Weeks until Mountains 2 Beach Marathon: 3!

This past week was my highest mileage training week, and my legs and body really felt it. I had been super tired mentally and physically all week, but thankfully that went away for my 20-mile run yesterday, which restored the confidence I lost during my really tough 15 miles last weekend. I’ve been sleeping pretty well, just waking up a couple times during the night. I feel like the actual time I’m sleeping is different though – I normally don’t sleep so hard. I’m sure it’s my body just trying to recover, and it’s doing a pretty good job.

It’s now May, which means my marathon is THIS MONTH. I’m getting really excited and the feelings of fear are beginning to diminish. Now that I’m done with my 20-miler, I just want the race to be here so I can go out and crush it. But I know I must taper, and I’m also looking forward to that. I’m not one of those people that gets antsy or sad that I can’t run as much; I fully welcome the lower mileage and extra rest days. There will be no taper tantrums here.

The M2B race director sent out the info packet, and unless I’m reading it wrong it said there will be free race photos including a finish line picture, which is really awesome. I’m so glad more and more races are starting to do this. I wouldn’t mind paying for race pictures if they were 10-15 dollars, but normally they’re like 45-50 which is insane, especially after the high race registration prices.

I ended up with 137.25 miles for April, which is a little less than March, but I feel like it was a strong month and I’m still proud of my 13-minute PR at the Chardonnay 10-Miler in Santa Barbara.

Here’s a look at the past week of training:

Monday – 7 miles easy @ 9:51

This run was anything but easy – legs felt like lead and it was a struggle almost the whole time.

Tuesday – 6.21 miles (2 mile warm-up, 4 x 800m w/ 400m easy jog between, 1 mile cool-down)

I messed this speed workout up and I didn’t realize until I got home I was supposed to do 8 800m repeats instead of 6, but my legs felt better today and my times for the 800m repeats were 3:59, 3:56, 3:49, and 3:57. I ran at the wonderfully flat Echo Park Lake and had to stop to let some little goslings cross my path. There are baby ducks and geese everywhere at the lake, and it’s been fun to watch them get bigger week by week. The mama geese are super protective of their young and I’m kind of convinced they’re going to go after me one of these days. I saw one charge at a Great Dane that was completely unfazed.

Wednesday – November Project + running 

I haven’t been going to NP lately and with good reason. I think it was a mistake to go this time, and I’m not going to go back until after the race. There’s always some sprinting and crazy body exercises involved, and it’s just too risky. It’s also really hard to not do the exercises while everyone else is doing them, so it’s safer if I just stay away. I did some running and a couple sprints and some burpees and an army crawl, then was sore for the next couple days. I ran a few miles afterward to make it 5 for the day.

The group is getting so big!

Thursday – 7 miles easy @ 9:57

Once again, not so easy… but my body warmed up a few miles into it.

Friday – glorious rest day

Saturday – 20 miles @ 9:58

I’m so proud of this run! I was pretty nervous about it ever since it showed up on my training plan, but when I woke up yesterday and started getting ready, I felt no nerves at all and just felt ready to get it started. I think this made a big difference mentally – not psyching myself out and thinking about the fact that I was about to run 20 miles and let the pressure get to me. I decided to drive to Marina Del Rey because whenever I do a long run around where I live it ends up hilly, challenging, and sucky. This was definitely a good decision, even though it adds like an hour and a half onto the whole ordeal because of driving out there and traffic. I normally always do out and back runs, but this time I decided to park in Marina Del Rey, run 5 miles north to Venice Beach and back, then 5 miles south toward Manhattan Beach and back. It seemed to be a good idea at first, breaking it up into 5 mile segments. And overall I do think it was beneficial, but passing my car and knowing I still had 10 miles to go was a little tough.

The first 5 miles went by fast, but I got kind of a late start and the tourists had already begun filling the sidewalks in Venice Beach. There’s always really good people watching and distractions, but there’s also a lot of weaving and secondhand pot smoke to get through, not to mention trying not to get hit by bicycles and Segway Tours. I also almost got hit by a soccer ball but it hit a girl on a Segway instead, so I guess they do serve some kind of purpose. One guy came up and ran next to me for a bit, asking about the knee bands I was wearing. He had just started running and already had pain in his knees. I tried to give him good advice and he seemed to appreciate it.

