Weeks until Mountains 2 Beach Marathon: 19

This past week of marathon training went really well. It’s still so early on that it hasn’t QUITE hit me that I’m training for a full marathon, but I’m already seeing improvements. I feel like getting a coach was the best thing I could have done; it’s finally making me push myself and see what I’m capable of. I’m also realizing just how half-assed my training has been previously.

Monday – 5 miles with 800m repeats 

Speed workouts are extremely new to me (this might have been my first real one?) and I’m still trying to settle into a faster pace and getting my body adjusted to pushing itself. My goal was to hit 8:00-8:10 paces during the repeats, which I didn’t quite succeed at. The route that I take every morning has two hills and half the course is basically on an incline. This made the repeats tough, and I was paranoid about burning out so I didn’t push myself enough. An 8:00 pace still feels like I’m sprinting, so I know the more I do these, the better I’ll get (duh). My splits: warm up mile 9:38, four 800m repeats with 400m rest in between (8:35, 8:31, 8:42, 8:28) cool down mile 9:31.

Tuesday – Rest 

Wednesday – November Project and 5 miles total

We did “couples retreat” at November Project, which is basically running up and down the stadium stairs while your partner does different exercises (burpees, wall sits, planks, etc.) and then switching. I was glad to have these other workouts to do, since I haven’t been doing any other strengthening exercises. That needs to change. I ran three miles @ 9:22 pace afterward to get to five miles total for the day.

Thursday – 3 miles

My plan was to run five miles, but I had horrible cramps and cut it at three. I knew I would be getting in some mileage at November Project Friday morning, so I checked with my coach and it was all good.

Friday – November Project

This was a crazy workout. We met in Echo Park at what is one of the steepest streets in Los Angeles (steeper than any in San Francisco). I was actually really close to skipping it, I couldn’t fall asleep until about 2am and setting my alarm for 5:30am was too painful. But lo and behold, my body woke me naturally right at 5:45, so I took it as a sign. I’m so glad I went though. I ended up running up and down the hills for a little over two miles.

Saturday – 7 miles with a fast finish

You guys, I’m so proud of this one. I figured my legs would be jello and seeing the paces I was supposed to hit for the fast finish intimidated the hell out of me. I’ve always been a high 9- or 10-minute-per-mile runner, and it’s rare to clock a mile in the 8-minute zone. But I killed it! My splits: 9:30, 9:41, 9:29, 9:24, 9:43, 8:32, 8:29. This run was so fun.

Sunday – Rest

I took it easy after my run Saturday morning and it felt really good. It rained all weekend so it was extra incentive to relax. Tonight I foam rolled and stretched and did some ab exercises, and that’s it.

Non-Running Stuff

Monday night, my company was invited to a private premiere of Portlandia at the Ace Hotel theatre downtown Los Angeles.

I hadn’t ever been to the theater before, and it was beautiful. We also had really good seats and I was basically sitting next to Fred Armisen, Carrie Brownstein, Kyle MacLachlan, Kumail Nanjiani, Aimee Mann, Tim Heidecker, Lorne Michaels… the list goes on. Pretty much anyone who’s been in a Portlandia episode was there, and there was a Q&A after they showed two episodes from the new season. I took one picture:

Wednesday night was spent at my friend Monika’s house, who was in town from London. She always brings me a big box of Maltesers (my favorite candy) and I always eat them all immediately.

Thursday evening I finally got to take a quick break at work (it’s been really busy still), and watch the sunset from the rooftop of our building.

They filmed a Bud Light Super Bowl commercial next door and had this huge life-sized Pac Man game set up. We could hear the music and announcer pretty much all day and night from inside our office. I now have one reason to watch the Super Bowl.

Here’s a video (with sound):

Thursday night we went to dinner with some friends, and we went back to Guisado’s, the taco place from last week. The same picture applies because I ordered the same tacos.

I’m excited to get week three of training going!