Here are the monthly totals for May:



[Backdated on 06/06/2006]

I went to spin class today. It was very difficult. I'd rate it as in the top 5 classes of all time. I think part of the reason is that I haven't gone to a class in a while and also it was pretty stuffy inside the gym room.

Total: 15mi Bike Ride (spin class)

I was going to go hiking last week when the weather was nice but didn't get a chance to. So today was the day. The activity doesn't quite fall under cycling or running, but I'll post it anyway. Maybe I should change the title of the blog?

My friend and I have been investigating which hike for a while. We decided to pick "Carbon Glacier" from the book Hiking Washington. The reason is that it was one of the few hikes in the Cascades with a low enough elevation to hike in May. The hiking season--if you want to go high up the mountains--is short in Washington due to the snow cover. The snow season was quite long this year: the ski resorts around here opened in mid-November and didn't close until the past few days.


Carbon Glacier is a glacier in Mt. Rainier National Park. It's the biggest and also the lowest elevation glacier in the continental U.S. It took us about an hour and a half to get there from Seattle (take 165 South at the 410 intersection in Buckley). We paid, or I should say my friend paid, a $30 annual pass to the park. Once we got to the Ipsut Creek campground, I was unable to get a GPS signal on my Forerunner at the start of the hike due to the tree cover. I still took it with me thinking (correctly as it turned out) that I would be able to get a signal at the top of the hike near the glacier.


The hike itself starts out in dense tree cover. I'm not sure if this area is considered a temparate rain forest, but it sure felt like it--moss, ferns, and green all around. The hike is ~3.5 miles each way with an elevation gain of 1200 feet that tops out at 3500 feet. The higher we went, the less deciduous we saw. Halfway there, perhaps at about 2800 feet, the biomass changed and we were in a sub-alpine like environment with colorful plants and many bees and other insects swarming around. A few more hundred feet and all we saw were ferns. By this point, the temperature probably dropped 10 or 15 degrees. In fact, we saw a few patches of snow! BTW, most of the way we were walking alongside the Carbon River which directly flows from the glacier. The color is milky due to the icy water mixing with ground sediment.

The glacier itself does not look all "icy"; rather, it's more brownish with a huge gray ice sheet facing the mountain. It was the first glacier I've ever seen and the hike itself was very satisfying with many scenic views, including a few waterfalls. There were only two disappointments: we couldn't see anything above the glacier due to cloudcover, and the only large animals we saw were ravens. I was disappointed. There is much wildlife diversity within the park however, we just didn't see it.


Because it was Monday and cloudy, we only saw about 10 people. This is a great hike, check it out sometime!




Total: 7mi Hike (Carbon Glacier, Mt. Rainier National Park)



[Backdated on 05/23/2006]

I finally got the Google interactive map to work! You can zoom in and choose different map backgrounds. [Backdated on 06/06/2006] I'm taking the Google map off for now because I'm having a problem with formatting. Hopefully I'll have it back up shortly. In the meantime I'm putting up a static satellite map.

Today was also the first time I've biked with the Cascade Bicycle Club, the largest bicycle club in the country. They have many different rides every day organized by members of the club. I found out there's a 20-25 mile ride that meets at Gas Works Park. I biked there and met up with five other people, two women and three guys, for two of whom this was their first ride with the club. Because the organizer couldn't make, this wasn't actually an official club ride, and thus I didn't have to sign a waver form (liability protection). We decided to ride down to Seward Park and back, a 25-mile round-trip ride. We were going at a comfortable 15-18 mph pace.

The ride itself starts out on the Burke-Gillman Trail. We continued on it until we reached the Montlake Bridge were we turned south. There was actually a "Bicycle Route" sign on the Burke-Gilman trail to get off the trail. That's because there's a designated route from that point to get to Lake Washington. So, once we crossed the bridge there were a number of turns to street with little car traffic, but it wasn't a problem finding the way because of the signs. The route gets pretty scenic on Harrison St. onwards with great views of Lake Washington. In fact, we went by the same place I took a picture on a ride in April.

