WOW Great Accomplishments

26.2 miles A MARATHON!  What a feat!  Keep in mind that in the first Marathon in Greece, the athlete died at the finish-it is that challenging! Several M4Lers finished the full course and many others enjoyed the team aspect of the relay!  Regardless, how you did it, we all praticpated in the first SB International Marathon and should be very proud of the grueling training we did! 

Thank you Coach Anthony for the expertise and encouragement!

Thank you to all the M4L teammates!  You are awesome!

Tomorow morning!

Hey Gang tomorrow we will indeed be having practice!!! We obviously wont be running too much at all 1-2 miles depending on what your running Sunday but we will meet at 7am @ SMHS track. You can expect a short easy warm-up, light drills and stretching as well as striders for relay runners. Practice will be in and out in under an hour so get a good nights sleep and I will see you in the morning!!

Anthony

Race day is upon us!!!

M4Lers-

13 weeks, hundreds of miles worth of training and our big day has finally come!!! Hope you're all excited for this Sunday. Rest has been our theme this week so regardless of the mileage you have gotten in be sure to take it easy from here on out!!

A couple of important last min preparations:

• Hydrate!!! Drink all the water you normally do plus more!! A couple good general guidelines to follow are drink at LEAST two liters of water every day until race day. Keep up with the water intake until your pee is no longer yellow but close to clear!!
• Carbo Loading - There are plenty of new age ways to get this done and please feel free to try anything that works for you so long as you do indeed get in extra carbs before race day!! As far as my recommendation start eating your carbs as of today one meal a day of extra carbs until Sat and then get in a carb filled lunch and dinner keeping the dinner low on cheeses and sauces like marinara. Remember its not just what you eat the day before but even two days prior that your body will be using to get you through the long haul!!
• REST!! Be sure to not only take some time off the road but also STAY OFF YOUR FEET!! Massage is a great way to get that blood circulating icing anything that even remotely feels fatigued, leg drains can be good last minute prep!
• Pre Race plans although we are not meeting this Sat be sure to get yourself up Sat morning at the same time you will be Sunday and get in a easy mile or two with eating and stretching to prepare your body to be ready to go! **4-6 Striders for those relay runners to prep the fast twitch muscles that we have been training that are ready to MOVE!!
• Sleep aside from resting make sure your getting consistent sleep in the days prior this should not be overlooked as even the most prepared can have a hard time making it through by bad sleep patterns!
• Remaining schedule: Thurs = Rest, at most 3 miles. Fri = Rest, no running. Sat = pre race

All in all it's been great working with you guys and I will look forward to seeing you all out there on the course and after the race to get some last minute season recaps from you all!!
GO MOMENTUM!!

Anthony

Practice to go on as usual this Sat

Hey team just to inform anybody who was thinking of making it out to today's practice, due to most of us visiting family it will be canceled. Practice will resume Sat at 7am see you all there!!

Anthony

Getting it out early this time

Marathoners I first want to apologize for dropping the ball on last weeks blog, So sorry I did not get it out to you all. Good news is though your mileage is going to drop off tremendously from this point until the Big Day!! This weeks mileage should be at 25 with and 8 miler on Sat and next week pre marathon you don't need to worry about getting more then 12 miles in. I will be sending out a more detailed schedule of our final week of preparation regarding tapering rest days and carbo loading. As for this week Craig and Mary came up with the brilliant idea of getting our 8 in on the last miles of the course itself. So if you can arrange a pickup or carpool the plan is to meet at SMHS at 7 and leave towards SBCC getting in the big hill on Cliff Dr and then having a ride or jumping in with a ride to get you back to SMHS if you need. Please let me know if this does not work for you and I will work something else out for you! This will be our last long run and if it's possible you should try and get your second longest last run in tomorrow (Wed) maybe 6-8 miles.

