running and wine, a good mix!

On Sunday Shal, Janet and I represented the SBV at the LDR banquet. Shal and I drove to livermore early to run on my old home turf, then we did a little wine tasting before the banquet. The banquet was nice and it was fun to see our teammates in normal clothes. In the awards category Megan cleaned up winning every award she was nominated in (shal, cheryl and myself pretended to be megan and accepted her various awards). Janet recieved a plaque for winning the masters long series and the team took home multiple plaques for our team victories as well. Overall a good afternoon in wine country!

Juana? Yes, please.

SBV Impala's were in full effect this morning with Gowri, Michelle, Katie and I representin' at the 9th annual Juana run. For Gowri it was a family affair as Paul AND Calvin (2nd place!) raced while Gowri played super support team for everyone. Three Impala's in the top 10: 1, 7, 8. Nice work, ladies! We all walked away with cute beer mugs and for the lucky overall winner a loaf of bread - I heart carbs ;)

How great would it be if there were more road races just 2 miles from your house?! I didn't have to get up until after 7am and I wasn't even registered AND had time to pick up my cafe au lait on the way. That said, I did nearly miss the start of the race since it was like A MILE from the parking lot! Just made for some extra strides which was helpful.

Katie muscled through despite feeling under the weather and having to bike it to the race (x-training, love it!) and Michelle ran tough with her monster finish passing 2 ladies in the final stretch. I managed to hold tough through the 5 miles, and felt *heaps* better than the brutal Chinese New Year 10K 2 weeks ago. Even managed a minor kick to hold off the one guy I had passed with 1.5 miles to go (he tried to come with a little somethin', somethin' but I was havin' none of it!) Two guys passed me just after the 1 mile marker and I guess they were trying to be umm, "cordial", because as they passed they said "Feel free to latch on to us." Cheers, mate, glad you're there to help and give me the go ahead. Ah, but maybe I'm I bit harsh in my spinster days of late . . .

Btw, signed all the closing papers to the house last Thursday (hooray!) and my spinsterhood is now officially of public record. Like a scene right out of Sex in the City, on 1 of a guh-zillion papers I had to sign it says something like "The owner is:" to which the title officer had typed: "[my name], AN UNMARRIED WOMAN". (Yes, in all CAPS!) And to that I just tip my virtual hat and say again very sarcastically, "cheers, mate." But seriously, we all had a good laugh at that one . . .

peace.

'deezy

Back at the Track

Five of us headed back up to the track yesterday for in-and-outs. Talk in the car revolved around wedding dress shopping, planning for weddings, bridesmaid dresses and even the Impala Anniversary Party. For you SBV addicts, it looks like the "hottie-in-a-red-dress" will be making an appearance at the 25th anniversary bash!

In and Outs felt tougher this week, but we all made it through with flying colors. Many Thanks to my group of LT,PL,MF,Shelagh and Shiela for pulling me through. Hats off to our friend JD who got "the ring" this week...adding to the growing list of wedding-planning Impalas. Also thanks to FH for providing authentic German carbs for post-workout munching.

Strawberry hill miles- not that sweet

Three of us gathered (shal, megan and myself) this fine morning to carpool in to SF. Megan was half asleep but we were very happy to have her back in the carpool loop. Angela was also at the workout but met us up there. The ride was filled with talk of surgery rotations, houses and weddings (you can guess who each topic pretains too), amoung other topics of course. We learned why if you are getting surgery in the middle of the night you should ask your doctor "How much sleep have you had?" before they operate. We also learned the warning signs of cancer and discussed fashion do's and don't. Yes it is amazing how much we cover in such a short car ride.

The workout itself was better for some than others. As the title of this entry notes it was not so sweet for me but I still pulled through 3- 1 mile repeats. Megan and Shal looked very strong and I believe they completed the full 4 repeats. It was fun to be out there as we had 20+ impalas and two coaches show up despite the rain.

Tomorrow a group is meeting at Sawyer Camp Trail at 10am for the long run, all are invited to join in!

Have a great rest of weekend, MD

Six Fast Quarters at Five on Four

Who-hoo! We seem to keep pushing the insanity to further and further limits :)

I am miraculously still awake at work this morning, after having to stay up and do work until 1:30am...again! (Shal - This may be standard for you Googlers, but not for me!!) But true to her word, Katie called me promptly at 5:12 and when we got to the track, Angela was waiting for us! Quarters on 4 hours sleep was actually not too bad. I think the payback will be this afternoon when I won't be able to see straight from sleep deprivation :)

Angela was on fire, running 77's and Katie was not far behind. I kept aiming for 95's and hitting 85 instead. Except for the one that I led which was a blazing 80.8 :)

Now on to 10 hours of high-energy merger meetings...

B-double 'O'-T-Y Lock

Or otherwise known as the last 400m of The Michigan. Or, it could also mean 5 soaked Impala's flashing their b-double 'o'-t-y's as they change on the side street using the the SBV for cover because they can't figure out the automatic door locks on the SBV. . . either way, both situations presented themselves this stormy evening at Kezar stadium.

