Meet Karen and Ryan Commons, Rachael Short, Jon Jonson, Sarah Brabeck, and Brian Rossini.  This is Team Townies.

With my friends' help, I brought my team $1827, and Team Townies leads at $4227.  All told, RelayForRachael has netted $12399 at this time.

Race report below.


We did a fantastic job with the fund-raising, planning together, eating together, and logging some impressive times.  We finished in around 3hrs 15 minutes.

Our team ended up 1st out of 3:)  
That means we get free shoes, read on...

RACE REPORT
Up at 3:50am.
Compression tights on.  Make oatmeal.  Grab gear.  Drive to busing lot far away from race location.
Fill up thermos with coffee that's being given free at the busing location.  SMART. Get on bus.
Attempt to sleep sitting up, attempt to sleep laying on seat, attempt sleep between seats.  Repeat attempts, variation on a theme.

5:30am? Arrive at relay transition area, start of leg 2.
It was cold on the bus, but colder outside.  I tried to sleep on my back with my legs crossed up against the wall but that didn't work well.  I had very warm clothes, a Patagonia DAS Parka and some NanoPuff pants.  Other people had thin warmups and I think they regretted that.

6:15am.  Drink about 10oz of coffee.  Inspire jealousy.  Hide the coffee.  Drink more water, down a half-dose of Hammer Gel.

6:30am.  Drink more water.  Down a full dose of Hammer Gel.  Latte flavor.
Get off the bus and do 5 minutes of slow jogging.  Do some dynamic stretching: leg swings side to side and front back.

6:45am. MARATHON STARTS at leg 1.  Now I wait.
I was in very warm clothes, vs some people in shorts and short sleeves, who were shivering bitterly.  I continued to pace and bounce just a little, but not intensely.  I was warmed up from my jogging and dynamic stretching.

7:30AM and 22 seconds. HANDOFF FROM KAREN COMMONS!!
Mile 1 - 7:37 min, 159 avg heart rate (bpm), 23ft elevation gain, 24ft loss
Mile 2 - 7:41 min,  168bpm, 72 ft gain
Mile 3 - 7:23 min, 172bpm, 34 gain, 86 loss
Mile 4 - 7:56 min, 174bpm, 115 gain
Mile 5 (.95mi) - 6:14 min, 6:33 pace!, 179bpm, 188 elevation loss

OVERALL
4.95 miles, 7:26 min mile pace, way faster than expected, 170bpm avg.
This was rolling terrain, and I was pushing low grade elevation gains, until the last .95 mile split - then it was pretty much down hill and I got to run really fast.

8:06am and 53 seconds: HANDOFF TO RYAN COMMONS!!
I hear he ran a 6:35ish pace over 6.8 miles with ridiculous uphill on the third leg, the Hurricane Point leg.  That's legendary and we're lucky to have him on the team.  THEN, he ran the rest of the race in, 17 miles total.  WHAT a badass.

After the race - Free Shoes for the winning team!  And a recovery ride.
I got fitted for new shoes with my teammates, and then went for a good ride with Jeff Hurd and Gabe Rosen, my most generous sponsor!  We rode about 12 miles of HOWLING single-track out at Ft Ord, though I must say it was more of a recovery pace on the uphill for me.  TONS of fun!

Hangin out in dad's shop before doing a swim and a run a little later.

We're engraving!
These are the CashCans going out to some of the donors. You can check out the Sponsor page to see what people are doing to pick these up.

I just uploaded a video of the engraving were were doing about 5 minutes ago in the shop.  Yeah technology!

Race for Rachael Pasta Dinner Kickoff Party!!
Rachael is in there, buried in friends and smiling faces.

This is probably my second to last run before running the second leg of the Big Sur Marathon relay this weekend.

My split will be 4.9 miles.

I'll be timing it with my fancy watch.

This will be the last full day prior to Race Day where people can elect to donate.

Thank you for your support, it will mean so much for Rachael's continued effort.

Truly,
Brian

(Race is Sunday, support now)

WOW, riding with the Hazard's guys is HARD.  I'm pretty fast, and I'm pretty technical, and it takes EVERYTHING I've got to ride with them.

