No, this blog has not turned into the home of some generalist outdoor enthusiast. It is an apt description of my run in South San Francisco yesterday. After an uneventful flight from Seattle and restful night of sleep, I hopped up to replicate the CPTC speed workout I missed back in NYC. On tap 3 x 1mi @ 5k pace with 400m recovery, plus 1k @ “good form pace”. Rather than decipher the latter, I focused on finding a route to attempt the former. Given my location, I opted for this spot:
Baytrail along Oyster Point. It’s a winding stretch along San Francisco Bay, south of the peninsula. The “trail” part was not dirt (unfortunately). Rather, it was a mix of sidewalks and asphalt right next to the water … picturesque (San Bruno Mountain, the Bay) and VERY WINDY! Here is where the title comes into play. As a relatively sizable runner (as far as most competitive distance runners go), when wind hits me, it hits me like a sail. I do what I can to tuck in a bit, but it only results in throwing off my stride. As such, I just try to fight thru it the best I can. In theory, there should be a tailwind when I reverse course, but I rarely feel that benefit.
At any rate, with wind at steady state of 20-25 mph, speed intervals were challenging. The scenic view did mitigate some of the pain involved, but not much. The first two were rough (6:30, 6:30) in that I was well beyond a VO2 effort … not sprinting, but the effort took a lot out of me. As I braced for the finale, I decided to try locating a less punishing spot to get after it. So, my 400m recovery turned into nearly 2.5 miles of curving around the pier. With no relief in sight, I decided to nut up and finish the thing off … 6:35. Meh. All in 10.2 miles.
While the splits were not great, I chalked up the session to good resistance training and, more importantly, I felt lucky to be able to run along such a beautiful spot. Business travel can be a grind, but finding time to run in nice spots is a great perk.