Training Log: Surf City Half - Week 1

"What?" You, the reader, are thinking. "Do mine eyes deceive me? Is this an -actual- training report?"

Yes! It is! Okay, contain your excitement.

I will probably continue to illustrate posts with unrelated photos of California for the near future because it's just. so. gorgeous.

It's been a long time since I was in training mode. It's been a longer time since I cared about training for a race. When Katie told me her diagnosis in January of this year, all motivation to train evaporated. Caring about a time goal seemed so insignificant in the face of my closest friend's terminal illness. I dutifully logged the miles but my heart wasn't in it. And when I PR'd and broke 2 hours at the NYC Half Marathon, all I cared about was that I'd be seeing Katie in a few days when we went to California together. Meeting my goal didn't feel like it mattered at all.

Being on the other side of a tremendous personal loss, I'm not sure I'll ever care about racing the way I used to -- feeling like the upcoming race day was the most important day in my life (until the next race day, obviously).

The Chicago Marathon was the best day of my life not because I ran it well (although of course that helped), but because I had almost every person I deeply care about there. I saw my mom, Sourabh and Katie all along the course, cheering for me as I attempted something I never would have thought possible only twelve months prior, all of us wearing Lurie Children's Hospital shirts to support the hospital that continually helped Katie. I was running for a cause I believed in on the streets of a city with special memories of every visit to Katie. Each of the six times I saw my special crew, I could feel their love for me. It was a perfect day.

I'm not sure when I'll run a marathon again because I'm not sure anything could ever compare. I want to at some point, but it will have to be the right race.

However, I'm finally ready to focus on training for a half marathon again. The time away has made me realize that while I might not care about the goal itself in the same way I once did, I enjoy the structure and commitment of training. I love seeing a pace I'm scared of hitting and pushing my body to meet that goal. So I'm excited to see where this training cycle will take me, regardless of how the actual race day turns out.

It's a good thing I'm feeling committed since I realized this week that my targeted half marathon is in less than twelve weeks. I haven't registered for the race yet because I think I'm in a bit of race denial (and I missed the cheaper registration fee cutoff so there's no point in rushing right?). I haven't run double digits since the NYC Half in March.

So, how did this week turn out?


Training Log: Surf City Half - Week 1

Last weekend involved a fun hike in the Anaheim Hills and a lot of rest, so I felt ready to go as the first week of training started. One odd thing you'll note -- no real long run. The tempo run did double duty as my long run this week.

Southern California is in the midst of a multi-year drought. It's still gorgeous, but I'm in the odd position of actually hoping it's a rainy winter for the sake of nature!

Monday: Strength workout with Melanie (Equinox trainer).

• 1/2 mile warm up on treadmill
• Dynamic stretching routine that focuses on mobility
• Four sets of 10 reps of five compound movements (squat to press, anti-rotation pulls, etc)
• Two sets of incline sprints
• Cool down stretching

Tuesday: 4 miles easy on the local running/bike path

Dynamic stretching prior to heading out then kept it slow and easy on my normal out-and-back four mile loop.

Wednesday: Strength with Melanie.

Snagged a shot of these gorgeous cotton candy clouds on my way to the gym Wednesday morning.

• 1/2 mile warm up on treadmill
• Dynamic stretching routine that focuses on mobility
• Two sets of 14 reps of two lower body exercises followed by 2x14 of two different lower body exercises (single leg dead lifts, hamstring curls, kettlebell squats, and weighted hip lifts)
• Two sets of progressive cardio sprints interspersed with the strength
• 2x14 core work
• Cool down stretching

Thursday: 7 miles (5x1600m repeats)

• Dynamic stretching warm-up
• 1 mile warm-up
• (1) 9:14, (2) 9:10, (3) 9:12, (4) 9:00, (5) 9:03
• 1 mile cool down

Melanie wanted me to run five mile repeats at my current half marathon PR pace (9:00-9:15). At first I had a really hard time dialing in to the pace, but by the end of the second repeat, I had it down and the pace felt pretty easy.

The gorgeous clouds came out to play again on Thursday.

Friday: Rest.

Saturday: 8 mile Tempo + Strength.

• 1 mile warm-up 
• Hopped off the treadmill and did my dynamic stretches (best done after a cardio warm-up so the body is warm)
• (1) 8:34, (2) 8:27, (3) 8:27, (4) 8:27, (5) 8:19, (6) 8:13
• Two to three minutes of walking and light stretching
• 1 mile cool down

Melanie wanted me to aim for 8:15-8:30 pace for six miles with a warm-up and cool down. I didn't know if I could hit those paces, but I thought my best bet was to run them on a treadmill so I didn't have to keep checking my Garmin and could just focus on running strong. The first three miles were tough but the last three went by extremely quickly as I pumped up the volume on my playlist. I went late morning so didn't need to fuel for the run since I'd had breakfast. 

As for strength, Melanie told me to do a workout from two weeks ago that focused on the upper body, with exercises that had the arms doing the "heavy" work but the legs and core doing stabilizing work. If I was going to double up, it was the perfect strength workout to end the tempo run since my legs didn't have much work to do.

Capped off with foam rolling and stretching, as you do.

Sunday: Stretching + 4 mile Recovery Run.

Recovery Run / Take-Tons-of-Pictures Run

Spent most of Sunday working and did some of it from my yoga mat, stretching out my legs and back. Got in a gorgeous sunset recovery run along the Back Bay in Newport Beach before I interviewed a high school applicant to my undergrad. Pretty sure nothing will make you feel older than volunteering as an alumni interviewer...


Total Mileage: 23 miles


Going into this week feeling strong and excited about training for a half marathon again!