March is officially over, which concludes the first phase of the year for me which was a short block for the Los Angeles. This was largely very successful with great consistent training, no injury, and eventually running 2:32 and hitting my A goal at Los Angeles, a much stronger effort than Honolulu.
The next block will be for another marathon- San Francisco in late July. Given I'm coming off a strong marathon result already (won't take much time to get back in shape) and I have a full 17 weeks to the race, I'm opting to race outdoor track for the month of April to break it up. Ideally I'd come away with a 1500m (4:05) and 5K (15:21) PR- these are some of my older PRs and it'd be nice to give them an update, even if it's only a few seconds faster.
The problem is the 8 days off truly reset my fitness for now. This was the intended effect- to recover and reduce risk of burn out, but after running every day of 2023, I realized now there is a big difference between taking a week fully off and running 3 miles a day for a week. So I'm entering this month in terrible shape and hoping to get fit fast- which is reasonable, but the short time window for track will certainly limit how fast I can run. Was hoping to give a shot at sub-15 finally, but I just don't think I'll have enough time to make those gains. Coming out with a 5K PR would be a successful track season in my books, as the 1500m is probably unlikely as well given I won't have many attempts there.
After an easy week of getting used to running again, I had to bring back workouts this week to give myself a chance at track running. I really struggled at first, and postponed my first race from this weekend to next. I figured I'd see what shape I'm in for 5K then and if I could open up under 15:50, that would be a good enough mark to have a chance at working down to 15:20 over 3 weeks.
Monday: 6 Miles- Thousand Oaks, CA
Half version of usual Tuesday hilly ridgeline loop- road/trail mix. There's a good amount of climbing here and I felt really out of shape on this stuff, especially compared to pre-LA. Good news is I wasn't actually running any slower.
Tuesday: 7 Miles- Thousand Oaks, CA
Goal for this week was two workouts- tempo tuesday and track thursday to get in both some endurance and faster work, plus get used to track again. Then race the 1500/800 at USC as a rustbuster/no expectations opener. I did a 3 mile tempo ahead of the millennium mile on a similar timeframe post-Honolulu, so that was the plan today. Did it on a variation of the typical hilly loop, although starting in a different area to cut off some mileage. First tempo mile on the toughest uphill in the loop and wow this hurt. Got myself through the mile in 6:05 (5:24 GAP, 170' uphill) absolutely dying and took a little break instead of forcing things. Stopped/walked around for 5ish minute then resuming for a second mile- downhill in 5:05 (5:19 GAP, -130') which didn't feel as bad with the downhill but just felt exhausted and low energy. Two takeaways from this- 1) 8 days off is a full reset, versus a week of 3 mile days still retains some fitness- I'm in terrible shape, 2) race is a no go, need another week.
Wednesday: 14 Miles- Agoura Hills, CA
In the fall and spring, I'd do the cheeseboro loop every Friday (with a few exceptions). With a lot of Friday races now, it'll be on Wednesday for the near future. This loop can be 9.5-11.5 depending on where I start, today go I'd for the 10 mile version (only version without bathrooms unfortunately). Don't remember the first half of the run other than it being a bit warmer than usual. Got to the high point and started the descent to find a sign that showed the rest of the loop was closed. 6 miles in, so I could either do an OAB for a guaranteed 12 miler, or go forward and possibly run 10 but risk running more. I really didn't want to run 12, especially as 10 was kind of long for current training so I took the risk. I figured I could run around what workers were there, or maybe there would be no one there. This time, the risk did not pay off. Ran the full downhill mile 7 which drops 400' to come up to a construction vehicle and an angry driver who yelled at me to turn around. He also yelled at someone in the opposite direction. This really sucked because now I'd have to do 14, and run back up 400'. It wasn't as miserable as I expected but I got fairly dehydrated and tired. I suppose the good news was no long run this weekend. I drove to the nearest gas station for a big gatorade.
Thursday: 8 Miles- Oxnard, CA
Back to Oxnard college and as I suspected, the track is open on weekdays. Today I did 6x400m with a 75s target (around goal 5K pace for opener) on 200m jog. Had to work on this one since bad cardio, but felt much better than last two days. Ran 68, 71 for first two then rest at 73. Finished with 4x200m spiked up on full rest running in the 28-31 range. High 28 to finish which was all out, definitely zero speed right now. Track was not very good, very hard/unresponsive in spikes.
Friday: 8 Miles- Camarillo, CA
Feeling tight/flat lately, not surprising getting back into it after a full rest. Bad habit now of running easy runs too fast- this one was 6:45 pace. Should be 7:00-7:15.
Saturday: 10 Miles- Los Angeles, CA
This was originally supposed to be 13, but dropped to 10 with the extra long Wednesday run. I was surprised I felt pretty good on Thursday, at least my legs. Today's goal was 6 miles moderate at 6:00 pace. Definitely a bit long for current fitness but thought it would be okay at 6:00 and came here to Sepulveda Basin which is pancake flat. Ran the first two miles in 5:45, not good at pacing. Just before 3 miles I tightened up terribly and just called it at 5K. Wasn't too disappointed- been trying a lot recently and three workouts would be tough. Effort felt easy, just legs were beat up from the week.
Sunday: 9 Miles- Santa Paula, CA
Another 30 minute drive to a random location, but working on Ventura County town bagging. 7/10 after fillmore last week and didn't have a route in mind for today, so why not get another one. Similar to fillmore in that it's more isolated rather than Thousand Oaks-Camarillo-Oxnard-Ventura-Moorpark-Simi Valley being cities and close to the freeway, plus feel like suburbs of L.A. Fillmore was nice to explore last week, can't say the same here. Started at a baseball field and was looking to run a quiet looking flat loop, but closed for construction. So many construction closures in SoCal, while hardly any in RI. The rest of the route felt busy or through not very nice areas (bars on windows, or felt abandoned)- except for a 2 mile or stretch on a hilltop with nice houses and views. My favorite thing here compared to RI is the hilly profile and views. 250' climb in the middle in half of mile was rough. Got back to the park at 8 and really didn't want to do another mile. Checked my mileage on strava and decided to gut it out.
Weekly Total: 62 Miles
Weekly Highlight: This week was a little tough getting back into the hard efforts. I'd say the track stuff felt solid especially given how bad Tuesday felt.
Weekly Lowlight: Several choices here, not a great week, but it's been a long time since I've had to run extra miles like Wednesday's run, especially 4 more.
Movies Watched: Slumdog Millionaire, Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part One, Logan
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