LA Marathon 2016: Race Report

Posted by Rachel

I have so much to write about race weekend that this might end up being the longest blog post EVER. You have been warned.

Pre-race: Saturday February 13 - Olympic Trials

Part of the reason Travers chose to race LA this year versus Napa or something else was because the Olympic Trials marathon was the day before. And also, possibly, because he knew it meant he wouldn't have to do anything special for Valentine's Day. We ended up going to the expo/packet pickup around 8:30 am, and the trials were held right outside to begin at 10:00. We found a place under an underpass just about a half mile south of the start and hung out there. It wasn't empirically oppressively hot, but it was easily in the 70s and felt hotter in the SoCal sun which is not the ideal condition for a marathon. It was definitely rough on some of the competitors which is always difficult to watch. At this point Travers' parents met up with us to watch the race. Once the race got started it was SO EXCITING! I had a blast cheering for all of the runners and seeing the country's best run right by me only feet away. Wow. Here are a few photos I took (I apologize for the quality; lighting is not so great under an underpass).

Meb and Rupp, not long after their breakaway

Flanagan and Cragg... loved watching the training buddies race together :)

The rest of the day mostly consisted of moderating activity, food, etc. Vacation never feels quite right when you have a marathon hanging over your head. As a note to self, I will not sign up for any marathon on a vacation that I'd actually like to enjoy.

Race day: Sunday, February 14

I'm going to try to include enough detail about the course that random internet stalkers can get something out of this post. I'll start by saying that this was by far my biggest mistake - I didn't know the course. Obviously that's not entirely my fault, since I don't exactly live in LA. However, I should have done more research and committed what I read to memory. But instead of focusing on the negative (biggest mistake), I'll just go through the ups and downs of my day.

We took the 5 am shuttle from Santa Monica (the finish) and the ride didn't feel too long. Once we got to Dodger Stadium (the start), it was pretty neat because most of the stadium was just open to runners. Having all of those bathrooms open + porta potties in the parking lot + stadium seating really helped manage the crowd, I think. 25,000 is a huge amount of people but it never felt like that many. After going to the bathroom several times, Travers and I went to check our bags then hit up the corrals. I highly recommend signing up early if you're going to do this race to get into the corrals. I was in corral B, where I put myself smack between the 3:25 and 3:35 pacer. I didn't feel like there was much overcrowding at all. After the typical pre-race fanfare, we were off!

Miles 1-4

I knew from the course profile that the race starts with a brief uphill (69 feet over ~ 0.4 mile) then drops 151 feet in the remainder of the mile. I did find it to be a little bit crowded during this mile but not terrible. In mile 2, the course drops 118 more feet. The early downhill made it tough to gauge my pace because I didn't really know if I was going too fast or not (for new readers, if we actually have those, my goal was sub-3:30). There were a lot of turns in this part of the course and a lot of spectators with signs about God and the Bible. I have no idea where we were, but it was a little strange. I also thought I saw a pack of nuns but I may have been hallucinating. Miles 3 - 4 had little elevation change (20-30ish ft/mile) and I felt like a 7:50ish pace was coming nice and easy.

Miles 5-6

I read from a random stranger's blog that mile 5 had a couple of short but steep uphills. Unfortunately that means I wasn't expecting the short climbs that also occurred in mile 6. In mile 5 we climbed 118 ft total but dropped 59, and if I recall correctly this was spread over 2 hills. At the top of one of the hills there was an awesome drum line. In mile 6 we climbed another 95 feet and dropped 43. While climbs of 100 ft/mile aren't super significant, I knew they could hurt me later in the race. Mile 5 I kept at 8:00 pace, but mile 6 I slowed down intentionally and actually logged my slowest mile of the whole race here (8:11). I think these miles ran through downtown LA.

Miles 7-10

This is another example of where I should've studied a map, because I really don't have any idea where I was. I remember running past a pond or lake, which I later found out was Echo Park. This area was really nice and crowd support was pretty good considering it was early. In terms of elevation, all of these miles had some small gradual inclines and declines. I still felt mentally pretty good here, but that was about to end soon.

