I Need More Running Friends Who Live By Me & Run After Work. Any Takers?

Last week I was proud of my week.  This week I am proud of one workout.  You take what you can get?

Cooper agrees.  

Monday - 6 miles around the neighborhood in 58 minutes.  Why does this feel SO long ago?  I seriously can't remember it - good thing DailyMile remembers for me.

Tuesday - 3 miles with the lovely Lisa.  My hamstring was acting up a bit so I called it good at 3.  We did some planks / push-ups / squats too.  Good job Lisa!

Wednesday - Super busy, but JMan wanted to go to the gym so I tagged along even though it was 9pm at night.  Did 15 minutes on the elliptical and 15 minutes of lifting weights.  Except then I had a TERRIBLE time going to sleep so I don't think I'm going to work out this late again. 

Thursday - A big fat REST day.  Not scheduled either.  I am already so depressed about how early it is getting dark.  I meant to run but by the time I could it was already 7pm and pitch black and scary.  Ugh.  I need to a) make friends with that horrid treadmill thing, b) find good places that are well-lit to run, and / or c) get more running friends who live near me and like to run when I do.  Any takers?

Instead of working out I had a crazy laminating / paper-cutting party.  Ah, the wild life of a teacher.

Friday - REST!  Carbo loading!  Slumber party with Lindsay!

Saturday - The Pt. Defiance race!  The now Ms. Ultra Marathoner Lindsay was doing the 50k and I planned to do the 15k but ended up doing the 30k, but it was actually 21.4 miles instead of 18.6.  Yeah yeah yeah, I'm not smart.  If you told me you ran 12 miles and then 21 miles I would definitely scold you, so give it to me. 

 Ready to ROCK!  Race recap tomorrow (hopefully).

Sunday - 21 minutes on the bike at the gym.  15 minutes of easy yoga.  I am SORE, especially in the hips and calves. 

Running miles this week = 30.4!  That's a lot for this old gal and her bum hamstring!  You can bet with that impromptu 21 miler (though it wasn't all at once) I've got marathons and 50k's on the brain, and that's pretty much what I've been searching the internet for today.  Oops!  Sorry JMan!

How was your weekend?  Did you race?  I was pretty jealous of the folks doing the Nike Women's Marathon race.  Maybe next year?  What's your next race?

Ode to Seattle Fall Weather

I'm not one to love on Seattle's weather.  The rain, the dreariness, oh man don't even get me started.  And I did feel a little cheated out of a "true" summer this year - with not many truly hot days to enjoy.  But I seriously take back most of my animosity thanks to this FABULOUS Fall we've been having.  Seriously, it doesn't get much better than this.  Day after day of 70+ degree weather, perfect blue skies and sunny days, oh it's lovely alright.  And unless I'm wrong (which is quite possible!) the last time we had measurable rainfall was sometime in July. 

Cooper loves this weather too.

And I enjoyed this weather all week!  I had a good week of workouts - I haven't been as proud of a week in a LONG time.  So let me brag about it a bit. 

Monday - 6 lovely miles in the sunshine I was just describing

Tuesday - Met Lisa and Jordanne for a running reunion, our first in FOREVER, and pumped out another 6 miles

Wednesday - Wednesdays are my proclaimed rest days this fall - too busy to ever think otherwise, so why try?

Thursday - I had a happy hour planned with a few colleagues, so running after a margarita and some fries was less than ideal, but I got 3 miles done just as the sky was darkening.

Friday - 30 boring minutes on the elliptical

Saturday - 12 (yes, TWELVE!) miles on the trail with Karla, Kerrie, Lindsay, and Alma!  It was AWESOME.  It was super chilly when we started at 7:30am but was a gorgeous day - but didn't take my long sleeve off until mile 10. 

I had Karla for 2 miles, Kerrie and Alma for 7 miles, Lindsay for 8, and then I pumped out 4 on my own.  The most I have done in a WHILE. 

The trail!  I'm pretty ecstatic about the new panorama feature on the iPhone. 

Sunday - After working for a bit, I rewarded myself (on ANOTHER wonderfully gorgeous day) with a biking trip on the trail - and I busted out 30 miles in 2 hours even!  A distance record on the bike for me (I think)!  

So yeah - 27 miles of running, 30 miles of biking, and 3 miles on the elliptical.  I'm going to call that a solid win for me this week.  :-)  

How was your weekend?  What did you do?  Did you race?  PR? 

