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Nike Women’s Half SF Preview

Hello! Today, I had my first “real” long run of half marathon training. By real, I mean above what I might do while not training for a particular race. 6 miles is routine. 8 is half marathon training. Since school hasn’t starting and my puppy was going to be at her playgroup all day, I thought I would take the opportunity to go up to San Francisco and train on some hills.

When I ran this race 2 years ago (Nike Women’s Half), the course was different. The course this year is sort of like a backwards version of how it used to be.

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If I had to guess why they changed it, it would be to not have to close the Great Highway and to make the hills a little better. Do you see that big downhill around mile 12? That 300 feet of fast elevation gain used to be a pretty brutal hill in the past. Just based on the course map, my experience today, and my experience in previous races, the hills should be not nearly as bad as in the past! I wanted to get at least one hill in from the race in my run today, so I started in Golden Gate Park and worked my way over to the Golden Gate bridge, taking the following route (about miles 5-10 of the race).

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Granted I’ve been training on worse hills this summer, but the hills during this portion were not bad-I think running the reverse of this portion actually was worse.

I haven’t spent much time in Golden Gate Park besides during races, so I took lots of pictures. I was able to park on a side street right at the Western edge of the park, by the windmill.

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It was an absolutely beautiful day in the city-75 and sunny! What?? I actually got to see the amazing views that I missed running this race the previous time because it was super foggy and you couldn’t even see the beach/ocean!

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Golden Gate Park is nice. I should spend more time there.

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First view of the bridge!

I ended up stoping regularly to make sure I was staying on track. I didn’t think I was, but I think I actually stuck to it pretty well until I reached Lincoln Highway, which I was supposed to run up, but there was no sidewalk. Instead, I cut down into a parking lot and got some good views of the bridge!

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The return trip was actually better than expected, and I was surprised by how strong my legs felt with the increasing distance. I’ll take it!

Also-compression socks are magic. I put them on immediately and my legs felt great the next day. I mistakenly thought I was near Dynamo Donuts, and was thinking about them the entire second half of the run, so I decided to make the 20 minute drive there, especially since it was right by the freeway!

This time, I got a gluten free lemon buttermilk donut and a decaf iced latte.

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Since my entire post-run lunch was sugar, I decided to stop for a hummus and avocado sandwich at the place across the street.

After leaving the city, I went to pick my puppy up from her play group and she was tired!

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After a relaxing afternoon, my evening ended on a delicious note when we went to the Greek Festival down the street (it happens every year during Labor Day weekend) and picked up some Greek food for dinner. Spanikopita, or pastry with spinach and feta, is my favorite, but we also had Greek salad (traditional Greek salad doesn’t have lettuce) and chicken kebabs.

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For dessert, I had my favorite-Galaktoboureko-which is phyllo dough filled with custard and soaked in honey. Plus, this is one of the only non-nut desserts!

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Have you ever run a Nike Women’s Race?

Food, Food, and More Food

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend. I know I did! I have lots of food pictures to share, as well as a couple of

workouts to discuss.

Workouts:

Saturday: Crossfit-the WOD was killer: 20 minute AMRAP starting with a 1 mile run and then as many rounds of possible of the remaining

time of 1 rope climb, 5 push presses, and 10 over the bar burpees. I hate burpees. The run part felt great though. I came in around 8:20

and it wasn’t a push effort so that’s good.

Sunday: My last “long” run. I did 6 miles by the bay. I got really frustrated by the gusting winds, but got it done.

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Monday: Crossfit Labor Day workout. It was “bring your friends and family” day so I brought my sister and her boyfriend.

She had shoulder surgery at the beginning of the summer and hasn’t exercised much since then, and I feel bad because she couldn’t

walk the rest of the day…The workout was a partner workout of the following:

100 squats

10 pull ups

75 squats

20 pull ups

50 squats

30 pull ups

25 squats

40 pull ups

My sister and her boyfriend were a team, and since she has a bad shoulder, he had to do all the pull ups. I ended up helping out with a few

because that was brutal!

Now, onto the food! I love having access to a full kitchen and CA produce. My gosh.

Another wrap with humus and veggies:

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A quesadilla/wrap with cheddar and mozzarella, half an avocado, tomato, and baby kale sautéed in garlic. Plus a side of broccoli.

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A delicious heirloom tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella, and avocado salad, topped with olive oil and sea salt.

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A simple breakfast of eggs with seasoning and a farmer’s market peach. DC peaches are laughable in comparison to CA peaches.

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A salad with chicken, goat cheese, peaches, basil, and balsamic.

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And then, Greek food. Every year a Greek church in my hometown hosts a Greek festival over Labor Day Weekend.

We always go for the delicious food.

For my main meal, I had a greek salad, delicious rice pilaf made with chicken broth, lemon, and butter, and chicken that was insanely hard to cut

with plasticware. On the side, I had Spanikopita, a Greek pastry made with phyllo dough, spinach, and cheese.

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And of course there was dessert. They have these delicious doughnut-like balls. Loukamades? I think I totally butchered that spelling. They’re

basically doughnut holes covered in honey (But much lighter and fluffier than doughnut holes) and served hot. Normally they are covered with nuts,

but I was able to get them without! So delicious.

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That’s all I have today-I hope everyone else ate well this past weekend!