December Running in Dallas

From mildly cold weather (46-48)...

To really, really nice weather (55-70)..

And back to actually cold weather (37-41)...

Can't Texas make up its mind??

Clearly I'm on a sort of running streak with the end of the year fast approaching. I did the math and figured I can get 600 miles by the end of the year as long as I run 15 miles total by the 1st. If I run 5 miles a day for the next 3 days, I can do it!

Hope everybody had a good Christmas! I sure did!

December Running in Bellevue

December has been cold and rainy, much like one would think a December in Seattle should be. But honestly, I've hardly had time to sit back and reflect on it- since the Seattle Half Marathon, which was on the last day of November, I've really kept myself busy.

First, running in nearly perfect weather:

And then not-so-great weather:

And back to awesome again:

I really love all the happy faces! Usually I've got a few "so-so" run in there, or even a miserable run, but not this month so far! I feel great about the amount of running I've been able to fit in, and the weather hasn't been terrible. Even the 4 miler in the rain (December 11th) was kind of refreshing.

In other news...we arrived in Dallas on Wednesday night for the holidays! It's the first time in two years that I've been able to come this early. It's wonderful - I'm taking in the Dallas holiday spirit (and Mexican food) as indulgently as I can.

Before I talk about Dallas, though, I have to talk about December in Seattle. I:

• attended 6 auditions
• ...and was called back for 3 shows and got cast in all three! Two were at the same time, so I had to chooe, but now am already cast in two shows for 2015! 
• took 3 voice lessons
• went to 7 yoga classes
• got a massage (much needed, after the half marathon)
• performed in two choir performances
• was a seated actor in a Dinner Detective show
• was an reenactment extra on a show called "Ghost Adventures", on the Travel Channel
• had to go to the car dealership to get my windshield wiper fixed
• saw A Christmas Story at The 5th Avenue Theatre with JW
• attended the Bellevue Presbyterian Worship by Music service with JW
• witnessed our doors and windows being installed (finally!)

I'm exhausted just reading over all of that! It was tough, but worth it.

I'm sure at some point I'll make a resolutions post, like I did last year, but for now I'll just keep on keepin' on.

The Half Marathon I Didn't Train For

I've talked a little bit on here about how running has been going since the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon, but here's a more detailed summary:

Somewhat consistent. However, if I had planned on training for the Amica Seattle Half Marathon on November 30, my training should have looked something like this:

The blue is what I actually did, the orange is what I should have done. Along with interval, speed, and tempo workouts. Granted, the first week is a little skewed because the Bellingham Half Marathon was on 9/28, so that mileage (13.1) is included in the first week's count.

If I took that out...

The fact that some of my weekly totals were the same distance (a little less if you count that .1!) as the half marathon is really telling.

So, why did I sign up for the Amica Seattle Half Marathon the day before the race? To put it simply, because it was going to be a beautiful sunny day, my sister-in-law was running it, and I had participated the two previous years. Plus I was kind of curious as to how I would do, going into a race under-trained.

Trying to ignore the fact that it was 25 degrees, and my dismal training, here are the results!

My first half marathon in 2011 was my slowest at 2:14:04, so with almost no training whatsoever, I'd say 02:10:17 isn't too shabby!

My sister-in-law, herself- she's the whole reason I ran this! She's the one who ran her first half marathon in October and loved it so much that she immediately signed up for the Seattle Half. We took the above picture about 10 minutes before we started.

The beginning of the race was much better than the second half, for me - Rachel and I knew that we were going to split up, so I went ahead pretty early because I was feeling good. It was going to be a beautiful day, but it was still really cold - under 30 degrees.

At least the view was awesome.

There was still ice in the grass.

But there wasn't a cloud in the sky!

I started feeling pain probably around Mile 9- my hips were really killing me, and my feet started to cramp. Rachel and I talked about it later and realized that was the benefit of training - our feet and our joints would have been trained, as well as our cardiovascular system. I had just never thought about it that way!

29 degrees, 9'36'' pace. Not to bad, but not awesome either. Oh well.. now I really understand the benefit of training.

November Recap