Thoughts on returning to regular running after a long break

I've run a marathon before. I've done a 21-mile trail race before (and won)... a nice handful of 5Ks and 10Ks and not one, not two, but THREE half marathons. So I guess you could call me a "runner," whatever that means.

But I don't think I'm an endurance runner. Yet.

I still have lofty goals in that department.

Even while I focused on cycling this past June-July, my heart was never 100% in with bike racing - I always thought back to running and made it a point to run at least one or two times a week to maintain the structural fitness of my ligaments/tendons/bone density. Maybe I couldn't get into bike racing because of some combination of never having been on a real cycling "team" or not ever having a coach or not having the full grasp on what structured training for cycling looks like. But my main excuse?: I didn't really like how competitive and unbalanced I felt mentally. The pain train feels great in the moment - and women's cycling specifically has a relatively healthy level of competitiveness (great community, great people, sort of a grassroots movement type of feel) - but for all I become... well, it's hard to describe. It's my feeling that the two different sports bring out different aspects of my personality - and I like the "runner" Andrea better than the "biker" Andrea... so far.

So here I am now. It's time to get back to "runner" Andrea. But it's been about 4 months since the Yosemite Half Marathon. I need to build up my mileage and run frequency again. It's a different challenge than before and here are some thoughts I've had to help orient my training mindset -

1. Don't be overconfident just because you were once able to put in 50mpw.
2. I still feel weak, aerobically. This is a good time to get back into base building.
3. I've lost some structural fitness and hardiness while I wasn't running, so be diligent with injury prevention.
4. Avoid comparing your paces to everyone else!

Last week I threw down 20 mpw, a good baseline amount. But let me tell you - every run just plain sucked. I felt so sluggish and my cadence was low by my standards (170spm). Every time I had a run scheduled for the day, I really did NOT want to run and put it off for as long as my schedule allowed. I forced myself to check off the boxes. 

I think that there must be a period of time when you're returning after a long break where these general feelings of unpleasantness are basically prerequisites to a comeback. We might not expect it because we remember all the good things from when we were in the thick of training and improving, pushing limits, and hitting your goal race with full force. We don't expect running to suck. But suck it must. And then you get past the threshold. And the upward trajectory begins until it starts to undulate again. Such is life.

I'm just starting to get past the threshold of unpleasantness. Today, I unexpectedly felt a spring in my step while running (despite really NOT wanting to run beforehand). My body felt good and my cadence felt like it was returning. But I'm still "slow" at the heart rate I usually train at (an arbitrary HR<=150bpm). Sometimes I see my friends on Strava throwing down all these great runs at a fast pace (for me, that'd be anything below 7:45min/mi). I'm tempted to go faster sometimes.... but then I think back and I know I've proven myself to be "fast" when the situation calls for it. I'm not at the peak of my fitness right now - so why waste runs on trying to whisk up faster paced runs that put me at risk for injury? Trust your training philosophy. Build the mileage base up first and you will soon be putting in some excelente tempo runs and speed workouts. :)

Lodoga/Leesville Road Race 2017

This race was in July and it is now 5-6 weeks later... so I'll keep it short. The TLDR is I won second place and it was pretty cool but I also strained a foot tendon and that super sucked.

---

It was unexpected, but I placed 2nd out of 7 in the W4/5 field of Lodoga's long and brutal road race. A wide margin between me and the person in front of me but still pretty cool nonetheless!

While women's cycling is still catching fire, it's a bit easier to snag podium spots with smaller fields and a high barrier to entry (i.e. expensive bikes and expensive gear) than it is with, say, running. However, this race was no joke. With temperatures spiking above 100 degrees Farenheit during a 3 mile 8% climb and major headwinds on the flat return trip, this was a challenging race - maybe even more than Pescadero! There was less climbing but more miles and a wider spread of riders. Plus, the headwinds were DEFINITELY felt. 

The feed zone was not far from the bottom of the Sites-Lodoga climb and there were not many people helping the women out going up. Luckily, my boyfriend made it to give me my cold water bottle and was also there when I was all alone on the return. Bringing water in a cooler and a boyfriend who supported me was... a... good idea...

