SRM WEEK 11 OF 20: Adjusting........

When I finally decided this past September to devote a good chunk of time to base-building properly, I set some goals for myself, one of which was doing long runs more often and more consistently. The goal was 1) getting better at them physically but also 2) getting better at them mentally so that I didn't dread lacing up my shoes every Sunday.

How I felt about long runs on a good day.

And I really feel like I did accomplish this during my NVM cycle! Having a strong base for the first time in years made the runs physically easier, and that, along with just sucking it up every weekend that I could, helped flip a switch in my brain from "ohgodohgodohgod" to "meh, still not my favorite, but whatever." I really do think this played a HUUUUGE part in my being able to run 26 miles at Napa not just without some kind of disaster, but--dare I say it--comfortably (both physically and mentally).

So, it's been annoying to find those runs starting to feel kind of tough again. Not a slog the way they used to, and I'm still in a much better place mentally about it, but instead of finishing 16-17 miles & feeling pretty good, I definitely find myself counting down those last miles & feeling a bit beat up after.

I know this makes perfect sense, now that I'm for-realsies training and not "fake training." I've done my best to ease into it gradually, but the last couple of weeks have marked the return of the "monster" track workouts, totaling 10-12 miles each (in addition to another shorter speed or tempo session). I'd kind of forgotten what it feels like to be at the track for that long; you arrive, you warm up, watch other people arrive, run some intervals, watch other people arrive, run some intervals, watch those same people leave, run some intervals, watch more people leave, run some more intervals, and by the time you're done you realized you've watched, like, three distinct waves of runners arrive, do their thang, & leave again.

Last week I did 3 x 200m, 30:00 @ GMP, 3 x 200m; this week was the same except 2 x 1200m's instead of 200m's. These workouts are hard, yes, but not awful. (For this, I actually credit all my nutrition changes. In past training cycles I only got these workouts maybe once every three weeks & they pretty much destroyed me for the rest of the day; this time around Tom has been assigning them almost every week, and I arrive back home actually feeling like a normal person & able to, like, go out for dinner & hang out with friends & stuff.)

On the other hand, they do contribute to the overall cumulative fatigue of the week a lot more than my easy base-building jogs did, even the long ones. Running 17 miles after doing nothing but comfortable, low-heart rate runs all week is a lot different than running 17 miles on top of two track workouts!

Thankfully, my body seems to be acclimating. This week I ran higher mileage as well as *slightly* harder workouts, and felt better all around. My easy runs actually felt easy, and though my 17-miler was hard, I felt marginally better than I did after last week's 16. (Also, it was hot out, which didn't help.)

This coming week I will do one more "monster" track workout & then take it easy for a few days leading up to Sunnyvale 10-Miler on Sunday. I am in this weird situation right now where RunCoach is calculating my workout paces based on my NVM time (since that was the last race I logged), and since I ran most of that race at an easy comfortable pace, all the workout paces are slower than they should be. Since I haven't all-out raced in over two years, though, I don't really know by how much slower. So, I've been trying to do the intervals by effort and stick to what feels about right. Hopefully I'll have a good race in Sunnyvale & will then finally have updated workout paces to work with.

~*~*~SRM WEEK 11 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 42.1 miles

* 14.6 easy
* 7.5 speed
* 3 threshold
* 17 long

AND, 2 x 45:00 strength sessions! #progress

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

Tuesday: 2.4 warm up, 6 x 600m / 200m jog, 1 cool down = 6.4 total

Another night with SF Track Club. Again these were slow enough that they were more in my threshold zone than speed work.

Rockin' these bad boys. Review coming soon!

Wednesday: Karate

I intended to go to the gym for strength work Wednesday morning but I woke up at 6:00 feeling absolutely awful with a splitting headache, so instead I slept another hour.

Thursday: a.m. strength work / 8 easy

SOOO much better than last week's easy runs. My legs felt a little stiff & tired at the beginning, but things weren't bad good once I got going, & even felt pretty good afterward too.

