Lemonade run

I’m not one of those “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade” people. (I know, hard to believe, right?) But every now and then, that phrase is somewhat appropriate for my life. Today I had a longer run on my schedule, so I arranged to run from my ‘hood to meet up with M and then run together so that I could have some company for the second half of my run. I timed it so that I would get there at a certain time if I started running at the start of the bridge. But when I arrived at the bridge, I first had to walk because there was an older couple on the narrow walkway and then just after I passed them and started running, the red light on the bridge turned on, indicating that it was about to go up.

So, since I happened to have my camera with me, I decided to make the best of it and take some pictures of the Ballard Bridge going up from a vantage point I very rarely have. So here are some pretty pictures of the Ballard bridge and it’s surroundings on a pretty fall day. Enjoy!

If you squint in the above shot, you’d be able to see this guy stand-up paddleboarding, but here’s a better shot:

I’m also a big fan of the old pick-up truck parked on the pier… I love Seattle and all of it’s little quirks. Soon the bridge came back down and I could run again. It was a pretty day and the run felt pretty good. I met up with M with no troubles and we had a good run up to the Sculpture Garden and back to her car. We’re not going to have too many more sunny days ahead, so I feel like I really maximized my enjoyment of this weekend’s pretty weather.

Long run home

I’ve been steadily increasing my weekly long run and combining it with my commute home. At first, it was just me running home, but as the time/distance has increased, it’s made me have to get more creative with my routes home. Tonight I had to do an hour and fifty minutes and was aiming for about ten miles. I decided to do a route through the Seattle Center, then along Elliott Bay and across the Ballard bridge home.

This route has the advantage of passing some famous landmarks:

(A little side story: hidden behind the tree is the “dragon swing” ride that is the site of one of my favorite early dating stories with T. We worked at a theatre company nearby and would occaisionally wander over to the amusement park on our breaks and ride some of the rides. My favorite ride of all time is the dragon swing, so that was my choice. T, trying to impress me, said that it was his favorite ride also, so he’d go with me. When we got to the ride, it was closed while they mopped the vomit out of it, much to my actual (and T’s faked) disappointment. It wasn’t until another visit later on that I found out that T absolutely hates the dragon swing and gets super nauseated by it. Ah, young love!)

My route also took me through the sculpture garden and this lovely view:

It was a tough run, crampy and hard to get in a groove. But I made it 9.5 miles and got to try out a new route, so it was worth it.

Challenge Update

Back in mid-December, I posted about a training challenge I was taking on (in this post, for those who don’t memorize my blog… ) Today marked the 70th run, leaving me 9 days to hit my 80 run goal. This means that I’ll have to double up and two runs on one of the days and then run for at least 30 minutes on each of the other days. I’ve done enough doubles now that I’m pretty confident I can do it, but I’m not counting my chickens until March 24th.

Today’s run was a tough one. The weather looked sunny when I left my house, but just as I started my run, freezing cold rain was pouring down, accompanied by gusts of wind. Then the rain gave way to sun again, but the wind picked up to the point where I was running into a pretty crazy headwind. At some points it felt like an invisible person pushing against me, but I tried to relax and not stress about it. As I ran along, I thought about the challenge and how much it has changed my running. My mileage per week is higher than it’s ever been – around 25 miles per week and am faster and more efficient.

Looking back at the beginning of the challenge, with December snowstorms and January chest cold making it look very improbable that I could get 80 runs in over 100 days. I started out with only 8 runs in December and 19 in January, putting me at 27 runs 45 days into the challenge. But February went really well and I was able to do quite a few double run days and was back on track. I can definitely say that the challenge has gotten me to run on days where I wouldn’t have otherwise and it’s taught me that I can handle the mileage.

Once the challenge ends, it will be time to start adding distance into the mix (and try not to slow down too much… ) All I can say is that I hope that all of this running pays off in August…

A new training challenge

For the last few years, Slowtwitch does a 100 runs in 100 days challenge. And for the last few years, I thought those people were nuts. This year, I’ve decided to join them. Not for the full hundred, but for the 80 runs in 100 days option. I’m excited to take this on as it will really help me get my running frequency up and motivate me to run through the crappy winter weather. Basically, for a run to count it just has to be 30 minutes or longer, so for me it’s all about short, frequent runs.

Leading up to this, I’ve been pretty good about running around 4 times per week so hopefully I’ll be able to build up to the 5-6 times required without too much trouble. I’ll keep y’all posted on my progress!

