A white Christmas for us!
Season's Greetings from snowy Spokane, WA where we are spending Christmas with Don's family. Also, it is COLD. Yes, it is often much colder here than in San Francisco, but as our SF winters average probably 55F and rarely dip below 40F, that's not a tough bar. In Spokane it's frequently in the 30s and 40s and sometimes the mid-20s, but we knew that this year it would be been teens & low-to-mid 20s for our entire stay, so when packing I pretty much just emptied my ski bag into my suitcase.
Nothing like ski socks for cold-weather running. Fight me.
This is the ninth year I've spent a holiday here but the first time that I've been in the middle of for-serious training for something I care a lot about. (I was here the second-to-last week before CIM last year at Thanksgiving, but pretty much already in taper mode so the volume was low and the workouts not that intense.) Usually I'd be content to eat, drink, relax, & top any running out at 6-8 easy miles every other day or so, but guys, we were solidly into Boston week 2 when we got here on Thursday so there has actually been quite a LOT of running, a good bit of it rather long and hard-ish (and the 2,400 ft elevation only makes all those hills that much harder).
Grand Total: 46.5 total miles / 3,141 elevation gain
- * 20.1 easy
* 4.9 speed
* 5.5 HMP
* 16 long
Monday 12/18: Karate
Tuesday 12/19: 2 warm up, 5 x 5:00 @ 5K pace / 3:00 jog, 3.1 cool down = 10 total.
- Oh ho ho. There is the first speed workout of the cycle, and then there is the first speed workout of the cycle after the first long run. Now THAT'S some good times right there.
I had this unique pleasure last Tuesday, having run 16 miles with hills two days before. The assignment was 5 x 5:00 @ 5K pace with 3:00 jogs; I was already a bit nervous about this workout because it was a staple back when I was super focused on 5Ks & 10Ks (like 6-7 years ago) and if there is one thing I remembered about it it's that it effing SUCKS. There are workouts you can kind of talk yourself through in one way or another or get into the middle of & say, "See, this is really not that bad," workouts where you find little tricks and mind games or bright spots to get you through. 200m repeats are fast but over really quickly (just count down from 45!). 2K intervals are hell of long but pretty moderate in pace as speed work goes (you've done this easily for 10K in the past, no problem!). None of that can be said about 5 x 5:00 @ 5K. Everything about it 100% sucks pretty much from the get-go.
Part of me tried telling myself, "Well, you know how track workouts go, they look super hard on paper and then you're like, 'Oh, NBD!'" And I was almost believing it until I was 400m into the first interval with over three minutes still to go.
There is just really nothing you can do (or, at least, nothing I've ever found) to make this workout not feel like complete and total ass. After one the thought of doing four more seemed just completely unreasonable, so if there is one trick that kind of sort of works, it's the old well-let's-just-get-through-one-more-and-reevaluate chestnut. But as far as getting through each one, I got nothing. I tried counting down 200m's from six. Counting down 100m's from 12. Counting down from 50 six times. Telling myself, "Well the first lap is easy, so it's really just a sucky 800m" which is completely false. There is just nothing that makes this workout feel not awful and that is the end of it. For me 5:00 at 5K pace is about three laps around the track and I swear every time I'd finish the second lap and my body went "HOWWWWWW is this not the END of the interval, how is there AN ENTIRE EFFING LAP TO GO FML."
Wednesday 12/20: Karate
Thursday 12/21: 6 easy. Got up early to get this one done before our flight to Spokane. It was really supposed to be 8 but I was just not not not getting up any earlier.
Friday 12/22: 2 warm up, 4 x 2K @ HMP / 1:15 jog, 2 cool down = 9.5 total + 855' vertical.
- First workout in Spokane! These are always interesting because a) Spokane is at 2400', ie, 2400' higher than SF, b) it is very hilly where I tend to run, and c) also tends to be extremely cold (relatively to what I'm used to) and often snowing.
Sometimes despite having a workout on the schedule, I just have not been able to run much faster than easy pace. I think this is probably the longest and most substantial workout I've ever done in Spokane, so I was surprised to see that although my pace varied tremendously thanks to the hills (as fast as 6:24 downhill and as slow as 9:05 uphill) my averages were still not that bad and I felt okay claiming I completed the workout.
Any time I'm assigned 2K intervals I just set my watch to 1.25 auto lap because it's easier. You can definitely tell which intervals were mostly uphill and which were mostly down!
Saturday 12/23: 5 easy. It's a nice easy vacation week so I figured I could get away with a few extra easy miles (plus I still owed two from Thursday).
Sunday 12/24: 16 long + 1300+ vertical, in 15F.
- On previous days it's been in the 20s and at least a little sunny and I actually kept coming back saying, "You know, it's really not that bad at all." But let me tell you, 15F is COLD AF, especially if you're out there for 2.5+ hours, even if you're running. My clothes were mostly sufficient--a fleece-line ski top, my thickest pair of tights, thick ski socks, waterproof long hooded jacket, fleece lined ear muff, and ski glove liners--but a few miles into this run I was very much desirous of fleece lined tights, thicker gloves, and a balaclava or similar. At least there was no wind!
A bit of said vertical.
We get a few more days here in winter wonderland; then we had back to the Bay Area & up to Sea Ranch for New Year's to finish out week 3 with a few chilly (but less chilly than here) seaside runs.
Meanwhile...
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Boston Marathon Week 1 of 18: On your mark, Get set...
Boston Marathon Week 3 of 18: Foiled By Weather & Travel
Boston Marathon Week 4 of 18: There's "hills" and then there's HILLLZZ
Hooray for a great week of training despite being on vacation AND the snow AND the hills! I can't imagine running that kind of elevation because I live in the lowcountry and to hear someone from SF comment on the hills means a lot because I've heard SF is very hilly. Even if the runs weren't all perfect, you got them done when you had plenty of excuses not to, and that's a solid weekly mileage! Also I am cold just from reading this post... brr... I won't say the temperature in SC today.
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