Some Final Triathlon Thoughts

I bet you guys came here today just DYING to know about Hood to Coast... DIDN'T YOU?!?!?  I know you did.  But such an incredibly EPIC experience is going to take a bit of time to fully process and write about.  Plus I have to obtain all the pictures!  So in the meantime... let's talk final thoughts about the triathlon I did last weekend (which seems SO LONG ago right now!). 

Okay, there's not many actual "thoughts" to recap, as I mostly just wanted to share with you the pictures I didn't have yet when I posted my triathlon recap.  :-)

Bike racking the day before

With my transition area all set-up.  Clearly not very well if I forgot my goggles and then my helmet!

Getting ready for the swim - look at all those people who swam on top of me!

Coming in to the dismount area after the end of the bike.

Finishing strong - and running by Erika?!

Apparently we're Olympians.  We bite our gold medals. 

I did want to talk about the race shirt:

I like the design.  It says "Swim Bike Run" there in the bottom that you can't see very well.  It's the cut / style that are so disappointing.  Do you see it?  It's SO unflattering.  Super short in the torso and baggy in the waist.  The combo makes me look fat and frumpy, and doesn't cover my belly when I lift my arms.  In a race for JUST women you'd think they'd get the shirt right for WOMEN.  I will probably never ever wear this one. 

And I also wanted to show you the medal:

The medal is fine.  It's nothing special, besides the fact that it's my only medal shaped like a triangle.  I'd have preferred it if had had more of a triathlon look to it somehow.  But I'm fine with it. 

The end!  No more triathlon talk.  Unless I sign up for one I'm eyeing at the end of September, that is. :-)

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

Danskin Triathlon Race Recap

So I had already planned (based on my training experiences) on titling this post: My First (and Last) Triathlon.  But now I think I might title it: My First (of Many) Triathlons.  :-)

As you all know by now, I did my first triathlon on Sunday!  I was terrified, of the following things, in no particular order:

• Being eaten by a gigantic carp
• Being eaten by something worse than a gigantic carp (i.e., shark, the loch ness monster, grindylows, etc.)
• Being kicked in the head and drowning
• Or just drowning
• Falling on the bike
• Having to walk my bike on the hills
• Getting a flat tire on the bike
• Having to walk during the run

And you guys... NONE of these things happened!  Can you believe it?  I was pleased.  And despite Becky constantly hassling me about my negativity - I actually had fun!  I may actually do another tri!  

So Saturday Jordanne, Amy, and I headed out to grab our packets and rack our bikes.  I seriously had no idea what I was doing.  I may have asked 10,000 questions. 

Bike successfully racked - they had a slumber party and told secrets all night

Then I started worrying about getting everything I needed.  And you guys, I ALMOST FORGOT MY GOGGLES!  Good thing I asked others to double-check my stuff:

The course was eerily familiar to the Seattle Rock n' Roll Marathon with trips through Seward Park (on the run) and across I-90 (on the bike).  I was having horrid flashbacks of my death march to the marathon finish!  Let me just say it is WAY MORE enjoyable to bike across I-90 than to run across it.  But now let's go down the nitty gritty.  Buckle your seatbelts folks, this is going to be a long one.

Sunday morning came with a super early wake-up call and we headed down to the park.  There was surprisingly no traffic and no parking issues so we got there with tons of time to spare, and considering our wave didn't start until 45 minutes after the start (start at 6:45am, our wave at 7:28am) there was way too much time to sit around being nervous / worried.  But finally it was our time to get in the water!

Swim: 1/2 mile (860 yards) in 16:31 - 165th place overall (out of 1,529)

Again, at first I left my goggles behind at transition and I had to hustle back there to grab them!  I'm an idiot.  We got in the water with a ton of other ladies, and I tried to start on the outside and near the back to avoid panicking.  This did not work. 

The swim was set-up in a triangle, with about 150 yards to the 1st buoy, 400 yards between the 1st and 2nd buoy, and then 250 yards back to the finish of the swim.

