Friday night, Clark hadn’t gotten back from a golf thing for work yet, so I was sitting on the couch watching TV by myself. I heard a weird scuffling sound coming from the corner of the living room near the back door so I leaned forward to get a better look — and saw a POSSUM haha.
As soon as it saw me looking at it, it froze for a moment. I was worried it was going to bolt in the direction it was headed, go around a corner and get lost in a bedroom, but instead it did a 180 and walked out the way it’d come in, through the open back door. Maybe it’s time to fix those screen doors…
Anyway, Clark got home a little later, but it was late enough he didn’t want to get up with me the next morning to meet the running group at the park not far from our house.
It’d been about a month since I’d made it to the Saturday morning run and it was so much darker at that time of morning than the last time, pitch black under the highway overpass.
I got to the park in time for the group picture.
I’d run 1.5 miles from the house to the park, so when we left the park, I ran in the same direction as everyone else but turned around a little earlier and then took a different route home, finishing up 5.6 miles at a 9:07/mile pace.
Then Clark and I went to the gym for the final Weekend Warriors workout of the challenge. Most of us on Team Hulk Mode: ON cut up our shirts to look like we’d “hulked out” after six weeks of the challenge.
Clark and I also did our final weigh-in with the new body scanning machine. It said I’d lost 2% body fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle. I’ll take it!
That afternoon, we cleaned up the front yard and then went to Oceanside to get another tube for the back tire on Clark’s beach cruiser, after he figured out why the one he’d put in the day before, to replace a flat one, had already gone flat again (sand burr in the tire.)
There was supposed to be a NASCAR race from Daytona that night, but rain pushed it off until early the next morning. It was already going when I woke up.
It got rain delayed again with 21 laps to go so while I waited that out, we called our parents. Then by the time they finally got the end of the race in, it was late enough in the day, I didn’t feel like running anymore. So we went to the beach instead.
A guy on a surf foil.
We played beach bocce and stayed long enough to see the sunset.
I think this is the best picture I’ve ever taken haha!
Today, I feel like taking another day off. The challenge is over and I’m not officially in training for another race yet, so I’m feeling a little aimless. I’ll try to get back into something tomorrow.
This was the last week of the challenge at our gym, so I didn’t take much of a break after Sunday’s half marathon. I am enjoying my rest day today though.
Monday evening, Clark and I went to the gym for the final fit test. It was the same test we did the second week. I was a little over two minutes faster this time around.
Tuesday morning, Clark had to leave super early to catch a flight to the Bay Area for work. A little bit later, I went for a run before I had to be at my own office, 3 miles at a 9:51/mile pace. In the evening, I went to the gym for another HIIT class and the weekly track workout.
The 6 p.m. shadow is getting longer!
I wasn’t expecting much out of my legs, two days post-race, so I didn’t try to push it hard. We did a short warm up and some drills, and then we ran two 800s — mine were 3:48 (7:40 pace) and 3:42 (7:24) — and then four 400s — mine were 1:44 (7:00), 1:46 (7:13), 1:43 (6:56) and 1:37 (6:28). OK, I pushed on that last one!
We did a short cool down, which got me a total of 2.9 miles for the workout.
Milad dishes out motivation during the workout and chocolate milk after haha.
Wednesday morning, I ran again before work, 3.1 miles at a 9:14/mile pace.
And after, I went to the gym again for another HIIT class. I thought it was funny at the end of the class when one of the other women asked me if I’d ran to the gym because I was so sweaty compared to everyone else haha. Nope, I drove my car and was fresh as a daisy when we started, I just sweat A LOT.
Then I met the running group for the neighborhood run.
I ran with Shawn and Colin. We did 3.2 miles at an 8:50/pace on a relatively flat route for Vista — only 168 feet of climbing.
Thursday, I didn’t run, but I went to the gym in the evening for another HIIT class and Swole Patrol. Clark got home from his work trip not long after I got home from the gym.
And that brings me to my rest day today!
I don’t really have anything specific to train for at the moment, since my next registered half marathon isn’t until December, but I’m still planning to meet the running group early tomorrow morning for a few miles and then go the Weekend Warriors workout. I’d like to get in a longer run Sunday too.
I did not improve on my last half marathon time at the AFC Half Marathon yesterday, thanks to a more difficult course and the end of my no-bathroom-breaks race streak, but I managed to run up the entire 1.5-mile hill at the END so I’m still pleased with my run!