I've done two triathlons where the ride is 22 miles, and I worked MUCH harder on these "fun" rides than on either of those races.

It's a group of 5-8 total, average age might be 38.

Sergio is the ring leader I would say.  Sergio teaches the spin classes at my gym and he works at Hazard's Cyclery.  It's a running and triathlon shop.  That's Serg, off to the left.  As Eric puts it, "That guy's a legend.  He never stops riding like he's being chased by a tiger."  I agree.

And this is the bike I'm riding.  A Pedal Force frame, with 2.5 rear tire, and 2.4 front.

Reduced rolling resistance is the name of the game (thanks, Eric, for digging this up)

http://www.schwalbetires.com/wider_faster_page

IT'a good race bike, but for SB County, I could use a full suspension.

Just a reminder...
WE'RE SPONSORING ME FOR A RACE IN THE BIG SUR MARATHON RELAY FOR RACHAEL!!
SUPPORT!

$5, 10$, $100, it all adds up so give what you can!  200 people each giving $5, a few cups of coffee, is all we need to keep Rachel working 4hrs a day, 6 days a week with her Physical Therapist.

Friends groups like this keep each other happy, healthy, and ready to take on life's challenges.

- Brian

Tuesday, swim day.  Worked HARD doing a pretty fun 3000m set.
The core of it was:
4 x 250, where 100 was moderate free, then 50 hard, then another 100 moderate, rest 30.
Then 4 x 150, 50 mod, 50 fast, 50 mod
Then 4 x 100, 25 mod, 50 fast, 25 mod

The neat thing was that in the sets of four, the first was freestyle, the second was "pull" where you just put a pull-buoy between your legs and do pull strokes arms only, the third was kicking WITH FINS, and the last was freestyle again.

Freestyle with fins is FAST, and it's VERY aerobic.  The 250 with fins was perhaps the hardest thing I've done in the pool in awhile.

Keep those donations coming, we're doing REALLY well.
Post to your FB pages, email to friends, do something to grow this support network just a little.

The teams are doing well, we're at 8k or so, total, but we need to be around 15k total.

Thank you!

Thanks for visiting the site.
Today I put in a recovery oriented run of 4.5 miles, coming down off a reasonable race on Saturday, a sprint triathlon.  Most notable part of that tri was the swim.  I swam well, felt good the whole time, and saw schools of fish:)

Obviously the first thing I think about after running off 588 calories is "I can now eat brownies and ice cream."

Funny thing about frequent workouts is that the body starts to reject junk and crave good food.  I'm stoked to have a bumper crop of butternut squash and artichokes this year.






Let's go into learning mode for a second, can we?

40 minutes of running might sound like a lot, but it goes by surprisingly fast.  I don't run with headphones/music either, which is obviously weird because everyone else in the room had tiny white wires in their ears.

This article talks about people's ability to focus and the different types of activities that allow people to solidify experiences into memories. 

People often work out with headphones, or watch TV, but digital devices that keep us engaged are actually preventing the memory consolidation processes in the brain.  “People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,” said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.

Working out is actually a lot like meditation.  And this break from digital distraction can be used to become much more clear headed.

Why am I running?
For Rachael.

SPONSOR IT.

- Brian

TRIATHLON!!
I did the Kendra's Race tri yesterday.  WOW that was fun.
Swim was ON.
Bike was good.
Run was tough.  I'm counting the 5K towards my April training miles.

I'll be doing a little recovery ride today, probably wearing compression pants.

I ditched the Nike+ GPS watch in favor of a Garmin 310XT multisport watch.  The Nike+ watch had too many issues.  Not waterproof, not accurate, no good elevation data outputs.  I read up on watches on this site:  http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/03/garmin-fenix2-multisport.html
Most informative reviews I've EVER seen.

Thanks for reading, and drop a few bucks on the sponsorship page to bring up our numbers and support Rachael!

- Brian

It's REALLY hard to make time for running sometimes.
It's good to remind myself WHY I'm running.
And if you're here, reading this, consider making a small, or even large donation to help support Rachael Short's recovery - all dollars go to support her Physical Therapy.

