Last week ended up being a pretty low mileage week as I only
ran a total of 10 miles rather than the 24 I was supposed to. What was I thinking??!! I mean, I realize that my body did need a few
days to recover from the half and it’s not like I sat around doing nothing but
still… considering that there are only 11 weeks until the marathon, this is
clearly NOT the time to slack off on my training! In an effort to get the week off to a good
start and begin to redeem myself for last week, I went to Crissy Field for an
early morning run. I changed it up a bit from my regular route and added in a
big loop through Fort Mason which kept me from getting bored and gave me the chance
to add in some hill work (not the kind of crazy giant hills that make you want
to cry… more like a gentle, meandering upward slope that makes you breathe more
heavily vs. gasping for breath... but I say that still totally counts).
An added bonus to the location of today’s run was that stage
2 of the AMGEN Tour of California bike race was kicking off from the nearby
Marina Green so there was all sort of activity to keep me distracted as well as
tons of very fit bikers to motivate me to finish my run for the day vs. veering
off course to the nearest Starbucks for a bucket sized container of latte… if
they sold drinks in bucket size I would totally buy them… even if they wouldn’t
fit in my cup holder… or car (have I mentioned I drive a Mini?... it’s a miracle
I can fit my iPod in the car with me let alone buckets of anything).
Today’s run got me off to a good start for the week and, as I've already ranted about, I
really need to make sure that the rest of this week as well as all of the other
weeks between now and the marathon go just as well… no more slacking with
mileage, cross-training, hydration or nutrition allowed (thank goodness I have the Dynamic Duo to keep me inline... they are going to have to start withholding wine, shopping and possibly cheese if I start slacking again).
After I finished up my 7.27 miles (was aiming for 7 but got distracted by a cute running jacket someone coming towards me had on and missed my turn), I took a
walk down to where the AMGEN race was getting setup to bask in the festive
atmosphere and get some inspiration to help my motivation. I loved all the
branded support cars with zillions of bikes mounted on them, the giant RVs
with team flags flying and the crowds grouped around certain athletes (I’m sure
I saw at least one famous biker… well, either that or people were taking
pictures of random biker dudes because they all thought they were famous like I
did).
So while I wandered around taking
it all in and thinking about ways to stay motivated and push myself to the next
level of focus and effort, there nestled in between the RVs, news trucks and racks of
bikes was my own personal beacon of hope at just the right moment. Yep… the Lululemon event van which is covered
in those inspirational adages that I totally covet was parked perfectly for my viewing pleasure and post-run foot photo. So I snapped my
photo, read and repeated a few sayings to my inner voice (the rude one who is
not always very supportive and more often than not is far from Suzy Sunshine)
and booked it out of there before the surrounding streets were closed and I was
trapped in the Marina for the better part of the day.
7.27 miles, 1hr 15 min 0 sec, avg pace 10.17 (I'm pretty sure something
funky happened in mile 2 as the watch thinks it took me 15 minutes & 4 seconds
to run that mile… now, I am absolutely a rather slow runner but that’s like the
pace I would be going in heels while trying not to spill a drink in a fancy
glass, not running!).
Cheers,
SF runner in training
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