Fun on Trails

Yesterday morning I went for a short little trail run before work.

  

The lighting is different, so is the angle, but compare the park now to back in May. Guess which is which:

  vs. 

Week of September 10th… continued
Saturday: Ran 13.3 mi/9:12 avg pace
Total: Ran 24.71 miles

Week of September 17th:
I was away for a full week of new job training, but fit in some runs anyway!
Tuesday: 6 mile tempo run/8:35 pace along Hermosa/Manhattan Beaches.  More humid than I’m used to, but worth the view:

Wednesday: 5 min on the hotel elliptical, got bored, switched to stationary bike for 15 min.
Thursday: Squeezed in some speed work on the Strand: 4x[1km, 400 Rest]. Total 5.12 mi.
Saturday: Biked 11.42 mi/13mph. Walked my bike up the hill .46 miles.
Sunday: Ran 10.06 mi/9:24 avg pace

Total: Ran 21.25 miles/Biked 11.42 miles /6.8 mi on the elliptical&fake bike

Back to this week:
Monday: 8.75 mi bike ride
Tuesday AM- 3 mile trail run
Tuesday PM- 6x[600m, 400m rest] in 2:46, 2:44, 2:44, 2:45, 2:44, 2:45 + 6x[300m, 100m rest] in 1:17, 1:18, 1:18, 1:15, 1:16, 1:14.  total: 5.7 miles
Wednesday: rest

This Saturday: I’ll be taking these brightly colored Mizunos to the Pacific Crest Trail in Leona Valley:

  

Be sure to wish Alyssa and Kari good luck at the Wineglass Marathon this weekend!

I got a Jerb!

So we moved to CA in mid-February. I’m sure I spent about a month moping around feeling sorry for my unemployed self and also getting annoyed that I was not finding job postings for what I went to grad school for.  For the last 4 months worked part-time job as a behavior therapist and for the last 3 months or so I have also been working in a running store.

But at last, I can stop asking this:

source

I’ll be working full-time, still in the behavior therapy field, but I will have the opportunity to utilize more of my school psychology training.  I’m excited!

Back to running.

The week of September 3rd:
Monday: Short 3ish mile hike. We waited too long to leave for this hike, it got hot, the main fire road had been paved, it didn’t feel like a hike; we were miserable.
Tuesday: AM- 6 mile fun run from the running store, avg pace: 9:39.
                    PM- Trackwork: 10x400m (400 rest). Goal pace 1:51, I ran them 1:44-1:49. Total: 6.04 mi.
Thursday: Ran 5.6 hilly miles/4.16 at tempo pace (8:25, 8:44, 8:36, 8:38 + .16@ 8:31). Goal pace 8:38.
Saturday: Long Run: 10.09 mi/avg pace 9:32.

Totals: Ran 27.76 mi, hiked 3.18.

I’ve done two weeks of the hundred pushups program. Week 3 is a little delayed, because I am weak and because I didn’t feel like doing pushups after track the other night, so I might go back and repeat the last day of week 2 and properly start Week 3 at the beginning of next week.

Since we’re half-through this week, I might as well post on that too.

Week of September 10th:
Tuesday: AM- 3 miles of trail run/walk in my Mizuno trail shoes for some running store footage.

Tuesday PM- Trackwork: 7x800m (90 sec rest). Goal was 3:47, I ran them in 3:39-3:42.  It would have been 8, but we were kicked off the track during the 6th one for a college soccer game, and we were being given the hairy eyeball during the 7th. I didn’t want to be yelled at. Total: 4.9 miles.
Wednesday- 5.36 mi fun run from the running store at night/avg pace 9:17

Will probably run or bike tomorrow morning and I haven’t decided what I’m doing this weekend yet.  Our new couch is being delivered and the actual delivery time will determine my physical activity. I hate delivery windows.  Also, why isn’t there a weeknight delivery option for when people are actually home?

- - -

I’m currently debating whether to do this Leona Valley trail race.  It’s only 2 weeks away.  I mentioned this one back before we moved to CA in this post, and part of it is on the Pacific Crest Trail. It wouldn’t be a “race” for me so much as a fast hike/slower run because there is a fair amount of elevation change.  It would be good practice for the upcoming Griffith Park Trail half marathon in mid-November, though.  Actually, this elevation might be worse than the Griffith Park race.

All I have on my calendar right now is a [road] half marathon on November 4th, and the trail half on November 17th (it was a free entry!).  Apparently last month’s cross country races weren’t enough to satisfy the race itch.

One Hundred.

I was wrong in my last post…I had 10 weeks until my next half marathon, not 9.

Last week…or almost 2 weeks ago now… (Let’s call it T-11 weeks):
I ran an easy 3 miles, ran my 5 tempo miles ending with a brisk uphill walk, and ran 13.5 miles for my long run. I also hiked 6ish miles.  Long dog walks not included.
Totals: just under 22 miles of running, 6 miles of hiking.

This past week (T-10 weeks):
Tuesday I did a hilly 4 mile progression run (started at 9:20 pace, finished at 8:08 pace). 
Thursday I did a 5 mile not-quite-tempo pace run, with a mile long climb in it (avg pace 9:02, ranged from 1st mile at 9:35 to as fast as 8:33).
Saturday: shorter long run: 8.11 miles, avg pace in the  low9:20s.  This is where I want my long runs to be again if I’m looking at the Run Less Run Faster plan (HMP + :20 or HMP + :30).  Doing my long runs with the running group this summer, I just enjoyed the runs and was social – which meant running anywhere from a 9:30 pace to a 10:30 pace depending on who I was running with and how much we were talking.
Total: 18.07 mi.

In addition to “running” to prepare for this next half marathon, I am taking on the 100 pushup challenge (Dan is too!) I I’m pretty sure that being less than a year out from 30 I’ve probably passed my peak for muscle mass. I read somewhere that you lose 5lb of muscle mass every decade from 25-35.  So if that’s the case, I began losing muscle mass before I started running.  I was doomed from the start.

Back to the pushups.  They require little: a floor and yourself.  So I figure I should learn how to do them well.  Enter the 100 pushup training program.  In 6 weeks, they claim I’ll be capable of doing 100 pushups.  Bring it.  I’m starting off pretty low, being able to complete 13 “good form” pushups consecutively before giving up.

And while I was on that site, I found 200 squats (I intentionally overlooked the programs for situps and pullups, but I may come back to dips).  I have way more lower body strength than upper body strength, so I hoped this would be easier than the pushups, yet still a challenge.  I’m all for increased leg strength if it will help me in the final stretch of a race. I remember doing at least that many plus other leg exercises when I was going to boot camp classes last year.  I read the intro… “most of you reading this won’t be able to manage 20 squats.  Actually, I'm sure many of you can't even do 10.”  Challenge accepted.  I did the initial test for this one and found myself at 60 nice deep squats with no rests. 

I was feeling so proud.  Until the next morning. And Saturday morning. Oh, yep, and Sunday morning my leg muscles were still a little tight (hamstrings) and sore (around the knees).  Now that I have had a good week and a half to recover from the initial exhaustion test, I think I’ll begin that program, and plan accordingly around track workouts so I have muscle left to run them fast.

“How many pushups can you do? …I guess you can only do one, really.”
“Yeah, one is all you need.”

Bold question of the day: Do you do pushups? How many can you do?