Once we got down to Lake Washington, it was very nice as always. Me and this other guy started going at about 22mph for a while and got ahead of the pack. It was a mistake because when we got to Seward Park we lost the pack. There was actually a bike race there and we went up a hill to see some riders. By the time we got back to the bottom of the park, we didn't see the rest of the group. The guy riding with me decided to head back. I waited a few more minutes but they didn't show up. I think what happened is they went back right after getting to the park. BTW, the guy riding with me had a fixed-gear bike. I thought it was a single-speed; the difference is that you can't coast on a fixed-gear bike--you have to pedal at all times!

On the way back, my rear-derailluer cable snapped when I was shifting gears. So, I was stuck on the lowest gear, which isn't helpful for climbing hills. I decided therefore to take a shortcut and go through the I-90 tunnel. That's the fastest way to get downtown. The way to get there is to get right under the bridge on Lake Washington Blvd. and then climb the steps with your bike on the right side of it. The downtown ride wasn't bad because it was already past 7:30pm. Unfortunately, and this is a big problem for bikers in Seattle I think, is that there's no bicycle lane to go N/NW through downtown. Heading S/SE, one can take 2nd Ave. Going the other way I usually take 4th Ave., but it's a bit hairy. A better option might be to head all the way down to the water and then take Alaskan Way. It's out of the way, but it's got to be a bit more safer.

This was a fun ride. I enjoyed conversing with the other riders. I'm looking forward to future rides with the club. I should have the bike fixed this weekend.

Total: 22.2mi Bike Ride

[Backdated on 05/19/2006]

Just did a short run through Myrtle Edwards Park. It was hot -- almost 80°F!

Total: 4.51mi Run

It was good to rest for a week. Today was a gorgeous day and I took advantage of it by doing the ~3/4 loop around Lake Washington. I pushed hard on the Burke-Gilman trail and I think I paid for it later. My legs were feeling pretty weak after about 25-30 miles and I was exhausted when I got back. The good news is that a) I found a water fountain at Juanita Beach Park and b) I took a new longer route by going through Medina below interstate 520 where all the mensions are. Back to the bad news: I can't show my new route--which I think is much better than the previous loop route although this one is longer by about 5 or 6 miles-- because I forgot to turn the GPS device back on after stopping at a gas station for a Gatorade. I'll post it next time which probably won't be long from now as this is a great ride.

Total: ~45mi Bike Ride

Map created by GPSVisualizer.com

Distance (km) 95.2 84.6 74.1 63.5 52.9 42.3 31.7 21.2 10.6 0.0

Mission Accomplished?

What a day, what a day... First, let me thank my friend from NYC LiveStrongrrrrl who accompanied me on the trip and helped me out tremendously pre- and post-race. We drove to Vancouver and got there Saturday afternoon. The forecast called for occasional showers in the morning on Sunday.

When we got to the starting line at BC Place at 7:20 it was raining steadily and the temperature was only 46--fortunately I had my rain pants and jacket on which I took off a couple of minutes before the starting gun. I ran with "dry-fit" shorts, long-sleeve shirt, and a hat.

I started off at a pretty fast pace, probably about 7 minutes/mi. I felt good and speeded up a bit. I ran with a group of 5-6 runners for a few miles but decided to go past them. Meanwhile, it kept on raining and my hands were cold. I regretted not putting on gloves but they warmed up after maybe 45 minutes or so.

I knew I was running at a sub-7 minute pace and no one passed me until about mile 12 when two guys approached me. I asked them what their target was. They said 2:55. This was a perfect opprotunity for me to finish under 3 hours and I decided to keep up with them as long as I can. At the half-marathon mark we clocked in at 1:26:28. We kept running at a 6:40 pace (one of the guys had a watch), even on the up-slopes in Stanley Park and on Burrard Bridge. At about mile 15 I think, the runners from the half-marathon race were running with us and so it was crowded at the next water station. One of the guys slipped there and I thought he wouldn't get up because it looked like his leg twisted the wrong way. But apparently he was fine and he even skipped the drink. At the previous stop, they drank while they ran. I, on the other hand, stop for a few seconds to drink, so I'd have to catch up with them on those two occasions. At mile 18, we were still going at the same pace. This time, after a water break, I couldn't catch up with them. My left leg locked-up and I started to slow down.


