My Weekend in Training

I had a pretty productive weekend running-wise and am feeling much more confident about Rock ‘n Roll Seattle than I was a couple of weeks ago.

On Saturday, I met up with Dawn, Genajuade and Katie for a 7.5 mile run through Marymoor Park in Redmond and on the Sammamish River Trail until we hit Redhook Brewery in Redmond. We met up with a few more folks at Redhook and then enjoyed our much deserved beers and treats. My treats = a big, fluffy pretzel and a pulled pork sandwich. Running seems to bring on the HUNGER. Since it was hot and I didn’t want to develop the dreaded shin splints, I took it fairly slow, average a 10:30 pace with some miles at a 9:30 pace. I think the entire Eastside was out on the Sammamish River Trail; it’s great seeing so many happy, active people out on a nice sunny day. My face was one giant salt lick by the time I was done.

On Sunday, the hubs and I were supposed to go to Bainbridge to visit our favorite ice cream place (Mora) but we realized that was the day of the Chateau Ste Michelle staycation event, full of food trucks and billion-dollar cars. If there’s one thing I can do well, it’s eat so a mini food truck rodeo is just my thing. I filled up on pulled pork sliders, a pork taco and kimchi fried rice from Marination Station. I then got a scoop of chocolate peanut butter ice cream from Parfait. Yum.

Random cat in a stroller

I didn’t have any formal running plans on Sunday but since I was a glutton all day, I decided to check out the Redmond Watershed Preserve trails in the evening. There were lots and lots of hills and while I haven’t checked my Garmin for official elevation gains, my legs were getting pretty sore. I managed to run up every single hill, albeit very slowly. I also wore my new neon pink compression socks that I had purchased earlier in the day since I think they help with the shin splints during hill work. And they make me go faster (and look awesome). Total mileage on Sunday was 3.5.

I didn’t run today but hubs and I went to breakfast in Ballard and then headed over to Woodland Park Zoo since it was on the way home. Hubs was wearing his Fitbit and said we walked 4.5 miles throughout the day.

I’m so not ready to go back to work.  Did any of you have a sweat-fest this Memorial Day weekend? By the way, I’m hosting a weekend 8.5-ish mile run on the Kirkland waterfront this Saturday and a Hills-of-Doom run (aka Tolt Pipeline Trail) next Tuesday evening if you want to join.

Oh, and this happened. Poor kitty:

My Current Playlist

Sometime Around Midnight – The Airbone Toxic

Sway My Way – American Pie Soundtrack

I’m one of those people that can’t run without music. The faster the beat, the faster I tend to run. You’ll notice below that there are several songs about asses in the mix (ahem, Shake Ya Ass) and I find those songs to be particularly motivating. 

Several of the songs below have very explicit lyrics so if your ears are easily offended, please avert your eyes and pretend you never saw my playlist. Are there any songs that I should add to my playlist?

P.S. – some of the songs below are cool down songs and I’m too lazy to separate them out.

