Exotic Animal Siting on a Run Through Chino Hills

Apr 232011
 

I’ve grown up and lived in Chino Hills for almost my entire life.  And all of my running, biking and swimming has taken place in other cities.  This past week; however, I have been running through my hometown . . . and you’d be amazed at the type of things you encounter when you run through the town that you call home.

Can you guess what my favorite animal is?  I’ll give you a hint.  The first three letters of the animals name matches mine . . . This is Zeb writing by the way.  Have you guessed it yet?  No???  Man, you’re slow.  Ok, this animal also has black and white stripes all over it and looks like a horse.  Wow, finally you guessed it.  Don’t think you’re some kind of genius now.

Anyways, I thought Zebras only lived in Africa, or at that zoo.  I had no idea that Zebras actually lived in my hometown, but they do.  And it was awesome.  When I went to take it’s picture it was standing about 15 feet away from me, but as soon as it realized that I was taking its picture, it came right up next to the fence to pose for a picture. 

Running has it’s advantages, as you are likely to encounter things that you would not normally see.  For me, I was able to see my favorite animal up close, like I had never seen one before.

Chino Hills Zebra

Joined Up With Some New Runners: Rocky Duran and Chris Sydow

Apr 192011
 

It had been months in the making, but we finally added “some color” to The Running Brothers team.  Several months ago, I told my friend Rocky Duran about our website as we had played soccer for over a year together and actually won the championships together the year before.  He decided to quit soccer in order to train for the L.A. Marathon, but we were able to still keep in touch through Facebook and get together to play some golf every once in a while.  For whatever reason, our schedules never meshed, but we talked about running frequently and finally, yesterday, we did it.

We ran about 5.5 miles up and down some pretty decent sized hills, which was some good training.  Yesterday was the first day I was able to run in my new shoes and man, what a difference!  My knee did not hurt me at all during the 5.5 mile run which gave me hope that I would be able to complete the Orange County Marathon on May 1.  When I did the half marathon in February, my knee began hurting after the third mile and I haven’t been able to run farther than that since then.  But, today I ran 5.5 miles with no discomfort whatsoever. 

With that in mind, my goal for the upcoming marathon will be to complete it in under 4 hours.  My half marathon time was 2:04, but, like I said earlier, the only thing that was slowing me down was my knee.  I really think that if me knee were not in so much pain, my time would have been much faster.  I’ll be eager to see what my time will be in the OC Marathon, but one thing is for sure . . . I will be going all out.

I’m not exactly sure what Rocky meant by “some color,” I think it’s because he thinks that he’s a really funny guy.  Rocky is such a colorful character.  Rocky, Chris and I were able to talk for most of the run, about business, about life and about running.  Overall, it was a great time as we ran through the hills of Chino Hills.  We talked about running together in the future, although, I’m not sure that I can keep up.   They say that they frequently run more than 10 miles on the weekends and that seems pretty intense, but I’ll give it a shot.

We Went and Bought New Running Shoes – Saucony Progrid Ride 3’s

Apr 182011
 

My brother and I went to A Snail’s Pace in Brea, California to get fitted for new running shoes yesterday.  If you have been keeping up with our posts, you will know that I have been experiencing some pain in my left knee when running.  My Uncle Steve, a former marathon runner wrote a blog post about ways that would help to alleviate knee pain and he said that the most important thing to eliminate knee pain was to get properly fitted shoes.

We arrived at A Snail’s Pace and were approached promptly by Katie Lowrie, a worker at the store who took us to a foot calibration machine.  Basically, you stood on this machine and it provided information about where you apply pressure in your feet.  She told my I had high arches and applied too much pressure on my right foot and basically said the same thing to my brother.  She then brought out the shoes she thought would fit best.  We tried them on and ran up and down the store.  She was trying to determine if we overpronated or underpronated . . . and as it turns out, we both had normal pronation. 

We got Katie laughing pretty good with all of our ridiculous questions and one-liners.  My brother thought that she was just doing that to be nice, but who knows.  After fitting our shoes my brother and I settled on the exact same shoes – The Saucony Progrid Ride 3’s.  However, mine were slightly larger at a size 15 and my brother got the 14’s.  (We all know what that means). 

We made sure to make Katie promise to watch our movie along with other member’s of the staff and got out of A Snail’s Pace having spent about $100 a piece.  Who knows if the shoe will help out my knee pain on those long runs, but it’s worth finding out.  And now, my brother and I have matching shoes, matching shirts and matching track suits . . . yeah, we know we’re cool.

Ironman Training – Week #15

Apr 162011
 

Weekly Amount:

Running = 17.5 miles
Biking = 60 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 80 miles

Overall Amount:

Running = 203.5 miles (38.5 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 652 miles (321 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 57,200 meters or 36.7 miles (.1 miles to Los Angeles)
Total = 892 miles (81 miles to Seattle)

Pacific Electric Bike Trail

Apr 122011
 

On a nice Saturday day, I decided to call up my brother to see if he wanted to go for a bike ride and he said, “Absolutely.”  So, we met up and looked up bike trails in our area on Google Maps.  We found tons of different trails in our area, so we went to the closest one.  Turns out Google Maps “sucks” when it comes to planning out bike trail routes.  We went to three different ones and all of them were innaccessible.  But, we traveled from one to the next until we finally found one . . . The Pacific Electric Bike Trail.