Friday evening, I ran 4.7 miles at a 9:06/mile pace. I took a rest day Saturday. Clark and I slept in and then drove to San Diego, stopping in Del Mar along the way for breakfast.
We got to the city and hit the expo first at the Sheraton San Diego on Harbor Island. We hung out in Little Italy for a couple hours, stopped by AleSmith in Miramar and got some flank steak on the way home to marinate for fajitas.
We had to be up EARLY Sunday morning to get on a bus to the start line of the point-to-point course, so I got all my stuff laid out and ready to go while we were working on dinner. It was late when we finally ate though and I was very full when I went to bed. I didn’t have high hopes for getting that dinner digested and moved out of the way before the race started the next morning.
My alarm went off at 3:45 a.m. and we left about a half hour later. It took a minute to find a parking spot in Balboa Park but we managed to get on a shuttle bus with minutes to spare.
The buses took us to the start line at Point Loma, near a military base and in a national park. I’d drank some coffee and a lot of water on the drive from home and I really had to pee! The race info had made it clear park rangers would be watching out for anyone relieving themselves in the park outside the port-o-potties, and then the first two miles of the course ran past Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, so there wasn’t going to be anywhere to peel off and “take care of business” there either. So I was still waiting in one of the massive port-o-potty lines when Milad took a picture of everyone in our running group before the race ha.
Team iRun Vista, minus me.
Point Loma is usually a pretty scenic area, overlooking the Pacific, San Diego Bay, Coronado and downtown San Diego, but it was still dark when we got there, and they were keeping everyone restricted to a small area, so there wasn’t much to see.
About 10 minutes before the 6:15 start (a minute before sunrise), they let us into the start corral. I placed myself near the 1:50 pacer.
The start was weird. The start line was up ahead, around a bend, on a narrow road, so I couldn’t even see it from where I was standing. Then a weak little air horn sounded and we all started shuffling forward. We crossed the line, which was marked by a flag on each side, but the road got even narrower past it and at a couple points in the first half-mile or so, the crowd had to slow to a walk again as we tried to funnel through. My first mile was 8:56.
It spread out a bit after that though, enough to run, and I picked it up, running mile 2 in 8:19.
There were a few slight uphills in the first two miles, but after we left the military area, we headed down through the Point Loma neighborhood. And I do mean DOWN. Miles 3 and 4 were big downhills and I ran them in 7:56 and 7:39. Fun!
The next several miles of the race were mostly flat, but after those two downhill miles, flat felt like a lot of effort haha. Miles 5 and 6 stuck close to the bay and I ran them in 8:24 and 8:44.
The course then took us to Harbor Island for a long double out-and-back. Just before we turned onto the island, I felt like I was going to need a bathroom soon. Those dang steak fajitas had finally made it through. Impeccable timing! But the last bathroom I saw before we turned onto the island were some public facilities along the sidewalk, a ways off the road, and I didn’t feel like running that far out of my way. (Plus Clark later told me some runners near him found some of those public facilities were still locked that early in the morning.)
So I ran onto the island, thinking I’d use a port-o-potty at the next aid station, which had to be coming up soon, right?
Well mile 7 beeped an 8:36 split and we’d made the first U-turn with no sign of a port-o-potty. We had a long stretch ahead of us along the island before the second U-turn. I was desperately scanning the edge of the road ahead, looking for the next aid station, but nothing was there, just a strip of open grass between the road and the harbor!
Things were starting to get dicey but then, just before mile 8, we hit the second U-turn — and an aid station with four port-o-potties. I felt much better after I’d used one, but when I finally finished mile 8 just past the aid station, my split was 10:08. Oh well, I’d rather finish 90 seconds slower than try to hold that in for the next five-plus miles ha.
We ran back the way we’d come, then turned off onto a weird little alley/back road. I sped back up to an 8:22 for mile 9.
The next mile continued along the harbor to the Embarcadero. We made a left at the Star of India and there was mile 10, which I ran in 8:34. The good news — just a 5K to go! The bad news — it’s an uphill 5K.
The next mile was still mostly flat and I ran it in 8:44. The big uphill started right about at the mile 11 marker.
It was much longer than I expected. Looking ahead from the start of the climb, it looked like it only went up four or five blocks before making a left turn onto what I thought was going to be a flatter road. But when I made that turn, that road was still going up too!
