Week 4 in Review - 56 Days Until MI Half

Much better week--still not entirely back to normal due to weather...but way better than Snowmageddon last week. And I got to do my long run with my running buddy. Good week all around.

Monday - BLACK ICE everywhere. It was really bad. I even went with shorter, slower strides and still didn't have sure footing. Was NOT digging this run at all. After gauging conditions on the first part of my out and back normal route, I knew trying to run on the asphalt path part would be even more treacherous so I just did the 3 mile circle and headed home. Really didn't want to start the week off in the emergency room...
3.2 mi; 33:33; 10:30

Tuesday - Rest. Still haven't started doing yoga yet. I am lazy.

Wednesday - Tempo run. Love these b/c I get to push myself in that 9 min/mile range. And the roads were much better today....so I got my full run in and stayed on pace! Great run.
5.11 mi; 49:54; 9:46

Thursday - Woke up intending to run. Got dressed and everything. Then I looked outside. There was crazy wind and sideways rain. So I decided to drink coffee and catch up on a show I missed the night before. And then of course, it promptly stopped raining an hour later when I would have been getting back. So.Lame.

Friday - Instead of sleeping in, per my usual rest days on Fridays.....I made up the run I missed Thurs. A nice and easy 5 miler. Great way to end the week.
4.92 mi; 48:24; 9:50

Saturday - Long run. Got to run with my race buddy on my favorite badass route- the I-90 bridge. Great to catch up and talk about running without worrying about boring the sh*t out of his non-running, but still super awesome wife. Kept a nice easy conversational pace and the run was nice.
8.7 mi; 1:32:12; 10:36

Sunday - Rest

Great week....ready to start adding on some mileage again. Will start yoga this week and in a couple weeks, I start running a 5th day each week. Woot woot!

Long Run Saturday

Today - I've decided to do the Bridge again. Love that route. It make me feel so badass running across with all the cars flying by and the bikes almost killing me. Well not really-most of them are nice-ish. But it can be a little nerve wracking to have them zoom around you so close.

Excited to do this one with this guy. Met up with him and his super awesome wife for happy hour last night and it worked out for us to get our long run in together today. And I've been trying to get him to come do the bridge with me...so we are gonna kick its' ass together! I love running solo...but also love running with people too-which I don't do enough of. It's so much easier to stay at long run pace when you have someone to talk to! Alright, time to put down the coffee and go get ready!

How today felt......

                                                             9am.....

Week 3 in Review - 63 Days Until MI Half

This week was a little off, to say the least. Since next week was supposed to be a light week and this week turned into a light week--I've decided to swap them instead of beating myself up too much...I could have tried to salvage the weekly mileage by doing the long run today....then I would start this week off a little tired. So switching weeks it is.

Monday -- got in a very slushy and slippery 4.82 miles. Felt good but was sore the next day due to dodging all the slippery spots.
4.82 mi; 54:20; 11:17 pace

Tuesday -- got in another one before the storm hit. Conditions were much better on this one. For both of the last two runs, I broke regular schedule by doing them after work. I much prefer running in the morning on an empty stomach.
4.91 mi; 48:42; 9:57 pace

Wednesday/Thursday/Friday -- Did not run due to snow/ice and super slippery, possibly death inducing conditions. It was a smart move but still makes me feel slightly guilty.

Saturday -- When I left the house, I fully planned to do the full 9 miles I was supposed to. But after getting out there, I discovered that the snow was a lot less melted than I initially thought. And I couldn't breathe through my nose and felt like I was going to throw up the very ill advised doughnut I'd eaten an hour before....So needless to say, I called it a day after a bit.
3.47 mi; 39:24; 11:22 pace

Sunday -- Rest

Ready to get back to normal! Let's do this...Week 4 here we go!

Snowpacolypse 2012: Just Melt Already...

This week has been a little wack. Got in my runs on Monday and Tuesday then it dumped several inches of snow Wednesday.

It warmed up briefly towards the end of the day and turned into a nice little ice storm on Thursday. Then it started snowing again...few more inches on top of the ice, snow, ice layers. So no running for me. Planned to do yoga but ended up eating doughnuts and sitting on my ass. Terrible. Friday, things warmed up enough to turn to rain and everything finally started melting.

Even more melted this morning so conditions are starting to look more favorable that I'll get my 9 miles in today at some point. May have to wait until afternoon when there will be even less of it left.