Friday: 1.75 warm up, 2 x 1200m, 30:00 GMP, 2 x 1200m, 1.5 cool down = 10.7 total

Another big track workout like last week, except with 1200m's instead of 200m's. Going by effort, these were ~0:15 seconds slower each than I've done them in the past in good shape, so I'm hoping that after a few more weeks of speed work I'll be able to ratchet that number down a little the next time I do 1200m's. On the plus side, whereas in last week's 30:00 @ GMP I was struggling to maintain an 8:05-8:10 pace, this week I found myself cruising right along like, "This feels about right," & then frequently seeing numbers in the high sevens. MORE OF THIS PLEASE.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 17 long

Next week, it's all about race prep.

garminzzz, y'all.

I have three of them.

First up: The Forerunner 305. Purchased ca. 2010, this watch was my first foray into fancy-pants, GPS running device technology.

It was pretty much perfect in every way, up until about two years ago when it lost the ability to beep when it auto lapped (meaning if I wanted lap times, I had to keep checking it to be sure I didn't miss it) and soon after wouldn't charge without a ton of force pressing it against the charging cradle. (Like, it would charge if I sat there & squeezed it against the charger, but otherwise no.)

Fortunately, those issues coincided with a sweet sale at REI on the Forerunner 310XT at REI. The 310XT was far from new at that point, but since it was basically the exactly same watch as the 305 except for a bunch of triathlon stuff that was irrelevant me, AND it was cheaper than what I'd initially paid for the 305, this was a no-brainer.

Alas, last summer the band broke in a way that wasn't fixable & made the watch useless. Fortunately, REI has an extremely generous one-year replacement policy, so I was able to take it back.

Except...they no longer carried the 310XT at that point, and the closest thing they had was the Forerunner 220.

Friends, I hate this watch. HATE it. So. MUCH. The interface is dinkier, more confusing, and all-around less functional. It has almost none of the features you want and everything you don't. To name just a few issues...

• You can't set it to auto lap under .25 miles. Want to bust out some 200m's? TOUGH.
• When you first turn it on, it defaults to a 'locked' state, which requires performing some kind of insane Vulcan neck pinch of button-pressing to unlock.
• You can't manually lap if the watch is paused.
• You get three data fields--no more, no less.
• When you hit pause, it immediately reverts to a useless screen that shows only your ellapsed time, and if you want to know anything else, you have to hit the 'back' button.
• If you leave it paused for a certain amount of time, it goes into power save mode. Not the hugest deal ever, unless you happen to be standing in a start corral seconds before the gun.

On the plus side, though, it gives you a pretty little ribbon screen & a cute message any time it detects a PR or distance record!! :D :D :D Who the hell cares.

And, to add insult to injury, this piece of junk was like $90 MOAR expensive than the 310XT. (Yes, I got the 310XT on a big sale, but that was kind of half the point). But it was that, the barely-not-useless FR 10, or $160 more for a 610, which included even more features I didn't need.

Finally I got so fed up with the [**horribly offensive vulgar name that I will refrain from typing on the internet, but used to its face repeatedly, bonus points if you can guess what it was, it kind of sounds vaguely like 'Forerunner'**] 220 that I bought a refurbished 310XT on amazon (for the record, still more expensive than the sale price I got at REI). AND LO, my life was glorious.

Until about a month ago. When I plugged my < 1 year old refurbished 310XT in to charge, and nothing happened. I tried different outlets/powerstrips/USB dongels/etc., and no dice. Whatever the problem is, it seems to be either in the watch battery itself or the part of the charger that connects directly to the watch.

Teeth were gnashed and clothing was wrent.

Now, when we were getting ready to move, I had thrown that god-awful [horribly offensive nickname] 220 into the "stuff to go somewhere that is else" pile, namely, back to REI for a refund. But since I am such a good procrastinator, it was still hanging around in a box downstairs when the 310XT died. And since you don't go to the track with the GPS watch you want, you go to the track with the GPS watch you have, that shitty little travesty of a device once again found its way onto my wrist.