We were on Sixth Avenue at that point, which would take us right to Balboa Park — uphill the whole way to the park entrance.
It wound up totaling about 1.5 miles, going from sea level to about 300 feet above. I did walk a few steps through both aid stations, one at mile 11.2-ish and the other just before 12, but otherwise I ran the whole thing. It was not fast — mile 12 was 9:06, slowest of the race other than the bathroom stop, but I ran it.
Finally, at about mile 12.4, we made a right turn into Balboa Park. Right as I was making that turn, I got passed by another runner, but when the course flattened out, I was able to speed back up to hang with him. I wound up running the rest of the way with him.
We ran across the Cabrillo Bridge — the one we had to cross three times in the 8-miler a couple weeks earlier — and then slightly uphill AGAIN, but I was hanging onto my new pacer as we made one last right turn toward the downhill finish.
As we passed the mile 13 marker, my pacer looked at me and said “You ready to go?” And I said “Yep!” even though I was thinking “I already AM going” haha.
He took off at a sprint and I was shocked to find I still had enough left in the tank to keep up with him. My Garmin claims I was running a 5:09/mile pace there at the end! I officially finished in 1:54:09.
I thought maybe a fist bump would be a nice acknowledgement of the seven 10ths of a mile we ran together but nope, awkward side hug it was haha. That was a first!
Anyway, the finisher’s chute was a pretty long walk. We got water and our race medals in the chute, and then as it emptied us out into a grassy area, we got chocolate milk and paper bags with various snacks. Some bags had crackers, gels or bananas but mine just had a bunch of Jambars.
I found our running group’s tent. I sat there for a few minutes but it wasn’t long before I started feeling cold in my sweaty running clothes, since it was still overcast. So I made the long walk back to the car to change into dry clothes, and then I moved the car to a lot closer to the finish area.
Eventually everyone from the group finished. I was there for the post-race group photo:
Love the port-o-potty backdrop. How appropriate!
A lot of the runners in our group have extra medals here because the AFC Half was the third race in this year’s Triple Crown, three half marathons put on by the same race organizer. Clark and I did the Carlsbad Half in January, but we didn’t do the San Diego Half in March because it was the weekend after Shamrock, so we didn’t complete the Triple Crown this year. Maybe next year.
Finally we went to the beer garden. We were only supposed to get one each but we were there not long before it was going to close, so the volunteers asked us to all take at least two. There’s a pro tip for you.
The medal and race shirt feature the Cabrillo Bridge, which I have now run over four times in the last two weeks!
We’d been up so long already, it felt like the middle of the afternoon when the beer garden closed and we left, even though it was only 10:30 in the morning.
Clark and I spent some time in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego and stopped by Del Mar on the way home. We both took a nap when we got back. Clark slept so hard he thought it was Monday morning already when he woke up around 6 p.m. haha.
Anyway, to sum up, I was initially disappointed I didn’t run faster than the 1:50 I ran at the Rock ‘n’ Roll half in June, but I had digestive issues this time around, and the course was just harder — 200 feet more elevation gain, and it was nearly all at the end instead of spaced out over the first several miles. So overall I think “only” four minutes slower is pretty good.
Here are my final stats from the race:
America’s Finest City Half Marathon
1:54:09
29th/254 F 35-39
162nd/1,546 women
595th/3,331 overall
As of the moment, I am not registered for another race until the O’Side Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, three months from now, but I am looking at some more local races.
In the meantime, this is the last week of the six-week challenge at the gym and we have to do our final fit test this afternoon.
Monday evening, Clark and I went to the gym for an HIIT class.
Tuesday morning before work, I ran 4 miles at a 9:17/mile average, and after, Clark and I went to the gym for another HIIT class and then the high school for this week’s track workout.
Several of us are running the America’s Finest City Half Marathon this Sunday, so we did an “easy” workout of eight 400s, slower than we normally try to run them.
About to take off for the first 400.
I did the first seven all between 1:43 and 1:45 (6:56 to 7:03/mile pace.) Of course we all had to push it harder on the last one though, and I ran it in 1:35 (6:28 pace.) With the warmup and cool down, I did a total of 3 more miles.
Wednesday morning, I ran before work again, 3.1 miles at a 9:11/mile average. After work, we again went to the gym for an HIIT class, and then met the running group, conveniently at the pizza place right next door to the gym, for this week’s neighborhood run.