Typical Impala style not to let rain showers stand in the way of their Michigan miles. Honestly, as I was warming up I'm thinking to myself - "Am I really doing this?" Absolutely - peer pressure, the good kind. Everyone had a great workout - even Janet who mustered every mental muscle to get it done. Count it and log it, girlfriend! Angela busting out with a 78 last quarter and Marisa and Katie getting faster every step of the way. I was working hard with Ginger, Kathryn, Sally, SaraG and we were keepin' our sights on Sweet Caroline who isn't afraid to tempt booty lock in the last quarter.

Wet and freezing - some of us wearing soaked white sports tops (smooth choice 'deezy) - I confiscated the keys to the SBV to get to dry clothes. Thank goodness Janet was able to crawl in through the front door and open the van . . . So, you're 45 min from home, soaked to the core and there isn't a changing room anywhere - What Do You Do? You watch for headlights, quickly change in to something dry using the SBV for cover, then crank the heat in the SBV to 84 and head for home!

Until next time . . .

'deezy

The Weekend Continues...

It was quite a banner weekend for the SBV crowd. Thursday thru Sunday and not a day went by when we weren't running, racing, reading or partying together...

Saturday afternoon: AM, KW and I showed our true love for pain by running both the mile and two-mile at the LGHS All-comers meet, after a raucous book-filled evening. All in all, not a bad showing with 5:44 - 6:09 for the mile and 13:14 - 13:40 for the 2.

As if Friday & Saturday weren't enough punishment, the 3 of us met up again (along with a friend from Boston) to run 3 x 5 mile loops in the Baylands. Ok, I admit that I only made it through 2 of the loops...are we insane or what?!

MD2, meanwhile was having her own party with the *elite* runners at XC Nationals. Congrats on going 21st and 19th in the COUNTRY for your two races!

And, after a day of "recovery", 'deezy had a great showing with the Chinese New Year crowd in SF, winning 3rd and lots of prize goodies in the 10k on Sunday.

Happy V-Day everyone! Peace.

One happening book club meeting

People in attendance: Gowri, Shal, Kerry (shal's friend/roomate from college), Janet, Michelle, Katie, Angela M, Angie L and myself. Held at Gowri's beautiful house. Wonderful food cooked by Katie, Angela and Gowri- the food was a major treat in it's own. We discussed the "Lovely Bones" over dinner and then things progressed from there. Those in attendance can elaborate if you wish but let's just say the south bay impalas (plus one north bayers and one not-yet impala) know how to party!

Megan D was greatly missed but we were glad to find out she is well representing the Impalas at the national level. Those racing tomorrow, best of luck!

The Fearless Foursome at Five . . . A.M.

Turnover has different definitions to different people. And at 5:30am most people would think turnover as in "in bed" or "apple" turnover for breakfast. But to the fearless foursome on Thursday at 5:30am it meant leg speed over 200m under 40 seconds. So there we were the fearless foursome - Angela, Gowri, Katie, and 'deezy - doing 8x200m with only the reflector strips on our jackets lighting the lanes of the track.

By 6:30 others had arrived at the track and started their warm-ups. But by then we were on the chip trail cooling down and on our way to start our "day jobs" ;)

'deezy

Eight 1's in 16 at 5 (aka Fast Moms in the Dark)

Yee-haw. That's all I can say after the speedilicious run at Stanford track this morning...5am wake up and 5:30am sharp on the warmup, then onto 8x"flying" 100's with Angela. Direct quotes:

[crossing finish line after no. 5-ish]
G: Wow.[panting]
A: [looks at watch] 15.8 seconds
G: We Rock
A: We SO Rock
G: My legs are still sleeping like the rest of the world at this hour.

I'll have to say the highlight was finishing the entire set and the cooldown before the sun even came up. Angela- you go girl!! Thanks for the motivation.

Two K's

Well, how 'bout that workout tonight, eh ladies? The Impala's were in full force tonight with one of the biggest attendances in weeks, and who could blame them? Who could resist 5x2000m with 60 seconds rest? Not me - I knew that after 10,000m of work I could definitely justify the mac n' cheese dinner waiting for me at home. (Yes, the kind in the box with powder cheese - just add milk . . . and butter, if you dare! I dare.) Seriously, when was the last time you spent 89 cents for such a satifying meal?

Super support all around the track tonight from all the mini-pods of Impala's - ladies, you make it look so effortless! And, Michelle even made it out after 2 hours of frolicking on the beach at her photo shoot ;) Angela jetted to the park n' ride as soon as Peter pulled in to the driveway - even made it there before half of the confirmed SBV'ers.

Topics of discussion were, as usual, many and wide ranging - from turmoil at Hamilton College and perps at Stanford to the preferred colors for your knickers on that "special day", and the BuBbLe that is the local real estate market . Marisa is Ms. Organization and just about has the whole wedding wrapped up - what is this like day 8!! Well, I guess the maids of the group will know who to call when our time comes.

. . . And I'm spent .

Have a happy Wednesday.

'deezy