Training Log: Surf City Half - Week 5

And another week bites the dust. I spent the weekend cleaning up my apartment, resting up, and binging on Arrow and Flash. Please tell me someone else is watching and loved the crossover episodes?

Oh, and I caught a stunning sunset at Corona Del Mar:

Weekly Workout Recap: Surf City Half - Week 5

Monday: Rest day

I am loving Monday rest days after tough weekends. 

Tuesday: 3x2400m (6.5 miles total) on treadmill

• 1 mile warm-up
• Dynamic warm-up routine
• 2400 meter repeats: (1) 8:50, (2) 8:53, (3) 8:43
• 1 mile cool-down 

My legs felt great (again, loving those Monday rest days) and the pace felt effortless to maintain. Melanie (Equinox trainer) has me taking my half marathon PR pace and dropping it for these longer repeats. 

Wednesday: Recovery run along San Diego Creek Trail

After the previous night's 2400m repeats, these recovery miles felt labored, but I was happy to get outside and sweat before work. I have a feeling my Wednesday recovery run will almost always be a slogfest.

Also came home to this:

Really unclear what's happening there... Is he role playing as Little Red Riding Hood? (Or as my Mom said in her response to this picture, Little Green Riding Dog?) Incidentally, that horrid pattern mis-matching was the result of not doing laundry quickly enough. I swear I have more taste than to mix that sheet and the duvet cover pattern two together.

Thursday: Hill repeats + strength workout

This workout was... a mess. The actual workout went fine, when it happened. I dropped Sourabh off at the airport at 6:15am then headed to a nearby hill for the repeats. .3 miles in to my warm-up, Sourabh called and said his flight was delayed three hours and asked if I wanted to get breakfast together. I thought my answer was pretty obvious -- breakfast with Sourabh before he's gone for almost a week (and an evening workout) or tell him no and finish the workout? We had a nice breakfast together and I headed to work. 

Before my morning workout was bagged, I caught this glimpse of a gorgeous sunrise.

Thankfully I got out of the office in time to get the workout in but arrived at the gym to realize that I'd forgotten my bottoms. It was already 8pm and I wasn't sure I'd have time to get home and back with enough time. So I bought a pair of bottoms for the workout. Not my proudest moment but I got. it. done.

200m Hill Repeats:

• 1 mile warm-up 
• Dynamic warm-up routine
• 10x200m repeats dropping from 8:34 to 8:06 at 9 incline with 200m recovery jog in between 
• 1 mile cool-down

Legs actually felt strong. I think I could have pushed more, in retrospect, but hadn't run hill repeats on a treadmill before. That won't be a problem next week -- I'm not letting anything get in the way of those hill repeats on an actual hill.

Strength:

• Three sets of 15 reps (or till exhaustion, which was 12 on a few in the third set): bicep curls, single arm tricep cable pulls, plank rows and goblet squats
• Two sets of 15 reps: knee to elbow sit-ups on BOSU ball, plank with toe taps on BOSU ball.

Friday: Rest day

There was a nasty rain storm in the SoCal area Friday morning, but it cleared up and we got some vivid rainbows by the afternoon. While rain is good news for the state, which is in a years-long drought, unfortunately big storms often cause landslides and I know the winds knocked out power in the San Francisco area. Hope all stayed safe and dry!

Saturday: 5K tempo + strength training with Melanie

Early morning request to find something from a partner meant I didn't get to the gym with enough time for the planned tempo. Substituted by running a faster 5K to simulate the 5K race I'd done three weeks prior.

• 1 mile warm-up
• Dynamic warm-up routine
• (1) 7:53, (2) 7:53, (3) 7:48, (.1) 7:19
• 1 mile cool-down

Strength:

• Three sets of 14 reps of four exercises focused on hamstrings and upper body
• Two sets of 14 reps of two exercises focused on core and glutes

Sunday: Long run on San Diego Creek Trail

This run went from tired legs to emotional mental thoughts to flying high on run endorphins. Remind me not to listen to emotional playlists while running. Clearly I need to stick to Pitbull. (I know, it's shameful, I'm sorry. HIS BEATS ARE JUST SO CATCHY.)

Splits: (1) 10:19, (2) 10:13, (3) 10:27, (4) 10:12, (5) 10:08, (6) 10:08, (7) 10:02, (8) 9:17, (9) 8:34 

Last week I ran miles 4 and 5 at the same exact pace. This week, miles 5 and 6. Apparently I'm getting better at consistency? Definitely consistent: my "let's get this run done" mentality in the last mile of long runs.

Total Mileage: 29 miles

Speed Mileage: 10 miles

Is anyone else training for a winter race? I feel like most people are in rest/base building mode right now. Which is probably smart, given that most of the runners I know live in cold places...