Mountains 2 Beach Half Marathon: Week 2 Training Log

Two weeks down, ten to go! Here's how last week went down, all workout plans coming from the wonderful Coach Jess, as always.

After Monday, I wasn't very busy at work, so I had time to run in the evening, which was nice because I had a hard time adjusting to the time change. Not complaining, though, I love the later sunsets because they make evening runs more possible!


Mountains 2 Beach Half Marathon: Week 2 Training Log

Monday: PM yoga at home

30 minutes of stretching and foam rolling. Wanted to go to a class, but work came in late in the afternoon and I worked till midnight. 

Mason foam rolling his pecs on the bed

Tuesday: AM cross-training elliptical (126 avg HR) + PM strength

30 mins elliptical (126 avg HR) in the morning before work.

Strength workout in the evening.

3x15:
(1) Lat pull-downs
(2) Rows
(3) Bridges
(4) Bicep curls
(5) Squats
(6) Donkey kicks (ea side)
(7) Plank (1 min)
(8) Mountain climbers (ea side)

Wednesday: PM easy run at Back Bay (5 miles) + physical therapy

75-80ish degrees and sunny.

Stats - 49:25 total time for 5 miles || 9:53 avg pace || ~200 elev. gain || 146 avg HR

Legs felt kind of heavy and had a hard time getting the right glute to fire, plus it was the hottest temperature I've run in for a while. Definitely positive split this one, but not by a huge amount (stayed within 30 second range). It was a perfect progression run, if each mile of a progression run was supposed to get slower...

Headed over to physical therapy post-run.

Thursday: PM fartlek run (55 minutes) at Back Bay

6pm, sunny, mid-60s. Way less hot than the previous day, thankfully.

Stats - 15 min w/u || 3x2:00 w/ 2:00 recovery jog - (1) 0.25 / 152 HR, (2) 0.27 / 157 HR, (3) 0.27 / 157 HR || 3x3:00 w/ 2:00 recovery jog - (1) 0.41 / 165 HR, (2) 0.40 / 163 HR, (3) 0.40 / 166 HR || 15 min c/d

All photos taken during warm up and cool down, of course!

I felt like I was working a bit harder than the heart rate seems to indicate, but it does take a while for the heart rate to catch up with the pace in such short intervals. Also, I'm not very used to speed since it's been a while since I've been doing tough workouts! It seems like the pace went from 7:50ish for the first 2:00 to 7:20-7:30ish for the rest of the intervals. 

Friday: Physical therapy

Ice and stim, that's how my Friday nights roll

Took advantage of work being slow to enjoy Sol Cocina's happy hour. It's one of our favorite upscale Mexican restaurants in OC, and props for making happy hour available on Fridays (I hate when restaurants only make happy hours Monday through Thursday).

Saturday: PM easy run (5 miles) on Bommer Ridge Trail + strength workout

I woke up at 4:15am on Saturday to volunteer for four hours at the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation's bike race, then headed home and napped for a couple of hours. Sourabh and I ran some errands and watched some TV before I headed out for my easy run around 5:30pm.

Evening run, high 50s to low 60s with a nice breeze. 

Stats - 5 miles in 49:37 total time for 9:55 avg pace || 144 avg HR || 450 ft elev gain.

Felt a bit of high hamstring tightness at the end. I had a deep tissue massage after the run, which helped a lot, but it definitely worried me for the next day's run. Thankfully there were no issues on Sunday!

Hadn't run on trails in so long, so I got a bit picture happy.

PM Strength Workout

2x:
(1) Lunge with external rotation (10x each leg)
(2) Single leg deadlifts (10x each leg)
(3) 5-5-5 squats

3x15:
(1) Lat pulldowns
(2) Row
(3) Shoulder presses
(4) Push-ups

2x:
(1) Side leg lifts (10x each leg)
(2) Plank (1 min)
(3) Side plank (1 min each side)

Sunday: AM long run (6 miles with 2 @ tempo) on Aliso Canyon Trail

9am, overcast high 50s to low 60s. Ran with Kristina and Meg, and the miles whizzed by.

If I didn't tell you where this was, wouldn't you think it was Scotland or Ireland? California is so beautiful in the spring!

Stats - 6 miles in 55:49 total time for 9:18 avg pace || 149 avg HR || 190 ft elev gain.

The high hamstring / inner thigh area felt pretty much fine! I couldn't raise my right knee as much as I could on Wednesday, so couldn't get that smooth circular running movement going during the tempo portions (knee driving up, pressing down and extending -- like this video). That was normal before this week, so it's just a bit of regression, not too bad. Also, I was talking a lot until the tempo miles, so I was very happy with the heart rate overall. The pace felt great (it was mostly downhill for the first 3 miles, which I didn't realize till we turned around...).

Eep, definitely didn't realize how much of a downhill there was!

Splits - (1) 9:57 / 128 avg HR, (2) 9:32 / 138 avg HR, (3) 9:20 / 146 avg HR, (4) 9:28 / 151 avg HR - 65 ft ascent, (5) 8:52 / 159 avg HR - 25 ft ascent, (6) 8:37 / 172 avg HR - 45 ft ascent

After showering post-run, Sourabh and I headed to Provenance for brunch. We've been there so many times for dinner since it's so close to our place (and so tasty!), but we'd never been to their brunch and wanted to try it out. It was great!

Sourabh got the chilaquiles

And I got the Newport Scramble

We also split their cinnamon ricotta "donuts" (which were more like donut holes). SO GOOD!

Total Mileage = ~21 miles

Still not raising the mileage that high as I come off of injury, but trying to up the intensity. This coming week will be similar. Coach Jess has basically given me a more intense version of this past week. I'll be doing a pyramid workout that is similar to the fartlek workout, but with more intensity, and a 7 mile long run with 3 tempo miles.