Author: devonpass

Yesterday was one of those days that was super awesome until it turned super shitty.

I slept in till 8:00, then ate a Larabar and was out for my run before 9. This was a big win because I usually procrastinate my weekend runs and don’t do them until 11 or noon or so!

‘Twas a lovely 7-mile run:

And I was done just before 10! I was so pumped to have the whole day still ahead of me!

I went home, stretched, hydrated, and ate a chicken sausage. Then I did the push-ups that I had skipped on Friday evening because I was too tired.

Set 1: 4 push-ups
Set 2: 5 push-ups
Set 3: 4 push-ups
Set 4: 4 push-ups
Set 5: Max (at least 5 push-ups)

I can do four now pretty easily, but five is pushing it! On the last set, my head kind of felt like it was going to explode, and when I was done, my vision was a little off. I could see just fine, but there was some kind of sparkly (not quite the right word, but I can’t really describe it) stuff happening toward the outside of my field of vision in my right eye that was really distracting.

I figured maybe I hadn’t eaten enough food to recover yet, so I went about making eggs with avocado and prepping a grapefruit. The sparkling continued and even got a little worse. I told Aaron I was getting freaked out about it, so he told me to lay down and that helped a bit.

As I ate my food, the sparkling subsided for a few minutes, only to be replaced by a splitting headache. I then took some Tylenol, retreated to the bedroom, and tried to nap away the pain, but wound up having to drape a black shirt over my eyes to block out the light. Only darkness would stop my head from pounding.

I fell asleep, but later the smell of Aaron cooking something made me feel really nauseous, as did the sound of him vacuuming and a baby crying in the next building over. Light, smells, and sounds = all no good!

I finally woke up feeling better at 3:45!! So much for having the whole day ahead of me. 😦

I’m pretty sure, after a bit of Googling, that was my very first migraine.

If so, I feel AWFUL for people who have chronic migraines, because that shit SUCKS.

I hope this was a one-time thing for me, possibly spurred by the combo of a doing fairly rigorous run + push-ups without enough fuel and/or hydration. I will certainly keep my runs and push-ups separate (run in the morning, push-ups at night) in the future.

Does anyone get migraines and have advice for dealing with them? I can’t imagine doing anything other than shutting myself in a dark room to take a nap!

I am officially hungry all. the. time at this point in marathon training. Week 9 is nearly complete. That means I’ll soon be halfway there!

Wednesday five:

Thursday speed intervals in the Kinvara 4s:

I got a really bad side stitch in the middle of split 8, which was my last half-mile of speedy running. I couldn’t get rid of it and it really slowed me down, which was a bummer.

I used to never get side cramps, but since the RnR Seattle Marathon, I’ve noticed that I get them on practically every other run. I’ll go ahead and assume that’s due to the fact that I’ve been more lax with my diet lately and have started enjoying a beer or two every few days once again. I’ll probably have to cut that out once again in the weeks prior to Chicago. But… not quite yet!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I had lunch with mah boo today. ‘Tis the benefit of both working downtown!

How cute is he? So cute.

I generally think I’m a boring Instagrammer, since it seems that everyone else’s photos are super-stunning and awesome all the time. Mine are just kind of… interesting.

Let’s take my adventures and misadventures with fruit, for example.

Aaron gave me this apple and did not warn me of the CRAZINESS that awaited me inside. It’s called a Pink Pearl apple!

When one becomes frustrated while trying to open the blueberry package, one might fling blueberries all over the kitchen. Eh-hem, this was me.

And sometimes I just see exquisite personal style that must be shared with the world. These pants, for example, are elegant. Subtle. Timeless.

(She was speaking complete gibberish on her phone, which generally indicates excessive drug use, which might explain a lot.)

This has been a very random post.

Tomorrow is a rest day, THANK GOODNESS, which means I can sleep in an extra hour in the morning and spend the evening trying to meld my body into the couch. Meld, baby, meld.