I would like to be able to tell you that this gave me an opportunity to practice #gratitude, to feel #blessed that I am fortunate enough to have access to this type of technology at all. Alas, while I remain fully aware of the insane levels of privilege I enjoy in virtually every aspect of my life, just a few runs with the [I hate you I hate you] 220 was enough to remind me what a god-awful piece of engineering failure it is. (If you engineered it....sorry. I'm sure you're still a good person; you just made a mistake.)

In fact, the experience of trying to use the [die in a fire] 220 for anything even remotely resembling an actual workout was indeed so traumatizing that on multiple evenings I found myself on the floor with the sad carcasses of my 305 & 310XT desperately trying to rehabilitate them. (I mean yes, I know I could send them back to Garmin for fixing, but from what I hear, they charge you almost what it would cost to just buy a new watch.)

With the 310XT, no luck. The thing just seemed dead all-around. BUT, after some trial and error, I found that if I took a sufficiently tight ponytail holder and twisted it twice around the 305 and its cradle, it applied sufficient pressure to get the thing to charge. #winning!

Friends, I can't tell you how excited I was to set out on a run with my beloved 305 for the first time in two years. It was just BLISS.

Except...It still doesn't beep when it auto-laps. And while I don't really care about that for easy or long runs, it's kind of key for speed & tempo/threshold workouts.

I wore the [son of a whore] 220 for my two track workouts last week and the thing was almost useless. In retrospect, I probably would have been better off with the 305, since at least you can set the damn thing to auto lap at intervals less than .25 miles.

When I got home from my Friday track workout, I plugged the [screw you & the horse you rode in on] 220 in to charge, & sort of half-heartedly messed around with the 310XT again, just, y'know, to see if something might magically happen. And then, AS IF A SOLSTICE MIRACLE (err...almost), the fucker suddenly started charging.

In the immediate future, this is good news. I *may* actually have a watch I can *halfway-kinda-sorta* reliably use for actual workouts. But it kind of gets me thinking about the harsh mistress that is a Garmin device, and it's tough to just go about your business, knowing what a fickle god you serve. I get that nothing lasts forever, but MAN, that's a lot of money for something that quits working properly after less than three years. I mean c'mon. A one year warranty? Basically I feel like as soon as I buy one, I have to start saving up for the next one.

I've played around with other models (Tom Tom, Polar, Timex), but none of them have ever had both the features & the ease-of-interface that made the 305 & 310XT so perfect. I WANT to stick with Garmin, but they're making it kind of tough. Is there anything out there comparable in features & interface that doesn't go tits-up after 2-3 years?

(Do not speak to me of Bia or iWatches because #no.)

Other questions I would be curious to have answered:

• Have you had any similar issues with these or other models?
• Have you ever sent something to Garmin for fixing? What's the dilly-o?
• Is there any way in Hades (in your personal opinion) to justify the bucks for newer models like the 620 or 920XT? My head says no, but my heart says "Sweet baby Jesus I just want something that works."

Also, random Garmin tip of the day: If your Garmin suddenly randomly won't turn on anymore, hold down 'lap' & 'mode' together for five seconds, then try turning it on again. I've had this issue with both the 305 & 310XT occasionally & it works every time.

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

Back to the Oval

Two years ago when I was recovering from Hip-mageddon 1.0, Coach Tom invited me to come do speed work with SF Track Club, which he coaches, once I was healthy again. It made a lot of sense since they worked out at Kezar on Tuesday nights, just as I did, if a bit later. (I usually did my track work 5-7ish whereas they started at 6:30.)

I was super excited about this, but sadly it never panned out. Just as I was getting back to some speed work & starting to feel comfortable on the track again that fall/early winter, I ended up with a stress fracture, so it was another six months before I set foot on a track. And while technically, yes, I was marathon training that summer, I was still having problems with my hip & only did like three track workouts during that training cycle. But lately I've done some faster running out on the roads and felt pretty good, and since I'm officially into my 12-week for-realsies SRM training cycle, I decided to finally go.

I arrived at newly renovated Kezar Stadium a little before 6:30 to marvel at the sharp, new lane lines, plush, bouncy inner lanes, and rehabilitated numerals on the starting line. I hadn't been out there since the city finished fixing it up last fall, and the sight, along with the smell of freshly cut grass, brought a metaphorical tear to this speed-lover's eye.

