Why I run

I run...

• to sweat
• to get stronger
• to burn calories so I can drink IPAs and not feel guilty
• to keep my heart healthy
• to see how much I can push myself 
• to be a part of the running community
• because a triathlon isn't one without running
• for Oiselle
• because I need something to do at 7am on a Saturday
• to prevent disease
• because there is someone out there that can't
• to decompress and burn off steam
• for the friendships that are made over a good, bad or injured run
• to prove to myself that I AM a runner
• because I can...

Thank you the ladies at Oiselle who inspired this post. This list contains the biggies of why I run. There are many more. If you want to hear them all, let's go for a run and I'll tell you then.

Why do you run?

Three Things Thursday: Track, Ragnar, 30 mile week

1. I've been rocking my track workouts lately. Every week I hit all my splits, it's incredible! Finally believing that I CAN RUN FAST. My friend Paige summed it up nicely on a 5 miler Wednesday morning - "I love it that our easy pace is sub 9" Agreed.
 
2. I can't believe I've waited so long to announce it, but I'm running the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage with Nuun in July! Got an email out of the blue inviting me onto a team with a group of local bloggers that Nuun is putting together and I couldn't say no. I was planning on doing an Olympic triathlon that same weekend, but I couldn't pass up this fun of an opportunity. There are other triathlons. Needless to say, I'm pumped!

3. Last week I was .63 miles away from hitting 30 running miles for the week, which is one of my goals for this month. I didn't know it until I added everything up for the week, or else I would have ran an extra mile... I'm going to come close again this week, but I think next week is going to be the big week. Side note: I hope I look back on this blog entry in a couple years when I (hopefully) hit 50 mile weeks and see how far I've come.

Ft. Steilacoom Trail 21k

Yesterday I ran the Ft. Steilacoom trail half marathon. Since I refuse to call 13.1 miles half of anything, I have been calling it a 21k.

Anyway, I was using this 21k as a long run - not trying to PR just see how my body could perform and try to run the entire thing. The runs that Evergreen Trail Runs puts on are usually hilly beasts, but this one was described as "fast," so I thought maybe it wouldn't be too hilly.

The course consisted of a 5k loop, a 11k loop and then do the 5k loop again. I started out saying I just wanted to run based on feeling, not the pace my Garmin said. The first mile ticked away at 8:35, the second at 9:55. And that's when you know there is no way to keep consistent splits on a trail race. :) The rest of course was constant up and down. The ups weren't steep, but I don't run a ton of hills, so they definitely worked me. I guess this course could have been considered fast...for a trail race. The other trails I've ran it's usually climb, climb, climb then down, down, down. This was a nice variety of ups, downs, flats, wide trail, single track, paved road - it had it all!

Me and Lindsay

I told myself that I wanted to run the entire thing. No walking breaks. I didn't walk on any of the ups, but there were two times I had to walk the downs because my quads were shot and it was too steep to run down safely. I'm pretty sure running downhill is harder than uphill.

From mile 5 to 12 I had this girl in front of me. She was always about 20 yards in front, but she was my carrot. I kept going, and finally closed the gap at mile 12 on an UPHILL (she was walking and I refused to walk) and I passed her! Not that I really care whether I beat her or not, I was just happy that my perseverance lead me ahead of one that was walking. :)

My Garmin has me finishing in 2:03:xx. My current half PR is 2:02, which is on a super flat course. With my progression in running these days, if I ran a half next weekend on a flat course, I know I could PR, given I ran a hilly 13.1 miles in 2:03. And I just saw that I came in 2nd in my age group out of 9 women and 26th out of 75 overall (male and female). Not too bad.

I was super beat by the time I crossed the finish line. My feet were hot from bad choice in shoes and I had to quickly sit down because I was light headed. It's crazy that I had a stellar 11.5 mile run last weekend on all flat and then I run 13.1 miles on hilly trails and it totally wipes me out. I guess that's what hills do to you.

Overall I am pleased with my results. Would love to run more trail events, but now I want to find a road 21k and race for that sub 2:00!

April was a solid month

I couldn't be happier with this past month in terms of training. I officially got back in my groove of running, biked a hell of a lot more outside, and kept up my swimming. April 1st kicked off my official training for triathlon season and it was simply a solid month of ramping up.

Most notable this month is my running. Since I was pretty out for the count February and March, when I finally recovered from my IT Band flare up, my body was ready to run and run faster than it ever has ran. There are 4 major events of my running life this month that stick out amongst the rest and support that I'm improving.

1. I ran 2 consecutive miles hitting mile 1 at 7:52 and mile 2 at 7:48
2. I ran 4x800 hitting times of 3:54, 3:46, 3:44, and 3:39
3. I ran 11.6 miles comfortably at an 8:45 pace
4. I ran 100.29 miles in April

Those 4 things are HUGE to me. Those 800s didn't even feel that hard and I could have kept going on that long run, but coolest of all - I've never ran over 100 miles in one month! Very, VERY happy with my running right now. I hope to keep progressing, getting stronger and faster, but that's not without routine hip/glute work and rolling with The Stick.

