Monday April 14. 3000 yards swimming. All freestyle, in 100, 200, 400, 800, 800, 400, 200, 100 sets. Part one of two long endurance swims this week, as I haven't been swimming in over two weeks.
Wednesday April 16. 9.1 mile run. Over lunch I ran out to the Emeryville marina and then out on the Bay Bridge paths, but not quite to the bridge itself. Two miles were at tempo pace, the rest were decently fast, as a final effort to get ready for the second of the two races (Big Sur) in the next two weeks.
Thursday April 17. 3000 yards swimming and 9 miles trainer ride. All freestyle again, with a mile+ set in the middle. Mile time was about 33:45; I needed to gauge speed for some potential summer swims. 200, 400, 1800, 400, 200. The trainer ride was an easy effort to loosen up a bit.
Saturday April 19. 31.7 mile run. Diablo trails 50k. More to say elsewhere. This was an easy to moderate effort, sine I wanted to just finish a hard (7000+ elevation in my mind) 50k this spring. I wanted to run it faster, but it was bad timing with not quite enough rest. And I was planning for the next weekend to be a speed focus.
Sunday April 20. 2.5 mile run. Slow pace, hiking uphills, around the Huckleberry loop, just loosening up.
Monday April 21. 1200 yard swim. Easy pace, still loosening up. Lots of quick yoga bits and stretching this week.
Tuesday April 22. 5.6 mile run. I went out for a moderate/easy paced Huckleberry/Sibley run, making the loop around Round Top. This was about mobilizing tight spots.
Wednesday April 23. 2500 yard swim. Brisk pace.
Thursday April 24. 4.1 mile run. Easy out and back on the West Ridge trail in Redwood. Picked up the pace for brief bits every half mile.
Friday April 25. 1200 yard swim. Easy pace, just moving.
Sunday April 27. 26.2 mile run. Big Sur Marathon! New marathon PR of 4:29. More elsewhere.
I'm less verbose this time around. With the focus on the races, every workout has had a pretty specific focus, so there's been less exploring or meditative thinking. And prepping for travel and so on has been giving me less time to write. I liked the double challenge of the two marathon+ races on back to back weekends, especially going for a fast pace on the second weekend. Apparently a number of people did this with Diablo and Big Sur. I wore the Diablo 50k shirt at Big Sur, and a volunteer mentioned she had seen a number of the 50k shirts.
The focus on the runs also let cycling slide for a couple weeks. Next up is an easy recovery week, and a ramp up into a final cycling-focused push.
Saturday, May 03, 2014
9, 8: Back to Exploring
Tuesday April 1. 5.9 mile run. A scheduled recovery week, and the first run after being fully distracted for the weekend. It was raining heavy, cold, and windy in Sibley. An interesting observation is how much managing my sleep schedule to get in workouts and wake up early enough for races has helped with adapting to MC's arrival.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, April 05, 2014
11, 10: Arrival
Monday, March 17. 1400 yard swim, 75 min trainer ride, 1.2 mile run. After Sunday's long run, I somehow ended up doing a triple workout day. Even though I wasn't quite recovered from Sunday. 1400 yard swim at an easy pace, followed by 75 minutes of bike intervals on the trainer. It's the first time I used the trainer I picked up, and I'm realizing how much I don't get to push my effort as hard I'd like to (at least for training purposes) on local roads. I ended the day with a quick run. Coming back up the hill, I knew I was done for a bit.
Tuesday, March 18. Rest. I was tired-sore all over, and I couldn't have done anything active if I wanted too. I haven't felt that physically beat in a couple years, and it's a great feeling. I got a massage instead.
Wednesday March 19. 7.1 mile run and 3000 yard swim. I ran out to the marina over lunch, making a second round at newly reintroduced speed intervals. At the end of the day, I did the Swim Speed 16-2 workout, adding in more distance to get to 3000. Both felt good. I was surprised I could run the intervals after the beat down, but it worked. I kept them at 8x a tenth of a mile, I'll probably start to increase the time a bit next time around.
Thursday March 20. 5.9 mile run. Huckleberry/Sibley. I thought I was keeping an easy pace, and I definitely was on flat and downhill portions, but I somehow managed to set a number of Strava PRs on the large climb. I finished almost in the dark without a light.
Saturday March 22. 7.4 mile run and 15.5 mile ride, reverse brick. I added another rest day for on Friday, even though I intended to run. It just wasn't going to be a strong effort, and Saturday could be. Seemed like a good day for a strong brick workout, since I had some stress to burn out too. I reversed it to get the run finished early; the valleys I pass through on my local trails get dark a lot earlier than the hills or roads. I kept a strong, tempoish pace for the middle four miles or so, watching heart rate to keep it mostly in the 160s to 170s. With lots of climbing, in the second/third miles. Finishing up, I jumped right on the bike for a 15 mile ride. Legs were tired by the is point, which was the point of the workout, but I pushed through at whatever effort was sustainable.
Sunday March 23. 10.1 mile run. Up and down the hills, this was a good pre-fatigued long run. I'm starting to work in more pre-fatigued workouts to get my legs used to keeping going, either running or on the bike, after they've already been beat down a bit. This is in part to get better use of some endurance-focused workouts, and because I expect it to be useful for both the upcoming 70.3 tri and the further-out-there 50 mile run. In some ways, a brick is like back-to-back long runs, which I'm debating whether to include later in the summer or fall.
Monday March 24. 22 miles on the trainer. Beginning of a bike-focussed week. Unless, of course, it gets interrupted. I hooked up the handy-dandy magnetomeric sensor doohicky that tells you how far you ride on a trainer. Downside of a trainer: indoors. Upside of a trainer: flexibility to get workouts in at odd hours (very important now), better ability to include targeted speed workouts, and time to catch up on reading. I rode this one with two minute intervals.
Tuesday March 25. 7.2 mile run and 15 mile trainer ride. An odd day, workout wise. I have three trainer rides in a row sketched in, so I treated this like an endurance day, and I added two short runs at a very easy pace, before and after work. Both runs were in Huckleberry, and I made a point to keep a well-into-very-long-race pace to avoid having these runs beat me up at all. It was kind of amusing, since I walked almost all the uphills, which I used to do, i.e. most of last year, but rarely do now. I followed this up with an hour of moderate heart-rate targeted riding, to start to ease into tempo-paced riding. I'm realizing that's a weak point, since I do most of my road riding in the hills, and that prevents longer harder efforts.
Wednesday March 26. 18.7 mile trainer ride. The end of three hard trainer rides in a row. Legs were sufficiently tired, with all new sore muscles. I picked up a yoga book to help with clearing out some of the less obvious stiffnesses and added a little in at the end.
Thursday March 27. 1500 yard swim. Very easy pace. Active recovery after the three days of trainer time.
Friday March 28. 8.2 mile run to the Marina and back, again with 8x tenth of a miles all out intervals in miles 2-4. I added a couple miles, intended to be at an easy pace, but I ended up walking the last two miles after suddenly feeling unwell.
Saturday March 29. Arrival. Obviously, no weekend workouts, but I think this made up for it.
Tuesday, March 18. Rest. I was tired-sore all over, and I couldn't have done anything active if I wanted too. I haven't felt that physically beat in a couple years, and it's a great feeling. I got a massage instead.
Wednesday March 19. 7.1 mile run and 3000 yard swim. I ran out to the marina over lunch, making a second round at newly reintroduced speed intervals. At the end of the day, I did the Swim Speed 16-2 workout, adding in more distance to get to 3000. Both felt good. I was surprised I could run the intervals after the beat down, but it worked. I kept them at 8x a tenth of a mile, I'll probably start to increase the time a bit next time around.
Thursday March 20. 5.9 mile run. Huckleberry/Sibley. I thought I was keeping an easy pace, and I definitely was on flat and downhill portions, but I somehow managed to set a number of Strava PRs on the large climb. I finished almost in the dark without a light.
