berlin marathon training, week 1: californiaaaaa!

16 weeks until...

Yeah for International Marathons! Nothing keeps you accountable like already having the airfare and AirBNB booked, right?  

Goals for this race... just to PR would be lovely (Milan was 3:49), but under a 3:40 would be awesome! To qualify for Boston is to finish under 3:35...but trying to keep myself realistic here..

Fortunately, I was able to start my first week of training in California for work! I think this could have been a good excuse to not start training but let's be honest, the weather in California is pretty ideal for training.

Monday (June 4th, I'm a little late with this recap!)

5.5 mi / 8:37 pace

Upper Body Strength

I was slightly concerned with staying next to Disneyland as I wasn't sure about the running path situation... (since Disney World does not have the best set up..) but I was happily surprised that I comfortably got in my speedwork around the park. I did this by effort. 

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I took selfies with this but there's just no need to share that side of me right now...

Afterwards, I did upper body strength - luckily the hotel had a really good gym with decent weights, kettlebells and machines. Also, the breakfast buffet was the healthiest I've seen in awhile. I like to think it's because it was California.

I was in Anaheim for a food show since I support a Sales Team that sells to the food service industry. There was a cake challenge amongst many, many samples of food and drinks in this massive convention center.

At night we went on a boat cruise. Which featured a lot of bacon. What is with bacon wrapped everything?!

Tuesday

Elliptical Interval

Lower Body Strength

So... I got to the hotel gym at 5a (I did not adjust to West Coast time at all this trip), and sadly learned it did not open for another hour. Came back at 6a on the dot and the only other guy there took the bike I needed...so elliptical for my cardio.. and then lower body strength too.

Then a lovely 1.5 hour drive up to Glendale. I really thought it was closer.

Ventured to the top of the soon to be old Nestle USA Headquarters building.

Um, this gym...was epic. And free for employees. Sobbing.

Later that evening, I flew to San Jose and happily discovered so many ethnic restraurants by hotel! However.. I didn't really branch out since it's been awhile since I had falafel... This is not falafel obviously, just the precursor. From Falafel Bite in Milipitas.

Wednesday 

6.6 mi / 8:27 pace

Literally perfect weather for a run in San Jose. Was able to run to this trail from my hotel and it was glorious. Hit my goal pace for 1 of the 2 tempo miles which I did not expect for my first week.

The work day took us to Pebble Beach and the Monterey area.

Lunch was at Jonty's Vietnamese Eatery in Morgan Hill. It is literally at the train station. It was amazing. I got this tofu noodle bowl and Vietnamese iced coffee and it was fantastic. Though I think it gave me heartburn after. Whatever, worth it.

And..then.. a long drive to Fresno.. the traffic getting out San Jose was ridiculous. I was on an exit ramp for at least 20 minutes. Anyway... it was nice to see the Sierra Nevadas driving in. Fresno's food options are very..limited downtown, so I grabbed a sandwich and a local Tioga-Sequoia brew in the lobby. And watched the Cavs lose and my personal phone spontaneously combust..figuratively of course. At least the beer was good.. 

Thursday

Rest

So... knowing how my next two days were going to go, decided to take this day as a rest day. See more info on Kings Canyon below if you want to see more. I will say we got lunch at this lodge and it was OK. The fish tacos were just two tacos...like really, guys?  Correct portion sizes?

Dinner was SWEET TOMATOES! Apparently we went to this one specifically after Yosemite, Sarah, if you are reading?! I ate at 4:30p with all of my elderly friends. Sleep deprivation was my other friend.

Friday 

Yosemite Hike ~16-20 miles

More pictures a few posts below this one...

View from the top!

My favorite picture from Mirror Lake that I didn't post :)

Saturday

12 mi / 9:00 pace

Goal was a 9:23 pace and this 9:00 was easy..and probably would have been faster if I didn't take pictures every 10 minutes...

When the first guy that passes you on your first long run of training is wearing a Berlin Marathon shirt... #itsasign

Oh yeah the selfies happened.

The weather, once again, was perfect. So happy the bridge wasn't shrouded in fog. Also have never seen this many runners in my life outside of race in a city...! So cool.

Lunch in Chinatown at Muracci's Japanese Curry and Grill. Tofu and vegetable curry. Was not impressed.

Chinatown itself was pretty neat.

Dinner was at Pacific Catch in the Marina District. Then I was impressed.

Headed back to San Jose, grabbed some snacks and just one local beer to enjoy before heading out the next morning. This was delicious!

Sunday

Rest

I've got a pretty good streak of picking the right side of the plane on when coming back into Cleveland.

Overall, a very good first week of training! My record number of steps for a week was around 150k... needless to say, I shattered that. Strangely enough, I was never really sore (and I'm typing this the Tuesday after).. so that's .. interesting. More to come next week of course!