Race Report: Wharf to Wharf Six-Miler

I've known about Wharf to Wharf for a long time, but I don't think it was until last year that I learned enough about it to realize that it was kind of this crazy historic beach party thing that people fight to get into.

I also think this was right after Boston, when, after having finally achieved a big goal I'd been after for a while, I was feeling sort of adrift in terms of what big goals I wanted to chase next. Box-checking goals such as running a certain distance in every state, every continent, running all the marathon majors, etc. have never appealed to me; I wanted something performance-based, but I was also feeling really done with double-digit races for a while. The short fast stuff was calling to me, so when I heard about this top 100 business and looked up past race results, I thought, You know what, why not chase this for a while.

Of course, "Top 100" means there's not a particular time cutoff; it just depends on who shows up and how fast they are, and there tend to be a lot of really fast people! (Also it's gun time, not chip time, so if you're not in the elite corral, you need to be right up at the front of corral 1 to even have a chance.)

Looking at past years' results, the cutoff had usually been somewhere between ~6:50-7:00 pace, which, depending on the year, has been somewhere in the 5K-8K pace range for me. Meaning to snag even the 100th spot I'd need to run six miles faster than I've ever run six miles in my life, but not by all that much. Unlikely? Yes. Completely and utterly beyond the range of possibility? No.

So I decided, what the heck. I've got one year to become a beast at short-course racing, let's get in the gym and out on the track and do this.

Cut-back (ish) Week

On paper this was a cut-back week, though since last week's 46 miles became 40, it didn't *exactly* work out that way. On the other hand I did have a shorter, easier track workout and no real long run.

Not that I've really done anything truly big lately, but this was my last "big-ISH" week before tapering for Statuto 8K next Sunday, and I'm pretty happy that I've been able to run 40+ miles for four weeks in a row leading up to this race. You never know what will happen but I'm feeling pretty excited to go into a race feeling like I did *some* kind of real training (the first time that's happened in several months).

W2W Week 3 of 13: Do People Still Wear Newtons?

This was a tough week for us for reasons I won't go into detail about; just, know that things were very hard for a few days and I missed one of my easy runs. Otherwise it was a solid training week, though, and one of the nice things about running is that it can serve as reasonably effective therapy in the immediate wake of a tragedy.

#therapy

In other news, I switched into a new pair of long run shoes. The background is, for anything over about 12 miles I prefer something with a little more cushion like a Brooks Launch or Saucony Kinvara (as opposed to say my Altras or Brooks Pure Drifts), but I also find that for me, once a pair reaches about 200 miles they're not as comfortable for long runs anymore.

W2W Week 2 of 13: First Pancake Workouts

So here we are in week 2 of 13 and my body is like

For most of March & April it was a few easy miles here & there, karate when I felt like it & wasn't too busy with work (read: almost never), & I hadn't touched a dumbbell since nigh on February (maybe? Let's go with February). Now here we are in Week 2 & it's back to semi-real mileage, karate twice a week, & regular weight training, & my body has no idea what is going on.

W2W Week 1 of 13: Training Cycle Reboot

Okay, universe....let's try this again.

To recap: I am definitely going to run an 8K in SF in a month, and I am definitely going to run Wharf 2 Wharf 6-miler in 2.5ish months. If I can manage to actually-for-real train between now and then, so much the better!

After a pretty packed and stressful late winter/early spring, my days have freed up a bit latelt, my weekend travel commitments have abated, and I have been in SUCH a better place psychologically now that there is more light and warmer weather and it's not pouring rain every day. A girl could actually-maybe enjoy getting a workout done in this?

Off to the Races

HEY HEY! Me again.

Let's get the preliminaries out of the way. I am a) still running, and b) still blogging. (At least, when time allows.) Since Hellyer 5K the rule has been "do some running when possible, if you feel like it," with the intent of following a real training plan starting in May. My next goal race is Wharf to Wharf 6 miler, and while my original goal of finishing in the top 100 women is almost certainly out the window, I am still planning to train hard (read: whatever life & work allows) & do my best.

(I mean, like. It *could* feasibly still happen, but going by recent years' results, I'd have to have one HELL of a three-month training cycle with no interruptions & basically turn my recent best 5K pace into my 6-mile pace, and then I MIGHT squeak into spot 100. So. Not impossible, but if I were you I reaaaaalllllly would not put money on it!)

From a running perspective, April really was lovely. All in all I wrapped up the month with 120 mellow miles, no workouts and nothing over 10 miles, just a bit of easy jogging here & there to keep the cobwebs clear. Sure, there were days when I would have preferred to get a few miles in & didn't; such is life. There was also a lot of travel, especially on the weekends, and although I did get a little running in in exotic locales, I didn't push it. The weather has been beautiful and I am digging on the extra daylight both in the morning & evening.