I’d accidentally left my watch at home in my rush to get out the door so I stuck with Shawn and Cesar. We did a 3.5-mile loop through a residential area and the park trails near the gym. Not sure what the pace was but it felt faster than I’d have ran on my own.
Thursday, I was out of iced coffee at home, so I went to Dunkin’ and got my first iced pumpkin latte of the season!
No. 1 of many!
That afternoon, Clark and I went to Encinitas so he could get a new tube for his bike tire that had suddenly gone completely flat. Well the bike shop is closed on Thursdays, so that was bust, but we did get lunch since we were there, and then I stopped at Broad Street Dough Co. to get a couple doughnuts.
Vanilla chai on the left and chocolate and cannoli filling on the right.
They make them hot to order but I’d just finished lunch, so I saved them for breakfast this morning. They were still delicious!
We walked down to Culture Brewing to get a beer. While we were sitting there, we noticed a lot of really cool cars rolling through and parking along the street. It turned out there was a classic car show set for that evening along the main road there through Encinitas.
I had to Google that car on the far left after I saw it drive by a few times. It’s a Bricklin SV-1, built in 1974 and 1975 in Canada, to compete with the Corvette. Obviously it didn’t quite catch on, due to “quality control issues, nepotism, supplier shortages, worker absenteeism and a series of price increases that more than doubled the price of the car in just two years.” There were about 3,000 built, and only about 1,700 remain today.
So that was cool, but I ran into my favorite on the way back to my car:
This is a 1970 Ford Torino GT! My dad had a ’70 Torino (not a GT though) that he drove as his main farm car when I was growing up. It was even a similar dark green, minus the graphics. Dad’s was a four-door coupe (no B-pillar between the front and rear windows) instead of two-door, and it had a vinyl hardtop. It also did not have the Clint Eastwood cardboard cutout in the driver’s seat haha.
It was rusting away on the farm when a guy in town, who said he was about to open a restoration shop, wanted to restore it. My dad let him have it for free. I don’t think that shop ever opened and we never saw the Torino again. Not that it was worth anything when Dad gave it to him, but it was still disappointing.
My dad’s claim to fame was that he drove it to an autograph signing Bill Elliott was doing at a local car dealership in the ’80s, and Bill offered to buy it from him on the spot! He wanted to use it as his own beater instead of the Pinto he had at the time. But my dad turned him down. I told that story a lot in school, not that anyone else was really impressed haha.
Anyway, I don’t see a lot of Torinos, period, so it was really cool to run into this one.
Clark decided to stay for the car show, but I went home, changed clothes and went to the gym for another HIIT class and then Swole Patrol.
Our team had a good turnout, minus one teammate who was drinking beers at a car show ha:
Now I’m heading out for one last short easy run. I’m going to take off tomorrow and then the half marathon is Sunday morning.
My only sorta goal for the race is to beat my half marathon time from early June, 1:50:11. I think the end of this course is tougher than the Rock ‘n’ Roll one — big uphill in the next to last mile instead of down — but we’ll see how it goes.
Friday afternoon, I ran an easy 3.3 miles at a 9:12/mile pace.
Saturday morning, Clark and I met the gym group at Lake Calaveras for a run/hike.
I thought we were going to do the same perimeter loop we did last year — which I’ve done several times since on my own — but the guy who set it up, Jim, made a more challenging 5-mile loop using trails that mostly went through the middle of the park. He said a total of about 3 miles were runnable and the other 2 were not.
Jim, in the green shirt with his back to the camera, explaining the course.
Most people set out to hike the whole loop, but a few of us wanted to run as much of it as possible, so I set off with Clark, Shawn, Kristen and her dog, Sierra.
Jim was not kidding about this route being more challenging! It had about 300 more feet of climbing over the same distance as the perimeter loop, and some of the single-track trails were pretty gnarly, with lots of big rocks and steep inclines/declines. There were also some creek crossings, sections through open grass fields and a nice wide, relatively flat dirt road near the end.
Clark, Kristen, Sierra and me in the first mile.
Jim was at the top of the first big climb to make sure everyone made it.
We ran into Jim again at this creek crossing near the end of mile 3, and he told us “You’re welcome for the glute workout” ha. He wasn’t wrong!
Clark at the creek crossing.
Sierra!
It was so fun to run with a dog again! Kristen let Sierra run off leash and she was torn between wanting to be at the front and checking on everyone behind her. She probably ran double the distance with all the going back and forth haha. It was so cute!
