Another month, another blog about training. For most people, it felt like September flew by, probably unless you’re a teacher. For me, it felt as though it flew by, and I was excited for more races.
Before the pandemic, I tried to race most weekends. I would do a half once a month and then the rest of the time something shorter. Now that races are back, I’m having fun exploring new races each weekend around me. Living in the desert, most races are about 2 hours away, but it’s fun to explore new areas of California.
Miles Run: 323
Range of Paces: 6:07-13:44-untimed
Races:
Conquer the Bridge (5.3 miles 6:52 pace)
Santa Monica Classic 10k (42:34)
San Francisco Half Marathon (1:31.28)
Cross Training: 16 times in the pool (wow, more on that)
Thoughts:
In September, I got into the pool more than ever before. Why? I now have someone to swim with, and it’s enjoyable to swim with someone. I do feel better when swimming, and my running mileage has decreased since swimming more. One thing I’ve appreciated with swimming is how unstreneous it is on the body. I swam in college, and looking back, we swam A LOT (2-4 hours per day), but the injuries were very rarely there. Could you imagine running 2-4 hours per day? Swimming is enjoyable to me right now because it’s equal parts swimming as it is a social hour.
As far as running went, I thought I was *finally* making progress with my running. The San Francisco half marathon was long (we were led to run about .25), and I finally broke 1:30 again in the half. I’ve been hard on myself the last few years (before the pandemic) because sometimes it feels like PRs are a thing of the past.
Workouts seem to be going ok, but at the same time, I’m also not really making much progress towards my goals in running either. Anyway, not to sound sad or miserable, at the end of the day, it is “just running,” but it stinks when you work hard towards goals, and they don’t manifest themself. People often say: “just be patient,” but I don’t think they realize most of my PRs are from 2016.
Posts from the month:
Shoe reviews:
Brooks Levitate 5 Shoe Review
Atreyu Base Model v2 Shoe Review
Nike Pegasus 38 Shoe Review
Altra Rivera Shoe Review
New Balance 880v11 Shoe Review
Gear reviews:
Lyric Review
Wildgrain Box Review
Verawella Runners Support Review
Hoka All Adventure Hat Review
Outdoor Voices Exercise Dress Review
rabbit EZ Collection Review
Nuun Prime Review
Blogs:
Lessons About Running Learned the Hard Way
How Important is “Heel to Toe Drop” in a Running Shoe?
Questions for you:
How was your month of training?
What has been your longest running plateau?