Well the first 150 yards to the first buoy were HORRIBLE.  Oh my, that was a panic attack and a half.  There were just SO MANY PEOPLE.  And they were all climbing all over you and it was just plain miserable.  I swam this whole section with my face out of the water in this awkward crawl that made me exhausted, coupled with the panic attack and my heart was racing - beating out of my chest.  At this point  I was seriously worried that either a) wouldn't be able to finish, or b) I'd have to hang on to a kayak for a long undetermined amount of time.  I really hated this part.

I was seriously feeling really tired by the time we reached the first buoy, and with a long way left to go, that didn't seem like a good sign!  I was seriously questioning my decision and preparation to do this!  But then it started to thin out, I tried really hard to focus on taking big deep breaths and trying to calm my heart rate, and I started actually swimming. 

I tried to stay as close to the kayaks as possible, still had to do quite a bit of weaving around people, but seemed to pass people steadily the whole time.  A red cap girl (started after me) passed me at one point pretty much by climbing over me and I really HATED her.  How rude.  But by the end, I seemed to be one of the only pink caps in site, and that made me feel good.

And then I was getting out of the water!  JMan and everyone missed me because I guess I was just too fast.  :-)  Ha. 

Transition 1: 3:49

My first transition was  a big fat hot mess.  I'm actually surprised it was only 4 minutes because I felt like it was freaking 10 minutes!  First I couldn't get my wetsuit zipper down, so I had to go in search of help for that.  Then I couldn't get the wetsuit off my arms, and pretty much finagled myself into a straight jacket.  It would have been quite comical to see me!  I finally got all set-up and nearly out of the transition area when someone caught me and said I didn't have my helmet on (oops!).  So back to get it, except then I couldn't find my stuff.  And then my bike fell over.  So yeah... not so smooth here. 

This wetsuit was way harder to get off than it looks.

But FINALLY I was off and running on the bike.

Bike: 12 miles in 43:27 (17.1 mph) - 440th place overall (out of 1,529)

The day before we had driven the one scary part of the bike and I was TERRIFIED about this section - there was a super steep super narrow super windy section to get onto I-90.  Talk about a recipe for disaster.  I had kind of decided to just walk my bike here because I was so scared of falling.  But I made it up!  It was scary with people slowing SO much and I had to stand the whole way but luckily I didn't fall over.

Then you were off on I-90 and it was pretty uneventful.  Much hillier of a bike than I'm used to though:

340 feet of elevation gain

Garmin didn't cooperate thanks to the tunnels (just like the maathon) - and in this case I actually enjoyed the out-and-back because I got to see both Amy and Jordanne when I was coming back.

As you came out of the last tunnel on the freeway though - HOLY HEADWIND.  It hit you like a ton of bricks.  Luckily it was only for a few of the miles, but that was rough - especially heading up into the hill to get off the freeway.

And before I knew it - I was all done!  Really not much to report.  I passed people steadily here, but I also got passed a LOT.  The bike is my clear weakness.  I didn't capitalize on many of the downhills either, on most of them I didn't bother gearing up as much as I needed to to actually pedal while going downhill so I just rested. 

Transition 2: 1:42

And then I was coming off the bike!  As poor as my first transition was, I felt like I rocked this one.  I got in I got out.  Changed my shoes, ate some shock blocks, grabbed my Nuun, and I was set. 

Run: 3.1 miles in 23:43 (Average Pace: 7:39 if 5k, 7:54 if 3 miles) - 59th place overall (out of 1,529)

I'm still unsure whether this was a 3 mile run or a 5k run.  Some people say 5k, the website (albeit a poor one at that) says 3 miles, my Garmin says 3 miles, but the results pace is as though it was a 5k. So I'll call it a 5k because that makes me seem faster?!?!  If it really was a 5k then this is only 22 seconds off my PR of 23:21 which is why I'm doubtful it's a true 5k. 

My legs were pretty heavy at first as I feared, but I loved how the short distance made it seem very bearable.  I knew if I only made it to 1.5 miles then I'd be halfway done and at 2 I could do 1 more mile no problem.  So that made it very easy to rationalize in my head.  On the 3rd mile I was cooking along at a sub 7:25 pace feeling good until this MONSTER of a steep hill hit that was not too appreciated.

But I recovered, and then I was sprinting in to the finish, with a clear view of JMan and friends, plus I saw Erika shouting for me (she ROCKED it, oh my gosh, freaking 8th place OVERALL).  And I reached my very ambitious goal of 1:30, which was ambitious and DIDN'T EVEN INCLUDE TRANSITION TIME!  That was a mistake on my part not to include that.  So I'm proud.

