NOT DEAD YET (Part 1)

Hi hi friends! Honestly I do not know who even reads this anymore, but since the worst thing that happens is that this missive sits unread out in the ether, what is there to lose really?

Anyway, if you are here and reading, welcome! You are great and I love you.

I'm finding that I sometimes go through the following cycle:

(1) Blog semi-consistently for a while 

(2) Get super-duper-hella busy & overwhelmed with life & work 

(3) Realize that in some ways blogging gives my life & thoughts a certain kind of structure that I start to miss after a few months 

(4) Sheepishly slink back to Blogger & write an awkward/apologetic "Heeeyyyyy it's me again????" post 

I heard keeping readers on their toes like that is great for getting those clicks and growing readership. Everyone love a little "will-she-won't-she" tension, amirite? Now you know my secret.

Race Report: SacTown 10 Miles 2023 (+ USATF Masters 10 Mile National Champs!)

Friends, this month has been and will continue to be rough in terms of work and travel, but I was determined to get this race report up in a more timely manner than the last one! Please enjoy.

Why did I sign up to run this race?

Like last year, SacTown 10 Miles was not only a Pacific Association long course race but also the USATF Masters National Championship race for the 10 mile distance, so I signed up to compete with my team. Last year I ran 1:16:47 here so I thought it would be fun to see if I could beat that time.

And then what happened?

Training Log: SACTOWN 10 Race Week!

Kind of a weirdly high mileage week for going into a race, but intensity-wise it wasn't too over the top. The highlight (other than the race) was probably the 4 x 1Ks. Coach A had suggested 4:08-4:20 for each K (~6:40-7:00 pace) as a place to start & then we could see how that felt. I really have not done a ton of speed work like this lately and immediately thought "Ooooh that's fast, going to have to really hammer those!" I started the first one and thought, "Ok, this might be about right." Then I looked down and saw 5:53 pace on my watch. OOPS!

I managed to slow them down a bit but I think I still ran them faster than I needed to. (4:04, 4:06, 3:56, 4:10) So, hey! Whattaya know, I actually do have some leg speed!

~*~*~ SacTown 10 Race Week!~*~*~

Training Log: Two Weeks to SACTOWN 10 Miles

 Hey, I survived Oakland Half Marathon! Better than survived it!

Running last week was pretty boring as I was mostly just trying to recover from the race, so maybe it's a good time to mention how *weird* that race/recovery process was compared to my memory of past half marathons. Like I said in my race report, I didn't feel like I ran the race all that hard -- for the first seven miles I was running in total comfort, and I didn't really try to run hard until the last 5K. That said, I ran hard enough at the end that I was VERY happy to be done, but I also felt pretty normal pretty quickly after (ie, no wandering around in a daze/looking for a place to throw up) and drove home feeling peppy and spry.

That evening and the next couple days, though? Oh ho ho! A different story!