Land of the Lost- Sunday, January 30

So what started out as a nice Sunday run and a chance to explore Bernal Heights ended up being an exercise in what you need to do next time you go for a long run in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

I chugged up Cortland from Mission. Cortland is the main artery of Bernal Heights. I knew there was a park somewhere so my original plan was to go through that park and head back on Folsom. As I went down Cortland a little more, I did see Folsom. However, going in one direction I was at a dead end and the park was straight up a hill and the other direction was somewhere I didn't know. I practically spent a good 10 to 15 minutes chugging around hills and going down random streets to find something familiar. I did find where Alemany is and on Saturdays it's a Farmers Market and Sundays its a flea market. After chugging up a few more streets, I did find my way back to Cortland and back on Mission to Valencia back home.

My run this morning didn't start off too well. First of all, the heart rate monitor was acting wierd. Then I had to totally layer because I couldn't go out in a short sleeve shirt. Then I forgot to turn on the milage meter which in this case, I can't measure how far I ran or what pace I was running. So much for that.

Here are my measly stats:
Total time: 1:12:18 (1 hour and 12 minutes)
Average heart rate: 134 beats per minute
Time in heart rate zone: 16:42 beats per minute
Time above heart rate zone: 9:20 beats per minute
Time below heart rate zone: 43:40 beats per minute

Next time: have some sort of direction and a MUNI fast pass. I got so lost that even the MUNI buses and their number routes don't look familiar. Now that is truly lost.

Blorange- Saturday, January 29

I decided to give blorange a try. It's a pace group faster than orange. Actually I did pretty well. I knew a few people in there like Bill and Nina. It was a good pace where I can still talk to them if I wanted to but had me concentrate most of the time. I did five miles. The rest of the group was doing 10 or so miles. Good thing was that I had two other people with me to run the rest of the 5 miles. Bad thing was that I didn't have an interval timer for walk breaks so basically I was running probably a good mile or so at a fast pace. Comes to explain that I was a little worn out in the afternoon and feeling a tad sore behind my left knee. But blorange it will be for me.

Stats:
Total time: 55:09.31 minutes
Total milage: 3.95 miles (I think it might be off since there might be some times where I didn't get a reading like in Chrissy Field)
Average heart rate: 149 beats per minute
Time in heart rate zone: 9:30 minutes
Time above zone: 6:49 minutes
Time below zone: 22:13 minutes
Best pace: 8:51 minutes per mile
Average pace: 13:58 minutes per mile

Rats! Friday, January 28

So here I was, ready to head on to the track where it rained on the way there. When I got off the bus and headed there, it was rather cold even though I had on several layers. The track was slippery wet, most of the flood lights were not on and nobody was there. I dared not run on it since there were only two runners there walking gingerly. The track isn't one of those dirt ones but has some sort of covering that is slippery when wet. So off to the market for food.

It's Like Raaaain!!! Thursday, January 27

Today was the first night for Thursday night runs for SFRRC. The club decided to switch the runs starting from Marina Green from Tuesdays to Thursdays since track workouts used to be Thursdays and it didn't give people that much time to recover for Saturday long runs. There was a nice group- Rod, Bill, Emily, Michelle, Lisa (a newbie), one other person, me and Kate. It started to rain once we headed out of the green into Fort Mason and around Aquatic Park to Chestnut Street to the Presidio and back over. I totally felt refreshed and cleansed during the run but waiting for the bus and sitting on the way home on the 49 Van Ness literally made my teeth chatter. I was so happy to jump into a hot shower and eat a hot meal.

Here are the stats:
Total time: 59:56.83 minutes
Total milage: 4.98 miles
Average heart rate: 136 beats per minute
Average pace: 12:02 minute per mile
Best pace: 9:17 minute per mile
Time in heart rate zone: 12:39 minutes (wrong zones- I was in temp mode zone)
Time above zones: 0 minutes
Time below zones: 46:30 minutes

Rest Day- Wednesday, January 26

Originally I was supposed to do a track workout. However with the weather reports of chances of rain and that I stayed up a little late to pound out a scholarship essay, I decided to sleep in.

Over the 19th Street Hills and Dales- Tuesday, January 25

So I decided to go up and down 19th Street from my place to where it crosses Market Street. Part of me wanted to go see what Castelli Street was like during the day. I also found an open space around 19th Street past Douglass but it wasn't a park. There were some small and steep trails where I needed a good pair of trail shoes so I decided not to go exploring over there and just went ahead and ran.

Here are my stats:
Total time: 50:52.21 minutes
Total miles: 4.18 miles
Average heart rate: 147 beats per minute
Average pace: 12:10 minutes per mile
Time in heart rate zone: 6:51 minutes
Time above heart rate zone: 6:20 minutes per mile
Time below heart rate zone: 36:18 minutes per mile
Best pace: 8:36 minutes per mile

Diet note: I had a chocolate chip cookie after dinner and I swear, I felt really gross and sluggish. Maybe it's the detox.

Nothing like a long run to the beach- Monday, January 24

Synopsis: I decided to go out to the beach because that's a place where I would go to run when things in my life are pretty shitty. Today happened to be the day after I spent a lot of time mourning the death of my relationship with my ex. Honestly, after last night, it is just plain dead. No communication, no interaction, nada...I won't go on anymore. So basically I just ran from my house, using the usual path I would take on my bike to Golden Gate Park except I went through the Panhandle and just ran down JFK Drive until I got to Ocean Beach and ran a bit from JFK Drive to Judah where I caught the N line home.

Here are the stats:
Total time: 1:15:23 (I had to get some water; forgot to adequately hydrate before leaving- doh!)
Total milage: 6.55 miles
Average heart rate: 149 beats per minute
Average pace: 11:31 minutes per mile
Time in heart rate zone: 5:47 minutes
Time above heart rate zone: 5:35 minutes
Time below heart rate zone: 59:10 minutes (did I put it in the wrong zones to start out with?)
Best pace: 8:53 minutes per mile

Diet notes: Need to find a place where I can find healthy Chinese food. Fried tofu and string beans at Yum Yum House isn't what I expected.