2013 Goofy Challenge Training: Week 0 – Building Baseline

I’ve been trying to establish my running baseline so I know where I am at and am able to see the improvement during the course of the training.   It is always fun to look back and realized how far you have become which will boost your confidence and sometimes pick you back up from the slump days during the course of your training.

I also just try to be active again and get used with the routine.    After a few months off, it seems really hard to get back to the routine that I used to have and I want to at least have that before my official training start.

Here’s what I’ve been doing in the last 2 weeks:

Friday 6/22

I was off from work, so I decided after I dropped the girls to their school, I’m going to run 5k around the neighborhood.  I started very slow, and use 3-1 ration for my run/walk.    I wasn’t happy with this run, as I was struggling the entire time and did not enjoy it a bit.  I think part of it was I ran too fast.   I pace myself on the comfortable pace that I used to be not the one I have now.   So half way through, I was really struggling.   I completed the entire 5k though with 42.47.

Saturday 6/23

I woke up sore and didn’t feel like running.   Thankfully, my husband said something about it and I wasn’t going to quit it so I put my running shoes and go out for run.   I ran around the neighborhood again, same route.  This time, I paced it really slow.   I went through the first 3 miles without even thinking, and decided to ran a bit more.   Completed 3.73 with 52.42

Tuesday 6/26

I had this headache since the morning and it just stayed the entire day!  I almost didn’t go for a run, but my running date, Elysia, call me out on it and I was supposed to meet her at 6:30pm.   So I put my shoes on as soon as I got home, and met her.   We ran at the neighborhood for 5k.  It was fun to run with someone and I actually chatted with her the entire time and didn’t think about the time or distance.   There were a few times in the first miles that I felt my chest was tight due to my breathing, but it went away.   Overall, I had a good run!   Completed 3.17miles for 44.32

Thursday  6/28

I absolutely had no motivation to go for a run.  In fact, I pleaded to the husband with excuses and such, and basically told him that I was just going upstairs and rest.   He didn’t really fight me on it and I had my mind made to just rest.   I sat next to my 4 years old on the couch and she gave me this look.  I asked her what’s with the look, and she said ‘Mama, if you don’t go out for a run, I’m not proud of you‘   I was like.. WHA?  So, I put on my running shoes and gear, dragged my behind to the gym.   I was’t in the mood to run outside, as it started to rain a bit.   I grumbled for the first 10 minutes on the treadmill, but then I found my rhythm.   I tried to run faster, but that just ruined it – so I dropped my interval to 2-1.  I finished 3.16 miles in 35.43 and came home to my baby girl who said ” I’m sooo proud of you, mama”.

Saturday  6/30

I woke up feeling crabby.  I slept way too late and I didn’t feel like going anywhere as usual.   Good thing for peer pressure and public accountability, cause I didn’t feel like finding an excuse that acceptable to skip it.    The husband was busy with some work issues, so I head out to the trail myself.   As I parked the car, I realized how much I miss the trail!.   I haven’t been there since last year!   The weather is somewhat warm, but comfortable.   There are many trees on that trail, so I never had to deal with direct sunlight on a sunny day.   I set up my running app and did 2-1 ratio today per Jeff Galloway‘s advice.   I was fortunate that early this year, he gave me his email address after TinkerBell Half so I can ask him questions.   Pretty awesome, huh?   I finished 4.07 miles in 54.39 minutes and felt great afterwards.

Conclusions

I am out of shape.   That’s my conclusions.  My baseline is not even close with what I thought I should be, but hey, that’s what training for, right?   I definitely need to include strength training in the upcoming weeks, but I can’t schedule anything yet with my trainer.  I will, however, vow to do it at least once a week at home or at the gym.

2013 Goofy Race and Half Challenge

Yes, I know.   I’m kinda lame for not writing anything in the last, oh I don’t know, few months.   I mentioned my upcoming races a few posts ago, but never really update on how I did, or if I actually did it.   I had to skip Vancouver Half Marathon race due to some family emergency, but the truth of the matter is, I was somewhat glad that I didn’t go as I was not prepared at all for that race.   Double lame, I know.

Well, lame no more.   I finally get out from the rut that I am in and getting myself ready for my next adventure.   Something that I always thought crazy and would never do that in my wildest dream (that’s what I said about full marathon) but I’m going to give it a try anyway.

I’m going to do Disneyworld Goofy Race and a Half Challenge, which is a Half Marathon on Saturday Jan 12, 2013, follow by Full Marathon on Sunday, Jan 13, 2013

Yes, you read that right.  A half marathon, follow by a full marathon the next day.

Why?  Same reason I climbed Mt. Rainier or finished Full Marathon.   Because I can.   Because a year and a half ago, I would never dream that I have the ability or a chance to accomplish all this wonderful things.  Because a year and a half ago, I was too busy trying to be healthy again.

