(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!

Lots and Lots of Running: Hills and Sprints

The past two days have just been a blur of running.

After I ran 5 miles on Tuesday morning, I had choices to make. On the planner were 3 miles of hills and 8 easy miles, all taking place before Thursday. I could either run 3 more miles on Tuesday, or push everything back.

JW came home from rehearsal around 9:45, and said he was going to go to the gym for his Insanity workout. I decided to go with him and complete 3 more miles on the treadmill, just to get it out of the way.

3 Miles of Hills: 1 mile warm up, 8 X200m uphill sprints, topped off with a 1 mile cool down.

Since the workout called for "Uphill Sprints",  I bumped the incline to 3.0 and the speed to 6.1. I decided there needed to be an equal amount of cool down time between sprints, so I tacked on another 200m "Downhill Jog" after each sprint by choosing a 1.0 incline and 5.4 speed. After the mile of warm up, it looked like this:

1-1.12 miles: 1st Uphill Sprint
1.12-1.24: Downhill Jog
1.24-1.36: 2nd Uphill Sprint
......(etc, etc)
2.7-2.82: 8th Uphill Sprint
2.82-3.21: Cool Down

At least the Calories Burned are similar?

I was pretty spent!

On Wednesday, my legs were still pretty tired from the 9 miles I had run over the course of the previous day. I wasn't sure when I was going to tackle 8 miles, but it gave me comfort that the instructions told me that I should take it easy.

Around 2, I decided that I would try a sunset run at the park. I knew I had to get there before 6 so I would still be running while the sun was up. I updated my iOS during the day and played through it - some cool features, but ultimately I wasn't jumping up and down about it - but I never plugged it back in to charge before I left.

At 6, I was still sitting in my apartment. I had about 5 minutes of intense vacillation while I decided whether I should just go now and run in the dark for a little bit (sunset was slated to be at 7:15- it's setting so much earlier now! I'm not ready for it!), or postpone for Thursday.

A little voice in the back of my head piped up: Why did you run twice yesterday if you were just going to get behind schedule again the next day? And it was absolutely right - my efforts would have been for nothing if I put off another run. I quickly got dressed and left, braving through the 6pm traffic, and arrived at the park at 6:30. 30 minutes off my mark, but at least I was there and doing it!

I listened to my audiobook while I ran since I wasn't really worried about my pace - I was more worried about when the sun would set, running in the dark, and now a new worry crept into my mind: if my phone was going to die midway through my run. It was at about 30% before I started, and I'd be running two apps simultaneously: Nike+ Running and Music. I had to get this finished as quickly as possible!

I didn't start out with a sprint, but with what felt like a pretty fast pace. I disregarded it. Last time I tried to guess my pace, I overshot it and thought I was running in the 9s when I was really in the mid-10s. Wake up call! I decided not to think about it.

I forgot that I had turned off the voice updates for each mile, and that it would come on in the middle of the run and tell me how fast I had been going. (I can't decided if I like this or not.) It came on all the same at 4 miles and said that I was running at an average pace of 8'05''. What!!

That gave me a little boost of motivation just to see how fast I could end up going.

A "slow" first mile, with a boost of confidence at Mile 5 and a surging last mile.

I am SO happy with how I ran! It felt effortless and I felt like I was just flying along, putting one foot in front of the other. So much for taking it easy... but whatever, I felt awesome.

Harvest Moon

I snapped this picture of the moon and my phone immediately died. Hah! Here's a better picture (not mine):

Beautiful!

Next up: an NTC workout and an "easy "15 miles on Saturday. Eep!

Hills on the Treadmill

Hills = suck. Treadmill = suck. Hills + Treadmill = ..... UGH.

On Wednesday, I got up really early (well, OK, 8am is still early) to fit in my Treadmill Hill workout before my voice lesson at 11. Since it was on the treadmill, I had to hold my phone, which I don't think is accurate at all...oh well.

I started the first three miles at an incline of 2.5, with the speed at 5.8. I finished with two miles on 1.0 incline, and the last mile at no incline. I'm pretty sure my pace was only so "fast" since I was pumping my arms more because I was making SO much effort to keep up. Running at that incline is hard!

