Ocean View Half Marathon Training Week 2

Week of October 9-15

Monday Planned: 6 miles, 3 @ 5k pace
Monday Actual: 6 miles, 3 @ 5k pace.  This was a somewhat impromptu 5k brought on by skipping my long run over the weekend. It was Jeri's perfect race weather. So cool that I had a jacket on in between the warm up and the race. That's COLD. Love.

Tuesday Planned: General Aerobic 7 Miles
Tuesday Actual: Rest day. I've still been feeling under the weather, so I took another rest day.

Wednesday Planned: General Aerobic + Speed 6 miles, 2 sets 6x100 strides
Wednesday Actual: Another rest day with yoga. I had gotten my hair and make up done and just didn't want to ruin it with a run. Oops. #dedication

Thursday Planned: Rest
Thursday Actual: I finally got out for a 5 mile recovery run through the crunchy leaves.

Friday Planned: Endurance 11 Miles
Friday Actual: Rest

Saturday Planned: Rest
Saturday Actual: Rest

Sunday Planned: Recovery 5 Miles
Sunday Actual: Endurance 11 Miles. I absolutely love running in these cool temps. Love love love.

Total Mileage Planned: 35 Miles
Total Mileage Actual: 22.14 miles. Not nearly as many as planned, but I had to take care of some issues in my body that were cranky.

Weekly Reads: Goodbye Days

Goodbye Days is the newest book by Jeff Zentner. It's a perfect bundle of the heartbreak of losing friends, the grief that you make your way through in a time of loss and so much more. I had to stop reading this on my lunch break at work because I was crying so much. So good.

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

What if you could spend one last day with someone you lost?

One day Carver Briggs had it all—three best friends, a supportive family, and a reputation as a talented writer at his high school, Nashville Academy for the Arts.

The next day he lost it all when he sent a simple text to his friend Mars, right before Mars, Eli, and Blake were killed in a car crash.

Now Carver can’t stop blaming himself for the accident, and he’s not the only one. Eli’s twin sister is trying to freeze him out of school with her death-ray stare. And Mars’s father, a powerful judge, is pressuring the district attorney to open a criminal investigation into Carver’s actions.

Luckily, Carver has some unexpected allies: Eli’s girlfriend, the only person to stand by him at school; Dr. Mendez, his new therapist; and Blake’s grandmother, who asks Carver to spend a Goodbye Day with her to share their memories and say a proper goodbye to his friend.

Soon the other families are asking for a Goodbye Day with Carver, but he’s unsure of their motives. Will they all be able to make peace with their losses, or will these Goodbye Days bring Carver one step closer to a complete breakdown or—even worse—prison?

High Vibe Festival

A couple of weekends ago, myself and some fellow yogis loaded up and headed down south for a one-day yoga festival. Friday night we headed out for a delicious dinner and drinks with some other Sioux Falls yogis, and then we went to bed pretty early in anticipation for our big day!

Our hotel was right next to an awesome breakfast spot, so I convinced Julie to join me to fuel up for the day. Avo toast and a beet+orange juice was heavenly. Food coma good.

Then it was time to head to the festival. We started off the day with a huge class as a community in the middle of a field. My girl, MC Sweet, lead the class, and it was the most magical way to start the day. She had a singer/guitar player sing us through savasana, and it was Stevie Nick's Landslide, which was a song my mom used to sing all the time. The festival was two days after the anniversary of her passing, so I had all the tears. Savasana tears, so necessary.

Next up was a class led by our yogi friends from Sioux City. Jackie owns the most beautiful studio. It's exactly what I'd dream of having if I owned my own space. Gorgeous. Her and Jianna led us through a really challenging but fun flow as well.

We had a great lunch nearby, and I was ready for a nap. But it was time for more yoga! I took 5 total classes during the day for 7.5 hours of yoga. Woof. I was one sore girl, but how do you say no to classes taught by friends and teachers you only see once in awhile?! You don't.

It was such a lovely way to spend the day with my teacher friends. Can't wait for the next one!

Race Report: Twin Cities 10 Mile

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning, ready to take the shortcut from Minneapolis to St. Paul. I looked out the window to see the rain falling and the busses lined up to take us to the start! We got ready and left our hotel around 5:45am to make our way to the start. Bus selfie was necessary.