Halfers - I hope you are enjoying our speed/strength training as it is a bit different then we are used to and it really is the perfect time to work on our speed at the end our season of training. However I would love to meet with you guys outside of just Saturday morning, to get the most out of this training as you may have noticed it's not the easiest adjustment. So if you are available I would like to propose an optional 2nd practice on the week tomorrow at SMHS @ 3:45- 4pm that should finish up no later then 5-5:15pm before it gets dark. I would also like to get in another practice next week maybe Tuesday at the same time. Please email me or call Dawn to let us know if you CAN make it. I would like to have at least 4 participants to make it worth while. I will be at the track at 3:45 unless I don't here back from anybody my email agaribay2@gmail.com. I can tell you that this would be very beneficial to everyone as speed training needs to be worked on and we could just about double our days of this end of season training, if you can make it out to the extra days. If you cannot please try and put yourself through a mile on (tough) mile off easy workout Wed for roughly 6 miles. Your weekly mileage this week is at 20. Either way practice will again be held out at SMHS @ 7am for everyone!

Hope to see you all soon!

Anthony

Saturday, November 21, 2009

7am at San Marcos HS track for the FULL marathoners and the relayers!
See you ALL there!

Meeting place

This Sat morning our Marathoners will be meeting at 6:15am at the San Marcos turnaround (the parking lot where we met last time. The run will send you over Turnpike and up Cathedral Oaks to Los Carneros where you will make a left over the freeway and head down to El Colegio from there you will make a right and another right on storke. Left at Hollister and follow it til it crosses over the freeway like the Marathon will do and a Left back onto Cathedral Oaks. Stay on cathedral Oaks til you hit Ribera Dr and make that right as it turns into the bike path stay on the bike path over the little bridge that leads you to Patterson make a Left on Patterson and take the more mesa loop bring it back down Puente and viola! 23.2 miles back at SMHS!!

Reading that again confused me but don't worry I will have maps for everyone and it really is just a big figure 8. We will be leaving at 6:30am!!

Half marathoners will meet at 7am and can plan to be outta there by no later then 9am!!

See you all in the morn!

-Coach Anthony

Our final stretch

Congratulations to all who particpated in the Half Marathon it was a great success and I hope each and every one of you enjoyed the training and got everything you hoped for in the run itself!! It has been a pleasure working with all of you and I would urge you to continue training with us through the marathon even if you have to round up a last minute relay team!! The training itself will take much less time and will be much different then mile after mile of running we will be speed training!!

Marathoners this Sat will be our last big long run! We will hit 23 miles!! This week though I expect you to only get in 32 miles including the 13.1 from the half marathon. Next week our weekly mileage will go back up but our long runs will start to shorten.
Relay Runners our training as above mentioned will start to differ from here on out, our mileage will be cut in half with the intensity heightened. Our focus will be on leg turnover and proper running body mechanics to get the most out of each stride. You can also expect more strength and core exercises to properly prepare our bodies to run the shorter and faster relay legs! This week is supposed to be a rest week so allow your mileage to drop down to 25 for the week or 12 if you ran the half marathon!
This weeks meeting time and place will be posted by Thursday eve!!

Once again if I don't get to see those of you finished with your half marathon training and you are currently not on a relay team please consider running on a team! It is truely a lot of fun and this is Santa Barbara's inaugural Marathon so other then seeing all the smiling faces out at momentum practice and getting in what will be some great rewarding training, you may not want to miss out on what is sure to be a very fun event! If your on the fence, or don't have a team shoot me an email and I'm sure there are others willing to join forces and create a fun team!
Thanks again for sticking with it and hope to see you ALL soon!

Coach Anthony

CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU!

WOW- what a great day to run thru Santa Barbara! Congrats to all who accomplished the feat f 13.1 miles of rolling hills along SB's coast!  It truly is an achievment of mental and physical (but mostly mentl) toughness! As I ran, I could not help but think about what a privlege it is to be out there running. As I saw people going to work, the homeless sleeping outside, and the physically challenged cheering us on I realized how lucky we are to be able to take the time to train and to run!

Thank you for training with M4L!  We have amazing teams because of the great people like you who join us! Thanks to Coach Anthony for the great workouts!
Thank you to Naomi  and Grant Reeves of PRINT THIS for the sponsoship and carb replacement FIRESTONE at the end of the race!  That was awesome!
Thank you to Lesley Bloomer for the very cute DAWG running shirts!
Please continue to collect donations and send into DAWG PO BOX 92210 SB CA 93190.