Jingle Bell, jingle bell, jingle bell run…

This morning T and I got up bright and early to freeze our butts off with thousands of our friends at the 24th annual Jingle Bell 5k I knew the race was popular, but I was surprised by exactly how popular, especially since it had snowed the night before and the temperatures were in the 20’s. But this was the scene that greeted us:

We were stupidly in the second wave, which was I’d read was supposed to be for folks who run between an 8 minute – 9:30 minute mile. In reality, it’s for people who are too stupid to read a website… Sigh. Here’s T freezing before the start:

And as we lined up here’s what we were looking at:

So, here’s my abbreviated race report. Walked or jogged slowly enough that I might as well have walked for the first half mile or so, went into the scary express lanes tunnel that I hate DRIVING through (though I must confess everyone singing Jingle Bells as we entered the tunnel was pretty fun) and then tons of dodging, weaving and trying not to curse out loud. (Inside my head was a whole other matter… ) It was just way too crowded and I didn’t really enjoy it. Should I ever do this race again, I would definitely line up in the first wave where I could hopefully at least run the damn thing… Oh well, live and learn!

Turkey trot

Thanksgiving morning started with a fun 5k race in my neighborhood, the Seattle Turkey Trot. This is the second year for a very low-key race that had 30 people last year. No timing chips, race numbers or even street closures, just show up and run. This year they had over 150, so I’m excited to see the turnout next year. They did however, have very cute t-shirts…

(the rest of the 20 dollar entry fee went to the Ballard Food Bank, which was cool.) A view of the starting line:

M & I getting ready to throw down:

After a few pre-race announcements we were off! As usual, everyone took off and surged away from us (including a very amusing Weimaraner that would have won the race if not for his pesky human… ) but M & I tried to take it out at a reasonable pace. Sure enough, soon we were passing those people that went out too fast. The route was really gorgeous, winding through some neighborhoods down to the beach. There were views of the olympics in the distance and it was all slightly downhill or flat.

Toward the end, we were still passing people, but both of us were definitely flagging. For the last mile, M and I kept each other going, even though both of us wanted to die. Finally, the finish line was in sight and it was over. I looked at my watch – 30 minutes and 21 seconds! A definite PR for me, at least on the West Coast… (That’s 9:48 minutes per mile, which is pretty speedy for me.) Here’s a self-taken shot of the PR girls:

And a few more of the finish-line fun:

I love the chalk turkey…

And I’m proud to say we beat the girl in the turkey hat and the boa…

Afterward, I took advantage of the nearby ocean for a little lower leg ice bath:

Meanwhile, M took beautiful pictures of the scenery:

It was such a fun morning, even without the PR. The course was beautiful, our fellow racers were nice and we raised money for a good cause. Thanks to M for keeping me going and for being an awesome race partner!

Runnin’ with the night

Most of my runs lately have been after work in the dark. (If it weren’t for M and T, this would never happen so major props to them!) Last night after work, I met up with M in her neck of the woods for a brief jaunt through Queen Anne. I keep meaning to bring a camera along since we generally run to Kerry Park which is where you get the famous Seattle skyline view (a la Frasier) so last night I finally managed to do so. Voila!

Coming back we passed this fabulous expression of someone’s political views (It’s been there since the night after the election, but I hadn’t had a chance to snap a photo… )

I heart Seattle…

Shout out

This post is a shout out to M, my friend and partner in running. I’ve been on a mission to run at least 3 times a week before tri training starts back up again and with it being dark on both sides of my commute to work, I’ve been heavily relying on training partners to get me out there. With T in class on Mon & Wed, this duty falls to M. We had an awesome run on Monday, so we made plans to run again on Wednesday after work (last night.) We confirm plans during the day and all is in readiness, I’m going to bus over to her place and we’re going to do a new running route in her neighborhood, a.k.a. the Tour de Queen Anne.

Everything is going along fine until approx. an hour before I’m supposed to leave work and I get a call from M that I shall dramatize for you here:

M: OMG, the weather is totally sh$%#y. We’re really going to go running in this?

Me: Of course.

M: But it’s RAINING!

Me: Yeah, this is Seattle. If you cancel runs because of rain, you aren’t going to be able to run very often.

M: I guess, but (grumble, grumble, whine, grumble)

Me: It’ll be fine.

M: Whatever!

