Week 13: 9/3 - 9/9

Weekly Summary
This was a pretty good week. My highest mileage week so far this year, and I also got in some faster workouts, including a threshold workout, a track workout, and a cross country race. My calves were pretty sore for most of the second half of this week because the track workout was the first time that I've been up on my toes for a while. I was pretty tired by the end of the week, so I think I need to make sure that I recover.
Resting HR: 48
Total Weekly Mileage: 110

Sunday 9/9
AM - Long run in San Francisco. I drove into San Francisco once again this morning, but this time I had to leave my apartment at 6:30am, which was not a fun thing to do on a Sunday morning. I met Friedman at Golden Gate Park, and we jogged around for 4 miles before meeting up with the other guys. We did a loop that went along the coast past the Golden Gate Bridge and out to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco before turning around. It was somewhere between 22 and 23 miles, but I'll call it 23 since I've been conservative on mileage other days this week. I felt pretty good when I started the run this morning, especially since I was wearing a new pair of Asics. But I started feeling pretty beat by the end of the run. Even though half of the run was on soft surfaces, the second half on pavement was kind of getting to me. This has been a fairly intense week, so I think I might take a rest day tomorrow to recover. When I got home today, I hopped in the cold whirlpool at 50 degrees for 15 minutes.
23 miles

Saturday 9/8
AM - Golden Gate Park Open Cross Country Race (4.04 miles). 20:49, 4th Place. Splits: 4:53, 5:09, 5:13, 5:33 (last mile was long). I drove up to San Francisco this morning to run in my first cross country race since Club Nationals two years ago. It was nice to actually race on soft surfaces for a change. I warmed up for 4 miles with the Adidas Transports guys. My calves were still sore this morning, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel during the race. The race went out a bit faster than I would have liked, but after the first mile, I got into a pretty good rhythm. Even though I was treating today like a hard tempo run, I don't think I could have gone much faster. I was with the leaders for the first 2 miles before settling into 4th place and staying there for the rest of the race. I did a 7 mile cooldown in the park afterwards.
15 miles

Friday 9/7
AM - Baylands. I'm running in a race tomorrow, so I didn't want to double today, but I decided to do an easy 12 miles in the morning. I kind of felt like crap today, and my calves were still sore from yesterday's workout. It was also really sunny by the time I got out the door to go on a run.
12 miles

Thursday 9/6
AM - Track workout @ Stanford. 2 x (1x800m, 2x400m, 4x200m) with 200m jog recovery: 2:25, 66, 65, 31, 32, 31, 32, 2:18, 67, 66, 31, 30, 30, 29. Beast, Donahue, and I were the only ones who showed up this morning. Today's workout was pretty light and easy, but it was nice to do something on the track and get the legs turning over faster than they're used to. Donahue is just starting up again, so he just did one of the sets with us. After Beast and I finished the second set, we did a ~10 mile cooldown, which made me feel better about doing such a short workout. My calves started hurting towards the end of the workout, and they're probably going to hurt for a few days since I'm not used to running up on my toes like I did today.

PM - Mitchell Park. I did an easy jog around Mitchell Park this evening. I think it helped me loosen up a bit after this morning's workout, but my calves are still sore.
20 miles

Wednesday 9/5
AM - Los Trancos Trail, Arastradero/Foothills Park. I did my regular 15-mile route today from Arastradero Park to Los Trancos loop in Foothills Park. My pace was a bit faster this time, and I reached the fire road at the top at exactly 60 minutes. It was hot today, but fortunately most of the run was in the shade, so I actually felt pretty good. I slept for 11 hours last night, which is the most I've slept in over a year.
15 miles

Tuesday 9/4
AM - Workout @ Stanford. 4 x 2 mile, 1 x 1 mile w/ 2 min rest. (10:00, 10:01, 10:07, 10:02, 4:48). We did 2-mile repeats this morning around the 2-mile loop that goes along El Camino. For some reason, I had trouble running faster than 5:00 pace today. Beast was about 5-10 seconds ahead of me on each of the repeats. I jogged for 2 miles barefoot on the grass as a cool-down.

PM - Mitchell Park. Went on another easy jog to Mitchell Park and back to loosen up after this mornings workout. I did two loops of the park, and felt pretty good.
20 miles

Monday 9/3
PM - Mitchell Park. I was tempted to take today off, as I have for the past few Mondays, but I got kind of restless in the evening, so I went on a short run after going to a block party on St. Michael Dr. I did 6 x 35 second strides on the way back to my apartment. I was surprised how good my legs felt today, considering what I put them through last week.
4 miles