Week Recap (3 August 2008 - 9 August 2008) - 72 Miles

I continued the mileage progression this week, getting into the 70s as planned. I came close to starting off the week with a zero but managed to put in a decent run in Vegas after a long and tiring day. I had a nice 15 miler on Monday and a few more solid mileage days throughout the week. I've been feeling great in general, running fairly fast and just enjoying getting out there and putting in the mileage. Friday was the odd day of the week, when all of a sudden my right leg tightened up, but that seemed to be an isolated incident. Hopefully this upswing will carry over for next week, where I'll be looking to get into the 80s.

Saturday, August 9, 2008 [7M]

Alameda - Brittan. I slept in late this morning and didn't get up until 11:30 AM. I didn't get much sleep last weekend and I didn't have the chance to make up for it during the week so I really needed to catch up. I took some time as usual before I got out for an easy 7 miler to finish off the week. Nothing spectacular, just crusing at 6:40 pace for pretty much the entire run.

Friday, August 8, 2008 [10M]

Redwood Shores. I was out of work by 5PM and headed out of Club O shortly after. I was shooting for 10-12 today and was leaning towards the upper bound until my right leg tightened up about halfway through the run. It was rather strange, it felt more like soreness than a pain of any kind but isolated to my right side. My right calf and quad felt sore and I was also feeling a tightness on the outer side of my leg, all the way up to my hip. I struggled a bit in the last few miles and I was glad to get this run over with. Hopefully this is just some bizarre thing that will be gone in a day.

Thursday, August 7, 2008 [12M]

Sheep Camp - Ralston. I got a bit of a late start, getting out the door around 7:30 PM. I can already tell that the days are getting shorter as it was dark by the time I finished. There was still plenty of light, though, on the way up to Sheep Camp trail and along Canada Rd and I put in a good climb. I was still feeling good on the final climb up to the highest point of Ralston and was eager to start the descend. I started rolling on the way down Ralston, averaging 5:20 pace for the mile and a half downhill section. I didn't slow down much on the last mile and a half, which is mostly flat with a slight incline at the end, averaging 5:40 for that. I'm still at a point in my training where I'm running enough mileage to feel like I'm in good shape but also low enough for the legs to feel fresh. Perhaps I'm getting a bit too excited and hammering more than I should but I'm sure the miles will take their toll as I continue to bump up the mileage so I might as well enjoy the moment.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008 [12M]

Foster City. I'm back to enough mileage to go for the full loop, something which hasn't happened in over 2 months. I started out at a fairly quick clip but slowed down as I was getting close to the San Mateo bridge because of the wind. There is a strong correlation between the number of kite surfers I see along the bay and how windy it is and today it was as packed as it gets. It was a nice sight but I didn't enjoy struggling to run 7:10 pace into the wind. At least that only lasted for 2 or 3 miles and I went back to a decent pace for the rest of the run. I managed to average close to 6:35 pace for the entire run so I was moving fairly fast when I wasn't running into the wind. My last 3 miles were in the 6:05-6:15 range and I was cruising comfortably. It's definitely encouraging to feel like I'm decent shape already.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008 [8M]

San Carlos. I had the company of Doug for this one, at least for half of the run. He hasn't been running much for the last 3 weeks and was feeling sluggish so the way out was fairly slow, around 7:20 pace. After we made the turn I took off on my own and brought the pace down in the 6:20s. Not a bad run considering the slow start.

Monday, August 4, 2008 [15M]

Edgewood to Huddart. I flew back to SF this morning, went straight to work and left early enough to put in a long run at Huddart. I started along the usual route but once I got to the park I picked up Dean Trail, which I had never explored before. I think I tried picking up that trail a couple of times before but it was a bit hard to find. I figured it out this time and continued up to Chinquapin trail. I made it to Skyline in just under an hour and took Crystal Springs trail on the way back. The route back was slightly shorter (and downhill of course) and I ended up back at the car in 1:48. I felt pretty good the whole time, worked the climb up to climb to Skyline well and I was moving well on the downhill part on the way back. Probably something along the same lines as last week's 15 miler and I think it's safe to call this one 15 as well.

Sunday, August 3, 2008 [8]

We were planning to spend the day at the Grand Canyon and decided to head out from Vegas around 1AM. It was about a 4 hour drive and I drove half of it but I doubt I got more than half an hour of sleep during the rest of the drive. We made it there just in time to watch the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen in my life. We went on a 3 mile hike afterwards on the South Kaibab trail to Cedar Ridge. The trailhead was at around 7200ft of altitude and dropped 1200 feet in a mile and a half. I'm not sure if I could count this as altitude training but the climbing could probably substitute a lower leg lifting session. We spent the rest of the day driving around a few vista points and headed back to Vegas. We were back around 9PM and I was tempted to call it a day but eventually decided to drag myself out for a few miles. I wasn't very excited about getting out for a run and not just because I was tired from travelling and the lack of sleep. Vegas is just about the worst place to run. It's impossible to run during the day, when it's like a thousand degrees, and even at night it was in the high 90s. That was the least of the problems, though. I headed north on the strip, which is ridiculously crowded. I was weaving in and out of the crowds, getting down on the street from time to time and running close to incomming traffic . I was pretty much running like a maniac and almost got hit by a couple of cars. I turned back after a couple of miles and tried to avoid the strip on the way back but I didn't have much luck and almost ended up in one of the freeways. I made it back to New York New York and did another out and back going south on the strip. It was a lot less croweded after Tropicana Ave and I actually had enough space to run without dodging people. I finished the run in 51 minutes, which I'm sure should be close enough to 8 since I was hammering most of the time. Not the greatest start to the week but taking everything into account, getting any kind of mileage in today was a huge win.