Sweaty Wednesday is a thing now.

I had a great five-mile sweat this morning in my new, blindingly bright Lululemon top.

I also ran four miles yesterday morning against all odds, as I was physically and emotionally exhausted by the THREE-HOUR finale of The Bachelorette on Monday night. All I have to say is, yeahhhhhhhhhhh Seattle!! (For you people with real lives, that means the bachelorette is engaged to a guy from Seattle, and she’s moving here this weekend. I will keep my eyes peeled for Des/Chris sightings, y’all.)

Anyway, somehow I ran Tuesday on very little sleep:

And I did both runs in the new shirt. I’m in loooooove! Many of you know I have a longstanding love of v-neck shirts, but it’s so hard to find good v-neck running shirts. This one is light as a feather and smooth as buttah. It’s also bright enough to keep me visible to cars as the days grow shorter.

I believe someone once sent me a Tumblr “ask” about where to find affordable running clothes. Lululemon is not the answer, and yet that’s where many of my staples come from, including the shorts I wear for every. single. run.

I’ve learned that it’s better to invest in a few high-quality pieces and wear them over and over than to buy a bunch of cheap, crappy stuff that feels crappy when you run and crappily fills your dresser drawers with crappiness. I read a great quote recently (on Twitter, maybe?) that was something like: “When you buy something cheap and low-quality, the best you’ll feel is when you buy it. When you buy something more expensive and high-quality, the worst you’ll feel is when you buy it.”

I don’t have a TON of running gear, but what I do have is nice stuff that doesn’t chafe, shrink, stretch, or pill — Lululemon, Brooks, Under Armour, and Road Runner Sports brands, mostly — and I don’t mind wearing the exact same clothes from race to race.

However, I think Target is awesome, and the Champion brand is good quality. All of my sports bras are Champion from Target — very affordable. (I realize that the bigger-chested ladies out there need to invest in stronger apparatuses that may also be more expensive, but that is your gift and your curse.)

What’s your favorite brand of running gear, whether it’s very affordable or more expensive? I’ve heard Oiselle is awesome for the ladies, but I haven’t tried it yet!

I have never been sweatier in my life than I was during this run. I could hardly keep my sunglasses on my face because they were so slippery due to intense sweat and sunscreen. That’s what I get for starting at 10 a.m. when I knew it was going to be hot out!

But I wound up with a decent pace overall, even though the last few miles were a hot, sweaty, hungry (whoops, should have brought more fuel) strugglefest.

Notable moments: I caught a nice little break at mile 7.6 on the University Bridge when it was raised for boat traffic. It’s Seafair weekend, whoop whoop!

At mile 9, I stopped to refill my water bottles at Gas Works Parks and happened upon a Crossfit WODfest!

I suddenly felt horribly out of shape standing next to a bunch of super-ripped men and women. I may not be able to deadlift, um, anything, BUT how many of them can run 15 miles at the drop of a hat? We’re all fit in different ways!

…at least that’s what I told myself as I ran away.

And then I took a silly photo because I needed a little shade break and I was ready to be doneeee.

15 miles. Man, sounds like a lot. It doesn’t feel like a lot anymore, but I guess that’s what back-to-back marathon training has done to me.

If you can’t tell (but I bet you can), I’m a little burned out on training and am not so intense about it this time around. I’ll do the training, but I’m not going to freak out over my times or be laser-focused on a goal time, like I was with the RnR Seattle Marathon. I just don’t have it in me to stress out so much this time around. I want to complete the Chicago Marathon (and, OK, PR), and then just relax and run for fun for a while!

I’m already trying out the “train slower, race faster" method… maybe “stress less, race faster" will turn out to be a thing, too? We shall see.

In other news, I’m about to embark on the 100 push-ups program tomorrow. I got a few weeks into it back in 2010, right around the time Aaron and I started hanging out together; you may recall I was able to do 10 during a push-up challenge at my mom’s house. My all-time record is 12, but that was after a few tequila shots, so I don’t think that counts?

