Testing My Endurance

I've been without any goals lately.  Doing lots of running and riding but without a lot of purpose.  I have been working on riding with a higher cadence and I'm definitely seeing improvement in my riding, but that's about it.  I went for a ride Sunday morning and while I was out I wondered if I could hit 100 miles in a week.  Since my longest ride ever is about 40 miles this meant getting up and doing something every morning...

Sunday - rode 11.34 miles
Sunday morning is my favorite time to ride.  So few cars are out.  I had planned to ride at least 20 miles.  I got a flat tire instead!  I was really close to home so I decided to just walk the bike home.
Walked .66 miles
Week to date: 12.00

Monday - ran 6.44 miles
WTD: 18.44

Tuesday - rode 12.61 miles
I had trail run planned for Wednesday, so I went for an easy spin.  I surprised myself with a couple of really nice PRs, even took a 5th overall on the final segment leading to our house!
WTD: 31.05

Wednesday - Ran 9.77
This was the toughest trail run I have ever done.  I typically go 7 miles on the trail, occasionally I've gone as far as 8 miles, but that's it.  The extra miles gave me 600' of climbing in about 1.5 miles, which also meant 600' of descending.  It was steep - over 15% in some places.  I had to walk quite a bit because I really didn't want to lose my footing and go down.   Les was on his mountain bike and turned around before he caught me - he didn't think I would go as high up as I did.  Things are really drying out and turning brown around here - all the pictures in this post are from the trail.
WTD:  40.82

Thursday - Rode 12.29
My legs were SO sore!  Les rode with me and we took it really easy.
WTD:  52.11

Friday - Walked 5.55
I had planned a 7ish mile run but my knees had other ideas.  They were still really achy from Wednesday's trail adventure.
WTD:  58.66

I went to bed Friday night knowing I had a big ride ahead of me to hit my 100 mile goal...

Saturday - Rode 22.41 miles
My legs were worn out.  I knew 100 miles was out of reach, but I wanted to get in a good ride. I think if I had done an easy 10 miler on Wednesday instead of the trail run the rest of the week would have gone better and I might have hit 100 miles, but it was still a great week!
WTD:  81.07

Total miles
2 walks - 6.21
2 runs - 16.21
4 rides - 58.65
Total - 81.07

Trail Run Tuesday

My training plan called for intervals this morning.  The weather forecast called for north to northeast winds 20-30 mph with gusts to 45 mph.  There's not much worse than trying to do speed work in the wind so I opted for a trail run instead.

The run was uneventful.  No animal sightings.  No humans until the final couple of miles coming back down.  I stopped over and over to take pictures, it was just too pretty not to.

I crossed the creek three times each way.  It's been years since it has been flowing like this.

I took a couple selfies, but who needs 'em when the scenery is this good?  And a bonus from our front yard:

Anything blooming in your yard yet?

What a Week! And It's Only Wednesday...

Me and my Valentine

This is turning out to be an interesting week!  Sunday was our typical up early so Les could prepare a Sunday school lesson while I went for an easy spin.

Monday morning we hopped on the mountain bikes and hit the trail.  My legs were like lead and I couldn't seem to get warmed up.  Once we got to the trail I told Les to go for it and I'd meet him at the turn around.  After about a mile on the trail my legs finally loosened up.  Then it was pedal to the medal and I got my 3rd best time, only 8 seconds slower than my PR!

We bombed our way back down but because of the rain there is a barrier that we can't ride over. We had to get off the bikes for a few steps.  When we got back on the street it's downhill for about a mile with a stop sign about a third of the way down.  We were just rolling from the stop sign when Les realized he was in the wrong gear and almost came to a complete stop.  I didn't realize until it was too late and my front tire clipped his back tire.  I was on the ground before I had a chance to process what was happening.  My right knee is bruised and slightly scraped but no major damage thanks to good tights and full finger gloves.

We were up a little after 4:00 yesterday morning for our 7:45 flight to Honolulu.  After picking up our car at Les' office, we headed to the Ilikai where we'll be staying this time.  I opened my emails and saw this:

A free entry to the Utah Valley Marathon!  I may have shrieked a little in the car!!  I never win anything.  I am so excited to have a won!  The Utah Valley Marathon claims "its gentle downhill course not only enhances your speed but won’t beat up your legs."  The course elevation looks like this:

And before you think I'm crazy for running downhill, let me remind you of my most recent marathon, the Revel Canyon City Marathon:

It looks like the Utah Valley Marathon is going to be much more gentle!

