I made it! I ran the San Francisco Marathon on 7/31. It was a great experience and I will definitely run another marathon.

I'm moving my blog temporarily to 360.yahoo.com/scott_vp to test out the new Yahoo 360 interface. Please check there for further update!

It's just under 6 weeks to go for the SF Marathon. I haven't posted any updates since I started actively training again. I wish I could say I had all good news. My IT Band has been acting up again a little bit. I ran a 20 mile long run 3 weeks ago, and was supposed to run my 25 mile long run this past weekend. However my left leg was bothering me so much after 6 miles that I had to run around and walk back. Now I'm doing R.I.C.E. and reducing the mileage.

I'm at the point where I just have to lay off the mileage until the marathon in hopes of healing up enough to be able to run and finish it. I'm currently able to do my maintenance runs during the week which are now down to about 4 miles 3 days during the week and a run on Saturday. I've moved from the street to the treadmill this week and will most likely continue my runs on the treadmill to say my leg. I haven't decided what to do about my longer runs on the weekend. I think I am going to have no choice but to pare them down and just hope I have enough conditioning left in me to carry me through the marathon. I had hopes of finishing in under 4 hours, but I think it's more realistic at this point to just shoot for finishing...

I've also been doing a lot of stretching in hopes of loosening up my muscles, but am not sure how effective this has been. I am doing the same stretches I was taught during my physical therapy but it doesn't seem to be enough. Possibly I have a biomechanical problem which needs to be corrected.

However I have switched back to my Ascis nimbus VII shoes from the Asics Kayano X series. I'm not sure if the shoe was for me since I have had the running problem ever since I switched to the pair of shoes. I had been running in the nimbus series for the previous 5 years. But it's really had to make that correlation at this point in time.

Anyways I'll just be happy when the marathon is over at this point in time, so I can lay off the training and work in some other types of exercise for the remainder of the summer. Then pick up the running again in the late fall to get me back in shape for the Winter snowboarding season.

I still don't know if I am going to run the US Half Marathon in San Francisco this year, though I would like to do so. But I think I need to take at least a month or 2 off from running and then see if I am up to building back up for the race in November.

That's it for now.

I'm back on track for the San Francisco marathon on July 31st. I restarted my regular training about 3 weeks ago and I'm firing on all cylinders.

I've been doing stretches every day to make sure I don't have any more injuries, and I'm making sure not to run my long runs too fast.

I have somehwhat of an interesting training routine right now. I've been working in Hawaii for about a month and will continue to do so through the end of June. I come home on Friday nights and then do my long run at home on the Los Gatos Creek Trail on Saturday Mornings.

It's a dramatic differencec. During the week I run in the Waikiki area in Kapiolani park. The temperature in the mornings is 80 degrees with probably 80% humidity. Then I come home and do my long run in 50 degree weather with about 30% humidity. The long runs seem so easy after training in the hot humid weather. So in the end it actually seems to work to my advantage. However, I find it easy to run too fast on the long run on the weekend because my body feels so cool and comfortable. I just have to keep track of my pace!

I did a trail run 2 weeks ago at Huddart park which is off the 280. It was about an 11 mile run with about a 1400' climb. It's actually really fun and I hope to do some more trail running on Saturdays between my long runs.

I'm off to Monterey this weekend to cheer on a friend running in the Big Sur marathon!

Spring is here, and it looks like snowboarding season will be once again coming to an end for me. It's been a great season, I do wish I had gotten a few more trips, but I really can't complain. I spent more than enough time on the slopes in Tahoe, Vail, and Park City this year. Now it's time to focus on the rest of seasons and activities to come!

That being said, I've begun my training for the San Francisco Marathon on July 31st. I just started running again, 2 weeks ago, after being on the sidelines for nearly 9 weeks due to an IT (illiotibial) Band injury. Actually, I guess it was really a case of bursitis underneath my IT Band. I went through 3 weeks of physical therapy because not running for 5 weeks didn't seem to help, and I needed someone to tell me what was going on. A little ultrasound, icing, stretching, and massage and I'm back on the road again.

This past weekend I ran the Great Race in Saratoga, and it felt really good to just be able to run pain free. Though the course was only 4 miles it was very fun!

I can say I've learned one thing, and that is to be careful not to overdue the training, especially when it comes to mileage.

My injury came possibly from 2 things. The week prior to my injury I had run a 23.5 mile long run, and was a little sore the following week. I had only run twice the following week, and began my long run the following Saturday. Half way into my 11 mile run, I felt a sharp pain just above my knee on the outer side of my left leg. The pain was so much I had to immediately stop, I couldn't even walk for a few minutes and just stood there and stretched. Mind you I had a nice slow 5 mile walk back home in 53 degree weather. I remember barely being able to unlock my door to my apartment because my fingers where so numb.

So I possibly didn't recover enough or should have just taken the week off as I probably ran the long run a little too fast.

The other thing though is that I had bought a new pair of shoes later the day that I ran the 23.5 miles, and on top of that I changed models after running with the same brand and model for almost 6 years. I guess I'll never know if it was the shoes, and overuse injury or a combination of both.

During the 8 weeks that I couldn't run, I because a gym rat again, and did most of my training on the cycle, elliptical cross-trainers, stair-steppers (this didn't bother my leg), and after about 4 weeks began running slowly with a 12 minute min alternating running and walking for a couple of weeks. Additionally, I did some upper body weight lifting and ab work. I think the interval training on the cycle and elliptical trainer really helped out.

I'm looking forward to running quite a few races this summer to include: wharf-to-wharf, bay to breakers, bridge run, SF Marathon, SF bridge to bridge run, and the US Half Marathon in SF.

And hopefully somewhere inbetween all that a hike up half dome, some mountain biking, and a bunch of other hikes or camping trips.

So that's my spiel for now.

Here I am, carving it up at Park City Mountain Resort on Saturday, March 5th, 2005

Just got back from a great 5 day snowboarding trip at Vail, Colorado. The conditions on the slopes were so-so the first two days, but decent the second two days.

The trip was spent with a group of 7 people. We rented a condo at Sun Vail which is within walking distance of the Lion's Head Village lifts. The condo had a great view of the mountain, and you could see the snow cats grooming the slopes every evening.

It's pretty awesome to see 12 snowcats grooming a single run. I've never seen to many snowcats at a resort let alone all on the same run at the same time!

Pictures can be found here: http://www.riftzone.net/Snowboarding/snowboarding.htm

Well Thanksgiving is over again, and I recently spent 3 days in Tahoe. I was riding up at Kirkwood on November 25-27. Conditions for this time of year are spectacular. You wouldn't believe how much coverage there is already.

The conditions on Thursday and Friday were a little less than desirable. There was a good amount of hard pack, but you could find a bit of packed powder if you looked off piste.

Thursday I spent roaming all over the front side just cruising it and taking things easy. Spent a little time in the park ripping the table tops and boxes. Nothing too fancy, just wanted to see if I could still hack it in the park without making a fool out of myself.

On Friday, I managed to slip on some hard pack off a run off Cornice Express. Knocked my chin/jaw on the hard pack and got a nice raspberry underneath my chin. Also banged up a rib or muscle or something in that area. However it wasn't bad enough to get me to stop before the lifts closed on Friday.

On Friday I had two friends taking a snowboarding class at Kirkwood. Get this, their instructor had only been riding for a year! Come on what's up with that. Not only that, but one of my friends got nailed in the back by instructor! That is a ridiculous if you ask me. Something like this should never happen under any circumstances. She had to be taken down the hill by the ski patrol, and spend the rest of the day getting X-rays to see if there were any problems. Fortunately, there wasn't anything that they could find. But Kirkwood didn't even offer to give them tickets, or classes, or pay for the X-rays. This is completely irresponsible. Just goes to show how badly some business can be run. Someone should expect to be sued soon... Don't get me wrong this is my favorite mountain, but hey you still need to take responsibility when you are at fault.

Saturday was a different story. The snow started coming down late Thursday night, and it didn't let up until Saturday afternoon around 2:00PM. The weather was a bit colder on Saturday but there was nothing but powder everywhere you looked! After the snow stopped around 2, the weather warmed up a bit, and the last 2 hours at Kirkwood were phenomenal.

This is probably it for me until Christmas, when I expect to put another 5 days or so in. I might try to sneak in a day before Christmas, but it will take a lot of effort with all of the travel I am currently doing to Hawaii and back. But that's another story.

Scott