Week Recap (21 September 2008 - 27 September 2008) - 102 Miles

According to the books this is my highest mileage week ever although it's not really close to my highest rolling week total of 118. Starting the week with a solid 22-miler helped take a big chunk of mileage out of the way and made things somewhat easier for the rest of the week. Still not doing a great job at putting in doubles, as I only put in 2 morning runs and ran 92 miles in singles. By adding more doubles I could either add on some more mileage or keep the legs somewhat fresher for my workouts. I can't complain of course for Tuesday's workout, that was as good as I could expect a workout to be right now, but Friday's attempt to run a tempo was rather disappointing. I'm not gonna look into it too much, though, I know it's not surprising for my legs to feel beat on some days and I don't think that workout reflects my fitness in any way. Overall a pretty solid week. Next week will be a recovery week so I'm only gonna shoot for about 70 miles. After posting 6 90+ mile weeks I think an easy week is in order to help keep me healthy and also give me a mental break. I'm running the San Jose half next Sunday so hopefully I'll be well rested for that. 

Saturday, September 27, 2008 [8M]

One more weekend in Vegas. I know this wasn't the best time for a Vegas vacation, with the San Jose half coming up next weekend, but I couldn't pass on Pete's bachelor party. At least this time I was determined not to let the festivities interfere with my training and got out this afternoon for an easy run. I already put in enough mileage this week so I didn't need much to round off the week. I was  out from the Mirage, headed north on Industrial Rd and came back up on Las Vegas Blvd. Pretty boring run, the only interesting thing about it was getting to see some part of Vegas that you don't normally get to see. It's somewhat amazing that a few miles away from all the flashy lights you get the feeling that you are in a small town in the middle of the desert. 

Friday, September 26, 2008 [14M]

Foster City. I stayed at work rather late for a Friday and didn't get started until 7PM. I headed over to Foster City planning to run a long tempo. I had been feeling tired all day and wasn't really excited about running a workout at the end of a long day. I was dragging on my warm-up but was hoping that once I got started I would feel better. That didn't happen and I could tell that I would have trouble running anything fast from mile one. My original plan was to run 5:40 pace for at least 8 miles but I revised the plan once I started, deciding start with something close to 6:00 and try to get progressively faster. I was in the low 5:50s for the first mile but was working a lot harder than I should have been at that pace. After a couple of miles I gave up on trying to run anything fast and settled with putting in just a hard run. I was only running sub 6 pace for 5 miles and slowed down to a 6:20 when I turned into a strong headwind near the San Mateo bridge. I put in a couple more miles at 6:20-6:30 but even that felt like I was forcing the pace so I just shut it down for the rest of the run. I was slower than 7:00 pace for my last 5 miles and felt like I was running on empty. I was glad to get this over with and headed straight home without running any strides or stretching much. I don't know what the deal was today, my legs were really beat and I don't think there's much I could have done about it. I haven't really felt the mileage catching up to me so far so I guess it was bound to happen. 

Thursday, September 25, 2008 [13M]

Redwood Shores. Don't recall anything exciting happening today. 

Wednesday PM, September 24, 2008 [12M]

Edgewood to Huddart. I left work early to go for a haircut and since I was out by 5PM I thought it was a good chance to head over for a run at Huddart. Pretty standard route, straight to Huddart and up to Toyon Camp and back. Not the greatest of runs, my legs were feeling a bit tired and my hill climbing was far from impressive. 

Wednesday AM, September 24, 2008 [5M]

Chula Vista - Alameda - San Carlos.  I managed to get myself up early enough to be out of the door by 9AM for a true morning run. I run a short version of my usual Alameda - San Carlos loop by cutting through to Alameda down Chula Vista Dr. Pretty typical morning run, feeling sluggish and running slow. At least I didn't have to worry about squeezing in a run in the middle of the day. 