Miles 11-14

These miles were part of a long stretch on Sunset Blvd/Hollywood Blvd. There was pretty good crowd support and some touristy sights to see, but it was a little bit tough to just have the long straight road ahead. Here approaching the half I realized I was already almost 0.2 miles ahead of the mile marker (bad tangents), meaning I knew I'd have to be significantly sub-8 on my Garmin to hit my goal. There was no marker for the half, but I remember crossing at about 1:43:45 or so which seemed pretty good. However, this stretch was also the first part where I thought to myself "oh shit", because my quads were already getting tired and I wasn't even half way there. I was a little bit depressed about that for a mile then told myself to suck it up - I was halfway to meeting my goal! I also got hit in the face by a banana discarded by another runner during this stretch, which pissed me off pretty bad for about half a minute. I looked around and couldn't figure out who did it, so I just let it go.

Mile 15

I put this mile by itself because there is a pretty big downhill - 180 ft in a less than mile. I loved the "free" speed that I got from this mile at the time, but what I really should've been doing was saying goodbye to my quads :p Luckily the Oakland Marathon has a ridiculous beast of a downhill and this one was nothing compared to that.

Miles 16-20

This is where I'm a total fool for not knowing the course. I knew there were some gradual climbs around mile 20, but I thought they were all in this section. For example, mile 17 had a 62 ft climb but it wasn't that bad and the crowd support was still pretty good. I also think I passed Rodeo drive somewhere around mile 15-17, which was the last tourist attraction that I noticed. Even though my legs were pretty tired as I approached mile 20, I started to get a feeling of excitement that I could meet my goal of sub-3:30. I was holding 7:5x on my Garmin and feeling tired during this segment, but I had confidence from one of my training runs (a 20 miler with the last 10 @ goal marathon pace) that I could run 8-9 miles at goal pace on tired legs.

Mile 21

Shit hits the fan (mentally anyway). I still have no idea where I was - a combination of a horrible sense of direction and not knowing the course. This mile had 69 feet of climbing and no downhill, which itself isn't too bad. However, the course support had dwindled and there was very little shade. There were a lot of people walking here and somehow I was near the 3:25 pacer (who must have finished a bit slow). I was dying and I figured the pacer must know the course, so I asked him, "is this the last uphill?" Before he could answer, a guy in his group laughs in my face "HA! We have two more tough miles after this one!" Ugh, you've got to be kidding me. Then the pacer came back with "You're doing great, keep it up! It's downhill at mile 24." As I'm sure most marathoners know, mile 24 might as well be 10 miles away from mile 21. I told myself it was ok if I slowed down, but I still somehow clocked an 8:05.

Mile 22

Another 50 feet of climbing, but also with 49 feet downhill. I was so excited to get to this mile because I knew my sister and her friend were out there cheering in Brentwood! I am so appreciative that they were out there, and I had all these plans to hug her and say hi and thank her and ask her if Travers had already gone by. However, when I did see her, all I could do was throw my fuel belt at her and say "these hills are f*cking killing me." Thanks, sis! Seeing her must have given me some motivation though because I managed a sub-8:00 mile (7:58.8 - still counts!)

Miles 23-24

These miles are basically flat (no more than 20 ft climbing or dropping) but they felt awful. I began walking through aid stations and telling myself I could slow down but not too much because if I went any slower than 8:30 I wouldn't achieve my goal. Somehow I managed to keep an 8:04 for both of these miles, although I had no idea how that happened.

Mile 25

Downhill, finally (95 ft drop in this mile). Not that my quads felt stable or good or anything. At this point I was just telling myself to finish, and if I broke 3:30 I wouldn't make myself do it ever again. I was just looking at the ground and focusing on not dying and then I hear "hey!". I looked up and it was Travers!!! I was so happy to see him and told him we should finish together. Then he asked how fast I was running. I noticed I was around 7:40 for that mile (a downhill miracle) and told him so, and he said "no way". So I asked if he wanted me to go ahead and he said yes. I was fairly sure he'd pass me again later but he never did. It was great knowing he was nearby though because I knew we could meet up in the finisher area.

Mile 26

This is that point in the race where it's like FTS, you might as well give it everything. The faster you go, the sooner it's over. Another loss of 92 ft of elevation aided my 7:28 mile and I was ready to be done.

