Beach Cruisin' at the Back Bay

Goal:

8-10 Miles Wave (545-550/615-620) or Tempo (610-605)

Actual:

2 miles warmup

8 mile wave in 630, 555, 607, 550, 607, 540, 607, 538

2 miles cool down for 12 miles total

After a day of traveling to LA from Charlotte on Tuesday, I was a bit skeptical of how this workout would go.  Since it's my birthday, I figured it had to go better than I expected. Fortunately, I was able to drag Garrett out with me for the extra motivation.  With him there, I push myself harder because I hate explaining why I had a bad workout.  He rode alongside me on my sister's baby blue beach cruiser that three speeds, a basket, and a bell.  Did he ring the bell?  You bet...Every time I finished a mile.  The bike actually was a great addition because I got to bring my cell phone to capture photos of the beautiful Newport Back Bay Nature Reserve and of Garrett biking alongside the path!   

After a 2 mile warmup, I just picked up the pace to a comfortable clip, undecided yet if I would be doing a tempo or a wave.  My legs still felt a little fatigued from traveling but my breathing felt really relaxed, so I decided to go with a wave.  The one and only hill of the workout was in the first mile, but followed by an extremely sharp downhill.  Once my mile split went off, I decided it would be best to start picking it up for the fast part.  The second mile felt easy and when it was time to do my "slow" mile, I found it really hard to actually slow my body down.  Apparently 6:07 pace is my sweet spot because I hit that pace for all of my easy miles.  By the fourth mile, I was feeling great.  The sun was shining directly on my face, so I took of my long sleeve shirt, tossed it over to Garrett, and he stuffed it into our handy basket.  

During the second half of the run, I was rolling - everything seemed to be fitting perfectly together.  My breathing was definitely much more labored for the hard parts because I was dipping into the 540s, but when the 6:07 part came, it felt really easy and my breathing slowed down immensely.   

Overall, I'm very pleased with this workout.  After several days with less sleep than I'm typically accustomed to and a full day of travel, my legs were still ready to rock this tempo.  In just two days, I am doing a 20 Mile steady state at Palos Verdes, California with two other guys from the Cal Coast Track Club.  I am hoping my legs will still be somewhat fatigued from this workout to simulate the feeling of the last 20 miles of the Trials Marathon.  

Countdown:  24 Days until the 2012 US Olympic Trials Marathon 

Garrett's beach cruiser on the path

post workout in the back bay