After the Marine Corps Marathon, I decided to take a break from running since I had been training non-stop since last January. Plus, I find it really hard convincing myself to get off the couch and run outside when it’s in the low 40s, dark and raining. I’ve lived in Seattle for over 10 years now and the Florida girl in me still can’t stand being outside in gross, nasty conditions. Continue reading
Tag Archives: running
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.
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.
What Training Plan?
I’m officially in the third week of half marathon training and it hasn’t taken me long to realize that I suck at following training plans. Part of the problem is that I can be stubborn and don’t like being told what to do & when to do it but the other problem is that I love some of my cross-training activities so much, such as spinning and hot yoga, that I’m having a hard time fitting some of the weekday runs into my schedule. On Monday, I was scheduled to run 4 miles and it’s also a day I have spinning so I hopped on the dreadmill an hour before class and then thought I was going to pass out and die during spinning. Since I sit in the front row and the Monday night classes are packed, that would be midly embarrassing. Considering how clumsy I am, I’m proud that I haven’t somersaulted over the handlebars yet.
So anyways, back to the training plan. I’ve been pretty good about sticking to the plan this week, especially since the cranky shins have calmed down a bit. I’ve included a copy of my plan below in case you’re curious. It was included as part of my half marathon core training program through my gym. I’ll talk about the program and how it’s going in a future post and you may even get to see some videos of my crappy form.
In other news, the cake pops that our super nice magazine partner sent us have finally disappeared from the office. Thank goodness. I was addicted to the cake pop crack despite the fact that cake pops do not agree with my stomach. At all. (And yet, I continue to eat them despite repeat sprints to the restroom).
Some cake pop porn for your viewing pleasure: