Posted on Dec 22, 2009 under Random |
I was contacted by an editor from Archie Grand, a notebook publishing company in Sweden. From his email, it sounded like he used to be a runner, but now with three kids (and probably many years later), he doesn’t run much anymore. As a thank you, he offered to send me one of his notebooks, Runners I Met And Liked. It was a very nice gesture and like always, I am very thankful for it. If you go to the site, you’ll see that they make these small notebooks with random “[type of person] I Met and Liked” notebooks. These are pretty nice notebooks: the paper is really thick and the binding and cover is very sturdy and smooth. But it’s so nice; I don’t want to waste the pages on just anything. I used to have a notebook to write down my runs, but then went digital and posted them online. Also during my first half training, I wrote down some of my splits during intervals. I’m still thinking about what would be the best use of this really cool notebook.
Runners I Met And Liked
Writing about this book gave me the idea to talk about running in 2009. I ran for a short time in 2008, but it just got too hard and I wasn’t really motivated or had much support. I tried again early this year and was on a running forum and someone mentioned a website where you can post your runs and talk to other runners. Runners on DailyMile were very supportive and provided me with that bit of motivation needed to keep me running. That, integrated with Twitter really got me into running and racing for the first time in years helped push me over the top. Since then, I have ran 3 5K’s (including an AG win), a 10K and my very first half marathon. That half marathon was my greatest achievement to date; I never thought I would be able to race that many miles. With that under my belt, I know that a full marathon is just around the corner (Rock n’ Roll San Diego). I have quite a few half marathons planned throughout 2010, admission into the Brooks I.D. program and like I just said, my first full marathon.
I’m not necessarily going to name runners that I met and liked, mostly because I haven’t really met any runners, per se. I have gotten to know, received support, and talked to many runners in 2009 from: DailyMile, Twitter, blogs, forums, Meetup.com and Nikeplus.com. I probably wouldn’t still be running today if it weren’t for all of the people from these great places. I have also received many running products from some generous companies for me to test and review. Although that is very nice of these companies, I have to say that getting to know all the runners is the best gift I can ask for. I feel very thankful this holiday season; I know not everyone can say the same. It has been a very tough year (economically) with so much happening around the world; you’d think it’d never stop. 2010 is a new decade, which can mean many things: a new year, new job, new running season and just a fresh start all-around. Hopefully everyone enjoys their Christmas and New Years to get 2010 started off right.
Keep on running!!
SDrunner
Posted on Dec 20, 2009 under Reviews |
The Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10 won Runner’s World “Best Update” award in the Winter 2010 Shoe Guide in its December 2009 issue. Read on to find out why..
As part of the Brooks I.D. (Inspire Daily) sponsored athlete program, I am required to race and train in Brooks gear and apparel. But I also enjoy a 40% discount on said products, so it’s a win-win situation for both sides. I was well overdue for a new pair of running shoes (over 500-600 miles on my New Balance 768), so I started to review and look at potential Brooks running shoes to choose next. I had my feet and running form analyzed courtesy of Road Runner Sports and found out I had normal pronation (but feels more like over pronation) and needed a pair of stability shoes. I was deciding between the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10 and Trance 9, but when I tried on the Adrenaline 10, I knew I was sold. I didn’t know a pair of running shoes could feel so comfortable! On a side note, my brother had his feet looked at (on a different occasion) and was really interested in the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10’s as well. What are the odds? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Dec 16, 2009 under running |
“You have been accepted into the Brooks Inspire Daily Program!”
“Brooks I.D. stands for Inspire Daily. These two simple words guide the principles of the program. Brooks I.D. is made up of over 2,000 members who are active in their running communities and share a passion for the Brooks brand. They are runners who are winners in their own right: Winning their age divisions, accomplishing their personal goals, pushing their own limits, and, by extension, encouraging others to do the same. They are coaches, mentors, and leaders.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Dec 15, 2009 under Reviews |
I was sent a much needed new running wardrobe (a long time ago..) from lululemon athletica to test and review. Before getting the tech tee and running shorts, I would usually wear a plain white (cotton) tee and basketball shorts for all my runs. It actually wasn’t that bad, I didn’t really have any issues with them before. I know other runners sometimes will have issues like chaffing when running longer miles which I can only assume is quite uncomfortable. And as far as running with basketball shorts, I do agree that they were a little on the heavy side and had no safe place to store keys or other personal belongings. I probably could have survived without actual running shorts and a shirt. But these are just little things that can help make a big difference in the long run (literally and figuratively). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Dec 07, 2009 under Race |
I know I’m a little late with this post, but with Thanksgiving dinner, Black Friday and the first week at my a new job, it has been really hard keeping up with the blog. But I can’t put this off any longer and I am way overdue on all of my product reviews. I admit I did contact some companies, but there is a good amount of stuff where companies contacted me on their own (which I am always grateful for), and it’s too hard to say no to free stuff.
