Wednesday April 2. 6.7 mile run and 7 mile trainer ride. Almost the same route as the day before, but I reversed a loop to get a long technical downhill run. After climbing fast on Tuesday, I ran fast downhills. It was sunny now, and muddy. I added a half hour on the trainer.
Thursday April 3. 8.4 mile run. I ran the French Trail/Stream Trail loop in Redwood, hitting downhills fast again. Not explicitly for training purposes today, but just for fun. The French trail is still one of my favorite runs. Cushioned shoes = good for fast downhills.
Friday April 4. 3.3 mile run and 11.6 mile trainer ride. Huckleberry loop and a little extra after a light storm. I tried the five fingers on a run for the first time, since this was to be a slow run with uphill walking. I found a few more weak spots; it might be good to start using these once in a while to work on that. And in the steaming post-raininess of it all, a bee stung me. Very weird. Later on I rode the trainer for a bit, focusing on pedal form. I felt surprisingly well worked out after this, despite both workouts being on the easy side.
Saturday April 5. 3.3 mile run. After sleeping 2 1/2 hours, I was somehow unable to sleep during the day. Maybe all the years in grad school with paper deadlines left a long term ability to just go with it when sleep goes out the window. Legs and ankles were a little sore from using the five fingers without any real recovery (aka sleep), but I went out anyway, at least for catching up on mental sanity. I had a ride in my training schedule, but the slow run was enough.
Sunday April 6. 10.2 mile run. Speed day! I've been getting antsy for one, since I've slowed down on most of my runs to get more comfortable with the change in milage (moving from 25 to 35 a week) and shoe type. And I haven't run a race at full effort since Steep Ravine in January. I took off on the East Ridge trail in Redwood, going at what would be 10k race pace, if I had been racing with no taper. I dug out my EBMUD permit and finally made use of it, taking the side trail down through Canyon and into Moraga. It's a great quiet trail with some fun gradual climbs; I'll have to make more use of it. I took the last four miles easy, since they were easy-long-run endurance miles. This wrapped up a 38+ mile running week., which might be the longest since the holidays. My current target is to get to 40 by May and drop back until fall.
Monday April 7. 3.7 mile run/hike and 10.2 mile trainer ride. Active recovery run and trainer time. The run was in and around Huckleberry and Sibley, scoping out a good part of the climb to use for interval training. I nudged the recovery pace a little faster than it's been by alternating walking and jogging on the easier climbs; I've been walking all the climbs on recovery runs lately. Trainer time was a slow speed increase while catching up on some email and reading.
Tuesday April 8. 13.1 mile ride and 7.3 mile run brick. Moderate pace, finally getting a ride outside after only using the trainer for a couple weeks. I'm noticing a significantly more steady cadence. I varied speed a lot on the run, through Huckleberry/Sibley.
Weds April 9. Rest day. I rearranged half the house and the garage.
Thursday April 10. 6.8 mile run. I went out for hill intervals on a quiet fire road corner of Huckleberry/Sibley. 10x tenth of a mile, with about 100 feet of climbing per interval. I then made a portion of the climb up round top, and my legs were fully spent. Great workout.
Friday April 11. 3.4 mile walk. Very tired and sore in places from the hill intervals. So I walked to safeway instead of getting a run in. I don't think there would be any run I could do on this day that would be worth doing in terms of fitness gains or personal enjoyment.
Saturday April 12. 29.3 miles riding, 0.4 mile uphill walk. Taking a car in for work, I added a 2 hour long ride to get back home in a roundabout way, which went very slow. Legs are still very tired after the hill intervals. I later rode back down to pick it up. And being lazy, because of tired legs, I drove my bike to the top of the hill the second time and later walked back up to pick up the other car. I had a short run planned, but I bailed on it. I'm rambling.
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| Near San Pablo Reservoir |
Sunday April 13. 14.7 mile run. I had contemplated on bailing on this weekend's long run with two race weekends coming up. It wouldn't have much benefit, training-wise. But the first upcoming race is a just-finish-it race, and I needed the time outside. Everyone at home went to sleep in the afternoon, so I went out to explore the King's Canyon Loop trail in the EBMUD lands near the San Leandro Reservoir.
I started at Skyline Gate, heading down the East Ridge trail and dropping to the Valle Vista staging area. From here, I started out on the loop in a clockwise direction. The climb out of the valley up to the ridge gets very steep in places, and it has great views of this part of the east bay. It's fun looking back over multiple ridges to see where I started, far off in the distance. Dropping down on the south side of the loop, the trail comes out onto the reservoir, following it back north along the shoreline. This part passes into and out of a lot of gulches, going up and down hill quite a bit. It was very quiet, and I passed no one along here. I still astounds me that there's such quiet and empty land right next to all the urban development in the bay area. I wrapped up by heading back over to Redwood, and walked the last mile chatting with a co-worker with whom I randomly crossed paths.
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| Upper San Leandro Reservoir |
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| Mario Von Hammersplanck lives here. |
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| Rocky Ridge in the Distance? |
After we're adapting to MC's arrival, I'm venturing further from home again. It's great to be exploring new trails once again, since I haven't in a while. I'd like to make a really long loop through the lower EMBUD trails that connect down to Las Trampas and Chabot at some point; it might be a good day long run for later in the summer when I need to kick up training distance again.
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