Mountains 2 Beach Half Marathon: Week 4 Training Log

When I realized that last week was only one month back in training mode, I was kind of surprised. It feels like I've been training for longer! Coach Jess kept this week super easy since I wanted to race the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday. Here's how things shook out.


Mountains 2 Beach Half Marathon: Week 4 Training Log


Monday: Easy physical therapy (no strength work).


Tuesday: PM 30 minutes on the elliptical (121 avg HR).

Watched more of The People v. O.J. Simpson. Seriously, the show is so good! I was going to do strength work, but then emails kept coming in, so I headed back home to keep working. It was a late night since we had a closing the next morning.


Wednesday: Physical therapy + PM easy run (6 miles) + core.

Thumbs up for closing a deal.

Six miles easy at Back Bay in the late afternoon. After getting four hours of sleep, I kept working till we closed around 8 a.m., then headed in to the office for a corporate department meeting at 9 a.m. I took care of a few small post-closing items, then went home and napped before driving to physical therapy. I had plenty of time so could do the full PT massage, exercises, stretching and icing rigmarole (which takes about two hours).

Gotta say, I feel really lucky that I can do things like go home and crash for a few hours after a closing. Yes, I sometimes have to work till the wee hours of the morning, but once a deal closes, I can usually take some down time.

I ran six miles easy at Back Bay later in the afternoon. Nothing much to report -- minor headwind (10ish mph), low 60s and sunny. I was exhausted so kept it very easy, also my calves were tight, but they loosened up a lot as I ran.

Stats -  6 miles in 1:01:17 for 10:13 avg pace (with a nice negative split), avg HR 131.


Thursday: PM easy run (4 miles) + strides at Back Bay.

6:45pm at Back Bay, high 50s to low 60s, sunny. Felt much better/looser than the previous day.

Stats - 4.32 miles in 42:56 for 9:56 avg pace (incl strides), 134 avg HR, 4x20 sec strides (~6:30-7:10 pace)


Friday: PM strength workout.

Office wifey and I accidentally twinned -- on April Fools Day. Obviously worthy of a photo.

Did glute prep using resistance bands since I hadn't done it on Tuesday. I made a video to show what it looks like, but it turned out that it was just close up shots of my butt moving back and forth across the screen sooo that was promptly deleted and shall never see the light of day.

2x15 (unless noted):
(1) Lunges w/ rotation (x10) - 20#
(2) Chest presses - 40#
(3) Row - 20# each arm
(4) Glute bridges
(5) Single leg deadlifts (x10) - 20#
(6) Shoulder press - 10# each arm
(7) Lat pull down - 45#
(8) Bird dogs
(9) Mountain climbers
(10) Shoulder taps in plank


Saturday: 47 minutes easy.

Another evening run. They're my absolutely favorites, unless I'm miraculously well rested and spring out of bed at the break of dawn naturally, in which case I am also a fan of sunrise runs.

Ran at Back Bay, temps were in the 60s. Kept it super easy since I had a race the next day!

Stats - 4.6 miles in 47:00 for 10:13 avg pace; 130 avg HR


Sunday: 8 mile "long" run (including Carlsbad 5000 race).

I will recap the race soon! Long story short, I was initially a bit bummed to just miss a PR, but upon retrospection during my cool down miles, I'm happy with the result. I think 7 seconds off a PR is promising for the rest of training, given that I was barely running from post-marathon in December till late February. And as I noted earlier in this post, I kind of forgot I'd only been training for four weeks! Also, I thought the race was very well run, so I want to recap the logistics of it.

Ran 3 very slow, easy miles to warm up, raced, then ran 2 very very slow, easy miles to cool down.

Race Splits - (1) 7:34/160 HR, (2) 7:53/165 HR <-- it's always the damn second mile!, (3) 7:36/166 HR, (.13) at 6:46 pace and 165 HR. 

My right hamstring was tight after, which freaked me out, but with stretching and some ice, it was totally fine on Monday when PT Sam checked it out.


Total Mileage = ~23 miles