Post half marathon recovery + a quick trip back to RI for thanksgiving. Nice to return but so short that I was pretty tired.
Monday: 8 Miles- Camarillo, CA
Mid-day my lab for Tuesday got cancelled. Ended up getting a last minute flight from Wednesday morning to tonight. I was happy about that as 1) I'd get an extra day and half in RI, 2) better window for some schoolwork I had to do, and 3) I didn't have to wake up super early Wednesday to get my run in (and could do my shorter run today).
Waited too long for this one and basically had to rush to the airport when I got back. Of course, the traffic was awful but got there without issues. Awful security line, took about 45 minutes then the LAX food options are terrible too (at least for whatever terminal I was in). LAX is not a great airport. Bailed on trying to use a stall in the bathroom as they were all full, disgusting and some guy was screaming at someone on his phone.
Tuesday: 12 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Walked around Boston a bit in the morning. Felt so frigid in upper 20s and windy. Definitely some cold-deacclimation after not being in New England for the summer-fall transition for the first time ever. Love Boston though, really feels a great city compared to Los Angeles.
Nice return to Burlingame with Dad + Brady. Just a completely different vibe from SoCal. Open, sunny, and dry hills in one versus cold and dreary woods in the other. I like both. Despite the CA trails having much more elevation gain, they're still a lot faster as the singletrack with roots/rocks here is tough to run sub-8 minute pace on. One thing I really like about NE that there isn't much of in SoCal is pine forests. Super weird day as it just felt like an extension of Monday because I can't sleep on planes and had a overnight flight. But didn't feel too bad on this.
Wednesday: 11 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Slept 12ish hours after no sleep the previous night. Solo ninigret in the afternoon. Very dreary, wet and dark day which is kind of depressing to look at but I also kind of like the gritty and winter-ish vibes but it's so quiet. Full tour of Ninigret, quite nice besides a few unavoidable puddles.
Thursday: 18 Miles- Westerly, RI
With travel back early Saturday morning, I thought it would be best to knock out my long run on Thursday. Dad let me know about a weekapaug fun run so I figured I could use that as a workout and do a 2x5K tempo shooting for a 18 mile total. This would be my last true long run before the marathon 2 weeks out.
Got there too late and had to cut the tempo to 2 mile + 5K. Did a round the loop loop feeling okay but with flat legs. Not surprising 4 days post half marathon and the flight. Another SoCal/SoRI comparison- so few bathrooms in Southern RI. They even removed the port-a-potty from the breachway which was pretty lame as I was hoping to go before the run. Ended up going at the town beach which seems to be the only place that still has it. Thousand Oaks on the other hand has many parks with real bathrooms and it's not typically something I have to worry about.
Had to rush to make the fun run, so I got down my gel and some water quickly, then right into the 2 mile tempo. 2 mile shorter weekapaug loop (wawaloam-shawmut-meadow-chapman) at 5:33 pace which is pretty solid. Mile around 6:30 over to the fun run start, before 10ish minutes waiting around so a true full recovery. They did some weird group stretches before and the start line was angled really poorly (hard right immediately instead of going out straight) but I can't complain too much for a free fun run. Course was mostly marked well and a lead biker. I looked around at the start and assumed I'd be running solo but one guy took off at the line. I ran a reasonable 5:20ish effort and got gapped immediately. I thought he'd come back really quick and I'd get him easy. So a bit surprised to take a while to reel him but I caught up slowly, especially with winding turns, some rollers and wind.
OAB section on Noyes Neck and I pulled up right behind and tucked in behind to block the wind. He didn't like that and motioned for me to take the lead. I was kind of annoyed as he was the one who went out super aggressively, but it was also just a workout for me so I didn't really care. I pulled up aside him before he retook the lead anyway before the turnaround. I felt a little more comfortable on the downhill and took the lead but he tucked in right behind. I could feel he was holding on. I was not comfortable by any means as my legs felt super flat but I certainly didn't want to lose to a guy who went out that hard, so I slowly increased the effort. It felt like he was hanging on so I just kept up the mid-5:10s pace here and started to get a gap. Didn't hammer the last mile but stayed strong enough to make sure I'd get a comfortable win without having to kick. More or less cruised when back on the flat parts. Think I ran 16:40s or so, so like a low 5:20s effort.
Definitely a solid workout, as I'm typically in the 5:40s-5:50s range for a long run workout so it was nice to hit 5:30s/5:20s. On the flatter side of workouts, but also pretty windy. Bit of a grind feeling flat but that's just how training is sometimes. 5 mile cooldown, half with Dad.
Friday: 11 Miles- Exeter, RI
Arcadia classic dirt road loop with Dad + brady. Love this run any time of the year. Winter you get the solitude and summer the route is pretty and green. Every few months or so I have an allergic reaction while running and my eyelids swell up. It happened on this day and was pretty bad. Super annoying. Definitely did not get lucky with my eyes (poor eyesight + allergies). Took until mid-Saturday to completely clear up too.
Saturday: 10 Miles- Thousand Oaks, CA
Cross country flight days where I run post-flight is not enjoyable at all. Timeline basically was 3 hours of sleep, at PVD at 4:30am. Two bad American airlines flights. Haven't flown American for a long trip (or at least not in recent memory) and I have to say they're really bad compared to JetBlue. Jetblue has significantly more leg/seat room, much better/more snacks, and entertainment systems. American was super cramped and just not enjoyable at all. I've decided I don't like flying very much.
Got to LAX just before 12pm and between getting to my parking spot and the drive back, I wasn't back at my apartment until 2:30PM due to awful traffic. Took a brief nap but had to keep it short to run somewhat in the daylight. Got out around 4:30 and ran from Banyan park (Southern Newbury Park) on a mix of neighborhood roads and some of the Santa Monica Mountains NRA/Point Mugu SP trails at the southern edge of Thousand Oaks. Hilly route as I ran the full descent down into Sycamore Canyon (-500'), but the trail back up was surprisingly really nice singletrack and I got to enjoy the sunset. Perfect weather too upper 50s.
The rest of the run wasn't as good when it got dark, I really don't like headlamp dark trail running. Surprisingly good christmas decorations. Didn't feel great but brought a gel and some electrolytes which got me through it. First time trying birthday cake GU which was pretty good and chocolate salt LMNT (or any LMNT) which I did not care for.
Sunday: 12 Miles- Calabasas, CA
Back to Malibu creek. Okay route, got on some pretty overgrown singletrack early on and then halfway through the route got to a very clear no trespassing sign and barbed wire fence. Wish this was more obvious on the strava routes. Went around the fence at first but it went behind someone's property and I could see people on the far end, so didn't seem worth getting in trouble. Had to do some weird OABs after that but made it work. Legs really tired on this one.
Weekly Total: 82 Miles
Weekly Highlight: This wasn't a great week honestly, but glad to hit mileage goals. Still a solid long run too even if it didn't feel great.
Weekly Lowlight: Lots of things here. Absolute exhaustion from the cross country flights + low sleep combination. Legs feeling really flat post race. Swollen eye issues Friday was really annoying.
Movies Watched: Monsters Inc., Shrek, Zootopia (on plane rides)
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