Some Improvements with my Run

My run has never been good nor bad. It was just okay. After Santa Cruz 70.3 my coach and I started to focus a bit more on improving my overall fitness and working on my run legs.

On October 1 I race my first short distance tri in a while at the Mission Bay Triathlon. The run portion was a 9K loop around Mission Bay. I had my best run off the bike and though I was disappointed with my split, I was happy to see that I ran my fastest split at a triathlon.

We continued on with a good block including one to two track sessions a week and added a 5K in Huntington Beach (PR!) las week, and an open marathon at the Inaugural Vista Beer Half Marathon today.

It was a nice change of pace. Both runs were brutal in their own way. The 5K was just sheer pain and tons of lactic acid build up I just could not get rid of fast enough to get the legs moving faster. It was a good effort, though it was not as fast as I'd hoped, it was still a PR.

Today was my first half marathon since Carlsbad 1/2 in January. I ran the Inaugural Vista Beer 1/2 Marathon, and it did not disappoint. I did NOT expect that much climbing (1K ft total). I wanted to run faster than what I did at the Carlsbad 1/2, which was a PR back then, and I did just that. But there are just so many lessons learned that it is leaving me hungrier to get back to training and get faster. We started in the Buena Vista Park on dirt roads. That was fun, but then reality hit: there were some (lots of!) punchy hills, some "walls," and some fast downhills. I had a certain goal in mind, which I achieved, but I can't help but look at the areas for improvement.

The hills at the Vista Beer 1/2

In all, I'm excited for the last 3 weeks of training before Cabo. It feels like 70.3 fitness is coming back, and with the last few positive races I've had this month, I am hoping that I can continue on that trend and put my fitness to use at Cabo.

Happy Training Y'all!