As for the program: First, you do an initial test to see how many push-ups you can do. I can do THREE, which is actually three more than I thought I could do! Once you know your starting point, it’s easy to follow along with the program three times a week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday is the logical schedule — and be on your way to push-up glory in six weeks.

Check out the website for full details, and print this handy, one-page booklet like I did (see PocketMod for folding instructions). Or you can download the app, I guess. But why would you want to when you could fold some shit??

Let me know if you’re down to do some push-ups and we’ll be cool together. I should note that not only do I want to get stronger and therefore become a better runner, but I want my arms to look awesome for the engagement photos Aaron and I be taking in late September.

This is our photographer, by the way. Her work is just stunning. We so excited!

My Saucony Kinvara 4s looked so sad tucked away on our shoe shelf, so I took them out for a nice 7-mile run.

They finally feel broken-in and awesome! The only problem with them is that I can’t, for the life of me, slow down while running in them.

This felt like nothin’. Crazy!

Aaron caught up with me in the last mile of my run as he was finishing 60 miles of biking, so we slowly ran/biked back to our place and chatted. It’s fun that we’re automatically two-thirds of a triathlon relay team. 🙂

Post-run. I wanted to show off my cool shoes, but just wound up standing really oddly instead?

Maybe I’ll be cool… someday.

Suncadia is a resort in Cle Elum, about 90 minutes outside of Seattle. There, 22 members of Aaron’s family — hailing from Seattle, Colorado, Chicago, Michigan, and Florida — gathered for five days last week for a big reunion.

The resort lived up to its name! Since it was so hot and sunny, we spent most of our time doing this:

No complaints here!

I had good intentions to complete three runs during the vacation, but only did one — a measly four-miler that was super-slow and felt a little like death, thanks to the elevation. After that, I decided that staying up late to play cards every night and then sleeping in was way more fun than waking up early enough to run seven miles on Saturday and 14 miles on Sunday before it got too hot. Oh, well.

We did do some slowwwww, casual biking around the resort! I’m still not very comfortable on a bike, thanks to my accident last Labor Day. The trauma endures.

And one day, a bunch of us went to Cashmere to go whitewater rafting on the Wenatchee River! The weather was perfect, and it was SO much fun.

I only almost fell out of the boat twice. Win!

Notice that I’ve given up paddling here and am just holding onto Aaron’s vest for dear life. Typical.

It was lovely to meet more of Aaron’s extended family and get to know them, since I think all of them will be coming to our wedding next fall.

My family is pretty tiny (one brother, only two cousins!), but with all of Aaron’s half- and step-siblings and cousins, plus all of their families, I’m marrying into a huuuuge, fun, awesome group of people!

Our group stayed in two amazing rental houses on the Suncadia grounds. This was the house Aaron and I stayed in with nine other people.

Just a little cabin in the woods, y’know? Ridiculous. Someone actually owns this as their vacation home and rents it out through Suncadia when they’re not using it. The kitchen was my fave. So gorgeous and roomy!

Now it’s back to Seattle (which has suddenly turned gray and gloomy) and sea level. But Aaron and I aren’t through with vacations and elevation yet! Our next trip in September is to…

COLORADO!

Boulder and Vail, yo. It’s going to be brutal for marathon training, but it’ll be so, so beautiful!

Any tips for running at high altitude? I’m gonna need ‘em.

I’ve been MIA from the ol’ blog lately, but only because I’ve been busy vacationing with Aaron’s family, running (except for those 7-mile and 14-mile runs I skipped while on vacation; whoops!), and hanging on every *most dramatic episode ever* of The Bachelorette.

Did you see part one of the finale on Monday?? Shit got real.

Anyway, I’ll do a catch-up post soon. For now I’m just saying hi and showing you my sweat.