ocean and san vicente | Running Without Music

Week 1 – Ocean & San Vicente Run

What luck, the very first practice of the season, and it was raining. Not hard though, but some drizzle. At the beginning though, it was just overcast and cold, but gave us plenty of time to do some meet & greet with the new teammates! It was tough to remember some names from Kickoff, but name tags definitely helped. Coaches went over the gist of the first few weeks/months of practice along with a quick icebreaker, where we stood in a circle, alphabetically.

After a quick warm up run to 4th st and San Vicente in Santa Monica, Coach Jason went through some run drills and dynamic stretches. Oh and I learned something new today, relating to run form, an acronym called “S.H.E.L.F.”. S = Shoulders (relax them), H = Head (head straight), E = Elbows (position & move straight back, no side to side), L = Lean (let gravity move you forward, lean at the ankles), and F = Foot (placement at the ball of the foot, not the heel). Definitely something to save and remember on all my runs because one of my goals this season is to improve my running form into a more efficient one.

After a quick 30 minute run, we had a team potluck where we got to know each other a little more, even with some rain in drizzle in between. Since I was already out there, I rested a few hours then continued to do a 20 mile run all by myself by doing loops on San Vicente. Yeah, VERY boring running alone, but that’s what was on my Rock N Roll Vegas Marathon schedule. It was a few weeks of non-running since the Portland Marathon so I was really surprised I was able to finish it without any complications!

Carmageddon Training Weekend

For months and months, L.A. was warned about the big 405 freeway closure, aka Carmageddon, and because of this our team was split into its respective regions (East side, westside, valley, and southbay) all weekend. Although it turned out to be an absolute win for the freeways as it was all green and open according to Google Maps, it was really weird to not have the whole team practice as a whole. A big chunk of our team was also at Santa Rosa for the Vineman 70.3 to race and spectate. I really missed everyone, and I give it up to people who train for these Iron distances alone because it was really tough without the support that our team normally gives week by week.

Saturday, we had a scheduled 4 hour bike ride, so my region, Westside, met at our usual Ocean Blvd and San Vicente meetup spot. It was led by our coach Arkady, but it was only him & his girlfriend, Elyse, Tony and I. We started heading north on PCH for 1:15, then back (I made it to Encinal Canyon). Since we rode in a small pack, we were able to push up the speeds a bit and I was able to practice my race pace, which I figured out to be around 18ish mph without my legs feeling too crazy tired. Once back at basecamp, we headed up San Vicente and up Madeville Canyon, about a 1400 ft climb. That new 11/28 cassette worked wonders at the very end, where it became super steep. By the end of the 4 hours, I clocked in 67.37 miles, an average of 16.8 mph, probably one of my best rides to date considering there was a pretty big climb. A 30 minute transition run after the bike was rough as usual, but manageable.

Sunday, we met at the same spot where the same people met along with some of Coach Arkady’s Meetup Group. Training Peaks schedule was to do 2 hours, with a minimum of 10 miles. I ended up running the whole time with my teammates Elyse, who is usually a little faster than I am, but it was an opportunity to push myself a little bit, plus we helped each other’s pace in check because it is sometimes better to be running with someone rather than alone. Just like yesterday, this run became one of my best ones this season, running 13.1 miles in 2:02. Just a minute more than my half marathon PR, and this was actually a pretty comfortable pace for me.

After the super humbling 5/3 the other week, this weekend’s workout boosted my confidence back up again, and I definitely feel ready for the big race. We have one more recovery week to go before we enter the final taper week until Vineman! Can’t wait!