Week 11 Sunday Run: The Palos Verdes Route – We started off at the shopping center at Malaga Cove, ran to Hawethorne Blvd, passing 2 water stops, back to the starting point, then run to the first water stop, then back. Weather was perfect, beautiful views of the ocean, passing some really amazing houses. We even saw a glass house. Yes, I was able to see straight through it, overlooking the ocean.
We formed a pace group 3 “b”, because half of us wanted a 6 minute run : 1 minute walk interval instead of a 7:1 considering the hills on this course. Oh, there are hills all right, especially the first one being within the first mile of running. It wasn’t TOO bad because the amount of uphills evened out with the amount of downhills. Today I ran with Mega, Shauna, Jennifer, and Gretchen… talking about various topics from favorite vacations, to running teams who drink, to cool hotspots in LA/Hollywood. Great talks make the run go by so quickly. Other factors in making this a great course: We had no idea how the course was so we didn’t really know the mile marks were. “Oh, we’re almost done!”, and the power of the GU.
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Week 10 Sunday Run: Ok I know I’m on the “Summer” team, but it’s not summer yet! It felt like summer today, running 10 miles in 80 something degree weather. They even ran out of water at the 2nd water stop, and my water belt went empty early on. The sun was beating so hard that we scrounged for shade while we ran.
Week 9 Sunday Run: After finishing strong last week with no problems, my teammate Phillipa decided we should try out pace group 3 this week. I agreed, and guess what? This is the week where the team happens to extend our intervals by one minute to a 7:1 interval. Mind you, this pace is faster, AND we’re running longer (14 miles).
Week 8 Sunday Run: I missed last Sunday’s run due to Easter in San Diego with the family, so the last time I did a long run was two weeks ago. Boy, time surely flies. I can’t believe it’s week 8 already. Today’s scheduled run was 8 miles. It was our usual course, from Shutters, to the end of Venice, back north to San Vicente, then back to the parking lot where we meet. 
No, not the TV show, the Hills. I’m talking about the hills in Santa Monica. Before TNT, I never really knew that hills even existed in Santa Monica. When I hear Santa Monica, I think of sunny skies, the beach, and the promenade. Well, on the east part of Santa Monica, near the airport (they have an airport too?!?), our team trains in a residential street named Dewey. Today was my first session, but it was the team’s second practice here. It replaced the strength training (although we’re supposed to do that on our own time now) on Wednesday nights. This time it was 7pm.
Mondays will be my crosstraining nights where I plan to experiment with different types of workouts and classes. I’ve had an indoor rockclimbing gym membership for half a year now, and I realized that I haven’t maximized its use to offset the monthly cost. I go to 
Tonight we had a fundraiser before the Strength & Conditioning class at the Rubios across the street at The Howard Hughes Center in LA. Whoever brought in a TNT flyer will get a cut of the money made that night from 6pm – 8pm. This kicked off my fundraising as I haven’t really started yet (OOPS!). Class started at the usual 8:30pm time and we did the usual exercises, but for some odd reason, Byong and I had a really hard time with the leg raises. Could it be all the partying last weekend? I know alcohol messes with your metabolism, but 4 days later? That bartender must have slipped something in there!
