Saga of the Long Run: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Week 12/52)

I'm getting into the heart of marathon training now - this week's long run was 14 miles.  That is a distance I did not run a single time in 2016.

Sunday - Rested

Monday - Ran 2.01 miles

This is the hill behind our house.  Loving all the green!

Tuesday - Ran 5.03 miles
I had planned on doing intervals but got rained on.  I am klutzy enough on my own, I didn't want to attempt speed work in wet conditions.

Wednesday - Rested

Thursday - Rode 9.33 miles

Friday - Rested
We have a lot going on in life right now and I'm not getting to bed as early as I'd like.  I had planned on going for a short run but couldn't get myself out the door.

Saturday - Ran 14 miles (plus 1.65 miles warm up/cool down)
My first 11 miles went great.  I ran from home and headed to Santa Susana Pass.  My plan was to run up and over and turn around at the 7 mile mark.  I made it most of the way down before hitting 7 miles.  I turned around and was back on the downhill side in good time.  About a half mile after I got off the pass my stomach got cranky.  Ugh.  I'll spare you the bad and ugly details!  I finished though, and that's a win after how my running was 6 months ago. My legs are telling me this morning that it's been a long time since I've run anything that long or hilly!  But mentally I'm feeling really good and that's a battle I couldn't seem to win last year.

Yesterday's elevation +1200'

Totals:
Running: 22.69

Cycling: 9.33
Total:  32.02

How was your week?  What are you training for?

Mud Slinger (Week 6/52)

This was another week that included rain!  We are now over 15" for the season.  After years of drought I am loving how green our hills are.

Sunday - Rode 15.15 miles

Monday - Rested

Tuesday - Ran 5.09 miles +559' elevation
This was a wet one!  The roads were wet when I got up but it wasn't actively raining.  By the time I made it downstairs the rain was coming down.  It let up so I decided to head out.  There was a heavy mist the entire time I was out but the temps were in the upper 50s so it felt great!

Wednesday - Ran 2.01 miles +169' elevation

Thursday - Rode 12.27
I hit the trail again and had my 10th best time of 105 efforts on the 3.4 mile climb.  The trail was much wetter than last week and there are a lot of puddles.  I hit one of the creek crossings wrong and splashed my way through.  A good trail ride includes a mud splattered jacket and a little mud on your chin...

Friday - Ran 1.97 miles +169' elevation
This was Les' second run of the week and he shaved 3 1/2 minutes a mile off his pace!  He has degenerative disks otherwise he would be crushing me on a regular basis.  I would love it if he could run long distances with me.

Saturday - Rested
It was raining again and I had zero motivation.  I spent the morning working on taxes, which is not even close to fun, but they are done and we don't owe anything so that's a good thing!

February Run Climbing Challenge Progress:  892 meters/2,927 feet - 44% complete
I didn't get quite as much climbing in this week but the second half of February will be all running - we booked a last minute trip to Hawaii and leave on Tuesday.  Tantalus, here I come!

Total
Running 9.07
Walking 0.00
Cycling  27.42
Total  36.49

Time on the Trail is Time Well Spent (Week 5/52)

I had a good last week of January/first week of February.

Sunday - ran 4.8 miles
I was asked to teach our Youth class at church and was pretty focused on that while out for my run.  We were also having strong Santa Ana winds, so this one was pretty challenging.

Monday - Rested
It has been a long time since I had a migraine but I woke with one on Monday.  I use to get them every month (#hormones) but didn't recognize the signs until it was full blown. 

Tuesday - Rode 12.2 miles
This was my first trail ride in about two months.  My migraine was gone and I felt awesome!  So awesome that I left Les behind.  This is a rare occurrence.  The trail is in pretty good shape due to all the rain we've had recently.  Although this wash out made me a little nervous...

Wednesday - Walked 1.97 miles
I knew I wanted to go for a trail run on Thursday so I took it easy on Wednesday.