In the end, we finished 5 miles with 800 feet of climbing in 1:03, a 12:41/mile average.
Clark and I got cleaned up and then went to the village for a late breakfast. We wound up hanging around there the rest of the day.
Sunday, I woke up kinda late and didn’t feel like a long run, so I just did 5 miles at a 9:03/mile average along the coast. It was a hot morning, and very busy along that road, so that felt like enough.
Lots of surfers out in the ocean too.
We went to the beach later that afternoon. It was a perfect day out there! The water was also the closest it ever gets here to “refreshing” instead of freezing cold.
Also, while we were out there, Kevin Harvick won the race in Richmond, his second win in a row!
Today, we are going to the gym for a HIIT class and I want to get in another short easy run.
I’m working from home today and I just saw this red-tailed hawk land on the pergola in our back yard. I thought it was coming in the open back door for a second there!
Monday evening, Clark and I went to a HIIT class at the gym, but I didn’t feel like running after.
Tuesday, I ran before work, 4 miles at a 9:13/mile average.
After work, Clark and I went back to the gym for another HIIT class. It has been hot this week and it was definitely in the 80s in that gym, and there were quite a few people in the class. It was like working out in a sauna!
Then we went to the track workout after. The marching band was back, but was mostly on the field the whole time, so we used the whole track.
Big turnout this week!
We did an 800, which I ran in 3:36 (7:18/mile pace); two 400s, which I ran in 1:39 (6:43) and 1:43 (6:56); four 100s, which I ran in 18 seconds (5:17), 18 (5:24), 19 (5:32) and 19 (5:17); and finally three more 400s, which I ran in 1:38 (6:45), 1:37 (6:49) and 1:33 (6:23).
With the warmup and cooldown, I ran another 3 miles.
Wednesday morning, I ran before work again, 3.1 miles at a 9:41/mile average.
After work, we went back to the gym for another HIIT class, and then Clark and I met the run club for our neighborhood run in Vista.
We ran the hilly 3.2-mile loop, this time at a 10:23/mile average.
Yesterday, we went to the gym again for a HIIT class, and stayed after for Swole Patrol. We did bench presses again and I could already bench more than the last time we did them. Still not as much as I did back when I used to lift weights regularly in the attic of our house in Seaford, but progress is progress.
I might go for another short recovery run soon but that’s all I’m doing today.
This weekend, we are meeting the gym/running group at Lake Calavera tomorrow morning to run/hike the 5-mile trail loop, and I have one last long run to do Sunday in preparation for the AFC Half next weekend.
Clark and I ran the Balboa Park 8 Miler on Saturday morning. It was founded in 1955, making it San Diego’s oldest race — this year was the 68th running — but it was Clark’s and my first time participating. We got a scenic and challenging course and a very well-run event, one I’d love to do again.
Race T-shirt, bibs and finisher’s medals.
There is race day packet pick-up available, but you have to pay $5 per person for the privilege, so Clark and I picked up ours the evening before, at Road Runner Sports in San Diego. We stopped at AleSmith after, where we split a mushroom pizza from a food truck for dinner and watched the Padres-Dodgers game. When we got home, I got all my stuff together for the race the next morning and was in bed before 10:30 p.m.
My alarm went off at 5:15 a.m. Saturday and we were out the door a little after 5:45. Parking was free, easy to get to and conveniently located to the start/finish area, even the “overflow” lot for late arrivals like us.
We got to the start line about 15 minutes before the 7 a.m. gun. I got in what looked like a long line for the port-o-potties, but there were so many available, the line moved super quick and I was in and out in no time.
This race is run by the San Diego Track Club and they have all the logistics down pat! Parking and port-o-potties aren’t among the “fun” details of race management but they’re important.
Clark and I got in the starting corral — right behind a woman who immediately recognized my hat as coming from the Shamrock Marathon, because she used to work for J&A Racing when she lived in Virginia Beach! Small world haha.
We got a live rendition of the national anthem, and then they started letting us go in waves. I don’t know how many there were total, but Clark and I took off with the fifth one.
Clark and I weren’t planning on running the race together, so I wished him a good race as we crossed the line, and started weaving between other runners. As has been the theme of a lot of races I’ve run here this year, I should have started farther up!
The first mile of the course started a little uphill, ran toward the first of three crossings of the Cabrillo Bridge over Route 163, and finished during the downhill part of a loop. I ran it in 8:36.