Tuesday PM, September 23, 2008 [11M]

5x1600. 4:57, 4:52, 4:50, 4:52, 4:44

I left work at 5PM and drove over to Sequoia high school for some good old-fashioned mile repeats. The weather was in the 90s earlier in the day but by the time I finished my warm-up it didn't feel like it was that hot. My legs were feeling decent on the warm-up and strides so I was confident this would turn out to be a good workout. Perhaps I had unreasonably low expectations and thought I'd be satisfied with running some 5:00 miles. I started out a bit slow on the first interval and came through the first lap in 76. That lap didn't feel so smooth and seeing how it was slow I was worried a bit that I would have to work hard to run 5:00 pace. Turns out one lap was all my legs needed to loosen up and I was able to pick up the pace and feel more comfortable. I was 2:30-3:43 at the end of the next two laps and held on to that pace until the end of the interval. I took a 400m jog between intervals and did a good job at keeping the rest relatively short. I was getting right into a jog at the end of my intervals and took between 3:05-3:20 to cover my rest lap. I made a slight effort to get out faster in the second interval and came through in 73, somewhat surprised since it felt really comfortable. I ran even 73s the rest of the way and felt in control the whole time. On the 3rd interval I ran 72s for the first two laps and 73s for the last two. I got out in 71 on the 4th but slowed down too much on the 2nd lap and came through the 800 in 2:25. I worked the 3rd lap some more to come through in 3:48 and ended up with a low 4:52. I felt almost completely recovered as I was getting ready to start my last interval and figured I could push the pace some more. I got out in 70-2:21-3:33 and closed decently with another 71. I felt like I could have blown away that last lap but reminded myself that this was just a workout and kept it under control. I put in about 4 miles around Redwood City for my cool-down and called it a day with some strides on the infield. I was very happy with how things turned out today, I haven't looked back at past workouts but I'm pretty sure this must be my best mile repeat workout ever. It was one of those workouts you dream of having, when you step on the track with some goal pace in mind and are able to destroy that window and feel very comfortable doing it. You can definitely argue that I should have had a more aggressive goal but

seeing how much I've struggled running hard workouts on my own over the last year and with my legs tired from all the mileage, it's hard to blame myself for not hammering a workout from the gun. The times by themselves might not be that impressive but the way the workout progressed was  the big confidence booster. I wasn't really working hard until the last interval and even in that there was a lot more left in the tank. I was able to get the legs moving fast and felt like I was smoothly flowing around the track. One of those rare days when everything is clicking, hopefully there's more like this to come. 

Tuesday AM, September 23, 2008 [5M]

Foster City. 

Monday, September 22, 2008 [12M]

Foster City. Easy run this afternoon, running around 7:00 for the most part and only getting down to 6:35-6:40 for the last 3 miles down Marina Lagoon. I was expecting my legs to be somewhat tired after yesterday's 22-miler but that wasn't really the case. There was some minor soreness but nothing that affected my running much. 

Sunday, September 21, 2008 [22M]

Bay Trail to Burlingame. I really needed some sleep today and slept in until noon. I didn't get out until 2PM but it was a rather cool day so I didn't have any issues going long at that time. I started from home and crossed over 101 to the trail along Marina Lagoon down Hillsdale Blvd. The plan was to head north on the bay trail and do an 11 mile out and back, basically a slightly extended version of the 21 miler I had run a couple of weeks ago. For the first time I experimented with eating some gels along the way since I'll need to get used to those as part of my marathon preparation. I had no idea how many and how often I should take them and figured I'd start with a couple of gels and take one every 50 minutes. My plan as far as pace was to get out at whatever pace felt comfortable and progressively run faster on the way back, getting close to marathon pace by the end. I made the turn after 1:16:35, so I averaged just under 7:00 pace on the way out. I wasn't feeling that great at the start and was a bit worried that this could end up being a rough day but after 4 or 5 miles my legs loosened up and I was comfortably covering mile after mile. It was a bit windy on the way out so I had the wind on my back as I turned around, which made it easier to pick up the pace. I wasn't trying to force the pace at all but I was getting more into it as the run progressed and didn't have much trouble getting my legs to move faster. I only made a concious effort to run faster in the last 3 miles and was running low 6s, with the last mile or so somewhere close to 5:40 - 5:50 pace. I wound up back in 2:25:45, so 69:10 for the way back, averaging under 6:20 pace. My legs were obviously tired by the end but I wasn't completely spent. The last half of the run was pretty solid and I wasn't dying at the end, instead I was able to get down to a brisk pace. I don't know what effect the gels had but I think at least they helped a bit mentally. This was my longest run ever and it's really encouraging that I made it through without any problems. I'll probaly try to get up to 23-24 before CIM and I'm getting more confident that I can handle the marathon distance. The only question is how fast can I get myself to run it. 