I hadn't done a track workout with a group since college so I was a little nervous about it. One of the reasons why I do most of my runs alone is because I don't have to worry about keeping up/holding other people back/pushing others too hard/etc.; I can just cruise along & do my own thing. Also despite 2.5 years of internet coaching, Tom had never seen me run before, so there was also maybe a little of that performance anxiety/for-god's-sake-don't-embarrass yourself feeling. Plus this would be my first time testing my right leg (which has been getting much better!) at speed around curves & I didn't want to be the lame-o that pulled up in the first lap like, "Sorry, I broke myself, but nice meeting you all!"

Thankfully, all disasters were averted. Tom put me with a group based on my guesses about my current 5K/10K paces, and instead of my assigned RunCoach speed workout of 6 x 200m / 30:00 GMP / 6 x 200m, he had me run 6 x 1K with them at ~7:25ish. I was relieved to find that this was quite an easy workout for me at this point, and was also reminded of one of the great perks of doing speed work with a group where someone who is not you is assigned to watch the pace, which is that you can pretty much turn your brain off; all you have to do is keep up & not pass anyone.

I know everyone grumbles about speed work & it's supposed to make you cry & want to die & all that, but MAN. Coming around the corner on that first lap was sheer joy for me. After months and months of nothing but base training and really focusing on my long runs and then verrrrry gradually dipping my toe back into the waters of fast running, whipping my body around that oval again after nearly a year away was pretty much bliss.

The one down side to this workout was that together with our ten minute warm-up jog, it only came out to about five miles, as opposed to the 9.5-10ish that my assigned track workout had called for. Tom said this was okay since the 6 x 1K's had really worked out to more like a tempo/threshold workout for me anyway rather than speed work, so I could just do the 200m's on Friday instead of my assigned tempo/threshold.

So, on Friday, back to the oval I went. And MAN, was it hot [SF translation: moderately warm with no clouds]. After a super hard/crappy "easy" run on Thursday, some worse-than-usual pain in my left foot & shin, & then waking up sick in the middle of the night (nothing major, all better now), I was only maybe 60/40 on whether I'd actually be able to do do the longer 200m's workout.

Once I got out there, though, the 200m's felt surprisingly easy:

Last summer I was doing these pretty consistently in the 0:42-0:43 range (5:30-5:40 pace), but given that I'm only just getting back into speed work after many, many months of mostly base training, I'm actually pleasantly surprised to be doing them in the 0:44-0:46 range. If I can get back to those faster times or even a second or two faster by the time I taper for SRM, I'll be happy. If nothing else I was at least pleased to be managing some kind of consistency, which I've always struggled with on shorter intervals (Garmin numbers being pretty much unreliable over that short a distance).

The 30:00 @ marathon pace, though?

Ugh. Uuuuggggghhhh. Pretty much the same as last week's sucky runs, just faster. I mean yes, it was quite warm, but the entire 3.7 miles felt like I was low blood sugar or sleep deprived or both (neither of which was the case). It wasn't that the pace felt hard cardio-wise; just as if the messages from my brain to my legs to like, run & stuff weren't getting through. (Ever had the experience of telling a teenager over & over again to do something super effing easy & they just keep pretending they can't hear you? It was kind of like that.)

I feared this didn't bode well for my second set of 200m's, but for some magical reason I don't understand, busting out half-laps in 45-46 seconds still felt pretty easy (at least until maybe the last 1-2, and even then it wasn't all that terrible.)

I clearly have a ways to go to get my speed back (as expected), and I kind of think maybe my sucky easy runs lately are just my body still adjusting to two harder workouts per week. Still, considering that last August I couldn't even run one hard 200m without feeling like my pelvis was about to snap, no complaints here!

#trackselfie

SRM WEEK 9 OF 20: Upcoming Race Plans

So, this week started out rough, got better, then quickly slid back downhill. I ended the week with my worst long run in recent memory--the first half was fairly pleasant actually, but despite my casual pace the last three miles or so felt nearly as hard as a race, not to mention some nausea & lightheadedness.

