Fit Friday! I Found a Local Run Club!

This has been my first good week in a while, and it wasn't just good, it was amazing! I did my longest run to date and I found a local run club in Long Beach.

Saturday Long Run:  I kept with Mark's advice this week and paced myself as much as possible on this run. A few miles were under, a few miles were over, but I finished 14 miles at a n 8:33 pace and felt great. This is the farthest I've ever run, and am so happy with how well it went. I'm looking forward to the buildup to 22.

Sunday Rest Day:  I really tried to go out and do a few miles, but my legs weren't having it. They weren't in pain, but it felt like they could use a break. I listened. I'll try to make Sundays into a gym day from now on.

Monday Run/Weights:  Started the day in the gym with some dead lifts, chest and back exercises. I finished the day with an 8 mile run that was almost a maze. If you remember, the boardwalk near me is under construction. I've been checking out the path every few weeks to see if it's opened up, so this run turned into a bit of an obstacle course getting through the construction area, climbing some stairs and then finding a path home. I ended up logging 8.62 total miles with an 8:19 pace. I really want to get back to a sub 7 pace for a longer run during the week. I'll shoot for this next week.

Tuesday Leg Day: I have to admit I've been avoiding a leg day for the last 3 weeks since I've started feeling so low in my training, but this week I went at it with about half of the lunges/squats that I used to do. I worked a lot of my shoulders in between the reps. I felt good the rest of the day, but you can see it affected all of my runs after this.

Wednesday Hill Run: Hills are great now that I've gotten used to doing them. Because of the leg work I did the day before, I did about 3 miles of hill repeats, with a 2 mile warm up and a 3 mile cool down. My legs were heavy the whole time. I wanted to do about 3 more hills, but couldn't muster the strength or energy in my legs.

Thursday Gym and a New Run Club: I was not feeling the gym this morning. I got up late, and was only left with about 40 minutes to do work once I got there. I did what I could with my shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs, but was exhausted and my legs still hurt. Edgar found a local run club, GRVL Runners of Bixby Knolls, on Instagram on Tuesday and they were having their inaugural run Thursday. It was for the distance I needed to run that day, so I was stoked! There are so many LA based run clubs that meet late at night during the week and it's just too far for me to make it work with my schedule. Finding a local club was great. It was organized by Robert and Stephanie, who are avid runners and were inspired by other run clubs such as Blacklist LA. About 10 people showed up and there was an option for a 5K or a 5 mile course. I needed to run 5 miles and Edgar kept pace with me. Of course we got lost, so it turned into a 5.5 mile run.

Such a great turnout for the first night! Photo Courtesy of GRVL Runner of Long Beach

My legs were still sore and we ended up doing an 8:20 pace. Edgar was nice enough to stay at my speed even though he is so much faster than me! Overall a great experience and I hope to see it grow. If you are a Long Beach local and would like to join us, the runs take place every Thursday at 6:30. We meet at Stateside Craft, a beer shop located at 4242 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA.

Friday Rest: I was hoping to get up early today and run a quick 3 miles, but I was exhausted and my legs are still sore. I have to do a 14 miler tomorrow, so I thought it best to give myself a break. I'm hoping these DOMS are gone tomorrow.

What I've been eating:

I haven't been doing a good job of noting my nutrition in these Fit Friday posts as I have my workouts, so here's a few photos of what I've been consuming - basically tons of oats (overnight oats this week because I've had a lot of almost empty Wild Friends PB jars), avocado egg salad (delish), and zoodles are my new thing. I love pairing them with homemade turkey or chicken meatballs and homemade roasted potato fries or green beans. I got a spiralizer for Christmas, so I expect to be making a lot more veggie noodle dishes in the near future.

Overnight Oats with Wild Friends

Avocado egg salad with Cabbage & tomato

Zoodles are the best! I love my spiralizer

I hope everyone had a great week of workouts and runs and please come join the GRVL Runners next week if you're free! Happy Friday!

J