Mile 26-26.5

Due to my generous Garmin + bad tangents, I ended up running 26.51 miles during this race, with the last 0.5 @ 7:01 pace. I just pictured all the track workouts I did and gave the 800 m to the finish everything I had. I figured if I could finish in a 3:27 instead of a 3:28, I might as well do that because it's not like I was running a marathon that hard again any time soon (if ever). 

Summary

I crossed the line in 3:27:39, a PR that exceeded my goal. However, I was so beat up from the race that I honestly didn't even feel that excited about it. It was more a feeling of relief that I was done. My half splits ended up being approximately a 1:43:45/1:43:54, which is honestly some kind of miracle given how I felt. I guess that's what they mean when they say "trust your training" - even though I suffered, I can definitely look back at how hard I've trained over the last 3 months and know that I got out what I put into it. Overall, the course climbed 850 ft and dropped 1250 feet. Living in the Bay area this is obviously not the hilliest of all runs I have encountered, but it's no freaking joke in a goal marathon race. 

Woohoo!

Weather

It was supposed to be really hot on Sunday, but luckily it was much cooler than predicted. I don't know the actual numbers, but if I had to guess it maybe got into the high 60s/low 70s for the hottest miles. In the beginning of the race there was a lot more shade than I expected - a nice bonus. There was also a layer of fog over Santa Monica that made for a nice finish. While I did pour water over my head at some of the aid stations from miles 14-24, a practice I don't typically do, I don't feel that the weather affected my race in any way. Another note is that while there are 22 official aid stations, there are also a lot of other groups on the course helping out with water and other items to consume (I also saw beer and corn dogs I think). 

Post race

My sister and her friend came down to Santa Monica and we all got food and ICE CREAM and hung out on the beach (the fog burned off). 

 I love the beach, and probably should plan my next vacation around beaches and not running

 Celebrating Valentine's Day and our PRs in style. Right before falling asleep at 7 pm.

A relaxing end to a not at all relaxing day

It finally felt like vacation, except for being highly immobile. The following day it was super hot out and we went to the La Brea tar pits and LACMA (art museum) with Travers' parents.

Tar Pits - museum is a good post-race activity

Overall, I'm honestly not sure if/when I'll "race" another marathon. I'm actually signed up for the Oakland Marathon in 5 weeks (oops), but the difference between running an 8:00 pace and 9:00 pace is night and day to me and Oakland is always my favorite race :) After Oakland I'm not signed up for anything, but will probably go back to training more swimming, biking, and strength. And maybe try to PR a 10k. Whatever we decide to race, it'll be a fun spring/summer :)

The LA Marathon is coming....

Posted by Rachel

...just in time for a record heat wave. I feel like I need Alanis Morissette to re-write the song ironic for this. All summer, we trained in the hottest, driest conditions to prepare for what was shaping up to be another hot IM Canada. We tortured ourselves to do a 109 mile bike ride with 8600 ft climbing on a day when it was 90+ degrees  just to make sure we could do it, and so we were prepared for the fueling and hydration that would be required. Then, on race day, we got this:

My sister took this after the swim. 48 and raining, and it actually got colder after the swim before it got warmer. I rode 56 miles without functioning hands. Good thing we were prepared for the heat.

Then, this winter, we did plenty of runs in cool, wet conditions. When Travers and I signed up for the LA Marathon in an El Nino year we were sure we'd need to be ready for rain, rain, and rain. I was lamenting to Chen during a long run 3 weeks ago that I was worried I didn't do enough running in downpours. And now, we get this:

82 on race day. You have got to be kidding me.

What can I do? For now, the plan is to stick with the goal: sub-3:30. My last marathon "race" was CIM 2012, where Chen and I ran a 3:32 in a monsoon. It's funny how running evolves; I've been looking at my training paces now compared that to training cycle. My track intervals are no faster at all (slower actually), my tempo runs are only 5 - 10 sec/mile faster, but my easy/relaxed long run pace is 15 - 20 sec/mile faster. I wonder if that's typical to have so much improvement at one distance/type of run but not another. (You can say it - it means I'm getting old, doesn't it?) Regardless, I feel like a much stronger runner than I was when 3:32 happened so as Travers would say - I'm going to balls out! (With caution and excessive hydration, of course.) And if I fail at my marathon goal, 82 and sunny is lovely beach weather. 