Again, great job everyone! Hope to see you at the marathon!
Dawn

Last min Preparations

Half marathoners,

Just wanted to give you the heads up that you can pick up your race packets anytime today until 6pm or early tomorow morning at the DOWNTOWN SB Running store. Also we will indeed be meeting tomorow morning at 7:30am at the M4L tent located near the start finish line to warm-up and go over some last minute things! Don't forget afterwards we will also be meeting at the tent to celebrate our fast times and fun experience at the M4L tent. See you all tomorow!! Get your sleep and drink your water!!!

Coach A

RACE Shirts

They are here and they look great! 

Please plan to wear one for the SBNP HALF MARATHON and show your support for DAWG!

Lesley(who underwrote all the costs of the shirts) dropped them by my house this AM and Naomi and husband Grant's PRINT THIS company are sponsors displayed on the back! We want to thank them for helping support M4L and DAWG.

You can email me at http://www.m4l.com/ if you want to arrange a time to pick up your shirt NOW.   I can leave them out at my front door during the day for pick up or I will bring them to the M4L tent at the race site Saturday AM.

Our big day just around the corner!!

Marthoners, well done getting in your 20 miler!! Be sure to rest up before getting back out there! This week is a recovery week and our weekly mileage will be ALL THE WAY DOWN TO 25 miles!!! This Saturday's run will be 13.1 miles and hopefully you can do it with the entire Momentum group as we should have a good time running our Half down on the beautiful coastline. If you are indeed runnin in the the Half marathon consider just taking it easy as this is a recovery week for us so piling on a hard 13.1 after a 20 miler might be a tad too much. Keep in mind the bigger picture!!
This week is resting week for everyone!! Halfers be sure to stock your cupboards with plenty of pasta this week as we will be Carbo loading as of Wednesday. Meaning try to get in a meal or two each day filled with Carbs! *Stay away from cheesy pasta the night before the race! We want to have as much energy stored once race day comes around so we don't have to worry about depleting our bodies natural energy source too much! Also be sure to drink extra water as of Thursday to be sure we are fully hydrated at the starting line. I am very excited to see our hard work pay off with some great times and some good memories!
I do hope that some of us are considering jumping on a relay for the Marathon because not only will the training be like nothing we have done before working on leg turnover! But running alongside 2 or 3 other people on a relay is very exciting and you might surprise yourself reaching new heights when you realize you have teamates pushing and rooting for you!
Looking forward to seeing you all early Saturday!!
Coach Ant

Continue your HALF marathon training-4 more weeks!

Hey there! You have all done such a great job training for the HALF marathon, why not keep it going for another 4 weeks? Don't you want  to be part of the FIRST SB Intn'l Marathon? You do not need to run 26.2 miles, you can do a RELAY- with 2, 3 or 4 people and divide up the distances from as little as 4 miles!

Get your friends and family and sign up today! $10 M4L discount code SBIMM4L2009



M4L will continue training on Saturday AMs at 6:30am at SMHS track for the relay beginning November 14th for $55. Anthony Garibay will continue coaching and will train the relay specifically for the relay distances.
Join in on this fun, big, local, first ever, EVENT!
Here are the updated legs for the MARATHON-

1Start (near Ellwood school) to Girsh Park 6.8 miles

2Girsh Park to LA Patera Lane/Cathedral Oaks 6.4 miles

3LA Patera Lane/CO to South end of Turnpike at bike path 4.7 miles

4Bike path @ Turnpike to Finish! 8.3 miles


Check out this link for more info. http://www.sbimarathon.com/Assets/documents/Health+$!26+Fitness+Relay+$!26+Training+Information.pdf

Meeting time and place

Okay guys this week we will meet at SMHS. Marathoners will meet at 6:15am. We will meet go over the route and take off by 6:30am!!

Half Marathoners will meet at 6:30am and be off and ready to run our 8 miles by no later then 7am!