Splits per Garmin: 8:08, 7:58, 7:36

Finish:  Sub 1:30 (just barely!) in 1:29:14!  Overall 140th place out of 1,529, 30th place in my age group.

So  you can see - 165th place in the swim, 440th place in the bike, and 59th place for the run.  Who knows what my strength is?  And for the real win - what's my weakness?  And what do I freaking need to do more often (and on HILLS)?!?!?!

Sprinting in to the finish

Final thoughts:

• For a race where lots of people don't reguarly do triathlons, I found it a bit lacking in information.  The expo had NO information, no maps, no info about where to be places and when to be there, about this so-called shuttle we were supposed to take, etc.
• Also, they decided not to give us our shirts at the expo, for who knows what reason.  But what this ended up meaning was that we had to wait in a huge line for TWENTY MINUTES just to get a tshirt and a bagel.  Ridiculous and stupid.  Just give us our shirt at the expo people.  
• I like bagels, don't get me wrong.  But don't make me feel like the food spread is worthy of needing a bag and a humongous line if you're just going to give me half bananas and bagels.  

Whew.  Did you make it this far?  If you did, thanks!  If you didn't - I don't blame you!

Triathlon Recap... Tomorrow. Today: Just a Regular Recap.

So yesterday I ran a triathlon!  My very first.  And we'll get to that.  Just... not today.

Coming in to the finish.

Let's recap the week, shall we?

Monday - 6 mile run - my first run back after 5 days off to rest the glute.  It felt good, but was definitely still there.  Upon reading more, it seems that rest is not always the final answer for this type of injury.

Tuesday - My one and only open water swim in preparation for the triathlon.  Let's just say it was... interesting!  It was CHOPPY, the weeds were grabbing me, and a pretty major panic attack ensued.  I may have been mocked by Jordanne and Amy for just screaming "I don't want to do this I don't want to do this I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!  I have no idea how far it was or long it took but we went out to the buoy and back twice.  Probably 600-800 yards?  Plus a 3 mile run.

This is how we looked during Tuesday's workout too.  Sans the Danskin swim caps. 

Wednesday - REST.

Thursday - 35 minutes on the elliptical.  My first time using the elliptical in FOREVER.  Got nice and sweaty though, so maybe I should do it more often.  

Friday - 1 mile of swimming in 33 minutes.  The first 30 laps (1,500 yards) were all done without stopping!  

Saturday - Left time enough to run 6-9 miles in the morning before I was off to meet Jordanne and Amy to rack my bike for my very first tri!  But sadly, my stupid glute was not cooperating and I only made it 3 miles.  I am feeling extremely exasperated with it at this point.  I hope my Hood to Coast legs are bearable and I don't let my team down by being S-L-O-W!

Sunday - My very first triathlon!  Come back tomorrow for (hopefully!) the race report.  Spoiler alert - I beat my ambitious goal and just barely squeaked by under 1:30 at 1:29:14!  I'm proud. 

Remember how we made Luke signs?  Well he made US a sign!

So this week I only ran 18 miles.  That's not that good.  I ran 5 times, but 4 of those times were just 3 miles, which is about how much my glute is tolerating.  Next weekend I will run that much in just 3 runs in just 29 hours (or less).  PLEASE GET BETTER GLUTE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! 

How was your week?  What did you do this weekend?

I'm Really Not Cut Out For This Triathlon Thing

So Sunday is my very very very very first triathlon!  Eeeeeekkkkk!!!!!

You may recall that I won an entry into the Seattle Danskin Triathlon, thus FINALLY ensuring I would actually complete one, after years and years of it being on my New Year's Resolution list and never getting done. 