Snow is so pretty the first day or so. Then it turns into nasty grey sludge. We had fun though...the Girl spent a grand total of 2.5 hours in school this week...so they'll pretty much be in school until 4th of July probably. But oh well....not much we can really do about it!

As things melt, we'll officially go on Flood Watch 2012. Good times.

             The Girl and a snowman we passed on our walk...

           I love my panoramic camera...kind of why I bought it! So pretty...

            Finally. A picture that I don't look totally ridiculous in...

Week 2 in Review-69 Days Until MI Half

Good second week. Long run felt a lot easier, I hurt less the rest of that day and was only minimally sore on Sunday. Feeling good going into week 3!

Monday -- Love my loop in the mornings...I see about a half dozen other runners and it feels pretty safe. For easy runs, it's a real effort to stay above 10 min/miles on the pace. I am supposed to be doing it slower, but if I stay in the 10 range, I feel pretty good. This one was a good easy run-stayed in the groove the whole time.

5.08 mi; 51:46;  10:11 min/mile

Tuesday-- Rested. Again, not ready to start the yoga. Perhaps this week.

Wednesday -- This was supposed to be a speed day. I thought about doing it at Jefferson but it was a little slick and frosty out so decided to stick with the my usual route. Hard to tell from my split stats on the Runkeeper, but I think I did pretty good. Did 2x1600 at 10:00 with an 800 recovery in between.

5.08 mi; 51:21; 10:06 min/mile

Thursday -- Nice and easy 4 miles. Almost stayed over 10 the whole time-first mile was fast and the rest were good.

4.09 mi; 41:33; 10:09 min/mile

Friday -- Rest. Felt good to sleep in. First five day week in three weeks so it was one long one. 

Saturday -- Long run. Felt good. Decided since there was freezing rain and it was windy that I wasn't going to do the bridge. Did my usual out and back and it felt good. Was sore and tired the rest of the day but I felt pretty good the next day.

8.04 mi; 1:21:42; 10:10 min/mile

Sunday -- Rest.Walked about 2 miles in the snow with the girl so actually got a little active recovery in. Felt good! Ready to take on the week and be creative since there will be SNOW!

Got one in after all....

Waking up to ice and snow deterred me from running this morning. It was crazy slippery out and even I am not that stupid. Maybe if I had those shoes with the little spikes on them...then I'd be good to go. But alas, like the city of Seattle having exactly 7 snow plows, I am not geared up for this sort of shit. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find significantly thawed conditions when I left work this evening and decided to go for it. Changed real quick and headed out. Overall it was a pretty good run. Mostly thawed in some places, crunchy and slushy in others. But I dodged around slick spots and it was a really good workout. Not quite 5 miles but it was an easy run....I finally found something that can force me to effectively slow down when I am supposed to--conditions that could effectively end my running career with one wrong step! 

Was a really nice wintery run and it may be the only one I'll get for a couple days. Forecast says we could get 7-14 inches in the next couple days. Rest day/yoga tomorrow and we'll see about Wed. I'll just have to work with what I've got this week! 

Snow: Pretty but....

Wreaking havoc on my training schedule. Too chickenshit to run in the snow/ice so yoga it is today....

Representing

Here they are. Team USA going to London- Olympics 2012.....Way to go guys!

Desi Davila, Ryan Hall, Abdi Abdirahman, Shalane Flanagan, and Kara Goucher. Some of the world's best marathoners. Can't wait to see them representing the USA this summer!

Week 1 in Review-77 Days Until MI Half

 Overall, this first week of training went well. I got in my first long run of the year, and it wasn't too painful. I mean it was, but I am recovering nicely today. Could barely walk yesterday and took a really good nap after eating a huge breakfast....Today, I will do a little gentle stretching and ice the knees a couple times and I should be good to go tomorrow.

Monday- I did an easy 4.15 miles. I am not really sure why, but my RW Smartcoach has my easy run paces at 12:15. I feel like I am walking when I go that pace. So I definitely am trying to make a focused effort to have my pace be slightly slower than my normal pace, but not too much slower. If I can stay in the 10 min/mile range, I think that is good. My body tries to go at 9 min/miles so I have to make a concentrated effort to go easy. I made up a new rule on yesterdays long run-I need to stay conversational. And since I don't usually run with someone to talk to, I am going to sing what I am listening to. I may look stupid but maybe it will help.
4.15; 40:37; 9:47

Tuesday - Rest Day. Intended to start my cross training with this rest day and do yoga. But I really needed some extra sleep so I didn't get up early to do it. And as per usual, if I wait until the end of the day, it's really hard to make myself do it...So I actually rested. It was much needed.