Barbie Girl – Aqua

We Used to Wait – Arcade Fire

It Goes Around the World – ATC

Sail – AWOLNATION

Not Your Fault – AWOLNATION

Suga Suga – Baby Bash

Lighters (feat. Bruno Mars) – Bad Meets Evil

Girl – Beck

Crazy in Love – Beyonce

Halo – Beyonce

Just Can’t Get Enough – The Black Eyed Peas

Boom Boom Pow – The Black Eyed Peas

Let’s Get Retarded – The Black Eyed Peas

The Bad Touch – Bloodhound Gang

Piece of Me – Britney Spears

I’m a Slave 4 U – Britney Spears

Circus – Britney Spears

Till the World Ends – Britney Spears

I Wanna Go – Britney Spears

How I Roll – Britney Spears

Up ‘n Down – Britney Spears

3 – Britney Spears

The Ghost Inside – Broken Bells

Grenade – Bruno Mars

Break Ya Neck – Busta Rhymes

Jerk It Out – Caesars

The Time – Cardio Workout Crew

Evacuate the Dance Floor – Cascada

F** You – Cee Lo Green

Murder She Wrote – Chaka Demus

Wicked Game – Chris Isaak

You Make Me Feel – Cobra Starship

Look Good in Leather – Cody ChestnuTT

Audience – Cold War Kids

Louder Than Ever – Cold War Kids

Dream – Cranberries

Keep Up – Dark Lotus

Memories – David Guetta

Without You (feat. Usher) – David Guetta

Grapevine Fires – Death Cab for Cutie

Jumpin, Jumpin – Destiny’s Child

Survivor – Destiny’s Child

Loverboy – Dirty Dancing

Party Up – DMX

I Need a Doctor – Dr. Dre

Mercy – Duffy

Shake That – Eminem

Love the Way You Lie – Eminem

Rhythm Divine – Enrique Iglesias

I Like It (Feat. Pitbull) – Enrique Iglesias

Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You) – Enrique Igelsias

Dirty Dancer – Enrique Igelsias, Usher

Glamorous – Fergie

Jump (feat Nelly Furtado) – Flo Rida

Right Round – Flo Rida

Wild Ones – Flo Rida

Dog Days Are Over  – Florence + The Machines

Times Like These – Foo Fighters

Helena Beat – Foster the People

This Fire – Franz Ferdinand

Tongue Tied – Grouplove

Tonight Tonight – Hot Chelle Rae

You Can Do It – Ice Cube

Living’ It Up – Ja Rule

Down on Me – Jeremih & 50 Cent

No Air – Jordin Sparks

SexyBack – Justin Timerlake

Summer Love – Justin Timerlake

LoveStoned – Justin Timberlake

What Goes Around – Justin Timerlake

Back That Ass Up – Juvenille

Body Shots – Kaci Battaglia

I Predict a Riot – Kaiser Chiefs

Ruby – Kaiser Chiefs

Your Love is My Drug – Ke$ha

Take It Off – Ke$ha

We R Who We R – Ke$ha

Blow – Ke$ha

Grow a Pear – Ke$ha

Born This way – Lady Gaga

Marry The Night – Lady Gaga

Bad Kids – Lady Gaga

The Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga

Paparazzi – Lady Gaga

Telephone – Lady Gaga

Just Dance – Lady Gaga

Doo Whop (That Thing) – Lauryn Hill

I Want You to Want Me – Letters to Cleo

Shots – LMFAO & Lil Jon

The Mummers’ Dance – Loreena McKennitt

The Show Goes On – Lupe Fiasco

4 Minutes – Madonna & Justin Timberlake

La Isla Bonita – Madonna

Moves LIke Jagger – Maroon 5

Hello – Martin Solveig

King Without a Crown – Matisyahu 

What’s the Dilio – Mest

Help I’m Alive – Metric

Time to Pretend – MGMT

Electric Feel – MGMT

They Don’t Care About Us – Michael Jackson

The Garden – Mirah

Starlight – Muse

Knights of Cydonia – Muse

Shake Ya Ass – Mystikal

Danger (Been So Long) – Mystikal

Popular – Nada Surf

Say It Right – Nelly Furtado

Turn Off the Light – Nelly Furtado

Promiscous – Nelly Furtado

Backseat – New Boyz

The Way You Move – OutKast

Hey Ya! – OutKast

Ms. Jackson – OutKast

F**kin’ Perfect – Pink

Raise Your Glass – Pink

Major Time – Peter Schilling

Shake Senora – Pitbull

1999 – Prince

Feel the Noize – Quiet Riot

Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna

Shut Up and Drive – Rihanna

Disturbia – Rihanna

S&M – Rihanna

Only Girl – Rihanna

Rude Boy – Rihanna

Umbrella – Rihanna

Get Busy – Sean Paul

Temperature – Sean Paul

It Wasn’t Me – Shaggy

Hypnotize – System of a Down

Dynamite – System of a Down

Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings

That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

Spark – Tori Amos

Sing – Travis

Beautiful Day -U2

OMG – Usher

Yeah – User

Holiday – Vampire Weekend

A-Punk – Vampire Weekend

Boom Boom – Venga Boys

Glad You Came – The Wanted

My Doorbell – The White Stripes

Black and Yellow – Wiz Khalifa

Cough Syrup – Young the Giant

In da Club – 50 Cent

Love Song – 311

I Broke My Butt

Now that I seem to be over my shin splints, I guess my body decided it needed something else to complain about. Last weekend, I ran 5 miles on the Powerline and Sammamish River Trail and I think the hills are what did me in & led to a pulled muscle. Given that I haven’t been sticking to my training plan as rigorously as I should’ve been due to all my vacations, I should’ve taken it easy. My husband was amused that I needed his help to sit down and get up for two entire days.

