trek. he just logged like a 10 mile run or something! is he serious?

the sfalf and other random mid-run thoughts...

one of my random thoughts today while finally doing my run in the hot hot sun was that the "San Francisco Half Marathon" is a mouthful. Even just saying the "San Francisco Half" makes me weary. when youre typing it, of course, its not so bad--you just write SF. but saying it sounds awks, no? so i was thinking we could combine it into one word--"the Sfalf!". maybe even drop the l and just write sfaff? the sfaffy? all comments welcome.

one of my other random thoughts while running is detailed in one of my comments to a different post. and that was that i am probs going to vomit at the sfaff. i feel like i tend to get kind of naus fairly easily. and of late, i have experienced some exercise-induced bad bodily reactions. ie almost passing out in yoga the other day due to intense heat and movement, ie projectile vomiting after completing my first 20-mile long run while training for the philly marathon. maybe i have a weak constitution? anywho, while closing out today's 3.5 i realized that vomiting while tackling the miles and miles in the rolling hills of SF is highly likely, and i have made peace with that fact. i hope you all will too.

Oh boyskies...

So, I'm a little behind. A little behind on the blog invite that I thought was junk mail, 4 weeks behind on Hal's training schedule, more than a couple of miles behind this unidentified "Tony" character and not fully behind running a half marathon in a city famous for its hills. BUT, I am very excited and know that we will have a great time. Without hyping it up, I know this blog will be ridiculously funny and hopefully teach me something about race training, such as NO martinis and a sake flights the night before the long run.

This Croat is in and off for a run on the lake!

who's tony?

Oh, so I see Cubana finally motivated to go on her run today. And let's see... she ran 3.52 miles. What a coincidence! This just HAPPENS to be .01 miles farther than I've run so far. Oh, I'll show you CUBANA!! And you might be beating me, but you're still in second place...Tony's totally showing you who's boss!

Um, by the way. Who's Tony?

gracias cubana!

I think we owe a word of thanks to our official motivator Cubana.

Thank you Cubana for starting this blog--we promise to strive to make this a funny blog, if not THE funniest international young female professionals running blog out there

Most importantly though, thanks for peer pressuring us into running the San Francisco half marathon with you. (I commit this to paper/blog so that in a few weeks, when I start cursing you and your crazy idea(s), I will be able to point to this post and prove that I have absolutely no will power when it comes to Cubans and their orders and I felt totally peer pressured to do this).

Thanks Cubana ;)

competitive nature

also, i just noted that chilena has already completed her run and is now leading the nike challenge. i need to take care of business asap.

this one's for you, hal

so i am sitting here in my running clothes, continuing to postpone today's (actually yesterday's) 3.5mi run. this is a favorite trick of mine, this throwing on running clothes and then sitting around the house thinking of reasons why i should continue lounging at home routine. today, i keep telling myself i should just do ooooone more essay before i get up and go. this has gone on for about 2 hrs now. i will note, however, that the last essay i did involved a co-conspirator named HAL. i think it's a sign. im OUT! :)

good idea/bad idea?

ok so yes, i think creating a blog to chronicle our training (or lack thereof) shows questionable judgment, at best. i am, after all, an unemployed bum who is supposed to be making much better use of her time. BUT, at the same time--i thought maybe it could be fun! and motivating! and funny? so we shall see. anywho, 8:53 and still no run yet. OOPSIE. (sorry hal!). its just so damn hot out. i was literally waiting for the temp to drop below 90 degrees and we just FINALLY slipped down to a cool 88. so i think i am going to reschedule today's 3.5 for tomorrow morning when it is only like 85 degrees. hopefully my radioactive red legs will not shrivel up or burst spontaneously into flames when i allow them to see the sun tomorrow morning. again, we shall see.