Last Long Run and weekend pictures

Saturday 17.5 miles/2:36:28/8:57 average pace

I drove over to the Peninsula and ran on the Sawyer Camp Trail on the Crystal Springs Reservoir. I had 16 miles on the schedule but I kept running to the end of the trail since I'd never done that, and was curious how far it was (I knew it wasn't too much farther) - plus I was hoping there would be a water fountain but no luck.

The run went really well! I made a point to completely ignore my watch and run by feel. The course is pretty hilly so I focused on running strong up the hills and thinking about the hills at Boston. I practically ran the entire distance which was cool- I only stopped once to take a picture of a deer (see below, other pics were taken while running) and once to refill my water. Other than that I only took like 2-second breaks to adjust my sock or something. So between running without breaks and running big hills, I felt really good about it. I was happy at the end of the run to see my average pace was still sub-9:00!

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I drank a ton of gatorade/water (I mix them 50/50 - my stomach handles it better than straight Gatorade) when I finished because I was a bit dehydrated. There's only one water fountain on the whole course that works and it's at about mile 3/14... so too early to do any good and then too late to prevent dehydration! There was a gas station across the street at the turnaround, I could have purchased a bottle of water with my emergency $. Next time I will. It was pretty cool outside- upper 50's- so I was ok. Any hotter and the water would have been a bigger issue.

Upper Reservoir from top of dam- mile 5:

deer:

Upper Reservoir on the way back:

Lower Reservoir on the way back:

After the run, I picked up Zach and we went for sandwiches. On the way home he somehow convinced me to go swimming. So we grabbed our stuff and headed up to the pool. I went straight from my sweaty run clothes into my swimsuit (with of course a quick shower). I did 1000 m easy, in about 21:00. I did the middle 500 m with my pull buoy. I practiced my flips because it's my goal to learn to flip turn.

TOTAL miles for the week: 35.5

PLUS 21 miles Bike!

AND 1500 m swim.

That's about my most well-rounded week in quite some time. Nice!!

Sunday we went for a little hike in the Sunol Regional Wilderness and I took a few pictures of the wildflowers in bloom:

It was a really relaxing weekend overall- besides the run, swim, and hike, we bbq'd, watched hockey at the sports bar, I read, Zach made a strawberry pie, and I slept about 11 hours each night. This coming weekend we're going to Phoenix and then next weekend it's Boston! Here's my schedule for Taper Week 2 (Boston Marathon is 2 weeks from today):

Monday: 7 miles GA (+ Strides)

Tuesday: xt

Wednesday: 8 miles (3 miles VO2 Intervals)

Thursday (leave for phx): off

Friday (phx): 5 miles Easy

Saturday (phx): 12 miles Long (probably with Scottsdale Running Group)

Sunday (fly home from Phx): rest/xt

Total miles scheduled: 32