Thursday - Ran 8.07 miles
I kicked off the Strava run climbing challenge with over 1,000 feet of climbing.  This is an out and back with 900 feet happening in the first four miles.  300 of those feet happen between 3.4 and 4.0 miles.

Friday - Rested
Rained out.   We got almost a half inch of rain, bringing our total to over 13".  Great news from the California Drought website: "Currently, about 39% of the state is identified as drought-free. Areas under extreme drought conditions fell from 41% to only 2% over the past month."

Saturday - Ran 8 miles
I had planned to go for a bike ride but the roads were wet so I hit the hills instead.  My Suunto had about 800' of elevation gain but Strava gave me 1,001'.  Since Strava will determine how I do on the Climbing Challenge, I'll use their numbers.

February Run Climbing Challenge Progress:  618 meters/2,027 feet - 30% complete

Total
Running 20.87
Walking 1.97
Cycling 12.20
Total 35.04

How are the hills where you are?  Is this a challenge you could/would do?

February Focus

After a successful January, I wanted to keep on with a monthly focus.  For February, I'll again focus on two areas:

Running ~ Climbs All the Hills
Strava has a variety of challenges every month.  I don't usually pay attention to them, but decided to go for their February Run Climbing Challenge - "Leave the flats behind and climb at least 2,000 meters this month."  2,000 meters is just a little over 6,500 feet.  That's a lot of hills!  I had about 5,800 feet in January without focusing on hills, but with February being a shortened month this will definitely be a challenge.  I had thought about starting speed work this month, but since hills are speed work in disguise, I think this challenge will put me on track for a speedier March!

I did an 8 mile trail run yesterday that had over 1,000 feet of climbing so I'm off to a good start.  What this really means is I need to hit the hills in my neighborhood every time I run this month.  When the hills are looking like this, it makes the pain a little more bearable:

Health ~ Increase Fruits and Vegetables
I survived my no desserts January and am going to continue to limit sugar.  My plan is to allow one dessert a week.  I didn't write it as a focus, but I ending up tracking all my eating for the month of January as well.  I use the old Weight Watchers points system (from the early 2000s)  It's what I used when I lost 30 pounds and kept it off for years.  Some of that weight has crept back on in recent years so I'm working on getting it back off.  I know more fruits and veggies are essential to healthy weight loss and overall good health.

Any new goals/focus/plans for February?

M5T W3

We fly back to Hawaii on Wednesday.  Thursday through Saturday I will be at a music workshop with our church and we have a concert on Sunday night.  I'm already planning to skip intervals this week - the weather is too beautiful here for me to not get in a trail run.  Hills are speed work in disguise, right?  Pretty sure this plan will not resemble my actual life this week at all!

This is week three of training. After this week, race day will be 13 weeks away.  Most of your runs will be similar to last week, though your long run will inch up to 12 miles.

Sunday - Rest day

Monday - 3 miles easy (10:35 pace)

Tuesday - Intervals - 8 miles
2-mile warmup
3x400 @ 1:56 pace with 200 easy run rec.
3 x Yasso 800 @ 4:00 with 400m easy run rec.
1x400 @ 1:56 pace with 200 easy run rec.
2-mile cooldown

Wednesday  - 3 miles easy (10:35 pace)

Thursday - 4 miles easy (10:35 pace)

Friday - Rest day

Saturday - LSD 12 miles  (10:35-10:50 pace)

Total planned miles 30

Tantalus Thursday

It's been quite a while since I ran Tantalus.  It was all the way back on January 16th!  Now that we don't live in Waikiki it takes a bit more planning to get up and over there before traffic is too bad.  Les wanted to ride it on his way to work this morning so I said I'd take his backpack in the car so he wouldn't have to wear it going up the mountain.  I was up and out the door around 5:15 and started running at 5:45.  My legs felt pretty good.  I had no plan and I didn't know what my previous PR was, but I did know Les and his friend Rob would be coming up behind me on their bikes so I wanted to keep moving!