Step back, peak week, and early taper

Posted by Rachel

It has been a while since I updated on my training, and now we're only 2 weeks away from LA! Here's a general recap:

Three weeks ago (aka the week after crime week)

The week after crime week was as step back week, which was much needed. It ended with an awesome girls weekend in Carmel. The main event was Saturday all-day wine drinking, but I actually survived a 12.7 mile run on rolling hills on Sunday. Barely.

Two weeks ago (aka peak week)

Two weeks ago was peak week where I ran my highest mileage ever - 55.2. I hit most of my key workouts (track, tempo, long run) and felt really strong. I can't think of much to say about this other than I hope I feel during the race like I did during my 22 miler this week!

This past week (aka early "taper")

I personally think a 3-week taper is too long for me, especially given the proximity to my last step back week, so I still did a fairly high weekly mileage (for me) of 45. The only thing I cut was my long run - I planned to do 18 but ended it at 16.2 instead. I ran up into the hills which was really challenging me, and I figured it's best to not overdo it 2 weeks out. Today was an easy 6 miler but my quads were a little sore from the (down)hills. I know the hills I did yesterday are much bigger than anything I'll face on the course in LA anyway though. Today during my easy run I brought my camera and decided to have some fun.

So lucky to have so much water to run near!

Now it's actual taper time - I know from past tapers that I do best when I dial down the intensity a little (but not too much) but don't take too many days off either. On a non-training related note, Travers and I made plans to cheer for the marathon Olympic trials the day before the race, so that should be really fun to watch our nation's best distance runners up close!  http://www.latrials2016.com/
LA, here we come!

Crime during training

Posted by Rachel

That title was one of the themes of this week. The other was fatigue. Last week, I ended the week with an awesome 20-miler where the last 10 miles were 10 sec faster than my GMP. As a result, I felt pretty tired this week. I focused on trying to balance the benefits of running on tired legs without overdoing it and getting injured or overtrained. In order to address the title, I'll go through my week with accompanying stories.

Monday (1/4)
The gym parking lot was packed, probably due getting back into the routine post holiday and New Year resolutions. Somehow though, I was the ONLY person in the pool. I was ok with that, and I did not encounter any criminal activity.

Tuesday
This was a track workout (7.7 miles total). I started out strong but got tired REAL quick. Again no crime, but I did eat my first Chipotle burrito of 2016. We stayed away for a while because of the e coli thing, but there were no issues.

Wednesday
I was running around nice and easy (6.7 miles total) because my legs were so dead and was on the sidewalk along the lake. All of a sudden I heard brakes squealing and I looked up and saw a car rear-end another car stopped at a red light, pretty hard (NOT just a tap). I noticed the driver of the car looking over his shoulder and it occurred to me that he was going to make a run for it, which he did. I looked at the license plate number and recited it to myself the whole run home. When I got home I called the cops and reported the license plate, but unfortunately could not describe the driver (who could describe a person sitting in the dark 20 ft away?). I read an article that less than 2% of hit-and-runs in this city are caught, which sucks. How can there be so many assholes?

Thursday
I was running 10 miles, and abandoned tempo in favor of running every 3rd mile at ~7:40 pace (GMP - 15 sec) and the rest easy because my legs were so tired. At one point, I noticed a lot of cops on the other side of the lake but didn't think a whole lot of it. A couple of miles later, while I was running in the darkest part of the lake, I found myself with a police helicoper + search lights directly over my head. I heard instructions coming from the helicopter, including "Surrender! The dogs will find you! Residents, stay inside your home!" No wonder there were way less people around than usual! I got a little bit nervous and ran quickly back to the main road, where a cop stopped me. I thought I was going to get in trouble so I told him (all out of breath from running faster) "I'm not near my home!" He asked where I lived then pointed which way I should go to get there, at which point I took the well-lit main road instead of dark lakeside path. My splits for those miles are comically significantly faster than the rest of my run. If you don't believe this happened, you can check this out. At the time, I didn't know what offense the criminal had committed which made it a little bit scarier than it sounds right now.