Important: All half marathoners are required to get in 8 striders after our 8 mile run!! Also I want Goal times!! Whether it's just finishing, or running a PR I want to know what we are all striving for !!
Next weeks runs should look like this
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 2-4
Tuesday: 6
Wednesday: 3-5
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Pre-Meet up by race time 1-2 miles EASY, 4-6 striders, STRETCH!
Saturday: It's GO time!!
**Please keep in mind this schedule is only for those of us near or at our weekly mileage!!

Coach A

DAWG!

Two weeks ago Lesley and friends visited M4L with some of dogs from DAWG.  These dogs had the saddest life stories, but with happy endings thanks to DAWG.

In this economic climate never before has the need to help the only "no kill" shelter in SB been more important. Any amount you can donate or acquire through sponsorship from family and friends will go straight to these dogs. More about DAWG.

Each of you will receive a fabulous DAWG running shirt (underwritten by Lesley Bloomer and family) this Saturday at pratice to wear in the half marathon.  Let's show our support by wearing the shirt proudly and giving what we can to DAWG PO BOX 92210 SB CA 93190.

For each person who donates any amount, M4L will give you a sweatshirt too!

Big week for marathoners

Marathoners are up to the highest weekly mileage they will run at 45 miles!! Remember you got in 17-18 miles last Sat and this next Sat will be 20+!
Halfers we will start tapering slightly this week, slowing down our mileage to 26. Meaning with our 10-11 miler over the weekend you really only have 15-16 miles to get in during this week! I would like you to get in a longer Wed or Thursday run in this week of 8-10 miles if possible our weekend run will be much shorter then what we are used to down to 8 miles!!
After this Saturday your mileage will be coming down significantly while your rest will be taking it's place. I will be going over Carbo loading and some last minute things we can do to help our bodies rest up and prepare for our big race day!!
See you Saturday morn!!

Coach Anthony

New meeting time and place!

M4L,

Hey guys it was great getting out on our run with you all last week! Hope your handling the higher mileage well! This weeks homework will be up to 40 miles for our Marathoners and 30-32 for our halfers. Next Sat we will be meeting at 6:30am at SBCC track!!! Our runs will be 18 and 12 for each group and we will be running the first half of the 1/2 marathon and working on some hills.

Important: This week will be our first week of getting in a 2nd longer run during the week. The longer run should be near 65-75% of our long run and should be done on Tuesday or Wednesday. All other runs will then be shortened giving our bodies more recovery type days with less mileage.

Running route:
1/2 ers will be running just about 12 miles this next week that will be the longest we go until we get to the big race day!! We will run the first half of the course and turn back around at east beach. After we reach our start we will all finish up on Leadbetter hill where we will get in 4 good formed hills.
I will update our marathon route later in the week once I have it mapped out but both groups should be well rested and ready to do some hill training!

Happy Running!

Coach Anthony

Saturday Oct 17th

Hello M4L'ers Cant wait to see you all tomorow!!
Here is our scheduled route of tomorow's long run:
1/2'ers 2 laps warmup on track, drills -> Out SMHS over Turnpike to Cathedral Oaks -> L on Cathedral Oaks til Los Carneros -> L on Los Carneros and immediate L again on Covington Way -> L again on N La Patera and return to SMHS via Cathedral Oaks Total mileage including warmup will be 10.5 miles.
Marathoners -> static stretching and prep at 7 you will be leaving the track with Coach Kaleena taking the same route to Los Carneros via Turnpike and Cathedral Oaks -> L on Los Carneros and enter Lake Los Carneros on L side at the Calle Real corner. -> Three complete laps around the lake and after third lap continue around lake until you get to the corner of Covington way and La Patera -> La Patera -> R on Cathedral Oaks and return to SMHS. Your total mileage will be 14.5. So if your still feeling well you are welcome to get in two 'cool down' laps to hit our 15 mile goal for this week!!
Looking forward to seeing you all again tomorow morning 6:45!!

Coach Ant

Saturday at 6:45am

Be there on time and be ready to warm up!  6:45am sharp!

Chicken Ranch Wednesdays

Beginning today, Weds. Oct. 7, 2009 at 5:30pm, a group of M4Lers will meet and run few miles around the beautiful Lake Los Carneros and then dine at Chicken Ranch in Goleta- Fairview Shopping Center!

