Posts (page 2)

This was easily my best run ever.

It was a gorgeous day to be out. The weather was close to perfect. The long run for this week was out at Tiger mountain. I got a lot of extra rest this week. It was a "rest" week for the team. Runs were a shorter distance to help us recover from the build up in mileage the previous weeks.

This was a timed run. We were supposed to run for 2:30 hours and turnaround after 1:05 or 1:10. Imagine my surprise when I hit the turnaround point (15 mile creek) early. Even though it's called 15 mile creek, it's more like 4.5 miles.

The trail has a 2 mile decline down into 15 mile creek before a tough return route back up the 2 mile incline  (what goes down must come up after all!) Going down the declines, I took it really slow. I was focusing hard on running smartly. I was aggressive with the walk breaks. After the turnaround, I found myself hitting that incline really well. I had to stop and hike up those hills for a bit (Coach J said that would happen). I felt good on those hills though. The weekly Tuesday hill sessions have proved beneficial. I'm more confident in my ability to tackle hills now.

The body felt fresh throughout the run. When I reached the end point, I was a little disappointed because the run was done. Just an incredible feeling to have.

Week 8 was characterized by tiredness. I had a good run on Tuesday but the rest of the week I felt really tired. Work was more hectic than usual and I didn't do a good job of eating. When I got home on Thursday, I was starving. I snacked on some junk food before I ran which is not a good formula. The Thursday run felt flat.

The long run on Saturday @ Matthews Beach felt more like the same. I felt tired and sluggish. I started off that way. Wisely I decided to ease into the run by taking more walk breaks than usual. 5 minutes of running and a minute of walking. It's a strategy that worked for me the previous week (though I started with my walk breaks a lot sooner this week). For the first half hour, it felt bad. I started feeling better after that. The real shocker was at the turnaround point before heading back, I had reached the 5 mile mark in a much faster time than expected. The return leg passed quickly and I felt stronger the longer I ran. Felt tired just after 10 miles and I decided to use my first gu for the day. The gu gave me a nice kick because the next 3 miles I felt incredibly strong. At the finish, I was tired but I also felt great about the run.

The clif bloxs are pretty good for keeping me balanced. The gu though seems to give me a better boost of energy. I need to find a better combination of the two so I don't feel so tired around the 10 mile mark.

This week have to eat and train better. I'm throwing some trail mix into my bag so that I have food to snack on. Stocked up on easy to make meals from trader joes so I don't snack on junk when I'm hungry.

This week was a 12 mile run on the Sammamish River Trail. I've run this trail before. It's a nice route. Mostly flat (or as Coach puts it "uninteresting"). The weather patterns have been a little odd this last couple of weeks but things have mostly been warming up. Today though was a scorcher! It started off a little nippy but I didn't feel a need to bring along my fleece. That was a good idea. I had two layers today but it really turned out to be a 1 layer day. Hydration was an issue. The water bottle I carried didn't have much water left when I made my turnaround at the 6 mile mark.

I also started off too strong. I followed a pack of team mates going out. They are normally faster than me but I had felt strong the entire week. Mistake! As the weather got hotter, I was struggling to keep up with my normal pace (10 minutes run, 1 minute walk). I threw in a couple more walk breaks (5 minutes run, 1 minute walk) and that seemed to helped. Towards the end, I started feeling strong again and wrapped up the long run on a strong note.

There was a nice surprise waiting for us at the end. Skip, a honored team mate, was making pulled pork sandwiches and fries for everyone. I've been trying to eat better but they looked so good after the run. I finished two sandwiches and some fries (I only wanted one but Skip told me to grab another one when I wanted to leave).

The midweek runs were uneventful. Missed my Tuesday hill session but ran Wednesday and Thursday. I did some good running on Thursday. Ran for just under an hour. The route I took involved going up Interlaken Blvd. That is about a mile uphill and I finished it without stopping to walk. The run from last weekend seems to have made me stronger in tackling hills over a longer distance.

Overall I feel like I'm getting stronger. I'm starting to get tired and I need to get more rest when I'm done. That and I'm also constantly hungry these days.

Tomorrow, we have a long run of 9 miles up by Lake Youngs. Hopefully the weather will be warmer than last week.

The 10 miler yesterday was the hardest run of the season so far. Took me longer than I expected. The course near Preston/Fall City was interesting. The course had a couple of up and down sections that made it a little tougher but not too bad. The only hard part of the course were a set of switchback turns up a steep hill. My legs were burning after that section.

From past experience, the trickiest part was staying warm. As usual I didn't wear enough clothing. With the weather this week, I should have know better. It was snowing when we started running and it alternated between snow and a fine misty drizzle during the run. I was warm, even hot, with the North Face fleece I've been using to run this winter. During the second half, I could not do anything to stay warm. I didn't pack enough gels and I ran out of gas at about 9 miles. I probably burned up more calories running out in the cold.

One section sticks in my mind vividly, there was a steep hill about two miles before the end. Me and J were hurting up that hill. Coach meets us half way to tell us that we can make it up the hill. That this separates the men from the boys. He mentions the Lance Armstrong quote about "pain being transitory"*. I don't remember the rest because I blocked everything out to focus on getting to the top.

I'm grateful for hard days like this one. I'm going to face more hard days. Every time I get done with a day like this, I know I can deal with anything down the line. Plus it's nothing compared to what cancer patients deal with. I rather run in a blizzard than go through what they go through.

*  From wikipedia, this is the quote:
"Pain is temporary, it may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. " 

Finally managed to get a run in today. The weather has been nasty the last two days. Normally I just gut out the bad weather and go for the run but not the last two days.

I was little sluggish for the 1st 10 minutes of the run today. I did a couple of loops around Volunteer Park. Volunteer Park has a little more dirt. One of the things I'm learning from Jim (my coach this season) is that running on trails is better for the body. It's less punishing than the concrete and asphalt I run on regularly. After those loops, I ran up 16th and then back to my place.

Felt a little sore but nothing too bad. According to the schedule, we have a 10 miler this Saturday. Hopefully I won't feel as tired as I did last week.

Doing that Seattle marathon in 2006 with Team in Training was a great experience. One of the best experiences I've had in my life. Over the last year, I considered doing another one but various time pressures made it hard to do.

This February I received an email from the good people over at TNT about a great opportunity to do the Seafair Marathon with them. It seemed like a no-brainer. It worked with my schedule. The weather would be nice. I would be doing good work fund raising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Here we go again...