So what happens now?  I pulled up TrainingPeaks to reapply my marathon training plan and guess when my 16 week training starts?  Next week!  The timing couldn't be better. Thank you, Wendy, for hosting this giveaway!!  I am so excited to have this race on my calendar.  Once again I'll be posting my training schedule each week followed by a weekly recap.

When is your next race?  Downhill running - yay or nay?
Anyone running the Utah Valley Marathon?  Have you run it in the past?  Any advice?

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?

January Recap

 

Instead of goals for the year, I chose two areas to work on for the month of January.  I am happy with how they both went:

Running ~ Increase Endurance
I ran 9 times for a total of 61.6 miles, walked 4 times for 12.13 miles, and cycled 9 times for 115.71 miles for a total of 189.44 miles.  My long run for the month was 10 miles.  This is the highest January I have had since 2011, a solid month, especially with all the rain we received (over 7" for the month.)

Les and I went for a trail ride this morning and I was pleasantly surprised at how strong I was.  Riding on the trainer has forced me to work on keeping a high cadence.  I did that for the entire ride today and had my 18th best time of 104 tries on the 3.4 mile climb that is the heart of the trail.  (Thank you, Strava for those details!)  For the first time in several years the creek is flowing and we had three water crossings.  I know I've been smiling when there's mud on my teeth.

Mother Nature has been having major mood swings around here.  Last Sunday we got about 2" of rain.  Things dried out and the temps dropped on Tuesday:

Winds started kicking up over the weekend and this was Sunday:

I'll take the cold over the wind any day.

Health ~ Decrease Sugar Intake

After a Fall/Holiday season filled with sugar and more sugar, I knew my body needed a break.  I haven't cut sugar out completely as far as what is found in our foods, but I haven't had a single dessert all month.  That is a big win for me.  Bonus is I haven't had any anxiety attacks/heart palpitations like I had been having the past few months. 

I'm thinking about my February Focus and will blog about it on Friday.

How was your January?  What is February looking like for you?

2017: Week 1/52

I had a great first week of the year!  I pulled out my old friend determination and hit the streets.  I was so ready to see 2016 gone that I was in bed before 10:00 on New Year's Eve.

Sunday - Ran 6.21 miles

Monday - Rode 17.5 miles

Tuesday - Walked 2.06 miles

Wednesday - Ran 7.50 miles
This was a trail run.  It was on the trail that I decided I needed to focus on endurance for the year.  The great thing about this trail is it is an out and back so it was a great way to kick off endurance training.  I went farther up the trail than I had in months.

Thursday - Rested
I was rained out and didn't mind a bit.

Friday - Ran 7.79 miles
I noticed a new park in the neighborhood.  I was thrilled until I didn't see a drinking fountain or bathroom.  I guess it's to save money, but it's so annoying.  There are probably a dozen parks that I run by that do not have any water or facilities.  The two that do are always locked until after 7:00 a.m.  I've gotten really spoiled in Hawaii - all the parks have full facilities.

Saturday - Rode 11.79
We got some more rain so I tried out Les' new trainer.  I made this hard by doing multiple intervals, pushing my power numbers to over 150 watts seven times.  The evidence was the puddle of sweat on the garage floor!

Total
Running 21.50
Walking 2.06
Cycling 29.29
Total 52.85

How was week one for you?

Trail Runner Go!

I am not a Pokemon Go user.  The only thing I know about it is what I've read on the internet, so you know my knowledge is limited and probably about 50% accurate.  But when Wendy at Taking the Long Way Home suggested a Running Treasure Hunt, I thought that would be fun!

Trail Runner Go equals the same number of syllables as Pokemon Go, so I knew my treasure hunt needed to take place on the trail.  Because having the same number of syllables in a blog title is extremely important and how I plan my runs these days.  Or as Wendy put it, "those thoughts about roadside treasure inspired a theme custom-made for the lazy running blogger."  I headed to the trail on Tuesday morning.  It was a perfect morning in So Cal - low 60s with about 30% humidity.  Don't hate, when Fall appears across the country we'll be dealing with Santa Ana winds with temps in the 90s, single digit humidity, and fires.

I've run this trail many times and ridden hundreds of miles on my mountain bike here.   I've seen deer, rabbits, coyotes, bobcats, more birds than I can name, snakes, and bear tracks.  But evidence on the trail told me what my treasure hunt would lead me to on Tuesday:

These droppings were a little different.  Bear?  Mountain lion?  I don't know...