Anyways, back to running: the 5K Turkey Trot was about a week and a half after my first half marathon, the Silver Strand Half Marathon. The 13th Annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Run was a very small race for 2K, 3K & 5K distances. It pretty much was a local race, but it was the nearest one to my LA house, and cheap enough to pay the day of the race. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Nov 16, 2009 under Race |
I just completed my first half marathon, the Silver Strand Half Marathon and the main takeaway I got from running my first half marathon: it’s very hard!! While I was waiting in line to use the restroom, a guy was talking to another guy about how on his last half marathon he said, “Man this is really tough, but I’m almost done. When I finally finished, I thought to myself, wow, I would have only been HALF done if this were a full marathon.” My thoughts exactly. First let’s get to the overall results on the half marathon: 1:38 (6:52, 6:41, 6:48, 6:44, 6:46, 6:47, 7:08, 7:36, miles 10-13.1: SLOW). Placing: 14th in my age group (20-24) out of 72, 181 out of 2600+ overall. It’s sad that I was on pace to hit my goal of sub-1:30, but then just flopped at the end. I’m not going to let that discourage me from running additional half marathons and dare I say, a full marathon!
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Posted on Nov 09, 2009 under Training |
It’s been a while since I wrote a post about my half marathon training, the good thing is that I have still been running and training (for the most part). It’s not necessarily due to laziness, but I just had to attend to other very important things that were going on in my life, outside of running. It is fairly safe to say that I will be able to focus on running again (maybe even more than before) very soon, if not in the near future.
There are some cool stats in DailyMile: TVs Powered, Gas Saved and best of all, Donuts Burned!
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Posted on Oct 28, 2009 under Random |
I’ve always wanted to create a running quotes page (link also on the top of the blog..), but just never had the time to find all the good ones and compile into one list, and I still don’t.
After my first year of running cross country, I had one of the senior XC captains (also a friend of my older brother) sign my yearbook. What he said was pretty encouraging and got me to train really hard that summer and improve that very next cross country season.
My old high school cross country coach did this thing at the end of the season where he got a picture of each of the runners from a race, wrote something about that runner, framed it and gave them as gifts during our cross country banquet. And behind that frame, he wrote a more personal note that only the runner got to read, I decided to share what my coach said to me.
I’m hoping I could think of more of these types of quotes, if not, at least put up some other ones that I remember from high school cross country or even now. I do get daily running quotes from Runner’s World, it shouldn’t be too hard.
Maybe this will help encourage others to either start running again or continue to train and work hard at whatever they’re trying to achieve.
Posted on Oct 21, 2009 under Random |
This is what my business card would look like if running was my job.
If running really was a job that I got paid for doing rather than just a hobby/obsession that I do on the side of my actual job, then I would be able to do all the things that professional athletes and coaches suggest to do as a runner. What I mean is, there is so much great advice from other runners and articles in magazines and online that will give you tips on how to be a better runner, but who really has the time to do all of that? From what I have read from runners on twitter, DailyMile and on blogs, it does seem like a fair amount of people do dedicate a lot of time to running, but for others (like myself), it’s hard to be able to follow through on all of the great advice that other runners provide. With that being said, if I actually got paid to run and could focus on it 24/7, I would do/focus all of the following:
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Posted on Oct 19, 2009 under Reviews |
I was sent an awesome care package from POM Wonderful to try out and review some (a lot actually) of their POM products. I’ve actually never tried anything from POM before, probably because it’s more of a luxury item and a little too expensive for me, even though I have always loved pomegrantes. But who is going to give up the chance for complementary POM products, so here goes. Before I get into the review, here is an interesting quote I found from their website. “In China, a picture of a ripe, open pomegranate is a popular wedding present, expressing the wish ‘May you have as many children as there are seeds!’”
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