Big Miles + Radical Rest (Eugene Half Week 4 of 8)

Like most weeks, lately, this one was stressful and exhausting. Maybe not as much as some weeks. But still, I spent so much of the time feeling tired, both in terms of feeling fatigued (runs are hard, hard to motivate off the couch to accomplish basic tasks such as feeding myself) and sleepy (not always getting enough sleep, fighting off daytime naps).

By the time I finished Friday's 7-mile easy run, I was already thinking forward to Sunday's nontrivial long run workout (15 miles including 3 x 2 mile reps at half marathon effort) and strategizing about how I was going to make sure I got the most out of it. Thankfully, this past weekend was one of those rare and beautiful ones where I had absolutely no concrete commitments beyond keeping myself & the cats alive and doing the bare minimum necessary to keep our living space some basic level of functional/not gross.

The strategy I settled on was radical rest, which included the following pillars:

• After running on Friday evening, feed & hydrate self/cats ➡️ sit on couch & watch TV ➡️ go to bed early.
• Saturday ➡️ sleep in as much as possible ➡️ feed & hydrate self/cats ➡️ mostly sit on couch, feed/hydrate as necessary / carb load like a mother ➡️ go to bed early.
• Saturday ➡️ sleep in as much as possible ➡️ hydrate/consume moar carbs (& feed cats) ➡️ coffee ➡️ friggin' *crush* this long run workout.

Now, this *mostly* went to plan, though I cannot honestly say there were *no* deviations:

Home Again, Home Again + Dissociating is Underrated

Friends, I am here today to preach the good news of completely dissociating while running. Okay, maybe not completely dissociating. But largely. And not 100% of the time but, y'know, a lot of the time.

People will be like, "You gotta be fully engaged in the run! You gotta FEEL IT in ur BODY, get ur MIND all INTO IT!" And you know what, if that works for you, great. Get it. Feel your body or whatever. Some of us, though, only have so much mental "in-it-ness" or whatever you want to call it, and we have to be careful about where we spend it. 

I've always had a sense that, at least for me, running "hard" (whether that's racing, speed work, tempo runs, or some other workout where you're trying to hit a particular pace) doesn't only take physical effort; it's mentally taxing as well, in the same way that playing a complex and stressful game or taking a timed and detail-oriented entrance exam can be. (Think Chess tournaments, LSAT/MCAT/bar exam, etc.) In addition to being physically rested and recovered, you also need a certain "mental freshness" to do it well. I wasn't sure whether this was just me or a real thing until I read something Shalane Flanagan said about racing marathons:

Race Report: Oakland Marathon 2018

So I wanted to wait until the race pics were available to publish this, but it sounds like they won't come out until maybe next Sunday and I didn't want to wait that long. (You can get them free & instantly if you give CSE all your Facebook information, which, sorry, no thanks.) So, please enjoy this photo-lacking account of my Oakland Marathon experience, and I'll go back & add pictures when I get them. Unless they suck. (But, if they suck REALLY bad, then I might still.)

========

Well, I'm super behind with weeklies, but that's partly because of more dumb injury stuff. :-/ Honestly, at this point I just want to finish Boston under my own power and depending on the day there have been a number of times when I was not sure that was realistic.

Which, hey! Brings us to the Oakland Marathon!

The Backstory

Sometime last fall, Jen shared a discount code for the Oakland Running Festival, which fell on the day of my last 23 mile long run before Boston. I really hate doing my 20+ runs on the same old loops in GG Park, so I decided it might be nice to run a nice easy marathon on that day instead. I could have done the half but didn't want to squeeze in *another* 10 miles before or after, and besides, I'd never run the full, which had a reputation for being both pretty and hilly, which I thought might be fun and also good training for Boston and Big Sur.

'Race' Report: Berkeley Half Marathon

I signed up for this race back in September back when I was looking down the barrel of a dozen+ CIM long runs and already dying of boredom from running my same old routes over and over again. I'd run the inaugural Berkeley Half back in 2013 and been disappointed by the course (which spent about 8 miles dog-legging along freeway frontage roads), but since then it seems like they've been able to get the permits to create something more interesting & scenic where you actually get to see a bit of Berkeley. My schedule called for 17 miles with a fast finish and doing it on a race course seemed more appealing than doing it on my own with pedestrians and traffic lights to contend with, and since BHM was close to home and not stupid expensive, I figured what the heck.

Inaugural Berkeley Half 2013 with IronHubs, the Dude, & friends of Cat.

Moments later with Courtney, Cate, & Renee.

I got to Berkeley around 6:30 & easily found street parking two blocks from the start. (Our wave was starting at 8:12.) The forecast called for rain all morning, and though there were definitely plenty of ominous clouds, there was no sign yet of rain. I walked over to the staging area to find the port-a-potties, then started my 4 easy pre-race miles around 7.

Pretty sure I was the first one here.

Those first miles felt so awful. Like I almost think if I hadn't paid to run a race I would have scratched it. My feet and legs felt sore and heavy and "easy" effort was getting me like 10:30-11:00 pace. I just felt completely awful, and when my watch ticked off mile #1 I kind of wanted to cry at the thought of running 16 more.

Start

I felt *slightly* better after three more miles, then headed to the bag drop in the Berkeley High School to meet Jen & get my bib from her. We made our way to the corrals and found our wave and also Jen's friend K (who is also running CIM). We were all running pretty much the same pace and I was happy for the distraction.

Around mile 4, maybe, it started to drizzle, which was actually nice and refreshing. It was cool but not cold and not at all windy. In the second half of the race the rain picked up at bit and by mile 10 it was full-on raining. (Coming back across the University bridge from the out-and-back section at that point, we past a lot of walkers at maybe mile 6 just headed out, and as the rain intensified I thought that if I were facing the prospect of walking 6-7 more miles in this, I would have probably quit.)

I now present for your enjoyment a collection of facial expressions from the Berkeley Half:

And the pièce de résistance (courtesy of Kimra):

EXTRA CREDIT: Caption this picture.