Saturday March 22. 7.4 mile run and 15.5 mile ride, reverse brick. I added another rest day for on Friday, even though I intended to run. It just wasn't going to be a strong effort, and Saturday could be. Seemed like a good day for a strong brick workout, since I had some stress to burn out too. I reversed it to get the run finished early; the valleys I pass through on my local trails get dark a lot earlier than the hills or roads. I kept a strong, tempoish pace for the middle four miles or so, watching heart rate to keep it mostly in the 160s to 170s. With lots of climbing, in the second/third miles. Finishing up, I jumped right on the bike for a 15 mile ride. Legs were tired by the is point, which was the point of the workout, but I pushed through at whatever effort was sustainable.
Sunday March 23. 10.1 mile run. Up and down the hills, this was a good pre-fatigued long run. I'm starting to work in more pre-fatigued workouts to get my legs used to keeping going, either running or on the bike, after they've already been beat down a bit. This is in part to get better use of some endurance-focused workouts, and because I expect it to be useful for both the upcoming 70.3 tri and the further-out-there 50 mile run. In some ways, a brick is like back-to-back long runs, which I'm debating whether to include later in the summer or fall.
Monday March 24. 22 miles on the trainer. Beginning of a bike-focussed week. Unless, of course, it gets interrupted. I hooked up the handy-dandy magnetomeric sensor doohicky that tells you how far you ride on a trainer. Downside of a trainer: indoors. Upside of a trainer: flexibility to get workouts in at odd hours (very important now), better ability to include targeted speed workouts, and time to catch up on reading. I rode this one with two minute intervals.
Tuesday March 25. 7.2 mile run and 15 mile trainer ride. An odd day, workout wise. I have three trainer rides in a row sketched in, so I treated this like an endurance day, and I added two short runs at a very easy pace, before and after work. Both runs were in Huckleberry, and I made a point to keep a well-into-very-long-race pace to avoid having these runs beat me up at all. It was kind of amusing, since I walked almost all the uphills, which I used to do, i.e. most of last year, but rarely do now. I followed this up with an hour of moderate heart-rate targeted riding, to start to ease into tempo-paced riding. I'm realizing that's a weak point, since I do most of my road riding in the hills, and that prevents longer harder efforts.
Wednesday March 26. 18.7 mile trainer ride. The end of three hard trainer rides in a row. Legs were sufficiently tired, with all new sore muscles. I picked up a yoga book to help with clearing out some of the less obvious stiffnesses and added a little in at the end.
Thursday March 27. 1500 yard swim. Very easy pace. Active recovery after the three days of trainer time.
Friday March 28. 8.2 mile run to the Marina and back, again with 8x tenth of a miles all out intervals in miles 2-4. I added a couple miles, intended to be at an easy pace, but I ended up walking the last two miles after suddenly feeling unwell.
Saturday March 29. Arrival. Obviously, no weekend workouts, but I think this made up for it.
Friday, April 04, 2014
13, 12: Back to more rigorous training.
Monday March 3, 2014. 5.3 mile run. Wrapping up a long weekend trip, we drove down highway 1. I used the chance to stop at Stinson Beach and make a 5 mile run up and down the Dipsea and Steep Ravine trails. The waterfalls had far more water than last time I was on this trail, in January. It was overcast and lightly raining--perfect running weather.
Wednesday March 5, 2014. 3000 yard swim and 5.2 mile run. Tuesday was a bleh day. So I went to bed crazy early (9:30) and woke up late (8:30). After a busy day, I jumped in for a long, fast paced swim. I did the swim speed 14-1 workout, which centers on 10 fast-paced 50's. I added some distance to hit 3000, which might be my longest swim this year. This was followed by more shopping for the imminent arrival (if you read this some day, you're taking a lot of time, and you're not even here yet!). Getting home, I went out for a night run just as a storm came though. I ran down the hill, through the neighborhood, and back up. I kept the pace down, since Monday's run still seems to be working it's way out. Oh yeah, and over the last week I decided to register for a 50 mile race in December and the Malibu triathlon again.
Thursday March 6, 2014. 1.2 mile run. I've been unable to get out for morning workouts lately; there's been a lot happening. Biking is what's suffered the most. Until I get that back on track, which might take some time and might involve a trainer to get it in at odd hours, I'm going to squeeze in short recovery runs when time allows on days that aren't running focused. I saw two deer.
Saturday March 8, 2014. 9.9 mile run. This was a tired one, especially after the first climb. I started in Sibley, ran the Huckleberry loop, and came back for the Round Top loop and an out-and-back on the bay area ridge trail. I'm keeping these long runs closer to home for the next few weeks. Lots of mud after all the rain we've been getting.
Sunday March 9, 2014. 40.5 mile ride and 2.5 mile run. Another brick in the wall, ok dumb joke. The next long ride of this slowly progressing ramp up to 55 miles. Wanting to stay close to home, I rode back and forth on Skyline and Grizzly Peak, covering the same section three times. Of all the repeat routes I could choose, it definitely stays interesting, and pretty. The middle time through seemed the strongest and fastest. It's also the first ride I've found time for since my bike repair. And something else is breaking, the pedal attachment area starting clicking and eventually became a loud clacking. I followed this with a run on the Huckleberry loop. While the weather was great for the ride, the run, being in a consistently moist valley/hillside area, was muggy.
Monday March 10, 2014. 1800 yard swim and 1.3 mile run. I decided to loosely start following one of the training plans I've been mostly following since December again. In part to cover the major weekly goals in addition to day by day specifics; I'm better at the latter. This week prescribes a lot of swimming, much of it fast. For this swim, I did 1000 yards of mixed strokes and kicking, my somewhat usual Monday recovery swim. I followed this with a 2x25, 2x50, 2x100, 200, 2x100, 2x50, 2x25 ladder at my fastest paces for each distance. I've also been sneaking in some strength training since last week, mostly using resistance bands.
The relatively fun swim was followed by quite the downer of a run. I set a not-very-strict goal to run at least a mile a night on days when I don't have any good reason not to for a while, since there's no excuse not to, and it'll help build hill endurance. I still like to rest the day before a fast run or a long run. Anyway, I ran down the street, and there were about 25 pairs of green eyes glowing back. All deer. A group was close to the paved path I run on at night, so I slowed to walk through. A car came speeding down the hill. One of the deer between the path and the road startled, and ran into the road. The car hit the deer, and the deer rolled over a few times, landing at the side of the road. The car took off. I was shocked and saddened. I watched the deer for about five minutes from a distance, it wasn't moving. I finished the downhill part of my run, and checked on the deer a few minutes later on my way back up the hill. This was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. The struck deer now had it's head up and was looking around, but it was unable to move its body. Another deer stood at the edge of the road, across the street, looking at it, and occasionally lifting its legs, as if wanting to do something. I don't know much about deer social behavior, but I got the sense it was the injured deer's mother. I made the call to run home and look up who to call who might be able to help, even if it meant putting the deer down. I called the Oakland police, who presumably went to handle it. The next morning I checked the spot, and the deer was dead.
This was shocking and humbling. If I hadn't been on that run, the deer would have probably run away from the road, and to safety. Deer get struck many times a week on my road, but I've never seen it happen.
Tuesday March 11, 2014. 3000 yard swim. Swim speed 14-2, which centers on 10x50 overreaching. I added some breast and fly to up the distance to 3000. For compulsive reasons. And I dropped the bike off to get the pedal assembly fixed and to get everything with any wear taken care of.
Wednesday March 12. 6.2 mile run. I had a long enough lunch break to get out for a run again. I ran out to the Emeryville Marina and back. I kept the pace mostly on the slower side, since I ran 8 tenth-of-a-mile all out intervals in the middle three miles. If the gps data is correct, I might have hit my fastest momentary running speed (faster than 6 min/mile pace). I haven't been running many intervals like this lately, since I've been mostly focused on building endurance since last fall. I certainly felt it later, not wanting to do much in the evening or next morning, and sleeping a good nine hours. It's nice to be able to work on speed again, and I hope to work more speed workouts back in, since I'm planning to level off my regular racing distance at 50k until next winter.
Thursday March 13. 3000 yard swim. Swim speed 15-2. This workout focused on the finish. Some of the drills have to look really ridiculous to others. :-) I added 450, mixing all strokes, to get up to 3000. I picked up my bike in the evening too.
