Category: StewsCatRuns

2023 California International Marathon Training summary

Prior to the start of lockdowns and the world changing in 2020, I had signed up for my 5th full marathon (California International Marathon) along with one of my good friends. However due to circumstances surrounding the pandemic, that year’s marathon was cancelled. The race organizers were extremely gracious and provided all registrants with a voucher for entry into a subsequent year’s race for 3 additional years. This was the last year to use the voucher so my friend and I agreed to sign up early in the year. I have only done one in-person race since 2019 (my first 30K – here).

I’ve never truly followed a training plan fully in any of my previous marathons – either due to injury, travel, or just lack of focus. This time I wanted to create a plan and try sticking to it in an attempt to break 5 hours (my previous best time was 5:00:03). I created (more like cobbled and frankensteined) a 16 week training plan from a few different plans I reviewed online. I created monthly calendars with goal miles and some idea of how to run them (tempo, race pace, intervals, easy, etc). I tailored it off my work schedule.

Prior to starting my training cycle, I had been running consistently the last few years of COVID. A few years back I had set a goal of running at least 1000 miles a year, which I hit in 2021 and 2022 as well as this year. Before I embarked on this training cycle, I had been heavily relying on treadmill runs. Once I started marathon training I forced myself to do more runs outside (to get my body used to the pounding of outdoor running). I did want to incorporate more strength training into my marathon training plan but failed to do so at a level that I think benefited me. I had been doing some body weight exercises in the first maybe 4-5 weeks but then somewhere along the way that fell off.

2023 California International Marathon Race Recap

2023 California International Marathon Race Recap

I originally signed up for this race in early 2020 before COVID and then when it was cancelled that year the race organizers provided us registrants with a free voucher to run in one of the next 3 years (2021-2023). This was the last year of the voucher so I signed up. I then followed a 16 week training plan (see here for my training).

Expo

The race expo was held at the Sacramento convention center on Friday and Saturday before the race. My friend and I arrived shortly after they opened on Friday (after I picked him up from the airport). Overall it was well organized. Instead of assigning race numbers prior to the expo, they would scan your barcode (on your phone) and then a barcode on the race bib to match you with your number. I thought this was smart as they could just pick up numbers as they went instead of having to have them alphabetized and such. I gearchecked my stuff for after the race (just a light jacket with a breakfast bar in case I needed it) as there was no gear check on race morning. We checked out some of the merchandise and I picked up a few CIM branded t shirts. Something I hadn’t seen before was they had multiple “picture stations” that you could take pictures in front of for the ‘gram.

2022 Clarksburg Country Run – 30K Race Recap

2022 Clarksburg Country Run – 30K Race Recap

On a cold and windy day a few weeks back I did my first in person race in a little over 3 years. Prior to COVID I had planned on running my 5th full marathon in 2020. The world had other ideas and that race was moved virtually with the option to postpone it for the next few years. I had initially planned on running CIM 2022 but missed the deadline to use my voucher. Instead I thought I’d tackle a new race distance and challenge. Previously I had looked into the Clarksburg Country Run back when they had a 20 mile option. I looked and saw this year they had a 30K which is 18.6 miles. I figured this would still be a good distance to challenge myself (after having done tons of half marathons and knowing that distance).

Much of this year’s running has been done on the treadmill, a combination of not wanting to run in the heat but also just me not wanting to get outside like I used to. Nevertheless I created my own training guide and tried to follow it as closely as possible.

Packet pickup at the Fleet Feet Store was no frills and I picked up my bib and shirt the day before (no swag bag or other goodies and I didn’t feel like browsing the store). I was in and out in under a minute.

Race morning turned out to be quite cold but super windy. Temperature when I arrived was around 42F. I don’t particularly mind the cold but the wind is what turned out to be something to reckon with. Parking was about half a mile away at The Old Sugar Mill – which houses multiple wineries in one area. I had actually visited this many years back with my MIL and did wine tastings.

After the chilly walk to the start/finish area (a local high school), I visited the portapotties and then dropped off my sweatshirt/pants at the sweat check and waited for the start. I feel like at most races I’ve run, people start getting into the start area well before the start. This one seemed a little less urgent. The 30K was the first to kick off at 8 am and people were just milling about until about 5 minutes before race start. Finally we all gathered behind the timing mats but again people didn’t seem all that keen to be up near the front. There were only 148 of us doing the longest distance (other race distances were half marathon, 10K, and 5K) so I ended up pretty close to the start line (even though I knew I would probably be one of the slower participants).

April 2019 Road Races

Thist post got put on the backburner as we went on our trip and then I kind of forgot about it.  However I wanted to make sure I documented it.

——–

Prior to April, I hadn’t done a race in over a year.  So this year I decided to try again at the Buzz Oates RunSac Race Series.  I had signed up for it last year (the mileage program) but never got past the one race.  It’s been a few years since I did shorter races (5K) and so I decided to do a 5K and then my coworker wanted to do a 10K so I signed up for one as well.  They all happened to be within a few weeks of each other so I decided to lump them all into one post.

First up was the Credit Union SacTown Run on April 7.  They have both a 10 mile and 5K option.  I had not been doing much distance work and wasn’t feeling up for the 10 miler so I did the 5K.  Starting at the beginning of the year my running has been more consistent.  I’ve been doing more treadmill running but this does allow me to do incline and speed work.  I wanted to see how my speed was given that I’m getting older.  My last 5K was in 2017 where I ran ~8.5 min/mi pace.  The race started just west of the Capitol and there was plenty of street parking within a few short blocks of the start/finish area.  They had plenty of portapotties and also various tents with vendors (other regional races, local businesses).  My one gripe was that the people who had set the portapotties put them against the curb and there was quite a bit of road camber (the curve on each side of the street to allow for water to run away from the street) and so the portapotties weren’t level and would rock when you got in and tried to sit down.  I knew it wasn’t me because every single person who went in or out of them commented about it and would tell the next person: “good luck” and then laugh.  lol.  Small gripe I know.

Otherwise the rest of the race was straight forward.  The course consisted of running through the streets near the Capitol and then crossing the famous Tower Bridge into West Sacramento by Raley Field (home of the minor league baseball team Sacramento River Cats) and then back across to the finish.

I went out comfortably hard for the first 2 miles and then still feeling pretty good I pushed myself hard the last mile to see if I still had some speed.  I crossed the finish line in 26:18.  This was actually 34 seconds faster than my last 5K in 2017 – not bad!  The other great thing about 5Ks is that the recovery period is minimal.

IMG_20190407_073030IMG_20190407_074204IMG_20190407_083111IMG_20190407_090554

Continue reading “April 2019 Road Races” →

2018 Year-end running summary

In the end I ran the 2nd lowest total yearly mileage since I started regularly running in 2010.  I can chalk up 2010 to a low mileage due to moving from the midwest to SD and also for a very crazy work year.  This year’s (2018) low mileage total can be chalked up to a lack of motivation and lack of races.  I only ran one organized race this year, which was a half marathon early in the year (link here).

2018 Total miles: 542

Total runs: 142 (Avg 2.8 runs/week)

My total number of runs was only a little less than last year but the main difference was the distances per run especially the latter half of the year.  I am proud to have managed to do regular runs (albeit on a treadmill) during our cruise in 2018. Continue reading “2018 Year-end running summary” →