The second mile of the race went back uphill out of that loop, but then was mostly flat, running down Sixth Avenue along the park. I finished that one in 8:31.
The third one continued along Sixth and turned back onto a wide sidewalk in the park. I ran it in 8:19.
In the fourth mile, we crossed back over the Cabrillo Bridge and ran back toward the start area, before veering off to the left. A spectator before the left turn was yelling “You’re almost there! Finish strong!” We weren’t even halfway yet, lady! That mile continued through the park, mostly on sidewalks, and I finished it in 8:29.
I think this is on the Cabrillo Bridge but not sure which crossing it was. I really wished I’d gone shirtless when I got hot, then tried to tuck it into a crop top, but the bib placement made it impossible.
In the fifth mile, we passed the San Diego Zoo, which we haven’t visited since our honeymoon here in January 2010. Past that, the course got a little more “cross country.” There was a short grass section, some more sidewalk and then we hit a dirt trail. As soon as I got to the dirt, I thought “Clark is going to be so mad when he gets here.” He hates getting his running shoes dirty haha. Too late to back out at that point though! I ran the fifth mile in 8:30.
The sixth mile was definitely the toughest of the whole race. It was all on the dirt trail, on rolling hills. I was just holding my place amongst all the runners, only passing people who’d slowed to a walk on the ups.
Near the end of that mile, however, was Zig Zag Hill, a very steep set of switchbacks going up, and eventually we ALL turned into walkers. I don’t think I’d have been able to run it much faster anyway. Mile six finally ended in 9:50.
Then we were out of the woods, literally, and back onto a sidewalk. It was pretty narrow though, and a lot of people were gassed by that climb, so it was hard to pick up speed again.
But the last two miles were relatively flat, continuing along a sidewalk, crossing the Cabrillo Bridge AGAIN (it seemed a whole lot longer the third time) and then back the way we’d started, for a nice downhill finish.
I think this was coming back into the park after crossing the bridge again.
I ran the seventh mile in 8:34 and the eighth in 8:02, officially finishing the 8-miler in 1:09:09, an 8:39/mile average.
The official course map says there’s 458 feet of elevation gain over the run, so I felt pretty good about my pace. It definitely took a hit on that sixth mile though.
When I looked up my results, my time placed me 14th of 140 in the F 35-39 age group, 83rd of 806 women and 344th of 1,561 total runners. So relatively speaking, I did pretty well!
Anyway, after I finished, I got a medal and took some of the free Jambars, then got in line for some juice company that was giving away free samples of full-size bottles. There wasn’t much else there I was interested in though — no free beer, anyway.
So I found a spot along the fence leading to the finisher’s line and waited for Clark to come through. He did not have a very fun run, compared to when he recently ran 8 miles by himself on a training run, and finished in 1:43:56. But he finished!
We changed into dry clothes and went to Coronado for a late brunch and then a stop at Coronado Brewing Company. We hit one more brewery in San Diego, then headed home to Carlsbad.
Sunday morning, I got up early and actually did my long run. It increased to two hours this week so I planned on 13.
I ran south along the coast, then turned to go to the Batiquitos Lagoon. I hit 6.5 miles on the trail there, ate a Huma gel and headed back.
The route from the coast to the lagoon and back is pretty hilly and I was a little sore from the race the day before, so I let myself walk the uphills. I ran 13 miles in 2:06:13, a 9:42/mile average.
Clark was up when I got home, so we called our parents and then went into the village for another late brunch. The NASCAR race in Michigan got rain-delayed, so we were back home in time to watch the end and see Kevin Harvick win his first race in nearly two years! I was happy to see that.
Today, I am going to run an easy 3-miler and then we’re going to the gym for a HIIT class.
Monday evening, Clark and I did a HIIT class at the gym, but he wanted to come home to cut the grass right after, rather than stay for the Fight Club class, since he had to go out of town the next day for work. So I didn’t run after the class.
Tuesday, I got up and ran before work, 3 miles at a 9:06/mile average.
That evening, Clark was gone, but I went to a HIIT class and then to the track for the interval workout.
It was an interesting one. The high school’s marching band and band front were there to start practicing their field show (as someone who still remembers my band geek days very fondly, I was happy to see them!) They had a lot of equipment on the front stretch of the track, so we did our entire workout on the back stretch and far turn — just half of the track, which meant we had to make a U-turn halfway through every interval so we could finish back at the start line. I’ve never done U-turns during track intervals before.
