M minus 5

It's five days to the marathon.  FIVE DAYS!  I'm excited, nervous, tired, stressed, thinking of songs to sing at miles 16 and 20, and a whole bunch of other random thoughts.  Mostly though I can't wait to get to Carmel, put toes in the sand, then toe the line a day later to run the hills of Big Sur.

This week I'm winding down the mileage to save it all for Sunday.  Today was an easy 3.7mi loop around Queen Anne.

I'm finding all kinds of aches in this countdown - some are phantom, some need stretching and ice.

Five days ...

Masters Swim Report

In my continued attempt to like swimming, or at least not completely dread it, I am hitting the pool at least weekly.  Last week I wound up in my swim session at the same time as aqua aerobics which was not the best idea.  After about 20min of swimming, I noticed a cloudy mist coming through the water from the direction of the aqua aerobics class.  I'll let you guess what that was, but I was completely grossed out.

This week, I went for lap time and wound up timing it perfectly with a Master's Class so opted for that instead.  SO awesome!  My normal swim is get in, do a mile, get out.  And my stroke is freestyle with only breathing on the right side every other stroke.  In the class, we did the following:

1. Easy 10 laps 
2. 200s with the buoy
3. Easy 10 laps 
4. 200s with the buoy and hand fins breathing every 3 strokes 
5. Easy 10 laps 

In this short session I learned to breath less frequently (sounds counter intuitive but helped a ton!), breath on both sides, and turn more in the water to cut through faster.  

Tenacious Ten: Race Report

It's race season, it's race season - hurray!  Yesterday I toed the line for the Tenacious Ten 10mi race by Oiselle.  This was my second time doing the race and it didn't disappoint.  I went with a friend, Colleen, and we got there a bit too early.  "Too" because by the lake it was cold. 

The race itself started at Gas Works park and wound around Lake Union.  There were two options, 10mi, or 10k.  The 10mi had a couple out and backs which I didn't love, but all in it was pretty great.

The upshot of getting to the race early, is I got to fangirl out on Kara Goucher and Lauren Fleshman who are both Oiselle pro runners.

The race went clockwise around Lake Union.  Lake Union has some rolling hills, but nothing bad.  For the out and backs, there was one jaunt on the north side of the lake, and another just west of that in the dirt.  As much as I love mud, the dirt out and back is where I had my slowest mile.

All in I ran 1:10 for a 7:03/mi average pace.  I SO wanted sub-7s, but that's something to work for.

Over the river and through the woods... up Little Si

Sunday was a rest day so instead of running or swimming we made it for the mountains.  We drove to North Bend (in WA, not OR) to hike Little Si.  Along the drive, the sky was angry with dumping rain and gusty winds, but it seemed to pause as soon as we parked at the foot of the mountain.

We parked in the overflow lot because it seems many people had the same idea to get an early hike in.  From the overflow lot to the main lot was ~1/2mi jaunt.  After a quick (stinky) potty stop, we started hiking.

Little Si is incredibly beautiful.  In the beginning of the hike, the mountain was cloaked by clouds and we couldn't see off the sides.  We made our way through the trees, over mini rivers, past giant rocks that seemed to just be waiting for summer and boulderers, and up to the top of the mountain.

Riley, our little dog, was a total mud lover seeming to aim for each puddle.  Everyone who passed us commented "she's going to need a bath - hehe."  The boys thought it was hilarious that literally everyone said the same thing.

After cresting the top, we stopped for a quick snack, and then made our way back.  The boys trail blazed with rapid pace and never ceased smiling.

All in, perfection.  Can't wait for another rest day.

Run Report: 20 was plenty

Today was my last long run before Big Sur Marathon.  I met up with my running buddy Milah and we set off for 10 around Lake Union.  I love my running partner - we talk politics, health, marriage, running grossnesses, joys, stressors, and angst.

We set off down the side of Queen Anne and then along the canal looping to Lake Union at the Brook's store.  Our pace was steady and conversational - best kind!  Milah is prepping for the London Marathon, so we talked marathon stress and excitement, all the way to what our respective proms were like.  The biggest thing we talked about is how everyone looks so perfect on social media - clean house, no stress, perfect smile.  Here's my social media post - on the left is how I want to appear, on the right is a puffed face holding the boogers into my nose instead of dripping into my mouth:

After the first lake loop, Milah headed back up the hill - her marathon is a week before me so she's in "taper-cation" mode.  I stood by the lake getting the Deena Kastor book teed up again and trying to decide if I really felt like doing another loop.  As soon as the book was going through my headphones I was amped up enough to get around the lake one more time.

Towards the end of my second lake loop, the sky opened up and started a shower of rain with more pressure than my shower.  Kind of a nice way to cool, but the mix of sweat, snot, maybe some tears, and rain made me overcome with salt.  All good, though - sustenance! 

