(Finally) Moving In and Adding Mileage

My last early morning run with Chelsey was last Thursday :( Sad day!!

look at those awesome negative splits!

at least it was a beautiful morning!

The moment finally arrived - move in day!! JW and I spent the rest of last weekend moving and unpacking. Helloooo, house! Here are a few pictures of the bare living room.

We still have a long way to go with painting and ripping up carpet, but it's nice knowing we won't be moving again for a very long time. Of course, we had to have cake to celebrate...

Happy birthday, house!! 

I wanted to run again last Saturday morning, but I could not get out of bed. We kind of forgot how awesome our own bed is and have really enjoyed being able to sleep in it again! We knew we were going to go see poodle puppies Saturday (!!!), so I wasn't even sure I was going to run at all. But, we got back early enough so I felt like I just needed to do it to get it out of the way.

One of the many puppies we met...

I tried the new trail by our new place, and ran the first double digits (11!) of the training cycle. It was okay - I ran past a few squatters which was unpleasant, and the rest of the trail was a massive, massive hill. I fared well but at 9 miles I really had to slow it down, as you can see.

Last Sunday, deviating from what is normally on my plan, it called for 6 more miles. JW had a gig an hour and a half away in Anacortes, so we had to leave at 9:10am- so I knew I had to get my run out of the way quickly if I was going to do it at all. Fortunately I'm still kind of used to getting up early to run!

I went down the main street that runs by our new place, and it was all good until I got to Mile 3, when I started going down this massive hill. It was awesome, until I had to turn around and go back up it. It was very reminiscent of the day before, when I felt like I kept running into hills. It's okay, though - I'm still getting used to our new place and figuring out where the trails are, and I know it'll take some time to find the really perfect routes for my runs.

kind of sick of hills.

In any case, I think this may have been the perfect route for a nice 4 miler.

I'm getting really frustrated with my lack of speed lately but I have to keep telling myself to take it easy, as it hasn't really been the easiest last couple of weeks. Also I dramatically increased my mileage (probably a little too quickly) so I just need to be thankful I haven't gotten injured so far. But still.. I'd like to be as fast as I was last fall with marathon training, checking off sub 9 minute miles like it was nothing. Ah, well.

I did a nice tempo run this morning that I'll chat about in my next post!

Cheesecake and Running

Last Thursday, JW surprised me by meeting me at the mall where my rehearsal was and took me to Red Robin where we split a hamburger, and then walked over to The Cheesecake Factory to get some cheesecake. Pre-birthday celebration!

S'mores Cheesecake

30th Anniversary Cheesecake

Then we walked over to Ruth's Chris and partook in their happy hour.

Yummy wine and lemon drop :)

our relationship in a nutshell

The bartender noticed it was close to our birthdays - JW's is on November 20th - so he gave us these Rattlesnake shots, which was Kahlua, Bailey's, and creme de cacao. It was DELICIOUS.

Rattlesnake Shots

After we walked back home, I decided it was a good idea to run 6 miles on the treadmill. Ha-ha! I had to stop 3 different times. Yeahhh.

It was a dismal run. Ugh. Soooo bad.

On Saturday I skipped my 5.5 mile planned run and just went right onto the 11 miler on Sunday. On the treadmill. May not have been the best idea, but oh well.

Felt a LOT faster on this run, and just better overall. I've been really slacking on running lately and I feel bad about it, so I hope to make this week a lot better since next week I'll be in Dallas and tapering for the half. Hopefully the weather will be nice enough that it feels good to run outside. I'm still kind of battling a semi-cold so I'm trying not to push it.

This'll be the first month since July that I'll be running less than 100 miles in a month - why does that make me feel weird?? I keep trying to find a way to fit in 30 extra miles but I mean, come on. That's not gonna happen.

I feel like this week will FLY by - I'm leaving on Sunday for Thanksgiving in Dallas, and until then, I'll just be catching up on work, running, going to yoga, and packing. Eep.