I hit the five mile mark in 1:05:09, a 13:02 pace.  This is the meat of the run with almost 1500' feet of climbing.  Les and Rob caught me during mile five and I was running strong.  Of course mile six is the real killer because it descends a while then kicks back up.  I powered up that section and was feeling really good about my chances of PRing the entire loop.   I not only PRd, I crushed my previous best!    After uploading my file to Strava, I saw that I was 9th overall on the entire loop (a new PR), plus 8th overall on the descent (another PR!)  I PRd the climb and am 15th overall on it.

I beat every stat from January!  (Mile 10 was 13 seconds slower but traffic was getting heavy and I know I was trying to dodge cars.)  Today's splits:

My splits from January 16th:

Now I can really go on vacation and not worry about my fitness level!

Mia Bella Vita

Venice, 2011

When I realized that we would be spending a lot of time on Oahu this year, one concern I had was not having a bike.  Cross training on my mountain bike has worked great for me over the past couple of years.  So, without further delay, I'd like to introduce Vita!

This is a Specialized fitness/hybrid bike called the Vita Sport.  The tires are smaller than my mountain bike's but bigger than a road bike.  Hawaiian roads are not always in the best condition, so Les thought this would be a perfect fit.  From Specialized's website: "With its lightweight frame and efficient gearing, you’ll become a speedy, hill-climbing machine, while vibration-damping Zertz take the edge off any rough roads."  I'm going to have to become a hill-climbing machine just to get back to our house!  This is the last little climb, but anytime the road changes from asphalt to concrete that means it is super steep!  This one gets up to about 15%.

I took her for a short spin this morning and felt like I was flying.  So much lighter than my mountain bike.  I didn't go far, I noticed my seat was a little too low which was putting pressure on my knees.  I don't need to mess those up!  I know it's an easy fix, but I want Les to help me get it right.

The first of many pictures of Vita with Diamond Head in the background

Mia Bella Vita is Italian for My Beautiful Life.  I have to say that is a perfect description!  I don't have a perfect life, but it is beautiful.  I'm looking forward to many beautiful miles on my new ride.  And since we're going to Italy (and Greece and Turkey) in May, I now have an Italian phrase to use!

How often do you cross train and what do you do?

Santa Susana Pass Road Revisited

We're back in California for a bit so I've been hitting some of my favorite training routes.  Santa Su is one I did while training for the Revel Canyon City Marathon.  It was my final long training run on November first.  It's eight miles that I think of as four segments - 2 miles up, 2 miles down, 2 miles back up, and 2 miles back down.

Saturday night I looked up my previous run to see what my best time was.  I thought it said 1:20:37, so just a little over 10 minutes a mile.  With that in mind I headed out yesterday morning.  It was a cool 42 degrees, clear and no wind.  I hit the halfway point in 40:36, 10:09 pace.  I knew if I was going to beat my previous best that I needed to be even faster!  So I took a GU and a selfie and headed back up...

Somewhere during mile five my legs started cramping.  I always take Hammer Endurolytes in Hawaii, but didn't think I would need them here in the cooler temps.  Wrong!  I took multiple walk breaks and saw my time get slower.  I ran those two miles in 25:59 and my total time at six miles was 1:06:36.  I knew I wasn't going to run my last two miles in 14 minutes, but I decided to see if I could at least PR the segment.  I ran those two miles in 15:47, overall time 1:22:35, 10:16 pace.  I got home and uploaded to Strava and saw this:

Turns out I had NOT run this in 1:20:37!  My previous best was 1:23:04. I was four seconds a mile faster, good enough for top woman on both 2 mile downhill segments and my second best 2 mile effort.

The lesson here - if you think you've been faster, you believe you can be faster!

Taking My Stryd for a Test Run

I received my Stryd power meter in the mail yesterday so of course I took it out for a run this morning!  I could not get a heart rate the entire run, which was annoying and distracting, but other than that it was an interesting run.

