My Fall Goal
It's been ages since I've talked about goals on the blog, but that doesn't mean I don't have a big one in mind. You may remember that I bailed on my main goal last year due to injury, and that's the one I'm chasing again for 2015: my first 50K.
I'm signed up for the Skyline to the Sea 50K on October 10, 2015. I chose this one because it's close to home (I can sleep in my own bed!), it's mostly single track trail through a canopy of Redwood trees, and it's a point-to-point journey. The fact that Kevin can take me to the start and pick me up at the finish helps a ton, and I'll know many people from the Bay Area run community there too. The course is a net downhill as the name suggests, with about 3000 feet of gain and 5000 feet loss. There are definitely rocky parts that make the downhill not so runnable, but I'll see more of what I'm dealing with in the coming weeks. People love and recommend this event so I'm excited!
While building mileage for the SF Marathon in the past few weeks, I've really had the 50K goal on my mind. Almost all of my long runs have been on trail with good climbing challenges, and I'm running a lot of trail for weekday runs as well. The trails are my happy place, so you could say I'm a happier person and runner overall! The SF Marathon on July 26 will be a long run for me but not a goal race; I want to keep the pace comfortable and have no plans to go after a marathon PR. My big hope is that running so far on pavement doesn't kill my recovery time too much. Perhaps I shouldn't be running a road marathon right now, but I love the SFM events and have yet to run the marathon so I want to run it already.
As part of training for the 50K, I'm planning to run the Headlands Marathon on September 12. I'll use that as a supported long training run, thought it could end up being harder than the 50K itself based on the 5000 feet of climbing! I know this going in, and my love of running in the Headlands has always made me want to do one of the long events there; this is one of the only marathon distances in that location that isn't a double loop of a half marathon course.
Tomorrow I'll be running the Golden Gate 30K as my last long run before the marathon, and I've enjoyed many trails in the last few weeks during SFM training. The scenery is nothing short of inspiring and I feel so lucky to live where we do. Here are a few highlights!
What are your goals for the rest of the year?
I'm signed up for the Skyline to the Sea 50K on October 10, 2015. I chose this one because it's close to home (I can sleep in my own bed!), it's mostly single track trail through a canopy of Redwood trees, and it's a point-to-point journey. The fact that Kevin can take me to the start and pick me up at the finish helps a ton, and I'll know many people from the Bay Area run community there too. The course is a net downhill as the name suggests, with about 3000 feet of gain and 5000 feet loss. There are definitely rocky parts that make the downhill not so runnable, but I'll see more of what I'm dealing with in the coming weeks. People love and recommend this event so I'm excited!
While building mileage for the SF Marathon in the past few weeks, I've really had the 50K goal on my mind. Almost all of my long runs have been on trail with good climbing challenges, and I'm running a lot of trail for weekday runs as well. The trails are my happy place, so you could say I'm a happier person and runner overall! The SF Marathon on July 26 will be a long run for me but not a goal race; I want to keep the pace comfortable and have no plans to go after a marathon PR. My big hope is that running so far on pavement doesn't kill my recovery time too much. Perhaps I shouldn't be running a road marathon right now, but I love the SFM events and have yet to run the marathon so I want to run it already.
As part of training for the 50K, I'm planning to run the Headlands Marathon on September 12. I'll use that as a supported long training run, thought it could end up being harder than the 50K itself based on the 5000 feet of climbing! I know this going in, and my love of running in the Headlands has always made me want to do one of the long events there; this is one of the only marathon distances in that location that isn't a double loop of a half marathon course.
Tomorrow I'll be running the Golden Gate 30K as my last long run before the marathon, and I've enjoyed many trails in the last few weeks during SFM training. The scenery is nothing short of inspiring and I feel so lucky to live where we do. Here are a few highlights!
Part of the Western States trail at Squaw Valley.
Flowers along the trail at Squaw.
Nicole running at Squaw with mountain views.
Along the Miwok climb during a Headlands long run.
Catherine in Steven's Creek County Park.
Kevin and Eddie in Fremont Older.
Kevin and I at the highest point of Fremont Older.
Phoenix Park in San Anselmo with a few Oiselle ladies.
good luck with your 50k - i can't wait to read more about that! my goals for the rest of the year are to train for and run the philadelphia marathon, and to generally stay healthy and not get injured. not too ambitious, but i tend to neglect foam rolling and stretching more than i should.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And goodness I don't think a MARATHON and staying healthy is not ambitious, those a huge and awesome goals! Good luck with training, keep foam rolling!
DeleteYay! So excited for you -- I know you've been wanting to do a 50K for a long time now. The Skyline to the Sea 50K looks like the same course as Big Basin, which I'm running in 2 weeks (!!). I'll be sure to post a thorough recap. :)
ReplyDeleteAs for plans, I *might* run the Santa Rosa Marathon 4 weeks after Big Basin, just to capitalize on my 50K training, but otherwise, I have ZERO goals besides relaxing and going on fun runs. I'd like to get faster at shorter distances, so maybe that's what I'll focus on in the fall.
Thanks! It is the same as Big Basin, and I can't wait to hear about your experience! I've run the trails out there and they are beautiful. Santa Rosa sounds like a fun event too, I've heard great things about it.
DeleteOne of my friends is doing Skyline to Sea...we MIGHT be pacing/crewing, I'll let you know nearer the time. It looks amazing!
ReplyDeleteMy plans are...maybe a trail half in August, a century ride in September, maybe Healdsburg in October and then a big half-PR attempt at beat the blergh in November. With maybe a 5k and a 10k as well. We'll see. I always make big plans and fail to deliver, I know myself well. :)
That trail marathon looks like great training for the 50k. I ran a marathon in the Headlands before my 50k, and it also had more elevation gain than the 50k. It was a really good mental boost, because I knew that the 50k was "only" (ha) five more miles, but that it would be flatter despite the longer course. Since I wound up running the 50k faster than expected, I'd say it was a success!
ReplyDeleteAnd even if you need some recovery time from SFM, you've got plenty of time. It might actually be good to change things up, for both your body and your head. You'll have less chances of burning out in training.