Diving Back into Reality

I'm considering writing this recap the last part in "Operation Catch-up from Vacation." Not because this piled up during my trip, but because this sat on the back burner while I was working on everything that did pile up while I was away. That's one thing I hate about traveling. However, one thing that I love about traveling is that I get a chance to catch up on all of my magazines. During my flight home, I read this article by Dimity McDowell titled "How to be Epic." It's about McDowell's decision to do an Ironman, and the training that she did for it. While reading it, I couldn't help but wonder what'll come next after I accomplish my marathon goals. But that topic merits a post unto itself. After two posts (one and two) in as many days, I'll keep this one relatively short and succinct.

As far as tips of the week, I don't have much for you. BUT I do have something.

-Qdoba's chicken contains dairy. I learned this while traveling through Dallas on my way home, and trying to find something for lunch. Fortunately, they left their allergy menu on the counter, so I was spared any extra gastrointestinal discomfort on my flight home. But still, why do the seasonings for most of their meats contain whey? Oy. One reason why Chipotle ranks higher in my book.

-When traveling, research your dining options BEFORE you leave. The San Juan airport had nothing, except for a tacky airport bar that looked like it was straight out of the 60s (and was equipped with overpriced coffee and mediocre, unappealing breakfast options) and Cinnabon-type places.

-As I might've mentioned in last week's recap, my stomach was all out of whack by the time I left San Juan. So when I got back, I immediately jumped into my usual salad-a-day routine, and also threw in a smoothie-a-day (courtesy of the Nutribullet) in hopes of resetting my GI system. Within a few days, I was feeling better. Long story short, salad + smoothie = great reset button.

And onto the workouts!

Mon
Planned: rest or xt
Actual: hiking in the rainforest and paddle boarding

Tues
Planned: Lactate threshold 10 mi with 5 mi at 15K-HMRP
Actual: 4.05 mi interval work on the treadmill (1 mi warmup, 2 mi of 1 min on and 2 min off, 1 mi cooldown)

A recap of the last few days:
Sat - rest day/my friend's wedding (eat and drink way too much) 
Sun - recover from hangover/post-wedding brunch/walk around Old San Juan/hang out with the newlyweds and co. one last time (eat way too much; drink a little less than Sat)
Mon - hiking and ziplining in the rainforest/1 hour of paddle boarding (during which, a swift wind knocked me off of the board and into the salty lagoon) (eat too much; drink a little less than Sun) Tues (today) - spend 14.5 hours in transit to get back home, and 30 minutes after getting home, leave to go to the gym so I could run and get back into my routine. Today was 4 miles with interval work. 8 min warmup at 7.8-7.9 mph, 1 min at 9.3 mph, 2 min at 8.0 mph (x4), 1 min at 9.4 mph, 1 min at 8.0 mph, 1 min at 9.5 mph, and 6 min cooldown at 7.9-8.1 mph. Happy I did this.

Wed
Planned: Recovery 4
Actual: Recovery 5.02 mi

Meant to drag myself out of the house by 6. Didn't leave until 6:20. Oops. And I can't even use jet lag as an excuse, because the time zone I came from is 3 hours ahead of here. Also, last week I was running in 80º temps, and today, it was 44º. Ugh. Anyway, my legs felt a little tight on this run, which worries me a bit for the Bridge to Brews 10K. Perhaps I should foam roll tonight (and set a reminder in my calendar to do so). Got to run into the sunrise for part of this run -- hues of pink amidst the blue sky. Delightful. Also, my inner fat kid couldn't stop thinking about mofongo. I must find it in Portland. Maybe there's a food cart devoted to Puertorican cuisine?

Splits: 7:54, 8:05, 7:44, 7:21, 7:16, 6:18 (for 0.02)

Thurs
Planned: Medium long run 11 mi
Actual: Rest

I can't remember why I justified using this as a rest day, aside from my happy hour plans with my coworker (that we rescheduled once or twice beforehand).

Fri
Planned: Rest or xt
Actual: 6.03 mi

I waited until after work and picking up my B2B race materials to do this run. I don't know what it was, but I just wasn't feeling this run. It was one of those, "I feel thirsty and want water, and also can't wait to get home and eat everything in my house" kind of runs. I think I was getting over the jet lag too. Argh. On the plus side, I didn't spend any of my time on vacation feeling jet lagged.

Sat
Planned: Recovery 5
Actual: Easy 4.04 mi with PFR

Kept this one fairly easy and relaxed because of tomorrow's race. Ran with my friends Richard and Daniel (Richard's running the Newport half, and Daniel's running the Newport full), and was able to have a conversation with them. Also got a side-five on this run. (Granted, it was a fellow PFR, but a side-five is still a side-five.) Nice, misty weather too -- not too hot or too cold.

Sun:
Planned: 10K race (am); 11 mi (pm)
Actual: 1.09 mi warmup run to the race, 10K race, and 5.01 mi (pm)

Nothing noteworthy to share for the warmup run. Read this for my 10K recap. As far as the afternoon run goes, after I got home, I ate, cleaned my bathroom, and underestimated how much I didn't want to do those extra miles. But I eventually made my way out of the house with the intention of doing two 5M loops. However, my legs just weren't having it, so I ended up only doing one. I saw the ridiculous car with "The Christmas Story" leg sticking up from the roof (I saw this car during one of my long runs in September), and another car blaring rap music. I didn't think my neighborhood was a gangsta's paradise, but clearly, I've been proven wrong.