As I was left all alone on the final flat 15 miles into headwinds, I definitely felt pretty demoralized. I had no inkling on where I was place-wise and I didn't care. Unfortunately, during the return, I was also experiencing some intense right foot pain, to a higher degree than I had experienced before. I thought I might have heard something snap - but I kept forging through. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that Marvin would be there at the end and that the pain would be over soon and I'd be out of the heat. It was hard because normally on flats, I could push 19-20mph, but into the headwinds, all by myself, I was hitting 16. Each mile that ticked by was the longest that I'd ever biked.

Finally, with about 25 minutes to go (or about 5 miles), I told myself: okay, this is like running a really hard 5K effort. Just go for it! It will be over soon! With two miles left, and at the final turn, I looked behind me and saw someone behind me! That freaked me out because I thought I had generated a lot of distance between me and the next person. Looking back, I realized that it was hard to judge distance on these endless flats (and in the heat), but I must have thought in the moment that the person was less than half a mile away. So I gunned it as hard as I could and told myself this is like running a really hard one-mile effort. The minutes ticked by. I kept looking back for the person behind me but never saw her. At that point, I was thinking that I might've been delirious and imagined that person... I honestly thought I might've been crazy because of the pain from my foot and the heat getting to my head.

Finally. I crossed the finished line and nodded at the person writing down our bib numbers.

It was then I finally felt the pain in my foot full throttle. It hurt like hell. And I began pedaling with only one leg because of the pain. There was still about 2 miles of spinning to Williams High School where the race was staged. I honestly thought I might not be able to make it. But I got back somehow and collapsed on the grass and yelled at Marvin to get me water and cold things and gatorade. 

Sigh, biking turns me into a crazy person. And also someone who hurts herself for race efforts.

But... 2nd place! First podium! Yay?!

Pescadero Coastal Classic 2017 // My First Cycling Road Race

Cycling has opened the way to triathlon. Cycling has given me many adventures in the Bay Area. I have met so many awesome, like-minded friends through cycling. So.. when did I fall in love with cycling? It's hard to say. And when did I think bike racing would be a good idea? Still hard to say... but I nonetheless decided to sign up for a road race: the Pescadero Coastal Classic.

The women's 3/4/5/35+ field at the Pescadero RR raced 1.7 laps of a beautiful 28 mile course, featuring three major climbs: 1.1-mile at 4%, 0.7-mile at 7%, and a brutal 1.5 mile climb at 7% known as Haskins Hill. Coastal dunes and redwood forests are the special hallmarks of this race and I loved the course! However, I experienced a little deja vu after finishing when someone said "You picked a hard course for your first one! At least everything after this will be easy." I literally heard those exact words being said to me when I was running Big Sur. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Pre-Race

My initial research going into this was tough to gather. But it would have been nonexistent if it weren't for a friend, Clara, who was actively racing in New York. She'd been through a season while in law school on the east coast and had a few races under her belt with a team (NYCC/CRCA).

While a lot of women are getting into cycling now, the resources, information, and support for women interested in racing are still extremely limited. Unless you know someone that races, it feels like there's a HUGE barrier to entry and it's hard to navigate your first steps. And with the Bay Area being so spread out and having to drive to every training ride or race, it's hard to "try it out and see if it's for you" without committing all of your free time to racing.

At least, as one of Clara's friends put it, the people are nice - "a little hard to break into but thick as thieves once you do." If you're new to women's cycling and you happen to read this, please don't be too shy to reach out to me or anyone you might know. I don't know very much, but the very little I do know, I will try to make sure you do, too! Safety, fun, and of course shared sufferfests on the bike are the main concerns of women cyclists. Women cyclists, at least in the 3/4/5 field, are not as intimidating as I thought they'd be and, more importantly, they are extremely supportive!

Clara gave me a very thorough checklist which helped eliminate a lot of pre-race anxiety involving thoughts like "WHAT DO I DO/BRING?" My basic nutrition plan was just Gu, at least every 45 minutes but usually a few minutes before a climb, one water bottle with Skratch, and two other water bottles. I made sure to pack post-race food as well.

Race Morning

The organizers were taking payments for race-day registration in cash only. This might be a standard and well-known thing, so bring cash just in case if you're doing race-day registration! Luckily, I paid for my one-day license and race fees all together all on the same form with my credit card number.

After registering, I did a short 2 mile warm-up just to get my legs going (it's recommended that you spend longer, but IDK...) and then lined up during the pre-race briefing. Being inexperienced, I told myself that the race was basically a really hard training ride with other people involved and made sure I told the folks around me that I was completely new.