Friday March 14. 6.6 mile run and 15.7 mile ride. Two hard workouts in one day. Tempoish run over lunch, followed by an impromptu GrizzlyPeak/Skyline ride during sunset after work. I was feeling antsy, and I also wanted to take the bike out for a spin after getting it fixed up.
Saturday March 15. 11.1 mile ride. I was getting work done, so I took the opportunity to ride out to the end of the Bay Bridge bike path. It stops just short of treasure island, but it's a fun, although noisy, ride. My legs were tired after the two hard workouts on Friday, so I cut the ride shorter than intended.
Sunday March 16. 19.5 mile run. I started at Huckleberry, ran over to Sibley, and in and around most of the trails in the park. I'm playing stay-close-to-home-on-long-runs, since I'm on call for a new arrival, and this has had the side effect of motivating me to explore the odds and ends of some of the trails nearby. I ran back through Huckleberry and made a loop through Redwood, on the East Ridge and Stream trails. Somewhere around mile 15, my feet got sore, so I slowed way down. I ended up finishing after dark, getting the first use of my headlamp on trails.
I'm posting this weeks later; I've gotten behind on editing.
Wednesday March 5, 2014. 3000 yard swim and 5.2 mile run. Tuesday was a bleh day. So I went to bed crazy early (9:30) and woke up late (8:30). After a busy day, I jumped in for a long, fast paced swim. I did the swim speed 14-1 workout, which centers on 10 fast-paced 50's. I added some distance to hit 3000, which might be my longest swim this year. This was followed by more shopping for the imminent arrival (if you read this some day, you're taking a lot of time, and you're not even here yet!). Getting home, I went out for a night run just as a storm came though. I ran down the hill, through the neighborhood, and back up. I kept the pace down, since Monday's run still seems to be working it's way out. Oh yeah, and over the last week I decided to register for a 50 mile race in December and the Malibu triathlon again.
Thursday March 6, 2014. 1.2 mile run. I've been unable to get out for morning workouts lately; there's been a lot happening. Biking is what's suffered the most. Until I get that back on track, which might take some time and might involve a trainer to get it in at odd hours, I'm going to squeeze in short recovery runs when time allows on days that aren't running focused. I saw two deer.
Saturday March 8, 2014. 9.9 mile run. This was a tired one, especially after the first climb. I started in Sibley, ran the Huckleberry loop, and came back for the Round Top loop and an out-and-back on the bay area ridge trail. I'm keeping these long runs closer to home for the next few weeks. Lots of mud after all the rain we've been getting.
Sunday March 9, 2014. 40.5 mile ride and 2.5 mile run. Another brick in the wall, ok dumb joke. The next long ride of this slowly progressing ramp up to 55 miles. Wanting to stay close to home, I rode back and forth on Skyline and Grizzly Peak, covering the same section three times. Of all the repeat routes I could choose, it definitely stays interesting, and pretty. The middle time through seemed the strongest and fastest. It's also the first ride I've found time for since my bike repair. And something else is breaking, the pedal attachment area starting clicking and eventually became a loud clacking. I followed this with a run on the Huckleberry loop. While the weather was great for the ride, the run, being in a consistently moist valley/hillside area, was muggy.
Monday March 10, 2014. 1800 yard swim and 1.3 mile run. I decided to loosely start following one of the training plans I've been mostly following since December again. In part to cover the major weekly goals in addition to day by day specifics; I'm better at the latter. This week prescribes a lot of swimming, much of it fast. For this swim, I did 1000 yards of mixed strokes and kicking, my somewhat usual Monday recovery swim. I followed this with a 2x25, 2x50, 2x100, 200, 2x100, 2x50, 2x25 ladder at my fastest paces for each distance. I've also been sneaking in some strength training since last week, mostly using resistance bands.
The relatively fun swim was followed by quite the downer of a run. I set a not-very-strict goal to run at least a mile a night on days when I don't have any good reason not to for a while, since there's no excuse not to, and it'll help build hill endurance. I still like to rest the day before a fast run or a long run. Anyway, I ran down the street, and there were about 25 pairs of green eyes glowing back. All deer. A group was close to the paved path I run on at night, so I slowed to walk through. A car came speeding down the hill. One of the deer between the path and the road startled, and ran into the road. The car hit the deer, and the deer rolled over a few times, landing at the side of the road. The car took off. I was shocked and saddened. I watched the deer for about five minutes from a distance, it wasn't moving. I finished the downhill part of my run, and checked on the deer a few minutes later on my way back up the hill. This was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. The struck deer now had it's head up and was looking around, but it was unable to move its body. Another deer stood at the edge of the road, across the street, looking at it, and occasionally lifting its legs, as if wanting to do something. I don't know much about deer social behavior, but I got the sense it was the injured deer's mother. I made the call to run home and look up who to call who might be able to help, even if it meant putting the deer down. I called the Oakland police, who presumably went to handle it. The next morning I checked the spot, and the deer was dead.
This was shocking and humbling. If I hadn't been on that run, the deer would have probably run away from the road, and to safety. Deer get struck many times a week on my road, but I've never seen it happen.
Tuesday March 11, 2014. 3000 yard swim. Swim speed 14-2, which centers on 10x50 overreaching. I added some breast and fly to up the distance to 3000. For compulsive reasons. And I dropped the bike off to get the pedal assembly fixed and to get everything with any wear taken care of.
Wednesday March 12. 6.2 mile run. I had a long enough lunch break to get out for a run again. I ran out to the Emeryville Marina and back. I kept the pace mostly on the slower side, since I ran 8 tenth-of-a-mile all out intervals in the middle three miles. If the gps data is correct, I might have hit my fastest momentary running speed (faster than 6 min/mile pace). I haven't been running many intervals like this lately, since I've been mostly focused on building endurance since last fall. I certainly felt it later, not wanting to do much in the evening or next morning, and sleeping a good nine hours. It's nice to be able to work on speed again, and I hope to work more speed workouts back in, since I'm planning to level off my regular racing distance at 50k until next winter.
Thursday March 13. 3000 yard swim. Swim speed 15-2. This workout focused on the finish. Some of the drills have to look really ridiculous to others. :-) I added 450, mixing all strokes, to get up to 3000. I picked up my bike in the evening too.
Friday March 14. 6.6 mile run and 15.7 mile ride. Two hard workouts in one day. Tempoish run over lunch, followed by an impromptu GrizzlyPeak/Skyline ride during sunset after work. I was feeling antsy, and I also wanted to take the bike out for a spin after getting it fixed up.
Saturday March 15. 11.1 mile ride. I was getting work done, so I took the opportunity to ride out to the end of the Bay Bridge bike path. It stops just short of treasure island, but it's a fun, although noisy, ride. My legs were tired after the two hard workouts on Friday, so I cut the ride shorter than intended.
Sunday March 16. 19.5 mile run. I started at Huckleberry, ran over to Sibley, and in and around most of the trails in the park. I'm playing stay-close-to-home-on-long-runs, since I'm on call for a new arrival, and this has had the side effect of motivating me to explore the odds and ends of some of the trails nearby. I ran back through Huckleberry and made a loop through Redwood, on the East Ridge and Stream trails. Somewhere around mile 15, my feet got sore, so I slowed way down. I ended up finishing after dark, getting the first use of my headlamp on trails.
I'm posting this weeks later; I've gotten behind on editing.
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
15, 14: Grab Bag
Monday Feb 17, 2014. 1100 yardish swim. I'm shifting towards making Monday a leg rest day and using swimming to kind of kick off new training weeks. I've had a strict training plan for the last couple months, but I'm seeing places where it consistently isn't working, so I'm going to adjust it a bit.
Tuesday Feb 18, 2014. 5.4 mile run. Huckleberry and Sibley. I took this one deliberately slow to taper for this weekend's race. But it was good to get the hills in, to loosen up some tightness from pushing the climbing on Diablo on Saturday. A body was found in Redwood on Saturday night, on fire. I spent most of this run thinking about that, since Redwood was my main running spot all of last year (I've shifted a bit to Huckleberry/Sibley to get in a particular harder climb). Bizarre.
