Carbo loading

Tonight, in preparation for a potential long run of 7 or 8 miles tomorrow morning, I decided to go for pasta dinner. OK, people may not think much of Presto Pasta - it's fast food pasta, not real Italian,etc. Well, it's a whole lot cheaper than other "Italian" places around here and I actually like the place. The food taste very good and the portion size is more than adequate. Tonight, however, I decided to go for the pasta combo. Got the spaghetti with meat sauce and a meatball, with a slice of garlic bread and a cup of minestrone. That thing filled me up and I actually still feel a little stuffed. Maybe next time I will order the pasta with just marinara sauce and the meatball, skip the meat sauce.

Normally I would feel bad after a meal like that. What happened to the weight watchers guy? That meal was probably worth over 30 points alone, if not more. Well, I think I calculated it out to be about 32 points. Any ways, I did some form of exercise today and I have that long run planned for tomorrow. Today was our regular off Friday and I got a little jog in, three mile round trip from San Pedro Street to the turnaround on the promenade, before trying to play some volleyball. Was able to average under ten minute miles, which was faster than what I wanted especially if I was going to play vball afterwards. My training plan calls out for 11 minute miles during my slow runs but my head keeps telling me to go a little faster. Today was also the first time I ran without headphones on, trying to get more in tune with my body during a run. All it did was let me know how much I was breathing during my run. My endurance is still not there, but I have three weeks before the 10K in Agoura. And this past Tuesday I was able to join the running club and we did some more hills, this time 4 reps running up about a 350m incline followed by a jog down.

As for the vball after my run, well, it turned out to be not much. I was able to play in one game of 4 on 4, and it was a good one. Unfortunately my left calf started to act up a little and it seemed that any sudden starts may re-pull the muscle. I couldn't really try going for balls and risk hurting myself and then I wouldn't be able to run the 10K. I am able to run since my running doesn't have any quick starts or sudden change of directions. Lame excuse but I am enjoying being able to run and I don't want to lose that right now. While we were at the beach we were graced with the presence of two Olympic gold medalists. Yep, Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhauser, 2008 Olympic gold medalists in beach volleyball, were in the court next to us getting some practice before they head on overseas. It was amazing to see how high they can jump, how fast they can cover that court, just how good they were. People have paid a lot of money to see them play for about 20 minutes, while we got to see them play for about an hour and a half for free. They are in the background of this picture, to the right.