A year ago, Active.com was a so-so website for all things activity-based, from swimming, running, to team sports. I first learned about it when I registered for my first marathon. It was a wealth of information, especially the running articles I subscribe to via e-mail, but I never really used it because it was too slow, and the UI was clunky. I’m a visual person, and I understand and appreciate well thought out design. I noticed a few redesigned elements a few months ago, but never really dove into it.
Today, I decided to go back to Active.com to look up old marathon times, and also to get more inspiration for content for this site. I logged into my account, I was caught by surprise. I thought, “Nice! This would have been so useful during my training season!” It’s MyActive, their personalized portal for your athletic interests.
What do I mean? Let me tell you about the features I was exposed to. Depending on your location, it displays the upcoming events based on the activities you’re interested in. You can search and claim all your past race results. Yes, ALL. I searched my results and it showed my old Nike Run Hit Remix 5Ks and my other marathons. Active Trainer is another feature where you log your daily training stats: how you feel, your health vitals, how far you’ve run etc. You can also map your runs, share it with the Active community, and also search for other people’s routes. There’s some social aspect to the site too, where you can interact in the forums and ask whatever questions you may have about your favorite activity.
I’ve only touched the surface of what this website is all about. I’m sure most of you who are in Team in Training already have an account with Active.com because of your fundraising pages, but I invite you to roam around MyActive, I know I am.
Check out my MyActive profile (yes, it’s still bare… I just started)
This morning was the FIRST time I’ve ever gone to the gym before work. I slept early with the intention to check out a Turbo Kick Box class they offer at the Santa Monica 24 off Ocean Park and 31st. Only two people were in the Kickbox classroom, so I opted to try the 24Cycle Spin Class instead. It sounded fun, with some house music playing in the background, why not? 
Week 16 Sunday Run – The FINAL One
Week 15 Sunday RunThe weather this week wasn’t as hot as our 17 miler, but it was definitely a huge factor with how much I struggled this week. It has been a while since my long run mainly due to being out of town, but I still decided to run with pace group 3. I started out with group 3, but ended with group 4. Running along the residential area of San Vicente Blvd with all the flowers and pollen made it really difficult to breath. I had a choice between running in the heat, or in the shade with the pollen. Luckily, towards the end of the run, the breeze came in and cooled us down a bit. There goes my negative split runs again because I did so much better during my second half of the run! 
Who runs on a Friday night instead of going out? I do. Tonight I decided to keep my running habit and ran 45 or so minutes along Santa Monica. I started at our usual running spot, “Shutters” (which is a restaurant along the beach), nearing the time of a beautiful sunset, and headed to the Venice pier and back. It’s definitely a lot more active along Venice as I ran past busy bars and restaurants. I really love the sights and sounds of many people walking, biking, and running along the beach. I also ran by the usual smell of marijuana from random people on the sidewalk, and ran by some weird looking people who just give you a crazy stare like I shouldn’t be running at this time of night. 
I’ve been very good this week in keeping up with my mid-week runs. Monday at the gym, Tuesday in Brentwood, and then last night we had the second session of Track Training at Santa Monica High School. It wasn’t as tough as last week because this time around was all about keeping a consistent pace, for 20 laps. Coach asked us what our target marathon time is, then he calculated what kind of pace we should keep during our run. I want to break 5 hours for the marathon, so he suggested I finish each 2 lap set in 5 minutes. We did 10 total sets at that pace, with decreasing rest times. The first 5 sets were 3 minute rest peroids, to 2, to 1.5, to 1 minute. We didn’t realize how long were were running for until the end, because we got out of there at 9:45ish. So a total of 24 laps, including the warm up and cool down laps equaled 5.6 something miles. It probably went under the calculated 6 miles because I took the inside lane most of the time. 
It’s already near the end of the season and the majority of my mid-week runs have been on the treadmill at 24 Hour Fitness, with the exception of one Saturday run in Hollywood. Last night was my FIRST mid-week run with the team. I never went to any of them in the past because I lived in Pomona, commute was far, or I would just get out of work too late to go. I finally decided to go, and I’m glad I did. It was a pretty good turnout, at about 10 people, most of which were of the faster pace groups. My mentality during the run was the same as track training. Since the distance is much shorter, I’ll give it my all to go a little faster. The scheduled 45 minute mid-week run was right on schedule, 
We just started the third major section of our training in TNT. The first third was working on our base, where strength training occured, making sure our bodies will transition into longer miles nicely. The second third was all about hills. This time around, we started working on speed. Track training was at the Santa Monica High School, not too far from our Sunday meeting spot. 
Week 12 Sunday Run:
