Marathon training, week 3

My morning run view from the levy trails off Baylands park (see note below)

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count;

everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.

                                                                 ~ Albert Einstein

I do believe it's important to have a training plan and to keep track of my progress, but there's a lot of wisdom in the quote above.  That Einstein was a smart guy!  Especially in the early part of the season, the mile splits aren't nearly as important to me as the time spent on my feet.  And in my opinion, enjoying the process and having fun with my training partners counts for a lot!
 
Last week I ran 32 miles as follows:

Tuesday - 7 miles on the track with TRIbe under the full moon
                warm up, drills, stadiums/lunges, strides
                1600, 1200, 800, 400m descending from 10k pace to sub-5k pace
                cool down, squats, core
Thursday - 7 miles on trails (Baylands) plus drills and strides
Friday - 4 miles jogging on trails (Baylands)
Sunday - 14 miles in the hills with run-buddy AGA (Rancho San Antonio)
 

Post-run glamor shot with AGA

Sunshine and good company make everything better, especially long, hilly runs.  Thanks AGA!  Garmin data from our girl-talk session is here.

Coming Friday - a guest blogger!  In case you're getting sick of me, me, me all the time.

Editor's note: Baylands really is beautiful, but often smells like garbage due to its proximity to the Sunnyvale Recycling Center.  And a coworker was attacked by some angry trail geese, but so far they've left me alone.

Friendly geese?