After several days of rain, this morning it was clear, cool and windy.  I headed out to one of my normal loops that has a pretty tough climb and a nice downhill.  I really didn't know what to look for or expect.  Here are my mile breakdowns:

Mile 1 - 10:29 pace/ +73' / -39' / 180 Ave Power / 244 Max Power
Mile 2 - 11:33 pace/ +128' / 184 Ave Power / 356 Max Power
Mile 3 - 10:57 pace/ +92' / -23' / 186 Ave Power / 254 Max Power
Mile 4 -  8:52 pace/ +10' / -171' / 196 Ave Power / 263 Max Power
Mile 5 -  9:03 pace/ +20' / -120' / 203 Ave Power / 242 Max Power

The most significant point - my biggest power spike was during the mile with the most climbing even though that mile was my slowest.  It's also interesting to note that my downhill miles still had high power output.  That doesn't happen in cycling - downhill = coasting in cycling.

Total
5.02 miles in 51:11, 10:12 pace
348' elevation gain
377' elevation loss
190 watts Average Power
356 watts Max Power

We did figure out why I wasn't getting HR data.  I just needed to update the software.  A quick and easy fix, so my next run will include HR data.

So what does all this mean?  I really have no idea! I'm posting it today so a few weeks from now, when things do make sense, I can come back and look at these numbers again.

I'm sure as I gather more data this will start to make sense.  I knew I was working hard, and without any heart rate data, the power data was able to confirm that.  The goal is to learn what I am able to sustain for a long period, slowly working to make that number higher so I can run faster without burning out before the end of a race.

I'm pretty sure for the next month or so Les is going to be having way more fun with this than I am!  He was thrilled to have these numbers to look at and kept saying things like, "Your 10 second power was..."  "your 5 minute power was..."

Final Thoughts and Future Plans

I've taken a ton of rest days this week.  The first couple because I was so sore, and the last couple because we have Santa Ana winds howling and I just didn't feel like fighting them!  I'm not worried about losing fitness, I think I needed to mental break from training as much as the physical.

Frazz is my favorite comic strip!  Especially because Miss Plainwell is the faster runner ;)

I've analyzed my marathon career (a total of four races!) and realize that I need to dial back my expectations for now.  A sub 4:00 may never happen and I am okay with that.  Finishing a marathon is a big deal and a 7 minute PR over my 48 year old self is a great accomplishment!

I don't have any regrets about my most recent marathon.  (Wait, I do have one - the professional photographer did not get a finish line picture of me. I was completely alone when I crossed the finish line and I guess they must have been bored and looked away.  I'm sad about this because Les didn't take any either - he saw the photographer and really thought they would get a great shot.)  I have to be honest with myself and say I'm not ready to run that distance any faster.  My previous best was 4:53:33, so a sub 4:00 would have shaved off almost an hour.  Kinda unrealistic, yeah?

I haven't chosen a race for next year.  I've enjoyed doing different marathons, but I really enjoyed my experience with this particular race.  I do like the smaller size (1,199 finishers) as opposed to the massive Honolulu Marathon.  I am not willing to commit to more than one marathon a year.  Sixteen weeks of training plus a couple of easy weeks recovery is more than a third of the year.  I enjoy the training process, but I also enjoy having the liberty to do less or more on any given day.  Maybe I should think about shorter races for a year?

My strategy for next time:

• Set a more realistic goal - around 4:40, which would be another 7 minute PR, with a stretch of 4:30.
• Run with a 4:40 pacer, in the hopes that starting at an easier pace will leave more in the tank at the end.
• Continue with my cross training strategy.  Running no more than 4 times a week, with cycling 1-2 times a week worked for me.
• I've got to get better at running up hills!  I have plenty of places to train, I just need to do it.
• Continue speed work.  I loved the variety of intervals that I did this time and plan to keep doing them once a week even when not training for a specific event.

Santa Susana Pass Road - My Last Long Training Run with Some Downhill Speed Work!