Quiet Marina Del Rey, before the craziness of the Venice Beach boardwalk.

I was glad to turn around and go in the other direction, which is much quieter and less populated. I ran along the Marvin Braude bike Trail that borders the Ballona Creek Wetlands, which was really cool, then turns into a bike path through the sand along the ocean. There were bad headwinds at this point, but I just kept thinking about how they would be helpful tailwinds on the way back.

At one point, I saw a lady fall off her bike because two huge dead sea lions were in the sand right next to the path and it startled her. I stopped to see if she needed help, but the person she was with said she was ok and they had a phone if they needed to call someone, so I kept going. On my way back, I saw that there were ambulances and she was on the ground getting her arm put in a sling. The worst part is that she had to sit next to the dead sea lions the whole time that smelled so bad and everyone was covering their mouths and it was all a big weird ordeal.

Still working on my taking-pictures-while-running technique.

By the time I had a couple miles left, I still felt like I had a lot left in the tank, so I sped up. My hips started getting tight around mile 17 or so, but it wasn’t too bad and seemed to go away when I started speeding up. The last two miles were the fastest, with the last being an 8:54 pace. If I’m being honest, I felt like such a badass when I finished.

Side note: I got some different tank tops last week for potential marathon shirts, and I wore the one I thought would be the winner – well I hated it and felt like it didn’t breathe at all and it was too tight. So it’s a good thing I tested it out! But now I’m still on the hunt and have to find a shirt in enough time to have a good amount of practice runs with it. I think I’m going to go with a bright color of a Lululemon tank I already have that I like a lot. Seems like a safe bet, and I want to wear a bright shirt so people can see me.

For fuel, I ate an entire packet of fruit smoothie Honey Stinger Chews, which is the most I’ve ever eaten on a run. I love these so much better than any other fuel I’ve had, they are easy to eat and small and so easy on my stomach. I ate them here and there throughout the whole run, starting at about mile 6. The whole packet only has 160 calories in it which doesn’t seem like enough, but it was fine for me and I never felt low energy. I also filled my water bottle up three or four times, which is a pain but at least I know I won’t have to do this with all the water stops during the marathon where I can just grab cups as I run by.

I ate a Clif Bar when I got back to my car and then wasn’t really hungry the rest of the day, but I made myself some eggs and toast and avocado for lunch. Jeremy and I ended up going to a Dodgers game with some friends, where I ate garlic fries, half a churro, some Cracker Jacks, soft pretzel, and some white wine… not exactly good fuel for my body, but we had a good time and I’ll make up for it today.

churro cheers

Our first Dodgers game!

Later today I’m thinking about going to a yoga class since I haven’t been very good about stretching lately, and I’ll fit in a few shake out miles also. Let the taper begin!

Weeks until Mountains 2 Beach Marathon: 15

I took a step back this week because last week was a lot. I ran six out of seven days, including three hard workouts. This week, I gave my body a little bit of a break, and my knees thanked me. I didn’t even go to November Project. This week was also the last ‘base building’ week of the training plan Coach Lauren made for me, and next week is officially the first week of ‘marathon training,’ which is exciting. And I’m running the Rose Bowl 10k in Pasadena next Sunday! I haven’t raced since November, and I’m feeling ready to push hard. I’m really hoping to PR, and it will be fun to see how much I’ve progressed since my last 10k in October (my time then was 58:26, and my 10k PR is 56:07). Whenever I haven’t run a race in a long time, I get super pumped, especially seeing pictures every weekend of all the people racing on Instagram. The 10k finishes inside the Rose Bowl, and there’s a 5k and half-marathon as well. I was looking at the race’s website, and I saw the divisions:

Age Groups and Divisions

• Age Group-Male & Female: 13 & Under, 14-17, 18-24, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80+
• Clydesdale: Men 200+ lbs
• Athena: Women 150+ lbs

There are separate divisions for plus-sized people?! And seriously 150 pounds… come on guys, that is not plus-sized, or Athena, or whatever you want to call it. I’ve never seen anything like that… am I the only one that thinks that is weird?

Anyway, here’s the past week in workouts and life.