The Pacific Electric Trail is supposed to be able to connect Rialto to Claremont; however, the trail is not complete.  According to www.socaltrailriders.org, the trail should be completed in 2011.  But we got on the trail somewhere in Rancho Cucamonga and headed west.  The trail was a really easy ride with virtually no hills.  The only problem for me was that you had to wait at a signal every time the trail crossed paths with a street, which was quite often. 

But we reached a dead end where some construction was going on, so we turned around and headed east for quite a ways until the trail ended in I believe Fontana.  It was a very pleasant ride until we encountered some dangling electrical lines.  Fortunately, my brother was there to snap a quick picture of the event. 

If only I had seen that sign beforehand. 

I had a really nice time with my brother traveling down the Pacific Electric Bike Trail.  It will be interesting when they complete that trail, but I love Claremont and the Upland area and it would be great to just hang out there from time to time and take a nice bike ride along a pleasant trail.

Zeb’s Post-Race on the Base

Apr 052011
 

The race was a success.  It was a lot of fun watching Rocky cross the finish line and swimming in the pool.  Quite a crowd had developed cheering on people in the pool and my brother entered the pool just as I was getting out, so I got to watch him make the 200 meter swim in the pool.   He did a great job and my family and I came to meet him as he crossed the finish line. 

Zeb and Rocky Finish The Race on the Base

Afterwards we traveled to a local hamburger shop and were able to talk about the run with our family.  It’s great to have such strong supporters and to be able to involve them in our accomplishments together.

We had completed our second event together and with our next event, the Orange County Marathon, we still have a lot of prep work to do, but we are The Running Brothers after all, so I’m sure when May 1 comes we will be ready to complete our first full marathon together.  It’s only one month away, but I know that this is going to be the toughest thing I’ve ever done, I just hope I can last.

Ironman Training – Week #13

Apr 032011
 

Weekly Amount:

Running = 16.5 miles
Biking = 56 miles
Swimming = 4000 M or 2.5 miles
Total Amount: 75 miles

Overall Amount:

Running = 169 miles (73 miles to Las Vegas)
Biking = 534 miles (439 miles to Seattle)
Swimming = 49,200 meters or 34.2 miles (4.1 miles to Los Angeles)
Total = 734.5 miles (238.5 miles to Seattle)

30 Days Until Our First Marathon

Mar 312011
 

My brother and I will be participating in our first marathon in 30 days.  I’m not quite sure how my brother is preparing for the event, but I know that I am going to be devoting a large amount of time to running over the next 30 days.  I want to make sure that I can complete the full marathon running the entire way. 

When we ran the Rose Bowl Half Marathon in February, I completed the entire run, but knew that I would not have lasted any longer.  I actually thought about stopping at around the 11 mile mark, but was able to push through it to continue running.  I knew I only had 2 more miles to go to complete the half marathon.  But, I think mentally I would have stopped knowing that I would have had to run another 15 miles before I could stop. 

I’m excited but nervous about our upcoming marathon.  I know that I will not be as prepared as I would like to be, but I am going to try my best to get in the best shape I can by then.  I am officically starting my marathon training today and would love some company.  If anyone is interested in running daily with me I would be more than happy to have you along.

Zeb’s Race on the Base Swim

Mar 302011
 

I hustled my way over to the pool to perform my 200 Meter swim.  And I had been practicing for months and really thought that I was going to demolish my swimming time from the year before.  I jumped in the pool and immediately began to pass people, until I got behind some idiot who was doing the breast stroke. 

Everyone was swimming at his pace and there was no way that I could get past the guy because his legs were continually spreading out like you would imagine a frog would in the pool of water.  I kept trying to get past him and that really sapped my energy. 

Zeb Race on the Base Swim

The pool that I had been training in was half the size of the pool that I competed in.  I did not think it would make that much of a difference, but it did.  Each lap felt so much longer than the laps I had been used to and when I sprinted the last 50 Meters in the pool, it just seemed like the end was never coming.  But, eventually I made it, completed the swim and ran into my Dad, Mom, sister and Dusty.  They congratulated me on a job well done, but man . . . was I tired. 

Now, it was time to wait for my brother . . . who I had not seen since I pushed him at the beginning of the race.

Zeb’s Race on the Base Bike Ride

Mar 292011
 

After reaching the staging area, I was in good shape and rushed out with my bike and took off . . . but that didn’t last long as bicyclists began to pass me left and right.  I do remember passing one bicyclist who looked like he was either drunk or had never ridden a bike before . . . as he riding a mountain bike which was wobbling all over the road.  Had the police been following him, they would have made him perform a sobriety test for sure.

Overall, people were passing me pretty consistently on the bike, but they were not flying past me like they had the year before.  I’m still not quite sure why I was getting passed though.  I’m not sure if it was because of my bike or because I am not riding my bike using the proper technique.  Either way, I know that my legs were working faster than many of the other riders. 

After evaluating my results for the race, I saw an interesting statistic for the race.  Almost everyone who finished ahead of me had a better bike time, while my times in the run and the swim were in the middle of the pack compared to those who performed better than me overall.  So, it appears to me that my bicycling skills need to improve if I’m going to be able to compete at a higher level in these triathalon events.

I knew that a lot of people had passed me by the time I made it to the staging area for the second time.  But, I had a feeling that I was still outperforming myself from the year before and made my way to the pool.

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