Come and run or come and eat (we will be back by 6:15pm from the run)! Hope to see you there!

Dawn

This will be a weekly event, every Weds. until it gets too dark at 5:30pm. If you can't make it this week, come the next time!

Weekly Mileage for October 3-9

Marathoners: should be comfortably at 32 miles this week including last Saturday's 12 miler!
Halfer's: our weekly goal should be 26 miles this week including our 9 miler Saturday!

This Saturday, I will sadly not be present but coach Kaleena will run the show! She is very knowledgable and well versed in all aspects of distance running, please don't hesitate to ask questions!! She will run you all through a "negative split workout" on the mesa bluffs. The goal of this workout is to train your body to run even harder while staying efficient after it is fatigued. The loop will be 4.25 miles for the marathoners and 3.5 for the halfers. It is to be done twice w/a mile on the track warm-up and a easy 1/2 mile cool down after returning to the track. Next weeks mileage will actually drop!!! So be sure to run hard and hit your negative splits!! Have a great workout and I will see you again next week!!

-Coach Ant

Week of 10/3

Runners,

Your weekly miles should be up to 24 for halfers and 29 for full marathoners.Just a quick breakdown of how I would get them in.

• Sat: 8 or 9.5
• Sun: Rest
• Mon: 5 or 4
• Tues: 5 or 4
• Wed: 5 or 4
• Thurs: Rest
• Fri: 30 - 40min easy run w/stretching!!

This Sat we will be running 9 miles for the 1/2 ers and 12 for the Fulls! Be sure to hydrate yourself Thursday and Friday!!

1/2 : From SMHS -> down Turpike -> up Bike path through Goleta beach tournaround at UCSB lagoon (Campus Point) return back via bike path.

Full : From SMHS -> down Puente to Mesa Bluffs -> Exit Bluffs onto Shoreline Dr (turns into Patterson)-> Left on Bikepath to UCSB Lagoon -> Circle UCSB Lagoon and return to SMHS via Bike Path.

Last Sat we went over Glute Strengthening with our "firehydrants" This week we will go over some shin drills to keep the shin splints down with the added miles.

See you all Sat morning!!

Coach Anthony

We are off and running...

This Saturday we will meet EARLIER- 6:45am at SMHS track!  Don't be late! There will be a taper option for those doing the Carp Tri Sunday!  YEA!

Remember, our new blog at www.M4Lblog.com will REPLACE the weekly email. If you wish to still receive this info by email, please "subscribe" to the blog. After you subscribe, you will receive an email with the subject line "Activate your Email Subscription to: Momentum 4 Life." You must click on the link in order to activate your subscription. Many of you signed up but have not yet taken this step and will not receive the emails.

LAST WEEK'S REVIEW-
Another beautiful day for running last Saturday, Sept. 19th.  It was cool and overcast for our 5.5-6.5 mile loop from Turnpike, to Cathedral Oaks, to Ribera, to the bike path to Puente (or Arroyo and back to the SMHS track! The workout began with a mile warm up and then the drills.  We ran the loop, did some active recovery (leg swings) and then some stretching and core work.  The total mileage was between 7-8.5 miles.  Great work everyone!

Our team is set! We are off and running with many training for the SB News Press Half Marathon -Saturday, Nov. 7th and some training for the full 26.2 miles in the SB International Marathon -Sunday, Dec. 6th  AND others wanting to complete the marathon relay with 4 people.  The M4L discount code for the marathon is SBIMM4L2009  Go to wwwsbimarathon.com to register NOW-save $10!

Please get me your Half Marathon entry form and payment by this Saturday, Sept. 26 at practice.  I need to get the entire packet in the mail Saturday. Thanks!

Here is the DAWG deal...fundraising is optional in M4L, but the dogs could really use our help! If you raise between $50-$99 you will get a M4L oversized sweatshirt (navy, grey, tye dye) and if you raise $100 or more you will get the sweatshirt and the very cool DAWG running shirt!
I have the forms! more info. to come

Great group of runners we have!  Go team M4L!
See you early Saturday-6:45am!
Dawn

Getting in your miles!

