Hills for breakfast, hold the gnats

45F rising to low 60s, clear and sunny, breezy.  Objective: endurance, easy but negative splits. 

This was a great run that went exactly as I had hoped.  After about 9 miles I stopped by my house to switch shoes (note my new short term running goal) and trade my gloves for sunglasses.  I am not ready to push my pace very much, but I wanted to just relax a little more in the first half and think about form and cadence in the second half.  Just a slight difference, and my splits were 4 minutes apart. Just right.

I tried two new things this morning. One was Rattletrap's Banana Routine, a banana at least 20 minutes before running. In my case it was more like 40 minutes.  That seemed to go ok.  (Usually start the run on empty.)  Secondly, I had my first experimental homemade fuel.  It was pretty good, but I have some tweaking to do before I reveal my recipe! ;) Get yourself a 6 oz fuel bottle if you want to try it. I'll be "publishing" it soon!

47F, another sunny day. (How long can this last??)  Easy/recovery run. 

My Old Lady Persona was in full force this morning; that first mile was humorously slow and stiff.  I was almost warmed by the time I came home. lol   Just a toe in the water today. 

What a busy weekend it's been. Now I'm off to get everyone fed and ready for Folklife, where we're going to play a little music today.  Fun! :D

54F, cloudy and breezy.  Easy run.  20 min strength, stretching.

It sure felt like a recovery run, and I think I am recovering - from a busy weekend!  Too much being on my feet, too much noise, and too much sun.  Yes. I want my fog. But I will gladly accept these clouds instead. 

I read once that the true meaning of being an introvert or an extrovert is not whether you like being with people or whether you are gregarious. It is determined by how you reenergize yourself.  An introvert recharges her energy by being alone, and an extrovert recharges by being with people.  We are wired one way or the other from birth.  By this definition, I am definitely an introvert.  Mr. Sno and Young Miss Sno are the same, so we make a good match.  We all had a ton of fun this weekend, but last night it was like a tomb around our house.  Everyone with their nose in a book. So quiet.  So funny.

47F, mostly cloudy. Calm and dry.  VO2 workout w/ "ladders:"  1-2-3-2-1-2-3 minutes w/ equal recovery times.    20 min. strength & stretching

I don't feel like I'm quite up for speed work yet, but I decided to do it anyway, to just go by effort level, and to make the first few intervals a little easier.  I liked the way that felt.
Pace for each VO2 minute was as follows:
9:01
8:51
8:46
8:53
8:54
8:57
8:49
8:49
8:40
8:53
9:18 (hill)
8:35
8:19
8:33

I have a couple of recommendations today, both of which sort of share a theme of living life to the fullest.  The first is the movie Yes Man. (Despite its PG-13 rating, I do not recommend you watch it with your young'uns. Thank goodness my 12 y.o. self censors and that she could see what was coming. She covered her head in cushions, and once got up and left the room. How cute is that?)  Anyway, we thought it was a super funny movie, with a sweet, positive message at the end.   The second thing is right along the same lines, it is the 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech given by Steve Jobs. I guess I'm behind the times, but I had never seen or read it before.  Have you?  Good stuff. 

48F, clear.  Easy to moderate run, with a few hill sprints throughout run.  20 min. strength & stretch.

A nice run. Busy morning. :)

Warm and sunny, 57F.  Easy, short run. Focused on form a little. 

I debated running at all today.  I am going to be running tomorrow with the new running club, and I have a long run on Sunday.  ("I seem to have misplaced my day off.")  But by bed time last night I was convinced that I would be happier having a short run today than not, and so I go boldly into this uncharted territory of continuous running days --- at least this week that is...  I do not know that I will want to run with the club every Saturday. 

I will be very surprised if any runners come to the club who are as slow as I am.  I'm not going to worry about it;  in fact this image is cracking me up a little: slow,  5'2",  50 y.o.  me and a bunch of tall, young bucks all meeting up in the parking lot.  Time to run... "Ok, b-bye! Me and my invisible friends will lead the slow pace group! See ya in an hour!" 

I have never run with a group, except at Galloway Camp back in the olden days.  And that probably doesn't count because camp personnel had to run with us slow pokes.  I have no idea what to expect or how it will work, so this will be a great adventure!  

Amusing link for today: The 53 Runners Commandments.  Have a great weekend everyone. 

Low 60sF, sunny day.  Easy inaugural run with Mt. Si Running Club.  Slow, slow, so slow.

I drove a couple of miles down to the fire station, where the MSRC was to meet for the first time. I came early and ran about 1.5 miles by myself on the flat valley floor to warm up, not knowing what the morning may bring.  My goal for today was to meet some other runners, learn about the club and not do anything that would jeopardize my 20 miler tomorrow (hence the drive down the monster hill).

About a dozen people showed up, and Sean Sundwall talked with us about what we would be doing and where/when we would meet in the future.   Each person introduced themselves and said what he/she was training for and what was his/her easy pace.   We had a handful of "9:30s" and "10:00s," some much faster, and then there was me at 10:30-11:00 and another woman at 13:00.   So I said I'd run with the 13:00 pace woman.  What else could I do?  I could probably keep up with a 10:00 group, but I  wanted an easy run today and the morning was starting to get warm.  I didn't want Ms. 13:00 to have no one; that could so easily be me. :) 

I expected I'd be one of the slower runners of the group. No surprise there. But I did have the pleasure of knowing how comparably fit I was when Sean asked whether anyone was planning to do a long run today, "like 20 miles," and everyone laughed. I felt proud inside that I was capable of that distance and in fact was planning to run it the next day.  

Two other runners (from the 9:30-10:00 camp) ended up joining our slow group. I still don't know why they did, but I enjoyed everyone in our group.  Our pace was occasionally 13:00, but most of the time it was much slower.  You should always be careful what you wish for.  Yes, I wanted to run easy, but after a mile I yearned to go just a bit faster.  It's hard running much slower than you are used to.  I tried to keep my form nice and "collected," as my horseback riding daughter would say.  In fact, I thought a lot about what a horse looks like when it is kept at a very slow trot. Graceful and easy but not sloppy.  Good practice I think.  

We ran on some lonely back roads (gorgeous wooded area near pond) which I would never run by myself for safety reasons. So having a group was a nice benefit in that way.  We crossed over the Snoqualmie River twice.  Then we circled back into town, made a much needed bathroom stop, and came back up to the fire station. 

All in all, I enjoyed the experience very much.  It will be interesting to see how the club evolves. I hope we can attract more members. Sean is hoping to have many more, so that every pace and desired distance will have more than one or two runners. 

One person missing from the club this morning was Jefferey, who is running the Newport Marathon as I write. Or done by now?  Hope it's going well for you Jeff!!