Why hello, Taper! I am so happy to see you! It’s been 13 weeks of intense training and I must confess I am ready to scale back the running for a few weeks until marathon race day. Yesterday I completed my fifth and last 20-mile run for this training cycle. I’m calling it a huge success. Twenty miles in 3:06:55. The training schedule called for 20 miles at an 8:50 pace. I hit several of the miles at that pace and all the 14 complete downhill miles I averaged 9:00. I had to run back up the trail for nearly 5 extra miles to get in a full 20 and even with those uphill miles I averaged 9:20 overall (6.4 mph). For those people who understand or even care about the elevation gain and loss, here are the stats from my Garmin Forerunner 110:
Elevation Gain: 534 ft
Elevation Loss: 1,436 ft
Min Elevation: 142 ft
Max Elevation: 1,052 ft
I ran Aliso Creek Trail again because it’s the one that best simulates the Mountains 2 Beach race course elevation gain and loss. This time though I didn’t continue all the way to the beach. I started with this:
Aliso Creek Path trailhead
and ended with this:
Latte from Cafe Anastasia in Laguna Beach
I highly recommend Cafe Anastasia for brunch. If you go, try the Eggs Laguna:
If you have time, wander down Ocean Avenue to Main Beach Park:
Sunset at Main Beach Park in Laguna Beach. Photo by Eric Bennett.
but first stop at Casey’s Cupcakes for one of these:
Did you run over the weekend? Did you go anywhere fun?
Fit Fun Mom 