Week 16 Sunday Run – The FINAL One
A year and half ago, I wouldn’t have thought of even saying the following: “Today, I ran 8 miles for fun.” Since it was our last Sunday training for the San Diego Marathon participants, and since it’s a taper week to “take it easy”, we thought it would be fun if we made this a “Run For Fun”, where the Westside TNT Team invades the streets of Santa Monica and Venice with some shenanigans and costumes!
The day before I went to Wal-Mart and bought some golden boxers for only $5. I originally planned on wearing some mesh T-shirt, neon shorts, and neon wristbands, but I didn’t have much time, and since 80s style is a bit trendy at the moment, I would have paid a bunch. $5 gold boxers will do. I mixed it up with some aviator sunglasses I used for my “Dick In A Box” costume for Halloween, and a funny afro wig. What was I? I had no idea, but it looked silly. Most of the team were in a costume-wearing mood as coach Kevin was Bleeker, Coach Christy was Juno, many of the girls wore 80’s spandex, some wore bee outfits, Joe was Indy Jones, and much much more. I’m sure spectators along the beach were amazed at 75 or so runners being silly. It was our final run. Why not, right?
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. 
I’m starting to receive some newsletters from the LLS (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) containing some touching stories about the families we are helping. I’d like to share with you Christine Wonica‘s story, a blood cancer patient who became part of the LLS family through LLS’ First Connection program, one of the many support programs available to patients across the U.S. and Canada.
Week 12 Sunday Run: