Wednesday, July 6, 2011
oh, and i forgot to mention....
i'm racing (if you'd call it that) my first ever tri today! josh is coming with, so i'll make him man the camera. stay tuned....
pics are up!! aka the post in which gwen posts non-hid pics of herself
so karen, dave and i ran the harvard pilgrim 10k on the 4th of July. mostly (ok, it was pretty much only) because you got to run thru the helmet and onto the field at gillette stadium, finishing on the 50 yd line. since patriots tickets are soooo expensive, this was my first, and probably last time to gillette stadium, and definitely as close as i'm ever going to come to the field ever again.
the race itself was not fun. it was like 80 degrees with 80% humidity when we started and i sounded like a wheezing vacuum by the 1 mile mark. my splits were as non-progressive as can be (8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9:00, 9:15, 8:45) (hey, at least i picked it up at the end!) (total time: 55:48) but the pics...oh the pics!! i'm contributing it all to the compression sleeves, but i am preeeettty pleased with these pics, i must say.
also! make sure to check out karen's blog. she is less conceited than i, but will post a pic or two nonetheless, i'm sure.
the race itself was not fun. it was like 80 degrees with 80% humidity when we started and i sounded like a wheezing vacuum by the 1 mile mark. my splits were as non-progressive as can be (8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9:00, 9:15, 8:45) (hey, at least i picked it up at the end!) (total time: 55:48) but the pics...oh the pics!! i'm contributing it all to the compression sleeves, but i am preeeettty pleased with these pics, i must say.
also! make sure to check out karen's blog. she is less conceited than i, but will post a pic or two nonetheless, i'm sure.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
seattle rock and roll marathon race report
ok, ok, i'll stop procrastinating and just write the damn thing. ugh.
for a first marathon, everything went very smoothly and just as good as one could hope for. we woke up early (3:30, i think? my memory starts to go after a week), caught a cab from capitol hill to downtown where the shuttles were taking the runners to the start in tukwila, and didn't even have to wait in line. (i heard that these shuttles got very crowded later on and a bunch of people arrived at the start late. nothing like a little extra adrenaline!) the weather was perfect too, 55 i think at start, 62 at finish. after about an hour of waiting around at the start, we got into our corrals (i was corral 9) and the race got underway.
corral 9 only had to wait about 10 mins or so to get the start...and we were off! i paced the first mile just as i'd planned, and then brought it down to 9 min/miles and stuck with it. the first 10 miles were the prettiest of the course, right along lake washington. this section had the most spectators by far and lots of interesting things to look at. the miles went pretty fast. at about mile 10, we split from the halfers and did the first out and back (out of 3) of the course, across the lake. i was still feeling really good at this point! we met back up with the halfers, went thru a long tunnel, and headed into downtown. mile 16 started and we started the second and loooongest out and back. this is where things started to go bad. my legs started cramping and mentally i started struggling. i tried to hang in for a few more miles before resigning myself to an 8 mile run/walk to the finish. i ran/walked up and down what seemed like the longest hills of my life and told myself all i needed to do was finish. mile 23 brought the third and final out and back (sadistic course, for sursies) and i tried to rally, but cried instead. with only 1.5 miles to go, i was finally able to coax my legs into running again, and i slowly made it to the finish. oddly enough, i wasn't really even happy to be finished...i think i was just so emotionally exhausted that i was too tired to feel anything. even now, a week later, i wonder if i could have done more and i'm just not sure. part of me thinks i kind of gave up, and the other part remembers how much pain i was in. i KNOW i have a better time in me and even during the race, i was already planning my redemption marathon! here's my splits from the race so you can see how my story ties into my mile paces. (mile 12 and 13 were in a tunnel).
for a first marathon, everything went very smoothly and just as good as one could hope for. we woke up early (3:30, i think? my memory starts to go after a week), caught a cab from capitol hill to downtown where the shuttles were taking the runners to the start in tukwila, and didn't even have to wait in line. (i heard that these shuttles got very crowded later on and a bunch of people arrived at the start late. nothing like a little extra adrenaline!) the weather was perfect too, 55 i think at start, 62 at finish. after about an hour of waiting around at the start, we got into our corrals (i was corral 9) and the race got underway.
corral 9 only had to wait about 10 mins or so to get the start...and we were off! i paced the first mile just as i'd planned, and then brought it down to 9 min/miles and stuck with it. the first 10 miles were the prettiest of the course, right along lake washington. this section had the most spectators by far and lots of interesting things to look at. the miles went pretty fast. at about mile 10, we split from the halfers and did the first out and back (out of 3) of the course, across the lake. i was still feeling really good at this point! we met back up with the halfers, went thru a long tunnel, and headed into downtown. mile 16 started and we started the second and loooongest out and back. this is where things started to go bad. my legs started cramping and mentally i started struggling. i tried to hang in for a few more miles before resigning myself to an 8 mile run/walk to the finish. i ran/walked up and down what seemed like the longest hills of my life and told myself all i needed to do was finish. mile 23 brought the third and final out and back (sadistic course, for sursies) and i tried to rally, but cried instead. with only 1.5 miles to go, i was finally able to coax my legs into running again, and i slowly made it to the finish. oddly enough, i wasn't really even happy to be finished...i think i was just so emotionally exhausted that i was too tired to feel anything. even now, a week later, i wonder if i could have done more and i'm just not sure. part of me thinks i kind of gave up, and the other part remembers how much pain i was in. i KNOW i have a better time in me and even during the race, i was already planning my redemption marathon! here's my splits from the race so you can see how my story ties into my mile paces. (mile 12 and 13 were in a tunnel).
