Dev on Running

I ran 7 fast miles tonight and never got tired. I’m kinda freaked out about it.

But I think I’ll stop worrying about my pace so much and just embrace the fact that I’ve gotten faster!

It’s kind of crazy that eating so few carbs has given me more energy and endurance when conventional running wisdom says to eat lots of carbs. I felt like freakin’ Superman tonight, so I think I’ll be sticking with Paleo for a while! But I digress.

I was cruising so hard during mile five that someone walking the opposite way around Green Lake said, “Hey Devon!” and I just kept on running, Forrest Gump style, while yelling, “Hey!” over my shoulder. I recognized the girl’s face, but couldn’t for the life of me remember her name or where I knew her from for the whole rest of the run. (It JUST hit me: She’s a former co-worker named Cristina!)

Anyway, it was a great run, and I’m super-excited for Seattle’s Best 15K in May. I ran the race two years ago at an 8:55 pace, and I think I can crush that this year.

Although someone made the excellent plan to run that race, and then run 10 additional miles to complete 19 miles total for marathon training. Wheeee!

I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Time to enjoy two glorious rest days!

Last night I ran hills, baby!

I took a half-mile break after the first five repeats to rest my legs, then kind of struggled through five more. I did so much mental cheerleading, though, that I felt strong by the end and did an eleventh repeat just to prove to myself that I could! It felt good.

Four miles total:

I had to rearrange my training plan a bit this week since Aaron’s 27th birthday is on Friday (woooooooo!) and we’re celebrating both Thursday and Friday. Just like this:

That means three straight days of running for me, with tonight’s seven-miler rounding out the effort.

My legs will be so, so happy to enjoy two rest days before tackling 15 miles on Saturday!

Four miles tonight:

The only thing of note from this run was that there was a guy walking around Green Lake wearing a full gas mask. WHAT. IS. THAT.

I feel bad if he has some sort of ailment that requires him to wear that in public, but… I really can’t think of one. Anyone? 

I mayyyyy have run a little faster as I passed him.

Now it’s time to eat Aaron’s homemade Paleo meatballs (he made 48 of them because we powered through them so quickly last time, ha) and catch up on Mad Men!

Aaron and I have a weird little dance we do to the theme song. Doo-doo doo-doo, doo-doo doo-doo, doo-doo doo-doo, doo-doo doo-doo dooooooooooooo…..

Oh, shush.

After Aaron’s race, we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch because I’ve been craving a big ol’ plate of greasy, melty, cheesy, non-Paleo goodness.

I had all my faves: chips and salsa, rice and beans (mixed together, of course), beef flautas, sour cream, guac — the works. It was tasty, but not as good as I remember it.

It was so weird how the meal just knocked. me. out. When we got home, I crashed on the couch for a two-and-a-half hour nap. Remember: Aaron was the one who raced this morning! I won’t be craving that kind of Mexican food again for A WHILE.

Speaking of Aaron’s race: The online results showed he did get third in his age group, and he’s in second place for the entire race series. He’s just 10 points behind the first-place guy — hot damn! Here are some more pics from this morning:

Let me tell you, balancing an umbrella and trying to keep a $$$ camera dry in torrential rain is hard. Not as hard as mountain bike racing, though…

Back to my food coma. When I woke up, the rain had stopped and I debated going for a run since I missed four miles of hill work this week, but I decided an hour on the spin bike would be better recovery for my legs. I also lifted weights, woo-hoo!

Now, I’ve got a fantastic workout top to recommend. I saw it in a Road Runner Sports catalog and thought it was cute, but often things that look cute on models don’t look nearly as good in real life. This top proved me wrong!

The top of the tank is fitted, but from the waist down, it’s just loose enough so it doesn’t cling to everything — that’s my number-one pet peeve with most workout tops! This top is the perfect mix of fitted, but not skin-tight.

Also, the gray material on the back is a very breathable mesh, so it feels super-cool when you’re sweating. I wore the purple version on my long run yesterday and this pink one on the spin bike tonight, and I’m officially in love. (Yes, I am one of those girls who buys all her running clothes in pink and purple, so you can blame me for the excessive existence of those colors in women’s workout gear. BUT I’M NOT SORRY.)

That’s all for tonight. Time to resume my coma. Good night!

The weather was NOT cooperating for my long run this morning.

We’re used to rain in Seattle, but not torrential, horizontal, end-of-days style rain! It was crazy. I waited it out until just before 2 p.m., when I saw blue sky emerging.

I ran a little faster than usual because I wasn’t sure how long the good weather would hold. Six miles in = still good!

10.75 miles in = still good weather, but not-so-good palm scrapes.

For the very first time, I totally ate it while running. I was slurping on my second chocolate Clif shot and not really paying attention to the sidewalk when my foot caught an uneven spot and launched me forward. Luckily, I only suffered minor scrapes on both palms — plus major loss of dignity, as I was running along a fairly busy street.

I think the rule is that if you can Instagram your injury, you’re OK. I would hope nobody has ever tried to choose the perfect filter while, like, bleeding out or something. Hashtag #bleedingout.

Anyway, the wind picked up and dark clouds started rolling back in at that point, so I hightailed it toward home to round out 14 miles.

Whoops. A little fast. Must work on my “long, slow distance” technique before I burn out.

Now, a Seinfeld marathon (Aaron is watching the whole series from the beginning; I grew up with it and love re-watching) and eating allllllll the food! I roasted a bunch of veggies and Aaron just grilled some flank steak — YUM.

Also, he made more peanut butter bites, and they’re somehow even better this time around.

I would love to make them sometime with chocolate almond butter and just die of happiness from all the chocolatey goodness. Ooooh, just try and stop me!

Thursday night I ran seven miles after work — my longest weeknight run to date for this marathon training cycle.

(Is it weird that while I was training for my first marathon, I pretty much freaked out about it for 18 weeks, but this time I kinda forget I’m training for a marathon?)

My sub-4:00 plan calls for me to do one run every other week at marathon pace, which I had determined several weeks ago would be 9:05 min/mi — that’s for a 3:57:59 marathon.

But I keep running… uhh… faster.

I always think during these “pace” runs that I should slow down, but then I feel like I’m not actually getting a workout, so I settle into a consistent, comfortable-but-fast-ish (for me) pace.

Am I sabotaging myself here? Should I be slowing down? Or should I set a bigger goal for my marathon time?

I’m doing my long runs pretty consistently at 9:15 average pace, so if my faster runs are about 8:45 average pace, maybe I can make those meet in the middle for a 9:00 min/mi marathon (that’s a finish time of 3:55:48, ooh-la-la).

I can’t overthink it! All I know is that I’m feeling super-strong and confident about Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle.

Oh, just kidding, here’s the elevation chart:

Nope, nope, confidence. Gotta have confidence.

That’s better!

Aaron and I got up to some hijinks at a local park tonight (to be explained soon) and I pulled this majestic pose as a joke, but I actually quite like the photo. Heh!

I’ve got 14 miles to run in the morning. Time for bed!