Monday – 6 miles with 8 x 400m repeats

I always do my morning runs on the same path, which includes a couple steep hills, making speed workouts a lot harder than they already are. I finally ventured to Echo Park Lake for this workout, and it was so much better. It was about a mile and a half to the lake, then the path around the water is a little over a mile (I think), and then a mile and a half back. The entire thing is paved, also, unlike my other route, so I felt like I could run a lot faster. My 400m split paces were: 7:45, 7:47, 8:04, 8:13, 8:17, 8:12, 7:51, 7:15. Not bad! During my last repeat, an entire class from the local high school started running on the path, and I ended up racing the girl in front (she didn’t know we were racing), and it gave me that extra push to get my fastest interval in. I’ll definitely be returning to Echo Park Lake for my speedwork.

Echo Park Lake.

After work, my coworker and I went to the bar on the rooftop of the Ace Hotel downtown to see our other coworker DJing by the pool. I love the view from the top.

Tuesday – rest

Wednesday – 5 miles easy @ 9:45 min/mile

Normally I would go to November Project Wednesday morning, but I couldn’t fall asleep until 1am or so and had one of those restless nights, so I opted to get an extra hour of sleep and do five miles easy. I also figured it would be better not to push my body too hard, and a little decrease in activity would help.

That evening, I was invited to go to the Avalon Hollywood (across the street from the Capitol Records building, which looks really cool at night) for a presentation on an event called Checkpoints Race. I’ll write more about that in another post, but let’s just say I went to the event straight from work, and I forget that stuff in the heart of Hollywood is usually swanky and I was wearing sneakers and just totally underdressed when I showed up to the bouncers behind the velvet rope. I’m so used to being in Silver Lake or downtown where anything goes as far as clothing, but there’s a whole other side of Los Angeles that I sometimes forget exists. Aside from that, the presentation was really cool and the event sounds pretty awesome.

The fancy bathroom at the fancy club I was underdressed at.

Thursday – 5 miles easy @ 9:48 min/mile

It was nice to have a few easy days of running this past week.

After work, my boss took us all for happy hour and bowling, and I don’t know how it’s possible but the left side of my butt is STILL sore from it. Who knew bowling was such a good cross-training activity?

Friday – rest

I was planning on going to a sunrise 6k race that November Project was putting on, but it was moved from Griffith Park to the Santa Monica Pier so it was too far away for me to attend. But it’s probably better, since I got an extra rest day out of it.

Saturday – 10 miles, last 3 miles fast finish

Lately, it’s taken me a few miles to get into long runs. That didn’t really use to happen, but I think it’s just because I’m working harder these days and my body is still adjusting. The last few long runs, I haven’t started feeling really good until about mile 7. But at least I feel good! This past Saturday, I turned on the WTF podcast and just headed out the door, not expecting anything. I didn’t have breakfast except for a couple Powerbar Energy Chews (they look like Gushers on the package and that’s why I got them, but there’s no stuff that comes out of the center when I bite into them, maybe I got a faulty bag), and then I ate one more of those at mile 5.5, but that’s it. I usually eat something more substantial in the morning, but I was out of bananas and didn’t feel like making oatmeal. This could also be why it was hard to get started. But luckily my energy kicked in around mile 7, right when I was supposed to start my fast finish miles. I switched my iPhone from the podcast to my running playlist, and sped up. I was aiming for 8:30-8:45 miles, and the first mile included a half-mile big hill, so I didn’t quite get there. The last two miles were great though, with 8:29 and 8:38 as the average paces. My legs felt super fresh at this point, and like I had just started my run. That was a really encouraging sign!

After I was done, Jeremy and I braved the weather (it was 60 degrees and sprinkling) and got lunch at a placed called Mexicali in Chinatown. It sounds strange, but it was delicious. We are slowly making our way through Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles. Only about 96 to go. It’s a tough task, but somebody’s gotta do it.

We then went to Frontrunners in West Hollywood, where I got the new Saucony ISO Triumphs, and I had ordered the newest version of the Wave Creations on Zappos earlier that week. My last two pairs of running shoes were the Wave Creation 14 and 15, so I’m looking forward to seeing if I love the 16 as much as the others.

I’ll have a lot more to say about these shoes after I’ve run in them for a week or two!

That night, Jeremy and I watched Gone Girl (I finished the book earlier in the day), and I went to bed nice and early.

Sunday – yoga and stretching and foam rolling

The weather was perfect so I sat outside and read for a while in our backyard, then went and bought some plants for our apartment. I didn’t run, but I made sure to stretch and foam roll a lot and ice my knee, and then did this Yoga for Runners video I like.

