Change in Plans: Ventura Marathon 2013
Unfortunately (now fortunately) I delayed registering for the Santa Rosa Marathon and it sold out. I know it seems horrible that I would wait until my 11th week of training to register for a fast course, but it turned out to work in my favor because now I am running the Ventura Marathon a few weeks later instead. I really need the few extra weeks to make up for a few off weeks I had at that time which included one really busy and stressful week that had me feeling down and sluggish and then a short run week when I paced and crewed for AC100.
Today I finished a great, strong week following those two weeks and besides feeling a little tired, I feel revived and ready to put more focus on my upcoming race that’s now on September 8th. Here’s how this week’s training went:
Total Miles: 79.14
Monday – 8 miles at Woodward Park with D.
Tuesday – AM 4.03 miles at Woodward Park with D; PM 8.77 around Fresno State Vinyards/Orchards (10 Yassos)
Wednesday – 7.7 near the Kaiser Wilderness with D. Had to detail on to other trails as the Aspen Fire at Huntington Lake didn’t allow us to run to Kaiser Peak or any part of the Kaiser Wilderness trails. 3,500 ft elevation gain.
Thursday – 13.1 miles (10M @ MRP) around Fresno State Vineyards/Orchards with Trent. Thank goodness Trent agreed to run this with me because 10 quick miles seemed intimidating alone. 6:50/6:51/6:47/6:46/6:47/6:57/6:56/6:50/6:53/6:45
Friday: 7.86 at Woodward Park with D and our friends Katie and Jason. It was nice catching up and having breakfast afterwards.
Saturday: 10.17 at Wellbarn Road to campsite and back solo. Took the shortcut back to the car. 1,800 ft elevation gain.
Sunday: 19.51 Wellbarn past bridge with clockwise loop with D. I really only intended to run 10 miles but since I had great company, I kept going. The last 7 miles felt great while the earlier miles had me breathing pretty heavy up all the hills. It was also very smokey out from a nearby fire in Oakhurst. It seems like there are so many fires at most of our favorite trails around California. Sad. 3,500 ft. elevation gain.
Santa Rosa – Weeks 8 & 9 (of 16)
Top Left: Juan Ramirez post-run. Right: OC Coast Runners reunion! Bottom Left: Los Pinos Peak right behind me.
Week 8 — My coach gave me a free week following my 50-mile race this past Saturday so I was able to get in more runs with friends.
Total Miles: 48.08
Monday
10.00 Easy recovery run at Woodward Park after my Marin Ultra Challenge 50-miler on Saturday. Felt amazing — the first time in a long time I can say I am not injured after a race…must be all this running. ;P
Tuesday
10.00 easy run out on Wellbarn. It’s a tough course and it was a hot day so D and I took our time and cut it short. Click here to see course. Felt tired but still very happy.
Wednesday
6.01 Nice easy, fun run with the OC Coast Runners at Back Bay. More of a social event followed by some Mexican food and beers.
Thursday – 10.00
FINALLY was able to get in a run with my friend Juan Ramirez. Though we had been training under the same coach a few years back, we were never really able to get a run in together. We met near Angel Stadium and ran the Santa Ana Bikeway out 5 and back. Our speed was a tiny bit too fast for me because I was a little fatigued but we chatted a lot and sweated like pigs — both of which make me feel alive.
Friday – Rest
Saturday
12.02 miles running a portion of the Los Pinos 50K course. So much talk about this very, very difficult course has me on point to intimately know the course. The RD was nice enough to take me out on the course. I was using this run as a way to compare my times on this portion of the course and I will be honest and say that I felt really slow. It took me 2:21 to run 8 miles from Lazy W over Los Pinos and back to the Main Divide. I thought it was a crappy run but John Hockett told me it was actually pretty good. Can’t wait to get back out there and do another comparison.
Sunday – Rest
Week 9
Total Miles: 47.09
Monday – 6.21 around my hood. Just an easy run and getting back into marathon training mode.
Tuesday
6.01 around the block again but this time with Ashley. Kind of tweeked my calf when I veered off course to snap a picture and then hauled butt to catch back up to her. Did this run instead of my speedwork because Ash and I were meeting someone from Hoka later in the evening and I didn’t want to be late.
Wednesday – 8.01 (3×1-mile on the Santa Ana Bikeway)
Felt absolutely fabulous although I did feel that calf thing kind of flaring up.
Thursday – 14 miles on the Fourth of July hiking to and from Mt. Wilson to watch the fireworks. Wonderful night.
Friday – Rest (Calf hurt like crazy so I took a day off! 
Saturday – 12.86 miles on the Los Pinos 50K course. RD got another group together to run the first part of the course with the option to continue on through the peak for 25 miles. I was concerned about my calf but it didn’t hurt until I was done with the first part and there I found my answer to NOT run the 25 miles. Had a blast meeting new runners.
