So it’s been a year since my last race (even longer since my last trail race) and I haven’t been training a whole lot lately because of my ball of foot roblem. I wasn’t even sure if running this race was smart, or if I’d be able to do it without injuring myself. But – based on what my doc said I figured I could give it a shot! I bought a gel insert for sesmoiditis type issues and wore more cushioned trail shoes. I was pretty stoked to be running in O’Neill Park since it has beautiful views and was the first place I ever went on a trail run. It was like a homecoming! The race started at 830AM which was a good time. We arrived early and I had a chance to say hi to Pete and Corrine who were working their table. It’s always nice to see familiar faces at these events. I also saw Sue who is a running machine (literally). Sue has one pace and never stops to walk so it was no surprise when she passed me about a mile into the race while going up hill. I saw her on the second hill as well which was super steep – and she was the only one running! I thought I’d catch her on the downhills but I never did. Shows you what a difference it can make in your time if you can run all the hills.
The course was pretty rough in the first few miles with two fairly large climbs. I worked my way up the first one pretty well and hit 12 minutes at mile 1. I was hoping to finish the 5 mile race in juts under 60 minutes (12 minute pace). So far so good! Apparently the running/fast hiking combination I did up the first hill caught up with me because on the second (steeper) hill I was winded. Everyone was walking in my group so I didn’t feel so bad but I lost a lot of time and was over a 13 minute pace by mile 2. My foot – so far so good!
The views around mile 2 were some of the best on the course (as pictured above). After passing the aid station at mile 2 we had a long downhill section which I took full advantage of. I was flying by a bunch of runners who were very carefully watching their footing and were probably not regular trail runners. Sadly, by the time I got to the bottom around mile 3 I was having a hard time catching my breath. Lack of running plus pushing hard during the first 3 miles was starting to catch up with me and some of the runners I passed coming downhill were now passing me. Oh well.. I was going to keep plugging away even though I felt 60 minutes was pretty unlikely. I enjoyed the next section of single track and was soon on the home stretch which was on pavement. Yuck! I was pretty toasted here and did several walk/run intervals before making a dash the last quarter mile or so. My final time was 1:01:something. I think around 1:01:30. Not too far from my goal which was a bit surprising. The ball of my foot had started bugging me around mile 4 and definitely hurt when I finished. Considering how I bombed down some of those hills that was not a big shock. I was worried when the pain continued after the race for an hour or two (about a 5 out of 10). Fortunately the pain was gone after lunch and my foot feels great today, even after a softball practice. I will take at least the week off and try again on the weekend. I’m hoping the problem is slowly going away but I’m not going to pound the mileage and make it worse. I DO plan on running the Into the Wild 10K in 2 weeks and the last OC Chilli Run (sub 60!) in 4 weeks.
Ah, what a glorius weekend!
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica
So.. I’ve been working in IT for a long time and Information Security for about 10 years or so. I’ve seen a lot of things change and a lot of things just get recycled. What about the truly new innovations? I have a couple of ideas if any security vendor is listening. If you want to give me credit – I’ll take it 
- Smart IDS
- How about an Intrusion Detection System that is truly smart? What if it knew a machine was vulnerable or not and gave you alerts or suppressed information based on a vulnerability scanner. Wouldn’t that be easy enough to integrate? Case in point, do I really need to see a bunch of SQL Slammer attack attempts if all my systems are patched for SQL Slammer? Vulnerability scan information could be fed into the IDS so it only shows you what is relevant. A truly smart system. You could even have a check/uncheck box on whether or not to suppress certain alerts based on vulnerability data – just in case you really want to see all those irrelevant attacks
- Advanced DLP
- Data Loss Prevention systems have come a long way toward helping protect company secrets. The problem is, especially if you aren’t blocking (as is difficult in most companies), what do you do once the data gets out? Sure you have a record of it but what if 5 people send it out and you find it posted online? What is the one that leaked it to that site? I think what is really missing from today’s DLP solutions is a watermarking feature. For example, a person send out a secret document and the DLP system notices. It allowed it through but stamps a watermark on the document and voila – you can trace it back to the exact leak. The system would have to function inline but it would be a great way to track important documents as opposed to two systems.
