Author: devonpass

First of all, I went to bed around 12:45 last night after being out and about drinking beer and eating pizza with my roommates and other friends. (I drove, so I didn’t overdo it!)

I decided I would sleep in this morning… just wake up whenever I naturally woke up.

That happened to be 7:45 — what’s wrong with me? — and it was too sunny and beautiful out to stay inside.

I had breakfast, applied loads of sunscreen and packed everything I needed for a safe ride — water, Larabar, cell phone (my roommate was on call to save me if I needed help!), ID, debit card — into my fuel belt. I clipped in and I was off.

I had no distance goal or anything — I just decided to ride until I felt like turning around. I thought that would be somewhere around the University of Washington campus (GO HUSKIES), which is only 4-5 miles away.

But I felt great and got really comfortable on the bike, so I kept going… and going… and going… until I hit 11 miles. I COULD have kept going, but the trail was closed up ahead, and I didn’t feel like doing the detour route. Plus, I had passed a nice beach park and wanted to head back there to rest and eat my Larabar.

The 11 miles back went by very quickly. I LOVE RIDING on the Burke-Gilman trail with no cars to worry about!! Since I went fairly early on a Sunday, the trail wasn’t too crowded with other cyclists and runners, so it was a very low-stress ride.

22 miles. All by myself. Wow.

Maybe I need to get a bike version of my “Run now — wine later” Bondi band?

(Obviously I wore a helmet, but I took it off while at the beach park.)

This was such a confidence-building ride. I feel like I could go so much farther!

The bike portion of my super-sprint tri is only 9 miles, so I’m not worried about it at all. Just have to work on that swim!

10 miles before 10 a.m. with my friend Carly this morning. We’re ready for our sub-two-hour half!! Just an 11-miler to go next Saturday, and then it’s game time on Monday, Sept. 5.

I was hurting after this run. My legs felt fine; I was just TIRED! Please observe the time for mile 10 — 8:53.

The floor seemed like a good place to be. I also tried to get some electrolytes to go straight to my brain.

Hmmm, not quite! I picked up the drink at a convenience store on my way home and was not prepared for how sugary it tasted. I would have killed for some Nuun! Must stock up.

Do y’all have a favorite Nuun flavor? I’ve only tried a few, but Tropical is pretty delish!

This chart has way too much information, but here’s last night’s run:

My plan was to do a one-mile warmup, followed by 6 x 400 speed intervals with an eighth-mile’s worth of recovery in between (walking/jogging/chugging water), followed by a one-mile cooldown.

I programmed my Garmin for this workout using these helpful instructions. This was the first time I’d really messed with my Garmin and it worked out pretty great! It beeped every time I needed to start and end an interval, and it showed me all the info I wanted to keep track of as I was running (pace, time per interval, distance per interval).

The only problem was with Lap 14. I miscounted how many intervals I had done and thought that was going to be my sixth go, but it was really my seventh — aka, I really should have hit the “lap” button to end the workout and do my cooldown!

I was busting my booty trying to run a good last interval and then was confused when the watch didn’t beep after .25 mile… so I started my cooldown, THEN remembered I needed to hit the “lap” button. Shiz was just crazy.

Anyway. Pretty happy with the 400s:

– 1:52 (7:31 pace)
– 1:50 (7:23)
– 1:50 (7:20) <— not sure why the pace isn’t 7:23 as well…?
– 1:48 (7:13)
– 1:50 (7:20)
– 1:41 (6:46) <— nuts!

So sweaty. So tired. I’m sure the people on the Burke-Gilman trail were all like, “Stop running so fast and you won’t have to stop and walk!!” Yeah. I’ll go to a track next time, where there are more crazy people like me.