Race

Before Pescadero, I had never ridden in a big group before, let alone that close to other cyclists. I knew what to expect and Clara had given me some pointers, but the feeling of being in a peloton is a very unique one. I felt pretty bad for some of the folks around me who might have had to brake suddenly because my nerves were making me tap my brakes harder than I intended. Luckily, I didn't cause any major problems and I was only softly chided once to "hold [my] line" but it still would have been a lot better if I had gone to a group riding clinic beforehand.

In the women's 3/4/5/35+ field, we broke apart fairly early on the first climb. I lost the majority of the first group after the second climb on stage road and found myself left alone with one other person. I wasn't sure what cycling etiquette was but I think we took turns pulling (at least, that's what I wanted to do). When we conversed, she apologized for being slow and I was like "No way! You're not slow!"

Eventually a pair of cyclists from the JLVelo team caught up with us and they taught me how to pull and I eventually caught on to what riding in an paceline was like. My very first experience in an echelon! So big big big thanks to Serenity and Ivy for working with me and giving me so much advice! It really really really meant a lot to me :') and I hope to one day pay it forward to another budding cyclist.

I worked with the JLVelo girls through the first lap and through the second climb on Stage Road. During fast descents, I would barrel down ahead quickly but Serenity was amazing technically on the descents so she would pass me and I would eventually catch up with her and follow her line. It was always a lot easier to follow her since she knew where to go!

With about 8 miles to go, I lost the JLVelo girls while I was trying to catch up to two riders on a descent: a Cat 3 and a speedy Cat 4. But they were so so speedy, I couldn't keep up or do my work on the pull. At most, I thought I wouldn't be able to sustain their pace so I let them drop me and I went at my own pace for a while until one of the JLVelo girls caught up with me again.

Later, I would pass the speedy Cat 4 who had been sidelined with a mechanical (ugh! sucks so much!) and I eventually pushed ahead all alone on the final climb up Haskins (after promptly tossing my water bottles at my boyfriend in the neutral feed zone - thank my lucky stars he was there!!).

My early pacing seemed to be perfect because the final climb up Haskins Hill was only 4 seconds slower than during the first lap. Of course, I was struggling A LOT more to get up and I was breathing like a maniac but I just wanted the suffering to be over so I just pushed pushed pushed for 11 miserable minutes... Several riders in the men's field were gliding past me with seeming ease while I felt like my legs were on fire. Finally, when I reached the finish, I pulled to the side and felt like my lungs were going to explode. I'd never felt that sensation before... but the feeling of finishing was pretty dang amazing!!

So yeah. Pretty proud and happy about my first race! I never knew I could go that fast for so long.... 16.9 mph, 3,800+ ft of climbing, 47 miles.

Results-wise, I thought I did pretty well. I probably landed in the third quartile of the field (W 3/4/5, 35+) but it's hard to tell since the results were picked from separate categories. I placed fourth among five other category 5 racers but I finished before half of the category 4 field, so there's that to be proud of. :)

I wish I had more pictures from the event but this one from the race start will have to do:

P.S. I LOVE MY NEW BIKE. Money well spent!!!! Will try to post a review on the Cervelo S5 in the future. :)

Yosemite Half Marathon // It's all downhill from here!

"Maybe the more experienced you are and the more you learn about yourself, the more you allow yourself to ascend to your maximum potential."

I don't know why or how it happened, but I ended up signing up for the Yosemite Half Marathon with a bunch of friends... with complete knowledge that I would have run Big Sur just 13 days prior. I joked that this was my introduction to Boston 2 Big Sur, since I've determined I will run it someday. For overall recovery, however, it might not have been the best idea...

Chip time: 1:41:39 (7:46/mi)

10th F 25-29 / 398

52nd F / 1640

178th OA / 2537

Course logged short by 0.11 so I jogged 0.1 to get the HM on my Garmin :P

The Course

Yosemite Half is what I'd call an extreme downhill course hosted by Vacation Races. Their series hosts a half marathon every month near 12 different national parks in the U.S. May is reserved for Yosemite National Park -- where the race starts south of the park, runs southward, and finishes at Bass Lake. The elevation gain/loss was 344 ft / 2,360 ft (net loss ~2,000 ft). Overall, the course was fun and beautiful and aid stations were plentiful.. however, pacers and organization could have been better.