Week Recap (14 September 2008 - 20 September 2008) - 98 Miles

Another solid week, both in terms of quantity and quality. I was shooting for 100-105 this week and came a couple of miles short, which in the grand scheme of things is not a big deal. I feel like I can handle 5-10 more miles but with work and all it's getting hard to find the time to squeeze some more mileage in without at least sacrificing my social life some more.  Not that it's something I'm not really used to. Seeing how I only had two morning runs this week and Friday turned out to be only an 8 mile day it seems like there's room for more but that's easier said than done. I should be shooting to run doubles every day and I need to start running before work in order to do that. I can usually get a run in before lunch but you never know what can come up in the middle of the day. As far as workouts are concerned, I'm happy with how things are progressing. I haven't really run anything hard yet but I first want to get used to putting in some harder efforts while doing high mileage and running on tired legs. I'll wrap this up with one big announcement. I finally decided to run my first marathon and I'll be lining up for CIM on December 7th. I guess it's fairly obvious that I've been thinking about it for some time and I've been gearing my training to be more marathon specific so I figured I might as well commit myself to it.   

Saturday, September 20, 2008 [12M]

2x5000m - 17:11, 17:16

I was up around 10:30 this morning, had some breakfast and waited a couple of hours to be fully awake before heading over to Carlmont high school for a track workout. I'm starting to run some marathon specific workouts, which will include some longer intervals on marathon pace (I'm assuming about 5:40 pace for MP right now). I should be able to run more than a couple of 5Ks at that pace but I'm not yet used to running such long intervals on the track so I thought I could use a transition period. I started out a bit faster than planned on the first one, coming through the first lap in 80. I slowed down but not by much and I was comfortably running close to 5:30 pace the whole way. I split 5:28 for the first mile, was at 10:59 for mile 2 and 16:30 at mile 3. (Note that these were full mile splits and not 1600s, since the track is short and I'm running in lane 3, which is a couple of meters over 400m. I guess the 5Ks were about 30m long so they would have been 5-6 seconds faster, not that it makes much of a difference but I'm noting it down mostly for personal reference.) I was feeling fairly comfortable running 5:30 pace and decided to shoot for the same in the 2nd 5K. I took about 4 minutes of rest between the two intervals and continued pretty much where I had left off. I was slightly slower for the first mile, coming through in 5:32 then slacked off a bit on the second mile and came through in 11:08. My legs were feeling a bit tired but I mostly lost focus and  slowed down. I picked up the pace on the 3rd mile and split a 5:28 to come through in 16:36. The 2nd interval took some more effort than the first but I wasn't killing myself out there. I was running on some tired legs by the end, a combination I think of putting in 10K on the track and rounding up a week just shy off a 100 miles. I was tempted to add a couple of more miles for cool down but I was running fairly slow on the way back and I thought that I wouldn't get much out of a couple junk miles.

Friday, September 19, 2008 [8M]

Golden Gate Park. I had dinner plans in the city tonight and tried getting up in the morning for my long run of the day but I didn't manage to drag myself out of bed. I didn't have the time to put a run before lunch so I had to settle with running only once. I was hoping at least to leave work early but that didn't happen either and I left just in time to hit the Friday afternoon traffic on my way to the city. I was at Rachel's place at 6:15PM and headed out right away to Golden Gate park. Since I was running a bit late I kept this short and only ran once around the perimeter of the park. My legs were feeling somewhat tired so a short and easy was probably not a bad thing. 

