Oh, hi October.

Oh, hello there.  It turns out it’s really easy for me to upload my runs on Daily Mile then be done with it, and then I forget to blog.  Or I’m lazy.  Or things just got a little busy, but in a good way.  Things at work picked up, then I got promoted at work, and I started an online class, and we went camping for a weekend.

Let’s summarize October up to this point before I blink again and the month is over. I will try to throw in some pictures to bedazzle this post.

Week of October 1:
Tuesday: 3.1 easy miles to let my quads loosen up after Leona Valley.

Wednesday: 8 mile bike ride/avg 12mph


I <3 our bike path. PS, this is apparently what a SoCal fall looks like.

Thursday: 5 miles, we can call it a progression run. First 2 miles at 10:00 pace, then an 8:00 mile, then 7:35, then 7:19. The last 3.1 mi were in 23:54, and that is an unofficial new 5K PR, friends.

Sunday: 11.5 mi long run.  I tried to plan a new route from my house so I didn’t have to drive anywhere; it turned out to be super hilly; and was therefore no where near as fast as I had hoped. Avg pace 10:18.

On the plus side, when you run up hills you also get nice views, and I saw two real-life Road Runners for the first time.  Not people running on a road, but the bird.

  

Total: 27.68 mi (19.6 Run/8.08 Bike)

Week of October 8:
Monday: 11 mile bike ride/avg 13.8 mph

Tuesday: 4.93 mi. of Speed- 4x[300m,100R], 2x[600m,200R], 4x[300m, 100R]
First 300s in 1:13, 1:17, 1:15, 1:15/600s in 2:38, 2:39/Second 300s in 1:18, 1:15, 1:16, 1:15.

Thursday: 5.37 mi. Reverse progression run? Ran the first 2.7 mi in 7:56, 8:01, 7:50. I appreciated some words of encouragement as two enthusiastic cyclists rode by me and said I was killing it. I was booking it trying to find some running friends who I knew got started about 5-10 minutes ahead of me. I found them and ran 2.5 mi back with them in 9:29, 9:31, 9:44.

Saturday: 4.3 mile unexpected trail run on the Ray Miller Trail in Point Mugu State Park while beach camping.  It was just across the road; I couldn’t resist.

          

It was so pretty and I ran it so slowly.  But there also happened to be 1155’ of elevation gain mostly in the first 2 miles.  It got pretty quiet toward the top and there were fewer and fewer people as I went. Sometimes I get jumpy running by myself when I hear rustling in the brush…And remembering this sign from the beginning of the trail, I decided 2 miles was a good time to turn around and run back down.

 
Perhaps it was just my dog playing Jedi mind tricks on me to get me to come back to our camp site.

   

   

There was an XTERRA trail race that Sunday which included the trail I ran on.  I wasn’t really looking to race, as I should be focusing my efforts at this point on my Nov 4 half marathon, but I have never felt such race-envy!  When we woke up all these cars were parked along the Pacific Coast Highway behind us and I saw everyone pinning on their bibs and I could hear the announcer on a megaphone, and eventually I could see runners making their way down the mountain.  It made me want to run real bad. 

Sunday: 8.7 mile bike ride/avg 12.2 mph. Then I get to count walking my bike up the last half mile of the hill.

Total: 34.86 mi (14.58 Run/19.82 Bike/.46 Pushing a 35lb bike up hill).

Week of October 15:
Tuesday: Call it a belated long run or a long tempo run. I met one of the super speedy runners from my running group for 10 miles in the morning.  He can probably consider it an easy run, but we ran an out and back 10 miles. The first 5 were supposed to be around a 9:00 pace and the last 5 were supposed to be closer to 8:00.  We started faster than I meant to and finished slower, but the first 5 were in 43:52 and the last 5 were in 41:28 so I’ll take those negative splits. I also think 85 minutes is the fastest I’ve run 10 miles.

Thursday: 6.16 miles/avg pace of 8:53. Ran the first four sort of easy-ish, while I chatted with other running group members, in the 9:15-9:35 range.  Then I ran the last two miles in 8:02 and 7:39.

Saturday: Planning a 10-12 mi trail run, whether it’s the practice for the upcoming Griffith Park Half Marathon or a much closer trail run with my running group.  Both start at 6:45am, so I’m guessing I’ll end up opting for the one 15 minutes away instead of an hour away.