SoCal Trip - Workout Recap

Hi all!

Just dropping in to share the awesome workouts I fit in while on my Southern California vacation with my best friend from undergrad. California is such a beautiful state, and spending quality time outdoors was wonderful after a winter being cooped up.

But first, thank you so much for all your encouragement and congratulations before and after the NYC Half. It was definitely an "exciting" training period, where nothing went quite as planned with the weather and work, so it makes sense that the same happened with the half -- but I PR'd and finally hit that sub-2, so I'm happy! Thanks for all your support. You guys rock.

I know I seemed super down about my time. The truth is, I was happy to go sub-2, but other things have gone on in my life this year that have made one single race seem a lot less important. I'm happy with the outcome but it just wasn't that significant. If anything, I'm just grateful for my ability to run at all!


California Trip Workout Recap

Wednesday: The day before my flight to Los Angeles, I met with my trainer, Amanda, for an upper body and core workout. I felt tenderness in my left hamstring after the NYC Half so didn't want to work it too much, hence the upper body and core focus. Certainly felt the oblique work the next day when I was storing my luggage in the overhead bins!

Thursday: A fantastic and hilly 4.5ish mile run through UCLA's campus. I wanted to shake out my legs after a 6 hour plane ride and couldn't resist the sunny, 60 degree weather. Thankfully, my hamstring felt totally fine, and it was a pretty fantastic run. Also, why did I go to undergrad and law school in New Hampshire and NYC rather than SoCal??

Friday: Rest day, drove to Palm Springs and enjoyed the sun and some fantastic fish tacos.

Saturday: Started for a run but legs felt like lead so gave up and ran back (1 mile total). Ended up doing a 45 minute strength workout after breakfast, then followed that up with a 2 mile hike that took me up 850 feet to a vantage point overlooking Palm Springs and the surrounding Coachella Valley. Gorgeous!

Sunday: My legs were super sore from the hike and strength workout, so I wanted to get them moving and enjoy Newport Beach's beautiful Back Bay area. After a drive across the gorgeous-but-also-kind-of-scary Palms to Pines Highway, crossing the San Jacinto mountains, I went for a sloooooow 4.5 mile loop from our hotel through the Back Bay. Forgot to take a picture, so just gaze upon the lovely San Jacinto peaks.

Also, here's Katie and I enjoying the mountains. Katie liked the mountains too, okay? I'm not the only mountain lover now. I think I converted her.

Monday: Spun out my still-sore legs for 23 minutes on a spin bike then did 20 minutes of upper body and core work at the lovely hotel gym.

Tuesday: Fit in a yoga class at the local Equinox before hitting the road and heading to sun in Santa Barbara. Orange County was surprisingly cloudy, but when it's in the sixties and cloudy, somehow you don't mind it so much. I really liked the yoga instructor, whose class was athletic without forgoing the calming aspects of my favorite yoga flows.

When we reached Santa Barbara, we walked around the beautiful Mission Santa Barbara. It was $7 for entry, as I recall, and was neat to walk around. It's quite old for the west coast, dating back to the late 1700s, and provided a great history lesson on California's Spanish past.

Wednesday: Despite the 20 mph winds, I wanted to take advantage of the sun and beach, so I went for a 4 mile run along the beach path. Actually make that a slog, since the wind was kind of terrible, but how could I resist a view like this??

Santa Barbara is a gorgeous town nestled into the Santa Ynez Mountains. I plan to return and explore the miles and miles of hiking trails surrounding the city.

Seriously it's SO cute:

Thursday: I took a quick hike into the mountains and went up part of the Inspiration Point trail (about 2.5 miles total). I didn't want to hike for more than an hour since we were heading to LA and wanted to avoid traffic, but I managed to get some great views of the Channel Islands while hiking.

Friday: We stayed in the most lovely bed and breakfast in Santa Monica (the Channel Road Inn -- highly recommend it!), right off the Pacific Coast Highway and close to the beach. So, obviously, I had to go for a run on the beach path. I think it was about 4.5ish miles? Not totally sure since I forgot my Garmin and decided I shouldn't be a psycho and go back for it when I'm not training. Not being a psycho is a good thing.

WHY AM I NOT THERE RIGHT NOW???

Oh, and then Friday night, we both felt the 5.1 magnitude earthquake that hit LA. Guys, as both Katie, a Chicagoan, and me, a Washingtonian, can tell you: minor earthquakes are not a big deal. Things start shaking and it takes you a little while to realize what's happening and then you're like, "oh, so this is happening. Things are shaking." And then the shaking stops and you're like, "oh, okay, so that was an earthquake."

Now, if it were a more sizable earthquake,  I'd be freaking out. But remember, for each order of magnitude, i.e. going from a 5.1 to a 6.1, you're actually going up 10x in power. So a 6.1 earthquake is 10 times more powerful than a 5.1 earthquake. (Yes, I was an earthquake geek when I was younger.)


How was your weekend? Anyone else an earthquake nerd?