Swim and bike are coming along well too. I got outside on my bike a lot more and ended the month with 333 miles. Swimming got harder with workouts from my coach, but I still managed to get in 25,100 yards. This month goes down as my 2nd biggest training month ever in terms of mileage. I had a big month last July that still stands #1.

So as I ride on cloud 9 from this great month, I can only think about next month! I have two smaller goals I'd like to hit:

• Run a 30+ mile week (never done that before)
• Do core work 2x per week

 Got any plans for May? I'm ready to see some flowers that all this rain has been promising!

I can run faster

All of a sudden I feel 110% back into running. During the two months of running very little while injured, I thought I would never reach the point where running felt awesome, but alas, that point has come.

Over the past three weeks I have increased my weekly mileage smartly and totaled this week at 26 miles. And on top of that, I feel strong in all of my runs. Take Wednesday for example... my coach wanted me to run 2 continuous miles as fast as I could to get a baseline for pacing future workouts, so after a warm up, I hit the track for 8 laps of hard running. Gosh it felt good to hit a pace that I knew I could hold for 2 miles and look down at my Garmin and see a sub 8 minute pace. Mile 1 = 7:52, mile 2 = 7:48. This was a wake up call for me. It was a way for my legs to tell me, "Hey! We can go fast! Let us! Push harder and we will do the work!"

Yesterday's 9-miler was another confirmation that I have my running legs back. I averaged 9:18 pace, but felt so good at 7.5 miles that I picked it up and ran the last 1.5 miles at a 8:25 pace. Time to start pushing the envelope.

It may be just a coincidence, but I receive two new pairs of shoes to test out right when my runs started to feel good again. I got a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 15s and a pair of Mizuno Precision 12s and I'm pretty in love with those Precisions. So light! I've been a loyal Brooks Launch wearer for the past 5 pairs of shoes and they have been great, but I'm afraid to admit that I'm having a little affair with Mizunos right now.

Yay for running fast(er)!

Precisions on the left, Wave Riders on the right

I bought a new bike

Like I said in my last post, I've been doing more city riding with my boyfriend, Aaron. Although these are not "training rides" on my tri schedule, he is faster than me, so I bike faster, which should benefit my riding in some shape or form eventually. We have a lot of fun when we ride, but I was not really loving riding my Masi around. It is my Italian racing machine, not a city cruiser. SO, I bought a new bike!

I decided on a cross bike because I'm looking into starting to race cyclocross in the Fall, and these types of bikes are very versatile whether you're racing cross, commuting, or cruising around town. After test riding a handful, I chose the Kona Jake. Why? It was in my price range, has mid-to-upper level components, felt more compact than the others I rode and I trust the Kona name.

I took the bike out for a typical city cruise, and it was so fun! Even though it is an aluminum frame, the bulkier tires make the ride much more comfortable. And I can ride on dirt! I'm looking forward to putting in some in-town miles on this puppy.

Took the new bike down to Golden Gardens

 But I'll never forget about my Masi. She is my noble steed. I took her out in the sun today for a ride just shy of 50 miles. Did the hillier route from my house out around Mercer Island, down around Seward Park and back. I was saying on Daily Mile that I think this distance is about as far as I can go by myself. I was getting bored of my own thoughts there at the end. Need to find more riding buddies for longer rides.

Happy biking.

April is off to a great start

I'm happy to report that my knee has been feeling fantastic! No pain for about three weeks now. I'm so happy to be starting a new month pain free. I've been running by time lately, so I don't get discouraged by pace. Each "long" run gets 5-10 minutes added on each week. Saturday I ran 60 minutes and was pleased that I busted out 6.4 miles (9:22) pace. That's not a bad pace for me even before this injury. And today I did 4 miles at a sub-9 minute pace - yay!

Taken right before our run from Gasworks park.

Anyway, now that it's April, it also means triathlon training has begun. The past few months of off-season training were just to keep in shape and to build a base for the real training that is starting.

I have the same coach that I had last season and I'm excited to have her push me to new PR's this year. I've already started off on a high note, completing my 800 yard time trial swim in 14:36, which is a full minute faster than I did last June. So here's to a great tri season!

The weather in Seattle is showing hopes of getting warmer and nicer this month. Did you know that Seattle got a half a FOOT of rain in March?! I like to say it doesn't rain that much here, but I guess it really does... So with nicer days means more biking! After my 60 minute run on Saturday, I hopped on the Masi for a spin and didn't think I'd go too far, but before I knew it I was on Mercer Island (15 miles away) and decided to just go for it, do the loop around the island and make it a full 40 miles for the day. It was BEAUTIFUL out - tons of bikers, runners and walkers - I couldn't help but ride that long. But by the time I got home, my legs were toast.

Lake Washington and Mt. Rainier

I expect in the months to come I'll be doing a lot more non-training biking. My boyfriend got a bike so we can cruise around the city. I would love if I could get him to do a 20-30 mile ride with me, but I think for the time being, bike rides to get beers will be the main focus. Actually, last week, we rode 15 miles going from my house to Big Time brewery, to Maritime Pacific Brewery, over the Ballard Locks and back home. Yes, two beers were consumed during the ride, but hey, biking is biking.

The fisherman's new bike.

 Hope your April is off to a great start, too.