Mile markers matched my watch exactly until mile 10, which appeared when my watch read 9.86. Every mile marker after that showed up at exactly x.86 by my watch, and I got 13 exactly at the finish, which seemed in line with what most other folks got. Given the accuracy of the later mile markers, I kind of wondered if maybe we went through a GPS dead patch in that two-mile out-and-back section & lost .14 miles somewhere. Then again I don't think the course is certified, so it could also have just legitimately been short.

Something else strange happened in that section. We started the out-and-back in the north lane, with folks running back in the south lane, but the mile 8 marker was in the south lane and the mile 10 marker on our side (facing the other way). Then suddenly out of nowhere we found ourselves running straight at people heading back in our lane! People were suddenly frantically trying to switch sides so that outbound runners (us) were now in the south lane and those returning were in the north lane. Weird, but we just went with it. After the turnaround, we ran in the north lane for a good bit, and all our mile markers were on the correct side, but then were directed by course marshals in a smart cart to cross over to the south lane. Now our mile markers were on the wrong side of the road.

Not long after that, we heard someone screaming behind us, "LOOK OUT LOOK OUT!!" It turned out to be probably the 10K leader, running, I dunno, 5:30-6:00 pace & desperately trying to weave his way through our crowd running 9:00-10:00 pace. More super fast 10K runners followed him. We tried our best to stay out of their way, but it was still a mess for the faster 10K runners. I still don't know what happened with the course during that section but it was a mess.

I was never running even remotely hard in this race but even so, by mile 10-11 I was *SO* over it and ready to be done. On the plus side, once we finished and I wasn't running anymore, I actually felt fine almost right away and was fine for the rest of the day, so I suppose that's the combination of peak cumulative fatigue along with being in pretty much peak shape endurance-wise. I felt horrible, but I felt horrible from the first step and it never got any worse than that.

You can't tell but all three of us leapt into the air at the finish. Apparently I was the only one the photographer caught. #lame

Soaked. (Also, it took me until maybe mile 7 to realize that the 'B' on the shirts was supposed to be a '13'. GET IT???? SO CLEVER.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~LOGISTICAL STUFF~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Location: Berkeley, CA

Date: Mid/late November (Nov 20, 2016 this year).

Field Size: 4225 in the half, 1544 in the 10K, 1472 in the 5K

Deadlines/sellout factor: This year all three races sold out. I think the 10K went first and the other distances sold out closer to race day. (Weirdly, there was a "Race Registration" tent in the staging area. I'm not sure what that was about. Maybe early registration for next year?)

Price:

It looks like the website now has only the most recent price ($110), and I don't remember what it was when I signed up or how many times it increased. Fail. It might have been like $80 in September & I think I had a discount code. If you decide to run this race, I recommend poking around the internet for Groupons, race ambassador promo codes, and other discounts.

The Expo:

The expo/bib pickup was Friday and Saturday at Berkeley Sports Basement. There is no race day bib pickup, but you can have a friend pick up for you. (Since she lives closer, Jen volunteered to pick up my bib for me. THANK YOU JEN!!!)

Staging:

Race Start was on Milvia St. at Kittredge St., & the finish was just a block or two away, on Milvia at Allston.

Bag check was in the Berkeley High School gym right by the start, and when the rain showed up it was REALLY nice to have an indoor area available after the race!

As mentioned above, there were plenty of port-a-potties. I also appreciated all the picnic table seating (though due to weather there wasn't much use for it). Often after races I find myself lamenting the lack of available seating areas that are not on the ground.

The Course:

The course was a big loop with lots of turns, a few steep-ish hills, and one nasty two-mile out-and-back section along the Bay. This year's course was MUCH nicer than the first year I ran it, meandering through various parts of Berkeley. I've been told that in the second and third years the course actually wound through parts of the UC Berkeley campus, but no such luck this year. Some of the roads were fine but a not insignificant portion of them were chewed up and riddled with potholes. (Between this and the rain, I decided to wear trail shoes.)

Aid stations were every couple of miles with water and Nuun, which makes the second time I've run this race without any useful sports drink out on the course. Nuun is electrolytes; it contains no calories. This makes it next to useless in terms of distance running. One of the aid stations had chews and a few had granola bars of some kind, so there was that. But still. I don't understand why so many races seem to be switching away from calorie-rich sports drink to low- or no-calorie drinks. It makes zero sense to me.

Like I said above, pretty much everyone I know clocked a short course, starting at the mile 10 marker. The course isn't certified, I believe, so it's hard to say whether this was a GPS issue or a legitimately short course. Also there was definitely some sort of issue in that out-and-back section that will need to be sorted out, as well as the issue of the fastest 10K runners getting stuck behind thick crowds of half-marathon mid-packers. Either something went very very wrong with the 10K or someone just didn't think the whole situation through.

Swag:

Long sleeves tech shirt & finisher medal, plus post-race snacks and free race photos.

If you decide to run:

• Poke around for discounts from race ambassadors and other sources. They've usually been out there & you can often get ~$10 off or so.
• There is plenty of street parking along University if you get there a bit early, or you can be a good person & pay $20 to park at Berkeley High School (though I think it's actually not closer). But do not repeat DO NOT pay any for-profit company $21 to reserve you a parking spot ahead of time. It's a total racket.
• If you're driving back toward SF after the race while it's still going on, just remember you can't take University or realistically anything south of that. Instead head up to Gilman & take that to I80 & the Bay Bridge.
• There are no super bad hills, but two reasonably long-ish ones that definitely take some extra work. Just know they're there & adjust your time goals accordingly.

Overall Assessment:

This race was fine, I guess, but I didn't love it. The course is okay but not particularly fast or scenic, and there is some question in my mind as to whether it might be short. (Though, I think the course has been different every year, so who knows what future years will bring.) It's not stupidly expensive, but not particularly cheap either (~$80-110, I think, maybe a little less with a discount), so the only real reason I can come up for running this particular race is that it's nearby and the date most likely means cooler weather (though you could also get a downpour as we did). Due to all the turns, the few hills, the uncertainty about the distance, and the funkiness with the course in the out-and-back section, I don't think I'd recommend this race for a PR/time trial course.

CIM WEEK 15 of 18: Hang in there.