Our cute little backyard, with lots of citrus fruits on the trees.

Happy Monday!

Weeks until Mountains 2 Beach Marathon: 20 

I finished my first week of marathon training, and it’s going really well so far! I stuck to the plan, and since it happens to be the first week of the year, there is lots of talk everywhere of exercising and eating healthy, which adds a little motivation to this whole thing. I mean, I was already really excited, but it seems especially momentous since New Years happened in the middle of my first week. I felt pretty tired after yesterday’s run; last week was the most exercise I’ve done in a while, if I’m being honest. I have been running fairly consistently since 2012 and stuck to a couple Hal Higdon half marathon plans, but for the most part I became pretty lackadaisical about running once my body was in shape to run halfs without much training, and just ran whenever I felt like it. That’s most of the reason I wanted to hire a coach; having someone create a custom plan and someone I have to report back to is a big push for me to stick with it and complete every workout on the schedule.

Monday – 5 miles @ 9:54 min/mile

I became swamped and stressed from work the couple weeks before Christmas, and didn’t do much in the way of exercise during that time. When I started back, I stuck to 3 miles, and this 5-mile workout felt tough. I also wasn’t prepared for how cold it was going to be. It was 41 degrees when I started my run, so I wore three layers on top but kept shorts on. I probably should have put pants on because my legs felt frozen for the first few miles. My body has completely adjusted to warm weather, and it was kind of a shock to my system. I actually really like running in colder weather (I did nine miles last winter in Tennessee and there was ice on the ground and I distinctly remember it was a great run), but I guess my body just wasn’t quite ready for it.

yay for marathon training!

Tuesday – Rest

Wednesday – November Project + 4 miles

We did 35 minutes of sprinting stadium stairs at November Project, and I ran two miles @ 9:25 min/mile afterward to get in 4.2 miles for the day.

It was so cold and windy.

Thursday – 5 miles @ 9:29 min/mile

This run already felt better than Monday’s. I did three miles easy, then a fast finish of two miles. I couldn’t quite hit the 8:30-8:45 paces my plan called for (I don’t think I’ve ever hit those paces for two miles, but I’m ready to try), but I only got 2-3 hours of sleep the night before so I was a little tired. Splits: 9:43, 9:45, 9:59, 9:05, 8:54.

I had to get a new phone because I shattered my other one and it deleted my pictures, so here’s a screen shot from my Instagram. I got this shirt for free from Brooks a couple years ago since it was my birthday.

Friday – Yoga 

I was going to try to make it to November Project, but I made sleep a priority instead of waking up at 5:30am, so I missed it. It’s just as good though, they did hill repeats and I think my legs needed a little break. I got a 10-class pass for a local yoga/spinning studio called YAS for Christmas, so I went to my first class in the afternoon instead. The studio offers spinning classes, yoga classes, and half-spinning half-yoga classes. I chose the ‘yoga for athletes – core’ class, and I was the only one there so I got a private lesson. It was awesome. It had been a loooong time since I did yoga, and I felt it. I’m still sore, actually. I also haven’t done any upper body or core strengthening in a while, and that’s something that needs to change. One more thing, I got a new yoga mat at Whole Foods and my hands were slipping all over it during class… people that do yoga: is that normal? Do I just need to get a towel or something? I don’t remember my cheapo mat from Marshall’s ever doing that, so I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe my hands are just more sweaty these days.

I did sweat. A lot.

I’m so glad this place is 0.7 miles away from my house.

Saturday – 6 miles easy @ 9:44 min/mile

I’ve been having a hard time finding an easy pace lately; my pace has quickened due to all the stadium stair sprinting we do at November Project, and I find myself pushing a little harder on all my runs. I need to remember to slow it down and make the easy runs easy, so I can increase my distance comfortably. My stupid left knee starting hurting a bit during the last half-mile and I’m pretty sure it’s because I was tired and slacking on my form. I’ve been icing it and I’ll have to start wearing my compression band again just in case.

Total: 20 miles 

Looks like the weather will be back to normal this upcoming week and work will be starting up again which means more discipline about waking up early enough to get my runs done in the morning.

One more question: are there any other How I Met Your Mother fans out there? Jeremy and I just finished the series last night and I’m feeling NOT GREAT about the finale.