Santa Rosa – Weeks 1-4

And so it goes that I settled on FINALLY running another marathon this year after realizing I needed to refocus and regroup and get back into a training zone. It is not that I haven’t been put on a schedule while training for my ultras, but like I said, I had become lazy knowing I could skimp here and here and still fare quite well. That attitude didn’t settle well with me and I really started to get down on myself for the fact that I wasn’t giving it 100% while my coach, Andy Noise, tirelessly prepared my workouts week after week to help make me a better runner and competitor. Not only do I owe it to myself, I feel that I owe it to him to do my best as well.

I am a life runner for one, but I am also a fierce competitor and right now I want to race. If I am gonna race, I need to be on point and doing all the right things so when I do cross that finish line, I can genuinely tell myself that I did everything I could to get to that finish line. Oh, and let’s not forget how injury prone I am, flaking on workouts and trying to race hard will really set me back further than where I was when I started. I am trying to progress here, not the other way around!

Anyway, today I started my 5th week of marathon for Santa Rosa which is on 8/25. I can’t believe I have already had four solid weeks of training since I made the decision picking that race! So far things have been great and I have been very diligent following the workouts to a tee.  I will try to keep it brief and go over what I have been doing for the past four weeks and in the future I recap every week instead of every four.

Some photos from run/hike from Courtright to Dog Tooth.

Week 1
48 miles total
Monday – 11.66
Tuesday – 8.47 (Intervals – 8×600)
Wednesday – 6 recovery
Thursday – 8.34 (6 mile tempo: 7:31/7:28/7:19/7:16/7:157:22)
Friday – 3.96
Saturday – 0 (Gold Rush 100k.  Was supposed to pace for D but he dropped)
Sunday – 9.92
*Had a great week, nothing crazy/special.

Week 2
52 miles total
Monday – 6.17
Tuesday – 10.33 (Intervals – 12×400 on Santa Ana River Trail)
Wednesday – 13.02
Thursday – 11.08 (6 mile tempo: 7:17/7:20/7:08/7:00/6:58/6:50)
Friday – Rest
Saturday – 8.99 (Trail run with hills)
Sunday – 2.65
*I was totally stoked that my tempo run went so well.

Week 3
55 miles total
Monday – 6.21
Tuesday – 10 (Intervals – 6×800)
Wednesday – Rest
Thursday – 10.01 (6 mile tempo: 6:48/6:46/6:36/6:35/6:31/6:28)
Friday – 7.01
Saturday – 10.05 (Trail run with hills)
Sunday – 12.11 (Trail run with hills)
*Probably the best week so far.

Week 4
51 miles total
Monday – 7.4
Tuesday – Rest
Wednesday – 6.03
Thursday – 8.53 (7 mile tempo: 6:40/6:33/6:44/6:53/6:52/7:07/6:49)
Friday – 6.37
Saturday – 11.7 (actual 13.5 – run/hike with hills and elevation)
Sunday – 10.7
*Hardest week by far. Was pretty rested, getting lots of rest but the efforts I made this week felt much harder. I am thinking it may be because of the slight hills at Woodward Park compared to the Santa Ana River Trail. Who knows…