Because of my pulled butt muscle, I skipped the Seattle’s Best 15k since I’m not very good at taking it easy when it comes to races. Instead, I ran an easy and slow-paced 6 miles on the flat Sammamish River Trail. I was really bummed that I had to skip the race and miss out on meeting up with Erika and Allison. And speaking of races, I’m also a total dolt because I didn’t realize the West Seattle 5k was *this* Sunday.

My goal for Rock ‘n Roll Seattle is to run the entire 13.1 miles; no goal time since it’s my first half marathon. I will have a time goal for the Lululemon SeaWheeze half in August. Speaking of the SeaWheeze, it’s about 75% sold out. Still time to sign up, RunBirdieRun and RicoleRuns. No pressure but if you don’t come, you’re going to miss out on a kick ass Vancouver weekend.

Better Late Than Never…

So, I’m a little late to the party in posting about the fabulous Seattle blogger/Twitter meetup that happened a couple of weekends ago. I don’t head over to West Seattle that often and I really should run more often over there because the views are lovely. And we had the best running weather EVER. Nicole, TriGirl, Stacie, Allison, Erika, Zoe and myself ran along Alki. I was glad to have Stacie’s company during the run since I had just returned from vacation a few days before and I still still sick. I think we ran for ~ 4 miles or so. Not sure of exact distance since I turned my Garmin off during a walk break and never turned it back on.

Here’s a view from the West Seattle Statue of Liberty. Had no idea we had our own little replica on the west coast.

After our run, we met up with some other bloggers: Pensive Pumpkin, Emily and Robyn. Refueling with Mexican food + Sangria was just what I needed. I run so that I can consume endless amounts of Sangria/Margaritas/[insert random drink].

Here’s a picture of us from lunch:

We also got some awesome swag from Run Pretty Far: Arm warmers, headbands and a sticker. You can see all of our goodies on Stacie’s blog. Thank you again, Run Pretty Far!

Seattle runners/bloggers: When is our next run/meetup? 🙂

I’m back!

It’s been a crazy couple of months between my vacation schedule, training schedule and work insanity. On the plus side, I was given the title of Lead Producer on my team and took on some extra responsibilities. I’ve included a quick recap of the past couple of months below.

Vacation #1: St. John, Virgin Islands
I went to St. John with 3 of my friends at the end of March for a much needed getaway. We rented a villa about 10 minutes away from Cruz Bay at the top of a mountain. Since I was the drive on the trip, it was my job to ensure that we didn’t die going up and down the switchbacks in our busted Suzuki (aka not the Jeep I rented and paid for). I succeeded but there were a few moments there when I was sweating bullets.

We explored a lot of beaches and did a lot of snorkeling on this trip which pretty much equates to a perfect vacation for me. Didn’t do a lot of running since the entire island is very hilly and right before my vacation, my shin splints were acting up. I was in enough pain that I went to the doctor because I was worried about a stress fracture. He told me to back off from running a fast pace and on hills and given that I’m ok with being a lazy sloth on vacation, it worked out perfectly.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Yes, I look really cool

My “abstract art” knees

Vacation #2: Florida
Right after I returned from St. John, I had to hop on a plane for some exciting business trips. They made me grumpy so I won’t really mention them here. A month after I returned from St. John, I went to Key West and St. Augustine, Florida for about 10 days. My little sister graduated from nursing school and since Florida is a long way away, the husband and I decided to make a vacation out of it. We spent a lot of time walking around Key West, exploring beaches on other islands and relaxing in general. I’m a little bitter that I failed at driving the scooter; we couldn’t get a refund so we ended up paying $300 to rent an electric golf cart. Woo.

Here are a few photo highlights:

The husband discovered margaritas in a can. Who knew?

My sisters and I know how to keep it classy.