Seattle RnR Half Training: Week 1 Recap

Playing catch up!

• It’s been so fun to see the Nuun Hood to Coast applications. Alanna at Love My Runners is compiling a directory of them all. I don’t know how long that will take (god bless her), but check her blog for that soon.

• I have a bunch of reviews (and some giveaways!) to do. But am so far behind. Watch for those soon! Meantime, go enter my Nuun giveaway.

• I noticed recently that several bloggers do a weekly recap of their training. I like this idea and will now be copying them. Copying is the highest form of flattery, so I figure nobody will take me to court over it. Click the links to go to DailyMile for more details if you are interested.

Seattle RnR Half Training Week 1 Recap:

MONDAY
Planned: Tempo Run with a 10-15 minute warm up, 3 miles at Short Tempo Pace (8:00), and a 10-15 minute cool down.
Completed: Tempo Run – 1.25 mile warm up (11:16 minutes), 3 miles @ 8:01, 8:01, 8:03, and a 1.28 mile cool down (12:22 minutes). Things started of nicely with a sunny run!

TUESDAY
Planned: Cross-training and/or strength training
Completed: Run Less Run Faster strength routine

WEDNESDAY
Planned: 5.5 miles with 8x400m repeats
Completed: 4 miles at an 8:59 pace with Mel (Tall Mom on the Run). It was our last lunch run together.

THURSDAY
Planned: Cross training and/or strength training
Completed: Jillian Michaels 30-Day Shred Level 2. I had grand plans of also doing the RLRF strength routine, but I think I had wine instead.

FRIDAY
Planned: Long run of 9 miles at an 8:50 pace
Completed: Nothing. I ran out of time. I shot my Nuun Hood to Coast application video, had lunch with Chelsea, had to go to the grocery store, and then had to pick up T Junior before heading out again for dinner, and then a movie with a couple friends where I ate my weight in popcorn. We saw Mirror, Mirror. It was okay. I didn’t like the Snow White character. I thought she was flighty. Julia Roberts did a good job, though.

SATURDAY
Planned: Cross training and/or strength training
Completed: 2.22 miles at a 9:07 pace. After missing the long run on Friday, I moved it to Saturday. We had an egg hunt to go to in the morning. It was sunny and beautiful. Afterward, we had to go to Costco. We came home and put everything away. I made myself a PB&J because I hadn’t eaten and I wanted to be fueled for my run. Before I was finished with my sandwich, my stomach turned. I felt like puking and I was dizzy and just felt awful. Took some Pepto, then I went to bed and stayed there for an hour. Not sleeping, but just being still. I felt better so I got up, took a Pepcid Complete just in case and began to get dressed for my run. The house was hot and I just didn’t feel quite right, but thought I would see how it went. Not well. I came home after 2 miles, showered and dyed Easter eggs with T Junior and Mr. T. That was a lot of fun, and I felt better in the evening. Still don’t know why I felt so bad Saturday.

SUNDAY
Planned: Cross training and/or strength training
Completed: 9.3 miles at an 8:51 pace. Finally. The day started with T Junior hunting for eggs. After breakfast, we just hung out for a bit and then I decided I had time to get my run in before heading to our good friend’s house for Easter dinner. We were in charge of dessert, and it was already made! More about the run below:

Sunday’s Long Run
I hate to run in the loose gravel, but that’s what’s on the trail by my house. I also hate to have a 300-foot decline on the out portion of my run. But I didn’t want to waste time driving somewhere so I just took the Lake Wilderness Trail, which meets up with the Cedar River Trail after about 2.5-3 miles or so. The plan was for a 10K of my run to go toward Run with Jess’s Jelly Bean Virtual Race.

I wore my iFitness fuel belt with one pod of grape Nuun in one side and pepper spray in the other side, and my phone in the pocket, of course. When I stepped outside, I realized it was much warmer than I had anticipated, and I immediately rolled up my sleeves on my Seattle Marathon 2009 shirt. I wished I’d worn a cooler pair of capris.

Miles 1-3 were uneventful, except that there were quite a few runners on the Lake Wilderness Trail to wave at.

Mile 1: 8:45
Mile 2: 8:35
Mile 3: 8:24

Mile 4-5 were on the paved Cedar River Trail. I saw some interesting things there: a man below the bridge in the Cedar River panning for gold (I’m guessing); a man with sunken-in, red-rimmed eyes and grubby clothes (drug addict?) that smiled back and returned the greeting when I said, “Good morning;” and a man with a chiseled face and shaved head walking wearing two duffel bags, who only nodded at me when I said, “Hello.” I was glad I had my pepper spray. That is all.

I passed a woman running at a nice pace in the opposite direction. I knew I would be turning around soon, and wondered if I would catch her. I caught up to duffel-bag dude, but he turned off onto a road. I was relieved to not have to run by him again. The gold-digger was still in the river when I went over the bridge, and I did start to catch the woman. I stressed about it. I hate passing people when I’m not in a race. I got within about 15 yards, but then she ended up going straight on the CRT and I turned to go up the short, but steep hill back to the LWT.

Mile 4: 8:27
Mile 5: 8:30

Miles 6-9.3 were back on the LWT. As I came up the steep, short hill to get back onto the LWT, I saw drug addict-guy up ahead still walking. A broad, older man in red was jogging past him and coming toward me. He yelled out, “Good job with that crazy hill!” That was nice. Then I stressed about having to pass drug guy again. As I went past, he turned and I said, “Hello again,” all bright and cheery. People won’t attack a bright and cheery person, will they? But he smiled nicely, and said, “Hello.” I guess I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

After that, it was just trudge, trudge, trudge, up, up, up the slight incline. I was at 300 feet above sea level at the turn-around. My house, where I begin and end on the LWT is at about 600 feet. Plus, it’s in the gravel. It was a struggle, and I couldn’t keep my pace below a 9. But after the way I felt Saturday, I was just glad to be out running. It was sunny and beautiful, and the LWT is mostly shaded. I decided I would just make my run 9.3 so I could also do the 5K for the Jelly Bean Race. Duh. Not sure why I hadn’t thought of that before.

Mile 6: 9:02
Mile 7: 9:06
Mile 8: 9:30
Mile 9: 9:13
.3: 9:02 pace

Did you apply for the Hood to Coast Relay with Nuun? Link your application below! I know I haven’t seen ’em all (and definitely visit Alanna’s blog to link up). What do you do when you see sketchy characters on your run? Did you see Mirror, Mirror? What did you think?