When we were dropped off, we weren't really sure where we were heading, so we just kept following random herds of people until volunteers with megaphones directed us where to go. We found our bag drop area, but decided we didn't want to drop our stuff quite yet. We found a little spot under an awning to block us from the rain, and in no time at all, it was time to start!

I had looked at the course profile, elevation map, and previous year's splits, to give myself an idea of what to expect on the course and an idea of where I should be with my paces. I ended up ignoring all of that and just running hard. I thought I could run comfortably hard for 5 miles, and then move to uncomfortably hard for the latter 5 miles. It was going to be warmer than I wanted, so running by effort vs. a specific pace goal made a lot more sense.

The gun sounded, the corral lurched forward, and within a couple of minutes we were on our way. I yelled to Toni to run hard and we were off! There were a ton of downhills in the first couple of miles. None that I remembered or expected. I had thought it was going to be flat. Hmm... I was really nervous about thundering down the downhills and having my quads lock up, so I took it really easy. So much for comfortably hard, I guess! There were some insane downpours in the first three miles, but honestly they were welcomed. It was mid to upper 50s at the start of the race, and it would've gotten hot FAST if it hadn't been for the cooling rain. We ran into a nice breeze which really made a difference! 

1. 9:20

2. 9:23

Mile three had a decent incline followed by a big ol' downhill. I took my only GU at mile 3 because I was feeling a little hungry. Finally I felt like things had leveled out, so I started to work hard. I really loved these few middle miles of the race, because I loved how easy a 9 minute pace felt on the flat portions! Shockingly enough, looking back at the data, mile 4 was actually uphill, it just felt flat compared to the monster up and downs of the first three miles. Ha.

3. 9:37

4. 9:00

5. 9:05

I noted my time at the halfway point (47:01, 9:25 pace), and realized I would REALLY need to speed up the second half to come in under 1:30. I also was already running way over distance-wise on my watch. Mile 6 is the big climb in the race, with another hill in mile 7. I remember these hills being NEVER ENDING when I did it in 2010. Seriously. I thought I was going to die. But this time around, they didn't feel terrible. Interesting. 

6. 9:21

7. 9:01

I was feeling really strong with a 5k to go, and tried to calculate my finishing time based on a sub 9 pace. I thought to myself, self, it'd be really cool if you could run the 5k pace of the bummer-of-a-race a couple of weeks ago at the END of a 10 mile race. Challenge accepted, self. Except I didn't really remember what that pace was... I thought it was 8:40, but it was actually 8:25 hah. Oops.

8. 8:43

Mile 8 I felt like I was taking over the race. Like my legs weren't my own and I was flyyyyyyyying. Until, my watch beeped 8 miles and I was no where near an 8 mile flag. This messed with me mentally more than I'd like to admit. I had been about .05-.07 over at each mile marker, and typically expect to be about .1 over on most 10 mile to half marathon races, especially bigger races like this one. But my watch was at 8.27 when the 8 mile plume finally showed up. UFF DA. I had calculated that I could dig deep for a 5k not 3.37 miles!!! PANIC!

Luckily at this time, I also saw my HS bestie Nikki, and her whole crew cheering loud for me. They gave me such a burst of energy and love that I flew by totally re-energized! And wouldn't you know it, that when I saw the mile 9 flag, it was roughly where it was supposed to be. I suspect that the 8 mile plume either got set up in the wrong spot, or blew away with the crazy winds and that's just where it ended up. I would've bet my life that there was a tiny incline in this mile, but I guess I would've been wrong, because my Garmin says, nope, pancake flat! I guess mile 8 had a nice little downhill so it felt uphill by comparison. That's quite rude.

9. 9:03

We made our way toward the finish line and the crowds of people were already lining the course the final mile. The 10 mile started at 7am and the marathon not until 8am, so we don't get nearly as many spectators, but I was shocked at how many were out there to cheer us in! The final mile has a steep little downhill halfway through the mile, and I normally take downhills easy, but we were so close that I thundered down it. 

As I was approaching it, I saw Nikki and her fam once again, her son Miles sprinting up to me to cheer me on. YES!! I tried to pick it up the best I could that final mile and when I saw the finishing time at 1:27 I thought, hmmm maybe that's right and my watch is wrong. Ha.  

10. 8:18

With about 3 strides to the finish line, I had a huge dry heave, I crossed the finish line and had quite a few more. Some guy came to check on me after I crossed and was leaning over, and I tried to wave him away to save his shoes. Luckily for me, but mostly him, that my stomach was pretty empty and once I focused on my breath I was able to let it pass.