Thursday Feb 20. 5.1 mile run. I ran out to the Emeryville Marina and back over lunch. It was a fun mix of half mile fast intervals, walking to loosen up, and repeating. I had contrary goals of backing off to not push things too hard while kicking speed up to get ready for Saturday. I ran a lot of half mile intervals well below 8 mins/mile, which is currently fast for me. The end result is tight calves and sore heals. Lots of foam rolling to do before Saturday.
Friday Feb 21. 1200 yard swim. Just moving before the race to get my heart rate up and to
loosen up.
Saturday Feb 22. 31 mile run at ITR's Chabot 50k. First 50k! I ran it rather slow, feet were surprisingly sore pretty early, but I kept steadily at it. More elsewhere.
Monday Feb 24. 1000ish yard swim. This was a rushed workout over lunch at the start of what's became a very busy week, with two high-impact new arrivals coming within the next month. It's good timing though, since my legs will benefit from the rest.
Wednesday Feb 26. Probably a half mile walking fast, around a shopping mall, of all places. Having had not enough time to run (or sleep sufficiently) this week, I parked at the opposite end of the mall from where I needed to run a five minute errand just to get moving. I think this week's collected errands are taking a bigger toll on me physically than the 50k. In part because I'm also mentally off balance from not getting outside enough. There's some exploring planned for the weekend that should make up for it. I also signed up for my first 50 mile race in the wee hours of the morning before bed. It'll be in December, as the next big challenge for myself after Hawaii.
Thursday Feb 27. 4.3 mile run. With not-running-or-exercising-much-at-all-this-week frustration building up, I ran later at night from home, down through Montclair Village, and back. I've never run down the hill and back up--I just typically head for the trails. Legs were very stiff, but I ran through it, letting them loosen up over time. I ran quarter mile intervals going back uphill to keep the pace up. It was some of the fastest uphill running I've done, and it didn't feel like much of an effort. I backed off mostly to avoid having my legs tighten up too much.
Saturday March 1. 5.9 mile run. East Ridge and Pool trails loop at Armstrong Redwoods. More in another entry.
Sunday March 2. 1.8 miles hiking and 2.6 miles running. PL and I were exploring for the day, starting at the mouth of the Russian River, and working our way down to Bodega Bay. I took the chance to hike around with my camera, and I threw in some running too, just to have fun with it. There was a group of harbor seals hanging out at the mouth of the Russian River, many were playing around. We made 6 or 7 stops, along with a seafood sandwich stop in Bodega. Great weather shift from morning rain to fog and drizzle to sun.
I'm not sure what to call this two week stretch of running (I didn't do much swimming or cycling here). I ran my first 50k, took it conservatively, and finished it well. Then life through a bunch of stuff at me. And my next couple runs were road/trails I haven't run on. This ends this phase of training, which has been focused on ramping up trail distance and difficulty. I have no races in March (I back out of a planned 50k because of a conflict), and I don't plan to race again until late April. I have to continue increasing cycling distance, but otherwise, I plan to use the next couple months to just have fun.
Tuesday Feb 18, 2014. 5.4 mile run. Huckleberry and Sibley. I took this one deliberately slow to taper for this weekend's race. But it was good to get the hills in, to loosen up some tightness from pushing the climbing on Diablo on Saturday. A body was found in Redwood on Saturday night, on fire. I spent most of this run thinking about that, since Redwood was my main running spot all of last year (I've shifted a bit to Huckleberry/Sibley to get in a particular harder climb). Bizarre.
Thursday Feb 20. 5.1 mile run. I ran out to the Emeryville Marina and back over lunch. It was a fun mix of half mile fast intervals, walking to loosen up, and repeating. I had contrary goals of backing off to not push things too hard while kicking speed up to get ready for Saturday. I ran a lot of half mile intervals well below 8 mins/mile, which is currently fast for me. The end result is tight calves and sore heals. Lots of foam rolling to do before Saturday.
Friday Feb 21. 1200 yard swim. Just moving before the race to get my heart rate up and to
loosen up.
Saturday Feb 22. 31 mile run at ITR's Chabot 50k. First 50k! I ran it rather slow, feet were surprisingly sore pretty early, but I kept steadily at it. More elsewhere.
Monday Feb 24. 1000ish yard swim. This was a rushed workout over lunch at the start of what's became a very busy week, with two high-impact new arrivals coming within the next month. It's good timing though, since my legs will benefit from the rest.
Wednesday Feb 26. Probably a half mile walking fast, around a shopping mall, of all places. Having had not enough time to run (or sleep sufficiently) this week, I parked at the opposite end of the mall from where I needed to run a five minute errand just to get moving. I think this week's collected errands are taking a bigger toll on me physically than the 50k. In part because I'm also mentally off balance from not getting outside enough. There's some exploring planned for the weekend that should make up for it. I also signed up for my first 50 mile race in the wee hours of the morning before bed. It'll be in December, as the next big challenge for myself after Hawaii.
Thursday Feb 27. 4.3 mile run. With not-running-or-exercising-much-at-all-this-week frustration building up, I ran later at night from home, down through Montclair Village, and back. I've never run down the hill and back up--I just typically head for the trails. Legs were very stiff, but I ran through it, letting them loosen up over time. I ran quarter mile intervals going back uphill to keep the pace up. It was some of the fastest uphill running I've done, and it didn't feel like much of an effort. I backed off mostly to avoid having my legs tighten up too much.
Saturday March 1. 5.9 mile run. East Ridge and Pool trails loop at Armstrong Redwoods. More in another entry.
Sunday March 2. 1.8 miles hiking and 2.6 miles running. PL and I were exploring for the day, starting at the mouth of the Russian River, and working our way down to Bodega Bay. I took the chance to hike around with my camera, and I threw in some running too, just to have fun with it. There was a group of harbor seals hanging out at the mouth of the Russian River, many were playing around. We made 6 or 7 stops, along with a seafood sandwich stop in Bodega. Great weather shift from morning rain to fog and drizzle to sun.
I'm not sure what to call this two week stretch of running (I didn't do much swimming or cycling here). I ran my first 50k, took it conservatively, and finished it well. Then life through a bunch of stuff at me. And my next couple runs were road/trails I haven't run on. This ends this phase of training, which has been focused on ramping up trail distance and difficulty. I have no races in March (I back out of a planned 50k because of a conflict), and I don't plan to race again until late April. I have to continue increasing cycling distance, but otherwise, I plan to use the next couple months to just have fun.
Sunday, March 02, 2014
Armstrong Redwoods
PL and I set out for a quiet weekend, not having much of an agenda. Which usually means hiking, cooking, reading, sipping coffee, watching movies, and other active and inactive things. The main point is to get out of the house and the myriad parts of life we manage from home. On these trips, I also like to get in a run or two in new places.
After the hike, I ran a loop up and out of the valley, around and back down. The climb was long and steady, very humid, and steeper than I expected. But quite runnable today—the forced time off during the week worked in my favor.
Climbing out of the valley, the East Ridge trail eventually leaves the redwood forest and climbs though grassy hills and other forest types (I’m not the best at identifying most trees). The views up here were amazing.
After the climb, I ran a long steady downhill stretch on the Pool trail. Returning to redwood valley, it crossed a handful of streams before returning to the central redwood grove of the park. This was one of my most fun downhill runs ever, with others having been in Huddert county park and on the Coastal View trail. Getting back to the main redwood grove, I explored parts that I missed on the hike.
I also used this run to break in a new pair of Altra Olympus shoes. I picked these up to add in some high cushion trail shoes to the mix. Everyone seems to love Hokas right now, but the other Altras I’ve been running in have done such a good job at getting rid of unnecessary foot pain/injury that I went for these instead. They have this interesting design that makes you want to run instead if you happen to be walking. Especially uphill. As a result, I was able to push a little harder than usual when running uphill.
Saturday, March 01, 2014
Chabot 50k
I ran my first 50k at ITR’s Chabot trail run last Saturday. I picked this as my first 50k because I know the trails, have experience racing here, and it’s an easier 50k course.