This tree reminded me of the time a few years ago when I was on my bike.  I saw smoke billowing and decided going home was a good idea.  The fire that morning was about a mile from our house.

More evidence on the trail...

My plan was to run 5 miles because that is all I seem to be capable of lately.   When I hit the 2.5 mile mark the hoof prints were looking more fresh so I thought I'd go just a little further...

Hay!  Whatchoo looking at?

It was funny to see them all start hoofing away.  They didn't want anything to do with me!

Fortunately it was only an additional quarter mile so I finished with 5.5 miles.  And one more treasure on my hunt:

Thanks, Wendy, for the fun idea!  Linking up with Taking the Long Way Home.

Recovery Week and A Chat with My Doctor

Over my shoulder is a cattle ranch.  5 trucks passed me while I was riding the trail this morning making for a very dusty cyclist!

In the past two weeks I have seen my gynecologist, general practice doctor, and had my annual mammogram.  It was time for all three so I just clustered them together to get it done.

After greeting me on Tuesday morning, my GP said, "So what are you doing these days for exercise?  Do  you walk in the mornings?"  "I ran a marathon on Saturday." He kinda walked into that one!  He is not anti-running, but he's not exactly pro-marathoning.  He has a brother-in-law who has been running for years and tried to get him to run a marathon.  I think the brother-in-law's constant "encouragement" has been a little much for dear doc, because he said more than once, "no way will I ever run a marathon!"  His biggest concern is that I don't push my body to a point of harming it.  Hopefully, I was able to reassure him that I understand my limits.  My lab results came back and all my numbers are great!  My overall cholesterol went from 180 last year to 142 this year.  I'm 51 and on exactly zero medication, I feel great about that!

I took FOUR rest days this week!  Two were physical rest days and two were mental rest days.  I couldn't move without pain on Sunday, Monday morning was still pretty painful.  I walked about 2 miles on Tuesday and could tell I was starting to recover.  I did an easy bike ride on Wednesday, rested Thursday and Friday, and did a trail ride this morning.  I ended up with a whopping 20.49 miles for the week.

I did not run a single time this week!  I thought I would, and I could have, but it felt nice to not have any pressure to do so.  The pressure was all from me, but it was pressure anyway.  There are seven weeks left in this year and I plan to finish strong with over 2,000 miles!

M4T W6 Results

I had another great week!  I am loving my cross training, I can't believe what a huge difference it is making!

Sunday - Rest day
Result:  Rested

Monday - 4 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result: Rode 8.77 miles in 46:17, 11.4 mph

 

Tuesday - Intervals - 8-9 miles
Result:  Ran 6.48 miles in 1:10:06, 10:49
I did my usual "I don't think I can do these, I'm so stiff and sore, blah, blah, blah" during my warm up, but did a pretty good job on my intervals.  6 x 800 with a goal of 4 minutes each, my reality:  4:00, 4:08, 3:59, 3:59, 4:23, and 4:10.  Not too shabby!  That fifth one really hurt with more uphill than I wanted, but I am seeing a huge difference.
Also walked 1.57 miles for my cool down.

Wednesday  - 3 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result:  Ran 2.50 miles in 35:45, 14:20 pace
Short trail run with Les - perfect recovery from Tuesday's intervals.

Thursday - 4 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result: Rested

Friday - Rest day
Result:  Rode 10.48 miles in 51:05, 12.3 mph

Saturday - LSD 9 miles w/2 miles @ tempo
Result:  Ran 10.5 miles in 1:53:24, 10:48 pace
I ended up running longer than planned, but I'm really happy with how it went:
Warm up: 5.16 miles in 56:30, 10:57 pace
Tempo: 3.02 miles in 25.42, 8:31 pace - tempo pace was suppose to be 8:33, so I really nailed this.  My legs wanted to fall off during the last mile, but I did it!!
Cool down: 2.33 miles in 31:12, 13:24 pace


Total planned miles 29
Actual
Running  19.48
Walking 1.57
Cycling 19.25
Total 40.30

M4T W5 Results

I had a much better week this week.  I am continuing cross training and really seeing the benefits.  Two longs runs in one week and I survived.