Sunday – Rest
Marin Ultra Challenge 50 Recap (Week 7 of 16)
Another great perk about this race was FREE professional photograpy. Photo taken by Michigan Bluff Photography. Oh, and they had a live video stream of the finishers so my bf was able to see me cross the finish line. 🙂
Not too much to say about this past week’s training because 49 of 73 miles were from the Marin Ultra Challenge that I did on Saturday. Yes, I ran a 50-miler, but I had so much fun doing it. Typically I write looooooong race recaps but for some reason, I just don’t want to so I will just quickly tell you about it:
Gorgeous course all over Marin Headlands (SF) starting and finishing under the Golden Gate Bridge and then running through and around Rodeo Beach, Tennessee Valley and Muir Beach. Views were breathtaking (for me anyway), overlooking the beach from some pretty gnarly hills. With an elevation gain of 10,000+ feet, I really expected it to be a long, hot, 9.5 hour day and I was content with that.
My plan was simple, run fast enough to be the first woman, but not so fast that I might injure myself (thinking of the big picture marathon). I was really hoping for a top ten overall finish and I ended up placing 9th!
A few things to note:
- I was extremely worried about getting off course since we would be going in and out of Tennessee Valley from a few directions. I did, only once right before mile 20 and instead of turning right on Miwok, I headed left back up a trail that we had already came down earlier. Common sense told me I shouldn’t be heading in that direction and since I could no long hear the voices of the guys that were in front of me, I got back on the trail and found the pink ribbon that should have taken me right instead of left. Not sure how much more I added to my milege — not a big deal. The race was officially 49.3 miles and my Garmin died with 48.99 miles on it, 7.5 minutes before I crossed the finish line. I guess I could do the math if I wanted to. Garmin details HERE.
- Aid stations were fully stocked with a huge variety of items. I managed to get 90% of my nutrition (240+ calories per hour) from my own stash of FRS energy shots. I am really tired of gels and these remind me of concentrated orange juice that can be taken as a shot, or poured into a water bottle. Each shot is approximately 120 calories, 35mg of caffeine, and just…YUMMY. ONE thing I didn’t like was the packaging – the wrapper is hard to remove when you are running/hiking and then screwing off the cap is difficult; the hard little bottle makes it hard to carry more than a few at a time if you are carrying handhelds instead of a pack. *FRS website seems to be discontinuing this size and is instead offering a 16 serving size bottle (maybe for the reasons I just mentioned). I purchased mine on ebay, buy one case, get one for free so I doubt I will find another deal like this. By far my new favorite product that I don’t want to be without — a must-have!
- Inside Trail hosted this event and had some really great swag. Coming in as the first Female earned me a new Suunto Ambit GPS watch with heart rate monitor, $250 in prize money and a few other things like an embroidered blanket and personalized beer mug. I was really excited about this since I have never really won anything before, plus I felt like I had to work pretty hard to earn it.
- Complaints? None, really. I would suggest that the race have water available in the morning at the start line. I never come to a race with an empty bottle or pack but I did on this day and got lucky to have a bottle in my car. Other than that, everything was great and I would love to do more of their races.
- One of the best parts of this event was the people. I had a blast traveling up with my coach Andy Noise (who did the 50K), allowing us to catch up and get to know each other better. I was also able to run with Mark Tanaka — this man heavily influenced and inspired me through my journey at Javelina in October. He has a lot of races under his belt and I think I could learn a lot from him. We ran together for quite a long time and only finished about 6 minutes apart. Then there was Chris B. who I ran into during the race, it turns out were were DM friends already but just never met. That was cool.
Well, I think I made this a long post again. Darn it, I guess I will try harder next time. 🙂
June 24, 2013 | Categories: Santa Rosa Mara
Santa Rosa – Week 6 of 16
This was a tough week of training following my pacing/crewing/companion duties at SD100 simply because I was pooped. My duties didn’t end after the race, I was still on duty until the following Wednesday. No big deal though, I still managed to get in a little over 23 miles, and I had the Marin Ultra Challenge 50-miler race coming up. The highlight of the week was the beautiful training run through Los Pinos Peak as sort of a course review for the 50K race coming up. The two RD’s hosted this run with a buffet of food near the top and I was finally able to meet up with Teyana who was a doll and pleasure to run with. Really looking forward to this race and hope to spend the weekend of the 29th in the same area so I can become more familiar with the course.
Week 6
Total Miles: 23.39
Thursday – 12.02 (Yay, first run back and felt pretty good running along the Santa Ana Bikeway!)
Saturday – 11.37 on Los Pinos 50K course from Lazy W Ranch to the Camp Blue Jay.
Santa Rosa – Week 5 of 16 and SD100
San Diego 100 finishing photo.
The major highlight of my training week was to companion D during his first 100-mile finish at the San Diego 100! Not only did he finish the race in record high heat with the lowest finishing rate (46%), he finished 25th with a 25:13 time! I am very proud of him and I hope to be the one crossing that finish line this time next year. The photo above was taken after shortly after the race with all our friends (racers/crews/pacers/volunteers) that were waiting at the finish line when we showed up at 8:13 in the morning. It was a long Saturday and Sunday for us all and we were very lucky to be able to spend so much time together in an environment that we love.
Week 5
Total Miles: 66.92
Monday – 6.29
Tuesday – 8.47 (Intervals – 5×1,000)
Wednesday – 7.03 recovery
*Thursday – 7.69 (7 mile tempo: 7:01/6:57/7:01/7:06/7:21/dns/dns)
Friday – Rest
Saturday/Sunday– 36 (Crew/pace with D San Diego 100)
*Really tough run for me in the heat; I wasn’t able to run seven consecutive tempo miles and ended up only doing 5.
Trace B. 