Friday
Masters swim practice. My coach said "You looked tired from your very first stroke." That about sums up that workout.

Saturday
20 miles in Golden Gate Park with Chen to practice rolling hills. Fortunately, I did not witness any crimes nor did I run into a crime scene. Also, I had a blast running with Chen and eating takeout Thai food afterward (3 entrees between the 2 of us, of course).

Sunday
Easy run of 6 miles. Again I saw nothing related to any crime, so hopefully that short streak is over.

Next week I'm taking a step-back week to try to balance out some of the fatigue I was feeling this week. I'm feeling good with 5 weeks left, so hopefully the rest of training goes better than this week!

Holiday training recap

Posted by Rachel

As I found during Thanksgiving, I was reminded this week that it's a lot easier to train for a marathon when you only have to go to work for 3 days (go figure). Maybe my next marathon will be after I'm retired. Actually, scratch that, I'll be happy if I can walk and be active when I'm retirement age, no need for marathons.

Christmas week
Even though I had a lot of free time, Christmas was a step-back week for me after 2 weeks of hard training. Unfortunately, I don't burn as many calories during a step-back week which led to me gaining 2 pounds. The only kind of interesting run that happened during the step-back week was a 12 mile trail run in Bakersfield with Travers. It was basically a constant 200-250 ft climb/mile for half of the run, then downhill the other half. I'm not much of a trail runner, but this was actually a great opportunity to practice downhill running (one of my weaknesses). The views were pretty neat, even though it was a bit chilly. And as an added bonus, I managed to not trip on any rocks and fall flat on my face!

Wind Wolves Preserve - near the I-5 Grapevine I think, but you know my sense of direction

To overcompensate, I then enjoyed prime rib and cheesecake.

New Year week

With the luxury of step-back week over, this past week was a tough one. I had a couple fun workouts to share:

Tuesday/track - dice workout

This is one of my favorites that our running club always does at the track workout closest to Jan 1. We roll two dice and multiply the sum by 100, and that's our interval. I had two training buddies doing this workout with me and we took turns rolling. After 7 rolls we had managed 9, 6, 9, 6, 7, 9, and 6. We noticed that 5200 m of speedwork was a little bit lower than recommended by the coach, so we literally decided to roll the dice and let fate take its course. And then this guy Jim rolled a 10.. ugh. The odds were not in our favor and that last 1000 was pretty miserable, but then everyone from track went to the brewery which kind of made up for it. It was interesting to talk more to people that I run with weekly; most of them have interesting jobs (although not ones where I could be hired), but we had never talked about anything other than running. 

Saturday/long run-

Today I completed what I consider the hardest long run of the training cycle. I got it from the Asics sub- 3:30 plan. The run was a 20 mile long run, with 10 miles at 9:00/mile or easy pace, and 10 miles at 8:00/mile or marathon pace. I was actually very nervous for this run and I was worried that if I felt like death it would be indicative that I'm not ready for sub-3:30, but the run ended up going really well. The last 10 miles I managed to average 7:45 and not feel too awful doing it. Success!

This picture is actually from yesterday and not from my run, but I ran on the Bay trail so it's a close enough representation

Weekly miles - If I manage to do my slow 6 tomorrow, I'll break 50 miles for the week for the first time since 2012.

Trying to not be fat

I got the cookbook "Plenty More" for Christmas, which is a follow-up to the cookbook "Plenty" that we also have, that contains all vegetarian recipes. My target was to make a lot of salads and lose those annoying 2 pounds, but I think I somehow ended up overeating again (verdict to be determined at the gym Monday because I don't own a scale). Probably because there was so much chocolate around the house. Or because I'm still drinking too much. Anyway, the Plenty books are worth checking out- here is a snapshot from my journey de salad this week:

Salad A

Salad B

6 weeks until LA!

Race Report: San Diego Holiday Half Marathon (AKA that time I signed up for a race less than 24 hours before the start)

Posted by Chen

Oh hey, blog world! Remember me? I didn’t intend to abandon this site for so long, but when you stop working out for 4 months, you don’t really have much value to add to a training blog :-P.