Some pics from the first half of the run, before I wanted to shoot myself in the face:

Conservatory of Flowers

Down by the ocean

Eventually I even made a deal with myself that once I got to the last two miles I could stop every quarter mile for 30 seconds or so. (Yes, this sucked, but on the plus side, it does kind of serve as a good reminder of how much easier long runs have gotten for me over this last year.) I started the run later than I wanted to & finished pressed for time, so I also didn't do myself any favors by sprinting the last block, jumping into the shower for 30 seconds, frantically dressing myself, & rushing to a dinner party with friends while scarfing down a granola bar in the car. I was kind of a zombie through dinner, didn't eat enough carbs & definitely didn't drink enough water and probably too much alcohol.

To be fair, though, there was a crown roast. I mean come on.

This morning my body can't decide whether it wants water or salt or both, so I'm sort of alternating between chugging water and salty pre-made grocery store soup.

Anyway, moving on.

I found out last week that my July half, The Jungle Run, is cancelled for this year. After satisfying myself that there aren't any other races around that time that I'm excited to run, I went back to the Sunnyvale 10-Miler, which I'm running on June 28.

This race is part of the same series as the Foster City 10-Miler that I ran in January. Originally I'd been thinking I'd treat it the same as that race & just do it at marathon pace/effort, but now that I'm not racing anything else between then & SRM, I started thinking it might make sense to run it as an actual race. Because I haven't all-out raced anything since Mountains 2 Beach over two years ago, all my workout paces are super outdated, and it would be good to have a more accurate baseline in terms of my actual fitness now as I train for SRM. I won't be in tip-top shape, but I should have had a good 4-5 weeks or so of speed & tempo work under my belt, so with any luck, I *ALSO* won't flat-out embarrass myself.

I've never all-out raced a 10-miler before, so I didn't have a good sense of what I should be shooting for time-wise (though this is also hard because I don't really know what kind of shape I'll be in). According to the interwebz, my half marathon PR of 1:38 translates into a 10-mile time of ~1:13, which kind of gives me an absolute ceiling. Honestly, I don't think I'm going to get back to that level of fitness by three weeks from now, so I looked at equivalent times for half marathons in the 1:41-1:42 range & got right around 1:15. So for now, I think that's more or less my "A" goal: break 1:15.

Which means running 7:30's. Ie, run PR half marathon pace for 10 miles. Which is still pretty darn scary to think about right now. So I think maybe my strategy will be to start with 7:45's & see how that feels, & try to ratchet down from there. If I can't, my "B" goal will I think be to average 7:45 pace & finish in 1:17:30. My "C" goal, it seems, might as well be to beat my Foster City time of 1:19:22 (7:56/mile), and if I can't do that I'm going to be pretty sad because it means I'm nowhere close to being able to run a marathon at that pace (and unlikely to get there in 8 weeks).

~*~*~SRM WEEK 9 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 38 miles

* 22 easy
* 1.75 speed
* 14 long

Monday: 4 easy.

Normally Monday is my post-long run rest day, but since we did a 2.5 hour trail run on Saturday, I took Sunday off, & was missing karate due to work travel, I wanted to squeeze in a little physical activity. Apparently my legs were still worn out from Saturday because this was the hardest 4 mile run I've done in a while. It felt really difficult to keep good form & was significantly slower than my easy runs have generally been lately.

Tuesday: Rest.

Or rather, work travel. I could have done an easy treadmill run but wanted to save my legs for a solid speed workout on Wednesday when I got home. Which was fine because I was pretty busy with work stuff anyway.

Wednesday: 2 warm up / 6 x 1200m / 2 cool down = 10 speed

Back on RunCoach & it feels so good!

Thursday: 4 easy

Oh man. I literally cannot remember the last time I felt this terrible on an easy run. It was supposed to be six, but less than a mile in my legs felt like lead & I'm pretty sure I only made it two out & two back out of sheer force of will.

