So, in order to keep our Cockalier Spaniel, Pumpkin, in shape, I started running her in the mornings around our neighborhood just over 3 years ago. What started as a few miles a week turned into going out with her 3 or 4 times a week on courses between 5 and 7 miles. And as I’ve already blogged in other posts, she’s the 2010 Puppy Love 5K champion, and 2011 3rd place finisher, even though she shaved over 4 minutes off her 5K time.

Well, back in November, I had the last minute offer, from AJ, to transfer his bib to me for Coronado Silver Strand Half. I was always curious if I could run that far, especially since I was already “training” with Pumpkin, so I accepted the challenge. I ran that race, Pumpkin-free, having never run over 8 miles in my life, and still got a 1:46 time. The course is mainly straight, fast and downhill, and I got leg cramps at mile 11, and vowed to never do one of those again, but as my memory of the “pain” faded, I started to get the itch again.

This time, it would be different. What pulled me through on my first half was my routine of 3 runs a week (usually between 15~20 miles total) and doing Zumba with Laetitia on my off days, which she teaches at the Carmel Valley Boys and Girls Club, Polster Branch. Unknowingly, I was in a pretty good cross-training program for fitness maintenance, but not really for training for a half. I decided that I would see how I could do with actually following a training program.

So, with my favorite tools, Lose It for iPhone and Runkeeper, I would track my calories, nutrition and fitness activities. I would follow the @MarathonGuru training schedule, which would introduce the concept of strides, intervals and long distances into my training, and also mix in some weight lifting using Chalene Extreme and our adjustable Bowflex dumbells.

I committed in mid-January, and found several immediate challenges. The first was running slow. @MarathonGuru could not emphasize enough that on the days designated as slow, I’d need to keep a pace down, even under 9:00, to allow my body to recover from previous runs, as well as build me up to longer distances. Also, I decided I could not take Pumpkin on any runs over 7 miles, so I’d have to do a make-up walk for her or have Laetitia cover on days of longer distances.

Challenges that came along later were scheduling. I had a trip to visit my parents, so I substituted a shorter run where they live on a day that was really supposed to be my first 14-miler. Also, I had the 2011 Puppy 5K, which was completely off program, since I had this extra 5K sprint where I was supposed to have another distance run. Finally, in March, I started getting leg pain, so it was very difficult to want to take the time off of exercise to heal. I would substitute shorter runs or go to Zumba instead, when maybe I should have stayed off the leg? I eventually reduced my Zumba attendance to almost nothing in April, and cut out the last 2 long runs.

On race day, I just had a primary goal to not walk at any point and feel better at the finish line than I did at Silver Strand. I didn’t let the fact that people passed me force my pace above what I was comfortable with, and ended up setting a new personal record: 1:43:15, which beats the Silver Strand time on a much more challenging course.

I am not registered for another race; don’t know if I will. I have had kind of an itch to knock out a full Marathon at least once in my lifetime, but I’m going to roll back my runs to recovery mode, get back into enjoying Zumba and dancing, and running with Pumpkin, since that’s how this all started in the first place.

The photo attached to this post Laetitia took at Brockton Villa, which is where she watched me come in at the final stretch (YouTube Video) . She had already ordered my post-race breakfast, Mexican steamers, and I walked from the finish line straight there. We then drove from La Jolla to pick up some Sprinkles. Now that’s a great reward!

In case you want to know what my training schedule was:
Mondays: Morning Slow Run, Evenings Zumba
Tuesdays: Morning Intervals, Weights, Evenings Zumba
Wednesdays: Mornings Intervals, Evenings Rest
Thursdays: Mornings Walk, Weights, Evenings Zumba
Fridays: Mornings Slow Run, Evenings Rest
Saturdays: Long Runs, Evenings Rest
Sundays: Complete Rest!

My new maintenance plan will be:
Mondays: 3 miles with Pumpkin, Zumba with Laetitia
Tuesdays: 30 min walk Pumpkin, Weights, Zumba with Laetitia
Wednesdays: 5 miles with Pumpkin, Evening Rest
Thursdays: 30 min walk Pumpkin, Zumba with Laetitia
Fridays: 7 miles with Pumpkin, Occasional Zumba
Saturdays: Zumba with Laetitia, 9 miles alone
Sundays: Complete Rest!
Maybe I’ll sub in a 12 or 13 on a Saturday here and there.

Thanks to all for cheers of support during this process!

Pumpkin was a good sport as usual, just happy to be outside with us, and opposed to last year’s rain, this year was cool and sunny. We were able to get a spot at the front of the pack, and after the start, we found ourselves in the lead pack of about 10 runners or so. Two or three started to break even further away almost immediately.

At about the the halfway mark, some of the leaders started slowing down; some of the four-leggers even had to drop for a bathroom break! We moved around them and found ourselves in the top 4.

In the last stretch to the finish line, we overtook number 3, but I could see that 1 and 2 had left us all in the dust (see the video here). Even though final place was 3rd for us, we were really happy to find out our time was 21:11, which is 3:11 faster than last year!

I was spent, but Pumpkin had enough energy to spare for some agility jumps, tunnels and hoops while we waited for awards.

I’m really proud of her, and we’re also thankful to our supporters, who raised $300 for the animal center, which according to the website, made Pumpkin the top 5 fundraiser

Thanks to Laetitia for taking the pictures and video!

Anyway, it was really fun to run with her and a lot of other dogs and people. It was good for her to be around all the activity and still able to do tricks and obey commands, even if only for a couple moments. She even charmed the news weatherman with some of her sit-up-and-beg while he reported her results on KUSI live, and people loved my Puma-style Pumpkin shirt (thanks Laetitia). So, the video and all the pictures are up, and I’m hoping we can find a similar event, since Pumpkin keeps me running almost every morning!

If you want to help the animals here, then here’s your chance to do it through TEAM PUMPKIN! Hopefully, we’ll get lots of pictures and stuff, and at the very least, set a baseline time for us to try to beat next year

Anyway, Lose It! now supports adding friends so you can track and encourage each other (website), so if anyone downloads the app and wants to get serious, you can add me as porfitron(at)yahoo.com.

I started off this Sunday with a goal to trim of 7 lbs by early February, so anyone else is welcome to hop on the bandwagon.

As you can see, they are very excited to see Laetitia in the morning:

Video was captured on the Flip MinoHD, and then muxed to MKV/H.264/AAC for streaming through the DivX Plus Web Player.

Every time we take Pumpkin home after seeing them, she is completely wiped out… wiggling her tail around them must be exhausting!

This video has two audio tracks: track one (AAC) is the sound that was captured by the camera, and track two (MP3) is some Holiday music. After you click play, you can switch tracks by clicking the icon in the lower right of the DivX Plus Web Player (or by right-click), and switch them under “Audio tracks”. Also, don’t forget you can display in full screen. This video is an H.264/MKV video from an HD source, which is why I was able to stream it through the DivX Plus Web Player.

Sorry for the shaky camera work, but I was walking, filming, and trying to enjoy at the same time.

The format by default is H.264/MP4, but I remuxed the file to MKV, so I could post it using the DivX Plus Web Player, which supports H.264/AAC/MKV – remuxing only takes seconds and doesn’t affect the video quality at all, so this should be a fair assessment of the quality you’ll get from the Flip MinoHD if you’re thinking of getting one.

Meanwhile, Pumpkin, Laetitia and I say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!