Dear Diary 5/2/17
Hell Week Day #2
In case you’re not into this “reading” thing, there’s a video version as well!
8:15a Slept in! 9.5 hours of sleep, baby.
8:20a Morning weigh-in = 163.4lbs. Don’t normally weigh myself each morning, but I want to more closely monitor my hydration levels during these hot-hot-hot days. Another super-short cold shower, and then guzzled two big glasses of water immediately after.
8:30a Breakfast! I’m always happiest when eating. Tried a new oatmeal concoction, savory instead of sweet — standards oats with an egg, but added salt, pepper and cheese instead of cinnamon and banana.
10:45a How is it 10:45 already? Toast with some guacamole (I feel an obligation to use guac on everything until my Costco supply is gone) and a glass of water with a GU electrolyte tablet (pre-hydration for the workout). Decided to jump into the NormaTec boots to help warm-up the legs. Let’s try to get out the door by 12:30p.
12:45p Yeah…that’s not happening. Texted my buddy, Chris Baird, to see if he would join me in the afternoon. He mentioned something about an “office job” (what is that??) that would prevent him from joining until the evening. He encouraged me to get out the door — “I think you should suffer in the sun.” Damnit, you’re right.
1:15p Dog walk beat out starting the workout (shocker). It’s HOTTTT. Going to wait this one out a bit.
2:00p More guac & toast + spinach salad. And all of the water.
2:30p Batman on TV. I can’t go running now and bail on Christian Bale (see what I did there?).
BATMAN SURVEY: What is your favorite Bane quote?
a) “Do you feel in charge?”
b) “You think darkness is your ally?”
c) “That’s a lovely, lovely voice.”
3:00p Nap. Short and sweet (15mins) — a sign that I’m actually doing pretty well on sleep?
3:30p Coffee (iced this time). Little bit of oatmeal and peanut butter for some calories. Getting closer to rallying…
5:30p Started pumping the jams, guzzled some caffeinated GU energy gel for an extra boost, and finally got out the door.
6:00p Actually out the door. The workout:
- 2-mile warm-up
- Light stretching and drills
- 5 x 1.4 mile hill repeats (9–11 minutes in length), alternating between Marincello and Old Springs (two hills out of Tennessee Valley). 1.4 miles is pretty random but that was the distance to the summit of both climbs (yes, they were exactly the same length!). Original plan was to go up all 6 ascents out of Tenn Valley but I audibled to just the first two. These are the most runnable of the climbs (no uber-steep pitches) and allowed me to keep my water bottles at the base instead of having to carry them for the full workout. Marincello is 680ft with a very gradual grade and Old Springs is 420ft with a peppier first half and flatter second half. Marincello is probably my least favorite climb in Marin as it just draggggs on forever while maintain a consistently uncomfortable pitch — I’m hoping with more repetitions, I will begin to love it (or at least tolerate it). Old Springs is interesting because after some steep early pitches, you can actually run the last half mile at a decent clip. Trying to will your legs back into a tempo rhythm after building up lactic acid during the climb hurts like hell but makes you strong like ox. I didn’t intend to go very hard on the descents, but found myself running very comfortably at just under 6-min mile pace. For distances of 50k or less, I’d like that descent pace to be closer to 5min/mi, but the ability to recover at 6-min pace would be HUGE at States.
- Finished things off with a 3 mile cooldown
9:00p Home after dark! Great workout and another 20 miles towards the weekly goal! Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/968519968
Elevation/pace chart:
Lap splits + pace chart. Laps 1–3 = warm-up; Lap 18 = cool-down. Between each hill repeat there was a 0.1mi jog to the other hill, so this is how to read it: lap 4 = uphill, lap 5 = downhill, lap 6 = jog to other hill, lap 7 = uphill, etc. Paces look to be ~7:15–7:45/mi on the uphills, ~5:30–6:00/mi on the downhills.
9:05p Stole some steak from my roommates’ dinner for some early post-workout snacking. Stretched and showered.
9:30p Dinner (finally!). Burrito, small salad, and a fried cheese chip (courteous of my roommate — it was delcious!).
9:50p Sorry, Ridley, not enough burrito to go around.
10:30p Thank goodness. Batman is on…again.
12:00a Holy moly — it’s midnight and I’m still on my computer! Probably will need to delay these posts by a day so I’m spending my late evenings sleeping rather than writing! Time for some shuteye!
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