Friday: 2 warm up; 30:00 @ GMP; 2 cd 6 easy

Usually when I have a bad run the next one is much better, but not this week. This run felt almost the same as the day before (maybe sliiiiightly better? Certainly not by much) & when less than a mile in I was struggling to hold a 10:30 pace I knew there was just no way GMP miles were happening. I managed to crank out the six easy but that was hard enough. The only cause I think of is the fact that I did a harder run than usual on the heels of a work trip & normally would have had a rest day after it. Still, these two runs seemed pretty dramatically awful, even considering all that.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 14 long

Buh.

All I really want out of Week 10 is to feel not like crap for more than one run!! #life goals

National Running Day had its ups & downs.

I didn't know it until Wednesday morning, but June 3 was apparently National Running Day. YAAAAAY NATIONAL RUNNING DAY!!

I was traveling for work but what kind of lame-o runner doesn't run on National Running Day, so as soon as I got home at 7:30pm I immediately threw on running clothes & busted out a 10 mile tempo run.

Just kidding, I'd already planned it that way because I was a) busy with work Tuesday (when this workout was assigned) & b) travel workouts almost always have to be done on treadmills and UUUUGGGGHH talk about workouts I DO NOT feel like putting myself through on a treadmill.

I didn't end up doing it exactly right. It was supposed to be 7 x 1200m @ LT pace w/ 45 second recoveries, only I couldn't remember how long the recoveries were once I got going, so for simplicity's sake, I kind of said, "Eh, 400m sounds about right." Which, equates to more like 2-2.5 minutes. Oops. Also I only did 6 repeats because I have a nice 10 mile loop that gives me 2 miles of pedestrian/traffic light heavy neighborhood streets at the beginning & end for a warm-up/cool down & that only leaves 6 miles in between. It was late & I did not feel like a) running deeper into the park in the dark, b) running more than 10 miles, or c) frantically dodging pedestrians & cars while trying to tack on another 1200 at either end.

As these types of workouts should be, it felt hard but do-able. I kept up the pace through all six repeats with no problem & felt like I probably could've done a few more at the end (though, I didn't really want to). I think I managed to tape my left foot in a way that actually accomplished something, and found that it was actually easier during the fast intervals to run on my left arch the way I'm supposed to than it was during the easy miles & recoveries. But anyway, it's good to be back to doing my official RunCoach workouts & feeling like I can (finally!) finish them feeling strong and without re-aggravating my leg.

Alas, National Running Day also brought sadness.

A while back I wrote about my first "official" half marathon, The Jungle Run in Los Gatos. After many years away I was looking forward to actually racing it again this summer in reasonably good shape & seeing by just how much I could beat my 2008 time of 2:16. But it was not to be. Wednesday evening I received an email from the organizers that the high school track area (where the start, finish, & staging are located) would be under construction & despite many inquiries into other potential staging areas, they were not able to find a suitable one. So, it looks like the race is cancelled for this year.

I did appreciate that, although all entry fees for this year were automatically rolled over to 2016, they did give participants the option of requesting a refund if they preferred (particularly given that the issue was around getting permits for the course/staging area so the biggest costs have potentially not yet been incurred by the race). I do actually want to run the race again so I accepted the rollover and didn't request a refund.

So now, I'm thinking about whether I want to try & find another good half sometime in July (of which there are not a ton) or just say, eh, screw it, more SRM training time. So far the only even halfway decent candidate I've found is the Davis Moonlight Race on July 11, which looks kind of fun in that it's a evening race (the 1st wave of the half starts at 6:30) and is not that expensive ($60). But to be honest I'm leaning towards 'no' because a) Davis in July can still be 90F+, even in the evening, b) it's kind of a hike from SF for a last-minute non-goal race, c) the course apparently has stretches of gravel. (Ringing any bells there?)

The other option is to run a local little 10K on July 18th. [Real Talk: I am sooo not excited about running a 10K right now.] So, maybe I'll just take a pass on a July race & use what I save in taper/recovery time to put towards SRM training.

SRM WEEK 8 OF 20: Pleasanton Ridge Trail Run

This ended up being a low mileage week with only three runs, but all three of them were more challenging & sufficiently different from most of what I've been putting my legs through over the last nine months or so that I still feel like it was a pretty productive week training-wise.