1 gallon of gas = $4
1 Latte = $3-4
1 donation could be $5
200 people donating could be $1000, and with 15 runners that covers Rachael's 2014 out of pocket deficit.

200 people might be wishful thinking, so help me cover for 'em and give what you can.

I got out last night and ran for a good 30 minutes, training for the cause.  After about 3.2 miles I started getting some knee pain.  Pretty minor.  I hope it doesn't turn into much more.  So far in my training, I've been able to run incrementally farther without knee pain.  I'll keep this up!

Tomorrow I'm doing a triathlon, here in Santa Barbara.  It's called Kendra's Race.  It will be my first ocean based triathlon, and my first road based race.

Wish me luck.

I had an amazing training ride over the weekend.  I only had time for a 40 minute ride, but I used it well!
I blasted up the Snyder Trail in our backcountry over the 154 pass.  There were wicked switchbacks, super technical climbing, and when ridden in reverse it was a super-cardiovascular roller-coaster with jumps and high speed straights.  Completely wild.  Super fun.  (miles not counted in April training miles)

That ride is training for three different races.
1) Kendra's Race, a triathlon at UCSB this weekend.
2) Wildflower Mountain Bike Sprint, a short sprint triathlon with some good MTB riding.
3) Dawn to Dusk, a super intense offroad ride with no aid stations, 6 miles of kayaking, 12 miles of running/swimming/rappelling/compass navigation, and 35 miles of MTB.  My race partner is Eric Lohela, our team is MORE FASTER, and we're gonna have an awesome time:)

WOW, More Mesa is such a pretty place to run.
Today's run was fun, and hurt less than my last run.  My left knee and right calf were both tight and a little sore for the first half of the 4.x miles run, but loosed up a bit during the second half.

I pushed several 5:30 sprints for 200+ yards during the run.  This seemed to get things loosened up a little faster.

My last run REALLY made my left knee sore, but I barely felt anything this time.  I've been icing my knee for the past two days and taking it easy, so hopefully that helped.

I have to say, the Nike+ watch SUCKS for anything but GPS.  I don't recommend buying one if you want to check in with your heart rate, use the foot pod for indoor running, or record your pace.  The pace that it reports during the run may be accurate, I'm not sure.  It seems roughly correct.  It does not report any of my in-run pace correctly on the above graph.
//end rant

My sister and Sabine have both share this site out to their social network groups on Facebook.  I really appreciate that.

Please donate to this cause - Rachael puts your money into her Physical Therapy and it will not be squandered.


Together we're making quite a difference.  To see what we're up to, check out the www.relayforrachael.com page, which has a running tally for all the donations.

Sleep well,

- Brian

Big funding day!!  Aaron and Philip added $70 dollars to the pot today, so a big thanks to you guys.

As much as I want to run today, my calves are pretty darn sore and I think it's better I take a rest day and stretch than push it too hard.

So what'd I do today?  Mundane really.
Cleaned the chicken feed bin, talked to Nike+ to get the heart rate monitor and shoe pod working right with the watch.  Still not working quite right.  The HRM freezes up at any random heart rate.  The pod doesn't connect.  I also installed a replacement router in my house to fix the WiFi dropouts that have been plaguing us for a long time.  Looking for a router?  This thing is AWESOME... Netgear Nighthawk R7000.  Nerd stuff.

I cooked up some artichokes from my garden, some kale from Don's garden, added some broccoli, and ate with eggs and sprouted grain muffins (shaped like English muffins).

More tomorrow,

- Brian

AAAAnd we're back!

HUGE thanks to Sabine for committing to a $2.50/mile sponsorship!  We'll see how many I can get logged before the last training mile.  On top of biking and swimming, logging the running miles is going to be tough, but now I have a very GOOD reason to keep logging miles.

I was thoroughly knocked out from a busy mind numbing week and weekend.  Training is back with a 5.64 mile day.

I ran in a stunningly beautiful location and regret that I don't have any of my own pictures to show of the "More Mesa" area.  Here's what it looks like on a map:

You can see where I had to restart my GPS a few times to get it to sync with the heart rate monitor.  Technology can be a bear.

All the dotted lines are trails that criss-cross the area.  A loop is about 3.5 miles.

