Week 5 of my Rock n Roll San Diego Half Marathon training cycle was another grinding week. I missed a run again this week. This time it was due to injury. Let’s look at how the week went…

This week started out with an awesome 4 mile run on Tuesday! I finally got back under a 12 minute per mile average on  a mid-week run! After finishing my first Yasso 800’s workout the Sunday before, I was feeling like this run was where I was going to get back to this mark. I started off the run with a run 30 second, walk 90 second interval. It was not the best mile as I finished in 12 minutes, 11 seconds. I could feel myself warming up as the mile went along. So, even though, I was slow, I switched to a 60 seconds walk break for mile 2. It worked out amazingly well! At each quarter-mile, I was bringing my average pace under the 12 minute per mile average. By the time I finished the first quarter-mile in mile 2, I was already under that 12 minute per mile average! By the end of mile 2, I was at 23 minutes even! Not only that, but I was running well. I could feel it. I felt great running and my time made me happy. It was a great combination that kept going all the way through the end of mile 3. Even though I had a great time going, mile 3 had a scary moment. About half way through mile 3, I rolled my ankle on a run interval. Talk about scary. It was towards the start of that run interval. I was mindful of how I felt. However, the ankle didn’t bother me at all. So, I kept going. At the end of mile 3, I was at 35:07. So, I slowed a few seconds. But, considering the ankle thing, I was okay with that. I wondered how much I’d lose in the last mile. I didn’t want to loose any of the nearly 1 minute cushion I had built. In the last stretch, where the sidewalks are uneven, I even ran in the bike lane of the road. At 3.50 miles, I was 50 seconds ahead of the 12 minute per mile pace. At that point, I was forced back on the sidewalk. My finish time was 47 minutes, 34 seconds was awesome! I mean, I did loose more time than I would have liked in the last mile. But, I was finally under 48 minutes! It felt absolutely amazing!

Thursday was my skipped run for the week. Here’s the thing, I have this theory that might be true, might not be. However, it’s what I’m going with. On Wednesday morning, I woke up with a lot of pain in my lower back. I took some pain meds and was able to get through work. However, on Thursday morning, I woke up with even more lower back pain than on Wednesday. That was my signal to take the day off from work and running to rest so I could heal. The theory is that, when I rolled my ankle, I might have done something to my back while I was keeping myself upright and running forward. I didn’t realize this at the time. I didn’t feel any back pain at all on Tuesday. However, the timing of the pain suggests that this might have been the cause. Either way, I needed the rest to make sure I didn’t do any real damage.

After taking Friday off as well, I was out to the gym on Saturday. This was my plan for the week because I had a 10K race the next day. So, I switched my 7 mile run and my gym workout. It was another really good workout at the gym! I feel like I’m ready to increase the weights on a couple of my machines this coming weekend! Of course, I need to get out to the gym again. As I get to the point of increasing weight, gym workouts will be more fun. I was a little better on the elliptical machine this week and the weights felt good. Can’t wait to get back to the gym this week!

On Saturday afternoon, I headed down to the OC to pick up my bib and race shirt for the Coaster Run 10K race. This race did offer race day pick up. However, with the predicted rain, I didn’t want to deal with that.

The shirts we got were pretty cool! I’ll give some props to the folks at Renegade Racing. The packet pick up went really smooth. If you didn’t print out your waiver, there were people there to give you blank waivers for you to fill out. Then, it was off to the lines to get your bib. Everything was easy to find. The line was short. Once I got my bib, I was directed to go to my left. As soon as I got out of the bib pick up, there was a volunteer to hand me a bag with lots of fun things inside. She then directed me to get my race shirt. There were plenty in every size left. It was an easy pick up!

Sunday morning was race day. I had a crazy dive down to the OC from Pasadena. The rain made for that crazy drive. I’ll cover this race in more detail. But, I did wait in my car until about 20 minutes before. By then the rain had died down considerably. By race time, the rain was gone. But, we were left with with a very wet course to start.

I has fun in the corrals (or waves) chatting up with a person who reads my blog and others around me. One older guy behind me had run in 19 marathons! He told us that, when he started running, they didn’t give out finisher medals. All you got was a slip of paper that said you finished and your times. Imagine that! No bling! Oh the horror!

The race started late. However, I didn’t mind much because it gave the course some time to dry out a little bit. This race was interesting at the start. Not only were there people to weave in and out of, but large puddles of water to watch out for. I was very concerned with getting blisters. So, this race was not going to be one for the record books.

Given he rain, I didn’t expect to see any characters on the course. However, as I was running through the Roaring 20’s area, Charlie Brown and Lucy were out for pictures. Get this…the line only had like 4 or 5 people in it! As a runDisney veteran, it’s crazy to think a character stop would have so few people! Of course, that meant, I had to stop. I didn’t know if there would be any other characters. Also, with a line so short, the runDisney runner in me wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.

We left Knott’s Berry Farm around the end of mile 2.

In mile 3, we made our way to and through Soak City USA… Knott’s Berry Farm’s water park. This is what a water park looks like in the off season. The large puddles, wet ground, and occasionally crowded running paths slowed my first 3 miles pretty well. I was toying with the idea of going to a run 30 walk 60 seconds intervals once I started mile 4. However, because I was already going slow, I decided to just get into a rhythm of run 30 walk 90 seconds. On the roads, it was much easier to maneuver around and the grounds were starting to dry up. Mile 4 felt good because I got into a regular pattern with my run/walk intervals.

I didn’t take any pics of while we were on the streets because there wasn’t anything interesting to capture. I do give the race organizers some credit, though. They had volunteers at a few points to just be cheerleaders for us runners. There were no bands, not cheer squads, no characters, just running from miles 4, 5 and 6. One thing I didn’t like, though, was that the mile markers weren’t exactly where they should have been. At least the mile 5 marker wasn’t where it should have been. That’s not cool.

This is what the watch said when I finished. Do you see the distance??? 6.09 miles. Oops! My official time was 1 hour, 20 minutes, 14 seconds. I’ve been faster, I’ve been slower. So, my finish time is kind of average. However, I had a blast with this “training run!”

I was going to go to Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant for a real breakfast after the race. Since it was closed for renovations, I headed off to Disney for some Mickey Waffles instead.

It was a pretty decent week. I mean, I got three workouts of the four finished. My 1 miss came due to an injury. You can’t help that too much. So, I have no regrets about week 5. I’m hoping that, tomorrow, I will get a notification that I got into the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon. On Tuesday, March 8th, we will know. That’s the day the send out notifications and my bank account will have the entry fee withdrawn. So, I’m hoping week 6 has some amazing news to it!

Until then…Keep Breathing!