After a few track races, back to marathon training: meaning resuming the mid-week hilly road workout and flat controlled long runs. Coming up is three races in a row with increasing distance: 5K-10K-half marathon which I'd like to run pretty well at.
Monday: 0 Miles
Day off. First since the post-LA break. Looking back, I definitely rushed into things too quickly after a long break and fitness reset. Will need to consider that in the future.
Tuesday: 10 Miles- Agoura Hills, CA
Short Cheeseboro. Overall a mediocre run. It's always awkward trying to pass the horses from the back.
Wednesday: 11 Miles- Thousand Oaks, CA
Back to the workout wednesday on the hilly loop in Newbury Park. I feel like constant workouts here definitely gave me a fitness bump in the fall and winter seasons, lots of gradual inclines and declines and a tough, steep hill in the middle that always hurts. Did a classic 8x2/2 today, feel like this has been an excellent workout for me and one of the few I do where I target faster than tempo pace.
Been really tight lately and stupidly ran right into the workout instead of stopping to stretch/loosen up. Really tying up and took an extra minute on the second rest to stretch. After that, holding on until I hit the downhill which felt significantly better. Last few were pretty good- about 5:10 for downhills and then hit the last one a little harder at 4:55 pace. I thought this wasn't a great workout, but I looked back at the GAP was pretty solid- close to 5:20 throughout. Offs could be a little better. Anyway, this was fine overall. Some knee discomfort towards the end which didn't turn into anything.
Thursday: 10 Miles- Thousand Oaks, CA
With San Francisco being a very hilly marathon, now I'll focus all runs except the long run on being hilly. I'd like to target a hilly long run, but I just don't know of a place where I can do this in a controlled environment. I ran my mid-week workouts on hills and easy runs on hills heading into L.A. and that went really well, so I'll keep this approach.
Tried a loop I have in the past- from Santa Rosa Valley park. Wasn't that hot- mid 60s but felt like it in the beaming sunlight. Good amount of climbing off the bat, some road miles then more singletrack on the descent which was terribly overgrown and I got quite itchy. Made a mental note that this is my last time doing this route. Saw some cool fish in the stream though which was unexpected.
Friday: 8 Miles- Calabasas, CA
Probably one of my favorite runs around here, maybe I should just make this the monday loop because I've gotten somewhat tired of the Camarillo bike paths (mostly hard surfaces and construction closures). It's really not too far either. Pretty much half roads (busy in spots, but huge shoulder) and half trail. I felt good on this after feeling flat most of the week. Saw a very small snake.
Saturday: 16 Miles- Ventura, CA
Back to the ventura long run. This one wasn't too intimidating as 16 breaks up to 6 warm-up, 6 workout, 4 cooldown and that's a lot easier than the eventual 22 with 12 workout. Easy from a mileage standpoint but today's workout was pretty important- 6 mile tempo. This would be the longest one in a while as while the 2-3 mile repeats are always a continuous overall block, they're broken up with a 6:30ish rest mile. Today's goal was to hit 5:40-5:45 pace, last did this workout in January averaging 5:41-5:42 in South Kingstown.
Felt really heavy on the warm-up, which is never fun. Surprisingly my legs felt great on the workout but my chest/breathing/stomach was off immediately. I hit high 5:30s on the way feeling decent, but harder than expected. Ended up being a pretty good one- average 5:34 but got fairly hard and the last 1.5 I was definitely holding on a bit (although somehow still picking up the pace). I'd be concerned about the tempo feeling hard just 1.5 miles in, but 1) I'm still 12 weeks out, and 2) the pace was pretty good, ahead of target.
Overall the long runs have been going really well, especially as the races/mid-week workouts have been just okay.
Sunday: 10 Miles- Los Angeles, CA
Griffith park with Matt Adams. Early wake-up for me and tight legs, struggled on the first climb but then the rest felt much better and was enjoyable. Similar route to last time, except ran to the top of the hollywood sign. This is such a great park, so much more to see too. Hilly one with 1,800' elevation gain. This should be a regular run spot for me in the fall.
Weekly Total: 65 Miles
Down week mileage wise, but definitely harder workouts than I've been doing.
Weekly Highlight: Long run went well- tempo indicates I'm where I need to be if not ahead. I'd complain about it feeling harder than expected, but since my pace was pretty solid it's overall a good workout.
Weekly Lowlight: Generally feeling tight/crappy up until the weekend.
I think there are some things in my running that I need to address/improve to get better. I feel my training plan is really solid for the most part and it clearly worked well in races both in the fall and winter. One thing I could incorporate in is some threshold workouts as I stick to tempo and marathon pace, which gets me fit but probably keeps from having the ability to run really fast on a track or crush a 5K PR. It's fine for now with the marathon focus but I definitely don't want to just leave the 10K and below behind me. I think I could incorporate a dynamic stretching or activation routine that would probably help with tightness and feeling better overall on runs. Also should probably improve my diet at some point. Things to look into for next year.
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