Sunrise at the Berkeley Marina

Ugh. This week.

I'm not sure what I can possibly say that hasn't been said a thousand times. However, if you're having a hard time right now like so many of us are, here are some things I read in those first couple of days that didn't make me feel better, exactly, but maybe gave me a tiny bit more courage. I am the type of person that feels calmest when I have concrete things I can *do* (as opposed to wringing my hands or sharing alarmist articles of questionable origin or writing misty-eyed Facebook statuses), and some of these posts have been very helpful with that. So maybe they will be useful to someone else as well.

• Here's Why We Grieve Today, by Jay Pavlovitz
• What Now? I Have A Couple of Ideas, by Fit & Feminist
• A List of Pro-Women, Pro-Immigrant, Pro-Earth, Anti-Bigotry Organizations That Need Your Support, by Joanna Rothkopf
• How to Survive an Authoritarian Regime (In 10 easy steps!), by Jay Burns
• Okay, Fine. Here's What You Should Do Post-Election, by Ruby-Beth Buitekant
• So You Want To Wear A Safety Pin, by What A Witch
• Speak Up: Responding to Every Day Bigotry, by the Southern Poverty Law Center
• How to set boundaries with people who think boundaries and hurt are manipulative, by Captain Awkward

CIM WEEK 14 of 18: Fun mileage facts & some HR wonkiness.

With these 50 miles, I've now officially run more miles training for this marathon (594.55) than I have in the 18 weeks leading up to any previous race. Looking back at old training logs, my previous high was 566.4 (NVM 2015), and although I ran that race comfortably and not for time, it suddenly makes a lot of sense why those 26+ miles felt so easy and how I felt better afterward than any other marathon I've ever run.

It was a little surprising to me because apparently I've had a false idea in my head of how hard I'd trained for various marathons in the past. With the exception of doing more/longer long runs, I didn't think I'd been running all that much more this time around than I had before. False!

'Race' Report: Healdsburg Half Marathon

Healdsburg Wine Country Half Marathon was the race where I ran my current half marathon PR in 2012 (as I recall, all three of us in fact PR'd at that race!), so although it is kind of a wind-ey and hilly race, it holds a special place in my heart. Ever since Cat, Jen, and I first met there in 2012, we've been talking about doing a "reunion race" there, but this is the first year that timing (and the injury gods) has allowed it to happen. Cat was running it as her 'A' race, Jen was doing it as part of a long run (also training for CIM), and our friend Jess also flew up from Oklahoma to join us!

Jen, me & Cat. Ah, how young and fresh-faced we were! #tbtfouryearsago

'Race' Report: Half Moon Bay International Marathon (Half)

Back in June my friend L signed up for the HMBIM Half, which would be her first half marathon. Thus far she had not been able to pressgang anyone else into running it with her, & since I knew I had to run a gajillion miles that day anyway & am always looking for excuses to run them on a different loop, I signed up as well. (I've been curious about this race for a while now so I also figured it was a good opportunity to scout the course & see if it was maybe worth for-real racing sometime in the future.)

Half Moon Bay is a kind of surfer's paradise on the ocean side of the SF peninsula, right off of Highway 1. If you've heard of the Mavericks surfing competition, it's where that happens. (In fact, the staging area for this race was the actual harbor where it happens.) It is utterly gorgeous and I was really looking forward to a nice, easy jog along the seaside without any pressure to hit a certain pace or pick off the runners in front of me.

Complicating all this was the fact that the day before we had a football game at 5pm. This meant we didn't get home until around 10 & it was nearly 11 by the time I got around to throwing race things in a bag & then finally got in bed--not great considering my alarm was set for 4:30am. (Have I mentioned in the past that I am not a morning runner? I am NOT a morning runner.) It turns out that in mid-September you can get up at 4:30am, get yourself ready to go, drive for forty minutes, park, futz around with your gear, finally start running and STILL not see the sun.

EUGENE WEEK 10 OF 17: In which I run to Marin County & back.

On Sunday I had 20 miles to run, which I was not exactly excited about it since El Niño has finally delivered & it was pouring rain & kind of windy & not really meant to stop until late evening.

The storms lately have been no joke. Apparently the wind blew down this tree on my usual route through the park sometime Saturday or Sunday morning.

I've run a bunch of 20 milers in my life and it's kind of funny how the route varies depending on what, psychologically, I think will get me through it. Some days I do not want to have to think even a little bit--just zone out and put one foot in front of the other until my watch ticks off mile 20. On those days it's laps of the east side of GG Park, all the way--plenty of nice even sidewalk, gently rolling hills, relatively few traffic lights, & plenty of water fountains & public restrooms should they be necessary.

But on other days, just the thought of pounding out that same loop mindlessly for 3+ hours actively makes me want to vomit. STIMULATION! ADVENTURE! insists my brain. Sunday was that kind of day, so I decided that, eh, screw the weather, let's run to Marin County and back.

Not giving up too much internet privacy, I hope?

I've run across the Golden Gate Bridge a few times but never 10 miles out, starting at home, & 10 miles back, so there was a little bit of novelty to it. As usual the rain was mildly annoying for the first mile or so but then I just got used to it & after that it wasn't really a big deal.

It should be noted that this route is *at least* kind of an intermediate way of running 20 miles, maybe even advanced intermediate. There are some long, not-insignificant hills heading up to the bridge, and a few poorly paved or unpaved sections (which, in the rain, had become slushy and/or muddy in places). The Bridge itself can be more of a challenge that people think--it really is a big hill, and though it's not *crazy* steep or anything, people are often surprised at the grade going up and down as they cross. On top of that if it's at all windy in general, it can be CRAZY windy up on the span.

On the other hand, you are rewarded with some really fantastic views along the Coastal Trail, which in my opinion are gorgeous on any day but particularly breathtaking on a rainy, overcast one.

Playing peek-a-boo with the Bridge on Lincoln Blvd

Hello there big boy!

Never gets old.

Plus there's just the novelty of being able to say you ran to another county & back.

I definitely had a chance to break out some of my trail running chops on the way up (not that I have a ton of those, but still), and even then the whole thing actually took longer than it should because it seemed like every time I'd round another curve or summit another hill I encountered yet another gorgeous view that demanded to be photographed. Seriously, I was reaching almost corny levels of "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I LIVE HERE! LOOK HOW GREAT RUNNING IS!"

The wind on the bridge was no joke. My long run pace is usually 9:30-10:00/mile but the tail wind crossing from San Francisco to Marin was blowing me along at ~8:45ish, even uphill! (There were a few times when I thought it could have legit blown me off the bridge if it hadn't been for the guardrail.)

MARIN! #achievementunlocked

Of course, that meant crossing back the other way was equally tough. I'm not great at estimating wind speed but nearly the whole way across, I felt like I was doing one of those drills where you run with an elastic cord attached to a belt around your waist, and there were times when the wind was so crazy I could barely even move forward. (According to the internet, this would indicate maybe a 35-40mph head wind?) It didn't bother me, though; instead it kind of just made me feel like a bad ass. "Yeah; I run to other counties in 40mph headwind. NBD."

This crazy euphoric I CAN'T BELIEVE I LIVE HERE bad ass feeling lasted until about mile 12 (just a short ways off the bridge) when almost out of nowhere I suddenly felt exhausted, which is really weird. Usually on a long run, I make it at least 14-15 miles before it actively starts to feel hard. (Also, right around this same moment, my phone went from ~15% battery to completely dead in a single photo attempt, which sort of seemed like a perfect metaphor for my physical state.) I wasn't feeling emotionally low or discouraged, just kind of concerned about how things had gotten so physically hard so suddenly, considering I still had over a third of my run left to go. There were a few moderate uphills left plus some significant downhills (which I'm sure you'll agree are not exactly easy when you're tired), so I just kept hoping I'd get through those without hitting a wall.

Thankfully, it never really got any worse--just hit "gaaaaahh this sucks" around mile 12 & kind of stayed right at that level through the end. And the very end was maybe, dare I say it, easier than usual? Often in the last 2-4 miles part of me will be thinking "Ugggghhh I CANNOT," but this time it was just kind of, "Meh, this kind of sucks, let's just get it over with."

Also, I was in quite a lot of pain immediately after, probably worse, actually, than most marathons I've run. (Not injury pain or anything; just that general waist-down intense ache that kind of makes you wish you had a morphine drip.) I kind of wondered if all of this was due in part to it being a tougher route than I usually do my long runs on, or the crazy wind, or the fact that it came at the end of my highest mileage week since July, or some combination of all of it. But in any case I got it done, and it was not completely awful.

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 10 OF 17~*~*~

Some Numbers:

* 44.3 miles (13 easy, 6.4 tempo, 4.9 speed, 20 long)
* 2:00:00 strength work
* 30:00 stretch & roll

Monday: a.m. strength work/p.m. karate

Tuesday: 2 warm up, 10 x (600m @ 2:38 (7:05 pace) / 200m jog), 1.5 cool down = 8.4 total. This pretty much fit the mental model I have for a normal, average track workout: The first few take effort and you feel like maybe you should be running them faster, and then they gradually get harder, and by the end you're just *barely* hitting the splits at ~90% effort. So not easy, but satisfying and not terrible. The target was 2:38 per 600m & I hit them all between 2:34 & 2:39 without feeling like I wanted to die, so I think this one goes down as a win.

Wednesday: a.m. strength work/p.m. karate.

Thursday: 6 easy. Schedule called for 8, but I was trying to get the big workouts in in their entirety while also keeping my weekly miles under 45 (still ramping up to match the official plan) so I cut it a little short.

Friday: 2 warm up, 3 x (2mi @ LT pace / 2:00 jog), 1.5 cool down = 10 total. KICKED. MY. ASS.

Saturday: Rest. But be very productive! Don is out of town skiing this week with friends, so I took the opportunity to clean basically the entire house, grocery shop, pick up & return some packages, deal with some mail, pay some bills, do my taxes, & take care of a few other annoying household/administrative chores I'd been putting off. Finished off the night by actually cooking a meal (GASP!) & reading a book on the couch with a glass of wine. So, it was a good day.

Sunday: 20 long. Basically did nothing else, but I don't feel bad about that.

NEXT WEEK = OAKLAND RUNNING FESTIVAL!!! It's probably going to suck (not ORF itself, just my *personal* race), but at least I'll get to hang out with Jen, Cat, & bt!

EUGENE WEEKS 6 & 7 OF 17: a race, a climb, & some lovely beach art

I feel like all my time these last couple of weeks somehow got sucked into a black hole. I swear I've been, like, running and doing stuff! You can tell because I typed it on the internet in neat little bullet points or whatever, which is basically the most accountable thing a human can possibly do.

In other news, it is my 35th birthday & I am spending it in a hotel room in LA for work.

So excited I can hardly stand it.

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 6 OF 17~*~*~

Things went well! It was a good week! Accomplishments were accomplished!

Some Numbers:

* 26 miles
* 2:00:00 strength work
* 50:00 stretch & roll

Monday: a.m. strength work / p.m. karate

Tuesday: 1.5 warm up, 2x1600m @ 7:10ish, 2x800m @ 6:45ish, 1.5 cool down = 6.5 total, 20:00 stretch/roll. First track workout in months, and it was glorious. :)

Wednesday: a.m. strength work / afternoon 4 easy / p.m. karate. Skipped leg work since I was racing Saturday but did everything else.

Thursday: 6 easy. Felt a bit tired on this run & wondered if it was Tuesday catching up to me.

Friday: 2 easy. Since I was racing the next day I opted for extra sleep instead of strength work.

Saturday: 1.5 warm up, 6.2 RACE!! (+ 30:00 stretch/roll)

Notice how I am, like, actually running a race
and not sitting around injured. #winning #okayiwasthird #still

You can read my grumbly race report if you want, but one of my big takeaways was that I felt for most of the race like I was red-lining and running really hard for most of the race, but I realized as I got closer to the end that it was just my out-of-racing-practice coward brain playing tricks on me and in reality I had definitely not run as hard as I could have. Seriously, five minutes post-race I felt completely fine. It was a really weird feeling.