You get the picture… Then, another call when I’m on the bus.

M: I can’t believe you are MAKING me run in this weather. It’s crazy!

Me: It doesn’t look that bad over here…

M: We’re going to be pneumonia!

Me: I really don’t think it’s that bad…

M: You’re REALLY coming over here to make me run?

Me: Yes, I’m on the bus right now.

M: I’m not going.

Me: Oh yes you are! I’ll be over there in an hour

M: Then I shall be in my pajamas watching T.V.

Me: Then you shall go running in your pajamas!

M: (Incoherent threats and complaining… )

Me: See you in an hour…

M: (Unprintable language)

When I got off the bus not only was it not raining at all, but it was even slightly warmer than usual because there wasn’t any wind. Despite more grumbling from M we headed out into a dark fall evening. To M’s credit, once we get rolling she’s totally on board. Both of us were feeling a little sluggish at first, probably because Monday’s run felt so awesome that it set expectations way too high. But before long, we’d found our rhythm and were running past gorgeous views of Seattle (thanks Kerry Park) and gossiping, laughing and looking at the ridiculously beautiful houses along the way. Right as we were finishing our run, we caught up with M’s husband J as he was walking home from the bus stop. I hung out at their place until T got done with class and ate the fabulous dinner that J cooked for us, snuggled their kitty and watched terrible t.v. with M (ANTM, what the hell happened?) It was an excellent evening.

So M, thanks for the awesome run and for being such a good sport about me teasing you. You rock!

The journey of self-awareness

In the classic cinematic masterpiece I,Robot, Will Smith has a line that I really like “You’re the dumbest smart person I’ve ever met.” I feel like I am sometimes the personification of that line. This evening’s run was an excellent example. I coerced T into joining me (by bribing him with dinner at a place of his choosing afterward.) T decided to bring Wally along, so we were quite the trio.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around all of the Chi Running concepts that I learned in class and it’s been tough to train my body to forget all of it’s bad habits. I find myself trying to do too many corrections at once, so I’ve been focusing on doing multiple short runs so that I can practice one thing at at time. The hardest thing is to relax my lower legs and raise my cadence. It’s been tough because I’m so out of shape from not doing anything for like a month.

So, this evening was the first time I’d run with T in a long while and certainly the first time he’s seen me “chi run.” His first observation is that I was “much faster,” which explained why I was feeling so out of shape. I had him try to pace me at my ‘old pace’ and suddenly things felt a whole lot easier. Holy crap, it’s so much easier to relax your lower legs when you’re running at a comfortable pace. (Doi!) It’s still challenging to keep the cadence up with the easier pace, but I think I got enough of a sense of how the easier pace felt to practice it on my own. T also said that I looked a lot smoother and more fluid, which was huge.

It was really nice to run with T and even Wally behaved himself. The clicker training is working really well. He’s much less antagonistic to other dogs (mostly because we’re giving him treats) but he was just generally much better behaved. Afterwards, T chose Zayda Buddy’s – a totally unhealthy choice, but he kept up his end of the bargain so I kept up mine.

So not a bad evening, all in all…

Chi running

I’m not a runner. Those that have known me a long time have probably heard me utter the phrase “I would NEVER do that unless someone/thing is chasing me” or at the very least “This sucks!” depending on how long you’ve known me. Even now after years of training, running isn’t easy or natural. (Or as my loving husband puts it “just doesn’t look comfortable.”) Thanks Stupid Speedy T, love you!

This year with Ironman looming and all, I am committing to working on my run form and developing a love for the run in place of the passive-aggressive relationship we currently have. Years ago I read Danny Dreyer’s book Chi Running and was very interested in his take on the whole thing. (In a nutshell, he’s an endurance runner who also practices Tai Chi and applies it’s principles to running form) A lot of it is a little touchy feely for my taste, but for the most part it really made sense to me.

So, I roped my friend M into doing a session with a Chi Running instructor, so that I’d have an accountability partner. Unfortunately, we picked the first really crappy weather day of the Fall – windy and freezing for our outdoor session at Gasworks park. Oh well. Here’s M all geared up in her brand new running shirt (courtesy of Target) Doesn’t she look fab?

We found a great indoor spot out of the wind and had a really great class. It’s going to take a while to get all of  the new principles down, but I think that once I do, it’s going to improve my running a great deal.

In any case, I’m excited about running again (sort of) and that’s certainly something! Stay tuned for more exciting developments…