the uss able soufay

well, as much as i would have loved to name the kayak, "the love boat" or even better, "smsmh", smsmh suggested we name it the "able soufay", after the crazy chant that my grandfather taught us. it's been a goofy and fun joke between us and some close friends for a while, and it's a nod at what wonderful people my grandparents are.

anyway, we took the kayak out on saturday to back bay, the same back bay where i do most of my mid-week runs. it's amazing how different the bay is from on the water. you see so much more wildlife than you do when you're running along the trail. you also realize just how much life there is there, and how diverse the ecosystems are. on the trail, it's bunnies, squirrels, lizards, snakes and raptors. on the water it's huge foot long fish jumping out of the water and tons of water fowl. there were a bunch of sleek, tiny, white birds that kept diving into the water for small fish. it was so much fun to paddle along and enjoy the view.

launching at back bay was really easy, as there's no surf to deal with, just a nice, calm bay. next weekend, though, i'm going to try my hand at a surf launch. i was thinking of hitting crystal cove state park. there's some awesome kelp beds off the shore that i think it would be awesome to paddle through.

running this weekend was a mixed bag. friday's six miler was just plain hard. i did it first thing in the morning, right after having done the 11.5 mile interval workout the night before. silly me opted for the hilly route around our house, and i paid for it. i took the rest option on saturday and used the three hours of paddling as cross-training.

sunday was great, though. here's verbatim what i sent my coach:

...Sunday ended up being the best run of the week. I started out the first five miles at my long, slow distance pace, and was hitting 8:30-8:45. I felt tired, stiff and the legs were just plain heavy as I warmed up. Five miles came really fast, and I didn't want to start into the marathon pace, but went ahead and pushed to hit 7:30's. I was doing an out-and-back course, with the whole 'out' being uphill. So, the first 2.5 of the marathon pace distance was uphill. I hit the 7:30's, but when I turned around, I was hitting the low 7's with the same effort. So, the five miles in the middle ended up being a tempo pace, rather than marathon pace. And then, the last five at regular pace ended up being closer to marathon pace (between 7:30-7:45). I did NOT feel like I was pushing, but actually felt relaxed on the last five. They felt comfortable and really nice. I finished without being worn out, the legs felt really good when I was done, and I felt like I could have easily continued for quite some time at that pace, despite how hot it was (in the high 70's and VERY humid). Total time for the 15.5 distance was 2:02, with a total average below an 8:00 pace...

nice finish to a hard week. i'm excited about what this week will bring!