The first week of taper is complete and half of it was spent on vacation. This wasn’t originally planned, but when everything aligned about a month ago, it seemed that taking a vacation would be the best way to kick off taper and reward myself for all the hard work I’ve done.

I’m done lifting for the training cycle, so my first workout started Tuesday. I had my final set of 800 repeats. I got a little carried away on my first one, but I was able to settle into a comfortable pace and was feeling pretty strong. By the time we got to the second half of the workout, the sun was setting pretty quickly, and we ended up running the last 3 in the pitch black. I’ve definitely learned to love the 800 repeats and this workout was no exception!

Wednesday I took off to do last minute things, but Thursday I did a morning run before we left on vacation. I headed to the trail and zoned out. It felt great to fully relax and enjoy the start of the day.

Friday I had hoped to run in the morning after we landed in California, but unfortunately, we were tight on time, and I didn’t feel comfortable going out by myself in the dark. Saturday however, I was finally able to get some miles in. I found a 5k a few weeks ago, and registered for it before we left. So Saturday morning, we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge and I ran a 5k. I’ll have my recap up later this week.

After the run we had a chance to head up to Muir Woods and hiked 7.5 miles. The weather was absolutely perfect and the views were breathtaking. It was definitely a hard workout at times, and there was a ton of vertical, but it felt great and I was able to spend a decent amount of time on the trails.

 

And I finished out the week with a run outside of our hotel on Sunday morning. I surprisingly felt pretty after the previous day’s hike. The hotel we stayed at had a 6 mile loop around the harbor, which was perfect for a safe trail and some beautiful views.

Monday: Off

Tuesday: 7 Miles, 1 mile w/u, 10×800(3:59, 4:07, 4:04, 4:00, 4:05, 4:06, 4:02, 3:57, 3:55, 3:34), 1 mile c/d

Wednesday: Off

Thursday: 2.4 Miles

Friday: Off

Saturday: Aloha Run 5k + 7.5 Miles of hiking

Sunday: 3 Miles

Total Miles: 15.4 Miles Running, 7.5 Miles Hiking

So there we have it, week 1 of taper is complete. I definitely had a chance to relax and let my legs recover from the hard training cycle. I didn’t get in as many miles as I had hoped, but traveling makes it hard to get everything done. The views were amazing, and I’m glad I got to spend time in new locations. My only complaint was the sun didn’t come up until late, so with a busy schedule, I was limited on outdoor running when it was light. But still, running and hiking around San Francisco was definitely a great way to begin taper!