Before I get into my race report, you might be wondering what I’ve been up to since the Ironman. Well, post-vacation (see Rachel’s amazing recap), I returned to normal life and intentionally took August mostly off. I won’t lie - it was glorious! Lots of seeing friends I hadn’t seen in a while, eating delicious food, and drinking all of the wine.

Once September rolled around, I diligently made a 12-week training plan for the California International Marathon (CIM), just like I’d done every year since 2011. I’ve always loved training for and running this race (it holds two of my marathon PR experiences!), but this year, it just wasn’t meant to be. To make a long story short, life got in the way; my motivation remained at an all time low, and I ended up deferring my entry to 2016. I also managed to not run the Healdsburg Half Marathon for other life reasons (though the rest of Team Running for the Win(e) ran it and crushed it!).

Running and I were officially in a fight.

Then, about a month ago, I went through a pretty difficult personal time, but instead of abandoning running further, I took it back up with a vengeance. It came crashing back into my life during a time when I needed it the most, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m currently on a running streak (27 days and counting!), and I’m reminded on a daily basis why I love this sport so much.

Most of my runs have been untimed and easy, which is exactly what I’ve needed. No pressure – just running for the pure joy and calm of running. I know I won’t be able to keep this streak up once I start my next marathon training cycle, but for now, it’s allowing me to get out there every day, process my thoughts, and heal.

My next few months will see the Austin Half Marathon with a Princeton friend in February, the Oakland Marathon with Rachel in March, and my goal race – the Mountains 2 Beach Marathon in May, where I will try to finally break 3:30 after years of failed attempts. Side note: I’ve already convinced one of my coworkers to run M2B as well – hi Chris! :-)

Given this upcoming race schedule, I’ve been trying to increase my weekly mileage as well as my long runs throughout this running streak. I was aiming to run 14 this weekend, so when I realized yesterday that the San Diego Holiday Half Marathon was happening today, I decided to sign up on a whim. I’ve had some pretty impulsive race sign-up experiences in the past (hello, first M2B experience), but this one probably takes the cake. I registered for the race at 11am, and 20.5 hours later, I was toeing the starting line.

Was hoping this shirt would magically help me fly :-)

I ran this race a couple years ago, so I generally knew what to expect when it came to the course and race logistics. The starting line is only 4 miles from my parents’ house, so I didn’t have to get up too terribly early to make it to the 7:30am start.  Parking was a bit more nightmarish this time (the race must have grown since 2013), so I had to walk ~0.6 miles from my car to the starting area, which left no time to wait in the porta-potty lines. I kind of expected that might happen, though, so I purposely didn’t drink anything until right before the start, and everything worked out OK (contrast that to my 2013 race experience, when I had to use the porta-potties no fewer than five times. Lesson learned – there IS such a thing as too much fiber).

I did have time for a 1-mile warm-up to hit 14 for the day, and I arrived back to the starting area just in time to hear the national anthem. I inched my way into the right corral, reset my Garmin, and at 7:30am, we were off.

I knew the course was a fast one with a net drop of over 700ft, though it had some considerable rolling hills throughout. I didn’t really know what to expect in terms of a time, but based on my 12-miler with Rachel last weekend when we averaged an 8:29 pace while talking the whole time, I figured that a sub-1:50 might be a reasonable goal. That said, I didn’t pay much attention to pace early on and instead wanted to keep the effort easy – I basically didn’t want to be breathing hard unless I was going uphill.

Very reminiscent of M2B; just half as long!

When my first few miles clocked in in the low 8’s, I was surprised, but I continued to keep things easy. The last time I’d run 14 miles in a single day was over 5 months earlier, so I needed to play it safe, at least for the time being. The crowd slowly thinned out as we made our way onto the bike path that would take us to the beach, and I found myself getting into a groove. I took in the lovely scenery and chuckled at fellow runners who were in costume or in funny shirts, including a green painted Grinch and a dude whose shirt said, “I didn’t ask for this present.” For the record, I would LOVE to receive a race registration as a gift!

