Slow & Steady Wins the Race :-)

Treadmill miles at 5.7 (10:31 min miles) mostly.

Treadmill Miles @ 5.7 mph (10:31 min miles)

Outside miles.  Total time 1:20.

Whidbey Island Half Marathon - goal was to finish in under 2:10 and rolled in at 2:06. 9:37 min miles on average which was surprising considering most workouts have been 10:00+ miles.

 It was a pretty hilly course, and one HUMONGOUS hill that I thought would NEVER end.  Felt pretty good on the hills despite having had mostly treadmill workouts due to weather, so hadn't done as much hill workouts as I would have liked.  Definitely would like to get under 2 hours at some point. 

Treadmill miles @ 5.7 mph (10:31 min miles)

Treadmill miles.  Wasn't feeling very well.  Much walking involved in these 4 miles.

Treadmill miles.  Not feeling well again.  Lots of walking.

Approximate 16 mile run through Lake Oswego.  Time of 2:50. 

Treadmill miles, run at 5.7 mph - 10:31 min miles.

9:00 mile pace.  Feeling good and fast!

Not really feeling well today.  Walked a lot.  4 miles in 55 minutes.  

7 miles, 1:10 total time.  Was going to do 8 until some jerk threw a water bottle (FULL) at me!  Who does that?  I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume it somehow "miraculously" flew out of the back of their pickup truck.  

Was supposed to run 12... shouldn't it be easier to run this far by now?  1:55 running, 2:05 total time.

3 miles in the morning and 1 mile in the afternoon (trying to calibrate my new nike+ sportsband which I'm in love with!). 9:00 min mile pace.

4 miles, treadmill miles (raining today).  5.7 mph

3 hours 15 minutes, Lake Youngs Trail loop (9 miles) once and then a variety.  

Treadmill @ 5.7 mph - 1 hour 35 min

14.1 miles in 1 hour 35 minutes, about 11:02 minute miles.  Not wonderful, but not bad for a long run.  Surprisingly started feeling really good at mile 11, ran the last 3 faster than the others, but then as soon as I stopped immediately felt nauteous.  That's not too fun!  Hardest week of the training program next week - then tapering! Can't wait for that!

Treadmill miles - 4 @ 5.7 mph, 1 @ 6.5 mph

Not feeling well again.  I think I have food allergies or something.  Something weird is going on.  Didn't make the 10 miles I was supposed to do.  Ran 6, walked 3.  

Really just about died.  I am impressed that everyone on here runs so well and have done so many marathons!  I don't think it's for me.  I think the half is more my length.  I am excited to taper to the race, but I am having doubts if I'll even be able to finish!  I could barely finish this 20 mile run.  We're having some randomly hot weather here this weekend, was about 80 today so a little uncomfortable.  Did a variety of repeats of the Interurban Trail.  Total time was about 4 hours.  I think I will be burned for the rest of the year from the terrible, abnormal burns I got during this run (I applied sunscreen but apparently not thoroughly/everywhere!).  Walked the last mile while downing a deliciously ice cold gatorade I picked up.  

Plan was 8, but got a little lost and ended up with almost 9.  That was a little frustrating!

 We were in Sunriver, so I got to run on all the trails, among beautiful forests, over creeks/bridges, and saw lots of squirrels/wildlife.  I loved it. I wish I could live in Sunriver and run on these trails every single day.

Well.... I finished, and I am alive!  Ran the NODM Marathon from Sequim to Port Angeles in Washington and beat my goal of finishing in less than 5 hours!  10:52 minute mile average, ranged from 8:54, which I think was a lie due to the mile marker being in the wrong place, but other than that many miles around 9:30, plus two or three miles with walking about 12:30+.

 The first 22 miles were GREAT!  I was feeling wonderful, enjoying the perfect weather (well, didn't rain or get windy and it was a good temp though it was very very dangerously overcast!), and enjoying the scenery.  It was a pretty small marathon though, I definitely wouldn't recommend it by yourself.  We were out in the middle of the forest with all these cougar and bear xing signs and we could barely see another marathoner!  The majority of people did the half, I think only 300-400 people did the full.

 Anyway, the first 22 miles were awesome, the last 4 miles were WAY worse than the entirety of the first 22!  It was some of the worst 45 minutes of my life!  But I was so happy to have done it, although I definitely think the half marathon is more my style.  We'll see if I ever do another one!