First, there were of course my two speed(ish) workouts. Normally I would have done an easy run Friday, taken Saturday off, & then done my long run on Sunday, but this week I had plans to run trails with friends in the East Bay on Saturday. We were planning on 12 miles, and since a) I'd done two speed workouts already this week for the first time in many many months, b) I almost never run trails, and c) this would be my longest trail run ever by 100%, I figured it was smartest of me to take Friday off & then tack on a few easy miles Sunday depending on how I felt after the trail run.

Jen, Cathryn, Jess, and KP scoped out the situation at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park in the East Bay, and Layla, bt, Debbie, & Amanda joined as well, so there ended up being a solid group of us.

Trail runners were indeed mighty that day.
(As always, carrying on the proud tradition of awkward running photos.
I call this one the "Hurry-up-I-have-to-pee.")

For the next 2.5-3 hours we ran-hiked along dirt trails over golden hills and did our best not to spook the cattle.

There were a good number of hills and many of them were quite steep, so we definitely did a fair amount of hiking as well as actual running. Different people turned back at different points, & the last group of us went out five miles and then tacked on a two-mile loop, which saw both our fastest miles (sub-10, baby!) as well as potentially the longest, steepest hill I have ever "run" in my life.

Again...photos utterly fail when it comes to communicating the actual steepness you're dealing with.

If it looks like we're kind of dragging ourselves up, it's because we were.

As a non-trail runner, the downhills were definitely the trickiest thing for me, of which there were many (particularly on the way back).

Jen's selfie attempt becomes an artsy shot of me.

Then, of course, there's the aftermath.

#dirttan

I don't get to do a ton of social running thanks to my schedule (or much trail running thanks to where I live), so it's always super fun to get in some miles with friends on new and different terrain.

Thanks for a fantastic morning, ladies! :)

~*~*~SRM WEEK 8 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 28 miles

* 8.2 easy
* 7.8 speed/tempo(ish)
* 12 trail/long

No strength work this week because apparently I can't get myself to bed on time lately. Mostly I blame the daylight for consistently tricking me into thinking it's earlier than it is. This is fast becoming a serious problem that I'm not entirely sure how to solve.

Monday: I did nothing but rest & recover on Monday. PSA: Do not run 14 miles & then forget to eat anything but roast pork while drinking heartily.

Tuesday: 2 warm up / 4 progression / 2 cool down = 8 speed

I don't know if I would normally call this workout "speed," but that's how it was listed in my little mini-intro-to-speed plan I'm doing, so what the hey. I was a little hesitant since lately any amount of fast running has angered the gods of my right leg, but after the whole engaging-the-power-ray experiment went well during Sunday's 14 mile long run, I decided to give it a try. And it was not horrible! Hard from a cardio standpoint, yes, but the leg held up pretty darn well.

Wednesday: Karate.

Thursday: 2 warm up / 15 x 1:00/1:00 fartleks / 2.2 cool down = 8 speed

McMillan says the actual pace of the fartleks don't really matter; the point is just to run "pretty hard" for a minute, then recovery for a minute, wash/rinse/repeat. This, I have no qualms about calling speed work. I still clearly have some work to do to get my speed back, but I was happy to see that I could push it pretty hard & still have my right leg feel okay and get through all 15 feeling like I could have done more.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 12 trails

My schedule called for 16-17, but at 2.5+ hours, I feel like this run got the job done time and effort-wise. We spent almost the entire run either running or hiking up steep hills at a good clip, with only one significant pause (5-10 minutes or so) plus a few other quick ones for water/fuel/etc. Much has been made of running different types of terrain in order to work different muscles, and that much was *definitely* accomplished.

Sunday: 8 easy Rest

Another way I can tell the trail run was a solid "long" workout is that WOW, did I have some sore glutes & hamstrings the next day! Also, I can tell I was using my feet more effectively as well. They definitely have that sore-from-hard-work feeling (as opposed to the overdoing-it/injury-type soreness). I probably would have done a shorter easy run if I hadn't been so sore, but as it was, letting my body recover seemed like the smarter choice.

Next week, my SRM training officially officially starts.

Dare I say it:

BRING. IT.