Wednesday - 5.04 Miles Tempo run. For some reason my legs felt really heavy today. I had to really push hard to stay in the 9 min/mile range and I did it for the entire run until the last mile when I slowed down to 10:10. 
 5.04; 49:22; 9:47

Thursday - 3.99 mile easy run. Felt really tired on this one-again. Knees hurt a bit and just really wasn't feeling it. But I pushed through and finished....and really took is easy like I was supposed to. 10:27 average pace and stayed over 10 the entire time. 
 3.99; 41:40; 10:27

Friday - Rest day. Since I've been feeling so tired the last two runs, I decided I am going to wait another week or two before starting with the cross training. Slept in today and it was really nice.

Saturday - Long Run Day. Was a little psyched out for this since I hadn't run anything over 6 since the half...but it actually felt pretty good. I think my ending average pace was a little low due to some GPS issues when I went through the I-90 Bike tunnel before hitting the bridge. Based on the splits, the pace was probably in the 9 min range, rather than the 8:49 RunKeeper has recorded. But overall, it was a good run. The hills in the last mile really are killer though. 

8.81; 1:17:39; 8:49

Sunday-Rest. Sleeping in, catching up on stuff and tracking the week's training stats. 

Good first week. Ready to jump into Week 2. Happy running this week!

2012 Goals

I am new to this running business. Used to run in high school and college but that was over a decade ago....I've tried to start running again at various points in my adult life, only to quit after a few weeks. It was always hard to get over that 'getting into shape' hump. It's tough to build a base when you start out so out of shape....it's easy to see why people who are overweight have a hard time keeping at it. It's painful. And it takes some commitment to get past that on your own and get to a place where it's habit, where it gets easier and where you start to have fun.

When I made the decision to start running again this year, I wanted to set a goal and accomplish it but I also wanted to make a lifestyle change that would stick. 6 months now and I am sticking with it. That is something pretty big for me. Challenging myself and accomplishing things I set out to do-big ones and little ones along the way-brings more self confidence and erases some of doubt I carry around.

In 2011- my goal was to train for and finish my first half marathon. I not only finished- but I met my A goal of doing it in 2:22. I also met my goal of setting up a training plan and sticking to it-every day. 

In 2012- I want to run my first full marathon. And accomplish a few other things as well....

• Train year round - for the entirety of the 2012
• Run 1 race per month- 12 races for 12 months
• Run at least 3 half marathons
• Run my first full marathon
• Become more social with my running- join a running club, go to Fleet Feet group runs, connect with other runners to train and race with

First two half marathons will be the Mercer Island Half on 3/25/12. Following that 12 weeks later is the Seattle Rock and Roll Half on 6/23/12. Full marathon is slated for the fall. Entered the lottery for NYC so that is choice number 1. Next is Portland and if all else fails, it will likely be Seattle. Keeping my fingers crossed for NYC.....what an excellent first marathon that would be. 

Already have January's race taken care of with the Resolution Run....have March and June covered as well so next up is looking for Feb, April and May races....will probably do either 5 or 10k's those months. 

Not only is all this totally doable, I am going to try to meet some micro- goals as well.

• PR's throughout the year
• Working on pacing- staying consistent throughout a run, and pushing the pacing down to 8-9 min/miles consistently
• Doing more consistent speed work
• Incorporating cross training into my training cycles-yoga to start, perhaps spinning or swimming later in the year. 
• Blogging-I want to figure out all this stuff so I don't suck too much at it.
• Getting better at cooking nutritious meals so my body gets the fuel it needs to stay healthy and perform efficiently
• Taking better care of myself-getting enough sleep, vitamins, stretching, using foam roller and stick, getting massages when I can...

Well that is quite the list...I'd better get busy!

Let's Do This Again--AKA Adjustments to the Training Cycle

I had intended to start training for the Mercer Island Half on 12/19 but the holidays, a pulled quad, and too much eating thwarted my attempts to stay on schedule. I still got a few runs a week in and did another race so I readjusted the plan. Instead of 14 weeks, I'll be doing 12. Which is actually 2 more than I did in the first cycle. So I feel pretty good about making this one tougher. About 5 weeks in, I bump up to running an additional day each week. And I'll be incorporating some cross training- yoga- into two of my rest days. Sundays will stay for purely rest, although some stretching will probably happen.