 

My first real 5k.  I did a 5k a few years ago when I never ran and did it in 29 minutes, and I really hoped to break my attainable goal of 28 minutes, but had a secret super ambitious goal of breaking 25 minutes (I'm crazy like that, don't want to not make a goal after all! ha).  I just wanted to see how fast I could do it.  I've been feeling really good lately, trying to add in a few interval workouts, and have felt like I've improved so much since I started running in December.  

 The course was super flat, which was great, and really fun and lowkey.  No timing chips or anything like that - some firemen right behind me were running in their full gear!  This was actually discouraging since I barely beat them and they had to be carrying 100 pounds of extra weight!

 Jordanne and I did about a 20 minute easy warm-up, probably about 10 min/miles.

 Ran it in 24:20 - 7:50 miles!  Honestly, I didn't think I'd ever even run A mile that started with the number 7, so running 3.1 of them made me ECSTATIC.  My new goal is to run A mile that starts with 6.  Even if its 6:59!!! 

4th out of 18 in age group. 16th female overall.
 

This was a really interesting race, and the first multi-sport race I've done. It was a 2 mile run, a half mile swim (in the scary Columbia River!) and then a 3 mile run. Did the first 2 miles in 17:00 (8:30 miles), the swim in 11 minutes, and then the last 3 miles in 25:00 or so. Transitions and waiting for friends ate up the rest of the time (we weren't that serious about this!). It was beyond hard (and unexpected) to swim after having run those first 2 miles - I was breathing hard and so couldn't seem to catch my breath while swimming. Maybe in a triathlon it would be easier because you swim first? Regardless, it was a fun race, and we didn't get last, which we expected! :)

And I'm back!  :)  I have been running all this time, just not typing it in, I promise!  After the marathon I kind of got a little off track, and haven't been training as hard as I wanted to.  I had wanted to stay in pretty good shape, but the longest run I've done since June has been 6 miles.  Oops.  I decided to train for the Seattle half marathon in late November though - am shooting for under 2 hours.  So I think I'm back!

3 miles running, not feeling that good today, then 2 miles walking with the dog. 

Not feeling very good today either, I hate it when you have those bad workout days!  3 miles running, 4 miles walking with the dog (he wasn't too happy). 

Feeling good today, yay!

Tempo run, ran at a little less than 9 minute miles.  Why does it feel like I'm running so fast and I'm really running so slow?

Felt sluggish and lazy today, which sucked considering I took the last two days off.  High 9 minute miles.  I really need to get a Garmin instead of this crappy Nike+ thing - its so inaccurate.  Out of the package it said I was running way too fast, now after calibration it says I'm running way slower than I am.  

Did my first timed 10k today, and very very happy with the results! 

 Warmed up with Jordanne for about 15-20 minutes at an easy pace, probably 10 min/miles.

Ran it with a friend, and we planned on starting out slow so I didn't have much aspirations except under 55 minutes.  My secret goal (for sometime, not for today!) was to run a 10k in less than 50 minutes, but I figured today wasn't the day for it.  I figured we'd start out with 9 minute miles or so, and then maybe I"d pick up the pace at the end, but after the first 3 miles of 8:15, 8:15, & 8:03, I started making calculations in my head and figured if I picked it up I might have a chance at breaking 50 minutes!  

 So mile 4 felt easy at 7:45, and then miles 5 & 6 preceded to be the hardest things ever.  I was steadily passing people the whole time though, which is always a little boosting.  Mile 5 said 7:52 and Mile 6 said 7:24 though I have a feeling that mile 5 was a little overmarked and mile 6 a little undermarked since I didn't feel like the pace really differed that much.  Then of course I started sprinting and realized that it was an out and back to the finish (not just right there!) and almost died trying to get to the finish line, but I did it in 49:16, 7:55 pace!  I was really proud of myself, I never thought this was possible.  I just want to keep getting faster!  I was also proud to get 51st out of 746 people! 

It was a good race overall - lots of goodies - a shirt, a medal, breakfast afterwards, lots of free power bars, etc.  The water stations were poorly placed though, at mile 1 and mile 3, would have been a lot more useful around mile 3 and mile 5 or so.  Also, it was two loops (not identical though) of a lake, so on end of the second loop a) they took us up on all these gravel/grass bits which were NOT easy and not appreciated at the end! and b) as we came down we were meeting the walkers of the 5k (who only did one lap) and it was difficult to get through.  It was really pretty though and lots of watchers/cheerers/dogs! :)

 Splits:

1 - 8:15

2 - 8:15

3- 8:03

4- 7:45

5- 7:52?

6- 7:24?

1.5 mile warm-up, 4 400m intervals with 400m recoveries in-between, plus .5 mile cool down for 4 miles.