The 2017 course can be divided up into 3 parts:
a) The first four miles of pleasant, undulating trail running which gave your joints and quads a little warmup before
b) ... tearing it up for six miles on a paved downhill road called "Beasore Road" which lived up to its name. This descent was a -6% overall with some parts getting up to -10%. As you can imagine, this part has you FLYING. Remember to keep that cadence up and your steps as light as possible!
c) Finally, you run the last 5K trying to regain some sense of pace on an undulating paved road around the lake to the finish.

Aid Stations:

The starting line had a raffle in the early morning (not sure how the runners brought their prizes down the mountain...???), instant coffee, hot chocolate (say whaat!), hot water, bananas, and porta potties galore (no need to wait in line - just walk past all of the lines to the very, very end and you get the porta potty of your choosing).
Aid station support during the 13.1 was very frequent (every 2 miles) and were well-stocked with water and gels.

A Fast but Short Course:

While this was a fast course, conducive to PRs, I also feel the course was short. The mile markers were early compared to the mile splits I was clocking on my GPS watch. It's not a USATF course, so I'm not super keen on calling this a PR, but it was nice to get a fast official chip time!

Pacers:

Race organizers hired a pace team to run times starting at 1:40 to 10 minute increments. My soft time goal was 1:45 so I just placed myself in between 1:40-1:50. But for some reason, I was following 1:50 for nearly three quarters of the race. Hue... talk about going out too fast. Wasn't too thrilled because I know how annoying that must've been for anyone hoping to run 1:50... I'm left to wonder how much faster the 1:40 group must have been running since my official time was 1:41:39... I had the sense that the pacers were not super experienced (unlike the AWESOME Clif pace team at Big Sur).

Shuttles:

There were two heats for this race in order to divert too much traffic leaving out of Oakhurst. Heat 1 started at 6:00am and Heat 2 started at 7:30am. While the faster predicted times were recommended to run in Heat 1, it seemed that people could just go into whatever heat they liked since they did not police it this year.

My boyfriend, and two friends, jumped in Heat 1... we had a positive experience on the shuttles because we arrived on a side of the school that did not have a lot of incoming traffic and we hopped on the bus early due to a miscommunication. Just be smart about it for future races, arrive early, wear warm clothes. They let you drop off your bags at the start line.

At mile 3, you could drop your jacket off and those clothes would be shuttled down to the finish line... however, I lost my nice long sleeved shirt at the dropoff because they weren't able to deliver the clothes drop bags before I left. That really annoyed me. And I tried to reach out to the race organizers by e-mail and haven't gotten a response yet! (It's been TWO DAYS!)

The Race

I started this race very conservatively at 8:30ish pace and found myself breathing harder than usual at that heart rate, perhaps due to the elevation (5,000ft at the start). Once the pounding downhill started, I stayed conservative until a porta potty break at the halfway mark. After which, I quickened the pace so I could catch up to a woman I was keeping my eye on throughout the race. It felt good so I kept on going. I told myself that I would be able to get a sub-8:00 average pace as long as I was able to clock 8:00 miles in the last few miles of flat and undulating road. Once we hit mile 10, we encountered our first uphill in 6 miles and my legs were thankful. It was hard, but my legs were happy for the break.

One thing that surprised me in the last 5K is how "easily" I was able to push pace. I didn't look at my watch very much, I just tried to push as best as I could, knowing I had only 3.1 miles left. The experience took me back to when I ran the Berkeley Half, where I started out too fast, crashed, and gave up mentally by the last 4 miles. My mind wandered to a difficult 17-mile progressive training run 7 weeks prior, where the last 5K was at a tempo pace (but hard effort by that point). And finally, I recalled Big Sur where I surprised myself with a 9K push of pace that led to a -3:00 negative split finish. Somehow those three experiences gave me the confidence to push with whatever pace my legs were giving me. When I would review my race on Garmin Connect and Strava later, I surprised myself with sub-8:00 paces (7:43, 7:50, 7:45) in 10-13.

These experiences really speak to how important it is for runners to learn from your racing and training and apply any lessons learned in your future races. I read too many race reports of runners who start off too fast every single race, lament it in their race reports, but rarely alter their race strategies thereafter.

