Month: October 2011

Tonight, I had 8 miles on my training plan, and I wasn’t about to do them on the treadmill (yuck). But it was cold out today. It was windy. And it was going to get dark in the middle of my run.

Sounds like it was really gonna suck, right?

But this run. was. AWESOME. It was the type of run that makes all the craptastic runs worthwhile.

I started out a bit fast because I was cold and wanted to warm up, and then I realized that 9:00 min/mi was a pretty comfortable pace and just held it the whole time (except for mile 5, which had a hill), and then got even faster at the end. WTF?

Oh, and I ran 9 miles instead of 8, since my route around Lake Union was a bit long. I didn’t mind, though. Double WTF?

I’m gonna chalk this success up to two things:

1) I was ecstatic to be running outside and not on the treadmill. I find it hard to run with good form on the treadmill because I’m intensely focused on trying not to keel over from boredom, so it always leaves my ankles feeling tweaked. It felt great to be back on the road, and I took advantage of that great feeling.

2) I wore my magic running tights of awesomeness. They kept me warm without making me feel overheated, which really helped me focus on the run. I didn’t think I’d have to bust these out so early in the fall, but I’m glad I did.

This photo is from after the run, which is why I look so damn happy (and dorky — don’t care). Yay for the magic tights!

Fun fact: I bought these tights specifically for a New Year’s Day 5K/Polar Bear Dive, during which I fully ran into 40-degree Lake Washington just before the finish line. It was cold, but man, was it fun!

Another fun fact: If you read that 5K post, you’ll see that I finished it in 31 minutes and “ran THE ENTIRE TIME! A first!" Proof that we all start somewhere.

Anyway, I really didn’t mind the fact that it got dark right around mile 4 of this run. I just need to get a sweet headlamp and a blinky light for my fuel belt stat. It’s gonna be a long, cold, dark autumn and winter.

I’ll get through it with the magic tights.

I’m baaaaaack!

I had a blast in NYC and am putting together a big post about the trip for Answering Oliver, but I thought I’d recap my running adventures here.

I did two runs for a total of 14 miles, plus a TON of walking around the city and doing the tourist thing. It was my first visit, so I had to!

Yes, the solo tourist must take awkward self-photos in Times Square.

(Side note: The last thing I imagined for my October trip was sunshine and temperatures over 80 degrees, but it definitely felt like summer in NYC! I did all my sightseeing in dresses, sandals, shorts and tank tops. No complaints here.)

My big goal for this trip was to do my 10-mile long run in Central Park, and I was thrilled that Theodora of Losing Weight in the City didn’t think I was a complete weirdo for asking her to run with me on Saturday. The great thing about doing a long run with someone you’ve never met is that there’s so much to talk about! Our conversation, paired with the lovely, new-to-me scenery, made the run fly by.

The runners…

The route…

The post-run bagel…

Be sure to check out Theodora’s blog post about the run, too.

My other run was a four-miler on Monday, the last day of my visit. I stayed at a friend’s apartment in Queens, and he said there was a park with a lake less than a mile away. I set off on another sunny morning to find the lake…

And found that the path around Meadow Lake was quite pleasant!

The route to the lake, all the way around and back to the apartment was almost exactly 4 miles (37:54, 9:28 pace), which was what I had on my training schedule. I loved getting to explore a little bit of Queens!

I can now say I’ve trained for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon in three states (Washington, California and New York) and on two coasts! That’s pretty exciting.

Although it can be tough to exercise while traveling, running is such a great way to see a new place. Since I’ve made marathon training my priority, I’ve had no trouble fitting in my workouts. (I packed my running shoes first, after all.)

It would be nuts to attempt an 18- or 20-miler in an unfamiliar area, but I purposefully switched my training plan around a bit to move a 15-miler to last weekend so I only had to tackle 10 in NYC.

I have seven weekend long runs left until the marathon — 16, 12, 18, 14, 20, 12, 8 — all in the blustery, chilly, rainy Pacific Northwest.

Here goes nothin’.

I’m not that great at packing. Here’s what I have so far.

“I’m Alive” by Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews just came on Pandora, and I’ve always loved it. It’s a good reminder that despite all of life’s troubles, it’s such a gift just to be ALIVE. Steve Jobs knew that.

Have a listen, have a good night and see y’all in NYC.

The key to running on the treadmill is to find the gym TV that’s showing Jeopardy!

I totally got some answers right while I ran three miles (28:09, 9:22 pace). For example:

What is “ice”?

Who is “Rihanna”?

What is “Benihana”?

Nobody got the Benihana question right. Ummm, clearly the contestants have missed out on an exquisite culinary experience.

Speaking of exquisite culinary experiences, here is my delicious dinner:

It came frozen. In a bag. Bertolli Steak, Rigatoni & Portobello Mushrooms. Try not to be too intimidated by my cooking skillz.

Rewind to the gym: I also did strength-training and (ugh) abs. How can I stop hating ab work so much? Maybe if I did it more often, my core would be stronger and it wouldn’t be so hard.

Anywho. I just have a four-mile run on the books for tomorrow, and then I’m flying out to NYC, baby! I’ll be in town Friday through Monday. I’ll be doing a 10-miler in/around Central Park on Saturday. Then, I will search for bagels and, let’s be honest, a beer.

I don’t really have anything planned except for that, so NYC Tumblr people — let me know if you want to hang out!