My goal for this race is simply to finish, upright and smiling and not be the last one cross the finish line if I can help it.   It would help if I don’t injure myself during the training, or not having sprained ankle during the race.

My official training will start on July 3, 2012.   I will be following Jeff Galloway 28-Weeks program for Goofy Race and a Half Challenge and I know that I will have a bad day, have-no-motivation day, or just i-want-to-quit-training-because-this-is-crazy day.    However, I am putting this out there for accountability and request for support from my tweeps, my SQL Family and any other runner out there.   I’ll be blogging my training every week, tweet and Facebook my whiny update.    I’m relying to my social network to help me get through this and I have an awesome circle of friends that will talk-smack me or nagging me relentlessly if I purposely skip my run (Hai Erin and Jes, yes – I’m talking about you)

This week – I’m just trying to get my baseline back.   Turn out after a couple months of no run at all, you get so stiff after a couple days of short run.   I know I will get there again.   Slowly.  I also have got to learn to be patience.    Ha.  Go on, laugh.   Let me just say that patience is not my strong suit.

Oh, I also registered myself to Disneyland Half Marathon in September 2, 2012 with Brent Ozar and Kendra Little as part of the training.  Not because it’s required, but because it’s fun and I get to do this with my awesome friends.   Brent blogged about it here.

There it is.  It’s out on the interwebs.   I am committed.

Let’s do this.

SQL Cruise – The good, the best and the awesome

In about a month, I’ll be joining a handful of data professionals to attend a wonderful event called SQL Cruise.   Yes, as you guessed from the name, this event is happening on board a cruise ship and not only we are going to enjoy the wonderful view of Alaska’s mountains, but we are also going to have excellent speakers with fabulous content, as well as fantastic networking opportunities between the attendees.

So what’s so special about this event that keeps me coming back every year?

Let start with the speakers AND the content.   Check out this list.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Pretty awesome, huh?   Not only you will have top notch content from these speakers, you have their full attention in-between sessions for any issues/challenges you are currently have in your environment.  It is a ship, we are at sea, they can’t really get away from you 🙂 It could be that performance issue you’ve been dealing with in the last few months, or some architecture challenge you are about to embark on, or even just a career advise.   There’s no rushing between one session to another.   The speakers are available to you in between sessions and that is so valuable.  Even if they duck out to the coffee shop, it is still on the ship.  Don’t tell them, but they are really trapped and you get to exploit that, in a good way!

Next are the attendees.  Check out the list for this upcoming cruise.   Pretty impressive list, yes?   I know, I am on that list but think about the variety of backgrounds these attendees come from and how awesome it is to be exchange experience, or discuss some challenge from someone that has been there and done that.   Real world problems, with real world answers.   I have to say, this my favorite part.   I made friends on a personal level from this event more than just a professional peer (Karen, Erin – I’m looking at both of you).   Now we run races together, discuss baseline performance collection or integrity of the data or just simply be there for each other.  You can come away from this cruise with new professional contacts and personal peers to bounce ideas off of.  It is phenomenal, and a networking opportunity that you really can find in no other venue compressed in a short cycle of time!

You might even see double rainbow!

Last but not least.  The cruise itself.   All you can eat buffet, phenomenal views of the Alaskan coast and mountains, never-ending entertainment (beyond your SQL peeps) and excursions while you are not soaking the knowledge or picking up some smarts from these speakers.   Do I need to say more?  Win win and win again.  Really, if you add it all up, the value of this cruise and what you can bring back from it are without comparison.

There is still room if you are interested.   It is very affordable considering the value that you are getting.   If you have a +1, start talking to your partner/spouse and pitch it to them, then pitch it to your boss.   If you solo, just run it up the flagpole with the boss.  If you need help of how to pitch it to your manager, Tim Ford has brochure/fliers and all the former attendee are a tweet away and I’m pretty sure you can gather many input from them.   If you are not in twitter — you have no idea what you are missing!

Managers – these section is for you.

I know you probably think – there’s NO WAY that I am sending my people to training in a cruise.  They won’t learn anything.  They will be out partying.   I’m not spending my training budget for THAT.   I know what you mean.   See – I’m in a management myself.   I have to be wise with my training budget on where I want it to go and how I think my team can benefit the most and what kind of value the company is going to get in return.   I’m accountable for that return on investment as I have to stand in front of my own  boss and set the expectation of what kind of value that we as a company will get by going to variety of these training/event and I choose very wisely.   There are many fantastic training opportunities throughout the year and this event absolutely high on my list.

My husband, John, wrote a post that went more detail about this two years ago.   He was an IT Managers for years and responsible of DBA team and training budget as well and if you still have doubt this event, go ahead and read it here.