Thursday PM, September 18, 2008 [11M]

Alameda - Jefferson. I got back home from work at 7:30PM and didn't waste much time getting out the door. Headed up Ralston as usual, continued on Alameda all the way to Jeffreson Ave and took El Camino back to my place. Not much going on tonight, just putting in the miles, averaging just under 6:50 pace. 

Thursday AM, September 18, 2008 [5M]

Foster City. 

Wednesday PM, September 17, 2008 [10M]

Hallmark. I left work early and was out again by 5PM, trying to squeeze in my run before heading to a concert. I started out at a faster pace than usual since I was a bit in a rush. I was feeling good, though, and didn't mind forcing the pace a bit. The climb up to Hallmark was very smooth and once I got there I was moving well on the rolling hills. The descend from Hallmark was fairly fast but not too much faster than usual. I wound up back in 62 minutes, which is 5-6 minutes faster than what I usually run this loop in. 

Wednesday AM, September 17, 2008 [5M]

Foster City. 

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 [15M]

8x2:30 fartlek. I ran over from work to San Carlos this afternoon and made it at Road Runner as Doug was heading out. I ran with him for less than a couple of miles, until we made it to the bay trail, and started my fartlek on the trail. My hard efforts were 2:30 long and I like I was moving fast although I didn't have any mile splits to get a more accurate sense of pace. I went by feel on the rest, starting each interval whenever I felt recovered. Perhaps I wasn't pushing the hard efforts as much as I should since I was recovering quickly and kept my rest somewhere between 1:00 - 1:15.  I ended up running 5.25 miles in just under 29 minutes so I averaged right around 5:30 pace, including the rest periods. It's hard to get a sense of how fast I was running on the hard efforts and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to translate times on a gravel trail to the equivalent on the road or track. I wasn't concerned about times today, though, all I wanted was to put in a good effort and I think I got what I wanted. Running over from work and having to run back afterwards also made sure I posted some solid mileage for the day. 

Monday, September 15, 2008 [14M]

Extended Foster City. Pretty much the usual loop with a 2 mile loop added around the park before Coyote point. Moving at a decent clip, just under 6:50 pace overall with the last 3 miles at 6:30.

Sunday, September 14, 2008 [18M]

Rancho San Antonio. In fairlty typical fashion I got started around 1PM. I psyched myself to head up Black Mountain trail, which I have avoided every other time I was in this park since it involves about 3000ft of climbing. I don't know why but today I felt like giving it a shot. I headed to Chamise trail first which led to Black Mountain trail. There were a couple of fairly steep climbs in the begining but it got more gradual towards the end. Black Mountain wasn't too bad at first either. It was a continuous climb for about 3 miles but fairly gradual, something along the lines of the other trails in the park. I made it to the end of the trail in 57 minutes and continued towards Monte Bello Preserve. I had another mile and a half to go and that was the most brutal part of the run. It took me 15 minutes to cover that last part, which means I was running 10 minute pace. Running is probably not the best term to use, the hill was so steep I could only sort of jog up. At least I made it up without stopping once and added a few minutes in Monte Bello before heading back. My legs were already feeling beat from the climbing and I wasn't very excited about the downhill part that was coming up. It only took me 8:30 to get back down to Black Mountain trail as I was pretty much running without control down the hill. I was still moving fairly fast on the more gradual descend back to Chamise and to the parking lot. By the end, though, my legs were spent and I was also feeling a bit dehydrated, which made the last couple of miles a bit rough. I wound up back at the car in 2:13:30 and I wasn't even sure if I could call this 18. I'm guessing it might be somewhere between 17.5 - 18, making this one of the slowest long runs I ever did. I doubt I'd be heading back up Black Mountain again, at least not all the way to Monte Bello.