I'm feeling super sore because we're now officially in tech week for the musical that I'm in, so I'm spending extra hours dancing, learning lines, and sitting in the car. I'm really feeling it in shoulders, but I think that's mostly because I'm slouching at my desk. Am I crazy for wanting to get a massage at this point? Is it bad to get a massage in the middle of marathon training?

I have one NTC workout to complete today, and then tomorrow JW and I are going Whale Watching! The good news is I'll do my workout after we get back, and it's a short 15 minute one. On Saturday.. I conquer 16 miles. Aaahhh!! I'm so nervous!!

Wish me luck!

Hill Run and New Shoes

Today was my first hill workout, and it wasn't that bad!

I warmed up for a mile, jogged over to the 100m hill, and ran up and down it 10 times. It really wasn't that bad. I even sprinted for a bit! The app didn't tell me to cool down afterwards, which I thought was ridiculous, so I just ran another mile-ish to cool down. I felt myself wanting to run more, but I kindly reminded myself of the fact that I had to run 14 miles this Saturday, and I found the motivation to stop. Hah!

Onto shoes! I bought new running shoes on Tuesday! OHMIGODSHOES.

My trusty Nike Air Pegasus 29's have officially clocked in 342.29 miles, and I decided it was time for me to buy some new ones. I bought them on April 8th and spent $108 on them at Luke's Locker, a chain in Texas.

The Graveyard: Nike Air Pegasus 29, Nike Air Max Moto 8, Nike Air Max Run Lite +2

Let's reminisce, shall we?

Half Marathon 2011 - wearing Nike Air Max Run Lite +2, size 8

Half Marathon 2012 - Nike Air Max Moto 8, size 8.5

I'm a little upset because I realize I never ran an actual race in my Air Pegasus 29s. My Moto 8s are actually my most seasoned running shoe: Turkey Trot 2012, Half Marathon 2012, Hot Chocolate 5K 2013, and Color Run 5K 2013.

The other day, I went to Road Runner Sports to look at running apparell. They don't have a location in Texas, so it was my first time visiting. As I was browsing, I saw that they had something called Shoe Dog. I didn't have enough time during my first visit, but after becoming a VIP member and really liking their choices, and reading Skinny Runner's post on her experience, I decided to experience it for myself.

Shoe Dog: Road Runner Sports

Shoe Dog is Road Runner Sports' unique way of making sure you get the perfect running shoe based on your specific feet, stride, arch, etc. I've never had something done that was so personalized to me, and I must say I really enjoyed it!

My findings:

YOUR PERFECT SHOE CATEGORY: Neutral Plus
YOUR PERFECT SIZE: 9 WIDTH: B

I had been running in 8s and 8.5s before! No wonder my toenail fell off over the summer. The lady fit me for a pair of insoles, molded perfectly to my feet, and had me try on a few pairs of Neutral running shoes. I tried the ASICS Cumulus 15, Nike Zoom Vomero +8, Mizuno Wave Rider 16, and the Adidas Energy Boost. It's strange - I got fitted for Neutral Plus, but almost all the shoes I tried on (except the Nikes) were only in the Neutral category. Ah, well.

Ultimately, I decided on the Mizunos! They were the most fairly priced, had the cutest color (pink!!), and I had heard great reviews for them. Plus, the lady told me they last a really long time, meaning I wouldn't have to get new shoes for a while. I'm a little surprised at how quickly I wore out my Nike Pegasus', and I don't want to repeat this 4 months later. She told me they last for over 500 miles!

So cute!

I'm just now realizing they'll clash terribly with my PRO Compression socks, so I'll probably end up getting another color. That's okay, because there's always a sale going on!

I haven't run in them yet - I'm saving them for Friday!

I've decided I love Road Runner Sports. From this trip, I bought the Mizuno shoes, 3 pairs of socks, a bottle of Nuun, and the shoe inserts. I was looking at my receipt earlier today and noticed they charged me the full amount on the socks, not the discount price they had told me they were on sale for. All I had to do was call up there - I didn't even have to drive! - and they fixed it over the phone for me. That's awesome customer service.

Ever been to Road Runner Sports?