It was all "downhill" from there. At the mile 20 checkpoint, I clocked in at 2:13:48. Looking back on it now, all I had to do to finish under 3 hours is to run at 7:25. But I just couldn't do it. To add to my demoralization, a couple of the 5-person group I ran with in the beginning passed me. I think it had stopped raining by then but it didn't really bother me except for the first few miles. The last two miles were the toughest, and I thought I'd finish over 3:20. When I appoached the finish line, I couldn't believe the clock was at 3:07. That lifted my sprits because I beat my previous time and I qualified for the 111th Boston Marathon next year, which I plan to run. Still, I thought I had a chance at that elusive 3-hour mark. Maybe next time :-).

BTW, those two guys finished in the top 30 at 2:55. The guy who fell was 50 years old and when I ran into him later he had dried-up blood running from his knee down to his shoe. He also had blood on his left foot which he said he got from a blister. That's what I call determination.

Finishing first for men was Kassahun Kabiso from Ethiopia at 2:18:39, and for women Malgorzata Sobanska from Poland at 2:37:06, a new course record!

Total: Vancouver Marathon, 26.2mi Race (3:07:10; 7:08 min./mi. pace; 77/2019 male; 18/322 30-35 age group; 87/3585 total)

P.S. The marathon was organized well except for the following: there was no cop at one intersection where they allowed cars to pass by (when there were no runners present) and an SUV almost hit a runner about 10 yards in front of me. Also, the path was pretty crowded when the route was shared with the half-marathon runners and walkers. Not sure if anything can be done about that, but it's a dangerous situation. And there were no energy gels. I knew that prior to the race and took two with me but it was somewhat uncomfortable to have them bouncing up and down in the back pocket of my shirt.

P.P.S. The day after:



[Backdated on 05/09/2006]

Ran about 2 miles around the Seattle Center early in the morning. Felt heavy.

[Backdated on 05/09/2006]

A good upper-body workout kayaking! Went with a friend along Union Lake. Kept going with almost no stops for 3 hours. I'll have to figure out how far we went.

[Backdated on 05/05/2006]

I skipped yesterday and instead of doing a tempo run today, I went to spin class to give my knee a little more rest. It was an OK class, but I didn't push it 100%. One more easy 1-2 mile run on Saturday in Vancouver and that's it...

Total: 15mi Bike Ride (spin class)

[Backdated on 05/04/2006]

Monthly Totals for April:

I postponed the long run until today. My "cardio" was very good today and I wasn't even very tired after the run. But, I did attempt a pretty fast pace and realized how hard it is to break the 3 hour mark for a marathon. I ran 8.76 miles today according to my Garmin Forerunner. I didn't pick that distance--it's the round-trip distance from my place to the marina on Elliot Bay. My average pace was 6:52 minutes per mile. If I had continued running at that exact distance I would have finished the marathon in 3:00:02! Great, right? No, because I only ran 1/3 of a marathon and to keep up that pace would have been very difficult for me. So, with 6 days to go, I'm not sure how I'll do. I will try to beat my last marathon time of ~3:14.

I finally turned on the automatic lap timer for every mile ran (I didn't turn it on until .24 miles into the run):

Lap 1: .241 miles; avg. pace: 9:33/mi
Lap 2: 1.00 miles; pace: 7:17/mi
Lap3: "" 6:48/mi
Lap 4: 6:58/mi
Lap 5: 6:43/mi
Lap 6: 6:53/mi
Lap 7: 6:21/mi
Lap 8: 6:56/mi
Lap 9: 6:24/mi
Lap 10: .523 mi; pace: 6:52/mi

Total: 8.76mi Run; 6:52/mi pace; 1020 cal.; 143 lb.