Mile 1: 8:08

Mile 2: 8:06

Mile 3: 8:14

Mile 4: 7:45 (way downhill – as in, elevation loss: 184ft; elevation gain: 0ft)

Mile 5: 8:00

During the middle miles, I was still feeling strong, so I allowed myself to pick the effort level up a bit. Every time I glanced at my Garmin and saw a pace in the 7’s, I would start to get a little nervous (because let’s be honest: after 4 months off, I had no business running anything that started with a 7), but then I’d remind myself that running by feel usually results in a smart race, so I kept on.

Mile 6: 7:54

Mile 7: 8:04

Mile 8: 7:51

Mile 9: 7:42

Mile 10: 8:01

After mile 10, I was still feeling good, so I decided to kick it into high gear to see what I had left. I knew by this point that a sub-1:45 was possible, and by Mile 12, I knew that a sub-1:44 was in the cards if I could just… hold… on. I haven’t done ANY tempo work since July, and I was being reminded of just how badly tempo work can hurt. It was painful, but it was also a good kind of pain – the type of pain that reminds you what you are capable of. I was expecting to average an 8:20 pace this morning and instead ran my last full mile in 7:24 - who knew I still had that pace in me! My overall time was far from my fastest, but I crossed the finish line feeling just as elated as if I’d run a personal best.

Mile 11: 7:39

Mile 12: 7:43

Mile 13: 7:24

Mile 13.16: 6:47

Overall time: 1:43:37 (~7:53 average pace; ~7:55 official pace)

I’ll run a race that ends at the ocean any day <3

I'm not sure when I'll decide to end my running streak, and I have yet to put together a training plan for either Austin or M2B, but there's one thing I do know: Running and I are no longer in a fight ;-).

8 weeks until the LA Marathon

Posted by Rachel

It's been about 3 weeks since my last update, so here's how the training has been going.

3 weeks ago
I spent the week in Switzerland for work, so needless to say my weekly mileage was low. As in, my grand total mileage for that week was lower than the # of miles in a marathon, which is probably not sufficient for marathon training. There were a lot of challenges though, including having to run in the pitch black darkness every day. I had a light but I just wasn't sure how safe it was, so I kept running back-and-forth in the section of well-lit path behind the train station. Having to work too much was another challenge, though I stayed an extra day with a coworker and sacrificed running to have some fun. I just can't justify giving up sightseeing time in Europe in favor of running.

Europe has awesome Christmas markets, and Zurich has one of these including a Christmas tree covered in Swarovski crystals. Old Town Zurich on the Limmat was really nice, and one of my legit Swiss meals included what was basically mac and Swiss cheese with an excellent Burgundy (chocolate not shown). 

A day trip on my last day included awesome views of the Swiss countryside (so green!), a stop in Lucerne, and a couple of hours at 10,000 feet. I walked across the world's highest suspension bridge, rode ski lifts, and enjoyed the awesome views. As a bonus, it wasn't even that cold that day.

Two weeks ago

Back to reality. I got home from Zurich on Sunday evening then jumped right into a week full of work and marathon training. Not much to say about that week, except I had a solid 9 mile tempo run (2 x 3 mile segments with an average 7:14 pace) and a good 18 miler that included the hills of Piedmont. I capped the week with a concert Friday night and a party on both Saturday and Sunday. 

Cookie party, with great friends and entirely too much sugar

This past week

Another pretty solid week of training with a good track workout, solid 9 mile goal marathon pace run, and 20 flat miles at a steady pace on the Bay Trail (8:23). The best part was the long run because I got to meet up with fellow blogger Chen who ran the middle 12 miles with me. Since she's not posting about training right now, I stole her pictures to post here. The weather was perfect for a long run, and I never stop appreciating how awesome it is to be able to live and run here!

Views like this and awesome training buddies make it pretty easy to get out for that 20 miler

With mileage for the past two weeks of 45-50, I'll be taking a step back next week. I know this is lower mileage than a lot of plans out there, but I run a lot of them hard and am still maintaining 2 swims per week, which has to be in some way good for my fitness (I think?). Happy holidays! Here's to overeating, drinking too much, and hopefully managing to keep up with marathon training!