And I have kind of trained for it.  I've swam (swum?), biked, and run.  I've even done a few "brick" workouts and ran after biking.  And guess what I've found out?

source

I don't think I'm cut out for this triathlon nonsense.  It's just really not my style.  Here's what I'm not loving:

1. Running after Biking.  It SUCKS.  Until you've actually done it, you think its no big deal.  I was actually thinking of doing a Half Ironman people, and running the half marathon was the least of my worries - I thought I could do that NO PROBLEM.  What an arrogant idiot I was.  Running after biking is NO JOKE.  And I don't like it. 
2. Swimming in Open Water.  I like swimming.  I would like to continue swimming even after I've (hopefully!) finished the triathlon on Sunday.  But what I absolutely don't like is swimming in open water.  It's cold, it's disgusting, there's poop floating around (no joke), and you never know what is lurking in there waiting for you.  Giant carp may be harmless, but they're still giant and scary.  I'm a baby, what can I say.  I did my one and only open water swim on Tuesday at Seward Park, and it involved a HUGE panic attack.  The murky weeds tried to grab me.  The chop was horrific.  Let's just say I'm happy to be alive. 
3. I Can't Climb Hills on the Bike.  Enough said.  I haven't practiced, I don't know how.  It's hard to find hills to practice on when you refuse to bike in traffic and only bike on bike paths that normally have a maximum of a 3% grade.
4. I Don't Know How to Change a Bike Tire.  Maybe I never will have to?  I haven't had to yet.  But it's certainly always lurking in the back of my mind when I'm 9 miles away from my car.  Lindsay is supposed to teach me but hasn't yet!

source

So let's talk about goals for Sunday.  The race involves:

• Half Mile Swim.  Ambitious Goal = 15 minutes.  Realistic Goal = 20 minutes.  I'm not sure how much swimming in the open water in a wetsuit in the cold water will affect me.  Will it slow me a lot?  Will the chop be horrible?  In the pool a good 800 time for me would be 16 minutes. 
• 12 Mile Bike.  Ambitious Goal = 45 minutes.  Realistic Goal = 1 hour.  Again, I've never practiced climbing hills.  On a good day I ride about 15 miles per hour.  However I'm terrified I'm going to have to stop and walk my bike if we come to any significant hill!  I NEED a lesson in gear changing!
• 3.1 Mile Run.  Ambitious Goal = 25 minutes.  Realistic Goal = 30 minutes.  My 5k PR is 23:xx, but I'm not in that kind of shape right now, plus my few brick workouts (i.e., whenever I ran after biking) have turned out disastrously with me not even being able to run without walk breaks.  Your legs just feel SO HEAVY. 

So there you go people.  Overall very ambitious finish time of about 1 hour 30 minutes.  More realistic finish time of 1 hour 50 minutes.  Think good thoughts for me that I don't get eaten by a humongous carp (or something much worse!)! 

Are you a triathlete?  How did you get hooked?  I think I'm just a runner. 

Being Smart Is Risky Business

So in case you haven't been paying attention to my blog posts, tweets, or Facebook posts, my glute has been hurting since Ragnar.  For you mathematicians out there, that's a whopping 3 weeks: quite a while.  It's still up in the air whether it's my piriformis or not but it seems likely.  That sneaky piriformis came out of nowhere. 

That piriformis is as sneaky as the evil cat

So on Monday I rested. 

And on Tuesday I ran - 7 miles in 1:06 to be exact.  It was okay.

And on Wednesday I biked but felt pretty blah energy-wise - 12.6 miles in 52 minutes (14.5 mph). 

And then on Thursday I was about to head out for a run, when running suddenly seemed like a terrible idea.  I've been caught in this conflict of being in the middle of training for Hood to Coast / a triathlon / a trail race / possibly CIM and did NOT want to stop training.  After all - I ran nearly 31 miles last week and was on a roll!  I wanted to keep going and get faster to not let my speedy Hood to Coast teammates down!

But then I really thought, and it seemed like a little rest could happen now or never.  And if a few days off could help my glute go away, it would be worth backing off my training now rather than later, and much better now then hurting through all 3 of my Hood to Coast legs.  Resting is risky, and so is not resting.  What a balancing act.  It's so hard to know when to push through it and when to rest. 

I just want to feel good at Hood to Coast just like Ragnar.

So, there's my reasoning.  So on Thursday I VERY smartly did 50 minutes of yoga instead of running.  And people, my hamstrings are TIGHT.  That can't be good for my glute.  Yoga MUST be a priority if I want to keep running healthy.

And on Friday I swam.

And on Saturday I did a ton of yard work.

And on Sunday I rested. 

And there you have it.  5 days solid without running.  At first I felt really positively about my glute.  But now I kind of feel it again.  But I shall run tomorrow and report back.  And until then, I'll just keep hoping that my risky resting paid off. 

Rar.  Cooper's not sneaky like the piriformis / evil cat.

