Nine Weeks to the Big Sur Half-Marathon: A Just Putting in the Work Kind of Week

Vasona Lake from its dam at the northern edge,
a turn-around point for many of my runs.

No inspiring or thought provoking quote this week.  Sometimes there's a time to look for inspiration and other times it's good to contemplate what you are doing.  But sometimes it's just time to put in the work.  This week was a "putting in the work" kind of week.

Monday was a sluggish 6 miles.  The double whammy of a 4 mile tempo run on Saturday and eleven miles on the trails taking its toll.  Tuesday, another 6 miles to the Vasona Dam and back.  It felt surprisingly easy and smooth running on the Los Gatos Creek Trail compared to the day before.  Pretty encouraging.

Wednesday was an eight mile fartlek run.  On the early warm-up miles, I ran by a bunch of cats standing at attention along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, eagerly awaiting The Cat Lady, for their morning breakfast.  After a couple warm up miles, it was time to run fast for 90 seconds, and then return to an easy running pace for another 90 seconds, and repeat that cycle ten times.  The fast sections seemed faster than this same work-out two weeks ago, but perhaps that was just my optimistic mind playing tricks on me.  The last 2-3 hard fartleks were definitely a struggle.

The next day was an easy eight miles along the Los Gatos trail to the southern border of Vasona Park and back.  On the way back, the runner I referred to as "Fast Grandma" whizzed by coming the other way.  You know, she doesn't look quite that old enough to be a Grandma, so I'll just cal her "Fast Masters Lady".  That sounds better.  I also think she'd prefer this new moniker.

Friday was a day of some core exercises and foam roller routines to help the legs recover, with no running.

Saturday was another long distance tempo run of twelve miles.  Unlike the twelve mile tempo run  two weeks ago, the GPS watch had no trouble locating the distant satellites high above the earth. After an easy 7:07 mile, I settled into seven per mile pace through the six the turn-around point. Coming back home, I was hitting 6:40-6:50 miles for the last 3-4 miles. The GPS watch had me timed a 6:51 for 12.29 miles, but GPS watches tend to overestimate distance by about 2%, so I was likely just under 7:00 per mile pace for the twelve miles.

Sunday was a recovery run of 8 miles that felt surprisingly and encouragingly easy, coming the day after a hard tempo run.  Near the end, I encountered a middle aged couple walking their dogs who stood by the edge of the sidewalk to let me pass.  The guy called out,"Nice job at Wharf to Wharf", which was odd, since I didn't recognize him.  I don't know if it was a case of mistaken identity on his part, or mistaken non-identity on my part but it was a slightly odd way to to end the week.

Week 3
Total miles run: 48
Weight: 174 lbs.
Currently preferred carbon replenishment drink:  North Coast Brewing's Scrimshaw Pilsner