Tamalpa Headlands Training Week Seventeen: Meh, I Guess I Peaked

The view from the SCA Trail

Week seventeen ended up being a mini-reset week, with just half the weekly volume I had built up to over the past month. Before hiring a coach, I tried to maintain a routine of three weeks building/one week of rest to avoid over-training. From the beginning, Tim has pushed my comfort level, and the increased intensity has paid off in both results and race-comfort levels. Sometimes, however, I have to abide what my body tells me, and last week it told me to lay off. It began with a tempo run getting cut short for no reason, and continued through two skipped runs and another one cut short. At least I'll be fresh for the race this weekend.

 

Here's the week:

 

Tuesday: Tempo run, interrupted (45 minutes)

 

Thursday: Easy 60

 

Sunday: 2:20 hilly trail run

 

Totals: 22.34 miles, avg HR 141

 

Mega-yacht on the America's Cup course boundary

Quality miles, but skipping Friday and Saturday dredged up those familiar feelings of self-loathing. Saturday we sailed Kuani out to watch the America's Cup action, which came complete with two crew falling off the Kiwi's boat!

 

 

After sailing all day, running did not sound like fun, so I skipped the easy hour on my plan. My long run on Sunday was supposed to be 3.5 hours, but I rolled my ankle coming into the trail head parking lot and chose to call it quits, as I had almost completed the prescribed elevation total in my plan. Plus, I wanted to spend time with Twirly.

Angel Island and the Tiburon Peninsula

Eucalyptus grove on Alta Trail

Richardson Bay

I have skipped or re-scheduled runs to spend time with Twirly in the past, but Sunday she laid down the law: no more skipping training in her name. I had not realised that she might feel guilty when I do so, assuming that she too would rather spend time together. It is a good illustration of how much she supports my pursuit of this silly sport; she would rather I put my best foot forward than enable mediocrity. I love her for that.

 

Fog filling Tennessee Valley, Mt. Tam on the horizon

I snapped some good photos during my long run on part of the Tamalpa Headlands 50K course. I got a good look at the Coastal Trail climb to Wolf Ridge, which turned out to be rather steep, but only took me 20 minutes to climb. Maybe I can do it in 18 on Saturday!

I crossed paths with this little coyote on Bobcat Trail