Sunday: GO ROCK CLIMBING!! Isn't that what you do the day after you race?

In case you needed more evidence that I definitely did not wear myself out at Bay Breeze, I finally conquered a 5.10a, which I've been working on since December.

~*~*~EUGENE MARATHON WEEK 7 OF 17~*~*~

The big story this past week was my long run. My schedule called for 160 minutes, but a 60% increase over the 100 minutes from a couple weeks back seemed like a bad idea, so I capped it at 140 for a grand total of 14.3 miles.

This was one of those days that just never happens for me when it comes to long runs. I felt like I could run and run and run and, although my right hip still felt a little tight (and probably always will), it felt not effortless but still really good. 14.3 felt great and if I were really stupid I could have gone further.

Out and back to Cliff House, which affords gorgeous views of Ocean Beach.

Also, just total mileage in general. For some reason mentally I was feeling like I didn't run all that much last week, but apparently it was 30 miles, which is another post-injury weekly mileage record and also quietly inching backs towards something that feels like normalcy.

Some Numbers:

* 30 miles
* 2:00:00 strength work
* 20:00 stretch & roll

Monday: Karate. Honestly, I could have run Monday & been 100% fine. Actually I probably could have run Sunday. My body just honestly did not feel like it ran a race on Saturday.

Tuesday: 8 easy. My longest week-day run post injury, and faster & easier than usual. Yeah; totally did not race as hard as I could have on Saturday. Bah.

Wednesday: Afternoon 1 to gym, strength work, 1 home / p.m. karate. Super early work meeting so strength work got shifted to after work.

Thursday: Nothing. This day was 100% packed start to finish and I knew going in that I wasn't going to get any running in.

Friday: a.m. strength work / 6 easy. I'd planned for 8 again but got caught short on time.

Saturday: Rest.

Sunday: 14 long + 20:00 stretch/roll

Less than a month to go until Oakland Running Festival & my first start in the 35-39 age bracket!!!

22 in the books

Since I was traveling this week, I kind of figured I'd end up missing at least one run, and indeed that did happen. But only one! Which means, only two so far this cycle! And I still got the big one done on Sunday.

Longest training run ever!!

I didn't try to get fancy with it--just down to the Park & loops of the eastern half (~4 miles each). It's really been unseasonably warm & sunny here lately (see: my two 21 milers, both of which happened in 80/90F temps. WTF, San Francisco??), so I went ahead & did the full Osmo pre-load thing just in case.

It turned out NOT to be in the 80s/90s, for which I was super thankful. Though it was probably 70 & full sun, which, once you've been running for a couple of hours, does feel kind of warm if you're not in the shade, so there were definitely a couple of times when I paused to stand in a patch of shade & revel in the 10mph head wind.

(Also...yes. There was a 10mph head wind. So going west for any amount of time kind of sucked.)

Still, this run was without a doubt the easiest, both physically & mentally, of the three 20+ ones that I did this cycle. The worst part was unquestionably the beginning, when I just felt tired & like I was wearing a lead vest. (Running three miles & feeling like crap & knowing you still have 19 left go to is a special kind of hell.) The benefit of doing a bunch of longer-than-usual long runs like this close together, though, is I think that you just kind of get used to that feeling & eventually are able to stand outside of it & say, "Yes, that is a feeling I am having, but it's only a feeling, and it will go away in ten more miles or so."

And, it did. Yes, it was still a 22 mile run and it was still hard, but I felt more and more positive the farther along I got. I just kept ticking off benchmarks in my head ("x hours down!" "x laps down!" "x fraction down!") which I think also helped.

The hardest part was psyching myself up to do the four hard miles I was supposed to do at the end, and ohhhh, let me tell you how not excited about that I was. I'd been ticking off most of these in the 9:30-10:00 range and the thought of ratcheting down to 8:00 and preferably faster was incredibly daunting. Enter: lying to myself. "Oh, we'll just try to run a little faster, and if it's awful, we can go back to 9:30-10:00." But I had a feeling that once I started running faster it would actually feel good and satisfying, even if it was hard, which it did. The first two were a bit slower since they were partly up hill & also into the 10mph headwind (maybe 8:15ish), but the last two were 7:40 & 7:30 respectively, which I sort of could not believe even as it was happening.

Tired of post-long run blogger selfies that look so
cute & perfect you just want to puke? LOOK NO FURTHER.
(Also thanks, Mike, for the sweet tank! I think it's officially broken in.)

Since my tune-up race kind of bombed, I haven't really had much to go on in terms of figuring out whether my goal pace of ~8:00/mile is in any way realistic right now. I feel like if I could run a sub-1:40 half, I'd feel confident that it is. I still don't really know, but busting out those last two miles in close to half marathon pace and thinking, "Yeah, this is hard, but not that bad" after already having run 18 miles made me think that maybe, just maybe, I'm fitter right now than I feel.

~*~*~SRM WEEK 17 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 38.3 miles

* 12.3 easy
* 6 speed/tempo
* 22 long (w/ 4 @ race effort or faster)

Monday: Rest

When we left off, I'd cut short my 16 miler on Sunday due to some yellow-okay-maybe-kinda-orange-ish pain in my left tibia that reminded me a little too much of the pain I'd run through right before ending up with a stress fracture 1.5 years ago. Monday is almost always a non-running day, but since I was traveling & thus had no karate to go to and also hadn't actually run long the day before, part of me was like, "Maybe I should make up some of those miles from Sunday...?" Tentative emailing ensued & the immediate response was, "DON'T YOU DARE."

Tuesday: 2 warm up, 2 x 2 @ HM pace / 2:00 jog, 2 cool down = 8 total

Since it's pretty much 90-100F all the time where we were (and also I don't really know the area), I planned to do all my running this week on the hotel treadmill. Unfortunately I think the hotel exercise room was probably about 80F, so I only came out a little ahead there.

I spent most of this run obsessing about my left tibia & trying to quantify the degree of pain. It was definitely much improved since Sunday (I did the whole run without any thought of cutting it short), but also definitely still felt kind of tender. Also, I just LOVE how everything feels twice as hard on a treadmill. #effyoutreadmills

Because this comic will literally never get old.