I remember watching "4 Minute Mile" on Netflix (a low-budget 2014 film about a high school runner and his track coach) where the coach says:

You got somethin' in here. It's so deep in there, and you gotta beat it. You gotta face that fear. You GOT to, because if you don't, you're gonna be me, and, buddy, you don't want that. But if you do - and I don't care if you never run another race in your life - because if you DO face that fear, it'll change your life. I promise you. It's the hardest thing you'll ever have to do, but you gotta do it. [...] And then you'll be able to push right through the pain. You'll go right through the door. And when you're about ready to pass out and your legs can't move and your lungs can't breathe and your eyes can't see, you'll know that it's just the beginning, and it's so beautiful. It's beautiful. That's all I've been tryin' to teach you.

"Beating" that fear or that wall (or whatever it was) was a key motif in the film, one I was skeptical about. In the film, the runner, with all the weight of the world on his shoulders, stressed, and nearly broken from the tragedies and the circumstances around him, runs until he collapses... past the point of mental barrier and past physical fortitude. I wondered if such a thing actually existed and if such a thing could be applied to all runners. But after running Big Sur, I believe that with the right training, you can break through that voice in your head that screams "STOP. STOP. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS. OR YOU KNOW WHAT - JUST. SLOW. DOWN. NO MORE SUFFERING. PLEASE."

I don't know if I've ever truly "face[d] that fear" but maybe there are different levels of it... y'know?

Maybe the more experienced you are and the more you learn about yourself, the more you allow yourself to ascend to your maximum potential.

His Race

Marvin's race also went very well given his training! His IT band problems were pretty much on the verge of returning - and he had gotten sick about two weeks out - so he took the race very conservatively and foam-rolled routinely pre- and post-race. His longest run never broke double digits so I'm super happy he was able to finish! After achieving a very respectable 2:08:56, he, like all of us, suffered from sore muscles and a temporary waddly gait. So proud and happy for him!

Post-Race

I AM SO SORE. Also, my knee hurts. :( (That is all.)

What's Next?

May - June 2017 | Cycling (w/ mostly easy and trail running)

July 8, 2017 | Golden Gate Coastal Trail 30K (18-mile)

July - August 2017 | Cycling and Running

September 25, 2017 | Santa Cruz Triathlon (olympic)

October - December 2017 | Running (base building)

Big Sur International Marathon // FIRST MARATHON COMPLETE!

People always say finishing a marathon is a big accomplishment. I am so so happy that my first marathon was Big Sur and that I finished strong, under four hours.

I don't feel that I can do a proper race report so I'm just going to spill out a summary of all my thoughts here.

Official chip time - 3:56:57
Pace - 9:02/mi
Elevation gain - 1,461ft (Garmin's GPS tracking is getting better year to year!)



The Race Strategies and Execution:

• Strategy #1: Run withe Pacer. The week before, I was dead set on running with a pacer, just because I was dealing with all sorts of misfortune in the three weeks leading up to the race (bruised ribs, getting sick with a nasty cough, pain and difficulty breathing from said cough+bruised rib combo, and a skin infection). Also, I wanted a group of people to enjoy the race with (and draft off of in the headwinds :P). I flip flopped between a decision to run with the 3:45 pacer or the 4:00 pacer, since that's all that was available (I wish they had had 3:55!!!!). In the end, since I had dealt with so much and didn't taper as well as I'd hoped, I chose to run with the 4:00 Clif Bar Pace Team Pacer (George). Per George's suggestion, I planned to keep with him until around mile 22 then push until the end if I was feeling good.
• I ended up learning quite a lot from the pacer. It turns out his favorite way to race marathons is via heart rate, which I personally think might be the way I race future marathons as well. He was also very good about making sure we took the early downhills in a very relaxed manner. He reminded us to keep our shoulders rolled back and relaxed with chin up, and had us mind our form several times throughout the race. This was very new to me but I found this was the perfect way to keep me focused on my goals. I will be implementing this technique in future races!
• I ended up gradually building up speed starting at mile 21. The last 5 miles was completely uncharted territory for me, with my biggest distance being a 21-mile trail race 6 1weeks out. But given I felt fine after Folsom, and that during the Big Sur marathon, I ran at only a slightly higher intensity in the precursor 21-miles, I felt like I was at liberty to push the pace. 
• It's said that the last 10K of the marathon is where the marathon truly starts. And where your several weeks of training shine through.  When I first started to pick up speed away from the pace group, I began by thinking about how much I didn't want them to catch me. I could still hear George's voice behind me for about a half a mile or so. It was an interesting feeling - being chased - but it helped me pick up my paces! Then, when I couldn't hear George anymore, I started focusing inward again and remembered that I had to eat. I was worried because I had run out of Gu at this point. Fortunately, the aid stations were plentiful with food options. I was able to scarf down a banana and forge ahead. 
• With four miles left to go, I kept telling myself that I'd done four miles easy-peasy SO MANY TIMES on friggin' tired legs, in the middle of 50-mile training weeks. This was nothing short of a tempo run in the middle of that. I kept telling myself that there was no such thing as the wall. "WALL? WHAT WALL? THERE IS NO WALL." NOT WITH THE TRAINING YOU DID. And certainly not with the conservative start you had.
• At two miles, I was still not sure whether or not I could keep this effort. I told myself: I'd done 2 mile runs at a bare minimum every day for 128 days straight. I CAN DO TWO MILES. It wasn't just the thought of that which carried me: it was the fact that I actually did the training. The fact that I consistently ran on tired legs no matter what. My training gave me the mental confidence I needed to carry me through.
• Strategy #2. Stay Inspired & Run With Your Heart. Think of my friends and the people who inspire me during the last few miles of the race.
• At the last hill at mile 25, I heard the voices tempting me to walk like a few other people I saw going up the hill. "If I walk, I can finish strong at the end." It was during those few hundred meters that I thought of my friends and my family and my boyfriend who were waiting for me at the finish line. I wanted to make them proud. Proud of who I am. And happy that they inspired me to get to the finish line strong. So I didn't walk. I pushed through and passed several other runners (of various race distances). I knew the rest was downhill or flat so I ran strong at the end! 