Have you walked the fine line between pushing through little injuries?  What happened to you?  What advice do you have for my glute? 

Training for a 50k Week 1?

This week I actually made progress towards running the Pt. Defiance 50k, so am I training for it?  Hopefully so.

Last week although I dominated many workouts, I sucked by resting on a billion different days.  So my goals for this week involved a longer run, more days of workouts, and more than 24 miles.  And I beat all those goals!  Hooray for me.  

Monday - 8.1 glorious miles that actually felt GOOD for once.  Not just good, AWESOME.  Runner's high central. 

On an unrelated note - Cooper got a new toy - he's pretty excited about it. 

Tuesday - My only complete rest day of the week. 

Wednesday - Brick workouts.  20 miles of biking in 1:20 (15 mph) followed by the WORST RUN OF ALL TIME.  3 miles with about 6 different walk breaks.  Seriously people, running after biking is H-A-R-D.  How do you triathletes do it?  I really am doubting my future in the triathlon.  Danskin may be my one and only.  

Thursday - 5 miles at the Road Runner Adventure Run!  Come back tomorrow to hear more about that.

Friday - 1 mile of swimming (1,800 yards) in about 40 minutes.  The water was disgusting and hazy.  I guess that means it was good practice for open water swimming, which I still haven't done yet!  See comment above about already sucking at the triathlon.

Saturday - Another "Adventure Run" of sorts with Lindsay - 13 miles of trail running at Cougar Mountain.  This also deserves a post in and of itself, it was an adventure to be sure.

Sunday - Although I didn't plan on running again one of our houseguests Molly wanted to do a little run so I was more than happy to oblige.  We did about 1.88 miles in 20 minutes at 10am when it was already HOT HOT HOT.  Good practice for Hood to Coast.

Guess what guys?  I ran, trail ran, biked, AND swam this week.  I ran 5 days (though 2 days were very short, but that's what I need to do when I used to only run 3 days a week) for a total of 30.7 miles!  Wowsers!  I'm proud. 

Is the weekend really over already?  How was YOUR weekend?  How was your week of workouts?  What's your next race? 

Training for Random Events Week X

Since I seem to be training for a variety of different events (i.e., the Danskin Triathlon in 3 weeks and Hood to Coast in 4 weeks) plus several "possible events" (i.e., Pt. Defiance 50k and California International Marathon, better known as CIM), we'll just call this "Training for Random Events".  And whew, that was a long and tedious sentence.

Look, I'm getting "Nuun-tattooed"!  Thanks Holly!

So, last week.  It happened.  I completed a lot of workouts.  But I also rested a lot of days.  Resulting in a weird combination of many "double-days" and also many "do nothing" days.  I don't call that a win.

Monday - One of the "do nothing" days

Tuesday - 8 miles (my longest run since the marathon, if you can believe it!) of trail running.  It was lovely, but I was a sweaty mess by the end.

 1,268 feet of elevation gain in 8 miles - not too shabby!

Wednesday - A "triathlon" day!  That's right, I ended up not only doing a double but a triple workout.  Jordanne and I were supposed to practice "open water" swimming, but instead we went to the pool.  FAIL.  We suck.  After a mile of swimming (40 minutes), JMan and I had a lovely dinner at 5 Guys.  But then I decided to take to the bike for 15+ miles and an hour.  THEN I decided why not do a little "legs feel like bricks" post-cycling running and did 2 miles of running.  WHEW.

On Wednesday I had these gorgeous flowers waiting to surprise me.  Isn't JMan the best?!

Thursday - Whoops, another "do nothing" day

Friday - 5 miles of running in the morning, 1 mile of swimming in the evening

Saturday - 9 miles of running (NOW this is my longest run since the marathon!).  I wanted it to be 10-12 but my glute was not having it.  It has been displeased since Ragnar.

Sunday - All I did besides "do nothing" was pick about 10 pounds of blackberries

Yum.

And there you have it folks. 

Total running miles = 24.

This week: less "do nothing" days.  A run longer than 9 miles.  More than 24 total miles.  Get 'er done. 

How was your week?  Do you pick blackberries?  It seems early for them, but I can't wait to make some freezer jam!  What's your favorite berry?  How was your weekend? 

Making Headway on 2 Summer Goals

This week I made some progress on two of my summer goals.