Wednesday: Rest

Knowing getting all the miles in this week was going to be tricky, I briefly toyed with the idea of throwing in a short, easy run on Wednesday. But given that that lump on my tibia was still pretty tender and something about my right calf/Achilles had been super unhappy after Tuesday's run, I thought maybe this was just kind of asking for trouble & I should stick to the schedule.

Thursday: 8 easy

No but I really did feel like I was about to die at the beginning of this run. Everything hurt. I was exhausted. I dragged myself through half a mile, rested for a while, dragged myself through another half mile, rested, dragged myself through a third half mile, & at that point seriously considered calling it quits. A little walk down the air conditioned hallway refreshed me a bit, though, & I thought, "Well, I'll see if I can run maybe one more mile." Little by little I started to not feel like death & got through it mostly by focusing on the Family Guy marathon playing on the TV. I think this was mostly a work stress/exhaustion thing, but man, did it suck.

Friday: 2 warm up, 6 x 200m / 1:30 jog, 30:00 GMP, 6 x 200m / 1:30, 2 cool down Rest/travel/pass out

This was the workout I kept trying to figure out some way to fit in & just couldn't come up with anything other than moving a run to Wednesday or Saturday (which, ultimately, I think would have been a bad idea). I suppose technically I could have driven to the track when I got home Friday evening, though that would have meant bolt off the plane, jump in a cab, change clothes, drive to track, run from 7:30-9:30ish, & get home at ~10:00pm. Oh yeah and also do all this without eating.

In reality, I arrived home starving & exhausted & passed out immediately.

Saturday: Rest

Again, briefly toyed with either doing Friday's workout or a few easy miles. But since I would have had to do it in the evening AND was supposed to run 22 miles on Sunday, this didn't seem like a smart tradeoff.

Sunday: 22 long

So, no, not an ideal week, exactly, but I just keep reminding myself that it was only one run & on this same trip last year I was too injured to do any running at all. Also, I think getting the long run done counts for a lot.

Three! More! Weeks!

Three! More! Weeks!

Three! More! Weeks!

SRM WEEK 15 OF 20: The Dudette Abides

It's kind of incredible to me that in three more weeks I'll be tapering. I feel like with most marathon training cycles in the past, I'd get to the halfway point & be like GAWD TAPER CANNOT COME FAST ENOUGH. But this time it feels more like, really? Already? Maybe it's just because I've had this race on my mind for nearly a year now, so although I've officially been calling it a 20 week cycle, mentally it's been more like 50 weeks.

Work- & sleep-wise this week was kind of a shit show, but somehow I managed to get all the miles in, including the second of three 20+ long runs. And if I wasn't excited about last week's warm & sunny 21 in the upper 70s & full sun, let me tell you how thrilled I was when I got up this Sunday & the weather app on my phone read 86F. (This reminded me that I'd meant to do the whole Osmo pre-load thing but totally forgot about it Saturday night; I did the 30 minutes pre-workout dose but I'm not really sure how much good it does without the initial dose as well.)

I definitely made a bee-line from my oven of a neighborhood down to Ocean Beach, where thankfully it was a little cooler & there was the occasional breeze. Because of the temperature difference I ended up doing laps of the west side of the park rather than the east side as usual; of course, there is a reason I don't usually lap the west side, and that's because it features some really long, big hills that range from unpleasant to truly WTF (or that at least feel kind of WTF once you're 2+ hours in on a hot day).

How hot was it? People were swimming. In the Pacific. IN SAN FRANCISCO.

In retrospect, I don't know if this was the greatest idea. Yes, it was slightly cooler, but man, those hills took a lot out of me, and by the time I got to mile 15 I was definitely having one of those "I just cannot even" moments. (But actually, more like, "I just cannot even. Yet, I continue to anyway." So it was kind of a mental repeat of that for the last hour.) Not gonna lie that I got through the last mile by counting down blocks. (1 block = ~.1 miles.)

So yeah. Part of me wants to be like, "This run was stupid hard," except that I feel like that's less relevant than the fact that this run was probably exactly what it was supposed to be: Hard like last week, except even harder, given that it came on the heels of a higher-mileage week, a long speed/tempo session two days before, and another 21 miler just a week before. On the other hand, though, I think it was maybe a little easier mentally.

On the plus side, in spite of the fact that it was hotter & I was probably sweating more & drinking just as much or more, I never got the sloshy stomach action, so maybe the Osmo pre-load did something? The only other real excitement was tripping over a curb 3.5 miles in & wiping out spectacularly by the Conservatory of Flowers.

If you're going to nearly face-plant & lacerate the crap out of your knees & hands, though, I wholly recommend doing so in front of a tourist equipped with anti-bacterial wipes. Even then, I'm pretty sure I had blood dripping down my legs on & off for the next hour or so.

~*~*~SRM WEEK 15 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 47 miles

* 16.5 easy
* 9.5 speed/tempo
* 21 long

Monday: Rest

This was the day that work hell started. It was also the first day I woke up almost completely unable to put weight on my feet barefoot. That was not cool.

Tuesday: 2.65 warm up, 10 x 200m @ 5K pace/ 200m jog, 1.85 cool down = 7 total

Speed work at Kezar with SF Track Club. (Though...I have to say that this workout felt either too easy or too short or both. I feel like if I was going to run 200m's I should have been running them faster than 5K pace & probably more than 10. Ah well.)

Wednesday: strength work

Again, karate was foiled by work. But also my feet were killing me barefoot again, so I'm not sure whether I would have ended up going. Also, for all that Tuesday did not feel like all that hard a workout, I was REALLY sore in the adductors & hips.

Thursday: 8 easy

Work & lack of sleep were killing me by Thursday afternoon and oh man. How badly did I NOT want to do this run? I was nodding off as I finished my work day & actually decided that I needed a nap before there was any chance of my finishing a run without running into a lamp post or tripping over a curb & face planting spectacularly. (Plenty of time for that on the weekend.) I was still pretty sore & so the beginning of this run felt AWFUL (like seriously...I think my first mile was not even sub-11), but it got a little better & by the end I no longer wanted to stab myself in the face.