Goals:

• Smile and have fun! [check!]
• B Goal: Under 4 hr [check!]
• A Goal: Under 9:00/mi pace [so close, maybe could have left the pacer earlier but was unsure of myself]

Nutrition:

• Pre-Race @ BSIM starting line
• Coffee (~45min before)
• 1/2 banana (provided)
• 3/4 cup Toasted Shredded Wheats (TJs)
• Gu Energy Gel: Vanilla Bean (~5min before)
• During Race
• 4 x Gu Energy Gels --> 1@45min, 1@right before Hurricane Point, then as needed, approx 45min between
• 1/2 banana (aid station)
• 3 x 1/2 strawberries (aid station)

Aid Stations:

• 1 porta potty break: dashed to a porta potty that someone was just exiting so avoided a wait time! (score one for Andrea!)
• several water refills at BYOB stations (5?) due to it being a hot day

Finish:

The best part of finishing was hearing my boyfriend and parents call my name as I ran through the chute towards the finish. I even heard the MC say my name! (Ok, I let ONE girl pass me - I probably wasn't sprinting the hardest I could have. I don't know what race she was running but maybe if I had known she was sneaking up on me, I would have sprinted harder huehue - next time I'll look behind me before I make the final sprint :P)

When I got to the end, I didn't care what my time was. I knew I didn't reach my A goal but I was still THRILLED to reach my B goal, which I knew I crushed by several minutes. (Side note: I learned that I should set tiered goals from the Berkeley Half last November). 

Then, after chatting with my family and appeasing their need to take photos, Marvin looked up my finish time and read out 3:56:57. Woah! I broke 3:57! Imagine if I had walked any part of that last hill.... dang. That was certainly the icing on the cake for me.

It's true that I might have been able to break off from the pacer earlier for an A goal finish. But given the circumstances, I got so much more enjoyment/fun out of the experience than if I had tried to run a minute+ faster. The A goal pace was only 2-3 seconds per mile faster but I imagine that running with the pace group for most of the way made it much more fun than if I had ran alone. In addition, I took away a great lesson in focus and control from the Clif team pacer which I will apply in future races.

Post-race pains:

Any race is going to do a number on you. But add hills and road camber? The hills definitely beat my body up significantly. Road camber from the Big Sur was not as bad as I thought it would be. However, I think over time it was significant enough for my knees and feet to feel it afterwards. Same-day pain shifted between achey shins, painful extensor tendons on my feet, tweaked knees, hip soreness, and general soreness/tightness of my leg muscles (quads, glutes). I felt like a penguin afterwards!!