Adjusting the plan and staying flexible are key ingredients in keeping at this and staying injury free. I have to listen to the boss. Totally ok with making changes along the way. Did my first long run since the half in November and it felt pretty good, although my pacing was off and I am going to be pretty sore tomorrow. Already feeling it.  But overall, a good first week. Looking forward to a rest day tomorrow before tackling week 2.

Resolution Run 5K & Polar Bear Dip 1/01/2012

I am officially a wuss since I didn't choose the polar bear dip option. The sign pointing folks to the "dry finish" had a little blurb underneath-"AKA the John Curley Route of Shame". Ha! So.Much.Fun. This race had it all. Beer. Chili. People dressed up in costume. Some awesome, some cringe-worthy. And the weather was sunny and surprisingly warm. Not a bad way to start off the year.

The costumes. Chicks in swimsuits. Dudes in 'banana hammocks'....plenty of masks and snorkels. There were way too many guys sans shirt. Many of whom probably should have been wearing them. I loved the two guys in matching shorts, no shirts, and hunting hats. And they were sharing a pair of arm warmers. Mental note- run with camera in hand next time. 

The very best was the group of guys that started in back and weaved their way up front shouting "Doughnuts!!" They were shirtless, had unlit cigars and each had a few boxes of Top Pots they were handing out to anyone who could stomach them mid-race. Which turned out to be teenage boys, mostly. They.Were.Awesome. 

And the finish...near the end it split off and if you were brave enough to take the detour into frigid Lake Washington, you went left with the other badasses. If you were a wuss, you stayed right to finish via the John Curley Route of Shame. Loved every minute of this one!

Didn't go full on race mode this time....not a good idea to start off the next training cycle with an injury. So I stayed with my running buddy and finished with a nice pace. And we got him a PR to start off the 2012. Good times.

Stats: 3.11 Miles; 30:51; 9:56 Pace

Splits

Mile 1 9:31

Mile 2 10:10

Mile 3 10:11

Last bit 9:04

It's ON Bitches

I felt pretty good after yesterdays run...only did 3.42 miles at an easy 10:03 pace and felt great the whole time until the last .4 or so. Then my thigh muscle started cramping up and my knee started hurting. Immediately iced when I got home-both knee and thigh-and repeated several times the rest of the day. Drank lots of water (and only ONE glass of wine last night) and I got a greats nights sleep. 

All that to say--It's ON Bitches. I am running my 5K this morning and am so excited. Still going to take it easy and not "race" it for myself....My awesome friend -who I used to work with at my last job and who kept me sane- has a husband who runs. So he's been my 'race buddy' for a few races now. I'm excited for this particular one with him - so I'll report back later on that in my recap.

Until then--Let's kick off 2012 the right way--with a race!

ING NYC Marathon -- pretty please with a cherry on top?

Registration opens on Monday 1/02/2012 at Noon EST. I am so entering this lottery....

Bad stretch...can the year just end already?

So that "I skipped my run this morning?" Yeah...it's kind of led to a bad stretch of sorts. I was able to get a couple runs in last week but then we went out of town for the holiday and it was hard to keep up. 

When you only get home a couple times a year - you have to cram a lot of stuff into a short amount of time...seeing my mom, my 3 year old nephew who is more grown up every time I see him....etc, etc. Oh and the shopping. I hate Christmas. Like really hate it. There are two very big reasons for that grinchiness.....but I'll save that for another story. Where was I--oh yeah- the shopping. My hatred for Christmas and mankind in general means I put off buying gifts until the very last possible moment. Like Christmas Eve. So there's that. 

All of that led to not getting in a run for a couple days. We got home on Monday and I immediately threw on some clothes and laced up for a run. Five and half miles later, I was home and a little sore. Next morning, woke up and my left thigh was killing me. Was limping around all day like an old lady....finally realized I probably pulled or strained my quad. Started treating it and now 4 days later it actually feels normal. I haven't run since Monday so 4 good rest days really helped I think.