400m Intervals: 1:54, 1:46, 1:45, & 1:43

Outside with Cooper.

Outside around the neighborhood.

Treadmill walking.

1st mile: 6mph

2nd mile: 6.3mph

3rd mile, 1 min @ 7mph, 1 min @ 8mph alternating

Walking, feeling lazy!

This was a really dissapointing race.  I wasn't expecting a lot, I haven't been training that hard, I've been letting myself slack off with slow miles, walking, lots of treadmill work, and I don't remember the last time I did a speed workout.  Still, I expected to not want to die.  I've been training, I swear, I should be able to run 6 miles!

But somehow, pretty much from the third mile on I just felt like my legs were lead, like it was the last miles of a full marathon, not a 10k.  I had to tell myself, just keep going, just keep going, and it was so short!  It was so depressing and I just didn't understand it - I took yesterday off so my legs were fresh.  First my shins were bothering me, then my calves, and my legs overall just felt like they weighed 1,000 pounds each. 

Splits:

1 - 8:13

2 - 8:08

3 - I have no idea, can't remember, must be somewhere around 8:08 or something

4 - 8:15

5 - 8:24

6 - 8:30

You can see how the downward spiral came on, and I just couldn't stop it.  I had slowly picked off about 10 or so people in miles 2-3 and it was so sad to watch ALL of them (and more!) to pass me in miles 5 and 6 and I just couldn't do anything to stop it.  I would be like, okay, at least keep up with them, but I just couldn't make my legs move.  Even sprinting at the end was a huge effort and I doubt my sprint was much faster than 8:10 mile pace or so.  Blahhhhh. 

So the most depressing thing is that 3 months ago I ran a 10k in 49:16 and although I felt exhausted and slightly nauteous afterwards, my legs were absolutely fine. 

Good race overall though, very flat, pretty through a park along the Green River, well run with cute shirts and mile markers. 

Take Aways - I clearly need to train harder.  I need to make it a priority to push myself harder and not let myself slack and run treadmill miles at 6mph (10min pace) because that is unacceptable.  I HAVE to run outside both weekend days in the winter, no matter the weather, its my only chance to be outside.  And I must start adding speedwork back into the workouts, even if its on the treadmill.  Better something than nothing. 

 They just posted the results of the race, and I guess on the plus side, I got 2nd in my age division (25th out of women).  Should have stuck around since it said the top 5 in each age group got prizes!  Probably the only one I"ll ever get.... I need to savor it despite the dissapointment!

Was feeling really tight today, just more proof that I was more out of shape than I thought for yesterday's 10k.  I just thought I had been maintaining, and the slacking off finally caught up with me.  Though my body was used to running 6 miles, its used to running it at 10 min miles, so of course when I go out there running 8 minute miles its going to be UPSET! 

Today my hamstrings were really tight, walked 3.5 miles on the treadmill and then ran 3 easy miles at 10 min/miles (even after all my complaining!) :-) then walked another .5.  Watched the movie Once while I did all this, felt good and loosened up my legs. 

Treadmill - it is still FREEZING outside (22 on my way to work).  Supposed to get a lot of snow tonight.

 Still feeling a little tight so started out with a walking mile @ 4mph (15min/mile).  Then ran 4 miles, the first 2 @ 6.5mph (9:13/mile), then increasing to 6.7 (8:57), 7.0 (8:30) and ending with .25 mile at 7.5 (8:00).  

 I should really be running the majority of my miles at 7.0, must begin working on this.  

Easy 1 mile walking warm-up, then 2.5 miles at 6.5mph (9:13), .25 @ 7mph (8:37) and .25 @ 7.5mph (8:00)

I've been terrible about working out this week!  1 mile walking warm-up, 4 miles at 6.5 (9:13), last .25 at 7 (8:34). 

4 miles @ 6.5 (9:13), 1 mile at 7.0 (8:34), .5 mile walking cool down.

I am SO incredibly sick of running on the treadmill.  I am sick of the snow and being trapped in my house.  I want to run outside!!!!!!  

I forget - I think 3 @ 6.5, 1 @ 7.0, .25 walking cool-down.

I got a Garmin for Christmas from my husband!  I can't wait for the snow to go away and to try it out.

1 walking, 2 @ 6, then 2 continuously increasing in speed up to 7.5 at the end. 

2 miles at 6.7 (8:57), 1 mile at 7 (8:34), .75 at 7.5 (8:00), .25 at 8.0 (7:30).

First time using my Garmin!  Loved it.  Ran 5 laps around the neighborhood, still a little bit of ice out there.