Going back through my blog, I realized that I have never blogged about the Santa Susana Pass Road, otherwise known as Santa Su or SSP.  This is a single hill that connects our town (Simi Valley) with the San Fernando Valley.  There is a freeway that also connects the two, but this road has been around for a very long time.

When I signed up for the Canyon City Marathon, I knew I needed to find some good downhill training roads.  Santa Su fit the bill.  The first two miles are straight up (+ 500'), followed by two miles straight down (-450'.)  At the bottom, I make a u-turn and climb that 450' before descending 500'!

I've now done this route four times.  The road is very busy Monday-Saturday and I've only run it on Sundays.  There are no street lights, but with the time change, yesterday was the perfect morning for my final long run!

Here's a comparison chart of how I've done each time.  On the three first times I took a lot of walk breaks on the uphill really trying to conserve energy.  I decided to push the pace a bit yesterday.  I'm really happy with my overall times on this.

Date	14-Jun	28-Jun	16-Aug	1-Nov
Mile 1	13:02	12:15	12:25	11:41
Mile 2	13:39	12:49	13:15	12:08
Mile 3	9:05	8:20	8:31	8:07
Mile 4	8:53	8:16	8:04	8:17
Mile 5	12:02	12:51	13:32	11:32
Mile 6	14:21	14:41	13:49	14:33
Mile 7	8:37	8:07	7:58	8:06
Mile 8	8:36	8:08	8:02	8:20
Total Time	1:29:54	1:26:51	1:26:20	1:23:04
Ave Pace	11:04	10:42	10:42	10:22

And that is my final long run for this training cycle!  Canyon City Marathon here I come!

Today's Long Run: Tantalus with Pu'u Ualaka'a Lookout

My favorite 10 mile route became a 12 mile route with a little creative running this morning.  If hills are speed work in disguise, then Tantalus is sonic speed work!  It's a loop with 5 miles of climbing and 5 miles of descending.  I have run it both clockwise and counterclockwise.  Les asked me which way is harder and my response was, "The one I'm running."  It doesn't matter which way, it's tough!  1500' of elevation gain in 5 miles.

My run today was suppose to have 6 miles at tempo (8:33 pace.)  I knew that wasn't going to happen.  My plan was to run as much as possible and really push it on the down hill parts.  Also this is my only chance to run this route because I have a race next weekend.

My right calf was really tight the first three miles:

Mile 1: 12:55, +190' elevation gain, 136 ave HR
Mile 2: 14:45, +343', 135 ave HR
Mile 3: 15:00, +340', 137 ave HR

I finally started feeling warmed up, but the road kept climbing:

Mile 4: 13:43, 285', 141 ave HR
Mile 5: 12:44, 203', 136 ave HR

First 5 miles in 1:09:09, 13:50 pace, 1,575' elevation gain, 137 ave HR.  This is what I normally think of as the halfway point.   Since I needed 12 miles today, I had a decision to make.  Turn around and go back down a mile or keep going.  I knew there was one other option:  the Pu'u Ualaka'a Lookout.  This is about 2 miles from the top but isn't always open.  I decided to go there and if it wasn't open, then I'd turn around and go back up.

Mile 6: 9:56, -193', 142 ave HR
Mile 7: 8:44, -276', 145 ave HR

At the 7.4 mile mark I came upon the turnoff for the Pu'u Ualaka'a Lookout.  The gate was open, so in I went!

Mile 8: 11:17, -10', 143 ave HR.  This mile had quite a bit of up and down.  The first half had -102' and the second half had +92'. The lookout only added one mile, so when I came out, I headed back up for half a mile before turning around for my final 3 miles.

Mile 9:  12:12, -20', 138 ave HR (this was another half and half with -94' and +75')

Mile 10: 8:47, -322', 141 ave HR
Mile 11: 8:19, -325', 147 ave HR
Mile 12: 9:04, -263', 147 ave HR

Total 12 miles in 2:19:56, 11:39 pace
Ave HR 140, max HR 153
798 calories burned
1,732' climbing
1,778' descending