Planned total: 47 mi
Actual total: 31.52 mi

More miles than week 3, but still significantly off from the plan.

And with that, the Endurance mesocycle of the Pfitz plan has closed. Crazy to think that one whole mesocycle is down. Ahh! Next up: the Lactate Threshold plus Endurance mesocycle. Aka the "meat and potatoes of the Pfitz plan" (IMO). Aka the scarier portion of this whole training cycle. Stay tuned!

How long does it take you to get back into the swing of things after a trip (both for workouts and life)?

Bridge to Brews 10K

I was going to lump this race recap into my week 4 training recap, but after typing it out for my dailymile followers, I decided it was worthy of its own post.

Source

Bridge to Brews is one of the local races put on by Terrapin Events, and gets its name because it goes over the Fremont Bridge (the I-405 bridge; only race in Portland to cross it), and ends with beer (as most races in Portland do).

For those of you who don't want to read a slightly lengthy race recap:
Official time: 42:13 (6:48/mi pace) (5 second PR)
Place: 44/2,466 (8/126 in age group)

I heard about this race before I moved to Portland, and was told that I should run it because a, it ends with beer, and b, it's the only race here to go over a freeway bridge. I never signed up for 2012 and 2013, and so I signed up for the 2014 race. I signed up in January, and as luck would have it, my doctor put me on the GF diet a month later. I have to admit, I wondered why I signed up for this race if I wouldn't be able to enjoy those post-race brews. But in the end, it is (or in theory, should be) about the running and not the beer. Right?

Packet pick-up was at one of the Foot Traffic locations (for those of you outside of Portland, Foot Traffic is one of the specialty running shops here, and the one where I typically buy my running shoes), and it was a breeze. No joke, I was in and out of there in about five minutes.

After running to the start (and showing up about half an hour early), I met up with some of the other Frontrunners who were racing, and posed for a pre-race photo. I discovered that they were also offering post-race cider and wine, so my fears about not being able to enjoy post-race booze were squashed. We hung around for a bit, and made our way to the start. They did a staggered start based on anticipated pace. Unfortunately, due to the crowds, I couldn't make my way up to the 8:00 or faster wave for their start. However, I was able to get to the front of the 8:01-10:00 wave, so I didn't end up getting bottlenecked at the start. I wasn't sure what to expect from this, as I don't normally do 10Ks. (The last one I did was Pints to Pasta in 2012.) My ultimate goal for 10K is to break 40 minutes, but really, a simple PR would've made me happy.

During the first mile, two people passed me, but I passed a bunch of runners who started in the 8:00 or faster wave. I focused on running the tangents, and my watch beeped right at the mile 1 marker (split: 6:58). We made our way up and over the Fremont Bridge (super cool to run on a freeway overpass and get a spectacular view of the city). Some people stopped to get photos, but they were courteous and moved all the way over to the edge. I continued to pass people, including one who also decided to wear the Portland Marathon '09 shirt. (I had mine on, and decided to say, "Nice shirt!" as I passed her. She appreciated it.) My split for mile 2 was 6:44, which was a good confidence booster. Mile 3 brought us on a windy route through the Pearl and NW Portland. Generally flat; nothing too noteworthy to report (aside from passing one of the guys who passed me during mile 1). My split was 6:35, which convinced me that a PR was within reach.

During mile 4, I saw my friend Daniel, and got a couple side-fives from other runners making their way to the turnaround point. I also passed the other guy who passed me during mile 1. Remained on pace for a PR. During mile 5, we headed up the Broadway Bridge to go back to the east side. I always hate that hill on my training runs, and worried that it would ruin my chances of setting a PR. However, I kept passing people, and my mile 5 split was still faster than my PR pace. I just kept trucking along to make my way to the finish line, and was still feeling good (okay, I was ready to be done running, but I was still passing people). There was a small hill just before mile 6, and my first thought was, "You've got to be kidding me" (it reminded me of Mt. Roosevelt in the Chicago Marathon). After I hit the mile 6 marker, I noticed that I had about 1.5 minutes to go in order to PR. I just told myself to keep pushing. As I rounded the last turn and saw the finish line, I noticed that I had about 10 seconds before my PR chances were lost, and gunned it. And then I made it with 5 seconds to spare.

A couple minutes later, I saw Daniel (who had also PRed), and eventually, we reunited with the rest of the Frontrunners we saw before the race. We also saw Mark W. and my friend Jeff, which was a great surprise, as I had no idea either of them were running this race. We posed for post-race photos, got our awesome stainless steel beer/cider/wine cups, and got some free booze (I did wine, the rest of them did beer). I went to the results tent to see if they had the official results posted, and was shocked when I saw my name on the first page of race results. I think I got more of a rush from that than from setting a new PR. (Side note: My previous PR was from the 2012 P2P 10K, which is primarily downhill.)

Overall, I think this race was well-organized. Packet pick-up was so easy, and the staggered start was a nice way to ease congestion. The only thing that annoyed me was having to hang around the muddy park, because my PF3s got so muddy that I had to throw them in the washing machine when I got home. (Okay, maybe "had to" is an exaggeration. But there was no way they were going back in my closet dirty like that.) I also appreciated the fax that while the beer line had 50+ people, the wine line only had about five. I know having to wait in an obscenely long line for post-race beer frustrated some people, so maybe it'd help if they had an additional beer tent?  Either way. Am I glad I ran this race? Yes. Would I run this race again? I think so.