Busy Bee

I’ve been a bit busy over the past 2 weeks, which is kind of why I haven’t posted in awhile, but really, I think that’s just because I got lazy. Is that an oxymoron? Here comes the recap!

Weekly Recap for 7/5-7/11

Monday:
Power Vinyasa
2 miles (easy/untimed)

Tuesday: 
3 miles (easy/untimed)
I was going to do a track workout on Tuesday; I even ran to the track and met up with everyone. But then my friend (the Sleepover Marathon organizer) and I decided to just do some easy jogging instead of the planned hill workout. My legs were toast, and this was probably a better idea than pushing through the leftover fatigue from the weekend. There’s always next week!

Wednesday:
Free Two-Step Lessons for a friend’s wedding at Bushwhacker’s. This was a lot of fun. It’s not too complicated of a dance, but getting all the footwork together with a partner is always difficult when you aren’t a dancer, and your partner has no rhythm (sorry J)!

Thursday:
Vinyasa

Friday:
Free West Coast Swing Lessons, again at Bushwhacker's. We had so much fun on Wednesday that we went back again on Friday for a different dance lesson. I think I liked this one better than the Two Step, but it was a little more difficult. The other dancers on the floor seemed to breeze through it, but I’m sure it wasn’t their first time. We need to practice, but may need to use YouTube for reminders on the steps!

Saturday:
Runner's Block Party
This event was setup to offer discounts on local races. During the event, we were able to run with our friend, who was working at the event, for a Saturday non-long run! It was super hot, but it was fun running in an unfamiliar area.

3 miles (9:40 avg pace) (That puts my mileage for the week at 8 miles, wow!)

We signed up for 4 races at the event (1 per month: July, August, September, and October). Three 5k’s and one 10k. Guess it’s time for some speedwork! Our first race is the Bowerman AC 5k on July 25th (next Sunday) and it takes place on the Nike campus. It’s an evening run, so it should be fun. J signed up as well, but his knee continues to be a little tweaked from our relay, so he may not be racing it. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to it, and really think I can get a new PR, even though some of the course is on cross-country like terrain. I think I might be just a bit faster! ;)

Weekly Recap for 7/12-7/18

Overall, this has been a GREAT week. J’s knee is still tweaked, but I have been having some great runs and some awesome yoga sessions, and I’m feeling stronger than I’ve probably ever been. Here’s the breakdown:

Monday:
Power Vinyasa
We were going to run later on during the day, but after we went wine tasting, we decided we would rather watch a movie than hit the pavement. Oh well!

Tuesday:
Track! (For real this time!)

The Workout (I figured I’d be safe using an 8:00 min/mi 5k pace to base my goal workout paces):

4 x 1000 @ L (400) (According to the pace chart, I wanted to be at about 4:56-59, or 7:53-58 min/mi pace)
5 x 200 @ S (200) (0:54-55, or 7:14-7:22 min/mi pace)

My breakdown:

1000m: 4:51 (7:48 avg pace) A little too fast…
1000m: 5:02 (8:06) Ok, now I'm too slow…
1000m: 4:46 (7:41) Oops! Again?
1000m: 4:46 (7:41) Well, at least I ended consistent!

200m: 0:47 (6:20) Whoa
200m: 0:48 (6:26) Whoa!
200m: 0:47 (6:16) Whoa!!
200m: 0:48 (6:29) Whoa!!!
200m: 0:46 (6:14) Whoa!!!!