and, my only good picture from the race. i have no idea what mile this was at, but its pretty cool that the space needle is in the background!
so in sum:
good first half
sucky second half
time: 4:30:55
ready to run another one!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
a fast person has stolen my body....
and is running all over town with it!
i don't know what's gotten into me, but lately my runs can do no wrong. one good run after another and i love it!!!
here are my splits from today's, what i call my "usual run". its a reasonable hilly 4.6 mile loop around my neighborhood. notice those 7's in there?? craaazy. and for reference my previous best time on this loop was 39:50.
this is so exciting!!!
i don't know what's gotten into me, but lately my runs can do no wrong. one good run after another and i love it!!!
here are my splits from today's, what i call my "usual run". its a reasonable hilly 4.6 mile loop around my neighborhood. notice those 7's in there?? craaazy. and for reference my previous best time on this loop was 39:50.
this is so exciting!!!
Monday, June 6, 2011
20 miles and clipless pedals
yay! the last real long run of my marathon training is complete!! ran 20 miles on saturday, and it feels so good to have it done and out of the way. it was also a pretty big confidence booster going into the actual marathon. my pace has been getting progressively better with each long run, and this one was no exception. it looks like i really may have a shot at breaking 4 hours which would be incredible!
the other exciting news (and second half of my very exciting title) is that josh and i took the plunge and got clipless pedals for our bikes this weekend. the first 3 mins of attempting to get my shoe into the pedal were pretty foolish, but after that, its been easy peasy. we've been practicing up and the down the street and around the neighborhood, and we hope to take them for an actual spin sometime early this week.
here are the shoes that i got.
we decided to go with the spd system, but my shoes have the right holes on the bottom for both spd and real road bike pedals, so that is cool. as a quick review, these shoes are really nice and comfortable. they conform nicely to my feet and the ratchet thingy in the back provides for a really good fit. i tried on some pearl izumis that were garbage by comparison. i'll keep everyone informed of the number of times i fall over. so far its only about 0.5 (no real fall, just a wobble as i forgot to take my 2nd foot out before i tried to get off the bike. haah)
20.17 miles / 3:08:27 / 9:21 avg pace
here are the shoes that i got.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
in the month of may
stats for may (a little more detailed this time. yay!):
running: 141.9 miles in 22 hours and 17 mins for an average of 9:25 min/mile pace
biking: 29.5 miles
pilates classes: 1
spinning classes: 2
goals for june:
this is kind of tricky because i'll be spending most of june tapering for the seattle rock and roll marathon on june 25, but i would love to break 150 miles in one month, so if not june then july. i'm also a little afraid to admit it, because then somehow its real, but i'm going to throw it out there...i've been thinking about doing a triathlon. just a sprint distance to start, but i'd really love to do a half ironman. i mean really, it makes good sense. i'm a pretty good swimmer (left over from years of high school swim) and i've really been enjoying the bike rides that josh and i have been taking and of course, i like running. duh. so another one of my june goals is to get clipless pedals for my hybrid and start riding more! (lets say "more" means 100 miles; need to have measurable goals, after all) and while i'm at it, my 3rd june goal is to swim at least 3 times. that should be a good start in case i want to get all craaaazy and sign up for one of these things. :)
(for those of you unfamiliar with tri distances, here are the distances:
sprint (can vary, but usually): swim 0.5 mile, bike 10 miles, run 3 miles
HIM (half ironman) (also known as an ironman 70.3): swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles
ironman: swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run *A MARATHON * 26.2 miles)
anyone out there reading my blog ever do a triathlon? its just sounds so different from a road race, what with all the transitions and all. any first time stories? advice? and don't all comment at once...i don't want to get overwhelmed. :)
running: 141.9 miles in 22 hours and 17 mins for an average of 9:25 min/mile pace
biking: 29.5 miles
pilates classes: 1
spinning classes: 2
goals for june:
this is kind of tricky because i'll be spending most of june tapering for the seattle rock and roll marathon on june 25, but i would love to break 150 miles in one month, so if not june then july. i'm also a little afraid to admit it, because then somehow its real, but i'm going to throw it out there...i've been thinking about doing a triathlon. just a sprint distance to start, but i'd really love to do a half ironman. i mean really, it makes good sense. i'm a pretty good swimmer (left over from years of high school swim) and i've really been enjoying the bike rides that josh and i have been taking and of course, i like running. duh. so another one of my june goals is to get clipless pedals for my hybrid and start riding more! (lets say "more" means 100 miles; need to have measurable goals, after all) and while i'm at it, my 3rd june goal is to swim at least 3 times. that should be a good start in case i want to get all craaaazy and sign up for one of these things. :)
(for those of you unfamiliar with tri distances, here are the distances:
sprint (can vary, but usually): swim 0.5 mile, bike 10 miles, run 3 miles
HIM (half ironman) (also known as an ironman 70.3): swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles
ironman: swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run *A MARATHON * 26.2 miles)
anyone out there reading my blog ever do a triathlon? its just sounds so different from a road race, what with all the transitions and all. any first time stories? advice? and don't all comment at once...i don't want to get overwhelmed. :)
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