Week 18, 2013: good end of a great month

(As you can see I updated the weekly overview. It's a new version, re-done from scratch with different technologies. It does not yet have all the features that I had before, but I was forced to roll it out early, due to problems with the previous version that I did not feel like wasting time on fixing. Hopefully I'll be adding missing features (and more) soon)

Again, I'm lagging more than a week behind with the reports...

I'm back to my 2 runs per day routine. Tuesday morning I go for my fast run, but after 3K I have a technical problem ;). I guess my body is not used to getting up that early. I have to turn around and partly walk the way back, barely making it on time ;). I make another attempt in the evening (at a fast run, that is ;) but it is doomed to go wrong: I'm tired from the morning run and there is a super strong wind, so my finish time is not good at all.

Tuesday was the last week of April and, to my surprise, I realize that it was my second best month ever in terms of mileage. I ran 353km and I only did more in November last year when I ran 370km, but that was thanks to the Turkey adventure when I run over 160km in four days in Yosemite.

Recently something reminded me of CrossFit of which I heard for the first time almost a year ago. I decided it's time to give it a try so on Wednesday I went for a prep class. Most of it involved technical explanations of how to do the exercise with proper form (it was a snatch day) but the 5 minute workout at the end was super intense. I'm intrigued and want to try more.

On Thursday I do my hill run and attack Black Mountain. I again have the same problem as on Tuesday... but I still make a very good time; possibly my best ever, although I'm not sure whether Strava included or excluded the short stop I had to do on the way ;). Easy run in the evening.

On Saturday I am considering joining my family in Death Valley but it's such a long drive that I give up... Then I am thinking of doing some running in the Henry W Coe State Park. It's a big park and it takes one hour to drive there from my home. However, on Friday I had a shin pain which continues on to Saturday and in general I'm hurting quite a bit from my first CrossFit attempt so in the end I settle on a shorter run nearby. I drive to El Sereno.

I hit heavy traffic on highway 17 -- looks like a lot of folks is heading to Santa Cruz for the weekend. And then I hit a crazy road. I did my share of driving to parks around here so I'm not easily impressed with mountain roads. But this one is really narrow and really steep. In most parts it's not wide enough for two cars to pass, but gladly I only see 2 cars the whole way. But even the parking on top is super steep giving a good test to my hand break handling skills.

I do a relatively short run but it's up and down all the time. Also, I figure that there is a 5K steep climb segment on Strava, where the top times are not that impressive so I decide to make a go for it, but I crash before the end. It's super hot. And it's super steep. Only 16K total but a tough workout.

I finish off with a long but completely flat run of 25K along the bay. It's quite amazing how much easier it is to run without hills. Boy, I'll miss them if I ever go back to Amsterdam... :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budapest, marathon

Image
2/10/2011 marathon Budapest, Hungary 3:25:51 4:53 min/km 165 hrm 256/2990 (8.6%) That was supposed to be my 10th marathon. And my hopes (as usually) were high :). I wouldn't settle for anything less than a new PB... It didn't start so well. I arrived to Budapest on Friday and it was really hot. I mean, like summer hot. And when I arrived to the hotel it only got worse -- the room was sooo bloody hot; it was like an oven! Now that I think about it I should have tried to change rooms. I didn't. And I payed for it dearly as I hardly got any sleep that night. Next day -- business as usual, picking up the starting number, working out the logistics, stuffing oneself with pasta... and trying to go to bed early. Thankfully it kinda worked and I even managed to get a decent night of sleep. The race was starting at 10 so I woke up, ate breakfast and got myself to the starting line without too much hurry. The starting sections were for the grabs, that is one ...
Read more

Week 19 & 20, 2012

No activity week, followed by the best week ever Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. This was a crappy week; I was in Portugal and didn't feel much like running. I only went for one run on Friday. If you look at my speed during this training you may think I was out for a walk. Not so. I don't know good places for running around Braga, so usually I end up going up the Bom Jesus hill ; and that's a hell of a hill to climb. During this session I did a total ascent of 560m; and such an ascent can do that to your pace! Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. The following week I decided to step up my game. On Monday I again attacked Bom Jesus, but this time with a twist. I would go 4 minutes uphill and then back up and go down for 1 minute. That means that ...
Read more

My goals for... the lifetime.

Image
The other day I was thinking about my running goals for the next year (completing a milestone event such as the Lakeland 50 often does that to me ;) and then I though that it would actually be nice to put it in the perspective and first come up with goals for the lifetime. Things I would like to achieve sport-wise before my expiration date. Quite a biggie. So without further ado, let me outline them and then I'll talk a bit more about each one of them. Qualify for and run in the Boston marathon . Complete in a good time a demanding trail ultramarathon. Complete an Ironman Triathlon (for those in the dark: 3.86km swim + 180km bike ride + 42.2km run) I have no illusion, those are all grand goals and each one of them would require total dedication and a lot of training (possibly over some years) to complete; and even then there is no guarantee of success. But, hey, as they say: Better shoot for the sky... . Anyway. Let me elaborate on those goals. Qualify for and run in the ...
Read more