Training in San Diego: The Good and The Challenging

Hello from the West Coast!  I'm in San Diego for the week to help welcome my brother's first child into the world.  It would of been nice to take a week off from work and training but unfortunately that isn't the case.  There is no rest from marathon training.  Its a half a year commitment!  The most I'm changing with my current routine is my marathon training diet (and of course, sleep, once the baby gets here).  I have to have In-N-Out while I'm here right?!

The Good

Its been nice to have a little break from the crazy humidity of Virginia.  But staying with my Brother and Sister-in-law definitely have other perks:

My home away from home for the week.

The view outside of the pad.  Wait.  What is that behind the gate?

Is that a lap pool just 20 feet away?  Why yes!  I believe it is!

The Challenging

With the combination of struggling through Tuesday's 8-miler and traveling all morning on Wednesday I thought it would be best to give the legs a break on Wednesday.

I woke up early Thursday morning and decided to try out the local roads for a brief 4-miler.  I went over to the USATF site and mapped out a quick run.  I knew the neighborhood we were in was on the side of a hill, but I remembered, "hills are your friend".

I came out of the neighborhood and took this first right, and started my run down the hill.  Not too bad so far.

Most of mile one was down hill so I thought, no problem.  I knew I was going to have to run back up but on the way down the hill was so steady I figured it wouldn't be too much of problem.  I felt so good that I decided that I would take a parallel path back up the hill to finish up my run.  Big mistake!  This is the BEAST I encountered at mile 2.5.

I know hills are our friends, but what about mountains?  This climb was insane!  I really wanted to stop and walk at the top of it.  I powered through, but after a quarter mile I got another shocker.  I was going downhill again!

After some personal motivational talk (most of which can't be repeated here) I eventually finished up the remaining inclines and my run.  Overall, it was a good time.  I'd have to say that I felt more challenged than when I did my Half.  I'm sure the benefits will outweigh the sheer torture I put my body through.

I still have to do a 10, a couple of 8s and a couple of 4s while I'm here, but its safe to say I'll be avoiding the BEAST.

Just for kicks, here's the elevation profile of yesterday's grueling run: