Superbowl and Speed

For some reason, I keep reading back to my July-August 2013 entries and seeing how fast I was. I was running so much more than I am now, and my mile splits were almost always in the 8's. Why?!

January 26: 4 Miles, 9'03" average pace - sunny, 51°. This run felt great, but I was really pushing it because I was upset by the above statement. What has stopped me from being fast? No real effort at wanting to be faster? Was it because I stopped listening to music while I ran? Was it because I had turned off the vocal queues at each mile, telling me how fast my average pace was? Well, I turned that back on, and it may have made a difference - it may haven't. This pace is definitely the fastest I've ran this route, anyway.

January 28: 4 Miles, 8'55" average pace - sunny, 51°. Another run where I actively pushed myself to be faster, though admittedly I wanted to make the first mile much much slower than it ended up being (8'55"). I sped up progressively throughout the third mile and then took the last mile as a cooldown at 9'18", still pretty speedy. I guess the old adage "To get faster, be faster" is certainly true. I listened to music this time - Songza's playlist "Performance Enhancing Pop: Cycling" for the last two miles, and it really helped. I forgot how energizing listening to music while running is! I've gotten so used to listening to podcasts...

January 29: 4 Miles, 9'01" average pace - sunny, 49°. I didn't think I'd run this day (Thursday) since I had run pretty hard the day before, but this run felt just a great as Wednesday's run. I tried a new route and was inspired by the new-ness of it, I guess. I had no idea I was going so fast. I started at a "slow" pace of 9'26" and my second mile was the fastest at 8'41". The rest of the miles were in the 8s.

Superbowl fun!

January 31: 9 Miles, 9'15" average pace - cloudy, 42°. Brr. This was a cold one. My second mile was the fastest at 8'48", and the rest of the miles were in the high 9s, except for the last mile, which was at 8'57". What has happened to me?! I actually tried to actively make this a slow run by listening to podcasts but still managed to be more than 15 seconds faster per mile than last week's long run. Maybe running fast for most of the week has really helped.

Total Miles for January 25-31: 21 miles, an 11% increase from last week.

Our group on Superbowl Sunday

It was clearly bothering me that I'm so much slower than I was in 2013. I think I really enjoy running 3-4 days a week. 5 is just a little bit too much for me to handle right now, at least until I build some decent mileage. I like focusing on speed (it makes the runs go by quicker, after all!).

One thing I really wish would stop happening is for cars to stop honking at me as I run by. I know I'm not in the way, I know they aren't honking at anyone else (it always happens right as they pass me), and sometimes it's two short distinct beeps and sometimes it's one longer beep, but it's unnecessary and frankly, a form of harassment that needs to stop. I have as much of a right as anybody to run on the sidewalk, safely, and it isn't right for anyone to honk at a woman attempting to exercise. I don't care if they're actually doing it for encouragement - it's not, at all.

Anyway. I had a great week - it was filled with sunny, fast runs and it ended (started?) with hanging out with great friends. Even though we ended up losing (1 yard...!), I still had a blast hanging out with everybody.

Recognize someone? :D

Some really awesome things with theatre are happening with me, which I'll announce when I can! Basically, I've had some really stellar auditions and I can't wait for the summer. :D In the meantime, the play I'm in, Death By Chocolate, has been really fun. We open in two and a half weeks!

We'll see if I can keep up with running - but since I'm not training for anything specific right now, I think my maximum might be around 20 miles a week. It's quite a struggle to get any more, unfortunately. I honestly can't believe I ran 9 miles last Saturday! Right now I think I might focus a little more on dancing and singing... we'll see.

What's your miles-per-week "sweet spot"?

Decompressing with Busy-ness

Introducing my character in Death By Chocolate, the play I'm acting in for most of February and March:

Georgia Gore!

She's a rather unfortunately named food critic, and I wouldn't wish her fate on anyone. Dun dun dunnn! Rehearsals have been going well so far - I haven't needed to be in very many, which is good considering the rehearsal space is about 30 minutes away without traffic (so, an hour away - one way - with traffic).

Other than those rehearsals, I also went to choir rehearsal, a voice lesson, a 6 hour choir retreat, and last but not least I co-hosted a Dinner Detective show.

I had to unwind a bit...

Since my friend Chelsey's birthday is on New Year's Eve, I was invited to come out with some of her girlfriends and celebrate her day of birth, just a few weeks late :)! You may remember Chelsey from last summer when we ran at 5:15 in the morning, and Larissa from the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon!

I'm so glad I had time to visit with this group of fantastic girls! I definitely need to make more time to hang out with fantastic people such as these ladies, because I certainly don't do it enough.

I also hung out with JW and my sister-in-law Rachel to watch The Imitation Game, which was fantastic. I'm trying to watch all the Oscar nominees before they air on February 22nd!

And can we please talk about THE SEAHAWKS???

YAAAS!! I thought it would take a miracle during the whole game, but what do you know!! They pulled it off!

And, finally, last week's summary of runs:

January 12th: 3 Miles, 9'28" average pace - partly sunny, 50°. Started too fast at 8'55" and slowed down almost a full minute in the second mile, then finished the third mile at 9'41". Felt pretty bleh before I ran - but of course, felt much better after I ran.

January 13th: 4 Miles, 9'48" average pace - sunny, 43°. Sun!!! Felt SO good during this run in the sun! Though it was colder (it was 33 that morning), I didn't mind it that much. My first mile was the fastest at 9'27" and then I slowed progressively (to 10'12"), and then back to 9'30" for the last mile.

January 15th: 4 Miles, 10'39" average pace - partly sunny (sunrise), 36°. So cold! So early! I did this run at 8am (so, no real fuel either) and ran on my most difficult route, with over 138ft in elevation changes. Started downhill (per usual) at 9'43" and just got slower and slower, til I bottomed out at 11'24". Yikes.

January 16th: 7 Miles, 10'05" average pace - partly sunny, 50° . Very pleased with this long run pace, compared to last week's long run pace of almost exactly a minute slower! I started fast but ended faster, which is what I always want to strive for. I was the slowest during the 6th mile at 10'36" but that's as slow as I got. Yippee!

January 17th: 2 Miles, 11'09" average pace - cloudy (before the sunrise), 40°. I didn't get enough sleep the night before, and I ran this at 7:40am, my earliest run in a while. I felt a little sick throughout the whole thing, and was happy when it was finished.

Total miles for January 11th-17th: 20 miles, 10% higher than the previous week.

I didn't make it out to run with the Seattle Green Lake Running Group, but that's because I had to move my long run to Friday- so, maybe this next week I'll be able to make it out??

I was pretty busy last week, but I don't think I would have it any other way - in a weird way, it helps me relax! Hopefully everybody else's week is off to a good start.

Admission Wednesday: "Diets" and Side-view Mirrors

I admit... My old roommate's wedding invitation arrived yesterday (she is coincidentally having her wedding almost exactly 1 month before mine) and I almost cried from the beauty of it. The stationary was exquisite, the thick paper folded into thirds with little pockets and an intricate pattern on the outside. I really can't wait for her wedding weekend. It made me feel a little ashamed of my invitations, though: I plan on hand-writing them (nightmare) and attempted to use as little paper/postage as possible, so we're having people e-mail us their RSVPs. Is that tacky? I hope not.

I admit... I think green juice is disgusting.

I admit... I'm cooking/home-making things more often, and while I do feel more healthy, really all it does is make me do dishes more often.

Homemade granola bars

I admit... Sometimes, I really don't like it when it's sunny here. 2 reasons: A) Usually that means it's much, much colder than usual. B) I feel like the sun is mocking me somehow for staying inside. Like, because it's sunny, I should be spending as much time outside as I can. But sometimes you just want to stay inside and be warm and comfy, you know?? (Related: my hands are freezing right now typing this.)

I admit... I had a great time on Superbowl Sunday (though I ate a little too much), but the game wasn't really that exciting. I mean, yeah, we were winning, but within 12 seconds of the game starting. It was gravy from there. It wasn't exactly a nail-biter like the NFC Championship game.

Also you can tell how we're big Seahawks fans because of all the merchandise we own... or not. Whoops. Also you wouldn't catch me dead at that parade today - not only do I not live in Seattle (I'm across the lake in Bellevue) and would have to battle the thousands of people (I've heard that half a million are going to show up??) who are also trying to get down there - but being outside today (it's 27 degrees right now) is just not on my to-do list today. Sorry Seahawks. I love you guys.. but no.

I admit... My diet is not going well. I was wayyyy too happy when Yogurtland had free yogurt and toppings on Monday. (Now can you get a picture of what my eating has been like this past week??) At least it was a "small" container??

A container used as a lid

YUM

 I admit... Sometimes I'm a bad driver. But at least only to myself. Meaning, parking garages are my enemy - specifically ones that have those giant cement pillars so close to all the spaces. So, here's the story: I was pulling into a space, and I was too close to the giant cement pillar, and it started to scrape across the right side of my car. So I panicked, decided to straighten out, backed out - and BANG. The giant cement pillar whacked my side view mirror almost clean off. Damnit! Thankfully, only the mirror part was detached from the car, not the whole thing. So I decided to be crafty and fix it like this:

Ta-Da!

Any admissions for today?

Previous Admission Wednesdays:

January 29: Weights On and Off My Shoulders
January 22: Yoga and A Bunch of Wedding Feelings
January 15: Yoga and Pain