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

Blooming Cherry Blossoms

How is it halfway through March already?! I guess I'm just not very motivated with this blog anymore, hmm?

The sun has been coming out more and more lately!

March 3: 5 Miles, 9'39" average pace, 50 degrees, sunny

Chai tea latte art

March 6: 4 Miles, 9'46" average pace, 55 degrees, cloudy

A much needed massage - a christmas gift from the in-laws!

March 7: 6 Miles, 10'18" average pace, 55 degrees, sunny

love seeing the cherry blossom trees :)

Total Miles for March 1-7: 15 miles, a 0% increase from the previous week.
Total Yoga Classes: 5 classes: 3 Power classes, 2 Renew classes

March 8: 7 Miles, 9'40" average pace, 62 degrees, sunny

I've been going to a lot of yoga lately and it's been really refreshing!

March 10: 4 Miles, 9'33" average pace, 55 degrees, partly sunny

March 12: 3 Miles, 9'27" average pace, 64 degrees, partly sunny

Total Miles for March 8-14: 14 miles, a 7% decrease from the previous week.
Total Yoga Classes: 6 classes: 4 Power classes, 1 Renew class, 1 Yoga Sculpt class

JW played a gig at Chateau Ste. Michelle, a winery in Woodinville, and we had a blast! We got a bottle of wine and I got to dance the night away, which was awesome! March is going well so far- before I know it, it'll be April... crazy!

Catching Up February

I haven't updated since mid February and I feel a little bad about it! I'm not really sure how to catch up except by doing just a quick little recap of the last two weeks of February.

February 17: 5 Miles, 10'01" average pace
February 21: 6 Miles, 9'28" average pace

Total Miles for February 15-21: 11 miles, a 50% decrease from the previous week. Hmm.

Opening night reception!

 

We opened Death By Chocolate to rave reviews! The process has been great and the cast and crew have been really wonderful. I'm so glad I auditioned!

Saturday Brunch with JW, Rachel, and Chad

February 22: 4 Miles, 9'42" average pace

February 23: 3 Miles, 9'21" average pace

February 28: 8 Miles, 9'50" average pace

Total Miles for February 22-28: 15 miles, a 36% increase from the previous week. Getting a bit better, but still pretty inconsistent. 

Rehearsals begin!

I had two big auditions the last week of February, on Thursday and Friday, along with my three performances for Death by Chocolate and three Arcadia rehearsals. Whew!

I've been walking more, trying to get to 10,000 steps every day - it's so hard! The weather has been gorgeous lately, so I'm happy to get some amazing pictures out if it.

March began more or less the same. I had a performance on Sunday followed by an Arcadia rehearsal (I slept so good that night! So exhausted..). I have one rehearsal for Arcadia this week, and one callback to go to, but after that all I have are the three remaining performances for Death By Chocolate. I can't believe we're almost done! I'm going to schedule my massage soon (Christmas present from the in-laws)- I'm really looking forward to it!

Here's to hoping the weather stays beautiful!

The Beauty of Eating Carbs

I must say, the weather here has been PERFECT lately. There were only a few days that were cloudy/foggy (cloggy?), and the rest were sunny and  bright. The week ended (or began, depending on how you look at it) on Sunday at a sunny 60 degrees - is it early spring or something?!

I think it's obvious that I put carbs back in my diet this week. My paces certainly reflect the extra energy - last week I was absolutely dragging in comparison. It's really interesting to know and see with evidence that my energy level really depends on what I eat during the day. That may sound intuitive, but sometimes I forget, honestly. 

January 19th: 5 Miles, 9'24" average pace - SUNNY, 47°. I felt so energized during this run! This was right after I had an amazing audition - I have literally never before had such a perfect audition where I walked away and wasn't immediately analyzing everything - and I felt so motivated to MOVE afterwards that this run felt like the bomb.com. Do people still say that? Anywho, I felt awesome, my pace was nice and quick especially for the mileage, and it was in the sun as a bonus. I even wore short sleeves for the first time in a while! Amazing, right?!

January 20th: 3 Miles, 9'40" average pace - sunny, 45°. The humidity must have been lower than the day before because damn, I was COLD. I also wasn't really feeling this run and felt like I must be clocking in 11 minute miles, so I was pleasantly surprise when I saw my pace. I wore a lot of clothing - my Nike wide-legged pants (I usually wear these as comfy pants around the house), a long sleeved shirt, gloves, vest, and ear warmers - probably too much clothing for only 3 miles. Oh well.

January 21st: 3 Miles, 8'53" average pace - cloudy, with some sun peeking through, 42°. I wore three layers on top, which was probably too much, and capris - but it was GLORIOUS. It was such a fantastic run, I'm not really sure what made me feel like I had so much energy! I had some oatmeal, flaxseed meal, and a banana beforehand. Carbs, man. I really didn't want to run, either - I had been really sore the past few days - and I toyed around with moving it to Thursday but then knew I'd be screwed if I forced myself to run three days in a row at the end of the week. I'm so glad I ran that day instead of waiting!

January 24th: 8 Miles, 9'39" average pace - cloudy, 55°. This run felt AMAZING, even though it was at 7:30am. I had a full day ahead of me, but I also had food as a motivator - I had a huge meal Friday night (at Dinner Detective), and I had a huge meal planned for afterwards, at Portage Bay Cafe. It fueled me to keep up the pace throughout these 8 (8! My longest run in quite a while!) miles, and I felt great.

Total Miles for January 18-24: 19 miles, a 5% decrease from the previous week. Whoops!

This is the first week since I actively started making sure I increased mileage safely that I've skipped a planned run. I was "supposed" to run 3 miles on Friday, but I went to yoga instead, and never ended up running that day. I figured it was okay because clearly two days of rest meant one of my best long runs in a while...!

January is almost over, and I gotta say, I'm not sad about it. I'm ready for February - my show opens, rehearsals for the second show begin, my friends' shows open.. lots of stuff is going on and I couldn't be more excited about it!

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!

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.