Wrapping Up March

Wrapping up March!

JW and I went to see a musical at ACT Theatre

My roommate Sarah came to visit Seattle for her birthday!

We had a great time while she was here :)

March 16: 6 Miles, 9'33" average pace, 57 degrees, partly sunny.

The weather was amazing all week!

March 17: 3 Miles, 9'36" average pace, 57 degrees, partly cloudy.

And that was it for running that week! Unfortunately, on Wednesday night I came home from rehearsal feeling really ill - sure enough, I had a fever and stayed in bed for the rest of the week and into the weekend. I needed to make sure to rest up in time for tech week!

I emerged from bed to have brunch with JW and Rachel's cousin, who was visiting

Total Miles for March 15-21: 9 Miles
Total Yoga Classes: 3 Classes: 2 Power classes, 1 Hatha class

March 22: 2 Miles, 11'14" average pace, 53 degrees, cloudy. This run was with JW!

The second time ever that we've run together :)

March 26: 2 Miles, 10'11" average pace, sunny. I was still not feeling great, but I couldn't pass up the wonderful weather!

And then I called it quits for running that week. Oh well, I still succeeded in getting 4 miles for the week! Woohoo!

Total Miles for March 22-28: 4 Miles
Total Yoga Classes: 5 Classes: 3 Hatha classes, 1 Power class, 1 Renew class

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.

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!

Volunteering and Cold Weather Running

Over the weekend, I volunteered for the Mud & Chocolate Run. They host a 4.5 mile trail run on Saturday, and a half marathon trail run on Sunday. I was looking for local volunteer opportunities and saw that they were in need of some, and I'm so glad I found them!

This boutique race is organized by NRG Running, and their founders, Jon and Nina, are the nicest and most laid back runners/race organizers I have met! They also host boutique race The Rain Run, and Nina told met they get some people who fly in just for that race!

For the 4.5 Mile run, there were 97 runners and I helped out at the finish line, passing out chocolate medals and bars to the finishers. For the half marathon, I was stationed at the check-in table, handing out t-shirts to those who had preordered them, and selling t-shirts to those who wanted some.

I'm so glad I picked Saturday to help out at the finish line and Sunday to be under the tent, because of course the first day it was bright, sunny, and beautiful - and Sunday it started to pour! I felt so bad for the trail runners, haha. Fortunately we all got chocolate in the end!

In other news... brrr it's getting so cold out now! Here are my runs since I last posted:

And then, it really started to get cold.

46 Degrees

At least it was beautiful, too!

43 Degrees

40 Degrees... eep!

Though it's been getting steadily colder in the mornings and not getting much warmer in the afternoons, when the sun is shining (contrary to popular belief, it's out a lot!) it's BEAUTIFUL.

Running in the cold is hard, but I kind of like it! It starts to feel nice and refreshing after about a mile.

Do you like mild weather or cold weather runs?

Trying Not to Overdo It

Ah, the calm after a race is over. Since Bellingham, I've been mainly relaxing and trying not to overdo working out. I do this thing where I put way too many things on my schedule - yoga, tap class, contemporary class, running, choir rehearsal, voice lesson - and then I get disappointed when I don't accomplish all of those things in one day. I have really crazy, unrealistic expectations sometimes.

For example, the Wednesday before the half marathon, one of my days included an advanced contemporary dance class, running 5 miles, an advanced tap class, and a choir rehearsal. And then I was surprised when I was super exhausted the next day. ?!? Sometimes I just get this feeling that I'm wasting my time if every single minute of every day is not filled with something to do.

So, I've been running some, sure - but if I haven't felt like it on the day I intended to do it, then I don't. No big deal. I just move it to the next day or delete it completely. I'm not training for any race right now, and I don't think I will for a while.

I've decided not to run in the Seattle Half Marathon this December, as I've done for the last two years. I would have had about 8 weeks to train, sure, but with how I was feeling during the last training cycle and not really giving myself a break... I decided it was in my best interest to just not do it. However, I did sign up to volunteer and I'm excited about that opportunity! I'm very interested to see what it's like to be on the other side of the race, so to speak.

Now, there is a possibility that I'll be running the 5K race the day before with the in-laws during their visit during Thanksgiving. It's kind of a tradition we have, running the Turkey Trot- and this race is one of the options we could do. However, this won't be a race like the previous years have been a race. I don't plan to train for this race, but to make it what it should be - a fun run.

As for how my runs have been since after Bellingham, here they are!

This run felt AWESOME. I felt like I could keep running forever and ever. It was great weather (in the 60s), sunny, and just all around a wonderful, wonderful fun. After this run I really had to control myself from immediately signing up for the Seattle Marathon.

I didn't run again until the next Monday - almost a week. A slightly less fun run. I ended up tripping right before finishing the first mile- on a downhill. I scraped up my leg pretty badly.

Ow. It really hurts. Anyways... the run was okay, but my calf muscle was really starting to just hurt since it was scraped so bad. Since the fall, yoga hasn't been great either, since I fell on the heel of my hand as well, so I can't put much pressure on it.

I ventured out again the next day for 3 miles, which went pretty well! Again, I'm not focused on time- just effort. Making it easy when I want to, and pushing when it feels okay to do so. My leg was still a little sore from the day before, but once I got in my groove it stopped hurting. It just looks pretty gnarly now.

So, it looks like running for the rest of the year will be mainly 5K fun runs and running around outside whenever the sun is out - which, surprisingly, it still is, even though it's October! I'm not complaining :)

Before Bellingham

I head to Bellingham today to run the Bellingham Bay Half Marathon!

Before I go, I should post about my runs during my dismal taper week:

This 5 miler was postponed from Tuesday and tacked onto one of the busiest Wednesdays I've ever had - somehow, I fit it in between a modern class, a tap class, a choir rehearsal, and moving furniture. Eep.

Then, I had my last shakeout run today... an easy 2 miles.

What do I expect for the half tomorrow? Well, honestly, I'm not sure. I've been trying to get enough sleep (7 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, 9 hours, and 6 hours since Monday) and eat enough carbs (not like I have to try very hard...) and I feel like I've succeeded okay. I drank like a fish today to make sure I'm hydrated enough.

These last few runs have all been "in the 9's", but my September monthly average so far has been 9'53" - the slowest its been since April 2013.

So, I don't know how the race will go. I feel well rested and hydrated, though I feel under-trained in the mileage. Here's my weekly mileage total from the start of training:

Yeesh. My increase and decrease in mileage has been literally all over the chart!!

We'll see...!