I am glad since I was starting to think I shouldn't run in the 5K I have scheduled for Sunday. Still haven't decided for sure but I'll give it one more day of rest and then go on a short easy run Saturday to see how I feel. If all is good, I'll still do the race. I really want to since it sounds fun--there is an optional Polar Bear dip (so not doing that--the lakes are cold around here! I won't even go in this particular lake in August so no- not doing it in January thank you very much) so it'll be entertaining to watch people freeze...and there is a beer garden after this one too. It is New Years Day after all. Nothing like sweating out the alcohol/hangover with a good run and then topping it off with some hair of the dog! 

Skipped my run this morning....

And I feel pretty guilty. I did have a good excuse though....I woke up with a pretty bad migraine when my alarm went off...so I decided some meds, an ice pack and a couple more hours sleep would be better for my body. I hate missing a day though. 

I like spreadsheets. I have created probably a few too  many related to running.....I mean how else are you supposed to track the mileage on a pair of shoes? So of course, my training schedule was manually input into a spreadsheet from my Runner's World Smart Coach app (gah! I wish these apps had an export to excel feature-damn it would make my life so much more efficient) and dutifully posted all over my house, much to the annoyance of The Girl. But whatever. She can suck it. Kidding. But not really. 

So like the runnerd I am, I check off each day on said posted training schedules. And not being able to check off today makes me feel like one of those over-achieving little kids that is hyperventilating because they are missing one sticker on their chart. Sad. I am aware of this. But I'm getting over it. I'll run the 5 mile tempo run tomorrow instead of the 4 mile easy run I am supposed to and I'll be right back on track. Right?

Training Cycle #2

Starts on Monday. I can't wait. I love training schedules. I'd never followed one before my last training cycle but I found a good one for beginners called Marathon Rookie. It was a pretty simple, 10 week, 4 day running schedule. And I figured something out. I dig structure. I like leaving the house knowing exactly how many miles I am running and what the route will be. I like to plan things out and prepare in advance.

That may be one of the reasons I am holding off on a full for now. I have decided that when I do it- I want to CONQUER it, now merely SURVIVE it. So I am going to put in a full year of running before I tackle it. Get at least 3-4 half's under my belt and several 10 and 5K's. Setting my sights on next fall, 2012. 

Since finishing the half last month, I took it easy for a couple weeks running 3-4 days a week. Last week, I ran the fastest I've ever run in the Jingle Bell 5K. After a bit of a chip timing fiasco, I got my official time and did it in 27:19--a full 8 minutes faster than the last time I did one, in Nov of 08. My pace was in the 8 minute mile range...which is crazy fast for me, considering when I started running again in July, I was doing 10-12 minute miles.

The training cycle I just completed gave me an excellent base to build on. And I just want to keep improving from there. So for this training cycle, I am upping my game. Going to incorporate cross training and yoga on my rest days. And do speedwork consistently. I'm down to between a 9-10 minute miles on my runs now...need to work on getting that down for shorter runs and keeping that pace up on longer runs.

Next up-Mercer Island Half 3/25/12. Plan to best my Seattle half time by at least 10 minutes...since I can easily minus about 6 mins from the time I did get for a bathroom/stretching stops. So easy peasy. I got it, no problem!

Magnuson Series-10K Holiday Fun Run [12/17/11]

Well that was a change of pace. I've only done 4 races, 3 of them in the last 5 months. They've all been big races with thousands of people on city streets. Until today. Race #5 was a little community running club event. They do a race monthly at Magnuson Park in Seattle, which is a 3.1 mile loop in a ginormous park along the northwest end of Lake Washington. The race is a 5K, 10K and 15K -- so you just loop the course 1-3 times depending on your race length. There were only a few hundred runners and it was half trail, half asphalt.

That was definitely different. I haven't run on a trail since cross country in college. I live in an urban area and run mostly in the early morning, so I feel much safer on busy well lit roads. So needless to say, the terrain was a bit of a challenge. There were even a few mud puddles to jump over.....

I started off too fast....in the 8 min mile range and by mile 3 I was really struggling. I really had to dig deep for the remaining 2 miles. But I still did really well and finished within a minute of my other 10K time. I forgot to turn off my runkeeper app when I crossed the finish line so I expect my actual time to be a smidge less. 

Overall I had a pretty good time and look forward to doing the course again in a couple weeks at the Resolution Run 5K.

Stats: 10K -- 6.18 miles -- 58:33  58:19-- 9:29 min/mile

Splits: 

Mile 1 - 8:34

Mile 2 - 9:00

Mile 3 - 9:30

Mile 4 - 9:37

Mile 5 - 9:46

Mile 6 - 10: 17

Final bit - 10:21