April Training Log:

April was supposed to be a month of building back after the Los Angeles Marathon. I felt like I recovered well from LA after nearly a two-week break. Racing the Carlsbad 5000 was a bit ambitious just a few weeks later. After that, training was going well and I was hitting some fast paces. Then I promptly got a throat virus, which knocked me out, and what I’m still currently recovering from.

Miles Run: 286

Range of Paces: 6:21-13:12-untimed

Races: Carlsbad 5000

Swimming: 58 miles

Thoughts:

As mentioned, I felt like I recovered well from the Los Angeles Marathon. After close to two weeks completely off from running (and just a couple of swims), I felt refreshed and like I wanted to train again. I’m a strong believer that post-marathon, we all need some time away from running both physically and mentally. I jumped into the Carlsbad 5000 just 3 weeks after the Los Angeles Marathon. I don’t really know what I expected, but I ran a 20:42. The Carlsbad 5000 is touted as the “World’s Fastest 5k,” and it is fast, but it’s not an easy course. This year they changed the course to go downhill with a hill around mile 2. It was rough, but I am proud of my effort.

After that, I began adding workouts back in, and I was running them at a decent pace. In fact, faster than most of my marathon training workouts. Then nearly 2 weeks ago, I got sick with a throat virus. I didn’t even know you could get a virus in your throat. For the first few days, it felt like I was swallowing glass. My throat hurt so badly. That went away and was replaced about 5 days in with the worst congestion I’ve ever had in my life. Now, 10 days later, I am still congested but for the most part feeling better. Running has not felt great since getting back to it, and it feels like every time (in the last few years) that I’ve made good progress, I get sick. This seems like it was less severe than both COVID and the flu, so I’m hoping I can recover faster.

I missed the Mountains 2 Beach Half in late April and I’m signed up to run the OC Half this weekend, so hopefully I can do that. Although I’m not hopeful it will be a “fast time.” Truthfully, I was super bummed to miss Mountains to Beach because I knew I was ready to run a fast time (before getting sick of course). Oh well, upward and onward. Hopefully, May’s training log will be slightly better.

April wasn’t all bad though. My husband and I got back into hiking after a fairly long break and hiked Sitton Peak and celebrated our 9 year anniversary. It was a lot of fun to enjoy and hang out in Orange County. So there were some fun times last month.