But within two miles of starting, I knew it was going to be a long race for me. A faster run during the week had a much bigger impact on my feet than I expected. My heels were sore pretty much from the beginning of the race until the end. Early race soreness and stiffness usually works itself out by about two miles, but not this day.
For the first 20 miles or so, I was holding back my pace quite a bit, since my only real goal was to finish the 50k distance. The last 10 miles were a mix of running through foot pain, walking, and just enjoying the process of constantly moving. I call it pain, but it wasn’t at the level of really hurting, more so a constant irritating tightness that I knew would turn to pain if I didn’t keep my pace down. I finished in 6:59, well over what I expected. As a first 50k, it felt somewhat anticlimactic.
Otherwise, this was a mostly internal race. I had music on for most of it, and I used the time to think through things happening in the rest of life. The trails were familiar, and with running slower this time, it became a very meditative day.
Otherwise, this was a mostly internal race. I had music on for most of it, and I used the time to think through things happening in the rest of life. The trails were familiar, and with running slower this time, it became a very meditative day.
I ran with a new hydration pack this time too, a minimal Salomon 1.5L pack. I was looking for something smaller that would ride higher and be easier to refill. The velcro arm straps failed a few times, until I realized that having a clip snapped in too high was tugging one sleeve out. After adjusting the clip, it behaved itself. If the velcro continues to behave, this might become my goto racing pack; I like how it rides.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
17, 16: Atonement
Monday Feb 3. 1000 yard swim. I'm 33% of the way through my break from running. I went out for a short easy swim, just moving at a moderate pace, not pushing it too hard. I included a couple kick sets to get my legs working. Later in the day they felt much better than in the morning. I'm also sketching in some goals for the next chunk of racing/etc, but I'm waiting to see how a few event dates land and how I feel after a finishing a couple more races in this set. I'm contemplating whether or not to commit to a stretch goal or just to dive in.
Thursday Feb 6. 1800 yard swim. I'm now on my fifth leg resting day--I let a planned bike ride on Tuesday fall through to get extra sleep. Allowing myself to rest has really let my body crash for a few days. It was only this morning that I finally awoke without a lot of effort to stand and walk. I went out for a lunch time swim class with light rain, which we really need. I might cycle tomorrow, and I might wait until Saturday to get going again. The stretch goal I'm contemplating is becoming more firm in my head, but I'm going to make myself wait until the end of the month to commit.
Friday Feb 7. 13.0 mile bike ride. Very light rain that picked up as I finished. I rode up to grizzly peak and back, treating this as an uphill strength session, staying in a higher gear on the uphills and riding out of the saddle on a couple of the smallest hills.
Saturday Feb 8. 11.5 mile run. It's been raining the past few days here. Finally. Perfect weather for a trail run. I don't know why, but I find running in the rain to be more calming than any other conditions. The world feels more alive, and there's fewer people out. I went to the middle part of Chabot regional park, exploring some trails along the western edge of the park that I've never run on. Some of them are the hardest looking part of a race I'm running in two weeks, so I was also scoping them out. They weren't too bad, since Chabot is forgiving as far as most climbs go, except for the fresh mud on the exposed parts of one climb. I ended with an out and back on the Cascade/Columbine trails, which follow along the bed of a seasonal winter stream for a while. It says a lot about how bad the recent drought has been that after two days of rain, there was still no water in the creek bed.
This also ended my self-imposed six day running break. I ran a lot of uphills, taking downhills and flats easier to enjoy the day. I also applied something I'm trying to change in my swimming form to my running form, with the theory that I'd get more distance per stride. It mostly involves keeping my grounded foot on the ground longer, pushing off further, to get as much work out of each stride that I could. I didn't time myself, but it overall felt more comfortable for a given effort. I mixed this in with a bunch of walking, since the form change is working my hamstrings harder.
My left heel was sore again, and has been on and off all week. I think there's something tight or weak when my left calf fully extends, since adding the zero drop shoes (which I'm occasionally running in and now always walking in) and the much greater amount of uphill running I've been doing cause these muscles to work harder over a greater range of motion. Something to keep in mind for planning longer runs and races until it balances out. This, along with aggressively rolling out my right IT band seem to be slowly reducing some strength, flexibility, and form imbalances I've been aware of.
Sunday Feb 9. 35.6 miles cycling. Cold. Wet. Rainy. Windy. Foggy. And eventually Dark too. The perfect day for a long ride. After learning from last time, I backed off on the pace, managing to finish strong. I rode the last few miles much slower than usual, since visibility was bad. I was intending to extend this to a brick, but I was cold, and the rain made the last part take longer than planned. I followed this up with furniture construction, building a place to sleep for someone who will need one.
Monday Feb 10. 1000 yard swim. Just moving, a good recovery workout after pushing myself both days over the weekend.
Tuesday Feb 11. 7.5 mile run. With 1800+ feet of climbing. I started before 7, running through Huckleberry, around Sibley, and back. It was foggy and the streams were flowing (finally!), but at the Round Top ridge, I broke above the fog to awesome views of sun on fog patches across the east bay. The one day I don't have a camera. It was a hill endurance day, probably my favorite kind of "run." If you think in terms of "elevation density," something I've started to do to mix up difficulties of my runs, this was higher than Steep Ravine. It was also my longest run in the Superiors, and my feet are a little sore as I write this, since I'm still getting used to them. They hold up surprisingly well for traction on steep wet trails--better than on steep dry trails. And they were quite comfortable on the technical parts.
Wednesday Feb 12. 4.4 mile run. Out to the Emeryville peninsula and back. I kept a decent, but steady pace, given the tired legs from yesterday morning. I bailed on a morning ride to get more sleep in too, since I needed the recovery after yesterday.
Thursday Feb 13. 3000 yard swim. I backed off on running to let my legs recover after pushing a little hard for two days, and because I had an early morning appointment. I think I'm ready, endurance wise, for the 50k in a little over a week, and I don't believe that strictly pushing it instead of recovering intelligently will do any good at this point. I've run a 27 mile race with significantly more elevation and a22 24 mile race with about 60% of the elevation in the last month. This won't be that much further than 27 miles. And there will be much less stairs. After having a large chunk of time to work hard in the office for a number of hours, something I don't often get a chance to do, I up'd my swim plans for the day, doing a 2950 yard swim speed workout. I compulsively added an extra lap to make it 3000. There was a stretch of 6 200's in a row with increasing speed. Halfway through, I wanted to bail, but kept going, and flew through the second half. I'm glad I did; it's probably my best overall swim workout so far this year.
Saturday Feb 15. 12.8 mile run. I had the right window of time and the right week in terms of training to squeeze in a "run" up to the summit of Mt. Diablo. With 3800+ feet of climbing, on a deliberately easy-paced weekend, this took a little while. I parked at the Mitchell Canyon trailhead and headed up Mitchell Canyon, which has a deceptively steady incline on what's a relatively flat trail. I was feeling tired and stiff from pushing it both Tuesday and Wednesday and from not having time for a morning ride since then, as moderate paced bike rides tend to loosen up running stiffness.
This eventually transitioned to steeper fire road climbing. And climbing. And more climbing. The view slowly became awesome, as I could see both the hills I know in the Berkeley/Oakland hills and the Sherman Island kitesurfing area.
Around deer park flat, it got windy.
I passed a boy scout troop twice on the final stretches to the summit. On the last stretch on the Juniper trail, it looked like the trail was the line where they held last fall's fire.
I paid a quick visit to the summit, and headed back down to the North Peak trail, finding all the downhill to be steeper, more technical, and slower than I expected. But also more fun.
There was more high wind on the Bald Ridge trail, which was just great to run along; I think I'll come back to run some more of the ridge trails. I finished by heading down the Back Creek trail and a couple others to get back to the trailhead.
This was almost all new trails to me, with a lot of different environments, and a place I've wanted to run for a long time. It's by far the largest single climb I've done, and the highest elevation density (this new measurement of trail difficulty I'm using) at 298.8 Methinks I'll make this a more regular training spot, since it's not all that far from home.
Sunday Feb 16. 4.5ish mile bike fail. I set out for a 25 mile ride. My legs were really tired, given the almost non stop climb up Mount Diablo on Saturday. But it was a different kind of tired; one where I had much less force, but not a kind of tired where I felt anything sore. Halfway up Grizzly peak, I stopped for a break, and failed to get my shoes in the pedals when starting back up. A few second later, after falling (not surprising), there was one less spoke in my back wheel (surprising), and everything was out of wack. I bailed. Time for a wheel repair. And time to learn more about getting into these pedals on an uphill.
These were a good pair of training-focused weeks. The first was deliberate rest to avoid overtraining, which feels like it did its job well. Everything felt stronger after it ended. The next was full on. I'm getting to know what isn't working in my training schedule right now, in that I'm finding I need extra recovery time on specific days (Monday and Thursday). I'm confident I'm at the volume I need for the distances I want to run until the end of the year, so I might as well start deliberately missing those workouts.
Thursday Feb 6. 1800 yard swim. I'm now on my fifth leg resting day--I let a planned bike ride on Tuesday fall through to get extra sleep. Allowing myself to rest has really let my body crash for a few days. It was only this morning that I finally awoke without a lot of effort to stand and walk. I went out for a lunch time swim class with light rain, which we really need. I might cycle tomorrow, and I might wait until Saturday to get going again. The stretch goal I'm contemplating is becoming more firm in my head, but I'm going to make myself wait until the end of the month to commit.
Friday Feb 7. 13.0 mile bike ride. Very light rain that picked up as I finished. I rode up to grizzly peak and back, treating this as an uphill strength session, staying in a higher gear on the uphills and riding out of the saddle on a couple of the smallest hills.
Saturday Feb 8. 11.5 mile run. It's been raining the past few days here. Finally. Perfect weather for a trail run. I don't know why, but I find running in the rain to be more calming than any other conditions. The world feels more alive, and there's fewer people out. I went to the middle part of Chabot regional park, exploring some trails along the western edge of the park that I've never run on. Some of them are the hardest looking part of a race I'm running in two weeks, so I was also scoping them out. They weren't too bad, since Chabot is forgiving as far as most climbs go, except for the fresh mud on the exposed parts of one climb. I ended with an out and back on the Cascade/Columbine trails, which follow along the bed of a seasonal winter stream for a while. It says a lot about how bad the recent drought has been that after two days of rain, there was still no water in the creek bed.
This also ended my self-imposed six day running break. I ran a lot of uphills, taking downhills and flats easier to enjoy the day. I also applied something I'm trying to change in my swimming form to my running form, with the theory that I'd get more distance per stride. It mostly involves keeping my grounded foot on the ground longer, pushing off further, to get as much work out of each stride that I could. I didn't time myself, but it overall felt more comfortable for a given effort. I mixed this in with a bunch of walking, since the form change is working my hamstrings harder.
My left heel was sore again, and has been on and off all week. I think there's something tight or weak when my left calf fully extends, since adding the zero drop shoes (which I'm occasionally running in and now always walking in) and the much greater amount of uphill running I've been doing cause these muscles to work harder over a greater range of motion. Something to keep in mind for planning longer runs and races until it balances out. This, along with aggressively rolling out my right IT band seem to be slowly reducing some strength, flexibility, and form imbalances I've been aware of.
Sunday Feb 9. 35.6 miles cycling. Cold. Wet. Rainy. Windy. Foggy. And eventually Dark too. The perfect day for a long ride. After learning from last time, I backed off on the pace, managing to finish strong. I rode the last few miles much slower than usual, since visibility was bad. I was intending to extend this to a brick, but I was cold, and the rain made the last part take longer than planned. I followed this up with furniture construction, building a place to sleep for someone who will need one.
Monday Feb 10. 1000 yard swim. Just moving, a good recovery workout after pushing myself both days over the weekend.
Tuesday Feb 11. 7.5 mile run. With 1800+ feet of climbing. I started before 7, running through Huckleberry, around Sibley, and back. It was foggy and the streams were flowing (finally!), but at the Round Top ridge, I broke above the fog to awesome views of sun on fog patches across the east bay. The one day I don't have a camera. It was a hill endurance day, probably my favorite kind of "run." If you think in terms of "elevation density," something I've started to do to mix up difficulties of my runs, this was higher than Steep Ravine. It was also my longest run in the Superiors, and my feet are a little sore as I write this, since I'm still getting used to them. They hold up surprisingly well for traction on steep wet trails--better than on steep dry trails. And they were quite comfortable on the technical parts.
Wednesday Feb 12. 4.4 mile run. Out to the Emeryville peninsula and back. I kept a decent, but steady pace, given the tired legs from yesterday morning. I bailed on a morning ride to get more sleep in too, since I needed the recovery after yesterday.
Thursday Feb 13. 3000 yard swim. I backed off on running to let my legs recover after pushing a little hard for two days, and because I had an early morning appointment. I think I'm ready, endurance wise, for the 50k in a little over a week, and I don't believe that strictly pushing it instead of recovering intelligently will do any good at this point. I've run a 27 mile race with significantly more elevation and a
Saturday Feb 15. 12.8 mile run. I had the right window of time and the right week in terms of training to squeeze in a "run" up to the summit of Mt. Diablo. With 3800+ feet of climbing, on a deliberately easy-paced weekend, this took a little while. I parked at the Mitchell Canyon trailhead and headed up Mitchell Canyon, which has a deceptively steady incline on what's a relatively flat trail. I was feeling tired and stiff from pushing it both Tuesday and Wednesday and from not having time for a morning ride since then, as moderate paced bike rides tend to loosen up running stiffness.
This eventually transitioned to steeper fire road climbing. And climbing. And more climbing. The view slowly became awesome, as I could see both the hills I know in the Berkeley/Oakland hills and the Sherman Island kitesurfing area.
Around deer park flat, it got windy.
I passed a boy scout troop twice on the final stretches to the summit. On the last stretch on the Juniper trail, it looked like the trail was the line where they held last fall's fire.
There was more high wind on the Bald Ridge trail, which was just great to run along; I think I'll come back to run some more of the ridge trails. I finished by heading down the Back Creek trail and a couple others to get back to the trailhead.
This was almost all new trails to me, with a lot of different environments, and a place I've wanted to run for a long time. It's by far the largest single climb I've done, and the highest elevation density (this new measurement of trail difficulty I'm using) at 298.8 Methinks I'll make this a more regular training spot, since it's not all that far from home.
Sunday Feb 16. 4.5ish mile bike fail. I set out for a 25 mile ride. My legs were really tired, given the almost non stop climb up Mount Diablo on Saturday. But it was a different kind of tired; one where I had much less force, but not a kind of tired where I felt anything sore. Halfway up Grizzly peak, I stopped for a break, and failed to get my shoes in the pedals when starting back up. A few second later, after falling (not surprising), there was one less spoke in my back wheel (surprising), and everything was out of wack. I bailed. Time for a wheel repair. And time to learn more about getting into these pedals on an uphill.
These were a good pair of training-focused weeks. The first was deliberate rest to avoid overtraining, which feels like it did its job well. Everything felt stronger after it ended. The next was full on. I'm getting to know what isn't working in my training schedule right now, in that I'm finding I need extra recovery time on specific days (Monday and Thursday). I'm confident I'm at the volume I need for the distances I want to run until the end of the year, so I might as well start deliberately missing those workouts.
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Fort Ord "39k"
This was a great course. Many of the single track trails, especially in the valleys, were packed sand, not something I’ve found often. This was an extra race I added, not one I trained well to target, so I didn’t put much expectations on myself other than to get a long run in, but with the pressure of a race to pick up the pace. And I really wanted to go run this course, being a bit out of my neighborhood, furthering the goal for this year to run more in new places further from home.
It was an odd race for me in a lot of ways. My legs had been tired the last week, after a hard bike/run brick the prior Sunday, as well as a very-high-for-me social schedule over the last week. I pulled back on my planned running and biking during the week, and I felt good at the start. And then I ran uphill—quite a bit. For a majority of the first 10 miles of the course, and about half of the second. Recent training was really paying off on what’s been my weakest point for quite a while. On the downhills I was just slow. I just didn’t have the drive to keep my recent pace for very long without hurting, similar to my runs during the prior week. And after mile 10 or so, my heels started to hurt. Possibly due to the faster uphills; I’ve noticed that working my calves hard has a side affect of pulling on my feet enough to make this area sore. So I just relaxed when I needed to and enjoyed the run.
The trails were great, and varied a lot. Rocky fireroads on open hills and sandy single track in covered valleys; these trails were just fun. This would be a great course to return to, especially in a year that we get more than .04 inches of rain in the month leading up to the race.
Somewhere after the second aid station, while I was zoned out and following a couple other runners, I got off course. They were pulling away from me, but I eventually convinced myself I was off course since it was flat for far too long. ITR just doesn’t make courses this flat for this long. Seeing no course flags, I checked the map and talked to a local runner, finding a way to get back on track without shortchanging the distance. I must have been really zoned out, since it took me over a mile to notice. On the way back, I caught a 100k runner who made the same mistake and pulled him back on track too. This added a couple miles to my run, but it got me out of the just-keep-running mentality for a while, and made for a fun excursion. It also kicked my adrenaline up for climbing and descending the next hill, making what was a sore part of the race a lot more fun. I later found out they went back to add more markings to that turn too.
There was a short flat section that led into the second aid station. This part just sucked for me. I don't really like to use the word "suck." But it did. Legs and feet were protesting, so I walked some stretches of it, just waiting for the next climb. It's quite ironic that I was waiting for a climb to come to get of a flat section of the course. That climb delivered, about two miles of steady uphill, and I ran a good chunk of it. The next mile and a half were downhill, which didn’t go very well. Heel protests were back. Getting into the last climb, I took off, hoping to pass the one other runner I could see. I did this and kept going, until I got to the point where I could see no one and really didn’t know how much more of the course was left. I eased back again to not beat myself up and came comfortably into the finish, running the final uphill.
I wrapped up in 5:05, running 24.2 miles, about two miles over the course distance. Despite the slow downhill, aching legs and heels, and side excursion, it’s actually a better average pace by 20 secs/mile than I ran at Woodside (my only other 35k), which had 300 feet less elevation gain. So I’m not complaining, as that’s a significant improvement.
ITR was also putting on their first 100k here, and I stayed until dark to volunteer at the finish area. It was inspiring to see people finishing a run of that distance, and a lot of fun. And forcing myself to stand was probably better recovery for my legs than finding a couch at home.
I in part added this race to get a last fast and long run in before running a 50k for the first time, which is in three weeks. It did that well, the extra excursion even working for me in that regard. But with al the leg aches, I’m going to challenge myself to take a six day running break. It’s about the right timing for a short recovery rest too, since it’ll give enough time to get in a hard week before tapering.
Sunday, February 02, 2014
19, 18: Ramp Up and Beat Down
Monday, January 20. 25.6 mile bike ride. Still feeling very stiff in a few places from the Steep Ravine marathon, I moved my long ride from Sunday to Monday, since I had the day off. My calves were still tight, so I changed from a two-big-climbing-effort route to a single-big-climbing-effort route, and headed down Pinehurst. I rode out past Moraga on an unseasonably warm day, and eventually kind of stumbled across a paved trail up to Lafayette. Lots of parents out with their children. I rode this out and back, and, upon returning to Canyon, turned south for the eventual long climb up Redwood and Skyline. Somewhere before this, it occurred to me that when I started riding bigger hills about 4 months ago, I had to stop every tenth of a mile or so just to keep my quads from burning. I don't stop at all now, and it's become mentally easy. That had to be good training. So I kicked up my effort a notch by riding the whole climb in a single gear, one higher than I ride most of the climb. It wasn't as hard as I expected, but it was a better workout. I might progressively increase my baseline climbing gear now. I woke up the next morning with well beat-down legs and bailed on a planned easy run. I had the energy to keep going, but that's not always the smartest thing or the most effective way to get stronger/faster or to increase endurance. All side goals of this whole outdoor sports thing.
Tues Jan 21. Rest. I took Tuesday off, in part because of a packed schedule, and in part to get extra needed sleep in the morning, and in part because I was feeling weak and tired by the end of the day. During a short massage, it was pointed out that my right IT band and muscles around it are tight. My right thigh has been tighter for years, but stable, while my left thigh has had its ups and downs. Intense rolling work in December really loosened it up though, so it’s time to repeat it on the right thigh.
Weds Jan 22. 4.2 mile run and 2650 yard swim. On the run, my calves were still tight, muscle tone was out of whack, and my right thigh was off kilter from some intense rolling the night before. So I decided to run out on the French Trail and make the Redwood Peak climb, running about half the uphills, albeit slowly. This was a day to just keep moving. The evening swim was much better, with a lot of swimming, kicking, and pulling intervals. It’s nice to be able to breath well enough to swim again.
Thurs Jan 23. 5.4 mile run and 2400 yard swim. I decided it would be good to include two big climbs on my morning run. I started on the Huckleberry loop, and it was windy. I ran down and up the valley to Sibley, ran around Round Top, and returned. 1400 foot climb. Including these large climbs on my normal weekday runs (I seem to be getting around 1000 feet on many of them now) seems to be doing a lot more for my uphill running skill than the planned gym hill intervals. I'm contemplating bailing on them for now, since I don't notice the fatigue on trails, and it's mentally easier to push through it and push myself harder outside. I went to swim class at lunch. We have a new coach; today seemed to be speed focused, which I'm liking right now. It's good getting feedback from different coaches, I had some new notes about my form that I wasn't aware of.
Friday, Jan 24. 15.2 mile ride. I rode the Pinehurst/Redwood/Skyline loop, adding some milage at the end to hit 15 miles. I stuck to the higher-minimal-gear idea from Monday, and I added some higher effort intervals to the climbs, kicking things up a few gears for a bit every five minutes. My variation of an idea from one of a handful of training plans I'm using to make my own training plan right now. It did make the long climb much more fun. I bailed on a planned swim to say farewell to a departing colleague, and since I had plenty of swim distance in the prior two days.
Saturday Jan 25. 9.5 miles running. I ran (and hiked) a couple loops at Tilden, adding up to over 2500 feet of climbing in less than 10 miles. Training is paying off well, I ran quite a bit of uphill trails. At one hilltop, I chatted with an older runner who was out with his wife (she was still halfway up the trail) about running vs. walking on some of he steeper climbs. Agreeing with him, walking is often faster, but running what I can makes me overall faster in the long run, even if it slows me down a lot at that moment. I got the heart rate monitor working for this run--watching it, it's actually quite useful for deciding more logically when to run uphill and when to walk. At 170 I start to get really inefficient. But a combination of laziness and muscle protest try to have their way sooner. I was using this as a sanity check to push through and keep going a number of times, which was far easier than I expected. This is my first weekend of backing off on my long runs on a biweekly plan to alternate running and biking focused efforts.
Sunday Jan 26. 30.3 mile ride and 1.1 mile road run. It's time to start increasing long ride length, also on a biweekly schedule, with the goal of alternating weekends of long ride efforts with weekends of long run efforts. I could keep going with both every weekend, and I want to, but I realized that time needs to give in to other parts of life. It's freeing in some ways though, since I don't feel so much in a rush if I only make one effort that pushes my time/distance bounds every weekend. I dropped off NF, who's visiting, for a coffee get together, and rode a Sibley/Grizzly Peak/Inspiration Point/Orinda/Moraga/Canyon/Redwood/Skyline loop of 30 miles. I kept a very strong pace for all but the last 5 miles, setting many Strava PRs on climbs. The higher-min-bike-gear and the intervals earlier in the week made a huge difference on my climbing strength. It was also my first ride down Wildcat Canyon Rd, which is a farless insane nicer descent than El Toyonal. I immediately followed this with a quick road run (my first road run since the Berkeley half), hoping to get many more bike/run bricks in before Hawaii. The first mile or two of running is a weak point for me in a tri. It's also my first run with the headlamp, since it had gotten dark by this point. I might be making more use of it this week due to some morning schedule constraints. Finishing up, I drove back to pick up NF before heading home to eat far too much.