Friday: 2 warm up, 2 x 1200m @ 10K pace / 1:30 jog, 30:00 @ GMP, 2 x 1200m @ 10K pace / 1:30 jog, 2 cool down = 11.

At this point in the week I was so sleep deprived & exhausted that it was *almost* (but not quite) funny. Leaving work I was kind of halfway between dreading this run and being sort of indifferent & resigned to it. Like, "Of course it's going to suck. And...?" But the weird thing was that it didn't. I mean, the first intervals uphill & into the wind, sure; that sucked. And none of the tempo parts were easy. But my brain just felt kind of numb to & distant from it, like it was sucking but I kind of didn't really care that it was sucking. And afterward, I actually felt pretty much fine. Way better than after Thursday's run, anyway!

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 21 long

Same overall mileage next week, but a cut-back on long run day--only 16 miles. So luxurious!!

SRM WEEK 14 OF 20: Long Runs: New & *Sooo* Improved

This week marked my first "big" long run of my SRM training cycle--ie, a distance that starts with a "2". Because of having the 10-mile race in there, my long run schedule made kind of a big jump, going 16-17-Race-16-21.

I've gotten a lot better at mentally facing most of my long runs, but things that start with "2"s are just a whole other beast. I had it all worked out, though. A running friend and her adorable family are sadly (weep!) leaving the Bay Area for Oregon, and as a kind of last hurrah a bunch of us had planned to hang out at the DSE Six-Hour Endurance Challenge in the Marina Sunday morning. (No but seriously. Some people *actually* run for six hours.)

This was going to be perfect! I would leave the house at 7, giving myself an hour to run the 5ish miles to the Marina, then run up to 10-11ish miles with friends (not to mention all the aid station support!), then run the 5 miles back home. Not only would company and course support help the miles fly by, but this plan would also mean I'd be done with my run before noon. (See: Things that never happen, ever.)

Alas, I was stuck awake Saturday night with a wicked bout of insomnia, and when 4am rolled around and I was still wide awake, I knew there was no way I was getting up in two hours for 21 miles of running. Just, no.

So, loops through Golden Gate Park alone in the heat of the day it was. Lovely.

Now, I hope it goes without saying that 3+ hours of running is never particularly pleasant (at least not for us mere mortals), but I can say that this one was no worse than my recent 16-17 milers and perhaps the least miserable of any 20+ run I've ever done. This was also my longest training run since 2012, and finishing it with no injury scares/concerning pain anywhere and not feeling like death was pretty heartening.

It was hot for SF (upper 70s & full sun), so my pace was a bit slower than normal, but it didn't feel slow--I felt pretty comfortable and in a good rhythm just about the whole way. I was meant to run miles 16-19 at goal marathon pace & then finish with two easy ones, and I think the heat did mess with that plan a bit, though. Running 8:00 miles felt much harder than usual, and towards the end of the second one I started to feel lightheaded, which is generally not something that happens to me while running. (After a hard race, yes! But not during.) I was drinking a lot of water (obviously) but during those faster miles I could feel it starting to slosh around in my stomach, another thing that just doesn't tend to happen to me.

Something I learned from my sessions with the nutritionist is that this usually indicates that you need more salt. Because the body needs a very specific water/salt balance to work properly, it can't just absorb all the water or salt you put in it. You can actually be dehydrated, but if you're also low on salt, your body won't absorb the water--it'll just slosh around in your stomach.

He said that he has seen this problem countless times with athletes who feel like crap during/after hard workouts, particularly if they're sweating a lot. They will be obsessed with hydration but also obsessed with "clean" eating, which almost always means they aren't getting enough salt to actually retain all the water they drink. Peeing clear doesn't necessarily mean you're hydrated.

(BTW, that is the reason you might need salt in hot weather workouts, not preventing cramps. Repeat low sodium/electrolytes does not cause muscle cramps.)

We've done a good bit of data collection on my water intake, salt intake, & sweat rates at different distances & intensity levels, & apparently the balance is pretty good most of the time without my having to do too much about it, because I virtually never have any of those problems. I don't tend to get sloshy stomach or bad dehydration symptoms, and I've always been able to do pretty long, intense workouts on nothing but water with no problem. But I think probably the fact that it was so hot & sunny during this run and that I was out there for a good bit longer than normal with nothing but water (and two gels during the fast miles) meant I lost more sodium than usual & just reached a point where I couldn't retain the water anymore, even though I needed it.

Because of this and the fact that marathon pace felt just *so* hard at that point, I only did three fast miles. I'm pretty sure sure I could have finished the fourth, but was just feeling too lightheaded & nauseous to feel 100% safe trying. (In a race situation I totally would have kept going.) So instead it was three easy miles to the end, definitely with more pauses than were strictly necessary in order to enjoy bits of shade here & there.

During the run I had been mentally doing the math re: how many carb calories I would need to eat before bed and came up with ~830, which, I gotta say, is a pretty daunting number considering you can't just inhale a pizza or two & call it good. Here's how it went down:

• Immediately after the run: Granola bar, glass of milk, & a beer. (I keep meaning to ask about whether the carbs in beer are a legit source of refueling or not but haven't yet managed to remember. Real talk, though, after 3+ hours & 21 miles in the sun, I have no fucks to give about this. A cold beer is being had. Also we are just not even talking about the alcohol, because 5% ABV beer counts as alcoholic only in the most literal sense.)
• An hour or so later: Chips & guacamole, several slices of bread with chevre, 2 margaritas, & 3 carrots (since we learned from Sports Nutrition Part 3 that you can't just pound a bunch of carbs & expect them to do much other than turn into fat)
• Two hours later: Flank steak tacos, grilled veggies, salad, corn on the cob, plus an additional giant heap of flank steak (I like to think this was because my body was gearing up to crank out a whole shitload of new red blood cells which was causing me to crave iron. But probably it was just really really good.)
• Four hours later: Pita bread with hummus & baba ganoush, two big bowls of chicken stock loaded up with garlic salt, & two more glasses of water.

