I have lots to share. Where to begin and how to organize my thoughts.
.
Well, since I worry that this will affect my training/running. (but pretty sure it wont') lets start with I was rear ended today. I was stopped and was completely twisted in my seat trying to find something in my center console. I suspect that the driver behind me had his foot slip off the break and onto his gas pedal because he didn't just roll into me. That being said.. with both cars being SUV's, mine had no damage and his had minimal. Me though..
I am a bit sore. A bit sore today makes me worry I will be stiff by this weekend. And... this weekend is the
disneyland half marathon!
So tomorrow is a run day and I will see how I feel. I bio freezed heavily and took some tylenol. Cross your fingers that I wake less sore and not more.
I have just two runs left before the half. Both are during my taper and will be just short ones. Probably 4 milers... maybe a 4 and a 3. I am pretty ready for some shorter runs.
I took my mileage up to 14 miles on 8/2. It wasn't horrible to complete. Maybe a tad on the warm side weather wise but I ran the entire thing. I wish my pace had been faster but at this point I will take 10:47. I was pretty tapped after the run though. I didn't understand quite why until on monday when my tummy started waging a revolt. So I had a couple hard runs that week with many bio breaks.
The following week on 8/9, I decided that I was going to try some intervals to see if that helped me. As usual my knees were not fans of the starting and stopping so I had to ease in and out of each run/walk segment. I did 4/1's and finished 13.1 with a pace of 10:26.
Snoqualmie Railroad Days 10k Race Recap
On 8/16, I ran a 10k. It was my third year in a row running it. It is a Pacific Northwest USATF championship race and WOW it has some fast runners. Like the top 25% of the runners are under a 7 minute mile. I knew going in I had no hopes of placing. My top goal was to be able to get an overall 10k PR so that I would have an even better time to submit to RD for a future race. If not that then the goal was at least to PR the race itself. Last year, I finished the course in 57:24. This year though as we arrived, I lost a lot of my hopes. The air was thick with moisture. So much that everything was damp. The good news was that Steve was running it this year. This was the first year for him. Last year he did not even come up with me to the race. It was really nice to have him there.
I try to shake off some pre race jitters by taking some bad selfies.
Pretty much the same shot..but here are a couple for ya.
As I figured the race was tough. That kinda of humidity is like running through jello to me. The race begins with both 10k and 5k running along side each other. This makes for a challenging race because those running the 5k may not be in it for speed quite as much as those who are doing the 10k. So the race was very congested at the start. I did a lot of weaving to get through the crowd. (I shouldn't have) I also almost got taken out by a kid who hopped in front of me and then abruptly stopped. It eventually thinned out and by the time the 5k runners turned off I had plenty of space.
The first half of the racei managed to keep my pace on track to finish with a better time than last year. Then I just figured that it was going to have to be good enough. It wouldn't be a better time to submit to RD and I was struggling to keep my pace down. I really didn't want to repeat how I felt after the 5k weeks before so I decided that I was not going to push so hard.
I finished upright... having not walked at all and no where near feeling like I was going to be sick. I finished not with an over all 10k PR nor a PR for the race. My time this year was 59:28. I saw the clock was at an hour and I knew that I would not be happy to finish in over an hour. So I pushed the last bit to come in just a hair under. Good enough.
I finished 134 out of 186. 52 out of 81 women. 7 out of 11 in my age group. Oh, this was probably the worst I have done since my very first 10k which.. was this race.
Steve did awesome. He ran the entire thing. He did NOT get sick at the finish. He missed his overall best 10k time by just 10 seconds and finished with a time of 1:05:38. 160 out of 186. 92 out of 105 males and 10 out of 10 in age group.
I needed 12 miles this day though and this was just half there. So once we got home I went back out. When did I go out? In the heat of the day. It was over 80 degrees. I have NEVER ran in that high of a temp. Guess what? I didn't die. It wasn't much worse than 70 degrees. I took it slow.. ran with 5/1 intervals and managed to complete the last 6 miles I needed to get in. (with just a hair over a 10 minute mile pace)
I am not sure when my mindset changed so. Last August I was consistently running paces in the mid 8 minute range. Now I am happy to pull off a 10 minute. I guess it was that temp that made me feel happy with the pace... or maybe I just am not entirely caring about improving any more.
Last week I cut my mid week runs down in mileage last week as my taper progressed. I shaved a mile off of each making tuesday a 5 miler and thursday a 4 miler. This was good timing not only because I am ready to take my miles down a tad but onn monday 8/18, my lungs started acting up again. Nothing like feeling like you have an elephant sitting on your chest to make you start using your inhaler again. :rollyes: I think it has to do with Steve and his remodeling project in our master bath. I think the dust from it is just making my lungs unhappy. At first I was very worried I was getting sick. Now though I figure it must just be irritation since it hasn't gone away.
Adventure Run recap
8/21 we did something I had not done all summer. An adventure run!!
I think it has just been too hot in the early evening to do the June or July event. It was just Steve, Zoe and I this time. We perused the vendors. It was a special back to school event at the shopping district where the event is held so there were a lot of vendors. We picked up some samples and go information on various other events set in the future. We went with the same pace guide as before. We didn't go nearly as fast this time and Zoe had no trouble keeping up. We did opt to skip some of the stops and in the end only did about 2 and a quarter miles. There was a slip and slide again. I even went down it. Zoe had to go twice. We had a great time. We did not stay for the after party and we did not win a single prize. I think summer months there are just so many people it reduces our odds. Still, can't stress enough how much fun we had.
Here are some pictures of the event. hmm, I snagged them from their facebook. It appears that they are super big. I don't have the energy to copy, save and resize them all. If they are just toooo mondo big, can y'all please let me know and I will take them down.(and be honest!) Who knows... maybe I will resize them later.
Saturday, 8/23 was my last long run before the half. I decided it didn't have to be fast at all. I decided I really wanted the company. So Steve and I went out together and ran. We did 5/1 intervals. It was a lot of fun. He was in new shoes though (I will get to that in a "purchases" update) and so his shins were hurting. He made it about 6.5 miles before calling it good. I went on for another mile or so finishing with 8 and a quarter miles. His goal was to be in the 10:30 to 11 minute range and we did just that. 10:50!
So as I mentioned now just 2 runs left until the disneyland half!
I am getting excited!!!
Took me quite some time! 
You totally deserve a fun trip to 
I would have been very happy to have matched her pace. I was close for about half of it.... then I just kinda gave up.
