Month: February 2011

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In the breakroom…

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…I get comments all the time on my food. People at work notice that I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Just this morning, I was slicing a pear for breakfast and had hummus, a red bell pepper and salad stuff waiting to go into the fridge, and someone [that I’ve never talked to before] said, “You’re always so healthy!”

I try, most of the time, to eat healthy so I can enjoy the yummy, bad stuff occasionally. Isn’t it funny/sad/weird/whatever that eating healthy is unusual enough to be commented on like this? I don’t mind it… since not that long ago, I was keeping Cheetos in business big-time… just sayin’.

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The Burke-Gilman

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Are y’all ready to be jealous?

This is the running/biking trail that runs less than half a mile away from my house. It’s called the Burke-Gilman Trail, and the whole thing is 27 miles long.

Photobucket

That’s 27 miles of car-free, exhaust-free, smooth-as-a-baby’s-butt paved trail for Seattle’s active enjoyment. I do all my outdoor runs on the ol’ Burke-Gilman.

Maybe someday, I’ll run the whole damn thing.

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Valentine’s Day Dash recap

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The Valentine’s Day Dash 5K is in the books! Aaron and I both scored PRs:

Aaron — 21:26 (6:55 pace)
Me — 26:25 (8:32 pace)

I’m proud of my time — sub-27:00, which was my goal — but holy crap, Aaron runs fast. He killed this race.

We both felt nervous beforehand because we both wanted to improve our PRs. The course around Green Lake is almost entirely flat, so we knew we could do well if we ran smart. Luckily, my nervousness died as soon as we headed to Green Lake. The weather was great — cool, but not cold, and partly cloudy, but not raining — so I was psyched that we wouldn’t be running in the rain like I thought.

Once we got to the starting area, Aaron lined up with the super-fast people in the 6:00-7:00 pace group, and I hung out with my 8:00-9:00 homies. I usually start farther back, which is why I tend to have trouble passing slower people, but this time I actually started where I belonged and had a great beginning to the race.

I felt awesome for the first mile! I took it easy at about a 9:15 pace and just enjoyed running. I stayed to the inside of the course and didn’t weave around people. I kept looking for the one-mile marker but never saw it, then realized I must have missed it after seeing that more than 10 minutes had gone by on my watch. The two-mile marker came up before I knew it, and I looked down at my watch and realized I was on track to beat my goal!

My stomach started to hurt around this point since I was going a bit faster (trying to stay under 9:00 pace). I really didn’t want to take any walking breaks, but I did once I convinced myself that I could walk briefly and still beat my goal time. I walked two or three times to try to relieve my crampy stomach. Finally, I realized the end was so near and just poured on the gas.

I fully sprinted the last 0.1 mile and seemed to be the only person doing that, so I had to weave through other runners. I heard Aaron yell encouragement to me and I finished strong, then promptly found a curb to sit on. The curb of life! Aaron brought me a bottle of water and all was well. I never even had any ankle, shin or knee pain like I did during the last bit of training!

We then pillaged the food booths big time.

It’s now raining intensely in Seattle — thank goodness we had a great race before the downpour! Yay for Valentine’s Day PRs!

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Yuck.

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Bad run last night. I was bummed out over something in the afternoon (it’s fine now) and was hoping the last run of my training plan – a mere two miles – would help lift my spirits.

Unfortunately, my shins and ankles felt weak and I had to start walking with about a quarter mile to go for fear that I would hurt myself before the 5K on Saturday. Two miles in 21 minutes. Bummer, bummer, BUMMER!

I hate feeling weak on runs. It’s just awful and dissapointing, probably because feeling STRONG on a run is just about the greatest feeling ever.

I’ve felt strong lately. With two rest days until the race, I hope I’ll be feeling strong again at the starting line.

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Second-to-last run of my 5K training plan! 30 minute tempo:

– 10 minutes at 10:10
– 15 minutes at 9:05
– 5 minutes at 10:10

3.1 miles of running (9:40 average pace).

I used a foam roller for the first time after this run after watching some YouTube videos on how to do it. It felt goooood! Well, and hurt a little around my knees, but mostly felt good.

I did all the rolling shown in this video: hamstrings, calves, quads, IT band on both sides, and back (ahhh, the best part). My legs definitely felt less tight/sore as I walked to the locker room, and my back felt less crunched up than it usually does after a day of sitting at my desk.

Foam roller = new best bud.

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Progress

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Tonight I ran 2 fast (for me) miles at the gym — 18:09 (9:04 pace).

Have you ever found yourself doing something that used to be difficult but now feels OK? Or more than OK? Maybe even effortless?

This is how I’ve felt about running fast(er) lately. I always thought I’d be a ten-plus-minute mile girl, but I’m finding out that a nine-minute pace feels similar to how a ten-minute pace used to feel. I just didn’t notice the progress as it was happening.

And now that I notice? It. Kicks. Ass.