I finally finished loop two and decided on stairs up Queen Anne and a final QA loop to hit 20.

Falling makes me faster

It's been a bit of a rocky year.  For the first time since I was 13 years old, I'm not working and it feels like my identity as "type A career woman" is rocked.  I say feels to be precise, because the reality is, I'm still me but better and continuing to learn.  I get the chance for a fresh start which is kind of rare.  More specifically, I get to run as long as I want, swim as long as I want (OK, don't really want to, but am trying to learn to love), do yoga often, and squeeze in grown up things like exploring starting a company and networking.

Today's run had me thinking of my restart, where I've fallen, and how lucky I am to get to learn from tumbles.  Today I ran listening to Deena Kastor's new book "Let Your Mind Run" and the irony is not lost on my that my mind was totally running right along with my legs.  In the book Deena discusses her high school track coach Bill and how she got into running.

My high school track coach was also Bill, and he changed my life forever.  Speaking of tumbles, one of my favorite high school track memories was getting pushed down in a 2 mile race.  A girl pushed me on a turn and stepped on my hand to add insult to the push.  I got up and proceeded to lap her, say "thanks" while passing her, and then win - but still of course cry about it and complain afterwards.

 During my run today I kept thinking about the notion of getting knocked down and getting up again (then I'd mentally toggle to a song from the 90s about this).  Another irony was at a point in the book where Deena was talking about mental toughness and overcoming setbacks, I literally fell on the stairs going up to Queen Anne.  No worries, though, my mental toughness kicked in and so did my stride to finish out a good 16 mile run.

For a mini run report, the scenery was pretty perfect today too.  I ran from Queen Anne to Green Lake, looped the zoo and the lake, then ran around Lake Union.  Just before climbing the stairs to go up Queen Anne, I ran (heh, pun intended) across a family of geese where new life was literally growing ... and eating poop ... and growing.

At mile 15.92 I was DONE, but I couldn't bring myself to end so shy of a round mile, so I jammed up a hill to get 16.

Running with Riley

Like most dog owners, I love my pup.  She snuggles, plays (mainly with old socks instead of the bin of toys we bought her), and is eternally happy and curious.  She also likes to think she's a runner.  When I lace up in the morning, Riley starts stretching at the door like a pro yogi.

Riley is an amazing sprinter.  She goes out the first 50 meters faster than I can go.  The challenge?  After that she slows to literally smell every flower, say "hi" to every dog's bum and every bird, and stop to get pet by every human walking by.

Stairs

In Seattle, stairs on a long run seem nearly unavoidable.  I love stairs, though, so maybe they're unavoidable because my legs actively seek them.  Something about the burn, the forced rest to catch breath at the top, and the feeling of scaling a mountain faster than running up a trail get me.  Today's run took me around Lake Union and up Capitol Hill past Lake View cemetery where Bruce Lee is buried.

(my) swimming is (not) sexy

I'm becoming more and more fascinated by triathletes.  Their dedication, ability to toggle between three challenging sports, and mindpower astound me.  This year I'm going to get back in the lake and in the saddle (bike saddle) and try more tris.  But first, the swim.  It's first in the race, but that's not what I mean here - first, I need to actually figure out how to swim without freaking out in the water and getting panic attacks. 

This past week I've gotten into the pool three times (woot!), all after much procrastination, to throw my arms and legs around in a swim.  I'm clocking between 46-48min for 2000 yards, which is not fast, but it gets the distance done.  The three times seemed cause for celebration this week, but I think I wound up getting worse, not better.  Maybe part is due to my diminishing swim gear.  First I donned a TYR suit.  Proper.  Then, I left that outside to dry ... in the rain over night.  Oops!  Then I defaulted to a two piece zip up suit.  OK, not great.  Again, left outside to dry ... in the rain.  It was sunny all afternoon though!  But bully on me - should've learned.  Finally, today I dug through the dregs of my swimwear and landed on a non-matching tankini - mom attire after twins, you know.  The top was an outlet Oiselle top, and the bottoms were a men's speedo.  Another big oops!  I love bargains and I bet I reached into the wrong bin at some sale and didn't notice until an extra bit was flapping around in the pool today.

Besides the attire, my form has something to be desired of.  I haven't mastered the cool flip in the water most swimmers seem to know and do without thinking.  Instead, I have an awkward stop at the wall, turn around, deep breath, and go move.

In an effort to improve my form, I've been reading some books on swim.  One said simply doing laps without knowing form is no good, so in advance of my laps today I flipped through the entire book and looked at pictures to try to get a cliff notes on form.  I saw something about a speed boat and big barge and kept that in my mind.  During my swim, instead of looking like either boat, I wound up looking like one of those floppy things at a used car dealership - tube (wo)man.

Oh well!  Only can improve from here, and I'm dedicated to do just that.