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!

Reality Check

Cheesy grin at Ka'ena Point

Happy Valentine's Day!  My run this morning included "Heartbreak Hill" in Hawaii Kai for the first time.  I'm lucky to be married to a great guy, so that was my only heartbreak on Valentine's Day.  I don't feature him much on this blog, but he is my partner in adventure and biggest fan.  He has the day off tomorrow so we may try to find a kayak rental, stay tuned...

Post marathon foot massage (you can see me reflected in his glasses!)

I started getting curious this week about my pace.  I felt like I was consistently faster, but really needed to know.  Let the numbers speak for themselves:

January 2015
Week 1:  27.89 miles/12:30 ave pace
Week 2:  19.18 miles/12:43 ave pace
Week 3:  0 miles due to the flu!
Week 4:  15.47 miles/11:59 ave pace

February 2015
Week 1:  14.00 miles/11:57 ave pace
Week 2:  17.65 miles/12:50 ave pace

First six weeks of 2015
94.19 miles
12:26 ave pace

Sometimes I stop in the middle of run, because I'm staring at Diamond Head

January 2016
Week 1:  23.57 miles/11:02 ave pace
Week 2:  22.67 miles/10:39 ave pace
Week 3:  28.38 miles/11:15 ave pace
Week 4:  15.24 miles/10:43 ave pace

February 2016
Week 1:  23.37 miles/10:24 ave pace
Week 2:  13.66 miles/10:04 ave pace

First six weeks of 2016
132.58 miles
10:44 ave pace

Other times I'm staring at Koko Head

I'm actually in shock at this overall improvement!  I haven't done any speed work since my marathon in November, but I am consistently faster every time I run.  Yesterday I was running and kept seeing my pace in the mid 9s.  I know that's not super fast for a lot of people, but this is me.  More than a minute and a half faster than a year ago.

I'm still in the learning stages of running with a power meter.  I want to get a little more data accumulated and there are a couple of tests I need to do, then I'll do a full review.  I also want to do at least one interval workout.  It makes me wonder, am I running faster because I like seeing high power readings or am I feeling confident that I can run faster when my power numbers are a little lower?  Or am I just faster and my power meter has nothing to do with it?!

Yesterday's power reading - that 340 watts HURT!

How have the first six weeks of 2016 treated you?

Runner's HI

We traveled to Oahu yesterday so Les could be in the office here for a few weeks.  The company recently moved to a new location and they are hosting an open house for clients tomorrow.  It's not all work and no play as evidenced by the load of luggage we bring!

We were awake around 4:00 this morning, so I finally got up and went for a short run (and Les went for a bike ride.)  I never expect much on our first morning here.  Jetlag, warmer temps, humidity, you name it, I'm usually pretty sluggish.  I glanced down at my watch during the first mile and saw 9:35.  What?  That's pretty speedy for me!  I didn't feel like I was pushing super hard, so I just went with it.

Mile 1 9:39
Mile 2 9:28
Mile 3 9:33
Mile 4 9:32

4 miles in 38:16, 9:34 pace.  Not too shabby!  I also kept an eye on my power and it held steady at around 185-190 watts, max of 224 and average of 184.  I had an average heart rate of 150 with a max of 161. According to Strava, I PRd three segments in those four miles and even moved up to 10th female on one of them.

I've worked hard the past month, especially on the hills around my house.  It's true, "hills are speed work in disguise!"  Here I am several hours later and I'm still feeling really good about this effort. Runner's high + Hawaii = Runner's HI!

Revel Canyon City Marathon Numbers

If you are not a numbers person, this post will probably bore you to tears!  I find this stuff really fascinating.

I was able to pull my mile breakdowns from Movescount.  Mile 5 was my fastest at 8:06, with mile 17 being my slowest at 16:39 (this included a pit stop, I also took a pit stop at mile 10*.)  I would give you mile by mile details, but a lot of it is a blur!

Mile	Time	Heart rate	Speed	Ascent	Descent
1	8:08	171	7.4	0	272
2	8:09	155	7.4	0	318
3	8:24	157	7.1	30	289
4	8:09	154	7.4	0	394
5	8:06	157	7.4	0	322
6	8:31	155	7.1	0	305
7	8:39	155	7.0	0	295
8	9:11	152	6.5	0	220
9	9:03	152	6.6	23	285
10	10:03	147	6.0*	0	397
11	8:51	152	6.8	0	308
12	8:59	151	6.7	0	331
13	8:47	154	6.8	0	331
14	10:37	153	5.6	39	161
15	11:49	153	5.1	49	20
16	13:10	144	4.6	20	20
17	16:39	138	3.6*	108	10
18	12:25	143	4.8	20	128
19	10:22	148	5.8	0	236
20	14:05	139	4.3	52	112
21	15:12	133	3.9	72	69
22	10:15	145	5.9	0	240
23	13:22	136	4.5	0	197
24	14:25	131	4.2	0	79
25	13:30	133	4.5	0	69
26	14:20	134	4.2	30	30
27	3:23	145	5.9	0	30

Pace from Movescount:
Average: 10:56
Fastest 30 seconds: 7:07
Fastest 1 minute: 7:15
Fastest 5 minutes: 7:49
Fastest 10 minutes: 7:58
Fastest 30 minutes: 8:10
Fastest 1 hour: 8:19

Elevation:
Total elevation gain: 456 feet
Ascent time: 42:38
Total elevation loss: 5,528 feet
Descent time: 3:27:34
Flat time: 36:23

Effort:
Average HR: 145 bpm
Easy (below 109 bpm): 36 seconds
Moderate (109-126 bpm): 16:12
Hard (127-144 bpm):  1:33:36
Very Hard (145-162 bpm):  2:48:00
Maximal (above 162 bpm): 7:48

Calories burned:
According to Suunto: 1,536
According to TrainingPeaks: 3,630

Peak Training Effort: 3.5
Recovery time: 120 hours
I hurt pretty bad all of Sunday. I was still in a lot of pain Monday morning, but started to feel a bit better in the afternoon. I got up and walked a couple of miles this morning.  Still a little sore but noticing a lot of improvement.

From Strava:
Best estimated Marathon effort (4:45:38)
Best estimated 30k effort (3:04:37)
Best estimated Half-Marathon effort (1:54:02)
Best estimated 20k effort (1:47:59)
Best estimated 10 mile effort (1:26:22)
Best estimated 15k effort (1:19:08)
Best estimated 10k effort (51:13)
Best estimated 5k effort (25:18)

Tomorrow:  Final Thoughts and Future Plans!