If that still doesn’t convince you, and you still have doubts, please free to contact me directly and I am more than happy to share my experience to you.  Not just as a data processional, but from the management point of view.    No, I am not being paid by SQL Cruise to say and do this.   They still invoice me for the training and I have to pay the cruise just like anybody else.   If anything, I am doing it from my own benefit because the more people attend, the more *I* get to interact with them and exchange experience.

Lastly, this event is made possible for you  by some awesome sponsors.  They are the reason why it’s so affordable.   SQL Sentry, Brent Ozar PLF, Quest, Idera and Redgate — thank YOU for your continuous support to make this event possible for the community.   You. Are. Awesome.

The countdown has begun.   All aboard!

Back to Training. New Race Scheduled

It’s been two weeks since my TinkerBell Half-Marathon and it’s time to get off the couch.   What?  You don’t think I will stop after a full marathon AND two half-marathon, right?

I’m not going to go back to do Mt. Rainier summit attempt this year as I explain in my previous post, so I have to fill my year with some goal I can work towards to and even though my husband started to tempt me with Triathlon event, I’m going to pass as I am not really a good swimmer.  And I rarely ride a bike.

Anyway, I have have registered for another two race this year, and planned to register for the third race as soon as the registration open.   They are Vancouver Half-Marathon on May 6 and  Disneyland Half-Marathon on Sept 2.    I will blog about my third race as soon as I registered and committed to it.   For now, let just say – I might do another one towards the end of the year.

My training started yesterday and I will blog my weekly recap as usual.

The best part about this race?   I’m going to do it with my close friends.   Both of my bridesmaid from my wedding, who also a great friends of mine, Mindy Rose and Marisa Madrid are going to run Vancouver Half with me, on top of that, Ryan Malcom (t) is joining us for the fun.   This will be Mindy and Ryan’s first half-marathon and Marisa’s second.   I’m excited to share this experience with them!

For Disneyland Half, two of my awesome friends, Brent Ozar (t) and Kendra Little (t) are joining me on this fun.  Brent is trying to recruit more people from SQL Community to join us on this race as he blogged it here.

So, my awesome reader – if you are thinking about doing a half-marathon and want to do that with a friend, this is your chance.   Join me in either of this race and we’ll have some fun together.  If this is your first half-marathon and you aren’t sure if you can do it, or pick which training plan to use, I can help you.   I had a lot of help (and still do!)  and this is my way to pay it forward.    Disclaimer – I’m not a coach, or a trainer, however, I am a good training buddy.   I can be your person to whine, brag, complaint and cry about your run as long as you don’t mind to be mine.   It’s going to be awesome, because we are awesome.

Put on your running shoes, and let’s do this together.

2012 Climb For Clean Air

Last year, on my climb recap, I vowed to be part of 2012 Climb for Clean Air event again and give Mt. Rainier another try.   I love the mountain so much and I am a big supporter with American Lung Association effort and this event is the best of the both world for me.   I get to climb the mountain that I adore so much and be part of an amazing event for a good cause.

This year is also mark as 25 years anniversary of this event, which made it even special and my mind was set to be part of this amazing event again.

Then life happened.

My family are my biggest supporter.   Without the support from my husband, I would have serious hard time to accomplished things the way I did.   Last year, we trained together and weekend after weekend, we drove 2 hours to the mountain so we can hiked for 8 hours and head home (well, he drove, I napped).   It was wonderful and awesome.

There are certain health challenges that we are facing recently and my husband is heading in to some surgery with about a month recovery time, and there were absolutely no way we can squeeze in an appropriate training with that short period of time and the last thing you want is to go up there without proper training.   So we decided this year, something gotta’ give.   We are not going to be part of the event for this year and will be looking forward for the opportunity to be part of it next year.  The mountain is not going anywhere and it always welcome and challenge us to give it another try.

For those who want to know more about this event, feel free to contact me.   If you want to give mountaineering a try and want to take on challenge to summit the mountain, this is an awesome event to be part of.   Their reach to the summit program give you flexibility to choose between four mountain; Mt. Rainier (14,410ft), Mt. Hood (11,239ft), Mt. Adams (12,276ft) and Grand Teton (13,770ft).   I proudly stood on the summit of three of those mountains (Rainier, Hood and Adams) and I can tell you this, it was absolutely amazing experience.   They will have professional guide service and you are not required to have certain pre-requisite mountaineering skills (you kinda have to be somewhat fit tho).

Me at 9000ft

This picture was taken around 9,000ft and is my favorite picture of me in the mountain.   It was a phenomenal day and a great reminder of why I love this mountain so much (I did look happy, yes?).    We might still take occasional hike up to the Camp Muir during the summer or to the surrounding lower peaks.   Would love to have other people in this awesome SQL Family to join us one of these days.

2013 Climb for Clean Air — watch out for us!

Until next year.