Week 8 of CIM Training

Last week I entered week 8 of CIM training.

Monday, Oct 8 – acupuncture treatment during lunch break at Living Room Acupuncture, and the 90 minutes Bikram Yoga in the evening. My left calf was pretty much healed, but my right ankle hurt a bit after the RnR SJ race, so I was seeking Paul’s treatment as conditioning. Quads were very sore but  I suspect it’s from something else that’s not related to running :-p

Tuesday, Oct 9, went back to my track workout at the nearby high school and did my speed work in pitch dark. It’s cold and boring at the same time, really did not enjoy it. Since just recovered from the recent injury and completed a fast race on Sunday, I did not push myself too much this morning.

Wednesday, Oct 10, I hit the snooze button and overslept. Fall has quietly crept in Bay Area and my bed was just too comfortable this morning; can’t remember when the last time I have slept past 5:45am was. I declared that today would be my lazy day :-p

Thursday, Oct 11, I resumed my morning 7 ml trail run, and this time two new runners showed up to join me. Originally I was looking for a running partner to keep me safe in the dark, in the woods, but today I got three guys running with me and they all were very fast runners. Eric just recently BQed at Bizz Johnson, and Vinh pulled a 1:29 at RnR SJ Half, the new guy Jamey got excellent body built with lean muscle. We started from the usual meeting point, and it’s so pitch dark that we could not see well even we all had headlamp with us. Ended up tripped and fell around mile 2.5 and scrapped and bled both knees. In my head I already saw Max shaking his head in disbelief 🙁 Around mile 3, I twisted my right ankle again for not noticing the tree roots. When we reached mile 3.5, Eric told me that we should just run at our maximum speed but don’t get hurt. I totally agreed with that, but at the same time felt a little waste of effort when we woke up so early but could not run at our usual speed. Really look forward to the Daylight Saving to end.

The drama of this run took place after I noticed that Vinh wasn’t trailing behind me after I exited the trail head, and I assumed he was taking pee pee break so decided to continue my run and gave him some privacy. But that was my mistake right there. I continued my run but found he did not catch up by mile 5.5, therefore I turned around and went back to look for him with no avail. I figured he probably went other routes after exited the trail head, so turned around again and headed toward our start point and planning to reunite with the group. When I got back to where we started, I only saw Eric and Jamey waiting there, stretching, and they worried about my twisted ankle. I told them I had lost Vinh in the trail:-(

I tried to call and text Vinh, but he did not answer. Eric needed to go and Jamey lived in S. SJ so had to leave as well. I left a message for Vinh and letting him know to call me if he needed a ride back to where he parked – Eric’s home. Lucky that somehow Vinh found his way out of the trail and Jamey found him and gave him a ride, while Eric was driving around to look for him. What a drama!! So the lessons of the day were –
(1) Don’t give your running buddy privacy,
(2) run in pairs, buddy up,
(3) Run with your phone and have the course map downloaded to your phone

With the good news of Eric’s qualifying for Boston on Sunday at Bizz Johnson, I was so thrilled for him because I have seen how hard he worked on improving his time and endurance. He eats right, trains hard and is super disciplined, and he just had PR after PR at every race he entered. When we heard about his 3:17 at BJ race, a huge and unbelievable PR from his 4:02 SFM, I was beyond happy!! I was so proud of him that I offered to host a celebration dinner in his honor. Of course, it got to be a vegetarian dinner. I knew he would be doing track workout on Thur evening at De Anza College, so made a reservation at a vegetarian restaurant right around De Anza. We heard about his race story and were all so impressed with his hard run.

Friday, Oct 9, I went to Bikram Yoga after work, and then went to bed early to prepare for my Sat long run – the 3rd 20ml long run of this CIM training. I will be pacing at the Morgan Hill Marathon for the 2:10 Half Marathon time slot, and on the race day I plan to bring the runners in first then go back to the course and run additional 7 ml after crossing finish line. Since RA is the official pacer group, Linh has setup a supported course test run so all pacers or runners could get familiar with the course beforehand. I signed up the 20ml test run and started with those Full marathon pacers around 7:15am. Most of RA runners are way faster than me, so pretty soon I lost everyone in sight. As always, I am a self-supported and self-efficient runner, so I carried my own water, SHOT Bloks, sport beans, and I had stripped the route/map from Max’s Garmin data and downloaded to my iPhone.

I did not run the Morgan Hill Marathon last year due to injury, but I did come out to cheer my running buddies, especially it was Max’s very first marathon. I still remember holding my handwritten “Go Max” sign with an Eiffel Tower on it at start line and mile 17. From his race write-up, I already had some idea about how the course would be, and where the hills would come or where the “hell avenue” was. So I mentally prepared for the up and downs, and enjoyed the scenery very much. The reservoir was really nice to look at, and those huge houses with vineyard at front yard were very impressive. I started at 10 minute pace for first mile, and then brought the pace to 9:45 for the next 3 miles, and 9:30 for the next couple miles. At the big climb around mile 7 I was doing 10:00 pace, and then back to 9:30 for the next 4 miles. I remember how Max described the Hale Ave part, so I mentally prepared the long, flat, boring course. However I wasn’t expecting construction! The road was closed due to construction, and I was rerouted to Monterey Highway from mile 16 which was even worse than Hale.

I had to run on a very busy road and it’s getting really hot, having to stop at every traffic light did not help at all; after the third stops I already lost my pace and could not keep my target intake. Made a right turn on Main and it got worse because of the street parking and busy traffics at weekend brunch hour. Lost in the downtown area and had to stop twice to pull up the map to find my way. After one wrong turn I found myself back to Monterey Highway again 🙁  Finally Linh biked past me and pointed where the finish line would be on the race day, and I completed my 20ml long run in exhaustion and blister on right foot.

Here is the RunKeeper data for this long run – blue line was what I stripped from Max’s Morgan Hill Marathon data, and red line was what I actually ran today.