Monday Jan 27. 2800 yards swimming. A fast workout, swim speed 12-2. Lots of high-paced short sets. I gave my legs most of a break for the day.
Tuesday Jan 28. 6.15 mile run. Because of a morning errand of toting the furball to the vet and listening to her many vocal protests, I squeezed my run in during lunch. Arg, road running. I ran out to the start of the new bay bridge path and back. I didn’t realize how far it is to get there; it’s a 10k run to get there and back, most of it through the maze of approach ramps. I’ll have to return when I have more time to actually run out over the bay. It was sunny and hot and my legs were still really tired from Sunday. I forced in a bunch of higher speed intervals though, which makes things more fun, even on days like this, when I can’t keep pace up very long. I also rearranged my workouts for the rest of the week, playing things a bit more by ear, to be better recovered for a race on Saturday.
Wednesday Jan 29. 2600 yard swim. I took a day away from running/biking (my original plan) to let my legs rest a bit. I bought some new road shoes (Altra Torins), which I've been walking in for a couple days to break in. Just walking in them is helping to stretch out some long term tightness in my right thigh. I'm contemplating shifting all my shoes in this direction, since the zero heel to toe drop (including on my zero sandals) feels better in my feet and in my legs. I swam the Swim Speed 13-1 workout to get some workout time in, since I might take Friday off or easy. I'm noticing a significant swimming improvement since returning to it after a short break at the beginning of January, mostly in form and strength, which I hadn't really anticipated, as swimming seemed to have been plateaued for a couple months. I'm consistently about 3 strokes lower for a pool length than I was in December.
Thursday Jan 30. 4.3 mile run. Another road run at lunch. These are good for pushing speed, but this was just to get time outside. I kept a slow pace in lieu of Saturday, and having had tired legs all week.
Friday Jan 31. 13 mile ride. An easy back-and-forth on Skyline. Just looking to stay warmed up. No real hills.
Saturday Feb 1. 24.2 mile run. That was supposed to be 35k... I ran the Fort Ord trail run. Surprisingly strong uphills, slower than usual downhills. Lots of muscle protests after 10 miles, and I mistakenly added a couple miles. Really great trails, I'd like to go back for a stronger run again.
Sunday Feb 2. Rest.
I planned a full week of workouts for the coming week, but even with taking the last two weeks easy, things were off a bit on Saturday. Except the uphills, which were really strong. As a gut feeling move, watching some muscle aches creep in, I'm taking six days off of running to swim and cross train. Writing these blog entries, which I share minimally, helps a lot with reflecting on training choices and their outcomes. Since I've started writing this, I've used things I notice when writing to adjust my training, sometimes with surprising results.
Thurs Jan 23. 5.4 mile run and 2400 yard swim. I decided it would be good to include two big climbs on my morning run. I started on the Huckleberry loop, and it was windy. I ran down and up the valley to Sibley, ran around Round Top, and returned. 1400 foot climb. Including these large climbs on my normal weekday runs (I seem to be getting around 1000 feet on many of them now) seems to be doing a lot more for my uphill running skill than the planned gym hill intervals. I'm contemplating bailing on them for now, since I don't notice the fatigue on trails, and it's mentally easier to push through it and push myself harder outside. I went to swim class at lunch. We have a new coach; today seemed to be speed focused, which I'm liking right now. It's good getting feedback from different coaches, I had some new notes about my form that I wasn't aware of.
Friday, Jan 24. 15.2 mile ride. I rode the Pinehurst/Redwood/Skyline loop, adding some milage at the end to hit 15 miles. I stuck to the higher-minimal-gear idea from Monday, and I added some higher effort intervals to the climbs, kicking things up a few gears for a bit every five minutes. My variation of an idea from one of a handful of training plans I'm using to make my own training plan right now. It did make the long climb much more fun. I bailed on a planned swim to say farewell to a departing colleague, and since I had plenty of swim distance in the prior two days.
Saturday Jan 25. 9.5 miles running. I ran (and hiked) a couple loops at Tilden, adding up to over 2500 feet of climbing in less than 10 miles. Training is paying off well, I ran quite a bit of uphill trails. At one hilltop, I chatted with an older runner who was out with his wife (she was still halfway up the trail) about running vs. walking on some of he steeper climbs. Agreeing with him, walking is often faster, but running what I can makes me overall faster in the long run, even if it slows me down a lot at that moment. I got the heart rate monitor working for this run--watching it, it's actually quite useful for deciding more logically when to run uphill and when to walk. At 170 I start to get really inefficient. But a combination of laziness and muscle protest try to have their way sooner. I was using this as a sanity check to push through and keep going a number of times, which was far easier than I expected. This is my first weekend of backing off on my long runs on a biweekly plan to alternate running and biking focused efforts.
Sunday Jan 26. 30.3 mile ride and 1.1 mile road run. It's time to start increasing long ride length, also on a biweekly schedule, with the goal of alternating weekends of long ride efforts with weekends of long run efforts. I could keep going with both every weekend, and I want to, but I realized that time needs to give in to other parts of life. It's freeing in some ways though, since I don't feel so much in a rush if I only make one effort that pushes my time/distance bounds every weekend. I dropped off NF, who's visiting, for a coffee get together, and rode a Sibley/Grizzly Peak/Inspiration Point/Orinda/Moraga/Canyon/Redwood/Skyline loop of 30 miles. I kept a very strong pace for all but the last 5 miles, setting many Strava PRs on climbs. The higher-min-bike-gear and the intervals earlier in the week made a huge difference on my climbing strength. It was also my first ride down Wildcat Canyon Rd, which is a far
Monday Jan 27. 2800 yards swimming. A fast workout, swim speed 12-2. Lots of high-paced short sets. I gave my legs most of a break for the day.
Tuesday Jan 28. 6.15 mile run. Because of a morning errand of toting the furball to the vet and listening to her many vocal protests, I squeezed my run in during lunch. Arg, road running. I ran out to the start of the new bay bridge path and back. I didn’t realize how far it is to get there; it’s a 10k run to get there and back, most of it through the maze of approach ramps. I’ll have to return when I have more time to actually run out over the bay. It was sunny and hot and my legs were still really tired from Sunday. I forced in a bunch of higher speed intervals though, which makes things more fun, even on days like this, when I can’t keep pace up very long. I also rearranged my workouts for the rest of the week, playing things a bit more by ear, to be better recovered for a race on Saturday.
Wednesday Jan 29. 2600 yard swim. I took a day away from running/biking (my original plan) to let my legs rest a bit. I bought some new road shoes (Altra Torins), which I've been walking in for a couple days to break in. Just walking in them is helping to stretch out some long term tightness in my right thigh. I'm contemplating shifting all my shoes in this direction, since the zero heel to toe drop (including on my zero sandals) feels better in my feet and in my legs. I swam the Swim Speed 13-1 workout to get some workout time in, since I might take Friday off or easy. I'm noticing a significant swimming improvement since returning to it after a short break at the beginning of January, mostly in form and strength, which I hadn't really anticipated, as swimming seemed to have been plateaued for a couple months. I'm consistently about 3 strokes lower for a pool length than I was in December.
Thursday Jan 30. 4.3 mile run. Another road run at lunch. These are good for pushing speed, but this was just to get time outside. I kept a slow pace in lieu of Saturday, and having had tired legs all week.
Friday Jan 31. 13 mile ride. An easy back-and-forth on Skyline. Just looking to stay warmed up. No real hills.
Saturday Feb 1. 24.2 mile run. That was supposed to be 35k... I ran the Fort Ord trail run. Surprisingly strong uphills, slower than usual downhills. Lots of muscle protests after 10 miles, and I mistakenly added a couple miles. Really great trails, I'd like to go back for a stronger run again.
Sunday Feb 2. Rest.
I planned a full week of workouts for the coming week, but even with taking the last two weeks easy, things were off a bit on Saturday. Except the uphills, which were really strong. As a gut feeling move, watching some muscle aches creep in, I'm taking six days off of running to swim and cross train. Writing these blog entries, which I share minimally, helps a lot with reflecting on training choices and their outcomes. Since I've started writing this, I've used things I notice when writing to adjust my training, sometimes with surprising results.
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