Those are just a couple of ideas for now anyway. Next time maybe I’ll keep them to myself a start a company
Jessica
We definitely experienced our busiest weekend since moving to SoCal in January. But busy in a good way. Friday we got together with a couple friends and watched “The Social Network”, which by the way is a very good film! Following that we played a few rounds of TV Superstars with the Playstation Move. Lots of fun! Saturday we had a relaxing morning followed shopping for a grill, then a 3 mile run on the beach. It was about 75 and absolutely gorgeous for our run. Couldn’t have asked for much more! The ever better news from that is I wore more cushioned shoes and didn’t notice any foot pain that I had experienced on some more recent runs with more minimal footwear. After our run we spent some time laying out by the pool and soaking up the SoCal sun. Next up was our attempt at grilling but it didn’t go so well and we ran out of time since we were meeting some friends for miniature golf (which I won incidentally 18 holes later we stopped in to a nearby dive bar for a drink then were home and off to bed.
Sunday morning started with a trip to the vet for Madison who has an ear infection. Poor baby just got fixed on Thursday and now this… We made our second attempt at grilling after that but it took longer than expected and we missed our planned trip to the Gossip Grill for a softball fundraiser event. Our 2nd attempt was better but still not quite there – third time is the charm! Christina had a soccer game after that – which she won. Her team is 2-3 and I was there for both wins so I think I may have to keep going (though not next week when they start at 9PM).
I also took note that it is 33 days until my birthday. I saw a post on Facebook about a 40 day challenge so I took that and modified that a bit since I’m not exactly the picture of health I’d like to be at this point. The plan is:
- No soda
- No Fast food
- No sweets
- No fried food
- exercise for at least 15-20 minutes EVERY day
I think #1 and #3 will be the hardest and possibly #5. I certainly don’t run every day so I’ll have to do cross training to reach my goal. 15-20 minute is very achievable though. 3 days down!
In other news, I saw the doctor today about my foot pain. His diagnosis is that it’s likely sesamoiditis, which basically means inflammation of the sesamoid bone under my big toe. He didn’t seem to think it was a bad case and thought I could continue my activities with a few caveats. First – I’m supposed to wear shoes with better cushioning, and second I should wear shoes with a more rigid toe box . That pretty much takes out all minimal type footwear. I asked him if I could go back to that after my current problem gets better and he said he doesn’t recommend it and that he has seen all kinds of new foot injuries like this one in people who’ve been running for years and switch to minimalist footwear. Even with a gradual switchover he didn’t really recommend it since it can put so much stress on the sesamoids, especially if you have higher arches like I do. The verdict is still out in my mind. I’m going back to more cushioned footwear and may supplement in time with very short, more minimal runs. Of course, not until my current pain is 100% gone. I’m hoping I can continue running with minimal issues and that the pain gets better. If it gets worse or I start feeling pain all the time (not just when running), then I’m supposed to go back for a bone scan. I have a 5 mile race planned for Saturday so I’m hoping that goes well!
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica
So it’s been a year since my last race (even longer since my last trail race) and I haven’t been training a whole lot lately because of my ball of foot roblem. I wasn’t even sure if running this race was smart, or if I’d be able to do it without injuring myself. But – based on what my doc said I figured I could give it a shot! I bought a gel insert for sesmoiditis type issues and wore more cushioned trail shoes. I was pretty stoked to be running in O’Neill Park since it has beautiful views and was the first place I ever went on a trail run. It was like a homecoming! The race started at 830AM which was a good time. We arrived early and I had a chance to say hi to Pete and Corrine who were working their table. It’s always nice to see familiar faces at these events. I also saw Sue who is a running machine (literally). Sue has one pace and never stops to walk so it was no surprise when she passed me about a mile into the race while going up hill. I saw her on the second hill as well which was super steep – and she was the only one running! I thought I’d catch her on the downhills but I never did. Shows you what a difference it can make in your time if you can run all the hills.
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