Monday - 6 miles of running in 52 minutes

Tuesday - 1,900 yards (38 laps) of swimming in about 40 minutes.  First 800 was done in 12-13 minutes!  I felt better at swimming, and was going to do more until I got kicked out of the pool for water aerobics. 
 
Wednesday - I went trail running!  Remember how I wanted to trail run this summer, and I revealed my next big race of the Pt. Defiance Trail Run (distance to be determined)?!   The trail running was HOT, but still lovely.  And 6 miles were pumped out in just a little over an hour. 

It seriously doesn't get much better than this.

Thursday - I did a BRICK workout!  Remember how my 2nd summer goal was to do a TRIATHLON?!  Well whoa, look at me, using triathlon terminology and all that.  That's right, a BRICK workout, my friends, is a bike workout followed by running.  But really, I would imagine it's doing any two activities back-to-back.  Like when I eat ice cream and then I eat some sour patch kids.  I'd imagine it's exactly like that.  I biked 15.4 miles in an hour and then ran 3.5 miles. 

Did you know it's kind of hard to run after you've been biking?  I bet you did.  But if you didn't, uh, it is.  Your legs feel all weird and heavy like you're running through 4 feet of water.  You're running in slow motion despite your best efforts.  It's unexpected. 

Friday - TGIF so hangin' (walkin' 3 miles) with Mr. Cooper

Saturday - 8 miles of hiking Mt. Si!  About 3 of these miles were running downhill.  I meant to run more on Saturday but the hike was much more difficult than expected and my legs were THRASHED by the end.  

Sunday - About 5 miles of running around (1 mile probably actually running) cheering at the Lake Stevens Half Ironman!  Again, I intended to do a long run but my quads (especially my right one) are so incredibly sore from the hike.  Came home and walked with Cooper another 1+ miles. 

And that was my week!  I feel much better about this week than last week.  I swam, biked, hiked, and ran.  I ran trails and I did a brick workout.  I sat on the couch much less than last week!  SUCCESS!  Although I still haven't done a long run since the marathon, and that's bad.  Especially with RAGNAR coming up next weekend!  So exciting! 

Total running miles = 20. 

How was your week?  What did you do this weekend? 

Weekly "Rap-Up": Spice Girls Style

It's been a LONG TIME since my last "rap-up" post!  Did you miss them?  I bet you did.  Did the Spice Girls rap?  Perhaps not?  But they are still awesome.  

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My junior year of high school my friends and I were the Spice Girls for Halloween.  I really really wish I had a picture to show you but unfortunately I don't think one exists (luckily for me!).

Let's see how I did workout-wise this week, maybe I'll live up to Sporty Spice's standards?

Monday -  3 miles on the beach with Cooper.  Although the scenery was LOVELY my legs were just not feeling it and I cut it shorter than I would have liked.

See - scenery = gorgeous.  Legs still = heavy though.

While I was running I saw this interesting dude walking on the beach with his 10 pound dumbbells.  Who does that?!?!  He was doing all kinds of curls and flies and other nonsense.  ON THE BEACH.  

Tuesday - Uh, nothing.  Apparently my motivation since the marathon remains waned. I better snap out of it quick.

Wednesday - 6.2 miles at the 1st Annual 4th of July 10k Fun Run!

Remember these lovely ladies?  Yeah, that was fun.  Let's do it again SOON.

Thursday - Um?  I am embarrassed to say nothing again.  I SUCK.  It pains me to write this and I have to remember this pain this week when the couch calls to me when I know I need to get my butt in the pool or on the bike. 

Friday - 6 miles in the morning + 2 more after work.  It was HOT and I was struggling.  Ragnar and Hood to Coast are going to be TOUGH with those midday runs. 

Saturday - 4 miles walking with Cooper

Sunday - 15 miles biking, 1 mile walking with the blogger banana ladies (more to come on that later!), 1.5 miles walking with JMan and Cooper

We're clearly working very hard. 

So that's a rap!  17 miles running this week, but no weekend run at ALL which is sad.  I really meant to but it was just HOT and I didn't want to get up early.  Those are lame excuses, I know.  I didn't swim either, and that's not good either. 

I'll leave you with this little gem to get you through your week (you don't even know how hard it was to pick which two songs I was going to put up!):

Anyone else secretly love the Spice Girls?  What's your favorite Spice Girl song?  How was your week workout wise?