.11 :45 (6:50 pace, 6:23 max pace)

I ran 10.11 miles in 1:31:42 for an average pace of 9:05. First 5 mile pace 9:25, second 5 mile pace 8:57!

It took forever for me to find Toni after the race, but eventually we were reunited. 

And Nikki and her clan stuck around for a bit too!

We hung out for so long that all of my sweat started to freeze, so we opted to skip the beer tent (*gasp*) that at this point had a monstrously long line to get in to, and headed back to our hotel to shower. When we arrived, there was a sign advertising race day specials, so luckily I was able to get my post-race beer anyway!

After some quick warm showers we headed back out in the rain to cheer in all the rest of our SFWR!!

What I'm Loving Right Now: Believe Training Journal

Last fall, I ordered a Believe Training journal prior to starting marathon training (which just didn't ever start). It arrived the week of the Sioux Falls half marathon, and I have absolutely loved journaling in it for the past year. I've always tracked my training online, but that's typically time, distance, pace, what shoes worn. The journal allows me space to include how the run felt and anything else of note.



I also love using it to track my recovery practices. I would never log my core work, or foam rolling, epsom baths, massages, etc. But instead of having a big ol' REST written on a day, I enjoy writing down my recovery practices. It also helps remind me that on days off I can still do a lot to make my running stronger.

Prior to this year's Sioux Falls half, I went through the journal from start to finish (well almost, I made it until June before Kyle got bored and wanted attention) reviewing my goals, both short term and long term, and seeing how much my running has progressed over the last year was really inspiring. I have some BIG goals for running, some may say crazy or impossible, but having a big long-term goal makes it easier to put in the small work day-to-day. I know I'm still a couple of training cycles away from PR shape, and that would be really defeating to deal with if I wasn't working toward longer term goals.



To see my progress from one year of working really hard has been a lot of fun, and I can't wait to look back a year from now to see that continued progress.

I bought a new journal last winter, because I found the Compete one on sale, I picked up a couple of the other ones for gifts for running friends, and I just dug mine out, as I knew mine would be running out because I've been using it for a year. When I flipped to the end of my journal, I discovered that the very last entry day is October 1, the day of the Twin Cities 10 Mile.

That couldn't have worked out any better.

Twin Cities 10 Mile Recovery Week

Week of October 2-8

Monday Planned: Rest
Monday Actual: Rest

Tuesday Planned: Rest
Tuesday Actual: Rest

Wednesday Planned: 3-4 Miles Recovery
Wednesday Actual: 3 Mile recovery run at the group run + some yoga.

Thursday Planned: General Aerobic 5-6 Miles
Thursday Actual: 6 Miles General Aerobic. Legs felt REALLY good. 



Friday Planned: 3-4 Miles recovery 
Friday Actual: 4 Mile recovery run for coffee!! Followed by an epsom salt bath before work.

Saturday Planned: 7 miles with 8x100 strides.
Saturday Actual: Unplanned rest day. I was exhausted and had to teach yoga, so I took another rest day. It's recovery week, after all! I did a 60 minute float at Escape Float Spa. Heaven.

Sunday Planned: 9 mile long run
Sunday Actual: I was starting to feel a cold or crud coming on, so I opted to not fully run long and take it easy for just another day. I forget that I'm usually broken after a race, and then I get sick. So with not getting injured, my body is just feeling run down.

Total Mileage Planned: 30 miles (ish, I wasn't fully committed to running any miles this week, just a  rough guide)
Total Mileage Actual: 13.1 miles

Weekly Reads (Listens): Sourdough

Sourdough is the newest book by Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (my review here). I had the physical book and audiobook on hold at the library and the audio came in first. I thought I'd ditch it if I didn't love the narrator, but I immediately felt like I was listening to a movie playing out in my car. Yesssssss. It was quirky and awesome, and splashed with little bits of oddities and technology, and I just devoured it. Mmmm...... like a nice slice of sourdough bread..... <--see what I did there.

My rating: 4.5 stars

Summary from Goodreads:

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers close up shop, and fast. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves daily to the General Dexterity cafeteria. The company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market, and a whole new world opens up.

When Lois comes before the jury that decides who sells what at Bay Area markets, she encounters a close-knit club with no appetite for new members. But then, an alternative emerges: a secret market that aims to fuse food and technology. But who are these people, exactly?