We started with a 400, which I ran in 1:37 (6:15/mile pace). We were split into two groups based on that first 400, so we could stagger the starts for the rest of the intervals. Rachelle wasn’t there this week so it was just me and two much faster guys in the ‘A’ group.
For the rest of the workout, the other two guys smoked me on every interval, but I guess I was trying to keep the gap as small as possible, because I ran some pretty fast paces for me, even with the U-turn on each one.
We did another 400, which I ran in 1:38 (6:15 pace.) Then we did two 300s, which I ran in 1:13 (6:20) and 1:11 (6:19), and one 200, which I ran in 45 seconds (5:49.) We had an extended break and then we did that all over again: two 400s in 1:39 (6:25) and 1:38 (6:20), two 300s in 1:12 (6:24) and 1:12 (6:10) and one last 200 in 45 seconds (5:47).
With a warm up and cool down, I got in another 3 miles.
Wednesday, I again ran before work, 3.1 miles at a 9:05/mile average.
After work, I did another HIIT class at the gym and then met the running group in downtown Vista for the neighborhood run.
I ran with Shawn, who was “taking it easy” because he’s still undergoing treatment for an Achilles thing that’s been plaguing him for a while now. That was an 8:47/mile pace on a hilly 3.2-mile loop. It was a warm evening and I had just come from the gym, so I was completely drenched in sweat by the end of that one.
Thursday, I went to the gym again in the evening, for an HIIT class followed by Swole Patrol. Clark got home from his work trip later that night.
And finally, today is a rest day.
I have an ambitious weekend of running coming up. Yesterday, I signed up Clark and myself for the Balboa Park 8-Miler in, well, Balboa Park in San Diego. I’d like to run it closer to a race effort, but it’s pretty hilly so I don’t know it’s going to go. And then Sunday, I need to get in a long run, hopefully 13 miles.
Saturday, I got my butt out of bed early and ran the 1.5 miles to a park to meet the running group at 6 a.m.
I tried to do something closer to a half marathon pace run. The AFC Half is three weeks from yesterday, and I’d like to improve a little on the 1:50 — an 8:25/mile average — I ran in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half in early June.
I ran five miles in 8:35, 8:18, 8:26, 8:38 and 8:37. Then I took it easy the last bit home for a cool down. I wound up running a total of 5.6 miles at an 8:47/mile average.
The ocean where I turned around.
Running past the lagoon on the way back.
Not long after I got home, I drove to the gym for the Weekend Warriors workout. The “Hulk Mode: ON” team was well represented. I think as a team we’re doing pretty well in the challenge so far.
We were missing one team member though. Clark didn’t want to get out of bed for the run or the workout haha.
The rest of Saturday, Clark and I just hung around Carlsbad, other than a trip to Oceanside to get more house plants to replace a couple more we’ve killed. One got a pretty bad spider mite infestation (honestly I think it came from the store with it) and I don’t know what exactly happened to the other.
We suck at indoor plants. I do have a snake plant that still looks very healthy after more than a year in this house, and the one on the sink in the hall bathroom looks nice too. But other than those two, house plants have not fared well here. I keep trying though!
Sunday, I meant to get up early again and do my long run, but I accidentally slept in until almost 9 a.m. Guess I needed the sleep! And then I didn’t feel like running. So I didn’t. We just watched the NASCAR race, called our families and then went back to the village.
So that wrapped up July, which means it’s time to sum up the month.
Mileage:
Week 1 (July 1-2): 3 miles
Week 2 (July 3-9): 27.3
Week 3 (July 10-16): 21.8
Week 4 (July 17-23): 21.4
Week 5 (July 24-31): 32.7
Total: 106.2 miles
I didn’t run any races, and I only finished two long runs, a 10- and a 12-miler. But on the plus side, I made it to the track for interval workouts every week, and I got back into strength/cross training at the gym again.
In August, I’ve got the AFC Half on the 21st, and I’m thinking about signing up for the Balboa Park 8-Miler in San Diego this coming Saturday. It looks pretty hilly, but I’ve never run an 8-mile race before, so it’d be an auto-PR ha.
The challenge at the gym also continues for most of this month. Today, Clark and I are both doing an HIIT class, and then I’ll go for another short run while he’s doing the Fight Club class after.
A Simple Running Log 