Week Recap (17 August 2008 - 23 August 2008) - 90 Miles

I was shooting to bump up the mileage to 85-90 this week, thinking perhaps that 90 would be a stretch but not excluding it in case my legs felt like they could handle it. I got things off to a good start with arguably one of the best 18 milers I've ever run. I ended up running faster than I should have been for a hilly long run and my legs were feeling it a bit early in the week. I hit my low point for the week on Wednesday and had a pretty crappy run but things got better towards the end. I felt good enough the last couple of days to push the mileage to 90. Only a couple of weeks left until Alumni so I'll probably keep the mileage where it is and add a few harder efforts. I think I should be in better shape than I could have expected when I started running again 6 weeks ago.

Saturday, August 23, 2008 [12M]

Run with the San Francisco Road Runners Club. For a long time I've had an open invitation from Doug to join him on his Saturday morning run with SFRRC and I was finally convinced to tag along this morning. We had to be at the Marina Green at 7:45 AM so Doug picked me up around 7. It wasn't enough that we had to leave so early I even woke up around 5 to watch some track action from the Olympics. I obviously didn't get much sleep but watching the 5K live at least made it worth it. I was also fairly awake by the time we started the run so I wasn't as sluggish as I would have been if I had just rolled out of bed. We started out in a big group but we picked up the pace after a couple of miles and we were down to Doug and myself. We were still taking it pretty easy and I was content with not running any faster since I was just rounding up a 90 mile week.

Friday, August 22, 2008 [8M]

Redwood Shores. I wanted to leave early this afternoon since I had tickets for the Outside Lands Festival and I figured it would be best to get my run out of the way before lunch so I headed out from Club O by 12:30. I've put in enough mileage earlier this week that I could get away with only an 8 miler today so my lunch break was not too much longer than usual. It turned out to be a decent run as I was comfortably running 6:40s the whole way.

Thursday PM, August 21, 2008 [11M]

Alameda - Jefferson Ave. I was shooting for 7-8 this afternoon and started out on the 7 mile Alameda - Brittan Ave loop, thinking that I could tag on another mile if I felt like it. I did decide to extend the run once I got to Brittan and I felt good enough to keep going all the way to Jefferson Ave. I was comfortably clipping 6:40s the whole way, which was a bit surprising if you think how crappy yesterday's run was.

Thursday AM, August 21, 2008 [5M]

Foster City.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 [12M]

Sheep Camp - Ralston. I was back home from work by 7PM and headed out to Sheep Camp without wasting much time. I had been feeling a bit tired all day and wasn't really looking forward to running, expecting this to be a crappy run. Of course when you start a run with that mindset it's hard not to meet your expectations. The climb up Water Dog Lake was pretty much as slow as it gets and even on the downhill parts I was feeling sluggish. The final climb up Ralston was somewhat better but still far from spectacular. I usually run this loop in something close to 1:25 on an easy day but today I made it back in 1:29. I sure was glad to get this one over with.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 [11M]

San Carlos. I showed up at Roadrunner sports a bit early and had enough time to put in 3 mile loop. I continued with the regular 8 mile loop with Doug afterwards. I kept it easy the entire time, running just over 7:00 pace.

Monday PM, August 18, 2008 [8M]

Redwood Shores. I got out from Club O again this afternoon for my second run of the day. I ran without a watch again and took things easy but I was feeling better than my first run. I thought about lifting today but I only did some calf raises and embarassed myself with a couple of sets on the pullup bar. After my last set of pullups I ran into Charis and spend about half an hour just standing in the weightroom and chatting without doing any more lifting. By that time I was starting to feel hungry so I just headed back home for dinner.

Monday AM, August 18, 2008 [5M]

Foster City. Out of Club O at 12:30 for my usual loop. My legs were feeling pretty tired and I opted to run without a watch. It was probably a good thing not to know how slow I was running.

Sunday, August 17, 2008 [18M]

Huddart to Wunderlich loop. I tried a new loop today which could become one of my favorite long loops. I've been to Wunderlich park before, I ran the 6 mile trail from Huddart to Wunderlich along Skyline Ridge a few times and obviously I've run at Huddart multiple times but I was wondering if I could possibly come up with a loop to combine both parks. After a quick search I came across this loop and decided to give it a shot. I drove over to historic Woodside and took Greer road to Huddart Park. On the way over I came across Albert Liu, who was running in the opposite direction. It's probably been 4 or 5 years since the last time we saw each other so this was a really random encounter. After exchanging a couple of words we each continued on our way. It was about a mile to Bay Tree trail, which was the starting point of the climb to Skyline. I was moving well going uphill and made it to Skyline in 42:00. With the toughest part of the run already out of the way I continued on the trail to Wunderlich. I still had a long way to go but I was feeling good and wasn't too concerned about saving my legs for the end. I wouldn't say I was hammering but I was keeping the pace honest on the rolling hills, attacking the uphill parts a bit and cruising on the downhill and flat parts. I was in Wunderlich in 1:25:00 and started the descend down Alambrique trail. It was basically a 5 mile downhill section and I came down flying in 29:00. I headed back to my starting point along Woodside and Trip Rd, making it back at the car in 2:04:30. My source has this run listed as 17 - 17.5 and I was initially planning to call it 17 but after going through the numbers I think I can justify calling it 18. The trail from Huddart to Wunderlich is around 6 miles, Alambrique trail was listed at 5.0 and it was a 1.6 mile stretch from Wunderlich to my car. It took me 42 minutes to get up to Skyline, which would only taking something just under 8 minute pace for the total to add up to 18. In any case, this was an amazing loop which I'm sure I'll revisit in the future. The variation of the terrain was great, starting out with a gradual climb from 400 to 2200ft, continuing with 6 miles of gently rolling hills, getting the legs moving with a 5 mile downhill section and finishing off with a short flat section on the roads. I was expecting that my legs would be spent by the end but I was actually feeling good the whole way. I was perhaps running faster than I should have been for such a long run but hopefully I won't be feeling it too much on the next few days.