Which comes to a grand total of I have no freaking clue but at least I didn't go to bed hungry/thirsty. Hopefully, I ended up somewhere in the right neighborhood.

I definitely want to write a longer post on this at some point, but I just want to say that the difference in how I feel day-to-day and especially after longer/harder workouts since I started putting all the nutrition stuff into practice is just HUGE. In the past, a 10-12 mile track workout or a 3+ hour run in the heat (on almost no fuel!) would have left me a complete zombie for the rest of the day. Not now, though. In fact, in spite of the fact that my overall mileage has been up as has the sheer number of tougher workouts, marathon training has never felt so easy. (Obviously, the hard workouts still feel hard. But I don't feel utterly wiped out at the end of every week, which is new.)

~*~*~SRM WEEK 14 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 44 miles

* 19.5 easy
* 3.5 speed
* 21 long

Monday: Karate. For some reason I had Monday off, which I spent mostly cleaning my house & running errands.

Tuesday: a.m. strength / p.m. 3 warm up, 7 x 600m @ 5K pace w/ 200m recoveries, .5 cool down = 7 total. Chill speed work at Kezar with SF Track Club.

Wednesday: karate

Thursday: 8 easy

Friday: 8 easy. No 2nd workout scheduled this week, I'm assuming because of the big long run jump.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 21 long

SRM WEEK 10 OF 20: All Things Golden Gate

On Sunday afternoon I didn't think I could face another long run doing loops through Golden Gate Park. Don't get me wrong; there are major advantages. I know every step. I have the elevation profile memorized & know exactly what's coming when. Bathrooms & water fountains abound. Traffic lights are few & far between. Sometimes, though--and I know you know what I mean--you know that if you have to look at your same good ol' trusty route even one more time you are seriously going to hurl.

Something I have been meaning to do for a while is get to know The Presidio from a running perspective. It's too far to be a viable option for even mid-distance runs, but if you run about halfway through GG Park and then cut north, it's a straight shot. The Presidio is lovely for running (or so I'm told) thanks to its myriad trails and pedestrian-friendly streets and is also pretty much covered in all kinds of gorgeous foliage. The only trouble is that it's kind of a maze, so if you don't really know where you're going, it's easy to get lost. Still, I figured worst case, I could always just run in until I hit 8 miles, then retrace my steps.

As I followed the most obvious path, though, I soon realized that I was on Doyle Drive, which (eventually) leads to the Golden Gate Bridge. Another long-time running ambition of mine has been to run to the Bridge either via the Presidio or Marina, through the Bridge, and then back out the other side to make a nice loop. I've always known it's possible and there is a pedestrian route, but the roads up that way get a bit finicky (particularly in terms of which ones are pedestrian friendly), so I've been hesitant to try it on my own.

When I made it to the old batteries right around 8 miles & the bridge came into view, I decided this would be the day in which I figured it out.

Approach to the Bridge

So close!

Living in San Francisco is ok I guess

(Serious question: How many times can you stop for photo ops before it really doesn't count as a long run anymore?)

It was a little dicey because there's some construction going on, plus the pedestrian walkway under the bridge is quite narrow and often crowded with tourists, but in the end I emerged on the other side of the bridge and found my way back down to the Marina.

Success! GG Bridge from Marina Green

I think I did something like this, more or less.

In the Marina with six miles left, I was kind of afraid I'd gotten too far out & would end up having to cab home. Although it's about as polar opposite of the Bridge as it's possible to get, I took Van Ness Ave. most of the way back to the Mission because the hills are less insane than most other options and I didn't want to get too much further east.

For most of this run I actually felt pretty good (better than I have lately in a lot of my easy runs...Did I mention how last weekend's 14-er felt like 20?), but it got weirdly hard around 12ish--that same feeling I've had lately sometimes where it just feels like my legs are out of juice. It didn't help that I was also going up-up-uphill on Van Ness at that point, so I was less bothered by all the stop lights than I maybe would have been otherwise.

Thankfully, once I got down to two miles left (and, y'know, downhill again) things got easier, and I actually made it back to my house at ~15.5ish (and took a quick spin down the street & back to get the last half mile). There were more hills than usual on this run, and I think that took a toll on my gimpy right leg. It's still better than it has been, but was bugging me more than usual Monday morning.

~*~*~SRM WEEK 10 OF 20~*~*~

This week was a wee bit shy of the number I was shooting for (40) for sort of insignificant and not-interesting reasons, but I did manage to get in all the key workouts in spite of feeling REALLY crappy towards the end of the week.

Grand Total: 36.7 miles

* 10.25 easy
* 6.7 speed
* 3.75 threshold
* 16 long

Monday: Karate

Tuesday: 1.25 warm up + 6 x 1K @ 7:25 = 5 threshold

SF Track Club workout at Kezar. This was really supposed to be a speed workout but the pace of the group I was with was such that it was more of a threshold interval session than speed work.

(In case you missed the pics of our BEAUTIFUL new track!)

Wednesday: Karate

I thought this might be a good day to get in a few extra miles to make up for Tuesday's slightly short workout, but after running some already-much-procrastinated errands after work there wasn't time before karate.

Thursday: 6 easy

So the way I do these weekly recaps usually is by copying & pasting the formatting from the week before & then just replacing the text. When I got to Thursday's run, though, I could have left it almost exactly as it was: "Oh man. I literally cannot remember the last time I felt this terrible on an easy run [except yes I can, it was last Thursday]. It was supposed to be six eight, but less than a mile in my legs felt like lead & I'm pretty sure I only made it two [three] out & two [three] back out of sheer force of will.

Basically it's like my brain kept sending the signals to my leg muscles but somehow it was a bad connection & the muscles were kind of like, "Whaaaa...? Wha' u say?" Guh #overit

Friday: 1.5 WU; 6 x 200m + 30:00 @ GMP + 6 x 200m; 1.5 CD = 9.7 speed

A hot one! I went into it having felt blah for a couple of days, finished feeling like a zombie, and then slept for 10 hours, but the workout itself (mostly) wasn't too bad.

TRAAAAAAAACK!!!

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 16 long