A Running Commentary

The view down Parkway Calabasas, Mile 2

I was supposed to be running the La Jolla Canyon trail race, but alas it was cancelled. Since I already had my tickets to come to SoCal and I got to hangout with my parents, I came down anyway.

The new training schedule called for 18 miles with 14 at MRP + 10 to 20 seconds.  So I had to find 18 miles to run here in Calabasas.

I started pretty early, hitting the road at 6:41am, according to the watch and ran around the neighborhood to warmup.  It took a while to get the lead out of my legs.  My parents' neighborhood is extremely hilly and the first few miles had a few steep ups and downs, making the warmup not so great on the legs. The second was down an easy hill.

After getting down toward the freeway, I ran north along back roads which most likely have a 10,000 foot elevation change.  After about three miles on Everest the back road I headed West along Las Virgenes Road toward Malibu.  I ran by my middle school which somehow has gotten much smaller over the years and then headed into the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains.

While I was supposed to be running in those hills for a race, it wasn't so bad getting some solo running along a two lane highway...with some of my closets truck friends. 

Miles 6 though about 10

I headed back the way I came and only almost was hit by a car once; mom, that is a really low number of near-death encounters for a long run. I finished my 14 miles at pace just shy of three miles from home and slowed down just a bit to cool off.  I hit 18 miles, walked for about three minutes and then jogged home.

I was wearing shorts. Or was I? I was.

Thanks to an unheated pool in the backyard there was a perfect 58 degree ice bath waiting for me to "enjoy" after a bit a stretching.

I was able to hold on for about 25 minutes in the cold but I don't think it helped much.  I did stretch a bit, however I didn't do it enough. Whatever, I felt pretty good today after a hard 18 miles on a pretty hilly course.

This was my first long run with the new training program and it was hard but completely doable.  This run was a check of the fitness levels and I am pretty confident in say I could have hung on for another eight miles at or close to the pace I ran my entire training run.

While I won't be saying that this proves that I have 3:45 in the bag, I am pretty sure I will be able to hold on to 8:35 m/m for 26.2.  This would be five seconds slower per mile than this training run, even with the warmup and cool down miles.  If I could hold the pace for the MRP + 10 (which wasn't really +10) I got 3:35 or pretty damn close to it.

With well over a month to go to get stronger, faster, and thinner, I am feeling good about the Tacoma City Marathon.