Sunday - Rest day
Result:  Ran 8.04 miles in 1:26:21, 10:44 pace
I ran Santa Susanna Pass road again.  This is my third time and I ran it faster than before.  It's basically 2 miles up, 2 miles down, 2 miles up, 2 miles down.  I held back on the uphills and pushed hard on the downs.  My four downhill miles were 8:31, 8:03, 7:57, 8:01.

Monday - 4 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result:  Rode 7.17 miles in 35:55, 12 mph
I kept this one really easy.

Tuesday - Intervals - 8-9 miles
Result:  Ran 7 miles in 1:26:02, 12:17 pace
I opted out of intervals, my legs were still sore from Sunday's run.  Instead I hit the trail.  It had been a while since I'd run in the dirt.

Wednesday  - 3 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result:  Rested
It was time for a rest day!

Thursday - 4 miles easy (10:35 pace)
Result:  Rested
Err.... I been having some pretty restless nights, multiple night sweats (about one an hour) and have been feeling wiped out.  I bought a sleep aid and it helped so much.

Friday - Rest day
Result:  Rode 10.54 miles in 49:30, 12.8 mph
I had another good night's sleep (thank you, sleep aid!) but wanted to take it easy for Saturday's long run.

Saturday - LSD 14 miles  (10:35-10:50 pace)
Result:  Ran 14.03 miles in 2:27:30, 10:29 pace
I didn't use a sleep aid and slept well, so I'm hoping that those tough nights are not going to be a regular thing.
This is the longest run I've done this year and it went really well.  I started out easy, wanting to finish strong and I did!  I ran the first 7 miles in 1:14:23 (10:38 pace) and the second 7 in 1:12:39 (10:20 pace.) My slowest was mile 9, which was all uphill.  My fastest was mile 11 at 9:18 and it was mostly downhill.  My final 5 miles were 10:07, 9:18, 10:01, 9:32, and 9:52. 
Average heart rate 145, max 161
Calories burned 1,335
Also walked .42 miles cool down.

Total planned miles 34
Actual
Running  29.07
Walking 0.42
Cycling 17.71
Total   47.20

Weekly Review

Next week is my last "free" week.  Marathon training starts a week from tomorrow.  After running my 10k on Tuesday, I didn't have a lot of motivation the rest of the week!  I did cross the 1,000 mile mark for the year this week.

Sunday - Ran 5 miles in 55:45, 11:09 pace.
I opted for a hilly route. 

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday - Ran 6.21 miles in 59:49, 9:38 pace
Shew!  I was so glad to get this done!  I would love to run it even faster, but that was tough!  It's a long distance to go all out.
Also walked 1.12 miles, warm up and cool down.

Wednesday - Rode 11.70 miles in 1:01:17, 11.5 mph
My legs didn't feel sore when I got up but as soon as I started up the first little hill they hurt!  I decided against the trail and just rode around the neighborhood.

Thursday - Rest day

Friday - Rode 13.2 miles in 1:29:17, 8.9 mph
Trail ride.  Saw lots of bear tracks.  I've been seeing them about every other week or so.  I'm not interested in seeing the actual bear.

Saturday - Walked 3.9 miles in 53:52
After yesterday I had about 37 miles for the week.  I knew if I ran a half marathon I would have another 50 mile week, but I just didn't have it today.  My Strava title was "New Shoes, Old Legs."

Total
Running - 11.21
Walking - 5.02
Cycling - 24.90
Total  41.13

Trail Running Adventure

I'm not going to waste your time giving you reasons/excuses/sob stories/lies about why I haven't blogged here in over two months.  No reason really, just lazy! 

I have been very active - running and cycling.  My new favorite is trail running.  I've been going about once a week and it's so enjoyable.  I know I can't go as fast, so I don't worry about pace, I just get my heart rate up and go.

This morning, I really got my heart rate up at about the 2 mile mark when I saw this:

Yep!  Bear tracks!  Bear tracks that I followed for about 1 1/2 miles.  They were definitely fresh, no foot prints or tire tracks over them.  There is a bear that lives in the hills behind the cattle ranch and in dry conditions, he/she's been known to come down the trail looking for water.  This usually happens late summer, but with our current drought it makes me wonder if he'll be heading to neighborhood pools by then!

The trail splits at the 3.4 mile mark - the bear tracks went left towards the cattle ranch and I went right, further up the trail.  I turned around at the 4 mile mark with 866' of climbing in my legs!

I'll try to do better about blogging, at some point I will start marathon training again and that will make for more interesting weekly reports!