I stayed with a group of girls that were about my speed. I was afraid I was going too fast, but it never felt like it was too much. Who knew I could run in the 6:00’s?!! (Although, it’s only 200m! :P)

Total for the evening (including warm-up and cool down):
6.71 miles (9:48 avg pace) Wow, and on a weeknight! ;)

Wednesday:
Power Vinyasa

Thursday:
Vinyasa

Friday:
3.6 miles (est 11:09 avg pace?)
”Where should we run?” J had no input, so I took us on a wild adventure, up into the hills *near* Terwilliger. Lots of switchbacks, and it never seemed like it would stop going up, but it was a GORGEOUS day, and they have the BEST views up there (Mt. St. Helens, Mt Rainier, AND Mt. Hood, plus all those rivers and stuff, too :)! I took some pictures with my iPhone and will add those at the end of this post. They’re not the best quality photos, but you get the idea. The houses up there were beautiful, too. I’d never been up there before, but I’m so glad that we made the trip. Yay for impromptu hill workouts! It was a little worrisome when it would seem like we would be at the top of the hill, and then we would turn the corner and find some more uphill…but we found the way back down, and took it easy. Poor J’s knee; hills probably weren’t the best choice for him.

Saturday:
Power Vinyasa
Beer ‘N” Burgers: So much fun, and soooooo filling. Those “sliders” were huge! We didn’t finish our food, or the beer for that matter, but what we did manage to get down was delicious! Great job chefs! And while we were waiting for our first course to digest, we hit up a sale at Lululemon. Thank you beer and your inhibiting factors, and J for imbibing so I could add to my collection of running/yoga clothes! I got a new running tank, that I could also use for yoga if I wanted to, that says “PUSH YOURSELF. RUN. DO IT NOW”. I wore it for my run on Sunday, and it was soooo comfortable. I love it! I also got another new tank (for yoga and running), running capris (the most comfortable I’ve ever worn!) and new yoga capris. I also got a new headband (love them)! Needless to say, we both lugged back a bunch of stuff (we also got a bunch of free stuff at the Beer ‘N’ Burgers event!) Yay new stuff!

After that excitement, we headed home to get ready for the Timbers vs. Manchester City Game. It was an awesome game to watch (and at field level). Those Manchester City boys are set to have an impressive season in England’s Premier League, and definitely dominated the game. The Timbers still played well, I thought, and definitely got some good experience for when they go to the MLS.

Sunday:
7.2 miles (11:35 avg pace, probably)
Garmin was very unreliable and mapmyrun is always a bit sketchy for trail sections, but we’ll go with it. This was my first solo long run (J’s still broken…) I decided to try something new (notice a trend?), and added a SECOND hilly run to the week! I started by heading up Terwilliger (aka HILL!) It didn’t feel too bad while I made my way up, and the road evened out somewhat after the first section. I continued on for a few miles until I hit George Himes Park. (Does anyone else read that as “Gregory Hines”? I kept wondering why they named a park after him, but I eventually figured it out…) You descend the hill while on a trail/stair section in George Himes Park, which I walked a lot of; too steep for me. Eventually, I made it back to a familiar section along the west-side of the Willamette, and finished up by running home. It was a challenging run, but super fun. Sometimes it was a bit sketchy, and I wished that my Boy Scout Husband had been there to ensure that I wasn’t running through poisonous shrubbery, but I made it back home alive, and ready to eat the Pecan Rolls J had baked while I was gone. Mmmm….

Total mileage for the week: 17.5, much more than the previous week! Woot!

Now for the upcoming week:

Monday:
Run 3 recovery miles or yoga, we’ll see how I'm feeling after today’s “long” run.

Tuesday:
Track

Wednesday:
Power Vinyasa

Thursday:
Vinyasa

Friday:
Run 4 miles

Saturday:
Long Run? or save myself for the 5k?

Sunday:
Bowerman AC 5k 

Phew…I should never be blog lazy ever again. That was a lot to get through!

Here’s some photos, as promised:

Mt Hood in the distance:

Big house:

Mt. St. Helens and our awesome city:

“Slider” or full sized burger? P.S. This one was DELICIOUS! From Laurelwood Brewery. 
This one is from Henry’s Tavern,. We couldn’t finish it… 
We were seriously THIS CLOSE to the players!
The guy on the right, in the forefront of the picture, (in white) is Emmanuel Adebayor. He’s pretty awesome at what he gets paid millions to do.

See you next weekend, unless I get lazy again…(Never!) :P