Hey M4L'ers just wanted to make sure everybody is getting in their miles this week! We should be hitting our minimums 20 for the half marathoners and 24 for the fulls! Here's an ideal weekly breakdown;

• Sun: Rest
• Mon: 4-5
• Tues: 2-3
• Wed: 4-5
• Thurs: Rest
• Fri: 2-3
• This Sat: 8.5 - 9.5

Please remember these are minimum numbers, the more easy miles you put in now under your base the more prepared you will be come race day!

See you all Sat!

September 12, 2009

WOW what a great run today! The weather was perfect for running- much cooler and nice cloud cover!

We started with an 800 warm up (2 laps around the track) and then did some warm up drills. There was a focus again on our shins. Then we headed out to the bluffs and looped around either a 5 to 6.5 mile run back to the track, where we did some active recovery and core work!

I passed out two upcoming event applications that offer a M4L discount. The Goleta Education 4 miler next Sunday will offer $5 off , so only $15, if you SEND IT IN by Thursday this week! Download the registration form and be sure to write M4L on the top!

Also I passed out SB News Press Half Marathon entry forms. You can go to www.newspress.com/halfmarathon and print out the application and bring it to me by Saturday, the 26th. M4L also gets $5 off and that way the event will only cost us $40! I need to collect all paperwork and money and send our team info in together!

It looks like our group is about 50 members and I think we will close off membership after this upcoming Saturday practice. So if you know anyone wanting to join they need to be able to run 6-7 miles right now and be at Saturday's practice at SMHS at 7am Saturday!

Homework this week from Coach Anthony is a total of 18 miles. (You get to subtract the miles run today.) Try to get at least two rest days in during the week and 3-4 miles per run, 4 times during the week.

Have a great week and we will see you next week at 7am!

Dawn

Santa Barbara Running

Santa Barbara Running And TeamDAWG Invite you for a complimentary running evaluation and shoe recommendation. Discounts on shoes. Wine and cheese. Bring friends

Sunday, September 13th, 2.30 - 5.30 pm  
Santa Barbara Running store
29 Fairview Ave, Goleta

half and full M4L marathoners

YEA - fabulous turnout this AM with nearly 40 people and more on their way next week! The run was 4-5.5 miles after a warmup and drills and then after the run we did stretching and a little of Anthony's famous core work!

We have many goals for you, but #1 is injury prevention-so please

1. be on time to properly warm up
2. do the active recovery-legs swings etc.
3. stay for the stretching
4. do the body part specific strengthening that Coach Anthony will give you each week!  This first week was shin exercises! That is to ward off shin splints!

We found out today that getting into the SMHS track can be tricky (they wire off our usual sneaking in spot), so allow time to hike to the top by the baseball field or try going around the gym.  Parking on the Turpike side seemed to be great today!

Bring with you each week:

1. a watch to time your runs
2. plenty of water or fluids-it was really hot today!
3. towel or a mat for floor exercises
4. glasses,sunscreen, visor or hat!

This week's homework- is to get up to 15 miles total - and you can  include the miles done today so you need to get in between 9-11 miles before next Sat.  It is recommended to get a day of rest between runs, so take Sunday off of running and next Friday too! Cross training with swimming, weights, biking, etc is great on your off days!

This year we will again have the option of supporting DAWG!  There will be a kickoff party at SB Running in Goleta (Fairview) next Sunday, Sept 13th at 2:30-6pm!  Stop by to get your running style and shoes checked, (don't forget to bring your shoes with you), get some great discounts in a special DAWG -M4L sale, and have some wine and cheese!

Here is Coach Anthony's log to keep track of your miles!

Welcome to our new blog

We're tying something new this season - this blog as a way to keep you updated of Momentum 4 Life happenings and the training schedule for the half-marathon and marathon running groups. We think it will be easier to find the information you need and more personal, too!. Let us know what you think.

There are 3 ways to get the information here:

1. You can visit this blog at www.M4Lblog.com
2. You can "subscribe" by entering your email in the box at the top of the right column
   
3. You can have new posts and/or comments sent to an RSS feed reader (like your Google home page) by clicking on the orange icon below the email subscribe box.