The whole ocean front is on a cliff about 110 feet high, straight up.  The trail winds EXACTLY along the cliff edge.  It almost feels risky to run along the edge like that!

Successful day,

- Brian

I didn't run yesterday because I was really tired and pretty sore from the previous day's double workout. 

I also managed to not work out today.  I can justify today's "laziness" in a different way.

I helped SB County's sheriff department run medical operations with my SAR team in Isla Vista where an event called Deltopia was taking place, on Del Playa street.

We get TV in the Command Post so we all sat around and took a little break about 11 hours into our day that started at 10am. 

I am on a SAR team, by the way.  SAR = Search and Rescue, and we are unpaid volunteers.  We help because we can and we like doing it.  

This night was interesting though because it got a bit dangerous.

At some point a person decided it was a good idea to bludgeon an officer in the head with a backpack full of liquor bottles, and OHHH it was not a good idea.

Riots, dubbed "Civil Unrest", almost immediately broke out.  Bottles were being thrown, "Hot Teargas" was being fired into crowds, rubber bullets were being used later.http://www.keyt.com/news/thousands-riot-in-the-streets-of-isla-vista/25345906


The crowds were throwing rocks and bottles and whistling and crowing.  Most were not from SB and were crazed.  We got stuck in the Command Post around 11pm  for a long time waiting for crowds to disperse and were then given the go-ahead to sneak out across campus.  Meanwhile law enforcement started to run low on "pepper balls" and hot tear gas.  I hope they've gotten out of there by now.  I found out hot tear gas means HOT when a "civil unrest-er" (rioter?) tossed the fired incendiary into a car window and the car started on fire.

I just got back from this melee, and didn't have time to put a run in, but wanted to update the blog to let everyone know I'm serious about my training and haven't forgotten about it:)

Tomorrow I was supposed to do a local mountain bike race but that's not happening anymore.   Maybe a light bike ride and a light run.

That's all for now,

- Brian

One thing I haven't asked you all is: do you have any questions?
Feel free to ask me.

SO, today my friend Eric helped me join FACEBOOOOOOK!!!  A lot of people have tried to get me to do that over the last 10 years.  Relay for Rachael was the reason I joined.  Just to get this message out.

I keep wanting to yell out RELAY FOR RACHAEELLLLL!!!   If my site visitors would only contribute the equivalent of a venti latte (am I spelling that right?)  If 200 people contribute $5 dollars, and all 15 of the relay runners pull in the same amount - 15k is a good chunk o change.  Change in Rachael's 2014/2015.

I ran on railroad tracks tonight.
I swam before my run, which made things harder.
I saw no skunks.  
I ran through a vacant bum dwelling near that railroad tracks - he was out on the town.

Here is a small piece of last night's run to add:

I split the runs between dates if I run through midnight, which just barely happened here just before I got home.  A whole .1 miles of victory lap.

Running hurts my knees just a little bit.  I had a knee surgery in November of 2011 that fixed some major problems, and created some minor problems.  I hear that's the way these things go.  It was for patellar tracking, left knee.  Something called a retinacular release if you want to nerd out on it.  Allowed the patella to float back to center.

Alright folks, brain is fried.  Time for bed.

Rachael is working hard to gain dexterity and strength.  She's trying to overcome a major blow to her nervous system.  She's doing it with a smile.  All she's got is herself and us.  Let's do what we can.

If you're reading this, please chip in. 

Good night,

- Brian

Barely managed to fit in a run on April 2nd.  It was a pretty short run, and it's split in two because it went past midnight... you can see the red dot... I allllmost got home before midnight, but no.  In total the run was just shy of 2 miles, but it was a fast run.  I started late because I was working with a friend on a web programming project that went late, mostly because he's on the other side of the world.

Cold night, calves hurt, I saw two skunks.

Seeing skunks is kind of a rush.  You never know if they're going to get feisty.  I ran up on one and we both startled each other so I took about 10 steps back.  Then it started running down the path away from me so I had to follow it for a few minutes.

Last night's all-nighter really did me in.  Off to sleep so I don't have to take naps on the floor at work!

- Brian

PS: I'll have to join FB tomorrow, didn't get to it today.