All in all, an amazing first marathon! I'm not sure I'll ever do a challenging course like this with a specific performance goal in mind again. My plan is to return to Big Sur one day as a Boston 2 Big Sur finisher, though. :)

At the very least, Big Sur will not be my last marathon. I've got a few more bucketlist marathons to check off first:

• Big Sur International Marathon [check!]
• Boston Marathon
• Great Wall Marathon

Big Sur Marathon Taper: A Look Back at 6 Months in the Making

I'm confident I can finish a marathon.

As for execution, though... Trust your training.

I crushed my training. I trained smart. Races are won in training. And I won that race against myself.

I was consistent. I prevented injury. I kept perspective.

Consistency

After Marvin gifted me my Garmin watch, I became a "consistent" runner for the first time in my life.  The GPS watch and the Strava app motivated me to log my training and rack up the necessary miles for aerobic improvement. Before that, I ran maybe twice a week and sometimes went for weeks at a time without running. I also battled injuries more often because I was such and on and off runner. 

However, once I learned that I didn't have to run everything at 7:30-8:30 pace and that easy efforts were more important than hitting acceptable paces, I became a better, more consistent runner. I accepted my lack of aerobic endurance and relished in the ideas of "base building" and low heart training. I now think a big aerobic base is the most important part of a runner's training arsenal...

Motivation was also important. In addition to running easy, the 128 day run streak struck me on the days where I just didn't want to get out. Once I got to 50, I said.. I have to get to at least 75... and then I couldn't just stop there, I had to get to 100.. and so on... I conquered bad weather (thunderstorms and the rainiest season California has seen in decades), travel (I once ran in circles in an airport terminal during a layover), and general laziness (need I explain?). Making the goal to run every day kept my training momentum going. In future marathon training cycles, I may do another run streak or define a similar goal (like 6 days a week for x weeks).

Injury Prevention

You can't be consistent unless you avoid injury. Slow running was critical for this. In my mind, I had to build up my tendons, ligaments, and bone density to handle the stress of long distance running.This is something I feel like a lot of people miss when they talk about training for a marathon. When people think about training for a marathon, they think about training their cardio. Can they last xx:xx pace for 3-5 hours? But there's so much more to it than that. It's about training all aspects of your physical endurance: bones, ligaments, muscles, heart, lungs... Even more important, it's about training your mental endurance and mental fight in the last push towards the end. This is why marathon training is all about the recovery.. getting enough sleep every night, foam rolling, tiger balming, dynamic stretching, strength training, and even some yoga -- all things I incorporated on a regular basis.

Perspective

One thing about marathon training has been that life goes on around it. From my human physiology and python programming courses to the stresses of work to taking care of my pup to nurturing my relationships, running has been a part of my life that, well, honestly, can't live with it / can't live without it. That's true for any other physical training endeavor I might take on.

As obsessed as I was with numbers and training, I also had to make sure recovery was my number one priority. There were a handful of weeks where I had to reduce my training load or change up my training plan because of exams or stressful work weeks. 

Then there was the rib injury 3.5 weeks out from marathon day. I had to cut out my final long workout (planned 22) because my bruised ribs were making it hard to breathe. And my mileage reduced dramatically earlier than planned. I have to hope first and foremost that the rib pain is negligible by marathon time. Second, I have to accept that the last "hard" week of training had to be sacrificed for the sake of recovery. Taper might have started early but I still have a lot of fitness from the six months leading up to the marathon. And that counts for something! The only thing left now is to enjoy the taper. :)

As for time goals - I don't need to run fast for my first marathon. I have nothing to prove except that I have now built up a solid aerobic base and I am a better runner from the training process.

Stats (including planned taper)

Weeks: 30

Total Miles: 1,137

13+ mile runs: 7

16+ mile runs: 7

18+ mile runs: 2 (1 w/ nutrition practice)

20+ mile runs: 2 (1 w/ nutrition practice and at moderate effort/trail race)

10+ mile runs: 17+

Est. easy pace: 9:15-10:00/mi

Est. steady state pace: 8:25-8:40/mi

Est. threshold/tempo pace: 7:40/mi

BSIM Course Description: 26.2 miles, 1,800+ ft elevation gain, 1 major 2mi 5% grade climb at mile 10, rolling hills to follow, headwinds likely, estimated time added 

BSIM Goals:

1. Finish strong! And smiling!

2. Time goal within 4 hours (B goal), 8:59 pace/3:55:45 (A goal), or 8:37/3:46:00 (Reach goal)